Pastor Mark Batterson recounts how persistent prayer turned a rundown crack house into Ebenezer’s Coffeehouse, recaps NCC’s journey of faith-filled risks and God’s provision over 29 years, casts vision for the church as a «Dream Factory» that [...]

Pastor Mark Batterson challenges us to play the long game in our faith, using Joseph’s story in Genesis 37–50 as the key example—showing how longsuffering through betrayal, slavery, and prison built emotional intelligence and long vision in Joseph. [...]

Drawing from Ellen Langer’s Counterclockwise Study where elderly men improved physically and mentally by living as if it were 20 years earlier, Pastor Mark urges us to experience second-order transformation through renewing the mind, based on [...]

In a short year-end message, Pastor Mark reminds us that faith and obedience grow exponentially like a domino chain reaction, drawing from Hebrews 5:13–14 where maturity comes «by constant use» of spiritual practices. As we enter 2025, small [...]

On Christmas Eve, Pastor Mark uses childhood memories of wanting a Schwinn bicycle and C.S. Lewis's four stages of enchantment with life to illustrate how we can lose and rediscover joy. Drawing from the wise men's overjoyed reaction in [...]

Pastor Mark Batterson marvels at the miracle of the human body, from its elemental makeup worth mere dollars to the intricate design of DNA, cells, and organs, all pointing to God’s breath of life in Genesis 2:7 and the declaration in Psalm 139 [...]

Pastor Mark Batterson reminds us through Psalm 139 that God knows us intimately and completely, from our thoughts to our sighs, because we are fearfully and wonderfully made as unique masterpieces of His creation. He points to miracles in [...]

Mark Batterson draws from John Muir's storm-climbing adventure and God's command to Abraham in Genesis 15:5 to go outside, look up, and count the stars, urging us to seize wonder in creation as a way to confront the Creator, shift focus [...]

Pastor Mark Batterson kicks off the series on Genesis 1 by marveling at the constant miracles of Earth’s motion, human physiology, and cosmic scale, revealing God as transcendent yet immanent and benevolent, urging us to recognize that everything [...]

Pastor Mark reminds us that every great move of God in history traces back to someone courageously responding to His call with Isaiah 6:8—“Here am I. Send me.”—and challenges the church today to embrace personal responsibility for missions through [...]

Drawing from Martin Luther King Jr.'s letter and Paul's warning in 2 Timothy 3 about the perilous times of the last days, Pastor Mark challenges believers to be thermostats that transform culture through God's Word rather than [...]

Through the inspiring story of Lola Anderson's Olympic gold and her father's faith in her dream, along with Paul's charge to Timothy in 2 Timothy 1, Pastor Mark urges us to fan into flame God's gifts in ourselves and others, [...]

Concluding a series on "The Good Life," Pastor Mark declares that the good life is not ease or comfort but a "good fight"—fighting the good fight of faith as Paul did, finishing the race, keeping the faith, and hearing [...]

In this sermon on handling life’s hardest days through grief, the preacher draws from personal losses and stories of others to show how God redeems suffering, using Isaiah 61:1-3 as the key text to promise beauty for ashes, joy for mourning, and [...]

In kicking off the series "The Good Life" from Genesis 1, the preacher explains that true goodness—"tov" in Hebrew—originates from God the Creator who declared His creation good, culminating in humanity as "very good," [...]

Drawing from Joshua 3:5 where God calls the Israelites to consecrate themselves before He does amazing things, the preacher shares stories of radical surrender—like Stanley Tam making God his business partner—and urges full consecration of time, [...]

On Pentecost Sunday, reflecting on Acts 2, the preacher recounts the disciples' wait for the promised Holy Spirit, celebrates how at Pentecost God shifts from being with us and for us to in us through the indwelling Spirit, and concludes that [...]

Yeah. 2000 years ago, Rome was the most powerful empire on earth. 60 million people, a quarter of the planet’s population, all roads led to Rome. I’m gonna kick that off anyway, so. Where was I? At the peak of its power, Caesar Augustus declared [...]

Well, Merry Christmas. You look wonderful. Wasn’t that a beautiful telling of the story? And we may have had a donkey spend the night at the Capitol Turnaround. I would recommend not going into that room. You gotta love a donkey named Bear, right? [...]

The Bible is a big book. Written in three languages on three continents over 1,500 years, it’s actually a collection of 66 books written by 40 human authors, farmers and fishermen, poets and prophets. There were tax collectors and prime ministers. [...]

Well, how fun was that? Did you connect the dots? That’s like all the people from all of our trailers this year in a family reunion for Christmas. Pretty fun, pretty fun. Hey, what a joy to be together. 2,000 years ago in a town called Bethlehem, [...]

When I was a kid, I had my fair share of childhood fears, but right at the top of the list was Bigfoot, aka Sasquatch. There was a famous film, the «Patterson-Gimlin Film,» allegedly shot on October 20, 1967, and the following photograph is frame [...]

One of my prized possessions is the Bible that belonged to my grandfather. It was a 1934 Thompson Chain Reference Bible. And I love reading the notes in the margin. I love seeing the verses that he underlined. Although the Book of Daniel, almost [...]

It's one of my earliest memories, five years old, give or take. I was at my grandparents' home, most precious people on the planet. Oh, makes me smile thinking about them. They had a home on the Mississippi River, Fridley, Minnesota, and [...]

