Month: August 2025

The sermon on Sunday, August 31, 2025, will be from Matthew 22:1-14, Your Personal Invitation to the Great Banquet. “… everything is ready …” – Matthew 22:4, 8

Wedding feasts were festive occasions in 1st Century Jewish culture. The celebration could last for a week and an invitation from a king to attend his son’s wedding feast was a coveted honor. In a spiritual sense, ‘God the Father Almighty’ is currently sending out an invitation to all of mankind – “Come to the marriage supper of my Son!” (Rev. 19:6-10) Guests, through faith, will feast on the best of breads … the bread of life (John 6:35). They will also, by faith, drink the finest of wines … the precious blood of Christ (1 Peter 1:18-21). “Everything is ready!” God invites us to a feast, not a funeral, when the gospel of his Son is preached!

Sunday Service Streamed Live at 11:00 AM – YouTube.com – Hickory Withe PCA

The sermon on Sunday, August 24, 2025, will be from Mark 12:28-34, An Encounter at the Edge of the Kingdom. “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” – Mark 12:34

Have you heard the phrase, “… so close, and yet, so far away?” 50 years ago, I needed 21 ‘merit badges’ to become an ‘Eagle Scout.’ I stopped at 19 ‘badges’ and have come to regret my unwise decision. Yet what about coming close, but missing the kingdom of God? An eternity of regret awaits those who miss Christ’s kingdom. The scribe in Mark 12:28-34 understood the demands of God’s moral law – it requires sinless perfection. But he did not understand his inability to keep the law and his need for Christ. What about you? Are you standing outside the door to God’s kingdom? Or have you entered through it? That door is Christ (John 10:1-10).

Sunday Sermon Streamed Live at 11:00 AM – YouTube.com – Hickory Withe PCA

The sermon on Sunday, August 10, 2025, will be from 2 Corinthians 12:7-10- “… Through Thorny Ways Leads to a Joyful End …” “Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me.” -2 Corinthians 12:8

The Apostle Paul pled, and he pled three times, for the Lord to remove his ‘thorn in the flesh.’ Yet Christ responded, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Weakness and difficulty from our perspective inhibit us from realizing our personal plans and dreams for life. But, from Christ’s perspective, they open up new opportunities for spiritual growth and development. Through them, he teaches us not to rely on ourselves, but upon God who raises the dead (2 Cor. 1:8-9). We learn to embrace the thorn which once repelled us (12:9-10).

Sunday Service Streamed Live at 11:00 AM – YouTube.com – Hickory Withe PCA

The sermon on Sunday, August 10, 2025, will be from 2 Corinthians 11:16-33 – Suffering for His Name’s Sake. “If I must boast, …” – 2 Corinthians 11:30

According to Paul’s teaching elsewhere, boasting is prohibited in the life of the Christian (Romans 3:27-28; Ephesians 2:8-9). Salvation from beginning to end is all of grace and Christians must avoid boasting as they would the plague. But in our verse above, Paul must reluctantly boast about his untold sufferings for Christ and the gospel. We read these verses (11:22-33) and recoil in disbelief – “How was he able to endure these sufferings?” Well, he persevered by the grace Christ abundantly supplied and so shall we (12:7-10).

Sunday Service Streamed Live at 11:00 AM – YouTube.com – Hickory Withe PCA