Crucible Church Podcast

Send us Fan Mail What does it look like to have a heart for mission in a city like Richmond, BC? In this message, guest speaker Pastor David Leung — a hospital chaplain at Vancouver General Hospital — explores Paul's remarkable ministry in Athens and its meaning for us today. Athens was a city full of idols. But the idols of Paul's day aren't so different from the idols of our moder...

Send us Fan Mail Are you so focused on what God did in the past that you're missing what He's doing right now? In Isaiah 43:18-19, God speaks to the Israelites in Babylonian captivity — a people who loved their deliverance story so much they couldn't see the new thing God was preparing for them. They kept commemorating the Exodus, the parting of the Red Sea, while God was saying: &q...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when rumours, misunderstandings, and personal convictions threaten to tear a church apart? In Acts 21:15 -25, the Apostle Paul arrives in Jerusalem and is immediately faced with a conflict — false rumours are circulating about his teaching, and the unity of the early church hangs in the balance. In this message, we look at what Paul does next — and why his response is...

Send us Fan Mail What does faithful, authentic Christian ministry actually look like? In this message from Acts 20:17-21 and 28, Pastor Sam walks through Paul's farewell address to the Ephesian elders — one of the most powerful and pastoral passages in all of Scripture — and unpacks three marks of genuine ministry that apply to every follower of Jesus. In this sermon, you'll discover: Wh...

Send us Fan Mail "You Can Be Religious and Still Be Running on Empty" | Acts 19:1-10 | Crucible Church Richmond, BC Have you ever felt like you're doing all the "right" things spiritually, but something still feels missing? In this message from Acts 19, Pastor Sam explores Paul's encounter with a group of sincere, devoted disciples in Ephesus who were missing one cruc...

Send us Fan Mail Who is Jesus — really? In Mark 9:2-9, Jesus takes Peter, James, and John up a high mountain, and something extraordinary happens. His appearance is transformed before their eyes — his clothes becoming a dazzling, radiant white. Moses and Elijah appear alongside him. And then a voice comes from a cloud: "This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him." The disciples are terri...

Send us Fan Mail Have you ever felt a deep longing you couldn't quite name — a sense that there has to be something more? When Paul arrives in Athens, he finds a city full of temples, idols, and an altar inscribed "To an Unknown God." Rather than condemning the city, he sees something else: people honestly searching for a God they haven't met yet. And Paul knows exactly who tha...

Send us Fan Mail When Paul arrives in Thessalonica and then Berea, he encounters two very different responses to the same Gospel message. The Thessalonians react with jealousy and hostility, shutting themselves off from what challenges them. The Bereans do the opposite — they receive the word eagerly, then open their Scriptures daily to examine whether what Paul says is actually true. Luke calls t...

Send us Fan Mail What do you do when you're in a situation you can't get out of? In Acts 16:25-34, Paul and Silas are beaten, chained, and locked in a windowless prison cell — not for doing something wrong, but for doing something right. And at midnight, instead of despairing, they pray and sing. An earthquake shakes the prison to its foundations. Every door flies open. Every chain comes...

Send us Fan Mail A closed door can feel like rejection. But what if it's actually redirection? In Acts 16:6-15, Paul and his team are actively pursuing God's mission — and the Holy Spirit stops them. Not once, but twice. No explanation given. Just a clear "no." Rather than falling apart, Paul and his team keep moving, and eventually God leads them to Macedonia, where a woman na...

Send us Fan Mail What happens when two of the most fruitful ministry partners in the New Testament have a falling out? In Acts 15:36 –16:5, Paul and Barnabas — close friends and fellow missionaries — reach a sharp disagreement over whether to bring John Mark on their next journey. John Mark had previously abandoned them mid-mission, and Paul wasn't willing to give him another chance. Barnabas...

Send us Fan Mail In Acts 14:8-28, Paul and Barnabas arrive in Lystra — a small, culturally diverse Roman colony with no synagogue, no Jewish heritage, and no prior exposure to the Gospel. It's an unlikely place for God to move. And yet, God was already there. When Paul encounters a man who had been lame from birth — a man with no medical hope, no community of faith praying for him, and no fra...

Send us Fan Mail In Acts 13:4-12, the Holy Spirit sends Paul and Barnabas on their first missionary journey to the island of Cyprus. There, they encounter a man named Elymas — a false prophet who had attached himself to the Roman proconsul, Sergius Paulus, a spiritually curious man who wanted to hear the word of God. Elymas actively worked to turn Sergius Paulus away from the faith, standing as a...

