Psalms for the Wholehearted | Joy Without Pretending

Teacher: Josh Wilson Text: 1 Peter 2:9–12 and 3:15–16 In the final sermon of the Be My Witness series, Pastor Josh asks a question that's easy to dodge: when people look at our lives, what do they actually see? Peter's answer to what brings people into the Kingdom isn't a sharper argument or a slicker pitch—it's a good life. The Greek word for "good" here, kalos, also means beautiful: a life so good that people stop and wonder what they're missing.

Teacher: Josh Wilson Text: 2 Corinthians 5:14–21 We tend to treat faith like a favorite ice cream flavor—true for me, maybe not for you—but Paul calls us ambassadors, people entrusted with news too good to keep to ourselves. In this sermon from 2 Corinthians 5, Josh names a claim a lot of us quietly resist: the good news of Jesus was never meant to be kept private. In fact, when we keep the news to ourselves, we often withhold something good from someone else.

Teacher: Josh Wilson Text: Acts 8:26–39 In this sermon from Acts 8, Pastor Josh makes a counterintuitive case: witness begins not with talking, but with listening. Long before we ever show up, God is already at work in the people around us. Through Philip's encounter with an Ethiopian traveler on a desert road, Josh traces three moves that put us in step with the Spirit: listen, ask, and risk. All you need is the courage to take the next small step and watch God do what only God can do.

Teacher: Josh Wilson Text: Luke 19:1–10 In this sermon from Luke 19, Pastor Josh argues that what keeps us from sharing good news usually isn't the awkwardness of faith — it's the respectful distance we keep from almost everyone. Zacchaeus is up a tree because nobody in town wants him close, and Jesus invites himself over for dinner anyway, before Zacchaeus has changed a single thing. It turns out hospitality doesn't require string lights or a clean apartment — just the willingness to get close enough to be curious. Belonging comes first; belief and behavior follow.

Teacher: Mandi Paszek Text: Acts 1:8; John 4We begin the Be My Witness series with love. In this sermon, Mandi asks why being a witness so often feels like being a used-car salesman, and answers with the Samaritan woman, who simply couldn't stop talking about the God who met her face to face. What if witness was simply the overflow of being loved?

Teacher: Damaris Taylor Text: Psalm 103 Damaris Taylor closes our psalms series with a reciting of the reasons to praise — not a mood we manufacture, but a response to what God has already done, and indeed continues to do: forgives, heals, redeems, crowns, and satisfies. Even an anxious heart can finally rest here, because the steadfast love of the Lord isn't going anywhere.

Teacher: Josh Wilson Text: Psalm 146:5-10 In this sermon from Psalm 146, Pastor Josh traces the difference between the princes who can't save us — politicians, portfolios, five-year plans — and the God who is both powerful enough to help and close enough to care. Worship doesn't ask us to pretend our problems aren't real; it moves them out of the center of the frame so that God can become the biggest, most true thing in view.

Teacher: Maggie Austen Text: Psalm 10:1-2, 12-17 In this sermon from Psalm 10, Maggie Austen names two lies most of us believe about anger — that it isn't safe, or that it isn't even real — and pushes back on both. Drawing on her own story of disability and a psalmist who never cleans up before God, she argues anger might be the one emotion we can't fake: it's a witness, not a warning. The invitation is to bring our rage to a God who takes it in hand.

Teacher: Josh Wilson Text: Psalm 126:1-6 In this sermon from Psalm 126, Pastor Josh asks how joy can survive when life feels dry and our prayers go unanswered. The psalm is a song of joy sung by a people who weren't winning—proof that joy and grief can live in the same breath. Pastor Josh teaches that when we draw from the "well of memory" (what God has done) and the "well of hope" (what God will do), we can find joy even in the valley. This is our act of resistance against despair.

Teacher: Mandi Paszek Text: Psalm 42:1-11 In this sermon from Psalm 42, Mandi makes the case that lament—bringing our real grief honestly to God—isn't the opposite of faith but a doorway into it. She shares how grief needs three things: room to breathe, a companion, and room to coexist with hope. We don't have to rush past our pain to reach God; He meets us in it, like a father running toward a child. The invitation isn't to grieve less, but to grieve well—and discover that God is already near.