Brothers Sisters, This past Monday the United States set aside a day to remember the life and labor of Martin Luther King Jr. There is much that we can and should learn from Dr. King. One lesson, which may surprise you, is a lesson on discipleship. Stephen Smallman, in his book The Walk: Steps for New and Renewed Followers of Jesus brings this out. He writes: The Uni...

Brothers Sisters, Are you looking to enrich your life and the lives of others in 2018? Give yourself to the ordinary things: We must beware of missing the value of the ordinary by seeing it as just one more means to greatness. True, there are many ordinary people who, precisely through their ordinary callings, sometimes make an extraordinary impact. Yet it is just as...

Brothers Sisters, The one resolution you must make this New Year is this: be holy. It is even more important than being healthy, for as John Flavel said, "What health is to the heart, that holiness is to the soul." Don't tremble because I said you "must" make this resolution. The truth is I'm not saying anything new. I'm only saying what God has said to each one of us. ...

Brothers Sisters, The bad news has been relentless. Evil deeds have been discovered, and apologies have been issued. I don't know about you, but I have found myself disheartened by the sad and unrelenting stories day after day. As a Christian, I know that sadly what we are seeing unfold in such a public manner is not actually new. These sins have been committed from nea...

Brothers Sisters, Bible literacy is waning in our culture. That is a problem, but it also opens the door for wonderful possibilities. According to an article published by Lifeway Research in April of this year, Americans have personally read very little of the Bible. For a moment, reflect on these statistics: 30% have read several passages or stories from the Bible ...

Brothers Sisters, It is true. We are a proud Protestant church. Happy, kind, and generous to our friends from Roman Catholic and Orthodox traditions, I hope, but are passionately Protestant. As our church's logo demonstrates, we believe the Five Solas of the Protestant Reformation are important. The church stands and falls on the doctrines of Sola Scriptura and justific...

Brothers Sisters, I recently had the privilege of preaching at the wedding of members of our congregation. My text was Ephesians 5 and in the course of the sermon I outlined four duties of husbands to wives. I thought that they could be useful to our congregation as a whole, and so I want to share them with you here. Husbands are called to proclaim, profess, prioritize,...

Brothers and Sisters, It seems like the theme of following Jesus has been following me around lately. It crops up over and over again in the Gospel of Luke, it has cropped up in the book we're reading for men's breakfast (Discipling by Mark Dever), and it cropped up in a conversation with extended family this past week. Discipling is "helping others follow Jesus." It is...

Brothers and Sisters, A quiet time is elementary. A quiet time is so elementary, so basic to the Christian life that perhaps some of us are embarrassed by the idea that we don't have one. Or we're embarrassed by the idea that we don't even know where to begin when contemplating our own quiet time with the Lord. Maybe there are even some who don't know what I mean by a "qu...

Brothers and Sisters, Over the past couple of weeks I've been reading and thinking about Paul's conception of the "image of God." Paul would have learned of the image of God from the Pentateuch, in particular, from Genesis 1:26-28, 5:1-3, and 9:1-7. Among other things, these texts teach us that as human beings (those made in the image of God) we are representative, relati...