1 Samuel 17:19-49 Summary: Clearly what set David apart from King Saul and every other Israelite soldier was not his size, strength, or military experience…it was his vision. Where the Israelites saw nothing but the power of a taunting giant, David saw a God who exposed the lie of Goliath’s bravado. It took David’s […]
1 Samuel 16:1-13 Summary: In verse 6 of our text this week, Samuel does something that’s all too natural for us as human beings; he lets his eyes do his thinking. God famously says in the next verse that though this may be the default inclination of human beings, it’s not how He sees things. […]
Summary: I will be speaking about confidence in God, submission to his will, and loyalty to him, drawn from the story of the three friends in Nebuchadnezzar’s furnace. In these times, but in any times, when we face circumstances we would like changed, what is the response of our faith? These three are a good […]
1 Timothy 4: 6-10 Summary: This Sunday will be our final and therefore summary sermon on the Spiritual Disciplines. We’ll conclude where we started with Paul’s command to “train” ourselves in godliness. Much like a physical training regimen, the spiritual disciplines build within us a strength and capacity we could not have without them; namely, […]
Matthew 6: 25-34 Summary: The spiritual discipline of simplicity is aimed at helping us live the worry-free life that Jesus commands in his famous teaching on the birds and the lilies. Although how we handle our material possessions can raise an enormously complex set of questions (e.g. how much do I keep? how much do […]
John 14:15-24 Summary: Jesus’ most detailed teaching on the trinity (John 14-17) comes on the verge of his arrest and crucifixion. Interestingly, it’s at a moment when his disciples were most deeply in need of comfort and reassurance that Jesus chooses to unveil such a profound mystery. He teaches them that in God, there is […]
Luke 19:1-10 Summary: Of all the people lined up along the road that day, Zacchaeus probably topped most people’s the list of ‘those least likely to be noticed by Jesus.’ As a wealthy and chief tax collector, he was disdained by most of his fellow citizens. Yet Luke tells the story as if to indicate […]
1 Timothy 3:1-13 Summary: It may strike you in looking over the qualifications for the offices of elder and deacon how little is said in terms of what these officebearers do. What instead dominates Paul’s list of credentials is the kind of character such officebearers must have (it might strike you as well that the […]
Psalm 110 Summary: This Psalm was likely used during the inauguration ceremonies for new Kings. And it makes the rather strange pronouncement that the king (v.1) will also be a priest (v.4). But since kings came from the tribe of Judah and priests from the tribe of Levi, no descendant of David could ever really […]
Romans 8:28-30 Summary: The Heidelberg Catechism makes the audacious claim that all things (not just ‘good’ things) come to us from God’s Fatherly hand (Q&A 27)…which includes COVID-19. The catechism’s confidence is grounded in the promises of scripture found in places like Romans 8:28. Paul’s famous promise is not that everything that happens to us […]