Sermons, studies, and a way through the whole Bible

How the solas answer the longings of your heart.

In verses 1-11, we see Jesus, the true vine. In verses 12-17, we see Jesus, the true friend. We need both, and he is both. He’s the vine who will grow us and sustain us, and he’s the friend who will be with us and for…

On Palm Sunday, Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem showed the deliberate steps he took to fulfill the Old Testament prophecies of the Messianic King.

As commentator Phil Ryken says, “The final message of Ecclesiastes is not that nothing matters in the end but that everything matters in the end.” And the proof is here in these two verses. One day, you will stand before…

With you it is impossible. But not with God. Not with Jesus. Why not lay down all we have built up—all our monuments of righteousness, all our grand obedience and good deeds, our wealth and possessions, and let Jesus…

Jesus is not only the Sage we need; he’s the Savior we need. The wisdom of God is more than just right thinking; it’s the glories of his righteousness and the wonders of his love.

Unity in the church comes when suffering on behalf of one another becomes not just a risk we’re willing to take, but the life-giving privilege that only Jesus can offer.

Acts 24is the story of two trails: the obvious one, Paul’s trial in verses 1-23, and the easy-to-miss-one, Felix’s trial in verses 24-27. But this also shows us the reality of two spiritual trials: how we put God on…

In those moments as we trust God and take the next step, we’re doing the same thing Paul was doing, and that Jesus was doing. We’re following the Spirit to testify to the gospel of God’s grace.

We give ourselves to God, entrust our lives to him, and wait for him to set it all right. In between, we labor and love and serve and give, and as we do, we experience what only God can do inside of us, inside our…

Psalm 23 is David’s proof of God’s compassionate nature in two metaphors. First, he shows us that God is not a distant, breakfast-enjoying Shepherd but a never-leaving, never-neglecting, caring one. Secondly, he’s a…

If we’re willing to go to the low place, to call ourselves evil, to identify in the first person with David, that we have sinned—then we can receive with David the same grace that David received from God, and we can have…

Paul says there’s one thing he does now: know Jesus. Paul did lots of things, but one thing defined him, and one thing only. And he’s calling us to imitate him. The most important thing we can do this year is to know…

Here’s the truth about our future. We who believe are on our way to heaven. And the more people that we bring the good news to in our lifetime only sweetens the experience. We want to see as many people as possible come…

When we are grabbed by the gospel we sit in amazement at the work of God. Becoming a Christian is not coming to a set on ideas or behaviors. It’s coming to a person. Have you ever noticed how many times the Bible retells…

What we believe about Jesus will determine what we believe about everything else. The clearer we see the gospel, the clearer we see the world as it really is.

The kind of church Jesus is building is founded on gospel-doctrine and shaped into gospel-culture. And as we fall down at his feet in amazement of who he is, he will reach out his right hand and comfort us through his…

When we see what God has done, we respond in thanksgiving and praise. We enter his gates with thanksgiving not because we’ve worked up enough gratitude to do so, but because we’ve seen enough of God that we can’t help…

God shows his love to us in a multitude of ways but the supreme way he shows his love to us is in the death of Christ for us. What greater love is there? You, in all your sin and all your messiness – you – were loved…

Our justification is past and unchanging. Our reconciliation is past, present, and future. Joy in the Christian life is constant joy because we have been set free from our past, kept in the present, and hopeful for the…

The very place where you see yourself as most undeserving is the very place at which Jesus’ cross says to you, “Come to me.” You say, “But when does his welcome end?” The cross says, “Never.” Jesus has the final word…

We’re living in what everyone calls “uncertain times.” But Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever (Hebrews 13:8). His salvation is certain. If he saved you then, he’ll save you today, and he’ll save you…

On the cross, Jesus absorbed all of our sins—all of Peter’s denial—as if it was his own, as if he denied God. On the cross, God accepted Jesus as our substitute. He accepted the offer of his life in place of ours. That’s…

An unknown future with a known Savior is better than a known future without a known Savior.

What brings a person into the kingdom? Is it one’s knowledge of God’s word? It is one’s agreement with God’s law? Or is it something else entirely?

