Sunday Service

This week we witness the Lamb open the seven seals from the scroll. We have the opportunity to live in the text and breath in the heavenly atmosphere and see where all history is headed. We are not afraid of our future. God is our future and so we are in love with our future.

This week we will see what a glorious, eternal difference the sacrifice of Christ has made. We will hear it in many ways by having the Teen Challenge Choir here and all the stories of changed lives. And we will hear a short message from Revelation 5 where we will glory in the all the ways that Jesus the Redeemer is worthy of worship.

This Sunday, we’ll look at Revelation 4 and John’s vision of the throne room of heaven. Before chaos unfolds, God lifts John's eyes and shows him what is always true: the throne is occupied, and He is seated. In a world that feels loud and unsettled, we are invited to lift our eyes and anchor ourselves in worship. Church, eyes up.

This week we will see what happens when Jesus speaks to the church at Laodicea. There is a massive disconnect between what the church thinks and what Jesus knows. This passage contains one of the most shocking moments in all of the New Testament, but it offers us today a stunningly beautiful promise.

This Sunday we’ll look at the church in Philadelphia in Revelation 3 and Jesus’ call to “hold fast to what you have.” We’ll consider what it means to stay anchored to Christ, the intentionality it requires, and how that looks in trusting Him in the doors He opens and closes in our lives. We will also see how the similarities and differences between Philadelphia and Thyatira (the other church told by Jesus to “Hold Fast”) speak to this reality, and how this call to steadfastly remain leads us to our ultimate reward.

This week we look at Jesus’ words to the church at Sardis. It is a loving call to look past the reputation and take a deeper look at the reality. We will see exactly how relevant this call is to our lives today.

Pergamum was the capital city of a province under Roman rule and the Roman proconsul was given “the right of the sword” by the Romans. This church under the threat of such a Roman sword had the comforting reminder that Christ was the real ruler and had the real sword. This week we will dig deep into what it means that the real and ultimate power over life and death belongs to Christ and not to earthly kingdoms and rulers.

This Sunday’s message from Revelation 2:8–11 focuses on Jesus’ words to the church in Smyrna. In this brief but powerful letter, we are encouraged to remain faithful in the midst of trials and hardship. It reminds us that following Christ does not guarantee relief from life’s difficulties, but it does anchor us in Him through Him; offering a peace that surpasses understanding and a strength that sustains us through every challenge.

This week we look at the first of the letters to the seven churches. Jesus' message to the church at Ephesus is every bit as stirring and convicting today as when it was first given.

My Grandma used to have a crystal hanging in her front window. When the sun was hitting it and you would spin it, it would fill the room with the coolest splash of refracted light. We are praying the same thing will happen this Sunday morning as we start a new Spring series on the Book of Revelation. Revelation is like the crystal that is going to take the light of Christ and refract it everywhere. Come join us as we bask in the light of his glory this Sunday.

Join us this Sunday as we finish the book of Exodus by looking at chapter 40. In this passage, we will see both the beauty and the agony of God’s presence with us, and how that reality can sustain us in seasons of waiting and strengthen our confidence as He leads us forward.

Exodus 32-34 is one of the lowlights and the highlights of the Book of Exodus. The Israelites tragically and epically rebel against God. The rest of the story is a back and forth about God's presence and his promise to dwell with his people. It is one of the most thrilling and challenging passages in all of Exodus. Join us as we dive deep into the text this week!

This week's passage moves our attention to what God will do so that he can dwell with his people. It is one of the great themes of the Bible and it lies at the heart of our faith. Please join us as we dig deep into the glorious narrative of what God does to be with us!

How do you feel when you hear the word “command”? For a lot of us, it can come off as heavy, strict, or even oppressive. Some of us even downgrade it in our minds to the word “ask,” because that feels more like a suggestion we can take or leave. This Sunday, we’re talking about why God’s commands are meant to lead us into freedom (not restriction) and why we can trust that.

