Hillside Community Church Podcast

Mathew 6: 1-4 Little kids are obvious about it: "Look at me!" they say. " I can make a big splash ! Look at me!" As we grow older we learn it's not good to tell everyone to look at us. But that doesn't mean we're over our desire to have other people notice us. We like to be noticed. We like to have people say nice things about us. That's not necessarily wron...

Daniel 4 We’ve all done it. We’ve said to ourselves, “I know I’ll pay for this in the morning, but I’m still going to do it.” Or we’ve looked back at something we’ve done and asked ourselves, “What was I thinking?” The fact is that bad things sometimes look really attractive, but they can be fatal. This morning we’re going to start a new sermon series on some of the Fatal Attractions the Bible war...

Proverbs 10:9 One of the pressures many of us face in our workplaces is the pressure to compromise our integrity in order to make a buck or get a promotion or keep a job. It's hard to complete with people who seem to be able to cut corners whenever they want if we have to tell the truth and try to do the right thing. This morning we'll think about whether it's worth it to try to kee...

Exodus 3:9-12 We all have patterns - Certain ways of doing things. When we look at the Bible, we see that God has some patterns as well - He tends to work in the same way over time. It's helpful if we know these patterns and this morning we'll look at four things God never does. Support the show

Matthew 6:14 The Text for this Sunday is not in the NIV version, but is in NASB (New American Standard), yet it is a text we all recite: "For yours is the Kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen." You only go around once, so why not strive for an effective prayer life? As we wrap up our sermon series on the Lord's Prayer we find that the last line is not found in the best...

Matthew 6:13 This morning we come to the 6th and final petition of the Lord's Prayer, "lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." At first glance, we might ask, "does this petition suggest that God is the one who leads us to temptation? That doesn't seem right!" We'll dig a little deeper to better understand what we're asking for in this petitio...

Matthew 6:12 Forgiveness is one of the most difficult words to translate into other languages. We often pray for the forgiveness of our sins, but do we grasp the depth of what it is we are truly asking for? When we ask God to forgive us our sins we are then faced with a choice to live in a universe governed by grace or by law. Which will you choose? Support the show

In the first half of the Lord’s Prayer we’ve been praying some very high and lofty, world-changing things. We’ve asked God to hallow His name, to bring in His Kingdom and to have His will be done. These are clearly important and spiritual issues. But Jesus wants us to know that being spiritual doesn’t mean forgetting that we’re also material—we need food! We’ll think about asking the Father to giv...

Matthew 6:10 If you could have anything in this world, what would it be? If you could change one thing in this world, what would you change? For most of us when we think about these things we have some ideas that immediately come to our minds. We all have things we want. But this morning Jesus teaches us that the best thing for us is to recognize that what God wants for us is better than what we w...

Matthew 6:10 - Your Kingdom Come When you pray the line "Your Kingdom Come" from the Lord's Prayer, what comes to your mind? Living in a republic form of government, the concept of kingdom seems hard to relate to, yet it is an ancient concept that Jesus and the Bible often use in relationship to God's rule and dominion. This Sunday morning we're going to take a deeper look...

Matthew 6:9 When was the last time you've hallowed something? Not hallowed. Not hollered. But hallowed. Hallowed is not a word we use very much, but Jesus says that the first thing we ask for in our prayers is that God will hallow his name. This morning we'll think about what that means. Support the show

Matthew 6:8 Beginnings are really important. As Aristotle supposedly once said (and Mary Poppins as well), “Well begun is half-done.” It’s not always easy to know where to start, but once we do, we can get going. This morning we’ll take a look at what Jesus says about starting our prayers, about how we approach God in prayer. Support the show

Matthew 6: 5-8 Jesus says that if we pray we'll be rewarded. Is it true? Dr. Alexis Carrel, a Nobel Prize winner in medicine wrote a book in which he proved the therapeutic rewards of prayer. Prayer regularly, he wrote, and you will find your life improved. Prayer helps us resolve emotional conflicts, purge guilt and overcome negativism. By verbalizing what goes on inside, the pray-er practic...

Luke 11: 1-13 Prayer is one of those things we all are for - it's a good thing to do and we know we ought to do it more. But it's not always so easy to put that desire into action. It's not always so easy to actually pray. As we begin our study of the Lord's Prayer this morning, we'll take a look at one of the prayer - God's attitude toward prayer. Support the show

I Kings 3:4-9 We've all been there. We take on a new task. It sounded fun and exciting. But now it's time to take up the responsibilities. And we realize that there's more involved here than we thought. The task is bigger and our skills our smaller than we estimated. Then it hits us. We're in over our heads. We've bitten off more than we can chew. And we need help. This mo...

Psalm 49 Sometimes, if you want someone to really learn something, you make them work for it. If the other person earns the knowledge, it seems to go deeper. This morning we'll take a look at a psalm where the writer wants us to try to figure out some important lessons out for ourselves - where he wants us to earn our knowledge. Support the show

Genesis 11:1-9 The Tower of Babel The German philosopher Karl Marx wrote in 1844 that "Religion is the opium of the people," further advancing the idea that religion is a means of mass control and not a way to establish a relationship with the divinity. His ideas were fully fleshed out in the two ideologies that overshadowed the 20th century, Nazism and Communism. However, from the begin...

Genesis 8 & 9Last week we left Noah in the ark and the earth covered with water. We saw that this was a picture of God's salvation. But what's next? Does God leave Noah high and wet? This week we'll look at the rest of the story. Support the show

Genesis 6-8On of the worst things you can do in our world today is to judge someone - to say that someone did something wrong. That can sound nice and at one level none of us like judgmental people, but we also have something inside of us that recognizes that judgement is necessary and actually good. This morning we'll look at a story about judgment. Support the show

Matthew 21:12-14We go to school to learn how the world works. We go to church to give praise and thanks to God and to listen to his Word. But where do we go to learn how to pray? This morning God's Word will show us the the place of prayer in our lives. But there is a question that pops into our minds: Does prayer really change things? Furthermore, if God is sovereign and he knows all things,...

Did you ever feel like something was “too good to be true?” It sounded great, but there had to be a catch—things just never actually work out that way. That’s what Mary was feeling like on her way to Jesus’ tomb on Easter morning—it had been great, but she never really should have dared to believe it could last. Jesus was dead. The dream was gone. And then things got worse…but then…well, what happ...

John 19:31-37Why is Good Friday "good?" What is good about the unjust trial, beating, and crucifixion of an innocent man? Tonight we look at the Gospel of John to find the good in the death of Jesus - a death that brings us hope. Support the show

John 12: 12-19St Francis once said that we should "preach the Gospel at all times, and, when necessary, use words." This morning we'll look at a story in which Jesus preaches a really important sermon even though He doesn't say a word. Support the show

John 11We all have times where we feel like it's too late. Maybe we could have changed things earlier, but now it's too late. The marriage is over. The disease is progressed too far. My life is too big of a mess. It's too late. But this morning we're going to see that with Jesus around, it's never too late. Support the show

John 9Jesus ran into a lot of challenges in his life. He dealt with people who were blind or lepers, prostitutes or tax-collectors, angry or depressed. He didn’t seem to have too many problems with these challenges. Where he seemed to face his greatest challenge was with the folks who were convinced they knew it all—those who knew what God wanted and didn’t want in every situation. This morning we...