Grace Bible Church Columbia, MO

“God and love are synonymous. Love is not an attribute of God, it is God; whatever God is, love is.” Oswald Chambers The Pharisees cannot help themselves – it seems that haters must hate!  Questions about Jesus and the Sabbath continue this week – the Pharisees have not stopped watching.  What is so very sad is that they were watching for violations instead of vindication!  They wanted to rule Jes...

Be still, and know that I am God!  Psa 46:10   Have you ever heard someone refer to Sunday as the Christian Sabbath?  What was the Sabbath Day in the 10 Commandments?  When did Sabbath begin?  Is the Sabbath Day past and now we celebrate Sunday instead?  All of these are great questions!  I will take them one at a time this Sunday as we look at Mark 2 where Jesus is ‘Lord of the Sabbath’ and He ex...

Jesus has met the Pharisees before – but now they come complaining about His disciples.  In their week of misery fasting they observe the feast of Levi with jealousy and criticism.  This is not a confrontation about teaching or doctrine or even Mosaic traditions – this is just unhappy people envious of happy people.  Jesus takes the opportunity to compare three common day illustrations to make His...

Jesus has reached into the blue collar ranks calling fisherman to follow Him.  Now Jesus jumps several cultural barriers and calls a Jewish traitor who turned Roman tax collector to follow Him.  Matthew gives a bit more detail – “Mat 9:9 As Jesus went on from there, He saw a man called Matthew, sitting in the tax collector’s booth; and He *said to him, “Follow Me!” And he got up and followed Him.”...

"God is too good to be unkind and He is too wise to be mistaken." C.H. Spurgeon Just like Mark we ‘immediately’ zoom in on a single story that is emblematic of all Jesus had been doing in Galilee. So many moving parts in this short story – the great crowds had not left – the paralytic man and his very good friends who were compelled to bring him to Jesus. Such notice also brought some notoriety –...

Sunday is a simple story of illness cured by Jesus – though the lessons are many! We will stare into the faces of terror (the leper fearing his desperate end) faces of horror (as onlookers see Jesus touch the leper) the face of compassion (on Jesus face) the faces of indignation (the teachers of the Law). Everyone seemed to see it differently but Jesus is the only one who did anything about it. In...

So much to do!     “I have so much to do that I shall spend the first three hours in prayer.”  Martin Luther   This Sunday we will get up early and follow Jesus slipping out the backdoor of Peter’s house to find a quiet place for prayer and time alone.  When the house wakes up everyone is searching for Jesus – He has so many fans already and so many needy people – so where did He go?  The example...

“Miracles are ordinary acts done by an extraordinary Savior!”   Sunday will be a single day in the life of the Messiah – daytime as He worships in the Synagogue on the Sabbath and that evening when Sabbath is over back in Peter’s house.  We can hear the Authority of Jesus’ teaching and then witness the Compassion of His healings. Why start in Capernaum? Why as the Savior of the World begin teachin...

This is the week of the calling to those who will follow Jesus in the early days of His ministry.  He did not call on the educated or the wealthy or the religious – He first called to fishermen to ‘follow me’ and He would use their profession as a model to train them anew. Jesus summoned them to walk with Him – not just be admirers but students – those committed to a lifestyle – not just a teachin...

Why was Jesus baptized?  He was never a sinner!  Why was Jesus tempted?  He could not sin!  I am hoping that a study of Mark 1 and these two events will give us a view of Jesus that elevates our worship of His deity and ministry.  We will step into the water of John the Baptist – listen to the shout of Heaven – wander into the wilderness of Judea – all so we can experience the testimony of Christ....

“The Gospel is not just better news – it is the BEST news!” The journey through Mark begins! Sunday we start where I love to start – chapter 1 verse 1 – by God’s grace you can dig with me in this book until we gather for chapter last (16) and verse last! For Grace Bible Church this has been our staple – going verse by verse – doing expository study of every event. Sunday we start with Mark 1:1 as...

“We would be stunned into silence except we were created to praise!”   We begin Sunday to walk beside Jesus in the Gospel of Mark. Right away I want to make sure we know that this is NOT Mark’s Gospel but rather THE Gospel as told by Mark through Peter. There is only one Gospel as told in miraculous harmony by four Disciples. Sunday I will take us through the basics of who Mark was, how he met Jes...

