NEW SERIES in GENESIS: The Bible is God’s gracious way of giving us a behind-the-scenes look at him and his plan. Genesis is the first book we open to get a glimpse, and we must deal with the God who makes his appearance at the very start. There is no one like Him. And since there is no one like Him, the further “behind the scenes" we look, the more we realize that we'll never come to the end of his greatness or to the goodness of his plan, and that before him our false ideas of God and our false gods themselves must crumble. He is the only God, the Triune God, and the redeeming God.

In this message, Matt Walkenhorst (pastoral intern at Westside Reformed Church) opens God's Word to the Gospel of Mark to give us a glimpse of Christ's lordship over creation. He asks, if creation hears Christ's word and obeys, shouldn't we? (The first minute or two of this sermon audio was cut off).

Num. 14:1–12 
Dan. 9:20–23 
Matt. 26:36–46 
1 Cor. 10:6–13 
The old Presbyterian minister Matthew Henry was right to say about the Lord's Prayer that “the expressions [are] remarkably concise and yet vastly comprehensive…” This prayer has taught us how to bring all the needs of both body and soul to the Lord. And in this message, we learn the meaning of the 6th petition, the conclusion, and the final word “Amen.” The Lord’s Prayer ends with an acknowledgement of weakness, a plea for God's power, and rest in his answers.

Praise is when we direct our attention to someone or something and express our admiration. When we direct our praise to God, it’s worship. Psalm 150 gives us a picture of the perfect end—the end of all things, a glorious worship-filled creation in which death, sin, and hell have been conquered. The life of the Christian is a process of grabbing hold of these promise and responding with wholehearted praise. Because the Triune God will bring about his perfect victory, we must learn to give this perfect response.

The angels who proclaimed the Messiah's birth also "long to look into" this good news.

Psalm 147 is written for exiles, including Christian exiles, to those who are not home yet. The message of Psalm 147 is similar to what angels told the shepherds on the first Christmas:  glory to God and peace on earth. As we look at this psalm on this Christmas Eve, come with eyes ready to see that the power and might of God has been displayed in a way that you can actually grasp it—not through outward strength, but through a manger and a cross.

Gen. 50:15–21 
Dan. 9:16–19 
Matt. 18:21–35; 
Eph. 4:30–32 
Sin is when we build up moral debt before God. God has commanded righteousness, and we have not lived up to it, and so we owe it to him. To forgive a debt is to release a person from that obligation. When we ask God to forgive us our debts, we’re asking him to release us from the obligation of paying him back. And when we pray about forgiving our debtors, we’re talking about having the ability to release someone from the debt they owe to us. In this message, we why Jesus has added the phrase—“as we forgive our debtors”? We’ll see three answers to that question.

Psalm 139 is the psalm of a person who is willing to admit that God is inescapable. It teaches us three ways that this is so: in his knowledge, in his presence, and in his judgment. These things are good news for those who have received his grace. But they are terrifying news for those who haven’t. In this sermon, we see how these aspects of the inescapable God applied to David originally, to Jesus when he arrived, and to us as Christians in our day. 

Deut. 8:1–5 
Ps. 62 
Mark 6:34–43 
Jas. 1:9–18 
The 4th request in the Lord's Prayer is, “Give us, this day, our daily bread.” Why does Christ include this very down-to-earth petition in his model prayer? (1) To teach us what we really need; (2) To teach us that He’s the provider; (3) to teach us to trust Him completely.

At the heart of Psalm 105 is God’s covenant with his people, a covenant of grace that stretches to our own day. The same promises belong to us in the new covenant. The only difference is that these promises have reached their fulfillment in Christ. Now Israel’s history as the people of God is our history.  As they were commanded to remember God’s faithfulness in previous times, this psalm calls us to remember God’s faithfulness in our day as well—that he has promised us a homeland and, even now, is guiding us into that land despite the many dangers along the way