Emmanuel Community Church Sermon Podcast

This weekend, we're looking at a letter from Paul to his long-distance friends in Philippi. He reminds them that even when he's far away, the Lord is near. And because of that, they can draw near to each other too

This weekend, we'll continue our study of Philippians by unpacking chapter 1 verses 18-30. There we will listen in as Paul processes his commitment to the Christian community and how it was rooted in his commitment to Jesus.

This weekend we'll continue our series, "God is Near" by digging into Philippians 1:3-18. As Paul opens his letter to a church he founded, he'll give us a good look at what it is that ties healthy believers together - the common mission that drives Christian community.

This weekend we will kick off our Spring Series called, "The Lord is Near." We'll begin a study of Philippians with a broad overview of this incredible epistle. We'll unpack the first two verses, and discover the key themes of the book. And we'll see how Philippians is a great place to get equipped for Christian community.

During Easter services we'll focus on the resurrection of Jesus to a new eternal life and how we are invited to share in that life with Him. In both cases we'll continue to explore how fulfilled Scripture points us to the fulfillment we're all longing for.

In this Good Friday service, we'll offer an opportunity to engage with the truth of Christ's loving sacrifice on the cross and to share in communion together.

This weekend, we'll enter into Holy Week and celebrate Palm Sunday together. We'll consider the way that Jesus' words and actions around His triumphal entry fulfilled a centuries old prophecy in Isaiah 53. And we'll consider how a proper understanding of Jesus can lead us to our own fulfillment.

We conclude our study of 1 Samuel 25 as a case study on peacemaking. We look at the second half of the chapter and we see how the story ends. In the process, we will get a masterclass of peacemaking from Abigail, a look at how a godly person handles correction in David, and a final call to consider how we can avoid ending up like Nabal.

This weekend, we'll look at conflict through the lens of an Old Testament story that often goes unnoticed. In 1 Samuel 25, we'll see a tense situation that involves three people. Each of them will contribute to the conflict in radically different ways. We'll see an offender, one who is offended, and a peacemaker. Each of them have something to teach all of us as we seek to be disciples of Jesus who, like Him, are peacemakers. NOTE - This is Part 3 of a series of message. Click HERE to find the messages in Part 1 and HERE to find Part 2 messages.

This weekend, we explore the two choices Jesus presented to the crowd from Matthew 7:24-29 and discover what it means to build a life that truly lasts.

In our look at Genesis 22:1-14, we will learn three valuable lessons about the Lord's provision and we'll see that God has many names. Each one amplifies His complexity and His capabilities.

We wrap up the This is Us series where we will revisit our theme of His Word, Our Walk and the 7 Core Values that make up who we are as a body of believers.

This weekend we'll examine our seventh and last core value at ECC. Emmanuel Community Church is Courageous. We're called to do difficult things, and often we don't feel very courageous. So how do we shift from fear or frustration to biblical courage? We'll look to Psalm 46 to see what the Lord has to say about shifting into calm courage.

This week, we'll see that God has called us to be a church that is Missional and how that drives us to be the hands and feet of Jesus in Fort Wayne and around the world.

In this message, we continue exploring our core values in our series "This is Us." Our fifth core value is that ECC is "Transformational." As we dig into what that means, we'll see that God has called each of us to a life of personal growth and change that runs deeper than we might expect.

This weekend, we'll work through our fourth core value at Emmanuel, being RELATIONAL. We'll see that seeking to build healthy relationships - as messy and challenging as they can be - is central to what it means to be a disciple of Jesus.

We will be focusing on our third core value of authentic living. We strive to be open and honest about ourselves, taking off the masks we might be used to wearing.

In this message, we will heat up our second core value - that Emmanuel always strives to be Biblical. We'll spend most of our time exploring 2 Timothy 3:16-17 and see how it describes the way the Bible gives us traction for life.

This weekend, we will explore our first core value in Colossians 1:13-20 and recognize that first and foremost Emmanuel is Christ-centered.

