The Hallows Church

Sometimes history sounds more like a chapter out of The Lord of the Rings then real life, and we find one such account in our study of 1 Samuel this week. Join us this Sunday in person or via our YouTube livestream as we study together 1 Samuel 28–Saul's interaction with the witch of Endor and consider how the gospel addresses our fears. Wallingford Expression | Andrew Arthur

Last Sunday, we looked at Jesus’ final words in the Gospel of Matthew and affirmed the fact that we are worshipping, missional, spiritual people. In reliance upon the Holy Spirit, we rally around the crucified and risen Christ. He is the point and purpose of all that we as a church are and all that we seek to do in this city. Jesus has commissioned us to make disciples of all nations, which means...

At our opening Sunday gathering of our Hallows Wallingford Expression, Pastor Andrew walks us through "Who We Are" Part 1 through the lens of Matthew 28:16-20.

Life in the real world is rarely black and white. Everything outside of Eden is colored with shades of grey. One of my favorite features of the Bible is that God’s Word does not shrink back from depicting the complexities of life in the real world. All the heroes of the faith get their hands dirty. No one makes it through this life clean. After a string of narratives depicting the faithfulness and...

Let's talk about faith. When faith is depicted as one dimensional, a cop-out, or an excuse, we are simply not talking about faith. Faith is multidimensional not one-dimensional. It is both acting and receiving: experiencing God’s greatness and showcasing His grace. In this Sunday's scripture focus, we see Saul regress from his recent commitment and David respond with faith rather than fury. As the...

In today’s study of 1 Samuel 25 with Pastor Andrew Arthur, we meet a character who would have been a passenger on a ship of fools. His name is Nabal (his name literally means “foolish”). He epitomizes human folly. Scripture sets him in contrast with his wife, Abigail. Whereas he represents human folly, she serves as a conduit of divine wisdom. By God’s grace, she comes to prevent Israel’s future k...

A disturbed conscience is a gift of grace. Yes, you heard that right. Why? A disturbed conscience reveals when our attitudes or actions are not corresponding with faith in Christ and provides us with an opportunity to correct course. Ignoring the gift of a disturbed conscience is dangerous. Over time, it may harden and callous until all sensitivity is lost. To avoid such a dehumanizing outcome, le...

A person’s faith will not last a lifetime apart from being encouraged. Encouragement is needed to dispel fear, strengthen trust, and infuse courage as we face various challenges. In those moments, we move toward others to move others toward God. How can we encourage one another? We encourage one another of God’s promises and assuring one another of God’s provision, both of which are ultimately ful...

We’re back to 1 Samuel this week with our guest preacher, Daniel Englehart. Daniel and his wife, Stephanie, are former church planters in residence with The Hallows Church and were commissioned out to start The Mountain Church in South King County in 2015. This morning, Daniel will help us study and explore the next passage in our series detailing a situation in which David rescues a city under at...

In a step away from our study of 1 Samuel we are going to examine a story in Genesis 16 with Stephen Searles, our Church Planter in Residence. While it may be out of our current book of study, we'll find that today's passage still sheds light on when our mess meets God's mercy. Abram was a man with whom God had made a unique covenant: God would make of Abram’s descendants a great nation to be a bl...

The kingdom of God is a kingdom occupied by people who have grown disenchanted with the world around them. They’ve experienced the world as an inhospitable place that is influenced far more by those who take from them than give to them. At some point, they found in themselves a desire in which no experience in this world could satisfy. That led them towards the king and the kingdom that had alread...

How does 1 Samuel 21 help us understand what faith looks like–particularly when it is hard to see what's really going on beyond what we can see? Study this passage with Pastor Andrew Arthur to understand better how faith is a deliberate act of a defiant will–one that sees what’s really real in the midst of what’s real.

In today’s sermon, we are reminded of a profound truth that sets the gospel of Jesus Christ apart–God’s grace flows to the desperate not the deserving. Consider Jesus’s beatitudes: He says blessed are the poor in spirit, who mourn, who are humble, who hunger and thirst, who are persecuted for righteousness. Consider now 1 Samuel 21 where we find a desperate David. He’s a fugitive on the run desper...

