Tests Into Treasure

Introduction

Ian Barclay wrote that in 1588 terrible storms lashed across the Orkney Isles. A Christian fisherman wrote that as he saw his home, his boat, ...

How to Survive in a Fallen World

Introduction

Americans are threatened in a way today that I think is unusual in our history. Just this week I read parts of three publications freely available ...

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 ...

Reasons to Be Thankful

Introduction

As a little boy I recall thumbing through an old church hymnal. I came across a piece that has become one of my favorite Thanksgiving songs. ...

The Goodness of Creation

Editor's Note: This article is being released with a partnership with the Center for Pastor Theologians Conference. The theme for their 2018 conference ...

The Promise

Introduction

I first got to know my friend Muhammed in the summer of 2001. I'd stop at the Mobil station near our house on Sunday mornings to get a cup ...

When Good Things Happen to Bad People

Introduction

One of the strangest lawsuits in US court history was filed on September 14, 2007. Nebraska Senator Ernie Chambers—one of the first ...

Your Best Life Is Not Now

Introduction

This room is full of hopes: fans hoping for a championship season, all of us hoping for another beautiful summer. Hopes can be more personal, ...

God Uses Suffering for Our Good

Introduction

I remember standing next to the late Joan Rivers. It was May 2006, and I had been in Sydney, Australia, preaching in some Anglican churches ...

God is the Center of Reality

Introduction

Back in the 1960s the mayor of the city of Chicago was Richard Daley. He was famous for a number of things, most notably for being the last ...

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 ...

A Journey of Hope

Introduction

Today I'd like to look at Psalm 84. Someone once called the book of Psalms "the soul's medicine chest," and I think that's a good description. ...

To Obey Is Better than Food

Introduction

The Scripture text this morning is Matthew 4:1-4:

Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after ...

Mysterious Grace

Introduction

A few months ago my wife and I met with a woman who was telling us about her family. She told us that when her daughter was born she had big ...

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 ...

God Is Good

Introduction

Can you recall the first prayer you learned by heart? Was it for you, as it was for me, the one still prayed by children around dinner tables ...

The Power of a Blessing

Introduction

Nancy and I had gotten married and were celebrating our first Christmas together. I was in grad school. We had no money at all. There was ...

Falling Madly in Love with God

We'll be looking at Ephesians 3:14-19 today. Paul says, "For this reason I bow my knees before the Father, from whom every family in heaven and ...

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 Kingdom of God Is Like

Introductory remarks from Mark Buchanan:

This sermon was the second-to-last sermon of an eight-week series on the kingdom of God. I wanted, with this sermon, ...

The Muchness of God

Introduction

In this very moment, God is ready to pour out upon you—from the lavish abundance and overflow of his reserves—blessings that will ...

When God "Doesn't Come Through"

When I'm in trouble and I ask specifically for God to relieve me of that trouble, most of the time he doesn't. I wonder why that is. Is it because God ...

Tragedy and the Providence of God

In light of the events of this past week I decided to step out of our study of the book of Genesis and address instead the topic of tragedy and the providence ...

The Whats and the Why of Worship

Introduction

What does God want? What would please him? Did you ever ask those questions about worship? If I only knew, I would do it. If I only knew what ...

Givers and Takers

Introduction

My son is the assistant manager of a Potbelly's sandwich shop in the northern suburbs of Chicago. When you ask for a glass of water, most ...

God Is Big Enough to Comfort My Suffering

The "Muchness" of God

Text: James 5:13–16
Topic: How to experience God's provision and power

Introduction

In this very moment, God is ready to pour out upon you—from ...

Beyond Comfort

Introduction

Where do you turn for comfort when you encounter loss, pain, or disappointment? Some people turn to food. For some reason, certain foods—like ...

Unbreakable?

Introduction

M. Night Shyamalan's film Unbreakable begins with a train wreck. Everyone on board is killed—over a hundred people—except for ...

God Remembers

Introduction

In the 1960s Jim "Wrong Way" Marshall was a member of the "Purple People Eaters," the fearsome defensive unit of the Minnesota Vikings football ...

The Story of Our Broken World

Introduction

When I was about ten years old, my dad, a medical doctor, received a special gift from one of his patients: a beautiful globe with shiny sequins. ...

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 ...

Giving Thanks for God's Enduring Love

Introduction

I want you to imagine a special, highly festive event. Psalm 118 was written for such an occasion. It began with a blare of trumpets, the ...

Knowing and Loving God

Introduction

Have you noticed it's often very difficult to talk rationally and logically about the things that are most real to us? Great beauty, great ...

How God Puts Things Back Together

There is a myth that has circulated among Christians and non-Christians for too long. The myth is that the Old Testament portrays a God of anger, wrath ...

God Is On Our Side

About 250 years ago a preacher by the name of Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon called "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God." That title reflects ...

Is God An Outdated Idea?

In 1932 Aldous Huxley published the classic science fiction novel Brave New World.You may be familiar with it; it has since become required reading ...

Is There Any Comfort?

Is there any comfort when there are no answers? I would like to argue that the deepest comforts you will ever receive come to you from the hand of God ...

Triumphing Over the Past

I doubt that there is any more debilitating problem for Christian people than the problem of regrets. We feel subject to the guilt of something that we ...

Living Expectantly

I'm sure that you hear it sometimes on the elevator. At other times if you're waiting in a doctor's office, you hear it. If you're shopping in the mall, ...

He Shall Direct Thy Paths

When you're young person, there are two or three things that generally are important to you, and finding and doing the will of God is not one of them. ...

What About Sudden Conversion?

I am very intrigued by the new invention that is now being foisted upon some parts of the American people, whereby on closed-circuit television they ...

Life Is Hard, but God Is Good

About three months ago my husband, Ken, and I were back in the Baltimore area for my 30 high school reunion. You know how reunions are. You check ...

Through the Valley

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 of the valleys, ...

The Message of Ecclesiastes

As I look back in my life over the last several years there was a period in which I lived in the dark night of the soul. I spent several months of my ...