פודקאסטים בנושא Element Christian Church Of Santa Maria

In these verses, the Apostle Paul will write about wisdom by showing how looking at the end of our journey can influence our present—our motivation. Why do we do what we do? Why is motivation so important to how we live? To put it simply, foolish people and wise people can start off with the same goals, but foolish people give up because they focus…

For thousands of years, fellowship with God had been established through observance of the Law, but the Law was always a time of winter—a time of waiting. There are different modes of travel that are appropriate during the winter season. If you try to use winter modes of travel (e.g., snowshoes, snowmobiles, etc.) during springtime (when everything…

Galatians is a book written to churches where false teachers came in and began to contradict Paul’s original Christian message. • The false teachers were saying: “Believe in Jesus, obey the law, and as a result, you’ll be saved.” • Paul said: “Believe in Jesus, be saved, and as a result, you will want to obey God.” There is a huge difference betwee…

Galatians is a book about grace and how we so often misunderstand it. Today, Paul breaks his tone with the Galatians and reveals part of his heart, because it is necessary for him to emotionally convey what he is thinking and feeling. He starts with an appeal to friendship Gal 4:12Brothers, I entreat you, become as I am, for I also have become as y…

Paul’s admonition today in Galatians is to stop worshiping false gods (or “elementary principles of the world”). In our current mindset, it may be easy to think, “Of course we shouldn’t worship false gods.” All too often, however, we easily fall into the trap of doing so. False gods (or elementary principles) do not just include pagan rituals or No…

Paul’s admonition today in Galatians is to stop worshiping false gods (or “elementary principles of the world”). In our current mindset, it may be easy to think, “Of course we shouldn’t worship false gods.” All too often, however, we easily fall into the trap of doing so. False gods (or elementary principles) do not just include pagan rituals or No…

The book of Galatians, unlike some other books in the New Testament, is not written to a specific church. Rather, Galatians is written to an area that contained multiple churches who were all having the same problem: people claiming to have authority were coming in and steering these churches toward a form of legalism. These false teachers believed…

At the end of 2022, Element went through a 13-week series on prayer. We said that, “Prayer is a continuing conversation that God has started through His Word and provided by His grace, which eventually becomes a full encounter with Him.” Prayer starts with God revealing Himself to us through His Spirit and His written word. In response, we can know…

The Jewish people held Moses as the greatest messenger of God’s will and blessing because he brought the Law to the people. Paul will say something both amazing and offensive at the same time: Moses was a mediator Moses was a terrible mediator When Moses showed up (as a mediator), he made things worse, because the Law only revealed the depth of our…

In Galatians 3:6-14 Paul shows the disaster that can happen when people go down the path of religious law-keeping in order to find righteousness or acceptance before God. Paul has been on this journey before with many others, and he knows how to keep us on the path, as too often, we get lost seeking God’s acceptance of us. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOU…

The Law of Moses, as found in the first five books of the Bible, has been a hotbed of debate ever since God gave it to us. There are those today who say that in order to be a Christian, you must also follow the law (just like they said to the Galatians). Paul has been arguing that we are saved by the mercy and grace of God through faith in what Chr…

How we live the Christian life is a topic of endless books, seminars, camps, and conferences; in Galatians Paul speaks of living in the Spirit’s power. When he speaks of the Spirit’s power, he is referring to God the Holy Spirit and the restored relationship that is provided in Christ. When we understand the truth of the Gospel, we have a transform…

In this long form bonus episode, Aaron and Michael interview Kevin, our new hire for High School and post graduation ministries. This get-to-know you episode is for you to hear Kevin’s journey getting here and his heart for ministry. CLICK HERE TO EMAIL KEVIN WATCH THIS WEEK'S SERVICE ON YOUTUBEעל ידי Aaron

Up to this point in Galatians, Paul has been recounting his story of how and why he preaches grace and the Gospel. He has been giving a couple of stories about his life, his interactions with the church in Jerusalem, and his confrontation between Peter and himself. This confrontation was about the nature of the Gospel, the essence of the Christian …

Truth is a big deal in our culture, but the truth we adhere to is often personal truth based on what we feel, and not on what is objectively true. Christianity believes there is absolute truth and it is found in Jesus. That claim has caused a lot of people to shy away from Christianity, because we are often taught that if someone claims they have a…

In this section of Galatians, there is an encounter that feels like one of the most awkward moments in the early church: Paul goes after Peter for separating himself from Gentiles he was eating with previously. After a group of Jewish men show up in Antioch, Peter reverts to the old ways of keeping distance from those who were not Jewish. WATCH FUL…

