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Did you see that some of the pools at the Olympic games are green? The once-blue water is now full of algae because they ran out of chemicals to process the water. Green water wouldn’t stop me from going for gold, but I do think those pools make a great illustration for life. Just as […]

God’s mercy is relentless. He does not expect us to be perfect. He expects us to make mistakes – and learn from those mistakes to improve ourselves, to become more like Him. When we talk about His mercy, what exactly does that mean? Many people in the church believe that we have to be perfect […]

From preachers to construction workers, we all have moments where we hate our job, but the single most important job as Christians is the one where we do His work. Being a follower of Christ is a spiritual commitment, one that requires discipline, loyalty, and an eagerness to please God. What does it mean to […]

Satan hates you. He hates me too. He hates anyone who loves God. Satan and his demons are crafty, devious enemies of God, and therefore, enemies of ours. Satan first showed his shrewdness in the Bible in Genesis in the Garden of Eden, while speaking with Eve: Genesis 3:1-7: He said to the woman, “Did […]

“Actions speak louder than words.” You’ve heard – and probably said – the phrase countless times. When it comes to Christianity, there is no truer saying. Our actions show God, and others, how authentic our love and faith in Him truly are. I grew up in the church, and have seen some of the most […]

Sermon Resources: Sermon Manuscript in a Word Document Sermon Slides New Years and New Series Are New Starts New beginnings. We’ve all had them at least a time or two. Things like… New baby New job New semester New teacher New pencil New toy New rule New sibling New roommate New House New neighbors New […]

Sermon Resources: Sermon Manuscript Word Document My Sermon Slides The Message: Meet John – Who was he and why does it matter? I want to introduce you to a friend…well, probably, more like an acquaintance, but someone that I love and appreciate very much. He is not here today, but if he were, I am […]

  Sometimes that it’s hard to remember that in our brokenness God is leading us to his greatness. If God is for us, no one can stand against us. When we’ve set our lives right with God, He promises to be our sufficient Savior for whatever we face. No loss, pain, or trial is too […]

In  the wake of the Paris tragedy the world is looking for hope. The only hope that will last the test of time and the loss of life is the hope that comes from God Himself. In this message, Josh takes us through the comfort of God promised to His people in Isaiah 40 and […]

Whether it is the loss of a person or the loss of a friendship, we are often crushed by the weight of relationships gone awry. Finding safety in God is a choice to walk in His safety and pay no attention to pleasing man. Viewables and Downloadables: Video for my sermon: My Sermon Notes (in […]

There are few people I am more proud of in my life than my brother, Jake.Take last night for example—Molly and I had a gentleman over for dinner. As soon as the plates were cleared and desert was arriving at the table, I grabbed my iPad to show off my brother's facebook page. His work is diverse, excellent and one in a million. If you haven't had a chance to see his work, check out the latest at JakeWeidmann.com.In this podcast, Jake and I have a phone call about his art and how it has impacted his faith. We talked about the role of art in the Bible and the way a creative God has used art to declare His glory. Jake says some a statement at the end that really impacted me—"Art can be means of going to greater intimacy with God." If you contemplate that statement, no matter how creative (or non-creative) you think you are, this may be something you need to invest in more for your walk with God. Listen and let me know what you think. Recommended Resources Jake Weidmann.com Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative by Austin Kleon Creation SwapThe post Art and God: Podcast interview with Jake Weidmann appeared first on Josh Weidmann.

Have you ever heard the phrase - “A wolf in sheep’s clothing?” It’s a statement that is often used to refer to people who are sly, tricky or deceitful. At first you may perceive a person like this to be harmless, but the closer you get to them, you find that they are out to devour whatever they can get a hold of.In 2 Corinthians 11:1-15, Paul is warning "hey, the enemy is a wolf in sheep’s clothing – he is going to trick you into something that will ruin you in the end." The Corinthian people were struggling with their faith in God because they believed false apostles – men who claimed to be speaking for God, but were actually speaking a lie.Paul wrote to tell them to hold firm to the truth he had told them. He wanted them to know that even though these false teachers may look all right on the outside, they are corrupt on the inside. At the end of this passages he warned, 'Even Satan can dress as an angel of light…but he’s still Satan on the inside.'This is a good lesson for us to understand too. We must remember that the our enemy is crafty and will even use something that looks like the truth to trick us into living a lie. Be on guard. Don’t have a misplaced theology because it will lead to a misplaced hope.The post Why You Need to Avoid Hypocrites Completely appeared first on Josh Weidmann.

