Bridgetown Audio Podcast

A Sabbath Meditation

Part 6 from the series, "Sabbath" as part of Practicing the Way. As we are learning about Sabbath, this week we create a restful experience in our Sunday gathering. With Psalm 23 as a framework, we explore what it means to rest with God as our Shepherd.

Subversive Sabbath

Part 5 from the series, "Sabbath" as part of Practicing the Way. We live in a 24/7 culture of endless productivity, workaholism, distraction, burnout, and anxiety--a way of life to which we've sadly grown accustomed. This tired system of "life" ultimately destroys our souls, our bodies, our relationships, our society, and the rest of God's creation. The whole world grows exhausted because humanity has forgotten to enter into God's rest.

Sabbath & Your Humanity

Part 4 from the series, "Sabbath" as part of Practicing the Way. In Sabbath we bring to God our whole selves, believing that he meets us where we are. As we acknowledge our humanity and aches, we create space to encounter the God who longs to meet with us.

Sabbath as Resistance

Part 3 from the series, "Sabbath" as part of Practicing the Way. In a society addicted to the twin drugs of accomplishment and accumulation, the Sabbath is an act of resistance. A way of saying, Enough. Pharaoh and his empire are alive and well. Like the Israelites, we must live into our own Exodus, our own freedom.

Sabbath as Rhythm

Part 2 from the series, "Sabbath" as part of Practicing the Way. In the Genesis story, God worked for six days, and then he rested on the Sabbath. In doing so, he built a rhythm into the fabric of creation. But over the years, we’ve lost this dynamic interplay between work and rest, to our own peril. As H.H. Farmer said, “If you go against the grain of the universe you get splinters.” In this teaching, we begin to lay out a biblical theology of Sabbath, noting six ideas: 1. The Sabbath is built into the rhythm of creation, 2. Blessed, 3. Holy, 4. Not a day off, but a day for worship, 5. Both a command and a gift, and 6. A day we are to remember.

Rest For Your Soul

Part 1 from the series "Sabbath" as part of Practicing the Way. We begin one of the most important practices of Jesus with a big picture look at the restlessness of the human condition, and how it’s exacerbated by the digital age and our consumeristic culture. We contrast that with the restfulness of Jesus, which is more than just a day, but is a spirit we live by all week long.

The Story We Crave

To be human is to have longings. We long for transcendence, for beauty, for love, and for a story in which we belong; and everyone finds a story to satisfy explain the longings and the world we find ourselves in. Yet, the way of Jesus presents us with the most compelling story of what it means to be human.

Part 11: Self-Denial in an Age of Self-Fulfillment

From the series "Fighting The World, The Flesh, & The Devil" as part of Practicing The Way. At the center of the way of Jesus is a symbol: the cross. Yet all too often we see it as a sentimental song or piece of jewelry, rather than a way of life. The way to resurrection life has always been through Golgotha death. Self-denial is the entry point to the life of Jesus.

Part 10: The Way of the World

From the series "Fighting The World, The Flesh, & The Devil" as part of Practicing The Way. Much of what our generation calls “culture,” Jesus and the writers of the Bible call “the world” – a system of ideas, values, practices and social norms that are institutionalized into a culture that is organized around rebellion against God and the redefinition of good and evil. How do we keeping from getting assimilated by the world?

Part 9: The Slavery of Freedom: Part 2

From the series, "Fighting the World, the Flesh, & the Devil" as part of Practicing the Way. In this follow up message on the flesh, we dive deep into the fields of psychology, philosophy, and theology, to see how they add color to Paul’s teaching in Galatians on the law of returns. Our acts and habits of mind and body either sow to the flesh, and reap slavery to sin and death, or the spirit, and yield a character and destiny of life and freedom.