Woodland Friends Church

Suppose the mailman came up to your house tomorrow. Your spouse, family member, whoever, goes down and picks up the mail for you and announces what you got.

“You got a bill. A brochure. Junk mail. A letter from God Almighty of the Universe. A letter from your cousin Bob.” How many of us are going to nonchalantly say, “Oh, I’ll take the letter from Bob. Put the rest on the Table.” We have a letter...

I dare you to keep the news and keep the TV off for a day. Get up, read the Scriptures. Take a walk or a scenic drive. See if there’s something on your walk or drive that God uses to speak to you. I dare you, to instead of listening to any other voice tell you what sins your political opponents need to repent of, see if there are sins you need to repent of. See if the Spirit says to you, “2020 is...

God reveals Himself in Christ, and Christ is revealed in us. How does this all shake out? Much of it we don't get, but what we do get, is that we are saved by Christ, and Christ lives in us, and Christ works in us, or sometimes in spite of us!

We look around and we see polarization, and we see corruption, we see natural disasters, or maybe not-so-naturally-started disasters, but man-made fires. As we see brutality, injustice, corruption, there’s something in our hearts - something actually given to us by a just, righteous God that wants remedy. We’re tired of electing leaders who disappoint us, we want a Sovereign who will never disappo...

In Acts 15 there are two conflicts. At first glance, I wanted to say the first one was a win - the Gospel of grace wins, the church understands that God’s grace through Christ is what saves! What a win! And I wanted to say that the second conflict, is more of a failure. Two friends are divided. What still happens? God still remains faithful. God’s faithful to use the brokenness we caused. And our...

At the Jerusalem Council, James brings Amos 9 to weigh in on the subject. He is in effect, saying, “Not only have we witnessed what Peter has delivered to us about God making for Himself a people from the Gentiles, we are witnessing Amos 9, God has returned. God has rebuilt the fallen tent,” or tabernacle, ”of David. The ruins are being rebuilt, it’s being restored.” 
What is he saying? Where? Wha...

I’m tired of worrying. I’m tired of stressing. I'm tired of fighting. I’m tired of wondering. And Paul’s urge, Paul’s appeal, Paul’s beseeching is a call to do what’s reasonable. It’s what makes most sense. It’s Paul’s appeal, that in Christ, He has a trustworthiness that we can come and die to.

Peter calls the Law a yoke on the neck. It’s hard to keep. Grace is more purifying. Grace is more rigorous. Grace, in some ways is more hard, just in different ways. God’s grace is all-encompassing enough to never fully bring us into completion this side of heaven, and it is sufficient enough to get us there.

Audio failed to capture for this sermon. Please see PDF for manuscript. And view live delivery at https://www.facebook.com/625099568/videos/10160403030689569/

The ESV Bible uses 11 English words to describe undoubtedly a horrific, 100 mile journey through some rugged, bandit-ridden mountains so Paul and Barnabas could bring the Gospel to a city. In that city, Paul makes it clear, that all of human history culminates in God incarnating to restore humanity back to its union with God... God has moved heaven and earth to bring Jesus and bring the Gospel.

We live in this weird cultural Christianity moment where it seems like conversion and salvation is the primary calling of God, and well, missions, and basically anything else besides conversion and salvation - God calls only a few people to that. The 11th chapter of Hebrews is called the hall of faith, and almost all of it, if not certainly all of it, records examples of faith to tasks God called...

Antioch here had to by faith take the prophet at his word and give. They also had to send two big leaders they’ve looked up to since their founding - Barnabas and Saul. Barnabas and Saul took their leave here to return to Jerusalem, and left the ministry in Antioch. Beyond sacrificing their money, Antioch was sacrificing their leaders and teachers.

Adversity is advancement! Persecution comes?! The Kingdom shall advance! Hostility rises between races and peoples and groups?! The Kingdom shall advance! The enemy or critics and foes throw character stains in your faces, or in the faces of all Christians for evils we sinners are guilty of? Even so, the Kingdom shall advance! Have Christians ever been labeled as bigoted, backwards, judgmental? Ev...

