West Church Peabody Podcast

This Sunday we have the privilege to have Steve Brinton share with us a sermon titled In Pursuit of Freedom based on Romans 6:12-23. As humans freedom is cherished, protected, and highly prized. Freedom to decide for ourselves. Freedom to be left alone. As Christians freedom is much richer and goes beyond this temporal existence. Freedom from the guilt and shame of sin. Freedom from the consequences of sin which is death. In this sermon we will hear what the Bible says about this gift of freedom that God is offering through His Son.

This Sunday will be the second in our series “Stubborn with God” from Jonah. This week we will talk about second chances. While in the belly of the fish, Jonah’s heart begins to change. We can see what was happening in his life. God gives him a second chance. Not everyone gets or deserves a second chance. God loves to give them. A second chance should move us to develop hearts of thanks for all that God does for us in his grace.

This Sunday we begin our new series in Jonah titled, “Stubborn with God.” Sometimes we won’t listen to Him. Our own thoughts, feelings, and plans get in the way. But when we are His children, we can run, but we can’t hide. He finds us. We can yield, listen and learn or we may just enter a stormy time in our lives. Thankfully God is patient and gracious, seeking to mold and shape us through the storms of life. He can even use us to influence others towards him despite our weaknesses. Jonah is an amazing story of God’s grace toward stubborn believers and those who are tremendously lost and broken.

This Sunday, Pastor Rick will be giving a message on The Ascension of Jesus, looking at Luke 24:26-53.

On this Easter Sunday, Pastor Bill will lead us through the last sermon of the "Shaped by the Risen Jesus" series. The worship service is going to be filled with praise as we consider the scene where the risen Jesus speaks with Peter about his failure and restores him to his ministry. We will see how tender and truthful Jesus is and what he wants from us as our risen Lord. It is an amazing, intimate moment between the Savior and one of his closest friends.

This Sunday we will be looking at the scene where Peter denies Jesus after promising that he would never do so. It is about how faith can crumble. We’ll think about fear, self-protection, eroding faith, denial, guilt and shame. All sad realities that surface in Peter’s life and ours. What do we do with these things? It all depends upon how we believe Jesus looks at us.

We will look at three scenes from the life of Peter during the time of Jesus death, burial and resurrection. The first is the scene where Peter promises Jesus that he will never fail him and is willing to give his life for Jesus. This is one of those scenes where Peter and his fellow disciples really have no idea what they were getting into because they couldn’t understand what Jesus was truly inviting them into. They knew that Jesus was calling them into his kingdom. But what Jesus meant by kingdom and what they though he meant were two different things.

This week we conclude our series “If God is For Us” in Romans 8. Paul calls us “more than conquerors” through Jesus. The idea of being a conqueror brings to mind different things to different people: like success, victory or triumph. But it’s interesting that Paul describes the experiences of the Romans as being very difficult and a deep struggle. So will consider what it means to be a conqueror in Jesus and what it doesn’t mean. We overcome by our faith in the end.

We have the pleasure of having a guest speaker with us this Sunday. Heneni, the Hebrew phrase for “Here I am," used in Isaiah 6 clearly shows Isaiah's call to serve the Lord. Are you ready to serve the Lord? Can you say Heneni... Lord here I am?

As we continue in Romans 8 this Sunday, we read a series of piercing questions about the significance of our faith. These questions are designed to give us pause to reflect on the impact of the answers. They are a reality check. Do we believe what we say we believe? Are our faith and hope powerful enough to sustain us? As we do a spiritual reality check, we will remember Jesus for us in the bread and the cup. This week, we will have real bread and separate cups that speak to us of a real Savior.

As we continue in our series “If God is For Us,” we will see the profound way that God is at work in our behalf through all circumstances, even when we suffer. God’s working starts from eternity past and extends to eternity to come. God’s care provides for every one of our needs as his people. God’s care comes as a powerful flow of gracious intentions and actions on our behalf.

This Sunday we return to Romans 8, “If God is For Us…” We will look at “What Happens When We Pray.” There is a common perception about prayer that “God answers every prayer yes, no or wait.” The truth is much deeper than that. God is way more involved in our prayers than we think. You will be encouraged with how much God is for us when we pray.

As we continue in Romans chapter 8, we will take up the topic of groaning, that wordless sound of sadness, struggle and pain that we make when life is hard. The whole creation even groans along with us. How can God be for us when there is so much groaning in the world? Paul invites us to see what God is doing and what He wants to teach us as we groan. God really is for us.

Dr Mark Fee, founder and CEO of First loved ministries, will be our guest speaker. He will be with us the entire weekend leading a group of 24 people through the Taste and See: First Loved event. His Sermon, titled “Love Potluck - Loving God to Bring Him Pleasure” is based upon Hebrews 10:24-25 "And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another...13:15-16 Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise—the fruit of lips that openly profess his name. And do not forget to do good and to share with others, for with such sacrifices God is pleased."

As we continue in our series, “If God Is for Us,” we will learn some more about the work of the Spirit within us. What does it mean to grow in our relationship with God? As I thought about our passage this week, it struck me that being a Christian is harder than we think, but better than we expected. Paul warns about the deadly way our sin nature can take us and how we need to put that nature to death. He likewise celebrates what it means to truly know God as our Father and be heirs of a better future. Come embracing the challenge to grow deeper in God.

This Sunday we will continue to see how much God is for in the Holy Spirit. It is the Spirit who helps us break with sin, embrace Jesus. He will keep us all the way until we receive resurrected bodies like Jesus did. Having the Spirit is so much more than making a decision for Jesus so that we can go to heaven. Through the Spirit we have all that Jesus died and rose again to give us. We even will receive resurrection bodies. The Spirit brings all of the blessings of the Father and the Son into our lives right now, blessings that will last forever.