Real Life Church Podcast

Often the things we think should set us apart as spiritual giants are things that God thinks are common. In His upside-down-Kingdom there is no better accomplishment then pledging your allegiance to King Jesus. In this message we learn about the power of thanksgiving for what God has done for us, not what we've done for Him.

In this series we're talking about how to be thankful and what to be thankful for. Jesus tells a story in Luke 18 to help His listeners understand that it's not your presentation before others, but your posture before God that matters - He calls it humility and it sets us up to release the power of the thanksgiving.

We wrap up the series with the story of the flood and find out once again that God isn't angrily destroying humanity, He's actually carefully preserving humanity. Humanity has grieved Him, but He hasn't given up on them.

One again, now in Cain's story, we're going to see God acting in love toward humanity even though they continue to act like beasts. But there's also an underlying story... Even in the pain of Cain's consequence we see God's greater purpose develop. Cain ends up accomplishing, at least part of, what God commissioned all of humanity to do. Fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over all the bea...

We've made it to Genesis 4 and typically we'd continue the conversation about how bad and evil humanity is because God has to kick them out of the garden then sends Cain even further away. But this story is not what it appears to be. It's a story about who God really is and He is NOT like the gods of Egypt or Cannan. This God is different. He doesn't demand offerings and He still loves even when w...

We typically think that the sin of Adam and Eve in the garden made God so mad that He cursed humanity and kicked them out. But that's not the whole story, it's not eve the right story. Nowhere in the story does God appear mad and He never curses humanity even though there are consequences. Sin didn't separate Adam and Eve from God, their shame did. God never stopped loving them, even though they l...

The story of Genesis 3 and the curse of humanity and our exit from the garden has created some pretty distinct and fearful views of an angry God kicking humanity out of His presence and protection. But is that the real story? We know they were naked, but did they have any reason to be afraid?

Most of us believe that because of Adam and Eve’s sin we are now bad and God is angry with us. After all, that’s why he kicked us out of the garden. Only… it’s not. Every act of God in Genesis 3 is kind and loving and shows great care, not anger or a desire to punish. We’ve got to know how God feels about us if we’re going to navigate sin effectively.

One again, now in Cain's story, we're going to see God acting in love toward humanity even though they continue to act like beasts. But there's also an underlying story... Even in the pain of Cain's consequence we see God's greater purpose develop. Cain ends up accomplishing, at least part of, what God commissioned all of humanity to do. Fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over all the bea...

Terry Deaver wraps up his Living Stones series.

Part 1 of a message series by our friend, Terry Deaver.

Jesus ends His ministry much like He began it, overturning tables in the Temple. Only this time, Jesus quotes from Isaiah 56 when He says, my House shall be a house of prayer for all nations. It's not our house, it's His House and He wants it to be a house of prayer.

After Jesus ditches His parents for 3 days so He can hang out in the Temple the story goes silent for 18 years until Jesus pops back up on the scene at a wedding and then immediately after that in the Temple again. These two polar opposite events highlight the difference between the relationships Jesus has and the religious practice of the people.

Joseph and Mary experience one of the worst moments as a parent, they left their child behind. Only, it wasn’t their child, it was the Son of God and they left Him, for maybe 5 days! But it’s not their parent fail that’s important it’s the exchange between them when they reunite. Jesus drives a steak in their heart but not on purpose, He is just passionate about His Father’s House and being about...

As we begin our first series in our first building what will we talk about? This House is about the kind of "house" this will be. It's not our house, it's God's house and that means it's a house for others.

The miracle of the story of the feeding of the 5000 is impressive but understanding the back story is more important. Jesus reveals the protective hearts of the disciples as well as what happens when we're willing to part with what we have to have all that we need.

If we're going to help every person possible find real life in Jesus and look more like Him every day we need to stop pointing out others sin and start pointing others to Jesus. In today's message we see that Jesus redirects us to be nearsighted about our own guilt and far sighted about others. This will help us present Truth with grace and stay relevant in a lost world.

Many Christians try to mask their real selves in order to portray who they think they should be instead of who they really are. Jesus puts an end to this and redirects us to not only be real about who we are but about what's most important in our lives.

The story of Ezekiel and his visions of a new Jerusalem were not about a restored Israel living in Jerusalem they were about restored individuals from every nation/tribe/tongue living as a family in Jesus.

Have you ever had anyone take the LONG way around to making a point? That's what God seems to do with Ezekiel, takes him to a valley of bones, gives him these commands, has to up the ante and then in the end is like, I said all "that" to say "this." It's a windy (you'll see 😉) way to get to the point... but it's an amazing point!

When we try to do life on our own we're telling God we don't trust His way of living in the Kingdom. And when we commit spiritual mutiny the result is always captivity to the things we sought to express our freedom with.

Ezekiel is violently taken back to Jerusalem in a vision to see the utter rejection and adultery of Israel and her leaders with the worship of other gods. We see a complete failure of the people to recognize God as the One Power or as Israel's spiritual husband. Their corruption is complete.

God called Ezekiel and then used Ezekiel to call to His people Israel, God almost always uses a person to reach a people, it's why He works to get our attention before he gets our assistance. In the end, He wants them to see HIM, not us.

We live as people captured by culture but that doesn't mean we have to submit to it. Our best option is not to combat culture or condemn it but to offer a viable contrast to it. People need to see there's another, better way to live.

Peter goes from thinking he's a hero to knowing he's a zero. But Peter's failures can't keep Jesus from pointing to his future! We've all screwed up but Jesus doesn't waste time condemning, He just encourages and points us back to mission!