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What do you do when the law has a gap and your family’s name is about to vanish? Five sisters in Numbers 27 stood before Moses and asked for the land their father had no son to inherit. Matt and Wes start there, fresh off Wes’s trip to Romania, then land on harder questions. How do you speak up without burning things down? Is boldness the same as rebellion? And what happens when God hears your case and doesn’t agree? Along the way they wade into the rabbis’ wild guesses about these women’s ages, and wonder why most of us can’t name them. The daughters of Zelophehad never made it into most children’s Bible storybooks, and that might say something about whose stories we’ve been telling. This conversation follows up on Wes’s sermon “The Fearless Daughters of Zelophehad (Numbers 27:2-7).” Listen to the full message here.

Lazarus is dead, and Jesus is furious. Not at Mary. Not at Martha. At death itself. Barrett and Wes dig into the anger Jesus felt at that tomb, the grief that doesn't need an apology, and why no one should hate death as much, or fear it as little, as Christians. They also talk about the moving response of a sister who has been praying about her cancer diagnosis. Plus listener questions on being honest with God without being disrespectful, and why Jesus telling Martha "believe and you will see" might be harder to live than it sounds. This conversation follows up on Wes's sermon "Come and See the Pain and Disappointment." Listen to the full message here.

Married five times. Alone at the well at noon. We've built an entire sermon tradition on assuming those two facts mean she was a social outcast, a moral failure hiding from her town. But is that exegesis, drawing the meaning out of the text, or eisegesis, reading our own assumptions into it? Barrett sits down with Wes to work through a batch of listener questions from Sunday's message on John 4: how far it's fair to lean on extra-biblical history when Scripture stays silent, why the Jews and Samaritans wouldn't speak to each other despite sharing Jacob as an ancestor, and what actually changed Wes's mind about this woman years ago. They also unpack the story of Nicodemus, coming to Jesus at night while this woman comes in broad daylight, and why that contrast might matter more than we often realize. This conversation follows up on Wes's sermon, "Come and See the One Who Knows You" from September 13 — listen to the full message here: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/episode/the-one-who-knows-you

"A student of evangelism, but not a practitioner." Is that how you would describe yourself? Matt Mead sits down with Wes the Monday after he kicked off a new series in John called "Come and See," McDermott Road's guest friendly launch to Friends and Family Month. They talk about why the best evangelists Wes has ever known never had a strategy, a curriculum, or an answer for every objection. They just loved people and loved Jesus, and wanted to connect the two. Wes traces that all the way back to Andrew, one of the least famous apostles. Along the way, a listener question about angels in John 1:51, and why having all the answers was never the point. This conversation follows up on Wes's sermon "Come and See the Son of God (John 1:35-51)" — listen to the full message here: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/episode/come--see-the-son-of-god

Does letting God do the work mean sitting still while bad things happen? Barrett and Wes work through the mailbag from two weeks of James: why joy and mourning aren't opposites, who's actually safe to confess your sins to (James 5:16), and what to do when someone you love is dying without Christ and every door to talk about it seems closed. They also sit with the hardest question of all, what unanswered prayer does to your faith, and why the resurrection changes what "unanswered" even means. This conversation follows up on Wes's sermon "Words that Hurt, Words that Heal" — listen to the full message here.

Driving home from worship Sunday, Wes caught himself calling someone a name. Minutes after preaching that no one can tame the tongue. That's the whole point of James 3. Wes and Matt Mead dig into the bit in a horse's mouth, the rudder on a ship, the spark that burns down a forest, and the uncomfortable test James gives for whether the Spirit is actually shaping us: not what we say about God, but what we say about the people we don't like. They also work through a listener's question that cuts close for anyone who wants to speak truth without becoming the kind of person who enjoys landing the blow. Where's the line between conviction and cursing? This conversation follows up on Wes's sermon "Out of Both Sides of Your Mouth." Listen to full sermon here: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/out-of-both-sides-of-your-mouth/

Does James 2 actually contradict Paul on faith and works? It's one of the most common objections raised against the book, and Barrett brings it straight to Wes: how do you square "faith without works is dead" with Paul's "saved by grace, not by works" in Ephesians 2:8-10? They also dig into James 1:6, what our translations render as "doubt" but the New Living Translation calls "divided loyalty," and what James means when he warns against being a "friend of the world." Then a harder, practical question a listener sent in: what do you actually owe someone on the street who might use your money for drugs? If you've ever wondered how James and Paul fit together, or what loyalty to Jesus costs in your actual, everyday life, this one's for you. This conversation follows up on Wes's sermon "Don't Tell Me, Show Me" (James 2:14-26). Listen to the full message here: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/dont-tell-me-show-me/

This week's sermon started with complete silence and it was met with two very different reactions. It was a sermon that launched, "Talk is Cheap," a new series through the book of James, a book that reveals how convincingly we can lie to our own hearts without noticing. Wes and Matt dig into a neuroscientist's claim that up to 80% of what we tell ourselves daily isn't even true, why James calls the tongue something that has to be bridled, and why anger might be less about righteousness and more about protecting our own mess from being seen. The harder question, the one they don't fully resolve: which of your own stories have you never let anyone examine?

