Fully Alive in Christ: Recent Episodes
Living Waters Rogue Valley
Here at Living Waters Rogue Valley, we answer the question, “What do YOU look like fully alive in Jesus?” We have a mission to break people free from religious bondage and invite them into who the Father intended them to be when He created them—that they could carry and exhibit a life fully reconciled to God through Christ.
Andy dove deep into the importance of community and spiritual formation within the body of Christ. He explores the critical need for both individual healing and collective growth, shedding light on the obstacles we often face, such as unresolved personal wounds and the influence of individualism. Andy encouraged us to embrace both solitude and community as essential practices for spiritual growth, following Jesus' example.
Kim Butcher talked about how vital community and relationships are for anyone following Jesus, using insights from Jesus' own life and the relationship circles described by psychologist Robin Dunbar. She encouraged us to look at the different levels of relationships we have—from our larger community to our closest friends—and challenged us to be intentional in building and nurturing those connections. Just as Jesus showed us through His life and ministry, solitude and relationships are essential for our spiritual growth and formation.
Kate Rhoden continued our conversation on the practice of silence and solitude, guiding us through three key things we may encounter on this journey: ourselves, the enemy, and ultimately, the presence of God. Kate shared her own personal struggles and breakthroughs along the way. She invited us to lean into the discomfort and confront the fears that can surface in moments of stillness, all in pursuit of the deep rest and communion with God that silence brings.
Andy continued the conversation on the practice of solitude and silence by turning to the example of Jesus, who often withdrew to quiet, desolate places to pray and commune with the Father. The life of Jesus demonstrates the significance of stepping away from the noise and busyness of the world to connect with God in stillness. Andy encouraged us to intentionally carve out time and space to be alone with God, free from distractions, so we can encounter Him, reflect on our hearts and minds, and be transformed. Solitude is not an end in itself but a practice that prepares us to re-enter community with a deeper capacity to love and serve others.
Here are key take aways from this teaching:
- Trellis – The practices and disciplines of following Jesus are like a trellis that we grow upon, rather than just floating through life. They provide structure and support for our spiritual formation.
- Fidelity – Our fidelity through our practices becomes the container where love is birthed and grows in us for the sake of the world around us.
- Eramos – This Greek word refers to the wilderness, quiet, desolate places that Jesus frequently withdrew to in order to pray and be with the Father. We have a deep human need for quiet and solitude and our entire society and culture is fighting against this. But over and over in the gospels, Jesus goes to his eramos just to be with the Father.
- Community – the point of solitude is to be formed into the likeness of Christ, growing in love and compassion for ourselves and for the world around us. Solitude and silence are not meant to isolate us, but to prepare us to engage more fully and lovingly with our community. The two practices go hand-in-hand.
- Practice – Find your eramos and start small with just 1-2 minutes of solitude per day. Consistency and presence in the moment are more important than duration.
Watch Kim's teaching as she emphasized how important it us to show love and compassion to people in need, drawing on the story of the Good Samaritan. She encouraged us to pause and think about who our neighbors are and how we could show them love through simple acts of kindness and hospitality.
Key Takeaways:
- We are called to be witnesses of Christ in the world around us, just as the disciples were. This means having compassion and love for those in our community, not avoiding or ignoring them.
- Jesus is the greatest example of compassion - he met people right where they were, loved them, and his presence changed their lives. We are called to do the same for our "neighbors", whoever that may be.
- It can be challenging to have compassion and see the needs of others, as we often have our own struggles and put up blinders. But we need to be aware of this tendency and ask God to open our eyes.
- The parable of the Good Samaritan teaches that our "neighbor" is anyone God brings across our path, even if they are different from us or we are uncomfortable. We are called to show them mercy and care.
- Kim challenged us to practice hospitality and witness to our community this week - whether that's inviting someone for coffee, having a family over, or simply being aware and open to connecting with those God places in our path. This requires boldness, but God will provide you grace to walk it out.
Check out Kim's message where she highlights how powerful hospitality and storytelling can be in sharing the message of Jesus. By simply being welcoming, Kim encourages us to pray for more compassion and to trust that God will create opportunities to share His love.
Here are the key takeaways from Kim's message:
- Being a witness for Christ means sharing your personal testimony and experiences of God's love and work in your life. It's about demonstrating your faith through your words, actions, and attitude.
- Compassion is key to effectively witnessing to others. We need to have a sympathetic consciousness of others' distress and a desire to help them, just as Jesus did. This comes from first receiving God's compassion for ourselves.
- Practicing hospitality - inviting people into relationship, sharing meals, and genuinely listening to their stories - is a powerful way to witness and share the love of Christ. It opens the door for spiritual conversations and transformation.
- The challenge is to start praying for specific people God is putting on our hearts, asking Him to give us His compassion for them. Then be open to the opportunities He provides to build relationships and share His love.
- Witnessing is not about preaching or pushing religion, but about living out our faith authentically and allowing people to experience the difference Jesus makes through how we love them.
As Ryan and Kate enters and prepares for their sabbatical, he is reminded of the deep importance of rest and spiritual renewal. This is not just a pause or break, but a purposeful time to dive deeper into personal growth and aligning more closely with God's purpose for his life. In the busyness of ministry, it can be easy to lose sight of the need to regularly stop, rest, and allow God to do a deeper work in one's heart and mind. This sabbatical represents an intentional season to step away from the demands of leadership, reconnect with the Lord, and allow the Holy Spirit to refresh, restore and realign their focus. It's not about checking out, but about leaning in to what God wants to do in this dedicated time of rest and spiritual renewal.
As we continue our conversation on Generosity as a practice that forms us into people of contentment, contentment in Jesus.Jesus is calling us to be a resilient community, filled with resilient disciples walking out a resident faith. Resilient follower of Jesus is one who is simply and radically content in Christ.
Kim has an incredible story to share with you all about how God provided for her in a miraculous way when she was in need of a car. But this story isn't just about a car - it's about the overwhelming generosity and love that poured out from our community and ultimately, from God himself. We are excited to share with you and talk about what it looks like to live a life of true generosity, not just with our finances but with our time, talents and hearts. We hope this message encourages you to open your eyes to the needs around you and step out in generosity, trusting that God will provide. Join us as we explore what it means to be a resilient, generous community of disciples
Over the past several weeks, we've been diving deep into what it looks like to be a people of prayer - both corporately and personally. I would strongly encourage you to go back and listen to the powerful messages that have been shared, as they have laid an important foundation for us to build upon. Prayer is so vital to our relationship with God, our inner transformation, and our ability to impact the world around us. Today, we want to invite you to lean in and consider how we can make prayer a central rhythm and priority in our lives. There is nothing more important than cultivating that intimate communion with God.
Kate Rhoden shares a deeply personal story about her father's battle with bipolar disorder and his recent mental health crisis. She vulnerably describes the pain and uncertainty her family is facing, likening it to the disciples' experience of being caught in a violent storm while Jesus slept. Kate acknowledges the difficulty of continuing to pray and trust God in the midst of such darkness, yet she is determined to stand firm and believe that Jesus will calm the raging seas.
Janice Nelson shares her powerful testimony and insights on the transformative journey of prayer. Janice has an incredible story to tell, from her early struggles with unanswered prayers as a young girl, to her eventual surrender and deep encounter with the living God. Through Janice's raw honesty and vulnerability, we'll learn how prayer is not just about asking, but about cultivating an intimate relationship with our Heavenly Father. She'll share how she wrestled with God, learned to trust His character, and discovered the joy of practicing His constant presence - even in the midst of life's most difficult circumstances.
We want to invite you to join us in embracing the transformative power of communal prayer. In this message, we've explored how opening our lives to one another in vulnerability and dependence on Christ can be a profound gift. The voices of shame, condemnation, and isolation are loud, pushing us to hide our brokenness. But within the body of Christ, we have the opportunity to practice sharing our struggles, needs, and laments - not as a one-time breakthrough, but as an ongoing journey of transformation.
Kim shared her journey of learning to embrace rest in her life. As a highly driven, performance-oriented leader, Kim used to be addicted to productivity and people-pleasing, always striving to prove her worth through her work. Kim has been on a transformative journey of surrendering her need for approval and finding her identity in Christ alone. We'd encourage you to watch and listen as her transparency and the wisdom she's gained can powerfully encourage us all to examine the rhythms in our own lives.
