Church of the Oaks

"The Covenant with Noah" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Genesis 9:1-17 Church of the Oaks, February 21, 2021 As our passage for this morning opens, the great Flood is finally over. Noah and his family have stepped out of the Ark, along with all the animals who were also passengers with them. As the Bible reminds us over and over again, human beings tend to become so evil, so rebellious, that we provoke God’s righteous anger. In that righteous wrath, God flooded the whole ea...Continue reading

"The Father’s Beloved Son" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Psalm 2 Church of the Oaks, February 14, 2021 In Bible colleges and seminaries in our timeincluding conservative evangelical seminaries like the ones I graduated fromstudents are constantly reminded that they ought to look for the original context of any Old Testament passage in order to understand it better: the historical context, the geographical context, the literary context, the cultural context, the political c...Continue reading

"Who Is the King of Glory?" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Psalm 24 Church of the Oaks, February 7, 2021 The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof; the world, and those who dwell therein is how this morning’s Scripture text opens. The earth belongs to God. David, the writer of this psalm, wants there to be no mistake. It’s the whole world, not just the ground, not just the dirt. Everything in the world is also God’s property. And not only every thing belongs to ...Continue reading

"Present Things Pass Away" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam I Corinthians 7:25-40 Church of the Oaks, January 31, 2021 I said last week that I wanted to preach on all of I Corinthians chapter 7, but decided that it was too long a text for a single sermon. So this week, we are looking at the rest of the chapter....Continue reading

Schedule of Sermons for February 2021: February 7 "Who Is the King of Glory?" Psalm 24 February 14 "The Father's Beloved Son" Psalm 2... February 21 "The Covenant with Noah" Genesis 9:1-17 February 28 "That Fig Tree" Mark 11:12-33

"Married or Single?" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam I Corinthians 7:1-24 Church of the Oaks, January 24, 2021 In the old rock’n’roll songs of my childhood, the question implied in my sermon title would always be answered, Married, of course! You might be a lonely teenager who finally won the affections of your teenage queen, your dream lover. You will be happy together as long as you are not a wanderer, not a traveling man, and as long as she is not a runaway or a Runaroun...Continue reading

"Jesus Rebukes" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Luke 4:31-44 Church of the Oaks, January 17, 2021 This morning’s passage is fairly early in Luke’s Gospel. Other Gospels tell us about the choosing of the Twelve Apostles earlier, but here in this morning’s reading we read about only one of them, Peter, and the rest have not appeared yet....Continue reading

"They Heard the Word" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Acts 19:1-10 Church of the Oaks, January 10, 2021 Apollos and Peter were the two most famous preachers in the first-century Church, besides the Apostle Paul. Many believers thought the other two were better preachers than Paul, but Paul generously said that did not matter as long as the Gospel was being truly preached (Philippians 1:18). When Apollos first came on the scene, he had been a disciple of John the Baptist, and ...Continue reading

"They Begged Him to Depart" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Mark 5:1-20 Church of the Oaks, January 3, 2021 This morning’s Scripture is one of the scariest passages in the Bible, I think. Imagine you’re there, one of Jesus’ disciples. You’re already in strange country, but it gets even stranger. You are confronted by a man who rushes right up to your Rabbi, Jesus. This is a wild man. When I put myself in the scene, I see somebody large and supernaturally strong, completel...Continue reading

"Sheep and Goats" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Matthew 25:31-46 Church of the Oaks, November 22, 2020 I have never been a shepherd, or any kind of farmer. But I love to go to the fair and look at the livestock each summer. I’ve been very disappointed that the Monterey County Fair was canceled this year. My favorite animals are the pigs, which of course don’t get any favorable comment in the Bible. But I also like the sheep and goats. I think certain kinds of sheep and c...Continue reading

Schedule of Sermons for December 2020: December 6 Psalm 119:121-136 "Your Words Give Light" December 13 John 1:19-28 "Crying in the Wilderness"... December 20 II Samuel 7:1-17 "A Throne Established Forever" December 24 James 1:16-27 "The Word of Truth" (Christmas Eve service) December 27 Luke 2:21-40 "The Consolation of Israel"

"Deborah the Prophetess" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Judges 4 Church of the Oaks, November 15, 2020 This will be the first time I have ever preached a sermon on the book of Judges. I have been a preacher in one context or another since 1988, and I never preached on Judges before even once, in all those years. We have been studying this book in the Wednesday-night meeting, and we have sometimes wondered why some of these characters are even in the Bible. If Judges were a ...Continue reading

Schedule of Sermons for November 2020: November 1 Revelation 7:4-17 "An Uncountable Multitude" November 8 Amos 5:18-27 "Lion, Bear, and Serpent"... November 15 Judges chapter 4 "Deborah the Prophetess" November 22 Matthew 25:31-46 "Sheep and Goats" November 29 II Corinthians 9:1-15 "A Cheerful Giver"

"Whose Son Is the Christ?" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Matthew 22:41-46 Church of the Oaks, October 25, 2020 This morning’s very short Scripture passage is an interesting example of Jesus’ perfect knowledge of the Hebrew Bible and His ability to use logic to make a point. One of our recent U.S. Presidents was once asked, Who is your favorite philosopher? His answer was, Jesus Christ. Here we are going to see Jesus teaching by asking questions, similar to the way that...Continue reading

