Signal Mountain Presbyterian Church

What is it about corporate worship that would make a man's soul long, even faint, to be a part of it? Today we consider worship's purpose, promise and power, even as we invite you, your kids and your neighbor to (re)engage with worship in the days ahead.

Over these next weeks you are being invited to engage - or re-engage - with the life of the church. First things first though: what is the church? With what are you invited to engage? We see that with this roadmap: God has a mission. God has a Church for his mission. God has an invitation for his church.

James finishes his letter by calling Christians to wait patiently until the coming of the Lord. We consider what that means and the kind of work that it involves.

In spite of our attempts to tell ourselves otherwise, James reminds us that we don't control our futures. While we can try to deny our limits, our fragility, and our ignorance, the fourth chapter of James is both a rebuke of our self-sufficient spirit and also an invitation to trust in Jesus' good will for us.

James makes a simple command, but that doesn't mean that it is easy: brothers and sisters, don't speak against one another. Is the fight to do what he says worth it? That's what we consider in this study.

Fighting Christians aren't hard to find. James tells us why, and gives us a great hope that just might grow us out of fights and quarrels.

James knows that there is a difference between genuine wisdom and counterfeit wisdom. In this passage, he gives us the telltale signs of false wisdom and then teaches us the path to true wisdom.

What does saving faith look like? Is it a prayer prayed, a doctrine believed, or more? James answers that question with words that both convict and remind us of the wonder of God’s work in us.

Don’t play favorites. That’s the simple but challenging message of James 2:1-14. We look at why favoritism is inconsistent with the Faith, and what we might live by in its place.

James sets before us a picture of a grown up faith, even as he shows us how we get there: by taking in and carrying out the word of God.

The letter of James will show us the difference faith makes. To start, James covers the difference faith makes when we face hard things. He tells us to count those hard things as joy, before telling us why and how we ever would.

Psalm 91 tells us that no pandemic will come near the one who trusts in the promises of God. What are we supposed to do with that? We answer that question as we close out our series on faith in the time of COVID.

What in the world do pandemics and pestilence mean? And how do we live in light of them? In Revelation 6, the four horsemen and the two different kinds of people we see in the text give us an answer to these questions.

In the wake of the COVID crisis, the question is asked with even more urgency: what is the calling of the Christian and the Church to a suffering world? This takes us to Acts and how the first Christians sought to live out the implications of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. They went forward under the power of Jesus who heals, as agents of his hope and healing. And the kingdom of God spread in their wake.

On this Easter Sunday, we finish our study of 1 Corinthians 15 by looking at Paul’s promise and description of a far better Easter still to come.

In the next section of 1 Corinthians 15, Paul answers 2 questions about our gospel hope. First, “How will the dead be raised?” Second, “What will our resurrection bodies be like?” In this sermon, we hear Paul’s answers in a way that solidifies our hope.

As we continue in this hope-building chapter, we hear Paul speak of the guarantee that is ours because of Christ’s resurrection.

As we begin our study of 1 Corinthians 15, we hear Paul pushing us to a clear and substantive hope in the resurrection of our bodies. To deny that resurrection, he says, is to accept a groundless, useless and pitiable faith.

We close out our look at David’s life and reign by looking at a risky trip that three of his men take to get David a drink of water. That trip becomes a window into what we have seen so often through 1 and 2 Samuel - the great hope that Christians have in Jesus, the better David.

The kingdom is saved by way of a royal son hanging on a tree. What happens to Absalom in this scene points us forward to and grows our enjoyment of the cross of Jesus.

A surprise ending pulls back the curtains to offer a glimpse at God’s invisible hand moving and directing events in this story and in our own.

While this chapter contains a horrible story of gross injustice, it still proves profitable for us. In this study, we wrestle with how.

David’s encounter with Bathsheba leads to a beautiful - if surprising - picture of grace given, received and confirmed.

Margaret Ferguson's final sermon as Associate Pastor at Signal Pres.

David’s kindness to Mephibosheth shows us the shape of God’s kindness to his people. We follow that kindness all the way to the king’s table, and all the way to our hearts.

