The Burden Before the Breakthrough

Is God Fair? - Nothing is Off The Table Week 2

Week 2 of Nothing Is Off the Table | Romans 1:19-21, Romans 10:9-15 | Ecclesiastes 3:11 | 2 Peter 3:9 | James 4 | Luke 14 This week in Nothing Is Off the Table, we tackle some of the most personal and honest questions submitted by the congregation — questions about the people we love and whether it's okay to wait until the end of your life to respond to God. These aren't abstract theological puzzles. They come from real people who love real people and need to know: is God fair, and can he be trusted? The message works through Romans 1 and the concept of general revelation — the idea that God discloses himself through creation and through an inward longing he places in every human heart (Ecclesiastes 3:11). From there, Romans 10 makes clear that general revelation points to a responsibility: someone has to tell the good news. The sermon closes with a direct answer to the question of why not wait — drawing on James 4, 2 Corinthians 6:2, and a personal illustration about why relationship with God is not just about a final destination but a life lived now. Listen to the podcast and find us everywhere at linktr.ee/takeholdchurch Be Loved.

Breaking The Shame Cycle - Nothing is Off The Table Week 1

Week 1 of Nothing is Off the Table | Romans 7:15-25 | Romans 8:1 | Luke 15:20 | Hebrews 12:2This week we kick off a brand new series called "Nothing is Off the Table" — built entirely from questions submitted by the Take Hold Church congregation. Week one tackles the responses that kept coming back in different forms: the shame cycle. What do you do when you keep sinning, keep asking for forgiveness, and keep doing it again? This message walks through the anatomy of the shame loop — sin, guilt, shame, hiding, distance, loss of self — and shows how confession, community, and the gospel of Jesus Christ are the way out. We spend time in Romans 7 and 8, look at the prodigal son in Luke 15, and land on the breathtaking truth of Hebrews 12:2 — that Jesus endured the cross for the joy set before him, and that joy is you.Listen to the podcast and find us everywhere at linktr.ee/takeholdchurch Be Loved.

Holy Spirit

This week we close out our three-week series — having covered intercessory prayer and spiritual warfare — with a foundational message on the Holy Spirit. Who is he, what does he do, and what does it mean to be filled with him? This message works through the theology of the Spirit as a full member of the Triune Godhead, addresses common misunderstandings around a "second work" of the Spirit, and makes a clear pastoral case that every believer receives the full Holy Spirit at salvation — no junior member, no holding out. The challenge lands practically: the gifts and power of the Spirit flow from cultivating his presence, not from performing or manufacturing moments. We look at the Feast of Tabernacles in John 7 as the backdrop for Jesus's invitation to rivers of living water, and close with an ancient Celtic prayer rooted in the image of the Holy Spirit as the "Wild Goose" — untamable, unpredictable, and very much alive Listen to the podcast and find us everywhere at linktr.ee/takeholdchurch Be Loved.

Spiritual Warfare

Spiritual Warfare: Part 1 | 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 | Colossians 2:13-15 | Ephesians 6:12 This week at Take Hold Church we open a new topic within our ongoing series: spiritual warfare. Whether you know it or not, everyone is in a spiritual war — and this message is about waking up to that reality and learning how to actually win. Pastor Paul walks through 2 Corinthians 10, where Paul writes to the church in Corinth about the nature of spiritual weapons — not rhetoric, appearance, or argument, but prayer and God's Word. From there we move to Colossians 2, where Paul describes what Jesus accomplished on the cross in the language of warfare: he disarmed the enemy, made a public spectacle of the spiritual powers, and triumphed over them. The enemy is conquered — but he still hinders, distracts, and tries to dim the light in your life. This message covers strongholds (what they are, how we walk into them or are born into them), how the enemy works through distraction, doubt, and division, and why praying in the name of Jesus is not a sign-off — it's a legal authority and a declaration of victory. Connected passages: Ephesians 6:12, 2 Timothy 2:24-26, Romans 8, 2 Corinthians 4:16-18. Listen to the podcast and find us everywhere at linktr.ee/takeholdchurch Be Loved.

Intercessory Prayer

his message is a standalone talk on intercessory prayer, delivered between series as the church prepares for a new season. Drawing from Jesus' teaching in Luke 11 — the Lord's Prayer and the parable of the friend knocking at midnight — the message unpacks what it looks like to pray with shameless audacity: persistent, desperate, and deeply relational. The sermon explores three movements of prayer from Luke 11:9 — ask, seek, and knock — and what it means to bring your whole life into alignment with the will of God. Walter Wink's definition of intercession as "spiritual defiance of what is, in the name of what God has promised" frames the message from beginning to end. Andrew Murray and Leonard Ravenhill also speak into what it means to stand before God on behalf of others. The closing returns to the powerful refrain: history belongs to the intercessors. Romans 8:34 gives a striking reminder that Jesus himself is interceding for us at the right hand of the Father — not calmly passing our prayers along, but pleading our case. Listen to the podcast and find us everywhere at linktr.ee/takeholdchurch Be Loved.