Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Introduction

The troops the United Nations deployed to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan look like they could be soldiers from just about any nation. ...

Because of Righteousness

Introduction

The movie Braveheart tells the story of how a 13th century Scottish commoner named William Wallace led his country to freedom from an oppressive ...

Why Is the World So Messed Up?

Text: Romans 5:12–17
Topic: How the world is broken and what that means for us

Introduction

Not everything in the world is good. Not everything in the ...

All God Does Is Good

From the editor

Chuck's sermon is an excellent example of a sermon that sharpens the way we read the Bible. Notice how Chuck challenges us to take the ...

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 ...

A Man Like Us and a God Who Lives

Introduction

Elijah is one of the Bible's most dramatic characters, because he experienced the light of God's presence even when everything around him ...

Drop Your Agenda

Introduction

By the end of Luke's narrative of Jesus' life, opposition from the religious leaders is mounting, and Jesus' popularity among the people is ...

Weighing Others Heavy

Text: Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21–24; Romans 12:14–21; Romans 13:8–10
Topic: How to apply the sixth commandment

Introduction

The sixth commandment ...

Cain-R-Us

Introduction

I was reading an article in the New York Times about the abundance of new wealth in Khartoum, Sudan. The article featured pictures of well-dressed, ...

The Wisdom of Small Creatures

Introduction

My task this evening is to tell you how to live wisely now and for the rest of your life. Quite frankly, I've run out of ideas of my own, ...

The First Extreme: Conformity

Introduction

We have already met Jonah, a scowling, spiteful little man in a chronic state of bellyache. The meaning of his name—"dove"—just ...

Don't Ask Me, I'm Only Visiting This Planet

Introduction

Have you ever put down the newspaper—after reading about genocide in Sudan and beheadings in Iraq and shootings in Dorchester and sexual ...

Losing Our Minds

Sermon One

Introduction

How do you put together the pieces of the puzzle of life? When a terrible storm sweeps over your life and blows your careful constructions ...

Reality Shows

Sermon Two

Introduction

Imagine a report comes on the television that a terrible tragedy has just befallen a group of people beyond your town. Person "A" ...

Quantum Communion

Sermon Three

Introduction

For more than 1600 years, Christianity occupied the head seat at the vast communion table that came to be called Western Civilization. ...

Image is Everything

Sermon Four

Introduction

One of our church members recently recounted to me the story of a woman named Lorena, who directs the Onessimu Brother's Home in ...

Choosing Sides

Sermon Five

Introduction

The year was 536 B.C., the third year after the great Persian king, Cyrus, had overthrown the vast kingdom of Babylon, and a new ...

Payback Time

Sermon Six

Introduction

Almost everyone I know wants to believe what the Bible says in the first verse of Psalm 73—that "surely God is good to … ...

Bad to the Bone

Sermon Seven

Introduction

On all sides today we are reminded that something in this world has gone wrong. Women are abducted in increasing numbers. Precious ...

Superhero

Sermon Eight

Introduction

When I was five years old, I was sent to the school nurse by my kindergarten teacher, who was very concerned that I was ill. The ...

The Church in a Non-Christian Culture

A significant event takes place in Acts 7, marking a trend in church history that unfortunately continues to this day: persecution. In this text, Stephen, ...

Salt and Light

Alienation was originally a Marxist word and Karl Marx meant by it the alienation of the worker from the product of his labors. When what he produces ...