A Bad Day

Introduction

As we walk thru life all of us are going to have some good days, some average days, and some bad days.

One of my bad days happened ...

A Song of Contentment

Introduction

One of my favorite films of all time is Chariots of Fire. Chariots of Fire is based on the true story of two runners named Harold ...

Because He Loved Us

Introduction

About 25 years ago I almost became a hero for the cause of justice and compassion. For my first job after college, every morning ...

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 ...

More Than Your Personal Savior

Introduction

For over three decades, Paul Harvey made a name for himself by telling “the rest of the story.” Day after day he came on our radios ...

Christians and Politics

Introduction

This past July most of us missed an anniversary celebration. Thirty years ago, our government passed a law that has helped millions of Americans. ...

Worthy Is the Lamb

Introduction

John, who is in prison at Patmos, writes letters to the church of Ephesus and churches that surround it. His goal is to comfort them and encourage ...

A Good Friday Intervention

Introduction

One of my favorite Chicago landmarks is the iconic breakfast destination known as Ann Sathers, on 909 West Belmont. Ann Sathers is a good ...

Maundy Thursday: It's About You

Introduction

Every Maundy Thursday, I am reminded of a particular event that occurred during my time at Seattle Pacific University. My senior year, I took ...

The Perfect Meal for Sinners

Introduction

When our daughter Bonnie celebrated her first birthday we threw her a huge birthday party. We put on silly hats, blew on little horns, waved ...

How a Servant Thinks

Introduction

Today I want to talk about how a servant thinks. Let's read Luke 17:5-10:

The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" And the Lord ...

The Guest List

Introduction

We're in part two of a series called The Heart of Christ, and I want to begin this week with a question: Do you remember the first Christian ...

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 ...

Defiled and Cleansed

Introduction

Today we're going to look at Numbers 5:1-10. This chapter is easy to outline because of the phrase that is repeated three times, in verses ...

God Is Love

Introduction

God is love. This is the characteristic of God that we will explore today in our Discovering God series. The fact that God is love means that ...

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 ...

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. ...

God Is Still Loving

There are times in our lives when it seems like God is against us. I mean, we know that God is for us, but there are times when it seems like God is treating ...

Christmas in the City of Jerusalem

Introduction

We're going to do something a little different this year in December. We want to focus on a "Hometown Christmas." Typically we tend to think ...

Encounter on Golgotha Road

From the editor:

We recently posted an Easter message by John Ortberg, because the themes like atonement, the Cross, resurrection, etc. are never out of ...

The Discipline of Communal Examination

From the editor

Next week we start to roll out all of our new Easter sermons, but seeing as many congregations have just begun observing the Lenten season, ...

The Love That Compels

From the editor:

Here's one more Easter sermon from another great preacher. This message comes with a missional twist, as Briscoe points out how the love ...

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 ...

The Prime Principle

Introduction

Abiding in Christ is simply staying near a friend who loves you. But what happens to a person who abides in Christ? If I really walk 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. ...

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. ...

The Love That Brought Him

Introduction

One of the greatest Georgians who ever lived was Bishop Arthur Moore, the beloved Methodist bishop of our state. Bishop Moore once said that ...

Merry Tifton

Introduction

Once upon a time, long ago and far away in a strange land, there lived a man by the name of John Baresford Tifton—a man of incredible ...

What's Driving You

Introduction

I've always enjoyed reading the stories of successful people and finding out what it is that makes them tick. What I find completely amazing ...

Prayer Priorities

Introduction

When you pray, what do you pray about? What are the priorities in your prayer life? When you really get down to business with God, what rises ...

The Sociable Outcast

Jesus did not fit very well into the society of his day. If you wanted to describe him in sociological terms, you might say he was an "outsider." ...

What About Sudden Conversion?

I am very intrigued by the new invention that is now being foisted upon some parts of the American people, whereby on closed-circuit television they ...

Friendship

In this passage our Lord calls us his friends and gives us four tests or proofs, or signs of the friendship. Two signs or proofs are on his side and ...

When You Feel You're at the End