Arbor Church

We’ve all heard the saying “Pride comes before the fall.” Perhaps that’s why the scriptures have so much to say about pride… because God doesn’t want us to experience the pain associated with falling. This week Garrett walks us through a story Jesus told that highlights how spiritual pride can get in the way of us experiencing the fullness of life that God intends for us.

If you were in the church scene in the 90’s, you can’t have missed the WWJD bracelets everyone was wearing – What Would Jesus Do? . In our new series, we’re turning that question on its head: What would Jesus undo ? And this week, it’s that spiritual meh , the “enough Jesus to get me by” doldrums we’ve all walked through at one time or another. Jake shares one simple thing you can do to undo spiri...

What does it take to help someone find and follow Jesus? Do you have what it takes? You might not feel like it, but as a follower of Jesus – you do. Scott analyzes find and follow , and unearths the old flannel-graph story of Zacchaeus.

If you’ve been to Arbor, you’ve seen our enormous Making Disciples … Together sign. It’s not just a slogan: it’s one of the things that makes Arbor what it is. In this new series, we’re going to explore what we mean by this simple phrase, and what it practically looks like to make disciples today.

You’ve probably got some expectations about what’s going to happen when you walk into church – or play this podcast. Today, though, is a little different. We’re going to break some of those expectations and talk about the expectations we have for ourselves, for our church, and for God Himself.

The Good Book tells us that we should pitch our tents in the land of hope ( Acts 2:25-28 ), but how are we supposed to do that when it feels like God’s left us to suffer alone? Dave Swenson offers three tent pegs.

In this special Christmas Eve message, Jake closes out our series on hope with a message about … Simeon. “Who’s that?” He only gets a passing mention in the Christmas story, but if there’s one character in the drama who knew something about hope, it may well be this man, who spent most of his life waiting for God’s promised Messiah.

We’re continuing our series on Hope with Joseph’s story. The Bible doesn’t say much about Jesus’ earthly father, but what we do know paints a picture of a man who had hope when things weren’t looking so good in Bethleham.

Ever felt disqualified because of something in your past? Because of where you’re from? Think your family’s just too messed up to be worth anything? Well, today we’re looking at that long genealogy in Matthew that you’ve probably skipped over once or twice to take a look at Jesus’ family tree. And if you think your family is a train wreck, wait until you hear about His!

Sometimes the most overwhelming part of the holidays is just the people around us. What is it about those close to us at holidays that can make us feel as though we can’t take another minute? Bob Lee digs into Philippians 2 to help us understand why we so often feel that way – and what we can do about it.

You might not admit to being overwhelmed by money or fear, but many of us are somehow proud of being overwhelmed by the pace at which we live. We take pride in being busy and filling our time with activities and responsibilities. We’re certainly doing a lot – but is that really the life Jesus is inviting us into?

Money is one of the biggest things we fight about, one of the most frequently discussed topics in the New Testament, and yet still somehow a taboo subject. You’ve probably felt overwhelmed by finances at least once in your life – and odds are you find them overwhelming now. So, today: straight talk about money, from a spiritual perspective (via Pastor Jake) and from a practical perspective (via ou...

If you ask someone how they’re really feeling as we enter the holiday season, “overwhelmed” is likely to be an honest answer. Why does it feel sometimes like we’re drowning when we’re just trying to make it through the day? In this series we’re looking at what overwhelms us – and today Jake talks about fear .

And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here I am! Send me.” – Isaiah 6:8. It’s easy enough to say these words, but when it comes down to it, most of us have a lot of excuses and qualifications around this prayer. Guest speaker Pat Swanson breaks these down and shows us what it means to pray this prayer and mean it.

“Break me.” – another prayer that should come with a warning label. When Jesus showed us how to pray this prayer, it was at what we now call the Last Supper. What can we learn from His prayer in this hour?

Our new series is about some of the prayers in Scripture that … well, let’s say they shouldn’t be prayed lightly. We’re starting with David’s dangerous prayer in Psalm 139: Search me, O God, and know my heart…

We’re wrapping up our series on the Bible with the tough questions you sent in over the last few weeks. What do we mean when we say the Bible is inerrant –isn’t it full of inconsistencies? How do we know the right books made it into the Bible? How can we reconcile the wrathful, genocidal tribal God of the Old Testament with the loving Father of the New Testament? Wally Kowalski joins us for a chat...

If the Bible’s a text message from God, it’s certainly an awfully long and daunting one – and anyone who’s tried to read it cover to cover knows that isn’t the best way to do it! This week, Bob gives us some simple tools for reading and learning from Scripture. You might say it’s as easy as using soap .

The veracity and authenticity of the Bible may have been unquestioned in earlier years, but lately there are lots more skeptics challenging the idea that we can trust it completely. Unfortunately, many of us only have faith-based answers to their fact-based questions, so today we’re going to the facts! Jake blazes through those facts today, laying down the overwhelming case for the Book.

This week we start a new series called Text . It’s about the Bible, and today and Jake exhorts us to actually open it up and read it, addressing one by one the 7 most common excuses people give for letting the dust gather on their Bibles. (#6 will shock you!)

Garrett wraps up our series on splitting logs with a look at what we’re doing – together – for the grieving, addicted, and lost.

What if the teams serving in our church … didn’t ? Well, on this special Sunday .. they don’t . We set up our own chairs, there’s no band up front, we’re looking everywhere for coffee that was never brewed, and Garrett interviews the leads of each team about what they do.

“He who splits logs is endangered by them. If the iron is blunt, and one does not sharpen the edge, he must use more strength, but wisdom helps one to succeed.” – Ecclesiastes 10:9b-10 (ESV). This week we start a new sermon series based on this verse. For starters we’re talking about splitting the log of serving , and Jake shares some wisdom from Scripture (and his father) on focus and burnout.

Bob Lee tells us the story of Saul/Paul’s conversion as an example of how God treats outsiders that are hostile towards Christianity.

Neely McQueen from Overlake drops by to talk in our latest message from the Outsiders series about the woman at the well and how Jesus showed great love and compassion to her.