The Shepherd's Church

A charge given to our new elder, Don Smith.

Drawing from 1 Timothy 3 and Hebrews 13:17, pastor Harold Guptil taught us about the weight of the office of overseer and the congregation's reciprocal duty to submit, edify, and encourage. Elders are appointed by God to care for souls with patience, humility, and mercy upon mercy, and the flock is called to be no drippy faucet of criticism but a joy to those who watch over them.

The tenth commandment is the mirror Sinai holds up to the soul, revealing that God is not merely after our behavior but after our hearts. Every broken commandment traces back to a coveting root, and every coveting heart is really an accusation against the Shepherd who has measured out our portion. The cure is not getting more, but looking up to see the One who did not spare His own Son, and learning at last to say with David, "I shall not want."

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to bear false witness.

In this final sermon of the series, we uncover what the resurrection actually means and why it demands more than escape or empty optimism. Jesus, the risen Gardener, breathes new creation life into His people and sends them out to cultivate the world He is restoring, one field at a time. This message will reshape how you see your identity, your mission, and every sphere of your life as part of Christ's unstoppable kingdom.

This sermon unfolds the resurrection as far more than a miracle to admire, revealing it as the decisive turning point of all creation. Beginning in the darkness of the garden tomb, it traces how Christ rises on the “eighth day,” inaugurating a new world, a new humanity, and a new relationship between God and man. Through rich biblical patterns, from Eden to the Ark, from Adam to David, it shows that the empty tomb is the new mercy seat, the cherubim no longer guard the way, and the exile is over.At the center stands the risen Christ, the true Gardener, the new Adam, calling His people into a restored family, a redeemed creation, and a future already breaking into the present. This sermon presses the staggering reality that the resurrection does not merely promise a distant hope, but announces that the new creation has already begun, and that every believer is now living in the first light of that eternal day.

The Eighth Commandment reaches far deeper than stolen property and exposes a far more pervasive sin: the theft of time from God Himself. This Easter homily confronts the quiet ways we squander the very days He has entrusted to us, revealing a debt we can never repay. Yet in the risen Christ, who perfectly fulfilled every moment and bore the weight of our wasted years, time itself is redeemed. The resurrection does not merely promise life after death, it reclaims every hour of the present, calling us to live each moment under the joyful lordship of the One who purchased them with His own blood.

In this Good Friday message, Pastor Kendall Lankford traces the crucifixion of Jesus as the precise and stunning fulfillment of the Passover lamb — examined for four days, slaughtered at the right hour, bones unbroken, blood applied with hyssop. Drawing from Genesis through John, he shows how Jesus, the new Adam, wears the curse of thorns, is stripped bare in the place where Adam was first clothed, and breathes His last on Day 6 — closing the book on the old creation with a single declaration: It is finished. This message invites you to see the cross not as tragedy, but as the last sentence of a broken world — and the ground from which something entirely new is about to rise.

What if Holy Week isn't just a passion narrative — but a seven-day dismantling of the entire created order? Day by day, Jesus walks through creation in reverse, undoing what the first Adam broke, so that on the eighth day He can rise and remake everything from scratch. This Palm Sunday, discover why the true Adam didn't come to prop up the old world — He came to crush it, and from that crushing, bring forth a brand new one.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to commit adultery.

The law not only forbids us in the negative "do not murder" it also commands us in the positive "Be life bringers." And since we all fall short of this, we ought always to repent.

Elder Paul Edgar brings the word to us this morning from the book of Nehemiah teaching us that we're not just one; we are many.  We're made in the image of a Trinitarian God, Who is both One and Many.  One and Three.  We are the Body of Christ, and members in particular.  "In Adam's Fall we sinned all."

This final sermon in the True Worship series answers the question every honest heart has been asking: does fearing God actually lead anywhere? Far from offering a shallow formula, it reveals that true worship is alignment with reality itself, producing deep, unshakable life, freedom, contentment, and lasting praise. Ultimately, it points to Jesus Christ, the only One who feared the Lord perfectly, and shows that all the promises of wisdom are secured and inherited through union with Him.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command to honor father and mother.

This sermon exposes the fear of man as a soul-snaring rival to the fear of the Lord, showing how human approval quietly dethrones God, corrupts worship, and distorts the entire Christian life. From Proverbs, it argues that true worship can only grow where God is feared above man, while the fear of man turns obedience, identity, and even church life into a performance. But the good news is that Jesus Christ stood fearless where we have compromised, bore the shame of our cowardice, and now frees us to live and worship in the security of the Father's unchanging approval.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command to honor the Sabbath.

