Grace City Church

Max and Brian sit down after Sunday's sermon on Acts 5 and the hard story of Ananias and Sapphira. It wasn't a giving talk, but it was a talk about giving: their problem wasn't the money they kept, it was the lie they told to look as generous as Barnabas.They talk about what open-handed, everyday obedience looks like in a culture that rewards a curated image, why Max walked away from TikTok fame built on views instead of conviction, and how performative spirituality follows us into church when every other part of life is judged on performance. They close on the severity of the judgment, the holiness of God, and why you can only be as healed as you are honest.

A Jesus Church: The Danger of Performative Spirituality | Acts 4:32-5:11What happens when we care more about looking holy than actually living holy?The early church was of one heart and mind, so generous that there was not a needy person among them, and Barnabas sold a field and laid the money at the apostles' feet. Then Ananias and Sapphira sold land too, kept part of the proceeds, and lied about it. Pastor Brian Owen walks through Acts 4:32-5:11 in three movements: Jesus is forming a distinct community, deception threatens the community Jesus is forming, and holiness requires bringing what is hidden into the light.Ananias and Sapphira died because of their sin; Jesus died for ours. Because he has dealt with our sin, we no longer have to hide it, and confession in community is where the light of the gospel breaks in.Scripture: Acts 4:32-5:11 (also John 8:44; Joshua 7; Romans 3:10, 3:23-24, 6:23; James 5:16)Learn more about Grace City Church: https://gracecityboston.comSubscribe to catch each week's sermon from Grace City Church in Boston.

What happens when God moves? In this message from Acts 3, Peter and John head to the temple for prayer — and end up at the center of a miracle that stops Jerusalem in its tracks. A man lame from birth is lifted by the name of Jesus, Peter refuses the credit and points the crowd to Christ, and the same people who denied Jesus are offered wiping-clean repentance and "times of refreshing."

The name of Jesus does what religion can't: it lifts the lame, confronts the guilty, and offers refreshing to the repentant.

Preached Sunday, October 11, 2026 at Grace City Church, Boston, MA.

What if we've been asking the wrong question? Instead of "What is God's will for my life?" — what about "What is God's life for my will?"

In this episode of The Follow Up, we unpack Chuck Bomar's sermon "Life Before the Plan" (John 15:1-5): what it means to abide in Jesus the true vine, why our algorithmic age is uniquely engineered to enthrone the self, and how grace both champions your personhood and dethrones your autonomy.

We also get into Chuck's remarkable story — 11 homes, 7 cities growing up — and the line that stopped us cold: "God wastes remarkably little."

Guest teacher and author Chuck Bomar joins us to address a question Christians have asked for centuries: "God, what is your will for my life?"

Looking at John 15:1-5, Chuck flips the question: instead of asking "What is your will for my life?" — what if we asked, "What is your life for my will?" Jesus doesn't hand us a plan to decode; he gives us an image — he is the vine, we are the branches. Before the plan comes the life.

In this sermon, Chuck unpacks three things this image tells us about grace:

1. Grace dethrones self — you are not the source.

2. Grace resurrects what is dead — it doesn't reward your faithfulness.

3. Grace forms the life God intended — it doesn't improve the life we've curated.

Plus Chuck's own story of 11 homes and 7 cities, and the line that lands hard: "God wastes remarkably little."

Pentecost was never meant to be the finish line. In this episode of The Follow Up, we dig into Acts 2:42–47 and what happened after the Spirit fell, as the early church was formed into a people devoted to the Word, to one another, to the table, and to prayer.

We talk about the danger of chasing God's presence without being formed by it, and how that leads to shallow discipleship and a proxy experience instead of the real thing. We get practical about building a rhythm in Scripture, including the SOAP method and why, if we can't find thirty minutes in the Word, our feeds are probably discipling us more than Jesus is. We also name what keeps people from committing to church community, from past hurt to busy calendars to the fear of being known, and why regular fellowship still matters when the national average is under two Sundays a month.

Plus: why prayer is both a private practice and a corporate commitment, and why generosity sits so close to the heart of following Jesus.

What happens after Pentecost? The Holy Spirit doesn’t simply give the early church a powerful encounter with God—He begins forming them into a new kind of people.

In Acts 2:42–47, we see a church devoted to Scripture, one another, the Lord’s Supper, and prayer; filled with awe and expectation; and radically generous toward those in need.

The question isn’t simply whether we admire the early church. It’s whether we’re willing to let the Holy Spirit form us into this kind of people.

How could something seemingly insignificant and small lead to the largest movement that we're still feeling the ripples of today? What started with 120 disciples gathered in the upper room led to the birth of the Church and the Gospel being carried forward to the ends of the earth. In this episode of The Follow-Up, Yasmin and Brain talk through the Upper Room discourse, and what this means for the Church today.

At Pentecost, the Holy Spirit filled a small group of Jesus’ followers, and the church began to grow. In Acts 2, Peter explains what the crowd has witnessed, proclaims Jesus as Lord and Messiah, and calls them to repent. This sermon asks what it means for us to depend on the Spirit, speak about Jesus, and respond when God moves.

Why the book of Acts? Because Acts shows us what happens when the Church is centered on Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and sent on mission.

In this episode, we introduce our journey through Acts and explore what it means to recover the vision of a Spirit-empowered church. Acts reminds us that Jesus is still at work through His Church, calling ordinary people to be His witnesses through the power of the Holy Spirit.

As Grace City seeks to live as a Word and Power church, we talk about holding Scripture and the Spirit together, growing in dependence on God, and resisting a version of church that can be explained entirely by strategy and planning.

We are teaching through this book intentionally, as we read Acts as an invitation to become more than church consumers. It is a call to become witnesses who are centered on Christ, empowered by the Spirit, and sent on mission.