WestGate Church Teaching

AFTERWORD DESCRIPTION  Miley Cyrus, in her song “Flowers” - the biggest hit of 2023 - told us that she didn’t need *anyone* else in her life to make her happy. Andy Gridley stops by to go back in time to traipse through all the “I am better off without you” empowerment songs from 1978 until today. Also, “I am better off alone!” might make for fun song lyrics, but it’s terrible life advice. We talk...

In a world where a lot of people have doubts and suspicions (some quite fair and founded) about the Church, the Apostle’s Creed offers up a fascinating invitation “I believe in the holy Church and the Communion of Saints.” The invitation to deep, sacrificial, Jesus-centered friendship might not always be natural, or easy, but it’s central to our spiritual lives. And it brings life in ways we can’t...

After the Apostle’s Creed talks about God the Father and Jesus, it turns to the third member of the Trinity – the Holy Spirit. But this can be confusing. Is the Holy Spirit an impersonal “force”? Is it a feeling? In this message, we examine the often-misunderstood Holy Spirit - how this member of the Trinity is talked about in Scripture, the role He plays in our daily lives to empower us – and how...

AFTERWORD DESCRIPTION  Hey kids!  Let’s talk about hell and judgment! Archie Jackson and David Kim stop by to talk about why they each lost sleep trying to tackle the two most confusing clauses in the Apostle’s Creed - that Jesus “descended into hell” and that He will come back to “judge the living and the dead.” What does that mean? We talk about the difference between the words the Bible uses to...

Two of the most puzzling lines in the otherwise fairly straightforward text of the Apostle’s Creed is that Jesus died and then “descended into Hell” and that He will “judge the living and the dead.” These phrases are not only confusing, but also require some unpacking. What does it mean that Jesus went to hell? And what does it mean that he’ll judge everyone? Is that something to be frightened of?...

AFTERWORD DESCRIPTION  No one likes being bossed around.  Even little kids will buck against it, saying things like, “You’re not the boss of me” or “You’re not my mom.”  But the second line of the Apostle’s Creed says that Jesus is not only God, but the Apostles call him “Lord.”  In a real way, they’re saying, “Jesus IS the boss of me.”  David Kim stops by to talk about the implication of the phra...

The largest section of the Apostle’s Creed is about Jesus. In fact, roughly 65 percent of the words are about Jesus. It’s clear this creed is not about doctrine, but a person. And the second line of the creed has the Apostles saying that Jesus is their “Lord.” This means not only deep personal attachment to Jesus, but allegiance to Him and only Him, above all others. But why? Why does Jesus demand...

AFTERWORD DESCRIPTION The second line of the Apostle’s Creed states (beautifully) that God is both powerful and a father. But what if your experience with both “father” has been anything but good? And what you’ve seen power abused, in tragic ways that have brought real suffering? Christina Papoulias stops by to talk about how toxic environments can warp our view of God Himself, and that can impact...

In the second line of the Apostle’s Creed, it says “I believe in God the Father Almighty.”  In the Scriptures, it’s clear that God not only has a deep, loving, tender Father’s heart, but *wants* to be known to us as Father.  But for many people, bad examples from our earthly Fathers can distort our view of God Himself, forming an emotional blockade to the kind of relational connectedness we’re inv...

The world - if anything - is pretty unstable. Not just geopolitically, or economically, but even personally. Our own lives are pretty unstable. And yet, in an unstable world, followers of Jesus stand on the sound and secure foundation of a story that has been unchanging since Christ’s resurrection and ascension. In a culture saturated by pundits, personalities, influencers, followers of Jesus can...

AFTERWORD DESCRIPTION If someone were to ask you, “What do you believe?” you probably wouldn’t be able to answer. “What do I believe about what?” you might say. Or more often than that, we are busy with life, and don’t really even give that question much thought. But sometimes, life forces us to answer that important question. When the world falls apart, and the sky seems to come crashing down, we...

There’s a lot of talk in our world about the “power of positive thinking” - and even secular scholars talk about the importance of spending time in gratitude each day. In Philippians 4, Paul talks about the power of what we think about - and how what we choose to focus on actually has an impact on how we experience life. Lisa Averill stops by to talk about Paul’s advice, how it can lead to the dis...

