Sermon Central
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Jim Butcher
Contributing sermons since Jan 1, 2000
Newest Sermons
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Where Our Striving For Achievement Leads Us
Contributed on Jun 9, 2026
Solomon speaks here about the meaninglessness of our endless striving. Does the Bible have a better option for us?
- Reminder that the nature of the book of Ecclesiastes is someone trying to make sense of life with a deep connection to God. In this passage we see Solomon wrestling with achievement and its limitations. What he has to say has some insight to it, but it ultimately comes to a place of hopelessness. ...read more
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How Should We Respond To The Evil And Oppression In The World?
Contributed on May 21, 2026
Solomon ponders the oppression we see all around us in the world. How should we respond?
“POOR, NASTY, BRUTISH, AND SHORT”: We live in a world of evil and oppression. - Ecclesiastes 4:1. - The sermon outline quote comes from a famous statement by the English philosopher Thomas Hobbes, who lived in the 1600s. - Solomon looks at the oppression that so many experience in the world and ...read more
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Why Did The World’s Wisest Man Say Life Is Meaningless?
Contributed on May 11, 2026
The first three chapters of Ecclesiastes lay out a picture of someone trying to make sense of the world without a solid connection with God.
SERIES SET-UP: Ecclesiastes is a book that shows where you end up if you try to make sense of existence without a deep connection to God. - Ecclesiastes 1:2. - 1 Kings 3:9-10; 1 Kings 10:14-29; 1 Kings 11:1-10. - Don't step on the next point. - We need to do a little explanation as we get ...read more
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Most Misunderstood: "my Thoughts Are Not Your Thoughts"
Contributed on Apr 29, 2026
This famous passage is usually thought to speak to how God's wisdom is far above our understanding. But when you read the passage in context, that's not what it's about.
- When doing this sermon, you need to only list the five points once in the sermon outline but go through them twice. “MY THOUGHTS ARE NOT YOUR THOUGHTS”: This is normally interpreted to mean that God’s wisdom is beyond our understanding. - Isaiah 55:8-9. THE OUTLINE OF THIS PASSAGE: 1. ...read more
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What Do You Want?
Contributed on Apr 28, 2026
What can we learn from the three main players here and what each of them wanted?
- There are a number of ways to approach this interesting story. I have chosen to look at what the three main people/groups in this story want. WHAT ZACCHAEUS WANTS: To be accepted by Jesus, even at the cost of his reputation and riches. - Luke 19:2-9. - Exodus 22:1; Numbers 5:6-7. - Zacchaeus ...read more
Newest Sermon Series
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Ecclesiastes: Life Without God
Contributed on May 11, 2026
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How You Should Pray: Embracing The Lord's Prayer
Contributed on Apr 9, 2025
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Ezekiel
Contributed on Mar 11, 2024
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Re-Creation
Contributed on Jan 24, 2024
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The Greatest Gospel Explanation Ever
Contributed on Nov 7, 2023
Newest Sermon Illustrations
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Before The Water
Contributed on Nov 15, 2018
Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water, shares this story: "I recently had the chance to visit charity:water's very first project. It was a well that we had funded on my thirty-first birthday and then built in the IDP camp of Bobi, Uganda. "The sprawling camp of 31,000 people had cleared out, ...read more
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It’s Only A White Collar Crime?
Contributed on Oct 16, 2018
C.S. Lewis died in 1963, but a comment in one of his writings speaks directly to the current opioid crisis. Lewis wrote: “The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its ...read more
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Rescue
Contributed on Oct 16, 2018
I am really struck by the lyrics of Lauren Daigle’s recent song “Rescue.” The singer is speaking from God’s perspective and says: “I hear the whisper underneath your breath I hear you whisper, you have nothing left I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night It’s true, ...read more
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What Khris Davis Did That No One Has Ever Done Before
Contributed on Oct 16, 2018
Khris Davis is an outfielder for the Oakland Athletics in the majors. In 2015, he batted .247 for the year. In 2016, he batted .247 for the year. In 2017, he batted .247 for the year. And during the last season, in 2018, he batted . . . , you guessed it, .247 for the year. He went 0-for-2 in ...read more
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What God Told Me At 4 A.m. In Guangzhou, China
Contributed on Apr 13, 2018
Note: this story is told by me - Jim Butcher of Madison WV. I want to tell you a story about an insight that God gave me into John 14:1-4, the passage where Jesus speaks of going to prepare a place for us. This is the story of something that happened to me several years ago while I was in ...read more