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Why does more money never actually feel like enough? You get the raise, the house, the promotion, the number in the account, and then the goalpost quietly moves again. Pastor Josiah takes on that exhausting cycle head on, using one of Jesus's sharpest parables. And the man Jesus calls a fool in it looks, on paper, like someone we would celebrate. This sermon continues an Alliance Church teaching series on money and generosity. Pastor Josiah opens with what hikers call the false summit. That moment on a climb when you put your head down, push hard for the peak you can finally see, only to discover another ridge behind it. That is how most of us live financially and emotionally. If I could just get there. And then there moves. Then he takes the church to Luke 12:13 through 21. Someone in the crowd interrupts Jesus to referee a family inheritance fight. Instead of settling it, Jesus goes underneath the argument and names three things about the man in the parable that most Christians never see in themselves. One. Greed. More never feels like enough. Ecclesiastes 5:10 says it plainly. Those who love money will never have enough. Greed is not about how much is in your bank account. It is about what has your heart. The antidote is gratitude. Two. Selfishness. Blessings were never meant to stop with you. Pastor Josiah uses a genius illustration from a plumbing disaster in his first home. A concrete pad was pressing down on the pipe, blocking the flow, causing dirty water to back up into his tub. When God's blessing stops with you, the same thing happens spiritually. God moves resources through us, not just to us. 1 Timothy 6:17 and 18 makes it clear. Three. Foolishness. Full barns can still belong to an empty soul. The rich man in the parable prepares for retirement, plans, saves, expands, and then God says, tonight your life is required of you. Then who gets it? Not because he was wealthy. Because he chased what he could not keep while ignoring what he could not lose. He closes with the story of Ali Hafed and the diamond mines of Golconda. A man who sold his content, prosperous farm to chase diamonds elsewhere, died broke and hopeless in Barcelona, while the man who bought his land found the biggest diamond mine in history sitting right in the creek on that same property. The treasure Ali was looking for was already at home. Pastor Josiah lands it in the gospel. The richest thing you can have is a relationship with God, and it is not hidden. Jesus paid the way to that relationship on a cross. Do not spend your life chasing what you cannot keep while neglecting what you cannot lose.

How much should a Christian actually give? It is one of the most quietly awkward questions in Christian life, and Dr. Dennis Episcopo answers it with a framework that will keep you thinking all week. There are four levels of giving in the Bible. Most Christians never make it past level one. This sermon continues an Alliance Church teaching series on money and generosity. Dr. Episcopo opens with a story from Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, when Twins manager Tom Kelly walked out to the mound and left a tired veteran in with the words, Jack, it is just a game. Then he makes the turn. What we do at church is not a game. The stakes are eternal. Made even more real by the fact that his own mother went to be with the Lord this week at 97 years old. Everything gets real at a funeral. And that changes how a person handles everything, including their wallet. Then he anchors the message in 2 Corinthians 5:16 through 20. Christians are ambassadors of reconciliation. Nothing in the life of a Christian is superficial. Everything is strategic. How you parent, how you work, how you spend your free time, and yes, how you handle your money. Then Dr. Episcopo walks through the four levels. One. Duty giving. 2 Corinthians 9:7. This is the plate passing, guilt driven, I have to put something in reflex. It is the lowest floor. It is not what God wants, because he loves a cheerful giver, not a reluctant one. Two. Thanksgiving giving. Psalm 107 and 116. Giving because you are stunned by what God has done in your life. You saw the cross. You saw the answered prayer. You cannot help but respond. Three. Tithing. Percentage giving. Ten percent off the gross, not the net. Not a law, but a biblical pattern that levels the field between the wealthy and the working class. Leviticus 27. And notably, Jesus himself endorsed it in Luke 11 when he told the Pharisees to keep tithing without neglecting justice and the love of God. Four. Sacrificial giving. Luke 21, the widow's two coins. He says this rarely happens, but when the Holy Spirit taps a believer's shoulder and says, give it all, and they obey, the whole room feels it. This is the highest level. Then Dr. Episcopo lands the whole sermon in one sentence. There are people in the world who think, I own my money. And there are people who understand, I own nothing. I am a manager. God owns it all. Which one are you? If you have ever felt guilty, confused, or numb about giving, this teaching is one of the clearest starting points you will find.

