Teaching & News From Eastgate PCB

Matthew #18: Mission Briefing (Matthew 10:1-25) Rob Woodrum (9/7/25) Download Learning to drive is a rite of passage in our culture and I still remember it well. It’s one thing to be along for the ride as a care-free kid, it’s another when the keys are in your hands and steering that metal box that’s flying down the road is up to you. It can be daunting at first, and it certainly isn’t something d...

Matthew #17: Compassion For The Desperate (Matthew 9:18-38) Rob Woodrum (8/31/25) Download One thing we as humans all have in common is that at one time or another, we have all felt desperate. Certainly, times of desperation come in varying degrees – but none of us escape moments where things seem so hopeless they seem impossible to deal with. In our times desperation, we will usually go all over...

Matthew #16: The Merciful Kingdom (Matthew 9:9-17) Janelle Greene (8/24/25) Download The Israelites in the time of Jesus lived under the heavy hand of Roman rule. That context shapes so much of what we read in the gospels, influencing the meaning of scripture and the dynamics we see in the stories. This Sunday we’ll read Matthew 9:9-17 , about Jesus calling Matthew to be His disciple. At first gla...

Matthew #15: Trusting In Christ's Authority (Matthew 8:29-9:8) Rob Woodrum (8/17/25) Download How difficult or easy is it for you to trust someone? For many people, trust is a hard commodity to come by. A lot of factors go into that – past experiences and a host of other reasons can make us reticent with our trust…and those are people we can SEE and examine and evaluate on a regular basis.  W...

Matthew #14: The Road Is Narrow (Matthew 8:18-22) Rob Woodrum (8/10/25) Download Robert Frost ended his famous poem “The Road Not Taken” with the words: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference. It just reminds me of the “two paths” motif we find in the biblical narrative, and the “Narrow Gate and difficult road” Jesus contrasted wi...

Matthew #13: God's Power In The Margins (Matthew 7:13-29) Rob Woodrum (8/3/25) Download Every society on earth has always had groups of people in the social margins; people who are relegated to the edges of the larger community. It’s a tragic symptom of living in this broken world, the ease with which we dehumanize others by categorizing them as unwanted or undesirable, or unuseful. Which is why J...

Matthew #12: The Two Ways (Matthew 7:13-29) Janelle Greene & Rob Woodrum (7/27/25) Download This Sunday we’ll be concluding Jesus’ most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount, in our ongoing series studying the Gospel of Matthew. We’ll be reading ch 7:13-29 . Jesus wraps up his instructions with a series of contrasts between two choices. Only two. Two gates, two roads, two types of spiritual lea...

Matthew 11: Do Unto Others (Matthew 7:1-12) Blake Rosemann (7/20/25) Download We continue our study in the book of Matthew, this week covering verses about judging others, and seeking Christ. Click here for a pdf of the teaching slideshow.

Matthew #10: Greed and Generosity (Matthew 6:19-34) Janelle Greene (7/13/25) Download When I was a kid, staying home from school meant watching The Price is Right . I loved guessing the value of prizes and was often surprised by how different items were valued. Interestingly, 47 other countries have their own versions of the show. If I struggle with prices in the U.S., I can only imagine how lost...

Matthew #9: A Deeper Devotion (Matthew 6:1-18) Rob Woodrum (7/6/25) Download One of the things that has accompanied the rise of the internet and our online connections via social media is an ever-increasing angst over social comparisons – something that has been ringing alarm bells for mental health professionals. The other side of that tends to be the phenomena of “virtue signaling”; expressing o...

Matthew #8: A Deeper Righteousness (Matthew 5:17-48) Rob Woodrum (6/29/25) Download We’re going to be continuing our study in Matthew’s account of the Sermon on the Mount this Sunday – we’ll be reading chapter 5:17-48 . So far, Jesus has been turning popular concepts on their heads, pointing to the stuff we normally try to avoid in life and saying that is where the good life is found. In the...

Matthew #7: Who Is Living The Good Life? (Matthew 5:1-16) Janelle Greene (6/22/25) Download Have you ever looked at someone’s life—on social media or even in real life—and thought, “I wish I had what they have”? Maybe it’s their home, their family, their vacations, or just the way their life seems so perfectly put together. It’s easy to compare, especially when all we’re seeing are the highlight r...

Matthew #6: God's Kingdom Revealed (Matthew 4:12-25) Rob Woodrum (6/15/25) Download We recently redid our kitchen – well, we hired someone to redo our kitchen. I remember all the planning and sketches Robbie and I did as we thought up our new space. Then the construction began and the project began to take shape – and it’s quite exhilarating to see a project we’d imagined for so long start to take...

Matthew #5: Staying The Course (Matthew 4:1-11) Rob Woodrum (6/8/25) Download We’re coming back to our study in the gospel of Matthew, reading  chapter 4:1-11  this Sunday. In stepping into the human experience, Jesus faces temptation to leave God’s intended path for him. In fact, the account of his temptation in the desert is a sweeping overview of the nature of our temptations. Do you...

Matthew #4: Preparing The Way (Matthew 3) Rob Woodrum (6/1/25) Download Remember how, before Hurricane Michael, when the storm season came around we only gave it our mild interest. Post-Michael, I haven’t yet met someone who doesn’t follow Mike’s Spaghetti models with grave intentionality between June and November. Experience and expectation really goes a long way in shaping our responses to the w...

Matthew #3: Reactions To The King (Matthew 2:1-23) Rob Woodrum (5/25/25) Download There’s a famous optical illusion drawing that, depending on how a person perceives the image, shows an elderly woman or a young lady with her head turned away from us. You can see it here – and what’s fascinating is while one person may see a young lady and another an older person, the image itself is unchanged – on...

Matthew #2: The Beginning of a New Life (Matt 1:18-25) Janelle Greene (5/18/25) Download This Sunday, we will be continuing our study in the book of Matthew. Last week, we studied the genealogy of Jesus and learned just how messy family can be. Thankfully, God never seems shocked by the mess, and he certainly is never stopped by it. On Sunday, we will read the account of Mary’s pregnancy from Jose...

Matthew #1: Heralding The King (Matthew 1:1-17) Rob Woodrum (5/11/25) Download This Sunday we’ll be starting a new series in the Gospel of Matthew. I made the commitment a few years back to regularly revisit the story of Jesus, even though I’ve taught through these gospel accounts before. I just honestly believe that Christians need to spend more time with Jesus – meditating on what he taught, con...

Micah #11: A Solid Hope (Micah 7:8-20) Rob Woodrum (5/4/2025) Download This Sunday we’ll be looking at our last study in the book of Micah. We’ll be reading ch 7:8-20 . For all of the dire forecasts in this oracle, Micah resolves his prophecy on a pretty hopeful note. There are shades of the Gospel message within these verses – pay attention to the wording and imagine how Jesus could be seen as fu...

MIcah #10: A Conrast of Ways (Micah 7:1-7) Blake Rosemann (4/27/2025) Download Join us as we continue our study in Micah, now in chapter 7. Click here for a pdf of the slideshow.

Micah #9: The Lord's Requirement (Micah 6:1-16) Rob Woodrum (3/30/2025) Download “What does God want and how does he want us to live?” That’s a pretty common question posed in the theater of most religions, and our study of Micah brings us to God’s answer to that question with stark clarity. And, spoiler, it isn’t outward religious behavior. We’ll be reading Micah chapter 6 this Sunday. The scene...

Micah #8: The Weakness of Self-Sufficiency (Micah 5:5b-15) Rob Woodrum (3/23/2025) Download We all have areas of our lives where we feel pretty secure in our own abilities – places where we feel self-sufficient. There’s certainly nothing wrong with being able to care for ourselves and bear some of our own burdens, in fact, it’s a sign of maturity. That said, the Biblical narrative seems to warn us...

Micah #7: The Future King (From 2,000 Years Ago) Micah 5:1-5a Janelle Greene & Daniel Woodrum (3/16/25) Download This Sunday we’ll be continuing our study in Micah and we will be reading chapter 5:1-5a . The prophecy in these verses points directly to Jesus and his birth in Bethlehem and paints a beautiful picture of hope and peace. Up to this point, many words have been given by God in desperatio...

Micah #6: Restoration And Our Present Pain (Micah 4:6-13) Rob Woodrum (3/9/2025) Download This Sunday we’ll be continuing our study in Micah – reading ch 4:6-13. Micah has had some really tough words for God’s people in ancient Israel – but chapter 4 gives respite from that with forecasts of God’s great plan of restoration. In this passage, we’ll read the promise of the end of suffering and pain –...

Micah #5: The Promise of Restoration (Micah 4:1-6) Rob Woodrum (3/2/2025) Download This Sunday we’ll be reading Micah 4:1-5 during our Bible study. Micah has been a fairly gloomy book, with a lot of forecasting judgement on God’s unfaithful people – but the first part of chapter 4 presents a sharp and short pivot. Suddenly, the oracle looks to a future where God will set all things right again. As...