The 180 Church Podcast with Dr. Sammy and Friends

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! "What Makes the Gospel Good News?"

Our culture today discourages us from authenticity and honesty and instead encourages us to mask our blemishes and the worst of ourselves. As a result, we often feel resistant to confronting our sinfulness, and we find the message of the gospel offensive. But when we finally do see our limits for what they are — when the light of God’s Shekinah glory gives clarity to our weakness — we see why the gospel is called the good news. The beauty of the gospel is that despite how deep our faults run, God’s love for us runs deeper. For believers, that message is one we’ve each experienced firsthand, and it is a truth we’ve lived through enough to share so that others may know God’s grace for themselves.

What to Remember When God's Calling Doesn't Seem to Make Sense

What to Remember When God’s Calling Doesn’t Seem to Make Sense
While we contend with the question of why God allows disruption and persecution in our lives, we may experience moments where the Father calls us towards the nonsensical, obscure, and uncomfortable. Why would God call us out of novel, momentous, and prosperous events? What purposes would heeding this culturally counterintuitive call serve? Where we tend to see the desolate, humble, and obscure, God sees opportunity and destiny. Through the prompting of the Holy Spirit and our obedience to His call, we find that we are called to the kairos moment of the seeker finding the Father.

"A Joyous Reunion"

Although we have experienced our lives and plans come to a screeching halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the disruptions caused by this public health crisis offer us the perspective to distinguish the trivial from what is substantial. We live in a generation that is ensnared by the distractions of our smartphones and since the advent of social media, we find ourselves worked up over the inconsequential so much that the voice of the Father is drowned out by these trivialities. But where we might have found ourselves caught up in these distractions, the Father invites us into a pursuit of meaningfulness, significance, and fulfillment: the call to remember the importance of relationship. for the sake of our freedom from the trivial, and to become a people of great substance.

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! "The False Gospel of Prosperity"

How do we move from a Personality Ethic to Character Ethic? How do we move from shallow living to deeper faith? Tune in to find out!

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! "The Tyranny of Ignorance"

In today’s episode, Pastor Lydia and Joe talk about how our self-interests contribute to a lack of self-awareness, and it is because of these interests that reveal a point of tension in our calling. We recognize that humans by nature are self-interested but if we can identify them and see how they shroud us in ignorance regarding our world and relationships, we can begin the process of putting the kingdom and mission of God above worldly interests. Change is not easy to come by, but it can be done through the Father’s love.

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! "Learning to Pay Attention To God"

In today’s episode, Pastor Lydia and Joe take a moment to pause and reflect on what God is doing within the affliction we experience in our lives. Disruptions are often unwelcome because they interfere with the plans we set out and the expectations we carry, but in the same vein, the tough times and difficult moments can point to what the Father is working on if we pay attention to it. Whether we have been wayward with our formation because of these difficulties or have forgotten about mission, this week’s message reminds us of our call to Jesus, to re-examine our values and to refocus on our purpose for the kingdom of God.

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! "Grief, Loss, and Suffering"

In the advent of a new decade, brimming with expectation and hope for new beginnings, our world was met with many forms of suffering and loss due to a history-making pandemic. With the pain of loss, the process of grieving is often overlooked in favor of coping mechanisms. To our detriment, these give us an out rather than a means of true healing and meaning to be found in our suffering. However, the story of our sufferings and losses do not end in despair but in hope and redemption. Through Christ, we are offered hope in our losses, empathy in our pain, and purpose with our suffering, so that we too can provide healing and redemption, just as he had.

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! "Adapting to the New Norm"

Our world undergoes perpetual and inevitable change — there is no clearer example of that than the new norm established by the global pandemic. But why the church exists and does what it does remains the same in spite of all the external change brought on by the pandemic, and everyone — whether a pastor or a mere member of the community — still has an equal responsibility to spread the good news to those who need to hear it. Our purpose and mission will never change, but the ways in which we share and express the gospel can and should change. When we stop clinging to rigidity and instead embrace adaptation in the face of change, we discover newer, better, and more miraculous ways through which one lost sheep can find his or her way home.

Pentecost: It's Our Turn Now! A Stale vs. Vibrant Church

In today’s episode, Pastor Lydia and Joe navigate how we can examine the state of our faith: whether it is bristling with vibrancy and expectation of the power of God, or stale and indifferent towards it. It is important for the community of believers to take a temperature check and examine the state of staleness In our faiths because God is always at work in our lives, and in the state of our unbelief and pessimism, we may just miss out on the great things the Father is doing in us and around us. It is in relationship with God and not the mechanism of spiritual works or religion that refills and refreshens the soul of the believer, and this week’s message is an invitation to be filled by our need for God once again.

Pentecost: The Small Fringe Movement

In today’s podcast, Pastor Lydia and Joe talk about how they were encouraged by this week’s message to continue fighting for the sake of the gospel. The foundation of the Christian faith is predicated on the prolific event of Jesus’ life and resurrection - a watershed moment that ultimately changed the fabric of reality and made its mark on history. It is by this truth and for this reason that believers and seekers alike could continue to speak of the gospel in the present and propel life change just as the disciples had in the days of the early church. The historical authenticity, eye-witness accounts, and the convincing proofs of the enduring good news, from then to us now, is why we believe and persist in speaking in the name of Jesus.