MTP Sermon Resources

Matthew 16:13-20 January 31, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC I love the church. I grew up in church. I was baptized at the Sedalia Methodist Episcopal Church, and shortly after that, that church was closed. (I don’t think there was a connection between those two events!) So I grew up at the Rossville United Methodist Church, and we were one of those families who was in church most every time the doors were open. My parents served on most every committee there was, my Dad took me from a very young ago to the United Methodist Men’s breakfasts and we rarely missed worship. I was in youth group, youth choir, and even directed the children’s choir for a time. I love the local church, and I believe, as Bill Hybels has said, that the local church is the hope of the world. Our own Book of Discipline puts it this way: “Local churches provide the most significant arena through which disciple-making occurs” (para. 120, 2012 Discipline ). In other words, if our mission—making disciples of J...

Jeremiah 29:11-13 January 10, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC Every time we have moved, there has been an underlying question: how long are you going to stay? In my first appointment as a solo pastor, we were in a meeting just a couple of months after we had arrived, and someone said, “Well, when Pastor Ticen is gone…” Two months in and they were already planning for my departure! Maybe that should have told me something? Actually, that had little to do with me, though, and more to do with their experience in the United Methodist appointment system. They had rarely had a pastor for very long. Nor had my last appointment before coming here, and yet we stayed eight years in one place and ten years in the other. It takes some work, but I always try to reassure folks that I’m not looking to or planning to move. And, in the case of moving to Terre Haute, I keep saying this: we’ve bought a house. We’ve settled in. We’re not planning to go anywhere. Besides, Rachel has given me strict i...

Jeremiah 31:31-34 January 3, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC I remember the first time we bought a new car—our first minivan, actually. Christopher was about 6 weeks old, and someone had hit Cathy’s car, totaling it, so we had insurance money to spend. We started by looking at used minivans, but quickly realized that, at least in 1995, those vehicles didn’t lose their value like others did. There wasn’t that much difference between the prices for new and used, so we made the big decision to buy a new one. And I still remember, after we had signed all the papers, getting in the van for the first time. I probably drove very slowly off that lot, because I had heard all the stories about how people get in wrecks right away. I drove very carefully and nervously, wanting to make sure this new vehicle would last for a long time. “New” things sometimes bring that feeling out in us. We want to tread carefully, to make the “newness” last as long as possible. And so we come to this new...