Come Sojourn with Us
This is where you will find sermons and updates for our church. Our mission is to preach expository sermons focusing on the gospel of Christ. We are a church that is tied to the reformed tradition and seeks to submit to the scriptures so we walk in the Lord’s wisdom rather than our own.
We would love to have you join us on our Christian sojourn if you are in the Belgrade, MT area. If you are not in area then join us by listening to our bi weekly free sermon podcast.
Stay informed by following us on Facebook, YouTube, Apple Podcasts, or through our RSS feed. We would love for you to join us for worship every Sunday at 10 am and 6 pm. If you cannot join us in person then tune into our YouTube livestream.
John brings a message from the angel to the church in Ephesus, praising their convictions but urging them to live according to it. The church is encouraged to see the resurrection power that they possess in Christ Jesus.
We say that God is incomprehensible. This sounds as if we are never going to know God. We might be able to know a few things about God, but it sounds as if we will never really know God. This is strange considering that we are called to know the Lord. How can we know the Lord if the Lord is incomprehensible? We discover that while we cannot fully know everything about God we can certainly know our God.
We wrap up our series on the means of Grace. We hear now that Christ is the action of God. He is not merely the word, but the one who confirms the Lord's word. He is the one who brought in the first creation, and he establishes us as a new creation. This means that word is more basic and prior to the sacraments. The preached word is not divorced from the true word. The sacraments are no divorced from the word. They all call our attention to the one true Christ.
When we come to the Lord's table we are reminded that we are coming into the Lord's presence. There is something frightening about Paul exhorting the Corinthians church and telling them that some have died because of their sin. Paul correlates the eating of communion to this death. This can make us terrified to come before our Lord and we can think that the elements have a magical power. However, what Paul is calling us and exhorting us to see is that we partake of Christ, we dine at his table, and we eat his supper. We are called to discern that we do not come to this meal because we are worthy, but because we are made worthy in Christ. It is the call to come to the heavenly banquet table in humility.
In our previous sermons we have seen that the word of God has power, we have seen that church receives the canon of Scripture, and now we see that all we need to know about God and his saving work is in his scriptures. Our goal is to show that there is no longer any new revelation because we do not need new revelation.
Paul commends the Thessalonians church because they "received the word of God." This is a very important point that Paul is making. The church did not declare the scriptures and Paul did not declare the scriptures. He is an apostle, but even an apostle has to submit to the scripture. So we see what the Belgic Confession is teaching us that scripture testifies to its own authority, and the Holy Spirit also continually bears witness to the word of God.
The priest Ezekiel is called to be a prophet. He has this vision of dry bones, very dead bones, and we could say a mess of bones. You would think that he would have to gather the bones and bring them to the temple. However, he does not do such a thing. He is told to simply speak the word of the Lord over this valley of dead bones. Truly, the Spirit works as the Spirit wills and normally through the preaching of the Gospel.
Christ does not follow the program for church growth, but rather does everything in his power to discourage people from following him. Christ exhorts us to bear our cross making clear that we are to be continual disciples in Christ and of Christ. We understand that Christ is more than merely a self-help guru. He is a redeemer and teacher.
James assures us that God does not tempt us. Christ commands us to pray that our Father would not lead us into temptation. Does this show that James contradicts Christ? We know that he does not because temptation also means testing. So, we are praying that the Father would not test us beyond what we can bear.
Christ commands us forgive, but what about Paul calling attention to Alexander the Coppersmith who did him great harm? What does it mean to forgive?
We can loose sight that God provides for this while creation. The Apostle Paul reminds the mission field that God's continual care demonstrates his commitment to this creation. We think of the Lord reminding Job in Job 38:13-18 about the Lord's care for the careless ostrich. This is not an invitation for us to take God's faithfulness for granted, but to be even more confident to place all our requests before his throne of grace trusting in his provision.
It would be nice if the Lord would just tell us what he wants us to do. It would be nice that in every circumstance the Lord would tell us what is right and wrong. However, God did not create robots. He desires for us to consciously pursue him. So, when we pray this request we are asking the Lord to accomplish his will, and what we would do his will for his glory.
Christ commands us to pray that his kingdom would come. Our desire is to see his kingdom advance knowing that it is his kingdom and not our kingdom. We are called to be aligned with God's purpose in this kingdom and so we are praying that the Lord would continue to orient us with a heavenly perspective on this Christian pilgrimage.
Christ teaches us to pray that the Lord's name would be hallowed. This means that the Lord will make his name holy. This is a strange request considering that God is holy. So, why ask the Lord to make his name holy?
#lordsprayer #expositorypreaching #heidelbergcatechism
When our Lord teaches us to pray he tells us to pray to our father in heaven. We might think that this makes God a distant God. We might think that he is far away. However, this should assure us that not only is God our father, but he is powerful enough to see us through this age into the age to come.
#lordsprayer
James reminds us that our view of God is our problem. If we think that God is distant or we do not think that God is near us then we need to change our focus. You see God is with us and is literally a prayer away from our conscious pursuit. If we doubt our strength or our ability to find our way through this age we are to ask God for wisdom. We might not even know that our problem is lacking wisdom until we learn what scripture teaches us regarding wisdom.
#expositorypreaching #hoseaseries #lifeinchrist
Christ makes clear that the leaders in Israel need to be careful. They claim to love the truth of the gospel, but they miss truth as they deny Christ. Christ tells them that they are illegitimate children. They might be descendants of Abraham, but they are not children of Abraham. This is a reminder for us to be truth speaking people.
#slander #gossip #lovingtruth #catechismpreaching #expositorypreaching
The Apostle Paul wants us to understand that murder is more than just taking a human life. It is not just a physical act, but also is tied to our desires. We can desire to destroy someone, we can have hate in our hearts, and we can belittle others to make ourselves look better. The Apostle reminds us to wait upon the Lord and to consciously do good to all as much as it depends on us.
(You can find our more about our church by visiting our webpage: https://www.urcbelgrade.com where you can subscribe to our podcast and access our sermon archive. We would love to see you worshipping and communing with us each Sunday.)
#romans12 #expositorypreaching #catechismsermon
God has a redeemed a people who are called to bring glory to his name. We are to be lights in the darkness. We might think that this is only for adults, but the Apostle Paul reminds us that this is for children as well as they are members of the Christian household. So, we hear about how we bring glory to God as the Lord's redeemed saints.
Paul exhorts Timothy to practice and use his gifts for ministry. We might wonder what is so special about this gift of ministry. It appears to us that anyone can read the word of God and so what is the significance of receiving the preached word? Does it really make that much of a difference? According to the Apostle Paul these are the words of life and the means for godliness.
We are a bible believing church in the Belgrade, MT. We are a Reformed Protestant church who desire to build one another up in love as we sojourn under the sun.
