Grace Church Elk Grove: Recent Episodes
Grace Church Elk Grove
This week we begin a new four-week series on missions. Missions has been often misunderstood and sometimes corrupted in the past, and yet our forefathers went far and sacrificed much for the spread of the gospel. We want to walk faithfully in their footsteps yet never repeating their errors. We want to follow our ascended Lord wherever he leads.
This week will be our final look at Christ in the Old Testament. We will finish on the most important passage, the famous Isaiah 53. I hope it is known to you. If not, I encourage you to familiarize yourself with it before Sunday. There are too many riches for us to consider all of them in one sitting. This is why many people consider this section of Isaiah the "New Testament in the Old Testament" - where God's work in Christ is most clearly pictured.
The texts we are considering this week are a thread through Scripture that teach us several things at once: how Christ is portrayed in the Old Testament; how Christ has a massive bearing on the events of the Old Testament; and how God is nourishing us to salvation. The big lesson is that we neglect these gifts to our peril. God gives His gifts so that His children would enjoy them fully, not leave them on the shelf to rot.
This week our nation learned about two monumental deaths: the horrific, unprovoked murder of Iryna Zarutska and then just yesterday, the assassination of Christian apologist Charlie Kirk. As the president said, these are dark times. What we do in such times is dependent on what story we think we are living in. For instance, if we think we are living in a nihilistic J.G. Ballard story with no good ending, we will become fatalistic, inert and depressed. But the Christian reaches for his Bible. The stories of the Bible are there so we know what story we are living in. This week we will consider the story of Joseph, which three times "features" the evil of man. But . . . "what you meant for evil, God meant for good - for the salvation of many."
We will consider another way that Christ is in the Old Testament.It begins mysteriously, with the story of Melchizedek, and yet it ends with something very clear and solid: having "full assurance" in our faith. Full assurance! Whatever capacity we have to be assured that, when we meet our Maker, we will be with Him forever, that cup of assurance can be filled to the brim. This is really, really good news. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 7th, 2025 to learn more.
Today we consider another passage that reveals Christ in the Old Testament. In the wreckage of The Fall, with all of its shame and regret, God promises hope. That one day Eve's seed would come and crush the head of the dragon. Praise God that our dragon crusher has come, and he is still on the move!
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 31st, 2025 to learn more.
This is the start of a new Christ in the Old Testament series. The Bible is a whole, one story, all of it pointing to one person: Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. So, it is no wonder that we see the Old Testament and the New point forward or backward to him. This series will look at specifically how the Bible looks forward to Jesus. We will begin this week with Jesus' own words, as he teaches Nicodemus precisely how this works. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 17th, 2025 to learn more.
We are looking at Psalm 30 today. The heading says that it’s for the dedication of the temple. But there is much more to the story. The background begins in 1 Chronicles 20.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 10th, 2025 to learn more.
Sometimes the Scriptures are to be studied, the way you study for a class. But there are other times when we are not to so much study but INHABIT a text. We are to let it swirl around us, capture our imaginations, and let it take us to the heavens or a foreign land that we’ve never known.
Such is Psalm 29 - it’s not here for us to completely get our arms around it, but to let it take us to a place and a perspective we’ve never known before.
Because we NEED this. We are so very self-bound. We need God to lift us out of ourselves to see the world as it is, which is not the same thing as seeing the world as we know it, leaning on our own understanding.
We can break this Psalm down into three simple parts: The
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Worship of God
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Voice of God
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Sovereignty of God
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 3rd, 2025 to learn more.
Many times, our greatest enemy as believers is ourselves. Fredrick Nietzsche made these words famous. He was a pagan, but all truth is God's truth, so even pagans can speak truth. Faith is faith when it is hard to trust. But when it is hard to trust, we often work against ourselves in letting our minds move to complete submission and trust in God.
We all face fear, because we all have enemies. These enemies come in three flavors: the world, our flesh and the devil enemies from this world, in the form of temptations, and disasters and people who hate us; our own flesh, in the form of wrong desires and illness and weakness; and spiritual powers directly, in the form of the devil and his servants.
This enmity did not start with communism or Darwinism or Islam. It started in the Garden, with Eve and the dragon.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 20th, 2025 to learn more.
We don’t know the occasion, but we can make educated guesses. The end of Judges - which was when David was born - records for us that the people of Israel had become no different in their sin than Sodom and Gomorrah.
Thus David’s life was not that different from Lot’s - they were both surrounded on all sides by really wicked people. Not just the nations - the Jews themselves. But David was a man after GOD’s own heart, which put him at enmity with those people, for his entire life. David had lots of enemies. God’s people have LOTS of enemies. To ignore this is to disbelieve the eyes in our heads.
So David calls out to GOD for vindication.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 13th, 2025 to learn more.
Can a Christian be PATRIOTIC? For many today, the answer is NO. But if so, SHOULD a Christian be patriotic? And if that’s true, then what should that patriotism LOOK like?
These are the questions I want to answer from Scripture today.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 6, 2025 to learn more.
This Psalm is very hard to outline. It’s all over the place - one second David asks God to protect him from his enemies; the next he is asking God to forgive him his sin; the next he is asking God to protect him, because of his integrity.
The reason for this is that this Psalm is HUMAN. There really was a David. He really was hounded by treacherous enemies who really wanted to kill him and his family and wipe his name off the face of the earth. David really was a big fat sinner. AND David really was a man after God’s own heart.
In other words, David was a human being, with strengths and weaknesses, sins and successes, in a fallen world. Like us. And he needed God for ALL of it, like us. Not just one part of his life. He needed God, for God’s sake. He needed God because of his enemies out there. And he needed God for the enemy within. Like us.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 29, 2025 to learn more.
This is the riddle that every religion throughout all time has tried to answer. A riddle SOLVED by the psalm in front of us today. Who can stand before God, accepted, welcomed, approved? Verse 4 He who is two things: RIGHTEOUS and TRUE.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 22, 2025 to learn more.
All that we need we have in Jesus Christ. A deeper look at the 23rd Psalm.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on June 15th, 2025 to learn more.
Sometimes the perspectives of the Old Testament feel so foreign to us, and maybe a little embarrassing. For instance, in Psalm 21 today, the candid, unvarnished talk of vanquishing enemies. After all we are Americans, living in 2025, enlightened by college degrees, with no enemies left. Haven’t WE have progressed beyond all that?
But we must interrogate that embarrassment. For I am convinced one reason why we live in a time of chaos and decline is BECAUSE the Church has become neutralized by its embarrassment of the Old Testament.
So we can continue to DESIRE a seat at the cool kids’ table, and do what Andy Stanley tells us to do, and “DECOUPLE ourselves from the Old Testament.” (Which, as we will see, means decoupling from Christ). Or we can recognize that that feeling of foreignness says more about US than anything.
In fact, when we feel hesitation or embarrassment about the Word, it probably means there’s treasure there for us. Which means we need to go further in and further up, into the wisdom of God.
· Praise
· Pluck
· Principle
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 25th, 2025 to learn more.
Today I want to briefly give three truths we must remember BEFORE we set ourselves to our tasks in life. Three remembrances we must sink our feet down into, in order to be rightly grounded, in our work. Now, I’m going to talk like an uncle to our graduates and near-graduates, but really, I’m talking to all of us. For God has already prepared work for ALL of us to do.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 18th to learn more.
