http://westpresburbank.org Audio sermons from Westminster Presbyterian Church in Burbank, California. Fri, 27 Aug 2010 05:40:36 GMT ListGarden Program 1.3.1 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss Date: 8-22-10 <br>Title: I do what the voice tells me to do <br>Text: The whole of the Bible <br> <br>How do we hear God? Systematically, this question falls under the doctrine of Scripture inspired by the Holy Spirit, or the self-disclosure of God, revelation. Sun, 22 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 8-15-10 <br>Title: Welcome to Our Benevolent, Multi-headed Dictatorship <br>Text: Acts 2:42 <br> <br>Tom Wright says . . . “The Christianly virtuous person is not thinking about his or her own moral performance. He or she is thinking of Jesus Christ, and of how best to love the person next door,” (After You Believe, pg. 240). It is this balance of Christ and others which grounds us in God’s purpose. The question for all of us is: how can I love both of them more? Sun, 15 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 8-8-10 <br>Title: This is our story: Dorothy Gale... Evangelist! <br>Text: 1 Cor. 12:12-20 <br> <br>So, last week I compared the church to the TV program Diners Drive-ins and Dives. This week, my comparison is the Wizard of Oz. Consider this: each of the characters we meet in OZ has a need: The Tin Man needs a heart, the Cowardly Lion needs courage, and the Scarecrow needs a brain. Each has lived in OZ with these needs for an undetermined period of time and each is given direction to fulfill that need by the “call” of Dorothy Gale who herself receives her call out of her need. Dorothy isn’t an expert, neither is the Tin Man, or the Scarecrow or the Cowardly Lion . . . (spoiler alert) even the Wizard isn’t who he appears to be which is where my analogy falls apart. Yet they are all seeking wholeness and working together to find their healing. Sun, 08 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 8-1-10 <br>Title: This is our story: The McDonaldization of the church <br>Text: Ps. 139:13-16; Eph. 2:10 <br>Theme: Creating as created beings <br> <br>An important aspect of the church is that we are all called by God to participate as producers of what we’re about. There’s no us and them, no hierarchy per se; yes certainly there are officers who are called for a season to serve in a particular role for a particular time. But ideally we all work to produce what we do here. Sun, 01 Aug 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 7-25-10 Bill Motz teaching <br>Title: The Book of Me <br>Text: Philemon <br> <br>The hoped for grace that emerges from the book of Philemon is indicative of the foolishness of the Gospel which not only brings the lost back, but also restores what has run away; it is a story that includes us between its pages as we see what God is writing in the narrative of our lives. Sun, 25 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 7-18-10 <br>Title: This is our story <br>Text: John 3:16; Luke 8:13; Acts 2:42 <br>Theme: How do we approach our faith life in the midst of crisis? <br> <br>For the past 52 years of our life, nearly 30 years of marriage, 26 years of professional ministry, four kids, one we lost, five congregations, four youth groups, one apartment, one duplex, one double-wide trailer, five houses, only one of which we bought, five dogs and who knows how many cats rats and mice my wife Carol and I have grown through the crisis moments of life. We’ve done it successfully and with sorrowful defeat. But I think in the main we’ve weathered both the good and the bad successfully and for that we’d like to tell you our story, how we do what we do. That’s what this teaching is all about. Sun, 18 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT Money is an issue for all of us. As WestPres deals with the arrival of our own version of the economic downturn (we’re SO excited that it’s finally arrived) we are seeking to know the will of God in prayer. The purpose of this teaching is give our prayer a biblical foundation. I want to try and dispel the lies of bad preaching, the prosperity gospel and fear and attempt to arrive at the heart of what we’re about as Christ’s-ones as far as money. Sun, 11 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT We are walking a fine line in this service. Celebrating the birth of our nation, in the context of a worship service, probably makes some of you nervous. Anytime we put together religion and politics any thinking person holds their breath. However, there is a rich tradition in doing what we are about. It’s unfortunate that the extremes of partisan politics have created a rift between church and state the framers never intended to exist. The term, “separation of church and state doesn’t exist in the constitution of the United States of America. The pertinent passage is: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” To separate faith from a nation, to rip from history the line of faith that has served as the defining map for those who came before us, is to leave us lost in a desert of history. With no