Port City Community Church Podcast

We rally against “those people.” We point the finger at, judge, and despise “those people.” We reason the world would be a better place if “those people” saw things from our perspective. The place for change is local and personal. The redemption of the world is going to take place relationally. Yet, togetherness will never take root if we remain distant and objectify others. Sin splits things apar...

Break my heart for what breaks Yours is a dangerous but much-needed prayer. When we find ourselves wanting to avoid or defend something, we need to heed this as a call to stop and consider that God is trying to teach and stretch us. Unless we discover God's heart for His people and His world, we will end up doing what we have always done. By overlaying our expectations onto God, we end up trying t...

In this polarized and divided world, the concept of togetherness remains volatile. It can be benign, shallow, toxic, and even harmful. But, togetherness possesses the potential to be healthy, encouraging, challenging, hopeful, and helpful. It can serve as a place where we share burdens and celebrate success in life-sustaining and life-giving ways. Togetherness has a trajectory, and we each play a...

When we were young, growth seemed natural and available. As we grow older, change seems to stagnate and become unachievable. We get so used to what God has done and "should do" that we stop longing to know Him and, instead, we settle for what we have always known and experienced. We spend too much of our lives bouncing back and forth between stagnation and frustration. Without a disruption, we dri...

Christmas Eve message 2020

Joy is the resulting emotion of being loved by God that fuels life with Him so that it drives and defines everything else. The invitation is for our lives to overflow with joy and praise. Joy reaches its consummation in its expression. It is not complete unless it gets expressed. We share what we love with others. What we receive, we can't help but give away. What takes place in the depths of who...

God designed our minds to awaken our hearts. Because of this, we need to stop and see things that awaken our hearts to wonder. By putting our minds to work, we empower our hearts to stay alive and vibrant. Enjoying things takes time and attention. It's not something we can do flippantly. Joy is the resulting emotion of being loved by God that fuels life with Him so that it drives and defines every...

Sometimes, joy looks like surrender. Other times it takes the shape of dogged dependency or gritty relentlessness that trusts Christ’s love is sufficient. It’s in these encounters where Christ forms and shapes us. Joypossesses the power to make an appearance in our sorrow and struggles. Both in the good and bad, the source of our joy never departs or runs out. Amid the restlessness, we can experie...

We often confuse joy by equating it with emotions like excitement, happiness, and being cheerful. Because we tend to view joy in this shortsighted way, we get frustrated when we don't experience its comfort so easily. Depending on our circumstances to produce joy is a futile exercise. Joy feels like a dangling carrot that remains just out of our reach. "Choosing joy" isn't as easy as it sounds, no...

When it comes to our faith, we tend to believe that our answer should always be YES. But, what if our willingness to say NO possesses the capacity to fuel our intimacy with God and the transformation of our souls? We want to introduce you to " The Practice of Not's ." These practices force us to stop, slow everything down, and ponder what stories and emotions emerge when our typical patterns and t...

Our mind monkeys wage guerrilla warfare on our soul. If we fail to realize we're at war, we won't show up for the battle and fight. We juggle our thoughts and allow them to bounce around with little to no consideration. Without stewarding our attention, we will live at the mercy of whatever entertains us. Our hearts take their cue from where we set our eyes. What we look for fuels our desires. Eve...

We struggle to see God working not due to His lack of activity but rather our lack of attention. Without even knowing it, we craft stories about ourselves and God, and they become our default narrative. If nothing changes, neither do we. We have to get beyond assessing our reactions and learn to mine for meaning. Writing down our thoughts convince our mind we’re serious about slowing down. This pr...

We’ve all heard that our time is the most valuable thing that we have. There are all sorts of tools that help us manage this valuable commodity. But there is something even more valuable that we have at our disposal - something that affects us more deeply than anything else. Sadly, we have very few mechanisms that help us steward it well. Believe it or not, our culture works to undermine this thin...

Jesus stands as the most influential person in human history. His impact on our world is undeniable. Yet, the influence He has on our heart hinges on our answer to a single question: "Who is Jesus, and what do I do with Him?" We often become disenfranchised by the Church when we don't have a clear picture of Jesus. A Jesus who is simply "nice" isn't able to enter into the dark world of our struggl...

Trust is the foundation of any relationship; without it, there is no connection or vulnerability. This holds true in our relationship with Christ. He's asking us to trust His heart, character, and ways. How we come to Him matters; the posture of our heart dictates our response. We have to see Jesus as worthy of giving our life to a purpose greater than ourselves. The only way to walk in the way OF...

Seeking and seeing are two vastly different things. God inviting us to "seek first His Kingdom" means that we do not readily see Him at work and compels us to pay attention. Navigating the chaos taking place in our world requires incredible wisdom and discernment. If we believe God's Kingdom is unshakable, then we need to learn how to see it so we can face any circumstance that comes our way with...

Many of us operate our lives with an "apology theology." When we believe forgiveness provides a license to continue to do what we want, we show a limited understanding of forgiveness, grace, and what it means to be a relationship. As a result, we cheapen grace. On the other hand, some of us walk around in a constant state of condemnation, shame, and guilt. We attempt to make up for our mistakes an...

If something is broke, you fix it - that’s what we’ve always been told. We can all agree that we live in a broken and hurting world. Yet, when it comes to how we heal and solve these issues, disagreement and disillusionment creep in. Many of us reason that if we fix all the problems, we will finally experience peace. Problems drive a solution mindset; purpose fuels a redemption mindset. Our sense...

We love loopholes that keep us from obeying Jesus. We distract and entertain ourselves with lesser things to avoid being moved by the brokenness around us. We look for ways to exclude while Jesus invites and encourages us to include. We ponder who we can keep out while we should be asking, “who can we invite in?” The power to make someone our neighbor gets sustained by His love for us. The way of...

Who is Jesus? Don’t answer so quickly. What we do with Jesus has massive implications on how we interact and see the world around us and our part in it. We often miss the things that make Jesus so compelling because we are trying to figure Him out, place Him in a box, or explain Him away. All at the same time, Jesus was overtly subversive, puzzlingly clear, and profoundly deliberate. The message H...

Change doesn't start with a strategy; it begins with surrender. We will not get God's vision on our terms. Jesus calls us out to surrender then sends us back into the world to serve. Every act that contributes to healing brings the force of the Gospel on our culture and bends it towards God's Kingdom. The unfinished business is to bring a Gospel presence that affects the culture. Everything we do...

Jesus didn't come to fix our bad behavior. He came to free us from a governing rule that causes us to get stuck in destructive patterns by extending to us an opportunity to live under the direction of His love. Before we can impact our world, Christ's love must first impact our hearts. The way of Jesus is complete, full, and sufficient, but it's also ongoing and unfolding. It's not what we know th...

The way we live speaks louder than our words. We bear the integrity of God's image and leverage the influence of His love. The voice of our church is what WE say to the world around us—how we trust and handle being trusted matters. Sound doctrine goes deeper than sound thinking. It doesn't serve as a checklist for our behavior, but rather provides a framework to foster God's work deep within our h...

Even though Paul penned his letter to Titus thousands of years ago, his words speak to issues facing our modern world - individualism, consumerism, and disorder. We fight for control and look out for number one. We reason that if everyone believed, thought, and see the world the same way we do, all the problems would disappear. But, it's simply not the case. As Christians, we have a choice: we can...

Instead of listening to a message, we’re going to have a conversation about one of the most powerful, and yet one of the most intimidating parts of our faith, the Bible! Our hope is that through this conversation we would learn together what the Bible is, why we would read it, and how we can begin to understand what it has to say to us today. We believe that the more comfortable and confident we b...