We've all heard them – the toe-stepping, "hell fire and brimstone" sermons that render uncomfortable those who, just moments before, sat comfortably in the pew. They're the sermons that cause everyone to think, "was the preacher talking specifically to me today?" In many ways, these tough kind of sermons separate the spiritually weak from the spiritually strong because the weak go away blaming the preacher, while the strong leave challenged to live a better life. The hard sermons bring us face to face with who we really are and what we're really like, and sometimes that is not a pleasant sight to behold.
