The Way In | Holiness Week
Steve DeNeff: The Way In
Holiness is not just a standard but proximity to the Presence. It’s not something we have, but something we enter. Yet how does one get into the Presence? “Who of us can live with a consuming fire?” (Isaiah 33:14). The way in begins with sacrifice, not as a bribe but as a gift. But how do we sacrifice today? What offering do we bring to the Presence?
The House of the Holy | Holiness Week 1
The big story of the Bible is of God’s relentless pursuit of the world, of his people and of his desire to live among us. But this God is a consuming fire (Ex 24:17; Is. 29:6; Heb 12:29). So how do we approach the God who lives in unapproachable light”? The way in begins … with Leviticus.
Perfect Love
According to Jesus, “love” is the measure of our spiritual growth. But how is the love of a Christian different from other loves? Here are 4 levels of love, from the lowest to the highest, from the most carnal to the most complete. And here’s what’s involved in moving from one level to the next. How “perfect” is your love for God and others?
In Praise of Boredom
Most of us hate to be bored and we go to great lengths to avoid it. But there are two kinds of boredom: the holy and the unholy, and one of them is good for you. Have you ever wondered what God might be up to in those seasons when nothing is happening, and how those seasons are crucial for building the muscle that will carry you into your better years?
Friend of God
“I no longer call you servants; I call you friends.” This sounds like a promotion; but is it always? Throughout Scripture, Abraham is a prototype of the “Friend of God.” By peeking into his life, and the disciples’ lives, we get a glimpse what it means to nourish, abide in, and live out this friendship. This sermon will explore the question: What does it really mean to be a friend of God… especially when life takes us places we wouldn’t pick for ourselves?
The Sanctification of Desire | Free at Last Week 11
Steve DeNeff: The Sanctification of Desire
As we conclude our Ten Commandments series with the final commandment, “You shall not covet…” we’re reminded that God isn’t just concerned with our actions—ultimately he’s after our hearts. What is possible when even our desires, our inclinations, are transformed?
The weight of a Witness | Free at Last Week 10
Every day we testify about someone — a coworker, a neighbor, a friend — whether we realize it or not. This week we dig into the ninth commandment and ask: what kind of witness are we called to be and what does that look like in our daily lives?
Tired and Broke | Free at Last Week 9
On the surface, the 8th commandment is easy to follow. Don’t take stuff that isn’t yours. As we grow in Christ, the 8th commandment has less to do with theft and more to do with generosity. Even further: the easiest generosity is financial. While Paul tells the Corinthians to give freely of their gifts, we ask “what gifts exactly?”. What are the best gifts we can give of freely? This sermon explores three stories in Mark 5 where Jesus gives gifts far more valuable than money. So the question is: is stealing easy?
The Shape of Faithful Love | Free at Last Week 8
The seventh commandment calls us to become people of faithful love. Marriage is its clearest expression, but not its only one. God is forming people whose promises can be trusted, whose relationships are marked by loyalty, and whose lives reflect the steadfast love God has shown them.
A Community of Life | Free at Last Week 7
Most who read the 6th commandment would be sure they’ve never broken it and they haven’t. But read it again, this time as an invitation into a life and a community that not only tolerates our differences, but celebrates them. Like every other commandment, this one has three levels; the highest is what everyone wants. We at CWC have an honest chance of reaching it.
Making Room for Wisdom | Free at Last Week 6
“Honor your father and mother” is the first commandment with a promise. But even if this commandment is good advice, how is it good news? How are we expected to follow this one when relationships are frayed? This sermon will explore this commandment, Jesus’ redefinition of the “family,” and paint a picture of what it means for us to live into our own families (and the family of God) across generations.
Don’t Forget to Remember the Sabbath | Free at Last Week 5
The Sabbath is not a rule to keep. It is a response to our relationship with God.
The Name | Free at Last Week 4
What does it mean to misuse the name of God? What does it mean to use the name properly? This sermon will explore how we can live into this commandment: only by revering the name YHWH (Law) can we treasure it, then be at home with it: “Father” (Gospels), and center our lives around the gravity of God’s life, doing “everything in the Name” of the one who called us (Epistles).
Undistracted Worship Undivided Heart Undefiled Bodies | Free at Last Week 3
God’s command against idols is not simply about statues or images; it is about the ordering of our loves. This sermon invites us to ask: What are we giving our hearts, bodies, habits, and imaginations to? The call of God is not merely to avoid false worship, but to become whole people whose lives are re-formed around him. We cast down idols not because worship is optional, but because we were made to worship the living God with undivided hearts and embodied lives. Since we are made in God’s image – in fact, we are the only part of creation that is – idolatry is a distortion of not only God, but of us as well.
We Love God Wholly | Free at Last Week 2
God did not rescue Israel from slavery simply to give them rules. He rescued them to form them into a holy people whose hearts belonged wholly to Him. In Exodus 20, God frees His people externally. In Mark 12, Jesus reveals that the commandments are fundamentally relational, rooted in love of God and neighbor. In 1 Thessalonians 5, we see God’s final intention: not just outward obedience, but inward transformation of spirit, soul, and body through the sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. True freedom is not the absence of restraint, but a heart so transformed by the Holy Spirit that obedience becomes love rather than coercion. God’s goal is not merely compliant behavior, but wholehearted devotion.
The Freedom of Obedience | Free at Last Week 1
There are three levels of obedience. Most are stuck in the first. But freedom awaits us in the third.
The New Humanity | Easter People Week 8
On Pentecost, the Spirit forms the church as a people who confound the world’s categories of insider and outsider, near and far, clean and unclean. In Christ, those who were once far off are brought near, old hostilities are put to death, and strangers are made members of one household. This sermon invites us to see the church not merely as a place we attend, but as a Spirit-filled community of blessing, reconciliation, and belonging where God is building (and inviting us into) a new way of being human.
Why Are You Still Looking Up | Easter Week 7
The Ascension teaches us to stop looking somewhere else for the fullness of life with God and begin recognizing the reign of Christ already present here, even in what remains unresolved.
The Weapons of Resurrection | Easter Week 6
Resurrection is a weapon. It is a shot that reignites a fiery engagement between forces claiming lordship over creation. It is not only about a man. It’s about a war.” And since our battle is not against flesh and blood, we cannot use conventional weapons nor engage in the adversary in the same way. These are the weapons, and this is how we fight.
Church of the Resurrection | Easter Week 5
The power that raised Jesus from the dead is the power, not to overwhelm our adversaries but to endure them, to expose them, to convert them.