We are one church in multiple locations. Located in Ann Arbor, Brighton, and Lansing, Michigan.
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You can check every box — the job, the family, the schedule that actually works — and still lie awake feeling like something's missing. If nothing ever quite feels like enough, this message is about why, and where that hunger is actually pointing.In this message from our series The Good Life, we walk through Matthew 5:6 — "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled." Jesus names something most of us feel but rarely say out loud: there's a difference between what we hunger for and what we actually want to hunger for. We keep going back to the same menu — approval, security, comfort, the next thing — and keep walking away unsatisfied. The promise isn't that you'll stop being hungry. It's that there's One who finally fills you.Support the show
What did Jesus really mean by "Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth"? In Matthew 5:5, meek doesn't mean weak, timid, or a pushover — it means something closer to strength under control. This message unpacks the third Beatitude and why the good life belongs to the people who stop fighting to control everything.We tend to run our lives like little kings and queens of our own small empires — controlling our image, our schedules, our future, the outcome of every hard conversation. It's exhausting, and it never quite delivers the peace we're after. The Greek word behind "meek" (praus) describes a wild horse that's been tamed: all its power still there, simply surrendered. Jesus lived this out himself — standing before Pilate with all authority in heaven and earth, and choosing restraint. This is a look at what it means to be still before God, to let go of control, and to find the peace and belonging that comes with it.Support the show
What did Jesus actually mean by "blessed are the poor in spirit"? It's the first line of the Beatitudes, the opening of the most famous sermon ever preached, and it's almost the opposite of what most of us picture when we imagine the good life. In this message from Matthew 5:3, we walk through what "poor in spirit" really means, and why Jesus says the good life belongs not to the people who have it all together, but to the ones who come empty.We tend to fill in the blank "Blessed is the one who…" with success, security, or having our life in order. Jesus fills it in differently. Using the picture of a full cup and an empty cup, this teaching unpacks why the kingdom of heaven is available right now, not later, not after you've earned it, to anyone willing to come to God open-handed. It's an honest look at the Sermon on the Mount, grace, and what it means to stop striving and start receiving.Support the show
Most of us were taught that Revelation is a map of the end of the world — dragons, beasts, and a countdown to catastrophe. But what if the whole book was actually pointing at something much closer to home? In this final message of our journey through Revelation, Pastor Tony walks through chapters 21 and 22 to show what the book was really about all along: not a prediction about the world, but an invitation to you.At the center of it is a strange, hopeful image John keeps returning to — robes. Clean ones and stained ones. Two kingdoms, two "uniforms," and one honest question underneath all the imagery: how do you actually get in? The answer isn't "try harder" or "clean yourself up first." It's the opposite. You can't scrub the stain out on your own — you're invited to come exactly as you are and let the blood of the Lamb do what your own effort never could. If you've been exhausted from trying to hold a perfect image together, this is the message that hands you a way to set it down.Support the show
Do you know if your name is in the Book of Life? In Revelation 20, John describes a moment where every person stands before God — and two books decide everything. This week, Pastor Tony Johnson unpacks what those books actually are, and why the question isn't as simple as "be a good person" or "just believe."Most of us live inside a false dichotomy. Either salvation is entirely up to Jesus and nothing you do matters, or you have to earn your way in by being good enough. Revelation 20 puts both books on the table and gives us a different way of looking at it. Because faith without works is dead — but works without faith won't save you either. So the real question isn't which one matters most. It's this: if someone read your life like a ledger, would they know you follow Jesus?Support the show
Revelation 20 is where the story finally lands: Satan is bound, released for one last rebellion, and thrown into the lake of fire for good. But the point isn't a timeline — it's that the outcome is already settled. If we know how the story ends, how should we live right now?In this message from our Revelation series, we walk through Revelation 19:19–20:10... the final battle, the thousand years, and the decisive end of evil. Like watching a game you already know the score to, the tension is real but the result isn't in doubt. The invitation is one word: stand. Stand with confidence in the moments where following Jesus actually costs you something — at work, in your family, when you're the only one — because the victory was never up for grabs.Support the show
