Mercy Spokane: Sermons

What happens when you fall into the same sin again, even after years of knowing God’s faithfulness?

In Genesis 20, Abraham lets fear take over, puts Sarah in danger, and makes excuses when confronted. Yet God protects his promise and continues to work through his deeply flawed servant. Abraham sacrifices his bride to save himself; Jesus sacrifices himself to save his bride.

Join Pastor Tommy Allen at Mercy Spokane as we consider the scandal of grace: our failures do not exhaust God’s mercy. We can stop defending ourselves, return honestly to Jesus, and trust him to restore us and send us out to serve.

What if the thing you’re reluctant to leave is the very thing God is rescuing you from?

Lot had made a home in Sodom. But when judgment came, he hesitated to leave. His rescue depended on God’s mercy, not his willingness to move.

In this message, Pastor Tommy Allen explores the slow drift of compromise, its effect on our witness, and the grace that takes us by the hand when we linger. From Pinocchio’s Pleasure Island to Lot’s escape, we see the difference between sin’s promises and Jesus’ promises: sin takes our lives, but Jesus gives his own to save us.

A message about judgment, misplaced loves, and learning to recognize God’s mercy even when it feels like loss.

Mercy Spokane
Scripture: Genesis 19:1–29

What happens when you still believe in God, but have stopped expecting anything to change?

In Genesis 18, Sarah’s laughter reveals the disappointment behind her guarded heart. God meets her doubt with a question: Is anything too hard for the Lord? As Abraham welcomes God and intercedes for Sodom, we discover a hope grounded in God’s grace and fulfilled in Jesus, the righteous One who gives himself for sinners.

Drawing on the movie Up, Pastor Tommy Allen invites us to look beyond unfinished dreams, recognize God’s everyday goodness, and trust the mercy secured for us at the cross.

Scripture: Genesis 18
Mercy Spokane

If we belong to God, why do we still struggle with sin?

Guest preacher Nigel Hunter explores 1 John 3:4–11, reminding us that the Christian life begins with what Christ has done and who we have become through him. Jesus came to take away sins and destroy the works of the devil. Adopted into God’s family, we are called to live from that new identity.

Nigel distinguishes struggling against sin from embracing it and challenges us to trade the appearance of having everything together for honest Christian community. As we confess, forgive, and love one another, we help each other remember the truth: we belong to our Father.

Scripture: 1 John 3:4–11
Guest preacher: Nigel Hunter
Mercy Spokane

Abraham was 99. Ishmael was growing up. Life seemed settled. Then God said that Sarah would bear a son, and Abraham fell on his face and laughed.

In Genesis 17:15–27, Tommy Allen considers Abraham’s laughter, God’s surprising answer, and what Abraham did next. God heard Abraham’s plea for Ishmael and promised to bless him, but the covenant would continue through Isaac. Isaac’s birth would make clear that God himself was keeping the promise.

The sermon follows that promise toward Jesus, who was cut off so that we could be brought in. It also asks a personal question: when God disturbs the peace we have made for ourselves, can we trust him to lead us toward greater joy?

Scripture: Genesis 17:15–27
Church: Mercy Spokane

What does a wedding ring actually do? It does not create a marriage or make the promises. It serves as a visible sign of the covenant already made.

In Genesis 17, God gives Abraham a covenant sign of the covenant. After years of waiting and human attempts to accomplish God’s plan, the birth of the promised son now appears impossible. But God comes to Abraham as El Shaddai, God Almighty, and confirms what he alone can do.

God’s covenant rests upon his promises, not Abraham’s performance. Circumcision points to those promises and anticipates their fulfillment in Jesus, who was cut off as a covenant breaker so that covenant breakers like us could be welcomed into God’s family. Baptism likewise directs us away from our own sincerity and toward Christ's gracious work

God has placed his name upon his people, and his promise does not fade.

Preacher: Tommy Allen

Learn more about Mercy Spokane: https://mercyspokane.org

Come home. Struggle freely. Live on mission.

What does Abraham’s deeply imperfect story teach us about faith?

Before returning to Genesis 17, we take a humorous look back at Genesis 1–15 and humanity's repeated failures of humanity, including Abraham’s own very “roastable” mistakes. Yet through every failure, God remains faithful to his promises.

In Romans 4:13–25, Paul explains why Abraham was counted righteous: not because he earned it through obedience, but because he trusted that God could do what he had promised. The same righteousness is credited to everyone who trusts in the God who delivered Jesus for our sins and raised him for our justification.

Scripture: Romans 4:13–25; Genesis 1–15

In this sermon:

• Why salvation must depend upon grace
• What Abraham’s failures reveal about God’s faithfulness
• The biblical meaning of faith
• The difference between believing that and believing in
• What it means to be counted righteous in Christ

How should Christians live when “the end of all things is at hand”?

Peter’s answer is strikingly different from the fear and self-protection often associated with preparing for the end. Instead of panicking or partying, Christians pray. Instead of isolating themselves, they love one another earnestly and open their homes without grumbling. Instead of hoarding what they have, they use their gifts to serve others.

We can live this way because Jesus welcomed us when we were estranged, covered our sins at the cross, and now supplies the strength we need to serve for the glory of God.

Scripture: 1 Peter 4:7–11

Series: Hospitality

Preacher: Tommy Allen

What happens when 3,000 strangers suddenly become family?

In Acts 2:42–47, the Holy Spirit creates a new kind of community. These first Christians devote themselves to the apostles’ teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer. Their new life together produces remarkable generosity, deep relationships, and a community that outsiders find compelling.

In this sermon from our series on biblical hospitality, we consider three characteristics of the early church. They were:

• A devoted community — committed to God’s Word, worship, fellowship, prayer, and the sacraments
• A generous community — responding freely to the needs of others
• An attractive community — opening their lives so outsiders could see the gospel at work in real time

The church isn’t a showroom filled with finished Christians. It’s a workshop filled with people still in progress. Our calling is to invite people close enough to watch Jesus work on us.

Scripture: Acts 2:42–47
Series: Hospitality
Preacher: Tommy Allen

Mercy Spokane

Zacchaeus is one of the most familiar characters in the Bible, but his story is far more than a children’s song about a short man in a tree.

Zacchaeus was wealthy, despised, isolated, and considered beyond the reach of respectable society. Yet as Jesus passed through Jericho on his way to the cross, he stopped, called Zacchaeus by name, and invited himself into his home.

In Luke 19:1–10, we see that Jesus sees the worst of sinners, changes the worst of sinners, and saves the worst of sinners.

And that is good news not only for the people we struggle to imagine receiving grace. It is good news for us.

Grace does not wait for Zacchaeus to clean himself up. Jesus moves toward him first. And when Zacchaeus receives Jesus, that grace begins changing everything, including his relationship with money, with others, and with the community from which he had been alienated.

Jesus was on his way to Jerusalem to be rejected and cast out so that sinners like Zacchaeus, and sinners like us, could be welcomed home.

Scripture: Luke 19:1–10

Preacher: Tommy Allen

Church: Mercy Spokane