In the Book of Psalms, Psalm 119 is the longest. It’s an acrostic psalm that walks through the entire Hebrew alphabet, with eight verses for each letter, which ends up being 176 total verses. God willing, we’ll get there in a couple of years! But today, in Psalm 78, we’re looking at the second longest psalm. Psalm 78 is 72 total verses, but the pla…

By Lawrence Simmons

By Lawrence Simmons

The Psalm for today’s sermon, Psalm 77, is a gritty psalm. It dives deep into the distress that we can have from our circumstances in our hearts. Some psalms help our souls find words when they are in the midst of a trial. Other psalms give us guidance to help us out of our trouble. This psalm give us a little of both, but more than that, it gives …

“What do I do now?” You ever asked that question? You’re in a situation, big or small, and you’ve taken some step — you’ve done something — but then you’re not sure what to do next, so you have this moment when everything sorta freezes and you think: “What do I do now?” … I think that we all ask that question way more than we realize. Unless you’re…

By Lawrence Simmons

Back in 2019, we started making our way through the psalms each summer, and I’m so glad — for so many reasons. I remember a number of the sermons from over the years, and how those particular psalms met me and needs in me. In the first sermon, Psalm 1, Pastor Jonathan said, The role of Psalms in the Bible overall is to make it clear that God has a …

By George Stagg

By George Stagg

Well today is the last sermon in our series through the Book of Philippians. We started this series the first Sunday of January, and over the last 23 weeks we’ve been looking closely at this book, verse by verse, line by line, and what we have found here is a vantage into Ultimate Reality. We have encountered God and his truth, which is what we con…

“It’s not about the money!” You’ve probably heard that sentence before: There’s some situation involving money, but to assure all parties involved that there’s something deeper and more meaningful going on, the party with an interest in money will say, “It’s not about the money.” And right away, when we hear that, what do we think? There’s a good c…

Imagine for a minute that you just won the most amazing sweepstakes ever. You saw this thing in a magazine, you submitted your entry online, and now these people are at your front door to tell you that you won and it’s a big deal: You’ve been chosen for a two-week all-expense paid vacation to anywhere in the world you want to go: You get to stay in…

So I don’t travel often, but when I do, I almost always pack my running shoes. And that’s because one of my favorite things to do whenever I first arrive somewhere, is throw on some shorts, lace up my running shoes, and then go jogging around for a while to try and get the lay of the land. And as I do, I’m just sorta taking note of things that migh…

Father, by the power of your Holy Spirit, accomplish your will in us now, through your preached word, in Jesus’s name, amen. This Spring I’ve been helping to coach four different sports teams — three baseball teams and a flag football team — and apart from having to keep up with 46 boys’ names, it’s been doable. The focus has not been winning. One …

For those of you who have been Christians for a long time, have you ever heard a sermon before and thought, “Wow! When the pastor said that one part, it was like he was talking straight to me”? Can you imagine what Euodia and Syntyche must have felt after this letter was read to the church at Philippi? This letter from Paul was read aloud in one si…

At age 43, I can still remember times when I felt like my body was improving. I could tell I was getting stronger, or running faster, or my overall energy was increasing. But now the most recent and prevailing feeling has been: I’m getting older. I notice the incremental declines. I can feel movement slowly but surely becoming more challenging. New…

Over the course of the last few weeks, Philippians chapter 3 has been establishing, one layer upon another, a certain kind of mindset. A certain way of thinking that’s for the Christian. The first layer in this mindset comes in verse 3, where Paul assures these Philippians, “We [Paul and them alike] are the circumcision [meaning we are members of G…

The Christian life is a journey. This means that if you’re a Christian, even this morning, you are on the way somewhere. From the moment you first put your faith in Jesus you’ve been on the way to meeting Jesus one day face-to-face. You are on a journey and today’s passage tells us three things we need to remember for this journey. And Paul really …

