Line Upon Line

Paul confronts the Corinthian church over an incestuous relationship they tolerated—even boasted about—and commands them to remove the unrepentant sinner for his ultimate good and the health of the body. The teaching distinguishes being "in the world but not of it" from sinful toleration, and calls Christians to mourn over sin and exercise loving, restorative church discipline.

Teaching from 1 Corinthians 4:6-21, Pastor Miles addresses the Corinthians' unwarranted exaltation of leaders and their divisions, using Paul's correction to challenge our culture's self-esteem doctrine with the biblical truth that everything we have is a gift received from God.

Missionary Don Richardson teaches that God has planted "cultural compasses" — redemptive analogies and foreshadowings — within cultures around the world to point people to Jesus, illustrating this with Old Testament types, encoded Chinese characters discovered by Robert Morrison, ancient Sanskrit writings in India, and his own discovery of the Sawi "peace child" custom in New Guinea. He concludes...

A verse-by-verse teaching on Isaiah 48–49 showing how Judah's outward worship had become a self-deceived sham deserving judgment, yet God spared them for His own name's sake and the covenant with Abraham. The teaching traces God's prophetic faithfulness and unfolds the Messiah, Jesus, as the true Israel and the light of salvation to the Gentiles.

Paul instructs the Corinthians to regard their leaders rightly—as ministers (under-rowers) of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God—neither idolizing nor denigrating them. The chief requirement for a steward is faithfulness, and because the Lord alone is the impartial judge who will one day expose the hidden motives of the heart, we are to judge nothing before its time.

Continuing his charge against idolatry in Isaiah 46–47, Pastor Miles shows how Israel's false gods (Bel and Nebo) were carried into captivity unable to deliver, while the one true God carries and delivers His people. The teaching contrasts powerless idols with the incomparable God who declares the end from the beginning, calls believers to live with expectancy for God's sovereign work, and warns o...

Teaching from 1 Corinthians 3:16 on the truth that believers, individually and corporately, are the temple of God indwelt by the Holy Spirit, and the call to build, keep, and honor that temple rather than defile it with worldly wisdom or division.

In Isaiah 44–45, God calls His backslidden people by name, promises to pour His Spirit and blessing on the thirsty, exposes the foolishness of idolatry, and proves He alone is God by naming the deliverer Cyrus over 150 years before his birth. The teaching urges believers to recognize their spiritual thirst, return to the Lord rejoicing, and trust the one true God who fulfills His word for His glor...

Drawing on 1 Corinthians 3:9 and its surrounding verses, Pastor Miles teaches that the church—both corporately and in each believer's life—must be built upon the right foundation (Jesus Christ and His applied word) and constructed with care, because every believer's work will be tested by the fire of God's holiness. Salvation rests on Christ's finished work alone, but reward in heaven depends on h...

Teaching through Isaiah 43, Pastor Miles shows how God comforts a people facing exile by reminding them that He created, formed, and redeemed them, will be with them through every trial, and has chosen them by grace alone. The passage's declaration that God alone is Creator, Savior, and the First and the Last establishes the deity of Christ and our calling to be witnesses who proclaim His praises...

Teaching from 1 Corinthians 3:1, Pastor Miles examines the tragedy of spiritual immaturity—Christians who, though indwelt by the Spirit, remain carnal "babes in Christ." He calls believers to crucify the flesh, remove the trash of the world, and feed on the meat of God's Word so they grow into mature followers who demonstrate Christ to the world.

A verse-by-verse study of Isaiah 42, identifying the "servant of the Lord" as Jesus Christ and exploring His character (servant, upheld, elect, delighted in, Spirit-filled) and His work (bringing justice, gentleness toward the broken, freeing captives), with applications to the believer's own calling and assurance of God's delight.

Examining 1 Corinthians 2, Pastor Miles shows that Paul deliberately came to Corinth weak, fearful, and trembling, preaching only "Jesus Christ and Him crucified"—a message that appears foolish to the intellectual and offensive to the religious, yet remains the power of God unto salvation. Believers are called to proclaim this same unaltered gospel boldly, relying not on man's wisdom or methods bu...

