Madison Reformed Church

Exod. 13:17–22 Josh. 1:5–9 Matt. 10:16–25 1 Pet. 5:5–11 When you open Scripture and ask— who are the enemies of God’s people? , the answer ends up circling around three main categories: the world, the devil, and our flesh. I’d like to show you these in probably the most convenient spot in all of Scripture, then show some of the ways they tempt us, and then show how prayer equips us to fight agains...

No one likes the feeling of being duped. In some situations in life, it's important to bring healthy suspicion. But we go astray when apply that suspicion to God’s Word. Even Christians who have no problem believing things like the Virgin birth of Jesus  still wrestle with whether or not God will do what He said in other ways. In Mary and Elizabeth, we are given graceful examples actively wai...

Gen. 33:1–11  Prov. 15:15–17  Luke 7:36–50  2 Cor. 2:5–11  Because Christian teaching has so seriously fallen apart in the Western world, we have to remind ourselves of the basics. In this message, we continue learning the meaning of the Lord's Prayer in the 4th and 5th petitions: “Give us this day our daily bread,” and “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” It does not get more fu...

Gabriel tells Mary that the way she will conceive the Christ-child is by the Holy Spirit and through the power of the Most High. His explanation reveals to us the amazing mysteries at the center of our faith: that God Himself took on human flesh. The name of this doctrine is the “Incarnation,” the act of God's almighty power. Since God has displayed His power in this way, we should remove eve...

Lev. 24:10–16 1 Sam. 3:10–17  Matt. 26:36–42  1 Thess. 4:1–8  When we pray, "Thy will be done," what is God's will? Scripture speaks of God’s will in two different ways: what shall be done because of God's decreed, and what should be done because He has commanded it. In this petition of the Lord's Prayer, we ask for both to be done.

There are versions around us of a Christianity that try to get us to achieve greatness by the world’s measurements. This is when greatness is measured by what we can see with our eyes. But in Mary we learn that God brings about true greatness through humility, by coming under the reign of Jesus Christ.

Num. 15:37–41 Ezek. 20:39–44 Luke 23:6–12 Col. 1:3–14 The first two petitions (requests) of the Lord's Prayer are "Hallowed be Thy name" and "Thy Kingdom come." In this message, we learn why these prayers mean, and how they enable us to aim our whole selves at the glory of God's name and the advancement of His kingdom.

These days it is easy to be offended. Usually we take offense, not because of something actually done wrong to us, but because our perception was off. In this passage, Jesus says, "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me" — a warning not come to the our Lord with preconceived ideas about what kind of Savior He should be, and a promise of blessing to those who receive Him as He is. A...

In this message, we learn that Christian thankfulness is the result of being given a new self. This new self must be "put on" in our pursuit of holiness, but it is first given to those whom God has chosen and loved. In this message on the even of Thanksgiving 2024, we re-tune our hearts to the Christian calling of giving thanks.

Exod. 4:18–23 Job 37:14–24 Mark 14:32–36 Gal. 4:1–7 Prayer is one of the greatest privileges and struggles of the Christian life. It is a struggle because, as we say in the prayer of confession, “our minds are dark and are assailed by doubts.” Jesus has given us the Lord’s Prayer to help us. In this message, we learn that true prayer requires an “awakening” in us "that through Christ God has...

Isaac’s birth is next major moment in God's redemption plan. Because Isaac comes into the world through God’s power and promise, not through human effort, his story teaches us that salvation is the work of our sovereign God, and that no obstacles actually stand His way to accomplishing that salvation.

Gen. 12:1–9  Ps. 145:14–21  Matt. 7:7–11  Rev. 8:1–5  Christian gratitude is not just about obedience to the commandments, but also prayer. In fact, Q&A 116 teach us that “prayer is the most important part of the thankfulness God requires of us.” In this message, we look at prayer from the last several verses of Psalm 145, especially anchored to v. 18: “The LORD is near to all who call on him,...

