These are my sermon notes for Sunday morning, December 28. They’re not a full manuscript—just a listening guide to help our Tabernacle Church family to follow along. I encourage you to add your own notes as you listen each week. The service will be available on YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, our Prayer List, and more on our church website.

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1 Samuel 10:1-27

INTRO

• Israel wanted a king for security—not submission (1 Sam. 8).
• God providentially brought Saul to Samuel (1 Sam. 9).
• Chapter 10 confirms Saul publicly and exposes Israel’s heart.

The Calling: Set Apart by God – vv. 1–8

• Saul is anointed—God appoints and sets apart (v. 1).
• God confirms His Word with specific signs (vv. 2–5).
• God empowers by His Spirit for the task (v. 6).
• The first test: trust, obey, and wait (vv. 7–8).

The Equipping: Empowered by God – vv. 9–16

• God gives Saul “another heart” for service (v. 9).
• God’s Word proves true—every sign comes to pass (vv. 9–13).
• Saul keeps silent with his uncle—hesitation and caution surface (vv. 14–16).

The Revealing: Tested Before God’s People – vv. 17–27

• Mizpah: a place of repentance and renewal (v. 17; 1 Sam. 7:5–13).
• Samuel confronts Israel: “You have rejected your God” (vv. 18–19).
• Lots display God’s sovereignty (vv. 20–24; Prov. 16:33).
• Saul hides among the baggage—fear shows up early (v. 22).
• The people respond with both loyalty and resistance (vv. 26–27).

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The What Now

• Rest in God’s sovereignty—He appoints, confirms, and accomplishes His purposes.
• Don’t mistake the physical for the spiritual—God measures by His Word, not appearance.
• Obedience is the key: trust, obey, and wait.

I mentioned different millennial views in my sermon yesterday. Here’s a good, quick read that gives a general overview of each view.

Read Article: https://bit.ly/49aKWYZ

Most of the theologians and resources we use in our church’s discipleship and teaching ministry lean premillennial, while also being open to amillennial perspectives—common in the conservative Baptist circles we run in.

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These are my sermon notes for Sunday morning, December 21. They’re not a full manuscript—just a listening guide for our Tabernacle Church family to help you follow along. I encourage you to add your own notes as you listen each week. The service will be available on YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, our Prayer List, and more on our church website.

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Revelation 22:1–21

INTRO

• This Advent we’ve traced four scenes in Revelation: Rev. 1 (Christ among His churches), Rev. 5 (the Lamb who was slain), Rev. 19 (the King who returns), and Rev. 22 (“Surely I am coming soon”).
• Christmas celebrates His first coming in humility; Revelation 22 fixes our eyes on His throne and presses one response: keep His Word, come to Christ, and live ready for His return.

A Picture of Our Future Life – 22:1–5

• Life from the throne (vv. 1–2): river of life; tree of life—fullness and healing in God’s presence.
• Fellowship restored (vv. 3–4): no more curse; servants worship; we will see His face.
• Joyful reign (v. 5): no night; no loss; reigning with Christ forever.

His Words for Us Today – 22:6–17

• Trustworthy and true (vv. 6–9): God’s Word is certain; worship God; keep what is written.
• Unsealed and urgent (vv. 10–13): the time is near; hearts are exposed; Jesus is coming soon with recompense.
• Two destinies (vv. 14–15): washed and welcomed inside / unrepentant outside.
• One Lord (v. 16): Jesus—the Root of David, the Bright Morning Star.
• One invitation (v. 17): “Come.” The thirsty are welcomed to take the water of life freely.

A Warning and a Promise to Heed – 22:18–21

• Guard the Word (vv. 18–19): don’t add or subtract—Scripture is not ours to edit.
• Final promise (v. 20): “Surely I am coming soon.”
• Final prayer & grace (vv. 20–21): “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” / “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with all.”

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The What Now: Our Response

• Believe: Jesus saves sinners… come to HIM.
• Obey: keep His Word; Live each day for HIM.
• Hope: the King is coming soon. Continue to trust in HIM.

These are my sermon notes for Sunday morning, December 14. They’re not a full manuscript—just a listening guide for our Tabernacle Church family to help you follow along. I encourage you to add your own notes as you listen each week. The service will be available on YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, our Prayer List, and more on our church website.

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Revelation 19:11–16

INTRO

• On this third Sunday of Advent, we focus on joy… not because life is easy, but because the Lord is near.
• We’ve seen His first coming in humility: a baby in a manger and a Savior on a cross.
• Christ’s return completes the believer’s joy—because He is Faithful and True, He comes in righteous victory, and He brings final justice.