Send us Fan Mail Do you ever feel stuck in the same patterns of sin, no matter how hard you try to break free? In Romans 6:1-14, the Apostle Paul offers something far more radical than a call to try harder — he declares who we already are in Christ. Paul tells us that when we placed our faith in Jesus, something decisive happened: we died. Our old self — the person enslaved to sin — was crucified...

Send us Fan Mail Written over 700 years before the birth of Jesus, Isaiah 53 contains one of the most remarkable prophetic declarations in all of Scripture. In the midst of Judah's exile, moral decay, and spiritual wandering, the prophet Isaiah speaks of a coming Suffering Servant — one who would carry the pain, guilt, and sin of the people not as punishment for His own wrongdoing, but out of...

Send us Fan Mail In Acts 13:1–3, the church in Antioch worships, fasts, and listens—and the Holy Spirit sets apart Barnabas and Saul for God’s mission. Paired with 1 John 3:19–4:6, we are reminded that a Spirit-led life requires both discernment and confidence rooted in God’s truth.  This message, from P. Dan, calls us to be a church that listens attentively, tests what we hear, and responds with...

Send us Fan Mail We live in a world built for self-promotion — personal brands, platforms, and carefully curated images. The hunger for recognition is nothing new. But Acts 12:20 –25 gives us a sobering and freeing answer to where that road leads. God will not share His glory. And that truth, as uncomfortable as it is, is one of the most liberating realities in Scripture. Join us as we look at the...

Send us Fan Mail What does it look like when the Holy Spirit builds a church? In Acts 11, we see a community born not out of comfort, but out of scattering — ordinary people driven from their homes by persecution who, instead of retreating inward, shared the Gospel and watched God move.  In this message from Acts 11:19-30, Pastor Sam traces three movements of the Spirit: He scatters God's peo...

Send us Fan Mail Doing the right thing doesn't always earn you applause — sometimes it earns you criticism. When Peter returns to Jerusalem after sharing the Gospel with the Gentile Cornelius and his household, he isn't celebrated. He's confronted. In this message from Acts 11, Pastor Sam explores what happens when God's mission expands beyond the boundaries we're comforta...

Send us Fan Mail P. Teddy helps us unpack John 17:11, 14-19, and 2 Corinthians 5:20. In His final prayer before the cross, Jesus doesn't ask the Father to remove His followers from the world — He asks that they be sanctified and sent into it. Together, John 17 and 2 Corinthians 5 paint a picture of what it means to be the church: a people set apart by the truth, yet fully present in the world...

Send us Fan Mail God is already at work in people we'd least expect — and He's calling us to join Him. In this message from Acts 10, Pastor Sam explores the story of Cornelius and Peter: two very different men whose lives were interrupted by God in the same moment.  We look at what it means when God confronts our blind spots, exposes our cultural prejudices, and calls us to obedience bef...

Send us Fan Mail In Acts 9:19–31, Saul’s life is radically changed by Jesus—but his reputation takes much longer to heal. As the early church wrestles with fear, skepticism, and trust, God uses community, time, and courageous grace to form both Saul and the church.  This passage reminds us that Jesus changes our direction before our reputation, that following Him often brings opposition, and that...

Send us Fan Mail In Acts 9:1–19, Saul’s confident path is suddenly interrupted by an encounter with the risen Jesus. What begins as confrontation becomes grace—disrupting Saul’s certainty, humbling his independence, and transforming his heart. Through Jesus’ unexpected intervention and Ananias’ faithful obedience, we see how God uses disruption to form disciples and send ordinary people into His m...

Send us Fan Mail In Psalm 13, P. David teaches us how to bring our sorrow honestly before God through the practice of lament.  In this message, we see how David models a prayer that moves from honest complaints to bold requests and finally to renewed trust in God’s unfailing love. Lament is not a loss of faith—it is a pathway to deeper faith.  This passage invites us to pray our pain honestly, dep...

Send us Fan Mail In Acts 8:4–25, the gospel moves forward through disruption, discomfort, and surrender. As persecution scatters the early church, ordinary believers carry the good news into unexpected places, and God brings joy, freedom, and transformation. This passage also exposes the danger of seeking God’s power without surrender, reminding us that the gospel cannot be controlled—it is receiv...