First Bentonville Podcast

Family 101 | Wk 1 Pastor Chris Dixon "Jesus At Home" This week's message, "Jesus At Home" (Ephesians 6:1–4), challenged us to remember that it's often easiest to look like a Christ-follower at church, but home is where our faith is truly tested and formed. We talked about the difference between obedience (what we do) and honor (how we do it), and how God calls families to live under Christ's autho...

Marriage 101 | Week Two Pastor Chris Dixon "The Power of Love" What does it look like to truly love your spouse the way Jesus loves? In Ephesians 5:25–33, we see that Christlike love is sacrificial, personal, and covenantal—a love that serves, protects, nourishes, pursues, and seeks the spiritual good of another person. Biblical marriage isn't a competition to see whose needs get met first; it's t...

Marriage 101 | Week One Pastor Chris Dixon "Stop Keeping Score" A healthy marriage isn't built on keeping score, winning arguments, or trying to control one another. In Ephesians 5, Paul points husbands and wives toward something greater: surrendering themselves to Christ and allowing Him to shape the way they love, serve, sacrifice, forgive, and lead. In this message, we unpack biblical submissio...

Walk This Way | week Ten Pastor Chris Dixon "Walking In Fullness" In Ephesians 5:18–21, Paul calls us to "walk wisely" by refusing anything that controls us outside God's will and instead being continually filled with the Holy Spirit. What controls us shapes our life and relationships—so we must keep yielding areas like pride, anger, lust, bitterness, and selfishness to God's leadership. A Spirit-...

Walk This Way | Week Nine Pastor Chris Dixon "WAKE UP & WISE UP" In "Wake Up & Wise Up" (Ephesians 5:11–17), Paul calls us to be intentional and reflective about how we live—awake, not careless or spiritually asleep. We're invited to walk in the light by letting God's Word guide our steps, and to refuse partnership with darkness by honestly exposing sin rather than hiding it. Sin always over-promi...

Walk This Way | Week Eight Pastor Chris Dixon "Walk As Light" In Ephesians 5:3–10, we're reminded that believers were once defined by darkness, but now are Light in the Lord —so our lives should have a new direction. Sin (especially sexual sin, impurity, greed, and corrupt speech) isn't just "breaking rules," but reveals what we worship and what governs our desires. Grace is not permission to stay...

God sometimes leads us into "dead ends" and disappointing "pit stops" not to punish us, but to reveal what's in our hearts and grow us spiritually. In Exodus 15, Israel reached Marah—water was present but bitter—exposing bitterness and unbelief through grumbling instead of prayer. The message reminds us that God is not only Deliverer, but Jehovah Rapha , our Healer, who can turn bitter places swee...

Walk this Way | Week Seven Pastor Chris Dixon "Walk in Love" Walking in love isn't something we fall into—it's an intentional, continual, visible way of life rooted in imitating God as beloved children (Ephesians 5:1–2). Biblical love is self-giving and costly, modeled by Christ's sacrifice, and it shows up in real, everyday decisions. When our love reaches a sacrificial level, it becomes worship—...

Walk This Way | Week Six Pastor Chris Dixon "Close This Door of Opportunity" In Ephesians 4:25–32, Paul calls Christ followers to live in a radically different direction—closing every "door of opportunity" we might give the enemy through deception, unresolved anger, harmful speech, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Real change happens when we identify the specific truth God says about an area of life...

The God Who Is Mindful of Man | Psalm 8 Keith Flanagan When we truly see the greatness of God, we're humbled by the incredible truth that He is mindful of us and deeply cares for us. Psalm 8 reminds us that our identity, purpose, and value can only be understood in light of our Creator, not ourselves. The same God whose glory is above the heavens stepped into our world through Jesus Christ to resc...

In Colossians 3:1–4, Paul calls believers to relentlessly pursue Christ—seeking what's above and continually setting our minds on Him rather than the things of this world. Genuine obedience isn't about "look at me," but a humble "woe is me" that flows from surrender and dying to self. Because our lives are hidden with Christ and He reigns and intercedes for us, we're invited to let His lordship sh...

Walk This Way | Week Five In Ephesians 4:20–32, Paul calls believers to "walk" in a radically new way—putting off the "old self" and putting on the "new self" that God creates through Christ. This change isn't just improved behavior; it's regeneration—God renewing our desires and identity from the inside out. Sin often masquerades as a blessing but produces the opposite, so the daily battle is to...

