ML Podcast

What if God had been preparing you for your calling long before you even knew it? In this week's ML Podcast episode, Evan Gabriel shares his incredible story of surrender, and the undeniable ways God has provided every step of the way.

From anonymous donations covering his mission trip costs to a dresser at the perfect time, Evan's story is a powerful reminder that when God opens doors He also equips you for the journey. As Evan prepares to head to South Dakota for six weeks of ministry immersion, his message is simple: trust God, be patient, and surrender.

Sometimes the smallest act of love carries the greatest weight. Steve and Shelly Craig joined us on the ML Podcast to share the story behind Cards from Christ, a ministry that sends handwritten Christmas cards to every inmate in Ohio's prisons and beyond. What started with an idea for 30 cards has grown to over 100,000 across seven states.

One man received a card his late mother had written before she passed. That card found him behind prison walls. That is not coincidence. That is God.

As Jesus reminds us in Matthew 25, visiting and caring for those in prison is caring for him. A handwritten note, a Bible verse, a prayer, it plants a seed. And God determines where that seed grows.

This November 1-29, grab a card at Maiden Lane and let God guide what you write. Pray over it. Someone needs to know they are loved.

You are not a slave. You are a child of God.

This Sunday, we dove deep into Galatians 3-4 and were reminded that the same grace that saves us is the grace that sustains us. We do not earn our place in God's family through performance or perfection. We receive it by faith, and we live from that place of belonging.

You are loved absolutely, completely, and unconditionally. Dare to believe it.

You have nothing to prove. That is the heart of this week's message as we continued our series, The Gospel of Grace, through the book of Galatians.

Pastor Paul brought us face to face with a stunning truth: even Peter, one of Jesus' closest disciples, stumbled and had to be reminded that the gospel is not about performance. Galatians 2:16 makes it clear that we are not made right with God by what we do, but by faith in what Christ has already done.

Grace is not just the door you walk through into the Christian life. It is the house you live in. Stop trying to pay the mortgage. Jesus already did.

If you missed it, come back and catch the full message. Whether you are new to faith or have been walking with Jesus for decades, this word is for you.

Ten years ago, Chuck and Gale Poole opened their home on a Sunday evening, inviting friends to an evening of intentional community. And ten years later, this group still walks through their door every Sunday evening.

What began as a simple invitation has become a faithful community of prayer, encouragement, honesty, laughter, and love. In this episode of the ML Podcast, Chuck and Gale share how God has used their small group to strengthen their faith, carry them through difficult seasons, and make the church feel like home. If you have ever wondered why doing life together matters, or if you are looking for encouragement to take a step toward community, this is a conversation you do not want to miss.

What does your "but then God" moment look like? This Sunday, we heard powerful testimonies from members of our church family, stories of loss, doubt, distance, and return, all transformed by the same grace that Paul writes about in Galatians 1.

Chris, Bonnie, Evan, and our missionaries Tim and Kim reminded us that God does not wait for us to have it all together. He meets us in our brokenness, picks us up, and puts us back on the tree. As Philippians 1:6 reminds us, he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion.

Your story does not have to be dramatic to be powerful. If Jesus is in it, it is extraordinary. When you share what God has done in your life, your story becomes his story, and his story always brings him glory (Galatians 1:24).

Do not be afraid to say it out loud: but then God.

There is no other gospel. Not Jesus and your good behavior. Not Jesus and your church attendance. Not Jesus and finally getting your act together. Just Jesus -- and what He has already done for you.

The book of Galatians cuts straight to the heart of it: we are saved by grace through faith. That means God did for us what we could never do for ourselves. His love for you is not conditional on your performance. It never was.

If you have ever felt like you had to clean yourself up before coming to God, this message is for you. You are loved absolutely and unconditionally by the God who created you.

Catch up on this week's message from our ongoing series on the Gospel of Grace, and join us as we walk through Galatians together.

What if the most transformative truth in all of Scripture is also the one we most easily forget? This message invites us to wrestle with a question that cuts to the heart of our faith: do we truly believe that God's goodness is enough for us? Not just enough to get us started, but enough to sustain us, carry us, and bring us home. Drawing from Paul's declaration in Acts 20:24 that his entire life and ministry existed to testify to the gospel of the grace of God, we are reminded that the gospel is not primarily good advice about what we should do for God, but good news about what God has already done for us. This distinction is not a minor theological footnote. It is the difference between a life of striving and a life of freedom. 

The progression matters deeply: God acts, good news is announced, we trust it, and then we experience salvation. When we reverse that order and place ourselves at the center of our own redemption, we have quietly walked away from grace itself. Romans 3:23 captures this tension perfectly, acknowledging that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, but pressing forward to declare that all are also justified freely by His grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus. The verse does not stop at our failure. Neither should we.

What would it look like if we stopped viewing the church doors as exits and started viewing them as entrances into the world together? This week's message took us to Luke 24:13-35, where two followers of Jesus walked the road to Emmaus, brokenhearted and confused, only to have Jesus himself show up and walk alongside them.

When Jesus sat at their table, he took the bread, gave thanks, and broke it. In that moment, everything clicked. The body of Christ is broken so that each of us can receive a portion, and when we come back together in life, we become that body for the world to see.

We are not a bag of marbles, isolated individuals simply sharing a space. We are connected, like grapes on a vine. When life pulls at one of us, the whole body responds. That is the church Jesus is building.

Come be a part of it. Watch the full message on our page.

What does it look like to truly need other people? In Mark 2, we encounter a paralyzed man whose only path to Jesus runs directly through the faithfulness of four friends. They carry him, climb a roof, dig through tile, and lower him down into the very presence of Christ. This story is not just a miracle account. It is a portrait of what genuine Christian community looks like in action. The friends refused to let the crowd, the obstacles, or the effort stop them. They were so determined to get their friend to Jesus that they found another way when the obvious way was blocked. 

We all find ourselves on the mat at some point. Grief, struggle, doubt, addiction, loss, these are the things that can paralyze us. And in those moments, we are not meant to get to Jesus on our own. We need people around us with that same stubborn, roof-tearing determination to bring us into his presence. The question worth sitting with is this: who is carrying you right now, and who are you carrying?