Worship Shapes Culture In Exodus 15, we find the first song in the Bible. It’s a song that informs the book of Psalms because it sets up the biblical pattern for singing, namely, God acts and God’s people respond with praise. Songs are responses to stories. This isn’t unique to the Bible. Every culture has events that lead to celebrations and memor…

Recap of Exodus 11-13 In our study of Exodus, we come today to chapter 14. God has decimated Egypt with the ten plagues, culminating in the death of the firstborn and the Passover. Every house in Egypt, including the Israelite houses, were subject to the judgment of God if they weren’t covered by the blood of a spotless lamb. Those covered by the b…

By John Sypert

Remembering is about Hope Where does hope come from? The Bible says that remembering God is what brings us back to hope and hope back to us. Lamentations 3:21-24 , “But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness…

What is Church About? We all come to church for various reasons. Kids come because they have to. Grown-ups come because they want to. Why we want to varies from person to person, and from Sunday to Sunday. I am so glad each of you is here! You are each made in the image of God and loved by Jesus, and by this church. But I want you to consider why y…

The First Passover Last Sunday, we looked at the announcement of the tenth plague and the instructions for the Passover in Exodus 12. The tenth plague would be the death of the firstborn in any home not covered by the blood of a spotless Lamb. The plague would come upon Egypt and Israel because the Israelites weren’t any better than the Egyptians. …

“Something Will Have Your Heart” As we’ve been studying the opening chapters of Exodus, we’ve seen Pharaoh stubbornly refuse to let go of his idols, his false gods of power and wealth. Why did he refuse to let the people of Israel go, especially after the first nine plagues? Why didn’t he submit to God when he saw the power of God all around him? F…

Who’s in Charge? Do you ever think that things are out of control in the world? Listening to the news can lead us to think, “Who’s in charge around here?” Who’s in charge of the nations, politics, money, social media, natural disasters, disease, and death? We wonder, “Is there anyone at the wheel? When we come to the Bible, we learn that the Lord i…

Where Do You Go When You Fail? Have you ever had any setbacks or disappointments in your job, your relationships, your friendships, your education, your ministry? Maybe something happened that wasn’t your fault, or maybe it was your fault. Have you ever felt like you let the Lord down? What did you do? Where did you go with your failure, or when yo…

By John Sypert

The Author Writes Himself In When Russian cosmonauts first entered space, they came back and said they didn’t find God there. C. S. Lewis pointed out how silly this way of thinking was. He said if there’s a God and he wanted to be known he would have to write himself into the story of the world, just as the only way Hamlet can know Shakespeare is i…

An Unlikely Deliverer Last week we began studying Exodus 3. I said that the end of chapter 2 is Moses’s way of saying, “God is fully aware of what’s happening to his people and he’s about to act.” Or as C. S. Lewis would say in The Chronicles of Narnia, “Aslan is on the move!” In chapter 3, God takes center stage and starts to reveal his plan to sa…

Aslan Is On the Move Last week we looked at the last three verses of Exodus 2. In verses 24-25, Moses piles up four verbs to tell us that God is fully aware of his people’s condition and that he’s getting ready to act. He “hears, remembers, sees, and knows.” Moses piles up these verbs to say, “God is fully aware of what’s happening to his people an…

Why Does God Act to Save? Our text is short but worth spending time on because it’s a transitional text, linking what’s before it with what’s after it, showing us why Moses was delivered as a baby and why God is about to call him as a man. This passage is also crucial because it shows us why God delivers Israel from Egypt. Amazingly, this passage t…

By John Sypert

Fear of Man Versus Fear of the Lord The passage of Exodus we’re studying this morning is an ancient account about an ancient event about an ancient problem. It’s a story about fear. It teaches us that what we fear controls us. The text draws a contrast between the fear of man and the fear of the Lord. The main characters are Pharaoh and two midwive…

On Stories Everyone loves a good story. Stories have an enduring place in the human experience. They’ve been told and retold for millennia, around campfires, in dorm rooms, classrooms, living rooms, books, plays, and streaming services. Storytelling is part of what it means to be human. Why do we love stories? Because they connect us to something d…

By John Sypert

By John Sypert

By John Sypert

Recap of Series This is the final week of a seven-week series on heaven. The first week we looked at Luke 16 and the story of Lazarus and the rich man, where Jesus teaches about the finality of death, the reality of heaven and hell, and how once we die, our fate is fixed. Then we looked at Ecclesiastes 3 and how the monotonous flow of time is meant…

Heaven’s Memories and Rewards Will We Remember Things in Heaven? Our response to this idea may be something like, “Why would I want to remember this life? There’s so much sin and pain and affliction and brokenness. I thought heaven was where we get to finally escape all that? And doesn’t the Bible say that God ‘will wipe away every tear…(and) there…

The Most Important Thing about Heaven Last week we talked about the central and most important reality of the new universe: we will live with God, or what’s often called the beatific vision, the “happy-making sight” of seeing God’s face (Rev. 22:4). This hope is hinted at throughout the Bible. In the Aaronic blessing of Numbers 6, we ask the Lord t…

We Will Live with God What is it about heaven that we so desire? Is it the benefits of the place or seeing God’s face? Another way to ask it is would heaven be heaven without God? Or, if God weren’t in heaven would you still want to be there? Do you desire God or his gifts? Finding God is heaven. Not finding him is hell. We want God more than anyth…

Recap of Last Two Weeks We’re in the third week of a seven-week series on heaven. The first week we looked at Luke 16 and the story of Lazarus and the rich man, where Jesus teaches about the finality of death, the reality of heaven and hell, and how the time to choose is now. Once we die, our fate is fixed. Last week we looked at Ecclesiastes 3 and…

“Time, Why You Punish Me?” Time can feel like a punishment sometimes. Darius Rucker and Hootie and the Blowfish captured this well in their 1994 song “Time.” Part of it goes like this: Time, why you punish me? Like a wave crashing into the shore You wash away my dreams Time, why you walk away? Like a friend with somewhere to go You left me crying T…

Believing in Invisible Things Do you believe in the invisible? In things you can’t see? Of course you do if you believe in feelings like anger or sadness. You see the effects of them but you can’t see the emotion itself. Or what about the wind? Can you see it or its effects? Jesus compares the wind to people who’re “born of the Spirit” (Jn. 3:8). Y…

Complimentary Letters As we move into 3 John, we’ll see that a similar problem lies behind both letters, namely, how to treat traveling teachers. In 2 John, it was clear that those who come preaching anything but the gospel should not be received. In 3 John, we’ll see that those who come preaching the gospel should be received and even supported. J…

Mirrors and Sponges If you want to know who you’ll be in five years, look at your friends and the books you read and that’s what you’ll become. These things will shape your life more than anything else. We inevitably become what we see and hear. We’re mirrors. But we’re also like sponges, designed to be filled and formed and cultivated, just like t…

Mirrors and Sponges It’s been said that if you want to know who you’ll be in five years, look at your friends and the books you read and that’s what you’ll become. These things will shape your life more than anything else. The things I’m thinking about and aspiring to and longing for and praying for are in large measure shaped by whatever I’m readi…