Bright Podcasts

If you’ve always wondered about some of the rituals in church, so have I. There are some things we see in churches today that are totally unbiblical. They’ve become rituals to follow. But the church isn’t supposed to follow rituals, it’s supposed to follow God. This week’s message is about what it really means to be connected to God and His church. PS: there’s a little ‘straight talk’ in this message, so if you’ve ever had a problem with religion, this is the perfect message for you.

The early church in Acts looked a little different to how church looks today. They met with God daily where we tend to struggle to make time for Him weekly. They grafted their world around meeting with God where we try and graft God into our busy schedule. How do you view your time with God? Has meeting with him become a chore? The truth is, meeting with God isn’t something we have to do… it’s something we get to do! The problem for many people is that they have a religious view of what meeting with God means. In this message we tackle this problem and confront the inconvenient truth behind our failure to prioritize meeting with God.

Most Christians I know don’t want to be called religious, that's because the word religion doesn’t mean what it used to in the bible. In fact, the whole series is about getting religion out of the church. Sound strange? I would go as far as saying ‘becoming religious’ is one of the worst things that can happen to the church. This week we look at what the church really is and what they really did, because if we are not doing what they did, we might just have it all wrong.

Father’s Day is a day we love to celebrate, but for some it can be a challenge. It can drag up experiences and emotions that some would rather forget. What is incredibly important to remember is that we don’t let our past dictate our future or define ourselves. In this incredibly powerful and insightful message, Ps Shane explains the power of taking responsibility over our lives and how we can all change our family trees.

Every time we get off track with God’s plans for our lives we live below our created potential. Sometimes we even make decisions that send our lives in a different direction. That was the case for a young man 2000 years ago named Onesimus, who’s life dramatically changes with the help of a mentor who introduces him to Jesus. The terrible decisions of Onesimus past no longer set the path for his future, in fact he finds his purpose in life. The same can be true for us. This week's message is about how to turn your life around and find your purpose.

It is an incredible privilege to be used by God in a significant way. But even when we are called, anointed and appointed for a task, it doesn’t mean that we won’t face challenges. When we face challenges, it’s incredibly important that we bring them to God. There are some things that only he can solve. The story of King David is an amazing journey of a young man who was appointed by God to become king and unite the nation of Israel. David was Israel’s greatest king, but even he made mistakes, one changed the trajectory of his life. This week’s message is about what to do when we have made a mistake and need God’s help.

We can often find ourselves in situations we just don’t want to be in. That was the situation for Israel thousands of years ago. They have been influenced by the surrounding culture, let go of their faith; values, and they had even begun to worship other gods. It’s incredibly important that we hold onto our faith and values no matter the culture we find ourselves in. God’s faithfulness to Israel caused him to raise up a man named Gideon who would lead the nation back to God, and make sure their beliefs aligned with their faith. This week’s message is about aligning your faith and your values so God can take you further.

Great leaders are never just born, they are made. Great leaders inspire confidence, but confidence is something that is developed. Joshua was an incredible leader, but God had taken the time to craft and build his experiences. Our experiences shape us. What is truly amazing though, is that two people can go through the same experience and learn different things. Joshua was an incredible leader because he learnt the right lessons. This week’s message is all about where to find the kind of confidence that turns ordinary people into great leaders.

It’s so easy to see our own insecurities and believe that God could never use us. But that is simply not true. In fact, the Bible is filled with stories of people who struggled with their own insecurities, and yet God use them. Moses is a great example of this. The truth is, there will be many times where we feel outmatched and outclassed, and when this happens it’s so important that we turn to God for help and support. Moses is proof that God can use anyone, anywhere, any time if they trust him. This week’s message is all about what to do when your situation is beyond you.

One of the things that we know about God is that his timing and our timing are completely different! The story of Abram is an incredible journey of how one man believed God despite waiting a long time to see God's promises come to pass. There were times when Abram took matters into his own to fix his own problems and it is easy for us to do the same. It’s so important that we don’t try to move ahead of God's timing and manufacture his promises for us. This week’s message is all about trust in God even when we don’t understand what he is doing.

