In one of Jesus’ most famous stories, two very different sons both end up far from home—and one extravagant Father runs to meet them both. In this message, we’ll discover that rebellion and religion can both lead us away from God, but grace is what brings us home.
Scripture: Luke 15.11-32
(Additional Reading: Romans 6.23; Genesis 4.9; Hosea 11.1-4, 8-9; Jeremiah 31.20)
Warm-Up:
Have you ever run away from someone who loved you – only to discover they were waiting for you all along?
“There are two ways to be your own Savior and Lord. One is by breaking all the moral laws and setting your own course, and one is by keeping all the moral laws and being very, very good.”
- Timothy Keller -
This week we follow Jesus into a graveyard — the story of Legion, where darkness meets its match. In a world that no longer believes in the unseen, Mark 5 reminds us that evil is real, but not ultimate. Jesus crosses into enemy territory, speaks a word of power, and turns a monster into a missionary — proving that even the tomb can become a pulpit.
Scripture: Mark 5.1-20
(Additional Reading: Mark 1.21-28; Luke 11.14-23; Luke 13.16; 1 Peter 5.8; John 19.17-18)
Warm-Up:
When you think about “evil,” do you imagine something supernatural — or something more ordinary, like anger, addiction, or pride?
“There are two equal and opposite errors into which our race can fall about the devils: one is to disbelieve in their existence, the other is to believe, and to feel an excessive and unhealthy interest in them.”
- The Screwtape Letters -
Filling in for Thailer this week, Grant Lyons reminds us that the Holy Spirit is not a distant force but the very presence of God within us. From creation to redemption, the Spirit breathes life, brings renewal, and empowers God’s people to live beyond their own strength. To walk by the Spirit is to live in step with God Himself, bearing His fruit, reflecting His holiness, and moving where He leads. True life is found in surrendering to the Spirit who dwells within.
In John 13, Jesus kneels to wash the feet of His disciples—even Judas’. This shocking act reveals not only the depth of His love but also the pattern He calls us to imitate. True greatness is found in kneeling love, the kind that serves even when it costs.
Scripture: John 13.1-30
(Additional Reading: Philippians 2.5-11; Luke 22.24-27; Psalm 41.9; Titus 3.5)
Warm-Up:
When was the last time someone surprised you with an act of humble love – did it change the way you looked at them?
For all God’s charge to His high angels may
Guard my foot better? Did I yesterday
Wash thy feet, my beloved, that they should run
Quick to deny me ‘neath the morning sun?
- Elizabeth Barret Browning -
One of the most beloved stories of Jesus is His encounter with the Samaritan woman in John 4. At Jacob’s well, He speaks of a gift called ‘living water’—a gift that would change her life forever. This sermon explores what that living water means, and why her encounter with Jesus still matters for us today.
Scripture: John 4.1-42
(Additional Reading: John 5.14; Jeremiah 2.13; Isaiah 55.1-7; John 1.29, 34; John 3.16-21)
Warm-Up:
When has someone loved you enough to tell you a hard truth – and how did it change you?
“Love is something more stern and splendid than mere kindness.”
- C.S. Lewis -
When a leper knelt before Jesus, he didn’t question His power—only His willingness: “If you want to, you can make me clean.” Jesus’ reply, “I do want to. Be clean,” reveals the heart of God toward us. In this message, we’ll see how Christ’s touch overcomes uncleanness, how His willingness points to the cross, and how His forgiveness brings the deepest healing we need.
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Scripture: Mark 1.35-45
(Additional Reading: Mark 2.17; 2 Kings 5.7, 10; Numbers 12.13; Leviticus 13-14)
Warm-Up:
When you think about God, do you find it easier to believe in his power or his willingness? Why?
“Am I God, to forgive your sin and to cure you of your leprosy?”
- 2 Kings 5.7 -
Why is this tiny, personal letter from Paul included in the Bible at all? In this “biggest little letter,” we see the gospel at work — reshaping relationships, reconciling enemies, and planting seeds that would one day topple slavery itself. What looks like a private note becomes a living witness to the power of Christ to transform hearts, households, and history.
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Scripture: Philemon
(Additional Reading: Colossians 3.11; 2 Corinthians 10.3-5; Ephesians 6.12; John 18.36)
Warm-Up:
Have you ever had someone stand in the gap for you – helping to restore a broken relationship? What difference did it make?