In the passage, Abraham the “man of faith” comes into contact with an outsider—an unbeliever—Abimelech, king of Gerar. Abraham’s behavior toward this outsider causes a serious problem. This story posts a particularly challenging lesson for Christians: since Jesus Christ is the Savior of all kinds of people from all over the world, Christians must live out their faith in a way that helps, not hurts...

November 10, 2024 Deut. 12:1–12 Zech. 8:18–23 John 17:20–23 Heb. 12:18–23 Guest preacher John Punt ( Bloomington RPCNA ) opens God's Word to Psalm 122 in the evening service to speak of delighting in God and His people by serving them through Jesus, who is the King and Head of the Church.

From our Election Day 2024 prayer service. No matter how the election goes, no matter what direction the United States takes, we set our hope on the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, which is "not of this world."

Jesus & the apostles said that the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah was like a preview of the great Day of Judgment and the toppling of the Serpent's reign. Like the angel's rescued Lot from the destruction of the city, so Christ will return and deliver His people from the condemnation of the world. But this tragic story teaches also how to live in the meantime: warning and praying fo...

Lev. 19:13–18  Prov. 1:8–19  Luke 10:25–37  Eph. 5:1–14  In this message on the  second table of the Law  (commandments 5–10), we learn who our neighbors are, and why the Lord requires us to love them. They are our fellow image-bearers, and they are our fellow sinners, in need of redemption just like us.

Many relationships have a breaking point, that point when someone taps out and says, “You’ve gone too far. This is over now.” Some Christians wonder if it’ll ever be like that for them when it comes to their relationship with their heavenly Father. Is there some breaking point when they’re going to be cut off? This passage is about the call upon all people to live in holiness before God, and the t...

There are people whose lives are filled with secret pain—whether the pain of their own sins or the pain of mistreatment at the hands of others. Genesis 16 reminds us that God sees. As Hagar is introduced into the story, this mistreated outsider meets the Son of God ahead of time. And this Son reveals the Father's compassion and kindness to us. He lifts us up out of our problems by the grace o...

Deut. 4:15–24 Jer. 17:5–10 Matt. 23:16–22 1 Cor. 16:1–4  The Ten Commandments are divided into two parts, or “tables," with the first four commandments focusing on our obedience to God. Forty years after they were first given, Moses looks back at this event at Mt. Sinai in Deuteronomy 4, and his reflections help us understand the rationale behind our worship of God: that the true God is a con...

When a relationship or friendship gets tested, usually the people in the relationship at some point have to get back on the same page. Doubts and misconceptions have to be overcome. This even had to happen between Abram and the Lord, and the way the Lord did this was to make a covenant of grace . In this message, we learn especially about the promise of a homeland. Through the death of Christ, thi...

Deut. 4:1–8 Isa. 57:14–21 Matt. 7:12–20 1 John 5:1–5  In a book for business leaders called The Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard, the authors say that employees eventually “[run] out of self-control.” In other words, no matter how you try to light the fire inside people to be successful, you can’t force it. There’s something like that in the Christian life when it comes to obedienc...

In many ways, Genesis is the story of a priesthood being recovered and restored. From another angle, Genesis is also the story of a war taking place between the offspring of the woman and the offspring of the serpent. Genesis 14 picks up on both of these parts of the story—with Abram taking on the persona of a warrior, a and the appearance of the mysterious priest Melchizedek. Both of these men pa...

Deut. 24:7 Isa. 22:15–25 John 20:19–23 Rev. 3:7–13 The mission of the Church includes using the keys of the kingdom of heaven. What are those keys? In this message, we learn that gospel preaching and church discipline are the keys Christ has entrusted to His Church to open & close the kingdom.

In Genesis 12:1–9 God promises Abram a people through an offspring , protection even through hardship , and a place to call home. Here in chapters 12–13, we learn that when God makes promises, they get tested in our lives, and as a result, we also are tested. The passage before us tells us two stories, and each one puts God’s promise under the microscope and tests Abram’s faith. We learn from them...