Real Life Church Podcast

In week two of “Running with Giants,” Rusty picks up the story of Noah, which tells us a lot about being stuck in limbo, “between the now and the not yet.” Noah had the faith to obey God in an extraordinary circumstance, and his story invites us to do the same today: to follow after and trust in God when it doesn’t make sense to do so.

Being a dad can be a tough job. In our first installment of the series “Running with Giants,” examining the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11, we kick the series off on Father’s Day by talking about Abraham. In the message, Rusty covers three things that Abraham gets right, despite making a few bad decisions, that Dad’s can emulate in order to “cover a multitude of mistakes.”

Before major decisions, life crises or even going to bed at night, many of us ask, "Are God and I good?" And for a lot of us, that question is answered based on a vertical morality of whether or not we are obedient to God's commands. When Jesus came to earth, He what use to be a vertical relationship with God, into a horizontal relationship with Him. Because of Jesus, our relationship with God can be measured by not how we obey God, but how we love others.

Real Life is always seeking to echo Jesus’ passion and care for the youth. With all the voices speaking into their life these days, we want to partner together as a church family to help out every single kid in Santa Clarita. Telling the story of Shawn Malone, the son of Kevin Malone, former Dodgers GM, this message is dedicated to our GenNext campaign to continue that mission on a more effective level.

Continuing our series, “It’s Complicated,” Rusty tackles the topic of marriage in this message. God wants to bring the best out of all our relationships, especially with our spouses. Many of us believe the myths that everything will eventually work out, that marriage will make us feel completely happy, or that our spouses will complete us. However, we are all so different that it is impossible to relate to one another perfectly, because we are often unaware of the other’s needs. In light of this, Rusty gives some Scriptural advice on how to address this tension and relate to our spouses by through the power of God and not simply by our own effort.

Our Teaching Pastor, Mike Breaux, continues our “It’s Complicated” series on Mother’s Day with a message regarding “change.” Though life is short, and we go through different seasons of life, God is faithful and brings calm in the midst of chaos. Therefore, we can choose to be joyful to the end.

Words have a lot of power in our relationships. If we’re tying to be more like Jesus then we want our words to give life and not death. Scripture has a lot to say about how this is accomplished. So, for the third installment of “It’s Complicated,” Rusty breaks down five different things based on various Scriptures that will aid in communication with all of our relationships in order to transform our lives.

God loves variety, and has created us all to be unique and different. Though this is a great thing, it can create a lot of conflict in our relationships. In the second week of our series “It’s Complicated,” Rusty gives us four different questions to ask ourselves in order to foster a greater self-awareness and, in turn, help us to relate to other people in a Christ-like manner.

We play a lot of games in our relationships whether we mean to or not. In every game there is a winner and a loser, and this is the problem. Instead, our aim in our relationships should be a win for both parties, particularly when we’re playing mind games that attempt to manipulate other people. Rusty addresses these mind games in the first week of the series “It’s Complicated” through the advise of Paul in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13 in order to center our relationships on the love of Christ.

For the Easter 2017 message, Rusty concludes the series “This is Jesus, this is Us” by remembering and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus. Though we all have a “black box” of baggage that we carry around and won’t let go of, Jesus beckons us to lay it at his feet in order to experience new life, now. This is seen most abundantly in Jesus’ relationship with Peter who, though he was flawed, broken, and ultimately betrayed Jesus, was restored by Jesus’ grace and invitation to leave his old self behind and became one of the most significant proponents of the early church movement. If Peter can do it, so can we.

We Die by Real Life Church

Wouldn’t it be nice to talk to God and know that God is listening? That’s a question that many of us wrestle with as we struggle with the concept of prayer. Digging into Jesus’ prayer in John 17, Rusty gives a simple outline on how to pray that is centered on unity with us, with one another, and with the world. Since this is connected with Jesus’ mission in the world, we know that when we pray based on these concepts, we are in line with what God is doing, even if it seems as though no one is listening

For the seventh week of “This is Jesus,” Rusty discusses the Holy Spirit as introduced in John 14. Though the topic can be confusing and convoluted for many of us, Rusty attempts to describe the person and work of the Holy Spirit through three different characteristics: empowerment, intercession, and transformation. Simply put, the Holy Spirit makes us more like Jesus and more unified than we could ever be on our own.

Continuing the series “This is Jesus” where we’re entertaining the question of what it means for us to “look like Jesus” by going through the Gospel of John, we come to John 13 or what is referred to as the “Last Supper.” Using the example of Jesus washing the disciple’s feet during the Passover meal, Rusty challenges us to hold an attitude of service because we are most like Jesus when we serve. While we often make life about ascending the latter, Jesus challenges us to climb down and serve one another in order to transform the relationships in our life.

Lee Strobel dropped by as a special guest at Real Life Church to share his journey from a bitter, cynical, and successful journalist who set out to “disprove” Christianity and wound up coming to faith in Jesus through the endeavor. Lee is a popular Christian speaker and author of numerous works, most notably “The Case for Christ,” which is now a movie under the same title, which depicts his personal journey into finding Christ.

We all recognize Jesus existed, but what does that mean for us today? Does it really make a difference in our life? Using the metaphor of different glasses, Rusty argues that it does by demonstrating how all the different perspectives we have as individuals are different from the way that Jesus looks at life, other people, and God. Pertaining to John 5:1-9 while the lame man blamed everyone else around him for not getting better, Jesus saw inherent worth and value. While we see problems, excuses, and obstacles, Jesus sees compassion. Instead of feeling sorry for other people, Rusty challenges us to feel with people because that is how Jesus relates to us by revealing a God who is love.

Many of us wonder if we should jump into the mess of other people's lives–we have that tug of war battle, that back and forth struggle of should I, or shouldn't I. And the simple answer is–yes. Jesus shows us to examples in the book of John when dealing with a Samaritan woman, and another time with an adulterous woman. What we learn is that when we jump into other people's mess, we need to lead with grace, share the truth, then end with grace.

We all have obstacles in our lives that keep us from our dreams, hopes and passions, but are there obstacles in your life that are keeping you from God? In the book of John, we see Jesus overturning tables in the temple courts because the religious leaders were putting obstacles up for those wishing to worship the Lord. God did not put man on earth to build obstacles, but to remove them. We are to live lives that are obstacle free, just as Jesus did when He walked the earth.

If you were to strip away religion and simply consider Jesus as a man that lived and died, who would He be and what would this world be? Join us this week as guest speaker John Ortberg tackles this very question to show us that aside from religion, Jesus impacted almost every aspect of modern day society.

Rudy is the true life story of Daniel "Rudy" Ruettiger, who dreamed of playing football at the University of Notre Dame despite significant obstacles. Through struggle, pain and constant put downs, Rudy eventually achieves his dream and is allowed to play the last down of his last game as a senior. Throughout this movie, we see a constant theme that may be all too familiar in the lives of so many–that you are not good enough. Jesus made us in His image, to live a life fulfilling the goals, dreams and life He set before us–not to be controlled by the negative voices that replay in our heads. In the book of Isaiah, we are told to trust in the Lord, and by doing so, we will find new strength, and from that strength, we can start to listen to the voice of Jesus vs. the negative voices that should have no power over our lives.