What does the Bible actually say about money? It is one of the most searched, most anxiously carried topics in modern life, and Pastor Brian steps into it with unusual honesty. 63% of Americans are living paycheck to paycheck. Money is the number two reason for divorce. And Jesus talked about it more than almost anything else.This sermon kicks off a new teaching series at Alliance Church on what Scripture teaches about money. Pastor Brian opens with 1 Timothy 6:10, carefully. The Bible does not say money is the root of all evil. It says the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. Greed is a heart problem, not a bank account problem. Some of the most generous people he knows are wealthy, and some of the most consumed people he knows are broke. Greed is agnostic to your net worth.Then he walks through Jesus's parable of the shrewd manager in Luke 16:1 through 13. The whole thing hinges on one truth most Americans have never fully absorbed. You do not own your money. God does. You are the manager. He is the rich man. That is not a metaphor. It is the setup of the entire parable.The uncomfortable downstream is honest. If God owns the money and we manage it by our own priorities instead of his, that is not just poor stewardship. It is stealing. He uses the picture of a money manager who takes your account and buys himself a Ferrari with it. That is exactly how it lands with God when we ignore his priorities with what he has entrusted to us.Then he goes to the heart of it. What does God actually want your money invested in? People. Eternal treasures. Use worldly wealth to gain friends for yourselves (Luke 16:9). Christians should on paper be some of the wisest stewards of wealth on the planet, because we know the Owner and what he cares about.Here is the sentence that reframes the whole conversation. Money does not change you. Money reveals you. Luke 16:10 and 11. Whoever can be trusted with little can be trusted with much. If you cannot steward the little you have right now, why would God give you more?Pastor Brian closes at the cross with 2 Corinthians 8:9. Jesus was rich, but for our sake he became poor, so that through his poverty we might become rich. That is the deepest motivator to actually open your budget with your spouse this week and ask, God, how am I managing your money?If you have been anxious about money, ashamed of your finances, or unsure what the Bible actually teaches on this, this teaching from Pastor Brian is one of the most freeing places to start.

How do you actually discipline your kids without yelling? It is one of the most exhausting, quietly discouraging challenges of parenting, and Pastor Brandon says almost every Christian parent lands in one of two ditches. He walks the church through the third way that Scripture actually teaches, and it will change how you show up in your own home this week. This sermon comes from a Broadcast Sunday at Alliance Church, joining all three campuses (Appleton, Hortonville, and Neenah) around Ephesians 6:1 through 4. Children, obey your parents in the Lord. And then Paul turns straight to the dads. Fathers, do not exasperate your children. Instead, bring them up in the training and instruction of the Lord. Pastor Brandon opens by pointing out that the gospel is the great equalizer. Every believer has equal standing before God, regardless of age, status, income, or role. In Christ, father and son are actually brothers. But that gospel equality does not erase household authority. Kids still need mom and dad to be the parents. Kids need to hear you say the word no and stick to it. Then Pastor Brandon narrows in on why God specifically addresses fathers here. Dads have their hand on the thermostat of the household. Dads set the spiritual and emotional temperature of the home. And dads tend to blow this one of two ways. They abdicate their authority (checked out, disengaged, absent even when they are physically home) or they abuse their authority (harsh, cold, explosive, controlling). Both are sin. The gospel offers a third way. Authority exercised with love. He calls this firm but warm. Firm without warm exasperates kids. Warm without firm turns them into a train with no tracks. Firm and warm together is exactly how the Father parents us. Exodus 34:6 says God is gracious and merciful, abounding in steadfast love, and slow to anger. He also names the honest struggle. Godly parenting takes discipline of the parent, not just the child. If you let your emotions drive your discipline, you will exasperate your child. If you never admit when you are wrong, you will end up with bitter kids. Most discipleship is caught, not taught. You cannot give your kids what you are not getting from God. Pastor Brandon closes with a painting called The Banjo Lesson by Henry Ossawa Tanner. A tired dad, home from an honest day's work, patiently teaching his son. The kid does not have much, but he has everything that matters. That is what Jesus opened up for us. He gave up his own seat with the Father so that we could climb into the Father's lap and receive the firm but warm love that reshapes everything. If you are a parent tired of losing it, or an adult still processing your own upbringing, or someone learning what God as Father is actually like, this teaching is worth every minute.