Noah was an incredible leader in his day. He stood out from his culture. In Noah’s day, the bible says the whole earth was evil. But what does that mean? Evil is just a word. You need to measure it. How do we measure evil? Our standard often comes from our culture, but whatever standard we have, God has his own. Sometimes going in the opposite direction to our culture is hard. If we live like Noah and follow God, we will stand out from our culture too. If we live like Noah did, we learn that we cannot save ourselves, we must look to God for that and if we trust him, he will safely guide us to our future.

With the rise of social media, the comparison game has never been easier. We find ourselves peering into the lives of others, thinking they have it all figured out and that we are not enough. Pastor Richard Kobakian from LifeHouse Church passionately reminds us to run our own race and fix our eyes towards Jesus instead of each other. With pearls of biblical wisdom, he reminds us that God purposely created us in our uniqueness. If you are battling with your self-esteem, feelings of uncertainty about your next steps, or sometimes find yourself playing the comparison game, this message is for you!

Human beings have a way of taking things that are simple and making them complicated when we don’t want to do them. The bible encourages us to give our finances and be generous. Simple right? Well, sometimes we complicate it because we can have an addiction to acquisition (we like stuff) and want to find a way around it. Jesus had so much to say about this topic, and this week we look at why it matters.

It is so important that we do not deviate from the true gospel; one of grace, freedom and unmerited favour. We cannot add to our salvation. We must guard our hearts and our minds to ensure that we do not deviate from the truth or become deceived as the enemy desires.

We all have challenges in life. Sometimes we don’t know if our circumstances are mid-way through a season, or is it the end of a season? Does our story end with a great testimony, or tragedy? Often we just don’t know. Is this the end of a marriage; the fall of a business, the end of a healthy life? Wherever life takes you, no matter the circumstances or what you hear, you always need to let Jesus have the last word, because He can bring any situation back to life.

What does it mean to be blessed? If blessed is rich, then the poor can never be blessed. If blessed is always more, then you can never be blessed. 2000 years ago Jesus radically redefined what it meant to be blessed in His Sermon On The Mount. Blessed is not the catch cry of the rich but the declaration of the poor; those in morning; those who need justice; the persecuted. You are blessed, because our greatest possession is Jesus and our relationship with him. You are blessed because of our association with Him.

Living in a world of ever-changing opinions, sometimes it can be hard to work out who you are supposed to be. We all feel the pressure of becoming somebody that world says we should be and as a result, we can easily find ourselves ‘shopping’ for our identity. This isn’t how God has called us to live; your identity is not up for grabs and it doesn’t go out of fashion. When we declare truth over our identity, we position ourselves to walk out our life in true freedom, as He has created us to live.

We all have seasons that try to convince us they’re bigger than God. If you lean into that, you might be filled with fear over faith. But, fear and faith entertain possibilities. Fear and faith both ask the question “but what if...?” Why do some people have great faith and others struggle? Why do some have faith and others don’t have faith at all? What is faith? When it comes to God -faith is profoundly relational. At a basic level, you must believe that God exists to have faith in him, but for that faith to grow, you must believe he responds to those who seek him. If you walked with God in every season and had our spiritual eyes open, how would we respond to the seasons that try to convince us they’re bigger than God? If you knew God was with you and saw Him as he is, you’d be filled with courage, peace and feel like anything is possible. The clearer we see him, the stronger our faith gets.

We can’t remember everything that happens in life but there are moments that stick out. It’s the specific events and life defining moments we never forget. We use chronos time to measure days, hours and minutes, but ‘karios time’ is the moments of ‘divine appointment’ as in ‘the set, due or opportune time. We can’t plan these moments, but we can position ourselves for them. One moment with God can change your life forever. Do what you can to position yourself for a Kairos moment and you may never be the same again.

We often go through the same circumstances, but we don’t always see them the same way. We can approach our situations as either problems or purpose. We live out of our reality, so we need to make sure that we see clearly so we can walk boldly. Often the truth can be veiled, so we need God to reveal truth to us, so we don’t get trapped in our problems.