The Unstoppable Gospel

Introduction

Before I came to Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, I attended a church mostly of immigrants from India. During one of our fellowship meals, ...

Be Strong and Courageous

Introduction

Can one person make a difference? Can one person change the direction of an entire family tree? Can one person stand up in the face of fear, ...

Faith in the Storm

Introduction

We are in Mark's gospel, at the end of Mark 4, and let me remind us all of the context. Mark is writing to a group of believers who are ...

God Is Still Loving

There are times in our lives when it seems like God is against us. I mean, we know that God is for us, but there are times when it seems like God is treating ...

The Rock That Doesn't Roll

Story behind the sermon (from Bryan Wilkerson)

This is a sermon I've wanted to preach for a long time, ever since I took a D. Min course from Warren Wiersbe ...

It's Not About You

Introduction

Today we're going to look at Matthew 8:23-27:

And when he got to the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm ...

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 ...

The Joy You've Always Wanted

The topic today is joy. And the chief question is: how do we get it? How do we have more joy more often? How can we be happy?

We are looking at Paul's ...

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 ...

What to Do with Trouble

The continuing dilemma of the Christian life is how to cope with recurring instances of trouble and travail in our lives. There is a prevailing notion ...

Blessed Are the Persecuted

Introduction

Imagine you are in the market for a new car. You visit the dealer and the salesman who is showing you the latest model takes you for a test ...

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 ...

Faith in Tough Times

From the editor

I'm confident we all would agree that 2008 was a tough year: war, a tumbling stock market, natural disasters, the continued threat of terrorism, ...

Fall

Introduction

My wife, Cheryl, and I had an opportunity in 2004 to spend a week in New Brunswick. We started in St. John, spent a couple of days in the ...

Asleep at the Wheel

From the editor

Chances are, you've probably preached the story of Jesus calming the storm. The account is recorded in three of the four Gospels (Matthew, ...

The Christian's Happiness

Text: Romans 8:28–30
Topic: Our joy can be constant no matter our life circumstances.

From the editor

Romans 8 is such a beloved, oft-quoted section ...

The Strangest Gift

Introduction

In her book Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of an old woman she met in Russia in the time of the Communist persecution ...

Finding God in Desperate Places

Introduction

I'd like to write a book someday called Desperate Places: How God Shines Through Our Weakness. These desperate places are places of weakness, ...

What Have We Done?

Introduction

After the Chicago Cubs lost their 96th baseball game in 2006, manager Dusty Baker, was called in to meet with the general manager. We all ...

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 ...

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 ...

A Strange Résumé

Introduction

It's the most dreaded question of the job interview, and when the time comes, you can't seem to push the words out of your mouth. "Tell me," ...

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 ...

Where's the "Gift Return" Receipt?

Introduction

Let's suppose there's a small town on the edge of Iraq, near the Saudi border. Let's call the town Mosel. It's a small community with no other ...

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 ...

Costly, Messy, Beautiful Obedience

Introduction

The key word in the title of this message is "obedience." When I did a Google search on obedience, the most popular sites fell into two categories: ...

Understanding Providence

Introduction

A loyal person understands providence. In order to understand this, by way of contrast, consider our culture today. If there's one word that ...

Remember Me

Introduction

Several years after Jimmy Cagney had become famous portraying gangsters in Hollywood films, he and his wife were getting into a car in New ...

Embarrassed by God

Introduction

I want to tell you about my Aunt Julie, because everybody has an Aunt Julie in their family or an Uncle Harry or a cousin Jessica—someone ...

Who Can Take It?

Introduction

Ezekiel 2:2 says: "As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me." The voice of this prophet, ...

Those Who Rise

Introduction

The story is told of a farmer's donkey who stumbled into an old, dry well. For hours the animal cried piteously as the farmer tried to sort ...

Why Is There So Much Suffering and Evil in the World?

Introduction

Here are two photos, both showing scenes from two earthquakes of similar magnitude that happened within just days of each other just last ...

Triumphing Over Trials

Introduction

Connie Wertenberger is facing a major trial. Connie is a 30-year-old mother of two boys, a woman of faith who is excited about the birth of ...

When You've Been Good and Life Goes Bad

Introduction

God's Word teaches us there are three sources of trouble in our lives. Number one is the most general and most often experienced: You and ...

Getting In the Last Word

Introduction:

When we began this series, I mentioned that First Peter deals with some topics that Americans don't always immediately relate to. Peter ...

Get Ready for a Rough Ride

Introduction:

This is the sixth message in our series on First Peter: Living Bold in Tough Times. Peter wrote this letter to encourage believers to live a ...

You're In Good Hands

Introduction:

Have you ever noticed that the fear of getting a shot is often worse than the shot itself? You dread the moment, dread the moment, dread ...

In the Day Of Trouble

Note: This message was first written for the Sunday following 9/11.

Our world changed Tuesday morning. In many ways, things will never be the same. The ...

Crisis Management

Everybody likes to cheer for the underdog, don't they? People love to see someone beat the odds and beat the "giant". Whether it's Indiana ...

Singing in the Cave

Introduction:

The psalmist is singing again. It's not exactly like singing in the rain, but it's kind of like singing in the rain, because he's in trouble ...

The Supremacy of Christ in an Age of Terror

The supremacy of God in all things—no exceptions One of the truths of the Bible that we embrace with trembling joy is the truth of God's supremacy ...

Preparing for Adversity

In Matthew 17 there's a story about Jesus that also appears in the Gospels of Mark and Luke, so clearly it is an important story in the life of Jesus. ...

An Olive Grove Called Gethsemane

Mel Gibson's movie The Passion of the Christ opened Ash Wednesday to sold-out audiences in more than 3,000 theatres across the nation, bringing in about ...

When You've Got Problems That Can't Be Solved

I took my family to a major league baseball game a couple of years ago. We went to see the Detroit Tigers play the Texas Rangers. In about the third ...

The 23rd for the 83rd

What does the psalm have to say to our day? I think it is possible to say with some confidence that this twentieth century has seen developments in many ...

Singing in the Rain

The psalmist is singing again. It's not exactly like singing in the rain, but it's kind of like singing in the rain, because he's in trouble ...

Making Sense Out of the Storm

We are approaching a time meteorologists have identified as hurricane season, storm season. As we read the papers, we see storms in a variety of shapes ...

When You Feel You're at the End