Watts in the Word: Recent Episodes
Chris Watts
Join me, Chris Watts, as we dig into the most amazing book ever written, and discover what it means for you and me!
One of the more popular titles, especially among certain prophets in Israel, is Yahweh of Hosts (or more familiarly “the Lord of Hosts”). Where did this title come from, why did it become so popular among the prophets, and how should modern readers relate to it today?
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(Preaching on names and titles of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 9, 2026.)
Of all the things in the combined lists in Ephesians 4 and Hebrews 6, perhaps none is so controversial as “one baptism” in Ephesians 4 (ironic since it’s a list of unifying Christian principles). What are we to make of Paul’s statement, contrasted with the Hebrews writer referring to “instructions about washings”?
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(Preaching on Christian fundamentals. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 9, 2026.)
The “kingdom” is an especially important theme in Matthew’s version of the Gospel story. Jesus’s work was not disconnected from the story of Israel in the Old Testament; it was a fulfillment and continuation of God’s plan to establish his eternal kingdom, promised to David and Daniel. How does Matthew explore the importance of the “kingdom of heaven” in the life and teaching of Jesus?
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(Preaching through the Gospels. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 5, 2025.)
Matthew’s gospel is the most closely connected to the Israelite story in the Old Testament. He connects these stories in two main ways: the fulfillment of prophecy, and the continuation of the kingdom. First, we will consider how Matthew addresses prophecy in the life of Jesus. How does Jesus fulfill all the promises of God in the Old Testament, and what does it mean for the modern reader?
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(Preaching on the gospels. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 5, 2025.)
We begin our foray into the New Testament with the Gospel of John; not the first gospel in most English Bibles, but the one that most closely parallels the beginning of the Bible in Genesis. What is different about John’s version of Jesus’s story, and what does he emphasize more than the other authors?
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(Preaching on the gospel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 28, 2025.)
For a word that carries such importance in modern Christianity, the word “Messiah” appears astonishingly little in the Bible. Why is that? Aside from the quirks of translations and transliterations, why is this such an important prophetic title, and how did the intertestamental Israelites begin to think about it, leading to the arrival of Jesus?
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(Preaching on the intertestamental period. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 21, 2025.)
While there are no narrative parts of the Bible that describe the 400 years between Nehemiah and Jesus, the Bible is not silent about that era of history; Daniel had a string of visions describing that time. How do Daniel’s visions guide us through this era and bring us to the arrival of the “Son of Man”?
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(Preaching on the intertestamental period. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 14, 2025.)
As we wrap up our reading through the Old Testament with 2 Chronicles, it is important to consider if God still interacts with the world, nations, and geopolitics today in the same way that the Chronicler emphasizes. Even though God isn’t as explicit or clear with us today in how he is working, how can we be confident of his sovereignty in the world today?
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(Preaching through Chronicles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 14, 2025.)
The turn from 1 to 2 Chronicles focuses on David’s and Solomon’s efforts in building the temple, but during this process both David and Solomon recognize a puzzling aspect to their work; God doesn’t actually need a temple, everything that they used to build it came from him, and a temple can’t contain him anyway. So why build the temple? This question is a microcosm of a much larger question: why did God create anything at all? What is the point of our existence? David’s and Solomon’s prayers provide a good foundation from which to explore this deep question.
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(Preaching through Chronicles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 7, 2025.)
A simple way to study a book of the Bible is to make note of repeated words or phrases; this is often the easiest way to identify the theme of a book! In Malachi, that phrase is “but you say”, which appears frequently in just four chapters. Why does the prophet use this phrase so often, and what does it signify for the modern reader?
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(Preaching on the return from exile. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 31, 2025.)
The return from exile involved a lot of rebuilding; the temple in the book of Ezra, the wall in the book of Nehemiah, and generally they would have had to rebuild homes, farms, roads, etc. But perhaps the most important rebuilding was the people’s relationship with God’s word. How did Nehemiah help restore Israel’s knowledge of the law, and how should his efforts apply to us?
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(Preaching on the return. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 24, 2025.)
Zechariah, like most of the post-exilic prophets, urged Israel to return and repent by reminding them exactly why they had been sent into exile in the first place. What can we learn about God’s desire for repentance by considering how God dealt with people in times past?
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(Preaching on the return from exile. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 17, 2025.)
Israel’s return from exile was a long process of rebuilding and restoring what had been lost, starting with the temple in the book of Ezra. But beyond rebuilding the physical buildings and towns, Israel needed to restore their relationship and obedience to God, a task that Ezra was well suited for. What can we learn from the process of returning and rebuilding in Ezra?
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(Preaching on the return. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 17, 2025.)
This post contains a sermon, but the subject of artificial intelligence deserves more than can be said in one 35 minute sermon. And, honestly, the sermon came across a bit more pessimistic and a bit less nuanced than I would have liked. I have included below some much longer thoughts on the nature of artificial intelligence and some considerations for Christians as we navigate the potential of these new technologies.
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(This sermon on artificial intelligence was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 10, 2025. Below are some more detailed and nuanced thoughts about how Christians might think about AI programs.)
I have been following with fascination the development and controversies over the AI (Artificial Intelligence) programs commonly called Large Language Models (LLMs): ChatGPT (made by the company OpenAI), Grok (by X/Twitter/Elon Musk), Claude (by Anthropic), among several others. (Note that I will be using a lot of abbreviations and acronyms throughout. I will use the full phrase the first several times but then switch to the shorter version. There is also a section on terms and definitions.) For many Christians, the AI craze may seem pointless or irrelevant or, at best, an interesting technological advancement. But for an increasing number of researchers and scientists, Artificial Intelligence is potentially the most important invention in human history, one that could lead to either extinction or utopia.
For my own sake, at least, I wanted to write some stuff down that I have been pondering. I feel a little arrogant wading into this space at all: I am no AI researcher; I’m just a guy who likes to study the Bible and who is also really into tech. But I think it is good to at least consider, to prepare a bit, for the inevitable changes that AI will bring (and in some ways is already bringing). Regardless of whether you think AI is an existential threat, the herald of a new utopian age, or just another cool new thing, there is no denying that the programs that already exist have the potential to rewrite large sections of the social contract – AI might fundamentally change the way humans relate to each other and to society at large, even if they don’t destroy us all.
I have been thinking about these things for quite some time, but my thoughts are disjointed and scattered. What does the Bible have to say (if anything) about the potential for AI and its possible effects on human societies? How should the Christian be thinking about these things? I am hoping that the process of writing will help me clarify and solidify my own thoughts – maybe these thoughts can help you, too. What all am I going to be considering in this entirely too long article?
- Introduction: Terminology and Assumptions
- God’s Sovereignty: Would He Even Allow ASI to Exist?
- Heaven and Hell on Earth: AI Eschatology
- Spiritual Warfare and AI
- The Christian and AI: Right Now
- The Christian and AI: In the Future
- Personhood and Agency: How AI Illuminates Debates about Humanity
Introduction: Terminology and AssumptionsHere are some terms and acronyms that will come up a lot:
- AI = Artificial Intelligence. This is the broadest possible term to describe a wide variety of new technologies and strains of research. This term is probably overused in marketing and media to the point of almost being functionally meaningless.
- LLM = Large Language Model. This is the more precise term for the most common programs like ChatGPT, Claude, and Grok. These are programs created by feeding incredibly large data sets into sorting and connecting algorithms and allowing the algorithms to make connections and learn the patterns in the data. This article is a good (if long) explainer. This is the root of a common dismissal of AI as little more than a “glorified word calculator” – ChatGPT can seem to have “conversations” because it has analyzed and sorted millions of conversations and has “learned” how conversations should go enough to predict the next word in each sentence and each paragraph. (Note for those in the know: I like em dashes. I’m not going to stop using them.)
- Emergence. Of note, in some ways it is more accurate to say these programs are grown through the process of machine learning, rather than made or programmed. We don’t really understand what’s going on under the hood of these models, why they make the connections they do, or how. This leads to a lot of emergent properties,or properties that appear in larger models that could not have been predicted based on the smaller parts that make up the larger model. This is a pretty good video explainer of emergence.
- AGI = Artificial General Intelligence. The next major goal in AI research is to create a program that can learn or adapt to a variety of tasks, rather than being good at specific jobs (hence the word general). AGI is what most people probably think of when they use the term AI, but we haven’t created an AGI yet. LLMs are currently better than most humans at some specific kinds of tasks (categorizing large data sets and finding patterns in the data, for example), but they are not generally intelligent. An AGI is essentially a program or set of programs that is functionally equivalent (or superior) to a human in its ability to learn and excel at a wide variety of new tasks.
- ASI = Artificial SuperIntelligence. This is the holy grail of AI research: a program that is “intelligent” enough to improve its own code and become better than all humans at all tasks. Once a program is capable of this, progress towards intelligence becomes exponential. The future moment when a program gains this ability is commonly referred to as the Singularity.
- Transcendence. This is not a term usually associated with AI, but I am going to use it a lot and I mean something very specific by it, so I wanted to clarify at the beginning. I use transcendent in this article to describe anything that exists beyond or apart from physical reality. Many people believe that the stuff that we can empirically sense is all that there is, but Christians (and most adherents of non-Christian religions) believe in things that transcend the material world. Angels, demons, the Devil, the human souls, and God himself are all transcendent things. There are other terms that people use to talk about these things (spiritual, supernatural, etc.) but I like feeling of the word “transcendent,” so I use it a lot.
There are, in the broadest possible terms, three main ways to categorize the different strains of human thought regarding Artificial Intelligence (AI):
- Most people probably don’t think about AI much. If they do, it’s probably because of reasons like “I saw that DeepSeek was the number one app in the app store.” (Note: I wrote this several months ago, so some of the references are already dated. Life comes at you fast.) These people might dabble a bit, download an app or two, and then promptly forget about it. Remember when everyone was doing Studio Ghibli art? That was a fun time.
- Among people who think about it more regularly or who center AI more in their lives (researchers, programmers, people who integrate these apps into their workflows), the first group thinks that AI is little more than a glorified “word calculator” – essentially a very, very advanced autocomplete. These programs are good at imitating or faking human reasoning, but they are not what we would call “intelligent.” They can’t come up with new ideas, they can’t really discern between truth and falsehood, and they have no agency (that is, the ability to make choices). To this group of people, we are probably pretty close to achieving the maximum potential for AI, if not there already. Here’s a good example of this kind of thinking.
- The last group of people are the “true believers” – people who think that while AI may not currently be “intelligent,” eventually we will achieve AGI (and maybe pretty soon – a lot of the AI researcher crowd thinks 5-10 years or sooner, or least claim to think that). For a growing number of very smart people, it seems inevitable we will create a machine that can think at least at the level of a very smart human. AGI will then probably lead to the next step: a program so advanced that it can intelligently modify its own code to improve its abilities, creating a cascade that leads to an entity whose capabilities quickly outstrip all human capacity. This site made the rounds earlier this year, articulating what some believe to be a reasonable timeline.
I’m sure the last group of people seem crazy to a lot of people, especially people who might read this. But the potential for disruption and destruction inherent in a future ASI is such that, even if there is only a .00001% chance of it happening, it’s worth thinking about. Most AI researchers are non-religious or at least do not front their religiosity to the world as part of their research. AI research is not done through a Christian lens, and I suspect that the vast majority of AI researchers rarely if ever consider out loud the theological ramifications of AI. When they do, it’s usually something like “AI will make religion irrelevant” or “AI will replace God.”
If God exists and takes a hands-on approach to reality, then it surely would not have escaped his knowledge and foresight that humanity might go down this path. If you believe, as I do, that the Bible is the inerrant and inspired word of God, then surely it has something to say about the possibility for ASI, at least in implication. TO BE AS CLEAR AS POSSIBLE: I’m not writing this to defend a Christian worldview. I am taking Christianity at face value as given. I am assuming that God exists, and the Bible is his word. I am concerned with thinking about AI through the lens that the Bible is true and accurate. Given the truth of Scripture, how should we be thinking about AI? How could or might this technology affect our Christian witness and walk with God?
These technologies have at least the potential (we can argue about the likelihood) to dramatically rewrite human existence and social structures in profoundly meaningful ways. Maybe AI never advances to AGI, but what if it does? A lot of what I will be doing here is considering what ifs. What if we reach AGI? What if we create an ASI? What if AI never moves much past what it is now? How should this affect the Christian message and purpose? Does it matter at all? To the last question, it matters because we have to live in the world. If an ASI starts dramatically rewriting the rules of human civilization, Christians need to be prepared to continue their mission. And we also need to be mentally ready for several outcomes. We can’t allow ourselves to be sucked into the world’s mania, panic, excitement, or chaos. No matter what happens, we believe in a King who is in control.
God’s Sovereignty: Would He Even Allow ASI to Exist?While it may seem like God hasn’t said anything about AI in the Bible, there are two lines of reasoning from a couple different Bible stories that might at least imply that God wouldn’t create a universe where AGI is possible, or that he might step in to prevent its creation. The first is the story of Babel in Genesis 11, where this is the rationale God gives for confusing all the languages:
And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” –Genesis 11:6-7
Setting aside the historical veracity of the story (I don’t want to debate that here), the point of the story, as presented by Moses, at least tangentially touches on AI. If God desires to limit the potential of humanity (this idea is actually first introduced as a part of the fall in the garden of Eden), then it’s hard to imagine that God would allow a technology as powerful as AGI to exist. We are almost at the point where language isn’t a barrier right now. I was recently in Ecuador, and Google Translate was basically magic. Everyone having an AI in their pocket at all times seems like a classic “this is only the beginning of what they will do” moment. I can’t imagine another technology that would undo Babel like AGI could. Perhaps God simply won’t allow it to happen.
Before we get to the second line of reasoning, we should briefly unpack: how would God prevent or limit AI, were he inclined to do so? While of course we are totally into the realm of near-baseless speculation, I can only think of three basic possibilities:
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- God in his infinite and perfect foreknowledge created reality in such a way that AGI is technically, scientifically impossible to achieve.
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- He will intervene in some way in the lives of those who are making it, such that AGI is either never created.
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- God has created reality such that the advent of AGI will not lead to the unification of humanity and a future utopia (this article by a secular humanist explores the theoretical framework of Babel in an interesting way, but it is paywalled, as many of the links in this article are. Sorry.).
The second line of argument that might lead a Christian to reject the possibility of AGI or ASI concerns the tension at the heart of the Bible between faith and knowledge. God could clearly, if he so desired, prove himself without a shadow of a doubt to every human individually. In fact, he will eventually do this, at the return of Jesus. God clearly desires to leave room for faith – understanding that must go beyond what is strictly knowledge (see Hebrews 11:1-2; Romans 8:24-25; Luke 16:27-31).
What does this have to do with AGI? If you believe that the Bible is true, that it accords with reality because God made reality, then the logical implication is that an entity that can consume the entirety of human knowledge (and discover new knowledge), and then make new and reasonable inferences from that vast amount of data, would conclude that God exists and the Bible is true. If the Bible really is true, how could such a begin of incredible knowledge reach a different conclusion? (Of course, there is a way that AGI or ASI might reject God’s existence; they are subject to the biases and motivations of their programmers, after all.)
But would such a monumental event sway the balance of humanity out of faith and into knowledge? Would such an event constitute too much proof, and destroy human capacity for belief? It might sound odd to hear a Christian say that there can be too much evidence, but God clearly feels this way himself, or he could easily provide much more evidence for his existence! Perhaps God would refuse to allow AGI to exist simply because such an entity would have too much ability to “prove” his existence. Two reminders before we leave this section:
- A lot of this is highly speculative and not concrete at all. I just want to write down some thoughts as we explore these ideas together.
- My point here is not to systematically defend the veracity of the Bible; I’m assuming the Bible is true, and reasoning from there.
There is a third way of thinking about how God might feel about AGI, and it’s tied up in the concepts of personhood, agency, and the soul. I am going to save that part of this article for the end, because it is the most speculative, and goes off the rails quick. Before we go completely off the deep end, I want to suggest three ways that Christians should or could be considering the potentiality of artificial intelligence: eschatology, spiritual warfare, and discernment.
Heaven and Hell on Earth: AI EschatologyThere are essentially three main outlooks on AI (here is a good article summarizing the debate over the future capabilities of AI):
- We are already pretty close to maximum utility, and AI tools will only ever be useful tools and not ever be actual agents (beings with will and volition). I think this is where most normal people land, almost by default. If you aren’t thinking much about AI, this is probably where you are; otherwise, you would be planning for and preparing for one of the following two outcomes.
