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Sermons of Christian Faith from LifeSpring Community Church in Plainfield, Illinois
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Listen to sermons from our Sunday morning services at LifeSpring Community Church in Spring Grove, IL.
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LifeSpring Community Church of Duncan is a group of ordinary people who like casual dress, upbeat and uplifting music, and most of all, who want to experience God's presence in the worship service. If something is missing in your life, maybe you'll find it at Life Spring. We look forward to seeing you soon.
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Since moving to The Pavilion in 2013, Lifespring church has built itself up as a prominent community outreach hub. Their compassion and generosity has made a difference to everyone who has walked up their steps Some have found a second chance, some friendship, some hope. All have found a community to belong to that is welcoming to everyone. It is important that these people do not go unrecognised. Each one has kindness to offer and stories to tell. The voices in these audio podcasts are just ...
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We live in a time of great questioning about the soul of Christian faith. In this message Pastor Fran unpacks how Jesus engaged fully with our humanity rather than steering us back into a narrow religious framework for life.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran talks about how Jesus is more than the modern Christian package which he illustrates by distinguishing the difference between Christ, the Church and Christianity. He then encourages an honest and self reflective journey of the heart towards restoration and towards the life of freedom and wholeness.…
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These days more people are getting honest about the variety of things found in the Bible, and it's causing some people to abandon it. Today Pastor Fran unpacks some things we've been taught about the Bible, and how Jesus spoke about it in a way that allows us to accept the Bible as it is, love it even more, and let it point us to the finding of rea…
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran talks about why he is still a Christian - even with the past events of questionable church credibility. When we come out into the deep with Jesus, our faith can remain unshaken - no matter the past or present hurt of churches who have lost the plot.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran touches on how we as humans tend to make identities for ourselves and wear our failures that shroud us in so much darkness. Because of Jesus, our identity is recreated and we don't have to wear our failures. We cling to hope that God is restoring all things in due time.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In today's message, Pastor Fran explores what it means that we have become one with Christ in his death, and consequently one with him and his resurrection. He also touches on the fascinating way the early Christians spoke about how God tricked death and the devil by getting them to swallow Christ and bring him inside their walls... and that they n…
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Although we see Jesus sacrifice as the ultimate sacrifice, we've been taught to understand it in the same terms as the whole archaic concept of sacrifice. But in this sermon, Pastor Fran debunks that and shows that the Cross exposes all our scapegoating of other people and calls for an end to that, and to the new way of love.…
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In this Easter sermon, Pastor Fran explores how Jesus, when he appeared to the disciples, invited them out of the darkness of fear, grudges, and retribution, and into a new world where forgiveness, reconciliation, and love reign.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this message Pastor Fran talks about how we have tended to frame Jesus' death as a sacrifice of appeasement, and shows how the writer of the New Testament letter of Hebrews actually frames Jesus' sacrifice as the end of that whole way of thinking and as a better kind of sacrifice that is more transforming for us as human beings.…
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In today's message Pastor Fran teaches how the Cross is God's judgment on the way we humans use coercive power and dominate one another, but far from being a judgment of wrath, it is an exposure by love, meant to lead us to an awakening to love.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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Pastor Fran Leeman examines the popular modern view of the Cross, the idea that God poured out his punishment for our sin on Jesus, and shows that not only does the New Testament not teach this, but in the end it gives us a divided and distorted view of God. The beautiful truth is that the Father was in union with the Son at the Cross, suffering th…
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In the first message of this series Pastor Fran talks about how the modern church has had a one-dimensional understanding of the Cross, but the early church and New Testament writers understood the Cross as a mystery, a scandalous wonder layered with meanings that can change our thinking about God and human life, leading us ultimately to great hope…
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In this mornings sermon, David Larson helps us conclude this series in the book of Matthew. He reminds us of Matthew 18:3. "Unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven."By David Larson
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In today's conversation, Pastor Fran Leeman and Leslie Zurita talk about how if we don't keep Jesus in the center of our faith, even though we're reading the Bible, we can get dragged horribly off track in our faith. In contrast with this, the New Testament writers tell us over and over to fix our gaze on Jesus, who is the Word God has spoken.…
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Taking this warning from the lips of Jesus, Pastor Fran explores the corrupted views of God and his Kingdom around us today, and calls us back to Jesus' own teaching about God and his Kingdom.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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Leslie Zurita explores our longstanding notions about fearing God and contrasts those with the mercy we see in the ministry of Jesus, suggesting that perhaps fearing/respecting God means taking seriously what he value most, things like goodness, compassion, mercy, and restoration.By Leslie Zurita
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Today Pastor Fran explores what often feels like a tension between what the bible says about salvation being a free gift and Jesus' talk about taking up our cross and the cost of following him. When we understand the gospel holistically, it makes sense, but to do that we have to stop thinking just about our afterlife destination, and more about God…
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In today's message from Matthew, Pastor Fran shares how Jesus announced that he had come to preach the gospel, Good News, and raises the uncomfortable question of whether we modern Christians really understand the gospel that Jesus came to bring. This message will challenge your thinking about modern Christianity and call you to come back and sit a…
