God Will Provide (Genesis 22:8)
God will provide -- this is what Abraham believed. (1 Minute/300 Words)
Nate HoldridgeOctober 20, 2020
Election Year Encouragements for Our Congregation
As everyone is aware, we are in a divisive presidential election season. Though I love my country and consider myself blessed to be a citizen here, as a senior pastor,…
Nate HoldridgeOctober 15, 2020
Now We Boast in God (Romans 5:11)
We also rejoice in God, Paul said. We boast in him. God is our celebration. (1 Minute/200 Words)
Nate HoldridgeOctober 8, 2020
An Adventure With God (Acts 16:1-5)
Sometimes God's people must take a risk. Consider Timothy (Acts 16:1-5). Paul and Barnabas were no longer a team. So Paul needed a new ministry companion and trainee. He went…
Nate HoldridgeOctober 1, 2020
Video Message: Imputed Righteousness
Imputed righteousness is one of the greatest blessings that you and I could ever know. In Romans chapter 4 Paul tells us that Abraham was not justified by his works…
Nate HoldridgeSeptember 25, 2020
Book Excerpt: No-Nonsense Biblical Man
Paul learned how to be content in every condition of life. He had been well loved, but he had also experienced a deep poverty. He had been healthy, but he…
Nate HoldridgeSeptember 24, 2020
True Greatness (Acts 25:23)
In our world, true greatness is often clouded by grandiosity, beauty, and pomp. But I want to share with you a little passage concerning Paul's life. It has often recalibrated…
Nate HoldridgeSeptember 17, 2020
Video Message: Living the Great Life
How do you define a great life? Chances are that all of our expectations for a great life come up short in comparison to what God considers as a great…
Nate HoldridgeSeptember 4, 2020
Friend of Sinners, Part 3 (Mark 2:16-17)
In part 3 of this Friend of Sinners series, we learn that somehow, some scribes of the Pharisees saw what Jesus was doing. We've already seen scribes in Mark's gospel;…
Nate HoldridgeSeptember 1, 2020
Book Excerpt: Let Us Hear
John was an incredible man with an incredible life story. Peter or Paul he was not. God had a different plan for his life. Paul had traveled and written profusely.…
Nate HoldridgeJuly 30, 2020
Video Message: Get Your Mind Right
We are entering into a new season, a post COVID season, and we need to get our minds right. This next season will require us to flexible and immovable and…
Nate HoldridgeJune 26, 2020
Partnering With God (Acts 21:19)
After many years among the nations, making disciples, Paul returned to Jerusalem. He reported to the church. He told them "one by one the things God had done among the…
Nate HoldridgeJune 16, 2020
Video Message: The Christian’s Greatest Weapon
We live in the most resourceful age of all time, but there are still limits to what we can do. So how do we see real heart transformation? Can we…
Nate HoldridgeMay 19, 2020
Adam’s Work (Genesis 2:15)
Adam was called to cultivate the gift God had given him. The earth was his to enjoy. He was called to work, and so are we. (2 Minutes/400 Words)
Nate HoldridgeMay 5, 2020
The Strategy of Unforgiveness (2 Corinthians 2:11)
Paul had asked the Corinthian church to do something difficult. In his previous letter, he'd told them to remove one of the members who was in unrepentant rebellion against God.…
Nate HoldridgeApril 23, 2020
Speak Up! (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)
Paul's life was a roller coaster ride, and much of it was filled with pain and difficulty. He endured much for the cause of Christ, but he kept on going…
Nate HoldridgeApril 14, 2020
God’s Dreams Are Better Than Ours (Acts 23:11)
Much preaching today appeals to your dreams. In these sermons, there are three characters -- a dreamer, haters, and a dream maker. (1 Minute/300 Words)
Nate HoldridgeApril 2, 2020
A Guide For The Climb – Chapter 10 – Steeled For Pilgrimage (Psalm 129)
In the earliest years of my walk with Christ, God placed me in a church with a rugged man for a pastor. He and his wife suffered much physical affliction…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 11, 2020
A Plea to Prioritize People (1 Corinthians 16:7)
We can't understand the gravity of Paul's mission. At his conversion, Jesus told him he'd be the apostle to the nations. He'd testify of Christ before kings and authorities, Gentiles…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 5, 2020
Sing in the Stocks (Acts 16:25)
Songs instead of sorrow. Praise instead of pouting. Paul and Silas were men who, when in the dungeon, would cry out to the living God. They set their minds on…
Nate HoldridgeDecember 26, 2019
Jesus’ First and Second Comings — Humble vs. Glorious (Luke 2:8-9)
Ancient Israelites didn't have a romanticized view of shepherds. Their life was not glamorized or coveted. But someone had to do the job, and outside of Bethlehem during the year…
Nate HoldridgeDecember 19, 2019
Faith is the Way to God (Hebrews 11:4)
In his treatise on faith, the author of Hebrews will dissect the outworkings of faith in Old Testament characters. After detailing the creation account (Hebrews 11:3), he moved to his…
Nate HoldridgeOctober 15, 2019
“But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their…
Nate HoldridgeAugust 8, 2019
Keep talking, bro. Pretty soon nothing will be unholy. Everything will be sacred. No desire will be refused. Keep on babbling. Let the words twist and turn. Create arguments. Make…
Nate HoldridgeJuly 9, 2019
Hebrews 6:18 says we can "have strong encouragement to hold fast to the hope set before us." You might immediately think of a hope or a dream. As the author…
Nate HoldridgeJune 20, 2019
God can save anybody. If you are a Christian, you know it's true. God can reach into any life and heal their brokenness and forgive their sin. Often, though, what…
