In Preaching Articles: "love your enemies"

Change Your Sermon By Changing Your Spices

By Erik Raymond on May 19, 2023

Are you constantly mining the same sources for your sermon illustrations?

Scripture: Psalm 38:1-10, Colossians 4:1-5

Tags: Read, Preaching, Devotional, Spices, Classic, preaching  (view more)  (view less)

John Piper, George Mueller, And The Pleasures Of God

By SermonCentral .com on Aug 9, 2022

God is like a great Niagara Falls—you look at it and think: surely this can’t keep going at this force for year after year after year. It seems like it would have to rest. Or it seems like some place up stream it would run dry. But, no, it just keeps surging and crashing and making honeymooners happy century after century. That’s the way God is about doing us good. He never grows weary of it. It never gets boring to him.

Scripture: Isaiah 65:17-18, Jeremiah 32:39-41, Psalm 119:68, Deuteronomy 30:9, Ephesians 2:7, Philippians 4:19  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Salvation, Unfailing Love, john piper, Endless Grace, Riches of Grace, George Mueller  (view more)  (view less)

8 Ways To Hook Your Congregation Into Your Message

By SermonCentral .com on May 12, 2020

Whether you’re looking back at Plato or Jesus, virtually every culture has had great communicators who realized the power of attention-grabbing hooks.

Tags: Bird, Preaching, Anxiety, Field, flowers, preaching, anxiety  (view more)  (view less)

How Your Preaching Can Hurt Your Church

By Erik Raymond on Apr 25, 2025

Like so many blessings from God, we can elevate them to become a distraction or even an idol.

Scripture: 1 Peter 5:1

Tags: Preaching, preaching

11 Steps To Connect Your Volunteers To Your Vision

By John Gilman Ii on Feb 19, 2021

How can a group of people who are committed to seeing something great happen and are willing to put in the time and energy it takes, only to see their vision fail?

Tags:

Has Your Emotional Brain Hijacked Your Leadership?

By Charles Stone on Dec 1, 2023

Great ministry leaders keep their emotions in check. Unfortunately, when we don’t keep them in check, our emotional brain can hijack clear thinking and good leadership.

Scripture: Romans 10:10

Tags: Emotions, leadership, Brain, memory, Decision making, pastoral leadership, Pastoral Ministry, church ministry, Leadership, brain  (view more)  (view less)

Your Great Preaching Is Not Going To Build Your Church!

By Joe Mckeever on Sep 12, 2022

Get out of the office, pastor, and knock on some doors. Later, you can get your people to do it. But first, you do it. Do it by yourself, if you must. Or take someone with you. Do it by appointment or cold-turkey. But do it. That is as profound a way as I know to build a great church.

Tags: Church Growth, Church Attendance, Personal Evangelism, Growth Strategy, Building the Church, Out of the Office, Door to door, church attendance  (view more)  (view less)

Preaching God's Dangerous Truth

By Sherman Haywood Cox on Jun 17, 2020

We love to preach the Good News, but it doesn't reach its full potential until it challenges us to dream big.

Scripture: Luke 2:10

Tags: Preaching, preaching

Does Your Building Speak Louder Than Your Preaching?

By Ron Geyer on May 28, 2021

Actors know that where a story is told can influence how or whether the story is heard. It's true whether your story comes from Shakespeare or Solomon.

Tags: Building, Preaching, Sound, room, Loud  (view more)  (view less)

The Worst Thing About My Own Sermons

By Joe Mckeever on Aug 22, 2024

Joe McKeever loves praise as much as the next guy. He also knows the preaching error he is most likely to make.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4:5

Tags: Preaching, preaching

Preach The 'shoulds' And Not 'the Shouldn'ts'

By Joe Hoagland on Aug 15, 2019

Jesus is not just about getting rid of a bunch of behaviors but it is also about living out positive actions inspired by the grace and love of Jesus.

Tags: Preaching, preaching

Is Your Church Lying?

By Greg Stier on Jan 15, 2025

When it comes to evangelism, a mission statement can turn from big black letters on a church marquee to a little white lie that the church is telling the community.

Scripture: Acts 4:31

Tags: Evangelism, Church, Gospel, Honesty, Church General, Evangelism How To, evangelism, gospel, church  (view more)  (view less)

Understanding Your Capacity

By Steve Smith on Mar 17, 2022

If we do not understand our own limits in this life, we will never be content, satisfied or happy!

Tags: recovery, Rest, soul care, avoiding burnout, Capacity, capacity  (view more)  (view less)

Are Small Churches Less Fruitful?

By SermonCentral .com on Sep 26, 2022

Does the size of a church always speak of its faithfulness?

Scripture: John 15:5, Matthew 7:20, Matthew 12:33-34, Luke 3:9-14, Luke 3:8, Matthew 13:23  (view more)  (view less)

Tags: Ministry, Fruit, Faithfulness, Trusting God, Church Growth, Church size, Love One Another, ministry  (view more)  (view less)

The Central Message Of The Church Is Reconciliation

By Jeff K. Clarke on Oct 10, 2022

“The essence of forgiveness is absorbing pain instead of giving it.” – Timothy Keller

Scripture: Romans 5:8, 2 Corinthians 5:18-19

Tags: Forgiveness, Gospel, Reconciliation, God's Love, forgive, Forgiveness in Jesus, gospel proclamation, The Church's Message, gospel  (view more)  (view less)