Woodland Hills Church

Up to this point in the story of Jesus, Jesus was the one who displayed the power of the Kingdom of God. At this point, Jesus charges the 12 disciples to do what he had been doing. The program given to the disciples follows a simple pattern: Do the Kingdom > Then Proclaim the Kingdom.

This last weekend concluded our sermon series on spiritual warfare, a topic that can be neglected or overly stressed in churches. As followers of Christ, it is important to recognize that there is a spiritual side to our world, in which principalities and powers are in opposition to the ways of God. In Christ, we can overcome and resist these influences both individually and collectively. To bring a biblically balanced approach to the topic, Greg Boyd (Senior Pastor) and Paul Eddy (Teaching Pastor) held a Q&A time to help answer questions from attenders. These audio files are a collection of all the questions and answers addressed during our three weekend services.

Spiritual warfare is a present reality in our war-torn world. There are principalities and powers, often unseen, which influence and distort what is true about God and His Creation. As followers of Christ, we do not need to fear these things. Rather, we are called to live in the truth of who we are in Christ, being filled with God’s Spirit and power, to come against and resist the strongholds and lies.

We live in a war-torn world of pain, hurt, violence and death. This is not how God intended creation to look. The Good News is God has sent his Son, Jesus, to defeat the powers of death, and to begin reconciling and redeeming the world unto God. When Jesus rebukes the storm mentioned in Luke 8:22-26, he is giving us a foretaste of the ultimate victory and restoration that is to come.

What is the difference between a vampire and Jesus? This may sound like a rather odd question to ask, but you may be surprised at the profound difference between the two. A vampire is known for two things: it loves to dwell in darkness and feeds off of people. Jesus is known for two things: he lives in light and sacrificially gives of himself in love for all.

There were many people following Jesus in the first century. They heard his preaching, observed his actions of love to the outcasts, and even witnessed his miracles. However, Jesus did not fit people’s expectations of how a Messiah should act. He did not conform to preciously established paradigms shaped by the culture of the time. These cultural blinders impacted people’s ability to receive what Jesus was saying.

When we look at the fallen world around us, we often see division, separation, and seclusion. Whether it’s separation by family, country, ethnicity, religion, there is a tendency to sort ourselves into people groups by what we like or do not like. Though this may be natural in this world, it is completely opposite of what the Kingdom of God is about. Jesus came and demonstrated a radical willingness to associate with people of all walks of life with the love of God.

In living a life of faith, it’s very important to allow Jesus to define how we see our life experiences. There are often moments in life when things do not turn out the way that we plan them to, or the way that we think things “should be.” And it's in these moments, that we have to look at the work of Jesus in our everyday lives, and trust that God is indeed present and bringing forth his Kingdom in and through us.

God chooses to engage us in all of our pain, division, and confusion to help us be healed. In Luke 7:11-17, Jesus demonstrates both the miraculous power and loving heart of God as he brings a widow's only son back from the dead. Just like Jesus had tremendous compassion on the widow, we can also seek to show God's compassion to help bring healing to others.

When we live inside God's “Reign", we are basically making the decision to agree with God's truth about reality in every area of our lives. This means that we define the development of our lives only around whatever God says about things like relationships, money, work, and recreation. Living in God's Reign assures a person that, as they grow spiritually, they are actively making Jesus the Lord of their lives.