Redemption HOU podcast

Eventually, the music stops and the lights flicker on (literally and metaphorically). This is for those who aren't quite sure if they feel particularly happy or sad, good or bad —perhaps just numb. This is for those who have ever set the goal of simply surviving the day. In other words, this is for human beings experiencing the realities of life. Jesus has an invitation for us. Journaling prom...

A sermon by Jordan Rhea. Jesus sends out the twelve, and concludes his charge to them with a message of union. They are told to depart from Jesus, and yet, in this harvest work, they will be intimately connected to him, God, and all believers.

Jesus Christ introduces a new order of things into the world, not merely an updated order. Enter friction. Let’s be honest - none of us are eager to sign up for the hard life, but what if the inherent friction between the old order of things and the way of Jesus is indeed the way to a full, flourishing, and free life. Related Sermon - Would A God of Love Send Anyone to Hell? Spotify - https://open...

Those called are those sent. Jesus’ call means we’ve been invited into God, which means we’ve been invited to participate in what God is up to, in the way God is up to it. This reality is not always one we would’ve chosen for ourselves, but it is our being faithful to the contours of a kingdom life.

Jesus tells us God is after one very particular group of people. In doing so fundamentalism of any kind is taken off the table. We are not a community of self-certain people. We are a community in desperate need of God.

For those of us burned by versions of Christianity which are about behavior management, culture wars, or bigger, better, brighter performances Trinity Sunday is an invitation to re-consider all of it. If we pay close attention, Matthew 28 and the Great Commission reveals a God who is love through and through and who is drawing all of the world into that love. This means the church is mission — the...

Pentecost brings forth a radical transformation whether we are ready for it or not. The Spirit descends on all flesh and draws us into the realm be body of Jesus Christ. This forces us to reckon with the work God has done to make us one and the cross shaped postures that we will need to live into that reality.

The same God who raised Jesus from the dead is with us and we are with God. So Peter can tell a community like ours, that our suffering in this world should neither surprise us nor derail us from living into God's new reality — our past, present, and future are secured in Christ. Though it may be hard to see here and now, it is done. Journaling Prompts : What feels overwhelming right now? Wher...

Few passages in Scripture have generated more controversy than 1 Peter 3:18–22. But underneath debate lies a single, staggering claim: the resurrection of Jesus is Christ’s victory announcement. Whatever in your life and this world feels permanent and immovable — systems, empires, powers, addictions, fears — Christ has put them all on notice. Journaling Prompts: What dominions seek to make a claim...

At the edge of baptism we bring with us narratives — chosen narratives, inherited narratives, and narratives that have been imposed on us. But God consumes these stories, immersing us into Christ's life and story — a people given a new name, a new story, a new destiny. This new story is the beginning, the middle, and the end — our starting point, our ending point, and the pilgrim road we walk...

God is not at work to reform or tear down our institutions. He's doing something far more radical and far more dangerous — building a people who live in the world where sin, suffering, and death have already lost. What emerges is an entirely other way of being and moving in the world. A way that looks a lot like Jesus. Journaling Prompts: What if culture wars on all sides are missing the point...

In a so-called age of anxiety, the last thing we need is more fear. Yet, one of Jesus' more problematic disciples tells the Church to "Fear God." Within this audacious command is the perspective of a community whose life and imagination have been gripped by resurrection. In week three of our Easter series People of the Resurrection, we continue walking through 1 Peter to discover tha...

We are being made new, swept up into the living hope. An invitation to be made new as a community of believers, a holy resistance, knowing that because of the resurrection death will not win.

Easter deeply matters, not as an escape from the oppression and darkness of the world, but as God's response made in the face of it. Today we are invited to inhabit a whole new reality, being whole new people, people who refuse to give way to despair — resurrection people.

Palm Sunday exposes our desire that God conquer on our terms. But in our turn towards Holy Week we finally begin to see God. A God who reveals an entirely different Kingdom altogether, a people of a different shape, different logic—a people who exist as a different politic. Journaling Prompts: Where do you see the ancient account of sin as an attempt to grasp and possess what God offers as gift in...

Lent invites us to get honest. Honest about longing, grief, doubt, and the dead places in our lives. In Jesus’ encounter with Lazarus, He meets Martha, Mary, and Lazarus in deeply personalized ways revealing that the God we often wish to keep at a distance is the one who knows us completely and loves us fully. Journaling Prompts: God created us uniquely, knows us intimately, and relates to us acco...

In John 9 Jesus heals a man born blind, and suddenly everyone has to reckon with what they now see. Including themselves. The light of the world does not expose to condemn, but to love. Journaling Prompts: What parts of you and your life are you afraid of being fully seen by Jesus? What would it mean for you to accept that Jesus sees this and loves you in it? Where has grace changed something in y...

The God revealed in Jesus is scandalously present among those we’ve written off—and that love dismantles our assumptions about who God is and what God is doing in the world. Journaling Prompts: - Does the grace Jesus displays here — forgiving, gifting, transforming — feel refreshing to you or scandalous? Take a few moments to explore why that might be. - Who, in your mind, seems most on the fringe...

Beholding God will mean undergoing death—of ways of life, of ideas about God and ourselves, of things we think will save us. And for this God death ends in resurrection. Some call it conversion, others repentance. Jesus calls it “being born again.” And it is God’s work. Journaling Prompts What would a new way of being in the world mean for you? What would you lay aside, what would you take up? Con...

This sermon begins the season of Lent. It concentrates on one psalm, Psalm 32, traditionally labeled a "penitential psalm," and it holds out God's promise not only of forgiveness but also of instruction. Repentance involves release from the past as well as learning a fresh new way of life. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the body of Christ, heaven and earth meet, and the transfiguration invites us to witness that glory. Let us marvel in it. Let us be warmed by it. And let us listen to it. Generosity: https://www.redemptionhou.com/give

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus doesn’t hand us a list of rules. He names our identity. Salt. Light. A city on a hill. A people whose life together makes the invisible God visible right here in Houston. Journaling Prompts: Reflect on the notion that “y’all are salt, y’all are light.” How does this shape what a Jesus-centered life means to you? What might a Jesus-centered life mean for the people...

Are we in the middle of a silent era from God? A look at world events and our personal lives makes a strong case for the affirmative, but the scriptures invite us to engage with a living God - especially in times when this God seems distant and removed. Journaling Prompts: Have you ever been surprised by a living God? What was that experience like? Where in life are you tempted to take on God’s wo...

Your search for God may have brought you here—but Jesus turns and asks: What are you seeking? In John 1, Jesus does not extend tidy conclusions, easy answers, or spiritual certainty, but an invitation: Come and see. A journey centered not on arrival or mastery, but on Jesus Himself. Journaling Prompts What are you seeking? Sit with Jesus’ question for a moment and answer honestly, without editing...

What do you believe God is like—and where did that belief come from? In the baptism of Jesus (Matthew 3), God reveals something shocking about who God is. This sermon opens the Epiphany series Manifest by asking a simple but life-altering question: What does God really think about you? Journaling Prompts When you reflect on your baptism, how are you continuing to discover what God has done—and is...