Saints' Hill Church Podcast

On Sunday we jumped back into our Luke Series with a teaching from Alex on Luke 18v35-43. On the surface, this is a story about Jesus healing a blind man. With a closer look, we realize that Jesus is illustrating much more than just his power to heal. God meets us in reality. Beyond physical ailments that we experience in this life, we are spiritually blind without Jesus. Our reality is that we are in need of Him, and when we are able to recognize this, He meets us there with His love, His joy, and His freedom. The blind man in this story knew he was blind, and was bold enough to ask Jesus to meet him in his reality of need. We too need a fresh revelation of the glory of Jesus, so that we can acknowledge our position before Him and receive his grace again for our lives.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 05.25.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we got to hear from one of our missionaries, Nicole Mosher, on what adoption into the family of God looks like.  This new identity of adopted sons and daughters affects every part of our lives.   It means we can't find identity in our giftings or what we can do for God anymore. We simply rest in His unconditional love, and yield to His perfect leadership. We get to labor alongside Him from that place of security.   It means that we can overcome any earthly circumstance, not with our own strength or wishful thinking, but because of who our Father is. It is only as we stay connected to His heart, and receive everything we need from Him, that we will see the kingdom expand in us and around us.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 05.18.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday Alex continued our Luke Series with a teaching from Luke 18v31-34. In this passage Jesus reveals to his disciples that He is the Son of Man who was destined to do what humans have not been able to do, by trusting in God and therefore crushing the head of the serpent. He is apart of God's plan to redeem not just Israel, but the nations. His death and resurrection were real and bodily, meaning when we are baptized into Him we obtain resurrection life now, and the future hope of heaven and earth being fully united. And because He knows our frame, and that our ability to grasp the eternal is limited, He's given us a meal.  The bread and the cup, His body and His blood. This meal is how we see.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 05.11.25 Sermon Guide

This week's message centered on the rich young ruler and Jesus' invitation to “come, follow me,” highlighting how surrender is not about losing, but about making room for something greater—intimacy with Christ.   We explored how Jesus isn't after our performance, but our hearts. Like the young man, we're often held back by what we won't release, yet Jesus looks at us with love and calls us to trust Him. Following Him means letting go of our grip on control, possessions, and pride so that we can live in the fullness of His way. The call is personal, costly, and deeply worth it—and it begins with a surrendered yes.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 05.04.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we got to hear from one of our leaders, Laura Sharp on the passage in Luke 18v15-17 where Jesus teaches his disciples about childlikeness. This story highlights the human desire to be great, and how Jesus' definition of greatness differs from the world's. God designed us to be dependent on Him, but God is not dependent on us. He will never use our need to manipulate us. We have an all sufficient Father who wants to love and take care of us.  The mark of maturity in Christ is not sophistication, but humility - when we finally put aside the illusion that we are in control and begin to care about what God our Father cares about.  Our lives are meant to be like Jesus' - wrapped up in dependence, longing and communion.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 04.27.25 Sermon Guide

