God Talk

“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?

“This is the Day that the Lord Has Made” (“Biblical Mantras” Week 4 of 6)

We live in a very negative time: depression and self-harm rates post-Covid are at an all-time high, our country is divided and convinced that the other side is sending us to in a hand basket, drug use is on the rise again, and people are changing their jobs, relationships, and genders in pursuit of that elusive and ephemeral ‘it’ that will change how they feel every day.
Instead, we find this Scriptural command: “let us rejoice and be glad…” The question that remains is “how?” With all that we face every hour, how can we rejoice for ‘today?’ How can we be thankful for ‘today?’ Tune in and take notes as Pastor Greg guides us through Scripture and circumstance so that we can find a daily place of gratitude.
Scriptures today: Psalm 118:24 // 2 Timothy 3:1-2 // 1 Thessalonians 5:18 // James 4:1-4 // Matthew 6:34 // Exodus 20-8-11
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 Purely Political Podcast Part 2

Elections are coming. We must make our voices heard. That is the only way to make the insanity stop. We will take a look at some of the madness going on in politics right now...and I will make predictions for the election results and for the next two years to come.

“God is Near to All Who Call on Him in Truth” (“Biblical Mantras” Week 3 of 6)

It is easy to believe that God created the world and stepped back, like spinning a top and watching it go until it falls. However, this week’s mantra states differently: Psalm 145:18 says “The Lord is near to all who call on him, to all who call on Him in truth.”
The Bible is full of stories of God being near to His people: Hannah, Hagar, David, the Apostles, and then all who receive the Holy Spirit… God is near, and we need to talk about what to do with His presence today.
Scriptures today: Psalm 145:18 // 1 Samuel 1:1-20 // Genesis 21:14-20 // Psalm 6:8-9 // Psalm 3:4 // Psalm 34:15-19 // James 4:8 // 1 Timothy 2:5
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.