Opening Fearfully & Wonderfully Made , this message takes Psalm 139:14 literally, arguing that "fearfully" means made with awe and reverence rather than fear, and then walks through the body's stress response as evidence of intentional design. Drawing on a survivor's account of a mountain-lion attack, the teaching explains how cortisol and DHEA function, why cortisol is meant for short bursts rather than constant activation, and how the ratio between them shapes resilience, focus, and health. The practical claim is that how a person views stressful events changes their body chemistry. The application is spiritual: meditating on God's promises shifts that ratio toward growth, so believers do not merely go through hardship but grow through it. Scriptures such as Isaiah 41:10 and Philippians 4:6-7 are offered as the faith-filled lens for trials.

This closing message in The ABC's of Financial Freedom opens with a family's hard reckoning over debt and the disciplined years it took to become mortgage-free, framed by a simple claim: when God's word about money is put into practice, it changes things. The teaching gathers seven principles. Stewardship begins with answering who owns it all (Psalm 24:1); what you pursue determines what you possess (Matthew 6:33); spending matters more than earning; obedience precedes abundance (Proverbs 3:9-10); the discipline of saving outweighs the amount saved; God multiplies what is sown (2 Corinthians 9:6); and sustained generosity, not a one-time gift, sustains financial freedom. The conclusion turns to tithing, distinguishing giving from duty, obligation, or genuine desire, and points to Mary's costly anointing of Jesus as the picture of extravagant devotion that reorders a believer's relationship with money.

Our decisions determine our destiny. Continuing the financial freedom series from Proverbs 16 , where the name of the Lord appears eight times in nine verses, this message presses the question Jesus asks in Luke 6:46 — why call Him Lord and not do what He says? Taking Jesus as Savior also means taking Him as Lord, and lordship means allegiance. God is named as the source of income, citing Deuteronomy 8:18 against the “I earned it myself” objection, while affirming our part in working ethically and well. Six biblical practices with money are drawn from Proverbs — earn it ethically, save it consistently, spend it wisely, tithe it enthusiastically, give it generously, and invest it in eternity — closing with the welcoming party of Luke 16:9 , those reached because someone chose to give.

Choices carry consequences, especially the choices that fail to honor God. Continuing the financial freedom series from Proverbs 3:1–10 , this message summarizes the passage in three moves: remember what God says, trust what God does, and honor who God is. The Hebrew sense of honor — to weigh down, to crown as king — reframes the tithe as a declaration of allegiance. Anticipating the objection that tithing is merely Old Testament law, it turns to Jesus in Matthew 5 and 23 : He came not to lower the expectations but to raise them, affirming the tithe as a starting point. A candid congregational financial study is shared — what faithfulness could free for missions, staffing, and debt — framed throughout as what is wanted for people, not from them, since this is a lordship issue, not a money issue.

The second message in the financial freedom series names the biggest roadblock: the bondage of debt. The choice is framed plainly as bondage or blessing — and from Deuteronomy 28 , the blessings of God are shown to flow from obedience. Sobering statistics on consumer, mortgage, vehicle, and student debt set the stakes, alongside the illustration of a trapped animal that does not realize it is being hunted until the snare closes. Seven biblical observations about debt are offered: Scripture discourages but does not forbid it, models terms no longer than seven years, is not against banks or investing, affects every attitude in life, treats co-signing as unwise, urges escaping debt quickly, and reveals God's design for His people to be lenders rather than borrowers — pointing finally to the sin debt Christ paid in full.

Opening a series on financial freedom, this message begins where most people avoid — the reluctance to look honestly at our finances, like dodging the bathroom scale — and grounds everything in Scripture's roughly two thousand verses on money. From 1 Chronicles 29 , King David's prayer models the right attitude: everything in heaven and earth is God's, all riches and honor come from Him, and whatever we give was already His. We are stewards, not owners, and how we manage God's resources matters greatly to Him. Five attitude shifts are pressed — from no plan to God's plan, from “my money” to God's money, from hopelessness to nothing being impossible with God, from giving to get to giving out of love, and from honoring God last to honoring Him first. Four levels of givers invite honest self-assessment.

Closing the Step Up series, this message redefines worship as reflecting glory to one's maker. The heavenly scenes of Revelation 4 and 7 show creatures and elders falling down before the throne — we do not have to imagine heaven's worship; we know it. From Hebrews 10:24–25 the case is made for not neglecting to gather, paired with a sobering calculation: even with perfect attendance, corporate worship is a fraction of one percent of a life — not enough to sustain anyone. The fuller vision comes from Romans 12:1–2 and Colossians 3:23 : worship is a verb, our reasonable response, lived in whatever we do. To follow Jesus is to imitate Him — and whatever we reflect to the world is what we are actually worshiping.

Life is about growth, and so is spiritual life. Continuing the Step Up series from Acts 2:42 , this message uses 1 John 2:12–14 to chart spiritual maturity — children who have received Christ, young people strong in the word, and parents who can now reproduce disciples. The danger named is dying on the inside — ceasing to learn, mature, or care — while Romans 12:1–2 and Colossians 2:6–7 describe transformation by the renewing of the mind, one step at a time. The practical center is unapologetically simple: read the Bible. A study of those who engage Scripture several times a week is cited to show measurable change, paired with James 1:22 — do what it says — and a warning against “Peter Pan” Christians who refuse to grow up.

This message centers on koinonia , a Greek word too rich for a single English equivalent, drawn from Acts 2:42–47 . The early church did not merely gather; it devoted itself to the koinonia — the difference, as the illustration goes, between a potluck and a sword pledged to a shared mission. The radical sharing of Acts 2 and 4 frames a question: how big is the community that can say “I need you” and “I got you” and mean it? Three Greek words for life — bios, zoe, and a third — distinguish the life we create from the life we were created for. The woman at the well illustrates that koinonia with others flows from koinonia with God: to be known is to be loved. The call is to pray, then act — surrendering, joining, serving, and reconciling within the body.

Opening a new-year Step Up series, this message uses Saul's conversion in Acts 9 as the most consequential before-and-after in history — a persecutor turned preacher, a murderer turned missionary — to argue there are no impossible cases with God. Two audiences are addressed directly: those who have had an encounter with Jesus but done nothing about it, and longtime believers whose job is simply to trust and obey. The blindness Saul receives, and his immediate obedience, model a genuine conversion that acts rather than negotiates. Ananias carries the second thread: God's call rarely makes sense, and our task is not to figure out how it will but to do it. Calling a former enemy “brother” becomes the picture — trust and obey is the only way to step up.