Restoration Church

How do we know that the Holy Spirit is at work in us? Some point to the power and prominence of our gifts. But Jesus points us somewhere different – to the fruit of His character growing in us.

Depending on your background and experience in faith, talking about the Holy Spirit can be intimidating – and sometimes come with a lot of baggage. In this message, we're giving our attention to how Jesus understood and lived in the power of the Holy Spirit – and how His promise for us is far better news than we often dare to dream.

In this special message, Justin unpacks the meaning of Pentecost before interviewing Dr. Ananthi Jebasingh (founder of Friends Of The Good Samaritan) about the Good Samaritan School, how she's seen God answer prayer, and what it takes to sustain our faith for the long haul. 

Revelation ends with a simple prayer - a prayer that acts as both a cry of defiance and dependence: come, Lord Jesus. How do we live in a world in which His reign sometimes feels absent? And how might we seek this future we pray for in the present?

Not many topics have shipwrecked people's faith more than the idea of hell – and God's judgment. So how do we understand these difficult passages in Revelation? And how do we understand them through the lens of God's heart for restoration? (Revelation 21:6-8, 22-27)

It can feel like the only choices we have right now are blind optimism and cynical pessimism. But when we look to the end of history and see the trajectory of our Story in Christ, we find another option: radical, stubborn hope. Our story doesn't end in ruin, but restoration. (Revelation 21:1-6)

In Revelation 7, John sees a vision of the family of God in heaven – a vision marked by the diversity and difference of ethnicities, cultures and nationalities worshiping as one. Not only is this picture of heaven a hopeful encouragement for our future, it's a calling and challenge for our present. In a world where our differences are often demonized, we've been called to a supernatural unity in Christ. (Revelation 7:9-17)

As we continue to read through the book of Revelation, the powers of evil are represented by beasts and dragons. But our God? Our God is… a Lamb. Strange, right? In this message, we'll unpack why this is so important not only to our understanding of God character and purpose in Christ, but why this vision of our future is so empowering for our present. (Revelation 5:1-14)

Revelation is known to be one of the more intimidating and controversial books in the entire Bible. Years of late night televangelists, rapture best-sellers, and strange conspiracies have left many of us unsure about what it really means – and why it matters. This week, we're tackling not only why Revelation matters to people like us, but why it's primary message – allegiance to Jesus – has never been more relevant. (Revelation 1:4-8)

He is risen indeed! In this Easter message, we look to why the resurrection of Jesus matters for our lives. The world we inhabit is dark and heavy, and it can feel like death always has the final word. But what we find in the empty tomb is not only a hope for our future, but a promise for our present. (1 Corinthians 15:19-26)

As Holy Week begins, we turn our attention to one of the most crucial events in the life of Jesus: Palm Sunday. Met with cries of adulation and praise, Jesus subversively rides into Jerusalem on a humble donkey. The crowds expect a revolution of violence toward their enemies. Instead, they found a Savior who would die for them.

Kierkegaard famously said that “Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.” A great deal of moving forward in our faith requires a reckoning with our past - and the things we need to let go. Sunday, we're talking about looking back, letting go, and finding healing and wholeness in Christ. (Philippians 3:4-14)

Grace is scandalous. It challenges and often upends what we believe to be right and fair in the world around us. This week, we're looking at one of the most famous passages of Scripture in the entire Bible – a reminder that we are the beneficiaries of God's radical grace. And the surest way we see it's work? We offer it to others. (Luke 15:11-32)

Desire can feel like a "bad word" in the Church. After all, won't listening to the aches and longings within us only lead us astray? Well, Psalm 63 would like a word. What we find is a God whose invitation isn't to remove our desires, but *redeem* them. (Psalm 63:1-4)

In Psalm 27, David is at the end of his rope. There in the dark, there's only one thing that he wants: the presence of God. Sometimes on our journey, we lose sight of our “one thing.” So when our hearts grow cold and our love runs dry, how do we recover our hunger for God?

