Line Upon Line

A Christmas/Advent teaching on Isaiah 9:6-7 showing that the Prince of Peace came to restore the peace lost in Eden, offering both peace with God (reconciliation) and the peace of God (inner tranquility) that sustains believers through life's trials. The message calls listeners to personally receive Christ's offer of peace and let it flow through them to others.

A Christmas Advent teaching tracing the theme of hope across all of Scripture, showing that Jesus is the hope promised from the beginning, revealed at His arrival, secured through His death and resurrection, and still our reason for hope in daily life and trials. Anchored in Romans 5 and 2 Corinthians 4, it argues that even afflictions, in the Lord's masterful hands, produce endurance, character, and an eternal weight of glory.

A Thanksgiving-season teaching on 1 Thessalonians 5:18 that examines why gratitude requires a command, walks through Elijah's depression in 1 Kings 19 as a model of God's gentle care, and shows scientifically and biblically how gratitude protects against depression and fulfills God's will for us in Christ.

Through the story of the sinful woman who anoints Jesus's feet in Luke 7, Pastor Miles teaches that gratitude overflows from a heart that recognizes its own desperate need for Christ's saving and forgiving grace. He contrasts the self-righteous, blind Simon the Pharisee with the woman who saw her sin clearly and rejoiced, showing that seeing our need is the key to genuine thanksgiving and fullness of joy.

Examining the healing of the ten lepers in Luke 17:11-19, Pastor Miles teaches that gratitude is one of the keys to the fullness of joy God desires for us, and that while many receive God's blessings, far fewer return to give Him thanks. He shows that Jesus moves toward the outcast, sees and answers faith-filled prayer, and brings wholeness to those who praise the glory of His grace.

Opening a November series on gratitude, Pastor Miles teaches from Psalm 100 that thanksgiving is the will of God and the secret to genuine happiness. He argues that a key to gratitude is remembering God's works, and that reframing all of life as service to a good Creator, Lord, and Provider produces joy that overflows to others.

Closing the Book of Judges with chapters 20–21, this teaching examines the civil war provoked by the moral atrocity at Gibeah, showing that while outrage at evil is right, fallen humanity's attempts at justice always fall short or go too far—and that the only sufficient answer to evil and to our own sin is the wrath of God satisfied at the cross by the coming King of Kings.

A study of Judges 19, one of the most disturbing passages in Scripture, showing how a people who departed from God's moral rule descended into total moral chaos. Pastor Miles argues that outrageous immorality demands moral outrage, and that the only true cure for human depravity is the gospel of the cross of Christ.

Judges 18 records how the tribe of Dan, refusing to take the difficult inheritance God gave them, sought an easier conquest, stole Micah's idol and priest, and massacred the peaceful people of Laish — illustrating what happens to a people with no moral governance and no contentment. Pastor Miles shows that we tend to wander when we are not planted, and that only God's grace, not a king, can cure a heart given to covetousness and self-centered religion.

Drawing on Paris Reidhead's classic message "Ten Shekels and a Shirt" and the story of Micah in Judges 17, Pastor Miles confronts the danger of a utilitarian, man-centered Christianity that treats God as a means to our own happiness. True devotion seeks God himself for his glory, not merely the gifts and blessings he provides.