Rise City Church Sermon Podcast

We’re all hungry for something—for love, purpose, significance, peace, or acceptance. We spend our lives trying to satisfy those longings with things that never seem to last. In John 6, Jesus meets a crowd searching for another miracle and reveals that their greatest need isn’t more bread—it’s Him. In the first of His great “I Am” statements, Jesus declares, “I am the Bread of Life.” He doesn’t of...

The world says people never change. Jesus says watch what My grace can do. In a culture that writes people off because of their failures, their reputation, or their past, Scripture introduces us to Saul—a man everyone feared and no one expected God to use. Yet Jesus met him on the road to Damascus and transformed the church’s greatest persecutor into one of its greatest proclaimers. Acts 9 reminds...

The world says masculinity is toxic. God says men are called. In a culture that wants men passive, distracted, and compromised, Scripture issues a different command: Be watchful. Stand firm. Act like men. Be strong. Let all that you do be done in love. This Father’s Day, we’ll look at the high calling God places on men in 1 Corinthians 16—to guard what matters, stand firm when the pressure comes,...

Most of us spend our lives trying to hold everything together. We carry the pressure to succeed, provide, lead, and figure it all out. Yet beneath all that effort is a deeper reality: we were never created to live independently from God. From the beginning, humanity was designed to thrive in His presence, not apart from it. Tune in as we discover how Jesus restores what self-sufficiency has stolen...

The greatest evidence that Christ is changing us is not what we know, but who we are becoming. Paul calls the church to put on the clothing of Christ: compassion for the hurting, kindness without harshness, humility that values others, gentleness that uses strength to serve, and patience that bears with imperfect people. These qualities are not optional extras—they are the visible marks of a commu...

Every life leaves something behind. The question isn’t whether we’ll shape the next generation—it’s what we’ll shape them toward. In a world competing for the hearts, minds, and identity of our kids, it’s easy to focus on our own race and forget the baton in our hand. But the Kingdom of God has always advanced through generations of ordinary people who chose to pass faith forward. Jesus is still b...

Once your soul tastes Heaven, Earth will never fully satisfy again. In Colossians 3, believers are called to “set your hearts on things above” because Jesus is coming again in glory, and that future reality changes how we live right now. Jesus came giving humanity a taste of the world as God intended it to be. Every miracle was Heaven leaking into Earth. Every healing was Christ declaring war agai...

Most people want a version of Jesus they can reshape to fit their preferences — activist Jesus, therapist Jesus, political Jesus. But Paul refuses to let us reduce Him. In Colossians 2, he declares that “all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form” in Christ. Jesus is not partly God or merely God-like. He is the eternal “I AM” wrapped in flesh and blood. He slept, cried, suffered, and was t...

Some seasons feel like flourishing. Others feel like shaking, pressure, heat, and crushing. But throughout Scripture, olive oil was never produced without pressure—and neither are we. In this deeply encouraging message from Colossians 2, we learn what it means to be rooted in Christ, built on Him as our cornerstone, and formed through every season of life. If you’ve drifted, grown weary, or wonder...

Pain changes people. It exposes what we believe, tests what we trust, and leaves us searching for hope that can actually hold us together. In this message from Colossians, we’ll explore how Paul endured unimaginable suffering without losing heart—and why the Gospel gives us strength to hold fast even in our darkest seasons. Jesus is not distant from suffering; He entered into it. He carried the we...

Breakthrough and battle often arrive together. As people stepped into new life in Jesus, opposition followed—but that’s not defeat, it’s confirmation the Kingdom is advancing. Colossians 1:13–14 reminds us that we’ve been rescued from darkness and brought into the Kingdom of the Son He loves—this is our identity and our victory. From that place, Paul prays we’d be filled with the knowledge of God’...

In a world pulling us in opposite directions, how do we stay anchored? The church in Colossae faced two distortions—diluted faith (Jesus + the world) and distorted faith (Jesus + religion). One softens truth to fit culture; the other adds pressure to earn what grace already gives. Both drift from the center. So Paul doesn’t say “try harder”—he lifts their eyes to Jesus and calls them to hold fast....

