Westside Church

Often when we think of the justice of God, our minds go to an angry, vengeful God who executes judgment on the wicked. However, a closer look at scripture shows us that justice is action taken on behalf of the vulnerable. Throughout the entirety of the Bible, we see God’s heart for the outcast, orphan, and downtrodden. From the mosaic law to the sermon on the mount, it is clear that God’s heart is for those who cannot help themselves. As Christians, we must follow and embody the heart of God, taking on the cause of the vulnerable and making it our own.

The revolutionary understanding of God's nature as love sets Christianity apart and should guide our interactions with the world. Jesus provides the full and true understanding of God: Jesus shows us the mature working-out of love. In Jesus, God and love are linked accurately, intricately, indissolubly.

Old humanity dies with Christ & becomes new humanity exemplified by Mercy, Generosity, Forgiveness & Love.

Paul teaches us there are two cultural pressures tempting us to compromise our faith: the worship of many gods (that Jesus conquered on the cross) and the observance of the Jewish laws (that He fulfilled). As believers hidden in Christ, we take off the pressures of our culture and rest in the easy yoke of our Savior.

Paul does not see his imprisonment as punishment but as his participation in Christ's suffering as Messiah. Our challenge is to see our own hardships as joy.

Relationship with Christ is the point and the plan of the gospel. When we have Christ we have everything. Everything we pray about concerns Christ because he is in everything and all things are held together through him.

Paul is imprisoned and writes a letter to a group he has never met and a church he did not found. The church is going well, but experiencing cultural pressure. Paul gives two prayers to the church: 1. Grow in wisdom & understanding. 2. A poem about the Messiah.

On Generation Sunday, Youth & Family Pastor Josh Cordell shares on the life of faith. Drawing from Hebrews 11, he studies the individuals who lived by faith and the significance of their stories for our own lives. Josh also discusses the power of repentance and turning towards God, calling for a reorientation and a focus on Jesus.

We become like Jesus as we learn to recognize and respond to holy moments.

In declaring Himself to be the Good Shepherd, Jesus stood out from false messiahs (thieves) and Pharisees (bad shepherds) alike. Jesus modeled the heart of the Father for people, one that willingly lays down religious rules to rescue those who are lost and broken. As found people, our allegiance is to our Good Shepherd alone.

Commissioning prayer acknowledges our participation in the move of the Holy Spirit in our world.

The early church devoted themselves to prayer. They practiced regular times of prayer and set aside space in their lives for ongoing and continuous prayer. How important it is for us to pray at all times during these uncertain days and to maintain a deep connection with God.

Intercessory prayer emerges from a great need and results in more of God's presence and power. God is speaking to us in this season and we will intercede for what God is speaking to us.

Since the coming of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, the Spirit of God operates within His people, with eternal ramifications. The Apostle Paul outlines the ministry of the Spirit in us for regeneration, sanctification, and assurance.

In Acts 13, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas are sent out of the church he co-pastored in Antioch. Although the church sent them, these leaders would return to Antioch as their home church.

What we believe about God and the Bible matters. But not everything matters equally. In Acts 15, church leaders decided it was more important to remove barriers to the Gospel than to get everyone to agree. by the time Paul gets to Athens, he's ready to use their pagan altar to point to Jesus. There's only one way to the Father, but the paths we take to find Jesus are many. Who do we exclude from our community based on differing views or opinions?

Saul's conversion represents something that is almost unbelievable: not that a sinner can find grace, but that judgmental, religious minds can be transformed by an encounter with Jesus. Like Ananias, can we overcome disgust for the self-righteous and extend hope for them, too?

The miraculous manifestations of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost call back to Old Testament moments that represented failure. The pillar of fire that led the people into the wilderness is now the flame that leads each believer in the world. The scattering at Babel is remedied with the Gospel spoken in every language on the streets of Jerusalem. The 3,000 lost in the wilderness rebellion are juxtaposed to the 3,000 saved when the Holy Spirit is poured out. If God can rewrite those endings, what might he do for us today?

The final words Jesus shared with his disciples before his arrest spoke of a mysterious gift: the Holy Spirit. Jesus is leaving; the Holy Spirit is coming. The Holy Spirit will be in them, doing in them what Jesus did among them.

When Cleopas and his friend leave Jerusalem, they leave behind their hope that Jesus was the chosen one. Their mysterious walking companion patiently meets them on their turf: walking them through the law and the prophets and, in the process, reignites their hope. Their story gives us hope that skeptics can still encounter Christ and be re-enchanted by the mystery, even on the way out of faith.

