Reality Church Vancouver Teachings Podcast
By: Reality Church Vancouver
Language: en-US
Categories: Religion, Spirituality, Christianity, Government, Non-profit
Teachings from Reality Church Sunday gatherings in Vancouver, Canada
Episodes
How to Get Back Up
Dec 15, 2025In this sermon, we continue our series on Moses and the question of identity, focusing on one of the most relatable moments in his story—failure, exile, and deep disappointment. Moses longs for the same things we do: belonging, purpose, justice, blessing, and a life that matters, yet every attempt he makes to secure those things falls apart, yet, it’s in that place of discouragement and “not enoughness” that God meets him at the burning bush, revealing himself as a God of grace who moves toward failure, promises his presence, and still calls broken people to participate in his work...
Duration: 00:00:00How to Take on Pharaoh (Part 2)
Dec 08, 2025In this message, we continue our exploration of the theme of justice: two weeks ago, we considered justice through the courage of the women in Exodus 1–2; today, we shift to Moses’ adult life and the tension between his deep, God-given passion for justice and the misguided, self-driven ways he first tries to pursue it. This passage leads us to a bigger question: how does an encounter with God transform our approach to injustice—from personal mission to divine calling? Join us as we look at Exodus 2 and 3 and discover what it means to join God’s work of true liberati...
Duration: 00:00:00How to Leave a Legacy
Dec 01, 2025In Exodus 2:15–22, we meet Moses in a season of dislocation—fleeing Egypt, finding refuge in Midian, starting a family, and naming his son Gershom, “a foreigner in a foreign land.” This moment opens a deeper question the passage raises for us today: What does it mean to leave a legacy? Not a legacy of success, achievement, or family status, but a legacy shaped by the ongoing work of God in a life that is still in process. Recorded November 30, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00How to Leave a Legacy
Nov 30, 2025In Exodus 2:15–22, we meet Moses in a season of dislocation—fleeing Egypt, finding refuge in Midian, starting a family, and naming his son Gershom, “a foreigner in a foreign land.” This moment opens a deeper question the passage raises for us today: What does it mean to leave a legacy? Not a legacy of success, achievement, or family status, but a legacy shaped by the ongoing work of God in a life that is still in process. Recorded November 30, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00How to Take on Pharaoh (Part 1)
Nov 24, 2025In today’s episode, we continue our series on identity through the early life of Moses, turning to one of the most urgent themes in the Exodus story: justice—what it means to “take on Pharaoh.” Exodus 1–2 opens with God blessing Israel in a foreign land, a picture of flourishing that echoes a new garden. But that blessing provokes fear in a new Pharaoh, who twists power into oppression, slavery, and eventually genocide. In the face of this darkness, the story lifts up an unexpected group of heroes: the Hebrew midwives, Moses’ mother and sister, and even Pharaoh’s daughter—women...
Duration: 00:00:00How to Lament
Nov 17, 2025This week, we look even further back in Moses’ origin story at the courage of Shiphrah and Puah, a desperate mother, Miriam’s boldness, and Pharaoh’s daughter’s compassion - and the way God responds to lament long before they see deliverance. We explore lament as a true form of worship—honest, raw, and welcomed by God—and how the Bible always pairs lament with hope. Psalm 77 becomes our guide, reminding us to anchor our questions in God’s past faithfulness and, ultimately, in the resurrection of Jesus. Recorded November 16, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00How to Be Blessed
Nov 09, 2025In this episode, we continue exploring Moses’ origin story in Exodus and the question at the core of his life—Who am I? Today we go deeper to the longing beneath it: Who is my father? From a name shaped by rescue and rupture to a life searching for belonging, Moses carries a story many of us recognize—a "father hunger" to be known, chosen, and loved.
At the burning bush, God meets Moses not just with answers, but with Himself—the Father who pursues, names, invites, and restores. It’s a story about identity, longing, and the God wh...
Duration: 00:00:00How to Belong
Nov 02, 2025In this week’s message, we continue our series on Moses’ question, “Who am I?” by exploring the theme of belonging. Moses’ story reveals the tension of hybrid identity—born Hebrew, raised Egyptian, caught between race, culture, and place—and his failed attempts to resolve that tension by choosing sides and defining himself against others. But when God meets Moses in the wilderness and declares, “I AM WHO I AM,” Moses’ sense of belonging is redefined—not by ancestry or geography, but by encounter and worship. In the same way, our deepest belonging is not found in race, culture, or place, but in knowi...
