I've Always Wondered: How Do We Know What Jesus Looked Like
Release Date: 09/02/2025
Boundless
Faith Unfiltered
Boundless | Fifth Sunday in Lent What happens when we discover that God’s compassion extends far beyond the people we expect? In this sermon, we explore the often-overlooked story of Hagar and Ishmael, a story of abandonment in the wilderness and the God who hears the cry of the forgotten. Again and again throughout Scripture, God’s mercy reaches beyond the boundaries humans create. Through the story of Hagar and Jesus’ welcome of children, this message invites us to consider what it means for the church to embody the boundless compassion of God in a world marked by suffering, injustice,...
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Lenten Devotional March 15
Faith Unfiltered
In today’s video devotional, Rev. Lewis Galloway discusses how Jesus blessing the children becomes a lens for reflecting on God’s habit of reversing human values. Where the world overlooks the small and powerless, Jesus stops, gathers the children close, and offers blessing and belonging. This act echoes a broader biblical theme in which God lifts up the lowly and calls care and attention to those on the margins. During Lent, we are invited to examine our own assumptions about importance and power, and to listen for how Christ is calling us to care for “the least of these.” Subscribe...
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Holy Waste
Faith Unfiltered
Holy Waste | A Sermon on Extravagant Grace What if the most meaningful acts of faith look wasteful to the world? Reflecting on 1 Kings 17:7–16 and Luke 7:36–50, this sermon explores how God’s grace moves us beyond careful calculation into lives of generous love and gratitude. In this sermon, Holy Waste, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on moments when faith calls us beyond practicality into something generous, extravagant, and deeply sacred. Drawing from the story of the widow of Zarephath who shares her last meal with the prophet Elijah, and the unnamed woman who pours costly perfume on...
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Lenten Devotional March 8
Faith Unfiltered
In today’s video devotional, Rev. Anna Dickson reflects on the woman who interrupts a Pharisee’s dinner to anoint Jesus with tears and costly perfume, crossing every social and religious boundary along the way. While others see only her sin and impropriety, Jesus receives her honest, unguarded love as a beautiful gift and blesses her without hesitation. Her bold vulnerability becomes a picture of grace—reminding us that we don’t have to polish ourselves or earn our place at God’s table. Subscribe to daily devotionals sent to your inbox every morning in Lent at fpc.tiny.us/news.
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Bread For All
Faith Unfiltered
Bread for All | From Scarcity to God’s Abundance Is there ever enough? In this sermon, Bread for All, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on Exodus 16:2–4, 9–15 and Mark 6:32–44, where God feeds the Israelites with manna in the wilderness, and Jesus feeds thousands with only a few loaves and fish. Both stories begin in places of worry and scarcity — people who are hungry, tired, and unsure whether their needs will be met. Yet again and again, God responds not with limitation, but with provision. Before teaching, before instruction, Jesus feeds the crowd, reminding us that God’s care...
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Lenten Devotional March 1
Faith Unfiltered
In today’s video devotional, Lucy Baum reflects on Jesus’ compassion for the crowd and the surprising abundance that unfolds in a deserted place. While the disciples see only scarcity and send people elsewhere, Jesus calls them to trust what they already have and share it. Whether through miracle or generosity, God turns small offerings into more than enough. The story reminds us that God’s grace meets us right where we are, transforming even deserted places into spaces of grace, generosity, and unexpected provision. Subscribe to daily devotionals sent to your inbox every morning in Lent...
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Small Seed, Big Bloom
Faith Unfiltered
Small Seed, Big Bloom | A Sermon on Hidden Faith and God’s Surprising Work What if the kingdom of heaven is already growing — quietly and invisibly — within us? In Small Seed, Big Bloom, guest preacher Rev. Cecelia D. Armstrong, Co-Moderator of the PC(USA) General Assembly, reflects on Matthew 13:31–33, where Jesus compares the kingdom of heaven to a mustard seed: small, easily overlooked, yet capable of transforming everything around it. Preached on February 22, 2026, at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte, this sermon invites us to look beyond expectations of rapid growth or...
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The Reconciliation of All Things
Faith Unfiltered
The Reconciliation of All Things | A Sermon for an Anxious World When the world feels fractured and uncertain, what does Christian hope look like? In this sermon, The Reconciliation of All Things, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on Amos 5:18–24 and Matthew 17:1–9 to explore how justice, glory, and reconciliation belong together. Amos calls God’s people beyond hollow worship toward justice that “rolls down like waters,” while the Transfiguration reveals Christ’s radiant glory — a vision meant not to remove us from the world, but to steady us for life within it. In this message,...
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Form and Content
Faith Unfiltered
In this sermon, “Form and Content,” Rev. Anna Dickson reflects on how the way we share the gospel must match the heart of the gospel itself. Drawing on Exodus 4:10–16 and 1 Corinthians 2:1–12, this message explores Paul’s decision to proclaim Christ not through polished speech, persuasive technique, or displays of strength, but through humility, vulnerability, and trust in the Spirit. At the center of the sermon is the conviction that the good news of Jesus Christ is the good news of a crucified love—and that only love can truly carry that message. This sermon invites us to...
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Why Didn't I See That?
Faith Unfiltered
Why Didn’t I See That? | A Sermon on Practicing Love in Plain Sight What if the greatest surprise of faith is not what we believe—but who we fail to notice? In this sermon, Why Didn’t I See That?, Rev. Dr. Lewis Galloway reflects on Jesus’ parable of the sheep and the goats and the unsettling realization that Christ is already present among us—especially in people who are hungry, forgotten, overlooked, or struggling. Drawing from Ezekiel 34:1–6, 11–16 and Matthew 25:31–46, this message invites us to listen for God’s voice in places we may have learned to pass by. It gently...
info_outlineSermon preached by Rev. Mary Bowman on August 31, 2025, at First Presbyterian Church of Charlotte. The scripture for this sermon is 1 Samuel 16:1-13. This sermon is part of the series, I've Always Wondered - Kids' Questions of Faith