Epicentre West LA: Recent Episodes
Epicentre West LA
Messages from Epicentre West LA in Los Angeles, CA.
Change LA, Change the Word through Real Hope, Real People, Real Change.
"Our loyalty to Jesus and our love for Jesus is going to be tested and how we respond to the test reveals the depth of our love and loyalty for Jesus." Listen along as Pastor Chris teaches on this invitation to grow in courage through the passage Luke 12:1-12.
When we are filled with the Holy Spirit we are able to operate in our identity, who we were meant to be, and who God created us to be. Are you operating in God’s identity of you? Listen along as we worship and hear from Emily Howard, a member of our preaching team, teach from Luke 1:59-80.
Listen with us as Pastor Chris shares with us about the character of the Holy Spirit through the foretelling of the birth of John the Baptist.
In our powerlessness over our storms, when we feel like we’re perishing, are our eyes just stuck on the storm?
Listen along as Pastor Kathryn asks us to consider the postures of our hearts when we are in the midst of our storms and reminds us that Jesus has power over our chaos and over the storms.
We think about building for the future, building into our careers, building into the security of our children - are we building into Jesus, into what is actually going to last forever? Listen along as Pastor Chris reminds us to refocus and start living for heaven.
We need God’s words and we need a move of God, a supernatural work of Jesus to open our minds to understand his words so that things click into place. When things click into place, we are transformed. Listen as we explore how things start clicking for the disciples in Luke 24: 44-53.
Let us be a people of deep and consistent prayer, praying in faith the power of Jesus over every aspect of our lives. Listen as we explore what it means to experience His life in our bodies.
Jesus is alive and present—walking with us, listening to our struggles. Even if he feels like a stranger at times, we can open ourselves to him—to feed us with his Word at his table. He wants to dine with us if we would open wide the door of our hearts to see him—the risen Christ, our ever-present companion. Listen along as we enter the passage of the Road to Emmaus and let God take us on this same journey.
Jesus is alive and it changes us. Jesus brings us out of the dead, making us fully alive in him which compels us to go with him to bring others out of the dead, in any way possible. Join us as we celebrate our living God!
Jesus calls us to be his disciples, but before we answer the call, we must count the cost. Following Jesus requires us to give up everything we have and reconstruct our identity. Therefore, let us again evaluate the cost, allow God to demolish our old self and its attachments, and let Him reconstruct our identity according to His will, centered on Jesus and His way of the cross.
You have been invited to the Heavenly Banquet. But are there any flimsy excuses you are using? Watch along as we look deeper at the Parable of the Great Banquet and the invitation that is open to all.
We apologize as a few words at the beginning of the sermon were cut off. Emily started her message with sharing a story about her sister having a small intimate wedding during Covid and later deciding to do a "destination" wedding as a celebration in Colorado. Continue to listen along as she shares more.
The mantra of our generation is to "live life to the fullest," but how do you define a full life? Listen along as Pastor Chris teaches on what it means to pick up your cross daily and to become a disciple of Christ.
The way that Jesus loves people takes sacrifice, it takes courage, it takes great commitment. Listen as Pastor Chris preaches on the compassion of Jesus in Luke 5:12-16.
Do we truly believe and submit to the authority of Jesus even things don’t make sense? Listen as we look at the compassionate and final authority of Jesus in Luke 4, and how we, as believers, are to respond in submission to Jesus’ authority in our lives – and the ways that we can trust that authority to be good.
Through the temptations in the wilderness, we see Jesus rise into his identity as the Son of God, and we too as sons and daughters of God, can face temptations not as an offer to fall, but to rise. Listen as we study the temptations of Jesus in Luke 4.
We make real changes to receive people into our homes. It is time to make real changes to receive Jesus deeper Into our lives. Join us as we continue to study the Gospel of Luke with our new sermon series "Epiphany."
Life in Jesus is a life of growing revelation of the majesty of God. Join us as celebrate the start of Advent through the study of Revelation 5:6-14.
This Sunday, we praised God for being a God of loyal love. Listen as Pastor Kathryn takes us through Exodus 34:5-10.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Emily Howard walks us through reflection and exhorts truth through testimony.
Listen as we kick off our new 3 week mini-series "On the Altar of Gratitude and Praise." In this sermon, Pastor Kathryn discusses how God is a God of Wonders as we look at Psalm 145:1-13a.
Listen as guest speaker, Chris Lindley, shares his experiences from India and Indonesia and the incredible similarities from his experiences and the Biblical life.
Listen to a special Testimony Sunday panel on the call to live missionally and what it looks and feels like in a modern context. The panel dives into the worries and fears they have as a Christian, the ways they’ve been impacted, the hurt they’ve faced, wrestling with interpersonal relationships, and the victories they’ve seen through Christ.
Last week we looked at being on mission in our blood families, and today, we’ll look at being on mission in friendships—how we are the aroma of Christ, through our life and through our words. Listen as Kathryn Cheng explores the idea of what it means to be the aroma of Christ through 2 Corinthians 2:12-17.
"Deep in our soul we desperately want to only live for God, we want to have that kind of security that says, God first and God only. He calls us to go, be his ambassador so that we can grow into that security. And then he calls us to go so that we can see things that prophets and kings longed to see." Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay expands on the idea of ambassadorship through Luke 10.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Emily Howard walks us through reflection and exhorts truth through testimony.