As a community, we've been exploring what it means to walk the narrow way and embrace spiritual disciplines like rest and Sabbath. This can be challenging, as our culture often pushes us to stay busy and productive. However, Jesus invites us into a different rhythm - one of peace, connection, and deeper relationship with Him. Join us as we have an open conversation about the resistances we face to this kind of rest, and how pushing through them can lead to profound spiritual transformation. This is an important discussion for all of us seeking to live out our faith in a meaningful way.
We had an opportunity to hear from Andy and Andrea as they share their journey of integrating a Sabbath rhythm into their lives. Emphasizing the importance of taking small steps, they gave us a glimpse, a taste and see, of the transformative impact of practicing Sabbath and finding peace and joy in God's rest.
Are you feeling weary and burdened? Do you long for rest and a deeper connection with Jesus? We invite you to listen this teaching discover the unforced rhythms of grace.
In this teaching, we discuss the concept of resilient community and discipleship. We envision a community that is not fragmented, tattered, or tired. We believe in learning to be Christians who are not afraid of work and who value gathering together in community centered on Jesus. We honor all stages of life and celebrate every season and stage. We reject comparison and competition and champion and celebrate others. We grow interconnected by being known and knowing others, and by needing and being needed by others.
Just as the Narrow Way is about less, JOHN 15 is about less. God's purpose in pruning is to make room for continued and ongoing growth, forming us into a resilient community of resilient disciples walking out a resilient faith. He won’t stop tending to the process of formation into a fruitful people who look and love like Jesus.
“In a world that is counter to my growth into Christ-likeness, we must be aware of what is conforming or deforming us, and work to counteract it by actively pursuing formation into a people who look like Jesus and exhibit the fruit of our relationship with the Holy Spirit.” What is forming you, what is forming us?Therein lies the JESUS’ call to the NARROW WAY.
Join us as we discuss the question, 'What will you do with all that you have been given? Intimacy with God and understanding our identity in Him lays the foundation for a powerful and impactful life.
We dive into the topic of inheritance and what it truly means for us as followers of Jesus. We explore the idea that inheritance is not about money or possessions, but about the Holy Spirit coming and resting powerfully in our lives. Intimacy with God is the foundation of our inheritance, and how identity and inheritance flow out of that intimacy. We also examine the importance of renewing our minds and believing in our worthiness to access our inheritance and exercise our authority in Christ. We encourage you to embrace your inheritance and walk in the fullness of God's grace, knowing that you are not alone but have the presence and power of the Holy Spirit with you. Listen as we explore the transformative power of inheritance and how it impacts our lives and the world around us.
Join us as we explore what it means to be adopted, apprentices, and ambassadors of Jesus. We delve into the concept of adoption, where we are brought into God's home and heart, becoming children of God. Through the teachings of Jesus, we learn how to be apprentices, following in his footsteps and learning from him as our master. As ambassadors, we represent Christ's kingdom, living as diplomats in this world and inviting others to be reconciled to God.
In this teaching, we explore the importance of intimacy, identity, and inheritance in our journey with God. We are reminded that our identity flows from our intimacy with Him, and that walking in our identity is an expression of our deep connection with God. Through scripture, we learn that our true identity is found in Christ, and that we are deeply loved, completely forgiven, fully pleasing, totally accepted, and absolutely complete in Him.
Gideon was a man easy to overlook. In the book of Judges we learn the history of Israel when it was under oppression from surrounding nations, suffering from frequent raids. These raids were the consequences of turning their backs on God for years, but finally, the people were beginning to call out to Him for deliverance. God heard them and picked Gideon to lead His people to freedom in battle.
Many of us have hindered our relationship with God (and others) because we drag who we think He wants us to be (or who we think others want us to be) before Him, while withholding our TRUE SELF. This is what we mean by living in our FALSE SELF. And living in our FALSE SELF can become so normal/natural that we don’t even realize we are doing it!
If you missed last Sunday, we talked about how God is leading us as a community around giving and our finances. Please give it a listen and enjoy a fresh perspective from our Pastors, Ryan and Kate.
Join us as we explore the importance of relational intimacy with God, and how it impacts our lives and relationships. We share practical insights and personal stories, all with the goal of creating a safe and healthy community where love and forgiveness thrive. Get ready for honest conversations, challenging questions, and a whole lot of encouragement as we journey together towards deeper connections and a more meaningful life. So grab your headphones and join us on this adventure of growth and transformation.
Intimacy with God is a beautiful process, that requires a constant yes, and a willingness to travel with Him into the deeper places. Intimacy isn't about reaching "it" as a destination, it is all about the daily journey walking with him through hard things, trusting Him in every season, and being bold going after things in our lives that hold us back from Him.It is a beautiful journey, that requires entrusting Him with our heart. Allowing Him to restore it and make it a dwelling place for His presence. A repaired heart that gives love and receives love in ever increasing capacity.
Intimacy is the root of your life in Christ. It is this connection to the source of life from which everything else grows. Daily, you will be allowing the roots of your life and love to stretch into the depths of God’s presence. Tha love that is abundantly available to you. New life, new daily habits, and new goals start right now.
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Join us as we continue Advent, centering our heart on FAITH as we wait on Jesus, preparing our hearts to celebrate His birth, while also waiting for his arrival in and around the places in our lives that need Him desperately right now. He is not far off, and is "near the brokenhearted" (Psalm 34:18). No matter where you are, or what you are walking through, Jesus is COMING.
We are continuing our journey through "The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry" this season and I am excited to be sharing with you this weekend on portions of the book that have been impactful and somewhat challenging, especially in a season that wants to push us to extreme limits.We will also move into the next week of Advent as we prepare our hearts to "receive" Jesus' LOVE into our homes and hearts, through communion and prayer.
Each Sunday and the corresponding week in this Advent season, we have a specific focus to help prepare our hearts to “receive” Jesus into our homes and hearts on Christmas as we honor and celebrate His birth. The process of preparation is to slow down, remain focused on Jesus in the middle of a hectic season, and fight the urge to get spun up or spun out by consistently and persistently returning to prayer and scripture each day. As a church, we are committing to the “Ruthless Elimination of Hurry” this Christmas season. Having just completed our “A Call to Prayer” series, we hope to continue “Redigging wells of PRAYER in our lives, homes, and our church” through this season of Advent and on into 2024.
There are definitely prayers I can look back on and I’m very thankful that God didn’t move on my behalf and do what I wanted the way I wanted, and I have to admit that His Goodness and Wisdom have brought me here WAY better than my plan ever could have…But often when I think back across my prayer life’s journey, the moments that rise to the surface are the disappointment, disillusionment, confusion, and frustration of THOSE TIMES God didn’t come through...Where passionate prayer is seemingly met by silence, and a God who Jesus himself said “everything is possible for you”...didn’t move. Didn’t intervene. Didn’t speak.So what are we to do with our unanswered prayers?
Prayer forms us into a vessel for His presence, but it doesn’t earn anything. It doesn't earn my our into His presence by jumping through prayer hoops. I was taught that prayer accesses what Jesus' life and blood poured out established for us.
sees the wolf coming, he abandons the sheep and runs away...”Jesus is the Shepherd who stays when the wolves of life come to huff and puff and blow our houses down. Mixing parables a bit, but the point remains: We HAVE a Savior who guards and guides our lives, and fights anything that desires to "steal, kill or destroy". What does that mean for us today? And, on a personal level, are there places in our own faith where we treat our own heart, body or mind like the hired hand treated sheep and retreat at the first sign of trouble?
The Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard invites us all to examine our response to the extravagance of the Good News of Jesus. If you are like me, on first read you may identify with the laborers in some way or even struggle with understanding what Jesus is really trying to say. As we spend time contemplating this section of scripture, let’s invite Holy Spirit to examine our motives and heart postures so we can see Jesus clearly and why this story matters to us in our day.
John 10:10 is a scripture we often share, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life and have it abundantly.” When Jesus said this statement, it was in the context of his description of Himself as both The Gate of the sheep pen and The Good Shepherd. While we may have an enemy who wants to “steal, kill and destroy,” Jesus is the One that both places us in the safety of his care and guides us as we follow his voice. This is where we are both kept and sustained so that in Him we “may have life and have it abundantly.”Watch Kim as she dives into the Kim dives into the Parable of the Good Shepherd.