We will kick off our series, "This is Us" with a look at our purpose as a church. We'll explore some of the key passages that have informed our purpose from the beginning. And we'll see what's behind our overarching theme, "His Word, Our Walk."

Hebrews 12:1-2 is the point in the book where the writer transitions from a lot of deep teaching (His Word) to an extended conversation about how to apply that teaching (Our Walk). It's a short text but packed with helpful direction on how to move beyond a resolution and into a life of endurance in our walk with Jesus.

In our last message of 2024, we will walk you through Psalm 139. We invited you to gather with friends or family, where in the message you will be set up well to use materials provided in the sermon notes to do some self-examination together focused on the year you just lived out. The goal is to invite the Lord and fellow believers to help you consider how you will approach the new year the Lord has blessed you with. NOTE - This service is ONLINE only and is pre-recorded. There are only completed notes for this service.

This message concludes the Path of Peace series on Christmas Eve.

As we move closer to Christmas, we will step back into Zechariah's story in Luke chapter one. When his pain had skewed him toward doubt, God gave him the severe mercy of silence. But God's mercy didn't stop there. As we consider what happened next for Zechariah, we will get a good look at how we can follow God's mercy out of our doubt and into a faith that leads us to peace in Christ.

We will follow Mary from her first moment of submission to the Lord through her next faithful steps. We'll get a chance to learn from the behavior of someone who is capable of deep and courageous faith.

We continue our series, The Path of Peace," by following the gospel of Luke into the story of Mary, the mother of Jesus. Just as Zechariah's path of peace began with an angelic visit, we'll see Mary challenged with her own journey by a direct intervention from the Lord.

We will step into a new series called, "The Path of Peace." We'll work through Luke 1 and 2 as it walks us up to and through the gospel account of the birth of Jesus. We'll begin with the account of a Jewish priest named Zechariah, who finds himself face-to-face with an angel. But where we might expect a devout servant of God to respond with humble faith, he actually demonstrates doubt and takes the angel to task. We'll see that familiarity really can breed contempt. But that's not where the story ends.

It's hard to know how to sufficiently say “Thank you” for the roles ECC people play in the church and community. But anything we do pales in comparison to a day that is coming. I'm calling it Thanksgiving Upside Down. Instead of us expressing our thanks to God, this is a day of reversal in which the Lord has chosen to express thanksgiving to us! Is that surprising to you? How does it work? Join us this weekend as we investigate this upcoming day.

We conclude our conversation about forgiveness in Colossians 2:13-14. It's a short text, but it's packed with meaning and value for us as we seek to get a better handle on such a critical aspect of Christianity. We're called to be people who forgive from the heart, and the best way to get a handle on that is to understand the way that God has forgiven us.

This message will revisit and continue a series we started and stepped away from months ago called, "How to Make Peace." We had unpacked Matthew 18:15-20, and the four stages Jesus gave us for working through reconciliation with someone who has sinned against us. But there's one critical piece to peacemaking that we still need to unpack together. And that's the issue of forgiveness. So, we'll turn our attention to Matthew 18:21-35 and explore how forgiveness works, and why it's fundamental to being a Christian.

This message will conclude our series called “Even If…” In Daniel chapter six we'll look at a story that is typically called “Daniel and the Lions' Den.” What we'll find though, is that it's not about the lions at all. It's a story about deliverance that will answer a key question for this series and for the times of adversity that we're navigating as a culture. And the question is, “What's it all about?”

This message will lead us into Daniel chapter five and will walk us through the Lord's interaction with another Babylonian king who had a big lesson to learn. We'll see that the lessons the Lord offers us are not for trivia or entertainment. They're for our instruction to help us yield to the Lord and find life in Him.

This message will continue with Daniel chapter 4 and a run-in between King Nebuchadnezzar and the Lord. The question this story will ask and answer is this: “Who holds the power?” It's an important question for us to ask as it relates to our own influence, but even more so as we relate to the powers we find ourselves under.

This weekend we will look at Daniel 3 together. We'll see Daniel's friends display uncommon calm in the face of certain death at the hands of a raging king. More importantly, we'll get a look at where that courage comes from, and how we can take steps toward experiencing that same calm courage in our own lives.

