Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast: Recent Episodes
Saints‘ Hill Church
Jesus’ question from Mark 8:29, “Who do you say I am?”, must be answered by each of us. To see Jesus as Messiah and Lord is more than knowing the right answer—it is a lifelong journey of following Him, allowing Him to shape our identity, priorities, and understanding. Our answer shapes every part of our lives and invites us into a life of learning from Christ and giving away what we receive.
Jesus’ question in Matthew 16 invites us to consider what we’re truly living for. In this passage, we see that real life isn’t found in pursuing control, success, or our own desires, but in surrendering to Christ and participating in His Kingdom.
As we learn to hear His voice and follow His lead, we’re invited to face both the highs and lows of life with the King, not on our own. In losing our lives for His sake, we discover the life we were created to live.
Jesus' question, "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life?", reveals that anxiety comes from treasuring the wrong things and trying to control what only God can hold. Rather than pursuing security through money, comfort, power, or success, Jesus calls us to be rich toward God, trusting that His presence and provision are enough. As we value Christ above all else, worry gives way to contentment, because the one thing we truly need can never be taken from us.
Jesus' question in John 5v6 is really an invitation to the wholeness only He can give.
The healing at the pool reveals that our greatest need is not simply relief from suffering but freedom from sin and restored relationship with God.
Jesus calls us to leave behind false hopes and self-reliance, receive His healing presence, and walk in the new life He offers. True wellness is found not in trying harder, but in surrendering to Christ and living in union with Him.
On Sunday, we looked at the question Jesus asks his disciples after washing their feet in John 13v12.
With His question, Jesus invites us to move beyond simply understanding Him with our minds into experiencing Him personally. Following Jesus includes allowing Him to wash, cleanse, and transform the places we cannot heal ourselves.
Secure in His love, we discover that true joy is found not in being served but in sharing His life—receiving His grace, serving others with humility, and finding our purpose in following His example.
On Sunday, we jumped back into our summer series looking at what we believe are some of the most important questions Jesus asks. This week, we looked at the question Jesus asks in Luke 6v32, “If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you?”
With this question, Jesus is getting at the foundation of what it means to be a Christian. Because of the blood of Jesus, we live in a new reality. His blood made a way for us to receive God’s unconditional love, and freely give it away. It is only from this place of being rooted in God’s love that we can reject offense, offer forgiveness, and truly love one another.
This last Sunday, Gerry Breshears gave us a theology of prayer in times of groaning, based on Psalm 13.
Christians in the West have largely seen suffering as a theological and existential problem to be solved, lest our faith deconstruct. Much of Scripture reveals a different worldview - this world is a war zone, where Satan is prince and suffering is a normal part of life.
Our goal is to suffer with an awareness of God’s presence, engaging with all the emotions of prayer. This posture allows us to partner with God in bringing goodness and hope to our world.
Access Gerry’s handout/guide for this teaching HERE.
On Sunday we got to hear from one of our summer guest speakers, John Rosensteel on Galatians 6v7-10.
Paul’s words to the church in Galatia in are just as applicable for us today - how we live matters. Amidst the burdens of life and the brokenness of the world, it can be easy to lose hope and give into the flesh. But by the power of the Holy Spirit in us, we are able to persevere in doing good.
As we strengthen ourselves in the Lord we are able to partner with Him in doing good and bringing beauty to the world around us.
This summer, we will be looking at what we believe are some of the most important questions Jesus asks. On Sunday, Pete began with the question Jesus asks in Luke 18v8, “…when the Son of Man returns, will He find faith on the earth?”
This question shifts our focus away from religious activity and toward a faith that endures.
Persistent faith is hope stretched over time—a steady trust in God’s character that keeps praying, obeying, and waiting even when answers are delayed and circumstances remain unchanged. Because our hope is anchored in God’s faithfulness rather than in outcomes, we can persevere with confidence until Christ returns.
Faith believes His promises, hope waits for His timing, and love expresses His heart; together they mark a life that remains steadfast, Spirit-filled, and ready for His coming.
On Pentecost Sunday, Bria read the famous story from Acts 2v1-13 and presented Pentecost as the redemption of Babel - where humanity once sought power and unity apart from God and were scattered. God now gives His Spirit to dwell within His people, creating a unity rooted in dependence on Christ. The Spirit’s power is not given for self-promotion, but for surrender, service, and bearing witness to Jesus.
The good news of Pentecost is that God’s presence is no longer confined to a place, but through the Holy Spirit He lives inside of us. We are invited to live in relationship with Him - attentive to His voice, open to His correction and shaped by His love.
This Sunday, Jacob Vigil taught from Proverbs 3v5-6, exploring the idea that the entire Christian life is about trust. From humanity’s earliest moments to our daily walk with Christ, God continually invites His people to trust Him rather than lean on our own understanding. Jacob unpacked how biblical trust is more than belief — it is a daily surrender of every area of life, intimately knowing and acknowledging God in all our ways. A life of trust leads to the peace God promises and allows Him to make our paths straight.
On Sunday, we continued our Pentecost series with a teaching from one of our elders, Pete Donor.
In Acts 1v6-8, the disciples ask Jesus when He will restore the kingdom, but He redirects them away from control and speculation toward surrender and mission.
Instead of giving them timelines, He promises the Holy Spirit, who will empower them to live as witnesses of His Kingdom everywhere they go.
Holy alignment happens when we stop centering our own plans and start trusting the Father’s timing, allowing the Spirit to shape both our lives and our purpose around Jesus.
On Sunday we began our annual series on the Holy Spirit during Pentecost.
Acts 1v1-5 highlights a crucial command for the disciple: wait.
Even after all the disciples had seen, their memories of Jesus and their hopes for the future were not enough to sustain faithful living.
The Christian life requires daily dependence on the living presence of God through the Holy Spirit. He is not an abstract force, but a person, who teaches truth, shapes hope, transforms character and sustains intimacy with God.
There is no life worth living outside of His presence. We cling to you, Jesus!
On Sunday we looked at 1 Peter 2v4-10 and what it means to trust Jesus.
Peter, though he stumbled, recognized that communion with the Lord is what would hold his faith in place. We too must strengthen ourselves in the Lord by spending time with Jesus.
This is how He becomes our foundation. We take Him at His word that He did what He said He would do and we can trust Him.
When we stand on Christ’s finished work we will become temples that host Him and display His glory to the world.
On Sunday we looked at John 15v1-17 and what it means to be friends with God.
Throughout the entire Bible, we read about God coming close and drawing near in friendship to those who desire Him. This is ultimately fulfilled in Jesus who offers himself as our way to be in right relationship with God.
Through this passage we see that friendship with God is about remaining in His love, and doing what He commands. This is the means by which Jesus frees you from lesser loves and attaches you to His love. This eternal friendship is for our joy and for His.
On Sunday we concluded our Luke series after four years.
After His resurrection, Jesus appears to his disciples to help them understand that the whole Jewish story finds its fulfillment in Him. He then commissions them with a message and a method.
The message that the Resurrection gives us is repentance and forgiveness. These are the two miraculous roads that bring heaven to earth.
The method Jesus gives us, is to wait for the Holy Spirit. He said it was better for Him to go to the Father so He could send his Spirit to be our advocate and our helper. Our posture in all of life is to wait on and be led by the Holy Spirit.
The Resurrection of Jesus makes all of this possible and it’s our privilege to live a life of union with Him.
This last Sunday, Alex spoke about the Resurrection of Jesus being historically plausible, existentially hopeful, and emotionally satisfying.
The story that the Bible tells is all about love. Love is threatened by death, and that is why the Resurrection is the answer for humanity. Love that lasts is God’s aim, and that becomes possible with the Resurrection of Jesus.
It’s a powerful idea, but faith only comes when you actually encounter the risen Jesus. He is ready to show himself to anyone who desires to see Him. We are welcomed not into a set of theological beliefs, but into the mystery of His love and the greatest story ever told.
As we enter into Holy Week, our Luke series has brought us to the passage of Jesus’ crucifixion.
As we read through this passage we are rightfully shocked to remember that the symbol of our Christian faith, the cross, is indeed a torture device intended to assert dominance and to put fear into the hearts of all who witnessed it.
So what did Jesus’ death on a cross actually mean?
He did not die on a cross to atone for something He did, but for the sins of the world. Christ hanging on the cross becomes the symbol of divine power and the way of discipleship.
The cross is the great eyesore of humanity because it says your power, your money and your enjoyment won’t save you. There’s only one way through and it is to choose to give up your life for the sake of the kingdom.
Luke 22v66-23v25 plays out like a trial in a courtroom. Truth himself stands before the Law and the people responsible for upholding the Law refuse to recognize the Truth.
The trials of Jesus show us the deepest injustice ever committed, and at the same time, the greatest act of divine mercy ever offered. The Innocent One condemned so that the guilty may go free, this is the heart of the gospel.
Because we are set free by the sacrifice of Jesus, we live with courage, conviction and confidence as righteous sons and daughters of the King!
On Sunday, Bria taught from Luke 22v47-65.
Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial both reveal the tendency of humanity, to deny what is true for the sake of our own preservation. The life and death of Jesus confronts all of us, and invites us to trust in Him and His purposes above our own.
His life and death also extends more grace than we think possible, even in our failure. In his great mercy, Jesus is always gazing at us - inviting repentance, restoring relationship, and freeing us from the disillusionment of denial.
The Scripture reading this week from Luke 22v39-46 kicks off what is known as “the passion,” or, the suffering of Christ.
Jesus, being the true man, shows us how to suffer well. He is honest with the Father about his fear, but ultimately chooses to trust God that the Cross will not be the end.
The New Testament speaks at great length to suffering. We learn that suffering is about knowing Jesus. When life brings a test, let it disillusion you to every other lesser love so that your capacity for knowing and loving Jesus, may increase.
In Luke 22v31-38 Jesus warns his disciples that a sifting is coming. Their trust in Him will be tested in the coming days.
Jesus points out that it is Satan, or, “The Accuser” whose aim it is to expose & inspire faithlessness in His followers. Satan’s accusation is that the disciples only love Jesus for what they think He can do for them.
The New Testament refers to Satan as the ruler of this age. So it’s safe to say that we too can expect to be sifted in this life. The beautiful thing about Jesus is that no matter how humiliated or hopeless you may have become in the sifting, His heart remains open to you. The sifting at its best creates an opportunity for mercy you didn’t know existed.
The path of the disciple, like Peter, is the path of having all your images of God fail you, so that you can truly know and love Him as He is.
On Sunday, one of our elders, Austin Smith, explored Jesus’ radical definition on greatness found in Luke 22v24-30.
While the disciples argue about status, Jesus teaches that true greatness in His kingdom is found in humble service—becoming useful rather than trying to get ahead.
Worldly self-centeredness will keep us from loving others well, but in Jesus’ life we see another way to live. He is so certain of His identity as a beloved son, that he is able to go low, to be grateful and generous in every situation.
As we grow in gratitude to God, may our lives become acts of worship and may we be found useful to his kingdom.
On Sunday we got to hear from Bria on the Last Supper passage in Luke 22v1-23.
The Last Supper is not just a famous scene, but an intentional fulfillment of the Jewish Passover. Jesus transforms the Seder’s promises of sanctification, deliverance, redemption, and praise into a new covenant centered on Himself.
As the true Passover Lamb, He invites His disciples—and us—not just to remember the Exodus, but to remember Him: His body broken, His blood poured out, and the fullness found only in union with Him.
Luke 21v5-38 has been interpreted by many modern Protestants as an end times prediction. On Sunday, Alex gave us some helpful tools to aid in our interpretation of Jesus' words in this passage.
There is both prophetic and apocalyptic language in this passage, and it is important to distinguish which is happening when. Jesus does describe an actual event in the future of Israel where Rome takes Jerusalem by siege and destroys the temple (70 AD). He also uses apocalyptic imagery to describe patterns we can expect to see in the world until His return.
Amid the tumult of living in this world, Jesus calls our attention to what matters most - the Holy Spirit with us and the mission God has given us to advance the kingdom.
We pray that this message encourages you in your walk with Jesus!
The overarching idea of this series is that we live in this world, we don’t live in heaven fully yet. God designed it this way, and it means we have a role to play.
Your labor will likely be one of the largest roles you play in bringing heaven to earth.
While toil is a result of the fall, labor is not. Humans were made to labor with God - made to build, to act upon created things in order to make them more than they would have been on their own.
In God’s economy, labor leads to ownership and ownership leads to offering. This is a life of worship.
We pray that through this series, God will be speaking to you about your gifts, your limitations, and the opportunities He's given you. These will inform how you take ownership and serve wherever He has placed you.
In this series we have been talking about how we experience our faith in the world around us. This week, Alex aimed to answer the question, what sort of world should Christians seek to build with our politics?
We cannot avoid politics because our faith is incarnational, shaping culture, institutions, and everyday decisions. However, history warns us against using power or theocracy to impose belief.
There is a tension between what we believe to be universal morals, and the particular realities of our day and age. We must be slow, humble and thoughtful in forming political views.
We believe Christians should advocate for governments that protect God-given freedoms; however, the heart of our witness is not policy but a life shaped by the cross, where mercy and self-sacrifice speak louder than power.
Is Christianity mainly about the Spirit catching people up into the progression of heaven on earth? Or is Christianity mainly about building institutions, societies, and laws that benefit the individual conscience and familial aims?
We see both in the Scriptures. Spirit and structure.
As Christians, we engage in politics because of the Incarnation. Because Jesus is both God and man, heaven and earth are coming together. The earthly king is not God, but humans have the ability in partnership with God to bring His rule into ours.
The messy part is how that happens and with what sort of methods. Many Christians disagree on these things, and we must guard our hearts against resentment.
May God bring us to repentance, extend His grace towards us, and show us how to love one another so that we can receive His vision for heaven on earth in all its nuance and beauty.
The entire Bible is about the mission of God. God wants to restore trust with humans, which will lead to the restoration of all creation.
In the Scriptures, we are given the creational mandate in Genesis and the Great Commission in Matthew. This means that discipleship is important in this life, but so is your work, your family, and your time.
If we can get a bigger picture of evangelism, one that includes the breadth of God’s mission, we can begin to announce the gospel with our lives.
On Sunday we began a new series by reading Colossians 1v15-23 and asking the question, “What is our message to the world?”
Our conviction is that the gospel is not just personal, it’s also cosmic. This is a far cry from the personal, private, gnostic American gospel that we were born into.
Because of the incarnation, salvation is neither an escape from this world or a perfection of it. It seems that the authors of the Scriptures want us to see ourselves as a part of the cosmos that is being reconciled through Christ - to love this world enough to want to participate in its restoration.
The hope of resurrection changes the way we live. We can live without fear and build with God things that will last forever.
Advent has brought us to the birth of Christ, the celebration of Christ with us, but even after his arrival the Scriptures tell us that all is still not as it should be.
Christ has come, and He will come again, but we still live with the reality of suffering. The Scriptures call us to usher in the kingdom of God with our beautiful, suffering Savior. We don’t live for an ideal experience, we live for a person - in joy and in suffering. We know that faith pleases God so we do not shrink back when suffering comes. Our true joy comes from communion with him.
There is always beauty to be found, because Christ has made himself available to us.
During our Christmas Eve gathering this year we looked at the story of Jesus in John 1. Because Jesus came we have hope in the midst of a troubled world and we get to carry that hope to the world. We reflect on the fact that Christmas is a time to have hope even if the world seems dark.
We pray that as your family gathers you would remember all that Jesus did for us on the Cross, and the miracle that we serve a God who came to us.
Merry Christmas Saints' Hill
On Sunday, Pete read the Angels’ Song from Luke 2. The Angels’ Song is one of hope realized.
The angels come to the lowly shepherds to announce the good news of Christ’s birth. The Messiah is finally here, peace is available to all people. The angel chorus glorifies God for this great gift, and gives an important key for how this peace is actually obtained.
It is by our faith that God is pleased. When we entrust all of ourselves to Christ, we receive all that he is. This life of peace with God pours over into all of life, making the same gift that we received, available to all those we encounter.
On Sunday we continued in our Advent series looking at the songs of Advent. This week we turned our attention to Mary.
Luke 1v46-55 is Mary’s song. She sings because God has included her in His promise to bless the nations. She gives her yes, her surrender, so that she may participate in the fulfillment of this hope.
The promise given to Mary is a part of a very old promise to Israel. God will send a Messiah to redeem his people from the curse.
The promise is unique in that it does not offer to heal the world with a political system, but with the incarnation - God inside of you, making you new. This reordering of humanity itself is what will lead to heaven on earth.
The prophecy of Zechariah in Luke 1v67-79 reframes our reality by showing us what the coming of Jesus really means, so that we can orient our lives appropriately.
The gospel is not our escape from this life nor our license to live for this world. The gospel of Jesus Christ means that eternal life begins right now.
We get to serve God without fear in righteousness and holiness through the union you have with God by the Spirit. This was God’s plan when He called Abraham and this is the hope we carry as we reflect on what the Advent season means.
We pray that you would continue to know and experience the wonderful union you have with God in Christ.
On Sunday, Andoni reminded us of why it’s so important to keep the gospel as our North Star.
In an age of endless information, knowledge and influence we must remain aware of our need for Jesus.
In the battle for the mind, we must be conscious of what we are consuming. The only thing that will truly feed and sustain us is the Word.
We are designed to live with integrity and a single mind so that anywhere we go, our presence may suggest His.
On Sunday, we reflected on the journey Saints’ Hill has been on over the past seven years, and where we feel like God is taking us. The current shift we are feeling has led us to update our mission language, and to prepare to add a second gathering.
Our updated mission statement - friendship with God for the renewal of all things - reflects the core of our philosophy of ministry as well as what we are actually doing.
The decision to add a second gathering comes from a sense that we should be prepared to accommodate the growth that God is bringing to our town and to our family.
We are deeply grateful to God for what He has built in us over the last several years, and we are believing that He desires to give Newberg the same friendship He has so graciously given us.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
On Sunday we wrapped up our vision series, Join the Family, with a message on the identity of a child.
God’s answer to a world filled with lack, is the establishment of a family. Abraham and his family were to trust God unto blessing the nations. This was ultimately fulfilled in Christ’s life, death and resurrection, where we now are invited to join the family of God through the blood of Jesus.
Our new identity as God’s child changes everything. We now have the security, access, and abundance of our Father. Being a part of God’s family means that you are so secure in His love that you don’t need to manipulate or control other family members to address lack. This frees you up to truly love and serve your brothers and sisters, and is the foundation of Christian community.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
Our aim in this vision series has been to define what God is specifically doing with Saints’ Hill in this time and place, and how you can join that.
One identity we are committing to is the identity of a priest. What we learn from the Scriptures is that priests serve God on behalf of people, and serve people on behalf of God.
Therefore, the life that Jesus has for you is a life of service, rather than a personal project. We are praying that each of you, in the presence of God will learn how to leverage what he’s given you in this life, to serve and give - so that our world can taste and see Christ.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
This last week we continued in our vision series with a teaching on what the identity of Bride means for the people of Saints’ Hill.
The Bible begins with a marriage and ends with a marriage, and everything in between is about marriage. It’s the central image of God’s desire for humanity and humanity’s need of God.
We are the woman at the well in John 4, and Jesus is the groom offering us himself. He wants to detach us from our false loves so that we can experience Him as the ultimate most satisfying love.
As His betrothed, our lives then ought to take the shape of longing. We pray and we worship to encounter Him, to let his love wash over us, and to pour out our devotion to Him.
We pray that the identity of the bride would begin to shape how you use your time, your energy, and your attention. There is nothing more valuable than being with Him, knowing Him, and loving Him.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
As a part of this vision series we want you to know what you can expect from us at Saints’ Hill and what we want to be able to expect from you, in other words, our social contract.
Rather than a membership structure or specific requirements, our social contract is made up of a shared identity with an organizing principle.
According to the New Testament authors, there are many identities that we are afforded under Christ’s blood. We believe God has given us three to focus on as a church: child, priest, and bride. This means we do life together, we worship and pray, and we serve and give. Our organizing principle that empowers these identities is love - meaning, all of these actions are compelled by Christ’s love in us.
Our prayer is that through our stewardship of these identities, we as a church would be able to serve God’s purposes for our time and place.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
What is Saints’ Hill trying to do to you?
As we get more and more specific in this vision series, we want to talk about what our hope is for each person at Saints’ Hill.
Put simply - we want you, through friendship with God, to become completely secure in His love. When this happens, we believe that you will be filled to overflow, and that you’ll have something to give away. You’ll be able to actually do the good works He has prepared in advance for you to do.
God, make us willing to give up lesser loves and to walk the narrow road that leads to life.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
This last Sunday we talked about why Saints’ Hill exists. In a well-churched town, what is our unique purpose and how did we arrive there?
Our founders had a conviction that Saints’ Hill needed to be a place where people could reliably encounter God. This comes from a belief that in His Presence all the right things grow and the wrong things die.
If you were made for union with God, a love encounter with Him is the greatest thing a church can provide.
Our strategy, from singing, to communion, to teaching and prayer is all aimed at seeing God face to face, being transformed by His love, and serving His purposes for our time and place.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
Last week we began our vision series laying a foundation for what this life is, who God is, and what our purpose is as humans. This week we zoomed in a bit more and asked the question, Why the Church?
From the very beginning, God’s answer to the trust broken in Eden, was a family. Abraham and his family, the nation of Israel, existed to restore trust between God and man, and to extend that blessing to the nations. This purpose was ultimately fulfilled in Jesus, who redeemed us from our sin so that by the Spirit, we would promote and provide a meal between God and man.
God is after relationship, and the gathering of people who love one another because they have first been loved, becomes the greatest sign on earth pointing to Him. That is where the renewal of all things begins.
Thanks for joining us as Senior Leader Alex Rettmann sits down with leaders from our church family to reflect on last Sunday’s sermon and talk about life, community, and ministry.
We are praying you’re blessed!
On Sunday we began a new series called Join The Family. This vision series is designed to show why we do what we do at Saints’ Hill and where we’re headed. Our goal for this series is that every person would find both the mission for their life and the energy for it, in the presence of God.
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In order to get into the specifics, we first need to lay a foundation of agreement on what this life is. We believe that God is relationship, and that everything He made is a relational invitation to Him. Creation, our physical world, is designed to tell the truth about God.
Creation was distorted by a break of relationship, and can only be recaptured by a healing of that relationship. This is what the entire story of the Bible is about.
God has created every human with a purpose, and a specific role to play in the renewal of the world. When we get in God’s presence we see Him rightly. When we see Him rightly we respond rightly, choosing to die to ourselves so that we can walk in the works He has prepared for us.
Because of what Jesus has done, our lives are no longer possessed by death, but we are on a journey towards union with God that Jesus has made possible for us.
On Sunday, Bria shared from Matthew 5:13 what it means when Jesus says, “You are the salt of the earth.”
To be salt is to receive the life and love of God, to be unified with Him again, and to journey with Him in the partnership you were created for. To be salt is to live in covenant communion with Christ.
We were made for union with Him and we will never find a better aim for our lives than to live in trusting friendship with Jesus
Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:
09.21.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, we heard from one of our elders, Pete on the tension we are living in between the kingdom Jesus inaugurated with his death, burial and resurrection, and it’s fulfillment at his return.
Throughout the New Testament, we are exhorted to put off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light. The armor of light represents spiritual readiness, includes moral integrity, and protects & empowers us from compromise.
In Christ you have a new identity, you are called to reflect His nature and to live in union with Him. Practically, we do this through Scripture, prayer, community, and surrender.
The world is groaning and our King is returning. May He find us awake, repentant and ready. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:09.14.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, we had the privilege of hearing from one of our missionaries, Mariah Fredericks.
