Line Upon Line

Drawing on Psalm 63, written by David while on the run from his rebellious son Absalom, Pastor Miles teaches that worship is far larger than singing songs on Sunday—it is the entirety of life lived for God's glory. He calls believers to seek God early and continually, to meditate on His word, and to worship Him in spirit and truth in every circumstance, even amid suffering and injustice.

Paul defends himself before the Corinthians not for his own reputation but for the glory of God, appealing to his clear conscience and to God's faithfulness. Through trials God brings believers to a place of weakness and total dependence, and as ambassadors of Christ our lives testify to who God is.

Opening a study in 2 Corinthians, Pastor Miles traces Paul's journey from his conversion through his deep, costly love for the imperfect church at Corinth, then shows from the letter's first verses that God is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all tribulation so we can comfort others.

Surveying the local, national, and global mission work flowing through Calvary Chapel Escondido—"not a huge church, but a huge vision"—Pastor Miles ties it back to Acts 20:1-6, where Paul travels through the churches he planted, recruiting and training a team to carry on the gospel mission. The central exhortation: every believer is gifted, commissioned, and called to engage in the mission of Christ wherever God has placed them.

Returning to Acts 19 after a long detour through the epistles, Pastor Miles examines the uproar Paul's gospel preaching caused in Ephesus, where one man teaching in a school subverted an entire pagan idol industry. He calls the church to a "ministry of subversion"—not political protest and boycotts, but simply living and preaching the gospel as ambassadors of Christ who transform communities by its power.

On the first Sunday of 2012, Pastor Miles casts a vision for the year built on two themes: enjoying God's grace through salvation and extending God's glory into the world. He argues that the Christian life is far more than attending Bible studies—it is incarnating the fruit of the Spirit and carrying the joy of grace to those living a graceless existence.

Drawing from Isaiah 9 and the Christmas accounts in Luke and John, this teaching shows that Jesus is joy incarnate who has graciously extended His joy to us, calling believers to enjoy that joy fully and then carry it as His messengers into a joyless world.

Pastor Miles traces his own teenage call to follow Christ to teach that serving God out of gratitude is not a joyless, dreadful existence but the very path to increasing and enduring joy. Drawing on Christ's example, biblical commands, the rich young ruler, the parable of the talents, and the martyrs, he argues that Jesus is a treasure worth losing everything to gain.

Continuing a series on joy from John 15:11, Pastor Miles teaches that love overflows in giving, and that giving—motivated by love and the promise of joy—is a God-ordained means of laying hold of greater, enduring joy in Christ.

This teaching argues that the key to full and enduring joy is gratitude, and that genuine gratitude cannot be manufactured by willpower but is an emotive response generated by remembering and beholding the greatness of God and all He has given in Christ. All God's commands—including His commands to give thanks and praise—are ultimately promises for our greatest joy, because He is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.