Search for sermons - Acts 17
From Athens to Oak Park: Why God Put Us Here - Acts 17:16-17 - May 31, 1998 - 238
Let me imagine a situation for a moment and ask how you would respond. Let’s suppose that you are a missionary arriving for service in a country you have never visited. Although you didn’t plan to visit the capital city, your itinerary was suddenly changed and now you find yourself alone ... More
Babbling for Jesus: Speaking Truth to Highly Intelligent People - Acts 17:18-21 - Jun 7, 1998 - 242
I’d like to begin by telling you about a new mission statement that has just been approved by the elders of the church. Several months ago the pastoral staff and the elders began working together to write a new mission statement for our church. Although we’ve done this several times in t ... More
Some Sneered, Others Questioned, A Few Believed: Lessons on the Amazing Power of the Gospel - Acts 17:32-34 - Aug 30, 1998 - 245
It is not often that a preacher has his sermon interrupted by the congregation. In the 29 years that I have been preaching, it has only happened to me a handful of times. Once in my first church in Downey, California a woman stood up during my sermon and began making comments. She wasn’t argui ... More
Repent! The Forgotten Doctrine of Salvation - Acts 17:30 - Oct 6, 2006 - 510
In 1937 the American Tract Society sponsored a contest in which they offered a prize of $1,000 for the best new book written on one of the “essential evangelical doctrines of the Christian faith.” Sixty-one years ago, $1,000 was a lot of money and a great many well-known Christian author ... More
Here Comes the Judge: Bad News for Modern Man - Acts 17:31 - Aug 23, 1998 - 244
"Now this matter is between me, the two people I love most—my wife and our daughter—and our God.” Those are the words of President Bill Clinton as he addressed the nation last Monday night. Roger Simon is a veteran reporter and columnist. In his weekly column for America Online, he ... More
Homemade Gods: A Warning Against Modern-Day Baal Worship - Acts 17:29 - Jul 19, 1998 - 243
"Idols? You must be kidding.”“That’s what they have in Africa, right?”“Me? An idol-worshiper? What do you take me for? A pagan?”“The only thing I worship is my brand-new car.”What is an idol anyway? The dictionary offers this definition: “an imag ... More
To an Unknown God: How to Find Common Ground - Acts 17:22-23 - Jun 14, 1998 - 239
If you ever attend seminary, you will study a subject called homiletics. That’s a course where you learn how to prepare and preach a sermon. During my days at Dallas Seminary we actually had three courses in homiletics. In the first one they taught us the rudiments of public speaking, in the s ... More
What is a Christian? - 1 Thessalonians 1:4-10 - May 20, 2007 - 775
A friend sent me an email telling about a question posed to her by a co-worker. Here is the exact text of the question:How is a Christian defined? It used to be that if you were not Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist, you were a Christian, whether Catholic or Lutheran or Episcopal or Baptist. But it seems ... More
He Doesn't Need Your Help: The Truth You Must Understand - Acts. 17:24-25 - Jun 21, 1998 - 240
Those who listen to me preach on a regular basis know that whenever I find a good idea, I like to repeat it over and over again. Last year I happened to stumble across a spiritual truth so profound that I titled it the First Rule of the Spiritual Life. Even though I’ve mentioned it many times, ... More
How to Turn the World Upside Down - I Thessalonians 2:1-12 - Sep 25, 1994 - 809
Welcome to our annual Missions Conference. Each year we set aside one week to focus on God’s work around the world. We always begin on the last Sunday of September and end on the first Sunday of October. This year our conference theme is “Serving Today and Tomorrow.” That’s ... More
Bad Manners at the Dinner Table: A Powerful Lesson in Biblical Confrontation - Galatians 2:11-14 - Jun 3, 2001 - 254
This is a sermon about conflict in the church—where it comes from and how to handle it. As a place to begin, I’d like to start with the observation that most church conflicts fall into one of two categories. Let’s talk first about the second category.Category 2 conflicts are those ... More
Swimming Upstream - Romans 12:2 - Oct 15, 2006 - 726
There are times when we need to see a familiar verse in a new way. The ESV translates the first part of Romans 12:2 this way: “Do not be conformed to this world.” Simple, clear and concise. But what exactly does Paul mean? Other translations bring out various shades of meaning:“Do ... More
Will Everyone Eventually Be Saved? - II Peter 3:9 - Jul 24, 2005 - 143