Drawing from 2 Corinthians 3, Mariah spoke on how our lives are letters to the world.
Reflecting on her own experience being called to serve as a missionary abroad, she shared with us thoughts on incarnational mission, cultivating lives of worship, getting God’s vision for the lost, glory, and unity in the Church.
We heard powerful testimonies of Jesus reaching into people’s lives and saving them, strangers seeing the glory of God in the face of Christians and asking questions, and young believers being discipled. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:08.31.25 Sermon Guide
In Luke 20…Jesus continues his rebuke of the leaders of Israel. This time he points out how they are obsessed with elevating themselves, even at the expense of the most vulnerable in society.
This passage makes it very clear: the Lord tears down the house of the proud…even if it’s His own house.
Every human institution - government, school, family, church - all reflect the fears of those who lead them. That’s why the temple became so twisted then, and how the church has become twisted even now.
Jesus’ solution to this problem is taking people on a journey from fear to love. In this passage the teachers of the law reveal that they are afraid of people, but the poor widow reveals that she fears the Lord.
Our lives are an opportunity to trust Jesus, to give Him a sacrifice, and to look to Him for provision. This type of life moves His heart and is what we were made for. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:08.24.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we continued in our Luke Series with a teaching from Alex on Luke 20v27-39.
This time, it’s the Sadducees who try to lay a trap for Jesus by asking him about resurrection. Jesus responds to them by correcting their literalist interpretations of the Torah. He invites them to interpret the Scriptures instead through covenant & the heart of God.
The Scriptures are not an instruction manual to memorize, but an introduction to the Father - an invitation to have relationship with Yahweh the way Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob did. In the midst of fear, unbelief and failure, they still hoped, and experienced the faithfulness of God.
Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:
08.17.25 Sermon Guide
In Luke 20v20-26, Jesus speaks to a profound issue that we all deal with. How do you live in the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of this Age?
When the people want a straightforward answer, Jesus invites them to a lifestyle that requires trust. You live in this world, but you belong to God. As you grow in trust you will grow in wisdom of how to partner with God in the renewal of this world until He returns.
Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:
08.10.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, we got to hear from one of our elders, Pete, on the Parable of the Tenants in Luke 20.
Jesus rebukes the priests through this parable for abusing the authority that they were given. They were supposed to love and steward God’s people, but they became entitled and chose to pursue their version of the kingdom without the King. They disregarded and killed God’s prophets, and ultimately the Messiah himself.
Even after this strong rebuke, Jesus extends mercy by telling them that if they are willing to “fall” upon Christ the Cornerstone, they can be saved & be apart of the new family that brings His kingdom.
The Lord disciplines those he loves (Proverbs 3:2). He only offers a rebuke out of mercy, for your good, so you can leave your flesh behind once again and follow Him.
Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:
08.03.25 Sermon Guide
This week’s passage from Luke 20v1-8 shows how Jesus uses his authority differently than the Pharisees, demonstrating the priorities of the kingdom of heaven.
Out of fear, the Pharisees use their authority to control people. Out of love, Jesus uses his authority to invite people back into relationship with the Father.
God always wanted relationship, and when we accept His love we are able to love Him back. From this place of relationship we are able to exercise our authority towards love, obedience and service.
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07.27.25 Sermon Guide
This week’s message from Luke 19:45–48 reminded us that the church is meant to be a house of prayer, not a place to hide lives disconnected from God. Jesus confronts the temple, not Rome, showing that the real issue is spiritual compromise. We’re called to be living evidence of God’s presence - people carrying His character of compassion, grace, and justice into the world.
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07.20.25 Sermon Guide
In Luke 19, Jesus tells a parable to juxtapose himself with Gentile rulers of the day. They come with power to dominate, but Jesus enters Jerusalem in humility to die for the salvation of the world.
Jesus’ eternal kingdom isn’t based around a physical place or earthly power, but on the Spirit of God filling human hearts. This is the only way to navigate the now and not yet of our life on earth.
To live with power and peace, is to go low, to need Jesus.
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07.06.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we jumped back into our series on the book of Luke. In the beginning of chapter 19 we read a story about the salvation of a man named Zacchaeus.
In this story, Jesus highlights that Zacchaeus’ salvation has to do with being restored to the covenant family of Abraham. We all received this same invitation, to trust Christ like Abraham trusted Yahweh, and be grafted into the blessed family of God. Zacchaeus let Jesus come into his home that day, and shared a meal with Him that would change his life forever!
If faith in Jesus leads to consecration, let us be set apart again for His glory and His purposes.
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06.29.25 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday we continued in our Pentecost series with a teaching from one of our elders, Austin Smith, on how the Holy Spirit helps us grow and become like Christ.
Throughout the Scriptures, we see that the Holy Spirit’s main job is to reveal Jesus. When the Holy Spirit reveals Jesus, we see the love of God and we get access to God’s power.
In the same way that we were saved by faith, we also grow in our sanctification by faith. As the Holy Spirit continues to reveal Jesus to us, we make ourselves available to this revelation and exercise our faith to believe that it’s true and that it still means something for us today.
His grace then empowers us to live into the holiness that we are called to. He does the heavy lifting as we keep our eyes fixed on Him.
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06.22.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, Alex posed this question: How do you have a Spirit-filled and led people in a structure of church, authority, Scripture and interpretation, without quenching the activity of the Holy Spirit?
We learn in 1 Corinthians 12 that the gifts of the Spirit are there for the unifying and sustaining of God’s people in the age of the Spirit.
As we operate in the gifts, we discern together from our shared submission to the Holy Spirit what builds up in love and reveals Christ. Because we are humans, this will inevitably be messy, but we need the gifts and should humbly seek them out together.
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06.15.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we continued in our Pentecost series with a teaching from Pete on Acts 1v1-9.
In this key passage we find Jesus expressing a promise to His disciples, that they will be baptized with the Holy Spirit. Jesus explains that this baptism will bring power, which will enable them to fulfill their purpose as His witnesses in all the world.
We too, like the disciples, are invited to continually wait and pray for the filling of His Holy Spirit. When we are filled He will strengthen us to share the gospel, to cast out the demonic, to love our neighbor, to grow in holiness, and so much more.
Thank you God for being so generous in the outpouring of your Spirit, may we remain ever aware of our need for it.
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06.08.25 Sermon Guide
As we look forward to Pentecost, we want to spend a few weeks exploring the third person of the Trinity, Holy Spirit.
This week, Alex shared how the Church is the family of God, living by the Spirit in every way, revealing the desire of God.
The people of God were always meant to live with the Spirit of God, as an apocalyptic community. The word apocalypse in Greek means “uncovering, disclosure, revelation.” We are meant to be a people who reveal the hope of resurrection and the glory of God in the midst of life on this earth. We reveal this through our dependence on Him and connection to Him
Our greatest blessing is to live with the Presence of God, His Holy Spirit.
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06.01.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we jumped back into our Luke Series with a teaching from Alex on Luke 18v35-43.
On the surface, this is a story about Jesus healing a blind man. With a closer look, we realize that Jesus is illustrating much more than just his power to heal.
God meets us in reality. Beyond physical ailments that we experience in this life, we are spiritually blind without Jesus. Our reality is that we are in need of Him, and when we are able to recognize this, He meets us there with His love, His joy, and His freedom.
The blind man in this story knew he was blind, and was bold enough to ask Jesus to meet him in his reality of need. We too need a fresh revelation of the glory of Jesus, so that we can acknowledge our position before Him and receive his grace again for our lives.
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05.25.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we got to hear from one of our missionaries, Nicole Mosher, on what adoption into the family of God looks like.
This new identity of adopted sons and daughters affects every part of our lives.
It means we can’t find identity in our giftings or what we can do for God anymore. We simply rest in His unconditional love, and yield to His perfect leadership. We get to labor alongside Him from that place of security.
It means that we can overcome any earthly circumstance, not with our own strength or wishful thinking, but because of who our Father is.
It is only as we stay connected to His heart, and receive everything we need from Him, that we will see the kingdom expand in us and around us. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:05.18.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday Alex continued our Luke Series with a teaching from Luke 18v31-34.
In this passage Jesus reveals to his disciples that He is the Son of Man who was destined to do what humans have not been able to do, by trusting in God and therefore crushing the head of the serpent.
He is apart of God’s plan to redeem not just Israel, but the nations.
His death and resurrection were real and bodily, meaning when we are baptized into Him we obtain resurrection life now, and the future hope of heaven and earth being fully united.
And because He knows our frame, and that our ability to grasp the eternal is limited, He’s given us a meal.
The bread and the cup, His body and His blood. This meal is how we see. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:05.11.25 Sermon Guide
This week’s message centered on the rich young ruler and Jesus’ invitation to “come, follow me,” highlighting how surrender is not about losing, but about making room for something greater—intimacy with Christ.We explored how Jesus isn’t after our performance, but our hearts. Like the young man, we’re often held back by what we won’t release, yet Jesus looks at us with love and calls us to trust Him. Following Him means letting go of our grip on control, possessions, and pride so that we can live in the fullness of His way. The call is personal, costly, and deeply worth it—and it begins with a surrendered yes.
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05.04.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we got to hear from one of our leaders, Laura Sharp on the passage in Luke 18v15-17 where Jesus teaches his disciples about childlikeness.
This story highlights the human desire to be great, and how Jesus’ definition of greatness differs from the world’s.
God designed us to be dependent on Him, but God is not dependent on us. He will never use our need to manipulate us. We have an all sufficient Father who wants to love and take care of us.
The mark of maturity in Christ is not sophistication, but humility - when we finally put aside the illusion that we are in control and begin to care about what God our Father cares about.
Our lives are meant to be like Jesus’ - wrapped up in dependence, longing and communion.
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04.27.25 Sermon Guide
This Resurrection Sunday we got to hear from one of our elders, Austin Smith. He shared from Scripture and personal experience what it means to encounter the risen Christ.
The Scriptures identify spiritual blindness as the thing that keeps people from knowing, believing in, and experiencing the person of Jesus and all that He is for us.
When you get a revelation of Jesus, not only do you become spiritually alive and receive power to live a new life, you get the joy of knowing him and being loved by Him. This is the ultimate place to live from and what all of us were made for.
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04.20.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, we got to hear from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño on Luke 19v29-38. This passage retells the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem as He begins His journey to the cross.
In this singular moment we see a multitude of people reject the current world’s opinions and standards of power, leaving their personal issues and problems aside, to honor Jesus as King.
Our worship of Jesus, even when it’s not practical or convenient, is what moves His heart and ushers in His kingdom.
Andoni’s invitation to each of us is to consecrate ourselves again to set Jesus as the priority of our lives. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:04.13.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, Bria taught on Luke 18v9-14 where Jesus address the self-righteous with a parable about humility.
True humility, Jesus illustrates, is rightly placed confidence. This humility can only come from seeing God rightly, and responding rightly in worship with our whole lives.
To humble ourselves in worship will invite the conviction of the Holy Spirit, leading us to confession and repentance. If God meets us in reality, then we have to tell the truth in order to receive His grace that covers all. This is what a life of prayer looks like.
May our need for Him and our confidence in Him continue to grow as we become the Church he made us to be.
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04.06.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from our friend, Pete Donor on the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18v1-8.
In this string of parables in Luke, Jesus is preparing people for how to live in light of His return. The Parable of the Persistent Widow highlights how necessary it is for us to pray at all times and trust God to keep His promises. We must stay aware of our need for God and continually receive His merciful provision through Jesus.
Lord, increase our faith as we prepare for Your return. Find us praying always, with courage and confidence in who You are.
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03.30.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we resumed our Luke Series with a teaching from Bria on Luke 17v20-37.
This passage highlights the dual realities of the kingdom of God and invites us to faithfulness amidst the tension.
The kingdom is now and not yet. We live in and stand on the victorious blood of Jesus now, yet we also long for the day when He returns for His bride and makes all things new.
In the kingdom, the only way to truly live is to die to yourself - to throw off sin and every worldly pursuit so that you can live into your true identity in Christ by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit. The kingdom of God is both visible and invisible. We must steward both if both are true - risking for visible manifestations of His presence, and also believing what He says about the invisible realities in which we live and move. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:03.23.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we wrapped up our series on prayer with a teaching on John 15 and our identity as those chosen to bear fruit.
The fruit that we are appointed to bear is the renewal of all people to God’s design. We were appointed for this by God and it’s our responsibility to remain connected to Him as our life source in order to do so.
We remain by believing truth about what Jesus’ blood affords and who we are because of it. We remain by living in thankfulness and acknowledging our need for Him. We remain by confessing sin and standing on Jesus’ blood for forgiveness.
Revival is all about the priority of His presence above everything else. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:03.16.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, we continued this series with a teaching on declaring the word of God as prayer.
David shows us in the Psalms that in prayer there is a time for crying out in petition, exposing your need before God, and there is a time to rise and declare who God is and place your trust in Him.
When the pain of life strikes, we need to know how to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We do this by staying connected to His voice and feasting on His word!
As we do this, the power of the gospel fills us and enables us to live by the Spirit.
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03.09.25 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, Alex humbly offered this passage in Jeremiah as a word for our church in this season,
“This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: ‘Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.’” (4v3)
Much of the church in the West has been compromised over time through idolatry and arrogance.
Saints’ Hill, we are asking you, as priests and leaders, to set reality again by looking for unused land in your lives and our town, and breaking it up spiritually for a harvest of the kingdom in our time and place.
All of this tilling - the lament over our idolatry, the confession of sin, the return to the fear of the Lord in personal prayer - is meant to touch our valley, for His glory.
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03.02.25 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday, Chris explored the link between prayer and wilderness throughout the Scriptures.
From Moses, to David, to Elijah, and ultimately to Jesus - we see that God meets us in the wilderness. It’s in the wilderness of prayer that our vulnerability and lack of control are exposed.
It’s in this unique place where God is able to minister His Presence to us, and where we receive our true identity as friend of God.
We pray that you would venture into the wilderness of prayer, unto knowing Him and loving Him, and being known and loved by Him.
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02.23.25 Sermon Guide
Jesus reveals in John 17 what He prays for you, what He longs to be true of you…and its oneness.
From the beginning of creation, God’s desire was to be with you. He stopped at nothing to accomplish this aim, securing oneness with us through the blood of Jesus.
Now, the overflow of our unity with Christ is our unity with one another. Jesus said that the world would get a revelation of God’s love when they see the way we love and prefer one another.
Jesus also prays here that we would see His glory. The revelation of the glory of Jesus is what sets the Church apart - it defines our reality. We know in part now, what the world will fully discover when Jesus returns.
Let your heart be encouraged knowing that you are still kept by the prayers of Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:02.09.25 Sermon Guide
Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane gives us the ultimate framework for how to pray and live in the midst of challenging circumstances and intense temptations. He shows us how we can actually make choices that align with God’s will.
A life of abiding in friendship with Jesus will transform your desires to the degree that you will be able to choose His ways.
Prayer is not a means to an end or an equation - prayer is a path to the person of Jesus. In His presence you will find everything that you need.
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02.02.25 Sermon Guide
If Jesus is giving us a worldview in the Lord’s Prayer, the first couple of verses show us how we are to view God. The remaining verses show us how our view of God affects the way we live.
To be human is to be in need of God, we are to come to Him daily to receive what the day will require of us.
We have an enemy who intends to accuse us before God. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us so we don’t expand the enemy’s kingdom by agreeing with his lies.
THE problem is personal sin, and the solution is forgiveness of sin. Jesus became to first lover and forgiver so that upon receiving His love and forgiveness, we would become those same things to the people around us. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:01.26.25 Sermon Guide
Last week, Alex shared why we pray - for the reordering of ourselves and the world we have responsibility for.
This week we will be looking at the Lord’s Prayer to see how it is we are to pray. The Lord’s Prayer offers not just a prayer to be recited but a worldview to live into.
We have a Father who desires relationship with us before anything. We also have a God who is holy - completely other. Our ability to grasp the holiness of God is the doorway into all kingdom activity. It’s His kingdom and His will that we are after on earth - meaning, we are invited to surrender all our own ideas and expectations for our life to see Him glorified.
When we pray the Lord’s Prayer with our lives, we become the bridge between heaven and earth that we were designed to be.
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01.19.25 Sermon Guide
In Matthew 21v13 Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah when He says “My house will be a called a house of prayer”. As a church we are going to take several weeks to lean into what it means to be a house of prayer.
In order to understand why we pray, we must first understand why the cosmos exists…
God created the earth to make a hospitable home for Him to live and rest with humans. Humans are made to take what God has made and to heighten it through their worship. The way we are designed to do this is through communication, or prayer.
Prayer re-orders you so that you become the kind of person who can re-order the world. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:01.12.25 Sermon Guide
Last week we talked about depth in our gathering and how adding a cross to our physical space helps us view our gathering as sacred.
This Sunday Alex shared about depth in our mission as the Church. Our mission cannot aim at securing cultural relevance or political power. Rather, each one of us must be faithful to sow the seeds that God has given us, and depend on His power to bring about the promised harvest.
At Saints' Hill we are limiting our mission to connection with God (prayer). All fruitfulness is tied to communion with Him, so we look forward to how He will bring about the harvest in our town and in our time.
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01.05.25 Sermon Guide
Every year our senior leader, Alex Rettmann, takes time to pray and think about a word that might give an aim for the coming year. This year that word is depth.
In an age where the Church is thought of as a place to help you realize your project self, we want to put front and center, the Cross.
The Cross calls to us, come and die, lay down your life and trust only in Jesus. When we answer the call of the Cross, we can receive the power of the Cross - a life of otherworldly triumph and miracles.
It requires depth and maturity to recognize that we live by faith in a world of brokenness, while also living with the possibility of heaven on earth.
Thank you Jesus for the Cross.
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12.29.24 Sermon Guide
When was the last time you were filled with wonder? Advent invites us to remember, to long and to wake up to the reality of God with us. The incarnation of Christ is an invitation - do you want Messiah to dwell with you? In this Sunday's teaching we look at Matthew 1:18-25 and turn our eyes again to the ceaseless wonder of Christ and the everlasting opportunity to be with God. We learn from Joseph’s story what it means to be ruined and named when you say “yes” to God’s dwelling. Let us be filled with wonder and awe again as we behold Christ our Lord. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:12.22.24 Sermon Guide
In this season of Advent we contemplate two things at once - the first coming of Christ and the second.
Throughout Scripture we see that both come as a surprise. And in fact - all of God's activity in the world has been surprising. The Christian life isn't a life of calculating but a life of wonder at the comedy of grace.
God wants to take us on a trust journey of partnership to see his outrageous goodness manifested in our world.
May this season of Advent let the "yes" of Mary rise up in your heart, and may the love of Christ overflow in you and produce the kingdom around you.
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12.15.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday, Andoni wrapped up the vision series with a teaching on our last core value: we have the privilege of leaving a legacy of heaven.
Throughout the Scriptures we see the divine principle of inheritance at play: what is done in faith has consequences for the generations that are yet to come.
We have a glorious inheritance in Christ. When we live into all that He paid for - a life of knowing Him, loving Him and trusting Him - the generation after us will be able to start where we finished. This is how the kingdom of God is designed to spread and grow. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:12.08.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, one of our elders, Austin Smith, taught on our core value: we are a people filled with hope and joy.
We as the Church do not define hope and joy like the rest of the world. For us, hope and joy are realities that were made available to us through Jesus’ great sacrifice on the Cross.
Austin used Psalm 16 as a template for gaining the biblical perspectives of hope and joy in any life circumstance.
Upon making our requests known to God, remembering who He is, and reassuring ourselves in what He will do, confidence arises in our hearts - not due to answered prayer, but due to His Presence.
His Presence is the blessing, the reward, and our greatest treasure - now and forever. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:12.01.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday Bria outlined how and why our primary metaphor for the Church is family.
The family of God is a people led by the Spirit, who experience the fruit of belonging.
The family of God is made up of children - defined by the freedom of dependence and teachability.
The family of God will share in Christ’s sufferings and in His glory - a people willing to go as low as He did to lay down our lives for one another.
From the beginning God’s plan has been to draw people to Himself through the covenant love of family. In Christ we see this mission accomplished and we accept the invitation to participate in this family.
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11.24.24 Sermon Guide
As we continue in our vision series, Alex shared how the principle of honor is the gospel enacted relationally.
We are defining honor as: thinking about people the way God thinks about people. The truth is, you cannot honor if you don’t understand the degree to which God honored you through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
When you begin to understand the value that God places on your life, and your righteous identity in Christ, you are then able to give value and honor away to others freely.
Listen back this teaching and follow along with the Sermon Guide to explore three ways you can apply the gospel to your relationships and honor those around you. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:11.17.24 Sermon Guide
The Scriptures are authoritative and tell us the truth that leads to freedom.
As we continue in our vision series we want to expand on this value in a way that will help you determine how you engage with the Scriptures.
The Bible is not a textbook for Christians, nor is it merely moral inspiration. Its complexity should not be seen as a threat, but a feature of the richness of it.
In this teaching Alex gives four tools to help us understand how to read the Bible and one key principle that guides the entire journey: relationship with Jesus.
May love be the fruit of our engagement with the Scriptures!
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11.10.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, taught on our core value: nothing is impossible.
Through Andoni’s passage from Mark 11:12-25 we see that Jesus has specific desires for His Church.
He desires for us to understand that we live between two kingdoms - heaven and earth. He desires for us to bear fruit in every season by making His house about dependence on Him for the impossible to happen. He desires for us to carry on the ministry of reconciliation as He did.
This value is one we cannot lose sight of in our time. Let our faith be unhindered and let us release forgiveness freely.
Sermon Guide & Activations:
11.03.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday we continued in our Vision Series with a teaching on our core value: We are the righteousness of God.
Alex highlighted Jesus’ parable in Luke 18v9-14 where we learn that if you can go low and recognize the truth - your need for God’s mercy - you will be made righteous. If you cannot go low and you insist on obtaining your value, meaning, and reason for life by looking to others, then you will be humbled by God.
We need to be made righteous to be made one. Jesus’ desire was union with us (John 17v24), that we could know Him and love Him, and be known by Him and loved by Him.
When this is your reality you will be able to live in confident honesty towards God and as an ambassador for Christ on earth.
The second identity that helps us host God’s Presence well is the ache of the Bride.
All throughout Scripture the Bible gives us marriage as a picture of God’s desire for humanity and humanity’s need for God. The ache of the Bride is a strategic gift from the Holy Spirit to reveal our need for Jesus in a way that causes us to cry out for Him. We must empty ourselves of all other loves and illusions so that we may be filled with His love and His fire.
God goes where He’s wanted. We’re praying that this desire for Him will become a service to our town and that people will be drawn into real life with Him as a result. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:10.20.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday Alex gave part one of his teaching on our fourth core value: we have the privilege of hosting the Father’s Presence.
We believe the Scriptures teach that the Church is supposed to be a home for God’s Presence, an access point between heaven and earth. (1 Pet 2v4-5, Gen 28v11-17)
The first identity that we want to take on as a church to host the Presence of God well, is the ministry of a priest.
Priests in the Old Covenant offered up physical sacrifices, but since Jesus offered himself as the ultimate physical sacrifice, our ministry as New Covenant priests is to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Like David, we are to center our entire lives around praise, thanksgiving, song, and gazing upon the Lord.
This is one of the primary ways we participate in heaven coming to earth. You are a priest!
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10.13.24 Sermon Guide
We come together as the church because for us there is but one God, one Lord - Jesus Christ who is worthy of our worship.
This last Sunday, Bria taught on our third core value: Jesus is Lord.