Let's dive into Matthew 7:24-27, the simple parable Jesus taught about two men - one who trusted the words of Jesus, and one who ignored them. Let's open our hearts and lives to Jesus, inviting Him to establish all that we are on all that He is - until nothing in our lives is built on sand.
This week we have the privilege of having Sommer Bury give a message on The Parable of the Sower and the Seed.
"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants...” Matthew 18:23How we receive God's mercy and grace, and how we impart it to others is vital to living in and under the Kingdom of Jesus.
Too often we read the Parable of the Good Samaritan as if we are the Samaritan, called by this story to help those in need, even our enemies. Is there more to it than a lesson to be kind to those in need; an additional and deeper Kingdom reality?
This week we are walking through the Parable of the Mustard Seed and the Parable of the Yeast. Jesus was a storyteller. He used stories to help people understand what he was speaking to them. As a storyteller, this is one of the ways I was drawn into the Word as a kid, and still love to dig in as an adult. Join me as I tell some stories out of the Word and other stories the Lord is reminding me of as I prepare for Sunday.
Have you noticed how religion and doctrine seem to complicate God? The pharisees and religious elite were consumed by busying themselves with religious to-dos and complex behavioral and cultural box-checking. Jesus lived in a culture whose primary mode of learning was oratory, and baffled the religiously educated with the parables He told to express God’s Kingdom.Story has a unique ability to express complex truth, simply. These parables of Jesus were a beautifully woven tapestry – complex interwoven themes that altogether formed a clear and powerful image displaying the heart of God. For those that had ears to hear, these stories opened and softened them. It invited a generation into a new way of thinking.Story is written on the heart of man. When someone tells a story, our imaginations are engaged and we begin to see with the eyes of heart. We can see and understand our own motives more objectively when we recognize ourselves in the form of another character.Jesus was a brilliant story teller. He knew that the pharisees and religious elite would try to trap him in His words and artfully shared the heart of God in metaphors and analogies just long enough for his underground ministry to take off and spread like wildfire. He allowed the greatest truths of the universe to be distilled down to simple people in ordinary circumstances- down to earth and very relatable!I am excited to dive deeper into the beauty of Jesus’ storytelling with you this week, as we continue to unpack the parables. I pray that you would be inspired and softened toward the heart of God in your journey here and now, and that you would more clearly see the story that Jesus is weaving in your own, beautiful life!
Listen to Drew as he gives historical cultural context surrounding the parable of the prodigal son and how we can apply it to our own culture.
Join us as we learn the WAY of Jesus together by diving into His powerful method of teaching and awakening hearts to His Kingdom: Parables. Parables are a powerful tool that Jesus used to invite his listeners into a whole new WAY of living, thinking and being.
Our Galatians key verse was: Gal. 3:3 - “How foolish can you be? After starting your new lives in the Spirit, why are you now trying to become perfect by your own human effort?”Why is this admonition important? Because it led into the entire section on the fruit (of the SPIRIT) in Galatians 5 and Galatians 6:7 - “God cannot be mocked, a person reaps what they sow…”But this fruit is not something produced through through our efforts. This fruit is what God produces in us (through the spiritual law of REAPING and SOWING), when they REMAIN in Him as Jesus states in John 15.
In Galatians Chapter 6, Paul challenges the church to be careful where they sow. There are two possible kinds of soil: the flesh or the spirit. He reminds us that once they had, they could not change the harvest.What is sown to the flesh will bring a harvest of corruption but the parts of their life they sowed to the Spirit will produce life. All that we do is either an investment in the FLESH or the SPIRIT. We WILL reap whatever we have sown, and we will reap in proportion to what we have sown.
In this teaching, we will be exploring the words of Paul inviting us to “keep in step with the Spirit” and stewarding our freedom in Jesus. We will celebrate together that Jesus is enough for every place of pain or temptation or struggle that we carry in this life. If you are feeling weary of religious efforts or the cycles of temptation - The Apostle Paul’s words are a powerful direction for us to lean into JESUS, the ONE who has the greatest empathy for our pain and weakness and also the greatest healing power to lead us into a life “abundant”.
Last Sunday was the 6th year anniversary being in our building. If you haven’t heard the miracle story of how we got here, we encourage you to watch. Join in on the story of what God is doing in and through our community.
As His children, filled with His spirit, we are welcome to come to him with whatever it is that we are walking through. He is going to comfort our hearts, listen to what we are saying and meet us with love and understanding. And He is ready to direct our hearts. What Paul had experienced and what he knew to be true, he was speaking in this letter to the churches in Galatia - and we get to look at our own lives as we read this and ask the question - Am I living as a son or daughter or as a slave? Is what is pouring out of my life a response to God, saying “Abba, Father”? If not, let’s get there!! If not, let’s bring what we are in slavery to Jesus and receive the adoption into the family that is ours!
Gal. 3:5 - "So again I ask, does God give you his Spirit and work miracles among you by the works of the law, or by your believing what you heard??"The Early Church saw a POWERFUL, TANGIBLE and SUSTAINED move of God's Spirit. How did this take place? It wasn't because they were following the Law. The Law was powerless. It was because of their BELIEF in Jesus! What can we learn from this? I believe this still holds true today as we remember this: Religion is unable to START or SUSTAIN the move of God we long to see in our church, homes and lives!Let's unpack Galatians 3 together!
03:12 - Navigating Relational Disconnect
04:49 - God's Heart is for Reconciliation
08:36 - Dividing Over Lesser Things
12:10 - Walking out Christlikeness in our Relationship
16:06 - Living at Peace with Everyone
19:08 - Walking with Grace
21:13 - Invite Perspective to Come
23:03 - Pursue Reconciliation
24:42 - Allow His Conviction to Rest on Us
28:20 - We Want Inconvenient Conviction
34:14 - If Someone Has Something Against You
37:59 - The Challenge of Extending the Grace of God
42:28 - A Lifestyle of Pliability
45:13 - Prayer & Ministry
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
03:20 - When Jesus Intercepts You
07:19 - The Completed Work of Jesus
11:50 - Paul Confronts Peter: Justified by our Faith in Jesus
16:46 - Our Death out of the Old Covenant
21:18 - Grieving Relationship Disconnections
26:00 - Breaking Relationship Over Lesser Things
28:08 - What Fragments Us Relationally
29:16 - Love Whispers
30:45 - Holding on to Offense
31:42 - Numbing Ourselves to Unforgiveness
34:18 - Altar-ing our Unforgiveness
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
05:45 - Reading Galatians 1v13-14
10:55 - Reading Acts 7v57-8v1
12:43 - Paul's Moment of Transformation
14:37 - Capturing the Picture of Family
16:36 - Zealous Silencer to a Zealous Proclaimer
19:34 - Reading Galatians 1v15-17
22:08 - Seeing the Whole Picture
28:30 - The Author of Life
32:28 - The False Author
34:13 - He Wants to Write the Story of Grace Upon You
A couple weeks ago, Ryan talked about not reading ourselves into the text of the Bible. It created a small stir when he said, “the Bible isn’t written about you, and the Bible isn’t written to you.”The Bible is a gift, and we need treat it as such. It doesn’t exist for us to know just ABOUT God, but for us to know God. WHEN WE STUDY THE BIBLE, we are not just pursuing information, or correct doctrine, but REVELATION and INTIMACY with and from God Himself.Which brings us to Galatians. It weakens the power and authority of Scripture when we pull them too quickly into our time and place and context without the humility of acknowledging the massive distance between when and why they were written and when and why we are applying them.Let's jump into this teaching from Ryan and see what we can learn from Paul's letter to the Galatians.
Kingdom over everything.Jesus said "seek first my Kingdom." He preached "repent, for my Kingdom is at hand!" What is the Kingdom? How do we seek it? How do we find it? How do we build it? These are vital questions as followers of JesusThis is no time to get our priorities mixed up! God's Kingdom is expanding and moving - Are we seeing, sensing and joining in?
