MTP Sermon Resources

  “What Never Fails” Sermon Study Guide for November 10, 2024 Downloadable Version Scripture: Lamentations 3:13-24 Sleepless… 1. “Man Who Has Seen Affliction” the effects of grief a door slammed shut 2. Remembering a. _________________________________ (3:22-23) hesed b. _________________ is not a waste (3:24-26) hope/wait c. _____________________ has not been spoken   (3:31-32) d. God is always __________________ (3:33) Matthew 7:9-11 Questions to Discuss or Ponder: What sorts of things keep you up or wake you up at night? Recall a time when grief affected you deeply. How did you experience it? Or maybe—how are you experiencing it now? Why is it easier to look down than look up during times of grief? What are the effects of looking “down” at our problems? How have you experienced the faithfulness of God? How would you describe an experience of mercy? Do you prefer waiting or taking action? Why? How does this affect your relationships? In your curren...

Lamentations 1:1-8 November 3, 2024 • Mount Pleasant UMC My friends, this morning we stand at the edge of a potentially momentous week. No one I know can accurately predict what our lives, what our country will be like a week from now, but everyone seems to agree that this week’s election is significant. And a lot of people, on both sides of the proverbial aisle, are predicting potential unrest, maybe even violence, no matter who wins. Now, again, I don’t think anyone knows what might happen this week, but the thing that keeps echoing in my heart and mind is a single question: how? How did we get here? How did our nation, which prides itself on peaceful transfers of power, end up in this place? How? That’s the same question that people were asking in ancient Jerusalem, at a critical time in their history. How could this happen? How did we end up in this place? This morning we are beginning a new series centered around that time and those events, a series rooted in the book of L...

  “How?” Sermon Study Guide for November 3, 2024 Downloadable Version Scripture: Lamentations 1:1-8 A momentous time… 1. The Downfall of God’s People Jerusalem… deserted… 2. The Answer to the Question Lamentations says… Comfort (Isaiah 40:1-2) The solution… Matthew 4:17 Questions to Discuss or Ponder: What significance is it that a book of laments begins with a question? When you’re upset, what questions do you ask of others or of God? Why does the poet imagine Jerusalem as a queen? What does that image bring to mind? What does it feel like to be deserted? Is there a time you have felt that way? Share about it as you feel comfortable. Why, according to Lamentations, was Jerusalem destroyed? Is there any connection to our day in that diagnosis? Respond to this statement: “Every death, every war, every injustice, every loss, every hurt, and every tear owe their existence to sin.” How have you experienced the comfort of God? When have you experienced a time when God’s comf...

1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 October 20, 2024 (Generosity Sunday) • Mount Pleasant UMC I grew up going to church. I don’t ever remember asking why we went to church because that was just what we did. It was important to my parents so my brother and I weren’t given an option. It wasn’t until I was older, probably not really until I was in college, that I began asking questions like that—questions like, “Why is church important to me?” When I got out on my own, I had to decide if being part of a church was important to me or if it was just something I had been made to do. I think it’s pretty clear what I decided, since I answered a call to spend my whole life in the church, and even now, I still believe the church is vital to the community and to the world. Even with all of its flaws and brokenness, the church is still Jesus’ plan for the world. You may have lots of thoughts or reasons why you come here, and maybe some of you wandered in here today for the first time and have no idea wh...