B4 Church Weekly Teaching

Sometimes, God’s blessing begins with a trickle. We see this in today's message from Ruth, chapter two. As God reveals His hand in this story, desperation gives way to humility and nobility. We also meet a new and impressive character, Boaz, who reflects God's loving concern for Ruth and Naomi. And quite suddenly, a trickle […]

Our story finds Naomi and her daughters at a low point, at a moment of desperation and decision. The writer foreshadows better times by telling us, “Bread is coming!” But they don't know that yet. These women are caught within the mysterious tension of God's will. They don't understand how God is working. But they must decide […]

Ruth is a book, like Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Daniel. It's a story stuffed full of tragedy, turmoil, heartache, and God's redemption. It's been given to us as a gift, helping us conform to Jesus’ way and character. While the book is spiritually formative in many ways, it emphasizes a theme that we see play […]

Anchors are found drawn on the walls of the Christian catacombs and chiseled into the tombstones of 1st and 2nd-century believers. They were symbols of hope for those first Christians who were persecuted for their faith. In Jesus, they had an anchor, firm and secure, and heaven was their ultimate home. When Christianity became the […]

In one of the most intimate moments with His disciples, Jesus redefines greatness. As He shares the Last Supper, a dispute breaks out—who among them is the greatest? Instead of rebuking them harshly, Jesus responds with a radical picture of servanthood: He takes on the role of a servant and washes their feet. This moment, […]

In this passage, we find Jesus at a dinner party in Bethany, just days before His crucifixion. As He sits with His disciples, a woman arrives and performs an extravagant act of worship by pouring an expensive jar of perfume on Jesus’ head. This deeply symbolic act foreshadows His burial, and despite the disciples’ criticism […]

Matthew 19 is a chapter that is relevant for us in every way. Divorce, marriage, children and money. Matthew compacts them all in one small section. It is also a chapter about priorities and in every example we see that Jesus prizes human relationships more than any other thing. What we find in Matthew 19 […]

We develop words and images and ideologies around the things that are intrinsically embedded into our belief system and, without examination, those things become an invisible structure that holds us in and can also keep us out of a better story that is more true and more life-giving. Essentially, our language contains the heart of […]

We, as followers of Jesus, believe that the greatest story ever told is the true story of our loving creator God redeeming all things in and through his Son, Jesus. This is the story we have in the Scriptures. We meditate on it, and hopefully, have our imaginations and our lives shaped by it. Whether […]

There is the Jesus we know and welcome into our lives. The risen Jesus. There is also the historical Jesus – the Jesus who lived in first-century Palestine. An actual flesh and blood Jesus who walked real streets and talked with real people. It's the historical Jesus who lived a real life and died a […]

This is a mission-critical moment in the life of the Church in America… a crossroads moment. American Christianity is in danger of losing the Christ in our Christianity… We've allowed other things to distract us to the point where we are losing our North Star. How we embody the life and love of Jesus in […]

Nehemiah led a miraculous restoration of the wall of Jerusalem. The city was finally safe to live in healing, hope, freedom and flourishing. They were to return to the life of a vibrant city of God. Gatekeepers, musicians and Levites were assigned – three appointments that guard the physical, emotional and spiritual health of the […]

Every faith community is called to build and cultivate. And B4 is no exception. We're called to build a place of hope, healing, freedom, and flourishing. It's a big job that will invite opposition in many forms, like for example, disunity and distractions. Much as Nehemiah did, we will face varied opposition as the enemy […]

The story of God is all about creating, restoring, and redeeming. The book of Nehemiah reflects this by painting a beautiful portrait of God's work in our world through wise and prayerful people who restore brokenness, renew purpose, and revive hope. As we enter Nehemiah's story, we see enemies who do not want the Jewish […]

Nehemiah is a short book but it's a big story. It centers on rebuilding after a huge crisis. It has a lot to teach us about how to face the ruins in our lives and start rebuilding. We often use the life and times of Nehemiah to teach leadership principles, but this series is focused […]

We share a fallen world where hearts, vows, and bodies break. Where evil surrounds and pursues us. From the moment our feet hit terra firma, we are searching for the Eden we all left behind. As a result, trauma marks our stories. It is embedded in our souls and our bodies. When our vision of […]

Most of us know that the world isn’t what it should be. All it could be. So, what do we do about that? Some people go all in, devoting their lives to causes like the rights of a marginalized group or environmental issues. However, Christians can marshall a different response, namely intercessory prayer. It’s a […]

