Sometimes the perspectives of the Old Testament feel so foreign to us, and maybe a little embarrassing. For instance, in Psalm 21 today, the candid, unvarnished talk of vanquishing enemies. After all we are Americans, living in 2025, enlightened by college degrees, with no enemies left. Haven’t WE have progressed beyond all that?

But we must interrogate that embarrassment. For I am convinced one reason why we live in a time of chaos and decline is BECAUSE the Church has become neutralized by its embarrassment of the Old Testament.

So we can continue to DESIRE a seat at the cool kids’ table, and do what Andy Stanley tells us to do, and “DECOUPLE ourselves from the Old Testament.” (Which, as we will see, means decoupling from Christ). Or we can recognize that that feeling of foreignness says more about US than anything.

In fact, when we feel hesitation or embarrassment about the Word, it probably means there’s treasure there for us. Which means we need to go further in and further up, into the wisdom of God.

·      Praise

·      Pluck

·      Principle

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 25th, 2025 to learn more.

Today I want to briefly give three truths we must remember BEFORE we set ourselves to our tasks in life. Three remembrances we must sink our feet down into, in order to be rightly grounded, in our work. Now, I’m going to talk like an uncle to our graduates and near-graduates, but really, I’m talking to all of us. For God has already prepared work for ALL of us to do.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 18th to learn more.

Today we are considering HOW we get STRONG, and why we MUST be strong.

We are in a COSMIC battle, against enemy forces that are seen and unseen. So Paul in Ephesians 6 COMMANDS us to be strong. This is no time to pet and cuddle and luxuriate in our weaknesses. 

But that does not mean God REMOVES our weaknesses. Instead, as God said to Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.” 

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 11th, 2025 to learn more.

The question today is HOW do we get OFF the beach and begin surfing? For it is so easy to HEAR an excellent sermon about that, as we did last week, and then . . . Nothing changes.

As a brother mentioned to me this week, of all our modern sins, perhaps ACEDIA is our deepest. The worst sins are the ones we do not know we have, which is why we don’t know what that word means. It means “sloth”, but more like an emasculated inability to get off the couch while the world burns.

So what or WHO is holding us back?

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on May 4, 2025 to learn more.

Our relationship with Jesus Christ makes it possible to do things that we would otherwise seem too scary, too risky, too impossible. However, our ability to do those things for the Kingdom of God and our desire to do them often are in conflict.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on April 27, 2025 to learn more.

The resurrection will not fit into any neat, sentimental holiday box. We see this, not only by looking at the specific details of the story, but also by considering the FEEL, the atmosphere of the story.

The atmosphere crackles with something alien - as if something outside the system has invaded our world - something greater - something you can put in Coke commercial. Thus the writers do not hesitate to include the very real errors and mistakes that the people who observed the resurrection of Christ made along the way.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s Easter sermon on April 20, 2025 to learn more.

The grace of God, given in love, creates both BLESSINGS and CURSES.

This has always been the way of God. God works through COVENANTS in the world. A covenant is a solemn agreement or arrangement between two parties. And God’s great covenant is one of grace. Grace is an undeserved GIFT. The gift of WELCOME. After all, with every sin, God is the one most offended. So it is a gift for any of us to be welcomed by Him.

So this is a massive privilege, to be the recipient of this grace. And because it is a massive privilege, is a massive offense to reject that gift. Thus when God’s gift of grace comes, it creates WELCOME for those who believe and receive, and it ALSO brings CURSES for those who taste it and see it and experience it but then REJECT it.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 13, 2025 to learn more.

As Paul concludes his first letter to the Corinthians, we must remember how it started: it was all about Christ crucified. Which means this entire letter has been about LOVE. For Christ is the standard, the very definition of love.

Love is not something we define for ourselves. Love is GIVEN and must be received. Love was given in a real MAN; it came with a whip; and it was poured out in bread and wine, in a body broken and blood spilled on a cross.

This means that REAL, authentic love is both gentle AND strong. It’s like a brick wrapped in velvet: it has softness and it has a spine. It has compassion, but that compassion is immoveable, like an oak tree.

Real love is immovable, impervious to the emotional manipulations of others. It does the pleasant thing AND the hard thing, the thing that nobody wants to do, but must be done. And it is so sturdy that others can imitate it.

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on April 6, 2025 to learn more.

Work for God that is EFFECTIVE is also very INEFFICIENT. To be EFFECTIVE means you do what you set out to do. But to be INEFFICIENT is to do it more slowly than you could. 

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 30, 2025 to learn more.

If civilization is like Legos, then it’s built around the same three basic kinds of pieces. There is the large, flat piece that you build everything on top of - that’s like the church. Then there are the three-by-three or four-by-four bricks that are the heart of every Lego build - this is like the family. And lastly you have the unique, more rare pieces that finish the project and keep it together - this is like the government. 

Today we are talking about that second piece - the family.

When we do, we see this God is worth trusting, and THIS faith makes all the difference. 

Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 23, 2025 to learn more.