Tulip Street Christian Church

In the fifth sermon of our summer parables series, we look at what I'm calling the Fools Collection: the Rich Fool, the Unforgiving Servant, and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Three seemingly unrelated stories that all expose the same root problem, a heart turned inward, blind to God's provision and deaf to the people around it. We'll dig into why Jesus tells stories instead of ju...

What do free chips and salsa have to do with the parable of the Good Samaritan? More than you'd think. In Luke 10, a lawyer asks Jesus who his neighbor is, looking for a list, a limit, someone he doesn't have to love. Jesus refuses to answer that question, because defining who counts automatically defines who doesn't. Instead, he tells a story about a Samaritan who flipped the script e...

We tend to think being lost feels like helplessness or panic. But more often, it feels like you're going the right direction. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three back-to-back stories about lost things getting found, building toward one of the greatest stories ever told, the parable of the prodigal son. But there are two sons in that story, and the one who stayed home the whole time turns out to be j...

Do you have eyes to see what's truly valuable? Drawing from Matthew 13:44-46, Daniel walks through Jesus' back-to-back parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price, exploring how the kingdom of heaven is waiting to be found, demands a joyful response, and is worth far more than anything we could give up to obtain it. Plus, a surprising twist at the end: what if you're t...

In this first message of our summer series  Plot Twist , we dive into the Parable of the Sower from Mark 4, the one Jesus says you have to understand before you can understand any of the others. This isn't just a story about farming; it's a story about the condition of your heart. We unpack three big questions: Who is the sower? What is the seed? And why are there four different soils? Alo...

In this message from Ephesians 6:10-20, we close out our journey through Paul's letter to the Ephesians with one of Scripture's most vivid images: the full armor of God. But before we talk about the gear, we have to settle the most important truth of all, that the victory has already been won through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fight is real, but the outcome is...

In this message from Ephesians 5:21-6:9, we dig into what scholars call the "household codes," Paul's instructions to wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters. But far from reinforcing the strict Roman social hierarchy, Paul quietly dismantles it. Starting with one radical phrase, "submitting to one another," he reframes every relationship around the sel...

In this message from Ephesians 5:3-20, we take a hard look at two very different ways to live: as sons of disobedience or as children of light. Using the fascinating history of the ancient city of Ephesus, whose harbor literally filled with silt until the city died, we explore what it looks like to 'dredge the harbor' in our own lives, clearing out the habits, patterns, and influences that...

What does it actually look like to live as a new person in Christ? In this message from Ephesians 4:22–5:2, we explore Paul's practical, no-excuses guide to putting off the old self and putting on the new, set against the backdrop of ancient Ephesus, one of the most diverse and spiritually complex cities in the Roman world. Paul gives us a simple formula for four areas where we all tend to stu...

In this message from Ephesians 4:1-24, Darrin Chastain helps us explore what it actually looks like to live a life worthy of the calling we've received in Christ. Paul's letter shifts from the breathtaking "what God has done" to the practical "now what," calling the church toward unity, maturity, and a faith that moves from head knowledge to heart transformation. We dig...

What if the secret God has been building toward since the very beginning was hiding in plain sight all along? In this message from Ephesians 3, we explore what Paul calls "the mystery," a divine plan so sweeping that even the angels didn't fully see it coming. Writing from a prison cell, surrounded by the full force of the Roman Empire, Paul lays out a vision of the church that is bi...

Where does God live? It's a question with a surprising number of answers throughout Scripture, and the answer has been moving closer to us the whole time. In this message from Ephesians 2:11-22 , we trace the story of God's dwelling place from the Garden of Eden through the tabernacle, Solomon's temple, and the life of Jesus, all the way to a claim that changes everything: God's ne...

What did Jesus actually come to do? In this Easter message from Ephesians 1:15–2:10 , we dig into a bigger answer than most of us have settled for. Jesus didn't come just to make bad people good, or even to take good people to heaven. He came to make dead people live again, and that includes you. Drawing from Paul's sweeping prayer for spiritual revelation and his vivid portrait of resurre...

