World Challenge Sermons

For centuries, God kept a mystery hidden, and he chose Paul, a former persecutor of the church who called himself “the very least of all the saints,” to reveal it. In Ephesians 3:1–13, that mystery comes to light: people who were once far off, outsiders considered unclean and without hope, are now fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. This message invites us to see every good thing in our lives as a gift we never earned, to believe that no one is too far gone for God’s relentless grace, and to come into his presence with bold confidence instead of fear or formulas. It also shows how deeply God loves his church, imperfect as she is, choosing her to display his manifold wisdom to a hurting world and even to the angels in the heavenly places.
Main Points:
Grace means receiving what you don’t deserve. Your calling, your family, your home, and even the breath in your lungs are gifts, not wages, and the faithful response is to steward them well for God’s glory.
The mystery of Christ is that those once far from God are now fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise. To first-century ears this was outrageous news, and it is still glorious news for us today.
No one is too far gone. The same grace that relentlessly pursued Augustine and transformed Nicky Cruz from a violent gang leader into an evangelist can reach the person you’ve been praying for, so don’t stop praying.
At the foot of the cross, everyone stands equal. Whether you’ve followed Jesus your whole life or for just a few days, your deepest identity is being in Christ, and that calls us to fight for unity without compromising true doctrine.
You have bold, confident access to God. The door that was once closed is now flung wide open, so you can come to him freely and unashamed, not weighed down by rules and have-tos, simply enjoying his presence.
The riches of Christ are unsearchable. Nothing compares to knowing him, and through faith you become his treasure and a fellow heir who shares in his inheritance.
Every believer is called to the ministry of the gospel, whether pastor, construction worker, nurse, or stay-at-home mom. Live it out at work, at home, and in your neighborhood, and give it words, because kindness alone doesn’t tell people what Jesus has done.
The church is central to God’s eternal plan. Through her, his manifold wisdom is made known even to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, and despite her flaws and the wounds of church hurt, Jesus loves his bride. We need each other, so don’t neglect your brothers and sisters in Christ.

https://wcmin.us/WS261028c

A city can look completely alive: deals closing, crowds moving, parties running all night. But God looks at the heart and hears the quiet question underneath it all: “Is this all there is to life?” In this message, David Wilkerson says plainly that sin pays its wages in death. It shows up as empty pleasure, boredom, failed marriages, and souls past feeling. Then he points to the living proof sitting in the pews: people who were once dead in trespasses and sins and have been raised to new life. They include prodigals pulled back from the edge, marriages declared dead and then restored, and a hardened heart that finally learned to cry. No one is here by accident. God, rich in mercy, has had you on his radar all along, and his love is knocking at the door of your heart. Open it, and the one who is the Resurrection and the Life will raise you up.
Preached: August 2, 2009
Main Points:
Spiritual death doesn’t always look like death. A busy schedule, a full calendar, and a night of fun can hide a heart that is empty inside and asking, “Is this all there is?”
Sin can be pleasurable for a season, but God means it when he says, “The wages of sin is death.” What starts as excitement ends in boredom, emptiness, and loss.
Christ still raises the dead today. Lives that were wasted, marriages headed for divorce and ministries wrecked by sin are being brought back to life by his power.
It doesn’t matter how far you’ve fallen or how much you’ve lost. A single honest cry for help in your darkest hour is enough for God to begin restoring what sin destroyed.
Salvation is not earned by good works. “But God, who is rich in mercy,” reached down while we were still dead in sin, raised us with Christ, and seated us with him in heavenly places.
You are not here by chance. The Holy Spirit arranges divine appointments, and he has been pursuing you long before you ever thought of seeking him.
Even the coldest, most bitter heart can be broken open. When God touches someone who is dead inside, the tears that come wash out years of rejection and bitterness.
God is calling his prodigal sons and daughters home. Put away the old life, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and receive the abundant life found only in Christ.

