Job's story is your story. That's the honest starting point of this message — not a tidy lesson about suffering, but an acknowledgment that the losses are real, the grief is real, and faith doesn't make them disappear.
In this installment of the Enlarging Our Souls series, guest speaker Jim Jacobs opens the book of Job — not at the end, where God restores everything, but at the beginning and middle, where Job is blameless and still broken. His wife's advice in Job 2 is as bleak as it gets: Curse God and die. Job's lament in chapter 3 doesn't sound like a man who's got it figured out. And yet — somehow — his story ends in Job 42 with restoration, abundance, and a life that is fuller than before.

Grief doesn't have to shrink us. Held honestly in faith, it can enlarge our souls.

If you've ever done all the right things — achieved what you were supposed to achieve, built the relationships you were supposed to build — and still felt something missing, this message is for you.

In "The Great Rescue," Elliott opens with an honest look at why we keep trying to save ourselves, even when it's clearly not working. Whether self-reliance has hardened us into "I'll figure it out" or fear has left us wondering "what if I'm not enough," we're all doing the same thing: looking for rescue in the wrong places.

Drawn primarily from 1 John 4:9-10, this Easter Sunday message centers on what God wants for us — not just from us. The answer unfolds in four movements: knowing God, finding freedom, discovering purpose, and making a difference. Jesus didn't stay dead. The resurrection isn't a metaphor — it's a miracle, and it changes everything. Sin has been defeated. The relationship it broke has been restored. And the burden you've been carrying? You were never meant to carry it alone.

"The position of Savior is taken." That phrase, hanging on a wall in Elliott's office, gets to the heart of it. You don't have to save yourself anymore. You never could. Augustine named it centuries ago: our hearts are restless until they rest in God. This message is for everyone still running from that restlessness — and ready to stop.

In Journeying Through the Wall, we come face-to-face with one of the most defining moments in the journey of spiritual and emotional maturity: the wall.

At some point in life, every person encounters circumstances that cannot be fixed, controlled, or avoided. These moments may come in the form of burnout, loss, relational breakdown, health struggles, or deep disappointment. Whatever form it takes, the wall forces us to confront our limits and exposes our inability to move forward in our own strength.

This message draws from the powerful and unsettling story of Abraham in Genesis 22, where God asks him to surrender the very promise he had waited decades to receive. Abraham’s journey reveals that the wall is not something to be conquered through effort or strategy—it is something we must surrender our way through. His obedience was rooted not in understanding, but in deep trust in God’s character and faithfulness.

The wall strips away illusions of control and invites us into a deeper relationship with God—one marked by honesty, dependence, and surrender. It is often in these moments that God does His deepest work in us, shaping our faith in ways that comfort and success never could.

This message also reminds us that we are not alone in facing the wall. Jesus Himself walked this path. From His prayer of surrender in the garden to His suffering on the cross, He fully entered into the depth of human pain and trust in God. Because He went through the wall—and came out the other side—we have hope that our walls are not the end, but a doorway into deeper life with Him.

Journeying Through the Wall invites us to stop striving, start surrendering, and trust that even here—especially here—God is at work.

In Love Without End, we turn our attention to one of the most challenging and meaningful places our faith is lived out: the home.

Family relationships have a unique way of exposing what is really going on beneath the surface. It’s easy to be patient, kind, and gracious in public, but at home—where expectations are high and energy is low—our true spiritual condition is revealed. This message reminds us that a transformed home does not begin with behavior modification but with heart transformation through the gospel.

Drawing from Colossians 3:20–21, this sermon explores God’s design for both children and parents. Children are called to obey in a way that honors the Lord, while parents are called to lead with love, avoiding patterns that discourage or embitter. These instructions are not isolated rules but the natural outflow of a life changed by Jesus.

At the heart of this message is the example of Christ Himself. Jesus perfectly embodies both truth and grace—showing us how to hold together discipline and mercy, authority and love. When we follow His lead, our homes begin to reflect something different: not perfection, but transformation.

This message offers practical, accessible steps for both parents and children, encouraging each person to take one step toward growth. It also emphasizes the importance of repentance, grace, and consistency in building a healthy family culture.

Ultimately, Love Without End points us to the unchanging love of God—a love that does not waver when we fail. As we receive that love, we learn to extend it to one another, creating homes where grace is practiced, forgiveness is normal, and growth is possible.

Because when hearts are transformed by Jesus, homes are transformed as well—and that kind of love truly has no end.

In Going Back in Order to Go Forward, we confront a difficult but necessary truth: many of the struggles we face today are rooted in messages we learned long ago.