What do you actually have to believe to be saved by God? It is one of the most anxious questions a Christian can quietly carry, and Pastor Brian gives one of the clearest answers we have ever heard him offer. The bar is small enough for a child. And a dying criminal on a cross next to Jesus already cleared it.This sermon wraps up an August teaching series at Alliance Church on how to read the Bible well. Pastor Brian's final rule is deceptively simple. Interpret Scripture with the bride of Christ. In other words, do not read your Bible in isolation. The Holy Spirit lives in every believer, and 2,000 years of the church has been listening to him. Church history is not authoritative, but it matters. As Charles Spurgeon put it, it is odd that some Christians who talk so much about what the Holy Spirit reveals to them think so little of what he has revealed to others.The heart of this teaching is a framework you will not forget. Three buckets.Bucket one is what you must believe to be saved. He points to Luke 23 and the thief on the cross. That criminal believed three things. Jesus is King of the afterlife, so God. I deserve death for my sins. And Jesus is the innocent one I am staking my whole eternity on. Jesus told him, today you will be with me in paradise. Whatever fits in bucket one has to be small enough for a child to grasp.Bucket two is core doctrine. Big impact on how you see God, yourself, and others. The Trinity. The person and power of the Holy Spirit. Sanctification. Traditional marriage. Gender. How you gather with other believers. Not required for the moment of salvation, but if a sheep does not know the Shepherd's voice on the things 2,000 years of the church has clearly landed on, at best it is ignorance and at worst it is pride. That is John 10 language.Bucket three is what Paul in Romans 14 calls disputable matters. End times specifics. Certain spiritual gifts debates. Chick fil A versus Popeyes. Important, yes. But not first tier. Paul's rule for these is not to prove you are right or pretend everyone is right. It is to accept the one whose faith is weaker without quarreling, and to aim for harmony and building each other up (Romans 14:17).Pastor Brian closes with a story about a Wesleyan friend who believed drinking alcohol was always sin. Brian disagreed theologically, but pulling that man into his life made his own faith stronger, not weaker.If you have ever felt anxious about salvation, frustrated by Christian infighting, or unsure how to sort the essential from the debatable, this teaching from Pastor Brian will settle a lot of things.

What does the book of Ruth actually mean? For centuries it has been read as a beautiful love story, and it is one, but Pastor Brian says almost every Christian misses that Ruth is really a story about Jesus hiding in plain sight. If you have ever felt bitter, forgotten, or written off by God, this teaching will meet you exactly where you are. This sermon continues an August teaching series at Alliance Church on how to read the Bible well. Pastor Brian focuses on two big rules for interpreting Scripture. The bridge of background (the history, the language, the culture of the original moment) and the bridge of the book (the genre, the whole passage, the flow of the argument). He reminds the church of something a lot of us need to hear. The Holy Spirit wrote this book, and the Holy Spirit lives in every Christian. You do not need a stack of commentaries to open the Bible. But when you bring the background to a passage, you give the Holy Spirit more to work with. Then Pastor Brian walks through the book of Ruth as a live demonstration. Ruth chapter 1 opens with a famine in the land during the days of the judges. Judges 21:25 tells us everyone did what was right in their own eyes. Elimelech and Naomi flee to Moab, the arch enemy of Israel, in direct disobedience to Deuteronomy 12. Elimelech dies. Their two sons die. Naomi is left as a widow in enemy territory, and she renames herself Mara, which means bitter, because she has done what a lot of us do. She has looked at her circumstances and drawn conclusions about her identity and about God's character. But into her bitterness walks Ruth, a Moabite widow who says one of the most stunning lines in the entire Bible. Do not urge me to leave you. Where you go, I will go. Your people will be my people, and your God my God (Ruth 1:16 and 17). Then enters Boaz, a kinsman redeemer, a goel in Hebrew, someone in the extended family with the money, the generosity, and the willingness to sacrifice his own honor and family lineage to pay off a stranger's past and finance her future. And here is where Pastor Brian lands the sermon. The book of Ruth is not really about Ruth. It is about the third and hidden immigrant. Jesus. The one who left heaven for nothing to gain, linked his wagon to bitter and broken and forgotten people, took our name, paid our debt, and gave us his legacy. If you walked into today feeling like Mara, this teaching from Pastor Brian is for you. You do not have to earn a place in this story. You just have to be there.

How do you read the Bible when two verses seem to contradict each other? It's the question that has quietly divided churches, families, and friendships for centuries, and most Christians have never been given honest tools to work through it. Pastor Brian walks Alliance Church through a crash course on hermeneutics, the study of how we get from what the Bible says to what it means. He opens with a hilariously honest story about his early years of marriage and a rough anniversary miscommunication with his wife Hannah, then makes a simple point. Every human being interprets the words they hear. You interpret your spouse. You interpret text messages. You are already interpreting the Bible whether you realize it or not. The only question is whether your interpretation is a good one or a bad one. Pastor Brian points out something almost every long time Christian has felt. Most church splits and denominational fights are not really debates about what the Bible says. They are debates about how we are interpreting what it says. He calls this out with grace, then gives the room two rules that will change how you read the Bible for the rest of your life. Rule one. Do not build a doctrine or a theology around a single verse. One verse can tell you something true without telling you everything about the truth. Let the rest of Scripture help you understand any single passage. Rule two. Do not choose sides when Scripture seems to conflict. If the Bible teaches two truths that appear to compete, hold both as true and trust that they resolve themselves ultimately in the mind of God. Solomon, the wisest mortal to ever live, said it in Proverbs 3. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. Pastor Brian then walks through three biblical mysteries that seem to compete on the surface but actually stand together. Divine providence and human responsibility. The Trinity, three persons and one God. And the theandric union, the doctrine that Jesus Christ is fully God and fully human at the same time. He anchors this in Colossians 2:9, John 1:1 and 14, Luke 2, and Philippians 2, then lands with a story that will stop you cold. A former professor of his, in the middle of confessing a habitual sin, discovered that Christ did not just die to forgive him. Christ also sent his Spirit through Romans 8 to give him the power to actually walk free. If you have ever felt confused, cornered, or intimidated by the Bible, or if you have ever watched Christians tear each other apart over interpretation, this teaching from Pastor Brian is one of the most practical and pastoral sermons you will hear all year. #AllianceChurch #SundaySermon #BibleTeaching #JesusSaves #ChristianFaith #ChurchOnline #WisconsinChurch #FaithThatMoves #HopeInJesus #SermonSeries #HowToReadTheBible #BibleStudy #Hermeneutics #JesusChrist #Trinity #Theology #Scripture #FullyGodFullyMan #Discipleship #BibleInterpretation #JesusIsGod #GodAndMan

What does Romans 8:28 actually mean? A lot of Christians quote it in the middle of pain, but not many of us have stopped to ask if we are using it the way it was actually meant to be used. In the aftermath of the EF3 tornado that hit the Fox Valley, Pastor Brandon takes on what may be the most commonly misapplied verse in the Bible and walks the church through what it really says. This sermon kicks off a new August teaching series at Alliance Church on how to read the Bible well. Pastor Brandon opens with a simple principle. Get to the point. The most important question you can ask about any passage of Scripture is not what does this mean for me, but what was the author trying to say? He walks through five questions that help you actually wrestle with the text before you ever try to apply it. What kind of writing is this? Where does it fit in the Bible's big story? Who wrote it, and to whom? Why was it written? And finally, what was the author trying to say? Then he applies those five questions to Romans 8:28. He reads the whole passage, Romans 8:17 through 30, not just the isolated verse, and shows something that reshapes how most Christians read this promise. The good that God is working all things for is not material comfort. It is not financial rebound. It is not the guarantee that your house gets rebuilt. It is the good of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ. And that promise is not made to everyone. It is made specifically to those who love God and are called according to his purpose. Pastor Brandon does something rare in this sermon. He treats grieving people as adults. He does not soften the tornado into a lesson. He does not offer a spiritualized shortcut. He simply says this. For the Christian, even the worst of suffering cannot escape the redemptive purposes of God. That is not a smaller promise. It is a bigger one. Whether you are wrestling with grief right now, trying to understand a verse that has felt hollow, or simply want to learn how to read the Bible well, this teaching from Pastor Brandon is for you. #AllianceChurch #SundaySermon #BibleTeaching #JesusSaves #ChristianFaith #ChurchOnline #WisconsinChurch #FaithThatMoves #HopeInJesus #SermonSeries #Romans828 #HowToReadTheBible #EverythingHappensForAReason #BibleStudy #Suffering #Gospel #WisconsinTornado #Scripture

