Search for sermons - Romans 1
When God Gives Up - Romans 1:24-32 - Feb 16, 1992 - 278
There are some messages that pastors would rather not preach. This sermon definitely falls into that category. It’s not that I am afraid to say what must be said; it is rather that I know these things will not be easy to hear. I also know that my words may be misunderstood or taken out of cont ... More
Martin Luther's Highway to Heaven - Romans 1:16-17 - Oct 26, 2006 - 511
It is a mark of our changing times that many people have only a vague idea who Martin Luther is. Most of us have heard his name but we’re not sure where he’s from or what he did or when he lived. Some of us even get him mixed up with someone else. I would venture to say that most of u ... More
A Forgotten Doctrine: The Wrath of God - Romans 1:18-20 - Apr 6, 1997 - 476
Sometimes the title tells the whole story. My sermon today is about the wrath of God. It is truly a forgotten doctrine, even in the evangelical church. I’ll dare say that many of you have never heard a sermon on God’s wrath—that is, not a full sermon devoted to this one topic. The ... More
The Text That Changed the World - Romans 1:16-17 - Jan 26, 1992 - 276
Certain texts of the Bible are so familiar to the Christian that they require almost no introduction. They are the texts we learned from our very first days in Sunday School. We know them, we love them, their words are etched on our hearts. They are the “Great Texts” of the Bible. John 3 ... More
Nightmare on Main Street - Romans 1:21-23 - Feb 9, 1992 - 281
There is a remarkable resemblance between the world described in Romans 1 and the world we live in at the end of the 20th century. Despite our proud claims of technological advance, just how much progress have we really made? It can be fairly argued that morally we have made very little progress at ... More
What About Those Who Never Hear The Gospel? - Romans 1:18-20 - Apr 10, 1994 - 806
The subject for this morning is perhaps the most troubling question that Christians can face. The fate of those who never hear the gospel is both difficult and emotional. It’s a tough question to think about because at its heart, it touches many people we know personally. Taken at its wides ... More
What About Those Who Never Hear The Gospel? - Romans 1:18-20 - Feb 2, 1992 - 279
The subject for this morning is perhaps the most troubling question that Christians can face. The fate of those who never hear the gospel is both difficult and emotional. It’s a tough question to think about because at its heart, it touches many people we know personally. Taken at its widest p ... More
God's Mountain Man - 1 Kings 17:1 - Mar 7, 2006 - 187
Last December right after the tsunami disaster, my friend Ramesh Richard, a professor at Dallas Seminary, sent an email that contained a simple, one-sentence prayer. He called it a “dangerous prayer.” The moment I saw that prayer I knew that it was going to be my prayer for 2005. It goes ... More
A Heart to Heart Ministry - Romans 1:8-15 - Jan 12, 1992 - 275
"No one cares how much you know, ‘til they know how much you care.” This week those words have been echoing through my mind. It seems as if this week, more than in a long, long time, I’ve spent all my waking hours talking to people about heartache, trouble and difficulty. Every wee ... More
Why I Believe in God - Genesis 1:1 - Sep 30, 2009 - 1214
The Bible never argues for the existence of God. It begins instead with a simple, majestic sentence: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). The Bible begins with a declaration, not with an argument. There is a God who created all things. If you do not s ... More
To Rome With Love - Romans 1:1-7 - Jan 5, 1992 - 277
The year was 1911, and a young man from Sydney, Australia, arrived in the United States. He had crossed the ocean to study at a fledgling school called Moody Bible Institute. While still a student, he was called as the first pastor of a brand-new congregation in suburban Oak Park. He stayed for two ... More
Clarification of Certain Doctrinal and Practical Issues - Various - May 23, 1996 - 563
The following material is presented by the Elders as a means of clarifying the church’s position on certain issues. As you read this, please remember that this is not meant to be a comprehensive statement of what we believe in every area. You may consult the Articles of Faith for a full statem ... More
What the Bible Says About Homosexuality - Various - Oct 22, 1989 - 133
Perhaps the place to begin this morning is with the simple confession that I did not want to preach this message. It was not part of my preaching calendar and I did not make the final decision until two and a half weeks ago. My hesitations were very simple: As the brand-new pastor of Calvary Memoria ... More
God Is So Good! - Psalm 107:1 - Apr 20, 1997 - 474
"Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good.” 1 Chronicles 16:34a “The Lord is good to all; he has compassion on all he has made.” Psalm 145:9 “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.” Psalm 34:8 Let’s begin with a definition, ... 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
The Most Sought After Things in the World - Romans 5:1-5 - Jan 1, 1993 - 441
A number of years ago a major American magazine published the results of a most fascinating survey. The editors had asked 16 prominent Americans what they did in order to find peace of mind in the midst of our stressful world. The responses were quite revealing.Noted author James Michener reported t ... More
The Winds Of War - Matthew 24:6 - Aug 6, 2006 - 142
(Date: January 20, 1991)What a week it’s been for all of us! This has been one of those rare moments when time, which had been rolling smoothly along, suddenly came to a total halt. Do you remember where you were when you heard the news?It was late Wednesday afternoon and I was rushing home so ... More
