Covenant, Not Consent God Governs Reality, Not Individual “Truth”

We live in a world where freedom is defined by choice and truth is treated as something we authorize from the inside out. If I didn’t choose it, it can’t bind me. If it doesn’t align with me, it can’t claim me.

But Scripture tells a very different story.

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Who has the right to define your life?

In a culture that celebrates self-definition and autonomy, Scripture tells a very different story. In this message, we confront the modern assumption that identity is something we create and instead recover the biblical truth that we are created, not constructed.

From Genesis to the cross, the Bible exposes self-constructed identity not as freedom, but as rebellion against the Creator’s rightful authority. What begins as self-rule always ends in fracture; instability, conflict, and exhaustion; because the self was never meant to sit on the throne.

This sermon traces the destructive fruit of self-made identity and lands with the gospel’s clear answer: Jesus Christ is the perfect revelation of God, the rightful Lord of every life, and the only source of true wholeness. Redemption does not begin with self-discovery, but with repentance; laying down self-rule and surrendering to Christ.

The question before us is not simply who you are, but whose you are.

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If our identity in Christ is secure, why does growth still feel slow—and why do old struggles remain?

In this message, we explore how spiritual formation works not as self-improvement, but as learning to live from the identity we’ve already received through union with Christ. From Romans 6 and Ephesians 4, we see that struggle doesn’t mean grace has failed—it means formation is underway. God is faithfully shaping our lives to match what is already true of us in Christ, right in the middle of ordinary life.

You are not working toward an identity. You are being formed by one.

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In this opening message of the True & Better: A Gospel Identity series, we step back and ask a deeper question: What does God say about who we are?

Anchored in Genesis 1–3 and Philippians 3, this sermon explores the biblical story of identity; received in creation, fractured by sin, and restored in Christ. We’ll see why identity cannot bear the weight of performance, success, or self-definition, and why the gospel offers something far better: an identity not achieved, but received through union with Jesus.

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As a new year begins, many of us quietly assume that everything depends on us; our effort, discipline, endurance, and productivity. Rest feels risky. Sabbath can feel impossible.

But the Bible tells a different story.

In this message, we return to the opening pages of Scripture to see that God rested not because He was tired, but because the work was finished. From creation, through Israel’s wilderness journey, and ultimately in the finished work of Christ, Scripture reveals that Sabbath is not about laziness or legalism, it’s about trust.

We’ll explore why we resist rest, how our identity gets tied to productivity, and how Jesus, Lord of the Sabbath, offers a rest we could never earn. When Jesus declares, “It is finished,” He frees us from striving and invites us into a rhythm of grace-shaped trust.

Sabbath, then, becomes more than a day off...it becomes a lived confession of the gospel.

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The final Sunday of the year invites reflection: what’s changed, what hasn’t, what we hoped would be different by now, and what we’re still waiting on.

In this message from 2 Peter 3, we look beyond the first Advent, when Christ came in humility, to the last Advent, when Christ will return in glory. Peter speaks to believers living in the in-between; between promise fulfilled and promise still coming; addressing doubt, delay, and the question so many still ask: “Where is the promise of His coming?”

What looks like delay is not failure, but mercy. God’s patience is salvation, inviting repentance, holiness, and hope as we wait for the day when God finishes what He started and brings about new heavens and a new earth where righteousness dwells.

This sermon calls us to live faithfully in the present because our future is secure—to wait, not with anxiety, but with hope.

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We live in a world driven by effort, performance, and self-improvement. Try harder. Do better. Be more disciplined. But what if the heart of Christianity isn’t about what we do at all?

In Romans 8:1–4, the apostle Paul tells the Christmas story in a surprising way—not as a celebration of human potential, but as an announcement of divine intervention. When the law could not save us, when effort failed, when guilt and inner conflict exposed our limits, God did it.

In this Advent message, we explore:

• Why the law can diagnose sin but cannot cure it
• What God accomplished by sending His Son as a sin offering
• How there is now no condemnation for those in Christ
• Why obedience flows from acceptance, not toward it

This is not better advice. It’s good news.

Not humanity reaching up to God—but God coming down to us.

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If you’re weary, discouraged, or exhausted from trying to be “good enough,” hear the hope of Advent according to Paul: Your salvation rests not in what you can do for God—but in what God has already done for you.

In this Advent message from 2 Corinthians 8:7–9, Paul frames Christian giving not as obligation or guilt, but as a response to the self-giving grace of Jesus Christ.

This sermon explores why we resist having our love tested, how the incarnation is God’s proof of love, and how grace forms generosity from the inside out. Advent becomes not just a season of sentiment, but a mirror—revealing what we cling to, what we release, and how Christ’s poverty makes us rich in grace, mercy, and new life.

Whether you’re weary, secure, guarded, or simply curious about faith, this message invites you to look again at Jesus—the One who became poor for our sake—and to discover how His grace reshapes our loves.

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