Passion City Church DC Podcast

Continuing The Fight series, Director of Community and Formation, Mike Distefano, comes around the importance of community. — Looking in Matthew 6, we see that Jesus commands us to seek first the Kingdom of God for it is the only thing in life that satisfies, and the only thing in our world that is truly permanent. The thing is, we are meant to be in the pursuit with other people. We are a people made for community; hardwired to stand with others as we run after the Kingdom of God together, never fighting the good fight alone.

The pursuit of spirituality happens in the context of adversity. We are in a fight to cultivate intimacy with our Creator, and in this fight, there are things we flee from and there are things we pursue. In fact, there are things we need to say no to, in order to say yes to something better! This week Pastor Ben Stuart encourages us with the truth that though we struggle, we have the ability to struggle well, and overcome in Jesus’ name. What do you need to say no to, in order to give something else your yes? “What you think about is what you care about, and what you care about is what you chase.”

“The greatest fighters are the ones who know that they’ve been fought for.” Kicking off the New Year with a new series, “The Fight,” Pastor Ben Stuart encourages us with the truth that we need a new identity before a new activity. The answer we are looking for is not a list of rules; it is a liberator. We have Someone who has set us free and ushers us into life with the conquering King—the Stronger One is here!

Christmas Eve // Pastor Ben Stuart reminds us that God is a searching God who sent His Son to save us while we were still sinners. Why did Jesus show up in a manger? Because Jesus wants you! This holiday season, we’re remembering that compassion is the WHY behind the WHAT of Christmas.

As we approach Christmas, Pastor Ben Stuart encourages us with the truth that Jesus was born into real life - he was born into a world mixed with joy and pain. Jesus lived the human story on earth, not just the good parts but the hard ones as well. We can have confidence that Jesus understands us because he lived in the struggle. But that’s not the end of the story - we can have hope too! He joins us in the struggle so that we might join him in the victory. His liberation is for our hope!

"Jesus intends not just to bring peace to you, but through you.” — Closing out The Missing Peace series, Pastor Ben Stuart guides us through what it looks like to be peacemakers in a broken world. We are meant to leverage the freedom we have in Jesus to bring peace to others. — How do you be a peacemaker? By praying and by greeting. Love looks like prayer. Greeting someone initiates kindness, and communicates respect. Peacemakers extend love beyond expected boundaries.

If many of us know about Jesus and the peace He brings, why is it that we walk around with such a lack of it? This week, Global Pastor Louie Giglio reminds us that connecting with the peace of Jesus will require a recalibration of how we think about Him, and who He really is.

“The peace of God is not just the absence of conflict, but the presence of flourishing.” — Kicking off The Missing Peace series, Pastor Ben Stuart encourages us with God’s solution to the lack of peace we often feel in our lives. We see that the solution is not a list of principles; it’s a person: the Prince of Peace. The hope we can have today is knowing that even when everything is falling apart, we have the Prince of Peace, and we can trust Him.

Closing out the Trust Issues series, Pastor Ben Stuart answers this question: How can we know that the Scriptures we hold today are what was written down originally? In this message, we take a look at the history of the preservation of the Scriptures concluding that we can have confidence that they hold true and we see God’s true heart for His people. — God preserved His Word so you would know that He came for you.

Continuing our Trust Issues series, Dr. Darrell Bock from Dallas Seminary walked us through an exploration of one of the big questions that many of us struggle to reconcile: what about the gap between when events occurred and when they were written down? Can we have confidence that the Scriptures we hold today faithfully recount the life and work of Jesus? Dr. Bock explains three things that help us understand the gap: orality, memory, and eye-witnesses.