In this week’s message, Katie Brown will preach on “The God Who Sustains: From Trauma to Trust,” which walks through Exodus 15–18 and the early wilderness journey of God’s people. Freshly freed from slavery, they are still fearful, bitter, hungry, and exhausted — yet God patiently reveals Himself as their Sustainer. We’ll see how He provides safety, healing, stability, and strength, and how each moment points us to Jesus — the One who not only rescues us, but walks with us through the wilderness.

Exodus 13-14 is right at the heart of the book of Exodus. This week we will explore this incredible text as we see not only what it meant back then, but what it means for us today. It promises to be both immensely encouraging and challenging!

This Sunday Pastor Jonathan will continue in Exodus 7-12.

This week we continue our series in Exodus as we watch God at work. He learns that he acts because he remembers his covenant, he fulfills his promises, and he displays his glory so that he will be known. Along the way we even get to hear why God delays and why his timing might not match our timing.

"God doesn’t call the qualified; He qualifies the called.” It’s a phrase that gets tossed around a lot in Christian circles, and it’s meant to remind us to put our confidence in the One who’s calling us. But if we’re honest, it can still leave us with questions. Is that really true? And will His qualifying actually be enough for what He has called us to? Join us this week as we see this quote come to life in the calling of Moses in Exodus 3-4, and come to understand the Sufficiency of the God Who Sends.

This week we will look at the longest continuous narrative of its kind in the Bible. The Joseph story is filled with clever wordplays and stunning reversals and big reveals. But the foundational message running through it like a silver thread is massively hopeful: God is in control even when it does not look like it. And God is at work even when we cannot see him working. And God is not done, even when we think it is all over for us.

This Sunday, Katie will bring us into Exodus to learn about The God Who Protects. We’ll trace how God guards his name, his people, and his promise—and how he often does it through unexpected protectors. We’ll zoom in on five women whose holy courage preserved life in a culture of death, and consider what that means for how we live “protected to protect” in our homes, church, and city.

Join us as we look at Genesis 32 and explore how God often uses our struggles as the very place of transformation. In Jacob’s wrestling, we see a deeper reliance on the One who promises to be with us always, and whose grace is more than enough. Don’t miss this powerful reminder that the struggle isn’t the end of the story; it's often where God begins His greatest work.

Genesis 22 is a well-known text. Many people think the focus is on the test of Abraham, but the text does not highlight the worship of Abraham, but the worship of God. God tested. God provides the Lamb. The Lord will provide. The whole point of the story is that the LORD provides a sacrificial lamb so that his people may live. The story empowers God’s people to know with confidence that their covenant LORD can be trusted to provide their redemption.

Have you ever felt like God has forgotten you? In this week’s passages (Genesis 16 and 21), we’ll see God’s faithfulness on full display and come to know Him as the God who sees. We’ll also look at a common pitfall in seasons of waiting, and explore how God’s call for us to be Built Up Together takes shape as we love and care for those who feel forgotten.

This Sunday we begin a brand-new series at Urban Refuge: Built Together, and our theme this week is “The God Who Begins.” We’ll start in Genesis, with the foundation of God creating, calling, and beginning His work among His people. Genesis reminds us that from the very start, God has been writing a story bigger than any one person. Over the next several months, we’ll trace the journey of God’s people through Exodus, discovering the God who calls, carries, rescues, and dwells with His people. Ultimately, the whole story points to Jesus—the One who fulfills God’s promises and brings us into His presence forever. We’re excited for this series because it reminds us that God is still doing the same thing today: calling ordinary people into an extraordinary story of hope. Each week we’ll see how His majesty, holiness, and presence are revealed as He builds His people together. Our theme verse is Ephesians 2:22: “In Him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.” This truth frames the entire series—what God began in Genesis, He is still doing in us today.

It pleases God and demonstrates our faith when we obey Him by honoring and caring for parents and grandparents who can’t care for themselves.

Psalm 27 tells us that we will have problems, but it goes further and gives us a strategy. This Psalm highlights that our confidence comes when we seek God and then see in the light of his presence that our problems cannot compare to His greatness.

Psalm 26 encourages Christians to live with such a confidence in God that they face the future without fear. Knowing that God is with us and will vindicate us empowers us to live with hope and share that hope with others.

