Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: complain, moan, groan, whine, mutter, grouse, bleat, carp, cavil, protest, rumble, gurgle, murmur, growl, roar, complaint, muttering, grievance, objection, protestation, quibble, criticism, charge, accusation

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1. The Ultimate Question

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... the New Testament. It takes steps toward greater realism, putting the political ferment of Christ's time in the foreground [and it does an outstanding job of that], but ends up a traditional, staid epic that is double-dipped in ham-fisted dramatics."(2) Well, quibble, quibble. To be sure, when Hollywood starts to tell the story of Jesus, we cannot be certain what to expect. The images might be pious, as in Franco Zeffirelli's Jesus of Nazareth, the first made-for-tv miniseries in 1977. They might border on ...

2. Doing The Right Thing

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

E. Carver McGriff

... gentleman, I thanked him and remarked how generous we all felt him to be. He smiled, then said something I'll never forget. He said, "It's the right thing to do." There we have it, the simple answer to the troubles that confront our nation today. No quibbling, no negotiating for a better price (we weren't offering to pay). He agreed because, according to his inner values, it was "the right thing to do." Can we think about this idea today? If you carefully examine this Bible passage in Acts, you'll see that ...

3. It Isn’t Fair!

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

... have started over or just folded up creation and gone fishing. Thank God, he is not "fair," not "just." Thank God he is larger than our categories. Thank God that when we are asked to labor in his vineyard at five minutes until quitting time, he doesn’t quibble over salary or ask us why we didn’t punch the time clock sooner in the day. Thank God, when Jesus died on Calvary he didn’t say, nailed up there at that ghastly elevation, "Now I want it understood that only people who are truly worthy will ...

4. The Only Fact That Really Matters

1 Corinthians 15:12-34

Sermon

Raymond Gibson

... question: "Have you put yourself on the side of the right?" "I have not," the young Bushnell replied. He paused, and after a moment added: "But I will." Horace Bushnell knelt down and prayed. When he got up, he was a new man. He had stopped quibbling and arguing and playing religious chess. He had given his life to Jesus; Christ was his personal Savior. He went on to become one of America’s most famous preachers. He served the same church in Hartford, Connecticut, for almost half a century. On his forty ...

5. Minute Accounting

Matthew 12:22-37

Sermon

Herchel H. Sheets

... carefully spoken words, but not with our idle words. But when our inner being becomes the abode of God’s Spirit, from within will begin to come words which reveal honesty and purity and good will, and which go forth to do service for him. Jesus then was not quibbling when he said that in the day of judgment we will have to give an account of our careless words. These, like our carefully spoken ones, are forces for either good or evil. So it is right that we be held accountable for them. But more than that ...

6. Peter’s Second Sermon

Acts 3:11-26

Sermon

Durwood L. Buchheim

... , not perfect health! The issue is a changed heart, a new direction to lives that have become too focused upon self. Repentance is the attitude that puts God back into the center of our lives. As you heard during the Lenten season, this is no quibble about trifles. Jesus’ theme song throughout the gospels is, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." When Jesus sent forth the twelve, it was not enough to cast out demons and heal the sick. They also preached that people should repent. Next to ...

7. A Vision and a Voice

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Paul E. Flesner

... once the waters of baptism have flowed over our head, it's good for life! What magnificent graciousness for God to make such a promise to us right at the start before we've even had the chance to botch things up! Unfortunately, this is where Christians begin to quibble among themselves. Some say we've got to be old enough to understand what we're doing before the promise can be given to us. Others say that we can lose the promise if we don't stay on the straight and narrow. Folks, such arguments put the ...

8. The Dangers of Being Religious

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... 15:5 speaks of a controversy in the early church. The issue was over whether a person must be circumcised before being baptized into Christ. The Pharisees who'd trusted Jesus were saying their way was the only proper means. Still today, don't we quibble over the form of baptism? Or how renewal comes only through Bill Gothard's Institute, through Experiencing God book studies, through the Toronto Blessing, or through Promise Keepers? "It happened to me like this. It was so right for me. Therefore it must be ...

9. Demonstrating the Divine

John 1:10-18

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... demonstration of what God intends for humanity." Note it does not say "can be" or "should be." It says "is." The church is the provisional demonstration of what God intends. Unlike some famous people we know, you and I don't have the privilege of quibbling over what the meaning of the word "is" is. Through baptism we are called to demonstrate the divine, and discipleship demands that we respond. The big question is, "How?" How are we to "demonstrate the divine"? How are we to embody Christ? John, with ...

10. Dolphin Drops

Isaiah 56:1-8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... to this day to add human layers of holiness to these twenty four hours. Wrangling over whether light switches can be flipped (a big no-no among Orthodox Jews) or whether food bought on the Sabbath can be eaten (a favorite "holiness tradition" quibble) does not alter or impinge on the essential sanctity of a Sabbath day, or even just a Sabbath moment. That which makes and keeps the Sabbath holy, for USAmericans in Kansas or for foreigners living among the Israelites, is recognizing and remaining faithful ...

11. The Oneness of Twoness

Romans 14:1--15:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... The gospel loves difference. But still Paul calls for “one voice” from the body of twoness: “one voice” to “glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.” We might not have a lot of food fights in the Church anymore (well, maybe some quibbling between Atkins and South Beach dieters after all our Christmas feasting!). But the one place where many voices are still raised as one—-the choir, the praise team—-can always be as great a source for enmity as it is for enjoyment. No matter how ...

