Woodland Hills Church

In week two of our “Kingdom Economics” series, Greg answers three questions that were submitted by the congregation and podrishioners. 1) Does having a savings account show a lack of faith in God? 2) Does saving for retirement show a lack of trust in God? 3) Is declaring bankruptcy a sin?

Matthew 6:24 tells us that we “cannot serve both God and mammon.” Instead, we can live out kingdom principles with our finances.

Leave it to Jesus to challenge one of our most central cultural values – justifying violence by manipulating scripture. In this sermon, we discover what it means to practice non-violence both in our actions and our attitudes.

Despite Jesus clearly foretelling it, Peter didn’t think he would deny Jesus. But just as Jesus knew Peter would fall, he knew he’d get back up again too.

Jesus came both to save us and to reveal the character of God to us. Rather than coming in great power God came and served. Jesus calls us to “opt out” of the worldly desire to be better than others and learn to love them even when we profoundly disagree with them.

When reviewing Judas’ betrayal of Jesus, Greg had two questions in mind for us to consider: “Was Judas fated to betray Jesus?” And “Why did Judas betray Jesus?”

At the Passover meal just before Jesus was killed he instituted the practice of communion. When we take communion, we do so in the time between the initial experience of our faith and the final fulfillment of our unity with God and each other. This space “in-between” is like the wilderness the Jews experienced after leaving Egypt but before entering the promised land.

As Jesus was warning his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple he instructed them to be careful lest their hearts be weighed down in various ways. This warning applies not only to Jesus’ disciples at that time, but also to his disciples today.

Jesus warned his disciples about the coming destruction of the temple. This prophecy was fulfilled in 70 AD. Yet there are timeless truths to be found in this text regarding what it means to prepare for what lies ahead of us.

In the story of the widow with her two small coins Jesus shows us that it is not the amount that we give that matters, but rather how much of a sacrifice that amount really is for us.