Today we are considering HOW we get STRONG, and why we MUST be strong.
We are in a COSMIC battle, against enemy forces that are seen and unseen. So Paul in Ephesians 6 COMMANDS us to be strong. This is no time to pet and cuddle and luxuriate in our weaknesses.
But that does not mean God REMOVES our weaknesses. Instead, as God said to Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 11th, 2025 to learn more.
The question today is HOW do we get OFF the beach and begin surfing? For it is so easy to HEAR an excellent sermon about that, as we did last week, and then . . . Nothing changes.
As a brother mentioned to me this week, of all our modern sins, perhaps ACEDIA is our deepest. The worst sins are the ones we do not know we have, which is why we don’t know what that word means. It means “sloth”, but more like an emasculated inability to get off the couch while the world burns.
So what or WHO is holding us back?
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 4, 2025 to learn more.
Our relationship with Jesus Christ makes it possible to do things that we would otherwise seem too scary, too risky, too impossible. However, our ability to do those things for the Kingdom of God and our desire to do them often are in conflict.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on April 27, 2025 to learn more.
The resurrection will not fit into any neat, sentimental holiday box. We see this, not only by looking at the specific details of the story, but also by considering the FEEL, the atmosphere of the story.
The atmosphere crackles with something alien - as if something outside the system has invaded our world - something greater - something you can put in Coke commercial. Thus the writers do not hesitate to include the very real errors and mistakes that the people who observed the resurrection of Christ made along the way.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s Easter sermon on April 20, 2025 to learn more.
The grace of God, given in love, creates both BLESSINGS and CURSES.
This has always been the way of God. God works through COVENANTS in the world. A covenant is a solemn agreement or arrangement between two parties. And God’s great covenant is one of grace. Grace is an undeserved GIFT. The gift of WELCOME. After all, with every sin, God is the one most offended. So it is a gift for any of us to be welcomed by Him.
So this is a massive privilege, to be the recipient of this grace. And because it is a massive privilege, is a massive offense to reject that gift. Thus when God’s gift of grace comes, it creates WELCOME for those who believe and receive, and it ALSO brings CURSES for those who taste it and see it and experience it but then REJECT it.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 13, 2025 to learn more.
As Paul concludes his first letter to the Corinthians, we must remember how it started: it was all about Christ crucified. Which means this entire letter has been about LOVE. For Christ is the standard, the very definition of love.
Love is not something we define for ourselves. Love is GIVEN and must be received. Love was given in a real MAN; it came with a whip; and it was poured out in bread and wine, in a body broken and blood spilled on a cross.
This means that REAL, authentic love is both gentle AND strong. It’s like a brick wrapped in velvet: it has softness and it has a spine. It has compassion, but that compassion is immoveable, like an oak tree.
Real love is immovable, impervious to the emotional manipulations of others. It does the pleasant thing AND the hard thing, the thing that nobody wants to do, but must be done. And it is so sturdy that others can imitate it.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 6, 2025 to learn more.
Work for God that is EFFECTIVE is also very INEFFICIENT. To be EFFECTIVE means you do what you set out to do. But to be INEFFICIENT is to do it more slowly than you could.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 30, 2025 to learn more.
If civilization is like Legos, then it’s built around the same three basic kinds of pieces. There is the large, flat piece that you build everything on top of - that’s like the church. Then there are the three-by-three or four-by-four bricks that are the heart of every Lego build - this is like the family. And lastly you have the unique, more rare pieces that finish the project and keep it together - this is like the government.
Today we are talking about that second piece - the family.
When we do, we see this God is worth trusting, and THIS faith makes all the difference.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 23, 2025 to learn more.
Sometimes, there are supernatural and glorious things going on behind seemingly mundane situations.
In the same way, the passage before us this morning at first glance appears to be just a side note about a procedural question, about how to handle the collection of money. But behind these mundane procedures, there are battles for
God’s glory,
And truth about how God has constructed His world to be PROSPEROUS, and how God’s own INTEGRITY is to be displayed in the church.
Glory, Prosperity, and Integrity.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 16, 2025 to learn more.
What we trust and hope in determines who we are today.
Thus Paul brackets his letter with two bookends: at the beginning, Christ crucified. Now he ends the letter with the second bookend - the resurrection.
All our obedience to his commands in between is then powered by faith in the first bookend, and hope in the second.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 9th, 2025 to learn more.
This morning Paul continues his teaching on the resurrection, still dealing with skepticism. It’s voiced in v. 35: “Well, if there IS a resurrection, then what kind of BODY would you have?”
If asked open to the resurrection, that question is just fine. But the question is asked with skepticism, with a MATERIALISTIC assumption. Materialism is the philosophy so common then and now that says that the only things that are possible are what we see in the here and now. It excludes the supernatural, or that do not presently exist, but will.
It’s a question that’s meant to be its own answer and shut you down in the process - the sort of gotcha question a supposedly intelligent person would ask you online or in a college setting.
Paul’s answer - and his main point of this section - is that the very assumption of the question is foolish.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 2, 2025 to learn more.
In the text before us, Paul wants us to REALIZE three truths about the resurrection, especially if we say there is NO resurrection. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Feb. 23, 2025 to learn more.
In the following passages, Paul gives us four realities that those 21 men pinned their confidence on. Four ways that Christ is FIRST. These four FIRSTS are not just theological concepts that stay up in the clouds.
They turn the world upside down, today. Let’s look at each, considering its importance as we go.
In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is completing his teaching about Christ and Him crucified, with teaching on RESURRECTION - the belief that people who are dead and gone can be raised from the earth to new, physical life. Which is often the hardest part of the gospel to believe. For us, and for some Corinthians, who said that the whole concept of resurrection was a myth, an impossibility. So Paul previously gave us EVIDENCE of the resurrection. Today Paul unpacks the NEGATIVE implications of disbelieving this evidence. Listen to the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 9, 2025 to learn more.
Today where we consider what’s happening in our church, and the opportunities and obstacles before us.
And what’s happening now is nothing less than REVIVAL. GOD is on the move, out there, in the culture, and in HERE, at Grace.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Feb. 2, 2025 to learn more.
Paul has saved his final charge of gunpowder for ONE thing: the resurrection. This is because the resurrection of the dead is our POWER to fulfill God’s commission. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 26, 2025 to learn more.
Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul has had ONE thing on his mind: Christ crucified. He established that right up front, and then he applied it in many ways: with leaders, in conflict, in marriage, in lawsuits, in sexual ethics . . .
But today he gives us the HOW.
HOW to do this?
Paul’s answer is: grace.
Listen to the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 19, 2025 to learn more.
The thing that is of first importance, Paul has been tellingus in 1 Corinthians 15:3, is “Christ crucified.” Of first importance WHERE and WHEN, you ask?
Christ and him crucified - this good news raises us from thedead, and therefore TRANSFORMS everything.
We’re going to take one more look at how thecoming of Christ can and must shape us for the year ahead. Jesus came at Christmas to die and be raised at Easter, in order to give us His Spirit at Pentecost. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on January 5th, 2025 to learn more.
