Woodland Hills Church: Recent Episodes
Greg Boyd
Get the most recent sermons from Woodland Hills Church. Located in Saint Paul, MN, our goal as a church is to build bridges between social classes, genders, races, and most of all, between people and Jesus Christ. Many other resources, including sermon study guides, are available for free on our web site, whchurch.org. Most sermons are by our Senior Pastor, Greg Boyd.
The Bible is largely comprised of stories. What role do stories play in our lives? How can stories change us? Why does God’s word to us come in the form of stories rather than propositions? These are questions that Dan Kent addresses in this sermon.
Greg Boyd concludes the series on Revelation by exploring the final words of the book’s epilogue. The main point is that Jesus is coming soon! Greg explains what this means and how we can respond to this announcement.
Dan Kent invites us to see the story of the Bible, summarizing five grand themes that begin in Genesis and are completed in Revelation. In this way, the book of Revelation calls us back to where we belong, even in the midst of a broken world that tries to pull us away.
Greg Boyd walks us through the vision of the river flowing through the holy city of God, showing us what it means to live as participants in the triune dance of God’s love. The fullness of the presence of God will occur at the end of time, but we can begin to live it now.
The concluding chapters of Revelation provide a vision of what it means to flourish. This vision is of a holy city, one that is built around the presence of God. There we discover the ultimate foundation of human flourishing, the meaning of all life.
Dan Kent invites us to see three grand themes that are woven throughout Revelation and are brought together at the end of this grand book. These themes are the “two ways” pattern repeated throughout Scripture, the fact that the path of God is a person and that the destination of the path is communal.
This sermon by Greg Boyd focuses on the meaning of “The Lake of Fire.” Greg introduces the traditional meaning of eternal, conscious punishment, and then he expounds upon an alternative interpretation, one that is founded upon the reality that God is revealed in Jesus Christ on the cross.
In this teaching Greg Boyd explains the meaning of the 1,000 year reign of Christ, and shows us how this imagery is not a foretelling of future events, but instead instruction for how to live in the present, reigning with Christ in the midst of our everyday battles.
The rider on the white horse appears in John’s vision, and it looks like God will conquer through violence. However, Shawna Boren explains there is more than meets the eye, and when we read at a deeper level, we actually see a rider who wages war like a shepherd caring for their flock.
Greg Boyd calls us to participate in the divine-human marriage relationship between Christ and his people. We are made to experience divine love and to live in love, which will be fully realized upon Christ’s return. Now we are called to make ourselves ready, embracing this love by the power of the Holy Spirit.
Don’t TRIP. In this sermon, Pierre Fulford invites us to understand how easy it is to TRIP (Temporal Reality Inverting Perspective) as we take the trip of life. We can allow the temporary to determine the way we live and miss out on what really matters, or can look beyond the temporary and see the eternal, walking in the present with an enduring perspective.
Greg Boyd calls our attention to the importance of forgiving one another. This practice plays a significant role in our call to live as God’s covenant community. We have received God’s “all-forgiven reality,” and now we are to emulate the love of Christ on the cross and extend this new reality to all.
Life in godly unity requires that the real you shows up. However, no one has it all together. We can either pretend we do and remain disconnected, or we can adopt the practice of confession and learn to love one another through the reality of weakness and even failure. Dan Kent shows us what biblical confession is, what it is not, and then points us toward practical steps to move into honest confession.
We are better together and the way we use our tongues will either promote or destroy our togetherness. Greg Boyd shows us how Scripture views the power of the tongue and how it can be used for ill or for good.
How do we experience the reality of being God’s family in practical ways? This question is especially crucial in a world that promotes judgment, division and isolation. Dan Kent addresses this by highlighting the instruction to “bear with each othaer.” Living in love does not mean only embracing those who are easy to love. Real love calls us to embrace those who require patient endurance. In this way, we reflect the love of the cross.
This sermon by Shawna Boren unpacks regarding people from a human point of view and then guides us to take practical steps to view people as God views them. This is the way that we live in love as Christ loved us.
Greg Boyd opens our new series “Better Together” with a sermon on the biblical call to participate as a member of God’s family. Because the patterns of modern culture divide us, it’s a challenge to shift from an isolated “me” to a collective “we,” but God connects us so that we might live in love alongside one another.
Jesus has risen! In this sermon, Greg Boyd unpacks the meaning of the Resurrection and its implications for our lives. He names four facets of the empty tomb so that we might see it from a variety of rich angles, and as a result enter into the power of the Resurrection by the Spirit.
On April 3, we held a special Good Friday service to reflect on Jesus’ sacrifice. If you'd like to watch this service, you can find the video on our website. here: https://whchurch.org/forsaken/
And if you missed it, you can watch and find sermon resources for our Easter Sunday service, here: https://whchurch.org/risen/
In this panel discussion, Greg Boyd, Shawna Boren and Dan Kent discuss three problem issues in Revelation 14-18. The first issue pertains to the nature of hell, the second deals with God crushing people like grapes, and the third addresses the denigrating language about women. The panelists interpret these passages to show how they align with the revelation of Jesus on the cross.
Dan Kent calls us to love the church as the people of God. He does this by identifying two real issues that hinder people from embracing the church and then he shows us how to overcome these obstacles as we engage the God who engages us.
Greg Boyd explains what the doctrine of the rapture is and why it is problematic. He then offers an alternative perspective, one which aligns with the call to live in love as Christ loved us.
In this sermon, Cedrick Baker calls us to worship through song. In doing so, we open our minds to remember the goodness of God and his work in our lives, and we increase our faith as we walk with Jesus. Singing aligns us with the work of God and leads to dependence upon the only one who can deliver us.
Revelation opens our eyes to see the empty promises of empires and systems that proclaim eternality and permanence. However, the reality is that they all fade and fall. In this sermon, Greg Boyd challenges us to set aside our hopes in these empires, and place our hope on the only kingdom that will last, the kingdom that is found in the cruciform king.
This sermon by Dan Kent names what it means to be trapped by the culture of Babylon and the path to escape it. The Babylonian way compels us to pursue more while never having enough, while the cruciform way of Jesus offers us a gift that we cannot work to attain.
God’s judgment is a common topic throughout the Bible and even in popular culture. But what does the Bible mean by divine judgment? Does it mean God smites us when we go too far? In this sermon Greg Boyd invites us to see the divine judgment or the wrath of God in a different light. God’s judgment actually means that sin possesses its own repercussions—you might say that the wrongdoing ricochets. This is how divine wrath works because this is how God designed creation.
Greg concludes the Love Does series with a look at Paul’s statement that love rejoices in the truth in contrast with not delighting in wrongdoing. He then connects the contrast between truth and wrongdoing to demonstrate how right relatedness is truthful and how this is the way we live in love.
This sermon by Greg Boyd shows us that love is more than simply not wronging others. The love of God actually means that we are not delighting or celebrating the wrongdoing. The motivations of our heart are shaped by love and therefore produce the fruit of loving action.
Love does not keep a record of things done wrong and love believes the best of others. Sandra Unger names how difficult it is to walk in these two aspects of agape love. She names how keeping a record of wrongs undermines love and provides insights into how we can move away from this all-too-common practice.
Cedrick Baker invites us to look at love in action as extreme measures for the welfare of the other. Reflecting on the extreme measures of the Incarnation and the Cross, we are called to bless the other at cost to ourselves.
Paul wrote that love does not envy or boast. Yet these two practices are woven into modern life to such a degree that many cannot see any other option. Shawna Boren unpacks how envy and boasting undermine the practice of love and then shows us a better way, a way out and into agape love.
Greg Boyd teaches us that to dishonor others is to play the “king of the hill” game where everyone is trying to climb the social ladder at the expense of others. Love refuses to play the game of shaming another to benefit self. Instead, love honors others just as God honors us.
This first sermon in the “Love Does” series highlights the action of trust. Dan Kent explores the way that God trusts, the call to be trustworthy in our relationship with God and how to grow in our trust of one another. This challenge to the worldly pattern of distrust invites us to manifest love in concrete and practical ways.
This Christmas Eve, Greg gave a short sermon starting out by exploring the question,“Who are you?” by contrasting ancient, story-based identities rooted in community, with modern identities that often lead to loneliness and emptiness.
He goes on to tell “the story of us” – of a loving God who created humanity for relationship and stewardship, our fall into brokenness, and God’s persistent work of restoration in found in Christ Jesus.
Christmas is a time of joy. However, the story of Jesus’ birth also includes struggles, suffering and grief. This is found specifically in the narrative of the Magi, which includes great joy and the reality of the world. Greg Boyd identifies this and provides concrete ways to deal with grief in healthy ways.
In this sermon, Cedrick Baker explores how Old Testament prophesies speak to the coming deliverance of the Messiah. In Genesis 49:10, we see how the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah and will establish a new kind of kingdom. In this way God promises his care and provision which gives us a sense of security.
In this sermon, Dan Kent opens up the meaning of the prophesy from Hosea 11:1 about Jesus being called out of Egypt. Dan explains how this verse speaks to God’s delight for his people and applies this delight to us and how we experience God’s love.
Greg Boyd introduces this year's Christmas series, Fulfilled. Each week during this series we are looking at Old Testament prophesies about the incarnation of Jesus. In this first sermon, Greg addresses how the Old Testament proclaims that the coming Messiah will overcome Satan and evil.
Greg Boyd clarifies the meaning of the second beast in Revelation 13, naming it as the beast of “wow and wonder,” as it aims to expand our attention on the first beast. Greg then identifies common strategies the second beast uses in our culture today, offering ways to identify these issues along with three challenges for resisting the beast.
In this sermon Greg Boyd calls us to a sober mindset about the reality of the modern-day empire. Just as Revelation originally challenged the early church to resist the empire of Rome, so too the Spirit of God calls us to resist the delusions of the modern global empire.
This sermon on the first of two beasts in Revelation 13 addresses what it means to trust God’s faithfulness in tough times and the reality of hardship. Dan Kent contrasts this with a sanitized God, who, many assume, cannot deal with the world’s evil or the spiritual warfare that is being waged.
In this sermon, Shawna Boren proclaims our hope in the midst of trials and tribulations. She announces the fact that Christ has already defeated the enemy is stronger than our struggles. And she gives us concrete action steps to stand in the midst of Christ’s victory.
Greg Boyd highlights the way of lies versus the way of truth. The way of lies is founded upon the deception of Satan that draws us into the pursuit of ascent, rising to more power, more stuff and more acclaim. The way of truth is the way of the cross, the way of the Lamb. By counting the cost of discipleship, we move toward Christ and live in love.
This sermon by Cedrick Baker addresses the reality of an unseen spiritual realm and the need for spiritual eyes to see it. We are invited to cultivate a spiritual awareness of the spiritual battle that is transpiring all around us.
In this sermon Greg Boyd introduces a new series entitled Dragon Slayers. A myriad of symbols tell about a woman who gives birth to a Messiah, while Satan seeks to destroy him. Then the woman goes into the wilderness. The focus of this sermon lies on the meaning of going into the wilderness and our calling to bring God’s love to those mired in a wilderness life.
Shawna Boren looks at the phrase “love is not easily angered,” which is an appropriate challenge in our current culture. She names what anger is and how it undermines love. Then she gives insight into how we can navigate this emotion in healthy ways.
Dan Kent introduces the problem of pride and how it is rooted in hierarchical systems where we measure ourselves against others. We are unable to love others when we are constantly evaluating them and ourselves. We must opt out of this system and learn to see all as equals, all equally loved.
Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is kind. Greg Boyd highlights kindness as a way of life that can revolutionize the world in which we live. He also calls us to slow down so that we make space in our lives for being kind and therefore live in love with one another.
This sermon challenges the pattern of selfishness as a contrast to the call to agape love. Through this teaching, we learn how selfishness undermines our call to be like Christ and practical ways we can address the selfishness that creeps into our lives.
Greg introduces a new series on love by examining the four Greek terms that are commonly translated as the English word “love,” thus clarifying what love is and what it means to love as God does. He then takes us through the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 to demonstrate why love is so crucial to our walk with God.
In this closeout sermon for the Testify! series, Dan Kent surveys the key points of Revelation 10 and 11 and highlights how the testimony of the church is crucial to what God is doing in the world. He then challenges us to practice the call to Testify!
Shawna Boren walks us through the difficult images of the opening verses of Revelation 11 and demonstrates how they are connected to the truth that God’s presence protects his people in times of trial and trouble. We can be comforted because no situation that we face can ever displace us from the reach of God’s love. This was true for the early church and it is true for us today.
This passage offers an interpretive challenge to a verse that seems to say that the people of God actually commit violent acts against their enemies. However, when you look beneath the surface of this complex imagery, it actually paints a picture of the way of the cruciform Christ and how the church overcomes through peace.
This sermon explores how God invites and challenges us to take in his word, to the point of internalizing it into the depths of our souls. When we do this, we allow that truth to flow through us to others, specifically those who have not become followers of Jesus.
This sermon addresses the mystery of God as it relates to how God will overcome evil at the end of time. When it looks like injustice, hate and war are winning the day, how God wins through love is truly mysterious. However, love will win in the end, even though we do not see how and we do not have the ability to ascertain God’s plans. We can trust that there is more to what God is doing than we can directly see at this point.
Greg Boyd begins the new series titled Testify! by helping us see the crucial role that the unseen agents, called angels, play in the biblical story. We are invited to rethink the role that angels play in our story and the story of the world, and to embrace the reality that we live in a spiritual war zone.
God calls us to the way of generosity and Dan Kent shows how this call is much larger than a set of rules for how we use our money. It’s about recognizing the story of the world versus the story of God. To be shaped by the world’s story is to only see what we possess because there is no ultimate victorious ending. But to be shaped by God’s story is to see the grandeur of what God is doing and the culmination of all things, which dwarfs anything that we can store up for ourselves.
Greg calls us into the Jesus way of forgiveness, contrasting it with the way of bitterness. He does this by explaining the parable of the unforgiving servant, as he helps us to see the inherent destructive forces that control our lives when we choose unforgiveness toward those who do us harm.
Cedrick Baker challenges us to walk in the way of integrity, living with our actions aligned with our beliefs. In this way of life our actions are not determined by what fits the situation, but by how our conscience determines what we will choose to do in the moment.
In this sermon, Dan Kent challenges us to enter into the way of empathy, which he says is crucial to our ability to connect with others by sharing in their feelings. It is a way exemplified by Jesus as he entered into the common human condition so that he might know what we experience from the inside.
God calls us to live in contentment, which comes in two forms. First, there is basic lifestyle contentment, where we are at peace when our basic needs are met and we are not driven to pursue unnecessary things. Second, there is radical contentment, where we are living without anxiety, when we are facing a situation that could cause it. In this sermon, Greg offers us direction in how we can grow in both kinds of contentment.
This first sermon in our Walk the Way series addresses the importance of practicing gratitude and how it impacts our ability to receive God’s salvation. Greg Boyd looks at the story of Jesus healing the ten lepers, and how only one returned to express his gratitude to Jesus, and in doing so received something the other nine did not.
Our world surrounds us with despair and darkness, and we long for a place of hope. Dan ties this reality into Revelation 8 and 9, where the trumpet judgments bring destruction to the earth. He looks for and finds hope in the midst of the destruction, showing us how we can hold on to hope in the midst of chaos.
In this sermon, Greg Boyd explains the meaning of the seven trumpet judgments and how they apply to our modern context. Specifically, Greg addresses the image of the seals on believers’ foreheads, demonstrating how God has sealed us, thereby giving us confidence in the character of God to complete the work that he has begun in us.
In the apocalyptic scene of Revelation 8, the prayers of God’s people rise up to God. The church of the first century and the church of today is to be a people of prayer. In this sermon, Shawna Boren calls us into a fresh understanding of what prayer is and invites us into a fresh experience of relating to God through it.
In this sermon, Greg Boyd addresses the nature of the final judgment and why the New Testament emphasizes the importance of crying out for God to set all things right with his coming.
In a timely message for troubling times, Cedrick Baker shares his experience of living with God’s peace in the midst of struggle and trying situations. He discusses what peace is, how anxiety steals it and how to live in God’s peace.
This sermon by Dan Kent helps us understand the meaning of repentance and why it is so crucial to our walk with Jesus. In it, we discover how we misunderstand what repentance is and see how repentance is a path to true freedom.
This sermon brings us back to the book of Revelation, and in it Greg calls our attention to a singular verse, one that speaks of silence in the throne room.
In this Easter Sunday message, Greg shared with us how on the cross, God lured the rulers of this age into thinking that God could be defeated. However, what looked like defeat was ultimately the path to divine victory. Therefore, we can declare that what looks like Good Friday death is actually a precursor to resurrection victory.
Greg wraps up our series on spiritual disciplines by showing us the importance of meditating on God’s word. He explains how God’s word is foundational to our formation and then concludes with specific actions that can help us get God’s word inside our very essence.
God calls us to steward creation in partnership with him. However, the modern practices of human consumption actually destroy the very fabric that makes creation beautiful. We need practices that train us to serve as God’s creation stewards. In this sermon, Shawna Boren offers two Spiritual Practices for us to consider: gratitude and sabbath keeping.
In this sermon, Sandra Unger explores the practice of forgiveness and explains how it empowers us to live out the call to love others. We learn what forgiveness is and what it is not, while also being challenged to love others in ways that counter the primary ways of our culture.
Find a study guide for this message, and more sermon media on our website here.
We need spiritual disciplines which will shape us so that we can live in love toward ourselves. Fasting is such a discipline because it detoxes our dependence upon food and other pleasures, enabling us to receive what is actually fulfilling and whole. Dan Kent helps us to understand the role of fasting as we seek to love ourselves as God would have us to do.
In this sermon, Greg introduces the spiritual discipline of practicing the presence of God. This is simply the habit of living with an awareness of God’s nearness to us on a moment by moment basis. It is founded upon the invitation to abide in Christ, as he abides in us.
Greg introduces a new series on discipleship by explaining why spiritual disciplines are so crucial to our relationship and walk with God. Then he introduces us to the discipline of being honest with ourselves and with God about our lives.
Cedrick Baker brings a message on the victory that comes by the blood of Jesus. This victory is more than a legal declaration of personal cleansing of sin, it is an experience by those who embrace a life of cruciform participation. Following Jesus is not merely about belief; it costs us our lives, as it did the martyrs in John’s vision.
In this sermon, Greg challenges us to open our minds up to the idea that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, speaks to his sheep. This means that God speaks in a way that we can hear and follow him to the cross. Greg then explains the way that the voice of God works and how we can learn to listen.
This sermon addresses the meaning of worship and what causes a person to express their praise to God. Greg also explains why worship is so crucial to our life in God and what it means to worship God in our daily lives with how we act on a day-to-day basis.
In this sermon, Dan Kent helps us understand the meaning of the proclamation “salvation belongs to our God.” While we might assume salvation is about personal sin and guilt, Dan demonstrates that it is much more extensive than that. He shows us that salvation is centered around God’s work to establish the rightful King of all creation.
In this sermon, Greg expands upon the call to be a people of hospitality as he highlights four specific groups of people who experience marginalization. As God has welcomed us in his divine hospitality, we also are to participate in God’s hospitality and show it to those who most need it.
Cedrick Baker reflects on God’s hospitality toward us, and challenges us to join God in the life of hospitality. Just as God has freely given his love to us, we can reach out to others and show them the kind of love that we have received. This is rooted in the scene in Revelation 7, of God’s people celebrating the open hospitality they have experienced through the work of the cross.
This unique sermon is a challenge by four individuals who reflect on different aspects of being God’s unified people in the midst of diversity—a reality that is a gift of God—and divisiveness—a reality that is a mud pit of Satan. The four perspectives call us to put our weight into the dream of God’s gloriously diverse, but unified, kingdom where all live in love, even when circumstances stand against it.
In this sermon, Shawna Boren examines the meaning of the vision of the 144,000. What is the meaning of this vast crowd and who is included in it? These questions are explored and the symbolic answers are connected to three parables of Jesus from Luke 15. This vision shows us the heart of God for all people, which can lead us into the depths of God’s love and transformation.
In this sermon, Greg Boyd introduces the topic of what it means to be sealed by God. He explains that it pertains to the principle of God’s protection and God’s ownership of his people. We are protected in the sense that God is unconditionally committed to our salvation, we are owned by God because Jesus ransomed us from slavery to sin and Satan.
Meghan Good delivers a sermon on Jesus’ call to Peter from John 21 to help us understand how we can hear God’s call and embrace it through simple practices. These practices will shape our imagination for our journey forward.
In this Christmas sermon, Shawna Boren explores the story of how Joseph encountered God four times through a dream. Joseph responded with great faith in ways that contrasted with conventional thinking. In doing so, this common man followed God as he was given the charge to care for the savior of the world.
This sermon by Greg Boyd explores the Christmas story of the Magi’s search for Jesus. Greg provides historical background that opens our eyes to seeing the surprising and radical nature of their journey to find the Jewish Messiah. In addition, it reveals implications about who God is and how he relates to us.
In this sermon, Greg examines the story of the angelic appearance to the shepherds and its meaning for Jesus and for us. We see how God comes for the marginalized and includes the outcasts into the redemption of all things.
This sermon examines the story of Anna when she met the child Jesus in the temple. Dan Kent highlights how she waited for the Messiah for decades and the importance of waiting on God to act in our lives and release his gifts through us.
This sermon by Dan Kent introduces the pale green horse of death in Revelation 6, and provides a way of understanding what God is trying to communicate through this and other terrifying images. Dan challenges us to embrace faithfulness when circumstances push us to prioritize fear.
In this sermon, Greg examines the symbolism of the second and third horses who are told to come forth and show themselves for who they are. The second horse is given the title of societal conflict and the third is the horse of economic distress.
In this sermon, Greg expounds on the first broken seal and what it symbolizes. Here we read about the white horse that seeks to ascend through conquering. Some have taught that this represents the rule of Christ, but actually it is the ancient serpent who is merely a Christlike figure.
Leading up to and throughout this election season, many of us have been experiencing a wide range of emotions—things like fear, anxiety and frustration.
It can be easy to lose perspective, which is why on "Election Eve", we held a special service, all about keeping our eyes fixed on King Jesus and his Kingdom, no matter the outcome of the election.
We want to remember who we belong to, where our citizenship is, and that our real hope is in Jesus—not in any particular candidate, political party or government.
This sermon is a conversation between Bill Doherty and Greg Boyd, where they talk about the relationship between the Kingdom of God and how the kingdoms of this world work, applying it to the present election season.
Greg speaks from the heart about the way that God judges, and how he uses all life circumstances to grow us, even though he does not cause those circumstances. When we honestly look at the difficulties of life, can we trust that God remains in them and meets us there, bringing good out of evil?
The Bible speaks repeatedly about the judgment of God, including the final judgment that is coming. In this sermon, Greg addresses what God’s judgment means by explaining the concept of organic judgment in contrast with judicial judgment.
In John’s vision he sees the martyrs calling out for justice, asking how long will they have to wait for God to make things right. This speaks to our common longing for justice as we live in the space where Jesus has won the victory and overcome Satan, yet we wait on justice to be fully realized. This sermon shows how we live in this space.
In this sermon, Greg provides a defense for the existence of an evil intelligence, a being named Satan, and explains how Revelation conveys that he is the source and cause of all the violence, evil and destruction in the world. Through this, Greg argues that God has often been blamed for what Satan has actually done.
This first sermon in this sub-series entitled “The Wrath of the Lamb” sets the stage for what is to come. Greg shows how the images in Revelation 6 have been traditionally interpreted as depicting God as a violent arbiter of wrath. However, he challenges these interpretations and introduces an alternative, which is more faithful to the text and to the revelation of God in Christ.
In this final sermon for the Political Distortions series, Greg Boyd addresses the heart posture of humility, calling us to the mindset of living in love to the point that we take on the mind of Christ on the cross instead of the prideful-ascent mindset that characterizes Satan and those who are always pursuing a life of “more.”
Jesus and the writers of the New Testament highlight the importance of how we use our words. In fact, the biblical parameters stand in stark contrast to the common ways of speaking about one another in modern life. As followers of Jesus, we are called to embrace an alternative way that is driven by love, not slander and gossip.
In this sermon, Shawna Boren calls us to live in the way of Jesus by embodying patience in the midst of strife and turmoil. We are to bear with one another, showing others patience even when our natural tendencies compel us to set them straight.
Dan Kent challenges us with the words of the Apostle Paul to respond to polarization by letting our gentleness show. He explains what gentleness is and is not, and outlines the inherent power and the freedom we experience when we obey this command to gentleness.
In this team-taught sermon with Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty, we learn about the importance of being a peacemaker, and discover some basic skills about how we can actually promote peace when polarized perspectives are part of our conversations.
Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. Therefore, we must be wise to temptations that seek to entrap us in patterns that lead to our destruction. In this sermon Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty identify common ways that we are tempted in the current culture of political polarization. Greg and Bill then provide practical guidance for navigating these temptations so that we can avoid their entrapment.
Greg Boyd and Cedrick Baker highlight the difference that the kingdom of God makes and how it contrasts with the kingdoms of this world. They help us understand how the two kingdoms often are combined, which means that the kingdom of God becomes something other than what it should be. Greg and Cedrick also provide some insight into ways that we can practice kingdom distinctives in our everyday lives.
In this introductory sermon to the new series, Political Distortions, Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty provide a framework for why God’s kingdom people are challenged to provide an alternative to the political polarizations that pervade our current reality. They also offer some initial guidance in how we can practice this alternative.
In Revelation 5, John’s vision includes the 24 elders holding up bowls of incense, which are our prayers. Greg explores four aspects of prayer, specifically intercessory or petitionary prayer. He addresses how prayer can be natural, its purpose, why it is urgent and the mystery of prayer’s outcomes.
The 24 elders in the throne room who sing praises to God show us that corporate worship is a distinctive feature of God’s people. Why is this important? What does this mean when corporate singing is uncommon outside of the church? Greg addresses these questions and provides practical guidance for ways that praising God can become a central part of our relationship with God.
When John enters the throne room in Revelation 4 and 5, the Father and Son are evident, but the Spirit is depicted as the seven eyes of the slain lamb. What does this imagery tell us about God’s triune nature and what can we learn about the role of the Holy Spirit? These are the questions addressed by Greg in this sermon, and the answers guide us into a deeper union with God.
The heavenly vision of John in Revelation 5 reveals that God redeems persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Shawna Boren highlights the radical contrast of this truth against our common experience of division and “othering” that occurs in small and grand ways in our lives. God calls us to love the other rather than excluding those who are different. We make this a reality as we embrace the practice of hospitality.
The people of God are a kingdom and priests who will reign on earth. This is our identity. What does this mean and what are the implications for us? Cedrick Baker explores how we are being formed to be people of character who are trained to reign on earth, reflecting the character of God.
In this sermon, Greg Boyd focused on the part of John’s vision that no one is worthy to open the scroll. The reason is due to the fact that humanity has been deceived and therefore does not align with the character of God. Greg ties this passage to the deception of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 and then he provides spiritual practices that can break this pattern of deception.
In this sermon, Greg Boyd introduces chapter 5 of Revelation where we read about the vision of the slain lamb. This lamb unveils the nature of God’s character in a surprising way, as typically God is depicted as having lion-like character, but instead the slain lamb shows us what God is really like, how God works in the world and how God has conquered evil.
The twenty-four elders fall before the Lord in perpetual worship, giving us a radical image of life in the presence of God. In this sermon, Dan Kent explores the meaning of worship by showing us that the key is our allegiance to God demonstrated by the choices that we make in laying down our crowns before him.
God is the only eternal one. All else is temporary. However, it is human nature to put our trust in temporary things, to focus on things that will not last. Jesus invites us to treasure that which will not be destroyed. When we set our hearts on God’s kingdom and his righteousness, we will discover the only treasure that endures.
In Revelation 4, the 24 elders lay down their crowns and fall before God’s throne. This sermon explores how such acts are typically performed out of fear, but here it’s actually a reflection of the kind of love that they see in the life of Jesus, and a participation in the triune dance of God’s eternal being.
In this sermon, Greg challenges us to upgrade our umwelt. He expands on what Emily introduced in the previous week, and provides three practical ways that we can increase our ability to see God and enter into the knowledge of his transcendent glory.
John was invited to enter a door to see into the throne room of God. This was not a physical seeing. It was a spiritual experience, where he saw into another dimension of reality. What does it mean to see into this other world, to experience God in this distinctly different way? This sermon, by Emily Morrison, encourages us to embrace the gift of seeing God in this radically different way.
In John’s vision in Revelation 4, he sees a sea of glass, which represents peace. What does this vision of peace mean for life when we are surrounded by chaos, evil and the constant barrage of all that is not peaceful? This vision of peace came before the final victory of sin and death. This peace is our inheritance in the present. We only need to see it and embrace it as God’s gift to us.
In this sermon, Greg calls the church to pay attention to the reality of spiritual warfare that pervades our world, and then he follows this with direction on the necessity and the ways to resist the powers that war against God’s kingdom.
In this sermon, Greg shares a second letter to the church of Woodland Hills that follows the form of the seven churches in Revelation. This letter praises the generosity expressed by the church, and it admonishes individuals regarding the need to live hospitably by examining how our time is eaten up by trivial and distracting busyness.
This sermon applies the instruction to “hear” what the Spirit said to the seven churches from Revelation by offering a letter to our church today. Specifically, it is a call to revival, to enter into a new space of renewal so that we might wake up to the work of the Spirit in and around us.
In the last letter to the seven churches, Jesus speaks of the endurance of the Philadelphians. They endure in times of trial and Jesus promises to keep them so that they might overcome and remain faithful. In this sermon, Greg challenges us to remain faithful in the midst of trials so that we might live in love, even when we face resistance to it.
Jesus rose on that first Easter Sunday in his physical body. He was not a disembodied ghost. This demonstrates that the resurrection is not merely about the salvation of our souls. It’s about bringing all things into wholeness: the physical experience of our bodies, other creatures and the entire world. In this sermon, Greg calls us into this radical vision of God’s comprehensive salvation.
This sermon narrates how Jesus was proclaimed as the Jewish Messiah by the people as they laid palm leaves as he entered Jerusalem. This is contrasted with their condemnation of Jesus to death, and it asks why they made this radical shift. Why did they adore him on Sunday and seek his crucifixion within the same week? These insights will open our eyes to what Jesus was doing, and what he is now doing in our world.
In this sermon, Shawna Boren explores the letter to the church at Sardis. This letter has a direct and somewhat harsh challenge given to a complacent and overly-confident church. These words are a warning to wake up and see reality for what it is so that we might more fully invest our lives in what really matters.
In this sermon, Jeremy Duncan, author of the book on Revelation entitled Upside Down Apocalypse, introduces Jesus’ words to the church at Thyatira. He unpacks the meaning of the violent and troubling imagery that we read, and he shows us how these words are meant to wake us up to the ways of the culture that undermine real life that only Christ can give us.
To the church of Laodicea, Jesus spoke harsh words of confrontation because they depended on wealth for their well-being, living under the illusion of self-sufficiency. In our modern world the pursuit of financial gain is a common illusory trap, one that tell us that it will serve as a foundation for our lives, but, in reality, it cannot be trusted. Only God can be the source of true life.
Sui Generis is Latin for being of its own genre or unlike anything or anyone else. Each of us has a deep desire to feel special in relation to our Creator and this is the kind of relationship that God wants with each of us.
This sermon addresses how crowds who are formed around evil agendas serve as seedbeds for Satan. This has been seen throughout history where one crowd sets itself up as possessing the solution at the expense of others. It is based on an “us” vs. “them” mentality. The modern malaise of polarization continues this tactic of the enemy, and as Kingdom people, we must recognize it for what it is and rise above it.
There is a cosmic war transpiring, one where Satan is in rebellion against God. We are caught up in a battle zone, and we, as parts of the church, have roles to play. This sermon explores what this means for us and how we influence the heavenly realms by being faithful witnesses to God’s character. Through the church, the wisdom of God is made known in mysterious ways that we cannot fully know.
Satan plays a main role in the book of Revelation. This sermon introduces who Satan is and his origin. It also addresses the primary tactics Satan uses and how we can combat and overcome them.
This sermon expounds upon the letter to the church at Smyrna, where Jesus offers encouragement to the church which will be facing suffering and persecution. In their struggles, they are told that they are actually rich, contrary to all of the evidence. If they endure, they will receive the crown of life.
Jesus addresses the church of Ephesus in the first letter to the seven churches, telling them what they did well and what they need to work on. Specifically, Jesus confronts the fact that they have abandoned the love that they started with. They were good at orthodoxy, but struggled to live a life characterized by love. This is an important message for us today in the midst of perpetual divisiveness over ideological differences.
Faith is about capturing a vision of what can be and having a conviction that stirs up action to move toward it. This faith also pertains to the pursuit of racial reconciliation. God has a dream for racial reconciliation that has not yet been fully realized, but as we see God’s vision, we can put our weight toward it, leaning into that vision as if it already has occurred.
John sees a vision of Jesus holding the entire angelic world in his hand, symbolizing his universal authority. This sermon explores the reality of an angelic world by highlighting how our knowledge of the universe is actually very limited. Then we learn the role that angels play and how we can participate in the victory that Jesus won over what the Bible refers to as “spiritual powers” that have held us in bondage.
This sermon explores John’s first heavenly vision where he is told to record what he sees and send it to seven churches. Part of this vision is a sword that comes from the mouth of Jesus, the only weapon that is ever associated with Jesus. Why is this symbol important? What does it mean? And what is the significance of it being his only weapon? The sermon answers these questions.
Christmas is the ultimate expression of God’s compassion, a core attribute and expression of God’s being. This is an expression associated with the Hebrew word for womb, which means that compassion is about entering into the experiences of another. God enters into our life through Jesus and shows us what God is like.
God, at the core of his divine nature, is gracious. This means that God extends his favor to us as a gift, out of his delight in us. This grace is fully expressed in the coming of Jesus, and Christmas is a time to celebrate and receive the grace of God.
God proclaims to Moses that his character is faithful, even when his covenant partners are not faithful to him. Jesus was born to demonstrate God’s covenant faithfulness, coming to those who were not looking for him or able to recognize him when he came. God remains faithful to us today, never leaving nor forsaking us, even when we do not seek him or we rebel against him.
In this second sermon of the Christmas series, we examine God’s forgiving character, how God forgives us, what it means to forgive others and why this is important to our own well-being, and to forgiving ourselves. This core trait of God’s is ultimately fulfilled in the life of Jesus, as he shows us what God’s forgiving nature looks like.
This opening sermon to the Christmas series introduces a central Old Testament passage that defines the nature of God, which is ultimately revealed in the coming of Jesus, the perfect embodiment of God. In this sermon, Greg addresses a difficult phrase where God is said to visit the iniquity of the parents on their children. How are we to understand this passage when it contradicts both Jesus’ teachings and his actions on the cross?
This sermon examines three key phrases found in Revelation 1:4-8 that help us understand the overarching themes of Revelation and reframe popular ways that this book has been taught. Through these phrases, we learn that the end times is not about waging wrathful war but about destroying lies that deceive.
What are the “seven spirits”? To answer this question, Greg explores the way that Revelation employs numbers to convey truths, with seven referring to completeness or perfection. The seven spirits implies the perfect giving of the Holy Spirit, God’s presence, just as God completely poured himself out in the Incarnation.
What is the endgame of all of Scripture? Since the Book of Revelation points to this endgame, it is crucial that we step back and look at the big picture of God’s purpose. This sermon answers this question by highlighting the goal of the preparation of the bride (God’s people) to be wed to the groom (Christ).
Jesus, whom the book of Revelation gives divine titles, is at work in our world. This work is manifest in three ways according to this passage: he loves us, freed us, and made us. We put ourselves in a place to receive God’s ongoing love and to live out the freedom that we have been given. In addition, we have been made priests, people who offer this love and freedom to the world; we do this in our normal, everyday lives.
As members of God’s kingdom, we are priests, what Peter calls “living stones,” who participate in God’s transcendent and glorious work to redeem all things. There is not a special class of people designated for this, but God includes us in his work to change the world.
Our focus scripture states that God relates to creation in time, through the past, in the present, and toward the future that is to come. He walks with us in relationship, as is demonstrated throughout the Old Testament. This eternality of God is applied to Jesus in Revelation, highlighting the divine transcendence of the slain lamb.
We are told that we are blessed if we hear and keep the words of Revelation. These words will challenge the norms of the culture that shape us, which means that we must be open to ways that we don’t know we are deceived. But even more than hearing, we must practice keeping these words, internalizing them in such a way that they become part of us.
Many read Revelation as a predictor of the future. This turns God into a fixed, wooden object who does not actually relate to a living creation. But this book was never meant to be read this way. Instead, it points to a living God who relates to a living creation and calls us into a living faith.
This sermon addresses the meaning of “the end is near.” Many explanations that the church has offered have caused great confusion because the book of Revelation has been used as a predictor of the very end of time. However, such explanations misunderstand the genre that Revelation is. When we read this book as apocalyptic literature, we can interpret the symbols rightly and see how it can serve to encourage the church to be faithful to Christ in the midst of spiritual warfare.
In this first sermon of our new series on the book of Revelation, we are introduced to how this book has been taught in ways that do not represent its meaning. We learn about its true meaning, and we discover why this message is so crucial to our present time. In a time when hope is waning, Revelation points us to the hope found in Jesus so that we might see the way that God brings victory when all seems lost.
While we are to invest in our individual Christian formation, we are also responsible for our formation corporately. We do not live out our faith merely as individuals. We live out our love for Christ together and work out our salvation as a group.
The struggles we face offer us a choice: avoid them or use them as an opportunity to develop antifragile faith. Pain avoidance will keep us fragile, but when we press on with Christ as the goal, we can develop perseverance or what Dan calls, antifragile faith.
In this sermon, Greg shares how God uses afflictions to form our character, if we have a vision for God’s ultimate goal of life and set aside the common goal of the pursuit of happiness. A vision to know God and live in his love will motivate us to enter into training that will shape us to love God and others. This training moves us beyond the never-ending chase of happy so that we might find joy in all things.
In this sermon, Greg paints a picture of what God is doing now and what God will do at the end of history. He does this by providing three snapshots found in three passages that describe what the end will look like and how God will redeem all things by the power of his love. This gives us a reason for hope in the midst of any current suffering and pain.
This sermon addresses how God uses the suffering we face in this world to form us so that we might know Christ and his glory. While the sufferings we face are not orchestrated by God, God meets us in these situations and provides us with the opportunity to meet Christ in the midst so that we might be transformed into his likeness.
Greg shares physical challenges he's experienced lately and how during a visit to the emergency room, he began to understand the meaning of sharing in Christ’s suffering. He uses this experience to show how God meets us in our sufferings and uses them to bring about the transformation of knowing Christ.
The Apostle Paul wrote that he does one thing: forget what is behind and press ahead to the goal to win the prize of God. In this sermon, Dan Kent explains what it means to forget the past and press on toward God. When we do this we find freedom and joy to move into God’s continuing new work.
Shawna Boren teaches through Jesus’ words about the vine and the branches from John 15, explaining how God works with us so that we might abide in Jesus and have the fullness of his life in us. She helps us identify issues that hinder our abiding in Jesus and how we can move into the life of the vine.
This sermon provides a recap of the Unraveling Truth series, as Dan walks us through four elements of the series: Truth, God, Jesus and the Bible. He explains how these elements are related to each other and how they have implications for how we think and do day-to-day life.
Many people struggle in their faith because they have read in the Old Testament about the violence promoted and done by God. They ask how that violence is actually loving, and how it aligns with the God revealed in Jesus Christ on the cross. In this sermon, Greg provides a way to read these passages so that they point to the cross and demonstrate God’s love for the world.
In this sermon, Dan Kent asks the question, was Jesus a good teacher? He uses the story of the rich young ruler, who called Jesus “good teacher,” and Jesus’ response to help us see the uniqueness of Jesus’ teachings. The questions that this man brought to Jesus hindered his ability to receive what Jesus taught, and in the same way today, our questions limit us.
Jim Beilby seeks to answer the question of where God is in the midst of the realities of our day-to-day struggles. This sermon addresses the apparent hiddenness of God when we are not experiencing his personal presence.
In this sermon, Greg addresses the problem of hell and how many have walked away from the faith because they cannot reconcile a God of love with a place of endless torture. Greg gives a biblical understanding of hell by demonstrating its metaphorical language, how we bring hell upon ourselves, and how it actually is related to God’s love.
Many today view the church as insignificant and irrelevant, and therefore, the church is seeing many exit its doors and never returning. What are the reasons why people view the church in this way? How can the church counteract this perspective? These questions are explored so that we might understand what it means to be the church in today’s world and how we can participate in being God’s people in a way that is both significant and relevant.
Greg interviews Adam Dyer, pastor of Yeovil Community Church in England and the Director of Jesus Collective. Through the conversation, we learn about practical ways God is working through his people when Jesus is placed at the center.
Greg Boyd interviews Bill Doherty about how he came to faith, how he facilitates peacemaking through his organization, Braver Angels, and how we can live in a divided and polarized world.
Based on the claims that Jesus made about himself, we have three options: to say he was a liar, a lunatic or that he is lord. This sermon addresses the question of whether or not Jesus was of a sound mind, and then claims that the only sane human to have ever lived was Jesus, and what the implications of that are.
This sermon addresses two issues people often find problematic about being saved through the work of Jesus. The first is the issue of particularity, or how salvation is an exclusive offer found only in Jesus. The second issue is what we are saved from. Many have argued that we are saved from the wrath of God, but this presents a myriad of problems, many of which actually portray God as inherently angry and violent towards humans. This sermon lays out a different view of salvation, one based in the loving sacrifice of God on the cross.
The Church is to be the representation of God’s life to the world so that the world might see and know God. Yet throughout history, the Church has repeatedly fallen short of this calling. Now, as a result, people are resisting the Christian faith because of the repulsive actions and words of those in the Church. What are we to do with this reality? How do we understand what is going on in the Church? And why did God set up the Church as his primary means for his mission? This sermon seeks to address these questions.
This sermon addresses what Christendom is and compares it to an apostolic posture. While many bemoan the fall of Christendom, could this actually be a good thing as it makes space for us to return to the apostolic posture?
In this sermon, Dr. Kishore Vellody shares his story about how truth has been “unraveled” in his own life – how his journey from a hard drinking atheist in college to one who is passionate about the love of God has played out in serendipitous and unpredictable ways.
Many find themselves struggling with their faith when they are honest about imperfections that they find in the Bible. This sermon helps us understand the nature of these imperfections and offers a way to reframe the way the Bible works as God’s inspired book.
This sermon offers six reasons why we can trust in the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It also explains what the resurrection means for us, as it offers a sense of hope enduring, everlasting beauty in the midst of fleeting goodness.
Many have walked away from the faith because the church has embraced patriarchal patterns. This sermon addresses what patriarchy is, how Jesus responded to it during his time and takes a hard look at how patriarchy remains a problem today. Here is an alternative perspective that tears down the patterns of control and abuse that deride and demean women, and empowers them to walk as peers alongside men in the world and in the church.
History shows the church has promoted violence in various forms, and many have turned away from the faith as a result. This sermon examines this issue and addresses the alternative that Jesus brings and what the church should offer the world.
How do we understand the problem of evil and its relationship to God’s work in the world? The common perspective is that God causes evil, but Greg offers an alternative view.
We live in a world where most people believe in some form of a God, but more often than not, people do not view God as personal or in a relationship with us. This sermon explores why it is logical to say both that God exists and is personal, and then it examines the importance of cultivating this personal interaction with God.
In a culture where the foundations of truth are unraveling, Greg offers a framework that equips us to focus on Jesus and walk with others who might see things differently than we do.
This sermon covers the problem of science vs. faith and the supposed division between the two that often drives away people from the church. Dan Kent proposes a solution to resolve the differences, showing us how the two can work together and complement one another.
In this sermon, Emily Morrison looks at what happens right after Jesus feeds the 5000 to point out the importance of raising questions about our faith. She offers an explanation of three phases of our faith journey that allow us to embrace the questions and find a way through them by ultimately bringing them to Jesus.
