Providence Church: Recent Episodes
Will Walker & Todd Stewman
We may genuinely want to obey God, but wanting to obey and actually doing it are two different things. Psalm 40 shows us where to look when our obedience falls short.
We live in a turbulent, noisy, intimidating world, with people and nations clamoring for power and position. Sometimes we wonder if the world is going to be okay. But Psalm 2 gives us confidence that God has the whole world in his hands. His anointed King reigns over the nations!
Psalm 24 is a reflection on God as a King, and it points forward to Jesus as the king of glory. He ascends to the holy place and invites us to follow him. He is the way to God, the ruler over all things, and when he returns we will reign with him.
Jesus is the man that Adam was made to be. He is the true human being. The good news about Jesus is not just that he saves us from our sins, but also that he restores our identity and purpose as humans.
We gain confidence in God by experiencing him personally. And that is possible because of the death and resurrection of Jesus. He is the holy one who did not see corruption. In Christ, we can say that God is our refuge and we will not be shaken.
If Psalm 22 is about the cross of Christ and Psalm 24 is about the crown of Christ, then Psalm 23 is about the confidence we can have in Christ. Psalm 23 is a confidence Psalm, a psalm of absolute trust. And there are three clear confessions of confidence in this Psalm that can be our confessions too.
This is the Psalm of the Cross, quoted by Jesus as he suffers and dies for the sins of the world. This Psalm brings us into the experience of Christ’s premeditated passion to deliver and rescue us from the sin and death and bring us into the dwelling presence of God.
Jesus is the blessed man of Psalm 1. Through our union with him, we receive his righteousness and we resolve to walk with him in the way of Psalm 1.
In this beautiful story, God arranges a divine encounter to take the gospel to just one man. And he does it through another man. And, even though this story has some extraordinary elements, it’s really just the ordinary way God works to bring people to himself. The Spirit of God uses the man or woman of God to share the word of God to bring people to faith in the Son of God.
The gospels moves out in word and deed. It brings people in to fellowship and community. And it spills over in abundant joy.
In Acts 6–7, Stephen faithfully serves, boldly proclaims Jesus, and becomes the first Christian martyr. His story reveals that suffering is not evidence of God's absence but often part of following Christ. In this sermon, Brad Watson explores how opposition cannot stop the mission of God, why believers share in the life of Jesus, and how the hope of resurrection transforms even death into victory.
As the early church grew, it faced much opposition. But the greatest threat to the growing church might have been growth itself. Because growth brings challenges and complexities that can distract the church from the mission of God.
The mission of God will always meet resistance and opposition. But whatever comes our way, we can seek God, and he can give us courage to do the work he has called us to do.
Here in Acts 4 we have a confrontation between the religious leaders and the apostles. And at the root of the confrontation is the name of Jesus. His name dominates the entire episode and is what the controversy is all about. There is no other name like the name of Jesus.
The Holy Spirit forms ordinary people into a community devoted to the gospel and his people. This sermon explores how the gospel saves us not only from sin and death, but into a shared life marked by hope, belonging, and mission. Even in a world marked by church hurt and isolation, the Spirit-filled church becomes a visible witness that Jesus is making all things new.
Acts 2:1-13 is the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to send the Holy Spirit to his disciples. On the one hand, what happens in this account is unique, because the Holy Spirit only comes one time in this particular way. On the other hand, the Holy Spirit who comes in Acts 2 is the same Holy Spirit given to us. So, who is he? And what does he do?
Jesus was "taken up into heaven," but his work continues. The kingdom of God advances as the Holy Spirit empowers us to bear witness to Jesus. We are called out of complacency into a renewed life of expectancy, prayer, and boldness.
The risen Jesus transforms the disciples' fear into joy, a timeless message because we are a fearful people. Jesus' bodily resurrection speaks to our deepest questions about God, showing that God cares for us and can change our lives.
The road to Emmaus is in many ways a model of Christian experience. It’s a description of the journey of faith. We walk it again and again. And the risen Jesus draws near to us on the journey.
Greed is a disordered desire for more money and things that money can buy. The love of money deteriorates our love for God and others. We combat greed by cultivating the virtue of generosity. Jesus is our example: He gave himself completely for our good.
The original understanding of sloth is much deeper than laziness. Sloth is a spiritual resistance to spiritual progress. It’s a loss of care about the things we should care about most and an avoidance of the very things we’re made for (loving God and loving others). That’s why it’s so dangerous.
Gluttony is a disordered desire for food or drink that drives us to excess and self-indulgence. The problem is not that we have appetites, but that we are controlled by them. When we remember that our citizenship is in heaven, we are able to enjoy food as a gift and experience it as a foretaste of the great feast to come.
