Northplace Church Podcast

The writer of Hebrews makes a unique statement about the shed blood of Christ. He says the blood of Christ “speaks” better things than the blood of Abel. The blood of Jesus has a voice and it speaks mercy, grace, pardon, and forgiveness over our lives. In the same way, your tears have a voice. Your tears speak. They are a language all their own. And it’s a language God intimately understands. They need no interpretation or translation. It’s heart-to-heart communication.In some mysterious way, our complex inner communication systemknows when it reaches its verbal limitations and that’s when the tears flow.

Pastor Scotty Gibbons, one of Northplace's teaching pastors, joins us this week to discuss the importance of the next generation and our responsibility to pass on our 'God Stories' and commit to praying for them.

For so many people in the world and unfortunately for so many followers of Jesus, the phrases "I still haven’t found what I’m looking for," or "I still haven’t seen or experienced what I thought I should by now," or "I’ve looked everywhere and there still seems to be something missing in my work, in my family in my relationships in my emotional and inner life," seem to be mindsets that we constantly struggle with, and we tend to think that if I could just have this one thing, I'd be really happy.The problem is, if that philosophy worked, we would all be the happiest, most fulfilled versions of ourselves by now, and yet so many of us aren’t. But at the same time, something inside of us screams that we were made for more. So we keep searching and looking, and the majority of us ultimately end up in one of three places:1. We blame things2. We blame ourselves3. We give up on what we're looking forBut what if the fact that you haven’t found what you’re looking for isactually

Words create worlds. Your words create the culture in your home. Your words create the perception people have of you. Your words either strengthen or destroy your relationships. So yes...your words create the world you live in.If you want to change your life, you have to change your words.

Proverbs has a lot to say about our speech patterns. And if you survey the entire book and examine everything it has to say about our words, it can be boiled down to this thesis or premise: If you want your words to reflect God’s heart, you need to know the “why”, “what” and “how” of words:1. Why Words Have Power2. What Differentiates Life-giving Words from Destructive Words3. How to Align Your Words with God’s HeartAccording to Proverbs, words can kill physically, psychologically, spiritually, butwords also have the power to destroy relationship and community. Because once a damaging word is spoken, there is nothing you can do to make it as if it had never been uttered.

In week one, we saw how our relationships impact our destiny. In week two, we learned how to biblically respond to criticism and critical people. In week 3, we learned the importance of staying excited and hopeful about our future.Here’s the focus for week 4: Your attitude more than your aptitude will determine your altitude.

In week one, we saw how the bible teaches us that our relationships determine our destinies. (For the good or the bad). The company you keep is the best indicator of your future. Last week, we learned from the lives of Moses, Hezekiah, Nehemiah, and ultimately from Jesus...on how to respond to criticism (and criticalpeople) in an emotionally and spiritually mature way.This week, we look at the words of Jesus in Matthew 18:3 “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”God has planted in side of every one of us an awareness that there is something more to life than this transient, temporary world. And that awareness is meant to feed our hope and expectation of the future.

Last week we talked about relationships. And how the bible revealsthat our relationships determine our destinies. (For the good or for the bad)We saw that over and over again in Scripture, from the Proverbs to Paul.Today, we’re going to look at: Dealing with Criticism in an EmotionallyMature, Christ-like Way. When we say criticism, we're not talking about the healthy kind of constructive criticism where people who love you are exposing your blind spots and speaking the hard truth because they care. That’s the goodkind of criticism...that you’re supposed to welcome.Today we're talking about your critics...those who try to tear you down, undermine your reputation, and attack your character. How do you respond to THAT in an emotionally mature, Christ-like way?

The Bible has a lot to say about how to respond to critics and criticism in a Christ-like way, how our responses to things we can't control will determine the direction of our lives more than what actually happens to us, or about how staying excited about the future is a prerequisite to living a life of fulfillment, and how the people you associate yourself with will determine your success or failure.As we celebrate the Class of 2023, the quote "Show me your friends and I'll show you your future" is a great start to a conversation about relationships and the influences we allow in our lives. Because your relationships will determine your destiny.

