The Local Church

Homecoming is a series on how to be human, tracing the questions we ask on our way home. In this sermon, we head to Jacob's well, where there's no going back, but there is a way forward and a God who meets us right where we are.

This week in our series Homecoming: A Series on How to Be Human, we look at what happens when going back means facing things we left behind. In this sermon, we talk about why conflict is so hard to avoid and even harder to sit with. Jacob spent twenty years running from the brother he cheated, but he eventually had to stop running, wrestle with his own past, and show up. True repair doesn’t mean p...

Scripture is full of people going home—and it rarely goes as they had expected or hoped.

Artist, writer, and creative Scott Erickson joins The Local Church as guest preacher.

In this sermon, we find ourselves at a threshold place. Behind us, a season that's ending; ahead, a wilderness of school mornings and full calendars — and in between, a moment we will almost certainly rush past. Israel didn't. They stopped and sang. Maybe we should, too.

We’re wrapping up The Gospel According to Ted Lasso with one of Ted’s most famous bits of wisdom: “Be a goldfish.” But in this sermon, we talk about why shaking it off can be so hard—and wonder what happens when we discover that God isn’t keeping score on us, either.

This week, for a special Back-to-School service, kids model Jesus' curiosity by asking Brent anything.

In this first installment of our end-of-summer series, The Gospel According to Ted Lasso, we're holding memorable wisdom from the pitch in one hand and scripture in the other. In this sermon, we push back against the cultural scripts and algorithms that profit off our hopelessness. And with Ted's help, we discover that to believe isn't about blind optimism or burying our doubts; it is a stubborn p...

We wrap up our series on Sabbath by confronting our insatiable appetite for "more" and stepping into the radical freedom of "enough." In this sermon, we explore how the ancient gift of manna interrupts our relentless counting, releases us from the anxiety of scarcity, and invites us to sit still long enough to receive God’s daily grace. We might ask, like the Israelites, "What is it?"

In this sermon, we talk about sabbath as delight—and dig into a strange possibility in the Hebrew of Psalm 104 that might change the way you picture God entirely. Because if God plays, then that thing you nerd out about? Not a waste.

In this message, guest preacher Josh explores Jesus’s invitation to rest in Matthew 11:28–30, reframing the concept of the Sabbath away from modern "outer-world" calendar management and toward an "inner-world" spiritual sanctuary. Rather than treating rest as something to be earned, optimized, or achieved after managing busyness, the sermon highlights that Sabbath is a free, unconditional, and uni...

In this sermon, we explore the radical grace of Sabbath as an act of liberation, inviting us to break free from the exhausting demand for endless productivity. Drawing on the ancient practice of Jubilee, Pastor Leah reframes rest not as a reward we earn, but as a sacred reset—a declaration that we are already enough and that God’s economy is rooted in abundance, equity, and restoration for all of...

In this sermon, we examine the revolutionary power of Sabbath as deep, intentional rest rather than a cultural "pit stop" designed just to optimize you for more work. By exploring the striking image of Jesus sleeping soundly on a pillow during a violent storm, we discover that true rest is a counter-cultural act of resistance rooted in absolute trust in God. Tune in to learn how disconnecting from...

The wine ran out. And Jesus turned to the servants. In the Redacted series finale, we sit with the unnamed ones doing the grunt work — hauling water, wondering if it matters. This one is for every person who's asked that same question about their own life.

In this sermon, we explore the story of an unnamed Ethiopian eunuch whose encounter with Philip on a desert road reveals a profound, inclusive truth: there is a place for everyone in God’s story. Despite the rigid societal boundaries of his time, the eunuch discovers that God’s welcome is not based on status, physical integrity, or conformity, but on a grace that is accessible to all. We are remin...

In this sermon, we explore the powerful, disruptive truth that God’s voice consistently echoes from the margins, bypassing the gates of privilege to speak through the very people our institutions actively redact. By juxtaposing the erased legacy of civil rights pioneer Claudette Colvin with the unnamed, enslaved young girl who sparked the healing of Syria’s chief military commander, we are challen...

In this sermon, we explore the transformative power of the Bible’s unnamed characters, focusing on the young boy who offered his five loaves and two fish to feed thousands. When we swim in a culture of scarcity, it is tragically easy to leap from "it’s not enough" to "I’m not enough," weaponizing our insignificance and discounting both ourselves and others. Yet Jesus disrupts this rigid math of un...

In this sermon, we are invited to move past the mathematical impossibility of the Trinity and instead step directly into its dance. By exploring how language forms our reality, we discover that God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is not a theological puzzle to solve, but an eternal, self-giving community of love to participate in. Rather than leaving us to white-knuckle our way through Christ's ra...

In this sermon, we trade the exhaustion of trying to "bat 1,000" for the scandalous grace of Pentecost—a day when God pours out a Spirit not for the perfect, but for "all flesh." We explore how our fragile, forgetful, and silver-haired humanity is exactly where the Holy Spirit chooses to take up residence. You are invited to stop waiting until you have it all together and instead become God’s grea...

In this sermon, we dismantle the cultural idol of selfish ambition to uncover the radical liberation found in Christ-like humility. We explore the "Christ Hymn" of Philippians, discovering that true divine power isn't found in climbing the ladder of empire, but in the courageous descent to serve others. By choosing the bottom, we find a unity that transcends our divisions and a love that washes th...

In this sermon, we explore the defiant nature of joy as an unbidden guest that arrives precisely when we expect it least. Drawing on the series Surprise Party: 50 Days of Enchantment, we examine how the Apostle Paul—writing from the claustrophobia of a prison cell—aligns himself with a "do-it-again" God whose very nature is delight. We are invited to stop resisting these fleeting moments of grace...

In this sermon, we confront the "surprise" no one wants: the devastating gap between the miracle we prayed for and the reality of grief. Amidst the heartbreak of losing a beloved child, we set aside the party to sit in the honest, defiant landscape of Psalm 23. We discover a God who doesn't offer trite explanations but a relentless, pursuing presence—a love that chases us even into the darkest val...

In this sermon, we explore the radical, countercultural surprise of staying put. In a world that profits from our restlessness, we investigate how the "vow of stability" offers a defiant path toward reenchantment. By looking at the grounded presence of Paul and Silas in a midnight prison cell, we discover that the grace we seek isn't found in our escape, but in our commitment to remain present to...

In this sermon, we explore the scandalous reach of Easter hope through the lens of Saul's blinding encounter on the road to Damascus. We confront a God who subverts our hierarchies of belonging, trading our rigid "safety patrol" certainties for a grace that reaches the very people we have labeled as "out." By examining the quiet bravery of Ananias, we are challenged to move beyond condemnation and...

In this sermon, we slow down long enough to see what cynicism keeps us from seeing — that resurrection isn't a one-time event that happened long ago, but the very shape of reality itself, breaking through in ordinary moments all around us. We sit with Mary Magdalene in her grief, name the ways disappointment calcifies into resignation, and discover that what finally breaks through isn't argument o...