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 337 results

1. Lucky Misfortune

Humor

Two schlemiels were discussing the meaning of life and death. Finally, one sighed: "Considering how many heartaches and sorrows and pains life holds, death is really no misfortune. In fact, I think sometimes it's better for a man not to have been born at all!" "True," the other nodded. "But how many people do you meet who were that lucky?"

2. Lent 4

Matthew 20:20-28, Matthew 20:17-19, John 9:35-41, John 9:13-34, Romans 8:1-17, Ephesians 4:17--5:21, 1 Samuel 16:1-13, John 9:1-12

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... Lord are in the darkness and their lives are fruitless. Gospel: John 9:1-41 The paradox of suffering. The blind man brought to the fore the questions we all struggle with: Why do some people suffer loss and misfortune and not others? The disciples, products of their society, assumed that such a misfortune must be the punishment for some evil, either on the part of the man or his ancestors. "Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?" (v. 2). The disciples assumed that there was a ...

3. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

... P. Minear, “Yes or No, the Demand for Honesty in the Early Church”; J. Schneider, “Omnyō,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 176–85; and “Horkos,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 459–61. 5:13 The word for trouble refers to the inner experience of misfortune or misadventure. For example, Josephus uses it for military reverses. See further W. Michaelis, “Kakopatheō,” TDNT, vol. 5, pp. 936–37. Sing songs of praise is used fifty-six times in the Greek Old Testament, originally meaning a song with string accompaniment ...

4. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:1-6, James 4:13-17, James 5:7-12, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

5. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:7-12, James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:13-20

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

6. Praying for Endurance and Healing

James 5:13-20, James 4:13-17, James 5:1-6, James 5:7-12

Understanding Series

Peter H. Davids

7. Six Nails of the Cross VI: The Nail of Cruelty

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Wesley T. Runk

... human, to take the real risk of living. To live the Christian life is to take the risk of acting, becoming involved, opening the doors to outsiders, not closing yourself off in safety behind your walls and barriers. To hope and to act, these are our duties and misfortunes. To do nothing and finally to despair is to neglect our duty. Yes, it would be easy for most of us to non-fease our way through life -- to do nothing and finally despair. But Christ asks us to follow a different way: to take the risk of ...

8. Job’s Joy

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Richard F. Bansemer

... curse God and die. He says to her, "You speak as one of the foolish women would speak. Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil?" "In all of this, Job did not sin with his lips." Three friends hear of Job’s misfortune and come to comfort him. By the end of chapter two we have the record upon which the patience of Job in suffering is based. Yet, the story has only really begun. For the next thirty-six chapters Job’s suffering is intense, and his reactions are anything but a ...

9. Eager For The Journey

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Brett Blair

... . Where once their was no fish now there were so many they had to call for the second boat to handle the load and the number of fish nearly sank both of them. The same thing happened to the great musician George Frederick Handel. He was dogged with misfortune. He had debt upon debt, despair upon despair. He had a cerebral hemorrhage and was paralyzed on his right side. For four years he could neither walk nor write. The doctors gave up on him. He wrote several operas, but again he fell in debt. At age 60 ...

10. Once More with Feeling!

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

... cancer or the television is burned out or your in-laws are coming for a two-week visit? You should stop and praise God. You should stop and thank him. "That's ridiculous, Pastor!" you say. "Aw, come on now. We're not really supposed to thank God for our misfortunes, are we?" The text says we should thank God in all circumstances. Not for the woe! But for God who has brought us to this day to show his power. Last winter, a friend of mine named Roger lost his job in the carpet industry. The recession for him ...

11. A God Who Suffers with Us

John 9:1-41

Sermon

Lee Griess

... who would think such a thing. And better yet, who hasn't? When tragedy strikes or when suffering comes calling, when misfortune hits or when death makes its solemn visit, who hasn't asked the question, "How come?" Who sinned? Whose fault is this ... it. But I do know this. Jesus' answer can have deep meaning to us. For when all is said and done, even as suffering, tragedy, misfortune, and loss remain a mystery for us, the source of healing, the source of comfort, the source of strength and hope need not be. ...

12. Balaam’s First Three Oracles

Num 23:1–24:14

Teach the Text

Joe M. Sprinkle

... later in Israelite history. Its use here suggests that the poetry is archaic, genuinely from Mosaic times. lie . . . change his mind. “Lie” could also be “deceive” (kazab). On “change his mind,” see “Theological Insights” below. 23:21 No misfortune is seen in Jacob. Alternatively, “misfortune” is “iniquity” (KJV, NKJV). This could mean that God finds nothing in them deserving of punishment,7 though the parallelism with “misery” suggests that the meaning here is “disaster ...

13. Eliphaz

Job 4:1–5:27

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... fully or perfectly just. Eliphaz, as a voice of traditional wisdom, helps us see that though the dyad of the just and the wicked is firm, things are not so pristinely straightforward. The pious, then, as wisdom envisions them, can expect some of the misfortune fully reserved for the wicked. The implication for Job, therefore, is to (re)embrace this truth, to repent of what all humans share. In so doing, Job will end his temporary downturn of fortune, an effect rooted in his own human imperfection. The voice ...

14. More Than Conquerors

Romans 8:28-39

Understanding Series

James R. Edwards

... wishful thinking with Christian faith. The first part of verse 28 was in fact an axiom in both Hellenism and Judaism. Plato says in the Republic: This must be our notion of the just man, that even when he is in poverty or sickness, or any other seeming misfortune, all things will in the end work together for good to him in life and death: for the gods have a care for any whose desire is to become just and to be like God (Republic, 10.613). Judaism likewise abounded with stories (e.g., Ruth, Esther, Judith ...

