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Tuesday 10:30am - 10:45am Sunday 9:30am - 12pm

http://www.pleasantunioncp.church/

Pleasant Union Cumberland Presbyterian Church, 9251 Brunswick Road, Millington, TN (2026)

06/07/2026

Sermon Notes; May 7, 2026
"American Idols", Jude 17-23

We are beginning a two-part message from Jude. Jude was the brother of James who was also the half-brother of Jesus. It is believed that Jude wrote this between A.D. 65 and 80. These verses that we are looking at was a warning to the Christians to not follow those who were walking away from the Lordship of Christ by following false teachers who were leading others into the lust of the flesh that comes with idolatry.

Everything that we see happening in this country—its immorality; its confusion; its divisions, its crime rates, the systemic laziness, its hostility to God, its pursuit of lust and pleasure, comes down to idolatry. Mike Hobson gets credit for suggesting the title when I talked about on Wednesday’s Men’s Bible study about today’s message. The creators and producers of the series American Idol get the credit for putting those two words together for their televised talent competition.

A. The insidious nature of idolatry.

1. Idolatry not only betrays the Lord God it is also dangerous because there is eternal judgment against it.

a. As verse 17 tells us, the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ predicted that Satan would work to destroy the church this way.

b. Verses 18-19 helps understand the wickedness that leads not only people who attend worship at a local body of believers but also the principle slipping away can be applied to the unbeliever world.

1) Idolatry begins when people scoff against God; when that happens, their purpose in life becomes to satisfy every ungodly desire that Satan and his demons tempt them with.

a) The one who scoffs at God mocks God: when used as a verb, scoff means in English to speak derisively; to mock; to jeer at; in other words, individuals influenced by Satan and his demons seek to discredit God.

2) Idolatry is used by Satan to create hatred and division outside the church and within the church.

3) Idolatry panders to the natural instincts or ungodly desires of those who reject the God of the Bible as the true creator and His way of doing things because the Holy Spirit is not in them.

a) The phrase natural instincts come from a Greek word that means the sensuous nature with its subjection to sinful desires and lust.

b) Most of the idolatry referenced in the Old Testament as well as the New Testament had a sensual and sexual component to their worship.

c) The remaining idolatry referenced in the Old and New Testament had a death cult surrounding its practitioners.

2. When you look at the what is going on in this country as we speak, it is easy to see that we have become an idolatrous nation: the idols that Satan has moved people to create in the Western world are the idols of ideology, lust, perversion, feelings or inclinations discrediting Truth and even scientific truth, pride and prejudice, hatred, and murder of people from all ages—from the womb to the elderly, etc.

a. When Jesus taught His disciples in Mt 24 about the end times, He said this in verses 11-12: “11…many false prophets will appear and will deceive many people. 12 Sin will be rampant everywhere, and the love of many will grow cold” (NLT).

b. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians concerning worshipping idols: “19 What am I trying to say? Am I saying that food offered to idols has some significance, or that idols are real gods? 20 No, not at all. I am saying that these sacrifices are offered to demons, not to God. And I don’t want you to participate with demons. 21 You cannot drink from the cup of the Lord and from the cup of demons, too. You cannot eat at the Lord’s Table and at the table of demons, too” (NLT).

1) Paul is speaking directly to the ones who claim to be Christian, yet they are idolatrous.

2) When there are sermons and messages going forth from pulpits declaring that marriage isn’t only between a man and a woman, when you have churches promoting the lie that God did not create humans male and female (a truth that biology has affirmed until the beginning of this nightmare we are living in) then you have people taking the Lord’s Communion as well as taking the cup and bread of demons.

B. God’s judgment against idolatry.

1. Since God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Eden, God has hated idolatry.

a. After the Lord God led the Hebrew people out of bo***ge in Egypt, He gave them what we call the Ten Commandments: this is how Lev 26:1 states God’s command about idolatry, “‘You shall not make idols for yourselves; neither a carved image nor a sacred pillar shall you rear up for yourselves; nor shall you set up an engraved stone in your land, to bow down to it; for I am the Lord your God” (NKJV).

2. Rom 1 tells us God has already revealed His wrath, His anger, against the idolatry that exists in this world; we see that when we read—Rom 1:18-32. Bear with me as I read these verses.

3. Finally, we read about God’s final judgment of idolatrous people and nations in Rev 21:8, “8 But the cowardly, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death” (NLT).