https://wcmin.us/SS261025c

With fear spreading across the world after 9/11, David Wilkerson turns to Isaiah’s warning that gladness is taken from a proud nation under judgment. But the same prophets also saw a holy remnant who would “obtain joy and gladness.” This sermon calls believers to the mountain of prayer to feast on Christ, who was anointed with the oil of gladness. There they can lose their fear of death and stand at peace while the world reels.
Preached: July 28, 2002
Main Points:
• When a nation becomes proud and forgets God, one of the first things lost is its gladness. Fear moves in, the singing stops, and even prosperity can’t buy back the joy.
• People reach for distractions, pills, parties, and screens to numb their fear, but when morning comes, the emptiness is still there. Lasting gladness can’t be manufactured. It has to be received.
• In the same days the world loses its joy, God promises a holy remnant who will “obtain joy and gladness,” a joy no headline, crisis, or judgment can steal.
• Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness, and he has enough for all of us. Walking in the Spirit means walking in that oil.
• The strongest witness in a fearful world isn’t a forced smile or a quick Bible verse. It’s quiet peace in the middle of real suffering, the kind that makes people ask what’s different about you.
• Many believers talk fear instead of casting their cares on the Lord. Our homes and marriages need a baptism of joy, so the people we love come home to gladness, not gloom.
• God lovingly asks why we fear a man who will die and forget the one who parted the sea for his people. He is still the deliverer, and his people are safe in his hand.
• The only way to keep this joy is to go up to the mountain of prayer and feast on Christ daily. When you lose your fear of death and live for the day you’ll see him face to face, nothing can move you.
https://wcmin.us/SS261018c

Jesus is not a distant priest who stands apart from human pain. He is the great high priest who has felt every weakness we carry, and he is praying for us right now. Walking through Hebrews 4:14–16, Evan Wilkerson speaks to anyone tired, distracted, or tempted to let go when life gets hard. Like the pressured believers to whom Ephesians was first written, we can drift away, telling God we’ll come back once we’ve figured things out. Evan answers with the gospel. Because the veil was torn, the throne of judgment has become a throne of grace, and we are invited to come boldly, speak frankly, and receive mercy and grace in our time of need.
Preached: August 23, 2026
Main Points:
Picture walking a bridge 150 feet up and gripping your phone tight. Now picture a car coming toward your daughter in the street, and the grip you’d use to pull her to safety. That’s how tightly we’re called to hold fast to Jesus.
Play a note on one piano and the same note hums in another piano across the room, with no one touching it. Jesus put on our human body and carried it into heaven, so when the chord of our fear is struck, it resonates with him.
He was hungry, thirsty, and sorrowful to the point of death, so stressed that he sweat drops of blood. Whatever you’re facing, he knows what it’s like.
C.S. Lewis said that only those who resist temptation know how strong it is. Because Jesus never gave in, he alone knows temptation to the full.
Once a year, a high priest stepped into the holy of holies with a rope tied to his foot. If the bells stopped ringing, they pulled him out. Now, because of Jesus’ blood, every prayer brings us into that same holy place with confidence.
To “come boldly” means freedom of speech: frank, honest prayer. You don’t need polished words or a cleaned-up life, just your heart, told to a God who wants to hear it.
Evan shares how a confusing season about his work exposed that he’d placed his identity in his job. His distracted prayers ended up stirring a deeper hunger for God’s presence, until he could say, “God, I want only you.”
Like a dad who loves it when his little girls run up to show him their drawings, God delights when his children come near and tell him what’s on their hearts.

https://wcmin.us/WS261014c

In a season of fear, when Newsweek reported that most Americans could no longer sleep and New York braced for the next attack, David Wilkerson stood before a congregation of weary, faithful believers and spoke to those who had done everything right and still found themselves face down in the dust. Drawing from Isaiah 51 and 52, he describes God looking at his people, the ones who seek him and love him, and asking in loving disbelief why they have let the enemy walk over them. This is a message for the afflicted who are "drunken, but not with wine," the ones staggering under a crisis they did not cause. God has already spoken the word of deliverance. He is taking the cup of trembling out of their hands. Now it is time to shake off the dust, put the beautiful garments back on, and rise up in faith.
Preached: June 9, 2002
Some believers have laid their bodies down like a street while the enemy walks over them, and God says plainly, it's enough.
"The hardest part of faith is the last half hour." Just when God has already spoken the word, we feel the most burdened, and that is exactly when we must not give up.
One of David Wilkerson's kids called asking, "What do you do when you've done everything right but nothing seems to turn out right?" It's a cry that echoes from pastors' studies to living rooms everywhere.
After more than fifty years of ministry and fifty years of marriage, through fires, floods, and distress, David Wilkerson declares, "My God has never once failed me. Never once!"
The root of our fear is forgetting the Lord our maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. We rush to be set free instead of asking to see his majesty inside the trial.
Not his wife, his family, his books, or the ministries he built could satisfy the deepest hunger of David Wilkerson's soul. Only a fresh revelation of Christ can do that.
Even after an angel strengthened him in the garden, Jesus was still in agony and prayed more earnestly. The strength didn't take the cup away. It carried him all the way to victory.
A young woman with a severe facial disfigurement had prayed for years for a husband and a child. She handed her pastor a bar of soap and a baby rattle, the symbols of that dream, and said she had laid it down because Jesus had become her husband and children now flock to her.

https://wcmin.us/SS261011c