In an effort to bring unity, Paul speaks of his travels to Jerusalem and what the leaders there thought of his ministry (they validated it). He ends with this line: Gal 2:10 Only, they asked us to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do. An issue at the beginning of Galatians 2 was whether the Gospel Paul preached among Gentiles was suf…

Paul has a passion for the Gospel. It is why he continues to tell his own story about what God did and continues to do. Sometimes it is easy to talk about the need for grace in our lives, but it is another thing to see or believe how much we really need that grace. Paul has been telling his story of coming to understand God’s grace in Galatians 1. …

We all have a grid for how we view our life—the things that happen around us and the things that happen to us. At Element we are constantly trying to get people to see their lives through the larger narrative of God’s story. Very often, we tend to narrate life through the lens of our past. All of our joys, sorrows, ups, and downs filter through and…

The Apostle Paul was an interesting case in his authority as an Apostle. He was one of the most learned men in the history of the church, being trained by the best scholars of his day, but when it came to the Gospel message it was Jesus who took all that learning and applied it in real ways. Paul was independent of most influences of his day, but n…

In week one we started by talking about what the Gospel is, who Paul was writing to, and Paul’s apostleship and authority. People have now arrived in the area of Galatia who are trying to tear Paul’s teaching down by saying he was a secondhand apostle and wasn’t actually sent by Jesus. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HEREDOW…

Galatians is a book about God’s grace as seen specifically in the Gospel. This book was the central theological work that brought about what we now call “The Reformation.” Martin Luther’s commentary on Galatians says, “…tyrants and enemies of ours may accuse and frighten us, but they dare not condemn us, for Christ, whom God the Father has raised f…

Last week we looked at Paul's prayer in Ephesians 3. Today we want to flesh that out in how we truly view God. We want to become a people who know that the reason we pray is not to get things from God, but to know Him better. Prayer is often misunderstood because we think it is about getting from God rather than being with God; this is why Paul pra…

Statistics and surveys today tell us that most people in America (and around the world) say that they are spiritual but not "religious." They are not interested in what would be called "institutional religion." They also say they value "spirituality" and are "spiritual" themselves. It is important in this series to understand what "spiritual-ness" …

Daniel is one of the most famous Bible heroes of all time. He prays to God and recognizes where his country failed, but also where God showed Himself as faithful. The book of Daniel, historically speaking, is written while the nation of Israel is in captivity in the nation of Babylon. Daniel was probably, scholars say, somewhere in his middle schoo…

During the last few weeks of this series on prayer, we want to look at examples of how people prayed in the Scriptures so that we can have insight into what real prayer looks like. Today we look at a prayer by Heman that is dark; as a matter of fact, the last word in the Psalm is darkness. There is a reason we want to study a dark prayer like this.…

This week we begin to make a transition from talking about what prayer is, to how certain people in the Bible prayed. We have walked through unanswered prayers, real prayer, the "Lord's Prayer," ceaseless prayer, and what "praying in the Spirit" means. Now we want to see how some people in the Bible actually prayed and what their examples can show …

Praying in the Spirit can sound other-worldly and spooky, but that is what the Scriptures tell us to do. The Greek word for "pray in" means "by means of," "with the help of," "in the sphere of," and "in connection to." Praying in the Spirit does not refer simply to the words we are saying, but it refers to how we are praying. Praying in the Spirit …

One of the dangers in “spiritual life” is thinking that we know what the Scriptures are saying when we don’t; we at times get so used to Bible language that we fail to stop and think, “What did the writer mean by that?” This is why an understanding of prayer is so important, because prayer is always connected to a very deep truth: God is always pre…

People everywhere have at least some difficulty knowing how to pray. We tend to default to the way we have heard others pray. Because we've heard people being "eloquent" as they pray, we think God wants us to step up our vocabulary to a higher level, so we try to learn the new spiritual dialect, but God wants to have a relationship with us as we ar…

It is interesting that Jesus' disciples never asked Him to teach them how to prophesy or preach, but they did ask Him to teach them how to pray. Most often, Jesus taught others how to pray by simply praying. He would pray where the disciples could see and hear Him, but He also went off to pray by Himself (sometimes at the most inconvenient times) a…

Some people pray and are constantly wondering if God hears them. If and when we do pray, we usually expect God to interact with us in a way that we find acceptable. When He doesn't, we may think there is something wrong with the relationship or with God Himself. We are told that God is like a Father, which is wonderful, but some people view that re…

Unanswered prayers can be challenging for us on an individual level. They can be especially challenging in a group/community setting, where different opinions/interpretations of why they've gone unanswered come to the forefront. This sermon challenges the misconceptions we often have and shows us how we can offer Gospel encouragement to one another…

