1208PODCAST

We all know the verse—ask and you'll receive, seek and you'll find—but what if we've been asking the same things over and over? In this message, we talk about what it really means to trust that God is a good Father who wants to respond to us. Sometimes he answers right away, sometimes not, and sometimes in ways we don't see coming. You'll be challenged to mix it up in prayer—start asking questions you haven't asked before and see what God might say.

In this message, Jamin explores the deep intimacy God desires to have with us — an intimacy so profound that the Bible often reaches for the language of romance and marriage to describe it. Drawing from Scripture, we consider how God's love is not distant or mechanical, but passionate, personal, and covenantal. This message invites us to rethink our relationship with God not as mere duty, but as deep and abiding love.

This Easter, we marvel at the mystery of the Incarnation and Resurrection—the moment when heaven and earth kissed in the person of Jesus Christ. From eternity past, the Angel of the Lord—God's very presence in visible form—walked among humanity. But in the womb of Mary, this divine figure took on true flesh, not just as a temporary theophany, but as a full union of the spiritual and earthly body. And in the resurrection, Jesus emerges not merely as a spirit or a corpse reanimated, but as something new: a glorified, resurrected, heaven-earth body. He is the prototype of what we shall become—embodied glory, still bearing scars, yet radiant with eternal life. The Resurrection is not the escape from the body, but the redemption of it. And in Him, we see our future: resurrected, transformed, and united with God forever.

In Jackson as it is in Heaven is a vision and a declaration—that the kingdom of God isn't just something we wait for, it's something we carry. Just as Heaven broke out of Jesus, the heavenly man, and transformed everything around him, so it does through us. This isn't just spiritual—it's supernatural, sociological, physical, and deeply personal. When Heaven breaks out, neighborhoods change. Bodies are healed. Relationships are restored. Systems shift. Hope rises. In this message, we explore what it looks like when the reign of Jesus breaks into Jackson, MI—through ordinary people filled with extraordinary love and power. Heaven isn't distant. It's breaking out.

In Matthew 6, Jesus warns against being a hypocrite—a word that originally meant a "play-actor." Too often, our spiritual lives can become performances, shaped by the approval of others rather than a genuine relationship with God. Whether in prayer, giving, or fasting, Jesus calls us to pursue a faith that is real, not rehearsed. In this message, we'll explore how to cultivate an authentic spirituality—one that seeks God's presence over public recognition and prioritizes true transformation over outward appearances.

In Jesus' time, people made promises in ways that gave them loopholes to break their word. But Jesus spoke strongly against this, calling for honesty and integrity. In this message, Jamin unpacks Jesus' teaching on oaths, showing how He invites us to be people of truth—because anything less reflects something far from God's heart.

Jesus spoke strongly and briefly about divorce. In this message, Jamin contextualizes Jesus' words and deals with some other difficult issues that leads to divorce, like abuse.

In this message, Jamin preaches on Jesus' teachings on lust. What do we do with his intense instructions? How do we overcome lust? What lies have we been told about sex? What have our experiences taught us about sex? How has the church wrongly taught us about sex? Jamin dives into these questions and more to help us think more sanely as we try to overcome lust in ourselves once and for all.

In today's Bible passage, Jesus reminds us that hatred is something we must take care of immediately, lest we grow its fruit and fall prey to its consequences. Jamin also addresses anger in this message, helping us distinguish between healthy and unhealthy anger. NOTE: Sorry for the bad audio in this particular recording. We installed a new sound system this weekend and have a few tech bugs to finish working out :)

Right before Jesus starts to reframe the laws of the Old Testament, he calls himself "the fulfillment of the law." What does this mean, and how is it applicable to our lives today? What impact does it have on our understanding of Biblical law or modern law?

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus refers to his followers as salt and light. We have been designed to be experienced by others in a way that allows others to see what God is like. Jamin takes us deeper into this passage as he invites us to become the most tasteful and bright versions of ourselves that we can be.

We all have a certain kind of person in mind when we hear the word "blessed." So did Jesus. However, the kind of people Jesus considered blessed were nothing like the kinds of people we have in mind. And that's exactly the point—for the blessed life is formed in the places we never thought to look.

