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The Hardest Sermons You'll Ever Have to Preach: Help from Trusted Preachers for Tragic Times
Cancer. Suicide. The death of a child. As much as we wish we could avoid tragedies like these, eventually they will strike your church community. When they do, pastors must be ready to offer help by communicating the life-changing message of the gospel in a way that offers hope, truth, and encouragement during these difficult circumstances. Those asked to preach in the midst of tragedy know the anxiety of trying to say appropriate things from God’s Word that will comfort and strengthen God’s people when emotions and faith are stretched thin. This indispensable resource helps pastors prepare sermons in the face of tragedies by providing suggestions for how to approach different kinds of tragedy, as well as insight into how to handle the theological challenges of human suffering. Each topic provides a specific description of the context of the tragedy, the key concerns that need to be addressed in the message, and an outline of the approach taken in the sample sermon that follows. Topics addressed include: abortion; abuse; responding to national and community tragedies; the death of a child; death due to cancer and prolonged sickness; death due to drunk driving; drug abuse; and suicide. Bryan Chapell, author of Christ-Centered Preaching, has gathered together messages from some of today’s most trusted Christian leaders including: John Piper, Tim Keller, Michael Horton, Jack Collins, Dan Doriani, Jerram Barrs, Mike Khandjian, Robert Rayburn, Wilson Benton, Bob Flayhart, and George Robertson. Each chapter provides you with the resources you need to communicate the life-giving hope of the gospel in the midst of tragedy. In addition, the appendices provide further suggestions of biblical texts for addressing various subjects as well as guidance for conducting funerals.
304 pages, Paperback
First published August 15, 2011
66 people are currently reading
263 people want to read
About the author
Zondervan
1,696 books106 followersZondervan is an international Christian media and publishing company. Zondervan is a founding member of the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association (ECPA). They are a part of HarperCollins Christian Publishing, Inc. and has multiple imprints including Zondervan Academic, Zonderkidz, Blink, and Editorial Vida. Zondervan is the commercial rights holder for the New International Version (NIV) Bible in North America.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
March 7, 2022
Some of the sermons were amazing! Some of them had some questionable statements (not to say the entire sermon was bad, but just some very questionable statements). I would use parts of the book but it would not be a book I would end up rereading again.
June 8, 2013
An absolutely wonderful collection of sermons to help people through devastating times of loss and tragedy with some very helpful and though provoking insights.
February 20, 2019
I am grateful for this compilation of sermons put together by Bryan Chapell. I cannot imagine the difficulty of being a pastor and walking alongside others through difficult times such as the examples provided in this book. It makes me all the more thankful for those who have been called by God to preach and walk with individuals and families who are hurting. Though I cannot put a finger on any particular sermon that stood out, I do remember benefiting from majority of them and learning how to handle situations such as death. It is important to praise a person's lifestyle and when their salvation is in doubt, it is ok to highlight God's goodness and preach the gospel.
April 29, 2022
This book is wholly and utterly depressing. And it’s supposed to be. This book does teach a few things: it is a reminder that funeral sermons should be different than revival or Sunday morning worship. They also do not need to be long. The sermons in here are of varying lengths. The cover leads that it is a vast array of preachers but actually, Chapell provides most of the material.
May 28, 2025
It's exactly what you need it to be. Very helpful to see the different approaches pastors take to handling the hardest of circumstances. Though it was a tough read (emotionally, hard to read about tragedy after tragedy), I will definitely be keeping this on my shelf--readily available--for future moments where I'll need to borrow from this wisdom.
March 28, 2025
It’s really hard to read a book like this cover to cover, but it was eye-opening and encouraging to read these sermons. There really is no other means of preaching in tragedy besides the message of the cross. I’ll probably thumb through it in the future with questions while prepping for funerals.
January 17, 2026
Excellent, practical, and biblical. I have preached many services based on the examples they gave. Yet I learned a lot, and in many cases was reassured how I have handled various tough services. I will refer back to this book. Highly recommend for pastors.
April 17, 2012
Few, if any, would disagree that one has ever felt prepared to preach what every preacher would consider their hardest sermons. So often we go through preaching classes and read books on how to hone the preaching craft and never think about those sermons that we will have to preach that will be the most challenging on so many levels. Pastors are never prepared for the first and hardly feel more prepared for each subsequent one.
