City Light Church Sermons

Vicksburg, Mississippi
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This is the full collection of sermons preached at City Light Church in Vicksburg, MS. For more information on the church and its ministries, please visit citylightvicksburg.org

  1. Jul 19

    The Gospel of Luke: Rethinking Power

    But he said to them, “How can they say that the Christ is David's son? For David himself says in the Book of Psalms: ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool.’ David thus calls him Lord, so how is he his son?" And in the hearing of all the people he said to his disciples, “Beware of the scribes, who like to walk around in long robes, and love greetings in the marketplaces and the best seats in the synagogues and the places of honor at feasts, who devour widows' houses and for a pretense make long prayers. They will receive the greater condemnation.” Luke 20: 41-47 Throughout this section of the Book of Luke there are repeated attempts to trip Jesus up: to debate him and get him in trouble with the elite. Jesus repeatedly turns the tables on these attempts. This exchange is an example of that. In Jesus's Day, as in ours, the purpose of great power was often misunderstood, which led to a multitude of opportunities to abuse that power. In this passage, Jesus challenges the crowd with questions about understanding and abuse of power. In the verse that Jesus quotes, there are two individuals mentioned: "The Lord" (which translates Yahweh) and "My Lord" (which translates Adonai). The crowd would have agreed that the passage was referring to the messiah and the Son of David. Jesus here urges the crowd to follow the passage to a higher understanding of these concepts: David's referring to his Son, the Messiah, as "Lord" doesn't make sense unless he is more than simply the Messiah. This points toward Jesus's divine identity. It is Jesus whose enemies will be made his footstool. The crowd's constant debates with Jesus show their complete misunderstanding of who he is. After He makes this point, Jesus turns to a discussion of misunderstood power, issuing a warning about the scribes to His disciples. Note that, in Jesus's day, where most people were illiterate, the Scribes wielded enormous power--as the resident legal experts, they functioned as both lawyers and judges, with the general populace having essentially no ability to question what they decreed. Jesus's warning to his disciples, coupled with his earlier question about scripture, reveals that the scribes themselves are misunderstanding the proper use of their power. They do not even understand the text they've spent their whole lives copying and studying, but they are filled with so much pride that they lord over people and exploit the poor and vulnerable. When power is misunderstood, it becomes corrupted by pride and misused. Jesus's warning begs the question: What does true power, properly used, look like? It looks like Jesus's example: Sacrifice for the sake of others. We don't often thing of extending grace, mercy, and love as acts of power, but this is where God is magnified: by having one's worship terminate on God, rather than one's self. We, as followers of Jesus, must be aware of what we communicate with the ways in which we use our own power.

