Zach Peters' Podcast

The Church North Ga. We are in the process of planting a church (The Church North Ga.), and this is one of the most recent sermons. Support the Show.

We continue our discussion on prayer using Matthew 6 as our guide. How not to pray part two!Support the show

My father's memorial message.  An examination of God's faithfulness and power through my dad's life.

We start a three-part series on prayer. In part one, we discuss what prayer is and how not to do it.

We talk about the first lie the enemy used to move us away from a relationship with God, and it was a lie that questioned the accuracy and relevance of God's word. Once you believe God's word is not accurate or not relevant to your life, you move away from whom you were intended to be, which is away from healthiness and wholeness. 

2 Corinthians 5:1-10 has tents and a promise of something more permanent. While camping might be fun, most people prefer a more stable living situation. For Paul, that is a part of it means to follow Jesus. Listen for more details.

In life, we have bad days! Sometimes those bad days turn into bad years or even decades. It is easy to give up or resign oneself to a life without hope of change, but there is hope...

Easter and resurrection are for everyone! From skeptics to naive dreamers, Jesus is more than enough for anyone to grab ahold of the powerful reality of the resurrected life.

A simple idea to remember, the outside stuff in life will impact you, but the stuff on the inside defines you.

The Fruit of the Spirit is potentially easy to memorize, but difficult to practice. Easy to read and hard to understand how it impacts everything we do as Christians. 

It is often in the normal things of life that God will work out extraordinary things in us, through us, and around us.

We are called to serve! Jesus' own life is the perfect example of service to others.

It has been seven years since my brother has died. During that time, God helped me in extraordinary ways, and I want to share some of that wisdom with you.

Life is scattered right now, and it causes chaos in our lives internally and externally. But in Christ, there is more to the scattering. Sometimes the tough times produce amazing results in our lives.

Real Love is just different. Real love is only possible through God.

Power is one of those words we hear all the time. If you like cars, you talk about power. You want to know the torque or horsepower. If you like video games and computers, you want to know the power of the processer (CPU) or the video processer (GPU). Do you like sports and athletics? Then we will want to know how much people can lift, how hard they can throw, and how hard they can hit, or how fast they can run. Or maybe you will try to get more powerful yourself through training.What is spiritual power and why does it matter to have spiritual power?

Have you ever looked at someone and just thought, “Man, if I had what they had, I could do anything.” Sometimes, I will look at someone playing basketball, and I would think if I were as tall as him, I could dunk. Like he isn't even using what God gave him the right way. Maybe for you, it is like musical ability, you see someone who makes it look easy, and you are lucky if you can sing close to the right note. Forget harmonies you can't even sing the main part.We look at other people, and we see all that they have materially or even talent-wise, and we don't seem to compare. It is like they have been given more than us. And maybe that is true. Perhaps they do have more money and even more ability than we do. That can be depressing to realize, but let me challenge you to recognize that what you do have, though it might be less than others, is still a lot, and it is still a gift from God.I don't know why others seem to naturally have more. I cannot answer that question, but I also realize it is not my job to worry about what others have. What I need to focus on and think about is doing something with whatever God has given me. No matter the amount. There is this parable (Matt 25) that Jesus tells in the bible that we learn a lot from on this very topic. 

Last week we talked about what could happen at home as opposed to what we think can just happen at church buildings. Through the scripture of Acts 2, we saw the power that can be given to us at home. Not only at a building or in a typical church service, but at home, with God, we can receive the power to do things that we could not do before through the Holy Spirit. The church is not about a building, but about God and people who serve him in grace.We keep the conversation going this week by looking at the priesthood of all believers, which might not make a lot of sense if we do not know what a believer is or what type of priest. Hopefully, I can make it simple enough to understand. 

We left God at the church building for a long time, and it is time to take Him back home. Then what happens at home, changes what happens outside the home. 

People are like sheep, we follow what we see in front of us, and sometimes that is just the other sheep who do not know where they are going. We have to learn to follow the Shepherd.

