This is the second sermon in our series that is bringing the gospel to trauma. In the first sermon, we received the gift of lament. In this second sermon, we see more clearly what a traumatic experience is like, but even more, we are given the second gift of God: the gift of new perspective.

No longer able to be a distant, even cold, observer, the male voice asks the great question of our sermon series on gospel and trauma, 'What can I say for you?' The response we get is the first of God's healing gifts to the hurting: the gift of lament.

The writer to the Hebrews does not speak of a Christian "walk." He rather envisions the life of faith as an endurance run. This sermon unpacks both the "what" of endurance running and the "how." Listen in.

This is a farewell sermon from Pastor David Salinas, preached on his last Sunday at Sure Foundation.

Everyone is laughing in this part of Genesis. Granted, they are not always laughing for the right reasons, but at least they are laughing. Through this Word, the Spirit cuts through the heaviness of life to fill us with the laughter that only God can give.

In a letter to his son, author J.R.R. Tolkien coined a term that in his mind described what makes a story great - eucatastrophe! A good catastrophe. He defined his word as a happy turn in a story that brings one to tears of joy. Tolkien compared the euphoria of eucatastrophe to the joyous relief of an out-of-joint limb suddenly snapped back into place. Join me to experience the euphoria of the eucatastrophes God is causing in our stories!

We all know that pride comes before the fall. The Bible gives clear teaching on the topic of pride. In this sermon, Pastor Tim takes us deeper into both the destructive nature of pride and also its cure.

We all have them and they come in different shapes and sizes – decisions, decisions. These forks in the road where our narrative turns are some of the scariest places to be. Thank God for Esther 4. It was inspired for such a time as this. This chapter was breathed out by the Spirit to minister to our fears in the defining moments of our lives! Listen in and be the hero of faith in the callings in life in which the Lord has positioned you for his saving purposes!

Esther is not just the strangest book in the Bible, it's one of the most cringe-worthy. As we see her entered into King Xerxes' beauty contest, one thing is clear: she's not there because she has to be but because she wants to be. Esther plays to win, doing whatever it takes. She and Mordecai have not so much been victimized by the unbelieving society as assimilated by it. Like her, our Christian character is corrupted to a degree by the sinful mores of society, and we fall. For us, for such times as these God has one more lovely shout in the silence of Esther 2. Listen in, and watch God's cheer bring forth beauty from the ashes of guilt.

The book of Esther is in this pastor's opinion the strangest book in Scripture. For being a book of the Bible Esther is strangely devoid of miracles, prophets, plagues, angels, worship, prayers. Most of all, strangely absent is even the mention of the Lord let alone a manifestation of his presence. Yet, it's precisely God's silence in Esther that shouts some of the most comforting, faith-empowering, life-saving cheers we will ever hear. Listen to the first of two cheers from Esther 2 that are even lovelier in form and figure than Esther herself, and prepare to have God bring beauty from the ashes of your tragic circumstances!