In today's passage out of Philippians, Paul invites us to imitate him as he lives his life like a runner straining for the finish line, putting all he has into his pursuit of God. Jamin invites us into this same kind of straining as we allow the Spirit to perfect us more and more with each step.

Paul gets suddenly intense in his letter to the Philippians as he recognizes that Gentiles are being subjected to intense traditional rituals in order to be accepted as Christians. Jamin engages this biblical conversation and invites us to consider how the church continues to do the same thing today.

In Philippians, Paul refers to his friend as a fellow worker and fellow soldier. Jamin stops to expand on Paul's use of the word "soldier," giving us a glimpse into the Bible's larger picture of the Creator God Yahweh VS the little-g-god Satan. How did this dynamic come about and what is humanity's part in this war between the Kingdom of Heaven and the Kingdom of Hades? That and more in this message.

Paul tells us that Jesus emptied himself. What does this mean? In a previous message, Jamin analyzed this theme from a poetic angle about love. In this message, Jamin gives it another meaning by referring to how God emptied himself to become human. He was then empowered by the Holy Spirit to do supernatural works. What does this mean for us as Jesus' followers? A lot more than you might think.

The Bible has often been used to oppress and demean women, but the wider story of Scripture offers us a very different narrative. In this message, Jamin explains how sin threw off God's plan for men and women to work together as partners and how Jesus restores this partnership and shows us a better way forward.

Jamin preaches Mary's love for Jesus from birth to life to death. He also talks about how the miraculous can sometimes come with great pain and confusion.

In the chaos of the first Christmas, Mary and Joseph faced overwhelming challenges—unexpected journeys, divine interruptions, and unimaginable responsibilities. Yet, in the midst of it all, they found joy by following the signs and wonders God placed before them. In this episode, we explore how their story invites us to trust in God's guidance, even when life feels unpredictable, and how the journey toward joy often requires faith in the miraculous.

When we look at the themes that Mary sang about in her Magnificat, we realize partially where Jesus' heart for prophetic justice came from.

In this message, Jamin lights the advent candle of hope and talks about how Mary embodied hope, gave birth to hope, and cultivated hope. How do we do the same?

In this message, Jamin explains Jesus' kenosis from a poetic and metaphysical perspective. He also hits on the difference between Jesus' humility and a false Christian humility.

Many Christians today misunderstand what it means to suffer for Christ, mistaking cultural disagreements or personal offenses for true persecution. Drawing on Paul's experiences, the ministry of Jesus, and the dynamic between ancient and modern Christianity, we explore how authentic Christian suffering shapes us into either prophets or jerks. In this message, Jamin challenges us to reframe suffering not as a mark of opposition to others, but as an opportunity to live out the love, humility, and boldness of Christ. Along the way, we examine the danger of using suffering to justify hate, and the transformative power of enduring hardship for the gospel.

In Philippians, Paul talks about longing to be with God. Jamin uses this to talk about the Christian mystics of old, and their longing for the intimacy, presence, and experience of God. Where are our desires focused?

Paul addresses two types of Christians when writing from prison to the Philippians: Some are preaching the gospel because they like him, and some are preaching the gospel because they don't like him. Rather than turn it into a whole thing, Paul simply celebrates that they're preaching the gospel. The Bible reminds us that churches and church leaders should all be on the same team, working toward the same goal. But instead of doing this together, churches often get jealous of one another which leads to a myriad of problems. In this message, Jamin addresses the many problems that come with spiritual jealousy.

This message on the prodigal son came after a very special time in worship where many in our congregation were weeping about the love of God.

Faith goes a long way with God and comes with reward, both now and in the age to come. Do you want to level up to a place where God can trust you with more? Then how might you handle what he's entrusted you with in the here and now?

Jamin delves into the vital connection between faith and good works, exploring how the Bible weaves this truth throughout its teachings in compelling and surprising ways.

Pull out a journal and write along with us as Jamin gives us questions to reflect on concerning our identity in God. Oftentimes, our understanding of self is wrapped up with the lies we tell ourselves and low self-esteem that holds us back from being all we were designed to be. Jamin helps us navigate those thoughts to get back to the core of our identity in the image of God.

God is not a micromanager but empowers us to make decisions in the direction of Jesus and the Kingdom of Heaven. Jamin expands on this point in this message.

