Woodland Hills Church Sermons Audio Podcast

This was the message from our Christmas Eve service in 2015.

Waiting is really difficult, no matter who you are or what you’re waiting for. We see examples over and over in scripture of characters who waited well and others who struggled and tried to take things in to their own hands. In this message Seth explores what it means to wait in hopeful anticipation for Jesus’ coming this Christmas season.

Christ offers complete peace and security, but only when our eyes are fixed on him alone as our King.

For children, Christmas is a time filled with wonder and awe. But as we grow, we tend to lose our sense of wonder and awe not only about Christmas, but about our world, our lives, and everything else! We all innately long to return “home” – home to a place where love overwhelms us and all things are new and glorious – and we long for someone who will take us there. But could that ever really happen? Praise God, for as wondrous and awe-inspiring as it sounds, that’s exactly what Jesus did for us on that first Christmas!

This week we begin our Christmas series, The Night that Changed the World. This first week focuses on the peace that comes through Christ. Greg delves into the distractions that can get in the way of experiencing this peace of Christ. This peace of Christ requires an intentional inventory of the degree to which Christ has full reign over both our outer and inner lives. In this sermon we look into some crucial questions and practices to submit all of our lives to the reign of Christ to experience true peace that can only come through the Prince of Peace.

In this sixth and last installment of the Formed series, Seth explores more in depth how ideas and identities we take upon our self that are not from God keep us from growing mature in the faith. God has provided the type of soil fertile for growth and He sees the potential in us as seeds. At the center of our calling is to mimic the type of soil Jesus has been to us by our love toward others. We are to be the type of soil where others will experience the Father’s love.

So why DO bad things happen to good people?! What IS God’s plan for overcoming evil, and why does it so often seem like evil is still winning?! Yes, God does have the power to take anything that Satan intends for evil and to work it to bring about good, but this is not work that God intends to do alone. He “comes alongside” us to “work all things for good”, but this is a process that requires OUR cooperation!

Personal experience is an important element of faith, so if we lack this, the life-changing depth of our faith will suffer. Today we talk about how to enhance the way we experience our faith, so that it feels more real and can affect us more fully.

In this installment of our Formed series, Greg Boyd explores the importance of the Practice of No in the life of Christian discipleship. The story of Elijah and his experience with God on Mount Horeb are the foundation of this sermon as Greg examines how God lives in the quiet in the midst of a world that keeps getting louder and more sensational. The discipline of simplicity is an important tool to learn how to keep our gaze focused on Jesus rather than constantly looking for more.

In this second installment of the Formed series, Seth explores what it is that holds us back as followers of Christ, or creates a gap between the person we want to be and know is inside of us and who actually are. We know that Jesus wants to give us an abundant life, but our reality is often one of spiritual scarcity and daily bondage to destructive ideas and behaviors. In this message we examine what it looks like to surrender our will and trust in our heavenly Father.

We desire to follow Jesus – unfortunately we also have some desires that conflict with following Jesus. And try as we might, those conflicting desires just won’t go away. So what are we to do?

Ministry is not the work of seminarians or professionals. It is the job of each and every one of us. Jesus is the Hope of the World. But God is not coming to rescue us out of the world; he is rescuing the world through us. Today, Greg urges us to find our particular passion or gift and get to work!

In week four of Throughline, Seth discusses how and why we build community.

In this third installment of the Throughline series, Greg explores what it means to mature in the Christian faith and how that impacts our decision making.

God clearly shows amazing hospitality towards us from Genesis through Revelation, and yet we rejected Jesus, and we continue to reject countless others day by day. We have a superiority issue that Jesus confronted throughout his ministry, and he taught us to live a better way. It’s time for us to learn and practice some genuine hospitality!