Heritage Sermons

1 Timothy 6:1-19 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Work and our wallets. These are two deceptively difficult dimensions of the Christian life. When we think of areas of temptation, these aren’t normally the first things on our mind. Yet these were areas on the mind of Paul, and he wanted them on Timothy’s mind as one shepherding the flock at Ephesus. And so this sermon will put these subj...

1 Timothy 5:16-17 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Over the last few weeks we’ve looked at an important dimension of the church’s health: her care for her widows and, individually, her care for family. With this sermon we come to another important dimension of the church’s health: her care for her spiritual leaders, what the Bible refers to with three different terms: elders, or pastors,...

1 Timothy 5:4,8,16 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Caring for aging parents is a burden. That’s what Scripture calls it (1 Timothy 5:16). But is it also a blessing? Yes, and understanding how is an important key to taking on this humble service. Some of us are in a position of needing care, others are in a position to care, and all of us will be in one of those places in a matter of tim...

1 Timothy 5:3-16 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Widows are near to the heart of God, and so it is no surprise that the matter of their care fills a good portion of Paul’s first letter to Timothy. The early church invested great energy in the care of their widows. It is possible that in Ephesus the church’s generosity was unsustainable. Paul, in 1 Timothy 5:3–16, seems to offer needed r...

Acts 16:6-15 | Baptism | Trent Hunter Listen in to hear the story of a sister’s baptism from Acts 16:6–15. Her name was Lydia, and she was the first European convert to Christ. As Luke tells her story, we realize that there is more going on in our salvation than the preaching of the gospel and our reception of that good news. These are God’s gracious means. But God is at work behind the scenes to...

1 Timothy 5:1-2 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Leadership in the church isn’t just about public up-front ministry, but life-on-life ministry. Which means we need both from God’s undershepherds in our life. We see that ever clearly in this passage, 1 Timothy 5:1–2, “Do not rebuke an older man but encourage him as you would a father, younger men as brothers, older women as mothers, young...

1 Timothy 4:13-16 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter The fourth chapter in Paul’s letter to Timothy addresses Timothy with what he must do in his role of spiritual leadership at Ephesus. Timothy’s job helps us grasp the nature and role of biblical elders in the life of the church. With this sermon we come to 1 Timothy 4:13–16, a passage with no less than six commands to Timothy concerning...

1 Timothy 4:6-12 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Fitness and physical training is and has always been the rage. That’s why Paul could say this to Timothy: “train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come” (1 Tim. 4:7–8). That’s a very great promise. What i...

1 Peter 2:1-10 | The Beauty of Holiness | Abe Stratton In the last several sermons, we’ve gazed upon the Holy God, and we’ve seen that He has made a way for sinners to be made holy so that we might stand in His presence. As a result, we are to live holy lives which reflect and carry out the identity we’ve been given. But why is God doing all of this? Why does He even care about rescuing messed up...

2 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 | The Beauty of Holiness | Abe Stratton In the past two sermons we’ve seen a glimpse of the Holy One—the God who rules over all, who is blazing in His brilliance, and who is utterly different from us. However, this God condescended to make defiled and impure people holy or distinct like Himself. With this sermon continue our series called The Beauty of Holiness, and we’ll se...

Isaiah 6:1-7 | The Beauty of Holiness | Abe Stratton In the midst of darkness, where is the light? In the midst of seemingly rampant sin (both in ourselves and in those around us), where is the hope? In Isaiah 6:1-7 the prophet sees a glorious vision of the Holy King. Isaiah’s vision of God would transform him forever, and it provided the message of hope and light which he would share for the rest...

Psalm 99 | The Beauty of Holiness | Abe Stratton Holiness is a word which stirs up any number of reactions or emotions. It also exposes a lot of misunderstanding and misperceptions. To get a grasp on what it means, we have to turn to the God who is described in Scripture as “The Holy One.” In Him we begin to see what holiness truly is, and from Him we begin to learn how we can be holy. Through the...

1 Timothy 4:1-6 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Why do some among us fall away? We get one answer in 1 John 2:19: “They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us.” When someone falls away they do so because they never belonged to us in the first place. But in 1 Timothy 4:1–6 we get another set of answers. Demons are involved...

1 Timothy 3:14-16 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter We have reflected on the important roles of elder and deacon within the church. But if we’re inclined to think that elders and deacons are the important people and the rest of the church something else, then this week’s text will set our thinking right. The church, the new covenant community, is “the household of God, which is the church...

1 Timothy 3:8-13 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter We will look at a second office of the church, that of deacon, a term that comes from the word for servant. In God’s wisdom, He has ordered His church so that she would be led by qualified leaders, and that they and she would be joyfully served by a team of servants. Servanthood isn’t something for a few of us, of course, but for all of u...

1 Timothy 3:1-7 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter 1 Timothy 3:1–7 outlines the qualifications for the office of elder. Or, to use another biblical word, the role of pastor. This is the Lord’s check-list for how to identify those He would have lead His church. Put another way, this is how much the Lord loves and treasures His church, the very household of God.

1 Timothy 2:11-15 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter On any building site there’s a structure. There are beams that support other beams, workers that work with and under others, and a general orderliness that leads to a sound, safe, and beautiful structure. So it is in the church, the household of God. Christ is building His church and there is a certain design for her health, for her soun...

1 Timothy 2:8-10 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter What happens when a church loses their vision of God in all of His majesty and mercy? We find out in this text, 1 Timothy 2:8–10. The topics that come up there will be familiar and well-worn in church life—prayer, modesty, etc. But these subjects take on depth when we understand why they come up here.

1 Timothy 2:1-8 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Timothy is a young pastor with an urgent task. He must deal with false teaching in the midst of the church which threatens to choke out her gospel life. But there’s another matter of great urgency: prayer. Timothy is to lead the church at Ephesus in prayer for specific people and for specific reasons. As we meditate on this call to prayer...

1 Timothy 1:18-20 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter What images come to mind when you think about the church? Family is a good one. Perhaps a vine or a light on a hill. Those are biblical images that serve specific purposes. There’s another image we might use: a war zone. When Paul tells Timothy, a young pastor, how to go about the work of ministry, he says, “wage the good warfare.” What...

1 Timothy 1:12-17 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter The foundation of a healthy church is the doctrine of conversion. Paul, charging Timothy with the hard work of building a healthy church, reminds Timothy of all they have in Jesus. Paul writes, “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display His perfect patience as an example to those who were t...

1 Timothy 1:1-11 | Building a Healthy Church | Trent Hunter Paul tells us why he wrote to Timothy in 3:14–15: "I am writing these things to you so that, if I delay, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, a pillar and buttress of the truth." Paul can't be there, and so it's on Timothy to shepherd the church at Ephesus to health. That wil...

Romans 6:1-14 | Baptism | Trent Hunter Listen in to hear about how Baptism signifies our burial with Christ and our participation in his resurrection.

Colossians 4:7-18 | Fulness in Christ | Trent Hunter The endings of the New Testament letters don’t usually strike us as interesting or needful. But that’s one of the great values of expository preaching. We actually come to the end of a letter, and are forced to ponder why it is there, what it is doing, and what God had in mind by His Spirit in inspiring the passage. What will we find at the end...

Colossians 4:3-6 | Fulness in Christ | Trent Hunter Every healthy Christ-filled church has two movements. The book of Colossians has put most of its attention on the inward movement of the church, as we guard our doctrine, seek to live under the Lordship of Christ, and fulfill our various roles as husbands, wives, children, and parents. But there’s an outward movement that frames the entire book....