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 like...
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...
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.