Kingdom over everything.Jesus said "seek first my Kingdom." He preached "repent, for my Kingdom is at hand!" What is the Kingdom? How do we seek it? How do we find it? How do we build it? These are vital questions as followers of JesusThis is no time to get our priorities mixed up! God's Kingdom is expanding and moving - Are we seeing, sensing and joining in?
Kingdom over everything. Jesus said "seek first my Kingdom." He preached "repent, for my Kingdom is at hand!" What is the Kingdom? How do we seek it? How do we find it? How do we build it? These are vital questions as followers of JesusThis is no time to get our priorities mixed up! God's Kingdom is expanding and moving - Are we seeing, sensing and joining in?
Let's talk about this strange mystery of worshiping Jesus together in a gathering. Which in case you were wondering, is not perfect, or the best model, or style, or format. We could travel the earth at this very moment and hear and see the nations worshiping God in a million different ways together.
00:00 - Intro
11:28 - Worship is NOT Music
18:04 - We become what we behold
24:09 - When worship changes our perspective
30:00 - Where our minds are renewed
39:50 - Worship is our spiritual immune system
44:00 - Worship is warfare
46:20 - We have a communion feast to come into
46:45 - A Well of worship
49:30 - Seeing Jesus Once Again
51:50 - Ministry Time
00:00 - In Jesus, What do you look like fully alive
01:58 - What having a good Father gives us
06:50 - What will you do with all that you've been give?
11:13 - How are you embodying your inheritance?
12:51 - You are uniquely known and set apart
18:16 - Who is determining your worthiness?
23:05 - You are the only one who can answer this question
25:37 - How the Father pursues you when you're at your worst
31:43 - Serving from Sonship
33:26 - Bringing your messiness to your Father
36:12 - From stages to tables
41:45 - Your life is a kingdom key
44:11 - Acknowledging the difficulty of dreaming with God
47:13 - Ministry Time
00:00 - Identity flows from Intimacy
05:00 - What did Jesus Accomplish?
09:54 - How Jesus transforms us to be more like Him
18:08 - Why this core belief affects your behavior
21:50 - Who do you say that I am?
26:14 - What the enemy is really after
31:20 - Finding our identity in the eternal
35:00 - The gift of the wilderness
37:26 - Confronting the lies about your identity
38:55 - Ministry Time
When intimacy is the root, identity becomes the visible and internal structure of your life. A tree that grows from healthy roots. Who you believe you are will determine how you think about yourself and consequently, how you interact with others. You may struggle to take hold of the reality of being made perfectly new, entirely whole, completely righteous and lacking nothing through Jesus. We pray that struggle ends now! God desires that you would grow to full stature and maturity in your identity, knowing and living out who and Whose you are.
Chapters:
00:00 - How NOT to give
05:14 - You are free from the Tithe
09:15 - Breaking shame about finances
13:18 - Healthy perspective of Biblical Prosperity
18:42 - What Kingdom Finances is all About
20:48 - Three Ways to Spiritually Prosper in our Finances
29:10 - Stewarding our Perspectives
32:00 - LW Finances
Chapters:
00:00 - Announcements
04:24 - Intro
06:00 - God with us in the Ordinary
08:38 - Is there a God for the mundane?
11:24 - The Proximity of His Presence
17:37 - How do I experience the God of the mundane?
22:00 - The Practices that Form Us
24:42 - Wisdom versus Knowledge
29:50 - The Invitation
35:15 - An Unhurried, Non-Anxious Presence
36:54 - Questions to Ponder this Season
39:23 - Practicing the Presence of God
Chapters:
00:00 - The Supremacy of Christ
03:24 - Authority vs Control
05:11 - God Intends Good
06:44 - Our Foundation in the Storm
12:03 - The Nativity Story
16:15 - God is in the Details
18:57 - The Tower of the Flock
26:00 - The Commingling of Grief and Joy
29:03 - Substituting Redemption for Religion
32:24 - In the Context of Communion
35:27 - Becoming Reconciled to God
37:18 - Let Go and Surrender
42:24 - Ministry Time
Chapters:
00:00 - What is the Advent Season?
03:04 - Called to a Holy Life
05:01 - Do Not Be Afraid
06:18 - Jesus came to reveal the Father
08:17 - He was the God Above Us
13:17 - To a God With Us
18:27 - To a God Within Us
19:28 - To a God Working Through Us
21:27 - Building our Life in Jesus
30:13 - A Life that can Withstand the Storm
33:45 - Who is the Foundation of Your Life?
00:00 - Intro
02:50 - My Favorite 'F' Word
07:09 - Abba, Father
09:15 - The Desire to Belong
12:10 - What it Means to Belong?
15:03 - The Parenting of the Holy Spirit
16:40 - Being Part of Each Other's Healing
17:27 - Building Trust with People
20:39 - Becoming Magnets for Family
24:11 - I Was Starving for Family
27:36 - The Family I Always Wanted
30:40 - An Invitation to be Inspired
31:39 - Our Worth is Already Set
32:55 - When the Scaffolding Rusts
38:00 - Hard Earned Wisdom
40:20 - Misused Spiritual Authority
42:00 - Ministry Time
Chapters:
07:42 - Andy's Story
11:33 - What is the body of Christ?
13:01 - Jesus as the Source
15:52 - The Body of Christ is a Gift
19:27 - Compassion Incarnate
22:58 - Helping Each Other Grow
24:44 - What does living as one BODY look like?
27:25 - There is a design to his placement
28:41 - We don't get to choose the design of the body
30:46 - You are not half a person
34:19 - Confronting Cycles of Comparison
36:37 - The Body of Christ Bridges the Gap
41:40 - How we grow together matters
45:12 - A Giant Redemption Story
48:56 - So how are we to respond today?
51:37 - Ministry Time
The fruit that comes out of your life is a by-product of the vine you are connected to. Join us this Sunday as we talk about Abiding in Jesus and remaining in Him as our main source of life and wisdom.
Chapters:
00:00 - The Love of a Stranger
06:03 - Making Room for Others
14:07 - What are the edges of your field?
15:39 - Loving the Homeless and the Loveless
21:00 - Chronic Loneliness and Isolation
24:10 - Hospitality Transforms Your Life
25:34 - The Cost and Reward of Hospitality
36:08 - How to Walk in Kingdom Hospitality
We finished our “Communities of Transformation” (Acts series). It was a powerful series that challenged us to be transformed in Jesus and carry the transformational reality of Jesus with our lives and within our communities. God met us profoundly throughout this series, and while we came and went from it a few times, I am so thankful for the opportunity we took to study the Book of Acts!
Chapters:
00:00 - Coming to a place of contentment
03:15 - What does CONTENT mean?
05:00 - A Settled Faith
06:54 - When hope makes you sick
09:39 - The overflow of your life
12:31 - Letting go of the seed of hope
16:05 - How to recognize if my HOPE is misplaced
26:39 - Picking up contentment
28:07 - Exalting Jesus
31:00 - A Time of Response
Chapters:
00:00 - What are being reformed around?
02:43 - Hearing God's Voice
04:48 - Carry God's Voice in Humility
07:33 - Finding Peace in God's Voice
09:02 - Partnering with God's Peace
11:47 - Paul’s trial before Felix
14:43 - Trial before Festus
17:13 - Trial before King Agrippa (Is this the moment)
20:07 - How Paul Navigates Disappointments
23:10 - Remaining Faithful
26:52 - Show up to the life is happening around you
28:08 - The Idol of Expectation
31:18 - Surrendering our Expectations
36:55 - Yielding to God
38:47 - How did Paul do it?
39:10 - Desire is an invitation to God
40:55 - Letting Go of Hope
42:44 - Prayer and Ministry
Chapters:
00:00 - Announcements
01:56 - To be a Transformation Community
04:22 - Deconstructing what was Familiar
07:53 - The Seed of the Gospel
09:56 - Embracing Hardship
13:20 - The Power of your Testimony
19:28 - Hearing from God
26:23 - The Grace of Being on Purpose
29:26 - God will expose the plots of the enemy
34:18 - Defeat and setbacks were a part of this story
35:34 - God brings us to the places where we can have influence
38:00 - Letting go of our formulas
41:39 - Our life is moved and sustained by God’s purposes.
47:19 - Ministry Time
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:22 - Using The Love Languages
06:48 - Question 1: If I do this, everything comes apart. How do I do this in normal life?