Who is actually in charge of the world? This sermon explores that question through the wisdom of Proverbs and shows that God's sovereignty over kings, nations, justice, and truth means worship cannot be reduced to songs or religious moments. True worship is the complete reorientation of our lives under God's authority, calling us to trust Him instead of ourselves, align every area of life with His Word, and find our wisdom and refuge in Christ.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to speak God's name in vain.

Joshua 7 introduces the first hard jolt in Israel's conquesting Canaan—after a miraculous victory over the great Jericho, what should have been a simple victory over the diminutive Ai becomes costly and confidence is shattered. The passage presses one central truth: if YAHWEH does not go before His people, no strength, strategy, or momentum can secure triumph. 

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to make any images of God.

We talk about worship like it lives in songs and sanctuaries, but what if it's really exposed in your calendar, your budget, and your reaction when God overturns your plans? This sermon walks through the Bible's big picture of worship and then lets Proverbs confront our control, our anxiety, and our quiet anger when life does not go our way. In Christ, who entrusted every step to His Father, we learn how to plan with open hands and trust the God who directs our steps.

On a dark Atlantic night in 1873, Horatio Spafford lost all four of his daughters, and from that unimaginable grief he wrote, “It is well with my soul.” This law homily on the first commandment presses past surface obedience and asks what we truly cannot imagine losing, exposing the small gods we quietly trust. When everything else sinks, only the Lord Himself is a portion that cannot be taken away.

Before the first song is sung, God has already been listening. Scripture teaches that worship begins not with melody, but with speech. Every word we utter is weighed before God as an act of allegiance, obedience, or rebellion. Proverbs exposes the unsettling truth that prayer itself can be rejected, that religious language can become profane, and that careless words can function as false worship. This sermon confronts how our speech reveals what we fear, what we excuse, and who we truly serve. It presses the unavoidable verdict that our words condemn us, then holds out the only hope left to sinners caught by their own mouths: confession through Christ, the perfect Word, who makes polluted worship acceptable before a holy God.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to covet.

Not all worship is pleasing to God.Proverbs confronts us with a truth our age desperately avoids: God does not accept worship simply because it is offered. He weighs hearts, judges motives, and rejects worship that flows from unrepentant, self-ruled lives. In this sermon, we see that worship is never self-defined or creatively constructed by man. It is covenantal, prescribed by God, and rooted in the fear of the LORD.But this leaves us with a devastating question: How can sinful people ever worship a holy God in a way He actually accepts? Proverbs exposes the impossibility of producing true worship from corrupt hearts, driving us to the only hope we have. Jesus Christ did not merely teach us how to worship. He lived, offered, and fulfilled perfect worship in our place, bearing the judgment our false worship deserved.This message strips away religious confidence, destroys performance-based faith, and lifts our eyes to the Gospel where acceptance is secured not by the quality of our worship, but by the perfection of Christ's.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to bear false witness

Fear shapes every human life. From the moment we are born, fear comes pre-installed in our souls—and because of it, we spend our lives running. We run from pain, loss, exposure, conflict, stillness, and ultimately from God Himself, seeking refuge in comforts that promise relief but only leave scars. In this sermon, we confront a crucial question: Have we misunderstood fear entirely?Drawing from Proverbs and the wider testimony of Scripture, this message shows that not all fear is destructive. There is a fear that does not paralyze but stabilizes, a fear that does not drive us away from God but propels us toward Him. The fear of the Lord, Scripture teaches, is not the enemy of joy—it is the pathway to it.Step by step, this sermon traces a biblical progression: the fear of the Lord produces unshakable confidence; that confidence teaches us where to run when life collapses; running to God yields true rest; rest gives birth to a hopeful future; and hope culminates in enduring joy. Far from being opposed, fear and delight are woven together in God's design for worship and the Christian life.Ultimately, this sermon leads us to Christ—the One who feared God perfectly, trusted the Father completely, rested even in the storm, and endured the cross for the joy set before Him. In Him, what we could not achieve has been secured for us. And by His Spirit, we are invited to grow into a life marked not by frantic fear, but by confident, restful, hope-filled joy that transforms both our worship and our witness.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to steal

What is worship, really—and why does everything in life flow from it? In this foundational message from Proverbs 10–31, we see that wisdom does not begin with effort or technique, but with the fear of the Lord. Drawing from key Proverbs texts, this sermon shows that worship is living every moment before the face of an all-seeing God, with awe, reverence, and trust.Far from producing fear or paralysis, the fear of the Lord becomes the source of life, stability, confidence, and rightly ordered desire. True worship reshapes what we love, what we pursue, and what we call “better.” Ultimately, this message points us to Christ, who perfectly feared the Father and, by His Spirit, gives us the gift of worship that reorders our lives from the inside out.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to commit adultery

Today, elder Paul Edgar will lead us in Ephesians 4:7-13 showing us how God gives His Bride gifts, by giving the church officers and gifts to the body, so that the Bride will inherit all things. 