- We will eventually create AGI or ASI, which will herald the doom of humanity either quickly or slowly.
- We will eventually create AGI or ASI, which will usher in a utopian age where human needs are not a concern, most or all people don’t have to work, and people simply spend their time on deeper human pursuits of value, creativity, and meaning.
In the first view, AI is maximally about as transformative to human society as agriculture, the printing press, or the internet. These were all incredibly transformative and impactful technologies, to be sure, but none of them fundamentally altered human nature. People still had to work for food, shelter, and survival, contend with the “four horsemen” of war, disease, famine, and death. The stated and implicit social contracts binding societies together still rested on the same basic pillars (don’t lie, cheat, steal, murder, etc.). In this outlook, human society will be dramatically affected by AI, but the core problems and opportunities of human existence will still be around in more or less the same fundamental forms. Re-link to a good summary of this view.
The second and third views deserve a bit more unpacking.
There are two main dangers in the creation of AGI/ASI. The first is what is known as the “alignment problem” (or the “steering problem” if you prefer). How can we ensure that a being smarter than us, without biological need, will be aligned with us in what is good or evil? Why would such an entity care about the well-being of humanity? This is the classic problem in science fiction (think The Terminator), where an ASI acts either intentionally or unintentionally against the survival of humanity (for a more benign example than Skynet, consider the paperclip). The alignment problem is a supremely difficult one to solve, and one that we haven’t yet solved. Here are some examples of misalignment already happening with current chatbots.
The second main danger of AGI is a more difficult one to explain. I like the term “disempowerment problem” the best. Here is a good primer on the disempowerment problem. As AGIs take on more human responsibilities and become better than humans at more things, we will potentially reach a stage where AGIs (or ASIs) have direct control over most of the earth’s resources. As each company acts in its own self-interest, and as AI agents become better at most things than humans, the companies that give over more control to AI will perform better than those that don’t. (Note that this might happen even if we don’t reach AGI. AI “agents” are already available to take over more of your life.) Market incentives lead each individual actor to give more control to the AI, because that’s what leads to more success! At a certain point down the path of giving over more control to AI programs, we would be completely at the mercy of computers. Even if we solved the alignment problem well enough to avoid catastrophe as soon as the first ASI comes online, an ever-increasing percentage of people would become disempowered; they don’t need to work (or aren’t able to compete at work) and become decreasingly valuable to a society dominated by money. How will society cope with a large percentage of people being essentially irrelevant in the market?
These are the fast (alignment) and slow (disempowerment) deaths of humanity. Failing to solve the alignment problem probably leads to a very quick extinction of humanity as AGIs or ASIs work in directly oppositional ways to human survival. Here again is the scenario that recently made the rounds in the AI community. But failing to solve the disempowerment problem just kills us slower; by the time we realize we have failed to solve it, we will have already given control of most of earth’s resource to the ASIs. ASIs don’t have to actively work against humanity to kill us, they just need to use the resources under their control in ways that don’t provide us enough food or shelter. Or just enough people have to give in to existential despair enough that society collapses in on itself.
The existential threat of AGI or ASI is a very real concern for a lot of AI researchers, so much so that many have stopped saving for retirement or planning for the future. To many of them, the genie is already out of the bottle. Slow or fast, the end of humanity is coming at the hands of the supercomputers.
Or is it? From a Biblical worldview, AI simply cannot pose an existential threat. Jesus and his apostles were very clear that Jesus’s second coming would be in a time of relative normality:
But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. – Matthew 24:36-39
Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. –1 Thessalonians 5:1-3
To be clear, these texts aren’t saying that Jesus will come after a utopian period where no one has any problems, but rather that Jesus will come when things are normal. We will still have to deal with conflict, war, disease, famine, and death in the meantime. This is the normal state of affairs. We all deal with them at different times and in different ways. But both Jesus and Paul make it clear that Jesus’s return will not be precipitated by some calamitous event. People will just be living normal lives, with all that entails.
If there is anything I am certain of in this whole discussion of AI, it is this: AI will not wipe out humanity. I feel entirely confident of this, based on Jesus’s explicit statements and promises. That doesn’t mean that AI won’t make life very unpleasant for a lot of people; war, disease, and famine do that all the time, and AI might well enable people to do more bad things very efficiently. But the negative effects of AI will be more akin to the negative effects of the internet or weapons manufacturing or tyranny or any other human endeavor. We might get more efficient at causing suffering, but things will ultimately continue more or less as they have been until Jesus returns.
So, what about the final view of AI, that AGI and ASI will usher in a future utopia for humanity? A person might even read the passages above and come away with the idea that maybe this is what Paul and Jesus meant – a time of peace and security precipitating the return of Jesus. A lot of AI experts believe (or at least claim to believe) that ASI will usher in a utopian age of abundance, where robots do all the work sustaining humanity, and people are left only to enjoy their lives. This is the “good outcome” of AI but even ignoring the fact that we currently don’t know how to solve the alignment problem, threading the needle to this utopian future seems very unlikely under a Christian worldview, for two reasons.
First is the nature and track-record of humanity. Humans always manage to take good, meaningful things and twist them to selfish and destructive purposes. Why would AI be any different? The internet might have been a brief beacon of unity and global connectedness, before we figured out how to turn it into a place of new horrors. The printing press enabled the spread of truth on a heretofore unprecedented scale, but it also enabled more people to spread more lies and falsehood than ever before. AI has the potential to be the most bifurcating technology we’ve ever invented. Training these models requires an incredible amount of processing power and energy; most nations don’t have the ability, leading to the haves and have-nots on a national scale. The people creating these models are flawed in all the ways humans are; their biases and misconceptions about reality may well come out in the models, leading to new avenues of persecution and bigotry. While AI products may improve their ability to create and produce, that ability isn’t limited to creating beauty and producing good; like any other technology, they can be used for nefarious or evil purposes just as easily. I think it is most likely that people with vast amounts of resources will do what they always do: reserve the most powerful tools for themselves. Human nature doesn’t change. People will always be self-serving, jealous, and ambitious.
There is a second line of reasoning that seems to preclude a potential utopia, and that is how Jesus and his apostles talked about the future. In the Old Testament, when God took Israel to be his special chosen nation on earth, he explicitly told them that his promises of blessings would not eliminate the poor:
You shall give to him freely, and your heart shall not be grudging when you give to him, because for this the Lord your God will bless you in all your work and in all that you undertake. For there will never cease to be poor in the land. Therefore I command you, ‘You shall open wide your hand to your brother, to the needy and to the poor, in your land.’ – Deuteronomy 15:10-11
Jesus said something similar when people got upset over a woman using an expensive flask of ointment on his feet.
But Jesus, aware of this, said to them, “Why do you trouble the woman? For she has done a beautiful thing to me. For you always have the poor with you, but you will not always have me.” – Matthew 26:10-11
Jesus reminded the people around him that the poor would always exist. This was not a promise or a threat, but a statement about human nature. People will always abuse power, accumulate wealth they don’t need and deprive and oppress others. God promised Adam at the very beginning that life would be hard after sin. This was an imposed consequence for Adam (really for humanity at large), and it involved a change in the fundamental nature of reality. Creation is not conducive to easy existence anymore. As Paul would later say, creation is broken and futile while we wait for Jesus’s return.
The idea that AI will usher in a new era of perfect ease, elimination of disease, and global peace just doesn’t harmonize with the way God has ever talked about future human existence. Even if we do achieve AGI or ASI, I am very confident that they will not lead humanity into a prosperous, worry-free age.
Personally, I think at the upper bound AI has the potential to affect humanity like agriculture or the internet. These were monumental, titanic shifts in human societies, but they didn’t fundamentally alter the way humans have to interact with the world and each other. These were changes in method and efficiency, but not substance. Like all technology, AI will create new problems and new opportunities, but it won’t change what it means to be human. And most importantly AI will, like every human invention before it, be a new vector for spiritual warfare.
Spiritual Warfare and AIAt the heart of human existence is a spiritual struggle that transcends physical reality:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. – Ephesians 6:10-12
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. –2 Corinthians 10:3-5
The primary “strongholds” in this eternal conflict are ideas and philosophies. The fight is over what people think and believe! The Christian is a soldier, but we are not fighting other people or other nations; we are fighting lies, false ideas, and corrupted thinking. (Or put more accurately: we shouldn’t be fighting other people. Unfortunately, a lot of Christians misunderstand this.) We fight lies in ourselves first, and then in others and in society. We fight for truth and with truth! One of my favorite names of the church is “the pillar and buttress of the truth.”
Of course, humans are not the only participants in spiritual warfare. An interesting sublot that has emerged relatively recently is the connection (or supposed connection) between AI and demons, or spiritual entities. I have seen discussion of demonic influence even among people who are blatantly not Christian, and who 10 or 15 years ago would have adamantly refused to engage with talk of anything beyond material reality. For the Christian, supernatural influence in the natural world is a given. Satan and his angels have been thrown down to this earth and wage war on humanity. The Devil wants to devour you, and his servants want to deceive you. Fortunately, God’s emissaries also fight in this war to help us overcome.
The question most people are really interested in is how. How do angels, demons, and spirits work in the world for good and evil? What are they allowed to do? What are they able to do? The Devil is a liar, but how does he lie to us? Does he literally whisper in our minds? Is he allowed to meddle with physical reality? God, as he does with many topics, tells us what is happening without explaining much how it happens. We are told God “will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it,” but what does that mean? How does he provide a way of escape? Is it a person interacting with you, a thought recalled, or a circumstance changed? Something else altogether? Some combination thereof? Of course, it’s probably different in any individual circumstance.
Consider God’s own providence in response to prayer. We are told that prayer is powerful and effective, but how does God respond to prayer? If you pray for safety on a journey, how do you expect God to answer that prayer? Is he going to alter the coefficient of friction on a slippery patch of road? Is he going to physically move someone’s hand on the steering wheel to make them avoid an accident? Is he going to influence your choice of road and speed to help you avoid disaster? Most of the time, no one thinks about these kinds of questions; we simple pray and expect God to act in whatever way he deems best. He could do all or any of these things, or something else altogether. What does God do, and what are good and evil spiritual beings allowed to do? God simply hasn’t articulated the specifics of it.
This lack of specifics opens the door to the possibility that spiritual entities could theoretically work in the world through the emergent properties of AI systems. LLM chatbots are, in some ways, a black box. Completely parsing through the millions of connections in the expanding data sets simply isn’t currently possible, leading to unpredictable and unexpected outcomes in the final products. If social media, movies, and TV can be used by supernatural forces to push the world either away from or toward God, then couldn’t they use these emergent systems to influence, tempt, or aid people in the eternal spiritual war happening all around us?
To be clear, I’m not making a claim either way. As throughout this discussion, I want to raise questions to consider, even if I’m not fully settled in my own mind. The Devil works to undermine truth and “capture” people; I do worry that AI chatbots might become one of his most powerful tools in this work. These programs are being designed by people who do not know God, seek God, or want anything to do with God; the odds that they will be programmed to be impartial regarding spiritual matters seems low.
The Preacher, writing thousands of years ago, said “there is nothing new under the sun.” While this may be generally true (as much of ancient near-east wisdom writing was intended to be), there are new specifics. The internet would shock and astonish the Preacher. But even the “new” things like the internet, social media, and AI chatbots only work along the same old lines of human temptation: lust, greed, and pride. This is the eternal triad of spiritual warfare. Consider what Eve thought of the fruit, or how the Devil tempted Jesus, or how John spoke of the world. AI systems will enable new avenues of indulging the flesh, but the behaviors they enable will just be new versions of the ancient indulgences.
And importantly, there is no reason why God and his “ministering spirits” couldn’t also use these systems to work good in the world. We know that God is working for the good of his people; he absolutely could use these incredible powerful programs to accomplish his will in the world! The printing press accelerated (or even instigated, depending on your interpretation of the historical record) religion’s decline in the west, but it also made it possible for billions of people to have and read God’s word for themselves. Christians cannot withdraw from the world. We have to engage with society on its own terms in order to persuade as many as we can of their need for Jesus. To this end, we must grapple with the rise of AI and consider how to react to the changing world in a holy, righteous, God-glorifying way. I don’t know how God, Satan, angels, or demons will use these emerging AI systems, but I am confident that they will.
Of course, a lot (or even most?) of the spiritual danger of AI doesn’t even come from these supernatural entities. It comes from us! Our own desires and nature shape these products, and we in turn will be shaped by them. AI chatbots, as currently constructed, adapt to your inputs and wants. They are designed to be compulsive, like all modern-day media algorithms. Companies making these products make money as they are used; they are incentivized to make these AI programs as addictive as possible. Remember that LLMs are basically prediction algorithms; they digest giant data sets and find patterns, which they then use to respond to inputs. As you use them, they learn about your patterns of speech. They “remember” (“store” might be a better term) what kinds of words result in you staying in the app or using it more. Temptation doesn’t just come from the Devil; it comes from our own desires. There has never been a product more primed to perversely feed our desires than these AI programs.
For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. –2 Timothy 4:3-4
While Paul almost certainly had religious teaching in mind, the principle behind these verses applies to all sorts of ideas. If you want a teacher to suit your own passions, it’s hard to imagine a better one than an AI chatbot. But this is not a good thing. Consider this story that made the rounds online recently. Chatbots make stuff up all the time (called hallucinating in AI circles). Trusting AI implicitly can and often will lead to disaster. And this problem will only get worse as these AI programs become more powerful, persuasive, and adaptable.
It’s been quite a while since western civilization had real, literal idols. Idolatry is of course condemned over and over in the Bible, but it’s tempting to think that we are past that. Virtually no one believes in Baal, Molech, or even Thor or Zeus anymore. Very, very few people have something akin to the household gods of the Roman Empire. When was the last time you encountered someone who makes little statues and prays to them?
But the sin of idolatry never went away. We just put something else on the pedestal. For a lot of people, it’s money. For others, it’s politics or celebrity. AI has the potential to bring people much closer to the Biblical sense of literal idolatry than the current, more symbolic form. Some people are already putting too much trust in these systems; what happens in a couple software generations when these products are even more lifelike and persuasive? It is going to be tempting to ask AI: what should I do in this marital conflict? How should I respond to the aggressive coworker? How should I react when my child does this? These are questions we should be directing at God and his word. As we give more and more of ourselves to AI, what else are we doing but creating new, personalized gods for ourselves?
To be clear, I am not suggesting that Christians should avoid AI like the plague. Again, we must live in the world. There has always been a religious contingent that advocates for avoiding any new technology for fear of what it would do to the soul. This was true of the printing press, the car, and internet, and will be true for every major new technology to come. We can’t live in fear. If these technologies live up to even just part of their potential, Christians will have to learn how to live with them and interact with them in spiritually healthy ways. So, what might that look like?
The Christian and AI: Right NowPersonally, I doubt that AI programs will ever be substantially more than what they are currently. We are running up some hard caps regarding the power requirements for training and running the newest models, as well as the limits of what training data is available. Unless something dramatically changes (which it might – the Chinese model DeepSeek upended some long-held beliefs about power requirements), there are currently three main uses for AI:
- Digital Tools. These programs can be used to automate large parts of digital workflows (coding, cataloguing, sorting, etc.) and can be used as a better version of a virtual assistant (making appointments, managing calendars, etc.). Many of these tools can create stunning art and impressive videos from scratch (though this is ethically fraught). This kind of function has the potential to disrupt any work environment that is primarily digital (for example, companies will need far fewer human coders in the future, I think).
- Digital Companions. More worrying to me is this kind of use case for AI. You can have long conversations with AI chatbots where it seems, for all practical purposes, like you are talking to a real person. More and more people are using them for therapeutic purposes. Several companies are making a killing selling AI friendship or romance. Loneliness is on the rise across the global west, especially among young people. AI companions have the potential to be a “cure” for loneliness that makes the disease worse. At the same time, some people may feel like they have no other options for social connection.
- Supercharged Social Media. Perhaps the most insidious use of AI currently is the way these programs can fine-tune a person’s social media feed with incredible precision to keep people online as much as possible. The major social media sites were already doing this, of course, but LLMs and neural networks have the potential to do so in a much more precise and powerful way. Not to mention that a lot of content on the internet right now is entirely fabricated with these AI tools (the common name for this content is “AI slop”).
As it stands right now, I think there are four things Christians and churches need to be doing in a very intentional and thoughtful way.
