Renew Communities Teaching Podcast

Have you ever been so sure that God was up to something that never happened? Maybe you thought you were going to move somewhere new, get a new job, marry someone or even lead someone to faith in Jesus and then just when you were almost certain it was about to happen the door slammed shut. In this week's teaching, we watch this very thing happen to Paul as he works to share the Gospel in new places...

Most of us want to be used by God to make a difference in this world and often we're sure what that would look like - but what if God has something in mind we could never even conceive of? What if God's idea actually runs against what you even think you should be doing with your life? In this week's sermon, we see how God moves Peter to new people and new places that he should never have engaged w...

After Stephen’s death a great persecution breaks out and the church is literally running for their lives. Of course, this scattering is used by God to spread the Gospel to new people and places. In an amazing turn of events, Saul traveling to a new city to destroy Christians encounters Jesus in a vision and it changes everything. Paul is not just transformed he becomes a transformer as well. On Su...

Jesus said to His followers that they’d do even greater things than He had done after the Holy Spirit came and we see some of that on display in the book of Acts. The primary reason that healing takes place in and through the first Christians is so that those who don’t know God can see His love on display and encounter the saving grace of Jesus. In this week’s teaching, we talk about why healing t...

One of the most interesting things we see in Acts is the very specific direction some of the first Christians get from the Holy Spirit. At times the rationale is clearly stated and other times it’s left to discover through their obedience. In this week's sermon, we talked about what it means to be open to the leading of the Spirit, what perspective we need to not miss the purpose of these leadings...

As the book of Acts continues the first Christians are making quite an impact. People are being healed, darkness is being pushed back and many people are coming to Jesus. Along with all the good came strong moments of suffering. One of the beautiful things about the Bible is it helps us understand how to work through these moments of suffering and respond the same way these first Christians did -...

The most incredible aspect of the early church is who was allowed to lead. You’d, of course, think the disciples of Jesus would have key roles because they had been with Jesus - but they were seen as unschooled fishermen by the masses. How does the leadership multiply as the church expands? It includes people we’ve never heard of and we’d least expect. Persecutors, gentiles, women, youth, and slav...

In the book of Acts the church is doing incredibly well in...until a crisis hits. The first crisis to ever hit the church was that of pretending to be something on the outside that was not on the inside. While we tend to minimize the weight of pretending in our lives, Peter maximizes it and shows us what really happens when we pretend. This talk encourages us to stop pretending together so that we...

Jesus said that his followers were to be the light of the world. In Acts, we see exactly what that looks like as the people of God’s lives look completely different than everyone else in the world’s lives - both collectively and individually. This ideal is often exalted as the idea that all churches today are striving for but most find impossible to truly live out. The reality is this kind of livi...

In Acts 2 the Holy Spirit arrives in a powerful way and right away they have exactly what they need to do what they were called to do. These unschooled fishermen are able to connect with the people from all over the world and Peter has a newfound boldness and clarity that could only be explained as God working. As the Church, God is giving us the same help and power if we're open to it. Listen as...

At the beginning of the book of Acts Jesus gives directions to his followers to be his witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and the “ends of the earth.” The assignment extends beyond just the people present with Jesus on that day all the way to us now. Often we miss the “initiating agent” at that moment and either get to work or avoid the call because we don’t know what it would even look like t...

In 1 John 3 John tells us that Jesus came to destroy the work of the Devil. In week 3 of Jesus is the Point we understand that the Devil's primary strategy is to convince you and I that we are just fine without God. Jesus came to destroy that lie and its impact on our lives and He does it through the cross - but with Jesus, it's always personal - which means it takes a personal response. Listen as...

In every little moment, Jesus has truth to share with you. The question is what does Jesus have to teach you in this moment. Don’t wait for the moment. Let him teach you in this moment. In the second week of our series, Sarah Knepper teaches us that we are not simply cogs in a machine. We are the children of God and Jesus has invited us to learn from Him.

The Bible is a book that is confusing in many ways. Have you ever wondered as you were reading the Bible: What's the point? On Sunday we looked at how Jesus is the point of the Bible and how He Jesus can be the point of your life.

One of the most difficult aspects of following Jesus in our culture is fully understanding God's heart for our world because we often assume that God responds to the world's problems the same way we would but instead what we find is God wants to use us to bring about His purposes even in the midst of our broken world. In our final week in Daniel, we look at what God wants for our world and how He...

Daniel and his friends don't just resist evil while living in exile - they also actively participate in every aspect of their culture. The question their story answers for us is how can we engage in redemptive ways and not forfeit our souls. In week 3 of our Daniel series, we learn about the regular disciplines that grounded Daniel in God and talk about how we can do that too.

We live in a culture that often challenges our faith and even encourages us to compromise what we say we care most about. In Daniel 3 we see why resolving to follow Jesus in little things becomes so crucial as we face big moments in our lives. Listen as we talk about how to resist in redemptive ways and find life in Christ alone.

It may be surprising to learn just how relevant the book of Daniel is for us in 2018. In week one we see how Daniel is invited to become immersed in a new culture and give up his identity as part of God's people and we see how he resolves to stay faithful to God. We also look at the ways we're invited to give up our identity in Christ to bled in or fit in and what it looks like to resolve and resi...

Some of us think if we’re not making meaning out of every moment then you’re missing out. If we're trying to find meaning under the sun that’s only found above the sun, how will I ever find it? In the final week of our Art of Living series, we walk through the book of Ecclesiastes and talk about what it means to be human and where we find meaning amongst all the meaninglessness.

Our world is full of self-help strategies that claim their the path to the good life but often we find they're a bridge to nowhere. The book of Proverbs is full of insight for living the life God made you for but from the beginning, we learn that it starts first with God. In week 2 of our Art of Living series, we talk about how to make conscious decisions to trust God instead of trusting in yourse...

In week 1 of our Art of Living series we take a look at the oldest book of the Bible and try and understand what God wants to do with and in the suffering, we're bound to face at some point in our lives. Listen as we talk about what most of us think about where suffering comes from, what God wants us to do in our suffering and where hope can be found in the midst of it.

It is breathtaking to think that there were words said hundreds of years before the birth of Jesus that pointed to His life and ministry and the impact it would have on the world. In our final week of the series around the Prophets, we’ll explore why Jesus was such a crucial figure in Old Testament prophecy, what the promise of His arrival meant to God’s people fulfilling their purpose and how we...

One of the constant themes of the Old Testament was the inability of God’s people to walk faithfully in relationship with Him. In these times the prophet would serve as one sent by God to challenge His people’s actions and activities. These moments were words of warning about the dangers that exist and a challenge to come back in step with the ways of their God for their good and the good of those...

God had a vision for what His people could be if they would only give themselves to Him and His ways. Often as you read through the prophets you get a beautiful picture of all that could be possible if the Israelites would only live faithfully in this covenant relationship with their God. In week one of our Prophet series, we take a look at one of the most famous passages in Jeremiah and we work t...

Some of the biggest questions about the Old Testament surround the violence and death that we see taking place. Many of us wonder what this tells us about God and what we're supposed to take away from these passages. In the final sermon in our series we take a look at Israel's identity and how they "fight" their battles and we try and understand what it means for us today and how we can live "Bibl...