All Peoples Church

All Peoples Church Sundays 11am | Wednesdays 7pm

Our DNA
To be a church for Him by walking in love, worship, and service.

09/07/2026

on God’s presence in hardship

“Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand” — Isaiah 41:10, NKJV.

I have gone back to that verse in seasons where very little changed quickly.

The problem did not disappear. The timeline did not move. The pressure did not lift as soon as I hoped. But something steadied inside me because the promise was not, “Nothing hard will happen.”

The promise was, “I am with you.”

I have learned that God’s presence is not a consolation prize for people who did not get the miracle fast enough. His presence is often the miracle that keeps them standing while everything else is still unresolved.

So if you are walking through something that has not changed yet, do not measure God’s nearness by how quickly the circumstance shifts.

He is with you now.

Not only after the answer comes. Not only when the diagnosis changes. Not only when the relationship heals. Not only when the door opens.

Now.

In this moment.

In this wilderness.

In this pressure.

And if He is with you, you are not abandoned, even before you are through it!

from Believer’s BaptismWater baptism is not spiritual decoration. It is a burial and a resurrection acted out before wit...
09/04/2026

from Believer’s Baptism

Water baptism is not spiritual decoration. It is a burial and a resurrection acted out before witnesses.

Paul wrote, “Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? Therefore we were buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life” — Romans 6:3–4, NKJV.

Baptism does not save. Jesus saves.

But baptism does preach. It declares that the old life has gone under the water and a new life has come up in Christ.

The earliest believers did not treat baptism as optional or endlessly postponable. When people believed, baptism followed. Not because they were earning anything, but because obedience was the natural response to grace.

If someone belongs to Jesus and has never taken that step, it is worth asking why. Not with shame. Not with pressure. But with the simple honesty Scripture gives us:

This is what disciples do.

*This is an original reflection by Pastor Jeff Crawford. The accompanying artwork is an AI-generated illustration.*

09/03/2026

from the study on Numbers

One of the more sobering patterns in Scripture is how an entire generation of Israelites forfeited the Promised Land through something that probably did not feel like rebellion at first.
Complaining.

“Now when the people complained, it displeased the Lord” — Numbers 11:1, NKJV.

I do not think most complaining begins as defiance. Often, it begins with real hardship: hunger, thirst, fatigue, fear, uncertainty, disappointment. Those things are not imaginary, and God is not offended when His people bring honest pain to Him.
But there is a difference between bringing hardship to God and slowly building a case against Him.

Israel had seen God deliver them from Egypt, part the Red Sea, feed them with manna, give them water from the rock, and lead them by His presence. And still, present discomfort made bo***ge look attractive again.

That is what complaint does when it takes root. It edits the past. It exaggerates the present. It forgets mercy. It makes slavery look safer than trust.

I do not say that to shame anyone walking through a hard season. Hard seasons are real. But a hard season does not have to become a hardened heart.

Bring the hardship to God.

Let Him meet you there before complaint convinces you that the wilderness is your permanent address.

09/02/2026

from The Big Picture

It is easy to read the Bible as sixty-six separate books instead of one unified story.

But from Genesis to Revelation, Scripture tells one great arc: creation, fall, redemption, and restoration.

God created a world that was good. He placed humanity in it to reflect His character, bear His image, and carry out His purposes on the earth. That design was disrupted by sin, not because God failed, but because human beings rebelled. Sin entered, and with it came separation from the relationship humanity was created to enjoy.

But the fall did not erase God’s purpose. It became the place where His redemptive purpose was revealed with stunning mercy.

From that point forward, Scripture tells the story of God pursuing His people, promising rescue, forming a covenant people, and ultimately sending Jesus Christ, who did what humanity could never do for itself.

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life” — John 3:16, NKJV.

That verse is not isolated from the story. It is the hinge of the story.

Every promise finds its answer in Christ.

Every hope is secured in Him.

Every chapter is moving toward the Redeemer.

09/01/2026

from A Supernatural Worldview

I think many of us were trained from childhood to treat the natural world as the real one and the spiritual world as distant, optional, or symbolic. Scripture will not let us live with that assumption.

Paul wrote, “While we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal” — 2 Corinthians 4:18, NKJV.

That does not mean the visible world is unreal. God made this world, placed us in it, and gave us real assignments here. But Scripture teaches that what we see is not all there is. The unseen realm is not less important because it cannot be touched or measured. In many ways, it is the more permanent reality.

This does not mean chasing every spiritual experience or becoming preoccupied with the unseen. It means living awake. Prayer is not symbolic. Faith is not pretend. Obedience is not merely moral behavior in a physical universe.

These things carry weight before God.

A supernatural worldview simply means taking God, His Word, and eternal things as seriously as we take bills, calendars, deadlines, and daily responsibilities.

Maybe more seriously. One category is temporary. The other is eternal.

This month, we tried to open the sermon archive and hand you some of what God has taught us over the years: teaching on ...
08/31/2026

This month, we tried to open the sermon archive and hand you some of what God has taught us over the years: teaching on authority, deliverance, forgiveness, atonement, giving, calling, grace, and the life of the believer.

