From your Pastors

Psalm 133 is meant to "charm us into imitation" as it opens with the extraordinary effect of the God-given gift of unity. David's use of the word 'good' to describe brotherly accord takes us back to the refrain used during the creation account in Genesis, and 'pleasant' is the felt effect of this unity in the souls of the Lord's chosen people. C.J. used this psalm to remin...

"Behold." It is a wonder seldom seen, therefore behold it! It may be seen, for it is characteristic of real saints, therefore fail not to inspect it! It is well worthy of admiration; pause and gaze upon it! It will charm you into imitation, therefore note it well! God looks on with approval, therefore consider it with attention." Charles Spurgeon "Few human joys run deepe...

In this passage, Jesus sees the crowds of hopeless sinners in Israel, and their lost state evokes deep compassion in him. He responds by instructing his disciples to pray for the lost sheeps' rescue through the sending of laborers into the harvest. Michael encouraged us to look into the world and see the crowds of desperate sinners as Christ sees them. He challenged us to ...

Glad service honors God! John Piper wrote, "Where feelings for God are dead, worship is dead." By the grace of God, our church is filled with cheerful servants who serve in our church full of love for God. Psalm 100:2 should fan into flame the gift that God has already given to our church in the form of glad-hearted giving. Serving the Lord with gladness is a biblical dist...

In 2 Corinthians 9:6-15, Paul invites the Corinthian church to experience the thrill of God's grace by participating in the act of generous giving. Prior to this passage, Paul addresses the Corinthian church's reluctance to give by drawing their attention to the grace of God in Jesus Christ, who "though he was rich, yet for our sake he became poor, so that [they] by his po...

"Paul never wants us to do something without theological reason and Paul never wants us to hold a theology without practical application." C.K. Barrett "With what zest he broke the tough-fibered prairie sod, which had never been broken since the beginning of timeAnd with what reverence he held up the beautiful seed which he was to sow on his own ground. The plump kernels ...

"Genuine love will show up in the checkbook." David Garland "As often happens in his letters, some of Paul's most profound Christological moments appear in places one might least expect them." Gordon Fee "The pre-incarnate Christ occupied a position of the highest imaginable eminenceHe was in the words of Frank Houghton's hymn 'rich beyond all splendor (2 Cor. 8:9). He p...

In this week's sermon, we looked at how the church in Macedonia experienced God's grace and generosity amidst their trials and afflictions. As Jeff unpacked this text, we saw three aspects of gospel generosity. First, we saw the source of generosity as it comes from grace, which Paul described as undeserved favor and divine enablement. Second, we saw three marks of generos...

In Matthew 9:35-10:4, Jesus sees the needs of the crowd as they were unable to free themselves. Seeing them as sheep without a shepherd, Jesus was deeply moved by a warm, compassionate response to their need (and ours). Jesus' compassion is the supreme motivation for our mission. The first means of accomplishing that mission is to urgently pray to the Lord of the harvest f...

"His response is described by the strongly emotional Greek verb splanchnizomai, which speaks of a warm, compassionate response to need. No single English term does justice to it: compassion, pity, sympathy, and fellow-feeling all convey part of it, but 'his heart went out' perhaps represents more fully the emotional force of the underlying metaphor of a 'gut response'It is...