How do you know if that book, bible study, teacher or preacher, or website you are looking at is truly a good Christian thing? There are a lot of things that place themselves under the label of Christian. Out of curiosity I looked at what Amazon sells under the label of Christian books and got 80,000 results. 80,000 books all claiming to be good Christian teaching. Then we consider the thousands of Christian podcasts and tv shows. Needless to say, with this many options, I hope that you realize ...
Apr 19, 2021•42 min
There are a lot of things that place themselves under the label of Christian. Out of curiosity I looked at what Amazon sells under the label of Christian books and got 80,000 results. 80,000 books all claiming to be good Christian teaching. Then we consider the thousands of Christian podcasts and tv shows. Needless to say, with this many options, I hope that you realize that all that labels itself as Christian is not indeed Christian. It is important to realize this because, as we saw a couple w...
Apr 12, 2021•42 min
What does Easter Sunday mean to you? Jelly Beans, Chocolate Bunnies, Easter Baskets, Breakfast with family, Easter dresses and suits? Of all the holidays we celebrate, this one is the most important. All of history centers on this weekend over 2000 years ago. For on this weekend, our sin was pardoned, our souls were redeemed, and lives were justified through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ on the cross. But the glorious message of the cross is not just that Jesus died in our place. Rathe...
Apr 05, 2021•41 min
Ours is a society that does not place a high value on the work. In a day in which we are told there is record level unemployment, businesses are struggling to find those who are unemployed. In an NPR article last month, one business owner commented, “I keep hearing about all the unemployed people, I certainly can't find any of those folks.” As you drive through the county you will notice business after business hiring. Yet, no one seems to want to work. According to one recent survey, 70% of Ame...
Mar 29, 2021•43 min
Every good coach focuses on the fundamentals of the sport with their team. No team can succeed if they fail in the fundamentals. A football team that can’t tackle, block, or run the right routes will lose a lot. Any basketball team that can’t dribble, pass, or shoot will lose a lot. During his career, every offseason, Peyton Manning would go and meet for a week with his old college quarterback’s coach. That week all they would do is practice the fundamentals of playing quarterback. They would sp...
Mar 08, 2021•40 min
Millennials: can you believe them? With their distressed jeans, avocado toast, and entitled perspective. You’ve heard statements like this. The older generation has taken to calling them snowflakes. Soft, weak, insignificant. Millennials (and Generation Z) responded with the derogatory phrase, “OK, boomer” as a way to pass off the attacks as ramblings of old people yelling at clouds. Generational challenge and conflict has been a reality from the dawn of time. The older generation looks at the y...
Mar 01, 2021•38 min
What makes a successful church? What makes a successful servant of God? These are perhaps the most important questions we must ask in any church. The problem reveals itself in the fact that there are so many answers to these questions in the Christian world today. Most measure the success of a church by the number of attenders. A large church equals a successful church. A small church means that something is wrong. This view means that everything should be done to get people in the seats. Anothe...
Feb 22, 2021•49 min
Over the last three years we have continually emphasized the importance of the Word. We sing the Word, pray the Word, Read the Word, preach the Word, picture the Word (through the ordinances), so that will live the Word. This emphasis is vital because the Word is Truth. In John 17:17, Christ states, Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. We must remain solidly on the Word of God because many who claim the name of Christ do not follow the Word of God. Just because something claims to be ...
Feb 15, 2021•37 min
Throughout the first part of 1 Timothy we have been examining the Biblical structure of the church. We have been called to stand for Biblical fidelity, we have answered the questions, what is a woman to do in the church? What is a pastor to be? And what is a deacon to be? However, as we have examined these instructions, perhaps you have wondered, Is this really a big deal? Many of these instructions go directly contrary to modern thinking and perhaps even our own thinking, So why is it so import...
Feb 08, 2021•45 min
Caring for the church is a big task. This quickly became evident in the early church. As the apostles preached and the church grew, the needs grew along with it. In short order, a conflict arose because some felt that they were not being adequately cared for. We see this in Acts 6. Interestingly, the apostles did not step in to solve the problem. Instead, they instructed the church to select a group of men to oversee the care for these individuals. The spiritual care of the church is demanding a...
Feb 01, 2021•46 min
There is a pandemic sweeping the nation. Do you fear it? No, I am not talking about COVID. No, this pandemic is far worse. It is a pandemic of murder. This murder has nothing to do with gangs and guns. This murder is not confined to a large metropolitan area. This murder takes place all over the country, and even in our own county. Last year, this pandemic resulted in over 42.7 million lost lives globally. This pandemic is the sin of abortion. Last year Planned Parenthood reported over 300,000 a...
Jan 25, 2021•39 min
For the past two weeks we have been looking at the position of the pastor. The church is weak today because they have accepted men into the pastorate who are unqualified. We hold a high standard for this position. Paul covers this standard in our next text in 1 Timothy. In this text, Scripture presents very clear qualifications for a pastor.
Jan 18, 2021•34 min
At times I have been asked how America, our culture, and Christianity have arrived at the mess we are in. I have been blunt in my answer. The fault lies in the pulpit. The church has settled for and followed unqualified men. The church has forgotten what a pastor is to be. You see, not just anyone should serve behind this sacred desk. So, what is a pastor to be? Who should be a pastor? What expectations should we have of the pastor? There are a lot of views about this in the church today regardi...
Jan 11, 2021•37 min
Every January we pause our study to take some time and return to some foundational issues. We call this annual series, Foundations . This year, the next section in 1 Timothy lines up with what I want to cover in the Foundations series and so we will kill two birds with one stone as it were. We will continue our study in 1 Timothy as it covers some important foundational aspects of the church. This next section in 1 Timothy covers the leadership of a church. We believe that God has ordained two s...
