Behold: Gospel

Introduction

Advent is a season of waiting, anticipating, and hoping. It’s a time when we plant our feet firmly in the land between two affirmations: ...

Kingdom Values: One Kingdom. Indivisible.

Introduction

There is a surface need: American values vs Kingdom values. I want to look at Kingdom values.

Let’s start with a definition. Value means, ...

Homily for Evan Cheung’s Memorial Service

Author’s Note: On Monday, June 5, 2023, Evan Cheung, a beloved student leader at our church, took his life by suicide. Evan’s parents, Andrew ...

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 ...

What Do We Worship?

Introduction

I have a lot of baggage with a specific word, which is probably a little ironic because I “lead it,” and that word is ...

Advent: Christmas Eve

Introduction

Happy Christmas!

Christmas is very much a thing at our church. You may be watching this on Christmas Eve, or Christmas Day, or the ...

A Better Blessing

Introduction

The theme of the Book of Hebrews is that we are to keep moving forward, we can't turn back. That we're to move forward in faith, constantly ...

Unshakeable Hope

Introduction

Happy Easter! Welcome to the largest digital Easter the world has ever seen, as thousands of churches are online right now!

It’s been ...

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, ...

Our Journey with God

Introduction

“Life’s a journey, not a destination,” Steven Tyler sang in the rock band Aerosmith’s 1993 song, “Amazing.” ...

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 ...

The Jesus Alternative

Introduction

One of my favorite things about going to the grocery store is going down the cereal aisle. I love going down the cereal aisle. One, because ...

Persevering Through Suffering

This sermon is part of the “More Than a Holiday” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

Isaiah 53, a very familiar chapter for ...

Miraculous Births: Samuel

This sermon is part of the “Miraculous Births” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

On December 1, 1863, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ...

The Properties of Light

Introduction

At this time of year, many of us find our mailboxes filled with cards, most of them photo cards. Those photo cards are the results of a well-orchestrated ...

The Gift of the Son: Prince of Peace

This sermon is part of “The Gift of the Son” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

During Advent we've been looking at ...

How Can I Enjoy Christmas?

Introduction

Christmas can be so chaotic, can't it? I mean, this whole season can be such a disconnect between what we expect and what we end up experiencing. ...

R-Rated: Eating with God

Introduction

Read (Leviticus 3:1-17)

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and guess that not many of you are thinking at this point, Not another ...

R-Rated: Cut Up Your Rebellion

Introduction

(Read 1 Samuel 15)

In a presidential election year you're going to hear a lot, from various candidates trying to be President, about ...

God's Dwelling Place

Introduction

During the summer of 2014, the eyes of billions of spectators were glued to their television screens as they watched the most popular sporting ...

Liberation

Introduction

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, has a book called The Hole in Our Gospel. In this book he tells a remarkable story about a ...

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 ...

The Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Introduction

Today we're going to look at Luke chapter 2. There is a Christmas song tucked within this Christmas story that I want to uncover—a song ...

Encounter on Golgotha Road

From the editor:

We recently posted an Easter message by John Ortberg, because the themes like atonement, the Cross, resurrection, etc. are never out of ...

Love in Spite of Differences

Every sailor could agree on one fact. Had it not been for the captain, they never would have survived. The storm came suddenly, and in a matter of moments ...

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 ...

The Uncomfortable Truth of Easter

From the editor:

At the 2008 National Pastors Conference in San Diego, Preaching Today got to interview N. T. Wright about his book Surprised by Hope and ...

A Christian's Happiness

Introduction

If you're a Christian, you know that Christianity is supposed to be about joy. You probably also know that you're supposed to experience ...

The Forgiveness Factor

Introduction

"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us all of our sins." What do you do when you forgive someone? What really happens ...

The World's Greatest Step

The story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg):

For Easter I wanted to present some of N. T. Wright's material on the Resurrection. I love his work on ...

The ABCs of Praise

Introduction

This is a Psalm that begins with a commitment that on the surface seems rather simple: "I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise ...

Life Together

Introduction

The first week we moved into the small town where I served as pastor, my wife Jane and I decided to take a walk down Main Street. We immediately ...

Death Is Life

From the editor:

Easter draws closer and closer (April 4), and we're here to help out with sermon ideas to inspire you in your own preaching. This week ...

Worth Your Attention

From the editor

More helpful resources for Easter! This week we're featuring a message from Mike Woodruff, pastor of Christ Church Lake Forest in Lake ...

The Last Enemy

From the editor:

This week we continue to roll out great Easter resources to help inspire ideas for your own preaching. Below is a sermon by Donald Sunukjian ...

Easter: The Benefits Package

From the editor:

This week we are featuring Leith Anderson's Easter sermon from 2009 to help inspire ideas for your own sermon for Easter 2010. As you ...

If God Is Great, Where Is He in World of Suffering?

Introduction

Of all the reasons for rejecting the claims of Christianity, the one most frequently offered comes in the form of a question: "If God is so ...

If God Is Great, Where Is He in a World of Suffering?

Text: Matthew 27:27-46
Topic: Dealing with the reality of suffering

From the editor

Easter really isn't that far away—April 4, 2010—so we'll ...

The Peace Jesus Brings

Introduction

In this Advent season, we are looking at the theme of God's promise of better days for our lives. That is the hope of Advent and Christmas, ...

Two Bad Examples

Click here to listen to the audio.

The story behind the sermon (from Mark Buchanan)

This sermon came near the end of a 10-week series on the letter to the ...

I Pray the Lord My Soul to Keep

From the editor:

Here's another great sermon from one of our featured preachers, Bryan Wilkerson—an in-depth look at the last few lines of the Lord's ...

More Better

Introduction

On my way to work this week, I had this peaceful time to think as I drove. Actually, I had even more time than usual, because I was kindly ...

FSTR

Introduction

I've jumped into this series on inSanity not because I'm throwing stones, but because crazy has become the new normal for me. I feel like ...

Total Freedom

From the editor:

Here's another great sermon from one of our featured preachers, John Ortberg. This is actually John's message from Palm Sunday (2009). ...

The Peace Keeper

Introduction

A man is shipwrecked. He spends months alone on a desert island. Finally, a passing ship sees him and sends a boat in to rescue him. When ...

The Joy Network

Introduction

Several years ago a German researcher studied a thousand churches of every size and denomination all over the world. His goal was to identify ...

Blessed Are the Peacemakers

Introduction

The troops the United Nations deployed to the war-torn Darfur region of Sudan look like they could be soldiers from just about any nation. ...

Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Introduction

"No one ever told me that grief felt so much like fear." That is how C. S. Lewis begins his book A Grief Observed, a compelling account of ...

The Long Tomorrow

Introduction

An 85-year-old couple died in a car crash after having been married almost 60 years. They had been in good health the last ten years mainly ...

Moving Towards Reconciliation

Introduction

Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miserables, is a story about Jean Valjean, who was sentenced to a nineteen-year prison term for stealing a loaf of ...