Death. It befalls us all whether we see it around the corner or it comes to us unexpectedly. Every preacher will have their share of sermons tied to death through community tragedy, the death of an unborn or young child, death by suicide, death by tragic circumstances or death by sudden or prolonged natural causes. Though no funeral is easy to preach some are harder than others due to the nature of the circumstances and every preacher hopes he can receive help and guidance on how to preach his first and many more after.
Perhaps the first of its kind, Bryan Chapell has brought together some of the hardest sermons ever preached on a wide variety of topics. The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach is a compilation of sermons by well-known pastors like Mark Dever, John Piper, Bryan Chapell, Tim Keller and Michael Horton. In the introduction, Chapell points out that all of the preachers featured in this book are from “the Reformed theological perspective, believing in the sovereign control of God over all things” (p. 12).
This sovereign control of God over all things is one of the defining and unifying features of this collection of sermons. Each pastor believes that God is not hands off in the midst of tragedy but is sovereignly working all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). At the same time, these pastors realize that as finite creatures we cannot comprehend all the workings of God and that God ash seen fit not to reveal to us here on earth the reasoning and wisdom of everything he does and allows. Thus, there is always mystery in tragedy. Yet, within the mystery of God’s sovereign control amidst tragedy is a message of hope – the message of the cross. It is only because of the cross and Christ’s redemptive work on it that we can have any hope amidst tragedy. “The cross of Christ is the warrant for confidence in God’s promises of ultimate good, despite great heartache” (p. 15).Though the believer grieves in the death of others, we can come out of it with the hope that Christ has died to death for those who put their faith in Him as the only salvation from the penalty of death for their sins. Further, though He has died to death on our behalf He has risen to life and thus conquered death. It is because of the resurrection that our hope is secure and that one day “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4, ESV).
It is these truths, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that runs deeply through each sermon in this book. Each sermon is drenched in the hope offering message of the gospel. Though the circumstances of each death and funeral are different, the ever applicable message of the cross is the same. This is the unifying and underlying thread that runs through each sermon presented here. There are times in reading through a sermon that you will be so emotionally drawn into the situation and the joyfulness of the hope of the gospel that you will be brought to tears.
The book is broken into five parts and each has sermons dealing with preaching in response to tragedy like 9/11, after the loss of a child like a miscarriage, at funerals with difficult circumstances like premature death, after the death of a public figure like a celebrity and after a suicide like that of a friend.
The setting in which the sermon was preached is explained followed by any concerns the preacher had to take into consideration while preparing for and preaching the message. This part is very helpful because it allows you to see by example the kinds of things preachers in these circumstances need to be sensitive to. The wisdom and carefulness of though in this section of each chapter is outstanding. In light of the concerns for each situation, the following approach each pastor takes in delivering the message is explained. This is equally full of wisdom as the aim of each sermon is discussed and the pastor looks at the situation of the death and those to whom he will be speaking.
Sermon after sermon, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach is a goldmine of pastoral wisdom and gospel truth applied to preaching the hardest sermons a pastor will ever have to preach. This is the kind of book that should have been written years ago and I hope it is one of the top books on preaching for generations of preachers to come. Every man preparing for the ministry and every pastor in the ministry needs to have this book on their shelf!
NOTE: I received this book from Zondervan in return for a review and was under no obligation to provide a favorable review nor was I compensated.
Death. It befalls us all whether we see it around the corner or it comes to us unexpectedly. Every preacher will have their share of sermons tied to death through community tragedy, the death of an unborn or young child, death by suicide, death by tragic circumstances or death by sudden or prolonged natural causes. Though no funeral is easy to preach some are harder than others due to the nature of the circumstances and every preacher hopes he can receive help and guidance on how to preach his first and many more after.
Perhaps the first of its kind, Bryan Chapell has brought together some of the hardest sermons ever preached on a wide variety of topics. The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach is a compilation of sermons by well-known pastors like Mark Dever, John Piper, Bryan Chapell, Tim Keller and Michael Horton. In the introduction, Chapell points out that all of the preachers featured in this book are from “the Reformed theological perspective, believing in the sovereign control of God over all things” (p. 12).
