A Theology For Suffering

In Acts 4, Peter and John were recognized because they had been with Jesus. This message challenges us to move beyond simply doing Christianity and rediscover the life that comes from abiding in Christ. As we remain in Him, His love shapes how we live, how we see others, and how we respond to the people God places in our path. The church isn’t just a place where people experience Jesus, but a people through whom the world encounters Him. May our lives make it unmistakably obvious that we’ve been with Jesus.Support the show

Immediately after the Father declares Jesus to be His beloved Son, the enemy comes with a question designed to challenge His identity. Pastor Mattie explores the temptation of Jesus in Luke 4 and reveals how the enemy still works to undermine what God has spoken, offering shortcuts to the purposes of God and twisting Scripture to lead us into compromise. Through the victory of Christ, we're reminded that God's Word is our source of life, the foundation of our faith, and the truth that sustains us through every temptation. Jesus won where we have so often lost, and through His finished work on the cross, His victory becomes ours.Support the show

On The Altar’s seventh anniversary, Pastor Mattie opens Proverbs 29:18 and explains why a God-given vision keeps us covered. Then he shares what’s next: revival nights, a recording studio, a young adults ministry, Wednesday night services, and a weekly prayer gathering. The vision behind all of it is Jesus.Support the show

Storms aren’t always a sign you’re out of God’s will. Sometimes they mean you’re moving forward. Pastor Chris Mathis walks through Acts 28 and gives four reminders for keeping peace in hard seasons, from trusting an unexpected path change to building your own fire instead of living off someone else’s. And when the serpent bites, you don’t have to carry it. Shake it off.Support the show

Philip was in the middle of a citywide revival when God sent him down an empty desert road to sit with one man. The message from Acts 8 is that God cares less about your calling than your obedience, and that the person in front of you right now is part of the assignment. Philip’s one condition for baptism still stands: believe with all your heart, because faith is what turns a bath into a baptism.Support the show

You can have every gift, the biggest platform, and the right credentials, and it all counts for nothing without love. Pastor Mattie preaches a message he says he needed to hear himself, walking through 1 Corinthians 13 to show that love means giving someone else preference, that it suffers long, and that it costs something. It’s the foundation under everything we build, and the only thing that never fails.Support the show

We don't graduate from the gospel. Pastor Mattie returns to 1 Corinthians 2 and the message that got him started in ministry, then walks through Isaiah 53 to show why Jesus is a Savior and not just an example. The man of sorrows wasn't written to make us pity Him. He was written to bring us to the foot of the cross in awe at a love that carried what we couldn't.Support the show

God said the same thing to exiles in Babylon that He's saying now: I know the plans I have for you. Pastor Mattie puts Jeremiah 29:11 back in its original context — spoken to people staring down 70 years of captivity, not a season of ease — and makes the case that God's promise of a future and a hope was never a promise of comfort. It was a promise that He sees the end of the story, even when all you can see is the pain right in front of you.Support the show

Proximity and intimacy are not the same thing. You can prophesy, cast out demons, build a ministry, and gain a million followers, all in Jesus' name, and still hear "I never knew you" at the end. Using Judas as the central figure, Jacob Coyne calls the church back from performative Christianity to the secret place: the hidden, unhurried prayer life that's not a strategy for ministry but a return to the first love.Support the show

Suffering is not something we can always pray our way out of, and following Jesus does not mean we will never experience it. This message walks through what Scripture teaches about suffering, showing how God meets us in the middle of our pain and uses even the hardest seasons to shape our faith. We may not always understand why we suffer, but we can hold onto the hope that our suffering is temporary, God is with us through it, and eternal glory is coming.Support the show