Weekly sermons from Gary Combs and the preaching team at Eastgate Church in Wilson & Rocky Mount, NC.
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Wherever Jesus the King is received, His reign begins to transform hearts and lives. That’s why Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come” prayers. The King has come, but His kingdom is an already/not yet kingdom. In today’s parable, Jesus answers the question hanging in the air that is something like: If the Messiah has come and the kingdom has arrived, why are the wicked still here, and why are so many rejecting the King? Or in other words, “If God is good and Christ is King, why does evil remain?” We often feel that same tension today. We look at a world filled with violence, injustice, un
A parable is more than an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. Jesus’ parables were simple stories drawn from everyday life that revealed the mysteries of the kingdom to receptive hearts. Parables don’t merely illustrate truth. They expose our response to truth. They reveal our spiritual receptivity. And that raises a very personal question for us: How receptive are we to the King and His kingdom? We can sit in church, hear the Word, sing the songs, know the prayers, and still have a heart that is resistant to what God is saying. The problem is not that God is silent. The problem is that som
We know how to communicate a prayer request. We can send a text, post it on social media, or add someone’s name to a prayer list. But communicating a burden is not the same as carrying it together before God. We need people who are more than informed. We need believers who will sit beside us, call upon God with us, remind us of His promises, and believe with us for His strength and help. Some burdens become lighter when others help us carry them. Some fears begin to lose their grip when we hear another believer speak God’s truth over us. Some trials require more than a prayer emoji. They call
Over the last 2 weeks we have discussed the first two devotions that foster real connection. They are a devotion to God’s Word and to Christian fellowship. Now we come to the third, which is the breaking of bread. That’s why we’ve titled this message, From Screen to Table. Because we long for the connection a shared table provides, but we have traded the table for a screen. We have bigger kitchens than our grandparents ever dreamed of. Islands. Double ovens. Farmhouse sinks. Marble countertops. And nobody comes over. We have a dining room, but nobody uses it. It's the room you walk through on
Sociologists have a term for the way many of us live now: “networked individualism.” We have traded smaller, tightly connected communities for sprawling networks of online relationships. We may have hundreds of followers and still not have a friend to call at two in the morning. We know what someone we have not seen since high school ate for lunch, yet we may have no idea that the woman sitting two rows away has not slept in a week. We are more reachable than any generation in history, yet somehow harder to truly reach. Digital contact may represent connection, but it cannot fully replace it.
You can text a friend in seconds, video chat with family across the country, and scroll through hundreds of updates before breakfast. And yet so many of us feel isolated, distracted, and hungry for something deeper. Our theme verse comes from the apostle John, who understood something about the limits of long-distance communication: “Though I have much to write to you, I would rather not use paper and ink. Instead I hope to come to you and talk face to face, so that our joy may be complete” (2 John 12). Even John knew: some things can only happen face to face.
We all face decisions that Scripture doesn't answer explicitly. Whom should I marry? Which job should I take? Speak up or stay quiet? Say yes to one good thing, knowing it means no to another? Should I make this purchase? How do I respond to this trial or trouble? Decisions, decisions… In a world full of competing voices, we desperately need more than information. We need spiritual discernment. The good news is that God doesn't leave His children to figure life out alone. Through Christ He gives us His Spirit, renews our minds, and teaches us to recognize His will. If you are in Christ, this l
Romans 12 tells us to "be transformed by the renewal of your mind." But that naturally raises a question: How? How does someone actually live a transformed life? Have you ever wondered why so many Christians struggle to experience real transformation? We believe the Gospel. We know Christ has saved us. We still worry like the world worries, chase what the world chases, lose our temper over the same frustrations, seek our identity in our careers or accomplishments, and return to the same sins we've battled for years. The problem isn't that Christ has failed to transform us. The problem is that
Have you ever noticed how easy it is to drift? No one accidentally becomes more like Jesus. We don't wake up one day more holy, more prayerful, more loving, or more obedient without intentional pursuit. Left to ourselves, we drift. We conform. That word pictures a mold or pattern that quietly shapes whatever is pressed into it. The world has a pattern, and if we're not careful, we'll naturally fit right into it. In 1 Peter chapter 1, the apostle Peter wrote to Christians living as exiles throughout Asia Minor, exhorting them to live differently in this world because they belonged to God throug
We talk about worship often in the church, but there is often confusion about what it actually means. Many of us reduce worship to singing. But singing is only one expression of something far deeper. Worship is not primarily a moment in a service, it is the orientation of a life. In fact, every human being is already a worshiper. The question is not whether we worship, but what we worship. Something will sit at the center of our lives and shape everything. And what we worship always takes control. It determines how we spend our time, where we invest our energy, what we sacrifice for, and where
We have a perfect example of others-focused self-sacrificial love in the person of Jesus. If your instinct is to climb your way to fulfillment in life, then check this out. Jesus didn’t climb his way to success, descended to success. If you want to follow Jesus, that’s your path too. Paul taught the Philippian church that the path to exaltation was to live self-sacrificially like Christ. We can receive the reward God promises us when we follow Christ’s example of self-sacrifice.
