Reality Church Vancouver Teachings Podcast

This week's sermon explores the Power Gifts—a category of spiritual gifts meant to tangibly demonstrate that God is real, active, and present. Rooted in 1 Corinthians 12, the message invites listeners to consider how we might be open to God's “supernatural” work in our lives and church, despite modern skepticism. Apologies - the first minute of the recording was cut out. Recorded June 1, 2025.

In this teaching, we're diving into the category of spiritual gifts called the “word gifts": teaching, encouraging / exhorting, evangelism and prophecy. In this season of discerning how to be Open to the Spirit, we invite you to ask yourself: What's He stirring in me? And am I willing to say yes, even if it feels uncomfortable? Recorded May 25, 2025.

As we continue exploring how to remain open to the Spirit, we turn our focus to one of the major themes of the Holy Spirit's work in the Bible: spiritual gifts. This week, we're looking specifically at the gifts that fall under the “love” category, with the hope of learning about them, celebrating them, and encouraging their use within our community. Recorded on May 18, 2025.

This week, we wrap up the introduction to our Open to the Spirit series by exploring a crucial question: How can we tell when the Holy Spirit is at work—in us and in our church? The teaching unpacks four key markers of the Spirit's activity: love, hope and faith, the building up of community, and a Spirit-led unity. These goals and guidelines help us stay grounded as we learn to live more open to God's presence and power. Recorded May 11, 2025.

This week, we look at the challenge and example of Holy Spirit's presence and power in the early church in Acts and discuss some barriers to the Holy Spirit's ministry in our community. Recorded May 4, 2025.

As we transition into a new season in the church calendar and a new sermon series, we ask why we don't experience Jesus' death and resurrection as good news - and how we can. Recorded April 27, 2025.

As we close our series exploring the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" in the gospel of Mark, we look at the good news exclaimed to the women at the tomb, "If you're looking for Jesus, He is risen!" We hear how we are invited to receive the good news of the resurrection, practice the resurrection and keep company with the risen Jesus. Recorded April 20, 2025.

As we prepare to wrap our series, we recap the Gospel of Mark's answers to the question "Why Jesus had to die?" and look at some practical tips and vision for being witnesses to the good news of Jesus. Recorded April 13, 2025.

This week, we continue examining Jesus's transformation of the Passover meal in Mark 14. The disciples, and us by extension, face real barriers to following Jesus into a changed life but are invited to share about these barriers and look to Jesus' leadership to receive Jesus' invitation to change. Recorded April 6, 2025.

This week, we explore another answer from Mark's gospel to the question "Why did Jesus have to die?". By aligning his death within the story and practice of Passover, Jesus envisions his death as a new covenant declaration calling God's people to come into the family of God and imitate God for the sake of the world. Recorded March 30, 2025.

This week, Tim Dickau, from St. Andrew's College and Citygate, reflects on what it means that we live in “A Secular Age”. Building of Charles Taylor's seminal work and Paul's letter to the Romans, we gain hope and inspiration for living and sharing the good news in our cultural moment. Recorded March 16, 2025.

This week, we continue in our exploration of Jesus as Isaiah's suffering servant. Jesus sees his suffering, death and resurrection as being our representative in God's larger story as an invitation to come to him with our suffering and go to those who are suffering. Recorded March 9, 2025.

This week, we are led by Regent College faculty, Dr. Rikk Watts, to look at Mark's portrayal of Jesus as the Suffering Servant foretold in Isaiah. In light of these passages (Isaiah 40, 52-54), Jesus' death is not an accident but part of God's radical response to broken covenant and covenant partners. Recorded March 2, 2025.

What does a journey towards Jesus look like? Building off the book "I Once Was Lost" and Jesus' parable in Mark 4, we consider how we might be faithful partners with God and our friends in the process towards Jesus. Recorded February 23, 2025.

Last week, we looked at how Jesus' death makes God's uncontrollable presence available to the world. In this teaching, we continue to explore this theme learning how to experience God's presence and that God's presence goes ahead of us in witness. Recorded February 16, 2025.

This teaching marks the beginning of our second "cycle" through the gospel of Mark asking the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" In this teaching, we explore the themes of Jesus' baptism and the temple curtain, and how Jesus' death opens up the presence of God for all people. Recorded February 9, 2025.

In this teaching, we go backward to remind ourselves of how Jesus uses language to shape His ministry and how we, as witnesses, are invited to enter and live Jesus' story and develop language to share about Jesus with those around us. Recorded February 2, 2025.

