MTP Sermon Resources

Revelation 1:4-8 November 22, 2015 (Christ the King) • Mount Pleasant UMC It’s sort of a strange world—even stranger than usual—that surrounds us as we approach Thanksgiving this year, isn’t it? Just a little over a week ago, terrorist attacks were carried out in the streets of Beirut and Paris, and in the week since, there have been air strikes on ISIS, raids in Paris neighborhoods, along with calls for understanding, patience and peace. Indiana became one of the early states whose governor decided we would not accept any Syrian refugees over the concern of terrorists hiding in those refugee groups, and immediately people started reminding us that 750,000 refugees have been resettled in American since 9/11 and none of them has been arrested on any terrorism charges. It’s a strange world, a somber world, one in which there are no easy answers. And in the midst of all that, along comes this day we call Thanksgiving. If tradition holds, we will gather around warm hearths...

Luke 19:1-10 November 15, 2015 • Mount Pleasant UMC Sermon Study Guide It’s tough being a little guy. I’ve never been tall of stature, and though Christopher, my son, is taller than me now—tallest in the family these days—there was a time when he wasn’t so tall. I remember when we went to Disney World for the first time and we wanted to see all the parades. So we did what you do, we got there early and got him a seat on the curb. Then we watched as adults—adults!—pushed their way to the front to sit in front of the kids. Did they not remember this was supposed to be fun for kids? So I did what I often did in those days, I scooped Christopher up and put him on my shoulders so he could see the parade over the heads of the rude adults. It’s tough being a little guy. In our Scripture this morning, we encounter a man who knew that truth. Zacchaeus, as many of us know from the Sunday School song, was a “wee little man, and a wee little man was he.” Luke says he was “shor...

Luke 16:1-13 November 1, 2015 (All Saints) • Mount Pleasant UMC Video: “Greed is Good” (1:00) Sermon Study Guide It’s an iconic scene in the 1987 film Wall Street , where legendary Wall Street player Gordon Gekko, played by Michael Douglas, confronts shareholders of Teldar Paper, a company he is planning to take over. The film, and that scene in particular, represented for many the attitude and mindset of the 1980’s. Accumulation was the name of the game. Money was king and greed, as Gekko says, was good. Gekko’s speech in the film seems to have been inspired by a commencement address given by Ivan Boesky at the University of California Berkeley. Boesky said, “Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself.” Of course, if you remember, Boesky was later convicted of insider trading and spent time in prison. Even though that film is almost thirty years old, there is still an ...

Proverbs 3:13-14; Philippians 4:10-20 October 25, 2015 • Mount Pleasant UMC In the year 312, Constantine, the emperor of the Roman Empire, was on his way to war, to a decisive battle, when he had a dream of an image of the Christian cross in the sky along with the words “By this sign you will conquer.” In that moment, he determined God had spoken to him, so he took the cross as his standard and headed into the battle—a battle which he did win. After that victory, Constantine issued what has been called an “edict of toleration,” in which Christians, who had been a persecuted minority up to that point, now were “tolerated” within the Empire. Eventually, not only were they tolerated, but the Christian faith eventually became the official faith of the Roman Empire, and Constantine himself even had a hand in shaping and unifying Christian theology (Yates, The Expansion of Christianity , pos 18-19). There is a story (which may be more legend than fact) of the time when Const...