Jesus

After the Cross of Christ

Because of Jesus' resurrection, everything has changed. 

In our previous sermon series, we unpacked the significance of Jesus' atoning death on the Cross. For this series, we're shifting our focus to a short period immediately after Jesus' death and resurrection, and all that entails for us as we grow in following Jesus together.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Easter

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Breakfast on the Beach

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: The Road to Emmaus

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: The Ascension

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Stand-Alone | Easter 2025

SUNDAY SERMON

Sermon by Ant Frederick on April 20, 2025.

Christ has risen and ascended to the right hand of the Father where He reigns and intercedes for us as our Great High Priest!

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The Cross of Christ

It has been said that atonement is like a multi-faceted diamond. What Christ accomplished on the cross is massive, and its window into the heart of God is grand. In this series, we study the many things Jesus’ death and resurrection achieved as we prepare our hearts and minds for Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Substitution

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: The Cross as the Cure for Shame

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Redemption

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Adoption

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5:

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6:

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

JAMES

To faithfully follow Jesus, our faith must be marked by action. Our belief should lead us into good works and obedience. In the book of James, we are challenged by the brother of Jesus to examine the authenticity of our faith and to ensure that it fills each area of our everyday lives.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Complete & Lacking Nothing (James 1:1-12)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: When He Is Tempted (James 1: 13-18)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Be Doers of the Word, and Not Hearers Only (James 1:19-2:13)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Is It Faith? (James 2:14-26)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Taming the Tongue (James 3:1-18)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: What Causes Quarrels Among You? (James 4:1-12)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: You Are a Mist (James 4:13-5:6)

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 8: Establish Your Hearts

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Revelation | The Advent of Jesus

SERMONS | ADVENT PROJECTS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

The word Advent means “arrival,” and this time of year, the global church celebrates the arrival of the birth of Jesus. But this celebration is not an end in itself. It’s a reason to hope as we look ahead to the second Advent - the return of Jesus. 

For the next four weeks, we’re looking at the book of Revelation and what Jesus’ second Advent will look like. Far from being a book filled with hidden codes and secrets, Revelation teaches us how to live between the first and second Advent. Because Jesus was born, we can live with the hope that Jesus will return. All our hope for the future is tied to a baby that gives us a “no matter what” hope for the future.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: The Lion & The Lamb That Is Worthy

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Signs Of Victory

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: The Coming Praise

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: All Things New

(Sermon)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "TWO NOTCH" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Stand-Alone | Harmonious Joy

Sermon by Justin Gates on November 24, 2024.

We are often distracted many different things that gain our attention and focus.  This week we look at the Apostle Paul's words that show us 3 distinct benefits of focusing our attention on the Lord.

Hebrews | Christ & the New Covenant

SERMONS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

Near the tail end of our Year of Biblical Literacy, we come to the rich, dense book of Hebrews. It’s full of callbacks and history, threads pulled from all across the Old Testament. The author assumes intimate knowledge of the old covenant –the sacrificial system, the tabernacle, the promised land–and then shows that they were incomplete, only “copies and shadows.” 

Each is an arrow pointing to Christ, who himself becomes the mediator of the new covenant–the perfect high priest, the meeting place between God and man, the source of eternal rest for those united to him.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Christ and the New Covenant

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: The Descent and Ascent of Christ

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Do Not Harden Your Hearts

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Stand-Alone: Following Jesus Like Ananias

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Take Care, Brothers

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: Jesus, The Ultimate Temple, Priest, & Sacrifice

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: The Hall of Faith

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 8: Lay Aside Every Weight

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 9: Do Not Regard Lightly The Discipline Of The Lord

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "TWO NOTCH" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

The Gospel | The Kingdom of God is at Hand

SERMONS | RESOURCES | TEXT-IN QUESTIONS

How would you summarize Jesus’ teachings? Depending on who you ask, you’re likely to get different answers. However, Jesus’ summary statement is actually one of his first statements in the Gospels: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

In other words, Jesus’ life and teachings are all about ushering in God’s loving rule and reign on Earth as it is in Heaven. So what might His kingdom look like in our city, and how do we faithfully follow Him in our time and place?

Join us for five weeks as we examine Jesus’ teachings and consider how we can experience more of His kingdom in Columbia as it is in Heaven.

