The ninth commandment is not a rule about lying. In its original context, before police, courts, or written records, your neighbor's mouth was the only thing standing between you and ruin. Pastor Mike Rosado unpacks what "do not bear false witness" actually meant, and why it makes you responsible for the people around you. Recorded on Fervent Church's 14th anniversary.

Why does it never feel like enough? Pastor Mike Rosado opens a new series on the Ten Commandments by starting at number ten and working backwards, and makes the case that these were never rules. They are advice from someone who already got you out.

In the finale of our FRIENDS series, Pastor Mike Rosado does something different. Less preaching, more seminar. He takes four real questions from that letter and answers every one of them from Scripture: What about friends who are not good to be around? What about friendships that end? What about the friends who never call back and you are always the one stepping toward them? And when do you know it is time to move on?Along the way he breaks down two things every believer needs and almost nobody has been taught. Your circles, the way Jesus ran them, and the seven connections that keep you from crushing one person with seven different jobs.Then it lands where the whole series was always headed. Jesus was called a friend of sinners, and it was an insult. He never denied it. He wore it as a résumé.BIG IDEA: Friendship stops being a transaction you are owed and becomes a service you offer.PRIMARY TEXTS: Matthew 11:19, Luke 15:1-2, Luke 17:11-19 SUPPORTING: Romans 12:18, Proverbs 22:24-25, 1 Corinthians 15:33, Proverbs 18:24, Mark 3:14, Luke 10:1THE THREE POINTS:He never denied the insult.He never guarded the table.There will be nine who never come back.THE THREE ASSIGNMENTS:Identify your circles.Establish the seven connections.Pick one person far from God. Pray for them by name daily. Initiate. Stay one year, September to September.

Rejection is a possibility. Isolation is a guarantee. Every close friendship you have right now exists because somebody was willing to be awkward first. Somebody sent the text. Somebody made the invite. Somebody moved before it was comfortable. And most of us have spent years waiting to be picked instead of doing the picking. In week 4 of our Friendship series, Pastor Mike Rosado gets brutally practical. No theory. No fluff. Four moves out of 1 Samuel 18 that will actually put people in your life, plus the reason most of us never make them. Because naming your fear feels like progress, but it is not. You have to go from awareness to activation. If you are lonely, guarded, busy, or just tired of surface level relationships, this one is for you. BIG IDEA: The remedy for your isolation is initiation. Stop looking for the right person. Start being the right person. PRIMARY TEXT: 1 Samuel 18:1-4SUPPORTING: Matthew 7:24-27, James 5:16, Ruth 1:16, John 1:1-14, 1 John 4:19 THE FOUR MOVES:1. Go First. Stop waiting to be chosen.2. Get In The Room. You cannot befriend people you never see.3. Give Something That Costs. Friendship without cost is just proximity.4. Stay Through The Awkward. Awkward does not mean wrong. It means not comfortable yet.

You didn't set a boundary. You set a trap, and then called it wisdom.Every wall you've built has one of four names on it: abandonment, betrayal, deficit, or rejection. In Part 3 of our FRIENDS series, Pastor Mike opens Genesis 3 and asks the question God asked Adam in the garden, "Where are you?", and gets brutally honest about the fears that keep us hiding from the very relationships we say we want.This one gets personal. Father wounds. Church rejection. The excuses we've gotten slick at dressing up as self-care. And a challenge you can act on before next Sunday.📖 Genesis 3:8-10 | 1 John 4:18 | Hebrews 13:5 | 1 Samuel 18:4 | James 5:16

We criticize for free. Fixing ourselves costs something... that's why nobody wants to do it.In this message Pastor Mike Rosado unpacks why it's always easier to point out someone else's flaws than to deal with your own, and why that habit is quietly wrecking your relationships, your leadership, and your walk with God.Before you fix the people in the room, fix the person in the mirror.This is week 2 in our series on friendship, and it's built on one hard truth: whatever standard you swing at someone else is the same standard swinging back at you. Straight from Matthew 7, Luke 6, and Galatians 6, Pastor Mike breaks down 7 "before you" checkpoints that will change how you criticize, correct, judge, and forgive the people in your life.If you've ever been quick to call someone else's mess "toxic" while calling your own "just a season", this one's for you.

Why don't we have real friends anymore? Not followers. Not fans. Not people who like your posts, actual friends who show up when life gets messy.

In week 1 of our brand new series FRIENDS, Pastor Mike Rosado breaks down what friendship was actually built to be, using a 6-word framework (F.R.I.E.N.D.) pulled straight from the Bible's original Hebrew and Greek. This isn't a self-help talk. It's a wake-up call for anyone who's ever felt lonely in a crowded room.

Whether you go to church or not, if you've ever wondered why it's so hard to keep real friends as an adult, this one's for you.

🔔 Subscribe for the rest of the FRIENDS series, every week in August.📍 Fervent Church, New Jersey

They were eleven days from everything they'd been praying for. They camped there for forty years.In this series finale of "Through the Wilderness," Pastor Mike Rosado unpacks why transitions are so uncomfortable and reveals the three ways we quietly build a house where God only ever meant for us to pitch a tent. If you've been stuck in an in-between season, or you're closer to your breakthrough than you realize, this message will change how you see the ground you're standing on right now.The wilderness was never where God abandoned you. It's where He developed you. Now don't stop here.This is Week 8, the final message in "Through the Wilderness."

One chapter after the biggest win of his life, Elijah was under a tree in the desert praying to die.In this message, Pastor Mike Rosado unpacks one of the most surprising moments in the Bible: how God responded to a burned-out prophet. No lecture. No rebuke. God let him sleep, sent an angel to cook him a meal, and let him sleep again. The question didn't come until after the food did.If you're running on empty, if you crashed right after your biggest win, or if God feels silent right now, this message is going to meet you where you are.This is Week 7 of "Through the Wilderness," a series about going from transition to transformation.

Pickpockets don't strike at random. They wait for one specific moment, and the enemy of your soul uses the exact same playbook.In this message, Pastor Mike Rosado shares the story of nearly getting pickpocketed on the Paris Metro, and unpacks the three things every attack reveals: it affirms your direction, it leverages your depletion, and it targets your isolation. If you've been getting hit from every side lately, this message will change what you call it, and how you fight it.Not every hard thing is a mistake. Not every hard thing is bad luck. Some things are attacks, and attacks mean you're a threat.This is Week 6 of "Through the Wilderness," a series about going from transition to transformation.