Most of us were taught that holiness is about what we avoid. Gary Wilkerson preaches that holiness is about how we love. Preaching from 1 Thessalonians 3:10–13 at Valley Life Community Church, he tells honest stories of his own failures to love: a homeless woman he brushed off minutes before preaching on love, and a three-year-old daughter he pushed away so he could read the sports page. These stories expose how easily we embrace the idea of Christian love while walking past the person God puts in front of us. With the example of Jesus sending the 72 into hostile Samaria to heal, share meals, and stay in homes, Gary calls believers to set down their phones, look people in the face, and lay down the ego-driven life for agape, sacrificial love. God’s measure of a life is not the breadth of our reach but the depth of our love, and by the Holy Spirit, anyone can receive a love they could never produce on their own.

Preached: September 27, 2026

Main Points:

• Holiness is more than not doing certain things. It means doing what Jesus did and loving the way he loved. You can avoid every sin on the list and still miss the point because love fulfills the law.
• The real test of love usually comes as an interruption. It may be a stranger who just wants to talk, a child who wants your attention, or a spouse who needs you to listen. Loving that one person can matter more to God than preaching a powerful sermon to hundreds.
• God doesn’t keep accountants to measure your life. He won’t ask how big your ministry was or how many people you reached. He looks not at the breadth of our reach but the depth of our love, and asks, “How large was your heart?”
• Paul longed to see the Thessalonians face to face, and real love still requires presence. Put down the phone, ask the next question, and listen to the end of someone’s story before you plan your answer. Many people are surrounded by others yet still alone, and they are waiting for someone to notice them.
• Every commandment is relational. The “don’ts” are not there to make life strict and unhappy. They guard against the things that kill love: lust that steals from a marriage, envy that breeds greed, and anger that pushes people away.
• When a Samaritan village rejected Jesus, his disciples wanted to call down fire. Jesus sent 72 people instead, to heal, to eat with the villagers, and to stay in their homes. Your Samaria may be a hard marriage, a rebellious child, or a difficult workplace, and he is sending you there with mercy, kindness, and forgiveness.
• Only one of two forces can rule your heart: agape or ego. A life spent chasing success, status, and others' approval ends in emptiness. It is never too late to lay that life at Jesus’ feet and choose the love he first gave you.
• If love doesn’t come naturally to you, ask for a baptism of love. The Holy Spirit can give what your own nature lacks and make you other-centered. You can start coming to church to give rather than to be served, and live “to love people well enough that they begin to love people well enough.”

https://wcmin.us/SS261101c

For centuries, God kept a mystery hidden, and he chose Paul, a former persecutor of the church who called himself “the very least of all the saints,” to reveal it. In Ephesians 3:1–13, that mystery comes to light: people who were once far off, outsiders considered unclean and without hope, are now fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise in Christ Jesus. This message invites us to see every good thing in our lives as a gift we never earned, to believe that no one is too far gone for God’s relentless grace, and to come into his presence with bold confidence instead of fear or formulas. It also shows how deeply God loves his church, imperfect as she is, choosing her to display his manifold wisdom to a hurting world and even to the angels in the heavenly places.

Main Points:

• Grace means receiving what you don’t deserve. Your calling, your family, your home, and even the breath in your lungs are gifts, not wages, and the faithful response is to steward them well for God’s glory.
• The mystery of Christ is that those once far from God are now fellow heirs, members of the same body, and partakers of the promise. To first-century ears this was outrageous news, and it is still glorious news for us today.
• No one is too far gone. The same grace that relentlessly pursued Augustine and transformed Nicky Cruz from a violent gang leader into an evangelist can reach the person you’ve been praying for, so don’t stop praying.
• At the foot of the cross, everyone stands equal. Whether you’ve followed Jesus your whole life or for just a few days, your deepest identity is being in Christ, and that calls us to fight for unity without compromising true doctrine.
• You have bold, confident access to God. The door that was once closed is now flung wide open, so you can come to him freely and unashamed, not weighed down by rules and have-tos, simply enjoying his presence.
• The riches of Christ are unsearchable. Nothing compares to knowing him, and through faith you become his treasure and a fellow heir who shares in his inheritance.
• Every believer is called to the ministry of the gospel, whether pastor, construction worker, nurse, or stay-at-home mom. Live it out at work, at home, and in your neighborhood, and give it words, because kindness alone doesn’t tell people what Jesus has done.
• The church is central to God’s eternal plan. Through her, his manifold wisdom is made known even to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places, and despite her flaws and the wounds of church hurt, Jesus loves his bride. We need each other, so don’t neglect your brothers and sisters in Christ.

https://wcmin.us/WS261028c

A city can look completely alive: deals closing, crowds moving, parties running all night. But God looks at the heart and hears the quiet question underneath it all: “Is this all there is to life?” In this message, David Wilkerson says plainly that sin pays its wages in death. It shows up as empty pleasure, boredom, failed marriages, and souls past feeling. Then he points to the living proof sitting in the pews: people who were once dead in trespasses and sins and have been raised to new life. They include prodigals pulled back from the edge, marriages declared dead and then restored, and a hardened heart that finally learned to cry. No one is here by accident. God, rich in mercy, has had you on his radar all along, and his love is knocking at the door of your heart. Open it, and the one who is the Resurrection and the Life will raise you up.

