A Famine Not of Bread

Click here to listen to this sermon. “From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Matthew 16:21). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Are you familiar with the term “bucket list”? Screenwriter Justin Zachman first used it for his own list of things to do before he died. Then he realized the idea could become a film: two dying men racing to complete their lists. The Bucket List , starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman , was released in 2007. Since then, many people have made their own bucket lists . Maybe you have one yourself : visit Paris , run with the bulls , swim with the dolphins , sleep in an igloo. Such dreams may be exciting, but notice what they have in common: they are about what I want to do for myself. Jesus’ list was different. Every item on His list was something He would...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “ Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it” (Matthew 10:39). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! Mark Allen Powell tells this story in his book, Loving Jesus : I once saw a teenager at a shopping mall wearing a T-shirt that said, “Jesus Is for Losers.” At first I thought this was a cynical put-down of Christianity on the part of some adolescent who’d decided he was too cool to be associated with religion. Then I noticed the shirt had a Bible reference in parentheses beneath its bold statement. It was actually a Christian T-shirt, witnessing to the gospel. Of course! Jesus is for losers, not against them. Jesus came into this world to dine with outcasts and misfits and to proclaim good news to the disadvantaged, the neglected, the marginalized, and the abused. Tax collectors, harlots, Samaritans, lepers ... losers, all. Jesus is for them. [i] To say Jesus is for lo...

Click here to listen to this sermon. “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ! The word folly refers to a lack of good sense, judgment, or wisdom. It describes actions, ideas, or beliefs that are considered foolish, unwise, or absurd—often because they go against common sense or accepted wisdom. Folly can also mean a costly or foolish undertaking that is unlikely to succeed. But “accepted wisdom” is not always wise. What is considered folly is not always unwise. History is full of so-called follies that only looked foolish until the day they bore fruit. For instance: When Robert Fulton put a steam engine on a boat in 1807, people laughed and called it Fulton’s Folly . Many observers mocked the project beforehand, convinced that a steam engine could never reliably or safely propel a boat upstream against the current. ...