You Changed My Mind

Rahab - Joshua

Scripture: Joshua 1:1–9; Joshua 2; Hebrews 11:31; James 2:25; Matthew 1:5. Key themes: * Trust and courage in transition * God’s presence as the ground of obedience; the reversal of fear * Rahab as a model of saving faith; scarlet cord/Passover thread to Christ * Grace that brings outsiders in; redemption and legacy. Description: We’re beginning a brand-new series through the book of Joshua—moving from Exodus and wilderness wandering into the Conquest of Canaan. Joshua 1 sets the direction: God calls His people to step into His promises with courage, obedience, and confidence in His presence. “Be strong and courageous” isn’t motivational fluff—it’s rooted in the reality that God goes with His people and asks them to trust His Word even when it’s costly. Then Joshua 2 introduces one of the most surprising faith stories in the Bible: Rahab. While Israel once melted in fear before Canaan, Rahab reveals the reversal—Canaan is melting in fear because they’ve heard what God has done. In a decision that makes no sense by worldly logic, she protects Israel’s spies and declares that the Lord is God in heaven above and earth below. The sign of her rescue—the scarlet cord—echoes Passover and points forward to the saving work of Jesus. And the grace doesn’t stop at survival: Rahab is welcomed into God’s people and even shows up in the genealogy of Jesus (Matthew 1). This episode is a hopeful reminder that God specializes in redeeming the unlikely, rescuing sinners, and turning broken stories into faithful legacies.

Heaven - Revelation

Scripture: 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Revelation 19:11–16; Revelation 21:22–27; Revelation 22:10–11. Key themes: * Reading Revelation without sensationalism * Jesus’ victory through His word and the faithful witness of the saints * The new heaven/new earth as the true Christian hope; heaven as embodied life with meaningful work and culture * Perseverance and joyful urgency. Description: We close our Revelation series by focusing on what the whole book has been driving toward: not fear, but hope—Jesus reigning, evil being judged, and God dwelling with His people forever. We begin with Paul’s promise that the ultimate “lawless one” will be destroyed by the splendor of Christ’s coming (2 Thessalonians 2), then read Revelation 19’s famous white-horse scene with fresh eyes. It’s intense imagery—but it’s not a call to violence. The sword is coming from Jesus’ mouth, pointing to the power of His word and the way the gospel overturns kingdoms without Christians needing to draw a sword. From there we move into Revelation 21 and the stunning picture of a restored creation where the Lamb is the light and the nations bring their glory in—suggesting redeemed culture, beauty, and meaningful work as part of eternity. We also address a common fear about heaven (that it will be boring) and reframe it with a childlike vision of joy, wonder, and creativity with God. And we end where Revelation ends: keep going. Don’t obsess over the wicked flourishing for a moment—stay faithful, stay holy, stay hopeful, and live now with the excitement of what’s coming.

Antichrist(s) - Revelation

Scripture: 1 John 2:18, 22; 1 John 4:2–3; 2 Thessalonians 2:1–10; Revelation 13:1–18; Hosea/prophets “Day of the Lord” pattern (background); Matthew 4 / Luke 4; Revelation 19:11–16. Key themes: * Resisting sensational end-times speculation * Antichrist as a recurring pattern * Satan’s strategy through political power; Roman emperor worship * Nero rumor mill; mark of the beast and 666 * The church’s endurance; hope and perseverance. Description: In this Revelation series message, we tackle one of the most misunderstood topics in Christian pop-culture: the Antichrist and the mark of the beast. Instead of fear-driven speculation, we start with what Scripture actually says. In 1 John, “antichrist” is both future and present—many antichrists have already come, and the “spirit of antichrist” is already at work. In 2 Thessalonians, Paul warns believers not to be rattled by claims that the Day of the Lord has already arrived, and he describes a lawless, Satan-empowered opposition that will ultimately be undone by Jesus. Then we read Revelation 13 the way the original audience would have heard it: beasts symbolize rulers and empires energized by Satan, demanding worship and crushing dissent. In that light, Nero—and the Nero-like pattern repeated in later emperors—fits the historical context (including the rumor of Nero’s return). The “mark of the beast” also lands as a first-century test tied to buying and selling within Roman marketplaces and emperor worship, not modern microchips or barcode panic. We end with Revelation’s real point: you don’t need a sword or a conspiracy map to overcome evil. Christ conquers with the “sword” from His mouth—His word—and the church endures while empires collapse. So be watchful, be faithful, and don’t be deceived.

Satan and The Dragon - Revelation

Scripture: Revelation 12:1–17; Revelation 11:1–3; Ephesians 6:12; Mark 13; Isaiah 14:12–15; Ezekiel 28:12–17; Luke 10:18. Key themes: symbols as meaning-packed images; keeping original audience in view; spiritual warfare as a biblical category; Satan’s fall and ongoing strategy; persecution then and now; humility and “check the text” discernment; hope in a bigger story. Description: This Tuesday message dives into Revelation 12 and shows why Revelation can’t be read as a literal play-by-play of modern headlines. John’s visions work like symbolic political cartoons: they evoke meaning for the original audience and reveal what’s happening behind the scenes. We start by reinforcing that no one reads Revelation “literally” in the wooden sense—then we show how misreading it leads to sensational, modern political interpretations that may get clicks but miss John’s point. In Revelation 12, John actually interprets the symbolism for us: the dragon is Satan, and the vision reveals a cosmic war that explains why the church is attacked. We connect this to Ephesians 6 (“not against flesh and blood”), warn against flattening reality to the physical only (which turns people into “demons” in our minds), and encourage biblical discernment: don’t accept “the Bible says…” unless someone can show you where it actually says it. The closing encouragement is pastoral: even when your life feels surrounded, God is working in the unseen, and Revelation exists to strengthen your hope and perseverance.

Mark 13 - Revelation

Scripture: Revelation 6:9–17; Hosea 10:8; Isaiah 2:12; Mark 13; Matthew 24:36; Isaiah 7:13–17; Daniel 2. Key themes: symbolism and context; repeated “Day of the Lord” judgments in Scripture; Rome as a “Babylon-pattern” empire; Mark 13 and the destruction of Jerusalem; “God speaks in chords” (dual prophecy); living with urgency without panic. Description: This message continues our Revelation series by addressing a big question: if Revelation is about hope, why does it contain so much wrath-and-tribulation language? The answer is that Revelation is drawing on a long prophetic pattern called the “Day of the Lord”—God’s decisive intervention against pride, injustice, and violent empires. We look at how Revelation 6 echoes Hosea’s language almost word-for-word, showing John is intentionally calling back to earlier judgments to say, “God has done this before, and He will do it again.” From there we walk through Mark 13 in its original context: Jesus predicts the temple’s destruction, the disciples ask when it will happen, and Jesus describes events that were largely fulfilled within that generation (culminating around 70 AD). At the same time, Jesus makes clear that His final return remains unknown in timing—so the faithful response isn’t timeline obsession, but alertness, perseverance, and hope that God will ultimately rebalance the scales and vindicate His people.