Bridges Community Church Los Altos

Have you ever seen someone with great confidence and poise during a difficult season? Have you ever wondered how such peace could be possible? This week, we study a passage where Paul explains the reasons he isn’t shaken even though his circumstances seem disheartening, and we will learn how his security can be ours as well.

One way to summarize the message of the Bible is with the phrase, “But God.” For instance, Scripture teaches the world was descending into chaos and sin, but God. Or we learn our hearts were more aligned to ourselves than others, but God. Or our problems were too much for us to overcome, but God. In other words, God intervened. This week, we’ll take a look at His intervention, why it was necessary...

We all look for a sense of security in the world—some way to know that we will be okay in the end. But how secure are all the various options where we can place our trust? Will they really keep us safe forever and ever? This week, we'll look at the security that Jesus provides and how it outlasts and outshines every other impostor.

Forgetful is us. It’s what we are. Not always, but often enough that we need help, because some of the things we could be forgetting are really important. Fortunately there is a lot of help for God’s forgetful children in God’s Word.

It can seem easy to have a missional mindset—to remember that people matter, that God’s truth matters, and that the gospel is our only hope—when we go on a short-term mission trip to some place outside of our own context. But what if we took that same approach with the people we interact with on a daily basis? How might that change the way we live?

Some of us may feel Jesus is too remote to find. Others of us may feel that we have too much baggage in our lives to be able to find Jesus. But this week, we’ll see all of us, no matter what barriers might be in the way, have an opportunity to find the One for whom we have been searching.

If faith is something so easy that even a child can do it, then why do we, as grown ups, sometimes struggle? What's our real problem with following Jesus? Might it have nothing to do with faith at all? This week, we'll look at those who embraced Jesus. those who hesitated, and those in between. For all of us, our real hope isn't so much the amount of faith we can muster, but instead, the One who c...

In a culture with a decidedly unbiblical view of marriage and divorce, Jesus’ words in Mark 10:1-12 may sound extreme. However, since God designed marriage for His glory and for our good, we would be wise to listen to Him. And gratefully, God’s grace is sufficient when we fall short of His designs for marriage. So, in this week’s message, we will look at Jesus’ teaching on marriage and divorce, be...

The world is made up of all kinds of people: dog people and cat people; mountain people and beach people; morning people and evening people; right-brained people and left-brained people; coffee people and anything-but-coffee people. And the list could go on. But among all of the incredible diversity of interests, values, and idiosyncrasies of humans, all of us are strangely similar in one area of...

Message from Dan Stockum on June 25, 2023

Repetition can be a really effective teacher because sometimes, frankly, we don’t “get it” the first time (or sometimes even the second or third time). In fact, it may not be until, say, the tenth or eleventh time that a valuable lesson begins to sink in for us. And if you’ve ever experienced that, take heart! You’re in good company, because the same could be said of Jesus’ own disciples. In reali...

Repetition can be a really effective teacher because sometimes, frankly, we don’t “get it” the first time (or sometimes even the second or third time). In fact, it may not be until, say, the tenth or eleventh time that a valuable lesson begins to sink in for us. And if you’ve ever experienced that, take heart! You’re in good company, because the same could be said of Jesus’ own disciples. In reali...

Sometimes it feels like we run to Jesus in desperation. Other times it feels like Jesus shows up in our lives totally unannounced and unexpected. Either way, there is only one thing we need to have—nothing at all.

Mark 7:1-23 points us to a really hard reality—namely, that it is entirely possible to have all of the outward trappings of religion, to have others commend you for your spiritual example, and for your life to be going well, and yet still lack a genuine love for God and desire to do His will. Like the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, we too are quite capable of hypocrisy and of going through the m...

While probably none of us look forward to the storms of life, every single one of us will need to face them. The disciples, of course, were no different…except for the fact that when they faced their storms, Jesus was physically present with them. This week, we will study what it means for Jesus to be present with us during our seasons of fear and uncertainty and how He really does make all the di...

One of the most consistent traits of Jesus that we see throughout the book of Mark is His pattern to meet people exactly where they are. This week, we see Jesus meet people in their various needs and respond with compassion and care. As we will learn, it’s the same response He has for each one of us—no matter how desperate our need.

Jesus’ plan for His disciples was not simply for them to listen and learn forever. Eventually, they needed to step out and represent Him to the world. This week, we’ll look at the moment when the disciples turned from listeners to doers and see that Jesus has a similar plan for each of us.

In this Sunday’s message, we will be taking a 1-week break from our sermon series in the Gospel of Mark in order to focus our attention on the very important issue of abortion and the sanctity of life. What does God’s Word have to say about what it really means to be “pro-life”? How does Scripture direct us as Christ-followers to think and to act about this matter? How should we speak about this a...

While many people loved, followed, and even worshiped Jesus, there were those who did not. For some, Jesus was just too offensive to trust. This week we’ll look at what made it so hard for some people to accept Jesus and, at the same time, we'll see that His offense actually meets our greatest need.

Most of us naturally find it much easier to affirm God’s goodness and to express trust in Him at a general level, and when life is predictable and going well, than it is to keep trusting Him when troubles and uncertainty begin to come our way and fear and anxiety grip our hearts. The fact is that there will be times when we won’t know how God will provide. Plans will fall through. People will disa...

Easter. When the impossible becomes possible. When the unbelievable becomes believable. When hope becomes reality. When the patterns of death and destruction that seem so normal in our world are completely overturned and reversed. Jesus Christ rises from the dead–and changes everything.

Many of us would like to experience more growth in our spiritual lives. Even those of us who have been Christians for many years look forward to what God has for us next. But how does spiritual growth actually work? What is our role? What is God’s role? In our passage this week, Jesus compares spiritual growth to the organic growth of seeds, and we’ll see our growth isn’t for us alone, but is actu...

Many people didn't know quite what to do with Jesus. Some seemed to be embarrassed by Him. Others believed Him to be evil. But then, some saw Him for who He was, and it changed everything for them. This week, we'll look at these competing claims, and see what makes the difference between choosing one over the others.

Throughout Jesus’ ministry, there was never any shortage of controversies, accusations, and objections. This was due to the revolutionary nature of his teachings and actions, because they introduced a completely new paradigm, upending people’s expectations and calling for a complete reversal of old habits of living and thinking. When you stop to think about it, not much has changed since then. For...

Many of us are naturally curious about the type of people who will be welcomed by God, and many of us probably have our own assumptions regarding who might be “in” and who might be “out.” The people in the first century weren’t any different. They, like us, drew circles of inclusion and exclusion, but what we will see this week is that Jesus completely turned their assumptions on their heads. To t...