Kindling Rhythms - A Podcast by Restore Houston Church

Did you know that the very first time Jesus ever spoke publically He declared that He had come to “set the captives free?” Justice for oppressed, marginalized, exploited people is central to His mission. We love Houston, but we are also starting a church in a city that is a hub for human trafficking. Men, women, and children created in the sacred and beautiful image of God are regularly and routinely exploited for sex and labor in our city. This injustice is so common that it is almost guaranteed to be happening just a few blocks away from where you work, or live, or even where your church gathers on Sunday mornings.

We are kicking off our anti-human trafficking initiatives at Restore Houston and are thrilled to be able to host Titus Benton and Elaine McGinnis Andino of United Against Human Trafficking on the Kindling Rhythms. The discussion is led by our very own Matt Garry. Titus and Elaine walk us through the nuances and complexities of the issue with grace and clarity.

If you are like us, knowing exactly what your first step is in addressing the issue can be overwhelming. Jesus beckons us to love our neighbor, but how do we love our neighbor who has been trafficked? The good news is, it is not as complex or difficult as you might think! As Elaine so gracefully suggests, loving our neighbor starts by developing a simple awareness of them. When we turn our hearts toward others around us, we see them, we become aware of their stories, their suffering, their pain, and even the injustices they may be enduring. We hope you’ll join Titus and Elaine as they offer some helpful first steps that you can take to participate with Jesus in His mission to set the captives free.

This week let’s wrestle with what it means to have the Holy Spirit guide every part of your life, including your theology, your home life, your marriage, your work life, your sex life, your everything – every part of your life!

Corresponding Sermon: How To Know God’s Will For Your Life

Text: Galatians 5:13​-25

Why does it seem like there are so many rules around following Jesus when Paul claims that Christians live in “total freedom”? There are rules around sex! Rules around language! Rules around money! Rules around church! Rules around dancing! And family life! And marriage! It seems like there are rules around just about everything! But that is not the picture Paul paints for us in Galatians, and it isn’t what Jesus had in mind either. Jesus came so that we could be set free from rules and laws and be transformed by His Spirit into people that are free to love their neighbor as themselves. That’s it! Everything in the Christian life is centered around God softening our hearts and creating us to love one another!

Text: Galatians 5:13​-6:1

Corresponding Sermon: How God’s Spirit Has Brought Us Total Freedom!

A lot of people think they don’t know enough theology to know who God is and what He is like. But Paul is actually incredibly simple with this – God is love and faith is something that is actively working itself out through love. Using love as our filter, we can understand a whole lot more about God, theology, the Bible, and doctrine than we think we can.

A lot of people think they don’t know enough theology to know who God is and what He is like. But Paul is actually incredibly simple with this – God is love and faith is something that is actively working itself out through love. Using love as our filter, we can understand a whole lot more about God, theology, the Bible, and doctrine than we think we can.

There are a lot of messages that we have believed about ourselves, about God and about His love for us. Many of those messages make God out to be smaller than He actually is, less loving than He actually is, less caring than He actually is, and less of our Father than He actually is. When this happens, our thoughts and hearts are led towards things not of Jesus’ gospel – anxiety, fear, anger, control, shame, guilt. In this episode of the Kindling Rhythms we will explore Paul’s letter to the Galatians. In it, Paul will invite the Galatians to stop listening to other messages they have received and to start listening to the One who loves them (1).

(1). 1. Roo Panes, Listen to the One who Loves You

Text: Galatians 1:1-7

Corresponding Sermon: Are you putting limits around God’s love for you?

Today on the Kindling Rhythms Podcast, Teaching and Research Intern, Phill Coselli, discusses with us why we need each other as a church and how we go about navigating these relationships.

Text: Ephesians 5:1-5

We all look to something to bring peace and fulfillment into our lives. And at Christmas time, it can even painfully obvious to us what we think we are lacking or missing in our life to have peace and happiness – a career, family relationships, success, love. Christmas hallmark movies are great, but sometimes we can get caught up in the “magic” of Christmas, thinking that it is love, family and romance that will bring about our ultimate source of peace. Many of us will find however, that none of those things will bring about our ultimate source of peace. This week on the Kindling Rhythms and in our Meeting Houses, we talk about what it means to look to Jesus as our ultimate source of peace. It may not be totally obvious how to do that at times, it might take prayer, and thought and vulnerability. But if we, just like the shepherds, are willing to enter into that space to look for peace in Jesus, we, like them, will find more humility, more grace, more love and more peace than we could possibly imagine.

Text: Luke 2:1-20

Corresponding Sermon: Have you found the Peace of Christmas?

A challenge to patriarchal values comes most fundamentally in the opening chapter of the Old Testament, “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them” (Gen 1:26​), and provides an alternative vision of the relation of men and women to each other and God than that pertaining in a typical patriarchal culture…The New Testament too contains egalitarian texts that provide a theological critique of patriarchy. The Bible shows us not merely patriarchy, élitism, and nationalism; it shows us the fragility of these ideologies through irony and counter-voices…It is often the stories of women, those excluded from the public, patriarchal discourse, which challenge the dominant voice of the text. -E. Anne Clements, Mothers of Marginalization: The Significance of the Women in Mathew’s Genealogy 

Text: Luke 1:26-55

Corresponding Sermon: Step Aside Boys!

This week on the Kindling Rhythms we explore what it looks like to follow God into unknown territory. Sadly, many of us find our relationship with God stagnant and maybe even a little boring. We have become so used to “knowing” so much about God that we no longer expect to be surprised. We can restore the intrigue, the mystery and the wonder back to our relationship with God, but it will take some humility and some willingness to be open to what He may be doing in the here and now.

Text: Matthew 1:18-15

Corresponding Sermon: Bored with God? Advent through the Eyes of Joseph