Knowing how something works brings not only greater appreciation and understanding, but also greater efficiency of use
Romans6:1–2 ESV
1 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? 2 By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Listen to this episode for Pastor Mike's sermon on Dec. 29th to learn more.
Today we are still in 1 Corinthians, but in the spirit of the season, we are taking a break from our series in 1 Corinthians, and considering a simple but profound way that all of a church should and must be shaped by Christmas.
Jesus is Immanuel - God who dwells among us, God in the flesh, conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of Mary, on Christmas.
At Christmas, God dwells WITH US.
For our JOY. As the angels proclaim in Luke 2:10 the news that God has come in Christ is good news of great joy for ALL the peoples. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on December 22, 2024 to learn more.
Today we consider a simple by profound way that a church – our church – should and must be shaped by Christmas. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 15th to learn more.
In today's episode, Pastor Jed tackles what is for some a hard passage, women's place in Sunday worship. Take time to listen to God's heart for order, that has nothing to do with respect and value--but an order of command for all to flourish.
This to this episode from December 8, 2024 to learn more.
We return to 1 Corinthians 14 and Paul’s teaching onour Lord’s Day gatherings.
Paul’s main point is this: When we gather to worship, wemust do so with a CRUCIFORM ORDER, out of love for one another, that we ALL would behold Christ crucified.
This to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on December 1, 2024 to learn more.
In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 there is the controversial discussion of TONGUES, which we will get to. But do not let that distract you from Paul’s unchanging point: SEVEN times in this section, Paul says that when it comes to Lord’s Day worship, the thing we must do above all else is that which will EDIFY or BUILD UP the CHURCH, not oneself, that the MANY will glorify God.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on November 24, 2024 to learn more.
Agape love, if you have it you don't need much else, but if you don't have it, not much else matters.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike's sermon on Nov. 17, 2024 to learn more.
How do we decide between what seems to matter and what truly matters in life? Or better yet, between what matters and what really matters, how do we decide? Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike's sermon on Nov. 10th, 2024 to learn more.
What THEY needed, what WE need is REVIVAL and REFORMATION. God has done it before, and I am confident that God can and WILL do it again.Now, whenever God does great things like that, He first changes the HEARTS of the men and women through whom HE will do it. He revives and reforms THEM, and then THEY turn the world upside down.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Nov. 3, 2024 to learn more.
Spiritual gifts are perhaps one of the more exciting andexacerbating topics in the Church today. From the early days of the Old Testament prophets there have been instances of what was referred to as “prophetic utterances” when the prophet would be in an euphoric state, after having the Spirit of God come upon them, and utter unintelligible sounds. The early church had its problems with spiritual gifts, also. The Apostle Paul is dealing in part with this issue in his first letter to the Corinthians.
This to this episode from Pastor Mike's sermon on Oct. 27, to learn more.
We return today to 1 Corinthians, chapter 12. Paul has not changed the subject since 1:23 “Christ and him crucified”.
Today Paul takes this DISCERNING the BODY one step further. The Spirit does three actions: He shows us Christ, gives us GIFTS, and shapes and empowers them so that, 1 Cor. 10:31-33 So, whether you eat or drink, or whateveryou do, do all to the glory of God . . . not seeking my own advantage, but that of many, that they may be saved.
They would be used for the ADVANTAGE of ALL, therebybringing glory to God.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Oct. 20, 2024 to learn more.
Now, we are not partisan, as a church, in a horizontal way -meaning we are not FOR any candidate or party. However, we are NOT NEUTRAL. If anyone tells you they are neutral, you can be confident that they have an agenda. But we are unabashedly PARTISAN, vertically, to the Lord Jesus.
That’s because Jesus was raised from the dead. This makeshim King, over all. There is therefore no square foot on this earth over which he does not say MINE.
Including your ballot.
Now, Christians have many questions today, about voting. We cannot answer all of them today, but I want to consider these three:
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What IS voting?
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What are our LOYALTIES in voting?
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What do we do AFTER we’ve voted?
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Oct. 13, 2024 to learn more.
The Lord’s Supper is only one of TWO ordinances that Jesuscommanded us to observe, the other being baptism.
Last week we considered the three attitudes that must characterize our observing the Lord’s Supper
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Remembrance, of what Jesus did
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Reflection, on how that is working its way into our body
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Recommissioning: we are recentered on HIS mission.
Today I want to consider three more aspects from thispassage:
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Divisions - how God uses them
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Devotion - how often we should devote ourselves
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Discipleship - how the Supper shapes us for ordinary life for HIS glory.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Oct. 6, 2024 to learn more
Paul is now addressing questions of WORSHIP. How should the church carry and conduct itself when it comes together? Now he moves on to central act of our worship. It’s not the singing, it’s not the praying or the preaching - it’s the Lord’s Supper. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Sept. 29th to learn more.
Now in chapters 11-14, Paul is concerned with God’s glory being clearly DISPLAYED in the church, especially in its worship.
Today we consider v. 2-16 of chapter 11, and we must do so mindful of two obstacles. First, this passage involves women in worship, and WE have been discipled into feminism and egalitarianism more than we realize.
The second obstacle is that we are more materialistic and less supernatural in our outlook and in our WORSHIP than the Bible would have us.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Sept. 22, 2024 to learn more.
Today we are returning to 1 Corinthians, and to the passagewhere we left off earlier in the year, 10:31-11:1. This passage is the key to the entire letter:
Whatever you do, do ALL to the glory of God.
Listen this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Sept. 15, 2024 to learn more.
This is now the third Sunday we are considering the sin of ENVY. This is not because we ENJOY it, but because ENVY is THE emotion which inflates our superheated world.
Today Pastor Jed describes three reasons why socialism is immoral, sinful and harmful to the world. That’s because it breaks three commandments: the 8th commandment, the 10th commandment, and the Great Commandment. Therefore, socialism is wrong, evil and stupid.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on September 8th, 2024 to learn more.
We are returning to the topic of envy today because it is THE emotion which superheats our pressurized age.
Envy drives everything OUT THERE. But how could this be, in a country with so many Christians? It’s because WE are the salt and light, but we have not taken seriously Jesus’ command in Luke 12:15:
“Take care, and be on your guard against allcovetousness”
As the church goes, so goes the culture. Yet this commandwraps some really good news: for when we learn to deal with covetousness, we get at the root of any number of other divisive, caustic problems, for ourselves, our families and church, and our society. And we learn to finally enjoy life. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on September 1st, 2024 to learn more.
It's so hard when we live in a world focused on, "What's in it for me." Yet, as Christians we are called to look out for the needs of others. The first century church did this well, but not without some growing pains. Envy got in the way and there was a steep cost for it. Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike's sermon on Aug. 25th, 2024 to learn more.
Psalm 20 truly is NOT about us, at least not at first. It SEEMS like it is, but it is not, and THIS, as Robert Frost said, THIS makes all the difference. It is the BEST news that this Psalm is not about us.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on July 18, 2024 to learn more.
“There is no atheism among those brought up in nature.” Or, as Psalm 19 begins, “The heavens declare the glory of GOD . . . day to day pours out speech . . . There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard.”
