Calvary Church | Messages

David succeeded as king where Saul failed. David was “a man after God’s own heart”—humble, trusting, obedient, and repentant. David got it. Israel thrived under King David—victorious in battle, righteous in his judgments. In response to David’s faithful heart, God expanded The Promise by designating David’s an eternal throne from which the future King of kings will come. Do we have a great nation...

Israel wanted a king like all the other nations so God gave them what they wanted. Enter King Saul — tall and handsome. He started well, but soon it all went to his head. Abandoning God’s will for his own, Saul became the king that had no closeness to God. God saw through him, and soon everyone saw what God had always seen. Having suffered with the king they wanted, Israel is now ready for the kin...

The days of the Judges . . . when everyone did what was right in their own eyes. The nation slogged through 3 centuries of recurring failure—disobedience, disaster, repentance, rescue. Then the ugly cycle kept recycling. Gross idolatry and gross immorality darkened the landscape with only a few bright spots sprinkled in between! Turning to Judges 22-25 (a.k.a. Ruth 1-4), God cast His light forward...

Joshua ended on a high note—God leading His people to victory after victory and His people declaring their trust in God again and again. But then we turn the pages of history to Judges and a time when, “Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.” It was a time much like our own. Will He judge His people again? Will The One Story come to a screeching halt? Who still trusts God? The answer may jus...

With Episode 7 of Season 2 we take yet another turn in The One Story, a good turn for a change. Having spent 40 years mired in the wilderness because of unbelief and rebellion, a new generation of Israelites is prepared to trust the LORD and enter the Promised Land. Across the Jordan River awaits the land flowing with milk and honey . . . and walls and warriors. God gave the land to them, but they...

The people have a leader, a God-given culture and they’re headed for The Promised Land. At the start of this episode the nation is about an 11-day journey from the Promised Land. They are on the verge of living out the promise made to Abraham long ago. What could possible go wrong?

God gave His great nation 2 holy-days—days forever to remember, days that formed Israel’s identity—The Passover (when Israel was saved from death) and The Exodus (when Israel was given new life). The people had a leader, they’re headed to The Promised Land but first they need a God- given culture.

Israel got the leader it so desperately needed—God-selected, God-trained and God-led. God rescued Moses from certain death and nurtured him in Pharaoh’s household, all providentially, in order to lead the Israelites out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. Moses will lead Israel by speaking God’s Word and backing it up with God’s validating miracles. Lead on, Moses!

In Season 2 of The One Story, God begins to answer some of questions that arose in Season 1. God's plan to bless the whole world begins with building a great nation. Certainly not how we'd do it! From our vantage point in Genesis 12 it's far from clear how building a great nation fits into God's larger plan to bless the world. That it does, and will eventually be wonderful, is not in doubt. It's o...

Where do great nations begin? With Founding Fathers! What do the Founding Fathers of the nation God promised need to be? Faithful to God, in order to be examples of faith to all who follow after all! The great nation, to be great, must live by faith. In Episode 1, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob laid the foundation. Let’s see how God began to build on it.

In Season 2 of The One Story, God begins to answer some of questions that arose in Season 1. God's plan to bless the whole world begins with building a great nation. Certainly not how we'd do it! From our vantage point in Genesis 12 it's far from clear how building a great nation fits into God's larger plan to bless the world. That it does, and will eventually be wonderful, is not in doubt. It's o...

It’s as if God said, “Let’s have a free-for-all,” then gave us Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world! When we have a free-for-all, all hell breaks loose. We fight to get our own way the old-fashioned way—by stampeding into, through, and over people no matter why, how or who. Our free-for-alls leave us all slaves to our sinful selves. When God has a free-for-all, all heaven breaks loose. He invites...

Would you call yourself a “free spirit”—independent, uninhibited and liberated? We admire free spirits because we all long to be free. But to be a free spirit in the best sense of the word, we need the Free Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who alone can set us free. What’s more, He’s free for the taking. Who turns their back on the Free Spirit? Only fools, like some Galatian believers in Christ, distortin...

The clarity of the gospel was distorted by false teaching in the church of Galatia. Paul confronted the deadly error from his apostolic authority and pastoral heart, by explaining concisely the essence of the Gospel and how it is lived out... all so they, and we, would be Freed Up!

False teachers were distorting the gospel message and undermining the gospel messenger. They said since Paul wasn’t one of Jesus’ original disciples, he wasn’t a genuine apostle. Paul defends himself as one of God's agents for the gospel by describing how he received his calling directly from Jesus Christ.

In the opening verses, Paul described his authority and summarized the Gospel—grace to you, glory to God because of the cross of Jesus Christ. He then forgoes his typical pattern of prayer, praise and thanksgiving because he is astonished at the trade they have made—the freedom found in the grace of Christ for the bondage of “another” Gospel.

Today, we dive into the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Galatians. It was the first letter he wrote addressing specific and critical concerns for the first-century churches in Galatia. This letter is as timely and relevant for us today as it was for its original recipients. It will be our guide to breaking free through the Gospel of all that’s entangling us. Let’s embrace the Gospel, all of it, and g...

Today, we transition to the middle section of Mark’s Gospel. Jesus begins deliberately and methodically teaching his disciples, and us, that He must suffer, die and rise again in order to fulfill His role as the Messiah.

What is the gospel, and what is our part in proclaiming it? Today, we highlight how we, as a church, seek to carry out our value of going into God’s world, by extending the gospel to others, right here and around the globe.