  2. Jul 12

    The Gospel of Luke: When We Live Forever | Afterlife | Heaven

    There came to him some Sadducees, those who deny that there is a resurrection, and they asked him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if a man's brother dies, having a wife but no children, the man must take the widow and raise up offspring for his brother. Now there were seven brothers. The first took a wife, and died without children. And the second and the third took her, and likewise all seven left no children and died. Afterward the woman also died. In the resurrection, therefore, whose wife will the woman be? For the seven had her as wife.” And Jesus said to them, “The sons of this age marry and are given in marriage, but those who are considered worthy to attain to that age and to the resurrection from the dead neither marry nor are given in marriage, for they cannot die anymore, because they are equal to angels and are sons of God, being sons of the resurrection. But that the dead are raised, even Moses showed, in the passage about the bush, where he calls the Lord the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob. Now he is not God of the dead, but of the living, for all live to him.” Then some of the scribes answered, “Teacher, you have spoken well.” For they no longer dared to ask him any question. Luke: 20: 27-40 This passage slightly lifts the veil on the life and eternity to come. Here we have a conservative Jewish sect, the Sadducees, take their turn at trying to trip up Jesus. They don’t even believe in the resurrection, yet they ask Jesus about it. The type of marriage referenced here was done for 3 reasons - to preserve the name of the family, to preserve the land in that family, and to protect the woman, so she is not widowed. For a man to refuse the preservation and protection this marriage provided would have caused enormous dishonor. So, while this scenario sounds unrealistic, it’s not impossible for someone in this culture. The underlying takeaway from this odd fact pattern is that, in this life, relationships in this life are messy and hard. Jesus shows us how Heaven untangles the messy relationships we get in down here on earth, and in the process reveals that the Sadducees don’t have a strong enough understanding of the afterlife. The relationships we have on this earth are not “fixed,” in the resurrection. They are instead “transformed.” In Heaven, marriages are no longer needed because we are no longer “Son of this age” but are rather “Sons of God.” In heaven, families don't have the kind of name that needs preserving - because they are of the Name above every Name. We shall all be given the family name of Jesus! Thus, we can cease worrying about our possessions too! God owns everything! The need for securing the family will be no more. We will be given a totally new nature, and no longer need to marry to secure our family land. And we will be transformed! We no longer will be able to die, being like the angels! So we will no longer have a need to worry about our lives or death! Our relationships will be completely and totally transformed because everyone will be completely different! So whatever relationship you enjoy the most, that is only a small foretaste of what all our relationships will be like when we reach the resurrection! We will be so deeply known! The Sadducees thought they had Jesus trapped. But Jesus shows them that they are selling themselves short, because Jesus shows us that our understanding of the covenant we are a part of will be completely transformed. The Sadducees come quoting Moses to Jesus to trip them up, and Jesus shows them what Moses says about resurrection - God introduces Himself to Moses as the (present tense) God of those who died! Jesus has not come just to adjust messy relationships. The resurrection transforms them!

  3. Jul 5

    The Gospel of Luke: Two Kingdoms, One Coin

    Main Point: Every believer carries two citizenships, and how you order them reveals whose image you truly bear. On July 5th, 2026, Pastor Brian Crawford preached from Luke 20:20-26, where a group of religious elites sent flattering spies to trap Jesus with a question about paying Roman taxes. The passage fell one day after Independence Day, and Pastor Brian Crawford noted that God had a way of aligning texts to moments without any planning required. The sermon walked through four movements in the passage: the setup, the question, the answer, and the response of the crowd. Flattery is a spiritual trap, not just a social one. The spies approached Jesus with excessive praise, calling him a teacher who speaks truthfully and shows no partiality. Pastor Brian Crawford used this to warn that some of the most dangerous threats to our purpose in God arrive not as opposition but as affirmation, ease, and flattery. Because we naturally love to hear "yes," we lower our discernment when someone scratches that itch, making us vulnerable to being led away from God's will by those who only appear to be on our side. The question about the tributum capitis was a trap with no safe human exit. The Roman poll tax was deeply painful to Jewish people. Paying it felt like endorsing Caesar's worship. Refusing it could brand someone a revolutionary. Pastor Brian Crawford showed that the question was designed to force Jesus into one of two politically explosive positions. This mirrors the civic traps believers still face today, where passion-driven issues are used to force people to one political side or the other, demanding absolute loyalty where none should be given. Rendering to Caesar means actively blessing the systems God placed you in. Jesus asked to see the coin, noted whose image it bore, and answered simply: give Caesar what belongs to Caesar. Pastor Brian Crawford showed that Paul in Romans 13, Peter in 1 Peter 2, and Jeremiah in Jeremiah 29 all echo this same call. Believers are to pay taxes, honor authorities, pray for leaders, and seek the welfare of their city because God has placed them there. Even the exiles in Babylon were told to build houses, plant gardens, and pray for the city's welfare because in its flourishing they would find their own. You bear God's image, and that image belongs entirely to him. The Greek word for "image" on Caesar's coin is the same word used in Genesis 1:27. Pastor Brian Crawford drew this parallel to show that just as the coin belongs to Caesar because it bears his image, every believer belongs completely to God because they bear his image. Caesar can have the coin, the tax, and the honor owed to him. But he cannot have your worship, your heart, or your allegiance. Misplaced political worship silently replaces God's image with Caesar's. Drawing on C.S. Lewis's "Meditations on the Third Commandment," Pastor Brian Crawford warned that Christians who align themselves completely to any political philosophy will not change that philosophy. It will change them. Every political system ultimately wants the worship and collective allegiance of God's people. The calling of the believer is to render honor, respect, and civic responsibility to governing authorities while ensuring that fear, love, and ultimate allegiance remain with God alone, so that the world sees clearly whose image they bear.