Lives that speak “Jesus is Lord” are anchored in eternity with eternal priorities. Those who are anchored in eternity fear God alone - acknowledging their need for Him and refusing to live life apart from Him. They do not live for Self, but under the leadership and authority of Jesus, they become all that God created them to be. They are marked by singular love for Jesus.
Let Him find in us a pure and spotless bride - not distracted with loves of this world, but drawn to His heart and in pursuit of His way. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:10.06.24 Sermon Guide
This past weekend we had our very first all church camp out at the Oregon coast. Our senior leader, Alex Rettmann, spoke from 1 Peter 4:7-11 about the two priorities we have as we live in the last days: People and Prayer.
This last Sunday Alex kicked off our annual Fall Vision Series with a teaching on our first core value - God is good.
In the Old Testament, God declares that He is compassionate, forgiving, just, and patient. In the New Testament, we get the fullest representation of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.
Though our beliefs about God don’t change who He is, they radically affect how we interact with Him and who we become in this life.
When we agree with the truth about who God is, we get to experience life the way we were designed to. It’s not a life absent of suffering, but it’s a life full of His unconditional love, His gentle leadership, and His satisfying Presence. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:09.15.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we spent some time looking at the incredible story in Luke 17v11-19.
What we can ascertain from this story is that God’s intention behind signs and wonders is always relational. Jesus’ ultimate goal on earth was to restore connection and right relationship between God and the people He created.
Every healing, every miracle you experience in this life is designed to draw you to the feet of Jesus and bring you into deeper connection with Him.
We received our ultimate healing, salvation, and deliverance through Jesus’ perfect sacrifice on the cross. May your heart be stirred up again to respond in praise and thanksgiving for all that His blood has done for you. Link to Sermon Guide and Activations:09.08.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday, we got to hear from one our deacons, Chris Sharp. Chris continued in our Luke Series with a teaching on Luke 17v1-10.
All throughout the gospels, Jesus reveals to us that to follow Him and to live in His kingdom looks like something. This teaching in Luke highlights how radical it will be to live as a child, to offer forgiveness, and to exercise our faith.
This lifestyle of complete trust and obedience to God requires us to repent of lesser pursuits and be strengthened and comforted by His unending love and provision for us through His body and his blood.
This last Sunday we continued in our Luke series with a parable from Luke 16v19-31 about the relationship between worldly wealth and eternal wealth.
In this story, the rich man is the example of someone so consumed with lack, that they cannot use the material of their life to tell the truth of compassion and friendship.
God is, and always has been, after a people who are so aware of His love for them that they can’t help but join in and use the physical world to tell the truth of God’s love to others.
As New Covenant believers, our inheritance is Jesus! His Presence is our portion, and don’t have to settle for lesser things.
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08.25.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday Alex led us through Jesus’ teaching in Luke 16v14-18.
In this teaching, Jesus is highlighting the shift from the era of the law and the prophets, to the era of His kingdom. To live in His kingdom is to submit to the internal rule of God within your heart.
Jesus’s critique of the Pharisees is that they spend all their time trying to justify themselves by the law, yet their hearts grow cold to the things that God loves. This new kingdom requires radical trust and submission to Jesus.
We can only do this to the degree that we receive His overwhelming love and depend on Him for the grace needed in every situation.
On Sunday we looked at an interesting parable in Luke 16v1-15 about a dishonest manager.
Through this parable, Jesus teaches us that there is a way of using possessions and money that tells a heavenly truth but an earthly lie.
In the same way that Jesus used His possessions to gain our friendship, our lives on earth are to declare heavenly truth. Friendship, love, and generosity are eternal things that will last in the age to come. May we be the kind of people who pursue these eternal things over and above the perishing things that the world finds value in.
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08.11.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday, Bria taught on the parable of the lost coin in Luke 15v8-10.
This parable is situated between two other parables like it, each one centered around God’s great love and pursuit of the lost. This parable in particular emphasizes the thoroughness of God’s pursuit of the lost. It acts as an invitation to receive the heart of God in order to love people the way He loves them.
We receive the heart of God by receiving Jesus - His body broken for you and His blood poured out. The reality of His overwhelming love will change the way you see everything.
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08.04.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our Saints’ Hill missionaries, Mariah Fredericks.
In teaching through Luke 15v1-7, Mariah was able to share how she’s seen God’s heart for the world on display in Spain. She told stories of many young un-churched people coming to saving faith in Jesus!
Her encouragement to us through this passage of Scripture, is to encounter God’s heart for the world so that we can open up our lives in generosity. As we do so, we will be able to respond rightly when the lost come home - with celebration and rejoicing! Link to Sermon Guide & Activations:07.28.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday Alex taught us through Luke 14v25-35. In this passage, Jesus gives multiple examples of the cost of discipleship.
The West at large has bought into a costless gospel - that is, the idea that you can become a Christian without the demands of being a disciple.
The demand of discipleship is love - a singular love that orders your entire life. And while many will say the cost of discipleship is what you say no to for Jesus, the real cost is the price of not living in His love.
The joy of loving Him and being loved by Him, is immeasurably greater than any earthly thing we could give up.
Be invited once again to acknowledge your need for him and surrender to His loving leadership.
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07.21.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we continued in our Luke Series with a teaching on Luke 14v1-24. In this passage Jesus teaches His listeners that what they value in this age will reveal if they will accept His invitation to the next.
Humans have been conditioned to play the game of this age: promotion, repayment, and protection of gain. It all stems from pride in this life. The only way out of pride and into the kingdom principle of humility is to see the love of Christ.
When you are able to recognize your need for Him and receive all that He humbly offered you, all of your deepest longings be satisfied. You’ll be free from the game of this age, because you will have found your reward in knowing and loving Jesus.
May we spend our days longing after Him, our eternal reward.
This last Sunday, Alex continued our Luke Series with a teaching on Luke 13v22-30. In this passage, Jesus explains that the door to the kingdom of heaven is narrow, and that the only way to enter is by understanding your need for Him and placing your trust in Him.
Jesus was abundantly clear about the road to salvation being narrow. It made Him controversial then, and it makes Him controversial now. His narrowness, however, is a matter of His jealousy. He won’t share you with other loves, worldly passions or desires. He gave up everything so He could be your everything.
This type of life requires a willingness from us to refuse all other comforts - to cut out from our lives anything that doesn’t increase love for Him. We pray that you would joyfully accept this invitation to deeper intimacy with Jesus as you journey with Him.
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06.30.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday, Bria Wolter taught on Luke 13v18-21, where Jesus gives two examples of what the kingdom of God is like: a mustard seed that grows into a tree, and yeast that spreads through dough.
From these parables, we learn that the kingdom of God requires trust, but He does the heavy lifting. Our obedience regenerates the soil of our hearts, and the impossible takes place.
As we see the kingdom of God expanding around us, may our hearts continue to fall deeper and deeper in love with our King, Jesus.
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06.23.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday we continued in our Luke Series with a teaching from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño.
After reading through Luke 13v10-21, Andoni compared the yeast of the Pharisees with the yeast of the Kingdom.
Hypocrisy is the yeast of the Pharisees. Their need to see in order to believe kept their hearts from being moved by the awe of God when miracles happened. Jesus said this attitude, un-checked, spreads like leaven in dough.
Jesus also referred to the kingdom of God spreading like leaven in dough. The kingdom of God spreads when people take hold of it by faith in Jesus. This faith believes in order to see, not the other way around.
Faith is a gift from God that we can only receive through surrender. We pray that you would allow the leaven of faith to spread in your heart this week through surrender to Jesus.
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06.16.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday we entered back into our Luke Series. One of our elders, Austin Smith, taught on Luke 12v49-13v9 where Jesus poses some important questions to us about who we are, who He is, and if we will follow Him.
We all have to decide what we believe about ourselves. Were we made for God? Do we need a Savior? Or will we try to find some other way to justify our existence…
We all have to decide what we believe about Jesus. Is he the Messiah? The one and only Lamb of God who can take away the sin of the world? Or will we find righteousness on our own in an attempt to avoid eternal judgement and separation from God…
To follow Jesus is to walk closely with Him — to receive all that He is, to fall in love, to grow in trust. This type of relationship with Jesus is what leads to fruitful life.
May the Spirit continue to reveal Jesus as you go throughout your week.
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06.09.24 Sermon Guide
On Sunday one of our deacons, Chris Sharp, gave a word on what obedience looks like as we walk in the Spirit.
Our desire for revival in this town starts with our individual obedience. A sacrifice that didn’t come from a place of obedience is not a pleasing sacrifice to God.
The only way we get to true obedience is through trust. The goal of our lives is to learn and know God’s heart - to come to a deep belief in His goodness. Once that trust is developed, we are able to obey fully when He speaks.
May God find us willing to let Him dictate our lives. He will be our Leader, our Shepherd and our King.
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06.02.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday, Bria wrapped up our Pentecost series with a teaching on 1 Corinthians 14v1.
In this passage Paul exhorts the church in Corinth to “follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.”
To follow the way of love is to be connected to God’s love by the ministry of His Spirit. It is only when you freely receive God’s extravagant love that you are able to freely give that love away through the gifts of the Spirit.
When we rightly understand God through His love, we will naturally be excited to receive the gifts of His Spirit. They are good gifts that are meant to grow us into the likeness of Christ and to release the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Prophecy is one of the most prized gifts in Paul’s eyes because it puts courage into God’s people to be who He made them to be.
We desire the church in Newberg to be made radiant and beautiful through the purifying love of Jesus. Join us in following the way of love, and eagerly desiring the gifts of His Spirit.
This last Sunday Alex read from 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, teaching us about how the fullness of God’s glory is best witnessed in the Church, through the corporate ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The church gathers so that each of us would be spurred on to live in the fullness of the presence of God.
We have been designed to experience His manifest presence and to be a reflection to those around us. Prioritizing a life in step with the Spirit will actually give you something to give away to the people of God.
The gifts of the Spirit are what we give away to people. It is the way that Christ uses each of us to build His home inside us. This is for the common good of the Church, not for our individual advantages or identity. That we would open space for God to pour out His healing love on His people.
This last Sunday Alex read from 2 Corinthians 3v7-18, teaching us about the completely radical life available to us through Jesus’ death and resurrection. This life comes to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirt’s job is to reveal the love and glory of God to us - to reveal Christ.
As we behold Christ we grow to love and trust Him with increasing measure. Our thoughts, our will and our desires begin to line up with His, and heaven comes to earth.
Surrender is how we receive the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Surrender isn’t always easy but it is simple. In every area that you surrender, you will experience life; and in every area that you don’t surrender you will experience death.
What God wants to do through His Church, cannot be accomplished without the ministry of the Holy Spirit. So may we learn to live as sacrifices, that God’s kingdom might expand throughout the earth.
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05.12.24 Sermon Guide
In the weeks leading up to Pentecost we will be in a series on the Holy Spirit. The aim of this series is that we would increase in our need of, desire for, and dependence on the Spirit of Jesus.
On Sunday Alex taught us through Galatians 5v13-25 and dismantled the lie that you were called to be something you cannot become.
Jesus went to the cross to take away our sins and He gave us His Spirit so that we could actually then become one with God.
Our oneness with God by the Holy Spirit is what causes us to bear the fruit of the kingdom. We have a responsibility to daily position ourselves so that the Holy Spirit can minister God’s love to us. This is how we are transformed into the people God designed us to be.
On Sunday we were joined by our friend Theresa Dion, from After the Rain Christian Ministries. Theresa talked to us about what it means to be the holy bride of Christ.
If a ready bride is free, then a holy bride has consecrated herself to do the will of God.
Jesus is looking for faithfulness. He is looking for those who will continually receive His unending love, and respond in trust with obedience.
Agreeing with God’s word is how you walk in holiness. You must first acknowledge your need for Him in order to be empowered by Him. It’s not what we do that makes us holy, but who we are in Christ.
This holiness releases the power of God. If we want to see the kingdom come, we as the Church must increase in holiness.
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04.28.24 Sermon Guide
This last Sunday we were joined by guest speaker, Phil Zahn. Phil imparted to us single-mindedness and simple love for Jesus.
When we give up our right to understand and control our lives, Jesus is able to lead us the way He wants to. Our job is to never get ahead of Him, but to stay close beside Him and behind Him, to let Him lead.
God is so trustworthy. He protects us, tells us the truth, keeps His word, and He loves spending time with us.
You were designed for this kind of relationship with Him, and this relationship is actually how the kingdom of God expands on earth.
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This last Sunday, we wrapped up our Baptism Series with a teaching on the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.
We believe that Jesus intended you to live a life completely submerged in His Holy Spirit. Throughout the New Testament we see the filling of the Holy Spirit as a repeated experience in the life of the believer.
The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a baptism of love. It’s designed to purify you, to lead you, and to put God’s glory on display through you. God has designed it so that for your whole life you are surrounded by and filled with the fire of His love so that you can become love.
May we continually open ourselves up to be filled again with His Spirit that we might experience all that He has for us! Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61ef10edc9dc6800ac27e640/t/66182e45da8f4639df601263/1712860741406/04.07.24+Sermon+Guide.pdf
As Christians, we believe that Jesus’ Resurrection is the most significant event in all of human history. The Resurrection solves the ultimate problem that all other problems point to - death. Ever since Adam and Eve chose death in the garden, humans have been arranging their lives to avoid the pain, loss and suffering that comes with mortality. God didn’t make humans to die, so He came and died as a human and was raised, that we could live forever with Him. The ultimate gift, the greatest news of all time. This is what we celebrate on Easter Sunday. Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: https://static1.squarespace.com/static/61ef10edc9dc6800ac27e640/t/660dde27da717d5d3892c9a7/1712184871226/03.31.24+Sermon+Guide.pdf
This last Sunday, we heard from Bria Wolter on what it means to steward the reality of our baptism into Christ.
Your baptism affords you a new position in life that comes with a new way of living. We live out this new position through a life of communion, consecration, and fresh oil.
Everything He did, He did so He could be close to you. We pray that you are filled with fresh hope and joy at the reality of your baptism into Christ!
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This last Sunday we got to hear from one of our elders, Austin Smith, on baptism as the entry into New Covenant family.
When you got baptized, you entered into a family, not just a religion. The culture of this family is distinct, and in order to live the life you were mean to live in Christ, you must learn to prioritize the one thing that the family prioritizes - loving and cherishing God above all else.
We don’t do things for God to gain His approval and we don’t manipulate His love for desired outcomes in our life. Our joy in life is simply to know Him and love Him.
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Last week we laid the foundation for baptism with a thorough examination of the gospel. This week Alex talked more in depth about what baptism is and what it does.
Different traditions have held different stances throughout the centuries on what baptism is. Our stance is that the act of baptism doesn’t save you but should always accompany the faith that does.
Baptism gives you a new identity. It is the way we express with our physicality what is true about us theologically. Once we have repented into Christ and been baptized, we must learn how to walk in this new blood-purchased identity. It is a journey of continually remembering and receiving Christ’s sacrifice for you that will lead to the kingdom being produced in your life.
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This last Sunday we began a new series in which we intend to lay out a theological foundation for what baptism is, what it means, and what it accomplishes.
In order to understand what baptism is, we first need a thorough examination of the gospel.
God made a world that needed human partnership in order to expand his kingdom physically and spiritually throughout the earth. The humans that were designed to rule by trusting God used their agency to make decisions apart from Him, defining good and evil for themselves. This sin caused evil to enter the world and severed the connection of trust between God and man.
When Jesus came he did what no human before Him was able to do - trust and obey Yahweh completely. By His death, He got what we deserved, so we could get what He deserved. In doing so, we receive a new identity and a new experience of life. We are no longer enslaved to our sin, but are free to trust God. Once alienated from God, we now experience the peace with Him that we were designed for. This reconnection with God brings about a life of power that continually crushes the head of the serpent.
Baptism is an invitation to join Him in a death like His, so that we might also join Him in a resurrection like his. (Rom 6v5)
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All Christians believe that Jesus will return to remake the world someday, but how should we live as a result of this?
In Luke 12v35-48, Jesus paints a picture of what it means to be ready for His return. We are called to live with a readiness that says no to greed, gluttony, and the pursuit of luxury. We are called to be obedient to God’s voice, stewarding our God-given earthly blessings well by showing care and generosity to those around us. This type of life reflects our hope in the goodness of God and His ultimate return.
May the continual filling of the Holy Spirit keep your lamp burning, in Jesus’ name.
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This last Sunday, Laura Sharp taught us through Luke 12v22-34 and Jesus’ famous words on worry.
If pride says I have enough, I don’t need to trust God; worry says, will I have enough? I’m afraid to trust God.
No matter which way you spin it, worry is a trap. It lies to you about who God is and how He wants to care for you. In this passage we are invited into a lifestyle that kills worry - to consider Father’s great love and provision for us, and to place all of our hope and treasure in knowing Jesus.
It will cost us everything, but what could we possibly sacrifice that would amount to the value of knowing Him? We long for that precious day when we will get to be with the Treasure of our hearts.
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What does it mean to be rich toward God?
On Sunday, Jake Vigil taught us through Jesus’ words in Luke 12v13-21.
In this passage, Jesus tells a parable and warns against building up earthly treasure without being rich toward God. Some of the ways we get rich toward God are by crucifying the flesh, daily Bible reading, a lifestyle of prayer, fasting, generosity, and gratitude that leads to contentment.
Praying that this message leads us to repentance and deeper contentment in Jesus, that we might be able to sow into eternity now by being rich towards God with our lives.
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This last Sunday Alex taught us through Luke 11v33-12v12, emphasizing the wisdom of prioritizing your inner world.
In these passages, Jesus is giving a warning to anyone who chooses to build their life around the perception of others. He warns that this way of living will not produce the kingdom of God in you, but the fear of man.
The fear of man says that God doesn’t see you, only people do. But if you choose to build your life on His love in the secret place, you will become the love you receive from Him - a light to the world.
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We have placed a focus on this year in our church as a year of connection with God. Our desire is to become a consecrated place for the Lord to dwell, individually and as a family.
As Bria taught us further through Luke 11 on Sunday, we saw that this consecration does not happen by accident. If we are the house that God intends to dwell in, our love cannot be divided. We are for Him or against Him. If we are the house that God intends to dwell in, we must give Him ownership and authority over the house. This is a blessed way to live because it’s what we were made for - dependence on and complete surrender to Him.
When we live this way, we will see heaven come to earth in us and through us. May it be so in Jesus’ name.
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At the beginning of every calendar year we take time to ask God how He wants to lead us in the coming months. On Sunday, Alex shared with us that 2024 will be the year of connection for Saints’ Hill.
When we say connection what we mean is communication with God in reality, or what Jesus in Luke 11v1-13 calls prayer.
Where there is connection in reality (prayer), trust is developed.
Where trust is developed surrender is possible.
When surrender happens, God acts in power.
This is how you become the gift God designed you to be on earth. We each get to play our role and discover His purpose for our life that we might become fruit that remains.
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This last Sunday we closed out 2023 with a teaching from Ephesians 2 - what it means to have individual purpose and walk in the fear of the Lord.
God made you and has a specific purpose for your life. Your gifts, interests, personality, limitations, and weaknesses, when they are channeled through and redeemed by submission to Christ, are designed to leave a mark. Receiving your identity in Christ and walking in the fear of the Lord is what sets you up to do the good works He prepared in advance for you. You were designed to depend on Him, and to give away what you receive.
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In John chapter 1 we discover that Jesus came into the world re-create humans with light.
According to the Scriptures, the problem with the world is spiritual blindness. There is no way to know God other than through the face of Christ. If you don’t look him in the face, you will live without light. To live without light is to live without hope, direction, and identity.
When we expose ourselves to the light in the face of Christ, when we look into His eyes, we begin to see ourselves and the world around us, correctly. He came to be generous with all that He is, so that you could see the world with the same generosity.
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In our third Sunday of Advent we examined the famous prophecy about Jesus in Isaiah 9v2-7.
Jesus came to get the principles and policies of heaven to become the standard of life you exist in. When you let Him set up His government in your heart, you get access to a Wonderful Counselor, a Mighty God, an Everlasting Father, and a Prince of Peace.
We rely on this internal government to produce God’s will in us and around us. Freedom no matter the circumstance.
May this Advent season awaken again our need for and our dependence on Jesus.
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Jesus’ incarnation liberated us from the gods.
According to the Scriptures, humans cohabit this world with gods who are lesser than Yahweh. The aim of these lesser gods is to un-do what God wants to do. Their goal is to un-create us by getting us to agree with demonic ways of seeing ourselves and God.
This is why Jesus’ advent is so meaningful. He comes to re-create humans. He gave us an example of what it looks like to say no to the gods and yes to the Father, and he gave us the power and authority to do it.
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As we enter the season of Advent we ask ourselves the question, why did God become human?
Alex proposed on Sunday that one of the reasons for the Incarnation was to teach us how to be human in this physical world. All the way back in Genesis 3 we see that humans have a problem with material. They desire to worship what they think it can offer them, outside of relationship with God. There was pride in Adam & Eve’s hearts, and it was revealed through their interaction with the physical world. Now creation groans under the weight of our idolatry, because it was never meant to bear it.
The purpose of creation is to act as an access point to the love, purpose, and peace in God’s heart. This is the example that Jesus set forth through His incarnation and the example that we want to follow!
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In Luke 10v38-42 we find a strikingly significant story in the life of Jesus.
In the story, Jesus explains that there is one thing that matters most - to sit at His feet. Mary’s actions teach us that success in life is a heart full of adoration, with eyes that stay gazing on Jesus.
There will indeed be many God-given things to get done in your life, but your chief purpose is to stay connected to Jesus. This lifestyle not only pleases Him, but will lead to flourishing in everything that you put your hands to.
We pray that you would once again, or for the first time, be captivated by the beauty of Jesus and decide to put your connection with Him before everything else.
In Luke 10v25-37 the good Samaritan demonstrates what God had been trying to do through the people of Israel for centuries.
How is it that this non-Jewish person in this story had more of a Jewish heart than the Jews themselves?
God’s solution to what happened in the garden and the chaos that followed, was Abraham. A man who would be loyal to God alone, trust God when it didn’t make sense, obey God by doing righteousness and justice, and look for provision in Christ.
What God began with Abraham was intended to be continued through the Jews, and ultimately all who believe in Jesus. The key is that it can only be continued through trust and surrender, not by remaining in control of the cost.
We pray that you would receive a fresh revelation of the Father’s love that would empower you trust and obey Him.
This last Sunday Alex continued our Luke Series in chapter 10v1-24. In this passage, Jesus teaches us a few really fundamental points of how to be a Christian.
To be a Christian is to expect that there’s a harvest of people who desire to be united with their Creator. To be a Christian is to bless, fellowship, minister and proclaim. As a Christian, your metric of success is found in the joy of living life connected to Jesus, not in the fruit of your ministry, or lack thereof. And the goal of our Sunday gatherings is to facilitate an encounter with God that will equip you to go out and be the church in your everyday life.
This last Sunday one of our elders, Austin Smith, taught on what it means to be great in the Kingdom.
In Luke 9v43-62 we get a glimpse into the hearts of Jesus’ disciples. While they have seen many miracles and walked with Jesus, they are still operating out of insecurity and pride. It’s a Genesis 3 problem - choosing to define greatness apart from God. And it’s why we still try to find significance from our externals: job, relationships, ministry.
Jesus is our ultimate example of what greatness looks like in the Kingdom. Because He knew His identity, He was able to serve others without needing recognition.
God calls us to love Him by serving others in this way, and we can only do it when we get all our value from the Cross.
Without vision, people live shamefully outside of design.
Salvation reveals who you were designed to be and the purpose for your life, but you won’t do what you were made to do if you have lost vision for your life. Without vision you will begin to live in fantasy and you will become double-minded.
