Pay Attention

Introduction

One time, my family and I went to a restaurant. As per usual, I was off in my own little world while my family grabbed their food and sat ...

Zion’s Birth Story

Introduction

Since shops are already putting up Christmas lights and radio stations are playing Christmas music, I thought it would be appropriate to consider ...

The Unstoppable Gospel

Introduction

Before I came to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I attended a church mostly of immigrants from India. During one of our fellowship meals, ...

Why Jesus at All?

Introduction

I want to begin by asking a question: Is Jesus Really God? Now, I’m going to answer that question, but I want to take a few ...

When You Say I Do

Introduction – Upsetting the Equilibrium

Jacob thought he was marrying one person but he got stuck with two, the Rachel he wanted and the Leah he ...

Miraculous Births: The Church

This sermon is part of the “Miraculous Births” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

Getting Things Done, Deep Work, First ...

Will You Forgive?

Introduction

Anybody you're having a hard time with these days? Ever forgiven anybody who doesn't deserve it? If so, this sermon's for you. And if you've ...

Feeding on God's Word

Introduction

I think it's important at the end of every year to preach a sermon on the importance of God's Word in our lives, both personally and ...

The Potential of the Church

Introduction

The great English author, C.S. Lewis, is one of my intellectual and spiritual mentors and not too long ago I was re-reading one of my favorite ...

Changed People, Changing Lives

Introduction

Read Acts 5:12, 17, 19, 21, 29-31

The holy city of Jerusalem has had a wonderful event. They had tried their best to say no to what Jesus Christ ...

The God Who Answers By Fire

Introduction

Read 1 Kings 18:16-46

I want to praise God very much for Jesus who came into my heart when I was eighteen. I was [raised in the church]. My ...

God's Dwelling Place

Introduction

During the summer of 2014, the eyes of billions of spectators were glued to their television screens as they watched the most popular sporting ...

The Gift of Celibacy

The Story behind the sermon (an interview with Stewart Ruch III)

Preaching Today.com: Why did you choose to preach on "celibacy" and not "singleness"?

Stewart ...

Finding Joy in Our Differences

Introduction

In 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded the little nation of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia, knowing it would be next on Saddam's hit list, called Washington ...

The Marks of a Renewed Church

Introduction

Good morning, friends. Our topic this morning is "The Marks of a Renewed Church." In the New Testament, church means "people," ...

Three Challenges to the Contemporary Church

Introduction

Let's pray before I begin so that we may look to him for light. I'd like to use a prayer that John Calvin wrote in the 16th century ...

Passing Judgment

Introduction

There is a new John 3:16. The old John 3:16 was John 3:16. That was the verse that everyone knew, the verse that was familiar to all, the ...

Your Super Power

Introduction

I grew up reading comic books: Fantastic Four, Spider Man, Hulk, and Iron Man. The last decade has been fun, as comic book hero after hero ...

The Christian's First Love

Introduction

This message is a fitting introduction to a series on the nature of the church. In these verses, the Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to the ...

The Genesis of Gender

Introduction

A year-and-a-half ago I decided I was going to sew a dress for my son's wedding. I got an "A" when I sewed an apron in Home Economics class ...

The Church at War

Introduction

If you have a Bible, and I hope you do, I invite you to open with me to 1 Timothy 6, as we prepare to finish out tonight our journey through ...

The Church: Staying Connected to the Head

Introduction

The Bible's teaching about the church isn't easy to grasp. The church is a mystery, and it is only with the help of the Holy Spirit that we ...

The Only Wise God

Introduction

The most revolutionary book ever written wasn't Karl Marx's Das Kapital or Mao's Little Red Book or any of that nonsense. The most revolutionary ...

You Were Created to Connect

Introduction

I have been the senior pastor at Christ Church for nearly eight years, and the theme I hope you've heard over and over in my preaching is ...

Loving Enough to Speak Truth

The story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg)

I preached this sermon right after I preached the sermon on giving God blessings to others. It was part ...

The Divine Legacy

Introduction

I'll never forget walking into the Smithsonian's National Museum of American Art in Washington, D.C., maybe 20 years ago. Just inside the ...

The House God Built

Some years ago friends gave me this extraordinary book, Churches, about the architecture of great churches. I'm partial to country churches, but the beautiful ...

Single in Christ

Today's scripture passage comes from Isaiah 56:1-7:

Thus says the Lord: "Keep justice and do righteousness, for soon my salvation will come and ...

Deep Love

I want to know what love is.

Sooner or later, it had to come around to love. For six weeks now, we have been considering tests of true faith—the ...

Community: The Context for Change

Story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg)

I am a huge N. T. Wright fan, and I think some of his material on the role and destiny of human beings is a ...

Church: The Wisdom of God on Display

The last couple of weeks, we've been going through a series in the Books of Acts and looking at this very important question: What is the church? ...

A Heart for Service

Introduction

Once upon a time there was a wonderful church that suddenly found itself in trouble. After an exciting season of growth, things just didn't ...

The Shared Life

Introduction

For the last few weeks, we've been turning to the Book of Acts, the place where we hear about the stories of the early church, to learn something ...

An Empowering Presence

Introduction

Some years ago I had a conversation with a guest after one of our services. It was her first or second time at our church, and she offered ...

An Unstoppable Force

Introduction

Last week we learned that the Church was meant to be a life-changing community, where people are transformed by their encounters with God ...

The Transforming Word

Introduction

It's been called the speech that changed America. I'm talking, of course, of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln ...

The Key to Church Development

People ask me, "Why has your church grown through all these years?" I'm going to answer the question in a way I think will shock you.

We are told constantly ...

Messiah's Community

Introduction

Years ago a small-town newspaper carried a letter sent in by one of its subscribers. She had gotten a thank-you note from her grandson after ...

Comradeship Christ Commands

Introduction

From Paul's letter to the Galatians the sixth chapter I begin the reading at the verse numbered one. "Brethren if a man is over taken in any ...

Christian Singles

Introduction

Currently 17 to 20 million unmarried women and several million fewer unmarried men live in the United States. It's estimated that, at ...

When the Roll Is Called Down Here

Introduction

I hope you will not feel guilty if your heart was not all aflutter during the reading of the text. It's not very interesting. It's ...

How to Glorify God When We Disagree

The story behind the sermon (from Steve Mathewson)

A sermon series on the Book of Romans brought me to this text. The first challenge I faced was the sheer ...

Life Together

Introduction

The first week we moved into the small town where I served as pastor, my wife Jane and I decided to take a walk down Main Street. We immediately ...

The Discipline of Communal Examination

From the editor

Next week we start to roll out all of our new Easter sermons, but seeing as many congregations have just begun observing the Lenten season, ...

What Is This Thing Called Love?

From the editor:

Over the next few months, PreachingToday.com is going to run an entire transcript series from Haddon Robinson on 1 Corinthians 13. The ...

Here Is the Love

Introductory remarks from Bryan Wilkerson:

Each year we choose a ministry focus for the church year, which we introduce in September and address from the ...

Living with Jesus

From the editor:

Just below, you'll find a few introductory remarks from Francis Chan about his sermon. We want to encourage you to go ahead and watch ...

United

Introductory remarks from Mark Buchanan:

This sermon fell mid-way through a seven-part series on Ephesians, entitled "A Church for the World: Paul's Letter ...

Lent: Preparing Our Garden for Growth

From the editor

Despite its rich history in the church, many of us don't observe Lent. Maybe it's time to reconsider. As Skye points out in his ...

Balcony People

From the editor

John Ortberg points out that we are surrounded by basement people—folks who drain the life from us. This reality makes it all the ...