pattern from which to learn and extrapolate into the future. <br> <br>Yet it is completely understandable why we have thrown out the roadmap which faith provides. Religion has been greatly abused by both extremes of belief. So when many of us hear the church having anything to do with government a wave of concern runs over us, rightfully so. <br> <br>It’s important to know that while commerce was a huge motivating factor in the events leading to the “discovery” of America, faith was the motivator for many of those who populated this nation. While we are not a theocracy, we are also not an atheistic nation. While we do not believe that America is the new Jerusalem, we do believe that God has used our nation a force for good, so that it is impossible to comprehend that He is not in someway powerfully working in America. <br> <br>I invite you now to abandon worries of partisanship and celebrate what we have been given. I invite you to thank God for the precious, tenacious freedom we enjoy and to consider, as all worship services should make us do, how we can do, what we do better. Sun, 04 Jul 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: June 27, 2010 <br>Title: An REM of the Soul <br>Text: Ps. 84; Col. 4:2-6 <br> <br>Stewardship is the responsible use of one of the most precious "things" we've been given in the case of this teaching time and finding our rest within it. Time is just like any other created "thing" of God. God created it, we get to use it. And as with any other created thing, time too must be cared for in concert with God. Sun, 27 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 6-20-10 Father’s Day <br>Title: Participating as Producers <br>Text: Ps. 91:1; Acts 6:1-7 <br> <br>A mark of the church of Jesus Christ is when her people see themselves as called and gifted by God, seek to serve in their gifts participate as "producers" of the "product" of church and rest in appropriate measure. Sun, 20 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT Calling All Sinners - Let's Party <br>06/13/2010 <br>Rev. Paul Clairville <br>10:30 AM Service Sun, 13 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT "So You Think You've Got Talent?" <br>Matthew 25:14-30 <br>We've all got talents, it's how we use our talents as we serve God that matters. Sun, 06 Jun 2010 18:30:00 GMT WestPres - Now In Living Color <br>05/30/2010 <br>Rev. Paul Clairville <br>10:30 AM Service Sun, 30 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 5-23-10 <br>Title: Picnicking with the homeless <br>Scripture: Matt. 25:34-40 <br> <br>We need to learn to pray the dangerous prayer that Christ will give us a heart for others, for the needy, for the homeless. The other day someone told me that they saw a bumper sticker outside a church that said "Work harder, millions on welfare are depending on you". All humor aside I don't think this was exactly what Matthew 25 is getting at. That is not what the Church of Jesus Christ should be known for. The Church of Jesus Christ should be known for rejecting the economic rules which are so prevalent in our culture. This is how Jesus served. Sun, 23 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 5-16-10 <br>Title: Parties for prostitutes <br>Text: Matt. 9:9-13 <br>So too in the whole of scripture there is welcome for the sinner, but there’s also discipleship. In our text for today, chapter nine of Matthew we find what could be called stories of the miracles of grace for sinners which are boundaried by "discipleship stories." The broken state of the sinner is never debated, in fact it is enlarged: Jesus says we all are "sick," we're all sinners and we're supposed to welcome fellow sinners into fellowship and discipleship. Sun, 16 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT Date: 5-9-10 <br>Title: What is the sin of Arizona? <br>Text: Ex. 20:8-11; Rom. 12:9-16; Heb. 13:2 <br> <br>Hospitality is a core ethic of the Judeo-Christian faith. The word hospitality is another one of those hybrid Greek words I’m so fond of and seek to bore you with far too often, philos which means "love" as in brotherly love, or family love and xenia which means "stranger” or "foreigners." At our foundation we are a people who are to care for those outside. Sun, 09 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT God's mercy was on display even in Sodom and Gomorrah. Intern Brian Camara preaching. Sun, 02 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT Text: Gen 2:15-18; 20b-25; 3:1-21 <br>The destruction of our roots of relatedness as we continue the theme of living as community. Sun, 25 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT The story of Esther shows us how to have faith in God even when it looks like he's not there. Intern Brian Camara preaching. Sun, 18 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT The church is primarily a people, not just a place to meet. It’s bigger than that. It is a movement, not an institution, it is not just a Sunday event but a seven-day-a-week identification, not a once-a-week, sixty-minute respite from the real world, but a committed community