Resources
We want to help you go deeper with God beyond our weekend services. Find sermons, discussion guides, devotionals, and podcasts—all in one place, all designed to help your faith take root and grow.
Resource Archive
Beyond the Weekend Devotionals
The Pharisee's Prayer
As people gather around Jesus, he has a story to tell. Jesus’s stories, or parables, are fictional tales that connect everyday realities with deeper spiritual truths. Here, he tells a story involving a Pharisee and a tax collector. The Pharisees are a strict sect of religious teachers who maintain a high view of God’s law and their own traditions. The problem is that in their devotion to spiritual things, many of them have developed a proud attitude. Rather than a posture of humility and dependence, they look down on others out of a sense of superiority...
The Confrontation
As Jesus’s popularity grows, so does the hostility of the religious leaders. The Pharisees are a group of leaders known for meticulous devotion to God’s law, yet they consistently oppose the very One the law points to. Rather than humbly receiving Jesus’s teaching, they respond with increasing resentment, even plotting to kill him. Jesus confronts their hardened, wayward hearts, patiently calling them to the life of God’s kingdom, but they are unwilling to listen...
Worship in Prayer
The psalmist's voice rings out, calling people to attention. In ancient Israel, many of the Psalms are sung as God's people head toward the temple to prepare their hearts for worship. Psalm 95 opens with a burst of joyful noise, then slows to a reverent hush: bow down, kneel, come before your Maker. The psalmist’s words remind people of who God is—the great King, Creator of oceans and mountain peaks—and who they are: his flock, safe under his care. Their worship flows from the truth of who God is...
