Ascent Community Church Podcast

Jesus chose a sinful, outcast, half-breed, lowly woman to be the first person to reveal he was the messiah. God values us enough to actively seek out connection with us, right where we are. Right now.

Even if folks don't know if they have been through the rigors of the wall, or that inward journey, we can still talk through the things that we learn from the wall that leads us to grace.  What would it look like if we as a church were honest and vulnerable about the ego that drives us - surrender that ego and walk  with a Jesus given compassion and grace for all people.  

Understand the journey inward, the wall, and the isolation we sometimes feel in our faith is not only ok, but is many times the needed next step in our faith to help us draw closer to Jesus and to help us love and live out the call Jesus puts on our life.  We worry we are losing our faith, but God is strengthening us on the inside.

Our next step in our journey comes when we see ourselves as part of God's work on this earth. We have to take a risk and step into places of influence. We must acknowledge that we have gifts and they are worthwhile. What do we step into: What are you enthusiastic about? The meaning of enthusiasm is "God within." Start there. 

Community is the environment in which faith grows. We need each other - teachers, mentors, and a people to belong to. A healthy community should always be drawing us deeper into God, not just deeper into the group. The goal of community is not conformity, it's formation, becoming a disciple of Jesus

Sometimes we think of faith as a noun, but the faith of the bible is a verb.  Its the journey.  A journey involves process, action, movement, change, experiences, starts and stops, blah times and surprising times.  I want to talk about the dynamic journey of faith, and the discovery of His love  throughout the journey.

This is Jesus' first appearance to gathered disciples post crucifixion and his words to them are, "Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, so I send you." That's a tough thing to hear from a person who has just been executed. Our path will be one of service and sacrifice. It is a downward arc.

Knowing about the resurrection is one thing, living to that truth is another.  Each of the disciples watched all that happened on that Friday and celebrated together Sunday.  But the reality of grace had to then sink in.  It had to be experienced.  Peter was one of the first to come face to face with forgiveness and grace. 

When Jesus stretched his arms out on the cross, how symbolic was it that his death on the cross was for everyone, all people.  And then when they stretched his arms even further, it was the pain of death for that love.   In fact, every step he made to the cross was for each of us.  I want to do a gospel message that embraces the bredth of his love and how nobody is expempt from the work of the cross.  And his pain tells us how encompassing his sacrifice was for us.  

When Jesus entered Jerusalem, so many people thought: This is it! Finally things are going to change. However, it was not about to shake out how they thought. So often we can say, if I turn to Jesus, my life will go the way I want it to. That is not what Jesus offers. He offers us to surrender and to change.

Stepping into the shoes of the followers and experiencing what they felt in those waiting moments - Waiting and Expectations after the moment Jesus breathes his last and then we have to wait - why would they have to wait? Why do we have to wait? What does our Saturday look/feel like? When we find ourselves in the season of waiting, how do we do that well? Gets to Jesus and His promise to those waiting

Its so easy for us to embrace half of the gospel story.  I'm a sinner - I hear that. I'm saved by grace?  I dont hear that part.  Before Judas went out to the field of blood, would he have heard Jesus say, stick around, the best part of the sermon is still coming.  I want to take a closer look at one of the most complicated characters in the Gospel story.  What can we learn from Judas?

There is room throughout the Easter story for questions, doubts and disbelief. Each of the disciples went through it. Jesus knew it. God gives room for us to go through the bumpy, courageous journey of faith. And with each one, there was a moment of clarity that helped them conclude, this is real. It was in the Garden that I experienced my own moment of clarity that grounded my faith like no other experinence. I want to look at a few of the experiences they had, and paint the picture of the Garden, this story is real, lets ground it as we head to Easter. ascentcc.org

When Jesus says they will do even greater things once He has left, how is that possible when all we have is the promise of the Holy Spirit. Do we underestimate the person, presence and power of the Holy Spirit in our lives? The Spirit has transforming power in the lives of believers, producing holiness and likeness to Jesus (Sanctification). It is the Holy Spirit who can pray and intercede for us (Intercession). The Holy Spirit is our teacher and guide who is sent by the Father (Teacher & Guide). 

The Holy Spirit is the active expression of God on Earth. We are missing deep connection with God if we are not interacting with the Holy Spirit, forming a relationship with the Holy Spirit. He is the upgrade that we are offered, He is the one that is with us, guiding us, available to us now

We are desperate to try to figure how to live this life with God at the center and not me.  Its our lifelong journey as Christians.  Do we realize that the Holy Spirit is at work, that without it we can do nothing of significance.  In our first Sunday in the series, I want to introduce the idea of the Holy Spirit as Jesus did in John 14.  I want to reassure folks that its ok that they dont understand, but its not ok to fully set aside the Holy Spirit as unneeded or wanted in their lives.  I want to help folks realize its not as far away as they feel, the Holy Spirit is not as complicated as we make it.  And at the same time, its filled with wonder and mystery and unexplainable.

Paul has learned the secret of taking all of life in stride.  The secret is the focal point of his life, the center around which his life is integrated.  As he focuses his vision on God and his love as seen in Jesus Christ, all other things are relegated to the realm of peripheral vision. 

Most of us never learn how to navigate conflict. We’ll be walking through a method for resolving disagreements, so that we can have grace for ourselves and others. We’ll spend time in Philippians 4:8 to fix our minds on what is true, honorable, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent and worthy of praise, so that we can find peace.

Paul's point is that God did something very concrete and real in our lives when we believed in him. God's good work is not something hidden, something that we will see only in the distant future - it is real and concrete here and now.  But it's ongoing work. Our faith journey is a dynamic journey, not a static experience. 

As we continue our start of the new year we are continuing in our look at the Book of Philippians. Bill shares the price and sacrifice it is to live a life of integrity 

As we enter into the Christmas season for 2025, might we consider what might be the most important invitation of all time. 

We are concluding our study in the book of James this week as we unpack our lives through the filter of Graces.  James 5

Bill continues in our book study in James.

In our week 3 of this series we are wrestling with James 2:14-26. Can we find a way to live out our faith in every day?

Part 2 in our series in the book of James, Advice You Can't Ignore. 

We are kicking off our study in the book of James. This week we have a message from Chris Lagedrost in his encouragement during trials in life and what we can pursue during this time. 

September 14 Message by Bill Stephens

Bill Stephens gets the chance to share about how we are able to manage our faith and doubt as we continue to grow in relationship with the Lord. 

We're excited to be able to celebrate the summer and what the Lord did in both Ascent Kids and Ascent Students