Episodes

  • Christmas the Way It Had to Be

    Christmas the Way It Had to Be
    Dec 21 2025
    Why did Christmas have to be the way it was?The birth of Jesus was so unconventional and so unexpected that even good Jewish people, who had been anticipating the coming of Messiah their whole lives, missed it. Galatians 4:4-6 tells us that there was a plan and that God was waiting for the right time. One version calls it the fullness of time. If God had a plan for WHEN it was going to happen, don’t you think there must have also been a plan for HOW it was supposed to happen and — more importantly — for WHY it had to happen the way it did? This week, we’re looking at Jesus’s life, talking about Christmas the way it had to be and exploring the big picture God was trying to accomplish.
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    26 mins
  • Salvation in a Curse: The Genesis of Christmas

    Salvation in a Curse: The Genesis of Christmas
    Dec 14 2025
    In the American church, we have turned the account of the birth of Jesus into some sort of Christian mythology. We only talk about it in December, keep it separated from the rest of the Bible and do our best to downplay the supernatural aspects. It’s like we keep it in a red and green spiritual Christmas tote that we only pull out of storage on Thanksgiving and then put back promptly on December 26. Despite this fact, the first reference to Christmas in the Bible isn’t even in Matthew or Luke. It’s also not in Isaiah or any of the other prophetic books. It’s in Genesis. There is no mention of wisemen, no angelic visitations and no mangers, but there it is — right there in the first book of the Bible. It’s there that we find both the subtle sin and the surprising solution that created Christmas in the first place.
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    34 mins
  • Missing Jesus

    Missing Jesus
    Dec 7 2025
    What if the wise men only went to where Jesus was because they were excited about the astronomical changes going on in the eastern sky? The shepherds, the innkeeper and countless descendants of King David could have easily all had other things on their mind. We don’t know whose lives were changed as a result of their role in the Christmas account, and as a result, it’s possible they all missed Jesus. If you look around, there’s a lot of things going on during this season — shopping, decorating, cooking, wrapping, vacationing, attending parties and more. It would not be hard to have something to do every day of December. It’s easy for us to shake our heads in judgment at how spiritually dull the people of the Bible were, but in all of our running around this time of year, are we also missing Jesus?
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    34 mins
  • Christmas Courage

    Christmas Courage
    Nov 30 2025
    Every year in the fall, Pastor John sits down and re-reads the Christmas accounts from Matthew and Luke, asking the Lord to show him something fresh. This year, he was struck by the difficult decisions that had to be made in order for the birth of Jesus to take place exactly the way it did. These were gut-wrenching and dangerous decisions. We have certainly faced gut-wrenching and dangerous decisions before, and there will be more of those types of decisions off and on the rest of our lives — not just once or twice but over and over. This week, we’re exploring some principles we can glean from these Christmas accounts to help us have courage as we face hard choices.
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    37 mins
  • The Grateful Soul

    The Grateful Soul
    Nov 23 2025
    When you think about Christian holidays, most people think Easter and Christmas pretty quickly, but it’s possible that Thanksgiving is as much a Christian holiday as any other. The giving of thanks is at the core of what we do and who we are as believers. Followers of Jesus should be the most grateful, gracious, and appreciative people in the world. Here’s why — the word thanksgiving is not complicated. It’s two parts: thanks and giving. It means that we give our thanks to someone outside ourselves. Gratitude requires that you recognize the contributions that have come from some source other than you. That’s easy for a follower of Jesus because we know that everything we have comes from God.
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    41 mins
  • Boldness Series Part 4: Bold Mission

    Boldness Series Part 4: Bold Mission
    Nov 16 2025
    This week, we’re continuing our Boldness Series. Acts 4:13 says the members of the Sanhedrin saw the boldness of Peter and John — and that’s true. Boldness is visible, but if we’re not careful, we will think boldness always looks the same way. We might start to believe that boldness is simply a set of behaviors and that repeating those behaviors will always be the boldness God wants from us. In reality, boldness is not behavior; it’s belief. Instead of coming from a commitment to a set of behaviors, it comes from a commitment to a set of attitudes and beliefs. Sometimes, boldness manifests itself in ways you would expect, but other times, it looks very different. This week, we’re looking at some diverse pictures of boldness and trying to figure out what those pictures have in common.
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    47 mins
  • Boldness Series Part 3: Bold Warfare

    Boldness Series Part 3: Bold Warfare
    Nov 9 2025
    The Bible says the Old Testament passages were given to us as examples. In many cases, the things that played out in the physical world represent things that play out for us in the spirit world. This means that we can look to how they fought battles in the Old Testament to help us know how to fight our battles now. If you’ve ever felt outmatched in a fight, you’re not alone. Rarely did the children of Israel have a tactical or numerical advantage, but the Bible shows us over and over that things are not always as they appear. This week, we’re talking about Gideon’s once again to see what we can discover about bold warfare.
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    44 mins
  • Boldness Series Part 2: Lift Up Your Head Part 2

    Boldness Series Part 2: Lift Up Your Head Part 2
    Nov 2 2025
    Last week, we began a series on boldness. Some people have a negative view or understanding of boldness. They confuse it with rudeness or arrogance. In reality, though, it should be defined as the power to live according to your purpose and priorities. For followers of Christ, the power comes from the Holy Spirit, and the purpose and priorities are established by God and His Word. This week, we’re continuing to talk about Gideon from the book of Judges. The first bold thing Gideon did was to lift up his head. He was hiding in a wine press trying to thresh some grain, so his family could eat. His first step towards getting out of that pit was just to lift up his head. It’s no different for us; if things are going to change in your life, you must have the boldness to lift up your head.
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    40 mins