Current Series + Discussion Questions
Current Series:
To welcome honest questions and equip people with practical, Jesus-centered tools, to think wisely, discern faithfully, and follow Him in everyday life.
Message 5 | Is AI Making Us Less Human?
September 6, 2026: We are called to use technology as image-bearers of God, not allow technology to remake us in its image.
Message 4 | How Can I Know God’s Will?
August 30, 2026: God’s will is less about discovering one hidden, perfect choice and more about becoming the kind of person who is being formed by Jesus and can make wise, faithful, loving decisions.
Message 3 | If God is so good, why is there so much pain?
August 23, 2026: When suffering makes God feel absent, Jesus invites us to bring
Him our honest pain, remain present with one another, and trust that death will not have the final word.
Message 2 | Can Faith and Science Coexist?
August 16, 2026: Scientific discovery can challenge the way we understand Scripture and the world, but it does not have to threaten faith. When pursued with humility and curiosity, science and faith can deepen our understanding of truth and lead us toward greater wonder and trust in God.
Message 1 | What If We’re Wrong About Jesus?
August 9, 2026: The resurrection gives us good reason to trust Jesus, not with blind faith, but with a faith grounded in where the evidence points.
Past Series:
Fresh Voices is a chance for our church to hear from people who don’t regularly teach but who have walked faithfully with Jesus. Each speaker brings a unique story, perspective, and life experience that helps us see God’s work in fresh ways.
Message 4 | Fresh Voices
August 2, 2026: Healthy relationships with God's people are evidence of a healthy relationship with God.
Message 3 | Fresh Voices
July 26, 2026: Do others see Christ in you?
Message 2 | Fresh Voices
July 19, 2026: Explores how shame distorts identity, leading people to believe lies about their worth, but shows how Jesus fulfills the promise of healing by removing shame and restoring belonging. Through scripture and personal testimony,ongongongb it presents a “divine exchange” where Jesus replaces brokenness, rejection, and despair with forgiveness, freedom, and new identity rooted in Him.
Message 1 | Fresh Voices
July 12, 2026: Joseph trusted God in hardship and God created beauty that would not have otherwise happened.
Past Series:
This series explores how the early church in Acts was forged into a Spirit-empowered community of love by following the disruptive way of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. The Acts story shows that real faith isn’t easy or clean, but it shapes us into people who love like Jesus.
Message 7 | Freedom Beyond Circumstances
July 5, 2026: In Jesus, suffering does not get the final word. God is forming us for freedom.
Message 6 | God of this City
June 28, 2026: Because God first drew near to us, we are called to draw near to the people God is already drawing near to, reflecting the heart of Jesus through presence, grace, and truth.
Message 5 | Leave Well
June 21, 2026: When relationships break, followers of Jesus fight for reconciliation and, when necessary, separate with grace.
Message 4 | Welcomed and Changed
June 14, 2026: We come to Jesus by faith, but following Jesus leads us into a new way of life.
Message 3 | Make It Easy
June 7, 2026: We don't earn God's favor, and we shouldn't require others to earn ours.
Message 2 | Our Father: Learning to Pray Together (Liz Dickson)
May 31, 2026: When fear, grief, and uncertainty threatened to pull the early church apart, they discovered that praying together as “Our Father” didn’t just change outcomes, it held them together and opened them to the surprising presence and power of God.
Message 1 | God Works While the Church Argues
May 24, 2026: When God begins working through the people we least expect, following Jesus requires the humility to let him reshape our assumptions, categories, and understanding of his kingdom.
Past Series:
To show that faith is not just what we believe, but how we live. This series invites us to let our trust in Jesus shape our work, relationships, time, and the legacy we leave. Faith in the everyday is about being intentional and present, letting God work through us right where we are.
Message 6 | When Everything Changes
May 17, 2026: Following Jesus is not about having your whole future figured out, but staying humble and open enough to let Jesus reshape you as he leads you into unexpected places.
Message 5 | Mother’s Day: A Faithful Legacy
May 10, 2026: Your everyday faith, shaped by those who poured into you, becomes a legacy as you intentionally invest in others and pass it on to the next generation.
Message 4 | Faith Takes Time
May 3, 2026: The small, consistent ways you use your time are forming who you become, so choose them with intention.
Message 3 | Faith When We Disagree
April 26, 2026: Following Jesus means choosing love and unity, even when we don’t agree.
Message 2 | Faith at Home
April 19, 2026: If you don’t intentionally form faith in your home, your home will be formed by something else.
Message 1 | Faith at Work
April 12, 2026: Faith transforms our work from something we have to do into a meaningful way we partner with God to serve others and reflect his goodness in everyday life.
