Midtown Presbyterian Church

Live In Love | Be Angry But Do Not Sin - Ephesians 4:25-29 - Clint Leavitt

Live In Love | Be Angry But Do Not Sin - Ephesians 4:25-29 - Clint Leavitt by Midtown Presbyterian Church

Live In Love | Change Your Dirty Clothes - Colossians 3:5-17 - Tom Parker

In our second week of learning to Live In Love, Tom Parker brings us a message from Colossians 3 challenging us to examine what we're truly wearing in our spiritual lives. Just as we wouldn't want to wear an orange jumpsuit that represents imprisonment, we're called to strip off the old self and clothe ourselves with something far more beautiful. The text confronts us with uncomfortable truths about behaviors that fragment community: fornication, greed, anger, and dishonesty. These aren't just moral prohibitions, they're warnings like being told not to touch a 220-volt wire. God's warnings aren't judgmental but protective, meant to save us from wreckage. The stunning truth at the heart of this passage is our identity: we are chosen, holy, and beloved. This reality should take a lifetime to absorb into our souls. From this secure identity, we're invited to put on new clothing: compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience. These aren't arbitrary virtues but reflections of God's own character, seen perfectly in Jesus Christ. The message culminates in a beautiful vision of Christian community where peace rules our hearts, gratitude overflows, and everything we do in word or deed is done in the name of Jesus. This isn't about external appearances but internal transformation that the Holy Spirit works in us, making us look more and more like our Creator.

Live In Love | Forgive One Another as Christ Has Forgiven You - Ephesians 4:30-5:2 - Gayle Parker

This week, Gayle Parker opens our next sermon series, Live In Love, with a message that takes us deep into the heart of what it means to truly forgive, drawing from Ephesians 4, the Gospel of John, and the parable of the Prodigal Son. We're challenged to put away bitterness, wrath, and anger, choosing instead to be kind and tenderhearted. The story of the two brothers offers us a mirror: are we the younger son who knows we need grace, or the older brother imprisoned by self-righteousness and victimhood? The message reveals something profound: when we refuse to forgive, we're not punishing the other person, we're locking ourselves in a room of our own making. The REACH model of forgiveness provides practical steps, reminding us that forgiveness is a process, not a single moment. What strikes deepest is the reminder that we can never have a better past, so perhaps it's time to stop dwelling there. Through the Holy Spirit, we're given the same ministry Jesus had: the ministry of forgiveness. This isn't about pretending hurt didn't happen or excusing wrong, it's about choosing freedom over imprisonment, grace over grudges, and living in love rather than grieving the Spirit within us.

Last Words | Do You Love Me? - John 21:15-19 - Clint Leavitt

In our final week of sermon series through the Gospel of John, Last Words, we consider how Peter's denial and restoration invites us to confront an uncomfortable truth: we are all capable of profound failure, yet that very failure becomes the gateway to experiencing God's deepest grace. The passage from John 21 reveals Jesus meeting Peter on the beach after his threefold denial, not with condemnation or minimization, but with a transformative love that penetrates to the core of our shame. We discover that Jesus refuses both to cancel Peter for his betrayal and to sweep it under the rug. Instead, He does something far more radical—He exposes the wound precisely so He can heal it. The charcoal fire, the threefold questioning, the pointed reminder of Peter's boastful claims—all serve not to shame but to bring honest acknowledgment. This teaches us that healing from our failures requires complete honesty before God. We cannot experience the heights of Christ's love until we acknowledge the depths of our sin. The beautiful paradox emerges: Peter's greatest failure becomes the foundation for his greatest leadership. His weakness, when surrendered to Christ, becomes his strength. This challenges our cultural narratives that tell us to hide our flaws or define ourselves by our strengths alone. In Christ, we find a different path—one where our scars become the very places where grace takes root and new life springs forth.

Last Words | Belive, Don't Doubt - John 20:24-29 - Clint Leavitt

This week, we pause and take a look at our relationship with doubt in the Christian journey. Rather than viewing doubt as a spiritual failure or something to be buried in shame, we're shown through the story of Thomas in John 20:24-29 that doubt can actually be a pathway to deeper, more authentic faith. The sermon challenges two cultural extremes: the church's tendency to condemn doubt as weakness, and society's uncritical celebration of skepticism as virtue. Instead, we discover a third way—the way of Thomas—where doubt becomes an invitation to encounter a bigger picture of Jesus. The message beautifully illustrates how Jesus doesn't reject Thomas for his skepticism but meets him in it, showing his wounds and transforming doubt into worship. We're reminded that spiritual maturity isn't about doubting less, but about bringing our doubts to Jesus and community rather than running from them. The agricultural metaphor of dry farming particularly resonates—sometimes God withholds immediate answers not to punish us, but to help our faith develop deeper roots that can withstand future droughts. This perspective liberates us to ask honest questions while remaining anchored in community, trusting that our doubts may actually be breaking open pictures of God that have become too small.