GraceLife Sarasota

How can you know for certain your soul has been purified & transformed by the power of the Gospel? In my career as a pastor, it’s been oft asked. it’s one of the things most people who need comfort want to know. In America, even when life gets tough, we have it easy compared to the suffering of Peter’s readers. Imagine if every aspect of your life was unstable, unsure, and hope of salvation was th...

When you experience true heartbreak, suffering… any type of adversity, it’s hard to think about anything else. Nothing puts the human heart in the prison of now like suffering & loss, especially without a hope fixed on eternity. Suffering devours your attention, dominates your emotions, crowds your thoughts, siphons off earthly resources. Sometimes it seems like a monumental burden, just take the...

Our hearts are w/Judy Carroll, Lor Creasy, & family w/the loss of Gregg Bauer, a part of GraceLife from the beginning. Planning, behavior & choices inspired by hope in the future is one way people different from animals. Last year, when I was given the gift of Super Bowl tickets to watch my beloved Buccaneers, I was so excited. I started preparing for the game two weeks beforehand to ensure I got...

This week, one of my heroes, Coach Bowden died. He had a huge impact on me as a young football coach & preacher. I’ve loved FSU football since I was a kid, ESPN replayed condensed classic games in his honor. I was watched 5 of them. I remembered most of the plays! I already knew the score, but I loved watching again, reliving all the details, the drama. I loved remembering where I was when they we...

What do you think about the Bible instructing us to rejoice when we go through grief and suffering? What does it mean to rejoice? How do you rejoice when earthly circumstances are ripping your life apart? Why Can’t God just save His children & then make life easy? Does our faith really need to be tested for it to be reliable? Perhaps this one of those things in scripture we all nod w/a serious fac...

What are some of your hopes and dreams… things you desire for yourself, your children, your family, your country? What about hopes which are a little less long term? Like hopes you have for this coming week? Maybe it’s a vacation you want to take, a relationship you desire, a job or promotion you hope to land. Maybe your greatest hopes are medical, for healing, or emotional, for peace. These hopes...

Have you ever asked someone a question, you know they heard you, and they just didn’t answer? How do you feel? Like they are intentionally ignoring you? You know they’re choosing not to listening. Its disrespectful. Your response? Me, I am infinitely patient, I caress the suffering brow, overflowing with compassion…. “What’s wrong? How can I help?” Of course, I am quite the opposite, as are most o...

Have you ever been mad at God? Have you ever been frustrated with how He does things? A couple weeks ago a friend I had not heard from in several years reached out and asked me if they could borrow $50. No biggie, I’m hip, I’ll use Venmo. They insisted I use cash app. “I don’t have cash app; I don’t use cash app.” They got frustrated “Can you open a cash app account? It’s what I use, it’s easier f...

What’s your first thought when I tell you today is a sermon about fearing God, about God’s judgement of sinners? How do you feel about sermons centered on the topics of hell and God’s judgement of sinners? Back in my southern Baptist days we called Hellfire and brimstone! Those kinds of sermons are rare these days. The wrath of God has become one of the most neglected doctrines in sermons today. S...

Special guest Marji Kruger speaks on her ministry in Lesotho, South Africa, and shares a word from the book of Lamentations

Have you ever confessed without really meaning it? A confession without any real remorse or repentance? Like… “Yeah, I flipped that guy off at the red light, and I’m glad I did! He deserved it!” How about a confession as a humble brag? “Sorry I cussed you out, I just have a tendency to tell it like it is.” How  about false self-deprecation?  “Yeah, best watch out, I have a little bit of an anger p...

Have you ever been around an unbeliever who’s just beginning to understand the Gospel, their excitement, their joy? Doesn’t it seem people in that stage are far more teachable than those who have known Jesus for years? Do you remember their passion to consume biblical knowledge? They ask so many questions! What about their hunger for fellowship, their desire to worship God & be obedience to His Wo...

JEREMIAH 23:23–24 “AM I A GOD AT HAND, DECLARES THE LORD, AND NOT A GOD FAR AWAY? [24] CAN A MAN HIDE HIMSELF IN SECRET PLACES SO THAT I CANNOT SEE HIM? DECLARES THE LORD. DO I NOT FILL HEAVEN AND EARTH? DECLARES THE LORD. When you read those words of our Lord, how do they strike you? Ominous? Intimidating, Frightening? Perhaps, if we’re honest a bit overwhelming, frustrating we cannot hide our si...

