Sermons on the Side

What if the voice of God sounds like someone crying out for help? Long before Hacksaw Ridge brought the story of Desmond Doss to the big screen, Richard had become fascinated by the unlikely World War II hero. Years ago, while visiting family in Lynchburg, Virginia, he regularly drove along the Desmond T. Doss Memorial Expressway. Curiosity led him to learn Doss’s remarkable story - years before Richard would hear director Mel Gibson talk about the newly filmed Hacksaw Ridge at his daug...

When you experience a win in life, where do you run first? This week on Sermons on the Side, Richard kicks things off with a birthday surprise for Brad, featuring special messages from friends and family and a sweet recording of his wife and kids singing Happy Birthday! Then, Brad shares a moment he'll never forget: watching his daughter Bekah score her very first soccer goal. In the pouring rain, surrounded by cheering teammates and parents, Bekah's first instinct wasn't to celeb...

“Big Truss! Woo woo!” In 2019, Baltimore Ravens running back Mark Ingram went viral when he enthusiastically introduced Lamar Jackson to the media as the “MVP frontrunner” and declared one unforgettable phrase: Big Truss. It was funny. It was over the top. But underneath all the energy was something powerful: Ingram had complete confidence in his quarterback. In this episode of Sermons on the Side, Richard and Brad take that viral NFL moment and ask a much bigger question: What d...

What does surviving as a prisoner of war have to teach us about faith, hope, and confronting the hard realities of our own lives? In Episode 84 of Sermons on the Side, Richard takes us on a brief history lesson through the incredible story of Admiral James Stockdale, who spent more than seven years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. His experience eventually inspired what became known as The Stockdale Paradox: the idea that we must confront the brutal facts of our present real...

College football is back - and these days, you can’t talk about college sports for long without talking about NIL. Name. Image. Likeness. For student-athletes, those three words have completely changed the game, allowing players to leverage who they are and the value attached to their identity. But a recent conversation with Richard’s friend Steve got us thinking: What if Christians have an NIL, too? Not one we’ve earned, negotiated, or built for ourselves - but one that ha...