What will it look like when Jesus actually returns? Most of us picture a Rambo-style hero charging in with a sword, but the Bible paints a very different picture, and it changes everything about how we live right now.This week at 2|42 Community Church, we walk through Revelation 19 and the moment the hero finally steps into the story. Jesus returns on a white horse, eyes like fire, wearing a robe dipped in blood but here's the thing most people miss: it's His own blood. Before there was a white horse, there was a cross. Before a crown, there were thorns. Before Jesus was the conquering King, He was the sacrificial Lamb. And He's not riding back alone, there's an army behind Him, dressed in white, following Him into final victory. The question this passage leaves us with isn't "is Jesus coming back?" It's "when He does, where will you be?"Support the show
In Revelation 17, John has already watched dragons, beasts, and armies without flinching and then one thing finally stops him in his tracks. Not something terrifying. Something beautiful. A woman called Babylon, dressed in gold, holding a cup that looks like everything you've ever wanted. That's the warning: the most dangerous things in our lives rarely look dangerous. They look like the good life.In this sixth week of our Revelation series, we walk through Revelation 17–18 andask what Babylon, "the great prostitute," actually represents — and why John keeps insisting she's not just an end-times symbol for some distant empire, but apresent-tense pull on every one of us. Babylon is what the world becomes, and what our own lives become, when we quietly slide ourselves into the center where God belongs. She promises that a little more — more success, more approval, more security will finally hold your life together. Instead, like a wheel spinningwithout a hub, it slowly shreds. That's why, right in the middle of her downfall,a voice from heaven says something tender: "Come out of her, my people." Not anaccusation. An invitation. The real question this passage leaves us with is aquiet one worth sitting with: what's actually at the center of your life right now?Support the show
Everything you've heard about the mark of the beast is probably wrong — and the truth is honestly more relevant to your Tuesday than to some far-off end times timeline. In this message from our series on Revelation, we walk through Revelation 13 and 14, decode what 666 actually meant to the people who first read it, and ask a more uncomfortable question than "what is the mark?" The real question is: what's already marking you?Because here's the idea underneath the whole chapter — everyone is already marked. The only question is which mark you're living under. Long before the spooky 666 stuff, Scripture says you carry a mark in how you think and how you live: what you give your attention to, what you worship, what's quietly shaping you without you ever signing up for it. The algorithm knows what you like and feeds it back to you. Something is always competing for your attention. This message is a reality check, and a hopeful one — because the choice of which mark you carry is actually yours.Support the show
There's a sin you keep promising yourself you'll quit — and you're starting to wonder why you can't. This message walks through Revelation 8 and 9, the seven trumpets, and one uncomfortable truth most of us feel but rarely say out loud: sin doesn't stay a choice forever. At some point you stop choosing it, and it starts choosing you.We tend to read Revelation as a map of the end of the world. But the seventh seal doesn't open onto final destruction — it opens onto the Day of Atonement and a trumpet blast that, to the people who first heard it, meant one thing: a call to come home. The trumpets aren't only about the future. They're a warning about right now — about the thing quietly enslaving you, the way it dresses itself up as harmless, and the freedom that's actually possible when you finally name it. This isn't a timeline. It's an invitation.Support the show
What if the hardest part of going through a difficult season isn't the pain itself — it's wondering if anyone actually sees it? This message from Revelation 6-7 offers something you might not expect from one of the Bible's most misunderstood books: real, grounded comfort for people in the middle of real, hard things.In this sermon, we look at what happens in Revelation 7 when everything around John is falling apart — and God pauses to seal and protect his people. Not by pulling them out of the chaos. But by marking them, sheltering them, and promising to personally wipe every tear from their eyes.This isn't a prophecy lecture. It's a word for the overwhelmed, the overlooked, and anyone quietly wondering if God knows what they're carrying right now. The answer from Scripture is clear: he does. And he's not finished.Three things this message covers:— What it means to be "sealed" by God in the middle of a broken world— Why God's protection doesn't remove suffering but is present through it— The promise of Revelation 7:17 — and why it might be the most tender verse in the whole bookSupport the show
What is true worship, really? In Revelation 4, John gets pulled into the throne room of heaven and sees something that completely redefines what worship is supposed to look like in our everyday lives.In this message from our series on the book of Revelation, we walk through the three movements of worship we see from the 24 elders around God's throne: they bow, they worship, and they lay down their crowns. And it forces a question most of us avoid — am I actually worshiping God on Monday the same way I worship Him on Sunday? Or am I praising God with my mouth and then managing my life without Him the rest of the week?If you've ever felt the tension between believing God is in control and still gripping the steering wheel of your own life, this one is for you.Support the show
