Grace Fellowship Church-Gladwin

07/01/2025

“The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.” (Mark 1:15)

06/09/2025

There’s a deeper answer to the question of why the cross happened—a theological one.
Yes, politics, hatred, and injustice played a role. But ultimately, it wasn’t just men who sent Jesus to the cross. God was behind it—not because He is cruel, but because He is just. And because He so loved the world that He gave His only Son.
And Jesus wasn’t forced. He wasn’t trapped. He chose the cross. Before time even began, He had already embraced it. Revelation 13:8 says He is the “Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.” This was always the plan.
But it doesn’t end there. There’s another layer. Yes, God ordained it. Yes, Jesus embraced it. But what made it necessary?
Our sin. My sin. Your sin.
If we hadn’t sinned, He wouldn’t have had to suffer. It wasn’t just Caiaphas, Pilate, or Judas—it was me. It was you. Isaiah 53:5 says, “He was wounded for OUR transgressions, He was bruised for OUR iniquities.”
We mocked Him with our rebellion. We crowned Him with thorns by our pride. We drove the nails with our lust, greed, anger, and idolatry.
And He bore it all. For us.
The hymn In Christ Alone says it beautifully:
“It was my sin that held Him there, until it was accomplished.”
When we think about that— How can anyone stay indifferent to the cross? How can we see what He endured for our souls and walk away unchanged? How can we keep playing with sin when we know what it cost Him? And how can we ever doubt His love—after this?

06/08/2025

O Sacred Head Now Wounded

1 O sacred Head, now wounded,
with grief and shame weighed down,
now scornfully surrounded
with thorns, Thine only crown.
O sacred Head, what glory,
what bliss till now was Thine!
Yet, though despised and gory,
I joy to call Thee mine.
2 What Thou, my Lord, hast suffered
was all for sinners' gain;
mine, mine was the transgression,
but Thine the deadly pain.
Lo, here I fall, my Savior!
'Tis I deserve Thy place;
look on me with Thy favor,
vouchsafe to me Thy grace.
3 What language shall I borrow
to thank Thee, dearest Friend,
for this, Thy dying sorrow,
Thy pity without end?
O make me Thine forever!
And should I fainting be,
Lord, let me never, never
outlive my love for Thee.
4 Be near when I am dying,
O show Thy cross to me!
And, for my succor flying,
come, Lord, to set me free:
these eyes, new faith receiving,
from Thee shall never move;
for he who dies believing
dies safely in Thy love.

Todays sermon is up:

Josef Urban | Grace Fellowship Church

04/28/2025

Death is, “the last enemy to be destroyed” (1 Cor. 15:26). Unless Christ returns first, we will all come face to face with the final foe in the closing moments of our earthly pilgrimage. But even before that final skirmish begins, we are taught here to taunt it. Why? Because the outcome for the believer has been assured through the death and resurrection of Christ. Just as our mortality will be clothed in immortality, so too our fleeting fears will give way to eternal triumph. The battle may lie ahead, but faith lays hold of the victory now. The Christian lives in the present with a future-tense assurance—an unshakable confidence that death, once the great terror of mankind, has been decisively defeated.
Death is universally feared—studies consistently show it remains one of the top anxieties for people across cultures and ages. Psychologists refer to it as “thanatophobia”—a fear rooted in the unknown, in the perceived finality, in the loss of control.
But Christian, you have no reason to share in that fear. Death for you is not a curse, but a doorway into something better. When you’ve spent the day laboring and wearing yourself out, you don’t fear to lay down and rest your aching limbs at night—you desire it, even welcome it. In the same way, the believer need not dread death. It is rest after a life’s labor. Paul calls it “sleep.” Unbelievers die; Christians just “sleep.” You are laying down to fall asleep in Jesus with the assurance of awakening. When your time comes, you will lie down—not in despair, but in hope. For just as surely as God raised the Lord Jesus from the dead, He will raise you up with Him. The grave does not have the last word. Christ does. And it will be, “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?”
“We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.” (2 Cor. 5:8-10)

04/07/2025

When Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done,” in the Lord’s prayer, He Himself is the perfect example of what this submission entails. Never could a person’s will be crossed more acutely than the will of Jesus was when He was faced with such clear views of the judgment of God and was called to go through it. But He, “for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame,” and has progressed through the cross to the crown, and “has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Heb. 12:2). Our Savior is an example of submission to God, He is a model of faithful prayer, and He is the exemplar of persevering obedience in the midst of trial. He knows what it’s like to go through all this, and because He experienced all the struggles and sorrows and difficulties that attend us in our daily walk, He is able to relate to us, to sympathize with us, and to effectively intercede for us. “Seeing then that we have a great High Priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.”

03/31/2025

03/30/2025

Sermon: The Shepherd is Stricken (Mark 14:27-31)

Josef Urban | Grace Fellowship Church

02/27/2025

Sundays sermon is up!
https://www.sermonaudio.com/sermons/223252252492700

02/04/2025

Join us Wednesdays at 11am for our weekly prayer meeting and Bible study. We’re currently studying the book of Psalms. We also have a time of fellowship and lunch afterwards.