Calvary: the Hill Sermons

The book of Psalms closes with a work that acts as the logical follow up the every message from each of the psalms -- praising God. Pastor Andy highlights the psalm's prescription of where to worship, how to worship, why to worship, and who should worship (Psalm 150).

In this psalm, we find the writer in a time of deep despair and depression. God leads him on the surprising path of remembrance, the act of interpreting present questions/doubts through past cases to poise us for the future (Psalm 77).

In this psalm, David considers the many benefits of a relationship with God. He is bursting with a need to proclaim God's goodness and prompt others to do so as well. We see how the God of the Old Testament is as eager to save His people as Jesus in the New (Psalm 103).

Guest preacher, Pastor Mike Monjay (Calvary Wallingford) taught a powerful sermon on how the healthy processing of doubt can lead to strengthened faith (Psalm 73).

This week we look at Psalm 86 and learn how our neediness is met with complete satisfaction in Christ. When we ask God for what we need, He doesn't jump at the chance to withhold from us, but instead graciously gives good things because He is a holy Father (Psalm 86).

The biblical practice of confession involves coming to agreement with God's verdict on our actions and our nature then proclaiming accordingly. Confessing sin and sinfulness can be daunting and intimidating, but if we would just do so, we would be given access to the salvation God has prepared for sinners (Psalm 51).

It can be very uncomfortable reading David's prayers calling curses upon his enemies. Our guest speaker, Lindsay Kennedy shared a common theological belief that the psalms are the prayers of Jesus. Unlike David, Jesus is completely blameless and perfect, His judgments are righteous and He Himself is the one who takes the same curse He calls upon His enemies (Psalm 109).

As we continue our relationships with Jesus we see Him prove His trustworthiness again and again. Through examining David's psalm, we see that trusting in God is personal, prescriptive, and practical (Psalm 62).

When life isn't going perfectly, we can give thanks to God for the great things He's done in the past. Being that He's the same God today as He has always been, we can count on His love to come through and accomplish His purposes in our lives (Psalm 138).

When we find ourselves in times of deep suffering or depression, we can either turn in on ourselves or we can look to God. With God, we can enjoy a gracious level of intimacy that even includes a safe place to make agonizing cries for salvation in the midst of suffering (Psalm 88).

In this week's psalm, we reflect on how the nature of the world around us can awaken us to praise God for the works He has done. We also see how people have a history of forgetting to worship God in times of trial and difficulty, but because of God's constant goodness, we should never forget. (Psalm 95).

Today we began a new sermon series on the Psalms. In this premier sermon, we examined how the Psalms often let us into the intimate prayers of the authors revealing some of their most difficult feelings toward God and men. Pastor Nick surveyed through a large range of human emotions and reminded us that amongst the 150 works in the book, there's a Psalm for that (Psalm 1:1-6).

Fasting is one of the spiritual disciplines less practiced today. Perhaps this is because it reminds us of the Church's dark history of asceticism and penance. However, today we discussed how fasting has nothing to do with self-harm but everything to do with seeking God and serving our neighbors (Isaiah 58:1-12).

Paul calls believers in Christ to be thankful at all times. Today, we examined how thankfulness doesn't come only from pleasant circumstances, but rather because we know that God promises to use even the things He hates to accomplish that which He loves (Ephesians 5:20).

This week, we study the spiritual gift of giving. We see here that the generosity of a believer can keep money from being their idol by making a servant in their worship of God. The way that we handle our money leads our hearts, shapes our characters, and focuses our worship.(Matthew 6:19-24).

The Bible seems to suggest that God has created us with a nature inclined toward musical expression. The Bible directly commands us to worship God through song. In today's sermons we explore how singing to God ministers to our bodies, minds, and hearts (Psalms 47:6-7).

Today we explore the discipline of prayer. We see from Paul's letter to the Philippians that we should pray over our concerns, our vocations, and our passions (Philippians 4:5-7).

We have begun our study through the Spiritual disciplines. In this first installment, we learn tools for Bible Meditation. Pastor Justin shares on how we can study the Bible with the Microscope, Telescope, Telephone method (Joshua 1:8).

Mark's Gospel telling ends in a bleak cliff hanger, but the advent of the Gospel itself has only just begun (Mark 16:1-8).

When Jesus hangs on the Cross, His critics wait to see if He will be rescued by the God who claimed to be His Father. Ironically, however, it's because He's God's obedient Son that He went to the cross and died for the salvation of many (Mark 15:34-47).

When Jesus is condemned to the Cross, He may seem like the Messiah that no one asked for and no one wanted, but His character proves Him to be the Messiah that everyone needs (Mark 15:23-33).

In full Irony we see the reality of Jesus kingship as stands subject to the authority of others and endures injustices at their hand, even to the point of being mocked as a king. However because he is in full submission to God, he's not only truly free but worthy to be crowned King of all kings (Mark 15:1-22).

Jesus' trial has begun and the whole of the way, every party involved is behaving ironically. It is only Jesus who acts in a way consistent to His word. Furthermore, the enemies and disenfranchised devotees of His are still somehow living in fulfillment of His prophecies concerning them (Mark 14:53-72).

Faithfulness is most tested by difficulty. In this passage we see three examples, each unfaithful for different reasons. In contrast we see the ever-faithful one: Jesus. Mark desires not just to teach us to trust in Jesus' faithfulness instead of ours, but that we can be faithful because Jesus is.

Jesus' real power is displayed despite the circumstances of His arrest. Juxtaposed against the weakness of His disciples who can't even stay awake to the best of their abilities, Jesus is shown to have absolute power with kindness and without any trace of corruption (Mark 14:25-42).