Park Hill Church Podcast

Everyone has an opinion about Jesus. Almost no one wants to answer for one. This week at Caesarea Philippi — pagan shrine country, standing in front of a cave locals called "the gates of Hades" — Jesus let his disciples hide behind the safe question first: who do people say I am? Then he turned it personal. Peter's answer, "You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God," wasn't something he figur...

Do you love me? It's a question Jesus already knows the answer to — and asks anyway. This week, Connor Anderson took us back to the charcoal fire where Peter denied Christ three times, then forward to the morning Jesus stood at another fire and rebuilt him. Jesus doesn't just know our failures ahead of time — he plans the invitation back before we ever fall. What looked like the end of Peter's sto...

What if the thing keeping you stuck isn't the absence of healing, but your own resistance to it? In John 5, Jesus walks up to a man who's been paralyzed for thirty-eight years and asks a question that sounds almost cruel: "Do you want to get well?" It's not cruel. It's the wise counselor getting deep into this man's soul. This week, we sit with a story about a man so trapped by his pain that he ca...

In Luke 24, the risen Jesus appears in a locked room to disciples who are terrified, doubting, and still processing the worst week of their lives. And His first move isn't to explain Himself. It's to ask a question: "Why are you troubled?" This week, Alexis Garcia-Irons opens that moment up and pairs it with Psalm 37 — a psalm that turns out to be a surprisingly honest blueprint for what to do whe...

In Luke 2:41–52, we find the first recorded words of Jesus — spoken at twelve years old, in the temple, after three days of his parents searching and fearing the worst. This week, Evan Wickham opened our new summer series, Jesus Questions, with this often-overlooked story that turns out to be Luke's earliest whisper of resurrection. Jesus wasn't lost. He was exactly where He belonged — in His Fath...

You know the armor. But do you know what it actually is? Belt of truth. Breastplate of righteousness. Shield of faith. Most of us have heard the list so many times it stopped meaning anything. But Paul isn't giving you a checklist — he's pointing you to a Person. Every single piece of the armor turns out to be Jesus. And the question isn't whether you ran through your spiritual warfare routine thi...

What if the enemy you've been fighting isn't the person across the table from you? In Ephesians 6, Paul names something most of us have been too modern — or too polite — to take seriously: there is a real, organized, unseen opposition to everything Jesus is building in you and in this church. Not a metaphor. Not a mood. A war. And you're already in it. The question isn't whether you'll fight. It's...

What does it look like when the Spirit of Jesus actually changes things at home — not in theory, but in your kitchen, your conversations, your closest relationships? In Ephesians 6, Paul walks the cosmic story of Jesus right into the most ordinary place you can think of: your house. Children and parents, workers and bosses — every relationship gets run through the same question. Not "who's in char...

On a day that holds both joy and grief for many, Missy Bell — foster mom and leader of Olive Crest San Diego — brings a timely word about what it truly means to be a mother. Drawing from the stories of Hagar and Pharaoh's daughter, she explores how God sees the invisible, stays with the hurting, and calls His people to do the same. Being a "mother to the motherless" isn't about heroism or perfecti...

What if the most countercultural thing you could do in a relationship is actually yield? In Ephesians 5, Paul isn't just writing a marriage manual — he's painting a picture of what all relationships look like when Christ is at the center. Married or single, we are all designed for deep, sacrificial, unified community. And getting there requires something our culture rarely celebrates: mutual submi...

What if most of your life isn't governed by rules at all — and that's actually the point? In Ephesians 5, Paul gives his spiritual children not a longer list of restrictions, but something far more liberating: guiding lights for navigating the wide-open freedom of life in Christ. Be wise. Discern God's will. And above all — be filled with the Spirit. In this episode, Evan Wickham unpacks what it a...

What if the reason our culture's approach to sex produces so much wreckage isn't that the rules are too strict, but that our view of sex is too small? In this episode, Evan Wickham works through one of Paul's most direct passages in Ephesians, unpacking the word ‘porneia’ and what Jesus really meant when he pointed us back to Genesis. At the center of it all is a single idea: the physical union wa...

In Ephesians 4, Paul paints a picture of a world where people tell the truth, carry one another’s burdens, speak life, and forgive freely. A world marked by “true righteousness and holiness”—not as cold religious words, but as a lived reality of deep connection, trust, and belonging.   But Paul is clear: that kind of life doesn’t happen by accident. It requires putting off the old ways that hollow...