God has granted repentance to us that leads to life. Sure it’s a life ever after, but it’s a life that begins now. It’s a life that has had very real, tangible, physical, life-altering ramifications disciples. Why do people accept Christ, accept a life that gives them persecutions? Moves them from their homes? We know from the Bible that Peter has a mother-in-law. Is Peter still married? Is he a w...

Here’s what I wonder for churches if they approach Jesus, and they say, “Lord, what about the Coronavirus taking over the world? What about the George Floyd protests? What about more and more legislation being passed to hinder our rights or condemn what we believe? Here’s what I think Jesus would do: redirection.

Maybe you haven’t had the bizarre vision of a huge blanket with lots of animals coming down and hearing God say, “Rise, kill, and eat…” but maybe you’ve had a bizarre dream. A passion, an inspiration to do something that just sounds bizarre because you’re too old. Because it would never happen. It could never work. Because you’re unqualified. You’re not capable. People would laugh, scoff, resist,...

Sometimes we approach healing passages apologetically , “Well hey it does happen. I’m sorry it doesn’t happen to you all the time. Healing can still happen though. Here’s why it happened then.” The truth of the matter is, is healing is a sign of the Gospel. Healing did literally happen here, but there are indications of greater truths.

I share the faith of Saul, but I want to have the faith of Saul. I didn’t have a dramatic conversion like Saul. Even so, I say I'm saved, although it seems my faith just ebbs and flows. I just don’t see that in Saul. Rather I see something that comes from Saul that is drawn from his proclamation that Jesus is the Lord! For Saul, that changed everything about his life. That is not an understatement...

In this story that you and I are never beyond redemption. No matter how far in or down you think you are, it’s never beyond redemption. Saul is a pharisee of pharisees, this means Saul has invested hours and hours, and labors, and persecutions, and he’s known, he’s infamous, he’s famous among his kind, and he’s infamous among the church, and he’s got a reputation, and in our day and age you’d say...

It’s easy to look at Saul and say, “Well this is a very special occasion. We’re talking the beginning of the Mission to the Gentiles. We’re talking about a Biblical author. Saul’s in a special category. He needed to be saved. God set Him aside for a special work. But why would God care about my whoever?” Saul himself believes God cares about your whoever. . .

When true believers trusted in King Yahweh in this time before Samuel, when true believers trusted in Jesus that He was Yahweh Incarnate... when true believers trusted in God’s grace in a time when the church was dark, and taught only good works get you into heaven... when true believers trust in Jesus under domineering monarchies, under corrupt democracies, under tyrannical dictatorships, under s...

God was rejected here, and He conceded and showed extreme compassion! He showed extreme graciousness! He said, “Have it your way, and I will help you so that Your way is divinely blessed with my resources!” And now I see some repentance happening in Israel.

God has not only conceded to Israel about their want of a King instead of Yahweh, rather, He’s giving Israel the kind of King they want with every possible chance at that King being in the best scenario ever! The scandalous mercy our King has! The people have made their bed, now they have to sleep in it. But God has also made the most perfect bed possible, He’s given Saul a new heart. He’s given S...

This is God in a much bigger, much more significant way letting the child place their hand on the burner, right? “A little experience will show them.” And in all this, though we see the red flags, we see this: that you and I have a King in God who gives sinners a chance. That’s a scary thing. That’s a fair thing. We see that God isn’t a marionette and we’re puppets. Simply because God lets sinners...

Christ’s sacrifice for you means nothing, and comes to nothing, and in fact you forfeit, you nullify what He’s done when you start to believe ‘I need Christ and blank. For the Galatians it was circumcision, but this shows up in our day in the forms of food prohibitions, Sabbath arguments, Bible translation arguments, whatever else we think makes us more holy than others to be saved. There is no Ch...