Redemption Community Church

What if Jesus isn’t offering you a better route through the #RatRace, but a completely different road?

In the final week of our series Rat Race: I Want It All, Pastor Cory walks through Matthew 6:19–34, where Jesus takes the whole wheel apart piece by piece in about sixteen verses. We are the most well-directed people who have ever lived, and somehow we’re still lost. Every app will tell you how to get somewhere. Not one of them will ask you if you should be going there.

Jesus names the three parts of the machine that keep us running, and then He shows us the exit.

✅ Treasure: What you chase ends up holding your heart. Jesus didn’t say your treasure follows your heart; He said your heart follows your treasure. Move your treasure, and your heart will follow.

✅ Masters: Something will be in the driver’s seat. Whoever wins the argument when God and your fear disagree is the one driving. You don’t have a resource problem; you have a master problem.

✅ Worry: Anxiety is the fuel that keeps the wheel spinning. Most of us don’t run because we’re greedy. We run because we’re scared.

✅ The Exit: “Seek first the Kingdom.” Jesus doesn’t tell you to stop running. He tells you to change what you’re running after.

✅ The Father Who Already Knows: A rat runs because it thinks no one is coming. A child rests because they know their Father already has it handled.

Jesus doesn’t help you win the race. He breaks the wheel and walks you to a different path. #BreakTheWheel #SeekFirstTheKingdom

📖 Scripture: Matthew 6:19–34 | Romans 8:32 | Colossians 3:5

🏠 ABOUT REDEMPTION

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

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What if the thing you keep reaching for is the very thing that’s slowly hurting you? 🐀

Rat poison doesn’t work fast. It works slow, so the rat never connects the sickness to the bait it loves. And saltwater looks like exactly what a thirsty sailor needs, but every drink only makes the thirst worse. In week three of Rat Race: I Want It All, Pastor Cory Ball walks through Luke 12 and Jesus’ parable of the fool to expose what greed really does to us once it has a hold on us, and where to find the only water that actually satisfies.

In this message:

✅ Why “more” never quenches the thirst; it creates it

✅ The three things greed does: it divides, it isolates, and it kills

✅ Why success is not the sin, but forgetting God in it is

✅ What the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea teach us about a life that flows vs. a life that hoards

✅ How Jesus offers living water that becomes a spring inside you

“You can fill the barns and still lose your soul.”

🏠 ABOUT REDEMPTION

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

#RatRace #RedemptionChurch #KirkwoodMO #StLouisChurch #Greed #LivingWater #Luke12 #Sermon #Jesus #Faith #RedemptionChurch #KirkwoodMO #StLouisChurch #LivingWater #Jesus #Faith #ChurchFamily #Sermon

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Nobody signs up for a rat race. So how did we end up in one?

In week two of #RatRace, Pastor Cory opens 1 Timothy 6:6-10 and shows how the trap actually works: the bait, the snap, and the grip. No mouse has ever walked up to a mousetrap and seen a trap. It sees dinner. And most of what catches us never looked dangerous. It looked like something we'd earned.

If you're tired, still stuck, and can't figure out why, this message is for you. Real #contentment isn't a personality type. It's something you can learn, and it starts with an open hand.

Bottom line: Whatever you can't let go of already has a hold on you.

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:6-10, 17-19 | Philippians 4:11-13 | Hebrews 13:5 | Matthew 4:8-10 | Isaiah 53:5 | 2 Corinthians 8:9

🏠 ABOUT REDEMPTION

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

#RatRace #RedemptionKirkwood #TheTrap #Contentment #OpenHands #LetGo #1Timothy6 #GodlinessWithContentment #SermonSeries #SundaySermon #ChurchOnline #FaithOverFear #JesusFollower #BibleTeaching #ChristianLiving #KirkwoodMO #STLChurch #StLouisChurch #StLouisMO #STL

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"If you do get the cheese… you're still the rat."

Long week. Full calendar. Running hard. A lot of us are on a wheel we don't know how to get off: chasing the next raise, the next upgrade, the next thing that's finally supposed to feel like enough. In Week 1 of our new series #RatRace, Pastor Cory opens Ecclesiastes 5, where the richest man of his day says plainly what the wheel never tells you.

