A note for readers: I preached this manuscript at the 10:15 AM service. Pastor Chantel Makarawa, our Associate Pastor, preached her own message at the 8:30 AM service. Sharing this version here for subscribers who want to read along with the series.
“The good news is that God has never stopped mending what we tear.”
This is week three of The Good Life, four weeks in the Ten Commandments. Preached August 30, 2026, on Exodus 20:12-16, five short commands in a row that are every one of them about the person next door. The sermon opens on an ordinary block on an ordinary evening where nothing dramatic happens, which turns out to be the whole point, and then pulls a single thread to watch how fast a street stops feeling like home.
In the manuscript below:
Why most of these commands run only two or three words long, and how much weight each short line carries.
What “honor your father and your mother” actually protected in the ancient world, and who it protects now.
How the harm that unravels a neighborhood today runs through arrangements rather than villains, and why that makes it so easy to be part of.
Where John Wesley got his first rule, and the point at which the gospel refuses to let us stop there.
