Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: humiliation, mortification, chagrin, ignominy, loss of face, shamefacedness, embarrassment, indignity, abashment, discomfort, discomfiture, discomposure, guilt, remorse, contrition, compunction, disgrace, dishonour, discredit, degradation, disrepute, ill-repute, infamy, scandal, odium, opprobrium, obloquy, condemnation, contempt, pity, misfortune, crying shame, cause for regret, source of regret, sad thing, unfortunate thing, discredit to, disgrace to, stain on, blemish on, blot on, blot on the escutcheon of, slur on, reproach to, bad reflection on, bring into disrepute, degrade, debase, defame, stigmatize, taint, sully, tarnish, besmirch, stain, blacken, drag through the mud/mire, give a bad name to, put in a bad light, humiliate, mortify, make someone feel ashamed, embarrass, abash, chasten, humble, put someone in their place, take down a peg or two, cut down to size, show up

Antonyms: honor, pride, respect, glory, praise, dignity, honor, esteem, glorification, laud, compliment, regard, credit, elevate, acclaim, pleasure, favor, kudos, recognition, flatter, admiration, greatness, happiness, self-confidence, reverence

Showing 1 to 25 of 230 results

1. The Light That Brings Discomfort

Luke 2:22-40

Illustration

... of the arrival of Christopher Columbus. 150,000 people were evicted from their homes in a shantytown to make room for it. The intensity of its light means that electricity is rationed throughout much of the city. The light that brings security for some brings discomfort for others. Jesus is the light that brings revelation and security but also discomfort and suffering for himself and for others. This is the second point that Simeon makes about this Messiah that is different to the expectations of his day.

2. An Uncomfortable Comforter

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... seat on the coach section of a 727 or while trapped in your car in some massive, hours-long traffic jam. We happily pay extra for comfort--more leg room, in-flight movies, and better meals to take our minds off our in-flight discomforts; lavish leather seats, surround-sound stereo systems and perfect climate-control for our private commute-mobile. We want to be surrounded in comfort: we sit down to comfort food (mashed potatoes), we wallpaper our lives in comfort noise (Muzak and ambient sound), etc. In ...

3. The Steady March Forward

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Dave Zuchelli

... the action that was sure to happen wherever he traveled. He often attempted to discourage people from following. He seemed to do this when he saw their sense of adventure but their lack of commitment. He knew his road was a hard one with many discomforts. It would end with his death and their grave disappointment. He knew some wouldn’t last when the wonderment wore off. They would return home to their comfort and safety. He, apparently, didn’t want them to waste their time. To them he said, “Foxes ...

4. A Bad Temperament Can Kill You

2 Kings 5:1-27

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... . She bumped me. I suffered." You perhaps know a person who reacts instead of responds to an event or a situation. You react to a sudden discomfort but you respond to life as you focus your attention on something beyond the discomfort of the present. You realize you've got places to go and that the world is large enough for you to walk around that discomfort. Amazingly enough, Jesus Christ used as an illustration in his very first sermon a man who possessed an attention deficiency disorder and was healed of ...

5. Time for a New Wardrobe

Isaiah 61:1—62:12

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... ." Some of us need saved from the effects of an addictive culture. Addictive behavior is what we do to avoid feeling things. We have been raised up to believe that pain is bad. Discomfort is to be avoided. Well heck, no one likes pain. We all would rather not feel discomfort. But the hard truth is that pain and discomfort are part of living. If we slice out the unpleasant pieces, either through drugs or obsessive behavior, we become empty shells, incomplete, and broken. From this, we need to be saved. There ...

6. Pay Attention!

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Robert C. Cochran

... on doing well, I forget to worship with you. Even pastors struggle to give one hour to God free from the distractions of worldly things. Let’s make this very clear: the distraction is not the mistake the pastor makes, or the baby’s cry, or the discomfort. The distraction is our reaction to these. We let the mistake cloud our minds, the baby’s crying stir our emotions, the straight-backed pew move our thoughts from God to our bodies. Rather than looking at these through the eyes of the kingdom, we view ...

