Bent Oak Church

Jehoash was given a prophetic promise. He would strike the Syrians and defeat them. Elisha commanded Jehoash to fire arrows out the window as a sign of his coming victories. Jehoash fired three arrows and then stopped. Elisha explained that his victories would be limited to three. Jehoash should have fired more arrows.  What keeps us from receiving all God has for us? What is it that stunts our fa...

To celebrate Father's Day, we combined services with Central Assembly. Dr. Jim Bradford and Pastor Chase Replogle discuss manhood and fatherhood. 

Joash did what was right in God's eyes. He also repaired the temple and managed to avert war with Syria, but how did he pull it off? Joash used his wealth and the temple's. His actions raise a question How much of his faithfulness was based on appearances and how deep did his reforms go into the heart of Israel's worship.

For two chapters we watched the rise of Jehu. He was a king by military precious and decisive action. God used him to overthrow the house of Omri but he did not follow God. To the south, in Juda, another king came to power. But he did not rise by sword or plot. He came to power as a child, through a covenant, an anointing, and a testimony. 

Jehu was anointed by God to be the new king of Israel. He even fulfilled long-awaited prophecies. But outward action alone should not be our primary evaluation of faithfulness. In the end, Jehu did not follow God nor obey with all his heart. His life is a warning about how easily we trust appearances and success and mistake them for genuine faith. 

God had had enough with the kings of Israel. They had brutalized his people, killed his prophets, and refused to honor him as God. God would now replace the house of Omri with a new king. But hanging in the story is an important question. Is this peace? How does real peace come in a broken world?

Many see the Bible's prophecies of destruction as a fickle God prone to abandon his people, but for every page of destruction, there is page after page of his divine warnings. And where God's warning is given, his messenger also wept. Elisha wept for Israel. Jesus wept for Jerusalem. Our God longs to give us a better way.

2 Kings records the collapse of the Israelite kingdoms. As their kings continued to turn away from God that collapse came in military defeat but also in moral clarity. In this week's passage, we see the inability of kings to resolve those conflicts or unravel the complicated ethical complexities. But we also discover a God who is able to save, a god who is able to reverse things in spite of t...

The Syrians thought they finally had Elisha surrounded. Even Elisha's servant began to panic. But Elisha saw what others could not. He prayed for his servant and his eyes were opened. He could suddenly see the heavenly army surrounding the Syrians.  Blindness and sight are recurring Biblical images. We come to recognize that though we see, we can be blind to so much of the truth. We pray for...

We live in a time when almost nothing feels impossible. Technology has given us more than any previous generation could have imagined. But the tools we use to construct our world are not the only truth. Our tools break. Our projects stop. Our technology fails. We are left like prophets of Elisha not sure where to look but discovering something new and unexpected, an ax head that floats. 

As we celebrate Easter we take a closer look at Jesus's conversations with two of his followers on the road to Emmaus. We discover how our expectations can blind us and how the surprise of resurrection empowers us to live differently. 

2 Kings repeatedly demonstrates the wisdom of servants and the foolishness of kings. The kings appear undiscerning and hostile to God, while it's the servants who understand who God is and understand the reality of their moment.  That changes in 2 Kings 5 when a great general becomes a servant and a servant is overcome by greed. How easily we exchange what we have for what the world appears t...

Naaman came expecting healing. A man of his reputation was used to getting what he want. And Naaman came prepared to pay for it. What he didn't expect was the disrespect of Elisha sending a messenger with simple orders. Naaman was offended. It took a servant to finally help him realize Elisha had given him good news. 

Having stood before kings, rulers, and officials Elisha next found himself in the company of two everyday women, both facing personal needs.  Their situation left them confused about God's intentions but in their moment of fear, they turned to God. They feared him and clung to him. They are models for us of what to do with our own questions, doubts, and fears. 

The coalition of kings that marched on Moab was convinced that God was on their side. When things went wrong they decided to test that theory. They found Elisha and asked for God's opinion. What they heard was what they wanted to hear. It wasn't until their mission failed that they were forced to ask if they really understood what God was doing. It is a question for all of us as well.

In chapter 1, Ahaziah refused to submit to the authority of God. He chose pride and arrogance, but those aren't the only ways of rejecting the authority of God. In chapter two we see how others responded to God's voice through His prophet with skepticism and mockery. It is a warning to all of us to take the words of God seriously. For those who listen and respond humbly, there is the pro...

Ahaziah was more than just the king of Israel, he is a representative of every human attempt to control and manipulate by power. But the futile repetition of his actions reveals the truth of human pride, it goes nowhere. There is no real human progress, not in the things which matter most. Instead, it is the single man willing to humbly submit to God the breaks the cycle of human pride. 

Having learned about the 5 masculine instincts, you might be wondering, what comes next? What should I do with what I've learned? We'll take a closer look at Paul's advice to Timothy about how to watch your life and doctrine closely. We'll see how the Christian gospel offers a different path to character and why character is best infused into our life by the power of the gospel...

Shakespeare recorded man's fifth stage as a retreat. He uses the phrase, the world now too wide. He captured what is a natural instinct for so many men, apathy.  The longer we live the more we realize how little control we have. The world feels increasingly complicated and ourselves increasingly less capable of fixing it. We naturally begin to disengage and retreat into hobbies and comfort. D...

​Shakespeare described this fourth stage as the professionals. The man now dresses the part, cuts his beard, and says what is expected. By this point in his life, he has achieved some success and with it a reputation, a reputation he cares more and more about protecting. That instinct is central to the lives of both Saul and David as they struggle to live into the expectations of their throne whil...

We live in an age of anger and outrage. It's never been easier to be stressed out and short-tempered. But Scripture calls us to be patient, putting off anger. Scripture calls us to be kind to one another.  Brad takes a look at Paul's advice in Ephesians 4 and why kindness is central to being a follower of Christ. 

Ambition is certainly not a sin. It has helped many achieve great things. But left unchecked, it has a tendency to become obsessive and controlling. Ambition consumes us and causes us to lose perspective on others, on God, and on ourselves.  As we continue our look at the 5 instincts, we observe how ambition worked in the life of Moses, for good and bad. We also learn how sabbath rest can help us...

Shakespeare described man's second stage as the lover. He was describing a romantic view of life that is driven by a need for adventure, quests, and experience. Samson was driven by this romantic need for adventure. Restless and determined to find himself, he constantly wandered off to Philistia. Through his story, we come to realize how easily we abandon what God is doing looking for what we...

In this week's message, we take a look at the first of our five instincts, sarcasm. Cain's struggle to receive God's lesson exposed his sarcasm as immaturity. We also look at practices by which we can check our own sarcasm and grow into something better.

As we continue our conversation looking at instincts and character we discuss the uniqueness of Christian character and how the men and women of scripture help us grow into it.