Emmanuel Community Church Sermon Podcast

This week's passage from 1 John 4:1-6 teaches us to beware of deception and encourages us that we can defeat deception in Jesus' name

THIS WEEKEND, we turn to 1 John 3:18-24 and even though it is a bit daunting at first read, you soon realize that John is letting us all “catch up” and be ready to move to the second half of the book. It is helpful and encouraging!

This weekend, we'll continue our study of 1 John as we look at 3:11-18. John contrasts the absence of love in Cain with the ultimate example of sacrificial love in Christ, then challenges us to live out what we believe.

THIS WEEKEND, we'll continue our journey through 1 John 2:28-3:10 as we look at one of the most incredible truths in the Bible: you are God's child now! John reminds us that God's love isn't something we earn. It's something He freely gives. And as we abide in Christ, our lives begin to reflect that family resemblance through practicing small steps of faith.

This weekend, we continue our study of 1 John by examining one of the first major examples of John's unique writing style. As we explore 1 John 2:7–11, we'll see how John repeatedly returns to key truths to help his readers better understand and apply them.

This weekend, we continue our study of 1 John by looking at the first six verses of chapter 2 and learning about our hope and the Reason for our hope, Jesus!

This weekend, we will continue our Living in the Light series through 1 John as we explore 1 John 1:5–10 together. John reminds us that walking in the light is not about pretending we have it all together. It's about honestly acknowledging our need for Jesus, confessing our sin, and trusting in His grace. And when we bring our brokenness into the light, God is faithful to forgive.

This weekend, we're beginning a brand-new series through 1 John called Living in the Light. As we explore 1 John 1:1–4 together, we'll discover John's invitation to move beyond simply knowing about God and into deeper, real fellowship with Jesus and one another.

This weekend, Pastor Denny will help us close out the His Word My Walk series by exploring Micah 6:8 and the clear call God places before His people. Together, we'll look at what truly pleases God, how His Word shapes our character from the inside out, and what it means to faithfully walk with Him in everyday life.

THIS WEEKEND, we'll explore what God's Word reveals about envy, comparison, and contentment through examples like Cain, Saul, and John the Baptist. As we look at the questions Scripture presses into our hearts, we'll discover how true joy is found not in comparison but in faithfully embracing who God made us to be for His glory.

This weekend, we'll take a look at Numbers 22:20-34. It's an odd story with a powerful point. Part comedy. Part tragedy. All true, relevant, and transformational for anyone willing to put in the work to press God's word into their hearts and lives.

We have the privilege of hearing from a former ECC staff member and current HU Campus Pastor, Mark Vincenti, this weekend. We will explore Jesus' words in John 15, a passage that inspires each of us as we seek to grow deeper in applying His Word to our walk.

This weekend, we'll take a look at an incredible story of grace in John 8:1-11. It's a story that pulls together themes and truths from all over the New Testament. It's a story that offers us a deeply helpful look into the heart of Jesus for those who find themselves exposed in their sin.

This weekend, we celebrate Resurrection Sunday with another look at the veil in God's temple. Only this time, instead of looking at it in the Old Testament, we'll look at it from the perspective of the writer of Hebrews. There we'll see what was going on behind the scenes when the veil was torn, and what that means for us as believers today.

On Good Friday, we pause to remember the cross and what Jesus has done for us. This will be a reflective time of worship, Scripture, and Communion as we step into the weight and meaning of this day together. NOTE - there are only Completed Notes for this service.

This weekend, we'll step into Holy Week with a look at a detail it's easy to miss when we talk about the Triumphal Entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, His death, and His resurrection. We're going to look at the veil in the temple that set apart the Holy of Holies. While Mark 11:1-11 doesn't speak to the veil directly, it does show us Jesus' focus on the temple, and how that set the scene for all that would come next.

THIS WEEKEND, we conclude our study of Paul's epistle to the Galatians. Paul has made his appeal that his readers would stand firm in gospel freedom. And he's explained how anyone who has simply accepted God's forgiveness and love by faith alone through the cross of Christ can follow the Holy Spirit's lead into a new way of living like Jesus. Now in Galatians 6:11-18, Paul takes the pen from his assistant and adds one last push to his letter with particular force in his own bold print.

This weekend, we'll follow Paul deeper into his explanation of what it looks like to be led by the Spirit. In Galatians 6:1-10, we'll be invited to take all that we've heard so far and begin applying it to a few more key areas of our lives.

This weekend, we'll continue our exploration of the role of the Holy Spirit in our journey of transformation into the image of Jesus as we dig into Galatians 5:19-26. We'll see how Paul brings his conversation with the Galatians back around to simple gospel clarity.

This weekend, we'll follow Paul as he shifts his letter to the Galatians into an exploration of what it looks like to live in Gospel Freedom. In Galatians 5:13-18, we'll begin to explore what it means to walk in the Spirit.

This weekend, we finish our series called Sons and Daughters. We'll be in Galatians 4:21-5:1 and look at Paul in a familiar story from what may be a new angle for us. We'll get a look at another way the Lord was weaving gospel freedom into His Word from the beginning.

This weekend, our study of Galatians continues in chapter 4, verses 12-20. We'll see Paul shift from making his case to making a pastoral plea to anyone who is struggling with the idea that they have to earn God's love.

This weekend, we'll explore what it means to move from slavery to sonship, why Paul is so alarmed that the Galatians want to turn back, and how crying out “Abba, Father” reshapes the way we live...especially when life gets hard.

This weekend, we'll finish our study of Galatians chapter 3 before launching into chapter 4 next week. As Paul continues to plead for the hearts of the Galatians, he'll call them to turn from the childlessness of rule-keeping to the maturity of faith.

