Wawasee Bible Podcast

We wrap up our Grateful series by looking at three evidences of a grateful life from Colossians 3 and Habakkuk 3. Gratitude isn't just a feeling tied to good circumstances — it's a heart posture that returns thanks to God no matter what. That posture shows up in three ways: it lets Christ's peace rule our hearts, lets his word shape our walk, and lets his strength sustain us — even when everything...

There are two things we can be grateful for as Americans. First, that God (in his sovereignty) placed us here. And second, that here is not home. We've been sent here by God to seek the good and welfare of this place so that others might know God's goodness in Jesus Christ personally. But while we've been sent here, here is not home. As followers of Jesus our citizenship is in Heaven, and from the...

Gratitude fades when God’s people forget the Lord, not because they lose information, but because they stop keeping his goodness at the center of their lives. Deuteronomy 8 calls God’s people to remember how he humbled them, provided for them, disciplined them, blessed them, and warned them against pride. Remembering the Lord forms grateful people who can trust him in the wilderness, bless him in...

We start a new short series exploring what it means and how to be grateful. God commands us to be thankful, and the gratitude Scripture commands is not a feeling, but a posture. It's a choice we make. But choosing it is often hard. Gratitude is hard because it requires obedience before it's felt, we miss God's nearness, and we focus on our circumstances.

As we wrap our series through the Nicene Creed called "What Christians Believe," we look at what baptism is. Baptism isn't something we trust in for salvation, it's a picture of what we trust in. It's a picture of the gospel and God's cleansing work in our lives that is all by his grace and mercy. God's grace and mercy—not our merit—washes and renews us through his Spirit and gives us eternal life...

We believe in one holy Church. God's Church consists of every believer in Jesus throughout all of history. And because God is three-in-one, he's made his Church one and given us unity in Jesus Christ. Our responsibility is to maintain it. Unity isn't uniformity, it's unity of heart where it's all about Jesus, and it's not about me. Our temptation is often to make it about our own preferences. But...

This week we look at who the Spirit is and what he does. In a sentence, the Spirit always and continually glorifies the Son in all that he does. Jesus told his disciples that it was better for him to leave so that the Spirit (the Helper) would come to help them: indwelling, guiding, illuminating, convicting, and empowering God's people. The Spirit sent from the Father and Son convicts and guides a...

For us and for our salvation, Jesus came down and became human. The creator and ruler of the universe condescended to add full and complete humanity to his full and eternal deity. We tend not to think as much about Jesus’s humanity as we do his deity, yet Jesus was fully human in every way. Because of this he is our failthful and merciful high priest who is able to sympathize and empathize with us...

Jesus is fully and eternally God in every way. He’s not merely like God or close to God, he is of the exact essence as the Father—one substance with him. The New Testament book of Hebrews opens by presenting Jesus as the radiance of the glory of God, not a mere reflection, but the source of glory as he himself is fully God. In this way the Son reveals the Father perfectly, purifies sin completely,...

A key phrase of the Nicene Creed is that Jesus is "begotten, not made." Jesus is not a created being, a lesser god, or a spiritual middleman between us and the Father. He is eternally God—begotten, not made—and he took on true humanity without ceasing to be fully divine. Because Jesus is fully God, he can truly reveal the Father; because he became fully human, he can truly represent us; and becaus...

The gospel is not something the church invented — it is a deposit entrusted to us, with the expectation that we will receive it personally, guard it actively, and pass it on faithfully. This was Paul's charge to Timothy in 1 Timothy 6:20–21. The Nicene Creed, born out of the Arian controversy at the Council of Nicaea (325), is one of the church's great historical examples of receiving, guarding, a...

Jesus is a sure and steadfast anchor who holds you steady in life’s storms (Hebrews 6:19-20). In Romans 8:31–39, Paul stacks up a series of rhetorical questions to drive home a settled assurance: God has proved he is for his people by not sparing his own Son. Even when real opposition comes, and even when the accuser brings true charges, the verdict for those in Christ is already in: you're free a...