What do you do when everything you built is taken from you in a single storm? Almost no one thinks that question will ever land on them personally, and then one day it does. Pastor Brian preached this message to a congregation whose city had just been devastated by an EF3 tornado, and the answer he gave is one every person is going to need at some point. In this sermon, Pastor Brian opens with a hard truth. On July 27, 2026, an EF3 tornado over a mile wide touched down for more than twenty minutes and tore through the neighborhoods of Appleton, Menasha, and Neenah. Miraculously, no one was killed. But the loss will take generations to rebuild. And in a moment like that, everyone around you starts watching to see how you respond. Not because you asked for the spotlight, but because the world is quietly asking a question in every disaster. How do Christians handle storms? Pastor Brian says the answer is that Christians are different. Not weird. Different. Christians still grieve. Jesus himself grieved the death of Lazarus in John 11, even though he was minutes away from raising him. Grief is not weakness. It is honesty. But the way a Christian grieves is otherworldly, because our identity is anchored in a King whose kingdom is not of this world. Then Pastor Brian walks through two storms in Scripture that reframe everything. In Luke 8, Jesus calms the storm on the Sea of Galilee, and the disciples' response is not relief but fear, because they realize they had no idea who was in the boat with them. And in Matthew 27, at noon on the day Jesus was crucified, the sky went dark and Jesus cried out, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Psalm 22:1). He names what the cross actually is. It is the storm that defines Christians. You and I were asleep in a sinking boat we did not even know we were in, and Jesus went into the water for us. We may not get every "why" answered on this side of glory. But we know the why of Jesus. His why was you. That is why Christians are different about home (we build houses, not homes, because only Jesus is home), different about neighbors (we can be generous because we gave up everything to Christ already), and different in storms (we do not have all the answers, but we have the God who understands the tears). Eight people gave their lives to Christ in the seven days after this tornado through Samaritan's Purse and community ministry. The house may fall. The eternal work never does. If you have been through a storm you cannot explain, or you are watching one right now, this teaching is for you. #AllianceChurch #SundaySermon #BibleTeaching #JesusSaves #ChristianFaith #ChurchOnline #WisconsinChurch #FaithThatMoves #HopeInJesus #SermonSeries #faith #jesus #god #christianity #christian #tornado #storm #hope #grief #church #gospel #wisconsin

Why do good people quietly go bad? Almost everyone has watched it happen. Someone who used to be genuinely humble, generous, and grounded starts succeeding, and slowly, in a way nobody can quite name, they become someone their friends and family barely recognize. Pastor Trevor unpacks a 2,800 year old story that names the pattern perfectly. In this sermon, Pastor Trevor walks through the life of King Uzziah in 2 Chronicles 26. Uzziah became king at 16 years old. His father Amaziah had just been assassinated. His mother Ecolia probably whispered a mother's prayer over him that night. "God, let this one be different." And at first, he was. Verse 5 says, "He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. He sought God during the days of Zechariah. As long as he sought the Lord, God gave him success." He built. He led. He won wars. His fame spread all the way to Egypt. And then eleven verses later, one sentence changes everything. "But after Uzziah became powerful, his pride led to his downfall." He names the pattern most Christians never notice. It was not success that undid him. God gave him the success. It was what success quietly did on the inside. Somewhere between verse 5 and verse 16, Uzziah stopped seeking God. Nobody flipped a switch. He just started relying on yesterday's prayers instead of today's dependence. He walked into the temple to burn incense, a role God had reserved only for priests, and 81 