In order for us to have a deep relationship with God, we must know and trust who He is in His person. Too often, we make up who we want God to be and then worship that image as God. Rather than living in the truth that we are made in His image, we try to remake God in our image and that never goes well. One of our biggest obstacles to prayer is tha…

Christie and Aaron sit down and discuss why she began journaling and how it has helped. Offers some simple ways to begin journaling for others. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THIS WEEK’S TALKING ELEMENT EPISODEעל ידי Aaron

This week kicks off our sermon series dedicated specifically to prayer. There are many ideas about what prayer is or isn't throughout the world, and prayer can seem overwhelming or intimidating to a lot of people. However, the Christian faith is centered on a personal God revealed in Jesus Christ, and we are allowed to approach Him anytime and in f…

Church discipline sounds controlling; yet Jesus teaches us that in love and grace confrontation may need to happen. Why should one Christian confront another? WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE FIND THIS WEEKS ANNOUNCEMENTS, SONG LIST, NOTES, AND MORE AT YOUVERSION WATCH THIS WEEK’S TALKING ELEMENT EPISODE…

Aaron and Russ Sharer sit down to discuss 1 John 3:9, and how this series (Never Read A Bible Verse *without context) has helped Russ. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THIS WEEK’S TALKING ELEMENT EPISODEעל ידי Aaron

Matt 28:19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations… God has called His people to be on mission for Him in the world, but what does that mean? Kevin DeYoung says, “The mission of the church is the task given by God for the people of God to accomplish in the world.” We make disciples by bearing witness to Jesus and what He is doing as the Son …

Starting with Jesus and going down the line, the Bible is mostly about people whose faith in God not only does not prevent their suffering but very often causes their suffering. No one consoles someone else in the Bible with, "God won't give you more than you can handle." WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE FIND THIS WEEKS …

Anxiety is real and can have a myriad of causes; if you struggle with it, please understand that you are not alone. The Greek word for anxious in Philippians 4:6 literally means to “have cares”; it has the connotation of letting your thoughts be overly focused on one thing. A lot of the advice in our world regarding anxiety is unhelpful, but Script…

This week, we continue to explore how reading Scripture out of context can lead us to wrong or dangerous conclusions. The verse Steve covered (Philippians 4:13) has often been used to boost morale or celebrate human accomplishments, centering the focus on us and what we can do (with God’s help, of course). Essentially, it has been interpreted as a …

We live in a time and place of significant material blessings. Because of this, it can be deceptively easy for us to live as if we don’t really need anything from God—to live as practical atheist—becoming complacent and self-reliant in our relationship with God. This is what happened to the Church in Laodicea. They trusted in wealth rather than in …

Aaron and Joy Snyder sit down to discuss her question, “I have a friend who is a Jehovah’s Witness, how do I talk to her about Jesus? WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THIS WEEK’S TALKING ELEMENT EPISODEעל ידי Aaron

Aaron sits down with Christina Sultan, the director of CareNet Pregnancy Center to discuss the Dobbs case, abortion, and what CareNet does and is doing. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THIS WEEK’S TALKING ELEMENT EPISODEעל ידי Aaron

When Jesus dies for our sin and rises from the grave, He sends His Holy Spirit to be our advocate, our counselor. The Holy Spirit is not just limited now to prophets, the Spirit now dwells in those who have placed our faith in Jesus. In the New Testament we see Jesus’ followers start to change the world, men and women both. The first people Jesus r…

Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them…” These words were unique in the ancient world, men do not bear or reflect the image of God any more than women. All humankind is made in God’s image. WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE DOWNLOAD PDF SERMON NOTES HERE FIND THIS WEEKS ANN…

Aaron uses the internet to show some tools to help you study the Bible. What does it mean? How can we learn and understand verses that are confusing? Do you have questions? Email questions@ourelement.org WATCH FULL SERVICE ON YOUTUBE WATCH THIS WEEK’S TALKING ELEMENT EPISODEעל ידי Aaron

The main story of the Bible says that we CAN’T save ourselves, that we can’t work for our salvation. So why does the Apostle Paul say, “as you have always obeyed, so now, not only as in my presence but much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling…”? Is this contradictory or could it be something else? Three principle…

What is Heaven? One writer says that Heaven is, “The full manifestation of what it means to bow the knee to God in full submission to Him for eternity.” Heaven is true and real life with God, it is not about us. People today tend to define a “heaven” that is focused on ourselves and not a true Heaven that is focused upon Christ. But if Heaven wasn’…