Grace Church Elk Grove

We don’t know the occasion, but we can make educated guesses. The end of Judges - which was when David was born - records for us that the people of Israel had become no different in their sin than Sodom and Gomorrah. Thus David’s life was not that different from Lot’s - they were both surrounded on all sides by really wicked people. Not just the nations - the Jews themselves. But David was a man aft...

Can a Christian be PATRIOTIC? For many today, the answer is NO. But if so, SHOULD a Christian be patriotic? And if that’s true, then what should that patriotism LOOK like?  These are the questions I want to answer from Scripture today.  Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 6, 2025 to learn more.

This Psalm is very hard to outline. It’s all over the place - one second David asks God to protect him from his enemies; the next he is asking God to forgive him  his  sin; the next he is asking God to protect him, because of his  integrity . The reason for this is that this Psalm is HUMAN. There really was a David. He really was hounded by treacherous enemies who really wanted to kill him and his...

This is the riddle that every religion throughout all time has tried to answer. A riddle SOLVED by the psalm in front of us today. Who can stand before God, accepted, welcomed, approved? Verse 4 He who is two things: RIGHTEOUS and TRUE. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on June 22, 2025 to learn more.

All that we need we have in Jesus Christ. A deeper look at the 23rd Psalm. Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on June 15th, 2025 to learn more.

Sometimes the perspectives of the Old Testament feel so foreign to us, and maybe a little embarrassing. For instance, in Psalm 21 today, the candid, unvarnished talk of vanquishing enemies. After all we are Americans, living in 2025, enlightened by college degrees, with no enemies left. Haven’t WE have progressed beyond all that? But we must interrogate that embarrassment. For I am convinced one r...

Today I want to briefly give three truths we must remember BEFORE we set ourselves to our tasks in life. Three remembrances we must sink our feet down into, in order to be rightly grounded, in our work. Now, I’m going to talk like an uncle to our graduates and near-graduates, but really, I’m talking to all of us. For God has already prepared work for ALL of us to do. Listen to this episode from Pa...

Today we are considering HOW we get STRONG, and why we MUST be strong. We are in a COSMIC battle, against enemy forces that are seen and unseen. So Paul in Ephesians 6 COMMANDS us to be strong. This is no time to pet and cuddle and luxuriate in our weaknesses.  But that does not mean God REMOVES our weaknesses. Instead, as God said to Paul, “My power is made perfect in weakness.”  Listen to this e...

The question today is HOW do we get OFF the beach and begin surfing? For it is so easy to HEAR an excellent sermon about that, as we did last week, and then . . . Nothing changes. As a brother mentioned to me this week, of all our modern sins, perhaps ACEDIA is our deepest. The worst sins are the ones we do not know we have, which is why we don’t know what that word means. It means “sloth”, but mo...

Our relationship with Jesus Christ makes it possible to do things that we would otherwise seem too scary, too risky, too impossible. However, our  ability  to do those things for the Kingdom of God and our  desire  to do them often are in conflict. Listen to this episode from Pastor Mike’s sermon on April 27, 2025 to learn more.

The resurrection will not fit into any neat, sentimental holiday box. We see this, not only by looking at the specific details of the story, but also by considering the FEEL, the atmosphere of the story. The atmosphere crackles with something alien - as if something outside the system has invaded our world - something greater - something you can put in Coke commercial. Thus the writers do not hesi...

The grace of God, given in love, creates both BLESSINGS and CURSES.   This has always been the way of God. God works through COVENANTS in the world. A covenant is a solemn agreement or arrangement between two parties. And God’s great covenant is one of grace. Grace is an undeserved GIFT. The gift of WELCOME. After all, with every sin, God is the one most offended. So it is a gift for any of us to...

As Paul concludes his first letter to the Corinthians, we must remember how it started: it was all about Christ crucified. Which means this entire letter has been about LOVE. For Christ is the standard, the very definition of love.   Love is not something we define for ourselves. Love is GIVEN and must be received. Love was given in a real MAN; it came with a whip; and it was poured out in bread a...

Work for God that is EFFECTIVE is also very INEFFICIENT. To be EFFECTIVE means you do what you set out to do. But to be INEFFICIENT is to do it more slowly than you could.  Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 30, 2025 to learn more.

If civilization is like Legos, then it’s built around the same three basic kinds of pieces. There is the large, flat piece that you build everything on top of - that’s like the church. Then there are the three-by-three or four-by-four bricks that are the heart of every Lego build - this is like the family. And lastly you have the unique, more rare pieces that finish the project and keep it togethe...

Sometimes, there are supernatural and glorious things going on behind seemingly mundane situations. In the same way, the passage before us this morning at first glance appears to be just a side note about a procedural question, about how to handle the collection of money. But behind these mundane procedures, there are battles for God’s glory, And truth about how God has constructed His world to be...

What we trust and hope in determines who we are today.  Thus Paul brackets his letter with two bookends: at the beginning, Christ crucified. Now he ends the letter with the second bookend - the resurrection. All our obedience to his commands in between is then powered by faith in the first bookend, and hope in the second. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on March 9th, 2025 to learn...

This morning Paul continues his teaching on the resurrection, still dealing with skepticism. It’s voiced in v. 35: “Well, if there IS a resurrection, then what kind of BODY would you have?”    If asked open to the resurrection, that question is just fine. But the question is asked with skepticism, with a MATERIALISTIC assumption. Materialism is the philosophy so common then and now that says that...

In the text before us, Paul wants us to REALIZE three truths about the resurrection, especially if we say there is NO resurrection. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Feb. 23, 2025 to learn more.

In the following passages, Paul gives us four realities that those 21 men pinned their confidence on. Four ways that Christ is FIRST. These four FIRSTS are not just theological concepts that stay up in the clouds. They turn the world upside down, today. Let’s look at each, considering its importance as we go.

In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul is completing his teaching about Christ and Him crucified, with teaching on RESURRECTION - the belief that people who are dead and gone can be raised from the earth to new, physical life. Which is often the hardest part of the gospel to believe. For us, and for some Corinthians, who said that the whole concept of resurrection was a myth, an impossibility. So Paul previous...

Today where we consider what’s happening in our church, and the opportunities and obstacles before us.  And what’s happening now is nothing less than REVIVAL. GOD is on the move, out there, in the culture, and in HERE, at Grace.  Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Feb. 2, 2025 to learn more.

Paul has saved his final charge of gunpowder for ONE thing: the resurrection. This is because the resurrection of the dead is our POWER to fulfill God’s commission. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 26, 2025 to learn more.

Throughout 1 Corinthians, Paul has had ONE thing on his mind: Christ crucified. He established that right up front, and then he applied it in many ways: with leaders, in conflict, in marriage, in lawsuits, in sexual ethics . . . But today he gives us the HOW. HOW to do this?  Paul’s answer is: grace. Listen to the episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on January 19, 2025 to learn more.

The thing that is of first importance, Paul has been telling us in 1 Corinthians 15:3, is “Christ crucified.” Of first importance WHERE and WHEN, you ask?  Christ and him crucified - this good news raises us from the dead, and therefore TRANSFORMS everything.