Knox Presbyterian Church Podcast

How do you know if you're growing in your faith?
Maybe you know more Scripture than you used to.
Maybe you pray more often.
Maybe you serve, give generously, attend church, or understand things about God that once seemed completely foreign.
Those are all good things.
But the Apostle Paul gives us a much more uncomfortable test.
Are you becoming more loving?
Not more sentimental.
Not simply nicer to people you already like.
More patient. More gracious. Less interested in keeping score. More willing to seek someone else's good—even when it's inconvenient, even when you disagree, and even when you don't particularly feel like it.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul reminds us that we can possess extraordinary gifts, remarkable faith, and incredible knowledge and still miss something absolutely essential.
Today, as we continue our Yes & Amen series, we'll explore God's promise to form us into people who love—and why the greatest evidence of a life being transformed by Christ might not be what we know or what we accomplish.
It might be how we love.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13

Our world is full of rivers.
Not just the ones you can see on a map.
The rivers between neighbors.
Between generations.
Between political parties.
Between races.
Between families who no longer speak.
Between people convinced that the other side is the problem.
The book of Revelation offers a very different picture.
Not a river that separates people...
But a river flowing from the throne of God, bringing life, healing, and restoration to the nations.
Today, as we continue our Yes & Amen series, we'll discover that God's vision for the future isn't simply about where we're going someday. It's about who we're becoming right now as we learn to live as people of reconciliation, hope, and new creation.
Scripture: Revelation 21:1-7, 22:1-7
Guest Preacher: Rev. Eric Heinekamp

Have you ever wondered if God forgot his promises?
Maybe you wouldn't say it out loud.
But you've thought it.
You read that God has good plans for his people.
Then life takes a turn you never saw coming.
The prayer isn't answered.
The hurt doesn't go away.
The loss becomes permanent.
And suddenly you're left wondering whether God's plan and your reality belong in the same story.
The people who first heard Jeremiah's words asked those same questions.
They had lost their homes, their future, and nearly all hope that life would ever return to normal.
Yet it was to them—not before the exile, but in the middle of it—that God said, "I know the plans I have for you."
Today, as we continue our Yes & Amen series, we'll explore a promise that is far bigger than a comfortable life. We'll discover that God's plan isn't simply to rescue us from every hardship, but to redeem every part of our story as he makes all things new.

Think back to one of the hardest seasons of your life.
What carried you through it?
Was it your own strength?
Your determination?
Your circumstances finally improving?
Or was it something deeper?
One of the remarkable things about following Jesus is that Christians don't claim hardship is an illusion. We don't pretend pain isn't real. Scripture speaks honestly about loss, fear, sickness, uncertainty, and death.
But it also makes a remarkable promise:
That the hardest thing you face will never be the strongest thing in your life.
Because when the waters rise and the fire burns, God does not promise to watch from a distance.
He promises to be with his people.
Today, as we continue our Yes & Amen series, we're exploring a promise that has carried God's people for generations: whatever we walk through, we never walk through it alone.
Isaiah 43:1-7

If you ask a new parent what they're most afraid of, you'll probably hear a long list.
What if I miss something?
What if I make the wrong decision?
What if I fail them?
Those questions don't disappear when our children grow up.
In fact, they seem to follow us through every stage of life.
What if the diagnosis comes back?
What if I lose someone I love?
What if everything falls apart?
The Christian faith doesn't pretend those questions aren't real.
Instead, it answers them with a promise.
Not the promise that nothing bad will ever happen.
But the promise that whatever comes, we will not face it alone.
Today, as we continue our Yes & Amen series, we look at the night Jesus shared one final meal with his disciples—and the remarkable gift he left behind: a people who would continue to be his hands, his feet, and his presence in a hurting world.
Guest: Rev. Lara Musser-Gritter

