"It is Finished"

Good morning, and a blessed Maundy Thursday to you. What a rich week we find ourselves in. Holy Week began, of course, last Sunday with Palm Sunday. Tonight, Maundy Thursday worship; tomorrow evening, Good Friday worship.

A beautiful cantata with adult choir and orchestra. And then, of course, this coming Sunday, Easter Sunday—8:45 and 11:00. What a wonderful, wonderful week. We are in a rich time of worship.

I want to focus with you for a moment on Good Friday.

Such an inter

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"The Faithful Word of God"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

Would you please open your Bibles with me to Matthew, the 20th chapter—Matthew chapter 20—for our time in God’s Word.

Today, we are on the precipice of entering into such a beautiful and meaningful week in the life of the Church—Holy Week.

This coming Sunday, it all begins with Palm Sunday, as we remember our Lord’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. But we also remember why He came to Jerusalem: to die and rise for us.

We then

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"Seasons of Life"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

We find ourselves in the middle of Lent—a very important season in the church year. It is a time when we come face to face with the reality of our sin and our mortality. Yet even in this, we look ahead to the season to come—Easter—where we see that Christ is victorious over our sin.

We all go through seasons of life. In a very real sense, we cannot escape seasonal change.

We can look outside and see that we are just a few days

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"Wisdom from God"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open your Bibles for our devotion this morning to Ephesians, the fifth chapter—Ephesians chapter 5. I’d like to begin in verse 15. I’d like to share with you this morning on the topic of being wise. You know, there is a difference between earthly wisdom and heavenly wisdom, so we’re going to talk about that wisdom that comes from God—heavenly wisdom.

So we’ll start in chapter 5 of Ephesians, the 15th verse. Ther

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"The Lord's Prayer"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

In our time of devotion together in God’s Word, we’re going to look at the Lord’s Prayer. We could certainly study it in great depth—examining each petition and exploring the richness of what Jesus teaches us to pray. But this morning, I’d like for us to view the Lord’s Prayer through the lens of simplicity.

During Lent, we take time to consider and meditate on the simple truths of our spiritual lives—which, of course, encomp

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"The Glory of the Cross"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.  We are now in the Lenten season—a time when we journey with Christ to the Cross, reflecting on our sin and on the great love of God that led Him to the Cross to die for our sin and to rise victorious over it.

In a devotional series I enjoy reading over the course of two years, there is a meditation on the Cross that has become one of my favorites. I keep it marked so I can return to it whenever I feel the need to reflect mo

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" A Glimpse of His Glory"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open up your Bibles, please, to Mark, the ninth chapter—Mark chapter nine—for our time in God’s Word today.

This coming Wednesday, we will be entering into the season of Lent with Ash Wednesday. That is such a rich, rich time in the life of a congregation.

Prior to the beginning of Lent, the church remembers the Transfiguration of our Lord. That’s where Mark 9 comes into view. Look at that with me, please—verse 2

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"It is Finished"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you.

I want to look at a few verses in Scripture and then share something really meaningful that came up recently in one of our Gentle and Lowly small groups. Let’s begin by turning to Scripture. We’ll go to the Gospel of John, chapter 19.

For context, Jesus is on the cross at this point. He is hanging there—suffering and dying. Beginning with verse 28, we read:

After this, when Jesus knew that all was now finished, he said (in ord

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"The Changeless God"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday morning to you. Would you open your Bible, please, with me to Isaiah, the forty-third chapter—Isaiah chapter 43—for our time in God’s Word.

It’s really quite amazing to think that just a few weeks ago we were experiencing temperatures in the mid-70s. And then you compare that to what we have recently been experiencing—from the mid-70s to minus numbers when you factor in the wind chill. Quite a change, wasn’t it?

Not too long ago, just a f

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"Don't Worry"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you. I don’t know if you’ve heard, but winter weather is coming. And I know that when winter weather strikes—especially here in the South, in the Dallas–Fort Worth area—our tendency can be to panic or to freak out. But we don’t have to do that. There is no need for panic.

We’re going to turn to God’s Word to see why. Please open with me to Philippians, chapter four. This is a letter Paul wrote to the church at Philippi. In chapte

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God's Promises: Yes in Christ"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday morning to you.

For our time in God’s Word today—here in 2026—the days of this new year are still fresh, aren’t they? A new year brings with it a whole host of possibilities. And along with that, there can also be an anxiousness as we wonder what the days of 2026 will look like. How do we navigate our way through whatever may come?

Because of that, I would like us to look at a promise of God—a promise we can cling to and hold onto all ye

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"Grace and Peace in Abundance"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you as we share this time of devotion together. This morning in God’s Word, I want to share one of the sweetest introductions to a letter found in Scripture. It comes at the very beginning of Peter’s second letter, where—under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit—he writes to those who have received a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.

That is who he is addressing: those who hav

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"A New Year in Christ"

Good morning, and a most blessed Thursday to you—and a blessed 2026 as well. Happy New Year! What a glorious way to begin the year together, devoted to the Lord and gathered in God’s Word. What a joy it is to share God’s Word with you at the very start of this new year.

I want to keep our devotion fairly short today and look at a couple of verses from the Book of Hebrews. If you would, please turn with me to Hebrews, chapter 13. These verses give us a centered focus for the

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"The Right Focus for Advent"

Good morning and a most blessed Thursday to you. I want to share with you a prayer that was in one of my devotional readings last week. This is a prayer by Robert D. Hershey. He writes or prays:

"Not that many shopping days till Christmas. That, dear God, is bad news. It is not just the shopping, but everything else too: getting presents, buying cards, writing, mailing, baking meals, parties. Can it be, Lord, that I'm working on the wrong things? Help me to concentrate on t

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"Pointing to the Messiah"

Good morning, and a blessed Thursday to you. Please open your Bibles to Luke, chapter 3 for our time in God’s Word today.

When I was on my internship, my supervising pastor, Pastor Gravrock, and I went out to lunch one day at a local pizza place. It was a good lunch, and as we were leaving, Pastor Gravrock went through the doors first. I was just a few steps behind him. The doors were clear glass, and as he stepped outside, we suddenly heard a shrill cry of joy from a child

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