Is it possible to claim to know any absolute truth in an age in which everything is heading in the direction of relativism? In this sermon, Greg gives us three reasons to take relativism seriously and understand why people might think it plausible.
The church too often puts on display bad news that drives people away from God. This sermon confronts this pattern and shows us a different way—a way of love that can provide an experience of good news.
In this sermon, Greg provides an introduction to a new series on the reason why we believe in and follow Christ. He surveys why this topic is important and some of the various questions that we will explore in the series. Then Greg explains the foundation of his faith that he worked out when he was wresting with questions of belief.
As a conclusion to the Sermon on the Mount series, a panel discusses the high points of the series and interacts with the teachings in a personal way, helping us put the words of Jesus into action.
In remembrance of Martin Luther King Jr., Greg engages the teaching of King to challenge the church to continue God’s call to tear down walls that divide people along racial lines.
Jesus spoke with authority, but what does this authority mean for today when we tend to distrust authority figures? In this sermon Dan addresses why acting on Jesus’ teaching is so crucial to actually understanding what he said. Jesus’ truth is not merely a set of facts that we give assent to. They are life truths that we can only fully know when we live them out.
In a world full of false messages, we need to hear God’s truth, specifically the truth about who we are as God’s children. This is not merely hearing factual truths about our identity, but opening our hearts to receive God’s truth, which means we must let go of things in our hearts that hinder these truths from sinking in.
Hope sets the course for our lives, as our hope determines our daily actions. But often we go through life putting our hope in that which has no ultimate importance. Christmas redefines hope, showing us what is ultimately valuable, and it demonstrates how God transforms our lives and the entire world.
Loneliness pervades our society today. Jesus came to be with us, driving out isolation and confronting the demonic patterns that keep us from receiving and giving the love of God to one another.
We are meant to live with meaning, but our world seems to offer meanings that ultimately fail to measure up to their promises. Jesus came into the world to give us meaning, the kind of meaning that can only be found from knowing the destination of the journey of life.
At Christmas time, we announce the coming of the Prince of Peace. Yet we look around at our world and peace appears to be the last thing that describes our situation. What does Christ’s peace look like in the midst of the tumult and chaos that we experience on a daily basis?
In this sermon, Greg addresses Jesus’ teaching on the differences between the wise and the foolish builders and what it means to act on what Jesus instructs.
There is a distinct difference between false and true prophets. We know this difference by their fruit, by what they promote in the lives of others. The challenge is that because false prophets promote the norms of a culture they are easily embraced as being true.
In this sermon, Greg address the differences between the wide and the narrow ways, and explains how we can embrace the life that comes with the narrow path.
In this panel discussion, Paul Eddy, Dan Kent and Shawna Boren discuss various aspects of prayer, specifically about why prayer matters and how to grow in it.
The end of the Sermon on the Mount offers two ways, or two paths to follow. In this sermon, Dan introduces the tradition of the Two Ways and then connects the way of life to the way of Jesus.
Greg teaches how what we build on the foundation of Jesus Christ will be tested by fire in the Final Judgment. That which aligns with the Kingdom will be purified and that which does not will be burned away.
In this sermon, Greg addresses the question of how Christ died and gave life to all, but at the same time, people can choose death and therefore reject this life. This is set in the context of the end judgment of God.
In this sermon, Jim Beilby addresses the question about the destiny of the un-evangelized, proposing that people are given the opportunity to receive Christ’s true revelation of himself after death.
In this sermon, Greg reviews some of the primary ways that God has worked in our church over the last three decades. This retrospective invites us into thanksgiving, celebration, and wonder at God’s faithfulness.
This sermon address the nature of God’s judgment at the end of time and how it relates to the suffering we are encountering in the midst of the struggles of this present life.
This sermon provides a brief report card on how well humans are doing at caring for God’s creation, specifically as it relates to Earth’s climate.
The vision of Woodland Hills is “Learning to Love Together.” This is practiced in four dimensions: loving God, loving ourselves, loving other people and loving creation.
There is a direct, organic connection between how humans live in love and the well-being of creation. The calamity experienced at the hands of the environment is a natural result of human failure to care for it as God intended.
God called all people to care for his land and animals as his stewards. This is a basic mandate that was part of the creation narrative.
What does it mean to trust God as the ultimate judge? This is an important question if we are going to live in love and forego judgment of others.
In this sermon, Greg provides a big picture overview of the series on God’s final judgment and why it is so crucial, especially during this time in history.
We long for justice, and we hope that God will deliver his justice at the end of times. This sermon introduces a series on the coming justice of God and what this means for us today.
John’s first letter tells us that we are God’s children and that the world is controlled by the evil one. But even more, it tells us how to know Jesus in the midst of this evil so that we might have resurrection life.
We get off the “high horse” by not judging others or seeing ourselves as superior to them. We also get off the high horse by living relationship with others and having the humility to receive feedback from them.
The story of the fall of Adam and Eve tells us what it means to lose the true center of life, and how when we orbit around a false center we are trapped in the perpetual judgement of others.
In this sermon, Dan Kent examines how we respond when others judge us. He first looks at how the world teaches us to respond, and then he offers a different response that is shaped by God’s perspective.
In this sermon, Cedrick Baker brings clarity to what it means to be civically engaged in our world in a Kingdom way. He offers insight into ways that we can be God's love and light without falling into the traps of polarization.
This sermon explores the four primary passages from the Bible that explain why judgment is forbidden.
This panel conversation addresses the practical implications of the teaching on what it means to live in love and forego judgment of others.
There were two trees in the Garden of Eden, one representing where we get true life from and one representing a prohibition from what steals from life. This sermon explores the significance of these two trees.
We live in a system in which everyone judges themselves and each other and creates a hierarchy of those above and below them. Jesus came to confront and blow this system apart.
We become what we practice. We practice what we imagine is the goal of where we are going. As Christ followers, we are to set the goal of living in love so that we can practice love to become more loving.
God calls us to replicate the love of the cross instead of passing judgment upon others. We do this as we live into the reality of our inclusion in God’s love and our identity in Christ, as part of the Triune, cruciform love that God is.
In this introductory sermon to the “Cross Examination” series, Greg lays out the all-important challenge to live in love in the way that is defined by Christ on the cross. This sermon also details how this mandate to love goes against the grain of our culture which is dominated by divisiveness and judgment.
How do we become the kind of person who heeds Jesus’ words on not worrying about our life? Dan Kent answers this question with three basic truths that can change how we face worrisome situations.
Jesus tells us not to worry, but what does this mean in a world full of worry-causing circumstances? How can we not be anxious when there are so many troubling issues that we face? This teaching addresses what it means to trust God in anxious times to the point that we know that Jesus is with us as we face our worries.
The world around us is wrought with pain and suffering. Amidst this reality it can often be difficult to find a sense of hope. To fully appreciate the incomprehensible glory that is going to be revealed to us, we first need to appreciate the full magnitude of the sufferings of this present age. As we engage with the painful news of our world, we turn our eyes to the coming hope that is grounded in the resurrected Christ.
*Please note that due to Greg being sick on Easter, we re-used his message from 2018 for this year’s service.
On Good Friday, Jesus experienced the darkness and pain of God -forsakenness, as he entered the depths of the reality of a sin-drenched world. How can this inform our experience of living in a Good Friday World?
Scarcity drives common daily experiences in our world, yet God invites us to trust his ability to abundantly provide. In this sermon, Osheta Moore offers us a liturgy of abundance so that we can embrace God’s abundance in the midst of scarcity.
How do we find freedom from the allure of mammon? In this sermon, Greg offers three practical steps for discovering contentment in God so that we are free from the discontentment that drives the Mammon Game.
At the end of time, we will come before God in judgment, where God’s love will refine and purge. Jesus taught us to live today with this future in mind by investing in treasures that will endure the fire instead of investing in that which will burn because they are not compatible with God’s love.
Jesus taught us to be aware of the trap of money and greed. In this sermon, Greg applies Jesus’ words to today’s situation so that we might escape this mammon game and entrust our money to God.
Jesus taught us that what we see is shaped by how our eyes are trained to see the world. If our eye is bad, our sight will be corrupted. We need good eyes to see the world rightly.
In this sermon, Greg teaches on Matthew 6:16-21, where we’re told to fast in secret, unlike the "hypocrites" who put fasting on display for public applause. Our reward for secrecy is the beauty of the character that we develop when we learn how to be singularly motived by God’s will rather than social applause. This leads to two questions: How is this secret relationship with our Father going, and what really motivates us?
In this sermon Tara Beth Leach shares about the importance of corporate prayer and how it impacts our lives in a culture that is shaped by individualism.
What does it mean to pray that God won’t bring us to times of trial and to be rescued from the evil one? Greg explores the answers to this question and how it applies to our daily lives.
Jesus teaches about the importance of forgiving others who have done us harm, even saying that the Father will not forgive us if we don’t forgive. What does this mean? Why is forgiveness so important? How do we practice it? These are questions that Greg explores in this crucial sermon for our times.
The Lord teaches us to ask for the Father’s provision of our daily bread. What does this mean in our modern culture where we are taught to take care of ourselves? This sermon by Cedrick Baker seeks to address this question.
Continuing the “When You Pray” series, Greg opens this teaching on the Lord’s Prayer by discussing the analogical nature of the way that the New Testament authors wrote.
This weekend we had a discussion panel in which Greg, Cedrick, Delon and Shawna addressed questions submitted about issues around race and God’s Kingdom.
On the eve of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Greg talks about how spiritual warfare is rooted in the war between light and darkness, and how MLK taught us to offer light in the midst of that darkness.
Why do prayers go unanswered if God is all-powerful? This sermon seeks to answer this question in a way that lines up with the character of God revealed in Jesus.
What is the purpose of petitionary prayer? In this sermon, Greg seeks to answer this question by showing how prayer is a means of partnering with God to join our will with God’s
Our understanding of God is often controlled by our projections upon him. How, then, do we actually attain a more accurate picture of who he actually his? This sermon seeks to address this question by helping us think through our experiences of parenting and how those experiences influence our view of God’s nature.
Ruth is an ancestor of Jesus. Her story reveals surprising aspects of what Jesus came to do in our world, how he came to tear down walls that divide us into nationalistic camps. This is a story that we need to embrace so that the kingdom of God might rise up.
The story of Mary, Jesus’ mother, is significant. Through it we can see how following Jesus involves trusting him in the midst of confusion, not the lack of it. Her story encourages us to press through fear and doubt, even when we don’t understand how God is at work in and around us.
The genealogy of Jesus includes a woman named Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute. Such an inclusion is not only shocking, but it also is scandalous. Why was she included and what does it mean for us today?
This is the first sermon of our Christmas series that explores the five women mentioned in the genealogy of Jesus found in Matthew. Here, the story of Tamar from Genesis 38 is told and we are introduced to what Christmas means for women in a culture that is shaped by misogyny.
The imagination plays a central role in the spirituality of most ancient people-groups. God is still speaking today in this way today, but we’ve lost the art of hearing because we don’t take our imagination seriously.
In this sermon, Osheta Moore offers a teaching on the practice of silence, or what she calls holy listening. Then, she offers a means for embracing this holy listening through the discipline of centering prayer.
What is fasting? Why should we do it? What does Jesus say about fasting? In this sermon, Dan Kent explores these questions, and wrestles with the practical implications of fasting in our world that is overcome by the pursuit of pleasure.
In this sermon, Greg addresses the nature of the rewards that we receive from investing in spiritual disciplines. He then speaks to how generosity is rewarded.
Jesus' life and ministry were characterized by prayer. Why did he pray as he did, and what does that tell us about why we should pray? In this sermon, Meghan Good explores this topic and helps us see the importance of spiritual practices to our life in God.
In this introductory sermon to a new series on spiritual practices, Greg lays the foundation for why we embrace such practices by identifying narratives that undermine our adopting them, and proposing a biblical narrative that will naturally and organically compel us to make them part of our lives.
The final teaching of this series is a panel conversation with Bronwyn Lea on the topic of church as family, where Shawna Boren and Emily Morrison explore how the church can move into this experience in everyday life.
This panel conversation between Greg Boyd, Shawna Boren, Paul Eddy and Emily Morrison addresses questions that have been submitted during the series on friendship.
In this sermon, Shawna Boren addresses the question: how do we practice friendship in our culture? She identifies common cultural practices that serve as roadblocks to friendship and then provides five relationship builders that will open up opportunities for cultivating connections with others.
In this sermon, Emily Morrison lays out the biblical teaching of the church as family and what this could look like in modern Western culture where church family is often little more than shaking hands and sharing a periodic pot-luck.
Historically, intimate friendship was valued in the church and in the broader culture. This sermon provides a basic overview of why spiritual friendship is so important and why we need to build it into our lives today.
God has invited us to be his friends, but what does that actually mean? And how is being God's friend actually a more mature relationship than being his servant? This sermon addresses these questions and challenges our common notions of friendship with God.
This panel discussion concludes the four-part series on participating with God in order to share his love with the world. The panel participants provide a new imagination for how we can share Christ with others.
How do we share the gospel in a culture that does not recognize or value the Bible or Christian traditions? The Apostle Paul dealt with this in his day, and his approach serves as a model for us today.
As members of God's church, we are called to share the gospel in every part of our lives. Our family is central to our daily lives, but we often don't think about how we can intentionally live out the gospel in that setting. This sermon addresses this topic.
Technology is a great thing, but it has unintended consequences. What are the consequences of moving church to live-streaming and how should we respond? This sermon explores two options that lie before us.
This sermon employs the image of us sitting next to God in a marriage counseling session so that we might view God as our marriage partner and grow in love with each other.
What did Jesus mean when he told us to be perfect? This sermon addresses this question and shows us how we most often miss Jesus' point.
This panel discussion addresses practical issues that pertain to Jesus' teaching on enemy love.
To love our enemy, we must understand two core issues. First, we can only love when we are allowing Christ to meet our core needs. Secondly, all people share the same basic core needs, but they fall into the trap of trying to meet them in false ways.
Jesus' teaching style draws you in with something you "think" you know, and then just turns it on its head. He was literally challenging the common thinking of the day.
Jesus taught us to love our enemies. While central to everything he taught, the church has long evaded its straight-forward implications. What then are we to do with his words?
How do we respond to evil? There are three options: We can respond in kind, we can cower to it, or we can opt for Jesus' third option. This sermon explores the third option and challenges us to combat the evil of our world by offering an unexpected response.
God's complete Kingdom that is coming in the future overlaps with the present reality of the world. In the midst of this overlap, we are called to live out the future in the present life that in reality, falls short of God's Kingdom vision.
When we pray "as it is in heaven," what does this actually mean? What are the characteristics of heaven? This sermon addresses this question by identifying the Kingdom as radically forgiving, radically welcoming and radically peaceful.
The Kingdom of God is the present realization of God's fully redeemed future, and the coming of the Spirit upon the church is the primary means for seeing the present Kingdom come.
Please note that this message has some "PG-13" content that may not be suitable for kids.This panel discussion serves as a wrap-up to the series on sex, marriage and singleness, as the panelists address practical issues around these topics.
Jesus' words about divorce appears to provide a technical reason for justifying the breaking of the marriage covenant. Is this what this passage really means, or is there something more significant that Jesus was saying? This sermon provides an unexpected answer to this question.
In this sermon, Greg challenges the modern myth of romantic love, providing three reasons why it derails us from entering into a biblical view of marriage. Also, Emily Morrison provides a reframe for understanding how singleness plays a part in God's family.
In this section of Scripture we're in, Jesus explains the difference between what people of his day assumed the Old Testament law meant and what it really means. He's making clear the underlying spirit of the law, as opposed to the literal interpretation that focuses on the letter of the law. This points to a "third way" pattern of living out the Kingdom of God that manifests the true meaning of God's law.
This two-part sermon provides an update on the state of what God has been doing in Woodland Hills Church, followed by an exploration of Jesus' teaching on the imagination and its relationship to adultery.
First, Cedrick Baker provides a reflection on his thoughts after seeing the verdict of Derek Chauvin, along with more killings of black individuals at the hands of law enforcement. This was followed by a teaching from Greg on Jesus' challenge to common views of adultery.
This sermon offers two preliminary words about two difficult issues that are hot topics in our culture: race and sex.
If we want to experience change in our life habits that are unhealthy and sinful, we need to learn to embrace the practice of confession. This sermon gives a clear path for entering into this little-adopted habit of the Christian faith.
Our baptism demonstrates how we have died to sin and been given new life alongside Christ's death and resurrection. This is our new identity and it must shape how we view ourselves and others.
On this Good Friday we held a special service as we reflected on Jesus' sacrifice on the cross. Along with worship and unique reflections from artists, musicians and speakers, we also participated in virtual communion.
After a brief introduction, Greg invites panel participants to give insight and practical direction on dealing with interpersonal conflict and reconciliation.
In this sermon, Tara Beth Leach provides insight into Jesus' practical teaching regarding what it means to live in righteousness and reconciliation with others.
In this sermon, Greg provides a recap to his teaching from last week and then invites a panel of three to provide input and practical direction to the role that anger might play in our lives.
Jesus taught that being angry or insulting another person leads to the same consequences as murdering them. This is a radical Kingdom teaching that goes beyond an examination of our behaviors. It focuses on our hearts.
The Bible announces God's good news. However, what do we do with the disturbing parts of Scripture, like the passages that depict God as promoting violence, animal sacrifice, or treating women as property?
The Bible is not just a text to study. It is a way to hear and know God through the central story of Jesus who delivers us from exile.
Jesus claimed that the entire Bible was about him, that he is the center of the Scriptures. This claim requires us to conclude that he was crazy or that he was correct. And if the latter, then we must decide what to do with such a claim.
In the first part of the sermon, Greg explains the decision of leadership regarding its plans for re-opening. The second part delves into the topic of what the inspiration of Scripture means and what it does not mean. It concludes with a panel discussion about trusting the authority of Scripture in a post-modern setting.
Jesus announced that he came to fulfill every part of the law. How was he able to do this when he was accused of breaking the law? He did this by redefining the law of God around the law of love. This is the bullseye of God's Kingdom.
The New Testament raises expectations for obedience to the level of perfection, while at the same time offering mercy and grace when we don't meet those expectations. What is going on with this seemingly contradictory language? How do the two work together so that we grow as disciples?
As we celebrate MLK day, we not only remember the sacrifices and initiatives of those who led the civil rights movement, we recognize how the teachings and actions of Jesus-which ultimately led him to the cross-manifest what John Lewis called "Good Trouble."
This short sermon and panel discussion challenge us to respond to God's call to offer ourselves totally and completely to God by embracing spiritual disciplines that will shape our lives.
God is at work in all things-even in times of great suffering-to bring about his purposes. Those who are called according to his purpose will join in and cooperate with God's work, allowing the Spirit to form them to live into God's new work.
In this sermon, Bruxy Cavey talks about what it means for God's light to shine through the body of Christ in the midst of the world. We are to witness to the world what God has done in our life and wants to do in the world. This is the first sermon in a three-part series on what it means practically to be salt and light in our world.
Jesus was born and we celebrate this fact because God loved the entire world. We also celebrate Christmas because God loves each one of us in a specific way. God so loves the world and God so loves you individually that he sent his son.It's WH tradition to share a story with coloring pages for kids on Christmas Eve. This year we hear about Jack the donkey's special journey in The Promised Star. Download coloring pages for your kids (or yourself!) at the link below!
How do we experience joy in the midst of struggle and suffering? Jesus and the early church provide a model for such joy, a kind of joy that does not ignore the reality of the difficulties that we face, but that gives us the ability to see beyond those circumstances to embrace the promise that God is making all things right.
The story of the encounter between Mary the mother of Jesus and Elizabeth the mother of John the Baptist offers a model for how we can bring peace in the midst of conflict. A plot twist that shifts the narrative from animosity to blessing. In this sermon, Osheta visits this story.
When Jesus was presented at the temple as a baby, Simeon saw the fulfillment of his hope for salvation. This weekend's sermon explores the nature of that hope, and challenges the common view that our hope is for an escape from the world.
This sermon asks what it means for God's people to be salt and light in practical terms. Dan proposes three practical ways that we can move toward and embrace this call of God upon our lives.
Jesus said that God's people are a city on a hill, a blessed people who are called to be a blessing to others, giving forth light and hope. What does this mean in an Old Testament context, one that lies behind the words of Jesus? And what does this mean for us today?
Jesus said, "You are the light of the world." In this sermon, we learn how being the light is much more than simply doing good deeds. It entails God's call upon God's people to be a distinct people who walk in covenant with him and shine forth an alternative pattern of living for all to see.
Jesus said, "You are the salt of the earth." What are the functions of salt, and what does this mean for us today? How does this shape the way we interact with the world? Greg explores these questions in this sermon.
This final sermon is a panel discussion that addresses practical issues of being a Kingdom ambassador who offers Jesus' kind of love in the divisive political environment that we experience today.
God has called us to seek the peace of the land in which we live, to be God's ambassadors who offer a third way. How do we do this? In this conversational sermon, Bill Doherty, from the organization Braver Angels, shares his experience of leading workshops that include Democrats and Republicans with the goal of helping each group understand the other.
One of the primary means the enemy uses to divide people today is social media. While social media has many advantages, it also is designed in such a way that it can easily be used as a tool of Satan. If we are not intentionally resisting the schemes of the enemy, we will too easily be played by them.
When we disagree, we usually assume that reason, not emotion, is driving the interaction, but actually the opposite is true. Greg explains how our default is to use reasoning to justify our emotions, and how knowing this can help us respond well during a heated discussion.
In the midst of a divided and polarized world, how does the church respond in a way that reflects God's kingdom? To answer this question, we must understand the nature of God's kingdom and how it stands in contrast to the kingdoms of this world.
What is the real cause of the persecution that Jesus says leads to blessedness? The answer is found in the refusal to make enemies of others or to embrace an "us vs. them" mindset. By opting out of this game, we no longer fit on either side and persecution becomes the norm.
In a world where violence is promoted as the solution to conflict, Jesus teaches us that God's children are to be those who live in and offer peace.
In Luke's version of the Sermon on the Mount, he includes Jesus' teaching on those who have embraced idols and are not blessed as they are on the path of woe. This sermon addresses what these "woes" mean and how we can fight against the woe road.
Our world offers continual distractions that overwhelm us and keep us from purity of heart, and therefore hinder our sight of God. To have purity of heart is to have a single-minded focus on one thing, the one thing that matters.
In the midst of a culture of perpetual judgment, God has called the church to be a people of mercy. We will receive mercy to the degree that we offer mercy, and judgment to the degree that we judge.
God created us with a homing device in our souls which causes us to hunger for LIFE that can only be filled through our connection with him. However, we too often fall into the trap of hungering and thirsting after idols that leave us empty and leave us restless.
Jesus taught that those who are meek will actually inherit the earth. What does this counter-cultural teaching mean? How does it relate to being humble and the reality that people are forced to be humble by those in power? This sermon explores these questions and then provides practical direction to embracing Jesus' teaching.
Jesus taught that those who mourn are blessed. This occurs as the people of God know how things should be and set God's beauty in contrast to the ugliness of the world. And thus, we mourn for God to come and bring his deliverance.
The Sermon on the Mount opens with a teaching on being poor in spirit, which refers to an attitude one has before God. It means not being self-reliant, but broken and dependent upon God for life.
This sermon introduces the Sermon on the Mount by asking why we should trust the words of Jesus found in Matthew 5-7. Jesus addresses big life questions and if we don't know why we should trust his answers, then we might place the authority of others on par with that of Jesus. Christ is the expert of all experts, which is the reason his teaching must be heeded.
This concluding sermon in our Race Conciliation series briefly addresses how prevalent racism has been in the history of the church. Then we hosted an extended panel discussion to answer questions we've gotten about race, and to discuss how to move forward as a reconciling people.
We are expected to go through life with friends who look like us. Being close with people who do not look like you is unusual in our culture, and the church tends to perpetuate this pattern. However, God's Kingdom is comprised of people from all kinds of backgrounds that don't look like our own. The question we all face is, "what will we do about it?"
We live in a world where Satan has laid claim to creation, while at the same time God is fighting to redeem all things through the work of the cross. These two fundamental forces are simultaneous, and we see them everywhere. Our calling is to participate in the good work that God is doing in order to advance the Kingdom.
Sin not only resides in the hearts of individuals; it also is woven through the systems and structures of our corporate way of life. Jesus entered into these systems to transform them and he now invites us to join him, offering our voices to bring liberation and reconciliation to our world.
God is inviting us to respond to the volatile issues around racism in a uniquely Kingdom way, a way modeled by Jesus. This Kingdom way provides concrete handles for battling against the rulers, authorities and powers that drive racism in our world.
We primarily think about the problems we face today in terms of individualism, pointing fingers at persons who are making bad choices. However, the Bible speaks of the struggle against systemic issues, what are called "principalities and powers" that shape the structures of how we live. The unique call of Kingdom people is to focus our struggle against these systems, rather than against people.
Why did Jesus die on the cross? The common response-to reconcile us to God-is only half of the answer. The other half, which is usually not preached in the white church, is to reconcile us to one another and creation.
This has been a troublesome week, with the gruesome murder of George Floyd and the unrest that this has caused both in Minnesota, and around the country. Greg offers a Kingdom perspective on the situation and challenges the church to wake up and see the changes that we need. After his sermon he was joined on stage for a discussion with several people of color from Woodland Hills.
In this sermon, Greg shares about the importance of lament during a time of loss and liminality. Building upon the ideas introduced by David last week, he expands on the topic and shares about his own experiences and the emotions he's been wrestling with.
In the midst of the pandemic, many of us are experiencing a degree of intense anxiety. What do we do with that? How do we meet God in that experience? How do we find hope?
From the parable of the yeast, Jesus is teaching us about how the Kingdom of God works. Instead of expanding with landmark gestures and grandiose acts, it infiltrates life in small ways, often hidden from view, but as it expands, it actually touches every part of life.
From the parable of the talents, we can see that God trusts us to participate and partner with him in his work, as we have been entrusted with an offering that can advance the Kingdom. Though we don't often see this reality, we must embrace what God says about us and what we have been given.
The book of Ruth speaks to our deep desires for faithful living, along with specific issues regarding faithfulness in the midst of the struggles of the pandemic. In this sermon, we hear the call to faithfulness and explore what it means.
Individuals are interconnected as a part of the whole of humanity, something we are experiencing during this pandemic. Often, we can tend to view humanity with disdain, and feel that people in general are stupid. However, God looks upon humanity with compassion.
Love, not death, should have the last word. When you love someone, you come to know how much infinite worth they have. The idea that all that they are just ends with death doesn't seem right. Something in the core of our being says, "NO." That gut intuition is a faint echo of the heart of God.
Through a message, worship, creative storytelling, poetry, special music and art, we express the heaviness and hope of Good Friday as we reflect on Jesus' sacrifice for us all.
People have a lot of questions about what God is doing during this pandemic. In this teaching, leaders from Woodland Hills address questions that have been submitted over the last few weeks.
In the midst of great suffering and ugliness, there is also goodness breaking through. We are seeing this in the midst of this unusual time and it points us to how God works to bring his cross-like love in the middle of horrible circumstances. This teaches us that God is not the cause of this pandemic, but is the one who will win in the end.
In this surreal time, we can let our lives be dictated by the circumstances of our situation, or we can live according to the reality that our lives are "hid" with Christ in God. How exactly do we do this in the midst of so much tumult? One way is to learn to give thanks "in all circumstances," as Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5.
COVID-19 is impacting the entire world, changing life globally, locally, and personally. How should we as Kingdom people respond to this pandemic?
This week we begin our new sermon series about moral relativism by exploring how early Christians lived out their faith, the point being that Truth is only true when it is lived.
This final teaching in the Listen Up series is a Q&A that speaks to the practical implications about listening to God's voice in our daily lives.
God is still speaking, offering an invitation to dialogue with him. However, this dialogue will be as unique as you as an individual are. The question for us is whether not we will take up this challenge and learn how to listen, or if we will simply go with the status quo.
This weekend we discussed how God's voice gets drowned out by the background noise of our day-to-day lives, and also about how once we tune into God's voice, we find that the kingdom of God is defined by the love of the "other."
This past weekend in Osheta's sermon, "Everyday Whispers of Encouragement" we take a deeper look at "the still, small voice" of God. We focus on the story of Elijah hearing God in a whisper, and how this passage can give us guidance today on how we can tune our ears in order to have ears to hear.
As we continue our Listen Up series, this week Greg discusses how being open to hearing from God through our imagination affects the quality of our faith. Faith is about getting on the inside and working out our questions once we're in relationship. If we are expectant that our relationship with God is a two-way street and that he not only wants to hear from us, but also wants to speak with us, and we're open to our imagination being the place that conversation happens, then we're much more likely to be led by the Spirit in our Kingdom walk.
For many, hearing God's voice and sensing the Spirit's leading is a foreign concept. This sermon addresses why we should be hearing God, and some of the major obstacles that keep us from hearing what God is saying.
As we reflect on the message of Martin Luther King Jr., we can see the parallel between what he taught and what Jesus told us the Kingdom of God looks like. To understand this, Greg unpacks the difference between xenophilia (the love of those who are different) and xenophobia (the fear of those who are different) and how it relates to racism.
This week we look at how our scars, mistakes and imperfections (and even painful tattoos) all tell a story of God breathing and interacting, and enhancing the beauty of an imperfect thing.
In this first installment of a 2-part series centering around Greg's new Inspired Imperfection book we look at what it means for scripture to be "God breathed." Additionally, we explore to the potential consequences of keeping or removing the bible as an authoritative source in the life of a follower of Jesus. Greg makes the case that far from detracting from the bible's credibility, if viewed through the lens of the cross, the mistakes and errors in the writing made by the human authors enhance the bible's authority in showing God's power through the cross.
At the turn of the new year, it is the time to think about resolutions, or things that we want to change in our lives. In this sermon, we learn about four exercises that will bring real change, the kind of change that will impact every aspect of our lives.
Dan wraps up our More Than a Name series with a special Christmas Eve service on Jesus' name of Immanuel - what it really means that "God is with us", and how we tend to carry this piece of scripture out.
Jesus is our everlasting Father. This is not a reference to Jesus actually being the first person of the Trinity. Instead it means the Jesus is our eternal source, which means that Jesus gives us an alternative narrative that empowers us to escape the narrative of death.
What does it mean that Jesus was the Prince of Peace? What is meant by Peace, anyway? And what does it mean for how we are meant to live?
We often say that Jesus is the "mighty God," but what exactly does that mean? How did he come and put on display the might of God? What does the Christmas story tell us about God's might? The answers to these questions don't fit common conventional thinking, but if we don't understand the way that Jesus lived out the might of God, we miss everything.
In the Old Testament, a name is more than what someone is called. It points deeper to his or her character. In the first message of our More Than a Name Christmas series, Greg explores the context of Isaiah 9 and what it meant for Jesus to be prophesied as a Wonderful Counselor.
We are designed by God to love nature, not just to live in it. This is seen in the fact that God often meets us through nature, as such encounters encourage our souls and enliven our bodies. Therefore, in a world that has little room for nature, we must adopt tactics that will open us up to God through nature.
God created us to live in love for others, however, we fall short of this reality. In this sermon, David explores three barriers to loving others: religion, political affiliations and hurry. Addressing these three barriers will not only change your experience of love with others, but also it will change how you love God.
One of the four directions of love is to love yourself. But not the old self that you inherited from the world. Rather, we are to love the self that God meant us to be. So today we look back on the old self we were before, and we remember the new self we are now in Christ.
This weekend we continue our study of how attachment theory can be used as a descriptive tool for our connections in relationships with others as well as how we connect with God. How we have connected with others, both positively and negatively, is usually a good approximation for how we think of and connect with God. Some of this appears to be genetic, some a product of the nurture we received, and some a product of our own free will. In this message, we explore the role of free will in our development of healthy, secure connection as well as what healing looks like for someone who has formed unhealthy attachment mechanisms with themselves, others, and God.
In this sermon, Shawna sits down with Kevin as he explains, more in depth, Attachment Theory: How we experience love, and our relationships with God and others, through a pattern of attachment developed in us as a child. Understanding this can help us see both our natural tendencies in relationships, as well as areas in which we need to experience God's healing.
God is love, and our job is to receive and replicate that love. This means that it is crucial that we rightly perceive what God's love actually looks like, something that some find challenging in the midst of creation that is overrun by violence. How then do we reconcile the nature of God's love when nature itself seems to point to anything but love?
Two sermons in one today: Part 1: How does children's reliance on technology affect their ability to use their imaginations? And part 2: Looking at the Botham Jean "hug felt around the world" and how we might be stuck in a silo and not even know it.
As we continue our Interface series, this week Osheta explores how a Kingdom minded person can engage with social media as a peacemaker and avoid the pits of binary either-or thinking. The medium and anonymity of online life creates a temptation to leave behind self-control and humility in exchange for judgment and unsolicited advice. In this message, we look at 5 principles that can help keep us grounded in love as we engage in social media.
Social media can control our lives, forming our minds and our actions without our even knowing that it's happening. While there is great benefit to social media, we must also recognize it's dangers and develop a plan to live differently. Otherwise, we will end up looking like we aren't part of God's kingdom.
Like many things, social media has such incredible power for good, but also an incredible power for evil. One way that this evil is manifested is through the temptation of presenting ourselves only at our best in order to get LIFE from social media approval. What is the Kingdom response to this temptation?
Why do we keep participating in social media even when it is not good for us? This week, David goes into three big reasons why we are drawn in, and what it could look like to live faithfully to the gospel in our hyperconnected world.
In this introductory message to our new series called Interface, which deals with a Christian's role and interaction with technology, Greg walks through how we got to where we are, both as a human species as well as a Christian sub-culture. There is a general principle of proportionality that applies to all things including technology. It says a thing or person's capacity for good is directly proportional to its capacity for evil. Greg walks through that exercise in counting the cost of our interaction with technology.
There are two fundamental hindrances to living generously as the New Testament teaches. The first is that of the wrong motivation. The common teaching in the church is that we give because we must follow the Old Testament law of the tithe. However, the New Testament provides a different motivation, one that empowers us to give freely. The second hindrance is the modern attachment to possessions. When we address these two hindrances, we will find that sacrificial giving is a "get to not got to" thing, thus finding freedom in giving our time and money for the sake of others.
Generosity is a tricky subject because so many think it primarily relates to how much a person gives. However, God's view of generosity is different. It is about learning to live in agape love where we are not doing what we do in order to get more from others, but in order to give and receive love in a community. When we do this, generosity flows our of hearts in natural ways, with surprising acts that bless others.
The grand story of the Bible is moving toward an end, one where God will reveal himself as he is. But what does that actually mean? When we take into account the entire biblical narrative, one that is centered around the cross, this means that God will fully unveil his love and we will not only see him as love, but also we will see ourselves as God's beloved bride.
In this week's message, Osheta continues our look at the biblical narrative themes of covenant and kingdom by using the Lord's Prayer as a guide. Jesus' own creative and kingdom focused practice that he gave us so that we can grow in our Kingdom literacy. By praying the Lord's Prayer regularly, we reinforce the values of the Kingdom in our hearts so that we can live faithfully into our Covenant.
In this week's message, Dan continues our look at the biblical narrative themes of covenant and kingdom in the story of Jesus' temptation in the wilderness. After his baptism and before the start of his ministry, Jesus was tempted in three very important ways by Satan. In this message we learn how Jesus inserts himself in to the biblical narrative and seeks to fulfill the promises and potential of old testament characters like Israel, Adam & Eve, and King David.
The New Covenant, which was inaugurated by Jesus and we celebrate with the sign of the communion meal, is a reframing of the Passover Meal from Exodus. In that Old Testament story we see how God defeated evil by allowing evil to act upon itself. In the same way, the cross brings victory over sin and defeats Satan through the hidden wisdom of love.
In this past weekend's sermon, we take a birds-eye view of the prophets, and what they teach us about one of God's most core values: taking care of the vulnerable.
This week Greg goes through the covenant God made with king David, and touches on some of the foundational beliefs of Woodland Hills involving finding security only from Jesus instead of human kings, and how God always finds a way to bring beauty out of our sins.
As we continue our Long Story Short series through the lens of covenant and kingdom, in this message we explore the connection between relationship and responsibility in the story of the Isarelites making a golden calf for worship while Moses is on Mt. Sinai. It's all too easy for us to get impatient and lose trust in what we can't see. Grace explores the struggles of the Israelites by reflecting on her own experience in building idols in her personal life.
In the fourth part of our Long Story Short series, Greg zooms in on the calling of Abraham in order to discover the ways in which God's Kingdom is like a mustard seed.
In this third installment of our Long Story Short series we explore what the overall narrative of the Bible is as it relates to our Covenant with God, and the Kingdom ways we're called to live here on earth. Today, we look at the story of the Flood through the lens of the cross finding that there's a new lesson about God's character and God's posture to us when we sin. Greg ends with one practical way we can live out our covenant to God inspired by this passage: by caring for the earth and all it's inhabitants.
In the second part of our Long Story Short series Greg takes a look at what happens when Adam and Eve disobey God by eating from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, and what universal lessons we can learn from them about who we were originally designed to be. Life in the Kingdom revolves around trusting God for provision and honoring his prohibition. It's this focus that keeps us secure in our identity and not looking for life elsewhere through judging eyes. We are to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, and him crucified, and this will keep us from judgment of others as well as keep a clear picture of who God is.
Today we started out our new series called Long Story Short, where we will go through the whole bible book by book, looking at the key stories through the lens of Kingdom and Covenant. David started us out at the beginning in Genesis 1 and 2, to explore where the themes of covenant and kingdom show up and what they mean for our identity and intended vocation in the world.
Our guest speaker, Nicole Bullock, focuses on John 5:1-8 and unpacks what it looks like for us to "take up our mats and walk."
In this fifth installment of our Take Heart series, we explore what it means to be encouraged in one solid truth: that God's love for us is unceasing and he is present with us in the midst of incredible brokenness. Discouragement can come when we have a broken picture of God, but we can be encouraged that God always looks like Jesus and Christ crucified. But first, we need to understand the difference between believing something and experiencing something.
In this fourth installment in our Take Heart series we explore what it means to be encouraged in our ability to build skills and competence in the areas God has entrusted to us. Discouragement can come externally from factors outside of our control that can be overwhelming, but it can also come from feelings and patterns of passiveness within that keep us from enacting what God has trusted us to do.
Today with David, we looked at God's desire for encouragement and what kind of posture we should have in encouragement. He looks closely at the nostalgia of the Israelites when the temple was rebuilt and how it keeps us from seeing the ways God wanted to encourage them in the present rebuilding.
In this sermon with Greg, we get deep into talking about facing fears and problems, but not succumbing to them. Often times when we or ones we love go through hard times, along come four different crowds of people offering various "you'll get through it" type remarks. Though when life falls apart and everything comes undone, whether it be you or someone you know, sometimes all you can do is "Embrace the Suck" and just be present. The time may come where you can sort things out, mend, or find some sort of contentment, but sometimes you just need to be there, in the moment.
Today Sandra shared with us a real-life example of her brother's story, and what to do, and what not to do, when confronted by someone else's discouragement.
Why did Jesus have to die? Why does the resurrection matter? What, if anything, actually hinges on believing Jesus was crucified and literally rose from the dead three days later? In this Easter message we explore these questions and other implications in believing and living out a resurrection centered faith.
In this Good Friday service, we open with and discuss Hebrews 12, the sacrifice Jesus made for us, and what that all means. Greg explains how we should live our lives by not hiding our sins from Jesus - but we must give them over to him, and keep our eyes set upon him in order to experience the depth of love and intimacy he has for us.
In this weekend's Palm Sunday service, Greg felt led to continue and expand on his message of loving people and losing labels. The brain needs repetition to really get something, and this message is so foundational to the kingdom, that it is worth continuing.
In this weekend's sermon, Greg closes our Crux of the Matter series by discussing the importance of zooming in on the hearts of people as we zoom out on our need to be right.
In the fourth installment of our Crux of the Matter series, where we're looking at how to have difficult conversations with those we disagree with, Osheta furthers the discussion by inviting us to think about our everyday conversations as opportunities for peacemaking as Ambassadors of the Kingdom of God.
In the third installment of our Crux of the Matter series where we're looking at how to have difficult conversations with those we disagree with, Greg furthers the discussion of the relationship between our conscious reasoning and our subconscious feelings and emotional based instincts. Although we like to think of ourselves as rational logic driven decision makers, research continues to show that much of our reasoning is ad hoc and only serves to reinforce our already existing opinions and desires. In this message Greg tackles why these findings don't need to lead to a deterministic world view as well as how to resolve the tension between being created in God's image being and also born with a subconscious that pushes us away from Kingdom values.
Today, Dan Kent shared with us some ideas about how having a proper Jesus-centered definition of humility can free us in our relationships, and help us remain centered on Jesus, put people before politics, and create peace during these divisive times.
This past weekend, Greg opened up our new series with 1 Corinthians 16:14 - "Let all that you do be done in love." We discuss how to be Kingdom people in dealing with difficult conversations on controversial topics, all while keeping Jesus at the center.
In this in-between-series sermon, Shawna discusses how to cultivate and maintain a posture of gratitude in a fallen world. Particularly in a world full of negative distractions fed by social media, sometimes more than our brains can really handle.
In our fifth and final installment of the Priest and Physicist Walk in to a Bar series, we examine how to frame the Genesis creation story with what we know about our history and the cosmos. Specifically, we examine the difference between dogma, doctrine, and opinion and where questions like "how God created" and "when did God create" fit in to that framework. As has been the theme for the whole series, we explore how faith can go beyond reason, but not against reason.
Greg continues exploring the relationship between faith and science, making the point that the laws of science have nothing to do with the possibility of the existence of miracles (and in fact they might even prove that there is more to reality than what we can measure).
In this weekend's sermon, Greg continues our "Priest and Physicist" series, in which we examine five arguments against the naturalistic worldview.
This weekend we continued our sermon series, "A Priest and a Physicist Walk Into a Bar..." in which we explore how the science of our universe might point to an intelligence beyond itself.
Today we jumped into a new sermon series, "A Priest and a Physicist Walk Into a Bar..." which explores the (supposed) conflict between faith and science. So we opened it up by looking at the origin of this assumption that faith and science are at odds with one another.
Although all sins in some ways are equal before God, there is something particularly evil and destructive about the dehumanizing effects of racism. Martin Luther King Jr. has by in large been secularized in popular culture as a nice man who wanted us all to get along, but this is an unfortunate caricature of a man whose core foundational trust was in self-sacrificial love and non-violent resistance. MLK Jr.'s message of racial reconciliation, and a refusal to deem another human being as his enemy, is central to the gospel of Jesus.
In this weekend's sermon, Greg provides us with a framework for the importance of prayer. While most of us have been taught about the importance of prayer, it can still feel like an empty duty if we do not have a framework for the reason why prayer matters.
Today Osheta talked about one of her favorite church holidays called Epiphany, and what it means to her. Epiphany honors the manifestation of Christ to the Gentiles as told by the story of the Magi in Matthew 2:1-12. To Osheta, it is about how Jesus shows up for many different people in many different ways.
Our life is made of seasons. We ebb and flow in different disciplines and commitments. In this final message of 2018, and in preparation to start the new year, Greg walks us through three important questions: 1. What does the Lord want me to retain & renew? 2. What does the Lord want me to let go of? And 3. What does the Lord want me to add to my life that wasn't there before?
In this year's Christmas Eve service, we are reminded that Jesus entered into our world in what was seemingly the most inopportune time, in a dirty, smelly manger, and how he continues to enter our lives at all times, good and bad.
This weekend Greg continues our When God Shows Up series by examining why Jesus came to earth when he did, and why showing up at this time in history was both edgy and subversive.
This weekend Greg continues our When God Shows Up series by examining two crucial questions we must ask when we find ourselves in an Advent season: How do we conduct ourselves in this fallen world when misery takes over? How can we hang on to hope when all seems hopeless?
This weekend we welcomed guest speaker Shane Claiborne to share with us a reminder of what it should mean to us this advent season that Jesus came into our lives as a homeless outsider in a violent, unwelcoming world.
