Sermon Guide

Joseph Parker, noted preacher of the City Temple in London, said, "Preach to the suffering and you will never lack a congregation. There is a broken heart in every pew." For that reason, this book is for everyone-because there are many, many things that break our hearts. Sicknesses, spiritual depression, disabilities, painful memories, strained relationships ... all of these weigh on our hearts at one time or another. Yet even in the midst of our heartache, a faith comes from Jesus Christ that not only encourages us through our pain, but also transforms our pain ... as long as we let it. These pastoral messages and personal illustrations show how the brokenhearted Christian can locate the God of all comfort in the center of their pain, and can even learn how the gospel transforms our private pain into personal praise. Read and discover how God uses the things that seek to destroy us to become the very things that bring us salvation, bring us hope, bring us to prayer, bring us together, and ultimately bring us to heaven. Book jacket.

O'Donnell opens up the Old Testament genre of wisdom literature through six chapters that look at how the gospel shines through the first and last chapters of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Job. 

In How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home, Dr. Derek W.H. Thomas explores Romans 8, which he calls "the best chapter in the Bible." Here he finds an exposition of the steps through which God leads His people in the process of their salvation, but also loving counsel on such topics as prayer and resisting the Devil, as well as exhortations and comforts for weary pilgrims. Dr. Thomas begins at Romans 8:1 with "the best news imaginable"--believers' just and deserved condemnation before God has been taken away by Jesus Christ's work on the cross. He then contrasts earthly minded and spiritually minded people, showing that only those who are spiritually minded know life. In Romans 8:29-30, he explores several steps in the process of salvation--foreknowledge, predestination, calling, justification, and, finally, glorification--which show God's invincible purpose in redemption. Finally, he unfolds the powerful promise of the final few verses of Romans 8: nothing can separate those God has redeemed from His saving love. How the Gospel Brings Us All the Way Home is a powerful exploration of the manifold gifts the heavenly Father has lavished upon His people-and a preview of the greater inheritance that lies ahead.

This is a collection of popular sermons by one of the nineteenth-century's most famous evangelists. Deemed the 'Georgia Wonder', Methodist preacher Sam Jones (1847-1906) was among the first evangelists, along with Dwight Moody, to garner a national reputation, and after Moody's death he assumed the mantle of America's premier popular preacher. Sam Jones' ""Own Book"" was a national bestseller on its initial release 120 years ago but has been largely out of print ever since. The volume collects Jones' most popular sermons, each peppered with southern wit, folk wisdom, and straightforward calls for reform, like his clarion call to ""quit your meanness. The book ably demonstrates the unvarnished humorist and moralizing preacher at his cleverest: 'Whisky is a good thing in its place', he declares in one representative passage, 'and that place is in hell. If I get there I will drink all I can get, but I won't do it here'. A brief autobiographical sketch recounts his personal trials and triumphs as well. Loved or hated, praised or reviled, Sam Jones was never ignored while he occupied the national stage. He was a larger-than-life southerner who charmed crowds across America with an inviting - albeit simple - reform-minded message. His sermons and aphorisms shed light on the social and religious culture of the late Victorian era and offer modern readers a valuable window into an exciting and turbulent age in American history. This Southern Classics edition of Sam Jones' ""Own Book"" includes a new introduction by Randall J. Stephens that explores the rise and reputation of Jones and the reception of his celebrated book.