The events of this past year have produced more disunity in our nation, our communities, and in our families than I have ever personally experienced. Differing responses to the COVID pandemic have created a division between those who desire more caution and those who desire less. Differing opinions on politics have created multiple fracture lines that are too many to mention. Tension over racial issues has created divisions on how such issues should be addressed. As a pastor, I have seen how these fault lines have created division within the Church. Emotions run high; fellowship is broken; factions form; social media becomes a minefield of unfiltered grandstanding and name-calling, and brothers and sisters in Christ divide. No doubt a great shuffling will occur within the broader Church because of the events of the last year. How then are we to maintain unity in the midst of so many potential points of conflict? In our passage for this Sunday, the Apostle Paul addresses the question of unity in the Church. There were factions in the early Church that demanded outward obedience to the ceremonial law of the Old Testament, including circumcision. Yet Paul insists that to require non-Jewish believers to submit to these laws was to abandon the true gospel. Would this issue split the young Church, or would there be unity within the leadership? What we will see in our passage is that unity in the Church, both then and now, is founded upon nothing else but the gospel of grace in Jesus Christ. To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon Galatians 1:18-2:10, Romans 12:4, 2 Corinthians 8:23, Galatians 5:1, Ephesians 4:1-6, and Westminster Confession of Faith 20.

Perrier is the iconic French sparkling water. And on each label of the green bottles, it says, “Source: Perrier.” The Perrier spring is a naturally pure spring in southern France that produces carbonated water. This spring has been known of since the Roman period and in the last century, it has become the premier bottled sparkling water. Central to its popularity is the purity that is achieved by drawing the water directly from this particular spring. No one would be interested in sparkling water that was sourced from David’s backyard hose. However, since each bottle of Perrier comes directly from a known pure source people trust its purity. In our passage for this week, the Apostle Paul continues his defense of the gospel against the false gospel of the Judaizers. Here Paul argues that the Galatians can have confidence in the gospel because it comes from the purest of sources, God himself. And what we will see is that we can have great confidence in the gospel because it comes directly from the source of all truth, the Lord Jesus Christ. To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon Galatians 1:11-17, 1 Thessalonians 2:13, 2 Timothy 3:16, 1John 5:9, and Westminster Confession of Faith 1.4.

Why is Paul so upset in his letter to the Galatians? It was a common form, in first-century letter writing, to offer some type of thanksgiving or compliment to the recipient. If one investigates Paul’s other epistles, he will find that Paul follows this convention. However, in Galatians, he skips with the initial gestures and goes right to his complaint. The Galatian churches had received the gospel by God’s gracious call, but they were quickly abandoning the gospel of free grace to follow after a false gospel of law. Like the Israelites who began to worship the golden calf when Moses lingered on Mount Sinai, so too are the Galatians who quickly turned from the gospel following their salvation. This addition of the law to the gospel is no small matter. Rather in Paul’s estimation, it is a complete rejection of the gospel. For there is some in the nature of the gospel that is so exclusive that to add anything to it is to fundamentally change its character. If one were to add the requirement of circumcision to the gospel, it is no longer the gospel. If one were to add the requirement of ritual, or deeds, or prayers to the gospel it would so fundamentally change the character of the gospel to make it no gospel at all. This exclusive nature of the gospel is why Paul begins his letter with such abruptness. He wants to make the point as clear as possible: If anything is added to the gospel of free grace in Christ, it is no longer the gospel. To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon Galatians 1:6-10, Exodus 32:7-10, Matthew 6:24, Romans 11:6, Galatians 1:12, 1 Thessalonians 2:1-8, and Westminster Confession of Faith 10.2.