14:53 - Question 2: I want to stop feeling, not feel more. How do I stop feeling?
24:16 - Question 3: What are some tools to differentiate from reactionary responses we pull from our past, and move into future-focused transformational choices & behaviors?
30:39 - Question 4: As I pursue who God is calling me to be, I am changing and in the process the people and things I used to enjoy are changing and I talk and think differently… how do I determine who or what is appropriate to cut out or put in as the transformation continues?
39:38 - Question 5: How do you navigate a marriage in which your spouse cannot share their emotions?
44:03 - Questions 6: How do you go through a time period of pain/disappointment/grief/anger at God and deconstruction but stay in health?
47:59 - Question 7: How does an emotionally healthy person respond to a "bad thing happening to a good person?"
51:07 - Question 8: I am stuck in a cycle. Why do I keep hitting the same patch again and again?
52:41 - Question 9: When the Lord peels back another layer of something you thought you’d already healed from, how do you heal and move forward?
54:38 - Question 10: How do I not let a quest for emotional health turn into overthinking my faith?
56:52 - Conclusion
Chapters:
06:35 - What do you look like fully alive in Jesus?
08:00 - Fully alive means to fully feel
10:25 - What I'm taught vs what I'm experiencing
11:46 - All emotions are indicators
13:27 - Don't dormant the things God wants to defeat
15:06 - Transformed through an Encounter
19:12 - Bringing in a New Wineskin
22:14 - Indicators of an Old Wineskin
24:10 - Stop dying to the things that make you unique
01:32 - When the Mountain is Your History
03:35 - Discipleship has to Address our Emotions
05:39 - Loving people Hinges on our Emotional Health
07:23 - The Intrapersonal Battlefield
11:12 - The Primary Work of Spiritual Warfare
12:02 - Emotional Health vs Emotional Intelligence
14:14 - Looking at the Past to Understand the Present
17:38 - “Roots” of Strongholds 21:51 - The Ten Commandments of Your Family Origin
25:28 - Anger can be instructive
26:20 - Responding in Repentance
32:54 - Extending Forgiveness
36:00 - Where Emotional Health Begins
39:43 - Worship & Ministry
Chapters:
05:29 - Opening our hearts to our emotions
09:29 - Why this is meaningful to us
11:24 - Our internal world matters
14:34 - Being okay with our emotional mess
16:45 - Integrating the false child
18:55 - Suppressed emotion becomes toxic
23:25 - Bringing our emotions to God
27:29 - Learning to articulate and express our emotions
29:20 - How do we allow God to meet my emotional needs?
32:14 - When we get stuck in an emotional state
37:00 - Being invited to be fully seen
Chapters:
00:00 - Announcements
02:00 - Taking authority of our hearts
03:41 - Why this series
05:45 - Stuffing the pain inside of you
11:00 - Paying attention to our indicators
13:14 - What lies beneath the surface
17:25 - Moses or Joshua
22:04 - When pain moves us
24:45 - God is always moving ahead of you
29:38 - Healing and Freedom is available
32:32 - Men, Let it Out
33:21 - Ministry Time
Chapters:
00:00 - You are the light of the world
04:24 - Transformed by an encounter
08:06 - Following a Miracle-Working God
14:53 - A Life of Obedience to the Holy Spirit
19:39 - Running Your Race
22:40 - What is your Mission?
29:28 - Community Life Sundays
Chapters:
00:00 - What do we mean by transformation?
05:11 - We are not called to be disengaged in our set apartness.
09:04 - Returning to the Father
15:21 - Walking in the authority of Jesus
27:08 - The Discipline of the Lord
32:32 - Paul in Ephesus
39:04 - The Armor of God
Chapters:
00:00 - What is the impact we are to take?
02:13 - Community Life Sundays
05:58 - If we ceased to exist
08:13 - Building with a Purpose
10:26 - Healthy Families talk about Finances
20:45 - Acts 18
31:30 - Who’s side are you on?
33:33 - At the Pace of Relationship
36:50 - Positioned in Tension
41:17 - The Rhythm of His Heart
42:56 - Communion
Chapters:
00:00 - Our faith journey is meant to be communal
02:53 - Paul goes to the Jewish community
07:14 - Who is king over your heart?
10:05 - Finding hearts that are open to the gospel
12:13 - When Paul was Distressed
15:57 - Paul introduces the Gospel to the Athenians
19:13 - Don’t fight unnecessary battles
24:30 - Be a student wherever you are
27:18 - Creative used things within the culture to open hearts
32:26 - Call people back to a God that could be known
35:39 - Letting people know how deeply loved by God they are
37:28 - Closing
Chapters:
00:00 - Being Honest with my process
04:23 - When our faith is revealed
06:41 - Peter Walked on Water Twice
09:06 - On the way back to the boat
10:30 - What is Communities of Transformation
16:12 - Following God is not easy
17:20 - Bringing God into everything
19:35 - Turning battle fields into mission fields
21:30 - Being led by the Lord
30:35 - Community Life Sunday
35:04 - Building healthy connection
39:25 - Calling people home in to community
Today’s message is not going to be a typical Father’s Day message. And truly it may seem like a very simple message. Since last Sunday, the Lord has been saying to me, “Follow Me”. I wake up in the morning and that is the first thing he says to me. As I go through my day - he keeps telling me to remind us all to Follow Him. If you have been in church at all, you know that being a Christian is to follow Jesus - but just because we know we need to follow Him, doesn’t mean that is what we are doing. This message today is for dad’s - but even if you are not a dad in this room today, I believe that Jesus has something for you too.
Chapters:
00:00 - What does it look like for us to go?
02:33 - The Empowerment of Grace
04:48 - How God uniquely talks to you
09:30 - Releasing People into Freedom
12:46 - You Can Deconstruct Here
13:38 - Learning to be Spirit-Led
16:40 - We Speak to the Spiritual Things
20:40 - The Context of Salvation
22:16 - Being Led out from Captivity
24:48 - Being Led for Fruitfulness
26:47 - Being Led with Power and Authority
27:36 - Being Led to Remain in the Conflict
31:55 - Closing
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
03:11 - A River of Living Water
06:30 - When God Chose to Move
10:53 - Even in Tragedy, God is up to something
16:30 - Desperation, hunger, availability
19:30 - Why Acts matters to us in 2022
22:50 - Interwovennes of the Spiritual and the Practical
27:40 - What is a Spirit-filled Community?
32:05 - Worship & Ministry
Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
01:47 - One New Humanity
06:28 - Carrying the Familial Heart of God
09:13 - The Opposite of Belonging
14:00 - Finding Connectedness
19:00 - Breaking Isolation and Independence
26:39 - Kingdom Over Country
29:00 - What Healthy Family Creates
33:42 - The Place of Our Greatest Healing
37:13 - Corey's Testimony
43:44 - Family Matters
Our heart is to be a place where we will continually believe for miraculous and supernatural healing in people’s lives – physical, emotional, relational, and spiritual. Listen as Drew unpacks what we believe in the area of Kingdom Wholeness.
Our heart is to be a place where those who have been overly churched, disengaged, disenfranchised, or deeply wounded – can heal, find hope and joy restored, and return their yes to Jesus – in an environment free from performance, judgment, coercion, comparison, or competition.
We believe that Scripture clearly and coherently teaches equality between men and women in God’s Kingdom, church, family and in marriage. This is a foundation of who we are at Living Waters.
We believe women share equally in God’s image; Are equal recipients of Christ; Are equal recipients of God’s Spirit poured out; we are equal inheritors of the kingdom of God that Jesus inaugurated, and equal participants in the New Covenant.
The New Testament was written at a time when the Old Covenant was passing away and the New Covenant was just beginning, because of that there is a tension of a “mix” between these two realities that sometimes still finds its way into Church culture today including but not limited to our finances.
Join us as we begin a 6 week series on our collective mission and vision. We look forward to partnering with you as we delve deep in what God is specifically doing in us and through us a house.
I have one Easter message, WHAT DID/DIDN’T HAPPEN ON THE CROSS - Easter is about celebrating the resurrection but we would appreciate it EVEN MORE when we understand what transpired on THE CROSS.
