Aspire Church Podcast
Episodes
760 episodes
ARRIVAL: He Is Coming
Christmas is the annual celebration of the birth of Jesus. But there is no evidence the early church ever celebrated Jesus’ birth. Instead, the early disciples lived in eager anticipation of His second coming. Every time the early church got toget...
Arrival: He Comes
When we think about the arrival of Jesus our thoughts turn to the past (Bethlehem) or the future (His return). There is, however, a present reality to consider. After Jesus was arrested and crucified, He was placed in a borrowed tomb. His follower...
Arrival: He Came
If you have lived your entire life expecting God to send a conquering king to overthrow the most powerful empire known to man, you would probably not look for a baby born to an unwed, homeless, teenage refugee. But that is exactly how God chose to...
Arrival: Longing
A longing is a yearning or a desire for something one does not have. Everyone has longings. We long for companionship. We long for a way of life. We long for health, more money, a second chance. And then there are the longings we cannot define. Lo...
BECAUSE | Why we believe everyone needs to hear about Jesus
At Southside, we believe our sending capacity is more important than our seating capacity. This means, among other things, that we do not measure our success by how many people sit in our worship services, but by how many people leave our worship ...
BECAUSE | Why we eat stale crackers and drink Welch's in church
Communion. The Lord’s Supper. The Eucharist. Mass. While it goes by many names, every Christian tradition includes a symbolic meal involving bread and wine or their equivalent substitutes. Where did this ancient tradition come from? What does it m...
BECAUSE | Why we hang out and sing
There are only a few places where people sing together and everyone is expected to participate. The Birthday Song at a birthday party, Take Me Out to the Ball Game during the seventh inning stretch, and in church. Some people love to sing, others ...
BECAUSE | Why We Always Ask For Money
An often-repeated criticism of the church is that, "They are always asking for money!" While there are examples of financial abuse by churches, there is also an important spiritual connection between our money and our spiritual health. In fact, Je...
BECAUSE | Why We Teach From the Bible in Every Sermon
The Bible is the best-selling book of all times. It is read, respected, revered, and reviled by people from every nation. Each Sunday, the stories, teachings, and history as recorded in this collection of ancient writings shapes not only the preac...
BECAUSE | Why we dunk people under water
More than a religious ritual, baptism is a beautiful symbol of a person’s faith in Jesus Christ. Baptism is also a sign of what a believer is becoming as he or she follows Jesus from death to life. Finally, baptism is a seal of belonging. Like a w...
love YOUR ENEMY well
When Jesus commanded us to love our enemies, He was extending an invitation to live out the reality of the Gospel. We are never more like God than when we love our enemies, after all, it was when we were God’s enemies that He loved us and sent Jes...
love YOUR NEIGHBOR well
When Jesus gave the command to “Love God and love your neighbor,” some in the crowd questioned how Jesus intended us to define “neighbor.” Was it based on geography, ethnicity, religious similarities, or was Jesus talking about something else? In ...
love YOUR CHURCH well
Most people know John 3:16, but not as many people are familiar with 1 John 3:16, “This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers and sisters.” This verse isn’t simply ...
love YOUR FAMILY well
"Family" is the laboratory where a child first learns what it means to be loved and how to love in return. Unfortunately, as a result of sin and brokenness, what we learn from our families is sometimes not the love described in the Bible, but a br...
love YOUR SPOUSE well
Take a listen to this flashback message! Our “As Good As It Gets” message will be posted soon!The most intimate of all human relationships is the bond between a husband and wife. That makes marriage the most fulfilling, and potenti...
love GOD well
When we talk about love, we could mean a variety of things. For example, we say we love our family, and then declare that we love Italian food! Clearly, we do not mean the same thing. The Bible uses a variety of words to describe the various kinds...
LOVE WELL | The Power of Us
When asked to summarize the law, Jesus responded with two simple commands: Love God and love people. Simple ... but not easy. Jesus’ command to love is not a flippant invitation to warm fuzzy emotions, but a difficult, sometimes dangerous propos...
ANARCHY - Liberty and Justice for All
We all want justice, but not everyone agrees on an objective standard for justice. In a world that increasingly accepts the idea of moral relativism, it can be hard to distinguish between right and wrong. Who ultimately decides? Who has the right ...
ANARCHY - Designer gods
In the beginning, God created man in His own image, and man has tried to return the favor ever since. So much of what we pass off as religion is really an effort to craft a god to fit our preferences. If we are not careful, we can pick and choose ...
ANARCHY - Right in the Eye
Throughout the ancient book of Judges, there is an ongoing battle between what is right “in the eyes of the Lord,” and what people thought was “right in their own eyes.” That battle has persisted throughout history and continues to rage on some 3,...
ANARCHY - The Promise of a Child
When God delivered the solution for the problem of sin, it came in the form of a baby born to a refugee couple in a barn in a town called Bethlehem. But Jesus was not the first baby born to fulfill a promise of God. Throughout the Old Testament, G...
ANARCHY | Personal Sacrifices
Like fish are unaware of the water in which they swim, humans can be unaware of the culture in which we live. Our culture and customs have tremendous power over us and the decisions we make. What we eat, how we dress, how we view the opposite sex,...