In many ways Jesus, and the kingdom he established, was anti-king of all kings. The holiness he embodied was guided by love, not law. Instead of using his kingship to separate himself from the unclean, lowly and hurting in the world, Jesus made his home right in the middle of our pain and our sin. This was unbelievably good news back then and today for all those who are hurting, needy, lonely, sinful or poor. God desires to make his residence in us, just as we are.
We wrapped up our Blended sermon series with a Q&A hosted by Greg Boyd, Sandra Unger and Kevin Callaghan. The audio and video media files, as well as the YouTube video, contain questions and answers from all three of our services on November 24/25, 2018.
This weekend, David wrapped up our Blended series with his sermon in which he modeled how we might unearth our roots, so that we might move forward in Jesus.
In the life of a Jesus follower, there is clear power in testimony. It has the ability to break down walls of mental defensiveness and justification, and speak directly to the deepest parts of another's heart. We all carry wounds around with us as a result of the gap between what we needed and what we actually received. In this message Greg shares some of his personal journey in healing from the wounds passed on to him from his family.
Today Sandra affirms that you don't have to have suffered awful abuse or trauma in order to have stuff that you need to heal from. We all have baggage from our past, so she shares five strategies for healing.
In this sermon of our Blended series, David talks about what we may inherit from our biological ancestors, how these attributes may have shaped the lives of future generations, and how to love our families for who they are, just as God loves us.
Greg starts off the first sermon of our new series titled Blended by examining how to scripturally navigate our biological and spiritual family systems.
Today Osheta summed up our sermon series on kingdom hospitality in light of the parable of the Good Samaritan, and we learned four vital steps to help us practice Kingdom Hospitality.
Hospitality has a unique meaning and application in the Kingdom of God. In this message, Greg continues our Kingdom hospitality series exploring Peter's revelation in Acts 10 of who's in and who's out of the Kingdom. Through Christ, God has offered a giant bear hug to humanity with an invitation that all are welcome to enter. As followers of Jesus, this should be our primary mode of operation when it comes to interacting with strangers. We present what we have in an authentic way, we ask what would be helpful to those in need, and we always see hospitality in a reciprocal manner.
In today's sermon, Greg gives us one strategy for outrageous, radical Kingdom hospitality: engage in spiritual warfare to resist Satan's designs to hold grudges with one another and destroy healthy relationships.
In this week's sermon, Greg examines 2 Corinthians 5 to uncover a paradigm shifting truth that from God's perspective, all people are in Christ, and explores how this truth shows us that hospitality is at the heart of God's character.
In this second installment of our hospitality centered sermon series You Before Me, Shawna explores how welcoming the Other is not just a mindset, but also a condition of the heart. This continual welcoming and intentional making space for the Other in our lives can only happen when we have a surrendered heart that has first made space for God to dwell in us.
We kick off our new "You Before Me" series with a look at hospitality as the essence of God -- Making space in your life to love and welcome a stranger.
This week Osheta invites us to re-evaluate the busyness of our culture and instead model our schedules and lives on the example of Jesus.
In today's sermon, Greg tackles questions about spiritual warfare and how it related to the nature of God, relationships, and free will.
What does it mean to be saved? Can you ever lose your salvation? These are two of the questions Shawna tackles in this week's Loose Ends sermon.
In this most recent sermon of our Loose Ends series, we look at a verse that many in the "name it and claim it" persuasion use to justify their views, Mark 11:23-24.
There is a very common understanding in many Christian circles that everything happens for a reason, we can't understand what comes to pass because God's ways are higher than our ways, and ultimately every single act, no matter how consistent or inconsistent with the God revealed in Jesus, is a direct result of the power, control, & sovereignty of God. In this message Greg dissects John 9:1-3 confronting all these ideas head on showing how dangerous poor theology and inconsistent exegesis can be.
In this week of the Loose Ends sermon series Greg looks at the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. He shares some general principles for understanding parables and addresses common misconceptions. Here we see that God is not like a violent, unjust king, but rather a God who lovingly invites all to a banquet he graciously prepares.
What do we do when Jesus is the 'loose end'? What are those sections in the Gospel that we can have a tendency to gloss over? What words of Jesus do you hear and sort of cringe about? This starts with being honest with the text rather than avoiding, minimizing, reducing or dismissing.
Osheta continues our look at 'loose ends' of scripture that often get overlooked or dismissed because of their seeming exclusiveness and contradiction. This week's installment examines Jesus' comments about parables and why they were one of his key methods of teaching. At the heart of it all is the question of who the Kingdom of God is for, and what is being asked of us to enter in to it.
This week we look at a passage that some Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons use a lot, 1 Corinthians 15:25-29, and we end up digging into the reasons for our belief in the divinity of Christ, as well as the Mormon practice of proxy baptism and our own practice of adult baptism.
This week in the sermon series Loose Ends, our friend Dr. Sandra Unger explores the often quoted Psalm, "be still and know that I am God." Sandra shares what the command to be still means in the Biblical context and how paying attention to God changes our whole approach to life.
This week Greg taught on Romans 13, a Scripture that has been in the news recently when Attorney General Jeff Sessions used it as basis for why the American government is separating children from their families at the southern border. This passage, although helpful for us to understand how to respect the authority of earthly government in matters of polices, law and order, is not the final word for Kingdom people on how we should live.
In this sermon we continue our look in to scripture passages that often get dismissed because of their obscurity, seeming contradiction, or relative weirdness. This week Greg examined Exodus 4:19-28 which describes a strange encounter Moses and Zipporah had with God on their way from Midian to Egypt involving threat of death, circumcision, and the smearing of blood. This encounter, although interpreted through a warped view of God's character, foreshadows the Passover later in Exodus as well as the spiritual circumcision available to all through Christ.
Today we started our new summer series called Loose Ends, which works to "make sense of the verses we skip". Since we shared communion together this week, we focused on a strange verse related to communion -- 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.
In week three of our Nothing to Lose series Greg provides some guiding principles for living a life of generosity modeled after the example of the sacrifice and life of Jesus.
Our culture tells us that success means gaining more money and more possessions. But the Kingdom that Jesus summons us into rejects this system. In the second week of our "Nothing to Lose" series, Greg shows us that in God's Kingdom, our treasure is stored up when we give it away.
In this first sermon in our new 'Nothing to Lose' series, we explore contentment and generosity. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements and not so subtle innuendo that we should be discontent with what we have. This environment we find ourselves in strongly challenges the kingdom call to live out of a center of contentment and cultivate a heart full of generosity. In this message we explore what the Bible says about these topics as well as how they apply to our 21st century setting.
In previous weeks we discussed the evidence that our consciousness persists in the interim stage between death and resurrection. But what exactly goes on there, before resurrection? Are we made perfect and pure enough to enter the kingdom instantly, or do we have to continue our growth in Christ?
What is your conception of heaven? Is it a place to which you escape when you die? Something only for the future and not for the present? In the fourth week of our Non-Perishable sermon series, our friend David Morrow explores the idea of heaven as the coming Kingdom in which we participate here and now, and the eternal Emmanuel - God with us.
In this third sermon in our Non-Perishable series, guest speaker Osheta Moore shares how anxiety and fear surrounding death can be overcome through looking to Christ, who shared in our death.
This is the second message in our series "Non-Perishable", where we're exploring death from a Kingdom perspective. This week, Greg explains the evidence for life after death, why Heaven may not be what we thought, and how to gain a more beautiful picture of life after death.Greg played a song during his message, you can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekZ187l-Vn8
In our new series entitled 'Non-Perishable' we start by exploring why death is such a foreign concept in our culture, and why having a proper perspective on it is so important for our theology and life in the present age. Confusing the works of Satan with the works of God can have tragic consequences to our worldview and interpretations of what comes to pass in our lives, including death.
The world around us is wrought with pain and suffering. Amidst this reality it can often be difficult to find a sense of hope. To fully appreciate the incomprehensible glory that is going to be revealed to us, we first need to appreciate the full magnitude of the sufferings of this present age. As we engage with the painful news of our world, we turn our eyes to the coming hope that is grounded in the resurrected Christ.
In ancient Rome, death by crucifixion was designed for extreme pain and extreme shame. It was important for criminals to feel the weight of their crime, and for spectators to fear what would happen to them if they did something wrong. But Jesus, who had done no wrong, chose to take on the shame of the cross. He knew that his sacrificial death would free us from the shame we carry.We gathered on Good Friday to honor and celebrate the freedom Jesus gave us all by taking on the shame of the cross.
We wrapped up our Sure. sermon series with a Q&A hosted by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy. The audio and video media files contain questions and answers from all three of our services on March 24/25, 2018.
In Week 5 of our "Sure." series (where we are honestly wrestling with challenges that our post-modern, post Christian, pluralistic culture presents to our faith), Greg addresses the (apparent) imperfections, errors, and contradictions in the Bible, and shows that they don't distract from it being God-breathed... but contribute to it.
Today we answer the question of why believe in God? Is this like believing in the Easter Bunny? Isn't it illogical and improbable that there would be a personal being out there who created everything and loves the world and every living creature? Our answer: No! When you look at the facts, it's actually MORE logical that the above is true than not.
In this third chapter of our Sure. series we come to Jesus. Who is He? How do we know what we know about Him? Why do we believe it to be true? What are the critiques of the Christian belief in Jesus as a historical figure and what are the rational arguments in favor of the orthodox view of Jesus as Lord? In this message Greg explores these questions and others while explaining what it means to "give the reason for the hope that you have".
What is faith? In what should our faith be anchored? Does our faith stand upon the various church doctrines and dogmas? In this sermon Shawna explores the meaning of faith, that the root which grounds our faith is not our belief system, but the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ crucified is the cornerstone of our faith. What is faith? In what should our faith be anchored? Does our faith stand upon the various church doctrines and dogmas? In this sermon Shawna explores the meaning of faith, that the root which grounds our faith is not our belief system, but the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ crucified is the cornerstone of our faith.
In the first sermon in our 'Sure.' series, Greg examines the nature of truth. Is all truth subjective? Is all morality relative? In western culture a premium is placed on tolerance. Greg explains the history of this movement and ultimately how it squares with the teachings of Christ.
During this final sermon in our Next Level Relationships series, Greg and Kevin have a conversation where we learn about the cycle of conflict. They discuss why we find it so easy to get pulled in, and more importantly, some tools from Jesus that we can use to short-circuit the cycle.
Why is it so easy to blame others when we are in conflict? In this fifth sermon of our Next Level Relationships series, Greg looks at what our brains and bibles can tell us about blame and how to navigate conflict.
Conflict is the "elephant in the room" of all relationships - we either want to ignore it or focus completely on it. Yet as Kingdom people, how do we deal with conflict in ways that reflect Christ on the cross? In the fourth week of our series, "Next Level Relationships," Osheta Moore shows us how to tell better stories about those who seem like our enemies, while seeing each other as fellow image-bearers of God, and never enemies.
In the third sermon of our The Next Level Relationships series, David Morrow looks at the critical role that listening plays in healthy relationships. Dave discusses three challenges to, and three lessons for effective listening.
This week we explore vulnerability, and how we all tend to use the serpent's tools of hiding and idolatrous performance to protect ourselves from judgment and shame. We learn that Vulnerability is the only onramp to real connection with others, and is also the key to enabling us to receive our life and fullness from God alone.
We tend to break the world in to sacred and secular, but in reality this is a false dichotomy. No matter where Jesus was or what relationship he was in He was fully present as a walking talking embodiment of the Kingdom of God. Instead of walking around with hungry hearts using others in an attempt to fill up our need for security, significance, and worth, we are called to mimic Christ in all our relationships by being filled by our relationship with the Father and letting that overflow to those around us.
For all of the events that take place in our lives from day to day, month to month, and year to year, it's important to take time to reflect, review, and ask God where He was working within these events and what He is doing through them. In the final message of 2017, Greg talks about the discipline of reviewing, and reflects on how God was working through Woodland Hills Church this past year.
For most of us the Christmas story is a religious story that has become predictable over the years. But to its 1st century audience the Christmas story was anything but religious and predictable. In this Christmas Eve sermon Greg shares, how the Christmas story was irreligious and unexpected to its original audience and how if we look at the story with fresh eyes we will see a God that pursues us relentlessly at all cost, meeting us right where we are.
As we continue our Christmas series, "Do you See What I See: Looking at How to See Christmas Through God's Eyes," we focus on the shepherds. As with most of Luke's Gospel, being centered on Jesus' interactions with the marginalized (including the shepherds as a key part of the birth story) is no accident. In Jesus' day the shepherds as a people group were one of the more despised, untrusted, unclean, & judged people in society. In this message we learn how to stop automatically categorizing who's in and who's out based on superficial judgements of worth, and how to recognize the marginalized peoples in our own society and what God might have to say through them.
Christmas is a time of year where we claim "Peace on Earth" and "Good-will toward humanity." But do we really mean that nice-sounding sentiment? Even more so, do we really understand the story that undergirds this time of year, in the first place? In our new Christmas series, "Do You See What I See," we explore Christmas as it was in the 1st Century: on the margins.
In today's final sermon in the "Overcome" series, Greg discusses the last critically important key to overcoming temptation: Community.
In this segment of the Overcome series we continue exploring the nature of temptation from a spiritual warfare perspective. Satan's primary weapon he uses against us is deception, therefore as followers of Jesus our primary defense is to saturate ourselves in the truth revealed in the crucified Christ about who God is, who we are, and what our relationship to others is to be. In this message Greg looks at each of the pieces of armor of God that Paul lays out in Ephesians 6.Extra downloads from this messageOur Identity in ChristWielding the Sword of the Spirit
We all struggle with temptation, and it begins in our mind. But how do we resist our own thoughts? In the second message of our "Overcome" series, Greg shows us how to see our enemy and understand his strategies, and then unpacks how to overcome them.
We kick off our new "Overcome" sermon series with a talk about temptation and the core principle to overcoming it: analyzing our thoughts around a temptation and then taking those thoughts captive in Christ.
The fear of failure affects so many of us. So deep is this fear that it has the capacity to keep us from saying yes the adventures into which God invites us. Failure is not a thing to be avoided, but rather a thing from which we can learn and grow. In this message, guest speaker Kris Beckert shares with us a word of encouragement regarding the transformation that can be found within experiences of failure.
Dr. Sandra Unger joins us this week to unpack the ways God can use course corrections around our relationship to money and finances, to bring greater joy and hope. Spiritual disciplines like simplicity and generosity help us to humble ourselves before God and ask for His help in having a kingdom relationship to money and resources.
We continue our Course Corrections series by looking at small changes we can make in our life now, that have the potential for large scale shifts if followed out in the future. In this message David Morrow shares how the areas of leisure, entertainment, and social media can affect our Kingdom journey and what changes we might make now to ensure we don't become slaves to their influence.
Today's sermon focuses on a strategy from Philippians 2:3-8 that demonstrates a kingdom way to engage with other people during conflict: remembering that our "map" (our brain's interpretation of sensory input) is an incomplete representation of reality, and to step into and seek to understand the other person's "map".
Most Americans define themselves as distinctly unhappy. Why is that and what can be done about it? Is there really a "secret" to happiness? This week in our series Course Corrections, Greg explores one small tweak that may have the biggest impact in our lives - gratitude.
Like a GPS, sometimes the Holy Spirit redirects our path to bring greater adventure and blessing. In celebration of Woodland Hills' 25th anniversary Greg explores the ways the Holy Spirit has redirected the path of Woodland Hills, and what course correction means for followers of Christ.
We are starting a new series entitled Course Corrections. In this first installment our guest speaker Bruxy Cavey lays the groundwork in examining how internalizing the gospel message actually affects our lives. In the past century the gospel has often times been minimized as a ticket out of here, instead of an example to be imitated of how we actually live in the here and now. As Bruxy said, "the gospel is not just a message that saves people, it is the message that saved people live by."
Hospitality is the intentional inclusion of the stranger and "others" in our jobs, churches, neighborhoods, cities, and beyond. What exactly does this look like and why don't we do this? In the second message in our "There Is No Them" series, Greg unpacks two Scripture passages that help to identify Jesus in the face of the strangers around us, and gives us practical tips on how to better represent Christ's Kingdom in our world.
Today Greg opens our two-part series called "There is no Them" with a message about the amazing consistency and unmistakable clarity we find in both the Old and New Testaments about our calling to welcome and embrace strangers into our lives and communities.
When did we grow out of our imagination? At what point did we cease living into the adventure that is life, that is following Jesus? We are told, at far too young of an age, to "put away childish things", to create a life that is predictable, linear and safe. But is that the kind of life Jesus invites us to live? This week Brianna shares with us the adventure of being Dreamers and Doers in the Kingdom of God.
In our last sermon in the series Turning the Tables, Greg takes a final look at New Testament passages often appealed to in order to justify violence. This week we examine the Parable of the ungrateful servant.
In this 4th installment of our Turning the Tables series, we examine how Jesus prophetically acts out a reinterpretation of a common Jewish racial understanding of the Kingdom of God. In both the interactions with the Roman centurion in Luke 7 as well as the woman (Canaanite descendant) in Matthew 15, Jesus reinterprets what it means to have faith in God and who the Kingdom is open to. The repercussions of this unequivocal 'no' to racism, and the hatred and de-humanization that accompany it, apply just as much to our 21st century culture in America as they did in 1st century Israel.
One of the core convictions of Woodland Hills is that God is indiscriminately loving and opposed to all violence. But many Christians since the 4th century have not wanted this to be true. It's more comfortable for us to hate our enemies and be justified in doing so. So some Christians have gone to great lengths to argue that Jesus was not actually opposed to violence. Debunking these arguments is what Greg focused on during this 'Turning the Tables' message.
It is common to hear objections about the differences between the God of the Old Testament and Jesus in the New, but what about the views some hold that Jesus wasn’t actually non-violent? How do we handle the Scriptures that seem to imply He engaged in occasional violent acts? In this second message in our series, Turning the Tables, David Morrow shows how Jesus cursing a fig tree had nothing to do with violence, and everything to do with liberation from that which enslaves His people, both individually and collectively.
In our new Turning Over Tables series, we examine how central Jesus (as well as other new testament authors) placed our call to non-violence. In fact at one point in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus pre-conditions being considered a child of God to our love toward enemies and refusal to return evil for evil. Many throughout history have tried to twist scripture to fit certain personal or other non-Kingdom nationalistic agendas, but Jesus’ call to us is that His Kingdom is not of this world. What makes His followers distinct is our refusal to engage in violence no matter the “just” circumstance.
In this final sermon in our Moving Pictures series, Greg looks at how the past can be redeemed and give way to a healing future. All people carry wounds and brokenness from their past and many of us continue to live those hurts in the present. Greg examines how through the love of Christ all people’s pasts can be transformed and integrated into God’s great story of redemption.
Each of us is unique. We each have our own story, our own calling, and our own distinct set of giftings, talents, and experiences that shape our uniqueness. However, many of us are stuck living in stories of all the reasons we are disqualified from having a life of purpose and impact in the kingdom. Shawna uses the unlikely heroes of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens' to remind us that God can nullify any of the objections our minds present that keeps us from living out our identity in Christ.
Later this month Woodland Hills will be doing our annual baptism ceremony at Lake Phalen, and so in light of that Greg used this week's sermon to talk about baptism and contrasting it with the magical way of thinking about it that we see in the movie 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou'.
The word “repent” is often associated with fear based tactics like street side preachers shouting “turn or burn!” Though fear based attempts to motivate change rarely have lasting positive impact. The New Testament picture of repentance is instead displayed as a joyful invitation to acceptance of the grace and mercy poured out by a God of love.
This week in our Moving Pictures series we explore the film 'The Adjustment Bureau' to better understand the complexities of a world with free will. Every decision we make unfolds massive ripple effects, making it almost impossible to know why things happen as they do. Our hope in the midst of this beautifully complex world is found in God who is infinitely smarter than we can ever understand.
The story of the transforming power of love over shame is all around us. This past weekend Sandra showed us this theme in the movie 'The Beauty and the Beast', and we learn how powerful love can be to defeat even the most paralyzing shame.
This is our first week of the new sermon series, Moving Pictures. In this series we will look at different movies that show a particular theology. This week we were entertained with the film, Bruce Almighty, a film which highlights the question of free-will. Greg takes us through the illusion of fatalism. The foundation of fatalism (also understood as determinism and/or Calvinism) suggests the world and all its happenings are determined. All that unfolds, including all suffering, is a result of fate, a pre-determined destiny of events established by God. But, there is a different way of understanding the world and God’s relationship to the created order. God created a world with free-will; where humans have the capacity to freely choose life or choose death. God is a relational God and longs for relationship with humans who freely choose love. With the free-will understanding of the created order we discover God is not the author of all that unfolds in the world, but that humans play an integral role in what comes to pass.
Throughout the Old Testament we get clouded pictures of the character of God. Hebrews tells us that God gave our forefathers many glimpses of the truth. But through Jesus Christ, God gives us the full revelation of the truth. So what are we to do with the pictures that suggest God is an angry, wrathful, violent God? In this sermon, Greg points out various Old Testament stories that are glimpses of the truth of God’s character. With a careful reading that goes beyond the surface picture of the story we see that the greater revelation of the truth that God is a God who is rich in mercy, slow to anger, gracious and compassionate, that God is love.
The underlying theme behind our 'Glimpses of Truth' series is the idea that before we had the full revelation of God in Jesus, people only caught glimpses of him. He showed himself, but like the sun on a cloudy day, people's view was obscured by their culture, so what they saw was not the full revelation but one marred by their own expectations and fallenness.But despite this, there were still a few instances in the Old Testament where we can see glimpses of the Christ-like God that we know.
God gives us dreams for our future. Yet, the circumstances and demands of life have a way of causing us to put those dreams away or forget them all together. How do we allow God to awaken us to the dreams he offers us? In this powerful message, Nicole Bullock (Co-Pastor of Blue Oaks Church in Brooklyn Center, MN) shares the story of a Shunammite woman who makes room for God in the face of paralyzing discouragement. Nicole also shares her own story of keeping faith in God through the uncertainty of seemingly-hopeless circumstances.
In week three of our 'Glimpses of Truth' sermon series we continue to look for portraits of God in the Old Testament that look like Jesus. This week we look at rules. The first five books of the Old Testament alone contain 613 different rules. Using Hebrews 1:1-3 as our springboard we can see that God gave rules to accommodate Israel’s needs as well as to protect and bless. In fact, in Jesus we see the ultimate expression of God’s desire, not for rule following, but for hearts given to Him in love.
A surface level reading of the Old Testament gives the appearance that God has chosen Israel as a favorite nation, and has therefore discriminately blessed and protected them in and against other nations. Just as we discovered during the cross centered series, if one looks below the surface there actually is much more than is first apparent about the cultural understanding of God’s interactions with His people, the Israelites’ hearts, and God’s true calling and intention for their nation.
This weekend we kicked off our new sermon series, Glimpses of Truth. For the next six weeks Greg will be covering the ways in which the Spirit of God was consistently working in the hearts of God’s people to reveal as much of God’s true character as possible. Throughout the Old Testament we read many examples of how the spiritual immaturity of God’s people determines their understanding of God’s true character. Never coercing nor shaming, but through love and immeasurable patience, God meets us exactly where we are and carries us on to the full revelation of Godself that is finally found in Jesus Christ.
The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories.
“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus experienced separation from the Father on Good Friday, and many of us feel the same way. But God is here for us! Our Good Friday service included testimonies, a sermon message, worship and communion.
How are other pastors and church leaders responding to Greg's proposal for interpreting the violence of God in the Old Testament? In this sermon, we get to hear from the perspective of Bruxy Cavey, pastor of The Meeting House in Toronto, Canada. He summarizes his interpretation of Greg's writings, and offers his take.
To finish our Cross Centered sermon series we held a Q&A night on Sunday, April 9th. It was hosted by Greg Boyd, Dennis Edwards and Bruxy Cavey. It was a Q&A on the topics relating to Cross Centered, and to Greg's new book, Crucifixion of the Warrior God.
If we read the Old Testament assuming that it all is about the cross of Christ, then we can see how God stooped to the level of the cultural conditioning of the Old Testament authors to allow himself to be portrayed as violent. In addition, when we read carefully, we can actually see, within the passages of violence themselves, the nonviolent character of God breaking through.
God is a God who stoops down, out of love, in order to meet people where they are. He is a heavenly missionary who accommodates that which he is against in order to win people over to the truth. This metaphor of a heavenly missionary helps us understand what God was doing when we read about the violent depictions of God in the Old Testament.
The Old Testament often portrays God as either doing, commanding, or threatening violence. For many, this is a huge problem because these depictions contradict the way Jesus lived and commanded. What are we to do with this contradiction? In this sermon, Greg invites us to see that there is something else going in these portrayals of violence, and we can only see this something else when we understand what was going on when Jesus died on the cross.
Fear is part of the journey in this life, but for many, fear is consuming. As a result, it serves as a roadblock that keeps us from entering into what God has for our lives. God provides a way for us to move beyond fear and into a life of love. This is possible not because we have a guarantee that everything will work out as we wish, but because, even in the midst of the ups and downs of life, we know that God's love is greater than the fearful circumstance we face.
In the Kingdom of God freedom is an end in of itself. It is part of our nature as created beings to be free and not be ruled over by one another, any agent in the spiritual realm, or by substances or behavior patterns. For many people addiction is one of the key stumbling blocks that perpetuates cycles of shame, hiding, and a lack of fullness of life. In this message Greg explores what lies at the heart of all addictions, substance or otherwise, and how we go about untangling ourselves from their grip so we can step into the full life that God desires us to have.
This is the fourth week in our Overwhelmed sermon series. Today we discussed the challenge of unforgiveness and resentment. Brianna suggests that living out of a false identity can be perhaps the greatest source of our struggle to extend forgiveness to ourselves or to others. The way to freedom from our unforgiveness is to remember the truth of who we are in Christ, and to be transformed more fully into our true identity by being transformed by the renewing of your mind.
Greg talks about depression, and how to take our thoughts captive to find the Joy of God.
In the second week of our Overwhelmed series Greg unpacks the topic of shame. We begin by looking at the origin of shame in Genesis 3; what shame is and where it comes from. Next we look at how God defeats shame on the cross and welcomes us to live shame-free lives through His unconditional love.
This initial sermon in our Overwhelmed series was a foundational message about the root of everything that holds us back. God has designed us to have power over our brain and our thought life and it is our responsibility to be disciples of our brain. We must fight against the cultural lies of our world by daily renewing our mind by focusing on who God says we are. Here is a link for the video that we played before the teaching.
Sometimes time doesn’t feel like such a gift. In fact if we’re not living in right relatedness with how God intended us to function, it can feel much more like a burden. Throughout history technology innovations have made false promises about giving more time back to their users, but in fact we have as many distractions as ever to keep us from living the simple, undistracted, others oriented life God calls us to. In this message we explore what can be done to take back control of how we’re living our life and spending our time so we don’t fall in to temptations that lead to getting our life from how busy we are.
God lovingly entrusts us with money, possessions, and resources. As followers of Christ we are called to surrender all our gifts to the Lordship of Christ. Because God is an other-oriented God who lovingly pours out blessings, and we are made in His image, then we too should be people who use our resources to bless others.
This weekend we honor the memory and life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. with a message from Dennis Edwards and Greg Boyd. King dedicated his life to the pursuit of the one new humanity inaugurated in the life of Jesus and this sermon focuses on King’s commitment to justice, peace and love.
Everything that we have is a gift from God that we have been entrusted with. But these gifts are meant to be given away.
This weekend service recognized our teaching pastor and dear friend, Seth McCoy, as he gave his last sermon here. Seth and his family will be transitioning from Woodland Hills to serve God’s Kingdom in another capacity. We celebrate and thank the McCoy family for serving, loving and participating in our larger Woodland Hills family. In this sermon, Seth discusses his affection for Woodland Hills and for the process of following your calling through three lenses: A telescope, a microscope and a rearview mirror.
Jesus is the Light of the world, and this Light has always been at work within us, whether or not we've been aware of it. Once we surrender to that Light, we find ourselves swept up into the greatest love story of all time!
Keeping the Light. Throughout the biblical narrative, we see that Jesus is the light of the world. And that light is shared with humanity in order that we may shine the light. In the Old Testament, Israel was called to be the light to other nations. With the Incarnation, Jesus came as the light of the world. And today, the family of God is to bear witness to the light of the world. Greg shares with us how we are blessed to be conduits of light, to shine and share the light.
In this third week of our Across the Universe series we are reminded that the counter-cultural beauty of the Christmas story is in the reality that the God who created the vast expanses of the universe became small and vulnerable. While it is often the case that we marvel at what is grand and big, the message at Christmas is that oftentimes the most profound experiences of God are in the seemingly mundane moments of life. Our call is to be a people who remember and remind others that the God of the universe does not only go half way for us, and so we should go all the way in love for others.
As we move toward Christmas during our Across the Universe series, Seth explores what it means when God, the Creator of the universe, calls us home. This message took a look at what home means, and what we’re being invited in to, as seen through the unique lens of the prodigal son.
In the sermon this week Greg reflects on how the heavens tell of the glory of God. The vast and beautiful universe, bigger than the human mind can conceive, points to a marvelous creator. This same awe-inspiring creator is the one that became human to love and save all of humanity.
In this final sermon of the Without Borders series, Greg explores our ultimate weapon for fighting the powers of this present darkness. (Hint: it isn't more darkness)
Fear and Faith. Throughout much of the biblical narrative we encounter stories of people who danced between fear and faith. Stories such as the fear of the disciples on the stormy sea, to the townspeople after witnessing the healing of the Gerasene demoniac, to Jairus and his daughter. Yet, in the midst of these fears, we also encounter the Jesus who is bigger than our fears. The Jesus who tells us, “Do not fear. Instead, have faith.” In this weeks’ message our guest, Pastor Dennis Edwards from Sanctuary Covenant Church in Minneapolis, MN, takes us on a journey through these stories and exhorts the church to live in love – for there is no fear in love.
In this final pre-election sermon, Greg reminds us that while the kingdoms of the world rise and fall and are ultimately doomed, the kingdom of God is everlasting and truly deserving of our hope.
In this third week of our Without Borders series and a week before the election we are reminded that Jesus' challenge to us in loving our enemies was designed to remind us that God has no human enemies. He has called us to be agents of peace, to find the commonality between us and to build on it. This practice will be exceedingly challenging during this election time. We are quick to blame and quick to judge. Jesus invited people on the polar opposites of the political controversy of his day to be brothers within his community of disciples.
Jesus calls us to be His ambassadors. Living as an ambassador of the Kingdom God instead of a citizen of the kingdom of the world requires an awareness and intentionality to not buy in to the “me first” culture of the world. Christians throughout history have usually migrated to one of two extremes in our relationship with the world. Either we withdraw and isolate ourselves from the culture to the point of irrelevance, or else we acquire as much power as possible in order to force or legislate Kingdom of God behavior in to the culture. Neither of these work, or are what we're called to. Instead we're called to a third way as an ambassador and missionary in a foreign land where we interact and show the people the Kingdom by how we live, love, and steward our talents and resources, and then invite others to join.
This weekend Greg taught about the difference between the kingdom of this world and the kingdom of God. In the kingdom of God, Jesus is our King (and president) and followers are marked by their indiscriminate love and refusal to rule over others. During this election cycle believers are called to put their trust in Jesus alone and not be pulled into trusting in the rulers of this world.
In this final sermon of the Worth the Risk series, we look at how the cross offends our worldly values, and how we as followers, and the church as a whole, are called to respond to this confrontation.
We often craft together ideal images of of what a “good Christian” family ought to look like. Images of the idealistic post-war, bourgeois nuclear families are more frequently articulated as the “biblical” family. But, is that accurate? Greg provides for us a snapshot of the various families portrayed throughout the biblical narrative. From Adam and Eve to Solomon and his many wives and concubines, to Abraham and Sarah, we gather a sense that “biblical” families are just as messy and dysfunctional as what we may witness today. The hope of the family unit is Christ! The Christ who works within the mess of it all to make something beautiful.
In this third message of our Worth the Risk series, Greg talks about marriage relationships and explores the meaning of Ephesians 5:22, which says that wives must submit to their husbands.
Being made in the image of God means that we are created to make and keep commitments. In this second segment of our Worth the Risk series, Seth explores commitment’s role in our relationships. A kingdom relationship is a creation in and of itself, and that creation requires constant care in the form of honest conversations about the things that come between us. Our tendency is to avoid conflict, confrontation, and rebuke because we believe a lie. We believe we can’t be honest and keep our friendships, but like all forms of deception this lie leads to relational death.
Greg opens our new Worth The Risk series with a discussion of commitment, the constant desire to find something better, and argues that you can only know the Truth about anything by passionately committing to it.
One need not look very far to see examples of discord, hostility and disunity within humanity and even within creation. Culture wars, political wars, theological wars and military wars abound. What, we might ask, is the source of all this hostility? And, more importantly, what is the source of true peace, true unity, true harmony? Paul tells us in Ephesians that Jesus is the one true peace. Jesus IS our peace and the Holy Spirit is the unifier. A new president or policy or military leader or social activist will not bring peace. Only when people accept the one (Jesus) who IS peace, who IS harmony will true unity come.
We wrapped up our summer God In Us sermon series with a Q&A night on Tuesday, August 30. It was hosted by Greg Boyd, our senior pastor, and Paul Eddy, our teaching pastor. It was a Q&A on the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts.
Hope is a vital part of life. In this segment of our summer series on the Holy Spirit, Seth explores how the Holy Spirit fuels our hope by giving us a vision of God’s plan for the world and by empowering us to take action towards bringing that plan into reality.
As we continue our summer series on the Holy Spirit, this week Seth explains the role of the Holy Spirit in producing fruit that serves as evidence of a follower’s life in the Kingdom. As a way of understanding the fruits described in Galatians 6, a description and function of the soul is first explored. We use our will not to grit our way into a Jesus looking life, but rather to surrender our life, in order to gain the life the God promises. Our job is to surrender. The Holy Spirit's job is to produce the fruit in us.
In this sermon Greg goes over the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit. After explaining each gift, he addressed why he believes these gifts are still relevant and important for the church today. He ends with an encouragement to zealously seek after all gifts God has for you.
This next sermon in our series, titled God in Us, focused on the meaning, biblical background and practical application of being filled with the Holy Spirit. This phrase has created much controversy in the church today while often creating more division than unity. The evidence in Scripture emphasizes that there is a difference between having the Holy Spirit as a follower of Jesus and the act of being filled with the Spirit, but that this filling of the Spirit looks more like the extravagant love of a married couple than any spiritual test.
This message is the fifth sermon in the series. It lays the foundation for identifying, understanding, and utilizing spiritual gifts.
In this fourth message of the God in Us series we explore what it means that the light of the world has taken up residence in us. Throughout scripture we see the theme of darkness and light battling back and forth. In Genesis we read of the Spirit hovering over the darkness and bringing order to the chaos, light to the darkness. In the gospel of John, Jesus calls himself the light of the world, and promises his followers will have the Holy Spirit in them if he goes away. So what does it mean to have the light of the world living inside us?
God makes amazing promises over the kind of life we can live through the power of the Holy Spirit. This power will flow out of us like a river of living water. But we frequently experience a distance between the kind of full life that God promised and the kind of life we live now, don’t we? So how can the distance of this gap begin to close? Paul tells us, one of the key ways in which we can do this is through the practice of being transformed by the renewing of our mind. The primary place in which The Holy Spirit meets with us is in our minds, and we, through the power of the Spirit, can choose our thoughts, we can set our minds on things that are above.
This weekend's sermon is a response to the recent police/black lives matter conflicts from Baton Rouge, Dallas and here in Saint Paul. We took a break from our current 'God In Us' series to talk about this together.
This second sermon in our God in Us series focused on the broad question of, “Who is the Spirit?” This message focuses on three characteristics of the Holy Spirit: The Holy Spirit is God, The Holy Spirit is personal and the Holy Spirit is distinct in nature. Greg emphasized that the main role of the Spirit is to show us clearly the person of Jesus and help us to recognize God when we would have no other way of recognizing Him. The Holy Spirit is working to remove the veil in our mind and can do this through our imagination.
We began our new Holy Spirit series by hearing stories from Rob & Fred, friends of Greg's and podrishioners from a house church network in Philadelphia. They shared about what it looks like for them to choose to live in the flow of the Holy Spirit on a day to day basis.
We held a Q&A night to wrap up our Flesh and Blood sermon series. In the final sermon of that series we examined how racial reconciliation is a vital part of the gospel message. To further discuss this we asked Dennis Edwards, the Senior Pastor of Sanctuary Covenant Church, to join Greg for this Q&A on a Jesus-way of addressing racial issues within the church.
In this, the final part of the Flesh & Blood series, we examine how racial reconciliation is a vital part of the gospel message. To be a Jesus-follower is to be one who seeks peace-making and is always striving towards reconciliation. We discover that we are only able to achieve reconciliation to the degree that we are willing to learn about perspectives that differ from our own.
In this, the third message in our Flesh and Blood series, we focus on Jacob's story in Genesis. His story is a great illustration of how we build walls inside ourselves, and it brings to light who we are really protecting ourselves from.
Jesus caused a stir in his community when he read the words from Isaiah 61 in his synagogue and announced their fulfillment through his own life and ministry. It’s no surprise; these words outline a powerful declaration of the Spirit of God at work. This sermon explores what happens for us everyday 21st Century believers as we embrace Isaiah 61. When the Spirit moves we are transformed; we become rescued and redeemed people that renew and rebuild communities.
In this second message of the Flesh and Blood series, Seth describes the unceasing realities of conflict not only in the world in which we live, but also in our own lives; our own relationships, and our own hearts. Walls of conflict exist all around us, and those walls are torn down because one man chose to die. Through Christ’s death, the walls of conflict and separation are torn down. As the head of the church (that is Christ) leads the body (that is the church), the conflicts that divide the world are torn down and truth, justice, mercy and peace become embodied.
In this first message of the Flesh and Blood series, Greg dives in to relational conflict by properly defining kingdom peace and kingdom war. We live in a fallen creation whose inhabitants too often reflect the ideals of the enemy rather than participating in the triune God’s invitation to reflect His perfect love to each other. The principalities and powers play us off one another creating human enemies, but in reality the battle is not against flesh and blood. We were created to fight and protect, just not against each other.
Week four of our Love. Walk. Do. sermon series focused on stories of justice for human trafficking victims. Mark Moore, Church Mobilization Director at International Justice Mission (IJM), shared stories of what IJM has done to actively bring justice and healing to human trafficking victims.
This message examines Christian hope and how we are called to prophetically speak hope into seemingly hopeless situations. While hope is vital, certain understandings of God’s character and role in radical suffering can leave victims of trauma with passionless hope. But when our picture of God is rooted solidly in the revelation of Jesus, it is possible to have a passionate faith, regardless of the circumstances. *We have Jessica's book available for purchase; please email Jodi at jcremers@whchurch.org if you're interested!
This third sermon in our Love. Walk. Do. series focuses on the importance of doing justice. There is always a danger in attempting to find solutions to justice issues with the political system where all solutions are ambiguous in nature. We are called to actively DO justice in our church and communities as a sign-post of the beautiful Kingdom of God because all of humanity has unsurpassable worth.
We all want a place at the top. A place of prominence and authority. From the story of Esau and Jacob, to James and John, to me and to you, the desire for a place at the top can frequently be seen. But for Jesus, a position at the “top of the Kingdom” can only be found through humility.
In this first message of the Love. Walk. Do. sermon series, Greg tackles the first portion of the prophet Micah’s depiction of what God requires of us – to love mercy. Loving mercy means loving it when people don’t get the negative consequences they deserve. If justice is about collecting a debt, then loving mercy is about hating debt collecting. In a very counter cultural depiction of the Kingdom of God, Greg examines how we can’t truly love mercy until we realize the extent to which we depend on it from God.
A popular view of faith is as an absence of doubt. But Greg shows us why this view not only is a barrier to new believers, but is also a dangerous way of doing faith.
Jesus commanded His followers to love, and He commanded us not to judge. Yet the Christians of today are known outside of the Church as arrogant, judgmental, and intolerant. What is wrong with this picture?! In this message, Greg shares three ideas on how we, who say we follow Jesus, can truly become the humble, serving, loving people that the Church is supposed to be.
This Easter we heard from Greg Boyd on how the resurrection confirms that Jesus is the true revelation of God. Jesus is the exact representation of God and the truth is that the mercy of God triumphs over judgment. It is our task to align or re-align our picture of God with the person of Jesus seen in the resurrection.
In this sixth and last installment of the Everyday Influence series, Seth explores the positive ripple effect of us sharing the impact Jesus has had on our life. We don’t share the good news for a variety of reasons, but the promise of scripture is that if we show up and share, God will provide the power to our words that has the potential to change hearts. We don’t have to be perfect; in fact that’s part of the good news. Our story, infused with the power of the Holy Spirit, is enough.
For the fifth installment of our Everyday Influence series, Sandra shares her own life example of being stuck in a “box” of self-proclaimed righteousness, and how she realized that we are all in the same box: the big box of “screw-ups.” It is within this big box that Jesus dwells, and does his great work.
We can all struggle to hear and obey God at times – but why? Is it that we’re not listening well? Or that we’re afraid that we might not like what we hear? We’re not alone in those realities – even Jesus’ disciples found themselves there, hiding from others and living in fear. But when they received the Holy Spirit, they had supernatural help to overcome their fears – and so do we! The truth is, we shouldn’t be afraid of what will happen if we listen to the Holy Spirit, we should be afraid of what we’ll miss out on if we don’t!
In this third installment of the Everyday Influence evangelism series, Greg shares how the real good news is meant to impact all of our relationships, especially with those that don’t know Jesus. We were created with an innermost need and desire for significance and value that only God can satisfy. We were also born into an environment filled with lies and deception about how that desire is to be satisfied. Our call to share the good news starts with our experience of the good news. Greg shares how listening and learning are just as important in evangelizing as speaking and sharing. As the saying goes, no one cares how much you know until they know how much you care.
This week we heard from Seth McCoy during our second installment from the Everyday Influence series. Seth explored how being a priest is the best, hardest and most important job in the world. The primary role of being a priest is in learning how to give and receive mercy based on the good news of the Gospel.
The first in our new sermon series about evangelism, Greg takes a look at the message itself. He looks at the most frequent (and often cringe-worthy) ways the “good news” is often presented, and then helps us see the really good news that we should be sharing.
“When Jesus saw THEIR faith, he said… ‘Son, YOUR sins are forgiven… Pick up your mat and walk.’” Satan tries to isolate us, but the truth is that everything in the Kingdom is in relationship. We NEED others, and others NEED us! To allow the Enemy to keep us from sharing God’s blessings is to remain in a cage of deception – but to love others as best we can, even though we’re still imperfect ourselves, is to be set free! We sat down with Jim to hear some of his story. Click here to see that interview.
This week we heard from Greg Boyd during our fourth installment from the Cage Free series. Greg explored the custom made cages that can be built overtime in our soul and the need to perform consistent soul audits. The enemy will take advantage of any area of wounding to lie to us about our real worth. We need to sit with God to become aware of these wounds, allow God to remind us of how much we are loved, and come up with a plan with God and others for how to move beyond this place of woundedness. We also sat down with Laure to hear some of her story.Click here to watch that interview.
We live in a world that isolates us – brokenness and loneliness are all around, and they’re caused by our Enemy who is at war with God. But Jesus overcame the Enemy, and now we can all not only be healed of our own brokenness, but we have also been gifted to bring healing and freedom to other’s lives as well! We sat down with Melany to hear some of her story. Click here to see that interview.
In this second installment of the Cage Free series, Greg explores the connections between truth and lies, behavior, and our trust in God to meet our innermost needs of security, worth, and significance. Getting free of the bondages that cage us requires examining everything in our life through the lens of Jesus. Deception is the main tool of Satan, so ultimately it is the truth that sets us free.
In this opening sermon of the Cage-Free series, Greg gives us an overview of the basis of the Spiritual Warfare worldview. This view is central to our picture of a Jesus-looking God who does not himself cause evil or suffering.
This week we heard from a guest speaker, Jeremy Jernigan, teach on the topic of his new book, Redeeming Pleasure. The topic of pleasure within the church has often been shied away from because of an assumption that pleasure is connected with guilt and shame. Jeremy emphasized the need to seek pleasure on God’s terms where we will experience maximum pleasure rather than seeking pleasure on our own terms which ultimately leads to less pleasure.