Teaching from Isaiah 41, Pastor Miles shows God summoning the idol-worshiping nations to judgment, proving His sole deity through prophecy of past and future events, while idols stand silent and worthless. He contrasts the foolish, fearful reaction of idolaters with God's tender promise to strengthen, help, and uphold His chosen servant Israel.

On Independence Day, Pastor Miles teaches from 1 Corinthians 1:18-31 on why the message of the cross, though regarded as foolishness by the wise of this world, is the very power and wisdom of God. He shows that God deliberately hides Himself from human wisdom, calls the weak and despised, and grants in Christ true liberty, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.

A verse-by-verse teaching on Isaiah 40 showing how God speaks comfort to a people facing judgment—comfort grounded in peace with God through the pardon and payment of sin in Christ, heralded by John the Baptist. The chapter then calls believers to "Behold your God," surveying His majesty as returning, ruling, rewarding Lord, good shepherd, Creator, and the God of all wisdom, who gives strength to...

In a mid-year update service built on 1 Corinthians 1:26, Pastor Miles surveys how God uses the "foolish things of the world" to advance the gospel, highlighting the church's outreach, media, online school, Perspectives course, and chaplaincy/Hope Keepers ministries. He frames it all within a call to "arise and go," warning that the rising social-justice gospel cycle has historically preceded grea...

On Father's Day, Pastor Miles points to God as the perfect Father whom earthly fathers are called to imitate, examining four marks of God's fatherhood: He loves, encourages, accepts, and disciplines His children. He closes with practical reflection on godly discipline and a call for the church to display the true character of the Father to a watching world.

Pastor Miles teaches Isaiah 38, where King Hezekiah, told he will die, prays and receives fifteen added years of life, only to misuse them through pride, neglect of his son's spiritual training, and careless indifference toward Judah's future. The teaching becomes an exhortation about answered prayer, surrendering our will to God's, and the importance of finishing the race of faith well.

Paul reminds the divided church at Corinth that God is faithful and has called them into fellowship with Him and with one another. From this foundation, Miles examines the contentions in Corinth—divisions around personalities (Paul, Apollos, Cephas, Christ)—and calls the church to unity in essential doctrine and to the faithful, undressed preaching of the gospel.

As Paul ministers three years in Ephesus, he receives word of serious problems in the Corinthian church he founded, and writes the letter we call 1 Corinthians. Rather than attacking their many failures immediately, Paul opens by returning the divided, immoral, and unruly church to its solid foundation in Jesus Christ.

This teaching walks through Isaiah 36–37 (with its parallel in 2 Kings 18), tracing how the godly reformer King Hezekiah faced the Assyrian invasion under Sennacherib, endured the blasphemous threats of the field commander Rabshakeh, laid the enemy's letter before the Lord, and saw God supernaturally deliver Jerusalem for His own name's sake. It draws the lesson that when the enemy comes against u...

Teaching from Acts 19:8-20, Pastor Miles traces the biblical theme of the kingdom of God—a spiritual kingdom entered by grace through faith, ruled by a King who reigned from a cross—and shows how Paul preached it boldly in Ephesus amid rejection, occultic opposition, and God's authenticating miracles. The message calls believers to live as ambassadors of that kingdom and to trust the prevailing po...

Walking through Acts 18:18–19:7, Pastor Miles examines three figures—the apostle Paul, the eloquent Alexandrian Apollos, and a dozen "almost Christians"—to show that Paul was a duty-bound apostle devoted to God's will, and that genuine faith is evidenced by the receiving of the Holy Spirit, not merely by outward religiosity.

Teaching through Isaiah 34–35, Pastor Miles examines the day of the Lord—God's coming wrath upon all nations—and contrasts it with the longer day of restoration and reward for the redeemed. He traces the theme across Isaiah, Joel, Zechariah, Matthew 24, and Revelation, showing that God reveals His prophetic plan so that man might know His power, repent, and walk in holiness.