Topeka Bible Church EXTRA

Special guest Scott DeSanders (former TBC youth pastor, currently pastor of discipleship at Parkway Bible Church, Pflugerville, TX) continues our 2 Corinthians series with a look at 2:14 -17, Paul's exhortation to the Corinthians to find joy in sharing the Gospel.  Before the message, Connor shares about the latest developments in Israel and how followers of Jesus can best be praying about th...

October's bonus episode begins with TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus talking about the ways to dive into the Bible. He goes into about how it is not enough to just get "devotional" style verses and techniques to get the most out of your reading. Second, Teresa has chosen a testimony from Expresso. This talk is unique in that it is the first part of a mother/daughter duo. This month we h...

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving one another, just as God also forgave you in Christ. What do you do when someone who has caused immense pain says "sorry." Forgiveness is something we all think is good, but to actually forgive is incredibly difficult. Practicing forgiveness does not even make sense without Jesus. If we fail to forgive someone who has truly repented, we...

When possible, people tend to use the path with the least amount of pain. Paul reveals he avoided Corinth to spare them and himself unnecessary pain. Paul does not walk away from the problem though. Instead, he sent the letter we read now and promises a future visit. It is important to have the right amount of pain in life as it can lead to true joy. Connor comes back to the podcast after a bit of...

TBC's Student Ministries Pastor Jeremy McGrath walks us through the end of the first chapter of 2 Corinthians. Paul addresses him having to skip over Corinth during his journey as the Corinthian church were angered by this and felt that Paul didn't think they were important. Paul defends himself by saying that it's okay to doubt him, but to not doubt the Gospel because of it. Paul t...

This fall we continue our journey through Paul's writings to the church in Corinth. They have not taken to Paul's disciplines well up to this point and even have issues with Paul himself. Paul planted the church at Corinth, the large scale sea side city, but now they are ashamed of him. As a response, Paul uses his life as an example and correlates it to Christ's. Being a Christian...

David Brickner, Executive Director of Jews For Jesus, speaks here at TBC to give information at the current work going on in Jews For Jesus as well as the significance of the ministries 50th anniversary, or "Jubilee". David not only gives glory to God for the people being saved through Jews For Jesus, but also delivers a poignant sermon on the beautiful reality of how we have been redeem...

September's bonus episode starts with TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus talking with our very own Pastor Jim Congdon. They discuss the ministry Jews For Jesus (of which Jim is Chairman of the Board) in preparation for the Executive Director, David Brickner, speaking to the church this upcoming Sunday about the "Jubilee Year". Next, Teresa interviews Amanda Devine, who may be most well kn...

The Bible talks a lot about money but we do not seem to talk about finances very often in church. However, the Bible doesn't talk about what to do with your money very often, but rather how we think or feel about money. Being wealthy is certainly a blessing from God, but the Bibles definition of riches is very different from. our American perspective. Wealth in the Bible is when you are simpl...

Choosing who we are around is not always easy. We are to keep away bad influences while also witnessing to those who need to heard the Gospel. Your closest friends should be Christian and your main goal when being friends with non-Christians should be evangelism. The greatest thing you can do as a friend, is to lead people to life in Christ. If your friends have never heard you talk about Jesus be...

Work in its original state was to be good and filled with joy. Everybody is supposed to be working and carrying out God's will in our own unique way. However, rest is equally important. Even Jesus needed to rest. God also rested after creation to appreciate His work. Resting or working too much is not good, it all needs to be balanced. So if you have a job, paid or not, do it with joy finding...

For this Sunday we start a new series called Guardrails. The name is to demonstrate the idea of not going too far to either side of a part of life and instead striking a balance in perspective. The first guardrail we will be looking at is how we use and think about time. God is both with us in our time as well as outside of it. Our time is quickly over compared to God's everlasting presence....

In this month's bonus episode, we start with TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus talking about a fairly polarizing issue: do pets go to Heaven? The answer is not clear but Connor does his best to dive into the details of the topic. Next we travel back to an Expresso presentation from November 2020 when Chef Alli Winter shares her unique food-themed perspective on marriage and some gleanings from the...

Why would I be a Christian when they are so judgmental? Many people leaving the church are asking questions like this. Many do not have a problem with what we believe, but rather have a problem with out behavior. The core message we are meant to proclaim is the Gospel. While the Gospel is "offensive" to the way many choose to live their lives, it does bring about life change. As Christia...

Why can't Christians just all get along? Christians do seem to get in a lot of fights with others and each other which can be off-putting to people looking from the outside. We are supposed to have unity in Christ but there are discrepancies in theology that diversify the Christian faith. Some of the reasons for division has been around since the very beginning of the church. Honestly, some o...

Why go to church when you can just worship on your own? Reality is that church is not a perfect place and through Jesus's sacrifice, we have been given the ability to worship on our own. So why go to a physical church at all? The Christian life is meant to contain love, good works, and gathering together according to God's Word. So how do we build these good habits? We have to see that t...

A growing number of Christians are believing the Bible is overall irrelevant. 1/5 Christians now say they believe in God and Jesus but not what the Bible says about it. Criticisms aimed at the Bible are typically biased in their own way. It is good to ask questions and have criticisms towards the Bible, but don't throw it all out as a result. Paul makes it clear in his writings to Timothy tha...

In this month's bonus episode, we start with TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus wrapping up his series on Numbers. He mostly goes over details that had to be skipped over or things that don't have as much application in chapters 27 through 36. Next we have an interview with two of the Summer Interns for TBC's student ministry: Olivia Day and Spencer Kovach. This interview led by Teresa to...

Deconstruction is a critical dismantling of tradition and traditional modes of thought. Deconstruction of someone's faith is not inherently a bad thing, but it can be taken too far. After all, there are an abundant amount of criticisms that are completely valid towards the christian church. In this new sermon series, we will look at these various criticisms and break them down. For this week,...

TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus wraps up his sermon series on the book of Numbers with Chapter 35. The chapter focuses on the divine instructions given to Moses regarding the allocation of cities to specific tribes and their purpose as places of refuge for individuals who unintentionally caused the death of another person. The chapter highlights the principle of ensuring fairness and protection for b...

A select few tribes of Israel want to separate and stay in a different land. Moses becomes furious at this idea since it undermines Israel's unity, fractures their military, discourages the other tribes, and angers God. By staying in the land east of the Jordan River, which needed to be protected, these tribes could not fully commit to God's plan in the Promised Land. As a result, they f...

We are fighting a spiritual battle, but our weapon is the Gospel instead of the sword. God command Moses to wage war against the Midianites in this chapter, but what is God's purpose for this? Previously, the Midianites successfully turned many of the Israelites to worship Baal (demons) instead of God. What God is commanding them to do in these battles is not for land, but for the spiritual b...

Lead Pastor Connor Kraus continues our Numbers series with a bit more of a humorous story found in chapters 22 through 24. We live in a spiritual world and people who are either devious or ignorant can tap into the darker powers of that spiritual world. This is not magic like in works of fiction, but a king, scared of the Israelites campaign of taking the Promised Land, hires a man named Balaam to...

In this month's bonus episode, TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus discusses the end of the Numbers series: chapters 25 and 26. These chapters talk about the last generation to die off in the wilderness. There is adult content in these chapters to if you have little ones present, you might want to listen to this section another time. Next we feature an Expresso talk from Kyann Eslick that she gave e...

What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us. TBC Lead Pastor Connor Kraus returns to continue in Numbers 21 as the Israelites still are being impatient and grumbling about their circumstance. In response to this, God sends fiery poisonous snakes that bit and killed many of Israelites. Rebellion continually results in judgement. The people actually repent...