  4. Jun 28

    The Gospel of Luke: This is the Heir | Authority | Salvation

    “One day, as Jesus was teaching the people in the temple and preaching the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes with the elders came up and said to him, “Tell us by what authority you do these things, or who it is that gave you this authority.” He answered them, “I also will ask you a question. Now tell me, was the baptism of John from heaven or from man?” And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” So they answered that they did not know where it came from. And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” And he began to tell the people this parable: “A man planted a vineyard and let it out to tenants and went into another country for a long while. When the time came, he sent a servant to the tenants, so that they would give him some of the fruit of the vineyard. But the tenants beat him and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent another servant. But they also beat and treated him shamefully, and sent him away empty-handed. And he sent yet a third. This one also they wounded and cast out. Then the owner of the vineyard said, ‘What shall I do? I will send my beloved son; perhaps they will respect him.’ But when the tenants saw him, they said to themselves, ‘This is the heir. Let us kill him, so that the inheritance may be ours.’ And they threw him out of the vineyard and killed him. What then will the owner of the vineyard do to them? He will come and destroy those tenants and give the vineyard to others.” When they heard this, they said, “Surely not!” But he looked directly at them and said, “What then is this that is written: “‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone’? Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, and when it falls on anyone, it will crush him.”” . Luke 20: 1-18 Our desire to circumvent authority, is an example of our own prideful hearts. Authority questioned: in our text, Jesus is questioned of His authority. The Pharisees question His authority, and ask Him “who gives you the right” to throw out the money changers of the temple, and various other things that have been reported of Him. His actions don’t line up with their desire for power and their own authority, so they want a way around His authority. So, Jesus asks them a question in return to expose their hearts. If John was baptized from Heaven? The people believe John was a prophet, and if they disagree, the people will kill the Pharisees. But, if they say yes, then they are arguing with the very one John said was the lamb of God. The Pharisees answer “I don’t know.” To avoid answering their question and to maintain their own power. And that’s the issue - they wanted to keep their own power. Because if they believed that John was from God, they have no way to deny Jesus was the Christ whose Authority they should submit to. Just as Christ claims authority here, He claims total authority over your life. Authority rejected: Jesus tells a parable about Israel’s history - the Pharisees would have noticed it. The vineyard was taken over by the tenants, rebelling against the owner. Over and over, God sends messengers (prophets) to Israel, and over and over they kill them. Jesus makes the connection to the fact that He is the Son in the parable, and His imending death. This passage is about the long suffering of God. One day, we will all have to stand before the owner of the vineyard. God’s love for us is paitent, and gives us many many chances for us to respect Him and love Him. But, just as the servants plot to kill Him for His inheritance, the Pharisees known who Jesus is. They are staring directly in the face of Gods Begotten Son, and yet, they want the inheritance (Jesus’s Authority) having forgotten that they are just tenants (servants) in this vineyard (the world). There’s no ambiguity in this story. Jesus is King of Kings, and the Pharisees know who exactly who he is, and Jesus challenges their own authority, and they don’t like that. Authority declared: But this is the Good News - Jesus shows them what the Pharisees will do with the Son. But Jesus shows what God shall do with the Son. Eventually, God’s righteous judgement. God destroys the tenants and gives the vineyard to others. This disturbs the Pharisees so much they say “Surely not!” This rejection opens eternity to everyone on earth. Jesus is the cornerstone that the builders rejected. Far too many people are happy with Jesus as a prophet, but not as a king. Jesus cannot and will not be an accent in our lives. He will require us to build upon Him. Everything must line up with Him, or our lives will be like a house built on sinking sand. Jesus gives one final warning - anyone who falls on the stone will break, and anyone under the stone will be crushed. You will either be broken before him, or destroyed under him. Broken is not destroyed - that is where God fixes our mess, as a broken and contrite mess. Don’t harden your heart, fall on the stone and break before Him today. Don’t reject Him. His promise here is that this destruction is promised to all who do not make Jesus the cornerstone. But His invitation is for everyone. The vineyard has been offered to you! All that takes to grasp it, is to accept and align your life with the Cornerstone!