This sovereign control of God over all things is one of the defining and unifying features of this collection of sermons. Each pastor believes that God is not hands off in the midst of tragedy but is sovereignly working all things together for good to those who love Him and are called according to his purpose (Rom. 8:28). At the same time, these pastors realize that as finite creatures we cannot comprehend all the workings of God and that God ash seen fit not to reveal to us here on earth the reasoning and wisdom of everything he does and allows. Thus, there is always mystery in tragedy. Yet, within the mystery of God’s sovereign control amidst tragedy is a message of hope – the message of the cross. It is only because of the cross and Christ’s redemptive work on it that we can have any hope amidst tragedy. “The cross of Christ is the warrant for confidence in God’s promises of ultimate good, despite great heartache” (p. 15).Though the believer grieves in the death of others, we can come out of it with the hope that Christ has died to death for those who put their faith in Him as the only salvation from the penalty of death for their sins. Further, though He has died to death on our behalf He has risen to life and thus conquered death. It is because of the resurrection that our hope is secure and that one day “He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things has passed away” (Rev. 21:4, ESV).
It is these truths, the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ that runs deeply through each sermon in this book. Each sermon is drenched in the hope offering message of the gospel. Though the circumstances of each death and funeral are different, the ever applicable message of the cross is the same. This is the unifying and underlying thread that runs through each sermon presented here. There are times in reading through a sermon that you will be so emotionally drawn into the situation and the joyfulness of the hope of the gospel that you will be brought to tears.
The book is broken into five parts and each has sermons dealing with preaching in response to tragedy like 9/11, after the loss of a child like a miscarriage, at funerals with difficult circumstances like premature death, after the death of a public figure like a celebrity and after a suicide like that of a friend.
The setting in which the sermon was preached is explained followed by any concerns the preacher had to take into consideration while preparing for and preaching the message. This part is very helpful because it allows you to see by example the kinds of things preachers in these circumstances need to be sensitive to. The wisdom and carefulness of though in this section of each chapter is outstanding. In light of the concerns for each situation, the following approach each pastor takes in delivering the message is explained. This is equally full of wisdom as the aim of each sermon is discussed and the pastor looks at the situation of the death and those to whom he will be speaking.
Sermon after sermon, The Hardest Sermons You’ll Ever Have to Preach is a goldmine of pastoral wisdom and gospel truth applied to preaching the hardest sermons a pastor will ever have to preach. This is the kind of book that should have been written years ago and I hope it is one of the top books on preaching for generations of preachers to come. Every man preparing for the ministry and every pastor in the ministry needs to have this book on their shelf!
NOTE: I received this book from Zondervan in return for a review and was under no obligation to provide a favorable review nor was I compensated.
February 9, 2018
Excellent resource.
August 26, 2018
This is a very helpful resource tool.
March 29, 2019
Very, very helpful and practical. Recommended for all who desire/plan to enter ministry.
May 9, 2019
Someone once told me this is the most important book someone in the pastoral ministry can own. They were right.
May 20, 2019
Good resource
This book is very practical at it helps with conducting funerals. Funerals are never easy to conduct, but some are just harder. This helps with both.
This book is very practical at it helps with conducting funerals. Funerals are never easy to conduct, but some are just harder. This helps with both.
May 11, 2014
The format of this book is it just gives a scenario and prints the sermon someone (mostly Chapell) preached. It's helpful to get an idea of the sticky, hard, ethical, and theological questions that one must address when a tragedy occurs, so it's valuable in that sense. However, it is not very fun to read. Still, a good book to have as a reference.
June 18, 2013
As a non-pastor (!) what I found most helpful in this book was simply seeing the gospel played out in story after story, horror after horror. The gospel is beautiful, even in the darkest circumstances, and this book shows off many facets of that beauty.
November 1, 2013
Excellent ministry help for some incredibly difficult situations to minister in the midst of, to people who are utterly in need of the love of Christ.
April 3, 2014
A wonderful and amazing book. It brings you to tears and uplifts you with amazon sermons. This book reminds us that even in the most horrible situations, God is still in control and God loves us.
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews