Ada Presbyterian Church Pulpit Podcast

In Acts 16 we see the gospel advancing to the continent of Europe for the first time as Paul and Silas travel to Macedonia.  It turns out the gospel impacts the city on more levels than one, and its success gives us high hopes for God's work today and in the future.  Join us for today's message.

It's easy to think that the early church always had things figured out, but a loose collection of stories here in Acts 15-16 show us otherwise.  It turns out that even the early Christians had to navigate life in the fog.  Join us this morning to see how we navigate times of tension and uncertainty in our lives.

When a seemingly minor theological debate has outsized implications, it's worthy of your attention.  Join us today as we look at the Jerusalem Council's debate in Acts 15 and how the outcome preserved both the gospel and the church itself.

If you escape a mugging, you usually don't return to the scene of the crime. It might seem odd then that the Apostle Paul returns to a town that nearly killed him on his first missionary journey. But Paul is concerned to fortify these fledgling churches, and as we see his strategy for strengthening them, we can find ways to shore up our own faith today.

If you heard a lousy commencement speech this week during graduation season, then join us today for Joshua's speech to the Israelites.  Like graduates, they're in a time of transition; the future lies before them now that they are settled in the land.  Joshua says to them: "Choose this day whom you serve," and then he delivers his famous line: "but as for me and my household, we will serve the Lor...

It's not everyday you're mistaken for a god, but it happens to Paul and Barnabas in the village of Lystra.  While we may think of this as leftover from a more superstitious time, the truth is we're pretty good at misidentifying God in our own ways today.  Join us today to find out more.

Sometimes we "see without seeing," we overlook the obvious truths staring us in the face.  In Paul's sermon today, he reasons with the synagogue that the Messiah they're looking for is actually here. He brings Jesus front and center and helps us all see that he is the answer to our deepest longings.

We return to our series on Acts today.  We are in the final 1/3 of the book starting in chapter 13.  We now see the church going out "to the ends of the earth" with the gospel.  First stop:  Cyrprus.  Join us this week!

As we wrap up our series on virtue today, we come to the final virtue--love.  Love is the last, but certainly not the least.  It is the greatest of all the virtues.  Join us today as we sketch out a solid definition of love, namely a love that starts to see people around us, whether friends or enemies, as persons rather than objects.  

For Easter Sunday, we examined the virtue of hope.  For Christians, hope is more than wishful thinking.  It's more than a "cross your fingers" kind of hope.  It's grounded in the reality of the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.  We are born into a "living hope," a hope that yearns for the day when the work of God, begun on Easter, will be completed in us.  Join us for this week's message...

In our virtue series, we shift into some new territory today by exploring the "theological virtues:" faith, hope, and love.  Today's message is on the topic of faith.  Many people talk about having faith, but it stays at a very vague level:  "I have faith that everything will be OK."  But Christian faith is more concrete and specific.  Join us for today's message as we explore the virtue of faith.

Justice is a word that has fallen on hard times and is difficult to pin down.  Historically, the church has understood this virtue to mean living a life that embraces the obligations we have towards others.  We are not in it just for ourselves; but we are in this thing for others.  We show respect, honesty, decency, fidelity, and fairness to people around us.  Join us as we learn more in this week...

One of the paradoxes of life is that the more we focus on a particular pleasure, the less pleasure we derive from it.  Temperance is a virtue that helps us moderate our pleasures and desires; it brings balance to our lives and leads us to a place of greater contentment and happiness.  Join us for today's message as we continue to explore the lost art of virtue.

We tend to think of courage as one of those virtues for especially brave people--soldiers marching into battle or firefighters rushing into a burning home.  But courage is needed for living life each day.  Fear often holds us back from the actions we know we should do, and fortitude is the virtue that leads us into action and helps us stay the course. Join us as we continue our series on virtue fo...

Prudence might sound like the name of a quiet girl drinking tea in a parlor in Victorian England, but prudence is just an older word for something we all desperately need: wisdom.  We need wisdom to see the best course of action to take in life.  Wisdom doesn't just drop from the sky, but it's something we work towards over the course of a lifetime.  Join us today as we continue our series on virt...

Join us for a series on the virtues of the Christian life during the season of Lent.  Our passage today is 2 Peter 1:3-11, where Peter tells us to "make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue" (ESV) Virtue may not be a word you hear every day, but one way to think of virtue is that virtues are good moral habits that directs us to a life that is well-pleasing to God, to others, and to our...

Churches occasionally get some bad press, but the early church received good press in the city of Antioch, the place where they were first given the name "Christians."  Join us today as we look at the reasons why this church got noticed for all the right reasons.

It's easy to make the mistake of thinking that only "rough" people need a savior, only people like Saul when he goes on the attack in Acts 9.  But turning into chapter 10, we learn that Cornelius, an all around "good guy," also needs a savior.  Join us today as we look at how God graciously hears Cornelius' prayer and sends a savior to him by way of Peter's preaching the gospel.  Along the way, Pe...

The Road to Damascus is one of those foundational stories in the Bible, showing us God's grace and his power to change people.  It also points us to the fact that there is nobody so far gone as to be out of reach of God's mercy and forgiveness.  Join us as for today's message as we walk with Paul on the Road to Damascus.

Acts Chapter 8 introduces us to one of the more interesting characters in the New Testament - Simon the Magician.  Legends and myths have grown around the man, and in today's message we'll see how his wrong-headed desire to purchase the Holy Spirit still pops up today.  We'll also examine one of the more over-looked aspects of this passage--the Holy Spirit's delay in coming to Samaria.

We return to our series on Acts today after the Advent and Christmas break, and we find ourselves in a transitional chapter (8) in the book.  A great persecution breaks out against the church, scattering them to the surrounding regions.  It's a great shock to the early believers, but at the same time, they are scattered to the very places Jesus said they would be his witnesses: to Judea and Samari...

Stephen is the first Christian martyr, and he's killed for what he says in his wide-ranging speech in Acts 7.  His speech tells the story of God's saving work throughout different chapters of human history:  Abraham, Joseph, Moses, David, and Solomon. The story culminates in the coming of Jesus Christ.  Join us for today's message to see how this story informs on our experiences as Christians livi...

The early church practiced radical generosity-- people gave not just out of their weekly income, but they even sold hard assets like homes and land in order to support the needy.  But with all this giving comes new problems:  how is the money to be managed?  Who should be on the receiving end of all this giving?  What kind of people ought to be put in charge of it?  How do we handle complaints abo...

It's not always easy to either become a Christian or to remain a Christian.  That's true today, and it was especially true in the days of Acts, when the faith was brand new--you'd want to know if it has credibility; you'd want assurances it has staying power; you'd want to know God was really behind it.  In Acts 5, we are reminded that this new Christian movement isn't just the product of man's im...

The Book of Acts is notable for many things, not the least of which is its account of the miraculous.  Many signs and wonders are done at the hands of the apostles.  In today's message we'll answer some questions that we have about the miraculous--can miracles really take place?  Why do they take place?  And should we expect them today, and if so, how--through a faith healer or some other means?  ...