PODCAST · religion
Filled With Messages
by Ruth Farrell
Life is filled with messages. At best, most of them are forgettable. Plenty of them are confusing and anxiety-inducing. Filled With Messages are the sermons of Ruth Farrell, the lead pastor of a church in Chicagoland. If you want to fill your life with encouraging, transforming messages, listen in.
Episodes
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When You're Afraid, Make Room for God to Break In
When we're struggling, afraid, hurting, it can be hard to make room for hope and joy (gifts of God). Doing so, though, can strengthen our resilience and help us find our way in the darkness. Listen in to hear more from this sermon based Luke 1:5-19.
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How We Talk to Others Matters
We all know that how we talk to others matters. But how often do we think about how we talk to Jesus and God. Listen in to explore how to expand and improve our conversations with God.
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Choose Life
There are a plethora of stories that tell us who we are. Much of the time, we choose to focus on the negative stories. But God wants us to lean into the stories that lead us to life.
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Courage, Dear Heart
Life is filled with scary situations, proverbial lions’ dens. Although it may seem that we are all alone, God is always with us, filling us with the courage to persevere.
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The Importance of Being a Hype Man
All humans need encouragement to survive and thrive. Christians are repeatedly called throughout scripture to be the hype men of our family, friends, neighbors, schoolmates, co-workers, even strangers. Listen in to hear more about our call to be encouragers.
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Passing the Baton
Life is better when we’re part of a team, but being part of a team can be a challenge. Today’s scripture shares some wisdom about best practices for teams.
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The Thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeats
When life is hard, it’s easy to feel defeated. Reframing difficult seasons as having work to do can help us give ourselves a little more grace as we journey through them.
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Training for the Games
Olympic athletes have incredible training regimens. While we might not need to be so intense, training and being goal oriented is a wise way to live. In today’s scripture passages, we’re encouraged to run, train, strain for the goals God places in our lives.
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Joyful Vibes
Joy can be so allusive some days. Life can be filled with so much tragedy and trouble that joy can seem inappropriate or inauthentic. But God gave us the gift of joy to help us through the stresses of life. Relaxing into it leads us to God’s peace, healing, and hope.
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Being a Ferris Bueller Friend
In the movie, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, one of Ferris’s goals is to help a friend who’s struggling. In today’s scripture passage, we hear the story of three different people who in their own unique ways helped someone who was in trouble. Their actions (and Ferris’s!) can give us some ideas about…
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Discerning a Person’s Heart
How do we know someone’s character? How can we discern who to let into our hearts and lives? A story from 1 Samuel can give us some ideas.
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When to Get out of the Way
It’s so hard to know when it’s time to get out of the way. In this message, we hear the story of someone from the Bible who struggled with doing just that. Hopefully by listening to his story, we can do so with more grace.
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Be Curious Not Judgmental
Most of us have a judgmental attitude at least from time to time. Today’s scripture text reminds us to be curious, not judgmental. In doing so, we follow in Christ’s footsteps.
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Quotidian Grace
Life is filled with boring, mundane, ordinary moments, even seasons. God’s grace is with us in those times as well as the extraordinary ones. How can we learn to be more attuned to God’s grace in all our days?
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In the Bulb There Is a Flower
When we are experiencing ends in our lives, it’s normal to struggle, to find it hard to be hopeful. Jesus’ promise is that God will not leave us in the ends of our lives, but will bring beautiful new things out of them.
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We’re All in This Together
How we live and move and have our being in this world effects not just us and those closest to us. It affects the whole world. As Christians, we’re invited to follow Jesus’ model of being full of generosity, empathy, kindness. But how do we do this in a world that feels like it’s filled with more...
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Walk in Love
In scripture, we are repeatedly encouraged to walk in God’s love. What are some practices that help us do so?
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The Complexities of Forgiveness
Forgiveness is often hard and complex. At the same time, it’s something Christians think they should be able to do easily. How can we give ourselves grace when we are struggling to forgive?
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Coming Alive Again
One of the things Christians celebrate at Easter is that God is all about resurrection. Not only did God bring Jesus back to life, but God brings us back to life, too. Listen in to hear how God does this.
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Jesus Suffered
Just like us, Jesus had good days and bad days. The ways Jesus approached the hard days can help us better navigate them when they come our way.
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Jesus Got Hangry
Just like many of us, at times Jesus struggled with self-care. In looking at his example we are reminded of the importance of taking care of ourselves.
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Jesus Had Boundaries
Boundaries are important parts of healthy relationships, but they can be tricky to manage. Jesus modeled healthy boundaries. Following his example can help us navigate their complexities.
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Jesus Got Thirsty
Most of us are thirsty for genuine and meaningful connection. How can Jesus’ interaction with the Samaritan Woman help us build useful skills for connecting well with others?
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Jesus Took Naps. Be Like Jesus.
When life’s storms are upon us, it can be hard to let go and have faith. But Jesus modeled napping in the midst of life’s storms. He encouraged us to trust God to take care of us while we get some much needed rest.
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Growing in Mind, Body, and Heart
Growing older isn’t always fun. There are stages and seasons of life when the aging process is a challenge. Following Jesus’ example can help us weather these storms, maturing gracefully in mind, body, and heart throughout our days
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Finding Our Way to Life
Many days we feel like zombies wandering thoughtlessly and aimlessly through life. But God wants more and better for us. How can we follow Jesus to a full life, an abundant life?
