MTP Sermon Resources

John 6:30-51 February 28, 2021 • Mount Pleasant UMC Ever have one of those late-night cravings that you just can’t satisfy? Not even with a Snickers? For me, “late night” is about 9:00 p.m. Many nights, I’ll wander into the kitchen, wanting something to eat but not sure what. I’ll open the refrigerator, then close it. Open the cabinet, close it. Open the pantry, and then close it. I’m not even sure what I want…just something. There are also a lot of evenings when I want to cook something for dinner, but I have no idea what. So I’ll ask the family, “What do you want to eat?” The most popular response is…you guessed it: “I don’t know.” And so it goes. Satisfaction eludes us, and not only when it comes to food. We often will have these cravings for something to make life better, and most of the time we have no idea what that “something” would be. We think more money will satisfy us, yet when the richest man in American history, John D. Rockefeller (whose fortune in 2021 dollars wo...

  “Full of It” Sermon Study Guide for February 28, 2021 Downloadable Version Scripture: John 6:30-51 1. “I am the bread of life” Feeding of the 5,000+ “Give me more bread” 2. Meaning of the saying To those in the crowd… Exodus 16 - “manna” To Jesus… bread eating body/drinking blood 1 Timothy 6:19 - life John 10:10 - abundant For us… Discipline of _____________________ Matthew 6:16-18 Practice of _______________________ 1 Timothy 6:6-8 Philippians 4:12-13, 19 Questions for Discussion and Reflection What do you look to in order to find satisfaction in life? How has God been “I Am” to you this past week? In what ways do we tend to look to Jesus more for “signs” than for his presence? How do we forget his faithfulness from day to day or week to week? When are you most tempted to want to return to some past place or time that seemed better? What prompts that feeling? When you think of “bread,” what images or feelings come to mi...

Exodus 3:1-14; John 8:48-59 February 21, 2021 • Mount Pleasant UMC How many of you know what your name means? [Take a few responses.] Maybe I’ve shared before that my name is taken from the name of the Greek god of wine, Dionysius—which is odd because neither of my parents drink. But my name fit into the family—we were “the four “D’s”—Dick, Donna, Dennis and Doug. And a lot of names are chosen that way, for the way they sound. How else do you explain names like Blip, Kiwi, Cheese, Panda and Rocket? Those names all appear on Time  Magazine’s “most unusual names” list. And then there are the names that go beyond “unusual” to just plain…well, I’m gonna say it, weird. Some of you may have seen when Elon Musk had a son, they named him X Æ A-Xii, and it’s apparently pronounced “X Ash A-Twelve.” Yeah, I don’t even know what to do with that. Some other…interesting names from 2020 include Portabella (how’d you like to be named after fungus), Mordax (which sounds like it’s from Lord o...

  “What’s In a Name?” Sermon Study Guide for February 21, 2021 Downloadable Version Scripture: John 8:48-59 Names… 1. Moses and the Bush (Exodus 3:1-14) Excuses… What is your name? (3:13) God wants to be ___________________ 2. God’s Name Yahweh - Transcendence Immanence Jesus - John 8:48-59 Leviticus 24:16 Questions to Discuss or Ponder: What does your name mean? How was your name chosen? Recall the early years of Moses (skim Exodus 2). What do you remember that informs what you know about him? How do his early years make him the right person for this calling? What in your past might God use to prepare you for your calling? What excuses have you used in the past to avoid doing what you knew you were called to do? What does it mean to you that God wants to be known? How have you experienced that in your life? What does it mean that God is transcendent? How is God “other” than us? What does it mean that God is immanent? How have you experienced his presence in you...

Psalm 51:1-17; Luke 18:9-14 February 17, 2021 (Ash Wednesday) • Mount Pleasant UMC It was a normal Sunday morning, like so many Sunday mornings before, and two men went to church. They attended the same church, though they didn’t know each other, and they arrived within minutes of each other. Both took their seats—on opposite sides of the worship space, of course. One man was well-dressed. You could tell by looking at him he was well-to-do, and he was proud of his family’s long history with this particular church. In fact, it didn’t take much looking around to find something his family had donated, or built, or contributed toward. He was proud of this church, and in many ways, he considered it to be “his” church. The other man wasn’t so well-to-do. In fact, his shoes were shabby and his jeans had a couple of holes in them. And not the fashionable kind. He didn’t have a well-pressed dress shirt, so he wore his very best t-shirt. It wasn’t fancy, but it was clean. His job—well, it ...