Greetings and welcome! This is our daily devotional for September 8, 2026. Today, we continue our series on Exodus in Chapter 2, where God remembered His covenant with His people and where we receive a lesson on prayer. Thanks for joining us!

The sermon provides a hermeneutical framework for interpreting the Book of Psalms by viewing them primarily as conversations rather than solely prayers. It argues against exclusive psalmody and instrumental restrictions by tracing the biblical history of music back to Genesis and highlighting the etymological roots of the word psalm. The central teaching introduces a 'divine triangle' model with God at the apex and the righteous and wicked at the base to identify speakers, audiences, and theological contrasts within the text. This method is applied to Psalm 2, demonstrating how the psalm depicts earthly rebellion against heavenly coronation and offers grace to the nations. The overall intent is to equip listeners with a clearer understanding of poetic structure and gospel themes embedded in the Psalter.

Our regular 9:00 AM worship service

Continuing a study through the dispensations, the preacher takes up the law of sowing and reaping as God establishes it in the opening chapters of Genesis. From the curses pronounced after the first transgression, he shows that a man reaps the very thing he sows and reaps it multiplied, tracing that principle through Cain's descent from rebellion into murder and on into the corruption of a whole world. He applies it plainly to daily life: strife, lust, dishonesty and neglect cannot yield peace, purity, trust or love, because sowing to the flesh reaps corruption. He then sets against that the incorruptible seed of the word of God, and the gospel of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ, which brings forth everlasting life. The message closes with a call to be sowers who plant that good seed in their own hearts and in the lives of others.

Our regular 9:00 AM worship service

The sermon contrasts the first temptation of Adam and Eve in Genesis with Jesus' victory over Satan in the wilderness as recorded in Luke chapter four. It highlights three specific temptations—physical comfort, worldly power, and testing God—and demonstrates how Christ resisted each by relying on the Word of God. The preacher emphasizes that Jesus succeeded where Israel and Adam failed, securing redemption for humanity through His perfect obedience. Believers are encouraged to find their own victory over sin not in their own strength but in submitting to God and resisting the devil. The message concludes with practical advice to memorize scripture and declare that the Lord is one's portion when facing spiritual warfare.

This sermon examines Exodus 7 to highlight God's sovereign authority and the delegation of power through Moses. It contrasts the true divine power displayed in Aaron's rod with the counterfeit miracles of Egyptian magicians, illustrating that God ultimately swallows up all opposition. The preacher emphasizes that Pharaoh's hardened heart serves to demonstrate God's supremacy and judgment against idolatry. The text connects these Old Testament events to the New Testament reality of Christ's victory over sin and death at Calvary. Finally, it urges believers to obey God's word without compromise and to give Him all glory for their deliverance.

Closing out the first chapter of John, the preacher takes up the promise of angels ascending and descending upon the Son of man and traces it back to Jacob's dream of the ladder in Genesis 28. He argues that the ladder is a picture of Christ Himself, the only one who is both fully God and fully man, and therefore the only one who can join earth to heaven and bring sinners to the Father. The message contrasts man's attempts to climb to God by works, law-keeping and religion with the finished work God set up on His own, where the sinner is called simply to behold and trust. A warning runs alongside it: Jacob slept through the setting up of the ladder, and men can sleep through the very revelation of the Messiah placed right in front of them. It closes with a call to wake up, stay in the word, and make Christ known while the time is short.

Pastor Jeremiah Gabbard | Genesis 2:1-6 The sermon examines Genesis chapter 2 to clarify the completion of creation and the sanctification of the seventh day. The speaker argues that this passage provides detailed elaboration on the initial creation account rather than a second or third act of creation. A central theological point is that the Sabbath was established as a sign specifically for the nation of Israel at Mount Sinai, not as a universal command for all humanity from the beginning. The preacher emphasizes the distinction between God's creative power and His work of making, highlighting the unique status of man created in God's image. The message aims to correct misconceptions about biblical chronology and the specific covenantal context of Sabbath observance.

Many of you remember the old Life Alert commercial. An elderly woman lies on the floor, unable to rise, and cries out, "I've fallen… and I can't get up!" That cry is not merely physical. It is the cry of every human heart after man's rebellion in Genesis 3. We have fallen—and left to ourselves we cannot get up. Grab your Bible and join us from the Chatham Transition Ministries weekly Bible study as we open the chapter that explains how that fall happened, why it still defines us, and why the only One who can lift us is the Seed of the woman who crushed the serpent's head. Listen carefully. The story of our ruin and the first promise of our recovery are both here.