Saints‘ Hill Church Podcast

Vision 2023: Every Person with Vision

Without vision, people live shamefully outside of design.

Salvation reveals who you were designed to be and the purpose for your life, but you won’t do what you were made to do if you have lost vision for your life. Without vision you will begin to live in fantasy and you will become double-minded. 

We get vision through a life of revelation and encounter - discovering the truth about God and experiencing Him. It begins with the fear of the Lord, which places intimacy and proximity above logic and the world’s wisdom. When you surrender and trust Him, He will lead you to rest when needed and to act when required.

May we become a fountain of vision and hope to those around us as we live this way!

Vision 2023: Joy Complete

On Sunday we closed out our Vision Series with a teaching from one of our leaders, Bria Wolter.

She posed the question, “Is your joy complete?”

Joy was never meant to be limited by our definition or circumstances. According to the authors of Scripture, joy complete is Jesus. Any definition of joy that is not found in Jesus Himself is lacking. 

Our joy complete is to be found in Him. To hear His voice, to see His face, to touch Him. 

The joy-filled life is a life of power with a singular focus on the Father and the kingdom mission for our life. May we not be satisfied with an incomplete joy. Let us resolve in our hearts and our minds to dive deeper into His love no matter the cost. 

Vision 2023: His Perfect Will

This last Sunday one of our elders, Andoni Montaño, taught us through the Scriptures a biblical definition of the will of God.

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In summary, God’s will is heaven on earth (Matthew 6v9-10).

As we look at the meta-narrative of Scripture and the life of Jesus we are called to trust in God’s intentions to bless humanity through Christ over and against the evil we see at work in the world. 

Don’t settle for anything less than the prefect will of God for your life. Heaven on earth in you and through you. 

Vision 2023: Pioneers

If the job description of Saints’ Hill is primarily temple ministry, what does it mean to be apart of Saints’ Hill?

It means you pioneer the path to His Presence. You go up the hill for yourself like Moses was unafraid to, and make the choice to know God personally. Never let a day go by without face-to-face connection with God. It’s what you were made for, it’s been God’s desire all along, and it’s the reason Jesus went to the cross.

The best thing you can do for your spouse, your job, your children, your roommates, your future…is to go up the hill and be “filled to the measure of all the fullness of God” (Eph 3v19). It’s why we’re in Newberg, to see heaven come through a people who have seen and received His glory.

Vision 2023: The House of God

What is Saints’ Hill?

This is a question we’ve been asking as we’re turning the corner of five years as a church. We feel like God has given us an answer to this question that will mark Saints’ Hill for years to come:

The people of Saints’ Hill will be a house where God lives, a gate between heaven and earth, a Presence-filled, leaking temple whose river refreshes all people.

The greatest gift we can give Newberg is a covering of glory, an ease of access to His Presence that brings life. 

We are asking as a family, that God would give us the ministry of the temple, that He would lead us into whatever pleases Him. 

Vision 2023: The Word of God Your Treasure

This last Sunday, Jim Traut shared with us the importance of treasuring God’s word.

The Bible is like a compass that always points us in the right direction. It always points us to what is true. It always points us to Jesus.

Our human experience of life on earth is chaotic and ever changing, but God’s truth never changes. If you want to know what is actually true, you need to learn how to love reading your compass. 

Jim challenged us with four simple things: commit to reading the word, trust and obey, approach the word with humility and tenderness, and make the word of God your treasure.

Are you willing to take God at His word, let Him shape your thinking and transform you by what is true?

We pray that today you receive a fresh new longing for the living, active, powerful word of God!

Vision 2023: Living With Authority and Power

On Sunday we began our annual vision series. Every year in the fall we take time to revisit and highlight our core values as a church to recenter and direct the year ahead. 

We began in Luke 9 - where we see that the main thing that keeps Jesus followers from walking in the authority and the power they’ve been given is distraction that leads to wrong belief. 

If we are constantly focused on what other people think, comparing ourselves to them, or defining success for ourselves, we will be ineffective in the very places we should be powerful. We are to depend on God for daily strength and live in obedience to His word. 

Distraction will eventually lead you into believing lies about God and about yourself, this is how the enemy renders you ineffective. We believe that as a church we are being called to higher things, to have authority in our identity and power in our lives. This comes when we apply the blood to all of our fears, our thinking, and our desires. 

Life of the Church: Ready Bride

This last Sunday we were joined by special guest, Teresa Dion from After the Rain Christian Counseling.

 

Teresa shared from her heart about what the ready bride of Christ looks like.

 

Throughout the Scriptures, the Church is referred to as the bride of Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life, died on the cross, was raised from the dead, and gave us the engagement ring of His Holy Spirit so that we would be able to prepare ourselves to become His bride when He returns.

 

Upon His return he will be looking for a holy, pure, undefiled bride. We cannot present ourselves to Him this way if we are in bondage to sin or giving ourselves to other loves. 

 

The ready bride is free! Free from sin, shame, and fear. But we don’t get free in our own strength, it is only by receiving the free gift of righteousness by the grace of God that we become who we were made to be.

The King is Here: Who is he?

This last Sunday Alex Rettmann walked us through Luke chapter 9. We were reminded that the most important question we must answer in this life is Who is Jesus?…

Who do you say God is? And, what do you think He is like?

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These questions are crucial in this day because if we don’t answer them for ourselves the crowds, friends, culture etc will answer it for you. A key to getting the right answer is knowing Christ and does He know you intimately. In our discovery, we are challenged with the simplicity of either Jesus is beautiful or he is ugly or an eye sore. In other words; Jesus is either the One you need or not - Either you lean on Him or you are ashamed of Him

Let’s say no to fear! And, may we be a bold people that daily pick up our crosses and follow Jesus and have lives that speak of His Lordship.

 

Be blessed!

The King is Here: How To Be Used By God (Luke 9v10-17)

On Sunday Alex taught through the story in Luke 9v10-17 where Jesus feeds the five thousand.

 

In this story Jesus is giving a lesson about who gets used by God and why. What’s so interesting about this passage is that who is asked by Jesus is not who is used by Jesus. The little boy with his loaves and his fish showed us that God uses those who are available, those who really trust that He has something to do through them, that He really can use their weakness for his enduring glory. 

 

If you only bring your energy, your gifts, and your strengths to God, you will never see him do beyond what you have asked, thought, or imagined. 

 

When we bring the little we have, our weakness and our exhaustion, it’s there that he’s able to work…because it’s his strength not our own.