Church Update
February 18, 2026
My parents made me apologize. I didn’t want to and I didn’t think I should, but I had fought with my friend and they made me go over to his house and apologize. It was awkward for a nine-year old but, in hindsight, necessary. And like most guys, within 12 hours we were playing again.
There is a kind of obedience that is forced from us. We can do it begrudgingly, teeth-clenched, like there’s a gun to our back. Though instructive, that kind of obedience is performative more than anything else.
Then there is the kind of obedience that springs from us. Not that it’s easy but that it’s unforced. We don’t need to be convinced about why we should obey. Paul calls this “obedience from the heart” in Romans 6, and it’s the result our being saved.
But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. - Romans 6:17-18
We sometimes miss this as we share our faith. We have been saved from sin for obedience. By God’s grace, we have gone from slaves of sin to slaves of righteousness. Is this how you view your walk with Jesus? May we desire to obey from the heart, to glorify the one who has redeemed us death.
In Christ,
Pastor Jeremy