“Deep calls to deep” the Psalmist laments. And deep answers deep! This is the truth of crying out to God. His ear is tuned to the cry of his children. He hears, he sees, he remembers, and he knows. No sorrow, trial, joy, crisis, or struggle slips past his loving gaze. The Hebrew people had been slaves of countless Pharaohs and through centuries of Egyptian history. They cried out. And God heard. They learned not only to cry over their condition, but to ‘cry out’ and to ‘cry out to God.’ Exodus 2:23-25 shows us this dynamic in a remarkable way. Listen as we examine what it teaches us about learning to cry out to God.
Category Archives: Sermons
03/06/2022 | “Wait for It” | Exodus 2:11-22
The idle moment screams, ‘don’t just stand there, do something.’ But God says, ‘don’t just do something, stand there.’ ‘Wait!’ is often God’s plan for us. Twenty-five times the Psalms counsel us to ‘wait upon the Lord.’ And the rest of the Bible takes up the theme. From Genesis to Revelation, waiting is on the docket.
Moses ran ahead of God’s plan and it cost him. Yet God was not done with Moses. Or with you? Your failures are not a failure for God’s plan or His plan for us. Listen as we examine Exodus 2:11-22 and consider the grace and spiritual discipline of waiting.
11/27/2022 | “Who Is This” | Matthew 1:1-17, 21
As the New Testament opens, God places Jesus in a dysfunctional family. A family into which we have been adopted. A family story that shows God’s faithfulness and grace to those who do not have it together. And in his story, we find hope for our own story. Join us as we examine Matthew 1:1-17 and consider the question so many asked about Jesus – “Who is this?”
02/27/2022 | “Undercover” | Exodus 2:1-10
God sometimes goes undercover. But he is never absent. His providence in sparing baby Moses points to a later deliverer whose birth, death and rising again deliver from sin’s slavery and death. Listen to “Undercover” as Exodus 2 unfolds God’s providence and challenges us to live by faith that has ‘confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (Hebrews 11:1)
02/20/2022 | “Under Pressure” | Exodus 1:15-22
Pressure reveals who you are. Under intense pressure Shiphrah and Puah lived out their faith. Their quiet, principled resistance thwarted the cruelty of the tyrant. While Pharaohs passed into obscurity, these women’s names are remembered. What does it look like to live faithfully under pressure? Join us as we examine Exodus 1 and see what it looks like to walk by faith under pressure.
02/13/2022 | “When God Seems Silent” | Exodus 1:8-14
We’re afraid of silence. It unsettles, makes us insecure, afraid. But no silence unsettles like the silence of God. Scripture consoles us that God is a not silent. He reveals Himself, is knowable. Yet at times He seems silent. What then?
God’s people were oppressed in Egypt under the hand of a xenophobic, genocidal Pharaoh. God’s promises were unfolding as he blessed the people with children yet as their blessing increased, so did persecution and adversity. But God did not deliver them. Why does God allow times of adversity and suffering in the lives of his people? We all ask this and many experience this personally. Join us this week as we examine Exodus 1:8-14 and wrestle with the question of why God sometimes appears silent.
02/06/2022 | “Promises Kept” | Exodus 1:1-7
Children’s stories are never just for children. Though simple, they are not simplistic. The same is true for the Old Testament. Tempted to read it as moral example or historical background, we often miss its meaning. For example, Exodus is not just a heroic story of Moses, a narrative of liberation, or a bridge from patriarchy to monarchy. But it reveals much more. Join us as we begin this story of promises kept. And a story of grace for our own lives as well.
01/30/2022 | “A Sad Conclusion” | Jonah 4
Conclusions resolve tensions, answer questions. Yet Jonah ends on a question. Asked to Jonah but also to you. Do you care about the lost? Do you know the spiritual state of neighbors? Are you indifferent to those under judgement? Are you a ‘Jonah?’ Listen as we examine Jonah 4 and consider these hard and revealing questions.
01/16/2022 | “Salvation Belongs to the Lord” | Jonah 2
Jonah flees, but God pursues. Jonah was called by God to Nineveh, but Jonah had other ideas. God sent a storm on the sea Jonah was using to escape and Jonah’s shipmates were forced to toss him into the sea to appease God’s wrath. But the “LORD appointed a great fish to swallow up Jonah. Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.” In great distress, Jonah calls out to God and God hears. Jonah’s prayer reveals God’s power, sovereignty and faithfulness to deliver His people. Jonah’s prayer of distress ends with a cry of praise, “Salvation belongs to the LORD!” This truth that comforted Jonah should comfort for you. Listen as we examine this comfort in Jonah 2.
01/23/2022 | “A Godward Turn” | Jonah 3
Grace taught Jonah a lesson. When God sends you, you go. God used a sermon of judgment to save unlikely converts. The Bible’s shortest sermon triggers its greatest revival. From least to greatest, the Ninevites repent. The gospel is that powerful. Have you heard it? And believed it?
Perhaps you wonder if God could ever receive you. The example of God’s grace to Jonah and to the people of Nineveh should give you hope. Christ has died for sinners, and the Christ that saved them is offered to you as well. Listen as we examine Jonah 3 and consider the power of God’s Word and the kindness of God which leads us to repentance.
Pottsville Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church 