Renew Communities Teaching Podcast

Marriage In The Way Of Jesus

We're Asking The Wrong Question

Right now we live in a world where the clamoring noise of the foolish outweighs the saints because the idea of right and wrong is out of whack. When we see the text "slaves obey your master" many are asking the wrong question when we are trying to figure out who the slave is in the text. The question we should be asking is who is our master.

Play the Role, Do the Work

So many people think they must go to a certain place at a certain time to encounter God but Peter tells us something entirely different about how God is truly encountered in this world. In the 3rd week of our series on 1 Peter we see how God is building a new temple and we find the role and work that God’s called us to play right where we live.

Living in the Moment

Everyone’s life is full of challenges, trials, troubles, and problems. Some are big and some are small but all of them impact the way we view our lives and the responses we think are necessary to thrive in the moment. As we kick off our first week in 1 Peter we are reminded that life is more than the moment and God has a plan for our life that’s bigger than we can imagine.

The Antidote of Fear

It often feels like the antidote to fear is courage or faith - something you have to muster up from within. The true antidote to fear comes to you from another source and it is available to you in every circumstance. Join us for our final week of Faith Over Fear series to learn, understand and accept the antidote for fear.

Seized by Control

One of the strangest things about relationships is how much fear exists within them. Often we have a fear that we’ll be rejected or judged by people we care most about or need approval from. Because of this fear we often take control of whatever situation we're in and do our best to satisfy others. While it may feel like you’ve taken control the reality is fear has taken control of you. In week 3 of our series we talk about why this fear exists, the damage it does, and how we can invite Jesus in...

Best Laid Plans

When we face real, perceived, or even imagined threats for many of us our first impulse is to figure out what to do. Often our “best-laid plans” are just fear masquerading as wisdom and the results are even more devastating. In week 2 of our Faith over Fear series, we talk about how to identify those circumstances and learn how to look to God’s wisdom instead of our own.

The Gift of Fear

Fear is an emotion we’d rather avoid but there are at least two ways that fear can be a gift that helps us find our hope in God. In week one of our Faith Over Fear series, we’ll talk of all the good that may come from healthy fear and how it will grow our Faith in God.

The Gospel of Peace (Easter Sunday)

We are living in a time of great despair and yet even now you can have Hope. Easter points us to that Hope – his name is Jesus. In Him, we find life in death, peace in worry, faith in doubt and salvation in suffering. This Easter we won’t just celebrate the resurrection as something that happened, but we will embrace the resurrected Jesus as the source of life, peace, faith, and salvation and learn how to take hold of Hope even now!

Wrap Yourself in That

The direction Paul gives us is to take up “God’s armor” in order to fight the right fight. The first piece of armor we’re instructed to put on is the belt of truth. In this teaching we talk about why Truth matters so much in this fight and how to equip yourself with it.

The Right Fight

There’s so much talk about having a war-time mentality which puts us in a mindset to fight. Paul encourages us as followers of Jesus to draw strength in the Lord and His power and reminds us that we are in a fight but it’s important that we fight the right fight and reminds us of the fights that we must avoid. This teaching will encourage and challenge you as you seek Jesus in the midst of our chaotic world.

The Support of the People

In our first-ever online gathering we look In Joshua 1 where God has impressed upon Joshua that he needs to lead the people in strength and courage and so he approaches some of the men who will be making a way for Israel to move into the promised land. All RenewFM resources for kids are available at renewcommunities.com/news

Practicing the Presence

In our final week of our Strength & Courage: Part 3 series we talk about ways to “practice the presence of God” in our everyday lives. We also talk about how to access the strength and courage he makes available to us through the Holy Spirit and we’ll spend some time practicing together through various forms of prayer and worship.

Seeking His Presence

Have you ever wondered what gave the great men and women of God the strength to go and do all that God called them to do? The temptation is to think it had something to do with their abilities or giftings but if you look into the stories of these men and women you’ll find what made them strong and courageous is the time they spend in the presence of God and the connection they carried to Him as they moved forward. In week 2 of Strength & Courage, we talk about how the same thing the heroes o...

I Am Doing A Great Work

Each of us has a great and important work to complete as part of God's Kingdom. The source of this strength and courage to fulfill the great and important work is found in prayer and the presence of God. In this week's teaching, we learn from Nehemiah what it takes to possess the qualities of an absolutely devoted and dependent servant of God.

Prosperous & Successful

All throughout the Bible you’ll find promises or guarantees about how reading, meditating and focusing on the Bible can impact your life. In week 3 of our focus on finding strength & courage in the Word of God we talk about why knowing and engaging the Bible can make you prosperous and successful and what that might look like in 2020. This is a challenging idea that should challenge you this week!

