WestGate Church Teaching

In the Book of Exodus, we see Israelites move through the Wilderness into an uncertain future. We, too, as a people living in 2020, can probably identify with what that feels like (at least a little bit). But in the course of that uncertain journey, the Israelites learn a foundational truth: that their God wants to go with them. That God wants to be *with* them. In this week, we learn about what a comfort is that God’s presence that is promised to stay with us and guide us.

There's a caricature of God out there that tells us he's a vindictive, quick-to-anger deity, looking for any opportunity to punish us. Is this true? There are moments throughout the Bible which reveal God's discipline. But why does God discipline his people? As we journey through the land between, it becomes easy to assume that any hardship we face is the result of God's impatience or annoyance. But this is far from the truth. In this teaching, we'll discover the goodness of God's discipline, that God "corrects those he loves" (Proverbs 3:12), all for the sake of leading us through our land between, toward wholeness and flourishing.

We learned last week that there are things about God that we can learn in the “Land Between”...the place between two more desirable places. But the Desert Land can also teach us something about ourselves. When you find yourself in the desert, what do you do? Do you grumble or are you grateful?

God has led the Israelites out of Egypt but it will be years before they reach the promised land. They live in a world where life is not as it once was, where the future is in question. They live in the land between. Sound familiar? It is in the land between that we can learn about God, ourselves and what God has for us. It is here in the very place we don’t want to be where we can learn and get what we most need.

In the New Testament, one of the ways the early Christians defined themselves was as “witnesses.” In this message, we’ll explore what it means for a group of people to bear “witness” to Jesus. We’ll also examine how important it is to protect the witness of a local community so that its representation of Jesus is faithful, and not distorted.

If you or I could go back in time to ancient Palestine and listen to Jesus speak, on any given day, what would we hear Him teach on? Based upon what we have recorded in the four Gospels, the answer is actually pretty straightforward: the Kingdom of God. Jesus talked about this all the time. But what does that mean? And if God has a Kingdom, and it’s breaking through here on Earth, why aren’t things better than they are? In this week, we’ll examine what it means to be a people who believe and live out the Kingdom of God.

The word “faith” is one of the most mushy and mealy in the English language. Sometimes, people use it when they are trying to muster up the courage to believe something they know is unlikely (I have faith the Raiders will win the Super Bowl this year!). In Christian circles, often the word is used to convey the idea that “I believe a certain set of truths.” But in the Scriptures, the word faith is FAR MORE than simply mental assent to some ideas. It carries with it an implication of loyalty and devotion. In fact, the word “faith” is actually often better translated as “allegiance.” And reading it in this light, many of Jesus’ strongest teachings, which make us squirm, actually begin to make a lot more sense. And require a lot more of us.

During this unsettling time of COVID-19, most of us have had more pressure on us than normal, and this has revealed our own brokenness. Pastor and author Peter Scazerro once wrote that “It is impossible to be spiritually mature, while remaining emotionally immature.” Ouch. But, as we learned last week, the word “salvation” in Greek means more than just being rescued: it means being healed, too. So we examine some common ways that we’re finding people trying to cope with the difficulty of the world during COVID-19, and what the invitation from God might be for each type of person - so that Jesus can help us grow and mature.

The word “sin” is a strange, antique word that we don’t even use much anymore. It might even seem outdated. But in the Bible, this word “sin” is an important word to help us understand what it means to be human - and why this world is as broken and fragmented as it is. And, also, why we are as broken and fragmented as we are. In this teaching, we examine the ways that sin can hurt not only us, but others and even how it can grow deep roots into society. And more than how to recognize sin, we need a way to deal with it and with God’s help, move toward healing.

We are living in a powerful and unprecedented time in our history. The recent killings of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd and Breonna Taylor have brought to the surface the injustice of racism in a real and visceral way. Lead Pastor Steve Clifford speaks about the need to listen and learn from those who have gone before us and those who have experienced racism first-hand and explains how the teachings of the Bible can help others understand how we in the church can bring hope and peace at this important time in our history.