Woodland Hills Church

This weekend we kicked off our new sermon series, Glimpses of Truth. For the next six weeks Greg will be covering the ways in which the Spirit of God was consistently working in the hearts of God’s people to reveal as much of God’s true character as possible. Throughout the Old Testament we read many examples of how the spiritual immaturity of God’s people determines their understanding of God’s true character. Never coercing nor shaming, but through love and immeasurable patience, God meets us exactly where we are and carries us on to the full revelation of Godself that is finally found in Jesus Christ.

The Resurrection of Christ is central to the Christian message, yet it can be hard for some people to believe. Usually when people die, they stay dead! If Christ rose from the dead, it confirms his claims. Either Jesus rose from the dead, or the disciples were lying (Hoax theory) or the story is legendary (Legend theory). In this message Greg looks at the reasons to believe in the resurrection of Christ from historical evidence, and he examines problems with Hoax and Legend theories. 

“My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Jesus experienced separation from the Father on Good Friday, and many of us feel the same way. But God is here for us! Our Good Friday service included testimonies, a sermon message, worship and communion.

If we read the Old Testament assuming that it all is about the cross of Christ, then we can see how God stooped to the level of the cultural conditioning of the Old Testament authors to allow himself to be portrayed as violent. In addition, when we read carefully, we can actually see, within the passages of violence themselves, the nonviolent character of God breaking through.

God is a God who stoops down, out of love, in order to meet people where they are. He is a heavenly missionary who accommodates that which he is against in order to win people over to the truth. This metaphor of a heavenly missionary helps us understand what God was doing when we read about the violent depictions of God in the Old Testament. 

The Old Testament often portrays God as either doing, commanding, or threatening violence. For many, this is a huge problem because these depictions contradict the way Jesus lived and commanded. What are we to do with this contradiction? In this sermon, Greg invites us to see that there is something else going in these portrayals of violence, and we can only see this something else when we understand what was going on when Jesus died on the cross. 

The podcast explores the impact of fear on our lives and how it can hinder us from fulfilling our calling. It discusses personal experiences with cancer and the broader issue of fear, including its harmful effects on relationships. The podcast also delves into the ongoing Syrian civil war, highlighting the need for compassion and action. The speaker encourages listeners to overcome fear by embracing love and reminds them of the numerous 'do not fear' verses in the Bible.

In the Kingdom of God freedom is an end in of itself. It is part of our nature as created beings to be free and not be ruled over by one another, any agent in the spiritual realm, or by substances or behavior patterns. For many people addiction is one of the key stumbling blocks that perpetuates cycles of shame, hiding, and a lack of fullness of life. In this message Greg explores what lies at the heart of all addictions, substance or otherwise, and how we go about untangling ourselves from their grip so we can step into the full life that God desires us to have. 

This is the fourth week in our Overwhelmed sermon series. Today we discussed the challenge of unforgiveness and resentment. Brianna suggests that living out of a false identity can be perhaps the greatest source of our struggle to extend forgiveness to ourselves or to others. The way to freedom from our unforgiveness is to remember the truth of who we are in Christ, and to be transformed more fully into our true identity by being transformed by the renewing of your mind. 

Greg talks about depression, and how to take our thoughts captive to find the Joy of God.