No Other Gospel: A Study of Galatians Everyone is born a legalist. That is to say, everyone has a natural tendency to view acceptance and reward as the just fruits of our proper action. This instinct can be useful and helpful in this world. Children who behave and study are rewarded with acceptance and good grades. Employees who follow protocols and work hard are often rewarded with greater job security or even a raise. This obedience/reward scheme has its benefits. It is good to have a system that provides a means of rewarding desired behavior and talent. For example, it is good for everyone when the best surgeons are well rewarded for their work. Our community does not want to be left sloppy or lazy surgeons to fix our broken backs or remove our cancerous tumors. Therefore, we reward those who perform well. However, our obedience/reward scheme is misguided when it is applied as a starting point for a relationship. Parents love and seek the best for their children, not after their children prove their obedience but from the moment of their birth. It is all of grace that a mother and a father will serve their child. Something is lacking when a family bases love and acceptance in performance. Rather a child needs a foundation of care to move forward in fruitful behavior. They must begin with the foundational truth that they are loved prior to any performance. When it comes to our relationship with God, we are tempted to base it upon our ability to perform his law. Yet sin has so infected our behavior that we could do nothing to deserve God’s acceptance and reward. The way that our relationship with God must begin is by his gracious and unmerited acceptance of us through Christ. The gospel is the foundation, the beginning, of our relationship with God. As we begin our sermon series through the book of Galatians we see that Paul begins with the gospel. The Galatians were being wooed to a false gospel of works. However, what Paul explains is that to receive the reward of God’s acceptance we must begin with the gospel alone. To come prepared for the sermon, take time this week to read and to meditate upon Galatians 1:1-5, Acts 9:1-30, Romans 11:13, Ephesians 1:3-6, and Westminster Confession of Faith 11.3.

It is easy to think of prayer as an inward-looking practice. However, what we see in the word of God is that there is nothing more powerful than prayer to send people out on a mission. This first Sunday of the year we will begin by looking at the power that prayer gives to move people out into the world on a God-given mission. This sermon will complete a series of sermons that were begun this fall as part of our outdoor evening service. We spent time looking at the practices to which the early church was devoted. These practices included being devoted to the teaching of the Apostle, the fellowship, and the breaking of bread. We will finish this series by looking at how the early church’s devotion to prayer empowered their mission to spread the gospel to the ends of the earth. To come prepared for the sermon take time this week to read and to meditate upon Acts 2:42-47, Matthew 24:14, Acts 1:8, and Colossians 4:3.

I think it's safe to say we all want to lead productive lives. We want to give ourselves to people and projects that add meaning and joy to our lives and there's. That's why it can be frustrating when you come to the end of your day, and there are still things left to do. There are unfinished projects and plans. There are unreturned emails and phone calls. It can be frustrating to end your day like that. Do you suppose Jesus had unfinished business at the end of his day and if so, did it frustrate him? To answer that question, we'll look at a day in the life of Jesus from Mark 1. What we'll see there may surprise you and will definitely encourage you as you head into the new year. To come prepared for the sermon take time this week to read and to meditate upon Mark 1. In worship this week, we'll sing about the angelic birth announcement of Jesus in "Angels We Have Heard on High," be encouraged by the triumphant birth of Christ in "Good Christian Men, Rejoice!" and be reminded that Jesus has saved us into his family, which is "diverse, yet truly one," as we sing "We Are God's People." Julie Haley will also be singing a stirring rendition of "O Holy Night" for our Offertory Anthem that will have us falling to our knees in awe and praise of the gospel's hope and power. Text: Mark 1:35-39 Title: Unfinished Business Outline: Intimacy with God informs our identity Intimacy with God informs our priorities