We get vision through a life of revelation and encounter - discovering the truth about God and experiencing Him. It begins with the fear of the Lord, which places intimacy and proximity above logic and the world’s wisdom. When you surrender and trust Him, He will lead you to rest when needed and to act when required.
May we become a fountain of vision and hope to those around us as we live this way!
On Sunday we closed out our Vision Series with a teaching from one of our leaders, Bria Wolter.
She posed the question, “Is your joy complete?”
Joy was never meant to be limited by our definition or circumstances. According to the authors of Scripture, joy complete is Jesus. Any definition of joy that is not found in Jesus Himself is lacking.
Our joy complete is to be found in Him. To hear His voice, to see His face, to touch Him.
The joy-filled life is a life of power with a singular focus on the Father and the kingdom mission for our life. May we not be satisfied with an incomplete joy. Let us resolve in our hearts and our minds to dive deeper into His love no matter the cost.
This last Sunday one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, taught us through the Scriptures a biblical definition of the will of God.
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In summary, God’s will is heaven on earth (Matthew 6v9-10).
As we look at the meta-narrative of Scripture and the life of Jesus we are called to trust in God’s intentions to bless humanity through Christ over and against the evil we see at work in the world.
Don’t settle for anything less than the prefect will of God for your life. Heaven on earth in you and through you.
If the job description of Saints’ Hill is primarily temple ministry, what does it mean to be apart of Saints’ Hill?
It means you pioneer the path to His Presence. You go up the hill for yourself like Moses was unafraid to, and make the choice to know God personally. Never let a day go by without face-to-face connection with God. It’s what you were made for, it’s been God’s desire all along, and it’s the reason Jesus went to the cross.
The best thing you can do for your spouse, your job, your children, your roommates, your future…is to go up the hill and be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3v19). It’s why we’re in Newberg, to see heaven come through a people who have seen and received His glory.
What is Saints’ Hill?
This is a question we’ve been asking as we’re turning the corner of five years as a church. We feel like God has given us an answer to this question that will mark Saints’ Hill for years to come:
The people of Saints’ Hill will be a house where God lives, a gate between heaven and earth, a Presence-filled, leaking temple whose river refreshes all people.
The greatest gift we can give Newberg is a covering of glory, an ease of access to His Presence that brings life.
We are asking as a family, that God would give us the ministry of the temple, that He would lead us into whatever pleases Him.
This last Sunday, Jim Traut shared with us the importance of treasuring God’s word.
The Bible is like a compass that always points us in the right direction. It always points us to what is true. It always points us to Jesus.
Our human experience of life on earth is chaotic and ever changing, but God’s truth never changes. If you want to know what is actually true, you need to learn how to love reading your compass.
Jim challenged us with four simple things: commit to reading the word, trust and obey, approach the word with humility and tenderness, and make the word of God your treasure.
Are you willing to take God at His word, let Him shape your thinking and transform you by what is true?
We pray that today you receive a fresh new longing for the living, active, powerful word of God!
On Sunday we began our annual vision series. Every year in the fall we take time to revisit and highlight our core values as a church to recenter and direct the year ahead.
We began in Luke 9 - where we see that the main thing that keeps Jesus followers from walking in the authority and the power they’ve been given is distraction that leads to wrong belief.
If we are constantly focused on what other people think, comparing ourselves to them, or defining success for ourselves, we will be ineffective in the very places we should be powerful. We are to depend on God for daily strength and live in obedience to His word.
Distraction will eventually lead you into believing lies about God and about yourself, this is how the enemy renders you ineffective. We believe that as a church we are being called to higher things, to have authority in our identity and power in our lives. This comes when we apply the blood to all of our fears, our thinking, and our desires.
This last Sunday we were joined by special guest, Teresa Dion from After the Rain Christian Counseling. Teresa shared from her heart about what the ready bride of Christ looks like. Throughout the Scriptures, the Church is referred to as the bride of Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and gave us the engagement ring of His Holy Spirit so that we would be able to prepare ourselves to become His bride when He returns. Upon His return he will be looking for a holy, pure, undefiled bride. We cannot present ourselves to Him this way if we are in bondage to sin or giving ourselves to other loves. The ready bride is free! Free from sin, shame, and fear. But we don’t get free in our own strength, it is only by receiving the free gift of righteousness by the grace of God that we become who we were made to be.
This last Sunday Alex Rettmann walked us through Luke chapter 9. We were reminded that the most important question we must answer in this life is Who is Jesus?…
Who do you say God is? And, what do you think He is like?
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These questions are crucial in this day because if we don’t answer them for ourselves the crowds, friends, culture etc will answer it for you. A key to getting the right answer is knowing Christ and does He know you intimately. In our discovery, we are challenged with the simplicity of either Jesus is beautiful or he is ugly or an eye sore. In other words; Jesus is either the One you need or not - Either you lean on Him or you are ashamed of Him
Let’s say no to fear! And, may we be a bold people that daily pick up our crosses and follow Jesus and have lives that speak of His Lordship.
Be blessed!
On Sunday Alex taught through the story in Luke 9v10-17 where Jesus feeds the five thousand. In this story Jesus is giving a lesson about who gets used by God and why. What’s so interesting about this passage is that who is asked by Jesus is not who is used by Jesus. The little boy with his loaves and his fish showed us that God uses those who are available, those who really trust that He has something to do through them, that He really can use their weakness for his enduring glory. If you only bring your energy, your gifts, and your strengths to God, you will never see him do beyond what you have asked, thought, or imagined. When we bring the little we have, our weakness and our exhaustion, it’s there that he’s able to work…because it’s his strength not our own.
This last Sunday one of our good friends Kenny Snyder shared with us what it means to pilgrimage with the Lord. We are all on a pilgrimage in this life towards our true self in Christ. It is a journey for the love of Christ. Pilgrimage teaches us to stay connected to God in every season, so that we grow in dependence on Him. Like the Scriptures say, “whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it” (Luke 17v33). Give God your yes before you know what it is He’s called you to. Know that your pilgrimage will be different from your neighbor’s - we don’t measure ourselves by one another. Remember His promise to you, that He will always be with you. You have everything you need because you have Him.
This last Sunday, one of our Saints’ Hill missionaries, Mariah, took us through Luke 9v1-12 and shared testimonies with us from her time in Barcelona. In this passage of Scripture we get a template for how Christ sends us on mission. Mission should always be initiated by intimacy with God. Just like In Acts 2, we are to urgently wait on the Lord, and go in the power of His Spirit. We are instructed to travel light. God gave us everything we needed when he gave us His authority - to rely on anything else is to dilute the power of God. When we do these things, not only will people be saved, healed and delivered, but others will become curious about the power of God demonstrated through your life. This is what it means to live on mission with God, whether it’s in a foreign country or at your place of work, God has prepared in advance good works for you to carry out by the power of His Spirit.
On Sunday, we got to hear from Austin and Breanna Smith on what it means to be unoffendable.
The reality is there’s no shortage of ways to be offended in life. We live in a world with human beings, so the potential to be offended will always exist. But Jesus has more for us, He is the solution and the one we must turn to if we want to see this cycle of offense end.
How we choose to think when our emotions are agitated by someone else is the key. We can either dwell on it, simmer, and let offense grow, OR stop, look to Jesus, and let Him soften our heart toward that person.
Our feelings of offense must be held up against the cross so that we see how Jesus would respond, and then we ask and believe for the power to respond how He would respond.
Jesus was able to endure the ultimate offense because he was fully secure in the Father’s love for Him. Devote yourself to understanding how much God loves you, and your identity as His child, and you will build a firm, unoffendable foundation for your life.
This last Sunday we were joined by a guest speaker, Rev. Beau Brumley. Beau picked up where we left off, in Luke 8. Up until this point in Luke’s account, we’ve seen Jesus demonstrate His power over nature and over the demonic. In Luke 8v40-56 Jesus demonstrates His power over sickness and death by healing the woman who touched the fringe of His garment, and raising Jairus’ daughter from the dead. Do you believe that Jesus has authority over nature, the demonic, sickness, and even death? Immediately after these stories, we read about Jesus sending out the twelve disciples with that same authority, to do the same things He had been doing. We can’t avoid this as disciples of Jesus. He showed us how to do the stuff and then told us to go do it. When we exercise the authority that we’ve been given, people encounter God and His glory gets magnified. May we be attentive to His prompting for this reason!
In Luke 8v26-39 Jesus exhibits another aspect of His authority as the Creator, this time over the demonic. This story certainly validates Jesus’ divinity, but the story itself is also a kingdom description, with beliefs attached to it that we are supposed to acquire through reading. On Sunday, we focused in on what the demonic does to a person, and what Jesus will do about it. The Bible recognizes that we live in a spiritual world with gods and demons whose primary aim is to uncreate and reverse the order and design that God intended from the beginning. The truth is that these lesser gods are nothing compared to Yahweh, but people have the ability to make them something through worship and sacrifice. The level of agreement and worship given to these gods or demons, will determine their influence in our lives. Whether it’s the demonized man in the story we read or it’s a parent who sacrifices time with their family on the altar of money…both of these people are under the influence of demonic ways of seeing themselves, God, and the world. The good news of Jesus is that He will heal you of your demons and use you to do the same. In our repentance from lies we are set free and we get infused with hope!
This last Sunday, Alex taught on the famous passage in Luke 8v22-25 where Jesus calms the storm on the boat. There’s so many ways one can draw meaning from this passage, and you’ve probably heard most of them. On Sunday, we focused in on Jesus’ question to the disciples after He calms the storm, “Where is your faith?” When Jesus asks this question, He isn’t asking what sort of ideas you believe, He is asking, who do you trust? If you had to boil the entire message of the Bible down to one idea, it could very well be trust God. Practically, this looks like viewing the issues of this life through the lens of God’s ability, not viewing God through the lens of trials in this life. So how do we grow in trust? We experience the face of the trustworthy one. Encountering His Presence and hearing His Voice is how you build trust. The peace and the victory that come with knowing Him and loving Him is the only thing that enables you to weather the storms of life. God is raising a people to carry the next renewal, and great trust is required.
This last Sunday we jumped back into our Luke series. Alex taught on Luke 8v19-21 and what it means to be a disciple in God’s family. From Jesus’ words in this passage we glean that we are not disciples in mind only, rather, what we believe will be seen by what we do. The only way to really know if the words of God have been heard is if they are acted upon. Someone whose actions are in congruence with their professed beliefs is a real-deal disciple. So why do we experience a gap between what we hear and what we do? We misunderstand the gospel, we get lulled into neutral living, and we begin to play God. These things inevitably lead to a powerless life full of fear. The truth is that we need God. Living with Him as our source is the only way to really live. May God make us courageous hearers and doers of His Word!
How much of your life do spend living out of insecurity? Think of how you’d be freed up to live for the kingdom if you weren’t constantly stumbling over who you’re not... On Sunday we got to hear from our Worship Director, Jake Vigil, on the love of the Father. God is looking for a church that is free because He has things He wants to do and release on the earth through us - and the love of the Father is the only thing that can truly set you free and provide a secure identity. We cannot afford to graduate from being God’s children. Dependence on Him is what you were made for. Only the Father can tell you why you were designed, He will correct you and encourage you as you go. Our flesh will try to find love and security in the things of this world, but everything you’re looking for is found in HIm. There’s one cup and if you drink from it you will never be thirsty again. Jesus came to reveal the Father, that we might be reconciled to Him, restoring intimacy that we were designed for. The love of the Father changes everything!
This last Sunday we wrapped up our Pentecost series with a teaching on prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says that we should eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. So what is prophecy?
Prophecy is speaking saved. It’s looking at a world full of mess and choosing to see it the way God sees it.
We are made in the image of someone who spoke and a whole world came into existence…when we speak, worlds come into being. Our words have the power to either speak life and re-create or speak death and uncreate. Paul also says in 1 Corinthians 2v16 that we have the mind of Christ, His Spirit lives in us and allows us to discern His thoughts! That’s in your Bible!
When you begin to think on earth as it is in heaven, and you share what you hear, you are prophesying. Prophecy isn’t a crystal ball, tarot cards, or end times speculating; prophecy at its core is sharing the heart of God into a world without hope. It strengthens, encourages and comforts. It recreates.
God made you, and He intends to use what He made. Create space to listen, ask God to mingle His thoughts with yours, interpret everything you hear through the gospel, then take a risk and humbly share it in faith. This is how we follow the way of love.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and it’s up to the same stuff that Jesus was up to: spiritually saving, physically healing, and demonically delivering.
This last Sunday Alex taught on the gifts of the Spirit, as primarily mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. In this passage Paul describes the many gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. These gifts will always lead to Jesus and His lordship, while the manifestations of other spirits will always lead to the worship of self and lesser things.
If the Bible is true and livable, we should encourage and foster a place for all the gifts. We should have intelligibility publicly. The Sunday gathering is a place we come to be used by the Spirit for unity, and to build up others. Your identity does not come from the gifts, but from the Spirit. We do not need people with power who do not love, and we will not chase the gifts. We will follow God wherever He may be going. If you want to move in the Holy Spirit’s power, then receive first, because love is what motivates all the gifts.
God wants you free from the influence of lesser gods. They uncreate you, forcing endless production and sacrifice while under-delivering identity and peace. The results of their un-creation are bondage, addiction, anxiety, and fear.
But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. You were called to be free.
This last Sunday Alex taught on the Spirit’s freedom. In Romans 7 Paul describes the war between the law of the flesh and the law of the Spirit.
The law of the flesh is about trying to use external means to solve internal issues, or, using earthly strategies for spiritual problems. The law of the Spirit is that you are no longer in the realm of the flesh! Jesus lived the life you could not. He declared that it is finished, the search for personal glory through a system is over. And He gave you His Spirit to birth you again so you don’t live through effort, but through the power of God.
If you want the freedom of the Holy Spirit, you must surrender to the Holy Spirit. It may be an unpredictable life, but the fruit of dependence is more than you could ask or imagine.
Last week we began our Pentecost series talking about the mission of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how we depend on the Holy Spirit to see the works of the enemy destroyed. This week Alex walked us through a biblical theology of the Holy Spirit. We see all throughout the Scriptures that we exist not just in the physical world but in the spiritual world. There are spiritual beings who do not serve Yahweh, and their influence in the world brings death and deformation. In contrast, the main work of the Spirit of God is creating and re-creating.
The Spirit exists to recreate the human heart around the things and voice of God. By speaking truth, the Spirit re-creates what the gods have un-created. This is why Jesus calls the Spirit of God the Spirit of Truth.
You were designed to depend on this Spirit of Truth, it brings peace and victory as it recreates you into the likeness of Christ.
These next few weeks leading up to Pentecost we’re going to spend time talking about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.
On Sunday Alex shared with us some of his own journey, of going from quenching the Holy Spirit to complete surrender to the Holy Spirit. His point: you were not designed to live in theory…you were designed to live in power.
When you have the Holy Spirit in your life, not just as a theological theory, but as a reality, you will find that the Holy Spirit has a mission.
You will need courage for this mission, but we see in the Scriptures that God gives courage by the Holy Spirit, so that we may conquer evil. We were designed to depend on Him and be filled with His life and power, to destroy the works of the enemy on earth.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our leaders, Laura Sharp. Laura spoke from John 18 about the restorative love of Jesus.
We learn a lot about Jesus from this text. We learn that Jesus knew the pain of betrayal, he even willingly chose it. He invested in people He knew were going to break His heart. What does that say about Him? It says that He knew what it was to be loved by His Father - that perfect love that casts out fear. He did not have to manipulate the people around Him because He was not afraid of them.
To love like this, we first have to let ourselves be loved like this. There is no loving others apart from loving and being loved by God. His love is powerful, not of this world but given to us freely - to restore us to Himself that we might become ambassadors of heavenly restoration on earth.
There is only one way to see God, and it’s through Jesus.
This last Sunday, one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, spoke on what it means to live by faith.
Jesus was never afraid to call out lies, and as Christians we have the responsibility to judge any idea that sets itself up against the way of Jesus. Seasons of life and cultural ideas, whether inherently good or bad, can offer you an identity that is not yours. This is why it’s so important to be formed by the written word of God and the voice of the Holy Spirit. We were made to depend on God and receive our identity from Him. This is how the life of Christ is formed in you and how His kingdom is released around you.
This last Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection and spent time reflecting on the message of Jesus’ kingdom.
The simple message of the kingdom of Jesus begins with the repentance of sin. We have a designer who gave us purpose, function, and meaning when he created us. When we decide that we can play god in our lives, we participate in our own un-design, or de-forming - sin. We all need the Real Designer to tell us who we are & what our life is for. This is repentance - turning away in your mind, heart, and body from the ways you used to find purpose and fulfillment outside of God, and turning to find it all in God.
The second part of Jesus’ message is baptism. Baptism is being united with Christ in His death, so that we can be united with him in his resurrection. A physical act that participates in a spiritual reality.
Lastly, living resurrected. When you come into Christ you don’t just change, you die. You die and then you get a whole new life and identity - seated in heavenly places with Christ. His Spirit in us makes the impossible in our world, possible.
In January, we felt like God was inviting us into a year of radical dependence on Him. This last Sunday Jake Vigil brought us a word from the book of Proverbs that really breaks down how to depend on God.
The first thing we realize is that this kingdom we’re invited to participate in doesn’t operate the way the world around us does. The world’s keys to a good life are to accumulate knowledge, earthly wisdom, wealth, and independence. Each of these things promise something they cannot deliver. In Proverbs 3v5-12 we read that our understanding is limited, we must also connect with God on a heart level in order to grow. When we acknowledge that we are not the masters of our own lives, and allow Him to lead, the path to life becomes straight. When we view our finances as a gift given to us by a Good Father, intended to advance the kingdom, we unlock the storehouses of heaven. We accept the discipline of the Lord as a sign of our legitimacy as His children. He is a perfect Father, and His correction leads to greater trust and love.
All of this dependence on God will benefit you and your personal life, but it is meant to go beyond you — to give your family, friends, coworkers, and neighbors a taste of their future with God.
This last Sunday we ended our series on Discipleship with a teaching from Romans 5, and asked the question: what does it look like to reign in life as a disciple?
The disciple who reigns in life is unafraid to die, lives as a powerful child, and doesn’t need to control others to be okay.
All of this matters to us because we are here to be the fruit of Newberg’s future - that they would get a taste of what’s possible in Christ.
Every church needs a working definition on how people become more like Jesus. If this family defines discipleship as the relational invitation to make your identity visible, we must: see God correctly - as a Father-partner and a Father-pruner, steward our mental worlds by agreeing with truth, and lastly - offer our bodies as living sacrifices. When we do things with our bodies we do things with our souls.
Everything you participate in has a set of values attached to it…you will become what you participate in. The life of the disciple is about walking through doors of discipline in order to encounter God in new ways. However, if these doors of discipline become a means of working for your identity and value, you’ve missed it. The engine of all spiritual formation is the love of the Father. We are not our own shepherds. In everything, may we be led by the love of the Father, the friendship of the Holy Spirit, and the intimacy of Jesus, our bridegroom.
If seeing God correctly is the first step to lasting change in the life of the disciple, then the second step is stewarding your mind — changing what you allow to be believed. Simply put: we are in bondage when we believe lies. We are set free when we believe truth. Our behavior reveals our feelings, our feelings reveal our fears, and our fears reveal our beliefs. We can’t change how we feel, but we can change what we believe, which changes everything else. This renewed mind, in Paul’s language, is the mind that thinks about life the way Jesus thinks about life. When Jesus taught his disciples how to pray - on earth as it is in heaven - He was giving them insight to his mind. Thinking heaven to earth will keep you from becoming conformed to the patterns of the world and produce the kingdom in and around you.
How do you change? How does someone become more like Christ?This question is key to understanding the journey of the disciple as we move from fear to love. The first step in changing, in becoming more like Jesus, is seeing God correctly. The primary way we see Jesus interacting with God, is as a Father. Even further, there are two specific ways we get fathered by God that produce lasting change in us: His partnership and His correction.God is a good dad who has always been interested in partnering with you to see heaven come to earth. When you see the partnership He desires, you will begin to change out of the love He has for you. This is a powerful motivation.God is also interested in you bearing fruit that will last. He is a Father Gardener and he walks through the garden of your life and looks for things with eternal value. He cuts, or prunes, anything that isn’t producing eternally valuable fruit. This is how He shows us that we are His children and demonstrates His jealous love for us. It’s for our flourishing and for His glory.
This last Sunday we continued in our series on discipleship series, exploring the idea of what it means to be unafraid sons and daughters who are able to rule in love alongside Christ for the renewal of the world.The vision statement over every human being is to rule alongside God (Gen 1v26) — to be the royal representation of God here on earth. What you believe, or who you trust, will determine whether you rule correctly. We often fail at this, but there was a man who didn’t, and He showed us how to be disciples. Jesus had to trust the Father that He would raise Him from the dead. In this Jesus defined discipleship: our job is the dying, God’s job is the raising. Paul says that we are not civilians - we say “no” to some things that others say “yes”to so we can give our big yes to God. The vision God has for the earth has become ours, so we don’t have a personal project we are building outside of His project. This is the vision of discipleship!
This last Sunday we began a new series on discipleship. Alex taught us through Colossians 3v1-17 and posed the question, what is the life of the disciple supposed to look like?Our working definition of discipleship is - the relational invitation to make your identity visible. It requires effort, intentionality, and thoughtfulness, but its foundation is love. You can only change to the degree that you understand God’s radical love for you.What does this look like practically? You begin dismantling the lies and fear that once formed your identity through choices you make with God, not apart from Him. Choices that reflect moving away from fear and moving towards trust. The vision of God from the very beginning of time is that humans would enter such a trust-filled relationship with Him, that they become unafraid sons and daughters - able to rule in love alongside Christ for the renewal of the world.
What is the relationship between faith and works? This last Sunday, Chris presented us with the variety of perspectives that the authors of the Scriptures give on this relationship. How do we live within the tension that what we do doesn’t matter at all, yet what we do matters a lot?If our faith is a living thing, which the biblical authors seem to suggest, then perhaps the solution is to get as close to the source of “life” as possible. We know that this source is none other than Jesus himself — being in His presence, cultivating intimacy, and building trust with Him. This is what makes a fruitful life of love and obedience to God. We trust the Holy Spirit to convict us of our sin, and assure us of our righteous identity in Christ. This is how God turns our weaknesses into our weapons!
It’s true that every generation feels like the world is unraveling. However, throughout all of history, the disciple of Jesus has journeyed. It’s a narrow road that is neither a war against culture or an assimilation to it, but faithfulness to Jesus.This last Sunday we were joined by one of our friends, Josh Porter, who brought us a word on what it means to be faithful to Jesus as an act of rebellion.Jesus went deeper into faithfulness before us to show us how - by remaining in God and letting God remain in you.All of the doubts, the devastation, the backsliding, and the questioning we face in this life are mere invitations to more of God’s grace. We find this grace in the context of the family of God, where we bear one another’s burdens and call each other higher as we worship in spirit and in truth. This is the beauty of the Church! We ask God’s blessing over you and over this family, that he would give us grace to run well.