We will continue our study of Daniel chapter 2. We'll watch as God directly challenges King Nebuchadnezzar's perspective on himself and the world. As Nebuchadnezzar the king is confronted with the fact that he has a King, we'll be confronted with the question, "Who's on the throne?"

This message will go deeper into the story of Daniel's experience as God's emissary to the nation of Babylon. As we step into Daniel Chapter 2, we will see a godly person model what it looks like to turn to the Lord in the face of intense struggles.

This message begins our study of Daniel 1-6. We will be introduced not only to Daniel himself but to the core elements of what sustains and drives God's people when they are in exile in a hostile land.

This message frames our study of Daniel 1-6 by looking at God's word to Daniel and his fellow exiles in Jeremiah 29:1-14. Where we might be tempted to give in to our own ideas of how we should relate to the world around us, God has a clear message for His people when they find themselves up against the wall in their culture.

In this stand-alone message, we'll take a look at Luke 22 and dig into the meaning embedded in the Lord's Supper. There is a lot to learn about this critical element of our life together as a church, and how it provides a regular opportunity to refresh and refocus in the middle of our busy and ever-changing situations.

This weekend Sam Ward will be sharing a stand-alone message, "Who Said That to You?" We will be diving into Genesis and taking a look into when "advice" may be deceit in disguise.

This weekend, we will step into a psalm of praise. Psalm 145 will guide us as we process the harvest of sovereign love and grace we saw the Lord work out in Naomi's life in Ruth chapter 4. If we have turned to the same God Naomi turned to, then we have a lot to praise Him for.

This weekend, we see how the story of Naomi in the Book of Ruth ends. We've walked with her through her famine, her waiting, and her growing; and now we get to see the harvest God had in store for her the whole time.

We'll begin our study of Ruth chapter four as the book moves toward its conclusion. While Naomi and Ruth wait for God's redemption, Boaz snaps into action. We'll follow along as he reflects God's heart and fights for the security and future of those who have sought refuge in the Lord.

This weekend, we'll take another moment to reflect on the stories of Naomi and Ruth, exploring their journeys. We will also reflect on our own experiences, examining them through the insightful lens of Psalm 107.

We continue in Ruth chapter 3 and find Ruth, Boaz, and Naomi navigating a complicated and high-stakes plot twist that threatens the redemption they've been hoping for. The question is whether they will give in to false narratives and slide into bitterness, or allow God to lead them to the truth.

We begin Ruth 3 in our summer series, “Growing, the book of Ruth”. In this chapter, the “waiting” time is over. God is prompting action that will change the lives of Naomi, Ruth and Boaz forever.

We will do our second message in "Gleaning, the book of Psalms" in which we reflect on the lessons learned in our summer series, “Growing, the book of Ruth”. In Ruth 2, Naomi has begun thinking that maybe, just maybe she can hope again. We will spend time in Psalm 121, a psalm of hope.

We will continue our journey through chapter two of the book of Ruth. We'll see how God used the kindness of Boaz to stir up hope in the heart of a woman who was completely shut down in bitterness. And in that story, we'll experience an invitation to cultivate our hope as we walk through our own challenges.

We'll step back into our study of the Book of Ruth. We'll begin unpacking chapter two and follow along as Naomi and Ruth discover together whether their return to God and His people was worth it. Naomi left Israel with one narrative about God that has left her bitter and frustrated. As she revisits her old stomping grounds and her old narratives from a new vantage point, we'll see that God has some surprises in store.

We will hit pause on our summer series, "Growing, the book of Ruth", and shift to our first message in "Gleaning, the book of Psalms". We will spend time in Psalm 142, a psalm of lament.

We will continue our Series in the book of Ruth chapter one. We will walk a hard road with Naomi and Ruth. And along the way we will see God give Naomi room to get more and more clear about her deep hurt. We'll see how God's grace gives room for our grief, and how the road to redemption involves getting honest and open about what's ailing us.