You can stamp out buildings and people, but not the stars. God speaks, and ALL hear it. God in fact speaks in THREE ways to us. Through His creation, v. 1-6; through His Word, v. 7-11; and through our consciences, v. 12-14.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on Aug. 11, 2024 to learn more.
Today we consider Psalm 18.
It is a long Psalm - 50 verses. But its point is very simple. David praises God, for making him successful in war, specifically over Israel’s first king Saul and all his other enemies.
The language is poetically graphic - David heaps up words to create vivid images. For God’s anointed son, David, God is, v. 1-3, his strength, a rock, David’s fortress, his deliverer, his refuge, his shield, the horn of his salvation, and his stronghold.
But to David’s enemies, v. 4-19, God is like a DRAGON who exhales smoke from his nostrils and breathes out flaming coals upon David’s enemies.
God did this for David because, David says, v. 20-24, David was righteous. For this reason God equipped David, v. 25-42, to run against a troop, and even when outnumbered, and run them through with his sword and beat them into fine dust.
Thus, v. 43-50, David praises his LORD among the nations.
That’s the psalm. The question, as always, is where do WE fit into this?
Listen this this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon no Aug. 4, 2024 to learn more.
One of the failures of the American Church that has led to today’s insanities is that we have thought, after the end of the Cold War, that we have no enemies left. And that may have been true, geopolitically. But in many places Jesus assumed that those who follow HIM WOULD have enemies - for instance, Matt. 24:9. We who follow Christ are hated by ALL nations.
We must not assume, therefore, that one of us is doing anything wrong, when we have enemies. “If only you had been more winsome, you wouldn’t be in this trouble.” Nor should we assume that the point of the Christian life is to live so as to have NO enemies. That kind of life actually leads to a slow and gradual renunciation of Christ, for the sake of the approval of the world.
No, instead we must follow the way of David, which is the way of Christ, in Psalm 17. The way of Christ is to honestly see our enemies, and then behold what we have in heaven. Only when we see what we possess in heaven, are we able to be some earthly good, in the face of evil opposition.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on July 28, 2024 to learn more.
A Christian's list of enemies continues to grow in our ever-expanding atheistic world. David had those enemies too who wanted to kill more than his reputation. They wanted him dead. But David showed us how to cope with these threats. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on July 21, 2024 to learn more.
David asks a question in Psalm 15 that humanity has been asking throughout history, even up to this day: who can stand before God? Who is good enough.
This is not just a Christian question. All humanity asks this. The missionary at camp recently told us how, when they came to the secluded tribe in Papau New Guineau, how they told the missionary that they KNEW they had done wrong - they KNEW they were separated from God. They just didn’t know why, and how to fix that.
And David gives us the answer. It’s just not, at first, the answer we want to hear. But it is the answer we NEED to hear.
Today we Christians spend a lot of ink and energy on the OBVIOUS and BLATANT forms of atheism that show up everywhere. But like the lookout on the Titanic, we can be sure that when we see OVERT atheism in classrooms courtrooms or boardrooms or elder meetings or worship services, that we only see the small portion of ice ABOVE the water. We can be sure that there is a LOT more under the surface. OBVIOUS, public atheism only comes after long periods of secret, unseen atheism, under the surface. And this brand of street-level atheism can show up anywhere - it’s especially at home among religious people, because it has a covering, of a moralistic life. And the American church has trafficked in this EFFECTIVE, practical atheism for a long time, more than we care to admit.
And as we will see in Psalm 14, this atheism is not neutral - it does a lot of damage while it lasts. To put this another way: as the church goes, so goes the nation. The church’s practical atheism has given birth to more of our present insanity than we care to admit. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on July 7th, 2024 to learn more.
America is exceptional--but not because of our politics, natural resources, or people. America is exceptional because of what God did--on the Cross, in the lives of its founders, and in our lives today.
If we want a great country, it starts with God's people, believing Him, trusting Him, and sharing His kingdom.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on June 30th, 2024 to learn more.
In this short Psalm, David bring dire need before God. We all have needs and often feel God is not acting fast enough on our behalf. But David teaches a great lesson as he brought his complaint, stated his need, and gave his response to God. Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike's sermon on June 23, 2024 to learn more.
We have a tendency to look to the ancient past and assume that we are more mature, emotionally and morally, than those cave-dwellers of the past. But the truth is that we HAVE progressed technologically. And yet it possible to PROGRESS one way, while at the same time REGRESS in other ways - for our generation, that regression is in how we emotionally process our world. We have much to re-learn from David in Psalm 12, in how HE emotionally processed the very real moral decay and threats of his day.
David:
Complains (to God)
Requests (of God)
Listens (to God)
Composed (in the imperfect complexities of life,in God.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 16th, 2024 to learn more.
Throwing up your hands and saying, there’s nothing to do, except exit the field of battle, and run for the hills.
After all, if the very foundations of society are destroyed, what then can the righteous do? If the institutions that we have created and treasured have become corrupt, what then can good people do? If our elites, who are supposed to affirm the good and punish evil don’t CARE what those words even MEAN, then what hope is there?
But David replies, v. 1, how can you say that to my soul? Because my soul takes refuge in Yahweh. In particular, in three realities ABOUT Yahweh.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 9th, 2024 to learn more.
We are taking one more look at the Sabbath. Often we consider the Sabbath by looking at Jesus’ conflicts with the Pharisees on the Sabbath. But when we look at a TYPICAL Sabbath of Jesus, we realize that we may be asking the wrong question - NOT, what should we NOT do, but what do we GET to do?
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 26th, 2024 to learn more.
First I want us to see three truths about you, from John’s first letter. Christianity NEVER says, DO this, and then you will BE this. Christianity says, you ARE this, because of what Christ has done. So then, by faith in Him, DO this.
So John, in a sort of poem in his letter, says three things about you, that are already true.
1.”You HAVE OVERCOME the evil one.”
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“You know the Father.”
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“You are strong . . . And the word of God abides in you.”
Listen to this episode to learn more from Pastor Jed’s exhortation to graduates in his sermon on May 19th,2024.
Why Does the Sabbath Command Continue?
The first reason is my simplest. Because God did not give 9.5 commandments. He gave TEN commandments, in Exodus 20, and there is no indication in Scripture that we should SHAVE the fourth one.
The Sabbath also continues, because it is pictured in the great prophecy of Isaiah, about God’s Suffering Servant.
Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 12th, 2024 to learn more.
What happens when we have a dream, a good dream, even a godly dream that is never fulfilled? We work hard to see it come to fruition, but all we have to show for the hard work is pieces of a broken dream. We know that God could have caused it to be realized, but he remained silent. It is at those moments that we are brought to a choice. A choice that will determine the rest of our lives. Do I walk away from God, or do I wait to see what he will do? Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on May 5th 2024 to learn more.
Life is full of counterintuitive experiences. There is the “right way” and then there is the “way you think is right;” otherwise known as “the wrong way.”
Matthew 16:24–25 (ESV)
24 Then Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it. (see also: Mark 8:34-35 & Luke 9:23-24)
What does it mean to take up your cross and follow Jesus?
Learn more in this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on April 28th, 2024.
