Sermons of Christian Faith from LifeSpring Community Church in Plainfield, Illinois
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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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In this message Pastor Fran talks about how society so often moves on an honor/shame mentality related to various kinds of status, and how far too often Christianity just becomes an extension of this worldly honor/shame game. Jesus, in his teaching and at the Cross, exposes the falsity of this arrangement and invites us into the freedom of love and…
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In this post-election sermon, while avoiding partisanship, Pastor Fran points us to a life and politics that has firmly in its sights the story God is telling, the story of the restoration of all people, and also reiterates LifeSpring's promise to be a safe community for all people.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this message Pastor Fran speaks of the primacy of love, and love alone, in our thinking about God and our life in Christ. It is a love that never shuts the gates, it always forgives, and it vanquishes the darkness.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran talks about receiving the Bible as it is, seeing it not just as ink on a page to be obeyed, but rather pointing us to Christ who reveals the good and beautiful God who wants to write upon our hearts and make a new story out of us so that we might be whole and free and reconciled to one another.…
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In this sermon Pastor Fran takes a look at the wonder and variety of the Bible as both the revelation of God but also as an ongoing search and conversation of the people of God, and unpacks how Jesus is the glorious climax of the story and the key to our restoration.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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KC Crino brings God's word that as children of God and the visible Body of Christ, we have the opportunity and responsibility to co-create with the Spirit spaces of peace and healing to those on Life's journey.Von Guest Speaker
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On September 29 LifeSpring participated in Global Mutual Flourishing Sunday, a day to hear Jesus calling us to care about peace and justice for the powerless. As part of this focus we increased our awareness of the history and recent events between Israelis and Palestinians, praying for an end to the slaughter and wanting to work for the flourishin…
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In this sermon Pastor Fran shows how some of the Christian ideas we've been taught actually end up making God seem smaller and more petty, and as a consequence turning us into smaller people. But when we begin to perceive the big and beautiful God whose image lives in every human being, we begin to find the freedom to love like God loves.…
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran brings us under the beautiful sky to of God's goodness as opposed to a sky dominated by wrath and judgment. Fran also challenges the theologies that present humans as only bad, emphasizing how Jesus moved toward people to bring healing and restore the good buried beneath the debris.…
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In this sermon of continuing to untangle Jesus, Pastor Fran covers seasons of hope. When Jesus is brought to the authorities, we see in His attitude that everything will be fine.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this first message in the Walking Sunlit Fields series, Pastor Fran describes the disillusionment so many Christians are feeling with the church and current expressions of Christianity, and shares the key the early Christians knew that led to a more beautiful faith.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon, Pastor Fran covers Matthew chapter 6. In our journey, Jesus becomes more untangled when we let go of the wrong possessions and search our soul for what is sacred.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In the first message of this new series, Pastor Fran shows how the unentangled Jesus helps us get untangled from all the things we've tried to find our value in, suggesting that our real freedom will come with the deep awareness that we are in fact the beloved of God.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this summer series conversation, Pastor Fran welcomes Keri Ladouceur of the Post Evangelical Collective to talk about the paradigm shift happening in American Christianity.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this conversation Pastor Fran takes on some profound questions of life and faith, sharing answers that are both honest and hopeful.Von Leslie Zurita and Fran Leeman
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In this summer conversation we get to see what an ongoing search for authentic faith looks like through the eyes of KC and Gail Crino across their amazing story of life, missions, and ministry.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this summer discussion, Pastor Fran sits down and talks with the LGBTQ+ Community and allies of the cause. Fasten your seat belt! You're going to be taken for a ride with these stories of past church experiences, overcoming and resolution.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this conversation, Pastor Fran and Leslie Zurita sit down with Diane Balaja and Todd Pierson to talk about struggle and suffering. With the awareness of trials and tribulations, we take heart knowing suffering is not the pinnacle of life.Von Leslie Zurita and Fran Leeman
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Leslie Zurita sits down with Deb Augsburger, Ruth Kaufman, and Diana Gorshe to talk about the ways the church has limited and failed women, and whether the traditional views of women in the church really reflect a New Testament perspective.Von Leslie Zurita
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Pastor Fran sits down with Larry Alicz to discuss the balance of certainty and mystery in the Christian's journey, and the necessity and beauty of both.Von Pastor Fran and Larry Alicz
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In this first sermon of a new Summer series, Pastor Fran and Leslie Zurita kick it off by talking about getting the bigger picture. Depending on who we listen to can shape our Christianity.Von Leslie Zurita and Fran Leeman
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Beginning with the story of the woman caught in adultery in John chapter 8, Pastor Fran unpacks today how religion always defaults to shallow and judgmental places, but that Jesus is interested in something radically different, not retributive punishment, but restoration of our very humanity.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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In this sermon about hope, Pastor Fran recalls the Holy Spirit experiences he had, from feeling God's presence to weird interactions with strangers. With Christ in us, our restoration is daily with new changes and new victories.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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."Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von 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.Von Pastor Fran Leeman
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