Duration: 00:00:00How to Work // Life of Moses
Oct 27, 2025This week, we explore the question “Am I what I do?” and the pressure many of us feel to find meaning and identity in our work. Looking at Moses in Exodus 2–3, we see someone who longed to make a difference but discovered that vocation is not driven by personal willpower or achievement. God meets Moses in the ordinary and calls him first to be a responder, then a participant in God’s work to bring freedom and renewal. Our careers and roles will change, but our true identity is rooted in the God who calls us, equips us, and sends us...
Duration: 00:00:00How to Create an Identity
Oct 19, 2025This week we begin a new series based on Moses' question in Exodus 3:11 - "Who am I?" While previous cultures answered this question by looking outside of ourselves, our culture answers it by inviting us to look inside of ourselves. However, in this message, we see how Moses’ encounter with God reveals a better way—our true identity is found not in who we are, but in who God is: the great I AM. Recorded October 19, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Rule of Life
Oct 13, 2025In this message, the two responses to the good news of Jesus in the book of Acts. First, Peter invites his listeners to "repent and be baptized" as an entrance practice into a community of the good news. Second, we learn how the early church took on common practices that continually shaped them to become people who looked like Jesus - and how we're invited to do the same. Recorded October 12, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Choosing the Better Part: An Invitation to Be Present
Oct 01, 2025This week, we were blessed to have Carl Amouzou lead us to reflect on the story of Mary and Martha, and the challenge we all face between being distracted and being present. Through personal stories of busyness, shame, and the struggle to rest, we’re invited to hear Jesus’ gentle words: You are seen, you are loved, and you are called to choose the better part—the way of presence with Him. If you’ve been feeling anxious, pulled in many directions, or worn thin, this sermon offers a reminder that Jesus’ invitation is not to do more, but to be with...
Duration: 00:00:00Extending the Table
Sep 23, 2025This week we begin to explore the early church's practices in Acts 2, focusing on the surprising emphasis on eating together. Communion reminds us that Jesus’ broken body and poured-out blood re-story our lives, but the table doesn’t stop there. We’re invited to come to the table, carry it into our homes, and extend it into the world—sharing the good news of Jesus through relationships around tables. Recorded September 21, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Jesus is Reality
Sep 15, 2025This week we’re kicking off a new series on who we are as a church, starting with our name: Reality Church. Drawing from Colossians 2:17, we explore how all the identity markers we chase—success, approval, belonging—are just shadows, whereas true identity and lasting fulfillment are found only in Jesus, the one who is reality. Recorded September 14, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 32
Sep 09, 2025We finish our summer series looking at Psalm 32, which reminds us that God doesn’t watch us with judgment but with love. Hiding our struggles only wears us down, but freedom comes when we bring our whole selves—sins, wounds, and weariness—into God’s presence. Like the woman who reached out to Jesus in faith, we find blessing when we stop hiding and let his unfailing love surround us. Recorded September 7, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 84
Aug 24, 2025In Psalm 84 we hear the psalmist’s passionate cry: “Better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.” But what does that mean for us when our hearts often long for “a thousand elsewheres” — vacations, success, comfort — more than the presence of God? This sermon explores that tension honestly, naming how we can sometimes sing worship songs without fully meaning the words. The psalm reminds us that the Christian life isn’t just about avoiding sin or “sin management,” but about entering into the presence of the living God — the place where healing, wholeness, and true life are found. Like choosi...