This last Sunday one of our elders, Jim Traut, brought us a word on suffering well.The Scriptures assure us that we will go through seasons of great pain and seasons of great joy. The key to living this life well is to trust Jesus. When your trust is in Him, and the promises in His word, your relationship with Him does not get swept away when trouble comes.One of the unique roles suffering plays in our lives is that it always reveals where we’ve placed our trust. Favorable circumstances in life are a wonderful gift from God and to be celebrated, but they are not strong enough to build your life on. Your soul was made to rest in God - knowing Him, loving Him, and trusting Him.Just like David, we are invited to be honest with God regardless of our circumstances. To cry out to Him, to grieve with Him, to rejoice with Him. We pray that in our suffering and in our rejoicing, that our lives would bring glory to God.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our friends, Gerald Griffin. He encouraged us with stories from his own community of people coming alive with hunger for God.What does it mean to be awakened to the presence of God, and how do you sustain it for the long haul? In short, if you put God and His glory at the center, everything else falls into place.We need a center of gravity, greater than our career, hobbies, relationships, kids, or the vacations we go on. We need something with muchmore mass to pull us out of the gravitational pull of busyness. We need the glory of God and His Presence to anchor us in the reality of heaven.One of the ways we can keep the reality of God, His beauty and His glory, before us at all times - is through a daily rhythm of prayer. When we behold God in our minds in prayer and Scripture we see His glory. Here there is an invitation to orient our days not around meal times or a work schedule, but around practicing prayer & awareness of His Presence.The goal of existence, now and through eternity, is unbroken communion with God. We are invited to experience that reality daily through our intentional awareness of Him.
To follow God is to allow His Spirit to teach you, and His Word to prune you. This allows you to represent the life of Jesus to the people around you as the Father would.When things in life get messy, the invitation is to be reconnected to the Father who loves you unconditionally. He’s not looking for our spirituality, but our surrender. We are going to find ourselves in messy circumstances, they are all opportunities to grow and be reminded of truth by the Spirit.Believing God is who He says He is looks like obeying. As we grow deeper in love and trust in Him, our desires will align with His and we’ll see heaven come to earth even in impossible situations.
As we enter this new year of dependence on God, we must continually be reminded of our why. Asking what our “why” is keeps us near dependency. Our why reveals where we have given into temptation, and invites dependence.Jesus knew his “why.” It was his identity, his mission from the Father, that kept Him in step through every temptation. It is from Jesus that we learn how to steward what God is doing, the dreams He has given, and the words He has spoken.In Matthew 4v1-11 Jesus faced three temptations familiar to every human heart: the temptation to be relevant, spectacular, and powerful. His solution - resting in his God-given identity as the Beloved.Deeper knowing, deeper loving, and deeper trusting of Him squashes every temptation that would invite us to build our own kingdom. Only then are we able to enjoy however He answers when we ask, “Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”
This last Sunday our senior leader, Alex Rettmann cast some vision for us as we enter the new year.We are invited to live a Kingdom life, not just a Christian life. Jesus didn’t just come to get you into heaven, He came to get heaven into you, so that heaven would come through you. This is the mission God has set out from the creation of the world and when you are on this mission with Him, life isn’t boring.Our strategy to live this Kingdom life on offer cannot be one of lack. We must put Him as our goal rather than checking the temperature of everything around us to determine our course of action. He will make you a thermostat who changes everyone else’s course.Like Jesus, we limit the activity of our life to only what we see the Father doing. A strategic choice of dependence, to step into more of his goodness. That’s what we’re after this year.
This last Sunday Bria taught on the longings of the soul that we discover in the Advent season.During this season we recognize that the truth about our longings is revealed at His first coming, and the complete fulfillment of them comes with His second. So how do we live in the tension between the two?We ought to live as those on whom light has dawned (Isaiah 9:2). We grieve darkness for what it is and we ask that God would shine His light again - that we might partner with the dawn.We ought to live as citizens of the light. We wait with the Holy Spirit, who invites us to participate in His kingdom work here and now. We wait for his second coming by casting off every work of darkness and putting on the armor of light (Ephesians 6:13-18). We wait victoriously.It is longing that Advent brings to the surface. When we let the light dawn and we see the truth about our longings - they are for Him. Let Him expose darkness for what it is that you might wait on Him in the light.
This last Sunday we continued in our Advent series by reading Isaiah 9v2-7. This passage teaches us that the antidote to a wandering life of darkness and fearful gloom, is God Himself setting up His government.
He didn’t just come to get you into heaven, He came to get heaven into you, so that heaven would come through you.
Give all of your preconceived notions about reality for God’s ability, and you will find yourself with a Counselor, a Father, a Warrior, and a Prince of Peace.
The presence of Jesus is attracted to a yes.This last Sunday we continued in our second week of the Advent series, contemplating the yes of Mary - her response to God’s word. Every human has the ability and privilege to do what Mary did, but to be used by God, we must have a correct response to Him.Your life was created by His voice and designed to live by it. All of God’s words are seed, looking for a trusted yes to be planted in. When we choose to trust His voice, His promises, and His Presence, the impossible will happen & the kingdom will expand.
This last Sunday we began the first week of Advent together as a church — reflecting on the coming of Christ into our world.
One thing we learn about Jesus is that He set the bar for the generosity of God. When you see Him as the light, your eyes will get healthy and you will begin to see his beauty everywhere.
When we stop seeing the world through Christ, all we focus on and see is lack, pain, and suffering. But when we really take in the generosity of God we see beauty, joy and love everywhere…and we are able to delight them.
This last Sunday we heard from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, on what it means to be loved by God, and manifest His love here on earth.
Reading through 1 John 4v7-18 we see that John is taking the focus from how we can love God, to how God loves us. The love you give to others will not be dependent on what you can give but what God has given you. You cannot give what you have not first received.
Only when we are overflowing with God’s love, can we begin to manifest His love to those around us. If you’re wondering what the manifest love of God is, look no further than Jesus. We learn from Him that signs and wonders - words of knowledge, healing, deliverance, etc. point to and participate in God’s love for mankind, and his intention to bless us in Christ.
Our identities are not wrapped around these gifts, rather, we use them to build up and serve others, demonstrating God’s love for them. We will grow in our exercising of these gifts when they are done from a place of security & overflow.
Church is designed to happen around a table. It is at the table that the sacrament takes place and the people are transformed.
Communion shapes the individual’s life, but it also shapes the community’s life. In one sense it’s vertical - the blood aligns you with God and makes you righteous. It’s also horizontal - it makes us right with one another and unifies us.
You can’t individually be one with Christ and not also one with those who are also one with Christ.
This meal has been at the center of the church since the beginning - unifying the body of believers. No ideology, political preference, or theological camp can bring the kind of unity communion offers. This meal goes beyond a few minutes on a Sunday, it’s a lifestyle of being in relationship with other believers as you pursue God together.
What does it mean for communion to become the very shape of your life?
Communion is the physical vision statement for a Christian’s soul. It is the form your life will take if you really want to live. It’s setting aside your will to serve God’s will.
The main thing that gets in the way of this pursuit is our glittering images. They demand sacrifices from us that we eventually grow weary in giving. They tell us that Jesus' blood surely isn't enough to justify us and fill us.
We must trade our glittering images for a Jesus mind.
A Jesus mind, or a renewed mind, reveals its fullness by its service. Your ability to go low will reveal what you have taken in. Jesus knew who He was, and that allowed Him to serve all and build His Father’s kingdom. We are called to do the same!
This last Sunday we began a three-week series on Communion, and how the importance of this meal will change our church.
The blood of Jesus not only forgives you of your sin, but it cleanses you from the guilt of your sin. This is theologically true, but how many of us experience that reality day to day?
The blood of Jesus purchased a new covenant reality. Jesus became the sacrifice and washed you with his blood, you have the self-assurance of a child, intimacy with God. You can live a life of triumph, because your source is from another world.
Communion becomes an opportunity to place all of yourself under the blood - family, loved ones, emotions, mental world, career, etc. — to really experience on this side of heaven what Jesus purchased for you.
This last Sunday we were fortunate enough to hear from one of our deacons, Justin Adsit. Justin gave a teaching on Luke 8v26-39 as a continuation of our Luke Series. This story illustrates one of the most radical stories of the authority of Jesus to heal, save, and deliver. We learn that when Jesus shows up, hopeless situations shift.
Expanding heaven on earth can get messy, and we have to lay down our right to things that we can understand. It’s worth it.
We don’t worship the miracles, but if we just see them as signs, we might be missing the point. They are signs, but they are also wonders that participate in the reality of heaven on earth now.
Revival is more personal than you think. Consider your response to Jesus. Is His activity in your life just a sign of what it will be one day, or is it a wonder that you can participate in with Him now?
This last Sunday, Jake Vigil gave us a teaching on the definition of true, biblical worship.
We see all the way back in Genesis, that biblical worship is sacrifice. In the Psalms we learn that worship is about making ourselves a dwelling place for Him. Jesus revealed to the woman at the well that worship is done in spirit and truth. And in Revelation, we see the worship that echoes throughout eternity: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”
So then, true biblical worship is any and every expression of obedience, praise, honor, adoration, and gratitude offered to the true God.
Worshippers are to become living sacrifices given over to Him, that our souls might become a home for Him.
May we be the kind of sons and daughters who build a way of life around knowing the truth about God and loving Him rightly. We will sing out His holiness so that earth can look like Heaven.
What can you expect to give from church and what can you expect to get from church? Alex spent some time this last Sunday laying out the social contract of Saints’ Hill.
Churches gather for many different reasons, most of church in the West is a combination of personality preference mixed with a “shining image” of church. Taking time to define your why & how for church will inform what kind of social contract you’re after.
Our take on the biblical narrative is that the point of church is to help embodied souls live in love instead of fear through oneness with Yahweh for the sake of heaven on earth.
Every church has a liturgy, a list of actions they perform in worship that accomplish what they think church is supposed to accomplish.
We believe that liturgy is only as successful as it is delivering people to the Father’s Presence. Our conviction at Saints’ Hill is that corporate renewal begins with personal renewal, and personal renewal begins with Father encounter.
Go back and listen to this teaching if you want to hear more in-depth about the social contract of Saints’ Hill and where we feel like we’re headed this year.
This last Sunday, one of our elders, Andoni, gave a teaching on the foundation for the prophetic culture at Saints’ Hill. We’ve seen the first fruits of the prophetic in our town as many of us have begun to give away what the Lord has blessed us with. This is amazing. Equally as important will it be to remember & return to our foundation for the prophetic - Jesus. Our perfect model of living a prophetic life from love and with freedom. The only way you can begin to walk in authority out of love, is if you understand and receive your righteous identity in Christ.
Jesus - the perfect sacrifice, God’s triumphant, once and for all declaration of His unconditional love for us, is what allows us to live from love. It’s what we were made for. When we try to operate from a place of lack, we end up manipulating others to earn God’s love. This is not the way Jesus modeled for us.
Go find out just exactly how much the Father loves you, and watch your authority in the Spirit begin to grow.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our elders, Jim Traut. Jim spoke to us from the Scriptures about forgiveness.
Doing forgiveness well is like heart maintenance — it’s like keeping air in the tires of your bike or changing the oil in your car. Fortunately for us, the Scriptures are full of wisdom on how to do maintenance on our hearts and sustain the joy that is promised to us, even when the road gets bumpy.
According to Jesus, how well we exercise forgiveness is directly related to how well we function in our relationships, our marriages, our church family, and ultimately in the kingdom of heaven. Unforgiveness can hold you hostage, but stepping into obedience and choosing to forgive with a heart of compassion, sets us free! We get our joy back, our strength back.
We look to Jesus as the ultimate example of forgiveness lived out. And it is only when we gaze upon Jesus as our perfect gift from the Father, and receive Him, that we are able to extend forgiveness to others.
This is how the kingdom will break out in our town, and earth will begin to look more like heaven.
We talk a lot about surrender at Saints’ Hill, but what do we mean by that? Better yet, what do the Scriptures say about the concept of surrender?
This last Sunday Bria walked us through a biblical definition of surrender.
To be surrendered to God is to give our “yes” to Him, not just to a set of beliefs or behaviors. Our surrender is unto a person, King Jesus. Surrendering unto a set of beliefs or behaviors will not produce laid down lovers with childlike faith, but putting your trust in Jesus will. This relational aspect is key to understanding how we view surrender.
Our initial surrender to Jesus is a beautiful thing, but if we view surrender as a one-time act, we are missing out on a life of increasing intimacy with God. Our continual surrender is not passive or apathetic, rather, it’s about learning how to live life in a posture of receiving. We were designed to receive love from Him, and live our lives out of the overflow of His love.
Surrendering is easy when you’ve seen His face, and know His heart. May we continue to look to Him for everything that we need as we lay down our lives before Him.
Has the mood of your life changed as a result of the gospel?
One of our values at Saints’ Hill is that we are people filled with hope and joy. Our strength and protection in life is directly tied to the degree that we understand God’s disposition towards us. When you see the gap in your life between what you are and what you could be, get happy. Remember that it was the blood of Jesus that made a life of intimacy with the rejoicing Father possible. It is His joy that is your strength.
When we live strengthened by the joy of His Presence, our lives will invite the people around us to come and taste the fruit of their future. How beautiful!
This last Sunday we began our annual vision series - where we take some time to revisit the vision of Saints’ Hill, why we exist. If we go all the way back to the basics, we need to know what it means to be fathered by God.
We see this framework throughout all the Scriptures: the goal of life is to become unafraid sons and daughters, able to rule in love alongside Christ for the renewal of the world.
Many believers have good theology, or even have a working idea of what it means to be a disciple, but still are unable to really rule because their inner world is a wreck. All external conflict comes from internal conflict, and all internal conflict comes from fear. If you don’t think you have a good Father, you won’t bring things to Him, depend on Him, or love Him.
As a believer with the Holy Spirit, your spirit cries out “Abba, Father.” Jesus made a way for you to have what He had, and what you were made for - intimate connection to a good Father. This is where the Christian life begins. Your joy, your growth, and your fruit, are all tied to your ability to receive His love like a child.
What Jesus’ light can do in your life is tied to your perception.
With this parable in Luke 8v16-18 Jesus again is getting at the condition of the heart.
The light of Jesus exposes our need. His light leads to one of two options, to recognize our need and surrender, or to recognize our need and walk away offended.
If Jesus is light then He will see you. But to those who receive, this is not something to fear but a promise that what He exposes He will purify.
Your need got you into the kingdom and your surrender got Him into you. So may we lay down our need to perform for Him, and let Him in the door of our heart that He’s been knocking on. That He might see us, love us, purify us, and make us like Him.
Jesus’ message, the kingdom of God, has to do with your heart. More than the mind or will, Jesus is concerned with what you love.
In Luke 8v1-15 Jesus diagnoses what can get in the way of receiving and loving His word, His Presence, and His activity. He gives examples of three different types of hearts: the path heart, the rocky heart, and the thorny heart. None of which are able to fully live into the kingdom life Jesus has in mind.
These are contrasted with the good soil heart. When you take the seeds of God and push them down deep into your life, when they begin to touch your cares and your worries, when they are treasured and valued to the point that they become your riches and your riches and pleasures…the kingdom will burst out of you.
Jesus was crowned with the curse, with our lack, so abundance could now begin to crown us. There is only one way to real life and it is trust. May we put Him in His rightful place in our hearts, that we may bear fruit and bring Him glory.
Do you feel saved? What do your emotions about Jesus reveal?
This passage in Luke 7 challenges us by asking what we feel about Jesus. When you gaze upon Him, is your response abandon, or management? These two emotional responses testify to two different realms — the realm of abundance and the realm of lack.
Following Jesus means losing control. And it’s the most beautifully liberating thing that could ever happen to you. Nobody who has experienced the fullness of His love for them will ever want to hold anything back from Him. His precious blood spilled out like perfume anointing us.
May we spend our days moving His heart with the type of sacrifice we’ll only be able to give Him on this side of heaven
Who does Jesus think He is? Who do you think He is?
The story in Luke 7v18-35 provokes these questions, and the way you answer them will inform the way you live and what you expect in this life.
Jesus is the Messiah, the healer, the son of man who comes to take away sin. His kingdom is an invisible rule and reign in people that produces tangible heavenly results through them in our world today. The life of Jesus didn’t just save you, it empowered you. It set a standard for what is possible for disciples connected to the Father.
The vision of Saints’ Hill is wrapped up in the mission of Jesus — to see people come back to the life they were designed to live. This type of revival is possible when we stay radically in tune with the Spirit. Going wherever He’s going, saying whatever He’s saying. So we say Holy Spirit come, play your tune.
What kind of faith makes Jesus marvel?
This last Sunday we read from Luke 7v1-10 the story of the Roman centurion seeking Jesus out for a miracle.
Here we have a Gentile who has grasped a kingdom concept before many Israelites had. The centurion sees Jesus as a warrior king, as the highest ranking official in all of creation. So much so that sickness and death yield, demons flee, and storms cease at His word. He understands there’s nothing he could do to earn or deserve the mercy of this king, yet he still approaches Him in boldness on behalf of his sick servant.
And Jesus marvels.
May we be the people who take Jesus at His word, and in humility approach our merciful King to see the impossible on this side of heaven.
What is the foundation of the disciple, according to Jesus?
In Luke 6v46-49 Jesus tells a parable about two different people, building their houses on two different foundations. He’s telling us there’s two ways you can build your life…
Those who only call him Lord, are recognizing reality, but are stopping short of living in it. True disciples not only recognize their King, but submit in allegiance to Him, responding to the words He speaks. Allegiance to King Jesus, commitment to God’s way and God’s people, and deep connection to the Father are what our lives ought to be marked by as disciples.
May we be the type of disciples who trust Him to the degree that we can take Him at His word every time He speaks. That we would see heaven come to earth through the commitment of God’s people to His heart and His ways
In Luke 6v37-45 Jesus is teaching an abundance worldview. A worldview that doesn’t walk around empty or with lack, but a way of living that is full of God and sees the world differently because of fullness. It’s about becoming the real deal, bearing fruit not because you tried, but because you received.
You see, the person who hasn’t really seen the abundance of God, is self righteous.
But live as though God has a surplus for you, forgiven you, poured out on you, cared for you, and watch how you begin to find grace and mercy around every turn.
A person who hasn’t fully understood God’s grace to them, will either neglect the sin in their life or avoid it out of fear of becoming it.
Only someone who knows that what God thinks about them is secure enough to address the log…the sin in their life. And when grace has covered, and empowered transformation in you, you will be able to see clearly with kingdom eyes, not just people’s sin, but their potential in Jesus. This reality is what allows us to live within the family of disciples well.
As we work our way through the book of Luke, we are entering into some of Jesus’ most famous teachings. In Luke 7v27-36, Jesus gives a word that seems to set an incredibly high bar for what it looks like to live in the kingdom.
Many of us look at our lives and see a great discrepancy between the lifestyle laid out in the sermon on the mount, and how we actually live. How can we become the kind of people Jesus is talking about in this passage? Perhaps it’s less about what you can change about yourself, and more about how you view God.
Do you believe that He only has kind thoughts about you, and good intentions towards you? The key is this: we let His love and mercy get so deep inside us that we became more loving and merciful. This change happens from the inside out, and it’s the only way to life abundantly in the kingdom.
There is no end to His love, therefore we lack nothing. Be encouraged by this word, and let Him love you again today.
How do you make decisions in relationship with Jesus? How does the kingdom come, and to who?
This last Sunday Bria Wolter taught us through Luke 6v12-26 where Jesus demonstrates and addresses answers to both of these questions.
What we learn from Jesus is that decision making is relational. Jesus made decisions in relationship with His Father. This is how the kingdom breaks out. In this passage Jesus teaches that holy discontentment and hunger will produce the kingdom of God. He challenges us to examine where we find our abundance, and encourages us that abundant life is only found in relationship with Him.
May we find ourselves wholly discontented with what the world has to offer for our satisfaction, that He would take us deeper and deeper into the glory of knowing Him and being loved by Him. We pray that our dependence on Him would produce the kingdom in and around us in ways we can’t even imagine.
In Luke 6v1-11 Jesus claims that He is Lord of the Sabbath. What does that mean for us?
Practicing Sabbath is a physical reminder to our bodies that our value isn’t tied to what we produce, but to whom we belong. Sabbath is a beautiful gift, but it’s also easy to miss with the wrong heart posture.
The problem for many when it comes to Sabbath, is that they think they can solve an identity problem, with a better schedule…but there is no schedule that can out-run a misplaced identity. If you don’t know how God really feels about you and who He wants to be for you, you will turn the gift of Sabbath into a righteousness signal like the Pharisees.
The only way to true rest is by getting the Lord of the Sabbath. If you want real rest you need a relationship with a person, not a discipline. Only by staying close to Him, laying down our insecurities and our self-seeking agendas, do we find the deep soul rest we’ve always longed for.
We exist to be blessed by God, and give that blessing away. It’s a Sabbath life!
What is a sacramental worldview?
At Saints’ Hill we value the movement of God above doing things the way we’ve always done them. This is how we have learned to stay in step with the new thing God could be doing in any given season. This last Sunday Alex introduced to us a new “wineskin” (Luke 5v33-39). This new wineskin is a way of looking at the world that we believe will keep us open to the new thing God is up to.
This sacramental worldview is a life that looks for the presence of God in everything. A life that points to and participates in spiritual realities. We need this sacramental worldview for two reasons:
So that in every season we don’t define God’s nearness by only our feelings. So that we recognize and walk through the sacramental doors in our lives, the places where heaven and earth overlap.
This is the type of living that bears fruit - evidence of participation in the presence of God. It’s what we were made for!
This last Sunday Chris Sharp gave a teaching on the heart of God and the difference between mercy and sacrifice.
In Matthew 9v13 Jesus says, “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”
The people hearing this at the time, would’ve had an Old Testament understanding of the word sacrifice. Where you lose something or exchange one thing for another. Chris’ encouragement to us is that a New Covenant view of sacrifice, through the lens of mercy, counts every sacrifice as gain.
Think about Jesus on the cross, did He do that out of obligation? Did He think He was losing something? Or was it from great mercy that He counted it as a gain to go to the cross. How incredible that the heart of God is and always has been, relationship.
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The great privilege of our life is to love Him and be loved by Him.
This last Sunday we jumped back into our Luke Series. Bria taught us through the story in Luke 5v17-26 where Jesus heals a paralyzed man. There's a lot happening in this story, but the key idea of this passage is Jesus' authority.
From this passage, we see that Jesus has authority to forgive sins, authority to heal, and authority as the Son of Man. In a time where many believed sickness was caused by sin, Jesus knew that the most important thing for this man to hear was that he was forgiven, and called a friend. The visible act of healing in this story points to an invisible reality of God's love for humanity and the inbreaking reality of the kingdom of heaven. Jesus' authority as the Son of Man now seated at the right hand of God, reveals to us what we now have access to -- restored partnership with God. Everything under our feet. This is good news! We no longer live with any fear, because we know who has the authority. We are awake to the reality of Jesus and we long to see all of heaven turn itself towards our town as we walk in the authority we've been gifted.
Understanding God’s love creates the context in your life for heaven to come.
This last Sunday, Alex told us four stories from his journey to experiencing more of God’s love. Experiences that taught him about our identity as sons and daughters, the Christian life as relationship with Jesus instead of relationship with a philosophy, hunger that leads to a taste and see life, and childlike dependence that brings more of the Holy Spirit’s activity.
These experiences are essentially what Saints’ Hill was built on, and it’s a joy to watch Him exchange the spirit of heaviness over Newberg for a garment of praise as we follow Him together.
This last Sunday Andoni gave a teaching on the importance of God’s voice in our lives.
The main goal of the prophetic is to be reminded of who you are. God is always reminding us of who we are so that when the enemy tries to tell us who we’re not, we can identify that quickly and disagree with it. It’s crucial to be able to distinguish God’s voice from ours and from the enemy’s.
God won’t use the strategies of this world to bring about the kingdom in and around you. Only when we know who we are, and who He is for us, will we have the courage to step into the more that He has for us. The enemy will place burdens on you, but God will take what the enemy intended to harm you, and He’ll bless you with it. Then you get to use that testimony as a weapon against the enemy for the rest of your life.