In our new series, "Sent: A Call to Missional Living", we are going to delve deeper into what it means to live missionally through Acts and other passages. The beginning of the book of Acts is a big picture, priority-setting text in our Bibles with our section today ending with Jesus calling the first disciples and thus every disciple, Jesus calling us to our life purpose: be witnesses, representatives, spokespeople, ambassadors to the risen Jesus, the King of Kings, to the Kingdom of God everywhere - in your family, in your neighborhood, in your city, your state, your country, and the world. So how do we get there?
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Emily Howard walks us through reflection and exhorts truth through testimony.
"We know from both Scripture and our own lived experience, that we can’t make it on this journey alone; we need each other. The community of faith – the people of God, the Church – is essential. To live out that value of community, today we are going to be looking at a passage that has given us the key for friendships in the Church." Listen as guest speaker Kathryn Cheng and elder, Quen Cheng, lead us in an exhortation and study on Philippians 2:1-11.
“Hospitality at its heart is welcoming and receiving someone into your heart, into your literal house, into your life... It [hospitality] goes beyond being generous with people you like, and chooses to be generous with people that are difficult to like.” Listen as Pastor Chris delves deeper into the characteristics of hospitality and how we are meant to end a welcome to those around us and in our friendships.
In our series on Friendships, we’ve talked about cultivating friendships through generosity, intentionality, empathy & hope. Today we will look at what happens when those friendships we’ve been cultivating go wrong and how we as children of God in his kingdom, can live into who we are as meek, merciful peacemakers. Listen as guest speaker, Kathryn Cheng, continues our series "On Friendship" and how we can deepen our relationships with one another as well as with Jesus.
If you are suffering today and you need a friend, this is Jesus’ response to you. He comes to you. He shows up in your moment of need. He comes and he empathizes, he weeps with you and shares your grief. As he grieves with you, he gets angry for you. He wants to assert his power, he wants to give you hope, and he wants to bring supernatural healing and resurrection life into your suffering. Listen as guest speaker and church elder, Quen Cheng, speaks on how we can navigate the waters of grief and anger through friendship – of both the supernatural and earthly – can be healing and fulfilling for ourselves.
A generous friend is not just someone who shares his material wealth with their friends (that is obviously a part of it), but it is also someone who will share their time that is set aside for themselves, will give up their comforts, will give up their need to be respected all the time, will give up their desire to be loved all the time in their love language. Listen as Pastor Chris explains further on what friendship looks like in a Christian context, how to be a good friend, and how Jesus models friendship in scripture.
As we live in his Spirit and engage in the war between his Spirit and our sinful nature, that war that happens when His Spirit starts to move in and take over territory in our hearts and minds and souls - when we finally decide to stand up and participate and engage in this war, over time, we are regenerated, we are transformed. How will you choose to engage and take ownership in the journey of transformation? Listen as Pastor Chris exhorts the importance of our own agency in shaping who we are to become through Galatians 6.
If you want God to dream his dreams through you–which fundamentally will be about regenerating you into his likeness, then you will commit deeply to winning the war between the sinful nature and the Spirit–as you endure with people. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay speaks on the fruits of the spirit and how it plays into relationships and building relationships within the church.
We are so consumed with the idolatry of the individual that we have found all kinds of ways to live out this worship of the self. We are in so deep, the words here we read from the Scriptures are hard for us to hear as we really let them mean what they mean. Paul explains more – “just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, 5 so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.” But the implications of this will not be easy for us individual addicts. God has given each of us faith, but that faith can’t be fulfilled on its own. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay breaks down passage Romans 12:3-8 and talks about the uniqueness of gifts and its greater purpose within the body and how we can apply this to our lives today.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, walks us through a reflection of the past year and exhorts truth through testimony.
"Jesus is speaking all the time if we will just want to listen and obey. We’ve explored different avenues of thinning the veil, that film that builds up around the eyes of our hearts, that blocks us from seeing, sensing, knowing the presence and activity of God in and around us." Listen as a member of our congregation, Kathryn Cheng, speaks about hearing God and prophecy, hearing the voice of God, and speaking his words for others.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, walks us through a reflection of the past year and exhorts truth through testimony.
How do you know that God is with you? What reminders or actions do you take to enforce and then reinforce what you know to be true? Listen as Pastor Chris walks through Ephesians 3:16-19 and gives practical examples of how to remind ourselves that Jesus's pursuit of ourselves should never be a one-way street.
When we surrender our dreams, we find that we are fully satisfied with God. We allow the Holy Spirit to catch us when we declare, “There is nothing on earth I desire other than you” (Psalm 73:25). Listen as elder Quen Cheng leads a teaching on Psalm 73 and how to apply it to our lives.
Tongues - what is it? Listen as Pastor Chris breaks down the prayer language and its history and challenges us to strengthen the skill of tongues in a way that is accessible, practical, and vital for the health of our spiritual growth, even for the most grounded of us.
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If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, walks us through a reflection of the past year and exhorts truth through testimony.
