Calvary Palisades Podcast

Work is competitive. Your reputation matters. Your peers and competitors cut corners. But what if Christians worked differently? This Sunday, we’ll look at what Jesus says about retaliation, integrity, and the kind of character that should shape our ambition. There is more than climbing the ladder, and this message is for anyone who wants to work with conviction, strength, and a deeper sense of purpose.

Ever feel like your spiritual life is inconsistent or shallow (or basically non-existent)? Jesus didn’t just call people to believe the right things—he invited them into a deeper life with God. This Sunday, we’ll look at the Lord’s Prayer as a pathway into real spiritual depth, deeper trust, and a more grounded relationship with God. There is more than surface spirituality, and this message is for anyone who wants something deeper than religious routine.

Single in LA? It can feel exhausting—the pressure, the apps, the comparison, and the constant question of whether singleness is just a waiting room. This Sunday, we’ll look at how Jesus and the whole Bible paint a bigger, better picture of love, identity, purpose, romance, and intimacy. Whether you’re single or married and wanting to grow in romance and deeper connection, this message will offer clarity, hope, and a better vision than swipes and status. Join us at Calvary this Sunday.

We want more from relationships — more passion, more connection, more happiness. But instead we often get more conflict, more distance, more quitting. Jesus talks about anger, lust, and divorce — not to restrict love, but to protect it. There is more than surface-level romance.

Parents feel it every day — the pressure to do more, give more, protect more. But what if all that anxiety is pointing to something deeper? Jesus says, “Do not worry.” Not because parenting is easy — but because your Father is good.If you’ve ever felt the weight of not being enough as a parent, this Sunday is for you. There is more than fear-driven parenting.Join us at 10:00 am as pastor Justin teaches through Matthew 6:25–34!

Everyone believes, everyone hopes, and everyone doubts. The question is where will you place your faith. Pastor Justin challenges us to question why we choose to trust some things with no evidence while at times dismissing well documented facts. Did Jesus really rise from the dead, this Easter we are challenged to doubt our doubts. Join us for Easter Sunday at 9 am as Justin teaches on the Resurrection of Jesus through John 20.

This Sunday in Mark 8:22–38, Jesus heals a man in a way that’s strangely gradual—then immediately asks a question that’s still the big one: Who do you think I am? What follows is not religious fluff; it’s Jesus challenging our obsession with control, comfort, and image, and offering a different kind of life that actually holds up. If you’re curious about Jesus but allergic to churchy talk, come to Calvary—this passage is honest, intense, and way more relevant than you’d expect.

This Sunday in Mark 6:14–29, the story turns dark—power, image-management, guilt, and a leader so afraid of looking weak that he makes a decision he can’t take back. It’s a brutal, surprisingly modern look at what happens when fear runs your life and truth becomes negotiable. If you’ve ever wondered whether Christianity can handle the real world (not just the inspirational parts), come to Calvary and hear this story—and why it still matters.

In Mark 6:1–13, Jesus is rejected in his hometown because people think they already know him, and their familiarity keeps them from faith. He then sends the disciples out with simple instructions to preach repentance, cast out demons, and heal—showing that God works through ordinary people who depend on him.

Most of us treat life like an endless scroll—lots of information, very little clarity. In Mark 4:21–25, Jesus says two sharp things: you don’t light a lamp to hide it, and what you pay attention to is what grows in you—and if you ignore the important stuff, you don’t stay the same, you slowly lose it. If you’d like your life to feel less reactive and more grounded, come to Calvary this Sunday and hear why Jesus thought attention is a spiritual (and very human) battleground.

Jesus meets two kinds of pressure every parent knows: the public kind where you’re supposed to keep it together, and the private kind you don’t talk about. A respected leader—used to being the competent one—has to admit he can’t fix what’s happening to his daughter, and he risks his reputation to ask Jesus for help. At the same time, a woman who’s been quietly losing for years reaches out in desperation, hoping a small moment with Jesus could change everything. This week Pastor Justin covers Mark 5:21–43!

This week Kyle Osland takes us through Mark 6:45-52. Jesus goes up on the mountaintop to pray after feeding the five thousand, while the disciples begin rowing for Bethsaida. The Sea of Galilee sits in a rift valley, where wind storms can quickly arise, a frequent challenge for local fishermen. Only the bigger fear this time, is that Jesus comes to them walking on the sea.