What happens after we die—and why does it matter now? In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul makes a bold claim: if Jesus didn’t rise from the dead, our faith falls apart. But if He did… then everything changes—not just for Him, but for us. Easter isn’t only about Jesus’ resurrection. It’s about our future resurrection. The Bible doesn’t describe our story as simply life → heaven. It’s bigger than that: life →...

On Palm Sunday, Jesus entered Jerusalem as a King—but not the kind people expected. Riding on a donkey, He revealed a kingdom marked by humility, not power. And instead of heading to a palace, He went straight to the temple… and turned it upside down. In a moment that shocked the crowd, Jesus cleared out the barriers that kept outsiders at a distance and made room for healing, worship, and belongi...

In Ephesians 4:7–16, we see that Jesus hasn’t just saved us—He’s actively building us. By His grace, He gives gifts to His people, not so a few can do ministry, but so the whole church is equipped to grow. The goal isn’t just belief—it’s maturity. Unity isn’t something we create; it’s something we grow into as we become more like Christ. This week, we’re reminded that spiritual maturity means stay...

As we step into the second half of Ephesians, we move from seeing what God has done in Christ to living in it. Paul’s “therefore” isn’t a shift from theology to practice—it’s an invitation to reality. Because we’ve been made alive, brought near, and formed into God’s family, we’re called to walk in a way that fits who we already are. That walk begins with unity. Paul urges the church to reflect th...

Guest speaker Josh Binstead from Hope Church Portsmouth joins us to share a powerful message titled “Fresh Fire and Undivided Hearts.” Looking at the story of Elijah on Mount Carmel in First Kings, we’re challenged to examine the divided loyalties and hidden idols that compete for our devotion.   Before the rain of renewal came to Israel, the fire of God first fell—restoring true worship and calli...

You are drowning in information and starving for experience. You know about God, but Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3 is reaching for something far more concrete than knowledge. From a prison cell, on his knees, Paul asks the Father to bring you into actual, literal, mystical union with Christ. In your inner being. Right now. This is the boldest prayer in the New Testament. And it's being prayed for y...

In Ephesians 3:1–13, the Apostle Paul—writing as a prisoner—pulls back the curtain on what he calls “the mystery.” It’s not private spirituality or individual forgiveness alone. It’s something far bigger. The mystery is that through the gospel, former enemies are made family. Jews and Gentiles, slave and free, male and female—all are united as one new humanity in Christ. God’s wisdom is not displa...

In this powerful teaching from Ephesians 2:11–22, Mike Erre explores Paul’s vision of the gospel as more than personal forgiveness. The same grace that reconciles us to God also reconciles us to one another. Jesus didn’t just save individuals. He is creating a new humanity. What if salvation isn’t only about where we go when we die, but about the kind of people we become together? What if unity ac...

In Ephesians 2:1–10, we’re reminded of the breathtaking contrast at the heart of the gospel: we were dead in our sin, but God made us alive in Christ. This week, guest speaker Tinika Wyatt led us through this powerful passage, inviting us to see grace not as a small or ordinary thing, but as God’s radical, life-giving work on our behalf. Salvation is not something we earn or achieve—it is God’s gi...

Gratitude doesn’t come from having more—it comes from seeing clearly what we already have in Christ. As Paul closes the opening chapter of Ephesians, he prays that the eyes of our hearts would be enlightened to the hope, inheritance, and power that already belong to us as God’s children. In a world that trains us to live anxious, entitled, and distracted, this passage calls us back to an inheritan...

Parenting is holy ground—and it’s also messy. In this House of Learning, Phil and Diane invite parents and grandparents into a hopeful, honest conversation about raising children in a culture shaped by shame, cancellation, and unresolved hurt. Together, we’ll explore how to build homes marked by forgiveness, humility, and repair; how our words and expectations shape our children’s hearts; and how...

In a world marked by distraction, disappointment, and spiritual fatigue, how do we remain faithful to God, to our families, and to the Church over the long haul? Drawing from over five decades of marriage, ministry, and generational faith, Phil and Diane invite us to “tell our story” of God’s rescuing grace (Psalm 107:2) and the practices that have sustained a lifelong walk with Jesus. Through Scr...