Our modern lives tend to get so busy that our everyday realities can keep us from seeing and experiencing that God loves us and is always with us. Emmanuel means “God with us”, and while it may sound a bit surreal, the Christmas story is as true today as it was on that first Christmas – God IS here with us!
Waiting is really difficult, no matter who you are or what you’re waiting for. We see examples over and over in scripture of characters who waited well and others who struggled and tried to take things in to their own hands. In this message Seth explores what it means to wait in hopeful anticipation for Jesus’ coming this Christmas season.
Christ offers complete peace and security, but only when our eyes are fixed on him alone as our King.
For children, Christmas is a time filled with wonder and awe. But as we grow, we tend to lose our sense of wonder and awe not only about Christmas, but about our world, our lives, and everything else! We all innately long to return “home” – home to a place where love overwhelms us and all things are new and glorious – and we long for someone who will take us there. But could that ever really happen? Praise God, for as wondrous and awe-inspiring as it sounds, that’s exactly what Jesus did for us on that first Christmas!
This week we begin our Christmas series, The Night that Changed the World. This first week focuses on the peace that comes through Christ. Greg delves into the distractions that can get in the way of experiencing this peace of Christ. This peace of Christ requires an intentional inventory of the degree to which Christ has full reign over both our outer and inner lives. In this sermon we look into some crucial questions and practices to submit all of our lives to the reign of Christ to experience true peace that can only come through the Prince of Peace.
In this sixth and last installment of the Formed series, Seth explores more in depth how ideas and identities we take upon our self that are not from God keep us from growing mature in the faith. God has provided the type of soil fertile for growth and He sees the potential in us as seeds. At the center of our calling is to mimic the type of soil Jesus has been to us by our love toward others. We are to be the type of soil where others will experience the Father’s love.
So why DO bad things happen to good people?! What IS God’s plan for overcoming evil, and why does it so often seem like evil is still winning?! Yes, God does have the power to take anything that Satan intends for evil and to work it to bring about good, but this is not work that God intends to do alone. He “comes alongside” us to “work all things for good”, but this is a process that requires OUR cooperation!
Personal experience is an important element of faith, so if we lack this, the life-changing depth of our faith will suffer. Today we talk about how to enhance the way we experience our faith, so that it feels more real and can affect us more fully.
In this installment of our Formed series, Greg Boyd explores the importance of the Practice of No in the life of Christian discipleship. The story of Elijah and his experience with God on Mount Horeb are the foundation of this sermon as Greg examines how God lives in the quiet in the midst of a world that keeps getting louder and more sensational. The discipline of simplicity is an important tool to learn how to keep our gaze focused on Jesus rather than constantly looking for more.
In this second installment of the Formed series, Seth explores what it is that holds us back as followers of Christ, or creates a gap between the person we want to be and know is inside of us and who actually are. We know that Jesus wants to give us an abundant life, but our reality is often one of spiritual scarcity and daily bondage to destructive ideas and behaviors. In this message we examine what it looks like to surrender our will and trust in our heavenly Father.
We desire to follow Jesus – unfortunately we also have some desires that conflict with following Jesus. And try as we might, those conflicting desires just won’t go away. So what are we to do?
Ministry is not the work of seminarians or professionals. It is the job of each and every one of us. Jesus is the Hope of the World. But God is not coming to rescue us out of the world; he is rescuing the world through us. Today, Greg urges us to find our particular passion or gift and get to work!
In this third installment of the Throughline series, Greg explores what it means to mature in the Christian faith and how that impacts our decision making.
God clearly shows amazing hospitality towards us from Genesis through Revelation, and yet we rejected Jesus, and we continue to reject countless others day by day. We have a superiority issue that Jesus confronted throughout his ministry, and he taught us to live a better way. It’s time for us to learn and practice some genuine hospitality!
In this first sermon of our Throughline series, Greg reflects on our history as a church, and reaffirms our central theme of Love: our first and last and only job here on earth is to do all things in love. Just as love provides purpose to a marriage, it provides our mission as a church, as well as to us as individuals as part of the body of Christ.
In this final installment of our Mixtape series, Greg Boyd explores the theological and practical ramifications of spiritual warfare in the lives of the earliest followers of Jesus and how that applies to our lives today. We find critical principles for lifestyle warfare in the account in Luke 10:1-18 that provide practical ways to live out the beauty of the Kingdom of God in everyday life encounters.
In this sixth installment of the mixed tape series, Seth shares his experience with the church’s call to make disciples of all the nations. As followers of Jesus, we are called on to learn and receive our Father’s heart so that not only will we know Him better, but so that we can express His heart for the broken world through our lives.
Sandra discusses some of the difficulties and obstacles to getting our life from the fullness of Christ.
In this next installment of our Mixtape series, Seth McCoy explores the richness of the early church as described in Acts 2:42-47. The beauty of the early church is evident as we look at this passage and explore the spirit of this church and how that could affect the spirit of the church today. We also look at the myths of this early church as often perceived or romanticized today and breakdown any misconceptions that might get in the way of living out what God has for His church today.
In this third installment of the mixed tape series, Greg shares his experience in growing in a non-violent world view during conflict. As followers of Jesus, we are called on to mimic our Lord and be peacemakers. We learn that being a peacemaker is not just doing activities that promote a lack of conflict, but it’s about rather putting our trust and whole source of worth and significance in the one who is peace, Jesus.
Early Church fathers said that every movement of God toward us begins with the Father, comes through the Son, and is accomplished in the Holy Spirit, while every genuine movement of humans toward God originates in the Holy Spirit, and goes through the Son to the Father. So if God’s movement toward us is accomplished in the Holy Spirit, and if our genuine moves toward God originate in the Holy Spirit, then we need this Spirit! Today we learn more about the Holy Spirit, and why Jesus left the earth so the Holy Spirit could come and fill it – and us – with God’s love!
The upcoming Mixed Tape series will be a collection of scripture passages that have moved and inspired the body of Christ over the centuries. In this first message of the series, Seth takes a look at Colossians 3:1-14 and what it means to get our life from being hidden in Christ. We also take a look at our role of choosing to die to the old way of living and not letting it pollute our current reality.
Greg Boyd finishes our Twisted Scripture series by delving into the passage in Genesis 6:1-7 on the issue of the Nephilim. This controversial passage deals with the creation of hybrid beings, the Nephilim, that are the offspring of fallen angels and daughters of humans. This passage has led to many distracting theories and conspiracies that have served to move us away from the tasks of the Kingdom of God. Our job, as Kingdom people, is to stay vigilant to all the ways the principalities and powers of this fallen world are constantly trying to spiritual engineer the Kingdom and our identity in Christ out of this world. We need to fix our eyes on Jesus and be careful of this temptation to slowly lose our Kingdom calling.
Today Brianna explores the concept of forgiveness that is so central to the Kingdom. Is it a condition of God's forgiveness of us? Or is his forgiveness unconditional no matter what? And if his love is unconditional, does that mean it doesn't matter whether we forgive others or not?
The Kingdom of God grows through witness and repentance, not by childbirth. The direction of people’s journeys through life hinges on whether or not someone is willing to tell them about what God has done. Are you telling others what God has done in your life?
Most evangelicals believe that God said the nation of Israel will exist forever, therefore its national and political boundaries must be fully restored before Jesus returns. But what if the “Israel” that the Bible refers to in this context is not a specific nation with geographical boundaries, but all who are the people of God?
In this fourth week of Twisted Scripture, Greg takes a look at Matthew 26:11, and what it means to “always have the poor with you.”
In this continuation of the Twisted Scripture series, Greg explores the various differences in opinion about baptism, and clarifies where WHC falls in this spectrum.
In part two of the Twisted Scripture series, Shawna explores the uses and misuses of a couple common Old Testament Proverbs. Often times in the Christian culture of the 21st century we see the book of Proverbs as a collection of nice sayings or one liners to guide our day. When we oversimplify the Proverbs they can often times come across very formulaic. We miss the cultural context they were written in and the oral tradition of wisdom they were meant to pass down to the next generation.
Seth McCoy begins our Twisted Scripture series by discussing the topic of prayer by focusing on Matthew 7:7-11. This passage has a tendency to be misrepresented by our own cultural contexts that can distort the language of this passage into an individualistic prosperity gospel. It was argued that the ultimate goal of prayer is to ask, seek and knock in order to find the beauty of a life lived in submission to God and for the purpose of advancing the Kingdom of God.
The Bible can seem to conflict itself depending on how it’s being interpreted, but what if the conflict isn’t with the Bible at all? For example, the story of creation often results in conflicting views and beliefs among people. But what if the conflict isn’t with the story itself, and is instead found in what lies behind the story – the very conflict we are to be standing with God against?
What does it mean to be “made in the image of God?” Most people think it’s some unique attribute of being human – like our ability to speak, or to love. And while that may be part of the picture, there is much more to it. The living God breathed his life into us, brought us into his temple, and invited us to rule and reign with him by being living examples of his character and love to all creation!
In this exploration of the Genesis 1 creation story and the young earth theory of creation, Greg presents three reasons why he believes that Genesis 1 was not intended to be taken as a literal account, but rather a narrative to express important truths about who the early Jews were and who their God was. Further, whether you believe in the young earth theory or evolution or some other view, the important thing that we all can agree on is simply the fact THAT God created the world and all life - not HOW he did so.
In part of two of this two-part series on living wholeheartedly, Seth focused on the kind of heart that honors God. The focus of this teaching is the importance of gratitude, as noted through common myths about gratitude and possible danger of ingratitude or unspoken gratitude. We all have such a debt of love and the God-honoring way to pay back this debt is through gratitude and practical acts of love.
In part one of this two part series on living wholeheartedly, Seth shares the importance and role of the local church in building God's kingdom. The early church had a very clear vision of their role in the world. They functioned out of their Spirit given gifts to continue the growth Jesus started while on Earth. We are invited and called to live the same style of Spirit led life.
Many people face a “crisis of faith” when it comes to understanding the story of creation as told in Genesis 1. When read as a chronological account of events and compared to modern-day science, it’s often reduced to an angrily defended “matter of faith.” But the creation story is not a scientific journal – it’s a beautifully poetic account of a good God and His love for us!
During our weekend services on April 11 and 12 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy. We included all three services, so enjoy listening to ALL the answers.
In this Easter message we delve into how the Resurrection brings freedom from the accusations of the principalities and powers through the power of self-sacrificial love. We also look at how the Resurrection brings freedom from the fear of death and our mindset of scarcity in order to live a life that is truly sacrificial. The way to get our best life is to stop trying to get our best life now, but to live out of the abundant generosity given to us through the Resurrection.
Good Friday is the day when we remember Jesus’ work on the Cross. This year, Greg frames the story of Christ's sacrifice from the perspective of parent and child relationships.
In the last message of Mixed Signals, we take a look at Islam and how Kingdom people should be responding to the growing worldwide Islamic movement. We explore the growing disparity between the life Jesus led and calls us into and the normal worldly response to those who are different or potentially threaten our way of life.
Atheism, which means “without God”, makes a lot of sense – if your understanding of God also omits the reality of Satan, because then God appears to be the only one to blame. But when Satan is held accountable for his ruthless reign, and God is understood to look like Jesus, a life “without God” makes no sense.
In this fifth installment of Mixed Signals, we explore the Gnostics belief of the church in Colossae and how those relate to the New Spirituality movements rooted in Eastern thought of our day. We explore the biblical perspectives on pantheism, interacting with spirits and reincarnation and ultimately see how finding enlightenment in anything or anyone other than Jesus is deceptive and misses out on the loving character of God.
In this fourth installment of the Mixed Signals series, we explore how humans have historically given God, or the gods, attributes we ourselves have desired. In our present day this trend has manifested itself in a very generic, distant, tolerant, and civil picture of God. God is viewed as an ambiguous force defined by His power, and viewed as merely a giver of moral guidance wanting us all to get along. Greg and Seth expose how this misguided picture of God has led to a large population of Christians still viewing themselves as Lord of their own life.
In this week's theological meat-and-potatoes sermon on Hell and Salvation, Greg explores the fallacy of relativism, the singular truth of Jesus as the light of and way to the father, and whether this means that those who do not believe in him are doomed to an eternity of suffering in Hell.
This week, Brianna Millett addresses how we are to respond to the “mixed signals” we get from the multitude of competing viewpoints in our modern world. How do we state our beliefs effectively? And what does the Bible teach about sharing the Gospel with unbelievers?
We start Mixed Signals with a sermon on how to respond to questions about our faith in the midst of an increasingly pluralistic society. This sermon is focused on the way to respond to these questions as people of God and how to hold on to the most important beliefs with gentleness and respect.
Jeremy discusses other-centeredness and how our worldly definition of success differs from the Kingdom definition. He starts by examining the moment of clarity that we get when we “see fire,” or when emergencies arise - do we put on our own oxygen mask first, or do we take care of those around us first, at our own possible peril? The world (and airline safety speeches) tell us to take care of ourselves first, and only after that to worry about those around you. But Jesus tells us something different.
In this final installment of the Women on the Outside series, we explore the story of the woman at the well Jesus encountered while traveling through Samaria and how he dives right in to the gender and racial tensions of the first century Jewish culture.
We continue our short series on Women on the Outside this week by looking at the moving story of a prostitute who anoints the feet of Jesus with perfume and how we can learn much from how Jesus saw and responded to that woman.
In this third installment of the Women on the Outside series, we explore the story of a Phoenician woman Jesus encountered while with His disciples in the Tyre and Sidon region. We discuss how Jesus held the challenge and beauty of His mission as first the rescuer of the nation of Israel with His overall mission and call to make disciples of all nations.
Through the story of Mary and Martha, Brianna explores some affects of social norms and encourages each of us to embrace our unique role and mission in the kingdom.
This week we kick off our new series, Women on the Outside, with the story of the woman healed from sickness and how it relates to our role in God's Kingdom.
In our final week of B.C. we explore covenants. Through Christ, God fulfills all his promises, and by yielding to him and giving up control, we can set ourselves free.
For our 2014 Christmas Eve services we continued our B.C. series with a look at the prophecies leading up to the birth of Jesus.
This week in B.C., our Christmas series, we look at a few “interesting’ aspects of Jesus genealogy in Matthew. The bloodline of Jesus is remarkably multicultural and multidimensional.
This week we kicked off B.C., our Christmas series, with a look at what God's plan was before time even began, why it's dangerous to think of the Incarnation as a rescue mission, and at the intimate relationship we're drawn into with God through a baby in a manger.
This week our guest speaker, Jeremy Jernigan, takes us through the historical view of shepherds as having a poor reputation and a despicable nature. Despite this, Jesus took on the identity of a shepherd, turning the image on its head and redeeming it. In Jesus, what we actually see shatters what we expected to see.
During our weekend services on November 29 and 30 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, Kevin Callaghan, and Sue Krautkramer. We included all three services, so enjoy listening to ALL the answers.
In our sixth week of Heart Smart our team of panelists read and responded to Dear-Abby-style letters about difficult relational situations from members of the church community. For each letter, they gave advice on how to approach the problem from a Kingdom point of view.
Learning how to love the people in our life that we find challenging to deal with is often very difficult. This week in Heart Smart we look at some biblical examples and instructions on how to do love our enemies in the same way we love our friends.
Forgiveness is central to who God is and how he loves us. In week four of Heart Smart we look at the process of taking baby steps towards both receiving forgiveness and extending it to others.
The topic for our third week in the Heart Smart series is communication. Communication is the essence of all relationships and as such, it is a very important aspect of who we are as image bearers of Christ. We should see communication as a Kingdom activity worth learning to do well.
In our second week of Heart Smart we look at the New Testament teaching on reigning over the relational brain. Understanding how God wired our brains can help us to learn how to take our thoughts captive to Christ.
We begin a new series this week on emotional intelligence and the roles this plays in our relationship. This week we take a look at the role Jesus plays in our relationships and the importance of letting Christ be the source of where we fulfill our need for love.
Guest speaker Jeremy Jernigan takes us through the text in John 15 and describes what it means to remain in the vine and experience the vibrant life that Jesus desires us to have. The more we remain in the vine, the more closely we get to Jesus, and the more vibrantly we'll experience life.
We finish our short series on the spiritual gifts today with a sermon discussing the gift of tongues and the interpretation of tongues. As the most controversial of the gifts, we will correct false beliefs and discover the Scriptural truths and blessing that come from speaking in tongues.
In this week's sermon, we discuss the supernatural gifts of faith, healing, and miracles Christians receive from the Holy Spirit. We describe what each of these gifts are, as well as how we can ask for them and use them in our lives today.
This week we hear from guest speaker Shawna Boren about the gift of prophesy. Shawna talks about the importance of staying awake to the Spirit's movements in our lives and how that will help us acting in the gift of prophesy.
This week we continue our short sermon series about the spiritual gifts. The first of the gifts we discuss in detail are words of wisdom and words of knowledge. Greg talks about how we discern these words from the Holy Spirit and tells us how we can best use them for building up the body of Christ.
This week begins a sermon series discussing the charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit, or those gifts often referred to as the supernatural gifts. Before discussing each gift individually, today we discuss two pieces of information needed to understand the gifts. We'll discuss listening to the Spirit and using our gifts to build up the body of Christ.
We need reminders of why we praise and worship because it’s easy to forget the meaning amid the distractions and idols of our culture. In this message Greg explores the reasons why we do and do not worship, and looks at the method and tradition presented in the scriptures.
Greg has recently returned from a three week trip in Europe, and today he shares stories of how the Kingdom message of a Jesus-looking God, radical love and non-violence is truly spreading all over the world. The joy of his travels, the opportunities to see the work of fellow Kingdom people, and the vast beauty of God’s Earth as seen on the Alps came to a crashing halt with his visit to Auschwitz. Sharing his experience at Auschwitz, Greg addresses the timeless question of “Where was God in all that suffering?” and teaches that God is always on the inside of pain and suffering, not as the author of it, but as the Redeemer of it. And he reminds us that, in the end, Christ, not evil, has the final word and he will be (and is) victorious.
In the third sermon in this series, given by Bruxy Cavey, we take another look at God's original plan for the world to live without religion. We learn that we do not study Scripture so that we can follow Scripture. We study Scripture so that we can follow Jesus.
Religion was not God’s original intention. Humanity was created as image bearers of God to be in intimate relationship with the divine. It was only after Adam and Eve were deceived by Satan to think God was distant did humanity try to bridge the perceived gap with God through religion. In the second installment of the End of Religion series, Bruxy explores how religion is the primary context in which sin flourishes.
Adam and Eve were created to be in an intimate relationship with their Creator based on trust and love. With his craftiness, however, the Serpent talked about God as though he was not present and caused Adam and Eve to understand God in terms of religion, rather than relationship. Religion has then become the Church’s dominant way to interact with God, and yet he is calling us back to a grace-based relationship rather than a rule-driven religion.
This week we look at the twisted interpretation of Matthew 22 and Romans 13. This is a text with a long standing tradition that teaches Christians to serve both the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms in which they live on earth. In this sermon, we will learn why this interpretation is false and how to better understand it.
The popular culture’s influence through media such as fairy tales, comic books, and movies has impacted how we understand stories from God’s word. For many, as we read popular Old Testament stories like Jacob and Esau we automatically look for a hero and a villain. We look for actions to imitate from the “good guy” and actions to avoid from the “bad guy.” Vanessa explores how this approach to biblical stories is misguided and gives context and insight to the complicated and messy, yet redemptive relationship between Jacob and Esau.
For many, faith is about attaining as much certainty as possible in order to be a true follower of Christ. But the Bible tells us faith is about committing to a course of action in the face of uncertainty. God is not seeking all the right answers from his people in order to let them into heaven; no, he is our loving Bridegroom who seeks to be in a covenantal relationship with us in the midst of our uncertainties.
For many Christians, salvation has been reduced to a one-time prayer where one mentally and verbally agrees to a few key theological beliefs. The Bible and Jesus' life, however, present us with a more holistic salvation that involves wholeness, new life, and transformation. Instead of viewing salvation as a legal contract, we are invited to join Jesus in a covenantal marriage where his life is poured out for us and our lives are poured out for him.
Our Twisted Scripture series continues this week as Greg explores Hebrews 9:18-22. This scripture passage is commonly used to support the penal substitutionary atonement theory in which our guilt was transferred to Christ and He was punished on the cross on our behalf. Greg raises several objections to this line of thinking and discusses the use of animal sacrifices as a method of atonement in the Old Testament.
This week in our Twisted Scripture sermon series Shawna Boren discusses with us the misuse of Jeremiah 29:11. We take a look at how the verse, when taken alone, can claim life is always good. The problem with this use of the verse is that life is not always good. Life delivers us times that bring suffering. This week we look at how this verse can be better understood.
The Book of Job has often been misused as a way to explain the mysterious ways of God in suffering and pain. The truth is that the Book of Job is there to teach us that God does not inflict pain and suffering, rather it is the cosmic warfare that we cannot see which interferes with God's true will for his people.
Romans 9 is the most widely used text in the defense of predetermination. This week we will untangle the text in order to see the Scripture the way it was meant to be—within its correct social and historical context, as well as giving regard to its intended audience.
The Bible is filled with stories of God's people being named and blessed by God. God gives his people a new name in order to give them a mission. Our guest speaker, Brianna Millet, teaches what it means for us to be given a new name through stories such as Abraham, Sarah, Jacob and Peter.
The little things we do in the Kingdom make a big difference. In this sermon, Greg shows that the incarnation and cross are spiritual and physical realities for us.
Evangelism is important. However, there’s a lot of baggage that comes with the term and how we are to evangelize to others. In this sermon, Greg Boyd and Stephanie Danielson share with us how to spread the gospel by living a life that compels others towards Jesus.
The Bible shows us that our prayers make a difference in this world. Yet, our picture of God doesn’t always line up with that truth. In this sermon, Greg shows how the world operates when it comes to our prayer and what a difference it makes.
Have you ever noticed that we tend to judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions? In this sermon, Jeremy Jernigan shows us the story of Simon Peter, and how our faith can be get stuck when we think about our past failures and that faith happens in the disappointment of failure.
On Easter, it is important to remember Christ’s resurrection and the meaning, purpose and principle behind it. In this sermon, Greg shows how the meaning of Jesus’ resurrection has changed over time and how we should be looking at it.
Good Friday is the day when we remember Jesus’ work on the Cross. This year, Greg take a look at the Cross through the eyes of Peter.
During our weekend services on April 12 and 13, we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. We included all three services, so enjoy listening to ALL the answers.
A lot of Christians today believe in a literal rapture before the judgment of the world. However, these beliefs come from literal interpretations of several scripture passages. In this sermon, Greg takes a look at these passages and offers a different take on how to interpret them.
Revelation provides us with a beautiful vision of the future as well as a way to live in the here and now. In this sermon, Greg shows us how the symbolism of Jerusalem and the Bride shows God’s heart for creation and our holiness.
In our contemporary Christianity, there is a pervasive view that God acts violently during the end times. But this view stands in contradiction to the Cross and Jesus’ teachings to love our neighbors. In this sermon, Greg shows how God does not act violently in Revelation and instead shows how lamb-like love wins.
The Book of Revelation was written to seven churches that were facing persecution for their faith. This week we look at the words Jesus gave to them in order to encourage them to endure during their suffering.
Many people see Jesus as coming back to this Earth as a roaring lion that will seek its vengeance upon our enemies. However, in this sermon, Greg shows us how God’s power is best expressed by a sacrificial lamb, and it will continue to be expressed that way in the future.
Everyone believes the world will one day come to an end; however, we disagree on how, when and why. In this sermon, Greg begins the series on Revelation and shows us three things to keep in mind when reading the book of Revelation.
In order to understand Jesus’ temptation in Matthew 4, we have to look back to the stories of temptation and testing that preceded it. In this sermon, Vanessa Williams shares with us how we can stand strong during these times.
Self-control can often feel like God is just trying to stymie our happiness. In this sermon, Nick Cunningham shares with us why this isn’t true and points us to the real reason Jesus calls us to self-control.
We all have times in our life where we go through the motions and don’t pay much attention to what’s going on around us. In this sermon, Greg reminds us to look and be thankful for the things in our lives.
As we continue our series in Colossians, we navigate a difficult teaching that was used to make a case that slavery was OK with God. In this sermon, Greg shows how this passage was a cultural teaching designed to teach about relationships that were never meant to promote slavery.
Marriage in the Bible can be misunderstood, and it often leads to questions of who should be the boss in our relationships. While it talks about headship and submission, these topics have been abused throughout the years. In this sermon, Greg shows how to interpret these passages and see the bigger picture when it comes to our relationships.
Mark 12 is often used to describe how we should give our money. But it would be a mistake to use a despicable situation to draw up expectations for giving. In this sermon, Abe Johnson shows us how this situation was not how it was supposed to be and how we should really interpret this passage.
We all have monsters in our life that we deal with. Often, humanity tries to make sense of and control these monsters. In this sermon, Pastor Jonathan Martin shows us how God treats these monsters and how we should react to them.
The story that we live by is very important to the way we see this world. In this sermon, Greg shows us how the story we live by is dictated by our social context. In addition, we learn how to reinforce the gospel message in our lives.
At the end of every year, it is good to look back on that year and resolve things that have been left unresolved. In this sermon, Greg shows how unresolved anger is pollution in our lives, and we should resolve it and shake off the devil.
This Christmas Eve, Greg reads us the story of a little lamb and how that lamb's love plays into the Christmas story. Instead of seeing a God who only works in power and looks a lot like humans, we see a unique beauty in the story of Jesus about a God of grace and gentleness.
When people think of peace, they often think of the absence of conflict. But God’s peace is much more holistic and reaches far into our souls and not just our actions. This shalom of God is about restoring our unity with the Father. In the third sermon of our advent series, we look forward to peace.
Why did Jesus come to earth? The most common answer is he came to save us. This week we discuss another answer to this question. Jesus came to show us the perfect joy of his Father and to give that joy to us. It is by knowing that the Father takes joy in each of us that we can begin to grow in the joy he desires for us.
We all have a song of hope in our hearts. During this advent season, it is important to remember that God is the one who we should look to write the words of that song. In this sermon, Greg shares how we sometimes get in the way of seeing God’s hope.
This week’s sermon includes practical ways we can live a more generous life. Our speaker, Shawna Boren, challenges us to explore the role God has for us in living a simple life and finding our true peace in him. She talks about some ways we can be more giving of our time, resources, money, and possessions.
In America, we’ve been conditioned to always stretch our budget and time to get the next best thing. But God is calling us to a simpler lifestyle that will not choke our Kingdom purpose. In this sermon, Greg points out some practical tips to grow the Kingdom seed in our lives.
We live in a warzone where there are powers trying to derail us from living a life like Jesus. One of these powers is consumerism. In this sermon, Greg shows us how consumerism is anti-Christ, and we should change our mindset in order to fight back.
In American culture, we are constantly being told to buy products and be discontent with our current situation. Like lab rats, we are constantly stimulated and tested to change our situation. Greg speaks to how we are called to step out of this consumerism rat trap and find a different way of living.
During our weekend services on November 2-3, we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. We included all three services, so enjoy listening to ALL the answers.
In our sixth week of our sermon series, we shed a new vision on the Book of Revelation. Greg empowers the church to interpret the text through the non-violent, self-sacrificial love of Jesus. There should be a joy found in the hearts of the church—the bride of Christ—as we look forward to the final consummation of Jesus and the church.
In week five of our sermon series, we look at the role of the Church. A universal Church was born out of the ministry of Jesus, and this Church is empowered to look like the Cross. In this sermon, Greg shows us why it’s so important, as the Church, to keep our eyes fixed on the cross.
In week four of our sermon series, we discuss Jesus. Jesus is the center of everything in the life of a Christian. We see how God’s redeeming work in creation culminates with the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. This has many implications for our own lives.
In week three of our sermon series, we’re diving into the tragic nature of not trusting God. The history of Israel is one of a people who have trouble trusting God to provide for them. However, the people of Israel are not the only ones with trust issues.
In week two of The Forest In The Trees, we take a look at the early history of the Hebrew people and the formation of the nation of Israel. Throughout these stories, we see a constant message of keeping faith in God despite their circumstances in this world.
The story of creation has interesting details. But getting lost in those details can make us miss the big picture. In the first week of our new sermon series, The Forest in the Trees, we take a look at creation and how the story of Adam and Eve fits into the big picture.
Worship is important. However, worship isn’t just about singing. In this sermon, Greg shows how worship takes many forms and brings many benefits to the Kingdom.
This week, Jessica Kelley shares with us her testimony. In addition, she tells us why having a solid picture of God is so important when we go through suffering.
Jesus calls us to abide in him, and we will bear much fruit. Jesus wants us to be always present with him just as God is omnipresent. However, this requires us to allow God into our lives. In this sermon, Greg shows us how to be fully present with Jesus in every moment.
In life, our emotions can be on a roller coaster, and our prayer life can follow this same pattern. In this sermon, Shawna shows us how we can find rest and a safe place in prayer with God, no matter our circumstances.
Do you ever feel, during prayer, that you’re talking to the ceiling more than God? Don’t worry, you’re not alone. In this sermon, Greg explains how using our imagination is not only a time honored way of praying, but the way in which God speaks to us in this world.
During our weekend services on August 10-11 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. We included all three services, so enjoy listening to ALL the answers.
In order to be in a relationship with another, we have to be honest with the other person. The same is true for our relationship with God. In this sermon, Greg shows how we need to be honest with God in our prayer.
As disciples of Jesus, we are to spend time with, know, and reflect Jesus and his life. Yet, we oftentimes replace Jesus with things of this world. In this sermon, Mark Moore tells us about waiting at the feet of Jesus.
If God is all-powerful, does he need our prayers to change this world? And is it even worth praying if we can’t see the results? In this sermon, Greg addresses these questions as we begin a new series on prayer.
Guest speaker Sandra Unger speaks about what it means to be part of the Jesus Tribe. She discusses the reasons people are prone to label people so quickly. She talks about the common place occurrence of tribalism within our culture, and how as Jesus people we can work to overcome such separations today.
In this week’s sermon, Greg contrasts the difference between judgment and discernment. He distinguishes the place, people, and purpose in which discernment, between helpful and un-helpful things, should occur for Kingdom people.
A sociopath is a person who, for whatever reason, cannot feel emotions. They function by replicating behaviors in their life. In this sermon, Greg shows how religion can sometimes be sociopathic, and we are called to not judge others’ behaviors.
How can love lead in our theology, relationships, and evangelism? Bruxy reflects back on Greg's latest series and challenges us to take the next step in living a life of love.
During our weekend services on June 22-23 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. We included all three services, so enjoy listening to ALL the answers.
In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were tempted to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They did this because they didn’t understand that God was protecting them. In this sermon, Greg shows us how the Cross has undone the effects of this original sin and how we are to act in light of the Cross.
In this dog eat dog world, we’re programmed to judge others. But to love others with unsurpassable worth, we must ascribe worth to them at cost to ourselves. In this sermon, Greg talks about how to put on love and take off judgment.
Love is not defined by warm and fuzzy feelings. As followers of Jesus, we look to the cross to understand love. In this sermon, Greg shares with us why our love for one another is so important.
In life, we try to put our best foot forward. Whether it’s interacting with others or just convincing ourselves, we hide the dirt in our lives and the shame that we feel. In this sermon, Jo Saxton shares with us the meaning behind Jesus washing his disciples’ feet and what it means for us.
God designed creation so that we would live in community with God and express God’s love towards each other and creation. However, sin disconnected us from God. In this sermon, Greg shows how we were created in the image of God to love others and creation and shows us how to reconnect with God.
In an episode of the Twilight Zone, a young boy gained omnipotent powers, and people were forced to accept his every decision as good—or else. In this sermon, Greg shows how many people view God this way, and he opens up another way to view God.
We held a Q&A night to wrap up our Kindred sermon series on Tuesday, April 17, 2013. Woodland Hills recently started moving in a direction toward Anabaptism and this series was a way to unpack what that meant for us as a church and to educate those that attend here about the history of the tradition. Once the series was over, people brought any further questions to this Q&A night. The total length of the file is about an hour and a half.
Jesus tells us to hate our life in order to keep it, and if we love our life, we’ll lose it. Guest speaker Shane Hipps shares with us what life Jesus wants for us. He also talks about his personal experience with the Anabaptist tradition.
God’s design for creation is beautiful. But, sometimes, we don’t follow God’s design for our life. In this sermon, Greg and Vanessa Williams address the battlefield in our mind and how to keep God’s goodness flowing to us. In addition, Greg gives a Kingdom response to the Boston Marathon bombings.
In the movie, Wizard of Oz, the characters are all looking for something they think they need. As Christians, we do the same. Whether it’s a new job, a marriage, a lack of a marriage or some other change that we’re looking for, we all look for something else that we think we need. In this sermon, Greg shows us that we have all we need for joy, and we just need to activate it through faith.
Putting off immoral behavior can seem a lot like legalism. So, how do we reconcile that we were saved by grace not works and that we need to put off immoral behavior? In this sermon, Greg shows that we need to trust in God’s reality instead of how we define our own reality.
Christ’s death and resurrection changed EVERYTHING! When we see this emerge from the story of God, it revolutionizes the way we view God, ourselves, others, and creation.
Good Friday is the day where we remember Jesus’ work on the Cross. In his death, Jesus showed us what love looks like. The radiance and power of the Cross is the center of who God is and who we are called to be in his image.
All of us seek for peace in our lives, but peace is just a small part of God’s shalom. Shalom is right relatedness between us and God, each other, and creation. In this sermon, Greg shows how the Anabaptists seek after shalom in every part of their lives and how we can seek after shalom as well.
We often define ourselves according to what we have to offer this world. But what happens when what we have to offer isn’t enough? In this sermon, Steve Wiens shows us how our wounds and inability to offer something can actually be used by God in glorious ways.
Baptism and Communion are important sacraments to the Christian community. In this sermon, Greg shows us how the Anabaptists understood these sacraments and how Woodland Hills performs these today.
The Anabaptists saw that the building is not the Church. God wants to dwell on this Earth, but it is not in a building. It is in his people. In this sermon, Greg shows how we are to demonstrate the beauty of the Church in our lives.
When you read a book with a twist ending, the ending reframes the entire story. The Bible is no different. In this sermon, Greg shows how Jesus’ message reframes how we are to understand the Bible, and he shows us why the Anabaptists shared this belief.
Throughout Scripture, we see a strong emphasis on positive traditions in the Church. In both the Old and New Testament, God repeatedly calls his people to be anchored with a sense of history. In this sermon, Greg explains why the Anabaptist tradition is closest to Woodland Hills.
How we respond to misfortunes and tragedies depends on how we frame them. In Colossians 3, Paul writes that Christ is all and is in all. When we frame our life within this understanding, we begin to see how we can live through misfortunes and tragedies.
It is extremely difficult to not worry in this life. In this sermon our guest speaker, Nick Cunningham, shows us how to deal with worry in this life. Through setting our priorities in order, being aware of God’s goodness and participating in that goodness, we find that we have much less to worry about than we thought.
The ancient Israelites were called to be a chosen people who bless the entire world. But, like the Church today, they often made their chosen status a blessing only for themselves. In this sermon, Greg calls us to become evangelists by living a Kingdom life.
We are God’s chosen people, predestined to be holy and blameless. But does God create and choose those who will be blameless and those he will blame? In this sermon, Greg shows how God does choose us but we also have the ability to choose him and get on board the predestined train.
What does it mean to be one of God’s chosen people? Some people think back to middle school gym class and how they might have been last-picked for the team. In this sermon, Greg talks about the idea of being chosen by God and how being chosen isn’t the same as predestination.
It’s a simple but profound truth that God looks like Jesus. This truth becomes all the more important when we face struggles in this world. In this sermon, Greg shares the story of Henry and Henry’s family that faced a battle no parent wants to face.
In 1914 at the beginning of World War I, enemy soldiers spent a week celebrating Christmas with each other. We can learn much from this stunning slice of history, and remember that the “peace on Earth” we strive for around Christmas should be our calling throughout the year.
The poverty of the manger exemplified the power of God. In this sermon, Greg shows that God really is like the baby swaddled in clothes in the manger. The kind of power that God exhibits is foolish to this world, but it shows the type of God that we can follow with all our heart.
We have lost the mystery of this world. We go about our daily lives and are not filled with wonder at what happens. In this sermon, Greg shows how viewing the world like a child will increase how much wonder and mystery we see.
Waiting is hard, especially in the western culture of want and gratification. In this sermon, Greg tells us about Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s writings on advent, and how getting in touch with our emptiness through silence and solitude can lead to peace.
TOHU wa BOHU is the term the Old Testaments writers used to describe the formless, empty and chaotic world before creation. In this sermon, Greg talks about how sexual immorality is outside of God’s plan for creation, and it leads us back to TOHU wa BOHU. If you are struggling with these issues and would like to speak with someone or you have experience dealing with this issues and would like to help others, please contact Andrew or Anita. Andrew - alangbehn@whchurch.org or 651-287-2062 Anita - abarton@whchurch.org or 651-287-2065
In the last week of our blessed revolution series, we revisit each of the beatitudes and see how we are blessed because of them. While the world may not count them as blessings, we can begin to see that the Kingdom will be a great blessing in the future.
Being a peacemaker is more profound than simply being skilled at ending arguments. Our peacemaking is working against the corruption and conflict that pervade this world. In this sermon, Greg shows us how the cycle of conflict and how we can live in a way that breaks the cycle.
As we continue our series on the beatitudes, we find an increasing understanding of what it means to be a follower of Jesus. In this sermon, Greg talks about mercy and being pure in heart. He also shows how God doesn’t reward us for being merciful and being pure in heart, but there are natural, good consequences in doing these things.
Church history has been painted and made by angry, alpha types. Whether it was governments or church leaders, it seems that we find violent, power-hungry attitudes throughout history. In this sermon, Bruxy Cavey teaches the importance of dealing with the temptation of anger.
God designed us to get all of our life, worth and value from him. But when humanity signed our declaration of independence in the garden, we started to fill our lives with the things of this world. In this sermon, Greg calls us to become dependent on God in ways that might cause us to mourn. Additionally, Greg addresses the marriage amendment vote in Minnesota.
Jesus commanded his disciples to be the salt and light of this world, but being the salt and light has been misunderstood in many contemporary Christian circles. In this sermon, Greg talks about the purpose of being salt and light, and he calls all of Jesus' followers to step out of the crowd and become disciples.
It is the 20th anniversary of Woodland Hills Church! In this sermon, Greg goes back to the foundations and history of this church, and shows how dependence upon God has been a mainstay of the culture at Woodland Hills Church.
Our true self is hidden away in heaven, free from corruption and destruction. In this sermon, Greg asks us to realize what this true self looks like, and he calls us to embrace this true self in whatever ways we can in this life.
The same power that defeated Satan and destroyed the bonds of evil is at work in you this very day, but feeling that power can be difficult. In this sermon, Greg talks about the deep truth of your life and how to embrace it.
The study of quantum physics reveals that reality is not how our eyes perceive it. In this sermon, Greg shows how beautifully bizarre reality is and how beautifully bizarre our relationship with ourselves and Christ is.
The Church of Christ functions like a body. When one part of the body doesn’t work, it affects the rest of the body. In this sermon, Greg calls the Church to respond to God’s call for us to serve one another.
Continuing in our series on doubt and faith, Greg finally addresses the passages that have caused confusion about faith. He sets aside the mental gimmickry for something much more substantial and beautiful.
An ecotone is a boundary between two different ecosystems (such as a Mountain and a plain). In this sermon, Steve uses this to describe how we interact with God and with each other.
The Bible is full of characters that are dealing with significant issues of faith and doubt. In this sermon, Greg takes a look at the model of strength tester faith and shows how God doesn’t want a people who won’t be honest with him
During our weekend services on August 11-12 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. If you'd like to listen to all the questions, note that there are separate downloads for the three different services. [This is the recording of the 9:00 Sunday service.]
During our weekend services on August 11-12 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. If you'd like to listen to all the questions, note that there are separate downloads for the three different services. [This is the recording of the 11:00 Sunday service.]
During our weekend services on August 11-12 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. If you'd like to listen to all the questions, note that there are separate downloads for the three different services. [This is the recording of the Saturday service.]
Is doubt the opposite of faith? In this sermon, Greg points out how a strength-tester model of faith is idolatrous and counter productive to a life that follows Jesus.
All of the church is a witness for Jesus Christ on this Earth. Yet, many people have inhibitions about being a witness for Jesus. In this sermon, Pastor Laurel Bunker talks about the roots of her understanding of witness and what being a witness looks like today.
If Jesus dying on the cross reveals God’s true nature, then what do we do with the barbaric pictures of God in the Old Testament? In this sermon, Greg talks about the problem and offers a different viewpoint of how to see the shadow of the cross in the Old Testament.
When people read the Old Testament, it can be a bit confusing to those that know Jesus and his ministry. In this sermon, Greg talks about how the Law in the Old Testament was simply a shadow of the cross, and that the ugliness in the Old Testament simply shows how far humanity was separated from God.
During our weekend services on July 7-8 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. If you'd like to listen to all the questions, note that there are separate downloads for the three different services.
During our weekend services on July 7-8 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. If you'd like to listen to all the questions, note that there are separate downloads for the three different services.
During our weekend services on July 7-8 we hosted Q&A sessions with Greg Boyd, our Senior Pastor, and Paul Eddy, our Teaching Pastor. If you'd like to listen to all the questions, note that there are separate downloads for the three different services.
Paul wrote the Colossians to confront a false religion of invoking angels. These invocations were being done because people thought Jesus wasn’t enough. This same type of thought pervades our own society, where people with hungry hearts are searching for more than what Jesus offers. In this sermon, Greg talks about the fullness that Jesus brings.
The cross shows God’s heart of infinite love, even in response to our hate and hostility. No matter what you’ve done, and no matter how far you’ve gone away from God, he loves you, he is waiting for you, and he wants to celebrate with you when you come home.
Our vision of God is extremely important to our faith. In this sermon, Greg tells the story of how his vision of God changed during his life. He also shows that God is not a god who is waiting up in heaven to hit us with a big stick when we mess up.
While we know that Jesus saves us from Satan and the cost of sin, we can’t always articulate how it happened. In this sermon, Greg shows us how God outwitted the enemy and completely destroyed every piece of ammunition that Satan has against us.
When we sin, accusations fly. However, it’s not God that is flinging the accusations at us. In this sermon, Greg shows how we owe all accusation, blame, and condemnation to Satan.
In this sermon, Dave Johnson (senior pastor of Church of the Open Door) takes us back to the opening verses of Colossians. Here, he explores how the “good news” of the Gospel provides us with a solid foundation of “hope.” This hope enables us to see beyond the difficulties and challenges that we face in this life.
As we finish up our study of Tapestry, Bruxy Cavey teaches us the importance of visible Kingdom community and separation of church and state. These two aspects of the Kingdom were best lived out by the Anabaptists.
The teachings of the Anabaptist church are important to Woodland Hills Church. In this sermon, Greg talks about four of the six distinctive teachings of the Anabaptist movement (next week will cover the last two), and they are still relevant today.
The Charismatic thread helps us understand and delve into how the Holy Spirit works. In this sermon, Greg talks about the life of William Seymour and how the gifts of the Spirit are to be used today, in addition to counter-cultural Charismatic perspectives on race and gender that were a part of the movement from the beginning.
The life and theology of John Wesley influenced many portions of WHC. Whether it was the pietistic way of life, his ideas on free will, or his love-centered Kingdom theology, we have a lot in common with Mr. Wesley.
There are many values of Lutheranism that flow through the life of Woodland Hills Church. In this sermon, Greg talks about these threads and how they impact our way of doing church. Whether it’s sola scriptura or the faith/grace interaction, we are not alone in our use of Luther’s teachings.
We see a lot of Christians base their lives on different things. Some base them on wayward things, such as government, the economy, their own job, or their health—the things that are here one day and gone tomorrow. However, Jesus says that he is the one foundation. In this sermon, Greg talks about how we are to base our lives upon Jesus, and also shows how Woodland Hills has done this.