priests confronted him with the most loving no of his life. He got furious. Leprosy broke out across his forehead. And the man whose fame had reached Egypt spent the rest of his life in isolation. Pastor Trevor pulls it to the point that hits home. God's boundaries are not there to limit you. They are there to protect you. When your dad grabs you before you run into the street, that no is love. Uzziah quietly stopped seeing God's commands as protection and started seeing them as limitation, and pride did the rest (Proverbs 16:18). And then Pastor Trevor lands the whole series where every counterfeit king was always pointing. Uzziah wanted access without a priest. We have access because we have the perfect high priest (Hebrews 4:14 to 16). Uzziah wore a crown and became unclean. Jesus wore a crown because we became unclean. Uzziah was driven outside the city because of his sin. Jesus was led outside the city because of ours. Uzziah spent his life separated from God's presence. Jesus was separated from the Father on the cross so that you and I would never have to be. That is the gospel. That is the good news no crown can ever carry, but Jesus already did. #AllianceChurch #SundaySermon #BibleTeaching #JesusSaves #ChristianFaith #ChurchOnline #WisconsinChurch #FaithThatMoves #HopeInJesus #SermonSeries #faith #jesus #god #christianity #christian #pride #humility #hope #success #church #gospel #warning

Why are you so tired all the time even when you sleep? A lot of us have been trying to sleep off, vacation off, or scroll off an exhaustion that no bed can actually fix. It is not physical. It is soul deep. And Pastor Brian says most of us are carrying a weight we were never built to carry. In this sermon, Pastor Brian opens the story of King Amaziah in 2 Chronicles 25. The Bible describes Amaziah with one of the most quietly haunting lines in Scripture. He "did what was pleasing in the Lord's sight, but not wholeheartedly." Not evil. Not rebellious. Just partly in. He says that quiet middle ground is where most people live and get slowly drained without ever knowing why. Amaziah's story unpacks the symptoms one by one. You inherit both the good and the bad from the people you idealize without noticing. You start to blend in, so your budget, your generosity, your forgiveness, and even your joy start looking like everyone else's. You make your own plans first and only consult God when things get bad enough to force it. You worship the gifts victory brings instead of the God who won the victory (Amaziah brought back the enemy's idols and worshiped them after God gave him the win). And eventually, you treat God as a counselor whose input you weigh, instead of Lord whose voice you obey. Then Pastor Brian pulls in the passage that opens the whole thing up. In Matthew 11, Jesus rebukes the towns of Chorazin, Bethsaida, and Capernaum for wanting his miracles but rejecting him as God. And in the very next breath he says something that changes everything. Come to me, all who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls (Matthew 11:28 to 30). Why does Jesus call the half in people weary? Because being in charge of maximizing your own life is the single most exhausting job on the planet. Choosing which advice from Jesus to take, which to skip, which parts of Scripture apply to you, which do not, carrying the weight of every outcome yourself. That is soul exhaustion, and it is what most of us have been calling normal. Jesus offers the trade. You carry obedience. He carries outcomes. Pastor Brian lands the whole thing on Matthew 6:24. You cannot serve two masters. Not because it is forbidden, but because it is impossible. Part-heartedness is not a moral failure. It is a mathematical impossibility. Your heart was not built to do it. Either Jesus is Lord, or you are, and one of those is way harder than the other. If you have been walking around exhausted in a way sleep cannot fix, this teaching is for you. The rest you have been looking for is not another day off. It is a different owner of your life. #AllianceChurch #SundaySermon #BibleTeaching #JesusSaves #ChristianFaith #ChurchOnline #WisconsinChurch #FaithThatMoves #HopeInJesus #SermonSeries #faith #jesus #god #christianity #christian #exhaustion #rest #peace #hope #church #gospel #surrender