Why does the book of Nehemiah, a book about rebuilding and revival, end on such a negative note? Wes and Barrett close out the Ezra-Nehemiah series by sitting with an ending that refuses to wrap up neatly; reform, repentance, celebration, then Nehemiah's anger and frustration. It's not the ending you might expect, and maybe that's the point. This episode explores why Scripture sometimes leaves us disillusioned on purpose, what it means to receive the good life instead of achieving it, and how that shifts the way we parent, forgive, and show up to worship. Wes also answers a question from his own son about how to actually let God fix things instead of white-knuckling it yourself — and why living in the tension of "already but not yet" might be the most honest way to hold hope and grief together. To listen to this Sunday's sermon, "The Law Rebuilds Commitment to God" visit: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/the-law-rebuilds-commitment-to-god/

Nehemiah led the Jewish people in rebuilding the walls, but that wasn't his primary goal. Would it surprise you to hear that Nehemiah failed to accomplish his primary goal? On this episode of the P.S. Podcast, Matt Mead talks with Wes McAdams about Sunday's sermon on Nehemiah, and the strange gap between what Nehemiah accomplished and what he set out to do. They also dig into the difference between guilt and shame, why well-intentioned leaders can do real damage when they prioritize projects over people, and what it means to look for glory in all the wrong places. It's a conversation about brokenness, patience, and where our hope actually belongs. This episode is a follow up to Sunday's sermon, "Nehemiah Rebuilds the Walls" (https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/nehemiah/).

What do you do with a Bible story that doesn't sound like the God you know? In Ezra 9–10, a godly, Bible-loving priest orders a mass divorce, sending vulnerable women and children away, and the book just ends. Was he right? Wes McAdams and Barrett Bingham wrestle with one of Scripture's most troubling passages: how to tell when the Bible is prescribing and when it's merely describing, what the prophet Malachi might say about it all, and why well-meaning, God-fearing people so often make bad situations worse. Plus, listener questions about staying friends with someone practicing demonology, wrestling with sins committed after baptism, and loving LGBTQ neighbors without compromising the truth. If you've ever read a Bible story and thought, "That can't be right," this conversation is for you. This week's full sermon, "Ezra Rebuilds the People," can be found at: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/ezra-rebuilds-the-people/

Ever feel like you did everything right, and it's still not enough? The returned exiles rebuilt the temple, but it didn't look like the good old days and they didn't live happily ever after. Sound familiar? This week Wes and Matt discuss Sunday's sermon, and a new series through Ezra and Nehemiah called Unfinished Business. They talk about how disillusionment quietly slides into discouragement and distraction. They dig into why churches — and individuals — reach for what's easy instead of what's hard, what it means to hold grief and joy in the same hand during worship, and why every generation is tempted to believe its moment is the grand finale. If you've ever wondered whether faithfulness is worth it when nothing seems finished, this conversation meets you there. This conversation was prompted by the sermon, "Zerubbabel Rebuilds the Temple" (preached Sunday, July 5). You can find that full sermon here: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/zerubbabel-rebuilds-the-temple/

"I'm trying to forgive myself," it's something many of us have said. However, here's a question that might stop you cold: where does the Bible actually tell you to forgive yourself? In his Father's Day sermon, Wes made the case that it doesn't. That may sound controversial until you realize how freeing it is to realize that you don't have the authority to extend forgiveness to, or withhold forgiveness from, yourself. In this episode, Wes and Barrett unpack that surprisingly liberating claim from 1 John 1:5–10. If you're stuck replaying old failures, trying to convince God you're worth saving, or wondering whether your sin is somehow the exception, this conversation could be incredibly encouraging. The way out isn't self-forgiveness, it's self-forgetfulness. This conversation revolves around the sermon, "Don't Freak Out When You Mess Up." Which can be found at: https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/when-you-mess-up/

Someone tells you you're wrong — and instantly your chest tightens, your jaw sets, your defenses go up. Why does being corrected feel like being attacked? And what are we supposed to do with that flash of anger when it hits us in our own homes, with the people we love most? This week on the P.S. Podcast, Wes McAdams and Barrett Bingham circle back to Sunday's "Don't Freak Out" sermon from 1 Peter 3:1–7 — a passage often weaponized, badly misread, and quietly avoided. They dig into a listener's honest confession ("it triggers my anger"), the difference between feeling attacked and actually being attacked, and how Jesus responded when he was reviled. There's also a hard look at how this text has been misused in marriages. If criticism sends you spiraling, this conversation will meet you right where you are. This conversation revolves around the sermon, "Don't Freak Out: When Someone Says You're Wrong" https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/when-someone-says-you-are-wrong/

What do you do when someone you love is doing something wrong; not just annoying, but genuinely sinful? Most of us default to one of two extremes: we either avoid the conversation entirely or we talk about the person to everyone except them. Neither path leads anywhere good. In this episode of the P.S. Podcast, Wes and Matt unpack Jesus' teaching in Matthew 18 about confronting sin in the family, and the conversation goes places you might not expect. What does it actually mean to approach someone with the "mind of Christ"? What's the difference between gossip and accountability? And what do you do when someone brings you gossip? The answers challenge some deeply ingrained habits; and they all keep coming back to one thing. You can listen to the full sermon, "Don't Freak Out When There's Sin in the Family" at https://www.ccmcdermott.org/sermons/when-theres-sin-in-the-family/