Redeemer OC Podcast

Friendship. A relationship that is valued, sometimes. A relationship, unlike marriage, that can be terminated at any point. Christians understand the importance of community, yet at the same time, we struggle to have deep, meaningful, life giving, and long term friendships. This Sunday we have the honor of having Rev. Jason Harris from Central Presbyterian Church, NYC, preach on The Barriers to Fr...

“Lent” is an old English word that means spring. This season of the church calendar prepares us for the bright joy of Easter by slowing us down to remember the preceding darkness of Christ’s suffering and death on the cross. Join me this Sunday, the Second Sunday in Lent, as we study Psalm 130, one of the six Penitential Psalms, and remind ourselves what Christ endured and suffered on our behalf,...

Yawn. Click. Yawn. What’s on next? I’m bored. Even the most magnificent of experiences can fall victim to familiarity. Folks, it is time to fight! Read the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2. Apparently the angels think what is happening is a pretty big deal. I am afraid that for many of us much of the splendor and magnificence is lost. Luke 2 is like alarm bells going off. Something massive is happening! E...

Yawn. Click. Yawn. What’s on next? I’m bored. Even the most magnificent of experiences can fall victim to familiarity. Folks, it is time to fight! Read the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2. Apparently the angels think what is happening is a pretty big deal. I am afraid that for many of us much of the splendor and magnificence is lost. Luke 2 is like alarm bells going off. Something massive is happening! E...

No one wants to learn the hard way, but sometimes that is just what it takes. Luke tells the story of Jesus beginning with a series of parallel events: two visits from the same angel, two announcements about God’s renewed work of redemption, two miraculous births, and two dramatically different responses from two very different people. Luke is getting his readers, us, ready to respond as well. A f...

No one wants to learn the hard way, but sometimes that is just what it takes. Luke tells the story of Jesus beginning with a series of parallel events: two visits from the same angel, two announcements about God’s renewed work of redemption, two miraculous births, and two dramatically different responses from two very different people. Luke is getting his readers, us, ready to respond as well. A f...

Happiness is tricky. We all want it, but how do we get it? How do we keep it when we have it? How do we get it back when we lose it? This Sunday we will listen together to one of the most revered and well known songs of rejoicing, a hymn now over two thousand years old. The world’s best musicians have crafted their own compositions for these famous words and it has been performed constantly for ge...

Happiness is tricky. We all want it, but how do we get it? How do we keep it when we have it? How do we get it back when we lose it? This Sunday we will listen together to one of the most revered and well known songs of rejoicing, a hymn now over two thousand years old. The world’s best musicians have crafted their own compositions for these famous words and it has been performed constantly for ge...

Things just don’t go how we plan them. Life is surprising and not always pleasantly surprising. Where is God when things seem to be falling apart or at least stuck in a dead-end? This week I want to share with you an extended quote from Jon Bloom who is the board chair and co-founder of Desire God Ministries: “The Holy Family’s first few years were not tranquil. They were filled with grueling trav...

Things just don’t go how we plan them. Life is surprising and not always pleasantly surprising. Where is God when things seem to be falling apart or at least stuck in a dead-end? This week I want to share with you an extended quote from Jon Bloom who is the board chair and co-founder of Desire God Ministries: “The Holy Family’s first few years were not tranquil. They were filled with grueling trav...

Where can we find a stable place to stand, a secure place on which to build our lives? Whether it’s the roller coaster volatility of our stock markets, the rancor and confusion of our political races, the lurking threat of terror, or even just the pressure of our daily responsibilities, it is clear that the world is not safe and that there is much at stake. This Sunday we start a sermon series on...

Where can we find a stable place to stand, a secure place on which to build our lives? Whether it’s the roller coaster volatility of our stock markets, the rancor and confusion of our political races, the lurking threat of terror, or even just the pressure of our daily responsibilities, it is clear that the world is not safe and that there is much at stake. This Sunday we start a sermon series on...

Happy Epiphany! The twelve days of Christmas have ended (you can take down your tree) and the Church has now entered into the season of Epiphany. Epiphany is celebrated from January 6th through Ash Wednesday. It is a season to help transition the Church from the birth of Jesus Christ at Christmas to his death and resurrection during Lent & Easter. It is a time to intentionally focus on the life an...

