What Is Love?

Introduction

All of us have a working definition of love in our minds. Love is one of those words that we instinctively know what it means. We ...

Outrageous, Miraculous Love

Introduction

In the fall of 2001, I was a senior in college. Because of where my college was located, I was an hour and a half away from my hometown ...

Are We Really Supposed to Love Our Enemies?

Introduction

I was at the airport getting ready to fly out for Easter weekend. I arrived at my gate early and got a nice seat by the window. After ...

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 ...

Praying Our Hate

The story behind the sermon (from Darrell Johnson)

This sermon was the second in a series for the summer on "Praying the Psalms in the City." I preached ...

What Makes You Happy?

In John's first letter of correspondence to the churches, there are some troublesome verses. First John 4:9-10 is not difficult: "This is how God showed ...

A Prescription for the Spiritually Challenged

Introduction

I'm musically challenged—anyone who knows me will tell you that. Even people who don't know me know I'm musically challenged. When I ...

Release Resentment

Introduction

It may have been King David's lowest moment. His son Absalom was leading a revolution against him. Absalom was a charmer and had convinced ...

It's About the People

Introduction

Recently our church softball thoroughly trounced our opponents. The game ended with what's called the mercy rule: when one team is ahead ...

Releasing Resentment

Text: John 21:15–22; 1 Corinthians 13:5
Topic: How we forgive those who hurt us

Introduction

It may have been King David's lowest moment: His son Absalom ...

Doing Justice

Introduction

I want to talk to you about a concern that lies at the heart of the Prophets, but let's start with a question. Think about the basic human ...

Showing Grace

Introduction

We are taking four Sundays to consider the subject of loyalty and what it takes to keep faith in a broken world. Our particular emphasis in ...

Reactions to Evil

Introduction

John Roth tells what happened to him late one night on a commuter train in Hamburg, Germany. John says:

The train car was completely empty ...

The Problem of Discrimination

Introduction

The physician of the soul, as of the body, must be capable of doing three things. He must be able to diagnose the malady, to prescribe the ...

My Favorite Heroes: Joseph

Introduction

We are in a series looking at different heroes of the faith, and today we'll be looking at Joseph. You can turn in your Bibles to Genesis ...

The Love Connection

Text: 1 John 2:1–11
Topic: How to walk as Jesus walked

Introduction

First John is a book of assurances. It tells us what God wants his people to know. ...

Gratitude Gives Way to Resentment

Introduction

I will never forget a meeting I had with unhappy parishioners a few years ago. We had made deliberate changes in our church in order to better ...

Separation Can Lead to Isolation

Introduction

Imagine a weird world where, before you can be admitted to a hospital, you have to have a clean bill of health. A world where doctors won't ...

The Most Beautiful People on Earth

Introduction

The latest rage in reality TV is the makeover show, in which a team of experts are brought in to transform somebody's wardrobe, car, backyard, ...

The Church in a Non-Christian Culture

A significant event takes place in Acts 7, marking a trend in church history that unfortunately continues to this day: persecution. In this text, Stephen, ...

How to treat a mistreater

The tagline to A & E's Biography series new advertising campaign is "You're either 'Biography' or you're not." Today we'll look at the story of ...

You Get What You Give

Introduction

On February 3, 1998, Karla Faye Tucker was executed by lethal injection in Huntsville, TX, for her role in a 1984 double homicide. In the ...

Getting Rid of Resentment

Introduction

This morning we come face to face with a practical problem confronting everyone here; namely, overcoming our resentment toward people we ...

It Matters Who You Know

There are certain clichés you hear all through your life that, upon closer inspection, prove to be false. They are so ingrained in our consciousness ...

A Perfect Alternative to Revenge

It has been said that few passages of Scripture summarize Christian ethics more succinctly than today's passage. It could also be said that few passages ...

When Your Enemy Prospers

God spares Nineveh, and Jonah is angry. He said: God, I knew you'd do that. That's why I didn't go, because I know you're gracious and forgiving, and ...

When Your Enemy Prospers

When Your Enemy Prospers

by Bruce Larson

God spares Nineveh, and Jonah is angry. He said: God, I knew you'd do that. That's why I didn't go, because I ...

I Can Do All Things Through Christ

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."

I'm thinking the apostle Paul is not imagining we're going to defy the gene pool, thinking lumpy, ...