MTP Sermon Resources

Matthew 1:1-17 April 24, 2016 • Mount Pleasant UMC “Selfie” Intro Video A while back, I heard a pastor suggest that every church ought to read through at least one Gospel every year together, and that was a suggestion that stuck with me. It makes sense. These Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke and John—contain our defining story. What they tell us about Jesus ought to shape us like no other story. And so, for the next few weeks, we’re going to start that habit this year by walking together through the Gospel of Matthew. Not only will Pastor Rick and I be preaching through this Gospel, but we’re also inviting—or rather, asking—you to read along in the Gospel with us. We won’t be able to cover every passage on Sunday mornings; we’ll just be hitting the highlights and main themes, so we’re counting on you to do the suggested readings each week. We’ll be doing this reading, too, and together we will delve into what Matthew tells us about Jesus. But, as we begin, it might be helpfu...

John 21:15-22 April 10, 2016 (Confirmation) • Mount Pleasant UMC Sermon Study Guide When I stop to think about it, there are, in each of our lives, several significant moments—turning points, you might want to call them, moments when you could go one way or another and your life would be significantly different depending on the choice you make. When I chose to go to Ball State, when I chose my major area of study, when I asked Cathy to marry me, when we both answered calls to our vocations, when we decided to have children…and many, many more moments when a choice one way or the other would have meant a very different life from the one we are now living. But, in the wake of each of those decisions—and you know what this feels like—there’s always this moment when you can’t help but ask, “What’s next?” I went to Ball State as a journalism major and knew by the end of my freshman year that wasn’t right, so I changed my major to speech communication. And I remember thi...

Mark 16:1-8 March 27, 2016 (Easter) • Mount Pleasant UMC Well, we made it! I arrived here at Mount Pleasant almost nine months ago…and now we have finally given birth. Congratulations, it’s a worship center! Almost three years of exile, lots of wondering and questioning, some who said it would never happen, and changing pastors in the midst of it all—and yet, by God’s grace, here we are, in our renewed worship center. After almost six months of hard work by our contractors, even longer months of work by our Trustees and countless hours spent by Chris and Jenny Kocher as they spearheaded the rebuild, we are grateful and we are here. We made it! I had one of the local pastors this week tell me he moved to town just shortly after this worship center had been condemned, and as we stood in here this week, he said it was the first time since he’d moved to town that we now have full use of the building. Thanks be to God! Now, we can finally settle back in these pews, take a rest a...

John 18:1-9 March 25, 2016 (Good Friday) • Mount Pleasant UMC Evening was garden time; it always had been. He would come, in the cool of the day, and they would talk, walk, play, spend time together in the garden. Evening was garden time. That’s where they always met, and it had always been a time they had both looked forward to. And so, when evening came, he came to the garden and called out the other’s name. “Adam! Adam! Where are you?” But Adam was hiding behind some of the trees because earlier in the day, he and his wife, Eve, had broken the one “don’t” rule God had given them. They had foolishly listened to this walking serpent and eaten from the fruit of the forbidden tree. As soon as they had done it, they knew it was wrong. They knew they had broken not only God’s law but God’s heart. And so somehow Adam got it in his head that he could hide from God, that if he stood behind a tree God wouldn’t be able to see him. He should have known better. “Adam! Where are you? ...