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Sermons on Trial


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Preaching on Trial? Browse these sermons to find fresh ideas.

God’s Presence, God’s Promises
God’s Presence, God’s Promises

Introduction

There’s no title it just says, Of David. We don’t know for sure, unlike some of the psalms, the situation at the time ...


We need to make space and wait on the LORD with expectation.


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Trusting the Sovereignty of God
Trusting the Sovereignty of God

Introduction

We are in our Advent series called “Christmas with Joseph—when things don’t go as planned.” What we’re trying ...


The nature, the problem, and the hope of Gods sovereignty.


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When the Heat Is On
When the Heat Is On

Introduction

Have you seen the famous photo from 1936 of a huge crowd of people all saluting Hitler, but one man stands out. Why? He keeps his ...


The Lord is with us in our fiery trials.


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Enduring Hardship Faithfully
Enduring Hardship Faithfully

Introduction

Life is hard and full of uncertainties. You don't always know what will get you. You just know something will: coronavirus, unemployment, ...


Temporary hardships should humble us to place our hope in the eternal God.


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Tests Into Treasure
Tests Into Treasure

Introduction

Ian Barclay wrote that in 1588 terrible storms lashed across the Orkney Isles. A Christian fisherman wrote that as he saw his home, his boat, ...


Bad things will happen, but never doubt that God is still good.


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'A Politician, a Lawyer, and a Jew'
'A Politician, a Lawyer, and a Jew'

Introduction

James Emery White tells a story about his visit to The Eagle and Child pub in Great Britain, the place where C. S. Lewis and his friends used ...


When our faith is on trial, we must stay blameless and shameless as witnesses.


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Growing in Wisdom
Growing in Wisdom

This sermon is part of the “More Than a Holiday” sermon series. See the whole series here.

Introduction

I’m excited to kick off our Advent ...


True wisdom grows in community, obedience, and trials.


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How to Survive in a Fallen World
How to Survive in a Fallen World

Introduction

Americans are threatened in a way today that I think is unusual in our history. Just this week I read parts of three publications freely available ...


We are attentive, humble, and obedient to God because his power is complete and his good purposes are to preserve us through trials, to give us everlasting righteousness, and to purify us through Jesus Christ.


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Faith in the Storm
Faith in the Storm

Introduction

We are in Mark's gospel, at the end of Mark 4, and let me remind us all of the context. Mark is writing to a group of believers who are ...


What do we do when the rain and the wind start to hit us—when it seems like Jesus is sleeping?


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The Final Week, Were You There?
The Final Week, Were You There?

Introduction

Artist Hieronymus Bosch painted Christ carrying his cross in 1505. Christ was surrounded in the painting by such notably ghoulish and revolting ...


Jesus takes expediency, injustice, and selfishness into himself, and offers us resurrection.


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On the Defense

Introduction

All of us have been in the cross-hairs of criticism. It may have come from a spouse, a parent, an adult child, or another family—all ...


When rejected, cling to the One who understands.


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The Spiritual Disciplines You Didn't Choose
The Spiritual Disciplines You Didn't Choose

Introduction

There are two kinds of spiritual disciplines but today I want to talk about the kind that we understand less and that we struggle with more. ...


God wants to move us from a place of rebellion and resignation to acceptance and joy.


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Praying While Running
Praying While Running

Editor's Note: Throughout this document Dr. Jeffrey Arthurs has provided a running commentary on his sermon. It's an invaluable guide for how ...


When you experience painful times of waiting follow David's example—run and pray.


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God's Eraser

Introduction

I have a friend who has a great saying. He says, "Make your plans in pencil because God has a big eraser." That's great wisdom. I used to ...


When our plans go awry, we know God has bigger things in store.


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To Live Is Christ, and to Die Is Gain

Introduction

I don't like it when people take Bible verses out of context and slap them on coffee mugs, put them on bookmarks, put them on bumper stickers. ...


Philippians 1:21 is more than a quote for a coffee mug; it should define our lives.


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Mysterious Grace

Introduction

A few months ago my wife and I met with a woman who was telling us about her family. She told us that when her daughter was born she had big ...


Where's God when life goes horribly wrong? He might be a lot closer than you ever imagined.


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Where Do We Find Hope?

Introduction

On the hillsides and on the mountainsides along the ocean in Japan there are stone markers, some of them over six hundred years old, and on ...


The entire Bible declares the story of an unshakeable hope in the Living God.


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What to Do When Your Fig Tree Doesn’t Blossom

Introduction

Picture Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes. He's swinging on a swing in the school playground. Picture a bully named Mo, twice as big as Calvin. ...


We can trust the person of God even when we can't grasp the plan of God.


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We Can Do This the Easy Way or the Hard Way

Introduction

For most of my time in college, I attended a small church in Chicago with my now wife, Jamie. The pastor of this church had been commissioned ...


God chooses to fulfill his promises in a variety of ways.


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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 ...


God's Love is still with us, even in life's darkest seasons.


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The Undefiled
The Undefiled

When I was in seminary, the wife of one of my classmates worked as a quality control inspector at a pharmaceutical company downtown in order to support ...


God desires and rewards holiness.


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When the Bottom Falls Out
When the Bottom Falls Out

I remember the events that led to her tears. My wife, Kathy, had come home from a weekly grocery trip with more than groceries to be concerned about. ...


Daniel shows us a godly response in the face of great suffering.


