We're surrounded by more noise than ever, thousands of ads a day, hours of podcasts and video, and it's changing how we engage with faith. In this message from Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, we look at what it actually means to guard your steps when you approach God: drawing near to listen (and obey), fulfilling the vows and promises we make to him, and living with a right fear of the Lord. It's a call to trade rambling words and empty routine for real attention, real obedience, and real silence before God.

In this sermon, we dig into Ecclesiastes 4 and its string of "better than" observations, a kind of would-you-rather from the Teacher himself. We trace how oppression, envy, isolation, and unstable leadership form a downward spiral that can pull a whole society apart, and then look at the off-ramps scripture offers: justice and love of neighbor, contentment and Sabbath rest, real community, and wise leadership under the kingship of Christ. It's a hard look at the world we're building and an invitation to help turn it upside down instead.

In this message from Ecclesiastes 3, we dig into the ancient poem that inspired The Byrds' "Turn! Turn! Turn!" and ask the question Augustine couldn't fully answer: what is time? We look at the two different Hebrew words for time, the illusion of control we all live under, and why God has set eternity in the human heart even though we can't see the full picture of what He's doing. From corrupted courts to Rembrandt's tapestry to a clip from Dead Poets Society, this sermon lands on one challenge: seize the day, and redeem the time you've been given.

The Teacher of Ecclesiastes goes searching for meaning, testing wisdom, pleasure, and success one at a time to see if anything under the sun actually lasts. In this study of Ecclesiastes 1:12-2:26, we trace his journey through each pursuit, the sorrow that comes with wisdom, the emptiness that follows pleasure, the frustration of building something you'll eventually hand off to someone else, and land on the surprising turn where purpose isn't something we find but something God creates in us as we stay faithful to him.

What if you did everything right – gave your job, your family, and your faith everything you had – and still felt empty? That's the question Ecclesiastes refuses to let us avoid. In this opening message of a new series, we meet "the teacher," a mysterious, Solomon-like figure whose Hebrew title, Qohelet, means one who gathers wisdom to share it. We dig into the key word hevel, often translated "meaningless" or "vanity" but literally meaning smoke or vapor, and ask whether a fleeting life is a curse or simply the truth we have to make peace with. We close by imagining a conversation between two "sons of David," the teacher and Jesus, and what it means to read this ancient, unflinching book from the other side of the resurrection.

Guest speaker Jimmy Johnson unpacks the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus from Luke 16, one of Jesus' most sobering teachings about eternity. Through the story of an Olympic shooter who hit the wrong target, a condemned criminal's unexpected challenge to his own chaplain, and two very different funerals, Jimmy makes the case that we can build an impressive life and still miss the one thing that matters most: a relationship with Jesus Christ. A direct, honest look at heaven, hell, and why the church can't afford to stay quiet about either.

In this message from our series through the parables, we look at Matthew 25:1-13, the Parable of the Ten Virgins. Jesus tells this story just before his arrest and crucifixion, using the wedding customs of his day to teach two simple truths: the end will come, and no one knows when. We talk about what it means to wait well, why the delay itself might be an act of God's patience, and what it looks like to stay spiritually prepared rather than just watching the sky.

In this message, we look at the Parable of the Vineyard Workers in Matthew 20, a passage that can be easy to misread as a story about fair labor or equal rewards. Instead, we dig into what Jesus is really saying to disciples caught up in competing for status and how it applies to our own tendency to be transactional with God. Along the way, we talk about trust versus negotiation, the difference between real and performed humility, and why the Father's generosity toward us runs far deeper than fairness ever could.

In the fifth sermon of our summer parables series, we look at what I'm calling the Fools Collection: the Rich Fool, the Unforgiving Servant, and the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. Three seemingly unrelated stories that all expose the same root problem, a heart turned inward, blind to God's provision and deaf to the people around it. We'll dig into why Jesus tells stories instead of just giving instructions, why it's so easy to read these parables and think "at least I'm not that bad," and how that very thought is the trap the stories are built to catch us in. It's not all bad news though. There's grace on the other side for every one of us fools.

What do free chips and salsa have to do with the parable of the Good Samaritan? More than you'd think. In Luke 10, a lawyer asks Jesus who his neighbor is, looking for a list, a limit, someone he doesn't have to love. Jesus refuses to answer that question, because defining who counts automatically defines who doesn't. Instead, he tells a story about a Samaritan who flipped the script entirely. If you've heard this parable a hundred times, this one might still surprise you.