Redemption Church - Sermons

Does this sound like you? You long for a meaningful life and deep relationships with others. You feel a little guilty about not having more time for others, but life feels too busy chasing the next thing—next text, next meeting, next sporting event, next career move. Maybe it’s time to reclaim an ancient idea. 2000 years ago, an invitation was given: “Love your neighbor.” The old word for this is...

This teaching on abiding prayer was part of a special Prayer & Worship Sunday from July 30th.

In our journey through the book of Acts, we’ve seen how the church was born, how it grew, and how it thrived in the face of strong opposition. We saw God make hearts glad by the gospel, and the church became bold in mission. This week, we wrap up our series with a call to take the torch of the gospel forward in our day.

Our world is filled with distractions that can keep even the most devoted follower of Jesus from the kind of daily connection to God we long for. The good news is that Jesus gave us a model of life to follow that leads to deep, meaningful, and restful life in him. Join us this Sunday as we lean into how it is that we model our lives after Jesus' life.

Is it reasonable to be confident in God when our circumstances feel chaotic? In Acts, we read that God sent Paul to Rome to share the message about Jesus, yet his journey includes traveling as a prisoner, a horrifying storm at sea, a life-threatening shipwreck, and a dangerous bite from a venomous snake. This week, we explore how to live as a non-anxious presence in a challenging world.

What comes to mind when you think about power? Our world often associates it with influence, authority, strength, control, recognition, importance. But what if Jesus showed that we had it all wrong? What if he turned everything upside-down? This week, we learn from Paul how to walk in the way of Jesus in a world that rejects it.

Experiencing hard things in life is universal to human existence. The apostle Paul knew this better than anyone, and the way in which he trusted God in the face of pain and suffering gives us all an example to follow. In Acts 21 we learn from Paul about how to trust God with the hard stuff of life.

In Acts chapter 20, we hear Paul speak some final encouragement to the Church before he faces his last days in ministry. This Father’s Day we will consider some powerful truths spoken by a spiritual father that will resound no matter where you are in your faith journey.

The phrase "Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" gets used often in our world, both inside the church and even in cultural settings like award acceptance speeches and post-game interviews. It's an easy phrase to throw around, but it's not always an easy truth to live by. In Acts 19 we see several stories that show Jesus as both Savior and Lord, and invite us to recognize him as Savior and Lord in our own...

Most of us have ideas about how we want life to work, but our reality rarely looks like our plans. In Acts 18, we see how God brings real-time growth in the midst of real messes. What if we learned to see “church” as a group of friends who walk alongside us in the mess and help us understand the way of God more deeply?

As Christians who live in a complex time, it can be confusing how to feel about our world. On the one hand, we see brokenness that leads to frustration. On the other hand, we see beauty in people made in the image of God, and we are filled with compassion. This weekend, we will study how Paul engages in spiritual conversation with the culture-makers of his day to see how the gospel creates both br...

Spiritual growth isn’t automatic. Different groups have different reactions to Jesus’ message. Some refuse. Some receive. This is why Paul reasoned, explained, and persuaded people with the Scriptures, and this is why some eagerly examined the Scriptures daily for themselves. This week, let’s embrace the noble task of centering our lives in the Word of God.

Can Jesus change your life? Acts 16 shares several compelling case studies in gospel transformation: the influence of a mother and grandmother, the conversion of a successful and entrepreneurial woman, a young slave girl oppressed both spiritually and financially, and a jailer in the immediate aftermath of his failure. Join us as we learn from these stories of life-change.

Disagreements happen to the best of us. Whether you are talking about friendships, teammates, co-workers, or families, we all experience conflict in one way or another. In Acts 15, we see a sorrowful parting of two great leaders. Paul and Barnabas served together, bled together, and walked together as friends for years, then a disagreement drove a wedge between them. Join us as we explore how God...

As we progress through Acts, the Church is exploding among Gentiles but tensions between Jews and Gentiles are rising to the surface. Contrary to the teaching Paul and Barnabas, some Jews are telling Gentiles that they must be circumcised and keep the Old Testament law in order to be saved. These tensions lead to the first historic Church council where nothing less than the core message of Christi...

Whenever the grace and truth of Christ enters new places to engage new people, we see a variety of responses. Some receive this message with joy. Others reject it with animosity. Opinions in our world can flip-flop from curiosity to animosity moment-by-moment. In the midst of fickle crowds, the church is called to grow faithful disciples who live under the good care of the living God.

When asked if he had any word of encouragement for people, Paul immediately talked about the resurrection of Jesus. He knew that understanding the importance of this single event to your own life is the only way to comprehend Christian faith. It has been said, “If the resurrection is real, nothing else matters. And if the resurrection is not real, then nothing else matters.” Everything hinges on t...

Do you ever wonder if God is sovereign why do we need to pray? Or whether or not your prayers make any difference in the world? Prayer is a mystery that we'll never fully wrap our minds around but the Bible teaches that our prayers do matter and that our prayers are one of the means God uses to bring about his purposes in the world.

When the Church is at its best, we see the grace of God visibly at work in changing people. At its best, church is people whose lives are marked by courage, joy, intentionality, purpose, encouragement, teamwork, generosity. When we are at our best, we experience the hand of God upon our lives.

Our time is filled with spiritual confusion caused by the enmeshment of Christian faith wrapped in cultural trappings. While this is certainly heightened in our day, this issue is not new. In fact, the early church wrestled with many of the same questions: how does my faith intersect with my politics, my ethnicity, my cultural preferences? This week, we continue to explore these tensions in one of...

Our time is filled with spiritual confusion caused by the enmeshment of Christian faith wrapped in cultural trappings. While this is certainly heightened in our day, this issue is not new. In fact, the early church wrestled with many of the same questions: how does my faith intersect with my politics, my ethnicity, my cultural preferences? This week, we explore these tensions in one of the most im...

After his powerful conversion on the road to Damascus, Saul immediately turns from arresting Christians to inviting all of Damascus to become Christians, and the Church continues to spread and strengthen. As we pick up the story in Acts, we see that though not everyone has the same remarkable conversion story as Saul, God is inviting us all on the path from personal salvation to powerful participa...

What is Love? By most any metric there is more love than ever but somehow things seem to be getting worse and worse. How is this possible? Maybe we've got the wrong definition. Join us this weekend as we discover what love is and what this means for us as humans.

This week, we see a remarkable conversion story. Saul leaves home on a hateful mission to persecute those who believe in Jesus, but on the road to Damascus he encounters Jesus. Jesus confronts Saul, revealing his spiritual blindness and then opening Saul’s eyes to see truly for the first time. Like Saul, we need to see what it means to live before the face of God.

As the good news about Jesus advances beyond Jerusalem to reach new people, people respond in different ways. This passage reveals two remarkable encounters with the gospel: the first about a sorcerer named Simon, and the second about an Ethiopian eunuch. In these stories, we will see how the gospel both confronts and comforts us, and why we need both.