Obeying your parents is one way God lets you practice for a lifetime of deepening obedience to God. Deepening obedience isn’t supposed to be a constant, absolute grind. The verse says ‘this pleases the Lord.’ It deepens pleasure with him.

The Bible takes the world’s view of marriage and the household and redeems it, and shows that the home and marriage look different when lived for the glory of God.

We do not drift into sanctification. It doesn’t happen if we do nothing. The world, the flesh, and the devil battle against our faith every day. So Paul is exhorting the Colossians to give themselves to a life devoted to Christ.

Paul is talking about corporate prayer in this passage. Of course, he would’ve supported a private prayer closet. But he’s talking here about praying together. A hunger for prayer is a hunger for God. A thirsting for prayer is a thirsting for God. There is no yearning for him without a yearning for prayer, and especially a yearning for prayer with the people of God.

Jon Aragon continues ends our series in Revelation 5 — It’s one thing to wonder if someone else’s freedom is worth fighting for. But when you identify with that someone and commune with them, that’s when it’s no longer a question. You fight and you press ahead. Is that not what God did for you and for me? Christ’s worthiness is connected to what he did. To the world, a slain lamb looks like failure, but not to us. Why would you want to identify with weakness, a lamb? The cross of Christ is foolishness to a fallen world. God will use weakness to shame the proud.

John writes Rev. 4 pastorally to hurting people, to people up to their eyeballs dealing with culture and their own sin. They need a window into some greater reality that is meant to affect their hearts and not just tickle their imagination.

This letter from Jesus is a highly contextualized letter to the church in Laodicea. But we get through this letter what a truly successful church looks like and what it doesn’t look like. In so many ways, this letter is a church revitalization letter.

Pastor Darryl Williamson continues our series in Revelation — We need more than apologetics to be faithful. If you’re going to be faithful, you’ll need more than just answers and winning debates. You’ll need something more personal.

One of the key tenets to a victorious Christian life is not being distracted by the various voices and faces that are all around you, including the internal voice of your own heart. You must raise your sight above the sight line of this world to hear and discern God’s voice.

Pastor Dave Saville continues our series in Revelation and preaches from Ch. 3:1-6.

Repentance is obedience. It’s not all of obedience by itself, but repentance is obedience. The first step is to repent and to keep on repenting.

The church can wound us badly, whether on purpose or unwittingly. Yet Jesus is saying here, 'Keep going. You’re still learning how to love, how to be patient. Stay together. This is my plan.'

If we're going to be witnesses to the world, we can no longer be on the sidelines of issues like justice and race. The church should be concerned about justice because God is a just God who cares for the widow, the orphan, the poor, the unborn, the oppressed, and the immigrant