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by Oaks Parish
Abiding in Christ Jesus for the renewal of all things.
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- 6 days ago24 min
Sermon: Blessing in Fear (July 26, 2026)
Sermon Text: Psalm 128Jim ByrneQuotes for ReflectionDavid Dickson (1583-1663) The scope of this psalm is to show the blessedness of the one who fears God, which appears first in the temporal blessing of that person in their calling, second in their family, and third, in pouring spiritual blessings on them.James Luther Mays Because Zion is the place of the Presence, the pilgrims bring the needs and hopes of everyday life with them.Willem VanGemeren To sit under one’s vine and fig tree was an expression of a state of tranquility, peace and prosperity. Even when the country faces adversity, the man who fears the Lord is insulated against adversity by wife and children as blessings of the Lord are found under the roof of his house.Cassiodorus (490-585) Those who are apprehensive of the world’s dangers in loss of temporal possessions are not blessed. These dangers make people wretched, torturing them with empty fear, so that they do not experience growth but a diminution, no ascent but a headlong fall. By contrast, fear of the Lord is offspring of love, is born of charity.Application Questions1. How have you experienced happiness from God's blessing in your work, family or community that calls for special gratitude?2. How have you experienced lack of blessing when not walking in the ways of the Lord Jesus that needs acknowledgment in God's presence?3. How do you hope to see God's blessing on your life, family or community that invites prayer for yourself or others?
- 1 weeks ago30 min
Sermon: Unless the Lord Builds the House (July 19, 2026)
Scripture Text: Psalm 127Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionEugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same DirectionThe first people to sing this psalm had expended much effort to get to Jerusalem. Some came great distances and overcame formidable difficulties. Would there be a tendency among the pilgrims to congratulate one another on their successful journey, to swell with pride in their accomplishment, to trade stories of their experiences? Would there be comparisons on who made the longest pilgrimage, the fastest pilgrimage, who had brought the most neighbors, who had come the most times? Then, through the noise of the crowd, someone would strike up the tune: “If GOD doesn’t build. . . guard. . .” The pilgrimage is not at the center; the Lord is at the center. No matter how hard they had struggled to get there, no matter what they did in the way of heroics—fending off bandits, clubbing lions, crushing wolves—that is not what is to be sung. Psalm 127 insists on a perspective in which our effort is at the periphery and God’s work is at the center.Derek Kidner, PsalmsOne of the most telling features of this short poem is that it singles out three of our most universal preoccupations – building, security, raising a family – and makes us ask what they all amount to, and to whom we owe them.Timothy & Kathy Keller, The Songs of Jesus“Helicopter” parenting and over involvement in our children’s lives, cannot ensure their health and happiness. Unless the Lord enters their lives, all our watching is in vain. Giving our children to God is the only way we get to keep them.Application Questions1. What signals do you experience personally that reveal you are working in your own strength rather than the Lord’s?2. How does the gospel of grace provide a third way between negligence and toil?3. The psalmist describes activities that are central to human purpose: building, protecting, laboring, and parenting. In which of these areas are you experiencing anxious toil right now? Write down how the gospel can be applied specifically and transformatively, allowing it to reorient your approach.
- 2 weeks ago29 min
Sermon: Restoration & Joy (July 12, 2026)
Scripture Text: Psalm 126Bryan Buck
- 2 weeks ago30 min
Sermon: The Lord Surrounds His People (July 5, 2026)
Scripture Text: Psalm 125Bryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionThomas Keating, Open Minds, Open HeartsYou can only face up to who you really are in the presence of someone you trust.Steven J. Lawson, The Holman Old Testament Commentary on PsalmsWhat difficulties are you facing? What disturbing circumstances are threatening your peace? For what demanding challenge, threatening problem, or imminent crisis do you need God's help? Be assured that God is infinitely greater than whatever threatens you. This is the time to anchor yourself firmly to the Lord.Timothy & Kathy Keller, The Songs of Jesus: Psalm 125Trusting in God is like being in a mountain fastness (verse 2). How? Trusting God provides a superior vantage point. It helps us see our own sin and see that wickedness only pays in the short term. Trusting God is also the way to eventually get breathtaking sights of God himself. When Isaiah saw the Holy One, high and lifted up, it permanently changed his view of everything (Isaiah 6:1–8). Most of all, trusting God means connecting yourself to the one person who will endure forever. And that means you will endure as well (verse 1). In a world in which seemingly everything changes and nothing lasts, fix your mind on that.Application Questions1. Where might you be struggling to trust God right now? Why is this matter particularly difficult? 2. Consider a time when you find yourself at a fork in the road, faced with a choice between unrighteousness and righteousness. What did you choose and why? What do you notice about the nature of both pathways? 3. What does it look like to be at peace, surrounded by the Lord? How can this be true even in the most difficult of circumstances?