Here we sit on the brink of a new year, a time seemingly to start over and reboot our life's hard drive. I am notorious for starting resolutions and failing or forgetting them by the end of January. However, I think I've found a model worth following. I recently read about one of my heroes. He lived some 300 years ago, and he knew the importance of setting a goal and sticking to it. His name was Jonathan Edwards, and when he was about 22-years-old he sat down and started a revolutionary list that plainly lay out his goals for a personal reformation. All-in-all, Edwards had 70 items on his list.I know you're thinking, if I can't even hold to one resolution, why I would be inspired by a guy with 70 times as many? Allow me to tell you why Edwards invigorates me:First off, he was young when he wrote his resolutions. It is inspiring to hear about a man even younger than me who understood the importance of analyzing life and was always seeking to improve.But that's another thing I love about Edwards - he didn't just want to improve for his own acknowledgement, but he understood that the chief-end for his resolutions was to bring glory to God. At the beginning of his list, he wrote, "Being sensible that I am unable to do anything without God's help, I do humbly entreat Him by His grace to enable me to keep these resolutions ... for Christ's sake."This is revolutionary! Think about how many resolutions we have made that are so focused on us. "If I lose weight," or "if I work out more," or "if I study harder"... all are goals that are only going to bring us bragging rights. We must be like Edwards and understand that all of our personal motives must lead us to the one goal of glorifying God!The other thing I love is that Edward's resolutions were practical. He was very specific and wrote things like:"I resolved to read Scripture steadily, consistently, and frequently...""I resolved to never do anything out of revenge...""I resolved to never speak anything that is ridiculous..."As you can see, all of his resolutions were all Bible-based. As you read them, you can think of a Scripture to back up each one.Finally, I loved that Edwards did not set these at the beginning of a year and leave them to fade into the gray matter of his mind. He continually added to them and made sure to review them weekly or as needed, so that he could be reminded of these God-minded goals.S

Savoring ChristThere is almost never a day that goes by where I am not reminded to keep “Christ and Him Crucified” at the center of my life. Last winter, on a cold snowy day in Chicago, I was unexpectedly reminded of this. Bundled in my coat, I walked past a warm little bookstore and glanced in the window to see a homeless man that had gone inside to get out of the cold.There he sat in the nice big reading chair with a half-starved look on his face. Unlike the many other homeless that were out on the street begging for money and trying to get something to eat, this man had a different idea of filling his need. He had taken a rather large picture book of food and gazed as he slowly turned through the pages. As I watched the man’s face it was as if he was sitting at a large banquette table and with every flip of the page he was served the next course of his meal. Finally, when he arrived at the desert section he grinned from ear-to-ear, and I continued to walk with a smile.This foolish man made me think of all the times in my life that I have sat satisfied with something far less than the real thing. Too many times I meddle in the meaningless effects of this world, when I could be experiencing the Almighty. Even more, it may not be sin that distracts me, but the mere everydayness of Christianity. My desire to relate to people more deeply, or preach more adequately, or do youth ministry more relevantly are all noble causes, yet they pail in comparison to knowing Christ and Him crucified.When the Cross is off-center in my life I have willingly allowed something else to take its place. Whether it is my finances, my relationships, or even this week’s sermon, which are all so urgent and all “good things”, they begin to knock out the important, Christ. How easy it is to let my ministry take the place of Christ and I go on doing things for God rather than knowing Him more closely. When this happens the aching slowly grows and I find myself homesick for the Cross due to my busyness, shallowness, and sin.For some it may be making retreats more rewarding than redemption or Wednesday nights more enthralling than God’s glory. With deep urgency, we must strive to return the Gospel to its central place in our lives. The Cross, and all its beauty is not only saving on the day of our regeneration, but should also fulfill us daily. By the Cross our hearts are found overflowing with the deepest satisfaction, and by it we are

