Austin W. Duncan

In the Text

To Thine Own Self Be True

"To thine own self be true" is Shakespeare, not Scripture. What the saying protects, where it breaks, and what Psalm 139 offers in its place. The line comes from Polonius in Hamlet, and we dropped the half that gave it brakes. Scripture never says your knowledge of yourself is complete or your verdict on yourself is final. Jeremiah 17, Luke 9, and Psalm 139 show a better pattern: be completely honest about what you feel, and refuse to let it be the last word.

Read nowSep 13, 2026

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"To thine own self be true" is Shakespeare, not Scripture. What the saying protects, where it breaks, and what Psalm 139 offers in its place. The line comes from Polonius in Hamlet, and we dropped the half that gave it brakes. Scripture never says your knowledge of yourself is complete or your verdict on yourself is final. Jeremiah 17, Luke 9, and Psalm 139 show a better pattern: be completely honest about what you feel, and refuse to let it be the last word.Read

In the Text

To Thine Own Self Be True

Sep 13, 2026

In the Text

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

Sep 6, 2026

A final walk through Colossians 1:15-20, treated less as a new lesson than as proof that careful reading habits have taken hold. Each key term gets unpacked: image reaching back to Genesis and forward to transformation in 2 Corinthians 3, firstborn meaning rank and inheritance rather than birth order (with Psalm 89 and the second use, firstborn from the dead, as support), fullness ruling out any thin view of Christ, and reconciliation carrying cosmic scope. The hymn's final line, peace made by the blood of the cross, keeps lofty Christology anchored in a specific body and a specific death. The closing point: these words form a network, not a list, and the aim is to hand the text back to the reader.Read

In the Text

What Do You Do Now?

Jun 15, 2026

John 10:10 gets quoted so often that most hearers fill in their own definition of "abundant life": comfort, success, stability. The Greek pushes back. John does not use bios, ordinary biological existence, but zoe, life as it comes from God and belongs to the age to come. From "in him was life" in John 1:4, to the definition of eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son in John 17:3, to "I am the resurrection and the life" spoken outside a tomb, the claim builds: Jesus does not merely dispense life, he is life. Romans 5:21 and Romans 8:10-11 then place that life inside the wider structure of grace, righteousness, and the indwelling Spirit, with Genesis 2:7 supplying the background of breath and dust.Read

In the Text

Life Isn't What You Think It Is

Jun 8, 2026

Word for Word

Are Images of Jesus Idolatrous?

May 6, 2026

James 5:1-6 reads less like financial advice and more like a courtroom scene, and this teaching follows that image closely. The abrupt "come now" and the prophet's word "howl" set the tone, then three exhibits are examined: rotted riches, garments eaten quietly in storage while workers cry out for withheld wages, and gold that supposedly cannot corrode yet already has in God's sight. The point is not that money is evil but that hoarded wealth stops being neutral and starts testifying. "Laid up treasure in the last days" is read as moral urgency rather than prophecy chart, echoing the rich fool of Luke 12. The application turns to affluent hearers who compare sideways and never feel rich, weighed against global and historical measures of wealth.Read

Sermon

When Wealth Takes The Stand

May 4, 2026

Exegetica

Justification and Covenant Membership: Reevaluating the New Perspective on Paul

May 1, 2026

Word for Word

Is the Virgin Birth Miracle or Myth?

Apr 29, 2026

Word for Word

Was Christianity Influenced by Ancient Pagan Mystery Religions?

Apr 22, 2026

Word for Word

What Does It Mean to Say That Jesus Ascended into Heaven?

Apr 15, 2026

Starting with a missed alarm and a thermostat war with a roommate, this sermon presses James's question about the source of quarrels and finds it not in tone, email, or traffic but in cravings that have grown teeth. Desire becomes demand, demand becomes damage, and even prayer gets recruited to cosign our plans, which is why some unanswered prayers are mercy rather than neglect. James raises the stakes further: selfish craving is not only a horizontal problem but covenant unfaithfulness, and worldliness can wear church clothes. The teaching then turns on verse 6, insisting that James moves from sin to grace before he moves to commands. The text breaks off as Proverbs 3:34 is introduced.Read

Sermon

The Divided Heart

Apr 13, 2026

Exegetica

Eschatological Ethics: How the Biblical Vision of the Future Shapes Present Christian Practice

Apr 3, 2026

Most recent12

"To thine own self be true" is Shakespeare, not Scripture. What the saying protects, where it breaks, and what Psalm 139 offers in its place. The line comes from Polonius in Hamlet, and we dropped the half that gave it brakes. Scripture never says your knowledge of yourself is complete or your verdict on yourself is final. Jeremiah 17, Luke 9, and Psalm 139 show a better pattern: be completely honest about what you feel, and refuse to let it be the last word.Read

In the Text

To Thine Own Self Be True

Sep 13, 2026

In the Text

God Helps Those Who Help Themselves

Sep 6, 2026

A final walk through Colossians 1:15-20, treated less as a new lesson than as proof that careful reading habits have taken hold. Each key term gets unpacked: image reaching back to Genesis and forward to transformation in 2 Corinthians 3, firstborn meaning rank and inheritance rather than birth order (with Psalm 89 and the second use, firstborn from the dead, as support), fullness ruling out any thin view of Christ, and reconciliation carrying cosmic scope. The hymn's final line, peace made by the blood of the cross, keeps lofty Christology anchored in a specific body and a specific death. The closing point: these words form a network, not a list, and the aim is to hand the text back to the reader.Read

In the Text

What Do You Do Now?

