Four Oaks Midtown Podcast

In Christ, we are given a new life, freed from sin’s dominion and united to Him as the source of our fruitfulness. We not only receive a new status as saints marked by forgiveness but we are given a new future. A future where Christ has triumphed over all powers and calls us to live with our eyes fixed on Him as both our means and our end. Let us rest in this truth and walk in the freedom, identit...

A good film rewards repeated viewings with deeper insight, appreciation, and meaning. We begin to appreciate minor details in the lighting, production design, and movement of the actors. Every subtle piece of dialogue or placement of the camera enriches our experience of the narrative and internalizes the major themes in a powerful way. The book of Esther, at first glance, tells a simple story abo...

In Colossians 2:6–12, Paul calls believers not just to receive Christ, but to walk in Him, firmly rooted and built up in faith. The life that flourishes in Christ must be grounded in Him, not in empty philosophies or self-sufficient thinking. This passage invites us to examine what shapes our minds and desires: does what we meditate on draw us closer to Jesus or pull us away? Remembering our bapti...

In this episode, guest podcaster Brian Seagraves joins us to explore the book of Esther. Together, we’ll consider the surprising moral ambiguity of its main characters, how the story is told with God’s name absent yet His sovereignty hidden in plain sight, and the dramatic reversals that shape the narrative. We’ll also reflect on why Esther retells history the way it does—not simply to record the...

Once we were alienated from God, hostile in mind, and marked by sin, but through Christ’s death we have been reconciled and now stand holy and blameless before Him. Paul reminds believers to remain steadfast in the gospel, thankful to live in the fullness of God’s revealed plan that prophets and angels longed to see. His aim is to see the church mature in Christ, knit together in love, firm in fai...

The book of Ruth focuses on two things that reveal our dependence upon God: land and children. We typically think of land as just matter that we through technology impose our will upon, but in the ANE land meant life, provision, and security. Central to Israel’s conception of land is the idea of an inheritance — God himself apportions various plots to tribes and families. These are gifts to be rec...

In Colossians 1:15–20, Paul lifts our eyes to the wonder of who Jesus is as our Creator, Redeemer, and the One who holds all things together. All things were made by Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together. From the firstborn over creation to the Lamb praised in Revelation, Scripture calls us to see Christ’s supremacy and respond in worship with thankful hearts.

Any author, playwright, or screenwriter worth his or her salt knows the golden rule of effective writing: show don’t tell. The narrative of Ruth shows the faithfulness of God unfolding through the ordinary lives of men and women through dialogue, action, and setting. The time of harvest symbolizes the fertility God grants to his people both in terms of bread and offspring. The shroud of darkness o...

In Colossians 1:3–14, Paul prays with thanksgiving, showing us that prayer is our first response to what God is doing in others. Prayer not only lifts our needs before the Lord, it stirs thanksgiving within us and strengthens faith, love, and hope. Paul’s pattern teaches us to pray for fellow believers: that they would grow in wisdom, walk worthy of the Lord, and wait with patience and joy.

Everyone wants to know God’s will for their life, but few want to conform their lives to God’s will. Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us that “the secret things belong to the LORD... but the things that are revealed belong to us... that we may do all the words of this law.” God’s secret will—his providence—unfolds day by day, while his revealed will calls us to obey his commands. Our focus should not be...

We are kicking off a new sermon series through Colossians, a letter Paul wrote from prison to the church in Colossae. Though he hadn’t personally visited this small-town church in modern-day Turkey, we will read Paul’s encouragement for them to hold fast to Christ as the all-sufficient Lord and his warning against false teachings that threatened to add to the gospel.

Most of us in the world live as functional atheists. We live our day to day lives without reference to God almost by instinct. This way of conceiving of the world as a “closed system” detached from anything beyond the physical realm stands in contrast to the worldview we find in the book of Ruth. The three main characters in Ruth: Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz all speak in ways that acknowledge God’s hand...

