WestGate Church Teaching

What happens when God doesn’t show up to fix things in the way you’d expect. What happens when the dramatic rescue doesn’t occur? What happens when evil seems to win? In this message, Sunnyvale campus pastor David Kim shows us that the way out of this mindset that “God has turned his eyes from us” is an often-overlooked cryptic exchange between Jesus and his cousin and friend, John the Baptist. And in this story, we find that things are often not what they seem, and even when it appears that God has abandoned us, we’ll find that Jesus is trying to show us that’s never the case. And that God is always faithful.

The great theologians the Black-eyed Peas once famously sang “Where is the Love?” In our world, it’s not difficult to see that humankind, when filled with love and when acting in love, is at its best. And when that love is absent, humans are at their worst. Jesus, in the most famous story he ever told, discusses this very topic and shows us that we misunderstand what love is. Love is not a thing, or an emotion, Jesus says, but a person. And that the way home is surprisingly simple, if we just have eyes to see.

The tragedy of injustice (and the deep suffering it causes) is a problem for everyone, no matter what their beliefs. But for the Christian, it’s a particularly vexing issue. Does God care about justice? Is His definition different than mine? If God is a God of justice, then why isn’t there more of it flowing out in the world? In this message, Steve Clifford delves into the Bible, showing us what justice is, and how it’s a core quality of God revealed from the Old Testament to the New, especially in the life of Jesus. And when we understand what Jesus has done for us, the result is a life poured out in deeds of justice.

Our life is basically made on the basis of your choices. Is this the right person to hire? Is this the right career for you? Is this the right person to marry? And every most of those situations, the options in front of you are many, most are moral, most are legal, most are allowable and yet most of them aren’t wise. So we need guidance to help us make decisions. The authors of Scripture (especially the authors of the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament) imply two things: 1: that wisdom is available to anyone who seeks it and 2. Wisdom is not an impersonal force, but is actually an attribute (that flows from the essence) of God The Creator Himself. Therefore, to gain any wisdom at all requires humility, but to truly gain wisdom requires knowing the Source of Wisdom, who is God Himself. This week, lead pastor Steve Clifford examines the attribute of God’s wisdom, and how we can become a people who are wise.

Steve Clifford

Mark Averill

How do we know anything about God? How *can* anyone know anything about God. In this opener to the WONDER series, Steve Clifford delves into this timeless quandary, attempting to show the unique answer the Christian faith gives. Steve shows that one of the central teachings of Jesus (and the Bible as a whole) is not only that God exists, but that He is good. The implication is if we get this one attribute of God right (His goodness), then many of the questions about God’s other attributes (His sovereignty, His wisdom, etc) will become less confusing.

It’s been said that God’s Aim in Human History is the creation of an all-inclusive community of loving persons, with God Himself included as its primary sustainer and its most glorious inhabitant. But this is often way more difficult to do than we’d like to believe. This week, Steve Clifford shares practical steps on how to take steps of “proximity” - to get near to each other and to our neighbors. And in the process, we’ll find that “proximity” breeds empathy and the possibility for true friendship, and is the most powerful antidote we have to dissolve fear, distrust and anger.

Love God. Love One Another. Love Your Neighbor. Those are the three core values that comprise the general mission statement of WestGate Church. But that’s often easier said than done. This week, lead pastor Steve Clifford examines the idea of what it means to love God. In our age of busyness, how can we create margin and enough blank time in our schedule to even think about God, let alone enough quiet for Him to speak? Steve offers a simple yet wildly effective way for us to ruthlessly eliminate hurry from our lives to hear from God.

Eric Liddell was probably most famous for choosing his religious beliefs over competing in an Olympic race held on a Sunday in 1924, a race for which he was heavily favored as a gold-medal favorite. His story was made famous by the Academy Award-winning film Chariots of Fire. But what most people don’t know is that Liddell gave up promising career (and incredible wealth) as an athlete to serve as a missionary teacher to the people of China, where he remained until his death in a Japanese civilian internment camp in 1945. In the final week of Compassion Immersion, Steve examines the life of this incredible man, and how his devotion to God and his global vision can inspire all of us even today.