I've found great virtue in two-thirds of the way into the message; right before I'm really want to nail home a point, pausing to tell a joke or to tell a light-hearted story, because I know my audience has been working with me now for 20 or 25 minutes. And if I can get them to laugh, get oxygen into their system, it wakes up those who might be sleeping, so there's something about using a story to draw people back in right before you drive home your final point. In that case I think it's real legitimate just to use a story for story's sake.

We may not see the connection between the name Jesus and the phrase "save his people from their sins," but Joseph would have. He was familiar with the Hebrew language.

There is no religion like Christianity, it is not one religion among others, it is completely different, its mixing apples and oranges.

All preaching should be as creative as we can make it. We've been entrusted with such a treasure. To have anywhere from 50 to 5000 people who give us 30 minutes of their time to hear whatever we want to say - I think they deserve all the creativity that we can give.

Christ entered our world. As a result, we can enter His.

Do you believe that God is near? He wants you to. He wants you to know that He is in the midst of your world. Wherever you are as you read these words, He is present.

Sometimes I wonder if we don't see Christ's love as much in the people he tolerated as in the pain he endured.