Hillside Church's Podcast

Jesus does so many things. He guides us. He befriends us. He encourages us. Today we look at perhaps the most important things Jesus does for us. He saves us. He rescues us. This is great news because we all need saving!- Pastor Ron KoolSupport the show

There is something inside each one of us that wants peace. Peace between nations, peace within families, peace among neighbors. We want peace. But most of us also feel that peace is not really a possibility—there will always be wars and hostility and fighting. Unless. Unless. Unless God Himself does something. Today we’ll think together about what it means that Jesus is our Prince of Peace.- Pastor Ron KoolSupport the show

As we remember the first coming of Jesus and look forward to His second coming, we’re taking a look at some of the titles that the Bible gives to Jesus. Last week we looked at Jesus as The Messiah. This week we’re going to look at Jesus as The Word.  What does it mean that Jesus is The Word? And what difference does it make to us if He is?- Pastor Ron KoolSupport the show

On the first Sunday of Advent we set our hopes on the one who has come and who will come again, Jesus Christ. Throughout the Gospels, Jesus was given many unique titles to help us understand who Jesus is and how we should relate to him. We begin with the first title the Gospel gives Jesus, “The Messiah.” What does it mean that Jesus is the Messiah and how does it affect our lives today?- Pastor Arek O'ConnellSupport the show

There’s a difference between saying thank you and being thankful. Saying thank you is important, but God really calls us to be thankful. It’s that sense of gratitude that we  seek and that God calls us to have. Today we will discuss the five keys to nurturing gratitude.- Pastor Ron KoolSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveAs we've been working our way through I Corinthians 13, we've learned that love is essential to all ministry and we've learned about the characteristics of love. This morning we'll learn that while other gifts and abilities are good, Love is the greatest.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveAs we’ve gone through the characteristics of love that Paul gives us in I Corinthians 13, we’ve seen that love is not sentimental or sweet but powerful and challenging. It’s not easy to love the way Paul calls us to love. In his final set of the characteristics of love, Paul tells us that love always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. Once again we see that love is sacrificial and strong.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveThe Bible calls us to rejoice when others rejoice and to mourn when others mourn. But sometimes that’s not easy. Sometimes we take delight in the failures and hurts of other people and sometimes we are sad when others succeed. We’ll look at what Paul says about love: It doesn’t delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveWe all get hurt. In a broken world, there is no way we can avoid it. We all get hurt (and we all hurt others at times). The question is this: How do we respond? What does love teach us about how we respond when we get hurt?- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveOne of the greatest ways we show love is to honor people - to notice them, to listen to them, to respect them. Today we'll see how love calls us to not seek to gain honor as it seeks to give honor to others.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveWe start taking a look at all the things the Apostle Paul said Love is NOT in 1 Corinthians 13. Paul wants to warn the church against envying one another, boasting, and being prideful because when we do these things the focus is on "me." True love focuses on "we." We now discover how we can get out of our own way so that we can love God and each other.- Pastor Arek O'ConnellTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveLast week we heard Paul’s call to love. He taught us that no matter how gifted we are, without love, we are nothing. That leads to what we’re going to talk about today and for the next couple of weeks: What is love? A feeling?  A song? A generic sort of feel-good moment? Paul’s going to point out that love—real love—requires some real work.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Beginning Again: In LoveWe’ve talked about the importance of prayer and of serving. Now we’re going to talk about something that Paul says is the greatest thing: Love. No matter how impressive we may be to others with our prayers and our serving and our speaking and our knowing, Paul tells us that if we don’t do these things in love, we really don’t matter much. Love makes the difference.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

One of the most amazing things we can discover is that God can and does work through us. It feels great to realize that we had an impact on someone’s life, whether that was by a word we spoke, an act of kindness, or a gift we gave. We were created by God to do these sorts of things and feel this sort of joy. We’ll take a look at how God not only created us to make a difference but gave us spiritual gifts so His grace can flow through us to others.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

The Bible tells us that Christians are supposed to be ministers of reconciliation. But when we look at the church these days, it seems like most Christians aren't doing well with that - we look more like ministers of division than ministers of reconciliation. We will think about how we can grow stronger at reconciliation.- Pastor Jul MedenblikTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

For many of us, we are beginning again. Schools are open, ministries at church are ramping up, the Hillside Cook-out is today, the Lions kick off a new season. As we begin again, there are three things that we ought to recommit ourselves to: Prayer, Service and Love.  We’ll take some time to commit and re-commit ourselves to prayer.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Most of us have heard that “it’s better to give than to receive.” That’s true. But what we haven’t always recognized is that often it’s easier to give than to receive. We don’t like to receive gifts we can’t pay back. We like to feel like we are pulling our own weight. That’s not terrible, unless it keeps us from receiving the most important gift in the world—God’s grace.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Set Free to Live Free | The Ten CommandmentsAs we finish the Ten Commandments this morning we’ll see that the last commandment takes us inside—into our hearts, our inner desires, where all our outward actions start.  We’ll see that if we can get this one right, we can do much better with the first nine.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Saint Martin of Tours is known as the first Chaplain in the history of the Christian Church. However, Jesus is the first Chaplain and the perfect Chaplain. Jesus is on His way to Jerusalem. By the side of the road, a blind beggar, Bartimaeus, calls out for help. The crowd tells him to be quiet. But, Jesus, even though He is going to be killed in just a few days, puts His life on hold, calls Bartimaeus over, and listens carefully to his call for help. Jesus heals Bartimaeus by restoring his sight. We will follow Jesus when we also put our lives on hold, listen, and be God’s agents of healing when we use our gifts in service to Christ’s Church.- Chaplain Roger BoumaTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show

Set Free to Live Free | The Ten CommandmentsThe ninth commandment might be the one that we break with the most frequency.  While we really want to be people who tell the truth, too often we don’t tell the whole truth. We mislead, we speak too strongly, we speak too weakly. We cover the truth and slant it. We’ll take a look at how we can be people who speak the truth in love.- Pastor Ron KoolTo give, please visit: https://pushpay.com/g/hillsidechgrSupport the show