Hope Through the Night

Introduction

Let's consider the Psalm where our God tells us that lament is appropriate but never the final word—never the final word—as we ...

How God Works Through Tragedy

Introduction

Life can seem pretty vicious sometimes. As a church, over the last about five weeks we've had two major tragedies within our family here ...

Rachel Weeping

The story behind the sermon (by Ken Langley)

Pastors struggle to find a fresh word at Christmas. We also struggle with expressing authentic sermonic lament ...

Finding God in the Dark

Introduction

Surely you know the Chronicles of Narnia movies, right? Well, those movies actually come from children's novels written by C. S. Lewis. The ...

Loss, Loyalty, & Lament

Introduction

I've never been one to read romance novels, but lately I've been reading one. It's been a good one, too. Believe it or not, it's a book I ...

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 ...

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 ...

Why It's Hard to Worship

Introduction

A few years ago, songwriter Michael Card wrote a book and recorded an album focusing on the subject of lament. The project grew out of a series ...

Torn by Pain

Introduction

In 1997 Sara McLachlan wrote a song entitled "Dear God." It's a searing complaint against God—raw, brutally honest, and irreverent. ...

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 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 ...

Loss, Loyalty, and Lament

Text: Ruth 1:1–22
Topic: Learning to make the right choices in difficult times

From the editor:

Perhaps you're looking for a unique way to approach ...

The Grieving Heart of God

Introduction

On the first day teaching his class for 250 college freshmen, R. C. Sproul carefully explained the assignment of three term papers. Each paper ...

Between Despair and Hope

Introduction

This is our final sermon in our series on Deuteronomy. We have been in between the wilderness and the Promised Land, waiting and listening. ...

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 ...

On Suicide

Introduction

Death is never easy. But death is even harder when someone is too young to die or dies under especially difficult circumstances. The tragic ...

Jesus Wept

Introduction

I have a friend, a businessman, who sat in a hotel room in the Midwest watching early news reports of an airliner hitting the World Trade ...

How to Make the Holy Spirit Happy

Introduction:

Author Edgar Jackson gives this poignant description of grief:

Grief is a young widow trying to raise her three children, alone. Grief is ...

How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

Introduction

The story is told of a man who visited a cemetery to leave flowers at the grave of his dearly departed mother. He couldn't help but notice ...

God of Our Losses

All of us go through suffering and times of loss in our lives. There are suffering people here tonight, troubled people, worried people, uncertain people. ...

A Time to Weep

Some years ago, there was a Presbyterian student who went away to college and made himself obnoxious to his fraternity brothers by always talking about ...

The Often-Overlooked Benefits of Losing

In our society being called a loser is the ultimate indignity. You can almost hear someone say, "Call me a liar or a cheat, but please stop short of ever ...

Running Through the Cemetery

Have you noticed how much running there is in this text? This is a breathless text. It's got sweat all over it. Everybody in this text is running. You ...

Rising to the Occasion

We have come today assembled by a great tragedy, yet in the midst of life's most difficult moments the gracious and merciful hand of God is still ...

Trusting God in Times of Crisis

 

What do you do when life takes you all the way out to the ragged edge of reality?

I grew up with a guy named Craig Stillwell. We were good friends ...