“The line separating good and evil passes not through states, nor between classes, nor between political parties either—but right through every human heart—and through all human hearts.”
- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn -
In the final chapter of Colossians, Paul closes his letter by “name dropping” ten ordinary, messy, faithful, and sometimes flawed people. Their stories reveal how God moves the gospel forward through community — and how where we fix our attention shapes the kind of story our name will tell.
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Scripture: Colossians 4
(Additional Reading: Acts 13.13, 15.37-39; 2 Timothy 4.10-11; 1 John 2.19; Colossians 1.23)
Warm-Up:
Where does your mind go when you read a list of names in Scripture?
“No amount of falls will really undo us if we keep picking ourselves up each time. We shall of course be very muddy and tattered children by the time we reach home. But the bathrooms are all ready, the towels put out, and the clean clothes in the airing cupboard. The only fatal thing is to lose one’s temper and give up. It is when we notice the dirt that God is most present in us; it is the very sign of his presence.”
- C.S. Lewis -
Real transformation doesn’t happen by trying harder — it happens by becoming who you already are. In Christ, you’ve been given a new identity, but growing into it takes practice, patience, and Spirit-formed habits. This message explores how Christian virtue is cultivated when we learn to desire what God desires, even when it doesn’t feel natural at first.
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Scripture: Colossians 3
(Additional Reading: 2 Corinthians 3.18; Ephesians 5.18-19; Amos 2.7; Psalm 119.9-11)
Warm-Up:
What’s something that felt completely unnatural the first time you tried it, but eventually became second nature?
“Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you already had it.”
- C.S. Lewis -
In a season marked by deep loss, Psalm 46 invites us to find refuge in God when the ground beneath us feels unsteady. This sermon explores how God’s presence sustains us in the midst of grief and reminds us of His promise: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Even when the waters roar and the mountains tremble, He is with us.
Every soul holds immeasurable worth, carrying a value far beyond what the world often measures. Life choices, relationships, and priorities take on deeper meaning when viewed through the truth that each person is created with eternal significance. Recognizing this calls for compassion, grace, and a greater awareness of how we see ourselves and others, reminding us to treat people with care and to live with purpose shaped by what truly lasts.
In a world obsessed with new age spiritual upgrades and hidden knowledge, Colossians 2 reminds us that Christ is not a launchpad—He is the fullness of God Himself. This sermon explores how false teachings distort that fullness and how gratitude, humility, and love for God can anchor us in what we already have. Don't settle for "something extra" when you already have everything in Him.
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Scripture: Colossians 2
(Additional Reading: Acts 19.11-20; Matthew 22.36-38; Matthew 5.3; 1 Timothy 6.3-5)
Warm-Up:
What kinds of beliefs, habits, or influences are most likely to “take you captive” and pull your trust away from Christ alone?
“Jesus Christ is the conqueror;
by his resurrection he overcame death itself,
by his resurrection he overcame all things:
he overcame magic,
he overcame amulets and charms,
he overcame the darkness of demon-possession,
he overcame dread.
When we are with him, we also conquer."
- African Hymn -
What happens when Christ stops being the center of your life and becomes just another piece of it? In this sermon, we explore one of the earliest Christian hymns—a poetic declaration of Jesus as the one who holds all things together. Whether you’re spiritually distracted, emotionally tired, or simply going through the motions, Colossians calls us to re-center on the fullness of Christ. Because when you see Him for who He truly is, everything else—your purpose, your identity, even your struggles—finds its place.
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Scripture: Colossians 1.15-20
(Additional Reading: John 1.1-3; Hebrews 1.1-4; Galatians 1.11-16; Acts 9)
Warm-Up:
If Jesus really holds all things together, why do we keep searching for something else?
“A man can learn certain things by looking at the map of the world, but he can learn much more by staying at home. He may see great cities and strange islands; but the best kind of travel is to be found in the simple life of one's own village, in learning to love its familiar shapes and streets, to notice them more fully, and to marvel at them as if for the first time.”
G. K. Chesterton
We live in a world that always wants more—but Colossians opens by reminding us we are already full in Christ. In this introduction, we explore how the Word fills us, how grace changes us, and how Christ transfers us into a new kingdom where we lack nothing.
