YALA Podcast

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on February 6, 2023 and is part 4 of the series   How to Ruin Your Life.  Mr. T's most famous quote is undoubtedly "Pity the fool", and you should. We should look on someone who lives a life of complete foolishness with a pain in our own eyes at the hardship they are going to face. At the same time, you can't help but think "you di...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on January 30, 2023 and is part 3 of the series  How to Ruin Your Life .  How do I know if what I have is a bad habit or an addiction? The line gets really blurry, but it's good for us to diagnose correctly, so that we treat it appropriately. Whichever it is, both of them have two things in common. First, they are both a lack of self-control. Secondly...

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on January 23, 2023 and is the second sermon in the series  How to Ruin Your Life. Money.  We all use it. We all need access to it. But it gets us into a lot of trouble. In western culture, we have a tendency to financially ruin our middle and senior adult years during our 20's and 30's. We dig a hole so deep that we struggle to ever get out. We...

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on January 16, 2023 and is part one of the series How to Ruin Your Life.  "Do whatever you want." Is there any message that embodies Western culture like this one? "Do what you want." "Be anything you want to be." "Your truth is valid." The list goes on.  But is it right? Is this the way we SHOULD proceed with our li...

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on December 5, 2022 and is part of the series  Coffee Cup Verses .  Jeremiah 29:11 is such a well-known verse. It carries a message of prosperity and success. And though that carries a popular and encouraging message, the context of the verse sits right after a promise of captivity and destruction as a nation. Does it really mean what it seems, or are we m...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on November 14, 2022 and is the first sermon in the series Coffee Cup Verses.  Philippians 4:13. Most of us can quote it! You see it on coffee cups, shirts, sports movies... you name it! And it is certainly an incredible verse. But way too often, this verse is taken out of context and twisted to be self-seeking, when it is supposed to be incredibly Christ-...

This sermon was preached at YALA by The Porch's (Watermark) Josiah Jones on November 7, 2022.  Every person who is a Christian was met with the Gospel because of the faithfulness of someone sharing it with them. Whether that was faithfulness from a church service pulpit or faithfulness from a neighbor, the Gospel was preached. And from the moment of salvation, the purpose of our life is set b...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on October 31, 2022 and is the final part of YALA's series The Deep End. One of the pillars of Christian faith is the belief in the return of Christ. And the questions people have been consumed by revolve around Revelation 20. What is the timeline? Where are we at on the timeline? Or, maybe even more confusing, is this even a literal timeline?! There...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on October 24, 2022 and is part of YALA's series The Deep End.  Most of us have read about Jesus on the cross, but right after he dies, something strange happens. Within eyesight of Golgotha, the Holy of Holies stood at the top of the temple in the temple mount, and as Jesus dies, the veil that separated the Holy of Holies is torn from top to bottom....

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on 10/10/22 and is part 5 of the series The Deep End. Who is Jesus? How did he exist before coming as the baby in a manger? Why did he come as a human? Why now?  There are a lot more questions that arise when thinking about the incarnation than we usually acknowledge. Join in as we explore some of the deeper aspects of Jesus, his eternal nature, his divini...

This sermon was preached by YALA Director, Justin Rogers, on October 2, 2022 and is the 4th part of the series: The Deep End.  In the Old Testament, God selected his chosen people, Israel. He gave them a land and made covenants with them, but then he exiled them to a wicked nation that God called his servant. That brings up two big questions: Does God ordain evil? And does God break his promises? ...

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on 9/26/22 and is the third message YALA's series The Deep End. What are we supposed to do with the Old Testament Law? Jesus says he didn't come to abolish the law but to fulfill it. Other passages say that we are set free from the curse of the law. How do we reconcile these ideas? To do that, we have to understand the purpose of the Mosaic Law....

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on September 19, 2022 and is the second part of the series  The Deep End. " Adam and Eve eat the fruit, and sin enters the world." A kindergartener leaves Sunday School knowing that. Would we saying that the deepest the Bible goes on how sin got here is easily understood by a 5 year-old? That is hardly the case. Within Adam and Eve and the onset...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on September 12, 2022 and is the first sermon in YALA's series:  The Deep End .  We've all played Jenga, and so you understand that once you get into the game, there are certain blocks you can't pull and come out the winner. Within Christianity, there are certain pieces you can't remove and still have Christianity. One of those is the b...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on August 22, 2022 and is the final part of YALA's series The Church Jesus Started.  Jesus told his followers that they must lose their life to find it. What does that even mean?! Listen to hear how the church Jesus started understood this call to die. 

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on August 15, 2022 and is part of the series The Church Jesus Started.  Leverage is a great tool. Essentially, it allows us to do a greater work than what we could accomplish left to just our natural abilities. So our question is: how do I leverage my life for the spread of the Gospel? 

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on August 8, 2022 and is part 5 of the series The Church Jesus Started.  The book of Acts is the historical account of the spread of the early church from Jesus's ascension to Paul's final imprisonment in Rome.  This Church went from being just over a hundred people to being multi-continental in the span of a few decades. Needless to say, the chu...

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on August 1, 2022 and is part of the series The Church Jesus Started.  American Church today is characterized by pews, pulpits, and buildings. Our messages oftentimes stay within the walls. In a way, we hoard the Gospel to ourselves. But what about the early church? 

This sermon was preached by Jared Osborne on July 25, 2022 and is part 3 of the series "The Church Jesus Started".  Authenticity. Imagine if we all were authentic in our interactions with all people all the time. Christians struggle with the same thing. You feel like you gotta show a specific image, but we all know what happens. You end up being fake, and then you end up doing fake Chris...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on July 18, 2022 and is part of the series Acts: The Church Jesus Started.  This series will look at the foundations of the early church and the qualities that we see it exhibit. For this sermon, Justin looks at a church that dealt with sin. Being a Christian, it is essential to have a healthy understanding of sin, because it's why Jesus had to come. ...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on July 11, 2022 and is part of the series Acts: The Church Jesus Started.  This series will look at the foundations of the early church and the qualities that we see it exhibit. For this sermon, Justin looks at a church that was set on doing the work of God. The big question for each of us is: Am I a part of this church?  Listen to hear the work that Jesu...

This sermon was preached by Drew Burnham on June 27, 2022. Lawyer by day, Christian by life. Drew is a central figure to YALA's existence and continued growth.  There are some tough doctrines and passages of scripture to reconcile, no doubt. In this message, Drew walks through one of those: The Trinity. Our attempts to understand the mind of God will always fall short, but this look into the...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on June 20, 2022 and is part of the Let's Talk About That series. The social justice movement has been at the forefront of society in recent history. For Christians, we must uphold justice! But to use Voddie Baucham's The Princess Bride illustration: Social Justice, "You keep using that word, but I do not think it means what you think it mea...

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on June 13, 2022 and is part of the Let's Talk About That series.  Equity is a term that is being thrown about by Critical Race Theorists and those taking part in the Social Justice movement. But what is meant by "equity" in today's vernacular, and what are the implications on our society? Is equity a gospel issue? Listen to find out. 

This sermon was preached by Justin Rogers on June 6, 2022 and is part of the Let's Talk About That series.  This sermon was intended to give the audience a clear view of the origins and content of Critical Race Theory and its contrasted relationship to the Gospel of Jesus. The chief takeaway from this sermon is the firm, biblical stance that racism has no place in the body and people of Chris...