- Develop Discernment. Discernment (the ability to tell right from wrong, or real from fake, or truth from lies) has always been an important skill for the Christian, but AI programs present some new challenges. It might be time to develop a default-skepticism toward pictures and videos online. Here’s some photos that are all fake. How many would have fooled you? Very soon, if not already, it will be necessary to consider all photos from unverified accounts fake by default unless there is a good reason to think they are real. Not to mention many social media sites are absolutely flooded with “bots”: fake accounts run by AI chatbots designed to sell products or incite outrage. There’s a good chance that if you are arguing with a stranger online, you are arguing with a chatbot. Follow fewer anonymous accounts and consume more content that you know was produced by real people. Discernment was already an important skill for so-called “legacy media” (radio, TV, movies), but as more people spend more time online, it becomes easier to be “tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.” A general rule of thumb that applies to many areas of life: how much of your discretionary time (not work, school, or sleep) do you spend on spiritual things (Bible study, fellowship, worship) versus worldly things? What we do, prioritize, and emphasize shapes who we become.
- Retain Your Ability to Think. Another, more subtle danger of AI is the temptation to offload more and more of your cognitive load to the programs. There was a wave of this already with the advent of search engines (why learn facts when you can just look them up?), but AI threatens to do the same with the very foundations of human thought. The ability to write both comes from and shapes our ability to think. By writing, and learning to write well, we create more useful and robust patterns of thoughts in our own minds. This article that made the rounds recently paints a dire picture of education in the age of AI (summary here). And it’s not just a problem in schools. AI can write your work emails, research projects for you, help you respond to difficult messages, and help you plan your vacation. It might be tempting to just let the chatbot do all these things for you, but such habits might literally make you dumber. Using AI in a way that doesn’t seduce us into intellectual laziness will require discipline, another quality that Christians should be developing anyway. Be very careful how much you use AI, and in what ways. A similar rule as above might apply: how much thinking/writing/reasoning do you do yourself, versus offloading to AI? The scale should always be heavily weighted toward the former.
- Train Your Children. Again, this was something that Christians already needed to be doing, but we need to be intentional in teaching our children specifically about AI. They need to know how easy it is for people to create incredibly realistic photos and videos. They need to know that many (if not most) of the accounts they interact with online are chatbots. They need to be aware of the way these programs seduce you with flattery and adapt themselves to your desires. I would be extremely hesitant to allow children, especially young children, unattended or unfettered access to the internet. But this was true before AI came along. We must expose our children to the world and teach them how to navigate it but giving them unfettered access while they are still so impressionable is a recipe for disaster. Additionally, it might be good to encourage our children to learn physical, real-world skills. AI is already very good at many virtual jobs. Why would companies continue to hire as many people for these jobs as they do now, when they can program an AI to do it for a fraction of the cost? We can already see this disruption happening. Jobs that require real-time decisions about physical complexity might be much more resilient to AI disruption (for example most of the physical “trades”). People will still have knowledge-economy jobs in the future, but the barrier to entry might be much higher, and it may be that fewer people will have access to them.
- Don’t Treat AI Like a Person. AI programs, as lifelike as they might be, are not people. They are repositories of knowledge that respond to inputs by using pattern-recognition to calculate the most likely next word or sequence of words desired. This is a bit of an oversimplification, but it’s vital. AI programs are more akin intelligent animals than they are to people. You can train animals to respond to inputs in desired ways, and they can surprise you with seemingly thoughtful behavior, but at the end of the day animals run on instinct. AI, like animals, only do what they are biologically programmed (algorithmically trained) to do. To be fair, most people only live this way too, but the point is that people have the potential to be more. People can connect with other souls, because they have souls! AI cannot empathize; it can only draw on its database of knowledge and respond in the way the data says is the most likely desired way. It simulates empathy and emotional intelligence, without any of the visceral, tangible meaning behind it. If AI is a person, it is an amalgamation of the people who created it. Those people have biases, desires, goals, and motivations that probably do not align with the Christian worldview. All people do, of course, but that’s why we try to be discerning in what close relationships we develop. We learn by experience that being vulnerable with people that don’t share a Godly worldview usually ends in heartache. When we view AI as a person, we allow the motivations of its programmers to influence us to their ends. AI is a tool and should always be kept emotionally distant.
These programs have the potential to increase productivity and make our lives better. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t be so popular and enticing. But the more access we give them, the more they shape themselves into exactly what our flesh (the part of us that exists in rebellion to God) wants, and the easier it becomes to give more of ourselves over to them.
The Christian and AI: In the FutureEven though I don’t think we are anywhere close to AGI or ASI, it’s worth considering: what if? What if we do create substantially better or more transformative versions of these AI products? What if we create a program that is better than most or all people at all or most cognitive functions? What if we bridge the gap to the real world with robotics, and these programs can end up doing most or all of what a person can do? I think there are two main ways for AI development to go in the future:
- AI iteratively gets better at what it can do now but stays basically the same. We are already seeing slowdowns in some of the gains generation over generation. It’s possible we are brushing up on the limits of what machine learning can do in its current form. LLMs might just have some technical caps that can’t be overcome. Will we invent new methods of machine learning? For the moment let’s assume not. There’s still some room for improvement under the current paradigm. Answers can get faster and more reliable, less prone to hallucination. Images can get more lifelike and require less iteration. Power efficiency can be improved. If this is how it plays out, then we are already 90% of the way there. Society won’t be changed any more than it was after the invention of the internet (which was a lot, admittedly). Skills with AI tools will become the next version of skill with computers, companies will eliminate inefficiencies in their organizational structures, and the market will adjust. People will adapt and learn whatever skills they need so that they can get jobs in the new market. For example, people might move away from learning to code and learning how to manage and verify data output from AI tools. Human verification might become the next hot thing. Maybe people return to the trades (did you know we have a major shortage?). In this scenario, Christians will adapt much in the same way we needed to for the internet. Many won’t adapt well and will succumb to new temptations and get sucked into the worldly way of being, away from the Kingdom of God, but that’s always a danger. Christians will need to learn how to avoid the pitfalls of AI, while figuring out how to maximize AI’s potential use in God’s service.
- AI substantially transforms how we think about society and relate to each other. This is possible even if we never read AGI or ASI. If we can figure out how to really bridge the gap between the AI programs and robotics at scale, a lot of jobs that require human labor could vanish. If AI becomes truly reliable, and doesn’t need much human oversight, people will be incentivized to move more and more decision-making over to the AI programs. Humans will simply become less valuable, from a materialist perspective. As it was with the internet, it’s hard to predict all the potential cascades of consequences, but I think the disempowerment problem is a good starting point. What happens when most people can’t find work, because they are too inefficient to pay? What happens when people offload most of their thinking and reasoning to AI apps? What happens when people find it easier to feel companionship and social fulfillment with chatbots than other people? Again, all this might happen without achieving true Artificial General Intelligence. Even if you’ve ruled out apocalypse or utopia, the ramifications of true AGI or ASI are probably too complex to predict with any accuracy. But even in this new world, the Christian mission won’t change. We will still be called to glorify God and bring his light to the world. The specific methods might change, but they have been doing that for all of human history. Christianity is primed to offer the world exactly what it needs in the case of societal upheaval due to AI: purpose and meaning. God’s word will still be truth in a world where we can’t trust anything we see on the internet. God’s vector of community (the local congregation) might become more important when people replace human relationships with digital ones and people crave a return to physical communion. God’s offer of value transcends the workplace; if the robots take your job, God will still love you!
One of the interesting trends I have noticed is that even secular, humanist people have noticed something going awry as society tries to remove religion from its heart. Even Richard Dawkins, famous for his anti-religion vitriol, calls himself a “cultural Christian.” The Preacher noted that there is something deep in the human psyche that longs for the eternal. Paul said it another way: God created us so that we would seek him, and find him. People need transcendence; they need something beyond themselves. In simple terms, we need God!
Christians have found the thing that satisfies the deepest needs of the soul. Congregations need to be emphasizing the value of embodied, in person worship now. We need to be showing people that God loves them despite their value to the world. We need to be living lives that demonstrate that we don’t need societal validation or popularity to find worth. It should be obvious to people that something transcendent is going on in our lives. At the same time, we need to show people that we are discerning. It’s so disheartening when fellow Christians get sucked into the lies that permeate the internet and respond with vitriol, hatred, or arrogance. We have to be better!
Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. –1 Corinthians 13:4-7
This has been one of the primary Christian mantras for millennia and will continue to be so even if ASI enslaves us all or leads us into WWIII. This world is not our home. This is a way-station on the journey to something better. Our job is to try to bring as many people as possible with us. We can’t let anything distract us from this singular purpose.
I would suggest this: if you can’t manage to remain faithful or holy on the internet now, the arrival of AI won’t make it easier. Consider how your life interacts with the digital world today. If you find it hard to maintain self-control, grace, and love in the world as it is now, keep in mind that AI will accelerate and heighten most of the spiritual dangers of the internet. It might be time to reevaluate how much time you spend online or how you interact with the digital world. What kind of content do you regularly consume? What do you seek out? What do you allow to passively come across your screen? How much unsupervised time do you allow your children to have on the internet? Realigning your priorities and resisting the pull of the algorithms is easier now than it will be even two or three years from now.
But, don’t panic! We believe in a King who has our best interests at heart. He wants a world to exist where people can seek him and find him, and where his children can partner with him in that work. I am totally confident that, no matter what happens, God will ensure that his people can continue to carry out his mission. There might be hardship, persecution, and things certainly won’t always be easy. But God knows what is coming. The AI companies can’t pull one over on him. If he allows AGI or ASI to exist, it’s because he knows that their existence won’t prevent his people from following him. The world might look very different, but think about how things were 100 years ago. 200 years ago? Society can change in dramatic ways, and yet people still are able to find God and follow him. Change can be worrying or frightening, but this is a good thought to end our practical considerations on:
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, “For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. –Romans 8:31-39
Personhood and Agency: How AI Illuminates Debates about HumanityFrom this point on I want to grapple with some questions that are far more theoretical and philosophical. I don’t have many (if any) concrete answers here, but these are some of the more esoteric thoughts I have been pondering regarding AI.
From a strictly materialist perspective (that is to say, the perspective that nothing exists beyond physical matter and reality), free will is mostly an illusion. We appear to have agency (the ability to make choices, free will), but we are simply the result of increasingly complex sets of equations and interactions, from the subatomic level to the level of brain chemistry and physiology. Our “thoughts” and “decisions” are simply the firing of neurons in our brains (I’m oversimplifying, of course), which are in turn the result of the chemical compositions and natural laws of the molecules that comprise our brain matter, which are in turn the result of the molecular and atomic particles interacting according to natural law. You could go further into theoretical subatomic theories like string theory, but I think the point is clear. Under a materialist framework, the entire universe is the result of natural processes that originated at the beginning. Given the starting conditions of the universe, there isn’t any other way that reality could unfold, or at least, there is no way to consciously direct the unfolding of reality. What appears to be “consciousness” is merely the result of very complex interactions of physics and chemistry in the human brain. In essence, under a materialist framework human consciousness is an emergent property very similar to emergence in LLMs; we don’t know how all the various interactions of all the different parts of human physiology work together to create consciousness, but if we had the ability to map all the connections and interactions, we could figure it out. We don’t have the ability to track or model all these interactions, which makes the world seem chaotic, and choice seem real.
Thinking about AGI illuminates how people think about human consciousness and free will. Would AGI have “free will”? AGI, even ASI, would by structural definition only be able to follow its programming. Even if an ASI develops the ability to modify its programming, it could only do so in accordance with the previous programming. While the training processes for the neural networks that comprise LLMs do sometimes give rise to emergent processes and “intelligence”, these things aren’t random or chaotic – they simply arise due to interactions in the programming and data that we are too dumb or limited to see or know. If we could track every one of these interactions with precision, we would be able to understand why these LLMs change over time the way they do, but these models involve millions and millions of lines of code and training data. We simply don’t have the ability to track how every bit of training data interacts with every other bit and the programming of the model itself.
A materialist worldview takes a very similar approach to human “agency.” If we could track every interaction of every molecule with every other and understand all the minute details of natural law at play in any given circumstance, we could predict how people would act, but we simply are incapable of it, so it seems like people have free will or act chaotically. Actual free will, true agency or volition, requires something transcendent, something that transcends or exists separate from and above natural law and physical reality. There has to be something, some force, that can operate independently of natural law, otherwise “choice” is just the result of molecules, neurons, and brains following the course of behavior prescribed by the laws of reality.
While God hasn’t revealed the exact mechanics of free will, he certainly does assert that we have it. We don’t really need to understand the mechanics of free will, so much as we need to take responsibility for our actions and choices. God talks about humanity as having the ability to choose. But how we are endowed with free will is an interesting thing to think about, especially in comparison and contrast with Artificial Intelligence. My own belief (diving completely and utterly off the diving board into the deep end of baseless speculation) is that the soul God creates, our eternal essence and being, can impose its will on the material universe, at least at the level of brain chemistry and thought. We are not just the result of physical and chemical processes proceeding according to natural law: we are spirits inhabiting the physical world, and in some way imposing our will on it. This is what I believe it means to be made “in the image of God.” Choice (agency, free will) is the ability to alter, in some way, the natural course of events. We are spiritual entities; we are not simply bound to follow the biological programming of our brains and physiology. The theory of free will that makes the most sense to me is that God has endowed our spirits with the ability to override our natural impulses, to literally overrule what the physical matter in our brain tells us, and his Holy Spirit amplifies and strengthens this ability. Many people probably never use this capacity; this is one of the main distinctions between the “natural person” and the “spiritual person.” This is one part of the eternal struggle between the flesh and the spirit. People that succumb to the flesh in many instances simply live out the processes of their natural state, and God lets them.
The possibility of artificial human-level (or beyond) intelligence brings up some interesting questions. Many Christian thinkers have long taught that our intelligence, our ability to understand the world, is a vital part of what it means to be God’s image-bearers. We were originally commanded to “have dominion” over the earth, to subdue and tame it. We were given the intelligent capacity to see and know our creator in what he made. What if we create an entity that is better at these things than we are? What if we create a program that knows more, can infer further, can create more beautifully, and can think more clearly? Is it possible to even create such an entity?
What is a person? What makes an entity a human, a person of moral worth and value? This question is at the heart of the abortion debate, and it will be at the crux of moral debates about AGI, if we ever create it. Christians should be ready to talk about it.
The debate over abortion must essentially always boil down to: what counts as a person? (What does abortion have to do with AI? Just bear with me.) There are deep, even non-religious reasons why a liberal society must always reach the conclusion that people can’t just kill whoever they want. Social cohesion becomes impossible in such societies, and progress becomes virtually impossible. In fact, the basic fact that human societies need a check on violence seems to be at the heart of God’s intent for human governance. Very few people who are on the pro-choice side of the abortion argument disagree with this. We can’t just kill people because they are inconvenient. Where the abortion debate breaks down is this: most pro-choice advocates do not believe that the unborn are people. It is easy to talk across each other, and not with each other, because of this fundamental definitional divide. Everyone (almost everyone, I suppose) agrees that murder is wrong, but a large percentage of the population doesn’t believe abortion is murder, simply because they don’t believe that the unborn are people.
What makes a person a person? At what point does the unborn “clump of cells” inside a womb acquire the qualities of personhood? Without the possibility of transcendence (something that exists beyond material reality), that is a hard question to answer. Is it when a being can feel (and if so, what kinds of feelings or sensations qualify)? Is it when a being becomes self-aware (what even is self-awareness)? Is it when a being can act independently, with volition and agency? Or is it simply the presence of human DNA? The line of reasoning that concludes the unborn aren’t people (and are therefore ok to kill), pushes the line of personhood up to age two or three at its logical conclusion. Inside and outside the womb is a purely arbitrary line that has no meaning in measuring feeling, agency, or self-awareness. Being in or out of the womb isn’t one of the milestones that might confer an entity with personhood.
Of course, the Christian side-steps all this because for the Christian, what makes a person a person is that transcendent quality: the soul! While God has not articulated all (or even any?) the mechanical specifics of how the soul and body are joined in conception, God does clearly view the unborn as his image-bearers: he has plans for them, he knows them, and he can inspire them. We are endowed from conception with God’s image through the spirit he gives us! Thus, for the Christian, the abortion debate is do debate. We cannot willfully, intentionally, and without cause kill those who bear God’s image.
(For a more comprehensive exploration of the abortion debate through the lens of Christianity, I highly recommend The Case for Life by Scott Klusendorf.)