15. Seeing The Unseeing

John 9:35-41, John 9:13-34, John 9:1-12

Sermon

David Belgum

... . In Malachi we read, "Bring the full tithe ... see if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you an overflowing blessing" (Malachi 3:10). Another reason why you may have bad health or many misfortunes is if you come up short in stewardship. Finally, Job was the classic exposition of the thesis that the good prosper and the wicked suffer. A fairly unhelpful counselor, by the name of Eliphaz, comes to Job and says, "Think now, who that was innocent ever perished? Or where were ...

16. Proper 20

1 Timothy 2:1-15, Jeremiah 8:4--9:26, Luke 16:1-15

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... bring desolation, doom, and destruction. When it came, he was sensitive to their hurt. He wept for them. Out of love for the people, he felt their pain. When a child is disciplined, a loving parent is hurt more than the one disciplined. In our callous world of crime and misfortune, we need to weep with those who weep. Outline: To weep with those who weep (9:1) a. We must know the hurts of people. b. We must love the hurt people. c. We must feel the pain of the hurt. 2. Why weep? (8:18 9:1). Need: Jesus ...

17. Lent 5

John 11:1-16, Ezekiel 37:1-14, Romans 8:1-17, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

... free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord" (v. 23). Gospel: John 11:1-45 "The one whom you love is sick" (v. 3). This brief statement makes clear that there is no logical connection between illness and God's favor. When illness and other misfortune strike, our first impulse is to think that God has abandoned us or, worse, is punishing us. No, he still loves us. Even when he doesn't seem to spring to our aid, as in the case of Lazarus, even when he appears absent from our lives, our plight ...

18. Death of a Twelve-year-old Boy

Matthew 18:1-9

Eulogy

John M. Braaten

... ! Some of you may be struggling with the question: "Why did J_ have to die so young?" We will not address that issue, for there are no satisfactory answers. We must live in faith, as the S_'s have all these years, that even in the midst of sadness and misfortune and unanswered questions, God is working for good. We saw God working in lovely ways in J_'s life, a life which in many ways was rich and beautiful in spite of its brevity. For there are two ways to write the history of a person. One is to calculate ...

19. In All Things Be Thankful

Ephesians 4:17--5:21

Sermon

Brett Blair

... it this way. He said, “A grief is a sorrow we carry in our heart. A grievance is a chip we carry on our shoulder.” All of us must face trouble. None are immune. Indeed, I stand before you this morning as one whose clerical robe provides no shelter from misfortune. At one time or another trouble will come up to all of us and place its hand on our shoulder, speak our name, and say to us: “Come and walk with me a while.” Why is it that nine of the ten lepers never returned to give thanks to Jesus ...

20. "Job" Is Our Name Too

Job 6:1-7:21

Sermon

Richard L. Eslinger

... window and look down at the ghetto passing by under the elevated. "Those idle people," some think, "if they weren’t so lazy they would get themselves out of there." Job’s friends ride the el every day, to work and back to the suburbs. Such misfortune as this poverty is admissible evidence that those people are guilty somehow. We even apply the advice of Job’s friends to ourselves. Some of us here have been through that eternity in the doctor’s office, waiting for the tests to be done. We lie there ...

21. Life Is What Happens When You've Made Other Plans

Genesis 37:1-11

Sermon

Dr. Robert E. Lair

... 've made other plans." Tchaikovsky was a lawyer before he became a musician. Sir William Herschel had a brief career as a musician before becoming a scientist and pioneer in astronomy. "Life is what happens . . ." Without any doubt, life is full of disappointments, misfortunes, hardships, and unsettling experiences. The intrusion of the unexpected catches all of us off guard and unprepared. We are all stopped in our tracks from time to time. All of us ask: WHY? WHY ME? WHY NOW? WHERE DOES IT ALL END? Maybe ...

22. Life Begins at Thirty-Eight

John 5:1-15

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the pool, he told the fellow to get his eyes off of himself and onto Jesus. One reason that self-pity is so seductive is that it allows us to see ourselves not as persons who are at fault, but rather as the recipients of undeserved misfortune. Everybody else is to blame for our problems; we are not. During one of the periodic periods of recession a few years ago, Dr. Donald Lunde, psychiatrist at Stanford University wrote a book titled Murder and Madness. In it he analyzed the effect that recent recessions ...

23. Turn in an Account of Your Stewardship

Luke 16:1-15

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... that there is such a thing as providence. They think it’s all up to them. They also believe that life is basically unfair, and that nothing will change that. But they are determined to make the best of things anyway. Nor do they complain about misfortune. They take life as it comes. And with gusto, they throw themselves into living the life that is given them. Now here is the point. How much more should you, who believe in providence, who believe that life is fair, who believe that Jesus is Lord, and ...

24. Being More than Civil

1 Corinthians 1:1-9, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... civility, is also famous for its political humor. One of my favorite anecdotes is about Disraeli, when he was Prime Minister of Great Britain, who was asked, "What is the difference between a misfortune and a calamity?" He said, "If Gladstone [who was his political adversary] were to fall into the Thames, that would be a misfortune. If anyone should pull him out, that would be a calamity." That kind of political wit is what is missing in Washington. They are deadly serious in Washington, which is the sign ...

25. Proper 27

Hebrews 9:11-28, Ruth 3:1-18, Ruth 4:13-22, Mark 12:35-40, Mark 12:41-44

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

... can find security – a. Do what you can vv. 3, 4. b. Be obedient v. 5. c. Seek a bridegroom, Christ v. 4. 2. Misfortune to good fortune (4:13-17). Need: Life can be rough on us. It can be filled with disappointment and disaster. Such was the ... fortune due to the blessing of God. The story of Naomi gives hope that God will do the same for all who are presently prisoners of misfortune. The hope is that the end will be better than the present. Outline: The end can be better – a. Let God have his way with your ...

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