The Bridge Church Sermons

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Why does it seem like the wonder of Christmas fades as we become adults? The season seems marked by the stress of hitting the December 25th deadline—to wrap the gifts, to prep the big meal, to host the family... all while it seems like so much of life isn't filled with the joy this season is meant to hold.  We stuff the stockings of our soul with things that can't amount to the peace we&...

How do you feel about your human limitations? Are you frustrated by the things you aren’t able to fix, control, or understand? The good news is that God is not surprised that we are not God. We are not designed to control or fix all of the things we wish we could, but we do need hope within those circumstances.  The BEST news is that those circumstances are not foreign to God. When God could have...

There are a lot of things out there trying to convince us that they’re “the light”—that they’re the key to happiness, fulfillment, and meaning. We’re surrounded by these demi-lights, and they’re not always bad things… until we actually believe they’re the true light. In Scripture, again and again, Jesus is referred to as Light. Not just a light, but THE light. Do we recognize him? Or is he just an...

You can't erase the fingerprints of God's goodness, even when darkness seems to get closer and closer. God's Word promises that the darkness will not overcome the light, and that's not merely affirmation for the Light that it is strong enough... it's reassurance for us that even when the darkness seems strong, it does not win.  But we wait. We wait for the day when the Lig...

What do the eyes, ears, heart, and hands all have in common? Don’t overthink it. What they all do is different, but they all do something—important things only they can do. There is intricacy in the way God has designed the human body for function and flourishing—parts working together in their essential functions to make the most complex system in the world work, day-in and day-out.  Would we eve...

We won’t change the world by only going to church. We will change the world by being the church.  What if by the power of God’s grace we weren’t meant to consume but meant to participate in as a body? What if we didn’t reduce church to something we just attend but something we belong to and participate in? We are the church. We are not a corporation of religious professionals, dispensing spiritual...

What are the things that keep you from sharing the gospel? Is it fear? Is it the thought that you can't make a difference? Or maybe it's that you simply don't know how.  God's plan from the very beginning was to use ordinary people to tell of God's extraordinary story—and that is freeing to remember. God has given us His presence, His plan, and His power so that the world...

Church isn’t a building. Worship isn’t just music. Ministry isn’t just for pastors. And prayer isn’t for the experts. Prayer is an invitation for all of us to bring our whole, true self to God. And the ultimate goal of prayer is not to be a better pray-er, but to grow in intimacy with God. May we remember that prayer is far less about moving God’s hand and far more about changing our heart because...

Nope, don’t check out just yet—“the wealthy” likely includes you in this case.  The Bible talks pretty heavily about money. Did you know there is more in the New Testament about money than heaven and hell combined, and that five times more verses deal with money and possessions than prayer?  This topic is worth paying attention to, even when on the surface, it doesn’t feel very spiritual. The trut...

Pride is the doorway to all the places in life we don’t want to end up. And yet, so often, it's pride that we think is the sin we don't struggle with, or we brush it off because we don't realize just how big a pitfall it is.  But the goal is not humility. Humility is the by-product of the real antidote to pride, and that's intimacy with Jesus. Apart from the Holy Spirit, we sta...

A lot of things can look like the real deal until they're put to the test—diamonds that don't pass the scratch test, money that changes color under a counterfeit pen...  Even our wisdom can be counterfeit if it comes from the wrong source. And the scary part is that a lot of times, we're totally fine with the counterfeit as long as it looks real on the outside.  James 3 continues th...

If you've ever wondered what kind of weight your words hold, think about the last time you talked yourself into something. Or when you talked yourself out of something.  If your words can have such a directive impact on you, imagine the impact it can have on others—maybe helpful, maybe harmful, but always powerful.  James 3 reminds of us of three things to never forget about our words:  1. Th...

"Talk is cheap. Let's go play." - Johnny Unitas That’s a modern quote to summarize the back half of James 2 that has troubled Christians for centuries. And it’s because it poses this question: Can you have faith without works?  If we are saved by faith alone, where do works fall in the equation? What does true saving faith look like? The gospel produces both faith and works. One wit...

You can have a big head at the same time you have a shrinking heart. A lot of times, you can see the effects of that kind of condition in the way you treat others.  Enter: the sin of snobbery. When we are drawn to make distinctions—ranking others by a face value like wealth, status, race, age, you name it—James is challenging us to reevaluate.  And the challenge might not be what you think. It&apo...

There is an enemy who waits, waving its bait and hoping that our weakness will come through—that we'll be convinced there is something out there that brings happiness apart from God.  The sad news: it happens so often that we are convinced.  The list of bait is endless—money, status, vanity, property, people... And the enemy knows there is an entire arsenal ready to use.  But maturity in Chri...

Much of our lives are spent chasing the things we think will make us happy—getting that one job, reaching that one milestone, making that particular amount of money, hitting that status, winning that award…  The list goes on. And when it’s all said and done, it goes on a shelf, redeemable for nothing in the grand scheme of eternity.  Many dreams don’t deliver. And if we spend our lives chasing the...

"Church is not an organization you join, it’s a family where you belong, a home where you are loved, and a hospital where you find healing.” – Nicky Gumbel Church is a family, not an event. It’s doing life together, in both the mountaintop and valley seasons of life. The early church understood this, and the world was never the same again. We’ll never fully experience what God meant for us to...

Here is a staggering statistic: more than half of Americans report feeling lonely.  Loneliness is one of our greatest fears and hardships, but the antidote is something we’re almost equally as fearful of—vulnerability with others. There is so much good found in relationship with others, but sometimes it’s messy and hard, so we turn the other way.  But from the very beginning, being alone is one of...

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We’re imperfect in many ways, but one things that fails us regularly is our memories. And this isn’t new to humanity in a distracted, busy age. In fact, all the way in the book of Joshua, there’s a story of the Jordan River, which God parts so the Israelites could pass, and He calls them to do something so they’ll never forget the miracle. They stack stones. It’s the first thing God has them do af...

Here's a sobering truth: we can't get wise all on our own. As capable and self-reliant we'd like to think we are, wisdom is simply not something we can source all by ourselves.  But here's where the challenge lies: Where, then, do we source our wisdom?   Finding the source requires journeying to the center of wisdom—more specifically, biblical wisdom. And the good news is, God...

Voices compete, and we live among the noise.  And it's not just others speaking over each other—our own minds can be filled with noise that make the voice of God inaudible.  If we're going to live in the way of wisdom, we have to know how to hear it, how to listen to the right voices and sources, and how to quiet all the distractions vying to pull us away.  How do we tune the competing v...

Strife... drama... conflict... Whatever you want to call it, it's present all around us. And whether we feel right in the middle of it or not, we're witnesses to it in our culture every single day.  So, if you think this message isn't for you... think again. The reality of life is that we'll find ourselves in the middle of conflict more than we want to, and Christ-followers are...

Scroll right past this if you're good at people criticizing you.  It's not our natural response to welcome people telling us that we're not perfect—especially when the feedback isn't packaged in a pretty way. But we also have all been guilty of not packaging it pretty too.  Long story short, feedback and criticism is not easy.  But there is a way to walk in wisdom through it, w...