Friday. That’s the day I’m planning on letting you all know what’s changing and what’s coming. I can’t wait to fill you all in and get it started next Monday! In the meantime, here’s this week’s Bible teaching clip that comes from the first message of a new series I started this last Sunday. This stuff never ceases to blow me away. Christ Crucified - it’s what we preach, it’s what we believe, and it’s what God has told us it has always been…even from the beginning of time. Check this out!

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We have limits as humans. We can’t do everything good, think about everything that needs to be thought of, speak out on everything that needs to be addressed, take a stand on everything that needs defended. The important thing to remember is that our limits are God-given. He never expected us to do all those things. That’s not what is required of a “good” believer, no matter what we’ve done in the internet age to try to convince ourselves otherwise. In this final clip I’ll share from my sermon two weeks ago, I talk about our limits and what it takes to please God. This clip is a little longer than normal because it includes that 90 second clip from the youth event I wrote about a couple weeks ago.

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I have bizarre memories from my childhood. Just random things that you wouldn’t ordinarily think a person would remember. Creating tunnels through the tall grass near the back fence of our side yard, carving a small hole in the bark of a perfect sitting branch in the backyard tree, and then this one that I talk about in this clip. At least with this one, there’s a spiritual application I think can help us. (Incidentally, I’m out of the pulpit at Jerome for 2 weeks, so this week and next week’s clips will be pulled from the last sermon I gave there…just didn’t want you to think I wore the same outfit three weeks in a row.)

We publish these message clips every week in an effort to help disciple those wanting to grow deeper in the word and closer to Christ. If you’d like to join us and support our ministry, I’d be thrilled if you’d consider being part of our paid subscriber group:

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One of the reasons I believe we struggle so badly worrying about whether or not our mortal, sinful lives can ever truly please an immortal, utterly perfect God is this: while we are very good at understanding and seeing God as our eternal Judge, we are usually pretty poor at understanding and seeing God as our heavenly Father. In other words, we can easily picture ourselves in God’s courtroom, but we struggle mightily picturing ourselves standing in His living room. That’s what I tried to illuminate in this clip.

We publish these message clips every week in an effort to help disciple those wanting to grow deeper in the word and closer to Christ. If you’d like to join us and support our ministry, I’d be thrilled if you’d consider being part of our paid subscriber group:

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If you’ve ever read the Sermon on the Mount, I’d be shocked if you could say you never experienced discouragement. Not because you find Jesus off-putting, of course, but because you realize just how difficult it is to faithfully follow His teaching. It can make you feel an immense burden of guilt, thinking there’s no way you’re on the path to hearing, “Well done.” But there is some powerful text in those pages of Matthew 5-7 that should encourage us. I spent this week trying to draw those out, and here’s a portion of it.

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One of the biggest burdens I carry as a believer is the nagging guilt that I need to be reading my Bible more. Don’t get me wrong, I make an effort, but life gets in the way. I know that speaks poorly for my priorities, but there’s no sense in pretending I don’t want to do better in that way. This last week, we looked to lift that burden by transforming the study of God’s word into the joy that it should be for all of us. And it starts with letting go of the check boxes. Take a listen to this clip and see if it can help you.

We publish these message clips every week in an effort to help disciple those wanting to grow deeper in the word and closer to Christ. If you’d like to join us and support our ministry, I’d be thrilled if you’d consider being part of our paid subscriber group:

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We are rich. An independent review I saw concluded that the poorest Americans have higher incomes than 95% of all people who have ever lived. So how can we hear all the warnings in Scripture about the dangers of wealth and the great difficulty a rich person has getting into heaven without becoming paralyzed with fear? That was the subject of this week’s message that I shared with the congregation, which included this little analogy about my glorious piece of classroom pottery.

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Is the Great Commission for us? As in, personally? It clearly states that new disciples of Jesus (which we once were) are commanded to go and make more disciples. And it clearly states that this mission is to extend to the “end of the age,” which includes now. So does that then mean we’re supposed to sell all we have and head out to take Christ’s name and His gospel to the nations? Are we all to be missionaries to be faithful Christians? What does that Bible actually teach? This clip hopefully helps answer that question.

We publish these message clips every week in an effort to help us all grow deeper in the word and closer to Christ. If you’d like to join us and support our ministry, I’d be thrilled if you’d consider being part of our paid subscriber group:

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False humility about our pursuit of righteousness isn’t a way to bless God. Consider what it says to those around us when the Holy Spirit has been at work in our lives, transforming us and conforming us to the will of Father, for 10, 20, or 30 years, and all we testify to is how miserable of sinners we are. Our boasting should be in the cross of Christ! The grace that saves us also changes us, and that’s something the world should know we recognize and celebrate! Take a look at this clip.

We publish these message snippets every week in an effort to help us all grow deeper in the word and closer to Christ. If you’d like to join us and support our ministry, I’d be thrilled if you’d consider being part of our paid subscriber group:

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In our pursuit of holiness and righteousness it’s easy to get discouraged. Discouraged not only because we fail so often, but also because even when we “succeed,” we seem to be increasingly aware of our many flaws and faults. Before Christ, we were pretty convinced we were “good” people. With Christ, we seem overly conscious of how bad we are. Here’s why that’s actually a great thing!

We publish these clips every week in an effort to help us all grow deeper in the word and closer to Christ. If you’d like to join us and support our ministry, I’d be thrilled if you’d consider being part of our paid subscriber group:

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit peterheck.substack.com/subscribe