Purcellville Baptist Church

#FaithInAction

“And I wanna reemphasize that our faith comes from Jesus Christ and his work on the cross. But James is communicating to this group. It's not it's not about whether or not you have salvation. It's about what you should do if you do have salvation. If you've accepted Christ, you should be working to expand his kingdom. If you have a relationship with Christ, then you should be doing something because of this compulsion by the holy spirit inside of you.”

#RedemptionBeforeRules

“You need to remember that this book of Leviticus is written not to the Egyptians. It's not written to the Canaanites. It is written to the children of God. It's written to his people. People that have been rescued out of slavery, brought into a relationship with him. That's important because sometimes we get the order of the bible backwards. Sometimes we think the bible is about doing enough good things so that god will love me. But we see time and again, it is the complete opposite. Redemption always comes before instruction. He changes you, makes you a new person, and then calls you to live as the person he's turned you into.”

#SoundLikeHeaven

“And so, Lord, I pray that as we respond, that we would sound like heaven and the way we rest in you in the midst of the chaos, the way that we return when we've wandered off, the way that we restore those around us with whatever you have put in our hands, and the way we live like redeemed people. No longer slaves to sin, but free that we would shout who our redeemer is. Help us sound like heaven in a noisy, frantic world.”

#ChristOverReligion

“Too often, I settle for the shadow when he's saying I'm the substance. Don't settle for religion when I'm offering you relationship. Don't settle for the gift when you know the giver. Don't settle for just knowing bible facts when I'm giving you the chance to know me. Don't settle for just looking righteous when I'm I'm offering transformation. Don't settle for a calendar full of Christian things or or whatever and miss Christ.”

#RememberTheGospel

“Our faith is not merely about learning new things. You might learn something new today, that's great. But a huge part of following Jesus is regularly remembering the most important thing. That Christ died for me. He rose for me. I am forgiven. I belong to him and everything that I have belongs to him. So here's my question. As you look at your calendar, what rhythms do you have intentionally baked into your life to help you remember?”

#WorthInChrist

“Well, don't confuse someone's ability with someone's value. That's what our culture does. Our culture attaches worth to productivity. They attach worth to physical attributes. They attach worth to strength or intelligence or independence. God does not attach worth to those things. Jesus died for every one of them if you wanna know what their value is. I can rest in my imperfections because they are the playground upon which God shows his greatest work.”

#LoveYourNeighbor

“So when we get to Leviticus 20, it's so easy for us to point a finger. It's so easy for us to not look in the mirror and say, you shouldn't be doing this. You shouldn't be doing that, and you deserve whatever is coming to you. But if it was all about what we earned or didn't earn, all of us in this room are in a pretty bad place. We get it up we end up in a pretty bad place. So when I ask you the question, do you love your neighbor? Do you? If we're going to live different because our God is holy, if we're going to live different because we are set apart, then we need to live different for our neighbor.”

#FoundNotHidden

“We respond to whatever consequences may come, but we bring it to the one who knows where we are because there is no hiding and trust what he has done. What does god do with your sin? He covers it. He provides the atonement I could never provide for myself. removes it and carries it farther away than I could ever take it. He cleanses me and changes the person that I am. And through Jesus, he finishes it once for all. So the invitation is to come out of the hiding, to trust what Jesus has done for your sin. Because in hide and seek, being found means the game is over. But when it comes to the gospel, being found means life is about to begin.”

#ResurrectionHope

“Death could not hold him because three days later, you know what happened. He walked out of the grave. That is why Christianity is not ultimately about how do we manage death. That's what most religions will teach you. It is about surrendering to the one who defeated death. The Bible begins with life. Death enters the world. Leviticus teaches Israel to recognize death, reveals the heart of God and making a way back to life, but it ultimately points to Jesus. And Jesus does what no priest or washing or waiting period or sacrifice could do. He brings us all the way back.”

#SetApartLife

“I've been set apart for God if I have confessed him as Lord. Christ is Lord. There's really no common part of my life anymore. That means that it's not just the way I come to church that's holy. The way I work is holy. The way that I parent is holy. The way that I spend money matters. The way I use my body matters. The way I speak and what I do when nobody is watching, it all matters. There's no part of me that is not part of that calling and set apartness.”