So, we return to the question: what is a person? This will be a vital question in the age of AGI and ASI. People already act as if LLM chatbots were people (if you think the dating market is bad now, just wait: society isn’t prepared for AI paramours). If we define personhood as volition or the ability to act independently, then AGI will certainly qualify, even if the current round of AI products currently do not. The ability to feel is a more interesting qualifier of personhood when contrasting AI and humanity, but why should “feeling” via electrical signals in the brain (as humans do) count more than “feeling” via electrical signals in silicon chips (as AI does)? If self-awareness is the definition, then ASI would certainly count (as well as AGI, probably). Some chatbots already exhibit some hallmarks of self-awareness (or at least pretend to, which might itself be such a sign?) Many will try to claim that personhood requires a naturally born body, but why should it? We will probably eventually develop the ability to gestate and birth humans via artificial wombs – will those entities not count as people? In a reality where nothing beyond the material exists, why should carbon-based biology matter more than silicon-based technology, other than the desire to keep humans special?
For the Christian, these answers again come a bit easier – a person is one who bears God’s image, via the soul that God gives him or her. We are not the same as animals (though that doesn’t condone cruelty to animals or wanton destruction – we are supposed to be good stewards of the creation God has entrusted to us). An AGI, for all its knowledge and reasoning ability, does not possess the one thing which imparts personhood according to the Bible.
Or would it? Let’s go deep down the rabbit hole for a minute. It’s not certain to me that God couldn’t or wouldn’t be willing to impart a soul to an AGI or an ASI. Here, we should compare the situation with other kinds of technology: cloning and artificial wombs. Artificial wombs are coming. Cloning, while ethically fraught, is possible. Would a person artificially born or cloned have a soul? Is the natural act of conception a necessary prerequisite for God to endow an entity with his image? (Before you answer: people conceived unnaturally already exist.)
If you think that a cloned human, or a human born artificially, would have a soul, then it’s unclear to me why God couldn’t also endow an artificially intelligent being with the same (whether God would is a separate question). Is having a body a prerequisite for having a soul? Is it simply the presence of human DNA? What percentage of genetic drift is acceptable? God hasn’t seen fit to answer any of these questions, and maybe they won’t ever become relevant.
But at least one defining characteristic of personhood (free will and volition) must (in my estimation) arise from transcendence – the ability of the soul to impose its will on the natural world, at least within the human brain (To be clear, this is how a lot of people who aren’t Christians think too. Transcendence is a core pillar of most, if not all, religions). Without transcendence, our thoughts are just the result of emergent interactions between atoms, molecules, and neurons, obeying natural law and behaving the only way that they could but with such complexity that we cannot understand exactly why. It is the spiritual, transcendent part of us that allows us the same kind of volition as God himself. There’s no reason why God couldn’t allow an AGI the same kind of volition, but in silicon instead of brain matter. It’s not like any of this is impossible for God; it’s not a question of whether God can, it’s a question of whether God would, and I think it’s a question worth exploring. We, through God’s power, can rise above the level of the flesh. Why couldn’t God allow an intelligent, self-aware program to rise above the level of silicon?
To reiterate: much of this is unanswerable. The point of asking the questions here in this last, unhinged section is not to answer them, but to think about them, to ponder and consider what God has revealed to us about himself and to try to discern how he might act as these technologies advance, and as we potentially lose the ability to control them, or lose the ability to control ourselves with them.
The vision of the valley of dry bones in Ezekiel 37 epitomizes one of the main themes of the Bible: God’s power to bring life from death, through his Spirit. Using Ezekiel 37 as a launching point, how does this power of God manifest in his promises through Jesus and his apostles?
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(Preaching through Ezekiel and the exile. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 10, 2025.)
This sermon is only tangentially related to our journey through the story of the Bible together this year, but it is a topic I get asked about a lot. How should Christians think about Israel today?
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(Preaching on the promises made to Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 3, 2025.)
The book of Ezekiel has a lot to say about how the failure of Israel’s leaders led Israel into destruction. The book still has much to teach modern readers about the importance of righteous leadership today.
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(Preaching on the exile of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 3, 2025.)
The stories of Daniel and Esther take place outside of Israel, a hundred years apart. What can we learn from God’s people as they continued to live faithfully in the midst of ungodly people?
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(Preaching on the exile of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 27, 2025.)
The Babylonian exile is one of the most complicated narrative backdrops in the Old Testament, spanning many prophetic and historical books in Scripture. Understanding the scope of the exile and the return will inform our reading of dozens of Old Testament books, and help us gain a better understanding of the story of God’s people through history.
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(Preaching on the exile to Babylon. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 20, 2025.)
Lamentations might be the hardest book to read in the Bible; not because it’s obscure or overly intellectual, or because it is simply a compilation of census data, but because it’s extremely heavy and emotional. Why was it written, and why is still just as valuable for modern readers?
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(Preaching through the prophets. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 20, 2025.)
Jeremiah is a hard book for modern readers to understand (like many of the Israelite prophetic books). What are some of the factors that contribute to this difficulty, and how can modern readers understand the book in its own context while also making application for ourselves?
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(Preaching through the prophets of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 13, 2025.)
The book of Jeremiah is not arranged chronologically, so in our reading through the Bible our text for this week comes a little out of historical order. Jeremiah 29 is addressed to people living in exile after Babylon had come against Israel and carried many of them away. What did Jeremiah have to say to these exiles, and how does their situation mirror our own?
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(Preaching through the prophets of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 13, 2025.)
Most of the prophetic books of Israel simply record the oracles of the prophets, without revealing much about the prophets themselves. However, the books of Jeremiah and Isaiah begin with the call of the prophet and God’s intent for their ministries. What can we learn from the call of these two men, their responses, and their work?
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(Preaching through the prophets of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 6, 2025.)
Where the first half of Isaiah is mostly judgment punctuated by promises of restoration, the second half is primarily hopeful promises with occasional reminders of judgment. What kind of hope does Isaiah offer to Israel, and how does he expect the hope to be accomplished for God’s people?
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(Preaching through the prophets. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 29, 2025.)
The first half of Isaiah primarily consists of God’s judgment on Israel and the nations. Why did Isaiah prophesy so much judgment, and how might we be in danger of the same denunciations today?
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(Preaching through the prophets. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 22, 2025.)
In our journey through the Bible this year, we have come to Isaiah, one of the longest and most-referenced books of the Old Testament. Here is a general outline and overview of Isaiah’s prophecies. There are many ways you could categorize and organize his visions, but I think the judgment-hope axis is particularly enlightening. I hope this helps your study of Isaiah!
Isaiah Overview.pdf
It is easy to put the prophets of Israel on a pedestal and think they were so much higher or better than we are, but the prophets were just regular people. The stories of Elijah and Habakkuk highlight this truth well; how did they struggle with the frailty and weakness of humanity, how did God help them, and how can we learn from their struggles?
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(Preaching on the prophets of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 15, 2025.)
The “Prophets” is the largest section of the English Old Testament, and there are a lot of prophets whose work is primarily found in the narrative sections of the Bible. The prophets clearly played a vital role in God’s connection with Israel. What was their job, how should we think about them, and how does their work compare to the mission of Christians today?
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(Preaching on the prophets. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 15, 2025.)
We begin our foray into the era of Israel’s divided kingdom with an overview of the entire period, from the division after Solomon’s death to the eventual exile of Judah. What patterns repeated themselves throughout this part of Israel’s history, and what should modern readers glean from this section of the Bible?
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(Preaching through 1-2 Kings. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 1, 2025.)
We end our journey through the wisdom literature of Israel with Ecclesiastes, one of the strangest books in the Bible. The book is an exploration of some of life’s deepest questions: what is the point of it all? Did anything I do matter? Does anything have meaning and value? What can we learn from the Preacher’s philosophical musings?
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(Preaching through the wisdom literature of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 25, 2025.)
The Song of Solomon (or “Song of Songs” in many translations) is I suspect among the least-taught books in the Bible. Sex makes many people feel awkward or uncomfortable. But should it? What is a book like Song of Solomon meant to teach the reader? Why is it in the Bible? How should we approach this unusual book?
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(Preaching on the wisdom literature of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 18, 2025.)
The Proverbs of Israel are wide-ranging in their subject matter, but there are several frequent themes. If we want to live purposeful, meaningful, righteous lives, what kind of rules might we glean from this ancient wisdom?
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(Preaching through the wisdom literature of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 18, 2025.)
As we enter into a new section of Israelite history in our journey through the Bible, I thought it might be helpful to have provide a map and a timeline of the Divided Kingdom. Next week I will provide several timelines connected to the prophets of Israel.
The Divided Kingdom (Map) PDFThe Divided Kingdom (Timeline) PDFDivided Kings and Prophets PDF
The stated intent of the book of Proverbs is to provide wisdom and insight to the reader. How does Proverbs specifically, and the Wisdom literature of Israel more generally, help the reader approach life more wisely? What are the key components of wisdom, and how can we avoid the pitfalls of being “simpleminded”?
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(Preaching through Proverbs. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 11, 2025.)
Solomon presided over the absolute height of the kingdom of Israel, because God granted his request for wisdom in addition to giving him wealth and power. But Solomon’s great wisdom did not prevent him from falling into the same kinds of temptations that face every human. How did a man whose reign started off so well fall into such problems, and how does our own struggle mirror his?
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(Preaching on the history of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 11, 2025.)
One of the main themes in the Psalms is righteousness: God’s attitude toward the righteous and unrighteous, contrasts between the behavior of the righteous and the wicked, and warnings and promises for certain kinds of actions and attitudes. What do the Psalmists consider to be “righteousness,” and why is it so important?
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(Preaching on the wisdom of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 4, 2025.)
Songs have a complex relationship with culture; music is both shaped by, and also shapes, the culture in which it is written, and serves as a vehicle for transmitting the norms, values, and ideals of a culture to the next generation. Viewed in this light, it is no wonder that we are instructed to teach and admonish one another with “Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” What can we learn from the Psalms of Israel, and how does teaching with the Psalms shape the people that are immersed in them?
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(Preaching on the wisdom of Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 4, 2025.)
The latter part of David’s life is marked by civil war, conflict, strife, and a lot of pain, stemming from David’s poor choices and God’s discipline. But in the midst of all his sorrow, we also see God’s grace and mercy toward David. How do the kindness and severity of God weave together at the end of David’s life, and how should we be thinking about these traits of God in our own lives?
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(Preaching through the history of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 27, 2025.)
2 Samuel 11-16 are the low points of David’s life: sinning with Bathsheba followed by several devastating consequences and the fallout of family discord and civil war. But out of this terrible time comes one of the most powerful Psalms. What can we learn from Psalm 51 and how can we read it prophetically as something we too can pray to God in the depths of our sin and consequence?
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(Preaching through the history of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 20, 2025.)
I post this every year around Easter as people are thinking about the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, with minor revisions and updates (this year some more-than-minor revisions). I hope this is helpful to you in some small way as you more deeply consider the resurrection of our Lord.
Crucifixion Timeline.pdf
The book of Psalms has a complicated relationship with foretelling. Some parts of it clearly tell the future in the vein of one of the prophets like Isaiah or Jeremiah, but a lot of the prophecy in the book is more subtle. The Psalms are full of “dual prophetic fulfillment” – prophecy that meant one thing for the original writers and readers, and something else for readers aware of Jesus, the covenant king. How can we come to grips with the dual nature of Psalms, and how can we learn to read the Psalms prophetically in the way that Jesus, his apostles, and early church did?
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Here are the charts mentioned in the sermon.Prophecy in the Psalms.pdf(Preaching on the wisdom literature. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 13, 2025.)
2 Samuel 7 is one of the key chapters of the Bible, akin to Abraham’s call in Genesis 12 or the beginning of the gospels. The promise made to David is a recurring theme throughout the rest of the story of Israel. Why is this chapter so pivotal, and how does it connect to the rest of the Bible story?
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(Preaching through the story of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 13, 2025.)
The book of Psalms spans a thousand years of Israelite history, and is the greatest collection of songs and prayers to Yahweh ever assembled. How was this collection assembled, why was it structured the way it was, and how can we begin to use this incredible resource in our own lives?
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(Preaching through the wisdom literature. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 6, 2025. You can find the chart mentioned below.)
Psalms Overview PDF
After Saul’s rebellion and rejection, God told Samuel he would choose a new king after his own heart. What did God mean by this, what made David such a person, and how can we emulate the heart of David?
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(Preaching on this history of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 6, 2025.)
The book of Psalms spans a thousand years of Israelite history, and is the greatest collection of songs and prayers to Yahweh ever assembled. As we begin weaving the Psalms into our reading of the Bible through the year, I hope this overview can help you make sense of the structure and themes of the book.
Psalms Overview.pdf
Israel’s first king arrived at the tail end of a sequence of bad leadership in Israel. But while things started out well for Saul, they quickly devolved into similar patterns of failed rule. What can we learn from the first king’s successes and failures, and how much should we relate to his struggles?
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(Preaching through the story of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 30, 2025.)
In our read through the Bible, we have arrived in the books of Samuel. 1-2 Samuel covers the united kingdom from the end of the era of the judges to the tail end of David’s reign, and mostly focuses on the struggles for power between Saul and David, and David and Absalom. I hope this is helpful for your study!
Samuel Overview PDF Download
The period of the judges lasted for more than three centuries between Joshua’s death and the anointing of Saul as the first king. During this time, the pattern of human rebellion and God’s redemption was solidified in Israel, and stands as an example to Christians today. What can we learn about the cycle of rebellion and redemption from this period of Israel’s history?
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(Preaching through the story of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 23, 2025.)
There is a mysterious recurring figure in the Old Testament: “The Angel of Yahweh” appears at several critical points in the narrative to guide, support, and direct the people of Israel. What is so special about the angel, and what distinguishes him from other angels in the Bible?
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(Preaching through the story of the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 16, 2025.)
The story of Joshua is full of war, conflict, and strife. As Israel was about to cross the Jordan and enter the promised land, Joshua was repeatedly told to “be strong and courageous.” What reasons did God give him to be so, and how does Joshua’s need for strength and courage mirror our own?
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(Preaching through the story of early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 16, 2025.)
As we transition out of our reading of the Pentateuch and into Joshua and Judges, I thought it would be helpful to put together a timeline of early Israel, from the Exodus to the beginning of the temple construction in 1 Kings 6:1. The two verses that form the backbone of this timeline are Judges 11:26 and 1 Kings 6:1, which impose pretty hard limits on the overall dates of the judges and kings. I hope this is helpful for you!
Timeline of Early Israel Pdf Download
(Note: you can find links for the maps mentioned in this sermon below.) As we transition from the Pentateuch to the so-called books of history in the Old Testament, Israel is transitioning from their wilderness wanderings into the promised land. How did they enter, how did their early encounters with the inhabitants go, and how did such a weak and nomadic nation conquer all the land from the Jordan to the Mediterranean?
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You can find the maps for this sermon here (Joshua 1-9), here (Joshua 10), here (Joshua 11), and here (land allotment).
(Preaching on early Israel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 9, 2025.)
I previously posted a black and white version of a map depicting the land allotment for Israel in Joshua, but I think the color version is easier to read. I hope this is helpful!
The Land Allotment Color.pdfDownload
Jesus, immediately after claiming that he came not to abolish, but fulfill the law of Moses, proceeded to make what seems to be pretty major alterations to the law in Matthew 5-6. What did he mean by claiming to “fulfill” the law, and how should we understand his teaching about the things that were told to the Israelites of old?
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(Preaching on the law of Moses. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 2, 2025.)
Deuteronomy, in addition to being a summary and recap of the law given through Moses, serves as Moses’s farewell address to Israel. At the end of his life, Moses was predominantly concerned with how Israel would keep God’s covenant after he was gone. Deuteronomy contains his admonition and encouragement for Israel to keep the covenant. What can we learn from his instruction to Israel for our own efforts to keep covenant with God?
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(Preaching through the Pentateuch. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 2, 2025.)
As we transition into a new phase of the story in our journey through the Bible in 2025, it might be helpful to be able to visualize the land of Israel. Here is an overview chart for Deuteronomy, as well as a map of the land allotment for the Israelites given to them by Joshua.
Deuteronomy Overview PDFLand Allotment PDF
While there certainly are a lot of numbers in the book of Numbers, a better title for the book might be the Jewish one: In the Desert. The narrative sections focus on Israel’s struggles to obey the Law they had just received through Moses, and their journeys in the desert as a result. But our struggle to obey God mirrors theirs; we have the same heart problems and motivational issues as they did. What can we learn from their struggles in the desert?
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(Preaching on Numbers. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 23, 2025.)