Wrath is anger gone wrong. It’s anger expressed in the wrong ways and it’s anger about the wrong things. When we hold onto this kind of anger, it is incredibly harmful. It’s harmful to us personally, harmful to others, and harmful to our relationship with God. How can we overcome this kind of anger and loosen its grip on our lives?
Lust is sexual desire that can only be satisfied outside of God’s good design. Instead of honoring others, lust objectifies and uses them. The gospel sets us free from this enslaving vice and empowers us to pursue God’s vision of life and love.
Envy is rivalry and comparison gone off the rails. Envy produces sorrow over your neighbor’s success and joy over their misfortune. It’s so common it can be described as the oldest and most consistent source of relational strife in the Bible. The first sin out of are the garden is fueled by it. So, in this sermon we look at Cain’s story. What is envy? Why is it so deadly? How does Jesus free us from it?
Vainglory is the excessive and disordered desire for recognition and approval from others. It’s such a common sin, even among the people of God, that Jesus confronts it directly in the Sermon on the Mount. Why is vainglory so deadly? And how does the gospel address it?
God wants the whole world to find life through faith in Jesus, and the way he gets the message out is through his people. How do we do it? Praying, walking, and talking.
The gospel doesn’t just reconcile us to God — it forms us into a new kind of community, one marked by the love of Christ, governed by the peace of Christ, and shaped by the word of Christ.
The gospel has the power to change us personally. It is the basis for our conversion and the means by which we continue in the Christian life.
We are a gospel-centered church because of our conviction and experience that wherever the gospel goes, it has the power to change everything.
Psalm 63 is David praying in the wilderness. And the amazing thing is how he prays. He doesn’t ask God to get him out of the wilderness, but he simply seeks God himself. And David ends up finding satisfaction and security right there in the wilderness. What if we made this our prayer for the new year? What if it was our prayer for all of life?
Psalm 62 calls us to trust in God alone—resting in his character and relying on him at all times. Though we often place our trust in ourselves, others, or wealth, Jesus perfectly trusted the Father and delivers us from self-reliance.
In this Advent sermon from John 18:33–38, Jesus declares the purpose of his birth: to bear witness to it. Jesus is the fulfillment of God’s promises and the truth that stands over every moment of our lives.
What happened on that very first Christmas gave us more than a heartwarming story. What happened on that first Christmas changed the world. Because Jesus came to accomplish the very will of God for the world.
Jesus came as light because the world is in darkness. Humanity is in hiding in rebellion against God, but the light has come. Darkness is not inevitable. Cynicism is not final. Anyone who believes in Jesus is rescued from darkness.
Advent is season celebrating the coming of Jesus and longing for him to come again. And we learn a lot about why Jesus came from what he reveals about himself. In this passage, he tells us who he is, what he came to do, and how he did it.
We are all capable of drifting from God and community, so we must watch out for one another. We are all responsible to bring back the wanderer. When we do this, we join the work of the good Shepherd who leaves the 99 to go after the one.
As James closes his letter, the number one thing on his mind is prayer. Which makes sense, because prayer might be the main application of everything he’s been writing. True faith expresses itself through prayer.
James calls us to be long-suffering—to endure injustice, pain, and grief without losing hope. That kind of patience doesn’t come from calm apps or techniques; it comes from knowing how the story ends.
When you know the end of the story—that Jesus will return to make all things new, to bring justice and flourishing—you can live differently in the midst of sorrow. You can endure. The gospel story tells us that every injustice will be dealt with, every tear will be wiped away, and every wound will be healed. Our patience today is an act of defiance against despair. It’s not passive—it’s the daily practice of trusting that God’s mercy and compassion are still at work.
Money is persuasive. It can be used for tremendous good, but it can also misused. This warning about hoarding, withholding, and indulging points us to the joy of giving.
James confronts a sin that is so common that we don’t even notice it in our lives. It’s the sin of presumptuousness: Living life and making plans without any reference to God.
When we say something that negatively shades how people see someone, that is in the realm of slander. The problem is more common and more egregious than we think, but the gospel can change us. Mercy triumphs over judgement.
We tend to focus on the surface reality of conflicts. But the answer to why we fight (and the solution to our fights) can’t be found on the surface. We have to look deeper.
Would you call yourself wise? According to James, wisdom is less about what you know, and more about your life and what you love. Ultimately, true wisdom is a gift from God: It comes down from above, producing peace and good fruit.
On the surface, James seems to contradict Paul regarding the role of faith in salvation. But he’s really answering the question, “What is true, saving faith?"
