Ebenezer Church Podcast

Some questions we can afford to answer badly. This one we cannot. At Caesarea Philippi, Jesus moves past what the crowds are saying and asks his disciples directly who they say he is, and Peter's confession becomes the rock the church is built on. Knowing the name of Jesus is not the same as knowing him, and this message presses toward the certainty that a person can plant a flag on.

Paul says we are saved by grace and not by works; James says faith without works is dead. Both are right: works are not the root of our salvation, they are its fruit. This message from James 2 shows why the answer to a fruitless faith is not to try harder, but to abide in Christ and let His love overflow.

Jesus wept at Lazarus's tomb even though He knew exactly how the story would end. Working from Romans 12:9-16, this message shows that sincere love means entering into what others feel: rejoicing with those who rejoice and mourning with those who mourn. It closes with a simple, practical charge: show up, be present, and let the Holy Spirit do the rest.

Sin is a real debt, and a just God cannot simply tear up the ticket; someone has to pay. From the Passover doorframe to the cross, this message traces the scarlet thread of Scripture: the old sacrifices could only cover sin, but the Lamb of God takes it away once for all. For everyone under his blood, the penalty is paid and the Father sees you clothed in Christ.

Every major world religion honors Jesus as a great teacher, but the decisive question is what that teacher taught about himself. Walking through the sign of Jonah and Jesus' own claims to be greater than Jonah, Solomon, Abraham, Moses, and David, this message shows that "just a good teacher" is the one option Jesus never left us. He is Lord, he is coming back, and the time to decide is now.

Life rarely meets our expectations, but God has given us something better than wishful thinking: a promise foreshadowed from the very beginning. In Genesis 3:15, immediately after the fall, God announces that the seed of the woman will crush the serpent's head, the first glimpse of the salvation story fulfilled in Jesus. This message traces that thread from the garden to the cross, through suffering that cannot compare to coming glory, and into a life spent knowing and sharing the love of God.

We live with more freedom and abundance than any generation in history, yet anxiety keeps rising and contentment keeps falling. Paul learned a secret that works in plenty and in want: Jesus is enough, and His divine power has already provided everything we need. This message explores how God transforms us by the renewing of our minds, rewiring our defaults from worry and fear to gratitude and peace.

Every believer knows the frustration of doing the very thing we hate. Guest speaker Jim Weaver walks through Romans 7:14-8:4, where Paul draws the battle line between the mind that delights in God's law and the sin that still dwells in the flesh. The struggle is real, but the answer is always Jesus, and in Him there is no condemnation.

As the nation marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, this message contrasts the external freedoms we celebrate with the deeper, internal freedom Jesus offers in John 8:31-32. Real freedom is not about knowledge alone but about holding to the teaching of Christ and following Him. It is a peace and joy that no government can grant and no circumstance can take away.

Guest speaker Pastor Brad Anderson, who leads Union Hill Community Church in Canton and calls Ebenezer his home church, opens Jesus' honest words to His disciples in Matthew 10. Again and again Jesus tells those who follow Him, do not be afraid, because the opposition of this world is real but the love and care of God are greater still. Since we have died with Christ in baptism and been raised to new life, the threats of this world have no hold on us, which frees us to live and serve without fear.