This series is part of our Year of Biblical Literacy initiative.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: The Kingdom of God Is at Hand

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: The Acceptance You’ve Always Wanted

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Forgiveness In The Kingdom

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: The Soil Of The Kingdom

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Honored In The Kingdom

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Check out our Year of Biblical Literacy site for more articles, podcasts, and book recommendations.

BOOKS | COURSES | ARTICLES

Throughout the year, we want to know the concepts and passages you wrestle with. We'll answer some of these questions in podcast episodes throughout the year.

To submit your topic or question, text "TWO NOTCH" followed by your topic to 855-855-0655.

Advent 2023

SERMONS | ADVENT GUIDE | ADVENT PROJECTS

"Advent" means "arrival." And since the early church, God's people have celebrated the arrival of Jesus' birth during this time of year. As we remember his first arrival, we also look ahead to Jesus' promised second arrival - when He will return and make all things new. So, each week, we'll look at different aspects of Christ's coming and how that should shape how we think, feel, and react to the Christmas season.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Hope

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Peace

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Joy

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Love

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

To help us prepare our hearts for the Christmas season, we wrote an Advent devotional guide for you and your LifeGroup to work through during this season. The suggested donation is $8 per copy.

One of our goals as a church family is to be generous people. So every year around the holidays, we press into generosity to think about God’s generosity to us and to talk about how we can grow in walking in the kind of generous love He’s shown to us. 

This year, we are focusing on three practical ways to grow in generosity:

#1. Start tithing

We consider tithing a spiritual practice that helps develop a lifestyle of sacrificial generosity. We are encouraging members of our church to set up a recurring tithe because the gospel transforms us not just to be generous around the holidays but throughout the entire year. It’s also specifically how we fund and fuel all we do as a church in our city.

#2. Personal Finance Seminar

We want to equip our church family to be spiritually healthy by stewarding the financial resources God has entrusted us. On January 27 from 9am-12pm at our Downtown church, we’re hosting a practical training class to manage your finances, pay off debt, invest well, and practice biblical generosity.

#3. Give to Serve the City 

Serve the City is our initiative as a church family to partner with local organizations serving the most vulnerable people in our city. This year, we want to fund the various Serve the City events we do throughout the year to serve these organizations and the people they work with. These funds will also go towards our Serve the City Weekend on March 16, 2024. We partner with the following local organizations:

  • Transitions

  • Home Works for America

  • The Ezekiel Center

  • Epworth Children's Home

  • Daybreak

  • Salvation Army

Jesus &

Jesus Christ controls the universe with His power. He is supreme, and how you view Him changes how you view everything else. But Jesus is also intimately personal -  what does Jesus have to say about you? What does He say to you in your hurt? What does He have to say to you in your doubts? What does He have to tell you when you screw up?

For this series, we’ll spend seven weeks looking at how Jesus interacts with different types of people in Scripture and what He has to say to us too.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Jesus & the Hurting

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Jesus & the Disappointed

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Jesus & the Little Ones

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Jesus & the Doubter

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Jesus & the Desperate

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: Jesus & the Jealous

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: Jesus & the Bully

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Colossians

SERMONS | RESOURCE ROUND-UP

A growing church. A bustling city. Cultural pressures threaten the way of Jesus - from religion to philosophy, to mysticism and politics.

It’s here, around 60AD, that the apostle Paul, in prison, writes to this church. Here, he offers a panoramic view of Jesus and how this bigger view changes how you view your life and reality itself.

So for the next ten weeks, we’ll study this book as we ask - what does the church in Colossae have to say to our church? What are the cultural pressures we face? And how does a bigger view of Jesus change how we view everything else?

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: TexMex & Christianity

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: All Things for All Time

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Mature in Christ

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Hold Fast to Christ, the Head

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Put Off

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: Getting Heaven Into Us

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: Getting Heaven Into the Home

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 8: Work, Slavery, and Power Dynamics

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 9: Steadfast Prayer

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 10: Having A Smart Mouth

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

One of the main ways we grow into the image of Jesus is to listen, meditate, and live out what He says in Scripture. To help us with that, for this series, we’re offering resources to help you further study the passage from Sunday.