The return of Christ is a message of hope, grounding us in God’s promises of resurrection, judgment, and renewal. God is not only transforming souls but will one day restore the whole creation. Because of this, our labor for the Lord is never in vain. Complete fulfillment and lasting satisfaction will not be found in this life, but only at Christ’s return, when we will share in all that Jesus has,...

The Lord’s Supper is a table of grace where sinners draw near to Jesus with all their need and find cleansing, peace, and acceptance in God. In this meal, we proclaim the Lord’s death until He comes, washed by His blood, clothed in His righteousness, and welcomed by His mercy into God’s presence. He meets us with mercy and unites us to Himself, renewing us to walk in His ways. When we hold the wei...

The church is the body of Christ and he has pledged himself to her forever. The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her sacred ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and, above all, by her love for God, and by her members’ love for one another and for the world. Crucially, this gospel we cherish has both personal and corporate dimensions, neither of which may properly be overloo...

As citizens of God’s Kingdom, believers are called to live as salt and light in a world marked by decay and darkness, preserving what is good, illuminating what is true, and engaging the world with truth and grace. We are not to withdraw in isolation or lose our distinct witness by conforming to the world, but to seek the good of the city and love our neighbors as ourselves. Though not yet fully r...

The work of the Holy Spirit is revealed in us when we experience genuine conviction and a longing to turn from our sin. No longer consumed by self, we begin to look outward with compassion and care for others. Within the church, each person is entrusted with unique gifts and callings, given by the Spirit to glorify God and serve His people. Though we differ in function and form, we are drawn toget...

As we contemplate the Holy Spirit, we must guard against diminishing His presence to a faint or subordinate role. Rather, we ought to acknowledge Him fully, as God, equal in glory, majesty, and power within the Godhead. The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God in action, operating in, among, and through His people to accomplish regeneration, salvation, sanctification, and union with Christ. Far...

How can a sinful person be accepted by a holy God? Justification is a judicial act of God, in which He declares a sinner righteous, not because of the sinner's merit, but because of the righteousness of Christ. By God's grace, this righteousness is imputed to the sinner by faith alone in Jesus Christ. This justification, this Great Exchange, is only possible because the perfect life, death, and re...

The redemption of Christ is the period of time in Jesus' life when He was resurrected and then ascended to Heaven. Jesus' ascension establishes the reality of Christ's cession, intercession and mission. It marks the conclusion of His earthly ministry and the beginning of His exalted reign at the right hand of God the Father, fulfilling the Old Testament prophecy. From heaven, Jesus intercedes for...

The humiliation of Christ refers to the period in Jesus’  life when He willingly emptied Himself and took on human form, remaining obedient to the point of death on a cross. While fully God and fully human, Jesus willingly subjected Himself to all the limitations, pain, and temptations of this world—yet without sin. His humiliation became the means by which we are offered new life - a life reorien...

What is the Gospel? Paul explains this good news in Romans 1, unpacking the truth that the Gospel is about Jesus; that all of Scripture centers on Him; that His life, death, resurrection, and ascension took place in real time in history; that these truths have been passed down through the apostles who witnessed and testified to these events; and that this good news is the hope of our salvation.  T...

What does it mean that God's plan for salvation is predestined? As we explore the plan of God from all eternity, we see He had a plan to graciously save a chosen multitude of guilty sinners. God furthermore justifies and sanctifies those who by grace have faith in Jesus, and that He will one day glorify them—all to the praise of His glorious grace. 

Have you ever wondered what the term "total depravity" means? Or feel an unsettling sense of discord in this world begging the question "what is going on?" Why is this happening? These sort of questions inevitably lead us to The Fall, where sin entered the perfect world God created, where doubt and alienation found it's way to the human mind, where separation from God began. But amidst all this, w...

For thousands of years the opening chapters of Genesis have captured the imaginations of both Christians and non-Christians alike. The poetic beauty, majesty, and mystery of this creation narrative captures our imagination and forces us to consider life’s deepest questions. Modern culture says, “You’re free to create your own identity.” But that leads t confusion and anxiety — ask any honest colle...