Lisa Averill

In Philippians 3, Paul uses a phrase that at first blush seems quite inflammatory. He says that many people “live as enemies of the Cross of Christ” - a phrase which seems to create an “us” vs. “them” mentality. But this is reductionistic. The truth is, all of us have the choice to live like that. We do this when we lean on worldly wisdom over Godly wisdom, religious tradition over the way of Jesu...

It’s a pretty common rhetorical tactic these days - you can win an argument if you say that the other person is either 1. Just like Hitler or 2. Just like the anti-Christ. But in Philippians 3, Paul actually says that it’s possible to live as an enemy of the Cross of Christ. This is a serious charge. But what does it mean? Does it mean you don’t believe the right things? Or say the right things? O...

In the book of Philippians, Paul uses a *very* strong word to make a dramatic theological point. In fact, many scholars think it was a vulgar word that meant “poop” or “filth.” Does that mean that we should act like immature junior high boys? Absolutely! Mark Averill stops by to talk with Dave about Paul’s dramatic language, why he chooses that word, and the broader point Paul is trying to make. W...

Author David Foster Wallace once spoke about the gnawing sense that we live in a rat race searching for something that will give us meaning. And in the Bay Area, the answer to the question, “What do I need to feel okay about myself and life” is frequently answered with “achievement.” Although this might have looked different 2000 years ago, the Apostle Paul also understood this drive to “be” and “...

Janet Jackson once famously asked “what have you done for me lately?”  And although the sentiment behind this sentence is vastly different, the Apostle Paul also employs this line of questioning to the Church of Philippi, encouraging them to truly examine - really meditate on - all that God has done for them.  But, Paul says, that activity shouldn’t be a mere mental exercise.  It should change us....

Midway through his letter, Paul encourages the young church family of believers at Philippi to “work out their salvation with fear and trembling.” This term “work out” can make us nervous. Is our salvation dependent upon how good of “work” we do? Because if so, uh oh! But Paul makes it clear that it’s God who does the work in us, through us and for us. Paul isn’t talking about working for or earni...

You don’t have to be a sociologist to see that selfishness and self-centeredness seem to be the default setting for us humans. Left to ourselves, people (often) use other people for their own gain. Ruth Nazanin BetEivaz stops by to talk about Philippians 2 and Paul’s incredible passage about the staggering humility of Jesus. We chat about how humility shows up in our world, why it’s so attractive...

The Silicon Valley is a place of chasing. Chasing success. Chasing more. Chasing upward movement. But this relentless pace can be utterly exhausting. In contrast to this, Paul says that Jesus provides a different model of what it means to be human and find life. And counterintuitively - Jesus shows us that true life is found not by climbing the ladder for your own gain, but by descending in humili...

As children of the 80s, things have changed *quite a bit* in the realm of civic politics for David and Jay. We chat about how changes in technology have shifted the way that people engage with politics - and how that’s not always for the better. We talk about what it means to follow Paul’s instructions in Philippians 1 to “live as citizens of the gospel of King Jesus.” And finally, we discuss auth...

When Paul was writing the letter to the church at Philippi, a man named Nero was Caesar. Nero’s favorite titles were “Lord” and “Savior” and his demands of allegiance were total. To declare any other emperor (or king) as lord or savior was dangerous. But that’s exactly what Paul goes all around the empire doing. And Paul’s message to the Philippians is clear: living as citizens of God’s kingdom me...

Hey! It’s a gift from God that no one in their right mind wants! Suffering! Join David Tieche and David Kim as they dive into the Biblical theme of suffering, both in the life of Jesus and in perhaps the most famous Biblical story of suffering: Job. The “Davids” talk about why we run from suffering (and the common ways we do so) and why suffering is such a powerful tool for spiritual development i...

If there’s one certainty in life, it’s that disease, death and disappointment will visit you. And yet, nobody wants to hear that. Let alone deal with that reality. Our secular world - whose consumerist culture screams messages that the goal of life is comfort and pleasure - is simply *terrible* at helping us cope with pain and suffering. In the middle of this, the ancient words of the Apostle Paul...