The Characters of Christmas: Joseph

This sermon is part of “The Characters of Christmas” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

Matthew’s gospel tells the ...

R-Rated: The Bible's Flawed Superman

Introduction

There are a lot of heroes in the Bible, but there's really only one superhero, and that's Samson. If you think about it, Samson ...

Vampire Churches

Introduction

In 1998, author Anne Rice shocked readers and the publishing world when she announced she would never write another vampire book again. She ...

The World's Greatest Talk: Choices

Introductory Remarks from John Ortberg

This message was designed to do one thing: challenge people to decide to follow Jesus wholeheartedly.

Part of ...

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 ...

Treasury Notes in Heaven

Introduction

Our son-in-law, Keith, works on the trading floor of the commodities market exchange in Chicago. I've been there to watch him. You stand in ...

Broken and Compromised

Introduction

The people of Israel believed they had their perfect king, a man they thought could do no wrong. But David was just like all of us—a ...

Making Room for God to Burst Forth in Your Life

Introduction

Today we will talk about making room for God to burst forth in your life. The story of the young ruler reflects one of the major themes in ...

Drafting Buddies

Introduction

Sam and Frodo find themselves on the final leg of their journey on the slopes of Mordor, but Frodo is losing heart. He's just about out of ...

Love Keeps Going

Introduction

Several years ago there appeared on Broadway a political satire called Of Thee I Sing. The opening scene of that musical took place in a smoke-filled ...

What Your Spouse Wants You to Figure Out

From the editor:

Few preachers make better use of humor than Dave Stone. He's especially gifted at knowing exactly the right point to insert a funny line ...

Doubters Anyonymous

Introduction

"He is risen": it's the heartbeat of the message of the Christian church. These three English words are translated from one Greek word, egeirō, ...

Jesus and John - Together to Trust

Introduction

The year was 155 AD and the place was Smyrna, in the Roman province of Asia. There was a new wave of persecution that was sweeping against ...

Walking Into the Purposes of God

Introduction

The first words of the Bible tell us that this universe of which we're a part belongs to a God of purpose: "In the beginning. God created." ...

Who's the Boss?

Story behind the sermon (from Lee Eclov)

I wonder if people aren't a little suspicious when we preach about work. When we say that all work is a calling, ...

Love Does Not Boast

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 ...

When Love Fails

From the editor

Given that Valentine's Day is this coming Sunday, many of you will probably be addressing themes like love, relationships, dating, and ...

Good Riddance

Introduction

"Isn't there somewhere else you're supposed to be?" Has God ever said that to you? God seems to be saying that a lot around here lately. He ...

The Really Good Shepherd

Introduction

According to the United States Social Security Administration, Jacob was the number one male baby name for the year 2007. In the Bible the ...

The Messy Family of God

Introduction

"Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." So reads the first line of Leo Tolstoy's famous novel, Anna ...

A Fine Mess

Introduction

What a great promise from God: "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go." We talked about this great promise in the last sermon—a ...

The Voice from the Top of the Stairs

Introduction

There's a story oft-told on the Internet—true or not, I don't know—about Susan, a 34-year-old woman who lost her sight due to ...

God's Unstoppable Purpose

Text: 2 Chronicles 17:1-18:34
Topic: The unstoppable will of God

From the editor:

Here's a sermon from Old Testament professor Dennis Magary (Trinity Evangelical ...

You Can Count on Me

Introduction

On Dec 5, 1914, Ernest Shackleton embarked on what he called "the last great polar expedition." His goal was to cross Antarctica by dogsled—an ...

Welcome to the Pearly-Gated Community

Introduction

In the first sermon in our series, I talked about the primary person we will get to see in heaven: Jesus, face to face. Now I want to talk ...

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 ...

The Way of Wisdom

Introduction

As Christians, we say we want to love God, and we want to love people. We want to serve the world. This idea comes from the core of Jesus' ...

The World's Greatest Talk: Choices

From the Editor:

Just below, you'll find a few introductory remarks from Ortberg about his sermon. With that in mind, there really doesn't need to be much ...

Jesus and John—Together to Trust

Text: Assorted texts from the Gospel of John
Topic: A probing question for Christ-followers

From the editor:

John is one of the more intriguing people ...

Jesus Uncensored

From the editor:

Here's a sermon Michael Quicke preached at Wheaton College that tenders the meek and mild Jesus with the mean and wild Jesus. Few passages ...

Trust Me

From the editor

As Marshall indicates in his introduction, few people ever rummage around in the final few chapters of Genesis. But the final events recorded ...

Cross Here

Introduction

One of the great ironies of history is that those who took Jesus to Calvary believed they were forcing him to his dead-end; in reality, Jesus ...

Cross at God

Introduction

For the longest time, I hoped that my brother, Jeffrey, would return to the Christian faith. He once was an active Christian, but something ...

Cross Over

Introduction

It was an ordinary day of commuting Cameron Hollopeter. The 20-year-old film student made his way down the steps into a New York City subway ...

Cross Out

Introduction

In August of 2003, the Church of the Holy Cross in New York City was broken into twice. In the first break-in, thieves made away with a metal ...

It's About the People

Introduction

Recently our church softball thoroughly trounced our opponents. The game ended with what's called the mercy rule: when one team is ahead ...

Fighting Well

Introduction

The movie Cinderella Man is based on the true story of a boxer named James J. Braddock. Braddock was a good boxer who lost his passion and ...

Doubters Anonymous

Text: John 20:19–29
Topic: Dealing with doubt

Introduction

"He is risen": it's the heartbeat of the message of the Christian church. These three English ...

The Danger of a Strong Faith and a Weak Theology

Introduction

Jessica Ann Liberger was a 5-week-old baby girl who made it into the nation's press. Jessica came down with pneumonia, and her father, John ...

You Go Your Way; I'll Go God's Way.

Introduction

Many people who study the times say that there isn't much we can trust today. Andy Crouch put it this way in Christianity Today:

The emptiness ...

The Prime Principle

Introduction

Abiding in Christ is simply staying near a friend who loves you. But what happens to a person who abides in Christ? If I really walk with ...

How Should a Pastor Think About His People's Giving?

Introduction

When I mentioned the title of this sermon to a group of pastors at our monthly denominational meeting, it elicited considerable response. ...

Where's the "Gift Return" Receipt?

Introduction

Let's suppose there's a small town on the edge of Iraq, near the Saudi border. Let's call the town Mosel. It's a small community with no other ...

The Blazing Fastball That Gives Us Confidence

Introduction

On July 15, 1986, Roger Clemens came to bat in his first Major League Baseball All-Star game. Roger was the sizzling right-handed pitcher ...

God Remembers

Introduction

In the 1960s Jim "Wrong Way" Marshall was a member of the "Purple People Eaters," the fearsome defensive unit of the Minnesota Vikings football ...

What God Wants from You More Than Anything Else

Introduction

What does God want from you? What does he expect? Do you know?

That's a question that every person has to answer. Because if there is a God—and ...

Pledging Love

Introduction

We have been learning how to deal with difficult people from the story of Saul and David. Today we come to the central theme of the whole ...

Seeing Life God's Way

Introduction

Not too long ago, a friend of mine was at the doctor's office for his annual checkup. As part of the exam, the doctor looked in his eyes. ...

Get off the Fence

Introduction

Of all the people admired in the world today, Jesus of Nazareth continually ranks at the top of the list. Even those who don't call themselves ...

Treasury Notes in Heaven

Text: Matthew 6:19–21
Topic: Why storing your treasures in heaven is better than storing treasures on Earth

Introduction

Our son-in-law, Keith, works ...