Sermon Titles

More than putting something in the bulletin, Bill put thought in his sermon titles as he developed the sermon outline. Thumbing through his sermon notebooks to find references for quotes on the subject of the church, I noticed some unique titles. It was like being in a pew at WGC again. A friend has mentioned one title and sermon as her favorite: “The Man Behind the Shadows,” a Christmas message on Joseph. In that series Bill also preached on “The Irreverence of His Coming.” For Pentecost Sunday, Bill gave teaching on the Holy Spirit: “Putting a Face with the Name” (Acts 19:2), along with “Not Home Alone” from John 14. I like the sermon title “After Easter, What?” and a similar one, “Monday’s Coming.”

Note these titles with Scripture references:

Living East of Eden – Galatians 5:19-21; There’s a Hole in the Bucket – Romans 3:9-25; Hitting the Window (started with a military illustration) – Matthew 7:13-14; Testing the Teachers – Matthew 7:15-20; Dare to Be Average – 1Timothy 1:12-17; What Pulls Your String? – Romans 7:13-20; Let’s Have a Party! (for Easter) – 1 Corinthians 5:8; and Warm Fuzzies and Cold Reality – Romans 6:1-14 and Amos 5:14-24.

During Sunday school recently one member said he had not heard a sermon on the book of Ezra. I spoke up: Bill preached a series on Ezra and Nehemiah and you can hear it on Sermon Cloud. That series had the title: “Where Do You Go from Failure?”

For Philemon, an interesting choice for a series, Bill gave the title “Ripples of Real Faith.” He said: thank God for people who make waves. Do you have a faith that makes waves, or at least causes ripples? One sermon in the series asked: What if the story played out differently? 1) Onesimus refuses to return, 2) Philemon refuses to forgive, 3) Onesimus cannot forgive himself, and 4) Onesimus repents but doesn’t change. To these he gave present-day applications. Bill closed with: Facing facts does not mean forfeiting love.