AL Pastor with Brian Overturf

When you can't take it anymore, the prayer you think is too weak to matter is the very prayer that moves the hand of God. In this second half of "When You Can't Take It Anymore," Pastor Brian closes out James with two final answers: trust the power, and take hold. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much... and that righteous man is simply the believer. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours,...

Every one of us reaches a point where we can't take it anymore. So what do you do when you get there? In this message from James 5, Pastor Brian walks through the three things James tells us to do when life gets to be too much: take it to the Lord, call for the elders, and care for one another. Whether you're suffering, celebrating, or so worn down you can't even pray for yourself, there's one direction for all of i...

Paul's last letter opens by remembering two women — a grandmother named Lois and a mother named Eunice. From a Roman prison cell, on the edge of his own execution, Paul traces Timothy's faith back to the women who handed it down. In this Mother's Day message, Pastor Brian asks every mother in the room one question: Mom… is your faith still being handed down? Whether your children are in the nursery, in their teenage yea...

The waiting is hard. But what you do while you wait reveals everything about what you actually believe. In part two of "The Judge Is at the Door," Pastor Brian Overturf continues in James 5:7-12 with the final two things God asks of His people while they wait for justice. Walk with the witnesses — the prophets who spoke the truth and paid for it, and Job who held on to a God he couldn't explain. And weigh what you say...

Last week James pronounced judgment on the wealthy oppressors and ended with one phrase that wouldn’t let us go: “He does not resist you.” So what are God’s people supposed to do when justice doesn’t come on our timeline? When the wrong people keep winning? When we’re tempted to take matters into our own hands?

In Part 1 of this series, Pastor Brian opens James 5:7-9 and walks us through the first two of four answers James gives the...

Pastor Brian Overturf continues his verse-by-verse journey through James with the second half of James 5:1-6. After last week’s two charges — hoarding what God meant to circulate, and stealing the wages of the workers — James brings two more charges that get heavier before they get better.

Charge three: you have fattened your hearts. A life so absorbed in its own comfort and pleasure that it has lost the ability to feel anything for...

Full sermon notes can be downloaded here -> https://drive.google.com/file/d/1btRUz5unWJYOdFd2ztbOrUn0LzIiP-XF/view?usp=share_link

She thought He was the gardener. She was more right than she knew.

In this Easter Sunday message from John 20:1–18, Pastor Brian Overturf traces one of the most overlooked details in the resurrection account — Mary Magdalene mistaking the risen Christ for the gardener — and shows why that moment is not ...

THE245 Eschatology runs Sundays, April through June at Arvin Assembly. Register now at ⁠www.arvinassembly.com/eschatology⁠

Does it feel like the world is spinning out of control? Does God know what's happening — and does He have a plan? The answer is yes, and He wants you to know it.

In this episode, Pastor Brian gives a full preview of THE245 Eschatology, a new course launching this April through the Arvin Assembly School of the...

In the Crowd, Missing the King

Arvin Assembly of God | Arvin, California | March 29, 2026

Preached by Pastor Brian Overturf

Palm Sunday is the one Sunday of the year when the crowd is already excited before the sermon begins. But the original crowd on the first Palm Sunday was excited too, and they missed Him completely.

In this message from Luke 19:28 through 44, Pastor Brian traces three movements through the text: the delibe...

Surrender is not a moment. It is a lifestyle. And James 4:11–17 shows us exactly what that looks like when it gets up in the morning and goes to work.

In this message we walk through three arenas where wholehearted living either shows up or it doesn't. The words we speak about people. The plans we make about our future. And the things we already know but are not yet doing.

Because a life fully surrendered to God sounds different,...

Where do the conflicts in your life actually come from? James 4 pulls back the curtain and shows us something uncomfortable. The wars around us start with the war within us. Driven by unchecked desires, we fight for what we could have prayed for and drift from God without ever feeling it happen.

But James doesn't leave us there. In the middle of one of the most convicting passages in the New Testament, he opens a door. Behind it...

In this message from James 3:13–18, Pastor Brian explores the contrast between two kinds of wisdom — wisdom from above and wisdom from below — and the fruit each produces. James teaches that true wisdom cannot be measured by words or claims, but by the visible fruit in our lives: peace or conflict, mercy or ambition, sincerity or hypocrisy.

This sermon walks carefully through the marks of heavenly wisdom — purity, peace, gentleness,...

There are two kinds of wisdom. One from heaven, one from earth. One produces peace and wholeness. The other produces disorder and chaos. In this message from James 3:13-16, Pastor Brian Overturf shows us how to identify which wisdom is ruling our hearts by examining the fruit it's producing in our lives. If your relationships are marked by conflict instead of peace, if your heart is divided instead of whole, James traces it bac...

Whole Lives and Whole Words | Part 2 - The Power of Words

Your words don't just come out of nowhere — they steer, they scorch, and they expose what's really going on in your heart. In this episode, Pastor Brian Overturf continues through James 3, unpacking four things God wants us to understand about the power of speech. A small rudder moves a massive ship. A single spark burns down a forest. The same mouth that blesses God ...

After preaching on James 3 and the weight of teaching God’s Word, Pastor Brian answers the question many asked: “Who do you listen to — and how do you decide who to trust?”

In this follow-up episode, Brian unpacks the modern Christian content landscape, names movements and patterns he believes produce unhealthy fruit, and explains his criteria for discernment. From concerns about the New Apostolic Reformation and seeker-sensitive cu...

In this episode, Pastor Brian tackles both the Super Bowl halftime show and Turning Point USA’s “All-American Halftime Show” — and argues that while they look different on the surface, they expose the same deeper issue. Using Mark 11 and Jesus’ cursing of the fig tree, Brian challenges American Christians to ask a hard question: Are we celebrating leaves instead of fruit?

This episode confronts cultural Christianity, political triba...

Whole Lives and Whole Words | James 3:1-3

In this powerful message, we explore what God expects from those who speak for Him. James challenges us to examine the connection between our hearts and our words, revealing that our speech is one of the clearest windows into our spiritual maturity.

Discover why teaching is a calling, not a platform; why stricter judgment awaits those who speak for God; and why humility is essential for every...

Does Romans 4 contradict James 2? In this episode, Pastor Brian carefully walks through Romans 4:4 and explains how Paul and James are not opposing each other, but defending the same gospel from different errors. Paul protects grace from legalism. James protects grace from empty profession. Together, they show us that we are justified by faith alone — but the faith that justifies never remains alone.

For a sample of commentary for t...