Redwood Church Preaching

God has given us nine acrostic psalms, yet modern songwriting sensibilities do not include this form. Why would God make alphabetical lines a priority for poetic expression? Why limit himself to having his message dictated by the order of the Hebrew alphabet? What profound truth does the form and nature of this poetry communicate about God’s love for his covenant people? This is a public episode....

Being discipled by chick flicks and pop songs, we tend to think of love as the initial flames set ablaze when we meet the person of our dreams. But the “flame of Yah”—true love as God designed it—is a cultivated fire from start to finish. To keep this marital fire burning brightly, Song of Songs depicts key elements of romance which we can cultivate in our own marriages. This is a public episode....

If Song of Songs is truly named, then it is the best and most important song ever written. Yet the modern reader finds its poetry awkward, unsatisfying, and confusing. What help does God offer through this song for cultivating romantic affection in our own marriages—and how can we train our modern ears to find it profitable? Three elements contribute to poetic excellence, and help us to discern th...

Psalm 47 is a psalm that grounds all of time, drawing history together into a meaningful whole. Always it has been true, always it is true, and always it will be true. It is the great foundation of the past; the great promise of the future; the linchpin of yesterday, today, and tomorrow: King is God over the nations; very ascended is he. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this...

Despite the celebrations, Christmas is a time of many mundane hardships and difficulties — from annoying relatives to stretched finances. Since it is easy for us to feel set-upon and inconvenienced, it is helpful to reflect on how the first Christmas is a story of stress and anxiety, confusion and unknowns for Mary and Joseph, who had their expectations, hopes, and plans for their lives completely...

Now that Gideon has successfully made war on the idolatry of Israel, he is ready to make war on Midian. Yet, outnumbered four to one, God tells him his army is too big. Holy war cannot be fought, except by men who believe, so two thirds of the army must be sent away. This remains true within the church. Yet still the people are too many, so God refines them a second time, until they are outnumbere...

Wicked rulers operate by cloaking their violence in the terminology of righteousness. Though they are preparing a path of violence, they want to appear benevolent and good. As in David’s day, so in ours, where terms like “climate justice,” and “Maori rights” are used to legitimize theft and the threat of violence. Our solution should be the same as David’s, but the church cannot act effectively wi...

The Spirit clothes Gideon—a word used especially for priests being invested with the garments of their identity as God’s servants. Yet suddenly, he seems to get cold feet and asks for two strange miracles. Why would someone with the Spirit act this way? Comparing Gideon’s words to Abraham’s in interceding for Sodom reveals that this is not faithless act, but a faithful one—and the sign of the flee...

In response to God’s overture of fellowship, Gideon makes two offerings. Careful comparison to the Torah gives us insight into the nature of both priests and saviors in God’s kingdom. Although our worship differs in substance, it remains true that God raises his altar by tearing down Satan’s strongholds and building on their ruins; that he calls us to sacrificial service that can pit father agains...

Like Israel before Midian, the true Israel has no power in the land of the West today. How does salvation come in such times? What kind of man does God choose? Gideon seems to be a small, doubtful loser. Why is he threshing in a winepress? What is the significance of the angel turning to face him? What does it mean that he asks to feed the angel—or that the rock eats the food? And how do these thi...

Jesus distilled his wisdom about worry into seven simple arguments in his Sermon on the Mount. We can follow these arguments to reason our way out of anxiety, and into mental fortitude. His fifth argument is about clothing, exegeting the beautiful yet brief life of the middle Eastern desert flower to prove that God will clothe us sufficiently for our far greater callings. But what are the implicat...

The mindset of fearing Canaanite gods, and allowing their altars to remain, seems alien and inconceivable to us—we have no gods or altars of this kind. But have we none of any kind? To the contrary, many hold sway in our lives, and we often convince ourselves that it is in our best interest to let them remain. We even offer fearful sacrifices to them. One such god is especially prevalent in the li...

