GraceLife Sarasota

In my experience, one of the hardest things for a church to develop is true diversity. Many churches talk about it, celebrate it, even put it on their websites—but let’s be honest: we feel safer when everyone looks like us, sounds like us, and shares our background. Diversity is risky. It’s uncomfortable. It’s messy. And deep down, we know it. We would never say out loud that we want our church to...

Crucial to surviving in Egypt is learning how to balance the pressures of earthly and eternal responsibilities. Every one of us faces decisions every day where heavenly wisdom and earthly wisdom collide. How do we navigate that tension? How do we pursue Egyptian success without losing sight of heavenly priorities? Today we study a powerful example of heavenly wisdom—and its three essential ingredi...

Sometimes, in the quiet of my own thoughts, I get discouraged by how my own choices have hindered Kingdom work. I can look back at several pivotal decisions in my life and see how they limited my desire to serve Heavenly Dad effectively. And when I think about my family and close friends—how much impact my dysfunction has, my sin, my immaturity had on those relationships? I feel the weight of it....

Vulnerability is a scary word. It sounds risky, costly, dangerous, reckless—a liability, especially in Egypt. Our first instinct is to see vulnerability through the lens of potential betrayal or the shame of exposure. So, by nature, we avoid it. We protect ourselves. We build walls. We convince ourselves that vulnerability is weakness. But that’s because human eyes struggle to see the benefits of...

We love a good revenge story. When the underdog finally gets to force justice on the people who wronged him, something about it fires us up. The buildup, the payoff, the moment the tables turn… it’s appealing because we love the idea of our hands controlling justice. But restoration, though far less dramatic, is always the more powerful ending, even when we can’t see it at first. At the new Night...

Can you truly say that you are surviving in Egypt? Is there any outward evidence of life saving transformation? The truth is, we’ve become experts at looking like we’re surviving in Egypt. And we do it economically, comfortably, and in style. We’ve built our own little transformation ecosystem—our music stations, our books, our bumper stickers, our inspirational memes on social media. It’s like we...

You know what I hate? I hate getting on a plane, walking to my seat, and having to pass all the first class passengers. I mean, who do they think they are? Sitting there with their giant seats and overly polite flight attendants. And of course, as I make my way to row 32B, I can see the special treatment happening right in front of me. The plane isn’t even fully boarded yet and they’re already get...

You may not realize it, but redemption and transformation are the most compelling parts of any good story. In every great movie, there’s a thread of redemption woven into the plot. And the same is true in real life—transformation is where inspiration lives. When there is undeniable, tangible, objective evidence of change… when you can see a beautiful metamorphosis into the image of Christ… somethi...

Egypt is filled with depravity, selfishness, and every distraction imaginable—anything that can pull our eyes away from God. It’s easy to criticize Egypt; doing so helps us avoid looking at our own depravity. But Egypt is only half the problem. The other half—the part that makes Egypt truly difficult—is the darkness within us, much of which we live in denial about. There’s the depravity we don’t m...

What is it about human beings that allow us to grow comfortable living with bitterness and resentment? We can carry it for years, sometimes decades, without making any effort to resolve it or even admitting it exists. Bitterness blinds us. It numbs us. It hides itself so deeply that we don’t see the damage it’s doing to us or to the people around us. Most bitterness begins with betrayal—and betray...

Recently Laura and I had the privilege of spending a couple of weeks in the UK, and we saw some incredible things. But the most stirring moment—believe it or not—was a sight almost no one visits. It was Winston Churchill’s grave. Middle of nowhere. Off a highway. Up a small gravel road behind an old church. The most important man of the 20th century, a flawed yet brilliant leader… resting quietly...

Have you ever had the thrill of teaching someone and watching the moment they finally “get it”? During my first season coaching football, I worked with the 2nd and 3rd team JV players in a strong Tampa program. Every day after stretches and fundamentals, the head coach sent all those kids to me and two assistants. We taught them the basics, and early on it was chaos. I took the offense, the other...