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” Ecclesiastes 3:1   This Sunday marks the last Sunday of 2024, providing us with a great opportunity to evaluate, reflect, and learn from the year that is coming to an end. For some, 2024 has been a wonderful year that will be missed, while for others, it has been a challenging year, and they hope for a better upcoming ye...

“Christmas is not about what we can sell – it is what we can tell!”   I knew a teacher who would often share that, “It is easy if you know how.” Finding the Messiah would be easy if we had a guide. The Wise Men had a Star, the Jews had the Prophets, Herod even had his scribes – what about the common folk? God sent just such a messenger when the angel showed up on Christmas Eve just outside of Beth...

“If we could condense all the truths of Christmas into only three words, these would be the words: 'God with us.'” John MacArthur   We have so many wonderful examples of kindness and giving at Christmas that it is hard to tell them all. We also have a few stories of the antitypes of Christmas like Scrooge and the Grinch. In the Dickens tale we meet Ebenezer Scrooge who denied Christmas and the Gri...

“Once in our world, a stable had something in it that was bigger than our whole world.” C.S. Lewis   What does it mean when we sing the carol “We three Kings”? 2,000 years ago, a group of wise men traveled from the East to find a young child who had “been born King of the Jews” (Matthew 2:2). Guided by a star, these magi eventually found Jesus and worshipped Him. Who were they? Where did they come...

What were they looking for? There are so many promises made by God about the sending of His Son – Jesus. The prophets were looking – the patriarchs were looking – the people of Israel were looking – how would they know it was Him? Sunday I will take just four of the many prophecies from the Old Testament and show you the unfolding of God’s promises for a Redeemer. How many are there? J. Barton Pay...

“Piglet noticed that even though he had a very small heart, it could hold a rather large amount of gratitude.”  A.A. Milne Winnie-the-Pooh   It is not about the size of our heart but the greatness of our gratitude! There is maybe no better place in Scripture to look to find genuine, sincere, lifetime thankfulness to God than in the Psalms and this 100th Psalm especially! David and the other psalmi...

Do you find it challenging to consistently thank God? To give him thanks in ALL circumstances? (see I Thess. 5:18) I certainly do. I tend to take credit for the good things and complain about the bad things. This Sunday, we’ll look at Psalm 118, where the psalmist urges us to focus on the goodness of God. He is the source of every good thing in our lives. In the words of Psalm 118:1, let’s take up...

King David wrote Psalm 145 near the end of his life. It is filled with praise thankfulness to God for all that He has done, and for all that He is. This psalm lifts up our God and shapes our hearts to both speak from and live out of His goodness and mercies. ​ Let's learn together this Sunday, Pastor Andy

Discover the transformative power of gratitude in deepening your relationship with God. Based on Psalm 30, this message by Pastor Denis Garijo explores how gratitude can reduce stress, enhance happiness, and improve physical health. Learn how to exalt God by making yourself small, recognize His rescue, and invite others to praise Him. Embrace a lifestyle of thankfulness and experience God's favor...

We like to think that God is on our side but the real question is – ‘are we on God’s side?’ Our job should not be to look back and see if God is still with us but rather to look steadily ahead to see that we are following after Him with deviation! The wrath of God is real – just as real as the love of God. We have the time to warn those outside of faith about the impending doom that awaits those w...

“Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” Galatians 6:7   From Jonah to Nahum we can say – ‘the worm has turned!’ Jonah was afraid that the Assyrians would get away with their wickedness – yet Jonah was grateful for God overlooking his faithlessness. Now a century later we find Nahum warning the city of Nineveh that their time is up! You might descri...

GOD’S JUSTICE SEEN IN HIS JUSTIFICATION!   God is a jealous God! But I thought jealousy was a sin – not in God’s case! Sunday we will meet the face of God that Nahum knew – it is wonderful and awesome and a little scary! Nineveh felt safe in their power and prosperity – little did they know that God’s clock was running and the meter was about to run out! The God of the Bible is a jealous, avenging...

“Don’t get angry with things you cannot change or things you can change!”   What would happen if true revival came – would we be thrilled? Would we be disappointed that sinners o​ffended God so long and then He took them so easily? Why do some believers love to sing God’s graces but hesitate about God’s mercies? Jonah had prayed about going and was sure God’s love would triumph and mercy would rei...