On Easter, we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. While this resurrection points towards a beautiful future, there is also a need to live this resurrection in our daily lives. In this sermon, Greg talks about the resurrection and its implications for our lives.
This Good Friday, Greg spent time talking about the meaning and significance of the lyrics in the song titled “The Power of the Cross.”
Entertainment is a big part of our culture, but that doesn’t mean it’s always a good thing. In this sermon, Greg talks about the effects entertainment has on us, and how it might be a deeper spiritual activity than we first thought.
There are many theories out there stating that the formation of the Bible is a conspiracy by the early church to cover up other writings about Jesus. In this sermon, Greg conspires to show how those theories have their own problems and addresses some of the questions these theories raise.
A GPS system will show us our exact location at any given time, and for certain phones, it is a little blue dot. However, just because we are physically somewhere does not mean that we are present in the situation. In this sermon, Sandra shows us some of the common distractions to being present and a distinct truth about why we are so busy.
Salvation is usually defined as a distinct moment in time. It is a deal that we make with God to get out of hell. In this sermon, Greg talks about how salvation is so much more than a one-time deal, and there is something better behind curtain number 2 (guaranteed).
God is like an atmosphere around us. As much as the air we breathe is around us and in us, God surrounds and enfolds us. In this sermon, Greg talks about the importance of being aware of God in the everyday moments, and he gives some practical tips to help you walk in this awareness.
From the very beginning of Christianity, there has been contention and a battle with the kingdom of darkness. Where there is no light, we are supposed to bring light through self-sacrificial love. In this sermon, Shawna explores why we contend and offers encouragement in our spreading of the light in our dark world.
Clouds can bring rain and refreshment to the Earth. But they also can block out the Sun, and they represent ominous things in our life. These “dark clouds” in our life block out the energy and glory of Christ in our lives. When we rise above the clouds in this life, we realize that we should always dwell in the serenity of Christ.
For the past few weeks, we’ve been talking about sharing in Christ’s suffering. While suffering, it can be easy to judge ourselves or others based on how much they suffer. Being connected to God’s plan for your life is the best way to stay away from this type of judgment.
For some Christians, the goal of salvation is escape from Hell. In Colossians, Paul talks about the glorious riches that are available to us in the here and now. And while being in Heaven is a great part of our relationship with God, it is not even close to the fullness that Jesus brings to our lives.
Jesus is our hope of glory. But what does that mean? In this sermon, Greg talks about how we yearn to embrace and be fulfilled in life. He also talks about how we can surrender to God in order to be embraced.
In our culture, showing vulnerability or neediness is often seen as a weakness. Since God is all-powerful (not weak), he must not be vulnerable or need others, right? Greg suggests that if we step back from our cultural assumptions about power and weakness we may see that God's vulnerability is actually one of his greatest displays of power.
The Church is the body and bride of Christ. And while Paul says that we are holy in Christ’s sight, we don’t always act like it. In this sermon, Greg talks about how difficult it is to hope in the Church, and how we can still strive to be the Bride of Christ.
Life can throw difficult situations our way. Marriage struggles, road rage, or in Mary's case, being an unmarried virgin pregnant with the Savior of the world. How do we handle those situations? Our guest speaker, Steve Wiens, talks about how God always wants to bring his wholeness (Shalom) into every situation and that we, like Mary, have the opportunity to partner with God in that.
It is a New Year, and many people are making resolutions to change their lives and make them better. In this sermon, Greg talks about how Paul viewed his life’s journey. Make a new resolution this year that will mean more than a few pounds lost.
In our world, we all strive to gain advantages to have a better life. However, the truth of the Kingdom is captured in the story of a crippled lamb. Greg shows us how, in the Kingdom, having advantages can be a disadvantage, and having a disadvantage can be an advantage.
Christmas is a time of gift giving. In this sermon, Greg takes about the greatest gift that we’ve received, and he also shows how we can give back. Put on your thinking cap for this one.
With all of the unrest around the economy, it can be easy to preach against the rich. In this sermon, Greg takes a look at the book of James to see what he says about wealth, and he finds that there is more to the story than fairness.
The pattern of Christmas is to buy gifts for people that usually are not needed items. In this sermon, we look at the book of James and how faith must be found in our actions to the poorest of the poor, and an alternative to the usual pattern of Christmas is given.
It takes a community to raise a child. Yet, in our modern world, we've set the standard that parenting should only be done by the biological parents. This separation of family from community is a tactic of the devil. In this sermon, Greg gives some principles of parenting in today's world.
Divorce happens. In this sermon, Greg speaks on when marriages go wrong. With divorce rates nearly the same inside as outside of the church, it is important to have a Kingdom understanding of divorce and remarriage, and how to answer the question: “When is it ok to divorce?"
Marriage is a complicated endeavor. Whether we have allegiances to certain models of doing marriage or we follow in our parents footsteps, we all do marriage differently. In week 5 of the relatively speaking sermon series, we will learn about what the Bible says about marriage, and we'll hear what Greg has to say about beautiful submission to one another.
In ancient times, fathers would arrange marriages for their sons and daughters. In modern times, it is the individuals who broker their own marriage deals. We live in a consumerist dating era where people can pick their own mate. In this sermon, Greg and Christina Cleveland give a few guiding principles on how to date in the modern world, and they also give insight into who should really be brokering our marriage deals.
Singleness is a topic that isn't discussed very often. In this sermon, Greg talks about the stigma that is attached to single people, especially in churches. He also brings to light how the early church viewed singleness and provides three implications of being single in today's world.
Honoring your father and mother is an ancient command found in nearly every religion. Yet, families vary from person to person, and it can be difficult to honor some parents. In this sermon, Greg talks about how to honor your parents by forgiving them and assessing the reality of the relationship. By doing these two things, people can honor their parents in healthy ways.
We’ve all dealt with issues in our families. In this sermon, Greg sets up the framework of understanding biblical family. This framework will help us understand how God wants us to relate to our families over the next five weeks of study. This sermon will make you go “hmmm”.
In Jesus, all things were created and are being sustained by him. Whether you think the world was created billions of years ago or 4,000 years ago, the only thing that matters is the sustaining breath of God. In this sermon, Greg tackles some of the ways in which we can view the interaction of science and faith. He also shows the beauty of a God who sustains the smallest things in this world.
Being joyful can be difficult during hard times. In this sermon, Jeff Lexvold shows us an inspirational tale of finding God in the darkest places. He also talks to us about how to pray continuously during these times. Finally, he shows us how to give thanks no matter the circumstances.
We were created in God’s image, to represent Him on Earth. In ancient times, people would make statues to represent their gods, but we were commanded to represent God, not make statues. In this sermon, Greg talks about our value as God’s image and the role we play in this world.
Jesus is the image of the invisible God. This is one of the most foundational parts of Christianity and perhaps the single most important truth in the world. There are many deceptive pictures of God, but understanding and knowing Jesus is central to finding the true picture of God.
To belong to Christ is to belong to his body, which is the church. Just as any body part can not survive without the other body parts, a person cannot follow Jesus purely on their own. We all have a role to play in this body and no part is worthless. Finding your place and function is important to belonging to the body of Christ.
In Christian circles, we hear a lot about having “freedom from bondage.” Yet in our daily life, the bondage of sin can often feel more real than that freedom. While it may be something we receive as a gift, we're also called to have an ongoing active role in living out our freedom, allowing it to become the thing that defines us, over and above the world.
It’s impossible to live in this world and not see the evil that happens. This evil happens because of the free will of evil forces in creation. But there is hope in this darkness. In this sermon, Greg explains how we lived in the kingdom of darkness and have been brought into the Kingdom of God.
Discerning God’s will can be difficult. In the final sermon of God Will Hunting, Greg offers some practical suggestions for knowing God’s will. He also tells stories that highlight how these suggestions work in the real world.
Sandra Unger guest speaks this weekend and tells a story of poverty and how to make a difference. She tells an all too familiar story of hope lost and continuing the cycle of poverty. Walking us through the biblical commands, Sandra points out how important it is to help the poor, but with something more important than money.
In the movie, The Adjustment Bureau, there is a chairman who has the master plan for the world and his agents adjust the world to make sure this plan happens. God works differently. In this sermon, Greg talks about God’s will and how we play a role in the creativity of this world.
Even though the Borens are leaving Woodland Hills this week, their messages will continue to live on. In this sermon, Scott says farewell but also has a message of making a difference in this world. By bearing good fruit, we leave a footprint in this world.
Finding the will of God is much easier when we are walking daily with God. In this sermon, Shawna Boren lays out what it looks like to start and continue that journey with God. She also helps educate us on proper texting.
God’s will for us is primarily about who we are and not what we do. When we realize who we are in God’s eyes, then it is much easier to find God’s will in our lives. In this sermon, Pastor Seuss shares with us some practical ways to open up to finding the Who portion of God’s will.
God’s will is foremost about who we are and not what we do. God’s original design for us was to express his beauty to this world, but that requires us to receive who we are from him. In this sermon, Greg talks about his experiences as a little boy and how his interaction with God has shaped his understanding of who he is today.
It is important to understand the framework that God works in before trying to understand God’s will. In this sermon, Greg focuses on how God wants to exist in covenant relationship as opposed to legal relationship. This is why communing with God and communicating with God is so important.
When searching for God’s will, the first place we should start is the Bible. It contains much of what God wants done in the world. Greg also talks about the difference between God’s ideal will and His accommodating will, prompting many questions about the way God moves in this world.
It can be difficult to understand God’s will. In this sermon, Greg talks about the foundations of understanding God’s will. When understanding God’s will, it is important to understand the gift of who God made us and live out of that understanding. It is important to realize that God is the center of our being and not a consultant or retainer.
It can be difficult to be thankful in life. Whether it’s a phone that stops working or a tragic accident that changes our plans, we have trouble being thankful during tough times. In this sermon, Greg gives us three ways to remain thankful despite what’s going on in this world.
Hope can be a difficult thing to hang onto in this world. It seems that our future is destined for some tragic end with every new newspaper. In this sermon, Greg talks about how hope drives us and is foundational for life.
As we start our new sermon series in Colossians, it is important to remember the foundations on which the early Church stood. Living in Christ, for the early Church, was the same as living at an address, and it had large implications for how they viewed themselves. In this sermon, Greg points out some of these implications and also gives a little history behind Paul’s letter to Colossae.
When Jesus ascended to Heaven, he sent another advocate to us, namely the Holy Spirit. In this sermon, Greg describes why Jesus went “up” to heaven, and also why another advocate had to be indwelt within the body of believers.
When Jesus was resurrected, he was not in some far away place. In fact, Jesus kept pointing out to his disciples that he was flesh and blood. He ate with his disciples and let them touch his hands and feet. In the same way, our resurrection happens here on Earth, and God cares about the matter in the Universe.
God can be ambiguous at times. We seek clarity during those times; however, it may not be readily given to us. In this sermon, Greg talks about how to respond to God’s ambiguity by going up to God, out to others, and in for fellowship.
We’re called to partner with God in the breaking in of the new Kingdom. This empowers us to be aggressive. Not aggressive towards other people, but against the powers and principalities in the world and in our own hearts.
In Minnesota, snow can feel evil. Like a flower that yearns to break through the snow, we should yearn to break free from the old order of things and live the Kingdom now. In this sermon, Greg walks us through what the Resurrection of Jesus means to our lives today.
For our Good Friday service, Greg looked at the life and death of Jesus using three different people who responded positively to Jesus. The criminal on the cross, a centurion and Joseph of Arimathia.
Jesus’ Church has done a lot of bad things throughout history. Whether it was wars or various forms of torture, people have misused the idea of Church. In this sermon, Greg speaks about the different issues surrounding the Church’s history, and he submits a few ideas about how to deal with this type of crap happening.
We all have habitual sins that seem to plague us around every turn. Whether it’s gossip, lust, greed, or envy, we all falter in one place or another. Instead of wishing for deliverance, God asks us to work at our sins in order to become the people he created us to be.
Sometimes life appears to be completely random and arbitrary, especially when it comes to fairness. It can be bad things happening to good people or good things happening to bad people. In this sermon, Greg shows us that even though crap isn’t a part of God’s perfect plan doesn’t mean God doesn’t have a perfect plan for crap.
When we pray, we usually expect that our prayers will be answered. Sometimes, they are not. In this sermon, Shawna takes a look at what unanswered prayer looks like, and she provides insight into dealing with the pain of unanswered prayer.
Most of us grew up wanting to be a superstar of some kind, whether it was an athlete, performer, or war hero. However, as we grow older, we recognize that we might be more ordinary than we thought. Yet, God wants us to know exactly how significant we are.
In this world, there is a lot of suffering. Even as Christians, we sometimes ask “Is God even in control?” In this sermon, Greg addresses how we react to suffering and also how God is in control of the situation. He ends with some practical advice on how to follow God amidst suffering.
The Genesis passage of God asking Abraham to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac, raises questions about trusting in God. In this sermon, Greg honestly probes some of those questions about the passage. He also provides some thoughts on how we can replicate Abraham’s faith.
Sometimes in life, Faith is an intellectual issue. However, sometimes faith comes after following Jesus. In this sermon, Seth talks to us about examples of people following Jesus and then having faith. He also talks about what it looks like for our faith to grow.
When we lock our doors or buy insurance, are we trusting in God? In this sermon, Greg talks about what it looks like to trust God in a broken world. He also talks about what protection looks like when following Jesus. Greg also tries telling a joke. We apologize for that.
Our fallen world is full of dis-integration. This week, Greg takes the past topics of faith and applies them to this fallen world. In doing so, we are giving a way of integrating our faith in any situation.
How does a person keep their faith when facing an unfixable situation? In this sermon, Greg speaks to the question by examining his family’s own struggle with having an adult son with autism. Knowing that he can’t fix the problem, Greg describes how his vision of the solution provides a solid foundation for faith.
Questions can sometimes topple faith like a house of cards. In this sermon, we introduce the idea that following Jesus is the central aspect of faith. This frees us to question and critique different aspects of our faith, without losing that faith.
The story of the Exodus (see the book of Exodus) is a story of God leading His people from bondage to freedom. In this week’s sermon, Jim Hobson asks the question “If Christ has set us free, why are so many Christians still in bondage?” Jim contends that to free ourselves from bondage, we must see ourselves as God sees us.
Faith is often understood in measurement terms. Some say people need amounts of faith to receive benefits from God. Faith, however, should be understood in relational terms and not “faithometer” terms. The illustration of a marriage best serves the idea of how faith in God works.
Faith is sometimes understood as the lack of doubt. Doubt can be seen as the enemy of faith; however, doubt is not always the enemy. When wrestling with God, it is important not to doubt God’s character. We will always have doubt about questions on a broad range because we are human and finite, but God’s character need never be doubted.
God wants His people to wrestle with Him on the things that happen in their life. He wants His people to ask “Who are you, God?” Following the story of Jacob, we are called as Christ followers to struggle, strive, and seek to know who God is. We must also not be afraid of struggling with deep questions.
The Devil has historically used a 1-2 punch to fight God. He usually starts by trying to snuff out the Kingdom of God, and if that doesn’t work, he tries to normalize the Kingdom of God. This normalization leads to a watered-down and mundane version of the Kingdom. God calls us to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.
Christmas is the day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus and of God incarnate. For most of us, this day is celebrated in a fog of normalcy. The birth of Jesus has become old news that we’ve celebrated before. The greatest truth—a beautiful, profound, mysterious, and wonderful truth—is shrouded in the boredom of the same old story, and we lose the vision of the uniqueness of Jesus’ birth. God wants us to open our heart to the beauty of this universe, and He wants us to ask Him to keep us awake to the vibrant beauty of this story.
Christmas is a time of nostalgia when family and friends get together. Cute and serene can be words to describe this time, but Christmas and the birth of Jesus was anything but serene. The birth of Jesus was an act of war against the Empire of this world.
Our culture is run by an empire built on the foundation of greed, selfishness, and consumerism. Jesus came to this world to subvert any empire other than the Kingdom of God. Jesus taught us the true meaning of freedom, peace, justice, and love, and He wants us to use these to subvert the empire.
There is a lot of suffering in this world and many reasons for it. God wants us to know that suffering is going to happen, and that you should walk toward suffering with the right understanding of who Jesus is in the midst of suffering.
Jesus was born a subversive King. He was born to show the world the true Kingdom and the True God, and in so doing, showed the world how the Roman kingdom was false. In the spirit of Jesus’ subversive intention, Greg shows us a way to be subversive with the Christmas culture of the western world.
A central aspect of living as a Christian is lining up our life with the revealed Word of God. The battlefield of our living is actually waged in our soul, our mind. God wants us to understand exactly who we are in His eyes, so that our understanding will lead to right living according to the revealed Word of God.
All of us long for deep contact with God and with others. Yet, fear of judgment and having no space in our lives to develop deep contact hinder us when trying to find deep contact with others. God wants us to know that we need not fear judgment to make space in our lives for contact with Him and others.
One of the main spiritual strongholds that we deal with is “mine-ing” stuff. We want to acquire stuff, label it as ours and create divisions in our souls that separate us from God. God wants us to heal these divisions by renouncing the false god, Mammon.
All of us feel the stress of time on our lives. We feel tired, stressed and worn out over everything that needs to get done. God wants us to give up the idea of time as money so that we can gain the peace of eternity.
Many of us have wounds, stresses, and cares in our lives. Like children, these things cry out to us, wanting us to pay attention. God wants us to listen to these “children” and find healing with God’s help.
In this first sermon of our Undivided series, Greg explores why we seem to be drawn to the busy life that our culture offers. At the same time, it’s easy for us to forget or ignore the beauty that God wants to develop in our inner world.
Praise and celebration are foundational and essential to being God’s people. However, many Christians today are missing out on the importance of doing this together. We emphasize information, but we often don’t see the power of encountering God and the impact that it can have on our lives.
Jesus never asked for background checks on people before he ministered to them. His life and death reflect an all inclusive love and grace toward all people. Through Christ, God gives a massive bear hug of love and forgiveness around humanity.
What is the real evidence of a disciple of Jesus? Too often today we are told that followers of Christ are marked by success, happiness and power. However, the Bible points to a different evidence, that of love that comes under others and serves.
When Jesus prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them …” he was expressing the radical love of the Father that extends forgiveness to all the world. While such an expression of forgiveness is far from typical, it contains the ability to heal, transform hearts and release people to forgive others.
Jesus was innocent but he died the death of the guilty. He stood in our place, taking on our life so that we might have his. There is no greater act in all of history.
Jesus’ silence before his accusers surprised everyone. Rather than defend himself, he suffered unjustly for the sake of the Kingdom of God. By doing this, he demonstrated faith in a higher court that would ultimately judge all.
In the Bible, prophecy refers to much more than simply foretelling events of the future. According to 2 Peter 1:21 any time the Holy Spirit uses a person to speak the truth it is considered prophecy.
The Apostle Peter had to learn the hard way how to follow Jesus. His three denials of Christ—and then three affirmations of love—marked the major turning point away from fear and toward imitating Christ.
When we experience the peace of God, it frees us from fear and the temptation to take matters into our own hands.
Bruxy Cavey, our guest speaker from The Meeting House church in Canda, preached that gospel is the good news that God has come to us! God has done this to show God's love, save us from sin, set up the Kingdom of God and shut down religion.
Hebrews 5:8-9 says that Jesus “learned obedience through what he suffered” and “was made perfect”. If this was necessary for Jesus then followers of Jesus should expect the same.
We often pray most honestly and faithfully when we are facing difficulties of some kind. The challenge is to pray like this in our daily lives.
Jesus orders us to be baptized for the forgiveness of sins. Baptism is the betrothal (similar to “engagement”) ceremony in our relationship to Christ.
As children, we learn to play “hide-and-seek” with our siblings, parents and friends. Many of us continue to play this game with God as adults. Kevin Johnson challenges us to turn to God with our whole heart and receive God’s mercy and grace.
Psychologists use Rorschach tests to reflect what is inside a person. How we see the world and even how we read Scripture works in a similar way.
Ephesians 3:14-19 is perhaps one of the most powerful descriptions of love we find in Paul’s writings. The love Paul speaks of is so great he is forced to press the boundaries of language to express it.
In the parables of the lost sheep, the lost son, and the lost coin, it becomes clear that it is we who are lost and God who seeks to find us. Those in the position of danger are the ones who presume upon their relationships with God.
In the parable of the lost coin, the woman calls her friends and neighbors together to rejoice with her when she finds it. Greg explores why she was so excited to recover a single coin of seemingly limited value.
In the story of the prodigal son, the focus is typically on the younger son who runs away and squanders his father’s wealth frivolously. His sin is as obvious as his disobedience. The elder son is also relating badly to his father, but in a more subtle way.
Typically, we call the famous parable by Jesus “The Prodigal Son,” but that title is actually a bit misleading. The point of the parable is not the younger (Prodigal) son’s recklessly extravagant living. Instead, it’s about God’s recklessly extravagant love.
We, as Jesus followers, are called to reflect God’s love in this world. We are to live lives of love, as imitators of God. We are to do everything in love and live in the unity of love with other Christ followers.
God's love for us is overwhelming! But that's not the whole story. As we receive God's love we are able to return that love to God and others.
God’s desire for us is that we become all that God created us to be. Life is the process in which we can resist or yield to God’s desire for us. When we yield we sense God’s burning love as warm and liberating. When we resist we experience God’s burning love as pain and wrath.
God’s love is victorious! But perhaps not in the way that you’d expect. We often associate victory with our ability to control or defeat others but God’s victory encourages our freedom rather than squelches it. (We love discovering art that connects us to God in unique ways. Thank you to Dale Johnson for incorporating his art into this weekend's sermon.)
The love of God expressed in Christ on the cross shows the radical lengths God is willing to go to restore us. This healing of our relationship with God takes the form of a covenant, not a contract.
The love of God expressed in Christ on the cross was “foolishness to the Gentiles” and “a stumbling block to the Jews”. God’s love is scandalous to us all in different ways.
It is impossible to fully grasp God's love because it is infinite! The best we can do is humbly recognize our limitations in this way and give ourselves over to the overwhelming love that God extends to us.
In the story of the Prodigal Son, the son leaves home and experiences intensely that something is missing. Eventually he comes to his senses and goes home to his father. Greg connected this desire that the son felt to the German word sehnsucht which is a powerful form of longing that we all feel at times in our lives.
For our Good Friday service, Greg looked at the life and death of Jesus using three different Marys. Mary the mother of Jesus, Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene.
In the final week of our “Kingdom Economics” series, Greg answers four questions that were submitted by the congregation and podrishioners. 1) Why doesn’t WHC teach tithing? 2) I’m broke! Didn’t God promise me I’d reap what I’ve sown? 3) If misfortune isn’t a “curse” from God, why think good fortune is a “blessing” from God? 4) Is America “blessed”?
During the series, many people have sent in questions about their personal finances. Today we heard from a panel of people from Woodland Hills who responded to those questions with Kingdom of God principles.
In week two of our “Kingdom Economics” series, Greg answers three questions that were submitted by the congregation and podrishioners. 1) Does having a savings account show a lack of faith in God? 2) Does saving for retirement show a lack of trust in God? 3) Is declaring bankruptcy a sin?
Matthew 6:24 tells us that we “cannot serve both God and mammon.” Instead, we can live out kingdom principles with our finances.
Leave it to Jesus to challenge one of our most central cultural values – justifying violence by manipulating scripture. In this sermon, we discover what it means to practice non-violence both in our actions and our attitudes.
Despite Jesus clearly foretelling it, Peter didn’t think he would deny Jesus. But just as Jesus knew Peter would fall, he knew he’d get back up again too.
Jesus came both to save us and to reveal the character of God to us. Rather than coming in great power God came and served. Jesus calls us to “opt out” of the worldly desire to be better than others and learn to love them even when we profoundly disagree with them.
When reviewing Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, Greg had two questions in mind for us to consider: “Was Judas fated to betray Jesus?” And “Why did Judas betray Jesus?”
At the Passover meal just before Jesus was killed he instituted the practice of communion. When we take communion, we do so in the time between the initial experience of our faith and the final fulfillment of our unity with God and each other. This space “in-between” is like the wilderness the Jews experienced after leaving Egypt but before entering the promised land.
As Jesus was warning his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple he instructed them to be careful lest their hearts be weighed down in various ways. This warning applies not only to Jesus’ disciples at that time, but also to his disciples today.
Jesus warned his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple. This prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD. Yet there are timeless truths to be found in this text regarding what it means to prepare for what lies ahead of us.
In the story of the widow with her two small coins Jesus shows us that it is not the amount that we give that matters, but rather how much of a sacrifice that amount really is for us.
Jesus shows us what godly leadership looks like in two ways. First by modeling it with his own life and second by confronting those who abuse the authority that comes with leadership.
Our American culture seems to have grown more open to spiritual things in recent history. In general this openness is good—but there is also the danger of losing the uniqueness of what we believe as Christians—that Jesus IS God and not merely one of many ways that God is expressed in the world.
In many ways, Jesus is like the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future in Charles Dickens’ story A Christmas Carol. However, much more than remind us of our past, Jesus has the power to transform it which allows us new freedom both in our present and our future.
When we work for justice in the world, we are partnering with what God is already doing. It’s important that we seek God first, rest in God’s love, and only then can respond faithfully to the call to partner with God by fighting for justice in our communities.
When John the Baptist was proclaiming the coming of the Messiah he preached repentance for the forgiveness of sins and called people to be baptized. Jin Kim connected this proclamation to faithfulness in the body of Christ and the importance of bearing fruit in the world.
For this weekend following Thanksgiving , Dwayne delivered a sermon about the basics of living a thankful lifestyle. He asked questions about what we can thank God for in the middle of difficult situations and why it’s important to practice Thanksgiving in general.
Greg shared an image that he uses to represent how principalities and powers pollute the “air” we breathe by drawing on the impact of sins committed in the past. Norm shared his story of how he got out of living in poverty with the help of a friend who provided key opportunities.
Generational sin is the ongoing effect of hurtful behavior that passes on from parents to their children. Not only do the children have to deal with this sin, but God too works with us to overcome these effects of past wrong-doings on our lives.
The Bible has a lot to say about poverty. Most of it refers to material poverty—which is why we are focusing on that this series—but the Bible also recognizes the poverty of isolation, loneliness and invisibility.
Efrem Smith preached about how being a Christian means participating in the Kingdom of God in between the first coming of Christ and the second. He used Matthew 25 to help us grasp this.
The Importance of Knowing Ernest: Sandra shares experiences and insights that have come from her family’s “unlikely” friendships with people on St. Paul’s East Side. In our movement toward the issue of poverty, it’s easy for the ‘haves’ to feel heroic for seeking to give to the ‘have-nots’. Through her relationship with Ernest, Sandra explains what can happen when we pursue relationships instead of responsibilities, or people instead of poverty.
Greg was careful to be clear that his challenge was primarily to those in the lower middle class of America and higher. However the principles apply to all of us: Don’t hoard the things of this world, but rather share generously with those who have less than we do.
We know that we are saved by God’s grace, not our own good deeds—but God still intends that we do good deeds. In fact, God saved us so that we can be restored to right relationship with God and all of creation. This restored relationship includes the activity (good works) that God has planned for each one of us.
When we ask the simple question, “What does the Lord require?” we get a clear answer from Scripture. There are many passages we could turn to for a response, but one of the most concise is Micah 6:8. Act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with God.
We see many examples of celebration in the Bible. By reading through these verses we can learn a lot about what celebration is and how it was done during biblical times. [Focus Scripture: Psalms 66:8]
Greg reminded us of the importance of worship, praise and celebration. We sometimes tend to collapse all three of these words together and associate it with the singing portion of a church service, but there’s much more to it that that.
Jesus was frustrating to most people who asked him theological questions. When the Sadducees challenged him, Jesus set them straight on the resurrection, the role of women, and gave a few hints about heaven, none of which they wanted to hear.
Jesus was being set up by some schemers who were trying to trap Jesus. They asked him whether or not Jews should pay taxes to Caesar or not. His answer undermined the game the schemers were playing and will challenge the way we relate to our own government.
By telling a parable Jesus prophesied that he would be rejected and killed. Nevertheless, he also claimed he would be the cornerstone for the coming Kingdom of God. This was shocking to his followers and enraged the religious leaders of the time.
Rob spoke about forgiveness and one common challenge to it—revenge. When someone hurts us and we turn to revenge, we are essentially saying that we don’t like the way God is running the universe.
Our guest speaker could only speak on Sunday, so Greg used the Saturday night service to host a Q&A centered around the recently debated concept that God might be behind the natural disasters in the world...as well as other questions from the congregation.
Kevin Johnson shared some experiences he’s had with “strategies” for personal transformation. None of these strategies by themselves are good enough if we don’t have a basic openness to God’s leading.
At one point in Jesus’ ministry, priests and teachers of the law questioned Jesus about his authority. They asked him by whose authority he taught the gospel and did the miracles. Rather than answering their question, Jesus returned a question.
It might surprise you to know that Jesus got angry enough to turn over tables! There are times when it is appropriate to boldly confront others in our community.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem he wept as he foretold its destruction. This is important because we gain an profound awareness of how it pains God when we resist him.
Jesus and his followers had very different ideas about what would happen when Jesus finally got to Jerusalem. These differences were so serious that everyone abandoned Jesus when his path took him to the cross. It may be tempting to judge Jesus’ followers as short-sighted hypocrites, but Greg challenges us with the question of whether we really would do differently under similar circumstances.
God has given us the Holy Spirit as a “deposit” and guarantee of things to come. But we are expected to wisely invest this “deposit” in the world today.
Repentance and salvation are understood best in the story of someone’s life. Zacchaeus is a great example of radical repentance and a clear pronouncement of salvation by Jesus.
The disciples sometimes got in the way of people who were coming to Jesus. When this happened, Jesus had to correct the situation and go directly to the people seeking him. This happens today too when Christians and their agendas get in the way of people who simply need to be pointed to Jesus.
None of us like pain. In fact, much in our world today helps us to avoid it. Scripture promises that as we follow Christ we will suffer and endure pain but that it is not without a purpose. As we persevere, we experience growth and joy and become more like Christ.
This sermon addresses three specific questions as a follow-up to the Animate series. The first relates to the dangers of opening oneself up to the spirit realm. The second is about how we know what we sense in our imagination is from God. And the third questions whether imaginative prayer that focuses on Jesus alone is actually limiting.
There were a lot of questions generated by our recent Animate series. This sermon answers questions about why Christians have sometimes been suspicious of the imagination, and about how we can get our “life” (worth, significance and security) from God.
There were a lot of questions generated by our recent Animate series, which explored the role that imagination plays in our spiritual lives. One question that came up frequently was, “Are we just making all this up when we practice imaginative spirituality?”
There is a consistent and persistent message God has been sending through both the Old and New Testaments: Love your neighbor as yourself. And everyone is your neighbor! What was recorded as law in Lev. 19 was echoed by the prophets and reiterated by Jesus in the gospels.
This is the fifth message in the Animate series which focuses on making ourselves free and available to commune with God. Transformation comes from spending time in the presence and glory of God.
This is the fourth message in the Animate series which focuses on making ourselves free and available to commune with God. Transformation comes from spending time in the presence and glory of God.
This is the third message in the Animate series focuses on making ourselves free and available to commune with God. Transformation comes from spending time in the presence and glory of God.
This is the second message in the Animate series which focuses on making ourselves free and available to commune with God. Transformation comes from spending time in the presence and glory of God.
This is the first message in the Animate series which focuses on making ourselves free and available to commune with God. Transformation comes from spending time in the presence and glory of God.
Easter is about Jesus’ resurrection and the faith of the church in that resurrection. Jesus’ claims to be God were unambiguous but didn’t always receive the same response.
Greg leads us in reflecting and then responding to what he calls “the central event that defines all history": the cross. You are invited to join the congregation in a responsive confession (download presentation file to read along)
Jesus used the law to show us that we can’t get to heaven on the basis of our own good deeds. Once we accept this, we can enjoy the freedom to live radically and generously in the community that is the family of God.
Jesus' encounter with the rich young man raises the question of what a person must do to get into heaven. Is it good deeds? Is selling our possessions and giving to the poor enough? No, it is embracing the love relationship with God that is extended to us through Christ.
Spiritually speaking, the attitude we have when we work to advance God's Kingdom is far more important than the work we actually do. If we do the “right things” but don't don’t imitate Jesus in our attitude we don't reflect the Kingdom of God the way we could. Humility, gentleness and bearing each others' burdens are basic to serving one another in Christ-like love.
Jesus uses little children as examples of the attitude we are to take. The innocence of children give us a good model for trusting God, getting our identity from him and avoiding the evaluation and judgment game.
When we hear sermons, often we apply them to someone else. It is always easier to see and try to fix other people’s faults than it is our own. It is common to do this when we read Bible stories. One of the functions of Jesus’ parables is to free us from this self-serving favoritism and force us to look in the mirror.
When we pray, we’re using our say-so to partner with God to bring about his will on earth as it is in heaven. But it is not magic. Prayer is a labor of love. We are pushing for God’s will to be accomplished, against all that resists his will being accomplished.
The parable of the persistent widow and the unjust judge is deeply rooted in the larger story of God’s faithfulness to Israel, Jesus’ re-enactment of that story, and the question of whether Jesus will find faith on earth when he returns.
As Christians, we often give a lot of attention to passages in the Bible that refer to Jesus’ return, but often only to speculate about the end of the world. Instead, we should use these teachings to reflect on how we live here and now. One specific application of this principle is making daily decisions that honor God’s creation.
When asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus gave them an answer they didn’t expect, and it’s very relevant for us today. Instead of spreading Christian ideas and values through laws, politics and force, Jesus reminds us that we’re called to be the Kingdom by loving, serving and sacrificing for the people around us.
Jesus spent much of his time healing and performing miracles, and Luke tells the account of the healing of ten lepers – and the one who came back to thank Jesus. However, there was more healing needed than simply the physical reversal of leprosy, and this story reminds us some important principles about gratitude.
In this section of Luke, Jesus gives four distinct teachings that on the surface seem unrelated. But when taken in context with each other, they highlight four different aspects of how we are to live in Christian community with one another.
In the parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the primary point is that information we have about God doesn’t do us any good if we don’t act on it. As Kingdom people, we must remember what this means for our own generosity.
The story of the rich man and Lazarus has often been used to ground our theology when it comes to the doctrine of Hell. This message aims to broaden our imagination about this issue by looking at this passage in the larger biblical context.
Jesus teaches that “Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery, and the man who marries a divorced woman commits adultery.” What this meant in the first century helps us understand what it means for us today.
Jesus tells us that “no one can serve two masters.” But what could this possibly mean? Don’t we all have many obligations and responsibilities? This message challenges us to live every area of our life in devotion to God.
One of the best ways to draw out the meaning of Christmas is to look at the experience of Mary. Saying “yes” to God meant she would have to pay a tremendous price, but she was willing. Will we do the same with our lives? We are called to accept that doing God’s will is greater than any fears we might have.
Mary, the mother of Jesus, is one of the Bible’s great examples of faith. God chose her as the human vessel through which God would enter the world! Mary responded with great faith even though it would certainly introduce many challenges and change her life’s path.
As Kingdom people, we always want to be aware of the dangers of consumerism and irresponsible spending. However, if we take on too much responsibility for fixing the world we can fall into guilt and become judgmental. Jesus modeled a balance between responsibility to those who are less fortunate, and the freedom we have to celebrate and share the good things that God has given us.
Christians are called to live generously all year round – not just at Christmas time. Jesus models four distinctives that we are to imitate in our lives and in our communities. We can easily get caught in the flow of our culture so these distinctives are challenging for us, but they’re crucial for expanding God’s Kingdom.
What does it mean to use material resources in a godly way? All of our money and “stuff” will pass away but the relationships we have with people have real eternal value. God wants us to use our resources to advance his Kingdom rather than our own.
Most of the time we try to fit Jesus into our culturally-accepted view of God, and the early Christians did the same thing. But Jesus doesn’t fit into our categories. As Kingdom people, we’re meant to follow Jesus’ example and revolt against what’s normal in our culture. Three disciplines that can help us are practicing God’s presence, fasting and community.
There are two sons in the parable of the Prodigal Son, and in this passage we find out how the older son responds when the younger son returns home. He’s judgmental of his brother, but it’s easy to understand why because his reaction stems from a sense of justice that we all share. However, the Kingdom of God challenges us to avoid judgments and instead, extend God’s grace to others.
In the parable of the Prodigal Son, Jesus teaches about the love of God. Instead of using his power to force us to choose what’s best, God loves us so much that he gives us room to cause him pain in our relationship with him. And then when we do, he waits for us to return to him and runs to meet us. God runs to us because he loves us more than we can fathom.
Our perspective about what God is like deeply affects our relationship with him. Is he a distant, immovable being or does Jesus give us a different view of God? God is more upside down and different than many of us realize.
In the familiar Parable of the Lost Sheep, Jesus shows us a God who, out of his great love, goes after outcasts deprived of opportunities, safety and rights. Sharing from her own personal experience, Shawna illustrates this love and helps us understand the extreme nature of God’s goodness.
Jesus’ Kingdom is open to all of us, but he asks everything from those who follow him. This is a radical call to actually reorient our lives, which is much more than simply a willingness to do so if the circumstances present themselves. If we take these words of Jesus seriously, they will change our lives in ways we cannot predict.
Blessed are those who share in God’s Kingdom meal – what an awesome experience! But who gets in on it? Those of us who think that we have the inside track might be shocked at how Jesus turns our expectations upside down. And some of us who are sure we’re “out” will be surprised at Jesus’ open invitation.
God's unique way of growing his kingdom isn't what we may expect from a king. In fact, many times he flips our expectations completely upside down. In a conversation with the Pharisees in Luke 14, Jesus demonstrates this beautiful uniqueness and reveals the impact it can have on how we relate to each other in our everyday activities.
To whom do we run when we are need? Where do we place our trust when we need protection? There are many things in this world that offer safety and shelter, but only in Jesus can we find true shelter, peace and love.
Praise Him! We may not always feel like praising God, however, there is something transformational about praise that realigns how we see God and how we see our own situations. Praise is one of the ways we fight against the lies of the enemy and walk in the victory of Jesus. Discover how praise can impact your life right now.
Why do we worship God? Why is it so central to the life of Christians? This sermon addresses how worship is about ascribing worth to God and communing with him. Worship can transform our lives if we’re willing to get “caught up” in it.
Jesus taught that the way to salvation is narrow, but what exactly does that mean? Who gets saved? How does someone get saved? These are big questions, and the answers will surprise many people – even some who have attended church their entire lives. Discover what Jesus meant when he called us to enter the “narrow door.”
Jesus described God’s Kingdom like a mustard seed and like yeast. What did he mean? And what do Jesus’ unusual parables have to do with our lives today? When we consider how his original audience would have heard Jesus’ words, it helps us discover just how challenging his teachings are for us today.
Jesus called a crippled woman forward despite the many forces working against her. She answered the call by stepping into the powerful healing of God, and immediately she stood up and praised God. We can see this as an analogy for responding to the call of God in today’s hurting world and the powerful forces that we come up against.
Religion or relationship? We need to be careful about which term best describes how we engage our faith. Through his actions and teaching, Jesus shows us clear distinctions between viewing Kingdom life as a religion or as a personal relationship.
Our passage this week shows Jesus healing a crippled woman. Jesus and his disciples regularly healed the sick and the lame and cast out demons by taking authority over the situation “in Jesus' name.” This challenges us to consider the power and authority our own words and actions have in our daily lives.
We are called to live as daredevils, but most of us are bound by fears of some kind. God didn’t make us to be timid people who are dependent on worldly things; we are meant to be free from fear and complete in love. He wants to set us free so that we have the confidence to be daredevils.
Forgiveness is always easier to talk about than to actually do. But without it we are alone and isolated, and can be consumed by hurt. Jesus taught about how we should forgive each other through parables: because we experience God’s great forgiveness, we share the same with others who have wronged us. And as a result, we learn how to live our lives with each other and experience the freedom that God wants for us.
Jesus often taught about the love of God, but in this passage he also says “...unless you repent, you will all perish.” This is a very unpopular passage as it is commonly understood, as most people assume Jesus is using the fear of hell to scare us into repentance. The truth is that sin really does lead to perishing, but it’s not because of God’s arbitrary wrath.
Tragedies happen. This world is far from God’s ideal, and we must be ready to respond in God’s way when we find ourselves in difficult situations. Jesus shows us some clear ways to think and act so that we don’t fall into traps of judgment or guilt when life doesn’t work out the way we want. We also must remember that even though God doesn’t cause painful situations, he can always bring good out of them.
Many people blame God for the terrible things that happen in our world: the death of a loved one, illnesses, natural disasters, even acts of terror. Some claim that these are ways that God judges and punishes us. But Jesus gives us a very different picture of God. Jesus reveals that despite the evil in our world, God is always on our side, wants what is best for us, and loves us beyond measure.
God is a FIRE. To all who are open to him, God’s presence is a fire of love, salvation, healing and purification. To all who are not, God’s presence is experienced as a fire of destruction. Jesus reminds and warns us to build our lives on him; depending upon where our hearts are, God’s fiery and holy love either saves and purifies us, or it destroys.
Many well-meaning Christians speculate about the end of the world and the return of Jesus. The problem is that most of these perspectives vary greatly and can cause a lot of fear and stress. But when we hear Jesus’ teaching about the end of the world, he focuses us in a direction that is quite different than many of today’s popular ideas.
So many of us have a messed up view of God. We don’t understand how our Father in heaven loves us beyond imagination. Because we lack a clear picture of God’s love, we cling to this world and all of its concerns. Our lives can get consumed by worry. But when we see the reality of God’s love, this world's problems are small by comparison.
As a society, we’re extremely worried. Concern about countless issues pervades our lives: our relationships, our kids, terror attacks, global warming, pandemics, the economy, living the American Dream – if we’re not careful, this worry can consume us. Jesus provides us with the Kingdom alternative to worrying, and it’s surprisingly related to birds and flowers.
Many times the modern American church views God as a judge or lawyer and the main goal of the church is to enforce certain rules. While God is the ultimate judge, he is also madly in love with humanity and wants to see everyone restored. If we look at how God has been extravagantly rich towards us, we begin to see what it means for us to be rich towards God and others.
Is God's presence merely something we expect to experience once a week during a church service? Or maybe even once a day during a time of prayer? The truth is that God's presence pervades our life, but we are usually to distracted to notice. We are invited to experience God's presence on a moment by moment basis in our daily lives.
No one wants to be told how to spend their money, but Jesus was not silent on the subject. He warned against greed and storing up treasures for ourselves while calling us to care for the poor and those who are less fortunate. His words may cause us discomfort, but they confront a very strong individualistic mindset that is just as prevalent in the church today as it is in secular culture.
What does it mean to “get saved?” Many people (especially people in the United States) see salvation as a one time event and the result of “believing” certain things about God. While belief is important, salvation encompasses much more than that. The salvation that God offers is a continual personal transformation where the trash of our old lives is replaced by the beauty of God's Kingdom.
Some of Jesus' words were very challenging to the people of his time, and for us. One of the traits that he gave strong warnings about was hypocrisy – when our “public” lives don't match who we really are. Keeping these parts of our lives aligned is a major challenge and it almost always requires sacrifice. We don't like to move outside our comfort zones, but it's what is required if we want to partner with God to build his Kingdom.
Leaders are crucial to what God is doing to spread his Kingdom. While there are many good church leaders who serve from healthy perspectives, there are far too many who have caused pain by abusing those in their communities. Jesus boldly challenged such religious leaders in his time, and what he said gives us a biblical understanding of leadership and how it should operate in the church.
How does true spiritual change occur? Sometimes we focus on the outside and try to change ourselves through what we do. But we don’t become clean by paying attention to external “religious” behaviors. In this sermon we’re challenged with the example of generosity to the poor and learn that becoming clean is an “inside-out” process, where we allow the Spirit of God to transform us on the inside so that our outside behavior lines up with his Kingdom.
Jesus came to set us free so that we can shine with his love. But sometimes darkness in our own heart gets in the way of the life he wants for us. Many times our own thoughts, beliefs and feelings are at the root of why we don’t live as Kingdom people. A key to addressing this darkness is to realize that our perceptions are not what’s real, and instead align our thoughts and feelings with God’s truth.