Message 6 | The God Who Suffers
March 29, 2026: Don’t rush past the cross; stay with Jesus in the hard places and let his self-giving love form your life.
Message 5 | Not Ready to Forgive
March 22, 2026: Psalm 173 gives space for the emotions we usually hide: grief, displacement, anger, even a longing for justice that feels violent. It reminds us that God welcomes honest prayers that we’re afraid to say out loud.
Message 4 | Help My Unbelief
March 15, 2026: Real faith is not certainty; it is staying with God, bringing both belief and doubt to him and praying, “Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief."
Message 3 | It is Good to be Near God
March 8, 2026: When life feels unfair and our faith begins to slip, returning to God’s presence slowly reshapes our desires until we discover that He himself is enough.
Message 2 | How Long, O God?
March 1, 2026: Faith is not controlling the outcome or having certainty; it is staying with God in the waiting, trusting Him in the mystery, and becoming the kind of people through whom His glory fills the earth.
Message 1 | When God Let Me Down
February 22, 2026: Following Jesus means surrendering our need to be right and learning to hold our convictions with humility and grace.
Past Series:
This series explores how the early church in Acts was forged into a Spirit-empowered community of love by following the disruptive way of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. Their story shows that real faith isn’t easy or clean, but it shapes us into people who love like Jesus, even when it’s hard.
Message 15 | America’s Favorite Idol
February 15, 2026: Following Jesus means surrendering our need to be right and learning to hold our convictions with humility and grace.
Message 14 | Acts 8: Philip and the Ethiopian
February 8, 2026: God meets people on uncomfortable roads and invites us to join him as he turns outsiders into family through Jesus.
Message 13 | The Invitation of Disruption
February 1, 2026: Acts 8 reminds us that when comfort is disrupted, the Spirit often uses it to send us where God is already at work
Message 12 | Their Story is Our Story
January 25, 2026: This series explores how the early church in Acts was forged into a Spirit-empowered community of love by following the disruptive way of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. The Acts story shows that real faith isn’t easy or clean, but it shapes us into people who love like Jesus.
Message 11 | In the Game
January 18, 2026: God never intended the church to be a crowd of spectators, but a Spirit-formed family where every person is called to get in the game and partner with him in bringing his kingdom to life.
Message 10 | Showing Up!
January 11, 2026: Real faithfulness isn't about trying harder or being more dramatic - it's about showing up, listening to God, and joining him where he's already working.
Message 9 | Fake! Love Doesn’t Pretend
January 4, 2026: Acts 4–5 reveals a Spirit-filled church living with bold faith, deep unity, and genuine generosity, where love was sincere and action-oriented rather than performative. The contrast with Ananias and Sapphira shows that God values honesty and integrity over appearances, reminding us that real love doesn’t pretend; it flows from surrendered hearts.
Past Series:
“O Come, All You Unfaithful” is a series for anyone who’s tired, doubting, or waiting in the dark. Together we’re rediscovering faith by being honest about our struggles and seeing how the Christmas story shows us a God who meets us in our weakness, not after we fix it.
Message 12 | The Faith of the Wisemen
December 21, 2025: Through the story of the wise men, we see that when God begins to move, faith is the response, taking the next step toward him without certainty and trusting that he is good and bringing new life, even through risk and pain.
Message 11 | O Come You Who Feel Unworthy
December 14, 2025: Jesus enters the lives of the unworthy and overlooked, inviting us to trust him with our next step so that our small yes becomes part of God’s greater story.
Message 10 | O Come, All You Who Didn’t Sign Up For This
December 7, 2025: Mary and Joseph both received divine messengers. Both had the choice to say yes or walk away. Saying yes didn’t simplify their lives. It complicated them. But they trusted God’s faithfulness more than their fear. Joseph never lived to see the fulfillment, but his faith changed everything for everyone. Faith is partnering with God in what he is doing, trusting it isn’t easy, but it will never be in vain.
Message 9 | O Come You Who Are Tired
November 30, 2025: Faith means trusting God in the dark, knowing the long silence isn’t his absence but his slow, faithful work toward redemption.
Past Series:
This series invites us to reframe how we see our resources. It’s not just about personal attitudes toward money, but about how faith reshapes what we value, how we give, and what kind of legacy we leave. We want to move from guilt, greed, or consumerism to gratitude and generosity. When we live with open hands and eternal perspective, we discover the life that is truly life.
Message 8 | Give Thanks
November 23, 2025: This message invites us to slow down, return to Jesus with gratitude, and discover the wholeness that comes not from the gifts we receive, but from the Giver himself.
