Audio Messages & Sermon Series - Crosswinds, Plainfield, IL

In this week’s message "No Junk for Jesus," Pastor Ken encourages the Church to give the best themselves to God in 2010. We are to pour out our lives for the one who poured our His life for us. That worshiping at Jesus feet is our primary Joy and what gives us the strength to Love our neighbors.

This is our final part in the You turn to joy series. This series is on the parables in Luke 15. This part of the series focuses on the last part of the parable of the Prodigal son and draws our attention to the older brother. While the younger prodigal brother was wasteful with early wealth, the older brother is wasting something so much more valuable - true eternal treasure.

Coming to yourself is a great gift! But many of us have to go through great pain to finally get there. Often it causes a lot of pain to others in our lives before we get there. The message Come to yourself is part of the series, You Turn to Joy, that delves deeper into the parables of Luke 15. In this message we specifically look at the Prodigal son parable in Luke 15:17 - 24, when the prodigal son realizes that he needs to go back to the Father.

Is artificial intelligence evil? That is the question Pastor Ken took on Sunday — and his answer was not a tech lecture. It was a walk through Matthew 15, where religious leaders confronted Jesus over something that looked scandalous on the surface: his disciples eating bread with unwashed hands. Jesus flipped the argument upside down. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but what comes out of the mouth (Matthew 15:11). Mark 7:20-23 says it even more bluntly — evil comes from within, out of the heart.

The scripture is Philippians 4:14-23 — Paul's closing words to a church that had supported him while he sat in prison. On the surface, it sounds like a polite "thanks for the cash." But Paul does something remarkable with it. He borrows the language of a business ledger ("credited to your account," "paid in full," "well supplied") and turns it into a picture of friendship. These believers weren't patrons buying influence, and Paul wasn't a client on the payroll. They were partners in the gospel.

In Philippians 4:1–3, Paul urges believers to stand firm in the Lord and calls Euodia and Syntyche to agree in Him, teaching us that Christian unity is more important than winning every argument. Unity does not mean agreeing on everything, but choosing love, humility, forgiveness and the mission of the gospel over personal opinions and the need to be right.

Paul in Philippians 3:12-21 reminds us that we have not yet “arrived,” but are called to press on toward Christ, refusing to let our past, failures, circumstances, or pursuit of perfection keep us stuck. Because Christ has already made us His own, we do not run to earn salvation—we run from a position of grace, keeping our eyes on the heavenly goal and remembering that our citizenship is in heaven.

In Philippians 3:1–11 Paul teaches that even the most impressive human credentials, achievements, morality, and religious performance cannot make us righteous before God. Instead of placing our confidence in what we have accomplished or what we are losing, we are called to rejoice in Christ, trust His grace, and find our identity in Him.