So I was reading this passage in the Bible the other day it struck me hard…Check this out.In Ephesians 5:1 it says that we need to be “Imitators of God.” I read that, and I thought maybe it was some kind of miss print… are you kidding, me imitate Him?I even looked it up to see if that word “imitate” really meant, Imitate. and low-and-behold, It did! So I started pray and really think about what would have to happen in my life for me to be more like my holy Father. I came up with three things…First of all I realized that my life is a story. I can choose to be the author and put on my life's pages what I want, or I can hand the pen over to God and have him write the daily words of my life. I have already given my life over to God by believing upon His son, Jesus Christ. But every day, I need to make sure that I am leaving the pen in God’s hand and not trying to do life without His input.The second thing that I realized is that, because I gave my life to Christ, there is a great ending to my story. You see, I deserved a bad one. Because of my sin, I should be separated from God and all His Goodness forever. but when I received salvation in Jesus, my bad ending was erased and in its place, God wrote, “And you will live happily ever after with me.” How great is that!You can tell by the way we live—we don’t always think about the end because we are so focused on the here and now. The truth is that there is a conclusion to this life, and without Jesus it's hopeless. But with God writing the content on our pages and changing the ending, we are given great purpose to live. This is then the fuel in my tank as I drive myself to Christ-likeness.My third realization was this: My pages are tainted with the sin that I have and will commit, but those things can be eternally erased with God as my life-story author. I could try as hard as I want to cover my mistakes up, but no matter how hard I try there will always been eraser marks…and even those like little rubber nubbin thing. But When God writes my story – When I give God my faith – the only eraser marks are found on the hands and feet of Jesus. I can strive to imitate God daily knowing that He will give my strength through the holy spirit and grace when I miss the mark.The passages in God’s word that really drove this home for me was Hebrews 12:1-4Hebrews 12:1 says, "Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of

I gotta tell you this story. A girl named Cecilia waited to talk to me one night after I finished speaking at a youth convention. She stood with arms crossed, sort of hugging herself like she was cold or afraid. I asked her if she wanted to talk.“I can’t love God,” She blurted out, like it had been welling up in her for some time. Over the next half hour the flood gates of her life opened. She started by telling me about her father.“My dad’s always told me he loves me.” Cecilia said. “But, I dunno, for the past couple years I’ve been confused by his love.”What was happening was this: Several nights each week as Ceciley lay in bed she would hear the floor creak, and her dad would come down the hall and into her room. He would crawl into her bed and begin to slowly run his hand up her leg and touch places he shouldn’t.She begin to cry as she talked.“I thought that he loved me,” Ceciley stated. “But now he just uses me.”she went on...Cecilia had met a guy her age. They liked each other and this guy even told her he loved her.“He told me he wanted to show me his love,” Ceciley said, “He said we needed to have sex and so that we could experience that love. I didn’t want to… but I didn’t want to lose him either. So we did.”She was crying hard by now and gasped for air between her sentences. She just wanted to be loved in the right way, but was experiencing only the wrong. I asked if she had talked to her youth worker about this. that’s when she began to cry harder.“Yeah, I went to the church one day and met with my youth worker, I told him about my dad and my boyfriend and what they did to me. He told me it was okay, and that God still loved me. He said he cared for me and hoped the best for my life. But then, right there in his office, my youth worker started to kiss me. He said he loved me and ran his hands all over me. He used me! Right there in the church!”She had anger, fear, sorrow and hopelessness in her voice…“Is God like that?” Cicely asked bitterly. “Does God just say he loves me, then spit me out like every other man in my life?”I didn’t know if my words would mean anything, but I know God’s Word is powerful. I took Ceciley to Ephesians 3:18—a passage that shows God’s love is higher than the highest star, longer than the longest road, deeper then the deepest ocean, and wider than the widest sky

 Transcript: We all have dreams and desires. For example, I would love to travel most of Europe, see the Grand Canyon, Write a best selling book and raise a great family.I also have a deep desire to be close to God, but sometimes that desire gets pushed to the way side because of the other more tangible things in my life. If you too were honest, could you say the same thing?Wanting to be closer to God is something that all of us should long for all of the time. Like a person who has not eaten in a while groans for a good meal, we too should deeply desire to feast on the presence of God. We must "desire the divine". But what does that mean? What brings on this type of hunger? What causes us to desire God?In the Bible in the book of Exodus, chapter 20, God commands the people to love Him. You’d think Israel, the people he was speaking to, would’ve felt as if God was forcing Himself upon them as He threatened their lives (and their kids lives and their grand kids lives and their great grand kids lives) if they loved anyone but Him.But after all He had done for them, why would he have to ask them to love Him? Wouldn’t it be natural that they would love Him enough that nothing could sway their love?Obviously not, because only 12 chapters later they couldn’t wait 40 days for the Lord before their love grew fickle and they were off making a golden calf to worship.Also in Mark 12 we see Jesus reinforce the idea that we are not to love anyone beside the Lord. He cannot be compared to anyone or anything. He is the only one that can redeem us, forgive us, remove our guilt, bring us true joy… and the list goes on. And we are to love this God with all our heart, mind and strength.God demands all of our love, but why would we give more love to anyone or anything else but Him?Yes, He is a jealous lover, but rightfully so. Anything we start to adore more than Him is an idol in our lives and must be removed. Exodus 20 verse 5 says we are not to worship “Anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.”Sure, we may not go make literal statues of things and worship them, but metaphorically we take things we like and make them into a grand object of our affection. Even though Israel knew the consequences for doing this, they did it anyway. Even though we know the consequences for worshiping the other “gods” in our life, we do it

