Faith Fuel Podcast: Recent Episodes
Jon Sherwood
In the midst of various pervasive world-views and the challenge to truth from relativism, this podcast is dedicated to providing fresh and relevant resources and conversations meant to help ignite and fuel Christian faith in the 21st century.
In this session of the Jesus Centered series we take a look at politics. How does Jesus' kingdom impact and affect our political involvement and civic engagement? Jon encourages us that no matter how we choose to engage the politics of the world, or not, we do so through an explicitly Christian worldview.
Today we talk about what it means to have Jesus at the center of the church. The ways in which christians improperly judge, and are supposed to judge properly. We also discuss centering around the person of Christ, being neither bounded by legalism nor becoming fuzzy by relativism. Gal 2-3Here are two questions to think about from the sermon today:- What are some ways you see fence building in Churches?- How can we as a church help lead people towards this well of Jesus, the living water of Jesus and not draw fences?Books referenced:Center Set Churchhttps://a.co/d/g5aFzjwFinding the Right Hills to Die On: https://a.co/d/2RMKsv1One book: Jon Sherwoodhttps://a.co/d/cnIDnlM
What does it mean for Jesus to be at the center of our lives? This could encompass a seemingly limitless list of topics, but here we focus on one: character. Mat 25, Gal 5
In a Christianized context, the term and idea "gospel" can become dull and lose its meaning. Here we discuss exactly what is the Gospel? What does it mean for us? And how Jesus being the center of the Gospel the best news humanity has ever received?
Continuing the "Jesus Centered" series in this episode we discuss what it means for Jesus to be the Center of Truth in our life. We look at the concept of truth in our cultural context, where those concepts come from, and the rival worldview that Jesus presents to some popular worldviews today.
Continuing the series "Jesus Centered", in this episode we explore how Jesus is the life and subject matter of all Scripture. We discuss the implications for us as we not only read the Scriptures, but respond to the Word of God through a Jesus centered lens.
Jesus is the center of Love. He is the center of how we understand, give, and receive love. He is the embodiment of love. In this sermon, pastor Jon Sherwood discusses 1 Corinthians 13 and the most excellent way of love found in Jesus, while making applications to our lives and the life of micro churches.
In this lesson we discuss using nonviolence as a means of peacemaking. We examine the difference between Jesus' peacemaking and his rejection of passivity.
In this third installment of the series, Jon Sherwood discusses the heart of Christianity, and that as believers in the resurrection we are to be freed from our fear of death as well as the fear of all threats of death as we trust in a God who is sovereign.
The second part of the series, this episode discusses the ideas of Christian nationalism, its origins and implications for Christ followers today.
Beginning a series about the nonviolent life and teachings of Jesus, we start by looking at John 18 and the interaction between Jesus and Pilate and how their two different kingdoms are in conflict over power, truth, violence, and righteousness.
Jon discusses Marty Solomon's new book, "Asking Better Questions of the Bible: a Guide for the Wounded, Wary, & Longing for More" along with a host of other questions surrounding the mystical Jesus, deconstruction of dogma, and whether it gets run over by karma.Find the book, Bema podcast, and all things Marty at:https://www.martysolomon.com
Continuing in our spiritual disciplines series as we discuss fasting and Jesus' new teachings on fasting.
Here we kick off our 2023 series on classic Spiritual Disciplines, beginning with prayer. I discuss three facets of prayer: that we need to learn to pray, that prayer and righteousness must go hand in hand, and that we must persevere and never give up in our prayer life.
Here we discuss the intersection of the kingdom of God and politics. What does it look like to be aliens and strangers in the world, yet still be in the world? Should Christian's vote if they have the opportunity?
What if Jesus meant every word he said?
Dean Taylor is president of Sattler College in Boston and author of A Change of Allegiance, a book that chronicles his journey of faith to wrestle with the question, "what if Jesus meant every word he said?"
While a soldier in the United States Army, Dean wrestled with the idea of Christian nationalism as he and his wife sat in the bunks reading their Bible every night. They simply couldn't get past Jesus' abundantly clear teaching to love your enemy. What if Jesus really meant every word he said ...
Referenced Just War Debate: "It's Just War": https://youtu.be/K4xQaDDKY7k
Continuing the Kingdom of God series, here we take a look at the passion week of Christ in the gospel of John to show how Jesus confronted the kingdoms of the world and undermined and subverted their power by overcoming death itself, not by force or war, but through peaceful, non-retaliatory self-sacrificing love.
