Episodes
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Gratitude (Part 1): It's All Grace
Gratitude (Part 1) Deuteronomy 24:19-22 & Ephesians 2:1-10 Sunday, November 1, 2026 God’s grace is more than a single gift of salvation; it is present throughout our lives, calling us to remember how deeply we depend on God. Gratitude grows from that remembrance and takes shape in generous lives...
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Holy Habits (Part 7): Simplicity
Holy Habits (Part 7) Exodus 16:2-4, 9-18 & Matthew 6:25-34 Sunday, October 25, 2026 Simplicity is learning to say “enough” in a world that always urges us toward more—not merely tidying our homes, but decluttering our hearts of misplaced desire, distraction, and trust. By seeking God’s kingdom...
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Holy Habits (Part 6): Worship
Holy Habits (Part 6) Isaiah 6:1-8 & John 4:19-26 Sunday, October 18, 2026 Worship is a deliberate response to God’s invitation—not merely showing up, but participating with heart, mind, and will in honoring the God who has already chosen and loved us. Even when we do not feel like worshiping,...
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Holy Habits (Part 4): Community
Holy Habits (Part 4) Mark 2:1-12 Sunday, October 4, 2026 We often think of community as something that just “happens,” that it’s not the sort of thing we have to work at. In certain settings, this may be true. Christian community, however, is of such a special character that it doesn’t just...
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Holy Habits (Part 3): Study
Holy Habits (Part 3) Isaiah 55:6-13 & Colossians 3:1-11 Sunday, September 27, 2026 The Christian tradition has often seesawed between too great an emphasis on the mind—imagining that we can know God with scientific certainty—and too little emphasis on the mind—scorning theology as heartless and...
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Holy Habits (Part 2): Prayer
Holy Habits (Part 2) 1 Kings 19:11-13 & Exodus 3:1-6 Sunday, September 20, 2026 The quintessential spiritual discipline is prayer. But for all its importance, and despite broad cultural familiarity with it, we persist in holding a very narrow view of what prayer is—and what it is meant to do....
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Holy Habits (Part 1)
Holy Habits (Part 1) Deuteronomy 6:1-9 & 1 Timothy 4:6-10 Sunday, September 13, 2026 We have an intuitive understanding of the importance of physical health. So we try to make the right choices, but even when we don’t, we understand that we may be courting adverse consequences. The same is not...
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Crutches
Leviticus 25:1-7,19-23 & Luke 4:14-21 Sunday, September 6, 2026 Associate pastor Cassie Todd preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org.
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Summer Road Trip (Part 11): Paul in Miletus - The Giving Gospel
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 11) Micah 6:6-8 & Acts 20:17-22, 28-35 Sunday, August 23, 2026 Paul says his farewells before making his way to Jerusalem, which more or less marks the end of his missionary efforts (as recounted in the book of Acts). And his parting words...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 10): Paul in Ephesus - Bad for Business
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 10) Acts 19:21-34 Sunday, August 16, 2026 Some in the ancient world received the gospel as a balm—a message of comfort, peace, and welcome liberation. For others, however, the gospel was a threat: an unwelcome message that had the potential…
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Summer Road Trip (Part 9): Paul in Ephesus - A New Favorite Spot
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 9) Acts 19:1-10 Sunday, August 9, 2026 Having just a short stop in this city before, Paul finds himself back in Ephesus and he is able to spend a significant amount of time with them. In their time together, he unveils that they were taught...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 8): Paul in Corinth - When the Road Gets Long
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 8) Acts 18:1-17 Sunday, August 2, 2026 Adult Ministry Director Bill Wildey preaching. Current Series: Summer Road Trip The Apostle Paul did a daring thing in the years after Rome executed Jesus of Nazareth: he traveled around the Roman…
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Summer Road Trip (Part 7): Paul in Athens - An Unknown God
