Garden City Sermons

What if living a blessed life doesn't come from knowing about who Jesus is, but it's surrendering to who Jesus is? In Matthew 16 Jesus asks, "Who do you say I am" and how you answer that can change everything.

When was the last time you felt stuck? 80% of us report feeling stuck right now. Jesus made a bold claim. He said that when we follow him we produce 100x fruit. How in the world can that be true?

What does the good life look like to you? Happy relationships? Not having to worry about money? In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us a map toward flourishing. It's on the other side of surrender.

Where do you turn when everything feels fake. We are tired of fake. Fake videos in our reels. Fake podcast descriptions written by a chat bot. Fake friends. Fake interest. We're tired of fake. In a world of fake we still want true experiences. On the Sermon on the Mount Jesus gives us a true experience. In his first public teaching Jesus creates a path toward something true, a flourishing life...

Do you ever feel stuck, powerless, or weak especially when it comes to living out your purpose? In Matthew 4:1-11, we will see that the answer isn't trying harder but instead leaning into what it means to be fully dependent.

Matthew opens Jesus' biography with the claim that Jesus is king. If Jesus is King he has authority. If we "have to" live under Jesus' authority we will never learn to love. If we "chose to" live under Jesus' authority love will grow and we will learn how to be truly human.

Is it possible that many of us find Christianity frustrating because we are bringing old ways to a new way of being? What does it mean to follow Jesus? As we kick off our Gospel of Matthew series we see that Jesus is inviting us to be truly human. This means we need to let go of old ways and receive what he has for us. How do we do that?

Hospitality is scary because it opens us up to the unknown. This week we look at the two options the Bible invites us into when fear enters the picture: Empire, which takes to feel secure, and Kingdom, which receives. Which one are you living out of?

The gap between knowing what to do and doing what we know can be closed with a simple question, "who?" Join us as we look at this question through the lens of Acts chapter 16.

Ever feel stuck with one foot in and one foot out? Not safe, not free, just stuck. In this message from Acts 10, we follow Peter's journey to becoming a person of hospitality, and what he had to let go of to actually get there.

Many of us are looking for communities that meet our needs. But what if one of our greatest needs is to make a contribution?

Do you feel the pressure of: having to say the right things to keep friends? never messing up? It's fair to say that Jesus was a disruptor. Yet why does it seem so many of his followers feel pressure to keep the peace? Jesus was eating with tax collectors and sinners and this upset the religious leaders. So Jesus tells them a story. Through this story Jesus teaches that repair is more powerful...

Our most basic need is for relationships. Yet Relationships often feel out of our control. God has given us a tool that means we can get our relational needs met regardless of what's happening around us. Listen to find out how hospitality gives you ownership of your needs and puts you in the driver's seat.

We shouldn't feel like we are one bad day away from being rejected . . . when we see the Gospel as a new set of rules to follow that's exactly what happens. When we see the gospel as God's hospitality we can respond and come home.

How does God relate to us? Is He “cool but distant”? Is He “tough but fair”?  If we believe God is tough but fair, we feel tempted to fix our problems so we don’t get in trouble. We often feel like a mess to be fixed. If we believe God is cool but distant we feel tempted to settle for what is, since God is distant. We often keep our hopes low. Jesus reveals a God who relates to people not through...

Churches help us follow Jesus. Following Jesus includes two things: be with him and do what he does. Learn more. 

What do you think about when you think about the future? Jesus invites us to imagine the future from a place of abundance. How do you do that?

God's bigness and nearness creates safety so we can go out into the world. Since Craig and Luke launched Garden City we had dreams that we would be part of a movement. Too many people believe church doesn't work. Instead of rearranging the furniture on a sinking ship we want to build something new. Garden City is that new thing. We reach out with hospitable orthodoxy. We worship Jesus as L...

We all feel like outsiders from time to time. If Taylor Swift feels like an outsider, why would we think we wouldn't? How does God feel about outsiders? Psalm 87 makes a bold claim, God re-narrates outsiders' histories to make them insiders. What does that mean for us?

What if our insecurity and anxiety come from trying to hold onto things that were never ours to carry? In Psalm 131, we see an invitation to let go of what isn’t ours so we can make room for what is, and discover what happens when we do.

When the world around us feels unstable, it often reveals how fragile the things we lean on really are. In Psalm 23, David points us toward a different kind of security, one not rooted in a place, a circumstance, or our ability to hold everything together, but in the presence of a Shepherd who sees what we cannot see and loves us with unfailing love.

In the book of Psalms we receive a gift we need to stay sane when the world is going crazy - Poetry. In this first week of this series, Craig asks the question, "What if your desires aren't the problem but they are the path to experiencing God?"

Why do so many of us have a hard time asking for help? Could beliefs and expectations about God be keeping us from admitting our need? Jonah knew that God C.A.R.E.S. God is Compassionate, Abounding in Hesed, Relenting from Calamity, Enduring in Patience, and Showers us with Grace. Jonah couldn't stomach the idea of that grace being extended to his enemies. Finally, we apply this to our own liv...

Religion uses others to protect ourselves from failure. Humility sees others as heroes in God's story and serves them. Humility changes the world. How do we practice humility? We land back in Jonah 3, where God shows up a second time not reacting, not apologizing, but commissions a reluctant prophet to a city that has every reason to expect judgment and no reason to expect mercy. Turns out, th...

From Abraham's tent to the Last Supper to a wedding banquet at the end of history, the Bible tells the story of a God who keeps throwing parties and keeps inviting people nobody expected. His strategy for changing the world has always been the same: welcoming people who expect judgment. What if the most important thing you did this week wasn't at church, but at your kitchen table? God thro...