National Community Church Audio Podcast

What step of obedience is God prompting you to take by faith today? It is easy to understand life through what we can see with our physical eyes. However, we see examples from Moses for how to see by faith in God's wisdom and understand which is far greater than our understanding. Pastor Joel draws out four challenges from Moses' journey with the Israelites, to help us see our world through the eyes of faith. Consider how your perception changes as you engage each challenge!

Faith has no finish line—you never arrive. Faith is use it or lose it. If you don't stretch your faith, it atrophies. How do you stretch? You believe God for greater things! The way you steward a miracle is by believing God for even bigger and better miracles. That's how you go from faith to faith.

God's Spirit is not constricted by time and place. He reaches us in the deepest and farthest places. Though we sometimes get to do specific actions by the power of the Holy Spirit, we always get to be people who demonstrate the fruits of the Spirit in our character. Listen as Dr. Dick Foth illustrates, through stories, how we can consider this in our daily lives.

Faith is taking the first step before God reveals the second step. The first step is when and where miracles happen. Those are the days when decades happen. We often get stuck waiting for God to give us more information, but that's when we need to go, set, ready!

We might feel our imperfections or difficulties disqualify us from being used powerfully by God, but the word of God reminds us that God's Spirit often moves most powerfully in our weaknesses and difficult circumstances. He turns what we perceive as imperfections into powerful tools for His purpose. Listen as Pastor Collins uses the life of Joseph in Genesis as an example to illustrate this.

What does it look like when the Holy Spirit shows up in your everyday life? Not just in the big moments, but in the normal ones too. Listen as Annie F. Downs bring us back to the first time we see the Holy Spirit in Genesis 1. She draws out how we can be more attentive to daily moments when God's Spirit is "hovering" over us.

Without the Holy Spirit, good luck! With the Holy Spirit? All bets are off and all things are possible! Not only is the Holy Spirit interceding for you, Jesus is advocating on your behalf. Two-thirds of the Trinity is interceding to the other third of the Trinity on your behalf. That's where Holy Confidence comes from.

Before God does something through you, often times he will do something in you. Before Peter and John saw the lame man healed in Acts 3, Acts 2 happened. They sought the Holy Spirit in the Upper Room, and the Spirit showed up, filled them up and sent them out. Listen as Pastor Joel walks through the story in Acts 3 to unpack 6 challenges in following a Holy Spirit prompt.

Anything less than Spirit-filled and Spirit-led is dead religion. The true adventure begins when we starting living the Spirit-led life. It's anything but boring! The Spirit gives us revelation beyond human knowledge, anointing beyond human ability, and power beyond human strength. Without the Holy Spirit, most of us are below average. With the Holy Spirit, all things are possible!

When Jesus walked out of the tomb, the word impossible was deleted from the dictionary. All bets are off. All things are possible. Why? The same Spirit that raised Christ from the dead dwells in us! It's only impossible until it isn't.

On Second Chance Sunday, we celebrate together the extravagant grace of God in giving each of us a second chance. We remember that each of us is a new creation. The person God created us to be is emerging through the work and power of the Holy Spirit. Listen as Heather Rice-Minus helps us remember how we can apply this same second chance perspective to our brothers and sisters who are in prison.

Have you ever believed that if you're in Christ you can avoid suffering? Regardless of how we lead our lives, suffering is a part of the Christian walk. However, our spiritual maturity can shift our perspective of suffering and allow more peace and joy to accompany us in the midst of it. Listen as Dr. Anita Phillips breaks down the restorative power of God through our suffering, when we have an eternal perspective.

How do you respond when you're offended or face other troubles in life? As followers of Jesus we can rely on the Holy Spirit to help us respond to conflict differently than the world around us. So, how do we seek refuge in God in those moments of adversity? Listen as Pastor Mark teaches us how to brave our storms with wisdom.

Do you find yourself struggling to follow Jesus when your wounds are exposed? Join Dr. Curt Thompson as he shares how we find life when we see our wounds differently, identifying with Christ.

