The Healing Power of No

Introduction

What is a two-letter word that we often don’t like to hear? It is a word you have probably used on your kids, maybe a word ...

The Cleansing God

Introduction

Phones are a huge blessing in the realm of communication. We can talk to someone who lives thousands of miles away and it is like they are ...

Return of the King

Introduction

When was the last time you couldn’t wait for something to happen? During the summer of 2020, my wife, Sierra, and I could not wait to ...

Our Very Lives Are at Stake

Introduction

Someone is trying to get inside my head. You think I’m crazy? Well, let me tell you this: someone is trying to get into your head, too. ...

Grieve, Not as the World Grieves

Introduction

Some years ago, when I first heard the phrase “bright sadness” to describe the season of Lent, I loved the way it sounded, but ...

How to Live When You Learn You Aren’t a Super-Hero

Introduction

I’ve been a pastor for over 27 years, but during that time I’ve always worked as a low-level, volunteer superhero. This is true. ...

Cursing the Tree and Curing the Temple

Introduction

When the emergency room staff at a Rhode Island hospital viewed the scans of this 86-year-old man, they discovered a blood clot, a hematoma, ...

Paying Attention to God

Introduction

The Christian life is about a muscle. Simon Vay said that the only way we can love people is if we know how to pay attention. The most generous ...

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 ...

Freedom from Lust

Introduction

The voices of lust are varied—young and old, male and female, single and married—but all of them are strained, brittle, and sad. ...

Anger Mis-Management

Introduction

If pride is the most subtle of the seven deadly sins, anger is the most obvious. For one thing, it's visible. The other sins are internal—lust, ...

It's Not About Me

Introduction

"What is it, Doc? What do I have? What's wrong with me?"

It's a question we all ask ourselves from time to time. When we ...

A Good Friday Intervention

Introduction

One of my favorite Chicago landmarks is the iconic breakfast destination known as Ann Sathers, on 909 West Belmont. Ann Sathers is a good ...

R-Rated: Rated R for Redemption

Introduction

(Read Joshua 2:1-20)

In 144 AD, the church father Marcion was excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church in Rome, Italy, because he held ...

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 ...

The Ultimate Challenge

Introduction

A few years ago a representative from Teach America paid a visit to one of the premier university campuses—Duke. Teach America ...

The World Is in Trouble

Introduction

What's wrong with the world? That's a question that many people are asking, and there's no shortage of answers being given: the ...

The Spiritual Disciplines You Didn't Choose

Introduction

There are two kinds of spiritual disciplines but today I want to talk about the kind that we understand less and that we struggle with more. ...

The Discipline of Communal Examination

From the editor

Next week we start to roll out all of our new Easter sermons, but seeing as many congregations have just begun observing the Lenten season, ...

Lent: Preparing Our Garden for Growth

From the editor

Despite its rich history in the church, many of us don't observe Lent. Maybe it's time to reconsider. As Skye points out in his ...

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 Agony of Victory

Introduction

Some years ago a 14-foot bronze crucifix was stolen from Cemetery in Little Rock, Arkansas. It had stood at the entrance to that cemetery ...

Wasted on Jesus

Sermon One

Valentine's Day is tomorrow and I'm jittery. I love my sweetheart—no doubt about that—but I confess that Valentine's Day gives me ...

The Dinner Guests of God

Sermon Two

Mary Poplin, professor of education and Dean of the School of Educational Studies at Claremont Graduate University, attended a Methodist church ...

Where the Battle Is Fought

Sermon Three

Here's a surprise: Most incompetent people don't know they are incompetent. In fact, researcher Dr. David A. Dunning of Cornell University ...

Blasphemy!

Sermon Four

Years ago Bill Hybels told about seeing a newscast of a big Vietnam veterans parade in Chicago. Part of the commemoration was a mobile Vietnam ...

The Faces of Failure

Sermon Five

There was a clip on the sports last night that was painful to watch. College basketball between Memphis and Louisville, championship game—the ...

The Agony of Victory

Which Watchers?

Sermon Seven

Robert Russell, pastor of Southeastern Christian Church in Lexington, Kentucky, told about sitting behind a 5-year-old boy at their church's ...

Caution!

I suppose a mysterious, strange, unsettling story might just as well be mysterious and strange and unsettling from the very beginning. After all, the ...