Even when life is full of beauty, there’s a deep ache that tells you something isn’t the way it’s supposed to be—an ache that shows up in suffering, loss, and the way both our bodies and the world itself seem to “groan.” That brokenness can be traced back to sin entering the world through Adam and Eve, bringing fear, shame, futility, and death into human experience and even into creation itself. B...

Romans 8 opens with the breathtaking announcement that anyone who is in Christ Jesus has “no condemnation”—a final legal verdict where not only are the charges for our sin dropped, and the due sentence has already been fully paid by Jesus! But even in light of this incredible truth, the reality is many Christians keep living like a pardoned person who chooses to stay in their prison cell, weighed...

God’s law (the 613 commands given through Moses) is good even though it can’t save or make anyone holy: it names sin, exposes what’s really going on in us, and tells the truth we often try to soften or relabel. The issue isn’t that God’s commands are flawed—it’s that there’s a “traitor within us,” a sinful nature that pulls us toward what we know is wrong, creating an inner war where we do what we...

In Romans 7, Paul paints a picture of a “first marriage” to the law that ends in death, and a “new marriage” to the risen christ that produces fruit for God; you can’t keep dragging the old relationship into the new one without creating constant inner conflict. The law itself isn’t the villain—it’s holy and good—but sin inside us twists it, using commands to stir up rebellion and expose what’s rea...

Grace doesn’t mean people are free to sin without consequence; it means they’ve been rescued from sin’s rule and brought under a new master. Everyone ends up serving something: either sin, which promises freedom but grows into bondage, shame, and ultimately death, or obedience to God, which flows from a changed heart and produces righteousness, sanctification, and eternal life. Those who are in Ch...

For many of us, evangelism can feel like a huge weight and completely undoable—often because we tend to think it’s all on us. The truth is that God does the work, we just need to be faithful to share our story and his story. Each week we’re looking at both God’s part and our part in being Ready Storytellers. This week we look again at our strategy of “P.E.A.R.L.” as we wrap up our series. Because...

For many of us, evangelism can feel like a huge weight and completely undoable—often because we tend to think it’s all on us. The truth is that God does the work, we just need to be faithful to share our story and his story. Each week we’re looking at both God’s part and our part in being Ready Storytellers. This week we look again at our strategy of “P.E.A.R.L.” and how a Ready Storyteller prays...

For many of us, evangelism can feel like a huge weight and completely undoable—often because we tend to think it’s all on us. The truth is that God does the work, we just need to be faithful to share our story and his story. Each week we’re looking at both God’s part and our part in being Ready Storytellers. As you enter the places God sends you, notice where he is already at work and trust him to...

For many of us, evangelism can feel like a huge weight and completely undoable—often because we tend to think it’s all on us. The truth is that God does the work, we just need to be faithful to share our story and his story. Each week we’re looking at both God’s part and our part in being Ready Storytellers. From his peace, Jesus intentionally sends you and goes with you! Our part is to remember h...

God forms his people through ordinary, grace-filled rhythms. Rather than treating spiritual habits as tools for self-improvement, we should see them as places where God meets us, pours out his grace, and patiently shapes who we are becoming. This week we wrap up our series with an encouragement to keep at it and train ourselves for godliness (1 Timothy 4:6-9, 15-16). What’s one small step you can...

God forms his people through ordinary, grace-filled rhythms. Rather than treating spiritual habits as tools for self-improvement, we should see them as places where God meets us, pours out his grace, and patiently shapes who we are becoming. One of those places is in community, and belonging together to God's people. How will you prioritize gathering with other believers for worship, prayer, and f...

God forms his people through ordinary, grace-filled rhythms. Rather than treating spiritual habits as tools for self-improvement, we should see them as places where God meets us, pours out his grace, and patiently shapes who we are becoming. This week we see that we have the ear of the God of the universe—at any time we can go to him and speak to him in prayer. Life-giving prayer is honest & since...

God forms his people through ordinary, grace-filled rhythms. Rather than treating spiritual habits as tools for self-improvement, we should see them as places where God meets us, pours out his grace, and patiently shapes who we are becoming. One of those places is in his Word. Our God is a speaking God, and he designed us longing and needing to hear his voice. It's a primary way he shapes us. God...