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 494 results

1. Waiting Is So Hard to Do

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... before God sent Moses to deliver them. God told Moses he would lead his people out of slavery, but then made him wait in the desert 40 years before he was allowed to do anything about it. Joseph, unjustly accused, spent 14 years in prison. Then God elevated him to second-in-command in Egypt. God had David anointed as king, but then David waited for years until the death of Saul before he actually ascended to the throne. Job waited a lifetime, 60-70 years, before he was vindicated. Even Jesus waited for 30 ...

2. Two Women Of Faith

Luke 1:39-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... is one of the few times that a feminine pronoun is used with a blessing in the Bible. Almost universally we read, "Blessed is he . . ." but not here. We read, "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" Christmas elevates women. Let the literalists argue that the rib taken from man's side in the Genesis story consigns woman to a secondary role. We will take them to Bethlehem and show them the Son of God born of a woman. In fact, if you accept the doctrine of ...

3. Better Than a Spanking

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... fees, until someone spoke up and said, “Let’s fix this with mirrors.” “What do you mean, fix it with mirrors?” Well, the person suggested, the problem really wasn’t the speed of the elevators or the number of elevators in the building, but the real problem was in the minds of the people who were waiting for the elevators. So he suggested, “Let’s give them something to do. What do people like to do most?” Oh, they like to look at themselves in the mirror! “How can we enable them to do ...

4. Equipping the Whole People of God: Penultimate Questions

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... shaft, urging the people to be calm. “Don’t worry,” he said, “calm down. We can take care of this situation. We’ll have you out of there in no time. I’ve already called the elevator mechanic.” There was silence – then from inside the elevator, a cracking voice, said, “I am the elevator mechanic.” Sometimes we feel bereft of power, but listen to Peter as he answers the question “Where is our power?” In fact, he answers this question first. Listen to it again in verses 2-4: “Like ...

5. The Legacy

Mark 9:30-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... dignity of a child and to honor, receive, and approve that child, not as an inferior appendage, but as a valued fellow disciple, that person is respecting who I am, and who God is. In fact, Jesus is elevating the child above the men! The job of their leadership is to elevate the lowliest to the top of the heap! To spend their time empowering the disempowered, making visible the invisible, giving voice to the voiceless, and lifting up in honorable status those who have been ignored or deemed non-essential ...

6. God’s Great Final Day

Daniel 7:1-14

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... in their lives above ground, without any destination. Or, life can be like that twenty-nine story, skinny tower in Bristol, Connecticut, that has elevators going up and down in it as a testing ground for Otis Elevator Company. The building has no offices, no apartments, no stores. It simply encloses elevator shafts to test new elevator equipment. It houses eleven elevators and an escalator. One of the company’s consultants says, “This is basically a building filled with nothing.” This may be all right ...

7. Christ The King

Revelation 1:1-3

Sermon

King Duncan

... as a tomb. Thirty floors later you realize not a word has been spoken the entire journey, and everyone is facing the same way. Heaven help anyone who does not conform to this cultural norm. Well, not everyone does conform. Sociologist/preacher Tony Campolo got on an elevator one time. He realized everyone was standing like statues behind him. He turned and faced everyone and led them in a chorus of "You Are My Sunshine." But then, Tony is braver than most of us. Anyway, the leader of this men's group was ...

8. The Church: Identity And Function

1 Peter 2:4-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of that fellow who owned a 10-story office building? About 10:00 one morning a great furor arose outside his door and very soon 5 or 6 of his staff burst into his office that a great calamity had taken place - the elevator was stuck between the 5th and the 6th floor and there was a passenger trapped on the elevator and the passenger was frantic. They scurried around to do what they needed to do to go and rescue the fellow. And very soon the owner of the building was on the 5th floor calling through the ...

