"We hold these truths to be self-evident."

Most Americans can recite the line without thinking about it. But few have paused to deeply consider what our founding document actually declares. Fewer still have held these statements up against Scripture to determine just how unalienable these truths are.

This week's message looks at that preamble directly.

For 250 years, the promise of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” has provided a world-changing paradigm to societies who wish to throw off the bonds of oppression.

But Scripture tells a bigger story. Life is not just something given, it is offered eternally. Liberty is not just the freedom to choose, it comes with the weight of what is chosen. And happiness is far too low a pursuit when God promises so much more.

Join us as we lay our founding document alongside God's eternal truth.

If God is all-loving and all-powerful, why does suffering exist? It's one of the oldest objections to faith, and atheist voices like Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, and Christopher Hitchens have built careers on it. But what if the very illustrations these thinkers use to argue against God actually point straight back to him? In this message, Pastor Major walks through Romans 8 and three unexpected images — a miracle drug, a dangerous road, and a dentist's chair — to show why suffering may not be evidence against a loving God, but proof of one. Whether you've wrestled with this question yourself or know someone who has, this episode offers a way through.

When Sebastian Berhalter made the U.S. World Cup roster, his father, former USMNT coach Gregg Berhalter, wrote him a letter. As Sebastian read it on camera last week, he couldn't get through it without crying, undone by one line in particular:

“I'm proud of you because of who you are, not because of what you accomplished.”

That same kind of declaration echoes from centuries earlier, spoken over another Son at the very start of His ministry. Before a single miracle, before a single sermon, before the cross, the Father said: "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased."

When we read that phrase, we might be tempted to think that the Father’s feeling towards the Son was based on what he had accomplished. But his identity was settled before His earthly résumé even began.

The Father’s pleasure in us is rooted in who we are, not what we produce. And for those of us who are fathers, it's more than something to receive; it's something to pass on, speaking pride and delight over our children long before they've proven anything to us.

Join us this Sunday as we open Matthew 3 and discover what it means to be loved by the Father — and what it looks like to love like Him.