Message 7 | Unity Service
November 16, 2025: Our Unity Service is a service where our English and Spanish congregations come together as one church family! It will be a beautiful morning of worship, prayer, and community as we celebrate what God is doing in and through Avalon Church. We can’t wait to worship with you!
Message 6 | 2025 Mission’s Panel
November 9, 2025: How do we practically live out being ‘on mission’ and inspire others to do the same.
Message 5 | 3 Days Can Change Everything
November 2, 2025: Rich redefined means seeing wealth not as what we keep, but as what we give. True richness is found in generosity, community, and the life that is truly life.
Message 4 | Rich Redefined
October 26, 2025: Rich redefined means seeing wealth not as what we keep, but as what we give. True richness is found in generosity, community, and the life that is truly life.
Message 3 | Eternal ROI
October 19, 2025: When we live generously, using our time, talent, and treasure to bless others, we invest in eternity and experience the life that is truly life.
Message 2 | How to Be Rich (Ken Figueroa)
October 12, 2025: The way we use our money shapes our hearts. Jesus taught that where your treasure is, your heart will be also. Paul affirms that generosity lays up treasure for the future and builds a firm foundation for the life that is truly life.
Message 1 | Admit it… You’re Rich!
October 5, 2025: This message calls us to admit that we are already rich, to stop chasing the moving finish line of “more,” and instead put our hope in God by using our blessings as gifts to bless others, because that is the life that is truly life.
Past Series:
This series explores how the early church in Acts was forged into a Spirit-empowered community of love by following the disruptive way of Jesus from the Sermon on the Mount. Their story shows that real faith isn’t easy or clean, but it shapes us into people who love like Jesus, even when it’s hard.
Message 8 | Pray Bigger
September 28 2025: When challenges pressed in, the early church prayed beyond their comfort, asking for boldness and power so that God’s love in Jesus would be seen through them - and we’re called to pray the same way today.
Message 7 | Acts 4 - No Good Deed
September 21, 2025: Acts 4 shows that power resists Jesus’ healing work, but ordinary people whose lives bear the fruit of love cannot be silenced. The credibility of our witness comes not from arguments but from having been with Jesus.
Message 6 | Forged
September 14, 2025: In Acts 3, Peter and John show us that following Jesus means seeing the overlooked, affirming their dignity, and joining God’s work of restoration through lives of prayer, listening, and blessing.
Message 5 | Sup Dog? (Speaker: James Cowan)
September 7, 2025: This message shows how the early church discovered the power of shared meals through simple tables where God transforms lives, builds community, and draws outsiders to Jesus.
Message 4 | Turning Point (Acts 2:14-41)
August 31, 2025: This message shows how Peter’s sermon at Pentecost revealed that Jesus is the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes as the risen and reigning Messiah, both Lord and YHWH. Jesus calls us to respond with repentance, baptism, and life in the Spirit. Just as the crowd asked, “What should we do?” we too are invited to say yes to Jesus, be made new, and remember his sacrifice at the Lord’s Table.
Message 3 | Pentecost
August 24, 2025: To show that the coming of the Spirit doesn’t erase the old story—it fulfills it in Jesus and extends it through us. God’s new temple is his people, speaking peace across division.
Message 2 | Forged - Ready or Not
August 17, 2025: To encourage followers of Jesus that they do not have to wait for full understanding to start living the kingdom. You do not need control to be faithful. Kingdom living begins with trust, prayer, and obedience in the unknown.
Message 1 | Forged: The Early Church’s Journey to Love Like Jesus
August 10, 2025: This message introduces our year-long journey through Acts, where we’ll see how the early church struggled to live out Jesus’ upside-down Kingdom, and learn to do the same, right here and now.
Past Series:
This July, members of our Avalon family will share messages from their favorite Scriptures as part of our Fresh Voices series.
Message 4 | Student Ministry Testimonies
August 3, 2025: Students share how God moved at Youth Camp, bringing transformation through worship, teaching, and community.
Message 3 | From Beggar to Follower: The Journey of Bartimaeus (Speaker: Domingo Noriega)
July 27, 2025: The Lost Son - a story from Jesus revealing who we are, who the father is, and asking all of us if we want to come celebrate what he is doing in the world.
Message 2 | From Beggar to Follower: The Journey of Bartimaeus (Speaker: Carlos DaSilva)
July 20, 2025: We live surrounded by crowds — voices, distractions, problems. Many today are like Bartimaeus: pushed to the margins, wounded by life, invisible to society. But there is a Jesus who passes through Jericho… and He still stops for those who cry out in faith. What do you want me to do for you?
