Woodland Hills Church - High Quality Audio

Questions can sometimes topple faith like a house of cards. In this sermon, we introduce the idea that following Jesus is the central aspect of faith. This frees us to question and critique different aspects of our faith, without losing that faith.

The story of the Exodus (see the book of Exodus) is a story of God leading His people from bondage to freedom. In this week’s sermon, Jim Hobson asks the question “If Christ has set us free, why are so many Christians still in bondage?” Jim contends that to free ourselves from bondage, we must see ourselves as God sees us.

Faith is often understood in measurement terms. Some say people need amounts of faith to receive benefits from God. Faith, however, should be understood in relational terms and not “faithometer” terms. The illustration of a marriage best serves the idea of how faith in God works.

Faith is sometimes understood as the lack of doubt. Doubt can be seen as the enemy of faith; however, doubt is not always the enemy. When wrestling with God, it is important not to doubt God’s character. We will always have doubt about questions on a broad range because we are human and finite, but God’s character need never be doubted.

God wants His people to wrestle with Him on the things that happen in their life. He wants His people to ask “Who are you, God?” Following the story of Jacob, we are called as Christ followers to struggle, strive, and seek to know who God is. We must also not be afraid of struggling with deep questions.

The Devil has historically used a 1-2 punch to fight God. He usually starts by trying to snuff out the Kingdom of God, and if that doesn’t work, he tries to normalize the Kingdom of God. This normalization leads to a watered-down and mundane version of the Kingdom. God calls us to seek first His Kingdom and His righteousness.

Christmas is the day that we celebrate the birth of Jesus and of God incarnate. For most of us, this day is celebrated in a fog of normalcy. The birth of Jesus has become old news that we’ve celebrated before. The greatest truth—a beautiful, profound, mysterious, and wonderful truth—is shrouded in the boredom of the same old story, and we lose the vision of the uniqueness of Jesus’ birth. God wants us to open our heart to the beauty of this universe, and He wants us to ask Him to keep us awake to the vibrant beauty of this story.

Christmas is a time of nostalgia when family and friends get together. Cute and serene can be words to describe this time, but Christmas and the birth of Jesus was anything but serene. The birth of Jesus was an act of war against the Empire of this world.

Our culture is run by an empire built on the foundation of greed, selfishness, and consumerism. Jesus came to this world to subvert any empire other than the Kingdom of God. Jesus taught us the true meaning of freedom, peace, justice, and love, and He wants us to use these to subvert the empire.

Jesus was born a subversive King. He was born to show the world the true Kingdom and the True God, and in so doing, showed the world how the Roman kingdom was false. In the spirit of Jesus’ subversive intention, Greg shows us a way to be subversive with the Christmas culture of the western world.

A central aspect of living as a Christian is lining up our life with the revealed Word of God. The battlefield of our living is actually waged in our soul, our mind. God wants us to understand exactly who we are in His eyes, so that our understanding will lead to right living according to the revealed Word of God.

All of us long for deep contact with God and with others. Yet, fear of judgment and having no space in our lives to develop deep contact hinder us when trying to find deep contact with others. God wants us to know that we need not fear judgment to make space in our lives for contact with Him and others.

One of the main spiritual strongholds that we deal with is “mine-ing” stuff. We want to acquire stuff, label it as ours and create divisions in our souls that separate us from God. God wants us to heal these divisions by renouncing the false god, Mammon.

All of us feel the stress of time on our lives. We feel tired, stressed and worn out over everything that needs to get done. God wants us to give up the idea of time as money so that we can gain the peace of eternity.

Many of us have wounds, stresses, and cares in our lives. Like children, these things cry out to us, wanting us to pay attention. God wants us to listen to these “children” and find healing with God’s help.

In this first sermon of our Undivided series, Greg explores why we seem to be drawn to the busy life that our culture offers. At the same time, it’s easy for us to forget or ignore the beauty that God wants to develop in our inner world.

Praise and celebration are foundational and essential to being God’s people. However, many Christians today are missing out on the importance of doing this together. We emphasize information, but we often don’t see the power of encountering God and the impact that it can have on our lives.

Jesus never asked for background checks on people before he ministered to them. His life and death reflect an all inclusive love and grace toward all people. Through Christ, God gives a massive bear hug of love and forgiveness around humanity.

What is the real evidence of a disciple of Jesus? Too often today we are told that followers of Christ are marked by success, happiness and power. However, the Bible points to a different evidence, that of love that comes under others and serves.

When Jesus prayed from the cross, “Father, forgive them …” he was expressing the radical love of the Father that extends forgiveness to all the world. While such an expression of forgiveness is far from typical, it contains the ability to heal, transform hearts and release people to forgive others.