It is a good and biblical practice to spend time naming and confessing your sins before the Lord. "I acknowledged my sin to you,and I did not cover my iniquity;I said, 'I will confess my transgressions to the Lord,'and you forgave the iniquity of my sin. Selah"(Psalm 32:5, ESV) It can be easy to believe that sin is forgiven only if it is specifically named in minute de...

Forgiveness (This post is adapted from the growth focus teaching on forgiveness) Our focus text is: "Then Peter came up and said to him, 'Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.'" (Matthew 18:2122, ESV) Forgiveness is one of those windows ...

The Bible makes sense of the world outside of usand the world inside of us. It tells the truth about what we can see: our relationships, our habits, our neighborhoods, our work, our pressures, our temptations. And it tells the truth about what we often can't see clearly: our motives, our desires, our restlessness, our pride, our envy, our self-justifying stories. The Sc...

Non-Anxious Leadership: Leading with a Calm, Confident Presence Tonight we're going to talk about the need and the necessity of confident leadershipor what I'll call throughout this talk a non-anxious presence. As men, we are called to this. We are called to be spiritual heads: men with vision, able to lead the body and lead it well confidently. We are to be ba...

A summary of the warnings from the early chapters of Hebrews. ...

Are you are feeling stuck in your communication with your spouse? Are you frequently in arguments, shouting matches, or passive-agressive snarkiness? Does basic communication blow up into unnecessary fights? Have you've lost trust, friendship, and intimacy? (As I write this, I'm aware that this paragraph sounds like a bad infomercial that might end with "ask your Pastor ...

A dangerous pitfall was present in the early church, as we see in the letter to Titus concerning the church in Crete. The apostle Paul warned about those who were "insubordinate, empty talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision party" (Titus 1:10). These individuals, while claiming to be followers of Christ, were causing division and leading others astr...

One of life's single most helpful questions is, "Says who?" When faced with any truth claim, it's essential to know by what standard that claim is being made. What rules are being applied? What authority does the statement have? The reason this is so helpful is because we live in an age of half-truths and nebulous creeds. Every day, we see hundreds of platitudes lining...

In a world starving for leadership and guidance, we find ourselves at a crossroads. Our culture is experiencing what can only be described as a crisis of "father hunger." Young men and women are desperately seeking direction, flocking to podcasters, YouTube stars, and other influencers to learn not just practical skills, but how to navigate life itself. They're searching...

Who you are is what you do, not what you intend to do. We often desire great virtues like self-control, kindness, and courage or to be rid of great vices like lust, arrogance, and bitterness, but those things are not simply granted; they are built up and strengthened by habits. Habits, what you actually do day-to-day, define who you are more than your intentions or asp...