We all have two reactions to scripture, the verses we love, & the verses we wish weren’t there. Are there things in scripture you love to read or hear about?  Often, social media is a place where people express it. Memes of nice verses from Psalms with promises, encouragements, even some commands like “Love your neighbor.” We all have favorite verses, right?  Phil 4:13, John 3:16… verses everyone...

As Christians, many of us believe the New Testament is inspired and reliable because we’ve been told so—but couldn’t explain why. Yet there are powerful, compelling reasons to trust it, reasons almost as miraculous as the resurrection itself. As we reach the final section of Mark, we encounter a passage that wasn’t written by Mark but added later by scribes. That might sound unsettling, but the ve...

After studying Jesus’ life and teachings for nearly two years—79 sermons, every verse—you might think our faith should be unshakable by now. With all the history, prophecy, and truth we’ve uncovered, doubt should be gone and our spiritual maturity firing on all cylinders. But knowledge alone doesn’t eliminate doubt; if it did, Peter wouldn’t have denied Jesus, Judas wouldn’t have betrayed Him, and...

Hope is uniquely human, animals don’t hope, only we do. But hope comes in two forms. Earthly hope is tied to circumstances like finances, relationships, politics, health, and success; it’s powerful, addictive, and often all consuming, yet it always ends the same way—at the tomb. Eternal hope, however, is different. It’s supernatural, planted in us by God, rooted in redemption, resurrection, and li...

We all know Newton’s third law: every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Spiritually, we often paraphrase it this way—every behavior has a consequence. And when we hear the word “consequences,” we usually think of something negative: punishment, fallout, regret. Sometimes consequences feel unfair when they come from someone else’s choices, and other times people escape consequences they cl...

Being mocked is one of the most painful human experiences—animals don’t mock each other, only humans do. We mock people for their appearance, beliefs, failures, politics, even their favorite football team, and social media has turned mockery into a sport where one post can unleash a flood of strangers eager to tear someone down. Mockery wounds deeply, especially in childhood, but even as adults it...

We all say we love justice—especially when someone else gets what they deserve. When a reckless driver gets pulled over, we celebrate; but when we’re the ones getting the ticket, justice suddenly feels less appealing. The truth is, we love justice selectively. We cheer when others are held accountable but grow quiet when the spotlight turns toward us. As I wrote this sermon, the nation was watchin...

We all admire an athlete, a leader, or a mentor—Tom Brady has always been that person for me. Admiration is natural; it means we see qualities we aspire to. And Jesus is admired more than anyone in history, even by people who don’t believe He’s God. Some admire His compassion, others His justice, others His moral teachings. But admiration can become a spiritual cop‑out—a way to feel connected to J...

When Jesus told Peter he would deny Him three times before the rooster crowed twice, Peter couldn’t imagine it. Jesus warned him, prayed for him, even woke him up three times urging him to pray for himself—yet Peter still walked straight into his darkest moment. And every morning afterward, the crowing of a rooster must have echoed that failure in his mind. We all have moments like that—our greate...

Have you ever felt pressure to make Easter feel more spiritual than a normal Sunday—to feel extra joy, extra excitement, extra celebration—and maybe even faked it. Easter is the most important day on the Christian calendar, the celebration of Jesus’ resurrection after His suffering and death, but sometimes the pressure to “feel something big” overshadows the simple, powerful truth of the Gospel. E...

I remember coaching high school football—undefeated one year, 5–0 the next, heading into a game against the number‑one team. I gave the best pregame speech of my life, even cried a little… and then we got crushed. Passion and confidence weren’t enough to overcome our weaknesses. That’s how many Christians follow Jesus—sincerely passionate, deeply confident, but spiritually overmatched. We imagine...

There’s a difference between knowing about someone and truly knowing them—we know about celebrities, but we don’t know them personally. Many Christians treat Jesus the same way, knowing facts about Him while avoiding the cost of intimacy. Most believers stay at the surface level, content with information rather than the relationship. But if you want to truly know Jesus, where do you go. This week’...