06/07/2026

Sunday morning service, May 7. 2026
“American Idols”, Jude 17-23

05/31/2026

Sunday morning service, May 31, 2026
Special song service (5th Sunday Sing)

05/24/2026

Sunday morning service; May 24, 2026
“Love Your Enemy”, 5:43-47
Take two …

05/24/2026

Sermon Notes, May 24, 2026:

Love Your Enemy
Matthew 5:43-47

This morning we are looking at one of the more difficult teachings that Jesus gave in His sermon on the mount. Love you enemies! By the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, we will learn why this is important for the disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. Before we were saved, we were enemies of God as we see in Rom 8:7, “7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be” (NKJV). Enmity comes from a Greek root word that means: an enemy of, one who is hateful towards, one who opposes another. Since Jesus delivered us out of that enemy status with God, He calls us to extend love to our enemies. Let’s get into it.

A. “You shall love your neighbor…”

1. At the beginning of v.43 Jesus says, “you have heard it was sad…”

a. Jesus is referring to a long history of rabbinical teachings as it relates to what God said in Lev 19:18, “18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself: I am the Lord” (NKJV).

1) Jesus is exposing the wrong application of Lev 19:18 that rabbis had taught for centuries.

a) They apparently reasoned that if we are to love our neighbors, we must be able to hate our enemies.

b) Do you remember what Jesus taught about who is our neighbor in the parable of the good Samaritan? After stating that the second greatest commandment is you are to love your neighbor as yourself, the lawyer tried to justify his hatred of those he considered his enemies, by asking Jesus, who is my neighbor?

i. As you recall, Jesus used the parable of the good Samaritan to teach that in God’s kingdom everyone is our neighbor including those we have deemed to be our enemies.

2) The rabbinical tradition sought to justify their hatred of the Gentiles rather than loving them; by the time Jesus came on the scene, that hatred was entrenched.

2. As the Living Word and the Arthor and Perfector of our faith, Jesus teaches in v. 44 what our Heavenly Father had always intended for His people and us.

a. “44 But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you…” (NKJV).

1) In v.44, Jesus describes who is our enemy:

a) Those who curse us.

i. The word curse comes from a Greek word that means “to curse, doom, imprecate evil upon.”

b) Those who hate us.

i. The word hate comes from a Greek word that means “to hate, to pursue with hatred, to detest.”

c) Those who spitefully use us.

i. The phrase spitefully use is from a Greek phrase that means “to insult, to treat abusively, and use spitefully.”

d) Those who persecute us.

i. The word persecute comes from a Greek word that means “to pursue in a hostile manner.” If you look up persecute in an English dictionary, it means “to pursue with harassing or oppressive treatment.”

ii. Saul of Tarsus is a good Biblical example in the New Testament of one who persecuted the early Christians (of course, this was before he was saved and became Paul the apostle).

B. Behaving like the Heavenly Father’s children.

1. When we love our enemies, we behave like children of our Heavenly Father.

a. In v.44, Jesus gives us ways that we can actively love our enemies:

1) We bless those who curse us; that is, we are to invoke God’s blessings to them.

2) We do good towards those who hate us; that is, we respond to their hatred with kindness (fruit of the Holy Spirit, Gal 5:22).

3) We pray for those who spitefully use and persecute us; we are to pray for our enemies.

b. Dr. J Vernon McGee adds this bit of wisdom in his Thru the Bible Commentary: that one of the greatest ways we can love our enemies is to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them.

1) Notice that all these ways to love our enemies are actions not just words spoken loudly!

2. In v.45, Jesus says we demonstrate to the family of God and the unbelieving world that we are the children of God because we love our enemies.

3. When look at what Jesus says in the last part of verse 45 thru 47, we see how God loves those created in His image without discrimination:

a. We are to love like our Heavenly Father loves; we can’t do this apart from salvation in Christ Jesus and the transforming work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.

1) Jn 17 is commonly called Jesus’ Priestly Prayer in which He prays not only for His disciples who would become apostles, but He also prays for all future disciples.

a) This is what Jesus says about us in verse 16: “They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world.” (NKJV).

2) Jesus refers to the tax collectors as those of the world who love and greet their own; birds of a feather flock together.

a) The study footnote in The ESV Study Bible helps us understand why Jesus used tax collectors for His example of the way the world loves: “In Palestine, tax collectors were representatives of the Roman governing authorities. Their tendency to resort to extortion made them despised and hated by their own people…” “…Christians should not merely do the same as unbelievers; their transformed lives should result in behavior that shows significantly greater love.”