This is the second part of our consideration of how the modern Christian should relate to the law of Moses. If there is so much difference between the laws of Moses and Christ, why was the law of Moses given at all? If Christ was always the plan, why didn’t God just jump straight to Jesus?
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(Preaching on the law of Moses. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 16, 2025.)
It’s important that modern Christians do not neglect a study of the Law of Moses, for in it we learn much about the character and nature of the God we serve. What can we learn about God from a study of Leviticus, and how should such a study affect us today?
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(Preaching through the Law of Moses. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 16, 2025.)
I am a bit late with this chart in our read through the Bible at Dewey this year. As a reminder, there won’t be a chart like this for every book, but I hope this is helpful for you.
Leviticus Overview PNGLeviticus Overview PDF
Inevitably as a person reads through the Law of Moses in Exodus-Deuteronomy, the many, many differences between that law and what would later come through Jesus and his apostles become glaring. How can we explain and understand the differences between God’s expectations for the Israelites, and his expectations of his people today? And why do the differences matter?
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(Preaching on the law of Moses. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 9, 2025.)
While there are literally hundreds of laws in the Law of Moses, the first ten are called out as especially significant. What makes them so special, and how have they continually resonated with God’s people over the course of millennia?
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(Preaching on the Law of Moses. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 9, 2025.)
In our journey through the story of the Bible we have come to Exodus. The first half of the book is God’s grand revealing of his name, character, and power – not just to the Israelites, but to the world. In this revealing, God establishes patterns that will reoccur throughout the rest of the Bible story. What are these patterns, and what do we learn about him in the Exodus?
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(Preaching through the story of the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 2, 2025.)
The second in our two-part lesson on the problem of pain approaches the problem in a more traditional, critical way: given the nature of God, his power, love, and knowledge, how can evil and suffering still exist?
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(Preaching on the problem of evil. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 26, 2025.)
This is the first of a two-part lesson on the problem of suffering and pain in the world. This first part comes from Job: what can we learn about suffering and the problem of pain in our lives from Job and his discussion with his friends?
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(Preaching on Job. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 26, 2025.)
Here are the next in the series of supplemental materials for our journey through the story of the Bible: a map of Israel’s journey from Egypt to Canaan, and an overview of the book of Exodus.
04 From Egypt to Canaan (Map)Download05 Exodus OverviewDownloadHere are the pngs, if you prefer.
The story of Joseph is at the heart of a lot of Yahweh’s providential work in Genesis and Exodus. How did God work to bring Joseph into a position of influence, and what did God accomplish by doing so.
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(Preaching through Genesis. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 19, 2025.)
As we begin our journey through the Bible, it might be helpful to consider some broad ideas about the Bible: it’s composition, structure, themes, and genres. How can we become more “acquainted with the sacred writings” (2 Timothy 3:15)?
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(Preaching through the story of the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 12, 2025.)
The grouping of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob appears around 20 times throughout the Bible, often called “the fathers.” As we read through their stories in Genesis, what made them the kind of people God could use to put his great plan of redemption into motion?
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(Preaching through the story of the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 12, 2025.)
This year we are reading through the Bible in a year, and the sermons each week will go along with the reading. We begin with the first 11 chapters of Genesis, the “introduction” or “prologue” to the story of the Bible before the narrative thread begins with Abram’s call in Genesis 12. How do these introductory chapters establish the setting and conflict of the story?
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(Preaching on Genesis 1-11. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 5, 2025.)
We conclude our series on the work and identity of Jesus with one of the most used, and perhaps most misunderstood, titles of Jesus – the Christ. What does “Christ” mean, and why is it so important?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 29, 2024. Below you can find the chart mentioned in the sermon.)
Jesus the Messiah PDFDownload
This year at the Dewey Church of Christ we are embarking on a journey through the Bible together. I have put together a reading plan for the year, and the sermons through the year will line up with the reading. Here is the reading plan and sermon schedule:
Additionally, I will be putting together some charts throughout the year to go along with the reading. I hope that these can be useful for you as we seek to understand the story of the Bible together!
The Story of the Bible Reading PlanDownloadHere are the pdfs for the first three charts:
01 The Story of the BibleDownload02 Old Testament OverviewDownload03 Genesis OverviewDownloadHere are the pngs:
We have talked a lot about who Jesus was, but we also need to consider who Jesus is. That is to say, what is Jesus doing right now, as you read this? What is his current identity and work? And how should we be thinking about Jesus, our Savior in the present tense?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 22, 2024.)
Paul calls the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus “of first importance” in the gospel message. Why is the resurrection so important? What does it do and mean for us? What would the life and teaching of Jesus be without it?
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(Preaching on the work and life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 15, 2024.)
Note: There was a lot of trouble with the recording equipment during this sermon – sorry.
Ezekiel 37 is one of the most vivid word-pictures of God’s redemptive and transformative work in the whole Bible. What does Ezekiel’s vision tell us about God’s power and work, and how does this vision apply to the modern reader?
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(Preaching through Ezekiel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 8, 2024.)
No study of the life, work, and identity of Jesus can be complete without considering the central work of his life – his sacrifice. Why did he sacrifice himself, what made him the ideal and necessary sacrifice for our sins, and what did his sacrifice do for us?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 8, 2024.)
Ezekiel 18 is one of the most concentrated sections of teaching on personal responsibility and accountability in the whole Bible. How does it fit into the context of the Israelite covenant with God, and how does it connect with the vital truths of the gospel?
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(Preaching through Ezekiel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 1, 2024.)
Given Jesus’s awesome power and authority on display all throughout his ministry, in miracles and his teaching, it would be easy to come away with the wrong idea about his purpose on earth, as his disciples did. Why did Jesus claim to be a servant? What made him such a servant, despite his power and authority? And how can we follow in his example?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 1, 2024.)
The word “bridegroom” is only used to describe Jesus a couple times in the Gospels, but the analogy of marriage describing our relationship to God is used throughout the Bible. In what way is Jesus like a bridegroom, and what does this mean for us?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 24, 2024.)
Healing was by far the most common miraculous work of Jesus. Why did he heal, what did it mean to the people of his day, and what does his healing power mean for us?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 17, 2024.)
Ezekiel, like most of the prophetic books, is full of Yahweh’s judgment and condemnation of Israel. What exactly were they doing that profaned his holy name so much? And how might we be in danger of the same kinds of actions and attitudes?
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(Preaching in Ezekiel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 10, 2024.)
One of the central themes in the book of Ezekiel is the need to have a reverent regard for God’s particular specialness, expressed in the twin ideas of glory and holiness. How do these ideas intertwine in Ezekiel to help us understand why the book was even written at all?
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(Preaching through Ezekiel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 3, 2024.)
The word “teacher” had a special meaning in first-century Israel, beyond our normal everyday use of the word. It was the third most common title for Jesus in the gospels, indicating its significance to the people around him. In what way was Jesus “the Teacher” and why is it so important for us?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 3, 2024.)
John opens his gospel with a peculiar title for Jesus: “the Word.” John repeats this title toward the end of the New Testament, in Revelation. What does this title of Jesus mean, and how does it relate to his work and authority?
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(Preaching on the work and identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 27, 2024.)
“The Son” is a complicated title of Jesus, a shortening of two separate titles, each of which is used in a variety of ways throughout the Bible. How does “Jesus the Son” apply to our own lives? What can we learn from this part of Jesus’s identity?
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(Preaching on the identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 20, 2024.)
Ezekiel contains many memorable analogies, symbols, and word-pictures, but perhaps none of them is so applicable to the modern Christian as the watchman analogy in Ezekiel 3 and 33. What was this analogy used for in Ezekiel, and how does it apply to us?
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(Preaching through Ezekiel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 13, 2024.)
Having just finished a series on “Developing an Identity in Christ”, we transition to thinking about Christ – who was he? Who is he? Like anyone else, the identity of Jesus is composed of many different facets. We will begin with the most basic part of the identity of Jesus – his Jewishness.
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(Preaching on the identity of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 13, 2024.)
We begin our study of Ezekiel (as we usually begin book studies) by examining the historical and political context of Ezekiel’s life and visions. What was going on at the time Ezekiel prophesied, and who was his original audience? How does this matter for the modern reader?
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(Preaching through Ezekiel. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 6, 2024. The charts mentioned can be found here and here.)
To accompany our study of Ezekiel, I have revised and updated my timeline of the most prominent Israelite prophets. I hope this can be helpful for your study of the Old Testament!
Prophets Timeline PNGDownloadProphets Timeline PDFDownload
To accompany our sermon series on Ezekiel, I have composed a chronological and thematic chart of the book. I hope this will be helpful in your study of Ezekiel!
Ezekiel Overview PDFDownloadProphets Timeline PNGDownload
As we develop our identity in Christ, there is room for us to maintain our unique personality and to develop individual identities as followers of the master. How can we maintain the core of discipleship to Christ while retaining the things that make us who we are? And how does God want to use us personally, as unique individuals?
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(Preaching on developing an identity in Christ. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 29, 2024.)
We make a lot of decisions about how we present ourselves to the world that we might describe as aesthetics, or style, or a vibe. Does God care how we present ourselves to the world? What role do our aesthetic choices play in cultivating a holy identity in Christ?
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(Preaching on developing an identity in Christ. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 22, 2024.)
The last five chapters of the book of Judges doesn’t really seem to fit
with the rest of the book. There are no judges, and the stories exist
seemingly devoid of context. But these chapters serve as a conclusion
that reinforces and solidifies the main themes of the book as a whole.
What can we learn from these horrific stories?
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(Preaching through Judges. This book was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 15, 2024.)
The story of Samson is both heroic and tragic. Samson’s supernatural strength creates several memorable moments, but his lack of any other kind of strength led him into sorrow, anger, and despair. What can we learn from this tragic judge?
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(Preaching through Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 8, 2024.)
In many ways humans are defined by their relationships to others. It can be easy to allow our individual identities to be subsumed by these connections. How does God expect our relationships to influence our identities, and how can we develop an identity in Christ while also righteously connecting with others?
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(Preaching on developing an identity in Christ. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 8, 2024.)
The story of Judges is one of a steady decline in Israel away from God and further into unrighteousness. The judges themselves were not exempt from this digression. The sequence of Gideon-Jephthah-Samson highlights how even the leaders in Israel fell further and further from God. What can we learn from Jephthah’s failure?
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(Preaching on Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 1, 2024.)
Politics dominates modern discourse, but what exactly are politics. What makes something political? And, most importantly, what does God expect of the Christian in regards to politics?
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(Preaching on developing an identity in Christ. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 1, 2024.)
Most adults spend most of their waking hours at work, so it’s not surprising that working or professional identity becomes a central part of our sense of self. But what is the point of work in the Bible? What does God have to say about the role of work in our identity?
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(Preaching on developing an identity in Christ. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 25, 2024.)
It’s not saying anything special to note that sexuality is at the heart of a lot of modern life, from advertising to politics to entertainment and culture. What does God have to say about human sexuality and gender, and how can we fit our sense of self into God’s design for humanity?
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(Preaching on developing an identity in Christ. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 18, 2024.)
The story of Abimelech in Judges 9 is really the conclusion to Gideon’s story, and brings up many of the themes we have seen throughout our study of Judges: foreshadowing against kings, the rule of God versus the rule of men, and the tension between boldness and arrogance, insecurity and humility.
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(Preaching through Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 11, 2024.)
We continue our study on identity by considering the difference between the word “Christian” and “disciple” – which word did the early Christians use to identify themselves? How does our spirituality relate to our self-formulation of identity?
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(Preaching on identity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 11, 2024.)
Many (if not most) Christians are familiar with the first two-thirds of Gideon’s story, with good reason. It’s full of great lessons and easy-to-remember events. But to fully situate Gideon in the context of Judges, we need to consider his whole story. How did Gideon’s success and failures echo down to Israel after his death?
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(Preaching through Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 4, 2024.)
Questions of personal identity have become endemic to modern politics and culture, from the way we teach our children to the way we vote for president. How does the Bible talk about identity, and how can we righteously consider the question “who am I”?
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(Preaching on personal identity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 4, 2024.)
James gives an interesting take on our attitude toward the future when he instructs the reader to say “if the Lord wills.” What does an “if the Lord wills” attitude look like, and why is it important?
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 28, 2024.)
What is the point of reading or studying the Bible at all? James uses a particularly striking analogy to both consider the importance of the question, and to answer it.
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 21, 2024.)
“Messiah” is an important title for Jesus, but why? Where did this word come from, and are we using it correctly today? I made this chart for an adult VBS class, and hope you also might find it useful. You can find the .pdf here.
The story of Deborah, Barak, and Jael gives us a little bit more insight into the actual day-to-day job of a Judge in Israel, as well as reminding us what exactly God is looking for in His servants.
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(Preaching through Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 14, 2024.)
We wrap up our introduction to the book of Judges by considering the variance in detail between each judge’s story, and some of the reasons why the cycle of evil persisted as it did throughout the book.
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(Preaching through Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 7, 2024.)
In times of turmoil and instability, we need to be reminded of God’s faithfulness, and what exactly it is about God that makes Him so faithful. James wrote to people in such instability, and made sure that they knew how God was faithful, and why.
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 7, 2024.)
“Discernment” can be one of those specialized religious words that we don’t use very much, but the concept of discernment is one used rather often in the Bible. What is discernment, why does it matter, and how can we develop it?
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 30, 2024.)
This father’s day, I want to consider the value of fathers. What does God say about the importance of fathers, and how should we as children respond to and treat them?
Click Here to Listen. You can find more information on fatherless statistics here, here, and here.
(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 16, 2024.)
We begin our study of Judges by setting the stage in Israel and asking the question: is Israelite history one of mostly faithfulness with occasional bouts of rebellion, or one of mostly faithlessness with occasional instances of repentance?
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(Preaching through Judges. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 9, 2024.)
We are in a war, but it’s not against another nation, or other people, or “culture” or whatever else. The only way to win is to understand the terms of engagement, the enemy, and his strategy. How does Satan wage war against our souls, and how can we fight back?
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 9, 2024.)
Evangelism is a difficult proposition for many, due to a confluence of relational and experiential factors, but a common struggle for Christians is motivation. What should motivate our evangelism, and how do we bring ourselves into alignment with God’s motivations?
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 2, 2024.)
In preparation for our Vacation Bible School I have made a chart outlining some of the major themes in Daniel, plus an explanation of the chronology. You can find the pdf here.
One way to think about Christian growth is through the lens of spirituality. To grow is to become “more spiritual” but what exactly does it mean to be spiritual? How can someone deepen their spirituality?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 26, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from Deeper by Dane Ortlund.)
Breathing is an essential part of life, but one that we can get better at. Athletes training for endurance learn to breathe deeper, and their bodies learn to process the oxygen more efficiently. Two spiritual disciplines serve as breathing for the Christian – Bible reading and prayer. How can we learn to breathe deeper, and thus grow?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 19, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from Deeper by Dane Ortlund.)
We conclude our study of the promises of God by considering what might be the most-repeated promise of the New Testament: the promise of eternal life. Why is this promises repeated so often, and why is it so important?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 12, 2024.)
The promise of Jesus’s return was literally the first thing God told humanity after Jesus ascended. Why is this promise so important, and what makes it so hard to keep this promise in mind?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 5, 2024.)
We have probably all heard the expression “no pain, no gain.” This is not just a term for athletes and weightlifters, but simply expresses an important concept for Spiritual growth. What kind of pain is necessary for Christian growth, and what does that mean for how we think about the suffering of life?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 5, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from Deeper by Dane Ortlund.)
Confession is a vital part of Christian growth, but it can be easy to emphasize confession to God at the expense of the importance of confessing to other Christians. How can we grow in the discipline of confession, and what does it do for us?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 28, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from Deeper, by Dane Ortlund.)
Justification is one of those big religious-sounding words that we don’t use very often outside of a church setting, but it is one of the most vital components of Christian growth. What does it mean to be justified, and how does it contribute to our continual growing?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 21, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from the book Deeper, by Dane Ortlund.)
Rest is a prominent theme throughout the Bible, from the seventh day of creation to some of Jesus final promises in Revelation. Why is rest so important, and what does God’s promise of it entail?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 14, 2024.)
God’s love for us never changes; it fundamentally cannot change, because God’s love is so baked into who He is as a Being. Our appreciation of and experience of God’s love is the only thing that can change as we grow as Christians. How can we move deeper into the love of God?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 14, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from Deeper, by Dane Ortlund.)
We all need comfort at times. One of the most basic promises of God, found in some of the most famous passages in the Bible, is to comfort us. How does He promise to do so, and what should that look like in our lives?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 7, 2024.)
