Faithbridge Sermons

Teaching Pastor Ben Stuart opens 1 Corinthians 13 not as a wedding poem, but as a survival manual for the church. He starts with a hollow tree: massive, impressive-looking, brought down not by lightning but by tiny bugs that slowly ate it from the inside out. Churches die the same way—not through outside persecution, but through envy, ego, and pettiness quietly hollowing them out. Paul’s remedy is love, and Ben walks through the chapter in three beats: a loveless life is a wasted life, no matter how gifted or generous you are; love is both patient (it absorbs difficulty) and kind (it actively pursues the good of others); and love is the only thing that races into eternity—because one day gifts will fade, faith will become sight, and hope will be realized, but love goes on forever. The call is simple: stop lamenting how cold the world is getting, and pick up a shovel.

Pastor Ken Werlein opens 1 Corinthians 11:17–34, where Paul confronts a church that had turned communion into a class system—the wealthy eating well while the poor arrived late to find nothing left. The ground was supposed to be level at the foot of the cross, but Corinth had quietly started building the old hierarchies back up. From there Ken draws out three things: make room at the table for everyone, because when you get here by grace you don’t get to act like you deserve a better seat; remember how this all began, because communion isn’t just a ritual—it’s a marker that carries us back to the cross and forward to the day everything Jesus accomplished there is fully realized; and take an honest look at yourself, asking whether the way you treat people is consistent with the grace you’re about to celebrate. Nobody earned a place here. We’re all at the same table, by the same amazing grace.

Director of Discipleship Michael McDowell continues our series on 1 Corinthians, “Healthy Church,” with a sermon about temptation. God promises us in 1 Corinthians 10:12–13 that He “will not let you be tempted beyond your ability”—but that doesn’t mean you should let your guard down. Here, Michael shows us that temptation pulls us into a cycle of sin and shame, and breaking free takes intentionality. First, we have to wake up to the reality that temptation is real and all around us. Then, we have to get up and escape, not only when temptation shows up, but before it does. And finally, we have to stay up and endure, but never alone. We endure with the promise that God is faithful. He will win, which means you will win!

Bible Teacher Jared Darby opens 1 Corinthians 8:1–13, where Paul uses a debate about food sacrificed to idols to make a much bigger point: the problem in Corinth wasn't ignorance—it was independence. They loved learning about Jesus but lived like the gospel only affected them personally. Jared draws out three challenges for a healthy church: be careful with your freedom (your rights don't trump your responsibility to the people around you), be aware of the strongholds in your city (the idols of Houston may not be Greek temples, but comfort and consumerism are just as real), and be ready to surrender everything—your preferences, your schedule, your opinions—so the church can stay united. Consumer Christianity is over. Jesus isn't coming back for an audience. He's coming back for a united bride.

Pastor Ken Werlein takes up 1 Corinthians 7:25–40, speaking directly to single people—from someone who was single for 35 years before marrying. Paul's message isn't romanticized in either direction: marriage brings real complexity and was never meant to complete anyone, and singleness isn't a waiting room until life finally starts. Ken draws out three things: don't idolize marriage (no spouse will ever do what only Jesus can do), wake up to the upsides of singleness (the undivided focus and freedom it can bring for God's purposes), and don't confuse singleness with aloneness (Jesus himself was single, and he was never without community). Whether you're single or married, the soul's deepest longing is the same—rich, meaningful, Jesus-centered community. And there's room for all of it at the same table.

Bible Teacher Dan Slagle steps into 1 Corinthians 7:17–24, where Paul addresses something more fundamental than marriage: the restless discontentment that drives us to wish we were someone else, somewhere else, in different circumstances. Dan names two dangers that come from living in that restlessness—the treadmill of the next thing, where whatever we chase never quite satisfies, and the slow poison of envy, which the tenth commandment made the top ten for good reason. Paul's answer isn't a self-improvement plan. It's simpler and deeper than that: God is right there, at your side. You weren't made for any of the things you've been chasing. You were made by God, for God—and it's only there that the restlessness finally stops.

Executive Pastor Wayne Risher opens 1 Corinthians 7:1–13 with a simple image—a level—and a simple truth: something can look straight and still be crooked, and if you live with crooked long enough, it starts feeling normal. From there he walks through three things Paul shows us about marriage: it's a ministry of self-giving (your spouse isn't just meant to minister to you—they're someone God gave you to minister to), a ministry of mutual care not control (your spouse shouldn't have to live on the leftovers of your life), and a ministry of covenant faithfulness (faithfulness isn't protected in the moment of temptation—it's protected upstream, before the crisis arrives). A healthy marriage isn't one that never gets out of level. It's one where two people keep letting Jesus tell them the truth—and make the adjustments.

Pastor Ken Werlein opens 1 Corinthians 6:9–20 with a question the Corinthians had already answered wrong: what does Jesus have to do with your body? Paul's answer—everything. You were bought at a price, which means your body belongs to Jesus, not you. From there Ken walks through why sex matters so much (it joins whole persons, not just bodies), and what to do about it: flee what needs to be fled, confess what's been hidden, and glorify God in your body. The message isn't anti-sex—God invented it. But Jesus gets the final word: such were some of you. But you were washed, sanctified, and justified.

Michael McDowell takes us into 1 Corinthians 6, where Paul confronts one of the messiest realities of church life: conflict. Paul gives us three movements for handling it well. First, keep it in the circle—the moment conflict escapes to people who aren't part of it, it becomes gossip, and gossip corrodes trust faster than almost anything else. Second, actually deal with it—ignoring conflict isn't a solution, it's just a delayed explosion. Go to the person, bring in a wise voice if needed, and be willing to accept that you might be the problem. Third, be willing to surrender so Jesus can win—which isn't fair, but neither was the cross. Never underestimate the power of a cross-shaped life to change what nothing else can.

Michael McDowell takes us into 1 Corinthians 1, where Paul goes after the underlying habits making the church sick before he ever addresses the conflict. The first is assuming life is always supposed to go up and to the right—but Paul holds up a cross and says this is the source of health. The second is "my way or the highway"—the self-centeredness that poisons marriages, workplaces, and churches alike. A healthy church isn't one that avoids the downward path of the cross. It's one that walks toward it—and finds resurrection power on the other side.