Jesus didn’t water down his message for the crowds or give them just what they wanted to hear. Jesus called them (and us) to repent – to face reality and turn from living in lies that hinder our ability to participate in what God is doing in the world. God’s Kingdom happens in our lives and in our communities when we repent and line our lives up with God’s way of looking at the world and God’s ways of living.
In our culture celebrity worship is rampant. Because of their money, talent, and the attention they receive, many of us live through pop icons. Sadly, this same mentality creeps into the church. We can be tempted to elevate church leaders above everyone else and think that the Kingdom happens through them alone. Their prayers count more. Their words are more powerful. Their service is more significant. Jesus came to destroy this thinking!
Time is ticking away. Being alive in this world means that we are moving toward death, and to some degree that makes most of us afraid. That fear can drive us to many different sources of worldly security, but the good news (the Easter news!) is that no one needs to live in fear.
Followers of Jesus are called to recognize the spiritual war we’re in and “get in the game” because there is no neutral zone of safety. Casual Christianity is not an option from Jesus’ perspective – he makes it clear that we cannot settle for a comfortable faith. We are called out of safe (and boring!) Christianity into the reality of a war where we stand up for truth in the midst of a world full of lies.
Is there really a spiritual war? Do we believe that there is such a thing as a spiritual reality? If we don’t, we will engage the wrong enemy. Instead of fighting the powers of Satan, we will target other humans, often with hatred and violence. Spiritual warfare practiced through love and prayer is central to the Christian walk, but we need constant reminders in our Western culture that there really is a spiritual war going on.
In Luke 11, Jesus talks about this world as a “house” that Satan guards. As Kingdom people, what do we do with that? If we look to Jesus, he simply tells us to take back the house. And how exactly do we do that? We don’t adopt the patterns of Satan and try to overcome violence with violence. Looking again to Jesus, he shows us that the only thing that can overpower evil, and that is self-sacrificial love. Only love can conquer evil; only light can dispel darkness.
Is hearing God really a possibility? Can we live in a dynamic conversation with God despite so many different voices competing for our attention on a daily basis? In this message, Dwayne explains the basic beliefs that are required for this kind of conversation, and breaks down some of the common obstacles that stand in the way.
As a person with muscular dystrophy, Scott has countless personal experiences that illustrate the principles that Greg taught about in the previous two sermons. Scott has personally wrestled with questions about why some prayers are answered and others are not – most fundamentally related to why he himself hasn’t been healed.
Why does it seem like some prayers work while others don’t give us the results we want? If our prayers don’t seem to work, who is to blame? God? Ourselves? Others? To begin to understand prayer, we must break free from a simplistic and commonly held “magical view” of prayer. There are many variables that affect prayer and faith and how they work together.
We live in a spiritual war zone. We must partner with God to bring about his will on earth as it is in heaven. How can we do this? Simply through prayer! We can impact the world by laboring with God to resist the forces of evil through spiritual warfare. We can join in this battle by praying continually with faith and persistence believing our prayers will impact the kingdom on earth as it is in heaven.
Is prayer really that important? Does it really play a purpose in the grand scheme of things? If we believe the Scriptures to be true, it seems that prayer is “insanely” important – so much that we are to pray with “shameless audacity.” Some get bogged down with the idea of prayer because they see it as a religious ritual that is too complex and difficult to do in our regular lives. Yet the reality is that prayer is basically talking with God in an ordinary way about our ordinary lives.
Every day we confront choices that reflect and form our character. Will we live for ourselves, or for the Kingdom? God wants us to be trustworthy for Kingdom service and it’s true that he tests us to refine our character, but he doesn’t tempt anyone. If that’s true, why does Jesus teach us to pray, “lead us not into temptation?”
Is the good news of Jesus Christ really as good in your mind as it was in the mind of Jesus? God's dream for humanity is far more amazing than most of us realize. He wants to “marry” us, to invite us into his family and walk in radical love with us.
In the next part of the Lord's Prayer, Jesus teaches that prayer is about daily dependence on God to meet our needs, even though most people in our self-sufficient world do not think this way. We also discover the crucial role that forgiveness plays in our lives and the surprising freedom it can bring.
One of the first phrases in the Lord’s Prayer is “hallowed be your name,” and most of us have prayed it countless times. But what does it even mean? What are we asking God to do, and how does this prayer relate to how we live our lives as Kingdom people?
Christ's entrance into our world is both great and small. Jesus is the Son of God, a great and holy king. Yet he enters the world without much attention – in a small stable as a small child. Strangely, that “smallness” adds to his greatness. We ponder that “smallness” during our Christmas Eve service.
Christmas is a time of celebration and hope! The birth of Jesus celebrates the coming of the promised Messiah. God loved us so much that he gave the gift of His only Son, Jesus, to redeem and bring us back into relationship with Him. As we celebrate the coming of Jesus, we also expectantly await Christ’s return.
Prayer is one of the most important aspects of our lives as Kingdom people. So why is it something we struggle with so much? Jesus used the Lord’s Prayer to teach his disciples when they asked him how they should pray. Perhaps surprisingly, his example is very different than the way many of us pray today. If we started from scratch, what kind of prayer life could we have if we followed this example from Jesus?
It’s easy to both love and hate the Christmas season. On one hand, it’s a sacred time when we remember and celebrate Christ’s birth. But on the other, our culture has made it into a frenzy of consumerism and materialism. In the Lord’s Prayer we find all the basics of what it looks like to follow Jesus. What can we learn from this example that will help us keep our Kingdom priorities during the craziness of the Christmas season?
We are one-of-a-kind revolutionaries with inner greatness meant to glorify God. He has a unique calling for each of us – something that he’s given us special gifts and passion for – and we’ll never be truly fulfilled until we follow it! But too often our God-given beauty gets caged in culturally conditioned lies about why we can’t do the extraordinary things we’re meant to do. God is calling Kingdom people to unleash the beauty he’s built into each of us!
God warns us to preserve sex for marriage, but why is it such a big deal? Our culture tells us that sex is recreational, but from God’s perspective whenever two people engage in sexual intercourse, they are sealing a sacred covenant that was meant to never be broken. God cares about our sex lives because he cares about the covenants we make with each other. As Kingdom people, we’re called to revolt against the corruption of our culture and be examples of his beautiful design for sexuality.
Luke’s story of Mary and Martha is very relevant for our culture: like Martha, we are obsessed with working and producing, even in the church! It’s clear that Mary’s “better way” revolts against simply “doing” and prioritizes a relationship with Christ. When that’s in place, the kingdom will naturally flow from us. But the opposite is not true. We’ll never get a relationship with Jesus by focusing on what we do. Greg also ties this important lesson to marriages.
Living in love for all people is one of the greatest challenges we face as Christians. Today, as in Jesus’ time, we often ask theoretical questions to justify ourselves and to limit who we love. In this message we’re challenged to ask how we self-sacrificially love and learn from those around us, including “outcasts” in our life. One crucial way to revolt against the systems of this world is to serve and be blessed by people who are judged by others.
The Revolting Beauty series continues as we are brought face to face with the very heart of God and the center of the Kingdom: namely, Jesus' teaching on self-sacrificial love. In this sermon we learn about the four types of love, and the importance of living in such a way that God's agape-love flows to and through us. Finally, Greg helps us consider some of the areas in our culture that we will naturally “revolt” against if we are walking in the “relational way” of God's self-sacrificial love.
Our modern, Western way of thinking can easily blind us to the reality of the spiritual world. We are called to revolt against this cultural tendency by waking up both to God’s constant presence in our lives and to the spiritual war around us. We also learn that Jesus has given his church authority over demonic powers in this world, and that no matter what we experience in this life, our hope and joy is rooted in the love of God!
Like Jesus' first disciples, we will be constantly confronted by anti-Kingdom values – in our case things like individualism, independence, and self-sufficiency. But Jesus' alternative Kingdom vision is very straightforward. As we reach out to the world around us, we're simply called to depend upon God and his community, enter into authentic relationships, act like Jesus, and then explain why.
In this first sermon of the Revolting Beauty series, we learn two aspects of how we are to stand out and revolt against our culture. First, no matter how “together” our lives are, God wants us to be part of what he is doing in the world. Second, allegiance to the Kingdom of God means that we may have to give up things that are good and normal in our culture. We need to consider even our most firmly rooted values: life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
Greatness in the Kingdom of God is never measured like it is in our Western culture. Instead of seeking power and control the way our society does, Jesus taught that “...whoever is least among you all is the greatest.” This has tremendous ramifications for how we minister to the people around us, and tells us a great deal about how God wants us to help spread his Kingdom.
What we know to be true often doesn't change us profoundly, but our experiences always leave a lasting impact. Each of us has a place within where we can meet the Lord during worship. When we practice the habit of vividly picturing Jesus during prayer and worship, this experience allows us to take on his glory and we're transformed more and more into his likeness.
God delights in the praises of His people. The manner in which we worship is not important. God is only concerned with our hearts and desire to worship. There are many ways to express our love for God through praise and worship, and it is in this diversity that we see the full beauty of our God.
To worship God is to reflect back to God how much he is worth to us. Our lives are an act of worship, including special times where we individually and corporately worship God. As we participate in worshipping the source of all life, love and beauty, we in turn are changed and transformed.
Our God is a great God! He is good, holy and worthy of praise. As followers of God, worship is a way of ascribing worth to God. It is expressing who God is and saying and singing what is true of him.
Jesus is both fully human and fully God. He is the beginning and fulfillment of God’s covenant with humanity. In Christ, God’s love and glory was revealed as he came and dwelt among us, serving, and ultimately suffering and dying to give us forgiveness and hope. It is the most amazing revelation in history!
God is an awesome and powerful God! He reveals his power not by control or force, but through love and sacrifice. God so loved the world that he sent his Son, Jesus, into the world, not to condemn it but to transform it, ultimately laying down his life for all on the cross. This kind of power and love was shocking then, and it is still shocking to our world today.
As Kingdom of God people, we are called to care and share with others. When Jesus commands his disciples to feed the crowd with only five loaves and two fishes in Luke 9:10-17, he is showing them that nothing is impossible with God, as everyone was fed and there were leftovers remaining. Our call is to trust and listen to how God would use us. No matter how much or little we have, God can use our faithfulness to abundantly bless others!
Up to this point in the story of Jesus, Jesus was the one who displayed the power of the Kingdom of God. At this point, Jesus charges the 12 disciples to do what he had been doing. The program given to the disciples follows a simple pattern: Do the Kingdom > Then Proclaim the Kingdom.
This last weekend concluded our sermon series on spiritual warfare, a topic that can be neglected or overly stressed in churches. As followers of Christ, it is important to recognize that there is a spiritual side to our world, in which principalities and powers are in opposition to the ways of God. In Christ, we can overcome and resist these influences both individually and collectively. To bring a biblically balanced approach to the topic, Greg Boyd (Senior Pastor) and Paul Eddy (Teaching Pastor) held a Q&A time to help answer questions from attenders. These audio files are a collection of all the questions and answers addressed during our three weekend services.
Spiritual warfare is a present reality in our war-torn world. There are principalities and powers, often unseen, which influence and distort what is true about God and His Creation. As followers of Christ, we do not need to fear these things. Rather, we are called to live in the truth of who we are in Christ, being filled with God’s Spirit and power, to come against and resist the strongholds and lies.
We live in a war-torn world of pain, hurt, violence and death. This is not how God intended creation to look. The Good News is God has sent his Son, Jesus, to defeat the powers of death, and to begin reconciling and redeeming the world unto God. When Jesus rebukes the storm mentioned in Luke 8:22-26, he is giving us a foretaste of the ultimate victory and restoration that is to come.
What is the difference between a vampire and Jesus? This may sound like a rather odd question to ask, but you may be surprised at the profound difference between the two. A vampire is known for two things: it loves to dwell in darkness and feeds off of people. Jesus is known for two things: he lives in light and sacrificially gives of himself in love for all.
There were many people following Jesus in the first century. They heard his preaching, observed his actions of love to the outcasts, and even witnessed his miracles. However, Jesus did not fit people’s expectations of how a Messiah should act. He did not conform to preciously established paradigms shaped by the culture of the time. These cultural blinders impacted people’s ability to receive what Jesus was saying.
When we look at the fallen world around us, we often see division, separation, and seclusion. Whether it’s separation by family, country, ethnicity, religion, there is a tendency to sort ourselves into people groups by what we like or do not like. Though this may be natural in this world, it is completely opposite of what the Kingdom of God is about. Jesus came and demonstrated a radical willingness to associate with people of all walks of life with the love of God.
In living a life of faith, it’s very important to allow Jesus to define how we see our life experiences. There are often moments in life when things do not turn out the way that we plan them to, or the way that we think things “should be.” And it's in these moments, that we have to look at the work of Jesus in our everyday lives, and trust that God is indeed present and bringing forth his Kingdom in and through us.
God chooses to engage us in all of our pain, division, and confusion to help us be healed. In Luke 7:11-17, Jesus demonstrates both the miraculous power and loving heart of God as he brings a widow's only son back from the dead. Just like Jesus had tremendous compassion on the widow, we can also seek to show God's compassion to help bring healing to others.
When we live inside God's “Reign", we are basically making the decision to agree with God's truth about reality in every area of our lives. This means that we define the development of our lives only around whatever God says about things like relationships, money, work, and recreation. Living in God's Reign assures a person that, as they grow spiritually, they are actively making Jesus the Lord of their lives.
Sound, wise teaching has no real effect in our lives if the teaching is not put into active, continuous practice. As we have seen throughout the “Sermon on the Plain” in Luke 6, Jesus lays out the demands and blessings of living as a disciple in the Kingdom of God. Jesus concludes his teaching with a challenge to his followers to embody his teachings and put them into living action.
Just like a tree reveals either good or bad fruit, our lives reveal to others who we truly are. As followers of Christ, we are called to live a life that reveals the beauty of God. We learn from Jesus that true beauty and change only comes from the inside-out. As our hearts are turned and transformed in Christ, our words and actions bring forth beauty.
Personal relationships are central to our lives. They have the power to give us beauty and meaning. At the same time, there is also plenty of opportunity for misunderstanding and conflict. Because of the risky nature of relationships, it's very important that we understand the nature of how we communicate so that we can continue growing into Kingdom ways of relating to one another.
A “bottom feeder” is a type of fish that eats just about anything it finds at the bottom of a body of water. Greg uses this term to represent a way of living where a person attempts to get life from things outside of themselves. Even church leaders can fall into a religious type of “bottom feeding” where they get life from the people they serve. In Luke 6:39-42, Jesus talks about just this type of thing when he speaks about the blindness and hypocrisy of some of the religious leaders. Greg describes an alternative to “bottom feeding"--"leading with a limp", where we humbly take our own weaknesses into account as we lead others.
Judgment of other people is a vicious cycle that destroys human relationships. Only God has the wisdom, power and ability to be an accurate judge of a person's life and character. Instead of creating self-centered little kingdoms for ourselves, we can follow the path of Jesus by living in perfect love.
To follow Christ is to live a life of love. Love is at the center of Jesus’ message and is the central teaching given in the Sermon on the Plain. To love like Christ is to love even when it is not deserved or expected. It is a radical love that calls us to love our enemies. The call to love also includes loving those who are close to us, even when it’s messy.
This weekend, we started our 6 week church-wide adventure entitled "The Beautiful Mess." The title may seem a little different, but it's very representative of how the Kingdom of God interacts with our lives. When a new way of living begins to reveal itself, it can bring beauty into our "normal" messes of life by actually "messing up" our so-called ordinary ways of thinking. It is just this idea that grounds Jesus' "Sermon on the Plain". With this Sermon, Jesus not only presented the very blueprint of Kingdom life, but he also did so by telling shocking truths that seemed somewhat upside-down from what may have been thought of as "normal" living.
During this beautiful Easter season, the most important question arises: Did Jesus really rise from the dead? The Christian faith and all its transformative power depends upon the truth of Jesus’ resurrection. Greg shared the top 5 arguments about believing in Jesus' resurrection along with some responses.
Jesus of Nazareth started a movement the likes of which the world has never seen. The Kingdom of God that was lived out in Jesus’ life and ministry has touched millions of people all over the world. What’s impressive is that Jesus began with just 12 chosen people.
Jesus has historically been seen as a powerful presence who bravely challenged the religious inconsistency and subtle oppression of his day. He sometimes broke serious religious rules that made some deeply question his actions. Some believed him to be just a troublemaker who had a disregard for God's rules for living. In reality, Jesus the Messiah was expanding the view of what God's life rules were really about.
The Lord Jesus was truly a Master Teacher to his disciples. Using his unique wisdom in the midst of tense and controversial situations brought on by the Pharisees, he was able to teach people deep truths about God...even without them knowing it. In Luke 6:1-5, we have an account where Jesus is doing just this very thing. Jesus and his disciples were being confronted by some of the Pharisaic religious leaders for picking grain on a Sabbath day, a religious offense that warranted serious punishment. He responded to them by mentioning how King David once did the same thing. Jesus further went on to say that he was, in fact, the Lord of the Sabbath.
To say that Jesus was a radical, “thinking-outside-of-the-box” person may well be the understatement of understatements! In living out his call as God's Messiah, he went against a lot of the expectations and categories of his Jewish contemporaries, especially the religious leaders. It appeared that everywhere he went he was turning social convention on its head with his Holy Spirit-empowered deep wisdom and amazing love. Jesus' incredibly loving, accepting behavior towards social outcasts and “sinners” made him the constant target of attention, scorn, and many questions from people.
Messiness often bothers people. Life is messy, and many things are ambiguous or undefined. There are no clear categories into which certain events can be placed. It can be too chaotic, and unsettling for some to endure. Because of this dislike of messiness, it is pretty understandable how we would like to make things clean and unambiguous as we can...including our relationship with God and His Kingdom. We learn from Jesus' ministry, however, that God's Kingdom is not as clean-and-nice as we might like for it to be.
There are a number of popular songs that mention the importance and need for a caring community. Songs like “Stand by Me” or “You've Got a Friend” mention relying upon each other in a time of need. They also demonstrate how good things can happen to individuals who “get a little help from their friends.” In the Luke 5:17-26 passage, we see an account of Jesus healing someone, and a clear example of a caring community that desired to help bring healing and wholeness to their friend.
Lepers in Jesus’ day were considered to be completely “untouchable” by mainstream society. They were excluded from the company of other “healthy people” and were forced to live alone or in leprous communities. Jesus, however, had no such limitations. When the leprous man came to Him to be healed, Jesus reached out to the man, touched him and made him well. In doing this, Jesus shows us how we are to minister to others.
Jesus desires to be a part of every area in our lives. Following God is not a spiritual exercise or ritual that is relegated only to church. Rather, it is a relationship that consists of giving to God everything about us, and being obedient to God's calling and direction in our lives.
As Christians we can sometimes lose sight of our true identity in Christ and become distracted by our lives, our interests, and our worries. We can begin to feel that God is a convenient "genie" who can fix what goes wrong in our lives or to bless our plans and ambitions. However, the truth of living in the Kingdom of God is that only when we give up our agendas and our ambitions can we actually begin to understand how we fit into what God is already doing. God does not fit into our plans; instead we are invited into His.
The Good News Jesus came to proclaim to humanity was for all people and for all areas of our lives. He came to heal and set free the poor, the oppressed, the blind, the captives and prisoners of judgment. Jesus applied Kingdom liberation to every form of oppression. Jesus sets a pattern of speaking the truth in love and then following through with action. He does not just talk about the Kingdom. He acts upon it.
The terms "blessing" and "blessed" are spoken of in many different church settings. However, there seem to be many differences of opinion on what the concept actually means. One thing that appears to occur across the board is that we do not usually think about pain and suffering in connection with blessing.
Jesus' ministry did not just focus on one aspect of human existence (ie. the need for forgiveness). It was holistic, ministering also to the physical, social and relational needs of the people he came in contact with. As followers of Christ, we are also called to live a life that reflects this love.
The Kingdom of God is incredibly different from any kingdom of this world. One of the major ways this is so is in the way that God's Kingdom includes everyone in its benefits. When it comes to God's love, no one is left as an outsider!
All humanity faces temptation. Part of being completely human is to deal with times of strong temptations. Jesus was fully man and fully God, therefore, His humanity allowed Him to face these temptations and to overcome them with the same tools He has given us-God’s word. Jesus was “led into the desert by the Spirit”, but once there he found that part of this wilderness experience was to be a time of testing and temptation for Him.
Christmas is a time of both celebration and reflection on the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Through the use of Christmas hymns and carols, we are reminded of just how amazing God’s love for us is, and of the sacrifice Christ made for us all by dying for our sins and redeeming us.
God’s love is perfect. As disciples of Christ, it is important to know and accept that God loves us. It is from His love that we are able to return love to God, ourselves, and then others. However, we have an enemy that wants to keep us from understanding and receiving this love.
We are constantly tempted to focus our time and energy meeting the expectations of other people instead of meeting God's expectations for our lives. This is an extremely strong temptation! Even Jesus, as Messiah, was expected by others to act and be a certain way. But God has given every one of us a unique identity to receive. The goal of our Christian life is to grow into and manifest this God-given identity, so that we can reflect His love to others.
Every human being faces temptations. Even our Lord Jesus was tempted. After being led into the wilderness by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was tempted by the Devil. There are a number of reasons to suggest that the scenes of Jesus' temptation played out within his mind. That does not mean that the temptations were not real. In fact, all temptation begins within the thoughts and emotions of the mind.
We live in a war zone! It is a world that is ruled and co-opted by evil schemes and plans, brought forth by a real enemy, Satan. It is into this world that Christ came to bring forth a new Kingdom, not of this world, but expressed through the radical beauty of God’s love. As believers in Christ, we are participants in this new Kingdom, and empowered by the Holy Spirit to resist the lies and temptations of this world.
This weekend concludes our six-week series entitled “Experiencing the Beautiful Life.” Over the course of the last few weeks we as a church have to begun to discover the deep yearnings we all have for more meaning and purpose in life. We have started to seek out a new way of doing life that connects us more deeply with God and with others. As we conclude the series, we look to God to continue the good work and bring about its lasting completion.
Living out the beautiful life of God’s kingdom requires living by faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Our main job in life is to be receptive, and by faith, willing to follow God’s leading in our lives. It is a life of vision and purpose; that does not settle.
Meaning and purpose in life. It is a longing and yearning that we all have. We want to make a difference and leave a mark in this world. The problem is that we don’t believe we are beautiful. To experience meaning in this life requires believing that God has wonderfully and beautifully made us. As we recognize our beauty we are then able to share this beauty with others.
Every human being is designed with basic yearnings and desires. One of our most basic desires is the need to connect with one another. However, in the overwhelming demands of modern life, we often do not listen to or even acknowledge these desires. Our lives and relationships look more like fragmented pieces than complete and meaningful masterpieces. To live out a beautiful life of belonging in God's kingdom is to live in covenant community with one another.
When we look are our hectic lives, we can sense the pain and despair that we often feel...but we never stop to think about what has really caused the problem of our shattered beauty. One important problem is that we have forgotten beauty related to the Center of the Kingdom, the Lord Jesus Christ. God wants us to create “spaces for God” so that we can experience the matchless beauty of Jesus in our daily lives, and then, see our own beauty!
When we read the Gospels, some of the words of Jesus may seem a little unrealistic to us. For example, in the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus actually speaks about people not being worried about how they shall get the things that they need to live, like food and clothing. Many of us spend a significant amount of time trying to secure the things that we need to survive. So when we see Jesus’ words, we find it hard to believe that he could really mean what he said. Perhaps the reason that we have such a hard time with Jesus’ words is because we are not truly understanding what he was saying.
This weekend, we started our “Beautiful Life” series! Sometimes, the state of the world can make life look so ugly, but God is a beautiful God that wants us to understand that life was meant to be enjoyed as beautiful. God wants to give us “beauty” in exchange for the “ashes” of our everyday existence and give us crowns that let us know who we were created to be in God.
When people think about “temptation”, they often think about thoughts or behaviors that seem obviously evil or negative. Because of this idea, it is sometimes assumed that temptation is something that can be easily avoided. What people forget is that something does not have to be evil in order to be a temptation. Sometimes, there may be several options to choose from that seem good, but that pull us away from what God would want us to do.
An important reality about being a follower of Jesus is that you are always a part of something that is larger than yourself. This is because followers of Jesus are in the Body of Christ, a collection of people who have completely dedicated themselves to the Kingdom of God. Not only is there interdependence between the people who make up the body, but there is also our link to the Head of the body, Jesus himself. What this means is that the way that we see Jesus and his ministry will affect how we see ourselves as well as our mission in the world.
When we think of the biblical characters, Adam and Jesus, we often think of them simply as individuals. We do this because we are accustomed to thinking according to Western individualistic categories. However, as we dive into the genealogy described in Luke, we are faced with the concept of holistic solidarity, where individuals cannot be separated from the “organic reality” of a larger whole. It is through this solidarity that Jesus becomes the “New Adam” and provides the way for the creation of a New Humanity in Christ.
Some people think that the genealogies of Jesus are outright boring. In reality, there is a wonderful truth communicated in those lines of names. The truth is that Jesus is not only the fulfillment of Israel’s hopes, but also the hopes for the entire human race. As Christians, we can live in that truth today!
The heart of God's kingdom is revealed in Jesus Christ as being a unique, holy and beautiful kingdom. Jesus did not come as great ruler, who cast judgment upon humanity and used his power over others. Instead, he came as a humble servant who ultimately sacrificed his life for us so that we could be forgiven of our sins and be open to the choice of being in relationship with God. As Christ's followers, we are called to be a participant in this kingdom and to follow His example.
Jesus’ kingdom-bringing life was so powerful because Jesus was continually being guided by the Holy Spirit. In the same way, it is only by the power of the Holy Spirit that Jesus’ followers can demonstrate the beauty of God’s kingdom. As we seek to remove “clutter” from our busy lives, we can experience more and more of the Holy Spirit's transforming influence daily.
There are various opinions about what it means to be a Christian. One thing that does not get mentioned often is the idea of being "beautiful." The truth is that the Kingdom of God is a reality of beauty. And Jesus, who is the King of that Kingdom, is also beautiful. When Kingdom reality is lived out by people who have completely dedicated themselves to God, there is an obvious attractive quality to it. God is calling all of us to be beautiful...just like he is beautiful!
When Jesus came, as prophesied in this passage by John the Baptist, he ignited a kingdom fire. This was much more than a social or a political restructuring so that people could have better lives. This kingdom fire came to work from the inside out. It starts with the heart, then moves outward into actions and lastly into social and political structures.
Following a recent article in the New York Times, Scott revisited some of the questions raised by Greg in his sermon series, “The Cross and the Sword.” As a new pastor at Woodland Hills, he told about how he first learned of the sermon series and the responses people had to it. Discussing the differences between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God, Scott pointed out that as Christians, we are to belong first and foremost to God's Kingdom, while still being engaged with what is happening in the world, but laying aside political differences when it comes to the body of Christ.
The kingdom of God revolution is all about revealing God's radical love and "good news" to the world. A central aspect to this kingdom is the Spirit of God operating within believers in empowerment and comfort. It is the first thing that John the Baptist mentions about Jesus and his ministry... "He (Jesus) will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire" (Luke 3:16). The Spirit of God is spoken of throughout the Bible and has been commonly referred to as the Holy Spirit, which is the third person in the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit).
In a section of his letter to the church at Rome, the apostle Paul speaks about the Kingdom of God and how human life is shaped by that Kingdom. This is emphasized in the way Paul uses baptism in his discussion. He encourages his audience to look upon their baptism experience to recall who they really are and to whom they really belong. Our baptism actively demonstrates the burial of our old lives without Christ as well as the renewal of our lives in Christ.
Baptism is a public confession of faith in Christ. It is a renunciation of living the way the world lives, with all of its lures and traps, and pledging to live a life that is solely for Christ. It is a life that is radically distinct from the ways of the world. One of the first mentions of baptism following Christ’s resurrection is found in the book of Acts (2:37-38). In this passage, the apostle Peter speaks to those who just heard the “good news” of Jesus, and tells them to: “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.”
Our world is often filled with stress and trials. As discouragement builds in our lives, we have a natural desire to build up defensive walls to protect ourselves from being hurt by a hurtful world. Unfortunately, these defenses can lead toward increasing self-centeredness, frustration, and even unbelief against God. The biblical author of the “Hebrews” letter understood this behavior pattern well. In chapter 3, the author uses a tragic story to speak a word about something important and urgent: the need for encouragement.
The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed (see Mark 4:30-32). It is a revolution that is quietly growing, but will one day come to full fruition. Christ has planted the seed by first coming to redeem us. He will one day return to reap the harvest, purging the world of all that is inconsistent with his Kingdom and restoring creation as it was meant to be. As followers of Christ, we have the opportunity to participate in this future Kingdom reality, today. Like John the Baptist, we are preparing the way of the Lord. One sign of this mustard seed revolution is seen through the baptism of believers.
There comes a time in everyone's life where the wine runs out, when the excitement ends, life turns out to be less than you thought it would be or your accomplishments feel empty. Based on John 2:1-11, the questions that were raised are, “What will you do?” “Where do you go?” and “Who do you turn to?” Mary shows us that in a crisis the person you want there and to whom you turn is Jesus.
Baptism is a crucial element of the Body of Christ, the church. It's been a staple among Christians for literally thousands of years. In his third chapter, Luke makes implicit and explicit points that shed light on the Kingdom of God, including the significance of baptism. Luke's writing shows him to be a good and serious historian. Like other historians of his time, he used the reigns of important rulers, like Caesar and Pilate, to let the audience know the time and date when he’s writing yet he chose to focus his perspective on God's activities in human history, specifically the coming Messiah.
Jesus is the perfect, sinless human being who models what human existence in God's kingdom should look like. He demonstrates a life of increasing growth and learning in the ways of God. Jesus lived a life where he learned from his life experiences and gained insights into what life is really all about...all to God's glory. As we live like Jesus, we are to have lives where we, too, increase in growing in wisdom.
The message of John the Baptist came into a chaotic period of history. In the middle of this chaos were the people of Israel. They did not know what their future would hold. To these people, John the Baptist proclaimed a message of repentance, an invitation to change one’s focus from the chaotic nature of circumstance to the God who was coming to bring salvation. Hope is only found in the saving actions of God, the faithful one who completes what he started. Modern life is characterized by chaos. In the midst of this chaos we need hope, solid ground on which to stand. Jesus is our only hope; he is the only consistent factor in this crazy world.
Jesus grew in wisdom and he impressed the teachers of the law with his insight when he was only twelve years old. This wisdom and insight was not based upon a reservoir of head-knowledge. He was not impressing people with the facts he had stored up from studying. Instead he was demonstrating insight into life. He had understanding and he grew in this understanding. God wants to use a difficult marriage or a frustrating work environment to teach us something. While he is not the source of these troubles, he is wise enough to know how he can take advantage of trials to refine us and give us wisdom.
As Christians we believe that God, out of love for us, set-aside his divinity and became a finite human being in order to bring humanity to redemption. Despite knowing this truth, we can sometimes feel as though God sent Jesus to live and die among us as a sort of “fallback” plan. The common view of the cross can sometimes become a “plan B” theory. However, the idea that God sent Jesus after every other effort had failed, is not Biblical.
As Christians we believe that Jesus was both fully God and fully man. While some groups emphasize his divinity and others his humanity, we realize that both are essential to the person of Jesus Christ. Therefore, because Christ was fully human, we realize that he can fully enter into our human experience. He did this to identify with us and to bring redemption. As human beings one of our deepest needs is to be completely known and understood. For this reason, it was essential that Christ fully entered into our human experience so that we can be assured of his ability to relate to us in every way.
The prophetess Anna understood the importance of praying with others. She spoke to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem. Today, we often live our lives isolated from otheres and are too busy to align ourselves with other believers. Anna shows us that being involved in a community of believers is an essential part of our walk with God. By looking at what Jesus taught in Matthew 18:19-20, we can learn three practical guidelines for cultivating a deeper fellowship with others in prayer.
Prayer was a way of life for Anna. She prayed with patience and an expectation that God would come through. We, however, live in a fast-food society that tells us to “have it our way” with little investment and immediate gratification. Prayer is not a fast-food, drive-thru experience. Rather, just like a three course meal, it takes time and patience to develop a meaningful relationship with Jesus. There are three basic courses to a good meal with him.
Prayer was a way of life for Anna. She worshiped and prayed both night and day. As believers we know that prayer is powerful and effective. However, sometimes it is hard to know how to pray. It can become difficult to concentrate and feel that prayer is real. The example of Anna and others throughout scripture teach us three basic principles for an active and meaningful prayer life.
Christ’s resurrection is miraculous! The claim that a human being rose from the dead, and is God, is very difficult to comprehend. We’re used to people dying and staying dead. Our culture is looking to new insights and reasons to disprove and disbelieve the validity of the Gospels and the resurrection of Jesus. However, the New Testament Gospels make the claim that Jesus is God, and that he indeed rose from the dead. In contrast to recent discoveries, like the Gospel of Judas, the New Testament Gospels have been proven historically accurate, and have withstood the test of time. Even with all of the historical evidence, we still, by faith, have to make a choice to believe. We can either believe that Christ was a liar or a crazy person, or we can believe that Jesus is God and that he indeed rose from the dead.
Anna was a woman who dedicated her life to prayer and fasting. She understood how prayer works in our complex world. As followers of God, we know that prayer is powerful and effective. However, it can sometimes be difficult to have faith that prayer really makes a difference, especially when our prayers are not answered in the ways we expect. It is important to consider how to reconcile our disappointments with the scriptural promises of prayer.
Prayer is powerful and effective. It is an important and necessary act of spiritual warfare for the believer. Throughout scripture, we are shown that prayer can change the outcome of situations. Believers are therefore called to pray, not solely out of obedience, but with a sense of urgency and faith. God uses our prayers to bring about his will on earth as it is in heaven. He has chosen us to be co-laborers with him to fulfill his purposes.
Anna was a widow who spent most of her life in the temple fasting, worshipping and praying to God in solitude. Through the world’s eyes, she was not considered important, visible or successful. However, in God’s Kingdom, she was considered a hero and a success. Anna’s life is a testimony for us as believers, because she was exactly where God called her to be. She was obedient and faithful to the calling God specifically gave her.
Worship is the essence of the Christian life. Anna, an example for us today, lived a life that was characterized by worship. She worshipped God night and day. To worship God is to simply behold and express the beauty of Jesus Christ, and to be transformed by this beauty. God's love was expressed most clearly at Calvary, when he gave his Son as a ransom for our sins, so that we could be free and have a relationship with him. Worship is speaking, singing and living in this reality and then being transformed by it.
Anna was a woman that God used to speak to the people about Jesus the Messiah. It is significant that scripture records in this verse and in other parts of scripture that a woman was given a word of prophecy that was for all people (not only other women). The issue of women in church leadership is one that is debated in evangelical circles. However, scripture demands we look more closely at what it says about women leading in the church.
For disciples of Christ, the Word of God cuts and divides. God sees us for who we really are, and his desire is to mold and shape us into this person. God desires to carve away and remove anything that is sinful in our lives. He wants us to grow and may place new convictions on our hearts in the process. Our job as followers of Jesus is to humble ourselves, repent, and allow God to mold and shape us.
The message that Simeon gives Mary has a heavy, ominous tone, as he predicted that Jesus would actually cause many to fall and that people would speak against him. This prophetic message establishes the fact that the good news of the Gospel is much more than set of encouraging thoughts or beliefs, but in fact it is offensive in nature. It offends because it challenges the lives of those who hear it to live a different way.
Life can become very busy, and it is easy to lose focus. Everyday realities and problems can disrupt our relationship with God. We are constantly bombarded by little things that can bide for our time, and divert attention from what really matters. As believers in Christ, communion is one of God’s ways of reminding us of what really matters. Communion helps to us to remember what Christ did for us and refocuses our lives towards him.
According to the Old Testament and Jewish tradition, the Messiah would be anointed to be three things: 1) a priest (mediating God-Israel relation) 2) a warrior (liberating Israel from oppressive powers) 3) a king (ruling Israel in truth and justice). These were the expectations of the first century Jews. Jesus came and fulfilled these expectations but did so in an unexpected way. He was and is all these things, but in a way much different, and far deeper, than Jews at the time understood. He “over-fulfilled” the expectations.
In our world today, we are exposed to so many things that can cause us to be worried or anxious. Yet, in Christ we have hope that this life is not all that there is. In Christ we can have hope and know that he can bring peace into our lives, even in the midst of living within a terrifying and hopeless world. As believers in Christ, we have God's Holy Spirit dwelling within us to help us live out Christ's hope to those who fear in this world. Like Simeon, we know that God keeps his promises, and that he has revealed his son, Jesus, to redeem all humanity and to give us peace.
God’s love and mercy for us is fully revealed in the person of Jesus Christ. Christ did not come to hold back the wrath of God; rather He came to deliver us from the bondage of Satan. Through sin, we are made slaves to Satan’s dominion. However, through Christ’s death on the cross, we are bought back from the power of sin and death. The sacrifices of the Old Testament remind us of the consequences of sin and point to a time when Christ would pay the price of sin for all who choose to believe in Him.
God’s kingdom is paradoxical. The paradox is displayed in how God uses our weaknesses to make us strong. In spite of our weaknesses, God uses us to bring about His kingdom. The things in our lives that we see as weaknesses or stumbling blocks are actually opportunities for God to reveal to us his power and strength in us and through us.
Like the shepherds whom the angel of the Lord spoke to, God wants us to know that we do not need to be afraid of Him. His character in the person of Jesus Christ displays His love for us. The message of His love is good news! Out of this abundant relationship with Jesus, comes a desire to share this good news with others.
In an age when rulers were given titles like “savior” and “lord”, the true Savior of the world was born. The birth of Christ brought about a Kingdom that looks very different from the way the kingdoms of this world operate. In a lowly manger, God declared that his Kingdom was not of this world and that his love and salvation would embrace all of human kind.
As believers in Jesus Christ, we are a part of a community who lives by faith. Faith is defined in the book of Hebrews (11:1) as the substance of things hoped for, the conviction/assurance of things not seen. By faith, we believe that God desires to build His Kingdom in us and through us. He wants to rule in every aspect of our lives. This includes our hearts, minds, and relationships. But, it also includes our bodies. Faith involves believing that God can restore and bring healing.
At times, we're all sucked into the “reindeer games” of our culture – seeking money, success, possessions, reputations, or talent. We can also get sucked into the game of religion and feel like we'll never be good enough for God. Reindeer games make us feel like misfits! Greg used a video clip from “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & The Island of Misfit Toys” to remind us that God isn't interested in the games of this world. They're all geared toward winning happiness and worth from a source other than God. He encouraged us this Christmas season to opt out of the reindeer games and live free by getting our value and worth from Christ.
Are you willing to have your life interrupted by God? Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, had his life turned upside-down as he said “yes” to God’s plan for his life. Joseph can be considered to us, as followers of Christ, a hero of the Kingdom of God. He is a model for what it means to live in the Kingdom. Joseph was a person, who without any consideration for his own personal gain, without any regard for how it would cost him, gave up his own plans and dreams and followed what God was calling him to.
The definition of something being “sanctified” means that it is separated (set apart) unto God for His exclusive use. God desires our entire being to be sanctified and conformed to His will. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5). Our intellect, will and behavior are aspects of our being that we can learn to surrender to God. But, there is also another part of our being, one that is given very little attention to within teachings on sanctification; our emotions.
The telling of the birth of Jesus is the ultimate example of how God brings about His Kingdom into the world by bringing about salvation (God’s plan) within a context of human power (man’s plan).The savior of the world came into the world very different than a worldly king would have entered. As we look at our world today, it may look like the Caesars of the world (rulers, principalities, powers) are in control. Yet, it is important to remember that God is ultimately in control. God is always at work in all situations, subversively bringing to pass his own plans and purposes and bringing redemption.
Zachariah's Song alludes to over 35 different Old Testament scriptures. With the use of phrases like “God of Israel,” “to his people,” “from our enemies,” “his servant David,” and “our father Abraham” the reader of this song should recognize how Zachariah is looking back. But he is not just looking back. He is looking back to look forward. He is using the actions of God recorded in the Old Testament as a backdrop for the even greater things God will do through Jesus Christ. With these allusions we can see how God makes His-Story, how the story of God's dealings with Israel becomes the story of God redeeming the entire world.
In part one of this two-part series, the nature of the fenced-in self was introduced. This sermon dealt with the two that relate to the individualistic focus that characterizes the fenced-in self. Living within the four walls of the fenced-in self, we hide from others, trying not to reveal any weaknesses or short-comings, thereby we reject feedback as we live the unobserved life. The final two fences are torn down through the receiving of the connected life and the sharing of the connected life.
In this prophetic song, Zechariah speaks a blessing over his new born son, John. He says, "And you my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him." John 1:76. These are words of blessing that form a foundation upon which John built his life and ministry. These words established him in the story of God and helped shape his identity.
We read in different parts of the Bible that we are to fear God, but what does that mean? Many people live in a state of constant fear that God will reject them or cause them harm if they act or think in certain ways. This is not what the Bible means by fearing God. But fearing God doesn't mean nothing. In our culture, God has become so common that he is no longer sacred. People act without any regard for what God thinks. What then is a proper understanding? It is true that God did become one of us, taking on human flesh. But if all we see is the intimate God, he becomes too “nice” and too “tamed” to be worthy of worship.
In Mary's song, she proclaims that God has touched the poor but has rejected the rich. That he has chosen to humble people of power while lifting up the humble. In other words, those who look like they deserve the blessings of God miss out on them. The Kingdom of God is one that is upside down. It is the great reversal that does not make sense to our power-hungry and money-crazed world. God's view of success evaluates life much differently. The world sees money and power as the sign of success. In the Kingdom, success is defined by what you do with them.
Mary's song praises God because He scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. God's is incredibly concerned about how we think because what we do is a product of how we think. Inmost thoughts steer all of life. Our quality of life is determined by our thought lives.
Greg contrasted the difference between world ecomonics and kingdom economics using something he called The Mary Principle. The Mary Principle simply stated is, the greatest blessing is found in blessing others. He based all of this by first discussing what Mary being blessed did not mean. True blessing in the kingdom means being used by God for his purposes.
This weekend Woodland Hills joined in a national event called “Porn Sunday”. The goal of this weekend was to expose issues surrounding pornography and to openly discuss the effects it has on our society, marriages and children. Greg used this as a basis for his message to discuss ways pornogrophy jades our view of sex, contrasting it with God's view of sex.
Mary’s Song illustrates for us what participation with God in the divine dance looks like. Her song paints a broad picture that helps us understand what it means to get involved in the God life. Recorded in Luke 1:46-55, Mary’s song is an expression of worship, but not just any kind of worship. Her song is one that paints a specific picture of a dance with God, a risky dance of adventure with the untamable, unfathomable God.
The discussion about the filling of the Holy Spirit, is nothing if not controversial. There are those who make this the linchpin of the church, while other run from it and steer clear of any discussion about it. To attain some biblical understanding of the filling of the Holy Spirit, we will look at three questions. Question #1: Is the infilling of the Spirit distinct from simply believing? Question #2: What is the evidence of the infilling of the Spirit? Question #3: What does the infilling of the Holy Spirit do?
Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit when she was greeted by Mary, the mother of Jesus. To be filled or immersed in the Holy Spirit is a phrase often quoted, but what exactly occurs when we experience this filling? The role of the Holy Spirit is to connect our spirits with the divine nature so that we actually participate with God in His life. The goal of discipleship is to see yourself as you really are. See yourself as defined by Christ, as participating in God's self-relationship, the divine nature. When this is your self-image, all other sources of self-esteem become petty.
When Mary greeted Elizabeth, she was filled with the Holy Spirit. One of the central characteristics of the Kingdom Jesus inaugurated is that people would be immersed in the Holy Spirit. This Holy Spirit is not a sub-diety; He is the third person of the Trinity, three persons but one God. There are five biblical facts that substantiate the reality of the Trinity: 1.The Bible names that Father as God. 2.The Bible states that the Son is God. 3.The Bible also refers to the Holy Spirit as God. 4.The Father, Son and Spirit interact with one another. 5.The Bible makes it clear that there is only ONE God.
