Refuge Church Ojai Valley

What does faith in Jesus look like? In the book of Luke, we see faith embodied when a group of friends stop at nothing to get their friend to Jesus. Once they get to him, he surprises them and everyone by not only healing their friend, but pointing to a much deeper issue that he is also healing him from. Their willingness to get their friend to Jesus changes everything, not only for their friend,...

It doesn’t seem like we talk about Sabbath much in our world today. Even churches rarely speak on the topic. But in Jesus day talking about Sabbath in the wrong way could get you killed. In fact, it's after he heals a man on the sabbath and proclaims himself the Lord of the Sabbath that the religious leaders of his day start plotting to put him to death. Why? What was Jesus claiming? What was he t...

Have you ever been rejected or felt isolated or abandoned by people you cared for? Have you ever felt unwanted or unable to earn your way into a relationship that seemed like it would give you life? How have those experiences marked you? At the heart of the gospel is a message for people who have felt “less than.” At the heart of Jesus teachings is an invitation to not forget about your wounds but...

It can be really easy to get obsessed with how we think things should go. Our plan or our agenda can dominate how we see ourselves, others, and especially God. If our plan is working out then God must be on our side. If it's not, then he must have something against us. But the book of Ruth doesn’t see it that way. In the book of Ruth, God shows us that even when we are obsessed with our plans and...

When Ruth and Naomi show up in Israel together they have two very different approaches. One is bitter and wallowing, while the other is eager to trust her new God. One is living letting their suffering be their greatest identity, while the other is embracing their brand new life in God. Where do you find yourself? #RCOV #ojai #god #healing #healingjourney #faith #truth #ruth #faith

Life can hit pretty hard and the Bible never pretends it doesn’t. In the story of Ruth we see what it looks like to be rooted in God when life hits hard. We see that it doesn’t matter where you come from, or if you have strayed, but that Yahweh is always calling you back to be rooted in Him.

Obedience is never a word we like to hear. In our world obedience is seen as less than or something to escape, but in God’s Kingdom, it’s at the heart of knowing Jesus. It’s so easy to want to skip this part of following Jesus and it’s so tempting to want to ignore it when it comes to our life as a church. But Jesus is serious about obedience so we must be.

Maybe the hardest thing, as a follower of Jesus, is knowing what to do with our anger. People can do harmful and painful things to us and the world can dish out a whole lot of struggle, so what do we do with our anger? Thankfully, God gives us a clear and focused way to stir one another up when anger comes our way.

When Jesus teaches us how to pray, he is not giving us some religious words to sound holy or spiritual. He is stirring us up! When he teaches us to pray, he is teaching us how to see ourselves, inviting us to see God differently and telling us a new way of living is coming.

Our Guest Speaker, Zack Totten, breaks down with us what it looks like to spend time with Jesus and have a relationship with him. This is a super practical message where he lays out how to walk through a time of study and prayer in a way that actually helps us hear from God. 

Community centered around Jesus is radical because it's a community that's not centered around you. Most of us say we want community, but often we want an echo chamber or a group that exists to serve our own wants. Jesus community is different; it says we really find what we need and we really serve ourselves and others when we are 100% focused on him.

For way too long, the church has been understood as a boring, sterile place. The reality is, the bible describes the church as something far different. The book of Hebrews says we are even supposed to gather so that we can stir one another up! That's right - we are supposed to meet together to encourage, cheer, applaud, and ignite one another to live a life sold out to Jesus. So what does that loo...

From the beginning, Jesus has no interest in ever being separated from grace. From the beginning, grace is given as a gift. No one earned Him. No one deserved Him. Once he is on the scene, he shows us what grace in the flesh looks like. He fulfills the prophecy about him that says he will be a Mighty God. This means he is on a mission and nothing will stop Him. He also fulfills the prophecy that s...

When Jesus was born, he was born for a mission and a purpose. The Prophet Isaiah knew this and told people about this hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth. This Jesus would be monumental and one of the things he would bring with him is a completely new way to live, to love, and to worship. Don’t tolerate a tame Christmas, listen to how Jesus brings a message at Christmas that is nothing short of...

The church is important and we all need it, blemishes and all! Jesus died for her and one day he is coming back for her. But while we wait she serves as the first line of defense here on earth and she teaches us and counsels us in times of need. Thank you to Juan Fallas from Real Life Church in Valencia for bringing the word this morning!

When someone tells you to be thankful or grateful how do you respond? Does it bother you? Does it feel forced? What if gratitude and thanksgiving was the key to living life well? What if God actually designed us to find joy, love, and fulfillment but that those came out of postures of gratitude? This week we celebrate a holiday on a calendar, but in reality we see that God has created us to be tha...

Words like lust and gluttony sound like they come from long ago, but we live in a world that is soaked in both of them. Every day, every one of us is invited to indulge in both. As followers of Jesus we must be discipled well here. We must be discipled by Jesus and not tradition, popular opinion, or by what we feel. The prison of gluttony and lust is real and the only hope is found in Christ. #ser...

It doesn’t matter who you are, it's likely that you want to feel approved and accepted by someone or some group. It's hard wired into us as humans. For thousands of years and within thousands of cultures we have been trying to earn and prove our worthiness for approval and acceptance. When Jesus comes on the scene he solves the problem. He reveals our blindness, affirms our need, and then calls us...

What would inspire us to go against the comfort and norms of this world and choose the fire instead? This week, is an important message for the life of Refuge Church as we look at what it looks like to worship the one true God. We see how the fire refines us, and ultimately causes us to find the greatest HOPE in the one who is more than able. #trials #faith 

There are several times in the New Testament where Jesus gathers such a crowd that it is literally "Standing Room Only". Today, our guest speaker, Conor Le Blanc from Real Life Church, explores an epic story from Luke 5 and talks about what it looks like when we step out in faith to pursue Jesus at all costs. 

Jesus wants to talk to us about our greed but we never want to listen. It's almost certain that you don’t think you are greedy. Most people don’t. We compare our lives to those who have more than we do and we convince ourselves that its ok if we want more. We also compare our level of generosity to those who are less generous than us and are convinced that we are generous people. Thankfully Jesus...

When sin is normal, no one thinks it's sin. When everyone does it, it's the people who abstain who look strange; but that doesn’t mean sin is still not wrecking lives. Our world loves to envy and we don’t think much about it. But envy is destroying lives and crippling our ablity to relate to one another. So where is the hope? How can Jesus and a few of his peculiar people bring life?

Christians are supposed to look different than any culture they find themselves in. Jesus said they are supposed to be the salt of the earth. They are supposed to bring a flavor and a value that changes everything. So, how does that happen? We live in a angry, wrathful, rage filled world; is it even possible to be salt in the midst of wrath?    #sermons #onlinechurch #sermon #christians #theway #s...

We go through our life with a few names. Names that were given to us a birth, nicknames that friends or family offered, and names we may not tell others but that we give ourselves. Some names we embrace and others we despise. But for every follower of Jesus there is a new name. That new name holds a reality and a future that looks nothing like our old names. The question is will we leave our old n...

When God brought the first Christians together in the book of Acts there were five specific ways they “lived” out their new faith. But what about today? Is it different now? How do we actually live out our faith through our everyday lives?   #faith #sermons #onlinechurch #sermon