Calvary Church Podcast

Title: What is the Kingdom Like?
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: God's people expected a kingdom that would arrive big, political, and obvious—but Jesus came another way. In Matthew 13:24–43, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through three parables of the kingdom of heaven: the mustard seed, the leaven, and the weeds of the field. The kingdom is small and unimpressive, it quietly transforms from the inside out, and it patiently coexists with evil—at least for now. Pastor Nate calls us to patience, to guard against the idolatry of size, to live in quiet, leaven-like faithfulness, and to take the coming harvest seriously. And he closes with hope: the hiddenness of Jesus' kingdom is not permanent, and one day the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

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Title: What is the Kingdom Like?
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: God's people expected a kingdom that would arrive big, political, and obvious—but Jesus came another way. In Matthew 13:24–43, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through three parables of the kingdom of heaven: the mustard seed, the leaven, and the weeds of the field. The kingdom is small and unimpressive, it quietly transforms from the inside out, and it patiently coexists with evil—at least for now. Pastor Nate calls us to patience, to guard against the idolatry of size, to live in quiet, leaven-like faithfulness, and to take the coming harvest seriously. And he closes with hope: the hiddenness of Jesus' kingdom is not permanent, and one day the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.

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Title: How to Hear the Word of the Kingdom
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: How you hear matters. In Matthew 13:1–23, Jesus tells the parable of the sower—one seed, four soils—and calls everyone with ears to hear. Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through the hardened path, the rocky ground, the thorny field, and the good soil, drawing out five ways to hear the word of the kingdom: with gratitude and prayer, above the noise, receiving the whole message, with an undivided heart, and with understanding. Along the way, Pastor Nate confronts the loudest voices of our culture, the anxiety of the age, and the quiet deceit of comfortable wealth. And he closes with hope: the Son heard and did the will of the Father for us, and from his fullness we receive grace upon grace.

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Title: Jesus: The Only One Worth Building Your Life On
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: Jesus is either the greatest egomaniac who ever lived or the Lord worth building an entire life upon—and in Matthew 12:38–50 he leaves us no third option. When the religious leaders demand a sign from heaven, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through the threefold answer Jesus gives: a resurrection greater than Jonah’s deliverance, a message of grace greater than Jonah’s preaching, and a life of wisdom greater than Solomon’s splendor. From there, Pastor Nate turns to two implications, one sobering and one beautiful. A life merely cleaned up but left unoccupied is a house waiting for squatters, because in the kingdom of God neutrality does not exist. And a life joined to Christ is a life welcomed into a new family, as Jesus stretches out his hand toward ordinary disciples and calls them mother, brother, and sister.

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Title: The Gentle and Lowly Warrior
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: In this Sunday message from Matthew 12:22-37, Pastor Nate Holdridge turns to the moment when Jesus—who has just called himself gentle and lowly—reveals himself as the strong warrior-King who invades enemy territory to set captives free. When Jesus heals a demon-oppressed man and the crowds wonder whether he could be the Son of David, the Pharisees credit his power to Beelzebul, and Jesus answers by showing what he does (liberate the bound by binding the strong man), how he does it (by the power of the Holy Spirit), and why he does it (to make bad trees into good trees through conversion). Pastor Nate walks through the sobering warning about blasphemy of the Holy Spirit, the diagnostic truth that our words expose our hearts, and the hope of the gospel: that every sin can be forgiven and that Christ himself makes us new at the root so that good fruit follows. It is an invitation to celebrate the King who plunders the house of the enemy on our behalf.

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Title: How Can Christ's Yoke Be Easy?
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: In this Sunday sermon from Matthew 12:1-21, Pastor Nate Holdridge asks a deceptively simple question: how can Jesus call his yoke easy and his burden light when the life he describes is a narrow gate and a difficult way? The answer is found in who is yoked to us. Working through two Sabbath confrontations and the longest Old Testament quotation in Matthew's Gospel, Pastor Nate shows that Jesus is the true King, Priest, Prophet, and Lord—the one greater than David, greater than the temple, and lord of the Sabbath itself (Matthew 12:6-8). Against the Pharisees, who turned God's day of rest into an exhausting treadmill, Jesus reveals a heart that treasures mercy over ceremony (Hosea 6:6), loves to restore the broken, and does so gently, never breaking a bruised reed or quenching a smoldering wick (Matthew 12:20). For anyone weary of life with Jesus as burden, this is an invitation to genuine soul-rest in the gentle Servant who steps into the yoke beside us.

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Title: Invited Into Rest
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: In this Sunday message from Matthew 11:20-30, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through three surprising portraits of Christ from a single passage: Jesus the Judge, who denounces the towns that witnessed his mighty works yet remained indifferent; Jesus the Revealer, the exclusive door through whom the Father is known and who hides truth from the proud while unveiling it to the lowly; and Jesus the Rest Giver, who invites all who are weary and burdened to come to him. Pastor Nate presses the sobering weight of spiritual privilege—greater light brings greater responsibility—while holding out the tender invitation of the One who is gentle and lowly in heart. This is not a call to escape our burdens but to trade them for the easy yoke of Jesus, learning to walk his way and find rest for our souls.

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Title: When Jesus Doesn’t Fit Your Expectations
Speaker: Manny Collazo

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Title: On the Summit in the Pit
Speaker: Nate Holdridge
Overview: In this weekend's sermon on Psalm 41, "Blessed Are The Merciful, Right?," Pastor Nate Holdridge brings us to the close of Book I of the Psalter. David sings of a merciful God and his merciful people—but then asks what happens when those who extend mercy receive anything but mercy in return. Pastor Nate walks through the psalm's three movements: the call to strategically consider the poor (Ps. 41:1-3), the pain of a merciless world of sickness, slander, and betrayal (Ps. 41:4-9), and the response that refuses vengeance and rests in God's delight (Ps. 41:10-13). At the center stands Jesus, who took this psalm onto his lips about Judas at the Last Supper (John 13:18), yet absorbed the ultimate betrayal at the cross so that mercy might flow forever. Join us at Calvary Church to see how the only truly merciful man let the world's mercilessness fall on him—so that we might both receive and extend the mercy of God.

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Title: On the Summit in the Pit
Speaker: Nate Holdridge

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