Mindfulness & Meditation

Mindfulness and meditation have become quite the trend in recent years in a way that’s capturing the imagination of our culture. This new trend is something that God has invited His people to participate in since the beginning and in Joshua 1 God tells this new leader that meditating on His Word will be a source of strength and courage. In this week's sermon, we talk about why this has such a powerful effect on our lives and how we can shift our attention from the things we’re naturally fixated ...

To The Right Or To The Left?

God promises Joshua that by living according to His Word Joshua will find strength and courage as well as success and prospering. Even with this promise, there’s a temptation to go our own way or the way of the world and lose focus even when we think we’re doing things for God. In week 1 of our second movement of the Strength and Courage series, we discuss why we’re so easily tempted to go to the “right or the left” and how we can stay true to God’s Word by engaging it regularly.

He's In the Waiting

In our final week focusing on the way the promises of God give us strength and courage we ask the question “how can we draw strength and courage by waiting on God?” Many of us are waiting for the fulfillment of a promise and in the waiting, we can be tempted to give up or give in. God himself is in the waiting with us, working on our heart and empowering us through it all. If you’re waiting on God for something this teaching will encourage you to not give up and let God work!

The Promise as Mission

We spend much of our life looking for a purpose. We ask questions like “What’s my mission? Why am I here? What am I supposed to do?” One of the best insights we can gain from watching the life of Joshua is that through the relationship with the God of the Promise we find the mission He has made us for. Instead of having to manufacture something meaningful to live for we receive the opportunity to partner with God in what we know he’s already doing. This partnership instills strength and courage ...

The God of the Promise

There’s this old Christian statement that still gets said from time to time, “I may not know what the future holds but I know who holds the future.” We often say this when we need reassurance that some unknown circumstance is going to work out. The truth is our God does hold the future and while we may not know exactly how things are going to work out we have countless promises that we can depend on and countless examples of how God comes through on those promises.

Fall On Your Knees (Christmas Eve)

When we truly understand who this hope bringer is we will fall on our knees. There are two reasons for a person to take this position. One is to worship and the other is to surrender. When we realize who this Jesus is we should do both. In our final week of our Thrill of Hope series, we’ll talk about how worship and surrender go hand in hand and how much hope there is in embracing the one who holds the future in His hands.

Truly He Taught Us

Jesus came to bring hope to the hopeless by breaking the chains that have so enslaved us. This hope isn’t just hope for us to experience but it’s a hope we get to share because anyone who’s been enslaved can relate to those who still are. Our job is to lift high the name of Jesus so that those who are overlooked and oppressed can be set free. In week 3 we talk about the role we play in this mission and the way to embrace our brothers and sisters who are still enslaved.

A New and Glorious Morn

When you have hope after living without it for so long it feels like the whole world is new. With Jesus comes the birth of new possibilities is in every area of our life. In week two of our series, we talk about how our eternal hope can flood our present reality every single day.

Long Lay the World

The impact of sin on the world we live in is easy to miss. You may not think so because there’s so much around us that we see that’s broken but the very nature of our brokenness often causes us to think that the places we’re in error are actually how things are supposed to be. You never know how dark things are until the light shows up. The birth of Jesus reveals to us just how desperate our world - and we - are for a Savior to come and restore what we’ve broken.

From Indifference to Love

The big question we’ve been asking for the last several weeks is “How are my finances shaping my heart?” The authors of True Riches say Jesus said, “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” He meant that wherever we send our money, our feelings and emotions will eventually go there too. In the final week of our series, we spend time talking about how we can partner with God in the things he cares about most and the impact it can have on our lives.

From Anxiety to Trust

Most of our financial decisions are made out of fear of what might happen if we don’t have what we need. When we’re anxious about our financial future the only way we can view our finances is from a survival perspective but God has called us to see our finances as a way to make a difference in the world around us.

From Coveting to Contentment

Do you know what is “enough for you?” What amount will make you truly happy or content? How much money is enough? How big of a house is enough? How nice of a car? How luxurious of a vacation? Or how much savings? In week 2 of our True Riches series, Matt Shetler of Lakewood Vineyard​ teaches that contentment isn't about what you have or own, it's about the posture of your heart.

How Are My Finances Shaping My Heart

It’s easy to find our identity in what we have or wish we had. This way of thinking creates a prideful posture in our hearts because we become convinced that we have what we have because of our hard work or it causes us to believe we deserve what we don’t have and somehow the life we’re living isn’t fair. In week 1 of our series, we talk about moving from pride to gratitude when it comes to what God has provided for us.

The Next Christians

Have you ever been in a crowd of people and thought “I wonder who Jesus will rescue next? I wonder who will be the next person to cry out to him for help and salvation? I wonder who will be a completely different person one year from now because of what Jesus is going to do in their lives?” Most of us aren’t thinking these things in our everyday life but I wonder what difference it would make if we were. In our final week of our NextGen series, we’ll talk about who the next Christians might be t...