Solitude and silence are probably the most needed of all spiritual activities for us to be restored, but it is probably the most uncomfortable for many of us – right next to fasting from food. Most of us can’t sit and be still without something engaging our minds like music, movies, news, or social media. It is hard to hear the voice of God and to experience his love and power when we are always so distracted. Just like deepening a relationship with a significant other or friend, if you are always looking at something else, listening to something else, you are not going to take in what they want to say very much. Listen as Pastor Chris explains why silence and solitude are so vital to deepening our relationship with Jesus and learn several practical applications to applying them to our lives.
The Spirit pursues us, the Spirit wants to catch us - we are not chasing the Spirit. What does it feel to be in a place where we are persistently, ardently, and endlessly pursued? What does it feel like? What do we do when we get caught? Listen as Pastor Chris lays out the foundation for the series, 'The Pursuit' and how he talks about the different ways to put ourselves in a place to be caught by the Spirit, to have the hands of God on our face, to be cleansed and cared for and kissed by God himself.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, walks us through a reflection of the past year and exhorts truth through testimony.
What does it look like to be in the word together? When we build relationships around it and have it be the center of our life, how can it change us? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay leads us through a passage, contextualizes our journey of faith, and invites Jesus to speak into it and see how the effects can change our lives.
There is more than one narrative in our lives. Though we live our lives, we are more than just ourselves at any given moment - we are also children, friends, co-workers, citizens. And through each of these narratives, faith can change our perspective. It can bring vision. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks through vision-bringing and that what we see, isn't always what we should settle for.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, walks us through a reflection of the past year and exhorts truth through testimony.
To endure suffering means to hope in a future glory amid present suffering, engaging Holy Spirit in our weakness, and knowing God takes even the worst sufferings and works them for good, as seen most definitively on the cross. Listen as preaching team member, Kathryn Chen, speaks on suffering and what it is like to see God in it and how He is with and for us in this conclusion to the series "In Suffering and in Hope".
"The Spirit of the Living God is both a helper to get through our suffering and an appetizer to keep us focused on the coming glory. It is why it is so crucial that we pursue the Spirit and put ourselves in a place where the Spirit can catch us and fill us and consume us. We must be in our Word to be clear in our minds, we must know what is the Spirit of God and what is counterfeit spirits meant to get us away from the real help–but then we have to go beyond the mind into the heart and the soul–we must go beyond understanding who God is to encounter the living God."
'Cheap grace' is a term that describes a lie that has gotten into some people’s brains, that they can just accept Jesus as their Savior and then they are forgiven for all of their sins past, present, and future. And then they feel free to just keep indulging in their sins because they are forgiven. This is a suffering that is soul-deep, and keeps people trapped in their normal patterns with no hope of breaking out or salvation. Listen as Pastor Chris continues his series on suffering and the hope of pattern-breaking, earth-shattering, and completely undeserved rescuing by Jesus.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, exhorts truth through testimony.
Our second core value for Epicentre West LA is our love for the church. Come and listen to Pastor Chris's challenging and life-giving message on what it means to commit to your church family.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. It can help temper our own entitledness, battle against false humility, and remind us of those sweet moments between God and ourselves. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, exhorts truth through testimony.
We battle evil in prayer. We sustain joy in prayer. We find hope and strength in prayer. We find insight and clarity in prayer. We win the battles in prayer. Prayer is the power to persevere in the Mission. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay explains through Acts 4 and how vital prayer is as a Christian and why we must pray.
Words have power. They have the potential to build people up, to heal, to help shine light where untruths have taken root. Testimonies hold that same power. Listen as Emily Howard shares words and as those within the Epicentre community share words of wisdom, of encouragement, and of God's mercy and explains the purpose and vision behind Testimony Sunday.
Have you experienced, have you witnessed the risen Jesus? Has His Spirit filled you as he filled this community in Acts? We know that we are growing in love for Jesus as we are dying to fear what others think of our loyalty to Jesus. It is this spectrum that we are always moving on. On one end is a paralyzing fear of persecution, social abuse, hate speech, being stereotyped. But then Jesus forgives us, he heals us, he heals someone else through us and then we start moving away from fear into courage. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay explains what living courageously and taking it on as a mission in our modern-day world.
Three people, three different life stories, and three different experiences with the Holy Spirit, and none of the three had a typical "come-to-Christ" moment. If anything, to the outside person, it may seem like they were the least likely candidate for God to have picked. Listen as Kim Marshall speaks into each person's character and the hows and whys of God picking them and upending their lives to become a living testimony for His kingdom.
We have heard that word a lot this past year. 'Supremacy'. As people are trying to understand the chaos happening in our country, many people have pointed to the problem of white supremacy. What has been confusing is that that term carries different meanings depending on who is talking. But Jesus took Jewish zealots, Jewish extremists, and he took soldiers of the Roman oppressive regimen, if you keep reading, he converted them, transformed their sick thinking into the thinking of the kingdom of God. If Jesus had hope for and believed in these men, if Jesus persevered with them, while checking them, then we have no right to demonize them and give up ultimate hope for us and for those around us.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. It can help temper our own entitledness, battle against false humility, and remind us of those sweet moments between God and ourselves. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, exhorts truth through testimony.
What is meant to uniquely marks us as Jesus-followers to the rest of the world? As we grow as a church in our witness to others, Jesus provides us with the foundation in John 13:34-35. Executive Pastor Steph Chao shares about this command and invitation into a new standard of love for one another in the church.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. It can help temper our own entitledness, battle against false humility, and remind us of those sweet moments between God and ourselves. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Pastor Chris Rattay exhorts truth through testimony.