This week, we look at the first of the gospel of Mark's answers to the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" In this teaching we explore what Jesus' answer of "as a ransom for many" means and how it shapes how we understand, share and live out the good news in our lives. Recorded January 19, 2025.

This week, we begin our series in the Gospel of Mark exploring the question the identity of Jesus and why he had to die. In this introduction, we look at why the answer to this question is important to expand our understanding of Jesus, our ability to speak of him and our lives as disciples. Recorded January 12, 2024.

This week we explore the birth narrative of Jesus in the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew which asks us to consider our need for a Saviour, the limits of our abilities to save our selves, and how Jesus comes to save the world. Recorded December 22, 2024.

This week we close out not only our series in Genesis 4-11 but our three year study of Genesis 1-11 by recapping God's work in the story, leading to Abram's wife Sarai. Recorded December 15, 2024.

As we near the end of our study of Genesis 1-11, we reach the story of the tower of Babel. This passage invites us to contrast unified efforts to build towers to make a name for ourselves with Spirit-guided efforts to build an altar where we learn to wait for God to meet us. Recorded December 8, 2024.

As we near the end of the Noah narrative, we come to a recreation moment in Genesis 9 where we hear God giving instructions to the humans about how they are to live. When we contrast this passage with the original instructions given to humanity in Genesis 1, we find some curious differences which point out the problem of human violence and how God adapts to partner with flawed human partners. Recorded November 24, 2024.

We're in the third story of life outside of the garden - the flood narrative in the Bible. This week, we compare and contrast God's speeches and Noah's sacrifice with speeches of other gods and heroes from Ancient Near Eastern flood narratives, to see who God is and how he invites us to a role as priests. Recorded November 17, 2024.

We continue with our series in Genesis 4-11, focusing this week on the dove that is sent out during the flood by Noah. We learn how it symbolizes Noah's ability to wait, and are invited to wait not in passivity, but with memory, anticipation and with Christ. Recorded November 10, 2024.

This week we come to what might be the best known story in Genesis 4-11: the flood narrative. We welcomed Dr. Matt Lynch from Regent College who helps us understand this flood in context of the overarching narrative of Genesis and to see it as the action of God to renew and reform a world ruined by violence. Recorded November 3, 2024.

As we continue exploring life outside the garden in the Genesis narrative, we come to one of the most well-known stories and objects: Noah's Ark. In this week's teaching, we uncover how ancient people would have understood the instructions for Noah's Ark and apply it as an invitation for deliverance today. Recorded October 27, 2024.

This week we come to a bright spot in our examination of life outside the garden in the person of Noah. We look at how Noah is described in context, we look at why it's so difficult to be like Noah in our cultural moment, and hear an invitation to become like Noah. Recorded October 20, 2024.

As we continue in our series exploring life outside of the garden, we come to a difficult passage where God takes drastic action to deal with the problem of increasing darkness. In this teaching, we articulate several of the key problems we have with this passage and also understand how it invites us to know God and live as renewed humans. Re-recorded October 18, 2024.

As we continue in our series exploring life outside the garden, we come to a strange and tricky passage for us as modern Western readers. By exploring the ancient and Biblical context, we are invited to recognize spiritual evil, and challenged to call on the name of God rather than become "men of the name". Recorded October 6, 2024.

On Truth and Reconciliation weekend, we were honoured to be taught by Dr. Ray Aldred, who spoke on the history of the church, Canada and Indigenous people, the Indigenous church's prophetic role, and a hopeful path forward through Jesus' ethic of reconciliation and peacemaking. Recorded September 29, 2024.

This week, we come to an ancient genealogy, an odd part in our study of life outside the garden in Genesis. In this teaching, we'll explore this strange passage within two contexts, other ancient lists of people with really long ages and the genealogy of Cain already given in Genesis 4, to understand what it may have meant for the original hearers and how it encourages us to live today as witnesses to a different story who always have hope because God is at work in the world. Recorded September 22, 2024.

This week, we continue on in our study of Genesis 4-11 by looking at Lamech, the worst character we've met so far. Through his story, we observe how sin spreads darkness by breaking down relationships between men and women, specifically marriages, and turns our culture making efforts into tools of oppression and violence. Finally, we look at how the darkness around us might be an invitation to call out to God. Re-recorded September 19, 2024.

This fall, we're taking our third look at the first few chapters of Genesis. The story of Cain and Abel is a painful one, introducing us to what life looks like Outside the Garden. Recorded September 8, 2024.

