The Lake Forest Sermoncast

Faces of Our Faith: Vashti — The Queen Who Said No Before Esther ever enters the story, another woman has already shown us what courage costs. In week 5 of our Faces of Our Faith summer series, we turn to Esther chapter 1 and the queen we often forget — Vashti, who refuses a king's drunken command and loses her crown for it. We trace the reversal that follows — Esther's rise, Haman'...

“Give Us a Possession” | Faces of Our Faith What happens when the law doesn’t account for you — and you speak to those in power and say so? In this week’s message from Lake Forest Presbyterian Church’s summer series Faces of Our Faith, we explore the remarkable story of the daughters of Zelophehad — five sisters who stood before Moses and the entire congregation and demanded what the law had faile...

Faces of Our Faith: Deborah — A Woman of Fire The book of Judges is Israel's tragedy — a downward spiral of violence and idolatry as the people forget who they're called to be. But tucked into chapter 4 is a flicker of light: Deborah, prophet and judge, sitting under her palm tree, dispensing wisdom to a people who trust her. This week in our 'Faces of Our Faith' series, Pastor...

What happens when the commands of the world collide with the commands of the God of life? This week, we continue our summer sermon series, Faces of our Faith, by diving into the opening chapter of Exodus. While Pharaoh—the most powerful man in the ancient world—is left nameless in the text, history immortalizes two brave Hebrew midwives: Shiphrah and Puah . Ordered by the empire to participate in...

We think we know this story. But do we? Before there was Adam and Eve, there was ha-adam and ha-adamah — the human and the humus, the groundling and the ground. In this opening sermon of our summer series Faces of Our Faith, Pastor Chad revisits one of Scripture’s most familiar stories and finds it stranger, richer, and more surprising than our childhood impressions let on. What does it mean that...

What if the Trinity isn't the spare tire of Christian faith — tucked in the trunk, mostly forgotten — but the very chassis that holds everything together? On Trinity Sunday, Pastor Chad reflects on the ancient doctrine of perichoresis — the divine dance in which Father, Son, and Spirit make room for one another in mutual, self-giving love — and asks what it would look like for that same love...

What does it mean to receive the gift of the Holy Spirit?  On this Pentecost Sunday, Pastor Chad explores the chaos and wonder of Acts 2 - wind, fire, a hundred and twenty voices, and a crowd of strangers hearing God's love called out in their own language. The Spirit's first act wasn't to create uniformity. It was to create comprehension. Drawing on the image of a truly great gift-...

What does it mean to trust that God's ways really our higher than our ways?  This week, Pastor Rick McIntee invites us to acknowledge that there are many different ways to be smart, and many different things we can believe. But knowledge doesn't become trust until we put it to work in the world.  Inspired by Christ's prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane, let's remember that even...

What happens when the gospel walks into a room full of people who already have their own answers? In this Mother’s Day sermon from Acts 17, we explore Paul’s famous speech on Mars Hill — not primarily as a model for debate or apologetics, but as a masterclass in listening. Before Paul ever said a word to Athens, he wandered its streets, read its altars, and sat with its poets long enough to find t...

You wake up on an unfamiliar vessel. The floor is cold. Nothing looks familiar. And eventually, someone around the table asks the question out loud: What are we doing here? In this 5th Sunday of Eastertide sermon from 1 Peter 2:1-10, Pastor Chad traces the apostle’s surprising move — reaching deep into the Hebrew Bible to help a scattered, disoriented church remember who they are. Living stones. A...

Taking us from Tilda Swinton to toddler naps, Rev. Rachel Penmore leads us in a beautiful practice of Sabbath this week. Reflecting on the Sabbath commandments in both Exodus and Deuteronomy, we remember together that rest is not something we earn. It is fundamental to what it means to live as God’s beloved children. Let us remember and give thanks for the wisdom of rest.

"My Lord and My God" — The Real Thomas | John 20:19-29 He's been called "doubting Thomas" for two thousand years. But what if we've had him wrong? In this sermon from the second Sunday of Easter, we'll take a fresh look at one of the most misunderstood figures in the New Testament — and discover that Thomas wasn't a cautionary tale. He was a witness. A follo...