As we emerge from the pandemic, our vision is that we would be ready to open the doors of the house. To open the doors with radical generosity, hospitality, and love for others – for those who are searching for Jesus. Listen as Quen Cheng shares God's vision for we, as believers, can be a light to our community, to our friends, to our family.
We have been sinking deep into the Lord's prayer for the past month. It is the prayer of prayers as it is the guide that Jesus gives us when asked teachers how to pray. And as we have mentioned, while it is good to memorize and to say literally, it is meant to give us clear focus and principles to help us to pray. In essence, as we understand this prayer we understand the heart of God. God is telling us, “pray these things to me, ask me for these things, desire all of this because this is what I want to give you and how I want our relationship to work.” Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay continues his sermon series on the Lord's Prayer and how we are to apply it to our lives in a way that is tangible.
If you had to tell your story to the world, what would you say? What details would you include? And more importantly, why would the world care to listen? Sharing your testimony can often feel like shouting into the void, but there are reasons to do it - thoughtful, spiritual, and life-changing reasons. It can help temper our own entitledness, battle against false humility, and remind us of those sweet moments between God and ourselves. Listen as members of our church share their stories and as Kim Marshall, a member of our preaching team, exhorts truth through testimony.
The Bible is layered with a worldview that says in humanity there is always going to be the haves and the have nots. There is no middle class in the Bible, that is something we have created to feel good about ourselves that we are not rich. But it just means we are not super-rich. Most of us, on a global level, are the haves, and then there are those that are the have nots. Why are there so many have nots in our world?
"Dysfunction in our systems, racial and class divisions, people in pain and depression, our own family drama, our personal struggles - chaos is not going to stop. We need to deal with our response to chaos instead of hoping the chaos away." What will your response be in the face of chaos?
"As mothers – we are often not seen—or at least we do a lot people don’t see. But even though others often don’t see, today I want to share about how God sees. And since we’ve just come out of our testimony series, today’s message will be a personal testimony [of my journey as a mother]." – Kathryn Cheng
Words have power. They have the potential to build people up, to heal, to help shine light where untruths have taken root. Testimonies hold that same power. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay delves deeper into this series on testimony and as those within the Epicentre community share words of wisdom, of encouragement, and of God's mercy.
Words have power. They have the potential to build people up, to heal, to help shine light where untruths have taken root. Testimonies hold that same power. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay delves deeper into this series on testimony and as those within the Epicentre community share words of wisdom, of encouragement, and of God's mercy.
When we look at the chaos and evil in our world and then the struggles in our personal lives, there is a tension we have to live in. But we are told in Revelation that the struggle between the devil and God is over - so why does evil still persist? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay breaks down Revelation chapter 12 and its application and how the act of giving and sharing in each other's testimonies are powerful weapons against the untruths of the enemy.
The disciples are living in their nightmare. Jesus has been dead for 3 days. Verse 19 says that it is evening, it is dark, and they are huddled together, in secret, behind locked doors, afraid - afraid because the people who hold all the power in their city are hunting them down. Those evil people just brutalized Jesus, tortured him, mocked him, and crucified him. So what happens next?
**We're grateful to our sister church New Life for a copy of their recording of the message this week as they're in the same series as us.
The suffering [we] suffer is an important discussion to have because of the unique water we swim in as Americans. We are born and raised in comfortable idolatry. We have no idea how unique and obsessed we are with getting rid of pain and living in comfort. We actually believe this notion that I should be able to find a life that does not have any kind of suffering. There is nothing inherently wrong with not wanting to live a life of suffering - it is natural to desire a life with comfort. But there is a type of suffering that we are called to as Christians if we are to stay in the vine. Listen as Pastor Chris shares what it means to purposefully reject a life of comfortable idolatry and why we are called to live this way.
Separation—that’s been the context for Jesus’ last words that we’ve been looking at the last few weeks, and that is the big context for what Jesus says here about abiding. Jesus is leaving. There is going to be physical separation. He’s been saying, I’m leaving, you can’t come. And the disciples don’t get it, and they keep asking, where are you going? How will we know the way? Listen as Kathryn Cheng, a member of Epicentre's preaching team speaks on abiding, of following rules and promises, and bridging the impossibility.
Jesus doesn’t just want to be a casual acquaintance. He wants genuine, deep friendship. A friendship that comes with blood, sweat, and tears, with commitment, faithfulness, sacrifice. And that relationship is only made sweeter because we are chosen. Listen as elder and preaching team member, Quen Cheng, speaks on the intimacy in relationships, both in our lives and in our relationship w/ Christ, and the importance of being desired and the deepness found in such a shared relationship.
Shame can keep us from bringing our confusions, questions, temptations, or struggles into the light of community where we can discover that other followers have common struggles, they have support to offer, they have the understanding, and can bring us to Jesus to find answers. Listen to elder and part of the preaching team's own Lauren Ludlow explain why Christ-centered community is vital for our spiritual growth and how we can offer it to each other.