Every one of us carries beliefs formed in our family of origin—messages about performance, love, conflict, emotions, money, and identity. Some of those messages are healthy and life-giving. Others quietly shape our lives in damaging ways. When these messages remain hidden beneath the surface, they influence our relationships, our faith, and even the way we see ourselves.

This message turns to the story of Joseph in Genesis, a man who experienced betrayal, abandonment, slavery, false accusation, and imprisonment at the hands of his own family. Yet through every hardship, Scripture repeatedly reminds us that God was with him. Instead of allowing his pain to define him or fuel revenge, Joseph allowed God to transform his suffering. When the moment came to confront the brothers who had betrayed him, Joseph chose forgiveness and broke the cycle of generational pain.

Joseph’s story shows us that healing requires honesty. We must be willing to acknowledge the wounds we carry, grieve the losses we’ve experienced, and invite God into the places we have tried to hide.

This message introduces practical steps for that journey, including the importance of trusted relationships and the “Triangle of Authenticity”—being honest with everyone, transparent with some, and vulnerable with a few. True healing happens when our stories are brought into the light in safe and healthy relationships.

Going back can be painful, but it is often the only way to move forward. The good news of the Gospel is that God’s power to redeem is greater than anything that has happened to us. In Christ, our family history is not our destiny. God can transform our pain, restore what was broken, and use our story for good.

In Know Yourself That You May Know God, we explore one of the most important and difficult truths of the spiritual life: we cannot truly know God while hiding behind a false version of ourselves.

Many of us spend our lives wearing “armor” that doesn’t fit. We carry expectations from our families, the pressure to impress others, and the desire to gain approval or avoid criticism. On the surface, everything may appear strong and successful, but beneath the surface we are exhausted, anxious, and unsure of who we really are.

Turning to the story of David and Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, this message highlights a pivotal moment when David refuses to wear King Saul’s armor. Instead of becoming a copy of someone else, David steps forward as the person God created him to be. His courage doesn’t come from confidence in himself but from trust in the living God who had prepared him for that moment.

David’s story reminds us that God isn’t looking for another Saul, another David, or another version of someone we admire. He is calling each of us to step into the life He uniquely designed for us.

This message invites us to name the armor we’re wearing, ask honest questions about whose approval we are seeking, and begin the process of living authentically before God and others. When we remove the armor that doesn’t belong to us, we begin to discover the freedom of becoming the person God created us to be—and that is where a deeper relationship with God begins.

Most Christians spend their lives managing the 10% that everyone can see—while ignoring the 90% beneath the surface. In The Problem of Emotionally Unhealthy Spirituality, we begin an eight-week journey into the deeper work of emotional and spiritual maturity.

This sermon opens with a personal story of vulnerability and transformation and leads us into the life of King Saul (1 Samuel 15), a man who was chosen, gifted, and anointed by God—but ultimately undone by fear, pride, and a false self. Saul obeyed partially, blamed others, and cared more about how he appeared than who he was becoming. His story forces us to ask an uncomfortable but necessary question: Am I participating in God’s work—or just pretending?

Drawing from Scripture and the framework of emotionally healthy spirituality, this message exposes the signs of emotional and spiritual unhealth that often hide behind religious activity. It calls us to stop doing for God without being with Him, to confront the “mini-Saul” within us, and to begin the healing work that leads to real transformation.

This is not a quick fix. It’s an invitation—to honesty, humility, and a deeper walk with Jesus. God is far more concerned with who we are becoming than what we are producing, because we cannot sustain what He has called us to do without becoming the people He has called us to be.

This message marks the beginning of an eight-week journey toward emotional health, spiritual maturity, and lasting freedom in Christ.

Charlie Jones sermon on Colossians 1

Ephesians 3

In this message, we confront the subtle entitlement that can creep into our faith when life is hard and obedience feels costly. Walking through Ephesians 2:1–10, we’re brought face to face with the truth of our starting point: we were dead in our sins, deserving not reward, but judgment. And yet, because of His great love and rich mercy, God made us alive in Christ.

This sermon reframes how we see grace, humility, and good works. We are not saved by our faithfulness or effort, but by grace alone—through faith—and we are saved for good works that flow from a resurrected life. When we truly understand what we deserved and what God has given us instead, entitlement dies, gratitude grows, and obedience becomes a joyful response rather than a burden.

From Death to Life calls us individually and as a church to live like resurrected people—humbly, gratefully, and fully alive in Christ—boasting in nothing but the grace of God that makes dead people live.