- Jun 29, 202630 min
Sermon: The Lord is On Our Side (June 28, 2026)
We apologize that the first couple minutes of this sermon replay are missing, but you can jump right in to the main content of the sermon!Quotes for ReflectionEugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction How God wants us to sing like this! Christians are not fussy moralists who cluck their tongues over a world going to hell; Christians are people who praise the God who is on our side. Christians are not pious pretenders in the midst of a decadent culture; Christians are robust witnesses to the God who is our help. Christians are not fatigued outcasts who carry righteousness as a burden in a world where the wicked flourish; Christians are people who sing “Oh, blessed be GOD! . . . He didn’t abandon us defenseless.”Christopher Ash, The Psalms As well as celebrating these historical escapes of the church of Christ, this song points us to the great escape that undergirds all these other escapes. As one Austrian Reformation writer expresses it, "Persecution is nothing more than a skirmish in which we learn to fight and to find refuge in Christ"; it prepares us for the final judgment and assures us that our refuge then, in Christ, will be every bit as secure as our refuge in Christ in this age." This is true even when some part of the church is martyred.Dane Ortlund, ESV Devotional Psalter One remedy the Bible gives us (among many) is that the Lord is on our side (vv. 1–2). What does this mean? Does it mean we are always in the right in any given conflict? Certainly not. But it does mean he is always with us. His deepest impulse is to help us, not to scold us. His heart reaches out to us. He is a never-failing friend. He is our wise counselor who never kicks us out of his office. The Father sent his own Son so that amid all our ups and downs in life, we are guaranteed a steady companion who loves us and is for us. He is on our side. “Our help is in the name of the LORD” (v. 8).Application Questions1. One author writes, “We are to expect that narrow escapes are to be a way of life for the church.” How does that sit with you?2. In what area of life do you need to be reminded of the truth that God is for you, the Lord is on your side?3. How might you experience a renewed gratitude for your deliverance from sin, death, and judgment through Christ’s death and resurrection?
- Jun 22, 202623 min
Sermon: Joy in the House of the Lord (June 21, 2026)
Scripture Text: Psalm 122Bryan BuckWe apologize that the first few minutes of this sermon replay are missing, where Bryan reads from the Wall Street Journal article, “Young New Yorkers Have a New Hot Spot: Sunday Mass.”Quotes for ReflectionAnyee Bhutani, “Young New Yorkers Have a New Hot Spot: Sunday Mass, WSJ May 3, 2026 Gen Z Christians attend church more often than millennials, Gen X and baby boomers, according to the Barna Group, a firm that studies U.S. faith trends. In 2025, the typical Gen Z churchgoer attended nearly two weekends a month, the highest level since the firm began tracking, and up from around one weekend a month in 2020. Young men in particular are more interested in faith. A Gallup poll released in April found that in 2025, 42% of young men said religion is very important to them, up sharply from 28% in 2023, and overtaking young women. C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory He who surrenders himself without reservation to the temporal claims of a nation, or a party, or a class is rendering to Caesar that which, of all things, most emphatically belongs to God: himself. It is for a very different reason that religion cannot occupy the whole of life in the sense of excluding all our natural activities. For, of course, in some sense, it must occupy the whole of life. There is no question of a compromise between the claims of God and the claims of culture, or politics, or anything else. God’s claim is infinite and inexorable. You can refuse it, or you can begin to try to grant it. There is no middle way.Steven Lawson, Holman Old Testament Commentary Jerusalem was the center for justice, equity, and the reinforcement of what is right. It was the place where thrones for judgment stood, where right was rewarded and wrong was punished. It was the place where the innocent were defended and the guilty were prosecuted. Jerusalem was called the house of David because it was the royal city of Israel where David sat enthroned, presiding over the people and dispensing justice. Thus, Jerusalem was not only the central place for worship but also the site where civil judgments and legal decisions were made. It was the seat of government, the place where the king of Israel presided. Not only was the Word of God taught here, but it was reinforced here.Application Questions1. Consider your own story with the church. What’s been life-giving and what’s been discouraging? How do you explain this mix of experience? 2. Why are people in our day making a return to the church? What do you think God is up to in this movement of renewal? 3. Read Psalm 122 in an unhurried fashion. What’s one aspect that can become your prayer for the church?