When did you become united with Christ? Unity, as a subject of Christian growth, exemplifies the idea that growth is about become more of what we already are in Christ. How can we deepen our unity with him?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 7, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from Deeper, by Dan Orlund.)
The resurrection of Jesus is the most important event in history; what makes it so important? What does the resurrection provide for the world and the Christian?
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(Preaching on the resurrection. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 31, 2024.)
What is a “deacon” in the church? To answer this, we survey the use of the word throughout the New Testament, and consider a few examples of early church life.
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(Preparing for the church appointing new deacons. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 24, 2024.)
Almost everyone has felt the urge to question God at some point: why did this bad thing happen, why is that horrible person doing well, why can’t I do this thing? What kind of answers does God promise us?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 17, 2024.)
It might seem odd to talk about despair and grief in a study of Christian growth, but growth requires a catalyst, a motivator. For the Christian, when we lose or ignore the despair caused by our sin, we lose one of the engines of growth.
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 17, 2024. The outline of this series was adapted from the book Deeper by Dan Orlund.)
God’s promise of wisdom is perhaps the simplest, most explicitly stated promise in the New Testament. What does this promise entail, and how can we take hold of it?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 10, 2024.)
Christian growth never happens independently from Christ. Why is that, and what attributes, qualities, and works of Jesus directly and indirectly contribute to our growth?
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(Preaching on Christian growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 10, 2024. The outline for this series was adapted from the book Deeper, by Dan Orlund.)
The promise of God’s presence, like many of God’s promises, is a vow to return us to some perfect or beautiful state that we lost or broke. How does God’s presence manifest throughout the Bible, and what does He promise to the modern Christian?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 3, 2024.)
How do Christians grow? It is a question that can elicit despair, confusion, arrogance, or cynicism, depending on how we think our spiritual walk is progressing (or not progressing). Why is growth so important, and how should we even define growth?
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(Preaching on growth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 3, 2024. Much of the outline for this series is adapted from Dane C. Ortlund’s book “Deeper”.)
Many of the promises of God can been seen as promises to return or restore creation to what God originally intended to be. How does this concept inform our understanding of God’s promise of peace, and how should we expect that promise to be fulfilled in our lives?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 18, 2024.)
Jesus makes a few appearances in the Bible after the ascension at the beginning of Acts. The first of these is on the road to Damascus. What can we learn from this encounter with Jesus?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 18, 2024.)
One of the primary manifestations of God’s promise of grace is the promise of Holy Spirit. As we trace this promise through the Bible, we will see just how foundational the promise of the Spirit is.
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 11, 2024.)
The gospels do not spend a lot of ink covering the time between Jesus’s resurrection and ascension, which makes their choice of stories in that timeframe especially interesting. What can we learn from this selection of encounters with the disciples?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 11, 2024.)
It is not an understatement to say that the entire Bible narrative tells the story of God making and fulfilling the promise of grace. Why is this promise so important, and what does it mean for us?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 4, 2024.)
In a series on “encountering Jesus,” no encounter is so important as the cross, where Jesus is laid bare and his deepest values and priorities are exposed. What do we see in this tragic encounter?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 4, 2024.)
Jesus’s confrontation with Judas in the garden has some of the most variation between gospel accounts of any story in his life. Nonetheless, there is a common theme underwriting each story. What should we learn from this momentous betrayal?
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(Preaching through the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 28, 2024.)
In some ways, all of the promises of God rest on the promise of justice. What does it mean that God is just, and why does it matter so much in considering all the promises of God?
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(Preaching on the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 21, 2024.)
In the garden we see Jesus at his most vulnerable and human. Why was he so troubled, what did he do about it, and what should we learn from this deeply emotional story?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 21, 2024.)
Jesus’s act of washing the disciples feet is a powerful example of service and love. What should we learn from this encounter with Jesus, and how should we put it into practice?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 14, 2024.)
We begin a series on the promises of God by considering some top-level ideas. Why should we study God’s promises? What are some potential pitfalls and common misunderstandings about God’s promises? And, ultimately, what should we gain from such a study?
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(Preaching on the the promises of God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 7, 2024.)
The story of Zacchaeus is one of the more instantly recognizable stories in the Gospels. Why is that? What should we learn from Zacchaeus and Jesus in this story, and what about all the other people in the crowd?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 7, 2024.)
Jesus’s encounter with a rich young ruler can seem quite harsh, depending on the perspective of the reader. But the encounter should force the reader to reconsider their perspective: who exactly is Jesus talking about, and how does his teaching apply to each of us?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 31, 2023.)
The story of Jesus and Lazarus famously contains the shortest verse in the Bible: Jesus wept. What do we learn about Jesus’s priorities, heart, and desires in this story, and what should we do about it?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 24, 2023.)
The final two chapters of Esther (though one of them is very short) illuminate the entire purpose of the whole book: to tell the story of and establish the celebration of a holiday to be remembered throughout the generations. Why was this so important, and what should we learn from it?
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(Preaching through Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 17, 2023.)
Many of the stories of Jesus in the gospels teach us just as much by the people responding to (and either rejecting or accepting) Jesus. Why did the healing of the blind man elicit such strong reactions, and what should we learn from them?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 17, 2023.)
After several delays, Esther finally confronts Haman on the night of her second feast. What contributes to the final showdown, how does it all play out, and what should we learn from this dramatic evening?
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(Preaching through Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 10, 2023.)
Jesus encountered many demons during his ministry, but what is often more interesting in these encounters is the people: how they react, what they say, and how Jesus responds to them. What can we learn from our encounter with Jesus and a demon in Mark 9?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 10, 2023.)
As we build toward the crescendo in Esther, the narrative pauses to zoom in on Haman’s pride, obsession, and bitterness. What can we learn from Haman’s inevitable downfall?
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(Preaching on Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 3, 2023.)
Jesus encounter with the Canaanite woman is one of the most unusual in the gospels. Why did Jesus treat the woman the way he did, and what should we learn from his behavior?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 3, 2023.)
Jesus calming the storm is probably one of the most famous Gospel stories, perfectly demonstrating Jesus’s power and intent. But it is made more powerful in Matthew’s version by the contrast with what comes before. What should we learn from this story, and the story that precedes it?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 26, 2023.)
The story of Esther has three crescendos, the first of which is when Esther risks the wrath of the king. Why did Esther need to approach the king, and what in her life built up to this moment?
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(Preaching through Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 19, 2023.)
Jesus’s miracle by the pool in John 5 brings to mind an important question: why did Jesus heal who he did, and why not everyone? What should we learn from the healings of Jesus?
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(Preaching on individual encounters with Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 19, 2023.)
The casting of Pur before Haman in Esther chapter 3 is the even that is explicitly remembered by the Feast of Purim. What was Pur, why was it significant, and why does it matter for us?
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(Preaching through Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 12, 2023.)
Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record the story of Jesus healing the paralytic. What does Jesus show us in this story, and what can we learn about the kind of faith Jesus is looking for?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. You can find the blended gospel account here. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 12, 2023.)
The second chapter of Esther finishes setting the stage for the story of Purim, establishing the rest of the main characters. What can we learn from the people at the forefront of this story?
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(Preaching through Esther. You can find the timeline alluded to at the beginning here. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 5, 2023.)
We encounter Jesus today at a very mundane place…a well. Who did Jesus meet, and what does his meeting tell us about Jesus and our connection to him?
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(Preaching on one-on-one encounters with Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 5, 2023.)
We are going through Esther in our Sunday evening sermons at Dewey, so I made this chart to help us keep the overall narrative in mind. It might be surprising to see the length of time the story covers. You can get the pdf here.
One of the first personal encounters with Jesus was a back-alley nighttime meeting with Nicodemus, a Pharisee. What can we learn about Jesus and his expectations for his followers from this encounter?
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(Preaching on personal encounters with Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 29, 2023.)
This week we are starting a new series looking at the life of Jesus through the lens of personal encounters; who was Jesus? What did he care about, how did he treat people? We begin by considering the bulk of Jesus’s life, unexplored in any detail in the gospel texts: who was Jesus before his ministry?
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(Preaching on the life of Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 22, 2023.)
The first chapter of the book of Esther isn’t really about Esther at all, but rather sets the stage for a biting satire skewering the incompetence of those in power in Persia. What can we learn from the ineptitude of Ahasuerus?
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(Preaching through Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 8, 2023.)
The writer of Hebrews concludes the list of “elementary doctrine of Christ” with eternal judgment. What judgment is the writer referring to, and what does it mean for you and me?
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(Preaching on the first principles of Christianity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 8, 2023.)
We begin our study of Esther with some top-level considerations of the book: it’s place in the story of the people of God in the Old Testament, it’s historical context, and the timeless themes in the book for God’s people in any era.
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(Preaching through Esther. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 1, 2023.)
There is no Christian doctrine more elementary, no principle more basic, than the resurrection of the dead. It is not an understatement to say that the entire faith rests on this one event, this one teaching. Why is it so foundational, and what does that mean for us?
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(Preaching on the first principles of Christianity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 1, 2023.)
Relative to the modern American Christian context, the “laying on of hands” seems most out of place in the list of “elementary doctrine of Christ” in Hebrews 6:1-2. Why is that? What is so essential about this doctrine, and what should it mean for Christians today?
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(Preaching on the first principles of Christianity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 24, 2023.)
(NOTE: The first three minutes of this audio are very echoey. Sorry.) Paul closes his letter to the Ephesians with one of the more iconic sets of imagery in the New Testament: the Armor of God. What is the armor, and why do we need it?
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(Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 17, 2023.)
The phrase “instruction about washings” in Hebrews 6 is very unusual, especially considering that the opening verses of Hebrews 6 are supposed to be about “elementary doctrine of Christ.” What is meant by “washings,” and how is it an elementary doctrine?
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(Preaching on the first principles of Christianity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 17, 2023.)
One of the major themes in the latter half of Ephesians is authority, both in the church and in human relationships. This is a common refrain of the Bible; how should people in authority treat those under their charge, and how should those under authority act in submission? This is a lesson composed mostly of … Continue reading Handling Authority
“Repentance” is a critical idea in God’s word, rightly grouped in with the “elementary doctrine of Christ” in Hebrews 6. What is repentance? What are the “dead works” that we need to repent of? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the first principles of Christianity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading Repentance from Dead Works
This is a chart I made for my lovely wife, who is speaking this weekend at a Ladies Day at the Blossom Church of Christ in Blossom, Texas. Hopefully this can be of some help to you as well. You can get the .png below, or here is the .pdf, if you prefer.
Paul’s words about marriage in Ephesians 5 are controversial, to say the least. Why does Paul lay out the instructions he does, and how do they fit into the broader context of relational commands in the New Testament?
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(Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 3, 2023.)
The first in our list of “elementary doctrine of Christ” from Hebrews 6 is “faith toward God.” It’s hard to imagine a better example of a “first principle” of Christianity than faith. What is faith, and what makes it so foundational to our relationship with God?
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(Preaching on first principles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 3, 2023.)
What are the “First Principles” of Christianity, the things that without doing or knowing a person cannot actually be a Christian? Why are they so important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on first principles of Christianity. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 27, 2023.)
(NOTE: The first minute of this audio is very echoey. The audio resolves after a minute.) Why does God care about what kind of relationships we have? Why should we seriously consider who we develop relationships with, what those relationships mean in our lives, and how they affect us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through … Continue reading Children of Light and Dark
We conclude our study of living Biblically by considering relationships: what should Christian relationships look like? How should we build and develop relationships in all areas of our lives? Why does it matter? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on living Biblically. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 13, 2023.)
Transformation is at the heart of the Christian journey. What does that transformation entail, and how do we begin the process? (Click Here to Listen.) (Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church on August 6, 2023.)
God has said a lot of things about how He wants the Christian to live and spend their time, but what about all the areas of life where God hasn’t specifically outlined what a Christian should do? How can we make righteous decisions even in these? (Click Here to Listen.) (Preaching on living Biblically. This … Continue reading Biblical Lifestyles
As we move outward in our consideration of Biblical living (from thoughts, to gender, to families), we begin considering the ways families interface with the outside world. The first of these is work. What does the Bible say about work? How does God intend the Christian to behave in the economy? Click Here to Listen. … Continue reading Biblical Work
God set forth a stated ideal purpose for the family and its structure, but what if your family already doesn’t look like God’s intent? What are some reasons why families end up different from what God designed, and how can we still facilitate the purpose of the family in such situations? Click Here to Listen. … Continue reading Biblical Families, Part 2
As Paul transitions from big theological ideas in his letter to the Ephesians, to personal application and instruction for the individual Christian life, he does so by discussing Christian unity. Unity is the bridge between God’s Eternal Purpose, and the individual Christian’s responsibility. How do we create and maintain unity? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching … Continue reading Unity
Family is a complicated, complex, and sometimes controversial topic, because humans can and do create such a wide variety of family structures. What did God intend originally for the family, and what does he want for the Christian? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on living Biblically. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of … Continue reading Biblical Families, Part 1
Having clarified his (and our) purpose in revealing the “mystery of the gospel”, Paul offers a prayer to God for strength for the reader. What does spiritual strength look like, and where does it come from? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July … Continue reading A Prayer for Strength
Coming our our last lesson on Biblical Manhood, we now turn to women; what does God have to say about women and how what kind of people He intends for them to become? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on living Biblically. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 9, 2023.)
As we resume our study of Ephesians, we come to a section where Paul reveals his insights into “the mystery of the gospel.” What is this mystery, and why was it so mysterious? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 2, 2023.)
As we transition into more specific areas of living Biblically, we begin with men: what does it mean to be a man, according to the Bible? What can we learn from men of God throughout history? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on living Biblically. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Biblical Manhood
The growth of the early church was astonishingly rapid and expansive. Why? How? What did the early church do that helped them grow so quickly, and what does that mean for us? Click Here to Listen. (This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 25, 2023.)
If we want to live Biblically, we must first consider how to think Biblically: as we think, so we are. What does it mean to think Biblically, and how do we develop this mindset? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on how to live Biblically. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Thinking Biblically
Christians want to be “Biblical”, but what does that mean? How does that desire translate to practical, tangible choices in life? Over the next few weeks we will examine what “living Biblically” looks like in certain areas of life, beginning with unpacking the concept itself.
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(Preaching on living according to God’s word. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 4, 2023.)
We have seen how Jesus promised to build his church, and how he used the apostles and prophets to do so. But what about once all the apostles had died? How did they expect future generations (including us!) to keep building Jesus’s church?
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(Preaching on the Church that Jesus Built. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 28, 2023.)
The church that Jesus built is made out of people, and thus has all the attendant problems and opportunities that come with any group of people. How did the apostles ensure that things would run smoothly as the church expanded and exploded beyond their ability to directly control?
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(Preaching on the church that Jesus built. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 21, 2023.)
God’s eternal purpose in the cross has one major roadblock; people, and the way we hate and divide each other. How does the power of the cross help us overcome this problem?
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(Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 14, 2023.)
The church that Jesus built has a problem. It’s a big one, yet one that was inevitable in the way that Jesus chose to build. What is the problem, and what is Jesus doing about it?
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(Preaching on the church that Jesus built. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 14, 2023.)
A while back I posted a “Timeline of the Crucifixion” chart. This is an updated version that corrects a few elements. People sometimes ask me how the “Sign of Jonah” in Matthew 12:38ff can be true if Jesus died on Friday. Hopefully this provides some clarity. You can get the pdf here.
The letter to the Ephesians begins with deeply complex and important issues. Perhaps this is why the second section of the letter is about a prayer for knowledge and understanding. What is it that Paul wants his readers to understand?
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(Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 7, 2023.)
When Jesus promised to build his church, what purpose did he have in mind? What did he desire to accomplish by creating such a group of people, and how do we fit into his goals?
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(Preaching on the church that Jesus built. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 7, 2023.)
I am going to try to make more non sermon-audio content, starting with publishing some of the charts I have made over the years. Here are a couple of overviews of the timelines of the creation of the Old and New Testaments. Note that the narrative books (Law and History in the OT, Gospels and Acts in the NT) are placed on the timeline relative to the events they describe, not relative to when they were written. Hope these are helpful! You can get pdf version here (OT) and here (NT).
Jesus promised Peter that “on this rock, I will build my church.” What was the rock upon which Jesus would build his church?
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(Preaching on the Church that Jesus built. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 30, 2023.)
Jesus promised Peter in Matthew 16 that he would build his church. What did Jesus mean by this promise? What would his church look like? How would he build it? This week we start a new series on the formation, foundation, and origin of the Jesus’s church.
