God was wondrously made a new people who are united by faith through the death and resurrection of Jesus. As a new nation, citizens of another country, what do we do with those people in this place of our exile who are in authority over us? In particular, how do we now relate to the government? Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on 1 Peter 2:13-17.
Children scooting ever closer to the birthday girl opening presents illustrates our own hearts on seeing the blessings of others. Yet our hearts are more sinister. The problem with our covetous hearts is we are trying to satisfy our longings with what only can be accomplished through redemption. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
Pastor Dan stepped back from his pastoral responsibilities in March of this year after a taxing struggle with COVID. However, the struggle was not merely physical as it quickly took on a spiritual dynamic. He wrestled with many of the challenges of depression until more recently when the darkness finally lifted. Listen to him share about the past few months and the Lord's faithfulness in the midst of it.
When we move towards other people to seek to further invest in and develop the relationship—whether in marriage, at work, with neighbors—we will encounter conflict. This is no different in the church. However, we must handle conflict in a way consistent with the gospel. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
If you're going to put a fence in, you need dig deep to set the fence posts in correctly. That way they can stand up under the weight of the fence and the pressures of changing seasons. Peter wants to set us deep by teaching us about who we are as a new people in Christ so that we will endure in faithfulness. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
We don't need any help craving. From the moment of our birth, we yearning for things. Some desires are good and proper, like that of a newborn for milk. It is proper to desire life-sustaining nourishment. Other thirsts are ... not so good. This is why we must reorient on the gospel that we would be fed with all that God intends so that we would persevere through our exile. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
A skinny chef. An honest politician. A mechanic with clean hands. The descriptions don’t exactly match the role. Neither does “ungodly evangelist.” In our zeal to press into the joyful mission, we can focus on all the right arguments and tactics yet overlook the basic call to be a Christ-like witness. If we are going to make a winsome call to the world of the hope of the gospel, we must live like we believe it. Listen to Pastor Brett's exhortation for more.
Our culture is confused about love. Two common directions the confusion goes is toward an overly emotive view that is all about butterflies in your stomach. Another direction is toward moral relativism; "love is love." Both confused directions have the self at the center. However, the clear teaching of God's Word points us another direction: love sincerely from a pure heart. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
After spending 100 days completely alone in the wilderness as part of a reality TV show, the winner reflected on the moment. Over the course of his isolation, he shared how he loved being alone. Yet at the victory, he reflects on the most significant relationship of his life. God did not make us to be alone but to press into relationships. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
The HMS Queen Elizabeth is a new, state-of-the-art British aircraft carrier that powers its propellers in a new way. The engines are located throughout the ship and massive electrical lines power the propellers. Sailors have to be focused when they're in a compartment with the electrical lines; a wrong move could be fatal. It's a situation where familiarity breeding contempt could be very dangerous. A parallel dynamic is at work in 1 Peter 1:17-21. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more....
It would be insanity for a driver to turn the rearview mirror while driving to only be able to see her own face and gaze directly into the mirror, being unconcerned with where she is going or what's happening on the road. Such is the folly of pride, regardless of the form it takes. Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation to turn the mirror.
Dorothy Sayers once wrote about envy saying, " It begins by asking, plausibly, ‘Why should I not enjoy what others enjoy?’ and it ends by demanding, ‘Why should others enjoy what I may not?’” That's the discontented progression of this "respectable sin." Where do you look at others' rejoicing not to share in their rejoicing but with sinful longing? Listen to Pastor Brett's exhortation for more.
Peter tells us at the end of his first epistle that he wrote the letter to declare and exhort his readers concerning the true grace of God. This is evident earlier in the letter as declares the truth of the gospel written of by the prophets and exhorts us to have thoughtful hope and consistent holiness. Listen to Pastor Haakon's sermon on 1 Peter 1:10-16 for more.
John Lennon's song "Imagine" begins "Imagine there's no heaven / It's easy if you try / No hell below us / Above us, only sky / Imagine all the people / Livin' for today." That worldview works ... until it doesn't. When suffering and hardship comes, how well will "livin' for today" work? We're pointed to something far better in 1 Peter 1:6-9 when we are grieved by various trials. Listen to Pastor Zach's sermon for more.
When sinful anxiety takes hold of your thoughts and emotions, how do you respond? Continuing to mull over what it is that you are anxious about fails to take into account your inability to resolve the issue. Rather, we can pray and entrust those burdens to our Father in Heaven who has broad shoulders to bear them. Listen to Brian Wiseman's exhortation for more.