#TakeWorshipHome

“God is saying to Israel, don't come close to me and then leave me there. Right? Take it home with you. Let the worship that you practice be applied in game time. You won't experience real life in Christ if you never let Christ invade your real life. If you worship in in in in faith, if your worship in your faith doesn't change the way you treat people, you left it at the altar.”

#AccessThroughChrist

“There it is. At the end of Exodus, Moses can't get in, but it in Jesus, we get to have access. You ever thought about that? And not nervously, not hoping we brought the right animal or wondering if you've done enough, not trying to charm the security guard, but with confidence. Hebrews ten twenty two, let us draw near with a true heart and full assurance of faith. So how do we get in there? because we're good enough. Not even because we surrender enough. We get in there because Jesus was all of these things. We get in there because he was the sacrifice. We get in there because he was our substitute. We get in there because he has offered forgiveness, and he is our savior.”

#BroughtToGod

“Jesus didn't just come to get you out of hell. He came to bring you to God. He came to forgive you and to cleanse you, to make you holy, to give you his spirit, to restore restore what sin broke in the beginning. This is what he came to do. He came for us when we couldn't come to him. As the word, he spoke the words of life. I am the way, the truth, and the life, and nobody comes to the father but through me. He came and he dwelt among us. If you are a Christian, Leviticus is going to teach us what it means to live as people who've already been rescued and now belong to a holy God.”

#SavedForWorks

“``We're not saved by works. We're saved for works. When we talk about experiencing real life in Christ, which is our vision as a church, it includes stepping into what God has put in front of you. It's time maybe to let out the clutch a little bit, to to put faithful obedience into gear and to shift out of avoidance. And I want you to know, no matter how good life is, you will not experience all that God has for you until you say yes to what he's put in front of you.”

#BelovedNotPerformance

“And this is something you may need to hear today because you may have walked in here very conscious of all the ways that you have failed, not just in the past, but this week. You you may be keenly aware of the ways that you've not measured up. Maybe you I didn't pray enough this week, or I didn't read enough this week, or I I said something I shouldn't have said on Tuesday, and I'm still wrestling with that or or or whatever. You may be keenly aware of all of these things. And, yes, there may need to be some things that change. We'll get to the meat of the message and the sandwich in a minute. But the first word over a Christian is not do better. The first word over a Christian is if you are in Christ, you are beloved by God. Don't forget it.”

#TruthOverPanic

“``You know, we are we are quick. When it comes to fear, we said fear makes us fast. When you're afraid, you will run faster than you've ever run. You will act faster than you would normally act. You will speak faster than you normally would speak. Fear makes us fast. We click quickly. We share quickly. We judge and come up with an opinion really quickly. But here's the thing about truth. Truth can withstand your examination to see if it is true. Truth doesn't need you to panic. Truth doesn't need you to forward this to 10 friends in the next twelve minutes or else you'll lose your home. Truth's not threatened by your questions. You can take time.”

#HopeInChristsReturn

“What Paul is saying is that relief is coming. And for clarity, we're obviously talking about relief from evil, but God offers relief from literally all pain and suffering. Notice when that relief is going to come, he says it will come when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with his mighty angels. And this is critical because Paul doesn't promise that their circumstances are going to improve by the close of business on Tuesday. That's not the promise here. He doesn't tell them that if they had enough faith, the suffering will disappear. Instead, he anchors their hope in the return of Christ. The hope that a Christian has is a whole lot greater than conjured up faith or optimism. It isn't, hey, things will probably get better. Just hold on. It is the certainty that we will experience eternal relief when Jesus returns. And when he does, all forms of suffering for God's people will finally and forever come to an end.”

#SanctifiedCompletely

“``Paul's prayer is that God would sanctify us completely, not just in the visible parts that other people see, not just in the comfortable parts, but holy, holy. And the promise is that he who calls you is faithful, he will surely do it. This is good news because this is not self improvement with a Bible verse slapped on it. This is the faithful God faithfully transforming his people Because of Jesus, the one who is fully, holy, holy.”

#StewardshipMatters

“``When we look at this parable, this passage, it is not about the perceived success of the one with five and the one with two. It is about their stewardship. It is not about the fact that they doubled what was given to them. It is about their stewardship. Every single one of us are stewards. We are not owners. And when we recognize we are not owners, we will stop fighting for control and start having confidence in what God has given us.”