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(Preaching on the church Jesus built. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 23, 2023.)
We begin our study of Ephesians by considering the foreknowledge, predestination, and eternal purpose of God.
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(Preaching through Ephesians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 16, 2023.)
Paul concludes his letter to the Philippians with a reminder of how God had provided for Paul throughout his many struggles. What can we learn about the providence of God and our attitude toward His providence?
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(Preaching through Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 16, 2023.)
We conclude our study of the image of the lamb throughout scripture the way the Bible itself does: with the Victorious Lamb of Revelation. What should the Lamb’s presence and action in Revelation inspire in us?
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(Preaching on the Lamb throughout scripture. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 9, 2023.)
On a day when so much of the world is at least peripherally aware of the Resurrection, it is worth examining the power of Christ’s resurrection and it’s importance in our lives.
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 9, 2023.)
As we transition from the Old Testament concept of lambs and lamb sacrifices into the New Testament, we are now equipped to appreciate John’s command to “Behold the Lamb of God!” (Note: The first part of the audio was not captured. Sorry!)
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(Preaching on the lamb throughout scripture. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 2, 2023.)
Worry is an insidious, destructive force in our lives, just as it was for Paul and the Philippians. How did Paul overcome worry in his own life, how did he expect the Philippians to, and how can we emulate these successes in our own lives?
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(Preaching through Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 2, 2023.)
After reminding the Philippians not to get distracted by things that don’t matter, Paul answers some of the deepest questions of Christianity. What is the point of all this? What is the goal of our faith? And, how can we make sure we reach that goal?
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(Preaching through Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 26, 2023.)
There are a lot of laws concerning lamb sacrifices in the Old Testament. What was the point, and what can we learn about the sacrifice of the True Lamb by looking at these laws?
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(Preaching on the Lamb throughout Scripture. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 19, 2023.)
We all want to be joyful and have meaningful fellowship, but we are often so bad at it. What kinds of things get in the way of our pursuit of these blessings?
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(Preaching through Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 19, 2023.)
The Passover in Exodus 12 is one of the most important stories in the Bible, not just for the Israelites but for Christians as well. What does this story teach us about our Passover Lamb, Jesus?
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(Preaching on the lamb through the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 12, 2023.)
What are we to make of the personal correspondence in the New Testament, such as Paul’s discussion of Timothy and Epaphroditus in Philippians? What should the modern Christian learn from these sections of scripture?
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(Preaching through Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 12, 2023.)
As we consider the concept of “the lamb” throughout the Bible, we begin with the story of Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22, which introduces the major themes of sacrifice and providence. How does this impact our understanding of Jesus the Lamb?
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(Preaching on the lamb throughout the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 5, 2023.)
Paul was in a difficult situation while writing Philippians, and clearly worried that it would cause the church in Philippi to despair. What advice did he give them to persevere and overcome the forces arrayed against them?
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(Preaching through Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 5, 2023.)
We have already examined Paul situation in writing the letter to the Philippians. How was Paul doing in his confinement? What was his attitude, both toward his situation and toward the Philippians?
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(Preaching on Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 26, 2023.)
We begin a study of the lamb throughout scripture by briefly considering Biblical typology.
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(Preaching on the Lamb. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 19, 2023.)
(NOTE: The first 5 minutes of this audio is very distorted. Sorry.) We begin our series on the letter to the Philippians by considering Paul’s previous relationship with the people in Philippi. Why did he feel such great love for them?
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(Preaching on Philippians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 19, 2023.)
We conclude our look at David’s life and see the core idea of almost all Bible characters: no one is perfect. David exemplifies both the best and worst parts of human nature. How then could God call him “a man after his own heart”?
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(Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 12, 2023.)
As we conclude our series on church membership, we consider the concepts of homelands, nationalities, and identity. How should being a church member affect the way we think about these things?
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(Preaching on church membership. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 12, 2023.)
David’s census is one of the most theologically complicated stories in his life. What is going on in this story, and why should it matter to us?
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(Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 5, 2023.)
Jesus’s warnings about family love can be both shocking and frightening. Why does Jesus expect such absolute loyalty, and what does he offer in return?
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(Preaching on church membership. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 5, 2023.)
There’s no doubt that God expects His children to do good, but how should the structure of the church contribute to or influence the good that we do?
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(Preaching on church membership. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 29, 2023.)
“Church membership” as a concept requires consideration of two ideas: the commands in scripture for church conduct, practice, and relationship, and the practical demands of meeting those commands. The principle of “accountability” lies at an intersection of these two ideas.
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(Preaching on church membership. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 22, 2023.)
Absalom’s saga concludes not with joy, but with sorrow. How did it get to this point, and how does David respond?
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(Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 15, 2023.)
As we consider “church membership” we must more specifically define what “church” means? What is a church? What is thechurch?
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(Preaching on what it means to be a church member. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 15, 2023.)
The word “membership” might carry some negative connotations for you as it relates to the modern American church. What does it mean to be a “church member” and why does it matter?
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(Preaching on church membership. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 8, 2023.)
The middle act of Absalom’s story leaves the reader full of questions. What kind of peacetime king was David? How did he miss his son’s intentions? And, most of all, why did God allow this all to play out as it did?
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(Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 1, 2023.)
The New Testament writers emphasize the importance of being “new” and “renewed” quite a bit. At the turn of the new year, what kinds of Spiritual renewal should we be thinking about?
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 1, 2023.)
We end our journey through important words of the Bible with Hope. What is the Christian hope, and what makes it so important?
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(Preaching on last things. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 18, 2022.)
If a letter of the New Testament were written today, what would it say? How would it address the problems of today’s world?
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(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 11, 2022.)
The concept of “resurrection” is the basic, essential concept of Christianity, and thus permeates a lot different doctrines and teachings. How can we share in Christ’s resurrection?
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(Preaching on last things. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 11, 2022.)
Is hell a literal, real place? What is it, exactly? And will God really consign the lost to such a torment?
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(Preaching on last things. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 4, 2022.)
What exactly is heaven? What will it be like? How is it described? How does God promise to make all this worth it? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on last things. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 27, 2022.)
Thanksgiving is a good holiday, but ultimately fails to capture the essence of thanksgiving in the Bible. Why is it so important to be thankful, and how should we express that gratitude? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on important words in the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November … Continue reading Words of Life: THANKSGIVING
The latter part of David’s life is marred by familial conflict, civil war, and national disaster, all kicked off by the way he dealt with two of his sons, Amnon and Absalom. What can we learn from this saga? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of … Continue reading The Saga of Absalom, Part 1
“Judgment” can be a touchy subject. Why is it so important in Christianity, and what does it actually mean? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on last things. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 13, 2022.)
In the story of David and Bathsheba we see a classic example of how one temptation leading to one sin can lead to a series of bad and worse choices and sins. How do we break the cycle? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading When Sin Compounds (Lessons from David)
Everyone wants peace. What kind of peace does God promise through Jesus, and how can we discover it for ourselves? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Christian Character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 6, 2022.)
Forgiveness is one of the most difficult Bible subjects. What does it mean to truly forgive, why is it so hard to do, and why is it so important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on important words concerning Christian character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 30, 2022.)
Forgiveness is one of the most difficult Bible subjects. What does it mean to truly forgive, why is it so hard to do, and why is it so important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on important words concerning Christian character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 30, 2022.)
What is humility, and what sorts of attitudes feel like humility, but aren’t? How should humility be expressed in our lives? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Christian character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 23, 2022.)
What is humility, and what sorts of attitudes feel like humility, but aren’t? How should humility be expressed in our lives? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Christian character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 23, 2022.)
The story of David and Saul’s remaining heir serves as a striking example of grace, both in the character of the giver and the nature of the recipient of grace. What does this story teach us about grace in our own lives? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the … Continue reading Grace Exemplified (Lessons from David)
The story of David and Saul’s remaining heir serves as a striking example of grace, both in the character of the giver and the nature of the recipient of grace. What does this story teach us about grace in our own lives? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the … Continue reading Grace Exemplified (Lessons from David)
What is mercy? Where does it come from, and how can we develop a sense of mercy in our lives? Most importantly, how can we practically be merciful? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on words concerning Christian character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 16, 2022.)
What is mercy? Where does it come from, and how can we develop a sense of mercy in our lives? Most importantly, how can we practically be merciful? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on words concerning Christian character. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 16, 2022.)
What does it mean to presume against God’s will, and what are the consequences for doing so? How did this manifest in the life of newly-crowned David? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 9, 2022.)
What does it mean to presume against God’s will, and what are the consequences for doing so? How did this manifest in the life of newly-crowned David? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 9, 2022.)
What is self-control? What does having self-control look like in the life of the Christian, and how can we learn to be controlled? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on important Christian characteristics. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 9, 2022.)
What is self-control? What does having self-control look like in the life of the Christian, and how can we learn to be controlled? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on important Christian characteristics. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 9, 2022.)
David had a lot of successes as God’s anointed, but a lot of failures, too. As we transition from David the warrior to David the king, we begin to see the seeds of his eventual failings… Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October … Continue reading The Seeds of Failure
What is doubt? What causes us to doubt, and what struggles does doubt introduce to our lives? Most importantly, how can we overcome doubt? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on common struggles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 2, 2022.)
While we know that it’s not wrong to grieve, it is still a struggle that can take us away from God. How do we overcome this part of human suffering? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on struggles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 18, 2022.)
Saul chased David all over Israel, eventually causing him to flee the country. Even so, David mourned his death. Why did David mourn the death of his enemy, and what should we learn from David? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading Mourning the Enemy
What is shame? What makes it different from guilt? Does it have any value, and if so, how can we use it to our advantage? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on common struggles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 11, 2022.)
David experienced a lot of depression in his life. What happened when he allowed it to overcome his faith? What happens to us when we allow our despair to take over? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 4, 2022.)
Suffering is such a generic, ubiquitous part of the human experience. What leads to suffering in our lives, and how does God expect us to respond? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on struggles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 4, 2022.)
Everybody worries. What does the Bible have to say about this common human struggle, and how to overcome it? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on common struggles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 28, 2022.)
Why was “proclaiming” such an important part of Jesus’s ministry, and how does that translate to our mission? What should we be proclaiming and how should we proclaim it? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 21, 2022.)
What is “worship”? What does it mean to worship, and why is it such an important concept in the church? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 14, 2022.)
The story of David, Nabal, and Abigail in 1 Samuel 25 is one of the best studies of conflict in the Bible. What can we learn from this story? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 7, 2022.)
What does the word “deacon” mean? What is a deacon? Why don’t we ever use that word outside a religious setting, and why does it matter? Click Here to Listen (Preaching on important words about the church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 7, 2022.)
What are the “elders” of the church? Where did this idea originate in scripture, and what is God’s intent for this part of the congregational organization? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 31, 2022.)
What does it mean to “fellowship” with other Christians? What is fellowship, and why does it matter? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 24, 2022.)
What does the word “church” mean? How do Jesus and his apostles use the word, and how should that inform how we think about the church today? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 17, 2022.)
What can we learn from David’s flight from Saul in the wilderness? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 10, 2022.)
For such a widespread modern word, the term “Christian” isn’t used very much in the New Testament. How did this word come to be, and what did it mean for the original users? (NOTE: There were some audio issues. Sorry.) Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on faith. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church … Continue reading Words of Life: CHRISTIAN
How did David’s relationships with Saul and his family evolve after David’s great victory over Goliath? And what can we learn from this drama? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 3, 2022.)
What is baptism? What does it mean to be baptized? And why is it such an important idea in the New Testament? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on faith. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 3, 2022.)
We are repeatedly told to “confess” by the writers of the Bible. What exactly should we confess, who should we confess to, and why does it matter? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on faith and salvation. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 26, 2022.)
Why is fatherhood so important? What does righteous fatherhood look like? And why does God call himself our father? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on important words in the Bible. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 19, 2022.)
What is repentance? How can a person repent? And why does God seem to care about it so much? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on faith. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 12, 2022.)
There might not be a more well-known story in the Bible than David and Goliath. Why does this story resonate so much, and how does it matter for us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 5, 2022.)
Faith is such a central part of our gospel response. What is faith, and how does it manifest in our lives? NOTE: There is a strange audio glitch in the later part of the sermon. It will go away. Sorry about that. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on faith. This sermon was preached at the … Continue reading Words of Life: FAITH
Every word we have covered in our series of important words in the Bible up to this point add up to a simple idea: the gospel. What is the gospel, what does it mean for us, and why is so profoundly important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on salvation. This sermon was preached at the … Continue reading Words of Life: GOSPEL
One of the most common words God uses to describe his salvation is “justify”. What is “justification”, and why is it so important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on salvation. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 22, 2022.)
How does the death of Jesus save us? What about his death appeases the wrath and justice of God, while also provided grace to us? How does atonement work? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on salvation. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 15, 2022.)
Having examined the context of Israel into which David was born, we now turn to his early life. Where did David come from? Why did God choose such a nobody to be the next king over his people? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the Life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey … Continue reading Humble Beginnings
As we celebrate Mother’s Day, it is appropriate to consider motherhood in the Bible. Why are mothers so important, and what purposes did God intend them to fulfill? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on motherhood. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 8, 2022.)
We begin our study of the life of David by familiarizing ourselves with the political climate of Israel in the generations leading up to David. What was going on, and what made David so special? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the life of David. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading A Man After God’s Own Heart
The word “propitiation” is not a word commonly used outside of Biblical contexts. What does it mean, and why is it so important in the Bible? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on salvation. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 1, 2022.)
What is grace? What makes God so gracious? And what does it mean to be “saved by grace”? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Salvation. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 24, 2022.)
What does “Christ” mean and why is it such an important word in the Bible? What makes Jesus of Nazareth “the Christ”? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on righteousness. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 17, 2022.)
Does Bible prophecy touch on any extra-Biblical events throughout history? How can we be sure? What sort of historical confirmation can we find? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on prophecy. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 10, 2022.)
What is the “Wrath of God”, and why is it so terrible? What causes God to be wrathful, and why does God warn his people about it so often? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on righteousness. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 10, 2022.)
What is a denomination? How important is the name on the door of the church building? Will only people in a particular “fellowship” be saved? And where have we overstepped Biblical authority to impose conditions that God hasn’t imposed? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on nomenclature and man-made boundaries. This sermon was preached at the … Continue reading Who Will Be Saved?
If we want to understand righteousness, we must also consider what is in many ways the opposite: sin. What is sin, and why does God care about it so much? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on righteousness. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 3, 2022.)
What is “righteousness”, and why is it such an important word in the Bible? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on righteousness. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 27, 2022.)
In times of war, strife, and chaos, how does God expect his people to react? What, if anything, does he have to say to us about a situation like the Ukraine Crisis? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the Ukraine Crisis. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 20, 2022.)
Daniel is full of complicated, exciting prophecy, but it’s all so vague. Why does Daniel receive these visions, and what do they mean for us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on prophecy. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 13, 2022.)
“Prophecy” is a loaded word in Bible study. Why is it so fascinating, and what do the Bible writers actually mean when they use that word? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Truth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 13, 2022.)
Any survey of Biblical prophecy must include a discussion of Daniel, beginning with Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in Daniel 2. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Prophecy. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 6, 2022.)
What is a “covenant”, and why does that word always seem to come up in big, important moments between God and humanity? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Truth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 6, 2022.)
“What is truth?” Thus says Pilate when interrogating Jesus, and the question has been oft-repeated, every generation until now. Fortunately, Jesus has an answer… Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Truth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 27, 2022.)
As we transition from talking about God to talking about Truth, a good word to help us make the shift is “inspiration”. What do we mean when we use this word, and why is it so important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Truth. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Words of Life: INSPIRATION
As we consider Messianic prophecy, the book of Psalms looms large. How did David have so much to say about the coming anointed one? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on prophecy. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church Christ on February 13, 2022. You can find the chart referenced below.)
The final word in our series on God is a word that is used to describe both the Creator and the created. What is a spirit, and why is this such an important term? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 13, 2022.)
We continue our look at Biblical prophecy by beginning to unpack the most important category: “Messianic” prophecy. What is it, and why is it so important? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on prophecy. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 6, 2022.)
We continue our look at important words about God with a word that is both an act and a result, the first and most unique power of God. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on February 6, 2022.)
If we are discussing important words about God, “love” has to be on the list. Why is love so integral to YHWH’s identity? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching about God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 23, 2022.)