To favor people because of appearances is so common that it feels normal. But James tells us that partiality is incompatible with faith in Jesus. God gives us the capacity to see people as he sees them, and to love them as he loves them.
Just as we were given new life by the word of God (James 1:18), so we grow in that new life by living according to the word of God. And that involves two things: Hearing the word and doing the word. James holds those two things together, not to be separated.
In the first 12 verses of James, he's been talking about trials. Now, in verse 13, he switches the topic to temptation. Perhaps better than any other passage in the NT, James lays out a process for how temptation and sin work in our lives.
It’s okay to ask God to take away our trials. But in our waiting, we can also ask him to give us what we need to be faithful and fruitful in our trials. This is the wisdom from above, and it is available to all who ask.
If you had to pick one word to describe the end of the Kings story, it would be “exile.” Exile is the unhappy but just judgment on the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. But is exile the end of the story?
Josiah’s life shows us the beauty of renewal: hearing God’s Word, grieving over sin, tearing down false worship, and turning fully to the living God. Yet even this unparalleled king couldn’t rescue his people from God’s coming judgment. Why? Because sin runs deeper than our best efforts—it clings to us in guilt and shame, and no amount of personal reform can remove it. The good news is that Jesus does what Josiah could not: He bears our guilt, carries our shame, and takes God’s wrath in our place. This is the hope that truly makes us new.
Manasseh was a wicked king, yet God showed him grace. Still, the effects of his sin lingered on. Ultimately, Jesus is the only one who can fix what sin has broken and make all things new.
The story of “pride goes before the fall” is so common that it has become cliche. And yet, it keeps happening. King Uzziah's story teaches us about true success, the anatomy of pride, and our hope in Jesus.
Do we have a category in our minds for the fury of God? For the vengeance and judgment of God? The story of Jehu shows us the faithful judgment of God; the certainty of it, the severity of it, and our only hope in light of it.
The salvation God brings is a total reversal. The great famine becomes a great feast, and the least and last in this world are the first to the table. They acted on the possibility of mercy, and they discovered the surprising grace of God.
In this account, Elisha shows us that there’s more going on around us than meets the eye. God is always at work in the world in unseen and unexpected ways.
When things fall apart in our lives, we’re tempted to run from it all. We want God to snap his fingers and make it better. That’s what Elijah wanted, but this story shows us what Elijah really needed, and what we really need, is the presence of God.
One of the most important questions for you to answer in this life is: What do you believe? What do you trust in? Your answer to that question will steer and direct your life. Most of us waver between multiple beliefs, but this passage confronts our divided hearts. The prophet Elijah confronts ancient Israel to see who is truly God, and follow him.
In the midst of failing kings and a divided kingdom, there is a faithful God at work to accomplish his plans. There will be a true king who heals what has been broken and unites what has been divided.
Solomon’s downfall is one of the greatest tragedies in all of scripture. It’s a sobering look at someone who didn’t finish well, and it gives us the anatomy of a spiritual downfall.
After David dies, Solomon takes the throne. And even though he gets off to a good start, there are hints of a divided heart.
Jesus promises that everyone who asks receives, but life doesn’t seem to work out that way. Through a model prayer and a parable, Jesus reveals to us that God's greatest gift is his presence.
The power of God prevails over evil spirits and idol empires. He changes people so radically that they begin to change the city.
Seeing the idols of Athens, Paul was provoked to preach about Jesus and the resurrection. Gospel-centered ministry requires that we understand the culture so we can speak into it with the truth of the gospel.
The gospel speaks to all kinds of people and brings them together in the most unlikely of communities. It can go anywhere and change anyone.
The risen Jesus continues his mission through the church. His commission to the disciples contains the how, who, what, and where of the mission.
The resurrection story speaks to the whole person. It has the power to bring our head, heart, and hands in alignment with the glory of God and his kingdom.
This passage is a contrast of two witnesses under trial, Jesus and Peter. One proves faithful and the other proves false. What do we need to be a faithful witness under trial?
In the Garden of Gethsemane we see the full humanity of Jesus as he is overwhelmed by sorrow, let down by friends, and betrayed. The good news is not only that Jesus identifies with your sorrow in his life, but that he willingly surrenders his life to end all sorrow and save the world.
Into the treachery of the plot to kill Jesus, Mark inserts a story about a woman who anoints Jesus. Her devotion and worship show us what it looks like when someone has experienced the love of God personally.
We have been invited into God’s story – his people & his mission. Everything we have is from his hand. And yet,we want to think we belong to ourselves. Jesus tells this parable to remind us that we are stewards, not owners.
When Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey on Palm Sunday, it was picture of his humility and gentleness. The next day, he demonstrated his righteous anger, cursing a fig tree and cleansing the temple. The question is: Why was he so angry?
Four men bring their friend to Jesus, presumably to fix their friend’s biggest problem, his paralysis. But Jesus has an even deeper healing in mind.
We generally resist any authority but our own. So, what does it take for people with “authority issues” to come under the Lordship of Jesus? We must see that he has authority over everything, and that he uses his authority for our good.
As Jesus begins his public ministry in Galilee, Mark immediately shows us the message of Jesus and the method of Jesus. And both of those things are more radical than they seem on the surface.
Mark begins the story of Jesus in the wilderness. He is preparing us for a new exodus and a new covenant. If you want to see the real Jesus, you gotta go into the wilderness. It is a place of redemption, repentance, and renewed sonship.
We all desire to change. And yet, true and lasting change can be quite difficult to achieve. What we need is a biblical understanding of how change works, which is exactly what we find in Philippians 2.
The Songs of Ascent have taken us on a journey upwards toward Christ. And here at the end, Psalm 134 tells us the point of the whole journey. It tells us what we’re made for. We’re made to bless God and be blessed by God.
We were made for community. It seems hard to come by, but this psalm assures us that it is possible because of God's blessing and grace through Jesus.
Many of us journey through life at full speed, trying to accomplish big things, setting our sights on achievement and success. David says genuine rest can't be had that way. It comes, instead, as we embrace our limits, rest like a child, and hope in the Lord.
The first half of this psalm is a prayer of the people based on David’s oath to God. The second half is filled with promises from God based on God’s oath to David. And as expected, God’s promises are greater than our prayers.
What do we do with our guilt? Psalm 130 teaches us to cry out to, trust in, and wait for the Lord. With him there is forgiveness, steadfast love, and plentiful redemption.
During uncertain and unstable times, the thing we need most is to be reminded of God. This psalm is thoroughly God-centered and each stanza points us to something particular about him. When it feels like the world is falling apart, we can trust him.
This psalm addresses two aspects of human life that people have always cared about: work and family. It shows us that, without God, those things end up being pointless and fruitless.
Psalm 126 speaks to us in the desolate places and invites us to sing a song of hope that God will turn our desolate place into a harvest. We can lean into that truth as we remember God's restoration, request it now, and sow in hope God's coming restoration.
If we trust in ourselves and our resources, we will eventually falter, but those who trust in the Lord cannot be moved. They can rest secure in his sovereign love.
What do we do when we feel like the world we’re living in is not our home? When we feel like exiles in a land that’s hostile toward the things of God? Psalm 120 expresses distress over the way of the world and cries out to God for help.
Christians voluntarily gather for worship every week, all over the world, as they have for 2000 years. Psalm 122 answers the question why: we go because we belong to God, and we belong to God's people.
The Christian life is a pilgrimage, a long obedience in the same direction. And on that journey, the LORD is your keeper. But what does that mean and how is it possible?
In the last of the seven letters to the seven churches, Jesus delivers the harshest rebuke yet. They are lukewarm and in danger of being rejected. But then he makes the most incomparable offer. He invites them into intimate fellowship. This letter shows us what kind of relationship Jesus wants with us, and how that can turn our whole life upside down.
The church in Philadelphia is described as having "but little power." And yet, out of all these seven churches, it is this weak and vulnerable church that is held up as the one that is loved by Christ. This letter to the church in Philadelphia teaches us an important lesson about what God values in the lives of his people.
The church at Sardis is the first church that Jesus doesn’t praise in any way. Which is surprising, because they have such a good reputation. But Jesus sees into their spiritual reality, and it doesn’t line up with their reputation.
The church in Thyatira was a vibrant and fruitful church, but they had a serious problem of tolerating false teaching that led people into immorality and idolatry. We can be part of a church that is doing so well in so many ways, and yet, perhaps there are things that we have learned to live with that Jesus wants to shine a light on.
How should the church respond when pressured to compromise its beliefs about what is true to better fit in with the culture? Pergamum was standing firm against pressure from the outside. But they had a problem on the inside.
The church in Smyrna was being persecuted for their faith, and Jesus tells them that things will get worse. In order to conquer fear and doubt, these Christians needed the same thing that we need today: to catch a glimpse of what Jesus is doing in the midst of suffering. Only then will we find the grace to remain faithful.
Jesus commends the church in Ephesus for their commitment to truth, but he critiques their lack of love. This passage tells us that we can drift to a place where we believe the right things but are far from the heart of God. A healthy church has truth and love, working together to bear witness to Christ.
