Lakewood Vineyard Sermon Podcast

Everyone pictures the rescuer as the one who has it all together, but the truth is harder and better than that. This message draws on years spent on a backcountry search and rescue team to reframe what Jesus meant when he said he came to seek and save the lost. It follows a real midnight search for a four-year-old boy who wandered off at a lake, then turns that night into a plain question about ho...

Most of us carry a quiet list of reasons we think we're too far gone. A failure we can't undo. A season we're ashamed of. Something done to us that we never asked for. Moses had all of that. He grew up in a palace, killed a man, and spent forty years hiding in the desert, convinced his story was finished. Then a bush caught fire, and God called him anyway. Pastor Christian walks through Moses' lif...

Control feels like safety. More often, it's a cage. What happens when life stops following your script: a job change you didn't choose, a diagnosis you didn't expect, a kid who grew up faster than you were ready for. Using the panic of a father watching his daughter get married in Father of the Bride, Janna asks a simple question. What are you really holding onto when you grip your plans so tightl...

You've tried to pray it away, think it away, distract it away, and somehow it only gets louder. If that's been your experience with anxiety, this message is for you. Drawing on the movie Inside Out 2, the moment Jesus sweat blood in the garden, and real research on how the anxious brain actually works, this message challenges a belief many of us quietly carry: that feeling anxious means we're fail...

Most of us could name a celebrity, a politician, or a favorite athlete without hesitating. But the eight people who live closest to us? That's a different story. This message gets at why we've become so good at abstract, generalized love while completely overlooking the real people next door. From a 3,000-year-old command in Leviticus to the story of the Good Samaritan to a surprisingly honest con...

Most of us are carrying a younger version of ourselves who is still running the show. A kid who learned somewhere along the way that big feelings weren't safe, that certain needs were weakness, that the real you had to be managed and hidden. So we built armor. We called it maturity, responsibility, moving on. But the wound never went anywhere, and we kept building our whole lives on top of it. Thi...

Most people know what it feels like to carry anxiety into a room and never put it down. But what if the real problem isn't your circumstances? What if you've been trying to manage them on your own? This sermon digs into the Greek word dunamis, the resurrection power that raised Christ from the dead and now lives in every believer. It's not self-confidence. It's not a mindset shift. It's a power th...

Most of us were taught to chase love instead of receive it. Pastor Christian works through why the modern definition of love (subjective, consumeristic, defined by feelings) leaves people anxious, lonely, and afraid. Pulling from 2 Timothy 1:7 and 1 John 4, he makes the case that real love has to come from a source outside ourselves. God is love, and His love does not respond to loveliness; it cre...

Every family passes something down, whether they mean to or not. The question is what. In this Mother's Day message, the conversation turns to the kind of inheritance that doesn't show up in an estate sale: the truth, wisdom, and steady inner life we hand to the next generation through the way we live, speak, and respond. Anchored in 2 Timothy 1:7 and a walk through the Proverbs, this sermon explo...

Most of us walk through life treating it like it's ours to do with as we please. But what if everything you have, your time, your money, your relationships, your abilities, was never really yours to begin with? Aaron takes the Parable of the Talents and flips it on its head, using the relatable lens of house-sitting to show what it actually means to be a good steward. There are three kinds of peop...

Most of us are living on autopilot, putting one foot in front of the other, moving fast, and missing what's right in front of us. On this baptism Sunday, four young people stepping into the water reminded us what it actually looks like to slow down, pay attention, and live a life that's genuinely compelling to the people around you. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 2 and Philippians 2, this message is a...

What does it actually mean to do justice? Not just talk about it, but live it out in a way that changes communities and breaks cycles of poverty for good. We look at the biblical vision of justice and generosity from the early church all the way to a man in Nairobi, Kenya, whose entire family escaped generational poverty because one person in Canada chose to act. The connection between what God ha...

In this first message of our new series "Hot Mess," Pastor Christian digs into Acts 6 to show how the early church faced real conflict, overlooked people, and organizational breakdown, and instead of falling apart, they leaned into shared leadership, radical care, and the Holy Spirit to come out stronger. Whether you've been burned by church, walked away from faith, or you're just trying to figure...