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 72
Aug 17, 2025This week, we explore Psalm 72 which teaches us to long for a king who brings justice and shalom—peace, wholeness, and flourishing. This hope is fulfilled in Jesus, the greater King who defends the vulnerable, heals the broken, and confronts injustice with sacrificial love. As His followers, we’re invited to pray, see others with His eyes, and live out justice and mercy so that God’s kingdom comes on earth as it is in heaven. Recorded August 17, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 24
Aug 15, 2025Psalm 24 calls us to meet the majestic Creator with clean hands and pure hearts. Revival begins not with programs or crowds, but with holy discontent and God’s people being filled with Him. Transformation starts when we let Him cleanse our actions, motives, and allegiances. Where do we long for God to arrive, and how are we preparing? True revival is a community becoming deeply God-conscious—starting when we open our lives to the King of Glory. Recorded August 10, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 127
Aug 12, 2025Psalm 127 reminds us that without God’s presence, even our hardest work can become empty toil. This sermon invites us to see all we do—whether in jobs, homes, relationships, or ministry—as “kingdom work,” joining God’s ongoing activity to bring life, hope, and flourishing in places big and small. Recorded August 3, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 63
Jul 22, 2025In her first sermon ever (!), one of our church elders, Christiane, reflects on Psalm 63 and what it means to long for and find satisfaction in God. Through honest storytelling and spiritual insight, she explores how our deepest desires point us toward God—and how Scripture and simple practices can help us meet Him in everyday life. Recorded July 20, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Psalm 121
Jul 16, 2025We continue our study of the Psalms this summer by looking Psalm 121. In this teaching, we explore how mountains are a place of significance, how mountains reinforce our identity, and hear the invitation to ascend the mountain with King Jesus. Recorded July 13, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00An Invitation to Worship in Every Season
Jul 07, 2025Psalm 8 invites us into a posture of worship by recognizing God as the majestic Creator and King over all. Whether we feel powerful or powerless, the Psalm reminds us that everyone worships something—and only worship of God leads to life, not destruction. As we enter summer, this message encourages us to enjoy beauty, rest, and connection, but to do so with intentionality—seeing every moment as an opportunity to turn our hearts toward God in worship, just as Jesus did in both his strength and vulnerability. Recorded July 7, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit: Community Discernment
Jun 23, 2025In this final message of the Open to the Spirit series, we’re invited as a community into a “guided invitation”—a gentle, hopeful call to open ourselves more deeply to the Spirit’s presence, power, and person. With heartfelt thanks for all who have been using their gifts—serving, teaching, encouraging, creating, and leading—the message names the beauty of what God is already doing among us. At the same time, it honestly acknowledges the fears many of us carry: fear of change, of losing control, or of what others might think. Rather than pushing past these struggles, we’re invited...
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit: Gift Tensions
Jun 16, 2025As we begin to close our discernment on being Open to the Spirit, this sermon encourages us to embrace the Spirit’s guidance and power by trusting God in our hesitations, supporting one another’s gifts, and growing together in love. Using Ephesians 4 and the image of a fishing reel, it highlights the tension between human effort and divine strength as necessary for spiritual maturity and unity. Recorded June 15, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit: Spiritual Gifts - Leadership
Jun 10, 2025In this teaching, we explore the fivefold ministry gifts described in Ephesians 4—Apostle, Prophet, Evangelist, Shepherd, and Teacher—often referred to as APEST - which are given to the church to equip believers and build up the body of Christ. We look at the unique function and heart of each gift, how they worked together in the early church, and how they might be expressed in our communities today. Re-recorded June 9, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit: Spiritual Gifts - Power
Jun 02, 2025This week’s sermon explores the Power Gifts—a category of spiritual gifts meant to tangibly demonstrate that God is real, active, and present. Rooted in 1 Corinthians 12, the message invites listeners to consider how we might be open to God’s “supernatural” work in our lives and church, despite modern skepticism. Apologies - the first minute of the recording was cut out. Recorded June 1, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit: Spiritual Gifts - Word
May 27, 2025In this teaching, we’re diving into the category of spiritual gifts called the “word gifts": teaching, encouraging / exhorting, evangelism and prophecy. In this season of discerning how to be Open to the Spirit, we invite you to ask yourself: What’s He stirring in me? And am I willing to say yes, even if it feels uncomfortable? Recorded May 25, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit: Spiritual Gifts - Love
May 21, 2025As we continue exploring how to remain open to the Spirit, we turn our focus to one of the major themes of the Holy Spirit’s work in the Bible: spiritual gifts. This week, we’re looking specifically at the gifts that fall under the “love” category, with the hope of learning about them, celebrating them, and encouraging their use within our community.
Recorded on May 18, 2025.
