Woodland Hills Church Sermons Audio Podcast

Adam and Eve were created to be in an intimate relationship with their Creator based on trust and love. With his craftiness, however, the Serpent talked about God as though he was not present and caused Adam and Eve to understand God in terms of religion, rather than relationship. Religion has then become the Church’s dominant way to interact with God, and yet he is calling us back to a grace-based relationship rather than a rule-driven religion.

This week we look at the twisted interpretation of Matthew 22 and Romans 13. This is a text with a long standing tradition that teaches Christians to serve both the Kingdom of God and the kingdoms in which they live on earth. In this sermon, we will learn why this interpretation is false and how to better understand it.

The popular culture’s influence through media such as fairy tales, comic books, and movies has impacted how we understand stories from God’s word. For many, as we read popular Old Testament stories like Jacob and Esau we automatically look for a hero and a villain. We look for actions to imitate from the “good guy” and actions to avoid from the “bad guy.” Vanessa explores how this approach to biblical stories is misguided and gives context and insight to the complicated and messy, yet redemptive relationship between Jacob and Esau.

For many, faith is about attaining as much certainty as possible in order to be a true follower of Christ. But the Bible tells us faith is about committing to a course of action in the face of uncertainty. God is not seeking all the right answers from his people in order to let them into heaven; no, he is our loving Bridegroom who seeks to be in a covenantal relationship with us in the midst of our uncertainties.

For many Christians, salvation has been reduced to a one-time prayer where one mentally and verbally agrees to a few key theological beliefs. The Bible and Jesus' life, however, present us with a more holistic salvation that involves wholeness, new life, and transformation. Instead of viewing salvation as a legal contract, we are invited to join Jesus in a covenantal marriage where his life is poured out for us and our lives are poured out for him.

Our Twisted Scripture series continues this week as Greg explores Hebrews 9:18-22. This scripture passage is commonly used to support the penal substitutionary atonement theory in which our guilt was transferred to Christ and He was punished on the cross on our behalf. Greg raises several objections to this line of thinking and discusses the use of animal sacrifices as a method of atonement in the Old Testament.

This week in our Twisted Scripture sermon series Shawna Boren discusses with us the misuse of Jeremiah 29:11. We take a look at how the verse, when taken alone, can claim life is always good. The problem with this use of the verse is that life is not always good. Life delivers us times that bring suffering. This week we look at how this verse can be better understood.

1 Timothy 2:12 has been used over the years to keep women from teaching or preaching theology and being in positions of leadership within a church. When looked at within its historical and cultural context, however, we find Paul's restriction on women was due to specific cultural problems that no longer apply to educated women today.

The Book of Job has often been misused as a way to explain the mysterious ways of God in suffering and pain. The truth is that the Book of Job is there to teach us that God does not inflict pain and suffering, rather it is the cosmic warfare that we cannot see which interferes with God's true will for his people.

Romans 9 is the most widely used text in the defense of predetermination. This week we will untangle the text in order to see the Scripture the way it was meant to be—within its correct social and historical context, as well as giving regard to its intended audience.

The Bible is filled with stories of God's people being named and blessed by God. God gives his people a new name in order to give them a mission. Our guest speaker, Brianna Millet, teaches what it means for us to be given a new name through stories such as Abraham, Sarah, Jacob and Peter.

The little things we do in the Kingdom make a big difference. In this sermon, Greg shows that the incarnation and cross are spiritual and physical realities for us.

Evangelism is important. However, there’s a lot of baggage that comes with the term and how we are to evangelize to others. In this sermon, Greg Boyd and Stephanie Danielson share with us how to spread the gospel by living a life that compels others towards Jesus.

The Bible shows us that our prayers make a difference in this world. Yet, our picture of God doesn’t always line up with that truth. In this sermon, Greg shows how the world operates when it comes to our prayer and what a difference it makes.

Have you ever noticed that we tend to judge others by their actions and ourselves by our intentions? In this sermon, Jeremy Jernigan shows us the story of Simon Peter, and how our faith can be get stuck when we think about our past failures and that faith happens in the disappointment of failure.