Journey of Faith Messages Podcast

This year will be full of opportunities to respond to other people’s poor decisions, unkind words, and unwise actions. But what if we didn’t wait for the moment of those events to see what our response would be? What if we prepared for our inevitable stresses by practicing Jesus’ upside-down way of living? This week, we’ll explore what it means to really put Christlike characters into action and p...

Many of us enter 2024 with a healthy bit of trepidation: What will our lives be like?  How will the 2024 election season shape our culture?  What big decisions and challenges will we face this year?  Thankfully, Jesus has a message of hope and peace in times of challenge – but that message comes from thinking and acting in ways that are far out of the ordinary.  Instead of opin...

This year, our church has focused on understanding ‘The Mission of God’, a concept that goes beyond personal salvation. It’s about following Jesus and working together as a community to help people live better lives through His teachings. We’re encouraged to think about how, as a church, we can join in this mission, aiming to create a world that flourishes under God’s...

Christmas Eve services at church can feel like just another thing to get done during this hectic holiday season.  And with the possibility of an even more hectic year looming, is there any hope of a little rest?  This Christmas Eve at Journey, we’ll explore how Jesus’ arrival made way for his new Kingdom where he will be called “Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father” and, most import...

The story of the Three Wise Men visiting the baby Jesus may be familiar to us, but those Magi were anything but familiar to Jesus’ parents – they were almost from a different world!  What does this say about the type of people Jesus wants to bring into his Kingdom?  What role do we play, then, in the beautiful diversity of Jesus’ family?  This week we’ll explore a classic Advent sto...

We may have heard the classic Christmas story of the shepherd’s hearing that Jesus was born in Bethlehem.  But what if we had been those lowly shepherds?  What would our reaction have been?  How far did Jesus go to share his love with me?  This week we’ll explore this famous Advent story and find that we, just like the shepherds, are seen and called by the G...

Many of us have heard the story of the angel Gabriel visiting the virgin Mary to tell her that she would have a son, Jesus.  But we often overlook a pivotal promise from that interaction: that Jesus’ birth would usher in his Kingdom, and that Kingdom would have no end!  But if that Kingdom started 2000 years ago on that first Christmas, where is it now?  How can we ex...

Filled with God’s Comfort Group Discussion Guide To view the Leader Guide for this week, click here . To view a .doc version of this guide, click here . Introduction  Spend a few minutes checking in with everyone! How did the thanksgiving holiday season go for everyone?  After your time of connecting, begin your meeting with prayer.   Key Verse for the Week *Read this verse, th...

The Holy Spirit can seem like a mysterious, ethereal being in our faith journey, but who is the Holy Spirit, how does the Spirit participate in our lives, and how do we become more attentive to the Holy Spirit? Knowing the Holy Spirit is more than just studying him or reading about him in a book; we are meant to experience the Holy Spirit’s work in our lives which impacts our relationship wit...

Following Jesus is a lifelong, everyday Journey.  What can we do when we grow weary in our pursuit of a simple, flourishing faith or when our lives go off course? We will answer that question this week as we close out this series from Galatians.  We will see in chapter 6 that we can help one another through accountability and encouragement to stay focused on the goal of the spi...

What does a real Christian look like?  You can’t a Christian by their ethnicity, income level, what they wear, or who they vote for.  The best way to identify a real follower of Jesus how they relate to other people.  This week in our Simple Faith series, we measure ourselves against what the letter to Galatians calls “the fruit of the Spirit.”  We’ll exchan...

A Christian’s life should be full of love, kindness, compassion, and good works but is that what MAKES someone a Christian, or do those qualities flow from a deeper source?  Does where our goodness comes from make any practical difference? This week we’ll explore chapters 3 and 4 of Galatians and be encouraged to explore how vital and life-giving a faith-fueled connection with God can be...

What keeps us from living a simple faith in Jesus?  It’s often a natural but unhealthy focus on ourselves. Sometimes we are scared that we are measuring up to expectations set by us, others, or what we think God’s expects from us. Other times, we are tempted to sit in judgment of others rather than moving toward the very people God is wanting us to befriend.  This week, we’ll s...

What is the Christian Faith really about?  Put simply… Jesus.  We tend to make it complicated.  We find Jesus and then we start adding things on – cultural traditions, politics, personal preferences – and by the time we are done, we might be following a different Jesus! This complicated faith is not only spiritually exhausting, but it makes it harder to get along with...

Jesus is one of the most influential leaders in history!  The secret to his lasting influence was something he called “abiding.” It involves remaining in an intimate spiritual connection with God. In our last message of this series, we’ll explore one of Jesus’ stories that shows what it takes to find and nurture this abiding relationship with God and how we can invite others to experienc...

Power is not meant to be held; it’s meant to be given away. It’s a natural urge to want to acquire and retain power, but real influence is a dynamic process of “catch and release.” Rather than holding onto our power, God invites us to share who we are and what we have with others. This week, we’ll see how Jesus believed that we are better together and teaches us to intentionally invest in oth...

Sometimes good leadership means treating everyone the same.  But great leadership that bring true justice and transformation is often more nuanced than that.  This week we’ll explore the underutilized power of candor and connection, learning to treat people as individuals and adapting our influence to be the most helpful in each unique situation.   Compassionate Cando...

Accomplishing good things requires effort. It’s easy to get discouraged when we face obstacles, challenges, and roadblocks.  Rather than negatively reacting to our circumstances, we can be a positive influence by finding resilience with God!  This week, we’ll see how Jesus pursued God’s good plan for his life by expecting challenges and wisely bringing people along with him in...

What you do matters, but who you are matters more. It’s easy to get keep our eyes on the best results, largest profits, and the most followers and miss the foundation of true influence and leadership – character. Instead of focusing on the right kind of outcomes, we should be attentive to being the right kind of people!  This week, we begin our series by seeing how Jesus viewed God’s good gif...

Many of us know that engagement with God and the church are life-giving.  Growing together in our relationship with Jesus can be fun, exciting, and transformational.  But what about those aspects of the Christian life that are a little less glamorous, like the challenge to sacrifice and rely on God for strength?  What would it take to overcome the hurdle of personal comfort and ente...

You’ve spent enough time this summer lounging on the side of the pool, drinking your iced tea in the shade.  Now it’s time to really join the fun and dive in!  During this 3-week series, we’ll look at what it would look like to do a cannonball into full engagement with God and his mission.  We’ll launch this first week of the series by looking at what a huge differenc...

Its always easy to have faith, right? Well, if you have been a follower of Jesus for more than an hour, you know this isn’t always true. While we live here on this earth, Jesus himself said we will have trials and sorrows. So how do we maintain our faith when its hard? This week we will discover just that as we hear one of the most famous stories of the Old Testament! We will see how resilient fai...

In our culture, it’s easy to think that the issues we’re the most passionate about or against are the most important issues. But God wants us to remember that He’s the most important thing, and that giving him our singular focus would lead to a much stronger and more life-giving connection. How do we take the necessary steps to center our lives more on God? This week we’ll talk through a famous st...

We don’t always understand the ways in which God shows us his faithfulness through the difficulties, disappointments, hardships, unmet dreams, unanswered prayers, joys, and ordinary times in our lives. Join us this weekend as we learn through the story of Ruth how we can trust in the faithfulness of God. Watch the Full Service The post God’s Faithfulness appeared first on Journey of Faith .

What does it mean to worship God?  Is it just great singing and great songs at church?  How do we know if that worship we’re giving is the worship that God wants?  What would it mean to really give God the worship he deserves?  In this week’s message, we’ll explore the famous Bible story of Cain and Abel and discover how we can experience the fullness of what it really means to...