This Resurrection Sunday we got to hear from one of our elders, Austin Smith. He shared from Scripture and personal experience what it means to encounter the risen Christ.  The Scriptures identify spiritual blindness as the thing that keeps people from knowing, believing in, and experiencing the person of Jesus and all that He is for us. When you get a revelation of Jesus, not only do you become spiritually alive and receive power to live a new life, you get the joy of knowing him and being loved by Him. This is the ultimate place to live from and what all of us were made for.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 04.20.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday, we got to hear from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño on Luke 19v29-38. This passage retells the story of Jesus entering Jerusalem as He begins His journey to the cross.  In this singular moment we see a multitude of people reject the current world's opinions and standards of power, leaving their personal issues and problems aside, to honor Jesus as King.   Our worship of Jesus, even when it's not practical or convenient, is what moves His heart and ushers in His kingdom.    Andoni's invitation to each of us is to consecrate ourselves again to set Jesus as the priority of our lives.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 04.13.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday, Bria taught on Luke 18v9-14 where Jesus address the self-righteous with a parable about humility. True humility, Jesus illustrates, is rightly placed confidence. This humility can only come from seeing God rightly, and responding rightly in worship with our whole lives.  To humble ourselves in worship will invite the conviction of the Holy Spirit, leading us to confession and repentance. If God meets us in reality, then we have to tell the truth in order to receive His grace that covers all. This is what a life of prayer looks like.  May our need for Him and our confidence in Him continue to grow as we become the Church he made us to be.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 04.06.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from our friend, Pete Donor on the Parable of the Persistent Widow in Luke 18v1-8.  In this string of parables in Luke, Jesus is preparing people for how to live in light of His return. The Parable of the Persistent Widow highlights how necessary it is for us to pray at all times and trust God to keep His promises. We must stay aware of our need for God and continually receive His merciful provision through Jesus. Lord, increase our faith as we prepare for Your return. Find us praying always, with courage and confidence in who You are.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 03.30.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we resumed our Luke Series with a teaching from Bria on Luke 17v20-37.  This passage highlights the dual realities of the kingdom of God and invites us to faithfulness amidst the tension.   The kingdom is now and not yet. We live in and stand on the victorious blood of Jesus now, yet we also long for the day when He returns for His bride and makes all things new.   In the kingdom, the only way to truly live is to die to yourself - to throw off sin and every worldly pursuit so that you can live into your true identity in Christ by the power and grace of the Holy Spirit.   The kingdom of God is both visible and invisible. We must steward both if both are true - risking for visible manifestations of His presence, and also believing what He says about the invisible realities in which we live and move.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 03.23.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we wrapped up our series on prayer with a teaching on John 15 and our identity as those chosen to bear fruit. The fruit that we are appointed to bear is the renewal of all people to God's design. We were appointed for this by God and it's our responsibility to remain connected to Him as our life source in order to do so. We remain by believing truth about what Jesus' blood affords and who we are because of it. We remain by living in thankfulness and acknowledging our need for Him. We remain by confessing sin and standing on Jesus' blood for forgiveness. Revival is all about the priority of His presence above everything else.  

On Sunday, we continued this series with a teaching on declaring the word of God as prayer. David shows us in the Psalms that in prayer there is a time for crying out in petition, exposing your need before God, and there is a time to rise and declare who God is and place your trust in Him. When the pain of life strikes, we need to know how to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We do this by staying connected to His voice and feasting on His word! As we do this, the power of the gospel fills us and enables us to live by the Spirit.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 03.09.25 Sermon Guide

On Sunday, Alex humbly offered this passage in Jeremiah as a word for our church in this season, “This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: ‘Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.'” (4v3) Much of the church in the West has been compromised over time through idolatry and arrogance. Saints' Hill, we are asking you, as priests and leaders, to set reality again by looking for unused land in your lives and our town, and breaking it up spiritually for a harvest of the kingdom in our time and place. All of this tilling - the lament over our idolatry, the confession of sin, the return to the fear of the Lord in personal prayer - is meant to touch our valley, for His glory.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 03.02.25 Sermon Guide

This last Sunday, Chris explored the link between prayer and wilderness throughout the Scriptures. From Moses, to David, to Elijah, and ultimately to Jesus - we see that God meets us in the wilderness. It's in the wilderness of prayer that our vulnerability and lack of control are exposed.  It's in this unique place where God is able to minister His Presence to us, and where we receive our true identity as friend of God.  We pray that you would venture into the wilderness of prayer, unto knowing Him and loving Him, and being known and loved by Him.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 02.23.25 Sermon Guide

