Sunday teaching from a St. Louis congregation.
Sunday messages from First Free Church, an Evangelical Free congregation in the western suburbs of St. Louis. A rotating set of pastors works through passages line by line, closing most weeks in prayer for the church and its community.
PRESS PLAY
This is the sermon feed of First Free Church, a congregation in the western suburbs of St. Louis affiliated with the Evangelical Free Church of America. The pulpit rotates among the church's pastoral staff, and each voice brings a slightly different entry point to the same practice: reading a passage closely and staying with it. Adam introduces himself as one of the pastors and returns from a gathering of EFCA pastors with observations to share, including how many congregations are running capital campaigns, how the pandemic still shapes church life, and a worry about whether colleges and seminaries are producing the leaders churches need. Barrett Moore, the junior high and young adult pastor, opens a message on the crucifixion with an invitation to a monthly Thursday gathering for people between 18 and 30. Tex, the senior high pastor, describes Sunday night programming called Summit, combined Sunday morning programming called Base Camp, and a spring retreat in the planning stage. The messages themselves are unhurried. A resurrection sermon reads Luke 24 aloud, following the women to the tomb and then the confused travelers who did not recognize who they were walking beside. Another lingers on Pilate washing his hands, then refusing to soften the wording of the sign above the cross, and draws out what that refusal reveals about who owned the decision. One begins with the sheer scale of true crime listening in America before turning to the criminal beside Jesus who asked only to be remembered. A sermon on holiness opens with the questions decluttering experts recommend asking about the objects in a closet, then uses that frame to separate what is already settled about a believer's standing from what is still being formed. Technical vocabulary shows up, but it never sits alone; positional and progressive sanctification get named and then immediately explained in ordinary language. The style leans on repetition, restatement, and short historical or lexical asides that circle back to the point. Most episodes close in spoken prayer rather than a sign-off, frequently naming First Free itself and asking for something specific for the week ahead. The register is warm and instructional, sometimes grave, occasionally excited, but rarely casual in the way modern conversational podcasts are. Announcements, retreats, and building plans are left in, so the feed doubles as a record of one congregation's ordinary calendar. With hundreds of episodes, it functions as an archive of sustained expository teaching from a single church, useful to members catching up and to anyone who wants to hear scripture taught slowly by people speaking to a room they know well.
Made for: Members and visitors of First Free Church, and anyone who prefers slow expository preaching over conversational faith podcasts. Especially suited to listeners who want a passage taught line by line, with theological terms explained rather than assumed.
What sets it apart: The rotating pastoral staff means the same expository approach arrives in several distinct voices across a single season, from senior high and young adult ministry leaders to other pastors on staff. Announcements, retreat planning, and denominational news are left in, giving the feed the texture of one specific congregation rather than a general-audience program.
We're a Christian church in the west suburbs of St. Louis. We desire to be a church that is of our community and for our community. We exist to to make, mature, and multiply fully committed followers of Jesus Christ, in our community and beyond. Join us!
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Scripture-centered sermons connect biblical interpretation, Christian doctrine, and everyday spiritual practice through plainspoken analogies and direct pastoral application.
First Free Church builds its sermons from biblical passages outward, moving from close explanation into questions of identity, holiness, forgiveness, resurrection, and life under God's rule.
Four garbage bags later, that closet cleanout has become a question about what you worship.
Press play if you want
Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
A Luke 24 sermon traces resurrection hope from confusion at the empty tomb to faith in the risen Christ.
This single-episode review finds its center in Luke 24, where resurrection first arrives as confusion before it becomes recognition. The women meet the empty tomb, Peter sees the linen wrappings, and the travelers on the road still cannot piece together what they have heard.
A patient crucifixion sermon follows Pilate's sign, the seamless robe, and a prayer for faith without every answer.
Barrett Moore sets "It Is Finished" within First Free's Spring Retreat Sunday, then moves from the retreat theme of going beyond the mount to Jesus on the cross.
A sermon on the criminals beside Jesus that expands forgiveness into a fuller vision of the kingdom.
