Sermons: Recent Episodes
Mountain City Church: Frostburg, MD
Christ responds to controversy about his authority by affirming that He is the stone that the builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.
A disciple of Jesus is a person who is following Christ, is being changed by Christ, and is committed to the mission of Christ.
The church faces her biggest challenge not when new errors start to win, but when old truths no longer wow.
If you are a follower of Christ, then every aspect of your life is a gift given to you for the purpose of investment.
God in His sovereign grace is capable of softening the hardest of hearts—even the heart of an oppressor.
God is continually working in our hearts to shake away and break down our hidden idols in order to align our hearts with His.
To enter the kingdom of God, all we need is need; that is, to acknowledge that we are in need of Christ, and that He is all we need.
We are made righteous not by our own works, but by the atoning death and resurrection of Christ.
The book of Proverbs presents us with two ways of living: a life of godly wisdom, or a life of worldly foolishness.
Godly exercise of authority protects the vulnerable, strengthens communities, and promotes human flourishing.
God has made a way for our sins to be forgiven, offering us the gift of repentance through the work of Christ.
In His grace, God reveals the sin in our hearts, and He has provided a way for us to be restored through repentance.
Jesus has promised to return, and He calls us to be ready, placing our faith in Him and not in the things of this world.
All Christians are called to pray, and all Christians are called to share our faith. We must do both together, not one without the other.
Hell is the just penalty for all who rest in anything other than God for their help, but those who trust in Him will be saved.
Our money is not grounds for boasting, nor does it justify us. It is a gift from God, to be stewarded faithfully for His glory.
We cannot serve God and money; rather, we are called to use our money and resources for the glory of God and the good of others.
God delights in restoring sinners and Pharisees, and those He has redeemed join Him in loving the lost.
A true disciple of Jesus loves Him supremely and follows Him sacrificially and steadfastly.
We are called to humbly share the hospitality of the King who brought us into His kingdom.
When Jesus brings you from death to life, you are given an unquenchable, personal hope.
Because Jesus has brought us from death to life, we are obligated to worship Him as King.
If Christ has brought you from death to life, then you are obligated to give your life to Him.
Jesus was single-minded in His mission, knowing that His death was absolutely necessary for our salvation.
The gospel is always working to God's kingdom and God's people, and there is never a wrong time to serve God's redemptive kingdom purpose.
Our sins merit condemnation, but Christ in His grace and mercy gives us the opportunity to repent.
Because Jesus has taken on the fire of God's judgment, we can stand when that fire falls on the world, knowing that we will be purified and not consumed.
We need not worry, because our Father knows what we need; because our Father knows what we need, we need not fear giving up what we have.
True contentment comes not from taking, but from giving of ourselves as Christ gave Himself for us.
Matt and Joe discuss a series of questions to answer one primary question: What is a church?
God's past faithfulness motivates hope for the future—strong confidence that God will do good to us.
The story of God and His creation told throughout Scripture tells us of a God who fulfills His promises and assures us that faith in Him will be rewarded.
Legalism is a false gospel, and our works cannot save us. We must depend on Christ alone.
When we rely on our own works for our justification and worth, rather than on the finished work of Christ, we deceive ourselves through self-righteousness. True righteousness comes from a heart that has been changed by the grace of God.
When we see Jesus as He truly is, He and His glory become the primary pursuit of our lives.
Through Christ, we have unconditional access to our Father in prayer, for His glory and our every need.
To love the way we were made to, we must first recognize that we cannot love perfectly, and that Jesus has paid our debt.
Jesus deflates our false joy to bring us true and greater joy: the joy of our sure salvation, given to us by God.
Jesus calls us to count the cost, lay down our lives, take up our cross, and follow Him.
Jesus and His upside-down kingdom challenge our ideas of what it means to be great and give us a glorious identity that cannot be taken away.
The power of Christ is sufficient for all of our struggles, and we access His strength by faith exercised in prayer.
Worship occurs when the glory of God becomes real to us, and this only happens by God's work in us.
Jesus has revealed himself clearly through Scripture, and we have no right to personalize Him. Instead, He revolutionizes us.
