Prodigal: The Younger Son
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Prodigal: The Younger Son - Martha Balmer - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Martha Balmer kicks off our three part series sitting in the story of the Prodigal Son, focusing on the experience of the youngest son. Martha brilliantly highlights how the greater the distance one is from God, the more profound the experience of God’s mercy, love, and grace upon return—and consequently the greater one's security in that love, not to mention the greater the love, gratefulness, joy that wells up for God. When entitlement has no place in our hearts, then everything...
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Psalms: Psalm 42 - Gasping
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Psalms: Psalm 42 - Gasping - Pastor Donnell Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Have you ever been thirsty in a way that water couldn’t fix? Psalm 42 opens with a deer gasping for streams of water and a poet honest enough to admit that their whole self, not just the polished Sunday version, is running dry. In this sermon, Rev. Donnell Wyche explores one of Scripture’s most honest prayers: a lament that moves between despair and hope without pretending either one away. Along the way, we encounter two Hebrew words that deepen our understanding of this...
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Psalms: Psalm 117
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Psalms: Psalm 117 - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Psalm 117 is the shortest psalm in the Bible, yet it carries truth that could transform the way we live. In a world that trains us to hurry, scroll, and stay distracted, Pastor Hannah explores how slowing down before God opens us to the unfailing love and enduring faithfulness that have always been available to us. Through Scripture, honest stories, and moments of quiet, Pastor Hannah invites us to discover that praise isn't something we manufacture—it becomes the natural response to...
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Psalms: Psalm 10
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Psalms: Psalm 10 - Jonathan Hurshman - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In this series, we are inviting the Psalms to speak a prophetic word to us. This week, after witnessing two more murders at the hands of ICE, we sit with Psalm 10, a very honest psalm of lament that calls on God to move in the face of injustice. Jonathan preaches that Psalm 10 instructs us to pray with honesty, to pray for God's action, and to pray banking on hope in God's character. He reminds us that this Psalm is not juxtaposing the good and evil, but rather the oppressor and the...
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Migrant Journeys: Mary, Joseph and Jesus
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Migrant Journeys: Mary, Joseph and Jesus - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: Pastor Hannah concludes our Migrant Journeys series by inviting us to sit with Jesus' story of fleeing to another country due to violence and hatred. Christ was a refugee. Through Matthew 2, we follow Mary, Joseph, and Jesus as they flee Herod's threats of violence, placing their story alongside the stories of migrants today. Together, they reveal a Savior who doesn't remain distant from suffering but enters into it himself. If Jesus identifies with the stranger, how...
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Migrant Journeys: The Syrophoenician Woman
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Migrant Journeys: The Syrophoenician Woman - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This sermon continues the Migrant Journeys series by examining Jesus’ encounter with the Syrophoenician woman in Mark 7:24–30 and Matthew 15:21–28. Unlike the previous stories in the series, the movement is reversed: Jesus is the one who crosses into Gentile territory, becoming the stranger, while the woman is at home in her own land. Yet despite being on her own soil, she must cross ethnic, religious, political, and gender barriers simply to stand before...
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Migrant Journeys: Naomi and Ruth
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Migrant Journeys: Naomi and Ruth - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: What does loyal love look like when life falls apart? In this sermon from the book of Ruth, Pastor Hannah invites us to walk alongside Naomi, Ruth, and Boaz as they navigate famine, migration, loss, and uncertainty. In the midst of a violent and broken world, they choose hesed—God's loyal, faithful love—again and again, discovering that small acts of courageous love can become the very places where God brings redemption. Their story ultimately points us to Jesus, God's...
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Migrant Journeys: Joseph
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Migrant Journeys: Joseph - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary:
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Migrant Journeys: Hagar
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Migrant Journeys: Hagar - Pastor Hannah Witte - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: In week two of our Migrant Journeys series, we sit with Hagar—a woman whose story is marked by displacement, exploitation, and loss. Stripped even of the name her mother gave her, Hagar flees into the wilderness where she encounters El Roi, the God Who Sees. God pulls up a chair, listens to her story, and reminds her that she is more than the labels others have placed on her. Hagar's story invites us to remember that every person is an image bearer with immeasurable worth. What if we...
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Migrant Journeys: Abraham and Sarah
Ann Arbor Community Church Sermon Podcast
Migrant Journeys: Abraham and Sarah - Pastor Donnell T. Wyche - . Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - Summary: This sermon reads Genesis 12 as a migration story, following Abraham and Sarah from the inside as displaced people rather than as tidy heroes of faith. It traces their uprooting from the safety of clan and homeland, their flight to Egypt driven by famine, and the cost of their vulnerability there, where a frightened Abram hands Sarai over to Pharaoh to save himself. The turn comes in God’s quiet intervention on Sarai’s behalf: even when no human being is advocating for...
info_outlineProdigal: The Younger Son - Martha Balmer - a2cc.org. Watch our livestream Sundays @ 11:00am - vimeo.com/annarborcommunitychurch
Summary:
Martha Balmer kicks off our three part series sitting in the story of the Prodigal Son, focusing on the experience of the youngest son. Martha brilliantly highlights how the greater the distance one is from God, the more profound the experience of God’s mercy, love, and grace upon return—and consequently the greater one's security in that love, not to mention the greater the love, gratefulness, joy that wells up for God. When entitlement has no place in our hearts, then everything is a gift. Martha's preaching invites us to see this parable with fresh eyes and a soft, humble heart.