Engage Your Destiny: Decrease So He Can Increase

Guest speaker Ben Peterson, founder of Engage Your Destiny, brings a message about identity, culture, and what it takes to walk fully with God in this cultural moment.

Using a historical pattern — hard times create strong men, strong men create good times, good times create weak men, and weak men create hard times — Ben challenges us to recognize where we are in this cycle and what it will take for the church to rise in this hour. He unpacks how technology and social media are conditioning our attention away from God, and connects that pattern all the way back to the Tower of Babel.

But the heart of the message is identity. Ben challenges us to stop striving to prove we're enough and instead receive our true identity in Christ — sons who are leaders, daughters of the King, no longer working for victory, but working from it. The message closes with a powerful invitation to lay down what competes for our attention and affection, and to fully receive who God says we are.

Living As Though Jesus Is Savior

We say we believe Jesus is our Savior — but does it actually show?

In this message, we finish our series in the Gospel of Mark by asking a question every believer has to answer honestly: if Jesus really is your Savior, how does that change the way you live?

We look at what it means to truly call on Jesus — not just to know about Him, but to depend on Him daily. We talk about the temptation to return to old patterns of sin, what it means to trust Him in the middle of the storm, and why so many of us keep quiet about the very thing that changed our lives.

This isn't a message about head knowledge. It's a challenge to ask: do I really believe what I say I believe — enough that it shapes my choices, my relationships, and my witness?

If you've never given your life to Christ, this message ends with an invitation — because today can be the day everything changes.

Who Are You? Discovering Your Identity Through the Trial of Jesus

In this message, we step into one of the most intense moments in the Gospels — Jesus standing trial before the high priest, falsely accused, and asked directly: "Are you the Christ, the Son of the Blessed?" His answer changes everything.

Walking through Mark 14:53–65, this message unpacks five things Jesus reveals about His identity in that moment — that He is sinless, willing, silent when falsely accused, unashamed to declare who He truly is, and willing to suffer for us. Each of these becomes a mirror: if Jesus is sinless, we're confronted with our own sin. If He was willing to lay down His life, we're invited to respond with repentance and surrender.

From there, the message turns to a question every person eventually has to answer: Who are you? Not what you do, not how you feel, not what culture tells you to believe about yourself — but who you actually are. It challenges the idea that identity is something we feel our way into, and instead points to a steadier foundation: we are sinners in need of a Savior, called to confess, repent, and live as people who exist to glorify God.

Along the way, the message doesn't shy away from real, present-day tension — touching on cultural conversations around identity, sexuality, and the value of life, as well as the church's role in civic engagement during election season. It closes with a direct, personal invitation: to stop defining yourself by feelings, failures, or labels, and to find your identity in who Jesus says you are.

You'll walk away with a clearer answer to one question: if Jesus knew exactly who He was — even while being falsely accused, mocked, and condemned — what would it look like for you to know exactly who you are?

What does it actually cost to follow Jesus? In this message from Luke 14:26–33, Wesley walks through Jesus' own words to the crowds who followed Him — words that demand a radical reordering of priorities. Drawing from personal stories about basketball, marriage, and an unfinished home renovation project, Wesley breaks down three characteristics of a devoted follower of Jesus: they love Jesus above everything else, they count the cost before they commit, and they surrender everything — not just the easy parts — to Him. The message closes with Peter's invitation in Acts 2, calling listeners to respond not out of guilt, but out of a genuine, cut-to-the-heart recognition of who Jesus is. Whether you've followed Jesus for years or you're hearing this for the first time, this is an invitation to ask: is my faith right now driven by convenience, or by conviction?

A missionary serving in Benin, West Africa shares an on-fire update on what God is doing on the mission field — from 16 to 23 church plants in a matter of months, whole families coming to Christ, baptisms in a backyard swimming pool, and believers paying a real cost to follow Jesus. Drawing from Psalm 136, he unpacks five reasons we give God thanks: He is good, He is Lord, He is our Creator, He is our Redeemer, and His mercy endures forever — illustrated through the parable of the prodigal son (better named "the parable of the good father"). A challenging, personal call to wake up from comfort, make disciples, and remember that the same Great Commission given overseas has been given to us right here at home.