“David’s pathway-and the privilege of possessing his autobiographical psalms-ought to alert us to the foundational truth that ‘My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord’ (Isa. 55:8). How I wish that we might learn this lesson-for every unexpected, unwanted, even seemingly meaningless, hurtful and destructive experience that takes us by surprise come under ...  Read More

Sermon Overview:David faced one of his lowest times in Psalm 142. The psalm describes David’s plea, David’s plight, David’s portion, and David’s prospect. Despite adversaries and suffering, David knows that God cares for him. This gives him hope that he will never be truly alone. As part of the people of God, we too are never truly alone since we have both Christ’s church and Christ’s steadfast lo...  Read More

Sermon Overview:In this passage, Paul wants the church in Corinth to learn to love and be zealous for other churches. He desires churches to be united in gospel-partnership. Paul points to the example of the Macedonian church who gave with sacrificial joy and then Paul shows that Christ is sustaining motivation for partnership in advancing the gospel.Discussion Questions: 1. Jared pointed out that...  Read More

“Westerners (particularly North Americans) have a cultural bias toward promoting overindependency on the part of the churches they establish. Even when their churches actually belong to a larger fellowship of churches, the likelihood of those churches assuming an active role in the larger fellowship is not always great.” David Hesselgrave“Paul’s words stand as a rebuke to the Corinthians’ myopic i...  Read More

Sermon Overview:In Psalm 37, Steve directed us to three repeated commands concerning all that we face each day. The first command to “Fret not,” guards us from the depressing questions we can tend to ponder when life doesn’t seem fair. The second command to “Trust in the Lord,” comes with vivid pictures of what God is like and why we can trust Him. Finally, we are called to “Do good,” which is the...  Read More

“[Meekness] is a Christlike quality, for he said ‘I am meek.’ As exercised towards people, meekness is self-subduing gentleness. But here the direction is Godward, or rather towards the word of God, and it is that temper of spirit in which we accept his dealings with us as good,...without disputing. It is the spirit which says a simple ‘yes' to what the word teaches and commands, it is the mind di...  Read More