Suddenly life in Egypt had become insecure, uncertain, and people wanted to know what God was saying. It’s interesting—if life in Egypt contained no tragedy or threat of it, I wonder how often we would be willing to hear from God. Right after 9/11, I remember people who had shown no appetite for spiritual truth in decades suddenly leaning in. They asked, “Was this predicted in Revelation?” “Is God...

(I know—we’ve been dragging this part of the story out. “Get to the good part, Joe!” But there’s so much here we need to learn.) For the most part, I hate waiting. Waiting is simply not getting what I want because something or someone is slowing it down. Ask my wife how I react when people who arrived after us get their dinner before we do. Clearly the kitchen has lost our order. They’ve forgotten...

Every human being since creation has searched for spiritual truth. It’s woven into the core of the human experience. And Egypt—our world—has plenty of answers to offer when the stakes are low. But when the stakes are high, when life collapses, when the questions cut deep, Egypt’s answers fall apart. Often, we don’t recognize our desperate need for spiritual truth—or Egypt’s inability to provide it...

Have you ever felt abandoned by God? Like no matter what you do, nothing works out? Even when it finally looks like things are turning around—when you think, “Okay, I can see God’s plan coming together”—suddenly it all falls apart again. Moments like that expose something we don’t like to admit; we carry certain earthly expectations of what God should do in response to our faithfulness. We’d never...

They say everyone dreams—some people remember them, some don’t. Some dreams are frightening, some bizarre, some pleasant. Science tells us dreams help us process reality, symbolically working through our fears, desires, and experiences. But in Joseph’s time, every culture viewed dreams as a direct connection to the supernatural. They were considered gifts from the gods, glimpses into the future, a...

An Easter message about how Resurrection power enables Heavenly Dad adopts us as His children even while we are dead in sins

How good are we, really, at experiencing God’s presence? How would you define His love and faithfulness? What are the moments that make you say, “Ah, there’s God,” or “I can really feel His presence”? Is it a powerful worship set? Landing the job you prayed for? A vacation in the mountains? A holiday surrounded by family? A peaceful morning with Scripture and a designer cup of coffee? Those moment...

What motivates us to be obedient? In a world designed to cultivate disobedience, where is the incentive supposed to come from? If we’re honest, most of us live with an expectation—sometimes overt, sometimes buried deep—that God will bless us for our obedience. Centuries of bad theology have trained us to believe that obedience guarantees earthly reward. And without realizing it, those expectations...

Temptation is the one area every Christian wishes they could finally master. It feels like one of the hardest parts of surviving in Egypt. We tell ourselves that if we could just learn to resist temptation consistently, life would be so much easier. Maybe if we work hard enough, we’ll eventually reach some higher level of spiritual maturity—some “more than conquerors” status—where temptation barel...

The first four weeks of our Joseph series focused on the dysfunction of humanity, how deeply broken we are, how easily sin takes root, and how far the ripple effects can reach. But this next section turns a corner. Now we look at God’s grace in the lives of those He loves. Many people live paralyzed for years because their eyes are fixed on their circumstances and the unknown. We carry guilt over...

Parents live with a constant awareness of the world’s influence on our children. We work overtime trying to protect them, from choosing schools carefully, policing the internet, monitoring what they watch, paying attention to their friends. All of that is part of being a good parent, and it matters. But sooner or later, we all realize the same truth: despite our best efforts, the world eventually...

Have you ever been surprised by how comfortable we become with sin and dysfunction in our lives? It’s like going to a great restaurant and being perfectly fine sitting at the worst table in the place. Last year we went somewhere and they sat us so close to the bathroom we could hear everything, people coming and going, the sounds, the whole experience. And somehow… we just stayed there. That’s how...

Some of the most difficult, painful moments in life are the ones where we’re betrayed by the people closest to us. We instinctively view betrayers with contempt, and we naturally empathize with the betrayed far more than the ones doing the betraying. Jesus Himself experienced this pain with both Peter and Judas. We comfort ourselves by casting betrayers as villains, shaking our heads at their choi...