Woodland Hills Church

Cedrick Baker invites us to look at love in action as extreme measures for the welfare of the other. Reflecting on the extreme measures of the Incarnation and the Cross, we are called to bless the other at cost to ourselves. 

Paul wrote that love does not envy or boast. Yet these two practices are woven into modern life to such a degree that many cannot see any other option. Shawna Boren unpacks how envy and boasting undermine the practice of love and then shows us a better way, a way out and into agape love.

Greg Boyd teaches us that to dishonor others is to play the “king of the hill” game where everyone is trying to climb the social ladder at the expense of others. Love refuses to play the game of shaming another to benefit self. Instead, love honors others just as God honors us.

This first sermon in the “Love Does” series highlights the action of trust. Dan Kent explores the way that God trusts, the call to be trustworthy in our relationship with God and how to grow in our trust of one another. This challenge to the worldly pattern of distrust invites us to manifest love in concrete and practical ways. 

This Christmas Eve, Greg gave a short sermon starting out by exploring the question,“Who are you?” by contrasting ancient, story-based identities rooted in community, with modern identities that often lead to loneliness and emptiness. He goes on to tell “the story of us” – of a loving God who created humanity for relationship and stewardship, our fall into brokenness, and God’s persistent work of...

Christmas is a time of joy. However, the story of Jesus’ birth also includes struggles, suffering and grief. This is found specifically in the narrative of the Magi, which includes great joy and the reality of the world. Greg Boyd identifies this and provides concrete ways to deal with grief in healthy ways. 

In this sermon, Cedrick Baker explores how Old Testament prophesies speak to the coming deliverance of the Messiah. In Genesis 49:10, we see how the Messiah will come from the tribe of Judah and will establish a new kind of kingdom. In this way God promises his care and provision which gives us a sense of security.

In this sermon, Dan Kent opens up the meaning of the prophesy from Hosea 11:1 about Jesus being called out of Egypt. Dan explains how this verse speaks to God’s delight for his people and applies this delight to us and how we experience God’s love.

Greg Boyd introduces this year's Christmas series, Fulfilled . Each week during this series we are looking at Old Testament prophesies about the incarnation of Jesus. In this first sermon, Greg addresses how the Old Testament proclaims that the coming Messiah will overcome Satan and evil.

Greg Boyd clarifies the meaning of the second beast in Revelation 13, naming it as the beast of “wow and wonder,” as it aims to expand our attention on the first beast. Greg then identifies common strategies the second beast uses in our culture today, offering ways to identify these issues along with three challenges for resisting the beast.

In this sermon Greg Boyd calls us to a sober mindset about the reality of the modern-day empire. Just as Revelation originally challenged the early church to resist the empire of Rome, so too the Spirit of God calls us to resist the delusions of the modern global empire.

This sermon on the first of two beasts in Revelation 13 addresses what it means to trust God’s faithfulness in tough times and the reality of hardship. Dan Kent contrasts this with a sanitized God, who, many assume, cannot deal with the world’s evil or the spiritual warfare that is being waged.

In this sermon, Shawna Boren proclaims our hope in the midst of trials and tribulations. She announces the fact that Christ has already defeated the enemy is stronger than our struggles. And she gives us concrete action steps to stand in the midst of Christ’s victory.

Greg Boyd highlights the way of lies versus the way of truth. The way of lies is founded upon the deception of Satan that draws us into the pursuit of ascent, rising to more power, more stuff and more acclaim. The way of truth is the way of the cross, the way of the Lamb. By counting the cost of discipleship, we move toward Christ and live in love.

This sermon by Cedrick Baker addresses the reality of an unseen spiritual realm and the need for spiritual eyes to see it. We are invited to cultivate a spiritual awareness of the spiritual battle that is transpiring all around us.

In this sermon Greg Boyd introduces a new series entitled Dragon Slayers. A myriad of symbols tell about a woman who gives birth to a Messiah, while Satan seeks to destroy him. Then the woman goes into the wilderness. The focus of this sermon lies on the meaning of going into the wilderness and our calling to bring God’s love to those mired in a wilderness life. 

Shawna Boren looks at the phrase “love is not easily angered,” which is an appropriate challenge in our current culture. She names what anger is and how it undermines love. Then she gives insight into how we can navigate this emotion in healthy ways.

Dan Kent introduces the problem of pride and how it is rooted in hierarchical systems where we measure ourselves against others. We are unable to love others when we are constantly evaluating them and ourselves. We must opt out of this system and learn to see all as equals, all equally loved.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 13 that love is kind. Greg Boyd highlights kindness as a way of life that can revolutionize the world in which we live. He also calls us to slow down so that we make space in our lives for being kind and therefore live in love with one another.

This sermon challenges the pattern of selfishness as a contrast to the call to agape love. Through this teaching, we learn how selfishness undermines our call to be like Christ and practical ways we can address the selfishness that creeps into our lives. 

Greg introduces a new series on love by examining the four Greek terms that are commonly translated as the English word “love,” thus clarifying what love is and what it means to love as God does. He then takes us through the first three verses of 1 Corinthians 13 to demonstrate why love is so crucial to our walk with God.

In this closeout sermon for the Testify! series, Dan Kent surveys the key points of Revelation 10 and 11 and highlights how the testimony of the church is crucial to what God is doing in the world. He then challenges us to practice the call to Testify!

Shawna Boren walks us through the difficult images of the opening verses of Revelation 11 and demonstrates how they are connected to the truth that God’s presence protects his people in times of trial and trouble. We can be comforted because no situation that we face can ever displace us from the reach of God’s love. This was true for the early church and it is true for us today.

This passage offers an interpretive challenge to a verse that seems to say that the people of God actually commit violent acts against their enemies. However, when you look beneath the surface of this complex imagery, it actually paints a picture of the way of the cruciform Christ and how the church overcomes through peace.

This sermon explores how God invites and challenges us to take in his word, to the point of internalizing it into the depths of our souls. When we do this, we allow that truth to flow through us to others, specifically those who have not become followers of Jesus.