Jesus reveals in John 17 what He prays for you, what He longs to be true of you…and its oneness.  From the beginning of creation, God's desire was to be with you. He stopped at nothing to accomplish this aim, securing oneness with us through the blood of Jesus.   Now, the overflow of our unity with Christ is our unity with one another. Jesus said that the world would get a revelation of God's love when they see the way we love and prefer one another.   Jesus also prays here that we would see His glory. The revelation of the glory of Jesus is what sets the Church apart - it defines our reality. We know in part now, what the world will fully discover when Jesus returns. Let your heart be encouraged knowing that you are still kept by the prayers of Jesus through the ministry of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane gives us the ultimate framework for how to pray and live in the midst of challenging circumstances and intense temptations. He shows us how we can actually make choices that align with God's will. A life of abiding in friendship with Jesus will transform your desires to the degree that you will be able to choose His ways. Prayer is not a means to an end or an equation - prayer is a path to the person of Jesus. In His presence you will find everything that you need.

If Jesus is giving us a worldview in the Lord's Prayer, the first couple of verses show us how we are to view God. The remaining verses show us how our view of God affects the way we live.   To be human is to be in need of God, we are to come to Him daily to receive what the day will require of us.  We have an enemy who intends to accuse us before God. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us so we don't expand the enemy's kingdom by agreeing with his lies.  THE problem is personal sin, and the solution is forgiveness of sin. Jesus became to first lover and forgiver so that upon receiving His love and forgiveness, we would become those same things to the people around us.

Last week, Alex shared why we pray - for the reordering of ourselves and the world we have responsibility for.  This week we will be looking at the Lord's Prayer to see how it is we are to pray. The Lord's Prayer offers not just a prayer to be recited but a worldview to live into.  We have a Father who desires relationship with us before anything. We also have a God who is holy - completely other. Our ability to grasp the holiness of God is the doorway into all kingdom activity. It's His kingdom and His will that we are after on earth - meaning, we are invited to surrender all our own ideas and expectations for our life to see Him glorified.  When we pray the Lord's Prayer with our lives, we become the bridge between heaven and earth that we were designed to be.

In Matthew 21v13 Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah when He says “My house will be a called a house of prayer”. As a church we are going to take several weeks to lean into what it means to be a house of prayer.  In order to understand why we pray, we must first understand why the cosmos exists…  God created the earth to make a hospitable home for Him to live and rest with humans. Humans are made to take what God has made and to heighten it through their worship. The way we are designed to do this is through communication, or prayer.  Prayer re-orders you so that you become the kind of person who can re-order the world.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 01.12.25 Sermon Guide

Last week we talked about depth in our gathering and how adding a cross to our physical space helps us view our gathering as sacred. This Sunday Alex shared about depth in our mission as the Church. Our mission cannot aim at securing cultural relevance or political power. Rather, each one of us must be faithful to sow the seeds that God has given us, and depend on His power to bring about the promised harvest.  At Saints' Hill we are limiting our mission to connection with God (prayer). All fruitfulness is tied to communion with Him, so we look forward to how He will bring about the harvest in our town and in our time.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 01.05.25 Sermon Guide

Every year our senior leader, Alex Rettmann, takes time to pray and think about a word that might give an aim for the coming year. This year that word is depth.  In an age where the Church is thought of as a place to help you realize your project self, we want to put front and center, the Cross.   The Cross calls to us, come and die, lay down your life and trust only in Jesus. When we answer the call of the Cross, we can receive the power of the Cross - a life of otherworldly triumph and miracles.   It requires depth and maturity to recognize that we live by faith in a world of brokenness, while also living with the possibility of heaven on earth.  Thank you Jesus for the Cross.

When was the last time you were filled with wonder?    Advent invites us to remember, to long and to wake up to the reality of God with us. The incarnation of Christ is an invitation - do you want Messiah to dwell with you?    In this Sunday's teaching we look at Matthew 1:18-25 and turn our eyes again to the ceaseless wonder of Christ and the everlasting opportunity to be with God. We learn from Joseph's story what it means to be ruined and named when you say “yes” to God's dwelling.    Let us be filled with wonder and awe again as we behold Christ our Lord.

