God Talk

This present evil

Evil continues to become ever more normalized in society. You may feel like it is useless to stand up against it, but stand up against it we must.

“Born of Water and the Spirit…” (“Lesser Known Quotes of Jesus” Week 3 of 7)

There was a period of history where God, Yahweh, claimed the people Israel as His people, as other nations had forsaken Him over time. Jesus upended that tradition, as the Scriptures teach us that salvation is for all who are willing to receive.
Christians tend to throw around the phrase of being “born again,” but we seldom talk about what that really means; whether it’s the transformational aspect of new life breathing in or the working aspect of a faith lived out, today we want to explore what Jesus means when He says “no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water AND the Spirit.” Stay tuned for this important message!
Scriptures today: John 3:1-8 // Acts 2:38-39 // Acts 8: 14-16 // Jeremiah 5:20-21 // 1 Corinthians 2:10 // Ezekiel 36:26 // Acts 7:1-8
We’re so glad you joined us for this message of purpose! Any music performed live is performed under all appropriate licenses from CCLI, and all musical rights remain reserved by their respective artists; license details are available upon request. No other rights are reserved; share this message of hope, light, direction, and peace with anyone and everyone who needs to hear it. If you cannot find a shareable copy, reach out to tech@lotwchurch.org and we will make one available for you. God bless.

When a nation forgets God

When a nation forgets God the nation will continue to descend into more dysfunction and moral chaos until it ultimately destroys itself. That is the path we are on. Is there still hope?

“Love Your Enemies…” (“Lesser Known Quotes of Jesus” Week 2 of 7)

We don’t tend to like people who don’t like us. We can sense it, right? All the subtle cues add up to make us feel like someone is avoiding us, like they’re trying to end conversations early, and like they’d rather be somewhere else… every time. So LIKING people can be challenging. But LOVING people, especially those we’d call enemies?
It would be easy to believe Jesus is talking about foreign nations and wartime enemies… but that’s not what He means. It would be nice if we saw our enemies suffering for their sins and we could pray for their deliverance. But to watch enemies prosper while we suffer and still pray for them is… well, it’s our command.
Scriptures today: 5:43-47 // Romans 2:3-4
We’re so glad you joined us for this message of purpose! Any music performed live is performed under all appropriate licenses from CCLI, and all musical rights remain reserved by their respective artists; license details are available upon request. No other rights are reserved; share this message of hope, light, direction, and peace with anyone and everyone who needs to hear it. If you cannot find a shareable copy, reach out to tech@lotwchurch.org and we will make one available for you. God bless.

“Do Not Be Anxious…” (“Lesser Known Quotes of Jesus” Week 1 of 7)

Jesus has some famous sayings that people like to quote: “Do unto others…” and “Judge not…” but these fall short of a real understanding of who Jesus is and how He guides us to live. As we transition from Biblical Mantras to Lesser-Known Quotes of Jesus, we wanted to cover a well-known but seldom-contextualized verse: “Do not be anxious about anything…”
A staggeringly high (and alarmingly increasing) number of Americans are struggling with stress, worry, and their result: anger. Anxiety comes in many forms: specifically-focused, generally-abundant, mild to severe… but all anxiety is met with Jesus’ words, and we want to help you choose the voice of Jesus over the voice of worry. Let’s dive in together.
Scriptures today: Matthew 6:25-34 // 1 Kings 19:7-14 // Matthew 11:28-30 // 1 Peter 5:6-7 // John 14:27
We’re so glad you joined us for this message of purpose! Any music performed live is performed under all appropriate licenses from CCLI, and all musical rights remain reserved by their respective artists; license details are available upon request. No other rights are reserved; share this message of hope, light, direction, and peace with anyone and everyone who needs to hear it. If you cannot find a shareable copy, reach out to tech@lotwchurch.org and we will make one available for you. God bless.

Pastor Greg’s Survival Guide for the Holidays

The holidays can be a challenging time, but there’s things we can do to make them quite a bit better. This podcast will give 11 practical tips for making this holiday season your best one ever.

“God Has Not Given Us a Spirit of Fear…” (“Biblical Mantras” Week 6 of 6)

We speak on this verse a lot, here: throughout the pandemic, we preached it, and our Executive Director brings it up every week… but today instead of the bolstering call to be courageous, we’re looking at the flipped side of the coin: what happens when we aren’t?
The American Church has gotten a little soft, a little pandering, a little happy-go-lucky. “Peace and comfort” are shouted from modern pulpits, but that’s not what this verse says. Power. Love. Self-Control. Which of those are you lacking? How can God grow that in your life? Tune in and find out.
Scriptures today: 2 Timothy 1:7 // Hebrews 10:38 // Ephesians 4:15 // Deuteronomy 1:16-21
We’re so glad you joined us for this message of purpose! Any music performed live is performed under all appropriate licenses from CCLI, and all musical rights remain reserved by their respective artists; license details are available upon request. No other rights are reserved; share this message of hope, light, direction, and peace with anyone and everyone who needs to hear it. If you cannot find a shareable copy, reach out to tech@lotwchurch.org and we will make one available for you. God bless.

How is your soul?

In this podcast we will take a look at the events of the last few days…the coming holidays and give an encouragement that even when life gets tough (and it will) we are called to fight the good fight, finish the race and keep the faith.

“God Works All Things Together…” (“Biblical Mantras” Week 5 of 6)

Today we set the record straight: this Scripture is one of the most commonly-mis-quoted verses amongst wishful thinkers and agnostics. Often from a place of despair, they’ll mutter “the Bible says everything works together for good, so where’s my good?”
The end of the verse is arguably more important than the first part: “God works all things together for the good of those *who love Him and who have been called according to His purpose.*” (emphasis ours). Do you love Him? What does that look like? How are we called? Today, we’ll explore exactly that, and discuss how to rest in waiting for ‘good’ to come (when ‘perfect’ already has).
Scriptures today: Can we just say Romans 8? No, you want actual references? Okay. Romans 8:28, then Romans 8:22-25, 26-27, 31, 32, 35-39
We’re so glad you joined us for this message of purpose! Any music performed live is performed under all appropriate licenses from CCLI, and all musical rights remain reserved by their respective artists; license details are available upon request. No other rights are reserved; share this message of hope, light, direction, and peace with anyone and everyone who needs to hear it. If you cannot find a shareable copy, reach out to tech@lotwchurch.org and we will make one available for you. God bless.

Reality Check

We all think we have a firm grasp of reality but are we sure? In this episode of God Talk we’re going to talk about how we live in a day and age in which we understand reality better than any other time in human history yet more than ever people are out of touch with reality. Do you have a firm grip on reality? Are you sure?