In this passage, we witness the story of a simple man, an outcast, whose life was eternally changed. Let’s learn from Bartimaeus what it looks like to move from begging to following — from the margins into purpose.
Message 1 | The Joy You Never Saw Coming: Finding Purpose in Your Pain (Speaker: Shelly Brown)
July 13, 2025: We often think joy and suffering can’t coexist, but God calls us to a deeper joy that is forged through our trials, not around them. In this message, we’ll explore how God uses pain to reveal hidden wounds, transform our hearts, and shape us into the image of Christ. When we surrender, He doesn’t just heal us — He makes us whole and invites us into a joy we never imagined possible!
Past Series:
This series will help us face conflict the way Jesus invites us to—by confronting what’s going on inside us, allowing the truth to set us free, and learning to love others with grace and truth. Instead of being ruled by anger, we’ll learn to fight for peace.
Message 6 | Loving Across the Divide
July 6, 2025: This message challenges us to follow Jesus by choosing love and unity over division and bitterness, especially when we disagree on the most polarizing issues of our time.
Message 5 | Mad at God
June 29, 2025: Faith isn’t about certainty; it’s about honesty. When God lets us down, real faith invites us to wrestle, grieve, and grow into deeper trust.
Message 4 | When You’ve Been Wronged (Speaker: Ken Figueroa)
June 22, 2025: Today’s scripture reading in Matthew 18:15-20 outlines how we respond when a believer has sinned against us and what steps we can take to balance truth, justice, and mercy. It’s about how biblical confrontation, done in love, can lead to healing, and how forgiveness opens a path to freedom.
Message 3 | Family Feud
June 15, 2025: Even when conflict breaks relationships, God can redeem the story. Our part is to walk in humility, seek the Lord, and forgive—so we’re defined not by the wound, but by Jesus.
Message 2 | Conflict Without Regret
June 8, 2025: In moments of conflict, we all face a choice: will we react from the flesh like David with Nabal, or respond with Spirit-formed humility like David with Abigail—choosing not just how we act, but who we’re becoming?
Message 1 | The Real Fight Begins In Me
June 1, 2025: When we ignore what’s happening inside us, our relationships suffer. But Jesus invites us to bring it into the light, so we can be transformed and learn to fight for peace—not with each other, but for each other.
Past Series:
This series invites us to respond to the resurrection by taking real, everyday steps into the new life Jesus offers—one that reshapes our identity, habits, relationships, and purpose.
Message 5 | NEW Power
May 25, 2025: New life in Christ isn’t powered by willpower; it’s the Spirit of God living in us, freeing us from condemnation, transforming our hearts, and empowering us to live as God’s beloved children.
Message 4 | NEW Heart
May 18, 2025: On Graduation Sunday, we celebrate new beginnings by hearing God’s promise through Ezekiel—that he doesn’t just give us a fresh start, he gives us a new heart, forming us from the inside out to live with purpose, love, and surrender.
Message 3 | NEW Purpose
May 11, 2025: Rooted in the power of the resurrection, this message calls us to embrace a new purpose in Jesus by taking real, everyday steps into the transformed life He offers—renewing how we live and connect with others.
Message 2 | NEW Identity (Speaker: Joe Chau)
May 4, 2025: In Christ, we exchange the weight of who we were for the freedom of who we are now—fully known, fully new.
Message 1 | NEWly Restored
April 27, 2025: You are not stuck in your past. Jesus meets us where we are and gives us new purpose and life.
Past Series:
Lent is a 40-day period of reflection, repentance, and preparation for Easter. It is a time of renewing our relationship with our heavenly Father through a process of dying to self, renewing our minds, and responding to his love as we foster our hope of resurrection.
Message 6 | The Cross: God Died on Purpose
April 13, 2025: The cross is not a detour in God’s plan, but the clearest revelation of who God is—a self-giving, humble, and forgiving Savior who calls us to follow him in the same way.
Message 5 | Belief That Changes Everything
April 6, 2025: Belief isn’t just about agreeing with the right facts—it’s about knowing, abiding in, and being transformed by Jesus, the One who sets us free.
Message 4 | Baptism
March 30, 2025: Baptism is the sacred and visible declaration that we have died to our old selves, been raised to new life in Christ, and are now part of his beloved family as we live in the freedom and identity he gives.
Message 3 | Dealing with My Sin
March 23, 2025: Ken Figueroa shares a message that encourages seeking forgiveness and redemption through repentance, prayer, and embracing God's grace to overcome sin.