Happy New Year! 2016 is upon us, but the Christmas season is still here. Join us this Sunday as we celebrate the 10th day of Christmas and gather for one final week to sing Christmas carols together. On this second Sunday after Christmas I will be preaching from Psalm 8, a psalm traditionally and liturgically read on the first day of each new year. To best prepare for this Sunday, keep the Christm...

Christmas is here! The waiting is over. We get to celebrate the birth of Christ our Savior. This first Sunday after Christmas we have the honor of Rev. Jeff Suhr, Pastor of New Life Presbyterian Church in Irvine, preaching a Christmas sermon from the book of Ruth. ​To best prepare for this Sunday consider two things: Christmas doesn’t end on December 25, rather it just begins. After reading the bo...

Christmas is here! The waiting is over. We get to celebrate the birth of Christ our Savior. Bring your family and friends this evening at 5pm as we gather for our annual Lessons and Carols Christmas Eve service. Don’t let Christmas end tomorrow, but plan on stretching out the celebration over the 12 days of Christmas. ​I look forward to worshiping and celebrating Christmas with you tonight. Pastor...

It is so close now. Only days away. It is not too late to let Advent prepare you for Christmas. How we keep our time shapes us. How we organize our schedules, what makes it in and what is excluded, forms the people that we are becoming. Over these last weeks we have seen this biblical principle applied to the weekly and daily rhythms of our time keeping, and this week we will look at the shaping p...

We are living in a climate of fear. Night after night on the news, article after article on our news feeds, more details about death and destruction. And questions. Unanswerable questions. Why? How? Why would they do that? How could others celebrate such atrocities? I took my son to the movies last week and like never before I watched the exit doors for danger. How can we be a centered presence of...

Don’t make this mistake. If you want big change, big strength, big transformation, if you want dramatic results, don’t look big. Look small. It is the small things done consistently over the course of time that have the power to shape us profoundly. This is the strategy Tony Dungy, former NFL head coach, used to bring his teams consistently to the playoffs and win a Super Bowl. Dungy explains, “Ch...

Test nightmares. Have you ever had a dream that you walked into your classroom only to discover that today was the final and you had not cracked a book all semester? The anxiety of being unprepared for the important things grips us. If only someone would have helped us prepare. This is our call to get ready. We do not have to be unprepared. Christmas of course is not a test, but it is an event to...

Jesus’ resurrection changes everything. Death as we know it is reversed. Join us this Sunday for worship as Rev. Bryce Hales, a PCA church planter of Resurrection OC in Ladera Ranch, preaches on Acts 2 and the reversal of death that the church experienced at Pentecost and continues to experience today. To best prepare for this week’s sermon, spend 5 minutes reading Acts 2:14-41, then ask yourself,...

One billion dollars to give away, that is a lot of zeros. The IRS has one billion in unclaimed tax refunds to give out if only people would claim them. Come on people, just reach out and take your money! It’s just sitting there. This Sunday we conclude our fall preaching series on Heaven. I hope that you no longer think of heaven as just that place far away that you get to escape to someday. The b...

This Sunday as part of our morning worship service, our presbytery will install Rev. Adam Feichtmann as Redeemer’s Associate Pastor. This is an important Sunday in the life of our church. Jesus is the great shepherd who promises to lead, guide, and protect his people. To fulfill that promise Jesus gives his Church undershepherds, pastors and elders, to carry out his shepherding ministry in the con...

What did you expect? We can’t avoid them, our expectations. What did you, what do you, expect in your communion with God? During our preaching series on Heaven this fall, “Heaven with Us”, we have seen how the bible describes heaven as exceedingly close to us today. That God is close; that his Spirit is in us. That God is present as our loving father now. However, what if we just don’t feel it? Wh...

How do you punish those already being punished? Solitary confinement. Disconnection, loneliness, and isolation are monsters that drain our lives away. This Sunday Pastor Bryce Hales will be preaching from Acts 2:1-13 and I will be leading worship. Pastor Adam will be preaching and leading worship at the women’s retreat. Rev. Hales’ sermon, “Reversing Alone-ness” will show us that God’s plan for th...