In this season of COVID-19 (coronavirus), Preaching Today wants to offer you a word of encouragement and point you towards resources that will help you prepare life-giving sermons that illuminate God's comfort and presence.

Below you’ll find articles, sermons, and sermon illustrations that can provide ideas and inspiration as you prepare upcoming sermons.

If there’s something we can help you with let us know and we’ll do our best to point you in the right direction.

—The Preaching Today team

Featured Sermon:

Jeremy McKeen talked with his church about fear and anxiety based on Matt. 6:25-34. He doesn’t shy away from the tough questions either, asking where is God and why is God allowing this to happen right now. Read more

Featured Article:

Max Lucado offers an encouraging word to preachers related to the fear of preaching. Plus, he highlights how our preaching can help our sheep overcome fear.

Lucado says, “The phrase I like to use is: ‘Fear will always knock at your door, but just don't invite it in to stay.’ Let fear do its work. Let it alert me to potential dangers. Let it alert me to make sure that I'm managing my money well or that my kids are protected, or whatever. But then step into the state of faith instead of fear.” Read more

Podcast:

Matt Woodley talks to Josh Moody, senior pastor at College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. Josh pointed out how his church had to rethink how they do church in three days. He speaks honestly about how secularism has no answer for the fear and anxiety produced by the coronavirus crisis. Last Sunday he preached a sermon "How Faith Can Free Us From Fear" which streamed on YouTube. Part of that message emphasized how fear of death is what drives all of our fears.

Article:

Matt Erickson is fresh off a virtual sermon himself. And he shares with us three ways we can take advantage of being a virtual church during this time. Check out his article to see how we can pivot in our preaching in three common ways we usually take for granted. If you are looking to connect better with your hearers during this time, you ought to check out his article! Read more

Article:

Scott M. Gibson reminds both pastors and congregants of the importance of presence, even while social distancing. He calls us as pastors to rethink practice, rethink presence, and rethink preaching. But he also calls congregants to rethink their attitude on prayer, focus, interaction, and communication. His words to congregants would make a great reminder in a weekly email from your church. They are very encouraging to all our hearers! Read more

Article:

Ryan Welsh’s article is short, but hard hitting. He believes we are in an important time, just like times in the past of church history. He says, “Right now, Christians have the opportunity, just as they did during the plagues and epidemics of history, to distinguish themselves from the world. It is the preacher’s responsibility to lead their flock during this pandemic for that very purpose.” So what does that look like? Well, Ryan also gave us permission to stream his sermon, so be sure to listen to his sermon at the end of the article. Read more

Article:

If you are looking for a text to preach on during this time Darrell Johnson walks us through the text he would use during this time—Romans 8:18-39. He shares with us why this text is so important for our hearers during this time and even outlines some of the main points he would highlight from this text. So if you are struggling with what text preach from or just looking for another idea of how to preach to your people during this time be sure to check out this article! Read more

Article:

Lee Eclov reminds us, especially during this time, that our sermons should be a source of comfort. “Preachers have the delight of reframing life with the Word of God. And that is comfort preaching. Life reframed by the Word is the special artistic privilege of the preacher.”

He even gives us some ideas of how to better preach comfort. Take his idea of preaching from Isaiah 40-66 as he describes it, a “book of comfort.” Read more

Article:

Scott M. Gibson gives us a wonderful quick-hitting article on reminding our hearers of 5 assurances that can easily be forgotten. But don’t skip his “Conclusion” where he encourages us through the hymn “How Firm a Foundation.” These are words we all need to hear right now! Read more

Sermon Illustrations

Find illustrations on the common themes that we are all experiencing right now (or wish to experience through our preaching):

• Anxiety
• Fear
• Worry
• Comfort
• Hope
• Peace

Editor picked sermon illustrations for these times:

• Risking All in The Third Century Plague
• 17 Century Villagers Sacrificed Their Lives to Save Others
• 91 Percent of What We Worry About Never Happens
• Taking the Plunge
• Memorized Psalm Helps 56 Years Later
• Take the Hand of God
• See all new sermon illustrations

Sermons

Jeremy McKeen reminds us to strive after contentment, even when our lives our continually changing and impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. He ends his sermon this way, “We didn’t decide to have this pandemic happen in our time, but it has and now the question is—what will we decide? What will I do with the time that is given me?. Will I sulk and moan and complain, or will I go to the all strengthening Christ and say, ‘Jesu Juva’ Lord help me! I’m a tired solider in need help. Help me to maximize this moment. Help me make the most of this time, for your glory, for others good and for my joy in life.” Read more

Matt Woodley talks about stability in a time of vulnerability. This is a wonderful sermon for Lent, but also for the times we are living in. He asks us this question in his introduction, “How do you live when you learn that your health, your dreams, your relationships, or your nation are more fragile than you ever imagined?” Read more

Check out Gregory Hollifield’s introduction to his sermon from Deut. 31:1-8:

In recent days you’ve probably heard people around you say and found yourself repeating, “I’ve never seen anything like this before!” Without question, these are uncertain times in which we’re living. Many of us feel that our nation, our world, is standing on the brink, but of what we don’t know.

Researchers tell us that all this stress created by our sense of uncertainty is not only unsettling, it’s unhealthy. It is slowly and quite literally killing us.

Then read the rest of his sermon to see how he showed his church that instead of being fearful of what is going on around us, we should remember that God is always with us. It is these encouraging words we need to keep bringing to the forefront of our hearers! Read more

Bryan Loritts asks us one question “Why Worry?” in this sermon from Matt. 6:25-34. Worry can lead to selfish decisions, worry is useless, and worrying is worldly. Bryan ends his sermon this way, “How do you not worry? How do you trust God to see you through the hard times? Think of a time in your past when you didn't think you were going to make it, and God showed up.” Read more

We love this sermon from Jo Saxton, especially during times like this when it feels like we are in storm that is insurmountable. She challenges us to remember that Jesus is in this storm with us. She says, “When fear began to devour the disciples, when they were drowned by their worries and their anxieties, Jesus spoke a word that was stronger, and he responds with faith and power.” But the conclusion of her sermon is applicable, especially to what is happening today. She says, “There are storms that may be personal, but there are also storms in our culture. It's great that when the people of God get to pray, we pray into some of the things that are happening in the world around us. I'm going to encourage us to pray for the storms we see in our world, where we can say, ‘Lord Jesus, would you do something?’” Read more

This sermon from 2008 is very applicable to what just happened on Monday morning when the Dow dropped almost 1800 points. Mike Woodruff shares four things that he believes Christ would point out to us during our economic situation:

• The downturn in our market has not really changed anything important.
• Christ would try to use the downturn in the market to help us reframe our thinking with respect to time.
• Christ might also use the market downturn as an opportunity to remind us that putting our hope in money is a bad idea.
• Christ would say to us in the midst of this crisis is that he is present with us.

Read more

Preaching After a Tragedy

These articles focus mostly on natural disasters, but the points apply to what we’re experiencing right now.

Sondra Wheeler gives us six helpful guidelines for how to preach and how not to preach during this difficult time. Read more

Jamie Aten challenges us to preach hope, preach humbly, preach comfort, preach community (this one may be hard to preach right now), and preach service. Read more

Christianity Today’s Coverage

The latest articles on how churches around the world are responding to the COVID-19 outbreak and how Christians can best be faithful in this season of coronavirus. Read more

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