Matt Pearson

Go Make it Happen

“Everyone who knew her, loved her.” The first thing out of their mouths. “She never said a negative word about anyone.” The second thing out of their mouths. I was meeting with two daughters who had just unexpectedly lost their mom. I never had the opportunity to meet the one who had birthed them forty plus years earlier, but was tasked with the honor of giving her eulogy. We were meeting so I could adequately give a picture of their mom they so deeply loved. After we exchanged a couple of awkward pleasantries and offered a prayer for help, I said,...

Good Friday: What We Owe the Disciples

“We owe it to those first Christian disciples to do our very best to understand the utter hopelessness of their situation after the Crucifixion. They had invested their whole lives in what appeared to be a diabolical joke. They had seen their beloved Master scourged almost most to death, dragged through the streets, nailed to a cross and abandoned to suffer public agony in the face of the obscene mockery of everybody in Jerusalem. Once they had basked in the reflected status of a celebrity who had been mobbed by large crowds; now he had been judged a nonperson, fit...

Silent Wednesday

Wednesday of Holy Week is known as “Silent Wednesday.” The Gospel writers do not record any words or activities of Jesus on this day. Tonight, at the Church at West Franklin, we will have a Silent Prayer Service, meditating and contemplating the 7 sayings of Jesus from the cross. In the meantime, consider the importance of silence for the good of your own soul. Alan Noble, in his Disruptive Witness: Speaking Truth in a Distracted Age, offers this counsel: “With quiet reflection, our desires, fears, beliefs, doubts, and sins are given space to surface, but none of these define us....

Tuesday of Holy Week

“Jesus replied, ‘Are you not in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God?’” (Mark 12:24) Less than 100 hours from His arrest, crucifixion, and burial. His last public conversations are with the religious elite. Church people. Those who have committed their entire lives to learning the Scriptures and growing in their knowledge of God. His last hours on the earth, Jesus spent precious time revealing to these men the hypocrisy of their lives (see Mark 11:27-33; 12:1-44; 13:1-37). It’s possible to know much about the Bible but not know the Scriptures. It’s possible to...

Death & Taxes

(This article was originally posted here for Brentwood Baptist Church.) 1 When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought spices, so that they could go and anoint him. 2 Very early in the morning, on the first day of the week, they went to the tomb at sunrise. 3 They were saying to one another, “Who will roll away the stone from the entrance to the tomb for us?” 4 Looking up, they noticed that the stone—which was very large—had been rolled away. 5 When they entered the tomb, they saw a young man dressed in a white robe sitting on the right side; they were alarmed. 6 “Don’t be...

You Just Never Know

The Bible is pretty clear about relationships. Don’t burn bridges. Be faithful. Make immediate amends for intentional and unintentional offenses (see Proverbs 6:1-5; Matthew 5:23-25; and Philemon). You just never know what the future holds. Less than 9 hours from the time I type this, Auburn University will play Virginia in a Final Four game in Minneapolis, Minnesota. You read that right. Auburn. Auburn University. The Auburn Tigers. War Eagle. That Auburn. The Bo Jackson, Pat Sullivan, Lawyer Tillman, Cam Newton, and Lionel James Auburn. They are playing basketball in April. I feel like I owe Auburn an apology. Less...

Wear a Name Tag

You know what I hear a lot as pastor of The Church at West Franklin? This: “I love this church because it reminds me of home.” And this: “I love this church because it is a lot like family.” And this: “I love this church because it seems so warm and inviting.” And this: “I don’t want to introduce myself because I probably should know them.” And this: “What if they have been attending for a while and I just don’t know it?” And this: “I wish there was a way we could know everybody.” If I have heard these...

Bird Watching & Anxiety

Has it ever seemed a bit odd to you that, according to Jesus, a cure (the cure?) for worry and anxiety is to go bird watching? “Consider the birds” Jesus says. The word “consider” literally means “to process information by giving consideration to” something. Yeah. In the middle of a warning against anxiety and worry, Jesus admonishes His listeners to “process information by giving consideration to” . . . Birds. The theological instruction Jesus has for worry is to think about birds. (See Matthew 6:25-27) If you think about this – it’s brilliant. It should be of no surprise, but...

A Fatal Mistake? Really?

“Be sure of this: I warn you today that you made a fatal mistake when you sent me to the LORD your God and said, ‘Pray to the LORD our God for us; tell us everything he says and we will do it.’” Jeremiah 42:19-20 If you skipped over the verses above, you might want to take another glance. Go ahead. I’ll wait. I know, right? Go ahead and read it again. I’ll wait. . . It looks like Jeremiah is telling his audience that they made a huge mistake by asking him to pray for them. It looks like Jeremiah told them they...

What Do You Think of Jesus?

Recently, I had the opportunity to take my two sons and two of their friends to see the movie Run the Race. My favorite scene was (don’t worry. . . this is not a spoiler) when the main character was invited to dinner at his new girlfriend’s home. The two of them shared a meal with her parents. Before the meal began, the girl’s father asked the high school senior two questions: “What do you think of my daughter?” AND “What do you think of Jesus?” I mean, whoa. What incredible questions to ask a high school boy! (Or any age...