Grace Church Elk Grove

The Word, fellowship, and prayer are the core of Christianity throughout the ages everywhere for all times. To be devoted to something means to energetically give yourself over to or to persist over time in that thing. The early church devoted themselves to the prayers. They were devoted to them—dependent upon God in it—undivided as prayed, and all the while they were directed in their praying by...

The central point of worship is enjoyment of God. Whatever you enjoy most in life will be the thing that shapes you most. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on January 7, 2024 to learn more.

When anyone is in Christ, they are welcomed into the community of the Trinity. They are welcomed into what is truly truth, goodness, and beauty, because that is what God is Himself. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 31st, 2023 to learn more.

God is love; and God disciplines His children because He loves us. One way He does this—disciplines us—is through His children acting in love. Love is doing the Words of God with sacrificial affection toward God and neighbor. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 17th, 2023 to learn more.

Sin is like a volcano; power and destructive in and of itself. Sin carries its own punishment—its own sin and its own grief. And yet it can also have an effect on the whole world. When grievous, unrepentant sin is found in the church, that person should be cast out – so that they will repent and return to God. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on December 10th, 2023 to learn more.

There are 5 ways to battle divisiveness. First, look for evidences of God’s grace in others—not its absences. Second, keep on hand at all times on Jesus Christ—and Him crucified. Third, remember this way of salvation is foolish according to man’s wisdom, and that is by God’s design. Fourth, remember that we all occupy a humble position in relation to God. And fifth, return to your fathers, from wh...

There are two massive ditches that Christians are prone to fall into; the pride of man and the fear of man. In this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 26th, 2023, Pastor teaches from Paul’s first letter to the church in Corinth to reveal the antidote to this problem. Listen to learn more.

What good will it do to get to the end of time and learn you were harder on yourself that God is? And want good will it do to go through life and realizing at the end of your life that you were much easier on yourself than God is? Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on November 12, 2023 to learn more.

The Gospel questions every society—every people—it enters; every family, every club, every state, every community. It questions it and the wisdom of Jesus undercuts all of it. God did not send Jesus to affirm what we already love but to question it, undercut it, and transform it. We are all—right now—God’s temple. If we knew this then we wouldn’t be acting at the same time robed in Christian pity...

What really grieves the Holy Spirit is not the big-ticket items but, bitterness, wrath, anger, and clamor. Underlying all of that is the wisdom of man and not the “foolishness of God.” By this no one can boast that we brought anything but our need to our salvation. To learn more, listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on Oct. 29, 2023.

As Christians, we pray for our leaders so that we may have a society that is peaceful and honoring to God. We want our society to honor God because God desires His gospel to run. He desires that all people would be saved. God’s greatest interest is not in lengthening the American dream. God’s idea of the highest and best society is not 1950s America. He has something else in mind—that this kind of...

Mankind, with our own wisdom, all we want to do is take our wisdom and employ it with pride to build up towers of Babel for ourselves. We try to build up our way to heaven by our own power without God. That’s what we do with our wisdom. So God, in His wisdom—which is outside the system of man’s wisdom—chose to bring the good news of the gospel (the good news of Christ, the way to salvation and the...

God chose both a message and manner of communication that would be seen as implausible. Because our wisdoms damns us, God, in His wisdom, chose to use folly to bring the gospel. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s message on October 1, 2023 to learn more.

The church has lived so long with the notion that if I don’t agree, I’ll break off and start another “frozen chosen” other there and that’s how we will gain agreement. But God commands us to be united and He never commands something that is impossible for us to do. Our entire salvation was not founded on man-made wisdom or knowledge. This is not wisdom or knowledge we can grasp by our own wisdom o...

For so long the North American church had no perceivable opponents—they were there, just in waiting. We had no opponents except ourselves, of course. So, we divided, and divided, and divided which only made it easier when our real enemies did appear—especially in the last decade—to further divide us and conquer us. But we are the superior force. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on S...

Because Jesus is risen from the dead, He is King of everyone and everything. Everything is now under His rule. When anything or anyone comes under His rule, He redeems it or them; He transforms it or them. That thing or person is still itself and yet at the same time new. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 27, 2023 to learn more.

It’s been said that blind optimism for a Christian is naïve. It is blind foolishness. These days it is getting harder and harder to be naïve. But on the other hand, to be pessimistic is atheistic—blind unbelief—which is getting easier and easier to fall into. In this passage, Paul would have nothing in either. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on September 3, 2023 learn more.

The nature of prayer must consider the triune character of God. Prayer to the Father is war-like. Prayer that stands on the Son is personal. Prayer in the Spirit is transforming. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 20, 2023 to learn more.

Our worship is warfare. It asks God’s Kingdom to come now. Our worship should be: simple, spiritual and intelligible. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on August 13, 2023 to learn more.

In our worship we don’t start with theology or tradition, we start with a risen Jesus. He lives and He is our life so He deserves all of our worship. As we look at the Bible, we realize God is very specific about certain aspects of worship, but then He is fascinatingly silent about a lot of other aspects of worship. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed's sermon on August 6, 2023 to learn mor...

Shepherds shepherd those who shepherd. All of us disciples are to do the verb of shepherding. We are to shepherd Jesus’ flock the way that Jesus shepherds us. Disciples do what their master does. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 30, 2023 to learn more.

From the very beginning God has used human people to further His will. Like a proud father, He was very pleased to have Adam reign over the earth for Him as His vice king over creation. Moses then served as a shepherd of God’s folk with a group of elders serving with him. This shepherding metaphor carries forward to Israel’s kings. All the elite were supposed to be shepherds modeling themselves af...

It was as if, when Jesus looked into Lazarus’ tomb, He looked into every tomb and grave and said, “No more!” Those who are in Christ—who believe in Christ—are sealed with His Spirit. Jesus’ Spirit serves as our down payment that we will walk in His exodus and re-enter Eden one day. Learn more in this episode from the sermon by Pastor Jed give on July 16, 2023.

Psalm 23 is of all of life, not just the end of life. The reason is what David says in verse 6. David—and we—can look into the future with great confidence. Listen to this episode from Pastor Jed’s sermon on July 9, 2023 to learn more.

Autonomy begets envy begets immorality. God is never more like God than when He is showing mercy. God is slow to anger, but His on a hair-trigger to show mercy. People everywhere are suppressing truth about God, though His attributes are right before our eyes. Instead of receiving our lives as a gift from God, we insanely push down truth about Him, so with all our PHDs and fancy titles, we become...