Often we find ourselves serving others or wanting to help, but under the caveat that if that help is first asked for. But what about if the shoe is on the other foot and you are the one approached by someone wanting to help or serve you? How do you normally react? Do turn it down right away and say maybe next time or do we accept the help? Why is it important to know what our normal response would be? Listen as preaching team member Kim shares her insight into how God calls us to respond and how we should go forth and ask how we can help.
John 15:16, "You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you."
Jesus has chosen you. Jesus has come to you. Jesus loves you. Jesus has a purpose that he is going to fulfill in you. You may slow down these plans with your resistance, your rejection, but he will not stop until you are his, you are liberated, and you are fulfilling His good purposes in your life.
Are you a spectator in your walk with Jesus, but never the participant? What do we need to do to transition from our current rut and way of life to someone who joins in and is who takes part in their spiritual life? Listen to Pastor Chris Rattay as he continues his series on "Prepar[ing] the House" and how we can 'train like Jesus'.
What is a rhythm in your life that has permeated so deeply that it is now second nature? You might think of going to the gym, eating out less, calling a loved one regularly. How has that changed your everyday life? Now imagine replacing that rhythm with spending time with God. How do you think that would change your life even further? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay continues his series on Preparing the house and how we can prepare our own houses (hearts) for Jesus in 2021.
Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay shares his vision for the new year, his hopes for the growth of the local church, and how we can prepare our own hearts by bringing our own talents and skills to the table.
What you take in, what you consume is what makes you, you. That input forms the principles that guide your life. But what happens when you begin to put hope in something other than Jesus? How does that change who you are fundamental? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay speaks on the ownership of our consumption, of our principles and inputs, and how we can master them.
How do you respond in times of suffering? What guiding principles, "rules of life", and convictions do you have to keep you focused through the ups and downs of life? Pastor Chris kicks off the new year taking a look at Paul and Silas imprisoned with the series "Prepare the House", infusing new vision to our church for 2021 and a lifetime to come.
To wrap up the unforgettable year of 2020, Pastor Chris finishes off the "Your Kingdom Come" series with a message of hope, looking at Jesus' miraculous birth and reflecting on how hope for the future affects how we live in the present.
How do you determine what peace is in a world that operates on aggression and uses it like currency? Listen as guest speaker and elder Quen Cheng shares the vision of peace and living the impossible in your daily life.
Listen as Lead Pastor Chris Rattay speaks to how to liberate ourselves from the oppression we live under on a daily basis.
Kathryn Cheng kicks off our Advent series, Your Kingdom Come. Listen in and prepare your hearts for "the people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone" (Isaiah 9:2).
You can find the song, The Yearning, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vPW3cVJ12Yw, as a reflection to aid our hearts as we enter into Advent.
Do you ever have a craving so deep that it becomes an obsession? Maybe it's a hankering to fulfill that late-night junk void or perhaps an urge to give in to a sale online. It might plague your mind until you finally give in to it. Maybe it doesn't fill your craving at all. Often, desire is greater than satisfaction and it can slip and twist itself until it becomes a spiritual cancer of covetousness. What do you do? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay breaks down the tenth commandment and how when we become obsessive about things that are not of God, it lays us bare and reveals our true heart posture.
Of all the commandments, the fourth commandment is the singular command that comes with a promise: "Honor your father and mother... so that you may live long and that it may go well with you." In all of the commandments, each reveals an aspect of ourselves, but always through the lens of the first commandment. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay breaks down the fourth commandment, how we are to be honorable as sons and daughters, but also when to know how to disengage, and how ultimately we are to please God.
To most the commandment "thou shalt not steal" seems like a foregone concept. It reads very straightforward with no hidden agendas. But if that's the case, why is it included with the other commandments? Why did God remind us of such an obvious rule? Listen as Pastor Chris dives deep behind the intent of this law and breaks down the concept of Biblical theft, how envy and coveteousness can tear down relationships, and how the secrecy of our hearts' desires can corrode the best of things.
What do you do when the voices around you are tugging you every which way? How do you stand in the middle of chaos without falling to pieces? More importantly, how can you, as a disciple of Jesus Christ, bring light in the midst of unrest and division? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks about our mission as believers and how we can share Jesus's compassion and his heart for the world regardless of and in spite of the world and what it would tell us.
How do you reconcile hardships or frustration when you are stuck with a roommate, a family member, or a friend when you can't walk away? Sometimes it feels like the impossible choice to pick building others up instead of giving in to your emotions. Listen as Elder and a member of Epicentre West LA's preaching team, Lauren Ludlow, gives a companion sermon alongside the series of "The Ten"; she speaks on Ephesians and the guide Paul wrote for them on strengthening relationships and how we can implement these rules into our own lives today.
What does sexual sin look like from a Biblical perspective? If you strip away all modern concepts and preconceptions, subtract our understanding of what we believe it to be, and look at the seventh commandment, what would you see? How would this change and influence our conception of it now? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay engages in the topic of sexual sin and lust from a Biblical lens.
Love thy neighbor. 3 simple words. For a commandment that seems so simple at first glance, it is surprisingly and deceptively difficult. Listen as guest speaker and a part of Epicentre West LA’s preaching team’s own, Kim Marshall, explains whom we are to love, why we are to love, and how we are to love.
“Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Anyone can tell you that if you spent a moment in a playground that poem is a lie. There is nothing more hurtful than words said in the heat of the moment, behind the backs of friends, and whispered in people’s ears. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay speaks about how untruths unravel the good in our lives and how destructive lies and gossip can be to the freedom of our hearts.
