Line Upon Line

Drawing on 1 Corinthians 2, Pastor Miles teaches that the church's purpose and message are fixed by Christ while its methods may change, and that God deliberately uses weak, lowly people so that faith rests in His power rather than human wisdom. He explains the "why, what, and how" that make Cross Connection Church distinct—integrity, intellectual diligence, relevance, and connection—and calls believers to steadfast devotion to the word, fellowship, hospitality, and prayer.

On the first Sunday of 2026, Pastor Miles surveys what God will do in the new year and draws from 1 Thessalonians 1 to cast a vision: that Cross Connection Church would become exemplary among the saints, growing in faith, hope, and love through God's work and our obedient effort.

The fourth and final Advent message in a series on the themes of Christmas, this teaching focuses on love—showing from Romans 5, John 3:16, Ephesians 2, and 1 John that Jesus both brings and is the love of God, and that God's love for us compels and equips us to love others.

Drawing from Psalm 16, this teaching shows that Jesus—God incarnate—is the fullness of joy embodied, making lasting joy accessible to those who receive His saving grace. Joy that is "increasing unto abundance for eternity" is experienced now by abiding in Christ, His Word, and His people, even in the midst of suffering.

A Christmas/Advent message on peace, teaching that the birth of Christ brings the blessing of an everlasting, increasing peace that is far greater than the world's provisional ceasefires. Pastor Miles shows how we receive peace *from* God, gain peace *with* God, and experience the peace *of* God in our anxious lives through faith, prayer, and biblical meditation.

Through the story of the sinful woman who anointed Jesus's feet in the home of Simon the Pharisee, Pastor Miles argues that Christ calls us beyond mere religion to a love for enemies that flows from recognizing how much we ourselves have been forgiven. He warns that self-righteous Phariseism—seen today in trends like Christian nationalism—blinds us to our own need for grace and leads us to "otherize" the very sinners God loves and desires to save.

Examining Jesus's response to John the Baptist's discouraged question from prison in Luke 7, Pastor Miles shows that Jesus addresses our flaws privately while announcing our identity publicly—always working from love to perfect us. The teaching closes by considering the spiritual realm and how to discern the source of our thoughts.

Building on Jesus's command to love your enemies in Luke 6, this teaching examines the healing of the Roman centurion's servant in Luke 7 as a living picture of enemy-love, then applies it to the politically divided, tribalized moment in which we live—calling believers to advance Christ's kingdom not through dominance and vengeance but through the self-giving love modeled by Jesus on the cross.

Jesus's teaching in Luke 6 calls disciples out of the blindness of hypocrisy and into honest self-examination, so that—abiding in Christ—they bear the fruit of the Spirit and build a storm-resistant life through obedience. The teaching also confronts the prosperity gospel's misuse of this passage and clarifies the true nature of Jesus's promised blessing.

Drawing on a recent trip to Israel, Pastor Miles teaches Jesus' command in Luke 6 to love your enemies and not resist evil, while holding it in tension with the Bible's parallel call for governing authorities to execute justice. He argues that the citizen of Christ's kingdom lives by a different value system, trusts God for justice through the magistrate rather than personal vengeance, and points to Christ's death as the supreme example of loving one's enemy.