We continue our summer Rule of Life series by looking at Jesus' invitation to be with and minister to children. Jesus' instructions were shocking to their original audience, but also invite us to welcome children, learn from them and help them grow as a church family. Recorded August 18, 2024.

We were honoured to have Joe Gebhardt, a ministry partner from Projekt Kirche in Berlin, teach from Psalm 27 can provide a template and encouragement to incorporate prayer into our spiritual rhythms. Recorded August 11, 2024 - we apologize for the audio issues in the middle of the recording.

As we continue in our Summer Rule of Life series, guest teacher Talasi Guerra, shares about Biblical joy from various Biblical passages and her personal story. Further resources on joy, including Talasi's new book can be found at talasiguerra.com. Recorded on August 3, 2024.

As we continue on in our summer Rule of Life, guest speaker, Rev. Shel Boese, shares about the practice of giving, challenging us to take on the mindset of our generous God and revisit how we approach our financial stewardship. Recorded July 21, 2024.

This week we dig into the habit of spiritual friendship as we continue on in our summer Rule of Life series. We're invited to learn about the definition of friendship during the time of Jesus, how Jesus transformed this vision of friendship and how we might practice spiritual friendship today. Recorded July 14, 2024.

This week, we focus on fasting through an exploration of the history of fasting among God's people, why fasting has become so neglected, how Jesus and his disciples practiced fasting, and some practical how to's of fasting. Recorded July 7, 2024.

If the vision of being human is to become like Jesus, how do we actually do it? This week, we look at how Paul answers that question in several ways in Philippians 2: centering on the story of Jesus, listening to God's voice, community and the events of life. Finally, we take a look at the role of spiritual disciplines and creating a Rule of Life as we enter into our summer series. Recorded June 23, 2024.

We begin our summer series by looking at the Jesus poem in Philippians 2 where we hear the invitation to become like Jesus and put His story in the center of our lives and community. Recorded June 16, 2024.

In the final week of our Housing in the City series, we share some of the big themes and possible steps forward individually and corporately. Although the series is complete, we invite our community to continue the conversation in prayer and discernment throughout the summer. Note: John showed the Korean American artist, Do Ho Suh's work around the theme of home. You can see some of his artwork here (https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/do-ho-suh-tracing-time) and here (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/10/do-ho-suh-tracing-time-review-scottish-national-gallery-of-modern-art-modern-one-edinburgh). Recorded June 9, 2024.

This week, we looked at some guidelines for discernment as we consider what God would have us do as individuals and a community. Using the Sermon on the Mount as a guide, we see the importance of having our stories challenged, seeing ourselves as a counter-society within Vancouver, and discerning out of grace as a community. Note: we had several power issues towards the end of the sermon which affected the audio. Recorded June 2, 2024.

This week, we continue in our exploration of Housing in the City by looking at the theme of money or economics in the Bible. We learn about God's economic vision for His people, how their unfaithfulness to this vision led to exile, how Jesus invites us back into this story and how we might be invited to live as a city within a city during this housing crisis. This audio has been reuploaded as the previous audio had been cut off. Recorded May 26, 2024.

As we continue in our Housing in the City series, we turn to the topic of home. As we explore the spaces God has called "home" in the story of the Bible, we are invited to consider the implications for the spaces we call home, the households we are a part of and how we might host. Recorded May 19, 2024.

We continue in our Housing in the City series by looking at the theme of community in the Bible. While the city offers hope to solve our problem of community, it almost always, in the Bible and in the modern world, lets us down and contributes to the breakdown of community rather than building a community of shalom. As followers of Jesus living in the city, we are invited to lament and learn how to live in a different type of community. Recorded May 12, 2024.

This week, we turn to the theme of the city in our Housing in the City series. Reading from Jeremiah 29, we see God's call to the city, the identity we're invited to in the city and finally the hope of the city. Recorded May 5, 2024.

We continue our series exploring the topic of housing in the city by looking at the Biblical theme of land. By tracing the theme through the Bible in 7 acts, we learn how Jesus fulfills the story of the land and invites us to new identities and orientation towards land. Recorded April 28, 2024.

This week we began a new series exploring how we live in the city as followers of Jesus during the current housing crisis. In this introduction, we explore some of the personal contours of the housing story in Canada, and receive the invitations to listen to and tell our stories, center on the story of Jesus and discern where the Spirit is leading us. Recorded April 21, 2024.