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 7) Acts 17:16-28 Sunday, July 26, 2026 In Athens, Paul encounters a city full of gods—a city always on the lookout for the next, newest, most interesting object of devotion. But where others might see the religious excesses of paganism, Paul...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 6): Paul in Philippi - Good News for Tough Times
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 6) Philippians 4:10-13 & Acts 16:16-40 Sunday, July 19, 2026 Parish Associate Craig Davies preaching. Current Series: Summer Road Trip The Apostle Paul did a daring thing in the years after Rome executed Jesus of Nazareth: he traveled around...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 5): Paul in Jerusalem - Debating Grace
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 5) Acts 15:1-19 Sunday, July 12, 2026 Paul goes to Jerusalem to try to settle an intramural debate within the early church: do converts need to be circumcised in order to be full members of the Christian community? For the Jerusalem leaders,...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 4): Paul in Lystra - Mistaken for Gods
Summer Road Trip (Part 4): The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 4) Acts 14:8-18 Sunday, July 5, 2026 Paul performs a miraculous healing in Lystra, and the people who witnessed it, awed at the apostles' apparent power, begin to worship them as gods. The human heart is inclined toward worship, but...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 3): Paul in Thessalonica - Turning the World Upside Down
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 3) Isaiah 61:1-5, 11 & Acts 17:1-9 Sunday, June 28, 2026 When the gospel comes to Thessalonica, an uproar ensues. And in the words of the apostles' opponents, the gospel is "turning the world upside down." This is what happens when the world...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 2): Paul in Philippi - Faith Finds a Home
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 2) Acts 16:6-15 Sunday, June 21, 2026 Interim Associate Pastor Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Summer Road Trip The Apostle Paul did a daring thing in the years after Rome executed Jesus of Nazareth: he traveled around the Roman...
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Summer Road Trip (Part 1): Lessons from Paul's First Missionary Journey
Summer Road Trip: The Missionary Journeys of Paul (Part 1) Acts 13 Sunday, June 14, 2026 Parish Associate Craig Davies preaching. Current Series: Summer Road Trip The Apostle Paul did a daring thing in the years after Rome executed Jesus of Nazareth: he traveled around the Roman Empire spreading...
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And So We Dance (Trinity Sunday)
2 Corinthians 13:1-11 & Matthew 28:16-20 Sunday, May 31, 2026 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org.
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The Church in Exile (Part 4): Stewards of Grace
The Church in Exile (Part 4) Jonah 3:1 - 4:1 & 1 Peter 4:1-11 Sunday, May 24, 2026 Exile can be a necessary reminder to the church that God’s love and work are not limited to us and ours; they are extended to the whole world. Our job as exiles is not to withhold God's goodness from others, but to...
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The Church in Exile (Part 3): Free & Honorable
The Church in Exile (Part 3) Daniel 1:3-5, 8-17 & 1 Peter 2:11-17 Sunday, May 10, 2026 Daniel succeeds in exile not because he tries to succeed, but because he tries to be faithful. In the same way, the church doesn't become faithful by making a difference in the world; the church makes a...
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The Church in Exile (Part 2): Putting Down Roots
The Church in Exile (Part 1) Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22 & 1 Peter 2:2-10 Sunday, May 3, 2026 So much of our sense of who we are is linked to place—where we live, where we're from, where we feel we belong. To live in exile is to be placeless, which can be more than disorienting; it can undermine...
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The Church in Exile (Part 1): Our Modern Exile
Sunday, April 26, 2026 Psalm 137:1-4 & 1 Peter 1:1-2, 13-23 After the people of God suffer dislocation and exile at the hands of Babylon in the 6th century BC, exile becomes a key metaphor for how they understand their collective life in a challenging world, even long after they return to their...
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The Rock Still Holds
Acts 2:14, 36-41 Sunday, April 19, 2026 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org.