✅ The cheese never satisfies. Enough keeps moving. That's the #HedonicTreadmill.

✅ The cheese never sleeps. What keeps you up at 2 a.m. often shows what has your heart.

✅ The cheese never stays. You came in with nothing, and everything in between is on loan.

✅ You were never meant to be a rat. In the kingdom of God, you're a son or daughter of the King, invited to His table.

Whether you're a student chasing the GPA, a parent trying to give your kids everything, or someone watching the number in the nest egg, this one's for you. Different wheels. Same race. And Jesus offers a way off. #Ecclesiastes #Contentment #Jesus

📖 Scripture: Ecclesiastes 5:10–16 (NIV)

📅 Rat Race runs every Sunday in October. Next week: The Trap.

🏠 ABOUT REDEMPTION

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

#RedemptionKirkwood #Ecclesiastes #Contentment #HedonicTreadmill #Jesus #KirkwoodMO #StLouisChurch

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What if the most courageous thing you ever do looks like just another ordinary Tuesday?

In the final week of our Backbone series, Pastor Cory takes us into Daniel 6, the most famous chapter in the book of Daniel. It turns out the lions' den isn't a story about a new act of heroism. It's about an old man, in his 80s, who refused to change his habits, even when those habits could cost him his life.

When the law was signed, Daniel went home and prayed "as usual," windows open, just as he had always done. He didn't know how the story would end. He stayed faithful anyway.

In this message, we explore:

🔥 Why your habits shape who you become

🦁 How Daniel's enemies built a trap around his predictable faith

🍳 What a cast iron skillet teaches us about seasoned, everyday faith

🙏 Why faithfulness is the point, and rescue is grace on top of it

📖 The habit you may have let slide, and how to pick it back up

Habits are what you do when no one's watching. Backbone is what shows up when everyone is.

🏠 ABOUT REDEMPTION

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

#Backbone #Daniel6 #LionsDen #UsualOrdinaryFaith #Faith #Prayer #SpiritualHabits #ChristianLiving #Sermon #BibleTeaching #StLouisChurch #KirkwoodMO #RedemptionCommunityChurch

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Belshazzar had a front-row seat to his predecessor's downfall — pride, arrogance, judgment — and reached for the same sin anyway. He wasn't ignorant. He knew all this.

In this message from Daniel 5, Pastor Cory Ball unpacks the story of the writing on the wall (Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin) and asks a harder question than "do we know better?" — it's "will we still reach for it anyway?" We'll look at what real backbone costs, why Daniel refused the king's reward before he'd even spoken, and why the sin that ends you rarely shows up looking new.

🏠 ABOUT REDEMPTION

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

#Backbone #Daniel5 #WritingOnTheWall #SameSinDifferentDecade #Integrity #Courage #RedemptionCommunityChurch #KirkwoodMO #StLouisChurch #SundaySermon #BibleTeaching #ChristianYouTube #FaithOverFear #MeneMeneTekelParsin #GenerationalSin #WalkTheTalk

#Backbone #Daniel5 #SameSinDifferentDecade #Integrity #Courage #KirkwoodMO #RedemptionCC #WritingOnTheWall #SundayService #ChristianContent #FaithCommunity

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Daniel and his friends had already stood firm three times — over food, over prayer, over a fiery furnace. But this week, backbone means something different: telling the truth to the one person who could end his life with a single word.

In this message from Daniel 4, we watch Daniel deliver hard news to King Nebuchadnezzar — and we ask a harder question of ourselves: who's the person in YOUR life you've been avoiding an honest conversation with? Your kid? Your boss? Your parent? Your spouse?

We talk about the difference between cowardice disguised as wisdom, love that avoids conflict, and the kind of truth-telling that's actually generous — a "velvet hammer" that's soft in delivery but unmistakably firm in content.

Because the truth that costs you something now might be the very thing that saves someone you love later.

🎬 A new movie on Daniel releases in theaters September 18th — more info on our group outing coming soon!

