New Story Church

God does not heal the brokenhearted by erasing their pain or scars, but by binding up our wounds through Christ. He explicitly took up our plight in His mission (Isaiah 61:1), bore our sorrows, and calls us to wait in honest hope at His table until He restores the years the locusts have eaten.

You prayed. Something happened. Then you wondered if that was really God... or coincidence... or just in your head. It's the same question Esther forces us to ask. And refuses to answer. It's the one book in the Bible that never mentions God. No miracles, no prayers, no voice from heaven — just a hidden queen, a cousin named Mordecai climbing a pagan empire, a genocide plotted with a rol...

There's something in all of us that wants to destroy us. And the terrifying part is — it usually looks like a strength. The Book of Esther introduces us to a man named Haman — one of the most psychologically precise portraits of pride in all of Scripture. He has everything: wealth, power, access, honor. And none of it is enough. Because one man won't bow. What follows is not just a story...

Most of us never find out who we really are. Not until something forces the question. This week we hit the turning point of Esther. For years she's hidden who she really is, her faith, her people, to survive at the top of a world that runs on power and appearances. Then the crisis comes, and she can't hide anymore. Speak up and she might die. Stay silent and she'll lose something wo...

Some people just seem to be born lucky. And some people don't. Everything seemed to be falling into place for Esther and Mordecai. She "just happened" to be in the right place at the right time — and became queen. He "just happened" to overhear an assassination plot and saved the king's life. Lucky. Lucky. Lucky. Until it wasn't. Old wounds resurface. Old enemies...

There's a book in the middle of the Bible where God never shows up. Not once. No miracles. No prayer. No divine intervention. Just a young woman hiding who she really is — her identity, her faith, her people — in order to survive in a world run by powerful, fragile, drunk men. And somehow that made it into our Bible. This week we open the Book of Esther. It's strange, morally complicated...

Most of us are lonelier than we’re willing to admit — and we’re not telling anyone about it. This sermon is about the most ordinary thing in the world: a table. A meal. It turns out that simple thing might be the answer to something much larger. Drawing from the story of Jesus eating with the people no one else would eat with (Luke 5), Acts 2, the neuroscience of bonding, and a Van Gogh painting a...

Most of us think we choose our friends. We don't think much about what our friends are choosing for us. In this sermon, we wrestle with the hidden ways friendship shapes us, why so many adult friendships feel thin or transactional, and why it's so hard to truly know and be known. Along the way, we explore Proverbs, David & Jonathan, the psychology of imitation, the "false self,&...

You're not a bad friend. You're just making Orpah's choice — over and over — without knowing it. This sermon walks through one of the most quietly devastating scenes in the Bible: three women on a road, a friendship at a crossroads, and two very different choices about what makes life worth living. Ruth 1 turns out to be less about loyalty and more about something harder — the momen...

"Friendship is hard to describe." Friendship is one of the deepest gifts in life -- and one of the places we get hurt the most. In this message, we explore the quiet weight of loneliness, the reality of betrayal, and why even our closest relationships fracture. Drawing on stories from Job, David, and ultimately Jesus, we wrestle honestly with questions we don't always say out loud:...

On the worst night of his life, Jesus didn't call everyone. He called three people. Turns out this isn't coincidental. Sociologists have finally discovered what Jesus lived: your brain can only maintain about 150 genuine connections — and it takes roughly 219 hours of face-to-face time to form a close friendship. But most of us will never get there. Not because we don't want to. Bec...

Your body already knows something your mind keeps forgetting. When we sing together, our breathing synchronizes. Our heart rates align. Our brain waves fall into the same rhythm. Scientists have a name for it. Jesus had a command for it. And the Bible has an explanation for it that goes deeper than either. This week in our Known series, we're in John 15 — the night before Jesus dies — where h...

Loneliness is killing us. Literally. And we've barely noticed. We've built a world that is frictionless, individualized, optimized for exactly what we want — and somehow ended up more isolated than ever. Friendship has become the greatest casualty of modern life. And we don't even know it. In this sermon we sit with Ecclesiastes 4 — an ancient, brutally honest text that turns out to...

