Relational Grace Podcast

Send a text Focusing on the first chapter of the book of Acts. The church, the body of Christ was transferred from his physical body and the church was transferred to us and we become the church. In this teaching we will discuss the betrayal of Judas. Many of us have our own theory of Judas, maybe when we were younger we formed this opinion based on a lot of the artistic renderings of him with the...

Send a text If the religious leaders of the church thought they had an issue with Jesus when he was alive, well boy they have a bigger issue now! It’s kind of like one of those sci-fi movies when you chop the little monster in half and it basically multiplies and creates two more little monsters. That is exactly what is happening.  All of the sudden, Jesus is no longer here physically, but he has...

Send a text At Easter we celebrate the resurrection of Christ, the week preceding that we typically focus on the events leading up to the cross. That was the culmination of the perfect life of Jesus which was sacrificed for all of us. Now in this series we will focus on the other side of the story.  If you can imagine, just for a moment, it is AD 31, 32, maybe and we are believers, maybe we are on...

Send a text It is truly hard to believe that we are approaching the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. As many of you are well aware at this point, Pastor Harris, was the pastor of First United Methodist Church, which is situated directly east of the OKC bombing site.  Pastor Harris was at the church that day, and we have shared his story both in audio podcast as well as video on our Y...

Send a text In the first three episodes of this series, Pastor Harris touched on one key topic in each teaching. In episode one, “The Performance Snare”, Pastor Harris discussed the topic of Justification and that we are completely forgiven and have become fully pleasing to God.  We no longer have to fear failure.  In the second episode, “Approval Addiction”, Pastor Harris touched on the topic of...

Send a text In the first two episodes of this series, Pastor Harris touched on one key topic in each teaching. In episode one, “The Performance Snare”, Pastor Harris discussed the topic of Justification and that we are completely forgiven and have become fully pleasing to God.  We no longer have to fear failure.  In the second episode, “Approval Addiction”, Pastor Harris touched on the topic of Re...

Send a text Last week Pastor Harris started a series of sermons in which he will examine four of the major lies that Satan uses to destroy the lives of far too many people.  We looked at the first of these lies in the last episode which is this, “I must meet certain standards of behavior so I can feel good about myself.”   In this episode, Pastor Harris will deal with the next lie which is this, “...

Send a text To say 2025 hasn't kick off how I had hoped would be an understatement. No, I am not talking about politics or anything like that, who knows, maybe it is the tribulation Pastor Harris mentions in this teaching that is needed, time will tell. But spoiler alert… here shortly you will here Pastor Harris mention how tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance produces characte...

Send a text In II Corinth 2:14 there is a verse that speaks directly to our Pastor’s present series of sermons. It reads as follows: “Thanks be to God who in Christ always leads us in triumph and through us spreads the fragrance of the knowledge of Him everywhere.” These words sum up what the Christian life is all about. The apostle Paul wrote these words, after a terrible experience in which he h...

Send a text As we saw last Sunday, the cry of Esther as she appeared before the Emperor for the second time was similar to the cry of the apostle Paul in Romans 7. "Oh, wretched man that I am…” She cried, “Oh wretched woman that I am.” Then she added something like this: “Who will deliver me and my people from this law of sin and death that has been uttered in the Emperor's name and cann...

Send a text We have traced the events which have led up to a climactic point for Emperor Ahasuerus, Queen Esther, Mordecai, and Haman to the point where the Emperor's eyes had at last been opened. He could now clearly see the true nature of Haman, and the deception which he sought to perpetrate. The king knew that his enemy was the person he once thought to be his closest friend.  Of course,...

Send a text We humans frequently manifest a strange urge for timelessness; we possess an instinctive need to be remembered after we are gone. The idea that we will be forgotten is a pain we can hardly sustain.  Yet, in all of human history there has been only one truly timeless, eternal event; it was the cross of Jesus Christ. The cross of Jesus Christ marks the hinge moment in human history and i...

Send a text The book of Esther is known as one of two books in the Bible that does not contain the name of God. It seems strange that a biblical book should never mention God; so what is the book about? Well as we have seen, it is really a story of palace intrigue in the ancient empire of Persia, an historical incident taken out of the very distant past.  But we should not look for direct teaching...