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Balance
We live in a multitasking, juggle it all world. But balance is essential to our wellbeing. Perhaps Jesus’ example can show us some steps can we take to make sure our priorities don’t get lost in all the demands we face.
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A Time to Speak Harshly?
Most of us know the importance of using our words gently and kindly. But there are times in life when a stern word is necessary. How do we know when it’s appropriate to speak a stern word? Today’s scripture text offers us some insight.
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Don’t Judge a Book by Its Cover
It’s easy to judge people by what we see on the surface. Jesus invites us to a different way, a way of seeing beyond the masks most of us wear. A way of witnessing the beauty and truth of ourselves and each other.
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Follow the Drinking Gourd
God is always placing signs in our lives that lead us to grace, peace, healing, love. How do we tune into those signs so that we can be closer to God every day?
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Singing Hope
There’s so much that wants to rob us of hope, but God is always bringing light into our darkness. So when we do have hope, it’s important for us to sing it loud and clear for all to hear.
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Bad Moms
Many of us are stressed, anxious, overwhelmed, wearied by all life throws at us. God calls us to lay aside the pressures of life for awhile by finding joy and peace when we connect with others.
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Weariness
Weariness is such a familiar feeling to many of us that when God tries to gift us with hope and joy we completely miss it. How can we acknowledge our weariness while at the same time open ourselves to God’s goodness to us?
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Don’t Forget to Say Thank You
We all know that being thankful is important. Yet it’s easy to forget to give thanks. Why? What gets in our way of being grateful, especially to God? Listen in to hear more.
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Making Peace
Some days the violence and destruction in our world can feel overwhelming and hopeless. How does God invite us to bring peace to this broken world of ours?
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Old Habits Die Hard
Most of us have habits, behaviors, patterns we would like to change so that we can experience and share more of God’s freedom, joy, peace. But doing so can be very hard. How can we work together with God to free ourselves of no longer helpful habits?
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You Feel Like Home
Having safe homes (both physical and relational) is so important to our wellbeing. Scripture teaches God is one of our safe homes. But what does that mean? Listen in to learn more.
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Reaching for Forgiveness
Forgiveness is essential to our wellbeing. It’s also a cornerstone of our faith. But it can be so hard. How can following God’s example help us learn to forgive?
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My Yoke Is Scopions
Life is so often filled with pain and burdens. How can we follow Jesus’ lead and lighten the loads others bear.
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All Creatures Great and Small
Scripture tells us that animals have things to teach us. More specifically, they have wisdom to share with us about the ways God cares for them and us. Listen in to hear more.
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Wholly Loving God
Scripture calls us to love God with our whole beings. But how do we do that? What might it look like in practical terms? Listen in to hear more.
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Go and Be a Blessing
God often calls us to go, to move, to shift our locations, our attitudes, our beliefs so that more people can experience God’s blessings. But going and changing is hard for many of us and we will face difficulties along the way. Listen in to hear a scripture story that will build our faith that…
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New Beginnings
All of us face new beginnings from time to time. How does God approach new beginnings and how might following God’s lead help us when we are in these situations?
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Yellowstone
How do we keep trusting God, believing in God’s faithfulness even when life is full of pain and suffering?
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Joshua Tree
God asked Joshua to be strong and courageous as he led the Israelites through a season of exponential change. Listen in to hear more about how we can be strong and courageous when we are experiencing change.
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Assateague
Our words have incredible power to do both harm and good. How can we learn to harness them to bring Christ’s light and healing into the world?
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Yosemite
Sometimes life seems like one long downward spiral to death. But along the way, God invites us to find joy in the good stuff of life.
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Sleeping Bear Dunes
Scripture employs metaphors to help us understand God better. In today’s text, the author speaks of God being like a Mama Bear defending and protecting her cubs. Listen in to learn more.
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Travel Surprises
Along our life’s journeys, we encounter surprises. Some are good, others less so. Learning to lean into the surprises helps us be more agile, more gracious, more open to the movement of the Holy Spirit.
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Strangers into Friends
It’s easier than ever to isolate ourselves from new people, but God’s call is to open ourselves to others so that everyone can receive God’s grace and love and hope.
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
Life is filled with messages. At best, most of them are forgettable. Plenty of them are confusing and anxiety-inducing. Filled With Messages are the sermons of Ruth Farrell, the lead pastor of a church in Chicagoland. If you want to fill your life with encouraging, transforming messages, listen in.
HOSTED BY
Ruth Farrell
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does Filled With Messages have?
Filled With Messages currently has 174 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is Filled With Messages about?
Life is filled with messages. At best, most of them are forgettable. Plenty of them are confusing and anxiety-inducing. Filled With Messages are the sermons of Ruth Farrell, the lead pastor of a church in Chicagoland. If you want to fill your life with encouraging, transforming messages, listen in.
How often does Filled With Messages release new episodes?
Filled With Messages publishes regularly with 174 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to Filled With Messages?
You can listen to Filled With Messages on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts Filled With Messages?
Filled With Messages is created and hosted by Ruth Farrell.
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