Vida Church Santa Maria

Seeing the Invisible: The Way of New Life

What changes in someone's life when they see the invisible? Everything. And it causes people to go all-in with their faith — giving it all in exchange for the treasure they've found. Today we see this played out in Moses' life, as seen in Hebrews 11. He went all-in, exchanging life in the palace to go after the promise. Why? Because he saw the invisible God.

Seeing the Invisible: the Way of Prophecy

What we speak over others and over ourselves will be life giving or death delivering. Today, Pastor Gary shared with us how important it is to build up and speak encouragement and comfort over others and how what comes out of our mouth can effect and impact our lives.

Seeing the Invisible: the Way of Perseverance

In the series, “Seeing the Invisible,” we’ve been going through Hebrews 11, the faith chapter. Today we looked at how Abraham’s faith was tested and how he persevered in faith even in the midst of doubts. While he didn’t receive the fulfillment of the entire promise of God in his lifetime, he remained secure in God’s plan and promise. We can learn to do the same!

Seeing the Invisible: The Way of Promise

Throughout Hebrews chapter 11 we find a number of very short stories about men and women who are the HEROES of our faith — people who persevered despite all odds, because of their confident assurance in what God had revealed to them. Today we will hear about how their stories illustrate how God speaks PROMISES to help people begin to SEE the INVISIBLE and come to FAITH.

Loving our Neighbors

Jesus is really clear — it's impossible to love God fully without loving our neighbors fully. To make his point, Jesus tells a story about a man beaten and robbed. The one who came to his rescue shows us what being a loving neighbor is all about. Today we also share a number of ways our church family is actively caring for our neighbors!

Seeing the Invisible: the Way of Faith

In Hebrews 11 we're reminded of men and women of old whose very lives teach us about faith — what it looks like, how it works in our lives, what it requires of us, and how God rewards it. In this first message in this series, Pastor Tim breaks down verse one, an important introduction to our understanding of faith.

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Tunnel Vision

Any of us can get trapped by tunnel vision — only seeing a tiny bit of life and missing so much of the world around us. Today, pastor and missionary Joel Arreola, talks about tunnel vision and what we can do to break out of it.

 

SM4 is committed to our partnership with the Arreolas and their work in southern Mexico. To learn more their ministry, and to join Team Arreola, check out: https://sm4.org/arreolas

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Getting Stuck in the Past

It's easy for any of us to get stuck in the past. Whether it's from the loss of good things, or the distress of painful life experiences, we can be held hostage by our histories. But Jesus made a way for us to become unstuck, able to live life fully free.

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Letting Your Mind Run Wild

When we spend a good amount of time letting our minds run wild, we lose the ability to concentrate; and a lack of concentration can become a problem. When we are undisciplined in our thoughts, we can easily be sidetracked from what we are trying to accomplish. Today, Pastor Lisa shares how God knew the importance of our thought life because our thought life is detrimental to our spiritual walk and our well-being. We are to be purposeful we are to set our minds on Jesus!

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Living a Disordered Life

It's so easy to misorder our life — putting all the little things in front of what's most important. But have you noticed that a misordered life leads to a disordered life? When all the pieces are no longer fitting together we experience the pain, frustration, and anxiety that comes from feeling disorder. But it doesn't have to be this way! We can reorder our lives and experience the rest that comes from God himself.

BONUS TRACK: For Men Only — The ”I WILL” Spirit

Psalm 101 seems to have been written specifically with men in mind. Its eight verses are packed with a dozen "I WILL" declarations, as David was stepping into his leadership role as king, and stating exactly what his LIFE and LEADERSHIP would be all about. As men, we can learn from him about stepping into our role as spiritual leaders, and discover how we can "impose our will on life" rather than the other way around. 

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Living Distracted

Have you ever been caught in the "shiny object syndrome" — where what glitters brightest steals your attention? It happens to all of us, and advertisers spend BILLIONS to distract us even more. But what God says what we look at matters, because our vision sets our direction. Our heart follows our eyes. Today we're discovering how we can break free from distractions and live our lives to the fullest in Jesus.

Know Your Season

If your life can be measured in seasons, what season do you think you are currently in? Although we don't get to choose our seasons; it is critical that we know the season God has us in! It is our hearts, not our ages or circumstances that shape the seasons of our lives. If our hearts are tender to God, we are more receptive to what He wants to teach us in this season. Today, Pastors Dennis and Debbie help us look at two things that we need to know about seasons.

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Bad Decisions 2

The decisions we make — both big and small — are incredibly important, because what we DECIDE is what we DO. And what we do shapes both the direction and quality of our lives. Today we examine three "lenses" we look through that tend to block out God's perspective on the decisions we're making: instinct, experience, and religion. Plus, we discover what Jesus says is the only way we'll be able to see him clearly!

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Bad Decisions

Christians aren't immune from making bad decisions. Our old "sin nature" continues urging us to do dumb things — but we can fight back. And part of fighting back has to do with asking smart questions when we're processing decisions. Today we'll discover three helpful questions we can use when making decisions about any matter.

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: I Can't

Often times we look for a variety of things to say "I Can't" but in order to follow God, we need to be able to give God everything we have and everything we are. It's an all in offer from God to us and from us to God.

In the Presence of My Enemies

When our enemies are present, we can assume it’s because God is absent. When we’re in the middle of troubles, pain, sickness, and mental anguish, we might conclude it’s because God has left us; he’s abandoned us; he no longer cares. But we'd be wrong. That's exactly where God meets us, sustains us, and pours out his grace on us. It's here we find that God doesn’t wait until we’re free from our troubles to minister to our deepest needs.

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Being Judgy

Have you ever felt judged? Yep. And it's always painful. Harder question: have we ever judged others? Yep, again! And it's dumb — because it always chases people from our lives and never moves people in the direction we were hoping for! Today we discover what the Bible says about being "judgy," and how it's completely different from having the kind of "spiritual judgment" that God will develop in our lives.

Dumb Things Smart Christians Do: Isolation

There’s something within our human nature that tells us to hide when we're facing trouble. Like Adam and Eve hiding from God and each other, we mistakenly think we can self-protect by running away from community. But God's desire is to move us out of isolation and into community — and today we discover how to begin walking in that direction.

Christian Conduct 1b

Followers of Jesus are to obey the authorities in their lives. We're told this repeatedly and consistently in the New Testament. But is "obedience" an iron-clad rule without exception? The Bible shows us there are times when, like the Apostles, “we must obey God rather than any human authority.” Today we discover when and why would this be the case — and how we can do this while still walking in a spirit of humility.