Palms Presbyterian Sermons

Get Ready (Part 5) Matthew 16:21-26 Sunday, March 22, 2026 One of the more difficult realities of Jesus's ministry is that he, in no uncertain terms, invites those who would follow him to accept suffering willingly: to take up their own cross, just as he will take up his. What sort of suffering is it that we are called to undergo, and to what end? Bryant Anderson preaching. Referenced in this serm...

Get Ready (Part 4) Acts 10 Sunday, March 15, 2026 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Get Ready Lent is a forty-day period of preparation which precedes the celebration of Christianity's holiest season, Easter. Throughout the church's history, faithful Christians have adopted a range of practices during this time of anticipation, ranging from rote dietary restrictions all the way to full ex...

Get Ready (Part 3) Romans 12:1-8 Sunday, March 8, 2026 In a culture that prizes self-improvement and self-actualization, it seems a strange—even blasphemous—thing to encourage self-sacrifice. But if it is our hope and intention to imitate Jesus, then we cannot escape his call to live lives of self-giving love: precisely the kind of love he demonstrated on the cross. Bryant Anderson preaching. Curr...

Get Ready (Part 2) Psalm 51:1-12 & Mark 4:1-20 Sunday, March 1, 2026 Jesus tells a parable of a farmer sowing seeds to illustrate the importance of soil for producing fruit. The season of Lent is a time to consider the ways that the soil of our hearts has become inhospitable to the the seeds that God is sowing, and what we can do to be made ready to change and bear fruit. Bryant Anderson preac...

Get Ready (Part 1) Psalm 27:7-14 & 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Sunday, February 22, 2026 Paul warns the Thessalonian church not to fall asleep: not to be lulled into complacency or apathy, content with the world as it is. Instead, Paul urges the church to keep awake, to be ready to hear God's call and discover God at work around them. What does it mean to keep awake today? How can we make ourselves...

Priorities (Part 6) Matthew 17:1-9 Sunday, February 15, 2026 In a world full of brief, distracting “shooting stars,” Christians must navigate by the steady, unchanging light of Christ—placing him above everything else and letting his love reorder our lives. Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Priorities In the introduction to his podcast , Russell Moore speaks of "holding fast to what reall...

Priorities (Part 5) John 15:1-5 & Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11 Sunday, February 8, 2026 To God's people in exile, the prophet Jeremiah gives an extraordinary set of instructions, which basically boil down to: Make yourselves at home. The people believed they had no purpose in the present and no hope for the future, but God insists that fruitful living is possible even in the bleakest circumstances. Bry...

Priorities (Part 4) Genesis 12:1-4 & Philippians 3:7-14 Sunday, February 1, 2026 To be a Christian is to journey toward Jesus: to be on a pilgrimage toward a life that is more and more centered on and shaped by his example and his call to love God and to love our neighbor. A pilgrimage is hard work and riddled with doubt and uncertainty, which is what makes partisanship so alluring to us. Part...

Priorities (Part 3) Isaiah 11:1-9 & Matthew 5:38-48 Sunday, January 25, 2026 We want to make a difference in the world, and we want the church to make a difference, too. We have plans, hopes, and dreams, and we work to make them happen. But sometimes the life that scripture calls us to live seems completely at odds with what will actually get results. So which is more important: the ends, or t...

Matthew 2:1-12 Sunday, January 4, 2026 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org .

The Great Exchange (Part 3) Philippians 2:5-11 Christmas Eve, December 24, 2025 We have turned our lives into carefully structured and controlled environments with little room for surprise and wonder. The coming of God in the flesh in Jesus Christ is, at its simplest, a profound interruption—but we have inoculated our lives against being interrupted, and made it harder than ever to experience real...

The Great Exchange (Part 2) Genesis 1:26-27 & John 1:1-5, 10-14 Sunday, December 21, 2025 We rarely contemplate what an astounding thing it is that God created humanity in God's own image—that there is a spark of divinity in each of us. Even more astounding, however, is that God would set aside divinity altogether in order to fan that spark in us into a flame, leading us to new life. Bryant An...

The Great Exchange (Part 1) Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 & 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Sunday, December 14, 2025 In the incarnation, God exchanges power for weakness, taking on the frailty and limitations of human existence. This is not pretend weakness, or temporary weakness; it is a wholesale rejection of qualifies as power in this world, so that we can discover the power that is made perfect in weakness. Brya...