Noah's Ark: A Picture of Salvation - Genesis 6:9-22 - Aug 18, 2002 - 232
The story of Noah and the Ark is more popular than ever before. Even people who don’t know the Bible and never come to church know about Noah, his big boat, and all those animals coming in two by two. Two giraffes. Two tigers. Two snails, inching forward slowly. Two rabbits. Two parakeets. Eve ... More
Seven Signs Of The Second Coming - Aug 13, 2006
(Revised and Expanded January 9, 1991)The following things have happened in the last 72 hours:*Yesterday the Iraqi Revolutionary Council met with Saddam Hussein and reaffirmed that there would be no withdrawal from Kuwait either before or after January 15. “The idea of withdrawal exists only i ... More
The Fifth Law: Active Faith Releases God's Power - Hebrews 11 - Mar 24, 2002 - 552
Let’s begin by reviewing the first four laws of the spiritual life:Law 1: He’s God and We’re Not.Law 2: God Doesn’t Need Us But We Desperately Need Him.Law 3: What God Demands, He Supplies.Law 4: What You Seek, You Find.Each law covers a major area of our relationship with Go ... More
The God We Hardly Know - Sep 22, 2006
David Mains caught me off guard with his question. “If you had to grade your congregation on their knowledge of the Holy Spirit, what grade would you give them?”Up until that moment, the interview had gone well. David and his daughter Melissa had thrown me fast pitches right over the cen ... More
"We Did Not Give in to Them:" Why Unity Must be Based on Truth - Galatians 2:1-10 - May 20, 2001 - 250
I want to begin by calling your attention to the most important verse in our passage—verse 5, which reads, “We did not give in to them for a moment, so that the truth of the gospel might remain with you.” If you didn’t know anything else about the background of that statement ... More
Changing Your Mind - Romans 12:2 - Oct 20, 2006 - 727
“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Romans 12:2).We would all like to make some changes, wouldn’t we? Suppose you could change anything ... More
Stumbling Stone or Cornerstone? - Romans 9:30-33 - May 12, 2006 - 763
Last week’s sermon was called Straight Talk About Predestination. If I were giving someone else advice, I would say that a title like that is just asking for trouble. I think it’s called leading with your chin. It’s hard to think of many topics that get people hot and bothered fast ... More
Why Good People Won't Go to Heaven - Romans 10:1-4 - May 20, 2006 - 765
I’d like to talk to you about who goes to heaven. We all know that the Bible teaches the reality of heaven and the reality of hell. Jesus himself spoke of both places many times. All of us, I’m sure, would like to go to heaven if we could. Even if you are not a Christian, I’m s ... More
No Hopeless Cases - Romans 11:11-16 - Jun 12, 2007 - 768
I first met Jacob Gartenhaus about forty years ago. When I was a teenager growing up in a small town in Alabama, our pastor invited Dr. Gartenhaus to speak to us on the subject of Jewish evangelism. It was the first time I had ever heard a Jewish Christian speak. It was also the first time I had hea ... More
We’re Just Like Jonah - Jonah 1 - Jun 3, 2011 - 1286
Is there a better story in the Bible than the story of Jonah? Generations of Sunday School children have listened with wide-eyed amazement at the story of the fish that caught a man. We love this story, yet for all our telling and re-telling, we barely understand what it means. With this message we ... More
Perilous Times - II Timothy 3 - Jul 27, 2003 - 490
You’ve probably heard the old joke about the fellow who was told, “Cheer up. Things could be worse.” So he said, “I did as I was told. I cheered up, and sure enough, things got worse.” That in a nutshell is the message of II Timothy. The Apostle Paul, writing from a pri ... More
You Are What You Believe: Why the Apostles’ Creed Matters - Romans 1:16 - Jan 11, 2004 - 642
Today we are beginning a new sermon series on the Apostles’ Creed. Twelve years ago I announced to the congregation that I intended to preach through the three foundational documents of the Christian church—the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, and the Apostles’ Creed. So ... 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
Overcoming Lingering Bitterness - Genesis 45 - Dec 15, 2002 - 706
On Thursday morning, November 21, as the sun was peeking over the horizon in the port city of Sidon in southern Lebanon, Bonnie Penner Witherall was up early. On this day she was going to work at the prenatal clinic that offered medical services to the Muslim women from a nearby refugee camp. Tensio ... More
A Message For Madalyn Murray O'Hair: Why I Believe in God - Various - Oct 8, 1995 - 794
Forty years ago, Madalyn Murray O’Hair stood amid the lightning and driving rain of a Maryland thunderstorm, shook her fist at the heavens, and dared God to strike her dead. When it became clear that the Almighty was busy with more important matters, she cried out, “You see! You see! If ... 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
From Sodom to Oak Park - Genesis 19 - Jun 2, 1996 - 24
Genesis 19 tells one of the most dramatic stories in all the Bible. Even people who never go to church know that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah with a flood of burning sulphur. They have heard about Lot’s encounter with the angelic visitors, the desperate last-second escape, and the strang ... More
A Place to Share - Acts 4:32-37 - Feb 7, 1999 - 6
This is the third sermon in the four-part series “A Place to Belong.” In this series we are examining the incredible dynamic that made the early church reach so many people so quickly. As I noted in the first sermon, the first Christians had none of the advantages we consider necessary t ... More