In Revelation 1, John has a vision of Jesus. The curtain is pulled back and he sees the risen and exalted Christ in all his splendor. It’s a vision that’s for all of us, because we need to see Jesus as he really is and know what's on his mind.
Peter’s failure resonates because we all fail. And yet, we don’t like talking about it. We want to push our failures to the background, but this story brings them to the front. The point is not to tell us how bad we are, but to show us how good God is and how much we need him. God meets us in our failure to restore us.
On the first Easter, the resurrected Jesus was met with various forms of unbelief. In John 20, Jesus moves toward different types of people in their particular form of unbelief to graciously give them the gift of belief. The unbelief we see in these people is common to all of us, as is our need for the grace of Jesus to help us believe in him.
As Jesus rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, the crowds gathered, hoping to see kingly glory. Jesus assured them that glory was coming, but in a form they never would have guessed: they would see the glory of God through the cross of Jesus.
The last thing Jesus does for his disciples before he steps out into the night to go to his arrest is pray for them (and us). He prays for everything his disciples will need to continue his work in the world: protection, sanctification, and unity. This prayer from Jesus gives us our most intimate glimpse into his heart for his people.
The spiritual reality in which sorrow can turn into joy has everything to do with the presence of God. When we know the Father's loving presence, our joy is made full. This text assures us God can meet us in our confusion, distress, need, and even in our failure.
When the disciples heard that Jesus was leaving, and that the world would hate them, their hearts were filled with sorrow. But Jesus said it would be better because the Spirit is coming. How is it better? What would the Spirit do to help them bear witness about Jesus in a hostile world?
If we abide in Christ like branches in a vine, then we will inevitably share some of his experience in the world. Meaning we will face opposition (even hatred) from the world. But he also promises help in the midst of the hatred!
Jesus said the mark of his disciples is that they “bear much fruit.” We want to roll-up our sleeves and make it happen, but the kind of fruit Jesus is talking about comes from being connected to him. If we want to be truly fruitful, we must learn to abide in Christ.
In the Upper Room with Jesus, on their final night with him before his death, the disciples were filled with anxiety and fear. Jesus tells them (and us) that what they need, the comfort for their troubled hearts, is not a prescription but a person—a person who will come to dwell with them.
The disciples are deeply troubled by what is unfolding in the upper room. So, Jesus comforts them with words about the Father. He calls them to trust in the promises of the Father and the presence of the Father that they have in Jesus.
We have plans to build our own little kingdoms, and that makes it hard to understand the way of Jesus and his kingdom. Jesus sets before us a vision for life that is about the glory of God. We see it in the love of Christ, in our love for one another, and even in our weakness.
Betrayal is dark, one of the worst things we can imagine, a deliberate act of disloyalty. But even in the face of that darkness, the light of Jesus shines through.
The disciples often argued about who was the greatest among them. Jesus taught them over and over that true greatness is about humility, sacrifice, and service to others, but they never seemed to understand. It was by a shocking display of humility that shows us why Jesus is truly great, why we are not, and how we can be.
The Upper Room Discourse has been called “a window into the heart of Jesus.” Here in the first few verses, we get an inside look at the knowledge of Jesus and the love of Jesus. These two things not only establish the context of the upper room, they shape the entire discourse.
Jesus invites us to come and see who He is and what life with God is like. It is also an invitation to be seen and changed, so that we can see even greater things as we follow Him.
In this final Servant Song, Isaiah tells us that the Servant himself is the powerful arm of the LORD come to save. But who would have thought God’s saving power would look like this?
The third servant song asks us to behold the obedience of the Servant. His obedience is born out of his intimacy with God, endures in the face of suffering, and is sustained through his trust in God's help. We are invited into that same kind of beautiful trust through Jesus, the Obedient One!
The second servant song is the Servant’s testimony about himself. He makes an announcement about himself to the whole world, because he came to do something for the whole world. And we are the beneficiaries of this good news!
The Servant Songs set before us the real Jesus, who he is and what he came to do. The first song is about the His mission to bring forth justice. What does that mean? And how does he do it?
Paul wraps up Romans 5-8 with the strongest language possible to convince us that we are totally secure in Christ. We’re secure because God is for us, because God justifies us, and because God loves us. These life-changing truths are not only for us to believe in, but to revel in and rest in.
We think we will be happy when we are in control or when we get what we want. Paul lifts our eyes to the joy of knowing that God is in control and trusting that his plans are so much better than ours.
This passage sets present suffering and future glory right alongside each other. We live in the tension between the two: we live in the already, looking forward to the not yet. So even though we groan, we have great hope!