Does God delight in the death of the wicked? Should we? In the same way that we are instructed to seek his vengeance, we are also called to celebrate it. Though there is a danger in this becoming fleshly, yet there is still a pure way for us to laugh righteously at the calamity of the wicked. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus...

In Deborah’s song, she recounts the angel of Yahweh cursing those who did not help God in battle. If we are to be holy as he is, should we follow his example? What is a curse, who is qualified to pronounce one, and when is it appropriate to do so under the new covenant of grace? This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visi...

Psalm 32 describes how to be happy, proved from David’s experience, and then taught to Israel. As long as we cover our sin, its weight crushes us with sorrow, but when we confess, God lifts our iniquity and gives us happiness. Yet this is not just an offer of forgiveness and joy; it is a command, to be heeded freely lest God have to “take our reins.” This is a public episode. If you would like to...

Israel’s victories are not won by military strategy or strength of arms, but by the intervention of God’s presence with his hosts of angels. This is plainly depicted in Barak’s battle with Sisera, revealing a world not governed by mechanical, natural forces, but personal, spiritual agents. How does this affect our view of providence, and what is and (is not) possible? Rather than asking “what can...

Whereas in one part of the church, singing anything but the Bible’s psalms is viewed as worldly progressivism, and in another part, singing psalms at all is viewed as backward primitivism, in fact scripture reveals the need to continually write new psalms. After going to war and defeating their enemies, Deborah and Barak model the proper response: a victory psalm commemorating God’s help. But what...

Yael, the lady of a house in league with the Canaanite king, defies her husband by deceiving and slaying Sisera, the principal of the Canaanite army. What should we make of Yael’s treatment of Sisera? Is she a liar and a murderer? Or is she indeed blessed among women? And if so, what is the implication for women in the church, and spiritual warfare? This is a public episode. If you would like to d...

Jesus distilled his wisdom about worry into seven simple arguments in his Sermon on the Mount. We can follow these arguments to reason our way out of anxiety, and into mental fortitude. His fourth argument is against the futility of worry: that we cannot make ourselves grow in any way by it; rather the opposite. When we worry, we could be doing literally anything else of value, and the outcome wou...

Scripture tells us we are to participate in Christ by forgiving our enemies — sacrificing ourselves and our anger, knowing that ultimately God is the one sacrificing us for the sake of shaping us into his image. Yet the New Testament doesn’t give much practical instruction in how. This is because the Psalms already do. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscrib...

Contrary to popular belief, we can and must forgive even those who wrong us unrepentantly. Repentance is not a necessary precondition for forgiveness — but, in fact, forgiveness is a necessary precondition for repentance. The doctrine of the cross helps us to understand how and why — and the scriptural distinction between forgiveness and reconciliation. This is a public episode. If you would like...

Jesus distilled his wisdom about worry into seven simple arguments in his Sermon on the Mount. We can follow these arguments to reason our way out of anxiety, and into mental fortitude. His third argument is that God provides food for all creatures through various means — even birds who don’t have to work for it. Since we are of superior worth, we should trust that God will provide our food also,...

After 20 years, a new generation has been raised up by Deborah to war against evil—led by Baraq, the lightning-man, to fight the lightning-god Ba’al. While modern readers haughtily interpret Baraq as a man of defective faith, he has the trust in God (along with the confidence of 10,000 peasants) to engage a humanly suicidal strategy to defeat 90,000 Canaanite soldiers, consuming them as fire from...

Because Israel has failed to represent God’s father-rule into the world, its own fathers are unable to rule. For as long as it takes to raise a child for battle, they are thus without a savior — and a married woman under authority must judge them. Yet through grace, this curse turns to a blessing, as Deborah the holy mother raises up a spiritual son as a warrior-savior. This is a public episode. I...

Jesus distilled his wisdom about worry into seven simple arguments in his Sermon on the Mount. We can follow these arguments to reason our way out of anxiety, and into mental fortitude. His second argument is that rightly ordering our concerns in a proper hierarchy is foundational to cultivating peace about the future: placing the lesser things beneath the greater, and taking care to how they fit...