May we fall deeper and deeper into relationship with Him, and in doing so, become increasingly familiar with the voice that gives and sustains life.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from Jake Vigil. His teaching took us back to the basics of the Holy Spirit. We learned that the Holy Spirit is a good gift from God that has a purpose. The goal of the Holy Spirit in us is that we would grow in Christlikeness AND move in power. As a church we are on a quest for that radical middle.
The Holy Spirit is a person that reveals a person, not an it. The Holy Spirit is the giver and sustainer of life. The Holy Spirit guides us, purifies & convicts us, and empowers us.
We pray that through this teaching you are able to look at your relationship with the Holy Spirit with fresh eyes. Have you quenched the Holy Spirit’s power in your life? Have you taken advantage of the Holy Spirit for your own gain? Our relationship with the Holy Spirit is a gift and God is delighted when we use the gift the way it was intended to be used.
Jesus both wept and commanded resurrection. What sort of vision of life did he have that provided this ability?
This last week Alex gave a teaching on how to cry like Jesus, which begins with getting the same vision for our lives that He had for His. We believe that God is developing in us an ability to do something we haven’t seen much of in the Church: The ability to acknowledge the pain and suffering of this world and yet walk in faith and trust.
Our goal is to see human suffering the way Jesus saw it, so we can respond to it the way He responded to it.
This last Sunday Alex took some time to explain the why behind Saints’ Hill again. As we move into a new building and a new season in the life of our church, we feel it is always important to go back to the foundation.
Through the overarching narrative of the Scriptures, we see that Jesus made intimacy with God possible for anyone who wants it. The point is that Christians can be a people who have nothing to fear. When we fully embrace our priestly identity, our life changes in three ways, and these three things have shaped this church:
A commitment to God’s Presence, single focus transformation, and church as research & development, and family.
Jesus first came down the hill to get us, so that we could live lives of meeting with Him on the hill. This reality is what has shaped Saints’ Hill as a church.
This last Sunday we celebrated Easter together by talking about resurrection! When we look around at the atrophy of life and death’s inevitability we find ourselves asking, is there even truth? Is there anything solid to place the weight of one’s life upon?
Jesus answers this question with His resurrection. Resurrection is truth.
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Jesus didn’t come just to get you into Heaven, He came to get Heaven into you! So that resurrection would touch whatever you touch. That you would live and work from a place of triumph rather than defeat throughout all of life. When you have Him, and He has you, you will lose your tomb as well.
This last Sunday Alex gave a teaching on same sex attraction as we continue in our Relationships & Sexuality series. This teaching should serve primarily as a meditation on the role that the Bible plays in your life.
We all have glasses we put on before we read the Bible. The glasses tell you what to allow in and what not to. Our glasses are our hermeneutic. Alex does a deep dive in this teaching of all the different types of hermeneutics out there, and shares a little bit about why he takes a more objectivist approach when it comes to reading & interpreting the Scriptures. Alex’s encouragement to us was not to simply agree with what he thinks, but that we would really examine our hermeneutic. The way we read the Bible affects how we view God and how we understand the gospel, things that are majorly important.
Giving your life to Christ changes your identity, it doesn’t just tweak your beliefs. We are far more concerned with building up sons and daughters who know how to receive love from their Father than good theologians. Find out what He says about you, give yourself over to Him, and watch what happens!
This last Sunday Alex Rettmann gave a teaching on Christian marriage as covenant, sanctification, and as an image of Christ and the Church.
All the way back in Genesis 15 we see that covenant is this: “I will be to you as I should be even if you are not to me as you should be.” This type of love is only possible when the marriage runs on reverence to Christ, not just chemistry. If you have Christ as your source of love and identity, you are filled up to the degree that you can give your spouse love and respect even when they are not giving it to you.
Marriage exists to make you holy. It strips you of all self protection and lays you bare before your partner so they can join in on your sanctification — to present you even more beautiful before God. Marriage will put demands on you that actually make you more beautiful, more serving, more loving and more self-sacrificing.
Lastly, marriage is to be an image of Christ and the Church. The Bible gives us the principle of Christ as the model of leadership. It is the job of each married couple to figure out how this works itself out in their specific context in a way that the wife feels loved and served like Christ has loved and served the Church, and the husband feels honored and respected. Again, this type of marriage only exists where the husband and the wife submit to each other out of reverence for Christ.
Christian marriage is a beautiful reflection of the love of Christ — the One who loved us not because we were worthy of love, but to make us lovely through His love. If you missed this teaching, you can go back and listen to it on our podcast. See you Sunday!
As we continue in our Relationships & Sexuality series, we spent time on Sunday talking about Christians and sex. We are living in the success of the Sexual Revolution, but has it been liberating? Are we more free?
In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, he makes the argument that freedom is not actually the ability to do whatever you want, but the ability to choose in line with design. This looks like the strategic loss of lesser freedoms for more important freedoms. -- Sexual sin has the ability to master you, so limiting your sexual freedom to the context of God’s design - one man, one woman, in the lifelong covenant of marriage - actually serves your best interest. In a biblical worldview, there is nothing physical that isn’t spiritual. God cares deeply about what we do with our bodies. To paraphrase Paul, your body is a temple for God - you are not your own!
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May He strengthen us to delight in our union with Him, and live in abundance as a result.
On Sunday we began a new series on relationships & sexuality and this week we dove into the relationship between men and women. Together, men and women image God in a unique way.
We see that Genesis is a story about design. The way God designed humans tells the truth about how we function best. When we neglect the truth being told by His design, we return to chaos and disorder. The Bible celebrates sexual difference, and if we don’t acknowledge and honor that difference, we fail to receive the fulness of the Imago Dei in our lives.
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Our aim with this series is start the conversation and meditation on human sexuality and relationships. To meditate on the design on God and examine the way we approach Scripture as it relates to this topic. Our prayer for Saints’ Hill is that we would have good relationships, great marriages, and ultimately family for every person who is in Christ.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from our very own Mariah Fredericks. We read through the story in the beginning of Luke 5 where Jesus asks the disciples to take Him at His word and step into obedience even when it didn’t make sense.
When we say yes to the Lord, our perspective is shifted, our purpose unfolds, and our participation is invited. Jesus is equipping His saints to act on a yes — to respond to Christ’s call on our lives in a new way and follow Him with greater obedience out of love and joy. Participation in the kingdom of God looks like taking Him at His word. We don’t get to partner with fear and lack because if He called us into something, He’s going to provide.
Obedience breaks us open and leads us into further communion with God, with more room for the Holy Spirit to move. Obedience to a word from the Lord breaks the “nets” we are trying to fill ourselves.
As sons and daughters may we journey deeper into the kind of trust that says yes at His Word and not at our human understanding.
On Sunday we continued in our Luke series with a teaching from Jake Vigil. Jake’s message on Luke 4v14-30 paints a picture of our King, Jesus, blowing the jubilee trumpet.
The year of the Lord’s favor has been fulfilled in Him. Because of who He is and what He paid for, we actually don’t have to strive for all of those wonderful things listed, they are our inheritance. Our freedom and fulfillment in life, our salvation, can only be found in the person of Jesus. He is our freedom, outside of Him we have no freedom. Participation in relationship with Him and His kingdom is better than any cultural pushback or earthly solution. Who Jesus is will change your whole life if you let it.
The last two weeks we did a mini series called The Answer for Babylon. We took time to look at the story of Abraham and his family as an answer to the problem of Babylon.
This last Sunday, Alex walked us through the difference between family and empire, and why God uses family to build his nation. Family is the solution to Babylon because it honors people beyond what they can be used for. It is the context for identity, for belonging, and for blessing.
We encourage you to honor those around you by seeing the gift that they are. We will see our family grow and the kingdom produced in this way!
On Sunday we took a break from our Luke series to talk about the Babylonian experience. Culturally, we have moved from Christendom to Babylon. While at first this may seem troubling, the entire Bible is written for people who are having a Babylon experience…so we turn to the Scriptures to see what it means to live on a journey of faith.
The principle of the story of the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11 is this: All attempts to produce meaning, to produce a name on your own or by earth’s strength and tools, will end in confusion. All pursuits of the earthly city, status, comfort, and safety will confuse more than they free.
Thankfully, if we keep reading, we discover that God tells Abraham’s story as the answer to Babel.
The answer to the corrupt confusion of the earthly city is a family of faith. A family of people who move into the unknown with Yahweh, rather than develop their own plan. This faith journey is an adventure of trust, where you get a name rather than needing to create one, and progress is made through delight.
He is our great reward, the joy of being with Him is worth more than we could ever sacrifice. Will be a people devoted to building His kingdom, and not our own.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from our very own, Chris Sharp. Chris taught us through the passage in Luke 4 where Jesus is in the wilderness being tempted by the devil.
Chris encouraged us from the Scriptures that the temptation to take health, wealth, and power into our own hands is not foreign to Jesus. That in fact, because Jesus was in every way tempted as we are, and remained faithful to His Father, we too are invited into this reality of victory. Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection made it not only possible for us to resist temptation, but to turn what the enemy intended for destruction into a testimony of victory to stand on.
This way of living requires submission in humility. The opposite of what the world would suggest as life enjoyed. The victory is fully lived into when we recognize that we’re not here to build our own kingdom, but to yield to the power of the Holy Spirit in us. The good news is that this Holy Spirit wants to and is able to set us more and more free to the degree that we yield.
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So may we joyfully bring everything before Him that we thought about putting above Him, and receive again His perfect love that casts out fear.
This last Sunday Alex taught us through the passage in Luke 3 where we read about Jesus’ baptism and the invitation to participate in the kingdom of God.
Baptism is the washing off of the old life and covenant for the new land God has for humanity. This is why Jesus asks us to be baptized — it changes your identity.
Water baptism is the prophetic act that you are dead to sin alive to Christ. It’s not only a destination change after death, but an identity change in the present. Now all of your life is colored with resurrection power. When you are baptized, you too have a new declaration over your whole life: “This is my child in whom I am well pleased.”
Baptism reminds us that the only way you will find your life is if you lose it. May our submission to Him produce His kingdom in and around us.
This last Sunday we looked at the story of Jesus in the temple as a child in Luke 2. All throughout the book of Luke, we’re watching Jesus model how to be a human in relationship with God. In this specific story He’s showing us what it looks like to be a child of God.
Even as a child, Jesus knew where His home was. His home was in His Father’s Presence. In that day, the temple is where you would go to interact with Yahweh, but because of what Jesus accomplished at the cross, we now have access to His Presence at all times and in all places. We get to make our home in Him.
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May we see the fruit of the Spirit increase in our lives as we continue to make our home in His Presence.
This last Sunday we picked back up in our Luke series, with the story of Anna and Simeon hearing from God. As we worked through this story in Luke 2, our aim was to answer these questions:
Can someone hear from God? What would God tell them? What would happen if He did speak?
Throughout the Scriptures we see two different words for “word” in the Greek. Logos referring to the written word and Rhema referring to the spoken word. We believe that God is still speaking and Rhema still happens. It is in fact the foundation of prophecy.
- At Saints’ Hill, when we prophesy, we participate in heaven coming to earth, the glory and purpose found in that is what we were made for.
May we become someone’s encounter with the destiny and promises of God by hosting His Presence well.
This last Sunday we kicked off the New Year with a message from Alex Rettmann on where we’re headed this year as a church family. At the beginning of every year we take time to ask what God might be saying over us as a church specifically for the coming year. What we felt collectively was that 2022 will be the year of why.
We believe that the best way to get ready for the new thing God is doing is to ask why a lot. We need to ask why about many of the things we do and believe in order to discover if we have any old wineskins that just won’t suffice for the new wine He intends to pour out (Mark 2v18-22). There are two things specifically that we want to focus in on: our theology and our methods.
We must ask ourselves questions about our theology to make sure Christ is the main thing. There is a danger of drifting from what the church was supposed to be when we emphasize and celebrate things that Jesus neither emphasized or celebrated.
“Open my eyes to see and understand what is major to you Jesus; may my life be about You and not a philosophy.”
We ask ourselves questions about our methods to make sure family remains the metaphor of our church. Saints’ Hill exists to increase relationship between you and God. It isn’t a business or a social club…it is first a place to meet God, to remember your first love. Everything else flows from that and won’t be programmed by us. The church is only as valid as it is effective in doing what Jesus did.
In the coming year, may God give us a value for the wine, for more wine. May He grant us wisdom to know where we need new wineskins this year.
On Sunday we had our Christmas gathering where Alex taught us through Luke’s account of Jesus’ birth, this good news that would bring great joy for all people.
The coming of the Messiah is good news, not just a good story. It’s good news because we need it. What we understand from the Scriptures is that humans were designed to be close to God and free but now they are far and enslaved from worship of lesser things.
The good news of a savior is that you don’t have to save yourself! Someone came for you, and He is the good news. If you have Him, you have life — abundant life. No fear of death, freedom from the need to be in control, freedom from fear of what people think, an eternal destiny. The news is that a Savior is here to reverse all the effects of the fall by reconnecting humans to the Father who made them.
We pray that this week you will be able to celebrate life abundant. To enjoy Him and all He’s done for you. Merry Christmas!
This last Sunday Bria taught us through the passage in Luke 1 where the angel Gabriel appears to Mary. The lesson that we learn from this story is one of identity and blessing.
The angel appeared to Mary and called her highly favored before he even spoke of her calling/mission. Identity and favor come before calling and responsibility. We steward the favor of God by believing what He says about us.
Blessing is a big responsibility. What we see in Mary’s story is that the promises of God will cost us something — but the cost is nothing compared to the reward.
Get around people who will help you steward His promises, like Mary did with Elizabeth. When the cost seems great, praise Him. Declare the faithfulness of Him who promised. Respond to God’s promises with celebration. When we choose gratitude, fear has no room to exist.
We believe that God is eradicating the fear of man in our family, so we say yes again to gratitude, celebration, and joy. We will count the cost again and again and declare that He is worth every bit of what He asks for.
On Sunday we began a new series that will take us on a long journey through the book of Luke. We picked this book because out of all the gospels, Luke takes the most detailed look at Jesus. Luke’s gospel is all about the Kingdom existing because the King is here.
Many know Jesus primarily as Savior or as Teacher, but we want to take a look at Jesus as a model. We believe Jesus was a model of what a human really connected to God looks like. At the beginning of Luke's gospel, we get two lessons in how to walk with the Father, how to respond to God. They are the lessons of Zechariah and Elizabeth.
Their lesson is that God wants to accomplish His will through our believing in Him, and we get glorious as a result. That’s what it means to have hearts turned to the Father and the Father to His children. He is looking for a people of faith who can steward what He intends to pour out. Saints’ Hill, may we be those people - strengthening ourselves in the Lord, ready to receive all His promises.
On Sunday Jake Vigil wrapped up our series on the Gospel. The word gospel means good news, and most people have heard of this news, but they don’t know how good it is. Jake’s encouragement to our family is that we will be the people who put the good back in the good news by the way we live.
We were created to expand Eden through the things we put our hands to, our work. We were created to co-labor with God, and we do this best when we live by His voice. This voice will lead us into all truth and remind us of our righteous identity. When we live this way, we find the easy yoke that Jesus talked about. When we get to work from our identity instead of for our identity, we inherit peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. This type of living is radical to the world.
The gospel is really good news. May our lives reflect the inheritance we’ve been given!
This last Sunday we heard from Alex Rettmann on what the journey of discipleship looks like for the believer. The journey is one of breakthrough and process.
The process of discipleship is about becoming a child again through the exchanging of fear for freedom through seeing God accurately. It’s a happy journey of glory to glory - walking in the delight of a paid for reality with a father who celebrates all growth no matter how small, and whose aim is that we get more fruit and get more joy.
When we see Him clearly, we begin to change from love instead of fear. God’s goals for us are not a moral standard but a free relationship that destroys fear.
All our fear, conquered by all His love...to make us more fruitful and full of joy. Blessings!
On Sunday, Alex gave a message on the Atonement - what it is, why we needed it, how God did it, and what that means for us practically.
Before Jesus, sacrifices were offered in an effort to deal with sin and make people right with God. But no sacrifice was effective enough to remove sin and make perfect people.
In Titus 3v3-7 it says, “He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, having been justified by His grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life.”
Jesus became the perfect sacrifice, making us perfect.
We are therefore reborn into what it means to be human - We are continually renewed by the Holy Spirit, becoming more alive and more human with each day that goes by. Practically, this Atonement kills self-righteousness and gives us the mood of joy.
We pray this week you will live into the blessing of your inheritance in Him, and that you would receive a generous outpouring of the Holy Spirit
This last Sunday we heard from Mariah Fredericks as we began a mini series on the gospel. We like the image of the gospel as a diamond that refracts light and beauty when spun around and looked at from different angles. Last night we spun the diamond to see what Jesus meant when He announced the good news of the coming of God’s Kingdom.
All throughout the narrative of the Scriptures we see God trying to set up His Kingdom among His people, but the common theme is that humans in their pride desired to build their own kingdoms, and in doing so laid a heavy burden on themselves. The truth is that the ways of the kingdoms of this world without the goodness of God will overpromise and underdeliver.
When we hear about Jesus as the founder and perfecter of our faith, the perfect representation of the Father, it means He’s the only one who knows what kind of kingdom we will flourish in. His Kingdom is what we were made for. While it does require us to leave behind our ideas of righteousness, justice, glory, and victory…it promises everything we could actually ever need.
The kingdom of God expands at the rate of relationship. You can spend your whole life accumulating what you think is wealth and end up with lack when it leaves you empty. The glory you are grasping at is nothing compared to the glory the Father wants to give you.
In his Kingdom, your work has purpose. In his Kingdom, you are reincorporated into the family of God. In his Kingdom, death and destruction lose their authority and darkness is rendered powerless. In his Kingdom dead things come alive. Addiction is broken. Hope is restored. In his Kingdom anything is possible. Inside and out.
Watch healing unfold physically, mentally, emotionally, psychologically. Watch lies be uprooted and replaced with truth. Watch enemies become friends.
We pray you were encouraged to continue giving everything up to follow Jesus. He’s worth what He asks for. We love you, Saints’ Hill.
This last Sunday we wrapped up our Spiritual Warfare series with a message on dealing with the demonic. Throughout this series we’ve seen that most of spiritual warfare is very ordinary - it’s the daily battle for truth in our minds. But what happens when we encounter a demon?
Alex first pointed us to our job description as Christians that we see throughout the New Testament and in Jesus’ life: to rid our world of demonic control. But how?
Well, what did Jesus do when faced with a demon?
By the power of the Spirit (Matt 12v28), He tells demons to shut up, and get out (Mark 1v21-28). And if He gave us His spirit, putting all things under our feet, then it is that simple for us too. We have been given all authority, but it is our choice whether or not we operate in our authority.
In everything we do at Saints’ Hill we want to equip. For the majority of this teaching Alex lays out really practical principles on demonic encounters and how we can approach them. Well worth the listen. We hope it dismantles any fear you may have surrounding the demonic and gives you courage to operate in the authority you've been given.
Since the beginning we see that it is our agreement with the serpent that empowers hell on earth. The essence of spiritual warfare is all about what you think. This is why there is the invitation to daily have our minds renewed by The Lord.
This past Sunday, Alex Rettmann continued with Part 3 in the Spiritual Warfare series. We are reminded that a major part of spiritual warfare has to do with ourselves! - Sin and The Flesh. Therefore, Alex walks us through Ephesians Chapter 6 to show us we are more than equipped to fight this spiritual battle! The chapter tells us its our job to resist the enemy with Truth! - Lastly, Alex leads us through the book of Romans to show us that sin and the flesh have been dealt with through the work of Jesus Christ. We are dead to sin and slaves to righteousness!
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So take a firm stand against darkness and ask yourself today - Which voice are you listening to? - For us today we can see two major voices are wealth and politics. So, in other words what are you “taking and then eating?” What is truly pleasing to the eyes of our heart? May it be his thoughts and his voice over our lives.
Be strong and courageous! Blessings!
This last Sunday we continued in our series on spiritual warfare. Alex taught on the three enemies of the Christian:
The world, building project self.
The flesh, trying to find significance outside of God.
The devil, through deception, accusation, and temptation.
Spiritual warfare, at its core, is the battle for the mind. Will God’s people think correctly about Him and His world and in doing so flourish? Or will they be found grasping for what they’ve already been promised by engaging in serpent stuff?
The good news of spiritual warfare is that the world, the flesh, and the devil had power...but God.
He sent Jesus and put everything under His feet. And if we are seated with Jesus in the heavenly places (Ephesians 2v6), then everything is also under our feet. The only battle we fight now, is believing that truth. May we be a people who are fully convinced of the victory and authority that we walk in as sons and daughters of Most High.
This last Sunday we began our series on Spiritual Warfare. In this first teaching, Alex laid out for us what it means to have a supernatural worldview.
All the way back in Genesis we see that God’s connection to creation brings about purpose, and God’s disconnection with creation brings about chaos.
The truth about what happened in the garden is this: the serpent, a heavenly ruler, wanted the human’s earthly authority to sow chaos on earth and he gets their authority by tempting the human rulers with the very heavenly authority that they already had in relationship with God.
We exist to align ourselves with Yahweh Elohim that we might see heaven cover the earth. So you can try to make sense of chaos and come up with a plan of your own, or you can become a snake crusher.
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Strength & Courage in Christ Jesus!
This last Sunday Jake Vigil wrapped up our fall vision series with an identity reminding, gospel centered message.
Every human has an invitation to leave a legacy. You are either leaving a legacy of earth, or, when you put your faith in Jesus, joyfully leaving a legacy of heaven. Jake reminded us that the only way for us to truly leave a legacy of heaven is to become a people of faith. Faith is the wind in the sail of our legacy.
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God will take faith the size of a mustard seed and put you in the hall of faith with the great cloud of witnesses. We have the privilege of joyfully giving him everything, believing that we are who He said we were according to His blood.
Blessings!
On Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our elders, Jim Traut. For Jim, leaving a legacy of heaven is about loving God with all your heart, soul, and mind - fully surrendered. Jim is a profound example of someone who has chosen to live completely surrendered to God all the days of his life. And the message of Jim's life: that God is good, He is faithful, and you can trust Him with everything.
It is God that gives us value and purpose and identity. - Your ability to understand and receive His calling for you, to live with purpose, and exercise your gifts, is intricately related to the level of your surrender.
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God has something better for you than you could ever imagine, ask for, or make up - and His call on your life always comes with the power to do what it demands.
Blessings!
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our elders, Andoni. For his children’s children, Andoni has this charge in his heart - to leave a legacy of heaven.
Whatever we believe in will determine what we leave behind. When we look at John 14:6 we see that the way is a person. The truth is a person. Life is a person.
It starts with belief. Believing Jesus is who He says He is, and that He is a perfect representation of the Father, positions us in a place of responsibility and authority to see worldly circumstances bow the knee to the reality of heaven. We are to love Him and stand in his commandments regardless of the world.
So may we start asking for the impossible, knowing that our Father is ready to pour out all of Himself where He finds our yes.
This last Sunday we continued in our Fall Vision series, where we revisit some of our core values. This year we’re focusing in on what it means to leave a legacy of heaven.
For those who will come after us here in Newberg, their inheritance will be related to what our belief in God produced…specifically the revelation we carried & the breakthrough we walked in.
As a family we are committed to handing down not just an encounter with our core values, but an encounter with the one our values are designed to lead to. We will embrace the season God has us in knowing that nothing is wasted and that He is as good as He says He is.
