Because He Loved Us

Introduction

About 25 years ago I almost became a hero for the cause of justice and compassion. For my first job after college, every morning ...

God's Love Language

Introduction

Why does it take so long to learn how to love the important people in our life? Am I the only slow learner in this crowd? When our kids were ...

Looking Otherward

Introduction

Many years ago, I had dinner at a place called Windows on the World. The restaurant sat atop a skyscraper so high that the wait staff literally ...

Running to the Lost

Introduction

Should God have any enemies?

The popular answer these days is basically this: "No, God shouldn't have any enemies … if there is a God, ...

God Is in Pursuit

Introduction

What happens when what God wants is different than what you want?

That's one way to summarize what's so difficult about this life, ...

Facing Up to Depression

Back Story to the Sermon

Editor's Note: Matt Woodley had a chance to interview Mark Meynell about preaching on depression. This interview provides ...

Guidelines for a Constructive Church

Note from PreachingToday.com: We asked a handful of preachers the following question: What aspect of Dr. King's life and work has had the greatest ...

The Surprise God's Mercy

Introduction

Imagine that you wake up at 2:00 in the morning, and you think to yourself, Is my life really pleasing to God? What would help you determine ...

The Grace of Being Tender-Hearted

Introduction

I just read the story of a Pennsylvania legislator, newly elected to the Pennsylvania legislature. He said of his legislative agenda, "I want ...

Blessing the World and Ourselves, Too

The Story Behind the Sermon (by Bill Haley)

Why is it important to preach on social justice? It's important to preach on social justice for the simplest ...

God's Stolen Identity

Introduction

Identity theft is one of the most rampant crimes sweeping across America. A thief steals someone's Social Security number and personal information ...

The Offering

Introduction

Today I want to talk about how the difficulties and disappointments of our life can deaden our heart, making them cold and inward-focused. ...

God Will Bring Justice for You

Introduction

When the Scripture was read, you may have thought, This is a strange message for a weekend when we are welcoming large numbers of first-time ...

The Harvest

Introduction

In the stories of Jesus' ministry, he's giving us a preview of the kingdom of God. What would it look like on this broken planet full of broken ...

Think Hard, Stay Humble

Today I'm going to preach on humility. This is the topic assigned to me for this conference. Let's start by looking at 1 Corinthians 8:1-3:

Now concerning ...

Unexpected Kindness

Introduction

I want you to imagine with me a hypothetical situation. You get a certified letter in the mail, and it's kind of mysterious. It looks ...

What Christmas Love Always Does

From the editor:

Every year at Christmastime, news stations run video segments of crazy shoppers pushing and shoving each other to get their hands on the ...

Loss, Loyalty, & Lament

Introduction

I've never been one to read romance novels, but lately I've been reading one. It's been a good one, too. Believe it or not, it's a book I ...

Recognizing Divine Interruptions

Matthew 1:18-25:

This is how the birth of Jesus Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph, but before they came together, ...

The Eyes of a Doctor

From the editor:

Here's a sermon from Donald Sunukjian on what we ought to do when we encounter someone who has yet to know God. We've mentioned before ...

The Sermon That Inspired Murder

From the editor:

We feel that this featured sermon from regular contributor Kevin Miller can inspire ideas for two different sermons: a sermon on the divinity ...

Torn by Pain

Introduction

In 1997 Sara McLachlan wrote a song entitled "Dear God." It's a searing complaint against God—raw, brutally honest, and irreverent. ...

The Christmas Plunge

From the editor:

Who doesn't love reflecting on the amazing story of Mary, a teenage girl swept up in something so unexpected, so epic? The Incarnation ...

The Refining Love of God

Introduction

In this Advent season, we are looking at the theme of God's promise of better days for our lives. That is the hope of Advent and Christmas, ...

Happy Trails

Introduction

The prospect of wrestling with God is not all that pleasant. Consider the man who knows God is calling him out on his abrupt and unfeeling ...

Softening the World's Harshness

Introduction

Let's look at John 15:1-17 together. These are likely very familiar words. They're the words of Jesus on the last night of his time ...

A Better Peace Prize

Introduction

At the turn of the 20th century, a man named Alfred was one of the preeminent scientists and entrepreneurs of his day. He made his fortune ...

Annihilate the Amalekites

From the editor:

One of the chief hang-ups people have with God is the wrath he pours out in the Old Testament. How can a loving God call for the slaying ...

Unprovoked Love

From the editor

Mark Buchanan offers a few twists on a theme we've all preached one time or another: agape love. Perhaps you've preached about fostering ...

Loss, Loyalty, and Lament

Text: Ruth 1:1–22
Topic: Learning to make the right choices in difficult times

From the editor:

Perhaps you're looking for a unique way to approach ...

Church: The Message of 1 Corinthians

From the editor

In this sermon, Mark Dever offers a bird's eye view of one of Paul's longer letters, helping the audience hang their hats on a few critical ...

Beyond Comfort

Introduction

Where do you turn for comfort when you encounter loss, pain, or disappointment? Some people turn to food. For some reason, certain foods—like ...

Unbreakable?

Introduction

M. Night Shyamalan's film Unbreakable begins with a train wreck. Everyone on board is killed—over a hundred people—except for ...

Lessons from Lepers

Introduction

We often look at thanksgiving backwards. We think of thanksgiving as thanking God for something that has happened to us already. The real ...

Stewards of Just-Us or Justice?

I graduated from college over 20 years ago now. As communication majors, one of the things we learned is that people respond to positive messages and ...

Stewards of Just-Us or Justice

Text: Malachi 2:17–3:5
Topic: What Christians should do about social justice

Introduction

I graduated from college over 20 years ago. As communication ...

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 ...

The Man Born Blind

Introduction

A few years ago, I realized I was going blind. Now, long before my sight began to be radically diminished, a medical doctor told me there ...

Separation Can Lead to Isolation

Introduction

Imagine a weird world where, before you can be admitted to a hospital, you have to have a clean bill of health. A world where doctors won't ...

Being a Bridge-Builder

Introduction:

Recently, I read about a retired executive from Decatur, named Richard Reeves. Ten years ago, Richard became captivated by the dream of Africa ...

Keys to a Useful Life

Introduction

The personnel manager of a large corporation recently said that the chief problem in industry and business today is certainly not over-production, ...

The Sociable Outcast

Jesus did not fit very well into the society of his day. If you wanted to describe him in sociological terms, you might say he was an "outsider." ...

The Pattern of Jesus' Life

Introduction

With three broad strokes of his pen, the earliest Gospel writer delineated the pattern of the life and ministry of Jesus. Mark 1:35-42 offers ...

Christmas Compassion: How to Give Christmas Gifts All Year Long

It's commonly accepted that people should be compassionate during the Christmas season, and it's a sociological fact that they are. People tend to do ...

A Course in Compassion

This is part three of our series titled "A Declaration of Independence." Some might have the misconception that making a declaration of independence ...

When Your Enemy Prospers

God spares Nineveh, and Jonah is angry. He said: God, I knew you'd do that. That's why I didn't go, because I know you're gracious and forgiving, and ...

Telltale Tears

The Bible consists of different books. These books are made up of 1,189 chapters, and these chapters are comprised of 31,173 verses. The shortest of all ...

When Your Enemy Prospers

When Your Enemy Prospers

by Bruce Larson

God spares Nineveh, and Jonah is angry. He said: God, I knew you'd do that. That's why I didn't go, because I ...

Loving God With All Your Heart

I'd like to read from the Scriptures a very familiar story. Sometimes when we hear familiar stories, we get a little disappointed. We think the speaker ...