Port City Community Church Podcast

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"Two Kinds of Jesus" - Mike Ashcraft | PALM SUNDAY Apr 03, 2023

Show notes

We live in a world where force or threat of force ultimately gets stuff done and makes things happen. Our violent tendencies are more subdued than we might think. Yet, violence is often the most natural overflow of disappointment or threat to our way of life. Palm Sunday confronts us with two opposing ways of ordering our lives. There is a confounding and disruptive nature to the way of Jesus. He often shows up in the exact opposite way that we think He should show up. In His Kingdom, we are free from fighting, forcing, and being chronically defensive. We don’t have to go to war over every issue and aren’t measured by our outrage. As we draw life from our reconciled relationship with our God, we are shaped and formed into His image while participating with Him in the life made available to us.

"Begin Again... Together" - Mike Ashcraft | Everyday Ordinary, Part 4 Mar 26, 2023

Show notes

The church is simply a community of ordinary people gathered around an extraordinary God! When we gather on a Sunday we bring with us our everyday ordinary, often messy, lives. We show up with our victories and defeats, our successes and failures, and our hopes as well as our fears. When we are courageous enough to bring both, a beautiful collision takes place where we as a community can be known, accepted, and loved. Gathering on Sunday is an opportunity to bring our past weeks in surrender and look to a new week ahead full of hope, serving as both a culmination and launching pad to life with God!

"The Week's End" - Mike Ashcraft | Everyday Ordinary, Part 3 Mar 19, 2023

Show notes

Mistakes, failures, and shortcomings are not a sign of weak faith, but rather a sign of being human. Often we evaluate the health of our life with God with a scorecard of successes and failures, when in reality we could better measure it by our readiness to return to God. There are no shortcuts for formation. We must be committed and continue. A life with God will inevitably be marked by mistakes, which can either lead to runaway from God or hide in shame. Or we can learn the beautiful rhythm of returning to God through confession and repentance! In confession we are not simply agreeing that sin is bad, but that sin is separating us from the life we most want to live— the life for which we have been made. Repentance is a return to wholeness. Confession is formative work that allows our everyday ordinary lives to be fertile soil for the fruit that comes from a life with God.

"Midweek Connection" - Mike Ashcraft | Everyday Ordinary, Part 2 Mar 12, 2023

Show notes

Keeping in step with the Spirit is an unfamiliar way in the grind of life. The middle is where we want to speed up and get on with it or get out of it. Working for the weekend often has us walking right past Wednesday. Yet, we must create a space in the middle to pause and reflect. By finding hope in the middle, we honor the mundane. God breathes life in the little moments, where we experience a deep abiding life with Him.

"Create A Week" - Mike Ashcraft | Everyday Ordinary, Part 1 Mar 05, 2023

Show notes

Your everyday ordinary life matters extraordinarily. The small moments that make up your day matter more than you realize. Life with God is not primarily experienced in a Sunday Gathering, a midweek Small Group, or even a daily quiet time- no matter how good or how critical we believe them to be. Rather your life with God is experienced and expressed in the everyday ordinariness of your actual lived life! Your everyday, ordinary life is the very place where God wants to meet you, bless you, and grow you! Leveraging your everyday life starts with a change in perspective that helps reframe what you are looking for and allows you to see God’s extraordinary work.

"Resisting Apathy" - Mike Ashcraft | Gracious Resistance, Part 4 Feb 26, 2023

Show notes

The journey of faith isn't a quick fix for a good life, but rather a way of life that requires attentiveness, resolve, and stubborn faithfulness. It can be easy to let our lives drift toward apathy, but devotion to God leads us to continue pursuing God, trusting that when we draw near to God, God draws even nearer to us! Gracious resistance prioritizes God’s presence over our comfort. We pray that we will become a counter-cultural community of well-rested people who aren't prone to cynicism or apathy but rather a hope that finds its expression in how we care for the world.

"Pursuit of the Kingdom" - Geoff Banks | Gracious Resistance, Part 3 Feb 19, 2023

Show notes

Because of the way Daniel had served and been helpful in the past, he was remembered in a time of need and called upon. Despite the fact that Daniel had a different God, served the previous king, and came from a different culture, he was still valued and trusted. When we do life with God well and live as citizens of heaven in the midst of today's culture, even outsiders see value. There is a pervasiveness to the wisdom of God’s Kingdom. While it may seem foolish to some, it is distinct in its nature, leavening the culture we live in. The church today can be known for the way that we love and serve in the same way that Daniel was known for his wisdom and helpfulness.

"The Reward of Discernment" - Mike Ashcraft | Gracious Resistance, Part 2 Feb 12, 2023

Show notes

The world's wisdom is unfulfilling and empty - we demand things from it that it will never be able to give us. The rule of fear that governs worldly wisdom is a force that operates out of deficiency, while the power of God's love works out of abundance. Disorder follows anywhere endless comparison and competition are present. Where the world's wisdom fails, God's wisdom prevails. When we learn to trust the wisdom of God's Kingdom and live in that way, it redeems us and the world around us in which we exist. Wisdom yields responsibility. Gracious resistance depends on God's wisdom rather than the self-sufficiency of worldly wisdom.

"Resisting Conformity" - Mike Ashcraft | Gracious Resistance, Part 1 Feb 05, 2023

Show notes

As followers of Jesus and citizens of God’s Kingdom, Daniel’s story is our story- we too live exiled in a foreign land,in a culture that is drastically different from the culture of God’s Kingdom. We can respond to this dynamic in several different ways. We can attempt to force the world’s culture to make ourselves more comfortable or we can slowly begin to assimilate into the culture we are surrounded by. Both of these are dead ends. When we try to force culture to make us more comfortable, we typically fail and leave people angry. When we assimilate into the culture around us, we lose our distinctness. Thankfully the life of Daniel shows us a third way. The faith and character we see in Daniel didn’t spring up overnight. Daniel didn’t rely on a few faith principles to get him through his circumstances. His life speaks to the power of long obedience in the same direction- how we bend culture not by fighting against it or being conformed by it, but by entering into it with humility, courage, discernment and dependence on God. By doing so, our lives too will graciously resist and quietly bend culture around us towards Jesus!

Committing To The Journey - Midweek Meditation with Mike Ashcraft Feb 01, 2023

Show notes

Choosing a word isn’t the finish line, but the starting point. We might not know what the new year will bring or the circumstances we will encounter, but by committing to a word, we have a lens to assess our response to them and see God at work. Mark a moment, draw a line in the sand, and gather stones to build a monument that declares your dependence on God for all He has in store for you in 2023. But, don’t keep your word to yourself, share it with others so they can encourage and challenge you to step into the person God is inviting you to become.

In today's Midweek Meditation, we sit down with our Senior Pastor, Mike Ashcraft, to discuss the final week of our teaching series, "Created To Become," selecting our "One Word for the year," and how we commit to the journey for this year. For more information, check our portcity.church/word.

We'd love your insight if you would like to give us feedback about this series or the podcast format. You can email our team at Creative@portcitychurch.org. We look forward to hearing from you!

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