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. ...

Dark Shadows

Introduction

We are trying in this season to better understand the subject of evil—what it is, where it comes from, how it works, and how we are ...

The Crack in Creation

Introduction

(Read Mark 5:21-43)

Perhaps Jairus had taken his eye off of his little daughter for just a moment, never thinking she'd go near the edge of ...

The Infiltration of 'Jezebel'

Introduction

Each and every Halloween offers us an opportunity to reflect deeply afresh on the nature of life in the church and the world. Toward that ...

Halloween: Rethinking This Weird Holiday

Introduction

Ever watch Sesame Street? Remember the old jingle "Which One Doesn't Belong?" They'd put up on the screen a picture of a beach ball, basketball, ...

R-Rated: Genocide and Jericho

Introduction

I think if you're at all human, there are tensions that come up. The idea of genocide, or of this powerful people massacring innocents, ...

He Who Must Be Obeyed

Introduction

It was probably 20 years ago; I was sound asleep one night when the phone rang. I grabbed blindly for the receiver, clattering on the phone ...

Keep yourself from idols

Introduction

I want to direct your attention to one particular verse of Scripture this morning—the final verse of the First Letter of John to the ...

Where Do We Find Hope?

Introduction

On the hillsides and on the mountainsides along the ocean in Japan there are stone markers, some of them over six hundred years old, and on ...

What to Do When Your Fig Tree Doesn’t Blossom

Introduction

Picture Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. He's swinging on a swing in the school playground. Picture a bully named Mo, twice as big as Calvin. ...

Praying Our Hate

The story behind the sermon (from Darrell Johnson)

This sermon was the second in a series for the summer on "Praying the Psalms in the City." I preached ...

How Did the World Get So Messed Up?

Introduction

Not everything in the world is good. Not everything in the world is happy. Not everything in the world is beautiful. In fact, real evil does ...

I Pray the Lord My Soul to Keep

From the editor:

Here's another great sermon from one of our featured preachers, Bryan Wilkerson—an in-depth look at the last few lines of the Lord's ...

How Do We Handle Dangerous People?

From the editor

When people gather for worship on a Saturday night or Sunday morning, they bring with them their questions. The questions vary, but it's ...

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 ...

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 ...

Warriors on Their Couches

Introduction

The account of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 begins this way:

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David ...

Embarrassed by God

Introduction

I want to tell you about my Aunt Julie, because everybody has an Aunt Julie in their family or an Uncle Harry or a cousin Jessica—someone ...

Jesus Wept

Introduction

I have a friend, a businessman, who sat in a hotel room in the Midwest watching early news reports of an airliner hitting the World Trade ...

Reactions to Evil

Introduction

John Roth tells what happened to him late one night on a commuter train in Hamburg, Germany. John says:

The train car was completely empty ...

Why Is There So Much Suffering and Evil in the World?

Introduction

Here are two photos, both showing scenes from two earthquakes of similar magnitude that happened within just days of each other just last ...

Worship and Spiritual Warfare

Introduction:

It was seven on a Friday evening in San Francisco. Jerry Brandt, head of Action Evangelism, had scheduled an outdoor praise-and-prayer ...

Reflections on Psalm 23

Introduction

When most people think of the Bible, they usually think of its numerous rules and restrictions—the "Thou shalts" and the "Thou shalt ...

Some Way to Run a Farm

I would wager that the two predominant reasons I've heard people give for not being active in a church are: (1) people in the church seem just as lousy ...

Two Sets of Plans

I, like many of you, am overwhelmed. What's particularly overwhelming for me, in the midst of a devastating crisis like this one, is having to stand ...

Blood in Bethlehem

Two weeks ago NPR carried a story about plans to spruce up Bethlehem, the dusty little Palestinian town of Jesus' Nativity. Tourists take the bus from ...