Simply Jesus – Week 1 | Preparing The Way

When spirituality becomes a DIY project—Jesus as coach, therapist, or an echo of whatever we already want—faith loses its power. This sermon tackles that exact tension: a culture full of spiritual language but thin on encounter. It names the danger of reshaping Jesus to fit our comforts and shows how that habit leaves us unchanged, anxious, and stuck performing instead of resting. The message turns to the Gospel of Mark’s blunt portrait of Jesus: presented plainly, meeting people in the barren, wordless wilderness, and already marching toward a wooden throne—the cross. The talk traces three simple but urgent shifts: who Jesus is, where he meets us when we have nothing left, and how his way rewrites our motives, comforts our suffering, and fuels work for justice. It’s an invitation to stop tinkering with an image and start encountering the real person who can alter what you live for.