The story recorded in Luke 1:39-45 highlights Mary's visit to her cousin Elizabeth who was pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth and John represent the old, while Mary and Jesus represent the new, the new things that God is doing in the world. Elizabeth and John are not in competition with Mary and Jesus; instead they acknowledge, submit and rejoice in the new that is coming.
"He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever. His kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:32-33). Such were the words of Gabriel to Mary regarding the coming of Jesus. These were words promising that Jesus would be the Messiah, the one who would reign over the earth, bringing peace and victory.So what does it mean for Jesus to reign today or “for everything to placed under his feet” as Paul writes in Eph 1:22? Where is the victory?
In July, Annie shared with us how God gives each of us a unique design and gifts to further the Kingdom of God. This week she was back to share a little more about what God’s “Kingdom Challenge” for us involves. The text Annie used was I Peter chapters 3 and 4 where the author is writing to Christians in Asia Minor who are suffering under intense resistance from their culture.
Greg’s sermon this week broke down into three parts. The topic was the meaning of the angel’s words when the angel told Mary that she was favored (Luke 1:28). Part I of the sermon focused on what “favored” does not mean. Part II focused on what it does mean. And part III examines why the word “favor” is used at all.
This week Associate Pastor Dwayne Polk continued his discussion of community by taking a close look at the powerful biblical metaphor of the Church as the Body of Christ. He started off by marveling at the amazing work of God in creating a human being. Our bodies and their various features are truly miraculous. Not only did God have an amazing plan for the human body, God has an amazing plan for the Church, the spiritual body of Christ, through which God intends to accomplish the reign of God on Earth.
It was great to hear from Dwayne Polk—one of our Associate Youth Pastors—this week! Dwayne reminded us of an important word Greg delivered to Woodland Hills in June of 2004. God led Greg to speak these words to us: “I know of your passion in worship and fervor in proclamation, but you are too much of an event and too little of a community…become a community. Let all who have an ear to hear listen to what the Spirit is saying.” Dwayne then challenged us to look at what it would look like to be living in redemptive community.
It was great to hear from Kevin Johnson, our Community Pastor this week! Kevin pointed us to a couple of key passages on hearing God in the Gospel of John. The first passage asserts that God’s sheep hear God’s voice and follow. The second reminds us that not only will God’s people follow God, but that God will abide with us. All of this points to the important truth that God desires to speak to us because it is in God’s nature to do so.
Annie shared passionately that we each need to understand our unique Kingdom purpose. She reminded us of Greg’s message last week and the fact that Mary’s willing spirit was the primary qualification God needed from her to do an amazing thing in the world. This same thing, our willingness, will determine how God is able to use us too. God designed us with a very specific idea in mind and, and finding out what God designed us to do is a personal process of discovery. Annie ended her sermon by reading The Tale of Three Trees retold by Angela Elwell Hunt and challenged us to be willing like Mary was, even if we feel like “nobody from nowhereville”.
God sends the angel Gabriel to Mary to tell her that the Lord has shown favor on her. She would conceive Jesus who would be the heir to David and his reign would have no end! Greg spent significant time emphasizing that the way God works is not how we might expect. The fact that God overlooks all of the “usual suspects” when it comes to starting a revolution, and chooses a young peasant girl as the entry point for the King, this demonstrates the character of the Kingdom. It is often just the opposite of what we might expect.
Continuing our study of Luke, we managed to get as far as Luke 1:18-25! Zechariah is in the temple and is visited by the angel Gabriel. Zechariah questions Gabriel about the promises of a son. He has asked for a sign of this. Gabriel grants Zechariah the sign: silence until the birth of John the Baptist! God had sent Gabriel to deliver “good news” to Zechariah. This idea of “good news” was the centerpiece of Greg’s message today.
Greg reviewed the main points from last week which were: individually, we all need to “get a life.” By this he means we need to get out life from Christ so that we are operating out of a fullness, rather than a deficit. Then as couples, we need to get a life together! One of the best things parents can do for their children is to model what it is for parents to love one another and have a rich, vibrant life together. This week Greg focused on a third principle. Breaking the domino effect of generational curses through the power of forgiveness.
This week's sermon is entitled “Kingdom Parenting.” Greg kept our eyes on Luke 1:13-17 and pointed out that there is a prophecy being fulfilled here that might escape our attention if we read through this passage too quickly. It is found in verse 16 that John will “turn the hearts of the parents to their children” which echoes what was stated in Mal. 4:5-6. The focus of today's message is what does it mean to be “kingdom parents"?
John the Baptist’s role was to prepare the way for Jesus. The Church has a role that is similar to John’s: just as he prepared the way for Christ 2000 years ago, we too are to prepare the world for the second coming. We are to live today as though Jesus were coming back at any time. We don’t live the way the world lives. We are a part of a revolution. We invest in the Kingdom. We revolt against the status quo. We work to bring about the Kingdom on Earth as it is in heaven. And as we do this, we hasten the Lord’s return.
Greg started out by reading through Luke 1:13-17; Luke 1:42,44; and John 18:36. Luke’s gospel starts with the birth of a revolutionary movement—the beginning of the Kingdom of God. It’s like a mustard seed that though small at first will prove victorious in the end. We, as Christians are to be known by how different we are from the world. That is, how truly we love one another and the world.
Stina Busman preached this morning on grief. She offered this question for reflection: What do we do when we have to live with and after disappointment and defeat? As we all know, some things in this world go profoundly wrong. For Stina, it was the loss of Scott, her fiancé. Stina closed with a challenge: who will write the end of this chapter: Jesus or the enemy? We may grieve deeply, but we do so with great expectation!
Efrem spoke about familes and how they can be a great place to pass down a blessing or they can be a place that can pass down curses. Using Genesis 4:1-11 he tried to help us understand why the events that happened in the story of Cain and Abel could occur.
Greg spoke this week on “The Invisible Society: The Truth about Angels.” The word “angel” is a transliteration and means “messenger” in Greek. We see in Scripture that God sometimes sends an angel as a messenger to God’s children. Greg offered these four teaching points during the sermon:Angels are real, there are LOTS of angels, angels are under God’s direction, not ours, and some are good, but some are evil.
Sandra Unger began this sermon with a visualization exercise. We were asked to picture in our minds the following people: a mailman, nun, rapper, basketball player, pilot, Christian and finally a disciple of Jesus. For many people, it was easy to conjure up a picture of the first five but the last two posed a problem. Following Jesus is actually remarkably simple. Submit your entire life to Christ and he will give you a new one. It’s not difficult to know what the right thing to do is. But it is often very difficult to jump into the unknown territory that comes along with doing the right thing.
Greg began by reading Luke 1:8-10. In previous messages we heard about how the Old Testament teachings are often a shadow of what is to come in the New Testament. Specifically, the temple of the Old Testament foreshadows what the Christian and the Christian church should be today. The primary functions of the temple were sacrifice, prayer, and worship.
Rev. Brenda's message today was entitled: Operation Push: Pray Until Something Happens, and was based on John 5:1-19. As stated in verse 19, “the Son can do nothing on his own, but only what he sees the Father doing.” Jesus walked with his spiritual eyes open in order to see what the Father was doing. He knew he had to stop and say what he could see. That is why Jesus was accurate in prayer. He only said what he could see. He only did what he could see God was doing.
This week we got a glimpse at the real Woodland Hills Church! The Body of Christ is made up of all the followers of Christ, not just the church staff. A healthy body makes efficient use of all its parts. The video we saw showed much more of our actual church body than we usually get to see. Greg referred us to two main texts to support this idea that church is about the people, not the building or just the leadership.
This week's message on “Smelling Good to God” was drawn from Luke 1:8-10. Greg used this text as an opportunity to show how the Old Testament temple structure and worship offer insights into the language and imagery of the New Testament. A significant part of Greg's message centered on the new reality of us, both collectively and individually being the temple of God (1 Cor. 3:16, 6:19). Collectively, as the community of faith, we are the Body of Christ, and the temple of God. The Holy Spirit dwells within us. So, what then does this mean? Since we are all now priests of God, we also share the responsibilities of priests. If we feel that our lives are not very dynamic and exciting in terms of our Christian walk, we may want to accept this challenge! God wants all of our lives. As we yield more and more to God, we will experience the peace that comes from drawing on the true source of Life.
The church needs to be positioned as an agent of God's love in the world. People decide which church to attend based on a lot of things (location, denomination, who’s preaching, etc.), but they stay in a church because there is love. What does this love look like? Efrem offered us four elements of what it means to be “the beloved community” and a force of love in the world. To illustrate the kind of life being advocated, he used a humorous but poignant comparison between Batman/Batgirl and Superman/Wonder Woman. Efrem’s challenge was to understand that we were born to live as children of God. We are intended for great things in this world and beyond.
Greg began with Luke 1:5-7. The focus was on Elizabeth and Zachariah, both of whom where obedient to “the Lord’s commands and decrees.” The next sentence in the text starts with the word “but” and indicates something unexpected and in this case disappointing for Elizabeth and Zachariah. “But they were childless…” and “…both well advanced in years” which to first century Jewish ears would have sounded like a curse. Greg used this passage to raise a few questions: What do we do when we feel that God has not honored a promise? What do we do when it looks like God has let us down? How do we deal with disappointment with God?
In the last two weeks Greg spent time showing the flaws in the "conspiracy theory" and the "legendary theory." This week he addressed another theory that secular scholars offer to answer the question: "What happened to produce the Gospel accounts?" The resurrection could have been a hallucination. Greg had five responses to counter this theory.
In this message, Greg explains the "Legendary Theory." This theory maintains that though the authors of Luke weren't consciously lying and trying to deceive people (they genuinely believed what they where saying), they were just wrong about essential things like Jesus' being both the messiah and God! They were not trying to deceive, but they themselves were deceived, according to the Legendary Theory.
Greg introduced the Book of Luke by first providing some context for the Gospel. Then he launched into a big question that occurs to many who read the Bible in general: "Is this true?" In other words, is the Gospel about Jesus that Luke researched and presents true? And to get at this he broke it down as follows: either it is true or it is false. If it is false, then it can be false in one of two ways: intentionally false (Conspiracy Theory) or unintentionally false (Legendary Theory). This week's message focused on showing how irrational the Conspiracy Theory is.
Kevin Johnson, our community pastor, continued his two-part series. He began with an affirmation that it is the very nature of God to speak to us and lead us. Not only in exceptional situations but as a general rule! God is not a single independent entity, but a community of three persons. Community, and therefore communication, is as the foundation of God’s reality.
Kevin Johnson, our Community Pastor, introduced this week’s message with a statement: “I want to hear from God.” Every culture seems to have felt this desire. It’s a human urge to be connected with our Source, with God, with our Creator. We want to make contact with the divine somehow, and different cultures have developed many diverse ways of expressing this. Does God speak to us today?
“Why did Jesus have to die?” We all know that Jesus died “to take away the sin of the world.” But what about a more complete explanation? How can Jesus be justly punished for our sin? A common explanation has been that the Father’s wrath against our sin moves God to destroy us because a holy God cannot tolerate sin. The Son becomes a buffer and takes the punishment in our stead. While this is true, it is not the entire truth. Greg challenged this thinking by reminding us of some of the biblical descriptions of the work of Christ. Jesus reveals the love of God, not merely conceals God’s wrath.
Jesus gives us the greatest commandment, to love God, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. We've all heard this command, but we tend to resist the basis for loving our neighbors — loving ourselves. The “small story” we often live in focuses on what we've done, what was done to us, and what we dislike about ourselves. The Big Story is the eternal perspective. It includes not only us, but what God has done, is doing, and will do through us. In Christ, we are to see our story as part of the Big Story. With God's help we can embrace this process to overcome the evil within.
This week, Woodland Hills Church truly had a blessing! Rev. Dr. Brenda Salter-McNeil came back to preach the Word of God and finish up her two-part series “River of Life,” from her November 2004 visit. She opened up by singing “Spirit of the Living God” and reminding us that it’s only by God’s Holy Spirit that we can be empowered to do anything of Kingdom value.
No study guide is available for this service, which was different from the 11:00 service.
Please note, this study guide is only applicable to the 11:00 a.m. service. Unfortunately, we did not anticipate that Neil would give three different sermons for each service! Though very generous on his part, it was a surprise to us! This message challenged us to be content as children of God, walking freely in the Spirit, and it warned us of the two things that might prevent us from experiencing the freedom we have: legalism and license.
In this sermon, Greg reinforces the message of the Kingdom of God by helping us see our lives not only in relationship to ourselves and those closest to us, but also in the “big picture” of what God is doing in the world. The Kingdom of God is like a mustard seed that is growing within the world to transform it. It is not only how it impacts our personal lives that matters, but also how our personal lives participate in the larger Kingdom efforts that God is calling us to.
Everything in our lives is connected in some way to every other thing in our lives. We must be aware of this if we are truly to root out sin and manifest the Kingdom of God. The biblical image is that of yeast leavening a whole lump of dough, which is used both positively (Mat. 13:33) and negatively (2 Cor. 5:16). Sin—including festering anger, unforgiveness, resentment—works like yeast to penetrate deep into the lives of those affected; likewise, the Kingdom of God works like yeast transforming the whole for good as well. Therefore, we cannot really compartmentalize our lives. And as we begin to cooperate with the yeast of the Kingdom of God in our lives, we quickly find the world resisting us.
Christians are the “first fruits” of the “human harvest” that God is bringing up on the earth. Greg discusses how just as in a natural harvest a small portion of the crop is ready early, we as Christians in this world now are ready for heaven before others have realized that heaven has been prepared for them! Contrary to the assumption that when the messiah came all would be transformed immediately, Jesus teaches that there is a process, an unfolding that will occur. We are a part of that process as the first fruits!
Greg is internationally known for his work on what theologians call "the problem of evil," which was the subject of this week's sermon. People had been calling Greg all week asking "Did God cause the tsunami in Asia? If not, why did God allow it?" Such questions assume that God is directly responsible for natural disasters; Greg argues that this assumption is not biblical.
Central to Greg’s message today was that the incarnation was not simply a historical act that ended at Christ’s ascension. It goes MUCH further than that! The Church IS the Body of Christ - we are the hands, the feet, the ambassadors, the temple, the Body through which God works. Therefore, we must share Christ’s attitude summed up by this phrase: be present, in love, without judgment.
The term “perichoresis” was used by the church many hundreds of years ago to describe the inner life of God, which includes the Father, Son and Holy Spirit fully knowing one another. This is sometimes artistically illustrated by a divine dance, which God wants us to become a part of as well. In Christ, God has made a way to include us in the dance even though we do not deserve to be included, and we persistently resist the movements required (full transparency, self-sacrifice, interest in the other over ourselves, etc.).
Today’s message was on the offensiveness of the gospel, which becomes apparent when we start out by asking a typical human question: “What’s in it for me?” Consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John the Baptist – people who gave up much to obey God and suffered greatly as a result. Obeying God will have painful consequences so long as this world is under the reign of the enemy. The kingdom of God is not like this world, and when we bring this opposing Kingdom into the world we will find strong resistance, and it will cost us something.
This week, Greg preached an inspiring message that concluded his Kingdom of God series and emphasized how God the Father is a living, interactive God who is always working in the world. As such, the kingdom of God is one of the “here and now”! To the extent that Christianity is transformed from finding life in Christ to finding life from Christian religiosity and moral correctness, it will not only continue to alienate others by living in judgment but also blind its followers to how God is actively, vibrantly working right NOW in those alienated.
Greg continued his series on the kingdom of God and focused on living life moment by moment. All we really can offer to God is the very moment we are in – will we bring our faith into the moment-by-moment reality of our life? Greg discussed Gen. 28:10-13 and 16-17, focusing specifically on the fact that Jacob was awakened (through a dream) to the presence of God right in the very place he stood. We must remember that God is with us right here in the place where we stand, where we work, where we sin, where we worship, everywhere.
This week, Ike, our Associate Community Pastor, discussed how communion is meant to be a celebration. Ike takes us back to the first communion as an example of the power of remembering through sharing our stories. Could it be that when we take communion in a large group we miss out on something Jesus valued? Do we miss the faith- and community-building aspect that Jesus meant for us to experience? We need to hear how God “showed up” in each other's lives to grow closer in community, to be encouraged, and to remember Jesus, to remember when...
Greg and Brenda delivered a powerful tag-team message: Greg offered a short six point summary of the Biblical vision for reconciliation in the Kingdom of God, followed by Brenda’s inspiring message about the living water that is within us. If we are going to allow rivers of life, or “liquid love,” the whole Gospel to move through us, we need to consider the principles of reconciliation that Brenda lays before us.
This message was about the rampant fear pumping through the veins of our society. Even though America is one of the safest countries in the world, we have more fear than most other nations! But as followers of Christ, we are instructed not to worry (Matt. 6:25, 32-33, etc.). Instead, we have received a spirit of adoption, not slavery. We are God’s children, so there is no need to fear anything in this world. If our hearts and treasure are with the kingdom of God, then we should live without fear of anything in this world.
Greg gives us a timely reminder that the Kingdom of God is not the same as the kingdom of this world. Truly Christian public expressions of this Kingdom will resemble Jesus’ life: washing others feet, trusting God to meet our needs, sacrificing of ourselves for others, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek. This is what holiness does, and it is radically different from everything else in the world! And we must always be on guard, as there is a constant pull to desecrate the holiness of God by confusing God and the world.
Drawing from Luke 9:23 and 14:25-27 & 33, Greg talked about dying to the flesh so that we might have true life in Christ. Life in the “flesh” means that we cling to life outside the center (Jesus Christ), which results in our lives enslaving us, something God never intended! Jesus speaks strongly about this because he knows that when we finally let go and “die” to ourselves, we will find life in the center where there is peace and a whole new perspective on the world!
Thorsten Moritz, a Bethel Seminary professor, opened with this challenging question: “Are we prepared to live 'creationally' (in tune with the Creator) in a world of idolatry?” Focusing primarily on child adoption throughout the message, Moritz wondered if the abandonment of the world's waiting orphans experience is the result of this idolatry. It reveals, he argued, that people are operating with the wrong priorities. How prepared are we to be the primary tool of God’s recovery of this fallen creation? Just as God adopted us, shouldn't we (biblically) adopt others?
Lately, Greg has been talking about the importance of being “awake” and “single-minded.” In this sermon he discussed how both of these things are understood most fully in Christ. He focused on Christ's compelling love and the distinction between saying that you believe something and allowing a truth to penetrate so deep into your very being that it compels you.
Willing just one thing, the love of God, is our only task. Our hearts are pure and our minds are sound when we overcome the double-mindedness that we unconsciously live in by submitting to God (James 4:7). Greg called our attention to how our minds are caught up in routines that produce behavior that is harmful to ourselves and others. Working toward kingdom single mindedness moment by moment will focus our energy where it should be: on the love of God for us and on loving ourselves and others because of it.
Greg compares life to a “magic eye” picture: if we focus on the immediate appearance of things, life is very busy and active, even chaotic. But if we are able to see what’s in the depth of life, we begin to see Jesus. We see the love of God manifest in ways and in places that we might never have thought possible. We begin to develop “an eye for the kingdom of God,” or what Greg calls “Kingdom Consciousness.” To behold the kingdom of God requires an intentional awareness.
Paul and Sandra's message called for a major shift in thought for many of us: church isn't a place you go or an event you attend. Instead, church is what happens when those who follow Jesus gather and live in unity and obedience to who Jesus is and what Jesus does. Both speakers discussed the effects of this new perspective.
Greg described his journey during his sabbatical as one that was focused on a simple and important question: “What is real?” And he talked about how every now and then we all need to ask ourselves this with regard to every area in our lives. He challenged us to think like Job, who lost all of his securities and worldly relations but who still knew that his redeemer lived and that he would see him someday face to face. That’s what Job REALLY believed. What do we REALLY believe?
Cecilia, visiting from The Sanctuary Covenant Church, challenged Woodland Hills to look back in order to gain insight about what might lie ahead for us. Are our best days behind us, or is our best yet to come? She argued the latter by referring to a passage in Haggai that deals with rebuilding Solomon's temple. The new temple was far less grand than the original, yet the promise of God remained: this temple’s glory would exceed that of Solomon’s. Its best was yet to come, but the remnant, like Woodland Hills, could only believe this by faith—trusting that God would accomplish the promise.
Kevin, our Community Pastor, spoke about Christ's calling of Simon, Andrew, James and John to be his disciples. As fishermen, their families' livelihood depended on this trade, yet they simply dropped what they were doing and followed Jesus. Why? What was it about Jesus that caused people to leave their families and livelihood to follow him, and what was Jesus tapping into in these four early disciples?
Using Matthew 20:20-28 as his text, David discussed how to be a “safe” leader by following Jesus’ example of leading by serving and how this upside-down principle truly reflects the kingdom of God.
Efrem was back in our pulpit this weekend with a powerful message of hope and vision for our body! Sometimes we need to look backward for a bit to be able to see where we are going, so Efrem used Christ's geneology in Matthew 1 as his text. Knowing where we came from can help us understand the destiny God has for us.
This week Jim led us in a communion service. The sermon focused on the tension between the Spirit and the Flesh and how Jesus Christ makes it possible for us to be united with God in spirit. In communion we participate with our whole body as we obey Christ's command to “do this in remembrance of me.” In this way, we submit our flesh to God's Spirit.
Brenda reissued the challenge of serving a radical savior. If we feel God has called us to do the impossible, then we are indeed following the radical God of the Bible! However, if our faith doesn’t inspire us, we need to take another look at Jesus to see how far from dull and boring he really is. Brenda helped us do this using Isaiah 6 and many vivid analogies.
The typical Sunday school, felt-board Jesus (often with blue eyes) does little to inspire people to change their lives much less alter their ways of thinking. The real Jesus is much bigger and more radical than that. Using the New Testament, Sandra reminded us of just how big and revolutionary Jesus was and still is.
In this final sermon of Dwayne's “Wounded Healer” series, he discussed how our character cannot be divorced from our actions; how we choose to act reflects who we are. 1 John 3:11-18 provides God's ideal for us - nothing less than perfection! The author of 1 John asks us whether we will behave like Cain or like Abel. Dwayne challenged us to think about the difference between simply responding appropriately when we see that others have needs and actually dying for someone, which is what God demands.
Dwayne delivered a powerful message that challenged us to love as Christ loved us. We frequently emphasize the fact that we should love one another and what “the loving thing to do” might be. But this message had to do not with the “that” or even the “how” but the “why.” Our motivation for any act should be love, which requires that we have a heart that is responsive to the prompting of the Spirit of God.
Greg vulnerably shared with us something he is currently going through, what St. John of the Cross called the “dark night of the soul.” In his brokenness, Greg openly talked about his current struggle by referencing Psalm 73, which was written by Asaph, who went through a similar experience.
Sandra challenged us to go against the grain of the so-called American Dream and the materialism inherent in it. She also encouraged us to be critical of how we're already being influenced by it and to allow God to work on all of the broken areas of our lives so that we can make an impact.
Our wounds (emotional, physical, psychological, spiritual) in no way disqualify us from ministry. In fact, God often uses our healing experiences to assist others who are suffering from similar wounds. Dwayne affirmed this truth for us by appealing to its scriptural basis and by sharing a personal experience as a wounded healer.
Greg read the story in Luke of the prostitute who interrupts Jesus' dinner at a Pharisee's home to wash Jesus’ feet with her tears, kiss his feet, and anoint them with oil. The Pharisee looks down on her because he considers her sin greater than his own, but when God is the standard, neither he nor the prostitute has any advantage over the other. They both fall infinitely short. We too must relate to the prostitute because of how short we all fall compared to the perfection of God's standard.
God designed us to work both for our livelihood and for the Kingdom of God. Consequently, we will be held accountable for our work both individually and corporately as the body of Christ. The book of Revelation includes a “report card” of sorts given by God to seven churches; following this example, Greg reported on how Woodland Hills has been Growing in the Spirit over the past year.
In this sermon, Greg responded to the top five questions he received while preaching “The Cross and the Sword” series. Maybe you've been asking some of these questions: “What's the difference between turning the other cheek and letting yourself be abused?” and “Are you saying that the church is politically irrelevant?"
Human beings have deep and fallen passions that propel us into continual conflict with one another, the theme behind “Troy,” the movie based on Homer's “Iliad.” We are stuck in a pattern from which we can be freed ONLY by embracing the paradoxical kingdom of God. Christians are to imitate Christ, period; we are not called to create another version of the kingdom of the world.
We were created to worship God and through worship to proclaim the wonder of God, engage in spiritual warfare and act as witnesses who testify to who God is. During this teaching time, Kevin's discussions about the three Ws of worship were interspersed throughout an extended worship time as a church.
The Cross and the Sword series continued with this sermon, which covered the final effect of failing to distinguish between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world: we Christians begin to see ourselves as the “protectors” and “fixers” of social morality, as the moral standard bearers. But our only job as the body of Christ is to look like Jesus, the one sinless human, who stood in unity with others and met their needs. Greg also addressed the idea that America is a theocracy.
The Cross and the Sword series continued with this sermon, which covered two more consequences of fusing the kingdom of God with the kingdom of the world. To illustrate the damage this can cause, Greg discussed using the Kingdom of God approach with abortion: don't limit ourselves to the options given by the kingdom of the world, but ascribe unsurpassable worth to others (mother and baby) at cost to ourselves. This is the unique mission of the Kingdom of God, and it's not easy.
The kingdom of God and the kingdom of this world are two very separate things. One uses the sword (power over) to influence people; the other uses love (power under). To understand this distinction is much easier than letting it affect the way we live. Greg continued to discuss the differences between these kingdoms and how we are to live within the distinction.
Greg questioned the slogan “Taking America Back for God” by discussing the differences between the kingdom of this world and the Kingdom of God. As Christians, we are to belong first and foremost to God's Kingdom, yet live under the governments of this world. How does that work?
This sermon challenged us to think about how our “story” ends. We long for justice, meaning, “happy ever afters.” As Christians, our story is found in Jesus, the reality to which all great mythology and story telling points. Compare your relationship with Christ to the greatest love stories ever told, and you won't find a more dramatic, sacrificial story...and it ends with a big “happy ever after"!
Though advances in technology, medicine, psychology, etc., are growing exponentially, and the “gyre” of our world is nearly out of control, we are called by God to live in it (though not be OF it). Greg gave practical advice about how to live within the “widening gyre” that he discussed last week: strengthen our center by prioritizing and simplifying. It sounds easier than it is.
Our lives are literally spinning out of control. Why is this and how are we supposed to live in it? Greg discussed exponential growth, J curves, and living inside the widening gyre.
The choices we make often result in more stressful lives, which, in turn, “stresses God out.” In our quest to have everything “just so” (from our cereal to our vehicles to our neighborhoods), the majority of churches do not reflect the diverse body of Christ.
Though often overlooked, Jesus took breaks, he slept, and he had fun! With our culture continuously pushing us to accumulate “stuff,” it's difficult to find the time to relax. However, if we follow Christ's example, we learn that as humans we have limits that we must learn to live within.
Americans are busier than ever -- many would say their lives are out of control. Is this how God intended us to live? Greg introduces this topic through numerous real-life examples, including the perfect example: Jesus' life. And guess what...he rested!
Greg briefly contrasted learning “about” a relationship with God while listening to a sermon to “doing” your relationship with God through worship. The first is a passive task, while the latter is active and requires us to involve our heart, soul, mind, body and strength. Because both sermons and worship play an important role in spiritual development, one should not be neglected in favor of the other.
Both Sandra and Paul spoke about the many ways that the Church has failed in its health as a body. Much of the history of the Church reveals the tragedy of its inner conflicts. However, if a church or denomination claims Christ as its center, then we had better be prepared to be united with them!
The Bible speaks more about greed and injustice against those who are poor than any other particular sin. We are the richest country in the world, and we are fooling ourselves if we do not think that the words “to whom much is given much is required” apply to us. Greg was concerned that we not be trapped in guilt; at the same time, we must evaluate our habits and priorities in light of the war zone in which we live.
Our being unconscious of something does not necessarily mean that it is not real. It could just as well be that we are simply ignorant of that reality for any number of reasons. Reconciliation as described in the Bible is very real, but it must be made known and manifested in our midst if people are going to believe in it and in the One who accomplished it.
There is bad news, and we need to hear it if we are to make any sense of the good news. The bad news is we are broken. Broken in our own lives, in our lives with each other as human beings, and broken in our spiritual lives. How did we end up so broken, and what are we to do about it?
The life of faith is not really about information. It is about a dynamic relationship with the living God! We need to “set apart” our imaginations for God so that God can shape us at the level of our dreams and aspirations. God uses our imaginations as a place for us to meet Christ in a very real way so that we can understand who Christ is, and what God is calling us to.
Brenda talked about the nature of leadership and asked whether it is something we are born with or if it is something that we can cultivate. She then added a third possibility: timing. She told us about an African expression: “What called you forth?” In other words, “Why are you here, and why now?” God has an ideal plan for you, and you are here “for such a time as this.” She challenged us all to respond to the calling on our lives!
It takes discipline and self-sacrifice on the part of individuals for us as a whole to become “a community of spiritually empowered people” as stated in our church vision. As spiritual people, we are called to think more about the eternal consequences of our words and deeds.
In this first service of the year, Greg took a moment to reflect on what we are doing here. It is important to make an honest assessment of what progress we're making in advancing the kingdom of God. We inevitably face opposition in this world, but the task before us is worth the sacrifices that will need to be made.
94% of all New Year's resolutions fail. Bringing about permanent change in the way we think and live is very difficult. Yet the Bible says we are to be continually changing into the likeness of Christ. In this message Greg discussed how we can work with God to bring about permanent change in our lives.
What was it about the star in the sky that convinced the Magi that a king (THE king) had been born in Judea? In his Christmas Eve message, Greg examined the astrological significance this star held for the Magi and showed how modern astronomy confirms the biblical account.
This week Greg again focused our attention on the story of the Magi from the east (Mt 2:1-11). God was willing to “get in the box” with these astrologers, to “speak their language” as it were, even though it required that God suspend his ethical opinions about their way of life. God's love for astrologers was greater than his hatred for astrology.
This week Greg discussed the familiar story of the three wise men in Matthew 2. As it turns out, there were not three of them, they were not wise by biblical standards and they were not kings, as has been assumed by many over the generations. So what is going on here?
During this service we participated in communion and had an opportunity for people to receive prayer and healing. Donna Stoesz, one of our prayer warriors here at Woodland Hills, led us into this time of renewal and restoration.
Recently Greg has been speaking about the Joy of the Lord and how we are intended to participate in that joy. This week’s sermon addressed two common ways that joy can be “corked” and restricted in our lives. The first is the “Savior Complex” and the second is the “Payback Complex.” Both complexes rob us of the joy that God intends for us.
This week Kevin Johnson, our Community Pastor, brought a powerful message dealing with our hearts. He described the “heart” as the center of human existence, where our human abilities to love, marvel, and dream reside. We are able to experience events and truths deeply in profoundly empathetic ways. In this way the heart really demonstrates the truth of our being created in God’s image.
This week Greg talked about a problem that we all experience: joylessness. We read in Scripture that God is joyful and he desires for us to experience joy too! We need to experience the Joy of the Lord if we are to live an empowered spiritual life in Christ. Joy strengthens us to endure the difficulties of life here and now.
Greg's sermon this week was a reflection on several texts with a guiding theme of “overcoming duplicity.” To work toward overcoming duplicity we need to ask the following set of questions: What is duplicity? How can it be overcome? What replaces it?
It is important to note that Greg tied this discipleship series to our church's Vision Statement. We are called by God for a purpose, part of which is being discipled into spiritually empowered people. In this message Greg explored how we can guard our hearts. We cannot “will” to feel differently about things, but we CAN change how we think and represent things in our minds. Our feelings will follow.
In Christ, we are radically free from the things that bind us to this world. The problem is that we have been brainwashed and led to believe lies about ourselves that prevent us from being what we were created to be. Do we trust our own thoughts about ourselves and others or do we believe what God says?
Through the touching stories that Sandra relayed, we can see that Christ truly is to be found among the “least of these.” Most of us are able to hide our pain beneath the façade of nice clothes, stable living situations, good friends and family support, but do we understand that we too are the least? We must never forget that we are all, always, desperately in need of God.
Letting go of our own desires, rights, conveniences, pleasure, wealth, and security is necessary if we are to serve a master other than ourselves. If we do choose Jesus, we must die to our own agendas so that in Christ, we can really live. Christianity is an all or nothing decision.
Dwayne Polk’s message this week continued in the line of Greg’s ongoing focus on discipleship this year. Polk described the decision whether or not to follow Christ as a “choice of critical significance.”
This week Greg explored the difference faith can make in our attempts to “take captive every thought” in order to “be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” Ultimately the point is to know the truth and let that truth transform your reality.
The “good fight” is the one you win! This sermon focused on how to fight “the good fight.” There are four things we need to know: 1) The enemy’s tactics, 2) the enemy’s weapons, 3) our tactics and 4) our weapons.
For some reason, even though we have accepted Christ in our lives, certain things about us are very difficult to change. Is changing these bad behaviors a lost cause? No. God is working with us for change, and we must take proactive responsibility for what is going on in our brains.
This weekend Greg examined Ephesians 3:16-19 and found that this passage contains the ultimate goal of all discipleship. Not only is the goal stated here, but also the means by which we can achieve it.
Mark preached from John 4:4-30, 39-42, the famous passage that records Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman. Mark stated that this section of Scripture illustrates the difference between transactional relationships and relationships that connect with people.
Greg stated that an understanding of discipleship as “synergistic” (where God and humanity work together) steers away from polarizing extremes that typically characterize people’s understanding.
This morning Erwin McManus, Senior Pastor at Mosaic Church in Los Angeles, challenged the congregation to live passionately for Jesus. He exhorted the congregation to recapture the essence of the “barbaric” attitude of a new Christian. God desires that we live with abandonment.
Greg concluded his sermon series on “Dying to Self” by preaching about how a person’s identity rooted in Jesus Christ changes his or her perspective on wealth and comfort.
This week Greg continued his series on dying to self and its connection to discipleship by illustrating how this change radically alters how a person views others.
This week Greg continued his series on dying to self and its connection to discipleship by illustrating how this change radically alters a person’s perspective on individuality.
Greg continued his sermon from last week by illustrating in three areas how dying to self makes a difference in living for Christ.
This morning Greg continued his series on discipleship by preaching about the necessity of dying to self. Expounding on Luke 14:25-28, Greg stated that God’s call “to hate” family and self does not literally mean hate, but instead is a figure of speech used in ancient times to emphasize meaning.
Richard Coleman preached about the clashing kingdoms of Satan and God. The death and resurrection of Christ has fundamentally secured the Kingdom of God’s victory over Satan. However, a real battle still persists between God and Satan until Christ’s return. Disciples of Jesus will inevitability experience the reality of this conflict. Scripture states that the devil prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour (1 Peter 5:8). We must stand our ground in Christ.
This morning Greg preached about four steps that characterize the road to spiritual death. He emphasized that spiritual formation happens regardless of whether or not a person is intentional. Thus, we can become increasingly formed into the likeness of Christ through our participation in the divine nature (see 2 Peter 1:4), or we can turn away from God. This morning Greg focused on the latter. What typifies the road to spiritual death?
Greg continued his series on discipleship by preaching on the nature of kingdom training. Galatians 4:19-20 served as the text for a message about two competing models of discipleship: the legal-religious model and the love-relational model.
On this Father’s Day, Peggy Riley preached about the healing power of God the Father through Jesus Christ. In particular, Peggy focused on the release from bondage that God provides to those suffering from generational curses. God’s intention for us is not to live captive to such things, but instead to live abundantly, experiencing the fullness of God’s blessings.
This morning Greg continued his series on discipleship by speaking about the rationale for living a disciplined life, and how this type of life affects our present situation. The main text was 1 Corinthians 9:23-27 where Paul exhorts his readers to live a life marked by an eternal purpose that displays a commitment to discipline that would rival that of an “Olympic” athlete.
This morning Greg spoke about “remembering” as a way of moving forward in life. He used two Scripture passages as the basis for his sermon. One text illustrates the wrong way to remember and the other the right way.
In this week’s sermon Greg continued his series on stewardship by preaching about tithing (the practice of giving 10% of one’s income). Is this a law that Christians must follow?
Greg has preached numerous times about the cunning power of “the matrix” (i.e. the pattern of this world that blinds humanity to the truth of the Gospel). This morning he continued that theme by preaching about a driving aspect of the matrix, namely, the gnawing feeling of discontent that we believe we can meet through the acquisition of more things.
On this Mother’s Day, Greg preached about the vital importance of women and moms and about how they reflect God.
This morning on the commitment Sunday for Growing in the Spirit, Greg preached that the Christian life is about action.
Greg’s sermon this morning confronted the mindset of fear and self-preservation that pervades our culture. As the church anticipates next weekend’s commitment services for Growing in the Spiri, Greg challenged us to step out in faith in light of God's love and faithfulness.
This Easter morning, Greg preached about the power of Jesus’ resurrection to revolutionize our lives. To introduce the power of this new life in Christ, he contrasted it with a life not marked by the resurrection.
As Woodland Hills anticipates the pledge weekend for Growing in the Spirit (May 3 & 4), Greg preached about four principles of church giving.
Greg preached this morning about how to cultivate a perspective of giving that demonstrates freedom in Christ. He shared that accepting our culture’s matrix of lies keeps us from the natural expression of giving that should characterize a follower of Jesus.
This week Greg concluded this two-part sermon by giving four more principles for communicating with God.
Do you ever wonder how a person “hears” a word from God? People speak about prayer as “communication with God,” but how is it that someone listens to God? Greg addressed these questions by beginning a two-part sermon on “Communicating with God.”
This morning Greg preached briefly about the healing touch of Jesus Christ. The text for the sermon came from Matthew 8:1-3, 14-15. In these verses, Jesus heals a leper and a woman’s fever by touching them. At the end of the sermon, there was an opportunity for people to receive prayer about areas in their life that need God’s touch.
This morning Efrem Smith preached from Philippians 2:1-5 about taking the next steps of growth in the Christian life. Efrem exhorted the congregation to step out in faith.
Rev. Richard Coleman of Kingdom Oil preached about making the Twin Cities God’s kingdom. He focused on the need to submit to God, as Jesus demonstrated in the Lord's Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13). Rev. Coleman stated that our “holy hope” – our greatest vision of what we can attain – must be in submission to God.
Greg continued his series on discipleship by emphasizing the importance of controlling what we think. He focused on Romans 12:2 which reads, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able test and approve what God’s will is – his good, pleasing, and perfect will.” He challenged us to wake up to the transforming truth of Jesus Christ.
Greg continued his sermon series on discipleship by preaching on the principle that what’s best for a person is when the good of the community is also considered. The world illustrates this relationship between the individual and the whole in such things as animals, the sciences, and economics.
This morning Efrem Smith and Greg Boyd preached as a team on the topic of reconciliation and its centrality to the Gospel. The text for the sermon was II Corinthians 5:16-21.
Greg continued his sermon series on discipleship by showing that the church should be purposeful, like an army, in its interaction in the world. To help the audience to understand the rigorousness of being in an army, Greg interviewed on stage a former Marine named Anthony.
Greg began a new sermon series on discipleship with this sermon. A natural progression from his sermons on love, discipleship is the concrete manifestation of love. It is about what love looks like in day-to-day life.
Diversity marks the world. Moreover, these differences often lead to division. Is it possible to unite around the cross of Jesus Christ? Curtiss DeYoung, Associate Professor of Reconciliation Studies at Bethel College, addressed this question in his sermon.
Whom do you worship? What do you worship? In today's entertainment-focused society, we often emulate people such as athletes, musicians, and movie stars. People who are rich and famous allure us. Yet, they are human beings like you and me. What we truly desire and need is the healing presence of Jesus Christ.
Greg finished the sermon series on love this weekend by focusing on I Corinthians 13:8-13. As Greg has been saying throughout this series, love is the center of the Christian experience. Everything in Christianity hinges upon Christ’s demonstration of love on the Cross for us and our manifesting that love to others.
Greg spoke this morning about the power of Jesus Christ as the Light of the World. In the Bible light and darkness are contrasted. Light describes the goodness and presence of God, while darkness describes the absence of God’s presence, or more specifically, describes a context of rebellion against God.
Is the Christmas season as pleasant as the advertisers portray it? Along with the wonder and joy of the Season, many people feel, at times, melancholy, bitter, and depressed. Whatever the case, is it possible to celebrate Christmas with joy if we are experiencing such “unseasonal” emotions?
Efrem Smith preached this morning from Hebrews 11 about living by faith. The Christmas season can leave many people feeling shaken and weak. Many people wonder, “What can I trust in?” Efrem preached that faith in Christ is what people need, especially during this season. In particular, he preached about ten characteristics of living by faith that we learn from this chapter.
Greg talked this morning about the overwhelming significance of humanity being made in the image of God. If we will understand and live in the knowledge of this reality, we will experience profound healing.
Dennis Luce, Youth Pastor at Woodland Hills, shared his passion for reaching youth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He shared how today’s youth culture is vastly different from earlier generations.
This week Greg focused again on I Corinthians 13:5: “Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.” He started this sermon with a review of the past few months.
Greg continued his sermon series through I Corinthians 13 by focusing on verse 5: “love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful.” As a general principle, love does not seek to control others. However, controlling behavior typically characterizes human nature. Why is this?
The “big picture” of God’s goal for creation is that we will learn to live in the center of His love. This is not a hypothesis but a lived experience where love comes to us by Jesus Christ. This transforms us and flows from us to others, with God at the center.
Greg started this sermon with a review of the past few months. The “big picture” of God’s goal for Creation is love. God wants loving creatures that embrace and reflect love back to God and to others around them. Sin interrupts the flow of this love to us. This leaves a void in our lives that is supposed to be filled with love. This, in turn, motivates us to find other things to “feed on” besides God’s love. But the world has limited resources, and we are created with an infinite need for God’s love in us.
Greg started this sermon with a review of the past few months. The “big picture” of God’s goal in creating is love. God wants loving creatures who embrace and reflect love back to God and to others around them. Sin interrupts the flow of this love to us.
This message continues with the theme of discovering what love looks like by turning to I Cor. 13, where we looked at what it means that love is “kind.” Greg used Eugene Peterson’s paraphrase of the Bible entitled “The Message” to help us get at the idea of kindness. Peterson describes how love is kind in this way: “Love cares more for others than itself.”
We were blessed to have Efrem Smith return to the pulpit and preach on Matt. 15:22-28. Do you ever get the sense that some people seem to catch all the breaks, but you just don’t?
This message continues with the theme of discovering what love looks like by turning to I Cor. 13, where we saw that this chapter is found within a discussion of the spiritual gifts and how the church of Corinth was using—and abusing—those gifts. Paul warns that the presence of the gifts (tongues, prophecy, knowledge, wisdom, faith, radical obedience, generosity, etc.) does not guarantee the presence of love. This is a stunning revelation! Paul is teaching that one can have wonderful experiences of faith and spiritual intensity and still lack true spiritual life—that is—still lack love.
Greg focused specifically on what love is in itself and how we become lovers in the biblical sense. He started out by turning to the classic biblical text on love: 1 Cor. 13. He reminded us that verses 1-3 clearly show the “all or nothing” character of love. One can have amazing experiences of God, faith to move mountains, and be a sacrificial disciple, but if you don’t have love, it means nothing to God.
This sermon reflected on the events of 9/11 nearly one year ago. To start us off Greg had us watch clips from the PBS documentary “Faith and Doubt at Ground Zero.” The clips contained portrayals of people asking tough questions about God in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. Some of the questions included: Where was God during these events? If God is the Creator, then why didn’t he stop these events? Is it because God is barbaric and approves if not causes events like this? Isn’t America “blessed”? What happened? One man used to think that God was “majestic” and “powerful,” but now he has concluded that the “majestic God” is dead. Greg reflected on the fact that many questions like this are asked of God in the Bible as well, and so there is no reason to think that God is offended by the asking. But there are biblical ways to respond to these questions.