Everything starts with relationships: especially prayer. Prayer is a life lived out in front of God — with Him. It's organic, beautiful, and woven into our days as water flows through sand. At least it can be when we aim to rejoice in Him. To love him. To share a relationship with Him. But, it’s […]

Throughout life's distracting demands, God listens to our hearts and cares deeply about us. Between work deadlines, homework, social dynamics, soccer games, and life's “overwhelm,” it's easy to feel unheard. Drowned out. But God is always nearby, longing to hear your heart and care for you. Prayer isn't about perfection, performance, or productivity — it's […]

Our final service of the 2024 year is a fully online experience. Pastor Bo offers a message of hope springing from Jeremiah 1, and shows how God calls us all to a great adventure.

May this candlelight service offer you the Peace of Christ. May the Prince of Peace, Jesus, visit your heart and home this Christmas. May you sense Him near and dear, greater than fear, greater than confusion, greater than our worried hearts.  And may you, being filled with His ever-increasing peace, be an agent of peace in […]

The fourth name in Isaiah 9:6 is “Everlasting Father,” which refers to the fatherly care that this child-king will show God's people. He is from everlasting — there is an eternal quality to his person and mission — and he cares deeply for his people with fatherly love, patience, and protection. Isaiah has Israel's Messiah […]

There is no order, no boundaries. And into this great, vast, chaos, God speaks the first words we ever hear Him speak, “Let there be light.” It says his first act in building a home for us was to separate light from darkness. What would the rest of creation have been like without the gift […]

Throughout church history, Advent has been a season of anticipation, anticipating the birth of Jesus and his return. It's an opportunity to remind ourselves that Jesus entered our world with all its troubles. In a time when many of us want to escape the worries of this world, Jesus enters it. A holy God chooses […]

We celebrate the arrival of Jesus, God's promised Redeemer, each Christmas. However, the wonder of that event is often drowned out by the demands of culturally traditional celebrations, or dampened by a long slog through the “grayness” of any winter season. Fortunately, Isaiah 9 reminds us that we were meant to be in awe of […]

We all experience hallway seasons, aware of movement from one place to another while traversing an in-between space. Maybe that's due to a job layoff or a relationship that's ending. Perhaps it's because you've graduated and it's time to put that degree to work. Or, maybe it's because you're entering the proverbial empty nester years […]

Every story has a beginning, middle, and end. Jeremiah’s letter to the Israelites suffering exile in Babylon promises a good ending. The beginning? That's the past. There are promises in the beginning, made by a good God and you can count on those. The middle? It's where you are now. It's the muddy middle, a […]

After water, food, and shelter, we crave security. We are made to seek out a safe, protected environment. Unfortunately, the harsher realities of our world often prompt us to do so behind walls and weapons. As illustrated in Jeremiah 29, God offers us an alternative: security within His Presence. This is not an ironclad guarantee that […]

Jeremiah 29:11 is one of the most often quoted verses in the Bible. It can frequently be misunderstood if readers try to apply its truth in an individualistic and overly personalized manner. What God offers His people, the Exiles in crisis, is a reassurance that He has good plans for them, even though He is […]

We live in a culture driven by ambition and emotion. The high achievers are encouraged to go even higher and they're handsomely rewarded for their accomplishments. At the same time, those driven by unregulated emotions often gain the most attention and an increased measure of influence — especially on social media. However, Psalm 131 sees […]

Everyone suffers to some extent. It's a universal human condition that causes skeptics to question God's character. The Psalms engage suffering through another universal human experience: sin. Psalm 130 offers a poetic treatment of the issues, acknowledging suffering and sin while affirming God's character.  Plumbing the depths of Psalm 130, Pastor Bo explores its ancient […]

Building anything worthwhile—a building, a business, a family—requires a lot of work. It's a big deal. And no matter how hard we work, we cannot fully guarantee a good outcome. Real estate sometimes fails to return an investment. Businesses fail. Families fight and fracture—not all the time, but often enough to cause us anxiety. Psalm […]

The Scriptures assume we will share our lives and journeys as God's people within loving communities. Psalm 133 calls this “good and pleasant.” However, the world in which we live often defines our most significant relationships through competition and conflict. In Psalm 133, David addresses God's people as “brothers.” The Bible consistently uses the language […]

