Forest Park Church Sermons

In the main body of Paul’s letter, he addresses a question:How do we know that the gospel Paul preaches is the true gospel? Paul answers by describing his personal experience of God’s grace, his reception of the gospel from God rather than from man, and the apostles in Jerusalem affirmingthe gospel he received from God. By looking at Paul’s story, we will see his defenses against the troublemakers...

In love, Paul uses the strongest possible language to convince the churches in Galatia that when a gospel of Jesus plus anything else is preached, it is not the gospel at all. Any revision of the gospel leads to its reversal. If the true gospel is so crucial and each generation has been tempted to veer off and add things to it, how can we ensure that the gospel we believe is actually true? Why doe...

The book of Galatians is all about the gospel. When we are tempted to say that the gospel is Jesus plus anything else we want to add for salvation, we turn to another gospel, which is no gospel at all. In Paul’s greeting and introduction, he gives us a brief yet comprehensive outline of the gospel message. We will discover who we are, what Jesus did, what the Father did, why He did it, and why God...

This Sunday, we continued our New City Catechism series with Question 4, exploring how and why God created us. In a world where many struggle to find purpose and identity, we'll discover what it means to be made in God's image and how our lives find their true meaning in knowing, loving, and glorifying Him through Jesus Christ.

In this psalm, David faces his fear of King Achish of Gath. He turns to the Lord for help, laments the circumstances that cause his fear, and, through this prayer, moves from fear to trust and thanksgiving for the Lord’s faithful love. Through this psalm, we learn how to deal with our fear; it takes our fear and begins to shape it over time, helping us learn to trust the Lord.  

In this psalm, we encounter four groups who found themselves in exile, each facing different conditions because of their rebellion against the Lord. Each group cried out to the Lord in their trouble. Because the Lord is good and His steadfast love endures forever, He did not abandon them but delivered them. Thus, the psalmist calls the people of God to respond to the Lord’s deliverance with thanks...

Psalm 96 reminds us that God is worthy of our worship not only because of what He does, but because of who He is. It calls us to delight in His greatness, share the hope of His salvation with others, and rest in the confidence that He reigns over all things. Even in an uncertain world, we can rejoice knowing that our righteous and faithful King is in control and will one day make all things right.

The psalmist laments his separation from God and his life among his enemies. He longs for the Lord, wrestles with the thought that God may have forgotten him, and cries out for vindication so he can return to the Lord's presence. This psalm teaches us, in difficult circumstances, to long for the Lord, remember his provision, and address our souls with the truth of the gospel. For the Lord is p...

The doctrine of the Trinity is the most important doctrine that many never think about, and for many it seems like a very confusing math problem. Yet from Scripture we learn that God is one; there is only one God. But God reveals Himself in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. The Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, yet the Father is not the Son, the Son...

Psalm 46:1–11 reminds us that God is our sure refuge andstrength in every circumstance. When life feels unstable and the world around us seems to be falling apart, God remains present, powerful, and unshaken. The psalm calls us to trust Him instead of our fears, knowing that He is sovereignover nature, nations, and every challenge we face. Through Christ, we find ultimate security, peace, and hope...

Psalm 32 is considered a penitential psalm with wisdomelements. It is also a thanksgiving psalm, as the worshipers give thanks to God for the joy of having their sins forgiven. The range of emotional experience spans sorrow that leads to confession and joy and thanksgiving when forgiveness is experienced, which in turn leads to worship. We will learn that only the forgiven are joyful, and thus we...

Psalm 1 serves as the gateway to the entire book of Psalms, emphasizing that the goal of worship is covenant faithfulness when God’s people embrace God’s covenant instruction. There is a stark contrast between two types of people, two fruits, and two outcomes. We will learn that the truly happy person recognizes that he receives God’s grace. Because of God’s initiating grace, he meditates on God’s...

What is God? A question that everyone answers differently. For some, God is an inexpressible feeling, a small voice, or an invisible force or energy. However, for God to be truly God, we do not define Him; He defines Himself. Through His word, God tells us that He is the creator of everyone and everything. If that is true, we must submit to God’s rule and authority, depend on Him to sustain us, an...

The reader of the book of Proverbs has been continually instructed to find this woman called wisdom. He might be asking himself, “Who is she? What is her name? Where can I find her? How does she live?” The poem in Proverbs 31 shows us what this woman called wisdom looks like by more accurately depicting what she does through the way she lives. We will learn four principles for how wisdom lives in...

There is a false perception that growing in wisdom requires doing or participating in the extraordinary. But what if wisdom is not found in the extraordinary, but in the mundane, ordinary parts of life? What if growing in wisdom can be part of your ordinary, boring life? It can, and we will learn that growing in wisdom requires diligence in the mundane. 

Agur’s prayer in Proverbs 30 is filled with humanity and wonder. Wonder is a posture before God and His world, with eyes and ears open and hearts and minds seeking understanding. Growing in wisdom requires wonder at the goodness of God and His creation. This wonder drives us to analyze and investigate, to observe and marvel, to attempt to explain, but also to say: too wondrous for me; I cannot und...

The basic principle and motive of the Christian life is that we are not to live as if we belong to ourselves, but to live for God, because God sent His Son to save us by grace and to adopt us into His family. If we are not our own but belong to God, we are never alone, always have hope, and God always comes first. 

Proverbs 30:1–9 gives us a surprising picture of wisdom. Instead of confidence and control, it begins with honesty about our limits and ends with a prayer for “enough.” Thispassage shows that wisdom is not something we master through insight or effort, but something we receive and live out through humility, trust, and daily reliance on God.

Scripture tells us that God created the world by wisdom. In creation, God designed a world marked by rhythms, structures, limits, and fruitfulness, which we call God’s created order. God’s created order affects every dimension of human life. Wisdom is grounded in God’s created order. It means operating within God’s rhythms, structures, and limits. Foolishness, by contrast, is an attempt to move be...

Throughout the book of Proverbs, there is imagery of twowomen. The first woman represents wisdom. She is a sister and an intimate friend who needs to be kept close and will give you life. The second woman represents foolishness. She is a forbidden woman, an adulteress with smooth words, who needs to be avoided and will take your life. We will learn how to avoid foolishness and its dangers.

Throughout the Bible, we are presented with two ways, two paths, two roads, two gates, and two foundations. The path of the righteous is wisdom, life, and prosperity, while the path of the wicked is foolishness, death, and destruction. Why is it that we know the right path to take yet often choose the wrong one? In our text, the son is confronted by different voices, and the voices he listens to w...

The Fear of the Lord is an important phrase repeated 14 times in Proverbs and is considered the motto of the book. What does it mean to fear the Lord? By understanding what it means to fear the Lord, we will better grasp wisdom and how to obtain it. 

When we think about wisdom in general, it is universal across time and cultures, passed down through tradition from one generation to the next, and learned through ritual—all desire wisdom. As we take a closer look at wisdom in the book of Proverbs, we will learn where it comes from, what it contains, and the conditions for wisdom.  

Jesus is the divine Davidic King, the Messiah, who alone hasthe authority to open the way to the Father. He promises to grant salvation, to vindicate his people, to guard his people, and to establish/keep/mark his people for all eternity. As his followers, living out of these truths, our call is to hold fast to what we have: keep his word, patiently endure, and not denyhis name.

The first whispers among Jesus’ disciples that Sunday in the holy city were almost too good to be true. The news of the empty tomb was unexpected. It was a shocking and dramatic reversal of the heartbreak and devastation they experienced over the previous three days. This news was so big, it would take weeks to sink in. In some ways, it would take his disciples the rest of their lives to truly und...