Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast

On Sunday Alex taught through the story in Luke 9v10-17 where Jesus feeds the five thousand.   In this story Jesus is giving a lesson about who gets used by God and why. What’s so interesting about this passage is that who is asked by Jesus is not who is used by Jesus. The little boy with his loaves and his fish showed us that God uses those who are available, those who really trust that He has so...

This last Sunday one of our good friends Kenny Snyder shared with us what it means to pilgrimage with the Lord. We are all on a pilgrimage in this life towards our true self in Christ. It is a journey for the love of Christ.    Pilgrimage teaches us to stay connected to God in every season, so that we grow in dependence on Him. Like the Scriptures say, “whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose...

This last Sunday, one of our Saints’ Hill missionaries, Mariah, took us through Luke 9v1-12 and shared testimonies with us from her time in Barcelona.   In this passage of Scripture we get a template for how Christ sends us on mission. Mission should always be initiated by intimacy with God. Just like In Acts 2, we are to urgently wait on the Lord, and go in the power of His Spirit. We are instruc...

On Sunday, we got to hear from Austin and Breanna Smith on what it means to be unoffendable.  The reality is there’s no shortage of ways to be offended in life. We live in a world with human beings, so the potential to be offended will always exist. But Jesus has more for us, He is the solution and the one we must turn to if we want to see this cycle of offense end. How we choose to think when our...

This last Sunday we were joined by a guest speaker, Rev. Beau Brumley. Beau picked up where we left off, in Luke 8.    Up until this point in Luke’s account, we’ve seen Jesus demonstrate His power over nature and over the demonic. In Luke 8v40-56 Jesus demonstrates His power over sickness and death by healing the woman who touched the fringe of His garment, and raising Jairus’ daughter from the de...

In Luke 8v26-39 Jesus exhibits another aspect of His authority as the Creator, this time over the demonic. This story certainly validates Jesus’ divinity, but the story itself is also a kingdom description, with beliefs attached to it that we are supposed to acquire through reading.   On Sunday, we focused in on what the demonic does to a person, and what Jesus will do about it.   The Bible recogn...

This last Sunday, Alex taught on the famous passage in Luke 8v22-25 where Jesus calms the storm on the boat.   There’s so many ways one can draw meaning from this passage, and you’ve probably heard most of them. On Sunday, we focused in on Jesus’ question to the disciples after He calms the storm, “Where is your faith?” When Jesus asks this question, He isn’t asking what sort of ideas you believe,...

This last Sunday we jumped back into our Luke series. Alex taught on Luke 8v19-21 and what it means to be a disciple in God’s family.   From Jesus’ words in this passage we glean that we are not disciples in mind only, rather, what we believe will be seen by what we do. The only way to really know if the words of God have been heard is if they are acted upon. Someone whose actions are in congruenc...

How much of your life do spend living out of insecurity? Think of how you’d be freed up to live for the kingdom if you weren’t constantly stumbling over who you’re not...   On Sunday we got to hear from our Worship Director, Jake Vigil, on the love of the Father.    God is looking for a church that is free because He has things He wants to do and release on the earth through us - and the love of t...

This last Sunday we wrapped up our Pentecost series with a teaching on prophecy. In 1 Corinthians 14 Paul says that we should eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit, especially prophecy. So what is prophecy? Prophecy is speaking saved. It’s looking at a world full of mess and choosing to see it the way God sees it. We are made in the image of someone who spoke and a whole world came into existence...

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus and it’s up to the same stuff that Jesus was up to: spiritually saving, physically healing, and demonically delivering. This last Sunday Alex taught on the gifts of the Spirit, as primarily mentioned in 1 Corinthians 12. In this passage Paul describes the many gifts that come from the Holy Spirit. These gifts will always lead to Jesus and His lordship, while...

God wants you free from the influence of lesser gods. They uncreate you, forcing endless production and sacrifice while under-delivering identity and peace. The results of their un-creation are bondage, addiction, anxiety, and fear. But where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. You were called to be free. This last Sunday Alex taught on the Spirit’s freedom. In Romans 7 Paul describes the...

