Highway Sermons

What does the Bible have to say about shame and its antidote? Join us as we examine the plot twist at the center of the parable of the wicked tenants, and what this story, told in the midst of Passion Week, tells us about the meaning of the cross and the healing of shame.

What happens when you've prayed for something for years — and nothing has changed?

Jesus tells a parable about a widow who keeps showing up at the door of a corrupt judge, asking for justice, getting turned away, and coming back anyway. Day after day. The Complete Jewish Bible translates the judge's frustration with one word: nudnik. A Yiddish term for someone who is pestering, relentless, impossible to ignore.

Jesus holds her up as a model of prayer.

What does persistent prayer actually look like for modern people?. A stubbornness of the soul. A refusal to let silence be the final word. We talk about why persistence in prayer builds intimacy, transforms us from the inside out, and what to do when we've prayed hard for things that never came.

Luke 18:1-8

A Sunday to hear stories from one another's lives. This time we're focusing on the unexpected ways that our narratives have turned as we live lives of faith.

Our world is one that prioritizes constant growth at all costs. Yet when asked to describe his kingdom, Jesus offers an image of the insignificant, ratchet mustard bush- an unimpressive but unstoppable place of rest for a weary world. Jesus invites us to his big kingdom of smallness and in doing so, frees us to live small lives of value and purpose.

This week in our Plot Twists series we look at the Parable of the Talents through the lens of "investment." Our life is a gift, therefore, the question is what are we doing with what we've been given?So often we avoid the risk of following Jesus's call to adventure because of our fear. But just like every good story involves stepping into the unknown, our faith requires stepping out too.

Matt 20:1-16

We celebrate the lone genius, the self-made entrepreneur, the solo adventurer. Alex Honnold free-soloing 1,600 feet with no rope. 

But what if the thing we admire most is the thing that's making us loneliest? We have more tools, more access, and more "connections" than any generation in history, and yet we're starving for presence.

In the final week of our series in Jude, we look at a first-century church teetering on the edge of collapse — scattered, fragile, and tempted to go it alone. And we discover that Jude's survival plan wasn't a new doctrine or a purity test. It was a structure built on two kinds of dependence: vertical (anchored to God) and horizontal (roped to each other).

Most shipwrecks don't happen in the deep ocean during storms. They happen close to shore, where everything looks calm—but hidden rocks lie just beneath the surface.

In the book of Jude, we discover that the greatest threat to the Jesus movement wasn't persecution from the outside. It was corruption from within. People who said the right things, sat at the table, quoted Scripture—but were driven by ego, power, and selfish desire rather than the way of Jesus.

Sound familiar?

From spiritual abuse scandals to Christian nationalism to toxic church leadership, we're living in a moment when the name of Jesus is being used for everything except what Jesus actually taught. One-third of Americans report experiencing religious trauma. And many are asking: "If this is Christianity, I want nothing to do with it."

But what if the problem isn't Jesus—it's people using his name without following his way?

In this message, we explore:

• Why the early church's biggest danger was insider threats (Cain, Balaam, Korah)
• How to discern false teaching from authentic faith ("you will know them by their fruit")
• What it means to be an "illuminator" in a confused cultural moment
• How Jesus invites us to let him illuminate the truth—not just in the world, but in our own hearts

Understanding the code of Jude, and what the early church needed to remember that is still true for us today: God calls us, God loves us, and God keeps us.