On the road to Emmaus, two heartbroken disciples walked away in defeat, not realizing the risen Jesus was walking right beside them. This Easter, we explore what happens when Jesus doesn't appear the way we expect, how our "preferred version" of Jesus can blind us to what he's actually doing, and how true hope is restored when we let him reinterpret our story. Luke 24 | Easter Sunday 2026

This Palm Sunday message in our Lent & Lament series explores John 12, where Mary pours out costly perfume at Jesus’ feet and the crowds shout “Hosanna” as He enters Jerusalem. Mike Caulley invites us to consider the anchoring question, “What do you need to let go of?" Our need for control, safety nets, expectations of how God should move, and even our timelines. Through Mary’s extravagant surrend...

In this message from our Lent and Lament series, we walk through John 11 and the story of Lazarus, Martha, and Mary to explore how Jesus meets us in grief, delay, and unanswered prayer. Even when it feels like God is late, the gospel shows that Jesus is present, compassionate, and still fully in control. Pastor Christian invites us to bring our honest pain before the Lord, trust His timing, and le...

Lent invites us into the uncomfortable honesty of lament, where we bring our grief, disappointment, and confusion directly to God rather than pretending everything is fine. We explore how Scripture shows lament as God’s path through pain, whether we’re walking through wilderness seasons, feeling exiled from what felt secure, or facing suffering that makes no sense at all. We are called to name our...

We face the reality that we all encounter deep pain, personal loss, injustice, and the brokenness of our world. Scripture invites us to bring it all honestly to God in lament, rather than pretending we are okay. Drawing from Psalms, Job, the story of Israel, and the cross of Jesus, we explore how a God who suffered on the Cross can hold our hardest questions and still lead us into a stubborn, defi...

In this 2nd message from our “Lent and Lament” series, we explore what it means to live life in the wilderness. Those seasons when God feels distant, our hearts feel dry, and faith is tested. Drawing parallels between Israel’s journey through the desert, Jesus’ 40 days of temptation, and our own stories, we wrestle honestly with doubt, disappointment, and the feeling of being spiritually “hungry,”...

How long do we have to wait for things to change? In this first message of our “Lent and Lament” series, we explore what it means to be honest about pain, disappointment, and unanswered prayers, all without losing hold of hope. Drawing on Psalm 13, Romans 8, and Revelation, we examine the pattern of biblical lament (complaint, cry, consolation) and how naming our grief can deepen our faith rather...

Work doesn’t have to crush you, define you, or feel like a necessary evil. In this message from our “Spirituality of Intentionality” series, we explore how Scripture reframes work as a partnership with God rather than as pointless toil. We examine the false stories we believe about our jobs, the difference between a job and a vocation, and how to live as “faithful, not famous” in the workplace. Yo...

In Week 6 of our “Spirituality of Intentionality” series, we explore what it means to love people who don’t think, believe, or live as we do, and how differentiation and grace help us do that without losing ourselves. Drawing from Scripture and real-life stories, we look at how to stay connected in the middle of tension, how to hold our convictions while remaining relationally present, and how the...

Discover why biblical renewal is far more than a spiritual “top-off” in this message from our Spirituality of Intentionality series. Looking at Isaiah 40, we explore how true renewal isn’t God simply refreshing our depleted strength, but an intentional exchange. We exchange our weakness for His power, our sin for His righteousness, our fleeting efforts for His enduring word. Stop chasing self-help...

Feeling constantly tired, anxious, and behind, even when you slow your schedule down? We explore God’s invitation to Sabbath as a weekly act of freedom, resistance, and faith. The Sermon is rooted in Exodus, Deuteronomy, the teaching of Jesus, and Hebrews 4. Pastor Christian talks about how to break from hustle, productivity-as-identity, and modern “pharaohs” and step into a sustainable, joy-fille...

Praying with Intention moves us from last‑minute 911 pleas to a daily rhythm that anchors life in God’s presence rather than anxiety. We draw from Jesus’ teaching in Luke 11 and the idea of a “rule of life.” The message shows how simple, repeatable practices like silence, praying the Psalms, and using a P.R.A.Y. framework (praise, repent, ask, yield) can form a kind of spiritual trellis to grow an...