Join Alex and Hunter as they interview Bec Isaacson and listen to a special, short episode of her podcast "How to live with the Rich" which is now available on all platforms. Bec addresses Jesus' words "the poor will always be with you" and digs into the context of the passage.

This morning, Bec Isaacson led us in the second of a two-part sermon series titled “how to live with the rich” that talks about the Christian, Biblical response to the global poor. This week was all about examining the goal of poverty alleviation, and how we can apply that theory to our practical lives. The narrative and summary from last week’s message was: 1. We are very rich. 2. We can not serve both God and money, and 3. We are called to live as sacrificial stewards by caring for those in need. This week, Bec built onto that narrative with two major points: 4. We are not the definition of life success. It is very important to have a poverty alleviation goal, because without it we can not find any solutions to the poverty problem, nor can we measure any form of success. The goal of helping those in need can not be to make them the same as us, because as a whole we are neither happy nor healthy from a Biblical perspective. Our culture is not the standard of what it means to live a successful life, and so we should not invite the global poor to become like us – materially focused, individualistic, wealth driven consumers. Instead, we need to invite all people (including ourselves) into God’s narrative for their lives. 5. Human beings flourish when their mind, affections, will and body enjoy loving relationships with God, themselves, others, and the rest of creation. This begins when we worship God and embrace whole-life transformation for others and ourselves. Poverty is not simply a material problem, and we have the potential to do great damage to others and ourselves when we mistakenly see it as such. Our economy says that’s greater consumption = better life, but Jesus says that greater service, greater generosity and dying to self = better life both now and for eternity. The second half of the sermon provided practical steps to action this information, including: We need to raise our expectations and pick a problem. If we are going to see any significant change within our lifetime, we need to develop a righteous anger that pushes us to put action to our beliefs. We can all pick one problem, and run to the pain. We need to use our wealth wisely; both in how we give it away, and in how we use our purchasing power. We need to be generous people, and we need to be strategic. We need to be good stewards of our lives. This includes volunteering our time and stewarding our resources well.

Join us as we talk about global poverty and the Church's response with author, Bec Isaacson.

This morning, Bec Isaacson led us in the first of a two-part sermon series titled “how to live with the rich” that talks about the Christian, Biblical response to the global poor. This week was all about who is rich and who is poor, and what the Bible has to say. Bec broke the message down into three sections: 1. We are very rich. It is more than likely that by global standards, we are very rich in a world where so many people are poor. As followers of Jesus, we have a choice to be either paralyzed or propelled by this information. Jesus calls His followers not to lives of ease and comfort, but instead to lives of obedience, selflessness, and restoration – part of which is caring for the poor. 2. We can not serve both God and money. The Bible makes it clear that we can not serve both God and money. This is very difficult within our culture, as the love of money is both taught to us and celebrated. Instead of serving money, we are entrusted to be God’s good and generous stewards who use their money wisely. This includes caring for those in need both locally and globally. Having a “heart for the poor” is useless without the accompanying actions that do something about it. 3. We are called to live as sacrificial stewards by caring for those in need. The Bible makes it clear that we are to be cheerful and humble givers who trust the Lord wholeheartedly. It is possible to live in a world without extreme global poverty, and we have an invitation to be a part of global change and restoration. We need to be invited not only into an abundant life in Jesus, but also into this hurting and broken world. We are to be known by our love for one another, and love for our neighbor – which in a world as globally connected as ours includes the global poor.

Amanda Anderson speaks on what it means to bring life to self, home, and your workplace.

This morning, Amanda Anderson shared a message on the topic of “life.” Because God brings life to every situation, we should strive to do the same. The very presence of God is connected to life, and when we disconnect ourselves from Him – it ultimately ends in destruction for ourselves and those around us. Therefore, we need to look to God to determine what is best, choosing to do life God’s way. Three ways to bring life: 1. Bring life in yourSELF We need to see ourselves as God sees us, and be kind to the person who God has made us to be. We can experience great life when we understand that we are made in the image of God, and that He has made us good. We need to regularly connect with God in order to grow in this understanding. 2. Bring life at home We need to be people who bring life within our homes. We can do this by being people who choose kindness over being right, honesty over stuffing our feelings, and service without the expectation of it being returned. 3. Bring life at work No matter where we work, inside or outside the home, we can be people who bring life within our spheres of influence.

Sit down with Pastor Alex (as a guest, not host!) and discuss what it means to give God legal license in your life.

This week, Pastor Alex led us in a message titled “Search me. Know me” out of Psalm 139. License is permission to do something; especially formal permission from a government or authority. If we are committing to God, we give Him a legal authority into our lives. This means asking the Lord to search us, lead us, and know us at the deepest levels. Inside all of us there is a desire for control and to be the center of our own worlds, and our own lives. But giving our lives to God means turning both of those things over to Him. Pastor Alex led us in three primary points: 1. God wants license into your lives. We need to give God permission to speak into our lives, to search us and to know us. Within this Psalm, David asks the Lord to know his thoughts and doubts, and to test him. We see more of who God is through times of doubt and testing. 2. God wants your submission. Our lives produce lasting change when we fully submit to Him – giving Him control. Jesus needs to be the Lord of our lives, which is a position of full authority. Submitting to God therefore is what gives Him license to access our hearts, and it is this that produces lasting change within us. 3.God wants to give us His vision. God sees redemption – and He wants to align us to that vision, and to Him. We need to give God license into our hearts so that we can see this world with His eyes and not our own. Until we are willing to submit, He can not use us. We must give up control, and give God full license into our hearts.

Special episode where Alex and Hunter interview Josh Ballard and Andrew Bisson who were part of a Waypoint team that went overseas to help at the Ukrainian border.

We end our Get and Up Walk series with Pastor Jermaine's message on Easter Sunday about Lazarus. How do we respond in times of delays and trials? What do we do with the sin in our lives that stinks?