John Sypert, Author at Preston Highlands Baptist Church

Isaiah 11:1-9 | “A Perfect King Brings Us to a Perfect Place”

[display_podcast] Joy and Pain at Christmas This season of the year brings with it a full range of emotions. It’s a season of great joy and anticipation. Perhaps more than other times of the year, we feel optimistic about the future, excitement about life, and a contentedness and peace about how things are. We experience joy and pleasure because we get time off from work and time with family and time to rest and think and play and worship. Christmas is the “most wonderful time of the year” for [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-22T19:01:31-06:00December 23rd, 2018|Isaiah, John Sypert, Sermons|

Isaiah 9:1-7 | “The Paradox of Christmas”

Small Presents Are the Best As kids, we thought that the biggest present under the tree was going to be the best present under the tree. We knew that the medium size boxes were clothes so we didn’t get excited about those. And the small boxes were usually extras and add-ons that went with the present in the big box. It’s funny how as we get older we start looking forward to the smaller boxes because they might have jewelry or gift cards or, in my case, books. The [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T16:52:30-06:00December 16th, 2018|Isaiah, John Sypert, Sermons|

Isaiah 7:14 | “A Sign from God”

Loneliness at Christmas Loneliness is something that we all feel at times. In a culture that is highly connected through social media, we still feel isolated and alone. We’ve all been in restaurants and seen families or friends sitting together around a table but ignoring one another because they’re all on their phones or tablets. This explains the title of a recent book by Sherry Turkle, Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other. Around the holidays, many of us will struggle with loneliness [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T16:54:39-06:00December 9th, 2018|Isaiah, John Sypert, Sermons|

Who Does What Around Here?: An Overview of Congregationalism and Elders

[display_podcast] Our church is in a season of adding another elder, so we’re spending a few weeks talking about elders and their relationship to the church. Two weeks ago we discussed what elders do. We learned that they teach, govern, and shepherd the church. Last week we talked about the qualifications for elders, examining 1 Timothy 3:1-7 in order to see who can be an elder. Our topic this morning is how the ministry of the congregation and the ministry of the elders fit together. I’ve adapted this material [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T16:58:50-06:00December 2nd, 2018|John Sypert, Sermons|

1 Timothy 3:1-7 | “Who Can Be An Elder?”

[display_podcast] God’s People Are Like Sheep The Bible, in many places, describes God’s people as sheep. This isn’t a flattering description, but I think it’s an accurate one because we’re unstable and erratic creatures. We’re prone to hurt ourselves. We’re not as smart as we think we are. Our lives are messy and broken. This is good news by the way. Many people think that the gospel means something like this: if I clean up my life, then God will accept me. But that’s not the gospel. The gospel says: [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:14:09-06:00November 25th, 2018|1 Timothy, John Sypert, Sermons|

An Overview of Elder Ministry in the New Testament | “What Do Elders Do?”

[display_podcast] The Construction of Our House When someone wants to build a house, they must start with the foundation. Then they build the walls and the roof and do the plumbing and electrical and everything else needed to make it livable. Once all the building is done, they move in and fill the house with all their stuff. When I think about our church, about what God has done in my four short years here, I think we’ve laid the foundation and are now in the stage of building the [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:09:21-06:00November 18th, 2018|John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:21-24 | “Grace Through and Through”

[display_podcast] The End of Our Study of Ephesians This is the thirty-first and final message in our study of Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus. We have spent most of this year studying what both Catholics and Protestants view as one of the most influential letters in the New Testament. The great French Reformer John Calvin said that Ephesians was his favorite letter. The great Scottish Reformer John Knox had his wife read him Calvin’s sermons on Ephesians while he lay on his deathbed. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the great British [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:12:43-06:00November 11th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:14-20 | “Armor through Prayer”

[display_podcast] Two Temptations With escalating violence and unrest in our country, there are two temptations followers of Jesus face. One is to live in fear. To live in paralyzing anxiety about what may happen next. To always be looking over our shoulder. To circle the wagons and hunker down until the storm blows over. The other temptation we face is to fight against the violence and unrest with the wrong weapons. We can be tempted to assume that victory will come if we align ourselves with the right politicians or [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:16:39-06:00November 4th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Ephesians 6:10-13 | “Strength through Armor”

[display_podcast] Naturalism Lacks Explanatory Power Many in our day think that there are physical explanations for everything. The materialist, or secularist, argues that every phenomenon that we experience can be explained by physical processes. The reason they think this is because they assume that the world and the universe are only made up of material or physical elements, that the only things that exist are physical things, that the universe, and your life, can only be understood through the study of physical processes. In this worldview, there’s no room for [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:19:02-06:00October 28th, 2018|Ephesians, John Sypert, Sermons|

Genesis 2:1-3 | “What Is Work?”

[display_podcast] Last week we studied what Paul said to slaves and masters in the church at Ephesus (Eph. 6:5-9). Because slavery in the New Testament era wasn’t what we commonly think of as slavery, we said that it’s fair to think of his instructions to slaves and masters as instructions to employees and employers. The main point of that text was that God cares for how employees and employers treat one another. There should be mutual respect and fairness among bosses and their workers. Each should remember that God [...]

By John Sypert|2020-07-27T17:22:04-06:00October 21st, 2018|Genesis, John Sypert, Sermons|

About John Sypert