Whether you call them homilies, sermons, or talks, there’s a lot you can learn from the spiritual leaders in our community. While in a perfect world, you’d have time to listen to everyone, that simply isn’t possible for most with limited time to spare. To help, we’ve surfaced and summarized the teachings from the audio sermons of some of the most influential priests and pastors from around town and in the Christian sphere.
You can skip to a specific section by clicking the links below.
Jump to:
- Fr. Mike Schmitz
- Buckhead Church
- Cathedral of Christ the King
- Passion City Church
- Trinity Anglican Church
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Fr. Mike Schmitz
In his homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Fr. Mike Schmitz introduces a series titled “Autobiography,” centered on the idea that while God is the ultimate author of our lives, He invites us to be co-authors. He notes that while 80% of people want to write a book, very few actually start; similarly, many people live reactively rather than intentionally writing their own life story. Fr. Mike challenges the audience to look at the last seven days of their lives and ask if they would want that pattern to define the next 25 years of their biography.
Drawing from the story of The Lord of the Rings and the Fall in Genesis, Fr. Mike identifies four elements of a “strong start” in any story: irreversibility, identity at stake, risk, and agency. He explains that Adam and Eve’s choice to eat the fruit was a “strong but bad start” because it was an attempt to find happiness apart from God. He defines all sin in this way: a desire to be happy, but choosing to pursue that happiness independently of the Father.
To illustrate the journey back to God, Fr. Mike reflects on the Parable of the Prodigal Son, focusing on the son’s initial devastating decision to sell his family’s ancestral land—a move that signaled he wanted nothing to do with his father. However, the turning point comes when the son “remembers himself.” Fr. Mike emphasizes that the son’s ability to return wasn’t based on self-belief, but on his knowledge of his father’s generous and kind heart.
Finally, Fr. Mike points to Jesus in the wilderness as the ultimate example of a strong start. Unlike Adam or the Prodigal Son, Jesus faces temptations regarding His identity but chooses to act in union with the Father rather than apart from Him. Fr. Mike concludes by inviting listeners to use this Lenten season as a new beginning—a moment to pick up the pen, remember who God is, and begin co-authoring their life story with Him.
Listen to the full version here.
Buckhead Church
In her sermon “An Abundant Life With Christ” at Buckhead Church, Annie F. Downs addresses the common misconception that marriage is the only path to a truly abundant life for a believer. Drawing from John 10:10, she emphasizes that Jesus came so that His followers could have a “more and better life than they ever dreamed of,” regardless of their relationship status. She uses the analogy of different routes home—like taking the bypass versus going through downtown—to illustrate that while there is only one way to God through Jesus, there are multiple reliable life paths that lead to the same destination of spiritual abundance.
Downs speaks candidly about her own experience as a 45-year-old single woman, sharing how she had to wrestle with the realization that her life might look different than she originally planned. She recounts a pivotal moment when she was challenged to consider if the gospel might actually go further through her life if she remained single. By viewing her current state as a “gift of today,” she argues that singleness allows for unique opportunities and a specific kind of focus that can move the gospel forward in ways marriage might not. She encourages her audience to stop waiting for a future milestone, like marriage, to start running after God’s calling, noting that waiting for “then” often prevents people from living fully “now.”
Switching to a “leadership hat,” Downs challenges the church community to examine their theology regarding single people, asking if they inadvertently view them as less mature or less “in the will of God” than their married peers. She points out that nearly half of the adult population in the U.S. is currently unmarried, yet many single Christians feel deeply hurt by the church because they have been taught there is only one “finish line” for success. She notes that Scripture models many successful single lives—including Jesus and the Apostle Paul—and urges parents and leaders to teach the next generation that both marriage and singleness are valid, honored, and abundant paths in the Kingdom of God.
The sermon concludes with a call to “fall in love with the life you have” and to recognize that God’s plans are good, even when they are not painless or perfect. Downs emphasizes that a healthy fear of the Lord and a commitment to sexual purity are lifelong callings for everyone, not just a race to be won at the altar. She encourages the congregation to “run their own race” toward Jesus, trusting that He is the author and perfecter of their faith. Ultimately, she frames abundance not as a status to be achieved through human relationships, but as a gift to be received through a daily, grateful walk with Christ.
Listen to the full version here.
Cathedral of Christ The King
In his homily for the First Sunday of Lent, Archbishop Gregory Hartmayer explores the full scope of salvation history by contrasting the Garden of Eden with the desert of Jesus’ temptation. He explains that while temptation itself is not a sin, it becomes one only if we act upon it. He highlights the two landscapes of the garden—filled with abundance—and the desert—marked by drought and hunger—to illustrate the different outcomes of Adam’s disobedience and Christ’s ultimate victory.
The Archbishop reflects on how the serpent in Genesis subtly planted seeds of doubt and suspicion, portraying God as a limiting figure who could not be trusted. This distrust led Adam and Eve to grasp for divinity, wanting to be more than human instead of being grateful for their existence. This act of disobedience resulted in immediate shame and fear, whereas Jesus, in his state of extreme hunger and exhaustion in the desert, chose to trust God’s provision completely.