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Scripture: Colossians 1.1-14
(Additional Reading: John 6.32-40; Mark 4.13-20; Isaiah 55.10-11)
Warm-Up:
We all ache for something more. A deeper peace, a steadier identity, a sense of purpose. What do you turn to when you feel that ache? And what if the real answer isn’t something new—but going deeper into something you already have?
“In refutation, Paul proceeds positively rather than negatively….He points out the all-sufficiency of what the Colossians have already received, in order to prevent them from seeking anything new.”
J. Gresham Machen
Beyond knowing His word, obeying and teaching it to subsequent generations, what did God expect His people to do with it- and what does this mean for us today?
What if forgiveness isn’t about forgetting, but about reframing? In one of the most powerful stories in Scripture, Jesus meets Peter in the very place of his failure—and offers not just pardon, but restoration. This sermon explores how true forgiveness works, why counterfeit versions fall short, and how the cross gives us the power to forgive as we’ve been forgiven.
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Scripture: Matthew 18.21-35
(Additional Reading: John 21.9-19; 20.23; Matthew 6.14-15; Hebrews 4.15)
Warm-Up:
What’s harder for you: to forgive someone else – or to believe you’ve been forgiven?
“We forgive, we mortify our resentment; a week later some chain of thought carries us back to the original offence and we discover the old resentment blazing away as if nothing had been done about it at all. We need to forgive our brother seventy times seven not only for 490 offences but for one.”
C.S. Lewis
In a world obsessed with status and self-promotion, Christianity dares to say that true strength begins with humility. This sermon traces how Moses, Paul, and ultimately Jesus redefined greatness—not as self-elevation, but as self-giving. Discover how humility isn’t weakness, but the quiet power to serve a purpose greater than yourself.
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Scripture: 1 Corinthians 4
(Additional Reading: Numbers 12.3; Philippians 2.5-11; Jeremiah 9.24)
Warm-Up:
Who’s the most humble person you ever met – and what made them that way?
“Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Jeremiah 9.24
Series: Making Sense of Christianity
Part 5: Justice
What happens when we cry out for justice but reject the Judge?
This message explores why our cultural pursuit of justice often turns brittle, punitive, and graceless—and how the gospel offers something better: a justice rooted in humility, mercy, and the cross.
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Going Deeper: To My Fellow Christians -
Justice is one of the loudest cries in our culture—but also one of its deepest confusions. In a world that aches for wrongs to be made right, many pursue justice untethered from any higher authority—leading to a brittle, graceless moralism that cannot forgive and offers no path to redemption. This sermon helps Christians engage that longing not by dismissing it, but by showing how it originates in the image of a just God. Through the story of Joseph—the first person in Scripture to explicitly forgive—we see a justice that goes beyond punishment and into restoration, a justice that humbles the powerful and heals the broken. The cross of Christ fulfills this ache in a way no secular model can: justice is satisfied, but mercy is offered. Use this message to help others see that Christianity doesn’t silence the cry for justice—it answers it with something better.
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Scripture: Genesis 50.15-21
(Additional Reading: Genesis 41.37-57; Psalm 85.10; Romans 3.21-26; Amos 2.6-8; 1 Peter 2.23-24)
Warm-Up:
When was the last time you felt like something unfair happened and no one made it right?
“When a society rejects the Christian account of who we are, it doesn't become less moralistic but far more so, because it retains an inchoate sense of justice but has no means of offering and receiving forgiveness. The great moral crisis of our time is not, as many of my fellow Christians believe, sexual licentiousness, but rather vindictiveness. Social media serve as crack for moralists: there's no high like the high you get from punishing malefactors. But like every addiction, this one suffers from the inexorable law of diminishing returns. The mania for punishment will therefore get worse before it gets better.” (Alan Jacobs)
In this honest and grace-filled Father’s Day message, we explore the deep impact of fathers—through Scripture, personal stories, and the quiet failures of men like Jacob. Whether you’ve had a good dad, a complicated one, or are a father yourself, this sermon invites you to find healing and hope in the Father who never fails.
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Scripture: Ephesians 6.1-4
(Additional Reading: Genesis 34 & 37; Genesis 44.28; Ephesians 5.18; Colossians 3.21; Galatians 4.6)
Warm-Up:
What’s something your dad said or did that you still carry with you – good or bad?
“…and David returned to bless his household.”
1 Chronicles 16.43