Saddleback Church Weekend Messages

How do we become Good News people in a world filled with bad news? In this message from the Live Sent series, we look at Peter and John’s encounter with a man who had been unable to walk his entire life (Acts 3:1–10) and discover what it looks like to notice the opportunities God puts right in front of us. Living sent doesn’t require going across the world—your mission field is where you live, work, and play. It means seeing everyday opportunities, speaking life-giving words, and stretching out a helping hand to people in need. We don’t have to make sharing our faith weird or treat people like projects; we can build genuine friendships, pray for open doors (Colossians 4:3), and trust God to use every interaction like a seed planted in someone’s life. Jesus has rescued us from darkness and brought us into his kingdom (Colossians 1:13–14), and his love now compels us to live for something bigger than ourselves (2 Corinthians 5:14–15). In a world filled with bad news, God is calling us to become people who bring Good News.

What does it mean to live like you were sent by God? In this message, we kick off the Live Sent series by discovering that God made us for more—not simply a bigger house, a better title, or the next milestone, but a life rooted in Jesus and given to his mission. Jesus announces that the kingdom of God has come near (Mark 1:14–15), and then sends his followers into the world just as the Father sent him (John 20:21). As followers of Jesus, we are Christ’s ambassadors (2 Corinthians 5:17–21), sent with his authority, empowered by the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:8), and entrusted with the Good News that Jesus is alive and is making all things new. Your life matters, and God has a purpose for why you are here. The question is whether you’ll live for your own comfort and agenda or surrender your life to his mission. It starts with a simple but powerful prayer: Use me, God.

What does it look like to actually watch for Jesus, not just believe He's coming back? In this message, guest speaker John Bevere shares how he avoided this subject for decades until an unexpected assignment from God sent him deep into Scripture, and what he found reshaped how he lives. Simeon recognized the Messiah as an infant because he lived in eager expectation (Luke 2:25), and the New Testament calls every believer to that same posture, eagerly waiting for Christ's appearing (1 Corinthians 1:7; Hebrews 9:28). Where our minds are set (Colossians 3:1-2) shapes who we become, and that expectation carries power to purify us (1 John 3:2-3), the way a bride readies herself for her wedding day (Revelation 19:7-8). The ten virgins in Matthew 25 all carried light, but only half were ready when the moment came. You don't have to be caught off guard. Get ready. He's coming, and He's coming soon.

In this third message of Off The Shelf, guest speaker and Pastor David Nasser, teaching pastor at New Vision Baptist Church in Tennessee, calls the church back to the ancient practice of “philoxenia”, or “loving the outsider”. He shares how a single church's hospitality toward his family when he was young became the doorway that led him and his family to faith, proof that this practice carries the weight of the gospel itself. Nasser shows that hospitality is never a suggestion but a divine expectation woven through Scripture. Romans 12 urges believers to pursue hospitality with inventive creativity, 1 Timothy 3 lists it as a mark of spiritual maturity and a requirement for those who lead the church, and 1 Peter 4 commands believers to keep loving one another earnestly and to show hospitality without grumbling, since love covers a multitude of sins. If you've ever wondered whether opening your life to someone different could really matter, this message will show you it's not just possible, it's a divine calling.

Guest speaker Pastor Aaron Graham, founder and lead pastor of The District Church in Washington, D.C., addresses the quiet drift many Christians experience: professional growth paired with spiritual regression. Using the book of Jude, Graham traces this drift through three stages, doubt, deconstruction, and denial, showing how an honest question can spiral into abandoning core truths when left unchecked. He confronts the modern lie that everything must be rational, arguing that a shift in ultimate authority, from God's Word to personal feelings, is what pulls people from Him. He closes with a picture of dormant desert seeds blooming after a single rain, a reminder that revival waits beneath even the driest culture. If you have felt yourself drifting from what you once believed, this message offers seven practices to help you hold fast to what is true.

In this first message of Off The Shelf, Dr. R.T. Kendall addresses a "silent divorce" he's observed in the modern church, the split between churches devoted to sound doctrine and churches devoted to the power of the Spirit. Looking at Acts 3 and the healing of a man crippled from birth, Kendall unpacks six truths about how the Holy Spirit works: his sameness across time, his sovereignty over our timing, his sensitivity to our attitudes and actions, his spontaneity that refuses to be boxed in by legalism, the surprise of his power at work, and the strategy behind why God saves certain miracles for certain moments. This message is a reminder that Word and Spirit were never meant to be separated. If you've ever leaned hard into truth but wondered where the power went, or leaned into power but wondered if you were missing depth, this message will challenge you to pursue both fully.

In this message of Jesus on the Move, Pastors Kurt Johnston and Dawson Rubin explore what it means to be invited into the mission of Jesus. Looking at Mark 3, they unpack three powerful truths: Jesus calls us, crafts us, and commissions us. This message is a reminder that following Jesus was never meant to be passive—every believer is invited to know Him deeply, be shaped by His presence, and carry His love and truth into the world. If you’ve ever wondered what your purpose is or whether God can really use you, this message will encourage you to step out of the stands and into the race He’s called you to run.

Pastor Andy Wood walks through Mark 2–3 to show how Jesus meets us in our brokenness and brings healing, freedom, and restoration. As Jesus confronts empty religion and restores a man with a shriveled hand, we’re reminded that God never intended us to live under the weight of performance or shame. Instead, He invites us into relationship, rest, and a new way of living shaped by His grace. If you’ve ever felt burdened by striving, stuck in brokenness, or in need of God’s healing touch, this message is a powerful reminder that Jesus still restores what feels ruined and calls us to trust Him with every part of our lives. 

What if right now is exactly when God wants to meet you? In this message from Jesus on the Move, Pastor Andy Wood walks through a moment in Mark's gospel where religious leaders question Jesus about fasting, and Jesus answers with three pictures that still apply today: a wedding worth celebrating, a garment too new to patch, and wine too alive for an old skin. Together they show that God is doing something new, something that can't fit inside old systems or borrowed seasons. You'll explore the difference between chronos, the ordinary clock, and kairos, the divine window of opportunity. Like the sons of Issachar, you're invited to read the season you're in instead of rushing past it. Whatever your stage of life, busy parent, single adult, or grandparent, God has a purpose for you right now. The real question isn't whether He's moving. It's whether you'll make space to see it.

What if the very story you've heard a thousand times is the only thing strong enough to hold your life together? Guest speaker Pastor Jason Parrish, who leads The Well near Salt Lake City, reminds us that the gospel isn't an old idea to outgrow, it's the power that never stops working. Through the story of Lazarus, you'll see that God gets the glory in your hardest moments, that sin leaves us spiritually dead apart from Christ, and that the moment you trust Jesus, your standing before Him instantly changes. You don't have to clean yourself up first. Jesus calls you out of the grave just as you are, then patiently does the work of unwrapping and transforming you. Wherever you are today, take your next step: surrender your life to Jesus and find a small group where you can keep growing.