Mark Fritchman unpacks the hymn "How Deep the Father's Love for Us" and the question under it: what do you think about when you think about God?

Week 2 of Hymns. Why the church sings, and who we sing to: God made us to sing, and he sings over us (Zephaniah 3, verse 17). Then Mark takes up A. W. Tozer's line that what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us: Jesus shows us the Father, and our own father wounds bend that picture. He invites us to ask, seek and knock (Matthew 7), then reads the hymn line by line with the Scripture behind each one.

Chapters
0:00 Welcome, and a series on hymns
1:58 Great Is Thy Faithfulness and a mother's faith
4:57 We're singing to the Lord
5:13 Why do we sing?
7:22 Singing is a common grace
9:05 God sings over you (Zephaniah 3, verse 17)
13:03 Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs (Colossians 3, verse 16)
17:31 The first songs in the Bible
19:24 Why we gather to sing
20:30 The story behind How Deep the Father's Love for Us
22:11 What you think about God
23:28 The pictures of God we carry
27:11 God reveals himself
28:22 Jesus calls him Father
29:53 This is my Son
31:35 Looking for a father's approval
34:07 A comedian's father wound
37:13 Six kinds of fathers
39:16 Ask, seek, knock (Matthew 7)
41:46 A sermon set to music: the hymn line by line
50:39 Called children of God (1 John 3, verse 1)

Kenny Grant preaches Isaiah 53, the passage behind the hymn "Man of Sorrows": the servant who was pierced for us.

Week 1 of Hymns. Philip P. Bliss drew "Man of Sorrows" from Isaiah's fourth Servant Song, written about 700 years before the cross. Kenny walks through Isaiah 52, verse 13 through Isaiah 53, verse 12, and five things about the servant's death: it was visible, violent, vicarious, voluntary and victorious. He was pierced for our transgressions and crushed for our iniquities, and with his wounds we are healed. Hallelujah, what a Savior.

Chapters

0:00 Why the church sings hymns

4:22 Christian people are singing people

6:33 Man of Sorrows and Isaiah, the Bible in miniature

7:40 The four Servant Songs

9:32 Five aspects of the servant's death

12:05 Lifted up (Isaiah 52, verse 13)

15:58 Nobody is neutral about Jesus

18:53 Who has believed what he has heard from us? (Isaiah 53, verse 1)

21:25 A root out of dry ground (verse 2)

24:06 Despised and rejected, a man of sorrows (verse 3)

25:58 Pierced for our transgressions (verses 4 and 5)

29:09 All we like sheep have gone astray (verse 6)

30:43 Like a lamb to the slaughter (verses 7 and 8)

32:56 The wounds Jesus suffered

34:09 A grave with the rich (verse 9)

36:00 When man was at his worst, God was doing his best

38:16 He shall see and be satisfied (verse 11)

39:50 Numbered with the transgressors (verse 12)

41:05 Hallelujah, what a Savior

43:55 Surveying the cross

45:44 Closing prayer

Teaching Pastor Kenny Grant opens our Malachi series in Malachi 1, where God tells his people "I have loved you" and asks, "If then I am a father, where is my honor?" (1:6). Back in the land after the exile, Israel was going through the motions: questioning God's love, taking his name lightly and bringing him blemished offerings. Pastor Kenny calls us to give God our best, starting with ourselves, and to return to him in everyday devotion.

Chapters
0:00 Malachi: the last word before 400 years of silence
2:47 Lest we drift (Hebrews 2:1)
3:41 Malachi, the messenger (1:1)
5:54 "I have loved you" (1:2–5)
8:09 "Where is my honor?" (1:6)
8:55 You can say it with your life
9:35 Blind, lame and sick offerings (1:7–14)
13:05 Cold, casual, careless, calloused
13:31 From Abraham to the exile
21:20 Home again: Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah
24:15 Ingratitude, irreverence and insolence
26:36 Denying God's love (1:2–5)
31:11 Despising God's name (1:6)
32:52 Defiling God's altar (1:7–14)
34:17 The best thing to bring God is the giver
37:18 Back to Bethel: spiritual renewal (Genesis 35:1)
40:23 An everyday walk with Jesus
42:45 Prayer

Grant Troutt preaches Psalm 34, written as David fled Saul, from Gath to the cave of Adullam: God makes himself known as peace in the cave.

David had been anointed king, then spent years on the run from Saul. After fleeing Gath for the cave of Adullam, David wrote "I will bless the Lord at all times." Grant walks through the psalm: praise that doesn't wait for a feeling, boasting only in the Lord, seeking and crying out, tasting and seeing that the Lord is good, and the fear of the Lord. It ends at the cross, where the psalm's promise that not one bone would be broken was fulfilled in Jesus.