Throughout the Old Testament, the fig tree held spiritual value as a symbol for Israel, serving as a metaphor for their standing with God. And like Adam and Eve after the fall, this fig tree, though full in leaf, was…

When you come to Christ with empty hands of faith, he turns to you in compassion and fills them to the brim.

What we’re talking about today is basic discipleship to Jesus, being willing to suffer so that others may hear. And God doesn’t want us to be surprised, so he gave Mark the story of the death of John the Baptist to…

Biblical faith is not a leap in the dark. It’s not hoping something is there on the other side to catch you. Biblical faith is a complete trust in the trustworthy God who is there and who is not silent.

For all the questions we ask of the Bible, the Bible also asks questions of us. And it is the questions the Bible asks of us that should claim our attention before anything else. Yes, we can ask God whatever we need to,…

Everyone on the planet is either currently on or has been on a self-salvation project. But Jesus says, “Forget about that. I’m here to complete that project for you. You can’t do it, but I can, and I have.”

We may fear the authority of others, but if we come to him, we have nothing to fear in the authority of Jesus. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to him, and what does he do with it? He uses it for our…

If John’s gospel were a typical biography, all we’d have left at the end would be a few final words about Jesus. Instead, we find something anything but typical. The story doesn’t end; it begins anew. We find a new hope,…

There are ultimately only two responses to Jesus. Fall at his feet in worship or pick up stones to kill him.

Left before Jesus, the only one who really could condemn her, she finds a rock she didn’t expect to receive—the rock that will be struck for her, the cornerstone that becomes a new foundation for her life. If she found…

There is right now a city that needs to be fed, and there is a Christ who can feed them. He wants to do it through you. Will you let him? Or do you have some really good objection to why it just can’t happen? Will you be…

Through the story of this official, God shows us how faith grows.

Jesus is signifying the newness he’s bringing into the world by showing that his newness is good because it’s aged in the oldness of the gospel promises.

Today we’re going to think about one of the most important questions in all of life: how is one saved? Thankfully, God has not left that question open. There is an answer, and it can be found throughout the Bible. We’re…

That Jesus is a redeemer means no family is too far gone.

If you’re in Christ, God relates to you not like a king to a servant or a boss to an employee but as a father to a child, with warmth and depth, tenderness and care, attention and intention.

When God gets involved, it doesn’t mean everything will be safe. It just means everything will matter.

Paul's purpose in Ephesians 2:8-10 is to explain how salvation comes about. What is of God? What is of us? Paul helps us see in this power-packed passage.

God’s purpose for every believer is reconciliation in Christ for all time. Therefore, if you’re in Christ, your life is absolutely massive, with a glorious destiny. I wonder if you believe that?

“The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.”

Pottersville is fading away. Bedford Falls is being restored.

Christmas is God telling us that our most desperate need is fulfilled in Jesus. That’s why it’s merry and bright. That’s why it’s the most wonderful time of the year.

There is an expiration date on all this world’s brokenness, on all our brokenness. Christmas guarantees it. Pottersville will be no more. Bedford Falls will be restored. All your deepest, craziest hopes for love and…

What is God doing? He’s overturning our expectations. God has ordered the world such that weakness overcomes power, foolishness overcomes wisdom, a child defeats all evil. It’s an unlikely, improbable, incredible story.…

What is greater than knowing Jesus is on your side? When everything else falls away and you’re left alone and exposed wondering how you’ll endure, what is greater than knowing you are accepted by the King of the…

Suffering well for Christ is courageous. Yet to many of us, it might seem impossible. When we are alone, and the questions come, and we start feeling the pressure—how do we stand for Jesus? What do we have in that moment…

Submission is a deeply anti-American quality. But it is a distinctly Christian one.

