Eastgate Church Sermons - Rocky Mount

Eastgate Church
  • 5.0 (2)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Biweekly

Weekly sermons from Gary Combs and the preaching team at Eastgate Church in Wilson & Rocky Mount, NC.

  1. A Counter-Cultural Life

    4d ago

    A Counter-Cultural Life

    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 through Jesus Christ.

  2. A Worship-Filled Life

    Jun 21

    A Worship-Filled Life

    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 place our hope. Whatever sits at the center becomes the engine that drives us or the weight that slowly crushes us. And in Psalm 63, we see what it looks like when a life is anchored in worship of the only One worthy to carry the weight of our souls. In Psalm 63, while David was in the barren wilderness, he expressed his desire to live a worship-filled life whose greatest desire was not comfort or safety, but the presence of God.

  3. A Sacrificial Life

    Jun 14

    A Sacrificial Life

    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.

  4. Jun 7

    A Surrendered Life

    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 yourself. Not your Sundays. Not your spare time. Your whole self. Because partial surrender is still self-rule. And as Jesus will show us today, the only way to truly follow Him is through complete surrender. In chapter 9 of the Gospel of Luke, Jesus taught that all who would come after Him must completely surrender their lives for His sake.

  5. May 31

    The God Who Turns our Sorrow into Joy

    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 Haman’s decree of annihilation, turning their sorrow into joy.

  6. May 24

    The God Who Delivers From Death

    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 Persian empire, the people of God are living with the shadow of an appointed day of death hanging over them. Can God still be trusted when the threat is still on the calendar? This text answers with a resounding yes. It shows us that our God is not only powerful enough to expose the enemy - He is faithful enough to carry His people all the way through the danger. In Esther 8–9, the author described how God providentially delivered His people from death by positioning His servants to issue a new decree that enabled the Jews to overcome their enemies and survive Haman’s irrevocable edict.

  7. May 17

    The God Who Turns the Tables

    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 winning and God seems silent, how does God work to rescue His people? In the book of Esther 6:14–7:10, the author recorded how God providentially reversed the wicked plans of the Persian official Haman and saved the Jewish people from destruction. We can see how God providentially reverses the plans of the wicked to save His people.

  8. May 10

    The God Who is Already at Work

    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 God is absent. But Esther shows us that even in the most ordinary and unnoticed details, God is already at work. In Esther 5:1–6:13, as Haman’s deadly plot advanced and Esther sought favor, a series of seemingly ordinary events revealed that God was already at work to deliver His people.

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Weekly sermons from Gary Combs and the preaching team at Eastgate Church in Wilson & Rocky Mount, NC.

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