Faith Speaks — Reverend Neil Taylor — Sermon Podcast

Read Exodus 4:10-12 and Luke 14:15-24 I Quit Making Excuses! What holds us back from responding to God—fear, doubt, or a long list of excuses? In “I Quit Making Excuses!” from Exodus 4:10–12 and Luke 14:15–24, discover how God speaks into our weakness and invites us to step forward in faith.

Read Exodus 20:1-17 Family & Community   |  The Ten Commandments (Part Three) In the book we call the Bible, God has given us His absolute truth. And one of the clearest places we see that truth is in the Ten Commandments. They help us understand what is right and wrong, what is true and false, and what is upright and what is off track. But the commandments were never given to keep God’s peopl...

Read Exodus 20:1-17 God's Last Name is not D@mn!   |  The Ten Commandments (Part Two) In the book we call the Bible, God has given us His absolute truth. And one of the clearest places we see that truth is in the Ten Commandments. They help us understand what is right and wrong, what is true and false, and what is upright and what is off track. But the commandments were never given to keep God’s p...

Read Exodus 20:1-17; Mark 12:28-31 Is God #1 In Your Life?   |  The Ten Commandments (Part One) In the book we call the Bible, God has given us His absolute truth. And one of the clearest places we see that truth is in the Ten Commandments. They help us understand what is right and wrong, what is true and false, and what is upright and what is off track. But the commandments were never given to ke...

Read Matthew 28:16-20 Trinity Sunday We Cannot Fail "We Cannot Fail" is a message for anyone who has ever felt small, overlooked, or uncertain. Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me… And surely I am with you always,” and that changes everything. What started with 11 disciples, some of them doubting, has become a movement of billions across the world. Historians may...

Read Joel 2:28-32 & Acts 2:14-21 “I Will Pour Out My Spirit On All People" Pentecost Sunday Pentecost reminds us that it is always easy to find reasons why God won’t do something, but the greater truth is that God is more willing to pour out His Spirit than we are to receive His outpouring. The problem is never with God; it is always with us. And yet God has more He wants to do in our midst, m...

Read Acts 1:6-11 Mission: Unstoppable! Sunday After Ascension (Year A)   Today is our missional rally call. The Sunday after the Ascension always brings us to this moment—this threshold between what Jesus has done and what He now calls His Church to do. In Acts 1, the disciples are still looking upward, still wondering if this is the moment when everything will be set right. But Jesus redirects th...

Read Acts 17:16-34 Building Bridges Not Barricades Sixth Sunday of Easter (Year A) As we wrestle with a crucial question: if Jesus Christ is truly the only way to the Father, then how do we bring that message to the world around us? How do we tell the city? In this podcast, we continue that conversation by turning to one of the most fascinating encounters in the book of Acts. In Acts 17:16–34, the...

John 14:6 “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” The Scandal of Particularity: Is Jesus Really the Only Way to Heaven? The Fifth Sunday of Easter (Year A) In a world that often bristles at the Christian claim that Jesus is the only way to God—a tension scholars have called the “Scandal of Particularity”—many believers find themselves quietly on t...

Read Acts 2:14a, 36-47; Psalm 116:11-16; 1 Peter 1:13-25; Luke 24:13-35 The Third Sunday of Easter (Year A) But We Had Hoped On this Third Sunday of Easter, we find ourselves walking a strangely familiar road—the road to Emmaus. It’s a road marked not just on a map, but etched into the experience of every human heart that has known disappointment, confusion, or the quiet temptation to give up hope...

Read Matthew 28:1-10 Easter Sunday (Year A) Do Not Be Afraid! On this Easter morning, Matthew gives us a resurrection scene unlike any other—a moment of holy drama and divine power. The angel who appears at the tomb knows exactly how to make an entrance: a sudden earthquake, blazing like lightning, and a mighty flourish that rolls back the large sealed stone. This is no gentle figure from a greeti...

Read Isaiah 53:4-6 The Sunday of the Passion: Palm Sunday (Year A) The Suffering Substitute Why did Jesus die? That question has echoed through the centuries, and Isaiah 53 gives us one of the clearest answers in all of Scripture. The prophet tells us that Christ was “pierced for our transgressions” and “crushed for our iniquities,” showing us that the cross was not an accident, but the saving pla...

Read Matthew 21:1-10 Liturgy of the Palms Homily (Year A) Who Is This? When Jesus entered Jerusalem, Matthew tells us that “the whole city was stirred up, asking, ‘Who is this?’” It’s a simple question—just three words—but it carries the weight of Holy Week. These weren’t the cheering crowds waving palms. They were the city folk, settled into the routines of power and politics, commerce and conver...