Most Easter sermons end at the empty tomb. This one ends at a charcoal fire. This Easter, we're sitting with a charcoal fire on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, where the Risen Jesus tracks down the man who denied him three times. No explanation demanded. No conditions given. Just breakfast, and one question asked three times in the exact place where everything fell apart. If you've ever...

What if the thing standing between you and really loving Jesus… is everything He can do for you? This Palm Sunday, we trace one of the most surprising threads in the Gospel of Mark — a pattern where Jesus heals people, raises the dead, and casts out demons… and then tells everyone to keep it secret. What is He up to? And what does it reveal about the difference between following Jesus and actually...

What if we've lost something that our soul actually needs?  Fasting is one of the most forgotten practices, and maybe the most understood. Drawing mostly from Isaiah 58, this sermon unpacks the ancient practice of fasting: what it is, why many have largely abandoned it, and why it keeps showing up in the lives of people who actually want to change. This isn't about performance or behavio...

You've probably wondered why God makes such a big deal about sex. (So have I.) Song of Songs chapter 8 doesn't give you a list of rules. It reveals something stranger and more beautiful — that marital love, the kind expressed in sex, carries within it the actual power of God. That it's stronger than death, stronger than chaos, stronger than anything that seeks to destroy you. In fac...

He wanted intimacy. She didn’t. They fought.  In Song of Songs 5, a husband and wife have a painfully familiar moment. What begins as a small conflict quickly spirals into something deeper—and raises a question every relationship eventually faces: What story will you tell yourself after the fight? This ancient love poem doesn’t idealize relationships. It shows us how conflict actually works—how it...

Why do the very best moments in life still leave you wanting more? In Song of Songs 3–5, we come to the moment everything in this relationship — this song, this couple — has been building toward: the wedding night. It's beautiful, joyful, intimate, and holy. And yet, even this moment carries an ache that lingers. In this sermon, we wrestle with why our most beautiful moments don't fully...

Most of us want real intimacy. And most of us are terrified of it. In Song of Songs 2–3, love calls a woman out from behind the walls — and she hesitates. In this sermon, we'll explore why we hide, why vulnerability feels so risky, and how we are made to be fully known and fully loved. From the poetry of the Song to the story of Jesus calling Mary by name, this message invites you to wrestle...

Sometimes it takes coming to the end of yourself to see what God is doing. In 2 Kings 7, four lepers are trapped outside a besieged city—rejected, starving, and staring down death. But their desperation becomes their clarity: they see an option no one else can see. And when they stumble upon an unexpected abundance, they face a choice that will define them: hoard it or share it. Over the past four...

A man tells a woman she looks like a horse. She swoons. This is Scripture. This sermon starts our journey through the Song of Songs—exploring attraction, romance, consummation, conflict, and unbreakable commitment. In this first movement (Song of Songs 1:1–2:7), we step into a love song tucked right into the heart of Scripture. It’s playful, sensual, awkward, tender—and radically countercultural....

How do identities form in contemporary settings? How are identities formed in relation to our sexuality and experience of gender? This message engages historical, social, and linguistic changes that have influenced young people’s understanding of sexuality and gender. Rather than offer simple formulas, Christians need tools for caring, respectful, and effective engagement with youth who are naviga...

Why did God put an erotic poem in the middle of my Bible? I grew up in church. Sat through thousands of sermons. And somehow never heard about the Song of Songs—one of the most beautiful, confusing, and ignored books in the Bible. It's a collection of erotic love poetry. And it's right there in your Bible, sandwiched between the Psalms and the prophets. So... why? Is it just ancient rela...

We live in a world where there are narrative tensions (4 of them) that are at play in what story of sexuality people are telling, or inhabiting. Caught within a mixture of pleasure, shame, longing, and confusion, this sermon explores the pertinent question at the heart of it all: what does our sexuality have to do with God?  Drawing on the insights of many, we look at the different stories shaping...