Better With God

In Mark 2:13-17, a man named Levi decided that the job of Roman Tax Collector was for him. Certainly, the job made him wealthy, gave him control, it even gave him a group to call his own. But whatever his reasons for becoming a tax collector, he's about to leave it all behind to take up the joyful challenge—and it is both, joyful and a challenge—of following Jesus. Learn more as Pastor Peter teaches on spiritual regeneration, the totality of the call to follow Jesus, and more.

As Jesus forgives and heals a man who was literally dropped through the roof into his presence, we understand three--if not more!--game-changing truths about Jesus and ourself. However, they're only game-changing if they actually change your game. So join Pastor Peter as he teaches from the famous 'healing of the paralytic' story from Mark 2:1-12. Truth 1: Jesus, the Great Physician, "takes" interceding faith. Truth 2: The Great Physician diagnoses our deepest sins and sicknesses--all the way down to our thoughts. Truth 3: The Great Physician gives us hope and a future.

In this passage, a leper approaches Jesus and says, “If you will, you can make me clean.” In this sermon, we delight in the willing heart of Jesus, and also learn more about the grid which most Pharisees viewed the world, a view that pivoted around two axes: Holy & Common and Clean & Unclean. This encounter sets the stage for the complete removal of that grid, and moves us from a life centered on rules and laws, to one centered on the Messiah sent from God.

In this passage in Mark's gospel, Jesus casts an unclean, an evil spirit, out of a man in the synagogue. What do we make of that today? Join Pastor Peter as he answers the following questions: Did this really happen? Were people demon-possessed or just sick? Are demons actually active today? If so, how and what can we do about it?

Jesus called Peter, Andrew, James and John to become 'fishers of men.' Then He made them 'fishers of men,' and the results of their powerful evangelism changed the world. But ... what has he called you? What does Jesus make us? In this sermon, Pastor Peter teaches on what God in Christ makes us individually, and what he makes us together.

How do you transition from being a craftsman to the Savior? It's not quite like that, but it's not too far off to say that the baptism and testing of Jesus were God's preparation for Jesus to leave one life behind and begin the ministry he had come to accomplish. Listen along as Pastor Peter teaches on Mark 1:9-15.

Pastor Peter begins the "Meeting Jesus in Mark's Gospel" series by showing how the early church, dating all the way back to around 110-160AD understood that Mark's Gospels was built on the Apostle Peter's remembrances and teachings. From here, we are invited to first meet John the Baptizer who helps us grasp what it means to meet Jesus, by preparing our hearts through confession and by humbly meeting Jesus on his terms, not ours.

God has chosen, according to his own Divine will, to give strength to the weary and worn-out believers who continue to wait on him. Be encouraged by this word of comfort and hope given from the ancient Hebrew prophet Isaiah to all the people of God.

When Isaiah prophesied comfort and hope to Israel, he prophesied this: your bondage will end when the Lord returns. The birth of Christ ushered in an age of spiritual bondage-breaking, but as we go forward in faith, we still struggle with suffering and sin. For us, today, Isaiah's promise still holds true: our bondage will end when the Lord returns.

We miss the comfort of God that could be ours when we believe that, "our ways are hidden from God." But how can that be? For nothing compares to God. He is the creator of the world, and greater than the nations and their idols. So be comforted by the greatness and love of God.

Pastor Peter begins a series from Isaiah chapter 40, called, 'The Comfort of God's Coming.' The opening eleven verses of this chapter feature three voices sent by God to comfort Israel, and the church universal. Each voice still speaks to us in our trial, suffering and disappointment with encouraging words of comfort, as well as finds prophetic fulfillment in the ministries of John the Baptist and Jesus of Nazareth.

We can't predict the details of our life, but we can accurately predict the consequences of our actions. Join Pastor Peter as he preaches on Galatians 6:6-10, focusing on God's rule for governing human interactions: you reap what you sow.

When you know another believer is caught in sin, what do you do? Humiliate them by talking about with others? Ignore the sin altogether, quietly enabling their choices? Condemn them harshly? The Word of God is consistent in what we ought to do: seek their restoration through gentleness and truth-telling. Learn more as Pastor Peter preaches on Galatians 6:1-5.

Every Christian has a war inside them. The Spirit desires the things of the God, and the 'flesh' - our inborn selfish nature - desires what it wants: pleasure, power, division, etc. In this section, Pastor Peter explains how God works gradual victory in this war within us.

Join Roddey Caughman, Director of Deaf Ministries at Redemption Hill Church, as he challenges us to consider what temptations "cut in" on us from faithfully trusting in Jesus Christ.

In this section in Galatians, Paul argues that the only thing that has true spiritual value or worth is 'faith expressing itself in love.' Yet so many of us live and act as if other things count more.

Christ has set us free. That is an essential theological truth. Yet, sometimes we struggle because we're not sure how we're free, and how we're not. Pastor Peter tackles this subject, as taught through Paul's analogy of Hagar and Sarah given in the book of Galatians, with a strong emphasis on actually enjoying our freedom in Christ. Quite simply, being a Christian should make you smile. Does it?

This Sunday marks two full years of public worship for Redemption Hill Church. Pastor Peter took a break from the Galatians series to focus on "The Great Commission" and explain how the four "Alls": All authority, All nations, All the gospel, and All the time ... send us forward in mission with tremendous confidence and hope.

How has the pandemic affected your faith, hope and love in Christ? Have you or another Christian you know begun doubting and drifting that faith in Christ is simply enough, and all you could ever do to be made right with God? Pastor Peter addresses these and other questions as he preaches on Galatians 4:8-20.