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

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A 90-foot gold statue. A command to bow. And three men who won't.

Weeks one and two of Backbone: A Study in Daniel both ended well — nobody lost their life, everybody went home safe. This week, that pattern breaks. King Nebuchadnezzar orders his entire empire to bow to a golden statue of himself or be thrown into a blazing furnace. And this time, there's no guarantee it ends okay.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego refuse — not because they know how it'll end, but because they've decided who they answer to. Their answer to the king contains five words that may be the theological center of the whole book of Daniel: "but even if He doesn't."

In this message, Pastor Cory unpacks:

✅ Why real backbone is tested by uncertainty, not by guaranteed outcomes

✅ How to hold conviction without losing Christlikeness

✅ Why the miracle in the furnace isn't rescue — it's presence

✅ What your kids actually inherit from you (hint: it's not your convictions)

Backbone doesn't need a guaranteed rescue.

📖 Scripture: Daniel 3:1-25, Proverbs 15:24, Romans 8:38-39

🎬 A new movie on Daniel releases in theaters September 18th — more info on our group outing coming soon!

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

#BowOrBurn #Backbone #StudyInDaniel #RedemptionChurch #RedemptionKirkwood #KirkwoodMO #StLouisChurch #DanielBibleStudy #SundaySermon #EvenIfHeDoesnt #Faith #ChristianContent #BibleTeaching #ExpositoryPreaching #ChurchOfStLouis

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A king loses his mind. An empire starts executing its smartest people. And Daniel — who had nothing to do with any of it — has a death squad walking toward his door.

This week in our series Backbone: A Study in Daniel, we watch the same quiet resolve that said no to a plate of royal food in chapter 1 get tested under something far heavier: a national panic with zero margin for error. Nebuchadnezzar demands his advisors tell him a dream he refuses to describe — and when they can't, he orders every wise man in Babylon put to death. Daniel included.

But instead of panicking, Daniel does something nobody in his position would dare do. He asks for time. Then he goes home, gathers his friends, and prays.

In this message, Pastor Cory unpacks:

✅ Why our culture treats calm like apathy and panic like proof you care

✅ Why "let me pray about it first" is one of the most backboned sentences available to you

✅ What it means that backbone is downstream of dependence, not self-confidence

✅ How to lead — as a parent, manager, or friend — without faking an answer you don't have yet

Prayer isn't our last resort, it's our first response.

📖 Scripture: Daniel 2:1-28, Proverbs 15:24, Romans 8:38-39

🎬 A new movie on Daniel releases in theaters September 18th — more info on our group outing coming soon!

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

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A wishbone hopes something will change. A backbone decides something will not change you.

We're kicking off a brand new 6-week series through the book of Daniel called Backbone. This week we meet a teenager dragged into exile with no power, no home, and no say in his future — and we watch him make one quiet decision that changes everything.

Daniel 1 isn't a story about lions or fire. It's a story about royal food — a compromise so normal, so tasty, so socially acceptable that refusing it would've made Daniel "the difficult one." And that's exactly why it's dangerous.

In this message, Pastor Cory unpacks:

✅ Why God handing Judah over to Babylon was discipline, not defeat

✅ What it means that even Nebuchadnezzar was called "my servant" of God

✅ Why Daniel and his friends were renamed — and why it mattered

✅ How backbone is built in a hundred small, unseen choices long before the "lions' den" ever shows up

Never let a wishbone grow where a backbone should.

📖 Scripture: Daniel 1:1-17, Jeremiah 29:11, Revelation 2:17, Romans 8:38-39

🎬 A new movie on Daniel releases in theaters September 18th — more info on our group outing coming soon!

Redemption Church is a community in Kirkwood, MO, helping people meet, know, and live for Jesus. We'd love to have you join us in person or online.

🌐 Website: redemptionstl.com

📍 820 Lockett Rd. Kirkwood, MO 63122

📱 Follow us: @redemptionstl

💛 Give: redemptionstl.com/give

💬 Questions about faith? Reply in the comments — we'd love to talk.

👉New here? We'd love to connect with you — visit redemptionstl.com to plan your visit or find a small group.

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