MTP Sermon Resources

Mark 14:1-11 June 11, 2017 • Mount Pleasant UMC Tomorrow, I will be fifty years old. Half a century. And, unless I’m one of those rare folks who live into my hundreds, I’ve got more of my life behind me than ahead of me. Let that sink in for a moment! It’s rather sobering to be hitting this milestone—which is why I’m also leaving the country tomorrow so I don’t have to think about it! You know, when I was a kid and my parents were in their forties, I remember thinking how old they were. Now that my forties are in the rear-view mirror, it somehow doesn’t seem so old after all. Neither does 50. It’s sort of weird to be at Annual Conference, as we were this past week, and still think of yourself as one of the “young pastors” in the Conference—and then to realize as I watched the retirement class and the ordination class that, well, I’m not as young as I used to be. And I think it’s this milestone, which I know is just a number but you have to admit is a powerful number, th...

Mark 13:32-37 June 4, 2017 (Pentecost) • Mount Pleasant UMC In just a little over a week, myself and thirteen others will get on a plane and head for the Holy Land. This will be my fifth trip to Israel, and I have to tell you, I still get excited every time I go. For me, to go to Israel is a little like going home; there is no place on earth like it. This year, I not only get to share the journey with several folks from here, I also get to share it with my son, Christopher, for the first time. Rachel has been twice, and in 2000, I got to share that trip with my parents. As we were planning that particular trip, with all the hubbub that surrounded the turn of the century, I had one person in particular ask me, “Aren’t you afraid that you’ll get over there and the end of the world will come?” I told her that I wasn’t really worried about that, but then I said, “What better place to be if it does?” As long as I can remember, for most or all of my nearly fifty years, people...