Refuge City Church

Hope for the Hopeless

Matthew Thrower

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Feeling fine on the outside but hopeless underneath? You’re not alone and Acts 27 meets you right there. When Paul warned against setting sail and the majority ignored him, a violent storm stripped away every visible reason for hope. In this message, Matthew shows how God has not lost His word even when the sun and stars disappear and all hope is abandoned. He walks through why the majority cannot make wrong right, how to take heart when circumstances scream otherwise, and what the next faithful step looks like while the ship is still breaking. True hope is not the absence of storms but belonging to the God who keeps every promise, just as He did for Paul. If hope feels thrown overboard in your own life, this sermon points you to the Jesus who conquered the darkest storm so you can take heart today.

Can We Move On?

Matthew Thrower

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Have you ever felt stuck in a season that just won’t end and quietly prayed, “Lord, can we move on?” In Acts 26, Paul stands in chains before King Agrippa and Governor Festus after years in custody, yet he still considers himself fortunate and refuses to waste the room in front of him. In this message by Matthew, we watch Paul retell his conversion, receive a mission that circumstances cannot cancel, and long for his hearers to have everything he has in Christ—except the chains. The sermon invites us to stop treating the people around us as obstacles and start wanting for them the same grace we have received.

God is Still at Work

Matthew Thrower

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When we left Paul at the end of Acts 24, he had spent two years in custody—and Felix left him there as a political favor. We can read past those two years in a few seconds. Paul had to live every day of them. Maybe you’ve asked the same question: Why am I still here? In this situation. In this pain. In this waiting. Acts 25 doesn’t ignore the question. It answers it.

In this message by Matthew, we watch a new governor arrive, an old conspiracy reappear, and an unjust courtroom force Paul to make a decision that will shape the rest of his ministry. Festus thinks he’s making a political call. The religious leaders think they’re running a plot. But Jesus had already spoken: “You must also testify in Rome” (Acts 23:11). The destination was already set. No governor, no ambush, and no delay could cancel it.

If you’ve been waiting for your circumstances to improve before you obey, or if you’ve wondered whether God is still working when nothing seems to be moving, this message is for you. The question shifts from “Why am I still here?” to “How can I bear witness here?”

The Damning Danger or Spiritual Procrastination

Matthew Thrower

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In a world where procrastination touches nearly every area of life, from taxes to health, the greatest danger lies in delaying a response to God. Felix, the Roman governor in Acts 24, knew about the Christian faith yet repeatedly put off a decision, hoping for a more convenient time.

In this message, Pastor Matthew reveals how spiritual procrastination hardens the heart and turns “not yet” into “never,” drawing from Paul’s bold preaching on righteousness, self-control, and the coming judgment. He shows that conviction alone is not conversion and that knowing the gospel is not the same as trusting the Savior. This message urges listeners that today is the day of salvation. Don’t let another opportunity pass! Watch now and respond to Christ’s call before the window closes.

Who is the Hero of Your Story?

Matthew Thrower

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If you had a chance to speak to people who hated you, what would you say? In Acts 22, Paul gets that chance on the steps of the barracks in Jerusalem, and he does not attack, defend his reputation, or retell their version of the story. He tells them how Jesus found him.

In the message, Pastor Matthew walks through Paul’s testimony and shows why the hero of the story is not Paul, but Christ. Paul establishes common ground with the crowd, then tells how mercy stopped him mid-persecution on the road to Damascus, confronted him, saved him, and sent him. The applause ends the moment grace crosses their boundary and reaches the Gentiles. Paul is increasingly confined, yet the gospel keeps advancing, because Christian freedom is not the absence of chains but a life that belongs to Jesus.

This sermon asks a simple question: who is the hero of your story? Christ confronts, Christ saves, and Christ sends, and the same grace that stopped Saul is still reaching people the world has already written off.

What if obedience to Jesus cost you something?