12. A Call to Action

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... before him Simon Peter and Andrew, James and John -- were asked to make a move in order to accept their new status as disciples. They got up. They left their established routines. They stepped out onto a new road. The Pharisees who quibbled over Jesus’ dining companions were also asked to actively engage. Jesus gave them his directives, then challenged them to “Go and learn.” Even those to whom Jesus offered healing took some form of initiative. The hemorrhaging woman boldly reached out and touched ...

13. Mission Impossible

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... afforded some income. Sashaying into the big city and simply helping themselves to some stranger's property hardly sounded like a mission for the sake of the Messiah. But Jesus makes this impossible-sounding mission possible by anticipating every question, every quibble, every quandary these disciples might face. First, they are sent as a team of two so that they might lend one another strength and companionship along the way. As team members, they could take turns feeling confident or scared, leading or ...

14. The Most Stubborn Man in the Bible

Jonah 3:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... he had displeased his God by seeking to flee from His presence. “What shall we do with you?” the sailors asked, for the storm was growing ever more fierce. “Throw me overboard,” Jonah declared, “then the sea will calm down.” The sailors were in no mood to quibble, so they threw him over the side of the ship into the raging sea. And the Bible tells us that the Lord appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and Jonah was in the belly of that fish for three days and three nights. I believe it ...

15. The Shared Life of the People of God, Part 2

Galatians 6:1-10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... liable to lie down in the mud; it seems a cool, soft couch when hearts are jaded. And shame, you know, is a sleep like any other, a heavy sleep, a dreamless intoxication. . . If a last shred of pride can stiffen the back of some wretched creature, why quibble about it?! (Lance Webb, Discovering Love Abingdon Press, New York, Nashville, p. 21) Jerry, went with a group of women from our church to a retreat at The House of the Lord, a retreat center here in Memphis. The retreat was led by a Sister Susan, and a ...

16. Jesus at Home

Mark 2:1-12

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... their commentaries barely even pause at this verse in their eagerness to talk about the rest of the story: the healing, the controversy the healing occasioned, the folks who brought the paralyzed man and lowered him through the roof, the man himself, the authorities and their quibbling about the language of forgiveness, and so on. But just for this moment of reflection that we have together, let's have a look at that first verse, and not let it slip by us quite so quickly. Now, if we know the whole story of ...

17. That’s Why We Call It Good

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

David J. Kalas

At the end of the day, God saw that it was good. Indeed, that is the recurring refrain in the story of creation. For at the end of each day, God saw that it was good. Modern minds may like to quibble about the science of the creation account in scripture, but no one can dispute the beauty of it. Phase by phase, the beauty unfolds. When the curtain opens on the mysterious pre-creation scene, it is a frightening blackness. We read of both chaos and emptiness, and all of it ...

18. Living “I Don’t Know” While “In the Know”

Matthew 21:23-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... the most obedient and observant, might be welcomed by God, was far too disruptive and potentially disastrous for either Jerusalem or Rome to accept. That Jesus already evoked and emitted an unquestionable authority is evident in the fact that his quibbling questioners, who were no less than “chief priests” and “elders,” immediately acquiesced in the conditions for a response that he demanded. Jesus challenged those who questioned his authority with a challenge of his own. They took the bait. But ...

19. Dry As Toast

Matthew 12:15-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... in the questioning of whether it is appropriate to heal on the Sabbath. The rules of these Pharisees are contrasted with the relational approach of Jesus. The wasted hand might be said to indicate the “wasted” lives of those within that synagogue, as they quibble over trivialities, missing the mission of God and missing the presence of God’s Son. Like the “right hand” of this man, the hand in Hebrew which is responsible for living out your faith, the synagogue is devoid of good fruit, good deeds ...

20. Religious Rage

Psalm 137:1-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... We would never think or say those unkind things about the infants of the Babylonians. I once heard Father Roland Murphy, recently retired from the Divinity School, say, "It seems bad taste for the people who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagiaski to quibble over a few Babylonian babies." If we could muster the justification for the incineration of thousands of Japanese babies, we, of all peoples, ought to understand the rage of these Hebrews. I, to my knowledge, have never wanted, even for a moment, to ...

21. Temptation

Luke 4:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... probably be that good for which you would give almost anything, that noble goal which is so worthy as to be immune from critique. Yes, be particularly careful in those life concerns which are so manifestly good, so self-evidently right, that no one would quibble with your offerings of just a bit of yourself to Satan in exchange for their attainment. Some of you are shocked to read occasionally that some minister has fallen from his high, god-like perch, to the depths of a cheap affair or some embezzlement ...

22. When the Small is Great, and the Great is Small

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Will Willimon

... I've called a friend down the street who has consented to let me come down and borrow her newspaper and her Geographic after she has finished reading them. So I'm now able to give the money Joel asked us for." Her words shamed. Here was I, calculating, quibbling, bothered over what was to me a relatively small amount of money but what was to her, nearly everything. I gave from my abundance. She gave all. Jesus told us. In his kingdom, the last shall be the first and the smallest shall be the greatest. This ...

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