Captivate Podcast

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Zechariah has been wanting and waiting for a child his whole life. The interesting thing is that when he finally receives the good news he’s been waiting—that he is, in fact, going to have a child—he can’t believe it. This is often true of us as well. It can be hard to believe, and sometimes even harder to receive, the good news that Jesus offers us. 

As believers, we have the greatest story ever told. But who might God cast in the supporting roles in Jesus' story? One guy God uses is Jesus' earthly father, Joseph. in part 1 of this series we will unpack how Joseph actually lost Jesus as a child. And yet at Christmas time, it's not hard for us to also lose Jesus, in the midst of all the hustle and bustle.

For many Christians, our spiritual gifts seem to go unnoticed and unopened for most of our lives. But the Bible is very clear that God has given each of us Spiritual Gifts and Jesus even teaches us the importance of stewarding well what He gives us so, we can live the fullest life.  This weekend we talked about defining, discerning, and deploying these gifts from God in our lives, in a message called “Don’t Wait ‘Til Christmas.” 

Sloth can seem like the one sin we don't need to address as our culture seems to always be on the grind. But because our lives are so full working for the man, we often neglect our kingdom work for God. We can become so burnt and overstimulated that we miss out on our God given dreams, leading to a slothful life. This weekend we will talk about how to reawaken our dreams for God, killing the distractions, and taking a real Sabbath. 

Wrath is uncontrolled feelings of anger and hate.  These feelings can manifest themselves in things like impatience, revenge, slander, and even violent fantasies.  Wrath is often produced by a misguided need for justice.  Wrath says, “I trust my version of justice more than God’s” and gives us permission to be judge, jury and executioner. This week we’re taking deeper look as this deadly sin and how God wants to deliver us from it. 

Envy is a private sin that often carries public consequences. It has the capacity to build resentment in us, while destroying our closest relationships. But the good news is, God has given us weapons to fight back through scripture.

Lust is the psychological force that produces an uncontrolled appetite. The result of lust is often our desires controlling us more than we control them. Lust is so powerful it can literally make us temporality lose our minds and do things that go against what we believe and value. This weekend we unpacked how to fight this, where it comes from, and the purposes of sex, all according to scripture.

This weekend we examined our souls for Greed. Greed is an excessive desire for more. It's an uncontrolled pursuit of unneeded things. Jesus warns us about greed and money more than anything else in the Gospels because Greed makes our souls small. But God gives us stewardship and generosity as virtues to kill greed in our lives.