When I was 22, newly married, Laura and I went to grad school. I had already taken a ton of theology undergrad, so I decided to carb load on psychology. Now listen, if all truth is God's truth and every ology is a branch of theology, so I love [...]

Against All Odds starts today. That is the word of the Lord. I've had my fair share of embarrassing moments. One of them happened in my sophomore season of high school. We weren't even scrimmaging, we were just running what we called [...]

I was knee high to a grasshopper, just a little guy, and our family took a trip to Lake Itasca State Park in Minnesota. It is where the Mississippi River originates. You can actually cross it on stepping stones. I'll show you a picture. [...]

"Oh, what a beautiful morning. Oh, what a beautiful day. I've got a beautiful feeling. Everything's going your way". That was my alarm clock as a kid. My mom would walk into my room and wake me up with that song. I thought she [...]

"How did you go bankrupt"? That's the question that Ernest Hemingway asked in one of his novels. And the rather famous answer: "Two ways. Gradually, then suddenly". That's how you go bankrupt. That also how you become [...]

What's really happening when what's happening is happening? That question has ricocheted through my mind, through my soul, hundreds of times this year. Now, it started earlier this year. I was in Miami, mid-winter. That's the right [...]

Hey, I wanna just do something that we don't always do at the beginning of a message, but it takes hundreds of volunteers to pull off a weekend at National Community Church. And I wanna shout-out some of our production folks. I think we got JT [...]

Last Sunday, I had the joy of preaching at one of our network churches, Hopeville in Baltimore. Pastor Joshua Symonette was a campus pastor here for eight years. And I told him I have a, like Michael Jordan, the love of the game clause in my [...]

On December 10th, 1970, Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his contribution to the world food supply. If you've never heard of him, you're not alone. Most agronomists fly under the radar. Dr. Borlaug studied plant [...]

If you wanna repeat history, do it the way it's always been done. If you wanna make history, dare to be different. In 1964, a teenager named Dick Fosbury revolutionized the sport of high jumping. The conventional method of jumping over the bar [...]

A young man was working in the grocery store in the produce section when a woman walked in and asked, get this, for half a head of lettuce. He wasn't sure what to do so he said, "Lemme go talk to my manager". Went and found his [...]

Laura and I have lived on Capitol Hill for 27 years. Last week we did something that we have never done. We climbed 343 steps to the top of the Capitol Dome. Is it okay if I do a little show and tell this weekend? Here's a shot of the rotunda [...]

Life is unfair. Then we die. God bless. That might be the most depressing start to any sermon I've preached in 27 years. Life is unfair; then we die. The bad news is it's true. The good news? It's a half truth. We were brought up on [...]

He could barely keep His eyes open, outta gas, exhausted. Sound asleep the second His head hit that pillow. In His dream, He was in a boat on the sea of Galilee. In His dream a storm started to toss that boat like a bathtub toy. So full of water, it [...]

In 1963, Israeli archeologists were excavating Herod the Great's palace at Masada. As they dug, they found ancient remains, skeletal remains, but the most curious discovery was a jar with seeds perfectly preserved in inside of it. Radiocarbon [...]

Many years ago, I spent a week in the Galapagos Islands with a mission team from this church. It's an archipelago of islands about 500 miles off the coast of Ecuador, and, in my opinion, closest thing to the Garden of Eden left on Earth. Much [...]

20 years ago I took some of our team to a conference in California. That weekend we visited Mosaic Church, and Erwin McManus was one of my favorite communicators, one of my favorite writers. So I was stoked, super excited. We get into the service [...]

Several decades ago a social psychologist named John Bargh designed a study about the power of priming. It involved a scrambled-sentence test. One version was primed with rude words, the other version primed with polite words. Now, the students [...]

On August 22nd, 1851, the New York Yacht Club won the inaugural America's Cup. It was a 53-mile regatta around the Isle of Wright. That New York Yacht club successfully defended their title 26 times. They held the title for 132 years. It was [...]

I own a sport coat, see! Ah, what a joy to be together? Aren't you grateful? God gives us two families, biological family, and a spiritual family. And I wanna say just a happy Easter to our family, and it's an open invitation. If [...]

In 1932, a theoretical physicist named Werner Heisenberg won the Nobel prize for a groundbreaking discovery in the field of quantum mechanics. For hundreds of years, physicists believed in a clockwork universe that was predictable and measurable and [...]

Over the course of 1500 years, 40 human authors inspired by the spirit of God. They were farmers and fishermen. They were poets and politicians. They were doctors and tax collectors and kings. They wrote 66 books, in three languages, on three [...]

On October 18, 1968, a 22 year-old long jumper named Bob Beamon took 19 strides, planted his right foot, flew more than six feet into the air, threw his arms behind him, and landed in a large sandbox. The whole thing took less than six seconds, but [...]

Some of you, I see some blue sweatshirts, and that tells me that you're double dipping. How many were out at the Easter sunrise this morning? Look at that. You are twice as spiritual as the rest of us. Hey, do we have a couple of pictures, I [...]

The first thing you notice is his beard. It's long, it's thick, it's white. It covers half of his weathered face. His eyes are closed like a blackout curtain. Tears trickle down his cheeks, but you're not sure why. Tears of joy [...]

"What comes to mind when you think about God is the most important thing about you". A.W. Tozer said that. A little boy was drawing a picture one day, and his father asked him what he was drawing, the little boy said, "I'm [...]