While the Bible is not exhaustive in all of the spiritual gifts it lists, they range from very natural sounding to very supernatural sounding. In this message, Jamin explains why these gifts are important, the degree to which they might be practiced, and clarifies a few of the stranger ones.

In order to have your heart in the right place for God to cultivate it further, you need to choose where to set your eyes. If you set them on the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, then you will find yourself living in very backward, seemingly foolish ways. If you set it on the Serpent, Leviathan, and Behemoth, then you will fit right in with the natural ways of the world that we are all prone to. Jamin dives deeper into these themes in this message.

Forgiveness both is and isn't what you've been told. In this message, Jamin dives into the depths of this topic to undo some bad thinking and instill some thoughts you may not have considered before.

In the Bible, the heart is responsible for just about everything in a person's life. With this in mind, Jamin talks about the importance of ensuring one's heart is focused on God. If it's set off or influenced by other voices, it eventually will find itself in need of inner healing

In this message, Jamin looks over Jude's closing–one of the most beautiful benedictions in the Bible. Some forms of the gospel put our identity in sin, while Jude's gospel reminds us that we can rise above sin with the help of Jesus.

The Day of the Lord has been long prophesied and thought over. It has caused people to fall into extreme territories of thought and brought about a lot of confusion. For that reason, there's quite a bit to talk about on the subject. Why is it important? What's going to happen? Why does it matter to us today? Jamin helps us see this day more clearly by showing us how this day has already happened many times throughout history and can continue to happen through our actions as Christians.

The church leaders Jude addressed seemed to believe that there was no morality or law under Jesus and that everyone could live however they wanted. In this message, Jamin proposes a better way to understand the law and its dynamic in the New Testament.

Our very own Brian Knapp shares a message about Jonah and asks us some important questions about our own faithfulness.

The Book of Jude makes a very strange reference (likely to the Apocalypse of Abraham), where the Archangel Michael defends Moses' body from Satan. In this message, Jamin and the crowd at 1208 Greenwood Church survey all of the things that angels do in the Bible to get a better idea as to why the church Jude was writing to was out of line.

Jude not only references a strange story from Genesis 6, but he also references a book called 1 Enoch, which elaborates immensely on this strange story. Why does he jump into this content? Jamin helps us get a deeper understanding of this story and what it meant for Jude.

Among the many puzzling statements Jude makes, he says, "Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe." Out of all the Trinity members Jude could use in this statement, why did he choose Jesus? Being a lover of weird theology, Jamin gives a reason as to why this statement makes more sense than one might think.

Today we start a new short series on the book of Jude. In this message, Jamin calls Christians to calm down on blowing the heresy horn. Jude had to deal with false teachers who were building Christianity around immorality and rebellion. This is vastly different from how Christians fight over their different theological and doctrinal beliefs today. We must learn what is worth fighting about and what is okay to disagree on.

Ezekiel once had a vision of a deep stream of water flowing out of the temple into the Dead Sea, bringing life to everything it touched along the way. In this message, Jamin connects the stream to a few of Jesus' statements and explains why this vision is important for Christians today.

As Ezekiel 33 shows us, the prophetic role is a heavy one. While we may not all be prophets like Ezekiel was, the capacity to operate in prophetic gifting lies in each one of us since all Christians have the Holy Spirit. Jamin takes us deeper into this dynamic in this podcast episode.

Philip the Evangelist is sent by an angel and the Holy Spirit to evangelize a very ambiguous person in his time. Jamin uses this story as a springboard to explain how we must put down our walls and patiently reach all people, regardless of their differences. He pulls many stories from his own life along the way to illustrate this point.

We all claim to want the wisdom of God, but we are more prone to take out messengers of such wisdom when they come around. Though Jesus was wisdom itself, religious people remained very skeptical of him. Though Stephen spoke with the same kind of wisdom, he was martyred for his teachings. What wisdom does God want to speak to us through the Holy Spirit and will we listen when he does? Or will we join hands with the religious leaders who rejected such teachings?

It's easy to be in awe of God in the moments when he's very active, but we can often forget in time. Jamin talks about the importance of recording your story so that God can speak through experience.

While God goes ahead of us in evangelism, he also sends us ahead of him in evangelism. Jamin talks about this dynamic while he reflects on the passage of Jesus sending the 72 disciples out ahead of him.