God always provides for His children, yet it demands eyes of faith to discern His unwavering faithfulness amid the shadows of dark times. True understanding blooms not in abundance alone, but in the subtle grace that sustains us through every trial. Join us as guest preacher Markel Croston shares from Mark 6:30-44, Mark 8:1-21.

Love is great, necessary even, but love without power is merely sentiment. On the other hand, power without love is the stuff of nightmares. In this week’s passage, we see Jesus’ terrifying power unleashed on both the natural and supernatural world. But rather than it just being a demonstration of raw power, Jesus uses his power to overcome evil for those he loves. That’s the kind of King we need, and we have in Jesus.

This week Pastor Justin dives into the idea of an inaugurated Kingdom (Already/Not Yet). We will look at what we know about it theologically then quickly hone in on what it means for us practically. We can taste the Kingdom, but it will always disappoint in its partialness?!

This week, we’re skipping ahead to an interaction between Jesus and the Pharisees in Mark 7. The first four weeks of the series is about the nature of the Kingdom and this text gives us a key piece. Namely, that sin, and therefore sin’s solution, works inside out. So too is the Kingdom of God an inside out Kingdom.

Why does Jesus talk about seeds so much, and what in the world does that have to do with the Kingdom of God? It’s a great question, and one that Pastor Justin will answer this week as we continue our series in the Gospel of Mark.

This week is all about the Kingdom. To start the series, I want to establish a working definition of the Kingdom, and help people think about it correctly, since the whole series is built on the idea. Secondly, I’ll establish the idea of parables, and what the use of parables teach us about the Kingdom of God - namely that it is both hidden and accessible.

This week Pastor Justin remembered the anniversary of the fires and their impact on our community with a message from 2 Corinthians.

Pastor Justin teaches on the New Testament's teachings regarding giving.

Christmas eve service at Calvary Palisades

The final week of Advent brings us to the theme of Love. It was because of God’s deep love for his creation that he sent his son to become a child, who would grow into the man who died on our behalf. Come hear about God’s great love for you this Sunday at 10AM at Calvary Church.

The search for joy is universal. We pursue it constantly; it’s embedded in the fabric of our country’s founding, and every company is selling it to us, promising that their product or service will finally bring us the joy we lack. The Bible describes a divine ideal that is joyful, and yet incomplete because of sin. So what is joy? Is it different from happiness? How do we attain it? How do we keep it? Psalm 16 tells us that joy is found in the Presence of God. What does that mean?

This week our new Director of Discipleship, Kyle Osland speaks on Psalm 29. The longing for peace implies a world that is at war. Conflict is an inevitable part of a world steeped in sin. Peace is what we were made for but so rarely experience. The question is, what kind of peace were we made for (simply the absence of conflict?) and how do we go about finding it here on Earth? This passage begins with David celebrating God’s strength, his ability to overcome evil. The key to finding peace is to have an ally so strong that evil cannot come against Him.

This sermon will kick off the series and establish the theme of Longing. I’ll connect longing to Hope in Psalm 42 verse 5. David is mourning his situation and asks his soul, “Why are you downcast?” and implores his soul to hope in God. God, ultimately, is our source of hope. Our circumstances will change, jobs, homes, and people will come and go, but God is constant.

Everyone wants justice for wrongdoing, nobody likes the idea of judgment - for themselves. This is the fundamental contradiction when it comes to justice. How can we have genuine and comprehensive justice in the world when we constantly try to avoid it for ourselves? This is the question that Pastor Justin will answer this week at 10AM at Calvary Church.

Evil and Suffering are two elements of the human experience that no one denies. We have all, to a person, experienced pain and loss, and have struggled to make sense of it. We question God's role in all of it and try to square the Bible's description of an all-powerful and loving God with the evil we see around us.

There may be no more debated topic in our culture for the last 50 years than sexuality. This week, pastor Justin gives us a full and beautiful vision for sexuality, straight from Genesis chapter 2.

This week Pastor Justin tackled the difficult and culturally charged subject of gender. Did God make us Man and Woman? Is gender immutable, or is it subject to the feelings of the individual? We tackle these questions and more.

