Westview Church Podcast

If you have a solid, reliable move to juke around your opponent on the soccer pitch, stick with it. Having only one move can do the trick. Yet beware of sin's one move: deceit. When you give yourself to sin, what lie are you believing? Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation for more.

Facebook says social media and "faith communities" are both fundamentally about connection. Really? Is it? Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on 1 Peter 3:18-22 where Peter makes the connection between what we are fundamentally about and our call to suffer for doing good.

Light pollution obscures the natural wonder of a clear night sky that exists to declare to declare the glory of God. Nearly any idolatry or sin can be traced back to a failure to honor God as the one who is the Creator of this splendor. Listen to Brian Wiseman's exhortation for more.

Winston Churchill famously summoned his countrymen to a firm resolve in the harrowing days of the Battle of Britain. While our struggle to press on in the Christian life may not always be as visibly threatening, it is nonetheless far more perilous. Listen to Pastor Jason Harrison, from Redeemer Bible Church, call us to stand firm in the Lord.

Early morning meetings and commitments that go late into the evening can eat away at the margins of our day. And when multiple days in a row are like that, it can be increasingly challenging to make room for Bible reading and prayer. And yet that is the very thing we need—we need to make time to get alone with God. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.

Christians limp along in this fallen world due to sin and suffering, yet we do so in the hope of a holy Christ. Listen to Jonathon Woodyard, Dean of Admissions at Bethlehem College & Seminary, show from 1 Peter 3:13-17 how Jesus is on our side in the midst of trouble.

Country music and Christians sometimes can share something in common: a love for nostalgia. There can be the sense of loving how things used to be, when instead we need to look ahead to how they could be. We do that by playing more offense. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.

Benjamin Franklin notably made an earnest effort at self-improvement by compiling a list of thirteen virtues, keeping tabs each day on how well he lived them out. When we come across a list of virtues or exhortations on how to live, we don't follow Franklin's example. Rather, we make grace-driven effort to apply the gospel by faith to our lives. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on 1 Peter 3:8-12 fo...

When a teacher calls on students to pull a piece of paper out for a pop quiz, a common question is, "Will this count for our final grade?" Yes, it all counts. How much more so is it true in the Christian life? Every day, every moment, has an impact on eternity. Listen to Pastor Dan's exhortation for more.

There's a Latin phrase that has been said to capture the essence of the Christian life: coram Deo. It means to live as though you are in the presence of God. Live knowing God sees. When it comes to our roles and responsibilities within marriage, we carry them out coram Deo. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on 1 Peter 3:1-7 for more.

What might camping up north and prayer have in common? Proper expectations are needed for both. Lots of variables come into play when camping, especially with kids. Properly calibrated expectations help the trip go well. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for what expectations we ought to bring to prayer.

What motivates you to do something you don't really want to do? Reward? Removal of consequences? Internal drive to be the best? Guilt? As Peter makes his second application to how Christians ought to relate to authority, he gives a strong, two-fold motivator by pointing to our calling and Christ's example. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.

When the fog won't lift and the joy of the Lord you once knew seems distant, where do you turn? It is for those hard times that we must treasure the Word in the good times. Listen to Pastor Dan's exhort us as an outflow of his months of hardship.

God was wondrously made a new people who are united by faith through the death and resurrection of Jesus. As a new nation, citizens of another country, what do we do with those people in this place of our exile who are in authority over us? In particular, how do we now relate to the government? Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on 1 Peter 2:13-17.

Children scooting ever closer to the birthday girl opening presents illustrates our own hearts on seeing the blessings of others. Yet our hearts are more sinister. The problem with our covetous hearts is we are trying to satisfy our longings with what only can be accomplished through redemption. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.

Pastor Dan stepped back from his pastoral responsibilities in March of this year after a taxing struggle with COVID. However, the struggle was not merely physical as it quickly took on a spiritual dynamic. He wrestled with many of the challenges of depression until more recently when the darkness finally lifted. Listen to him share about the past few months and the Lord's faithfulness in the midst...

If you're going to put a fence in, you need dig deep to set the fence posts in correctly. That way they can stand up under the weight of the fence and the pressures of changing seasons. Peter wants to set us deep by teaching us about who we are as a new people in Christ so that we will endure in faithfulness. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.

When we move towards other people to seek to further invest in and develop the relationship—whether in marriage, at work, with neighbors—we will encounter conflict. This is no different in the church. However, we must handle conflict in a way consistent with the gospel. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.

We don't need any help craving. From the moment of our birth, we yearning for things. Some desires are good and proper, like that of a newborn for milk. It is proper to desire life-sustaining nourishment. Other thirsts are ... not so good. This is why we must reorient on the gospel that we would be fed with all that God intends so that we would persevere through our exile. Listen to Pastor Brett's...

A skinny chef. An honest politician. A mechanic with clean hands. The descriptions don’t exactly match the role. Neither does “ungodly evangelist.” In our zeal to press into the joyful mission, we can focus on all the right arguments and tactics yet overlook the basic call to be a Christ-like witness. If we are going to make a winsome call to the world of the hope of the gospel, we must live like...

Our culture is confused about love. Two common directions the confusion goes is toward an overly emotive view that is all about butterflies in your stomach. Another direction is toward moral relativism; "love is love." Both confused directions have the self at the center. However, the clear teaching of God's Word points us another direction: love sincerely from a pure heart. Listen to Pastor Brett...

After spending 100 days completely alone in the wilderness as part of a reality TV show, the winner reflected on the moment. Over the course of his isolation, he shared how he loved being alone. Yet at the victory, he reflects on the most significant relationship of his life. God did not make us to be alone but to press into relationships. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.

The HMS Queen Elizabeth is a new, state-of-the-art British aircraft carrier that powers its propellers in a new way. The engines are located throughout the ship and massive electrical lines power the propellers. Sailors have to be focused when they're in a compartment with the electrical lines; a wrong move could be fatal. It's a situation where familiarity breeding contempt could be very dangerou...

It would be insanity for a driver to turn the rearview mirror while driving to only be able to see her own face and gaze directly into the mirror, being unconcerned with where she is going or what's happening on the road. Such is the folly of pride, regardless of the form it takes. Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation to turn the mirror.

Peter tells us at the end of his first epistle that he wrote the letter to declare and exhort his readers concerning the true grace of God. This is evident earlier in the letter as declares the truth of the gospel written of by the prophets and exhorts us to have thoughtful hope and consistent holiness. Listen to Pastor Haakon's sermon on 1 Peter 1:10-16 for more.