Woodland Hills Church

Jesus' life and ministry were characterized by prayer. Why did he pray as he did, and what does that tell us about why we should pray? In this sermon, Meghan Good explores this topic and helps us see the importance of spiritual practices to our life in God.

In this introductory sermon to a new series on spiritual practices, Greg lays the foundation for why we embrace such practices by identifying narratives that undermine our adopting them, and proposing a biblical narrative that will naturally and organically compel us to make them part of our lives.

The final teaching of this series is a panel conversation with Bronwyn Lea on the topic of church as family, where Shawna Boren and Emily Morrison explore how the church can move into this experience in everyday life.

This panel conversation between Greg Boyd, Shawna Boren, Paul Eddy and Emily Morrison addresses questions that have been submitted during the series on friendship.

In this sermon, Shawna Boren addresses the question: how do we practice friendship in our culture? She identifies common cultural practices that serve as roadblocks to friendship and then provides five relationship builders that will open up opportunities for cultivating connections with others.

In this sermon, Emily Morrison lays out the biblical teaching of the church as family and what this could look like in modern Western culture where church family is often little more than shaking hands and sharing a periodic pot-luck.

Historically, intimate friendship was valued in the church and in the broader culture. This sermon provides a basic overview of why spiritual friendship is so important and why we need to build it into our lives today.

God has invited us to be his friends, but what does that actually mean? And how is being God's friend actually a more mature relationship than being his servant? This sermon addresses these questions and challenges our common notions of friendship with God.

This panel discussion concludes the four-part series on participating with God in order to share his love with the world. The panel participants provide a new imagination for how we can share Christ with others.

How do we share the gospel in a culture that does not recognize or value the Bible or Christian traditions? The Apostle Paul dealt with this in his day, and his approach serves as a model for us today.

As members of God's church, we are called to share the gospel in every part of our lives. Our family is central to our daily lives, but we often don't think about how we can intentionally live out the gospel in that setting. This sermon addresses this topic.

Technology is a great thing, but it has unintended consequences. What are the consequences of moving church to live-streaming and how should we respond? This sermon explores two options that lie before us.

This sermon employs the image of us sitting next to God in a marriage counseling session so that we might view God as our marriage partner and grow in love with each other.

What did Jesus mean when he told us to be perfect? This sermon addresses this question and shows us how we most often miss Jesus' point.

This panel discussion addresses practical issues that pertain to Jesus' teaching on enemy love.

To love our enemy, we must understand two core issues. First, we can only love when we are allowing Christ to meet our core needs. Secondly, all people share the same basic core needs, but they fall into the trap of trying to meet them in false ways. 

Jesus' teaching style draws you in with something you "think" you know, and then just turns it on its head. He was literally challenging the common thinking of the day.

Jesus taught us to love our enemies. While central to everything he taught, the church has long evaded its straight-forward implications. What then are we to do with his words?

How do we respond to evil? There are three options: We can respond in kind, we can cower to it, or we can opt for Jesus' third option. This sermon explores the third option and challenges us to combat the evil of our world by offering an unexpected response.

God's complete Kingdom that is coming in the future overlaps with the present reality of the world. In the midst of this overlap, we are called to live out the future in the present life that in reality, falls short of God's Kingdom vision.

When we pray "as it is in heaven," what does this actually mean? What are the characteristics of heaven? This sermon addresses this question by identifying the Kingdom as radically forgiving, radically welcoming and radically peaceful. 

The Kingdom of God is the present realization of God's fully redeemed future, and the coming of the Spirit upon the church is the primary means for seeing the present Kingdom come.

Please note that this message has some "PG-13" content that may not be suitable for kids. This panel discussion serves as a wrap-up to the series on sex, marriage and singleness, as the panelists address practical issues around these topics.

Jesus' words about divorce appears to provide a technical reason for justifying the breaking of the marriage covenant. Is this what this passage really means, or is there something more significant that Jesus was saying? This sermon provides an unexpected answer to this question.

In this sermon, Greg challenges the modern myth of romantic love, providing three reasons why it derails us from entering into a biblical view of marriage. Also, Emily Morrison provides a reframe for understanding how singleness plays a part in God's family.