The Promise of Better Days

Introduction

As a 5th grader at Cornelia Elementary School in Edina, Minnesota, I always felt sorry for a fellow student named Gary. With his high squeaky ...

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 ...

How to Live Beyond Yourself

Introduction

I don't know if you are like me, but I imagine you are. I imagine there are times in which you feel boxed in by life; not only by what others ...

Battered into Submission

Introduction

Not long ago, someone said to me, "I've never heard a sermon about violence in the home. I've never heard the preacher pray about it. I've ...

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 ...

Between Despair and Hope

Introduction

This is our final sermon in our series on Deuteronomy. We have been in between the wilderness and the Promised Land, waiting and listening. ...

Between Memory and Imagination

Introduction

Last week we learned that Deuteronomy is a book about transition. The people of Israel are standing on the banks of the Jordan River with ...

My Favorite Heroes: Nehemiah

Introduction

The hero that we are going to look at today is a man named Nehemiah. I want to say just a couple of things as we get ready to walk into his ...

Hope for a Great Forever

Introduction

The word "home" has a deep nostalgia for our hearts. Some of us have sad memories of home, but most of us have a deep longing to be home. ...

Know Your Treasures

Introduction

Warren Wiersbe relates an account of newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst. One of the wealthiest men of his time, Hearst spent a large ...

Surviving D-Day: Death

Introduction

As we conclude our D-Day series, I am sure that there have been some hearts that have been tugged. Maybe a few cheeks are a little wet. So, ...

And Let It Begin With Me

Introduction:

Listening to newscasts these days can make your heart grow heavy. There seem to be more problems than there are solutions. Personal relationships, ...

What the World Needs Now

Introduction

In his book Telling the Truth, author Frederick Buechner describes a scene that could be unfolding on any given Sunday in any given church, ...

The Rending of the Veil

Introduction

"Jesus cried with a loud voice and gave up the ghost, and the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom."

It ...

A House on Hope Street

For many years John Cox and his wife, Wendy, did their best to provide a home for themselves and their three daughters. He was an itinerant youth minister, ...

Anakin's Choice

The TV makeover craze began a few years ago with a couple of shows that promised to transform ordinary looking people into beauty queens and chick-magnets. ...

Setting Sail

You know, I really don't understand myself sometimes. I want to do what's right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly ...

The Great Reveal

It's the most dramatic moment in any makeover show. It's the reason the participants endure 3 months of surgery, workouts, coaching, and separation from ...

Harassed but Hopeful

Introduction

On November 14, 1999, thousands of churches around the world observed the International Day of Prayer for the Persecuted Church. This day ...

What to Do When There's Nothing You Can Do

Back in the early days of my ministry, I drove a 'Vette—a Chevette, that is. It was a cheap little car, but it was the best I could afford. We ...

Hope for Those Whose Lives Were Ruined By Sin

This is the second week of our series called "There Is Hope for You." Last week I said that if you have been hurt in life, you can turn your hurts over ...

Hope for Those Who Feel Unloved

I performed my first funeral when I was 18 years old. A family with loose ties to the congregation (they had been casual attenders years before) called ...

Stay In the Game

Anyone who has heard me preach more than a few times knows that I love a good comeback story. I love to read stories or watch movies or witness real-life ...

A Half Time Talk

Several years ago, my sons and I were watching the Buffalo Bills and Houston Oilers in the playoffs. At halftime the Bills were down 35-3 and their ...

Getting Focused

For the past two weeks I've talked about the change that occurred in Peter's life. He went from being failure prone, impulsive, and brash to ministering ...

The Only Safe Place to Be

After the shock of the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington D.C. had registered, and efforts to move forward had begun, a new threat emerged. ...

Rejoicing in Our Suffering

If you make the ultimate goal in your life to become successful in business, what do you do when you reach a certain level of success? If you make a goal ...

A Time to Weep

Some years ago, there was a Presbyterian student who went away to college and made himself obnoxious to his fraternity brothers by always talking about ...

If at First You Don't Succeed

"If at first you don't succeed"—you know the rest—"try, try again." Now that's a maxim that we all grew up with. From time to time we are ...

For Those Who Are Disappointed

Will you agree with me that the Christmas season is the most , time of the year? Would you also agree with me that the Christmas season can be the ...

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, ...

Message From an Empty Tomb

I'm not quite sure how to say this. We have always said in the church that our faith was based upon facts. It was a faith built upon evidence that led ...

Rejoicing in Our Suffering

Rejoicing in Our Suffering

by Ron Lee Davis

If you make the ultimate goal in your life to become successful in business, what do you do when you reach a ...

A Twinge of Nostalgia

One wintry day the children put a top hat on their snowman, and, in a spell of Christmas magic, he came to life.

Frosty the Snowman showed those children ...

Hope for a Great Forever

The word "home" has a deep nostalgia for our hearts. Some of us have sad memories of home, but most of us have a deep longing to be home. Usually when ...

Back from Failure

The cartoon was "Dennis the Menace. The scene is bedtime prayers. He's kneeling. He has his hands folded. He's looking heavenward. He has on his pajamas, ...

Design, Not Despair

After reading that genealogy, believe it or not, I have a message of hope for you today. I begin on that positive note because I sense that some of you ...

The Present Power of a Future Possession

Hebrews 10:32-39: "Remember the former days when after being enlightened you endured a great conflict of sufferings, partly by being made a public spectacle ...

God's Marshmallow Test

Back in the 1970s a research team of psychologists from Stanford University performed on a group of 4 an experiment they called the "marshmallow test." ...

The Struggle to Hope