Send a text The story of Esther is a story of the Emperor of ancient Persia, who married a beautiful Jewish girl named Esther who had been raised by her cousin, Mordecai. The latter two persons were captives, taken from the city of Jerusalem and brought over into the kingdom of Persia. In the court of this Emperor was a very slimy character named Haman who became the Prime Minister of the kingdom....

Send a text At his current place in the=is series of sermons from the story of Esther, our pastor has now introduced to us an Emperor called Ahasuerus. He was the grandfather of Cyrus the Great. This Emperor had married a young Jewish girl named Esther, a captive taken from the city of Jerusalem, years earlier. Her cousin Mordechai later became a judge in the city of Susa the capital city of the P...

Send a text In this series of sermons, our Pastor has introduced us to four characters that play a role in the book of Esther. The first was Emperor Ahasuerus of Persia. He was a young man of about eighteen years of age when the events recorded in the book of Esther begin. The second was the Queen of Persia, a woman named Vashti. The Emperor deposed her and for the next three years he lived withou...

Send a text Last week, our Pastor began a new series of sermons taken from the book of Esther. In his introductory sermon, he introduced us to three persons, the first being the emperor of Persia, AHASUERUS. Our Pastor suggested that this man represents each one of us. He also introduced two women, a pair of queens, named VASHTI and Esther. Pastor suggested that VASHTI represents our spirit person...

Send a text We are beginning the book of Esther, which may be the most neglected book in the entire Bible. You see, very few people have ever attempted a sermon series on it or even a few single sermons from this book because the truth is very few people even read this book as  devotional material. Perhaps this is because this book is different than anything found in the New Testament. In fact, it...

Send a text In the last episode we were in 2 Samuel 20, now we are in 2 Samuel 21 and something interesting happens.  We get a rather large time flashback. In fact the events we discuss in this episode may have occurred more than 30 years before chapter 20.  There are many reasons why this may have happened and why the ancient historians wrote it this way. One might be that we have had quite enoug...

Send a text At the end of the last episode we saw that the war was over and Absolom was dead. Remember that before the battle, David was willing and wanting to risk his life and lead his troops into battle. He wanted to do this for two reasons, first off, it was what kings did, lead their troops into battle.  And secondly, he hoped that if he could enter the battle it would help save his son Absol...

Send a text David as we find him this episode is nearing the Jordan River, nearing the east of Jerricho. Absalom, his son, has taken Jerusalem and has begun to occupy the famed cedar palace.  Phase one of Absalom’s grand scheme is complete and he is about to enact phase two.  He turns to his advisors, one is David’s former chief advisor Ahitophel.  He tells Absalom the plan, David is not going to...

Send a text Last episode Pastor Harris taught about Absalom, the son of David and his planned assault on the city of Jerusalem. He planned to surround the city, take it, and kill his father David and ascend to the throne of Jerusalem. David had two options therefore, he could stay and let Absalom’s army lay siege and try and fight them off and this would most likely meet the destruction of the cit...

Send a text Welcome to the Relational Grace Podcast where we share the teachings of Pastor Nick Harris who taught us that Christianity is not a religion; it’s a relationship. I’m your host Jamie Russell, Pastor Harris’s son. Last episode Pastor Harris talked about Absalom, Son of David, as he made his plans for a coup d'etat against his very own father.  He left Jerusalem making his home in H...

Send a text Remember back to the last episode, David was confronted by Nathan about his sin with Bathsheba and Nathan had some stunning words to say on God‘s behalf to David. We can only think that these works played on David’s mind again and again. David and Bathseba had eaten bread in secret, but Nathan on behalf of God knew the truth and he had these things to say to David, he said,  “I anointe...

Send a text Last episode we discussed King David committing adultery with the wife of one of his main commanders in his army Uriah the Hittite. To make matters worse she became pregnant and David attempted to cover this up. However David’s plans of a cover up failed.  David then attempted another scheme, and this one was of murder. In an ironic turn of events, Uriah would end up carrying his own d...