Sermon Audio Podcast

How could J.I. Packer, one of the towering evangelical intellectuals of the last century, say “the whole of the Christian life is viewed through adoption”? This Sunday, Tom Petersburg, a founding member of Providence and an active teaching elder will preach on this important truth of our standing with the Father. Let’s not miss the impact of our adoption into God’s family.

As we move back to Luke’s biography of Jesus, we come to the passage known as the triumphal entry. While the crowds have expectations of their king, Jesus shows us that his kingship transcends territorial categories to extend into our hearts. I pray we have the right expectations in our following Him.

As the tension grew between Jesus and the religious leaders, our Lord told a parable stressing God’s patience, the consequences of rejecting God’s call, and the importance of fulfilling His mission. What we’ll see is that it is impossible to build a worthwhile life without the Lord Jesus.

In a desperate effort to discredit Jesus, the cultural elite sent spies with a calculated question about taxes. Jesus’ answer not only informs some aspects of our political involvement, but it also reminds His followers that we are made in God’s image and can render our lives to His service.

What’s It Like in Heaven?

We often think about our significance and our culture’s many status indicators. This week’s passage will remind us that while we focus on externals, God sees our hearts. The poor widow that Jesus observes teaches us to give willingly and sacrificially. How are our hearts before the Lord?

People find catastrophe alluring. We have no shortage of doomsdayers predicting the end of the world as a result of nuclear war, climate change, food shortages, or plagues. This week’s passage in Luke features Jesus’ Olivet Discourse where He tells His followers that history is moving in a direction and that He will come again. While the end of this age ought to be a fearful prospect for non-belie...

When we hear the name Judas, we often place him in a special category of evil for the treacherous role he played in Jesus’ suffering and death. Instead of dismissing Judas as an outlier on the sin spectrum, we do well to use his failures as a chance to examine our own sinful proclivities. In so doing, may we follow Christ as true disciples.

On the night that Jesus was betrayed, He instituted a practice to be enjoyed by all His followers. Taking the common things of bread and wine, Jesus made them signifiers of His atoning death. As His disciples, we celebrate the Lord’s Supper because it reminds us of what Jesus did for us and who we are as His people. May we prepare ourselves accordingly to study and then receive the Lord’s Supper.

As Jesus is apprehended by authorities, we see Peter reject him. Even in his failure, we see the grace of our Lord and the invitation of repentance and restoration for the seemingly disgraced disciple. In one of the great truths of our faith, God uses our weaknesses to strengthen others and build His kingdom. As we examine this passage and witness baptisms this Sunday, we reaffirm that to be a Chr...

Not My Will, But Yours, Be Done

In the hours before his crucifixion, Jesus experiences near universal rejection. He is dismissed by the religious leaders, the crowds, the Roman establishment, and the regional Jewish leader, Herod. In a moment of sad irony, the crowds reject Jesus in favor of a “notorious prisoner called Barabbas” (Matthew 27.16). In this narrative, we have an illustration of the gospel, the one righteous man in...

Forgiveness, Can You Imagine?

The Living Dead

Does God reveal Himself through Scripture? Can God’s Word change lives? Is all of the Bible important? In what the commentator William Barclay called one of the “immortal short stories of the world”, Jesus’ encounter with two disciples on the road to Emmaus shows us the power of Scripture. God graciously opens the eyes of these disciples to the reality of our life-giving Lord.

As we come to the end of Luke’s Gospel, we will explore Jesus’ bodily ascension. This oft neglected doctrine testifies to the reality of heaven and encourages the Church in its mission. We will also celebrate the Lord’s Supper and be reminded of Jesus’ ongoing presence with His people by the indwelling Holy Spirit.

We know that this is an election year and that America is divided politically. How can Christ-followers bear witness to Jesus in this fractured age? We will spend the next two weeks thinking about how the current political atmosphere is, in fact, an opportunity for the church to show the non-believing world that we have a King who is the Prince of Peace.

We are so excited to continue our study in Galatians this Sunday. Last week, we heard from Pastor Austin that the Gospel can be summarized by one word, “Grace”. As we continue to examine this letter to the Galatians, we will see the heart of the True Gospel compared to “other gospels” that can subtly creep into our culture and our theology.

They Glorified God Because of Me

Defending Liberty for the Sake of the Gospel Acts 15.1-5; Galatians 2.1-10

Many of us find conflict unpleasant but sometimes necessary. In this week’s passage, we come to an historic conflict between Paul and Peter, the two leading figures in the early church. God’s preservation of this confrontation comes to us as a source of clarity on the “truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2.14). Moreover, we see how our behavior can reinforce the truth of what we believe.

Many of us find conflict unpleasant but sometimes necessary. In this week’s passage, we come to an historic conflict between Paul and Peter, the two leading figures in the early church. God’s preservation of this confrontation comes to us as a source of clarity on the “truth of the gospel” (Galatians 2.14). Moreover, we see how our behavior can reinforce the truth of what we believe.

How can we maintain confidence in Christ? This week, our study in Galatians examines our inclination to control our lives, exploring how personal encounters with the Holy Spirit, God’s work through Abraham, and the theological truth’s of Christ fulfilling the law strengthen our reliance and faith in Christ alone.

In this week’s passage, we once again confront the basic choice: a self-centered and futile attempt to earn God’s favor or surrendering to our gracious God. In this section of Galatians, we see that God has always dealt graciously with those who are His, prompting a reply of faith in the Lord Jesus. This section ends on the encouraging note of the unity of God’s family.

What’s the difference between a slave and a son? The former is in bondage and receives no inheritance, while the latter enjoys the full benefits of the father. Paul uses the categories of slave and son to draw a contrast between a man-centered and a God-centered salvation. Our passage this week ends on the re-assuring truth of adoption into the family of God.