Aspire Church Podcast

We all want justice, but not everyone agrees on an objective standard for justice. In a world that increasingly accepts the idea of moral relativism, it can be hard to distinguish between right and wrong. Who ultimately decides? Who has the right to judge? The author of the book of judges describes a period in the history of srael that sounds very much like our culture today. He sums it up with th...

In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has tried to return the favor ever since. So much of what we pass off as religion is really an effort to craft a god to fit our preferences. If we are not careful, we can pick and choose what we believe about God and His ways, leaving out those character traits and commands we find uncomfortable and inconvenient. This is nothing new. Peop...

Throughout the ancient book of Judges, there is an ongoing battle between what is right “in the eyes of the Lord,” and what people thought was “right in their own eyes.” That battle has persisted throughout history and continues to rage on some 3,300 years after the events recorded in Judges. The effects of this conflict are clearly summarized in the life of Samson. Join us for part 8 of “Anarchy,...

When God delivered the solution for the problem of sin, it came in the form of a baby born to a refugee couple in a barn in a town called Bethlehem. But Jesus was not the first baby born to fulfill a promise of God. Throughout the Old Testament, God conditioned His people to expect Him to fulfill His promise through the birth of a child. Today, according to some calculations, nearly 1 out of every...

Like fish are unaware of the water in which they swim, humans can be unaware of the culture in which we live. Our culture and customs have tremendous power over us and the decisions we make. What we eat, how we dress, how we view the opposite sex, how we handle money, and raise our children, are all influenced by the culture in which we live. Some instinctive cultural decisions are good, some are...

Success is dangerous; it not only tests our faith, it exposes any pride and reveals the truest nature of our character. People throughout history, from politicians to clergy have accomplished amazing victories only to fail at the height of their success. One of the most famous characters in the book of Judges is a man named Gideon. His rise from being an obscure, fearful figure to one of the most...

When everyone does what is right in HIS own eyes, people always get hurt, and those people are most often women and children. The mistreatment and oppression of women is well documented throughout history in every culture. A reality that, unfortunately, is still true today. Some people are surprised to learn that, not only does the Bible not promote such behavior, but it strongly opposes it. In fa...

Throughout the Bible God employs unlikely heroes, using unconventional resources, to accomplish unimaginable results. The Book of Judges has many examples of how God delights in using the weak things of this world to overpower the strong, so that He alone might get the credit for the unexpected victories of His people. In this, the second message in this series based on the book of Judges, we will...

Moral decline is a process. Much like erosion, our ability to maintain our integrity requires constant effort. Because spiritual decline is inevitable, spiritual renewal is critical. Between Joshua and David, Israel experienced significant moral decline. The book of Judges sums up this period with the statement, "In those days, there was no king ... everyone did what they thought was right in...

Join us this Sunday for the conclusion of the Gospel of John. For the past three years, we have walked with the Disciple Jesus Loved as he followed Jesus from the Sea of Galilee to the grave and beyond. In this final message, Pastor Gary Webber explains why the world cannot contain the books that could be written about all the things Jesus has done and continues to do.

Great novels sometimes include an epilogue. This is an additional chapter that comes after the climax and resolution of the story. It isn't usually essential to the plot, but it may provide readers additional information and a greater sense of closure. John included an epilogue to his Gospel, but unlike modern epilogues, John’s closing lines contain a significant message from the resurrected...

It is said that seeing is believing. It certainly was for the Apostle Thomas. His response to the news that Jesus was alive earned him the title Doubting Thomas. But that title is unfair. After all, if it had been you, wouldn’t you have been tempted to respond the same way? Well, maybe not. According to Jesus, those of us who believe today are exercising a faith that Thomas and the other disciples...

Jesus once told His disciples that He would eventually leave them. While this idea upset His followers, Jesus assured them that it was for their own good because it would usher the arrival of the Holy Spirit. It would be the Holy Spirit that would empower Jesus’ followers to change the world.

Letting go is hard. When Mary first realized that Jesus was alive, she wanted to grab hold of Him and never let Him go. Jesus, however, told Mary that she couldn't hold on. She had to let go. Jesus wasn’t going to stay and things could never go back to the way they were before. We often try to cling to the past when God is inviting us into His presence. A presence that will lead us to a futur...

The resurrection of Jesus has been the most debated event in all human history. That debate is nothing new. It started on that very first Easter as Mary, John and Peter arrived to find the tomb empty and each had a very different reaction. Join us as we see how our responses to the empty tomb are reflected in those first reactions.

The Christian faith is based entirely on a single event in history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ. But what if no one had ever known about that event? What if the circumstances of Jesus’ burial had been different and His body hadn’t been laid in a tomb, but rather tossed in the city dump like so many other executed criminals? If there had been no tomb, no one could have known that a tomb was em...

John was the only one of Jesus’ disciples to accompany Him all the way to the cross. As such, John offers a unique and powerful account of the events of Jesus’ crucifixion. It is important to John that his readers believe that Jesus lived and died, because what John reports next depends on the acceptance of these two facts. Join us for part 6 of Cross Roads, as Pastor Gary Webber teaches that doub...

Many people carry shame from past mistakes. Shame follows us wherever we go and often determines the choices we make at important crossroads of life. What appeared to be the end of the road for the thief crucified with Jesus was, in fact, his most important crossroad. Would he allow shame to define his final moments or would he embrace the life Jesus was offering? Join us as we look at a moment th...

When we say someone is out of control, we normally mean that they have lost some sense of decorum, reason, or ability to manage themselves and others. When we say someone has control issues, we usually mean that a person is crossing some imaginary line of what is appropriate in managing a situation, group or individual. So what does it mean to be perfectly in control? And are we ever really in con...

Fear is a primal emotion. Our deepest convictions are often revealed when we come face to face with our greatest fears. The Apostle Peter is famous for his bravado and self-confidence, but when he faced the cross roads of fear and faith, Peter’s choice revealed the true condition of his heart. Join us for part three of Cross Roads as we explore how we can choose fear over faith.

He was just doing his job when one of those religious zealots pulled out a sword and cut off his ear. Maybe, like Malchus, you’ve had a hurtful encounter with one of Jesus’followers. Perhaps you still have wounds that serve as reminders of why you keep your distance from Jesus and His followers. While Malchus’ story begins with a wound inflicted by one of Jesus’ followers, it ends with a miraculou...