in this world, a world which desperately needs redemption which we do not give, for only Jesus can do that, but are tasked with gracefully communicating. Sun, 11 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT As far as Easter goes, "getting it" means believing that Jesus rose from the dead and grappling with what that means for you and for the world and that is more than eggs, chocolate and bunnies . . . It’s not about the bunny. The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is an essential belief for people who call themselves Christians. Sun, 04 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT Palm Sunday Service Sun, 28 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT The world in which we live today and about whose suffering we know so much seems more than ever a world from which Christ has withdrawn himself. How can I believe that in this world we are constantly being prepared to receive the Spirit? But this is exactly the message of hope. God hasn’t withdrawn himself. He has sent his Son to share our human condition and the Son sent us his Spirit to lead us into to the intimacy of his divine life. It is in the midst of the chaotic suffering of humanity that the Holy Spirit makes himself visible. <br> <br>But can we recognize his presence? Sun, 21 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT Worshiping God is about a lot more than just going to church. Sun, 14 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT Sermon for the 8th Annual Greg Baldwin Oscar Sunday Extravaganza. Sun, 07 Mar 2010 18:30:00 GMT Scott McGinnis <br>"It's Not About the Shoes" - John 1:1 <br>Summary: Through Jesus we are invited into the relationship at the center of the universe. I'm emphasizing the "with" in "the Word was with God" and that it signifies, not just proximity to, but a relationship. Sun, 28 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT Madeline L'Engel, writer of such books as "A Wrinkle in Time," and "Walking on Water" says... "There is nothing so secular that it cannot be sacred, and that is one of the deepest meanings of the incarnation." <br> <br>The incarnation means the coming of God in human form, in the form of Jesus, Jesus is God with us. God loves the secular world so much that he didn’t destroy it for its sinfulness. Even in the terrible "children's" story of Noah and the Ark God didn't destroy the earth, he didn't throw away all the people, he redeemed it. Redemption is the nature of God. Sun, 21 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT Christ died on the cross for us individually to satisfy the wrath of God toward sin, this is the necessary foundation for our salvation... and yet we worry about things like the sound levels of the music, or whether or not we should use flash photography in a wedding. Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT The book of Job is not about suffering. Job is about the awesomeness of God. The problem of suffering is never dealt with in the book. Rather in Job we enter into a man’s sufferings and discover with him that God is not only all we could ever want, he is also all we could ever need. Sun, 07 Feb 2010 18:30:00 GMT Listening to God is our Missio Dei, a Latin term which means the "sending of God." It is our special calling our special task which we hear and receive by listening to the whole of God speaking into the whole of life, even that which would be considered fringe. Sun, 31 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT The grace of God, a concept which given its power in the cross of Christ frees us from exaggeration. Grace allows us to honestly and realistically examine ourselves and come up short without endangering our salvation because our salvation doesn’t depend on an idealistic self assessment, but on the fact that God has overcome every pretense. It is the Lord who builds this house, it the Lord who has called us together as his body. Sun, 24 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT The blockbuster avatar might be a great technological achievement, but what does it highlight about community? Christian community is grounded in our faith in Christ, who has given us love and grace for one another. Sun, 17 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT The past few days it has struck me anew about how much of life as the body is like driving in fog. You have a direction, you know the way you’re supposed to go; but you can only barely make out the lane lines. Sometimes, you follow the faint taillights lead: they wax and wane and dimly lead on and then they simply fade away and you’re left in a white tunnel hearing only the sound of your own life: the tires hitting the road, intermittent windshield wipers, talk radio. You hope to see those taillights again and you hope you won’t see headlights, or even worse the hulking frame of a collision apprehended too late. <br> <br>Driving in fog is frightening and lonely and it’s how we spend most our life. <br> <br>This year I’d like to talk about traveling that foggy road together as the body of Christ. Being the Body of Christ doesn’t