That's Grace Podcast

We all want to life a successful full life, but what if we are chasing the wrong things? What if the things we are chasing actually distract us from the things that really do matter? If God has created us and given us this life, wouldn’t He know the best way for us to get the most out of this life? But when we live as if we have no boundaries we ruin our chances of living the successful, meaningful life that God has given. In the first week of this series, Pastor Sean shows what the Bible has to say about our singleness, our dating relationships, and our marriage and how we can leverage each of them to live the life God has intended for us.

When we think of praying, sometimes it can feel a bit intimidating or awkward. Sometimes, we don’t know what really to say or maybe we feel like we are not “spiritual” enough to talk to God. As a result, our prayers often end up sounding like “thank you, thank you” or “I’m sorry, I’m sorry”, or maybe even “help me, help me”. But as our series Tough Prayers come to a close, Pastor Sean talks about how prayer is nothing more than a simple conversation and that it is something necessary for followers of Jesus to do. He walks through a prayer that Jesus gave as an example of how to pray and shows how we can make it our own.

There are prayer that are easy and prayers that are hard. It’s easy to pray for God to help someone we love or to ask for something that we want. But then, there are prayers that are hard to pray because we know that God just might answer them. In today’s message, Pastor Sean talks about a prayer that could change your life, but the reason many won’t pray it is because it would change their life, maybe too much. This prayer could require you to change the total direction you thought your life was taking and instead, make a drastic change in order to fulfill what God has planned for you.

None of us like or want to be broken. In our lives, brokenness is associated with pain, discomfort, and suffering. In fact, we work really hard in our lives so that we don’t have to be broken. We stay away from what could break us and we pursue things in life to fill the areas where we are already broken. So why in the world would we WANT to ask God to break us? In this week’s teaching, Pastor Sean talks about how despite giving God our lives, for many of us, there are still corners of our heart that we try to hide from God and not give Him access to. And in order to let God have those dark, hidden corners, we must be broken so that God can build us back up.

For many of us, prayer ends up being our last resort. Maybe we don’t intend it to be that way, but the only time we seem to remember is when isn’t going the way we hoped. Others of us try to utilize prayer as if God was a genie in a bottle, ready to provide whatever we wish. When we find ourselves praying these types of prayers more often then not, it’s a sign that our hearts are not in tune with God. In this week’s message, Pastor Sean talks about a prayer that we can pray to help our hearts get tuned back to God. The only hard part is that this prayer creates a vulnerability that we often work hard to avoid. In the end, it truly is a tough prayer.

Have you ever prayed a prayer, but you feel like God either didn’t hear it or ignored it? Maybe you’ve been praying for a long time, but nothing has changed. When we feel like our prayers aren’t answered it’s tough for us to keep praying. In this week’s message, Pastor Stephen talks about what prayer is, and why God doesn’t always “answer” our prayers. When we begin to understand the purpose of prayer and why God has given us this gift, it can not only change our circumstances, but also our hearts.

At Christmas time, we celebrate the birth of Jesus. We know all about the nativity scene, sing songs that mention his name, and maybe even take a moment to talk about the story of his birth. But is this the only time of the year where you allow room for Jesus in your life? On this Christmas Eve, we conclude our series Christmas Stories by comparing the responses of King Herod and The Wise Men to the birth of Jesus. Pastor Sean shows that while they both had the same information, they responded to the birth in two totally different ways.

Do you simply believe in God or do you believe in God enough to trust Him. Those are two very different things. Even Satan believes in God, but it doesn’t mean that he is right with God. In week three of our series, Christmas Stories, Pastor Sean talks about how circumcision in the Hebrew Scriptures was a temporary physical marking for those who were dedicated to God. But, we see that there is a transition where now baptism is the permanent spiritual procedure that marks those who have decided to dedicate themselves to God. Pastor Sean looks at the Christmas story from the perspective of Simeon and Anna and shows how being a follower of Jesus is not simple checking off a religious to do list, but rather giving over your heart, your mind, and your life to the will of God.

What if you were known for the biggest mistake you ever made? Nobody remembers you for your career, your accomplishments, or any kind of difference you’ve ever made. All anybody remembers about you is the one area where you failed. As we continue our series, we find the Innkeeper in the Christmas Story in this exact spot. He had been taught his entire life to expect a Messiah to come to Bethlehem, but once the Messiah showed up, he was too busy, too booked, and there wasn’t any room left. In today’s message, Pastor Stephen contrasts the response of the Innkeeper with the response of the Shepherds and shows how we all often approach God the same way the Innkeeper did.

Doing the right thing isn’t always easy. But it’s even harder to keep doing the right thing when it seems like it’s not working. When we reach this point, we’re often tempted to quit or at least compromise to get us to where we want to be. In the first week of this Christmas series, we look at the story of a couple, not wondering how they got pregnant, but a couple wondering if they ever will. Through their difficulty we see their faith being tested to grow and Pastor Sean shares 4 things that we can learn from their story.