Woodland Friends Church

There was a way for Ananias and Sapphira to have their cake and eat it too, but the route they decided to take was to pump up their own image of holiness at the expense God’s dignity. This is the Sovereign God, the One who came from heaven to our fallen earth, and allowed His Body to be broken and HIs blood to be shed, and God allowed Himself to die on our behalf, and yet here Ananias and Sapphira...

Conflict can produce within the Christian a question of God’s sovereignty. Because here’s the logic: (A) I profess God to be all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-good.(B) If bad things happen in a world that I believe is to be governed by this God, what does that mean about His power, or His goodness? Are there ramifications, are there implications on His power or His character?

The name of Jesus upsets some. The name of Jesus saves all for those willing to accept Him, and for those who are saved, the name of Jesus compels believers to persist!

We hear the timelessness of the Word of God that to this day, the Jews still stumble over Jesus. “Psh. Messiah! Nope, He doesn’t fit the list.” And to this day, Gentiles, most relevant Gentiles being Americans, it’s folly. “Old stories. Dead Jew. Sin is a relative term.” Folly. Nevertheless, Jesus is the Messiah.

Let us not cite the shortness of our lives as reason to believe that God wants us to live crippled lives. The salvation God offers heals cripples. Overcomes disabilities. The salvation God offers puts lame men on their feet today. The salvation God offers is a present thing.

Beyond the Apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread and prayer is the fact that God’s Presence was with the church, and this is the greatest need of the church. We as Christians in every era have a tendency to look at the book of Acts and miss the fact that passages like these aren’t formulas for successful churches, they are records of a church whose heart is in the right place.

Three-thousand souls are saved one day at one moment. What saved them? What was the key? What saved 3000 souls?! The Holy Spirit preaching through Peter the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Resurrected Lord! *tech note - this audio has been edited to try and reduce an annoying hum in the background, it was not completely erased.

The ultimate intention of Peter on Pentecost Sunday’s sermon is to declare the resurrection of Jesus Christ. This is Peter’s hope. This is the church’s hope. This should be our ultimate desire. In God's entirety of human history, and His entirety of everything He does for all of time leans into this invitation.

I unashamedly, wholeheartedly, and without apology believe that the point of Pentecost Sunday is that the Holy Spirit is filling people! It is not the building up to, nor are we supposed to see the climax be, “Oh, they spoke in tongues,” but rather, three manifestations of the Spirit: audible, visual, and now verbal, to climax and reveal, “THE HOLY SPIRIT IS FILLING PEOPLE!”

This is life without the Spirit. This is life before the Holy Spirit came in the way that Jesus was telling the Disciples to wait for Him. In the interim, were the disciples wondering, “Where do we go from here?!” And so they return to praying, imitating their Teacher Jesus, who prayed often, and set a pattern of prayer. There are times that where it seems like our God has left. It seems like He’s...

The Necessity of the Spirit in and leading our churches is far more superior, important, and to be desired over any other principle we might implement from Acts when it comes to how it addresses our churches. We come into Acts and find that it’s not so much about what the Disciples did in that first generation of Christians, as it is about the power found in the Holy Spirit who led them and can le...

As Jesus breathed his last on the Cross, to His dying moment He was reviled... until one thief had a heart change, and recognized Jesus for who He is: the King of a Kingdom not of this world. He asked permission to enter it with Jesus, and to him it was granted. *Audio from practice preach, not actual service.

At the end of Micah's book, is a lamentation and hope in what we still have hope in today: that God's faithfulness to us extends to us still even in the middle of our own sin and despair. We can take hope in the covenant that God enacted with Himself with Abraham. That was Micah's hope, and that is our's.

When people start sinning, corruption starts happening, when God's laws are thrown out and man's laws are implanted, when God is mocked, no injustice will go unpunished. In these moments, we rest our hopes not on broken, sinful people, but the One Good God.

Micah’s giving a Word to Jerusalem, what should have been the paradigm of Godliness for the world in their day. A rod is coming to the very heart of God’s people, but the hope and peace found in the rod is found in the One who ordained it.

Some times God's people feel stretched thin by God, and mute to His words, that in frustration we might cry out, "What do you want from me God?!" We think He wants a lot of things for His own appeasement, when the reality He wants us to thrive.

God says that the church is to be like a lion among animals of the forest, a young lion among flocks of sheep which tramples and tears as it passes through. Humility doesn't equal defeat. Peace-making doesn't mean defenseless or surrender. Kindness doesn't mean weakness. Though we be lions, the armies we face aren't combated against by weapons, we have a much more threatening foe, and an equal ass...

When God enters into our equation no matter what we are suffering, it should bring hope. It doesn’t remove the consequences, nor does it alter reality, it still means suffering may take place, but hope’s on the way. There still may be something to endure, but it can become a joy that’s set before us. God gives purpose to our sufferings, and no suffering is useless. And whenever God is with us when...

Our God is a King over a Kingdom. Let us not hinder, minimize, and box-in our relationship with Christ as merely being saved, and just spend the rest of the life trying to study Him. Yes we ought to read our Bibles, pray, and know Him, but the knowledge that we have in knowing Christ should produce action. *Recording is of Pastor Kevin's practice-sermon prior to Sunday Morning's service.

We Christians can talk a good game a lot... or bad game. Especially when it comes to politics. Especially when it comes to injustices in the world. We can get together to moan and complain about infanticide - and rightly so, but have we, have I considered what I am, and what I’m doing make a difference to go along with what I’m saying? I’m not saying, nor does the Bible say, “It’s got to be one or...

God is perfectly righteous to say, “There’s coming a day where my wick is out. There’s coming a day where my hands are outstretched to receive you no further. Have a little self-respect to know that you’ve had all the time to make an informed decision, and you’ve said 'no' every time. It’s hard stuff. It’s true stuff. And what happens, is we have a tendency to respond to things like that God says,...

In the progression of Micah's prophecy here, God has stopped talking about Judah or Israel directly and their actions. This means He doesn’t have to talk about what they bring to the table: sin deserving judgment. Now God’s talking about Himself which is always good news when God intervenes with His people.

The sobriety of the Word of Micah needs to fall on receptive ears. Yet Micah reports, “'Quit your preaching,' they preach. 'They should not preach these things; shame will not overtake us.'" In other words: "You’re so dark, Micah! You paint our God - who King David told us several times - has a love that endures forever.. You paint Him to be so mean! I know we’re guilty, but come on, Micah! Lighte...

As we begin in Micah's first oracle, God seems to be speaking a double language of judgment, in words or phrases that lean into the coming of our Savior and Salvation. God is calling all people to witness His coming.

The reason we may not read, study or enjoy Old Testament Prophets is because we don’t have historical context. 

You open up to prophecy, it’s like reading a letter from a King to a group of people in the remote tribes of Africa concerning warring tribes, and what does this have to do with the price of rice in China? Yet, we are part of the spiritual nation that this prophet Micah is writing too....