take us off the road, what it does is put us together, sensing the twists and turns of the road, staring intently out the window sentry-like, spelling each other so we can rest our eyes and be fresh for the journey. Sun, 10 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT Sun, 03 Jan 2010 18:30:00 GMT Paul’s annual “state of the church” address. Sun, 27 Dec 2009 10:30:00 GMT This Advent at WestPres we’ve been considering our walk with Christ to the manger which empowers us to be a healthier community of Christ for the kingdom of God: we’ve discussed being assertive in our interactions bringing our desires under the Lordship of Christ; seeking to understand one another as opposed to being understood; embracing both the physical and the spiritual as real; applying logic and scientific method to faith so that we are honest about what we believe; and holding each other accountable in an environment of empathy warmth and respect. <br> <br>As we arrive at Advent’s purpose we stand with Joseph and Mary, the shepherds and people of Bethlehem in an attempt to wrap our brains and souls around the reality of God with us, Immanuel. <br> <br>The gift of Christmas I’d like to conclude this Advent with is that of belonging. The word “belong” comes from a Middle English word belongen which means, “to go along with.” As we go along with Christ’s purposes, as we grow in this family of God we are given the gift of never being alone. Thu, 24 Dec 2009 23:00:00 GMT Being a healthier community of Christ for the kingdom of God means being assertive, rather than passive, or aggressive; seeking to understand one another before being understood; embracing both the physical and the spiritual as real; and looking for God in unlikely places, applying logic to faith, being honest about what we believe, and about what we struggle. <br> <br>Yet there can be so many reasons for misunderstanding. Robert Lee Holtz writes . . . “The complex wiring of (our) brain(s) is so unique that it is unlikely that any two people perceive the world in quite the same way.” <br> <br>Considering that reality it’s a miracle any of us ever understand each other. <br> <br>If the church is honest and real it stands to reason the need will exist for confrontation. To be real we have to assert our will as we explore how we hear God speaking to us; we have to listen to others as a corrective to our sin nature; we have to believe God actually does speak to us; and we have to stop putting God in a box but understand he speaks when, how and where he desires. Sun, 20 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT Being assertive in what we need and say, not because we're right, but because we're increasingly working out of God's good purposes; seeking to understand rather than be understood; and living in the real world, an existence encompassing both the tactile and the spiritual is how we begin to defeat inertia and begin to grow to be more as God made us. Sun, 13 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT People in the Bible get mad and yell at each other and God; they’re real. Something I really appreciate is the Bible's overt "realness"; its lack of "spiritualization." Rarely does it divide the secular and the spiritual. Sun, 06 Dec 2009 18:30:00 GMT James 1:19 says, "You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger." This should be tattooed on all us of somewhere because too often our practice is the complete opposite: flapping our lips; popping off at each other; jumping to conclusions, and only then listening; but God gave us two ears and one mouth. Sun, 29 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT Thanksgiving Service <br>11/25/2009 Wed, 25 Nov 2009 19:00:00 GMT Love From The Center <br>11/22/2009 <br>Rev. K.C. Wahe <br>9:00 AM Service Sun, 22 Nov 2009 17:00:00 GMT Seat of the Pants <br>11/15/2009 <br>Rev. Paul Clairville <br>10:30 AM Service Sun, 15 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT Living in the truth, defined by the Bible as being genuine, is honestly knowing ourselves and being able to share that knowledge with others. When we’re not doing that we’re not living as Christ calls us. Being truthful is living an unconcealed, open, honest and real. Sun, 08 Nov 2009 18:30:00 GMT Hebrews 11 is a litany of people who have lived their faith in both good and bad situations. We too at WestPres are a people who have been touched by those who have gone on before and we are touching others. Sun, 01 Nov 2009 17:00:00 GMT Scripture: Isaiah 1:17 <br>Reformation Sunday: What we can learn from the Reformers, who were faced with massive cultural and scientific shifts in their world. Sun, 25 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT Despite what you might think there’s hardness in journeying with Christ: it’s a challenge, it’s edgy. It would be easy to just sit at home eating bon-bons, watching TMZ, or to journey half-way: to not live well, to not be challenged as a good husband, wife, parent, etc. <br> <br>I find the best way through the scary places is three fold: <br> <br>it’s knowing Jesus is with us; <br>it’s knowing that the evil that scares us is a common enemy to both God and us which Jesus died to overcome; <br>and it is focusing on the hope of Jesus’ resurrection. Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard a thousand times, in the midst of suffering people asking . . . “Why is God doing this to me?” <br> <br>That’s a question asked at a fairly real level by the book of Job, but it might surprise you to hear its answer isn’t . . . “This is why God is doing this to you,” but that evil and suffering are mysteries born of a war-torn and unfathomably complex creation, not of God’s all-controlling will. Sun, 11 Oct 2009 17:00:00 GMT Where is God in the pain and the suffering of the world? Joshua 1:1-9 Sun, 04 Oct 2009 18:30:00 GMT What are we evangelicals known for? <br>Hating the first Black President. <br>Hating gays and lesbians. <br>Pushing a war that a major part of the population considers to have been initiated to get oil. <br>Caring more about fetus’ than about the fetus after its born. <br> <br>None of this may be true and in our 24-hour-news-cycle antagonistic to the Christian faith world it may be impossible to get past the prejudice, but if we don’t approach life in humility this will be our legacy. <br> <br>Without true repentance faith is valueless. <br> <br>Repentance is foundational for the church. If our actions doesn’t move people toward confronting their unrepentant will, if it doesn’t woo people toward repentance then all we’re doing is entertaining someone and we will end up being the kind of church which most people find anachronistic and mean. <br> <br>The Holy Spirit is the agent of repentance and reconciliation; he comforts the afflicted and afflicts the comfortable. Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:30:00 GMT What is heaven? Who goes there? What does it look like? What do we look like when we get there? What do we do when we’re there? Is it like the Gary Larson Far Side cartoon that has an angel sitting on a cloud saying . . . “I wish I’d brought a magazine” ? This talk will look at Revelation 21 as a vision what life looks like in heaven. Sun, 20 Sep 2009 18:30:00 GMT What is hell? How much of what we believe about it is based on Biblical teaching, and how much on Dante’s Inferno or the latest Slasher flick? <br> <br>Bottom line, the biblical writers discounted most speculation on both what was going on before God made everything and what happens after. Deuteronomy 29:29 is a pretty good perspective verse for beginnings and endings; it says . . . <br>“The secret things belong to the Lord our God only, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever.” <br> <br>One wonders, if we took this verse seriously, if we’d care less about decelerating Mayan calendars, being “left behind” and prophecy and care more about learning to live in God’s kingdom here and now. <br> <br>What does the biblical talk about hell mean? I think two things: One, it means we shouldn’t necessarily think we know what hell is all about. We have images from hours of television, books, movies and sermons. These might not be exactly what Jesus and the biblical writers were communicating. <br> <br>Second, while I can’t prove that Jesus descended into hell what I do know is that if he did it would be a doctrine of hope; because if Jesus can go there, there’s hope there. <br> <br>I believe in hell. I don’t really know what it is other than not being in the presence of God, but there’s something there. I think there has to be a hell, or at least there has to be a consequence for both injustice and justice. Sun, 13 Sep 2009 18:30:00 GMT http://www.westpresburbank.org/sermons/audio/090906fear_doesnt_wait_1.mp3 Psalm 27 <br>Fear doesn't wait on God. But David waited and can therefore say, "The Lord is my light and salvation, whom shall I fear?" Some of the waiting involves doing, like praying, learning God's ways, and preparing for what's next. Fear can cause us to hunker down and forget the future and present hope we have in Christ. David's identity and hope were in the Lord. Sun, 06 Sep 2009 17:00:00 GMT http://www.westpresburbank.org/sermons/audio/090830heart_full_of_grace_soul_generated_by_love_2.mp3 Suffering comes from a Middle English word which means “to bear.” In Greek it’s pas-kho which is where we get the word passion, as in intense emotion, as in the passion of the Christ for us. Passion is an excellent starting place for understanding our salvation born in the death of Christ. Sun, 30 Aug 2009 18:30:00 GMT http://www.westpresburbank.org/sermons/audio/090823santa_ana_winds_blowing_1.mp3 The third section of the Apostle’s Creed celebrates God placing himself into the chasm carved by sin between God and human. Sun, 23 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT http://www.westpresburbank.org/sermons/audio/090816god_whered_you_go.mp3 Title: "God - Where'd you go? Epic fail!" <br>Scripture: Psalm 137 <br>Summary: There are times in our lives when God feels absent. We can have hope that God will show up in unexpected but epic ways. <br>Benediction written by W. Frank Harrington. Sun, 16 Aug 2009 17:00:00 GMT