Remembering and Responding - Hebrews 10:19-25

As Christians we believe that God has entrusted us with something precious. God has given us His Word and the Gospel and we have been called to steward the truth that has been given to us. This means that we should be committed to knowing the truth and protecting it from those who would try to distort it. As Paul gives Timothy some final instructio…

Extreme labor, frequent imprisonments, countless beatings and often close to death. This is the way Paul begins a description of his experience as a minister of the Gospel. He goes on to speak of being whipped, being beaten with rods, being stoned, being shipwrecked, being threatened, being hungry and without food. And that’s to say nothing of the …

The Apostle Paul was called by God and he gave his life fully for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. His aim was to know Christ and to make Him known. And for the sake of Christ and His Gospel Paul endured suffering, imprisonment and eventually death. But through it all he maintained joy and hope and he believed that greater joy awaited him be…

God Plans to Pour Out His Wrath But Show His Mercy - Genesis 6

We probably all know what it is like to be in a situation where we are hesitant or slow to stand up for the truth of the Gospel. We are a people who are prone to struggling with fear and pride and timidity. For us, the first chapter of 2 Timothy is an important reminder. In 2 Timothy 1 Paul is exhorting Timothy to be bold and courageous and to stan…

In Isaiah 58:3 we hear a complaint from the people of God. Even though they were fasting and doing all of the outwardly religious things that they believed would please God, He seemed distant. They prayed, but it seemed like He wasn’t hearing their prayers. As we keep reading, we hear God’s response. The reason God felt distant, is because the peop…

There is something that is true in every generation. In every generation there are threats to the message of the Gospel. In every generation there are those who distort the Gospel and others who hope to discredit or even destroy the Gospel. Of course, as Christians we know that God will always preserve His Word and the Gospel will go forward, but i…

There is nothing of greater value than the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This is a truth that faithful Christians believe, but it’s also a truth that can be hard to live out consistently. We are prone to fear and may at times be timid in the way we live out and express our faith in Christ. As Paul writes to Timothy, his son in the faith and his partner i…

Near the end of his life Paul was imprisoned in Rome for preaching the Gospel. From that prison, knowing that he would soon be killed for his allegiance to Christ, Paul wrote a letter to his friend and son in the faith, Timothy. As Paul writes this uniquely personal letter he is aware of his impending death, but that’s not his focus. His focus is o…

The Call to Care for the Church - Nehemiah 1:1-11

Rejoicing in the Incarnation - Christmas Day 2022

The Christmas Story - Eve of the Eve Christmas Gathering

Malachi: God’s Faithfulness to an Unfaithful People - The Unchanging God

A Call to True and Pure Worship - Malachi 1:6-2:9

Malachi: God’s Faithfulness to an Unfaithful People - Malachi 1:1-5

In Matthew 6 Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray by giving them a model prayer. When we pray that prayer that Jesus gave us, we begin by addressing God as our Father who is in Heaven. This is a way of addressing God that is packed full of theological truth and that should help us recognize the incredible privilege we have of coming to God in pr…

In Matthew 6 Jesus teaches his disciples how to pray by giving them a model prayer. In that prayer Jesus helps us see the kinds of things we should be praying for. That model prayer ends with this request: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. When Jesus taught His disciples (and us) how to pray he included this request in whic…

Psalm 139 is a psalm that’s known for what it teaches us about God. In this psalm David provides one of the clearest teachings in the Scriptures on the omniscience and omnipresence of God. Omniscience is the reality that God knows all things and omnipresence speaks to the fact that God is always present, everywhere. In this psalm David describes th…

It’s no secret that all of us are joy-seekers. We want to be content, to be satisfied, to feel secure, to feel protected - and under all of this is our desire for joy. As we come to Psalm 16 David is asking God to be his protector as he takes refuge in Him. But while David begins with this request the rest of the Psalm is made up of David expressin…

When God gave us the psalms, He gave us a good gift. In the psalms we get to hear the greatest songs of all time. Songs written by real people living real lives and at the same time songs inspired by God. Songs that help us understand the character of God and how who He is connects to who we are and how we face life in this world. The psalms are a …

All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17). This is what we believe about Scripture, that it is the Word of God and that it is profitable – every part of it. And yet there are p…

Rejoicing in our Justification - Romans 5:1-11 (Baptism Sunday)

The aim and focus of Psalm 135 is pretty straightforward, it’s a call for the people of God to give praise to God. And yet most of us know that this is a call we all need to hear. Apart from Sunday mornings it can be easy to neglect our praise of God; and even on the Lord’s Day we can gather with hearts that are complacent or cool toward the greatn…

As we come to Matthew 7:24-29 we come to the final section of the Sermon on the Mount – this great sermon from our Lord. And this is a conclusion that we must not ignore. It’s a conclusion in which Jesus warns us of judgment and calls each of us to consider whether or not we are truly His. But this final paragraph doesn’t stand on its own, it’s a c…

As we come to the end of this sermon from Jesus, He telling us about entrance into the Kingdom of God. And as He brings the sermon to a close, He has some hard things to say – things that may make us uncomfortable. In Matthew 7:21-23 Jesus tells us that on the day of judgment there will be some who are surprised to find that they are outside of the…

In Matthew 7:13-14 Jesus tells us about two paths and He calls us to enter the path with the narrow gate. This path is narrow and hard, but it’s the path that leads to life. In verse 15 Jesus issues a warning, but it’s a warning that is connected to the teaching of the two paths. Jesus wants us to know that there will be many who will come along an…