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to murder.

As we have learned throughout this series, Christmas doesn't begin in Bethlehem—it begins in covenant. In this sermon, we trace the Davidic Covenant as the final “Adam reboot,” showing why David's throne had to fail so that the true Son of David could reign forever. This is Advent as royal history, covenant fulfillment, and the coronation of Christ the King.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command to honor father and mother.

This sermon walks through the Mosaic covenant and shows why it had to end in Christmas. Israel stood as Adam writ large, and like Adam, they fell. The manger matters because Christ enters the law's world to finish what Sinai could not.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command to keep the sabbath holy.

An Abrahamic Aventus traces Advent back to Abraham's long, aching wait beneath the stars, where God swore His promise in blood and taught His people to live obediently between promise and possession. This sermon shows Christmas as the arrival of the promised Seed—and calls the Church to wait, not in doubt, but in covenant confidence, as Christ's kingdom steadily claims what God pledged to Abraham.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to take the name of God in vain.

In this Advent sermon, Pastor Kendall begins with the haunting story of Miki Endo, the young Japanese woman who stayed in her broadcast chair and died to warn her town of the coming tsunami, and shows how that same logic of sacrificial love is woven into the days of Noah. We trace the Noahic covenant as God's promise to hold back the floodwaters of His just wrath, not because humanity improved, but because He intended to pour that judgment onto Another. From Adam to Noah to Bethlehem, we see how every covenant failure drives us to the true and better Noah—Jesus Christ, the ark who bears the storm, the door into a new creation, and the only reason any of us are still breathing to celebrate Christmas at all.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to make any images of God

In this first message of A Covenantal Christmas, we step back into the darkness before Bethlehem to see how the story of Advent really begins in Eden. Pastor Kendall traces the Adamic covenant—its headship, blessings, curses, and first gospel promise—to show how Christmas is God finishing what He began in the garden through a better Adam. This sermon will teach you how to long for Christ as the world's only hope and to wait with holy expectancy between His first and second Advent.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to have any other God's before Him.

In an age where fragile egos masquerade as freedom and “No Kings” yard signs litter a nation allergic to authority, Psalm 110 thunders with a better word: Christ reigns now. This sermon exposes the madness of our kingless culture and proclaims the unstoppable dominion of Jesus, who is subduing His enemies, expanding His kingdom, and drafting His people into joyful, voluntary service. If Christ is King—and He is—then history belongs to Him, and so do we.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to covet.

Proverbs 1–9 ends with a showdown. Two voices. Two houses. Two feasts. Two futures. Lady Wisdom and Lady Folly stand before us—one offering life, the other offering death. One builds. One destroys. And every single one of us is already answering one of them.This final passage, Proverbs 9:10–18, is the crossroads of the entire prologue. Solomon stops his son—and us—and says: You cannot eat at both tables. You must choose whom you will fear, whom you will follow, and where you will feast.This sermon will walk through the blessings of Wisdom, the seduction of Folly, the bondage of our sinful will, and the boundless love of the Redeemer who rescues fools and seats them at His table. If you've ever wondered why wisdom feels hard, why sin feels easy, and why only Christ can break the chains—this is the message you need.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to bear false witness.

In a world that despises correction and drowns conviction in comfort, God calls His people to recover the lost art of loving reproof. From Proverbs 9:8–9, this sermon shows how the wise both give and receive correction as a gift that sanctifies, strengthens, and makes us more like Christ—the One who was reproved for us.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to steal.

In today's sermon from Proverbs 9:7–8, we consider the sobering reality that not every correction heals and not every rebuke brings repentance. There are some souls who have been so hardened by sin and pride that we must withhold wisdom from and direct our energies to prayer.

Each week at The Shepherd's Church, we preach short homilies on the law of God and have decided to share those here as a resource to the people of God. This week, the command not to murder.

In this final sermon on men at the gates, we talk about the most important battlefield that the church must win if we are going to reestablish Christendom, and that is the battle for unity.