On Palm Sunday, in this sermon we take a look at the arrival of an unexpected king riding into Jerusalem on a donkey, and what that has to do with our lives today.
Matthew 21:1-11
Here we look at Mat 5:21-48, the "6 antitheses" of Jesus' sermon on the mount. Jesus fulfills and expounds upon the law of Moses to show that God is concerned about the human heart and motive, as well as outward action. In particular we discuss the radical and upside down nature of God's kingdom of peace and non-violence.
The Kingdom of God is characterized by reconciliation. Here we take a look at God's heart of reconciliation, justice, and mercy. We look at how Jesus perfectly showed these things in his ministry and how only in Christ can racial reconciliation truly be achieved, for only in Jesus can the two become one new humanity (Eph 2:11-18).
Here I interview Ellen Radcliff, a licensed marriage and family therapist who used to live as a lesbian, and now lives her life radically for Jesus. And no, she didn't pray the gay away.
Ellen serves as COO (deputy director) of Strength In Weakness ministries and helps Christians with unwanted same sex attractions and gender identity issues find their hope, joy, fulfillment, and identity in Jesus.
In this interview we discuss topics of homosexuality, transgender, and other sexual identity issues. This interview will help young people that are saturated in a culture that encourages, even demands, a gender and sexual identity that is far from the creator's intent. It will also help parents and grandparents be better able to discuss topics of faith, gender and sexuality in ways that are helpful and promotes dialogue.
Strength In Weakness Ministries: https://www.StrengthInWeakness.org Ellen's Site: https://www.HeartSetAbove.com Ellen + Guy's Book: https://www.ipibooks.com/products/gay-christian
Continuing our Kingdom of God series, here Jon discusses the nature of the kingdom breaking in through Jesus and how the future kingdom of God in heaven is to be made a reality in our lives right now.
In this sermon on the Kingdom of God we discuss how the future kingdom has broken in through Jesus and what that kingdom, already but not yet, looks like in our lives today.
Continuing the Kingdom of God series, here we discuss the coming kingdom as foretold in the Old Testament.
In this sermon, we dive into the introduction of our year long series the Kingdom of God.
Books referenced: Tom Jones, The Kingdom of God, 3 Volumes, Illumination Publishers, 2005-2020.
In this installment of the sermon series Disciple we discuss Jesus' teachings on the topic of hell.
In this part of the Disciple series we discuss the teachings of Jesus on the topics of marriage, singleness, and divorce.
Here we wade into the controversial, and often taboo subjects in the church, of gender and sexuality. We discuss creative intent and what it means to be a disciple of Jesus in the cultural soup of universalism and relativity. In issues of sexuality and gender how can we stand for truth, and be gracious at the same time - just as Jesus was?
What is love? With such a pervasive culture claiming love in all its various forms at every turn, what exactly is love? Here we look at the biblical witness of true love while focusing in on some of the lesser known aspects of God and Jesus' love.
Here we begin a new series on the difficult teachings of Jesus. The first in the series will be looking at what it means to be a disciple according to the Bible and how that differs from the modern definition of a disciple used by most today. Be ready though, today's topic, just like many of the ones to come, will be unpopular to many and will take humility to truly practice.
Marty Solomon (BEMA) Interview - Talking with Marty Solomon of the BEMA podcast about a myriad of things such as the nature of discipleship, the holy Scriptures, why BEMA has blown up and whether or not any of us are saved or Christians at all. Oh yea, and Marty basically rebukes St. Augustine's interpretation of the Apostle Paul.
Learn more about BEMA and find Marty Solomon at: https://www.bemadiscipleship.com
A conversation with Michael Burns, bible teacher in Minneapolis, MN and Scott Kirkpatrick, lead pastor in Columbia, SC where we discuss the cultural moment and how Christians can navigate faithfully through race relations and racial tensions around us.
Discussing the recent cultural events of racial turmoil, protesting, and riots ... and the need to represent Jesus in all things.
In this interview with John Eldredge of Ransomed Heart Ministries (ransomedheart.com) and author of Wild at Heart, we discuss what life is like in the midst of the pandemic and how we can use this as a gospel moment and be part of spiritual revival.