How do you pass on your faith to the next generation? You can spend a lifetime building something good, a family, a career, a walk with God, and still watch it unravel in a single generation. If you have ever wondered why kids walk away from faith, or why the things that matter most to you do not seem to stick with the people you love, this message is for you.In this teaching, Pastor Brian opens up the story of King Rehoboam in 2 Chronicles 10. Rehoboam inherited the most successful kingdom of his day. His father Solomon was the wisest man alive, wealthy beyond description, respected by rulers around the world. And in Rehoboam's very first leadership decision, all of it split in half. Not after years of slow decline. One decision, one moment, and a civil war that Israel never fully recovered from.But here is the twist Pastor Brian draws out of the text. This is not really the story of Rehoboam's failure. Scripture repeats one small phrase about the young men Rehoboam listened to instead of the elders: they had grown up with him. The people who shaped Rehoboam were the people who walked with him. And the one person you never find walking with Rehoboam is his own father. Solomon built palaces, cities, and storehouses, but there is no record of him ever investing in his son the way David once invested in him.That is the heart of this message. Faith, wisdom, and character do not transfer by osmosis. They are not passed on through lectures, events, or even success. According to Deuteronomy 11, they are passed on through relationship, when you sit at home, when you walk along the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. Only what is passed on through relationship actually gets passed on.Pastor Brian speaks honestly to every generation here. To young people drowning in the noise of peer influence, who have to fight harder than any generation in history for the voices of experience. To parents wondering if what is in their own heart is what they want to see in their kids, because Proverbs 22:15 says foolishness is bound up in a child's heart, and love is what unbinds it. And to grandparents who have believed the lie that their most relevant years are behind them, when research and Scripture both say the opposite.And it all points to the gospel. Jesus did not send us information from a distance. He entered our lives, walked with us through failure, and loved us before we ever asked for it. Then, like every great leader, he told his followers in John 14 that they would go on to do even greater things.So the question Pastor Brian leaves us with is simple and searching: who are you walking with, and how are you walking?

Why does your faith get weaker when your life gets better? Most of us have felt it and never said it out loud. When things fall apart, we cling to God. When things fall together, we quietly forget him. And nobody warns you about the second one.In this sermon, Pastor Josiah opens up one of the most sobering stories in the Bible, King Solomon, to teach us why starting strong is nothing like finishing faithful. Solomon started with everything you would want in a leader. God poured out wisdom on him. He built the temple. He led with peace and prosperity. Kings from other lands traveled just to hear him speak. And yet by the end of his life, the wisest man who ever lived was building shrines to false gods and drifting so far from God that the entire kingdom of Israel would split in two because of it.Pastor Josiah walks us through Deuteronomy 17:16 to 17, where God gave the future kings of Israel three specific warnings. Do not multiply horses. Do not multiply wives. Do not multiply silver and gold. Not because those things were evil, but because God knew they had the power to master the human heart. Solomon knew every one of these warnings. He wrote most of the book of Proverbs. And he violated all three (1 Kings 10 and 11).Pastor Josiah pulls three sobering truths from Solomon's story. First, God's boundaries are not restrictions of joy. They are guardrails for devotion, and whatever God puts a boundary around usually points to what has power to capture your heart. Second, a lack of fear of the Lord is the invitation for erosion. Solomon did not lack wisdom. He lacked submission to the wisdom he had. Third, starting strong is not the same as finishing faithful. Faithfulness is not proven by how you begin. It is revealed by whether you continue.And then the message lands where every Counterfeit Kings sermon lands. Solomon started strong but Jesus finished faithful. Solomon had wisdom, but Jesus is wisdom. Solomon's heart was divided, but Jesus stayed perfectly surrendered. He is the true and better Solomon, and our confidence is not in our ability to hold on to him but in his ability to hold on to us.Pastor Josiah's practical challenge is worth writing down. Name what is getting too big in your life. Let one or two trusted people question your drift. Return to daily surrender. What you keep feeding will eventually start leading, and the strongest guard is not what you build around your kingdom, but what you guard in your heart.If you have been quietly drifting through a comfortable season, this teaching is for you.

