First Presbyterian Church (Dothan AL) Podcast

Pastor Rusty Milton Luke 12:35-48 ESV Jesus is coming, and we are to be ready. In Luke 12, Jesus prepares the disciples to be ready for life without him. To help them understand how they should ready themselves, he tells a story of two groups of servants. One group of servants were awake and ready, longing for the master's return. The other kind of servant desires power and abuses others out...

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 12:1-7 ESV “Angry Ephraim” You must not let anger overshadow the wonderful works of God's salvation. If we allow anger to go unchecked in our hearts, it will foster the desire for self-glory and dull our understanding of grace. We see this in Judges 12:1-7, when Ephraim confronts Jephthah for what they perceived to be their exclusion from his campaign against the na...

Pastor Rusty Milton "The Tragic Vow" Judges 11:29-40 ESV In Judges 11, Jephthah feels the need to make a deal with God, attempting to manipulate greater favor. The Christian who has forgotten their favor in Christ from God often believes they must bargain with God rather than worship. God is not looking for negotiation, but trust and surrender, which leads to life. But bad theology like...

Dr. Richard Pratt "Christ's Mission in our Changing World" Matthew 6:7-13 In the Lord's prayer, he's not just teaching us how to pray, but teaching us what's important to him.  He reminds us that the one who holds all of creation together cares for you. He teaches us that he desires God's kingdom to be manifested on earth as it already is in heaven, so that his d...

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 9:7-21 ESV "The Fruitful Leader" The qualification to lead is seen in one’s fruits. Good leaders produce good fruit. It’s not the type of work that they do but how they do it. Bad leaders produce bad fruit. Believers should not choose leaders in the same way that the world does. Rather, they should choose leaders to fill positions in government, the church, and...

 In today's sermon from Judges chapter 10 we learn about both the severity and goodness of God. Our God is a jealous God and his judgment upon idolatry is severe. But our God is also a good and gracious God that offers forgiveness through sincere faith and repentance.  

Pastor Caleb Galloway Genesis 18:16-34 ESV  “Prayer: the Gateway to Heaven on Earth” What is the content of your prayers and what does this say about the content of your heart? As we get older, we often become cynical, which affects our prayer life. As a result, prayer become smaller in our lives and our joy shrinks. But God calls us into a praying life, which enables us to take part in his kingdo...

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 9:1-6 ESV “Abimelech: The Half-Blooded King We are far too impressed by compelling arguments. And judges nine, we see this with Abimelech, who desires, power above anything else. He promises his people freedom at the expense of sacrificing others, but Christ is the only human sacrifice that brings real freedom. His father, Gideon, lived like a king and had many wives, an...

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 8:22-25 ESV Pastor Rusty Milton "I Am My Own Authority" In Judges 8, we see how the pursuit of gold and glory led Gideon and his people into idolatry. He had a good theology in theory, but in practice, he failed miserably because he made it about him. God cares very seriously how we worship. We are not free to invent ways of worship, as though it's a recip...

Pastor Caleb Galloway "Misplaced and Misdirected Anger" Judges 8:1-21 ESV Good and righteous anger moves God and us to drive out evil for his glory and his kingdom. In Judges 8, we read of sinful anger and incorrect responses to evil. In verses 1-3, the men of Ephraim are angry because they yearned for self-glory. In verses 4-9, the men of Succoth and Penuel were apathetic toward the evi...

Pastor Rusty Milton Isaiah 11 ESV “The branch of Jesse “ How will one small sprig from David’s line do anything? In fact, it does everything. In Isaiah 11, the prophet details the fruits of the Messiah‘s first coming. He foretells Jesus as being like his father, David: anointed with the Holy Spirit, and having wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, and the fear of the Lord. He will care for the po...

Pastor Caleb Galloway "No Small People" Judges 7:1-5 ESV God delights in calling and using people of insignificance in His kingdom. In Judges 7:1-25, we read of Gideon, called and anointed by God, mustering Israel's army to overthrow their oppressors. However, God, knowing that Israel would be tempted to treat a victory as the result of their own power, intentionally whittles away a...

Pastor Caleb Galloway "The Lord is Peace" Judges 6:19-40 ESV The Lord brings peace through his presence and through our active obedience. In Judges 6:19, we continue to follow Gideon in his calling to muster Israel's military strength against their oppressors. It is important to recognize, however, that before God commanded Gideon to rise up, he was invited to engage in worship and...

Pastor Rusty Milton "The Pride That Ends in Shame" Judges 4:11-20 ESV When pride is the beginning, shame will be the end. In Judges 4, the battle between Israel and Sisera continues. Believing his armies to be invincible, Sisera takes all his chariots to crush Israel's uprising. God responds by sending torrential rain, miring down the chariots in a quagmire on the plains and ensurin...

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 4:1-9 ESV "Deborah and Barak" Faith that has not been through trials may be genuine, but may not be strong. Tests and trials grow our faith. As a result, the reality of trusting God comes when our entire security and trust is in him no matter our circumstances. In Judges 4, Israel had returned to oppression because of idolatry (vv. 1-3). God therefore raised up...

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 3:12-30 ESV "A Left-handed Savior" Idolatry can be anything. If you're willing to sin to obtain your goal, your desire is an idol. In Judges 3: 12-30, we read of Israel's return to idolatry. In turn, they fell into enslavement by the surrounding culture and their tyrannical, obese king, Eglon. God then raised up an unlikely savior (v. 15): Ehud, a lef...

Pastor Rusty Milton "Authority to Forgive Sins" Luke 5:17-26 ESV It is right and necessary for the Church to care for people's needs, but that alone does not solve their greatest need--the forgiveness of sins. Jesus addresses this need in Luke 5, where he first forgives the sins of the paralytic, and then demonstrates his power and authority to do so by healing his physical body as...

"Amnesia Produces Apostasy” How does another generation arise that does not know the Lord? In this week’s sermon we will see that this happens when parents fail to teach their children the things of God and when families don’t separate themselves from the world.

Pastor Rusty Milton Judges 2:1-5 ESV "God's Assignment" Living in rebellion to God's covenant takes us from a joyful heart to a weeping heart. In Judges 2, the angel of the Lord confronts Israel for not completely obeying the Lord's commands to drive out the wicked inhabitants of the land, and to completely dismantle their idolatrous religions. By not doing so, the nation...

9/18/22 Pastor Rusty Milton "Justice for the Gentiles" Judges 1:4-10 ESV How important is justice to the church? It ought to be very important since Jesus, in his first public preaching, reads from Isaiah to explain that he has come to set the captives free and minister to the downtrodden. We see more of God's concern for justice played out in Judges 1:4-10, where an evil king, Adon...

Pastor Mike Palmer "Chosen Pilgrims" 1 Peter 1:1-2 ESV How can we know which desires are correct when we have so many conflicting feelings within us? As Christians, however, we are chosen and set apart to be in a covenant relationship with God. By extension, we can rest in the knowledge that, as children of God, set apart according to his foreknowledge and imbued with destiny, God's...

Pastor Rusty Milton "The Glory of Christ" 2 Corinthians 5:6-7 2 Corinthians 4:3-6 There are two ways we will behold God's glory: by faith in this world, and by sight in the next. All our present comfort as believers starts with beholding the glory of Christ by faith. It is beholding the glory of Christ that changes us. The view of Christ in this world is obtained through faith, thou...