Who He Is — The Faithful and True King – vv. 11-12

• Heaven opened (v. 11) — His coming breaks in from heaven; God unveils the King.
• Faithful and True (v. 11a) — He never fails His word or His people.
• White horse (v. 11) — Purity, victory, royal triumph.
• Eyes like a flame of fire (v. 12) — He sees all; nothing is hidden.
• Many diadems / unknown name (v. 12) — All rule belongs to Him; His glory is beyond full grasp.
• Robe dipped in blood / The Word of God (v. 13) — The conquering, blood-marked King; God’s final revelation.

How He Comes — The Victorious Warrior – vv. 13–14

• Robe dipped in blood (v. 13) – victory is His. Diving judgment and His sacrifice.
• Armies of heaven follow (v. 14) – Christ leads; His cleansed people follow in His victory.

What He Brings — Righteous Judgment and Unshakable Rule – vv. 15–16

• Sharp sword from His mouth (v. 15) — His Word judges; none escape His verdict.
• Rod of iron (v. 15) — Firm, irresistible reign.
• Winepress of God’s wrath (v. 15) — Final, complete justice against sin.
• King of kings… (v. 16) — Everlasting, uncontested rule.

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The What Now

• Rejoice: your King is near and your hope is sure.
• Repent: bow to Christ now, not later.
• Remain faithful: live clean, steady, and courageous as you wait.

A Reminder for Men/Coaches: Platform and Boundaries

The Michigan football situation is a sober reminder: coaching/leadership is a platform. People are watching… players, parents, and your community. Influence is a stewardship, not a right.

“Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found faithful” (1 Corinthians 4:2 ESV).

Pressure to win can blur lines if you don’t set boundaries. That’s why wisdom and boundaries matter. They protect your integrity, your family, and your team.

Accountability matters too. Invite people who can ask hard questions and tell you the truth. Transparency is not weakness… it’s wisdom.

This is about protecting you as a man—and also protecting the women you work with and around. I have a daughter, and I want her to be in an environment where she’s respected, cared for, and safe. Boundaries don’t just guard reputations; they guard people. Protect yourself, protect your family, protect those around you… It’s worth it!

GO AND DO (3 Practical Steps)

1. Write your “never alone” rule—and live it. No closed-door 1-on-1s. Meet in visible/public spaces, keep doors open, and use group texts/copy parents/admin.
2. Choose 2 accountability men and set a weekly check-in. Ask direct questions: “Any secret conversations? Any emotional entanglements? Any boundary drift? Any lies?”
3. Audit your weak spots and build guardrails. Identify when you’re most vulnerable (late nights, travel, DMs, stress after losses) and set specific limits: curfews, no private messaging, wife-in-the-loop, device transparency.

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Proverbs 11:3 – “The integrity of the upright guides them, but the crookedness of the treacherous destroys them.”

Proverbs 20:7 – “The righteous who walks in his integrity—blessed are his children after him!”

Check out coachesmin.org for more resources.

These are my sermon notes for Sunday morning, November 30. They’re not a full manuscript—just a listening guide for our Tabernacle Church family to help you follow along. I encourage you to add your own notes as you listen each week. The service will be available on YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, our Prayer List, and more on our church website.

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Advent is the four-week season leading up to Christmas, from the Latin adventus (“coming”), when the church remembers Christ’s first coming in Bethlehem and looks ahead to His second coming in glory.

Historically, Advent began in the early centuries of the church (around the 4th–6th centuries) as a time of preparation—prayer, repentance, and instruction—before celebrating Christ’s birth.

Advent matters today because it slows us down in a noisy season, re-centers our hearts on Christ instead of consumerism, and trains us to live with hope, holiness, and expectancy between His first coming and His promised return.

This Advent at Tabernacle we’re walking through Revelation to behold the Coming King—Jesus, Lord over all creation and Lord of our lives

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Revelation 1:4–8

Intro

• Advent: Hope in Christ — in His birth, life, and return.
  • Hope in the Reigning and Returning Christ.
• Our hope is anchored in who Jesus is, what He has done, and what He will surely do.
• Because Christ reigns now, rescued us, and will return, we live near to God, clean from sin, sent to people, and steady in trials.

Hope in Who He Is – vv. 4–5a

• Eternal Father – “who is and who was and who is to come.”
• Perfect Spirit – “the seven Spirits before His throne” (fullness / completeness).
• Reigning Son
  • Faithful Witness – His word is true; He defines reality.
  • Firstborn from the Dead – resurrection supremacy; hope stronger than death.
  • Ruler of Kings on Earth – every ruler and regime is under Him.