The women ran from the empty tomb “with fear and great joy.” Matthew doesn’t resolve that tension — and neither does this Easter sermon. In the conclusion of our Lenten series “Tell Me Something Good”, we arrive at the moment the whole season has been building toward: an earthquake at dawn, an empty tomb, and a commission to go before the fear subsides.  Drawing on Matthew 28:1-10, this message as...

On the first Palm Sunday, there were actually two processions entering Jerusalem — and only one of them was a celebration. While Pontius Pilate rode in from the west with armor gleaming and swords drawn, Jesus slipped in from the other side of town on a borrowed, skittish donkey that had never been ridden.  In this sermon, we ask the uncomfortable question the crowd never thought to ask: What kind...

In this Lenten reflection, we step into John 8 — the story we've long called "the woman caught in adultery" — and discover it's actually a story about a woman saved from stoning. There's a difference, and it matters. Drawing on the work of theologian Sarah Bessey and writer Richard Rohr, this sermon explores two traps laid that morning in the temple courts, the radical cal...

In this week's teaching, we reflect on two brief but powerful texts from Book of Deuteronomy and the Gospel of Matthew that center God’s care for the most vulnerable among us. When the disciples try to manage the crowd by turning children away, Jesus responds with a surprising command: “Let the little children come to me.” What might children reveal about the Kingdom of God? And what might we...

Did you know the modern internet stays online thanks to the way honeybees search for food? In this sermon for the third Sunday in Lent, we explore the "feeding of the 5,000" not as a distant magic trick, but as a "bio-algorithm" of community. When we are tired, grieving, and faced with impossible problems, our instinct is to retreat into scarcity. But Jesus offers a different c...

What does it mean to love well? On this Second Sunday in Lent, we turn to two powerful gospel texts — Gospel of Luke 7:36–50 and Gospel of Matthew25:35–40 — where Jesus asks two piercing questions: “Do you see this woman?” and “Did you see me?” In both stories, love begins with seeing. Through the story of the so-called “sinful woman” who anoints Jesus’ feet and the parable of the sheep and the go...

This week, we heard a beautiful sermon from our guest preacher, Susan Reisinger on Psalm 32. We focus on imagery from verse 7, reflecting on God as our 'hiding place' and the blessings that come from confession and forgiveness. It's such a gift to be reminded that, at the base of a penitent Lenten season lies very Good News. 

On this Transfiguration Sunday, we stand at a turning point in the church year—and in Jesus’ ministry. High on the mountain, Peter, James, and John catch a glimpse of Jesus in glory: radiant, affirmed, and named as God’s beloved Son. But the story doesn’t end there. The mountaintop moment isn’t meant to be preserved or protected—it’s meant to prepare Jesus (and us) for the journey down the mountai...

This week we return to the Sermon on the Mount with a fresh look at some of Jesus’ most famous—and most misunderstood—metaphors. In this message, we explore Matthew 5:13-20, where Jesus tells a group of ordinary, weary people that they already are the salt of the earth and the light of the world. Through a distinctly Appalachian lens (complete with a much-needed "y'all" translation)...

What does it really mean to live the good life—and would you even recognize it while you’re living it? In this sermon on the Beatitudes, we step into one of the oldest human questions and discover just how radically Jesus answers it. Drawing on philosophy, Scripture, and real-life stories, this message explores how Jesus’ vision of the good life turns conventional wisdom upside down. Instead of ce...

In this week's sermon, we turn to John 1:29–42 and Jesus’ very first words in the Gospel of John: “ What are you looking for ?”  As Andrew and Peter begin to follow Jesus, they don’t arrive with clear answers or confident belief—only curiosity and a willingness to stay. This sermon explores how our expectations shape what we see, why Jesus offers belonging before belief, and how faith often b...

What if baptism isn’t about being set apart from the mess of the world—but sent more deeply into it? In this sermon on Jesus’ baptism in Matthew 3:13–17, we stand again at the muddy banks of the Jordan, where Jesus steps quietly into line with everyone else. Before the miracles, before the teaching, before the cross, Jesus is named Beloved —soaking wet, anonymous, and vulnerable. Drawing on person...

In this Epiphany sermon, we journey with the Magi of Matthew 2:1–12 and rediscover a long-held but often forgotten truth: God reveals God’s self not only through scripture, but through creation itself. Before prophets, before texts, before sermons, the cosmos bore witness to God’s light—and the Magi were listening. Drawing on scripture, theology, and the Epiphany tradition of Star Words , this ser...