Jun 15, 2026

John 10:10 gets quoted so often that most hearers fill in their own definition of "abundant life": comfort, success, stability. The Greek pushes back. John does not use bios, ordinary biological existence, but zoe, life as it comes from God and belongs to the age to come. From "in him was life" in John 1:4, to the definition of eternal life as knowing the Father and the Son in John 17:3, to "I am the resurrection and the life" spoken outside a tomb, the claim builds: Jesus does not merely dispense life, he is life. Romans 5:21 and Romans 8:10-11 then place that life inside the wider structure of grace, righteousness, and the indwelling Spirit, with Genesis 2:7 supplying the background of breath and dust.Read

In the Text

Life Isn't What You Think It Is

Jun 8, 2026

Word for Word

Are Images of Jesus Idolatrous?

May 6, 2026

James 5:1-6 reads less like financial advice and more like a courtroom scene, and this teaching follows that image closely. The abrupt "come now" and the prophet's word "howl" set the tone, then three exhibits are examined: rotted riches, garments eaten quietly in storage while workers cry out for withheld wages, and gold that supposedly cannot corrode yet already has in God's sight. The point is not that money is evil but that hoarded wealth stops being neutral and starts testifying. "Laid up treasure in the last days" is read as moral urgency rather than prophecy chart, echoing the rich fool of Luke 12. The application turns to affluent hearers who compare sideways and never feel rich, weighed against global and historical measures of wealth.Read

Sermon

When Wealth Takes The Stand

May 4, 2026

Exegetica

Justification and Covenant Membership: Reevaluating the New Perspective on Paul

May 1, 2026

Word for Word

Is the Virgin Birth Miracle or Myth?

Apr 29, 2026

Word for Word

Was Christianity Influenced by Ancient Pagan Mystery Religions?

Apr 22, 2026

Word for Word

What Does It Mean to Say That Jesus Ascended into Heaven?

Apr 15, 2026

Starting with a missed alarm and a thermostat war with a roommate, this sermon presses James's question about the source of quarrels and finds it not in tone, email, or traffic but in cravings that have grown teeth. Desire becomes demand, demand becomes damage, and even prayer gets recruited to cosign our plans, which is why some unanswered prayers are mercy rather than neglect. James raises the stakes further: selfish craving is not only a horizontal problem but covenant unfaithfulness, and worldliness can wear church clothes. The teaching then turns on verse 6, insisting that James moves from sin to grace before he moves to commands. The text breaks off as Proverbs 3:34 is introduced.Read

Sermon

The Divided Heart

Apr 13, 2026

Exegetica

Eschatological Ethics: How the Biblical Vision of the Future Shapes Present Christian Practice

Apr 3, 2026

Further back4

Written in the days after strikes on Iran and the reported death of Khamenei, this teaching refuses both sides of a false choice. Yes, the regime is evil: it arms terror groups, brutalizes its own people, and Christians need not pretend otherwise. But calling evil what it is and celebrating death are not the same thing, and gloating over destruction footage is sin. From there the piece walks through four texts. 1 Timothy 2 calls for prayer for all rulers, not just the ones we like, with specific prayer points for leaders, civilians, children, and Middle Eastern believers. Psalm 46 confronts the doomscrolling liturgy. Matthew 5 pushes love of enemy into concrete neighbor care. Romans 12 separates justice from vengeance. It closes with practical guardrails on posting, sharing footage, and generalizing about whole peoples.Read

Forum & Pulpit

War with Iran: Prayer Without Propaganda

Mar 3, 2026

Opening with the nervous energy of a job interview, this teaching names the way life becomes one long attempt to prove our value, then sets James 1:9-20 against that instinct. The first movement examines the lowly brother who boasts in exaltation and the rich man whose life wilts like a wildflower, illustrated by the joyful Cornish tin miner Billy Bray. The second separates trials from temptation, tracing the pregnancy language of verse 15 and the frogs who begin crossing a quiet road, with counsel to stop blaming God and name the harmless-looking habits in the dark. The third turns to the Father of lights, unchanging and generous, whose character makes us quick to hear and slow to anger.Read

Sermon

Flip the Scoreboard

Feb 16, 2026

A post-Christmas sermon on Luke 2:22-38, opening with the Chick-fil-A "First 100" overnight campout as a picture of what we rearrange our lives to be present for. Working through the passage, it examines Simeon as "righteous and devout" (dikaios and eulabes), his active waiting (prosdechomenos) for the consolation of Israel promised in Isaiah 40, and the Spirit's leading him into the temple at exactly the right hour. Simeon's peace comes from seeing Jesus rather than fixed circumstances; his warning to Mary about the sword and the fall and rising of many shows that Jesus forces a decision and exposes hearts. Anna, widowed and worshiping with fasting and prayer, shows that pain need not become identity.Read

Sermon

Those Who Didn’t Miss Him

Dec 29, 2025

Written in the immediate aftermath of Charlie Kirk's shooting, this piece refuses to let political sympathies soften the verdict on violence: harming anyone to advance a cause is sin, because killer and victim alike bear God's image. The first Christian response is lament and intercession, not a hot take, with specific prayers named for the widow and children, witnesses, first responders, investigators, and even the shooter's repentance. From there come practical guardrails: verify before sharing and correct publicly when wrong, resist doxxing and mob pressure while praying for courts to do their work, refuse to post while emotionally escalated, test whether you would speak the same way about someone of the other party, and commit to checking on the hurting a month and a year later.Read

Forum & Pulpit

Charlie Kirk Assassination: Responding to Tragedy with Biblical Wisdom

Sep 10, 2025