What does it mean to be free?
For most of us, freedom means having choices.
No one holding us back. No one telling us what to do. The ability to shape our own lives, follow our own desires, and become whoever we want to be.
It’s a powerful promise.
But is it true?
Because sometimes the things we freely choose begin to control us.
The phone we pick up for a few minutes becomes an hour of scrolling.
The ambition that drives us forward becomes a schedule we can no longer escape.
The desire for comfort, success, approval, or control quietly begins making decisions for us.
And before long, what felt like freedom starts to look a lot like a cage.
In Romans chapter 6, the Apostle Paul makes a startling claim: there is no such thing as completely neutral freedom. Whatever we continually give ourselves to begins to shape us, command us, and ultimately master us.
So perhaps the real question isn’t whether we serve something.
It’s whether what we serve is giving us life.
Today, as we continue our series Yes & Amen, we’re exploring the promise that Christ sets us free—not into a life without boundaries, but into a life where sin no longer gets the final word.
Because true freedom may not be the absence of every restraint.
It may be finally belonging to the One who leads us into life.
Romans 6:15-23

When you hear the words safe place, what comes to mind?
Maybe it's a childhood home. A favorite chair. A person you trust. Somewhere you can finally let your guard down.
Most of us think of safety as the absence of trouble. If life is calm, we're safe. If life is difficult, something must be wrong.
But the Bible paints a different picture.
King David wrote one of his most beautiful psalms while hiding in a cave, running for his life. He wasn't safe because his circumstances had changed. He was safe because he knew where to take his fear.
Again and again throughout Scripture, God doesn't promise a life without storms.
He promises his presence in the middle of them.
Today, as we continue our series Yes & Amen, we're exploring one of God's most comforting promises: that no matter where life finds us—even in the darkest cave, even in our deepest loneliness—God remains our refuge, our shelter, and our safe place.
Psalm 142

Most of us like to see results.
We like finished projects. Completed goals. Problems solved. We like knowing that our efforts made a difference.
But some of the most important work we do in life doesn't work that way.
A teacher may never know how a lesson shaped a student's future.
A parent may not see the fruit of a conversation for years.
A simple act of kindness may ripple outward in ways we'll never fully understand.
The Apostle Paul understood that reality. Writing to the church in Corinth, he said, "The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose." Some people plant. Some people water. But ultimately, God is the one who gives the growth.
Today, as we continue our series Yes & Amen, we're exploring a promise that frees us from carrying burdens we were never meant to bear. We are called to be faithful. We are called to serve. We are called to plant and water.
But the growth belongs to God.
And that's very good news.
1 Corinthians 3:8-9

Every spring, graduates across the country receive the same gift.
A copy of Oh, the Places You'll Go.
It's become almost a cultural ritual. The message is simple: you've got what it takes. Trust yourself. Choose your direction. Go make your future happen.
It's a wonderful sentiment.
Until life gets complicated.
Until you're standing at a crossroads wondering whether to take the job, move to a new city, start a family, change careers, retire, stay, leave, risk, or wait.
Suddenly "trust yourself" doesn't feel quite so reassuring.
Because deep down, most of us know we don't always know what we're doing.
And that's why the Bible offers a different promise.
A better promise.
A promise that doesn't depend on having all the answers yourself.
Today, we're exploring Proverbs 3 and God's promise to guide those who trust Him—because sometimes the most important step in life isn't knowing exactly where you're going.
It's knowing who you're following.
Proverbs 3:5-6

Have you ever noticed how often we turn God's promises into assignments?
We read Scripture and immediately start making lists of things we need to do, ways we need to improve, responsibilities we need to shoulder. And before long, following Jesus can start to feel like carrying a backpack full of obligations.
But what if one of the most famous statements about Christian witness isn't actually a command at all?
In Acts chapter 1, Jesus looks at a group of flawed, fearful, unreliable disciples and says, "You will be my witnesses." Not you should be. Not you must be. Not you'd better become.
You will be.
Today we're beginning a brand-new series called Yes & Amen, exploring God's promises and how they find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ. And we start with a promise that might change the way you think about evangelism, discipleship, and even your own faith journey.
Acts1:1-8