God's kingdom work will not be overcome, and Christ calls us to rely on Him as He works through us to carry it out.
Jesus invites us to exercise our faith in times of suffering, trusting in Him as the One who has power over all of our storms.
Jesus directs us to examine the way we receive His word, and to respond with obedience.
Humble faith in the compassionate Christ gives us the hope to contend with the reality of death.
We help each other fight sin by reminding each other of gospel truth, stirring one another's affections for Christ.
Jesus calls us to make Him the foundation of our lives, not only hearing His commands, but listening and obeying.
Jesus calls us to love others by serving sacrificially and by speaking the truth in love.
Jesus goes beyond superficial behavior management to the root of our problems, offering us true change that begins with our hearts.
Jesus calls us to exercise the merciful character of our Father in our dealings with others.
Jesus suffered outside the camp, taking on our defilement so that we could be made clean.
King Jesus is an unexpected type of King - both the humble Lamb that was slain and the roaring Lion of Judah.
During His earthly ministry, Jesus demonstrated His divine authority over demons and illnesses, as well as in His teaching.
Christ has won the victory over the devil and over temptation, succeeding where we failed, to give us unshakable hope.
Jesus has fulfilled all righteousness, and if we are in Him, God is pleased with us as He is pleased with His Son.
John the Baptist testified that Jesus was mightier than him, brought a better baptism that him, and would be both Judge and Savior.
Changed behavior is the fruit of repentance; the root of repentance is a changed heart.
In the incarnation, Jesus revealed the glory of God to the world, and He calls His people to do the same.
Faith begins with understanding which leads to conviction and completes itself through commitment.
We look back on a year of God's faithfulness and look forward to the things He will do in the new year.
The humble circumstances of Jesus's birth strip away our fatal trust in ourselves and our frantic maintenance of appearances and bids us approach the throne of God as little children.
God, in His compassion and love for us, withholds the wrath we deserve and eases our affliction. It is through His mercy that we have salvation.
God's invasion into our lives shows us that the things we believe make us significant are not significant at all.
A flourishing life, a life of true happiness, comes from trusting that God will do what He has said He will do.
May our prayers to God amount to nothing more, nothing less, and nothing else than that His will be done.
Luke provides a meticulous account of the life of Christ, with the goal of the reader's certainty.
Our salvation is through the work of Christ alone, for the glory of God alone, and God has sufficiently revealed His work of salvation through the Scriptures.
Our salvation is a gift from God by grace through faith in Christ, and we add nothing to it by our works.
This week, we discuss a few changes to our discipleship pathway and discuss our plan to make much of God and make disciples of Jesus.
Jesus continues to advance His kingdom by His Spirit and the power of the gospel at work in His people.
For our salvation from the wrath of God that we deserve, we depend not on our own prayer, sincerity, or obedience, but on the finished work of Christ.
The Old Testament teaches us how to think and live by faith in light of the covenant to which we belong.
Understanding the horror of the Fall helps us to glimpse the magnitude and beauty of our redemption in Christ.
For the Christian, every conflict is an opportunity for the peacemaking love, grace, and mercy of God to be made known.
God the Holy Spirit is at work in the heart's of Christians, overcoming the effects of original sin.
Christians overcome sin not through our own efforts or appearance of morality, but by the work of God.
God's people have eternal life, which is given to us as a gift and experienced through dependence upon Jesus Christ.
Through the water, the blood, and the Spirit, God has testified to us about the person and work of His Son Jesus.
Our faith does not originate with us; it is a gift from God given to us through the new birth.
The more we love God, the more we understand His love, and the more we share His love with others.
God is love. He has revealed His love to us through His Son, and He now reveals His love to the world through His people.
Will you allow the eyewitnesses to the risen Christ to be your window to see Jesus as Lord?
For God's people, the cry for salvation has become a shout of joy, knowing that Christ has come and will come again.
If we are in Christ, we know that we will be conformed to His image, and we will be confident at His coming.
Abiding in the Word of God and the Spirit of God are our only hope for stability in a world filled with antichrists.
If we are members of the kingdom of God, we will not love the things of the kingdom of the enemy.
