Sanctuary Church

#EverydayFaith

“Because you vote every single day with your feet and you vote with your hands, and you vote with your lips, and you vote with your wallets. Who are the masters and Caesars that you pledge allegiance to by the way you go about your everyday life? Who do you put your trust in? Friends, boiling down our political engagement to a vote on one day every four years is insufficient. It is an impoverished view of God's call to love your neighbor. You can vote, you just can't just vote.”

#ShareInTheJoy

“God isn't just gracious towards the younger brother who'd messed everything up and come on in. He goes to the Pharisee. He goes to the oldest son, he's like, hey. You can come in too. Actually, you seem to have forgotten that everything I have was always yours. He comes to the son who's angry. He comes to the son who's keeping score. Are you keeping score? He comes to the son who can't join the celebration for whatever reason because somebody else's joy somehow robs you of your joy. Is that you? And he appeals. He appeals to him. The father wants, God wants this son to share his joy too. Just pause for a moment. A question, What story have you been telling about your life? And what has that story taught you to overlook? Where are you overlooking the goodness? The father and the oldest son are seeing the situation the exact same way. Some of you are like, yeah, yeah, I get it, Andrew. Like, this was an epiphany to me in my sermon planning. I was like, wait. What? Uh-oh. The oldest son's not wrong. He just is looking at the whole thing from the wrong perspective. What story have you been telling about your life, and what has that story taught you to overlook?”

#ChristianCommunity

“What if one of God's primary protections against spiritual drift is another Christian? What if the way we fight the good fight is not just we individually hold fast, but we allow others to hold our hands, hold us up, to allow somebody who can see you from somewhere you cannot see yourself. One of God's primary means of keeping you faithful to Jesus may be other people who are themselves trying to stay faithful to Jesus.”

#HangOnToJesus

“And sometimes the greatest sense of fighting could just be to hang on to Jesus. So if that's you today, I just wanna invite you to just reflect on the aspects of your life and your faith that you just need to hold on to. And if you feel like you're caught in a season of discomfort or being swayed back and forth by the world and by the pressures of life, society, education, the the good things of life, and your faith feels like it's getting torn, I just wanna encourage you to hang on because sometimes that is the greatest fight that we could actually do. And trust that Jesus will meet us in our pain, in our story, in our lives.”

#JesusIsTheMainQuest

“Beware of the side quests. Don't forget the story you're in. Jesus was never simply there to help you accomplish the life you really wanted. He is not a spiritual power up. He is not simply a means to a decent marriage, decent kids, healing, justice, purpose, success, whatever. Jesus is the main quest. is the main quest. He is the treasure. He is the reward. He is the life.”

#HeadshipIsSacrifice

“So whatever we mean by headship in this passage, Paul does not fill it out with make the decisions, take control, get your way. Here's how he flushes out headship. Give yourself up, nourish, cherish, love. If you have strength, spend it for her. If you have resources, use them for her good. If you have influence, you make her flourish. You're the head, you go first in dying.”

#JoyRootedInJesus

“``And this is why the way of Jesus, the announcement of the scriptures of the good news is that God who created you hasn't left you searching. Out of love, he came in Jesus to rescue us from sin and everything that steals our truest joy. Through his death and his resurrection, he's renewing all things and making what is broken whole again. And by his spirit, he is establishing a kingdom where joy isn't fragile but unshakable. That means joy isn't just a passing feeling. It's not tied to circumstances. It is rooted in this story. It is rooted in Jesus. His presence with you, his work for you, his spirit in you. So may be today is your moment to lift your vision, to stop waiting for joy to arrive, and to receive it as a gift from the one who has already done everything to give you life.”

#DisciplesNotPerformers

“``We don't first need followers of Jesus pretending to be evangelists. We need disciples so permeated with the love of Jesus that witness, sharing your faith with people is just like the most normal thing imaginable. There'll still be fear. There's good techniques and things to think about and questions you should, like, have a good be prepared to give a reason for the hope you have within you. There'll still be awkward conversations over Cleveland. Right? But when it's coming from a real place, it changes everything. Evangelism without communion with God is just performance.”

“You're made for this. Not just spiritually, but physically, biologically. The image of God in you is a social image because God himself itself exists as a community of father, son, and holy spirit made by a relational God for a relational life, which means loneliness isn't just painful. It's a kind of deprivation, and belonging is not optional. It's part of what it means to be fully human and fully alive. So Jesus gives us the church. He's giving us a household and a homeless age.”

#PeaceThroughSpirit

“And it's not just Jesus says, oh, here's an example of peace. It's like he wants to give us his peace. So, yes, you can see the moral exemplar that is Jesus and see a good example of that's what it means to be peaceful, and you should do that and follow his teachings. But Jesus is offering more. He's saying, I'll give you my spirit to help you do that. Know that I'm here. The spirit is alongside you advocating for you, spurring you on, healing you. Just his presence does that To live this life is to step into love that moves towards people, joy that can't be stolen, peace that holds in chaos, patience that doesn't give up on people, kindness that, yeah, feels sweet but moves toward people. Goodness that pushes back the darkness. Faithfulness that endures. Gentleness, and self control. I am here to announce to you that you can change. I can change.”

#LiveYourRedeemedSelf

“One of the healthiest things that you bring to relationship is your redeemed self. If you are here unfaithfully with us, you are causing terrible damage. Not just to you not just to others, but to yourself. Because when you're not showing up as the person that Christ is forming you to be, something will fracture inside. Please hear this. That fracture, that gap between what you know and how you live is where anxiety let me say it again. The fracture or the gap between what you know and how you live is where anxiety and resentment grow and where relationships become really unstable. Differentiation is what allows you to love deeply in the way of Jesus.”

#ChooseCuriosity

“Maybe some of the distance you have with folks in your life didn't begin with betrayal. Maybe not everybody's actually out to get you. Maybe, some of the distance that's happened in your life with the people around you is it began with some sort of certainty about we the way they are, what they're thinking about things, how they process the world, and god's inviting you. Hear this if you hear nothing else this morning to humility. God's inviting you to curiosity, to a willingness to delay judgment long enough to discover what's true, and then even then entrust them unto the lord.”

#DigestTheGospel

“``Meat is the same gospel but chewed, swallowed, and practiced. Next slide. Meat is God loves me so I don't need to perform for anyone. Meat is I'm forgiven so I can forgive others. Meat is Jesus' Lord so I don't need to be. Meat is not primarily about what you know. Meat is truth that has been digested and lived.”

#TrainingWinsSeasons

“``Just for anyone who's faded out or zoned out in the last few minutes. Next slide. Training versus trying. Trying shows up when it's urgent. Training shows up every day. Trying runs on motivation. Training runs on habits. Trying depends on how you feel. Training works when you don't feel it. Trying fades under exhaustion and fatigue. Training builds strength quietly. Trying wins maybe a moment or two, but it loses whole seasons. Training, man, wins seasons.”