Last week we began our Pentecost series talking about the mission of the Holy Spirit in our lives and how we depend on the Holy Spirit to see the works of the enemy destroyed. This week Alex walked us through a biblical theology of the Holy Spirit.   We see all throughout the Scriptures that we exist not just in the physical world but in the spiritual world. There are spiritual beings who do not s...

These next few weeks leading up to Pentecost we’re going to spend time talking about the third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit.  On Sunday Alex shared with us some of his own journey, of going from quenching the Holy Spirit to complete surrender to the Holy Spirit. His point: you were not designed to live in theory…you were designed to live in power.  When you have the Holy Spirit in your l...

This last Sunday we had the privilege of hearing from one of our leaders, Laura Sharp. Laura spoke from John 18 about the restorative love of Jesus. We learn a lot about Jesus from this text. We learn that Jesus knew the pain of betrayal, he even willingly chose it. He invested in people He knew were going to break His heart. What does that say about Him? It says that He knew what it was to be lov...

There is only one way to see God, and it’s through Jesus. This last Sunday, one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, spoke on what it means to live by faith. Jesus was never afraid to call out lies, and as Christians we have the responsibility to judge any idea that sets itself up against the way of Jesus. Seasons of life and cultural ideas, whether inherently good or bad, can offer you an identity that...

This last Sunday we celebrated the Resurrection and spent time reflecting on the message of Jesus’ kingdom. The simple message of the kingdom of Jesus begins with the repentance of sin. We have a designer who gave us purpose, function, and meaning when he created us. When we decide that we can play god in our lives, we participate in our own un-design, or de-forming - sin. We all need the Real Des...

In January, we felt like God was inviting us into a year of radical dependence on Him. This last Sunday Jake Vigil brought us a word from the book of Proverbs that really breaks down how to depend on God. The first thing we realize is that this kingdom we’re invited to participate in doesn’t operate the way the world around us does. The world’s keys to a good life are to accumulate knowledge, eart...

This last Sunday we ended our series on Discipleship with a teaching from Romans 5, and asked the question: what does it look like to reign in life as a disciple? The disciple who reigns in life is unafraid to die, lives as a powerful child, and doesn’t need to control others to be okay. All of this matters to us because we are here to be the fruit of Newberg’s future - that they would get a taste...

Every church needs a working definition on how people become more like Jesus. If this family defines discipleship as the relational invitation to make your identity visible, we must: see God correctly - as a Father-partner and a Father-pruner, steward our mental worlds by agreeing with truth, and lastly - offer our bodies as living sacrifices.    When we do things with our bodies we do things with...

If seeing God correctly is the first step to lasting change in the life of the disciple, then the second step is stewarding your mind — changing what you allow to be believed. Simply put: we are in bondage when we believe lies. We are set free when we believe truth. Our behavior reveals our feelings, our feelings reveal our fears, and our fears reveal our beliefs. We can’t change how we feel, but...

How do you change? How does someone become more like Christ? This question is key to understanding the journey of the disciple as we move from fear to love. The first step in changing, in becoming more like Jesus, is seeing God correctly. The primary way we see Jesus interacting with God, is as a Father. Even further, there are two specific ways we get fathered by God that produce lasting change i...

This last Sunday we continued in our series on discipleship, exploring the idea of what it means to be unafraid sons and daughters who are able to rule in love alongside Christ for the renewal of the world. The vision statement over every human being is to rule alongside God (Gen 1v26) — to be the royal representation of God here on earth. What you believe, or who you trust, will determine whether...

This last Sunday we began a new series on discipleship. Alex taught us through Colossians 3v1-17 and posed the question, what is the life of the disciple supposed to look like? Our working definition of discipleship is - the relational invitation to make your identity visible. It requires effort, intentionality, and thoughtfulness, but its foundation is love. You can only change to the degree that...

What is the relationship between faith and works? This last Sunday, Chris presented us with the variety of perspectives that the authors of the Scriptures give on this relationship. How do we live within the tension that what we do doesn’t matter at all, yet what we do matters a lot? If our faith is a living thing, which the biblical authors seem to suggest, then perhaps the solution is to get as...