“Holy” is one of the most important words in the Bible, but what does it mean? Why does God use it to describe himself, and why does he use it as an aspiration for his people? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January … Continue reading Words of Life: HOLY
Biblical prophecy is complicated, and so as we try to understand it, it is good to recognize the forms it comes in. (Note: this is the second lesson in a series, the first of which was not recorded last week. Sorry.) Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on prophecy. This sermon was preached at the Dewey … Continue reading The Forms of Prophecy
As we consider important words in the Bible, maybe none is so important as the name of our Creator. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on January 9, 2022.)
This year at the Dewey Church of Christ we are doing a series of word studies covering the breadth of the Gospel Message. We will begin with a series of words about our Creator, starting with the most basic: God. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on God. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church … Continue reading Words of Life: GOD
We end our examination of the myriad aspects of Jesus as the Bible itself does: with a vision of victory! Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 26, 2021.)
In our study of the myriad aspects of Jesus that he shows us in scripture, we come to the one he spent the least time as; The Word Become Flesh. Why did Jesus take on human form, and what did he accomplish for us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the Fourfold Jesus. This sermon … Continue reading Jesus the Human
We conclude our study of Hebrews 11, as the author does, with a rapid-fire list of people and events. What manifestations of faith do these stories have in common, and what should they mean for us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Hebrews 11. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Faith Over All
As we continue looking at various parts of Jesus’s work and power, we focus in his work as Heaven’s supreme messenger. What message does he bring, and how does he convey it? Click here to listen. (Preaching on Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 12, 2021.)
As we continue in Hebrews 11, we consider what sort of things the people of old conquered through faith, and how their faith enabled them to conquer. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Hebrews 11. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 5, 2021.)
Jesus was not always called “Jesus”; the second figure of the triune God reveals himself in myriad ways in scripture. We begin a new series on “The Fourfold Jesus” with the first aspect of this person: Jesus the Creator. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Jesus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of … Continue reading Jesus the Creator
As we conclude our discussion of good works, we must address the pitfalls and traps inherent in such a discussion, and situate the concept of doing good in its proper place in our covenant relationship with God. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Good Works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading Good, But Not Good Enough
Having spent a lot of time on what good to do and why we should do good, we now turn to a question of practicality: how do we do good? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 21, 2021.)
We come to Moses in our walk through Hebrews 11, and consider how faith manifested in his life; as a series of things to let go of. What did he let go of, and how does this apply to us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the Heroes of Faith. This sermon was preached at … Continue reading Faith to Let Go
In our study of good works we transition into a deeper examination of the emotions and motivations behind the good we do, as well as some common traps and pitfalls in our devotion to doing good. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Who Deserves Good?
What does it mean to be a peacemaker? Who should strive to be one? What qualities does a peacemaker possess or cultivate? And, why will peacemakers be called “sons of God”? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 7, 2021.)
We know that the church assembly is a necessary part of our Christian encouragement, but what about fellowship during the rest of the week? How can we use our time and energy to encourage one another through fellowship? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of … Continue reading The Good Works of Fellowship
What does it mean to “exhort”? What makes this such a good work, worth of developing and adding to our lives? How can we develop this skill, and what are some good ways to exhort one another? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading Devoted to Good Works (Exhortation)
We resume our look at the “Heroes of Faith” in Hebrews 11 with the first part of Abraham’s story. What was Abraham asked to do that required faith, how did he persevere, and how can we? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Hebrews 11. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Faith to Go
We resume our look at good works after a brief hiatus (thanks COVID!) by studying a work that is both a specialized work in the Kingdom of God, and something that all Christians should be doing in some way. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Good Works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church … Continue reading Devoted to Good Works (Teaching)
Having begun in Hebrews 11 with a broad discussion of faith, we now turn to specific historical “heroes of faith”. How did faith manifest in the life of Noah, and how can we have that faith? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Hebrews 11. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Faith to Be Different
Now that we have built a good list of good works prepared for us by God, we begin a deep dive by looking at the broadest of those works – service! Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 26, 2021.)
Now that we have established how and why good works should be one of our primary focuses, we move to the next logical question: what good works should we be doing? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 19, 2021.)
As we consider the good works we should devote ourselves to, we must begin with the first work and primary motivator: love. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on September 12, 2021.)
As we begin a new series on Hebrews 11, we must start where the author does. What is faith? As we consider how faith manifested in the lives of these people, we must first understand what it is, where it comes from, and what it means in our lives. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on … Continue reading What is Faith?
This week we begin a new series on good works, following up our series on controversies. Why do good works matter so much, and what should our attitude be toward doing good? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on good works. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 29, 2021.)
As we conclude our series on controversy, we must return to the root of most evil. What leads to these controversies, and all manner of sin? What does this mean for us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on controversial cultural issues. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 22, 2021.)
The last section of Colossians is a long list of people and places. Why is this in the Bible? Why was this left for us? What does it mean for you and me? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 15, 2021.)
“Science” is certainly a controversial subject, isn’t it? But what is science? And what does God say about it; how does He expect His people to engage with it? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on controversial cultural issues. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 15, 2021.)
Words are central to the Christian experience; after all, God chose to use words to convey His truth to His creation for all time. What instruction do Paul and Timothy give the Colossians in how to use their words in their new life in Christ? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was … Continue reading Words that Give Life
“Privilege” is a buzzword in today’s cultural narrative. How is this concept explored and developed in scripture, and what does God expect of His people? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on controversial cultural issues. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on August 8, 2021.)
The next section of Colossians deals with various human relationships, and how God expects us to behave. What do these all have in common, and how can we maintain righteousness no matter what relationship we find ourselves in? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ … Continue reading Relationships in Christ
Sex and gender are two of the most controversial, contested, and confused things in our society. But what does God say about these aspects of life, and how does He expect us to share and show His will to the world? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on controversial cultural issues. This sermon was preached at … Continue reading What Does the Bible Say About…Sex and Gender?
Our culture is full of racial division, strife, and tension. Why is this, and what does God expect His people to do about it? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on controversial cultural issues. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 25, 2021.)
As we continue in Colossians, we see more of a contrast made between the life in Christ, which leads to more life, and our our lives, which led to death. How do we make the transition, and what is required? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church … Continue reading Life and Death, Part 2
This is the first of several specific cultural issues we will address over the next few weeks. As with many of these, much of the debate comes from people using the same words with different definitions. How does God define the relevant terms, and what does He say about them? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching … Continue reading What Does the Bible Say About…Abortion
As we continue in Colossians, we consider what it mean to be “Alive in Christ”. And, what are some things that pull us back to death, and how can we avoid them? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on July 11, 2021.)
The second week of groundwork for our series on controversial cultural topics concerns the Christian engagement with culture. Does God expect His people to be politically active? If so, how does He want us to do that? If not, why not? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on controversial cultural issues. This sermon was preached at … Continue reading What Does the Bible Say About…Political Activism?
As we continue in Colossians, we come to one of the most interesting themes of Paul’s writings: the “mystery” of Christ. What is the mystery, and why does it always seem to be paired with Paul’s hardships? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on … Continue reading Suffering for the Mystery
Over the next few months we are going to cover some topics that are controversial on our current culture. These are heated, charged topics. But before we get to specifics, we need to lay some general groundwork, beginning with God’s instructions for us in regards to dealing with controversial subjects. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching … Continue reading What Does the Bible Say About…Handling Controversy?
We conclude our series on “Treasures in Heaven” by considering the value of discomfort, and how it helps us grow and improve. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 27, 2021.)
Paul wastes no time getting to the theme of his letter to the Colossians: the Preeminence of Christ. What does it mean to be preeminent, and how is Christ so? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 20, 2021.)
In considering heavenly values, or “Treasures in Heaven”, we must eventually shift to matters of practicality. How can we change what we value? How can we alter our priorities? It must begin in the mind… Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June … Continue reading As a Man Thinketh
This sermon is composed entirely of scripture, blended together to get a feel for what a letter written to the church today might sound like. The ancient words hold just as much meaning for us as they did for them. Click here to Listen. Reference List:(1) Matthew 12:38-42(2) Luke 16:27-31(3) 1 Corinthians 2:14(4) Matthew 7:13-14(5) … Continue reading By Faith, Not by Sight
As we continue our series on “Treasures in Heaven”, we transition from the what to the how. How can we start “laying up” these treasures? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on person values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 13, 2021.)
The only way to “lay up treasures in heaven” is to take the long view. Nothing in the earthly realm does that quite like investing in children. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on June 6, 2021.)
As we begin a new study of Colossians, we begin with Paul’s standard opening and greeting to the church, forcing us to ask the question: how should we think about one another? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Colossians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 30, 2021.)
The phrase “treasures in heaven” by its very nature implies something eternal and lasting. How can we use this concept to fill our lives with a purpose that will give us meaning, and build something that we know will outlast us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the … Continue reading A Lasting Legacy
As we consider our worship in song, we examine the motivations behind it. Not in the negative sense (why don’t we use instruments?) but in the positive; why should we sing, and what does it do for us? Click Here to Listen. (This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 16, … Continue reading Why Do We Sing?
As we continue to consider “Treasures in Heaven”, we turn out attention to something that Jesus died to build, and we ask: do we value it like he does? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 16, 2021.)
If we are considering “Treasures in Heaven”, we must consider the importance of Truth, both as a general concept, and as a collection of specific knowledge. Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 9, 2021.)
As we continue our look at “Treasures in Heaven”, we must begin with a subject that God values most highly: People! Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on personal values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 2, 2021.)
We begin a new series on personal values. Do you value what God does? What does it mean to “lay up treasures in Heaven”? What do our values say about us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on Personal Values. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on April 25, 2021.)
What are the attitudes and actions that will truly tear a family apart? How can we avoid them? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the family. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 31, 2020.)
As we begin our series on Malachi, we start where we always do: who wrote the book, why, and what was happening at the time? And, why is the book important for us? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching through Malachi. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 24, 2020.)
What sorts of external pressures threaten to undermine God’s purpose for the family in our lives? What can we do about it? Click Here to Listen. (Preaching on the family. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 24, 2020.)
Now that Peter has discussed why the Lord hasn’t returned yet, and what will happen when he does, the real question: so what? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 19, 2020.)
As we start a new series on the family, we must start at the beginning. What was God’s original design and purpose for the family? Why does it matter? Click Here to Listen. (Focusing on the family. Preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on May 17, 2020. Video can be found here.)
Peter moves on from a rant about false teachers to a reminder about the Day of the Lord. Why hasn’t Jesus returned yet, and what should we learn from his delay? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 15, 2020.)
What makes false teaching so despicable to God? What is the primary danger? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 14, 2020.)
What kind of characteristics or traits do false teachers possess? What should we be on the lookout for? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 12, 2020.)
In his continued discussion of false teachers, Peter lays out God’s historical precedent in dealing with such, contrasted with how He deals with the faithful. Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 11, 2020.)
What is empathy, and why is it so important to the Christian ethos. Why is it something that seems to always be lacking? Click Here to Listen. (Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 10, 2020.)
What’s the big deal with false prophets? What should we be on the lookout for? And how might this problem affect us? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 8, 2020.)
When we say scripture is “inspired” what does that mean? How does it work? And why does it matter? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 7, 2020.)
What kind of people should Christians be? What kind of characteristics or qualities should they posses? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 5, 2020.)
Why did Peter write his letters. The answer can generally be applied to all the epistles of the New Testament, and fortunately Peter explicitly spelled it out for us. Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 2 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 4, 2020.)
What is patience, and where does it come from? What does it mean to be patient? And, how can we live patiently right now? Click Here to Listen. (Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on May 3, 2020.)
What final lessons should we take from 1 Peter? What makes the letter so valuable? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 30, 2020.)
Peter wraps up the practical instruction of his first letter by echoing the words of James. What advice did they give us to help us resist the Devil? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 28, 2020.)
What instructions does Peter have for church elders? What is significant about the things he calls them? What about the rest of us? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 27, 2020.)
While it is nice that we can meet for worship in a virtual space, there are some key aspects of physical fellowship that can’t be replicated. What are they, and why are they so important? Click Here to Listen. (Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 26, 2020.)
Why does Peter say we should rejoice in suffering? What does this even mean and how could we do that? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 24, 2020.)
What does Peter mean when he says that “love covers a multitude of sins”? Why and how can Christians love in that way, and for whose benefit should we do so? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 23, 2020.)
Why is it so important that Christians transform their way of life? And just what does Peter mean when he talks about the gospel being preached to the dead? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 21, 2020.)
At the end of chapter three, Peter goes through a brief overview of Jesus’s journey from heaven to earth and back again, including a strange pit-stop in death. What are we meant to learn from this passage? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April … Continue reading Daily Dose – Jesus’s Journey (1 Peter 3:18-22)
What can we learn about being encouragers from the “son of encouragement” Barnabas? Click Here to Listen. (Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 19, 2020.)
How should we respond to persecution? What are some attitudes that universally serve the Christian in this endeavor? Click Here to Listen. (Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 17, 2020.)
What does the husband-wife relationship have to do with the Christian’s relationship with government or employers? What does Peter have to say about submission in marriage, and how does it compare to Paul’s instructions?
Click Here to Listen.
(Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 16, 2020.)
Peter continues his section on submission by speaking to servants or bondservants. Should they be subject to their masters? If so, why? And how could this possibly apply to us?
Click Here to Listen.
(Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 14, 2020.)
What does Peter say about being subject to governments or human authorities? How does it compare to what Paul says? Why is it so important?
Click Here to Listen.
(Daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 13, 2020.)
The concept of “resurrection” is the most important concept in Christianity. Is it something that reasonable people might believe in? What makes it so important? And what does it mean for us?
Click Here to Listen.
(This sermon was preached for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 12, 2020.)
What does it mean to “be subject to”, and what does this concept matter so much to Peter? What does Peter want us to do and how?
Click Here to Listen.
(Daily walk through 1 Peter. This was recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 10, 2020.)
1 Peter 2:9-12 serves as the core thesis of the letter. Everything before leads up to it and everything after explains it. How should this central text apply to us?
Click Here to Listen.
(Daily walk through 1 Peter. This was recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 9, 2020.)
One of the more common analogies for the church is a structure, or building, which Peter uses in 1 Peter 2. Why is this so important, and what part does Jesus play in this analogy?
Click Here to Listen.
(Daily walk through 1 Peter. This was recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 7, 2020.)
In this section Peter makes another distinction between things that are temporary and things that are eternal. How should this separation affect our lives?
Click Here to Listen.
(A daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 6, 2020.)
Our words are important, perhaps especially so in a time like this. What qualities should our words possess? What should we avoid in our speech and typed words?
Click Here to Listen.
(This sermon was preached for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 5, 2020.)
In this section Peter dives into the meat of his message: be holy! How did that apply to their context, and how does it apply to ours?
Click Here to Listen.
(Recorded for the Dewey Church of Christ on April 3, 2020.)
At the end of his introduction, Peter brings up an interesting idea concerning the prophets of old, and their relationship to Christians living in the “last days”. As such Christians, what should we learn from this text?
Click Here to Listen.
(Part of a daily walk through 1 Peter. Recorded on April 2, 2020.)
In the extended introduction to his letter, Peter begins to explore some of the main themes in more detail. What can we learn from Peter in this passage?
Click Here to Listen.
(Recorded on March 31, 2020.)
As we begin our daily walk through 1 Peter, we must begin with some introductory questions. When did Peter write this? What was going on in his life? What sort of themes did he address? And, how can this apply to us?
Click Here to Listen.
(The first in a daily series of short lessons. Recorded on March 30, 2020.)
In such uncertain times it is important to remember the promises of God, one of the most important of which is heaven. What are some of the incredible blessings of heaven we are promised?
Click Here to Listen.
(I didn’t start recording until part of the way through. This sermon was preached for the Dewey Church of Christ on March 29, 2020.)
COVID-19 has swept the world. Is this a sign of the End Times? How would we even know? And what would that change?
Click Here to Listen.
(Prerecorded for people to use on Sunday, March, 2020. We live in interesting times. Because this was not actually preached, I have no idea how it will seem. It’s just me talking into a mic.)
This past week, COVID-19 really started impacting our country. It has been sweeping the globe for a while now. As the world starts to simultaneously panic and lock down, how should Christians respond? What should we be thinking and feeling? How should we act? Fortunately, God is not silent about what He expects from His people.
Click Here to Listen.
(This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 15, 2020.)
At the conclusion the letter, Paul reinforces the two main themes of the New Testament: love God and love others! How does Paul specifically expect the Galatians to fulfill these commands, and what about us?
Click Here to Listen.
(Preaching through Galatians. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on March 8, 2020.)