What Do We Want in Prayer?

Introduction

In the event of a fire in your home, the last thing you want to do is run around in the burning house (as is often seen on TV). The temperature ...

Why Pray?

Introduction

Even though we know we should pray constantly, many—if not most—of us would confess we don't pray as often as we should. But I ...

Feeding on God's Word

Introduction

I think it's important at the end of every year to preach a sermon on the importance of God's Word in our lives, both personally and ...

Wisdom in the Cross

Introduction

In his book Once upon a Tree, Calvin Miller writes about an experience years ago when he went to a movie. This was in a day (that some of ...

Joy in Liberty over Legalism

The story behind the sermon (Jared Alcantara)

This sermon was the fourth of five messages in the series "The Joy Genome." The image of a genome ...

Keep yourself from idols

Introduction

I want to direct your attention to one particular verse of Scripture this morning—the final verse of the First Letter of John to the ...

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 Big Picture of God's Faithfulness

Introduction

A few years ago there was an ad on TV that started like this: There was a woman sitting in a car. She's minding her own business, and suddenly ...

Believe the Blessing

Introduction

Ten years ago I had an experience that changed my life in a profound way. I was working at a Christian camp in the mountains of L.A. I lived ...

The Greatest Invitation Ever Made

Introduction

All of us enjoy receiving invitations—to a meal, a wedding, or a concert. Usually, when the invitation is printed on a little card, there ...

The Rock That Doesn't Roll

Story behind the sermon (from Bryan Wilkerson)

This is a sermon I've wanted to preach for a long time, ever since I took a D. Min course from Warren Wiersbe ...

Think Hard, Stay Humble

Today I'm going to preach on humility. This is the topic assigned to me for this conference. Let's start by looking at 1 Corinthians 8:1-3:

Now concerning ...

The Hunger that Satisfies

Introduction

We all want to be happy. And Jesus tells us how. In Matthew 5:6, Jesus says, "Blessed [or happy] are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, ...

The Joy You've Always Wanted

The topic today is joy. And the chief question is: how do we get it? How do we have more joy more often? How can we be happy?

We are looking at Paul's ...

More

Introduction

As we continue in our series in the book of Exodus, today we are in chapter 33, and in chapter 33 we encounter Moses at prayer. And I think ...

What Do Christians Think About Jesus?

Introduction

From the standpoint of world history, Jesus Christ looms as the most incredible and significant person who's ever lived. Yale historian ...

Coming to Grips with the Authority of Christ

From the editor

Donald Sunukjian is a master at making a text come alive for a congregation, carefully and memorably pointing out all the details that ...

Guide

Click here to listen to the audio.

The story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg)

I have grown to love the theme of God's guidance. This is a chance to ...

The Joy Network

Introduction

Several years ago a German researcher studied a thousand churches of every size and denomination all over the world. His goal was to identify ...

Three Ways to Worship

Introduction

Back when I was in college, I had a professor of American religion who gave us a really interesting assignment. He had us visit nearly every ...

Immanuel

From the editor

Here's a short, to-the-point Christmas sermon from Mark Batterson, pastor of National Community Church in Washington, DC, and author ...

Remember God in the Moment

Introduction

"Remember also your Creator in the days of your youth, before the evil days come and the years draw near when you will say, 'I have ...

The Strangest Gift

Introduction

In her book Tramp for the Lord, Corrie ten Boom tells the story of an old woman she met in Russia in the time of the Communist persecution ...

The House of Prayer

Introduction

"My temple should be a house of prayer, but you have made it a den of thieves." That stands as one of the harshest indictments ever uttered ...

The House of Worship

Introduction

Where is the best place to live? Every year, the UN asks this question about countries, and every year they release their recommendations ...

All I Really Need to Know I Learned by Suffering Triumphantly Until I Died

Introduction

In All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, Robert L. Fulghum writes:

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do ...

Wrestling with God

Introduction

Soon after my wife and I married, we began decorating our house by putting things on the walls. When we came to the kitchen, I came up with ...

The Lord Is My Shepherd

Introduction

I don't know much about sheep. I was born and raised in the suburbs, and we didn't have sheep. In fact, they were probably illegal. ...

God Remembers

Introduction

In the 1960s Jim "Wrong Way" Marshall was a member of the "Purple People Eaters," the fearsome defensive unit of the Minnesota Vikings football ...

The Wisdom of Small Creatures

Introduction

My task this evening is to tell you how to live wisely now and for the rest of your life. Quite frankly, I've run out of ideas of my own, ...

Extreme Faith

Introduction

About 1700 years ago, there was a great church leader who is now called Saint Basel. After the apostles of the New Testament, he is probably ...

Back to Reality

Introduction

Do you know what it is like to have a mountaintop experience and then come down hard when necessity forces you to get back to reality? Maybe ...

Embarrassed by God

Introduction

I want to tell you about my Aunt Julie, because everybody has an Aunt Julie in their family or an Uncle Harry or a cousin Jessica—someone ...

Good Guys, Bad Guys, or Us Guys?

Introduction

Anybody here grow up in a legalistic, fundamentalist type of church? The emphasis in those kinds of churches is on keeping the rules, lots ...

"Trinity": The Christian Name for God

Sermon One

Introduction

Over the next few Sundays we'll explore a concept of God unique to Christian spirituality called the Trinity. It's ...

The Art of "Hanging Out"

Introduction

One of my favorite movie scenes occurs in City Slickers, when Billy Crystal and Rob Reiner have a heart-to-heart conversation. Reiner tells ...

Knowing Jesus

Today we're beginning a new series on the book of 2 Peter called Transformed by Truth. I began the series on 1 Peter with the comment that not many ...

When You Feel Like Dancing

Introduction:

One day an expert in time management spoke to a group of business students. He said, "Okay, time for a quiz." Then he pulled out a one-gallon, ...

Repentance

I am not wholly comfortable admitting this in many places, but since I trust you so completely, I will publicly confess that in my earlier days I was ...

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 ...