Redeemer OC Podcast

Sometimes what we need to hear is not what we want to hear. That’s how I personally feel about the passage from the Bible I am preaching on this Sunday. How is that for an encouragement to worship at Redeemer this Sunday? Peter is telling us that the Christian life is more dangerous than we realize, and that the comfort and safety we long for in this life is not guaranteed. Thanks, Peter! That’s n...

Why is this happening to me? Why now? Why in this way? God, where are you? This summer we have been studying together the letter of 1 Peter. Written by a wise and experienced pastor at the end of his life, Peter knew first hand what it is to suffer, to fail, and to lead others into and through both. I imagine that the followers of Jesus 2000 years ago, who were the first to read this letter, asked...

Let’s talk about marriage. Too often people in our modern Western culture believe that marriage exists for our individual satisfaction. The apostle Peter in his letter says the opposite. Peter has a vision for marriage that is bigger: For a marriage that exists for the common good of others. In laying out his vision, Peter gives very practical and helpful instructions on how wives and husbands are...

The Church is called to be present in the world. The Apostle Peter in his First Letter encourages the Church to be fully present in the world. To do good works for the common good and peace of the world. To support the local government and every human institution. And to even continue doing good works for the world when the Church suffers as a result of those good works. For the Church to be even...

Every Christian is a priest. Every Christian is formed by love and has a priestly vocation to love others. This Sunday, as we continue our summer preaching series through the letter of 1 Peter in chapter 2 verses 4-10, we are going to see how God’s love not only forms us, but enables us to go and love others. A priest in the Old Testament was always a priest to real people. Likewise, Christians to...

What does it mean to be holy? If you were to try and live a holy life what would that look like? Would that be any different from trying to live an upright or moral life? When the Bible commands us to be holy it’s telling us to be more than just upright and moral people. This Sunday we will be looking together at the call of holiness from 1 Peter 1:13-21. Take a few minutes to read, reread, medita...

If only we could have been there to see it ourselves! Have you ever thought that if you lived in the age of the Old Testament, where you could actually witness the miracles of God, then your faith would be strong and would propel you into a life of faithfulness and passionate devotion? In our passage this week Peter makes the case that what we have now, what we know now, what we taste and experien...

We are formed by love to love. Our summer sermon series will take us through First Peter, and the themes of love and hope woven throughout. Peter tells us that we have been “born again to a living hope” (1Pe 1:3) and that we are to “above all, keep loving one another earnestly” (1Pe 4:8). Love and hope provide both our strength and our unifying mission. In times of trouble, when circumstances or e...

Will you wrestle with God? What blessing do you want from God right now in your life? Sometimes God only blesses us after long periods of wrestling with him. This Sunday we have the privilege of hearing Rev. Alex Watlington (RUF Campus Minister at USC) preach on the strangest wrestling match in history. Genesis 32:22-32 tells the story of Jacob wrestling with God. Read, meditate, and pray through...

Ethiopia has a very old and rich Christian heritage. This Sunday we look forward to having Rev. Jason Polk, one of our Global Partners, visit from Ethiopia and preach for us. Jason will be preaching from Acts 8:26-40. The conversion of an Ethiopian in this passage reveals how the gospel continues spreading from Jerusalem to the ends of the earth. In this season of Pentecost, we pause to remember n...

Have you ever wondered what the differences are between the English Standard Version (ESV), New International Version (NIV), King James Version (KJV), etc.? Learn some of the strengths and weaknesses of our modern day Bible translations.

Want a picture of your insides? X-rays and MRI’s, they show us what is going on underneath. They help diagnose structural weaknesses in our body and therefore help us plan on what to do to fix what is broken. This Sunday we conclude our series on the spiritual practice of generosity. In our last sermon we saw that tithing is not being generous, it is simply trusting and obeying God. However, tithi...

Contentment. Would you consider yourself a content person? We often think of being content in relationship to our circumstances. You might be content this afternoon because you had a good morning, but who knows what tomorrow holds? Contentment in the Bible is not related to changing circumstances. Rather, contentment is tied to God, who does not change. This Sunday we will be looking at Psalm 131...

Monk habits are not just for Roman Catholics who live in monasteries, but can also be practiced by everyday people. These habits and practices are not only good for our spiritual health, but also formative for who God is shaping us to become.

Just tell me what to do! Fine. Talking about money at church is tricky, but we need to do it. Over the last two weeks we have been talking about generosity as a way of life rooted in God’s generosity towards us. I have invited us to start some new habits that put us into contact daily with God’s abundant generosity towards us. That of course is the soil out of which true personal generosity grows....

More than enough or barely enough? Which one are you? Which describes your home? Last week I asked you to get with someone you trust and with them ask this question of yourself: “To what level do I functionally believe that everything I have is a gift from God?” Don’t let that conversation be theoretical or vague. Look at your actual behaviors and thought patterns. If you have not done this, consi...

If only it was like flipping a switch; just decide to change that thing about you and “flip” you’re different. Find another behavior or thought pattern you want to change and, like flicking the light on or off, boom, changed. If only. God’s word tells us that he is transforming us, conforming us to the image Christ. He does this by the work of his Spirit and he guarantees to complete the work he h...

This Sunday Redeemer will do something we have never done before. Redeemer takes the individual spiritual care of our members more seriously than anything else we do. Supporting your communion with God is the top priority of our leadership. In order to better do this we have been working hard over the last year to expand our team of leaders who provide our members with loving and proactive spiritu...

Too often the church falls prey to the seductions of worldly power by chasing relevance and influence. The way of the Lamb, Jesus’ path, is a way of weakness that is counter-cultural to our modern day understanding of how people come into power.

Do you ever think about Jesus’ ascension? As the church, we think regularly about Jesus’ birth, life, ministry, death, and his resurrection, but the ascension is more often than not an afterthought. The ascension is how Luke concludes his gospel account, but for most of us it is the forgotten ending. This Sunday we are finishing our preaching series on the Gospel of Luke. As the grand finale of Lu...

Where is Jesus right now? I think we would be surprised. He could be closer than we think possible, but kept from our sight. It has happened before. Could it be happening now?

What is the worst thing you can imagine happening to you? On what is believed to be Friday, April 3rd, AD 33, the worst thing imaginable in all of history happened. Jesus Christ was crucified. It was the middle of the day and darkness covered the whole land and the feeling of God’s judgment was palpable in the air. This Sunday is the sixth and last Sunday in Lent. As we head toward the bright ligh...

Details matter. There is a substantial difference between a stick figure drawing and an expertly crafted portrait. We have come to Friday morning in our Lenten study of the last week of Jesus’ life.

You be the judge. Make an assessment of the statement below: “I know what God wants me to do, the path he is calling me to walk, but with every ounce of my will, in the deepest most visceral sense of my being, I want to go another way.” When one is having this experience is it wrong? Is it sinful? Is it even possible to overcome such a deep conflict of will and follow God where we don’t want to go...