Romans 8 tells us that the Christian life is life in the Spirit. And in verses 12-17, the Apostle Paul points to two aspects of life in the Spirit. Those who are in Christ have been given both a new obligation and a new identity.
The Christian life is life in the Spirit. He sets us free from sin and gives us power to live for God. It is supernatural, but it is also normal for everyone who is in Christ.
Romans 7:12 says the law is holy, righteous, and good. But the law has no power to make me holy, righteous, and good because I have no ability to keep the law and no power over my own sin. The end of Romans 7 is the apostle Paul throwing up his hands and saying, “Why is it so hard to obey God?! If I’ve been made new in Christ, then why does it feel like I can never change?”
If we are "not under law but under grace" (6:14), then what is the purpose of the law? That is the question behind Romans 7. The law leads us to Jesus by showing us the depth of our sin and weakness. Jesus releases us from the law and brings us under grace so that we can truly walk in Gods ways by the power of His Spirit.
Are we free to sin now that we're no longer under law but under grace? Paul’s answer is, “No way! Because we are freed to serve a better master."
If grace abounds when sin abounds, then shouldn’t we just keep on sinning so we can get more grace? Paul’s answer is, “No way! Because that not who you are anymore."
We live in a world where everyone is trying to find or create an identity. Romans 5 says there are two fundamental identities: in Adam and in Christ. That is breaking news in a culture like ours. The bad news is, by nature, everyone is in Adam. The good news is, by faith, anyone can be in Christ.
How confident are you in your standing with God? And what is your confidence (or lack of confidence) based on? We can have total confidence in where we stand with God, but the basis of that confidence is not what you might think.
We don’t move on from the gospel. We go deeper into it. Romans 1-4 is about the doctrine of justification by faith. In Romans 5, Paul takes us deeper into what it means for us now. We have peace with God. We stand in grace. We rejoice in hope. We know all of this is real because God has poured out his love into our hearts.
We live in a noisy, anxious, restless world. In spite of that, this psalm tells us that we can be quiet on the inside. But how? David shares the secret.
We have a way of seeing things, a story we are living in, but that story is largely shaped by cultural narratives. Genesis 1-11 introduces us to the true story of the world and invites us to see God, ourselves, and the world in new ways.
Babel is the prototypical city of man: rebellious, prideful, exalting itself against God, and pursuing autonomy and self-sufficiency apart from him. Instead of filling the earth as God commanded, the Babelites settle in one place and try to make a name for themselves. We have capacity to do the exact same thing.
Noah was an incredible man of faith, a true hero. If ever there was hope for things to go differently after the flood, it would be with Noah. This story in Genesis 9 shows us what happens when humanity gets a fresh start.
After the flood, God's purpose for humanity had not changed— He remained relentlessly committed to establishing His kingdom on earth through human beings made in His own image. God commissioned Noah to fill the earth and through Noah, established a covenant of grace with the new world and new humanity to come. Of course, this covenant points us to the greater covenant we have in Jesus.
The story of the flood is a hard story. We want to look away from it. Because it confronts us with the darkness of sin and the awfulness of God’s judgment against sin. But we have to look at this difficult story to help us see God as he really is. And surprisingly, when we look into the flood of God’s judgment, we discover his mercy and grace there too.
The conflict at the heart of the biblical plot is enmity between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. The line of Cain represents the seed of the serpent: escalating sin and evil. The line of Seth represents the seed of the woman: hope in God’s promise of redemption. And we have the same choice that every generation has had: will we go the way of the serpent or the way of faith?
This story of Cain & Abel invites us to think about how anger and sin works at a personal level, especially in our relationships. However we interpret the events in our lives determines how we will respond, and what the consequences will be. Will we listen to God, or will we go the way of Cain?
Genesis 3 tells us why the world is so broken. It's broken because sin corrupts everything and ultimately leads to death. Genesis 3 is a bleak chapter. And it leaves us wondering if there’s any hope for redemption. Is there any good news in the midst of the brokenness? Are there any signs of grace amongst the devastation of the fall? And the answer is, “Yes!" We see glimmers of God’s redeeming grace all over this chapter.
If God made everything good, why are things so bad? The answer is sin. Sin upends God’s good design and corrupts everything in the world, especially us.
The account of the fall not only tells us what happened — they took of the fruit and ate — but also how it happened. It is written for our benefit, so we can understand the components of temptation and sin in our own lives: deception, doubt, desire, and disillusionment.
