Southstone Church

Freedom in Christ was never meant to be a license to do whatever we want. It was always meant to free us to love the way Jesus loves. In this message from Galatians 5 and 6, we explore what the gospel actually sets us free for, serving one another humbly, carrying each other’s burdens, and loving our neighbors the way Christ loved us. Loving like Jesus is not just hard, it is impossible on our own, which is exactly why we need to walk by the Spirit and stay in step with Him. The fruit of the Spirit is the evidence that the gospel is working in us, and the world will know we are His disciples by the way we love one another.

No matter where you’ve been or what you’ve done, you will never out-sin the blood of Jesus. In this message, Pastor Larry Smith shares from decades of walking with God about what it means to truly live in Christ alone, how the Holy Spirit grows us from the inside out, and why grace is the only explanation any of us have for being where we are. Like the thief on the cross who had nothing to offer but a simple plea, the man on the middle cross says you can come. Just keep praying, stay sensitive to the Spirit, and trust the One who already did it all.

The Galatians didn’t drift all at once. They started in grace, then slowly drifted back to performance, trying to finish in the flesh what the Spirit had already begun. In this message, we dig into Galatians 2 and 3 and discover that the antidote to drift is staying anchored in God’s Word, because it reveals who He is, keeps us grounded in truth when everything around us is shifting, and teaches us how to actually live in the freedom Jesus purchased. You can’t recognize a counterfeit if you’re not familiar with what’s authentic, and you can’t live in grace while constantly trying to earn what Christ already gave you. Don’t just read the Bible to finish a chapter. Read it to know the God who can change your life.

The natural tendency of the human heart is to drift, and the churches in Galatia drifted fast, trading the pure gospel of grace for a "Jesus plus" version that added rules, rituals, and human approval to what Christ already completed. In this first message of our Galatians series, we dig into the opening chapter and Paul's astonishment that people were so quickly deserting the One who called them by grace. The gospel is not a starting point we graduate from, it is the whole thing, and we are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. A servant of Christ cannot make pleasing people the highest priority.

If life is all about you, it will never make sense, and even people who get everything the world promises still find themselves asking if this is really all there is. In this final message of the Winning series, we go back to the beginning of creation to discover the four purposes we were made for: to know God and be with Him, to produce and work with the gifts He gave us, to live in relationship with others, and to carry out the ministry of reconciliation as Christ's ambassadors. Sin brought shame and hiding, but Jesus made a way for us to step back into the fullness of why we were created. Your purpose is not out there waiting to be discovered, it is already written into how God made you.

The Bible talks about money more than almost any other topic because what we do with our finances reveals where our heart truly is. In this message, we dig into what God's Word actually says about winning in your finances, covering five practical principles: work hard, steward what you have, remember none of it is yours, tithe to keep money off the throne of your heart, and live generously to expand your world and impact. Money is not immoral or moral on its own, it all depends on whose hands it is in and whether it stays in your hands or gets into your heart. The world of the generous gets larger and larger, and God's way with finances is the only way that actually wins.

On the night before He was betrayed, Jesus used His final moments to pray for one thing above all else: that we would be one. In this message, we get practical about what it actually looks like to win in your relationships, because the quality of your life is determined by the quality of your relationships and we were created from relationships and for relationships. We cover three things to stop doing: playing the victim, isolating yourself, and giving up on godly friendships, and three things to start doing: being inviting, being friendly, and putting yourself in environments where real friendships can grow. The world will know we are Jesus's disciples by the way we love one another, so let's actually do it.

The average person will spend 90,000 hours at work, and God cares about every single one of them because work is not an interruption to your spiritual life, it is one of the primary places your spiritual life gets lived out. In this message, we explore what it actually looks like to win in your career by looking at the right scoreboard, one that measures faithfulness, integrity, wisdom, and whether the people around you became better because you were there. You can succeed by every worldly measure and still lose at life, which is why how you win matters just as much as whether you win. Pursue wisdom before success, run your own race, work for the right boss, and build people not just profit.

Family is God's idea, and because He created it, He knows exactly how it works best. In this message, we dig into Ephesians 5 and 6 to explore what winning in your family actually looks like, walking through the God-given roles of husbands, wives, kids, and even grandparents and what it looks like to fulfill each one well. It all starts with surrender, because when everyone in the family is submitted to Christ first, every other role becomes possible. You cannot win as a family on your own strength, but with humility, surrender, and confidence in what God has started, He will carry it to completion.

The battle for your life begins in your thoughts, and if you never address what is happening in your mind, you can receive Christ and still fall back into the same old patterns wondering why nothing changed. In this message, we dig into Romans 12 and what it actually looks like to renew your mind, exposing the two ways the enemy fights us through subconscious negative self-talk and the specific lies we have believed about ourselves. The answer is not positive thinking, it is speaking God's Word over every lying thought until your self-talk begins to echo what He says about you. Stay in the battle, take every thought captive, and the God of peace will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus.