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Trusting in the Character of God

Trusting the Character of God: What It Means to Believe

Written by Kay Stonecypher on . Posted in Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Trusting the Character of God: What It Means to Believe

This week we began our “Spiritually Formed” series with Jesus’ repeated question: “Do you believe?” The teaching reminded us that belief isn’t primarily about rules, perfection, or total certainty—it’s about trusting the character of God, even when we feel like we’re “floating in the air” with real doubts.

This Week’s Sermon: Believing

Key Takeaways

  • Belief is not the same as rule-following; following Jesus forms the heart so that a moral life grows from love, not pressure.
  • Belief is not perfection; it’s ongoing trust and dependence on God, even after decades of faith.
  • Belief is not certainty or knowledge; God is bigger than what we can figure out, and faith can include unanswered questions.
  • trusting the character of God means turning toward Jesus in the middle of fear, doubt, and weakness.
  • Repentance is an ongoing practice of rethinking our lives—returning to relationship with God and love for others.

Sermon Highlights: Trusting the Character of God

If you’ve ever wished your faith felt simpler, cleaner, more certain—you’re not alone. Many of us carry the quiet pressure to “have it together”: to believe without questions, to live without mistakes, to feel confident without fear. And yet real life has a way of putting us in midair—between what we can control and what we can’t—wondering what will catch us.

This week, as we began our new series Spiritually Formed, we heard Jesus’ repeated question: Do you believe? Not as a threat. Not as a test you can fail. As an invitation into something deeper—trusting the character of God.

Big Idea of This Week’s Teaching

Being spiritually formed starts with belief—but belief isn’t rule-keeping, perfection, or certainty. Spiritual formation begins when we practice trusting the character of God, turning toward Jesus again and again, even with honest doubts.

Key Scriptures

  • Mark 1:15 — Jesus begins his ministry with a clear invitation: the kingdom of God is near; “repent and believe the good news.” Repentance was described as “rethinking” our lives—an ongoing return to God.
  • Mark 9:23–24 — When a desperate father asks for help, Jesus says “Everything is possible for one who believes,” and the father replies, “I believe; help my unbelief.” This became a central picture of faith that is real, imperfect, and honest.
  • John 11:25–26 — Jesus tells Lazarus’ family, “I am the resurrection and the life… Do you believe this?” Even close friends who loved Jesus were still invited deeper into trust.
  • Matthew 22:36–40 — When asked for the greatest commandment, Jesus centers faith in relationship: love God with your whole self, and love your neighbor as yourself.

1. Trusting the character of God begins with Jesus’ question

Jesus asked it to people who wanted healing, to disciples who had walked with him for years, to grieving friends standing at a graveside: Do you believe? The point wasn’t to shame them into the “right answer.” It was to bring belief out of autopilot and into the heart.

That’s part of what spiritual formation looks like: letting Jesus lovingly press on the places where faith has become assumed, inherited, or purely intellectual. Not to condemn us—but to draw us closer.

2. Trusting the character of God is not rules, perfection, or knowledge

The sermon named three common misunderstandings of belief—and why they don’t hold up in real life.

First, belief is not simply following rules. Rules can matter, but a life with God is not meant to be a checklist. The teaching shared an example of trying to perfect morality through disciplined self-improvement, only to discover how exhausting and impossible it can feel. The takeaway was freeing: following rules is not the same as following Jesus.

Second, belief is not perfection. That’s good news for anyone who feels tired, guilty, or behind. Even a long life of faith doesn’t produce flawless people—it produces dependent people. People who know they need God. People who keep returning.

Third, belief is not knowledge or certainty. Many of us chase certainty because being human can feel so uncertain. But God is not small enough to be fully understood. And spiritual formation isn’t about having every answer—it’s about learning to live with trust when answers don’t come.

Trusting the character of God doesn’t require certainty—it requires turning toward Jesus in the middle of real life.

In other words, trusting the character of God is sturdier than trusting your own performance, clarity, or control.

3. Trusting the character of God like a child trusts a parent

One of the most memorable images from the message was a dad catching his toddlers as they jumped from the stairs—asking, “Will you catch me?” That moment in the air is a picture of faith. We all live there sometimes: between the step we left and the ground we haven’t touched yet.

And that’s where trust is formed—not when we feel certain, but when we choose to lean into who God is.

That’s why the father’s prayer in Mark 9 feels so honest: “I believe; help my unbelief.” It gives words to the mixed reality many of us carry: faith and fear, hope and hurt, trust and trembling—together.

Faith can coexist with weakness, because Jesus honors our dependence and meets us with hope.

trusting the character of God doesn’t require a doubt-free life. It requires a turned-toward-Jesus life.

4. Trusting the character of God leads to repentance and love

If belief is trust, what do we do with that trust? Jesus’ first call in Mark 1 is clear: “Repent and believe.”

Repentance was described as a logical, ongoing practice—rethinking our lives. Reconsidering what we’re forming ourselves around. Releasing resentments and bitterness. Rethinking how we treat people. Returning to what is truly life-giving.

And Jesus keeps it simple in Matthew 22: love God, and love others. Not as a new rule system, but as a relationship-shaped life. The teaching invited us to pray this as a daily practice during Lent: a wholehearted love that becomes a commitment—not just a feeling.

Practicing This Week

  1. Pray once a day: “Jesus, help me practice trusting the character of God today.”
  2. Name one place you’re seeking certainty and offer it to God—without forcing a quick answer.
  3. Practice repentance as rethinking: choose one habit, resentment, or judgment to reconsider this week.
  4. Pray the love-centered prayer daily: love God with your whole self, and love your neighbor as yourself.
  5. When doubt rises, borrow the father’s prayer: “I believe; help my unbelief.”

Questions for Reflection

  1. When you hear Jesus ask, “Do you believe?” what rises in you—peace, fear, resistance, longing?
  2. Where have you confused faith with rule-following, perfection, or certainty?
  3. What does living without certainty look like in your life right now?
  4. What might repentance-as-rethinking look like for you this Lent?
  5. How could you practice trusting God’s character in one specific relationship or decision this week?

The good news is not that you can achieve perfect faith. The good news is that Jesus has come near—and the veil is torn. You are invited into relationship with God, now and forever. So if your faith feels small, mixed, or unfinished, you’re still welcome at the table. This Lent, may you find steady hope—not by having every answer, but by practicing trusting the character of God, one honest step at a time.

Your life has a mission serving others in Westminster community

Your Life Has a Mission: Launch Into Blessing Others

Written by Kay Stonecypher on . Posted in Resources. No Comments on Your Life Has a Mission: Launch Into Blessing Others

This week at The Journey, we were reminded of something simple but powerful: your life has a mission. You are not here by accident, and your days are not random. We zoomed out to the big story of Scripture and heard a simple, life-giving mission from Genesis 12: you are blessed to be a blessing. No matter how ordinary your days feel—or how limited you feel—God can use your skills, your sacrifice, and even your weaknesses to bring hope to the people around you.

This Week’s Sermon: Find Your Mission

Key Takeaways

  • The Bible’s big story moves from creation, to brokenness, to God launching a mission of blessing through everyday people.
  • God’s call to Abraham (“Go”) is an invitation to live with purpose—not just comfort or safety.
  • Our mission is simple: we are blessed so we can bless others.
  • Being a blessing can happen through our skills, our sacrifice, and even our weaknesses.
  • Faithfulness often looks small—but small acts of hope can transform a whole environment.

Sermon Highlights: When You’re Not Sure Your Life “Counts”

Some weeks, life feels meaningful and energized. Other weeks, it feels like we’re just getting through the calendar—work, meals, errands, relationships, stress, repeat. And somewhere underneath all that motion, a question can quietly follow us around: Is this it? Is my life really making any difference?

This Sunday at The Journey, we were reminded that Scripture doesn’t treat your life like a disconnected set of moments. It places you inside a much bigger story—one where God is still creating, still healing what’s broken, and still calling ordinary people to live with purpose.

And the invitation was refreshingly simple: you are blessed to be a blessing.

Big Idea: Your Life Has a Mission

If you follow Jesus, your life has a mission—not someday, not when you feel ready, but right now. God’s mission for your life isn’t reserved for the “impressive” or the “especially gifted.” It’s for you—right where you are. After naming the brokenness we all recognize in the world (and in ourselves), the teaching turned to Genesis 12, where God calls Abraham to go—to launch into a life of purpose.

That same pattern becomes a picture for us: God blesses us, and then sends us to bless others. Your life can become a daily adventure with God—not necessarily loud or dramatic, but deeply intentional and full of meaning.

Key Scriptures

  • Genesis 1–2 – The story begins with God creating, forming a good world with intention and beauty.
  • Genesis 3–11 – A series of stories showing how the world breaks: rebellion, violence, apathy, and humanity trying to replace God.
  • Genesis 12:1–3 – God’s turning point: calling Abraham to “go,” blessing him so that all peoples on earth will be blessed through him.
  • Matthew 25:14–40 – Jesus’ teaching that we’re meant to use what we’ve been given—our abilities, opportunities, and compassion—to serve others rather than bury what’s in our hands.
  • The Cross & Communion (Eucharist) – Jesus takes humanity’s worst and turns it into blessing—offering his body and blood to bring life and hope.

1. Your Life Has a Mission in a Broken World

The message began with a “zoomed out” view of the Bible’s storyline. Genesis 1–2 shows creation: God as the One who made everything—and who is still at work forming people into his image.

Then comes Genesis 3–11: not just “bad things happening,” but a clear picture of how humans drift from God and harm each other. The teaching named four movements of brokenness we still recognize today:

  • Rebellion (humans turning from God)
  • Violence (humans hurting each other)
  • Apathy (ignoring God even if we believe he exists)
  • Self-worship (treating ourselves as our own god)

And right there—at the height of the mess—Genesis 12 becomes a turning point. God chooses a person (Abraham) and starts something new: a mission that would eventually bless the whole world.

Not because humans suddenly became better, but because God decided to intervene with grace and purpose.

2. Living Like Your Life Has a Mission

In Genesis 12, God’s first word to Abraham is simple: Go. The teaching pointed out that the sense of that word is like launch—get moving, get adventuring, don’t stay stuck.

That doesn’t mean reckless decisions or chasing adrenaline. It means refusing to live as if comfort is the goal. It means remembering you were made for more than self-protection and survival.

The pastor acknowledged something many of us feel: even when we sense an idea—something we could do, something we could try—we hesitate. We assume it’s for someone else. We fear failure, embarrassment, criticism, or simply getting it wrong.

But living on mission requires movement. Not perfection—movement.

3. Your Life Has a Mission: Blessed to Be a Blessing

Here’s the heartbeat of the teaching:
God blesses us so we can bless others.

If you’ve ever wondered, What does it mean to follow Jesus? What should I do with my life?—this is a sturdy place to start. Your story, your personality, your experiences, even your pain can become a channel of blessing in a broken world.

“You are blessed to be a blessing—your life is meant to bring hope to others.”

The pastor put it plainly: the world is not how it’s supposed to be. And we don’t fix that by waiting for “better people” to show up. God’s plan has always been to send ordinary people—people like us—to bring hope, generosity, and the love of Jesus into everyday spaces.

4. If Your Life Has a Mission, Where Do You Begin?

To make this concrete, the teaching offered a simple structure: if we’re going to “go,” what does it look like to actually bless people?

a. Serve with Your Skills

You are good at something. Maybe it’s your work. Maybe it’s listening well, organizing, building, cooking, teaching, creating, encouraging, problem-solving, noticing people, showing up consistently.

The invitation wasn’t to brag about strengths—it was to use them. Jesus’ teaching in Matthew 25 reminds us not to bury what we’ve been given. Over time, we can even grow those skills so we can become more useful and more generous in the ways we bless others.

Not for our ego—but for our neighbor.

b. Serve with Your Sacrifice

A lot of blessing has nothing to do with talent. It’s about willingness.

Sometimes love looks like giving time, energy, attention, money, or effort when it would be easier to stay comfortable. Sometimes blessing looks like being the kind of person who helps—not because it’s your “thing,” but because it’s needed.

Sacrifice can be simple and quiet. It can also be holy. The cross reminds us that your life has a mission rooted in grace, not pressure.

c. Serve with Your Weaknesses

This may have been the most tender part of the message: your weaknesses don’t disqualify you—God can use them.

The pastor named things many people carry: struggles, past mistakes, broken relationships, addiction, grief, illness, mental and emotional burdens, financial failures, seasons of feeling like a “bad parent,” shame, regret. And then offered a surprising hope: God often works through people who know they need him.

“Don’t forget your limitations; let God use them. Your hurts can become hope for someone else.”

In God’s hands, our hurts can become hope for someone else. Vulnerability can become a doorway to connection. And the places we thought made us “less than” may become the very places where God’s strength shows up most clearly.

A Picture of Ordinary Faithfulness: Johnny the Bagger

To bring it all down to street level, we heard the story of Johnny—a 19-year-old grocery store bagger with Down syndrome who wanted to bless customers in a simple way. Each day, he brought a positive saying to work and placed it in customers’ bags, looking them in the eye and telling them he hoped they’d have a great day.

What happened next was the point: his line became the longest, not because he was fast, but because people wanted to receive hope from him. And the culture of the store began to change—florists, butchers, cart attendants—others started adding their own small acts of kindness.

It was a reminder: you don’t have to be “special” to be a blessing. You just have to be willing. Remember: your life has a mission, and even small acts of faithfulness matter deeply to God.

Practicing This Week

Here are a few simple, grace-filled ways to live this out in the next seven days:

  1. Ask one honest question in prayer: “God, how can I be a blessing this week?” Then stay alert for small opportunities.
  2. Choose one lane—skills, sacrifice, or weakness—and take one step. Offer help using what you’re good at, give time where it’s needed, or share your story with someone who needs hope.
  3. Bless one “ordinary place.” Your workplace, your street, your gym, your classroom, your online space—pick one and decide to bring kindness there on purpose.
  4. Try the “regret” question: If I don’t do this, will I wish I had? Let that help you move past fear into faithful action.
  5. Connect it to communion: When you remember Jesus’ sacrifice, let it re-center you: we don’t bless to earn love—we bless because we’ve received it.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Where have I been living more for comfort than for mission—and what might “go” look like in that area?
  2. What are some blessings in my life right now that I often overlook? How could those become blessings for others?
  3. Which comes more naturally for me: serving with skills, with sacrifice, or with weakness? Why?
  4. Is there a small idea I’ve been dismissing because it feels “too small” to matter? What would it look like to try it anyway?
  5. Who might God be inviting me to bless this week—specifically, by name?

The hope of this message isn’t that we’ll try harder and finally become “good enough” people. The hope is Jesus—who took the worst of humanity at the cross and turned it into blessing, life, and resurrection hope. We’re not alone in this mission. God is with us, and we get to learn, practice, and grow together—one small step of blessing at a time. As you step into your week, remember: your life has a mission, and God is already at work through you.

erson rock climbing outdoors, symbolizing faith and risk and trusting God beyond comfort

Faith and Risk: Why Comfort Can Keep Us Stuck

Written by Kay Stonecypher on . Posted in Resources, Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Faith and Risk: Why Comfort Can Keep Us Stuck

Most of us don’t think of ourselves as risk-takers—we’re just trying to make life feel a little more manageable. But this week at The Journey, we explored how faith and risk are often deeply connected, and how our pursuit of comfort can quietly keep us from the growth God is inviting us into.

This Week’s Sermon: Challenge Over Comfort

Key Takeaways

  • Comfort can feel safe, but it can also slowly shrink our lives and our sense of purpose.
  • God’s call often comes through our gifts, strengths, and the places others affirm what we’re good at.
  • Fear isn’t a sign you’re doing it wrong—it may be a sign God is inviting you into growth.
  • Courage isn’t about personality; it’s about trusting God’s presence and taking the next step.
  • A changed life usually begins with one small act of faith, not a dramatic leap.

Sermon Highlights: Getting Honest About Faith and Risk (and Why It Matters)

Most of us don’t think of ourselves as “risk people.” We’re just trying to get through the week: work, family, relationships, bills, health, routines. And if we’re honest, a lot of what we want is pretty simple—we want life to feel a little easier, a little less stressful, and a little more manageable.

But what if the thing we reach for—comfort—has more power over us than we realize?

In this week’s teaching at The Journey, we explored how comfort can quietly shape our decisions and limit our growth, not because comfort is evil, but because comfort can become a chair we sink into—where our lives start to shrink and our faith stops moving.

Big Idea of This Week’s Teaching

God doesn’t major in comfort. Instead, God calls ordinary people into courage—inviting us to step out of what’s safe and into what grows us, shapes us, and blesses others.

The invitation isn’t to do something reckless or impulsive. It’s to take the next faithful risk—whatever “risk” looks like for you—trusting that God is with you.

Key Scriptures

Hebrews 11 — A long “hall of faith” that tells story after story of ordinary people saying yes to God, often in the face of fear, ridicule, suffering, and uncertainty. The point isn’t that they were fearless; it’s that they acted in faith anyway.

Joshua 1:9 — God’s words to Joshua in a moment of enormous responsibility: “Be strong and courageous… for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” In the teaching, this was a direct reminder that courage grows from God’s presence, not our personality.

1. Faith and Risk: Where Do You Land on the Curve?

The message began with a simple exercise: imagine a bell curve showing our predisposition to risk. Some of us are on the “risk-taking” side. We don’t feel much anxiety, we get bored easily, and we’re energized by action, adrenaline, and novelty.

But, others of us are on the “risk-avoiding” side. Even the word “risk” makes us tense. Our brains feel highly sensitive to stress, and we can worry for days over something that seems small to someone else.

And many of us live somewhere in the middle—generally steady, but with certain situations that spike our anxiety.

Here’s what mattered most: your place on the curve doesn’t make you spiritually superior or inferior. It doesn’t prove you have “more faith” or “less faith.” Instead, it just means you’re human, and you’re wired a certain way.

The question isn’t, “Am I brave like someone else?”
The question is, “What would faith look like for me—right where I am?”

2. Why Faith and Risk Feel Uncomfortable

The teaching named something most of us relate to: that “chair” feeling—the place where we shut the world out, dial down our stress, and sink into comfort. Maybe it’s literal: your favorite chair, couch, bed, or screen-time routine, but often it’s internal: our patterns of avoiding anything that might feel hard, uncertain, or exposing.

“There is no growth in comfort—and God is calling us to take the challenge over the chair.”

Comfort can look like:

  • Staying in an unfulfilling job because uncertainty feels scary.
  • Holding back honest feelings to avoid rejection.
  • Shrinking a meaningful goal because failure would hurt.
  • Over-preparing because mistakes feel unbearable.
  • Staying silent because we don’t want to sound wrong or be judged.

The hard truth is that comfort doesn’t just soothe us—it can shape us. And over time, it can quietly train us to live small.

The pastor put it plainly: there is no growth in comfort.

3. Faith and Risk in God’s Calling

One of the most practical parts of this message was how it described “calling.” Certainly, for many of us, the word “calling” can sound mysterious—like we’re waiting for a dramatic sign, a booming voice, or a lightning-bolt moment.

But the teaching reframed it: often, God’s call begins as we recognize the gifts, skills, and strengths God has already placed in us—and as other people confirm those gifts.

You might not know your “passion” yet, and that’s okay. In fact, the message offered a counter-cultural idea: don’t start with chasing passion. Rather, start with what you’re genuinely good at. Give time and energy to developing that. And often, passion grows as you see that God can use your gifts to serve others.

So here’s a question we were invited to carry:
“What is the subtle but unmistakable reason God made me the way he did?”

If that’s hard to answer alone, the pastor encouraged us to ask a couple trusted people—the ones who are truly for you—and simply listen to what they see in you.

4. The Most Common Response to God’s Call Is Fear

When it comes to faith and risk, fear is often the first response. If God is calling us to serve, grow, and step out of comfort… why don’t we? Because fear shows up.

The teaching was honest: most people don’t respond to God’s calling by saying, “Great! This is exactly what I’ve always wanted!” Most of us respond with resistance.

And we often tell ourselves stories like:

  • “God wouldn’t call me to something that scares me.”
  • “God wouldn’t ask me to do something I can’t handle.”

But the message pushed back gently: a loving God challenges us. A good Father doesn’t only soothe—He strengthens. God often invites us into things that stretch us, because stretching is how we grow.

And here was a surprising reframe: if there’s a challenge in front of you that could grow you and help others—but you feel afraid—there’s a good chance God is in that challenge.

Fear doesn’t always mean “stop.” Sometimes fear means, “This matters. Pay attention.”

5. Courage Comes From Presence, Not Personality

This is where Joshua 1:9 landed like an anchor: God tells Joshua to be strong and courageous—not because Joshua feels ready, but because God promises to be with him.

That’s the heart of Christian courage. It’s not self-confidence. It’s not pretending you aren’t afraid. It’s trusting you are not alone. Living out faith and risk doesn’t mean being reckless—it means being willing.

“Don’t compare your faith to anyone else. Ask God: ‘What challenge do you have specifically for me?’”

God invites each of us into faith and risk, not comparison or performance.

The teaching also named something freeing: inadequacy isn’t disqualifying—it’s normal. You may feel like you don’t have what it takes. In a way, that’s true. Most callings are bigger than us.

But that’s where faith begins: we lean on God, not on our ego. We move forward while still feeling small. We take the next step while still feeling fear.

Practicing This Week: Simple, Real Steps

Here are a few grace-filled ways to live this out this week—without pressure, comparison, or trying to prove anything.

  1. Name your “chair.”
    Where do you default to comfort when life feels stressful—emotionally, relationally, spiritually? Just noticing it is a powerful first step.
  2. Ask God one honest question each day:
    “God, what challenge do you have specifically for me?”
    Say it with curiosity, not dread. You’re not trying to force an answer—you’re opening your heart.
  3. Take one small risk to serve.
    Not a dramatic leap. A small act of faith: offer to help, volunteer once, have a hard conversation, reach out to someone who’s struggling, share your story, pray with someone, invite a neighbor.
  4. Talk to two people who are “for you.”
    Ask: “What do you think God has shaped me to do? Where do you see me come alive?” Listen without arguing.
  5. Come back to Jesus at the table.
    If you’re not sure where to start, start here: you receive Christ—and then you carry Christ into the world. Let communion remind you that Jesus meets you with grace before you ever “get it right.”

Questions for Reflection

  1. Where would you place yourself on the “risk curve,” and how has that shaped your choices lately?
  2. What’s a meaningful goal you’ve shrunk or delayed because you’re afraid of failing or being judged?
  3. When fear shows up, do you usually interpret it as “stop” or “pay attention”? Why?
  4. What do you sense might be God’s invitation for your next small step—right where you are?
  5. Who are two people you trust enough to ask, “What do you see in me that God might use?”

The hope of this message isn’t that we would become fearless people. The hope is that we would become people who trust Jesus enough to move—even a little—when God calls. You don’t have to compare your faith to anyone else’s. You don’t have to prove yourself. You can simply take your next step with the God who says, “I will be with you wherever you go.”

Trusting the wisest person in the room

Winning at Life: Trusting the Wisest Person in the Room

Written by Kay Stonecypher on . Posted in Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Winning at Life: Trusting the Wisest Person in the Room

This week at The Journey, we explored what it means to live well by trusting the wisest person in the room—God Himself. The teaching invited us to stop relying only on our own understanding and instead learn to trust the wisest person in the room: our God who knows the whole track ahead. These practices aren’t about perfection—they’re about learning how to live with humility, trust, and freedom.

This Week’s Sermon: Game Plan for Winning in 2026

Key Takeaways

  • Loyalty is not just a feeling but a practiced way of life that shapes who we become.
  • Trusting God means choosing His wisdom over our instincts, even when it feels uncomfortable.
  • Where we invest our resources often reveals—and reshapes—what our hearts truly trust.
  • God’s correction is not rejection; it is loving guidance meant to help us grow.
  • Lasting change happens when our hearts learn to trust God, not just our behavior.

Sermon Highlights: Loyalty, Control, and the Way We Try to Win at Life

Most of us want the same things: a good life, meaningful relationships, and a sense that we’re heading in the right direction. Yet so often, we try to achieve those things by relying on our instincts, our logic, or our experience alone. When things go wrong, our first impulse is often to grip the steering wheel tighter and try harder. Proverbs 3 reminds us that trusting the wisest person in the room means choosing God’s wisdom even when it contradicts our instincts.

This week at The Journey, we asked a different question: What if living well isn’t about trying harder, but about trusting deeper? What if the path to a full life begins with loyalty to God, humility about our limits, and a willingness to be guided?

The Big Idea of This Week’s Teaching

At the heart of this teaching was the invitation to stop relying only on ourselves and begin trusting the wisest person in the room in every decision. Proverbs 3 invites us to stop pretending we know best and instead learn how to follow a God who sees the whole picture. At the heart of this teaching was the invitation to stop relying only on ourselves and begin trusting the wisest person in the room in every decision.

This kind of trust isn’t passive. It’s practiced—through consistency, generosity, humility, and openness to correction.

Key Scriptures From the Teaching

  • Proverbs 3:3–4 – We’re invited to bind love and faithfulness to our hearts, making loyalty part of who we are, not just something we do.
  • Proverbs 3:5–6 – Trusting God with all our heart means letting go of the illusion that we fully understand the road ahead.
  • Proverbs 3:9–10 – Honoring God with our resources becomes a tangible way to train our hearts to trust Him.
  • Proverbs 3:11–12 – God’s correction is framed not as punishment, but as loving guidance from a Father who delights in His children.

1. Loyalty Above All

The sermon began with the idea that love—at its biblical core—is loyal, dependable faithfulness. Proverbs uses two Hebrew words often translated as love and faithfulness, but together they describe something deeper: relentless, dependable loyalty.

Loyalty isn’t just what we feel when it’s easy. It’s what we practice when it’s inconvenient. Over time, those practices shape our character. Showing up—again and again—forms us into people who are reliable, trustworthy, and present.

“Loyalty isn’t just something we feel—it’s something we practice until it becomes who we are.”

When loyalty becomes part of our identity, it spills into every area of life: friendships, work, family, and faith. It’s not about being perfect; it’s about being someone who keeps showing up.

2. Trusting the Wisest Person in the Room: Why Trusting God’s Wisdom Changes Everything

Proverbs 3 reminds us that trusting the wisest person in the room means choosing God’s wisdom even when it contradicts our instincts. The sermon illustrated this with the image of a rookie racer trusting a seasoned coach—someone who knows the track, the terrain, and the hidden dangers ahead.

In our own lives, we often act like we’re the wisest person in the room. We rely on logic, instinct, and past experience. But Scripture reminds us that God is not just present—He is wise beyond anything we can see or calculate.

Trusting God means choosing humility. It means believing that the Creator of the universe might actually know something we don’t.

3. Investing in God and His Kingdom

One of the most practical—and challenging—parts of the teaching focused on money. Proverbs connects trust in God directly to generosity, because money has a powerful way of revealing and shaping our hearts.

Jesus taught the same principle: where we place our treasure, our hearts tend to follow. Investing in what God is doing isn’t about earning favor or checking a box—it’s about training our hearts to trust Him.

When we give intentionally and first, we’re reminded that our security doesn’t come from what we store up, but from the God who provides.

4. Learning to Appreciate Course Corrections

Finally, the sermon addressed God’s discipline—those moments when we feel nudged, corrected, or redirected. These moments can sting. They challenge our pride and disrupt our plans.

“God’s correction is not rejection; it’s loving guidance from a Father who wants us to thrive.”

But Proverbs reframes correction as love. A good coach corrects because they want us to win. A loving Father guides because He wants us to thrive.

Learning to accept correction without resentment is heart work. It’s a daily practice of reminding ourselves that God’s guidance is not meant to restrict us, but to lead us toward life.

Practicing This Week

  • Notice where loyalty shows up—or is lacking—in your everyday commitments.
  • Ask yourself who you’re trusting most when making decisions: yourself or God.
  • Reflect on where your money goes and what it reveals about your priorities.
  • When you sense correction or conviction, pause and remind yourself that God’s guidance is rooted in love.
  • Practice repeating truth when resentment or resistance rises in your heart.

Questions for Reflection

  • Where do you find it hardest to trust God instead of yourself?
  • What practices have shaped your character over time—for better or worse?
  • How does generosity affect your sense of trust and security?
  • When you experience correction, what emotions surface first?
  • What would it look like to trust God with the unknown parts of this year?

As we practice trusting the wisest person in the room, we learn to release control and receive the life God is leading us toward. Following Jesus isn’t about having everything figured out—it’s about learning to trust the One who does. God doesn’t invite us into a life of control, but into a life of freedom shaped by loyalty, humility, and grace. As we practice trusting the wisest person in the room, we learn to release control and receive the life God is leading us toward.

Advent Hope for Difficult People: Trusting the Farmer

Written by Kay Stonecypher on . Posted in Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Advent Hope for Difficult People: Trusting the Farmer

This week’s sermon used the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13) and the story of Gaius from The Chosen to challenge our tendency to sort people into “good” and “bad” buckets. John invited us to trust God’s timing, focus on our own spiritual growth, and practice seeing others as God sees them—wheat that is being grown, not weeds to be uprooted.

This Week’s Sermon: Letting Go of Judgment

Key Takeaways

  • We are not reliable judges of who is “good” or “bad”; only God sees the whole story.
  • The kingdom of God often allows good and evil to grow together until the harvest—rushing to remove evil causes more harm than good.
  • Our primary job is to grow: cultivate love, joy, peace, and the fruit God has planted in us.
  • When judgment rises, use simple practices (visualization, lists, community) to reorient toward compassion and growth.
  • Advent reframes waiting: we live in hopeful patience, trusting the Farmer who will one day make all things right.

Sermon Highlights: When Wheat and Weeds Grow Together

We all have a “Gaius” in our life: someone whose name pops into our head when we think of pain, offense, or ongoing conflict. Maybe they wronged you years ago. Maybe they keep making life harder. It’s tempting to mark them as “bad,” file them away, and stop loving them. That impulse—easy and secretly satisfying—was the heart of this week’s teaching.

At The Journey this Sunday (the first week of Advent), we listened to Jesus’ parable about wheat and weeds and watched how Jesus treated even the worst-seeming people with kindness. Instead of sharpening our stones, we were invited to take a different path.

The Big Idea: You’re not built to be the world’s judge. Your job is to grow.

Jesus’ parable (Matthew 13) shows that weeds—poisonous darnel—and wheat are sometimes indistinguishable until harvest. Trying to uproot “weeds” too early destroys wheat. God, the Farmer, sees the whole field; we see only a few rows. Trust him. Tend your own growth. Love without exception.

Key Scriptures

  • Matthew 13:24–30 (Parable of the Wheat and Weeds) — Used to show the kingdom’s surprising patience: God allows good and evil to grow together until the harvest so that the wheat won’t be destroyed by premature judgment.
  • Ephesians 6:12 — Quoted to remind us that our struggle is not against people (“flesh and blood”) but against the spiritual forces of evil; people are not the enemy.
  • Reference to Jesus’ encounters (Gospel narrative) — Illustrated how Jesus treats even the oppressive and violent (a Roman centurion like “Gaius”) with compassion, offering a model for us.

1. You’re a Bad Judge — And That’s Okay to Admit

We are often terrible at judging character. Even someone as obvious as Gaius the centurion carried hidden motives, pain, and complexity. We only see slices of people’s stories, and arrogance in judgment harms both others and ourselves.

Real life tie-in: At work or in family conflict, the urge to label someone simplifies complexity—but it also cuts off opportunities for reconciliation and growth.

2. The Farmer’s Wisdom: Let Them Grow Until the Harvest

Jesus’ farmer doesn’t rush to pull the weeds because doing so risks uprooting wheat. The harvest will reveal who is what. This requires patience and trust in God’s timing—hard things in an instant-gratification culture.

“Trust the Farmer: God sees the whole field even when we can only see a few rows.”

Real life tie-in: Instead of launching social or relational “revolutions” against people we dislike, we can steward patience, pray, and trust that God knows the full story.

3. Our Job Is to Grow Fruit, Not Sort People

We are called to produce love, joy, and peace—fruit that serves others. When we focus on our own growth, we become people who attract God’s work and model kingdom living.

“You are not the world’s judge—your job is to grow, to bear love, joy, and peace.”

Real life tie-in: Join small groups, find mentors, and practice spiritual disciplines that help you grow—because transformation is communal, not solitary.

4. Practical Tools

A visualization exercise: picture yourself and those you judge as wheat growing together in God’s field, surrounded by the weeds (evil) that entangle all of you. Make a list of people you’ve judged and remember those who surprised you later. These practices shift perspective from condemnation to compassion.

Practicing This Week: Stop Playing Judge

  • Visualization: When you’re tempted to judge, imagine that person and yourself as wheat plants growing together in God’s field.
  • Make a “Judgment List”: Write the names you’ve put in the “bad” bucket; beside each, note one fact you don’t know about them (or one way God might be working).
  • Grow intentionally: Connect with someone you admire spiritually and ask for their guidance.
  • Small mercy: If safe and appropriate, reach out to one person you’ve labeled and offer a small act of kindness—a message, prayer, or listening ear.
  • Practice presence in communion: Remember Jesus’ presence in the bread and cup as a sign that God is actively growing us.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Who is a “Gaius” in your life, and what story about them have you stopped seeking to understand?
  2. When have you been surprised by someone you’d earlier judged? What changed?
  3. Where are the weeds (patterns of evil or hurt) entangling your own roots?
  4. What would it look like to trust the Farmer in one specific relationship this week?
  5. Who can you invite into your growth—someone to pray with or learn from?

Advent reminds us we live between Christ’s first coming and the final harvest. In that between-time, God is patient, persistent, and at work in every life—even those we find hardest to love. We don’t need to be judges; we get to be growers. Trust the Farmer. And remember: God is working with you, and you don’t have to carry the sorting—only the growth.

Why Jesus Promises Rest, Not an Easy Life

Written by Danielle Engel on . Posted in Sermon Highlights. No Comments on Why Jesus Promises Rest, Not an Easy Life

This week at The Journey Church, we looked at Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11:28–30 to come to Him when we are weary and burdened. We explored the difference between chasing an “easy life” and receiving an “easy yoke” with Jesus—learning how He offers real rest, freedom, and strength for ordinary people in very real, everyday exhaustion.

This week’s sermon: Finding Rest From Burdens

Key Takeaways

  • Jesus doesn’t promise an easy life, but He does offer an easy yoke and real rest for our souls.
  • “Weary” is the exhaustion of constantly trying; “burdened” is the weight others and life place on us.
  • When we yoke ourselves to Jesus instead of to rules, addictions, or self-focus, we find freedom, not slavery.
  • An “easy soul” with Jesus helps us carry hard responsibilities and serve others without burning out.
  • We practice this rest through prayer, Scripture, worship, creation, gratitude, silence, and coming to Jesus honestly as we are.

Sermon Highlights: When “I’m Busy” Turns Into “I’m Just Tired”

If you ask people how they’re doing these days, “busy” isn’t even the main answer anymore. More and more, it’s just: “I’m tired.”

Exhausted from work. Drained by family responsibilities. Overwhelmed by the news and the constant stream of information. And the buzzing phone never really lets us clock out.

As we move into a packed season of holidays, events, and traditions, the honesty for many of us is this: life often feels like too much. Even when good things are happening, our souls can feel worn out.

This Sunday at The Journey, we named that reality together—and we turned to Jesus’ invitation in Matthew 11 to find out what it means to truly rest in Him.

The Big Idea: Not an Easy Life, But an Easy Yoke

Jesus never promises His followers an easy life. We live in a real world with real grief, real bills, real diagnoses, and real complicated relationships. There are responsibilities that won’t magically disappear.

But Jesus does promise something different: an easy yoke and a light burden when we walk with Him. The heart of the message was this:

If you aim for an easy life, life usually gets harder. If you aim for an easy soul with Jesus, you’ll find strength to carry hard things.

God has always worked through ordinary people with big assignments—Abraham, Moses, Esther, Peter, John, Paul. None of them had it “easy,” but all of them learned to walk with God in the middle of it. The same invitation is open to us.

Key Scriptures

  • Matthew 11:28–30 – Jesus invites all who are weary and burdened to come to Him and receive rest. He offers His yoke, which He says is easy, and His burden, which is light. This is the core passage of the message.
  • Mark 6:30–32 – After intense ministry, Jesus calls His disciples away to a quiet place to get some rest. Even in important work, He prioritizes their souls.
  • Matthew 5–7 (The Sermon on the Mount) – Mentioned as a beautiful, foundational teaching of Jesus and a place to go for prayer, perspective, and learning how to live in His way—especially the Lord’s Prayer (Matthew 6:9–13).

1. Weary and Burdened: Naming What We Carry

Jesus’ invitation begins with:

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)

Those two words are important:

  • Weary – exhausted from trying. That deep inner fatigue that comes from constantly pushing, striving, and feeling like you have to hold everything together.
  • Burdened – weighed down by what has been placed on you. Expectations from bosses, family, finances, caregiving, emotional weight, or responsibilities that no one else even sees.

Most of us live with both. We’re tired on the inside, and we’re also carrying things we never really chose. Jesus sees all of that and doesn’t say, “Try harder.” He says, “Come to Me.”

2. Yoked to What? The Difference Between Slavery and Partnership

Jesus then shifts to farming language:

“Take my yoke upon you and learn from me… For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” (Matthew 11:29–30)

A yoke is a wooden beam that links two animals so they can pull a load together. In the ancient world this word carried two ideas:

  1. Subjugation/slavery – being forced into heavy labor.
  2. Union/partnership – being bound together so two can move as one.

Religious leaders in Jesus’ time often spoke of being “yoked” to the Old Testament law, in a way that became heavy, exhausting, and rule-focused. Many of us today are yoked to other things:

  • Our phones and constant notifications
  • The pressure to perform or to be “enough”
  • Addictions, habits, or compulsions that promise comfort but leave us emptier
  • Pure self-focus, where we’re always asking, “What about my comfort?”

Jesus offers a totally different kind of yoke. Not a list of rules, not a set of expectations to earn God’s approval—but Himself.

To be yoked to Jesus is to walk side by side with Him. It means when we’re weak, His strength carries more of the load. It means our effort is multiplied, not crushed. It’s not that life becomes easy—but we are no longer carrying it alone.

3. Freedom, Grace, and the “Easy Soul”

When we walk yoked to Jesus, something surprising happens: we become more free, not less.

Over time, instead of being driven by exhaustion, hurry, and entitlement, we begin to experience:

  • Freedom from exhaustion – The responsibilities might still be there, but we’re no longer trying to carry them in our own strength alone.
  • Freedom from hurry – Like the disciples in Mark 6, we learn that Jesus actually tells us to stop, rest, and reset with Him.
  • Freedom from spiritual fatigue – Instead of running dry, grace starts to overflow.

One image shared in the sermon was the difference between being a funnel and an overflowing cup.

  • A funnel lets God’s love flow through, but it never really fills. As soon as something blocks the flow, we feel empty and dry.
  • An overflowing cup is filled again and again by God’s grace—through prayer, Scripture, community, creation—until there’s more than enough to spill over into others’ lives.

Church, in that sense, is meant to be a place of overflow. Ordinary people, with “easy souls” and not-easy lives, blessing one another, serving, encouraging, showing up.

Practicing This Week: How to Yoke Yourself to Jesus

Here are some simple, grace-filled ways to lean into this message over the next week:

  1. Pray Matthew 11:28 and/or the Lord’s Prayer each day.
    Take a few minutes to breathe, slow down, and quietly pray: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened…” Then pray the Lord’s Prayer from Matthew 6:9–13 as a simple, grounding way to talk to God.
  2. Try a short Lectio Divina moment.
    Lectio divina is a slow, prayerful way of reading Scripture. Pick Matthew 11:28. Read it a few times. Notice which word sticks out—weary, burdened, rest, come, me—and talk with God about why that word matters to you right now.
  3. Get outside and let creation calm you.
    Take a short walk, notice the sky, the mountains, the trees, the sunset. Let it be “re-creation”—a way God gently reminds you He’s bigger than your to-do list.
  4. Practice gratitude instead of entitlement.
    At the end of the day, name 3 things you’re grateful for. When gratitude grows, entitlement shrinks, and our souls loosen their grip on “life has to go my way.”
  5. Stay connected in community.
    Keep showing up on Sundays. See The Journey as a place of rest for your soul—a room full of imperfect people learning, together, how to walk yoked to Jesus.

Questions for Reflection

  1. Where in your life do you most feel “weary” from trying and “burdened” by what’s been placed on you?
  2. What are you currently yoked to—your phone, expectations, performance, comfort—that might be making life heavier instead of lighter?
  3. How would your days look different if you believed Jesus actually wanted to walk side by side with you in your real workload and responsibilities?
  4. Which word from Matthew 11:28–30 (weary, burdened, rest, yoke, easy, light) best describes what you need from Jesus right now? Why?
  5. What is one small, practical way you can move toward Jesus this week rather than toward distraction or numbing out?

Jesus doesn’t ask us to clean ourselves up, get it together, and then come to Him. His invitation is for the weary and the burdened—right in the middle of the mess, stress, and fatigue.

As we keep walking through this season together, may we remember: our hope isn’t in becoming “better Christians” or finally achieving an easy life. Our hope is in a Savior who walks with us, carries the weight with us, and gives rest to our souls. And at The Journey, we get to learn how to do that side by side