This week we will be exploring Exodus 4 together, Making Excuses.
Excuses.
We are pretty good at them.
If we failed to do something that we should have done...or if we don't want to do something that we should do...then you can bet that we can find a pretty good excuse to absolve ourselves or avoid the situation altogether.
It's a human trait that has been with us since mankind fell into sin.
The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me the fruit of the tree... (Genesis 3:12)
In Exodus 4, Moses continues his conversation with God. God has called him to deliver His people from Egypt...and Moses isn't too fond of the idea.
If God wants to deliver them, why does He need me?
Moses questions God...argues with Him...makes excuses...and tries to wriggle out of the assignment in any way that he can.
He is not too much unlike us. In fact, we can see a lot of ourselves in Moses...if we are willing to be honest.
But God continues to work on Moses until he finally relents to the Lord's will. But Moses' heart is still not in it. And what happens on the way to Egypt is a story that has boggled the minds of interpreters for thousands of years. You won't find it in any children's Bible, or in many sermons for that matter, today. But we'll take a look at it on Sunday. Woohoo!
May God continue to open our eyes to His truth and open our hearts to trust His good, acceptable, and perfect will for our lives.

This week we will be exploring Exodus 3 together, Encountering God.
Has your life ever been interrupted? Have you ever been on a path that suddenly took a quick detour?
For most of us, we like routine. We like knowing where we are going. We like for our lives to match up with our expectations. And we would like for God to agree with our plan and not throw us for a sudden loop.
In Exodus 3, Moses is humming along. His life is not what he expected but he has gotten used to the routine. After forty long years, he is settled...a family man, a hard-working shepherd, a rural country bumpkin.
But then God interrupts his life.
Moses encounters a burning bush out in the middle of the desolate desert and his life would never be the same.
God calls him to the purpose for which He created him, equipped him, prepared him, destined him.
But Moses is not on board...at least not yet.
What Moses needs to see is not his own failures and inadequacy but rather the power and sufficiency of God. The Great I AM. The Eternal One. The Sovereign One. The Holy One. The Ever-Present, Ever-Active, Ever-Sustaining One.
When we face the overwhelming challenges, responsibilities, and difficulties of life, we don't need to be reminded of our weakness. We already feel that. We need to be reminded of the greatness of God.
May God open our eyes to Who He is, fill our minds with His overwhelming greatness, and strengthen our hearts to fulfill His good, perfect, acceptable will for our lives!
A Bible study guide is available, walking step-by-step, verse-by-verse, through Exodus 1-13. Pick up a study guide on Sunday ($5 donation) and join us for this journey!

This week we will be exploring Exodus 2 together, Crying Out for Redemption.
Most of us are familiar with the story of Moses. We have either seen Charlton Heston in the Ten Commandments or the animated The Prince of Egypt or one of the more recent adaptations of Moses' life.
But surprisingly, as important as Moses is in the history of Israel (and in the history of the world), the Bible only spends 22 verses describing the first 80 years of his life. Wow, that is quite a summary! In the Hebrew language, it is only 300 words. That's about five tweets in the X world.
Though the Bible doesn't give us a ton of the "back story" of Moses' life, it certainly tells us enough.
We learn that he was born in the midst of a genocide, that he had godly, courageous parents, that he was providentially protected and raised in Pharaoh's court, that he was a natural leader and "righter of wrongs," and that he was a fugitive from Egypt who eventually ended up being a family man in Midian.
That in itself is quite a story!
But the Bible doesn't focus on Moses' life because ultimately he is not the hero of the story. Moses, though a natural leader, was also a flawed, impulsive, rejected runaway from trouble. He tried his hand at being a deliverer of his people and it simply did not work. He was a failed leader. He was a defeated man.
But God is going to use this defeated man for the greatest victory in Israel's history.
It is not the man. It is God working through the man that makes all the difference.
May God encourage our hearts as we study the first 80 years of Moses' life and may we be reminded that ultimately it is His power, not our own, that leads to victory and freedom.
A Bible study guide is available, walking step-by-step, verse-by-verse, through Exodus 1-13. Pick up a study guide on Sunday ($5 donation) and join us for this journey!

This week we will be exploring Exodus 1 together, Living in Bondage.
Exodus begins where Genesis ends. Israel is in Egypt, living in the land of Goshen, under the protection of Joseph, prospering and multiplying.
But as time goes on, things begin to change.
A new Pharaoh arises and stirs up fear, hatred, and opposition to the Israelites.
Suddenly God's people are despised, enslaved, and even targeted for death. The place that once gave them protection, now becomes a place of persecution. The place of their enjoyment becomes a place of their enslavement.
But even in their distress, God's promise remains and His plan is still at work.
As we study Exodus 1 together, it will become clear that we can never count on this world to be our home. God's Word runs counter to the world's desires. And His plan moves in the opposite direction of the rulers and principalities of this age.
We should not be surprised by opposition.
But, at the same time, we should not live in fear. Two Hebrew midwives, Shiphrah and Puah, give us an example of how to live courageously and faithfully in the face of fear.
May God's greatness be so magnified in our minds that we live boldly and faithfully for His glory no matter what this world may bring!
A Bible study guide is available, walking step-by-step, verse-by-verse, through Exodus 1-13. Pick up a study guide on Sunday ($5 donation) and join us for this journey!

