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Every Idol Has a Gospel Acts 19:21-41 Teacher: Tommy Bailey Date: October 18, 2026 When the gospel took root in Ephesus, many turned from their old way of life to follow Jesus, and the word of the Lord continued to increase and prevail mightily. But a great work of God rarely goes unopposed. In Acts 19:21-41, a silversmith named Demetrius stirs up the city to defend the goddess Artemis, and for two hours a crowd shouts her praises, though most of them don't even know why they've gathered. Demetrius complained that Paul was teaching that gods made with hands are not gods at all. He was more right than he knew. Every idol has a gospel. It promises freedom, peace, and security, and it quietly insists that Jesus is not enough. Join Pastor Tommy as we discover that heart idols aren't torn down by willpower alone, but they are dethroned when our hearts are captured by a greater affection. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Guarded By Peace Philippians Teacher: Tommy Bailey Date: October 11, 2026 Ten years after a businesswoman, a slave girl, and a jailer became the first church in Philippi, Paul writes them a letter. He is likely in a Roman prison, chained to a guard. Yet in Philippians 4 he tells them to rejoice, to be anxious about nothing, and to trust that the peace of God will stand guard over their hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Paul demonstrates and teaches that grace is the root, and peace is the fruit. Join Pastor Tommy as we consider a kind of peace that is not tethered to our circumstances. Before Paul says a word about how we think or what we do, he reminds us whose we are and who is near. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Stranger Things Acts 19:1-20 Teacher: Jim Thomas Date: October 4, 2026 What do speaking in tongues, healing handkerchiefs, botched exorcisms, and a bonfire of magic books have to do with each other? They're all just a little bit strange, and they're all in Acts 19:1–20, as the Apostle Paul arrives in Ephesus, a city steeped in magic and superstition. Stranger still is how he got there. Behind the scenes, God was moving his people around the map: Priscilla and Aquila, Apollos, and Paul himself, each in the right place at the right time. And the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed. And the strangest thing of all? The risen Jesus is still at work through ordinary people like you and me. Join us as we ask: are we ready, willing, and available to serve in God's supernatural kingdom? Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Held Fast Acts 18 Teacher: Tommy Bailey Date: September 27, 2026 In Acts 18, the Apostle Paul arrives in Corinth alone and worn down. There he finds Priscilla and Aquila, recently uprooted from their home in Rome by the Emperor Claudius. Even as the gospel begins to bear fruit in Corinth, Paul is afraid. So the Lord comes to him in the night with a word of assurance, "Do not be afraid… for I am with you" (vv. 9–10). Join Pastor Tommy as we consider the God who holds fast the uprooted and undone. Whether your life has been upended by circumstances you didn't choose or you are simply weary, the same Lord who held Paul fast in Corinth will not let go of those who belong to Him. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

God is Not Far From You Acts 17:16-34 Teacher: Matt Pierson Date: September 20, 2026 The apostle Paul finds himself waiting in the city of Athens for Timothy and Silas to join him. As he waits, he observes the thousands of idols and statues of gods and goddesses surrounding him. As Paul reasons with people in the marketplace about Jesus and the resurrection, philosophers invite him to speak before the Areopagus, surrounded by the sharpest and most intellectually curious minds in all of Athens. Paul gives one of his most brilliant sermons, a master class in apologetics, finding ways to relate to the Athenians within their own cultural context, and moving beyond to point to the one true God. In doing so, he reminds them and us that God is not some distant, unknown deity, but is personal; He has a name, He is moving all of history forward in His direction, and He is not far from each one of us. Join Pastor Matt as we look at Acts 17:16-34 and consider how the Creator of the universe, the One whom we all seek, is not “out there somewhere,” but is closer to us than our next breath. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Turning the World Right Side Up Acts 17:1-15 Teacher: Jim Thomas Date: September 13, 2026 They accused Paul and his friends of turning the world upside down. It wasn't a compliment — a mob dragged his friends into the street in Thessalonica, furious that a message this small was causing trouble this big. But what if they were more right than they knew? What if the world we've gotten used to is the one that's upside down — and the gospel isn't the disruption, but the correction? Join Pastor Jim for this study of Acts 17:1–15. It’s the story about a riot, a night escape, and a city called Berea where ordinary people did something remarkably simple: they checked Paul's story against Scripture for themselves. Along the way we'll ask three questions worth asking about anything you're asked to believe: Is it rational and reasonable? Does it have any real life irony? And ultimately, is it true or, right? Join us as we look at what it takes to turn our world right side up. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

