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 167 results

1. Have You Ever Tried to Discredit Someone?

Mark 3:20-5

Illustration

Maxie Dunnam

Isn't there a tendency on our part to try to discredit the experience of others when we are intimidated by their experience? Think about it for a moment. Haven't you ever felt threatened by a close friend, or even a family member, who moved to a new level ... threatened "whenever someone we know well takes spiritual commitments seriously and refuses any longer to play hide-and—seek and touch-and-go with the living God." (Carl F. H. Henry, Ibid, p. 149) So we try to discredit it all. "He's beside himself".

2. Is Anything Unforgivable?

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

David G. Rogne

... person loses his own soul. Jesus is warning us about this. There is also a positive message to be learned from these words. The lesson is that we must keep ourselves alert to the way God is working in the world. Remember that those who were seeking to discredit Jesus were religious people. Their problem was that they just didn't expect God to be acting as Jesus said he was acting, so they missed the movement of God in their midst, and in fact, they called it evil. Today God may be speaking to us in causes ...

3. "Gotcha" Questions from Mean-Spirited People

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... claiming victory for our Lord, be reminded of the tenacity of the mean-spirited. They don't give up easily. In fact, all they do is reorganize and try again. The mean-spirited decide to have Jesus killed without waiting for him to say something that discredits him in the eyes of the people. It might be said at that moment those religious leaders crossed the threshold from mean-spirited to downright evil. As you know, they are successful with this final version of the plan. The week that began with the ...

4. Who?

Acts 5:27-32

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... 's as if we have climbed a mountain. Suddenly we can see everything laid out before us and things make sense. Prophets come among us and challenge our comfortable assumptions. Most of us want to be let alone. The tendency is to attempt to discredit these prophets instead of listening to them. Take the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., a Christian minister who preached nonviolent resistance to the racism that was accepted in his day. Even people who thought racism was a bad thing assumed there was nothing to ...

5. Speak From Personal Experience

Matthew 6:25-34

Sermon

Robert V. Dodd

... have raised in the past three thousand years! Our purpose is not to be an expert on the Bible or theology, but to tell the story about what Christ has done and is doing in our lives. When you speak from personal experience, there is no way that others can discredit you. My good friend, Robert G. Tuttle tells in his book, One Man's Journey, of an attempt to counsel a person who came to him terribly disturbed Dr. Tuttle said to the man, "I cannot tell you to trust God. It would not mean anything to you. But I ...

6. His Teachings

Luke 20:27-40

Sermon

Brett Blair

... essence, a pacifist. But Jesus also challenged the old ways. His prediction of the destruction of the Temple and the driving out of the moneychangers cast him as anti establishment. So this conference was called not in an attempt to plot to assassinate Jesu but rather to discredit him. They did not want a martyr on their hands. They would much prefer to make him a fool. Let’s give him enough rope and he may just hang himself. Thus, each group would in turn ask him a question, not because they thought that ...

7. The Political Controversies Of Jesus

Luke 20:27-47

Sermon

Brett Blair

8. In The Beginning And The End...God

Genesis 1:1-2:3

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... one calculates from the facts seem to me so overwhelming as to put the conclusion almost beyond question." So the battle, friends, is not a battle between science and the Bible not at all. There is no point in the Christian trying to discredit a scientific approach because the scientific approach is leading many into a deeper and deeper faith. In the beginning, God created incandescent amazement. God calls Creation out of chaos and rejoices. Read the story, "Let there be light", and there was light, and ...

9. Epiphany:The Joy of Fulfillment

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... faith does not stand or fall with the trustworthiness of the Gospels. The gospel, he said, was preached to the world before a single Gospel was written -- for nearly a full generation -- and it would continue to be preached if all the written Gospels were discredited or destroyed. The Christian faith has been conveyed to us in the scriptures, and we cherish and honor the Book. We are grateful that we have it as a written record of the faith we firmly believe. But great as the scriptures are, they would ...