The basic question is: How do we glorify God?First, we live life in the little moments—in the ordinary. Whatever we do, do it like Jesus. We—God’s redeemed people—now serve as God’s idols to the world—His physical living image. We are His image bearers portraying Him as living parables of His goodness to the world. His physical image meant to declare His glory. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 21, 2024 to learn more.
Authentic Christian, hear and they believe God’s promises for reward and His warnings. His awakens authentic Christians from their slumber and this faith causes them to run hard after the reward and away from the judgement. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 14, 2034 to learn more.
The church exists for the nations to see, as through a window, the compelling community of Christ’s kingdom. But there are so many other priorities that compete with this one in our lives. In the words of Celebrate Recovery, ‘So often our hurts, hang-ups, and habits get in the way’. Therefore, the only way that we can fulfill this purpose as a church is by letting God and His Word determine the terms of our relationship with each other. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 7, 2024 to learn more.
Easter Service:
The good news is that all who trust in Him NOW share in HIS resurrection life, TODAY.
I emphasize NOW, TODAY because most of us, even Christians, have gotten our understanding of the resurrection, as someone else has said, from Far Side cartoons. We think that resurrection life means living under the soft tyranny of HR hags and nags until we die and meet that great bureaucrat of the sky St. Peter at the pearly gates and are then assigned a cloud to play the harp on. But that is, literally and figuratively, a JOKE.
Not any where near what the world needs. Not what we willneed when we die, and not what we need NOW, either. But thank God we don't have to wish for something better or make it up ourselves. Because the BIBLE gives us a much brighter image. This to this episode from Pastor Jed’s Easter sermon on March 31, 2024 to learn more.
On this Palm Sunday, we look at Jesus’ triumphal entry into the city of Jerusalem as the people put down palm branches and welcome with shouts of Hosanna. First, we’ll look at why they welcomed Him so readily. Then we’ll consider three different aspects of his triumphal entry that are crucially important for us today living as we do in a time when inmates run the asylum. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 24th, 2024 to learn more.
Jesus gave up His rights and surrendered Himself in faith. Faith that on the other side of giving Himself over there would be joy. For the joy set before Him, Jesus endured the cross. The joy of seeing the Father glorified, the joy of resurrection life, and the joy of you and I sharing with Him in that resurrection life. This is how we are to live too—surrendering our lives for the glory of the Father and for others to share in this resurrection life with us. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 17th, 2024 to learn more.
Christ deferred all His interests to the Father, and His interests were to get glory by saving us. Thus, true discipleship means deferring our interests to our neighbors for their good and God’s glory. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 10th, 2024 to learn more.
In these troubled times—for God’s glory and our good—never treat even the best of things that are passing away as though they are ultimate and eternal. We should be drenched in God’s Word, and be informed by God’s Word in all things, and then apply Christ’s commands to all of life. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 3rd, 2024 to learn more.
Because God indwells His people, we are to remain wherever we are. The question we look at this week is how do we remain? When you are united with Christ, you literally bring God with you wherever you go. Wherever you are, whatever your occupation, genre, marital status, personality ... God put you there, to were you as His mask to push His grace into the world there—for His glory. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 25th, 2024 to learn more.
Defer to the interests of your spouse, for that is the path to glory. It is good to remain single. Marriage is not the highest level of existence—after all, Jesus was single. But not all are gifted for singleness. I you burn with passion than it is better if you marry. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 18th, 2024 to learn more.
In God we are find the blessing that we are prone to search for everywhere else. We are told by the world and our own brain that to surrender is death. To surrender our bodies to God is to die. To surrender or sexual identities to God is to give up all that we are. When in fact, on the other side of that is blessing. Beyond measure.Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 11th,2024 to learn more about the role of sex in marriage.
In this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 4th, 2024, Pastor teaches on the 3 pillars of truth from 1 Corinthians 6 that deliver us from sexual sin. Sex is powerful and can easily become a master over us. The question is, “What masters us?” Listen to learnmore.
It’s not Christian to only say, “Can I do this?” Christianity says, “Though I can do this—though it is permissible—will this help or hurt those around me?” If we don’t ask this, we may very well be right and totally wrong at the same time. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 28th, 2024 to learn more.
There are lots of times in our lives where Jesus calls us to do the hard thing. As we live between the cross and the empty tomb and the day of Christ’s return—as we live in faith in that day and hope in this day—it gives us grace to live today according to the commands of Christ. Our future is that we will judge the angels. The church now is a training ground and a test site for the life that we will lead then. We learn to and we display our competency to judge the world then by judging ourselves now. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 21st, 2024 to learnmore.
The Word, fellowship, and prayer are the core of Christianity throughout the ages everywhere for all times. To be devoted to something means to energetically give yourself over to or to persist over time in that thing. The early church devoted themselves to the prayers. They were devoted to them—dependent upon God in it—undivided as prayed, and all the while they were directed in their praying by God. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 14th, 2024 to learn more.
The central point of worship is enjoyment of God. Whatever you enjoy most in life will be the thing that shapes you most. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on January 7, 2024 to learn more.
When anyone is in Christ, they are welcomed into the community of the Trinity. They are welcomed into what is truly truth, goodness, and beauty, because that is what God is Himself. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 31st, 2023 to learnmore.
God is love; and God disciplines His children because He loves us. One way He does this—disciplines us—is through His children acting in love. Love is doing the Words of God with sacrificial affection toward God and neighbor. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 17th, 2023 to learn more.
Sin is like a volcano; power and destructive in and of itself. Sin carries its own punishment—its own sin and its own grief. And yet it can also have an effect on the whole world. When grievous, unrepentant sin is found in the church, that person should be cast out – so that they will repent and return to God. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 10th, 2023 to learn more.
There are 5 ways to battle divisiveness. First, look for evidences of God’s grace in others—not its absences. Second, keep on hand at all times on Jesus Christ—and Him crucified. Third, remember this way of salvation is foolish according to man’s wisdom, and that is by God’s design. Fourth, remember that we all occupy a humble position in relation to God. And fifth, return to your fathers, from whom you have received all, and imitate them. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 3rd, 2023 to learn more.
There are two massive ditches that Christians are prone to fall into; the pride of man and the fear of man. In this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 26th, 2023, Pastor teaches from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth to reveal the antidote to this problem. Listen to learn more.
What good will it do to get to the end of time and learn you were harder on yourself that God is? And want good will it do to go through life and realizing at the end of your life that you were much easier on yourself than God is? Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 12, 2023 to learn more.
The Gospel questions every society—every people—it enters; every family, every club, every state, every community. It questions it and the wisdom of Jesus undercuts all of it. God did not send Jesus to affirm what we already love but to question it, undercut it, and transform it. We are all—right now—God’s temple. If we knew this then we wouldn’t be acting at the same time robed in Christian pity and naked self-interest. To learn more listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Nov. 11. 2023.
What really grieves the Holy Spirit is not the big-ticket items but, bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor. Underlying all of that is the wisdom of man and not the “foolishness of God.” By this no one can boast that we brought anything but our need to our salvation. To learn more, listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Oct. 29, 2023.
As Christians, we pray for our leaders so that we may have a society that is peaceful and honoring to God. We want our society to honor God because God desires His gospel to run. He desires that all people would be saved. God’s greatest interest is not in lengthening the American dream. God’s idea of the highest and best society is not 1950s America. He has something else in mind—that this kind of society serves; this kind of society complements; this kind of society supports—that is the salvation of all people. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on October 22, 2023 to learn more.
