MTP Sermon Resources

Mark 14:53-65 February 28, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC It was snowing heavily, like it was here a couple of weeks ago, and it was blowing to the point that visibility was almost zero when the young lady got off work. She made her way to her car and wondered how she was going to make it home through the snow. She sat in her car as it warmed up, and she remembered her dad's advice that if she got caught in a blizzard she should wait for a snow plow to come by and follow it. That way she would not get stuck in a snow drift. Sure enough, after a little while, a snow plow came by and she pulled out to follow it. She even smiled a bit and started to feel kind of smug because she was not having any problems with the blizzard conditions. After an hour had passed, the snowplow stopped, the driver got out and came back to her car, signaling for her to roll down her window. He asked if she was all right. “You’ve been following me for a long time,” he said. “I’m fine,” she assured him, a...

Mark 14:32-42 February 21, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC About this time last year, we were very vividly learning the meaning of the word “wait.” Our new appointment to Mount Pleasant had been announced and so had the new pastor who was coming in after me, and we were caught in between. We were making trips to Terre Haute, living in Portage and trying to figure out exactly where we were most days! We were in the process of buying a house here, but hadn’t started packing there yet, knowing that we still had to live there until June when we would move here. We were waiting, and learning how hard it can be. But you know that. You know about waiting. There are not too many things harder to do than to wait. One author says, “Waiting can be the most intense and poignant of all human experiences” (Vanstone, qtd. in Garland, NIV Application Commentary: Mark, pg. 553). Sometimes we’re waiting for something good, like the birth of a new baby or the beginning of a new job. And in times l...

Mark 14:22-26 February 14, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC In case you missed it, today is Valentine’s Day—which means, as Tom Clayton reminded me last week, that tomorrow chocolate goes on sale for half off! Long lost are the real origins of Valentine’s Day, originally known as the Feast of St. Valentine. In fact, the origins are so lost that no one knows anymore which person named Valentine this day was meant to commemorate. The most popular story is of a priest in Rome, who lived sometime before the 5th century, who was known for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry as well as for ministering to Christians during a time of intense persecution of the church. He was arrested and jailed by the Roman Empire, and during that time, the legend says, he healed the daughter of his jailer. Before his execution, he wrote her a letter and signed it, “Your Valentine.” Now, whether all of that is true or not is up for debate, but just think about the way we celebrate...

Luke 9:51-62 February 10, 2015 (Ash Wednesday) • Mount Pleasant UMC Life is made up of moments, most of which seem rather mundane at the time and many of which later turn out to be hugely decisive. Turn this way or that and everything changes. I think sometimes about the moments in my life—for instance, the moment I made up my mind to attend Ball State. Had I not done that, I would not have met Cathy, and life would be very different. Or the moment when my parents decided to join the Methodist church instead of the Presbyterian church. I might not have been a United Methodist pastor. Or the moment when I bowed my head in the church basement and asked Jesus to come into my heart; I would be a very different person if it were not for Christ in my life. Life is made up of moments, and I bet you can look back and identify two or three decisive points in your own journey, moments when, had you made the opposite decision, life would look very different than it does now. In o...