I am excited to jump in to this study through the book of Exodus. After a year and a half in Genesis, then it only makes sense to continue the story in Exodus.
Exodus reveals the character of God.
Pharaoh's question in Exodus 5:2 is the question that the book answers: "Who is the Lord, that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the Lord, nor will I let Israel go."
We will learn more about Yahweh, the great I AM, the Redeemer, the Lord of all creation in this study.
Exodus also reveals the model of redemption.
The story of Israel's redemption from bondage in Egypt, by the power of God and the blood of the lamb, is a historical picture of our own redemption in Jesus Christ. The story of the exodus, in many ways, is our own story.
We have been set free from the bondage of sin, from the course of this world, from the ruler of this world system, in order that we might walk in covenant relationship with God. We are called out and called to. Called out of serving Pharaoh; called to serving the Lord.
But it is one thing to remove the child of God from Egypt; it is another to remove Egypt from within the child of God!
As we walk with the Israelites out of Egypt, through the Red Sea, through the wilderness, to Mount Sinai, and toward the Promised Land, we will see many parallels to our own walk with Christ.
We are redeemed people, called to follow after God in the freedom of grace, but we are easily tempted to continue to live under the bondage of sin and the world.
As Paul says in Galatians 5:1:
"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery."
This Sunday, we will introduce our year-long study through Exodus. We will also have a Bible study guide available for you, walking step-by-step, verse-by-verse, through Exodus 1-13.
Pick up a study guide on Sunday ($5 donation) and join us for this journey!
May God overwhelm our vision with His matchless glory and free our hearts to worship His great name!

This Sunday, January 11 (9am & 10:45am), Pastor Zach will conclude a two-week mini sermon series on What Happened After Christmas?
Last week, we saw what happened after Christmas while Jesus was still a baby. This week, we will examine what happened after Christmas when Jesus became a boy.
In this week's passage (Luke 2:41-52), we will get a unique glimpse into Jesus' childhood. Jesus is twelve years old and going up to Jerusalem with his family for the Passover feast. But after the feast is over, and unbeknownst to his parents, Jesus remained behind in Jerusalem.
When Mary and Joseph realize their son is missing, they scramble to look for Him. After three days! They finally find Him in the Temple, listening to and learning from the Jewish teachers.
Like any mother would have been, Mary was stressed to the limit. And she asked why Jesus would do such a thing. But Jesus was surprised. Why were his parents looking for Him? Didn't they realize that He must be in His Father's house?
This passage provides us with the first words spoken by Jesus in the Gospel. And it reveals to us--that from an early age--Jesus understood who He was and what He was called to do.
In 2026, may we be a people who understand our identity and calling like Jesus!

Pastor Zach Benton Teaches through Luke 2:22-40.

This Sunday, we will be exploring Genesis 50 together, The Final Chapter According to God.
We have finally reached the last chapter of Genesis. It has been quite a journey through an amazing book. I pray that you have been encouraged and challenged along the way.
Genesis 50 is the final chapter of this great book. It is also the final chapter of Jacob and Joseph's lives here on earth. Both of their deaths and funerals are in this chapter.
With two deaths and two funerals, it goes without saying that Genesis 50 is also a chapter of sorrow and tears. In fact, crying and tears are mentioned on nine different occasions in the twenty-six verses of this one chapter.
So what does this chapter have to do with Christmas?
Everything!
Christmas is not the story of a little baby entering a pristine world to make us all feel better about the winter season.
It is an invasion. It is a visitation. It is a confrontation with the sin and death of this world.
It is the story of redemption.
This world is a world of tears. We do not live in the Garden of Eden. We live in a world impacted with sin, soaked with sorrows, devastated with death.
Is there any true hope?
In Genesis 50, we see the embers of hope. God's sovereignty assures us that we are part of a bigger story. God's promises are the anchors of our soul in the midst of life's storms. And God's goodness and love remind us that He will surely visit us with redemption.
All that is broken will be made whole.
All that is ruined will be made new.
Do not weep, the Lion of Judah has prevailed!
May God open our eyes to the wonders of the incarnation of our Savior, give us confidence and hope as we navigate the storms of this life, and fill us with joy as we look forward to His kingdom here on earth!