I will preach it on repeat gladly because it dismantles TOXIC CHRISTIANITY, challenges an unhealthy (but pervasive) picture of God, and invites people INTO FREEDOM IN JESUS.
So tune in and get ready to get a clearer picture of what happened that day.
What happens when Jesus disappoints our expectations? The fickle nature of humanity, the people who cheered him were quite possible the same who cried out for his crucifixion. What do we cling to when we've lost faith in Jesus' promises, or we don't like the way things are turning out? Are we like the woman with bleeding issue who just grabs ahold however she could? Or are we like Judas, trying to manipulate outcomes our way?
This Palm Sunday message, let's press in to the one who alone hold the Word of Life.
The Lord reminded me of the word He spoke over our house at the beginning of the year. He wanted me to bring us back to that word as we have now finished up our Intimacy, Identity and Inheritance series to remind us and also to encourage us to move out into all that He has for us. As we cultivate Intimacy with the Lord, know our identity as children of God and step into the fullness of our inheritance, we are going to be taking new territory this year and seeing the promises of God fulfilled in our lives. So let’s look back at what He said and move forward knowing His goodness and love for each of us.
God has designed your life and filled it with purpose. He is up to far more than you can comprehend, and He has placed dreams in you before you were formed in the womb. He is now calling them to life! It may scare you to death, but give God your yes fully and without reservation. Kill fear and excuses, comparison, and inadequacy right now!
You have something unique to carry and release through as God fills and leads you!
The enemy, through circumstances, conditioning, self-doubt, comparison, and learned expectation, works diligently to program our minds to feel UNWORTHY and UNABLE to walk in the power of God here on earth...and to convince us that's normal.
No one leaves here today with an UNCLAIMED INHERITANCE…or believing you have squandered the gifts, calls, and anointing that are on your specific life. No one leaves here feeling disqualified. Get up out of the mud.
Sometimes it’s not how He pursues you…it’s how He receives you that changes your life.
WHEN YOU COME HOME, IT’S NOT TO AN ANGRY FATHER. It’s for restoration. To an EMBRACE AND KISS. A ROBE, RING, SANDALS AND A PARTY.
Now, as joint-heirs, Jesus' victory is shared with us when we accept God's invitation to be His sons and daughters. In this way, His victory is our life source. The degree we are walking in victory is the degree we are accessing our inheritance on earth. Any area of our lives where we are not living in total victory is a candidate for His goodness and power to visit and set right.
We want to see a family of FULLY ALIVE believers experiencing deep INTIMACY with the Holy Spirit, who are secure in their IDENTITY in Christ, and who rise in their INHERITANCE (from the Father) to express the fullness of the Kingdom in every area of our lives. Knowing WHO WE ARE and WHO WE BELONG TO is our IDENTITY. Walking it out is OUR INHERITANCE.
Identity is the tangible expression of your faith. Identity does not come as a result of striving, it comes as a result of surrender.
If “What comes to mind when you think about God” is the most important thing about you, then what comes to mind when you think about you is a close second. I can tell what you think God is like based on how you treat yourself when you fail, how you respond to others when they disappoint you and/or when life doesn’t go your way.
Your view of self, your view of God - all of “you” is a composite of a lot of different factors that create many of your responses subconsciously. To take that a step further, what happened to you, or didn’t happen to you during your formative years, matters greatly. Wounds from our family of origin are a reality. In Christ our family of origin has shifted. But the wounds can still remain.
Watch this week's teaching and find out how you can partner with God to break the wounds that are keeping you from fully stepping into who you truly are.
The true self refers to a sense of self based on authentic experience, the unhindered u, where at the core we feel truly present and alive. The “false self” is a defensive facade, behind which the person can feel empty, it’s behaviors being learnt and controlled rather than spontaneous and genuine.
Listen to this week's message and find out how this connects with our true identity in Christ.
In Jesus, you ARE defined by God alone. He identifies you as his own. We get to live from this identity, not forever grasping and contending for identity. You are not defined by the opinions of others or by your circumstances. You are not defined by your successes or failures. How you look, what you’ve done, what you’re trying to do.
We do not earn God's love and affection as a wage, but receive it as a gift. We are not performing, we are resting in and enjoying His presence, unity with Him that we can access ONLY because of the completed work of Jesus Christ.
We believe that intimacy is the core and the place where our relationship with Christ is rooted and it's from intimacy that everything flows. So when we teach on intimacy, we desire that it would remind you of God's passionate pursuit of you, of his constant invitation to your heart to be safe, set free and satisfied in Christ.
We want the power of his love and desire to compel you deeper into his presence to pursue him that nothing else would satisfy you, once you've had revelation of the length that he has gone in his love to be with you.
Intimacy is the root of your life in Christ. It is this connection to the source of life from which everything else grows. Allowing the roots of your life and love to stretch into the depths of God’s presence. That love that is abundantly available to you.
What do you look like FULLY ALIVE in Jesus?
In John 10:10, Jesus told us that while we may have an enemy who wants to “steal, kill and destroy,” He came to “give life to the fullest, abundant and overflowing!” His heart is that you and I would be “fully alive,” in His infinite, resurrection life that springs from the everlasting well of God — right now and into eternity.
As a church community, we set aside the first 12 Sundays of each year to explore what we believe are the three foundations of a “full life” in Christ.
Our INTIMACY with God through the indwelling Holy Spirit. Our new IDENTITY through the resurrection life of Jesus Christ. The INHERITANCE we carry and release because we are reconciled to our Good Father.
As we step into this new year, there is anticipation and excitement starting to bubble up. The question is, what is in store for each of us in 2022? The last two years have held a lot for each of us. We have gone through heartache and pain and have received new gifts, tools, and ways to approach life. I believe that all that we have walked through over the past couple of years has set us up for what is to come this new year, 2022. I also believe that God doesn’t waste a thing. What has happened over the past two years, He will use in this new year.
"Joy to the world, the Lord has come!"
When Christmas time rolls around, this familiar refrain is heard with regularity. It's a classic line from Isaac Watts hymn, which was first published in 1719!
As soon as we read the lyric "joy to the world...", it's difficult not to hum the rest of the song in our heads and hearts. You're probably doing it right now!
While we know the lyrics, and they have become synonymous with our yearly celebration of the coming of Jesus into our world, a question must be asked: Do we sense, see, and share this joy?
We would love the honor of sharing with you how we can be people of great joy this Advent season. We have come into a moment of human history where I believe that the joy of Jesus that you have is offensive to the dark and brooding hopelessness that is trying to drain peoples hearts and minds and lives of meaning, purpose and compassion. Not offensive in the sense that we are hurting people's feeling, but offensive in the sense that our joy is a weapon that pushes back the darkness around us, our families, and our communities!
As we gather this coming Sunday, we are in our second week of Advent and celebrating that Jesus is the Prince of Peace. Who He is and what His presence brings is Peace!
This Sunday we are going to talk about the Prince of Peace and the truth that God is with us, even in the midst of what seems crazy, busy, and at times completely chaotic.
Thousands of years have passed since that first sin in the Garden of Eden, and with it the first of HUNDREDS of prophecies in the Old Testament was given promising the coming of the Messiah. As time has passed the history of God’s people, and the world surrounding them, time and time again have demonstrated the reach, the potency, and the devastating impact sin had on humanity. Over time, each prophetic word spoken pointed to the hope that God had a redemptive plan in place, and that he had not abandoned His people to ruin and destruction.
"Our world is filled with grief, uncertainty, and confusion. It can feel like we are being blown about the storms; like the light has gone out and the sun will never rise again.
It can feel like we are chasing the sun, but it’s always just out of reach…someone told me, we have to stop chasing the light, turn around and walk through the night, and catch the sun on its way back up – that’s what lament is – it’s walking through the dark in order to get to the light."
Watch Steve Mickel as he concludes our season of lament. He shared his personal story of grief, loss, and the power of finding Jesus in the darkness. Having Steve and Suzanne with us filled our hearts with hope for our personal and corporate journey in Lament.
We have invited Angie Richey, President of Life Pacific University in San Dimas, California, to speak this year at our women's conference but will also be speaking to us this Sunday.
Angie currently serves as a member of the Foursquare Board of Directors and serves on the NextGen Sub-Committee of the National Church Committee. Angie with her husband founded the Gathering, a simple church network of house churches that continues strong after a decade.