Mankind, with our own wisdom, all we want to do is take our wisdom and employ it with pride to build up towers of Babel for ourselves. We try to build up our way to heaven by our own power without God. That’s what we do with our wisdom. So God, in His wisdom—which is outside the system of man’s wisdom—chose to bring the good news of the gospel (the good news of Christ, the way to salvation and the way out of our insanity) not by way of human wisdom. Not by anything within the human system. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on October 8, 2023 to learn more.
God chose both a message and manner of communication that would be seen as implausible. Because our wisdoms damns us, God, in His wisdom, chose to use folly to bring the gospel. Listen to thisepisode from Pastor Jed’s message on October 1, 2023 to learn more.
The church has lived so long with the notion that if I don’t agree, I’ll break off and start another “frozen chosen” other there and that’s how we will gain agreement. But God commands us to be united and He never commands something that is impossible for us to do. Our entire salvation was not founded on man-made wisdom or knowledge. This is not wisdom or knowledge we can grasp by our own wisdom or knowledge, but it is based on the “foolishness of God.” Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 17, 2023 to learn more.
For so long the North American church had no perceivable opponents—they were there, just in waiting. We had no opponents except ourselves, of course. So, we divided, and divided, and divided which only made it easier when our real enemies did appear—especially in the last decade—to further divide us and conquer us. But we are the superior force. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 10, 2023 learn more.
Because Jesus is risen from the dead, He is King of everyone and everything. Everything is now under His rule. When anything or anyone comes under His rule, He redeems it or them; He transforms it or them. That thing or person is still itself and yet at the same time new. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 27, 2023 to learn more.
It’s been said that blind optimism for a Christian is naïve. It is blind foolishness. These days it is getting harder and harder to be naïve. But on the other hand, to be pessimistic is atheistic—blind unbelief—which is getting easier and easier to fall into. In this passage, Paul would have nothing in either. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 3, 2023 learn more.
The nature of prayer must consider the triune character of God. Prayer to the Father is war-like. Prayer that stands on the Son is personal. Prayer in the Spirit is transforming. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 20, 2023 to learn more.
Our worship is warfare. It asks God’s Kingdom to come now. Our worship should be: simple, spiritual and intelligible. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 13, 2023 to learn more.
In our worship we don’t start with theology or tradition, we start with a risen Jesus. He lives and He is our life so He deserves all of our worship. As we look at the Bible, we realize God is very specific about certain aspects of worship, but then He is fascinatingly silent about a lot of other aspects of worship. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on August 6, 2023 to learn more.
Shepherds shepherd those who shepherd. All of us disciples are to do the verb of shepherding. We are to shepherd Jesus’ flock the way that Jesus shepherds us. Disciples do what their master does. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 30, 2023 to learn more.
From the very beginning God has used human people to further His will. Like a proud father, He was very pleased to have Adam reign over the earth for Him as His vice king over creation. Moses then served as a shepherd of God’s folk with a group of elders serving with him. This shepherding metaphor carries forward to Israel’s kings. All the elite were supposed to be shepherds modeling themselves after their Great Shepherd, YHWH. This has always been the case. YHWH appoints—all by His grace, by mercy—men to shepherd His people on His behalf. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 23, 2023 to learn more.
It was as if, when Jesus looked into Lazarus’ tomb, He looked into every tomb and grave and said, “No more!” Those who are in Christ—who believe in Christ—are sealed with His Spirit. Jesus’ Spirit serves as our down payment that we will walk in His exodus and re-enter Eden one day. Learn more in this episode from the sermon by Pastor Jed give on July 16, 2023.
Psalm 23 is of all of life, not just the end of life. The reason is what David says in verse 6. David—and we—can look into the future with great confidence. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 9, 2023 to learn more.
Autonomy begets envy begets immorality. God is never more like God than when He is showing mercy. God is slow to anger, but His on a hair-trigger to show mercy. People everywhere are suppressing truth about God, though His attributes are right before our eyes. Instead of receiving our lives as a gift from God, we insanely push down truth about Him, so with all our PHDs and fancy titles, we become fools. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 18, 2023 to learn more.
There is a danger in the blessings we receive from God. We are prone to defect from the Comforter, and live just for the comforts. We are finding now, in this generation, that kind of life doesn’t pay off. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 11, 2023.
In today’s episode David comes to the central point of Psalm 23 where he exalts in his Good Shepherd. This Good Shepherd makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside still waters. And in all of this He restores my soul. David says this to himself, to God’s people, and to the whole world. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May, 21, 2023.
Jesus died for all the ways we have thirsted for things, followed our own devices, and to dirty mud puddles and feted waters of this world. He died to forgive us of all of those sins. Then He was raised from the dead to secure new life for us. Then He ascended to the Father’s right hand. When He ascended, He poured out His Spirit to His people so we thirst no more. Learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 14, 2023.
The local church is a platoon barracks—for the soldiers of the Lord—and a field hospital. It’s where we recharge again to go back out into the fight. And it’s where we come back to to heal from our wounds from the fight. Learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 7, 2023.
We are shepherded by someone or something. It’s not a matter of whether we are shepherded but to what end? Find out about this Good Shepherd who makes His sheep lie down in green pastors in the episode by Pastor Jed from April 30, 2023.
Trouble is part of our story. When trouble there is always the fact lack. Trouble brings lack—we want. Why so much trouble? How do I process this? What do we do with the lack that I fear I will experience? Yet David say, “I shall not want.” That is the great challenge of faith. If YHWH is this God, why do we suffer as we do, and what should we do about it. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 23, to learn more.
Psalm 23 describes God’s care for His people so simply and so beautifully. David wrote this, not because he was expecting to die, but because by the shepherding of God he expected to live. There is a dying that lead to life and a life that leads to dying. Living as our own shepherd leads to death. We need to live under the Good Shepherd. Everyone is shepherded by someone or something. The question is, Who is your shepherd? Learn more in the this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 16th, 2023.
True righteousness is not found by following any law. It is a gift found in God alone. It is not enough to have faith. It must rest in Jesus. Learn more in this Easter episode from Pastor Jed given on April 9, 2023.
Joy was the superpower of the early church. Today, the church is conserved with being “seeker sensitive”—with tailoring our worship to that few people in the population who are interest in consuming a spiritual good or service. However, the thing that is winsome and attractive to every group, in every culture, in every generation, across all time is a people really having fun. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 26, 2023 to learn more.
In this sermon given by Pastor Jed on March 12, 2023, he asks God to have His way with our hearts. We need eyes of our hearts to see the hope to which we are called. It is that hope we need to transform us from being slaves fear. That hope can free us by faith. God builds courage in us with a vision of the future rewards in Him. Listen to learn more.
What does God what from our worship? In today’s episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 5, 2023. Jed looks at the what worship is really about and what it is not about. Then he offers some practical ways to do worship properly. Listen to learn more.
So often, we as the modern church look “out there” for ways to fix what is wrong in our world. But what we find is not authentic. But we’ve already been given the solutions by our Father. The body of Christ is to always be part of a building project. Learn the who, when, where, and why, in this sermon by Pastor Jed given on February 26, 2023.
