A Body You Have Prepared

Introduction

At Christmas we remember that Jesus came among us. The Second Person of the Trinity lowered himself, condescended, and became a man. That’s ...

Loud Cries and Tears

Introduction

It’s dangerous to preach on suffering because many of us are in very different places right now. Some of us are in agony, some ...

The Great Interruption

Introduction

Some of the most significant spiritual lessons are learned from the most unlikely people. Such is the case with the story of Simon of Cyrene. ...

Our Suffering Servant

Introduction

With every step we have taken, the cross has slowly been coming into view. Certain death is looming over the Savior. As the tour continues, ...

A Hunger for Glory

Introduction

Something happened in the fall of 1976 that sent shockwaves through the senior class of Edina-East High School in Edina, Minnesota. During ...

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 ...

God's Power in Unexpected Places

Introduction

Good Friday and Easter lie at the very heart and center of the Christian message. But there seems to be a lot of confusion in our culture ...

Broken and Compromised

Introduction

The people of Israel believed they had their perfect king, a man they thought could do no wrong. But David was just like all of us—a ...

Broken and Repentant

Introduction

Last week I talked about the road to compromise and the road to integrity. We are either on one or the other. David eventually walked the ...

How a Servant Thinks

Introduction

Today I want to talk about how a servant thinks. Let's read Luke 17:5-10:

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord ...

God Will Bring Justice for You

Introduction

When the Scripture was read, you may have thought, This is a strange message for a weekend when we are welcoming large numbers of first-time ...

Foresight

Introduction:

There are weights that only Christians carry. I talked to a friend whose daughter was angry with him, a feeling many parents know. But my ...

Deny Ability

Introduction

Years ago Clarence Jordan started an interracial Christian community, Koinonia Farm, down in Georgia. He suffered greatly for his stand, ...

God Is Present and Powerful

Introduction: Our struggle with sin

We've been trying to renew together our vision of who God really is. Everything good in life flows from the person ...

Jesus, Lord of the New Creation

The first sermon in this series started exploring this passage by looking at how Jesus is the Lord of Creation. Part two is titled "Jesus is Lord ...

Jesus, Lord of the Cross

There are few more exciting units of the U.S. Military than the Combat Search and Rescue (or the CSAR). If you've seen the movie Black Hawk Down, ...

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 ...

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 ...

Forgiven, Forgotten

Introduction

Guilt runs rampant in the body of Christ. Though you already know you often feel guilty, it's important that we say it, because you would ...

The Centerpiece of the Gospel

Introduction

Anyone in marketing or sales knows how these games are played. Products and presentations are sculpted and crafted to tell listeners what ...

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 ...

Givers and Takers

Introduction

My son is the assistant manager of a Potbelly's sandwich shop in the northern suburbs of Chicago. When you ask for a glass of water, most ...

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 ...

When Sin Creeps In

From the editor

If you remove the first three chapters of Genesis, anything goes. So much foundational theology is packed into those seminal verses. One ...

Forgiven and Forgotten

Text: Hebrews 10:1-18
Topic: The effectiveness and scope of Christ's forgiveness of our sin

From the editor

As Brown points out at the very start of his ...

Living with Jesus

From the editor:

Just below, you'll find a few introductory remarks from Francis Chan about his sermon. We want to encourage you to go ahead and watch ...

It's No Mistake

From the editor:

One of the more important things you can do for your listeners—both believers and nonbelievers alike—is to find an appropriate ...

The Purpose of the Passion

From the editor

By the close of this sermon, Mac Brunson has masterfully explained complex theological concepts like condemnation, salvation, and justification ...

Cover Or Be Covered

World War II was over. The Armistice had been signed in Europe and in Japan. Hostilities had ceased. But, under the leadership of General MacArthur, the ...

Cross Here

Introduction

One of the great ironies of history is that those who took Jesus to Calvary believed they were forcing him to his dead-end; in reality, Jesus ...

Cross Bow

Introduction

I recently turned on the news and found myself confronted with another one of those stories that have become so common; my great fear is that ...

Cross at God

Introduction

For the longest time, I hoped that my brother, Jeffrey, would return to the Christian faith. He once was an active Christian, but something ...

Cross Over

Introduction

It was an ordinary day of commuting Cameron Hollopeter. The 20-year-old film student made his way down the steps into a New York City subway ...

Cross Out

Introduction

In August of 2003, the Church of the Holy Cross in New York City was broken into twice. In the first break-in, thieves made away with a metal ...

The Great Rescue

Introduction

When I was a teenager, I became fascinated, appalled, and grieved by the literature of the Holocaust. I think I probably read thousands of ...

Insiders and Outsiders

Introduction

It was all going well. The worshippers at these special services rated them as the best ever. Suddenly, a motorcycle gang drove up with a ...

Come Die with Me

Introduction

Matthew's gospel says that, toward the end of his three years of public ministry, "Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go ...

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 ...