On this fourth Sunday of Advent, we focus our attention on the theme of love. Love is a difficult theme to grasp since its nature eludes simple definition. One simplistic expression of love is the feeling of attraction. In this manner one might say, “I love my wife Linda, my child John, my dog Farfel, Virginia Tech football, and chocolate chip cookies.” Another simplistic expression of love’s nature is action, irrespective of emotion. Love is choosing to do what is right. Love is changing diapers, providing a secure home, cooking dinner, and funding college. This dichotomy creates an unnatural tension in the understanding and experience of love. A more satisfying view of love must account for both emotion and action. When love is expressed merely as a positive emotion it is not manifested properly. For example, a father may feel love for his child, however, if he is not willing to sacrifice his own desires for his child’s well-being, that love is without substance. Provision, stability, time, attention, discipline, and reliability are all needed expressions of true paternal love. Emotion without action is not love. On the other hand, when love devolves into action divorced from emotion it is distasteful and sterile. To receive a duty-bound gift is unsatisfying. A father who provides food but not tenderness leaves his child alone and isolated. Love without emotion is hypocritical. Both affection and action must lie with the scope of true love. The Lord’s perfect love is expressed in Psalm 136. His disposition of love toward his people leads to tangible results. The Hebrew word hesed (repeated twenty-six times in Psalm 136) expresses how the Lord loves his people through keeping promises. Translated as steadfast love, hesed, means love expressed through fulfilling a covenant vow. God is not a mere philosophical concept nor a mechanical process. He is a relational being who loves his creatures and acts on their behalf. He enters into a relationship with his people and then he acts to bring that love into historical reality. He makes a promise in love, and he keeps his promise as love. The promise of Christmas is that God so loved the world that he acted to ensure the world’s salvation. The oath of love was the forgiveness of sins and everlasting life. The action of love was the offering of Jesus Christ upon the cross. God is the Father who is both relationally loving and self-sacrificially providing. As Romans 5:8 says, “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8 ESV) In Psalm 136 we will learn that love’s promise defines loves fulfillment and that love's action completes love’s affection. To come prepared for worship take time this week to read and meditate upon Psalm 136, Genesis 12:1-3, Jeremiah 33:10-11, John 3:16, Romans 5:8, Ephesians 1:3-5, 1 John 4:9-10, and this article on God’s covenant-keeping love.

This Advent season we have focused our attention on the theme of waiting. We have seen that we are to wait with hope and with peace, and this week we will look at how we are to wait with joy. Psalm 97 begins and ends with a command to rejoice. To give praise to the Lord with gladness and joy. And this command is rooted in the reality of the Lord’s control over all the earth. As verse 1 of the Psalm says, “The Lord reigns, let the earth rejoice.” This is the key to waiting with joy, to know that the Lord reigns. All the hardships and struggles of life are brought into their proper perspective when we come to this one orienting truth. We live in a time of deep confusion and nihilism and in a culture of deep skepticism. To the unbelieving world, there is no meaning to the events of life and therefore no purpose. The only joy that can be found is in momentary pleasures. Nevertheless, those who know that the Lord reigns, knows that all of life has a purpose. That there is meaning in every action and thought. And this means that we can have joy because God is working all things toward a purpose, the glory of His name. As we wait for this purpose to be brought to full completion we can wait with joy because we know that it will truly come to pass. To come prepared for worship take time this week to read and meditate upon Psalm 97, Exodus 15:18, 1 Chronicles 16:31, Psalm 93:1; 96:10, Isaiah 52:7, Matthew 17:1-8, and Westminster Confession of Faith 3.

Throughout our lives we are often waiting. We wait for the alarm to wake us to a new day. We wait for the traffic lights to change as we drive to work/school. We wait for the work/school day to end to return to the comforts of home. Some of us are waiting to graduate from school, to hear from a job interview, to marry a fiancé, to deliver a baby. Many of us are waiting through seasons of suffering: waiting for results on cancer scans, waiting for a conflicted relationship to be reconciled, and all of us are waiting for a vaccine and to move beyond the Coronavirus. And during Advent, we wait for Christ’s coming and in the waiting, we enter into the expectations and hopes of Israel as they waited for the newborn King, the Lord Jesus Christ. How do we move forward in faith and hope as we wait? This Sunday we will learn from Psalm 33 that we can wait with hope because the LORD is with us as our God in the waiting. We wait with hope not because our circumstances may change soon, but because the LORD is on our side, working in us and working out his purposes in the world around us. As we wait for Sunday, come prepared by reading Psalm 33, 1 Peter 1:3-9, Romans 8:18-28, Genesis 50:20, Genesis 16:1-14, and 2 Kings 19:14