Nate HoldridgeJune 18, 2019
Paul had a roller coaster relationship with the church in Corinth. They loved him. Then they hated him. They admired him. Then they belittled him. Like the ocean tide, the…
Nate HoldridgeJune 11, 2019
You know that good feeling you get when you just click with someone? When you "get" them and they "get" you? Me too. (5 Minutes/1300 Words)
Nate HoldridgeJune 6, 2019
Humankind is good at many things. One of them is adding complexity to nearly everything. This can be good in many areas: we've got mouths to feed, after all. But…
Nate HoldridgeJune 4, 2019
The temple pulsated with life during Israel's feasts. When the people ascended to God’s holy house, the electricity was tangible. Worshippers left the quiet of their towns and villages to…
Nate HoldridgeMay 23, 2019
Jeremiah, like most of the prophets, was a solitary pillar of truth in a wasteland of doctrinal deception. He stood for the truth of God, saying hard things during hard…
Nate HoldridgeApril 23, 2019
Recently, I attended a large pastor’s conference with church leaders from all over the world. During one of the allotted sessions, they held a question and answer session with senior…
Nate HoldridgeApril 11, 2019
Though we do not know what trial Paul endured in Asia, the Corinthians knew, and what we do understand is that he was "utterly burdened beyond strength." The man was…
Nate HoldridgeApril 9, 2019
United For Unity — The Close (Ephesians 6:21-24)
Paul wanted the Ephesians to pray more effectively for him and his preaching ministry (Ephesians 6:18-20). Here, he concludes his letter by telling them Tychicus is coming. Tychicus would report…
Nate HoldridgeApril 5, 2019
While writing to the church about the proper handling of liberties, Paul encouraged his readers to develop a lot of dead friends. What I mean is, he thought the endurance…
Nate HoldridgeApril 3, 2019
Take Up A War Cry (Ephesians 6:18-24)
We wrestle not against flesh and blood. Our fight is in the spiritual dimension and realm. The nations and generations are under the sway and delusions of the wicked one.…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 29, 2019
The Lord wants to move his people forward, upward, onward. He has a plan for each one of you. Recently, I've seen this in a fresh way in my own…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 27, 2019
Take Up Your War-Clothes (Ephesians 6:13-17)
To win the spiritual war, we must put on Christ's war-clothes. Paul lists six pieces of the spiritual armor. Paul was, remember, imprisoned as he wrote. He had seen Romans…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 22, 2019
Perhaps, after reading and studying Romans 7, you feel Paul has put the perfect words to your current struggle. There, he eloquently described our ongoing battle with indwelling sin. That…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 13, 2019
United In The Workplace — Leaders (Ephesians 6:9)
Paul shifts his exhortations for the workplace from the slaves to the masters, from the working class to management. “Do the same to them,” he says. He had just written…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 8, 2019
United In The Workplace — Workforce (Ephesians 6:5-8)
The church, for every generation, consists of all types of people. Some have been enslaved, others have been upper class. Some have been laborers, others have been thought workers. Some…
Nate HoldridgeMarch 1, 2019
United in the Workplace — Slaves and Masters (Ephesians 6:5-9)
The situation of Paul’s day was horrific. Slavery teemed throughout the Roman world. Some estimate as much as half the empire was enslaved, a fact which was cause for concern…
Nate HoldridgeFebruary 22, 2019
United In The Home — Fathers (Ephesians 6:4)
One might read Paul’s words to Christian children in Ephesians 6:1-3, particularly his exhortation to obey their parents, and wonder if the Christian home is a cold and harsh place…
Nate HoldridgeFebruary 15, 2019
Who doesn’t love a good chase scene? It seems each generation of movie directors ups the previous one with grander and longer and edgier chase scenes than ever before. A…
Nate HoldridgeFebruary 13, 2019
United In The Home — Children (Ephesians 6:1-3)
Paul had a vision of the church as a body. Individual members, marriages, and households comprised this living, breathing organism. He envisioned and exalted and enthroned Christ as the head…
Nate HoldridgeFebruary 8, 2019
Modern parents can learn much about their role by learning how the apostles led the early church. They considered their role a parental one, for they were spiritual fathers caring…
Nate HoldridgeFebruary 6, 2019
Husbands and Wives: A Recap (Ephesians 5:32-33)
The oneness of men and women in marriage, in a mysterious way, hints at an important truth. In the same way husbands and wives become one, so also Christ and…
Nate HoldridgeFebruary 1, 2019
Husbands – Sacrificially Love, Part 3 (Ephesians 5:28-31)
Paul continued his exhortation to Christian husbands by pointing to the oneness married couples have with one another. They are one flesh, made so by God. Paul went back to…
Nate HoldridgeJanuary 25, 2019
Husbands: Sacrificially Love, Part 2 (Ephesians 5:26-28a)
In speaking to husbands regarding the need for sacrificial love for their brides, Paul continued to hold out Jesus as their example. Jesus loves His church by sanctifying her, washing…
Nate HoldridgeJanuary 18, 2019
United In Marriage — Husband, Sacrificially Love (Ephesians 5:25)
That Paul does not have a brutal or tyrannical marriage relationship in mind when he exhorts the wife to submit to her husband is evident in this next section. The…
Nate HoldridgeJanuary 11, 2019