We will leave a mental map of righteous family through testimony. All the break through, all the revelation, and all of the seasons write a story - a testimony we get to hand down. They give a culture to belong to for those who will come after us!
This last Sunday we kicked off our fall vision series, where we spend time revisiting and contemplating the foundation of Saints’ Hill Church. One of our core values at Saints’ Hill is that we have the privilege of leaving a legacy of heaven.
How do we live lives that are worth inheriting? In this teaching Alex shows us how our obedience, attention, and thankfulness are the keys to living a life of weight.
You have this one life - what will you leverage for eternal significance? How can you build His kingdom today instead of your own? May our obedience, attention, and thankfulness leave a fragrance in this town that lingers long after we are gone.
This last Sunday we wrapped up our mini series, “Why the Church?” In this final week Alex walked us through what it means to be the Confessing Church. In this culturally strenuous time the Church finds her resistance through faithfulness to the truth.
The goal at hand for the Church is not winning the culture war…it’s the same goal we’ve had from the beginning - reconciliation. Be strengthened in your faith that you stand in a long line of saints who have gone before you confessing truth in the face of unforgiving circumstances. The church becomes an alternate community worth following when we decide to live in the truth.
This past Sunday, Alex continued in a three part series called: Why the Church?- A series that will give three reasons and responses to this big question.
In 1 Peter we find a cosmic explanation of what the Church is. We see that the Church is built through people! Believers that come to him and make a space for The Lord to be hosted. These believers are a royal priesthood continually giving Yahweh sacrifices and facilitating the lost to find Him! In short, this is defined as Revival. -- The Church exists for Revival: "Revival is people coming back to the life they were designed to live"
Thanks for joining us! Blessings!
This past Sunday, Alex started a three part series called: Why the Church? - A series that will give three reasons and responses to this big question. In light of a pandemic; What is the purpose of the Church? Is there a need for the gathering of believers? Can you get everything you "need" from church elsewhere? And ultimately, why does the Church matter to you?
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We walked through Ephesians 4 to see that equipping is a major reason why the Church matters. This Kingdom equipping only happens in the Church. The Lord has given gifts to His people to be equipped as soldiers that are drafted into a battle. We must count the cost and see the absolute need for the Church in this time. A Church defined by the truth of the scriptures and do what it says/models. - Thanks for joining us! Blessings!
This last Sunday Alex Rettmann talked about the identity of the church found in the Scriptures and how Saints’ Hill operates within that identity.
The “mood” of Saints Hill is a mood of faith. People living from deep faith and experiencing joy, hope, peace, and power. This mood is not random though, it is a result of people knowing and holding onto the truth. -- It’s about a people who are committed to hearing His voice. A people who hold onto what they hear, and actually believe it. And a people who share what they hear by prophetically encouraging one another. --
Saints’ Hill, may we continue to live marked by radical dependence on God no matter what the situation, welcoming the fruit of the Holy Spirit.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from Mariah Fredericks on Jesus’ reinstatement of Peter and what that means for us.
Sometimes when we see the glory of God do miraculous things we can be tempted to go back to what we know is safe and familiar out of fear or insecurity. But as we saw with Peter, it is our job as sons and daughters to remember who He is and therefore who we are. From that place we die to lesser ways of thinking and surrender our idea of how we think our lives should go. Sacrifice is no longer what you do but who you are.
May we be a people who joyfully submit to the Holy Spirit’s purification in our lives and see his kingdom break out as a result.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from Austin and Breanna Smith. They talked to us about how abiding and the gospel of Jesus relate to marriage & relationships.
The world we find ourselves living in today seemingly runs on broken relationships. For too long the church has let the world’s narrative inform its view of marriage and relationships. But when we look to the Scriptures we find a robust view of what it means to be in relationship with Jesus and with people. Marriage should be a witness to the power of the gospel to transform lives.
Kingdom relationships begin with abiding, keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus. Only from that place of abiding do we find the transformative power of the Holy Spirit at work in our relationships - bearing witness to the goodness of God & His desire to see humans flourish.
Focusing on the Abraham and Isaac story in Genesis 22, Alex Rettmann challenges us with the “test” we see in the scriptures and in our lives - “do you love God for God or do you love Him for what He does for you?” This test requires us to step back and look at what we have done with what He has given us - to realize that our virtue does not come from earthly blessing but from surrender. This message invites us to loosen our grips and surrender to God, to see the brevity of life and live with abandon to the God we can trust, the God who did not even hold His Son from us. May we be a people who, like Abraham, pass the test - who love God for God and see the transformation of surrender.
This last Sunday Jake Vigil gave us a word on Kingdom Stewardship and Investment.
He taught us through two parables in Luke where we are reminded that we truly have struck gold in finding the kingdom. Jesus in these parables is asking us if we will make the most of our investment. Our stewardship of our lives on this side of heaven will come to an end. When you take account of your life are you still selling everything for this kingdom you’ve found?
The good news for us is that we do not own our life, we are stewards of it. Our surrender invites His power to do things we never imagined were possible. You can be at rest, because you can enjoy your life when it's not your own. So may we be a people who joyfully think of extravagant ways to sew into the kingdom.
On Sunday Bria Wolter delivered a word to us about the simple gospel. In this cultural moment where truth seems to be slipping through our fingers, how can we really know what is true? We are reminded that it is only in the revelation of Jesus that we find what we are looking for.
The simple gospel matters. Nothing needs to be added to the finished work of the cross. Bria invited us to ask ourselves these three questions as we approach the gospel:
- Am I adding to or taking away from the gospel where Jesus didn’t?
- Am I squirming rather than submitting to its authority?
- Am I seeing my experience first or Jesus first?
Real truth changes the world. May we be a people who submit to the authority of the gospel - not just for our own sake, but for the sake of heaven coming to earth in our town.
This week Alex Rettmann proposed the question: What is the good life? - Philosophers have been asking this question for ages, but what is the answer for a disciple of Jesus?
Does it come from the pursuit of understanding, morals, or even Justice? Yes in part, but on each of those routes we must be aware of any false gospels that could be attached to those life pursuits.
More importantly the path towards "The Good Life" for believers is all about "Kingdom Partnership" - A supernatural powerful life filled with the Holy Spirit and partnering with Jesus to expand Eden on Earth once again.
Be encouraged! Thanks for listening; We love you!
This last Sunday we held a panel with some of our Saints’ Hill worship leaders. These are people who don’t necessarily get to teach on a regular basis, but are wells of wisdom and intimacy with Jesus. It was such an encouraging time to hear what’s inside of each of these huge people.
We talked about the heart of worship, testimonies, calling, lordship and so much more!
This last Sunday our worship pastor Jake Vigil spoke to us about the Heart of Worship.
We see all the way back in Genesis that worship is about sacrifice. For us to be a house of His Presence our worship must cost us something. What makes our worship powerful is not the form or expression that it takes…power is found in the purity of His Presence. Jesus always protects extravagant worship, even when it offends the religious.
Worship was never meant to become an industry, it has always been about lovers denying themselves and giving the world a taste of heaven through their sacrifice of praise. May we forever remain lovers instead of performers.
This last Sunday Alex Rettmann talked to us about why we built a church around worship.
We planted a church to minister to Him. Our vision for impact in Newberg is worship.
When we worship we align ourselves with what’s happening in heaven. It takes us from slaves to priests. The truth about God expressed in our worship renews our minds - and a renewed people is what renews a place. That’s why we worship.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hosting one of our dear friends - Kenny Snyder. Someone who lives a lifestyle of worship and has been pioneering revival in our town for a long time.
Kenny talked about worship as transformation. True worship should take us where we need to go and not just where we want to go. If we want to walk in this worship that transforms we must lay down our entitlements and our preferences. In heaven, there won’t be any question whether or not we worship Him. Our intentional sacrifice of worship on this side of heaven moves His heart, and makes the enemy shrink back.
To worship Him is to give your life to Him. We pray that you are strengthened by the Holy Spirit this week to worship Him in everything
This last Sunday Bria Wolter brought us a word on biblical purity. These were some key takeaways:
Purity is a person - His name is Jesus.
Purity is given to you and received by you - His sacrifice made us clean.
Purity is an action - the world is desperate for the hope we have. We’ve seen His face and we have an answer.
May our purity be less about what we’re staying away from, and more about who we’re drawing near to. Holiness exposes impurity as an invitation to greater intimacy with our King. All of us is for all of Him.
Andoni gave a teaching on two things that we should never grow out of - growing and serving.
Growing in our child-like ability to receive from our Father, and serving the way Jesus came to serve us.
In the kingdom, we go low to go high. May we be a people who never stop growing and serving!
This last Sunday one of our elders, Jim Traut, talked to us about forgiveness.
According to the Scriptures, forgiveness is not optional…A family of believers that does forgiveness well, looks like the kingdom of heaven.
Unforgiveness can hold you hostage, but forgiving sets you free. When you forgive, you are giving up what you think is your right to get even.
When we are compelled by the great debt that Jesus paid on our behalf, forgiveness will come much easier.
This last Sunday we heard from Jake Vigil a fresh take on what it means to guard your heart.
His showed us that there is a difference between guarding your heart from something out of fear, and guarding your heart for something out of love. That something we want to protect is covenant.
Here are four practical ways to protect your covenant:
Testimonies
Meditate on His Scriptures
Say no to lies and fear
Stay motivated by your marriage
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When we live out of covenant love, jealousy, bitterness, disappointment, and fear are all crushed. We are truly free to see the fruit of the kingdom in our lives.
Blessings!!
This last Sunday, we wrapped up our House of Acts Series. -- Paul’s life message: lose your life, only then will you find it. Paul lived so much because he died so much.
If you live for yourself, you will never actually enjoy your life. You’ll be too busy trying to control it. It is only when we give our lives up completely to be used by Him, that we find true fulfillment, purpose, and peace.
BLESSINGS! and thanks for listening!!
This last Sunday Alex taught through some of Acts 27-28 where Paul puts on display what it looks like to live a life of resurrection power.
When you have the same Spirit that rose Jesus from the dead alive in you, your faith becomes the roads people without faith travel into the kingdom of God.
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We were designed for overflow. Our circumstances don’t have the final say in what we have to offer. We don’t have to live in self preservation because death is not our greatest fear.
Blessings!
This last Sunday we continued in our House of Acts series as Alex narrowed the three reasons why we need the Resurrection to be true:
We need atonement. There’s a cost to the way that we live.
The problem of self-righteousness. Your judgement on others actually puts you in chains.
You need a life without fear. Putting your faith in this Jesus who embraced death on your behalf will set you free from fear.
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If this resurrection is true, it’s the solution to all the problems of humanity. No other solution humbles you, makes you more forgiving and loving, gives you courage in the face of death, and promises life forever with God and loved ones.
Blessings! He is RISEN!
This last Sunday Alex Rettmann taught from Acts chapter 24, where we find Paul discussing three things with Felix, the governor: righteousness, self control, and the judgement to come. Alex reasoned with us from the Scriptures how these three things are what the gospel of Jesus is really about, and why it is so offensive.
Praying The Fear of The Lord over you this season! Blessings & We love you!! Thanks for listening
This last Sunday, Alex Rettmann taught us through the beginning of Acts 23, which begins with Paul stating before the council, “I have lived my life before God in all good conscience up to this day.” (v1)
For Saints’ Hill to live in good conscience, we will:
Be centered on gratitude.
Value the building of family over efficiency.
Leave a legacy of faith, hope and love.
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Blessings!
On Sunday we had the distinct privilege of hearing from our very own Bria Wolter. She brought us an incredibly sharp word from Acts 212-22, asking the question: what does it look like to be a stewarding church? God is moving in remarkable ways in our family, how can we steward all that He is entrusting us with?
Identity. Going to the Father for vision over your life, a vision that will guide you in all discernment as you go.
Good interpretation of the prophetic. We interpret the prophetic in relationship with our Creator, equipped with truth from the Scriptures, and secure in our God-given identity.
Saints' Hill, may we be a people who think with His thoughts, keep our eyes set on Jesus, stay wary of the crowd, and choose obedience no matter what lies ahead of us.
This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño. - Andoni reminded us that we prophesy with eternity in our minds - our job is to prophesy the answer, not the problem. The Holy Spirit may reveal to you what the enemy is doing in a situation, but only for the purpose of highlighting how God intends to bring victory to it. Our prophetic answer is always the person of Jesus.
Be encouraged today! Blessings!
This last Sunday Jacob Vigil taught us through the beginning of Acts 20. From this text we observe these four markers of a good leader:
Good leaders are encouragers who love to give encouragement
Good leaders have good friends & mission-led friendships.
Good leaders understand that Jesus is their sabbath.
Good leaders stay spiritually awake.
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May we bring these truths before the Lord and let His presence empower us to become better leaders!
This week Alex Rettmann shares with us out of Acts 19. - What is revival? And, what are the signs of revival taking place?
To have revival, means that people are being revived back to life!
The signs are people rejecting religion, choosing relationship/lordship, and continually being baptized by the Holy Spirit.
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We want the more of God! We want to experience His glory in much deeper ways, so may we have hearts that stay faithful to Jesus and open to the unusual!
Blessings!
This Sunday, Alex Rettmann proposed these 2 questions: What does it mean to be a part of Saints Hill Church? & What sustains family revival?
Being a part of Saints Hill looks like “being a big person” - Someone that fully lives out the Finished Work of The Cross and applies Jesus’ blood over every aspect of life. Where we lack nothing and can walk out, what Alex shared is the “in and out” lifestyle. Where we live to be “in” the presence of God and carry that “out” to our community/families. - One practical way we see family revival sustained is through biblical confrontation. This takes us walking in humility and purity.
We pray that your spirit is encouraged and equipped by truth!
This Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from a Father/Elder of the house; Jim Traut!
Jim picked back up in our current series through the book of Acts. The Lord put six different action points/truths on Jim's heart to share with us; out of Acts 18.
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There is power in the name of Jesus!
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There is power in the simplicity of The Gospel
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God begins at dead ends. Strength in our weakness
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Your occupation is your ordination - Your mission
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Know the truth and Speak it!
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Fathers and Mothers stand up
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Praying blessings, courage as you are Fathered again by our God.
"For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." - Matthew 6:21
The Lord has created you for freedom! It is a gift found through the life of Jesus and His teachings. We find in the NT one of Jesus' most talked about topics was treasure (money). Therefore, as believers we must grow in wisdom on how to best steward the raw material that the Lord has entrusted us with.
This Sunday, Alex Rettmann opens up the scriptures and talks to our family about Money, and how we were meant to be free! We are called to rule over money, and not have money rule over us.
Blessings and peace over you! Thanks for listening.
Do you fully need to understand a culture in order to reach it? Do you need to be a cultural critic to adequately make the argument for Christ? How intelligent does somebody have to be to lead someone to Christ?
This past Sunday, Alex Rettmann continued on in our "House of Acts" series. He spoke to us out of Acts 17 where we see how Paul evangelized and engaged with culture. This poses the question to us: When we have the greatest news in the entire world; How do we engage with Culture?
"My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit's power" - 1 Corinthians 2:4
Be blessed and encouraged in boldness to share the simple truth of the Gospel and Jesus our Messiah!!
This week we picked back up in our series going through the book of Acts! - Bria Wolter walked us through Chapter 16. She showed us, with Paul being a role model, and the spirit of Jesus through us that "A free people, free people!" - Therefore, we have the invitation to see Victory in and around us. Bria reminded us that: God, and God alone, is the one that defines us! Not our circumstances or what is going on in our world. Our fear cant hold us, but only Jesus!
We pray courage and fresh hope over you today!
This past Sunday, Alex Rettmann shares some new year prophetic insight that we believe the Lord is calling us into for 2021. Seeing what the Lord is saying for the year is important because we can be aware of Holy Spirit invitations. These invitations allow us to stay focused on what Jesus is doing in our midst.
For the year 2021, we believe the Lord is inviting us into a renewed focus on healing, specifically physical healing. We have always prayed for healing, however, this renewed focus we believe will build/create/reveal His beautiful church. That our church will be attractive to the world because Jesus the Healer is tangible and present.
Be encouraged and stirred with passion while listening! We urge you to prepare yourself for risk and deeper invitations of healing from the Lord. For yourself, and for others around you.
Blessings!!
Hey Saints Hill! This past Sunday was such a sweet family moment bringing in the New Year together!
We had a gathering of worship, reflection (thanksgiving) and dreaming (prophecy). Alex Rettmann led us through a time of thanksgiving. To look back on the year 2020 and realize all that the Lord has done and taught us! Then we heard some awesome testimonies! Lastly, Bria Woltor led us through and amazing time of praying and dreaming for 2021! Then we capped it off with taking communion over our next year as a family. Declaring that it will always be about the person of Jesus!
So if you're tuning in, please grab a notebook and pen. To write down dreams and things you are thankful for. Then grab communion elements and take communion with us!
Blessings, hope and joy over you!
This Sunday was our Christmas gathering, where We ended our series “Signs Point!” It has been a beautiful time of being reminded what Christmas time really means for us as believers. A time of learning and seeing the prophetic signs that all point to Jesus which ultimately lead to our relationship with Him.
This week, Alex Rettmann, shows us that the Magi were that way. The Magi had the ability to see a sign, follow the sign, and explore it fully, because they recognized their need of a King. These signs that God reveals to us are all invitations to participate in Heaving coming to earth.
So may our eyes be open this season! To see the signs in front of us that have Jesus on the other side of them. Where in purity of heart we partner with the Spirit to reveal Jesus to the world.
Blessings and good tidings of great joy!!
Thanks for continuing on with us on in our Advent series: Signs Point. Alex Rettmann walks us through a coming messiah prophecy found in Isaiah 9. This passage reminds us of what Christmas really is all about; That the antidote for a life that feels unclear/gloomy is God himself coming to us and setting up his "Government" in us, to bring great joy.
We learn that the single thing that will accomplish this great miracle is: The zeal of the Lord. It was the Lord's Zeal that caused His son Jesus to come to Earth. -True revival is when Gods zeal collides with mans zeal towards Him.
Be blessed and stirred in relationship towards our wonderful Father!
This Sunday we started our Advent Series: "Signs Point". As a family, we will be looking through the moments in the Bible that prophesy and point to the Messiah coming. In looking at these signs we will find out what they really say about Jesus and therefore what that means for humans. --Physical signs point to a deeper heavenly relationship that we are invited into.--
Alex Rettmann walks us through the books of Genesis and Daniel to show us why the "Son of Man" truly came. It was to invite humans back into a royal identity; to rule and reign over "The Snake"
We pray that you feel encouraged and strengthened into your victorious identity! Blessings!!
In this bonus teaching to cap our Vision Series, Andoni Montaño walks us through the practical ways we steward honor, and why it is so important that we are secure in who we are as children of God - not needy of expectance because we already have it - in this culture of celebration and honor. Let's dive deeper into what it means to honor, and how we live in a culture of honor.
We join Alex Rettmann to dive into our 10th, and last, value in the vision series. Legacy is a handing down of the shared history, victory and culture of a place so that the next generation starts where you finished. Our goal is to leave a spiritual inheritance for those who come after us to enjoy and receive, and that they would go further with the Father as they stand on our shoulders.
This Sunday we continue our Vision series with our ninth core value. Alex Rettmann shows us through the early church we see the Church actually is a family. That it was designed to be an infrastructure of service and Hosting the Lords presence. He reminds us that the church is not just a 501c3 or to be ran like a "business" but instead a family that celebrates greatness and makes The Presence of God the priority. This type of family is what creates true diversity and empowerment, and not just uniformity of thought or control.
Thanks for listening! We love you family!
This week we had the honor to hear from one of our Saints' Hill elders - Jim Traut. Through intimacy with the Father, and a deep love for the scriptures, Jim walks this core value with personal authority and shares with us from that place.
The Scriptures are authoritative and tell us the truth that brings freedom. May we walk in truth and freedom as we submit to the way of Jesus and His Word.
We continue in our vision series with the kick-off of our 10 core value teachings. Bria Wolter introduces this section of our series with our first core value: God is Good. "God is Good" is so much more than a platitude, it's a deep trust in God's character and intentions towards us. We spend this week reflecting on just how good He is, and what our lives look like in response.
As we continue our vision series Alex Rettmann reminds us that if we want to see Newberg transformed we need our minds to be renewed. Through a strong identity in Christ we are able to think renewed and be transformed. Alex walks us through the importance of agreeing with who God says we are in Christ, and not who we used to be.
We hope that this message encourages and strengthens you. That it reminds you of who He has called you. We love you church!
Church Family! We are so excited because, this past Sunday, we started our Vision Series! This is one of our favorite times of the year; Where we go back to our basics, revisit, and dive even deeper into our vision and values as our church!
- Psalm 112 says "Blessed are those who fear the Lord who find great delight in His commands" -- Alex Rettmann shares how for us this year, "The Lord is going to give the church integrity through the fear of the Lord"
The Fear of The Lord is about a people whose hearts are tender to the Lord, doing everything in life with Him in mind. This starts with us choosing to be people that "stay in the tent of the Lord." Our vision for this year starts with us saying yes to the presence of God!
Be blessed while listening to this talk. We pray you feel your heart becoming tender again and that you would feel the pull into deeper encounters with Jesus
We love you!
This past Sunday, Alex Rettmann shared how, in this time, we must gain a heart of wisdom! Psalm 90 teaches us how by "numbering our days" -- Life here on Earth is but a vapor compared to eternity!
So we must have Eternity in mind, move from the fear of death, and onward to the Love of Christ, found in the promise of Resurrection!
So fear not!
Blessings, Joy, and Strength to you!
This week we had the opportunity to hear from Bria Wolter!
In this cultural unknown/unrest, like a pandemic, it may seem easy to fall back into a "survival mode" or mentality. However, Bria encourages us to anchor ourselves in hope and dream again!
Survival thinks and operates inward, but a heart and mind seeking out Revival operates outward!
Blessings and Strength from Jesus over you while you listen!
We love you!
This week, Jacob Vigil talks with us about how "What you align yourself with, determines where you go in life" - Having a True Biblical Worldview matters so you know how to discern what is going on in our cultural moment. He chats through the comparison between the true Gospel vs. the Social Justice Gospel.
Blessings and grace to walk through Truth that sets you free!!
Peace is not the absence of conflict or hurry; Peace is the presence of a Person, Jesus.
In this talk, Alex Rettmann shares with us that in this current time, we are to be people that host peace, and peace is a Person.
That our heavenly peace, that we are to give away is based on proximity to Jesus, and not just activity or the lack thereof.
Alex also shares, via 1 Timothy, that a key ingredient to a peace filled home/town/nation is intercession and prayer. Praying for our families, neighbors, and leaders in authority.
Blessings!
SH
This last Sunday, was our first corporate gathering back amidst Covid 19! We are currently having Church in the field, and it was a fun time of worship and learning from the scriptures together.
In this talk, we hear from Alex Rettmann about pioneering. We believe, as a church, it is our privilege to pioneer new territory with the Holy Spirit leading us. All for the sake of revival coming to our town, and to leave a spiritual legacy for others. Alex reminds us that pioneering first starts with us personally then moves outward to then lead others!
Blessings and thanks for tuning in :)
SH
Mariah Fredericks speaks to the power of the gospel. The gospel transforms and invites us to encounter Jesus in relationship. Being with God is made possible, and a life of power in Him is on offer. Our goal is that we would grow more in love with King Jesus and know that there is nothing better than to be His. Let us live in the fullness of the gospel.
Jim Traut, one of our Saints' Hill elders, brings a powerful message that invites us to examine our lives and what we chase after. Jesus is the prize we are running after, we will fix our eyes on Him. What does it look like for you to run with endurance?