Hey church, here's the fourth episode of Jesus & Politics as Pastor Chris explains the role and function of the government in society and how we as Christians can then determine our role and opinions in politics.
These episodes are meant to be watched in succession so if you have not already heard the first three episodes, we recommend that you do so.
What is the greatest commandment? Jesus gives two answers: love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and love your neighbor as yourself. Why did He choose to answer with not one answer, but two? What makes them the greatest? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay contextualizes the Ten Commandments with modern situations and how two commandments can become the sum of God's commandments.
Hey church! This episode gives us biblical handles for how to engage in politics.
If you haven't listened to the first two episode yet, please do so first as it'll set the stage and foundation for the following episodes.
Hi church fam! This next episode helps us learn how to communicate with others about our political theology. If you haven't listened to the first episode yet, please do so first as it'll set the stage and foundation for the following episodes. In this episode, you'll hear more about how we can engage within our church community and to those who do not follow Jesus.
We’ve all daydreamed at one point what it would be like to live a life of leisure. Being able to sleep in whenever we want, spend our time as we want, to be beholden to no-one but ourselves, all of it seems freeing. But what if the reality of that dream wasn’t as sweet as it sounded? Pastor Chris Rattay speaks about the rhythms of life and how we were made to live a life of work followed by a day of Sabbath. Listen as he explains the fifth commandment in his sermon series, “The Ten”, and how we can honor the Sabbath.
Hey church family! Hear from Pastor Chris' heart as he gives us some practical and helpful handles for how to engage with politics as those who love and follow Jesus. He'll be recording a handful of these 'mini-episodes' to give us guidance from Scripture and spiritual mentors.
Luke 10:1-2 tells us that the harvest is plentiful, but those who work the fields are few. How would you view the mission to engage with unbelievers and speak into spiritual conversation if you believe this statement to be true? Do we believe that God can and will create opportunities to share our faith and if so, would you take Him up on it? Listen as guest speaker and director of Intervarsity Christian Fellowship at UCLA, Leslie Kearsley, talks about the practical applications to the posture of prayer and how to take leaps of faith in everyday conversation.
What posture do you adopt when you pray? What contributes to a great time between you and God? Listen to Pastor Chris Rattay as he continues from last week’s sermon regarding prayer and practicals to how to grow in a time of prayer between you and God.
When the Lord gives us the third commandment, " You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain," there is a wealth of knowledge that is unspoken in our modern-day context. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay explains how Biblical names were an expression of a person's character traits, history, and their identity and how God gave us permission to call His name, to call upon Him is an intimacy we should not forget.
You won't want to miss this powerful exhortation from our Lead Pastor Chris as he speaks to our church family. Chris draws from the Early Church to anchor us and remind ourselves again what the pillars of the early church were so that those pillars can re-focus us and give us clarity as we move forward into an expectant future.
Kathryn Cheng wraps up our "Jesus As" series by exploring the Gospel of John and Jesus's invitation for us to come and drink of the Spirit of life. Discover the abundance that God wants you to experience in your life today as promised in the Scriptures.
Emmanuel means "God with us". We often hear this phrase around Christmas, but it isn't often discussed outside of the holidays. But this idea should not be saved for only his birth and the holidays – it should be an idea that we carry with us every day.
Routine is one of the great spiritual poisons that keep us from living the abundant life in Jesus. The poison of routine is so much more than just listening to the same preacher, week after week. The root of the poison is idolatry which Pastor Chris looks at through the lens of the 2nd of the 10 commandments given to the forming nation that would become Israel.
Do you ever feel that the salvation given to us should only be saved for "big" sins? Unknowingly, do you put a limitation on what you can be redeemed for because of your past, your imperfections, your constant failures? What holds us back from going to God and finding wonder and the beauty in what He has done for us? Listen as Lauren Ludlow, a member of Epicentre's preaching team, speaks truth about the lack of conditions Jesus puts on redemption and the celebration that follows. This is not about tears and perfume, but the saving grace found in Jesus's love.
Do you need all the freedoms in your life to worship Him? We pray and we fight for different freedoms. But do you believe your God to be limited in giving you joy by the circumstances in your life? Many Christians around the world would say, "No."
Out of Egypt, the Israelites were rescued from slavery and then presented with a set of new rules and laws. These laws dictated all aspects of society to be governed by; a representation of God's commitment to his people. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay explains the purpose of the Ten Commandments and the importance of following them today.
To take up your cross refers to the specific suffering a follower of Jesus embraces as they go on the mission, confronting all types of evil in a community with the love and power of Jesus. Are you prepared to take up your cross?
How do you change the status quo? Where do you start and who do you begin with? Often, change is so entangled with judgment that we forget judgment isn't the end. It is merely a tool that is used to break down hearts and walls. Without repentance, it only brings pain and great suffering. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay shares how Jesus chose to break the status quo followed with an opportunity for wrongdoers to repent, bringing a shalom-based change for the wronged and wrongdoers alike.
The foundation of oppression is untruth. People [within the church] are told and believe that they are less than human. That they will never measure up to the success of society, pitted against an invisible, unattainable goal by which their every being is measured against. But Jesus offers a different story, a new story, based wholly upon the fact that in the kingdom of God, every person is of the same value as the other. There is NO ONE greater than the other.
