Tulip Street Christian Church

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.

We tend to think being lost feels like helplessness or panic. But more often, it feels like you're going the right direction. In Luke 15, Jesus tells three back-to-back stories about lost things getting found, building toward one of the greatest stories ever told, the parable of the prodigal son. But there are two sons in that story, and the one who stayed home the whole time turns out to be just as lost as the one who ran away. Which one are you?

Do you have eyes to see what's truly valuable? Drawing from Matthew 13:44-46, Daniel walks through Jesus' back-to-back parables of the Hidden Treasure and the Pearl of Great Price, exploring how the kingdom of heaven is waiting to be found, demands a joyful response, and is worth far more than anything we could give up to obtain it. Plus, a surprising twist at the end: what if you're the treasure?

In this first message of our summer series Plot Twist, we dive into the Parable of the Sower from Mark 4, the one Jesus says you have to understand before you can understand any of the others. This isn't just a story about farming; it's a story about the condition of your heart. We unpack three big questions: Who is the sower? What is the seed? And why are there four different soils? Along the way, we discover that the sower might be more than one person, the seed carries a deeper identity than you'd expect, and each type of soil maps onto real people from the Gospels in ways that might surprise you. If you've heard this story a hundred times, it's time to turn the diamond and see it fresh. The soils can change, and that's the best news in the whole parable.

In this message from Ephesians 6:10-20, we close out our journey through Paul's letter to the Ephesians with one of Scripture's most vivid images: the full armor of God. But before we talk about the gear, we have to settle the most important truth of all, that the victory has already been won through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fight is real, but the outcome is set. So what does that mean for us? We dig into three questions Paul's closing passage raises: What is our mission? Who is the real enemy? And how are we equipped to stand? Whether you're feeling the weight of spiritual battle or just trying to make sense of the darkness you see in the world around you, this message is a reminder that you were never meant to fight alone, and you were never meant to fight for a victory that Christ has already secured.

In this message from Ephesians 5:21-6:9, we dig into what scholars call the "household codes," Paul's instructions to wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters. But far from reinforcing the strict Roman social hierarchy, Paul quietly dismantles it. Starting with one radical phrase, "submitting to one another," he reframes every relationship around the self-giving love of Christ, and the result is something the Greco-Roman world had never seen. If you've ever wondered what the gospel has to do with your marriage, your parenting, or your workplace, this one is for you.