Vertical Ministries Podcast

Kevin Washington, Baylor Athletics Associate AD & Chaplain, picks up the life of David and turns to the battles. David never lost a physical battle because his focus stayed on God. He lost the ones he did not see coming, lust, passivity, pride, when he forgot every day was a battle. The Christian’s defense is community, right focus, and a working radar.

The main points we can see from the message are:
1. Community - you do not go to battle alone; isolation is the enemy’s first move
2. Right focus - trust in the name of the Lord
3. Radar - the daily battles (lust, passivity, pride) are the ones that take you down; the Holy Spirit shows you what you cannot see

Speaker: Kevin Washington

Series: Life Of David

Message Title: David's Battles

Passage: Psalm 20; 1 Samuel 17:36–37, 45–47

Myles kicks off a new series on the life of David by asking what it means to be a person after God’s heart. In 1 Samuel 16, Samuel is sent to anoint the next king and reaches for the son who looks the part. God stops him. People look at appearance. God looks at the heart. And the God who sees the heart is the same God who can form it. Appearing Christian and following Christ are not the same thing.

The main points we can see from 1 Samuel 16 are:

1. People look at appearance: We reward the look of a king, a Christian, a leader
2. God looks at the heart: The center of what you love, trust, and obey
3. God forms the heart - If he can see it, he can change it; the secret to intimacy with Jesus is found in secret

Speaker: Myles Olenski

Series: Life Of David

Message Title: David's Heart

Passage: 1 Samuel 16:1–13

To close the series Don't Waste Your Life, Anna Webb sits down with a panel to talk through 2 Corinthians 5: what it means that God has entrusted us with the message of reconciliation. The gospel gives a new identity and a new purpose. Every believer is an ambassador for Christ, no matter the vocation or the location.

The main points we can see from 2 Corinthians 5 are:

1. In Christ you are a new creation: identity is who you are, not what you do
2. You have been given the ministry of reconciliation: receive the gospel, then give it
3. Ambassadors represent Christ wherever he has placed them, in the workplace, on campus, or among the nations

Speaker: Anna Webb + Panel

Series: Don't Waste Your Life

Message Title: Stewarding The Gospel

Passage: 2 Corinthians 5:17–21

This week, Jennie Allen joins us and asks students a simple question: what do you actually want? Past the chapel credit and the quick answers, she says most of us want the same two things: freedom from anxiety and a life that makes a difference for the kingdom. From Luke 15 she retells the story of the prodigal son as if hearing it for the first time. We all run to a distant country in search of control, approval, or anything but the Father, and the whole time He is already watching the hill, waiting for us to come home. The enemy's lie, rooted in John 8:44, is that God is disappointed in you and you can't come back. Stewarding revival means throwing off the weight and the sin, naming it out loud, and putting your full weight on a grace that holds.

The main points we can see from Luke 15 and Hebrews 12 are:

1. The distant country is anything but the Father. Rebellion and religious performance can both keep us from Him, and the brother who stayed home may have missed Him just as far.
2. Coming home means throwing off weight and sin, not carrying them with you. Some of what we carry is anxiety we can't explain, and some is sin we know by name. Either way, He wants it all.
3. You are as free as you are brave. Confession steps onto the grace of God, it holds, and there is no condemnation for those in Christ (Romans 8:1).

Speaker: Jennie Allen

Series: Don't Waste Your Life

Message Title: Stewarding Revival

Passage: Luke 15; Hebrews 12:1–2; John 8:44; Romans 8:1; 1 John 1:5–7

This week Myles continues Don't Waste Your Life by talking about how to steward your prayer life. Myles makes the case that a lack of desire to pray is often a lack of intimacy with God; not a lack of time. Prayer is an act of dependence and an invitation into relationship. From 1 Thessalonians 5, he offers four diagnostic questions to examine the health of our prayer lives: not so we try harder, but so we take the invitation that the God of the universe actually wants to talk with us.

The main points we can see from 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 are:

1. Does prayer change my perspective?
2. Is prayer a routine or a rhythm?
3. Is gratitude a regular part of my prayers?
4. Am I using prayer to accomplish my will or to surrender to His?

Speaker: Myles Olenski

Series: Don't Waste Your Life

Message Title: Steward Your Prayer Life

Passage: 1 Thessalonians 5:16–18

This week we're joined by Baylor football player Michael Allen to hear his testimony and how God is moving on the Baylor football team!

To kick off a new series, Myles walks through Matthew 25 and the parable of the talents to show that a successful life is not the Game of Life, more money, a nicer car, a bigger house, but a faithful one. You can win everything the world celebrates and still waste what God entrusted to you. The Master is coming back, and the question is whether we will hear “well done.”

The main points we can see from Matthew 25 are:

1. Live under His lordship: He owns it; we only steward it
2. Invest what He’s given you: you don’t have to destroy your life to waste it; you can just bury it
3. Faithfully serve Him: faithfulness is doing your best with what you have and trusting God with the result
4. Expect His return: how you live while the Master is gone matters forever

Speaker: Myles Olenski  
Series: Don't Waste Your Life  
Message Title: Steward Your Life  
Passage: Matthew 25:14–30

This week, Matt Chandler, Lead Pastor of The Village Church, walks through 1 Corinthians 15 to show that the gospel is not a front door you walk through and leave behind - it is past, present, and future. Sanctification is learning to stand in that finished work: meditating on grace until it quiets the scoreboard, refusing to make “struggle” your identity, and dragging the hidden 1% into the light through confession and repentance, trusting that the same gospel that saved you will hold you.

The main points we can see from 1 Corinthians 15 are:

1. Which you received (past): God is holy, we have fallen short, Christ came to save, and the right response is heart-belief and mouth-confession
2. In which you stand (present): gospel meditation, freedom from the old nature, and ongoing confession and repentance
3. By which you are being saved (future): hold fast; the gospel that saved you will sustain you

Speaker: Matt Chandler
Testimony: Audrey Chandler
Series: God So Loved
Message Title: Sanctification
Passage: 1 Corinthians 15:1–5

To kick off this semester, Myles walks through Luke 15 to show how both rebellion and religious performance are two sides of the same misunderstanding about God; and how the Father's love was never something to be earned or lost, but a gift to be received. 

The main points we can see from Luke 15 are:

1. The younger brother believes he can lose God's love
2. The older brother believes he can earn God's love
3. The father shows us God's love is a gift to receive

Speaker: Myles Olenski

Series: God So Loved

Message Title: Salvation

Passage: Luke 15

This week, we're joined by a panel to tackle questions college students are asking about technology and AI, and what it looks like to engage with both as Christians. 

Speaker: Panel

Series: Ask Us Anything

Message Title: Technology & AI Panel