MTP Sermon Resources

Romans 2:1-4 January 26, 2025 • Mount Pleasant UMC I was reading a devotional yesterday about a woman who was doing a lot of ministry work and suddenly came down with a recurrence of a previous cancer. She had assumed the lump in her abdomen was something else, and put off getting it checked out. Lots of prayer and surgery later, she is doing well, but you can’t help but read something like that or go through something like that and wonder why. It is the eternal question and the one we most often never get an answer to. Why do such devastating things happen? Why do bad things happen? We might ask the same question in the midst of the broken world we find ourselves in. The world is a mess, people are mad, relationships are struggling, and we keep asking why. But, unlike a lot of medical situations, I think we really know the “why,” though we don’t often admit it or don’t want to admit the truth. Author Becky Pippert described it several years ago: “The problem with the world is me...

  “Bearing the Image” Sermon Study Guide for January 26, 2025 Downloadable Version Scripture: Romans 2:1-4 “The problem with the world is __________.” 1. The Church at Rome “You have no excuse…” Luke 18:9-14 2. What I Despise (2:4) a. _______________________________ Matthew 5:45 b. _______________________________ Luke 21:24 c. _______________________________ 2 Peter 3:9 3. Bearing the Image The solution… 2 Corinthians 5:18-20 Questions to Discuss or Ponder: Who is in the group that you would most likely classify as “them”? How do you feel about “them”? Why are we so happy when someone else’s sin is seemingly punished? Why are we so quick to rush to such judgment? Why are we tempted to rely on external behaviors to prove our devotion to God (i.e., the Pharisee in Jesus’ parable)? Why does the Bible prohibit making physical representations of God? What are the ways we still try to do that today? How do those idols become stumbling blocks for our spiritual ...

  “Just Have Faith” Sermon Study Guide for January 19, 2025 Downloadable Version Scripture: Hebrews 11:1-2 1. “Just Have Faith” faith is… Ephesians 2:8-9 Romans 5:1 Hebrews 11:6 faith produces… 2. Understanding Faith Hebrews 11:1 “faith, fact, feelings" Romans 15:13 object of our faith: _____________________ 1 Corinthians 1:9 3. Effects of Faith John 16:33 in the storm… prayer… Questions to Discuss or Ponder: Who is in your “hall of faith”? Who has spurred on your faith? When you think of “faith,” what images or thoughts come to mind? What are the effects of faith in your life? in our world? What does it really mean to “walk by faith and not by sight”? Why is it so tempting to let your faith be led by our feelings? What happens when we do that? When has fear threatened to overtake your faith? How has faith in God affected your life for the good? the life of your family? the world around you? What one further step can you take this week to “increas...

2 Timothy 3:10-17 January 5, 2025 • Mount Pleasant UMC I was raised on the Bible. By that I mean I was taught the stories and principles found in the Bible from a very young age. In fact, I don’t remember a time when this book didn’t have some impact and influence in my life. We learned the stories in Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. We heard and sang the Scriptures in worship. And I especially enjoyed collecting our Sunday School papers. We had those take-home papers from David C. Cook Publishing that had the Bible made into a comic book. It was awesome. I think at one point I had collected every single segment; now you can just buy it all in a book without the weekly commitment. But those images stuck with me. For as long as I can remember I have loved the Scriptures, and in my home church there was never any question about the role of the Bible in our lives. The Bible was authoritative. What it said was what we believed. I was in college before I learned that there a...