Do you remember your first conscious “favorite song” as a child? Maybe it was a single, or an album, or a specific artist. I remember hearing a particular song on the radio as a four or five-year-old and saying out loud to my parents, “That’s my favorite song.” Now, I realize I’m one of the older people in room. So, I’ll ask, but I don’t expect man…

Let’s start this morning with three questions, and I want to tell you this right away — I’m not over-speaking here and I’m not kidding — these are the most important questions you could ever ask yourself. What is your heaven? Who is your savior? Where are you now? Over the next 35 minutes I’m asking that each of you think about these questions as w…

The Lord is risen! The Lord is risen indeed! Whatever the origins of our English word Easter — and they are apparently too ancient and complicated to trace with certainty, even for Encyclopedia Brittanica — Easter has come to function for us today as a two-syllable designation for “Resurrection Sunday.” That’s six syllables down to two. Easter is t…

Something we need to keep in mind as we’re working through the Book of Philippians is that this is a very personal letter. It’s personal in that the apostle Paul tells us a lot about himself over these four chapters — he tells us how he’s doing in his current situation; he tells about how he relates to others and others to him, (good and bad); he t…

We are about half way through the book of Philippians, and Paul has already packed a lot in. Over the next two weeks, we are going to look at instructions Paul gives regarding Timothy and Epaphroditus. This isn’t just Paul taking a break, and getting some logistics out of the way. Rather than this being a nice bonus for the the Philippians, Paul's …

In the winter of 2001, I was a sophomore at Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina. As a freshman I had become part of a ministry called Campus Outreach. Its theology was called “Reformed,” which I did not grow up with. In my teens, I heard talk about God being “sovereign,” but I had never wrestled with the extent of his sovereignty — that…

What did Jesus do when he died on the cross? The answer to that question is the heart of the gospel. It’s the most important thing that we could know about God — and the good news about the heart of the good news is that God has made it clear to us in the Scriptures. At the cross, we know that … “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by beco…

Well, the war was finally over. At least that’s how it appeared. Following ten long years of battle, the Greeks had finally given up hope of taking the city, they’d gotten back on their ships, and set sail for home. The Trojans were overjoyed. Their opposition was gone. That night, they slept well. Really well. Surprisingly well, in fact, for a peo…

So growing up in North Carolina, not too far from the coast, I’ve always had an interest in pirate history. For vacation over the last few years, I’ve been taking my family to a place called Topsail Island, which has all kinds of history related to the pirate Edward Teach, who was known as Blackbeard. And I gotta be careful because I can really ner…

So how should we as a local church live together in this world? That’s an important question and the answer to that question is found in our passage today, still in Philippians Chapter 1 — which means we’ve been in the same chapter now for a total of six weeks. It’s been good to slow down in God’s word. Paul has been saying amazing things in Philip…

A few weeks ago, my 7-year-old informed me that he wanted to be 8 — but not any older than that. “Buddy, why don’t you want to be any older than that?” I asked. “Well, because when you get old, you die.” Fair enough. 8 seemed safe and exciting enough, I guess (he has some 8-year-olds in his class), but 9 . . . now 9 was a different story. Who knows…

So let’s start this morning with a pop quiz. I’ve got just a two-question theology quiz … I’m going to say two sentences and I want you to fill in the blanks. You ready? God saves us by grace through faith in _______. Answer: Jesus Once we put our faith in Jesus, God, by his Spirit, begins the work of conforming us into the image of _______. Answer…

There once was a crew of Narnian’s who set sail for the east. Further east than any map of theirs had ever chartered, further east than any of their people had ever gone. Eastward all the way to the division between their world and Aslan’s country. They took off, aboard the Dawn Treader, past the lone islands, past dragon island, past burnt island,…

There is no such thing as a perfect church. We don’t find one in the New Testament, and we can’t find one today. A perfect church, this side of heaven, is impossible. But what is possible is a church that you can love. We know this because the apostle Paul loved the church at Philippi — and I don’t mean he loved this church in a general or principl…