This week pastor Justin talks through God's example and design for biblical rest.

God gave us work before the fall, which means that it was part of his sinless creation. But is this how we think about our work? Do we have a vision for the creational and redemptive nature of our work? Is that what drives us to our office every morning?

This week in our series through the book of Genesis, Pastor Justin covered Chapter 1 verses 26 and 27. In this episode Justin speaks on the implications of the "Imago Dei" and what it means for every person's inherent worth as image bearers of God.

Genesis 1:3-26 - ScienceOctober 6, 2025 • Justin Anderson • Series: Genesis: Rooted in RealityThis week, Pastor Justin continued our Genesis series covering Chapter 1 verses 3-26. In this episode the text sheds light on many of the hard questions surrounding Christianity and Science.

This week we began our Genesis series Rooted in Reality. Over the next several weeks Justin will be taking key passages from this foundational book and answering some of life's most important questions.

This week, pastor Justin tackled a pressing question: How do we serve the common good when the world can’t even agree on what “good” is? Jesus calls His people to be salt and light—not retreating from culture, but blessing our neighbors with truth, grace, and courage.

This week Pastor Justin continues the vision series, "The King, the Kingdom & the Common Good". In this episode he answers the question "What does it mean to seek the kingdom over and above all other rival kingdoms?". What would It look like to embody the kingdom in every part of our lives? Come and listen!

This week Pastor Justin kicked off our new vision series, "The King, the Kingdom & the Common Good" and it was our first Sunday back on campus! This series will be the backbone of everything we do at Calvary. So, what does it mean to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength? Let's find out together.

Pastor Justin explores Romans 3:27–31. Gospel fruit should produce humility, not arrogance.

How can we be made right with God? Pastor Justin explores one of the most powerful passages in Scripture: Romans 3:21–26. Though we all fall short, God offers righteousness through faith in Jesus. Join us to learn about the hope and freedom found in His sacrificial love.

Paul lays out a pretty bleak view of humanity, one that flies in the face of the way most Angelenos think of themselves. Pastor Justin Anderson explains why this view of the world not only makes the most sense of history but can also comfort us more deeply than any other.

Elder Chad Martin teaches from Romans 2:25–3:8.

Pastor Markel Croston unpacks Romans 2, where Paul argues that all people—whether they've heard the gospel or not—are accountable before God and in need of His grace, revealing our universal, desperate need for Jesus.

Paul uses a counterintuitive strategy to bring together the different factions in the Roman church, but it’s a strategy that can still work today. 

This week Paul builds off his argument from last week and gets specific about the ways people suppress the truth through idolatry and disobedience. Fair warning: it's going to get spicy, but it is so important for us to tackle these issues straight on. You'll see how many of the destructive behaviors we see in our world and in our own hearts, have the very same root.

What if the real danger is not that we don’t believe in God—but that we replace Him with something smaller? Pastor Justin explores how Romans 1:18–23 exposes the idols we don’t even know we are worshiping.

Pastor Justin teaches from Romans 1:8–17, where Paul expresses his deep longing to share the gospel with the believers in Rome—and explains why. We'll see God’s heart for sinners, both within the church and throughout the city.

After introducing himself in verse 1, Paul introduces the purpose of the letter to the Romans, which is to both convince and compel them to believe the Gospel and let it do its transforming work. In this passage, Paul lays out the Gospel in all its glory. Watch Message on YouTube

The church father, Saint Augustine began his seminal work, Confessions, by saying, "You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you". More than 600 years later, these words could not be more true. We live in a time of restlessness, a time where so many people are trying to find the thing that will finally allow them to exhale, to be at peace, to rest. We try money, fame, relationships, work, education, sex, and country club memberships hoping that something will finally give us the satisfaction and meaning that we've been looking for. But it hasn't worked, and it never will. Until we come to Jesus, we will never find a home for our restless hearts.This week we kick off our Romans series with a bang. Paul comes out hot in his introduction, laying out the gospel, and with it his agenda for the entire book. He wrote Romans so that we would know Jesus Christ, “through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name among all the nations”. That's the goal—and the only way our hearts will find the peace we long for.Watch Message on YouTubeIntroduction to Romans (PDF)