Woodland Friends Church

Jesus had just finished praying, “Take this cup from Me.” But the cup is now tipping. Wrath is coming. The sins of the world had been committed, and it was payment time. "Then everyone deserted Him and fled!" He was alone to face to the cup! He must be alone! This is where in the physical sense – sure it is sad. The Disciples are to be blamed. They left their Lord alone in His darkest hour! It sho...

KEVIN was OUT WITH A COLD TODAY, RELEASED HERE FROM THE SERMON VAULT (originally preached 8/21/16): Deny Himself, take up his cross, and follow me. Those eighteen words are going to be the focal point of the rest of our time together, because those eighteen words are to be the marks of a true Christian. Not a more devout Christian, not a, level 2 Christian, not a veteran Christian, just for a Chri...

In Acts 20:7 we have the only DIRECT occasion of the NT Church meeting together on Sunday morning. What constitutes the Christian (apart from some Christian groups) practice of church on Sunday morning? This one passage? The few other indirect passages (1 Corinthians 16:2; Revelation 1:10) is all? What about the Old Testament strong injunctions to "observe the Sabbath?" It's in the Ten Commandment...

Russia at Ukraine. A 2-year pandemic wherein we wonder at it being over. Political polarization. What is the Christian's response?

Though we just examined part of Paul's itinerary today, we did some deep study to reveal a series of life's valleys were present. And as we meditated on these valleys, perhaps you were reminded of your own life's valleys. Perhaps you've lied to yourself. You've maybe lied to others. “I got over it. I'm okay. I moved on. I got passed it.” But you didn't. Deep down, you still realize, you've just wa...

Hear from Woodland Friends Church from Guest Speaker Mark Brewster, on "how to kill a lion!"

If some outside force radically upsets your pocketbook, and messes with your religion – you’re bothered. I’ve heard of political platforms that instead of running on hope, runs on this sort of alarmism, “You’re money is being mismanaged, and your religion is being undermined.” This man Demetrius has a goal in mind, “Our beloved goddess, her very reputation is at stake here if we don’t do something...

The Bible says God is holy. Sacred. He’s not something we just play around with like this.” This is always true. And we see sins so easily in kids but eventually we just see the same sins in us, only more deviously done. Under disguises as it were. How many of us don’t honor the Name of God? How many of us just play with His power, as if it’s something we could harness.

This is going to be one of those sermons that looks at a topic of some debate within the Christian faith. This passage might propose a lot of questions. The best thing to do when questions arise from a passage of Scripture, is see if we can’t discern what the God-inspired author is trying to communicate, instead of trying our hardest to make him say something we think he’s saying.

I might even suppose that Apollos had a firm understanding of justification by faith through grace. That is, trusting in Jesus to be accounted righteous. Because this is conditional, on paper, transactional. It’s the Judge, God, declaring us guilty, and then the paperwork being filed on our behalf, and the Judge then reading, “Oh, well Apollos here, Kevin here, has filed the Jesus Clause. They’re...

Paul is having his plans changed in Ephesus. He says, “No, I need to get to Jerusalem this time,” it’s not because he’s thinking he’s saved by the Law. That’s not at all his thinking. He’s taking the personal exercise of discipline, the vow, the understanding he has with God in this season serious. He told God, “I’m going to do this vow in this season of my life. I’m going to make it to Jerusalem...

Some might say this - “So what? Just lay off touching on that topic, and focus on more important things, like the Gospel.” That’s like telling a Doctor, “Don’t tell me about cancer, just praise me for all the other parts of my body that are good and praiseworthy.” Jesus said that when the Holy Spirit comes, “He will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment,” (John 16:8). J...

Today. He’s commanding you to repent. I don’t say that feeling super-Holy-Spirit-inspired, I got a word from the Lord, I’m saying that knowing that His command for repentance for whatever sin that you might be ignoring was a command issued the day it first happened. So today, He’s commanding you to repent.

I’m just convinced of this, that it may not be statues and outright things saying, “Made for this god,” or “that god,” but you and I still live in idol cities. Cities of idolatry. We’re so acclimated, deceived by it, we don’t even know it.

A thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices… what was he saying? What was the composer getting at? I think the answer to that precedes the statement more than succeeds it. It precedes it in the words, “Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth.”

Good news is like all the things we enjoy in life. All the meaningful things. Sometimes even the small things. What do we mean by small things? Right? We say, “Enjoy the small things in life,” we mean enjoy the things like a warm cup of coffee after a long winter’s walk. Enjoy the simple pleasure it gives you to soak up your spouse’s beautiful eyes. Enjoy a good feast with friends and family, as o...

What is peace? Is not the peace we desire, something where violence is not the norm? What’s funny to me, is that many Christians are offended at notions of peace and non-resistance. If one is offended by peace and non-resistance, one might want to think that through. If peace offends you, check your heart.

It’s not how we think! Jesus says, “I came out to preach. It’s about the Word.” On one side we have the suffering… the miseries… the sicknesses and sins, the demonic forces, and the whole weariness of the world. It’s brewing. It’s bothersome. It’s horrifying. It’s depressing. It’s my family members getting old and dying. It’s the governments and powers that be lording over people. And Jesus does a...

This is imagery of the Redeemer. The One who Redeemed Israel from Egypt. That’s what Jude calls the Lord, one ancient Manuscript says Jesus in Jude, verse 5, "I want to remind you that after Jesus had delivered," – that’s redeemed- "His people out of the land of Egypt." The death of the firstborn, the blood, these are all images of course that point us to Jesus. "There is a fountain filled with bl...

“You have come,” hear the present tense in that? "Now," so says the author of Hebrews to a contemporary audience 2000 years ago, and by extension, us. Now, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the sp...

You live under our King Jesus’ law. You live to please King Jesus. You submit complete allegiance and loyalty to King Jesus. It should foster an emotional separation from the kingdoms of this world. Of greater concern is the Kingdom of Jesus, and if you and I are doing our part to make it grow. Does this mean we have rights to stand around and watch nations burn under our noses, while we do nothin...

Some of the best food for the soul is the same food we always come back to - the Gospel.

In this release in the Sabbatical vault, we look at a sermon from Kevin a few years ago as he handled the liberties Christians might have over certain feast days. Does this at all speak to the Halloween holiday?

On this 3rd release from the Sabbatical Vault, we look into "why can we believe the Bible?"

In the second sermon in our Sabbatical Vault, we return to look at an opening sermon in Habakkuk, where the prophet is asking a lot of questions we perhaps find ourselves asking in our COVID, 2020 era.