10. Epiphany: The Tragedy of Rejection

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

J. Ellsworth Kalas

... "were astounded at his teaching, because he spoke with authority" (Luke 4:32). To the good fortune of the people of Capernaum, they were not handicapped by hometown images of Jesus. They did not lay the insight and power of his words alongside the discrediting measuring stick, "Is not this Joseph's son?" They accepted Jesus' words and person in their own right, and they saw authority. And as a result, they were privileged to see miracles. An epiphany a wondrous revealing is only as good as our ability ...

11. The Complexity of the Situation

Matthew 22:34-46

Illustration

... laws and commandments better than any religious leader. The Pharisees had to put a stop to it, the situation was getting out of control, it was becoming too complex to let it go on much longer. This man must be stopped and the only why to stop him was to discredit him. And what better way to discredit Jesus, the Jew, than to ask him such a question, on a complex issue about the greatest commandment, that any answer he gave would spell defeat.

12. Acts 5:27-32

Acts 5:27-32

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

... as part of the ongoing salvific history the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob had intended for the Jewish people. Furthermore, Peter's carefully worded description of Jesus' death continues to drive a wedge between Jesus and the intentional acts of the Sanhedrin to discredit him. Not only does Peter again assert that these Jewish leaders killed Jesus but they killed him by "hanging him on a tree." This phrase is taken directly from Deuteronomy 21:23 where God's curse is proclaimed to be upon all who suffer ...

13. The Unforgivable Sin

Mark 3:20-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... ’.’ (Carl F.Henry, Ibid). And that’s a challenge to us in our relation to needy family members where is our main concern? The second challenging thought to consider while we’re on this side path. Isn’t there a tendency on our part to try to discredit the experience of others when we are intimidated by their experience? Think about it for a moment. Haven’t you felt threatened by a close friend, or even a family member who moved to a new level of Christian commitment, and began to take his or her ...

14. In Whose Likeness?

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Chris Ewing

... popular support. It seems that no matter how he answers, he's in trouble. Which, of course, is exactly what his questioners want. Coming from these people, the question about taxes is not a faith or conscience query; it is a hostile question designed to make Jesus discredit himself. And it looks as if they have him over a barrel. Is it right for the chosen people of God, citizens of Israel, who have no king but God and God's anointed, to pay tribute to an occupying pagan power whose emperor demands to be ...

15. The Political Controversies of Jesus - Sermon Starter

Luke 20:27-47

Illustration

Brett Blair

... what happened that night in Jerusalem. Here is the background. The three groups conspired together that evening: the Herodians, the Sadducees, and the Pharisees. Their common goal was to discredit Jesus of Nazareth in front of his constituency, the common people. It was probably not their intent to assassinate Jesus, which is what eventually happened, but rather to discredit him. They did not want a martyr on their hands. They would much prefer to make him a fool. Let's give him enough rope and he may just ...

16. Aha! An Epiphany!

Matthew 3:13-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... 1927, at age thirty-two, a young man named Buckminster Fuller was standing on the shores of Lake Michigan. He was intent on committing suicide by throwing himself into the freezing waters of that great lake. His first child had died. He was bankrupt. He was discredited. He was jobless. He had a wife and a newborn daughter, yet he felt hopeless. But, suddenly he had a realization, an epiphany if you will. He realized that his life belonged not to himself but to others. He chose that moment to embark upon an ...

17. Paul's Hardships

2 Corinthians 6:3-13

Understanding Series

James M. Scott

... although he is aware that his gospel of a crucified Messiah is a stumbling block to Jews (cf. 1 Cor. 1:23; Gal. 5:11; Rom. 9:32–33). The apostle puts no personal stumbling block in anyone’s way so that his ministry will not be discredited. The “ministry” to which Paul refers is, of course, the “ministry of reconciliation” mentioned in 5:18. His concern is that no one will be able to find fault with what he is doing and saying (cf. Philo, Allegorical Interpretation 3.180). The apostle wants it to ...