“As God sets up a nation of Shalom, He sets up a political system to serve people through fairness and justice. He sets up the economic system to serve people through shared wealth and generosity. He set up the religious system to worship him and obey Him. He also set up the system of the prophets so they would be the ones who would check all the systems so they could call those out who began to move away from God’s heart & values. We can see that God intended for all the systems to prioritize people over production. To prioritize people over money, people over excessive comforts.”
Due to technical difficulty, there will be no video for this week's sermon. Thank you for your understanding!
How does the church respond to the countless acts of violence and hatred that are happening across America right now? What action should it take? Is there a right answer? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay speaks from his heart with honesty and humility on the position of the church and its people. Listen as he lays down his fears before Jesus in prayer of the hurt within our brothers and sisters in Christ, for our cities, and what we as a church should do in the face of unprecedented times.
We engage with this world with a self-focused perspective – we just can't help it.
We will never join Jesus in what he is doing if all we do is lament and gawk at how bad the world is. E. Stanley Jones, a missionary to India, rightly observed the early Christians who were oppressed and persecuted did not say in dismay, "Look at what the world has come to." Rather, the early Christians said in great hope, "Look at what has come to the world!" Jones said that the early Christians saw not only the ruin but the resources for the reconstruction of that ruin. They saw that not merely did sin did abound, but that grace did abound much more.
Sometimes there are people who come into our lives and unrecoverably change it for the better. Often then are people close to us. But there is the odd stranger who is there and gone–the unlikely hero. Listen as guest speaker Pastor Enrique Melendez from Hope Community Church talks about those strangers through 1 Kings 17 and the ways we, too, can become those unlikely heroes and champions in a time of worldwide uncertainty and isolation.
Do you feel the need to rewrite God's story to give yourself a better part? Do you feel the need to arrange for yourself a happiness that wasn't God-given? Or will you trust him as you were intended to do?
In the beginning, God placed two trees in the garden of Eden: the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Popular culture will tell you otherwise. Some will insist that God did not want to impart with this 'special wisdom' and leave mankind in the dark. This could not be further from the truth–God delights in our knowledge of who He is. But then why was eating from the tree such a terrible sin? Listen as Pastor Chris talks through Genesis chapters 2 & 3 and the garden of Eden, a father's promise, and the growth found in a greater understanding of God's plan.
Shalom: used as a greeting in Biblical times, but at its essence, it captures the early church vision and early aspects of human society where "the wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox" (Isaiah 65). In a modern-day context, this word is all the more important, where there are divisions between genders, political affiliations, religions, sexuality. Pastor Chris Rattay speaks on how to cross this divide and how Jesus can bring 'shalom' to both inside the walls of the church and beyond.
If God intends for His church to be the main way that his Kingdom restores our community, then we would expect the growth of the church linked to more evidence of the presence of the kingdom of God. Something is wrong. Why has not the church transformed the world around it? Or should we reevaluate the way that we have been living and telling the story of the Bible?
Our life is not unlike those of the disciples in the days following His death. In what should have been a day of great celebration, his followers were fearful, locked in rooms and worried for their lives. Our story is not dissimilar. But, that doesn't mean it has to stay that way. Listen to Pastor Chris shares the promises made to us by God and the security and safety there is in Jesus.
Let's celebrate together.
When we are faced with suffering, it is hard to reconcile the current pain with a God who loves us. But even if it lasts our entire lives, there is redemption in the pain. So take heart. Because this momentary life we live on earth is nothing compared to the wonders and glories and goodness that we will experience with Jesus.
“I felt in my Spirit this week that we needed to take a pause in addressing the big issues of this crisis. We will get back to the big issues as we’re going to be in this for a while. Today though, we’re going to address what is arguably the most important practice the most important practical aspect of our faith; it is the foundation that everything is built on, the pillar that our daily lives rest on. And that is forgiveness.” - Chris Rattay
It won’t be romantic and it won't be perfect, but, when you look back at this moment you will realize that this was the catalyst for change. It will have been a future-shaping time, an identity-shifting time, a time where God was calling us to change without the distractions of the world and all to do with seeking out our identities with complete abandonment.
In a time where everything is in what seems to be a never-ending transformation and change, find in the freedom He gives us to press in closer to Him.
In a time like this, we all want to understand God. Where is God? What is He about? And we need to remind ourselves that God never promised to take away suffering. But He promised to be with us in suffering and to redeem our suffering for the greater good. This is the foundation of Christianity.
When the word hospitality is talked about, what comes to mind? In Isaiah 56, the idea of hospitality is tied closely with righteousness, but not the righteousness we are familiar with. Listen to guest speaker, Kathryn Cheng, as she explains and expands upon the biblical concept of being hospitable and how we can grow our relationships within our community and our city through God’s hospitality and righteousness.
If we wait until we feel like praying, we will be left waiting. It is a constant choice of faith. Prayer should be a conscious choice to do it and an action that should be spurred on by our desire to engage with Christ. But most important is that we don’t need to be spiritual giants in order to pray. God calls us to Him as we are. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks about the practicality of praying, the intimacies of prayer, and the heart truths that are revealed in the quiet moments between us and God through the act of faith of prayer.
