Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast

On Sunday we wrapped up our series on prayer with a teaching on John 15 and our identity as those chosen to bear fruit. The fruit that we are appointed to bear is the renewal of all people to God’s design. We were appointed for this by God and it’s our responsibility to remain connected to Him as our life source in order to do so. We remain by believing truth about what Jesus’ blood affords and wh...

On Sunday, we continued this series with a teaching on declaring the word of God as prayer. David shows us in the Psalms that in prayer there is a time for crying out in petition, exposing your need before God, and there is a time to rise and declare who God is and place your trust in Him. When the pain of life strikes, we need to know how to strengthen ourselves in the Lord. We do this by staying...

On Sunday, Alex humbly offered this passage in Jeremiah as a word for our church in this season, “This is what the Lord says to the people of Judah and to Jerusalem: ‘Break up your unplowed ground and do not sow among thorns.’” (4v3) Much of the church in the West has been compromised over time through idolatry and arrogance. Saints’ Hill, we are asking you, as priests and leaders, to set reality...

This last Sunday, Chris explored the link between prayer and wilderness throughout the Scriptures. From Moses, to David, to Elijah, and ultimately to Jesus - we see that God meets us in the wilderness. It’s in the wilderness of prayer that our vulnerability and lack of control are exposed.  It’s in this unique place where God is able to minister His Presence to us, and where we receive our true id...

Jesus reveals in John 17 what He prays for you, what He longs to be true of you…and its oneness.  From the beginning of creation, God’s desire was to be with you. He stopped at nothing to accomplish this aim, securing oneness with us through the blood of Jesus.   Now, the overflow of our unity with Christ is our unity with one another. Jesus said that the world would get a revelation of God’s love...

Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane gives us the ultimate framework for how to pray and live in the midst of challenging circumstances and intense temptations. He shows us how we can actually make choices that align with God’s will. A life of abiding in friendship with Jesus will transform your desires to the degree that you will be able to choose His ways. Prayer is not a means to an end or...

If Jesus is giving us a worldview in the Lord’s Prayer, the first couple of verses show us how we are to view God. The remaining verses show us how our view of God affects the way we live.   To be human is to be in need of God, we are to come to Him daily to receive what the day will require of us.  We have an enemy who intends to accuse us before God. We need the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to us...

Last week, Alex shared why we pray - for the reordering of ourselves and the world we have responsibility for.  This week we will be looking at the Lord’s Prayer to see how it is we are to pray. The Lord’s Prayer offers not just a prayer to be recited but a worldview to live into.  We have a Father who desires relationship with us before anything. We also have a God who is holy - completely other....

In Matthew 21v13 Jesus quotes the prophet Isaiah when He says “My house will be a called a house of prayer”. As a church we are going to take several weeks to lean into what it means to be a house of prayer.  In order to understand why we pray, we must first understand why the cosmos exists…  God created the earth to make a hospitable home for Him to live and rest with humans. Humans are made to t...

Last week we talked about depth in our gathering and how adding a cross to our physical space helps us view our gathering as sacred. This Sunday Alex shared about depth in our mission as the Church. Our mission cannot aim at securing cultural relevance or political power. Rather, each one of us must be faithful to sow the seeds that God has given us, and depend on His power to bring about the prom...

Every year our senior leader, Alex Rettmann, takes time to pray and think about a word that might give an aim for the coming year. This year that word is depth.  In an age where the Church is thought of as a place to help you realize your project self, we want to put front and center, the Cross.   The Cross calls to us, come and die, lay down your life and trust only in Jesus. When we answer the c...

When was the last time you were filled with wonder?    Advent invites us to remember, to long and to wake up to the reality of God with us. The incarnation of Christ is an invitation - do you want Messiah to dwell with you?    In this Sunday's teaching we look at Matthew 1:18-25 and turn our eyes again to the ceaseless wonder of Christ and the everlasting opportunity to be with God. We learn from...