Most people are good people and good people go to Heaven. This is a common belief of many, if not most, in our society. Even those who have a general understanding of the work of Christ and of the Gospel can be guilty of slipping into this way of thinking. Talk of judgment and exclusivity can be uncomfortable, which leads many people to simply beli…

In Luke 18 Jesus tells a story of a woman who was seeking justice but the judge who had the power to grant justice was wicked and coldhearted. However, Jesus says this woman was undeterred by the judge’s refusal to rule and continued to go and plead her case. She kept going and kept asking. She went and asked so much that the eventually the judge d…

As Christians God has called us to live our lives alongside one another. We are instructed to serve one another, pray for one another, encourage one another and work together for the sake of the Gospel. But of course, we are sinners and so this life together is not always easy. One of the sins that often creeps in and divides us is the sin of judgm…

Matthew 7:1 may be the most often quoted verse in the Bible. It may also be the most misunderstood. In a society that calls for tolerance and acceptance and inclusion of all, Matthew 7:1 has become the quick reply to anyone who would suggest moral boundaries. We are told, judge not that you be not judged. Of course, close companions to Matthew 7:1 …

Worry. It’s a temptation that is common to us all. We all have things we fear may happen, or things that we fear may not happen. We don’t know the future and there are things that are out of our control, and so we worry. We are tempted to worry about big things and small things – things that matter a lot and things that really don’t matter all that…

Throughout the Scriptures we read of men and women who lived their lives with remarkable faith in God and with the belief that there are things worth living for beyond what we can see. In Hebrews 11 we have a reminder of some of these men and women who did things that from an earthly standpoint don’t make sense. But they were living by a different …

What Matters to God - Matthew 16:13-20

In Matthew 6:1 we get a warning from Jesus. This verse serves as the heading for the entire section (6:1-18). What’s clear is that Jesus knows our weaknesses and that we will be tempted to live for our own praise and to long for the approval of men rather the approval of God. In 6:1-18 Jesus deals with three areas of righteous living that He saw be…

To be seen, or not to be seen? That is the question. Early on in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus tells the people of God that we should live as lights so that others may see our good works and give glory to our Father who is in heaven. But now, just a little further into the sermon, Jesus warns us against practicing our righteousness of the sake of b…

We live in a time and in a culture where we are encouraged, if not expected to have enemies. And not only to have enemies, but live with a sense of enmity towards other people. It’s not enough to have disagreements, we are expected to hate those with whom we disagree – and unfortunately, this attitude comes far more naturally than most of us would …

Retaliation and Responding as the People of God - Matthew 5:38-42

Here’s the truth: By nature, we are not honest people. Sometimes we add something to the story to make ourselves look better and other times we hold back details that would paint us in a poor light. In our flesh we are prone to exaggerations and half-truths and even blatant lies. But as we come to Matthew 5:33-37 we hear Jesus calling the people of…

What does the Bible say about marriage, divorce and remarriage? In a world where marriage is often avoided or minimized and divorce is often normalized and even praised it is important that we consider how God would have us think about these significant matters. As we come to this passage, we must acknowledge that for many people this topic is very…

In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus is teaching what it looks like to live as the people of God. What becomes abundantly clear is that God’s standard is much different than the standard of the scribes and Pharisees. In fact, Jesus says that the true people of God will have a righteousness that exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees. In Matthew 5:21…

It’s natural, we all like know where the lines are. We like to know how far we can go without crossing the line. And this is the way many people think about the law of God and being in right standing before God. They believe that there are certain lines that shouldn’t be crossed and as long as we don’t cross those lines we will be in good standing …

In Matthew 5:17-20 Jesus makes clear that the people of God’s kingdom are to be a people who live in righteousness. But Jesus knew that the people of His day had a very confused understanding of what it means to live in righteousness. The religious leaders of Jesus’s day (the scribes and the Pharisees) claimed to be teachers of the law of God, but …

As Jesus began His ministry, He began proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. He was calling people to repentance and to following Him. But as His influence grew so did the questions about His teaching. In the day of Jesus our Old Testament was their Scriptures. As the ministry of Jesus grew and people became familiar with His teaching questi…

As Jesus began His ministry, He began proclaiming the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. He was calling people to repentance and to following Him. But as His influence grew so did the questions about His teaching. In the day of Jesus our Old Testament was their Scriptures. As the ministry of Jesus grew and people became familiar with His teaching questi…

Jesus begins the Sermon on the Mount with a list of attributes that are found in those who are part of the kingdom of God along with related blessings. What’s clear from that list is that those who live as citizens of God’s kingdom live counter-cultural lives – lives that are very different from the world around them. Following ‘the Beatitudes’ Jes…

The Gospel of Matthew tells us that early in the ministry of Jesus there was a time when Jesus went up on a mountain with His disciples and He taught them. From that time of teaching, we have one of the longest recorded discourses of Jesus. It’s a teaching that the church has come to refer to as The Sermon on the Mount.…

Jesus rose from the dead on a Sunday morning. That evening He made His first appearance to His disciples and Luke records what He said to them. These are men who had been with Jesus for years, but they were slow to truly understand the nature of why Jesus came. But now they are face to face with risen Lord and He explains it all again. He came to d…

We can often be tempted to doubt God because our perspectives are too limited. If we only look at our own lives or the lives of those closest to us, we may be tempted to wonder if God will be faithful – if God will keep His promises. But when we turn the Scriptures, we have centuries and centuries of proof – God is always faithful to His word. In 2…

We live in a world that in large measure disregards the things of God. So much of what God has given us in the Scriptures is regarded by many as outdated or irrelevant for life in today’s world. And so, for those who are committed to trusting God and taking Him at His word, there can be a sense in which we feel like outsiders in this world. On some…