Yes, we live in hard days. We endure suffering. But we also rejoice in our suffering because we know that God has saved us, is saving us, and will save us on that great and final day. This isn’t a vague prediction; it’s…

As he begins, Peter gives insight into how God thinks about us. Peter learned these things himself, so it’s not just high-brow theology. This is in-the-pit-of-despair truth. In these two opening verses to suffering…

Paul had to address a problem. Two women couldn’t agree on something. We don’t know what it was, but the disagreement was so big it was threatening the church’s unity at the very time when they needed it most. Instead of…

Earlier in chapter 2, Paul presented Jesus as an example of humility and sacrifice. Verses 19-30 read like a travelogue. It feels different. But if we look deeper, we’ll see the connection: two men who exemplify the…

So much demands our attention and calls us away from Jesus alone. And when opposition and persecution and suffering confront us, as it did the Philippians, it takes courage to keep the gospel central. A gospel-centered…

What might God do if we learned to pray this prayer? What kind of people might he make us? What kind of church might he make us? What abounding love would we have? What radiant beauty? What purity of heart and…

If you understand what Jesus was thinking that first Christmas, you understand the true meaning of Christmas. And if you understand the true meaning of Christmas, you understand the true intentions of God. And if you…

We can get so bogged down in the day-to-day details, but in Colossians 3:22-4:1 Paul lifts us up and shows us what Jesus thinks about our work.

In our passage today, Paul exhorts us to put on the new clothes of the gospel to live out a gospel culture. It all starts with where we find our identity. Because we are in Christ, we have his characteristics. This is…

True spirituality is not a negative reality but a positive one. Galatians 5:1 says, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.” God’s desire is not our…

When we see Jesus, it’s easy to see wrong theology. But when we take our eyes off Jesus, all kinds of wrong things can slip into our minds and find a home there. What these Colossians needed, and what we need, is a big…

I wonder, how many of us have the kind of friendships our heart longs for? At Refuge Church, we want to be gospel friends. So I want to explore that today because as we continue in this pandemic, though many signs are…

God wants his people to have deep, meaningful friendships because God is a Triune Friend—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. And that friendly heart radiates out toward us.

The fear of the Lord is the humble attitude of the child of God whereby God provides an escape from evil and a welcome into abundant life with him.

Idolatry is the most widespread and contagious sin throughout human history, and the only hope we have of a cure is found in Jesus Christ.

There is a spirit behind every religious message. John tells us it’s either from God or from the Antichrist. What should we believe? Such an important question, isn’t it? What we believe forms what we worship, and what…

Our path out of worldliness is to travel further into the love of God. Jesus is not asking us to sacrifice joy. He’s commanding us to enter it.

This passage takes us deep into God’s grace. It tells us the good news that God is for us, not against us. Now, he has every reason to be against us. We have sinned and rebelled and turned away from him. But what is his…

Words have immense power. We can use words to create a culture of safety and trust and love, to nurture and build a radiant culture, or we can use words to burn it all down.

Nothing happens in our lives that is not a result of God working in our lives. The events of Ruth 2 are proof.

The gospel must be the biggest thing in the church because only the gospel is big enough for the church. It’s the only thing that will sustain us over the long haul. If we ever abandon the gospel as the centering…

If you are exhausted from working only to fail, from obeying only to sin again, from pushing the rock up the hill only to have it fall back on top of you, you are invited to Jesus. If you feel a heaviness on your heart…

So, here we are in 2021. How does it feel? Maybe you have some plans for the year, some goals, some things you’d like to do. And that’s all great. After the year we’ve had, we’re all hoping for something far better, for…

Here’s something non-obvious but available: the enjoyment we want in life isn’t lying out beyond our grasp, but given graciously by the hand of God if we’ll take it.

Let’s be Psalm 100 people who see what God has done, and respond. Let’s enter his gates with thanksgiving—not because we’ve somehow worked up enough gratitude, but because we’ve seen so much of God that we can’t help it.

We’re here not to make ourselves better bit by bit through some sort of vague spirituality. We’re here to rejoice in our salvation in Christ and to offer that to as many as we can. All God’s asking us to do to be a…

What can we take from this letter? We can take the assurance that the people we desperately want to be, the God whom we desperately want to please, the place where we desperately want to live is coming. All we have to do…

Church membership is more than scrolling down and hitting “Agree” on the pop-up screen to proceed. Church membership is a considered step toward Christ and his people. It is a full-hearted agreement with his call to…

The storm forced out of Jonah more than an inward consideration of his failings. It forced his failings to his mouth before many witnesses. Jonah thought he ran from God’s presence. He thought his sin was his own…

Our greatest need is to hear from God. Without his voice we are lost, wondering what life is all about. We don’t know who we are, why we’re here, or what we’re for. But God is not silent. He has been speaking since the…