Join Hallows Church Planter in Residence, Stephen Searles, in studying 1 Samuel 20 and the friendship between Jonathan and David and, ultimately, the friendship Jesus offers you and me.

Our story continues in 1 Samuel with David going through a hard time. Having finally been classified as an enemy to King Saul, his circumstances seem grim compared to Psalm 121’s promise. His friend Jonathan’s advocacy, though noble and sincere, is limited in its effectiveness. David’s wife, Michal, pretty much takes every wrong approach to helping her husband, and leaves David in a marital hot me...

Psalm 91:1 sets the thematic tone for 1Samuel 18 when it says, “The one who lives under the protection of the Most High dwells in the shadow of the Almighty.” As believers live out their faith today, what does it mean to live under the protection of the most high and dwell in the shadow of the Almighty? 1 Samuel 18:17-30 is the description of this reality. Join Pastor Mark Smith in studying today'...

In last week’s studied Bible passage, the young shepherd David did the unimaginable when he "singlehandedly" defeated an enemy of God’s people who appeared to everyone to be undefeatable. David became a national hero virtually overnight. Yet, in this week’s passage, not only do we read about the celebration that followed that great victory, we also see that not everyone was celebrating David’s suc...

The story of David and Goliath is the story of redemption in a nutshell. An enemy too big for Israel to handle threatens to unwind the covenant blessings God bestowed upon His people. A descendant of the Anakim, a people group Joshua drove out of the land during the conquest of Canaan, has returned (Num. 13:33). His name is Goliath. The fear that once paralyzed God’s people from wanting to enter t...

When Jesus saw the crowds in Galilee, he felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dejected–like sheep without a shepherd. In that moment, He knew there was not enough of Him to go around. He turned to the disciples and said, “The harvest is abundant, but the workers are few. Therefore, pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into his harvest.” When confronted with an...

The Bible describes the heart as the inner-most part of the self. The heart is not only a physical organ but the inward part of us that desires, loves, carries burdens, and longs for an eternal satisfaction. Who then, can really know our heart? In our passage this week, we discover a powerful reality with Pastor Mark Smith: we can only see the external, but the Lord sees the heart. The living, act...

Today we are studying John 6 with our church planter in residence, Stephen Searles, in a stand-alone, yet thematically-connected, passage. In today's teaching portion, we see that Jesus and his disciples are exhausted from being constantly followed by crowds looking for miracles. After preaching all day, Jesus sees the crowds are hungry and tired as well so, moved with compassion, He performs a mi...

King Saul is the Walter White of the Old Testament. Walter White is a character from the television series titled Breaking Bad, which chronicles the moral decline of a modest family man. A series of small compromises soon reaps major consequences. The show illustrates well the attractive, deceptive, and destructive nature of sin. In 1 Samuel, Saul is first presented as a modest young man who serve...

Our culture is obsessed with heroes and villains. All the major movie franchise accentuates heroes and villains battling it out for either the deliverance or domination of others. Often, tensions arises when ambiguity between who the true heroes and villains are is created. For example, Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight ends with Batman being treated like a villain. As we walk through today's passag...

The Bible is filled with stories of strength and weakness, faith and unbelief, overwhelming obstacles and unimaginable victories. We witness stories of people whose weaknesses never hinder God’s plans; in fact, weaknesses seem to emphasize God’s strength and power all the more. Join Pastor Mark Smith in studying the next chapter in our Old Testament study of 1 Samuel. As we do, may you be encourag...

Waiting is hard to do. Being at the mercy of others and circumstances makes us feel too vulnerable. So, we grow impatient. Can you relate? Today we move on to the next story in 1 Samuel 13, which illustrates the tragic outcome of impatience with the Lord. It’s a story where King Saul fails to exercise a patient faith. As a result, he forfeits not only his future but the legacy of his lineage and p...