7. Stop the PANIC!

Luke 15:1-32 · Exodux 15:1-27--16:36 · Psalm 23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... t listening. It wasn’t that God wasn’t providing. It wasn’t even that the Israelites couldn’t trust that God would keep on doing it. It was that they got so lost in their infighting, their blaming, their fear of the future, their discomfort in feeling out of control of their destination, that they lost their ability to keep going in the direction they chose. They got so caught going “in circles” that they couldn’t bring themselves to trust Moses to lead them through to their destination. What ...

8. Words Are Not Enough

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Roy Howard

... to avoid these difficult, easily misunderstood parables. There is enough pressure already to reduce the Christian faith into a personal entertainment program that rarely demands anything of us. Experiencing a little discomfort, even a lot of discomfort, when wrestling with the gospel is a good thing, especially when that discomfort drives us more deeply into the mercy of God, who has announced his saving intention for us in Jesus. The parable before us asks a straightforward question: Which is better: for ...

9. The Art Of Transition

Luke 9:51-62

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts a hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:61-62) Someone once said that people do not voluntarily change until their level of discomfort is greater than their level of fear. I have a good friend, a fellow baby-boomer, who was required by the company he worked for to move to a different part of the state. The move meant a promotion and a sizable raise in his pay, but he was ambivalent ...

10. A New Kingdom Coming

Luke 9:57-62

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... is the teacher and we are the students. He the master, we the servants. But we don't like that. We want to be in charge. We like to be the chiefs, not the Indians, and call the shots. Jesus may cause us discomfort and inconvenience. He might pin us to the wall on our discomfort and inconvenience. He might pin us to the wall in our selfishness and hardness of heart. He might expose the silent glee we have when the church has problems raising a budget or launching a program. He may press the question, "If you ...

11. Illusion Or Reality?

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... destroy our comfort zone, so let us embrace the idolatry of the family. The basic premises of these images are flawed for all their elements of truth because they embrace only a partial vision. And they can all become much too comfortable. You and I need all the discomfort our faith can inflict on us. We need a few P.J. Crowleys, Malcolm Xs, Martin Luther Kings, Mother Teresas, and the like to contend with. They may never be our mentors but they are essential for us. Let us think of ourselves as living in a ...

12. Shipwrecked on Malta

Acts 27:1-12, Acts 27:13-26, Acts 27:27-44

Sermon Aid

CSS

... such a ship was difficult under the best circumstances, there was little or nothing to eat. For "many a day" neither sun nor stars were visible, while the raging winds continued. No one knew the ship’s position. It stayed afloat, but the discomfort of wet clothing, hunger, and constant pitching and tossing took their toll. Hope was all but abandoned. But there are no hopeless situations; only people who become hopeless about them. Like his shipmates, Paul was weak from lack of food and from the battering ...

13. Why Should I Go On Living?

Matthew 12:38-45

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... take our faith that seriously, do we? Oh, let Jesus come into our empty lives, BUT with reservations. We are like the landlord laying down the rules for a new tenant. I welcome Jesus into my soul, but He has to observe the rules of the house. I want no discomfort or disturbance in the way I run my life. I don’t want to change my habits. I have a few prejudices that are obviously unChristian, but I want to keep them. I certainly expect a reasonable amount of peace of mind. I don’t expect to lie awake at ...

14. Day People

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

... type of material that would have been in use for the Civil War. They use ancient muskets. During the re-enactments, they live like the soldiers would have lived, sleeping on the ground, never bathing, eating very little food. They are willing to endure hardship and discomfort in order to re-enact a war that has long since been settled. That may seem a little quirky, but that’s similar to what we should be doing as followers of Jesus. Civil War re-enactors “prepare for battle 365 days a year.” They ...

15. Cross Connections

John 18:1-11

Sermon

Robert Noblett

... out west and took a fairly significant tumble. In the process of being x-rayed for possible internal injuries, it was discovered that she had a completely encapsulated malignant tumor in need of surgical removal. She was in great discomfort because of the fall, but in even greater discomfort now because of the discovery of cancer. But looking back on those very dark days now, she sees that as fortune, not misfortune. Ironically, had it not been for the skiing accident, she might never have discovered that ...