18. Further Opposition to the Rebuilding

Nehemiah 6:1-14

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

... supported Nehemiah, this next section tells of prophets who opposed him and who, he claimed, were on Samaria’s payroll. Again the theme is intimidation, as verses 13–14 state. This time it was not an external stratagem but an internal attempt to discredit Nehemiah. He realized eventually that it was the direct doing of Tobiah, who had close connections with Judah, as Nehemiah would explain in verses 17–19. So Tobiah’s name occurs first in verses 12 and 14, although his master Sanballat stood behind ...

19. Yahweh Speaks as the Master Teacher

Job 38:1--41:34

Teach the Text

Daniel J. Estes

... of girding up one’s garment by inserting it in the belt (cf. Exod. 12:11; 1 Kings 18:46; Jer. 1:17; 1 Pet. 1:13 KJV), Yahweh exhorts Job to prepare himself for a formidable intellectual and theological challenge. 40:8 Would you discredit my justice? Would you condemn me to justify yourself? Job earlier said (27:2; cf. 9:24) that God has denied him justice, apparently arguing from the assumption of retribution theology that his innocence does not deserve the adversity he has received. Yahweh now calls ...

20. The Lord Speaks

Job 38:1--41:34

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... Job’s desire for personal vindication is grounded in the same retribution theology that his friends have used to convict him. If so, then Job desires what is his due as a righteous man. And his claim to be righteous while suffering would “discredit” God’s “justice.” If Job is seeking the restoration of retributive cause and effect, then the Satan’s claim is true and humans do serve God for the benefits they receive. The subtlety of the question often goes unnoticed. Would you condemn me ...

21. The Completion of the Wall

Nehemiah 6:15-7:3

Understanding Series

Leslie C. Allen

22. Thanksgiving

Lk 17:11-19 · 1 Tim 2:1-4 · Phil 4:6-20 · 2 Cor 9:6-15 · Deut 8:1-18 · Ps 65

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... around to pat himself on the back. Recall that God rejected the prayer of the Pharisee who prayed: "God, I thank you that I am not like other people ... I fast twice a week, I give a tenth of all my income" (Luke 18:11-12). A thankless heart is discrediting to God and a sign of a soul out of touch with God's Spirit. Lesson 2: 2 Corinthians 9:6-15 The law of farming. "The one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully" (v. 6). Sowing and reaping ...

23. Proper 5

2 Corinthians 4:1-18, 1 Samuel 8:1-22, Mark 3:31-35, Mark 3:20-30

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... need. Jesus attracted great crowds of needy people (v. 20); they turned to him for hope and healing. Other folks considered him to be crazy, including his family, which came to restrain him. The scribes came to find some fault with him so they might discredit this troublemaker. Jesus caused quite a buzz in the highways and marketplaces of his time. Some claimed him as king and others cursed him as Satan. How do you interpret the buzz about Jesus? Jesus in a straightjacket. Jesus' family set out to restrain ...

24. Proper 9

2 Samuel 5:1-5, 9-10, Mark 6:1-13, 2 Corinthians 12:1-10

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... to do this. Gospel: Mark 6:1-13 After a whirlwind teaching and healing tour, Jesus returns to his boyhood home. On the Sabbath he taught in the synagogue. Many are impressed with his teaching and the signs associated with his ministry but tend to discredit Jesus because they know all about his family, his background and so forth (v. 2). Jesus utters his famous line, "A prophet is not without honor, except in his own country..." He is hurt and disappointed because of their skepticism and could do no notable ...

25. A Family Member · Salome

Mt 20:20-21 · Mk 15:40; 16:1-2

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

... , and families often have a way of underestimating their own. Nor were the Master's kin beyond it. For at times Mary had doubts about her son despite the revelations made to her at his birth, (Luke 2:48-51) while his brothers did not hesitate to discredit him openly. (John 7:5) Yet here was Salome committing herself to Jesus as her people's last, best hope. Watching Jesus grow up Salome had become convinced of his closeness to God. To her it was evident in both his bearing and the depth of his insights ...

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