What if the book of Revelation isn't actually about predicting the future? In this Week 1 sermon from our new series on Revelation, Pastor Tony walks through what John was really writing, who he was writing to, and why most of what we've been taught about end times misses the heart of the book entirely.The book of Revelation is the most often-read and most-misunderstood book of the Bible. For 2,000 years, Christians have tried to decode it — figuring out who the antichrist is, what the mark of the beast means, when Jesus will return. But Revelation was a letter before it was scripture. It was written to seven real churches under real pressure, in language they would have understood, full of Old Testament imagery (500+ references in 22 chapters).In this message, Pastor Tony unpacks the Greek meaning of "apocalypse" (it doesn't mean what you think), walks through the four main ways Christians interpret Revelation (preterist, futurist, historicist, idealist), and gives four warnings to keep in mind before you read a single chapter. He pulls in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7 to show how John's original readers understood the imagery — and what we miss when we read it through a 21st-century lens.The bottom line: what appears to be a warning about tomorrow is actually a picture of what today must be.Support the show
If you've ever felt disqualified — like you're not measuring up as a husband, a wife, a parent, a believer, or just as a person — this message is for you. In Luke 19, Jesus walks into Jericho and stops at a sycamore tree to call down a man everyone else had written off. What He did next changed Zacchaeus's life forever, and it speaks directly to anyone who's currently feeling overlooked, inadequate, or like they don't belong close to God.In this message, Pastor Elisha Poole — lead planter of Evergrove Church and a church-planting resident at 2|42 — opens up Luke 19:1-10 and walks through the moment Jesus interrupted His own schedule for one disqualified man. The sermon explores why Zacchaeus climbed the tree in the first place, what it means that Jesus saw him there, and the difference between seeing Jesus from a distance and actually getting close. Because closeness with Jesus is what produces real change — not distance, not performance, not pretending.If you've been hiding in a sycamore tree of your own — a habit, a thought pattern, a wound, a season of feeling unworthy — this is your invitation to come down.Connect with us online!Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/242communityYouTube - http://www.youtube.com/242communityWebsite - http://www.242community.comSupport the show
What does the cross actually mean for your pain?In the final week of Built Different, we look at Jesus—the ultimate example of spiritual resilience—and walk through the darkest road he ever traveled. From Luke 4 to Isaiah 53 to the crucifixion story, this message explores why Jesus came, what he endured, and how his suffering brings healing, freedom, and life to the full.If you've ever wrestled with pain, exhaustion, grief, shame, or inner turmoil, this message is an invitation to bring all of it to Jesus. He understands suffering, he carried our pain, and by his wounds we are healed.We would love for you to join us in person next weekend at any of our seven locations nearest you.Support the show
What if stress isn't always the enemy?In this message, Dr. Wes unpacks what Scripture and science reveal about anxiety, stress, and the way God designed the human body. Looking at Psalm 139:14, Isaiah 41:10, Philippians 4:6–7, and more, this teaching explores how fear, cortisol, resilience, and faith all connect.You'll hear a powerful real-life story of survival, learn the difference between a fear-based mindset and a growth-oriented mindset, and discover how speaking God's truth over your life can reshape the way you face pressure, pain, and uncertainty.If you've been feeling overwhelmed, anxious, exhausted, or mentally stuck, this message is a reminder that you are fearfully and wonderfully made—and that God is with you in whatever you're facing.Connect with us online!Instagram - http://www.instagram.com/242communityYouTube - http://www.youtube.com/242communityWebsite - http://www.242community.comSupport the show
What can we learn from the story of David and Bathsheba?In this message, we walk through 2 Samuel 11–12 and examine one of the most sobering stories in the Bible: the fall of King David. What begins with idleness quickly spirals into lust, deception, adultery, and ultimately murder. David's story is a powerful reminder of how hidden sin can slowly destroy a life.But this story isn't just about David. It's about all of us.We explore how temptation works, why sin often begins long before the moment we notice it, and how repentance is the path that leads to restoration.In this message we discuss: • The story of David and Bathsheba explained • How idleness opens the door to temptation • Why sin often leads us down a slippery slope • The importance of truth tellers and accountability in our lives • Why repentance leads to restorationDavid's story reminds us that even someone described as “a man after God's own heart” can fall. But through repentance, God offers restoration, healing, and a new path forward.⸻Scriptures in this message2 Samuel 11–12Psalm 51James 1:13–151 Samuel 13:13–14⸻0:00 The Problem We Don't Want to Admit4:56 A Simple Problem… and a Hard Truth7:24 David's First Wrong Step9:13 The Slippery Slope of Sin13:30 When Sin Leads to Destruction20:03 Nathan Confronts David26:27 Repentance Leads to Restoration30:01 Psalm 51 – David's Prayer of RepentanceSupport the show
