You can stand shoulder to shoulder with a crowd around Jesus and still never truly connect. That’s the uncomfortable question raised by Mark 5, where people press in from every side, yet only one person reaches out in a way Jesus calls faith, and her life changes immediately. We start a new summer sermon series on biblical faith by getting specific: faith is not vague positivity or spiritual hype. It is active trust in what is true and reliable, even when you cannot see the outcome, grounded in Hebrews 11:1.

We break down how faith works in everyday life and then move into the woman with the issue of blood. Her story shows why proximity to Christian culture is not the same as trusting Christ. From there, we trace three clear pathways that often lead people to real Christian faith: desperation when our fixes fail, information about who Jesus is and what he has done, and identification where we stop trusting ourselves and name Jesus as the one true object of our faith. Along the way, we tackle a common misunderstanding: it’s not the strength of your faith that saves you, it’s the object of your faith.

Finally, we connect faith to the heart of the gospel: substitution. Jesus becomes weak so we can become strong, bearing sin and judgment like the true High Priest and fulfilling the promise echoed in Isaiah 53 and clarified in 2 Corinthians 5:21.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VllFriUUi-0

A city built on worship gets shaken when the gospel starts changing hearts and spending habits. We trace the explosive scene in Acts 19 where Demetrius the silversmith sparks a riot to protect Artemis, his trade, and an entire local economy. What looks like “religious outrage” quickly reveals something more familiar: when our ultimate source of security gets threatened, we get loud, defensive, and sometimes irrational.

From there, we turn the mirror toward modern life. We talk about idolatry not as ancient statue worship, but as anything we elevate above God for meaning, identity, comfort, or hope. Money, career, success, relationships, family, pleasure, prestige, even “my version of spirituality” can become functional gods. We also dig into a practical diagnostic: anger. Not all anger is idolatry, but when losing something makes us go ballistic, it can expose what we are truly living for.

The good news is that idols don’t get the final word. We follow the passage to its surprising ending and then press into the gospel’s power over every rival master: Jesus’ authority, his cross, his resurrection, and his call to repentance. The path out isn’t willpower alone, it’s re-ordering love: loving Jesus more until lesser loves take their proper place.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K57Ics_C7Ug

Getting older is weird, but it does not have to mean getting dull, cynical, or stuck. We lean into a surprising promise from Scripture: even as we age physically, we can be renewed spiritually day by day. That theme sets the stage for a walk through Acts 18 and Acts 19, where Luke keeps circling three anchors: the way of the Lord, the word of the Lord, and the name of Jesus.

We follow the Apostle Paul as he begins his third missionary journey and heads back toward Ephesus, then we meet Apollos, a gifted teacher who is “mighty in the Scriptures” but still missing key clarity about the gospel. Watching Priscilla and Aquila take him aside is a masterclass in discipleship, humility, and biblical accuracy. The goal is not winning arguments. The goal is helping people see Jesus as the Christ and shaping a life around the truth of God’s word.

Next comes a sharp diagnostic moment: disciples who seem sincere but have never heard of the Holy Spirit. Paul’s questions cut through surface-level religion and point to the reality that we cannot walk in the way of the Lord by effort alone. We also tackle the darker side of spiritual counterfeits in Ephesus, including the sons of Sceva and the danger of treating Jesus’ name like magic.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6JBb01KrBg

Your child will remember what you live long after they forget what you said. That’s the tension at the heart of this Mother’s Day message, where we look at Timothy’s mother Eunice and his grandmother Lois and ask a simple question with huge consequences: what kind of spiritual legacy are we building at home?

We start with Timothy’s introduction in Acts 16 and Paul’s later words about Timothy’s “sincere faith” that first took root in Lois and Eunice. From there, we unpack three practical, deeply personal lessons for Christian parenting and grandparenting. First, authentic faith in Jesus Christ has to be real, not performative, because kids spot hypocrisy fast and they often imitate our attitudes, anxieties, and habits. Second, a child’s spiritual growth strengthens when God’s Word is central at home, not outsourced to the church. We connect Paul’s charge in 2 Timothy 3 to the everyday rhythm of Deuteronomy 6 and talk about simple ways to build Bible habits through reading, prayer, and bringing real-life problems back to Scripture.

Finally, we explore how a Christ-centered identity shapes a child’s future, including the meaning behind Timothy’s name and the lasting power of hearing “you are valuable to God.”