- Jun 15, 202627 min
Sermon: The Lord Our Keeper (June 14, 2026)
Scripture Text: Psalm 121Bryan Buck (Series: Psalms of Ascent)Quotes for ReflectionSteven Lawson, Holman Old Testament CommentaryMaking the trip to Jerusalem required making an upward ascent in elevation into the holy city to attend the feasts. There were no paved roads but, for the most part, only well-trodden paths across the valleys, along the side of rivers, and over mountain passes. This psalm recounted the arduous journey and the abundant strength they found in the Lord himself to complete their trip. God himself was their strength, sustainer, supporter, and Savior from all harm.Timothy Keller, Center ChurchThe gospel, if it is truly believed, helps us out of the extreme neediness that is natural to the human heart….without the Spirit, our hearts don’t really believe in God's delight or grace, so they operate in their default mode. But the truths of the gospel, brought home by the Spirit, slowly but surely help us grasp in a new way how safe and secure, how loved and accepted, we are in Christ. Through the gospel, we come to base our identity not on what we have achieved but on what has been achieved for us in Christ. And when the gospel, brought home to our hearts, eats away at this sin-born neediness, it destroys the inner engines that drive sinful behavior. Elizabeth Elliot, Your Suffering is Never for NothingWhere does this idea of a loving God come from? It is not a deduction. It is not man so desperately wanting a god that he manufactures him in his mind. It’s he who was the Word before the foundation of the world, suffering as a lamb slain. And he has a lot up his sleeve that you and I haven’t the slightest idea about now. He’s told us enough so we can know that suffering is never for nothing.Application Questions1. What ascent are you making right now? What makes you anxious? What are you anticipating?2. How has your personal story shaped particular patterns of anxiety in the face of need? What self-saving responses do you need to turn away from?3. Spend a few minutes this week writing down your greatest need right now and how the gospel addresses that need. How would it change your life to find your security in the love of God given to us in Christ?
- Jun 8, 202628 min
Sermon: Deliverance from Deceit (June 7, 2026)
Scripture Text: Psalm 120Series: Psalms of AscentBryan BuckQuotes for ReflectionJulian of Norwich, The Showings of Julian Norwich As long as we are in this life, whenever we foolishly turn our attention to those we deem not to be on a spiritual path, our Lord God tenderly touches us and blessedly calls to us, speaking to our souls: Let me be the only object of your attention, my beloved child. Focus on me alone, for I am enough for you. Rejoice in your savior and your salvation.John Newton, The Letters of John Newton We judge things by their present appearances, but the Lord sees them in their consequences.J.C. Ryle, Expository Thoughts on the Gospels We must take our whole heart to the house of God, and worship and hear like those who listen to the reading of a benefactor's will.Steven J Lawson, Holman Old Testament Commentary An incomparable blessing awaits God's people whenever they come to God's house to hear God's Word. True spiritual growth necessitates that believers regularly attend the gathering of worshippers and sit under the Scripture being taught. Wherever the Word of God is proclaimed, the glory of God is manifested, and the grace of God is magnified in the hearts of the saints. Whatever the distance a person must travel to receive the Word, the effort is always eternally rewarding. Singing praises to God with other like-minded believers makes the journey worth the while. Nothing is more important to one's spiritual life than hearing and living God's Word.Application Questions1. Think back on a challenge you faced this week. How did you initially respond? Did you trust in yourself or God? What does your gut reaction reveal about your heart? 2. Have you ever been the object of slander in your community? Why would the Psalmist recommend that we trust in God’s judgement rather than pursue retribution on our own? 3. Why would traveling to Jerusalem to worship at the Temple be the ultimate solution for dealing with a deceitful world?
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