In Preaching Articles: "desiring god"

Constant Explanations From God Wouldn’t Allow For Our Faith Or Trust

By Randy Alcorn on Dec 9, 2022

The God of providence weaves millions of details into our lives and into all the lives around us. Maybe He doesn’t have one big reason for bringing a certain person or success or failure or disease or accident into our lives; in fact, He may have hundreds of little reasons. In order to understand God’s explanations, we would have to be God.

Scripture: Romans 8:28

Tags: Faith, Trust, Sovereignty, Surrender, sanctification, Will of God, personal holiness, sovereignty of God  (view more)  (view less)

Do You Pay Attention To God's Voice While You're Preaching?

By Mark Moore on Feb 1, 2024

We pay attention to our well-crafted manuscripts and outlines. But, honestly, how many of us are paying attention to the voice of God while we are preaching?

Tags: God, Preaching, voice, preaching

Deal-Breakers: 7 Ways God May Tell A Pastor To Leave A Church

By SermonCentral .com on Mar 18, 2022

Long-term pastorates are almost always good for the church and the pastor. But when these things happen, it's time to go.

Tags: Discernment, Resignation, Knowing God's Will, church ministry

Real Love Encourages Others To Do The Right, Most God-Glorifying Thing

By SermonCentral .com on Jun 8, 2022

Ephesians 4:15 tells us to speak the truth in love, not to withhold the truth in love. Real love doesn’t quit or give up; it will offer help and point to Jesus Christ as the only true source of healing and forgiveness.

Scripture: John 1:14, Ephesians 4:15

Tags: Abortion, friendship, Real Love, speak truth in love

Hope And Perspective When We’re Dealing With Doubt

By Randy Alcorn on Dec 3, 2022

"In times of doubt, difficulty, and trials, our fundamental beliefs about God and our faith are revealed. So how can Christians find faith in the midst of doubt? How can they trust God’s plan when their lives seem out of His control, and prayers seem to go unanswered or, sometimes it feels, even unheard?"

Scripture: Romans 10:17, Romans 8:28, Ephesians 1:11, 2 Timothy 3:16, Job 23:10, Isaiah 43:2  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: doubt, Perseverance, suffering, tragedy, Promises of God, Genuine Faith, Test of Faith, sovereignty of God  (view more)  (view less)

Doubt Busters

By Lance Witt on Jun 28, 2024

"One of the things I love about the Bible is how honest it is. The pages of Scripture don’t gloss over the flaws and sins and weaknesses of people. Even the great heroes of the faith are not airbrushed or photo-shopped to make them look superhuman."

Scripture: Psalm 77:4-14, Isaiah 40:26

Tags: Faith, doubt, Remember, Trust, God's Character, God's faithfulness, doubt and fear, Crisis Of Faith  (view more)  (view less)

Is Your Preaching Less Than Christian?

By Peter Mead on Oct 12, 2021

You need more than someone in the pulpit holding a Bible. Peter Mead warns us off of three "sub-gospel" habits.

Tags: Sin, God, Preaching, Fail, preaching  (view more)  (view less)

Does Preaching Really Matter?

By Lance Witt on Sep 12, 2019

Like most pastors, I will never forget the first sermon I preached. Basically, we had to hold people at gun point to get them to listen . . .

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:21, 2 Timothy 4:2, 1 Corinthians 9:16

Tags: Preaching, God's Power, Bartimaeus, calling

How Leaders Defeat Discouragement

By Charles Stone on Apr 15, 2021

Somebody once said there are two things in life we can’t avoid, taxes and death. I’d like to add a third, discouragement. Church leader or not, you will face it. It’s an inevitable part of life. Here’s how I’ve learned to defeat discouragement.

Scripture: 1 Samuel 30:6

Tags: Discouragement, rest in god, Rest, Encouraged

It’s Time To Get Mean About The Vision God Has Given You

By SermonCentral .com on Mar 1, 2021

Your church is in desperate need of a vision that is informed by God’s Word, inspired by God’s Spirit, and applied passionately and broken-heartedly to your local context.

Tags: Amen

One-Sided Preaching Misrepresents God: How Many Sides Does Your Preaching Have?

By Sherman Haywood Cox on May 11, 2023

"Great preaching recognizes that God has called the preacher to be both a prophet and a priest."

Scripture: 2 Timothy 2:15-19

Tags: Prophet, Preaching, priest, preaching

Running The Race With God Beside Me: Eric Liddell’s Journey Of Faith - Part 1

By Duncan Hamilton on Mar 26, 2024

For all of us it can be difficult to grasp a sense of something when it is actually happening; often comprehension comes only when it is over. Not, though, for Eric Liddell. He could always identify precisely when his life changed forever. It was April 6, 1923. The time was shortly after 9pm. On that day and during that hour, Liddell became a public speaker for God.

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Running The Race With God Beside Me: Eric Liddell’s Journey Of Faith - Part 2

By Duncan Hamilton on Mar 27, 2024

Liddell wasn’t for sale at any price. He told one congregation that ‘the greatest danger was victory,’ which he further defined as ‘bringing a man up to a level above the strength of his character’. He appealed to another to ‘keep sport free from anything that tends to lower its purity and value’ and to ‘engage in it’ for ‘the sport’s sake alone’. He revealed to a third that no cheering from an athletics crowd had given as much pleasure as his religion.

Scripture: Genesis 19:30-38

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Running The Race With God Beside Me: Eric Liddell’s Journey Of Faith - Part 3

By Duncan Hamilton on Apr 16, 2024

Two years ago I travelled China’s Shandong Provence; specifically to the city that Eric Liddell knew as Weihsien and which is now called Weifang. I walked around the site of the camp where he died of a brain tumour six months before the Second World War ended. The earth that held him during that war holds him still. No one can identify where Liddell was buried. So, instead of a grave, he has a monument – an enormous slab of rose granite shipped from the Isle of Mull in the Hebrides.

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John Piper’s Prayer In The Path Of Hurricanes

By SermonCentral .com on Oct 7, 2024

A prayer for those facing the impact of the recent hurricanes.

Scripture: Romans 8:39, Job 38:1, Luke 13:4, Hebrews 13:5, Hebrews 13:8  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Faith, Comfort, Perseverance, Hope, Prayer, glory of God, Hurricane, Grace of God, Serving Others, our rock  (view more)  (view less)