1. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  2. Nothing moves or drives Paul more than preaching about “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
  3. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  4. This is the message of Lent. We are not called to sacrifice for Jesus in order to earn our salvation. Rather, we are called to remember the sacrifice that Jesus made for us.
  5. As disciples of Jesus, our righteousness cannot be performed before others, because our righteousness was already performed by Jesus.
  6. There is a revival, no less real and even more definitive, taking place in every church, every weekend, where God’s people gather around his gifts.
  7. Ash Wednesday's purpose is not to motivate our resolve to redouble our efforts to do better.
  8. Reading includes, on some level, striving. Hearing, on the other hand, remains passive.
  9. Zephaniah has given us something more visceral to help us understand the love of God: the sound of salvation.
  10. This sermon was originally given at Luther Seminary chapel on May 20, 1986.
  11. Predestination, Jim knew, is no longer a frightening doctrine of mystery when you understand that God makes his choice about you in the simple word of God, given from one sinner to another.
  12. The answer to our messages is God's "yes," Jesus, who sends his preachers to proclaim that there's no place for us now other than in the grip of our God and Savior.