Line Upon Line

Pastor Miles shares a New Year's message reflecting on his 24 years of ministry and the church's 2008–2018 revitalization, then on the disruption of 2020 and the years of trying to return to "normal." Drawing on Acts 16, where Paul is repeatedly blocked and must pivot toward Macedonia, Miles offers "pivot" as his word for 2023, urging believers to stop trying to recover 2019 and to move forward ac...

A verse-by-verse teaching on Jonah 3 that presents Nineveh's repentance as the largest revival in Scripture and reveals God as a God of second chances who loves both individuals and cities. The message argues that disobedience and genuine repentance each carry divine consequences, that our job is to faithfully proclaim God's powerful word, and that Jesus is the perfect Jonah.

A teaching on living in connection with one another as part of the church's mission, tracing community from Eden's perfection through sin's fracturing to the restoration found only in Jesus, who equips and calls every believer to use their gifts, pursue unity, and forgive one another. The message stresses that being an active, forgiving part of Christ's body is not optional but a command from God.

Teaching from Jonah chapter 2, this message uses Jonah's prayer from the belly of the fish to expose the spiritual danger of unforgiveness and bitterness. Pastor Mark argues that Jonah's nationalistic hatred of the Assyrians separated him from God, and that genuine repentance is proven by obedience and by extending to others the grace, mercy, and forgiveness God has shown us.

Drawing on John 17:1-3 and Jesus's prayer the night before the cross, Pastor Miles addresses our culture's crisis of meaning and argues that human beings were created by God for a specific purpose: to know God experientially, to glorify Him forever, and to live in unity and oneness with Him through Jesus Christ.

Opening the Book of Jonah, this teaching examines how a prophet of God ran from his calling out of ethnic hatred for Nineveh, and how God mercifully pursued him while bringing pagan sailors to faith. The message challenges believers to examine who they would rather avoid than reach, and to choose obedience over rebellion as they enter a new year.

A Christmas-morning message concluding a series on God's gifts, focusing on grace as the root gift from which all others flow. Pastor Miles teaches that God's abundant grace in Christ saves, transforms, and gives believers a favored status, and calls us to freely share that grace with others.

On Christmas morning, Pastor Miles concludes a series on God's gifts by focusing on the gift of grace—God's unmerited, abundant favor poured out in Jesus Christ, which saves, transforms, and commissions believers to share that grace freely with others.

This Advent teaching presents hope as one of God's great gifts, given in Christ to a hopeless and broken world. Pastor Miles distinguishes biblical hope—a sure and steadfast anchor for the soul—from blind optimism and wishful thinking, and calls believers to draw near to God, hold fast, encourage others, and share this hope.

This Advent message teaches that love is one of God's greatest gifts, supremely demonstrated in the Incarnation of Jesus Christ at Christmas. Pastor Miles contrasts science's reductionistic view of love with the biblical categories of love, concluding that God's love in Christ is given for our joy, the praise of His grace, and to be shared with others, leading into communion.

Pastor Miles teaches that God delights to give good gifts, that every good and perfect gift comes from Him, and that these gifts—including gratitude—are given for our enjoyment, for God's glory, and to be used as blessings to others. He calls believers to recognize and actively use their God-given gifts.

Closing the reaffirmation of the covenant in Deuteronomy 29–30, Pastor Miles shows that God remains faithful and merciful even when His people fail and forget His works, and that life comes down to a daily choice: "Choose life," which is ultimately found in Christ.

Drawing on the imagery of a Jewish marriage covenant (the *katuba*), Pastor Miles shows how Deuteronomy 26–28 is the "I do" ceremony between God and Israel, where covenant blessings and curses meet at an altar. Because no one can perfectly keep the law, its weight is meant to drive us to the rest found at the foot of Christ's cross.

Pastor Miles introduces "Bible arcing," a graphical, technical method for breaking a biblical text into its propositions and discerning the logical relationships between them, in order to rightly divide the word of truth. This session lays the conceptual groundwork by surveying the various coordinate and subordinate relationships before applying them to a passage in the next session.

This session demonstrates the discourse "arcing" method using BibleArc.com, walking through 1 Peter 5:1-4 by breaking the text into propositions, grouping them by logical relationships, and then building sermon points directly from that analysis. Pastor Miles shows how careful textual dissection produces the very sermon-guide points his congregation receives, illustrating expositional Bible teachi...

Standing in for Pastor Miles, the teacher walks through Deuteronomy 25, showing how Israel's miscellaneous laws established justice, foreshadowed Christ's atoning stripes, and valued lineage and remembrance. The central exhortation is to treasure the law's timeless principles while resting in the joy of the new covenant, since our only promise and command is Jesus.

Drawing on Deuteronomy 24 and the preaching of Isaiah, this teaching argues that justice, mercy, and compassion toward the poor, the foreigner, the orphan, and the widow are "the weightier matters" of God's law, and that mistreating those at the bottom of society brings real consequences under the deuteronomic principle. The message closes with communion, calling believers to remember their own re...

Working through the obscure purity statutes of Deuteronomy 23, Pastor Miles shows that under the law not everyone could appear before God and that holiness was required—a burden too great to bear. The law's purpose is not to make us holy but to expose our sin and drive us to find righteousness and life in Christ.

Examining Deuteronomy 22:13-30, Pastor Miles argues that what shocks modern Western readers about Israel's ancient marriage laws reveals our own culture's sexual absurdity, and that these heavy, holy laws ultimately point us to Jesus, who bore the law's weight to give mercy to sinners.

Continuing through Deuteronomy 22, Pastor Miles teaches that the "bizarre" miscellaneous laws of Israel were progressive reforms setting God's people apart from surrounding nations, and that they ultimately point forward to Jesus and the law of love. Each strange statute—about lost property, dress, bird nests, rooftop walls, and mixed fabrics—carries an enduring principle of love, stewardship, the...

Working through the "miscellaneous laws" of Deuteronomy 21, Pastor Miles shows that these strange-sounding rulings reveal how God called Israel to live differently from the surrounding nations, and how each one teaches an enduring principle about the value of life, mercy over retribution, and impartial justice for God's people.

A verse-by-verse teaching on Deuteronomy 20, examining God's rules for warfare and showing how spiritual preparation, ordered priorities, and total reliance on God matter more than military strength. The message culminates in seeing these ancient battle laws as a picture of how God offers peace to sinners in open rebellion against Him.

Drawing on Don Richardson's concept of "cultural compasses"—artifacts within cultures that point people toward God—Pastor Miles teaches that Deuteronomy 19's cities of refuge are one such compass directing Israel to their need for Christ. He shows how Scripture, history, and even modern culture are filled with God-given pointers that equip Christians to seek the lost.

Drawing from Deuteronomy 18, Pastor Miles teaches four essentials for walking in alignment with God's word and ways: cultivating priestly relationships, cutting off corrupting carnal philosophies, developing a genuine connection to Christ (the greater Prophet and mediator predicted by Moses), and guarding against false prophets.

A verse-by-verse study of Deuteronomy 17, showing how Moses prepared Israel for self-governance under God as their true king, the requirements God placed on any future earthly king, and how Israel's history of failed kings—including David—points to our need for Jesus, the King of kings. The teaching warns Christians not to place their hope for righteousness in any earthly leader.