Word of Life Church Podcast

The gospel isn’t a plan or a theory. The gospel isn’t good advice or moral instructions. The gospel is not a collection of God-facts. The gospel is a story. It is the story of Jesus, his life, death, and resurrection. Salvation occurs at the intersection of your story and the Gospel story.

Through the storms in life, Christians since the beginning have held on to an anchor of the hope in Christ. Storms are not something we can avoid in life. So how can we make it through the storm? Looking at the gospel story of Jesus as he calms the storm, we find that we are not alone and we can ask for help in the midst of the storm.

Every life is a story unfolding. We live in a world where bad stories are told and in need of good stories. How might our life tell a good story? This sermon explores how life hinges on the details and how the God of the grand sweeping narrative of the universe is also the God of the details of every human life.

The Book of Ephesians is a densely packed letter busting at the seams with so much: the gospel, the love of God, the mystery of God revealed in the life of the church, family life, and spiritual warfare. The opening of the book, verses 3-14 of chapter 1, is a prayer of thanks and praise to God, written not to isolated individuals, but to the church. We learn that it is not so much that I am blesse...

Your life is a story and we are the stories we tell. It’s in our neurons. God has hard-wired our brains for story, which is why we all like a good story. We love to hear a story of trial and triumph, or a long satisfying journey, or the hero defeating the monster. We all love these, but storytelling is not just a way of entertainment. Telling our stories is a way to practice self-awareness. It is...

What if you only had one last sentence to speak to those closest to you? You might find the words you speak may be the most important words you've ever spoken. This sermon takes a look at the last sentence Jesus ever speaks, "I am with you Always." In doing so we see in Jesus what God is like and has always been like. Click here to Reply or Forward

If we love Jesus then it seems like we should love what Jesus loves. And what does Jesus love? The church. While the New Testament uses many metaphors to describe the church, the most helpful may be the image of church as the body of Christ, the hands and feet of Jesus in the world. Paul in 1 Corinthians 12 uses this metaphor as a way to describe our need for one another in the body of Christ. The...

Happy are the people whose strength is in God! whose hearts are set on the pilgrims’ way. –Psalm 84:5 Put plain and simple, the Christian life is a pilgrim’s journey. It’s not static, it’s not sedentary, it’s not the mere maintenance of the status quo. It 's the difficult and demanding pilgrimage of following Jesus through life. Nothing of this world (by which I mean American culture) prepares us...

How Much a Dollar Cost Kendrick Lamar How much a dollar really cost? The question is detrimental, paralyzin' my thoughts Parasites in my stomach keep me with a gut feeling, y'all Gotta see how I’m chillin' once I park this luxury car Hopping out feeling big as Mutombo "20 on pump 6" - dirty Marcellus called me Dumbo 20 years ago - can't forget Now I can lend all my ear or two how to stack these re...

The hit song Stressed Out by 21 Pilots is track 9 of Finding God on Your iPod. This song captures the desire of most modern men and women of our stressed out, anxiety-filled society. We want to go back to when things were simple and stress-free; the childhood years of life. To be stress free would be like Heaven on Earth and Jesus is inviting us into that kind of reality here and now. How might we...

"What’s So” by John Paul White is a song about the importance of being rooted. The song opens with these lines: Hole in the road Sun on your back Shoulder the load Your ancestors passed Wear on your sleeve The virtues you lack But don't get above your raising Modern society is transient. Modern work life has people moving from one place to another and many of us experience the absence of rootednes...

Mercy Please The Whistles and The Bells If we are what we eat then my future it is scary For I have been scarfing down the pages of the devil’s dictionary In my veins there’s a potent cocktail of fear and worry That will show in my soul when the test results return from its autopsy I need just a little bit more, a little bit more, a little bit more mercy please A beggar at your door, a beggar at y...

Leon Bridges claims to be "just a kid from Fort Worth, Texas." This kid, who is 25 years old, brings a sound and a soul from 60 years ago. His vintage sound and soulful songs on his first album "Coming Home" lead us to its concluding track entitled "River." Leon brings a message of light to the world as he shares from a heart that longs for redemption in the waters of baptism. It is the very Bapti...

The Strumbella's song "Spirits" has been growing in popularity because it taps into the age-old cosmic battle between good and evil, the light and the darkness, Superman and Lex Luthor, Jedis and the Sith, "spirits" and "guns." From classic Greek mythology to modern film, these themes have been played and replayed time and time again. The "spirits" are the things that give life and the "guns" are...

Rolling Stones magazine claims Lucius is the best band you've never heard of. They bring an honest lament in the beautiful vocal driven "Dusty Trails." Each of us has been told that everything will be ok in midst of our sorrow, but what do we do when everything is not ok? What happens when we arrived in a place of doubt, despair, and disappointment? This track explores how we might live in the hon...

I Will Be There Eric Clapton When times are hard and friends are few And you need someone to help you through Just call my name and I will come running to your side Don't be afraid, don't be afraid I will be there I will be there I will be there I will be there When morning comes and nothing's changed And the world outside plays the same old game Just call on me and I will ease your lonely heart D...

Burn The Witch Radiohead Stay in the shadows Cheer at the gallows This is a round up This is a low flying panic attack Sing a song on the jukebox that goes Burn the witch Burn the witch We know where you live Red crosses on wooden doors And if you float you burn Loose talk around tables Abandon all reason Avoid all eye contact Do not react Shoot the messengers This is a low flying panic attack Sin...

Her Mercy Glen Hansard When you're kneeling through the hours, And you're doubting your given powers, And when you're ready for her mercy, And you're worthy, It will come When you're sneaking round the back door, And she’s waiting for you no more, And when you're ready for her mercy, And you're worthy, It will come When the birds are just tuning up still, And the dawn breaks on your windowsill, An...

The story the Bible wants to tell is the story of a good God who created a good world that went horribly wrong. Ever since, God has been at work setting right his good world gone wrong. His plan from Abraham through Jesus was to work through his people as King to make things right. King Jesus is changing the world in particular through the holiness of his people. How we live and how we love is the...

Once upon a time the trees decided to choose a king. First the trees said to the Olive Tree, "Be our king!" But Olive Tree refused, saying, "Should I quit producing my olive oil that blesses both God and people, just to wave back and forth over the trees?" Then they said to the Fig Tree, "You be our king!" But Fig Tree also refused, saying, "Should I quit producing my sweet fruit just to wave back...

When we are at critical crossroads in our lives and we are faced with two doors and we are unsure which way to go, the truth is there is not a “right” door in terms of the will of God, as if God is only behind one door. One of the surprising things about following Jesus is we discover God is behind every door. Even if we walk through the door bearing a sign saying: "Sin and Destruction," we can fi...

The American church should spend the next one hundred years emphasizing two things: Contemplation and Transformation. One of the most serious maladies infecting Western/American Christianity is that we’ve made Christianity non-contemplative (reactive) and transactional. Our reputation for deep anger and shallow religion are symptoms of this. To move away from industrialized soul care to artistic s...

The Life of A Great Sinner was to be the title of Fyodor Dostoevsky's sequal to The Brothers Karamazov – a book that was never completed. In this sermon "The Life of A Great Sinner" is the story of Zacchaeus – the short tax collector who climbed a tree so he could see Jesus, the "wee little man" of the Sunday School song. But describing Zacchaeus as a "wee little man" is probably misleading. Roman...