Open to the Spirit: Goals and Guidelines of the Spirit's Work
May 12, 2025This week, we wrap up the introduction to our Open to the Spirit series by exploring a crucial question: How can we tell when the Holy Spirit is at work—in us and in our church? The teaching unpacks four key markers of the Spirit’s activity: love, hope and faith, the building up of community, and a Spirit-led unity. These goals and guidelines help us stay grounded as we learn to live more open to God’s presence and power. Recorded May 11, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Open to the Spirit
May 05, 2025This week we look at the challenge and example of Holy Spirit's presence and power in the early church in Acts and discuss some barriers to the Holy Spirit's ministry in our community. Recorded May 4, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Experiencing the Resurrection
Apr 29, 2025As we transition into a new season in the church calendar and a new sermon series, we ask why we don't experience Jesus' death and resurrection as good news - and how we can. Recorded April 27, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Practicing The Resurrection
Apr 20, 2025As we close our series exploring the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" in the gospel of Mark, we look at the good news exclaimed to the women at the tomb, "If you're looking for Jesus, He is risen!" We hear how we are invited to receive the good news of the resurrection, practice the resurrection and keep company with the risen Jesus. Recorded April 20, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Reorienting Our Witness
Apr 14, 2025As we prepare to wrap our series, we recap the Gospel of Mark's answers to the question "Why Jesus had to die?" and look at some practical tips and vision for being witnesses to the good news of Jesus. Recorded April 13, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Following Jesus Into Fear, Shame and Loss
Apr 07, 2025This week, we continue examining Jesus's transformation of the Passover meal in Mark 14. The disciples, and us by extension, face real barriers to following Jesus into a changed life but are invited to share about these barriers and look to Jesus' leadership to receive Jesus' invitation to change. Recorded April 6, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00A New Covenant
Apr 01, 2025This week, we explore another answer from Mark's gospel to the question "Why did Jesus have to die?". By aligning his death within the story and practice of Passover, Jesus envisions his death as a new covenant declaration calling God's people to come into the family of God and imitate God for the sake of the world. Recorded March 30, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Hope in Christ in a Secular Age
Mar 17, 2025This week, Tim Dickau, from St. Andrew’s College and Citygate, reflects on what it means that we live in “A Secular Age”. Building of Charles Taylor’s seminal work and Paul’s letter to the Romans, we gain hope and inspiration for living and sharing the good news in our cultural moment. Recorded March 16, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Jesus: Our Representative in God's Big Story
Mar 11, 2025This week, we continue in our exploration of Jesus as Isaiah's suffering servant. Jesus sees his suffering, death and resurrection as being our representative in God's larger story as an invitation to come to him with our suffering and go to those who are suffering. Recorded March 9, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Jesus as Suffering Servant
Mar 03, 2025This week, we are led by Regent College faculty, Dr. Rikk Watts, to look at Mark's portrayal of Jesus as the Suffering Servant foretold in Isaiah. In light of these passages (Isaiah 40, 52-54), Jesus' death is not an accident but part of God's radical response to broken covenant and covenant partners. Recorded March 2, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Being Present On the Journey to Jesus
Feb 24, 2025What does a journey towards Jesus look like? Building off the book "I Once Was Lost" and Jesus' parable in Mark 4, we consider how we might be faithful partners with God and our friends in the process towards Jesus. Recorded February 23, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00The Proximity of God's Presence
Feb 16, 2025Last week, we looked at how Jesus' death makes God's uncontrollable presence available to the world. In this teaching, we continue to explore this theme learning how to experience God's presence and that God's presence goes ahead of us in witness. Recorded February 16, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00God Comes Close
Feb 10, 2025This teaching marks the beginning of our second "cycle" through the gospel of Mark asking the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" In this teaching, we explore the themes of Jesus' baptism and the temple curtain, and how Jesus' death opens up the presence of God for all people. Recorded February 9, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Developing Language as a Witness
Feb 03, 2025In this teaching, we go backward to remind ourselves of how Jesus uses language to shape His ministry and how we, as witnesses, are invited to enter and live Jesus’ story and develop language to share about Jesus with those around us. Recorded February 2, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Ransomed from Fear
Jan 26, 2025As a Ransom for Many
Jan 21, 2025This week, we look at the first of the gospel of Mark's answers to the question, "Why did Jesus have to die?" In this teaching we explore what Jesus' answer of "as a ransom for many" means and how it shapes how we understand, share and live out the good news in our lives. Recorded January 19, 2025.
Duration: 00:00:00Why Did Jesus Have to Die?