The household—as defined by God—is the basic building block for society. Pastor Jed in his sermon on February 19, 2023, drilled down on the practical ways that we (especially fathers) can build their household in order to rebuild our society as God intended. Listen now to learn more.
In today’s episode, Pastor Jed drills down on the importance of our Christians households in this chaotic world. He start with the command: “If you want to rebuild civilization, start with your own house.” Listen to this message for the sermon on February 12, 2023.
Return to the fundamentals of Christianity with these three keys: Remember, repent, and recover. To learn more about going back to the foundations of who we are as Christians, listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 5, 2023.
We should be immovable. Why? First, because God is steadfast and immovable. Second, because of threats. Evil will not roll over and take their downfall without a fight. Learn more about why and how we fight—stand firm—as Christians in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 29, 2023.
We too often think too highly of ourselves. We presume that we already have every capability within us to do what God wants us to do. We just need better tactics, better technologies, better preacher, better church. When in reality, what we need most often is a heart that has been enlarged by God. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 22, 2023.
Christians are the salt of the earth, and God call us to fix what’s broken in our world. It’s time to get our hands dirty and build and rebuild what’s been torn down. We need to get to it because time is short. And it’s time to consider if we are working at the right things—those things that attract the eye of God and His hand of blessing. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 15, 2023.
The point of Christmas is that Jesus might live (God incarnate) among us. But the point of Jesus living among us is that He would go to the cross as the perfect sacrifice an die for us and the forgiveness of our sins, But the point of the cross was that His might be raised from the dead—beating death forever—in our place. The point of the resurrection is the ascension. Learn more from these crucial verses about the time we live in now in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 8, 2023.
When Jesus left the earth, it was the end of His mission of the here, but it was also just the beginning. His conquest of the nations began then. In this passage preached on by Pastor Jed on January 1, 2023, Jesus give His disciples His mission plan for that conquest. Listen to this episode to learn more.
Christmas is all about peace. So Jesus came, and Christmas was the beach-head, and the cross was the mortal blow, but now God works by His Spirit—Jesus continues His dragon crushing work though His people. Listen to learn more in the this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Christmas Day, 2022.
In the passages discussed today, we look at the goal of what God is doing. What is the goal that Jesus has for you? The goal of everything that we are doing in our churches? The goal of everything that we are doing in our families? The goal of our nation? It has to do with knowledge. We have to first understand what is the role of knowledge in this great goal. The goal is living in Jesus’ resurrection. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 18, 2022.
We must look at Christ’s resurrection again, because, if it’s true (and we believe that it is) then it should break history in half. And it has. The calendar stops and starts on this event. Even more than this, it should cast a light over everything—literally everything. The resurrection of Jesus is such a unique event in all of human history, that it leaves nothing in a neutral middle ground. Everything now either falls under its shadow or under its light. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 11, 2022 to learn more.
In this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 4, 2022, he looks at the final blow to Jesus, the final descent into Jesus’ humility—the burial of His body. Christians rightly emphasis His death on a cross as the central moment in all of history and all our eternal destinies. But that doesn’t mean that the events surrounding the cross have no meaning. In fact, we neglect the events like the burial to our great detriment. Listen to learn more.
We are too enshrouded in our own darkness to help ourselves, so Jesus did it all. The Christian life is all about faith in what Jesus did for us on the cross. Listen to the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 27, 2022, to learn more.
In this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 20, 22, Jed looks at Luke’s account of the crucifixion and how it is the very center of all we believe as Christians. Listen to learn more. Listen to learn more.
Two important questions are discussed in this episode. Who killed Jesus? And Whom did they kill when they killed Jesus? Listen to learn more from Pastor Jed’s sermon from November 13, 2022.
God is still on a war here and now. The first battle of this war was lost in the first garden. But Christ came to the second garden—He’s the second Adam to do what the first Adam failed to do in the first garden; to completely submit to the Father. This is to advance His kingdom. As the light advances, the darkness recoils from it. The darkness will resist it and darkness resists it even now. Listen to this episode to learn more from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 6, 2022.
In today’s episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on October 30, 2022, It looks at a passage were we enter holy ground, and you can’t enter holy ground and not be changed. Here Jesus calls us to follow after Him on this holy ground. Here we come to the core of God’s work of redemption to save us and at the same time we are coming to ground zero of what it means to be a Christian. Listen to learn more.
In today’s episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on October 23, 2022, he observes four aspects of the Christians’ relationship to politics—four aspects that the Bible describes. Listen to learn more.
We know as Christians, there’s a God and we’re supposed to have faith. And we know that in that faith, God is taking us to heaven. Those are some of the basic facts about Christianity that everybody knows—even non-Christians. The question is; What are we supposed to trust in? What is our faith to rest upon? Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on October 16, 2022.
In one way the Lord’s Supper is like a funeral where we look upon Him who we have pierced. And we mourn realizing that is was our sin that put Him there. But it is also like a wedding rehearsal dinner. We look expectantly, joyously to the wedding to come. Listen to this episode to learn more, for Pastor Jed’s sermon from October 2, 2022.
God procession total authority, total capability, total sovereignty to direct everything and He does even the hearts of men. So if that is true, then David asks, “Why do You stand far off with the wicked terrorize and abuse the innocent?” Listen to find the answer in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 25, 2022.
In the face of our threats, we have to ask ourselves, “Who is God?” and “Who will He be tomorrow?” The reason this is so important regarding anxiety, is because what is anxiety but a little false prophet inside of you prophesying about how awful tomorrow going to be. Listen to learn more from this encouraging message from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 18, 2022.
Out of the mouths of infants and nursing babies You haveprepared praise. (Matt. 21:16) What was it the children declared with theirmouths that was the strength that compelled Jesus to drive out God’s enemies?Joy! The whole universe exists and serves as a theater to display the glory ofGod, in order that all creation would be humbled like little babies and infantsin awe of this glorious creation and respond with child-like joy. Listen tothis episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 11, 2022 to learn more.
In Ps 7 we’ll see three pillars in delaying with false actuations against us. We’ll also look at how to grow faithfully into the promotions that God grants us. Listen to learn more from this sermon by Pastor Jed, delivered on Sept. 4, 2022.
By what standard do you determine guilt? Everyone believes in a higher standard—a giver of law—a god. The question is to which god are we appealing to? Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Aug. 21, 2022.
Today’s passage is so vital in our world today because everyone seems to be angry. It’s not a matter if, but about what are you angry. We most concern what we do with our anger whether it is constructive for destructive. This passage has, at its center, the issue of anger. There is no better passage for gaining wisdom in understanding anger, and getting ourselves oriented in a right position to do something constructive about it. Listen to this episode to learn more from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Aug 14, 2022.
These psalms focus on joy—happiness, but not a happy feeling that changes like the waves on the sea. This is happens like Ps 1:3; like a tree that is planted near the stream and yields its fruit though the rest of the land is dried up dust. To Learn more about this kind of happiness and its source, listen to this episode from the sermon by Pastor Jed on July 31, 22.
America is a gift from God’s hand. It’s gifts are a reflection of God’s excellences. So, in that regard, it is good to feel patriotism and love for our country—because we see reflections of God. Yet at the same time we feel grief and fear for our country. God’s word makes it clear what we need. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 3, 2022.
