Line Upon Line

Using Jesus' Great Commandment in Mark 12, Nick (the junior high pastor) leads a "youth takeover" teaching that functions as a spiritual pit stop, walking the congregation through what it means to love God with all their strength, mind, heart, and soul. He pairs each aspect with a self-examining question, urging hearers to put in effort while trusting the Lord, and closes by pointing to Christ's s...

Drawing from 1 Timothy 2, Pastor Miles teaches that prayer should be a first-order priority in the church—both private and public—and that we are called to pray for all people without distinction, including those in authority and even those opposed to Christ. Acceptable prayer aligns our desires with God's desire for the salvation of all, which in turn compels us to evangelize.

A difficult passage about men and women in the church becomes an occasion to defend the Bible's good intent and, surprisingly, to call Christian men first to lives of holiness, peace, and Spirit-walking in every place. Pastor Miles argues that hard sayings are hard for a reason and that the gospel, wherever it goes, elevates the dignity of women.

Paul exhorts Timothy to make prayer a priority in the church—supplications, intercessions, and thanksgiving offered for all people, including kings and authorities—so that believers might live peaceable lives. Acceptable prayer aligns our desires with God's desire for the salvation of all, making prayer the first weapon of the Christian's warfare and the first step of evangelism.

Working through 1 Timothy 1:8-20, Pastor Miles teaches that God has entrusted believers with the glorious gospel and empowered them—despite their sin—to be ambassadors of His grace, because Christ's very nature is to save sinners. Paul, the self-described chief of sinners, becomes God's masterpiece displaying mercy as a pattern for those who will believe.

Working from 1 Timothy 1:11-20, Pastor Miles teaches that the glorious gospel has been entrusted to believers as a sacred stewardship, that God enables and uses even the chief of sinners as ambassadors, and that the saved become God's masterpiece displaying His mercy and grace to a watching world.

Teaching from 1 Timothy 1, Pastor Miles explains that Paul charged Timothy to keep the Ephesian church in sound doctrine and away from fables and endless genealogies. The purpose of right doctrine is love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith—so the fruit of a church reveals whether its teaching is true.

Teaching from 1 Timothy 1:8, Pastor Miles explains that the law of God is good if used lawfully—it was not given to make people good but to convict sinners of their need and point them to the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. He warns against preaching bad law both from the pulpit and through a "fake good life" of accidental Phariseeism.

Paul charges Timothy to remain in Ephesus to guard the church's teaching, leading and teaching sound doctrine while defending against error. The mark of right doctrine is not impressive talk but love from a pure heart, a good conscience, and sincere faith.

Teaching from John 1:29-46 on how John the Baptist and the first disciples pointed people to Jesus, and how every believer is called to do the same by simply inviting others to "come and see." Pastor Miles shows that Jesus seeks seekers, knows them fully, and has a plan for everyone who comes to Him.

Drawing on Hebrews 12, Pastor Miles teaches that hope for a better future—anchored in Christ and the glory of heaven—enables believers to endure present suffering. He argues that suffering is temporary, purposeful, and used by God in His loving discipline to make us more like Christ.

A verse-by-verse study of the closing exhortations of Hebrews 13, showing how genuine faith in Jesus produces excellence in Christian living. Pastor Miles works through six practical marks of a transformed life: loving others in word and deed, honoring marriage, refusing the love of money, following godly leaders, and offering God acceptable sacrifices of praise and good works.

A verse-by-verse walk through Hebrews 11, the "hall of faith," drawing eleven truths about faith from the lives of the named and unnamed men and women who trusted the invisible God against all odds. The teaching emphasizes that righteousness comes by faith, not works, and that we are called to endure faithfully like those who came before us.

Pastor Miles teaches through Hebrews 10:26-39, addressing the centuries-old debate between God's sovereignty and man's responsibility in salvation and showing that this passage is a real, conditional warning to believers to maintain their faith until the end. He argues that the choice before us is binary—Christ or judgment—and that a true knowledge of God's just and gracious nature should drive us...

Building on Hebrews' ten-chapter case for the superiority of Jesus, Pastor Miles teaches that the "therefore" of Hebrews 10:19 marks the turn from doctrine to response: because Christ is a better priest who offered a better sacrifice, believers can boldly draw near to God and should respond with growing faith, hope, and love.

Pastor Miles teaches Hebrews 9:16-28 to show why Christ's once-for-all death was necessary, contrasting the repeated, insufficient sacrifices of the Old Covenant with the eternal redemption secured by Jesus' own blood. He argues that the New Covenant—forgiveness of sin and God's law written on the heart—was God's plan from the beginning, providing rest that the law could never give.

A verse-by-verse teaching from Hebrews 9 showing that a covenant requires the death of the one who makes it, and that the old covenant's repeated animal sacrifices could never take away sin. Christ secured an eternal inheritance by offering himself once for all, fulfilling God's plan from the beginning and bringing rest to those who trust him.

Working through Hebrews 8:6 and its quotation of Jeremiah 31, Pastor Miles teaches that Jesus is the mediator of a far better covenant built on better promises—an unconditional covenant God Himself fulfills. The old covenant exposed Israel's (and our) inability to keep God's law; the new covenant offers forgiveness and eternal life through Christ's once-for-all sacrifice.

A teaching on the two Protestant sacraments—baptism and communion—focusing on what baptism is, how it is practiced, and why believers are baptized. Pastor Miles defines baptism as an outward expression of an inward transformation, grounds it in Scripture, and answers common questions about infant baptism, baptism for the dead, whether baptism is essential for salvation, and "Jesus only" baptism.

Working through Hebrews 7, Pastor Miles argues that the central message is not the mysterious identity of Melchizedek but the supremacy of Jesus as our better high priest after a better priesthood, who offered a better sacrifice once for all. He applies this to show that we have defensible answers to faith questions, that fallen humanity needs a mediator only Jesus can be, and that we must not mis...

Bible teaching — Pastor Miles DeBenedictis

Working through one of the difficult "warning" passages in Hebrews 6, Pastor Miles teaches that an unfruitful life ends in judgment, but that genuine faith in God's unchanging promise produces a confident hope that fuels patient perseverance. Our salvation rests not on our works but on Christ's finished work, and that hope produces the fruit of faithfulness.

Working through Hebrews 5:12–6:6, Pastor Miles teaches that God's goal for His children is spiritual maturity—discernment and obedience—and confronts the difficult warning passage about apostasy, distinguishing between believers who *fall* into sin (and can be restored) and those who *fall away* from trust in Christ altogether.

A Resurrection Sunday message from Luke 24 showing that the resurrection of Jesus is the pivotal event of human history, the foundation of the Christian faith, and the source of the believer's hope and joy forever. Without it, Christians are pitiful losers; with it, the loser bus becomes a march of victory.

Drawing from Hebrews 1, this teaching establishes that Jesus is supremely better than angels because, as the Son of God, He possesses the very nature of God in human flesh, is the eternal uncreated Creator and King, and receives the worship of angels. The application calls believers to honor the King above His messengers by living lives of justice, mercy, and humility.