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Jim Butcher
Contributing sermons since Nov 13, 2000
Newest Sermons
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What Do I Want More Than Jesus?
Contributed on Jun 24, 2022
This is a passage that clearly indicates what Pilate prized more than anything else. What can we learn from him?
- Paint a picture of all the conflicting priorities we try to hold onto simultaneously: money, family, relationships, morality, power, religion, etc. THE BIG QUESTION FOR THIS MORNING: What’s the last thing in your hands? - When we think of all those things, there are situations where we have to ...read more
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Five Challenges With Finding The Truth
Contributed on Jun 9, 2022
Pilate's iconic "What is truth?" question is the centerpiece of a passage that highlights several of the ways that we struggle with truth in our lives.
PILATE ASKS A GREAT QUESTION: “What is truth?” - John 18:38a. - Many ways to take it: sincere, sneering, lost, confused. - But at the end of the day, it is an essential question. - It’s not enough to be sincere in our beliefs, we need to sincerely believe something that’s true. - What about ...read more
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When We Fail Jesus
Contributed on May 27, 2022
A look at Peter's betrayal and what we can learn from it concerning the times we fail Jesus.
OVERCONFIDENT FAITH: Peter fails Jesus three times. - John 18:15-18, 25-27. - Sometimes we have false confidence. - We think too highly of ourselves or too lightly of sin or Satan. - What was at the heart of Peter’s denials? a. Fear of death? b. There was a convenient way out (just lie)? c. ...read more
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The Forgotten Trial Of Jesus
Contributed on May 17, 2022
This overlooked portion of the trial of Jesus reveals a deep lesson on power.
- Talk about how this is the forgotten part of the trial, as well as the overall pieces of the trial. - There are basically three pieces to the religious trial and three pieces to the civil trial: 1. Religious trial. a. Here before Annas. b. Before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin (Matthew 26:57-68; ...read more
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The Gospel Of Might
Contributed on May 4, 2022
The arrest of Jesus puts a spotlight on the "Gospel of Might" versus the "Gospel of Jesus." What are the differences? And how does the backward stumbling that's described there sum it all up?
THE GOSPEL OF MIGHT: By all outward indications, Jesus is in a losing situation. - John 18:1-11. - Pieces of this outward situation: a. Jesus has a betrayer with inside information. - John 18:2. b. Jesus is in an enclosed area. - John 18:1. - It’s an olive grove and they went “into it,” so ...read more
Newest Sermon Series
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Simeon: Witness To The Child King
Contributed on Nov 17, 2021
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The Greatest Gospel: Jesus According To John
Contributed on Oct 21, 2020
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Is This The End?
Contributed on Aug 5, 2020
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Amos: Hearing God Clearly Again
Contributed on Apr 14, 2020
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The Last Supper
Contributed on Feb 5, 2020
Newest Sermon Illustrations
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Before The Water
Contributed on Nov 15, 2018
Scott Harrison, founder of charity:water, shares this story: "I recently had the chance to visit charity:water's very first project. It was a well that we had funded on my thirty-first birthday and then built in the IDP camp of Bobi, Uganda. "The sprawling camp of 31,000 people had cleared out, ...read more
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It’s Only A White Collar Crime?
Contributed on Oct 16, 2018
C.S. Lewis died in 1963, but a comment in one of his writings speaks directly to the current opioid crisis. Lewis wrote: “The greatest evil is not now done in those sordid ‘dens of crime’ that Dickens loved to paint. It is not done even in concentration camps and labour camps. In those we see its ...read more
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Rescue
Contributed on Oct 16, 2018
I am really struck by the lyrics of Lauren Daigle’s recent song “Rescue.” The singer is speaking from God’s perspective and says: “I hear the whisper underneath your breath I hear you whisper, you have nothing left I will send out an army to find you In the middle of the darkest night It’s true, ...read more
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What Khris Davis Did That No One Has Ever Done Before
Contributed on Oct 16, 2018
Khris Davis is an outfielder for the Oakland Athletics in the majors. In 2015, he batted .247 for the year. In 2016, he batted .247 for the year. In 2017, he batted .247 for the year. And during the last season, in 2018, he batted . . . , you guessed it, .247 for the year. He went 0-for-2 in ...read more
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What God Told Me At 4 A.m. In Guangzhou, China
Contributed on Apr 13, 2018
Note: this story is told by me - Jim Butcher of Madison WV. I want to tell you a story about an insight that God gave me into John 14:1-4, the passage where Jesus speaks of going to prepare a place for us. This is the story of something that happened to me several years ago while I was in ...read more