Message 2 | 40 Days in the Wilderness
March 16, 2025 - This message explores Jesus’ 40 days in the wilderness, showing how his victory over temptation fulfills Israel’s story and reveals the path of true obedience. As we follow Jesus, we learn to resist temptation, embrace transformation, and trust that the way of the cross leads to resurrection and new life.
Message 1 | Lent: Ashes to New Life
March 9, 2025 - Return to the Lord with your whole heart, for He is merciful and ready to restore, transforming our ashes into new life through His Spirit.
Past Series:
This series explores how Jesus honored women, challenging the cultural norms of his time. With the voices of a variety of speakers, we aim to inspire men to follow Jesus' example of dignity and equality, while encouraging women to embrace their God-given value within the church and beyond.
Message 6 | The Day Shame Lost its Power
March 2, 2025 - This story of the woman caught in adultery looks at a how Jesus frees us from shame while calling us to stand up for others motivated by the grace we have received from him.
Message 5 | A Holy Exchange: From Hidden to Herald (Vanessa Figueroa)
February 23, 2025 - Jesus went way beyond cultural norms in his dealing with the Samaritan Woman to recognize her dignity and worth. This message challenges stereotypes about women's capabilities and roles in society. Followers of Christ look past the surface to what God is doing in someone and through someone.
Message 4 | Five Daughters: Seen and Heard (James Cowan)
February 16, 2025 - Zelophehad’s daughters stood boldly before Israel’s leaders to claim their rightful inheritance, ensuring their family’s name remained in the story. God affirmed their request, establishing justice and proving that from the beginning, he has been lifting up women and securing their place in his plan.
Message 3 | A Seat at the Table: Mary and Martha
February 9, 2025 - Jesus invites everyone, men and women alike, to sit at his feet, be his disciple, and step fully into their God-given calling, breaking down the barriers that culture has placed in the way.
Message 2 | 12 Years Alone
February 2, 2025 - This message it showcases how Jesus honored and restored the dignity of a woman who had been marginalized and isolated due to her sickness.
Message 1 | Is God Broke? Why Does the Church Always Ask For Money?
January 26, 2025 - Today’s message introduces the HerStory series and discusses the significance of Mary of Magdala as the “Apostle to the Apostles”
Past Series:
This discipleship series seeks to encourage us to view all of our resources as a gift entrusted to us by God with the privilege of managing it purposefully to be His hands and feet, bringing blessing to others in Jesus' name.
Message 3 | Is God Broke? Why Does the Church Always Ask For Money?
January 19, 2025 - We don’t give out of compulsion to follow the Law. We give from a heart of generosity shaped by the transforming love of Jesus and a desire to share his love in the world around us.
Message 2 | Margin: Living Within Your Means (Ken Figueroa)
January 12, 2025 - This message seeks to lead us to live within our means, so that we can be free to make the most of every opportunity, to live as Jesus’ hands and feet in the world around us.
Message 1 | There’s Gotta Be More
January 5, 2025 - This message seeks to expose our tendency to serve money instead of viewing it as a resource to live as Jesus' hands and feet in the world.
Past Series:
This Christmas we will unwrap the story of Christmas to discover how following God often means stepping into the unexpected. It’s a journey that challenges the norms, faces difficulties head-on, and demands a faith rooted in abiding deeply with the Lord.
Message 5 | Family Testimony Service
December 29, 2024 - We finish the year hearing stories from our church family that impact our faith.
Message 4 | Mary’s Song
December 22, 2024 - Mary’s song is a powerful proclamation of God’s coming Kingdom, which upends worldly power, brings justice, and lifts the humble. It’s a call to embrace God’s upside-down way of living—through sacrifice, service, and selflessness—while trusting in His promises and faithfulness, even when the path ahead is uncertain.
Message 3 | The Journey to Bethlehem
December 15, 2024 - The Bethlehem journey of Mary and Joseph was incredibly uncomfortable, and scary, and exhausting. Yet, at the same time it was "pregnant" with anticipation.
Message 2 | Joseph’s Expensive Gift
December 8, 2024 - This message tells Joseph's story of trusting God for a gift that would cost him everything.
Message 1 | Bleak Friday: Following God into the Struggle
December 1, 2024 - This message shares the story of the angel Gabriel's visit to Mary and her humble acceptance of God's plan that would lead to her suffering.
Past Series:
God’s invitation is to know him, yet many of us don’t know how. Through the prayer book Jesus used (the Psalms), we will discover how to know the Lord and grow in his likeness.
Message 12 | Thanksgiving
November 24, 2024 - A time of giving thanks together as God’s family.