It is sad, in a way, that so many churches cannot up their services, but problems are just opportunities in disguise. It is necessary but unfortunate, yet, I genuinely believe this challenging time can be something that helps the Christians and the church grow spiritually and practically, be more impactful in the long run, and be more focused on what matters in ministry.

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. - Philippians 4:7Figuring out the peace that matters.

At 5:00 PM, October 27th, in 1915 in the Antarctic sea, it was a very cold day. Crushed by an unrelenting ice pack, the ship Endurance was creaking, cracking, and deforming under the pressure of millions of tons of ice. Exhausted from days of keeping the ship from sinking, keeping the boilers going, and pumping water out of the hull, the crew received the news that it was over, abandon ship. The mission to cross the Antarctic continent was now a mission for survival before they even made it to land.Earnest Shackleton, explorer and leader of the expedition, faced the dilemma with a clear sense of purpose. The vision of grandeur and hard success of crossing the continent was replaced with of vision of rescue and survival. Earnest and the crew would chase that vision every day for almost two years until every member of the crew made it safely back to civilization.This is not a podcast about the Endurance or Shackleton, but about what helped Shackleton and the crew make it out alive. They had a vision (making it back to civilization) that gave them hope, focused their efforts, and gave them direction. Having a clear vision is powerful, for church, for work, and for your family. So Let's talk about it. 

I want to talk about what happens when we meet Jesus. What actually happens when we have a real come to Jesus meeting. Something has got to happen when Jesus shows up, otherwise, we wouldn't still be talking about Him 2,000 years later.You can meet all kinds of people, and they will help you, make you happy, hurt you and disappoint you, or maybe they will have no impact on you what so ever. I will guarantee you this when you meet Jesus, everything can change for the better.

The last thing I wish I could tell myself… Other people and other situations can impact me, but they cannot control me. In life, we will have issues. People will do the wrong thing to us. You never know what is going to happen. Just a few days ago, a storm in Nashville changed everything for some families. Things happen, painful situations, and they will impact us. My brother's death affected me. Parents getting divorced will impact everyone involved. A car wreck will impact you. Even it raining will impact you. Your failures will impact you, but they do not have to control you. They don't have to ruin you.

Because of the concise nature of how most millennials and Gen Z's communicate, I believe many have lost the art of deep and thorough thinking. Relationships might be the key to help develop those thinking skills again.

1% better every month means you are 12% better by the end of the year. Doing small things right will lead to drastic improvement.

We have been having this conversation about things I wish I could go back and tell my younger self, but since I can't, I have been sharing these things with my students and you. We have talked about putting God first and obey authority figures. Today we talk about setting the right example.

This week, we are talking about someone who was worthless, both practically and spiritually. We are talking about the Samaritan women at the well. This woman is in direct contrast to the rich young ruler from part one. Last week we started at the top, this week we are at the bottom. Everything the rich young ruler was, this woman is not. Both were worthless, but only one was considered worthless by her contemporaries.For both, the journey back to worth starts with Jesus.

Are you listening to the people around you? Do you try to honor people who annoy you? If you are like me, then maybe this an area you need to strengthen in your life. 

What makes you worth anything? That answer will depend on the age and culture you exist in, but if we are honest, our worth is always questionable in one way or another. Thankfully, Jesus changes everything. 

Zach wishes he could go back in time to talk to himself about very important things. Instead, he plans a sermon that tells those things to his students.

In today's culture, especially in America, there are popular beliefs that once were deeply connected to Christianity. These beliefs and views have shifted from the foundation of orthodox Christian belief into an almost Christian interpretation of seeing life. Zach examines a few of these "almost" phrases and points out various problems. 

What we see, or what we witness, can change us dramatically. If that is the case, then maybe we need to take the time to witness what God has done and is doing around us.

Technology and screens impact us every day, is it a good impact or a dangerous impact? The answer largely depends on the amount of time spent engaging with screens and the age of the person looking at the screen. Zach looks at this problem from a Christian perspective. 

Zach goes over one of his recent sermons about what it means to be human. From a Christian perspective, there is a very specific foundation to a person's humanity, and that is only through an understanding that God is the creator.