Journey Community Church - La Mesa, CA

Message Summary: On our travel journey there are some facts that kind of hit you in the face. Jesus wants us to feel the force of these. The chief among them is: clearly it’s possible to miss out. It’s up to us if we miss out or not. The synagogue official in this Luke passage is a clear example of this. Ed suggests three ways to keep us from missing out: watch your religion, understand the heart...

Message Summary: Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem, knowing He would die there. He had conversations with three men as they considered following Him. Jesus laid out what that would mean for each one of them; dying to security and comfort, detaching from religious and cultural expectations and releasing attachments to family. We can learn what it means to follow Jesus as we stay tuned and resp...

Message Summary: We default to doing life as "soul" proprietors: owner-operators. God is calling us to a life as friends in partnership with Himself so that we can participate with Him in His good work. Jesus pulled this off and demonstrated his “technique” for us. He centered every scene with total conscious dependence on God, observed what God was already doing and joined Him. We can show up in...

Message Summary: Our interactions with people shape us for good or for bad. High quality interactions have the potential to enable us to experience our best selves. Jesus taught us how to engage in high quality interactions through experiencing and expressing agape love. This kind of love is the fruit of living in connection with Him. Activate Series: When you’re in motion you generate energy. In...

Message Summary: Our faith is activated when it becomes alive and dynamic. Last week we recognized God’s calling on our lives. We respond to this calling with faith. Our faith is activated when we say “yes” to the call; when we move into tangibly loving our neighbors and when we make and keep commitments to show up. Our faith is also activated when we surrender to God, putting Him radically first....

Message Summary: As beings made imago dei, we are all called by God, to God and for God. Calling is how God rolls. Our calling is all-encompassing and self-forgetful. It always involves connecting and reconciling people to God. Within a life that moves into God’s calling will come power, help and leading into frequent specific callingS. Activate Series: When you’re in motion you generate energy. I...

Message Central Thought: Spiritual health and financial health are connected probably more than you think. Message Summary: Jesus had a lot to say on the relationship of spiritual and financial health. We can use money to direct and move our hearts to a new place of keeping God first. When we use God as a means to an end in order to satisfy our desires, we fall into idolatry which is disastrous to...

Message Summary: We flourish when we experience transformation. In fact, growth or “transformation” is God’s intention for us as Christ-followers. However, we seem to get stuck in the pattern of same old habits, same old me. Transformation is not something we can do, but is the inevitable work of God in our lives. We focus on trusting God, not pleasing God. God then changes us with our cooperation...

Message Summary: We flourish when we experience relational health. In fact, there is a theology of relational health. We are made for and by a God who is the source of relationship. But something always goes wrong because our brokenness creates a condition of alienation, separation and exile. Jesus makes connection possible through the reconciliation He offers us. We can get more relationally heal...

Message Summary: The reality of this world is that there is a way that leads to life. We flourish when we come to hold real values (vs blah blah blah values) as we seek God with our time, our space and our energy. It’s when we really experience these values of God, Love and Grace that we begin to transform and move toward health. Series Summary: Life can be so busy — full schedules, distractions a...

Message Central Thought: Keeping our streak (consistency) through building healthy habits will set us up for holy moments. Message Summary: Realizing that God is calling us to something more is imperative to keeping our streak (consistency). We need to develop healthy habits and practice them with consistency in order to prepare us for the holy moments God is calling us to. Build these healthy hab...

Have you ever noticed how many Christmas movies, especially the kids ones, have something or someone trying to stop Christmas from coming? Of course there’s the Grinch, Scrooge, the Abominable Snowman, or the more nuanced materialism that threatens Charlie Brown’s Christmas. Christmas is God sending unspeakable goodness to us. Since even before the very first real Christmas, dark forces have threa...

Message Central Thought: The subtle sneaky power of disappointment can threaten to stop the experience of God’s goodness. Message Summary: God came to Zacharias, bringing His unstoppable goodness and preparation for the arrival of Christmas. But the disappointment Zacharias had experienced in life almost disabled him from receiving it. God can get through to us as we let MORE true things sink into...

Message Central Thought: In spite of incredibly evil forces at play in our world, Jesus overcomes evil. Message Summary: Powerful evil forces opposing God and trying to stop His work are at play in our world. This darkness has a face that is present at the time of the first Christmas in Bethlehem. But God is at work in an unstoppable way. He inserts Himself into the situation through a dream, inst...

Message Central Thought: God promises to come through in response to our cries for help and rescue. Message Summary: The Israelites cried out for God’s rescue and anticipated it’s promise. Although the wait was long, God continued to communicate through prophecy that He was going to make good on that promise. We walk through that time of waiting for rescue with honesty, and with a recognition of G...

Series Central Thought: Can ordinary people hear the voice of God? Maybe it’s not only possible but essential to the life God has for us. In this series we’ll look at the ways God speaks to us and how to hear God speaking to us. Message Central Thought: How do we recognize the voice of God? Message Summary: God wants to speak to us. He speaks most commonly through His Word, an inner voice, the pea...

Series Central Thought: Can ordinary people hear the voice of God? Maybe it’s not only possible but essential to the life God has for us. In this series we’ll look at the ways God speaks to us and how to hear God speaking to us. Message Central Thought: We can learn to hear God speak through His still small voice. Message Summary: We NEED to hear God’s words and we were made to hear Him. One of th...

Series Central Thought: Can ordinary people hear the voice of God? Maybe it’s not only possible but essential to the life God has for us. In this series we’ll look at the ways God speaks to us and how to hear God speaking to us. Message Central Thought: God speaks and wants to interact with us. Message Summary: God’s plan, nature and book all point to His invitation to be in conversational relatio...

Big idea: We learn to combat the destructiveness of lust as we choose to give ourselves as a gift of sacrificial love to others as persons of immense value made in God’s image. Series Summary: It seems like there’s never been more controversy and confusion regarding our bodies. Maybe what’s missing is an understanding of God’s vision for who we are and what we’re meant for, revealed through the cr...

Big idea: We learn to combat the destructiveness of lust as we choose to give ourselves as a gift of sacrificial love to others as persons of immense value made in God’s image.

Big Idea: God’s design for covenantal marriage speaks of the union of a man and a woman sealed by the visible sign of sexual union. Series Summary: It seems like there’s never been more controversy and confusion regarding our bodies. Maybe what’s missing is an understanding of God’s vision for who we are and what we’re meant for, revealed through the creation and design of our bodies. Our bodies a...

Big Idea: God’s design for covenantal marriage speaks of the union of a man and a woman sealed by the visible sign of sexual union.

Big Idea: The Bible is full of images of marriage as a description of God’s invitation to both married and single persons to union and communion with Himself. Series Summary: It seems like there’s never been more controversy and confusion regarding our bodies. Maybe what’s missing is an understanding of God’s vision for who we are and what we’re meant for, revealed through the creation and design...

Big Idea: The Bible is full of images of marriage as a description of God’s invitation to both married and single persons to union and communion with Himself.