#ReadyForTheKing

“I wanna spend more of my time getting ready for when my king is gonna show up on that road. I wanna grab him by the hand and show him what I did with what he left behind for me. Because the king will come. The dead in Christ will rise. The living in Christ will be gathered, and we will always be with the Lord. But for the grieving, there is hope. And for when death feel feels final, there is resurrection. And for the one still here, there is purpose and encouragement. Jesus died, Jesus rose, and he is coming. Encourage each other with these words.”

#LoudWitnessQuietCross

“And he bore the loudest witness through what looked like the quietest moment on the cross. There, he did not shout louder than his enemies. He laid down his life for them. It was at the cross that holiness and love met, that justice and mercy met. It was at the cross that Jesus for loud, restless, sinful people like us. So the invitation today is not, hey, we need to live a quiet life so that God will love us. It is to look at how God loved us and let that love shape the volume of our lives.”

#LiveToGlorifyGod

“Church, our life isn't about just avoiding sin. It's about living in holiness. Man's chief end is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever. Right? Our our goal isn't to ask ourselves, man, is is this a sin? Is this crossing the line with my boyfriend or girlfriend? Is this lust? Is this too far in the relationship? Like, those aren't questions we have to ask. Rather, we can ask, is this decision giving glory to Jesus?”

#JesusRescues

“``He didn't come to improve your circumstances or take away your problems or grow your four zero one k. That's not why Jesus came. He came to rescue your soul. He came to save you from sin and reconcile you to God. So when I'm talking about you church, we got a great model. His name is Jesus. This is not just a clever idea taken from some words in a text. This is who he is. At the cross, he took your sin, your shame, your guilt, and your punishment so that you could receive forgiveness and righteous ness and new life and be part of God's family. He did it for you.”

#LoveTheChurch

“Don't attend church. Love her. That's how you would describe Paul's feelings towards the church and what the words that he uses here. It's gotta be the word love. You wouldn't send a note to your barber saying you hate to be torn away from them and can bear it no longer. That's the kind of thing that you say to some of you deeply love. I mean, maybe you do love your barber, but if you send him a text like that, he's gonna tell you to cut it out and shave it for somebody that, you know, some somebody else. Right? It's not him.”

#GospelNotSelfHelp

“``The ultimate proof that the word works is not merely changed habits or shiny happy people. It is a risen savior. The gospel and the word of God is not self help. It is the announcement that Jesus Christ came in the world into a broken world that lived the life that we couldn't live, died the death that we deserved and rose again to rescue sinners. That's the message if you wanted in a summary. Self help says, you can save yourself if you just do these things. But the gospel and God's word says, you know you can't, so God did.”

#SacrificialLove

“Jesus didn't love us from a safe distance. He entered our mess. He took on flesh. He dwelt among sinners. He touched lepers. He wept with grieving people. He carried across and gave of his own self to the fullest extent. So when you think about those around you that need ministry, would you minister only in ways that cost you nothing? Or are you willing not only to follow the model of moms or Paul, but to follow the model of the Lord who sacrificed in order to reach people?”

#TruthWorthTheCost

“You know, people who are in it for themselves don't keep going when the costs start to rise. They shift. They soften what they're saying. They look for ways to make it more palatable and more comfortable and more easy, but Paul didn't do that. He left Philippi bruised and beaten and publicly humiliated. And instead of keeping a low profile, what did he do? He immediately went to Thessalonica and did it again. Why? Because he was convinced that the message was worth it. He knew it was true.”

#JoyInSuffering

“Now this is not a recipe you go out and create. This is not something you go out and conjure up on your own. This is the result of what the gospel, the holy spirit produces in us. Because this joy isn't natural. It is joy of the holy spirit. It is rooted in a new hope. So, yes, affliction plus joy with the gospel creates a compelling witness, but not because affliction is good and not because joy is easy, but because when real joy shows up in the middle of real suffering rooted in Jesus, it points to something bigger and beyond you.”

#FaithThatWorks

“Question. Does your faith work? This isn't about perfection. It's not about having it all together or faking it even. This is about direction. Is there evidence that your faith is alive? And before you start to think, oh, this is a try harder kind of thing. Don't miss what Paul is doing here. He's not commanding this. He's thanking God for this.”