05/17/2026

Sunday morning service, May 17, 2026
Special speaker, Tommy Owens representing The Gideons

05/10/2026

Sunday morning service, May 10, 2026
"Thy Loving Kindness", Psalm 63:3-4

05/10/2026

Sermon notes, May 10, 2026
Thy Lovingkindness

Psalm 63:3-4

There is a Scripture worship song based on Psa 63:3-4 that goes: “Thy loving kindness is better than life, Thy loving kindness is better than life. My lips shall praise thee, Thus will I bless thee, Thy loving kindness is better than life.” The reason I start this message quoting this song based on Psa 63:3-4 is all that is godly and honorable about motherhood exists because of our Heavenly Father’s lovingkindness. When God created Eve, He gave her all she needed to be a mother, and in the Garden of Eden, it was perfect. Then Adam sinned and that made a mess.

God created moms to reflect His lovingkindness through the care and nurturing that they give. We are aware that not everyone has a good mom. That breaks our hearts, however the Lord God, out of His love and grace, has brought women of good character into people’s lives who become their spiritual mothers.

What I want to do is draw our attention to our Heavenly Father’s nature so we can see how blessed we truly are by the women we have the privilege to call mother.

A. Mother’s love is a conduit for our Heavenly Father’s lovingkindness.

1. Jer 31:3 says, “3 The Lord has appeared of old to me, saying: ‘Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love; Therefore with lovingkindness I have drawn you’” (NKJV).

a. As I think about my childhood, I have fond memories of my mom drawing me up into her loving arms.

1) That is the image we have of our Heavenly Father drawing us to Himself with His lovingkindness.

b. Our Heavenly Father loves us with an everlasting love and with each new day He draws us unto Himself through the wooing of the Holy Spirit.

1) To draw comes from a Hebrew word that means to draw, to lead in love.

2) When a mother who loves God with all her heart, mind, soul, and strength draws her child into her loving arms, the Lord imprints on that child the security and assurance that only God’s lovingkindness can give.

2. Psa 36:7 says, “7 How precious is Your lovingkindness, O God! Therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Your wings” (NKJV).

a. What a word picture we have in this verse: our Heavenly Father protects us because of His lovingkindness.

1) In Mt 23:37, Jesus laments over Jerusalem making reference to protecting wings like Psa 36:7: “37O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” (NKJV)

a) Our Lord is committed to protecting His children just as a mother hen gathers her chicks under her wings to protect them.

b. Our response to our Father’s lovingkindness is out trust in Him.

1) Trust comes from a Hebrew word that means to seek refuge, to flee for protection; to put trust in God and to confide and hope in Him.

a) Trust is built upon mother’s lap when we were infants.

b) This trust is possible because a godly mother is a conduit of our Heavenly Father’s lovingkindness.

c) What is tragic is the attitude that our society has had about the importance of motherhood.

3. Psa 143:8 says, “8 Cause me to hear Your lovingkindness in the morning, For in You do I trust; Cause me to know the way in which I should walk, For I lift up my soul to You” (NKJV).

a. Because of His lovingkindness, out Heavenly Father teaches us how we are to live a life of faithfulness and joy through His Word and through other believers.

1) Most of us learned on mother’s knee about “I love you,” kindness, sharing, forgiveness, patience, prayer, the love of God and who Jesus is.

2) I remember hearing the late Charles Stanley talking about all that he had learned from his mother about God and the Lord Jesus Christ; because his dad passed away when he was 9 months old, his mother was the greatest influence in his life.

b. It is God’s will and design that we learn about His lovingkindness and living a life of faithfulness through our mothers; that’s not to remove the influence our fathers have in our lives, but we typically learn things like tenderness and love from Momma.

1) One way to think about it: Sunday School begins when we are infants on our mother’s knees.

4. Psa 57:1 says, “1Be merciful to me, O God, be merciful to me! For my soul trusts in You; And in the shadow of Your wings I will make my refuge, Until these calamities have passed by” (NKJV).

a. Thank the Lord for the shadow of the wings of our Lord where we can take refuge from the calamities we encounter.

1) Calamities can be adversity or hardships; it can be misfortune or mishaps.

b. Out of His lovingkindness our Heavenley Father cares for us.

1) 1 Pet 5:7 tells us, “7 …casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you” (NKJV).

2) I think of all the cuts, scrapes, scratches, and boo-boos my Mom made better with her tender care; I am grateful that she extended my Heavenly Father’s lovingkindness to me.

c. One of the most encouraging passages in the Bible that talks about how our Heavenly Father provides safety for us is in Jn 10:24-29, “ 27 My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. 28 And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone sn**ch them out of My hand. 29 My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to sn**ch them out of My Father’s hand” (NKJV).