Below you can find related videos, podcasts, and articles to learn more about the passage we studied that Sunday. You can also choose to receive those resources every Monday straight to your inbox. Just type in your email below. For now, we only have the first few weeks of the series posted, but more will be added soon.

* indicates required

WEEK 1

WEEK 2

WEEK 3

WEEK 4

WEEK 5

WEEK 6

WEEK 7

WEEK 8

WEEK 9

Stand-Alone | Easter 2023

Sermon by Ant Frederick on April 9.

The resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is an incredible and amazing historical event, but how does it affect our lives today? Join us as we examine and celebrate some of the truly glorious ways that Jesus's resurrection from the dead 2000 years ago continues to strengthen, encourage, and bless us today.

In God We Trust

SERMONS | WEEKLY HOMEWORK

The Bible, and Jesus in particular, have an awful lot to say about money and resources. One commentator says there are over 2,000 references to material wealth in Scripture. Jesus spoke more about money than he did about faith and prayer combined. In fact, Jesus goes so far as to say that our approach to money is a primary indicator of the health of our hearts.

And if that’s the case, we have a lot to learn. 65% of Americans say finances are a significant source of stress. The average credit card debt per household is $14,241—with the total in our country hitting $787 billion and nearly a third of Americans with no savings plan. 

So how do we think and live well with our money? How can we learn from Scripture to get our financial house in order and, in the process, help our hearts to flourish in the Kingdom of God?

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Gratitude

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Contentment

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Managing God’s Money

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Theology of Work

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: The Gift of Generosity

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Our goal for this series is to apply what Jesus has to say about money to our lives and follow him as we manage what, in reality, is already his. To accomplish this goal, we will have weekly homework for you to intentionally work through outside your LifeGroup time. Then, when you meet with your LifeGroup weekly, you will have time to discuss your homework and what Jesus is teaching you.

WEEK 1 HOMEWORK

WEEK 2 HOMEWORK

WEEK 3 HOMEWORK

WEEK 4 HOMEWORK

WEEK 5 HOMEWORK

Upon This Rock

Finding your way toward spiritual health in the chaos of modern life can prove quite difficult. When you survey the mental health landscape in our culture, things don't get any rosier. It can feel like solid ground to stand on is hard to come by, so we are taking a season to study and meditate on five simple verses that offer a robust Christian worldview--a place to stand against the winds and lies around us--not only so we can stand, but so we can provide much-needed hope and stability to those in our neighborhoods and workplaces.

These words are from the Apostle Peter, who himself went through the agony of failure, and felt the throes of instability around and inside of him, only to come out on the other side standing firm, offering these words of life to us so that we might stand on the truth they convey as well:

6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God so that at the proper time he may exalt you, 7 casting all your anxieties on him, because he cares for you. 8 Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. 9 Resist him, firm in your faith, knowing that the same kinds of suffering are being experienced by your brotherhood throughout the world. 10 And after you have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called you to his eternal glory in Christ, will himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish you. 11 To him be the dominion forever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 5:6-11

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Upon This Rock

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Humble Yourselves

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Cast All Your Anxieties on Him

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Stay Sober

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Resist Him, Firm in Your Faith

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: Know You are Not Alone

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: The Bad Won’t Last Forever

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 8: Forever and Ever, Amen

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

We want to focus on tools to help us learn to follow Jesus more closely. Therefore, we'll do a couple of things for this series to help us in our spiritual formation.

The first is to memorize 1 Peter 5:6-11. In LifeGroups, we'll tackle one verse at a time each week.

Second, we want to focus on one of the five spiritual practices below. Each is proven to improve mental health. Just click on one of the practices for tools to grow in that area. We're asking everyone to spend the next five weeks focusing on that particular practice.

Advent 2022 | The Songs of Christmas

SERMONS | ADVENT GUIDE | ADVENT PROJECTS

Since the early church, God’s people have celebrated the Christmas season every year through giving and singing about the birth of Jesus. This year for Advent, we’re looking at the four “songs” about Jesus’ birth found in Luke 1-2, and how those songs point to the good news Jesus offers us.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: The Song of Mary

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: The Song of Zechariah

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: The Song of Angels

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: The Song of Simeon

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

To help us prepare our hearts for the Christmas season, we wrote a brand new five-week-long Advent devotional guide for you and your LifeGroup to work through during this season. The suggested donation is $5 per copy.