#SurrenderNotEgo

“Sure. You can't know everything. You're not God. That's kind of the whole point. But the continuity through millennia and consistency and persistence and accuracy tells you, you don't have to remove your brain to believe the gospel. You just have to believe you're not God. And with your brain fully intact, it's more than reasonable, and it does require a response. It just can't be ignored. You have to decide whether to surrender or resist. And if your gut is to resist, I think you should ask yourself why do I feel the resistance?”

“So what does that mean for us? Is that if Jesus is the king over the cross, it means that your sin doesn't have the final say. It means that your guilt and shame doesn't have the final say. It means that your past doesn't have the final say. It means that your suffering doesn't have the final say. Even death doesn't get the final word. The king gets the final say because he is reigning over it all. Because the king went to the cross so that your sin could be paid for. The king is on the cross to show a watching world what kind of king and God he is. And he is the king over the cross so that nothing gets the final word but him.”

#KingWhoLaidDownHisLife

“Every other king requires other people to shed their blood so that he can remain king. They might even actually send people out to do that on purpose. Our king laid down his life so that we could be saved. He didn't take the shortcut. And he established a kingdom that is still reverberating today where he is still on his throne, where he will be forever. Don't miss it because you want a king without a cross.”

#StaySurrendered

“This is the gospel in Nehemiah that, hey, This is the ideal. We wanna grow in this. Those are all pointers for us to take away. But I know in my weakness, he is strong. I know that even when I don't get this right, God is faithful. God is good. And I'm gonna stay surrendered to him because of it. The call was there for the people in Nehemiah, and the call, the option, the opportunity is still there for us today. So I wanna invite you to pray with me for a moment.”

#SabbathRhythm

“Then Nehemiah confronts them, of course, and he says, I commanded that the door should be shut, and I stationed some of my servants at the gates. Then I commanded the Levites to keep the Sabbath day holy. God had given them a repeatable way to stay surrendered, and it was this, bake in a day every week where you are overtly reminded that you need me. In an agrarian society where you are subsisting off of the land, we're gonna take a day where you can't do for yourself, but you've got to rely on me. And every week, instead of that cycle being years long like it has been for me so many times, gonna do this every week, God says. Pattern, by the way, that God modeled in Genesis so that every week we come to a worship, we come to a place of rest, we come to a place of reminder. I need to stay surrendered before the Lord.”

#SpiritFilledService

“And lots is going on. The apostles are very busy preaching and praying and doing all the things. But these widows are starting to be overlooked in the daily distribution and they recognized how important that was. And so we get the first glimpse of what most people would call deacons in Acts chapter six, where it says they wanted to pick out from among you seven men of good repute, and I love this, full of the spirit. Because organizational tasks and administration needs people full of the spirit just as much as song leaders need to be full of the spirit.”

#WorshipChangesHearts

“It's because when we worship this way, it removes distractions. Because when I am singing lyrics and I'm engaging in this way and my ears are filled with noise and my mouth is participating and my eyes are locked, it's like I I I can't help but focusing on what's going on. It forces us into this place of recognition of who he is and who I'm not. Worship changes the temperature of my heart every time, but you gotta participate. Psalm 95 says, oh, come, let us sing to the Lord. Let us make a joyful Some of y'all who don't think you're good singers, a joyful noise, you can join to the rock of our salvation. Let it, let us worship. I love how Nehemiah 12, everyone participates. God calls us to do the same. In Colossians three, it says, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly,”

#GenerationalFaith

“If our faith only survives as long as we do, then it was never anchored in the Lord. It was anchored in us. And we ought to endeavor no matter what stage of life we are in, to constantly be pouring into the next generation and to be gleaning from the one above us. And that can begin at whatever age. If you're in middle or high school, you can do that for elementary school kids, preschool kids. If you're a senior adult, I know a lot of families here are in the throes of being a young family, and they need to see that somebody made it through and how they did it still loving Jesus.”

