The preaching theme for 2013 and the 2014 National Festival of Young Preachers is Questions of the Soul. There are approximately 2,550 questions in the Bible; they include some of the most well-known passages in Scripture: “Am I my brother’s keeper?” “How long O Lord?” “Can these bones live?” and “Who shall separate us from the love of God?” For 2,000 years preachers of the gospel have found these texts irresistible, and the preaching inspired by these compelling texts have shaped believers for lives of devotion, service, and hope.

Below are 52 biblical texts selected for preaching in all AoP endorsed and/or hosted Festivals of Young Preachers during 2013, including the National Festival in January of 2014. All young preachers participating in these events are expected to preach from these texts; and only those sermons at the National Festival which intersect with these texts in some way will be considered for inclusion in the annual book of sermons published by Chalice Press.

These texts are not necessarily the most well-known or the most popular; but they do range across the full spectrum of struggles that haunt the human experience and often serve as the well-spring of revelation and transformation. All Gospel preachers, from the beginner to the most experienced, will find in this biblical material sufficient inspiration to light the imagination, stir the soul, and motivate the will.

Scripture Texts

Am I my brother’s keeper?          Genesis 4:1-16

Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?    Genesis 18:1 – 33

Where is the lamb for the burnt offering?        Genesis 22:7

Have you only one blessing?         Genesis 27:38

Can we find anyone in whom is the Spirit of God?      Genesis 41:37

Am I in the place of God?     Genesis 50:19

What is that in your hand?    Exodus 3:2

What does the Lord require of you?      Deuteronomy 10:12

What do you want?        Matthew 20:21

Why do you do such things?          First Samuel 2:23

Who is able to stand before the Lord?         First Samuel 6:20

Is it well with the young man Absalom?         Second Samuel 18:32

What are you doing here?          First Kings 19:9

Will God hear their cry when trouble comes?         Job 27:9

Why, O Lord, do you hide your self in times of trouble?          Psalm 10:1

Whom shall I fear?          Psalm 27:1

Who can under the mighty doings of the Lord or declare his praises? Psalm 106:2

Where can I go from your Spirit or flee from your presence?           Psalm 139:7

Who can bear a broken spirit?          Proverbs 17:14

Who can say “I am pure from sin”?          Proverbs 20:9

What do people gain from all their toil?          Ecclesiastes 1:3

Whom shall I send and who will go for us?          Isaiah 6:8

Who sees us? who knows us?          Isaiah 29:15

To whom will you liken God?          Isaiah 40:18

Who walks in the darkness yet trusts in the name of the Lord?          Isaiah 50:10

Who has believed what we have heard?          Isaiah 53:1

What do you see?          Jeremiah 1:13

What will you do when the end comes?          Jeremiah 5:31

The heart is perverse, who can understand it?            Jeremiah 17:9

Is not my word like fire, like a hammer that breaks on rock?           Jeremiah 23:29

Son of Man, can these bones live?          Ezekiel 37:3

Death, where is your destruction?          Hosea 13:14

Is it right for you to be angry?          Jonah 4: 4

Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing?          Matthew 6:25

Do you believe I am able to do this?          Matthew 9:28

Are you the one who is to come or should we wait for another?    Matthew 11:31

Who do you say that I am?          Matthew 16:15

Who is the greatest in the kingdom of God?          Matthew 18:1

How many times should I forgive?          Matthew 18:21

Who then can be saved?          Matthew 19:25

What will be the sign of your coming end of the end of the age?   Matthew 24:3

When did we see you hungry or thirsty or naked or sick or in prison and did not care for you?             Matthew 25:44

Where do we get the living water?          John 4:11

This bread we break: is it not sharing the body of Christ?    First Corinthians 10:16

Will their unfaithfulness nullify the faithfulness of God?          Romans 2:3

Who will rescue me from this body of death?               Romans 7:24

Do you love me?          John 21: 17

Who will separate us from the love of God?          Romans 8:35

Do you understand what you are reading?          Acts 8:30

Why is it thought incredible that God should raise the dead?             Acts 20.8

What does light have to do with darkness?          Second Corinthians 6:14

Who are you to judge your neighbor?          James 4:12