Watch/Listen
Topic: Sacrifice
The Incarnational Community
Central to Greg’s message today was that the incarnation was not simply a historical act that ended at Christ’s ascension. It goes MUCH further than that! The Church IS the Body of Christ – we are the hands, the feet, the ambassadors, the temple, the Body through which God works. Therefore, we must share Christ’s attitude summed up by this phrase: be present, in love, without judgment. Read More
What’s in It for Me?
Today’s message was on the offensiveness of the gospel, which becomes apparent when we start out by asking a typical human question: “What’s in it for me?” Consider Mary, the mother of Jesus, and John the Baptist – people who gave up much to obey God and suffered greatly as a result. Obeying God will have painful consequences so long as this world is under the reign of the enemy. The kingdom of God is not like this world, and when we bring this opposing Kingdom into the world we will find strong resistance, and it will cost us something. Read More
Kingdom Holiness
Greg gives us a timely reminder that the Kingdom of God is not the same as the kingdom of this world. Truly Christian public expressions of this Kingdom will resemble Jesus’ life: washing others feet, trusting God to meet our needs, sacrificing of ourselves for others, loving our enemies, turning the other cheek. This is what holiness does, and it is radically different from everything else in the world! And we must always be on guard, as there is a constant pull to desecrate the holiness of God by confusing God and the world. Read More
Some Dance to Remember, Some Dance to Forget
Thorsten Moritz, a Bethel Seminary professor, opened with this challenging question: “Are we prepared to live ‘creationally’ (in tune with the Creator) in a world of idolatry?” Focusing primarily on child adoption throughout the message, Moritz wondered if the abandonment of the world’s waiting orphans experience is the result of this idolatry. It reveals, he argued, that people are operating with the wrong priorities. How prepared are we to be the primary tool of God’s recovery of this fallen creation? Just as God adopted us, shouldn’t we (biblically) adopt others? Read More
Descending Into Greatness
Using Matthew 20:20-28 as his text, David discussed how to be a “safe” leader by following Jesus’ example of leading by serving and how this upside-down principle truly reflects the kingdom of God. Read More
Love in Truth and Action
In this final sermon of Dwayne’s “Wounded Healer” series, he discussed how our character cannot be divorced from our actions; how we choose to act reflects who we are. 1 John 3:11-18 provides God’s ideal for us – nothing less than perfection! The author of 1 John asks us whether we will behave like Cain or like Abel. Dwayne challenged us to think about the difference between simply responding appropriately when we see that others have needs and actually dying for someone, which is what God demands. Read More
As Christ Loves Us
Dwayne delivered a powerful message that challenged us to love as Christ loved us. We frequently emphasize the fact that we should love one another and what “the loving thing to do” might be. But this message had to do not with the “that” or even the “how” but the “why.” Our motivation for any act should be love, which requires that we have a heart that is responsive to the prompting of the Spirit of God. Read More
Walking Like a Zombie to the Grave
Sandra challenged us to go against the grain of the so-called American Dream and the materialism inherent in it. She also encouraged us to be critical of how we’re already being influenced by it and to allow God to work on all of the broken areas of our lives so that we can make an impact. Read More
Having it “Just So”
The choices we make often result in more stressful lives, which, in turn, “stresses God out.” In our quest to have everything “just so” (from our cereal to our vehicles to our neighborhoods), the majority of churches do not reflect the diverse body of Christ. Read More
Feeding the Inner Self
It takes discipline and self-sacrifice on the part of individuals for us as a whole to become “a community of spiritually empowered people” as stated in our church vision. As spiritual people, we are called to think more about the eternal consequences of our words and deeds. Read More
"We have been podrishioners for several months. Our daughter, son-in-law and grandkids moved back to California after living in MN for 10 years. They attended Woodland Hills for about a year before they moved. Now we all go to the beach together on Thursdays, come home and have dinner together, then we watch last Sunday’s sermon together. It is a special day for our family."
– Dale and Patricia, from California