Sermons by Phil Pike

The End of Your Empty Pursuits

Date: September 7, 2025

You’ve been chasing fulfillment for as long as you can remember, through career wins, relationships, pleasure, approval, yet the thirst inside you lingers. It’s like drinking from a stagnant pond, hoping it will refresh you, only to end up emptier than before. And then Jesus steps in. Not with another quick fix or self-improvement plan, but with Himself—the Living Water. This isn’t about religion or rituals. It’s about genuine, abundant life rising up within you and spilling over to others. He’s inviting you to abandon the empty wells, quit reaching for substitutes, and receive the only water that can finally satisfy your soul.

More of Jesus, Less of Me

Date: August 17, 2025

In a world that urges you to climb higher, build your image, and expand your influence, life can feel like a competition where your worth is measured by how much you’re seen. But John the Baptist points to a better way. When the crowds left him for Jesus, he didn’t get angry or defensive—he was thrilled and said, “He must increase, but I must decrease.” That wasn’t failure; it was freedom. Freedom from the treadmill of self-promotion, freedom from the desperate need to be noticed. When you stop striving to matter more, you’ll discover your truest purpose and deepest joy in making much of Jesus, rather than yourself.

God’s Grace Isn’t Just for You

Date: August 3, 2025

We like to imagine ourselves in a better moral category than the “worst” sinners, but God’s grace levels the field, shattering every self-made hierarchy and leaving only two groups: those who believe in Jesus and those who refuse. His promise—“whoever believes will be saved”—throws the door wide open, offering grace equally to you and to the one you’d least expect. In the end, we are all in need of God’s mercy, unable to justify ourselves by comparing our sins to others, and saved only by the gift of His Son.

Respectable, Religious… and Lost

Date: July 27, 2025

Nicodemus had climbed the ladder of religious success—mastering the Scriptures, meticulously following the rules, achieving status—only to discover that none of those efforts mattered to God. He came to Jesus expecting affirmation, but instead, Jesus dismantled his entire system with one staggering truth: Unless you are born again from above, you will never get into the kingdom of God. No amount of moral effort, theological knowledge, or religious devotion could bridge the gap. And the same is true for us. The question isn’t whether you’ve earned God’s approval—it’s whether you’ve surrendered to His grace and been born again.

Confronting Dead Religion

Date: July 20, 2025

It’s deceptively easy to let our walk with Christ slip into autopilot—showing up at church, tossing some money in the plate, trying to look the part—while our hearts drift further from Him. In Jesus’ day, the religious elite had reduced temple worship to a mere transaction. Sacred space became marketplace noise. So Jesus made a whip and drove them out, declaring they had desecrated His Father’s house. But now we are the temple, and every day our choices reveal who truly reigns in our hearts. So ask yourself—what tables need overturning in your life? What clutter needs clearing so worship can be real again? What would it look like to love Him not just with your lips, but with your life?

Stop Trying to Be Good Enough!

Date: July 13, 2025

When Jesus turned water into wine, He intentionally chose the clay jars reserved exclusively for ceremonial washing—symbols of human effort to achieve purity. But instead of water, He filled them with wine, pointing to His blood, which is the only thing that can truly cleanse us. Are you still trying to make yourself right with God through church attendance, giving to charity, or being a good person? No amount of effort can save you. Faith alone in His shed blood can wash away your sins. It’s time to stop your endless striving and simply put your faith in Jesus. He is the only One who can make you clean.

What Are You Seeking?

Date: July 6, 2025

We’re all chasing something—success, money, approval, a sense of peace. And because sin runs through every human heart, even our noblest pursuits can be laced with selfish motives. It’s even possible to follow Jesus for the wrong reason! Some come to Him hoping that He’ll magically fix all their problems. Others follow because it’s expected—family tradition, social pressure. ⁠But the real question is: What are we truly seeking? Are we following Christ to get something from Him, or because we’ve been so overwhelmed by His grace that we can’t help but offer Him everything?

Staying True When it Costs Everything

Date: June 15, 2025

We all face times of testing when doing what’s right costs more than we imagined, and compromising the truth looks like the easy way out. But these aren’t accidents; they’re proving grounds. When Jesus was led into the desert to be tempted by the devil, He didn’t waver or despair. He stood His ground, anchored in the solid truth of God’s Word. You, too, will be led into the wilderness. And there, stripped of comfort and clarity, what you truly believe will surface. The question isn’t if you’ll be tempted, but whether you’ll hold fast to the Word when it matters most. Because in the wilderness, your identity isn’t proven by performance, but by trusting who God is.

Jesus’ Baptism: Anointed by the Spirit

Date: June 8, 2025

Though sinless and in no need of repentance, Jesus insisted on being baptized to identify with us, the broken and guilty. He waded into our mess, not to excuse our sin, but loving us enough to meet us in it. The Holy Spirit descended, anointing Him with divine power for the mission ahead. If the perfect, holy, Son of God refused to function without the Spirit, do we actually think we can? So, the real question is, are you relying on your own strength, or desperately depending on the Holy Spirit? You weren’t made to muscle your way through this life. You were made to walk as Jesus walked: surrendered, empowered, and led by the Spirit.

Jesus’ Baptism: Affirmed by the Father

Date: June 1, 2025

Why was Jesus baptized, even though He had no sin to repent of? First, it marked the beginning of His public ministry and vividly foreshadowed how it would end—with His death, burial, and resurrection. Second, it was God’s public affirmation that Jesus is “the Son of God,” a title reserved for the promised Messiah. This was no ordinary baptism. It was a line drawn in the sand for every watching eye, every questioning heart, and every doubting demon that the Messiah now stood in their midst. Some fell down in worship. Others clenched their fists in rage. Jesus’ baptism was both a declaration and a commitment, setting Him on an unshakable path to the cross, where the symbolic He enacted would become the brutal and beautiful reality that sets every captive free!

Why Good People Need to Repent

Date: May 25, 2025

When John the Baptist appeared on the scene preaching a fiery message of repentance, the religious elite bristled at the idea that they needed cleansing. Confident in their own goodness, they saw no need for heart change. But John’s words pierced their polished exterior, exposing unclean hearts that no amount of religious performance could cleanse. And his message still confronts us today, challenging our instinct to justify ourselves rather than repent. No matter how much good we think we’ve done, the truth remains: we must all repent before God. Are you still relying on your efforts or reputation to get to heaven?

The Quiet Power of a Life with God

Date: May 18, 2025

The story of Jesus’ early life reminds us that who you become matters far more than what you achieve. For nearly thirty years, Jesus lived in obscurity—no miracles, no sermons, just ordinary life in a small town. And yet, Scripture tells us those were the years when He grew in wisdom, strength of spirit, and in favor with God and man. Could it be that God values the mundane more than we do; that He does His deepest work in the silence, not in the spotlight? In a world obsessed with visibility, Jesus shows us that real spiritual growth happens in the shadows—in ordinary obedience, unseen faithfulness, and steady intimacy with the Father. Your greatest growth won’t occur in what you do, but in how deeply you abide in Him.