Produced and Delivered Web-TV Programming
LaGrave Live
LIVE Morning Worship Service 07-12-2026
Hearing Abel, Raising Cain
About The Service:
We welcome Rev. Scott Hoezee, Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Seminary, to our pulpit, and we will celebrate the Lord's Supper together. Rev. Hoezee's sermon will be "Hearing Abel, Raising Cain" from Genesis 4:1-16.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-7-12-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The June special offering is for Pine Rest Patient Assistance Fund: Part of Pine Rest Foundation Fund offering financial assistance for individuals, families and children who need care.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
The Better Word: From Cain's Restlessness to Christ's Peace
Summary
A Worship Service Grounded in Forgiveness
The service opens with confession and assurance drawn from Psalm 32, emphasizing that acknowledged sin is met by God's forgiveness. Congregational prayer then holds together personal illness, grief, birthdays, church ministries, missionary work, denominational renewal, international suffering, and the hope that God's love and faithfulness extend beyond every human need.
No Red Card with God
The children's message uses soccer's yellow and red cards to explain conviction, confession, and grace. A yellow card becomes an image for the Holy Spirit's warning when someone lies or harms another person. Unlike a referee who permanently removes a player, God does not cast repentant people out of his family; confession is met with forgiveness.
Reading Cain and Abel Beyond the Simplest Version
The sermon turns to Genesis 4 and challenges children's-Bible summaries that portray Cain as obviously evil from birth and Abel as obviously righteous. The preacher observes that the text gives little explanation for God's different responses to the offerings, making room for a more careful reading of Cain's anger, God's warning, and the tragedy that follows.
The Cry of Innocent Blood
After Cain kills Abel, Abel's blood becomes the Bible's first voice of an innocent victim crying from the ground. The sermon connects that cry with continuing violence throughout human history. Cain's punishment uproots him from the soil and makes him a restless wanderer, yet God still marks and protects him, interrupting the cycle of retaliatory death.
A Better Word Spoken by Christ
Hebrews 12 provides the sermon's central theological claim: Jesus' blood speaks a better word than Abel's blood. Abel's blood names injustice and death, while Christ's blood speaks grace, life, resurrection, and reconciliation. Jesus represents both victims and perpetrators, revealing God's insistence on life even where human beings repeatedly choose violence.
Communion as Reconciliation and Homecoming
The closing illustration from Places in the Heart imagines victims, perpetrators, the dead, the marginalized, and the guilty sharing communion and exchanging the peace of God. The service then moves directly to the Lord's Table, where bread and cup proclaim that Christ brings restless wanderers home, creates shalom, and offers forgiveness and rest to wounded hearts.
LIVE Morning Worship Service 07-12-2026
Hearing Abel, Raising Cain
About The Service:
We welcome Rev. Scott Hoezee, Director of the Center for Excellence in Preaching at Calvin Seminary, to our pulpit, and we will celebrate the Lord's Supper together. Rev. Hoezee's sermon will be "Hearing Abel, Raising Cain" from Genesis 4:1-16.
Order of Worship:
https://lagrave.org/wp-content/uploads/2026-7-12-AM-Order-of-Worship.pdf
About the Church:
We are a traditional CRC church in the middle of Downtown Grand Rapids, MI, worshipping at 8:40am, 11:00am, and 6:00pm. (10:00am and 6:00pm during the summer months)
We'd love to hear from you:
Connection: https://www.lagrave.org/contact
Let us pray for you:
Prayer: https://www.lagrave.org/prayerrequest/
Giving: https://www.elexiogiving.com/App/Giving/lagr107178
The June special offering is for Pine Rest Patient Assistance Fund: Part of Pine Rest Foundation Fund offering financial assistance for individuals, families and children who need care.
Listen on the go:
Amazon Music: https://bit.ly/LGPodAmazonMusic
Apple Podcast: https://apple.co/3tuOdwQ
Google Podcast: https://bit.ly/LGPodGoogle
Soundcloud: / lagravecrc https://soundcloud.com/lagravecrc
Spotify: https://spoti.fi/3yXDFaT
Follow us!
Facebook: / lagravecrc https://www.facebook.com/lagravecrc
Instagram: / lagravecrc https://www.instagram.com/lagravecrc
Website: https://www.lagrave.org
#LaGrave #LaGraveCRC
The Better Word: From Cain's Restlessness to Christ's Peace
Summary
A Worship Service Grounded in Forgiveness
The service opens with confession and assurance drawn from Psalm 32, emphasizing that acknowledged sin is met by God's forgiveness. Congregational prayer then holds together personal illness, grief, birthdays, church ministries, missionary work, denominational renewal, international suffering, and the hope that God's love and faithfulness extend beyond every human need.
No Red Card with God
The children's message uses soccer's yellow and red cards to explain conviction, confession, and grace. A yellow card becomes an image for the Holy Spirit's warning when someone lies or harms another person. Unlike a referee who permanently removes a player, God does not cast repentant people out of his family; confession is met with forgiveness.
Reading Cain and Abel Beyond the Simplest Version
The sermon turns to Genesis 4 and challenges children's-Bible summaries that portray Cain as obviously evil from birth and Abel as obviously righteous. The preacher observes that the text gives little explanation for God's different responses to the offerings, making room for a more careful reading of Cain's anger, God's warning, and the tragedy that follows.