Preached: August 2, 2009

Main Points:

• Spiritual death doesn’t always look like death. A busy schedule, a full calendar, and a night of fun can hide a heart that is empty inside and asking, “Is this all there is?”
• Sin can be pleasurable for a season, but God means it when he says, “The wages of sin is death.” What starts as excitement ends in boredom, emptiness, and loss.
• Christ still raises the dead today. Lives that were wasted, marriages headed for divorce and ministries wrecked by sin are being brought back to life by his power.
• It doesn’t matter how far you’ve fallen or how much you’ve lost. A single honest cry for help in your darkest hour is enough for God to begin restoring what sin destroyed.
• Salvation is not earned by good works. “But God, who is rich in mercy,” reached down while we were still dead in sin, raised us with Christ, and seated us with him in heavenly places.
• You are not here by chance. The Holy Spirit arranges divine appointments, and he has been pursuing you long before you ever thought of seeking him.
• Even the coldest, most bitter heart can be broken open. When God touches someone who is dead inside, the tears that come wash out years of rejection and bitterness.
• God is calling his prodigal sons and daughters home. Put away the old life, be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and receive the abundant life found only in Christ.

https://wcmin.us/SS261025c

With fear spreading across the world after 9/11, David Wilkerson turns to Isaiah’s warning that gladness is taken from a proud nation under judgment. But the same prophets also saw a holy remnant who would “obtain joy and gladness.” This sermon calls believers to the mountain of prayer to feast on Christ, who was anointed with the oil of gladness. There they can lose their fear of death and stand at peace while the world reels.

Preached: July 28, 2002

Main Points:

• When a nation becomes proud and forgets God, one of the first things lost is its gladness. Fear moves in, the singing stops, and even prosperity can’t buy back the joy.

• People reach for distractions, pills, parties, and screens to numb their fear, but when morning comes, the emptiness is still there. Lasting gladness can’t be manufactured. It has to be received.

• In the same days the world loses its joy, God promises a holy remnant who will “obtain joy and gladness,” a joy no headline, crisis, or judgment can steal.

• Jesus was anointed with the oil of gladness, and he has enough for all of us. Walking in the Spirit means walking in that oil.

• The strongest witness in a fearful world isn’t a forced smile or a quick Bible verse. It’s quiet peace in the middle of real suffering, the kind that makes people ask what’s different about you.

• Many believers talk fear instead of casting their cares on the Lord. Our homes and marriages need a baptism of joy, so the people we love come home to gladness, not gloom.

• God lovingly asks why we fear a man who will die and forget the one who parted the sea for his people. He is still the deliverer, and his people are safe in his hand.

• The only way to keep this joy is to go up to the mountain of prayer and feast on Christ daily. When you lose your fear of death and live for the day you’ll see him face to face, nothing can move you.

https://wcmin.us/SS261018c

In a season of fear, when Newsweek reported that most Americans could no longer sleep and New York braced for the next attack, David Wilkerson stood before a congregation of weary, faithful believers and spoke to those who had done everything right and still found themselves face down in the dust. Drawing from Isaiah 51 and 52, he describes God looking at his people, the ones who seek him and love him, and asking in loving disbelief why they have let the enemy walk over them. This is a message for the afflicted who are "drunken, but not with wine," the ones staggering under a crisis they did not cause. God has already spoken the word of deliverance. He is taking the cup of trembling out of their hands. Now it is time to shake off the dust, put the beautiful garments back on, and rise up in faith.

Preached: June 9, 2002

• Some believers have laid their bodies down like a street while the enemy walks over them, and God says plainly, it's enough.
• "The hardest part of faith is the last half hour." Just when God has already spoken the word, we feel the most burdened, and that is exactly when we must not give up.
• One of David Wilkerson's kids called asking, "What do you do when you've done everything right but nothing seems to turn out right?" It's a cry that echoes from pastors' studies to living rooms everywhere.
• After more than fifty years of ministry and fifty years of marriage, through fires, floods, and distress, David Wilkerson declares, "My God has never once failed me. Never once!"
• The root of our fear is forgetting the Lord our maker, who stretched out the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. We rush to be set free instead of asking to see his majesty inside the trial.
• Not his wife, his family, his books, or the ministries he built could satisfy the deepest hunger of David Wilkerson's soul. Only a fresh revelation of Christ can do that.
• Even after an angel strengthened him in the garden, Jesus was still in agony and prayed more earnestly. The strength didn't take the cup away. It carried him all the way to victory.
• A young woman with a severe facial disfigurement had prayed for years for a husband and a child. She handed her pastor a bar of soap and a baby rattle, the symbols of that dream, and said she had laid it down because Jesus had become her husband and children now flock to her.

