To create a praising people

by | Apr 10, 2023 | Uncategorized

For our Easter gathering yesterday, we looked at 1 Peter 1:3-9, where Peter speaks in heightened, celebratory, exuberant terms about the salvation that God has secured in Jesus. But the thrust of the sermon was to notice that Peter’s fascination and joy does not stop...

Today starts in grief

by | Mar 30, 2023 | Uncategorized

By Anlee Fekkes Today starts in grief. I know joy comes in the morning, but today mourning comes in the morning. Yesterday a horrific tragedy took place. A person entered a school with a purpose to end other’s lives. We’re familiar with this story. It seems to be on...

Christ and his benefits

by | Mar 14, 2023 | Uncategorized

For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.  1 Corinthians 15:21-22 At the heart of Christianity is a coming to Christ, or more specifically, coming to God in...

You are the church

by | Jan 26, 2023 | Uncategorized

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. 1...

Spiritual gifts: six things to understand

by | Jan 18, 2023 | Uncategorized

We’re currently preaching through 1 Corinthians 12-14, the main biblical passage on spiritual gifts. There is lots of confusion about spiritual gifts today, just as there was among the Corinthians that Paul is writing to. Part of this confusion is that we tend to...

Thankful for something real this Christmas

by | Dec 20, 2022 | Uncategorized

During this time of year, I thank God that the gospel is more than sentimental. That the gospel of Christ—born, living, crucified, and risen for sinners like me–is true, in the truest sense, and that its power and effectiveness is not in “all the feels” it...

Playing the long game

by | Dec 8, 2022 | Uncategorized

It is important to realize that membership and ministry in a local church means playing the long game. We will miss much of the fruit of God’s purposes for the church–and our lives–if we don’t take a long-term view, and instead remove ourselves as soon as...

Good but temporary

by | Sep 6, 2022 | Uncategorized

This is what I mean, brothers: the appointed time has grown very short. From now on, let those who have wives live as though they had none, 30 and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who...

The clarity of the cross

by | Aug 30, 2022 | Uncategorized

“In the cross of Christ I glory, towering o’er the wrecks of time; all the light of sacred story, gathers round its head sublime.” So goes the opening words of one of the songs we sing. The idea is that Christ on the cross stands at the center of...