C.S. Lewis writes: “Wickedness, when you examine it, turns out to be the pursuit of some good in the wrong way.” This is what we learn from Jesus' temptation in the wilderness – that the essence of our brokenness is the pursuit of *good* desires apart from God. Sunday, as the season of Lent begins, we're unpacking what this means for us as we pursue wholeness in Christ. (Luke 4:1-13)

Jesus doesn't change. But as we grow, how we see Him does. As we close out the season of Epiphany, we're focusing on what it means with seeing Jesus with new eyes as we grow in our faith. (Luke 9:28-36)

Everybody is following somebody. So how about you?  In Luke 5, Jesus begins his work not through a series of events, but in and through relationships with ordinary people like us. This Sunday, we're unpacking what it means to meet Jesus as a disciple in our ordinary lives – and explore our calling to invite others to do the same. (Guest Speaker: Amanda Hubler)

These are desolate and often desperate times. In these challenging days ahead, we're either going to wither away in our weariness... or we're going to grow our roots deep. Sunday is about being honest about where we are, what is growing in us, and how we might put down roots in the steadfast love of God. (Psalm 1:1-3) 

These are desolate and often desperate times. In these challenging days ahead, we're either going to wither away in our weariness… or we're going to grow our roots deep. Sunday is about being honest about where we are, what is growing in us, and how we might put down roots in the steadfast love of God. (Psalm 1:1-3)

Of all of Jesus' commands, his call to love our enemies might be the most radical - and yet the most needed in a moment like this. Sunday, I'm unpacking why love for our enemies isn't just a lofty ideal to admire, but a kingdom strategy of resistance to the world as we know it. (Luke 6:27-38)

Known by our theology? Nope. By the superiority of our morality? Nope. By the passion of our activism? Nope. By the allegiance of our politics? Nope. By the depth of our knowledge? Nope. Jesus said the world would know us by agape - steadfast, self-giving love. So what does that look like at ground-level in a moment like this? (1 Corinthians 13:1-7 NIV)

This weeked, our Church family turned 8 years old! This Sunday, we're going to look back at where we've been, celebrate where we are, and talk about the mission we're seeking as we moved into our future as we "grow up together." (Ephesians 4:11-16)

There is a through line that weaves through the Scriptures around the deep, dark waters of chaos. Disorder. We all try to push back against its power. But here's the question: what if God is not saving from from it, but rather through it? (Isaiah 43:1-7)

When salvation arrived, it did not come in the form of a new set of rules, a superior philosophy, or a purer religion. No, God gave Himself. This Sunday we begin the new year with perhaps our oldest and dearest hope: that Jesus is what God is saying to us. (John 1:1-18)

There is a paradox at the heart of Christmas: the God of all glory not only becomes human, but vulnerable.  Jesus arrives in the messy vulnerability of our humanity, taking on not only a human body, but a human life – with all of it's complexities. Why? Because He's redeeming all of us – not just our souls. He became like us so we might become like Him. 

Mary wasn't anything like the serene and sanitized depictions we often see during the Christmas season. This poor, Galilean, teenage girl stepped into the story of God with boldness and trust, and the song she sings while pregnant with the Savior of the world is a reminder that God is turning the world as we know it upside down. 

JUDGMENT.

Advent begins not in the bright lights of Christmas, but in the darkness of our need. As we wait for the coming of our Savior, we remember that the darkness we face is not a place of God's absence, but His presence. 

We all have a need to be seen and known and loved where we are. And no matter how crowded the room we find ourselves in, if we still feel unseen and disconnected, we will feel one of the toughest feelings of all: loneliness. In this message, we unpack what loneliness is, why we feel it, and how to overcome our barriers to deep connection with others. 

Peeling back the layers of our emotions, you'll often find a feeling that loves to stay in the shadows. But while we may not always see it on the surface, it constantly whispers our worthlessness while simultaneously stirring our wrath towards those we'd rather see condemned in our place. In this message, we're hitting a big one we ALL need to come to grips with: SHAME.

Life will upend you eventually. Some sort of crisis, broken relationship, diagnosis, or unexpected heartache will find us. And while we've build a world designed to numb us from feeling it, it is almost always the very space where we meet God in a way we would not otherwise. This week, we're tackling GRIEF: why the Bible honors it, how Jesus redeems it, and why strangely, it's where joy takes root.

