The Lake Forest Sermoncast

On the first Sunday of Christmastide, we turn away from sentimental manger scenes and toward one of the Bible’s most troubling Christmas stories. Drawing from Matthew 2 and Isaiah 9, this sermon explores how God speaks through dreams—not as an escape from reality, but as a way through it. In a world shaped by fear, political violence, and forced migration, we listen for God’s quieter dream: a drea...

On Christmas Eve, we return to a story we think we know—and listen again for what it reveals about who God is. Drawing from Titus 2 and Luke 2, this sermon reflects on the risky, vulnerable way God enters the world: not in power or spectacle, but in a crowded town, under empire, wrapped in cloth and laid in a manger. This message invites us to notice how God shows up not in moments of readiness or...

On this Third Sunday of Advent—Gaudete Sunday—we explore a deeper, sturdier vision of joy through Isaiah’s promise of a desert in bloom and John the Baptist’s searching question from prison: “Are you the one who is to come?” Drawing on the image of a “superbloom,” this sermon reflects on joy not as fleeting happiness, but as a resilient gift cultivated through faith, patience, and community—one th...

In this second week of our Advent series, Out of the Blue, we explore one of Scripture’s most startling invitations: the call to repentance. But not the shame-filled version many of us inherited. Instead, we look at repentance as a holy reorientation—a turning toward the God who surprises us with renewal in the very places we thought were beyond hope. We'll hear John the Baptist’s bold call t...

In this first week of Advent, we enter the holy tension between the world as it is and the world as God promises it will be. Drawing from Matthew 24:36–44 and Isaiah 2:1–5, this sermon invites us to explore what it means to stay spiritually awake in a distracted age—awake to God’s presence, awake to our neighbor’s need, and awake to the coming peaceable Kingdom. Reflecting on a scene from A Boy Ca...

What does it take for all things to be made new—and who needs that newness the most? This sermon invites us into Isaiah’s sweeping vision of a new heaven and new earth (Isaiah 65:17–25), given to a people returning from exile and longing for home. In a world marked by inequality, displacement, and the weight of systems that work for some but not for others, Isaiah’s words open our imagination to G...

On this Reign of Christ Sunday—marking 100 years since the church first proclaimed this feast day—we remember a truth as radical now as it was in 1925: Christ’s reign stands in opposition to every earthly power that demands our allegiance through fear, coercion, or dominance. This sermon explores the origins of Christ the King Sunday as a deliberate act of resistance against rising authoritarianis...

In this weeks message, we step into the temple with Jesus — right into the heart of things — where a clever question meant to trap him turns into a profound conversation about life, death, and what really matters. In Luke 20:27–38, the Sadducees try to make resurrection sound absurd, but Jesus turns their logic upside down — reminding us that resurrection isn’t just about life after death, but abo...

In this week’s message from Luke 19:1–10, we revisit the story of Zacchaeus — a man seen by the crowd as beyond redemption, yet sought out by Jesus for relationship and restoration. What begins as a simple encounter in a sycamore tree becomes a profound moment of transformation, as Zacchaeus learns that salvation looks less like escape and more like repair. Through this story, we explore what it m...

In this week’s message, we step into one of Scripture’s most mysterious and powerful moments — the night Jacob wrestled with God at the river’s edge. From the book of Genesis, we’ll explore what it means to wrestle with the divine, to hold on through the struggle, and to come away changed — limping, yes, but blessed. Along the way, we’ll talk about tricksters and transformation, Bugs Bunny and ble...

This week’s message comes from Reformation Sunday, a time when the church pauses to remember that God’s Spirit is always reforming us — reshaping our lives and our community in grace. Our scripture reading comes from the Gospel of Luke, chapter 18, verses 9 through 14 — a parable about two people who go to the temple to pray: a Pharisee and a tax collector. It’s a story that gets to the heart of w...