McGregor Podcast

Were the feeding of the 5,000 and the feeding of the 4,000 the same event? Some scholars say yes, and they use that claim to cast doubt on the reliability of the Gospels and the whole of Scripture.

In this episode of Beyond the Notes, Elder Peter Finch walks through the specific differences between the two miracles: the location, the crowd, the season, the amount of food used, the length of time the people had been with Jesus, the Greek word for "basket," and the crowd's response afterward. He also examines Matthew 16, where Jesus himself references both feedings by name, and considers why Christ would repeat a miracle of this magnitude.

The answer has less to do with the bread and more to do with who Jesus is feeding. His provision is not reserved for one people group, one season, or one kind of person. He is the bread of life for Jews and Gentiles, for the familiar and the stranger, for those who have come to church for years and those who have never walked through the door.

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The King Has Come

"Thy Compassions, They Fail Not"

In Matthew 15, Jesus moves through Gentile territory with the same compassion He showed Israel. He heals the lame, the blind, the crippled, and the mute, then feeds a crowd of 4,000 with seven loaves and a few small fish. Elder Peter Finch walks through both of these moments to show what compassion actually means. Not a polite feeling, but a God who sees pain, suffers alongside it, and acts to relieve it. He also addresses the disciples' tendency to forget what God has already done, a tendency that is easy to recognize because it is our own. The sermon closes with a direct call to anyone who has not yet come to Christ: God's patience toward you is itself an act of compassion, meant to draw you to repentance.

Sermon Notes

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Week of June 14

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"G.R.E.A.T. Faith"

In Matthew 15, a Canaanite woman comes to Jesus with a need that no one around her could address. She was not a Jew. She had no standing. And yet she fixed her eyes on Jesus, called Him Lord and Son of David, and refused to move no matter what came at her. In this sermon, Elder Omar Edwards walks through five elements of great faith using her story as the frame: God-focused, Repentant, Earnest, Adoring, and Tenacious. He draws a sharp contrast between this woman and the disciples who had witnessed miracle after miracle and still struggled to trust. The sermon calls both believer and unbeliever to consider what it actually means to come to Jesus, not for what He can give, but in repentance, humility, and desperate need.

Sermon Notes

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

There's a lot happening at McGregor right now, and the people you love being around are talking about all of it.

Mark, Tamar, and Christian are back this week covering the Renew Phase 2 permit news (spoiler: they're back on schedule), a Vacation Bible School preview that sounds like it's taken over the whole building, and a new summer Bible study series called "How to Handle Life's Interruptions." Plus, a welcome to Lydia Coggin, the newest addition to the staff.

If you haven't found your way into Around McGregor yet, this week is a good place to start.

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Holiness in Worship & Living, from our Midweek Bible Study: "Holiness of God" - 6.3.26

Taught by Mike Whitt.

What does it mean that God is holy, and why does it matter how you live today? In this Journey Together teaching, Elder Mike Whitt walks through the holiness of God not as a single attribute among many, but as the crowning perfection that defines everything God is. Drawing on Archibald Hodge's description of holiness as God's "consummate perfection and total glory," and R.C. Sproul's shorthand of "transcendent purity," Mike unpacks two frameworks for understanding God's

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Can external discipline actually change you from the inside out?

In this Beyond the Notes teaching, Pastor Russell Howard works through Colossians 2:16-23, where Paul identifies two dangers for believers: the legalistic judgment of others and the illusion of holiness through self-made religion. From dietary restrictions to ascetic practices to claims of superior spiritual experience, Paul's argument is direct. These things have an appearance of wisdom, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

The episode closes with Galatians 5:16, what Pastor Russell calls the single most concise and powerful verse in the New Testament on gaining mastery over the desires of the flesh. There are no rules to add, no habits to adopt. There is one command: walk by the Spirit. This teaching is for anyone who has tried harder and still come up short, and who wants to understand what actually produces real growth.

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"Tradition"

In this sermon from our ongoing study of the Gospel of Matthew, Pastor Russell Howard draws a line between spiritual discipline and spiritual deception. Habits and behaviors can be genuinely helpful to a believer's walk with God. But when external conformity becomes a substitute for biblical obedience, or when rule-keeping becomes the currency we use to earn God's love, those traditions become dangerous. They inoculate us against the very thing Scripture calls true holiness.

Jesus encounters the Pharisees at the height of this tension. They have traveled over 100 miles from Jerusalem to challenge his disciples over a handwashing tradition rooted not in God's law but in the oral traditions of the rabbis. Jesus turns the accusation around: they are enforcing human rules while violating the actual commandments of God. He quotes Isaiah, "This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me." Then in verses 10 through 20, he makes an assertion that upends their entire framework. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person. It is what comes out of the heart. The real problem has never been unwashed hands. It has always been an unwashed heart.

Pastor Russell closes with this anchor from Ephesians 2: "By grace we have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." Obedience matters, but obedience proceeds from a transformed heart, not from an attempt to earn favor with God. If you have been trying to make God love you more, this message is the grace-shaped correction you didn't know you needed.

Sermon Notes

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

What does community look like when the building is still under construction?

On this week's Around McGregor, hosts Mark Bricker, Tamar Miller, and Christian Miller cover the week of May 31st. Topics include the return of newcomers coffee on Main Street between services, the prospective member class registration deadline, four life groups relocating to the modular building as Joy Building renovations begin, a brand new young adult life group for ages 30-40 launching Sunday, June 14th in the library, VBS Rainforest Falls June 8-12 (registration open, preschool lobby already decorated), the international potluck following VBS, and 21 currently open employment positions at McGregor and SFCA.

Even in a season of transition, the people keep showing up. This episode is a snapshot of a church family doing exactly that.

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Holiness in Salvation and Sanctification, from our Midweek Bible Study: "Holiness of God" - 5.27.26

Taught by Omar Edwards.

Elder Omar Edwards opens this teaching with an honest confession: the call to live set apart for God sounds like an impossible standard, especially when someone cuts you off on I-75 right after church. Working from 1 Peter 1:13-19, Omar walks through four men in Scripture (Jacob, Job, Habakkuk, and Paul) who each wrestled with a holy God and came through with peace on the other side. The sermon addresses the real mindsets that keep believers from growing into who God has called them to be: a secular disconnection from His presence, suffering that distorts our view of Him, a self-first posture that indicts God when He does not respond on our terms, and a self-righteous spirit that grades others rather than examining itself. At the center of it all is a truth that steadies the whole message. God does not expect perfection, but He does expect growth, and that growth is possible only because Christ's righteousness has been credited to us. Anyone who has ever felt the distance between who they are and who God is calling them to be will walk away with both honest challenge and real hope.

Presented by McGregor Podcast 2026

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