Miscellaneous Messages

Miscellaneous Messages

How to Rejoice and Give Thanks

Psalm 100 My name is Bret Hastings. I am one of the pastors here at Grace Church, and it is a pleasure to be here with you this morning on this final Lord’s Day of 2024. It’s hard to believe 2025 is here already, isn’t it? I also think that this is a very poignant time for reflecting on the year past, maybe ‘cause the time following the holidays, it’s often met with sadness. The holidays are such a joyful…

The Beauty of God in Christ

Philippians 2:6-11 Please turn in your Bibles to Philippians, second chapter, Philippians chapter 2, which is a most fitting passage for this Christmas season to reflect on the glory of God in Christ. I suppose it’s no secret to say that I am a sucker for all the sappy, sentimental trappings of the season. Don’t laugh too hard on that. But gaudy Christmas sweaters? You guys know I love them, Santa hats, curling up with a cup of cocoa in…

Joy and the Christian Mind

Philippians 2:1-8 We have officially entered into the holiday season, the Christmas season, and we are so eager to embrace the spirit of the season, which is a spirit of joy and gratitude in Christ our Savior, and to think about the incarnation of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. And we celebrate our faith in him that’s given to us as a gift of his grace. I have had the epistle of the Philippians in my mind and on…

Holiness for the Holidays

1 Samuel 1:1-18 As the holidays are fast approaching, my think Lowe’s has had their Christmas stuff out since August now. But the, the holidays are upon us now again already. My kids, they decorated our basement with Christmas stuff last week. The students they wanted to decorate down in the, the big room down in the student center last week. Thanksgiving is only 11 days away now. Christmas is coming and with the holidays approaching, I thought it would…

The Shepherd’s Protection

Selected Scriptures We are in a final message on the short series on shepherding and it’s just a, just given the briefest outline on the chief duties of pastoral ministry. And as I’ve said to you before, I’m kind of teaching my own job description to you to show you from God’s Word what pastors are responsible to do. This is job description for pastors, elders, shepherds, overseers, bishops, if you want to use that word, that’s the word for…

The Shepherd’s Exhortation, Part 2

Selected Scriptures Well, we return to this topical series on shepherding, as I said, part 2 of what we started last week on the Shepherd’s Exhortation. And if you were here with us last week, you know that we were a few layers deep in sub-sub-points. So I can’t exactly dive in right where I left off without confusing some people who may have not been here last week. So I want to give just at least a little bit…

The Shepherd’s Exhortation, Part 1

Selected Scriptures Well, we have the joy, the privilege of returning today to a short topical series that we’re doing on shepherding as we look to launch our fall shepherding plan that we’ve talked to you about over the past number of months, and I don’t know how long it’s been. We started introducing some of that, but we look forward to getting to shepherd you better, more faithfully according to God’s Word, and by God’s grace and with your…

How to Think about Divine Discipline

Hebrews 12:4-11 If you’re here, a few weeks ago, I was in the beginning of Hebrews chapter 12, we’re just going to continue on where I left off. I know many of you are going through some severe trials and tribulations in your life, and I just wanted to continue on in this passage as an encouragement to you. Hoping that this will help you think through your own trials and train us to think through the trials that we…