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Faith in the Furnace

How do you win the World Series? A few decades ago, when the New York Mets were the underdog darlings of the National League, two young pitchers told ...


Daniel shows us how to truly trust God through great trial.


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Looking Up to Heaven

A shattered Colossus

The poet Percy Bysshe Shelly tells of meeting a traveler from an "antique" land who describes the ruins of a great statue in the desert. ...


God is in control and can soften the hardest of hearts.


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The Judgment of Grace

Chapter five of Daniel addresses the question of what would happen if you gave a party, and God crashed it. Nebuchadnezzar was no longer on the throne. ...


In the fate of King Belshazzar, we see God's righteous judgment.


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The Song of a Broom

Sunday school pictures of a ruddy faced lad in a lions' den have scant resemblance to the actual situation described in this sixth and last chapter of ...


God's call through Daniel to trust and live


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The Rock That Doesn't Roll
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 ...


We can trust God as the solid, dependable Rock who provides protection.


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It's Not About You

Introduction

Today we're going to look at Matthew 8:23-27:

And when he got to the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm ...

Jesus may allow or even send trials our way, but his beauty and power shine through our darkest storms.


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The Crook in the Lot

Introduction

One of the first people that I hope to meet in heaven is the Scottish theologian Thomas Boston, who was the subject of my doctoral research ...


Trusting in the sovereign will of God


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The Gloria in Excelsis Deo

Introduction

Today we're going to look at Luke chapter 2. There is a Christmas song tucked within this Christmas story that I want to uncover—a song ...


Christmas reminds us that Jesus provides the answers to all our fears.


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The Dark Side of Grace

Introduction

In the structure of John's gospel, John 11 serves as a hinge between two halves. The first 10 chapters are concerned with the ministry of ...


The dark side of God's grace is that a sovereign God who is in control sometimes uses the things he allows as much as he uses the things he directs.


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Strong Grace, Hard Word, Good Memories

Introduction

Be strong. Suffer hardship. Remember Jesus Christ. These are Paul's words of counsel to Timothy in a fallen world and imperfect church. Timothy ...



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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 ...



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God in Our Sorrows
God in Our Sorrows

The Advent is where God meets us in our sorrow.

The word advent means an arriving or an appearing. It's the arrival of something we hoped for, something ...



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The Shortest Distance Between Two Points is a Zig Zag

Early in geometry we learned that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line. That means if I'm at point A and want to get to point ...



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A Christian's Happiness
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 ...


Paul offers three principles for finding joy in suffering.


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Yet Will I Praise Thee

Introduction

Have you ever asked God questions and felt you haven't received a good answer? I heard about a little boy once who said to his father, "How ...



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The World's Greatest Step

The story behind the sermon (from John Ortberg):

For Easter I wanted to present some of N. T. Wright's material on the Resurrection. I love his work on ...


The story of the resurrection is not just good news; it's true news.


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Return to Power

Introduction

We talk a lot here at New Life about the kingdom of God. The reality is that the kingdom of God comes first in the lives of God's people. ...


Practicing the power of "Yes, God"


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Death Is Life

From the editor:

Easter draws closer and closer (April 4), and we're here to help out with sermon ideas to inspire you in your own preaching. This week ...


Life isn't really life, and death isn't really death. But death is life.


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Worth Your Attention

From the editor

More helpful resources for Easter! This week we're featuring a message from Mike Woodruff, pastor of Christ Church Lake Forest in Lake ...


In an age of information overload, we need to pay careful attention to the message of the Resurrection.


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The Last Enemy

From the editor:

This week we continue to roll out great Easter resources to help inspire ideas for your own preaching. Below is a sermon by Donald Sunukjian ...


We must put our faith in the one who has conquered our greatest enemy.


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Easter: The Benefits Package

From the editor:

This week we are featuring Leith Anderson's Easter sermon from 2009 to help inspire ideas for your own sermon for Easter 2010. As you ...


The benefits of the Resurrection are great, but salvation from sin forever is the goal.


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If God Is Great, Where Is He in World of Suffering?

Introduction

Of all the reasons for rejecting the claims of Christianity, the one most frequently offered comes in the form of a question: "If God is so ...


A cross of loss can be gathered up into God's redemptive plan.


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If God Is Great, Where Is He in a World of Suffering?

Text: Matthew 27:27-46
Topic: Dealing with the reality of suffering

From the editor

Easter really isn't that far away—April 4, 2010—so we'll ...


A cross of loss can be gathered up into God's redemptive plan.


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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. ...


Humans need to lament their losses.


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Let's Get This Straight

Introduction

The first thing I noticed about our story today was the stories on either side of it. When we last saw Jacob, he finally had been reconciled ...


Experiencing God in the midst of great suffering


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I Pray the Lord My Soul to Keep

From the editor:

Here's another great sermon from one of our featured preachers, Bryan Wilkerson—an in-depth look at the last few lines of the Lord's ...


Whatever may come, we must ask God to lead us in a way that honors him, blesses others, and advances his good purpose for our lives.


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Facing North When the Market Goes South

Text: 1 Kings 17:7–16
Topic: Claiming God's promises in the midst of hard times

From the editor:

Though many experts believe we've entered an economic ...


With the right attitude toward money and God, we can face financial uncertainty with confidence.


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Blessed Are the Persecuted

Introduction

Imagine you are in the market for a new car. You visit the dealer and the salesman who is showing you the latest model takes you for a test ...


Enduring for the reward


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