2 Samuel 6 finds God doing what our hearts long for: bringing his presence to dwell with and bless his people. But it doesn’t turn out as you expect: there’s danger in being casual with his commands or refusing to rejoice. And the only way forward is finding your life - and your death - in Jesus himself.

In 2 Samuel 7 we see one of the great promises in all of Scripture, the Davidic Covenant. It’s a promise that tells us much about who God is, who we are, and what prayer is.

As we step back into our study of David, we get a picture of the LORD as leveler and warrior, going out before his people to wipe away anything and everything that stands between them and the promises that he has made to them. We consider how that works in our lives as much as David’s.

John’s account of Jesus’s coming is summarized in these words: The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Those words help us to see what the incarnation is, what it gives and what it invites.

The Christmas story is one we know so well, we sometimes take its meaning for granted. Let’s stop for a few minutes and remember some lessons from Bethlehem.

Our look at the accounts of Jesus’s birth takes us into the Gospel of Mark...where there is no account of Jesus’s birth! Nonetheless Mark gives us the point of Christmas in his own way: the Son of God saves the people of God by taking their place.

In the story of Joseph we are given a picture of what it means to say, “Immanuel.” Our God keeps his promises, he gives what we can’t, and he provides what we need.

As we wrap up our time in 1 Samuel, we are reminded by David’s strength, success and sharing of the spoils that when the Lord chooses a king for his people, he knows exactly what he is doing.

A witch. A dead man coming up from the grave. All of it in the darkness. Chapter 28 has all the makings of a good scary story, one that sends us into the arms of everlasting security.

The absence of the name of the Lord in this chapter is the key to getting its point: the forgotten God remembers.

As we come to Chapter 26, we see Saul and David each with an opportunity to turn back to former ways. One does, one does not. It’s a window into true and false repentance and into how we move towards what is true.

David’s surprising response to a snub by a local farmer leads us to see both our own ability to turn towards gross rebellion and God’s ability to protect us from that.

David’s response when Saul comes into his cave is a total shock not just to David’s men, but to us. His restraint reminds us that there are no shortcuts on the way to the kingdom.

As we continue our series on David becoming king, we see another huge contrast between David and Saul – who thinks their life is theirs to order, and who knows the Lord’s hand holds their future? Let’s read carefully and see the great position we have in Jesus when it comes to access to God and trusting he holds our life.

A chapter dominated by a bloody massacre becomes a picture of why the God of the Bible can be trusted. That’s the goal as we walk through these 4 scenes of chapter 22.

As we follow David on the run from Saul, we see a contrast between what David is doing - playing the fool - and what the LORD is doing - showing himself to be the God of Fools. It’s all an invitation for us to taste and see that the LORD is good!

Where have you been going and what have you been doing a little more than usual in 2020? That’s another way, perhaps, of asking the question, When life gets stormy, what is the safe harbor to which you flee? David and Jonathan’s relationship spotlights for us the safe harbor of the covenant partner that the Christian has in Jesus.

Saul’s pursuit of David gives us a window into a bigger story about a conflict that runs beneath all of life: rebellion against the Lord’s king by people convinced that they can rule themselves.

As Saul begins to turn against David, we get a window into the destructive nature of jealousy, and into the gospel way out of it.

We look at a familiar story through the lens of 1 Samuel 16:7 - “the LORD does not see as man sees....” In this way, David’s victory over Goliath moves from being inspirational to consequential for us as the followers of Jesus.

A look at what happens after David is anointed as king shows us a lot about what the Lord’s king does, whether that is David or Jesus. It also sets the course for the people of the king - the Church.

We begin our study of King David today. His is a story that points beyond his reign to the reign of king Jesus. As the story begins, we see God leading his people off of rock bottom, albeit in a way that we would never expect.

Paul's words in Philippians 4 are as counter-cultural as they come, especially during a global pandemic. However, the truth he speaks shows us that our ability to follow his directives isn't determined by our situations but by our relationship with the One who is Sovereign over every circumstance.