We’ve all got ‘em – those secret mistakes we never want anyone to know. The things we delight in when we are in private, but would die of embarrassment if they ever came public.You know what I’m talking about, don’t you? Unless you are a superhero — or at least superhuman — you’re probably ashamed of something. There’s a past failure or present fault that is excruciatingly painful for you to acknowledge and admit. There’s something you wouldn’t want anyone to know about, something you keep buried way down deep within yourself.Over the years I’ve spoken with hundreds of people who have opened up and told me their secret failings, chronic struggles, and agonizing wounds. In moments away from eavesdropping ears or in email exchanges away from prying eyes, people have expressed their sense of being chained and constrained, and their desperation to break free.There’s a good chance you experience shame if you’ve ever thought things like what they have said to me: - I don’t measure up to other people’s expectations, not to mention God’s expectations. - I don’t like the real me, so why should anyone else? - I act like I’ve got it all together, but beneath the polished surface I’m a phony and a fraud. - I may be smiling on the outside but dying on the inside. - I imagine God up there on his throne looking down on me with a disappointed look on his face. In my opinion, there are two kinds of shame: The kind we deserve and the kind we inherit.1. The first kind of shame comes from the guilt we feel for the wrong we've done. God created feelings of guilt as internal indicator that our lives are veering off track.For example, If I hurt someone because I was selfish - until I make that right with them and God, I am going to feel guilty.But if I take that too far and start thinking of my self as worthless and trapped, I've let shame win.2. The second kind of shame is that which is given to us – usually when we don’t deserve it.Let’s face it, human emotions easily get tangled and twisted. If we could X-ray our feelings, they would probably look like a huge bowl of spaghetti or a fifty-car pileup on the highway.Since our emotions are rarely neat and tidy, it’s not surprising that lots of people feel unreasonable shame. In these cases, unhealthy feelings are distorted, exaggerated, and most of all untrue.Unjustified sham

In this week's podcast, Josh Weidmann shares the best way to start off your sermon. There is no time more important than the beginning to get the audience's attention. This simple method will make your message a home run. Transcript: The worst parts of most sermons is the beginning. You've heard them - things like, Tap, tap, tap, is this thing on? I am so glad to be here... Thank you, Tom, Sally and someone else I am not remember right now. Or someone fumbled through their notes and just can't get off the blocksSo what does it take to have a solid start to a great public address? It requires you to be very intentional about the beginning!I've had the opportunity to be with some of the greatest preachers on the planet, and I often will ask them about how they plan their first words. Most of them have told me that they spend the most time on writing and thinking through the beginning and the end. so I've try to follow suite. I asked my Mentor, who has trained many preachers, what should be a part of every beginning. He gave me four great things that I want to give you to. So here are the things I make sure are a part of every sermons start:First I make sure that I have something that gets their attention. Whether that is statement, a story or even an intentional pregnant pause. The first 30 seconds are my most important because I if don't get my audiences attention then, I won't keep them or get them back.Second, I tell them the theme of my message. This is closely tied to my main preaching point, though I don't always tell them that point right up front. I believe that if you are going to take them on a journey, it is good to let them know what generation direction the train is headed.Third, I give them the reason for why my message is relevant to them. I think through all the types of people in my audience, and though I may not speak to each type, I make sure to answer the question "Why should you listen to me?"Fourth, I give them a glimpse of the structure of my talk. I may not say, "I will give you 3 points and a conclusion" but I will say, "We are going to look at this topic today through the life of this person or passage, and I will give you firm answer for why that matters to you along the way." Remember, they can't see your notes or map your mind, so give them some sort of skeleton to know where to hang the flesh of your talk as you go.Attention, Theme, Relevance an