Psalm 73 models nearly everything the Psalms teach us about emotions. The psalmist begins with duty and ends with delight. He begins envious of the ungodly and ends exclaiming, "Whom have I in Heaven but you? And there is nothing on earth I desire besides you." How did this change take place? When he went into the sanctuary, God gave him a new perspective, a new beginning, and a new direction. Through this psalm, God can do the same thing for us.

Everywhere you look in the Bible, you'll find lament. Life is difficult, painful, and filled with struggles and God wants us to come to him in your pain. The Psalms teach us the pathway from lament to trust. Even when nothing changes in our circumstances, we change, God draws near to us, and we learn to trust him more. 

Can we just skip the angry Psalms? So many of the psalms capture feelings of anger, rage, and bristling against injustice. Then and now, anger is a part of our lives, and the Psalms show us how to recognize, evaluate, and act on our feelings. God meets us in our anger and changes us. In Psalm 52, David models good anger with a great response.

Fear is everywhere in our world, but the good news is it is also everywhere in the Bible. The most common command in God's Word is "Do no fear." In this psalm, we see a pattern for getting to the root of our fears and moving our loves to things that never fail.

Joseph is the last of the great patriarchs in Genesis. The long arc of sin and family dysfunction comes to a close when Joseph reverses the course of the story and forgives his brothers. As his story shows, it takes great faith to forgive. Christians have been commanded to forgive one another, but how can we do what often seems like an impossible task?

Psalm 19 reminds us that God is speaking to us all the time. In the world around us, the word before us, and the witness within us, God is communicating to us. Are we listening? Are we listening completely?

Preacher: Sam Hitchcock

It would be hard to find someone with more relationship problems than Jacob. From his brother Esau, to his parents, to his own family, strife followed him wherever he went until his life-changing encounter with God. After wrestling with God, he was blessed, renamed, and changed forever. In the same way, when we encounter God, the fruit pops up in our relationships.

We often find ourselves waiting for God. We may know his promises, character, and track record, but waiting for God is still difficult. Abraham found himself in a similar situation, but instead of waiting he sought his own solution. In this message, Dr. Jarrett Ford reminds us of the importance of waiting for the Lord and the wonderful promises he has given us.

Abraham is the father of the faithful, a paragon of what it looks like to believe God and follow his plan. But after ten years without a son, Abraham looks for a sign. In Genesis 15, God meets Abraham's doubts, not just with facts, vision, or assurance, but with a covenant. In Abraham's time of doubt, God gave himself in an eternal covenant that would be fulfilled thousands of years later through one of Abraham's descendants.

Abraham is known as the father of the faithful - even the friend of God. In Genesis 12, we are introduced to a man who looms over all of history. But what made him special? God called out to Abraham when he was far from God and in a desperate place, and when he heard from the Lord, Abraham believed God. This simple act of taking God at his word is the life of faith, then and today.