MTP Sermon Resources

Galatians 5:13-21 September 20, 2015 • Mount Pleasant UMC VIDEO CLIP: “Seabiscuit” Sermon Study Guide I love the line in that video clip about the horse who will be known as Seabiscuit: “They’ve got him so screwed up running in a circle he’s forgotten what he was born to do.” I feel like that sometimes, and I bet you do, too. We get so busy doing things the world around us tells us are important, we run here and there and everywhere, that it feels like we’re running in circles, not getting much done. I can relate to Seabiscuit sometimes, and the whole point of that scene, where they just let him run until he stops, is to help him remember he’s a horse. Out of that moment, out of that turning point, Seabiscuit goes on to become a champion thoroughbred racehorse, an “unlikely champion” it’s been said. All because he was able to get out of running in circles and remember who he was. Part of why we come here every week is to break out of the circles we run in and r...

James 5:7-11 September 13, 2015 • Mount Pleasant UMC Sermon Study Guide My second appointment in the former North Indiana Conference was at a place called Brushwood. If you have no idea where it is, don’t worry. You’re not alone. I was told it was near Rensselaer, and when we were taken to meet the Staff-Parish Committee for the first time, we went into Rensselaer, then out of Rensselaer, and we kept driving. It seemed further than it really was, but eventually we topped a hill and there sat a small country church. At one point there had been a town there; I think it’s still on the Indiana maps, called “Aix.” But today the only thing left of the little town is the church and the parsonage. Literally surrounded by cornfields one year, and bean fields the next. Now, most of you know I grew up in a tiny town, and the biggest business in Sedalia was the grain elevator. Even so, my family did not farm for a living, and though we were surrounded by farmers, I had remaine...

James 4:1-10 September 6, 2015 • Mount Pleasant UMC Why do wars start? It’s a question that often preoccupies historians. Sometimes they argue, and other times they agree over the real reasons for conflict in the world. Most agree, for instance, that World War I began with the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand in July 1914, though there were certainly underlying political, social and economic factors that played into the decisions that were made following that attack. The same is true for World War II, which may have officially begun with Germany’s invasion of Poland in September 1939 but informally began as fascism rose in Italy and Germany and an aggressive foreign policy came from the Nazi party. That all began back in 1933. The first Gulf War began with Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait and the second Gulf War began with an invasion of Iraq in the wake of the 2001 attacks on the United States. We could go on and on; somewhere in the midst of every conflict, someone identifies...