Here at the end of November, our hearts turn to the coming Thanksgiving holiday, as do many of the hymns in this morning’s service. We begin worship with the hymn Come, Ye Thankful People Come, which reminds us of the Lord’s provision for our earthly needs (“God, our maker, does provide”), and looks forward to the final harvest (“For the…
As we continue this series on the Psalms, which we began last week and will continue through Advent to Epiphany, we’ll look at Psalm 19 for the next two weeks. The first half of this psalm celebrates God’s general revelation: how the “book of nature” (as medieval theologians called it) declares God’s glory. A number of the hymns this morning,…
Nick Batzig is an associate editor for Ligonier Ministries and is a pastor at Wayside PCA in Signal Mountain, TN. Nick served as the organizing pastor of New Covenant Presbyterian Church in Richmond Hill, GA from 2009-2018. Nick also served as the editor of Reformation21 and the Christward Collective—sites of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals. Nick regularly writes for Tabletalk…
Bulletin Week after week in this series on Galatians, Pastor George and Pastor Brian have clearly emphasized that the only way we can approach the throne of God is through Christ, by grace alone. As we’ve heard these past few months here at Parish, “if we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing.” These two “solas” of…
Last Sunday during our hymn sing, I made the offhand comment that we couldn’t have a musical event at Parish without singing some psalms. Psalm singing is certainly a distinctive of this church, as well as a distinctive feature of the whole Reformed tradition, going right back to John Calvin. One of the beautiful things about having so much of…
At the beginning of Galatians 5, Paul reminds us that Christ has set us free from bondage to the law (Galatians 5:1) and that this freedom should drive to us love and serve one another (Galatians 5:13). Many of the hymns in the service this morning call our attention to the freedom purchased by Christ. In Martin Luther’s From Heaven…
… brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman. —Galatians 4:31 Though this morning’s sermon text seems a bit obscure, Paul points us to a glorious truth here at the end of chapter 4: that we are Abraham’s children, and that as his rightful heirs we are called to freedom rather than bondage. Today we’ll…
“Kingdomtide” is a liturgical season observed primarily by Presbyterians and Methodists since the early 20th century, with a focus on personal spiritual growth and the growth of the Kingdom of God. During this season, which continues up until Advent, special emphasis is placed on acts of service, teaching, and evangelism within our communities. You’ll notice that we begin this morning’s…
“Unfathomable grace.” This line from the hymn Light Of The Anxious Heart kept coming to mind as I was reading this week’s text from Galatians in preparation for the worship service. True, the word “grace” doesn’t actually occur in this passage, but the concept saturates it entirely. Abraham was saved by God’s gracious promise, not through the law of…
It is a strange moment preaching for my last time at Parish Presbyterian Church. The nine years that my family and I have been able to walk with this church have been precious to us. I will be forever grateful to Parish for graciously listening to me as a young preacher and patiently dealing with me as a young pastor.…