16. Grace in the Midst of Unanswered Prayer

2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... the main point of her desire, regarded not what she then asked, that thou mightest make me what she ever desired." God doesn't always give us what we ask. But God unfailingly provides us with what we need. "You want power, Paul? Power to take away your greatest discomfort? Here's my grace instead. And my grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect -- is fully received and fully known -- when you are at your worst." We don't need an instant "out" from every problem. Much of what is vital to our ...

17. We Want to Be in Charge

Luke 9:57-62

Illustration

Maurice A. Fetty

18. Is the Lord Among Us or Not?

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Tony Everett

... vision is described, getting there is tougher than expected. The more difficult and distant the destination seems, the easier it is to be diverted and discouraged along the way. The more remote the future dream appears, the easier it is to focus only on the discomforts of the present and to yearn for the pleasures of the past. Is the Lord among us or not? Tell us! Show us! Right now! In our text today, the folks had had enough… again. They were thirsty… again. They complained to Moses… again. “Why ...

19. An Encounter across the Lake

Luke 8:26-39, Luke 8:22-25

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... though here the title “the Most High God” probably has a pagan flavor. And again, as in 4:34, they see God’s Son as their natural enemy. The “torture” that the demons envisage might be merely the threat of expulsion from their “home” (on the discomfort of an expelled demon, see 11:24) but perhaps also expresses fear that Jesus, as the Son of God, is now about to initiate the final destruction of all evil spirits, which Jewish belief expected in the last days; this is probably what is meant by ...

20. Job's Third Reply to Bildad

Job 26:1--31:40

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... allowing ourselves to be confronted by those of the book. The unfortunate effect is that we excuse ourselves because of our cultural “superiority” and ignore the message because we do not agree with the messenger. I do not mean that our cultural discomfort with Job’s easy acceptance of his privileged social position is wrong or even inconsequential. This lack of comfort should force us to look further to understand the whole of scriptural teaching on the issue. I simply say the obvious: the revelation ...

21. Wilderness Work

Luke 3:1-6

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

... primacy of God’s gracious and accepting love, why are you being exclusive and judgmental about those with whom you disagree?” In other words, how can judgment and grace co-exist in the same place? It was — and it is — a very good question. It underlines the discomfort we all have with these John the Baptist stories. If God comes freely and graciously for all of us in the full humanity of Jesus. If God is born in us whether we deserve it or not — how come we have to do something in order to receive ...

22. The Poor Man in the Mercedes

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... what had happened to him. He had made it a personal rule in his early life never to experience any discomfort. It was his conviction that he deserved to travel in style—after all, in the words of the popular commercial a few years back, ... he was worth it! But now he was experiencing an eternity of stark discomfort. The air conditioner had failed and the water was turned off. “Please father Abraham,” he cried out, “have pity on me and send ...

23. God Has Not Forgotten You

Jeremiah 29:1-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... promise of Jesus. Pray to God that we might be given courage to step outside of our walls, even as we invite others in. Pray to God unceasingly for the strength to endure change, to overcome fear of the unfamiliar, to be able to wallow in discomfort, the kind of discomfort that it takes to make something grow. Pray that this church might be not a fossilized image of the past, but God’s petrie dish, ready to grow into something new and unexpected, to chart new waters, to sail new seas. Church of Today, don ...

24. Here

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... than even chance that God might condescend to get mixed up among people like you and me in a place like Durham. Here. That's what makes God's love so discomforting. It's particularity. John's ''The word became flesh" once upon a time, is more comfortable than Luke's Bethlehem, Nazareth, Mary, and Joseph. Luke's story discomforts because it challenges our assumption that our daily lives really don't matter after all. We resist loving and being loved as God loves because there is something mildly reassuring ...

25. A Gift With YOUR Name On It

Romans 1:1-7

Sermon

Heather Sugden

... certainly are important. Regardless of age, we want to be known for who we are; we want to be recognized by name and be assured that our contribution to the world matters. We have each experienced the discomfort of being unable to remember a person’s name. We have each experienced the discomfort of having someone else be unable to remember our own name. Every time, being unable to say the person’s name out loud at an important moment brings a feeling of missed opportunity, loss, even disappointment. I ...

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