What sounded like nonsense was news too good to be ignored: The crucified Jesus was alive!

On His way to Jerusalem, Jesus boldly overturns convention to express the mercy and welcome of the Father to broken, hurting people.

When the Samaritans reject Jesus, the disciples ask permission to call down fire on them. Jesus rebukes them, and then tells the parable of the Good Samaritan. Like the disciples, our bias towards violence is broken by a God of mercy.

Living out of a cruciformity to the cross of Christ challenges America's individualism and judgementalism toward others. It informs how we live in community, our commitment to the weak and marginalized, and our response to enemies.

The power of the cross flies in the face of the powers and principalities in the heavens and in the earth (explore the Pax Romana and present systems of power). It is a power denoted by weakness and by suffering and has the power to change the world for the good.

As carriers of the death and life of Christ, we are conformed and transformed into the image of Christ. Our identification with and participation in the cross of Christ informs every aspect of our lives and our relationships.

The pilgrimage that takes place during these songs of ascents is both an invitation and a command of and to the people. This is also true for blessing – we are invited to bless the lord and commanded to bless the lord. Our feelings about the need for perfect honesty or authenticity don’t change that. Bless the lord. Lift your arms and eyes.

Worship is not coerced from anyone. True worship is always voluntary. Our worship is somewhat akin to what we do when we have free time, or what we spend money on when we have extra. Worship happens when we want it to. Why do we do this? What does it do for us?

Repentance is the decision to admit that you’re wrong. That you’re wrong about your ability to be your own God and make it on your own. And it is deciding that God, through Jesus Christ, is telling you the truth. How do we make this turn to create a new life path?

Countless have been to church and many claim Jesus as savior, but it’s difficult to seek discipleship. We must allow ourselves to be formed to the way of Jesus by our practices and community.

There is no limit to the presence of God and in his presence we find joy. Joy exists outside of circumstance and because of the eternalness of Jesus -- him being ever-lasting, never-failing -- our joy exists eternally as well. Jesus' promises are consistent and steady us in a chaotic world.

Jesus sees us and listens to us. This seems like a simple thing, but in a world where loneliness runs rampant, being seen and known can be the first step to living a life of hope, peace, love and joy. Accepting the love of Jesus changes everything. It gives us a new perspective on ourselves and our fellow humans. When we accept the love of our Wonderful Counselor is makes space for working toward and caring about others and that leads to living in peace and working towards the flourishing of all creation.

It's tempting to think of "peace" as an exercise in quiet. Bad guys and good guys alike have dedicated themselves to the pursuit of this still, silent landscape of being. This begs the question, "What is the Prince of Peace actually after?" The answer is wholeness. A reconciling of all creation to himself.

The people of God were waiting for deliverance through a Mighty God, a heroic God that would come with swords blazing. Instead he shows up in the smallness of a baby. How do we reconcile what we think a Mighty God should be with how he actually displays his mightiness and brings hope to the world.

Those who truly experience grace will also experience a transformation in the way they view others. If grace is the distinctive of the Christian faith, it ought to be extravagantly offered in our communities.

The idea of grace is so powerful and compelling that it can seem dangerous. What if we throw it around too easily? What if we give people a license to sin? How do we make sure grace is “balanced” by truth? But grace is always lopsided, it’s always scandalous or it isn’t grace. Grace meets us and embraces us long before we “deserve” it. The life of Paul shows us a living color demonstration of the scandalous grace of Jesus. “Knocked flat on the ground on the way to Damascus, Paul never recovered from the impact of grace: the word appears no later than the second sentence in any of his letters." (Phillip Yancey).

In the face of injustice, a price must be paid. We all have a label we deserve to wear for the rest of eternity. There is a price for our sins and our wrongs and it’s way too rich for our blood. But God…paid the price himself to set us free. This is grace.

We've long loved the metaphor of being an "Army for the Lord." It can be confusing. Especially today. Jesus offers a beautiful metaphor in the form of shelter from the storm. Jesus teaches us from the ethos of the Beatitudes and the pathos of the cruiciform that which gives Christianity it's distinctive beauty. This is the beauty we must embrace.

Jesus is tempted in the desert with safety, influence and political power; or, the most common desires of the world. Over the last generation or so, the evangelical church has been more adept at endorsing these dominant desires and is in need of recovering its true form and beauty.