Authentic followers of Jesus endure in following Him until the end. Perfectly? No. But in faithfulness and endurance until the end. In today’s passage, Jesus is equipping us for this pilgrimage. Listen to learn more in this episode from the sermon by Pastor Jed on June 26, 2022.
What was Jesus’ goal in teaching us about the end times? He gave us a timeline that we may look at our present and see it rightly, in light of the future. Listen to learn more in this episode from the sermon by Pastor Jed on June 19, 2022.
God finds pride repellant and abhorrent, buthumility draws His eye. It invites His smile. It invites His favor; His gives.He loves to draw near to the humble. Listen to learn more in this episode fromthe sermon by Pastor Jed on June 12, 2022.
God’s people are justified in Christ, and thenout of that justification we increasing live lives out of righteousness witheach other. And the effect of this righteous living with each other ispeace. Listen to learn more in this episode from the sermon by Pastor Jed onJune 5, 2022.
When something happens to us, our common response is, “What is God doing in this?” This is not sinful to ask. But this is not getting to the point. But the question should be is “Who are You, God?” This taps into the main powerline of the whole Bible. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon from May 29, 2022, to learn more.
Jesus faced opposition with common sense and rationality. That is what the world has—what we constantly face. We are told that we become worthy by accepting whatever the whim of rationality is today. But the most important question is not what man thinks about us, but what does God think about us? Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon from May 22, 2022.
Christians are not inherently rebellious. We were designed to live under, and in submission to, God. When Adam and Eve chose not to remain under God’s authority is when they sinned. Humans were never designed to live utterly free. There is no such thing a absolute freedom. God appoints rulers over us and we are to pray for them and follow them. But what do we do when our rulers act against God? Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 15, 2022, to learn more.
There is a moral element to naivety. We are usually naïve because in our pride, we know that there are realities that we know to be true, but we just don’t want to think about it anymore. We can’t imagine the world being that way, so in our pride we decide—as though we are God—that, of course, the world is this way and not this way. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 8, 2022.
Jesus gave the people a choice. Either follow others to your destruction, for follow your King to everlasting life. Which to you choose. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May, 1, 2022.
Jesus was laser focused on one thing—the mission of God—that the nation could hear the word of God, could be taught in the word, and pray to Him. Therefore, by definition, this put Him at odds with the elites. By nature, Christians are not rebellious, but we are for the Father’s glory among the nations, which, by definition, will put us in conflict with the elites of this world. Listen to learn more in the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 24, 22.
Christianity rests on three central events in time and space in the life of one real man, Jesus; crucifixion, burial, and resurrection. Listen to learn more from this powerful Easter sermon from 2022 by Pastor Jed.
The point is not to look at ourselves because all you’re looking at is yourself. The point is to look out from ourselves, to the promise of the reward that is coming. Listen to learn more of God’s excessive grace in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 10, 2022
We see Jesus interact with prostitutes, tax collectors, blind men, sick women—the down and out. And every time, we see Jesus touching them, welcoming them. Not just to affirm them in that state and say, “The fact that you are down and out means you are noble in and you are righteous because you are down and out.” He doesn’t do that. He crossed the boundary and touches them to call them out of that life—that sin. Listen to this episode to hear more from Pastor Jed in this sermon from April 3, 2022.
There is no problem, no concern, no terror, that is outside Jesus’ authority. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Ryan’s sermon on March 27, 2022.
As we turn away from money, we must turn to the One we were looking for all along in our love of wealth. Listen to this episode to learn more in the message from Pastor Jed for March 20, 2022.
The law is only a tutor to point out to us how far will all fall from the yardstick, and the yardstick is God Himself. Listen to learn more in this episode from that sermon by Pastor Jed date Mar. 13, 2022.
So often, the being faithful to God will result in blessings and “success”, but then it’s that success that can bring its own problems and can distract us from the vision and mission. Listen to learn more in the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 6, 2022.
We must endure in pray, but there are two enemies that fight this constantly; one is disappointment and discouragement. They are one enemy of faith and of faith-filled prayer. The other enemy is presumption and pride. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed on February 27, 2022.
Jesus calls us to follow the end-times vision that He shared with us and then to work our way back. To live our lives backwards to that end. It’s the only way to live wisely. Listen to learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on February 20, 2022.
We live in a purposeless age. In this sermon by Pastor Jed from February 13, 2022, He teaches us how we’ve gotten in trouble as “We’re so prone to make God a secondary character in the play of life, who just comes in and out of the play to serve us—to make everything work out for us.” Listen to learn more.
Jesus knows that we need to process our emotions about His teachings rightly in order to follow His teaching authentically. He knows us. He’s not content for us to just sit in church and nod our heads at His demands, and then walk out the door saying in our hearts, “Well, that’s impossible.” Learn more from Pastor Jed’s sermon from February 6, 2022. Listen to learn more.
In this special sermon by Pastor Jed, he looks back at the lessons from our time in pandemic. Obedience brings it own blessings. There are many times when there is a deeper faith; a deeper fear of the Lord, that can only be grasped and comprehended and experienced on the other side of obedience. Listen to learn more.
We need to have an advocate; ready; prepared; to give an account; to say I know who this guy is. I know who this lady is. I know their heart. I know them deeply. – That advocate is Jesus. Learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Jan. 23, 2022. Listen to learn more.
We are the richest generation in history. In today’s episode from Jan. 16, 2022, Pastor Jed looks at Jesus’ teaching on money. Listen to learn more.
True disciples know that wealth in this world is unrighteous, so we are tempted to distance ourselves from money. But this is a mistake. Learn more in this Podcast episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Jan. 9, 2022. Listen to learn more.
I’m not primarily saved even for myself—although there certainly are benefits. But I was lost to God, and now my Creator has me. He’s got my life for His glory and His purpose. Learn more in the episode from Pastor Jed's sermon given on Jan. 2, 2022.
Repentance isn’t an end in and of itself. Your salvation, your repentance is not the end. The end is God’s own joy in His own saving us. Learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon given on Dec. 26, 2021.
There is not one square inch over your life, and even over the whole world, over which Jesus does not—right this moment—say, “Mine.” Learn more in this episode from Pastor Jed's sermons delivered on Dec. 19, 2021.
The greatest question of our lives is not if we are living for reward. The greatest question in our lives is whose reward are we living for? Whose generosity do you trust in? Learn more from Pastor Jed's sermon from Dec. 12, 2021.
In these sermon, from Dec. 2, 21, we learn about the door to God’s house is narrow, and if we are bloated with pride, we will not fit. Listen to learn more.
In this message, for Nov. 28, 2, we look closer at the depths of meaning in the familiar Psalm. Listen to hear more.
This sermon, recorded on Nov. 21, 21, looks at the principle that he clearer you see God in Christ, the clearer you will see all reality. Listen to learn more.
This sermon, recorded on Nov. 14, 2021, is a deeper look at God's economy. Neither proximity to the things of God or the knowledge of God transforms our hearts. Listen to learn more.
Listen to Pastor Jed's sermon on the King's Mission Plan to his disciples, from Luke 24:36-49.