In this season of Advent we contemplate two things at once - the first coming of Christ and the second. Throughout Scripture we see that both come as a surprise.  And in fact - all of God's activity in the world has been surprising.  The Christian life isn't a life of calculating but a life of wonder at the comedy of grace. God wants to take us on a trust journey of partnership to see his outrageo...

This last Sunday, Andoni wrapped up the vision series with a teaching on our last core value: we have the privilege of leaving a legacy of heaven.  Throughout the Scriptures we see the divine principle of inheritance at play: what is done in faith has consequences for the generations that are yet to come.   We have a glorious inheritance in Christ. When we live into all that He paid for - a life o...

On Sunday, one of our elders, Austin Smith, taught on our core value: we are a people filled with hope and joy. We as the Church do not define hope and joy like the rest of the world. For us, hope and joy are realities that were made available to us through Jesus’ great sacrifice on the Cross. Austin used Psalm 16 as a template for gaining the biblical perspectives of hope and joy in any life circ...

This last Sunday Bria outlined how and why our primary metaphor for the Church is family.  The family of God is a people led by the Spirit, who experience the fruit of belonging. The family of God is made up of children - defined by the freedom of dependence and teachability.  The family of God will share in Christ’s sufferings and in His glory - a people willing to go as low as He did to lay down...

As we continue in our vision series, Alex shared how the principle of honor is the gospel enacted relationally.   We are defining honor as: thinking about people the way God thinks about people. The truth is, you cannot honor if you don’t understand the degree to which God honored you through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.   When you begin to understand the value that God places on yo...

The Scriptures are authoritative and tell us the truth that leads to freedom. As we continue in our vision series we want to expand on this value in a way that will help you determine how you engage with the Scriptures.  The Bible is not a textbook for Christians, nor is it merely moral inspiration. Its complexity should not be seen as a threat, but a feature of the richness of it. In this teachin...

On Sunday, one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, taught on our core value: nothing is impossible. Through Andoni’s passage from Mark 11:12-25 we see that Jesus has specific desires for His Church. He desires for us to understand that we live between two kingdoms - heaven and earth. He desires for us to bear fruit in every season by making His house about dependence on Him for the impossible to happen...

This last Sunday we continued in our Vision Series with a teaching on our core value: We are the righteousness of God. Alex highlighted Jesus’ parable in Luke 18v9-14 where we learn that if you can go low and recognize the truth - your need for God’s mercy - you will be made righteous. If you cannot go low and you insist on obtaining your value, meaning, and reason for life by looking to others, t...

The second identity that helps us host God’s Presence well is the ache of the Bride.  All throughout Scripture the Bible gives us marriage as a picture of God’s desire for humanity and humanity’s need for God. The ache of the Bride is a strategic gift from the Holy Spirit to reveal our need for Jesus in a way that causes us to cry out for Him. We must empty ourselves of all other loves and illusio...

This last Sunday Alex gave part one of his teaching on our fourth core value: we have the privilege of hosting the Father’s Presence.  We believe the Scriptures teach that the Church is supposed to be a home for God’s Presence, an access point between heaven and earth. (1 Pet 2v4-5, Gen 28v11-17) The first identity that we want to take on as a church to host the Presence of God well, is the minist...

We come together as the church because for us there is but one God, one Lord - Jesus Christ who is worthy of our worship. This last Sunday, Bria taught on our third core value: Jesus is Lord.  Lives that speak “Jesus is Lord” are anchored in eternity with eternal priorities. Those who are anchored in eternity fear God alone - acknowledging their need for Him and refusing to live life apart from Hi...

This past weekend we had our very first all church camp out at the Oregon coast. Our senior leader, Alex Rettmann, spoke from 1 Peter 4:7-11 about the two priorities we have as we live in the last days: People and Prayer.

This last Sunday Alex kicked off our annual Fall Vision Series with a teaching on our first core value - God is good.  In the Old Testament, God declares that He is compassionate, forgiving, just, and patient. In the New Testament, we get the fullest representation of God through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.  Though our beliefs about God don’t change who He is, they radically affect...