Renovation Church Sermon Podcast · Renovation Church

GVL | Do Hard Things | "Confession"

·50 min·2 clips

Matt Humphrey opens with a winter greeting and a few church announcements. He points the congregation toward a church-wide fast that begins after lunch and names the options he wants people to consider, from a full food fast to a sunup-to-sundown or technology fast. Then the sermon narrows. A story about cold apple cider and the same follow-up sickness each year turns into a simple picture of sin's false promises and repeated consequence. He keeps the language plain. The repeated pattern is simple: something looks good, gets tried again, and leaves the same predictable damage behind. From there he reads Scripture. Adam and Eve realize they are naked, sew fig leaves together, and hide when they hear God drawing near. That moment becomes the center of the message. Sin does not just break a rule; it drives people to cover themselves and disappear. Humphrey lingers on the enemy's strategy. The lie overpromises, underdelivers, and convinces people that the consequences will somehow not arrive. He pushes that into ordinary life. The point is not abstract theology but the way every person keeps making the same bargain with temptation and acting surprised by the outcome. The sermon also keeps circling back to honesty and hiding. Telling the truth is treated as the alternative to self-justifying and pretending the leaves are enough. The church-wide fast is framed as spiritual preparation. It is a time of preparation and crying out to the Lord, making space for change, and starting the year with a heart ready to be transformed. The closing prayer broadens the focus to grace, the power of Christ over sin, and being transformed from the inside out. The result is a warm, direct Sunday sermon that stays practical from start to finish.

As heard by us

A plainspoken sermon that turns Genesis 3, fasting, and the apple cider image into a direct call to confess.

Matt Humphrey begins with a church-wide fast and then moves into a warning about sin's false promises. The apple cider story gives the message its clearest image: a repeated bad outcome turned into a simple picture of temptation's sales pitch.

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Why you'd press play

For when sin looks harmless and you want a blunt reset on what it costs.

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