Jan 14, 2025This week, we begin our series in the Gospel of Mark exploring the question the identity of Jesus and why he had to die. In this introduction, we look at why the answer to this question is important to expand our understanding of Jesus, our ability to speak of him and our lives as disciples. Recorded January 12, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Birth of the Saviour
Dec 23, 2024This week we explore the birth narrative of Jesus in the first chapter of the gospel of Matthew which asks us to consider our need for a Saviour, the limits of our abilities to save our selves, and how Jesus comes to save the world. Recorded December 22, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Genesis 1-11 Recap
Dec 15, 2024This week we close out not only our series in Genesis 4-11 but our three year study of Genesis 1-11 by recapping God’s work in the story, leading to Abram’s wife Sarai. Recorded December 15, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Tower of Babel
Dec 08, 2024As we near the end of our study of Genesis 1-11, we reach the story of the tower of Babel. This passage invites us to contrast unified efforts to build towers to make a name for ourselves with Spirit-guided efforts to build an altar where we learn to wait for God to meet us. Recorded December 8, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Covenant
Nov 24, 2024As we near the end of the Noah narrative, we come to a recreation moment in Genesis 9 where we hear God giving instructions to the humans about how they are to live. When we contrast this passage with the original instructions given to humanity in Genesis 1, we find some curious differences which point out the problem of human violence and how God adapts to partner with flawed human partners. Recorded November 24, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Sacrifice
Nov 17, 2024We're in the third story of life outside of the garden - the flood narrative in the Bible. This week, we compare and contrast God's speeches and Noah's sacrifice with speeches of other gods and heroes from Ancient Near Eastern flood narratives, to see who God is and how he invites us to a role as priests. Recorded November 17, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Dove
Nov 10, 2024We continue with our series in Genesis 4-11, focusing this week on the dove that is sent out during the flood by Noah. We learn how it symbolizes Noah’s ability to wait, and are invited to wait not in passivity, but with memory, anticipation and with Christ. Recorded November 10, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Flood
Nov 03, 2024This week we come to what might be the best known story in Genesis 4-11: the flood narrative. We welcomed Dr. Matt Lynch from Regent College who helps us understand this flood in context of the overarching narrative of Genesis and to see it as the action of God to renew and reform a world ruined by violence. Recorded November 3, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Ark
Oct 27, 2024As we continue exploring life outside the garden in the Genesis narrative, we come to one of the most well-known stories and objects: Noah's Ark. In this week's teaching, we uncover how ancient people would have understood the instructions for Noah's Ark and apply it as an invitation for deliverance today. Recorded October 27, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Character of Noah
Oct 20, 2024This week we come to a bright spot in our examination of life outside the garden in the person of Noah. We look at how Noah is described in context, we look at why it’s so difficult to be like Noah in our cultural moment, and hear an invitation to become like Noah. Recorded October 20, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00What's a God to do?
Oct 18, 2024As we continue in our series exploring life outside of the garden, we come to a difficult passage where God takes drastic action to deal with the problem of increasing darkness. In this teaching, we articulate several of the key problems we have with this passage and also understand how it invites us to know God and live as renewed humans. Re-recorded October 18, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Nephilim and Men of the Name
Oct 06, 2024As we continue in our series exploring life outside the garden, we come to a strange and tricky passage for us as modern Western readers. By exploring the ancient and Biblical context, we are invited to recognize spiritual evil, and challenged to call on the name of God rather than become "men of the name". Recorded October 6, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Prophetic Role of the Indigenous Church - Truth and Reconciliation Sunday
Oct 04, 2024On Truth and Reconciliation weekend, we were honoured to be taught by Dr. Ray Aldred, who spoke on the history of the church, Canada and Indigenous people, the Indigenous church’s prophetic role, and a hopeful path forward through Jesus’ ethic of reconciliation and peacemaking. Recorded September 29, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Seth's Genealogy
Sep 24, 2024This week, we come to an ancient genealogy, an odd part in our study of life outside the garden in Genesis. In this teaching, we’ll explore this strange passage within two contexts, other ancient lists of people with really long ages and the genealogy of Cain already given in Genesis 4, to understand what it may have meant for the original hearers and how it encourages us to live today as witnesses to a different story who always have hope because God is at work in the world. Recorded September 22, 2024 - audio fixed and reuploaded October 4.
