Redeemer OC Podcast

Small deaths and little resurrections. Have you ever noticed that hospitality is a gift to both guests and hosts? It involves redemption for everyone. One beautiful outcome of hospitality is that the giver often receives almost more than the one receiving the gift. This Sunday we are going to conclude our four-week summer series on Ruth: Hospitality as Mission by looking specifically at hospitalit...

Hospitality is risky. Welcoming guests in your home is not always easy. In fact, most of the time it is hard work and can be a burden. However, showing hospitality is a risk worth taking and a burden worth carrying. This Sunday we are continuing our summer sermon series through the book of Ruth with the theme of Hospitality as Mission. We will be studying chapter 3, a chapter full of risk. In prep...

There is an old Irish proverb that says, "It is in the shelter of each other that people live." When have you been given life by someone's shelter and hospitality? How did it feel to receive that form of kindness and love? Can you imagine giving that gift to another person? This Sunday we are continuing our summer sermon series through the book of Ruth with the theme of Hospitality as Mission by l...

Summer is here! This Sunday we are kicking off our new summer series on the Book of Ruth with the theme of Hospitality as Mission. Ruth is one of the most well-loved stories in the Bible and summer is a perfect time to show hospitality to our neighbors with the long days and countless summer parties/gatherings. To prepare for this new series consider doing two things: 1. Read through the book of R...

You look hungry. Have you ever been surprised by your hunger? Maybe you were so busy with or focused on your work that you arrived with a crash at the end of the day and suddenly realized you didn't eat. This week we continue our study of 1Corinthians 11:23-34, likely the earliest teaching in the New Testament on the Lord's Supper. It often happens that we get so focused, so busy, with our day-to-...

Before I eat that I really need to see the ingredients. We celebrate the Lord's Supper every week at Redeemer, but have you ever paused to reflect on what it is and why we do it? In 1Corinthians 11:23-26 we find that the Lord’s Supper, also called Communion or the Eucharist, was given to the church by Jesus himself (see also Matthew 26, Mark 14, and Luke 22), but why? They may be familiar words to...

As Christians, if we could only do one thing, what would we do? If we lived in a society where Christianity was illegal, but we wanted to figure out how to do one thing, what would it be? If you are curious how the Apostle Paul would answer that question, spend a few minutes reading 1Corinthians 11:17-26. Read, meditate, and pray through it and see what one thing the Apostle Paul is passionate abo...

No one wants to be a hypocrite. We want to have a consistent life. A life where our beliefs and actions are in concert with one another. A life where our message and behaviors align. The Apostle Paul wants the same thing for himself and the church in Corinth. This Sunday we are returning to our preaching series in Paul’s letter of 1 Corinthians, specifically chapter 9 verses 24-27. Spend a few min...

Missionaries are sent and we are a missionary people. This Sunday is a Sunday of sending. This Sunday, May 20th – Pentecost Sunday – we’ll be commissioning the Fullerton Launch Team to begin the work of establishing a new Redeemer congregation in Fullerton. The word ‘Pentecost’ comes from the Greek meaning simply ‘fiftieth’. Pentecost Sunday ends the season of Easter and symbolizes a new beginning...

What is in that bag on your back? We all have it… that pack slung across our shoulders. What's in it? Does it weigh us down making every step harder and the journey longer? Or is it full of what we need? And not just what we need for the journey, but so much more? Always something that supports and empowers us. Think for a moment about what sits on your shoulders. Does it push you down or pull you...

It is totally your right to do it. You deserve it. The good news is that Jesus has something even better in store for us. He is offering to help us give up our rights for the good of another who doesn't deserve it. Wait what? That sounds stupid. No thanks. Did I just say that out loud? Take five minutes this weekend and read 1Corinthians chapters 8, 9 and 10. Yes, three whole chapters. It really w...

Did Jesus really mean what he said in John 15:5? That "apart from me you can do nothing." Nothing? What does Jesus mean when he says that we can do nothing apart from him? Or to ask it another way, what does it mean to abide in Christ, to be connected to him like branches to a vine, and have everything we need? This Sunday we will have the honor of hearing from Rev. Chris Stratton preach on John 1...

