Woodland Hills Church

In this week of the Loose Ends sermon series Greg looks at the Parable of the Wedding Banquet. He shares some general principles for understanding parables and addresses common misconceptions. Here we see that God is not like a violent, unjust king, but rather a God who lovingly invites all to a banquet he graciously prepares.

What do we do when Jesus is the 'loose end'? What are those sections in the Gospel that we can have a tendency to gloss over? What words of Jesus do you hear and sort of cringe about? This starts with being honest with the text rather than avoiding, minimizing, reducing or dismissing.

Osheta continues our look at 'loose ends' of scripture that often get overlooked or dismissed because of their seeming exclusiveness and contradiction. This week's installment examines Jesus' comments about parables and why they were one of his key methods of teaching. At the heart of it all is the question of who the Kingdom of God is for, and what is being asked of us to ente...

This week we look at a passage that some Jehovah Witnesses and Mormons use a lot, 1 Corinthians 15:25-29, and we end up digging into the reasons for our belief in the divinity of Christ, as well as the Mormon practice of proxy baptism and our own practice of adult baptism.

This week in the sermon series Loose Ends, our friend Dr. Sandra Unger explores the often quoted Psalm, "be still and know that I am God." Sandra shares what the command to be still means in the Biblical context and how paying attention to God changes our whole approach to life.

This week Greg taught on Romans 13, a Scripture that has been in the news recently when Attorney General Jeff Sessions used it as basis for why the American government is separating children from their families at the southern border. This passage, although helpful for us to understand how to respect the authority of earthly government in matters of polices, law and order, is not the final word fo...

In this sermon we continue our look in to scripture passages that often get dismissed because of their obscurity, seeming contradiction, or relative weirdness. This week Greg examined Exodus 4:19-28 which describes a strange encounter Moses and Zipporah had with God on their way from Midian to Egypt involving threat of death, circumcision, and the smearing of blood. This encounter, although interp...

Today we started our new summer series called Loose Ends, which works to "make sense of the verses we skip". Since we shared communion together this week, we focused on a strange verse related to communion -- 1 Corinthians 11:27-32.

In week three of our Nothing to Lose series Greg provides some guiding principles for living a life of generosity modeled after the example of the sacrifice and life of Jesus.

Our culture tells us that success means gaining more money and more possessions. But the Kingdom that Jesus summons us into rejects this system. In the second week of our "Nothing to Lose" series, Greg shows us that in God's Kingdom, our treasure is stored up when we give it away.

In this first sermon in our new 'Nothing to Lose' series, we explore contentment and generosity. We are constantly bombarded with advertisements and not so subtle innuendo that we should be discontent with what we have. This environment we find ourselves in strongly challenges the kingdom call to live out of a center of contentment and cultivate a heart full of generosity. In this messag...

In previous weeks we discussed the evidence that our consciousness persists in the interim stage between death and resurrection. But what exactly goes on there, before resurrection? Are we made perfect and pure enough to enter the kingdom instantly, or do we have to continue our growth in Christ?

What is your conception of heaven? Is it a place to which you escape when you die? Something only for the future and not for the present? In the fourth week of our Non-Perishable sermon series, our friend David Morrow explores the idea of heaven as the coming Kingdom in which we participate here and now, and the eternal Emmanuel - God with us.

In this third sermon in our Non-Perishable series, guest speaker Osheta Moore shares how anxiety and fear surrounding death can be overcome through looking to Christ, who shared in our death.

This is the second message in our series "Non-Perishable", where we're exploring death from a Kingdom perspective. This week, Greg explains the evidence for life after death, why Heaven may not be what we thought, and how to gain a more beautiful picture of life after death. Greg played a song during his message, you can find that here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekZ187l-Vn8

In our new series entitled 'Non-Perishable' we start by exploring why death is such a foreign concept in our culture, and why having a proper perspective on it is so important for our theology and life in the present age. Confusing the works of Satan with the works of God can have tragic consequences to our worldview and interpretations of what comes to pass in our lives, including death...

The world around us is wrought with pain and suffering. Amidst this reality it can often be difficult to find a sense of hope. To fully appreciate the incomprehensible glory that is going to be revealed to us, we first need to appreciate the full magnitude of the sufferings of this present age. As we engage with the painful news of our world, we turn our eyes to the coming hope that is grounded in...

In ancient Rome, death by crucifixion was designed for extreme pain and extreme shame. It was important for criminals to feel the weight of their crime, and for spectators to fear what would happen to them if they did something wrong. But Jesus, who had done no wrong, chose to take on the shame of the cross. He knew that his sacrificial death would free us from the shame we carry. We gathered on G...

We wrapped up our Sure. sermon series with a Q&A hosted by Greg Boyd and Paul Eddy. The audio and video media files contain questions and answers from all three of our services on March 24/25, 2018.

In Week 5 of our "Sure." series (where we are honestly wrestling with challenges that our post-modern, post Christian, pluralistic culture presents to our faith), Greg addresses the (apparent) imperfections, errors, and contradictions in the Bible, and shows that they don't distract from it being God-breathed... but contribute to it.

Today we answer the question of why believe in God? Is this like believing in the Easter Bunny? Isn't it illogical and improbable that there would be a personal being out there who created everything and loves the world and every living creature? Our answer: No! When you look at the facts, it's actually MORE logical that the above is true than not.

In this third chapter of our Sure. series we come to Jesus. Who is He? How do we know what we know about Him? Why do we believe it to be true? What are the critiques of the Christian belief in Jesus as a historical figure and what are the rational arguments in favor of the orthodox view of Jesus as Lord? In this message Greg explores these questions and others while explaining what it means to &qu...

What is faith? In what should our faith be anchored? Does our faith stand upon the various church doctrines and dogmas? In this sermon Shawna explores the meaning of faith, that the root which grounds our faith is not our belief system, but the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ crucified is the cornerstone of our faith. What is faith? In what should our faith be anchored?...

In the first sermon in our 'Sure.' series, Greg examines the nature of truth. Is all truth subjective? Is all morality relative? In western culture a premium is placed on tolerance. Greg explains the history of this movement and ultimately how it squares with the teachings of Christ.

During this final sermon in our Next Level Relationships series, Greg and Kevin have a conversation where we learn about the cycle of conflict. They discuss why we find it so easy to get pulled in, and more importantly, some tools from Jesus that we can use to short-circuit the cycle.