Sermon podcast from Resurrection OC and Pastor Bryce Hales. For more information about Resurrection OC visit us online at www.resurrectionOC.com
Our destination is home. You and I need a home. Home is the center of life, where traditions are created. Psalm 23 is the home we are looking for. We were made for a true and lasting home
Psalm 23:2-3 It is our sin that qualifies us; for Him to pursue us. He never quits or gives up. He is rejoicing that he found me. There was no lamb at the Passover last supper, it was Jesus
God gives grace to the weary by inviting us to rejoice in our suffering. We are not victims of our circumstances. We share in the suffering of Christ.
Money and power will not solve our collective anxiety and animosity. Only counter-cultural Christian character will.
In 1 Peter 2:16-3:7, Peter connects our most basic, mundane relationships at home and at work with some of the most lofty language about Christ and His suffering.
True freedom is not the absence of restraint. Rather, it is a life lived in service to God and neighbor.
We weren't meant to live the Christian life alone, in isolation. We grow in Christ to the extent of our together-ness as Christ's body.
In the second sermon in this series, Bryce Hales explores the implications of our identity in Christ in the second half of 1 Peter 1. If you are in Christ, your gospel identity will bear gospel fruit.
Christian identity is key to rising above the anxiety of our time. But what is it? How do we get it? How do we know we have it? Bryce Hales walks us through 1 Peter 1:1-12.
Guest speaker, Alex Watlington (Campus minister at RUF USC), encourages us with the finality, the power and the resolution of Heaven in 1 Corinthians 15:42-58. "Our hope in Heaven gives us the strength to be steadfast now."
Guest preacher David Cassidy of Christ Community Church in Franklin, TN, explains the merciful compassion of Jesus as He heals the leper in Mark 1:40-45. This is what Jesus does for us and, therefore, this is how we love and move towards suffering in our world.
To mourn is an active posture. It is not strength to avoid lament, mourning, loss and grief. Mourning is the only door to true happiness.
The Holy Spirit is our teacher, advocate and helper. He builds a place of safety and rest and equips us to live lives in the midst of difficulty.
On the cross, Jesus experienced isolation in our place. On the cross, Jesus chose to be forsaken so we never would be.
No matter what you've done or where you've come from, there is room for you in the family of God.
Jesus' words to the thief, "today you will be with me in Paradise", convey much more than a future hope of Heaven. Jesus is essentially saying "Wherever I am, there you are" to those who are in Him. Knowing that we are already "seated...with Him in the Heavenly places" (Eph. 2:6) gives us confidence and joy during uncertain times.
We are deeply loved despite the unlovable parts of ourselves. Jesus opens the door to true acceptance by forgiving us.
The way of Jesus calls for us to have the faith to walk into the prayers that God is already answering on our behalf. The vulnerability that is in the way of Jesus requires a real risk. The only other alternative is the way of shame.
Christian maturity will always be developed and demonstrated in relationship with others.
In a world where entitlement is the norm, resilient disciples say, "my life is a gift to others".
When loneliness attacks us, and we distrust authority, resilient disciples ground themselves in the community of God's people.
Resilient disciples have a conviction that the gospel changes everything. Resilient disciples have an identity that is shaped and formed by the gospel.
Resilient disciples experience God's presence as a source of life, through scripture and prayer.
These five characteristics of resilient disciples help people to live on The Way in a world that wants to mold you into its image in digital Babylon.
God didn't want so much to show his power to Elijah but to give Elijah a new perspective on himself and his calling. God's plan is bigger than your dreams.
Here we find the essence of the Gospel: God does not love us because we are lovable. God is attracted to our brokenness and our neediness.
At Christmas, we don't simply remember a baby born long ago under somewhat tragic circumstances. But at Christmas, we remember the God who comes into the world to take away our sins.
The key to living with patience isn't more will power...it's understanding that God is on the throne.
We can live without cynicism now if we are looking for our ultimate satisfaction in God's promised coming kingdom.
The secret of a great Christmas is letting your longings be shaped or reshaped by Christian hope.
The sacraments define our identity. The sacraments say God is going to be faithful to you. In baptism God marks us out and puts his name onto us.
We are contending for the souls of our neighbors, families, and children. God has called us to be the church. To love this place to life. And to do that we need leaders, who are resting in the gospel, following Jesus the chief shepherd, with character and skill to lead others to the cross.
The church is committed to the work of sanctification. Sanctification is you becoming who you already are in Christ — set apart for God and becoming more like Jesus.
We are uniquely united to each other because the same Spirit that gives us life is the same Spirit that binds us together. We are bound in love because our God of love binds us to Him
How often we settle for the appearance of life rather than real life. It is the Holy Spirit's job to bring life.
The bible is both the authority over us and is his affection towards us. The authority of God without the constant dripping of affection will make us callous and strident.
Jesus loves the church and a healthy church is a church that loves Jesus. We cannot love Jesus without loving his bride.
There is a fundamental disconnect between what Jonah knew about God and the extent to which that knowledge has transformed him. God's love attaches his heart to ours and moves him to compassion — and in turn makes us compassionate.
Before the message of grace can come through Jonah or us, grace must first transform the messenger.
Jonah shows us what grace is even when we run away from God or when we're half-hearted and try to manipulate him. God's predisposition is to come to our aid.
"Jonah volunteered to be thrown into the sea, to escape his own sins. Jesus was thrown into the depths of God’s wrath for Jonah, and anyone else who trust him. This changes everything!"
