Zion’s Birth Story

Introduction

Since shops are already putting up Christmas lights and radio stations are playing Christmas music, I thought it would be appropriate to consider ...

Heaven: Hope for the Long Tomorrow

Introduction

Don't you love Easter? There's something about it, isn't there? Here are a few fun facts about Easter you may not have known: The word, "Easter" ...

The Safest Safe

Introduction

1 Peter 1:3-6 frames the message this morning. It offers a word of encouragement and a reminder that our ultimate salvation is in the safest ...

The Birthing of a New Humanity

Introduction

I am captivated by the conversation between Jesus and a rabbi named Nicodemus. It is located in John, chapter 3. In this text, we find one ...

Liberation

Introduction

Richard Stearns, the president of World Vision, has a book called The Hole in Our Gospel. In this book he tells a remarkable story about a ...

Mediation

Introduction

There was once a couple who had been married for 60 years. Throughout their life they had shared everything. They loved each other deeply. ...

God Is Present and Powerful

Introduction: Our struggle with sin

We've been trying to renew together our vision of who God really is. Everything good in life flows from the person ...

Doubters Anyonymous

Introduction

"He is risen": it's the heartbeat of the message of the Christian church. These three English words are translated from one Greek word, egeirō, ...

Same Old, Same Old

From the editor

After 15 years at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Philip Ryken accepted the call to become the next president ...

Life After Victory

Introduction

Early in his career, the great American playwright Eugene O'Neill wrote an imaginative play called "Lazarus Laughed" about Lazarus's life ...

It Doesn't Sting Anymore

Introduction

Tony Campolo, at the end of a sermon titled, "The Year of Jubilee," tells this story:

I went to my first black funeral when I was 16 years ...

When the Seeds Come Up

Introduction

Someone hearing for the first time that the dead will be raised—physically—from the grave could easily picture something from ...

Life Line

Introduction

The great American writer, John Updike, died recently. All his life he vacillated between Christian faith and doubt. However, quite early ...

The Neighbors Are Nuts

Introduction

When I was a kid, my parents used to drag me out to church on Sundays. I'd walk into this big building in a shirt and shoes that seemed too ...

Softening the World's Harshness

Introduction

Let's look at John 15:1-17 together. These are likely very familiar words. They're the words of Jesus on the last night of his time ...

Blessed Are the Pure in Heart

Introduction

Through the centuries there have been some people who have wanted to view Jesus' teaching in the Beatitudes as a kind of ladder that can carry ...

A Brand New You

Introduction

I've got hundreds of things around the house that I would like to see made new—sofa cushions that have begun to sag, kitchen cabinets ...

Jesus Face to Face

Introduction

If you had the opportunity, who would you like to meet face to face? Is it someone living? Someone who has already died? A celebrity? Nobility? ...

Trusting in God's Process

Introduction

Coco was a pit bull mix, just barely one year old. As a puppy she was dumped on the freeway and rescued by a teenager who handed her off to ...

What Child Is This Who Came Not to Bring Peace?

From the editor

One of the more popular texts in the Advent and Christmas season is Isaiah 9:1–7. Preachers love to explore the beauty of our having ...

Summer

Introduction

I grew up in a small mining town in northern Canada, a place memorable for its hard, cruel winters. But on the first day of summer in 1975, ...

Spring

Introduction

I spent many early years in a northern mill town—a town with a heavy reputation. It's a place that made ice in winter and mud in summer, ...

Doubters Anonymous

Text: John 20:19–29
Topic: Dealing with doubt

Introduction

"He is risen": it's the heartbeat of the message of the Christian church. These three English ...

Drop Your Agenda

Introduction

By the end of Luke's narrative of Jesus' life, opposition from the religious leaders is mounting, and Jesus' popularity among the people is ...

Cravings and Conflicts

Text: James 4:1–2
Topic: Identifying and addressing the source of conflict

Introduction

There is a relational conflict in your immediate future. You ...

When Life Crowds You Out

Introduction

On the wall of a subway in New York City was an advertising poster that depicted a dignified older gentleman recommending a particular product. ...

Life on Wings

Introduction

The biblical image of the kind of life Christians are called to live is, "The way of an eagle in the air." I have lots of experience with ...

Peace in the Church

Introduction

When I was a pastor in Arizona, there were two men in the church who were greatly admired. They were both successful businessmen who desired ...

The Christian Subculture: Righteous or Rubbish?

Introduction

As believers, we sometimes feel pressured to act in certain ways, fit in with certain norms, or participate in certain activities. The pressure ...

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 ...

Weighing Others Heavy

Text: Exodus 20:13; Matthew 5:21–24; Romans 12:14–21; Romans 13:8–10
Topic: How to apply the sixth commandment

Introduction

The sixth commandment ...

We Don't Have Men Like That

Introduction

[Editorial comment: Sunukjian delivers this sermon as a first-person narrative. References to props or stage directions will appear in italics.] ...

It's Not Thinking Less of Yourself; It's Thinking of Yourself Less

Introduction

A few years ago, one of my students was speaking to our class about his denominational background. He told the class that the average church ...

A Win-Win Situation

Introduction

Every so often we find ourselves in a win-win situation. No matter which way it goes, we come out ahead.

For example, at school we decide to ...

You Don't Know, Do You?

Introduction

A member of this congregation experienced a tragedy when her father was suddenly killed in an accident. He was driving home one Wednesday ...

You Don't Have to Be Good to Come to Christ

Introduction

The description of the early church that is found in the opening chapters of the Book of Acts almost sounds like paradise revisited. Two events ...

Come Die with Me

Introduction

Matthew's gospel says that, toward the end of his three years of public ministry, "Jesus began to explain to his disciples that he must go ...

Check Your Bags

Introduction

In his best-selling book Halftime, Bob Buford tells a story that is reminiscent of the encounter we read about in our text from Matthew's ...

The Process of Transformation

Text: 1 John 3:1–10
Topic: How to attain holiness

Introduction

Imagine that you've been asked to write a book on marriage. Your publisher says, "We ...

The Walls Come Tumbling Down

Introduction

Tim Kimmel, in his book Little House on the Freeway, writes about the Japanese occupation of Korea shortly after the turn of the century. ...

What the World Needs Now

Introduction

In his book Telling the Truth, author Frederick Buechner describes a scene that could be unfolding on any given Sunday in any given church, ...

Like a Living Stone

Introduction

"How does it feel," Bob Dylan asks. "How does it feel to be on your own, with no direction home, a complete unknown, like a rolling stone?" ...

A House on Hope Street

For many years John Cox and his wife, Wendy, did their best to provide a home for themselves and their three daughters. He was an itinerant youth minister, ...

Anakin's Choice

The TV makeover craze began a few years ago with a couple of shows that promised to transform ordinary looking people into beauty queens and chick-magnets. ...

Setting Sail

You know, I really don't understand myself sometimes. I want to do what's right, but I don't do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly ...

The Great Reveal

It's the most dramatic moment in any makeover show. It's the reason the participants endure 3 months of surgery, workouts, coaching, and separation from ...

A Promise for Life's Long Pull

Luke 10: 25-37

Introduction:

We all know the account of the Good Samaritan. Does it strike you as something more than odd that an obscure itinerant preacher, ...