Hope in What He Did – vv. 5b–6

• Loved – “who loves us” (ongoing, personal, covenant love).
• Liberated – “freed us from our sins by His blood” (guilt canceled, chains broken).
• Commissioned – “made us a kingdom, priests” (new identity, access, assignment).
• We now live near to God and sent to people.
• Hope is not wishful thinking; it is blood-bought belonging.

Hope in What He Will Do – v. 7

• He Will Return as King – “He is coming with the clouds” (royal, public, unstoppable).
• All Will See Him – “every eye will see Him” (nobody hidden, nobody neutral).
• All Must Respond
  • “Those who pierced Him”…guilt is personal.
  • “All tribes of the earth will wail”… repentant mourning or final reckoning.
• The future sight of Christ should shape faithful steps today.

Hope as a Way of Life – v. 8

• Jesus: “I am the Alpha and the Omega… the Almighty.”
• “Who is and who was and who is to come”…  He holds our past, rules our present, secures our future.
• Therefore we live...
  • Holy – set apart because we belong to the Alpha and the Omega.
  • Sent – available where the Almighty has placed us.
  • Steadfast – unshaken because the One “who is to come” will finish what He started.

Digging Deeper is a follow-up blog to my Sunday morning sermons, designed to keep you in God’s Word—not just on Sunday, but all week long. Each post takes the key truths from the message and presses them further with clear explanation, solid Scripture support, and practical next steps—the “Go and Do”—for real life.

Don’t just hear the Word—dig in, apply it, and be changed by it.

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Providence

Wayne Grudem – Systematic Theology

“God is continually involved with all created things in such a way that he…”

Louis Berkhof – Systematic Theology / Summary of Christian Doctrine

“Providence may be defined as that continued exercise of the divine energy whereby the Creator preserves all His creatures…”

R. C. Sproul – Chosen by God / Does God Control Everything?

“If there is one maverick molecule in all the universe, then God is not sovereign. And if God is not sovereign, He is not God.”

Herman Bavinck – Reformed Dogmatics

“not a philosophical system but a confession of faith… a source of consolation and hope, of trust and courage.”

Westminster Shorter Catechism, Q.11

“God’s works of providence are, his most holy, wise, and powerful preserving and governing all his creatures, and all their actions.”

Heidelberg Catechism, Q.27

all things “come to us not by chance but by his fatherly hand.”

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God’s Sovereign Rule Over All Things (Big-Picture Providence)

• Psalm 115:3 – “Our God is in the heavens; he does all that he pleases.”
• Psalm 135:6 – “Whatever the LORD pleases, he does, in heaven and on earth…”
• Isaiah 46:9–11 – Declaring the end from the beginning; “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose.”
• Daniel 4:34–35 – He does “according to his will…none can stay his hand.”
• Ephesians 1:11 – He “works all things according to the counsel of his will.”

Preservation – God Upholds All Things

• Nehemiah 9:6 – “You preserve all of them” (heaven, earth, seas, all that is in them).
• Psalm 104:27–30 – All creatures look to Him for food and life; when He hides His face, they are dismayed.
• Colossians 1:17 – “In him all things hold together.”
• Hebrews 1:3 – He “upholds the universe by the word of his power.”
• Acts 17:25, 28 – He “himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything…In him we live and move and have our being.”

Concurrence – God Working in and Through Creaturely Actions

• Genesis 50:20 – “You meant evil… but God meant it for good.”
• Proverbs 16:9 – “The heart of man plans his way, but the LORD establishes his steps.”
• Proverbs 16:33 – “The lot is cast into the lap, but its every decision is from the LORD.”
• Proverbs 21:1 – The king’s heart is a stream of water in the LORD’s hand.
• Isaiah 10:5–15 – Assyria is “the rod of my anger,” yet morally accountable.
• Acts 2:23 – Jesus delivered up “according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God,” yet “you crucified.”
• Acts 4:27–28 – Herod, Pilate, Gentiles, Israel did “whatever your hand and your plan had predestined to take place.”

Government – God Directing All Things to His Purposes

• Psalm 33:10–11 – The counsel of the LORD stands forever.
• Proverbs 19:21 – “Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the LORD that will stand.”
• Romans 8:28–30 – “All things work together for good” for those called according to His purpose.
• Romans 11:33–36 – From Him, through Him, and to Him are all things.
• Job 42:2 – “No purpose of yours can be thwarted.”