THIS WEEKEND, we'll look at Galatians 3:15–22 and trace Paul's argument back to its roots. He reminds the Galatians that God's promise to Abraham ultimately finds its fulfillment in Christ. The Law, which came later, serves a purpose, but it was never meant to replace the promise. Together, we'll explore how this strong reminder still speaks to our modern temptation to earn what's already been given by grace.

This weekend, we'll move deeper into the core of Paul's appeal to believers who are tempted to shift their dependence from simple faith in Jesus to their own ability to follow the rules. In Galatians 3:10-14, Paul uses the Law to prove that rule keeping was never intended to give us the life we're looking for.

This weekend, we'll step back into our study of Galatians by picking it up in chapter 3. There, we'll see the apostle Paul shift his letter to the wayward Galatian church into gear. Up to this point, he has been making the case that distorting the gospel destroys it. Now, like a courageous and loving friend, he confronts his readers with the fact that they're wrong. They've fallen for a dangerous false gospel that we're all prone to fall for if we're not careful.

This weekend, all of our services are online only. Instead of gathering in person, we'll worship from home and walk through a short version of our Annual Examen, taking time to look back on the past year with gratitude and prepare our hearts for the year ahead. We encourage you to engage in this moment with family, friends, or your Community Group. A short version of the Annual Examen is included in the completed sermon notes to help guide you through this time of reflection. If you'd like more space to reflect, we've also created an extended version of the Annual Examen, which you can access HERE. Our Kids' team has also prepared weekend worship resources for your children, which you can find HERE.

Our Christmas Eve services will conclude our Christmas series. We've been tracking God's promise from Genesis 3:15 through centuries of Scripture. We've been learning from God's people to cultivate our hope in His guarantee that He'll make all things new through the Promised Child. And as we prepare our hearts for Christmas morning, we'll see how God's word makes it clear that Jesus is the One who'd been promised all along. His birth was the beginning of the fulfillment of God's promise to make all things new.

This weekend our Christmas series will continue to track God's promise of salvation from Genesis 3:15 into 2 Samuel 7. There we'll see the Lord focus His promise with another promise to a ruler named David. What the Lord wants His people to understand is that the best way to honor His promise is to simply receive it as a gift.

Our Christmas series continues to follow God's promise of restoration through Genesis and into the life of Abraham. In Genesis 22, we'll see faith and hope collide with a deeply unsettling challenge in Abraham's journey with God. And we'll get a good look at what's possible when faith and hope win out in our lives.

This weekend, we will continue our Christmas series, cultivating our hope in the promised Child. As we track that promise through Genesis, we'll see what God has to say about maintaining hope when things get tough.

THIS WEEKEND, we will begin a series called The Promised Child that will carry us through the Christmas season. It will be a conversation about hope and the waiting that comes between a promise and its fulfillment. It will also be a look at the story of the Bible, and how it all revolves around a promise God made in Genesis chapter three.

This weekend, we're stepping out of our Galatians series for one week to study a man who knows how to show thanks. Luke 17:11–19 is a wonderful reminder of what the Lord has done for each of us, in so many ways, and how we're called to demonstrate our thankfulness as we head into Thanksgiving.

This weekend, we'll finish out the second chapter of Galatians. After laying the groundwork for his overall agenda, Paul will establish his main argument for the rest of the book in Galatians 2:17-21. He's going to cast a vision for the life we're missing out on when we cling to earning.

This weekend, we're walking through Galatians 2:11-16, where Paul confronts Peter in one of the most important moments in the early church. It's a story about conflict, courage, and what it looks like to live with gospel freedom.

This weekend, we'll face a difficult truth: you can't hold on to both legalism and the Gospel at the same time. In Galatians 2:1–10, Paul recounts his meeting in Jerusalem to defend the true Gospel — a timely reminder for anyone tempted to add rules where God offers grace.

This weekend, we'll begin our verse-by-verse study of Galatians. The apostle Paul opens his letter with a passionate call to get back to gospel clarity. In Galatians 1:1-9, we'll see that the major themes of the letter are rooted in its first few sentences.

THIS WEEKEND, we will wrap up our series Coming Home and the story about a father and his two wayward sons in Luke 15:11–32.

THIS WEEKEND, we will continue our study of Jesus' story about a father and his two wayward sons in Luke 15:11-32. While the son who ran away was obviously lost, the son who stayed home was lost as well, perhaps even more so. The good news is that the Father's love pursues them both and points the way home. We will also share in Holy Communion together this weekend

This weekend, we'll step into a story Jesus told in Luke 15:11-32 about two sons who had a broken story in their minds about their dad, just like we often do about our Heavenly Father. The best part about Jesus' story is that it helps us get our story straight. It shows us what God's heart toward us really is. And that's a story worth telling.

This weekend, we will continue letting His Word shape Our Walk as we begin a new journey through the book of Galatians.

Our long partnership with Wycliffe continues today as we come alongside them to help complete a Bible Translation project already underway. Over the next two weekends, you'll see how this project is transforming lives—and how we can play a role in making Scripture accessible to all.

This Labor Day weekend, we'll examine Ephesians 6:5-9 together, a passage that may challenge our perspective on work. We'll be encouraged by what God may have in store for us as we approach next Tuesday, the return to work for many of us!

This weekend, we're going to continue in John chapter 10 and follow some key insights into what it means to follow our Good Shepherd. We'll trace the path Peter walked as one of Jesus' disciples who had heard His teaching on being a good shepherd.

This weekend, we'll begin a two-week series on a key theme in John's gospel: Jesus as the Good Shepherd (John 10). While confronting the religious leaders, He was also giving His disciples—including Peter—the truth that would soon unfold in powerful ways. As we follow this theme through John, we'll see how it continues to shape our own lives today.