The Sunday Sermon

This week on Companions, we step into one of the messiest stretches of Scripture yet—where power is complicated, leadership is unpredictable, and the line between faithfulness and failure feels razor thin. From Saul’s unraveling to David’s rise (and fall), this episode wrestles with a central tension: What does it mean that God’s covenant continues through deeply flawed people? We talk about: • Wh...

This week, Pastor Becca continues our Holy Discontent journey through the Sermon on the Mount with a message titled “Don’t Worry—Really.” In Matthew 6:25–34, Jesus speaks directly to one of the most common struggles we face—worry. But this isn’t a simple command to “just stop.” It’s an invitation to examine what’s shaping our lives and where we’re placing our trust. As Jesus calls us to seek first...

This week on Companions, we step into the story of 1 Samuel—a world filled with leadership failure, spiritual confusion, and people grasping for control. From Hannah’s quiet, costly faith to Israel’s demand for a king, we see what happens when trust in God gets replaced with the desire for something more predictable. Along the way, we wrestle with big questions: Why does God sometimes give people...

This week, we continue our Holy Discontent journey through the Sermon on the Mount with a message from Matthew 6:1 called “Practicing the Faith.” Jesus offers a surprising warning: it’s possible to do all the right things for the wrong reasons. What happens when our faith becomes more about being seen than being formed? And how do we shift from performing righteousness to actually living it? This...

This week, we step into one of the most unsettling sections of the Bible. The Book of Judges is raw, chaotic, and at times deeply troubling—so much so that listener discretion is advised. But beneath the violence and confusion, there’s a pattern worth paying attention to: a downward spiral where God’s people drift, cry out, are rescued, and then slowly forget again (Judges 2:16–19). Joined by our...

What did Jesus really mean when he said, “Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect”? In this message from Matthew 5:43–48, Pastor Angelo explores Jesus’ command to love our enemies and the surprising way it reshapes how we understand faithfulness. Rather than demanding flawless perfection, Jesus calls his followers to grow into a mature love that is active, intentional, sacrificial, and purpo...

This week on Companions, we journey through the book of Joshua and reflect on what courage really looks like in the life of faith. When God tells Joshua to “be strong and courageous,” it turns out the courage he’s talking about isn’t primarily about winning battles—it’s about remaining faithful to God’s word. Along the way we explore unexpected characters like Rahab, difficult stories like Achan,...

In this week’s message from our Holy Discontent Lenten series, Pastor Becca Detterman continues our journey through the Sermon on the Mount. In Matthew 5:17–20, Jesus challenges us to move beyond surface-level obedience and into deeper transformation. The life of faith isn’t just about avoiding the wrong things—it’s about allowing God to shape our hearts. As Jesus speaks about fulfilling the law,...

This week on Companions, we reach a major milestone: the end of the Torah. After journeying from Genesis through Deuteronomy, we pause to reflect on what this foundational part of Scripture is really trying to do. Along the way we explore how the end of Deuteronomy echoes the beginning of Genesis, wrestle with some of the most challenging laws in the Torah, and consider why, in Jesus’ day, some gr...

In a world filled with headlines of war, division, and uncertainty, what does it actually mean to follow Jesus? In this week’s message from Matthew 5:13–16, Pastor Angelo explores why Jesus calls ordinary people “the salt of the earth” and “the light of the world.” What does that language mean? Why does it come right after the Beatitudes? And how does a faith shaped on the inside become visible on...

What does it really mean to listen to God? In this episode, we spend most of our time in Deuteronomy 6 and the Shema—exploring how, in the Hebrew imagination, listening and obedience are inseparable. We talk about the difference between hearing words and responding with our lives, and why Scripture keeps pushing us from passive awareness to embodied faithfulness. If you’ve ever known what’s right...

As we begin Lent, we’re launching a new series called Holy Discontent, rooted in the Sermon on the Mount. After spending the start of the year learning how to read the Bible and committing to read it together, we now ask: What happens when we actually let Scripture shape us? In Matthew 5, Jesus declares blessing over the poor in spirit, the meek, and those who hunger for righteousness. These words...