When the apostle Paul first came to town, the city of Philippi was famous for its connections to two of the greatest emperors of the ancient world: Alexander the Great and Caesar Augustus. Paul came to Philippi in the winter 49/50 AD, to a population of about ten thousand (sizable but smaller than Thessalonica and Corinth), and when he wrote this l…

Well, today, as you know, is the last day of 2023, and I want to begin his morning by telling you that the most important thing that you’ve done with your life in 2023 is to magnify the glory of God. And, the most important thing you can do with your life in 2024 is to magnify the glory God. That’s why we exist. That’s what we’re here for, church! …

This passage is not what you might have expected for the Sunday morning of Christmas Eve. The way the calendar falls this year, today is the 4th Sunday of Advent and tonight we will have a Christmas Eve Service, and we hope you come back for that service at 4:00pm today. If you are a guest or starting coming more recently, this past year we preache…

Well today’s the third Sunday of Advent — just 8 days to go before Christmas — and the reason we’re looking at this passage today is because of a little phrase at the beginning of verse 7 — and if it’s possible, I want you to see this. So if you can, either with your own Bible or on your phone or you might have to look with a neighbor, everybody ge…

I was watching the Super Bowl this past February, expecting to see the newest commercials from Doritos and Budweiser and Coca-Cola, when this unusual music began to play. On the screen were still shots of kids doing adorable things — helping each other, hugging, arm around the family dog. At the end the words came up, Jesus didn’t want us to act li…

Welcome to Advent. What is Advent? Advent is the season before Christmas. What kind season is Advent? Advent is a season of waiting. Where are we waiting? In a land of deep darkness. Over the last week I’ve been praying, for my own soul and for our church, that this Advent would be the greatest Advent ever. And I’m not exactly sure how that happens…

Well, the day has come — our very last sermon in the book of Hebrews. Our text this morning is this incredible book’s conclusion. But don’t let that word fool you — it’s not a conclusion like the kind we may be accustomed to — one that simply restates all the main points we’ve already covered. No, but here at the letter’s end our author is yet push…

By Deirdre Tschanz

By George Stagg

In the summer of 1962, a famous Swiss theologian named Karl Barth (1886–1968) made a celebrated seven-week trip to the United States. While here, he came in contact at a Chicago Q&A session with another Carl — Carl Henry (1913–2003), who was editor of Christianity Today. Henry stood up, introduced himself, and asked Barth about “the historical fact…

A few weeks ago the pastoral team, along with our wives, had our annual fall retreat. This is something that we’ve been able to do every year since we were first planted, and it’s usually a time of team soul care. We pray for one another, and invest in our unity and health — which is all good and important — but this most recent retreat was more li…

So I don’t think I’ve ever started a sermon before by telling you its title … most of the time if my sermon has a title it’s an afterthought — but today’s different. I’d like to call this sermon on Hebrews 12, verses 3–11, “How to Run When Running Is Hard.” And the reason I want you to know the title is because I want you to keep in mind that every…

I’d like to start this morning by announcing that I’ve retired my dream of ever playing Major League Baseball. Now I’m not saying that I ever really had a chance, but I did have a dream, and the older I got, the dream morphed into what you’d call a fantasy. I’ve kept thinking that it was still possible for me to break my arm, and through some type …

By Deirdre Tschanz

By Lawrence Simmons

Over the last few weeks, as a church we have covered Chapter 11 in Hebrews, spending four weeks really focused on the centrality of faith in the life of a Christian. Chapter 11 gives us a brief tour through the old testament with story after story of how God’s people, by faith, have pleased him and accomplished His plan. The cumulative effect ought…

By George Stagg & Deirdre Tschanz

“Talk is cheap.” “Actions speak louder than words.” “Easier said than done.” We’ve all heard these phrases before — and nobody questions their point. We all tend to agree that in most cases, according to conventional wisdom, it is easier to say stuff than to do stuff. And I think the writer of Hebrews would also agree with that, which is why in Heb…