  5. Jun 21

    The Gospel of Luke: Jesus' Heart for Our Peace

    And when he drew near and saw the city, he wept over it, saying, “Would that you, even you, had known on this day the things that make for peace! But now they are hidden from your eyes. For the days will come upon you, when your enemies will set up a barricade around you and surround you and hem you in on every side and tear you down to the ground, you and your children within you. And they will not leave one stone upon another in you, because you did not know the time of your visitation.” And he entered the temple and began to drive out those who sold, saying to them, “It is written, ‘My house shall be a house of prayer,’ but you have made it a den of robbers.”And he was teaching daily in the temple. The chief priests and the scribes and the principal men of the people were seeking to destroy him, but they did not find anything they could do, for all the people were hanging on his words. Luke 19:41-48 Notice how in this passage Jesus, the anointed king and the most perfect example there has ever been of masculinity, experiences the full range of emotions: He experiences sorrow as Jerusalem, the city of peace, was being prepared for destruction. He experienced anger as the temple, the house of peace, was being desecrated. He experiences passion as He, the Prince of Peace, is preparing for His death. This is immediately after his triumphal entry, when worshippers cried out his name. One verse later, he gets a beautiful view of the temple, and he proceeds to weep deeply over Jerusalem's coming destruction. He knows that in 40 years God will permit Rome to destroy the temple because God's people missed the peace that was among them and killed the King of Peace. He weeps over humanity's desperate search for peace in something other than himself. Jesus then enters the house of peace and displays great anger at the sight of those desecrating the temple. Historical context shows that the money-changers and those who sold pigeons (which, in other gospels, we are told were particular targets of Jesus's righteous anger) were exploiting the vulnerable: the poor and the outsider. But note that immediately after His anger drives Him to cleanse the temple, it also drives Him to commit to preach every day until he is betrayed--a betrayal he knows is coming. Anger, when leveraged correctly, drives us toward a righteous passion. What are we passionate about? While there is breath in our lungs, we should be directing our passion for God's glory and the carrying out of his mission. This is where our emotions should be driven.