Walk This Way | Week Four In Ephesians 4:17–24, Paul challenges us not just to know what we have in Christ, but to experience it through the way we live each day. Life apart from God's truth leads to a futile mind, a darkened understanding, a hardened heart, and eventually a calloused conscience—always moving us away from the purpose we were created for. The root issue isn't merely behavior, but w...

In this week's message, we're reminded that God changes nations by changing people , starting with wholehearted surrender to Him. Drawing from Psalm 33:12, the challenge is to make God Lord over everyday decisions—our priorities, work, relationships, integrity, and attitudes—so our lives reflect His Kingdom. We're also called to pray for our nation and leaders (1 Timothy 2:1–4) and to live as salt...

Walk This Way | Week Three In Ephesians 4:13–16, we're called to move from spiritual infancy to maturity so we aren't tossed around by deception or unstable beliefs. Satan's strategy is to dethrone God in our hearts and enthrone self, so growth in Christ is our strongest protection. Spiritual maturity shows up in quick obedience, grounded stability, and a life that holds truth and love together. R...

Walk This Way | Week Two This week's message from Ephesians 4:4–6 calls us to live in a way that matches our faith, marked by humility, gentleness, and patience. Because God has made us one body in Christ, we protect unity by pausing before we speak, seeking understanding, and valuing relationships over winning arguments. True spiritual change is seen in daily obedience to Jesus as Lord, letting f...

Walk This Way | Week One As we kick off our news series "Walk this Way" we learn that walking with love means living in a way that matches the calling we've received in Christ—not just believing the right things, but behaving in a way that reflects them. Paul urges us to pursue unity by choosing humility, practicing gentleness, and showing patience as we relate to imperfect people. Unity doesn't h...

Prayers That Change Everything | Week Six This week's lesson reminded us that the size of our prayers is shaped by how we see God—He is able to do far more than we ask or imagine, and His power is already at work within us. God isn't distant; through the Holy Spirit He strengthens us, renews our minds, helps us pray, and equips us for daily obedience. We also explored worship as a whole-life respo...

Prayers That Change Everything | Week Five This week's message centered on Ephesians 3:14–19 and the "Greatest Love of All": God strengthens us by His Spirit so Christ can be truly "at home" in every part of our lives. We were reminded that God's love is not earned by performance—it meets us where we are, calls us forward, and never starts or stops. As we comprehend the breadth, length, height, an...

Prayers That change Everything | Week Four Ephesians 3 reminds us that God's prayers for us aren't just about what we do, but who we become—strengthened by the Spirit in our inner life. Paul prays that Christ would "dwell" in our hearts, not as a visitor, but as One who has full access to every room of our lives. Faith is the doorway: it's action that trusts God's character, obeys God's Word, and...

Prayers That Change Everything | Week Three This week's message focuses on praying for "strength for the struggle" from Ephesians 3:16–19—strength that comes from God's Spirit working in our inner life. We were reminded that God never expected us to carry life's pressures (temptation, parenting, marriage, suffering, ministry) in our own strength, and that prayer is both dependence and honesty abou...

Prayers That change Everything | Week Two In Ephesians 3:14–15, Paul models prayerful dependence by bowing before the Father—even while suffering—showing that when prayer is hardest, we should pray our hardest. Prayer isn't about a perfect posture; it's an act of humility that moves us from self-sufficiency to reliance on God. God is not an abstract force but an attentive, loving Father who forms...

Prayers That Change Everything | Week One As we kick off a new series, this week's message from Ephesians 1:15–23 reminds us that the greatest use of our words is prayer—especially interceding for others with gratitude and love. Prayer isn't mainly about trying harder; it's about knowing God more deeply and asking for spiritual wisdom and "enlightened" hearts. In seasons of waiting, God often uses...

Discover Your Calling | Week Three This week's message explores what it truly means to discover your calling by redefining greatness through the lens of Jesus. While the world measures greatness by power, success, and status, Jesus teaches that true greatness is found in humility, self-denial, and serving others. Through Scripture and practical application, we're challenged to step off our own "th...

Discover Your Calling | Week Two This week's message explores how every Christ follower is given spiritual gifts not for personal gain, but to serve and build up the church. God equips believers through roles like apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to prepare all saints for ministry work. We are called to minister in three directions—to fellow believers, to non-believers, and t...