It's All in Your Head

Story behind the sermon (from Mark Buchanan)

When I first came to New Life Church, I established the practice that every January I would preach a month-long ...

Summer

Introduction

I grew up in a small mining town in northern Canada, a place memorable for its hard, cruel winters. But on the first day of summer in 1975, ...

Spring

Introduction

I spent many early years in a northern mill town—a town with a heavy reputation. It's a place that made ice in winter and mud in summer, ...

What the Heart Wants

What the heart wants

Back in the 1990's, the comedian and filmmaker Woody Allen was an icon of the movie industry—until his personal life began ...

Older People: The Future of Our Church

Introduction

On October 29, 1998, the space shuttle Discovery launched with a seven-member crew. One of them, John Glenn, was 77 years old. John Glenn ...

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 ...

Prepare for God's Visitation

Introduction

I have a friend named John who is a medical doctor. He was once making a commercial flight across the Atlantic Ocean, when a teenage boy who ...

Expect God's Visitation

Introduction

In Charles Dickens' novel A Christmas Carol, Ebenezer Scrooge lies down on Christmas Eve hoping to enjoy a good night's rest. In the course ...

The Prime Principle

Introduction

Abiding in Christ is simply staying near a friend who loves you. But what happens to a person who abides in Christ? If I really walk with ...

Drop Your Agenda

Introduction

By the end of Luke's narrative of Jesus' life, opposition from the religious leaders is mounting, and Jesus' popularity among the people is ...

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 ...

Warriors on Their Couches

Introduction

The account of David and Bathsheba in 2 Samuel 11 begins this way:

In the spring of the year, the time when kings go out to battle, David ...

Sense Out of Nonsense

Text: Luke 24:1–11
Topic: How to make sense of chaos and suffering

Introduction

Ancient sailors puzzled over why some of their colleagues who sailed ...

Weighing Others Heavy

Text: Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21–24; Romans 12:14–21; Romans 13:8–10
Topic: How to apply the sixth commandment

Introduction

The sixth commandment ...

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.] ...

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 ...

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 ...

The Wisdom of Small Creatures

Introduction

My task this evening is to tell you how to live wisely now and for the rest of your life. Quite frankly, I've run out of ideas of my own, ...

What Do Men Want? What Do Women Want?

Introduction

When the Bible describes how the world was created, it uses the word good a lot. It says, "God created light" and "saw that the light was ...

You Don't Have to Be Good to Come to Christ

Introduction

The description of the early church that is found in the opening chapters of the Book of Acts almost sounds like paradise revisited. Two events ...

The Process of Transformation

Text: 1 John 3:1–10
Topic: How to attain holiness

Introduction

Imagine that you've been asked to write a book on marriage. Your publisher says, "We ...

Losing Our Minds

Sermon One

Introduction

How do you put together the pieces of the puzzle of life? When a terrible storm sweeps over your life and blows your careful constructions ...

Reality Shows

Sermon Two

Introduction

Imagine a report comes on the television that a terrible tragedy has just befallen a group of people beyond your town. Person "A" ...

Quantum Communion

Sermon Three

Introduction

For more than 1600 years, Christianity occupied the head seat at the vast communion table that came to be called Western Civilization. ...

Image is Everything

Sermon Four

Introduction

One of our church members recently recounted to me the story of a woman named Lorena, who directs the Onessimu Brother's Home in ...

Choosing Sides

Sermon Five

Introduction

The year was 536 B.C., the third year after the great Persian king, Cyrus, had overthrown the vast kingdom of Babylon, and a new ...

Payback Time

Sermon Six

Introduction

Almost everyone I know wants to believe what the Bible says in the first verse of Psalm 73—that "surely God is good to … ...

Bad to the Bone

Sermon Seven

Introduction

On all sides today we are reminded that something in this world has gone wrong. Women are abducted in increasing numbers. Precious ...

Superhero

Sermon Eight

Introduction

When I was five years old, I was sent to the school nurse by my kindergarten teacher, who was very concerned that I was ill. The ...

Getting Things Straight With God

Tennis pro David Wheaton should have been on top of the world. In 1991 he had reached the Wimbledon semifinals, he was ranked number 12 internationally, ...