1. My fear of this coming darkness only lasts a moment.
  2. We can’t predict the harvest. We can only sow.
  3. Nothing moves or drives Paul more than preaching about “Christ and him crucified” (1 Cor. 2:2).
  4. We don't make Church "happen." Only Christ can do so. It's his happening.
  5. Unprompted, without any warning, for no reason at all, without any instigation say, "I love you." And that will wash over your parents like a beautiful absolution.
  6. Even if the numbers are bad, the news about Jesus crucified for sinners and raised to new life hasn’t become any less good.
  7. 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.
  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. We assert, we herald, the truth about God becoming King of the world in and through Jesus of Nazareth alone. It is our public announcement.