Thrive LA Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Thrive LA Church
Listen to the latest Sermons from Thrive LA Church in the Silver Lake neighborhood of Los Angeles.
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This Christmas celebrate and receive that Jesus came to us because God is love, he loves us, and he showed us how to love one another.
When we come to our faith in Jesus the time comes to consider the examples of faith around us and boldly set out on our individual journeys to glorify Jesus. Come for a time of sharing and thanksgiving that propels us each to run our race.
Right now heaven feels far away, but Jesus taught us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven" because we could start inviting heavenly realities to define our lives here and now.
Join us for a conversation about recovering our humanity in a personal worth that can't be shaken.
God has revealed himself because he wants to be known. Join us as we consider the God who speaks.
Jesus equips us to have the consistent character necessary to make a positive impact to those around us.
Does the Bible primarily limit people or empower them? Sometimes we read the Bible from wrong assumptions and miss what the original hearers were meant to understand!
Listen to this message and a testimony about God's heart to train the willing, forge mutual partnerships, and appoint those whom Jesus qualifies.
Listen as Pastor Katie shares about our call to value the physical, social, and spiritual wellbeing of those around us.
Everyone has a body. But everyone has a different experience in their body. Some of us experience chronic pain. Some of us struggle to see our bodies as good. Some of us have been told a story about our bodies, but is it the story God is telling? What does our maker say about our bodies?
This Sunday, we’ll begin a five week Body + Soul series, with a very specific heartbeat: no one and nothing are more FOR your body than God is for your body! Let’s relearn the value of the human body together.
God has made you beautiful and offers you a chance to forge a more beautiful future. Join us for the final week of our Exodus series as we learn 3 keys to creating beauty in the world.
We tend to worship God from a distance, but God wants to bring you near and make you shine.
The beauty of God is that there is no one like God. God shatters our categories and splits our traps. If we move past the superficial stage with God we can learn to know God truly, and in turn we get to really know ourselves.
All of us are religious in some way. The question is, who or what are you worshipping? When our impatience towards God grows and we get stuck in our ways we usually look to other gods as sources of immediate comfort and help.
God had called his people to create a community marked by God's love, mercy, and justice, but he doesn't expect us to fulfill our end of the covenant on our own. God intends to live among us and empower our new way of life. These sacred spaces and rhythms honor God as holy and set apart, yet bring him near as a tangible part of our lives.
As a people of grace we don't have to reproduce the oppression of this world, but motivated by love we can follow God toward a new way of life that looks more like heaven.
If God has made a way, then we can trust and follow his way. The people of Israel's worship quickly gave way to complaining and doubt.
Trust is the essence of the Christian journey. God provides even as we struggle to trust. For the people of Israel, he provided water, he provided food, he provided safety, and he provided leaders… but they struggled to believe that the God who raised the waters lived among them! Do we believe that the God who raised Jesus from the dead lives among us?
The red sea was a dead end and a death sentence, but God chose to lead them there instead of through the alternate paths, to the place where his miracle was the only option. In the same way we must come to a place where we say “I will put my life in your hands because I believe you will make a way through the waters"
Jesus is “the shepherd who lays down his life for the sheep” and “the lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” Just as they celebrated Passover to remember that God chose to spare them the judgment, we take communion to remember that God spared us his judgment by sacrificing his son.
As things seemed to get worse, Moses wondered if God could be relied on. God responded with a series of promises, saying “I will…” 6 times! God brought plagues on Egypt to show he was more powerful than Pharoah and every god of Egypt. The gods of Egypt were shown to be faulty power sources. They were idols: things people valued, put meaning in, and relied on but that couldn’t deliver when it mattered most… Still, Pharaoh kept trusting the forgeries, becoming more calloused with every turn. What faulty power sources are you trusting in, and how have you become numb to the hope that God really can deliver?
Exodus Pt 2God doesn’t just see our struggles, he also shows up. Moses’ previous efforts to set things right in life fell way short, so it’s understandable that he felt insecure about his qualifications when God called him to action. But God is something else. He is holy, meaning there is no one like him and he is perfect in every way. When everything else is broken, and we are unable, He IS, just as he always has been. When life throws big problems at us, we must look to a bigger God.