In this season of Advent we contemplate two things at once - the first coming of Christ and the second. Throughout Scripture we see that both come as a surprise.  And in fact - all of God's activity in the world has been surprising.  The Christian life isn't a life of calculating but a life of wonder at the comedy of grace. God wants to take us on a trust journey of partnership to see his outrageous goodness manifested in our world. May this season of Advent let the "yes" of Mary rise up in your heart, and may the love of Christ overflow in you and produce the kingdom around you.

This last Sunday, Andoni wrapped up the vision series with a teaching on our last core value: we have the privilege of leaving a legacy of heaven.  Throughout the Scriptures we see the divine principle of inheritance at play: what is done in faith has consequences for the generations that are yet to come.   We have a glorious inheritance in Christ. When we live into all that He paid for - a life of knowing Him, loving Him and trusting Him - the generation after us will be able to start where we finished. This is how the kingdom of God is designed to spread and grow.    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 12.08.24 Sermon Guide

On Sunday, one of our elders, Austin Smith, taught on our core value: we are a people filled with hope and joy. We as the Church do not define hope and joy like the rest of the world. For us, hope and joy are realities that were made available to us through Jesus' great sacrifice on the Cross. Austin used Psalm 16 as a template for gaining the biblical perspectives of hope and joy in any life circumstance. Upon making our requests known to God, remembering who He is, and reassuring ourselves in what He will do, confidence arises in our hearts - not due to answered prayer, but due to His Presence.   His Presence is the blessing, the reward, and our greatest treasure - now and forever. 

This last Sunday Bria outlined how and why our primary metaphor for the Church is family.  The family of God is a people led by the Spirit, who experience the fruit of belonging. The family of God is made up of children - defined by the freedom of dependence and teachability.  The family of God will share in Christ's sufferings and in His glory - a people willing to go as low as He did to lay down our lives for one another.  From the beginning God's plan has been to draw people to Himself through the covenant love of family. In Christ we see this mission accomplished and we accept the invitation to participate in this family.

As we continue in our vision series, Alex shared how the principle of honor is the gospel enacted relationally.   We are defining honor as: thinking about people the way God thinks about people. The truth is, you cannot honor if you don't understand the degree to which God honored you through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.   When you begin to understand the value that God places on your life, and your righteous identity in Christ, you are then able to give value and honor away to others freely.   Listen back this teaching and follow along with the Sermon Guide to explore three ways you can apply the gospel to your relationships and honor those around you.

The Scriptures are authoritative and tell us the truth that leads to freedom. As we continue in our vision series we want to expand on this value in a way that will help you determine how you engage with the Scriptures.  The Bible is not a textbook for Christians, nor is it merely moral inspiration. Its complexity should not be seen as a threat, but a feature of the richness of it. In this teaching Alex gives four tools to help us understand how to read the Bible and one key principle that guides the entire journey: relationship with Jesus. May love be the fruit of our engagement with the Scriptures!   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 11.10.24 Sermon Guide

On Sunday, one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, taught on our core value: nothing is impossible. Through Andoni's passage from Mark 11:12-25 we see that Jesus has specific desires for His Church. He desires for us to understand that we live between two kingdoms - heaven and earth. He desires for us to bear fruit in every season by making His house about dependence on Him for the impossible to happen. He desires for us to carry on the ministry of reconciliation as He did. This value is one we cannot lose sight of in our time. Let our faith be unhindered and let us release forgiveness freely. 

This last Sunday we continued in our Vision Series with a teaching on our core value: We are the righteousness of God. Alex highlighted Jesus' parable in Luke 18v9-14 where we learn that if you can go low and recognize the truth - your need for God's mercy - you will be made righteous. If you cannot go low and you insist on obtaining your value, meaning, and reason for life by looking to others, then you will be humbled by God. We need to be made righteous to be made one. Jesus' desire was union with us (John 17v24), that we could know Him and love Him, and be known by Him and loved by Him.  When this is your reality you will be able to live in confident honesty towards God and as an ambassador for Christ on earth.