"Doctrine" can sound academic, stuffy, unrelatable. But "doctrine" is just what the Bible teaches, and we should never settle for a shallow understanding of what God has revealed in the Bible. The Bible is academic and devotional, challenging and rewarding, transcendent and imminent. We should dig in to doctrine. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
Pickles are preserved through canning as the flame heats the water to boiling and the jars are sealed in the water. We ought to take hope in the midst of exile knowing that just as we have been caused to be born again by God's great mercy, so he will keep us by that same mercy. He preserves us by guarding us with the flame of his power through the boiling water of our faith. You have faith in Christ? Blessed be God! Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
When you’re paddling in the front of the canoe and not responsible for navigation, you can feel like you’re expending a lot of energy to go somewhere but aimless in where you’re going. At the beginning of this new series in 1 Peter, we’re given orientation to where we’re going in the midst of our exile as Peter points to our hope in the Triune God. Listen to Pastor Brett’s sermon on 1 Peter 1:1-2 for more.
The “honeymoon phase” of a new purchase, relationship, or experience can be an enjoyable time period, but it can also mask underlying issues. As a church, we’ve enjoyed wonderful unity in the midst of a very unified year in the world. But may such unity not merely be a phase but the Spirit’s work among as we press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Listen to Pastor Brett’s exhortation for more.
A common theme in novels and movies is for the conflict to look the bleakest just before the final victory arrives. Those stories are written that way because that's how God writes the greatest story: the Son of God dies in apparent defeat just before being risen to ultimate victory. It is the same pattern as the final vision of Daniel is communicated. God's people have reason to hope in the face of suffering because the victory is sure. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
Do you use your Christian freedom more like a pass or a shovel? Do you view your freedom as the ticket that gives you the license to do something? Or do you view your freedom to do this or that as a Christian as a tool that will be constructive and build up? Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
Who appreciates a the scent of a rotting fish or spoiled fruit? Why then would we speak words that do not give grace to those who hear us? Our speech can do so much good and so much harm. We ought to give more attention to what we say and what we choose not to say. Listen to Brian Wiseman's exhortation for more.
Climb to the top of Yosemite Falls, all 2,500 feet of it, and you'll find at the top no guardrail or fence. Only the foolish walk up to the edge and peer over. But if there was a fence deeply anchored in the granite, that would change things. Daniel 11 reveals God's meticulous sovereignty over the future to be like a fence on a lofty overlook—it provides confidence where only fear and anxiety would otherwise be. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
"Cancel culture" disciples us to play up any semblance of victimhood and glory in being offended. That is not the way of following Christ in all of life. Christian, we ought to entrust ourselves to a faithful Creator when we suffer according to God's will and glory in overlooking offense. Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation for more.
In our materialistic society, the mantra "science is real" lends to a worldview that says the supernatural is a fairy tale for children. But even a peacock or the human eye captures wonder that point beyond this world. And the struggle we are in with suffering and sorrow likewise extends beyond this world. There are unseen actors at work influencing the course of human history. Listen to Pastor Haakon's sermon on Daniel 10.
Much attention in Daniel 9 is given to the last four verses, however when we look at the chapter in full, we see more of God's purpose in revealing a mysterious vision about 70 "weeks." God answered a prayer about a promise of 70 years, and he was going to do far more than one prophet could ask or imagine in fulfilling that promise. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Daniel 9 for more.
In the midst of a month dedicated by our culture to celebrating sin and rebellion, the temptation might not be to cave and go with the flow. Rather, we may be inclined to apologize for God's Word and standard for human sexuality. We ought instead to love the standard, and love what God has created. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
"Home is where the heart is" yet Jesus says our heart is where our treasure is. "Home" can so easily become our greatest treasure. Even as we seek a "home" as a church, we must be watchful to not let a place take prominence. After all, it is not the things in the presence of the Lord that provides the fullness of joy, rather we are made full of gladness with his presence. Listen to Pastor Brett's exhortation for more.
When you've got sinus pressure that last a few days, it feels like it never end. How much more so when walking through far greater suffering? Daniel 8 was revealed and written for your encouragement. God knows the future, reveals it as he wills, and sets the limits and parameters of the suffering his people will experience. Take hope; your suffering is not boundless and unending. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
As we pray for God to call new disciples to himself—the great task he has commissioned us for (Matthew 28:18-20)—we too often can go about it as though such a work is entirely dependent on us. Such a work is not dependent on cleverly devised myths or words of eloquent wisdom or lofty speech and wisdom. Rather, it is depend on God, so we pray. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
