Bridges Community Church Los Altos

Psalm 139 is one of the most intimate and awe-inspiring reflections on the greatness of God in all of Scripture, as we are taken deep into the heart of a God who is infinite in power, perfect in knowledge, and yet profoundly personal in His love. In this week’s message, we’ll explore how God’s omniscience, omnipresence, and creative power don’t merely inspire fear and reverence—they invite trust,...

Each of us has a story, shaped by the steps we’ve taken to reach this very moment. But what comes next? What will the rest of our stories look like? When the whole story is written, what it will say? It’s a thought that is both exciting and perhaps a little daunting. Join us this week to reflect on what success means as we all embark on the rest of our stories.

We have probably all had seasons of tremendous difficulty where we suffered a loss, faced a crisis, or everything in front of us felt uncertain. But have we reflected back on the role of friends within those challenging times? The benefit of their presence versus the pain of their absence? This week, we will study our need for supportive friends, where we can begin to look for them, and we can be...

Occasionally, an opportunity will appear before us, and we feel almost compelled to take it. While we may not know what all awaits us, we know we must go, and as a result, the entire course of our lives can change. This week, we'll dive into those moments and see how God's calling is always for our benefit and the benefit of everyone around us.

All of us, at some point in our lives, will face circumstances that feel impossible—where we can't see a way forward, we might lose everything, and God may seem distant. What do we do in those moments? And is there any way those moments can help us grow rather than destroy us? This week, we'll study an account from the life of Jehoshaphat, who faced the total collapse of everything that he held de...

Moses didn't feel qualified to lead an entire nation or even speak in front of a group. In fact, he argued with God that he wasn't the right guy for the job. But yet, all these thousands of years later, we're still studying him. What made Moses who he was? This week, we'll see it wasn't his strength or confidence, but rather his humility that qualified him to lead.

The book of Ruth began with famine, displacement, loss, bitterness, and bleak prospects for the future. But in Ruth 4, God does what only God can do: He graciously steps into ordinary faithfulness, risky obedience, and broken places, and He writes a better ending than anyone could have ever expected. Join us this week as we conclude our sermon series in Ruth and rediscover how God’s redeeming grac...

The third chapter of Ruth has puzzled biblical scholars for millennia. To be sure, we see people make decisions that may or may not have been motivated by entirely proper intentions. But we also see God’s faithfulness to everyone in the account. Their decisions (right or wrong) don’t stop His redemption. This week, as we study this puzzling chapter, we will find that God is faithful to all of us,...

As Christians, we believe that God orders the events of our lives and orchestrates all of history toward a glorious conclusion. But does that mean we don’t have a role to play? This week, we’ll study how Ruth and Boaz each made their connection with one another possible and how they model healthy relationship—even God’s with us.

Sometimes in Scripture, we see God work in supernaturally miraculous ways: manna falls from heaven, the sick are instantly healed, or the dead are raised. Other times, God isn’t as overt in orchestrating history. But does that mean He isn’t working? In the book of Ruth, we see God guide His people in a way that we can all relate—through relationships. As we begin our four-week study of the book of...

None of life is meant to be lived alone, which means wherever God calls us, we need a team for support and encouragement. In this final week of our Finding Your Way series, we will study what Scripture requires of a church when it sends a missionary, and by extension, what we all need wherever God may send us.

Obeying God is always a lot easier to talk about than to do. Especially when it doesn’t make sense. Especially when it costs something. Especially when it feels like God is asking us to step away from what’s safe and comfortable and predictable. Let’s admit it: Sometimes God’s will feels unreasonable. And yet, that’s usually right where obedience begins.

At some point every one of us confronts a series of related questions of enormous consequence: How do I find and fulfill the central purpose of my life? What am I specifically supposed to be doing with my time? How should I go about making potentially life-altering decisions? When I ask God for wisdom or direction, how do I know that it’s actually God speaking and not just wishful thinking on my p...

Easter instinctively feels hopeful to us. We have a sense that something is new. Something began. Something in which we can join ourselves. But what exactly is that? What started when Jesus rose from the dead? This week, we’ll study His resurrection, the new world it will eventually create, and why it provides so much hope.

In our final week of our Upper Room series, we see Jesus pray. Prayer is how He chooses to spend the very last moments before He is arrested. And He prays, primarily, for us. This week, we will study Jesus’ prayer, how it communicates His deep abiding love for us, and why His desires for us are essential for our thriving.

There’s one thing we can all be sure of, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey: There will be countless moments in your life that will simply make no sense, thereby threatening your peace and stealing your joy. Fortunately, we are not left with only two options in these moments—either understand everything and rest in peace or understand little of what is going on around you and have n...

Following Jesus isn’t meant to be easy. In fact, Jesus tells His disciples to expect the worst, the very worst, for their faith in Him. Yet, we are not left without hope or without help. Jesus promises we won’t be alone on our journey because we will have a strong guide leading our way. This week, we’ll study Jesus’ warning to disciples, the comfort He offers them, and how we can apply it to our l...

We all look to something to reassure ourselves in times of difficulty. Whether it be relationships, prior achievements, or current status, we all count on something to pull us through seasons of uncertainty. But Jesus claims not all of these are as dependable as we might think. In fact, He says there is only one true source of life, only one reliable anchor for our hearts. This week, we will study...

As Jesus nears His arrest, trial, and crucifixion, it seems His mind is mostly on us, His followers. While He knows He will face a day worse than any of us can imagine, He wants us to be comforted, and He uses His final moments to reassure us of God’s goodness to us. This week we’ll study the comforts Jesus shares with His disciples and how they apply to our lives today.

Jesus knows Peter will soon lose faith and deny Him, but instead of chastising Peter, Jesus encourages him. This week we’ll study Peter’s denial, Jesus’ surprising reaction, and what it means for our faith today.

Judas stands not only as a looming figure in the biblical storyline, but as a name synonymous with the worst types of betrayal in popular culture. He turned over Jesus—an innocent man, his friend—to corrupt authorities who would crucify him. This week, we will study this tragic series of events and learn what it can teach us when we face hurt, loss, betrayal, and even evil.

Love is harder than we think. Yes, we, of course, love our kids and grandkids and close friends and nice people and those who treat us well. But Jesus said that everybody naturally does that anyway (Matt. 5:47). It’s not very hard to love people who love us. The real question is, will we also love those who harm or betray us? Will we keep on loving, even when it means bearing burdens with which we...

In Jesus’ final private moments with His disciples, we see Him do something highly unusual. We see Him serve those closest to Him. We don’t typically expect people to spend the final night of their lives serving others, nor do we often witness leaders with enormous amounts of power get down on their knees and serve. But Jesus isn’t normal. He stands apart from the rest of us. And what He did for H...

Finances can be a touchy subject. It’s the number one point of conflict in marriages, and sometimes people choose to avoid church if the topic is scheduled for an upcoming Sunday (like this one). But while we might regard it as sensitive or uncomfortable, God doesn’t. He has given all of us financial resources, and He has a plan for how we can use them best. This week, we’ll study where generosity...

When it comes to Christian stewardship, we typically think about how to best use our time, our talents and experiences, or our finances, but what about being good stewards of our trials and our times of suffering? Rather than hiding our pain and pretending that everything is okay when it clearly is not, or rather than being trapped by our pain and never being able to move beyond it, how can our tr...