WestGate Church Teaching

As we make our way through the 10 Commandments, we come to a particularly prickly command to honor your mother and father. But what does it mean to “honor” your mother and father? What if your parents are toxic? What about if you’re an adult? Campus pastor David Kim examines what this term “honor” means in the Old Testament, how Jesus clarifies and expands this command, and what it means for all of us to become people who live by the value of honor.

As we delve into the 10 Commandments, we find a list of seemingly reasonable laws that we can understandably see would make human society better. Don’t lie. Don’t kill. Don’t steal. But what about this rule about not “taking God’s name in vain.” What does saying OMG have to do with a better society? And why does Yahweh put this rule into the final 10? Is it really that big of a deal? Or...do we dramatically misunderstand what it means to “take God’s name in vain?” Worship pastor Josh Fox stops by to explain how this commandment, properly understand, is so much more than saying a bad word or two - but goes to the heart of not only human language, but what’s inside our hearts.

As we delve into the 10 Commandments, we see that the first two commandments deal with roughly the same idea: that Yahweh is commanding that He be the first priority to the Hebrew people. So what’s up with that? Is God a jealous high school boy who doesn’t want his girl seeing other people? If the 10 Commandments are given for our freedom, then how is that commandment lead to freedom? And what does it even look like to have no other gods or idols before this God?

After leaving Egypt and being freed from oppression under Pharoah, the Israelites have something even more terrifying facing them: how to live without slavery. During this time, Yahweh attempt to help His people learn how to govern themselves. And in Exodus 19, we see that God is not about simply making rules to control human behavior, but that God is deeply commitment to helping His children learn how to truly live in freedom. Both for their sake, and for the sake of the world.

In the Book of Exodus, we see the story of God rescuing the people of Israel from slavery and bondage to Egypt. But that’s not the end of the story. As anyone who has been a part of a destructive, abusive or toxic relationship or situation will attest, healing from that kind of trauma is often very difficult. The wounds tend to linger. And in this story, we see that God is committed to helping His people live in freedom - as He has designed. But - as with anything - bringing about lasting change takes a long process, requires caring provision and extreme amounts of patience. Lucky for Israel, and for us, that’s exactly what God is willing to do.

In his final words before The Ascension, Jesus tells His followers that they will be “His witnesses” to not just the local city, and the region, but the entire globe. But what does it mean to be a “witness” - especially in our post-Christian world where sometimes, people aren’t very excited or comfortable hearing someone religious talk. In this message, lead pastor Steve Clifford outlines not only how to deal with cringes, yawns and sneers, but why being a witness is a non-optional part of following Jesus.

In the Book of Acts, we see the earliest formings of the early church, and we see (among other important things) that this was a community, centered on the person of Jesus Christ, that lived lives of radical generosity. But in the US, today, Christians are only giving at 2.5 percent per capita, which is curious because during the Great Depression they gave at a 3.3 percent rate. Why so...stingy? And how can we move beyond guilt to become a people who are generous?

In the middle of His most famous teaching ever, Jesus of Nazareth says that there is a clear tie between loving God and doing acts of goodness for the people around you. Jesus says “Do good works for the common good of everyone around you so that people will say, “Wow, I don’t know much about those people or their God, but that’s pretty cool.” This is, perhaps, not what most people think of when they hear the word “Christian” but it’s what Jesus’ clear teachings demand of everyone who wants to follow Him.

This Easter, we’ll be looking at several characters that show up in the story of Jesus’ resurrection. We’ll see how each person nearly missed Jesus and what He was offering (it’s far easier to do than you might think!)

During this week, the Christian and Jewish calendars come together in a curious way. This is because in the final days of his life, Jesus used the Jewish Passover meal to explain why He had to die, to show that His death was not meaningless noise and instead fit into a story of God’s purposes. The Jewish Passover meal tells the story of how Yahweh delivered Israel out of Egypt, out of slavery and oppression and brought them into freedom and life. Most of us don’t stop to think about why Jesus chose Passover to explain his death: but it’s not a coincidence. For Jesus, the Passover story gets at the heart of what His life and death were all about. This week, we reenact the basic outline of a Passover meal, and show how Jesus totally redefined and transformed its meaning.