This week on Companions, we journey through Numbers 14–32 and Psalms 44–50—a stretch of Scripture filled with rebellion, accusation, ritual, and worship. From the wilderness sentence in Numbers 14 to Korah’s rebellion in Numbers 16, from the intensity of Sabbath laws to the mystery of an “eternal covenant of salt,” we wrestle honestly with what feels heavy and confusing. Along the way, we explore...

In this message, Pastor Becca Detterman preaches from the Prophet Joel. We invite you to hear these words and remember that what God desires is not empty ritual, but authentic worship.

We hit pause this week for our first Checkpoint Sunday — a live Q&A where we tackled your biggest questions from our Bible reading plan. Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God of the New Testament? What do we do with passages where God strikes people dead? How should Christians understand Levitical laws? Do all Bible translations have an agenda? And how do we keep from reading “the...

What do we do with the intense language of Leviticus? How do we keep reading when the text feels repetitive or monotonous? In this episode of Companions, we explore Leviticus 20 through Numbers 13 and wrestle with the weighty warnings of Leviticus 26, the rhythms of festivals and census lists, and the purpose behind Israel’s wilderness storytelling. Along the way, we reflect on how the Psalms give...

What does it really mean to apply the Bible to our lives? In the final sermon of the How to Read the Bible series, Pastor Angelo turns to James 1:22–25 to explore the gap between hearing scripture and living it. This message reflects on why understanding the Bible is not the same as being formed by it, and offers three practical, faithful tools for application: locating ourselves honestly in the s...

Leviticus doesn’t ease us in—and neither does faith when God feels distant. In this episode of Companions, Angelo and Becca wrestle with offerings, holiness, purity laws, and atonement, asking what the law was really for and how Jesus fulfills it. From sacrifice and anointing oil to clean and unclean bodies, they explore how God makes a way back into relationship when closeness feels impossible—an...

What would Jesus do with a difficult passage of Scripture? In this week’s message from our How to Read the Bible series, we introduce the Jesus Filter—a way of reading the Bible that keeps Christ at the center. Drawing from John 5, where Jesus heals on the Sabbath and confronts the religious leaders, this sermon explores why Scripture points beyond itself to Jesus and how reading through his life,...

What do we do when Scripture feels heavy, repetitive, or even troubling? In this episode of Companions, Angelo and Becca reflect on Exodus 19–40 and the Psalms, naming resistance where it shows up—in the text, in the people, and in ourselves. From laws about bulls and bribes to the beauty of the tabernacle, from the Golden Calf to God’s self-revelation as merciful and faithful, this conversation e...

What is the context—and why does it matter? In this message, we take a deeper look at Jeremiah 29:1–14, one of the most quoted passages in Scripture, and discover what changes when we slow down and read beyond Jeremiah 29:11. Spoken to a people living in exile, this text offers a sturdier kind of hope—one rooted not in quick fixes, but in God’s faithful presence. This teaching-focused sermon invit...

In this episode of Companions, Angelo and Becca return to last week’s lingering question—what feels unresolved?—as they step into the book of Exodus. Together, they explore what happens after salvation: the freedom, the fear, the frustration, and the formation that follows. From Pharaoh’s grip to Israel’s constant complaining, from Sabbath before commandments to shared leadership through Jethro’s...

In this message from our How to Read the Bible series, Pastor Angelo slows down with one of the most beloved passages in Scripture—Psalm 23—to explore why understanding genre matters when we read the Bible. By looking closely at Psalm 23 as Hebrew poetry and contrasting it with other biblical genres like law, narrative, prophecy, letters, and apocalyptic literature, this sermon helps listeners hea...

Genesis doesn’t always give us clear heroes—and this episode leans into that discomfort. Angelo and Becca reflect on Jacob, Joseph, deception, power, and grace, asking what it means to read stories where God is present but the people are deeply flawed. Rather than offering easy answers, this conversation creates space for complexity, invites listeners to pay attention to their reactions, and remin...

When we open the Bible, one of the most important questions we can ask is also one of the simplest: Where are we in the story? In this second message of the How to Read the Bible series, Pastor Angelo zooms out to explore the big, unfolding narrative of Scripture—from creation to new creation—and shows how understanding the larger story helps us read individual passages with greater clarity, depth...