Jan 04, 2021•29 min
What is Christmas all about? This is an important question for us to contemplate every 25th of December. This week I came across an article about Christmas written in 2015 by a man named Murray Bass. The title was, “What is Christmas About?” Here is a paragraph from that article: Then, there is the traditional Christmas: The holiday. It’s the celebration of love demonstrated by selfless giving, the celebration of goodness, of right over wrong, of giving our hearts to others who need our love. Th...
Dec 28, 2020•42 min
We often think of Mary, Jesus, the Shepherds, and the Wise Men when we think of the Christmas story. But there is so much we can learn from Joseph, the forgotten character.
Dec 21, 2020•29 min
Earlier this week, a news article came across my news feed that an actress named Ellen Page had decided that she was no longer a woman and is not identifying as a man named Elliott page. The article suggested that we were not only to honor this, we are to celebrate this. Our culture continually seeks to make gender a choice and believe that there are no repercussions of this. How did we get here? The foundation of gender fluidity is Feminism and Egalitarianism. As with every battle, there are so...
Dec 07, 2020•37 min
We speak often of the battles waging in culture today against Scriptural truths. But one battle we have not discussed much is the battle against biblical womanhood. This battle has been ongoing since the Fall in Genesis 3. Through each successive age and generation, this battle has morphed and changed. In America, this battle has taken on two distinct fronts which seem opposed to one another, but are allies in seeking to destroy the biblical view of womanhood. One front seeks to define women thr...
Nov 30, 2020•33 min
In this thanksgiving service, we looked at the challenge from Psalm 100 to give thanks to the Lord because He is God and He is good. In the midst of an unusual year, we need the reminder that God is in control and that He is good always.
Nov 23, 2020•23 min
This sermon continues last week message looking at the purpose for prayer and the posture in prayer.
Nov 16, 2020•27 min
It has been quite a week. This election week fits well with this year. Confusing, frustrating, fascinating, scary, worrisome, irritating might all be descriptors of this week. Maybe those who are old enough to remember the election of 1960 between JFK and Nixon thought that would be the most frustrating election of their lives. Maybe those of us who remember the hanging chads of the 2000 election thought that was going to the be most frustrating election of our lives. And then comes 2020. I will...
Nov 09, 2020•35 min
Muhammad Saeed al-Sahhaf served as the foreign minister of Iraq under Saddam Hussein. You probably know him as Bagdad Bob. During the second gulf war, he appeared on television regularly, proclaiming that the forces of Saddam Hussein were in fact winning the war. At one point he claimed that the American troops were committing suicide by the hundreds, and denied that any US tanks were in Bagdad when in fact the battle was only yards away from where he was speaking and the sounds of tank fire cou...
Nov 02, 2020•33 min
A man named Daniel Whittle captured the mystery and marvelous nature of salvation with a poem which has been put to music and has become a great hymn of the faith. He said this … I know not why Gods wonderous grace to me he hath made known, Nor why, unworthy, Christ and love, redeemed me for his own. But I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day. The wonder of salvation is that God would redeem unworthy depraved peop...
Oct 26, 2020•44 min
The greatest danger to the church does not exist outside the church, but rather inside the church. There is nothing outside the church that can destroy the church. Persecution from the world will never destroy the church. In fact, history has demonstrated the opposite. There is, however, something far more deadly and destructive that can destroy the church. Like a cancer than springs up inside the body, this springs up inside the church and renders it ineffective and ultimately dead. False teach...
Oct 19, 2020•43 min
Does is matter how a church is structured? A quick survey of the hundreds of churches in Hillsdale county will reveal a variety of church structures. Some are heavily structured, and some have very little structure. Does it matter what a church does? Again, a quick survey of the hundreds of churches in Hillsdale county will reveal a variety of actions by the churches. Does it matter what a church believes as long as they believe in Jesus? A quick survey of the hundreds of churches in Hillsdale c...
Oct 12, 2020•38 min
There is a classic movie many of you are familiar with called Princess Bride . In the movie, the hero Wesley is killed by the villain. Discovered by his friends, Wesley is taken to the miracle worker name miracle Max. As he examines Wesley, he informs the friends that Wesley is not actually all dead, he is just mostly dead. He revives Wesley and Wesley goes on to defeat the villain and save the princess his one true love. The humor of the scene is found in that idea of not being all dead, just b...
Oct 05, 2020•37 min
Due to the sensitive nature of the message by our missionary yesterday we cannot publish it online. So we are happy to bring you the next message in our Characteristics of a Healthy Church Series from 2019.
Sep 28, 2020•47 min
Through the most horrific act in history, our redemption was gained. However, this was no mistake. This was God's plan from before the foundation of the world. Pastor Dave discusses this amazing love as we continue through the Gospel of Mark
Sep 21, 2020•36 min
Due to technical difficulties we are unable to bring you yesterday's message from the Gospel of Mark. So we are reaching into our archives and brining you the second characteristic of a healthy church: A high view of God's Word. Originally preached on February 10, 2019.
Sep 14, 2020•39 min
One message seems clear in our world today as we contemplate all that is going on around us: Justice seems to be in grave danger. Whether we want to discuss the racial conflicts in our country, the debates in every state (and definitely here in Michigan) regarding the authority of the governor, the glaring hypocrisy of our national leaders, or the discriminate application of executive orders between various groups, the common theme is a lack of justice. To be honest, most don’t even have an idea...
Sep 07, 2020•39 min