9. Proclaiming The Gospel

Philippians 1:1-11

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... cable should break, would we go up or down?" That's all Billy Sunday needed. He was off and running. "It depends upon the life you have been living, he said, and he preached for a decision right there in the elevator. Don't miss the point I'm making. I'm not holding Billy Sunday up as a model. I'm simply saying that the principle is valid for all of us. The circumstances of our life may determine how we share the Gospel, but not whether we share it. We ...

10. Lateral Thinking

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... quite a bit, because he was being used by corporations and by government agencies to solve problems for them. My favorite story is a solution he found for a corporation that had its offices in one of those tall New York skyscrapers. The building, it turned out, had too few elevators. The result was that the office workers were getting impatient, even angry, waiting at the beginning and the end of the day for an ...

11. On the Emmaus Road with Cleopas and His Friend

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

James W. Moore

... up… and continued to apologize profusely. The next morning when the lady went down to check out, she was told that her bill had already been paid. “I don’t understand,” she said. The hotel cashier explained: “Well, the man with the dog on the elevator yesterday felt so badly about what happened… that he has cared for all your expenses. By the way, that man was the famous pop singer… Lionel Ritchie!!” The second story is about a woman from Houston who made a trip to Los Angeles. While there ...

12. Sinner to Saint

Matthew 9:9-13

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... years ago a farmer went to a big city and stepped into a hotel lobby where there was an elevator. He watched how people walked into the elevator, doors closed, and then an indicator like a hand of a clock pointed to the number of the floor where the elevator was. He noticed how people got on the elevator and shortly they stepped off it. He saw an overweight woman get on and soon there stepped off the same elevator a slender lady. Seeing that, he took off his hat, scratched his head, and was heard to say to ...

13. Proclaimers Of The Gospel

Philippians 1:12-30

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... cable broke, would we go up or down? That’s all Billy Sunday needed. He was off and running. It depends upon the way you’ve been living, he said. And he preached a sermon right there, calling for a decision in the elevator. Now don’t miss the point I’m making. I’m not holding Billy Sunday up as a model. I’m simply saying that the principle is valid for all of us. The circumstances of our lives may determine how we share the gospel, but it doesn’t determine whether ...

14. Look Carefully How You Walk

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the janitor simply repeated his words: "I think I know a way how you can do it without shutting down the hotel." "Oh you do, eh?" said the manager very condescendingly, "Well tell us, then, what's your solution?" And the old janitor said, "Why don't you build the elevator on the outside of the building. You could build it with glass if you wanted to, and the people could look out over the bay and over the city as they went up to their floors. It could even be a big selling point." And you know, those high ...

15. A Strange Kind of King

John 18:28-40

Sermon

King Duncan

... spend one day in hell and one in heaven. Then you can choose where to spend eternity." "Really, I’ve made up my mind. I want to be in heaven," says the senator. "I’m sorry but we have our rules." And with that, St. Peter escorts him to the elevator and he goes down, down, down to hell. The doors open and he finds himself in the middle of a green golf course. In the distance is an impressive clubhouse and standing in front of it are all his friends, most of them politicians as well. Everyone is very ...

16. Jesus Gets a Business Card

Mark 8:31-38

Sermon

Mary Austin

... is a multi-cultural church with members from over thirty countries, so living together is fun and full of things to learn.” If we’re going to the twentieth floor, I can say a little more! Jesus, always the master communicator, is giving the disciples his version of an elevator speech here. This is the core of what he’s trying to teach them. We can feel the focus of the gospel shift now. The first eight chapters of Mark make the case for who Jesus is. He shows us and tells us by his healings, his meals ...

17. Who is Greatest Among You ...

Matthew 23:1-39

Sermon

... a matched set of leather luggage from the trunk. A young man and woman were being escorted out of the limo and into the hotel. The whole scene exuded opulence, power, and notoriety. It also caught the eye of one of the sales representatives in the elevator, who nudged another passenger and in a serious tone said, "Look Joe, now there’s a great salesman." Joe nodded in agreement, "Wow...." Whether the conclusion about this couple was accurate or not I don’t know. Maybe the young woman was a great ...