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Growing in Wisdom (Seasoned Saints Sunday)
1 Peter 5:1-5 Sunday, April 12, 2026 Bill Wildey preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org.
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Ready to Live (Easter Sunday)
Get Ready (Part 7) Matthew 28:1-10 Easter Sunday, April 5, 2026 Life and death are both transformed on Easter: death is revealed to be much less potent than we thought, and life is revealed to be more enduring, more far-reaching, more eternal than we have fully reckoned with. Jesus leads the way...
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Ready to Follow
Get Ready (Part 6) Matthew 21:1-11 Palm Sunday, March 29, 2026 Jesus rides into Jerusalem—his so-called "triumphal entry"—on a donkey. This little bit of performance art is not only an intentional embodiment of a well-known prophecy (Zech. 9:9); it is also clear demonstration that he has not come...
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Ready to Suffer
Get Ready (Part 5) Matthew 16:21-26 Sunday, March 22, 2026 One of the more difficult realities of Jesus's ministry is that he, in no uncertain terms, invites those who would follow him to accept suffering willingly: to take up their own cross, just as he will take up his. What sort of suffering…
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Ready to Belong
Get Ready (Part 4) Acts 10 Sunday, March 15, 2026 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Get Ready Lent is a forty-day period of preparation which precedes the celebration of Christianity's holiest season, Easter. Throughout the church's history, faithful Christians have adopted a range of...
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Ready to Sacrifice
Get Ready (Part 3) Romans 12:1-8 Sunday, March 8, 2026 In a culture that prizes self-improvement and self-actualization, it seems a strange—even blasphemous—thing to encourage self-sacrifice. But if it is our hope and intention to imitate Jesus, then we cannot escape his call to live lives of...
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Ready to Change
Get Ready (Part 2) Psalm 51:1-12 & Mark 4:1-20 Sunday, March 1, 2026 Jesus tells a parable of a farmer sowing seeds to illustrate the importance of soil for producing fruit. The season of Lent is a time to consider the ways that the soil of our hearts has become inhospitable to the the seeds that...
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Ready to Listen
Get Ready (Part 1) Psalm 27:7-14 & 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11 Sunday, February 22, 2026 Paul warns the Thessalonian church not to fall asleep: not to be lulled into complacency or apathy, content with the world as it is. Instead, Paul urges the church to keep awake, to be ready to hear God's call and...
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Priorities: Christ over Everything
Priorities (Part 6) Matthew 17:1-9 Sunday, February 15, 2026 In a world full of brief, distracting “shooting stars,” Christians must navigate by the steady, unchanging light of Christ—placing him above everything else and letting his love reorder our lives. Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current...
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Priorities: Sanity over Cynicism
Priorities (Part 5) John 15:1-5 & Jeremiah 29:1, 4-11 Sunday, February 8, 2026 To God's people in exile, the prophet Jeremiah gives an extraordinary set of instructions, which basically boil down to: Make yourselves at home. The people believed they had no purpose in the present and no hope for…
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Priorities: Pilgrimage over Partisanship
Priorities (Part 4) Genesis 12:1-4 & Philippians 3:7-14 Sunday, February 1, 2026 To be a Christian is to journey toward Jesus: to be on a pilgrimage toward a life that is more and more centered on and shaped by his example and his call to love God and to love our neighbor. A pilgrimage is hard…
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Priorities: Witness over Winning
Priorities (Part 3) Isaiah 11:1-9 & Matthew 5:38-48 Sunday, January 25, 2026 We want to make a difference in the world, and we want the church to make a difference, too. We have plans, hopes, and dreams, and we work to make them happen. But sometimes the life that scripture calls us to live seems...
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What ever happened to the dreamers?
Matthew 2:1-12 Sunday, January 4, 2026 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org.
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The Great Exchange: Life for Death (Christmas Eve)
The Great Exchange (Part 3) Philippians 2:5-11 Christmas Eve, December 24, 2025 We have turned our lives into carefully structured and controlled environments with little room for surprise and wonder. The coming of God in the flesh in Jesus Christ is, at its simplest, a profound interruption—but…
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The Great Exchange: Divinity for Humanity
The Great Exchange (Part 2) Genesis 1:26-27 & John 1:1-5, 10-14 Sunday, December 21, 2025 We rarely contemplate what an astounding thing it is that God created humanity in God's own image—that there is a spark of divinity in each of us. Even more astounding, however, is that God would set aside...
