Believers Chapel Podcast

We live in a world dominated by a humanistic worldview.

That means we think we can perform all of life's tasks and meet all of life's needs on our own, without any sort of divine oversight. The ultimate outcome of humanism is that it leads to belief in humanity itself being God. Humans try to control all cultural development and rationalize their reasons for doing so.

Think about it: We replace God with technology, medicine, government, economics, or any other thing that helps us feel we have control. Many of us don't even realize we're living under humanism, assuming it's a "them" problem when we are not truly trusting God as our creator and sustainer. But scripture tells us in Romans 8 that the mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God. When we choose to be our own governors and gods our choice leads to death, both physically and spiritually.

But there is good news! If we stop ruling our lives and depend on the savior and rescuer of our souls, Jesus Christ, we will trade death for life. Anxiety is traded for peace. Curses are traded for promises. This is an example of bearing the image of Christ. As followers of Jesus, we identify with God's Spirit rather than the spirit of this broken world.

Check out this heavy and much-needed message from Lead Pastor Rich Ryfun as he kicks off our series "You Bear the Image."

In our existence, we always have an unquenchable thirst for more.

Something deep within us knows we cannot be satisfied by anything outside of Jesus. The greatest accomplishments bring temporary relief from our insatiable desire for more. Our highest highs and lowest lows cannot define our life as Jesus can.

In John 11, Jesus reveals to his friend Martha that he has come to bring eternal life to us. When she assumes he means eternal life after death in a future resurrection, Jesus corrects her by explaining that Jesus brings true life to us now as we place our faith in him. Jesus proves this by bringing Martha's brother Lazarus back from the dead. Though everyone will die physically some day, their life is made whole and their hearts are fulfilled by the spiritual life that comes from knowing and worshiping Jesus.

We are brought to life in every sense of the word through the love and work of Jesus. The word "life" finds its ultimate definition in the ministry of Jesus in our lives. That's why he calls himself "the resurrection and the life."

Listen to the entire Easter message from Pastor Rich on what it means to go from death to life in Jesus!

Sometimes we get so focused on the dead, that we don't see life when it's right in front of us.

Israel thought Jesus was going to save them from Rome. The reality was that Jesus came to save all of humankind from sin and death, including any Roman leader who would put their faith in Him. But Israel didn't recognize that Jesus came to bring life. They were focused on the death of their current circumstances and wanted to fix it by removing Rome as the dominant power over them. The apostle Paul says, "The mind that is set on the flesh is death, but the mind that is governed by the Spirit is life and peace (Romans 8:6).

A man named Jairus experienced his own focus-on-death moment. When his daughter was near death, he beckoned Jesus to come and heal her, but on the way to Jairus' house a woman with a physical healing need stops Jesus' progress because she needs a miracle, and Jairus' daughter dies before Jesus can arrive. Everyone at Jairus' house loses hope. They are focused on death, but Jesus tells them that they need only to have faith.

Hosanna means "Save Us." Jesus came to save us by bringing us eternal life with him, but we need to get our focus off of the death in our circumstances and onto the life offered by Jesus!

Jesus wants to bring you from death to life.

The Bible tells us that sin brings death, and death brings with it a putrid smell and decaying cast over everything. This was the case with Lazarus, one of Jesus' closest friends, who had been dead for 4 days by the time Jesus finally gets to him in John chapter 11. Jesus asked for Lazarus' tombstone to be rolled away from the entrance to his grave, but everyone was concerned about the stench of decay. But Jesus isn't afraid to roll away stones in our lives. Jesus is not intimidated by the stench of our sinful messes and mistakes. Jesus is not afraid to pull us from the pits of death itself and brings us to life again.

Have been ignoring the dead things in your life? Have you been letting sin and death overwhelm you and eat away at the promises God has for you? If so, it's time to let Jesus roll away those stones and call you out into the light and resurrect the promises of God once again. Let Jesus clean you up and bring you back to life again!

Watch this entire message from pastor Kason as he launches our series, "Back to Life."

In 2nd Corinthians chapter 5, Paul tells us that God reconciled us to Himself through Christ. That means He took all of our sins and shame and buried them in the grave because we couldn't bury them ourselves, and He restored us into a beautiful relationship with Him again, all through Jesus Christ. But then Paul goes on to say that God gave us this ministry of reconciliation! That means people in this world can be reconciled to Christ by hearing it from you because God has given that ministry to you. Your pastor is not going to reach everybody. Some people may only experience the ministry of reconciliation through their encounters with you. That's the good news of the gospel: That God saved us through Christ, and now we can spread this wonderful news!