18. Only a Carpenter

Mark 6:1-6

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan. there was a Carpenter’s Workroom located deep in the bowels of the basement. I know, because that is the route I had to take to find my way through a maze of corridors and eventually to the elevator which would take me to the patient’s floors. (I love the smell of new wood, wood being sawn, donUt you?) One Christmas season, as I was walking through the basement corridor opposite the Carpentry Shop, I noticed that someone had tacked a whimsical little ...

19. Dealing with Stress Creatively

Matthew 11:25-30

Sermon

James W. Moore

... STRESS which is to say… Do Something Positive with the Stress in your life. Bring it to God… and God will give you the strength to turn your problems into opportunities. Don’t just try to escape the stress. Don’t just try to endure the stress. Elevate the stress… Let it spur you to action. Use the stress to do something good for the cause of Christ. Let me be honest and put it bluntly. If I never got “under stress,” I would never get around to accomplishing much. I would procrastinate. I would ...

20. Some Second Thoughts about Giving

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... makes blacks today hostile and aggressive, I have to wonder at their generally alleged high degree of intelligence. At the age of eight or nine my mother took me with her to a downtown office building in Nashville. She had taught me to take my hat off in the elevator when there were ladies present. We got on the elevator with several white men and women. The men removed their hats until the white women got off on a lower floor. When they did, the men put their hats back on while my mother remained on the ...

21. Esther: The Problem of Opportunity

Esther 4:11-17

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... ," he continued. “I will be praying for you." The door opened and I stepped off and I stopped; I was touched. He didn't have to do that; he had troubles enough of his own. He didn't know me from Adam. Yet, in the time it takes for an elevator to climb a few floors, he seized the opportunity to care for me, a stranger. It's not a matter of convenience; it's a matter of opportunity. Thank God for some positive news in the paper this week and on the newscasts. A Brentwood fire fighter, his wife and ...

22. Need a Lift?

Acts 9:36-43

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... ’t receive any phone calls or visits anymore, and his/her life is as empty as his/her home. Maybe it is that youth in your neighborhood or school who gets bullied all the time. Maybe it is that discouraged employee who is only one compliment away from elevating his/her attitude and turning his/her performance around. Maybe it is your spouse who longs to hear the words, “I love you,” or “You look very nice today.” Maybe it is a recent graduate who had big dreams, but he/she was shot down by a cynic ...

23. Lord of the Sabbath

Luke 5:33-39, Luke 6:1-11, Luke 7:18-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... town to get new clothes. That was a big event in those days. You dressed in your best clothes, you drove into town together, and you went to the big department store. I loved to ride in the old elevator. They had a man inside the elevator, and his only job all day was to pull shut the elevator gates and operate the elevator for people going up and down the floors of the tall store. Well, we rode up to the fifth floor, and my mom helped me pick out some new clothes. I remember the smell of those new jeans ...

24. Trapped!

Romans 6:15-23

Sermon

King Duncan

... without food or water inside a 4‑foot by 6‑and‑a‑half‑foot prison cell. “Imagine the sense of relief he must have felt when the firemen arrived to lower the cab to the lobby. Imagine the sense of freedom he must have experienced when the elevator doors were finally opened, and he could walk out into the morning light.” (1) Our theme for this morning’s message is “Trapped!” Have any of you ever been trapped in a situation where there seemed to be no way out? I don’t mean physically ...

25. When Darkness Covered the Land

Matthew 27:11-54

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

... . In 1990, federal legislators passed the Americans with Disabilities Act to protect the rights of individuals with a variety of disabilities. One interesting consequence of this legislation is that, by law, all elevator doors are set to remain open for twenty full seconds before beginning to close. And there is an open-door button in every elevator to allow passengers to keep the doors open as long as is necessary for every passenger to enter in. In fact, no matter how many times you press the close-door ...

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