  6. Jun 14

    The Gospel of Luke: Faithful and Fruitful Grace

    SERMON SUMMARY Main Point: Make the best use of what you have, because a great and generous King will return requesting an account of how you used what he gave you. Pastor Brian Crawford opened the June 14 message at City Light Church in Vicksburg with a vivid picture of Jalen Brunson winning the NBA Finals, a six-foot player dominating a sport built for giants, simply because he used every ounce of what he was given. That image set the foundation for the parable of the minas in Luke 19, a story Jesus told on the road to Jerusalem to correct a widespread and dangerous misunderstanding among those who followed him. The kingdom is here now, but not yet fully arrived. The crowd in Jericho had just heard Jesus speak salvation over Zacchaeus, and they were convinced that the kingdom of God was about to break fully into history right there in Jerusalem. Pastor Brian Crawford walked through why their excitement made sense and why it was still off. The crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension were not the end of the story. They were the beginning of a long and purposeful wait. Getting that timeline wrong, he said, disrupts everything about how a believer lives and shows up in the world. Kingdom living means actively attending to the King's business in his absence. Jesus gives each servant one mina and a simple command: engage in business until I come. Pastor Brian Crawford made clear that waiting for the King is never meant to be passive. The absence of Jesus is not permission to sit idle. It is a call to invest what has been entrusted to you for the purposes of the one who gave it. Faithful use of what you have produces fruitfulness, regardless of the amount. Two servants returned with more than they started with, one making ten minas and one making five. Both were rewarded generously, not because of the size of their return, but because they were faithful. Pointing to 1 Corinthians 15, Pastor Brian Crawford held up the Apostle Paul as someone who used every ounce of grace he was given, while still insisting it was not him but God working through him. He also lifted up Harriet Tubman and Fanny Crosby as women who refused to waste their minas, no matter the cost or the limitation. Fear frustrates fruitfulness and is rooted in a false view of God. The third servant buried his mina in a cloth and blamed his inaction on fear of a harsh master. Pastor Brian Crawford called this a false fear, built on bad information and exposed by bad motives. The master in the story is generous, not cruel. When we distort who God is, we create excuses that feel valid but are ultimately empty. He warned that the Lord may one day replay our own words back to us. Grace is free but priceless, and unused grace will be redirected. The mina taken from the fearful servant and given to the one with ten is not punishment without reason. It reflects the preciousness of grace. What God freely gives is not meant to be buried. Pastor Brian Crawford closed with a simple, urgent prayer: whatever measure of grace you have been given, use it fully, faithfully, and for his glory, because the King is coming back.

  7. Jun 7

    The Gospel of Luke: From Tree to Transformation

    SERMON SUMMARY: Main Point: Zacchaeus came seeking to see Jesus, but what he didn't know was that Jesus was already seeking him. On June 7, 2026, Pastor Corey Deyamport opened Luke 19:1-10 and walked City Light Church through the story of Zacchaeus, a chief tax collector who climbed a sycamore tree just to catch a glimpse of Jesus passing through Jericho. The sermon's central claim is that this story is not primarily about a man who searched hard enough to find Jesus. It is about a Savior who was already moving toward a man before that man ever left the ground. A Desire Greater Than Dignity Pastor Corey Deyamport opened by painting a picture of who Zacchaeus was: wealthy, powerful, and deeply despised. As a chief tax collector, he managed a system designed to exploit his own people, and he was good at it. Yet something inside him that his money and position could never satisfy was stirring. When he arrived at the crowd and found no one making room for him, he did something undignified for a man of his standing. He ran. He climbed a tree. Pastor Corey Deyamport paused here to challenge the congregation, noting that sometimes the people closest to religious activity become the very ones who block broken people from seeing Jesus, not always with bad intentions, but by forgetting what it felt like to need mercy. The first evidence of grace, he noted, is when the hunger of your soul grows louder than the opinions of the crowd. A Savior Greater Than His Seeking Everything turns on verse five. Jesus arrives at the tree, looks up, and calls Zacchaeus by name, telling him to come down quickly because he must stay at his house that day. Pastor Corey Deyamport zeroed in on the word "must," drawn from the Greek word meaning divine necessity, a purpose established by the counsel and will of God for the salvation of people through Christ. Zacchaeus climbed a tree to see Jesus. Jesus stopped under the tree to save Zacchaeus. That distinction, Pastor Corey Deyamport argued, is the difference between a self-help message and the gospel. Our seeking is always a response to a grace already moving toward us. He reinforced this with John 15:16, Romans 5:8, and the imagery of Luke 15's seeking shepherd, woman, and father. A Salvation Greater Than Sin When Zacchaeus came down from the tree, something had already changed. He stood before Jesus, called him Lord, and announced that he would give half his goods to the poor and restore fourfold anything he had taken dishonestly. The law required only a fifth above what was taken. Grace moved him far beyond the law's floor. Pastor Corey Deyamport connected this to the rich young ruler in Luke 18, noting the contrast: one man walked away sad, unable to release his wealth. Zacchaeus gave it away joyfully, because what had found him was worth infinitely more. Jesus then declared salvation over his house and named him a son of Abraham, restoring what the crowd had tried to permanently revoke. Pastor Corey Deyamport closed by pointing from the sycamore tree to the cross, reminding the congregation that the same Jesus who stopped for Zacchaeus in Jericho would soon hang on a tree outside Jerusalem, bearing shame to purchase the salvation he freely gave. The invitation was simple: come down from whatever tree you are in, not polished, not put together, but as you are, to the Savior who is still seeking and still saving the lost.