What is marriage? How we answer that question matters, because there are many different views of marriage in our culture. Genesis tells us, like everything else in creation, marriage is from God. Marriage is created by God, marriage is defined by God, and marriage is a reflection of God. A God-centered view of marriage reveals its beauty and goodness, but also reminds us that it is not ultimate.
Relationship is essential to who we are because it is essential to who God is. But our idea of community often misses the mark. That is why we need to come back to Genesis. These are foundational principles for Christian community.
We live in a restless culture, where it’s hard to sit still, hard to turn it off, and hard to stop striving. It’s exhausting. Thankfully, God shows us that rest is part of being created in his image. He even sets apart a day of rest for us. But, we still struggle to rest. How can we practice rest and experience true rest of the soul?
We spend more time working than we do on anything else. And yet, most of us are in sort of a fog about the meaning and significance of our work. We need a robust vision for work if we are going to thrive in our postmodern world. And a deeper study of Genesis 1-2 gives us just that.
What does it mean to be a human being created in the image of God? It couldn’t be a more relevant question. Because there are a lot of competing narratives out there about what it means to be human…who we are, what we’re here for, and what makes us valuable. Genesis tells us that humanity is the crown of God’s creation.
Genesis 1 introduces us to the one true God who created everything by His Word. He knows what is good for humans and he provides by speaking it into the world. Creation and humanity flourish in conformity to God’s Word.
Genesis 1:1 is only seven words in Hebrew, and yet it is the foundation for everything to come in the Bible. Not surprisingly, the subject of this verse is our glorious God.
Whether you are new to following Jesus or you have been a believer for a long time, it’s worth returning from time to time to some of the most foundational questions of our faith. In Matthew 4, Jesus gives us some key insight into one such question: What does it mean to be a Christian?
Jesus uses water to talk about our deeper thirst for God, and how he alone can quench it. We drink from the wells of money and success and relationships and approval, but they are all broken cisterns that leave us empty, and thirstier than before. Jesus came to give us living water.
After reading the extraordinary chapter 15 about the resurrection of Jesus and all its implications, chapter 16 seems so ordinary. And yet the ordinary life and ministry of the church is where the promises of the resurrection get lived out now.
The message of Easter is that Jesus died and came back new. The hope of Easter is that what happened to Jesus will happen to us. We will be raised up to new life in new bodies on a new earth.
Some in the Corinthian church were claiming there was no resurrection of the dead. They saw it as a sort of foolish superstition—a belief for unsophisticated Christians. But in our passage, Paul wants us to see that the resurrection is central to everything we believe as Christians.
The gospel is not something we believe once and then move on from. It is something we hold fast to, daily. This passage gives us three handles to hold onto: the gospel is historical, theological, and personal.
Paul concludes this section of the letter about the worship life of the church (ch. 11-14) by focusing on the need for order in the worship gathering. Even though our worship gatherings today differ from the Corinthian gatherings, there is much for us to learn here about how to glorify God and edify one another in worship.
The Corinthian’s zeal to experience God took the form of elevating certain spiritual gifts and seeking heightened spiritual experiences. Paul does not dismiss these things, but in the context of gathered worship, he calls us to focus our desire on that which builds up the church. The main work of the Spirit is to exalt Jesus and build up his body.
The truest mark of God’s work in a community is not spiritual gifts. The truest mark of God’s work in a community is love. Because, unlike the gifts, love never ends.
A church can be gifted and growing, but without love, it has nothing. Love is the mark of spiritual vitality, and love is how people will know we follow Jesus. It is important to cut through the vague ideals of love in our day and get some clarity on what this kind of love looks like in everyday life.
One of the main problems in the Corinthian church was division. They were even dividing over spiritual gifts. So, Paul introduces this metaphor of the human body to illustrate what the church should be like and to show the beauty of membership in the body.
Some in the Corinthian church were claiming to have extraordinary spiritual gifts. They were positioning themselves as the “spiritual ones,” and everyone else was a second-class Christian. Paul corrects this thinking with the Corinthians and shows them (and us) the nature of true spirituality.
The Lord’s Supper is meant to be a sign and seal of the church’s unity in Christ. But for the Corinthians, it had become an occasion for division. They were coming together for worship, but they were coming together apart.
We do not live unto ourselves. We live in divinely ordered relationships, and that should be reflected and honored in our worship.
As Paul comes to the end of his long answer to the question of food offered to idols, he addresses some less-clear scenarios the Corinthians might have found themselves in. How should they navigate the gray areas of the Christian life? And how should we?
We are often unaware of the spiritual forces at work in our world and how we might be entangled in them. This text warns us about the reality and the power of idolatry, and how we can escape it.