When is the last time you put on the garment of praise? Worship is singing back to the God who sings over us. It's how we harmonize with heaven and wage spiritual warfare. We see this example in Acts 16 when Paul and Silas were praying and singing in hymns and a strong earthquake shook the foundations of the prison, releasing them at once. Listen as Pastor Mark teaches five dimensions and definitions of worship that will illustrate the purpose and importance of worship.

How intentional are you in your relationships? Intentionality helps us overcome the things that threaten to divide us from our loved ones. Listen as Pastor Joel teaches us how intentionality can lead to life-giving, deeply connected, purpose driven relationships.

Two things we deal with our whole lives: relationships and money - but only one of them can make your life rich! Listen as Dr. Foth breaks down the "Relational Baseball Diamond" to help us thoughtfully consider what influences our relationships and uncover the power of your words and actions toward someone else.

How do we see people the way Jesus saw people? How do we see people for who they really are? How do we make people feel fully seen, fully heard, fully loved? The seven rules of relationship will unlock the relationship potential in your life.

The writer of Genesis wraps the creation story in poetry, punctuating every new act with “it was good”. Then, God comes to the crowning achievement of all creation and we learn for the first time what is not good. Genesis 2:18 tells us, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a companion who will help him.” Listen as Pastor Heather unpacks what it means for us that, from the beginning, we were created to connect.

There are many theories in the world for how we should pursue our dreams. What if there was more to our God-given dreams than the destination itself? As we follow the story of Joseph, we learn that dreams are a tool for shaping and molding us into who we are becoming as followers of Christ. In the pursuit of a dream, also comes healing and wholeness, which Joseph found with God, despite the trauma and pain of his past. Listen and learn how, from a biblical perspective, there's more than meets the eye when we go after our dreams.

Have you ever had a dream that turned into a nightmare? Have your circumstances challenged your faith? Consider Joseph, who had a dream turned nightmare. His brothers fake his death and sell him into slavery. He's falsely accused and wrongly imprisoned. For thirteen years, things go from bad to worse but Joseph never loses faith in the end of the story. 50:20 vision is seeing past your circumstances. It's discerning what's really happening when what's happening is happening. It's discerning the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God. Joseph exemplifies, LONG VISION. What is it? It's dreaming generationally. It's doing what we do for the third and fourth generation.

We think right here, right now. God is thinking nations and generations. We think what God does for us is for us, and it is. But it's never just for it. It's always for the third and fourth generation. Legacy is not what you accomplish. Legacy is what others accomplish because of you.

Most of us are educated way beyond the level of our obedience already. We don't need to know more. We need to do more with what we know. The good news? It's never too late to be who you might have been. You are one decision away from a totally different life. Change is hard, but it is possible. How? Forgive reality for what it is. Ground yourself in God's word. And keep putting it on the altar. Put what on the altar? Everything.

Do you ever feel out of place, not good enough, or not worthy of God? Good news: God chooses the lowly, the humble, the desperate, the hungry, the seeker to reveal his grace. All of us will have thoughts this season of whether to journey towards Christ, or allow life to get the best of us. Pastor Joel's encouragement for us is to follow the example of the magi on their journey to Christ during a series of events we would come to know as the Christmas story. They chose to worship Christ despite their challenging circumstances and so should we. What will be your Christmas response this season?

The shepherds echoed the song of the angels throughout Bethlehem, giving proclamation and adoration for all they had seen and heard. As we navigate the joys and disappointments, the gifts and the losses, and the anticipations and frustrations of the Advent season, let us look and listen for where God is breaking into the reality of our existence. How do we sing the song of the angels to our world?

Are you a mere spectator to life? Are you settling for the status quo? In Genesis, we see God inviting Abraham to go beyond the confines of his tent, look up at the stars and count them to consider the magnitude of God's promise to him. In our modern world, where we often feel overwhelmed and insulated, stepping out into nature and meditating on the vastness of creation, can recalibrate our spirits and remind us of God's greatness. Pastor Mark encourages us to embrace a mindset of curiosity and seek not only the miracles of daily life but also a profound relationship with our Creator.