There is a gap in every human heart between what we know is right and what we actually do. We make promises we don't keep. We set standards we don't meet. We know what God says, yet we often choose our own way instead. Many people point to hypocrisy in the church, and certainly there are times when that criticism is deserved. But the deeper issue is not really hypocrisy, it's surrender. Most Christians genuinely want to follow Jesus, yet they find themselves in a daily battle between God's will and their own. That is why Paul commands believers to "present your bodies" to God. Not part of your
We are a forgetful people. We tend to remember our pain more readily than God’s faithfulness. We remember wounds, fears, disappointments, and losses, but quickly forget the ways God has sustained and delivered us. If we’re not careful, we’ll misinterpret God’s mercy and blessings as mere coincidence rather than His hidden hand at work in our lives. The book of Esther reminds us that God not only works to deliver His people; He calls them to remember His deliverance. In the final section of Esther, Mordecai and Esther established the annual festival of Purim to commemorate how God overturned Ha
In previous chapters, we saw that even when God is not mentioned, He is not missing. God positioned Esther as queen for a purpose she did not yet understand. We saw the crisis unfold as Haman’s hatred toward Mordecai turned into a genocidal decree against the Jewish people. Faced with fear and uncertainty, Esther chose courage, calling for prayer and stepping forward in faith. Then God turned the tables on Haman’s wicked plans and Haman himself was destroyed by his own gallows. Now as we come to Esther 8–9, the enemy Haman is dead, but the danger is not. The decree still stands. Across the Per
Have you ever watched someone do wrong and appear to get away with it? Have you ever wondered why the proud prosper, why dishonest people advance, why those who manipulate and wound others seem to succeed while the faithful suffer? Maybe you've prayed, waited, and tried to do what is right, yet evil still appears to have the upper hand. There are seasons when God's hand feels hidden and the wicked appear to be winning. Esther reminds us that while God may seem silent, He is never absent. Even when we cannot see His hand, He is at work preparing to turn the tables. So when evil appears to be wi
This week, as Esther approaches the king and Haman’s plot continues to unfold, something remarkable happens. There are no miracles, no visions, no dramatic interventions—just a series of ordinary events. A banquet. A delay. A restless night. A remembered deed. And yet, through all of it, God is at work. Because if we’re honest, this is where many of us live. Not in the dramatic moments, but in the ordinary details of life. And in those moments, we often wonder: Where’s God? When delays come… when plans fail… when evil seems to be advancing… when nothing seems to be improving… it can feel like
There are moments in life when following God will cost us something. Moments when standing for what is right puts us at risk. Moments when silence feels safer than speaking, and compromise feels easier than conviction. And in those moments, God often feels hidden. We wonder: Where is God when evil is advancing? Where is God when the pressure is on? What we need is the courage to trust that even when God seems silent, He is still sovereign and He is calling us to act. And that’s exactly what we see in Esther chapters 3 and 4. God is not named, but He is not absent. He is working behind the scen
Many of us struggle right here. We believe God is real—but when life feels chaotic, when circumstances don’t make sense, and when God seems silent, we start to wonder: Is He really at work in my life? If you’ve ever felt like God is distant, inactive, or hard to see, then this book is for you. And that’s exactly what the book of Esther helps us see, that even when God seems hidden, He is not absent. He is working behind the scenes. In the book of Esther, the author showed God’s people living in exile under the Persian King Ahasuerus that the Lord was providentially working behind the scenes to