What Is God Up To? Part 2 Acts 16:16-40 Teacher: Tommy Bailey Date: September 6, 2026 In Acts 16:16-40, the gospel has reached the European continent for the first time, and it takes root in a Roman colony called Philippi. When the name of Jesus sets a slave girl free from an evil spirit, her owners lose their income, a mob forms, and Paul and Silas are beaten and thrown into prison. At midnight they are praying and singing hymns when an earthquake shakes the foundations and opens every door. The earthquake made it clear that there is a higher authority than Rome. Luke draws our attention to three unlikely conversions in Philippi: a businesswoman, an enslaved girl, and a Roman jailer. A woman, a slave, and a gentile. Lydia was an honest seeker whose heart the Lord opened at a riverside prayer service. The slave girl was bound twice over and met by a power greater than the one that held her. The jailer wasn't seeking anything at all that day, and before the night was over he was asking what he must do to be saved. The earthquake in Philippi did not come to break Paul and Silas out of jail. It came to set a jailer free in Christ. God is on the move toward us, not the other way round, meeting us right where we are. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

What Is God Up To? Part 1 Acts 16:1-15 Teacher: Tommy Bailey Date: August 30, 2026 In Acts 16, Paul and his companions set out on mission with careful plans, and watch the Spirit close one door and then another. Forbidden to speak the word in two regions, they arrive in the port city of Troas with no clear direction, but with a mission that has not changed. There Paul sees a vision of a man of Macedonia pleading for help, and the team concludes together that God is calling them to preach the gospel there. Setting sail from Troas, they carry the good news of Jesus to the continent of Europe for the first time. What unfolds along the way is a story of God's provision through people. A young disciple named Timothy. Luke, the physician and historian, who joins the team and is given a front row seat to the work of God. And Lydia, a successful business woman worshiping by a river outside the city gate, whose heart the Lord opened and whose home became the birthplace of the church at Philippi. Closed doors, an unexpected dream, a woman's open house. The guidance of God is rarely predictable, His provision more generous than we imagine. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Trust the Slow Work of God Acts 15:36-41 Teacher: Matt Pierson Date: August 23, 2026 What should we do when the unthinkable happens, and a relationship we thought was rock solid and indestructible explodes into a thousand pieces? What do repentance and forgiveness look like when we can’t even agree to disagree? What hope is there for healing, forgiveness, and reconciliation? Join Pastor Matt as we look at Acts 15:36-41 and consider the broken relationship of Paul and Barnabas, and how God continued to work through them, despite their differences. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Is Grace Really Enough Acts 15:1-35 Teacher: Pastor Jim Thomas Date: August 16, 2026 We live in a world that runs on performance. Your value is your output. Your worth is your record. Your acceptance depends on what you've achieved, what you've avoided, and whether your résumé — moral, professional, spiritual — is good enough to get you through the door. Most of us have absorbed this logic so deeply that we've brought it straight into our relationship with God without even noticing. We believe in grace. We just don't quite trust that it's enough. The Jerusalem Council of Acts 15 was called to settle exactly that question. And what the apostles declared in that room is the verdict the church has spent two thousand years preaching and defending, but occasionally almost giving away. Is grace really enough? Not enough to get you started, with your effort taking over from there. Not enough for most people, with exceptions for the especially bad. Enough. Completely. Finally. Full stop enough. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Faithful Resilience Acts 14 Teacher: Pastor Tommy Bailey Date: August 9, 2026 In Acts 14, Paul and Barnabas finish a fourteen hundred mile journey marked by resistance at nearly every turn, and when they finally arrive at home base in Antioch, bruised and worn, the first thing they do is gather the church to say, "Look at what God has done!" Join Pastor Tommy as we walk the last miles of that first missionary journey and consider the kind of resilience that sustained them. It was a resilience not sourced in themselves. It was rooted in the grace of God, the mission of God, and the people of God, and it is the same grace given to us in our own callings today. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

