Grace Church Group Leader Podcast

Date 01.19.2026 Sermon Summary We are entering week two of our Vision and Mission series, where we are exploring the realities of our future, today. This week, we are looking at the identity and function of the Church. As we examine the story of Gideon in Judges 6-8 , we find a small remnant of 300 people who form an army that defeats their enemies, numbering 135,000, in a decisive yet unorthodox...

Date: 01.12.2026 Sermon Summary We're kicking off the new year with our vision and mission series from January through February. As we take the time to know and clarify where we are, where we're going, and how we plan on arriving there, it will take all of our family to accomplish the audacious promises God has given us. We are in preparation for war, a time where God is calling us to kn...

Date: January 5, 2026 Sermon Summary: The baptism of the Holy Spirit and fire is not a spiritual accessory designed for charismatic circles; it is God’s appointed means of empowering His people to live and witness beyond human ability. Jesus Himself did not begin His ministry without the Spirit, showing that mission without power is incomplete. Through the baptism of the Holy Spirit, believers rec...

Date 12.29.2025 Sermon Summary This week, three of our elders preached in our weekend services. Each of them prepared their talks independently, yet it is clear that the Holy Spirit coordinated them beautifully--placing Christ at the center. Find contentment in Jesus. Surrender to Jesus. Pursue oneness with Jesus. These three messages form the core of what it means to have an abundant life in Chri...

Date: December 22, 2025 Sermon Summary This week we continue our close look at the character and nature of God. The prophet Isaiah had a life-changing, dangerous encounter–behind the veil of the temple–with the profoundly holy God of angelic warriors. In this encounter, he came undone, believing himself to be doomed simply by being a sinful man in the presence of the King. Then, at an atoning touc...

12.15.2025 Sermon Summary Our tendency is to read the Bible as if we are the main character. We read it to affirm what we already know, infer our own presence as the hero of the story, and get our ego stroked by false affirmations. Instead, the Word offers another function in reading: it trains, it equips, and it shapes like fire and a hammer. The story of the Prodigal Son in Luke 15 may be better...

December 8, 2025 Sermon Summary In this message, we explore what God is doing in our generation and how He is calling His people to step into His purposes with clarity, boldness, and surrender. We are called to recognize that God is raising up a new movement marked by holiness, prayer, flexibility, and a readiness for the next outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Building on the past, God forms new wine...

12.01.2025 Sermon Summary There is a great deception occurring in the church today. Many assume they are saved, but they are not. Others are saved but live constantly trying to assure themselves of this gift. Today we are talking about the great gift of salvation that Jesus won for us on the cross. We are an equipping church that gives our people resources to help examine the true life of faith. U...

11.24.2025 Sermon Summary God uses our weakness and need for community to form us and reveal His glory, and sometimes calls us to embrace our neediness. Just as Paul needed the earthly confirmation of others and begged for prayer despite his spiritual greatness, believers are taught that God's power is perfected in weakness and that growth and "becoming" often involve suffering and...

November 17, 2025 Sermon Summary We are concluding the Slow Burn Series with our final installment, exploring a few more stories that kindle our love for Jesus. These stories, along with others in the Gospels, focus on Jesus as the central figure. Too often, we read Scripture wanting to get something out of it, focusing on our own needs instead of God's Presence. A.W. Tozer says, “ The man wh...

November 10, 2025 Sermon Summary The messaging of this world specializes in noise, crowds, and busyness, and we are all surrounded by it. Messages telling you to be more, that you deserve more, and to get what you want. The solution for years has been for us to attempt to suppress those desires, hoping they will go away. Rather than suppression, Thomas Chalmers offers substitution as a solution—su...

10.30.2025 For the Sermon Guide Review, go to 38:30 Sermon Summary We have been in a slow burn series about stewarding the passion and Presence of God in our hearts, like a fire.  Fires do not remain lit by accident; it takes diligence and time and fuel. With every encounter of God's Presence, there is an equal demand for a response. When God's Presence comes down to encounter with peopl...

10.23.2025 Sermon Summary There was once a gospel that shook the world around it to its core, turning over societies, bringing a revolt, and inverting the culture. This gospel that was first introduced upon the arrival of Jesus was a seriously offensive gospel, compelling many to forsake their entire life to obtain the one great prize—Jesus. We need to come back to the power and love of this messa...