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmkgeAqrJGg

Corinth isn’t just another stop on Paul’s route, it’s the kind of place that makes a committed believer whisper, “I can’t do this.” We follow Paul straight out of Athens and into a loud, wealthy, morally broken trade city where temptation is everywhere and the message of Jesus Christ sounds foolish to proud ears. What makes this story hit home is that Paul admits what many of us hide: he shows up in weakness, fear, and trembling, unsure anyone will listen.

We walk carefully through Acts 18 and the key moments that shape Paul’s ministry in Corinth: finding community through work as a tentmaker, partnering with Aquila and Priscilla, getting a timely lift when Silas and Timothy arrive, and facing public pressure when he’s dragged before Gallio at the Roman bema seat. Along the way, we connect the dots to the wider story of Paul’s missionary journeys and the repeating pattern of gospel witness in Acts: Scripture, conversations in public life, new believers, and then opposition.

The turning point is God’s direct encouragement to Paul: don’t be afraid, keep speaking, I am with you, I will protect you, and you are not alone because I have many people in this city. From there we zoom out to the Corinthian church and why pride can be the biggest barrier to salvation and spiritual growth.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G8N7luAdqbU

Waiting can make sensible people do ridiculous things. We start with a headline-worthy breakup revenge stunt that floods an apartment with surprise pizzas, sushi platters, wings, and seafood boils, and it’s hilarious until you realize how familiar that impulse is. Most of us call ourselves patient, yet we speed to make up time, hang up after a minute on hold, and force life to move faster than it should. That’s not just personality, it’s spiritual formation in the wrong direction.

We walk through why waiting matters in the Christian life. When we refuse to wait, we miss what God is doing, we miss the lessons that only show up in the delay, and we end up serving our appetites instead of letting our desires mature. The key battleground is self-talk, the nonstop inner commentary that tells us God is absent and we’re on our own. Psalm 27 interrupts that loop with a steady, repeatable script, especially the closing command in Psalm 27:14: wait for the Lord, be strong, take courage, and wait again.

Then we get practical with “waiting with purpose.” That means committing to the Lord before you see results, and making repairs while you wait rebuilding trust, restoring spiritual habits, and addressing frayed relationships. We also look at the cost of rushing through biblical warnings from Sarah and Saul, plus a personal story of heartbreak that shows how God can use delay to prepare something better than what we would have grabbed too soon.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2_6Gs8TNMo

Athens was the kind of place that felt spiritually busy and intellectually confident, and Paul walks straight into it with the gospel. We watch him step onto Mars Hill before the Areopagus, speak with surprising respect, and start with what he can honestly affirm: people are more religious than they think. From there, we trace his bold move. He doesn’t merely criticize “idols” as ancient statues. He shows how every culture builds objects of trust that promise identity, meaning, and security, and how those functional gods still shape our lives today.

Paul’s most brilliant pivot is an altar inscribed “To An Unknown God.” He uses their own admission of spiritual uncertainty to proclaim the God they’ve missed: the Creator and Lord of heaven and earth who needs nothing from us, yet gives life and breath to everyone. Along the way, we talk about how to witness to skeptics in a pluralistic society, how to listen for the idols under the surface of someone’s story, and how to use true insights from literature and culture as a bridge to biblical truth without watering anything down.

The message turns urgent when Paul brings it home: repentance is not self-improvement, it’s turning from lesser gods to the living God because a day of righteous judgment is fixed. And the cornerstone claim is not a vague feeling but a public act of God: the resurrection of Jesus, offered as proof that changes what we do with the questions “Who am I, where did I come from, and where am I going?”

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCDzWSS6X30

The most public places in your life might be the places you’ve trained yourself to stay quiet. Work, school, the gym, the coffee shop, your group chat, your feed. We take Paul’s time in Athens and treat it like a field guide for modern life, because Acts 17 is basically a case study in how to bring faith into the real world without being weird, combative, or passive.

We start with a blunt framing: the gospel is both bad news and good news. The bad news is that sin separates us from God. The good news is that God moves toward us anyway through Jesus Christ, offering reconciliation and eternal life. From 2 Corinthians 5, we talk about what changes when someone believes: a new identity and a new mission, because every Christian becomes an ambassador for Christ. The question isn’t whether we represent him, but what kind of ambassador we are.

Then we walk through the agora, Athens’ marketplace of business, art, media, and ideas. Paul doesn’t only speak to people like him; he shows up where everyone is and he reasons through dialogue. We break down the competing philosophies he faced (Stoicism and Epicureanism), why they still sound familiar today, and how to engage people with thoughtful questions that challenge assumptions while protecting relationships. Throughout it all, Paul keeps the focus where it belongs: Jesus and the resurrection, not just “religion” in general.

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I57pbz8XCtg