This single-episode review opens with the pull of true crime and redirects that interest toward the two criminals beside Jesus at the cross. It moves from legal guilt to moral wrongdoing, then centers on the criminal who accepts his sentence and asks to be remembered when Jesus…
A closet clean-out becomes a clear sermon on idolatry, holiness, and what quietly takes possession of a life.
This single-episode sermon turns a snowstorm closet clean-out into a practical meditation on how possessions can press on a life of faith. The host moves from familiar decluttering questions about use, guilt, space, and identity to the image of filled garbage and donation bags,…
A sermon on the criminal beside Jesus turns forgiveness toward surrender, resurrection, and hope for a broken world.
This single-episode review frames a sermon on the criminal beside Jesus as a challenge to easy assumptions about guilt, grace, and the gospel.
A Genesis 25 sermon turns a strange birth story into a direct reflection on spiritual identity.
Genesis 25 is framed here as a question of identity before it becomes a story of family conflict. The sermon begins by asking what remains when a person is described without a name, then sets that question alongside the close of Abraham's story and Isaac and Rebecca's dependence…
Two Bible translators unpack Scripture's hardest passages, from Revelation's 666 to the Witch of Endor.
Live sermons with Easter-shaped urgency.
Pastor Kyle leads a sermon on Genesis 25, focusing on identity as children of Abraham and God.
Pastor Tex shares personal anecdotes and introduces a sermon on Genesis 16-17, focusing on Abraham's faith and God's covenant.
A pastor introduces a special guided prayer service, encouraging personal and private prayer to deepen connection with God.
This sermon explores the story of the two criminals crucified with Jesus from Luke 23:39-43.
Revelation is not a crystal ball; it is a discipleship compass pointing Christians toward obedience today.
["Luke 24:1-12 opens First Free Church's Easter message with an empty tomb, dazzling messengers, and the question of why resurrection should count as good news.", "The preacher traces gospel to euangelion and explains that early English translators chose godspell to mean a true account, not only a pleasant story.", "He uses Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, Peter, and Celsus to show why the first resurrection reports sounded implausible in their own culture.", "The sermon ends with Emmaus and the locked-room appearance, where Jesus shows his hands and feet, eats broiled fish, and tells doubters to investigate."]
["Barrett Moore of First Free Church centers 'It Is Finished' on John 19 and Jesus' final words from the cross.", "He reads the passage as eyewitness testimony, quoting John 20:31 and contrasting John with Matthew, Mark, and Luke.", "The sermon follows Golgotha, Pilate's trilingual sign, the soldiers casting lots for Jesus' seamless robe, and Jesus' care for Mary and John.", "Moore closes by linking 'It is finished' to Psalm 22, Hebrews 2:14, Romans 6:13-14, and a call to live as if sin and death no longer rule."]
["First Free Church's 'Today You Will Be With Me In Paradise' opens with a true-crime frame, citing 'over 19 million Americans' who listen weekly and naming Jack the Ripper, Billy the Kid, Lizzie Borden, and Al Capone.", "The sermon reads Luke 23:39-43, where one criminal mocks Jesus and the other says, 'We deserve to die for our crimes' before asking to be remembered in Jesus' kingdom.", "The sermon argues that crime, sin, and repentance all expose self-centered hearts, and it uses the Sermon on the Mount to say inward contempt matters as much as outward acts.", "The final movement widens 'today you will be with me in paradise' into kingdom, resurrection, and new-heaven-new-earth hope, drawing on Romans 8, 1 Corinthians 15, Philippians 3, Colossians 3, and 1 Thessalonians 4."]
A sermon on Jesus' words 'Father, forgive them' from the cross, exploring the depth of divine forgiveness.
Pastor Adam shares insights from a pastors' gathering, discussing capital campaigns, pandemic aftermath, and training future church leaders.
A pastor at First Free Church preaches on 2 Chronicles 29, where King Hezekiah's Levites spend 16 days removing idols King Ahaz had installed in Yahweh's temple.
A sermon on overcoming shame and making a difference, using the biblical story of King Hezekiah restoring the temple.
A pastor introduces a special guided prayer service, encouraging personal and private prayer to connect with God amidst life's distractions.