The 180 Church Podcast with Dr. Sammy and Friends

The Shameless Father

Dr. Darrell Johnson, Teaching Fellow at Regent College, joins us this week with an exposition on the character of God, the Shameless Father. In this sermon, Dr. Johnson offers insight on why the believer’s relationship with prayer is key to our relationship with the Father and how in our prayer, our reception of the Holy Spirit is at play. Through the Parable of the Friend at Midnight found in the book of Luke, Jesus reveals to us an assurance found in the character of God who would never put his people and his name to shame and that those who ask, seek, and knock on the door of the one inside the house shall receive, find, and will be welcomed in.

Building Community that Unites in Spite of Differences

In diverse communities, certain traditions, perspectives, and cultural norms start to influence one another. This is why there are often differences among people within the church. But though these differences define how we understand ourselves and others, sometimes it can create tension within the church. And sometimes, these disagreements can gain too much importance. When we forget Christ's message of unity and let our differences define and divide us, we run the risk of losing a community that's united by a shared goal of loving each other and growing together in Christ.

The Fruit of the Spirit: Exploring the Duality of our Human Nature

The overarching motif that captures the central aim of the church and the believer’s faith expression is to love our neighbors as ourselves. However, each of our faith journeys demonstrate a fundamental tension between our default humanity and the new creation we find in Christ: the original sin that resides in our flesh and the grip of the fruit of the spirit borne out of redemption. In our spiritual lives, the organic process of life change is not only evident in how we impact our relationships, but evidence of the work of the Spirit who aims to love and bless our friends and family through our own transformation. When we acknowledge the saving grace of Jesus and experience the redemption of our default nature, the fruit that scripture unveils manifest and blesses others and ourselves.

The Parable of the Sower 5: Redefining the Notion of Success

The fruit of a flourishing spiritual life is marked by a humility and self-restraint borne out of compassion for others, which prompts the question: are we pursuing prosperity for our own sake and glory, or do we perpetuate our blessings outwards in order to bless those around us? It is often in the valleys of life where we grow in our capacity to reciprocate prosperity; for although the painful seasons we endure seem so full of futility and waste, they are actually the very resources God uses to transform our hearts to care about other people and their stories. When God grows our compassion from our brokenness, and that compassion drives us to connect to the people around us, the glory of God truly shines and fills us with real joy, understanding, and love.

Moving From Covert Duplicity to Overt Intimacy

In our society and social groups, it has always been the widely accepted norm to be expressive our physical needs with others but when it comes to our struggles and internal world, why do we find it so difficult to share? Many of us live our lives according to a script - resulting in an act that refrains us from an honest account of our vulnerable emotional needs. But what could it look like to disavow the duplicitous behaviors in our relationships and subscribed to vulnerability as a value? There is a rich life in Christ and the reward of real relationships that are in store behind the door of vulnerability and intimacy.

The Parable of the Sower Part 4 (Carrots and Sticks)

It’s normal for us to feel concerned about the future, but that concern becomes anxiety when we focus most of our energy toward uncontrollable circumstances, causing us to waste our mental strength on hypothetical scenarios. Christians today experience emptiness in their faith because of this anxiety epidemic where they focus more on an illusory problem in the future rather than trusting God and living in the present. It is when we surrender our fears of the future to God and steward the gifts that He has given us in the now that we give our lives to what is truly important to God and ourselves.

The Parable of the Sower Part 3 (Stronger Together)

There is often more than what meets the eye when it comes to our spiritual lives and inner world. Resistance, discouragement, and shaken confidence are often evaluated as indicators of how we may be mishandling our faith journey. We may be quick to compare ourselves to the exuberant expressions of seemingly confident believers, however the temperature of our spiritual lives cannot be simply reduced to external appearances. Doubt, despair, and faith crises are ubiquitously normal in the life of the believer and it is through these moments that sharing our struggles with brothers and sisters encourages us to finish the race, fight the good fight together, and once again see the heart of the Father.

The Parable of the Sower Part 2

There is no sugar-coating that the pursuit of holiness is fraught with difficulties, resistance, and heartache. When we accept and follow Christ, we can expect discouragement and loss of confidence during our spiritual walk. However, the resistance that we face, the enemy we battle against, and the fight for our faith provides evidence that the Father's will is at work. It leads to breakthroughs in light of the trials and discouragement. For believers, discouragement through the lens of faith is an encouraging direction, and for seekers, the gospel is an invitation to realize their destiny in Christ who has overcome darkness.

Flourishing in the Eyes of the Father

We often struggle in our spiritual journeys because we lack the critical frameworks with which to examine our lives. The parable of the sower teaches us three lenses we can use to examine our lives: the spiritual lens, the external or worldly lens, and the internal or character lens. Unless we cultivate spiritual wisdom and nurture the seeds God plants within us, we remain in a spiritual fog and either analyze our lives through the wrong lens, or fail to analyze our lives at all. Spiritual growth is not the result of chance, but instead is the fruit of being deliberate in our walk with God. It is when we put in the hard work to follow God that we break free from spiritual fear, grow in spiritual confidence, and flourish as the versions of ourselves God has destined for us to become.

Creating a Culture of Holiness Part 2

Our beliefs are not always reflected in what we say our values are, but are ultimately reflected in our actions. In the church -- where pursuing a life led by Christ and becoming more like him is of utmost value -- competing commitments, implicit personal beliefs, and sin come into conflict with God's values via self-sabotage, conscious or subconscious ignorance, and rationalized excuses. How can the church come together to create a palpable culture of Christ-likeness when our values generate friction with Christ's values? It is through the wholehearted pursuit of Jesus with community, the unedited verbalization of the friction we feel to allow it to spark change, and the leading of the Spirit who comes to confront, correct, and guide us in pursuing the person of Christ.