National Reflections

Introduction

This past week, our elders met to pray and talk about our church and the level of churning in our nation these days around issues of political ...

Rethinking the Great Commission

Introduction

We believe in our community that the gospel is the account of God coming to dwell in the midst of his people, so we read the gospel lesson ...

The Great Adventure

Introduction

In his wonderful book, The Island of Lost Maps, author Miles Harvey shares a sentiment with which I think many of us can probably resonate. ...

The Rebel in All of Us

Introduction

Why are you the way you are? Have you ever asked yourself that question? Why aren't you like somebody else? Is it your genes? In ...

Making Room for God to Burst Forth in Your Life

Introduction

Today we will talk about making room for God to burst forth in your life. The story of the young ruler reflects one of the major themes in ...

Deny Ability

Introduction

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

Running with Endurance

Introduction

Hebrew chapter 12, verses 1, 2, and 3 is the focus today. Let's read the Word of the Lord:

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses ...

Why the Biggest Loser Wins

Introduction

In Mark 10:17-27, we meet a man who is a lot like us. For one thing, he has clearly been through the part of the spiritual journey where a ...

The Transforming Word

Introduction

It's been called the speech that changed America. I'm talking, of course, of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech at the Lincoln ...

Jesus and John - Together to Trust

Introduction

The year was 155 AD and the place was Smyrna, in the Roman province of Asia. There was a new wave of persecution that was sweeping against ...

Tide Riding

Introduction

During the troubled years of the Second World War, the Italian forces were driven out of Eritrea in North Africa. In an effort to make the ...

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 ...

A Disciple's Approach to Drinking

From the editor:

Few topics are more controversial than alcohol. Should a follower of Christ imbibe or abstain? In this sermon from regular contributor ...

Openness

Introduction

I don't know many people who want to come to the end of their lives and say, "I never made an impact on anything or anyone?but I'm okay with ...

Jesus and John—Together to Trust

Text: Assorted texts from the Gospel of John
Topic: A probing question for Christ-followers

From the editor:

John is one of the more intriguing people ...

Gone Fishin'

From the editor

John 21 is a powerful story of a fallen disciple, Peter, being restored by Christ. Many a sermon has been preached on the varying uses ...

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 Talk

Introduction

There are times when the greatest power to change the world proceeds not from an act of forceful self-assertion, but from an act of gracious ...

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 ...

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, ...

Keep the Dust off the Highchairs

Text: Luke 2:52
Topic: Why the young people of a church are important

Introduction

I once attended the funeral of a relative of mine. The service was at ...

A Day in the Life of Simon of Cyrene

Text: Mark 15:21
Topic: What it might have been like for Simon of Cyrene to take up Jesus' cross.

Introduction

My time on the road of history was brief. ...

Jesus Uncensored

Introduction

I want you to replay a video in your head about coming to chapel this morning. You leave your room, checking your watch to make sure you have ...

Follow Me

Introduction

Of all the things that Jesus ever said, one of my absolute favorites is the thing he says in John 21:12. Maybe you noticed it. The text reads: ...

We Need a Downpour

Text: Hosea 6:1
Topic: Why we need revival

Where would we be without the Lord? Where would we be individually; where would we be in our family? Where would ...

What God Wants From Us

It seems that there was once a clerk in a large candy store who always had people waiting in line, even when the other clerks were standing around with ...

Body Building

Introduction

Every now and again, I get the urge to do a little bodybuilding. As you may notice, it has been a long time since I've really had that urge. ...

Work Hard, But …

Introduction

I first met Danny G. the Sunday morning he came down the aisle during decision time with his wife in tow. I had known he would probably ...

What It Means to Take Jesus Seriously

This is the second week of the series in Matthew called "The Master's Guide to Greatness." From a human standpoint, you can say that Jesus achieved ...

Getting Straight About Discipleship

How many of you know what it means to have a "Leon Lett" moment? Most football fans will recognize the reference. A few years ago Dallas was playing ...

Confronting Discipleship

In nearly every case, joining a church is a simple process. You walk the aisle, fill out a card, maybe answer a couple of questions, and you're in. ...

A Life Worth Dying for

Gene Vance Jr. lived two distinctly different lives. In one life, he was devoted cyclist who worked in bicycle shop; he was a college student, he was ...

Becoming a Life Long Student

Recently I attended the graduation ceremony of a small liberal arts college. The number of graduates was rather small, so as the student's name was ...

Practice of Patience

Someone handed me a little clipping this past week. A couple of young men from Chicago decided they were tired of the hustle and bustle of city life. ...

The Meaning of Discipleship

In those days all kinds of people had disciples, and two of the Greek words that were in common use at that time were didaskalos, which means teacher, ...

Born to Live

Jesus is enjoying the most exhilarating moment of his life. He has just finished being the guest of honor in the Palm Sunday parade. His archenemies, ...

Ordinary Folks Make Great Disciples

It used to be that you could talk about being a Christian and people would know what you meant. But then the term Christian got somewhat confused, and ...

Practice of Patience

Someone handed me a little clipping this past week. A couple of young men from Chicago decided they were tired of the hustle and bustle of city life. ...

Making More Disciples

The abbot of the monastery called the novice into his office and instructed him to give the homily at the next morning's chapel. Well, the novice ...

Followership

 

Scripture records of Jesus Christ that on one particular occasion he was walking by the Sea of Galilee, and he saw two Simon, who called ...