The Summit STL

Psalm 1 opens the whole book of Psalms with a simple picture. There are two ways to live. One leads to a life that’s rooted, fruitful, and steady, like a tree planted by water. The other blows away like chaff. This week we look at what it means to delight in God’s Word, why the voices we listen to shape the people we become, and how Jesus is the truly blessed one who makes a planted life possible for us.

What happens to us shapes us. But the question that keeps us up at 3AM isn’t what’s happening. It’s why. If a good God is in control, why do we suffer? Hebrews 12 doesn’t answer every specific “why,” but it answers the big one. We walk through the picture of a race run with a great cloud of witnesses, eyes fixed on Jesus, and the hard truth that much of our hurt is the loving discipline of a Father. God prunes away the idols we’re sure we can’t live without, and it hurts. But we don’t run alone, and we’re not standing before a mountain of fire and fear. We’ve come to Mount Zion, to a feast, to Jesus whose blood speaks a better word than Abel’s. Everything shakable is going to get shook, so that what can’t be shaken remains.

In Psalm 16, Brennan opens up the Scriptures and his own story. A family that looked perfect from the outside. A divorce that took years and took everything. A season of chasing every cheap joy he could find and coming up empty. And through all of it, a God who never let go. Brennan shows us that every story we try to write for ourselves falls short, but the Lord draws the lines, Christ is the inheritance, and He never abandons His own. In His presence there is fullness of joy.

Do you know about Jesus, or do you actually know Him? In Psalm 89, Ethan the Ezrahite opens with a promise to sing of the Lord’s steadfast love forever and to make His faithfulness known to every generation. But we can’t sing or proclaim what we haven’t first received.

This message walks through the psalm’s reasons to worship. God is the covenant maker who keeps His promise to David through the better David, Jesus, and grafts us into His family forever. He rules the raging sea, just like Jesus calming the storm on Galilee. He scatters His enemies. He owns the heavens and the earth, which means we’re stewards of everything we think is ours. And righteousness, justice, love and faithfulness are the foundation of His throne.

The Gospel isn’t just good for eternity. It’s good for every minute of every day. Our King is knowable and He’s available. Come to the table and move from knowing about Him to truly knowing Him.

What if a sunrise could reset your whole heart? We were made to worship. If we're not worshipping God, we'll end up worshipping something else.
This week we pick back up in Psalm 104. The psalmist starts by praising God for who He is, clothed in splendor and majesty, wrapped in light like a garment. Then he looks out at the springs, the mountains, the grass, the birds, and the harvest and sees God's hand in all of it. God didn't just make the world. He's holding it together right now.

We set that next to Romans 1, where people see the same creation and turn their worship inward. We talk about the daily battle with the quiet lies of "if only I had a bit more." And we look at a simple habit that can help: see the beauty of creation, remember the beauty of the Creator, and let your worship get refocused.

The God who sustains every living thing isn't distant. He's a Father who made it all and holds it all out of love. And through Jesus, He knows you, cares for you, and invites you into His family.

When you find something beautiful, you can't keep it to yourself. You text a friend, snap a picture, drag someone to the mountains to see what you saw. That instinct points to something bigger. In Psalm 104, the psalmist looks at creation and can't help but bless the Lord who made it.

Corey Johnston walks us through Psalm 104:1–9 and shows that God is beautiful in three ways. He's beautiful in creation, the Builder and Sustainer who holds every breath in our lungs. He's beautiful in his justice, perfect and holy in a way ours never is. And he's most beautiful in Christ, the better Noah who passed through the waters of judgment to bring us into new creation.

So here's the question: Do you find Jesus merely useful, or do you find him beautiful? If he's just useful, you'll walk away when he stops giving you what you want. If he's beautiful, you'll want him, no matter what.

Ever notice how much easier it is to hear from God on a beach than staring at a screen? This week we're talking about one of the simplest, most overlooked ways to abide with Christ: creation itself.

We walk through Psalm 19:1–6, where David says the heavens are constantly preaching. Day and night, they're pouring out speech about who God is. We'll look at four reasons getting outside matters for your walk with Jesus: creation reveals His glory, it declares knowledge worth pursuing, it puts us in our right size, and it points us to the light that breaks into our darkness.

Along the way we hit Ecclesiastes 3 and Romans 1, and we ask an honest question: when you pray, are you doing more talking or more listening? We also wrestle with a real temptation, loving the gifts of creation more than the God who made them.

It ends where it should: at the light of the world pushing back the darkness, and an invitation to come to the Table.

Where are you on the path to spiritual maturity? In week 3 of our series on The Summit's mission statement, we walk through the journey every believer is called to make: from spiritually unborn, to infant, to child, to young adult, to adult.

For too long, churches have outsourced spiritual growth to hired staff. But Ephesians 4 is clear: pastors and leaders exist to equip the saints for ministry, not to do it for them. This message covers the milk-and-meat metaphor from Hebrews 5, the cost of crossing from spiritual childhood into adulthood, and what it looks like to move from just receiving grace to giving it away.

Be disciples. Make disciple-makers. That's the plan.

Jesus' last words before ascending weren't a suggestion — they were a promise and a command. This message from Acts 1:8 traces the unbreakable chain from being filled with the Spirit to being sent on mission, and shows how Jesus forms disciples through the very things we tend to avoid: proclamation, healing, and spiritual battle. Week 2 of our series on The Summit's mission statement, "Be Disciples. Make Disciple-makers."

What would you do with unlimited power? Rome's answer was a gospel of fear, silence, and control. Jesus' answer was a towel and a basin. Opening our new series on The Summit's mission statement, Aaron walks through Matthew 28's Great Commission and John 13's foot-washing, showing how the true Gospel turns the world's pyramid upside down — and why every disciple, not just "professional Christians," is called into the mission of making disciples.