We started with creation, where everything was good. Then came the fall, where sin broke everything. We saw the flood, the covenant, the exodus, the giving of the law, the founding of the Davidic kingdom, the exile, the coming of Christ, the work of the cross, and the birth of the church. From beginning to end, it’s been one story: A holy God rescuing His broken world through Jesus Christ. But every story begs the question: How does it end? Today, in The Consummation, we don’t just see the end of the story, we see the fulfillment of every promise God has made from Genesis onward. In the book o
Today we are going to join the disciples and other followers of Jesus in their moment of limbo. They were with Jesus for 3 years during his earthly ministry, they watched him crucified but then they saw him after his resurrection. Jesus was with them for 40 days after the resurrection, and then he left them again, ascended into Heaven. And he told them to wait. Now what? That’s not just their question—it’s ours. What do we do with the fact that Jesus has died for our sins, risen from the grave, and is now seated at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us? That is incredible news … but
So far in The Story, we’ve traced it from creation and the garden, through the fall and the flood, to God’s covenant with Abraham; from the exodus and the law, to the conquest and the kingdom under David; through the heartbreak of exile—and then last week, to the arrival of Christ, the long-promised Savior who stepped into history to redeem what was lost. But today, in this message, we reach the climax. If the Bible is the Story of everything, then the Resurrection of Jesus is the hinge upon which everything turns. We aren't just celebrating a religious holiday; we are celebrating the day the
If God has come near… do we recognize Him? Because it’s possible to: know the story… but miss the Savior; to be religious… but not have a relationship with God. That was the tragedy of the first century. And it is still the danger of the twenty-first. What we need is not more information about God, but an introduction to God. We need a true revelation of God. We need to see and know Jesus for who He truly is and the relationship He offers to know God. And that’s exactly what the opening of John’s Gospel gives us. It doesn’t begin with a manger…it begins with majesty! It begins “in the beginnin
Last week, we saw how God established the crown through David, promising an eternal King and kingdom, which pointed to it fulfillment in King Jesus. But today, in The Captivity, we’ll see a devastating turn of events. God’s people lose the land, the kingdom falls, and they are carried into exile. What will become of God’s people? How does this chapter fit into God’s STORY?!? We all know what it’s like to ignore God’s voice… to keep putting Him off… to drift further than we ever intended. And eventually we find ourselves in a place we never thought we’d be, far from God, facing the consequences
So far, we’ve seen God’s Rescue Plan in motion: from Creation’s beauty to the Catastrophe of sin; from the Covenant with Abraham to the Commandments at Sinai. Last week, we saw the Conquest of the land. But a land needs a leader. A people need a King. Today, we arrive at The Crown. The CROWN, where God promised David that a King would come through his line who would sit on the throne of an eternal kingdom. God promised a true king in an everlasting kingdom. Deep down, we are all nursing a 'leadership wound.' We instinctively long for a King who is both perfectly powerful and perfectly good, bu
In today’s message entitled THE CONQUEST, we’ll be looking at the story of God’s people finally coming into possession of the Promised Land after 40 long years in the wilderness. We live in a world of broken promises. We’ve been let down by leaders, friends, and even our own strength. When we look at the mess of our lives, or the mess in the Book of Joshua, we wonder: Where is God? Is He actually in control? Sometimes we feel like we’re stuck in a "wilderness" of waiting, wondering if we will ever truly "possess" what has God promised. To understand how we can trust God today, we can look back