Archbishop Hartmayer points out that the devil’s temptations to Jesus—instant gratification, spectacular proof, and worldly power—are the same ones that echo in our modern culture. He warns that we often live in an “intolerable” culture of instant results, where we are tempted to compromise our principles for quick success or security. In contrast, Jesus defeated these temptations not through personal wisdom, but by relying strictly on the Word of God, answering the tempter with “It is written.”
Concluding the homily, the Archbishop encourages the faithful to enter the 40 days of Lent as a period of spiritual combat, using prayer, fasting, and almsgiving to deepen their dependence on God. He emphasizes that while the “ancient serpent” still uses cunning to foster distrust, Christ’s victory has already broken the power of evil. He urges everyone to spend time daily with the Scriptures, allowing the Word of God to be their “lamp in the darkness” and their food in the desert as they journey toward the resurrection at Easter.
Listen to the full version here.
Passion City Church
Louie Giglio explores Joshua chapters 4 and 5, focusing on the Israelites’ crossing of the Jordan River into the Promised Land. He emphasizes that the first act God commanded was not to fight or build, but to remember. Giglio explains that Joshua was instructed to have 12 men—one from each tribe—take 12 large stones from the middle of the dry riverbed and set them up as a permanent memorial at Gilgal. This “stack of stones” served as a visual testimony for future generations, ensuring that when children asked about their meaning, parents could recount the miraculous faithfulness of God in drying up the river.
Giglio observes that a strong memory of God’s past faithfulness is a more powerful asset than a strong army when facing future battles like Jericho. He notes that the stones were not monuments to human achievement but to divine intervention, reminding the people of the Red Sea, the manna, and the pillar of fire. Interestingly, he points out that these “stones of remembrance” are almost always born out of hardship and moments where, if God hadn’t come through, the people wouldn’t have survived. He challenges the audience to consider what “stones” they are stacking in their own lives and whether they are living in a way that would even cause the next generation to ask questions.
The sermon shifts to the spiritual significance of Gilgal, which means “to roll away.” Giglio connects the physical circumcision of the Israelites at Gilgal to the New Testament “circumcision of the heart,” where the Holy Spirit cuts away the old self to usher in a new life in Christ. He highlights that at Gilgal, the “reproach of Egypt” was rolled away, just as the stone was rolled away from Jesus’ tomb. By celebrating the Passover immediately after stacking the stones, the Israelites anchored their future victory in the remembrance of God’s saving work, a pattern Jesus continued by commanding His followers to “do this in remembrance” of Him.
Finally, Giglio underscores that the ultimate purpose of these memorials is twofold: so that all peoples of the earth might know God’s power and so that His people might always walk in a healthy “fear of the Lord.” This fear, he explains, is what allows a person to face “fortified walls” and “giants” with confidence, because they fear God more than their circumstances. He concludes with a powerful illustration of a clean water well in Uganda, reminding the congregation that the “living water” of Christ is often right under their feet, waiting for them to tap into His abundance through faith and remembrance.
Listen to the full version here.
Trinity Anglican Church
Pastor Dave McCune uses Psalm 51 to provide a template for navigating personal failure and finding spiritual restoration. He opens by drawing a parallel to Alexander Hamilton’s “Reynolds Pamphlet,” noting that while Hamilton’s public confession cost him his career, it reflected a desperate need to be clean. McCune emphasizes that King David, the author of the psalm, was at the height of his glory when he committed adultery and murder, illustrating how even those living out their calling can fall into “cruise control” and succumb to temptation when they stop fighting the battles they were meant to face.
McCune breaks down the process of restoration into three distinct movements: appeal, confession, and repentance. He explains that David first appeals to God’s mercy rather than His justice, knowing that his actions—which carried the penalty of death under the law—left him with no other defense. He defines sin as “missing the mark” and a “rupture of relationship” that is ultimately vertical, affecting the bond between the individual and the Creator. He challenges the congregation to examine their own “personal sin” before attempting to address corporate or systemic brokenness, noting that the line between good and evil runs through every human heart.
The sermon further explores the difference between mere admission and true repentance, which McCune describes as an “inflection point” where one stops running away and turns back toward the right path. He uses the imagery of “hyssop”—the plant used to paint blood on doorframes during the Passover—to symbolize a cleansing that both marks a person for life and renovates them from the inside out. He reminds the audience that “Jesus’s blood speaks a better word” than their failures, offering a narrative of freedom and life even when they feel marked for death.
In the final section, McCune addresses the outcome of this restoration: the return of joy. He notes that David does not ask for his salvation to be restored, but specifically for the “joy of salvation,” suggesting that while the relationship with God may remain, the delight in it can be lost through unconfessed sin. He concludes by equating modern struggles like lust and anger to the extreme examples of adultery and murder, urging the congregation to move out of hiding and into the light. He provides practical resources for those struggling with addiction and invites the community to embrace the “hard road back” as the only true way to healing and peace.
Listen to the full version here.
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