Lake Sawyer Church Messages

We kicked off Beyond, a new six-week teaching series through the book of Colossians, with Mike Ferrulli. Before opening Colossians 1, Mike shared the results of One Day to Feed the World: 375 people gave, we gave $87,180 together, and through Convoy of Hope that generosity was multiplied to $435,900, five times the impact. He also shared three stories of how God met people in our church through the offering.

Starting with the engineering story of the Gateway Arch, whose two legs only held together once the keystone was set at the top, Mike showed how many of us live exhausted, trying to hold our marriages, families, finances, and faith together on our own. In Colossians 1:15-20, Paul points the church back to Jesus: he is before all things, in him all things hold together, he is the fullness of God, and through his cross he reconciles everything to himself.

Mike closed by inviting us to name one thing we are trying to hold up on our own, to pray "Jesus, you hold this together, not me" through the week, and to respond in communion with gratitude and surrender.

On One Day to Feed the World Sunday, Colby Atkins from Convoy of Hope joined us to close out More than Enough. Starting in Luke 10 with the story of the Good Samaritan, and in Matthew 9, where Jesus sees the crowds and is moved with compassion, he reminded us that compassion is not sympathy or empathy. Compassion is passion in action. It is the stirring deep inside that says, "I can't help but to help."

The priest and the Levite saw the man beside the road and kept walking. The Samaritan crossed every barrier, saw him through the eyes of God, and paid what it cost to care for him. Compassion runs toward the hurt, sees who someone can become, and remembers the compassion we have received in Christ. We heard stories from Birch Tree, Missouri, and from Chege in Kenya, whose life changed because someone fed him and believed in him.

We closed by bringing our One Day offering forward as an act of worship, trusting God to multiply it through the local church around the world, so children are fed, women are empowered, farmers are equipped, and people hear the hope of Jesus.

This week in More than Enough, we looked at a number that is hard to hold: 2.33 billion people in our world facing a hunger crisis. Next to a need that big, anything we could give feels like a rounding error, so a lot of us stay on the sidelines. We are used to worldly math. This is what it costs, this is what I have, and it does not add up. But God does not just add. God multiplies.

In 2 Kings 4, in the middle of a famine, a man brings the prophet Elisha twenty loaves of barley bread from the first of his harvest. Elisha says to give it to the people. His servant says, "Feed a hundred people with only this?" But they give it away, and everyone eats with some left over, just as the Lord promised. He gave first. The math didn't work. The bread multiplied as it was given away.

We closed with a story from Convoy of Hope in Madagascar, where a community that has very little is now helping feed children across their country. We are blessed to be a blessing. This week we are invited to give our One Day, trusting God to multiply our faithfulness.

We kicked off a new series this morning called More than Enough. For the next three weeks we are looking at a tension most of us live with: we keep score. We measure friendships, gifts, and what we have to offer, and when it feels like our part will not move anything, we stay on the sidelines. Not because we do not care. Because we assume what we have does not make a difference.

Jesus tells a different story. In Mark 12 he sits in the temple and watches the crowds drop large gifts into the collection box. Then a poor widow puts in two small coins. He calls his disciples over and says she has given more than all the rest. They gave a tiny part of their surplus. She gave everything she had to live on. Jesus notices. Jesus measures differently. In his hands, a little faith and a little generosity go a long way.

We closed by looking at One Day to Feed the World with Convoy of Hope. One person, one church, one day. What we can give, God can multiply.

Baptism isn’t a performance to earn God’s love — it’s a public declaration that your life already belongs to Jesus. In “Today’s the Day,” Mike Ferrulli walks through Romans 6, Matthew 3, and Acts 8 to show baptism as union with Christ: buried with Him in the water, raised to new life. If you’ve been holding that decision privately — for months or for years — you’re not behind and you’re not alone. Like the Ethiopian on the road who asked, “Why can’t I be baptized?”, the invitation is open. God isn’t waiting with a clipboard; He delights in you. Today is your day. Come forward, step into the water, and let the church celebrate with you. Passages: Romans 6 · Matthew 3 · Acts 8 Speaker: Mike Ferrulli Lake Sawyer Church | September 27, 2026

Closing the With. Like. For. series, Mike Ferrulli walks Matthew 25’s sheep-and-goats teaching — with Luke 4 as the bookend. Living for Jesus means actually serving “the least of these,” not staying stuck in self-improvement or assuming someone else will step up.

The call is concrete: look for material need, welcome the outsider, notice the lonely. Partner with places like Vine Maple Place and Maple Valley Food Bank. Leave with one clear name or action this week.

Week two of With. Like. For. After being with Jesus last week, Mike Ferrulli asks what it means to become like Him — not as a performance checklist, but as the natural overflow of nearness. Proximity plus desire equals likeness.

Looking at Jesus’ own rhythm of withdrawing to the Father (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16), Mike reframes spiritual disciplines as a “rhythm of likeness”: prayer, Scripture, fasting, solitude, Sabbath, community, service, simplicity, and witness. Start with the one practice that already fits — not out of guilt, but because you want to stay close.

As 2 Corinthians 3:18 says, the Spirit makes us more and more like Him as we keep looking. So this week, don’t ask “what do I have to do.” Ask “what feels natural for me to do,” start there, and let proximity do what proximity does.

Ever feel like faith is just trying harder — read more, pray more, sin less — and somehow still not feel close to God?

In this week’s message, "With Jesus," we kick off our With. Like. For. series. Mike Ferrulli looks at Matthew 11 and Jeremiah 6 and the difference between knowing about Jesus and actually being with Him — taking His yoke, learning from Him, and finding rest for our souls.

Join us as we trade the hamster wheel of religious performance for a with-ness to Jesus as the baseline of life.