Christ Street Fellowship

In this episode,  Pastor Gary teaches the final Sunday of Advent on love and how genuine love for God always leads to worship. Through the stories of the Magi and Simeon, we saw that Jesus is not merely someone to admire, but the King who calls for our obedience, surrender, and adoration.

The Magi responded to Jesus with costly worship, traveling far and offering their very best. In contrast, King Herod responded with fear and self-preservation, reminding us that encountering Jesus always reveals what is in our hearts. Simeon, after a lifetime of faithful waiting, responded with praise and peace when he finally held the promised Savior, declaring Jesus as God’s salvation.

Pastor Gary challenged us to examine our own response to Jesus. True worship is never passive: it involves offering our time, resources, obedience, and lives to Him. As we are reaching the end of Advent, we are invited to move beyond admiration and respond to Christ with wholehearted worship, recognizing Him not just as a Savior, but as my Savior and my Lord!

In this third week of Advent, Pastor Nate explores the theme of joy through the powerful moment when God reveals His glory and the message of Christ's birth; Not to kings or religious elites, but to ordinary shepherds in the fields. Drawing from Luke 2:8–20 and 1 Corinthians 1:27–29, we were reminded that God delights in using the overlooked and the humble so that He alone will be glorified and no one can boast in their own merit.

We also reflect on how an encounter with God’s glory produces lasting joy. This joy then overflows into witness, even in suffering, as seen in the life of Betsie ten Boom. True joy is not tied to circumstances but rooted in Christ, and it shines as a powerful testimony to the world.

Never underestimate what God can do through a surrendered, ordinary life, and to ask Him to fill us anew with the joy that comes from encountering His glory. As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 5:14–16, we are called to let that light and joy shine to everyone around us!

This week’s Advent message focused on how peace and courage are woven together in the Christmas story. Looking at Mary and Joseph, we saw that God’s call often arrives with uncertainty, risk, and fear. However, peace grows when we choose obedience over self-protection.

Pastor Nate begins by defining courage as the conviction that something matters more than fear, sharing a personal story of responding to God’s call to missionary work in Juarez. That same tension shows up in Luke 1 when Mary, an ordinary young woman, is suddenly called to an extraordinary task, and then Joseph is blindsided by Mary’s pregnancy until God intervened. Both had many reasons to hesitate, yet both said yes.

This teaching emphasizes that following God does not guarantee smooth paths, but it does open the way to His peace. In contrast, Jonah’s refusal to obey God's call led him into turmoil and inner conflict. Through his example, we learn that disobedience will steal peace far more than difficult circumstances do.

The message closes with a simple Advent practice: signing your name at the bottom of a blank page—symbolizing a willingness to trust God without needing all the details. Peace comes not from certainty in our situation, rather certainty in the one who calls us and surrender to his will. When we say “yes” to God, like Mary and Joseph, we step into the very peace we long for this season.

In this episode, Pastor Nate teaches on the first Sunday of Advent and the launch of our Christmas series, “Christmas: The Whole Story.” Our focus was hope rooted in God’s promises and His perfect timing.

We look back to the prophecies of Isaiah (Isaiah 9:2, 6), written centuries before Christ’s birth, and noted how God’s people waited through generations and even 400 years of silence after Malachi's final words concerning a prophet who would come to prepare the way of the Messiah. Yet in the apparent silence, God was working behind the scenes the entire time.

The silence finally broke in Luke 1 with the announcement of John the Baptist’s birth, showing again that God answers prayers at the right moment. Zechariah and Elizabeth’s story reminds us that God is sovereign and we can trust that he hears us when we pray.

Our teaching closes by reflecting on our own seasons of waiting. Advent teaches us to trust that:

• God keeps His Word.
• God is always present.
• God works even when we can’t see it.

As we continue through Advent, we hold onto the same hope Israel held: the God who fulfilled His promises then is still faithful today!

In this teaching, Pastor Gary closes our journey through the Songs of Ascent by looking at the final two psalms the ancient pilgrims sang as they entered Jerusalem. Psalm 133 celebrates the beauty of unity—brothers and sisters walking the same path toward God. Unity isn’t easy, but it grows when we see each other as God’s anointed people, and when the Holy Spirit softens our hearts through pouring out new life. Where unity exists, God commands blessing.

Psalm 134 is the pilgrims’ final response: “Bless the Lord.” Having arrived at the temple, they lift their hands in worship. We do the same today—praising God for saving us, sustaining us, and leading us on. The Songs of Ascent begin with “Woe is me” and end with “Bless the Lord.” That is the path of every Christian pilgrim: from struggle to worship, from journey to joy!

This week we explored Psalm 132, the first psalm in the final triad of the Songs of Ascent. While earlier psalms focused on the hardships of the journey, these last three were sung inside Jerusalem—reminding us that even now we are spiritually seated with Christ, yet still on pilgrimage toward our eternal home.

In this psalm we learn that We ascend through a passion for God’s presence and an expectation of His reward.

