The Sanctuary Church - Sermon of the Week

Guest speaker Brandin Reed shares his decade-long battle with crippling OCD and the journey toward freedom, woven through stories of his late father's radical conversion out of addiction and his own surprising doors of ministry from Brazil to Denmark to Jamaica. Anchored in 2 Corinthians 12, where God tells Paul "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness," Brandin testifies that the songs and ministry God used were the ones born in his valley, not his victories. The takeaway is an invitation to bring our weaknesses into the light rather than hide them, trusting that the Holy Spirit comes alongside us as comforter and that real, lasting change is rooted in love that bears all things and never fails.

A faith-building message from The Sanctuary Church featuring the personal testimony of Gulshad Ayub, sharing the story of God's work in their life.

Tony LaMouria shares his testimony of being adopted, unwanted as a child, and finding Christ in a small Southern Baptist church, tracing how a "cheap grace" later hardened into self-righteousness as he tried to balance the scales of his good deeds against hidden sin rather than rest in the finished, incorruptible righteousness of Christ. Drawing on Romans 5, Hebrews 12:11, 1 John 1:9, 2 Chronicles 7:14, and Jesus' threefold questioning of Peter on the beach in John 21, he shows that God's discipline isn't a light switched on to shame us but an invitation out of the darkness. The takeaway: when we stop fearing exposure and instead confess, repent, and seek God's face, He breaks us down gently and compassionately, as Jesus restored Peter, leading us into healing, peace, and the freedom of His finished work.

Drawing on the story of Peter in John 21, this message explores how Jesus restores us in the very places we've failed. After his denial, Peter retreats to the familiar comfort of fishing, but the risen Jesus meets him on the shore, recreates the scene of his failure around a charcoal fire, and asks three times "Do you love me?" — once for each denial — inviting Peter into honest love rather than empty bravado. The takeaway: our failures are never final; Jesus meets us where we are, heals our wounds, and recommissions us with the same call to "feed my sheep" and "follow me" — fixing our eyes on our own journey rather than comparing ourselves to others.

Drawing on Mark 6:45-52, where Jesus walks across the storm-tossed lake to His struggling disciples, this Easter message reframes the wind not as the enemy but as the lesson, and reminds us that God does not watch our struggles from a distance, He climbs into the boat with us. The cross is the price paid for our freedom and the resurrection is the proof of payment, so whatever storm or sentence has been weighing on you, the same God who raised Jesus moves into your life and brings you alive in Him. As Romans 8 promises, when the Spirit who raised Christ lives in you, you are set free from a dead life and as alive as Christ is alive.

Palm Sunday marks the beginning of the story, when the crowds cried "Hosanna"—save us—welcoming Jesus into Jerusalem, and into our own lives, as the guide who transforms us. Walking through John 18-19, Pastor traces Jesus' path of surrender, the cost of being abandoned by those closest, radical vulnerability, and ultimately death, showing that Holy Week isn't just a story to remember but a blueprint to live: to become like Jesus, we follow his pattern through every act, including the painful middle. The invitation this week is not to try harder but to let something die—our false self, our masks, our need for control—trusting that love will not leave us in the grave so that something new can rise.

Walking through John 18:1-11, this message follows Jesus into the garden across the Kedron Valley, where He willingly meets His betrayer and arresting mob, declaring "I am" (the divine name from Exodus 3:14) with such authority that hundreds of armed soldiers fall to the ground. We see a Savior fully in control, enduring Judas's intimate betrayal without retaliation and using His power not for self-preservation but to secure His disciples' release. The challenge for us is to cross our own Kedron Valley, letting idols die in the prayer closet so that, by His blood and not our own strength, we can love others through hurt and betrayal just as Christ did.

Drawing on Jesus' high priestly prayer in John 17, where he prays that his followers would be one as he and the Father are one, this message argues that real Christian unity is rooted not in institutional mergers or agreement on secondary doctrines but in the gospel itself. Using the example of natural enemies like Matthew the tax collector and Simon the Zealot, and the early church's sacrificial love during plague, the teaching warns against "othering" those who differ from us and challenges believers to be able to clearly explain the good news. The takeaway: true unity begins at the cross, the gospel is everyone's invitation to belong, and you can't live the mission if you don't know the message, so the question is simply whether you'll say yes to the call.

Drawing on Joshua's call to be "strong and courageous" and the fall of Jericho, Rachel Enos reframes obedience as the doorway to promise: just as the Israelites had to circle the city in silence for seven days and then surrender it back to God, we are often asked to lay down the very things we hold most valuable. Weaving in her own years-long battle with autoimmune illness and a healing she prayed for but did not receive, she invites us to trust that God's promises still hold even when they look different than we imagined. The takeaway is one of perseverance and surrender — your obedience today sets the stage for your inheritance tomorrow, so keep marching, choose to praise, and let God redefine what your life was meant to look like.

In John 16, Jesus prepares his disciples for a stormy season ahead, promising that though he is leaving, he will send the Holy Spirit as their Counselor — the one who convicts the world concerning sin, righteousness, and judgment. Drawing a clear line between conviction (which exposes a problem and lifts us toward grace) and condemnation (which crushes and pulls us into the pit), Pastor reminds us that the same Spirit who empowered Jesus now lives in us, making his peace and presence our own. When life drops its hardest news, slow down and listen to your Savior rather than your emotions: you may be living in the middle of the story, but you can hold on knowing how it ends — Friday gives way to Sunday, and Christ is with us always.