Duration: 00:00:00Lamech
Sep 17, 2024This week, we continue on in our study of Genesis 4-11 by looking at Lamech, the worst character we’ve met so far. Through his story, we observe how sin spreads darkness by breaking down relationships between men and women, specifically marriages, and turns our culture making efforts into tools of oppression and violence. Finally, we look at how the darkness around us might be an invitation to call out to God. Re-recorded September 19, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Cain + Abel // Genesis 4:1-15
Sep 09, 2024This fall, we’re taking our third look at the first few chapters of Genesis. The story of Cain and Abel is a painful one, introducing us to what life looks like Outside the Garden. Recorded September 8, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Practice of Being with Children
Aug 19, 2024We continue our summer Rule of Life series by looking at Jesus' invitation to be with and minister to children. Jesus' instructions were shocking to their original audience, but also invite us to welcome children, learn from them and help them grow as a church family. Recorded August 18, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Psalms as a Prayer Template
Aug 17, 2024We were honoured to have Joe Gebhardt, a ministry partner from Projekt Kirche in Berlin, teach from Psalm 27 can provide a template and encouragement to incorporate prayer into our spiritual rhythms. Recorded August 11, 2024 - we apologize for the audio issues in the middle of the recording.
Duration: 00:00:00The Posture of Joy
Aug 13, 2024As we continue in our Summer Rule of Life series, guest teacher, Talasi Guerra, shares about joy from various Biblical passages and her personal story. Further resources on joy, including Talasi’s new book can be found at talasiguerra.com. Recorded on August 3, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Financial Stewardship
Jul 21, 2024As we continue on in our summer Rule of Life, guest speaker, Rev. Shel Boese, shares about the practice of financial giving, challenging us to take on the mindset of our generous God and revisit how we approach our financial stewardship. Recorded July 21, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Spiritual Friendship
Jul 19, 2024This week we dig into the habit of spiritual friendship as we continue on in our summer Rule of Life series. We’re invited to learn about the definition of friendship during the time of Jesus, how Jesus transformed this vision of friendship and how we might practice spiritual friendship today. Recorded July 14, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Fasting - Summer Rule of Life
Jul 09, 2024This week, we focus on fasting through an exploration of the history of fasting among God's people, why fasting has become so neglected, how Jesus and his disciples practiced fasting, and some practical how to's of fasting. Recorded July 7, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Vision for the Rule of Life - Part 2
Jun 24, 2024If the vision of being human is to become like Jesus, how do we actually do it? This week, we look at how Paul answers that question in several ways in Philippians 2: centering on the story of Jesus, listening to God's voice, community and the events of life. Finally, we take a look at the role of spiritual disciplines and creating a Rule of Life as we enter into our summer series. Recorded June 23, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Vision for the Rule of Life - Part 1
Jun 16, 2024We begin our summer series by looking at the Jesus poem in Philippians 2 where we hear the invitation to become like Jesus and put His story in the center of our lives and community. Recorded June 16, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - Series Wrap
Jun 09, 2024In the final week of our Housing in the City series, we share some of the big themes and possible steps forward individually and corporately. Although the series is complete, we invite our community to continue the conversation in prayer and discernment throughout the summer.
Note: John showed the Korean American artist, Do Ho Suh's work around the theme of home. You can see some of his artwork here (https://www.nationalgalleries.org/exhibition/do-ho-suh-tracing-time) and here (https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2024/mar/10/do-ho-suh-tracing-time-review-scottish-national-gallery-of-modern-art-modern-one-edinburgh). Recorded June 9, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - Discernment
Jun 03, 2024This week, we looked at some guidelines for discernment as we consider what God would have us do as individuals and a community. Using the Sermon on the Mount as a guide, we see the importance of having our stories challenged, seeing ourselves as a counter-society within Vancouver, and discerning out of grace as a community. Note: we had several power issues towards the end of the sermon which affected the audio. Recorded June 2, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - Money (Full Audio)
May 27, 2024This week, we continue in our exploration of Housing in the City by looking at the theme of money or economics in the Bible. We learn about God’s economic vision for His people, how their unfaithfulness to this vision led to exile, how Jesus invites us back into this story and how we might be invited to live as a city within a city during this housing crisis. This audio has been reuploaded as the previous audio had been cut off. Recorded May 26, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - Money
May 26, 2024This week, we continue in our exploration of Housing in the City by looking at the theme of money or economics in the Bible. We learn about God’s economic vision for His people, how their unfaithfulness to this vision led to exile, how Jesus invites us back into this story and how we might be invited to live as a city within a city during this housing crisis. Recorded May 26, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - Home
May 19, 2024As we continue in our Housing in the City series, we turn to the topic of home. As we explore the spaces God has called "home" in the story of the Bible, we are invited to consider the implications for the spaces we call home, the households we are a part of and how we might host. Recorded May 19, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - Community
