The House of Expectancy

Introduction

Have you wondered what makes one person open to God and the next person closed? What makes Sally receptive, attentive, responsive to God's ...

Your Whole Life Matters to God

Introduction

I once read an article in the New York Times entitled "How the Worm Turns." The article focused on a group of scientists who spend ...

Comfort for the Troubled Heart

Introduction

The Allies had planned Operation Overlord for years, amassing vast armies, an incredible navy, and enough arms to release Europe from the ...

Taming the Beast

Text: Genesis 4:1–16
Topic: How to battle envy

Introduction

A few years ago, two high school girls in California—well liked, talented and ambitious—attended ...

Body Life

Introduction

That the church is the "body of Christ" is more than simply a figure of speech. The church is the chief means by which Christ works today; ...

The Shadow of Jesus

Introduction

Well over a hundred years ago, Robert Robinson wrote a hymn that resonates with many of us. One line reads like this: "Prone to wander, ...

Lessons from Lepers

Introduction

We often look at thanksgiving backwards. We think of thanksgiving as thanking God for something that has happened to us already. The real ...

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 ...

Cravings and Conflicts

Text: James 4:1–2
Topic: Identifying and addressing the source of conflict

Introduction

There is a relational conflict in your immediate future. You ...

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 ...

We Don't Have Men Like That

Introduction

[Editorial comment: Sunukjian delivers this sermon as a first-person narrative. References to props or stage directions will appear in italics.] ...

Working Out the Working In

Introduction.

Let's suppose that our music minister Daniel and I get together for lunch to talk over some of the special services we're planning this month. ...

Down the Ladder to the Highest Place

Introduction

Editorial note: Sunukjian uses a six-foot stepladder as a prop throughout this sermon. References to the prop will be noted in the text in ...

It's Not Thinking Less of Yourself; It's Thinking of Yourself Less

Introduction

A few years ago, one of my students was speaking to our class about his denominational background. He told the class that the average church ...

Releasing Resentment

Text: John 21:15–22; 1 Corinthians 13:5
Topic: How we forgive those who hurt us

Introduction

It may have been King David's lowest moment: His son Absalom ...

Doing Justice

Introduction

I want to talk to you about a concern that lies at the heart of the Prophets, but let's start with a question. Think about the basic human ...

The Right Way to Handle Church Conflict

Introduction

I am by nature an idealist. I start almost everything in life by thinking about the best-case scenario. As a young man, I had a best-case ...

The True Spirit of Christmas

Introduction

In one Peanuts comic strip, Lucy was saying that Christmas is a time for kindness and a time to forgive one another. Charlie Brown says: "Why ...

Public Performance Is Easier than Private Devotion

Introduction

If you are just joining us, this is the third week in a six-week series entitled "Adventures in Missing the Point." We have been learning ...

Don’t You Believe It! The Myth of Greener Grass

Introduction:

This morning we’re looking at the last of the Ten Commandments, which deals with desiring something that someone else has, but which we do ...

God's Backward Logic

Introduction

As we all sit here this morning, a good friend of mine lies in the hospital in Gallup, NM, waiting to die. His name is Johnny Womack. Johnny ...

How God works his plan for your life

Introduction

Psalm 138 contains a verse that absolutely thrilled me the first time I heard it. And today, all these years later, I'm still enthusiastic ...

The Worthy Walk

Introduction

John Huffman, in his book Who’s In Charge Here? tells about Robert Wilson, a professor at Princeton Theological Seminary. One of Dr. Wilson’s ...

The Church in a Non-Christian Culture

A significant event takes place in Acts 7, marking a trend in church history that unfortunately continues to this day: persecution. In this text, Stephen, ...

The Great Reversal

Introduction

I don't know about you, but I have always been amused by oxymorons. For those of you who have never heard that term, an oxymoron is a combination ...

Grace Under Fire

Introduction

When I was young, I used to love reading comic books. Not only did I enjoy comics, I used to enjoy looking at the advertisements in the ...

Humble and Proud of It

Introduction

Bob Hope tells this story: "I got a call from a fellow who said I'd been named Man of the Year by his organization because I was an ...

When You Feel Like Dancing

Introduction:

One day an expert in time management spoke to a group of business students. He said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, ...

A Contrast of Thanksgiving

Introduction

It seems to me that appreciation is often related to contrasts. We are told the beauty of art is not just in color, but it's in contrast. ...

Seeds of Change

Have you ever noticed that in most Bibles each section is divided and separated by a heading? These headings, of course, weren't in the original manuscripts ...

Great People Do for Others

In the recent NCAA basketball Final Four playoffs here at Dallas, I was interested in the statement made by one of the coaches prior to the game. He was ...

Glory to God in the Lowest

Christmas is a time of surprises. A lady was preparing her Christmas cookies. There came a knock at the door. She went to find a man, his clothes poor, ...

Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Us Guys

When I was a boy growing up in New York City, one of the nicest ways for me to spend a Saturday afternoon was at the matinee of the neighborhood theater. ...

The Often-Overlooked Benefits of Losing

In our society being called a loser is the ultimate indignity. You can almost hear someone say, "Call me a liar or a cheat, but please stop short of ever ...

When God Bent Down

Before there were vast black holes sucking matter into the staggering abyss of interstellar space; before there existed stardust and subatomic particles ...

The Contrast of Thanksgiving

Introduction

It seems to me that appreciation is often related to contrasts. We are told the beauty of art is not just in color, but it's in contrast. ...