Sermon Summary: Life in the Upside-Down Kingdom is radically counter-cultural when it comes to keeping our word. In a context in which confusion reigned on divorce, and vows were made with the intention to break them, Jesus invites us to the good life through celebrating vow-keeping. And in his upside-down kingdom, we celebrate vow-keeping by honoring the covenant of marriage and by telling the truth.

Text: Matthew 5:27-30

Title: Vow-Keeping in the Kingdom (Divorce & Truth-Telling)

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: April 28

Sermon Summary: Jesus offers us hard words and hope when it comes to our broken sexuality, because the good life in him is better than we could ever imagine. He states the status quo, points us to true north, and then invites us to correct our course.

Text: Matthew 5:27-30

Title: Lust: Adultery of the Heart

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: April 21

Sermon Summary: Anger is a complicated emotion. As the one who fulfills the Old Testament with its Law, Jesus demonstrates the status quo, points us to true north, and corrects our course when it comes to sinful anger.

Text: Matthew 5:21-26

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: April 14

Sermon Summary: What was Jesus’ perspective on that larger first-half of our Bibles? Has he come to throw it all out? In our text, Jesus teaches us about the king’s and the Christian’s relationship to the OT.

Text: Matthew 5:17-20

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

• Date: March 24

Sermon Summary: Both the world and our own minds are full of noise and distractions that keep us from listening to God. Romans 8 invites us to stop and listen.

Text: Matthew: Romans 8:19-26

Speaking: Gustavo Formenti

Date: March 17

Sermon Summary: Those who are poor, who mourn, who are meek and merciful, who are pure in heart and peace-making, who are persecuted: what could they possibly have to offer the world? According to Jesus, those who embrace the norms of the kingdom… are the salt of the earth and the light of the world.

Text: Matthew 5:13-16

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: March 10

Sermon Summary: Blessed are the… persecuted? There is a blessed-kind of persecution, which indicates that the one being persecuted is actually living the good life. This blessed-kind of persecution is a counter-cultural claim, with specific causes, worthy traveling companions, with a call to us, and consequences for us. Will you embrace this abnormal, counter-cultural norm as you follow Jesus?

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: March 3

Sermon Summary: Blessed are the… peacemakers? Peace-making is a divine gospel work, a difficult work, and a work of discipleship to Jesus. Will you embrace this abnormal, counter-cultural norm as you follow Jesus?

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: February 25

Sermon Summary: With many conflicting ideas in the hearts of his listeners about the nature of the kingdom of God and the “blessed life,” Jesus begins his sermon by setting out some norms--some very abnormal norms--and calling us to embrace them. We look at the middle three abnormal norms in this message.

Text: Matthew 5:1-12

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: February 18

Sermon Summary: With many conflicting ideas in the hearts of his listeners about the nature of the kingdom of God and the “blessed life,” Jesus begins his sermon by setting out some norms--some very abnormal norms--and calling us to embrace them.

Text: Matthew 5:1-12, Part 1

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: 02/11/2024

Sermon Summary: As we continue our study in the Sermon on the Mount, we take a closer look at its author, Jesus.

Text: Matthew 4:12-5:1

Speaking: Pastor Jeff Lynn

Date: February 4

Sermon Summary: Who is in charge, anyway? Reactions to the teachings and claims of Jesus are revealing. How do Jesus’s listener’s react to the sermon on the mount? Astonishment. Why? Because of the authority he assumed and offers as an alternative to any other authority we submit to.

Text: Matthew 7:28-29

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: January 28

Sermon Summary: The Sermon on the Mount is one of the most subversive pieces of literature in human history. In this overview and introduction sermon, we see that the Sermon on the Mount is a subversive sermon in which Jesus invites us to embrace an upside-down kingdom Life.

Text: Matthew 5-7

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: January 21

Sermon Summary: God as called us to holiness, not merely morality. In this message, we look at the need and blessing of sanctification in the life of the believer.

Text: John 17:6–17

Speaking: Pastor Eddie Jacks

Date: 1/14/24

Sermon Summary: As a new year begins, we take this Sunday to remember who we are as a community of Christ followers. And we also look forward to the year ahead and to what God is calling us to as a community.

Text: Ephesians 1:15–2:10

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: 1/7/24

Sermon Summary: In this passage, Paul builds on believers' union with Christ (their new identity and life in Christ) to exhort them to live and grow in light of their present heavenly reality in Him, by 1) putting off the old self and 2) putting on the new self in Christ.

Text: Colossians 3:1-17

Speaking: Dr. Craig Doctor

Date: 12/31/23

Sermon Summary: The book of Daniel ends with more questions than answers; but the answers it provides are sufficient to lay to rest the questions that remain. Daniel 12 shapes our expectations for the children of God: distress, death, and ultimate deliverance. These reshaped expectations help us to wait well between the first and second Advents of Christ.

Text: Daniel 10-12, part 4

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: 12/24/2023

Sermon Summary: Daniel 10 is an eye-opening collision between the seen and unseen realms of the created world. Why this theme on the second Sunday before Christmas? Because it gives an additional framework for understanding the Bible’s story, a framework makes the gospel shine that much more beautifully… Realities that add dimension and depth, layers and brilliance that should lead us to long even more deeply for Jesus to return.

Text: Daniel 10-12, part 3

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: 12/17/2023

Scripture Reading: Daniel 10:1-11:1

Sermon Summary: The book of Daniel is full of suffering for the people of God. For the Christian, suffering becomes a tool that we can leverage in our own lives to cultivate a longing—not merely for the removal of that suffering—but the removal of the suffering by the coming of a person, the Lord Jesus in his second advent. Let’s allow the book of Daniel to shape our thinking about, and our longings in, suffering.

Text: Daniel 10-12, part 2

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: 12/10/2023

Title: The Purpose of Suffering God’s Providence

Sermon Summary: Daniel 10-12 is one unit. In the middle, we are introduced to an arrogant ruler who distorts reality by demanding inappropriate loyalty, and who targets the worshippers of God. But this is a pattern we see throughout the book of Daniel; knowing the pattern prepares the followers of God to stand with courage and conviction when the pattern appears throughout history.

Text: Daniel 10-12, part 1

Speaking: Pastor Isaiah Lewis

Date: 12/3/2023

Title: The Way of the Dragon: The Pattern, Progress, and Passing Away of Opposition to God