Tulip Street Christian Church

Sow What? | Mark 4:1-20

In this first message of our summer series Plot Twist, we dive into the Parable of the Sower from Mark 4, the one Jesus says you have to understand before you can understand any of the others. This isn't just a story about farming; it's a story about the condition of your heart. We unpack three big questions: Who is the sower? What is the seed? And why are there four different soils? Along the way, we discover that the sower might be more than one person, the seed carries a deeper identity than you'd expect, and each type of soil maps onto real people from the Gospels in ways that might surprise you. If you've heard this story a hundred times, it's time to turn the diamond and see it fresh. The soils can change, and that's the best news in the whole parable.

The Enemy Revealed | Ephesians 6:10-20

In this message from Ephesians 6:10-20, we close out our journey through Paul's letter to the Ephesians with one of Scripture's most vivid images: the full armor of God. But before we talk about the gear, we have to settle the most important truth of all, that the victory has already been won through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. The fight is real, but the outcome is set. So what does that mean for us? We dig into three questions Paul's closing passage raises: What is our mission? Who is the real enemy? And how are we equipped to stand? Whether you're feeling the weight of spiritual battle or just trying to make sense of the darkness you see in the world around you, this message is a reminder that you were never meant to fight alone, and you were never meant to fight for a victory that Christ has already secured.

The Hidden Gospel in Your Home | Ephesians 5-6

In this message from Ephesians 5:21-6:9, we dig into what scholars call the "household codes," Paul's instructions to wives and husbands, children and fathers, slaves and masters. But far from reinforcing the strict Roman social hierarchy, Paul quietly dismantles it. Starting with one radical phrase, "submitting to one another," he reframes every relationship around the self-giving love of Christ, and the result is something the Greco-Roman world had never seen. If you've ever wondered what the gospel has to do with your marriage, your parenting, or your workplace, this one is for you.

Wake Up, Sleeper! | Ephesians 5

In this message from Ephesians 5:3-20, we take a hard look at two very different ways to live: as sons of disobedience or as children of light. Using the fascinating history of the ancient city of Ephesus, whose harbor literally filled with silt until the city died, we explore what it looks like to 'dredge the harbor' in our own lives, clearing out the habits, patterns, and influences that quietly choke out what matters most. Paul's contrast between darkness and light isn't just poetic, it's practical, and it has everything to do with how we use our words, our time, our relationships, and even our celebrations. If you've ever wondered what it actually looks like to live a set-apart life without being weird about it, this one's for you.

New Life Unveiled

What does it actually look like to live as a new person in Christ? In this message from Ephesians 4:22–5:2, we explore Paul's practical, no-excuses guide to putting off the old self and putting on the new, set against the backdrop of ancient Ephesus, one of the most diverse and spiritually complex cities in the Roman world. Paul gives us a simple formula for four areas where we all tend to stumble: our honesty, our anger, our generosity, and our words. But this isn't a behavior modification checklist. It's a call to a complete identity transformation, rooted in the truth that the "new self" Paul describes is really just who God created us to be in the first place. If you've ever wondered why following Jesus feels so hard, or questioned whether it's even worth the effort, this message is for you.