Exodus is about a way out of physical and spiritual bondage. The people were enslaved, feeling forgotten, and fighting for their lives. Hopefully your situation isn’t that bad, but we all suffer and we all sin. Our experiences of pain, oppression, etc often leave us afraid and angry, searching for human solutions, which leave us trapped, angry, vindictive, hiding, etc. As hurting people we often end up hurting other people. Through the chaos of life, you may feel like “a stranger in a strange land,” but God sees your tears.
No matter how forgiving or gracious we think we are, we still haven’t forgiven anyone as much as Jesus has forgiven us. We tend to think we should forgive people because it's the right thing or because they deserve it, but actually forgiveness is costly because they don’t deserve it. The real reason we forgive is because Jesus has forgiven us, and we ultimately trust him to bear the burden of sin. The next time you’re in a conflict, even if you feel like that person has burned all their chances, remember how much God has forgiven you and ask him to help you bear with your fellow sinner.
When you don’t feel like forgiving like Jesus… 1. Admit that forgiveness is Hard 2. Get real about your double standards 3. Commit to falling in love with God’s Mercy
Unchecked and unrepentant sin will hurt the witness of the church and leave a wake of victims in its place. The loving role of church leadership is to ensure justice on behalf of the various victims by addressing sin to those affected by it and by casting out wolves. God has graciously given his church authority to help define the kingdom of God on earth so that no little ones are made to stumble.
Sometimes you just can’t see eye to eye with someone so it’s helpful to bring in some people who can help you work through it. They may help your friend see their error, or they may help you realize you’re actually the problem! Start with people who are already part of the situation, but you may need a trusted mutual friend, a mentor, a pastor, or a professional counselor… submit yourself to objective and safe people who can help you navigate tension in a healthy way. But watch out, you better be ready to listen to what they say!
Got beef with someone? Gossip or ignoring problems won’t make them go away, so deal with it head on. Go to them in private and talk about it, but make sure you go about it the right way.
The eternal well being of your neighbor (and yourself!) is more important than whatever you think you deserve in life, so own your stuff - even if it's 1% of the problem - and control what you can control.
Title: Accepting Responsibility Scripture: Matthew 18:1-14
Accept Responsibility for a higher standard
- Hold yourself Accountable to the King
Discussion: When things don't go your way do you tend more toward avoidance or blame?
- Hold yourself Accountable for your spiritual impact
Discussion: How do you know when to stand up for something and when to surrender?
- Hold yourself Accountable to Change
Are you surviving, striving or Thriving?
We thank God for your lifestyle of faith, sacrificial love, and because you do not giving up
When one part of a body is hurting, the entire body hurts. Listen to guest speaker William Broxton and an interview with Anne-Marie Johnson as we explore how to take individual responsibility for systemic problems of race in America.
When Jesus famously asked, "Which of these do you think proved to be a neighbor?" he cut through all the noise to get to the heart of God's mission through the church. Let's commit to a summer of neighboring as we walk together through Jesus' practical training on how to bring healing and good news to the people we love. Join us this Sunday as we pursue a life of welcome together.
Jesus was brought low so we could be lifted up.
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Palm Sunday commemorates the day nearly 2000 years ago when Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey as a humble king.
Jesus gave his people that day a chance to return home to God, just as he give us that chance today.
We still lift up the name of Jesus by returning to him, by crying out to him, and by declaring who he is with our words and actions.
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We all get stuck sometimes. Stuck in our career, stuck in our relationships, stuck in debt, and just plain stuck in life. In this message from 1 Corinthians 7, given during the Covid-19 quarantine, we explore the value of being faithful right where you are.
In this message Katie and Andrew walk through 1 Corinthians 7 together to show us how relationships can become a gift when you 1) Mutually Give, 2) Find your unique Gift from God, and 3) Give the Gift of Jesus.
This message from Matthew 6 helps us discover how to pray in a way that leads us to greater daily dependency on Jesus.
Praying for God's will leads to more answered prayers, but it might turn your life upside down.
Because Jesus came, there is a beauty we can experience that will bring us tangible joy as we learn to appreciate it.
In this message, pastor Jordan helps us explore the ways we've been affected by a broken world that we don't even realize, and shows us practically to how to bring those hurts to God in prayer.
Jesus tells a parable that encourages us to ask four questions: 1) Who or what runs my life? 2) What resources have been entrusted to me? 3) What is required of me? and 4) What reward am I seeking?