https://wcmin.us/SS261011c

David Wilkerson traces the manna that bred worms overnight to expose a deception sweeping the modern church: that Christ can be had while his commandments are ignored, warning that any gospel offering only bread and miracles without the convicting word of judgment produces nothing but stench and self-deception.

Preached: April 8, 2001

Main Points:

• God fed Israel manna daily as a test of obedience, not merely provision. It came with restrictions: gather only what you need, keep nothing overnight. Those who disobeyed and stored it woke to worms and a stench that filled the camp, a picture of what happens when people want the miracle without the Word.
• The crowds who wanted to make Jesus king after he fed the 5,000 wanted his bread, not his word. Jesus told them plainly he is the true manna, but that same manna, divorced from obedience, still turns to worms today, no matter how much someone claims Christ lives in their heart.
• Antinomianism, meaning anti-law, nearly destroyed the church two centuries ago through preachers like Dr. Tobias Crisp, who taught that believers could commit adultery or even murder and remain fully pardoned, with sin reduced to nothing more than a scarecrow meant to frighten children.
• A 1906 prophecy from the Azusa Street revival predicted three dangers for the last days: an overemphasis on power rather than righteousness, praise to a God people no longer actually pray to, and a fixation on spiritual gifts rather than the lordship of Christ. All three are fulfilled in modern crusades where crowds wait impatiently through the preaching for the "good stuff" of signs and manifestations.
• David Wilkerson recounts a well-known evangelist heard on tape cursing anyone who opposed his ministry, and warns of thousands who defend such men against clear evidence of sin, unable to be persuaded because, as 2 Thessalonians says, God sends strong delusion to those who take pleasure in unrighteousness rather than loving the truth.
• When Satan tempted Jesus to turn stones to bread, he was quoting Scripture accurately but divorcing it from obedience, the same trick this whole message is built around. Jesus refused because he came to do only what his Father commanded, every word, not merely the comfortable parts.
• David Wilkerson confesses he has had to shut off books and even sermons mid-read when he sensed a spirit minimizing sin creeping over him, and closes by saying he recently went through the entire New Testament studying every command of Jesus, praying not for excuse but for power to obey every word that proceeds from God's mouth.

https://wcmin.us/SS261004c

Evan Wilkerson opens with Corie ten Boom's stunning encounter with a former SS guard to show that only the agape love of God can dissolve real hostility, then traces Paul's picture of the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles torn down by the cross. Christ himself is the peace that makes former enemies into one new family.

Main Points:

• Corrie ten Boom, who watched her father and sister die after hiding Jews from the Nazis, later faced one of her former camp guards reaching out his hand after a sermon on forgiveness. She felt nothing but rage until she prayed, "Jesus, I cannot forgive him, give me your forgiveness," and love flooded through her at his touch. Reconciliation was never her own doing.
• Circumcision marked the Jews as God's covenant people, but Moses and the prophets repeatedly called Israel "uncircumcised in heart," showing that the outward sign could never change an unresponsive heart. Paul says a true Jew is one inwardly, circumcised in heart by the Spirit, not by the letter.
• Paul lists four ways the Gentiles were hopeless before Christ: separated from Christ, alienated from Israel, strangers to the covenant promises, and without God in the world. Evan connects this to a Harvard study showing 58% of young adults report lacking meaning and purpose, and to a business student who told him through tears he wasn't sure his life had meaning.
• At Herod's temple, an inscribed wall warned Gentiles that trespassing into the sanctuary meant death. Jesus tore down that literal and spiritual dividing wall of hostility in his own body, abolishing the ceremonial law and creating one new humanity out of two hostile groups.
• No human effort has ever permanently solved war or division because the real problem, sin, can't be legislated away. Every peace treaty in history eventually gave way to renewed conflict, because only Christ himself, having paid sin's penalty, can actually be the peace between people.
• Forgiveness is rarely a one-time event. It's often a lifelong process of returning to God again and again for help to forgive, and that process, however long, leads to real freedom. The love required to forgive someone like an SS guard was never Corrie's own; it was the Spirit's love flowing through her.
• Believers from every background are no longer strangers but fellow citizens and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ as the cornerstone. Evan imagines a future family table in heaven where Peter, Deborah, and Esther are simply brothers and sisters.

https://wcmin.us/WS260930c