10.16.2025 Sermon Summary As the Church continues to see an increase in victories in the hearts and lives of people, the enemy seems to be working harder to try to bring distraction, discouragement, and destruction. The Apostle Paul gives hope and clear direction for us to be able to stand against the schemes and attacks of the evil one–stopping blows and knocking down arrows together. But in orde...

10.09.2025 Sermon Summary Many of us are living life at full speed, just trying to stay in front of the calendar and not be buried by business and responsibilities. And in the business of it all, there are many competing voices—social media, entertainment, podcasts, politicians, news agencies, friends, family, and even our own inner voice. Many of these voices seek to influence what will become ou...

10.02.2025 Sermon Summary Water. It’s one of the most ordinary things in our lives. We drink it, wash with it, cook with it—simple, everyday purposes. But in Scripture, water is never just ordinary. God takes this common element and uses it for extraordinary, even supernatural purposes. From the flood to the Red Sea, from the Jordan River to the ministry of Jesus, water becomes a symbol of cleansi...

09.25.2025 Sermon Summary In light of the state of our hearts and our nation, because of a shift that is happening all around us, we are taking a small pause from the Slow Burn series in order to care for our hearts. In preparing for our 7-day fast this week, we are talking about how these present difficulties are working maturity in us. Paul tells the troubled Corinthian church a great parable of...

09.18.2025 Sermon Summary This weekend, we gathered in anticipation to see our hearts fully set free and living in breakthrough. Jesus came to set our hearts free, and we tend to take Him at His Word. We made space to grieve, let our hurting hearts have space to mourn, and most importantly, connect them to a God who will restore us. As we looked through the book of Lamentations, it paralleled much...

09.11.2025 Sermon Summary Keeping the fire in full flame, the gifts that God has given you are a response to His grace working in you. This week, we look at 2 Timothy again to gain a greater understanding of the grace of God–the activity of God. The grace of God is working inside of you as He reveals to you who He is in Scripture. This revelation of who God is reveals who you are and fuels great e...

Date 09.04.2025 Sermon Summary In preparation for our 24 hours of prayer that will start on Friday, October 3 at 6 pm to Saturday, October 4th, we are discussing the correlation between the flame that is inside of us and the stewarding of the physical fire that we will keep burning for 24 hours. Paul tells Timothy the three elements of the spiritual fire of God's Presence within: the flame, h...

08.28.2025 A consistent illustration for the presence of God throughout the bible has been fire. Even the interaction of the Israelites with God was like a fire, dubbed their “consuming fire.” Too often, the church today is more like a pilot light that is flickering under the wind of the world, instead of burning like the light that we are called to be. As we gather, we fan into flame others aroun...

08.21.2025 There is an ancient orientation of our hearts that sometimes gets lost in all the good works we do. It’s the central desire of our hearts. It’s the deepest longing of who we are to simply be with Jesus. We are strengthened in the LORD by spending time with Him, not just hours on end like a monk, but by taking the attention of our mind and our heart throughout the day to be turned toward...

08.14.2025 Sermon Summary More and more, our generation cries out for more freedom and more liberties. It is within our human nature to want to be free creatures with the autonomy to chase our own dreams and pursue whatever our hearts desire. However, the bible has some ideas of what it means to be “love-slaves” of Jesus. The early church apostles and many others in church history understood somet...

08.07.2025 Sermon Summary Life is indeed a journey that seems long, but we are reminded in Scripture that it is short compared to eternity and that eternity in our hearts is exactly how we should live this life on earth. Without vision, we tend to die a little on the inside; we lose hope, become discouraged, and our hearts dull a bit. No matter the detours, delays, and the beautiful mountain top e...

07.31.2025 Sermon Summary We call Jesus “Lord, Lord” but often still live like we’re in charge. We make our own plans, chase our own dreams, and ask God to bless our will instead of submitting to His. We treat Jesus like a great Rabbi with helpful advice, but not as KYRIOS—Master, Owner, Supreme Authority. Jesus taught that many will be surprised on judgement day because they picked and chose good...