May 12, 2024We continue in our Housing in the City series by looking at the theme of community in the Bible. While the city offers hope to solve our problem of community, it almost always, in the Bible and in the modern world, lets us down and contributes to the breakdown of community rather than building a community of shalom. As followers of Jesus living in the city, we are invited to lament and learn how to live in a different type of community. Recorded May 12, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing in the City - The City
May 05, 2024This week, we turn to the theme of the city in our Housing in the City series. Reading from Jeremiah 29, we see God’s call to the city, the identity we’re invited to in the city and finally the hope of the city. Recorded May 5, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Land
Apr 28, 2024We continue our series exploring the topic of housing in the city by looking at our Biblical theme: the land. By tracing the theme through the Bible in 7 acts, we learn the story of the land, how Jesus fulfills the story of the land, and how Jesus invites his followers to new identities and orientation towards land. Recorded April 28, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Housing In the City Intro
Apr 21, 2024This week we began a new series exploring how we live in the city as followers of Jesus during the current housing crisis. In this introduction, we explore some of the personal contours of the housing story in Canada, and receive the invitations to listen to and tell our stories, center on the story of Jesus and discern where the Spirit is leading us. Recorded April 21, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Extending the Table
Apr 14, 2024As we close our series in the gospel of John and move towards the summer season, we take a last look at Jesus around the table. While in the gospel of John, the table is portrayed as a classroom, in the gospel of Mark the table is a practice, with the vision of us extending it to our friends, family and neighbours. Recorded April 14, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The Spirit of Peace
Apr 07, 2024As we end our series in the gospel of John, we turn our eyes to the commissioning of Jesus’ disciples in John 20. Although given 2000 years ago, Jesus’ promise to his disciples of another Advocate who brings peace is important and timely in our age of anxiety. Recorded April 7, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Resurrection and the Invitation to Believe
Apr 03, 2024As we celebrate Easter Sunday, we turn to the Gospel of John's account of the resurrection of Jesus where he emphasizes three things: the evidence that invites us to stoop, the exhortation that invites us to see, and the invitation to become an endorsement of the resurrection as the people of God. Recorded March 31, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God of Unity
Mar 25, 2024Jesus ends his longest recorded prayer with a surprise: out of all the things he could have prayed for his disciples of all time, he prays for unity. This week we end our series in the Upper Room with Jesus by looking at what unity looks like, how we can pursue it, and some examples of how to be united. Recorded March 24, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Prays for His Disciples - Part 2
Mar 18, 2024As we continue in our study of Jesus' final teaching in the Gospel of John, we look once again at the prayer for his disciples in John 17. Jesus adds to his invitation to the disciples to be sent to the world as he was sent, in vision, fluency, and practice. Recorded March 17, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Prays for His Disciples - Part 1
Mar 12, 2024Jesus continues his longest recorded prayer by praying for his disciples and he seems very concerned about their relationship to "the world". In this teaching, we explore what Jesus means by "the world" and the delicate tension of living as a disciple of Jesus within "the world". Originally recorded March 10, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Shows Us His Glory
Mar 04, 2024How does Jesus approach the “hour” of distress that has arrived? Ending his longest teaching, and beginning his longest prayer, Jesus approaches this hour as a priest. Instead of trying to grab more control, or evade discomfort, Jesus offers himself to God and pleads to be glorified. This week we are invited to remember the weight of God’s glory, and to follow Jesus in ASKING for God to show us his glory, so that we might display his glory to the world. Re-recorded March 4, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Sends His Spirit
Feb 25, 2024Why would Jesus go away? And why would he say it's "better" that he goes away? This week, we explore these questions as we learn what Jesus is trying to accomplish and how the Spirit ministers, specifically in spaces of persecution and sacrifice. Recorded February 25, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who is Apocalypse
Feb 19, 2024As we continue in our series on the Upper Room Discourse in John’s Gospel, we come to difficult words from Jesus about conflict and hatred. Looking at Jesus’ words within the language of apocalypse, we see why Jesus uses this language, whom the conflict is between and what this means for us today as people invited to sit around the table with Jesus. Recorded February 18, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Is the Vine
Feb 11, 2024We continue our study of the Last Supper in the Gospel of John where Jesus instructs his disciples and us around the table. This week, we study Jesus words in John 15 , where the God who has made us clean invites us to abide through the practices of confession and repentance. Originally recorded February 11, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Stuff
Feb 05, 2024At the Last Supper, Jesus sits down with his disciples to drill into them the most fundamental and important things he wants to remember. This week, we look at a block of Jesus’ teaching that tells us some very important basics: what Jesus offers, how we get it, and how we share it with others. Recorded February 4, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God who is Three and One
Jan 29, 2024We continue our journey with Jesus and his disciples around the table in the gospel of John. This week, we look at Jesus' amazing words about the relationships within God of Father, Jesus and Spirit, which the church has called the Trinity. We explore how this relationship is designed to break our brains, how we can know God through Jesus, and how we are faced with an amazing invitation. This teaching included watching a video by the Bible Project, which can be found here. We apologize as the first few verses of the Scripture reading was cut off. Recorded...
