Line Upon Line

Deviating from 2 Corinthians for a three-part mini-series called "Reconcile," Pastor Miles addresses how the church should engage the cultural debate over marriage, arguing that since marriage is a God-ordained religious institution the state should grant civil unions only, while Christians remain ambassadors of Christ called to bring all sinners—including the LGBT community—into reconciliation wi...

Paul pleads with the Corinthians to open their hearts and receive him, defending himself against accusations of wronging, corrupting, and defrauding them, while assuring them his convicting words flowed from a father's love. He then testifies that in the midst of severe tribulation in Macedonia, God comforted him through the coming of Titus and the good news of the Corinthians' repentance, demonst...

Building on Paul's portrait of the ambassador of Christ who lives between two worlds, this teaching unpacks 2 Corinthians 6:14 and the command not to be unequally yoked with unbelievers, showing from the Old Testament that God created purposeful divisions and that believers must enter every relationship with a kingdom mindset, remaining separate and holy as the temple of God.

Drawing from 2 Corinthians 6:1 and following, Pastor Miles teaches that having received God's grace freely, Christians must not hold it in vain but live with urgency, integrity, and patient endurance as ambassadors of Christ. He walks through the costly hardships Paul endured and the Spirit-produced character that authenticates a true minister of the gospel.

Continuing in 2 Corinthians 5, Pastor Miles teaches that the love of Christ compels believers to preach the gospel, expounding on five reasons for evangelism and the truth that all humanity is dead in sin until reconciled to God through Christ, who became sin for us. He shows that anyone in Christ is a new creation, entrusted with the ministry of reconciliation as God's ambassador.

Continuing in 2 Corinthians 5, Pastor Miles teaches that because believers have absolute confidence in eternity through Christ's finished work, they labor not to earn acceptance but to be well-pleasing to God. He explains how the certainty of standing before the judgment seat of Christ—reconciled with salvation by grace through the Book of Life in Revelation 20—should stir believers to a passionat...

Teaching through 2 Corinthians 5:1-8, Pastor Miles explains that our earthly body is a temporary tent destined to dissolve, while God has prepared an eternal, heavenly body for those who trust Christ. This confident assurance—guaranteed by the indwelling Holy Spirit and grounded in Christ's finished work rather than our own—enables believers to face trials with joy and to be absent from the body a...

Building on the contrast between the old covenant ministry of condemnation and the new covenant ministry of righteousness, this teaching shows that believers have been given a ministry of righteousness and reconciliation that they cannot fulfill in their own strength but only as they rely on God's unfailing mercy. Paul then identifies three obstacles to this work—the flesh, the devil, and the worl...

Paul contrasts the old covenant (the letter of the law, which brings death and condemnation) with the new covenant (of the Spirit, which gives life and a transformed heart), showing that while the law is glorious, its glory fades and was always meant to point us to the surpassing glory of Christ. As we behold Jesus, the Spirit transforms us from glory to glory, freeing us from a merely legal relat...

In 2 Corinthians 2:12-3:6, Paul gives a third defense for not visiting Corinth—an open door at Troas and his anxious search for Titus—revealing his very human struggle with stress. Pastor Miles teaches that when distressing circumstances hinder God's work, believers must refocus on the God who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ, making us the fragrance of His knowledge and living le...

Paul defends his decision not to visit Corinth, explaining that he postponed his coming out of love so as not to come "in heaviness," and that his role was to be a helper of their joy rather than a lord over their faith. The teaching applies this to Christian fellowship, urging believers to distinguish essential ("national border") doctrines from secondary ("state border") preferences and to pursu...

Drawing on Psalm 63, written by David while on the run from his rebellious son Absalom, Pastor Miles teaches that worship is far larger than singing songs on Sunday—it is the entirety of life lived for God's glory. He calls believers to seek God early and continually, to meditate on His word, and to worship Him in spirit and truth in every circumstance, even amid suffering and injustice.

Paul defends himself before the Corinthians not for his own reputation but for the glory of God, appealing to his clear conscience and to God's faithfulness. Through trials God brings believers to a place of weakness and total dependence, and as ambassadors of Christ our lives testify to who God is.

Opening a study in 2 Corinthians, Pastor Miles traces Paul's journey from his conversion through his deep, costly love for the imperfect church at Corinth, then shows from the letter's first verses that God is the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all tribulation so we can comfort others.

Surveying the local, national, and global mission work flowing through Calvary Chapel Escondido—"not a huge church, but a huge vision"—Pastor Miles ties it back to Acts 20:1-6, where Paul travels through the churches he planted, recruiting and training a team to carry on the gospel mission. The central exhortation: every believer is gifted, commissioned, and called to engage in the mission of Chri...

Returning to Acts 19 after a long detour through the epistles, Pastor Miles examines the uproar Paul's gospel preaching caused in Ephesus, where one man teaching in a school subverted an entire pagan idol industry. He calls the church to a "ministry of subversion"—not political protest and boycotts, but simply living and preaching the gospel as ambassadors of Christ who transform communities by it...

On the first Sunday of 2012, Pastor Miles casts a vision for the year built on two themes: enjoying God's grace through salvation and extending God's glory into the world. He argues that the Christian life is far more than attending Bible studies—it is incarnating the fruit of the Spirit and carrying the joy of grace to those living a graceless existence.

Drawing from Isaiah 9 and the Christmas accounts in Luke and John, this teaching shows that Jesus is joy incarnate who has graciously extended His joy to us, calling believers to enjoy that joy fully and then carry it as His messengers into a joyless world.

Pastor Miles traces his own teenage call to follow Christ to teach that serving God out of gratitude is not a joyless, dreadful existence but the very path to increasing and enduring joy. Drawing on Christ's example, biblical commands, the rich young ruler, the parable of the talents, and the martyrs, he argues that Jesus is a treasure worth losing everything to gain.

Continuing a series on joy from John 15:11, Pastor Miles teaches that love overflows in giving, and that giving—motivated by love and the promise of joy—is a God-ordained means of laying hold of greater, enduring joy in Christ.

This teaching argues that the key to full and enduring joy is gratitude, and that genuine gratitude cannot be manufactured by willpower but is an emotive response generated by remembering and beholding the greatness of God and all He has given in Christ. All God's commands—including His commands to give thanks and praise—are ultimately promises for our greatest joy, because He is most glorified in...

Pastor Miles confronts the common Christian tension between serving God and being happy, arguing that our real difficulty is not desire but a belief problem—we have been deceived into seeking ultimate joy in created things. Drawing on Scripture and Psalm 16:11, he insists that in God's presence is fullness of joy, and that the only way to overcome lesser desires is to nourish them with the superio...

Opening a seven-week series on joy, Pastor Miles argues that Jesus offers a fullness of joy that supersedes circumstantial happiness, and that this joy is found paradoxically through self-denial and the loss of all earthly things to gain Christ Himself. Drawing from John Piper, C.S. Lewis, and a harrowing personal story, he establishes that Jesus is the treasure in the field worth joyfully forsaki...

In this 52nd and final study in 1 Corinthians, Pastor Miles draws two observations (the leading of the Lord and the treatment of leaders) and two exhortations (to be watchful, steadfast, courageous, strong, and loving) from Paul's parting words, closing with the sobering choice between the grace and the curse of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Drawing from Paul's instructions in 1 Corinthians 16:1-4, Pastor Miles examines the Bible's extensive teaching on money and possessions, arguing that God addresses giving not to raise money but to raise His children. He shows that all believers are among the world's wealthy, that everything we have belongs to God, and that the cure for greed is to repent, recognize God as owner, and resolve to giv...