Immanuel Anglican Church

No matter what our financial means, the promise of wealth can bury us alive. Jesus wakes us up with a controversial parable about the embezzling manager. In it, he exhorts us to build his new city before we are buried in the old city.

In the face of tragedy within our city and the world, we long for the city to come. How are we to enter that new city? Jesus describes two false paths as personified in the two lost brothers of Luke 15 - the path of self-discovery and the path of cold reciprocity.

Why does Immanuel Anglican Church exist? Father Aaron Damiani shares the vision of Immanuel Anglican Church as demonstrated in Jesus' activity and teaching from Luke 15:1-10. The heart of the Father urgently seeks a reunion with his lost children - even in 21st century Chicago.

Church planting is one of the key ways that Jesus establishes the city of God within the city of man. What are the costs and rewards of church planting? Guest preacher Dan Claire explores this in his exposition of Jesus' teaching in Luke 14. This is the first sermon in our new series 'The Cost of the City.

Getting dislodged from the center of the universe could be the best thing that ever happened to you. To conclude the series on Joseph, Father Aaron unpacks the wrestling match between God and Jacob. He invites us to recognize the hidden hand of grace when our independence is taken away.

When family relationships break down, the struggle is real. Father Aaron invites us to gain hope and insights from the climactic reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers as found in Genesis 44-45. From it, we learn that it takes a severe mercy to heal a severed family.

Sometimes our work feels meaningless- and it may cost us more than we ever imagined. But by studying Joseph's location in Egypt, father Aaron Damiani reminds us that through Jesus Christ, our work matters to God and to the world.

How does the Christian respond in the face of evil and injustice? Father Stephen Gauthier preaches from the life of Joseph that in the valley of the shadow of death Jesus Christ meets us. The hope of the Christian lies in the fact that our suffering is given meaning within the suffering of Jesus Christ. He is our strength in the valley of the shadow.

As an attractive young man, Joseph had a chance to bond sexually with a woman to whom he wasn't married. In this sermon from Genesis 39, Father Aaron contrasts two approaches to sexuality. On the one hand, we can create a private world where we consume people's bodies. On the other hand, we can let our sexuality symbolize our commitments to God and neighbor by establishing guardrails around it. Th...

In this sermon from Genesis 25 & 27, Father Aaron Damiani explains the 3 diseased roots feeding into the tree of Joseph's life. By unpacking the family history involving Isaac, Rebekah, and Jacob, we are better able to understand how God's grace intervenes in Joseph's story - and our own.

Injustice is everywhere, but we really pay attention to it when it turns our dreams into a scream. Are the unjust acts against us an indictment of God, or an indication that he's working? Hear Fr. Aaron Damiani engage this question with the story of Joseph being stripped and sold into slavery. This is the second sermon in the series "Dreamers in the Hands of a Loving God: Joseph, His Dad, and the...

Even high-functioning families can be very broken - whether religious or not. Yet even very messy families can be shot through with God's grace and mercy. Hear Father Aaron Damiani explore the toxins of Joseph's family in Genesis 37:1-11, which include his father's self-serving favoritism, his brother's resentment, and Joseph's own self-absorbed immaturity. The promise of God's healing for this fa...

Does God want his church to grow? If so, what part do we have to play to make a way for outsiders to become insiders? In his sermon from Acts 9:19-31, guest preacher Joel Raedeke presents three pathways for our participation in the growth of the church based on Paul, Barnabas and the Apostles.

No matter how noble our calling, our work or our cause, our relationship with it can be toxic. The more we love our work, the more tempted we will be to let it kill us. Many of us need a spiritual renewal that is as deep as we are; we need the joy of our souls to be restored. The presence of Jesus and the ministry of the Holy Spirit can revive us as it did Saul, the enemy of the early church. Hear...

Evangelism can be so awkward, so off-putting, that people who follow Jesus stop sharing their faith all together. Yet the early church seemed to have great success connecting people outside the faith with the living Christ. In this sermon from Acts 8, Father Aaron Damiani explores how the story of Philip and the Ethiopian Eunuch can help us joyfully engage with the task of conversing with people a...

Why can God's people be comforted in the midst of the agonies of life? Father Aaron Damiani preaches on the stoning of Stephen in Acts 6:8-7:60. In this story Jesus shows his people that He is fighting for us. Jesus Christ tells His distinct people that they can relax under the wings of his victory.

How do God's people find nourishment in the midst of the many demands of life? Father Aaron Damiani preaches from Acts 6:1-7 that God feeds his people through his Word. We often feel anxious and confused with the many needs of those around us. It can be tempting to neglect the Word of God and focus our attention elsewhere. But the Lord draws his people to Himself and renews them with his Word.

How do we live our lives in light of the resurrection of Jesus? Deacon Aaron Sangha preaches from Acts 5:12-42 about how God calls His people to be unrelenting in their annunciation of the Gospel. With the resurrection of Jesus as the reference point for their lives, the Apostles show the driving force of the Gospel as they rejoice in the persecution and suffering they experience.

How do God's people receive blessing from God while still struggling with sin in our lives? Susan Raedeke, Director of Liturgy at Immanuel Anglican Church, explains that when we come to God in confession he shows us his undying love. The God who fails to deal with our sin is the God who fails to bless us. Thankfully God does not leave us in our sin. As God's people, Christians are distinguished by...

God's people can get overwhelmed by the problems of the people around us. How can we demonstrate God's loving compassion to people we are tempted to ignore? Guest preacher Joe DeZwaan, who trains Anglican missionaries for ministry to India, teaches from Acts 3 that Jesus calls his people to live an "interruptible life" that ushers others into the presence of God through simple conversation and pra...

Why is it so hard to connect with other people, given our unlimited options for romance, friendships and faith communities? Hear Father Aaron Damiani share insights from modern sociology as well as the historical data in the book of Acts. God brings deep connections to us when he creates a family we did not chose.

What was the message that Jesus used to grow his church from 120 to 3,120 in a day? What sermon sparked the Christian movement throughout the Roman Empire? It was a word of hope - that though we have made a tragic mistake, God is working a brilliant plan. Every man, woman and child is invited to respond to this message by embracing the beautiful mess of baptism.

When God offers his power to the Church, we are inclined to want to use it for ourselves. But the account of Pentecost in Acts 2 shows us that God's power is precisely to help us tell the story of Jesus' resurrection. This message was preached by Trevor McMaken, an Anglican pastor who is planting a church in downtown Aurora, Illinois.

Father Aaron Damiani begins a new sermon series from the book of Acts called "God's Distinct People." In this sermon, Fr. Aaron explores how Jesus calls his church to simply receive the Holy Spirit - as we resist the temptation to build an empire or plan an escape from the present moment. In an age of anxiety, the Holy Spirit can fill God's people with the commissioning we need for the work God ha...

What is the church for? The church is for the life of the world. But she has not always lived up to this mission. In this message, Fr. Aaron Damiani explores the magnificent vision of God and his bride from Revelation 19:1-10.