We spend our lives chasing what feels secure—building bigger barns, stacking up more, trying to create a life that finally feels enough. But what if everything we’re building is pointed in the wrong direction? In this message, special guest Randy Alcorn reframes our understanding of wealth, not as something to own, but something to steward. Jesus doesn’t just challenge where we put our money—He ex...

All across the world, millions are gathering to celebrate one reality: Jesus didn’t stay in the grave—He got up. And when He walked out of that tomb, He didn’t just change history… He changed your story. Because the gospel doesn’t start with your failure—it starts with a God who made you in love and came after you when you were far from Him. Paul gives us a compelling framework for the Gospel in E...

What if the darkest parts of your story aren’t random—but already accounted for? Between the Last Supper and the cross, Jesus walks through betrayal, anxiety, abuse, rejection, and injustice—and none of it is accidental. Every step, every encounter, is a preview of what He is about to carry. Because what He faces along the way reveals what He’s going to pay for. Your sin, yes—but also your sorrow....

Crowds can make it easy to assume the work is already being done. Someone else will invite. Someone else will reach out. Someone else will carry the burden. But in Mark 2, four friends refuse to leave their hurting friend outside the house where Jesus is teaching. When they cannot get through the door, they go through the roof. Their faith does not stop at good intentions—it moves, lifts, tears, a...

What if the reason you feel stuck financially isn’t because you don’t make enough—but because no one ever taught you how to think about money? There's a tension most people live with: income goes up, but so does stress.  We’ve been sold the lie that a higher standard of living leads to a better life, yet many are discovering the opposite—more income, more pressure, more anxiety.  If money is a mag...

There is a quiet battle happening in every heart. Jesus described it clearly: no one can serve two masters. Something will always sit on the throne of our lives—our security, our savings, our comfort, or our King. The question every disciple must answer is simple but searching: who truly reigns in our hearts? Jesus teaches that our lives are not built around ownership but stewardship—faithfully ma...

Many of us live with a quiet fear: What if I don’t have enough? Enough money. Enough strength. Enough time. Enough faith. In 2 Kings 4, a desperate widow feels that same fear when creditors come to take her sons as payment for a debt she cannot pay. But what she sees as “nothing but a small jar of oil” becomes the starting point of God’s miraculous provision. God often works through what feels sma...

Twelve years in, it would be easy to start believing our own press. We’re growing. We’re hungry. We’re bringing friends. There’s momentum, influence, reach. But Paul confronts that instinct in 1 Corinthians: “Not many of you were wise… influential… of noble birth.” God chose the foolish. God chose the weak. God chose the lowly—so that no one may boast before Him. The reason anything is happening i...

We all know what’s wrong with the world. Or at least we think we do. It’s the system. The culture. The other side. But Scripture turns the mirror toward us. The fracture in our relationships doesn’t begin “out there” — it begins in the old self, the part of us that protects pride, feeds resentment, and quietly keeps score. Until Jesus deals with the corruption in our own hearts, healing stays out...

We live in a world that celebrates visibility, scale, and success—yet Jesus tells a story in Matthew 25 that reframes what actually matters. The Master doesn’t commend influence or outcomes; He says, “Well done, good and faithful servant.” Each servant receives a different entrustment, but the call is the same: steward what you’ve been given. Faithfulness means resisting comparison, surrendering e...

Most people assume purpose is something you must invent or achieve, but Scripture tells a different story. God didn’t just save you from something—He saved you for something. In a world contested by good and evil, every life is shaping the future of something larger than itself. Grace pulls us out of death, but it also places us into God’s unfolding plan to heal what’s broken. Ephesians declares t...

We long to be known—but we fear what might happen if we actually are. Yet from the earliest days of the church, God’s people devoted themselves to shared life: shared meals, shared prayers, shared needs. Even Paul—the tireless missionary—needed friends, family, and community to remain faithful. True community is where masks come off and grace moves in. It’s where someone notices when you’re not ok...

Everyone needs their people. Scripture is filled with them—Adam had his partner, David his mighty men, Esther her mentor, Paul his companions, and even Jesus surrounded Himself with friends when facing the cross. Isolation makes us vulnerable, but community makes us resilient. Like a herd protecting its own, the church becomes the place where faith is guarded, sharpened, and sustained. The enemy i...