Greg has been teaching us about love and judgment since April 14. This week we wrap up with a discussion on the difference between judgment and discernment.
We were blessed to have Kevin Johnson, our Community Pastor, speak to us today about ambition. The message centered on Paul’s self-assessment in Phil. 3:3-10. “Ambition” is like “power” in that it can be a good thing when the motive behind it is good, but it can be devastating if the motive behind it is self-serving or ungodly.
Greg started this week’s sermon with a reminder of how central love is to the Christian faith. The Church is to display God’s love to the world. But we fail to do this primarily because we forget that we are unable to both love and judge our neighbor.
Greg picked up where he left off about a month ago with the theme of love, which he has been contrasting to “the knowledge of good and evil.” He used the story of the woman who washed Jesus’ feet in the Pharisee’s house (read Luke 7:31-50) as an illustration of the difference between relating to others in love vs. relating to others through our own knowledge of good and evil.
So often we come inches away from fulfilling our dreams but never quite reach them. This morning Efrem delivered a powerful message to us at Woodland Hills entitled “So Close.”
There is much confusion in the church today concerning what the word “disciple” signifies. In many cases the church has separated the term from its original, Christ-given meaning. Erwin McManus, of the Mosaic church in East Los Angeles, began his message today by highlighting this incorrect definition of discipleship. A disciple is not simply a person who wants to learn more about God, form new relationships at church, and be mentored by an elder; the life of a disciple entails so much more. Being a disciple is a radical way of life in God. One does not become a disciple by attending church or reading books on Christian living. Instead, Erwin spoke of two definable characteristics, unobtainable through earthly channels, that are always true of someone who follows Jesus Christ.
Serving as an instrument of God, Richard Coleman delivered a powerful message to the body of believers at Woodland Hills Church this morning. Richard began by noting that a day of trouble has come upon us. The effects of moral, social, and economic evil in this country cannot be denied. The reality of this evil is being recognized by many, Christians and non-Christians alike, and certainly comes as no surprise to God. As these challenges of the devil come, people are going to become more and more desperate for God.
Dr. David Clark of Bethel Seminary generously filled the pulpit for Greg this week on short notice. We were blessed to have such a powerful message delivered in such a timely manner! Dr. Clark encouraged us to seek “Wisdom for Life’s Journey.” Wisdom starts with the fear of the Lord. This fear is not one of terror but rather one of awe, deep reverence and recognition of the glory and holiness of God. This fear reminds us that God has plans and ways that are not our own and that this can offer us hope in situations that seem hopeless to us otherwise. God is the God of possibilities and infinite resources! Remembering this can give us peace in the midst of circumstances that seem insurmountable.
Last week Pastor Peggy reminded us that we are in a spiritual war and that we must be dressed appropriately. Pastor Peggy then commissioned us to put on the full armor of God and live victoriously! This means that we must be armor bearers for one another because some in the battle will be wounded and in need of protection. This week Greg picked up on the military theme and called us to be aware of the schemes of the enemy (2 Cor. 2:10-11 esp. vs. 11). As Greg pointed out, during a time of spiritual attack, “every weak link will be tested.”
This morning we were blessed to have Peggy Riley deliver a sermon. Outfitted in a camouflage military coat, Peggy began this commissioning message by recognizing the reality of being a wounded soldier of the Lord. Denying one’s wounds does not solve any problems but only delays the healing.
Greg has been showing us how our desire to judge others and ourselves actually prevents God’s love from flowing in us and through us toward others. The primary text has been Gen. 3 with the story of Adam and Eve and the two trees.
This morning Efrem Smith delivered a powerful and honest message. Building upon his last sermon at Woodland Hills (5/12/02), Efrem walked through 2 Corinthians 5:13-20 and focused on the responsibilities and privileges of those in the Christian community concerning reconciliation.
Love is to be the heartbeat of the Christian life. We have also seen that we cannot both love and judge at the same time. We either eat of the tree of life, which is made available to us again in Jesus Christ, or we continue to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. One is a life of freedom, transparency, openness, joy and truth. The other is a life of bondage and emptiness. This second way of trying to get life will drive us to pretend to be something that we are not. We are called to a life of love, but most of us seem to live in a pattern of performance and hiding.
The names of people and places in the Bible are more meaningful than we might expect. The names are given and sometimes changed for important reasons, and the reasons stick with the person or place because of the clarity of the name to the people who use it.
Greg has been focusing our attention on the centrality of love as the heartbeat of all reality. Today’s sermon will continue to address the question, “What went wrong?”
We were blessed to have Efrem Smith preach today on the topic of the Church as a “Revolutionary Community: Going from a crowd to a community.” The text for this message was Acts 2:41-47.
Today’s sermon addressed the question, “What went wrong?” by taking us back to Genesis 3.
Building on the previous two sermons, Greg has offered a third challenge to us to live in the love that God extends to us and wants to spread through us. God has done everything necessary to make our “abiding in Christ” possible.
In today’s sermon, Greg began with a review of last week’s message about the goal of creation, a biblical definition of love, and the three movements that God’s love makes.
Greg has been preaching on passion for the past month as a way of preparing us for the release of this passion of faith through spiritual disciplines and obedience to God in our lives. Today we were reminded that love is the power that validates any act of obedience or discipline that a Christian does. If we don’t have love, nothing else we do can have the impact God wants it to have.
We all know that a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand. For this reason, we must join in the Spirit of unity with all those who share with us our most important distinctive: Jesus Christ. Greg called the church to unity on the basis of our common identity in Christ.
We have been talking about spiritual parasites. Fighting them cannot be done on your own. You are only one small part of the spiritual body to which you belong. Greg revealed some close parallels between spiritual and physical struggles for healing.
Sometimes we struggle spiritually because we are carrying a spiritual parasite. Like a tapeworm, demonic forces can suck the energy and life out of you if you let them. Greg addressed this problem and how to overcome it.
We often settle into comfortable routines in our lives, and we begin to take them for granted. It can be almost hypnotic. Greg addressed how these routines often drain the passion out our spiritual lives.
As Christians, we need to continually be growing. If we are not growing, we are certainly losing ground spiritually. There is no in between. Greg revealed how passion in life is rooted in walking more and more in obedience to God.
Becoming a Christian means continually becoming more like Christ throughout our lives. We can never complete this goal before we die. That means there is no time for coasting; we must continually press on towards the goal. Running the race is painful sometimes, but don’t let that stop you. Faith is pressing on even when you don’t see the results you think you should in your life. Greg described how faith is like a marathon, not a sprint.
When we are thinking clearly, the Christian life is one of gratitude. We remember the good things that God has done, we are grateful for the faithfulness of God today, and we trust in the fulfillment of promises God has made about the future. Greg described healthy ways to think about the past, present and future.
Did you know that King David had to lead a fundraising campaign in order to build a temple for the Lord? Greg showed us what we can learn from this for our own church building projects today.
It may surprise you to know that greed is actually the sin spoken of most frequently in the Bible. We rarely hear this from the pulpit because we are all so guilty of this in America. Greg addressed this serious spiritual problem that we face as Americans and discussed how stewardship is one aspect of discipleship that many Christians struggle with.
We have all heard that “to whom much is given, much is required.” Greg called us to take this text more seriously as we consider our own blessings in a global context.
As Christians, we often think about the very few things that we disagree about, rather than focus on the many things we have in common. Greg challenged the church to tear this wall down, along with many others.
Christ is the great reconciler! By Christ’s life, death and resurrection, all the walls that divide people from each other and people from God must be brought down. Greg called the church to get serious about tearing down walls!
God’s persistent love for humanity is the central theme of the Bible. Greg showed many ways we can recognize the undying love of God.
When you feel shaken by the chaos of life, remember the new identity you have in Christ. Greg spoke a word of hope for the world, the hope that trusts in the coming Kingdom of God.
Rarely do we hear sermons about God disciplining us today, but God promises to do this. Greg considered what it means that God uses suffering to discipline us.
Capitalism works by convincing people that they need things that they don’t already have. Greg addressed this issue and suggested what we can do for our spiritual health AND for a more just society.
All sin separates us from God in the same way. We all are united to God through grace alone. Greg reminded us that the church is to be a place where forgiveness is offered freely and God’s grace abounds!
The only explanation for why Noah built the ark is because his faith enabled him to expect the unexpected. Any rational person operating on common knowledge, would have though he was crazy! Noah’s faith caused him to expect the unexpected, but that is not all. It motivated ACTION. He actually went ahead and built an Ark even though it did not seem reasonable to the natural mind. Greg continued to describe the role of faith in the life of the believer.
Sometimes Christianity is judged on the basis of what Christians do. This is a serious mistake! It is Christ that makes Christianity unique, not Christians. Greg continued to describe the role of faith in the life of the believer.
Christians should consider whether they would continue to serve and love God even if they were not blessed in this life for doing so. What if we were punished for our faith in this life? Would we love God openly then? Greg continued to describe the role of faith in the life of the believer.
Many heroes of faith named in Hebrews 11 did not receive the promises God gave them during their own earthly lifetimes. We too, must understand that faith is ultimately concerned with the next life more than this present age. Greg continued to describe the role of faith in the life of the believer.
The world does not need more information—it needs TRANSformation! Faith is what God gives us for our transformation from the inside out. Greg continued to describe the role of faith in the life of the believer.
Everyone has faith in something. But do your beliefs line up with your faith? Greg described the difference between faith and belief.
Faith is much more than merely believing something! Even the devil believes that Jesus is God, but that is clearly not faith! Greg described the role of faith in the life of the believer.
The Bible teaches that our prayers are powerful and effective. But sometimes we wonder why we don’t see the results we expected. Greg described some of the reasons we might not get what we expected.
We all know that the world is a very complicated place. We long for simplicity and clear answers to our questions, especially when bad things happen to us or those we love. Greg warned against giving simple answers to the question, “Why?”
When dealing with evil in the world, we have a choice to make. Will we ask the question “WHY” and seek to find out who is to blame? Or will we ask the question “HOW” and seek to cooperate with God in bringing good out of every evil situation? Greg addressed the problem of evil and chaos in the world.
When tragedy strikes, people of faith often ask “WHY did God do or even allow this!?” Greg argued that this is the wrong question and challenged the assumptions that lead us to ask, “Why, God?”
The apostle Paul leverages EVERYTHING—the whole truth of the Gospel—on the truth of the resurrection of Christ. Greg discussed the importance of the resurrection for bringing healing to a hurting world.
The Bible teaches us that no one can serve two masters. We will despise one and serve the other. The Christian message is that we must die in order to live. We must set aside our own way of doing life and take up Christ’s way. Greg described what it means to stop serving ourselves and start serving God with our whole lives.
The Bible teaches us to empty ourselves of the thoughts and concerns of this world for a very important reason. We are to be filled with God’s spirit—the Holy Spirit—instead. Greg discussed what the Bible means when it speaks of a “Baptism of the Holy Spirit.”
Covenants always have people who bear witness to them. These witnesses hold the people involved accountable and support the covenant. As Christians we are both participants in our own covenant with God and witnesses to the covenants of other believers as well. Greg continued his teaching on understanding and living in biblical covenant.
In the Old Testament, an animal was sacrificed as a sign of the seriousness of a covenant. In the New Testament, God’s own Son is sacrificed instead of us even though we are the ones who have been unfaithful in our relationship with God. Greg continued his teaching on understanding and living in biblical covenant.
One of the very few remaining covenants that we honor today is marriage. In this covenant we make promises to each other and mesh our identity with that of our spouse. The relationship God wants with you is of the same sort. God has made promises to you and offers us the opportunity to be identified with him in Christ. Greg continued this teaching on understanding and living in biblical covenant.
Many of our relationships with others seem to lack understanding, integrity and a sense of common vision. This sermon offered some insight into why this is the case. Greg continued this teaching on understanding and living in biblical covenant.
A contract is a legal agreement: “I’ll give you this if you give me that.” A covenant is very different. It is about the relationship. People in covenant identify deeply with each other. Greg continued this teaching on understanding and living in biblical covenant.
The word “covenant” is rarely used today, but in ancient times it was a common social structure that all respected. Most people understand what a contract is, but few today understand the word “covenant.” The Bible assumes that we know about covenants and intend to keep them. Greg taught on understanding and living in biblical covenant.
At the beginning of each year, Greg reviews the vision of Woodland Hills Church. Though he spoke directly to WHC, all churches can benefit from a clear presentation of what the Bible says the church is supposed to be doing.
Today’s message was given around Christmas time, but the point is important every day. Jesus Christ is a very different kind of king than the world expected. Greg discussed the message of Christmas that is good news every day of the year.
As Christians, we want to understand the anxieties and fears of the world, but we must be careful not to be taken captive by them. As children of God, there is good reason to have hope in the face of adversity. Greg encouraged people to remember their allegiance to the Kingdom of God at all times, especially times of trial.
Fasting is a way of taking spiritual authority over your body for the glory of God. It is an act of worship because it puts God first, and it is an act of discipline because it reminds us that we are capable of controlling ourselves. Greg discussed the lack of discipline in the church, why its there, and what we can do about it.
If you find that your Christian walk seems to lack passion, perhaps its time to step out in faith toward something that God has been calling you to. Walking in faith is more about the amazing possibilities that God creates for you than about the limitations that most people focus on.
Relativism is the denial of an absolute by which we live our lives. We decide for ourselves what is right or wrong rather than conform to God’s will for our lives. Greg confronted the lie behind this sort of thinking.
The unity of the church is a theme often overlooked in Evangelical culture. We forget that Jesus said, “Whoever is not against us is for us!” Greg reminded the Church at large that Christ who unites us is much greater than that which divides us.
Just as people who are married listen to each other, so also Christ listens to his Bride, the Church. We need to take our communication with God more seriously if we want to grow as individuals and as communities of faith. Greg continued this discussion of prayer and its role in bringing about a revival in the church.
Since we are in Christ, the responsibility and authority that we forfeited in the fall has been returned to us! We are to go out and speak peace to the world and spread the good news! Greg continued to describe some of the patterns that precede revivals.
Some things can be passed on from one generation to another. Faith and spiritual passion are not among them. Each generation, in fact each individual, must experience the power and presence of God for themselves. Greg discussed what a revival is and what we can do to be ready for God to “revive” us.
Spiritual health depends on our believing the truth that God has revealed to us. Spiritual sickness amounts to believing and then living in the lies that the world tells us about ourselves. Greg continued to discuss the path to freedom from bondage to false beliefs.
As spiritual beings, we are responsible for our thoughts and actions. Don’t let the world tell you who you are! We are to take captive every thought and bring it under the authority of Jesus Christ. Greg challenged the church against conforming to the lies of the world.
Life teaches us that bad things DO happen to good people. Have you ever wondered what it means that “all things work together for good for those who love God”? Greg reviewed some biblical examples of how God uses bad situations to further the Kingdom of God.
Some people decide NOT to become Christians because they don’t think they are good enough people. However, it is BECAUSE we are not good enough that we must rely on God’s grace toward us! Greg described the relationship between God declaring us good and our living this out.
As Christians, we believe that God is all-powerful, but perhaps we don’t all agree on what true power really looks like. Greg challenged the worldly notion of power understood in terms of control.
God is transcendent, all-powerful and glorious! But God is also patient, loving, and has drawn near to us. Often we emphasize one of these aspects of God and neglect the other. Greg discussed the importance of understanding both the power and love of God.
With the advance of technology, the world has become a more dangerous place. Nuclear weapons are finding their way into the hands of countries that previously posed little threat to the major world powers. Greg discussed what all this means for us as Christians.
When you take in something that you were not meant to consume you become sick. This same principle that applies physically also applies spiritually. Greg discussed the proper spiritual diet of the Christian.
A very important problem in the church today is understanding what in the Bible is an eternal principal and what is a culturally specific application of some principle. Greg offered three guidelines for distinguishing the timeless truths from the culturally relative applications.
Knowledge without wisdom is very dangerous. Greg addressed the consequences of our exponential growth in knowledge without a corresponding growth in godly wisdom.
Being in a relationship with God involves worship, which is the posture of the person of faith. Worshipping God involves sacrifice on our part. We give our best to God because God is fully worthy of all that we have. Greg described what it means to live a grateful life of joy before God.
If you have ever wondered about the group called the “Jesus Seminar,” then today’s message is for you. Greg questioned the methods and the conclusions of those who claim to disprove the resurrection of Christ.
The mysterious reality of God as “three in one” is not found only in the New Testament! Even in the descriptions of the tabernacle we see indications that God is a community in which we are meant to participate. Greg explored how the three persons of God are involved in human redemption.
God cannot heal and cleanse the areas of our lives that we don’t allow God to enter. Greg encouraged us to “get real” with God.
In the Old Testament, the tabernacle was a place where God dwelt and humans did not. But in the New Testament, the curtain is torn and we are fully invited into the house of God!
In the Old Testament, God chose to dwell with Israel as a neighbor. God’s presence was manifest in the tabernacle, which was a physical tent. Greg described the important ways that this arrangement anticipates what is to come in the New Testament.
Most Christians are very aware that this world will not last forever. Even though we know this, we still live our lives as though this life is all there is. When you are on a sinking ship, how much money you have is of very little importance. The serious question is, “What will float?” Greg used the analogy of the Titanic to call our attention to the things that will truly endure forever!
Some people reject the Bible and the Christian faith because they say it is “too narrow.” God seems to be interested in only one small nation, Israel, which stems from the one individual, Abraham, and from all this comes the one savior, Jesus. What about all the other countries of the world both today and in the ancient times? Greg discussed the strategy God uses to reach the whole world.
One problem that the book of Hebrews addresses is whether the early Jewish Christians should keep the laws of the Old Covenant or not. Greg addressed the important difference between the priesthood of Jesus Christ and the Levitical priesthood.
We have all heard that we are to forgive as God has forgiven us. But when we’ve been wounded deeply, this is a very difficult thing to do. We feel like our dignity as a human being has been violated and someone needs to account for that. Greg addressed both the difficulty and the necessity of forgiving others as we have been forgiven.
Today’s message was an overview of what Woodland Hills Church is and what it stands for. Greg casted a vision, both for this church in particular and for the Church at large!
Some Christians seem to think that the church must chose between preaching the Gospel and getting involved with issues of social justice. The Bible knows nothing of such false divisions! Instead it commands us to love our neighbor. Our society teaches us not to notice suffering that is close at hand. We understand that to notice this will make us feel guilty and responsible. What is the biblical response to this problem?
The Church seems to have lost the vision for being united as one in Christ. We fight over points of disagreement rather than cooperating for the sake of lost souls. It seems we value our own sense of “correctness” more than the souls that could be won if we worked together. Greg called the church back to a united vision of the Body of Christ for the sake of the lost.
We all know that no one can truly serve two masters. We will be more loyal to one than the other. Repentance is the 180-degree turn we make when we commit to living for God instead of anything else. Repentance is not morbid self-condemnation; rather it is an intentional change of heart and mind, a decision to move in a completely new direction.
In the Bible, the word “freedom” is often a synonym for salvation. It is for freedom that Christ has set you free! Greg talked about the power of the Gospel to release the captives and lift our heavy burdens.
Life does not allow things to stand still. Everything alive is either growing or it is dying. Life is not about simply maintaining or just getting by! Greg encouraged the church to check its pulse.
In the world of the New Testament, there were four different words for “Love.” Greg highlighted the importance of understanding the different forms of love and which types of love you should pursue in your various relationships.
We have all heard that of faith, hope and love, love is the greatest. But perhaps you have wondered why love is greater than faith and hope. Greg discussed how love is the true heartbeat of all reality.
To be fearful of things in this world is to set yourself up for failure. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but neither has God promised that you will not suffer. It is because you WILL suffer that God HAS given you a spirit of power, love, and self-discipline. Greg offered some biblical advice on dealing with fear in your life.
The love of God in Christ is to be the foundation for Christian community. We are all supposed to be ONE in Christ. The enemy works directly against this by attempting to divide Christians from each other. The root meaning of the word truth is to “uncover or disclose.” Unity in the Body of Christ will depend upon our willingness participate in this kind of truth. This understanding of truth is the opposite of “shame” which hides and covers things up.
Depression is often both a physical and spiritual problem. overcoming it requires addressing both of those needs as well as the support of a healthy community. Greg continued with some biblical suggestions for those who are wrestling with depression.
The Bible teaches that Christ was made perfect through suffering. As imitators of Christ we should expect that our lives will involve some suffering as well. Greg discussed self-sacrifice and other principles of Christian discipline.
One of the most common images of God in the Bible is that of God as our “heavenly Father.” It is important to note, however, that God is also portrayed as “Mother” and we as God’s children. Greg discussed how God used this image of “Mother” to heal some profound wounds from his own childhood.
In America, we rarely hear the message that as Christians we should expect to suffer for our faith. If Christ was perfected by his obedience and sufferings, why should we expect to be spared suffering ourselves?
Missions and evangelism are not things that we add to our otherwise Christian lives. No, outreach grows naturally out of our being children of the King. We are to be prepared to engage with the world as the Lord leads us.
The Bible teaches that Christ was perfected through suffering. Christ’s obedience to God in this way has made possible our salvation even though we have disobeyed.
Jesus suffered and was tempted in every way, and he understands our struggles. Because of Christ we can be confident that God knows us from the inside out. For this reason we can approach God as one who understands and will be gracious. Judgment does not produce transformation in a person’s life. Instead, God extends grace and forgiveness for our sin. Then God personally shows us the way to go.
The Bible has a lot to say about how the heart and mind of a believer can be transformed! Greg examined what this might mean as we think about our spiritual and emotional health.
God intended us to rest periodically from our work. When we fail to do that, we lose perspective and forget who we are in Christ. When we lose perspective on what God is calling us to do, it makes sense to take time and rest in the Lord. Often God uses that opportunity to refresh the vision that God has for our lives. Greg discussed the command to rest as presented in the Letter to the Hebrews.
The Bible warns us against having our hearts hardened toward God. This warning goes out not only to non-believers but to Christians as well!
Many Christians are not aware that Jesus was actually unable to do miracles in his hometown. Mark chapter 6 alerts us to an important connection between faith and transformation. We have all heard it said that “faith without works is dead.” But perhaps it is still not clear how our faith and our actions are to be related to one another. Faith is not simply a belief of the mind, it is a passion of the heart that drives us forward in obedience.
Sometimes people who have been saved by grace seem to want to go back to living as though they were still under the power of the Law. This is what produces “legalistic Christians.”
Since we know that ALL of us have fallen short of the glory of God, the church needs to recognize that there are NO second class Christians. It is God’s grace alone that enables us to strive for the goal set us. Greg discussed ways that God works for healing and growth in both your genetic and spiritual families.
No one can fully comprehend the mystery of Jesus Christ. God became a human being so that we might become reconciled with God! Greg described some of the ways that the Bible communicates this profound truth.
It is important periodically to step back and assess how things are going. More specifically, we need to make time for God to speak into our situations and reveal what improvements need to be made. Dr. Boyd took an opportunity to do this at Woodland Hills Church in St, Paul at the end of the year 1996.
The relationship of Christianity to the culture in which it is found has always been complex and strained. Perhaps no event illustrates this problem better than our national celebration of Christmas. When the radical message of Christ gets mixed in with civic religion, the result is a trivialization and Domestication of God.
The image that we have in our minds of God radically shapes how we think about God and more importantly, how we relate to God. What does your picture of God look like? The place where God is most fully revealed is in the person of God’s own Son, Jesus Christ. When we grasp the truth about Christ, we can have confidence that we are drawing near to a true and accurate picture of God.
Perhaps the most universal fear is the fear of dying. We abhor the decay of our bodies as we age and we have anxiety about our death. It is amazing then to see that the Son of God came to Earth precisely to die and he did so willingly! In Christ, God takes our sin, death, and despair and in return God gives us Eternal Life, peace, joy and righteousness. To borrow a phrase from Martin Luther, this is indeed a “happy exchange”!
The Bible teaches that Christ was perfected through his suffering. Christ suffered because of his radical obedience to the Father in this totally corrupt world. We live in this same world and are called to the same obedience.
The Kingdom of God is truly among us in one sense, for the forgiveness of sins has come and is available to all! But the Kingdom of God has yet to come in another sense, we await the Lord’s return when finally, peace will truly abound on earth. The Kingdom of God will come suddenly and God will salvage what can be saved. But there will be a final judgment that reveals the true status of our relationships with God.
There is something of a paradox at the heart of a human being. On the one hand, we are totally deprived sinners before a holy God, but yet our destiny is to reign with Christ in the Kingdom of God! It has been said that the corruption of the best is the worst. This is profoundly true of humanity which, though the crown of creation, is capable of the most destruction.
Our lives are often riddled with contradictions: we can be singing praises to God one minute and swearing the next. There is something about us humans that makes this possible. Dr. Boyd will discuss humans as beings created in God’s image as he continues this series on the Letter to the Hebrews. If God created us in God’s own image, what happened? Why do we fall so far short of God’s glory?
Nothing in this world is truly neutral. Everything is either growing or it is dying. This law is true of our spiritual lives as well. Dr. Boyd addresses this problem and what to do about it as he continues this series on the Letter to the Hebrews.
Many people have argued that Jesus was actually an angel or some other type of being that is less than fully God. There is a sound Biblical defense against this claim. In the 1990’s people became increasingly interested in spiritual things of all sorts. As Christians this presents us with new opportunities as well as new obstacles to sharing our faith.
If you are curious about angels and demons and what they have to do with God’s good news for the world, this sermon is for you. Christians have authority over demonic forces. This means that we have nothing to fear, but outside of Christ, there is nothing that can be done to prevent spiritual attacks.
People are more interested in angels today than they used to be. This means that the church needs to respond with sound teaching on what angels are and what role they play in the grand scheme of things.
The many problems in the world cause some to wonder about the moral character of God. The greatest revelation of God’s character is found in Jesus Christ who is God in the flesh.
Many people today believe that moral and religious convictions are all relative. Dr. Boyd exposes the many problems with giving up on God as the one true Absolute. In the Old Testament, God used prophets to speak the truth to God’s people. In the New Testament God used Jesus Christ to bring the truth. Christ is the one true absolute in the world.
How we pray reveals much about how we view God. Do we thank God that we are not so bad as the next person? Or are we like the tax collector, who, understanding his sin confessed it before God and was counted as righteous. Dr. Boyd discusses the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector. Many people think that they are not good enough to be Christians. This is a tragic thought. It is precisely because we are NOT good enough that Christ died for us and we are now free to be Christians. Dr. Boyd discusses Gal. 5 where Paul said, “It is for freedom that Christ has set you free.”
Sometimes churches that claim to be “tough on sin” end up being the one’s with the most hidden problems! But Transformation must take place! Dr. Boyd continues exploring the problem of sin and the power of grace in Paul’s letter to the Romans. Do not let your feelings of failure win the day! Christians, God is the one who defines you and God has declared you to be righteous. Salvation has been granted to you SO that your life will be transformed by the new spirit living in you. Dr. Boyd concludes this message entitled Empowered By Grace.
Perhaps nothing is more important than understanding the significance of God’s grace. Dr. Boyd highlights the argument presented by the Apostle Paul regarding sin and grace. Many people wonder what difference it makes if we sin again after we have become believers. Dr. Boyd considers this question in the light of Paul’s letter to the Romans.
It’s time we got our priorities right! Rather than waste our energy on in house debates about denominations, we should be learning what it means to walk in the spirit and unite nations!
Our American individualism often prevents us from understanding covenants between people and God in the Old Testament. Greg addresses one area, corporate sin and punishment, that challenges our modern sensibilities. Whole groups of people are sometimes punished for the sins of an individual. Is there justice in this? Greg discusses how a biblical understanding of covenant can help answer this question.
The Bible teaches that the Kingdom of God will include uncountable multitudes from every nation of the world! The Church, which should be a “sneak peek” of heaven, must strive to reflect that goal. The Gospel is the power of God to reconcile sinners to the holy God! But that is not all! The Gospel is also the power of God to reunite the races of the world!
We have all wondered at one time or another, how is it that God doesn’t seem to get what God wants from creation. The importance of prayer is related to this question in a way which might surprise you! All who pray eventually have to wonder; why does it seem as though our prayers are not being answered?
Human beings were created with a responsibility for tending to things in both the physical and spiritual world. Prayer is the way we are to get things done in the spiritual world. Ultimately, nothing of Kingdom value happens without prayer.
Spiritually speaking, all healing has to do with accepting what is true and confronting what is false.
The Sword of the Spirit, the Word of God, the Word of Truth: these phrases refer first and foremost to Jesus Christ. We need to read the Bible and commune with Christ if we desire to see the Word of God bring forth fruit in our lives.
Despair and hopelessness are issues that everyone struggles with. The good news is that this can be overcome if we are willing to take Paul’s advice and put on the Helmet of Salvation.
If God is for us, who can be against us? And we know that God is indeed for us. It is God’s strength in us, and not our own competence that makes us effective for the Kingdom of God!
Do not let anyone accuse you with regard to your salvation. If you are a believer, you have been given the breastplate of righteousness which wards off attacks on the basis of God’s goodness in you.
God chooses the weak things of the world to do mighty works through. The church an excellent example of this principle. Even so, God uses Paul to teach us to “be strong IN the LORD.” We are not commanded to wear a belt of religion or a belt of rationalization. Rather the belt of Truth is needed and it requires us to be brutally honest with our selves if we desire to be effective in ministry.
The Bible assumes that we are all caught up in a profound spiritual war. Most of the time, Christians in America don’t seem to be very aware of this reality. Rather than blaming blind people for being blind or beggars for being poor, Jesus understood that there are strong spiritual forces behind the evils of this world.
Historically, the Bible has been used to support slavery; especially by people claiming to be Christians. How are we to understand passages which seem to suggest this? In Christ, we are all united. The many races of the world are to be reconciled to each other because we are all reconciled to God in Christ.
When people in authority use the Bible to strengthen their power, they misunderstand what it means to imitate Christ. Christ never used power to intimidate.
It is important to reflect on the faithfulness of God and give thanks. Be blessed by the testimonies given here.
God took on what was rightfully ours (sin, pain, death) so that we could take on what is God’s (holiness, mercy, and love). THIS is the meaning of Christmas.
If we want to be changed dramatically by our relationship with God, we must begin to see ourselves the way that God sees us. In Christ, we are holy, beautiful and spotless!
The value that you place on something is directly proportionate to how much you are willing to sacrifice for it. Christ shows how much he values his bride, the Church, by how much he was willing to give for it.
A central theme of the Gospel insists that, in the Church, there are to be NO claims to preference or power on the basis of race, gender, class or any other arbitrary distinctions.
It is very difficult to feel truly “thankful” in a capitalist economy. We are conditioned to NEVER be satisfied with what we have. We need to come against this lie.
We know that all believers have the Holy Spirit within them. What then does the Bible mean when it speaks of a “Baptism of the Holy Spirit”?
Ephesians 5:14 says, “Wake up O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give you light!"
As we find new direction for our lives in Christ, we inevitably will need to sacrifice things in our lives that are not compatible with where God is taking us.
We cannot live both in truth and falsehood. We cannot serve two masters. Christians, let’s stop pretending everything is okay and get honest with what is real in our lives so the power of God can continue to transform us!
The Bible has a high call for us to consider when it comes to how we use words and communication with each other. We are to do all things for the building up of others.
The Love of God is truly the purpose of creation. For this reason, how “real” life seems to us will depend on to what extent we participate in the Love of God.
As Christians, we are called to be imitators of Christ. There is an infinite difference between being merely an admirer and becoming an imitator!
Churches have often been unwelcoming to people who have been divorced. We need to examine more closely what the Bible does teach about divorce.
We all believe that God has a plan for our lives. But often we are not obedient to God’s calling. Does divorce or some other tragic failure in our lives make us “second class Christians?”
The Bible teaches that marriage partners are to submit to one another out of reverence for Christ. But the church has often taught something very different.
What is the biblical role of women in the church? Many churches teach that leadership positions should only be held by men, but is this really God's design?
Most churches still teach that you should give 10% of your income as an offering. Is this justified?
One of the most frequently asked questions we get asked, especially by young people, is whether or not sex is a sin.
Some Christians are confused about exactly what demons can do and what Christians can do about it.
Worship has nothing to do with your mood or any other circumstances of your life. It is about a choice to put God first even in the face of adversity.
Many sincere Christians have professed they had the key to unlock the mysteries of the book of Revelations, and as a result we have myriad interpretations. We must be tentative in embracing these explainations
This faith wasn't discouraged by obstacles. These people were determined even though it meant stepping out of their comfort zone.
The Bible says that homosexuality is sin, but that doesn't justify any prejudice or judgment. We are called to extend love, grace, and acceptance to all sinners without compromising the truth.
One of the most convincing arguments against Christian faith is the corruption within the Church. There are reasons supporting this argument but also powerful responses to it!
Christians are to be transformed into the likeness of Christ by the renewing of our minds! We often act on our personal feelings about something rather than the truth of God. Our feelings are very difficult to change but it CAN happen!
We often feel paralyzed by the reality of radical evil in the world. Christians and non-Christians each have their own standard cliche responses, but they do not really help the situation. God knows radical evil and suffering better than any of us. What’s more, God’s power and presence are there to give us peace and victory when we suffer unspeakable evils in our lives. Listen to Greg 's response to the Oklahoma City bombing.
Not everything that we believe is of equal importance. Greg addressed what the Bible considers to be of first importance! That is, the resurrection of Christ. All people seek meaning in their lives, but many fail to recognize the centrality and necessity of Christ’s resurrection to that search.
God calls the church to be a place that is safe for wounded people. It is here that healing can be found and a new life begun!
Church, it's time to GROW UP! Pastors should not be doing all the work! Rather, they are to be preparing all Christians for ministry so that the whole Body of Christ may be built up.
When we forget that we live in the midst of a battlefield, our faith becomes merely religion. When we recognize that there is an enemy who seeks to kill and destroy, our faith becomes the weapon of God’s victory! Salvation through Christ is not only for our personal sins; it is the power of God to defeat the enemy as well!
The world will judge the church by what it sees, so when we fight amongst ourselves we ruin our witness for Christ.
The Bible says that Christians are to be meek. Greg revealed the true meaning of this powerful word that Paul uses in his letter to the Ephesians.
Humility is the power of having something great, but not displaying it for your own sake. God, in infinite humility, had the power it took to come under us in order to lift us up and transform us!
Here is a profound truth: All the things that motivate us to free ourselves from others, we receive when we become prisoners to God in Christ!
Nothing is more damaging to the purposes of God than the evil divisions that Christians and churches so often resign themselves to.
Throughout the Bible we can see the importance placed on making resolutions. Thoughtfully considered vows have an important role to play in the Christian's life.
The way Christmas is celebrated in society today is the opposite of the reality of God.
A huge problem for many of us is getting what we know in our heads to become REAL in our hearts. As we abide in Christ, we are promised that Christ will abide with us as well.
Our inner being can be regenerating even as our outer body is decaying. We need to take time to care for our inner being, because it needs to be feed and exercised just as our physical body does. When we do this, we are able to utilize the power of the Spirit within.
When the Bible talks about the temple of the Lord, it does not mean a building. Rather, the place where God dwells is in the relational interactions between believers.
The wide variety to be found in creation is intended to show God's artistic creativity. This is true in nature and in human beings. But in this fallen world, these differences are used to divide people.
Conflict in the world seems to be on the increase. The lack of peace in the world around us has its origins in the human heart.
God’s concern has always been for all people. Israel was blessed, not simply for their own sake, but for the sake of the whole world.
In salvation, rather than cleaning us up and giving us our old lives back, God gives us a new life! We are God’s handiwork, God’s precious creations still in process! This means we should expect to see God’s redemptive power at work in our lives.
In the middle ages, a myth was started about the cup that Jesus drank from at the last supper. It was thought that if a person were to find this cup and drink from it, they would become immortal. Today, people look to many other things for life.
There is no mystery to the success of the great revivals in church history. They were simply the result of large-scale prayer efforts. It is a spiritual law: when believers pray, God moves.
The world would have us believe that we can only be happy when we are our own boss. But it is out of God's great love for us that he insists on being in control of the believer's life
Many believers struggle with assurance of salvation. But God has made to us this promise: If we have a heart that says yes to Him, we are assured of an inheritance.
God's will, which is centered in Christ, is a mystery to the world. It is hidden from those who don't know Him.
When God redeemed us, He set us free from slavery to sin. When God forgave us, He separated us from that sin.
God created the world and every human being in it for the purpose of glorifying Himself. The goal of everything in creation is to show off God's love and creativity.
Predestination has long been a confusing and controversial issue in Christian theology.
When we seek an answer to the question of who we are, we usually look inward. We assess our emotions, behavior, and thoughts. While that may give us true information about ourselves, it's not the most important factor in determining who we are.
We have been promised every spiritual blessing. This is not the same as being promised every material or earthly blessing.
[Note: This is the beginning of our study going through the book of Ephesians] What is a saint? Many people think your behavior has to be extra holy in order to be a saint.
We are conditioned by society to believe that every voice we hear inside our mind or heart is of our own creation. This blocks us from listening to the voice of God speaking to us in our spirit.
There are many reasons why people would be wary of supernatural spiritual gifts. Charlatans, sensationalism, manipulation, spiritual abuse, and spiritual arrogance can all give people a negative image of these gifts.
Supernatural gifts have been given to each and every member of the Body of Christ for the purpose of building up the church. These gifts are given to all believers regardless of where they are in their Christian walk.
Events in our past can still have a profound effect on our lives today. Part of healing now is knowing how much God loved us then. Our past is part of who we are today.
If death is the last word, then everything in life is utterly meaningless. All that people think, dream, feel, work for, or even exist for come to nothing.
As Christians, we have the power to break free from addictions. So why do many of us still seem to be in bondage?
Moses put aside his fears and carried out the mission God had for him. We too can do great things for God if we are willing to override our apprehension. We can say, “So what?” to our fears and follow the Spirit.
Another stone that keeps us entombed is shame. In this fallen world, we all carry shame from our past experiences, which can affect our whole life.
When Lazarus was raised from the dead (John 11:1-46), he had new life, but the stench of death was also still with him. So it is with us. We have new life in Christ, but we may carry with us things from the time when we were dead in sin.
Worship is saying true things about God to God, ascribing worth to Him, even “romancing” God. In true worship, our whole focus is on God.
Revivals don't happen by accident. There is a spiritual law of cause and effect, just as there is a physical law of cause and effect. Prayer causes God's will to be done in the world. The cause is prayer, the effect is the Holy Spirit fighting for us against the kingdom of darkness.
Above all else, the early church desired to follow the Holy Spirit. They were lead by the Spirit to devote themselves to the Apostles' teachings.(Acts 2:42). They pledged themselves, submitted to, came under the word of God.
Often today, Christians attempt to witness to non-believers out of a sense of obligation and guilt. If the power of the Holy Spirit is not behind that witnessing, however, those attempts will be largely futile. As much of the church today is unhealthy, so also the church's attempts at witnessing are often unhealthy.
Since about the 4th century, the Christian church has adopted the pagan idea that the church is to be made up of a religious professional and his audience. The professional (called father, reverend, etc.) does the religious stuff whilst the congregation sits back and enjoys the show.
Our peace of mind must be based on God's passionate love for us, not on the state of the world around us. We must receive that unconditional peace (which only comes from God) before we can become peacemakers. We must experience the fact that the world can't give us peace, only Jesus can.
We were created with a need for unconditional love. To the degree that we don't receive it, we die.
In our society there is a deepening divide between the races. Participation in hate groups is growing by leaps and bounds. One group elevates itself and puts down all others. From the beginning, God has hated racism.
Jesus was born into a “jungle,” a world that was (and is) a war zone between the forces of good and the forces of evil.
There seems to be less time available for important things now days. But love cannot be rushed. Relationships are built by taking time for each other.
How does God discipline his children? What does his discipline look like in our lives? What is his motivation in disciplining us? How and when should we discipline our children?
Capitalism has proven to be the most successful economic force in the world. The factors in that success are a mix of good and evil.
The idea that what you think largely determines your behavior is in fact a Biblical concept. The modern self-esteem movement teaches this also, but not in a Biblical context.
Reincarnation is gaining popularity in our society. Many people believe that the only fair way to explain the universe is that each person has an unlimited number of lifetimes to attain perfection.
Another basic teaching of the New Age movement is that of moral relativism. This is the belief that there are no hard and fast rules about right and wrong.
In New Age philosophy, the ultimate authority for determining truth is personal experience. Demonic forces have the power to give people supernatural experiences (soul travel, channeling, crystal power, predicting the future, and many more). Because these experiences are so vivid and real, it’s hard to convince people that this way is not the way of truth.
Sometimes being stuck in religious traditions can cause us to miss what God is really doing. This is the problem the Pharisees had throughout the Gospels. Their rules didn't allow for God to do radical new things, the kinds of things Jesus did. They had tried to put God in a box, but the Spirit can't be contained like that.
If you are not intentional about controlling what goes into your mind, you need to know that there are forces out there that are very intentional about what they are putting in your mind! Greg concluded this inspiring series on Transformation: “The power to change your life!”
The Bible teaches that “kindness” and “gentleness” are fruits of the Spirit that Christians are to reflect. How does God develop “kindness” and “gentleness” in the lives of his people?
Anger is often rooted in a tragic experience you have had in your life. God wants to see you free from the effects of that event.
The Bible tells us that we become what we see. God created us that way because he wanted us to look at him and become like him. That works against us in this fallen world.
To deal effectively with a problem, you must get to the root of the problem, and not just address the symptoms of the problem. In our lives, behavior is the symptom, and “the flesh” is the root.
To address a problem, you've got to get to the heart of a problem rather than just focusing on the symptoms of the problem.
Romans 7:4 tells us that we must die to the law if we are to bear fruit to God. As Christians we don't follow the law as the Old Testament defines it, but we often follow the law in another way. That is, the approach we take to changing bad habits in our lives is to manipulate behavior.
The Bible says that we should be prepared to give a reason for the faith that is within us. What can we say to Jesus’ challenge, “Who do you say that I am?”
Do you or people you know ever wonder why Christians believe the Bible? What makes it more trust-worthy than any other religious book? No book that has been more attacked, analyzed and criticized than the Bible. Does it stand the test? Greg begins a three-part series on beliefs to build your life on.
There are many claims to truth. Many books even claim to be inspired by God. Yet the Bible stands above the rest in several ways
Worship is prayer in the form of praise directed to God. Do you often find yourself distracted during worship? Many Christians wonder why praising God seems like work rather than a celebration of joy. Greg shared insights that transform the way we experience God during the prayers of praise that we sing to God on Sunday mornings.
We know that the battle belongs to the Lord, but what exactly is our role in the spiritual war that rages all around us? What kind of authority do we as Christians have over demons and how should we use it?
The Bible seems to promise healing. But at the same time, Paul’s “thorn in his flesh” taught him that God could use Paul better in his weakness than in strength. Should we pray for healing or not?
Since God is all-powerful and completely good, isn’t God going to do all the good things we might pray for anyway? Why pray for those things, then. Greg showed from Scripture that God chooses our prayers as a means of getting things done that otherwise will not happen if we do not pray!
In the game of Freeze Tag, when a person is touched by a member of the opposite team, he or she is “frozen” and cannot move. The only way to be set free is to have a member of your own team touch you. It is similar with the soul. When we are “touched” in some traumatic way, we become frozen. When the soul is touched in a way that God never meant it to be touched
If you’re like many of us, you often find prayer to be frustrating and boring. There just isn’t any REALITY to it. Greg talked about how to make your prayer life come alive.
Have you ever read the Song of Solomon? Christians have always understood this book to be about the love relationship between God and us. Yet it’s full of romantic language. Greg continued his series on prayer by talking about prayer as romancing the Lord.
How do we pray during a crisis? Do you ever feel like you just want to scream at God? How should we pray with people who are going through traumatic experiences?
Many people feel they have to use a special religious language when they pray to God. They speak in King James English rather than their own common tongue. But people in the Bible talked to God in their common language and spoke to God with raw honesty.
As Christians, we all believe that prayer is important. But do you ever wonder why prayers matter to God? Does it REALLY make a difference to God whether you pray or not?