  8. May 31

    The Gospel of Luke: Eyes for the Blind

    SERMON SUMMARY Main Point: Seeing Jesus is an act of grace that only comes from Jesus himself. On May 31, 2026, Pastor Brian Crawford preached from Luke 18:31-43, a passage Luke intentionally placed two stories side by side: disciples who can see but cannot see, and a blind man who cannot see but sees everything that matters. The central question running through the whole sermon is simple and searching: what does it actually mean to have eyes for Jesus? The disciples were physically present but spiritually veiled. Jesus tells the Twelve exactly what is about to happen in Jerusalem, with remarkable detail. He describes betrayal, mockery, flogging, death, and resurrection. And yet Luke records three separate phrases to describe their response: they understood nothing, the saying was hidden, and they did not grasp it. Pastor Brian Crawford argues this is not casual confusion. It is a complete veiling of the eyes, one that only God can lift. The disciples had every advantage and still could not see. Seeing Jesus is never the reward for proximity or religious effort. The cross was God's deliberate plan, not a tragedy he allowed. Pastor Brian Crawford draws on Peter's sermon in Acts 2:23 to show that every person involved in the crucifixion, from the Jewish leaders to Judas to the Gentiles to the crowds, bore real guilt. And yet all of it unfolded according to God's foreknowledge and predetermined plan. Human responsibility and divine sovereignty both stand. The suffering was unbearable and real, but the resurrection on the third day makes this moment one of unspeakable joy held inside unbearable pain. Bartimaeus saw Jesus because grace was given to the humble, not the privileged. The blind beggar had no theological training, no eyewitness experience of miracles, and no social standing. Blindness in the first century meant economic ruin, social rejection, and religious shame. And yet when the crowd told him Jesus of Nazareth was passing by, he called out "Son of David," a title packed with messianic weight drawn from 2 Samuel 7. Pastor Brian Crawford points out the stunning irony: the man with no eyes sees what the disciples with every advantage could not. Grace, he argues, lives in humility. God opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble, and that includes the grace to see. Jesus stopping for Bartimaeus is a picture of how grace restores dignity. The crowd tried to silence the beggar. Jesus stopped. In stopping, he publicly honored a man everyone else dismissed. Pastor Brian Crawford makes the point directly: it does not matter how many people look past you. If Jesus sees you, you are seen. Faith is grace given to see Jesus rightly and ourselves honestly. Pastor Brian Crawford closes by defining faith not as willpower or religious striving but as a grace-given ability to see Jesus as the Son of David and Savior, and to see ourselves as people who have nothing to bring and everything to receive. Bartimaeus did not hide his need when Jesus asked what he wanted. He said it plainly. That kind of honest, humble confession is exactly what Jesus invites every person into, believer and seeker alike, every single day.

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This is the full collection of sermons preached at City Light Church in Vicksburg, MS. For more information on the church and its ministries, please visit citylightvicksburg.org

Information

  • Creator
    Vicksburg, Mississippi
  • Years Active
    2017 - 2026
  • Episodes
    464
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026
  • Show Website
    City Light Church Sermons