What is God actually up to? In this message from Ephesians 1:1-14, we dig into one of the Bible's greatest "mysteries," and it's not the kind you solve by piecing clues together. It's a divine secret that God himself has pulled back the curtain on. On this Palm Sunday, we explore what the crowd shouting in Luke 19 sensed but couldn't quite name, what Paul was so fired up...

We've reached the final step. Step 12 calls us to take everything we've learned and give it away, because you can't keep it if you don't. Using the story of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5, we explore what it looks like to go back to your own people and share what God has done in your life. We also hear from three members of our congregation, Joe, Craig, and Cheryl, who open up a...

In this message, we tackle Steps 10 and 11 of the 12-Step journey, the steps of awareness and patience, and why the work of recovery and discipleship never really ends. Using the familiar story of Mary and Martha from Luke 10, we explore how easy it is to get so busy with the good things of life that we miss the one necessary thing: sitting at the feet of Jesus. Step 10 challenges us to keep takin...

In this message, we tackle Steps 8 and 9 of the 12 Steps, the point in the process where the internal work goes public. Making amends means more than saying "I'm sorry." It means making a list of the people you've harmed, becoming willing to face them, and taking concrete steps to repair what was broken. Drawing from the Sermon on the Mount, the parable of Zacchaeus, and stories...

What do you truly want, and are you actually willing to let God change it? In this message, we dig into Steps 6 and 7 of the 12 Steps, focusing on willingness and humility. Through the contrast of two very different men who encountered Jesus, we explore what it means to be  entirely  ready for change, not just mostly ready, and why willpower alone will never be enough to get us there. We also unpa...

Each year the leadership of TSCC gives an address to the church about the vision, mission, goals, and budget from the year prior and the year ahead. We offer this in full transparency to our members. This is a look behind the curtain at what it means to be a church. tulipstreet.com

In this message, we explore Step 5 of the 12 Steps: admitting to God, to ourselves, and to another human being the exact nature of our wrongs. Through the story of the woman at the well in John 4, we discover what it means to be fully known and fully loved by Jesus, who never came to condemn but to set us free. This step is all about trust, asking the hard questions: Do you trust God with your mes...

Step Four is where the 12 Steps get brutally honest. After three steps of surrender, now comes the hard part: taking a fearless moral inventory of yourself. Research shows that while 95% of people think they're self-aware, only 10-15% actually are. Through the story of Zacchaeus, the tax collector who climbed a tree just to see Jesus, we discover that transformation doesn't come from cleaning up o...

Exploring one of the Bible's most underrated books, this message tells the story of Onesimus, a runaway slave who stole from his master Philemon but encountered Paul in Rome and became a Christian. Paul sends him back with a radical offer: "If he owes you anything, charge it to me." This mirrors our own story, we are Onesimus, running from the debt of our sin. Just as Paul paid a deb...

Walking Free: The Gospel in 12 Steps Make 5:25-34 I can't. He can. I think I'll let him. This is the nutshell-version of the first three steps. Step three is all about faith - putting our trust in God, as we understand him - and making a decision to turn our will and lives over to him. All it takes is for you to stretch out your hand and trust the man on the middle cross.

Walking Free: The Gospel in 12 Steps Matthew 14:22-32 The second step in the process is coming to believe that a Power greater than ourselves could restore us to sanity. What does that mean? It's the belief that there is hope beyond what we are capable of within ourselves. I can't, but God can. That's step two. tulipstreet.com

WALKING FREE: The Gospel in 12 Steps In this series we will take an in depth look at the 12 Steps of AA which have transformed countless lives over the past 90 years. We are applying these steps of recovery to our journey of discipleship because they go hand in hand. The first step is to admit powerlessness and face the illusion of control. In order to win, we must first surrender. tulipstreet.com