One of our goals as a church family is to be generous people. So every year around the holidays, we press into generosity; to think about God’s generosity to us and to talk about how we can grow in walking in the kind of generous love He’s shown to us. 

This year we are focusing on three practical ways to grow in generosity:

#1. Start tithing

We consider tithing a spiritual practice that helps develop a lifestyle of sacrificial generosity. We are encouraging members of our church to set up a recurring tithe because the gospel transforms us not just to be generous around the holidays but throughout the entire year. It’s also specifically how we fund and fuel all we do as a church in our city.

#2. Personal Finance Seminar

We want to equip our church family to be spiritually healthy by stewarding the financial resources that God has entrusted us. On January 28 from 9 am-12 pm at our Downtown church, we’re hosting a class that consists of practical training to manage your finances, pay off debt, invest well, and practice biblical generosity.

#3. Give to Serve the City 

Serve the City is our initiative as a church family to partner with local organizations serving the most vulnerable people in our city. This year we want to fund the various Serve the City events we do throughout the year to ongoingly serve these organizations and the people they work with. These funds will also go towards our Serve the City Weekend on March 3-5, 2023. We partner with the following local organizations:

  • Children’s Hospital

  • Transitions

  • Home Works for America

  • The Ezekiel Center

  • DSS

  • Epworth Children's Home

  • Daybreak

Fruit of the Spirit

Do you ever feel like there are two competing forces waging war within you as you try to follow Jesus? Do you ever feel a gap between what you want your discipleship to look like and the actual lived reality of your day-to-day life? 

Galatians 5 gives weight to this battle within us, telling us about these two competing forces with competing desires - the Spirit and the flesh. And the invitation for all of us as followers of Jesus is to crucify the flesh and cultivate the fruit.

This series will take nine weeks to walk through the Fruit of the Spirit we are called to cultivate, as we examine the life and teachings of Jesus and how the Fruit of the Spirit was evident in His life.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Love in a Time of Self-Interest

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Peace in a Time of Anxiety

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Patience in a Time of Irritability

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Faithfulness in a Time of Compromise

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Gentleness In a Time of Harshness

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: Goodness in a Time of Brokenness

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: Kindness in a Time of Polarization

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 8: Joy in a Time of Cynicism

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 9: Self-Control in a time of Self-Fulfillment

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

In Christ

The terms “In Christ,” “in Him,” and “in the Lord”  are used in the New Testament over 150 times to describe what it means to be a Christian. For the biblical authors and the early church, this concept was foundational in understanding who we are with God and with others. So, what does it actually mean to be “in Christ”? 

For seven weeks, we will unpack this theological concept and its practical implications for our lives. As a church family, it’s our hope that as we do, we can further meditate on what Jesus has done for us and enjoy Him more.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: Enjoying Our Union with Him

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: From In Adam to In Christ

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: Adoption

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 4: Imputed Righteousness

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 5: Sanctification

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 6: New Creation

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 7: Restored Honor

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

For this series, we want to focus on a particular tool to help us learn to follow Jesus more closely. Given that this series is helping us further meditate on what it means to be in Christ, our corporate practice is Gospel Fluency.

For those looking for additional reading to go along with our series we recommend checking out the following:

Stand-Alone | Easter 2022

Sermon by Ant Frederick on April 17, 2022.

The resurrection of our Savior, Jesus Christ, is an incredible and amazing historical event, but how does it affect our lives today? Join us as we examine and celebrate some of the truly glorious ways that Jesus's resurrection from the dead 2000 years ago continues to strengthen, encourage, and bless us today.

The Suffering Servant

Jesus comes to Earth as a king, unlike any other. He ushers in the rule and reign of God not by political power or might but servant-hearted love. Culminating on the cross, the servant-heart of Jesus is one of the defining features of His ministry. In the same way, those he calls to follow Him are to embody the same servant-minded way of living - full of compassion and self-sacrificial love - that signals God's coming kingdom far and wide.

To help facilitate LifeGroup discussion, we'll be posting resources for each week of the series.

Week 1: An Unexpected King

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 2: Unexpected Compassion

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)

Week 3: An Unexpected Table

(Sermon) (LifeGroup Guide)