Renew Communities Teaching Podcast

It’s easy to find our identity in what we have or wish we had. This way of thinking creates a prideful posture in our hearts because we become convinced that we have what we have because of our hard work or it causes us to believe we deserve what we don’t have and somehow the life we’re living isn’t fair. In week 1 of our series, we talk about moving from pride to gratitude when it comes to what God has provided for us.

Have you ever been in a crowd of people and thought “I wonder who Jesus will rescue next? I wonder who will be the next person to cry out to him for help and salvation? I wonder who will be a completely different person one year from now because of what Jesus is going to do in their lives?” Most of us aren’t thinking these things in our everyday life but I wonder what difference it would make if we were. In our final week of our NextGen series, we’ll talk about who the next Christians might be that you already know and how to invite them into God’s family today!

The future of the church is in your hands. A better way of saying this might be “you carry with you the life-changing presence of Jesus” wherever you go. That may sound spiritual - and it is! - I want you to think instead of all the places you go to daily. The gym, school, work, soccer practice, the coffee shop - if the life-changing presence of Jesus is there because you’re there how might God use your presence to change lives? In the second week of our Next Gen series, we’ll share some vision of how God may want to use your work, your house, your neighborhood as a new Kingdom outpost and we’ll give you some real tools to develop that vision in your life.

It’s so easy to look at kids and youth and think “someday.” Someday you’ll make an impact. Someday you’ll be productive. Someday you’ll make a difference. When we think of younger people in the “someday” category it’s easy to defer their importance in the church and in the world today. In the first week of our Next Gen series, we talk about the impact youth and young adults can have in the world today, the vision God gives to us for these important members of His church and the way we can all be investing in them for Kingdom impact today and in the future.

When it comes to faith it’s common to think there should be no questions or doubts about what we believe. That is such a common way of thinking that when people have questions or doubts, big or small, they start to think they may not really believe in God at all. So, how do you come back from a Spiritual meltdown, how do you process questions and doubts so they bring movement towards God instead of away from Him.

Relationships are tricky. At any given time you probably have someone you’re mad at or someone who’s mad at you. What’s funny is most of the time we don’t even express the tension until the whole thing falls apart. In week 4 of our series, we talk about why we’re so prone to relational breakdowns, how to restore what is broken and how to avoid creating painful tension in the important relationships in your life.

So much of how we see and experience the world is dictated by how we’re feeling emotionally. Many of us base our actions and reactions off of what we’re feeling in the moment and a large majority of us are feeling anxious or depressed a lot of the time. We’ve all experienced an emotional meltdown - some have ruined a day and some have been so catastrophic they’ve ruined entire years. So, how do you come back from an emotional meltdown and how can our life with Christ help us avoid these meltdowns in the future.

From a young age, we’re taught the value of a dollar. You know you’re supposed to save, plan, budget and pay your bills on time. You know you’re not supposed to spend money you don’t have or make risky decisions that will put your financial well-being in danger. Some of us work these plans and still face financial hardship while others intentionally dig a hole that creates major problems that last years. So how do you recover or better yet how can you avoid a financial meltdown? In week 2 of our series, we’ll talk about how your faith can help you reprioritize your approach to finances and share some ideas of how you can get things back under control?

This Sunday we spent time reflecting on our vision, who God has called us to be and how we think He wants to take us there. Listen as we announce 3 big initiatives and invite you to participate with us in seeing whole communities renewed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

The story of the world doesn’t end when Jesus returns, it’s just getting started. There will more to do, more to build, more to create, more to write, more to live for. In our last teaching in Revelation, we uncover the reality of heaven and eternity and how God is inviting us to partner in building this garden city.

As we approach the last loop of the book of Revelation we find what is known as Judgement Day. Most people sense a tension in their hearts as they think about how evil will ultimately be dealt with. We want evil to be eradicated but we get nervous about what that means for humanity. In week 11 of our Revelation series, we talk about how good God is and why we can trust Him in dealing with evil in the world and our heart both today and for eternity.

Revelation is one of the most misunderstood and even worse, one of the most misused books in the bible. In this week's Revelation teaching we look at how this poetic and creative book about the church, about politics and about trusting Jesus can help shape our vision as a church not just for the future but as a church and a people for the present.

Throughout Revelation, we often see the struggle between God and evil on display. The promise of the whole book is that ultimately God will be victorious through the work of Jesus but this book is about more than that. The real point of the book is to challenge those who say they believe to stay faithful when faced with the temptation to compromise and go along when enticed by evil. In this week’s sermon, we tackle the question of how you can tell the difference when faced with the “blind taste test” and what tangible steps we can take in our everyday life to follow John’s warning and stay faithful to Jesus?

In our series on Revelation, we've been exploring the cycles from worship to disruption. Revelation 12-13 is full of disruption. Matt Buehrle explores in this sermon how a jolting sermon can help us wake up to the grace of God in Jesus.

As we read through the different cycles of Revelation we have the opportunity to see what God is really like. What appears to be God’s horrific judgment at first glance actually shows us God’s divine mercy. In an amazing turn of events we read an account of “the end” and what we find is multiple opportunities to repent and experience the salvation of God through Jesus. If you’ve ever thought Revelation revealed one more picture of some angry God waiting to judge and condemn listen to this look at Revelation 8-11 and see who God really is and who you could be if you really knew him.

The book Revelation is not about terrifying us about the future. It's about disrupting the status quo and calling you to worship and faithfulness to Jesus. In this week's teaching, we look at Revelation 6 and 7 and how it challenges us to consider where are we going to seek peace and security. Do we go to the ways of the world or do we go to the slain lamb?

There is so much benefit to knowing and following Jesus but what we are experiencing now is only part of what has been promised to those of us who faithfully await eternal life with Him. In our final look at the Letters of Revelation, we’ll see how Jesus reminds each church of these promises and how these promises can motivate us in our faithful connection to Jesus.

Each church Jesus writes to has some area that they need to pay close attention to because they are in danger of falling away from a relationship with Jesus. Sometimes it’s because of pressure that’s coming against them, others are dealing with false teachings that have invaded their body and some are becoming comfortable and complacent. Jesus has strong words of warnings for these churches because he loves them and he’s concerned about their future. In week 2 of our Letters series, we’ll look at what kind of warnings Jesus gives to these early churches and work through what kind of warnings he might give to us.

Each church that Jesus writes to are in unique situations but we see that there are both external pressures and internal temptations facing all of them. In week one of the Letters of Revelation, we will look at the kind of things that Jesus affirms in the midst of these pressures and temptation and what kind of things Jesus might affirm in our church too.