A Body You Have Prepared

Introduction

At Christmas we remember that Jesus came among us. The Second Person of the Trinity lowered himself, condescended, and became a man. That’s ...

A Bad Day

Introduction

As we walk thru life all of us are going to have some good days, some average days, and some bad days.

One of my bad days happened ...

Loud Cries and Tears

Introduction

It’s dangerous to preach on suffering because many of us are in very different places right now. Some of us are in agony, some ...

A Great Big Snake Story

Introduction

Elijah, my son, really likes The Jungle Book. One of the characters in that story is a big and sneaky snake named Kaa. He’s a python, ...

More Than Your Personal Savior

Introduction

For over three decades, Paul Harvey made a name for himself by telling “the rest of the story.” Day after day he came on our radios ...

Overcoming Racism and Prejudice

Introduction

The tragic and heart wrenching events that have flooded the news cycles over the past several days have shone a new light on the alarming ...

Our Suffering Servant

Introduction

With every step we have taken, the cross has slowly been coming into view. Certain death is looming over the Savior. As the tour continues, ...

I Am King, You Say

Introduction

Do you remember what happened this week? This week, as he rode into Jerusalem, they put their cloaks before him and took branches from date ...

God Wins

Introduction

(Read John 20:19-29)

On election night in 1976, I sat in a little dark storage closet at the back of a campaign headquarters in Yonkers, New ...

The Urgent Necessity

Introduction

(Read Luke 23:33-46)

In the city of Hebron on Israel's West Bank, there is a wall on which is written a poem commemorating the death of a child. ...

The Incognito Christ

Introduction

April 12, 2007: A 39-year-old man stationed himself next to a trash bin at the L'Enfant Plaza subway station in Washington, D.C. He had on ...

A Hunger for Glory

Introduction

Something happened in the fall of 1976 that sent shockwaves through the senior class of Edina-East High School in Edina, Minnesota. During ...

More Than a Baby

Introduction

We find in Luke 1 the well-known story of the prophecy of the birth of Jesus that comes to Mary. Most of you could give me the details of ...

The Best Is Yet To Come

Introduction

It all began with Mary and Martha—that cool Easter morning—coming to a lonely Palestinian tomb. I don't think they had any idea ...

Your New Identity

Introduction

At age 95, Rabbi Hershel Schachter died in the Bronx, New York. A name that doesn't mean much to most of you, but a few of you will remember ...

God's Power in Unexpected Places

Introduction

Good Friday and Easter lie at the very heart and center of the Christian message. But there seems to be a lot of confusion in our culture ...

Modern-day Slavery and Our True Liberator

The story behind the sermon (By R. York Moore)

Why preach on Human Trafficking I believe the Church has a moral obligation to press into the growing tragedy ...

Unity in the Cross

Introduction

There was once a man in San Francisco walking along the Golden Gate Bridge, and he saw a second man about to jump over the edge. He stopped ...

Wisdom in the Cross

Introduction

In his book Once upon a Tree, Calvin Miller writes about an experience years ago when he went to a movie. This was in a day (that some of ...

Power, Politics, and the Example of Christ

Introduction

In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus shares some important insights on power. Mary the mother of James and John came to him and asked, "When ...

Broken and Conflicted

Introduction

Today, we are finishing our series on David. Scripture talks about David a lot. The New Testament says God chose David because he was a man ...

The Warrior Rises

Introduction

Do you ever watch wrestling? If you do, are you afraid to admit that you watch it? I recently read that you probably watch too much wrestling ...

Hung Up: How Do I Forgive Myself?

Introduction

Hear the Word of God as it is recorded in Matthew 27:1-10:

Early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people came to ...

Liberation

Introduction

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, has a book called The Hole in Our Gospel. In this book he tells a remarkable story about a ...

Violation

Introduction

In our series called Restoration Hardware, last week we learned that the Cross of Jesus Christ is the hardware or the instrument that God ...

Mediation

Introduction

There was once a couple who had been married for 60 years. Throughout their life they had shared everything. They loved each other deeply. ...

Decision

Introduction

For the last couple of weeks we have opened the front door wide open to the topic of reconciliation. Each week we've gone to the foot of the ...

God Is Present and Powerful

Introduction: Our struggle with sin

We've been trying to renew together our vision of who God really is. Everything good in life flows from the person ...

God Is Trustworthy

Introduction

I began this series by quoting A. W. Tozer's famous contention that "What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important ...

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 ...

Getting Out

Introduction

I want us to look at the account of the crossing of the Red Sea. You might call it the climax or epitome of Exodus. It's hard to overstate ...

Judgment at Ai

Today we're going to look at the Book of Joshua, chapter 8, beginning in verse 18. We recall that Israel has once before been defeated by the little town ...

Flood of Judgment, Flood of Grace

There's a song children learn in church about Noah's ark and the flood. It goes something like this:

The Lord said to Noah, "There's going to be a floody, ...

Down Lower, Up Higher

Introduction

There was no question he loved her. He was absolutely bedazzled by her. It was surprising, really, because she was quite plain. But ...

Encounter on Golgotha Road

From the editor:

We recently posted an Easter message by John Ortberg, because the themes like atonement, the Cross, resurrection, etc. are never out of ...

Satan Strikes Out

From the editor:

In the second half of Mark's sermon, he shares that C. S. Lewis once wrote that we often fall prey to two equal yet opposite errors concerning ...

The Uncomfortable Truth of Easter

From the editor:

At the 2008 National Pastors Conference in San Diego, Preaching Today got to interview N. T. Wright about his book Surprised by Hope and ...

Forgiven, Forgotten

Introduction

Guilt runs rampant in the body of Christ. Though you already know you often feel guilty, it's important that we say it, because you would ...

The Forgiveness Factor

Introduction

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins." What do you do when you forgive someone? What really happens ...

The World's Greatest Step

The story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg):

For Easter I wanted to present some of N. T. Wright's material on the Resurrection. I love his work on ...

Death Is Life

From the editor:

Easter draws closer and closer (April 4), and we're here to help out with sermon ideas to inspire you in your own preaching. This week ...

Worth Your Attention

From the editor

More helpful resources for Easter! This week we're featuring a message from Mike Woodruff, pastor of Christ Church Lake Forest in Lake ...

The Last Enemy

From the editor:

This week we continue to roll out great Easter resources to help inspire ideas for your own preaching. Below is a sermon by Donald Sunukjian ...

Easter: The Benefits Package

From the editor:

This week we are featuring Leith Anderson's Easter sermon from 2009 to help inspire ideas for your own sermon for Easter 2010. As you ...

If God Is Great, Where Is He in World of Suffering?

Introduction

Of all the reasons for rejecting the claims of Christianity, the one most frequently offered comes in the form of a question: "If God is so ...

If God Is Great, Where Is He in a World of Suffering?

Text: Matthew 27:27-46
Topic: Dealing with the reality of suffering

From the editor

Easter really isn't that far away—April 4, 2010—so we'll ...

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, ...

It All Comes Down to This

Introduction

Bodies are a pain. I know a body can be beautiful. I saw Baryshnikov dance once. And I have held babies. And I agree with the psalmist: "I ...

Not in Vain

Introduction

I was talking to a friend the other day. "I know you aren't much of a churchgoer," I said, "but I'd like to invite you to church this Sunday ...

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 ...