Fully Alive: The Call of Men

Probably one of the top five Ruch family favorite films would be a really beautiful film made several years ago called The Nativity. As a matter of fact, ...

The Gift of the Son: Everlasting Father

This sermon is part of “The Gift of the Son” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

We're looking at Isaiah 9—at names ...

The Glory of Fathers Who Stink

Introduction

As I come to talk about fathers, I'm mindful that it's a very difficult day for some people. For some people, whose every thought about their ...

Temptation

Introduction

One of my favorite father-son stories in Western literature has to be story of Pip and Joe Gargery in Charles Dickens' novel, Great ...

Refocusing on Fatherhood

Introduction

I was driving home from a friend's house on a Saturday night when the familiar highway I had traveled many times began to remind me of ...

Who Am I After I Sin?

Introduction

Last week we started a series called "Wicked." We're attempting to wrestle with one of the defining realities of our life: we screw up. We ...

God Is Self-sacrificing

Introduction: Recovering a knowledge of God

As wonderful as life is in so many respects, many of us look at our world today and wonder how we are ever ...

The Power of Identity

The story behind the sermon (from Jeff Manion)

In preparing to preach on Ephesians 1:3-14, I felt that there were a couple significant challenges to overcome. ...

The Name

Introduction

Today we're on our third sermon in a series on the Ten Commandments. Imagine if everybody on the planet obeyed the Ten Commandments. In a ...

Suffering

Introduction

One summer Stuart and I had a ministry experience that took us literally around God's world. I learned many significant lessons. First, I ...

The Christmas Plunge

From the editor:

Who doesn't love reflecting on the amazing story of Mary, a teenage girl swept up in something so unexpected, so epic? The Incarnation ...

Our Fathers Who Are on Earth

From the editor

Father's Day is just around the corner (June 21), and should you decide to offer a message for the occasion, Mark Mitchell's look at a ...

In the Father's Arms

Text: Job 36, 38
Topic: How a Christian should respond to suffering

From the editor

As you read Jill Briscoe's sermon, notice how she takes a classic story-story-story ...

The Shadow of Jesus

Introduction

Well over a hundred years ago, Robert Robinson wrote a hymn that resonates with many of us. One line reads like this: "Prone to wander, ...

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 ...

Letters from Dad

Introduction

I'd like to talk on this Father's Day to the men. There will be obvious relevance to women as well, but my express purpose today is to speak ...

Lost Sheep, Coins, & Men

If God is what you describe him to be, if God is so huge and powerful and capable and loving and caring and concerned and involved and all of these other ...

The Disciple's Prayer

There are times when I feel like Rodney Dangerfield. I don't get no respect.

I have a friend who likes to call me in the middle of a weekday morning, ...

The Father Heart of God

Do you remember the pig craze of the 1980s? People shelled out thousands of dollars to own one of these exotic house pets imported from Vietnam. Their ...

Why God is Father, Not Mother

I want to begin by reading you a new hymn just to stimulate your thinking. I don't know the tune, but the text is as follows:

"Who is she, neither male ...

The Shame-less Father

I am fortunate in that I have loved Jesus of Nazareth all my life. That love has not always issued in trust and obedience, but I have had a deep and tender ...