This week started off for me with a question from the Monday morning women's Bible study. It's always a little unsettling to hear, "Can you come here? We have a question." But it was a good question, and we had a good time discussing it. The question had to do with the Nicene Creed, which we recently recited together on a Sunday morning. Our church does not have a long his...

Note: to help with my own preparation for this Sunday's sermon, I decided to write out the basic points in the shortest, simplest way I could think of. That turned out to be a children's story. Here it is, as this week's article: Once upon a time, there was a good king. His name was Josiah. One cool thing about Josiah is that he was only eight years old when he became k...

For a while now, I've been chewing on the idea of incorporating Psalm singing into our worship services. I've introduced a couple of Psalms settings by singing them as we gather before the service starts. You might be wondering, why sing Psalms? While it is practiced in some churchesand there are even some churches that only sing Psalmsmost churches today do not regularly ...

We can't know what's in someone's heart." I read that all-too-familiar sentiment expressed on social media recently. A Christian ministry had released a video that attacked some other Christian leaders, associating them with demonic opposition to the gospel. Many people rightly rebuked those responsible and called for an apology. Predictably, though, someone came to their ...

When we start something new, such as a new marriage or a new job or even a new church, there is typically a "honeymoon" phase. The honeymoon phase is when we're excited about new opportunities and optimistic about the future. Everything seems perfect. Then the honeymoon ends. We find out that we're all sinners. Our relationships with others don't have to grow very deep be...

Well, Pastor Mike recently finished a sermon series from the book of Ecclesiastes, and while he's on vacation, I'm planning to preach on a couple of passages from the book of Jeremiah. These books have reputation for being the most depressing parts of the Bible, (along with Lamentations, of course). Ecclesiastes points to the futility of life apart from God, and Jeremiah p...

You can probably quote this sentence from the US Declaration of Independence: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." An "inalienable right" is a right that can't be taken away. And yet, as history as s...

Jeremiah is an anti-Moses. There are many parallels between Moses and Jeremiah. For example, they both responded to God's call with reluctance, saying they were unable to speak well. Jeremiah's preaching also draws heavily on Moses's preaching in the book of Deuteronomy. But, Jeremiah is a kind of "anti-Moses." Whereas Moses led the people out of captivity in Egypt to the ...

This Sunday, we will begin a new sermon series on the book of Obadiah. We will also be finishing our sermon series on Obadiah this Sunday. Obadiah is the shortest book in the Old Testament, with only 21 verses. But even though it's short enough to cover in one sermon, Obadiah deals with a big issue: sinful pride. I attempted to begin-and-end this sermon series several wee...

Imagine that you're a visiting a new Bible study group. You're introduced to the group, there's some small-talk, then what seems like hours of prayer requests for people you don't know anything about followed by a brief opening prayer. And then the group leader says, "Open your Bibles to the book of Obadiah." Before you were nervous; now you're terrified. Where is the boo...

It's time for yet another illustration from my days as a shoe salesman. I used to be a shoe salesman. I've worked at four different shoe stores. The different stores had different dress codes. Some were fairly dressy, others were more casual. But there's one item that all stores had in common: you have to wear the shoes we sell. Why? We sold expensive, orthopedically-corr...

In Acts 19, unbelievers in Ephesus stir up a riot over Paul's teaching. And yet the catalyst for the riot isn't really Paul's teaching. He'd been in town for over two years, yet there was no riot during that time. Instead, what seems to be the catalyst for the riot is the extraordinary devotion ordinary believers who willingly pay a high price to turn from sin and follow J...

People are attracted to power. We crave it for ourselves, or we are drawn to those who seem have it like pilot fish to a shark. Just take a quick look at human history (or current events!), and you'll see people who were willing to sacrifice justice or integrity in order to keep or gain power. Nor are Christians immune to the lust for earthly powerjust take a quick look at...

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 diedmore than that, who was raisedwho is at the righ...

Shout for joy in the LORD, O you righteous! Praise befits the upright.Give thanks to the LORD with the lyre; make melody to him with the harp of ten strings!Sing to him a new song; play skillfully on the strings, with loud shouts.For the word of the LORD is upright, and all his work is done in faithfulness.He loves righteousness and justice; the earth is full of the steadf...

We have been talking about our work of evangelism for a while, so this Sunday I plan to look at the idea of rest. Our sermon text will be Exodus 16, where God first teaches Israel to observe the Sabbath as a way to rest on God's promises. The Sabbath is a difficult topic, because Bible-believing Christians often disagree on how the Sabbath applies to us today. I hope to fo...

This Sunday, we'll be talking about God's gospel plan. I might use the word "story" instead of "plan." It's essentially the same thing. A plan is just a story, written in future tense. Stories are important. Without stories, facts and figures are just isolated points of data with no significance. Stories are what give shape and meaning to our lives. Even the Bible is ...

A few weeks ago I preached on the incomprehensibility of God. The key concept there is that God is infinite, so we cannot understand Him fully (even though we can know Him truly). This Sunday I plan to preach on the holiness of God, and as I began preparing for that I came across the following quote from A. W. Tozer, under the heading "We Cannot Understand Holiness." I su...

I know what you're thinking. How is that different than any other sermon Jared has preached? But I assure you, this time will be different. This Sunday, instead of focusing on what we know about God, I want to think about how much we don't know about God. I figure I am just as qualified as anyone to talk about things no one knows anything about. Throughout this sermon ser...