None of it was ours to begin with.

And none of the credit belongs to us.

If anything this month challenged you, convicted you, strengthened you, or brought you comfort, that is the Holy Spirit doing what only He can do. Every true insight traces back to Scripture. Every lasting transformation traces back to the finished work of Jesus Christ.

We have learned over the years that people do not need another personality to follow. They need truth spoken with conviction and compassion. They need the Word of God. They need the grace of God. They need Jesus.

That is what we have tried to do this month, imperfectly, but sincerely.

So as August closes, our prayer is simple: that whatever seed was planted would keep growing long after the month ends, and that it would produce fruit that has nothing to do with APC and everything to do with Him.

The message has never been, “Look at us.”

It has always been, and will always be:

“Behold! The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” — John 1:29, NKJV.

Every pastor has a story of how God got hold of him, and none of those stories are meant to make much of the person tell...
08/30/2026

Every pastor has a story of how God got hold of him, and none of those stories are meant to make much of the person telling them.

They are meant to make much of the God who did the getting.

Behind every sermon preached and every message written down for others to read, there is usually a simpler, quieter history: a person going about ordinary life when God interrupted it, called him to something he did not fully understand, and began shaping him through years of mercy, correction, patience, and grace.

That is the heart behind every message shared this month.

None of it exists because a preacher figured something out on his own merit. None of it exists because of human sufficiency. It exists because the Shepherd has been patiently teaching, correcting, leading, and forming an ordinary man over time.

And when God teaches something through His Word, it should not be hoarded.

Paul wrote, “Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” — 2 Corinthians 3:5, NKJV.

That is the only testimony worth telling.

Not a story about impressive achievement.

A story about a patient God who is gracious enough to use ordinary, unfinished people anyway.

One of the questions I get asked most, in one form or another, is this: “Am I really right with God?”Usually, it comes f...
08/29/2026

One of the questions I get asked most, in one form or another, is this: “Am I really right with God?”

Usually, it comes from someone carrying guilt over something they cannot seem to shake, wondering if their standing with God is as secure as they have been told.

Here is what I want to say plainly: assurance was never meant to rest on how you feel on a given day.

Paul wrote that we are “justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” — Romans 3:24, NKJV.

Freely.

That word carries the weight of our assurance. Our standing with God is not fragile because it was never built on our performance to begin with. It was built on the finished work of Jesus Christ.
God knew, before we ever sinned against Him, exactly what it would cost to make us right with Him. And in Christ, He paid that cost in full.

That does not make sin small. Grace never does that. The Holy Spirit still convicts, corrects, and calls us back to repentance. But conviction leads us back to Christ. Condemnation only leaves us hiding in shame.

If guilt keeps whispering that you need to do more before you can be sure, do not confuse that voice with the Holy Spirit.

You are not right with God because you earned it.

You are right with God because Jesus paid for it.

And there is nothing left owing.

A testimony does not require a platform, a stage, or a polished story. It only requires an honest witness to what God ha...
08/28/2026

A testimony does not require a platform, a stage, or a polished story. It only requires an honest witness to what God has actually done.

Revelation says, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony” — Revelation 12:11, NKJV.

The blood of the Lamb comes first. The power is not in human storytelling by itself. The power is in Jesus Christ: crucified, risen, saving, delivering, restoring, and making people new.

But God has chosen to let ordinary believers carry witness to what He has done in their actual lives. That is why testimony matters.

Someone can argue theology. Someone can dismiss an invitation. Someone can resist a sermon. But it is much harder to ignore a changed life sitting across the table from them.

And testimony does not belong only to people with dramatic stories of addiction, crisis, or sudden turnaround. A quiet, steady faithfulness over decades is every bit as much a testimony as a rescue that happened overnight. Both point to the same God doing what only He can do.

Somewhere nearby, someone may need to hear a testimony today. Not an argument. Not a performance. Just an honest sentence about what Jesus has done.

It may be the most persuasive thing they hear all week.

Consecration is one of those words that can sound heavier and more distant than it actually is. At its simplest, it mean...
08/27/2026

Consecration is one of those words that can sound heavier and more distant than it actually is. At its simplest, it means being set apart for God’s purposes rather than kept for our own.

In the Old Testament, objects, priests, and even entire nations were consecrated — set apart, made holy, and dedicated to the Lord’s use. In the New Testament, that same idea comes to every believer.

Paul wrote, “Present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” — Romans 12:1, NKJV.

That word "living" matters.

This is not a one-time dedication ceremony that gets checked off a list. It is a daily posture. It is continually placing time, ambition, relationships, desires, plans, and even preferences back on the altar and letting God decide what happens with them.

Consecration does cost something. Surrender always does. But what is given over to God is never wasted. Whatever He asks for, He knows how to redeem, reshape, and use for something better than what I would have chosen for myself.

Usually, the thing I am holding tightly, holding back, or keeping just for myself is the very thing God is asking to be consecrated next.

Let Him have it.

He always builds something better with what is surrendered to Him than we ever could on our own.

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727 Old Graves Mill Road
Lynchburg, VA
24502

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