"Lion, Bear, and Serpent" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Amos 5:18-27 Church of the Oaks, November 8, 2020 People might wonder why we Christians pay so much attention to the history of ancient Israel. After all, it is ancient history; what can it have to do with us today? But we remember what our Congregational forebears, the old Puritans, used to insist on: that Israel was the Old Testament Church, and the Church is the New Testament Israel. So in a very real sense, we ar...Continue reading

"The Lord’s Anointed" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Isaiah 45:1-13 Church of the Oaks, October 18, 2020 This morning’s passage is fascinating. Two surprising things stand out for me. First, Isaiah is not only predicting the coming of the Persian King Cyrus, but he also calls him by name a couple of hundred years before Cyrus was even born. And second, he calls Cyrus the Lord’s anointed. The Hebrew word for anointed is the word we write as Messiah in Hebrew or as Chris...Continue reading

"An Uncountable Multitude" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Revelation 7:4-17 Church of the Oaks, November 1, 2020 Today is All Saints’ Day. Originally in Church history, this was a day set aside to remember believers who have died and gone to heaven. In its origins, All Saints’ Day had nothing to do with the Roman Catholic idea that there are certain dead believers who were so good in this life that the Church leadership honors them with the title of saint, and that people c...Continue reading

"The Golden Calf" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Exodus 32:1-14 Church of the Oaks, October 11, 2020 This morning’s passage is one of the most heartbreaking episodes in the Old Testament. Every time I read through the book of Exodus, I enjoy reading about the miracle of God and Moses meeting together as two individuals on the mountain, with Moses listening to God and God listening to Moses. When I’m reading those chapters I’ve usually forgotten about all those people waiting...Continue reading

"God’s Faithfulness" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Psalm 119:73-88 Church of the Oaks, October 4, 2020 We’re looking at a small portion of the Bible’s longest psalm again. As we’ve noticed earlier, this is a poetic tour de force. Each of the twenty-two stanzas of the psalm is marked by a different Hebrew letter, because in Hebrew each line of that stanza begins with that Hebrew letter. Scholars call it an acrostic psalm. There are other acrostic psalms, but this is the mo...Continue reading

Schedule of Sermons for October 2020: October 4 Psalm 119:73-88 "God's Faithfulness" October 11 Exodus 32:1-14 "The Golden Calf" October 18 Isaiah 45:1-13 "The Lord's Anointed"... October 25 Matthew 22:41-46 "Whose Son Is the Christ?" See more

That’s What Friends Are For Exodus 17:8-16 Church of the Oaks, September 27, 2020 (Connie Hellam preaching)...Continue reading

"A Fair Wage" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Matthew 20:1-16 Church of the Oaks, September 20, 2020 In the law in the United States, there is a technical term called an Unfair Labor Practice, or ULP. A ULP is an action by either management or labor that violates the National Labor Relations Act. There were no labor unions in Jesus’ time on earth, and if there had been, the incident in His parable that we’re looking at today might not have happened. But even in Jesus’ day, m...Continue reading

"What Happens to Us Now?" By Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Genesis 50 Church of the Oaks, September 13, 2020 This is an exciting passage of the Bible. Like the rest of the Bible, it has a Main Character Who is not always in plain sight. That Main Character, of course, is God. And here we see that God is kind and gracious and forgiving and generous, and that He knows the future and has a plan that can create a good future out of an ugly past and present. But the visible peop...Continue reading

"Confirm Your Promise" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Psalm 119:33-48 Church of the Oaks, September 6, 2020 A common misconception about poetry, even about Biblical poetry, is that it is written in the heat of the moment and scrawled out on the page without any further work. Any competent poet knows that’s not true, and it is especially obvious that that couldn’t be true of Psalm 119. As we’ve discussed before, the psalm is very carefully crafted. It consists of twenty-two ...Continue reading

"Poor and Needy" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Psalm 86 Church of the Oaks, August 30, 2020 One commentator seems to complain about Psalm 86, our text for this morning. He says, . . . This psalm is highly formulaic from beginning to end. A reader who has been going through the Book of Psalms in sequence by this point will have encountered almost every line of this poem, with minor variations, elsewhere. That writer may not be quite as crabby as he sounds, and I think he ...Continue reading

Schedule of Sermons for September 2020: September 6 "Confirm Your Promise" Psalm 119:33-48 September 13 "What Happens to Us Now?" Genesis 50... September 20 "A Fair Wage" Matthew 20:1-16 September 27 "That's What Friends Are For" Exodus 17:8-16 (Women's Sunday--Connie Hellam speaking)

"A Wild Olive Tree" by Rev. Dr. Robert Hellam Romans 11:13-36 Church of the Oaks, August 23, 2020 I think I told you last week that I had originally intended to base just one sermon on Romans chapter 11, but I decided that since there is so much to say about that chapter and because it is so important, I would bring you two sermons on the chapter....Continue reading