The Bridge Church Sermons

You can have a big head at the same time you have a shrinking heart. A lot of times, you can see the effects of that kind of condition in the way you treat others.  Enter: the sin of snobbery. When we are drawn to make distinctions—ranking others by a face value like wealth, status, race, age, you name it—James is challenging us to reevaluate.  And the challenge might not be what you think. It&apo...

There is an enemy who waits, waving its bait and hoping that our weakness will come through—that we'll be convinced there is something out there that brings happiness apart from God.  The sad news: it happens so often that we are convinced.  The list of bait is endless—money, status, vanity, property, people... And the enemy knows there is an entire arsenal ready to use.  But maturity in Chri...

Much of our lives are spent chasing the things we think will make us happy—getting that one job, reaching that one milestone, making that particular amount of money, hitting that status, winning that award…  The list goes on. And when it’s all said and done, it goes on a shelf, redeemable for nothing in the grand scheme of eternity.  Many dreams don’t deliver. And if we spend our lives chasing the...

"Church is not an organization you join, it’s a family where you belong, a home where you are loved, and a hospital where you find healing.” – Nicky Gumbel Church is a family, not an event. It’s doing life together, in both the mountaintop and valley seasons of life. The early church understood this, and the world was never the same again. We’ll never fully experience what God meant for us to...

Here is a staggering statistic: more than half of Americans report feeling lonely.  Loneliness is one of our greatest fears and hardships, but the antidote is something we’re almost equally as fearful of—vulnerability with others. There is so much good found in relationship with others, but sometimes it’s messy and hard, so we turn the other way.  But from the very beginning, being alone is one of...

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We’re imperfect in many ways, but one things that fails us regularly is our memories. And this isn’t new to humanity in a distracted, busy age. In fact, all the way in the book of Joshua, there’s a story of the Jordan River, which God parts so the Israelites could pass, and He calls them to do something so they’ll never forget the miracle. They stack stones. It’s the first thing God has them do af...

Here's a sobering truth: we can't get wise all on our own. As capable and self-reliant we'd like to think we are, wisdom is simply not something we can source all by ourselves.  But here's where the challenge lies: Where, then, do we source our wisdom?   Finding the source requires journeying to the center of wisdom—more specifically, biblical wisdom. And the good news is, God...

Voices compete, and we live among the noise.  And it's not just others speaking over each other—our own minds can be filled with noise that make the voice of God inaudible.  If we're going to live in the way of wisdom, we have to know how to hear it, how to listen to the right voices and sources, and how to quiet all the distractions vying to pull us away.  How do we tune the competing v...

Strife... drama... conflict... Whatever you want to call it, it's present all around us. And whether we feel right in the middle of it or not, we're witnesses to it in our culture every single day.  So, if you think this message isn't for you... think again. The reality of life is that we'll find ourselves in the middle of conflict more than we want to, and Christ-followers are...

Scroll right past this if you're good at people criticizing you.  It's not our natural response to welcome people telling us that we're not perfect—especially when the feedback isn't packaged in a pretty way. But we also have all been guilty of not packaging it pretty too.  Long story short, feedback and criticism is not easy.  But there is a way to walk in wisdom through it, w...

What wins in the face of division? What's the play we should call when it feels like it's an "us vs. them" game? In a culture that amplifies the loudest voices and the hottest takes, what if a win is gained by gentleness?  A few weeks back, Pastor Ian got to sit down with Scott Sauls, an incredibly gifted pastor and author who is passionate about a concept he calls "a gent...

There are times in your life where we would say pain is in our life. Other times, it feels like pain is more than that—that pain defines our life.  Naomi was a case of the latter, to the point that she described herself as "empty". When faced with all kinds of hardship and hopelessness, in times where our lives seem empty and defined by our pain, what do we do? Where do we find strength?...

A man humbles himself to bus tables for widows and ends up changing the world. How? Stephen was a man we know very little about, except for the end of his life. Confronted with death, he spoke truth and grace. From his story we see, as the Holy Spirit moves, we are filled with courage and compassion to communicate our convictions; allowing for grace, power, wisdom, and faith to grow in our lives. ...

Who are your heroes?  It's unlikely that anyone would name someone like Rahab—an unmarried woman living in enemy territory, working as a prostitute to simply survive on her own.  Yet it's Rahab whose desperation was so deep that when push came to shove, she committed treason to follow God—giving her a place forever as a model of faith (Hebrews 11).  It might just be that desperation for...

A few months back, as the war in Ukraine began, we got connected through some Bridge Missions partners to a pastor and evangelist named Karen and his family, who are incredible examples of what it looks like to live on mission.  The work he and his team has been doing in Ukraine and Europe over the last few years, but especially since the war began, is powerful and deeply moving. Pastor Ian had a...

When is the last time you've been fearful? Doubtful? Have you ever felt "half-in" with your faith, or maybe questioned where God was in the middle of a battle?  Gideon's story, in a nutshell, is this: 300 men defeat an army of 135 thousand, led by a man who begins the story by hiding in a hole—fearful and doubtful. God's plan rarely will make sense on paper, but He gives u...

Jesus often surprised people with His teachings. "Lose your life to save it." "The first will be last." "Pray for your enemies." But maybe the most shocking assertion Jesus ever made was John 14:6: "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Yes, it's an exclusive claim... but also the most inclusive invitati...

Suffering is inevitable. It's in Scripture time and time again—people crying out to God in lament and anger, praying for pain and grief to be taken away, even wishing for death. But where our world has a way of brushing over suffering with bumper sticker phrases about strength and purpose for pain, God gives us so much more. He doesn't ask us to hide our suffering and mask it with joy—no...

Let’s call it like it is—miracles are one of the hardest things to comprehend. Some of us aren’t even sure… do they really exist? Were they things of the early church but not things of today? To know if miracles are real begins with understanding what miracles are in the first place.  And all miracles point to something much greater than our own desires and happiness—they point to the greatest mir...

Have you ever wondered what the relationship between science and faith looks like? You aren’t alone in asking these questions. Join us in "Curious" as we continue to dive into the hard questions and seek to understand the relationship between faith & science.  Science can define the how; only faith can define the why. Science is a gift from God when it is not treated as God. Support...

Can we trust the Bible?  For centuries, the Bible has transcended all economic, ethnic and geographical boundaries to bring transformation. But it has also led to questions. Confusion. Sometimes doubt or anger, even.  To know if the Bible can be trusted, we have to look at what—or better yet, Who—it all points to. It truly has the power to bring us to Jesus, and He can be trusted.  What's the...

2,000 years ago, the cross of Jesus was the end of the road… or so many thought. All the hope the disciples and other followers put into Jesus actually being the sent Messiah and Son of God turned to despair when they saw Him hung on a cross and laid in a dark tomb. Without a resurrection, there was no purpose to their faith. There was no hope left—only grief. But a stone rolled away. A tomb was e...

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The question is not, “Am I building my life?” We're all building a life. The real question is, what are we building it on? There are a lot of sandy foundations for our faith—If your life is built on—greed, competition, materialism, appearance, popularity, travel, you fill in your own blank. Here's the truth of the matter: houses built on sandy foundations eventually crumble in the storm....