Duration: 00:00:00The Way, The Truth and The Life
Jan 22, 2024This week we look at Jesus' famous claim that he is "the way, the truth and the life". Through understanding the comfort and challenge of this passage in it's original context, we learn how Jesus might comfort and challenge us as modern and postmodern people. Recorded January 21, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Invites Questions
Jan 14, 2024As we continue in our series on the Last Supper in the gospel of John, this week we begin to focus on Jesus' iconic statement that he is the way, the truth, and the life. We notice that Jesus self-disclosure comes as the answer to Thomas' question and are invited to consider how important our questions might be for our personal and communal relationship with Jesus. Recorded January 14, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00The God Who Serves
Jan 07, 2024This week we start a new series looking at a unique contribution from John's gospel: the Lord's Supper. We begin by examining Jesus' footwashing in John 13 which challenges us to serve as Jesus did. Recorded January 7, 2024.
Duration: 00:00:00Behold!
Dec 26, 2023As we gathered for a Christmas Eve service, we focused on the word “behold” which occurs several times in Luke’s Gospel. Merry Christmas! Recorded December 24, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00Judgement or Mercy?
Dec 20, 2023This week, we end our fall series in Genesis 2 and 3 with a focus on the character of Yahweh Elohim. How will Yahweh Elohim respond to human failure - with justice or mercy? Recorded December 19, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00The Consequences - Part 2
Dec 11, 2023This week, we continue on in our study of Genesis 2 + 3 as we take a final look at the consequences from God’s poem in Genesis 3. By hopping around Genesis 3 and its surrounding narratives, we learn how power struggles between humans, specifically between men and women will sadly become the new normal in a world of sin. Recorded December 10, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00Things Fall Apart
Dec 03, 2023As Advent begins, we continue on in our study of Genesis 2+3 by looking at the conversation between God and the humans who failed the test. As we watch things fall apart between humans and God, humans and each other, and humans and the created world, we learn to wait in the darkness and hope for a King who will come and bring light. Recorded December 3, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00The Consequences - Part 1
Nov 26, 2023This week, we continue in our study of Genesis 2 and 3 by focusing on the consequences for the man and woman in God’s poem. We see how God intensifies the natural consequence of following the snake, how that spills out onto the woman, the man and all of us today. Recorded November 26, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00The Test
Nov 13, 2023This week, we reach the pinnacle of the theme of testing where the humans are faced with the snake at the tree in Genesis 3. As we walk through verses 1-7 together, we learn the nature of testing, how to read the Bible, and the importance of placing our desires in Yahweh Elohim. Recorded November 12, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00The Snake
Nov 05, 2023We continue in our series in Genesis 2+3 looking at the theme of the test. This week, we deep dive into the character of the snake, a powerful creature who chooses to become a chaos monster, and receive the challenge to see our world as a spiritual place. Recorded November 5, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00The Tree of Testing
Oct 30, 2023As we continue in our series on Genesis 2-3, we now move from the description of the humans to the exploring the theme of testing. In this teaching, we look at two ways the tree was a test for the original hearers of this story and how it may apply in fresh ways for us listening today. Recorded October 29, 2023.
Duration: 00:00:00