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 1174 results

1. Born Again

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... of Judah, about two hundred years before Christ, and became the principal, spiritual and intellectual force in Judaism following the destruction of the temple in 70 A.D. The Pharisee movement was not bad in intention or design. The unfortunate thing was that, like many religious people, the Pharisees became proud and self-righteous. They became hypocritical and scornfully contentious toward ordinary people. They were a kind of religious elite. It was obvious that Nicodemus was an important Pharisee because ...

2. Oh Taste and See

Psalm 30:1-12

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... psalms. In her reflection she told of growing up on the mission field with her Mom and Dad and her twin sister. When she was a mid-teenager and very much aware of what was going on, something unfortunate – and she did not describe it – some unfortunate thing happened in the ministry of which her parents were a part and they were deeply, deeply wounded by the experience. They had to give up that mission work and the parents are now serving a tiny little church in the mountains of North Carolina. Kristen ...

3. And Now For Something Completely Different

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Frederick C. Edwards

... to swim to shore there is the possibility one may become exhausted, or get muscle cramps, and drown. But he said that if he had a reasonable chance his option would always be to try to reach the shore, because that is where life goes on. The unfortunate thing is that too many people choose to cling to whatever wreckage there is in their lives, failing to see that by doing so they are drifting farther and farther from life’s possibilities. There are various ways of trying to let go of the wreckage in the ...

4. It Isn’t Fair!

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

... say - and may even equate that saying with a similar one: "What’s right is right." We don’t like our sense of justice violated. When we see someone set apart for unequal treatment, it rankles us. 1. Things Really ARE Unfair! Unfortunately, things don’t seem very fair on planet earth. Whether by design or by accident, there are some cruel imbalances. The clearest and perhaps the most fundamental imbalance of them all is the "genetic accident" which perpetrates itself even more blatantly from generation ...

5. Happy New Year?

Isaiah 61:1-11

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... the ink blot as a center, Ruskin worked out a beautiful pattern and design. The handkerchief was now more beautiful than ever. That is what God does with our blunders. Knowing this, we are happy to have a God like that. In his mercy God takes the unfortunate things that befall us and make us better persons out of them. Years ago two music lovers were together listening to recorded music. One of them asked the other to judge which of two playings was better. The first time he used a steel needle. Then he ...

6. The Risky Business of Faith

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

R. Robert Cueni

... for all the world. For a moment, let us capsulize the message of Scripture to this point in Genesis. In creation, God intended a good world. He filled the world with creatures on which he could lavish all the love and affection He had to spare.1 Unfortunately, things did not go according to God's plan. The most special of God's creation, human beings, proved to be a knotty problem. God made people a little less than the angels. That meant they had to have the freedom to choose whether or not to live ...

7. An Affirming Presence

Ephesians 3:14-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... to the birth of the new child, knowing that she would be worth of that child’s love and could love that child without reservation. That woman’s confession is made over and over and over again, in different ways and in varying intensity. The unfortunate thing is that to experience the love and acceptance of God only on one occasion is not enough. What is they key then? Self affirmation comes when we accept the fact that God knows us thoroughly and loves us thoroughly. Knowing that we are pardoned and ...

8. When Jesus Comes

Luke 8:22-25

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... calms the storms of our passions. He enables us to control and direct our passions creatively. With Jesus as a dominant presence in our lives, our passions do not destroy, but rather they give direction. Consider our anger. That's a passion. The unfortunate thing is that our anger is too often misdirected. We need to get angry--we need to get passionately angry and express it. Barbara Tuckman has raised a very appropriate question: "Where is our outrage?" "Why aren't people angry about violence, injustice ...

9. One Shock after Another

Luke 3:1-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... that "The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation." You may even believe it. 'Tis true that for far too many, day fades into night then into day again with no real joy, no excitement, no exhilaration. Existence is BLAH...if even that good. Boring. Unfortunately, things are not that simple. In fact, just the opposite is true. Yes, there ARE boring, blah times in our lives - those may even make up the major portion of our lives - but what define us are those times that are anything BUT boring. The SHOCKS ...