Happy Mother's DayAs we read through our bible reading plans together this year, something has stood out like never before. Over and over again, scripture uses the imagery of a Mother’s love to capture how tender, compassionate, and absolute God’s love is for us.

The only way to turn beliefs into character is through practices. Practices that we often call spiritual disciplines. Practices like prayer, worship, and the study of His word. There are many more Christian “practices” that produce character, but this week let's look to Psalm 119 to help us better understand the “practice” of engaging God’s word and how doing so is supposed to impact our everyday life.

Maybe you’re not all that religious and have never thought about God having some grand plan or vision for your life. In some way, you may have disqualified yourself, simply through your lack of awareness. But make no mistake about it, God has a bigger dream for your life than anything you could ever come up with on your own. You just need to discover it and develop it.You can’t change the past, but today you can start living in the present and preparing for the dream God has for your future.

Anybody that has ever stepped out in faith and followed God on this adventurous journey toward His dream for their lives is familiar with these words: Delay, Denial, Detour, Distraction, Discouragement, Difficulty, and Dead Ends. The headwinds of struggle are inevitable when you’re pursuing God’s call, God’s dream, and God’s plans and purposes for your life. As we talk about the struggle, we all need to remember one thing: God is more interested in who you’re becoming than what He’s called you to do.

Bonus Material from Week 2 of Dream - The Key to Living Life in Crescendo

Bonus Material from Week 1 of our new series Dream - The Key to Living a Life of CrescendoCheck out the full message on Youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTigCb_FvRA&t=1s

If any group of people ought to be able to live their lives with a "Crescendo Mentality" it ought to be followers of Jesus who believe in the hope of the Gospel. So this week, we are starting a series of messages called: Dream - The Key to Living a Life of CrescendoBecause having a dream, pursuing a dream, and fighting for a dream is a major key to living. life with a crescendo mindset and mentality.

One of the reasons music is so emotionally powerful is the use of two dynamics known as Crescendo and Diminuendo.One of the most powerful moments in a song is it’s crescendo. A crescendo in music is the slow, gradual build in volume and intensity that brings everything to a powerful climatic peak.When done well, the listener actually feels and experiences that moment with the artist.Every crescendo is followed by a diminuendo. A diminuendo is where the volume and intensity decreases.There’s a sense of forward momentum that crescendos...and then the song begins to decline...that decline is the diminuendo.But this crescendo and diminuendo thing is not just a music thing. It’s also a life thing. The “crescendo mentality” is when you live as if the best days of your life are always in front of you.An Easter Prayer of SurrenderJesus, I’ve grown tired of the constant cycle of spiritual highs and lows. My heart aches for something solid and secure in a world of continued instability and uncertainty.Today, I’m convin

On this particular Sunday, the day we've come to call Palm Sunday. Jesus rides into Jerusalem on a borrowed colt while people feverishly praise him waving palm branches and singing.But don't misunderstand this moment and don't misunderstand the reason for their praise. If you don't understand the motivation behind waving the palm branches and offering their praise, you'll never understand how they could go from yelling "Hosanna" on Sunday to many of these same people yelling "crucify him" on Friday.And we sit here and condemn the crowd for their fickle emotional swings, but are we all that different? Some of us sit here today bitter at God because He hasn't met our expectations.But let's try to learn from their mistake and realize that God is up to something bigger than we can understand. When we cannot track his ways, we have to trust his heart. When he is silent, he is not still. He is actively working behind the scenes to bring his good plans and purpo

The way we love and serve others is a litmus test of our own love for God, but also, if we're willing to inconvenience ourselves loving and serving others it will open the door for our neighbors to meet Jesus and experience eternal life for themselves.

Our modern understanding of war and conquest is this idea that the strong impose their will on the weak. And in many cases, the strong turn their conquest into a "holy war" using their god or god's as an excuse to justify their plundering of the weak.Last week, we zoomed out and looked at the big picture story of what's actually going on in the Bible when it comes to war and violence. There are some things that were obvious to the ancient writers and readers of the Old Testament that we misinterpret when we try to look at them through modern lenses.This week we continue the conversation and ask ourselves: How do we confront the modern caricature with a more historically and biblically accurate reality?