Journey RVA Podcast

No matter how you feel about you, God delights in you! To say that out loud feels a bit awkward because we know how messed up our stories are. There are entire chapters of our lives that we would like to delete or pretend as if they never happened. But what if those are the very chapters that God wants to use most? God will heal and use whatever you surrender to him.

Life is hard and awesome and no one has it totally figured out. Why? Because life is made up of opposites. It is both sweet and sour; good days and disasters. Jesus said that he came to give us life to the full, and yet he also said that life would be filled with trials. Adequately answering the questions of identity and purpose will help us navigate the ups and downs we experience in life: Who am...

When we face pain and loss, they change the story we had planned for our lives. They can end our dreams. But what do pain and loss look like when we try to see the world as God sees the world, and to do as God says?

Simple question: What affect does God's grace have in your life? Or asked a different way, how is your life different as a result of experiencing the grace of God? In this message, we will look at one specific impact that God's grace had on the early Christians and how this characteristic can and should be true of us, also.

When it comes to family, actions speak louder than words - they echo into the next generation. Your children and grandchildren may forget what you say , but they'll never forget what you do .

Raising children is one of the biggest challenges in life. It requires all of our strengths and talents. It makes us keenly aware of our weaknesses. In this message, Andy and Sandra Stanley tell you everything they know about parenting. This isn't everything there is to know, just what they know.

All children - that's you and me - long for the approval of their parents . . . especially their fathers. It's a longing that never goes away. It gets buried or transferred to other relationships, but it's there. And we underestimate its power. Every parent wants to be approved by his or her child - to be a hero, to hear, "when I grow up I want to be just like you." As that desire grows, so does a...

When it comes to family, the only thing we all have in common is conflict. Family conflict is like no other because when you win an argument in your family, you don't really win anything. The conflict is never fully resolved. What if there was a way to resolve family conflict by dealing with it at its source?

In his letter to the Ephesians, the apostle Paul drew from Jesus' use of power what is perhaps the most powerful relational teaching of all - an instruction that changes everything in family dynamics. It all comes down to asking a simple question: What can I do to help?

When the ideal is hard to attain, it's tempting to just lower the bar and redefine the ideal. This can be especially true when it comes to Jesus' teachings about family, which many of us have already fallen short of. In this message, Andy Stanley explains why aiming for God's ideal is still worth it, even when our reality makes reaching it impossible.

For many people who grew up in church, being a Christian was all about following the rules. There were things you were not supposed to do, and there were things you were supposed to do. If you kept the rules, then God would be pleased with you and bless you. If you didn't keep the rules, then God would punish you and make your life miserable. Unfortunately, this is a distorted view of what it mean...

We like to showcase our successes in life and hide our failures. No one brags about their divorce, bankruptcy, incarceration, DUI, abortion, or addiction. These failures create shame and we begin to label ourselves by them. Jesus' story of the Prodigal Son is a powerful lesson in the new identity that God offers us by his love and grace. When we finally understand that God's love and grace are rea...

Until we admit that we are powerless on our own to find fulfillment in this life, we will never truly find our way back to God. But once we recognize our need for help, we have already made the turn that leads us home to our heavenly Father. If you are like every other person, you will try to go it on your own many times in the years to come. You'll even try to pease and serve God on your own -- a...

Our attempts to find purpose, love, and meaning on our own lead to an endless cycle of longing and regret. You don't have to waste the power of your sincere regret on more self-condemnation. You can let it move you confidently in God's direction.

We all have a longing to love and be loved in return, to find purpose for our days, and to make sense out of life when life doesn't seem to make any sense. Those longings are from God, and when you allow those strong desires for more to draw you nearer to him, he will fulfill your longings.

Why is it some people go through extraordinarily tough times and are broken, while others are not? Check out this secret to weathering the storms of life.

Our human relationships are not independent of our view and engagement with God the Father. They are also not immune to the effects of distortion and disconnectedness from Him. Last week we talked about how filters can distort how we view God. This week we explore the idea that a bad filter can also distort how we hear him.

One of the coolest things about digital photography is using filters! Providing everything from fun enhancements to strange distortions, the use of filters can have a dramatic affect on how we view a person. Additionally, how we view a person will largely determine how we will engage with that person. Especially if that person is God. This week at Journey we discuss how a clearer view of God can m...

Everyone experiences the highs and lows of life. At some point, we all wind up in a very low spot, sometimes at rock bottom. In those times, it is easy to lose hope and to throw in the towel on your dreams and the possibility of something positive for your future. It is easy to think that we have gone too far or sinned too great to ever recover. Samson's utter failure led him to an unthinkable low...

We all have places we want to end up in life. Yet the paths we choose often lead us away from our intended destinations. Poor decisions over time can send us down the wrong road leading us to a place we never wanted to go. In this message, we will discover the missteps Samson made, over time, that cost him dearly.

What drives your actions and behaviors can be, and often is, driven from feelings of low self-worth. But knowing who we are in God's eyes is the key to living from a strong core.

Attitude is a powerful influence in the direction of your life. Positive attitudes can see us through difficult situations. If we aren't careful, attitudes can also lead to our downfall.

  Jesus told us to love our neighbors as ourselves. But that's easier said than done. Which people qualify as neighbors . . . and which don't? How far does our responsibility to others extend? If we make the effort to move toward the messes in other people's lives, how inconvenient is too inconvenient? How unsafe is too unsafe? How dangerous is too dangerous? What are the limits to loving others a...

How should you respond when others face a bottom-of-the-9th moment?  It's not about saying something or doing something. It's about being someone.