Southside Church

Who are the people you've quietly written off? The ones you've stopped praying for, the ones you've filed under "not for me"?

If we're honest, most of us do it without even thinking. We split the world into these people and those people, us and them. In this message Pastor Mike continues our journey through the book of Acts to challenge that instinct head on. People are people. It was a revolutionary thing to say 2000 years ago, and it still is today.

Walking through the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts chapter 10, Pastor Mike shows how God tears down the walls between us and them, then turns the whole thing into an invitation. God's plan has always been to reach people through people, and He places them in your proximity on purpose.

So when someone in your world quietly wonders if God is real, if He sees them, if He loves them, His answer is yes. And His answer is you. Not as an imposition, but as an invitation to step into your purpose and feel fully alive.

On a tombstone, there are two dates. And a dash in between. The dates are fixed. But the dash? That’s your life. And it hangs in the balance.

The moment Jesus saves you, your eternity is looked after. But what happens between now and then is still being written. Pastor Mike draws from the story of Peter and Cornelius in Acts chapter 10 to make a simple but deeply honest case: the quality of your dash comes down to two words.

Yes, Lord.

Not once, not in the big moments only, but step by step, moment by moment, in the small everyday choices where the flesh pulls one way and Jesus invites you another. This one is warm, laugh-out-loud funny in places, and quietly convicting in all the right ways.

The answer to his invitation is either oh no, Lord. Or yes, Lord. There’s nothing in between.

What if the reason you can't hear God isn't that He's gone quiet? What if it's just that life has gotten too loud?
In this message Taylor Adams gets honest about what it's like to run so hard you crash. The packed schedule, the constant noise, the nights you lay your head down and feel anything but peace. If that sounds familiar, this one is for you.
Drawing from Psalm 46 and the story of Elijah, Taylor lands somewhere simple and honest. God rarely shows up in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire. He shows up in the whisper. And we only hear the whisper when we get still enough to listen.
There's no three step plan here. Just an invitation to stop, breathe, and make a little room. Be still and know that He is God.

We are more connected than ever. And lonelier than ever. How does that happen?

In this honest and personal message, Spencer digs into the loneliness epidemic with a real diagnosis. The problem isn't a lack of people around you. It's what's getting in the way of actually knowing them and being known by them. Drawing from Genesis, the words of Jesus, and his own story of sharing the things he planned to take to his grave, Spencer makes the case that two things are quietly killing our friendships: comfort and convenience.

Comfort keeps us in shallow, easy relationships where nobody ever really shows up. Convenience keeps us waiting for connection to find us instead of stepping toward it. And the antidote to both requires something of us.

This one is warm, funny, and genuinely helpful. If you've ever felt alone in a room full of people, it's worth a listen.

Most of us are carrying regrets. Things we did wrong, moments we can't take back, patterns we're not proud of. And the world around us is really good at reminding us of all of it.

But Pastor Mike offers a better question. Not "why did I do that?" but "what's the best I can do today?" It's a simple shift. And it changes everything.

This message walks through Acts chapter 10 and the story of Cornelius, one of the great trailblazers of the early church. Along the way it untangles conviction from condemnation, reframes what it means to fear God, and lands somewhere genuinely warm. He's not angry with you. He's not distant. He's awfully fond of you. And he's calling you into something better than your past.

The best time to do the right thing was 14 years ago. The second best time is right now.

Have you ever felt like the life you read about in scripture is real for everyone except you? That somehow the extraordinary, purposeful life Jesus offers works for other people, but there's something about you that just doesn't quite qualify?

That feeling has a name. And Peter had it too.

This message walks through Luke chapter 5 and the story of Peter being asked to do something exhausting, inconvenient, and logically pointless. Push back out into deep water and drop the nets. And what Peter says in that moment is one of the most powerful phrases in all of scripture.

Because you say so, I will.

Pastor Mike builds this sermon around three simple but deeply difficult steps: meet Jesus, follow Jesus, live like Jesus. And the whole thing hinges on that one phrase. Not when it's easy. Not when it makes sense. Just because he said so.

You can live for pride or you can live with power. But you can't do both. You've got to pick.

Most of us have spent more time waiting for a Barnabas than becoming one. We've wanted someone to believe in us, to stand up for us, to speak life over us when everyone else was saying what we're not. And that longing is real. But this message flips it around.

Pastor Mike walks through Acts chapter 9 and makes the case that Barnabas, the guy most people overlook in the story, might be one of the most impressive people you'll ever meet in eternity. Not because of what he accomplished. Because of who he invested in. Drawing from the Proverbs, the story of a grade five teacher, and a vice principal who changed the course of his life with one sentence, this is a sermon about the kind of power that doesn't come from ego. It comes from giving yourself away.

If you want to feed your ego, live for yourself. If you want to change the world, invest in others.

What do you do when you get everything you thought would fix you, and it doesn't?

In this personal and honest message, Geoff shares the story of growing up with an insatiable need for approval, how that followed him into church, into ministry, into marriage, and how a word from an old theology textbook finally started to loosen its grip. That word is propitiation. It means a covering. And it means that at any moment, you can step out of the striving and stand under something that has already been done for you.

This one goes deep. And it's worth the listen.

Something happens to a lot of people after they've spent time in church. They go from being amazed at God's love to quietly annoyed at his low standards. From "I can't believe Jesus saved me" to "I don't really believe Jesus would save them."

It's not a new problem. It happened in the early church. It happened to Jonah. And if we're honest, it happens to us.

This message follows the story of Saul in Acts chapter 9 and asks a simple but important question: what keeps someone amazed? Pastor Mike draws from scripture, a story about twin brother maggots, and a hero of his own named Uncle Nick to remind us that grace is the whole point. It was never brains and personality. It was always Jesus.

Nothing you could do would make him love you more. Nothing you've done makes him love you less. That's the kind of love worth staying amazed by.

A pioneer is someone who goes first.

In this Father's Day message, we discover how God uses ordinary people to create extraordinary impact through simple acts of faithfulness. Looking at the stories of Stephen, the woman caught in adultery, and the life of Terry Fox, we're reminded that history often changes because one person decides to take the first step.

Most importantly, we see that Jesus is the ultimate Pioneer. He stepped into human history, faced death, conquered it, and made a way for us to experience life, forgiveness, and hope. Because He went first, we can follow His lead.

This message offers three practical ways to live as a pioneer today:

• Say sorry.
• Be kind.
• Tell the truth.

When we take these simple steps, God uses them to shape lives, families, communities, and even generations. You were created on purpose, with a purpose, for a purpose. The question is: where is God calling you to go first?