Four Oaks Midtown Podcast

Sermon | Alive Together with Him (Colossians 2:13-15)

In Christ, we are given a new life, freed from sin’s dominion and united to Him as the source of our fruitfulness. We not only receive a new status as saints marked by forgiveness but we are given a new future. A future where Christ has triumphed over all powers and calls us to live with our eyes fixed on Him as both our means and our end. Let us rest in this truth and walk in the freedom, identity, and hope that are ours in Christ.

Understanding Esther | The Ascent of Esther (Esther 1-2)

A good film rewards repeated viewings with deeper insight, appreciation, and meaning. We begin to appreciate minor details in the lighting, production design, and movement of the actors. Every subtle piece of dialogue or placement of the camera enriches our experience of the narrative and internalizes the major themes in a powerful way. The book of Esther, at first glance, tells a simple story about a queen who ascends to the heights of power in order to save her people. A closer examination however, reveals a multi-layered narrative of remarkable depth that subverts expectations and traces out the surprising way in which God works through fallen people in a broken world. The drama of Esther serves not only to get us into the story, but more importantly, to get the story into us. Esther 1-2 sets the stage by introducing the three main characters King Ahasuerus, Esther, and Mordecai whose lives intertwine to bring about the dramatic deliverance of God’s people. This is Understanding Esther.

Check out the rest of our Understanding Series: https://www.fouroaksmidtown.com/teachings

Sermon | Rooted in Christ (Colossians 2:6-12)

In Colossians 2:6–12, Paul calls believers not just to receive Christ, but to walk in Him, firmly rooted and built up in faith. The life that flourishes in Christ must be grounded in Him, not in empty philosophies or self-sufficient thinking. This passage invites us to examine what shapes our minds and desires: does what we meditate on draw us closer to Jesus or pull us away? Remembering our baptism and the joy of salvation reorients us, reminding us that we are not the source of life but recipients of grace. To walk in Christ is to cultivate vigilance, humility, and direction, to set our faces toward Him and live a life worthy of His calling.

Understanding Esther | Strangers in Exile (Esther Overview)

In this episode, guest podcaster Brian Seagraves joins us to explore the book of Esther. Together, we’ll consider the surprising moral ambiguity of its main characters, how the story is told with God’s name absent yet His sovereignty hidden in plain sight, and the dramatic reversals that shape the narrative. We’ll also reflect on why Esther retells history the way it does—not simply to record the past, but to shape how God’s people live in the present. This is Understanding Esther.

Check out the rest of our Understanding Series: https://www.fouroaksmidtown.com/teachings

Sermon | From Alienation to Fullness in Christ (Colossians 1:21-2:5)

Once we were alienated from God, hostile in mind, and marked by sin, but through Christ’s death we have been reconciled and now stand holy and blameless before Him. Paul reminds believers to remain steadfast in the gospel, thankful to live in the fullness of God’s revealed plan that prophets and angels longed to see. His aim is to see the church mature in Christ, knit together in love, firm in faith, and walking in the wisdom found only in Him.

 

Understanding Ruth | A Harvest of Joy (Ruth 4)

The book of Ruth focuses on two things that reveal our dependence upon God: land and children. We typically think of land as just matter that we through technology impose our will upon, but in the ANE land meant life, provision, and security. Central to Israel’s conception of land is the idea of an inheritance — God himself apportions various plots to tribes and families. These are gifts to be received rather than objects to generate profit. God nourishes his people through the land. Similarly, God grants children as a gift. Land and children remind us not only of our dependence, but our place as one rung in a ladder of generations through time. Everything in our modern world drives us to focus on the here and now. But land and children gives us a broader perspective. But even these temporal things are not the final end, for as we learn in the NT, the great inheritance we possess as Christians is an eternal kingdom, a new creation. And that the extension of our life in time through children is only finally fulfilled in our resurrection. Ruth draws us into that fundamental reality of God as our ultimate provider, protector, and redeemer. This is Understanding Ruth. 

Check out the rest of our Understanding Series: https://www.fouroaksmidtown.com/teachings

Sermon | Singing the Preeminence of Christ (Colossians 1:15-20)

In Colossians 1:15–20, Paul lifts our eyes to the wonder of who Jesus is as our Creator, Redeemer, and the One who holds all things together. All things were made by Him and for Him, and in Him all things hold together. From the firstborn over creation to the Lamb praised in Revelation, Scripture calls us to see Christ’s supremacy and respond in worship with thankful hearts.

Understanding Ruth | Wings of the Redeemer (Ruth 3)

Any author, playwright, or screenwriter worth his or her salt knows the golden rule of effective writing: show don’t tell. The narrative of Ruth shows the faithfulness of God unfolding through the ordinary lives of men and women through dialogue, action, and setting. The time of harvest symbolizes the fertility God grants to his people both in terms of bread and offspring. The shroud of darkness over the threshing floor highlights the hidden manner in which God works. The dawn of a new morning cues the audience into the rebirth of hope as Ruth returns to Naomi with a harvest of barley. Ruth offers a powerful corrective to our modern tendency to divorce God’s work from “real life”. God not only writes the stories of our lives, but calls us to live by faith as actors within his unfolding drama, submitting our will to his and playing our part with humility. We live within the same world as Ruth — a world in which God lifts up the humble and inclines his ear to the needy. A world where God acts in subtle and surprising ways. This is Understanding Ruth.

Check out the rest of our Understanding Series: https://www.fouroaksmidtown.com/teachings

Sermon | Turning to Prayer (Colossians 1:3-14)

In Colossians 1:3–14, Paul prays with thanksgiving, showing us that prayer is our first response to what God is doing in others. Prayer not only lifts our needs before the Lord, it stirs thanksgiving within us and strengthens faith, love, and hope. Paul’s pattern teaches us to pray for fellow believers: that they would grow in wisdom, walk worthy of the Lord, and wait with patience and joy.

Understanding Ruth | A Chance Encounter (Ruth 2)

Everyone wants to know God’s will for their life, but few want to conform their lives to God’s will. Deuteronomy 29:29 reminds us that “the secret things belong to the LORD... but the things that are revealed belong to us... that we may do all the words of this law.” God’s secret will—his providence—unfolds day by day, while his revealed will calls us to obey his commands. Our focus should not be on deciphering God’s secret plan but on living faithfully in light of what he has revealed. Ruth and Boaz model this, acting with courage and righteousness without knowing God’s plan, yet finding themselves woven into his redemptive story—far greater than anything they could have imagined. This is Understanding Ruth.

Check out the rest of our Understanding Series: https://www.fouroaksmidtown.com/teachings