Psalm 132 opens with a bold request: “Lord, remember David.” Scripture doesn’t shy away from the idea of reward—God strengthens His people by reminding us that faithfulness matters and that He will repay each person according to their works (Revelation 22:12). Reward isn’t our focus, but it is a biblical encouragement along the way.

The heart of the psalm is David’s passion for God’s presence. He refused to rest until the Ark—the symbol of God’s holiness, power, and mercy—was brought to the center of Israel’s life. His passion was born out of love, not ambition, and it inspired the people to seek God with the same desire. Today, through Jesus and the indwelling Spirit, we are God’s temple—so the question becomes: Are we cultivating that same longing for His presence?

Finally, Psalm 132 shows that God’s plans exceed even our best intentions. David wanted to build God a house, but God promised instead to build him an eternal one—a promise fulfilled in Jesus Christ, the Son of David, whose kingdom has no end.

Passion for God’s presence leads us upward, and confidence in God’s promises keeps us moving forward. Trust Him—His plans will always surpass your expectations.

In this week’s message from our Ascent: Walking up the Pilgrims’ Pathway series, Pastor Nate takes us deep into the heart of two of the most intimate Songs of Ascent, Psalm 130 and Psalm 131 , to show us how we ascend in our pilgrimage through waiting for God’s mercy with quiet trust.

Psalm 130 begins “Out of the depths I cry to You, O Lord,” painting a picture of the pit of sin—a place of helplessness where no one can save themselves. But there, in the darkness, we find the beauty of God’s character: forgiveness, steadfast love (hesed), and plentiful redemption. Through the cross of Christ, these are not abstract ideas, they’re living realities. Like Hosea’s faithful love for Gomer, God’s hesed runs deeper than our failures and stronger than our rebellion.

We are called to pray and wait. Waiting isn’t passive, it’s an act of hope and longing that just as the watchman waits for dawn, the light of God’s mercy will rise. We hope on His Word—trusting His promises—and we hope for His Word—expecting His Spirit to speak and lead. Psalm 131 moves from crying out to calming down, from desperation to quiet trust. David models humility before God, resisting Satan’s attacks on the heart, eyes, and mind. Instead of arrogance, pride, and restless speculation, he quiets his soul “like a weaned child with its mother.” Pastor Nate contrasts childish faith, which demands and fears, with childlike faith, which rests and trusts.

As pilgrims, we can be sure of this: The Lord Himself will redeem us from all our iniquities. So, we keep praying, keep waiting, and keep trusting, until we see His mercy rise like the morning light.

This week at Christ Street Fellowship, Pastor Nate continued our fall series Ascent: Walking up the Pilgrims’ Pathway, by exploring Psalms 128 and 129 and showing how we can ascend through the fear of God, even in times of persecution.

Psalm 128 reminds us that true blessing flows from a holy fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord, although not definable in a single, short definition, is about awe, reverence, honor, obedience, and intimacy with a God who is both powerful and good. We will learn that the fear of God doesn’t drive us away, it draws us closer. We also learn that nearness to God is a place of safety, not danger. From Isaiah’s trembling vision of the throne room to Jesus’ delight in the fear of the Lord, Scripture shows that reverent awe leads to deeper friendship, wisdom, and blessing.

Then, turning to Psalm 129, as pilgrims we are reminded that affliction will come, but it will not prevail. “The plowers plowed upon my back,” the psalmist writes, yet the Lord “cut the cords of the wicked.” We see parallels to Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 4 and Peter’s encouragement in 1 Peter 5: though we suffer for a season, the God of all grace will restore, strengthen, and establish us.

In this week’s message from our Ascent series, Pastor Nate leads us through Psalms 126 and 127, showing that we ascend through a healthy vision of God’s will.

In Psalm 126, we’re reminded that when despair clouds our hearts, a clear vision  gives strength for the pilgrimage. It teaches us to look back with gratitude at God’s past restoration, to see the present with honesty about our captivity or struggles, and to face the future with faith in His promises.

Psalm 127 then calls us to trust God’s sovereignty in everything we do. “Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain.” Whether in work, family, or rest, only what’s done in alignment with God’s will endures. Solomon reminds us that our calling is not self-reliance, but surrendered obedience in which we pray as Jesus taught his disciples: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done.”

This message encourages every pilgrim on the journey: remember God’s faithfulness, face your current reality with humility, and walk forward in faith—knowing that every step, every seed sown, and every act of obedience in the Lord is never in vain.

“The joy of the Lord is your strength.” — Nehemiah 8:10

“If it had not been the Lord who was on our side…”? In this week’s message, Pastor Nate takes us into Psalms 124 and 125 — two pilgrim songs that celebrate God’s rescue and the unshakable security of those who trust in Him.

In Psalm 124, we see that God isn’t just with His people, He’s for them. David declares that Israel’s survival was not due to their strength or strategy, but to the Lord’s saving power. In the same way, our own deliverance from sin, fear, and the spiritual forces that oppose us is entirely because of God’s faithful hand.

Then in Psalm 125, we ascend higher to the place of steadfast trust. Just as the mountains surround Jerusalem, the Lord surrounds His people forever. Even when the world feels unstable and evil seems to prevail, God’s people can stand firm on Christ, the immovable Rock!