Line Upon Line

Standing at an anniversary and a national transition point, Pastor Miles teaches from Deuteronomy 7–8 that Israel's experience of God's blessing was entirely dependent on their faith, faithfulness, and obedience—a sobering picture of life before a holy God without mercy that drives us to the better New Covenant and to refuge from God's wrath in Jesus Christ.

Teaching from Deuteronomy 7 addressing the difficult "utterly destroy them" language, arguing that it is biblical hyperbole rather than a divine sanction for genocide, and that God's true purpose was to call Israel to be a holy, separate people chosen out of His love and covenant faithfulness. The same love and faithfulness now compel believers in Christ to love and obey God.

Pastor Miles teaches from Deuteronomy 6 that human beings are deeply forgetful—even of God's greatest works—and warns that prosperity and easier days pose a greater danger to faith than hardship. He urges believers to deliberately build reminders, routines, and teaching habits that keep God and His Word at the center of their lives.

Pastor Miles reflects on his 22-year calling to preach and teach God's Word, then turns to the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, showing that loving the Lord with all our heart, soul, and strength is the greatest commandment because all the others flow from it. He emphasizes that Scripture is taught not for mere knowledge but for life and world transformation through hearing, heeding, and obeying God's Word.

Drawing on the frustration of being stuck in afternoon traffic, Pastor Miles reflects on the cumulative anxiety of nearly a year of cultural chaos and offers two God-impressed words for 2021—"opportunity" and "shine"—rooted in Galatians 6:9-10, Ephesians 5, Isaiah 60, and Jeremiah 29. He argues that wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move, calling His people to do good and shine brightly as exiles in a darkening culture.

Drawing on the image of being stuck in afternoon traffic at red light after red light, Pastor Miles names the cumulative anxiety of the past year and offers two words for 2021—opportunity and shine—rooted in the conviction that wherever there is conflict and chaos, God is getting ready to move.

Teaching from Matthew 16:13-19, this message centers on Jesus' question, "Who do you say that I am?" and argues that the same fears, sicknesses, financial struggles, and political frustrations we face today were faced—often more severely—by believers 2,000 years ago. Pastor Miles calls us to recognize Jesus as Messiah and God, to remember that what is bad in our economy is often good in God's economy, and to stay on mission spreading the gospel rather than merely trying to sanitize our world.

Working through John 13, Pastor Miles shows that Jesus' washing of the disciples' feet is not about a ritual but about following Christ into self-sacrificial, humbling love for a world that doesn't deserve or appreciate it. He traces Peter's transformation from a man who runs from a servant girl to a Spirit-filled apostle who boldly proclaims Christ, calling the church to lay down its rights and love like Jesus.

Pastor Miles concludes a four-week Advent series by teaching that the coming of Jesus is the arrival of love—God's highest, Agape love demonstrated in the incarnation and the cross—and urges believers to share that love through evangelism, closing with communion.

On the fourth Sunday of Advent, Pastor Miles teaches that the coming of Jesus is the advent of love—specifically God's agape love—which is the foundation of the joy, hope, and peace celebrated in previous weeks. He explains the four Greek words for love, points to the incarnation and the cross as the supreme demonstration of God's love, and leads the congregation in communion before urging them to share that love evangelistically before Christmas.