The second identity that helps us host God's Presence well is the ache of the Bride.  All throughout Scripture the Bible gives us marriage as a picture of God's desire for humanity and humanity's need for God. The ache of the Bride is a strategic gift from the Holy Spirit to reveal our need for Jesus in a way that causes us to cry out for Him. We must empty ourselves of all other loves and illusions so that we may be filled with His love and His fire.  God goes where He's wanted. We're praying that this desire for Him will become a service to our town and that people will be drawn into real life with Him as a result. 

This last Sunday Alex gave part one of his teaching on our fourth core value: we have the privilege of hosting the Father's Presence.  We believe the Scriptures teach that the Church is supposed to be a home for God's Presence, an access point between heaven and earth. (1 Pet 2v4-5, Gen 28v11-17) The first identity that we want to take on as a church to host the Presence of God well, is the ministry of a priest.  Priests in the Old Covenant offered up physical sacrifices, but since Jesus offered himself as the ultimate physical sacrifice, our ministry as New Covenant priests is to offer up spiritual sacrifices. Like David, we are to center our entire lives around praise, thanksgiving, song, and gazing upon the Lord.  This is one of the primary ways we participate in heaven coming to earth. You are a priest!    Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 10.13.24 Sermon Guide

We come together as the church because for us there is but one God, one Lord - Jesus Christ who is worthy of our worship. This last Sunday, Bria taught on our third core value: Jesus is Lord.  Lives that speak “Jesus is Lord” are anchored in eternity with eternal priorities. Those who are anchored in eternity fear God alone - acknowledging their need for Him and refusing to live life apart from Him. They do not live for Self, but under the leadership and authority of Jesus, they become all that God created them to be. They are marked by singular love for Jesus.   Let Him find in us a pure and spotless bride - not distracted with loves of this world, but drawn to His heart and in pursuit of His way. 

This past weekend we had our very first all church camp out at the Oregon coast. Our senior leader, Alex Rettmann, spoke from 1 Peter 4:7-11 about the two priorities we have as we live in the last days: People and Prayer.

This last Sunday Alex kicked off our annual Fall Vision Series with a teaching on our first core value - God is good.  In the Old Testament, God declares that He is compassionate, forgiving, just, and patient. In the New Testament, we get the fullest representation of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Though our beliefs about God don't change who He is, they radically affect how we interact with Him and who we become in this life.  When we agree with the truth about who God is, we get to experience life the way we were designed to. It's not a life absent of suffering, but it's a life full of His unconditional love, His gentle leadership, and His satisfying Presence.

On Sunday we spent some time looking at the incredible story in Luke 17v11-19.  What we can ascertain from this story is that God's intention behind signs and wonders is always relational. Jesus' ultimate goal on earth was to restore connection and right relationship between God and the people He created.  Every healing, every miracle you experience in this life is designed to draw you to the feet of Jesus and bring you into deeper connection with Him.   We received our ultimate healing, salvation, and deliverance through Jesus' perfect sacrifice on the cross. May your heart be stirred up again to respond in praise and thanksgiving for all that His blood has done for you.

On Sunday, we got to hear from one our deacons, Chris Sharp. Chris continued in our Luke Series with a teaching on Luke 17v1-10. All throughout the gospels, Jesus reveals to us that to follow Him and to live in His kingdom looks like something. This teaching in Luke highlights how radical it will be to live as a child, to offer forgiveness, and to exercise our faith. This lifestyle of complete trust and obedience to God requires us to repent of lesser pursuits and be strengthened and comforted by His unending love and provision for us through His body and his blood.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 09.01.24 Sermon Guide

This last Sunday we continued in our Luke series with a parable from Luke 16v19-31 about the relationship between worldly wealth and eternal wealth.  In this story, the rich man is the example of someone so consumed with lack, that they cannot use the material of their life to tell the truth of compassion and friendship. God is, and always has been, after a people who are so aware of His love for them that they can't help but join in and use the physical world to tell the truth of God's love to others.  As New Covenant believers, our inheritance is Jesus! His Presence is our portion, and don't have to settle for lesser things. 