She has been married to business owner, pastor, and strategic executive coach, Lew Richey for 27 years, and they with two young adult children. She is also one of Kim’s childhood friends and is very trusted and loved by our team at Living Waters.
This week, we are honored to have Bo Stern-Brady. Bo is a friend of ours in ministry from way back. We have been loved and encouraged by her over the years, and we can’t wait for you to meet her! Bo is a pastor, speaker, and author (newlywed, mom, and grandma!)
She has written three excellent books, “Ruthless,” “When Holidays Hurt,” and “Beautiful Battlefields.”
“Beautiful Battlefields” is a great book and we cannot recommend it highly enough! She wrote it after her own fierce and unexpected battle when her husband Steve was diagnosed and later died from ALS.
We believe that her walk with Jesus through those battles and the fires, in grief and loss, will speak directly to our communal and individual lament and infuse our hearts with hope that we are not alone, even amid the darkest moments.
Lament is exercising our ability to feel sadness and grieve by giving time, space, voice and expression to our deep sorrow over pain, loss, and disappointment. Lamenting is admitting that there are parts of ourselves and our lives that are undone, feeling them, and inviting God into them - because when God is with us in it, being undone does not mean we are unsafe or unprotected!
Everything that we lament in this life is rooted in the fact that sin broke the world and it broke humanity and it broke the perfect relationship we have with our Father. When sin entered in, it broke the communal picture of what God intended for us.
In this message, we will walk through recognizing lament in light of sin. Watch Drew as he unpacks this topic for us and how we should engage our hearts and minds with the Father.
Lament is exercising our ability to feel sadness and grieve by giving time, space, voice and expression to our deep sorrow over pain, loss, and disappointment. Lamenting is admitting that there are parts of ourselves and our lives that are undone, feeling them, and inviting God into them - because when God is with us in it, being undone does not mean we are unsafe or unprotected!
We believe it's okay to be sad as we look at all the things we have been through as a church and community, and the things we have all been through individually. We are in this together, and that means we can grieve together.
If you are feeling the intensity of this season and you'd like to join us in connecting with God in our pain, loss and disappointment before we head into a New Year, we invite you to engage with us the next several weeks. We will have lots of different types of daily content as well as guest speakers coming in to guide us along the way.
But step one is to watch this introduction to a season of Lament from Ryan and Kate.
We are with you as we embrace sadness, sit with it, gently and patiently find its source, and allow God to meet us.
In Acts 15, the early church was experiencing division from both Jews and Gentiles. Both groups were being challenged to step out of their familiar culture and change to meet together and build something new.
The Jews were being asked to come out of their past “religious culture” and relinquish their demands and expectations on others to follow the Law and be circumcised. The Gentiles were being asked to come out of their past “religious culture” that included sacrifices to idols and sexual indulgence as part of idol worship.
The new believers were spared from RELIGION, without being given LICENSE to do whatever they desired. Both of these exist within the “church” today, and and to function in community we must not let our pendulum swing into either LICENSE or RELIGIOSITY.
Despite continued trials, despite a variety of changing settings and situations, regions and people, despite opposition in the places they were, and opposition following them from the places they’d been – the Gospel flourished and the church grew. During Paul and Barnabas missionary journey, they ministered to a multitude of people with diverse nationalities and backgrounds, cities with different Governors, leaders and systems in place, powerful cities and poor cities, to religious people and non-religious people, to Jews and Gentiles…AND THE GOSPEL FLOURISHED IN EVERY CONTEXT.
Throughout the Book of Acts, there is a constant invitation to repent. Not the turn-or-burn coercion to believe, but a beautiful exhortation to return to the truth of who God says we are through the finished work of the Cross and reminds us what has been made right.
It is interesting how we can read a passage of scripture throughout our lives, but when reading it, it feels new and fresh and sometimes feels like something we are reading for the first time. This happened to me as I was reading Acts 12 and prepping my message for this past Sunday.
Peter is the leader of the disciples, the chief spokesman for them in a very exciting but scary time of life. The gospel is spreading, and people are coming to know Jesus as their savior and are being filled with God’s Spirit, and the Jewish people are doing all they can to stop it.
This week's message was from Acts 10 and 11. It was the moment the gospel, and full inclusion into the Kingdom of God was given to the Gentiles. Cornelius and his family were the first ushered in, a shift that all of us reap the benefit of. But what we often forget is that this gift of inclusion to the Gentiles was promised by God, first to Abram (Abraham) well over 2000 years ago. There was a lot of smoke obscuring that promise by the time Cornelius and His family were filled with the Holy Spirit! Nevertheless, the promise was still there all along.
I have been hearing stories pop up everywhere of God inviting families, couples, single friends into sudden shifts in their life- and these shifts may be physically challenging but the YES to follow Jesus into the unknown is bringing them so much joy! There is a grace to experience sudden shifts in your mentality, your daily life.
As we are walking through the book of Acts, what we see is that Jesus ascended into heaven and the promised Holy Spirit fell upon all those waiting for the gift that the Father promised them. We read this in Acts 2.
The Gospel of Jesus was being shared and people were following “The Way”, which meant they were giving their lives to Jesus and being filled with God’s spirit. Thousands of people were coming to know Jesus daily.
So now they are living a new way of life - being led by God’s spirit in them. The fullness of the Holy Spirit residing in them and walking out each step they took with them.
Saul was an angry man. We can say that he was a terrorist - He is persecuting the church and people are afraid.
Christians know about him. They know what He is doing and can you imagine how hopeless and how scared they must have felt in that moment. Their lives were in danger because of their beliefs and because of who they were following.
So he is on this mission and the absolute impossible happens. Saul encounters Jesus!
Even in the most difficult circumstances, God is at work. What we are going through may not be ideal, but we can trust that God is holding, comforting, and strengthening us.
As we continue our Community of Transformation Series from the book of Acts, there are key lessons we can learn from Stephen as we navigate our time today as a follower of Jesus.
Join us for chapter 7 of Acts.
Can a church model health and God's solutions where culture is struggling with racial, ethnic/national or political division?
Acts is showing us a way to reclaim our places of influence in order to show the world what healthy community, connection and especially disagreement can look like. As we walk in the Spirit and tear down our own walls that want to divide us and keep us from becoming a a true community of transformation, God will use that to bring solutions to the problems that our wold it struggling with.
The gifts are for today just as much as they were for those written about in the Bible.
Gifts like, prophecy, words of knowledge, gift of wisdom, gift of healing, gift of tongues - these gifts are given to us by Holy Spirit and partnered with Him in seeing the Supernatural take place in and around our lives!
As we continue in Acts 5 - we are going to talk about the apostles that said yes to believing in Jesus - they believed that He was the son of God and that he died and resurrected on the 3rd day.
These were the guys that were in the upper room on the day of Pentecost, when they were told by Jesus, before He ascended into Heaven, to wait in Jerusalem to receive the gift that was promised to them by the Father - which was the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Watch this short encouragement from Ryan and be empowered as you go about during our "Church Out" Sunday.
When we have a “Church Out” Sunday, it isn’t a Sunday without something, it’s a Sunday with unlimited opportunity to engage God in a new and unique way!
Read more about Church Out Sunday at our website.
Watch Drew kick us back into our series, “Community of Transformation.” Here, he challenges us to represent Jesus well not just in our words, but also in our affection and our actions towards people we might not agree with.
Within our STORIES lies the power we need to overcome.
Some of us struggle to recognize the overcoming power in our own story, as so many of them still hold loose ends, moments of intense loss, or perhaps unanswered questions.
Paul so beautifully reminds us that it is “in our weakness” that Jesus is seen and made strong – and therefore we can boast in our weakness! It is often our own stories of brokenness and pain that Jesus rides in with overcoming power.
Are there parts of your story that feel unfinished, pending, or irredeemable?
“What was that about God?” “Where are you in this?”
Are there seasons of pain or loss that have yet to be filled with Jesus’ strength, comfort, and healing perspective?
I want to share a piece of my own story with you regarding my journey with fathering. Father’s Day can be tinged with questions, memories and grief for so many of us and whether we had amazing or broken dads – we all feel the effects of our relationship with them on our connection with God.
