Genesis Project Portland

We often think that we have to clean up our brokenness before God can love us let alone be used by him toward his redemptive plan. Yet when we read through the Scriptures we see God always using broken humanity. We are beginning the year with a new series in walking through different people in the Bible who all share one thing in common: imperfection.  We start with the apostle Simon Peter, who me...

Pastor Dan Snavley joins us to wrap up the year 2024 with an important message about the Magi that came from the East to visit the newborn King. In this story we see the contrast of the Jews searching for and resting on their knowledge, and the response of some Gentiles who otherwise didn't belong to God's family of Israel. We are led to the question: Is curiosity something that draws us to Jesus?

As our Advent series comes to a close, Tara directs our attention to Mary, the mother of Jesus and her response to the most profound and unimaginable messages from God: that she would carry and give birth to the messiah.  As we look to her response we learn the joy that we can experience from God's presence with us in the midst of hardship. We see that submission to God leads to blessing, our post...

During advent, we look back to those waiting for the messiah. However, our current celebration of waiting is that he has already come into the mess to take up our pain and suffering. That requires faith during trying times of waiting, which brings hope that the arrival has happened. It also exemplifies God’s glory that came down to us in a way we least expected. We often hear the word glory thrown...

Advent is the season of waiting for the arrival of the messiah. As we look back to the first coming of Jesus, that gives us hope for his future promise to return and make all things new. The challenge of looking back is understanding God is always doing something new and unexpected, so where do we look for hope when things don't turn out the way we expect? The answer isn't in looking to the majest...

As we enter into a season of Advent - we join in human history celebrating a time of anticipation for the arrival of the messiah. In our time of waiting, we often find it difficult to keep faith when things around us seem to be crumbling, yet if we look to the Christmas story, we see what faith actually requires and how it helps us in times of need.  In Luke Chapter 1, we see the how the faith of...

As we conclude our series on who we are to be now, as models of the city that Jesus promises upon his return, we look to how it is that we begin to do that. In a world that has become so divided, unity has to start with God who is communal in nature. That is where we draw power to be led by the spirit, guided by the love of Christ, in order to live a life of self-sacrifice. 

As we continue our series "City on a Hill," Joey helps us unpack the question: why are we as followers of Jesus supposed to be hospitable? As we dig deeper into scripture and the history of the Church, we see that it has always been a part of God's character to practice hospitality. God modeled that for us through his gospel as God became human in the person of Jesus, and died for us so we could e...

Jesus calls his followers to be a City on a Hill–a light that reflects out into the world. That means that we are to be now, a model of what God promises will one day come when Jesus returns.  We do that through learning how God prioritizes his love for the city throughout scripture. Specifically in Jeremiah we learn that we are to love the city through praying for and seeking prosperity and peace...

God created with light, and dwelt amongst us through temple to bless us. We are to reflect his light back out to all the nations as a blessing to others. That calling is to be the city now, as a microcosm and model of what God will one day do when Jesus returns and his new city comes down to fully redeem us as we live within the new heavens and new earth fully with God. We have been given the tool...

As Tara concludes our series in Prayer, we look to the hope of God who is with us both as we pray for endurance, and also gives us the perseverance to continue praying. 

Presence is often something we take for granted until it's gone, but God gave us the gift of being proximate with each other. We feel that when we are together, but where is God in all of that? When we look to the Biblical story, we see it's a story about the God of with. That even when we can't feel him, his promise is to draw near to us. As we experience his presence, it reveals the reality of o...

We are continuing in our Prayer series, and talking about the power that prayer brings. We are told in Genesis that God shares in his power with us, his human creation. Many times we think of power as ruling over, but when we look at how Jesus exercised his power we see he modeled power under through self-sacrifice. We are given power freely by God, but are we being filled by him in order to acces...

Taylor is launching into our new series on Prayer. We are starting with the foundation of God's promise. When we go to God we often feel like he is far away and unresponsive, but if we look back at how he has always been faithful, that gives us strength to trust him in the present and future.

Our last sermon in our values series, transformation. We are in a culture that resists change, but Jesus offers us a different way - the way of transformation. When we surrender to Jesus, he instills a new heart in us, and as we follow him through relationship, we are becoming more and more like him every day until he returns.

It's no secret that we live in a complex world with so much coming at us and taking us in different directions. We fall subject to that as well, and our hearts often become divided in our worship and focus. Jesus came to cut through that division with his good news. Jesus claims that he is accessible to all, and when we go to him and keep our devotion and love on him and his love, we are drawn to...

As we continue in our Who We Are series, we come to the value of authenticity. Where we often try to "find ourselves" through looking deeper within, unless we are willing to get real about where we currently are, we will only find a disingenuous version of our self. Jesus offers us a different way, the way of freedom from that bondage of shame and guilt. So if we look within to find Jesus, he tell...

At GP you belong. We are going through our story and laying out the vision and the mission of our church. The first value we are talking about is acceptance, which is to meet people where they are, value each story, and demonstrate the love of Jesus.

God gave us the gift of story to help connect us to him and one another. We want to take a few weeks to walk through the values and vision of GP, and it begins with the context of who we are.

As Joey concludes our series in the Beatitudes, Jesus ends in a rather anti-climactic and seemingly disappointing manner. What does is mean for followers of Jesus to be blessed in their persecution? When we dig into the teachings of Jesus and the rest of scripture, we see that Jesus is reminding of us of three facets of our walk with him. He reminds us of the goal, tells us the hurdles, and introd...

As we continue in the Beatitudes, Jesus makes a statement that is easy to overlook. We often think Jesus is teaching us to keep the peace, but instead he invites us to make peace. This can only be done because we have an inner peace with God because of Jesus, as his Spirit empowers us to make peace with others through relationship.

As we continue walking through the Beatitudes of Jesus, we come to a difficult word tangled with baggage. When we hear purity we often feel less than, but if we look to the entirety of scripture and the way God set up his world, we instead see that God is desiring relationship with us. To be with us as we walk through the process of becoming more like him.

We often think of mercy as just simply God forgiving us for being in the wrong. Wile that is a big part of God's mercy, it doesn't cover the rich and robustness of what God's mercy is for us in scripture. When we go to Jesus and we see his loyal love lived out for us, we gain better understanding of what it means to receive God's mercy, and also be the ones who are merciful toward others.

We have a hunger and thirst inside for right relationships with God and with others, but only God can satiate.

This week Taylor continues in our series on the beatitudes from Matthew 5. Looking at the meek as citizens of God's kingdom, as well as how Jesus put that meekness on display. The way that Jesus lived out meekness is an example of the posture that he invites us to join him in day after day.