Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast

Advent: Our Longing

This last Sunday Bria taught on the longings of the soul that we discover in the Advent season.

During this season we recognize that the truth about our longings is revealed at His first coming, and the complete fulfillment of them comes with His second. So how do we live in the tension between the two?

We ought to live as those on whom light has dawned (Isaiah 9:2). We grieve darkness for what it is and we ask that God would shine His light again - that we might partner with the dawn.

We ought to live as citizens of the light. We wait with the Holy Spirit, who invites us to participate in His kingdom work here and now. We wait for his second coming by casting off every work of darkness and putting on the armor of light (Ephesians 6:13-18). We wait victoriously.

It is longing that Advent brings to the surface. When we let the light dawn and we see the truth about our longings - they are for Him. Let Him expose darkness for what it is that you might wait on Him in the light.

Advent: The Child’s Kingdom

This last Sunday we continued in our Advent series by reading Isaiah 9v2-7. This passage teaches us that the antidote to a wandering life of darkness and fearful gloom, is God Himself setting up His government.

He didn’t just come to get you into heaven, He came to get heaven into you, so that heaven would come through you.

Give all of your preconceived notions about reality for God’s ability, and you will find yourself with a Counselor, a Father, a Warrior, and a Prince of Peace. 

Advent: The Yes of Mary

The presence of Jesus is attracted to a yes.

This last Sunday we continued in our second week of the Advent series, contemplating the yes of Mary - her response to God’s word. Every human has the ability and privilege to do what Mary did, but to be used by God, we must have a correct response to Him.

Your life was created by His voice and designed to live by it. All of God’s words are seed, looking for a trusted yes to be planted in. When we choose to trust His voice, His promises, and His Presence, the impossible will happen & the kingdom will expand.

Advent: Beholding Beauty

This last Sunday we began the first week of Advent together as a church — reflecting on the coming of Christ into our world.

One thing we learn about Jesus is that He set the bar for the generosity of God. When you see Him as the light, your eyes will get healthy and you will begin to see his beauty everywhere.

When we stop seeing the world through Christ, all we focus on and see is lack, pain, and suffering. But when we really take in the generosity of God we see beauty, joy and love everywhere…and we are able to delight them.

 

Life of the Church: The Greenhouse

This last Sunday we heard from one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, on what it means to be loved by God, and manifest His love here on earth.

Reading through 1 John 4v7-18 we see that John is taking the focus from how we can love God, to how God loves us. The love you give to others will not be dependent on what you can give but what God has given you. You cannot give what you have not first received.

Only when we are overflowing with God’s love, can we begin to manifest His love to those around us. If you’re wondering what the manifest love of God is, look no further than Jesus. We learn from Him that signs and wonders - words of knowledge, healing, deliverance, etc. point to and participate in God’s love for mankind, and his intention to bless us in Christ.

Our identities are not wrapped around these gifts, rather, we use them to build up and serve others, demonstrating God’s love for them. We will grow in our exercising of these gifts when they are done from a place of security & overflow.

Communion: The Family Table

Church is designed to happen around a table. It is at the table that the sacrament takes place and the people are transformed.

Communion shapes the individual’s life, but it also shapes the community’s life. In one sense it’s vertical - the blood aligns you with God and makes you righteous. It’s also horizontal - it makes us right with one another and unifies us.

You can’t individually be one with Christ and not also one with those who are also one with Christ.

This meal has been at the center of the church since the beginning - unifying the body of believers. No ideology, political preference, or theological camp can bring the kind of unity communion offers. This meal goes beyond a few minutes on a Sunday, it’s a lifestyle of being in relationship with other believers as you pursue God together.

Communion: Enjoy the Way of the Cross

What does it mean for communion to become the very shape of your life?

Communion is the physical vision statement for a Christian’s soul. It is the form your life will take if you really want to live. It’s setting aside your will to serve God’s will.

The main thing that gets in the way of this pursuit is our glittering images. They demand sacrifices from us that we eventually grow weary in giving. They tell us that Jesus' blood surely isn't enough to justify us and fill us.

We must trade our glittering images for a Jesus mind.

A Jesus mind, or a renewed mind, reveals its fullness by its service. Your ability to go low will reveal what you have taken in. Jesus knew who He was, and that allowed Him to serve all and build His Father’s kingdom. We are called to do the same!

Communion: The Blood Changes Everything

This last Sunday we began a three-week series on Communion, and how the importance of this meal will change our church.

The blood of Jesus not only forgives you of your sin, but it cleanses you from the guilt of your sin. This is theologically true, but how many of us experience that reality day to day?

The blood of Jesus purchased a new covenant reality. Jesus became the sacrifice and washed you with his blood, you have the self-assurance of a child, intimacy with God. You can live a life of triumph, because your source is from another world.

Communion becomes an opportunity to place all of yourself under the blood - family, loved ones, emotions, mental world, career, etc. — to really experience on this side of heaven what Jesus purchased for you.

The King is Here: Jesus Restores a Demon-Possessed Man

This last Sunday we were fortunate enough to hear from one of our deacons, Justin Adsit. Justin gave a teaching on Luke 8v26-39 as a continuation of our Luke Series. This story illustrates one of the most radical stories of the authority of Jesus to heal, save, and deliver. We learn that when Jesus shows up, hopeless situations shift.

Expanding heaven on earth can get messy, and we have to lay down our right to things that we can understand. It’s worth it.

We don’t worship the miracles, but if we just see them as signs, we might be missing the point. They are signs, but they are also wonders that participate in the reality of heaven on earth now.

Revival is more personal than you think. Consider your response to Jesus. Is His activity in your life just a sign of what it will be one day, or is it a wonder that you can participate in with Him now?

Vision 2022: Biblical Worship

This last Sunday, Jake Vigil gave us a teaching on the definition of true, biblical worship.

We see all the way back in Genesis, that biblical worship is sacrifice. In the Psalms we learn that worship is about making ourselves a dwelling place for Him. Jesus revealed to the woman at the well that worship is done in spirit and truth. And in Revelation, we see the worship that echoes throughout eternity: “Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come.”

So then, true biblical worship is any and every expression of obedience, praise, honor, adoration, and gratitude offered to the true God.

Worshippers are to become living sacrifices given over to Him, that our souls might become a home for Him. 

May we be the kind of sons and daughters who build a way of life around knowing the truth about God and loving Him rightly. We will sing out His holiness so that earth can look like Heaven.