Refuge Church Ojai Valley

From the beginning, Jesus has no interest in ever being separated from grace. From the beginning, grace is given as a gift. No one earned Him. No one deserved Him. Once he is on the scene, he shows us what grace in the flesh looks like. He fulfills the prophecy about him that says he will be a Mighty God. This means he is on a mission and nothing will stop Him. He also fulfills the prophecy that says he will be an Everlasting Father. This means he will eternally be serving, leading, and attending to His people. This Christmas, what would it mean to us if we truly received everything Jesus is? What would it mean if we trusted and said yes to Him being our everyday Mighty God and our eternal Everlasting Father? 
 
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When Jesus was born, he was born for a mission and a purpose. The Prophet Isaiah knew this and told people about this hundreds of years before Jesus’s birth. This Jesus would be monumental and one of the things he would bring with him is a completely new way to live, to love, and to worship. Don’t tolerate a tame Christmas, listen to how Jesus brings a message at Christmas that is nothing short of a revolution. 
 
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The church is important and we all need it, blemishes and all! Jesus died for her and one day he is coming back for her. But while we wait she serves as the first line of defense here on earth and she teaches us and counsels us in times of need. Thank you to Juan Fallas from Real Life Church in Valencia for bringing the word this morning!

When someone tells you to be thankful or grateful how do you respond? Does it bother you? Does it feel forced? What if gratitude and thanksgiving was the key to living life well? What if God actually designed us to find joy, love, and fulfillment but that those came out of postures of gratitude? This week we celebrate a holiday on a calendar, but in reality we see that God has created us to be thankful, and at the heart of our gratitude lies our path to living life to the full.
 
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Words like lust and gluttony sound like they come from long ago, but we live in a world that is soaked in both of them. Every day, every one of us is invited to indulge in both. As followers of Jesus we must be discipled well here. We must be discipled by Jesus and not tradition, popular opinion, or by what we feel. The prison of gluttony and lust is real and the only hope is found in Christ. #sermons #sermon #onlinechurch 

It doesn’t matter who you are, it's likely that you want to feel approved and accepted by someone or some group. It's hard wired into us as humans. For thousands of years and within thousands of cultures we have been trying to earn and prove our worthiness for approval and acceptance. When Jesus comes on the scene he solves the problem. He reveals our blindness, affirms our need, and then calls us to know an approval and acceptance that far surpases anything our minds or hands can come up with. 

What would inspire us to go against the comfort and norms of this world and choose the fire instead? This week, is an important message for the life of Refuge Church as we look at what it looks like to worship the one true God. We see how the fire refines us, and ultimately causes us to find the greatest HOPE in the one who is more than able. #trials #faith 

There are several times in the New Testament where Jesus gathers such a crowd that it is literally "Standing Room Only". Today, our guest speaker, Conor Le Blanc from Real Life Church, explores an epic story from Luke 5 and talks about what it looks like when we step out in faith to pursue Jesus at all costs. 

Jesus wants to talk to us about our greed but we never want to listen. It's almost certain that you don’t think you are greedy. Most people don’t. We compare our lives to those who have more than we do and we convince ourselves that its ok if we want more. We also compare our level of generosity to those who are less generous than us and are convinced that we are generous people. Thankfully Jesus doesn’t let us just stay in our blindness. He shows us the emptiness that is found in greed and the truth that we were both created and saved out of God’s generosity. 

When sin is normal, no one thinks it's sin. When everyone does it, it's the people who abstain who look strange; but that doesn’t mean sin is still not wrecking lives. Our world loves to envy and we don’t think much about it. But envy is destroying lives and crippling our ablity to relate to one another. So where is the hope? How can Jesus and a few of his peculiar people bring life?