Woodland Hills Church

Dan Kent challenges us with the words of the Apostle Paul to respond to polarization by letting our gentleness show. He explains what gentleness is and is not, and outlines the inherent power and the freedom we experience when we obey this command to gentleness.

In this team-taught sermon with Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty, we learn about the importance of being a peacemaker, and discover some basic skills about how we can actually promote peace when polarized perspectives are part of our conversations.

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. Therefore, we must be wise to temptations that seek to entrap us in patterns that lead to our destruction. In this sermon Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty identify common ways that we are tempted in the current culture of political polarization. Greg and Bill then provide practical guidance for navigating these temptations so that we can avoid their entrapment.

Greg Boyd and Cedrick Baker highlight the difference that the kingdom of God makes and how it contrasts with the kingdoms of this world. They help us understand how the two kingdoms often are combined, which means that the kingdom of God becomes something other than what it should be. Greg and Cedrick also provide some insight into ways that we can practice kingdom distinctives in our everyday lives.

In this introductory sermon to the new series, Political Distortions, Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty provide a framework for why God’s kingdom people are challenged to provide an alternative to the political polarizations that pervade our current reality. They also offer some initial guidance in how we can practice this alternative.

In Revelation 5, John’s vision includes the 24 elders holding up bowls of incense, which are our prayers. Greg explores four aspects of prayer, specifically intercessory or petitionary prayer. He addresses how prayer can be natural, its purpose, why it is urgent and the mystery of prayer’s outcomes.

The 24 elders in the throne room who sing praises to God show us that corporate worship is a distinctive feature of God’s people. Why is this important? What does this mean when corporate singing is uncommon outside of the church? Greg addresses these questions and provides practical guidance for ways that praising God can become a central part of our relationship with God.

When John enters the throne room in Revelation 4 and 5, the Father and Son are evident, but the Spirit is depicted as the seven eyes of the slain lamb. What does this imagery tell us about God’s triune nature and what can we learn about the role of the Holy Spirit? These are the questions addressed by Greg in this sermon, and the answers guide us into a deeper union with God.

The heavenly vision of John in Revelation 5 reveals that God redeems persons from every tribe, language, people, and nation. Shawna Boren highlights the radical contrast of this truth against our common experience of division and “othering” that occurs in small and grand ways in our lives. God calls us to love the other rather than excluding those who are different. We make this a reality as we embrace the practice of hospitality.

The people of God are a kingdom and priests who will reign on earth. This is our identity. What does this mean and what are the implications for us? Cedrick Baker explores how we are being formed to be people of character who are trained to reign on earth, reflecting the character of God.

In this sermon, Greg Boyd focused on the part of John’s vision that no one is worthy to open the scroll. The reason is due to the fact that humanity has been deceived and therefore does not align with the character of God. Greg ties this passage to the deception of Adam and Eve in Genesis 3 and then he provides spiritual practices that can break this pattern of deception.

In this sermon, Greg Boyd introduces chapter 5 of Revelation where we read about the vision of the slain lamb. This lamb unveils the nature of God’s character in a surprising way, as typically God is depicted as having lion-like character, but instead the slain lamb shows us what God is really like, how God works in the world and how God has conquered evil.

The twenty-four elders fall before the Lord in perpetual worship, giving us a radical image of life in the presence of God. In this sermon, Dan Kent explores the meaning of worship by showing us that the key is our allegiance to God demonstrated by the choices that we make in laying down our crowns before him.

God is the only eternal one. All else is temporary. However, it is human nature to put our trust in temporary things, to focus on things that will not last. Jesus invites us to treasure that which will not be destroyed. When we set our hearts on God’s kingdom and his righteousness, we will discover the only treasure that endures.

In Revelation 4, the 24 elders lay down their crowns and fall before God’s throne. This sermon explores how such acts are typically performed out of fear, but here it’s actually a reflection of the kind of love that they see in the life of Jesus, and a participation in the triune dance of God’s eternal being.

In this sermon, Greg challenges us to upgrade our umwelt. He expands on what Emily introduced in the previous week, and provides three practical ways that we can increase our ability to see God and enter into the knowledge of his transcendent glory. Note: We had some mic issues between 27:07-29:12. We realize Greg can nearly not be heard, and we're sorry about that!

John was invited to enter a door to see into the throne room of God. This was not a physical seeing. It was a spiritual experience, where he saw into another dimension of reality. What does it mean to see into this other world, to experience God in this distinctly different way? This sermon, by Emily Morrison, encourages us to embrace the gift of seeing God in this radically different way.

In John’s vision in Revelation 4, he sees a sea of glass, which represents peace. What does this vision of peace mean for life when we are surrounded by chaos, evil and the constant barrage of all that is not peaceful? This vision of peace came before the final victory of sin and death. This peace is our inheritance in the present. We only need to see it and embrace it as God’s gift to us.

In this sermon, Greg calls the church to pay attention to the reality of spiritual warfare that pervades our world, and then he follows this with direction on the necessity and the ways to resist the powers that war against God’s kingdom.

In this sermon, Greg shares a second letter to the church of Woodland Hills that follows the form of the seven churches in Revelation. This letter praises the generosity expressed by the church, and it admonishes individuals regarding the need to live hospitably by examining how our time is eaten up by trivial and distracting busyness.