Bill Bryson says "We are just a collection of inert components, the same stuff you would find in a pile of DIRT." How does dirt write poems, produce films, make music, design rockets, engineer software, practice medicine, choreograph ballets or patent inventions? The short answer is Genesis 2:7. Genesis 2:7 credits the Lord God as the One who created us, designed us, and animated us. Listen as Pastor Mark explores the miraculous components of LIFE in God's creation.

You are not a cosmic accident, the result of random chance. You are God's workmanship. You are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are the image of God, the apple of God's eye. You were made a little lower than the angels and crowned with glory. Don't let anyone label you who didn't make you!

“There are only two ways to live your life,” said Albert Einstein. “One is as if nothing is a miracle. The other is as if everything is.” Which way are you living? Are you taking things for granted? Or are you taking things for gratitude? It's time to rediscover a million little miracles that are hiding in plain sight. It's time to rediscover the God of Miracles—the God who is bigger than big, closer than close, and gooder than good.

Scripture says that you will know know a tree by its fruit. What would someone say about you based on the fruit of your life? Are you introducing people to the nature of Christ through your actions? It's important that we surrender all we have and all we are to the will of God so that he may guide us in the way of righteousness. Bishop Harvey helps us understand what this looks like and how we are able to draw people closer to Jesus based on how we treat them.

In life there are hierarchies of value, quality and power in many things such as sports, movies, politics, etc. In scripture we see how believers are a part of the mountain of the Lord's temple that will be exalted above all in the last days, with Christ as our high priest. Pastor Zeb reminds us of that which is inferior to the people in Christ, our adversary, the devil. While examining the tactics of the enemy, Pastor Zeb encourages us to always proclaim the power of God's spirit over all influences of darkness and live from a place of victory that was established by the blood of Jesus.

Life can be a process of orientation, disorientation and reorientation. Our natural response is to resist disorientation but what happens when Jesus says things that break social, cultural and religious norms? The answer may surprise us. Pastor Steffen takes us through the gospels of Luke, Mark and Matthew to illustrate God's intentions when we find him in places that may be unfamiliar to us.

The world has yet to see what God can do with one person wholly consecrated to Him. Why not you? Why not now? Our biggest problem is our small view of God. We think that our inability disqualifies us, but God doesn't call the qualified. God qualifies the called. In the kingdom of God, availability is more important than ability. Join us as we journey through the book of Isaiah and learn how we become a people who says "Here Am I" when God asks who He should send to the nations.

In a world where relationships are transactional and insincere, love is our primary currency for relationships, as followers of Christ. We are instructed to love our neighbors as ourself but how can we love those who offend us or are offended by us? Loving regardless is the simple answer but may be difficult to act out. In this message, Pastor Joel takes us through John, Romans and Ephesians to illustrate this point and teach us how to love even when it's hard.

How can our political partisan biases impact how we treat our brothers and sisters in Christ? Pastor Eugene Cho, author of "Thou Shalt Not Be a Jerk" uses John 4:1-10, the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman, as a template for how we should prioritize deepening our relationships with one another as followers of Jesus, amidst our culture's tendency toward polarization.

Dr. Dick Foth invites us to question who we are and what it is God has called us to do for the Kingdom of Heaven. In a moment where political divides are at an all time high, we can make space for civil conversation and deeper unity by leaning into our calling, leading with peace and asking thoughtful questions.

Jesus-followers are called to stand in the gap as peacemakers, grace givers, truth tellers, and tone setters. We can shift the atmosphere during a contentious political season with faith, hope, and love. And we have some VERY PRACTICAL TOOLS to help you do that. We hope this series INSPIRE AND EQUIP YOU to TAKE THE LEAD in making space for CIVIL CONVERSATION and DEEPER UNITY across political divides.

Are you taking your cues from trending hashtags or political correctness? OR are you living a Spirit-led, Spirit-filled life? Learn how to do that as Pastor Mark opens up 2 Timothy 3.