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The Great Exchange: Power for Weakness
The Great Exchange (Part 1) Isaiah 9:2, 6-7 & 1 Corinthians 1:18-25 Sunday, December 14, 2025 In the incarnation, God exchanges power for weakness, taking on the frailty and limitations of human existence. This is not pretend weakness, or temporary weakness; it is a wholesale rejection of…
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In the Mess
Isaiah 2:1-5 & Matthew 24:36-44 Sunday, November 30, 2025 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Referenced in this sermon: Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy (1991) Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at...
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Wisdom (Part 11): Dust and Ashes
Wisdom (Part 11) Job 38 & Job 42:1-6 Sunday, November 23, 2025 The Book of Job ends with a bracing monologue from God, who berates Job from a whirlwind, followed by Job's humble submission. Job was sure that if he could get an audience with God, his case would be vindicated. In the end, God says...
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Wisdom (Part 10): Our Restless Souls
Wisdom (Part 10) Job 1:1, 6-22; 3:1-4, 20-26 Sunday, November 16, 2025 The Book of Job is a fable of an innocent sufferer—but it is unlike any other fable you've ever read. It is a poetic masterpiece that wrestles with the deepest conundrums of human experience, giving voice not only to the great...
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Wisdom (Part 9): Fearful Love
Wisdom (Part 9) Luke 10:25-37; Proverbs 1:1-7; Ecclesiastes 12:13 Sunday, November 9, 2025 Pastor Emeritus Tom Walker preaching. Referenced in this sermon: Philip Hallie, Lest Innocent Blood Be Shed (1994) Current Series: Wisdom Some of the most intriguing texts in the Bible are those belonging…
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Wisdom (Part 8): The End of the Matter
Wisdom (Part 8) Ecclesiastes 12:1-14 Sunday, November 2, 2025 The Book of Ecclesiastes cannot be understood in its fullness without an honest appraisal of death, which looms large in the mind of Qohelet, its author. But the same could be said of life: Life cannot be understood in its fullness...
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Wisdom (Part 7): Countering Culture
Wisdom (Part 7) Luke 7:11-17 Sunday, October 26, 2025 Beverly Dempsey preaching. Current Series: Wisdom Some of the most intriguing texts in the Bible are those belonging to the genre known as Wisdom Literature. These books explore some of life's deepest, most pressing, and most unanswerable...
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The Renewing of Our Minds (Guest Preacher Dr. Mark Douglas)
Romans 12:1-13 Sunday, October 19, 2025 Guest Dr. Mark Douglas preaching. Palms Presbyterian Church is a church of the Presbyterian Church (USA) located in Jacksonville Beach, Florida. To learn more about us, visit us at palmschurch.org. About Dr. Mark Douglas Mark Douglas is an ordained PCUSA...
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Wisdom (Part 6): The Great Mismatch
Wisdom (Part 6) Ecclesiastes 3:1-15 Sunday, October 12, 2025 The Book of Ecclesiastes points to a poignant contradiction that exists in every human heart: we have a longing for eternal, abiding things, but the world we inhabit just can't satisfy that longing. It is only by recognizing the limits…
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Wisdom (Part 5): Eat, Drink, and Be Merry
Wisdom (Part 5) Ecclesiastes 1:2-9 & 9:7-12 Sunday, October 5, 2025 The Book of Ecclesiastes has a very different take on traditional wisdom—rather than extolling wisdom's virtues, it candidly explores its limits. The author of this unique text tries to zero in on what really gives life meaning…
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About this show
Weekly sermons from Palms Presbyterian Church in Jacksonville Beach, Florida.
Visit us at palmschurch.org.
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