The Mission that Gives Life Meaning Acts 13 Teacher: Pastor Jim Thomas Date: August 2, 2026 Everyone of us is curious about the purpose of life. Everyone of us wants to have a mission with meaning. And those longings are a sign that God designed us, heart, mind and soul, with a desire for something more than just a career, more than physical pleasures, and more than a big fat paycheck. In Acts 13, an ordinary church in Antioch discovers exactly what that "something more" looks like — a Spirit-sent mission that carries the gospel from a Roman proconsul in Cyprus to a synagogue in Asia Minor, and eventually, down through two thousand years, to us. This message traces that journey and makes the case that the deepest meaning you're searching for was never found by climbing higher — it's found by being sent. Join Pastor Jim as he walks us through the first recorded sermon by the apostle Paul and draws some timeless truths that will inspire and encourage all of us who are looking for a mission that gives life meaning. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

The God of Great Reversals Ruth 4 Teacher: Pastor Tommy Bailey Date: July 26, 2026 Is history going somewhere, or is it just moving along like a boat without a rudder? Most of us never say the question out loud, but it surfaces when life turns out differently than we hoped. It surfaces when suffering becomes personal. The book of Ruth arrives in the days when the judges ruled, a time of corruption and injustice when there was no king in the land and everyone did what was right in their own eyes. It also arrives at a time of great loss for a family far from home in Moab. The entire book of Ruth responds to that question with a costly redemption at the city gate and a baby born in Bethlehem. Join Pastor Tommy as we finish our four-week series in Ruth and consider the God of great reversals. Boaz binds himself to a family that had lost nearly everything, at a cost the law never required him to pay. Naomi, who came home empty and asked to be called bitter, is now holding a precious grandson. Ruth, who had carried the name of an enemy nation like a scarlet letter, is honored and blessed as member of the family. This is God's specialty, and what happens in that little town is only a shadow of the greater reversal it points to in Jesus. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Redemption at the Threshing Floor Ruth 3 Teacher: Pastor Tom Yarbrough Date: July 19, 2026 So far in our study of Ruth, we have seen the emptiness of Naomi in the loss of her husband and sons, the steadfast “hesed” love of Ruth toward Naomi, and the deep admiration that Boaz has for Ruth’s character. Throughout the narrative, we have had hints of a coming restoration for this suffering family and it’s clear that the unseen hand of Yahweh is working in the shadows, in spite of what might appear to be happenstance. Chapter 3 finds Ruth embarking on a risky night mission to the threshing floor of Boaz with the singular aim of redemption for herself and Naomi. Will Boaz turn out to be the right man for the job of kinsman-redeemer? How does this story point toward our need for Jesus as our kinsman-redeemer? Join Pastor Tom as we study Ruth 3 together. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!

Providence in a Field of Barley Ruth 2 Teacher: Pastor Matt Pierson Date: July 12, 2026 In Ruth chapter 1, we follow the story of Naomi, a woman who has moved with her husband and sons to the land of Moab to escape a famine in Bethlehem. At the end of chapter 1, Naomi, having lost her husband and both sons, returns to Bethlehem along with her daughter-in-law Ruth. In the second chapter of Ruth, the women are back in Bethlehem, just as the barley harvest begins. Despite the obstacles of being a widow, desperately poor, and a foreigner, Ruth rolls up her sleeves and sets out to work in the barley fields. Join Pastor Matt as we study through the second chapter of Ruth and observe how God is working behind the scenes, guiding Ruth to the barley fields of Boaz, a wealthy and worthy man who also happens to be a kinsman of Naomi, of the clan of Elimilech, Naomi’s husband. As the chapter unfolds, we see how God does extraordinary things in ordinary ways through ordinary people. Support the show To find more resources like these, follow us: Website: https://thevillagechapel.com YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVTzDbaiXVUAm_mUBDCTJA Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tvcnashville/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tvcnashville X: https://twitter.com/tvcnashville To support the ongoing mission of The Village Chapel go to https://thevillagechapel.com/give/. If you are a regular giver, thank you for your continued faithfulness and generosity!