Paul (of all people) is free in Christ. But he doesn’t use his freedom to serve himself. He uses his freedom to advance the gospel. He wants the gospel to win more and more people, so he adapts his life accordingly. In this passage, he gives a method and a mindset to help us live out this high calling.
God is often in the background of our lives and plans. We believe in him, but we live as though we don’t really need him. This feels normal to us, but it is laced with pride. James calls out the subtle pride and foolishness of presumption, and invites us to a life of humility and grace.
His glory is full of grace. Get up close to his grace, and you will see his glory: “The Lord, The Lord, merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness.”
John tells us that the setting of the Christmas story is the world. And he wants us to see something very particular about the world: its darkness. When we think about the Christmas story, we like to think of brightness and light. But the story loses its meaning if we don’t consider the darkness.
John 1:1-18 has been called “a theology of Christmas.” These verses give some theological categories to help us think about the ancient story of Christmas. It’s a story that forever changes our story. In this sermon, we’re just looking at the subject of the Christmas story, this mysterious person called “The Word."
Rights are central to how we think about life as Americans. But the question Paul wants us to wrestle with here in ch. 9 is: how are we as Christians supposed to think about rights?
As Paul begins to answer the Corinthians’ questions about whether or not they should eat food sacrificed to idols, he doesn’t give them a rule or a law. Instead he encourages them to think more deeply about what it means to live out the gospel as God’s people.
Sometimes the way we talk about singleness frames marriage as the aim of life. For Paul, our aim in life is to be fully devoted to God, and he thinks singles have an advantage on that front. He wants us to rethink our view of marriage and singleness in light of the gospel and the kingdom work at hand.
We can all probably remember a time when we felt a sense of newness and excitement in our faith. But inevitably, life has a way of catching up with us. And when it does, we can lose our sense of joy and commitment in our walk with God. What do we do when life catches up to us?
After 6 chapters of building a theological foundation, now Paul begins to address specific questions and concerns in the Corinthian church. In the first part of chapter 7 he gives practical instruction related to sex, marriage, and divorce. All of these things are grounded in the theological foundation. As we approach this chapter, we are not looking for quick answers or rules. We are looking for how these instructions reflect the beauty and wisdom of God and lead us to deeper faith in Jesus.
What we have in these verses is a theology of the body. Paul is telling us (in no uncertain terms) that our bodies matter.God gives more dignity and significance to our bodies than we could ever imagine. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are all involved in dignifiying our bodies. If we really believed what God says about our bodies, sexual sin would be unthinkable to us!
When Christians act like the world acts — in this case, taking each other to court — we dishonor one another and we fail to show the world the wisdom of God and the power of the gospel.
A sermon from 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:5 in our 1 Corinthians series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 24:36-53 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 24:13-35 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 24:1-12 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 19:28-44 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 19:1-10 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Kendal Haug.
A sermon from Luke 18:9-14 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Mark Zeiler.
A sermon from Luke 15:11-32 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 10:25-37 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 9:51, 57-62 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 9:28-36 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 9:1-17 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 8:26-39 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Kendal Haug.
A sermon from Luke 7:36-50 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 7:1-10 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 5:17-26 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 4:14-30 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 3:15-22 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Ross Lester.
A sermon from Luke 2:22-38 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 2:8-20 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Kendal Haug.
A sermon from Luke 1:57-79 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 1:39-56 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Luke 1:26-38 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from Luke 1:5-25 in our Luke: Good News for Everyone series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from 1 Thess. 5:16-28 in our 1 & 2 Thessalonians series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from 1 Thess. 5:12-15 in our 1 & 2 Thessalonians series given by Kevin Cawley.
A sermon from 1 Thess. 4:13-18 in our 1 & 2 Thessalonians series given by Todd Stewman.
A sermon from 1 Thess. 2:17-3:10 in our 1 & 2 Thessalonians series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Ecclesiastes 11-12 in our Finding God in a Fallen World series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Ecclesiastes 7 in our Finding God in a Fallen World series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Ecclesiastes 5 in our Finding God in a Fallen World series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Ecclesiastes 3-4 in our Finding God in a Fallen World series given by guest preacher, Bob Thune.
A sermon from Ecclesiastes 2 in our Finding God in a Fallen World series given by Will Walker.
A sermon from Ecclesiastes 1 in our Finding God in a Fallen World series given by Will Walker.
A stand alone sermon from Hebrews 12:1-2 given by guest preacher Juhan Kim (church planting resident at The Well Community Church in Austin).
A stand alone sermon from 2 Sam. 14:28-33 given by guest preacher Robert Livingston (The Painted Door Church in Georgetown, Texas).