Read John 11 and Romans 8:1-11 Fifth Sunday in Lent (Year A) Set Your Mind on the Spirit  Today’s message for the Fifth Sunday in Lent is titled “Set Your Mind on the Spirit.” Drawing from John 11, Romans 8:1-11, and 2 Corinthians 6:2, we will listen for God’s voice in the midst of silence, struggle, and hope. In the raising of Lazarus, we see that what looks like delay or distance can become the...

Read John 9:1-13, 28-38 Fourth Sunday in Lent (Year A)  Who Sinned? Welcome to today’s message, titled “Who Sinned?”—a reflection on John 9:1–13, 28–38. It’s a natural question, isn’t it? When something terrible happens, our first instinct is to ask why. Why this city and not that one? Why this person, and not another? Earthquakes, floods, wars, wildfires—each disaster stirs our hearts to cry out,...

Read John 4:5-42 Third Sunday in Lent (Year A) Revelation Knowledge “Welcome to today’s message, ‘Revelation Knowledge.’ You and I cannot change our own hearts, and God will not force our minds, but when we choose to change our thoughts, God begins to change our hearts. As we bring Him our doubt, our unbelief, the condemnation we’ve agreed with, and the scars of our past, the Holy Spirit moves thr...

Read John 3:1-17 Second Sunday in Lent (Year A) Just One More Verse When Jesus says, “God so loved the world,” it is not a sentimental slogan for coffee mugs and bumper stickers; it is a staggering claim about the very heart of God.  God loves people who don’t love him back, people who would rather stay hidden in the dark, even the very world that will eventually crucify his Son.  If we wanted to...

Read Genesis 2:4-9, 15-17, 25-3:7; Romans 5:12-21; Matthew 4:1-11 First Sunday in Lent (Year A)  Identity Theft | Satan's Greatest Crime Against Humanity  On this First Sunday of Lent, it’s a good time to pause and take stock—to reflect on where we are and what’s shaping our hearts. Think back to a moment when you felt inadequate or unworthy. Maybe it was just this past week, or sometime in the la...

Read Joel 2:1-2, 12, 17; Psalm 103; 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:10; Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21 Ash Wednesday Homily (Year A) I wish you a holy and joyful Lenten season—a time to grow closer to the Lord and to turn away from sin. The Lord meets us with a unique grace in every season; may the grace He gives us in this Lent not be in vain.

Read Matthew 17:1-9 Transfiguration | Last Sunday of Epiphany (Year A) The Transfiguration is that extraordinary moment when someone—or something—is seen for who they truly are, in all their beauty and glory. In Matthew 17:1–9, we discover that the Transfiguration isn’t about Jesus changing into something new. It’s about the disciples finally seeing Him as He already is. Transformation is about be...

Read Matthew 5:13-16 Fifth Sunday of Epiphany | World Mission Sunday (Year A) God calls every Christian to influence the world around them. Jesus began teaching this concept early in his ministry, telling his disciples that he would make them fishers of men (Matthew 4:19). Then, in the Sermon on the Mount, he used the illustrations of salt and light (Matthew 5:13-16). Both salt and light have prop...

Read John 1:25-34 Second Sunday of Epiphany (Year A) Our Gospel text today is full of John the Baptist’s powerful words about Jesus. In verse 29, John says that Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world:   “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and said, ‘Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!’” That’s the best news anyone could ever hear—the eternal...

Read Acts 10:36-48 First Sunday of Epiphany (Year A) Jesus revealed the essence of the Holy Spirit's mission in John 16:14: "He will glorify me." "The essence of the Holy Spirit's ministry is, at this or any time in the Christian era, to mediate the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ" (J.I. Packer, Keep in Step with the Spirit, p. 55). In other words, the Spirit is sent to make Christ real to peopl...

Read Matthew 2:7-12 Second Sunday of Christmastide (Year A) If you’re someone who really believes the Bible is the Word of God—and that Jesus was truly born of a virgin in Bethlehem, surrounded by angels, shepherds, and Wise Men—it’s still pretty easy to let the Christmas story slip into the category of “something sweet and familiar.” We’d never come right out and say it’s just a story or a myth,...

Read John 1:10-13 First Sunday of Christmastide (Year A) In a little town called Bethlehem, a baby was born—and at first glance, it looked like any other birth, but this child was different; this was God Himself stepping into our world, taking on human flesh, becoming one of us. That is the heartbeat of the Christian faith: the God who made us came near enough to be held, to be heard, to be reject...