Some people are easy to love. Others test every ounce of patience you have. What do you do with them?

In this message from Romans 13:8-14, Pastor Josh Slater opens with a lesson from his years waiting tables:

some people understand urgency and some never do. Paul says the people of God are supposed to live with

urgency, and he tells us how. We love one another, and we put on Christ.

The episode starts with a debt most of us never think about. Paul says we owe everyone love, not because

they earned it, but because God commands it. Josh explains what love actually is (it is not a feeling), why

the lawyer in the Good Samaritan story was trying to cap his love, and why a neighbor is something you are

to someone, not a category you sort people into. He also sets honest guardrails. Love does not mean

unlimited access to you, and if you are in danger, you go to the authorities.

Then the message turns to Romans 13:11-14. The night is nearly over, so we discard the deeds of darkness.

Josh gets specific about drunkenness, sexual immorality, quarreling, and jealousy, and about why nobody

sins in a vacuum. Finally he answers the question every listener is asking: how can I possibly pay this debt?

You put on Christ.

Key scripture: Romans 13:8-14, because it ties our love for people to the nearness of Jesus and gives us a practical way to live today.

New sermons from Prairie Valley Church in Campbell, Texas, drop every week. Find all our links at https://link.content360.io/PVC and subscribe so you never miss one.

What do you do when the leaders in charge are not the ones you wanted, and the Bible still says to submit to them? Most of us feel that tension every election season.

In this message, Pastor Josh Slater walks through Romans 13:1-7 and starts with a question underneath the politics: what does God say about authority? Paul was writing to Christians in the Roman Empire who had no vote and no voice, and he still told them to submit. Josh unpacks what that word really means (it is something you do, not something done to you), why God appoints rulers without endorsing them, and what government is actually for.

Then he takes on the hard part. When must a Christian disobey? Using Acts 5, Daniel 3, and two modern stories, he shows the only two situations where the answer is yes, and what it costs. From there the message turns personal: why paying taxes can be worship, why "we can hate policies, but we cannot hate people," and why praying for politicians beats complaining about them.

It ends where every Romans message ends, at the gospel. Jesus stood under Pilate's authority so we could be forgiven, and now all authority belongs to him.

Key scripture: Romans 13:1-7, because it is the clearest passage in the New Testament on how followers of Jesus live under earthly government.

New sermons from Prairie Valley Church drop every week. Find all our links at https://link.content360.io/PVC and subscribe so you never miss one.

Someone hurt you. Maybe recently, maybe years ago, and some part of you still wants them to pay for it. So what does Jesus actually ask you to do with that feeling.

This episode walks through Romans 12:9-21, where Paul gives the church in Rome, and us, a picture of love with no fine print attached. Pastor Josh Slater starts with the foundation: our love for other people is never based on how they treat us, it is based on how God already treated us while we were still His enemies. From there the text gets specific. Love without pretending. Detest what is actually evil, not just what bothers you personally. Take the lead in honoring people before they have earned it. Bless the people who are working against you instead of cursing them back. And when someone genuinely wrongs you, release the right to get even, because vengeance was never yours to collect in the first place.

The sermon does not stop at good advice. It lands on a promise: evil does not get the final word unless you let it turn you into something evil too, but good, real and costly good, has the power to overcome it. That is the same confidence that put Christ on a cross to absorb evil instead of returning it.

Key scripture: Romans 12:9-21, closing with Paul's summary of the whole passage: do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.

New sermons from Prairie Valley Church drop every week. Find all our links at https://link.content360.io/PVC and subscribe so you never miss one.