#PutGodFirst

“They were doing this because they were showing the preeminence they desired for God to have in their lives. This commitment wasn't they weren't trying to squeeze it in with their other priorities. Can I keep all my other priorities and fit God in with them? That's what we often do. It was first. See, we can't say God is first in our lives and that our relationship with him is the most important thing to us if we won't open the door to the greatest treasure and then give him the priority when we get there.”

#ReturnToJesus

“Repentance isn't failure. It's living in the forgiveness that God has called us to. Following Jesus isn't I can't mess up again or I can't be in this cycle again. Like, some of you hey. Some of you are honestly scared to follow Jesus closely because you're afraid you're just gonna fail again. Failing. The goal of the Christian life is to return to Jesus faster and more honestly than before. You're not trapped in a cycle because you mess up. You're only trapped if you stop coming back to Jesus.”

#FaithGeneratesJoy

“We see God's faithfulness in the past, and it wells up re rejoicing in the middle of whatever circumstances we find ourselves in. Anytime I am struggling to get to a place of joy and rejoicing, I need only remind myself how God has done bigger, greater, and more for hundreds, thousands of years for his children. So when I participate in these physical practices, he is not only reminding us of the past. It's not just a history lesson. It's like a joy generator in my life today so that I can shine my light in the middle of the darkness.”

#ScriptureIsLife

“``You know, there's something inspiring about what these people do in Nehemiah eight because listening to God's word being read for five to six hours did not come from a heart that says that that I'll read God's word when I feel like it. No. No. No. You devote five to six hours to something straight where you will stand to something that you were certain is essential for life itself. And Jesus said in Matthew four that his word is more essential than food. Jesus is saying God's word is better than breakfast. It's better than lunch. It's better than dinner.”

#GoodRevealsEvil

“``Many people often struggle with the existence of evil and hate and things like that in the world. It can be one of the most difficult, soul level questions to wrestle with about the existence of pain and evil. But here's what I wanna point out to you when you think of snow. You we only know what evil is because of the comparison to a good God. Think of it this way. If all snow was just multicolored and there was no white snow, then how would you ever know which snow was dirty? You wouldn't. What is dirty compared to what? Is orange snow dirty compared to purple snow? No. God's perfection is pure white snow. It is the backdrop that shows us by comparison what is not perfect.”

#SecureInJesus

“``God offers you security only in Jesus. He is our wall, our security forever because of what he has done that we could not do ourselves. As long as we honestly and humbly confess Christ as Lord, we have that security forever and it can't be taken away. But God has an extraordinary, real, abundant life prepared for you to live in that. Don't settle once the wall is in place. After the wall, we wanna live in what God has given us.”

#SmallObedienceBigImpact

“``Because of their simple act of obedience, stacking a rock, using the mortar, showing up day after day to do what it was that God gave them to do, not getting distracted, not getting overwhelmed, not succumbing to fear or temporary glory, and just doing the simple obedient monotonous thing. God did this exponential explosion with it to show himself to everybody who noticed.”

#JesusDidTheWork

“``And if you're not yet sold about the example of Nehemiah and Nehemiah six, consider Jesus who came to the earth at Christmas on a mission and despite the temptation, despite the distractions, nothing stopped him. Fear didn't overwhelm him though he felt it. Enemies didn't confine him, though they tried. And when the enemy thought they had won by nailing him to a cross, God took one death and one resurrection and brought many, millions more, because God does more. Jesus was faithful. He was doing a great work to do what his father sent him to do, and he invites us to participate in the things he calls us to.”

#careOverCosmetics

“And he calls us to do the same. What good is it if we are like Versailles? If the church has beautiful walls, but the people inside are crumbling, what good is it? And if our homes are the same? Believe Nehemiah five is this pause to remind us it's not all about what it looks like on the outside. God cares about what's going on among his people.”

#EmmanuelIsHere

“``The best gift at Christmas was obviously how Emmanuel became flesh in the form of the baby Jesus. That's why we celebrate specifically at Christmas. But don't let it stop you from realizing that Emmanuel is present tense. He still wants to be with you today. Emmanuel is everywhere in all your places. And I don't mean just here physically. I mean wherever you are. You know what I mean? And Emmanuel is always. Emmanuel never ends. He will be that way through the end of time forever.”