I want to share with you my raw journey of both pain and healing and let you in on the continually unfolding miracle of how Jesus has healed and met me. I pray that the Holy Spirit would meet you in a deep healing of places that still feel muddied or confusing in your own journey, and that His Spirit would ignite you with Hope for the story He is telling through your life.
“And they overcome by blood of the lamb and the WORD of their testimony…” Revelation 12:11
ACTS is a call out of our individuality & independence, and dare I say sometimes “isolation” - to come together around Jesus, the one who is GREATER than anything that DIVIDES US. The quality & sustainability of our current REFORMATION in the “church” will be determined by what we REFORM around and I pray it is only Jesus.
Acts 2 is the CRUX of the Bible, the moment when everything comes together. The completion of the puzzle that allows us to finally step back and (with our finite minds attempt to) comprehend the mystery, sovereignty, wisdom and power of God to bring about His redemptive purposes.
The Book of Acts tells the story of how the church was born, grew together, was then scattered, spreading the story of Jesus everywhere they went (Acts 8:4).
This series will challenge and commission us to continue the story they began in Acts...to lay down our lives as to carry Jesus to people right where they're at by living as a part of a Spirit-filled, transformational community of fully alive Jesus followers.
Acts doesn’t have an ending...The implication being that we are God’s (Spirit-filled) people, and the expectation is that we are continuing the work God started through this small community of believers.
Have you ever found yourself in a place that you just couldn’t see the hand of the Lord working on your behalf? Or maybe the way the circumstances were playing out did not meet your hopes or expectations? You are in very good company!
This week we are beginning our journey through the book of Acts. Acts is the powerful account of how the early church, filled with the power and the authority of the Holy Spirit, changed the course of human history and ushered in the advance of the Kingdom of God here on Earth. But in the opening moments of the book, we catch a glimpse of the final exchange between Jesus and His disciples before he ascends to heaven, and one final question is lingering in the hearts and mind of those whom Jesus is leaving His mission:
Acts 1:6 Then they gathered around him and asked him, “Lord, are you at this time going to restore the kingdom to Israel?”
We are talking about the 40 days that Jesus walked the earth after the resurrection until he ascended into heaven - The Space Between.
we are focusing on three of the disciples and their interaction with Jesus during that 40 days in the book of John in chapters 20 and 21.
With all that our world is facing these days - with things going on in our nation and how divided it can feel - I really believe that as we take a look at these three disciples, there are some things the Lord just wants to remind us of and encourage us in as believers.
For forty days between the resurrection and His ascension into heaven, history was still unfolding through Jesus!
As we move toward our series on Acts, understanding this period is vital as the groundwork is laid for DISCIPLES and FOLLOWERS of Jesus to carry the Good News of reconciliation to the Nations.
Jesus' resurrection had changed everything, and while his followers were struggling to comprehend, Jesus faithfully shared what had, and would take place. A New Covenant had been established. A Kingdom had come. History had shifted, and an assignment had been given that followers of Jesus still carry to this day!
We are anticipating a powerful day - and praying for a shift to take place in our church as we shake off the dust of 2020 and embrace the fullness of HOPE for 2021! Hope isn't a feeling, it's a perspective that can only be found in the supernatural reality AND PERSON of Jesus that we celebrate on Easter!
Welcome to the beginning of a beautiful walk through the last days of Jesus' ministry on earth. We are setting a daily rhythm as we lead up to Easter, beginning with this message as Ryan breaks down the last days of Jesus in a message called "A Triumphal Tragedy".
We have been walking through the life of Joseph for the past few months, on this video we will conclude this series as we get to the key verse, Genesis 50.20, You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Joseph lived a life of forgiveness and because of that he was not distracted by or focused on what happened to him, but he saw what the Lord was doing and participated and partnered with the Lord in accomplishing all that God had set before him.
How did his restoration and rise happen? How did he do it? How could he walk from PRISON to the PALACE so easily?
Is this how he envisioned the fulfillment of his childhood dream unfolding? The fact it is included in the text is to highlight that the reader would recognize the connection.
How often does God give us a sense, or a direction, or a “dream”, and we imprint it with our circumstances and expectations?
Join us as we worship and hear Ryan unpacks the "other side of the darkness" and what we can learn from Joseph's rise from prison to palace.
What do we do in the time gap between our promise and the delivery of that promise? What do we do when we feel like God has forgotten us? What do we do when the promises are not coming true? How do we posture hearts and character and our actions and spirits in contending for over a decade or more of pain and frustration and disappointment like Joseph?
Watch Drew as he tackles these difficult questions and gives us practical tools on how to navigate the "some time later" moments of our journey between the promise and its fulfillment.
As I’ve studied this story, this is what I see that stands out: How his relationship with his father formed him, and his how his dreams gave him purpose.
Joseph had an IDENTITY and a PURPOSE that stood the test.
It’s one thing to THINK you know who you are when things are good, because it’s theoretical. But when a trial hits, the truth is revealed.
Difficulty and testing reveal where our identity is rooted, but it also shows us what we’re LIVING FOR.
Joseph carried a DREAM that God used to deposit PURPOSE in his heart, and it oriented him through all the storms he would encounter.
Joseph’s story is a STORY OF LOSS.
He loses the protection and favor of his father. He loses the respect and love of His family. He even loses his position in Potiphar’s house.
But what remained? His identity.
Living as a son, even when distanced from his father and family. What was put into him remained intact…(What our father puts in us is unshakeable). Where we draw our identity is established in difficulty, but testing also reveals where it is rooted. For Joseph, he remained rooted in his.
It’s one thing to know who you are when things are good, because it’s theoretical. But when a trial hits, the truth is revealed. Joseph was living in his father’s favor and resources, but the events that came against him required him to choose to continue to live in that identity, regardless of what was going on around him.
Watch as Ryan continues our series, From the Prison to the Palace: A Series on the Life of Joseph.
In this message, Kim will be continued our series on the life of Joseph, focusing on the effects of JEALOUSY on his brother's hearts.
Joseph’s brothers allowed their jealousy to grow inside them. They allowed the filter of how they saw life to be through this jealousy and it then grew to the point that they wanted to kill their brother.
We may never get to that point - but the way we think of someone else or how we treat them can be just as bad.
It is time that we kill Jealousy in our lives and walk with the Lord as He celebrates what is happening in those lives around us - and in our own life.
Let’s choose to be aware of what is happening in our heart and bring it to the Lord. He wants to meet you in the exact place that you are in right now - and He wants you to be fully alive in this life!
Watch this message and find out how to best counterattack jealousy in your life.
Today feels like a perfect Father’s Day message! It's all about the Favor of a Father and what it imparts to Joseph, and to us.
At LW, we speak often of the POWER OF A FATHER...one who builds us up and calls us out into manhood, womanhood, and identity. (To be TAUGHT who we are, and TRAINED how to live it out). Watch as Ryan unpacks the Father's Favor from the story of Joseph.
Drew launched us into a new series, From the Prison to the Palace beginning with Joseph's family history. This is a 10,000 foot overview of the Family History of Joseph from Abraham to Joseph’s birth. When examining the historical narrative of Genesis 12 forward, we see the Lord offering his covenantal promises over and over again. And we see His people making choices that reveal their doubt, fear, disobedience, etc. Yet God faithfully uses every choice to fulfill His promises.
The story of Jospeh is how God interacted with imperfect humanity in the backdrop of his perfect plan. And that story is also our story.
Knowing WHO WE ARE and WHO WE BELONG TO is our identity. Walking it out is OUR INHERITANCE.
When we speak of inheritance, we are not talking about money or possessions; we are talking about the GOD’S SPIRIT coming - and resting so powerfully ON and moving THROUGH our lives that we will never be the same.
All that God is, accessed by faith in Jesus Christ, and made manifest in us AND around us by the indwelling and empowerment of the Holy Spirit - which we steward for His purposes and glory. We have been made right with our Father through Jesus Christ. And because we have a Father? We have an inheritance.
What comes into our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us” AW Tozer.
What you believe about God will determine your relationship with God. It will also inform what you believe about yourself, and what you believe about yourself determines how you live out your faith.
There’s nothing I want more than for my kids to know that they are loved, and to know who they are! I believe that’s true of God’s heart toward each of us…and why Jesus came.