10. Communion Is Rejoicing In Christ's Return

1 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

... power and great glory." That text is saying the entire universe will resonate with Christ's victorious return. Christ gave us his promise that he will come again and has provided us with signs to help us anticipate his return. The unfortunate thing is, throughout history people have studied those signs and attempted to predict the exact time of Christ's return. In the early nineteenth century, William Miller, a New England farmer of Baptist background, began to study the Scriptures of Daniel and Revelation ...

11. Allowing God To Do A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

Douglas J. Deuel

There was a pilot with three passengers -- a boy scout, a priest, and an atomic scientist -- and a plane that developed engine trouble in mid-flight. The pilot rushed back to the passenger compartment and exclaimed, "The plane is going down! We have only three parachutes, and there are four of us! I have a family waiting for me at home. I must survive!" With that, he grabbed one of the parachutes and jumped out of the plane. The atomic scientist jumped to his feet at this point and declared, "I am the ...

12. I Wonder Why Bad Things Happen to Good People

Romans 8:28-29

Sermon

Charley Reeb

As we remember the terror of 9/11, we long for an answer to it. As we see lives blown apart by natural disasters, our hearts cry out with it. As the economy worsens and banks fail and businesses fold and more and more people lose their jobs, our souls seek satisfaction to this enigma. It is the age-old question that haunts us: “I wonder why bad things happen to good people?” This is a burning question for anyone who has experienced the horrors of life. Churches are flooded with people asking this question ...

13. The Grace Question: “Are You a Teacher…and Yet Do Not Understand These Things?”

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

There are two actors in this scene of John’s gospel: Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus is not a popular figure in the gospels. He appears only a couple of other times in John’s record. The last picture of him is in John 19. He and Joseph of Arimathea asked for the body of Jesus after He was crucified in order that He might have a decent burial. One of Rembrandt’s most famous etchings portrays that scene. The limp, dead body of Jesus was slowly taken down from the cross. Joseph of Arimathea, dressed as the ...

14. The 5 Worst Things Christians Say After A Tragedy

Luke 13:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

In the immediate aftermath of the Super Bowl, a reporter asked Ray Lewis, star player of the Baltimore Ravens, "How does it feel to be a Super Bowl Champion?" He responded "When God is for you, who can be against you?" Excuse me? God had a favorite team? You mean God liked one Harbaugh brother over the other? Candidate Richard Mourdock in his losing attempt to win a Senate seat in Indiana, said this: “Even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that is something that God intended to happen." ...

15. I Am Doing A New Thing

Isaiah 43:14-28

Sermon

King Duncan

A story appeared in the newspapers on January second of this year. It was about a seventy-one-year old man in Evansville, Indiana who had his life saved in a most unusual way. A truck smashed into his house. It was 2:35 a.m. when a driver lost control of his truck on wet pavement, struck the curb and sailed on to the porch of Lee Roy Book's house. Later, a utility crew sought to restore electricity to Book's home and to check for gas leaks. They discovered that Book's chimney and pipes were plugged with ...

16. The One Thing That Would Make The Biggest Difference

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Roger G. Talbott

What one thing could you do that would make the biggest difference in your life and in the world? Some say praying and reading the Bible every day would make the biggest difference. Some say working for world peace would make the biggest difference. Some say doing a kind deed every day would make the biggest difference. All of these things are important, but I am increasingly convinced that the one thing each of us could do that would make the biggest difference to us and to the world is to rebuild a ...

17. Things Change

1 Samuel 3:1-10 (11-20)

Sermon

Stan Purdum

Here's a fact about life: things change. Now that is hardly a profound observation, but it is a significant shift in thinking that for many of us can only be gained by living a while. Think back to when you were a child living with your parents. Whatever the circumstances of your home life, you likely had a sense that how things were in your family was more or less how things would always be there. It is a natural mark of immaturity to think that things won't change. In high schools, for example, kids who ...

