Antioch Waco

Pastor Vincent Carpenter invites the church to see prayer and fasting not as a list of rules but as an invitation to experience God. Drawing from Matthew 4:1-11, he looks at Jesus' forty days in the wilderness and the three temptations He faced: to turn stones into bread, to throw Himself from the highest point of the temple and to receive all the kingdoms of the world in exchange for worship. In each one, Satan's aim was not simply to lead Jesus into sin but to distort the character of God, question Jesus' identity and offer an alternative to the Father's plan. With encouragement from key Scriptures, Pastor Vincent reminds us that God listens, cares and comforts, that we are His unique creation and that He calls us beyond ourselves to partner with Him for our city, our nation and the nations of the earth.

In "Fall Like Rain," the last of our Overwhelming Grace series, Pastor Jimmy Seibert walks through his top 10 grace scriptures. Grace is the overwhelming love, pleasure and favor of God toward undeserving people and the power of God to do the will of God. Grace is attached to a person, the grace of the Lord Jesus, the love of the Father and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit. He shares through these Scriptures that the throne of grace is always open and humility is how we access more of it. Grace strengthens the heart against strange teachings, abounds as we sow it into others, breaks the power of besetting sin and gives us a place to stand. He ends by encouraging us with a passage from Zechariah with Jesus speaking 'grace, grace' over every mountain we face and of God's grace falling like rain, coming toward us before we ever reach for it.

This message continues our series on “Overwhelming Grace” with Pastor Jimmy Seibert unpacking Hebrews 4:12–16 to show that grace is not distant but present and available right now. He identifies four tools for laying hold of grace: the Word of God, which washes and renews the mind; the fear of God, which grows with respect and trust; the compassion of Jesus, who was tempted in every way yet without sin and meets us with understanding rather than judgment; and confidence in His care, which allows believers to draw near to the throne of grace rather than run from it. Pastor Jimmy Seibert calls the church to stop running for acceptance and instead run from a place of acceptance already secured in Christ, trusting that help is not on its way but already here.

Mick Murray continues a sermon series on grace, preaching from Romans 6:1-4 and 11-14. Mick explains that grace does not give believers a license to keep sinning freely, but ushers them into an entirely new identity. Drawing on Paul's use of baptism as a picture of dying and rising with Christ, and the exodus story of Israel walking through the Red Sea out of slavery in Egypt, Mick shows that everyone who trusts in Jesus has been moved out of sin's dominion and into a new life under grace. Mick unpacks three practices from Romans 6:11-14: considering ourselves dead to sin, resisting sin from that renewed identity rather than to earn God's favor and presenting ourselves to God as instruments of righteousness. Mick shares his own story of addiction to pornography, reminding us that we do not need to acquire more grace or freedom, but sin no longer has dominion over those who are under grace.

This week's message continues our series in Overwhelming Grace and traces grace all the way back to the beginning in Genesis when God created the heavens and the earth; He formed men and women in His own image, blessed them and gave them purpose, all out of grace. He gave Adam and Eve real freedom, including the freedom to love Him or turn away, because love that is forced is not love at all. Then came the serpent's question, "Has God really said?" and the fall in Genesis 3, where Adam and Eve chose their own way, their eyes were opened to good and evil, and they hid from God in shame. God did not change; He came looking for them anyway, calling out "Where are you?" not in anger but in compassion, already moving toward them in compassion and rescue. Every one of us faces the same pattern of the fall and need to be careful what we hear, what we see, what we feel, and who we blame for these things keep us from experiencing grace. The good news is that God never stopped pursuing us. He clothed Adam and Eve with the skin of a sacrifice, pointing forward to Jesus, the Lamb who was pierced for our transgressions, so that through one act of righteousness, all who receive God's abundant grace can reign in life through Him.