We Are Forgetful People

Introduction

We can be pretty forgetful people at times. A few months ago, I drove off with the gas pump still placed in my car. Just this week, I forgot ...

Remember to Hope

Introduction

In Spring of 2020, I was traveling on a church van packed full with college students going for a hike on the snow-covered mountains ...

Majestic Beauty, Incomparable Glory

Introduction

Recently while riding on an airplane, I was doing some light reading. As usual, this book had endorsements on the back, and one caught my ...

The Giant of Disappointment

In the musical version of Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables, the character Fantine sings a sorrowful song about disappointment called “I ...

A 7-11 Song

Introduction

Psalm 118 is a type of psalm this is what is known as an antiphonal psalm, which means it has echoes whereby God’s people respond to ...

Where Does My Help Come From?

Introduction

Have you ever stood looking out into the future only to see no safe and sure way forward? Graduation with no job in sight. Or at the other ...

What Does This Mean?

I hope the Book of Acts is easy for you to find because you’ve got your handy dandy Acts bookmark with you. This is not just a bookmark; it’s ...

Don't Forget to Remember

Introduction

If we have no memory, we are adrift—because memory anchors us to the past, interprets the present, and charts a course for the future. ...

The Test

Introduction

Elie Wiesel, the great Jewish writer known best for his writing about the Holocaust, wrote many other things as well, including Messengers ...

Faith in the Storm

Introduction

We are in Mark's gospel, at the end of Mark 4, and let me remind us all of the context. Mark is writing to a group of believers who are ...

Death Is Not the End of the Story

On the morning of October 1, 2015, a young man entered a classroom at Umpqua Community College (UCC) in Roseburg, Oregon, and began shooting people. Nine ...

Christians Aren't Always Happy

Introduction

You may have come here this morning seeking happiness. In one sense, how could you not? Seeking happiness is as natural for us as our desire ...

A Song for All People

Introduction

On a Sunday morning in 2013, two Muslim suicide bombers entered All Saints' Church in Peshawar, Pakistan and detonated the explosives, ...

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, ...

Temptation

Introduction

One of my favorite father-son stories in Western literature has to be story of Pip and Joe Gargery in Charles Dickens' novel, Great ...

Wrong Question?

Introduction

Corey Brooks is a pastor in the Englewood neighborhood of Chicago. It's a very tough place. While crime has been declining in most of ...

The Promise of the Ages

Introduction

Our generation has witnessed a new and compelling interest in the study of genealogy. Perhaps this is because every five years more than twenty ...

For Such a Slime as This

Introduction

Our text this morning is in the book of Esther chapter two. Normally people tend to go to chapter 4, and that's often the only thing ...

It’s Good to Get Out Alive

The tourist brochure said that you can catch the bus to Yosemite Lodge up to Glacier Peak. When you get there, you can stand on the rock where a hundred ...

He Will Do It

Introduction

There are some passages that a younger preacher, if he or she is wise, may want to wait awhile and "grow up" into. For instance, this passage ...

Through the Valley

Introduction

It was near the twilight of his life, and quite possibly he sat on one of the curvaceous slopes of the hills of Judea, looked out into one ...

The Safest Safe

Introduction

1 Peter 1:3-6 frames the message this morning. It offers a word of encouragement and a reminder that our ultimate salvation is in the safest ...

How God Brings Light into a Dark Situation

Introduction

Today we will be looking at 1 Samuel 2:12-36, although we'll focus on verses 12-26. About a year ago now, the Arab Spring was just starting, ...

The World's Best Love Story

Introduction

Ralph Waldo Emerson observed that the entire world loves a lover. And if he was right that all the world loves a lover, then the best loved ...

Can You Do Any Better?

The story behind the sermon (by Claude Alexander)

This sermon is a part of a series on the Book of Daniel entitled "A Challenged and Challenging Faith." ...

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 ...

The Christmas Story According to Ruth

The story behind the sermon (from Steve Mathewson)

Pastors who stay at the same church long enough will eventually wonder what to preach during the Christmas ...

Punctuating Our Lives with Thanksgiving

Introduction

We recently looked together through the lens of the story of Job at the great question marks that fill our lives: Why do bad things ...

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. ...

The Big Picture of God's Faithfulness

Introduction

A few years ago there was an ad on TV that started like this: There was a woman sitting in a car. She's minding her own business, and suddenly ...

Amazing Faith

Story behind the sermon (from Steve Mathewson)

Every so often, a particular sermon stirs a congregation—and their pastor!—in stronger ways ...

The Undefiled

When I was in seminary, the wife of one of my classmates worked as a quality control inspector at a pharmaceutical company downtown in order to support ...

When the Bottom Falls Out

I remember the events that led to her tears. My wife, Kathy, had come home from a weekly grocery trip with more than groceries to be concerned about. ...

Faith in the Furnace

How do you win the World Series? A few decades ago, when the New York Mets were the underdog darlings of the National League, two young pitchers told ...

Looking Up to Heaven

A shattered Colossus

The poet Percy Bysshe Shelly tells of meeting a traveler from an "antique" land who describes the ruins of a great statue in the desert. ...

The Judgment of Grace

Chapter five of Daniel addresses the question of what would happen if you gave a party, and God crashed it. Nebuchadnezzar was no longer on the throne. ...

The Song of a Broom

Sunday school pictures of a ruddy faced lad in a lions' den have scant resemblance to the actual situation described in this sixth and last chapter of ...

The Rock That Doesn't Roll

Story behind the sermon (from Bryan Wilkerson)

This is a sermon I've wanted to preach for a long time, ever since I took a D. Min course from Warren Wiersbe ...

It's Not About You

Introduction

Today we're going to look at Matthew 8:23-27:

And when he got to the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm ...

Prayer: A Journey of Desire

One of the toughest things in life is living with unfulfilled desire. To experience desire is a normal part of life. It's as natural as an infant ...

Waiting for the Fullness of Time

Introduction

Last Saturday I wrote these words:

I'm at the airport—waiting. I arrived at 7:15 A.M. It's now 9:40. My 8:38 flight was canceled ...

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 ...

Yet Will I Praise Thee

Introduction

Have you ever asked God questions and felt you haven't received a good answer? I heard about a little boy once who said to his father, "How ...

And Grace Will Lead Me Home

Introduction

What would you say if you knew you were going to die and had a chance to sum up everything that was most important to you? That's how the ...

Angels: A Song of Peace

Introduction

We've been looking at Christmas songs preserved for us in Scripture. Some, like Zechariah's song last week, are completely foreign to most ...

Our Hungry Hearts

Introduction

Have you ever used an image to help motivate you? To help you clarify what and who you want to become? An image can be an object or can come ...

In God We Trust (Though We'd Rather Pay Cash)

Introduction

Have you ever felt really anxious and stressed? If I don't accept this offer, then …. If my child doesn't get into the right ...

Asleep at the Wheel

From the editor

Chances are, you've probably preached the story of Jesus calming the storm. The account is recorded in three of the four Gospels (Matthew, ...

The Unseen Footprints

From the editor:

Timothy George packs a lot into this sermon. Besides showing us an effective way to preach an individual psalm—paying careful attention ...

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 ...