The Cry of Innocent Blood
After Cain kills Abel, Abel's blood becomes the Bible's first voice of an innocent victim crying from the ground. The sermon connects that cry with continuing violence throughout human history. Cain's punishment uproots him from the soil and makes him a restless wanderer, yet God still marks and protects him, interrupting the cycle of retaliatory death.
A Better Word Spoken by Christ
Hebrews 12 provides the sermon's central theological claim: Jesus' blood speaks a better word than Abel's blood. Abel's blood names injustice and death, while Christ's blood speaks grace, life, resurrection, and reconciliation. Jesus represents both victims and perpetrators, revealing God's insistence on life even where human beings repeatedly choose violence.
Communion as Reconciliation and Homecoming
The closing illustration from Places in the Heart imagines victims, perpetrators, the dead, the marginalized, and the guilty sharing communion and exchanging the peace of God. The service then moves directly to the Lord's Table, where bread and cup proclaim that Christ brings restless wanderers home, creates shalom, and offers forgiveness and rest to wounded hearts.
Signs of Life - Medium Insights with Host Roman Karpishka
Guest: #FFFCertifiedMedium Sirry Berndsen
Love With Nowhere to Land: Mediumship, Grief, and the Bonds That Remain
Summary
A Friendship Rooted in Grief and Service
Roman Karpishka welcomes certified medium Sirry Berndsen for a conversational look at mediumship, grief, healing, and the relationships formed through Forever Family Foundation. Their warm exchange begins with stories about Mo, the host’s late son Stefan, and the ways meaningful encounters can feel like signs from loved ones.
Healing the Body Through Intention
Speaking from Iceland, Sirry describes several years of health challenges, recent surgery in Germany, and the prayer, meditation, visualization, exercise, and holistic practices she believes supported her recovery. She frames the experience as part of an ongoing healing journey and emphasizes privacy, resilience, and self-care.
Where Psychology Meets the Soul
Sirry previews a podcast she is developing with Mo called The Psyche and the Soul. The planned program will combine psychological insight, grief education, mediumship, and personal accounts from people who have endured loss, attended grief retreats, or received readings that helped them find a path forward.
Evidence, Ethics, and the Work of a Medium
The discussion explores how Sirry experiences clairvoyant detail, why names can be harder to receive outside her native Icelandic language, and why clients should avoid giving mediums advance information. Both speakers share stories of readings, unexpected evidence, efforts to test mediums, and the importance of separating sincere practitioners from charlatans.
Love, Transformation, and Continuing Bonds
In response to a listener’s question, Sirry says that people may appear gentler after death because she believes they undergo a life review and are surrounded by love. The conversation returns repeatedly to the idea that grief is love with nowhere to land and that continuing bonds, memory, service, and evidential communication may help people live with loss.
Animals, Callers, and Signs of Connection
Callers ask about deceased pets, personality changes after death, unusual experiences with lights, energetic protection, and the comfort of previous readings. Sirry offers her spiritual interpretations, including beliefs about animal reincarnation and lingering pet presence, while also recommending grounding practices such as rest, healthy food, meditation, breathing, Reiki, or other healing work.
Guest: #FFFCertifiedMedium Sirry Berndsen
Love With Nowhere to Land: Mediumship, Grief, and the Bonds That Remain
Summary
A Friendship Rooted in Grief and Service
Roman Karpishka welcomes certified medium Sirry Berndsen for a conversational look at mediumship, grief, healing, and the relationships formed through Forever Family Foundation. Their warm exchange begins with stories about Mo, the host’s late son Stefan, and the ways meaningful encounters can feel like signs from loved ones.
Healing the Body Through Intention
Speaking from Iceland, Sirry describes several years of health challenges, recent surgery in Germany, and the prayer, meditation, visualization, exercise, and holistic practices she believes supported her recovery. She frames the experience as part of an ongoing healing journey and emphasizes privacy, resilience, and self-care.
Where Psychology Meets the Soul
Sirry previews a podcast she is developing with Mo called The Psyche and the Soul. The planned program will combine psychological insight, grief education, mediumship, and personal accounts from people who have endured loss, attended grief retreats, or received readings that helped them find a path forward.
Evidence, Ethics, and the Work of a Medium
The discussion explores how Sirry experiences clairvoyant detail, why names can be harder to receive outside her native Icelandic language, and why clients should avoid giving mediums advance information. Both speakers share stories of readings, unexpected evidence, efforts to test mediums, and the importance of separating sincere practitioners from charlatans.
Love, Transformation, and Continuing Bonds
In response to a listener’s question, Sirry says that people may appear gentler after death because she believes they undergo a life review and are surrounded by love. The conversation returns repeatedly to the idea that grief is love with nowhere to land and that continuing bonds, memory, service, and evidential communication may help people live with loss.
Animals, Callers, and Signs of Connection
Callers ask about deceased pets, personality changes after death, unusual experiences with lights, energetic protection, and the comfort of previous readings. Sirry offers her spiritual interpretations, including beliefs about animal reincarnation and lingering pet presence, while also recommending grounding practices such as rest, healthy food, meditation, breathing, Reiki, or other healing work.