Exploring what it looks like to be uncaged from technology and live faithfully while exiled in digital Babylon.
An interview with Dr. F LaGard Smith (https://lagardsmith.com) where we discuss the narrative of Evolution in our culture and why Darwin has a problem with sex.
Check out this sound bite from my recent interview with Daniel McCoy from Renew.org where I talk about what I would say to the American church, if I just had one shot.
Daniel McCoy of Renew.org interviews Jon Sherwood on ways to overcome staleness in your personal Bible study habits and experience God's word as a light to your path.
Continuing our Summer of Wisdom series with our second installment from the book of Psalms where we focus on meditating on God's word.
Continuing the Summer of Wisdom where we seek wisdom for our modern world from ancient wisdom literature from the Bible
The second installment of the book of Job where we explore an ancient understanding of God and seek wisdom for our modern world in the Summer of Wisdom series.
Continuing the Summer of Wisdom series where we seek wisdom for our modern world, here we start to explore the ancient wisdom literature of Job.
Continuing our Summer of Wisdom series, here we start into the book of Ecclesiastes to seek wisdom for our modern world.
Kicking off the series Summer of Wisdom with an introduction to Proverbs and exploring Lady Wisdom. Can ancient wisdom literature provide us with wisdom for our modern world?
Here we explore the question does life have a purpose and take a look at what the Bible has to say about it.
An interview with Dr. Douglas Jacoby about Postmodernism and its effects on Christians.
An interview with Jason Henderson, COO of Renew.org. Renew is a network seeking to help fuel disciple making within the Restoration family of churches.
Continuing our sermon series Train Yourself from 2 Pet 1, we talk about mutual affection and brotherly love.
From our Train Yourself series based on 2 Pet 1:3-11 here we discuss the aspect of self-control.
In this interview with Guy Hammond, executive director of Strength In Weakness ministries (www.strengthinweakness.org) we discuss the intersection of the LGBTQ and Christian communities as well as Guy's recent loss of his wife to cancer.
Jeff Hickman (minster at North River Church of Christ) and I teach at the Columbia School of Ministry on the topic of God & Race.
The last installment of the Imitation of Christ series, here we discuss Jesus "feet" and the kingdom gospel message he preached, and how this coincides with his "hands" and his ministry with people.
Continuing in our Imitation of Christ series we continue the discussion about what it means to imitate Christ and is work in the world, here we specifically dive into the idea of biblical justice.
The Imitation of Christ series where we take a look at the public pronouncement of Jesus' ministry in Luke 4.
The Imitation of Christ sermon series where we discuss the mind of Christ and imitating Him.
In this interview with Tim Mackie one of the founders of The Bible Project (www.thebibleproject.com), we discuss the origins of The Bible Project and how two friends threw some videos up on Youtube that have now become a full blown Christian animation studio that is impacting how people understand, read, and engage the bible all over the world.
In this interview with Andy Crouch (author of Tech Wise Family and former executive director of Christianity Today), we discuss how technology is shaping our world, and our lives, for good and for ill. In particular, what this means for us as a community of faith and for you as a believer. Andy has been gracious enough to allow me this interview with him about this issue. Quite frankly this isn't being talked about much by believers. Beware of the cultural tsunami.
Referenced resources in interview:
Kara Powell - Right Click: Parenting Your Teenager in a Digital Media World
John Dyer - From Garden To The City: The Redeeming and Corrupting Power of Technology
Sherry Turkle - Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age
In this interview with Bobby Harrington (pastor of Harpeth Christian Church, founder of Discipleship.org, keynote at UNBOXED 2017, and leader of discipleship track at Exponential) we explore what it means to be a part of a "disciple making first" movement, how the Holy Spirit is at work in North America along with specific implications upon the International Churches of Christ.
Meet Brandon Redler from SIW ministries (www.strengthinweakness.org), who lived as a woman named Desiree, then found Jesus Christ. A powerful testimony, and much needed insight and education about the intersection of the Christian community and the "T" in LGBT.
An interview with Guy Hammond, leader of Strength In Weakness Ministries (www.strengthinweakness.org), we discuss the intersection of the Christian and LGBTQ Communities.
How can Christians be faithful with Jesus' message of reconciliation with the LGBT community? Jon Sherwood shares along with the Reynold's personal story of dealing with same sex attractions and its intersection with the Christian faith.