The Christian life is lived by examining our hearts, identifying the ways we've enthroned other things than God, and repenting of them. Each of these are new opportunities to trust God — that he keeps his promises.
The point of waiting is to be content in the Lord so we are walking in step with the Holy Spirit. We practice slowing down until we're content in God alone.
"There's a tenacity in the kind of life that flourishes despite life's circumstances. The good news is that God will do it. You need gospel sustenance to answer the call of God and live out your kingdom vocation."
"We are to be a people who have a gourmet feasting experience and who know and long to do God's purposes."
'The history of the human race culminates in worship. And as individuals, our ultimate purpose and fulfillment is experienced as we worship."
Speaker: Bryce hales
Text:Revelation 5
"Our lives function best and most beautifully when we get off our own thrones and they orbit around the one seated on the throne in heaven."
"God and not us is ultimately who makes everything beautiful. God is working in us, his people, to eternally transform us into the image of his son"
"Our job is not to work hard to produce fruit, our job is simply to abide in Christ."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: John 15:1-8
"When we know Jesus as an idea we will always live a secondhand spirituality. Knowing Jesus as a person means knowing him firsthand. "
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: John 10:11-21
"Jesus is the only Lord who leads us into a more full life. Do you recognize his voice?"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: John 10:1-10
"When our spiritual blindness has been removed by Jesus we can see the reality of sin and the reality of grace."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: John 9:1-12, 24-38
"Jesus comes to hungry people and says I am the true bread of life. We can drop our anxious scavenging and follow him."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text:John 6:1-14, 27-35
"If you accept the reality that Christ walked out of the grave — What now?"
Speaker: Alex Watlington
Text: Luke 14:7-27
"The resurrection changes everything — How we live and how we die. Do you know Jesus?"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: John 11:17-46, 53
"Storms will lead you either deeper into love with God or, when they come, you will run from God. When Jesus is in the boat with you, you will have all you need"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: John 6:16-21
"The solution for complacent, comfortable Christianity is not trying harder — it's intimacy with Jesus"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 3:14-22
"The story of the bible is the story of the God who is bringing his people back home. He will comfort his people and redeem their displacement.Speaker: Bryce Hales"
Text: Revelation 3:7-13
"We are not the source of our own power. Jesus is our source, just hold on. "
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 3:1-6
"God is not in the business of compromise but in the business of redemption. It's never too late to repent. Jesus is what we are really looking for."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 2:18-29
"The filling of the Holy Spirit is when we grab onto the reality of God in the world and hold onto his promises"
Speaker: Alex Watlington
Text: Ephesians 5:15-21
"We don't read God's word to give us a longer stick to whack people with, and we don't read God's word because, by doing so, we somehow earn his favor; but we read God's word because we are desperate for him."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 2:12-17
"We need both a transcendent and immanent God to navigate life in a broken world, a God who knows our suffering and can do something about it."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 2:8-11
"Truth and perseverance will ring hollow if there is no love. Love is always messy. The response to Jesus' love is pouring yourself out for others."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 2:1-7
"Christ is our foundation and where we're headed. I invite you this year to become a practicing Christian not a theoretical one."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Revelation 1:1-8
"We will be drawn by our hungers for glory or we will long for the God who is glorious."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Isaiah 6:1-8
God is working through us, even in (or especially in) those times when we think we aren’t doing anything significant.
Speaker: Doug Swagerty
Text:2 Corinthians 12:8-10
"Christmas is about God breaking into the world at the point where we need the most healing."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 13
"The Christian life is a race. Keep going. Stick together. Watch your step"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 12:1-17
"Hebrews 11 speaks of faith as more than a wish; it's faith that has teeth. Faith is the assurance that God is real, that the best life we can live involves following Him into sacrifice and the willingness to wait on Him until he returns."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 11
"Hope is living in the tension between hype and cynicism. To have hope we go back to the foundational truths of Jesus"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 10:19-25
"Put your trust in the one who is better. Rest because your sin has been dealt with in Jesus"
Speaker: Michael Gregory
Text: Hebrews 9
"You will never know that Jesus is all you need until he is all you really have. And there you will find him good."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 8
"If we're ever going to be at peace we need an anchor that will hold us fast."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 6:13-7:6, 7:22-28
"When your identity as a Christian is shaken, you don't need more than Jesus, you need more of Jesus"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 4:14 - 5:10
"We need deep REM sleep for our souls. We're not good at knowing what will bring rest. Rest is the starting point — it's a result of the work God has done."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 4
"We use our identities as weapons or badges of honor. There is a better option. Consider Jesus."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 3
"The Gospel is the good news that we have a champion who fights on our behalf and wins the battle for us. Let us pay much closer attention."
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 2:5-18
"Jesus is better than two weeks in Maui, a full bank account, granite countertops, or flat abs. The question we need to ask for ourselves is: Is Jesus enough?"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: Hebrews 1:1-4
"Jesus has slayed the false idol of romantic love so that you can belong to the kingdom of God whether you're married or single"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: 1 Corinthians 7:6-35
"A healthy marriage is a picture of how God loves his church. Only as you receive from Jesus can you offer it to someone else"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: 1 Corinthians 7
"Sex is the image God uses to show us how he intimately relates to his people. And no matter how broken we are, God heals us"
Speaker: Bryce Hales
Text: 1 Corinthians 6:11-20