#EmmanuelNotByMerit

“I want you to notice that despite their disobedience, despite his lack of faith, God gives them a sign of how he was going to redeem them anyways, and so it is with us. Emmanuel, God is with us, not because we are so good. But here's the point I want to give you today, what makes this different. Emmanuel is God's answer to human failure, not because humans are so good. Jesus comes because there was no other way.”

#ObeyAndBuild

“``So here's our progression: when we hear God's calling, we choose to obey, we expect opposition, and we bring our fears to the Lord. After Nehemiah cried out to the Lord, do you think he just stayed in this woe is me frame of mind? No. Here's what it says he did next: so we built the wall, and all the wall was joined together to half its height, for the people had a mind to work.”

#CourageToObey

“``Maybe you're already a believer, but you know God is calling you to something, but up till now you've not had the courage to step forward and boldly take the ground that the Lord has promised to give you. Maybe it's not even a large-scale thing—maybe it's just daily steps of small obedience or conquering a sin struggle that's plagued you for years.”

#WorkIsPurpose

“Many people long for the idyllic setting of something like the Garden of Eden. Perhaps you want to go back to where everything was easy and you could enjoy that nice, long, botanical vacation in the Garden of Eden. Well, pump the brakes a little bit. Look at Genesis 2, verse 15. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to what? To work it and to keep it. Notice this is before sin slithered into the garden. This is before the whole tree, fruit, you know, realizing what sin and death was. This is before all of that.”

#FaithJourneyGrowth

“You go thinking you're gonna help others, and God then helps you through that. And so if that's, you know, you wanna step into, obviously, making a difference. They do tangibly make a difference in many ways in all these places that we get to go. But also, you should know that God is gonna take you on a journey personally to trust Him more, to grow in your faith, and to surrender comforts and all sorts of things that He wants to do to draw you closer to Him.”

#WaitDontRegret

“Do you know a truth? I have never regretted waiting on the Lord, ever. I have only regretted pushing my own way ahead of its appointed time. God's timing is never an accident.”

#ImageOfGodInEveryone

“``See, my issue was, I knew conceptually and theologically about this idea of the image of God in man, but I had not really considered that the image of God was in every man. I love to think about how it was in me, but it's also in my family that I disagree with. It's in Americans, and it is in people all around the world. It's in people like me and those not like me. That includes my friends. That includes my opponents. It includes my kids. It includes my parents. And did you know that the image of God is even in the politician you didn't vote for?”

#PassionateLamentIsHealing

“If I could combine all four things that Nehemiah is doing, the emotional weight that is on the shoulders of Nehemiah is to lament. It's a full body sorrow turning towards the Lord. He's weeping, he's mourning, he actually gives up food, and he's in consistent prayer to the Lord. I mean, there's a whole book of the Bible, called Lamentations, right? It's healthy to lament. If you don't know what lament means, I looked it up. It means a passionate expression of grief or sorrow. And I love the word passionate, right? It's not a chore, it's not a burden, it's passionate.”

#HopeInBrokenness

“Even in the midst of sorrow and brokenness, I love Shekinah's response. He says, even now there is hope. Like even right in the middle of this, like they're tearing their clothes, they're crying, they're fasting, they're praying. Even now there's hope. Not in ourselves, but in a God who never fails. That's why we can have hope.”

#RevivalInEveryStory

“I could go on and on and on because this book is not just a gathering of stories, but chapter after chapter, story after story, page after page is a story about revival, return and restoration. It's not just, you know, for our felt boards, for our white boards and for veggie tails. Since the third chapter of the entire book, God has been plotting for and reviving his people over and over and over again.”

#EternalImpactThroughFaith

“The truth is, if you have confessed Christ as Lord, surrendered your life to him, you've been given a new name as a child of God. You've been adopted into the family, made a new creation. And that name being in that lineage grants you opportunity, gives you the power of the Holy Spirit inside of you. The same power that rose Jesus from the dead is inside of those who call on him as savior. Like what's in a name? A lot.”

#BibleBeautyInStructure

“The Bible is not just full of free-form stories and teachings. The Bible is full of so much more than that. It has beautiful literary structure that shows both God's creativity and his clarity in what he wants us to focus on and remember.”

#CallEvilByItsName

“If we lose our ability to call evil evil and stop seeing each other as image bearers, as real people made in the image of God, then you are no different than those perpetrating violence.”