Cambria Pulpit

We live in an unusual time. I think that we can all agree on that. As secularism continues to gain hold in this country, the influence of Christianity continues to wane. But what is so unusual about this that the prevalence and availability of Christianity. Through modern media, there are more popular preachers today than at any time in church history, but few powerful ones. There also are more po...

In the late 1800s Charles Spurgeon commented, "Everywhere there is apathy. Nobody cares whether that which is preached is true or false. A sermon is a sermon whatever the subject; only, the shorter it is the better." He went on to warn that the Church was drifting away from the purity of the Gospel. Instead of boldly proclaiming the truths of Scripture, Christians were candy-coating the...

We don’t like to think of death, but have you ever thought about what you would say if given the opportunity to utter your last words? What message would you convey? We think of final words that have been said over history. Some have been unfortunate. General John Sedgwick, a general in the union army during the civil war, said to his men who were ducking from a confederate sniper, “They couldn’t...

Whenever we finish a book, it is like saying goodbye to an old friend. We have spent almost seven months in 1 Timothy and today we bid it farewell. This epistle is a vital epistle for the church to understand. If we can understand this epistle, and obey it, we can avoid many of the challenges which split churches today. As we worked through the book, we learned that the church is the visible pictu...

It is easy for many of us to skip over the text for today when we come to it in our bible reading because it is a text about wealth. Those who have wealth tend to overlook it because they don’t want to hear its message. The rest of us immediately think that this passage is not for us because we are not wealthy. However, those who have wealth need this message in order to understand God’s expectati...

There is a storm on the horizon. There is a cultural (a spiritual) revolution occurring before our eyes which will bring trouble and trial to true believers. ... In the not to far distant future, this storm will arrive at our doorstep. And we will be called to stand. Society will seek to overwhelm us and force us to comply with their beliefs. The outer walls have been breeched and we have a decisi...

How do you know if that book, bible study, teacher or preacher, or website you are looking at is truly a good Christian thing? There are a lot of things that place themselves under the label of Christian. Out of curiosity I looked at what Amazon sells under the label of Christian books and got 80,000 results. 80,000 books all claiming to be good Christian teaching. Then we consider the thousands o...

There are a lot of things that place themselves under the label of Christian. Out of curiosity I looked at what Amazon sells under the label of Christian books and got 80,000 results. 80,000 books all claiming to be good Christian teaching. Then we consider the thousands of Christian podcasts and tv shows. Needless to say, with this many options, I hope that you realize that all that labels itself...

What does Easter Sunday mean to you? Jelly Beans, Chocolate Bunnies, Easter Baskets, Breakfast with family, Easter dresses and suits? Of all the holidays we celebrate, this one is the most important. All of history centers on this weekend over 2000 years ago. For on this weekend, our sin was pardoned, our souls were redeemed, and lives were justified through the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ...

Ours is a society that does not place a high value on the work. In a day in which we are told there is record level unemployment, businesses are struggling to find those who are unemployed. In an NPR article last month, one business owner commented, “I keep hearing about all the unemployed people, I certainly can't find any of those folks.” As you drive through the county you will notice busi...

Every good coach focuses on the fundamentals of the sport with their team. No team can succeed if they fail in the fundamentals. A football team that can’t tackle, block, or run the right routes will lose a lot. Any basketball team that can’t dribble, pass, or shoot will lose a lot. During his career, every offseason, Peyton Manning would go and meet for a week with his old college quarterback’s c...

Millennials: can you believe them? With their distressed jeans, avocado toast, and entitled perspective. You’ve heard statements like this. The older generation has taken to calling them snowflakes. Soft, weak, insignificant. Millennials (and Generation Z) responded with the derogatory phrase, “OK, boomer” as a way to pass off the attacks as ramblings of old people yelling at clouds. Generational...

What makes a successful church? What makes a successful servant of God? These are perhaps the most important questions we must ask in any church. The problem reveals itself in the fact that there are so many answers to these questions in the Christian world today. Most measure the success of a church by the number of attenders. A large church equals a successful church. A small church means that s...

Over the last three years we have continually emphasized the importance of the Word. We sing the Word, pray the Word, Read the Word, preach the Word, picture the Word (through the ordinances), so that will live the Word. This emphasis is vital because the Word is Truth. In John 17:17, Christ states, Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. We must remain solidly on the Word of God because m...

Throughout the first part of 1 Timothy we have been examining the Biblical structure of the church. We have been called to stand for Biblical fidelity, we have answered the questions, what is a woman to do in the church? What is a pastor to be? And what is a deacon to be? However, as we have examined these instructions, perhaps you have wondered, Is this really a big deal? Many of these instructio...

Caring for the church is a big task. This quickly became evident in the early church. As the apostles preached and the church grew, the needs grew along with it. In short order, a conflict arose because some felt that they were not being adequately cared for. We see this in Acts 6. Interestingly, the apostles did not step in to solve the problem. Instead, they instructed the church to select a gro...

There is a pandemic sweeping the nation. Do you fear it? No, I am not talking about COVID. No, this pandemic is far worse. It is a pandemic of murder. This murder has nothing to do with gangs and guns. This murder is not confined to a large metropolitan area. This murder takes place all over the country, and even in our own county. Last year, this pandemic resulted in over 42.7 million lost lives...

For the past two weeks we have been looking at the position of the pastor. The church is weak today because they have accepted men into the pastorate who are unqualified. We hold a high standard for this position. Paul covers this standard in our next text in 1 Timothy. In this text, Scripture presents very clear qualifications for a pastor. 

At times I have been asked how America, our culture, and Christianity have arrived at the mess we are in. I have been blunt in my answer. The fault lies in the pulpit. The church has settled for and followed unqualified men. The church has forgotten what a pastor is to be. You see, not just anyone should serve behind this sacred desk. So, what is a pastor to be? Who should be a pastor? What expect...

Every January we pause our study to take some time and return to some foundational issues. We call this annual series, Foundations . This year, the next section in 1 Timothy lines up with what I want to cover in the Foundations series and so we will kill two birds with one stone as it were. We will continue our study in 1 Timothy as it covers some important foundational aspects of the church. This...

What is Christmas all about? This is an important question for us to contemplate every 25th of December. This week I came across an article about Christmas written in 2015 by a man named Murray Bass. The title was, “What is Christmas About?” Here is a paragraph from that article: Then, there is the traditional Christmas: The holiday. It’s the celebration of love demonstrated by selfless giving, th...

We often think of Mary, Jesus, the Shepherds, and the Wise Men when we think of the Christmas story. But there is so much we can learn from  Joseph, the forgotten character.