I can think of only four ways to answer the question raised in the title of this sermon:1) Everyone will eventually be saved.2) No one will eventually be saved.3) Some will be saved and some will be lost.4) There is no way to know.Let’s consider answer #1, which is becoming increasingly popula ... More
Empty on the Inside: How God Reveals Himself to Us - Acts 17:26-28 - Jun 28, 1998 - 241
In his book, Therefore Stand (written in 1945), Wilbur Smith has a chapter on Paul’s speech to the Areopagus (Acts 17:16-34). Along the way he comments on the similarity between ancient Athens and modern America. For all the obvious differences in culture and language, there is a similar appro ... More
Many Nations Under God: A Biblical View of World History - Genesis 10 - Sep 15, 2002 - 235
At first glance Genesis 10 would not seem to offer much promise as a sermon text. To the untrained eye, it appears to be just one more biblical genealogy, although a closer examination reveals that it seems oddly different from the regular genealogies. From another point of view, it reads like an Ol ... More
The Great Divide - I Corinthians 2:14-16 - Nov 23, 2003 - 670
This is the final sermon in the series from I Corinthians 1-2 called, “The Cross, the Church and the World.” We can summarize the main things we have learned in five key statements:1) The people of the world will always regard the message of the cross as foolishness. Nothing about it wil ... More
The Church Christ Prefers - Revelation 3:7-13 - Jan 21, 2012 - 1302
What sort of church does Jesus prefer? Baptist? Methodist? Lutheran? Catholic? Presbyterian? Brethren? Episcopal? Perhaps we should ask it another way. Does he prefer . . . Rural churches? Megachurches? House churches? City churches?Multisite churches? Church plants? Independent churches? New churc ... More
The Greatest of These - I Corinthians 13:1-3 - Nov 26, 2000 - 400
"Love is the medicine for the sickness of the world.” So said noted psychiatrist Dr. Karl Meninger. He summarized his therapeutic approach this way: “Love cures. It cures those who give it and it cures those who receive it.”Love truly is good medicine. It has been said that the thr ... More
Repent! The Forgotten Doctrine of Salvation - Acts 17:30 - Aug 9, 1998 - 246
In 1937 the American Tract Society sponsored a contest in which they offered a prize of $1,000 for the best new book written on one of the “essential evangelical doctrines of the Christian faith.” Sixty-one years ago, $1,000 was a lot of money and a great many well-known Christian author ... More
Allied Force Questions - Various - Jan 4, 1998 - 522
When we surveyed the congregation asking for their questions a few months ago, our high school ministry (called Allied Force) turned in their own set of questions. On October 12, the students joined me on the platform and participated in a live question-and-answer session. The questions that follow ... More
REACHING PEOPLE WITH GOD'S LOVE - Various - Mar 11, 1991 - 581
Friday morning I did something I had not done since becoming pastor of this church. I took a few minutes and sat on the steps in front of the sanctuary. It was a typical March day in Chicago–clear and cool with just a touch of wind coming from the north. The sun was high overhead and partia ... More
Turn, Turn, Turn - 1 Thessalonians 1 - Aug 11, 1996 - 318
A few days ago a friend sent me an email telling about a question posed to her by a co-worker. Here is the exact text of the question: How is a Christian defined? It used to be that if you were not Jewish or Hindu or Buddhist, you were a Christian, whether Catholic or Lutheran or Episcopal or Bap ... More
Fact or Fable in Genesis: Was the World Really Created in Six Days? - Genesis 1:1-2:3 - Apr 28, 2002 - 221
These are exciting days to study the book of Genesis. A great deal has been written on this book in the last few years and there has been much new research in the area of science and the Bible. It’s always a good thing to focus on issues that really matter. Sometimes in the church we spend too ... More
What You Seek, You Find - Jeremiah 29:12-14 - Apr 30, 2008 - 823
This week I received a message from a person who happened to read one of the earlier sermons in the ... More
God Our Father - Matthew 6:9 - Oct 4, 2009 - 1217
“Our Father in Heaven.” Matthew 6:9 Before we begin: What words describe your earthly father? Do you feel comfortable addressing God as “Father?” Why or why not? “Who is God?” The interviewer looked at me expectantly while I fumbled to find an answer. Since the ca ... More
The Invisible Hand: Coming to Grips With God’s Providence - Genesis 50:20 - Feb 2, 1997 - 468
Do all things really work together for good? Consider the following:A little baby is born with no brain, only a brain stem. The doctors tell the parents that she has no chance of surviving. Somehow she stays alive for sixteen months. The parents struggle to take care of her. When she gets sick, t ... More
