Fox Lake Community Church

Before Jesus' departure into heaven he gives his disciples a new command: to love another as he loved them. Loving others is not new, but loving "as Jesus loved them" raises the standard of love. And this love will be the ultimate testimony to the world that we are genuine disciples of Christ.

The sermon confronts the destructive nature of self-pity and despair in the face of suffering, using Job and Elijah as cautionary examples of how trials can lead to bitterness when one loses sight of God's sovereignty and unseen purposes. It contrasts their lament with the biblical call to joy and trust. The message emphasizes that joy is not denial of pain but a deliberate choice to worship and t...

Judas' betrayal fulfilled Scripture, highlights Jesus' deity through His foreknowledge of the betrayal, reveals Jesus' humanity, as He is deeply troubled by the betrayal of a close friend, yet His love for Judas remains evident in the intimate gesture of giving him the morsel. Ultimately, the narrative points to the reality of the spiritual battle.

While Christians should be gracious towards others believers with differing view points, we must not conclude from this that doctrine doesn't matter. Scripture, repeatedly and explicitly, tells is that what we know makes a difference in how we will live.

The successful outcome of the battle rises and falls on intercessory prayer. God is sovereign, but he works through means like prayer.

Without the right heart before God, we will miss His favor.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Christian faith, essential for both salvation and daily living life. Belief in the resurrection is ultimately grounded not in empirical evidence alone, but in the reliability of Scripture—Jesus' own words and the prophetic witness of the Old Testament, which together form the unshakable foundation of Christian faith.

The mindset of Satan is "I will ascend." By contrast, Jesus said, "I will descend." Pride is seen when we boast, but also when we give in to self-pity. Boasting says, "I deserve what I'm receiving." Self-pity says, "I deserve better." Humility recognizes that all we have comes from God, and seeks to glorify him.

Jesus' troubled soul doesn't spring from a lack of faith, but from the spiritual torment of bearing God's wrath on the cross—experiencing divine forsakenness for the first time in eternity. Yet through it all he never wavered in his faith.

Jesus only has a few more hours to instruct his disciples, before his imminent arrest and crucifixion. He will cover many topics, but he begins with love. Yet, not only does he teach them, but he does them one better and show them what love in action looks like.

One of the goals for Christians is to have a positive impact on this world due to our lives, which should be, in the words of our Lord, "salt and light."

John provides a summary of Jesus' teaching at the end of his public ministry to encourage his readers to put their faith in Christ. John tells us that Jesus cried out, because he understands that life and death, heaven and hell hang in the balance. .

Life is fleeting, and the urgency of the present moment requires believers to act wisely and purposefully. Spiritual complacency can lead to neglect in glorifying. Recognizing mortality and the brevity of life should motivate believers to live each day with intentionality, striving to glorify God in all things.

Jesus delivers His final public appeal to the Jewish crowd, urging them to believe in Him as the light of the world before the opportunity passes, emphasizing that time is short and unbelief leads to spiritual darkness. Though He performs numerous signs, many refuse to believe, not only due to their deliberate rejection of truth but also because of divine judicial hardening, as prophesied in Isaia...

Acts 17:11 highlights the noble-minded character of the Bereans as marked by open-hearted receptivity and diligent, daily examination of Scripture to verify the truth of the gospel message. Unlike the more resistant and hostile Thessalonians, the Bereans welcomed Paul and Silas's teaching with eagerness and a sincere desire to test its alignment with the Bible. This means that listening to Scriptu...

John 12:23–33 unfolds the paradox that Jesus' glorification occurs through crucifixion, where His death becomes the seed that bears much fruit. The cross is the ultimate act of divine triumph—where Jesus bears the world's judgment, defeats Satan's dominion through His humiliation and exaltation, and inaugurates a new spiritual order in which He now reigns, intercedes, and draws all nations to Hims...

God reveals himself generally in nature and specifically in his Word. Therefore, we should prize Scripture more than gold, as its benefits are manifold, like revival, wisdom, joy, and light for our eyes.

If we, Christians, are going to be sharp, effective tools in the hand's of God, then we must get out of our echo chambers and intentionally dialogue with other believers with differing theological interpretations. Humility is essential if iron is going to sharpen iron.

The sermon presents Christ's temptation in the wilderness as a pivotal moment that fulfills Old Testament patterns of failure—such as Israel's grumbling in the desert—while establishing a divine pattern for Christian life: growth through trial, not coasting after spiritual milestones. Centered on Matthew 4, it reveals how Jesus overcomes three temptations—hunger, testing God's protection, and idol...

How can sinful man come before the Holy God? God is a consuming fire, and yet He is rich in mercy, grace, long-suffering, and forgiveness. The burning coal that is Christ touches our lips and our iniquity is taken away, our sin purged. God has reversed the garden curse where man was cast out from the presence of God, and He calls us into His presence to worship Him. Worship must never become routi...

The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem fulfills Old Testament prophecies and is a pivotal moment in redemptive history, as it reveals Jesus as the humble yet sovereign King of Israel. Jesus' entry is not a political triumph but a divine inauguration of His messianic kingship, which will be fully realized only after His crucifixion and resurrection.

This beatitude make it clear that persecution is not an anomaly for the Christian but a natural consequence of living a righteous life. It shows that as believers grow in humility, mercy, purity, and peacemaking, they increasingly reflect Christ's character—making them targets of opposition. The scope of persecution is broad, encompassing verbal abuse, social exclusion, and false accusations, not...

Mary's act of worship may be the most beautiful expression of love and devotion that ever occurred during Jesus' earthly ministry. It is contrasted with Judas' greed and betrayal. It seems that at this point Mary alone understood Jesus' true worth. And that she alone comprehended his teaching about his imminent death, and thus anointed his his body for burial. This was the result of sitting regula...

Proverbs warns us of the sin that precedes destruction of all manner in our lives.