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In this first message of a new series through the Gospel of Matthew, Pastor Fran teaches through the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, and shows us how this story speaks to the very heart of the Good News, and what God seeks to do to make human beings whole and free and good.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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Leslie Zurita interviews Pastor Fran to hear some of his personal thoughts about LifeSpring Church right now, about the shifts happening in the American church, and how Christians should navigate the realm of politics in this election year that is sure to be tempestuous.By Leslie Zurita and Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran explores the story of Simeon, who took the infant Christ in his arms and prophesied that this one would expose some hearts and set others free.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this Christmas Eve message, Pastor Fran shows how Mary's journey has parallels to our own, and how it can inspire us and give us courage to walk the road before us, and to let Christ be formed in US and brought into the world.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this Christmas message Pastor Fran explores the impoverished circumstances of Christ's birth, how in this ignoble birth God both exposes our poverty of soul and joins us in it to bring us into the riches of love.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran talks about the mystery surrounding the incarnation secrets. The mystery of God taking on human flesh and clothing himself in our humanity.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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Have you ever wondered if there's more to the incarnation than just Jesus being born so that he could die for us later on? In this message Pastor Fran explores what it means that the joy of God has erupted into the world with the birth of Christ, endured the cross, and is now restoring joy to all his creatures.…
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In this message, Pastor Fran talks about the things that get in the way of seeing each other as the gifts that we are to each other, and about how religion and certain expressions of Christian faith often inhibit significant relationships instead of cultivating them.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this message, Pastor Fran talks about how crucial fresh starts and second chances are to the forward movement in our lives, and dispels some of the terrible pictures we've been given of God as being stingy when it comes to forgiveness and second chances.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this first message in the series, Pastor Fran challenges us to reclaim beauty as the central framework for our faith, and shows us how a faith not centered in beauty can't bring real life.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran explores the mysterious questions surrounding our quest to find our real identity, and unpacks how discovering that we are the "Beloved" of God holds the key to that journey.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this message, Pastor Fran challenges many popular Christian ideas about eternity... what the point is, how we get there, and whether God will ever give up on any human being.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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As we look to emerge from the places pain and loss have trapped us in our lives, what would Jesus say to us? What would he tell us about how to move forward the freedom and wholeness he came to bring us? Pastor Fran answers these questions with clarity in this message, and then invites Diane Balaja to illustrate these truths with her own story of p…
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In this sermon, Pastor Larry leads us into taking a look at the struggle to understand what it really means to be human.By Pastor Larry Alicz
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In this message Pastor Fran explores Matthew chapter 9 where Jesus quotes these words of the Old Testament prophet Hosea: I desire mercy, not sacrifice! Religion always goes bad when we see God primarily as judge, and make religious precepts more important than the needs of people.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this message Pastor Fran discusses the human struggle to discern who God is, the revelation of God's divine love upon the Cross, and our need to let the nature of this "cruciform" love reprogram our very ideas about love itself.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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Today, our friend Leslie Zurita interviews Pastor Fran. Relating the sermon last week on where we are going as a church and the fresh wineskin that Jesus is crafting for us as a church community and how we are moving towards that and why.By Leslie Zurita and Fran Leeman
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Christianity is losing its credibility in our culture and many Christians are rethinking what a Jesus-like faith looks like. In this message Pastor Fran argues that the time has come for us to find fresh wineskins to express the new wine Jesus actually brought.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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This morning, Pastor Fran talks about baptism in the Bible as we prepare for the baptism of 5 of our friends.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In today's sermon, Pastor Fran and David Larson bring us on a journey into the story of how New Life for Haiti started in the church and migrated into an organization that changes lives on the daily, from education and beyond.By Pastor Fran and David Larson
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In the last sermon of the This is My Story series, Pastor Fran expresses the importance of starting to view your time in this life as an opportunity to create impactful, sacred moments, which he coins the "altars" along our journey. He explains how to look at the unfolding of our story as a chance to make choices towards your true character that ho…
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran guides us down the road of peering into the road ahead on our journey with Christ.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran unpacks how wisdom transcends knowledge as spiritual understanding. He shares how he has searched for wisdom along his journey and how we can use it to navigate the unwinding path before us by desiring and chasing it.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran encourages us to find our sole path to our authentic selves. He reminds us that as humans, we are on a journey like Jesus, being made into the free, whole and unique person each of us was wonderfully made to be.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran talks about gratitude and how even the smallest things are gifts from the Lord that we should be thankful for.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Leslie Zurita makes her debut preaching as she describes the dry seasons we go through in our journeys and how to find your way back to feeling the presence of Christ.By Leslie Zurita
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran walks you through how to discern God's presence in your path to lessen your fears and increase your hope about your story yet to come.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, David courageously shares his personal struggles throughout his journey so far. When faced with the existential question as to why there is evil we've been given a lot of different answers. Learn how look at sharing your burdens and accepting the bad experiences as a step towards "everything rightness".…
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In this sermon Pastor Fran talks about finding hope and God in the winding path behind us and the unfolding road before us.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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Pastor Fran closes up this current sermon series by bringing up two of our church leaders to talk about their own paths of deconstruction/reconstruction in their Christian journeys.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon Pastor Fran weighs in on questions many of us think about surrounding the Christian faith. What is exactly the point of it all? Are we supposed to be the ones to point to what's good and bad? In this message we talk about discerning what's from God and what's not.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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How are Christians to balance the need to discern between good and evil with Jesus' words, "Judge not, let ye be judged"? In this message we explore that balance and focus in on why it's almost impossible to judge and love someone at the same time.By Pastor Fran Leeman
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