18. Little Things Affect Little Minds

Sermon

Harold Warlick

A prominent executive entered his secretary’s office for a confrontation. He was there to raise an unpleasant issue. For several days his discomfort and anger had built up like an internal volcano. It bothered him when he ate and prohibited restful sleep. Like an unfriendly ghost, the problem haunted him. He had talked about it with his wife and his friends. Finally he could take it no more. So there he stood, at his secretary’s desk, ready for the attack. He jerked himself up on his toes and, pointing his ...

19. The Thing With Two Heads

Matthew 16:13-24

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

Somebody said there are really only two kinds of people in the world. There are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good morning, Lord," And then there are those who wake up in the morning and say, "Good Lord, it's morning." (1) Somebody else said: "There are two types of people in the world. Those who come into a room and say, "Here I am!" And then there are those who say, "Ah, there you are!" (2) Everything has two sides doesn't it? A coin has heads or tails. An old 45 record has a Hit side and ...

20. It's Just A Little Thing

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

One Sunday morning in a little church, the sermon just seemed to go on and on. Unlike me, the preacher kept circling the point but never quite getting there. One of the little boys in the service that day was getting more and more restless. Mom was having a hard time getting him to sit still. Finally, in a whisper loud enough for the whole congregation to hear, he said: "Mommy, if we give him the money now, will he let us go?" (1) That story is a good reminder that preachers need to follow the old KISS ...

21. Christmas Is a God-Thing

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

King Duncan

There was a story years ago in the Canadian version of the Reader’s Digest of a large moose that wandered into a residential area in Calgary, Canada. The moose ended up on the lawn of a lady named Lorna Cade. A Fish and Wildlife officer was dispatched to try to coax the magnificent animal back into the wild. After two hours of absolutely no progress, the officer finally shot the moose with a tranquilizer dart. The moose bolted down a lane and eventually collapsed on another nearby lawn. The reporters who ...

22. Things That Make Jesus Angry

John 2:12-25

Sermon

King Duncan

Jesus was a very gentle man. Right? We sing “Fairest Lord Jesus . . .” Or “Gentle Savior Meek and Mild . . .” Jesus was Mr. Nice Guy, the prototype sensitive male. Respectful of women. Loved little children. Kind to his mother. What is he doing, then, in the temple courts during the holiest season of the Jewish year, overturning tables and scattering coins and using a whip, of all things, to drive both people and cattle out of the courtyard? Imagine if someone came into our church and disturbed our service ...

23. Human Things

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Lori Wagner

“Nearly all men can stand adversity, but if you want to test a man’s character, give him power.” ~Abraham Lincoln We have a mantra in our society: power corrupts. Lord Acton, 19th-century British historian noted that “absolute power corrupts absolutely.”[1] He recognizes this in examining the travesties of the Inquisition, in which religiously zealous people of faith took it upon themselves to dictate the “kingdom of God” on their own terms. The result? Bloodshed, torture, travesty, evil. From the ...

24. Things to Come!

Matthew 13:47-52, Matthew 13:44-46, Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

I'd quit the ministry were it not for what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 13! Here Jesus is brutally honest in telling his ministers both then and now what to expect. In the best of times ministry is difficult. In the worst of times it is downright intolerable. But there is hope! For in Jesus Christ, nothing is wasted! Matthew 13 is a unique Bible chapter. It is all but the first time in Matthew's Gospel that Jesus used parables to teach. And, clearly, these parables comprise a single sermon, at that! The ...

25. The Real Thing

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

David G. Rogne

Mahatma Gandhi of India is alleged to have said, "If I had ever met someone who was a genuine Christian, I would have become one immediately." It is a stinging judgment of Christians. At the same time, it challenges every Christian to examine the genuineness of his or her walk and witness. We need to ask ourselves: "How authentic, how credible is my demonstration of the Christian life?" In our scripture lesson for today Jesus criticizes certain characteristics of the Pharisees, a sectarian group within ...

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