He can't really mean that can he? One of our highest aspirations as a culture (the highest?) is to find a romantic partner. Yet in 1Corinthinas 7 we read singleness presented as better, happier, for some. Singleness is not presented here as a problem to be solved, but a platform for a happy and thriving life. Sit with this passage over the weekend. Read it, meditate on it, pray through it. Let it...

Questions, questions, questions. We are now in the section of Paul's letter to the Corinthian church in which he turns to their specific questions. Just like us, they had questions about sex within marriage, divorce and remarriage. As we saw a few weeks ago ultimately what they were asking was, "What changes should I make in order to experience the life I was made for?" Should we change our sex li...

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! This is the traditional Easter acclamation that will begin our worship this Sunday. However, Jesus is not the only one. Easter is not only about remembering the resurrection of Jesus, but about all the others who have been raised with him. You might even know one or two. Our passage this Easter Sunday is Colossians 3:1-4. Over the weekend, read it. Me...

Maundy Thursday is a beautiful and solemn service that will focus your mind and grip your heart. After singing, silence, and a short meditation on a passage of scripture, we take the Lord’s Supper, prayerfully and seated at tables. For many this is one of the most powerful and rich communion experiences. At the conclusion of the service the communion tables are ceremonially stripped and we leave i...

Holy Week begins in two days, and Easter, the biggest Christian holiday, is around the corner. How are you preparing? Over the centuries one of the main ways the Church has prepared for Easter is by remembering Jesus’ Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. When you think of Palm Sunday what do you imagine? Maybe a swelling crowd cheering Jesus on? Maybe the waving of palm branches? Maybe J...

Hear from Rev. Chris Stratton as he takes a look at stories over time and challenges us to explore our own redemptive story. Read, meditate on, and pray through Psalm 40:1-5 and John 13:31-35. Then consider these questions: What is your story? How do you respond in the midst of it?

Stop! Really, stop right now. Don’t move. Don’t think. Don’t plan. Don’t look forward. Just stop. Who are you right now? Where are you right now? Pause all the aspirations: relationally, personally, vocationally, financially. All of it. Let it sink in, the reality of who you are now. How do you feel? Now what? This is what 1Corinthians 7 is all about. Yes, that passage has much to say about marria...

I feel so guilty. What do we do with our guilt? We all know what it feels like to be in its grip, to be caught in its web where every move we make to free ourselves seems to worsen our situation. Psalm 51 can free us. We see in this most famous of the penitential psalms a model of responding to God’s mercy that will burn away the web of guilt that paralyzes so many of us. If you are like me you ha...

Do you know where we’re going? Where did we put that map? This Sunday we are honored to welcome back Rev. Joel Pelsue, Co-Founder and President of the Arts & Entertainment Ministries in Los Angeles. Joel will be preaching from Proverbs 2. In preparation take a few minutes this weekend to read, meditate on and pray through Proverbs 2. Attend the Middle Hour this Sunday. It is a big one. I will lay...

So am I supposed to feel bad or what? This Sunday marks the first Sunday in the season of Lent. It is easy to mistake the season of Lent as one of dourly introspection and austerity. Who wants to participate in that? However, Lent is about preparation for something joyful and magnificent! Yes, it is a season when our focus highlights greater self awareness and repentance and that can be hard, but...

Wait… gimme that back. That’s mine! Read 1Corinthians 6:12-20 closely and we may feel like Jesus is taking something from us; something more intrinsically and intuitively ours than anything else. God says that we are not our own. That we have been bought with a price – the life and death of Jesus. In our passage Paul applies this reality to our sexual lives, but this truth of course touches everyt...

Explicit content warning, especially for parents. The passage of 1Corinthians we are currently studying together does not shy away from talking explicitly about sex. Pastor Adam set the context for us last week, powerfully calling all of us to greater honesty with our sexual struggles and reminding us that what we do with our physical bodies is deeply entwined with our spiritual lives. This week a...