But scripture also tells us that God is holy and righteous, and to remain in a relationship with our God Who perfectly loves us, we must submit to His will for our lives. This isn't a difficult concept to understand when we truly think it through. Parents tell their children what to do to care for them and help them live a truly healthy and fulfilled life. A parent who never challenges the selfish and nearsighted ways of their child is not showing their child love: That is its own form of abuse. When we share the good news of God's love and reconciliation through Jesus, we share both the reality of God's perfect love and the reality of obedience to God's perfect will for us.

Check out Pastor Bethany's word on the significance of God's ministry of reconciliation as she continues our series, "Share God."

The word of God is a light that penetrates the darkness.

How can you tell the difference between the truth and a lie? The answer is in the power of God's word. It separates truth from falsehood and pierces the darkness with its powerful light. As we begin to read and understand God's word and live our lives according to it, we become lights ourselves, transformed into beams that separate truth from falsehood. We become lights that pierce through the darkness, and Jesus warns us in the gospel of Matthew not to take a light and hide it: We have to let ourselves shine in the darkness, and as we shine, darkness cannot overcome us! The gospel of John tells us that the light of Jesus shines in the darkness, and the darkness fails to overcome it.

Darkness will try to overtake you. It will attempt to drown you in fear and falsehood, but God's word will always expose the darkness and guide your path. The world needs your light! So carry the truth of God's word close to your heart and let it beam forth out of everything you say and do. It will transform communities and set people free from darkness!

We are not called to hoard the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

God has called us to walk into dark places in this world and shine the light of God's forgiveness and love. We have the hope of the world in our hearts, and the worst thing we can do is keep that hope to ourselves. As the world becomes increasingly dark and hopeless, it's easy to look on with frustration and disgust and throw up our hands, condemning everyone. But God does not respond that way: He sees those trapped in darkness and desires for them to hear the truth and be led into the light. People are not God's enemy, the devil, and his demons are.

The Bible tells us in Luke 19:10 that Jesus that the reason he came to earth was to "seek and save the lost." That means Jesus does not look at hopeless people trapped in darkness with contempt: He looks at them with hope and eagerness, because they are the very people he came to save. Jesus has prepared for us a lifetime of being saved, healed, sanctified, and made whole, and God has tasked us to share this salvation with others fervently.

Listen to our Lead Pastor Rich Ryfun expound on one the importance of sharing God as we continue in this sermon series based on our 3 purposes as a church!

The gospel of Jesus is life to those who need it.

Humans have choices. We can choose life or choose death. God in his great sovereignty has given us the ability of free will. You can choose to do good or choose to do evil. Deuteronomy chapter 30 tells us that God places before us choices of life and death, blessing and cursing. This is very closely tied to the ancient story of Adam and Eve, where God gives them the ability to choose life from the tree of life or choose death from the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Think about how incredible this is! God allows us to be in a relationship with Him, the infinite and all-powerful God of the universe wants to be in a relationship with US! This instinctively means that we have a choice: We can choose to be in that relationship with God or we can walk away from it, acting within our God-given free world. Ever since Adam and Eve stepped away from their relationship with God by choosing evil, mankind has been dealing with the consequences of sin and death. But the gospel of Jesus, who takes that sin away, brings life to us, and we need it!

Check out this powerfully deep message from Lead Pastor Rich Ryfun on the significance how important it is to share the reality of the gospel.

Whatever you fill your life with is going to pour out into everything you do.

How you spend your time creates deposits for your future, and what you invest in will seep into every other facet of your life. The apostle Paul tells us in Galatians chapter 5 that when we invest time and energy into our earthly desires, they produce a hunger for earthly, temporary, and often sinful things. But when we invest ourselves in eternal, godly things, our spiritual nature grows and matures.

So what are you full of? What are you investing yourself in? What seeps out of you every day?

Check out the latest message in our series "Know God."

Did you know that 70% of America's population claims to believe in God, and identifies as some sort of Christian in faith? In reality though, the number of people who claim to understand what it means to personally Know God is significantly smaller. Unfortunately, so many people misunderstand what it means to be a Christian: They don't know the joy and fulfillment of personally knowing God and having a real relationship with Him.

Perhaps you are a person who believes in God but haven't been experiencing the joy of truly knowing God. Perhaps you grew up around religion but never went deeper. Perhaps you spent years going to church, and even serving in ministries, but the church left you burned and hurt, wishing you hadn't opened yourself up to those moments of vulnerability.

Whatever your situation, God wants you to truly KNOW Him. People make mistakes, and our fallen, broken world can scar us, but none of these things should stop us from living in complete fullness and joy in knowing our God, our Creator, our Savior and Friend.

Watch this talk as Pastor Rich teaches us how to continue seeking a real relationship with a God Who fully knows us in a world that tries to break us.