Anyone who struggles with anxiety knows it can be so much more than just a “feeling.” It often makes its home in our bodies, leaving us feeling isolated from God, from the people around us, and even ourselves. In this message, we're tackling an emotion that hasn't always been easy to talk about in the Church. We're aiming to change that – and find healing and hope along the way.

Anger. Maybe you've learned to stuff it in. To numb it. Ignore it. Maybe it leaks out slowly in your body language or the way you speak to the people around you. Whatever the case, it's in there. So let's face it - and bring it to God. 

As the election nears, the anxiety and animosity in the world around us seems to grow with it. In this special message, we'll look at the Christian call to peace-making in a violent, vitriolic world. 

As a community, our commitment to prayer is the foundation of our life together. In this message, we look at a pivital moment in the early church when crisis drives the family of God to prayer – and how we can trust God with the same boldness. 

Every week, the Scriptures both inform us and form us as a community. But in a world where the Bible is misused and abused in so many ways, how we approach the Bible matters. In this message, Justin shares how we come to the Bible through the lens of Jesus - the Word made flesh. 

For thousands of years, the Church has gathered around a central sacrement of both our belief and our belonging: the Table of Jesus. Communion is more than a weekly ritual – it's an opportunity to remember who we are and return to the One who welcomes us home. Join us this Sunday as we continue our series Common Threads!

Every week, an eclectic group of people gather at the Lyric – a room full of stories and struggles that are finding their way together in Jesus. Everything we do in these moments matters – serving not just to inform our faith, but to form us as the people us God. 

From the very beginning of our faith, baptism has been a public declaration of both our belief and belonging in Jesus. In this message (on a Sunday with 5 baptisms!), Justin shares why this symbol is so central to the journey of our faith, and why it marks our trajectory for our future in Christ. 

Being "on mission" is anxious and exhausting in a Church when the underlying belief is that it all hangs on you. At Restoration, we're seeking to make Jesus the model for Jesus' mission - learning to join God instead of trying to frantically do His work for him.

Every person - and every organization - has a center. It is the orientation of the whole, the measurement of both what it means to believe AND what it means to belong. In this message, we explore what it means for our Church family to make Jesus our center - and how that impacts the kind of community we seek to build.

As God restores us, the first place we see the fruit is in our relationships. Sunday we're unpacking barriers to building healthy relationships - and the kind of community where we can slow down, find healing, and learn to bear with one another in love. (Colossians 3:12-13)

We can't offer the world around us what we're not receiving ourselves. To become a community of restorers, we must ourselves receive God's restoring work in our whole selves. Sunday we're beginning to unpack what it means for *us* to be restored to wholeness in Christ. 

7.5 years ago, Restoration Church was born. So what makes us who we are? In this message, Justin shares how the Gospel we believe is bigger than we think – and why it inspires the community we build together. 

What are you building your life on? Peter calls Jesus our cornerstone – a stone rejected by the world. So for a people being built on a Savior who doesn't fit, we shouldn't be surprised if we don't fit either. But that's good news. (1 Peter 2:4-7)

We inhabit a world where we are often defined by who we are against. And yet we have an adversary that knows that when we sow division, belittle our enemies, and weaponize our words against one another, we're fighting his battle for him. In this message, we're unpacking why we often miss the real enemy – and how we can combat the work of his lies among us. (1 Peter 5:8-9)

It can often feel like the world is ending - like *our world* is ending. 1 Peter is written to communities that knew that anxiety well, and yet their response wasn't to build bigger walls. It was to build bigger tables. In this message, we explore the centrality of hospitable love to the mission of the Church. (1 Peter 4:7-9)

This week, we're joined by a guest speaker - Pastor Luke Embree of Open Door Church. As we continue our On Earth As It Is In Heaven series through the book of 1 Peter, Luke shares about how holiness is an expression of the abundance of God. (1 Peter 2:11-12, 4:1-7)

Does the New Testament demand the subjegation of women in marriage? For decades, this has been one of the most divisive controversies in the Church. In this message, Justin shares why a deeper look at these difficult passages shows a vision for marriages and relationships that are liberating and empowering for both men and women. (1 Peter 3:1-7)

Let's face it... we're different. In what is considered the thesis statement of Peter's first letter, we find out why we've been set apart - by and for a purpose that goes far beyond ourselves. (1 Peter 2:9-12)