I almost named this sermon "Alphabet Soup." Psalm 25 is one of eight acrostic psalms (Ps. 9-10, 25, 34, 37, 111, 112, 119, 145). This is a type of Psalm in which the order of the poem actually follows the order and structure of the Hebrew alphabet. Sometimes that makes the Psalm a little harder to follow. But this Psalm has a clear back and forth dynamic between stanzas of petition (asking God) and reflection (thinking about God). This week we will see why meaningful prayer will involve both asking and thinking together.

This week we will walk through a Psalm that focuses on the victory of Christ. In its original setting, it also had a strong word against the idolatry and false gospels of that day. We will also examine how it might speak to the idolatry and false gospels that we hear today.

Psalm 23 is one of the most quoted Scriptures of all time—often read at funerals or held onto during times of deep suffering. Join us this Sunday as we explore the power, the comfort, and the depth of Psalm 23. This Psalm leads us right into the arms of Jesus, reframes our suffering, and offers genuine hope even in the valley of the shadow of death.

This week we are going to look at both Psalm 21 and 22. We will discover that the individual psalms are not random like handing out a deck of cards. The order of the Psalms often will tell a story when they are read together. This week we will glory once again the greatest story ever told.

Join us this Sunday as Pastor Tommy emphasizes that loving God and loving others are inseparable. It’s one thing to say we love, but embodying that love—in how we treat others, in the patience we show, in the sacrifices we make—is where faith truly takes root.

In Psalm 18, David is celebrating, and it does not take long for us to see why: God has delivered him from his enemies and from Saul, and so it seems like he’s so full of joy and confidence in the Lord because he is on the other side of the struggle. And yet, if that is all we take from Psalms 18, we are missing out on the powerful reality that you and I get to abide in. This Psalm isn’t just for the moment after the breakthrough—it’s for the middle of the storm too. Join us this Sunday, as we explore this passage to understand what it looks like to have certainty in the midst of uncertainty, and the leap of faith God calls us to take when even that certainty does not feel like enough.

We’re kicking off our Summer in the Psalms series with a message from Psalm 17. In life’s hardest moments, we often don’t know what to pray—but the Psalms give us words. This week, we’ll explore how David’s raw, honest prayer invites us to bring our full selves before God and discover His nearness in the middle of pain. A Note from Katie: This Sunday’s message includes a personal story about my dad, who died by suicide. I want to let you know ahead of time, in case it would be helpful for you or your family to prepare emotionally. It’s shared with brevity, care, and with the hope that it will remind us all of God’s tender presence in our deepest valleys.

Come join us for Katie's ordination and installation service this Sunday at 10:15 am. Pastor Jonathan will give the ordination charge to Katie and Pastor Jason will deliver the ordination charge to the congregation. We will also have the opportunity to hear a brief response from Katie. Following the service, we will have a family meal. Come experience a service together that is focused on God's goodness and faithfulness to us!

We will be continuing our series on Jesus vs. Religion. Join us as we unpack the difference between Jesus and religion in the ways we "Respond with Compassion."

Last week we heard Jesus' invitation for the burdened to find rest in him. This week we see the Bible's call to be like Christ and bear one another's burdens. His victory creates a community and he calls us to be restored both in our individual life and our community life.

This week we will continue our series in the month of May on Jesus vs. Religion. Join us as we see the defining difference between Jesus and Religion when it comes to our vision of what rest really looks like.

Jesus vs. Religion is a four sermon follow-up to our journey through the Gospel of Mark. In this series, we will compare and contrast Jesus vs. Religion and demonstrate how our understanding of the difference drives our vision to find rest, live restored, and respond with compassion.

This week we will end our series on Mark with what some people call "the longer ending of Mark." Translations usually have a footnote informing Bible readers that verses 9-20 were not included in the earliest manuscripts. This dynamic raises all kinds of questions that can cause someone to have doubts about what the Bible really says and if we can really trust it. We will attempt to answer these questions and demonstrate why we can have confidence in the Scriptures.

The resurrection has become such a familiar idea for so many Christians that we have become desensitized to it. Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection of Christ and pray that God will resensitize us to the shock and awe of this life-changing event.