There is an emotional, relational connection behind all the epistles that can be easy to overlook 2,000 years later. 1-3 John and 1-2 Thessalonians do a good job of foregrounding this connection between the writer and the reader, and inform us how church workers today should feel about the church.
(Preaching through the epistles. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 21, 2025.)
We are coming to the end of our year-long journey through the Bible story, but the end of the Bible is not the end of God’s story. As we read 1-2 Timothy and Titus, we see that Jesus’s apostles clearly intended his story to continue in the church. How did they intend for us to carry God’s story into the rest of history?
(Preaching through 1-2 Timothy and Titus. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 14, 2025.)
This sermon is a bit of a preview of a series of lessons we will start in the new year. 1 Peter is a book addressed to “the elect exiles of the dispersion.” What does this title mean, who does it apply to, and why does it matter for the modern Christian?
(Preaching on 1 Peter. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on December 7, 2025.)
While there are a lot of different topics addressed in the letters to the Corinthians, a lot of the letters come back to the same idea; how should Christians think about each other, and their place in the body of Christ, both universally and more locally?
(Preaching through the New Testament. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 23, 2025.)
The importance of being “led by the Spirit” as a Christian cannot be understated, but the exact means by which He leads us can be confusing to many Christians. Using several stories from the latter part of Paul’s mission work in Acts, let’s consider what exactly it means to be led by the Spirit.
(Preaching on the story of the early church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 9, 2025.)
One of the benefits of reading through the story in Acts relatively quickly is repeated themes and events become more obvious, specifically in regards to evangelism and how people responded. What were the essential, elementary components of the Gospel message, and how did people typically respond to its truth?
(Preaching on the story of the early church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on November 9, 2025.)
The latter half of Acts centers on Paul’s mission work and eventual arrest and journey to Rome. I hope these maps will help you keep the flow of the story in your mind as you read.
One of the ways to think about the book of Hebrews is an exchange of better things between us and God. He gives us many better things through Christ, and he in turn deserves a better response from us than he received in the Old Testament.
The first part of Acts is the first stage in the growth and the expansion of Jesus’s church, first in Jerusalem but then to the surrounding regions of Judea and Samaria. What kinds of struggles did the early church face, how did they overcome, and which of their attitudes and characteristics should we be emulating?
(Preaching on the early church. This sermon was preached at the Dewey Church of Christ on October 26, 2025.)
As we transition out of the Gospels in our reading into the story of the early church in Acts, it can be helpful to be able to visualize what you are reading. Of course, you can find many versions of these kinds of maps online, but I hope these can be helpful to you.
Watts in the Word 