Behold: Surrender

Introduction

Welcome to our Advent series that we’re calling Behold. Remember, Advent is a season of waiting, anticipating, and hoping. It’s ...

Behold the Lamb of God

Introduction

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. Now we flip the page and enter the season on the church calendar known as Advent. Advent is different ...

Jesus’ Body Kept the Score

Author’s Note: The following sermon is based on John 20:19-23 and seeks to address trauma through the lens of Christ’s own wounds. The sermon ...

The ‘Fear Nots’ of Christmas

Introduction

The rock star Sting, in a Rolling Stone interview, spoke of his growing awareness of his own mortality: "I'm 64. Most of my life ...

The Unsuccessful Successful Prophet

Introduction

I’ve read Jeremiah many times over the years, but never got much out of it, apart from various passages. There’s something ...

Advent: Joy

Introduction

Christian Wiman, the celebrated poet, professor of literature at Yale and Christian intellectual, in his book Joy, which is a collection ...

Christmas Promises

Introduction

Promises, promises, promises. A lot of people make promises. Some actually keep them. But when it comes to God, he always keeps his promises, ...

Tiny Things in Terrible Times

The virus that changed your life is a 1.25 Nanometer sphere. That is one-billionth of a yardstick, tiny but traumatic. For decades you worried about something ...

'In Any and Every Circumstance'

Introduction

Our lives are changing rapidly. Our plans and schedules and some of our most basic routines all feel like they’re changing on us by ...

Relief for the Uncertain

Introduction

In recent days you’ve probably heard people around you say and found yourself repeating, “I’ve never seen anything like ...

Take Courage

Introduction

Football referees are unbiased, right? They would never be influenced by fans or football players, right? Well, according to a recent study, ...

Worthy Is the Lamb

Introduction

John, who is in prison at Patmos, writes letters to the church of Ephesus and churches that surround it. His goal is to comfort them and encourage ...

Girl Interrupted: The Unmistakable Strength of Mary

Introduction

I never know what to do with Mary. I'm in good company: The archives of history and the echoes of ancient sermons never quite knew what ...

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 ...

Experiencing the Holy Spirit

Introduction

My name is Francis, and I was a pastor in Southern California for about sixteen years at a church that I planted. About a year ago, I moved ...

God Is Love

Introduction

God is love. This is the characteristic of God that we will explore today in our Discovering God series. The fact that God is love means that ...

Hungry World

Story behind the sermon (from Mark Buchanan)

"Hungry World" is part of series our church's preaching team did in the fall of 2010. The series was called ...

Heart Burn

The man's name was Toby. He was the youngest son of a lawyer from Cleveland who'd struck it rich and moved his family to the upscale community of Rancho ...

Heart Attack

If I asked you to take your finger and point to yourself, where would you point? Most of us, I imagine, would not point to our heads. That's interesting ...

Heart Scan

I'm going to talk today about the most important thing there is about you or me or anyone else we are ever going to meet. To get there, I want to take ...

Heart Ache

More than 3,000 years ago, near the city of Shechem, in the land we know today as Israel, an unknown seeker began digging a hole in the crusty soil where ...

The Deep Truth

Introduction

Back in 1899, four reporters from four different Denver newspapers didn't have a story for the morning paper. They decided to make up a story—to ...

Fearing God

I don't believe I've ever witnessed such a powerful portrayal of fear as in the film Saving Private Ryan. From the first scene of shuttered, vomiting ...

Equipped to Face the Two Biggest Fears...

Introduction

I would like to ask you a question this morning: What are the two biggest fears in your life? If I get boring, where will your mind wander? ...

Why Worry?

Introduction

We're probably all familiar with the story of Howard Hughes. Hughes was a big-time businessman who dabbled in oil, entertainment, and ...

God Is Strong—Am I?

From the editor:

Here's another great sermon from one of our featured preachers, Francis Chan. A few noteworthy items: Just below this editor's ...

Courage

Introductory remarks from Mark Buchanan:

"Courage" was the third week in a 10-week series on Philippians entitled I Can Do Everything: Paul, Jesus, the ...

Facing North When the Market Goes South

Text: 1 Kings 17:7–16
Topic: Claiming God's promises in the midst of hard times

From the editor:

Though many experts believe we've entered an economic ...

Freedom

Introduction

In the summer of my 11th year of life, I learned the power and joy of surrender. It happened in Minnesota at the Edina community swimming ...

Faith in Tough Times

From the editor

I'm confident we all would agree that 2008 was a tough year: war, a tumbling stock market, natural disasters, the continued threat of terrorism, ...

Big God/Little God

Introduction

When our first child was quite small, we used to ask her, "Laura, how big are you?" She wasn't even a year old—couldn't even hardly ...

What Would Jesus Say When the Dow Drops 700 Points?

From the editor

What would Jesus have us do in the midst of economic crisis? Mike Woodruff offers answers to that question that push us to gain new perspectives ...

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, ...

Fear of God

Text: Psalm 103
Topic: Understanding godly fear

From the editor

We don't hear too many sermons about the fear of God. The reasons why vary—from fear ...

Jesus Uncensored

From the editor:

Here's a sermon Michael Quicke preached at Wheaton College that tenders the meek and mild Jesus with the mean and wild Jesus. Few passages ...

God's Cure for Heart Trouble

From the editor

Greg Laurie is known for his straightforward, down-to-earth teaching style. This sermon showcases that ability in spades. Watch closely ...

Finding God in Desperate Places

Introduction

I'd like to write a book someday called Desperate Places: How God Shines Through Our Weakness. These desperate places are places of weakness, ...

You Go Your Way; I'll Go God's Way.

Introduction

Many people who study the times say that there isn't much we can trust today. Andy Crouch put it this way in Christianity Today:

The emptiness ...

What Have We Done?

Introduction

After the Chicago Cubs lost their 96th baseball game in 2006, manager Dusty Baker, was called in to meet with the general manager. We all ...

Secrets of Financial Contentment

Introduction

When I was a kid, my dad told me two stories all the time.

In the first one, a couple goes to Harvard University and asks to see the president, ...

Fear of God

Introduction

A few summers ago, my family took a family trip to Toronto. We'd never been there before, so we didn't know what to see. But all the guidebooks ...

Sense Out of Nonsense

Text: Luke 24:1–11
Topic: How to make sense of chaos and suffering

Introduction

Ancient sailors puzzled over why some of their colleagues who sailed ...

A Win-Win Situation

Introduction

Every so often we find ourselves in a win-win situation. No matter which way it goes, we come out ahead.

For example, at school we decide to ...

Worship or Worry?

Introduction

There's an old Greek proverb that says, "The bow that is always bent will soon break." What that proverb seems to be implying is that the ...

Check Your Bags

Introduction

In his best-selling book Halftime, Bob Buford tells a story that is reminiscent of the encounter we read about in our text from Matthew's ...

The Valley of Death's Shadow

Everyone walks through valleys.

Donald Barnhouse was the pastor of Philadelphia's Tenth Presbyterian Church when his wife died and left him with young ...

A Mind-Expanding Faith

Introduction

Some time ago, my wife got me a unique birthday present: a ride in a hot-air balloon. We went together to the field where all of the hot-air ...

Don't Waste Your Cancer

Text: Various
Topic: How to respond to life-threatening circumstances

Editor's note: The richness of John Piper's theological reflection as it relates to ...

What's Holding You Back

Shortly after returning home from World War II, a fellow named Earl decided to buy a television set. He went to the store and asked for a demonstration. ...

When You've Been Good and Life Goes Bad

Introduction

God's Word teaches us there are three sources of trouble in our lives. Number one is the most general and most often experienced: You and ...