Matthew Thrower

Most of us want to know God’s will, but we would also like to review the consequences before we agree to it. Acts 21 follows Paul toward Jerusalem, where warnings, tears, rumors, and chains surround the path God has marked for him. In this message by Pastor Matthew, we confront a question deeper than whether we know what God wants: have we made comfort, approval, or control a condition of obedience? Faithfulness to Jesus means surrendering control of what obedience will cost, not because pain is good, but because Jesus is Lord. This sermon from Acts 21 will challenge you to stop renaming retreat as discernment and to take the next costly, ordinary step of obedience today. Will you trust Him with the yes you have been withholding?

Physically Present. Spiritually Asleep.

Matthew Thrower

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You can show up wide awake, coffee in hand, and still be spiritually asleep. In Acts 20 a young man named Eutychus sits in a third-story window while Paul preaches past midnight, falls, and is taken up dead. This text is not a strange accident. It is a warning about what happens when a soul, a church, or a family checks out in the room where God is speaking. Paul then charges the elders to declare the whole counsel of God, stay alert for wolves, and give more than they take. The mercy underneath every warning is this: the God who keeps you neither slumbers nor sleeps, and He is still calling you to wake up.

When Jesus' Name is on the Loose

Matthew Throwe

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This chapter is not really about ancient magic or an ancient riot, though it has both. It is about what happens when the actual name of the Lord Jesus gets loose in a city and starts rearranging everything that city assumed was solid.

Watch the Name move through Acts 19: people are baptized into it, miracles happen in it, frauds try to weaponize it, and it finally threatens an entire industry. His name is not a tool you use to get what you want. Jesus is the Lord you submit to, and it will always cost something.

Faithfulness Where You Are (Acts 18)

Matthew Thrower

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Corinth was not the obvious place to build a gospel movement. It was crowded, influential, morally confused, spiritually resistant, and full of pressure. Yet Paul did not retreat. He stayed, worked, preached, partnered with others, and kept speaking the truth—even when fear and opposition made silence seem easier. In Acts 18, we see how the risen Christ builds His church through ordinary faithfulness in difficult places. Paul finds coworkers in Priscilla and Aquila, receives encouragement from the Lord in the middle of fear, leaves ministry partners behind for the sake of future gospel work, and watches Apollos become more effective through humble, personal correction.

This message asks us some searching questions:

• Will we remain faithful where God has placed us, even when it is hard?

• Are we trying to live the Christian life alone? • Are we humble enough to receive correction from people who love us?

• Are we willing to correct others with truth, grace, and relationship rather than public shame?

• Will we keep speaking about Jesus when fear tells us to be quiet?

Jesus’ word to Paul is still a word the church needs today: “Do not be afraid, but go on speaking and do not be silent, for I am with you” (Acts 18:9–10). The gospel rarely advances through one dramatic moment. More often, it advances through believers who keep showing up—opening their homes, doing their work, discipling others, speaking truth, receiving correction, and refusing to quit.

Scripture: Acts 18

Series: Acts

Speaker: Pastor Matthew Thrower

God Made Known

Matthew Thrower

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Most people say they are spiritual. Far fewer go to church. That gap describes our culture, and it described Athens too.

Paul preached the same gospel in three cities and got three different responses. In Thessalonica, jealousy started a riot. In Berea, people examined the Scriptures every day and believed. In Athens, the intellectual capital of the ancient world was packed with idols and an altar “to the unknown god.”

Paul did not start with condemnation. He started with their own altar. Then he named the God they were reaching for in the dark: the Creator who made the world, gives life and breath to all, and now commands everyone everywhere to repent. Why? Because He has fixed a day when He will judge the world through the Man He raised from the dead.

The resurrection still splits the room. Some mock. Some say they will hear it again later. Some believe.

The Unknown God is unknown no longer. He has a name. He has a face. He has an empty tomb. The only question left is whether He will stay unknown to you.