“How long do you think an ear will survive, thrive, unattached to the body? Don’t wait for feelings for love to happen. Take the positive actions and the feelings of love will come in time.” Listen as guest speaker associate pastor Dave Kitani from New Life Church speaks on the topic of the church body and how we cannot thrive in isolation or in segregation.
“The core of kingdom stewardship is investing in the eternal. What Biblical stewardship is not is hoarding, acquisition, careless spending. And the only thing that is eternal on earth is God and people.” Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks through Luke 16:10-13 and the charge God puts on us, as individuals, as a church, and as believers.
Paul lays out a beautiful dance in Galatians 5 & 6 in how we are to grow with each other, restore each other, to love each other and how to do it with grace and kindness. Though sin can be difficult to battle through on our own, the burden is eased with the help of those around us. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks about the transformative power of friendship and how it is covenant-promised and restorative.
What is worship? What is the biblical model for worship and how do we apply it to our lives? How do we bring the presence of God into our lives through worship?
What is the purpose of fasting? In our modern society, is fasting still necessary? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks through Daniel 1:8-17 and how fasting can reveal the hidden parts of our hearts we never meant to reveal to the world and ourselves, and how we can change.
How do you pursue happiness? What methods do you use to stay happy? The choices we make are influenced by our circumstances, but those circumstances can and will change. What will you do then? Will your pursuit stay the same or is there a better method out there?
When Jesus talks about being lukewarm, what does He really mean? Listen as Pastor Chris talks about the church of Laodicea and how it could have better related to Jesus. All it takes is three simple steps.
How will you choose to give to Jesus this year? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay speaks about giving the perfect gift and how difficult it can be, especially those who seem to have everything. How does Matthew 2:1-12 apply here and how can you, too, give the perfect gift this season?
Our instinct as people is to believe that any and all pain is bad. So when we cry out to Jesus to stop the pain, and he doesn’t, we get upset. Don’t. Instead, press into him and wait on His collateral beauty.
The church is Jesus’s warrior bride and Jesus has entrusted that heart to his believers, to us. But how should the term ‘warrior bride’ apply in a world where military terms relate differently than it did in the past?
Sometimes it’s overwhelming how innate doing sinful acts can be. From joy to anger from generosity to greed, from peace to anxiety; the descent into sin is a path that is familiar. We often swing back and forth, trying to stay in the narrow road and then punishing ourselves for failure for returning to sin. But it doesn't have to be that way. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay applies John 1:14-17 & John 8:2-11 and talks about how Jesus’s choice to not condemn us is more freeing than a life of self-restriction and self-judgment and how there can be grace found in truth.
In the last two weeks, we’ve discovered the groom side of Jesus, the romantic, loving side of Jesus. This week we are talking about the side of Jesus that we do not often talk about - the revolutionary? Why is Jesus so angry? What is it that sets him off? Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay talks through Mark 11:15-18 and what makes this passage so important and how it can still apply today.
Jesus is the most tangible expression of God. He is our grace upon grace, especially when we run dry. Listen as Pastor Chris Rattay speaks about Jesus at the wedding of Cana and how He was invited to perform a miracle and how we can do the same.
When God calls us to risk, how are we choosing to respond? Are we waiting for an invitation to engage with others? Or do we approach each person with an aggressive front? Listen to Pastor Chris Rattay talk about Acts 8 and how to approach others with respect and our individual uniqueness.
Without courage, there can be no compassion. In the face of fear, how do we live a Jesus-centered life?
Taking risks is not always about the conclusion - sometimes it's about the process too. Will you be like Peter and choose to step out of the boat despite the fear of sinking?
On the idea of religion, what it means to be spiritual, and living an authentic life with God.
When Jacob is at his lowest point, God encounters him and assures him of His presence and blessing. If you are in a dark season and need to be encouraged, look to Jacob and how God ministers to him even in his worst moments.
Through Jacob's flaws and deceitfulness, we earn about God's heart for us all. As we look at the story of Jacob stealing the blessing from his older brother, Pastor Chris reveals our hearts' motives and how God through Jesus blesses us freely so that we can then bless others.
As we close out this series on the pillars of a healthy church, Pastor Chris speaks on the necessity of reconciliation between brothers and sisters and a willingness to forgive.
Continuing our series on the pillars of a healthy church, Pastor Chris speaks on the generous heart of God and the invitation to freedom and joy that God extends to His church.
In our second week of our series Brick by Brick, Pastor Chris shares about the power of knowing, enjoying, and resting in the true name of God.
Pastor Chris kicks off a new series, Brick by Brick, to talk about the foundations of a healthy church. Tune in to hear more on how friendship with those we don't feel naturally drawn to is the foundation of a Jesus-centered church that is an "alternate city" in Los Angeles, as Pastor Chris preached on June 30, 2019.
On this very special send-off Sunday, Lawrence shares his final word with the church as the church sends Lawrence & Sharon and family off to their next chapter.
New Lead Pastor Chris Rattay shares how Jesus is creating a new city through the Church for a city like Los Angeles.
New Lead Pastor Chris Rattay shares how Jesus is creating a new city through the Church for a city like Los Angeles.
After seeking God for this year, our leadership would like to share with you what we're hearing in this upcoming season.