On Sunday Alex led us through Jesus' teaching in Luke 16v14-18. In this teaching, Jesus is highlighting the shift from the era of the law and the prophets, to the era of His kingdom. To live in His kingdom is to submit to the internal rule of God within your heart. Jesus's critique of the Pharisees is that they spend all their time trying to justify themselves by the law, yet their hearts grow cold to the things that God loves. This new kingdom requires radical trust and submission to Jesus.  We can only do this to the degree that we receive His overwhelming love and depend on Him for the grace needed in every situation.

On Sunday we looked at an interesting parable in Luke 16v1-15 about a dishonest manager. Through this parable, Jesus teaches us that there is a way of using possessions and money that tells a heavenly truth but an earthly lie.  In the same way that Jesus used His possessions to gain our friendship, our lives on earth are to declare heavenly truth. Friendship, love, and generosity are eternal things that will last in the age to come. May we be the kind of people who pursue these eternal things over and above the perishing things that the world finds value in.

This last Sunday, Bria taught on the parable of the lost coin in Luke 15v8-10.   This parable is situated between two other parables like it, each one centered around God's great love and pursuit of the lost. This parable in particular emphasizes the thoroughness of God's pursuit of the lost. It acts as an invitation to receive the heart of God in order to love people the way He loves them.   We receive the heart of God by receiving Jesus - His body broken for us and His blood poured out. The reality of His overwhelming love will change the way we see everything.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 08.04.24 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our Saints' Hill missionaries, Mariah Fredericks.  In teaching through Luke 15v1-7, Mariah was able to share how she's seen God's heart for the world on display in Spain. She told stories of many young un-churched people coming to saving faith in Jesus!  Her encouragement to us through this passage of Scripture, is to encounter God's heart for the world so that we can open up our lives in generosity. As we do so, we will be able to respond rightly when the lost come home - with celebration and rejoicing!   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 07.28.24 Sermon Guide

This last Sunday Alex taught us through Luke 14v25-35. In this passage, Jesus gives multiple examples of the cost of discipleship. The West at large has bought into a costless gospel - that is, the idea that you can become a Christian without the demands of being a disciple.  The demand of discipleship is love - a singular love that orders your entire life. And while many will say the cost of discipleship is what you say no to for Jesus, the real cost is the price of not living in His love.  The joy of loving Him and being loved by Him, is immeasurably greater than any earthly thing we could give up.   Be invited once again to acknowledge your need for him and surrender to His loving leadership.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 07.21.24 Sermon Guide 

On Sunday we continued in our Luke Series with a teaching on Luke 14v1-24. In this passage Jesus teaches His listeners that what they value in this age will reveal if they will accept His invitation to the next. Humans have been conditioned to play the game of this age: promotion, repayment, and protection of gain. It all stems from pride in this life. The only way out of pride and into the kingdom principle of humility is to see the love of Christ. When you are able to recognize your need for Him and receive all that He humbly offered you, all of your deepest longings be satisfied. You'll be free from the game of this age, because you will have found your reward in knowing and loving Jesus. May we spend our days longing after Him, our eternal reward.

This last Sunday, Alex continued our Luke Series with a teaching on Luke 13v22-30. In this passage, Jesus explains that the door to the kingdom of heaven is narrow, and that the only way to enter is by understanding your need for Him and placing your trust in Him.  Jesus was abundantly clear about the road to salvation being narrow. It made Him controversial then, and it makes Him controversial now. His narrowness, however, is a matter of His jealousy. He won't share you with other loves, worldly passions or desires. He gave up everything so He could be your everything.  This type of life requires a willingness from us to refuse all other comforts - to cut out from our lives anything that doesn't increase love for Him. We pray that you would joyfully accept this invitation to deeper intimacy with Jesus as you journey with Him.

