Real Life Church Podcast

Social Media is a part of our lives and will only increase as time goes on. As followers of Jesus our online presence should be present Jesus in way that causes others to want to know Him more, even if that means they know us less.

Our primary function as follower of Jesus is to look like Him. We look like Jesus by acting, talking and loving God and others, like Him. Jesus said that that if we truly loved Him we'd obey Him, regardless of what we personally wanted, we'd do what He said to do. The last thing Jesus told His disciples to do is known as the Great Commission and it's the rallying cry for Christians and the Church....

Those who have surrendered their lives to God through obedience to Jesus become carriers of the Gospel to the world as Jesus' disciples. Our desire is to look more like Jesus every day in a world that looks less and less like the garden of Eden every day. The Church is the place where disciples get together to be built up in order to faithfully and fruitfully return to the world in order to invite...

Jesus left his followers with a specific set of instructions regarding what their role was in His Kingdom. Just as He had called each individual to repent, believe and follow (Mark 1&8) He now called the Church to make disciples, baptize and teach to obedience. The questions we answer in part 3 of This is Us are "What does it mean to be a disciple? And since a disciple is supposed to follow Jesus,...

If you were asked the question, "What is the Gospel?" How would you respond? The Good News? The Story of Jesus? Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? If we don't know what the Gospel is how can we share it? And if we don't share the correct Gospel, Jesus' Gospel, are we even really making disciples as Jesus commanded us to in Matthew 28:19? Let's discover what Jesus said His Gospel was so we're sure we're...

When you take a 30K foot view of humanity you come to one overwhelming conclusion - Houston, we have a problem. Adam and Eve, Abraham, the nation of Israel and even the man after God's own heart, King David, couldn't get it right. Over and over every person failed to be who God created them to be. God repeatedly extended opportunities to partner with Him for the benefit of all humanity but we coul...

2020 was a rough year for many with the pandemic and how that changed our lives. Let's call 2020 year Zero (like patient zero). And let's call 202ONE year One. A year where we refocus and regroup in order to be intentional about our lives again. We became lazy spiritually, relationally, economically and 2020 woke us up. Now it's time to get to work and figure out what the most important things are...

It seems like our the problems we're facing in 2020 are nearly insurmountable. Life seemed like that for the people of Judah in 742bc too. Their Capital city was surrounded, their king was terrible and their hope was gone. And it got worse. God told Isaiah that the people would soon be taken captive as exiles into a foreign land. The problems of Isaiah's day were pretty big, that's why they... and...

Everybody wants to know the same thing, "what's the plan?" When will do our Christmas shopping? What will we eat at Chick-fil-A while we're out? Real tree or fake this year? Which Christmas Eve service will we go to at Church? When are we opening presents on Christmas day? But in the world of 2020 knowing what the plan is has become much more difficult. It's in times of trouble and discouragement...

The Israelite people believed that if they had a human king, he would teach them how they were to live for God. The idea that it takes an objective force, outside one's self, is correct, but every human leader has inevitably failed at that endeavor. Human leaders simply cannot fully legislate morality no matter how hard they try. Laws issued by failing governments will not make bad people choose t...

--Scrub to 12min for the start-- Have you ever felt like you just weren't good enough for God? Many followers of Jesus never accomplish much for the Kingdom because they don't feel like they're good enough for God to use. Maybe it's a medical challenge, a learning struggle, you don't know the Bible cover to cover, or you're new to faith. The difference between you and those you see God doing incre...

At a critical time in Israel's history, finally taking possession of the promised-land, the people had a chance to get it right. To follow God and enjoy the benefits of the relational guidelines He'd laid out; you follow only me and I will be your God and bless you and you will be my people, my prized possession. The Hebrews had it made, if only they could have held up their end of the bargain. Bu...

When you hear statements like, "if you were the only person on earth Jesus would have still gone to the cross for you," it's easy to start thinking you must be pretty special and you are. But that understanding isn't supposed to go to your head. It's supposed to help you understand the GREAT love God has FOR you not get caught up in thinking that God needs you.

Do you view God like Bette Midler or Joan Osborne? Is God too far away, too big and powerful to be intimately involved with His creation? Or is He so close that He's almost stuck in the same ruts as the rest of us? Well, sometimes we act like He's both. He so big He doesn't really care about my little problems or sins and then He's so close that He can't really help. The most prolific song writer...

People often come to faith in Jesus when they're in trouble and need His help. While God does help us in times of struggle and may rescue us from financial, relational, emotional or other problems, He is not a genie we can simply call on when we need His help and then expect Him to go back in His bottle until the next time we want something. Instead of giving me everything I want, God deserves eve...

One of the expectations many have about following Jesus is that He will magically begin to bless their lives and give them everything they think they need. Unfortunately most of those "blessings" are simply material things that may make life easier but certainly don't make it better. Some even promise, if you choose Jesus He'll give you that new car, job, house, spouse or lifestyle you believe you...

The Kingdom of God was inaugurated with Jesus coming but it has not yet been consummated. The King is on His throne but He continues to allow creation to govern itself. He has shown us the way So we continue in a broken world. A world of sin and shame and guilt and selfishness, not because God isn't in control, but because He is giving us the freedom to choose. One day we will enter the fulfillmen...

No matter how tasty a chocolate, if it's in the trash, covered in banana peels and beer cans and dirty underwear I'm not interested. Sometimes, the Kingdom of God is as confusing to the world as us offering them chocolates under all the garbage of our lives. In effect, we make the Kingdom inaccessible to those around us because of the garbage they have to sift through to get to it. But God is cons...

Throughout Jesus' ministry He spoke of the Kingdom of God (Heaven). Throughout His mission and ministry He proved the existence of the Kingdom of God, He lived by its rules and He shared what He knew about the Kingdom. In doing so Jesus corrected misunderstandings about the Kingdom, pointed to its reality and function in the world and He prepared His followers for Its full coming. What He began, H...

We all go through struggles. Satan is a master at not just setting us up for struggle but working to make sure we begin to doubt God's love because of our struggle. This is why this series is so important in our lives today - we're in the midst of many struggles satan is using to get us to doubt God's overwhelming love. So we need to remember, there's no other way around it, if it's GOOD it's from...

We often want to blame our struggles on others. We might blame parents, school system, unjust policing, a traumatic experience, we might even blame God for the struggles we face. While each unique situation will affect us, when it comes to falling for Satan's tricks James says there's no one to blame except ourselves. Thankfully, we're not just left to try and live a good or righteous life on our...

When you get off course in your life what do you do? You seek advice, help and direction from others. And that's where the problems begin. There is no end to opinions when it comes to seeking help. You can look at your daily horoscope, ask your best friend or @ your favorite social media influencer. But if you're a follower of Jesus, the ship of your life should always be pointed toward Him. So if...

Many of us believe that God should eliminate our struggles and make life easy for us because we follow Him. But that's the opposite of what He wants to do. God wants us to learn to rely on His strength in the midst of our struggles and in turn our strength (fain and trust and ability to rely on God when tempted) grows too!

As Paul wraps up his letter to the church in Philipi he focuses their attention on Jesus. There will always be those who sin and chase the desires of flesh, there will always be arguments over seemingly everything but there is also always a reason to be joyful, you've just got to look for it. Sometimes it will only come with the promise of new life when Jesus returns. Sometimes you'll have to give...

Joy is difficult especially if you're trying to attain it on your own. You can plan for it and pursue it but if you're not practicing the behaviors and attitudes that allow the Spirit free reign in your life you won't experience it like you hope. But by practicing these behaviors in your daily life you'll give the Spirit greater access to your life, mind and heart (and ears👂) so that you can expe...