Paul writes that we were all enslaved to the 'elementary principles of the world,' until Jesus came. When we are in Christ, we have the Spirit that cries out to God, "Papa ... Abba ... Father." Is that how you relate to God?

For the Scriptures to declare that our ethnicity (Jew or Greek), our class (slave or free), our gender (male or female) do not even exist when it comes to the unity we have in Christ is hard to grasp. Join Pastor Peter as he teaches on this climactic section in the letter to the Galatian church.

There is a gap between our knowledge of right and wrong and our power to do it. Therefore, there is a gap between us and a holy, pure God. Jesus Christ bridges both of those gaps. Learn how as Peter Peter preaches on Galatians 3:19-22.

God's promise that through Abraham and his offspring, Christ, all the families, races and nations of the earth will be blessed, acts like gravity upon every aspect of human history--binding everything in its orbit. This promise is also a place of great hope, because it cannot be cancelled and is kept in Christ. Learn more as Pastor Peter Doerfler teaches on Galatians 3:15-18.

Learn from Roddey Caughman, Redemption Hill Church's Deaf Ministry Director, as he teaches on Galatians 3:10-14, where Paul continues to explain how we are not just saved by faith, but must continue to live by faith in Jesus Christ.

Life following God, the Christian life, is always, only walked by faith. That was Paul's message to the Galatians in this section of the letter. We enter into a relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ, and we grow in our relationship with God by faith in Jesus Christ. This faith plays out daily, constantly impacting our everyday decisions. So be encouraged, as you listen to Pastor Peter, to keep running the race by faith, till one day, your race is over.

No belief system can atone for your sins—only Jesus can, the God-Man who is our substitute on the cross. No book, or creed, or song can stand in your place. You or Christ will stand before God. If you, then you will be found guilty. If Christ for you, then you will be found innocent and declared righteous. That is “the truth of the gospel," the road to righteousness. Join Pastor Peter as he traces the Galatians experience on this road, as well as the temptations we face in modern America to abandon trade in the gospel for liberalism, nationalism or nihilism.

The Apostle Paul reveals his own discoveries as he recounts his conversion to Christ: Life without Jesus always revolves around our own theory of right and wrong. Because of that, God must choose us before we can and do choose Him. And because of that, God's glory is the supreme goal of our lives.

If physical freedom is the ability to do whatever your body allows. And group freedom is the ability to do whatever the 'group' allows. Then what's spiritual freedom and why is it such an enormous gift of God's grace to us?

Hypocrisy nearly divided the church in the ancient city of Antioch. Particular forces: Bad teaching by powerful people, absentee leadership and popular pressure toppled everyone except the Apostle Paul, whose courage and conviction came from knowing his real "audience" was Jesus. In this message, learn how to identify and battle hypocrisy.

The opening sermon on this series of Galatians dives into Paul's statement that Christ gave himself "deliver us from this present evil age." Listen along as Pastor Peter outlines implications of hope, especially for Christians who experience oppression and hardship in this "present evil age," as well as the call to discern cultural pressures which the Church today, as in all times, must be faithful to resist.

On Father's Day, we conclude the Parenting the Heart series by diving into the wisdom of the "Father," and the "GrandFather" present in Proverbs 4, each of them urging us onward to get wisdom and walk according to it.

Raising our children to do good is a huge part of parenting. In this sermon Pastor Peter teaches on the theme of responding to help by examining Proverbs 3:21-35, which takes us through three key questions: "Can I actually help?", "Should I help?", "And if I can help someone, when should I do it?", with special application to the cry for help going up from Black Americans today, both in society and within the Church.

Join Pastor Peter in a discussion that highlights the following themes concerning race and racism: God is "color-blessed" not "color-blind" Nehemiah and Ezra reveal the healing power of corporate repentance in the life of the Church To reap a new harvest of peace and unity among different races and ethnic groups, we must sow the seed of righteousness by faith in Christ

As we study the Proverbs, a work ethic becomes clear. Godly work is focused on what's attainable, is done with integrity and excellence, can (but often doesn't) lead to great wealth, and equips us to be generous to the poor and needy - but not necessarily to the "sluggard." This is the truth for us and our children. Are we passing it along?

Join us for session six of Parenting the Heart, where we dive into a variety of Proverbs that focus on how we should communicate to each other, and teach our children to do the same.

In Session 5 of Parenting the Heart, Pastor Peter focuses on the issue of trust. Trust begins with belief and ends with a decision. Learn how to apply this teaching to parenting and all of life.

It's tempting to think our kids just need to know our opinions and thoughts - that we're somehow enough for them. However, what they really need is more of God and less of me. Listen for more.

Complacency plagues all of us, parents included. It's tempting to settle for correcting our kids' behaviors, scheduling playdates, teaching them math facts, without getting to their hearts. This passage from Proverbs is a warning from the "Father" to the "Son" that wisdom won't call out for ever.

Parenting our kids against temptation takes intentional conversations where we expose the false offer of temptation: "Do this. Get this. And you won't get caught." and continually counter-offer with the gospel: "You will get caught. And in Jesus are all the riches, honor and blessings you long for."

God is parenting our hearts and calling us to parent the heart of our children. Consequently, parenting the heart begins right there: with a right relationship with God. The Ancient Jewish phrase for this was, 'the fear of the Lord,' and as we learn in this sermon: 'the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.'

As America stands on the edge of panic, wondering just how intense the infections from COVID-19 will be, Christians are uniquely equipped to witness to hope.

What happens when Christians disagree about God's will, including what you should do with your own life? Learn how Paul navigated that same tension when he felt compelled by the Holy Spirit to go to Jerusalem, and other disciples felt equally compelled by the Holy Spirit that he should not. Listen along as Pastor Peter Doerfler teaches from Acts 22.