Chapters
0:00 Introducing Grant Troutt
0:45 Welcome and prayer
2:28 A cave season
3:22 Psalm 34: peace in the cave
5:37 David in Gath and the cave of Adullam
6:46 "I will bless the Lord at all times" (verse 1)
8:20 A ticket or a king?
9:21 "I never promised you a perfect reputation"
10:34 What is on your mouth?
11:25 How David's men learned to praise (verse 3)
12:49 Don't hold your praise in
14:12 "My soul makes its boast in the Lord" (verse 2)
16:52 I sought, he answered, he delivered (verses 4–6)
18:02 From a career-ending injury to new life
19:31 Treading a path to God
20:08 Glance at God or gaze at God?
21:26 "This poor man cried"
22:18 When he hasn't answered
24:50 "Don't deliver me until you've developed me"
26:04 Taste and see that the Lord is good (verses 7–8)
27:33 The fear of the Lord (verse 9)
31:48 Many are the afflictions of the righteous (verse 19)
32:20 Not one bone broken (verse 20; John 19)
34:32 Why three crosses?
36:12 An invitation to follow Jesus
40:14 Tanya Pruitt and UniteUS: never too young or too old

Lead Pastor Mark Fritchman takes us verse by verse through Malachi 3. The Lord promises a messenger and his own coming to refine his house first, calls his people to return to him with their whole hearts and to give him their first, not their leftovers, and keeps a book of remembrance for those who fear him.

Chapters
0:00 Malachi 3: a reckoning and a remnant
0:40 "You have wearied the LORD" (2:17)
3:32 Why do good things happen to bad people?
5:06 "Behold, I send my messenger" (3:1)
10:52 God is writing a bigger story
12:34 The same God in both Testaments
16:42 Judgment begins at the household of God (1 Peter 4:17)
17:41 The reckoning (3:1–5)
26:10 "Return to me" (3:6–7)
27:35 "Will man rob God?" (3:8–12)
31:13 Baptized except the right hand
32:37 The remnant (3:13–18)
36:40 Prayer

Our guest, David C., walks through the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25. Jesus is coming back, the delay is grace, and the door that is open today will not stay open forever. So trust Christ now, and spend your time, talents and treasure on his kingdom.

Chapters
0:00 Greeting from a ministry partner
0:47 The parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1–13)
1:16 "The door is open, but not for long"
2:42 Urgency: when Bible study meets reality
4:13 Jesus is coming back (Matthew 24:36, 44)
6:28 A first-century Jewish wedding
9:55 Ten virgins, lamps and torches (25:1)
12:23 Five foolish, five wise (25:2)
15:49 Those who procrastinated (25:3–4)
20:19 The bridegroom was delayed (25:5)
22:56 "Come, Lord Jesus, but not yet"
25:10 More work to be done
26:39 The unreached and the persecuted church
30:45 The midnight cry (25:6–9)
33:19 "And the door was shut" (25:10)
34:54 "Lord, Lord, open to us" (25:11)
36:18 "I do not know you" (25:12)
37:13 An encouragement and a warning
39:22 Prayer

Teaching Pastor Kenny Grant closes our Malachi series in Malachi 3:13–4:6. The people said, "It is vain to serve God" (3:14); God answered that the righteous will be remembered, regarded and rescued, and that for those who fear his name "the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings" (4:2). Pastor Kenny points that promise to Jesus and to the righteousness only God can give.

Chapters
0:00 Malachi: a heavy message
3:46 "I have loved you" (1:2)
5:24 "How have we despised your name?" (1:6)
6:13 Bringing God less than our best
7:49 "You have wearied the LORD" (2:17)
9:27 Defending ourselves against God
10:48 Hard words against God (Malachi 3:13–15)
13:17 You can say it with your life
15:56 Those who feared the LORD (3:16–18)
17:13 Remembered, regarded, rescued
21:24 The day is coming (4:1–3)
22:40 The Sun of Righteousness (4:2)
23:30 A coming day, a coming dawn, a coming doom
29:33 Remember Moses (4:4)
31:12 The return of Elijah (4:5–6)
36:09 He has fixed a day (Acts 17:30–31)
37:11 Righteousness only God can give
39:38 Prayer

Lead Pastor Mark Fritchman walks through Malachi 2, where God confronts priests and people who had grown casual with his holiness and faithless with one another. Living half-hearted with God shows up in how we treat each other, and the answer is the one word Israel would not say: repent.

Chapters
0:00 Malachi: a prophet for the midlife crisis
3:04 One word: repent (Matthew 4:17)
6:10 "I have loved you" (Malachi 1:2)
8:06 A stiff-necked teenager and his father
11:58 Two parts: half-hearted with God, faithless with each other
12:56 Giving God our leftovers (2:1–3)
18:12 The covenant with Levi (2:4–7)
22:14 "You have turned aside" (2:8–9)
23:44 "Have we not all one Father?" (2:10–12)
29:46 The wife of your youth (2:13–16)
33:54 "You have wearied the LORD" (2:17)
36:54 A story of justice and mercy
41:05 The invitation: repent
42:14 Prayer