What comes to mind when you hear the word “hospitality”? Maybe you think of hosting dinner parties, or Martha Stewart. Maybe hospitality means always having home-baked cookies and fresh-squeezed lemonade on standby in case someone drops by. Or, maybe you’ve been thinking about hospitality in the church context. ...

“When God wants to form our character, He doesn’t give us a to-do list. He puts us in a community with fellow believers where the image of Christ is stamped onto our being.” ...

Sorrow for sin is a good and necessary part of repentance. And repentance is necessary for change. But sorrow is not our strength. The joy of the Lord is our strength....

Peace is a complex topic in the Bible. The Bible has a lot to say about peace, and some of it is confusing. On the one hand, Jesus is the Prince of Peace (Isaiah 9:6), and at His birth the angels come singing “peace on earth” (Luke 2:14). But on the other hand, Jesus warns His followers, “Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth. I have not come to br...

So how can you appreciate your pastor? Walk in the truth. Live your life in a way that puts the truth of Christ on display. There are many ways to do this. ...

Jesus says in Mark 9:37, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives no me but him who sent me.” The way we care for children reveals what we think about Jesus, and ultimately what we think about God....

A few times in youth group we’ve played a game called “The Resistance.” The premise is that we’re members of a resistance group that is working to overthrow a corrupt, totalitarian regime. But a couple of the players are secretly spies working for that regime. The object of the game is to figure out who the spies are before it’s too late. It’s all about cer...

I’ve been thinking about the importance of emotions in the Cristian life, and especially in worship. Some Christians have emphasized emotional experience to the point that almost no attention is given to right doctrine or right practice. Others, reacting against that trend, are suspicious of or embarrassed by any display of emotion in worship. However, God didn’t ju...

We don't sing very many songs about our mission as a church. It's not our fault--there aren't too many good songs out there on that topic. And, we certainly want our worship to be centered on what God has done, not what we are to do. But, if part of the purpose of singing is to teach and admonish one another (as Colossians 3:16 tells us it is), then we certainly should sin...

a href="http://thousandtongues.bandcamp.com/album/merciful-to-me" data-mce-href="http://thousandtongues.bandcamp.com/album/merciful-to-me"Merciful to Me by Reformed Praise/a Twice in the book of Matthew, Jesus says that those who would follow Him must take up their own crosses (Matthew 10:38-39; 16:24-28). These are strong words. Jesus was shamed and tortured to death, an...

lt;a href="http://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/album/from-age-to-age" data-mce-href="http://sovereigngracemusic.bandcamp.com/album/from-age-to-age"gt;From Age to Age by Sovereign Grace Musiclt;/agt; Come to church this Sunday. The worship will be epic. Literally. According to Merriam Webster, an "epic" is"a long narrative poem in elevated style recounting the deeds o...

We have recently added (or are in the process of adding) some books to our Book Nook that we believe are helpful resources. Since the most valuable and effective children's ministry is what happens in the home, we want to equip parents with the best resources we can find. If you haven't started a family devotional time yet, these books make it easy to start--all you need t...

Our September song-of-the-month is "Complete in Thee." The hymn text is from the 19th century, while the tune is more recent (but still sounds like a hymn tune. You can listen to it here. Looking at the chorus, might seem strange to sing the words, "glorified I too shall be." There is a sense in which only God is worthy of glory, and He does not share that glory (Isaiah 4...

By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. 1 John 3:16 ESV This year, the kids in our Vacation Bible School will learn about a simple message: God loves us, so we should love each other. Love is a tricky thing to define. Many people today seem to think that it means simply accepting someone as they are, ...

[1] May God be gracious to us and bless us and make his face to shine upon us, Selah[2] that your way may be known on earth, your saving power among all nations.[3] Let the peoples praise you, O God; let all the peoples praise you! [4] Let the nations be glad and sing for joy, for you judge the peoples with equity and guide the nations upon earth. Selah[5] ...

Suggested articles for further reading on the subject of the past Sunday's sermon....

Once upon a time, there was a pack of wolves. Not just any pack of wolves, but the most vicious and deadly pack of wolves ever to roam the countryside. They had ruled the land unopposed for countless generations, chasing down the fastest of the rabbits, outsmarting the smartest of the foxes, bringing down the most majestic of the elk, laughing in the face of the grizzliest...

My favorite song for the start of a worship service is also this month's Song of the Month: "Come, Ye Sinners, Poor and Needy." Maybe you're used to thinking of this as a song of invitation. And it probably has been used most often at the end of a sermon or evangelistic service, sung while waiting for people to come forward. But for me, this old hymn is a powerful reminde...

Since we celebrate Easter this month, we'll be featuring a song that celebrates the resurrection of Christ. April's song of the month will be "Christ Is Risen, He Is Risen Indeed!" by Keith and Kristyn Getty along with Ed Cash. You can listen to it by clicking here, and read brief interview with Keith Getty about the song, along with the lyrics,here. The song is also feat...

Our song for the month is "Not In Me." You can listen to it and read the words by clicking here, and read lyricist Eric Schumacher's explanation of the backstory and meaning of the song here. This modern hymn is a meditation on Luke's Parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector: He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and t...

February's song of the month is By Faith, a meditation on Hebrews 11 & 12....