Fatherly Providence and Particular Care for Believers

• Matthew 6:25–34 – Your heavenly Father feeds the birds, clothes the lilies; “Are you not of more value than they?”
• Matthew 10:29–31 – Not one sparrow falls apart from your Father; the hairs of your head are numbered.
• Romans 8:31–39 – Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ.
• Philippians 1:6 – He who began a good work will bring it to completion.
• 1 Peter 5:6–7 – Casting all your anxieties on Him, because He cares for you.

Providence Over Suffering and Evil (Still Holy, Wise, and Good)

• Job 1:20–21; 2:10 – “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away…Shall we receive good from God, and shall we not receive evil?”
• Lamentations 3:37–38 – “Who has spoken and it came to pass, unless the Lord has commanded it? Is it not from the mouth of the Most High that good and bad come?”
• Amos 3:6 – “Does disaster come to a city, unless the LORD has done it?”
• Deuteronomy 32:39 – “I kill and I make alive… I wound and I heal…”
• Isaiah 45:7 – Forming light, creating darkness; making well-being and creating calamity.
• Genesis 45:5–8 – “God sent me before you…” (Joseph’s perspective on his brothers’ sin.)

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THE GO AND DO

• Trust God’s wise hand in every circumstance
• Receive today’s “ordinary” as fatherly care
• Walk in faithful obedience, knowing God uses your choices

These are my sermon notes for Sunday morning, November 23. They’re not a full manuscript—just a listening guide to help our Tabernacle Church family to follow along. I encourage you to add your own notes as you listen each week. The service will be available on YouTube by Sunday afternoon. You can find Sermon Notes, Family Devotional Guides, our Prayer List, and more on our church website.

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1 Samuel 9:1–27

Intro

• God is providing the King. Saul is chosen.
• In their disobedience, God is fulfilling His purpose and will.
• God’s providence rules over every detail of our lives.
• God is faithful. He always has a plan for His people. Regardless of our response, He is faithful.

God Is Working in Every Detail – vv. 1–14

Normal life, sovereign God

• Saul’s family and background (vv. 1–2)
• Lost donkeys and a long, frustrating search (vv. 3–5)

“Small” moments under God’s hand

• A servant’s suggestion to see the man of God (vv. 6–10)
• Meeting the young women on the way (vv. 11–13)
• Arriving just as Samuel comes out (v. 14)

Nothing in this story is accidental—God is quietly directing every step.

Every Detail Has a Purpose – vv 15–27

God had already spoken

• “The day before Saul came, the LORD had revealed to Samuel…” (vv. 15–16)
• “I have seen My people… I have sent you a man…” (v. 16)

God brings His servant to His prophet

• Samuel recognizes Saul as the man God told him about (vv. 17–19)
• The donkeys are already found (v. 20)—the “problem” was just the path.

God sets Saul apart

• Honored place and portion at the feast (vv. 22–24)
• Private word on the housetop (vv. 25–27)

What Saul thought was about donkeys was really about God’s design.

The Doctrine of Providence — What About Us Today?

Providence is God’s constant, wise, and sovereign care over all things, by which He directs everything to fulfill His purposes in Christ.

Key Truths:

• God preserves all things – He holds everything together (Hebrews 1:3).
• God governs all things – He orders events, great and small (Proverbs 16:9).
• God works through real human choices – even sin, without being the author of sin (Genesis 50:20; Acts 2:23).
• Rom 8:28–29 “All things” really means all things—frustrations, delays, detours, bad decisions, wounds, blessings.
• The goal of providence is not just our comfort, but our Christlikeness (v. 29).

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The What Now

• The God who guided Saul through lost donkeys and unseen plans is the same God guiding you today.
• His providence then is still His providence now—so you can trust Him with every detail of your life.
• Therefore,
  • Nothing is wasted.
  • Nothing is random.
  • Nothing is outside His control.
  • Nothing can stop His Christ-centered plan for His people.

Sources

• 1 Samuel: Looking on the Heart (Focus on the Bible, Christian Focus) — Dale Ralph Davis
• 1, 2 Samuel (New American Commentary, Vol. 7, B&H) — Robert D. Bergen
• 1 Samuel: Looking for a Leader (Preaching the Word, Crossway) — John Woodhouse
• ESV Expository Commentary: 1 Samuel–2 Chronicles (Vol. 3, Crossway) — Edited by Iain M. Duguid, James M. Hamilton Jr., and Jay Sklar
• The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: 1 & 2 Samuel (Vol. 3, Zondervan) — Edited by Tremper Longman III & David E. Garland
• Written by Pastor Jon Beck (and fine-tuned by “Ezra,” my digital thesaurus and scribe).