Isaiah 2:1-5 & Matthew 24:36-44 Sunday, November 30, 2025 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Referenced in this sermon: Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy (1991) Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org .

Wisdom (Part 11) Job 38 & Job 42:1-6 Sunday, November 23, 2025 The Book of Job ends with a bracing monologue from God, who berates Job from a whirlwind, followed by Job's humble submission. Job was sure that if he could get an audience with God, his case would be vindicated. In the end, God says nothing that might help Job better understand his suffering. What does this tell us about our own s...

Wisdom (Part 10) Job 1:1, 6-22; 3:1-4, 20-26 Sunday, November 16, 2025 The Book of Job is a fable of an innocent sufferer—but it is unlike any other fable you've ever read. It is a poetic masterpiece that wrestles with the deepest conundrums of human experience, giving voice not only to the great pain of suffering, but also to the outrageous yet undeniable reality that suffering so often befalls t...

Wisdom (Part 9) Luke 10:25-37; Proverbs 1:1-7; Ecclesiastes 12:13 Sunday, November 9, 2025 Pastor Emeritus Tom Walker preaching. Referenced in this sermon: Philip Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed (1994) Current Series: Wisdom Some of the most intriguing texts in the Bible are those belonging to the genre known as Wisdom Literature. These books explore some of life's deepest, most pressing, and...

Wisdom (Part 8) Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 Sunday, November 2, 2025 The Book of Ecclesiastes cannot be understood in its fullness without an honest appraisal of death, which looms large in the mind of Qohelet, its author. But the same could be said of life: Life cannot be understood in its fullness without an honest appraisal of death. What does it mean to live well in light of the fact that we will die...

Wisdom (Part 7) Luke 7:11-17 Sunday, October 26, 2025 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Wisdom Some of the most intriguing texts in the Bible are those belonging to the genre known as Wisdom Literature. These books explore some of life's deepest, most pressing, and most unanswerable questions—questions of meaning, happiness, fulfillment, and suffering. While the world has changed immeasur...

Romans 12:1-13 Sunday, October 19, 2025 Guest Dr. Mark Douglas preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org . About Dr. Mark Douglas Mark Douglas is an ordained PCUSA minister and the J. Erskine Love Professor of Christian Ethics at Columbia Theological Seminary , where...

Wisdom (Part 6) Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 Sunday, October 12, 2025 The Book of Ecclesiastes points to a poignant contradiction that exists in every human heart: we have a longing for eternal, abiding things, but the world we inhabit just can't satisfy that longing. It is only by recognizing the limits of our existence in this world that we can find fulfillment. Bryant Anderson preaching. Referenced in t...

Wisdom (Part 5) Ecclesiastes 1:2-9 & 9:7-12 Sunday, October 5, 2025 The Book of Ecclesiastes has a very different take on traditional wisdom—rather than extolling wisdom's virtues, it candidly explores its limits. The author of this unique text tries to zero in on what really gives life meaning in the midst of all of life's uncertainties, and determines that it ultimately all revolves around j...

Wisdom (Part 4) Matthew 13:18-23 Sunday, September 28, 2025 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Wisdom Some of the most intriguing texts in the Bible are those belonging to the genre known as Wisdom Literature. These books explore some of life's deepest, most pressing, and most unanswerable questions—questions of meaning, happiness, fulfillment, and suffering. While the world has changed im...

Wisdom (Part 3) Matthew 13:44-46 & Proverbs 3:13-18 Sunday, September 21, 2025 We are always in pursuit of something. We have lower goals—the day-to-day tasks and targets—and we have higher goals—the big plans and ideals that give definition and purpose to our lives. We don't always think about the higher goals, even though they tend to shape how we spend our time, our energy, and our money. I...

Wisdom (Part 2) Proverbs 8:22-31 Sunday, September 14, 2025 Wisdom, according to the Book of Proverbs, is not just a nice idea or an important value; it is a basic building block of the whole created order. So if wisdom is integral to creation, then we must be able to discover something of its shape simply by attending to the awe-inspiring world we inhabit. Bryant Anderson preaching. Referenced in...