You're not just tired. You're not just busy. You're mentally exhausted.But what if the real reason isn't your schedule… your job… or even your circumstances?In this message from 1 Kings 19, we look at the story of Elijah — a man who went from a spiritual mountaintop victory to running for his life in fear. One moment he's watching fire fall from heaven. The next, he's hiding in a cave saying, “I'm all alone.”Sound familiar?In this teaching, we unpack: • Why “when memory fades, fear grows” • How fear convinces us God is absent • Why resilience isn't built on the mountaintop — but in the spaces in between • What God's gentle whisper reveals about burnout, anxiety, and discouragement • The question God asks Elijah — and what it means for you: “What are you doing here?”If you feel drained, overwhelmed, or spiritually stuck, this message is for you.Resilience isn't about being stronger.It's about remembering God's faithfulness — and choosing obedience in the middle of fear.Support the show
Mental health struggles feel intense right now—and if it feels like there's a battle for your mind, you're not alone.In this message from our Built Different series, we look at the story of Joseph (Genesis 37–50) and what resilience looks like when life doesn't get easier… it gets harder. Joseph's story is full of promise, injustice, temptation, betrayal, and waiting—yet Scripture repeats one powerful truth: “The Lord was with Joseph.”We talk about: • Why mental health isn't something you “just slap a verse on” • The real spiritual dimension of the battle for your mind (John 10:10) • Why obedience doesn't always improve your circumstances—sometimes it intensifies them • What to do in the “middle” season between promise and fulfillment • The power of lament as an honest, biblical way to process pain • How God can redeem what was intended for harm (Genesis 50:20)If you're anxious, overwhelmed, or exhausted—this message is for you. Jesus came to give life to the full, and resilience is found by being hidden in Him.
What if generosity wasn't about guilt… but gratitude?In this message, we look at one of the most powerful examples of sacrificial giving in the Bible: the Macedonian church. Despite deep poverty and personal hardship, they gave with joy—not because they had to, but because they wanted to.So what made them so different? And what can their example teach us today—about faith, money, purpose, and what it really means to go all in?Whether you've struggled with trusting God financially or you're just wondering how generosity fits into your spiritual life… this message is for you.Support the show
Church hurt. Loneliness. Exhaustion. Many of us are wondering: Is real Christian community even possible anymore?In this raw and practical message, Mu explores why biblical community is not just important—it's essential to your spiritual growth. Whether you've been burned by church before or just feel too busy and tired to let people in, this message is a timely reminder of what God intended the church to be: a place where transformation happens together.✔ What Hebrews 10 actually teaches about meeting together✔ Why isolation is a strategy of the enemy✔ What to do if you've been hurt by the church✔ How to find (or build) a “spur club”—people who love you enough to tell you the truth✔ Why your fire goes out when you're not with the coalsYou don't need to do this alone. In fact, you weren't meant to.
You can build spiritual resilience through the stretching of life's challenges.
Don't quit. What if your past became a signpost for healing instead of holding you back?
The part you play matters more than you think. What special skills make you irreplaceable?
Life isn't a solo sport. How do your relationships set you up to win?
You were chosen for a purpose. What will you do with the life you've been given?
Your kids are not the church of tomorrow, but the church of today. You're invited to join us as we lean in and empower the next generation.
A courageous life doesn't just happen, it's intentional.
You can be a person of courage by speaking bold prayers because you are heard.
Your next courageous step will be upon the foundation of what God has already done.
A courageous person makes sure that they are right with God.
The courageous path is rarely well-traveled. Courageous people are willing to look a little crazy.
The hardest and most important step into God's promises is the first step of faith.
Courageous leaders now prepare future leaders.
The courageous act is rarely the safe act, but it is the right act.
Strength and courage are the results of a close relationship with God.
We aren't satisfied with just being disciples when we are called to also make disciples. You're invited to join us and continue to be all in for your community.
Anger can lead to sin and wreak havoc in your life, but you can learn to live a life without destructive anger.
You can choose a life of love and embrace desiring Him, the only One who can satisfy.
You are invited to eagerly pursue the life God has set before you.
Greed is a subtle thief of contentment and a fulfilled life, but you're invited to store your treasures in eternity by investing in the Kingdom of God.
Jesus modeled a life of radical humility and invites you to live a life like His.
How do you apply biblical principles to situations that aren't explicitly addressed in the Bible?
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