05/03/2026

Sermon notes, May 3, 2026
Christ is the Victory, pt3
Romans 8:14-17
Bill and Gloria Gaither wrote The Family of God in 1993, and the chorus goes, “I'm so glad I′m a part of the family of God; I′ve been washed in the fountain cleansed by His blood; joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod; for I'm part of the family the family of God.” A wonderful part of Christ Jesus being our Victory is that we have been adopted into God’s family for eternity!
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit given to us is our Heavenly Father’s signature on our adoption papers.
John MacArthur helps us understand the mindset behind the notion of our being adopting by the Heavenly Father through the Holy Spirit: “In Roman culture, for an adoption to be legally binding, seven reputable witnesses had to be present, attesting to its validity. God’s Holy Spirit confirms the validity of our adoption, not by some inner, mystical voice, but by the fruit He produces in us and the power He provides for spiritual service.”
As verse 16 tells us, “16 For His Spirit joins with our spirit to affirm that we are God’s children” (NLT).
To be led by the Holy Spirit is the best thing that could have happened to us!
Led comes from a Greek word that means to lead, guide, and direct.
To be led by the Holy Spirit means we yield our will to Him.
To be led by the Spirit is to walk by the Spirit.
It is the Holy Spirit’s job to take us by the hand to guide us each day; Gal 5:16 says, “16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves” (NLT).
The ESV Study Bible provides this helpful comment: “walk by the Spirit implies both direction and empowerment; that is, making decisions and choices according to the Holy Spirit’s guidance, and acting with the spiritual power that the Spirit supplies. To ‘walk’ in Scripture regularly represents the pattern of conduct of all of one’s life.”
The Holy Spirit uses God’s Word to guide us along life’s path as the sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father.
The Holy Spirit does not cause fear, but He encourages us that we are the Heavenly Father’s children.
An important truth to hang onto is that the Holy Spirit does not make us into fearful slaves.
Fear comes from the Greek word phobos which means fear, dread, terror; phobos is the basis for our word phobia, which is a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.
The Holy Spirit does not push us away from our Heavenly Father, but He draws us towards Him.
When our Heavenly Father adopted us as His children, He gave us His Holy Spirit so we can know that He is our Father.
Because of the Holy Spirit, we can call God Abba, Father.
Abba is derived from Aramaic, which was the spoken language of the Jews in Israel during the time of Jesus. It is closely related to the Hebrew word ‘av,’ also meaning ‘father.’ The term ‘Abba” is often considered a colloquial or affectionate term, similar to ‘daddy’ or ‘papa’ in English, indicating a sense of familiarity and intimacy.”
In Mark 14:36, Jesus calls God the Father “Abba”: “36 ‘Abba, Father,’ He cried out, ‘everything is possible for you. Please take this cup of suffering away from Me. Yet I want Your will to be done, not Mine’” (NLT).
As Christians, we have been exalted by our Lord Jesus Christ into an especially close and intimate relationship with God whom we no longer dread as the stern judge of sinners but revere Him as our reconciled and loving Father.
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, we are now joint heirs with Him.
Verse 17 promises, “17And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share His glory, we must also share His suffering” (NLT).
The NKJV says it this way, “17 …and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.”
The latter part of The Family of God chorus goes: “I′ve been washed in the fountain cleansed by His blood joint heirs with Jesus as we travel this sod...”
The NLT states that as we are together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.
As God’s only begotten Son, Jesus is the heir to God’s Kingdom.
Phil 2:9 tells us, “9 Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor
and gave him the name above all other names…” (NLT).
Because Jesus Christ is our Victory and because of His great love for us, our Heavenly Father declares that we are joint heirs with our Lord Jesus Christ.
The way that the apostle Paul presents our being joint heirs with Jesus is more like the Roman notion of inheritance than the Jewish notion.
In the Jewish notion, the first-born son inherits everything—because Jesus is our Father’s only begotten Son, He receives the birth-right inheritance if you will.
The inheritance that we share with Jesus is more like the Roman notion in which the inheritance was divided more equally among the children.

05/03/2026

Sunday mrorning service, May 3, 2026
“Christ is the Victory, pt3”, Romans 8:14-17

Pleasant Union Cumberland Presbyterian Church

06/07/2026

06/07/2026

05/31/2026

05/24/2026

05/24/2026

05/17/2026

05/10/2026

05/10/2026

05/03/2026

05/03/2026

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