We can have confidence in our identity in Christ because we are forgiven, we know the Father, and we are victorious.
True followers of Jesus will have assurance in their salvation because they know, love, and obey Him.
When we walk in love, acknowledging our own sin, we can have fellowship with God and each other.
Through the person and work of Christ, made known to us by the testimony of the apostles, we can have fellowship with God.
May our faith be such that we are able to say, as Mary said, "Let it be to me according to Your word.”
We can pray increasingly according to God's will when we use the language of God to talk to God.
True freedom does not mean living without a master; true freedom means living with the right master.
In Christ, we have a new identity as part of the Church, and the Holy Spirit works out this new identity over a lifetime.
Faith in God's future grace is the means through which God empowers us to sever the roots of sin in our lives.
God's grace meets our truest needs, and He invites us to His throne to receive His grace in abundance.
No earthly kingdom we can build for ourselves will ever be as secure as the place Jesus has secured for us in the kingdom of God.
Jesus has covered our shame, and His finished work empowers us to cover the shame of others.
We live in the tension between doing what God has required of us and resting in what Christ has already done for us. The righteous shall live by faith.
Depending on God's faithfulness is how we become an un-anxious presence in a self-sufficient world.
To be free in Christ is to belong to Him, free from slavery to sin and called to glorify God in every part of our lives.
The God who spoke light into darkness in the beginning is the God who speaks light into the darkness of our hearts.
Scripture is the true, authoritative word of God, and He has given it to us to be understood, believed, and obeyed.
Jesus loved us when we were His enemies, and He loves us now. That love secures our future.
Jesus, our great High Priest, is making intercession for us before the Father even today.
When we maintain accountability among our brothers and sisters in Christ, we help encourage true repentance.
God transforms us as we put off sin, renew our minds, and put on Christ and His righteousness.
We remember all that God has done in and through us and look forward to His continued work.
God's judgment will be poured out on those who do not repent and believe in Christ. Repentance is a gift by which God humbles us and draws us to Himself.
God humbles the proud so that they, and the world through them, may know that He rules.
Worldy kingdoms, including our own, will rise and fall, but God's kingdom will remain forever.
The areas of our lifves marked by fear are the areas in which we are not beholding God and His gospel of joy..
Apart from Christ, God does not hear our prayers; but in Christ, He invites us to approach His throne boldly.
Followers of Christ are called to reflect His love by speaking truth to our brothers and sisters.
To avoid self-deception and walk in truth and wisdom, it is crucial to seek out wise counsel.
Justification before God comes only through faith in Christ, and that faith is itself a gift from God.
At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit united and focused people from many nations, to build the Church for the glory of God.
The Holy Spirit reveals truth, transforms and sustains God's people, and empowers us to share the gospel, to the glory of God.
The Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, is fully God and essential for our salvation.
As we wait for the final return of Christ, we face a daily decision: Do we walk by the flesh, or by the Spirit?
True comfort comes not from consumerism or avoidance of difficulty, but from Christ as we contend for the gospel and for our own holiness.
We so often drink from the broken cisterns offered by the world, the devil, and our own flesh, when God alone offers us living water that wells up to eternal life.
A content heart comes from trusting that God's provision is sufficient in all circumstances.
In a world of extreme anxiety and indifference, the gospel offers a third way: prayer, rejoicing, and deep care.
We are citizens of God's kingdom, looking forward with a living hope to the return of Christ our King.
The beautiful news of the gospel is that in Christ, we have a resume that is not our own.
Timothy and Epaphroditus provide practical examples of lives lived for the glory of Jesus.
Fear can lead us to sin, but it does not have to. God provides for and protects His people.
The laments in Scripture offer us an invitation to bring our sorrows to our heavenly Father.
Sanctification is moving from unbelief to belief in the gospel in a certain area of life.
As adopted sons and daughters of God, we are freed to cry out to, rely on, and spend time with our heavenly Father.
Unless and until we believe it is possible for us to hear the voice of God, we will not listen for His voice in our everyday lives. Guest speaker Dr. Randy Millwood continues our series, Making Space.