The Songs of Ascent were written to accompany journeys taken repeatedly to Jerusalem. As they sang these songs, the people reminded themselves of the good things God had done, the battles they'd fought, and how God had changed them as a result. These journeys were not wanderings. They had a purpose. The people “went up” […]

This series dives into the Songs of Ascent: Psalms 120 to 134. Jewish pilgrims used to sing these during their journey as they approached Jerusalem to worship. These songs helped shape the identity and faith of God's people. They are also meant to be a playlist for our journey.These psalms capture the essence of what […]

“…we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Corinthians 4:7) With this verse, Paul connects God’s eternal, preeminent power to the mortality of our brief time on Earth. We stand in a line of people who went before us, and others […]

We all live within stories. We tell ourselves stories about God, others, and ourselves. We believe the stories that others tell about us. These stories come with recipes that write themselves into the substance of our lives, whether for good or ill. However, God has something healing and freeing to say about those stories. He […]

Our world runs on power. Military might. Massively, leveraged financial resources. Personal brands. We cannot escape the bonds of this power. Or, can we? The Apostle Paul was familiar with these exercises of power throughout the empire. The Romans were adept power brokers. However, Paul argues for a different kind of blessed power. He knows […]

Paul is concerned with how Christians behave with one another, but he is more focused on why they do so. He does not want his readers simply to do right and avoid sin. He wants them to do so because they have matured into the likeness of Jesus. He wants them to have right being that leads to […]

A renter is different from an owner, or a squatter. As Pastor Bo points out, “We are contractually bound to earth, but covenantally committed to heaven.” Our ultimate home, our ultimate allegiance is to God's Kingdom, most often referred to as “heaven.” However, we're supposed to occupy our “rental” — this world and its systems […]

The apostles instruct us to mature and not be like easily swayed children (Eph. 4:14-15). And, to remain like babies (1 Peter 2:1). In the text for this message, Paul tells us to imitate God as dearly loved children. Jesus said plainly that someone could not enter God's Kingdom unless they became like a little […]

Paul repeatedly instructs his readers to “put off” the way of life they indulged before following Jesus. He argues for a great exchange: sinful self-regard for the hope, healing, freedom, and flourishing God offers us in Jesus. As a result, we become free from having to make our way independently through this world. We are […]

Paul has spent three chapters writing about what God has done in Christ for us. Now, he dives into the practical, day-to-day realities of following Jesus and living together as an expression of his Kingdom. One of Paul's first commands is that we “put off our old” selves and “put on our new” selves that […]

Many believe we live in the most contentious political times ever. At least we don't have administration officials dueling to the death, as did Alexander Hamilton and Aaron Burr. Nor do we live in constant threat of a brutal death as were the early disciples under the Roman Emperors. However, there’s no doubt that modern […]

The Apostle Paul's ambition for the Ephesian Church is simple. He wants them to be healthy in God and robust in love, so much so that he embeds prayers in his letter petitioning God on behalf of his readers. Why? Paul knows that for the Lord's people to carry out their mission, they need to […]

The Scriptures say God created us as “masterpieces” to do good works. However, masterpieces take time and hard work. Jesus said that the Father is always working and that He (Jesus) does and says what He sees and hears from the Father. God is a continually creative God who invites us into His work with […]

Christian faith tells the story of a God who refuses to let any part of your life remain unredeemed, unhealed. He sees our misshapen pain — the shame of our stories — and he meets us there. From the Garden to the Desert to the Cross, He wants to meet us there. However, most “religion” […]

Ephesians 4:1 instructs us to “walk worthy” of our calling. The idea is that the weightiness of our calling in Jesus balances with the weightiness of our walk: that both bear the same weight of glory, for example. However, certain things in our lives can degrade the weightiness of our walk. One of those is […]

Pastor Steve Mickel encourages us to see God's unimaginable love for us in the Person of the Father through Romans 8. You can find a copy of our liturgy for fathers here.

We are moved by God’s blessings and the richness of His glory to pray for one another in present, powerful, and prophetic ways. Prayer is also an ongoing dialogue, back and forth between us and God, and a response to the language of Resurrection — the power living in us that raised Christ from […]

The Holy Spirit is the least understood and most often neglected Person of the Triune God, what Christians call The Trinity. Some Jesus followers bear memories of painful distortions where the Spirit's Person and work are misrepresented. Other traditions emphasize The Father-Son relationship, and so minimize the Spirit. However, Jesus’ teaching and Paul's letters […]