This last Sunday, Bria Wolter taught on Luke 13v18-21, where Jesus gives two examples of what the kingdom of God is like: a mustard seed that grows into a tree, and yeast that spreads through dough. From these parables, we learn that the kingdom of God requires trust, but He does the heavy lifting. Our obedience regenerates the soil of our hearts, and the impossible takes place. As we see the kingdom of God expanding around us, may our hearts continue to fall deeper and deeper in love with our King, Jesus.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 06.23.24 Sermon Guide

On Sunday we continued in our Luke Series with a teaching from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño.  After reading through Luke 13v10-21, Andoni compared the yeast of the Pharisees with the yeast of the Kingdom.   Hypocrisy is the yeast of the Pharisees. Their need to see in order to believe kept their hearts from being moved by the awe of God when miracles happened. Jesus said this attitude, un-checked, spreads like leaven in dough.  Jesus also referred to the kingdom of God spreading like leaven in dough. The kingdom of God spreads when people take hold of it by faith in Jesus. This faith believes in order to see, not the other way around.   Faith is a gift from God that we can only receive through surrender. We pray that you would allow the leaven of faith to spread in your heart this week through surrender to Jesus.   Link to Sermon Guide & Activations: 06.16.24 Sermon Guide

This last Sunday we entered back into our Luke Series. One of our elders, Austin Smith, taught on Luke 12v49-13v9 where Jesus poses some important questions to us about who we are, who He is, and if we will follow Him. We all have to decide what we believe about ourselves. Were we made for God? Do we need a Savior? Or will we try to find some other way to justify our existence… We all have to decide what we believe about Jesus. Is he the Messiah? The one and only Lamb of God who can take away the sin of the world? Or will we find righteousness on our own in an attempt to avoid eternal judgement and separation from God… To follow Jesus is to walk closely with Him — to receive all that He is, to fall in love, to grow in trust. This type of relationship with Jesus is what leads to fruitful life.  May the Spirit continue to reveal Jesus as you go throughout your week.

On Sunday one of our deacons, Chris Sharp, gave a word on what obedience looks like as we walk in the Spirit.  Our desire for revival in this town starts with our individual obedience. A sacrifice that didn't come from a place of obedience is not a pleasing sacrifice to God.  The only way we get to true obedience is through trust. The goal of our lives is to learn and know God's heart - to come to a deep belief in His goodness. Once that trust is developed, we are able to obey fully when He speaks.   May God find us willing to let Him dictate our lives. He will be our Leader, our Shepherd and our King.

This last Sunday, Bria wrapped up our Pentecost series with a teaching on 1 Corinthians 14v1. In this passage Paul exhorts the church in Corinth to “follow the way of love and eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy.” To follow the way of love is to be connected to God's love by the ministry of His Spirit. It is only when you freely receive God's extravagant love that you are able to freely give that love away through the gifts of the Spirit. When we rightly understand God through His love, we will naturally be excited to receive the gifts of His Spirit. They are good gifts that are meant to grow us into the likeness of Christ and to release the kingdom of heaven on earth. Prophecy is one of the most prized gifts in Paul's eyes because it puts courage into God's people to be who He made them to be. We desire the church in Newberg to be made radiant and beautiful through the purifying love of Jesus. Join us in following the way of love, and eagerly desiring the gifts of His Spirit.

This last Sunday Alex read from 1 Corinthians 12:7-11, teaching us about how the fullness of God's glory is best witnessed in the Church, through the corporate ministry of the Holy Spirit. The church gathers so that each of us would be spurred on to live in the fullness of the presence of God. We have been designed to experience His manifest presence and to be a reflection to those around us.  Prioritizing a life in step with the Spirit will actually give you something to give away to the people of God. The gifts of the Spirit are what we give away to people. It is the way that Christ uses each of us to build His home inside us.  This is for the common good of the Church, not for our individual advantages or identity. That we would open space for God to pour out His healing love on His people.