We took a Sunday to hear some of the testimonies from this time from people in our Saints' Hill family. We believe that testimony holds power as we speak out the marvelous things that God has done and is doing, and that it prophesies of what He wants to do again. May you be encouraged of His heart for His children and His desire to move in Power. Lord, do it again.
Andoni Montaño continues in our House of Acts series with a teaching that grounds us in identity. "Know whose you are and who you are and you will change the world". We want to encounter our times with an unshakeable identity in Jesus. Our goal is that we would know Him deeply, and that what He thinks about us would be the defining factor of our lives.
We continue in our House of Acts series with Alex Rettmann. We look at what it means to have the mind of Christ, and to ask God what He thinks about the different voices we hear. We are designed to host His presence and respond to Him in every situation.
Alex Rettmann continues in our House of Acts series. Jesus offers His people an identity that is not defined by fear, but by His goodness. Explore the solutions of Jesus as taught by the scriptures, and how we can engage in our present cultural moment fully sure in who we are in Him.
Jacob Vigil asks us to see Scripture's invitation into calling and destiny. Have you ever asked the question, "God, what do you have for me?" God's word tells us a story of destination of intimacy and gives insight for the life purpose of the Jesus follower.
Alex Rettmann continues in our House of Acts Series. The fear of God positions us to love what God loves and with the fear of God there is integrity to revival. We believe that a people of faith will see the impossible.
Alex Rettmann continues in our House of Acts series. We are invited to step into the culture of heaven and live in a gospel reality - a people that exist to worship Jesus and be fathered by God.
From Sunday May 17th. Our friend Gerald Griffin from Bridgetown Church brings an important message, pushing us toward further unity in the Spirit.
We continue through our House of Acts series as Bria Wolter teaches in Acts chapter 10. We must remember that the Holy Spirit is speaking, and that there is nothing that brings true unity to humanity other than King Jesus.
Andoni Montano teaches through the end of Acts chapter 9. This is a time to remember who God is, and see breakthrough through the power the of testimony of what He has done. May we see Him do it again.
Join us as we continue in our House of Acts series with Jim Traut teaching from Acts 9:20-31. God is making His church stronger and He will use our surrender, our testimony and our time with Him to build this Kingdom family. Be encourage by this message of hope for the people of God.
Bria Wolter continues in our House of Acts series, focusing on Acts 9:1-19 and the revelation of God to His people. Be encouraged to receive revelation from the Lord to spur you into the next season, and that we would all be expectant of what God is up to. May we see revival come to our city and beyond.
Join us for our 5 PM Easter service as we celebrate the power in the resurrection of Jesus.
Join us for Sunday service 04/05 as we continue to gather from wherever we are. Jacob Vigil shares with us what it means to be a family that worships, and the power to defeat the enemy that is in the praise of God's people.
Find resources and past teachings at saintshill.church/sundays-on
Thanks for tuning in during these Home Sundays! We pray you are encouraged and blessed by this teaching by one of our leaders Andoni!
See the activation for this teaching on our website - saintshill.church/home-sundays
Week two of Home Sundays. Join Saints' Hill from wherever you are as Alex Rettmann takes us deeper into what it means to be disciples of Jesus.
Peace to you in these times! God is so good!
Alex Rettmann and Saints' Hill Church invites us to partner with the Holy Spirit in prophecy, as we learn the Biblical context, and powerful application of this gift that is for today.
Blessings!
Bethany Allen speaks on Naomi and how she pursued deeper relationship with God after her dreams were crushed.
Alex Rettmann kicks off a month long series called, "Family Culture." The hope for this series is to get sharper on some of the things we already care about and value in our family. To have a "family tune-up" if you will. In this first talk, Alex shares with us the importance and need for a renewed mind. That as believers we are called to live life and deal with what it brings with a renewed mind. To solve earths issues from "Heaven to Earth" not "Earth to Heaven" - to bring about supernatural solutions. -- Thanksgiving is, one way that Alex shares, that fuels the renewed mind.
Be encourage by this message, we pray peace and blessings over you!
Thanks for joining us as we continue in our series, "House of Acts." - Jacob Vigil takes us through Acts 7 as we learn about the life of Stephen. Jacob proposes the question "Are we living lives that give Jesus His full reward?" To help answer this question we delve into the conversation of a mission filled life. Do we believe the Bible is not only true but also livable? Stephen shows us what it looks like to stay on mission in the midst of persecution and opposition!
We pray as you listen to this, that you are pushed to a greater boldness in Christ!
Blessings!
This Sunday, Alex Rettmann gives us some kingdom insight on how to properly steward life and what it brings. True life and peace comes from surrender and following The Lord's voice. Getting a right perspective of Gods goodness is the key to stewarding a life that is full of The Kingdom. May we be the people that never limit our "asking" of the Kingdom. Jesus said that The Kingdom is at hand, so attainable now, in its fullest!
Blessings!
This Sunday, we had the huge privilege and honor to have our friend Chris Cruz share with us!
Chris Cruz currently lives in Redding, CA with his wife and 2 children. He is the pastor of Bethel's Young Adults, Tribe and the local church's Creative Director! He has a fierce passion for the presence of God invading our midst and is a lover of Truth!
Listen in on, a very timely message, for our church family. Chris shares his heart on what true honor looks like. He shares on "how much we Honor" is in direct relation with "how much we receive from God and The Spirit"
Here at Saints Hill, we want to be the people that are attentive to the Spirit. We want the "more of God," therefore, we will take time to honor where the Spirit is moving in our midst.
Thanks for listening and may the joy of The Lord rest on you!
This week Bria Wolter shares with us from Acts 6:1-7. Bria talks about the history of the Church, why it matters and how it is a promise for us today. She talks about why it's important that the Church is a family made up of many people with different talents and why it's important that each of us as members of this family give our yes to what the Spirit is calling us to. Bria also shares about why good leaders don't try to fill every need but instead empower individuals within the body to use their talents and calling to meet the needs of others. Thanks for joining us this week, peace and blessings.
This week as we continue in the "House of Acts" series, Alex Rettmann shares on Acts 5 and how the Apostle's and early church viewed evangelism. Alex discusses how the early church lived, what they faced because of their ministry and how we can live in the same boldness. He also discusses how to find freedom from the things that would hold us back from sharing the good news today. Thank you for joining us, peace and blessings to you.
Bria Woltor continues in our currents series; "House of Acts" - It was an honor to hear from Bria this last Sunday! She shares with us, as NT believers, we are "The New Temple" - The Holy Spirit is in us, wherever we go, to be released in power. To bring about signs, wonders, and miracles! We also hear from her on how to move past our disappointments when it comes to healing. To never let our experience dictate our theology and the Truth of the scriptures. We have a responsibility to go after healing, no matter what it looks like!!
Be blessed and pushed to boldness!!
Thanks for listening in on our first gathering of 2020!! We believe Jesus has BIG things in store for our church family!
Alex Rettmann kicks off the year with a talk on freedom. Prophetically, we believe 2020 will be a year of freedom. A deep, true, and specific gift of freedom for each person. Alex talks about house this freedom stands on the shoulders of a deeper surrender and therefore a deeper trust.
Let 2020 be a year for Saints Hill that we look back on! A year where we can say "we laid all of ourselves down for Jesus!" - He is so good and worthy of everything!
Blessings!
Well Church, we officially ended the series, "The God Who Comes!" However, before we jump back into "House of Acts".... we had the opportunity to listen to Jacob Vigil! In this talk, Jacob reminds us of the identity we currently have because of the finished work of The Cross! Just died so that we may be clean and righteous. Not by our own works but by the powerful work of Jesus! We must believe the truth and walk by faith! Freedom is here and now.
Thanks for joining in and listening to this weeks podcast. We hope you had an amazing time during the holidays and felt the joy and peace of God!!
Blessings!
Thanks for joining us for our Christmas Gathering! Listen in as we conclude our series "The God Who Comes" -- Alex Rettmann expounds on two core ideas to our Christianity that set Jesus apart from all other religions: "The accessibility of God" & "The Generosity of God."
These two are what really bring us the great tidings of joy in this season!
What we really learned during this series more than anything is; A God that is looking for just right behavior, is a God that stays at a distant. A God that is only just a judge and waiting for a mis hap. However, the story of Jesus reveals a God that makes Himself accessible. He comes close to us. He is then generous and gives Himself fully to us in relationship! - We remember that we serve that God in this season. We focus on His goodness!
Blessings and tidings of joy to you! We pray you feel His closeness in this season!
This week we had the opportunity to hear from a Father of Saints Hill, one of our elders Jim Traut!
Listen in as Jim provokes us into a deeper trust with Jesus. This trust looks like really taking The Lord at His word and believing what He says about you!
We encourage you to often declare truths over yourself. Jim gave us an awesome list of biblical identity declarations at the end of his message!
Blessings and Peace!
Thanks for joining us as we continue in part 2 of our advent series, "The God Who Comes"
Alex Rettmann reveals who John was, and what his role was to make way for our Messiah to come near to us.
"John the baptist came to remove what Israel was previously carrying to fully receive the gift that is Jesus Christ......
... John was sent to develop an appetite to the meal that Jesus was serving up"
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Saints Hill Church, lets do just that! In the hustle and bustle of this Christmas season, may we be the people that fully feast on Jesus, His presence, His goodness, above anything else!
Blessings!
Thanks for joining us as we take a holiday break from our current series, "House of Acts" and start "The God Who Comes Near." - For the month of December, we will be reading verse by verse the origin story of Jesus our Messiah in the book of John.
Listen in as Alex Rettmann shares how Jesus is the origin of everything. He is the great definer and great designer. He is the word and when He speaks it is the voice of God. Therefore in this holiday time, the supremacy of Christ is crucial.
"We are only as strong as our exaltation of Jesus"
This Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from, guest speaker, Josh Porter! - Josh Porter is the lead pastor of Vancity Church in Vancouver, Washington. Just like us, Vancity was also a church plant out of Bridgetown Church in Portland, OR.
Josh reminds us how serious the early church took Jesus' teaching when it came to generosity. That as followers of Jesus we must deliberately focus on divesting our resources for and towards others in need.
We pray that as you listen in; that you are so encouraged by the abundance given by The Lord, that it pushes you to radical generosity!
Peace to you Saints Hill family!
Jacob Vigil continues our current series "House of Acts." We walk through Acts 4 and see Peter and John great opposition between the Sanhedrin. We see Peter "filled with spirit" proclaim that Jesus is Lord and with huge boldness declare truth in the midst of being on trial.
We believe God is raising up bold evangelists in our church! People that will not edit out certain parts of the Gospel. A people that boldly declare Jesus is Lord and salvation is only found in Him. Now is not a time of fear, but a time of big faith and great boldness!
Will you step out today? -- Peace and Blessings to you! Thanks for listening.
This week we hear from Alex Rettmann as he walks us through Act 3! We read about the amazing healing that took place between a man and Peter! We are reminded that power being poured out on humanity was a promise from Jesus. As believers, moving in signs and wonders is an invitation and mandate that we are called to walk in. Not by our might, but because of Jesus and faith in His name!
We want to see our valley become a "sickness-free zone" and that starts with giving the people in front of us an encounter with Jesus. Christ IN YOU in the hope of GLORY!
Blessings!
Thanks for joining us as we continue in our series, "House of Acts" - In this message, Pastor Alex Rettmann really delves in and compounds on the truth that "God creates structures (liturgies) in our life for His Spirit to fill"
Alex reminds us that creating liturgies out of "spiritual obligations" is really just religion. That we can fall into the trap of "doing" so that we "become." But, our heart is to have our identity found first in Jesus and then practice/create a liturgy that He will fill. - Through the Gospel, we realize what we "have become" and then the overflow of that transformation will be us "doing the stuff"
Peace and Joy!
This week, Alex Rettmann continues in our current series: House of Acts. We believe Saints Hill Church will be a House of Acts! For any of that to be possible we must have, receive, be filled, and baptized by The Holy Spirit!
Alex Rettmann walks us through the day at pentecost in Acts 2. He helps define biblically what "Wind" and "Fire" mean, and shows us how significant this outpouring of the Spirit really was. And, how we can have that again today!
Saints Hill Church is a growing family, and we look at the Sunday gatherings as a laboratory if you will. A place where we honor and follow Jesus, and desire to follow The Holy Spirit wherever He leads. We don't have all the answers and are learning from Him. But, our heart is, just like Alex proclaimed at the end of his talk: There is more!!
This week we had the honor to hear from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño! - He continues in our current series, "House of Acts"
In this talk he reminds us that we are in a season, more than ever, where we are called to lead in a mighty way. This leadership also takes us to be fathered and mothered well. He shows us in the books of Acts how the early church established healthy leadership, as a model for us. In addition, Andoni revealed the beauty that comes from true submission to Jesus and others in leadership around us.
Be blessed and thanks for tuning in!
Thanks for joining us as we start our new series "House of Acts!" During this series we will be going through the book of Acts and really diving into the Spirit of God and how he wants to move in our midst!
Alex Rettmann kicks it off in part 1, and talks about what it means to "Wait on The Spirit" -- Saints Hill will be a church with the single desire to ultimately wait and follow the Holy Spirit wherever He leads us. We are hungry for a move of God!
Blessings!
Listen in as we hear Pastor Alex Rettmann in part 3 of our Vision Series. In this message, Alex reminds us that we will be a church that lives off and follows The Lords voice!
Alex defines and shows us the meaning of "Logos - the written word" & "Rhema - the spoken word." He shows us the importance of each one, but also how to fully "Live off His Voice" we must have a value of both in our lives.
Lastly, we were reminded that our words are powerful! Therefore, to live off His Voice and stay in The Truth, we must see the value in us declaring words, scriptures, prophecies etc etc. out loud over our lives!
Join us as we continue in our current Vision Series! This Sunday, we did something a tad different, yet we found to be very fun and needed!
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Bria Woltor helped facilitate a Q&A Panel with The Rettmanns, Vigils, and our elders The Trauts and Montanos! This was a great Sunday to get to know some of our leaders more, and hear what God has been sharing to us for this next year!
Thanks so much for sending in questions to make this panel happen! If you have any further questions feel free to email us via. our website!
Thanks for joining us in week two of our 2019 Vision Series! Last week Pastor Alex Rettmann shared the origin story of Saints Hill and rolled out a new family structure called: The One, The Few, The Company, and The Many. In this new season of our church we find these four rhythms of life to be important to where we are going. Therefore, if you happened to miss it, please check out the podcast from last Sunday!
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This week, Alex take us deeper into our 4th value as a church; We have the privilege of Hosting the Fathers Presence. He shares what a "life of the presence" looks like. Its a life of "following His peace" in every circumstance and stepping out in boldness to see His Kingdom come!
We pray this message provokes you to deeper intimacy and communion with the Father, and to Host Him wherever you go!
Thanks for joining in as we kick off our Vision series! Every fall as a church, we love to go back to the basics. It is a time for us to relish in what Jesus has done in the past year, what He is saying for us today, and most importantly where we are going prophetically!
Alex Rettmann starts off the series with the story of how our church was birthed, and recounts how Gods' fingerprints were all over the process. We are reminded that our biggest fuel for faith, in entering this next year, is remembering what He already did! There is a prophetic inheritance for every believer and every church, and we want to be the people that hunger and thirst for it!
Blessings and joy to you as you join in on this journey with us!
As a church we are believing the Lord for a great move of His Spirit! This renewal will spark a revival in our church, town, and ultimately the nation! This last Sunday, Alex Rettmann, charged, provoked, and inspired us to count of the cost of revival. He touches on how this cost for the kingdom can really be boiled down to two categories: Cultural Cost & Comfort Cost.
That in giving our full yes to revival, we must lay our life down fully, and plow through any ridicule, scrutiny etc etc. for what we believe!
There is an invitation from the Lord to partner with him, to see the world changed for His Glory. No matter the cost. Whether its being mis understood culturally, or to be made uncomfortable for the Gospel. -- Mary gave such a full Yes to God, no matter what it looked like, to the point where God inhabited her. Let it be so for us, Saints Hill Church!
Jacob Vigil continues on in our current series, "The Throne of David" - He charges the church with a call of fully giving ourselves to "The Secret Place." He reminds us that, the revival that is coming, actually will start with us drawing near to the Lord and abiding in Him. - "God wants to make a relational history with you, so that he can make world history through you"
Follow along with us as a church, in this next season to, "Give our full YES, to the secret place, like we never have before!"
Blessings!
As a church we believe we are seeing the first fruits of a revival, that has started, but is coming in full! We have only scratched the surface to what God wants to do!
This previous Sunday, Alex Rettmann, took a pause on our "Throne of David" series just to share his heart on the subject of revival. He reminded us that revival shouldn't be something from the past, or have a time stamp on. But, how Gods heart is for it to continue and not end! - Listen in, and be encouraged as Alex gives us tips on how to sustain revival in our hearts, families, town, etc.
Three Keys:
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He renews cultures by renewing us
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We become what we focus on
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Stay in the tent of His presence
This previous Sunday, we had the honor of listening and learning from one of our elders, Jim Traut. - Jim and his wife Cathy, are one of Saints Hill's spiritual Fathers and Mothers of the house. They have helped us tremendously in planting the church and giving direction. They carry such strong wisdom that we need, yet, a childlikeness and hunger for the presence of God!
Jim continued on in our current series, "The Throne of David." He showed us how in David's life there was a constant strength that came from pure and honest confession and repentance. Jim pushed us as a community towards freedom, and taught us that a truly holy, blameless, and blessed life is right on the other side of our confession!
Be blessed by the abundant grace, forgiveness, and freedom that is only found is Jesus Christ!
Bria Woltor continues in our series "The Throne of David" - She walks us through the life of David, and specifically when he worships undignified and his wife despises his passion for the Lord.
Bria pushes us as a church to worship with more passion than we ever have before! She reminds us how important is to be partner with the Spirit and celebrate others passion as well. As well as, warns us to never be the cynic when we see passion that we may not understand. Especially, knowing how passionate the Lord is towards us!
Be blessed with fresh passion and joy as you listen to this message!
Thanks for joining us during a series called, "The Throne of David." - However, last week Pastor Alex Rettmann, started a mini-series, specifically on worship, and this is the second part!
In this talk, we are reminded with the simple, yet powerful reality that "we become like what we worship." Therefore as believers, when we make Worship our priority and lifestyle, we start to see transformation come and our minds renewed! We starting looking at life and what it brings from "Heaven to Earth" and not the other way away.
When we become renewed by the worship we give to Jesus, we then begin to see the world around us renewed! Worship is our responsibility to create atmospheres of heaven wherever our foot lands.
Blessings!
Join us, as we continue in our current series, "The Throne of David"
Alex Rettmann gives us a theology of worship and reminds us that our primary privilege as well as responsibility is to praise our God.
In this talk, we cover what it means "to sing a new song." We are reminded that our worship is far more than just singing songs in a Sunday gathering, but that it is also warfare. When we praise our God he fights on our behalf. - God is ultimately looking for a group of worshipers that will use praise to push the plow, to make way for the Lord, for Him to plant his Kingdom seeds. We believe this will lead to a mighty move of the Spirit.
We are called to leave a legacy of praise and worship to Jesus, for generations to come!
Our prayer is that when listening to this message a new song of praise begins to arise in your heart, and that you are encouraged and fed by Jesus, himself.
Thanks for joining us as we continue in our current series "The Throne of David!"
This previous Sunday we had the privilege to hear from one of Elders, Andoni Montaño - He so beautifully shared the contrast between how Saul and David both lived. He reminded us how Saul constantly lived in fear and David in faith and love.
Andoni encouraged and charged us, as believers, to use David as an example. To use faith and our indentity as royalty to transform any wilderness in life into a Palace. - Saints Hill Church, let us leave fear behind fully and step into greater realms of Faith and always remember it is Perfect Love that casts out all fear!
This week we had the honor and privilege to listen and learn under our dear friend and fellow Saints Hill team member, Bria Woltor. We love her passion for truth and how she delivers it sharply but through humility she carries a gentleness.
Listen with us, as Bria walks us through Psalm 84 and shows us what it means to truly enjoy the Lords Presence. In this talk, we are reminded in what daily communion is and the kind of peace and rest that is available to every believer! - Better is one day in His courts than a thousand elsewhere!
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Saints Hill Church, this summer, let’s enjoy the presence of God by:
- Make it Home
- Invite Him Everywhere
- Be in relationship
- Remember
- Walk His Way
Join us as we continue with Part 2 of our current series, "The Throne of David" - Our pursuit in this season is to, more than ever, grow in our confidence in Gods character.
Alex Rettmann walks us through Psalm 16 and shows us what it is like to find our full refuge in the Lord. In this message, we are reminded just how stable, consistent, and faithful our God really is! And, therefore we can trust Him with our full surrender and allegiance. To make him Lord over every aspect our lives!
Listen in as we kick off the first part of our new series "The Throne of David." Alex Rettmann walks us through Psalm 25 and reminds us that the intimate relationship David had with God is available to us now.
Saints Hill Church, this is a time and season for us to rest. To press into intimacy in our friendship with God, and make history with him like David did. Therefore, our heart is to grow in our unwavering confidence in Gods character.
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“We are not called to believe in principles, thats not the Christian life. We are in pursuit of a King. We are called to believe and to know a person. Its relationship that God wants with His people. Thats why He loved Davids heart so much. Because David longed for intimacy and communion.” - Alex Rettmann
Listen as we hear from Alex Rettmann on a Theology of Excellence. Here we remember that God is a rewarder of good gifts and therefore we value the good things we have in this life and admire excellence! However, our main pursuit is seeking first his kingdom and through contentment finding true joy in giving! - Thanks for joining in as we follow King Jesus.
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A Cycle of Joy:
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Giving in secret
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Forgetting about the reward
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God is faithful, so then reward comes, and we enjoy it
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Its time to give again!
Listen as Alex Rettmann continues with Part 4 in our Current Series; Abundant Valley - Here he gives us a fresh theology on Beauty, and shares how all good and beautiful things are road map to God.
Join us as we learn and grow towards Jesus together.
Part 4: Gerald Griffin from Bridgetown Church shares on our series "The Church Jesus Longs For"
Pastor Jacob Vigil shares about the topic of worship! We hear that worship is much more about songs, but more about a Lifestyle of giving Jesus worth. --Let us give Him worth in everything we do!
In the final message of our Vision and values series we look at starting a church with the end in mind.
We want to leave an inheritance of breakthrough and revelation for the next generation. listen in as Alex Rettmann talks about how this happens.
The primary goal of Jesus was adoption into a family that started here on earth and continues into eternity. Join us as we look at what the implications are that the church is a family.
We honor because we have been honored. Our 8th core value is that we celebrate every person by creating an environment of honor.Join us as Alex Rettmann teaches on what a culture of honor looks like within Saints' Hill.
Our hope is determined by our belief, our joy is determined by our awareness of HIs presence. Join us as we look at the reason for hope and joy regardless of circumstance.
We live under an open heaven; which means nothing we stand against is impossible! Check out our latest message from Pastor Alex as we dive into our 5th core value as a church. Blessings!
Alex Rettmann walks us through why it is important that Jesus is Lord, how that influences our lives and why it is a necessary but good thing.
Continuing our Core Values Series, Pastor Alex will share and help define what the Presence and Holy Spirit are, and invite us into Hosting Him well.
As we continue our core values series we discuss the scriptures and why they are valued by Saints Hill.
In our series on our core values Alex discusses what it means to really believe and live like God is Good.
In this episode Alex talks about what the mission is for Saints Hill Church in Newberg.
At the first Sunday gathering of Saints Hill church we discuss the vision and values of Saints Hill, starting with "On Earth As It Is In Heaven."