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 158 results

1. 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 ...

2. 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 ...

3. 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 ...

4. 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 ...

5. 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. ...

6. 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 ...

7. 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 ...

8. "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 ...

9. 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 ...

10. 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 ...

11. 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 ...

12. 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 ...

13. God's Pattern for Sainthood

Psalm 24:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... good man!” “I never have a bad day,” said the beggar, with a cheerful look. “God give you good fortune!” went on the theologian. “I have never experienced any misfortunes,” answered the beggar. “How is this?” exclaimed the theologian. “You say you have never had bad days, and never experienced misfortunes, [and yet it is obvious that your life has been] loaded . . . with woes and miseries!” “I will tell you,” replied [this financially-challenged man]. “I have cast myself wholly ...

14. Good for Nothing

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... the sin of his parents, and Jesus responded categorically: “Neither did this man sin or his parents.” Jesus was certain that the rains fell on the just as well as on the unjust. He taught us that the best among us does not escape suffering and misfortune. So, having clarified the theory of suffering being the direct result of sin, Jesus tells his parable to underscore the fact that judgment is certain. It’s a very simple story. A fellow had a fig tree planted in his vineyard. At the bareing season he ...

15. Acres of Diamonds

1 Timothy 6:10

Sermon

Russell Conwell

... you and I have done it. Ninety out of every hundred people here have made that mistake this very day. I say you ought to be rich; you have no right to be poor. To live in Philadelphia and not be rich is a misfortune, and it is doubly a misfortune, because you could have been rich just as well as be poor. Philadelphia furnishes so many opportunities. You ought to be rich. But persons with certain religious prejudice will ask, "How can you spend your time advising the rising generation to give their time ...

16. People With Power To Forgive

John 20:19-23

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... to forgiveness? And who is it, really, that has power to forgive sins? It is well-known that in Jesus' time disease was often thought to be the result of sin. Following much the same theology as expressed in the book of Job, disease and misfortune were regarded as God's punishment for some wrong. On another occasion when Jesus healed the man born blind, the question was asked, "Who sinned, this man or his parents?" It was assumed that the blindness was a punishment for sin. Addressing the popular thinking ...

17. Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Tony Everett

... hurts. It tears apart. It renders us helpless. It condemns. There is an old story about two brothers who seemed to be at each other's throats since birth. The older continually picked on his younger sibling and blamed him for every misfortune the family experienced. After a four-year military separation, the two brothers went into business together. Their fights continued and, if anything, the older brother was even more critical and hostile. Yet the younger brother remained diligent in their business and ...

18. Taking The Good With The Bad

Job 1:1-5

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... voice he said: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, naked shall I return there; the Lord gave and the Lord has taken away, blessed be the name of the Lord" (1:21). At no time in all that had happened did Job sin or blame God for his misfortune. Once again on the fringe of creation God met with the angels so they might give an account of their activity on earth, and Satan was again with them. God spoke directly to Satan by asking him, "What have you been up to?" "I have been traveling throughout the earth ...

19. Out Of The Whirlwind

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

John A. Stroman

... divorce or death and for the first time you are alone. It strikes with the force of a whirlwind and knocks your breath out, causing confusion and fear. What is one to do? We do what Job did. We listen to our friends who give us pious reasons for our misfortune, discovering in their answers not comfort, but more pain and confusion. That's when we need to relate our story to the bigger story of God's love for us in Jesus Christ. We need to know that God is a God who comes to us in the midst of ...

20. Our Jealous Husband

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Paul W. Kummer

... bank and rolled the coins to take to the bank. If you didn't get that first coin straight in the bottom of the wrap, the subsequent 49 pennies didn't fit. When you've helped stack chairs at church on a movable rack, have you ever had the misfortune of lining up several chairs but then finding out they are sliding backwards because some dummy didn't place the inaugural one in correctly? Now the rack is all messed up. That's how God feels about the Ten Commandments. The first one is the pinnacle of all and ...

21. The Burdens Of The Past

Haggai 2:1-9, Haggai 1:1-15

Sermon

Robert P. Hines

... . So the Lord had Haggai give them an important message, an important promise: "Take courage, for I am with you ... My Spirit abides among you." What the Jewish people had to learn was that disappointment and heartache in life do not mean that God has abandoned us. Misfortune does not mean God does not love us. Pain and suffering do not mean that God has forgotten us. Time after time God did things for God's people to remind them of God's presence: when God led them out of their Egyptian slavery during the ...

22. Say Goodbye -- Say Hello

Sermon

Richard Hasler

... . Ness shows the criminal the picture and retorts, "Well, for one thing, you could have run for the presidency."3 We may smile at the analogy; nevertheless, we should not always feel sorry for ourselves, as if there is nothing we can do about our misfortune. There is something we can do. After we have said "goodbye" we can say "hello." If we have learned to "Say Goodbye" it is equally important to learn more effectively how to "Say Hello." The gifted actress Jane Alexander, in the hit Broadway play The ...

23. Seeing The Whole Person

John 4:1-26

Sermon

David Belgum

... and had come away still thirsty for a fulfilling life, a refreshing fellowship. Maybe she had not had her thirst quenched at other kinds of wells of life; who knows? The point is that Jesus was not turned off either by her ethnic barrier nor her misfortunes. When she is finally caught in the conversation as Jesus reveals her present situation, Jesus does not bring the law of adultery crashing down upon her head, as he well could have since the Judeans and the Samaritans had had long controversy about how to ...

24. Affirming The Ash Heap

Job 2:1-10, Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... into a cataclysmic episode. Because the pattern of life can change in the flash of a moment, every thinking person begins to wonder about life. Do I simply trust that my good luck will not end? Do I depend on my virtuous living to protect me from any mishaps or misfortunes? Do I pray that God will keep me safe? And on the other hand, what do I do if disaster strikes? What kind of person would I be if all that is important to me were taken away? In a case of any terrible loss, what would I cling to ...

25. Reach Beyond The Break

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Rodney Thomas Smothe

... all was lost because they missed the message in Christ's suffering. What was that message? "Don't look at my suffering as loss; look at it as God turning an obstacle into an opportunity." The love of God compels us to reach beyond our losses, setbacks, failures, and misfortunes and seek God's redemptive outcome in our lives. The story has been told of a young boy who was swimming in a pond as his father sat near by. Suddenly, the young boy began to call out to his father, "Help me! I'm drowning." The father ...

Showing results