Why does God allow suffering when he's supposed to be in control? Most of us have asked it quietly, especially when we hear about Christians around the world losing everything just for following Jesus. The answer is something nobody can give you better than someone who has lived through it.In this sermon, Pastor Job from Burkina Faso (the president of the Burkina Faso Alliance and a partner of our church for more than a hundred years) speaks to our congregation about what God is doing in West Africa right now. The story is hard and the story is glorious. Churches in Burkina have been attacked. Buildings have been destroyed. Pastors and coworkers have lost their lives. Brothers and sisters have been displaced by violence. And in the middle of all of it, the church has not stopped advancing.Pastor Job anchors the whole message in Matthew 16:18, where Jesus says, "I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not overcome it." The point lands differently when it comes from a man whose congregation has actually been hunted. The church does not belong to us. It belongs to Jesus. He is the one who builds it. He is the one who protects it. He is the one who keeps it advancing even when everything looks like it is being torn down.To illustrate it, Pastor Job tells the story of a king and his servant who repeated one line all the time: "everything God does is good." Even when the king lost his thumb in a hunting accident, the servant said it. The king threw him in prison for it. Then later the king got captured by people who tried to sacrifice him to their god, but they let him go because he was missing a thumb. He went home, freed the servant, and finally understood. Everything God does is good. Even the things we cannot see the purpose of yet.The numbers Pastor Job shares should silence the skeptics. In the first six months of this year alone, in a country being torn by violence, 10,500 people came to know Jesus. 745 baptisms. 38 new churches planted. 24 new missionaries sent to unreached people groups (the Lobi, Bidifor, Dagara, Djan, Senufo, Wara, and others). The gates of hell are not winning. They never were.The sermon closes with Romans 8:35 to 39. Nothing, not persecution, not famine, not danger, not death, not anything in all creation, can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus. And the parable of the body reminds us that every part of the church matters. Some are called to go, some to give, some to pray. All of it is the work of the same church being built by the same King.If you have ever wondered whether God is still building his church in a world that feels like it's falling apart, this teaching will move you.

In this Fire Away Q&A service, Pastor Brian and Dr. Dennis Episcopo sit on stage together (it just so happens to be Father's Day, and Dr. Dennis is Pastor Brian's actual dad) and answer the questions our congregation texts in live. No script, no preselected questions, no editing. Just real pastoral answers to the things people are actually wrestling with.Pastor Brian and Dr. Dennis Episcopo open with a question almost everyone new to faith eventually asks. How do you read the Bible when it feels impossibly large and confusing? They recommend starting in the Gospel of Mark or Luke (Jesus is the point of the whole Bible, so go straight to him), then layering in Proverbs for everyday wisdom, and using a basic study guide like Halley's or Unger's when you get into the Old Testament.The tithing conversation that follows is honest and not soft. Dr. Dennis Episcopo points out that Jesus endorsed tithing in the New Testament and that the principle of percentage giving (10 percent of the gross before anything else) is the only biblical percentage anywhere in Scripture. Pastor Brian shares how multiple people in the church recently told him, unsolicited, that giving sacrificially was the moment everything else in their faith and marriage started to heal.Then the conversation gets harder. If God can heal, why does he allow sickness? Their answer leans on John 9 (the man born blind, "so that the works of God might be displayed in him") and the truth that suffering matures us in ways nothing else does. Pastor Brian adds the line that lands hardest. Suffering is God asking us, am I enough?The parenting question hits anyone in the throes of raising young kids. Family dinners. Annual family only vacations. The marriage prioritized above the parenting. The line they both come back to is that more is caught than taught.They close with the Great Commission in Matthew 28. A disciple is not an egghead loaded with knowledge. A disciple is someone who makes other disciples. The Greek "as you are going" matters. Discipleship happens in the ordinary cadence of real life, not in a special program. And Jesus is with you in it.