Journey Community Church - La Mesa, CA

Forgiveness: The shape of overcoming hurt

To experience real connection we will eventually have to learn to forgive. Series: Connecting with others is an extremely powerful thing. We create gathering places in honor of the spark we find from human connection. We search for sparks of connection in places like parks, bars, stadiums, churches and social media. But why settle for a spark when you have access to the flame — the One who invented and created us for relationship. Over the next few weeks we will explore time-tested wisdom f...

Why are people so annoying?

In the inevitable moments of annoyance, hurt, relationship breakdown- how do we maintain connection when you feel like “unfriending”? Series: Connecting with others is an extremely powerful thing. We create gathering places in honor of the spark we find from human connection. We search for sparks of connection in places like parks, bars, stadiums, churches and social media. But why settle for a spark when you have access to the flame — the One who invented and created us for relationship. O...

RelationshipS with God

In order to experience relationships as God intended, we need to hear God say, “You are loved” and invite Him in to our relationships. Series: Connecting with others is an extremely powerful thing. We create gathering places in honor of the spark we find from human connection. We search for sparks of connection in places like parks, bars, stadiums, churches and social media. But why settle for a spark when you have access to the flame — the One who invented and created us for relationship. ...

Putting the "real" in our "real"ationships

Real relationships involve risk, disappointment and suffering and forgiveness. Series: Connecting with others is an extremely powerful thing. We create gathering places in honor of the spark we find from human connection. We search for sparks of connection in places like parks, bars, stadiums, churches and social media. But why settle for a spark when you have access to the flame — the One who invented and created us for relationship. Over the next few weeks we will explore time-tested wisd...

Bowling Alone

In the midst of our many relationships, so many of us feel isolated. We’re looking for REAL connection! Series: Connecting with others is an extremely powerful thing. We create gathering places in honor of the spark we find from human connection. We search for sparks of connection in places like parks, bars, stadiums, churches and social media. But why settle for a spark when you have access to the flame — the One who invented and created us for relationship. Over the next few weeks we wil...

Easter 2019

God can roll away immoveable stones of darkness, judgment and even death. Two-thousand years ago, a few grieving women made their way to a rock-carved grave only to find a stone rolled and a grave emptied. What they couldn’t have know is that they were the ones witnessing God’s redemptive plan reaching its crescendo. Nothing is ever going to be the same. A stone moved, a rock to build a different kind of life. God’s hope, goodness, love and grace unleashed on the world in a way that hadn’t ...

Bread & Wine

Bread and wine were a common commodity that Jesus elevated. When we partake of them, they take on different meaning, something sacred and beautiful, bringing us hope. Series: Sometimes things get so complicated, unnecessarily so. When that happens, it's helpful to go back to the basics. Sometimes all this complication, all this noise, all this distraction in our lives is what keeps us from really encountering God in our everyday lives. Maybe this is why Jesus used all kinds of very common e...

Celebration Weekend

We celebrate all that God has done at Journey, give thanks for His goodness that goes on and on into the future and re-focus on what He’s called us to do moving forward!

Earth

The message of God in the element of earth, relates to the seed sown in the earth, dying and rising to new and fruitful life. Series: Sometimes things get so complicated, unnecessarily so. When that happens, it's helpful to go back to the basics. Sometimes all this complication, all this noise, all this distraction in our lives is what keeps us from really encountering God in our everyday lives. Maybe this is why Jesus used all kinds of very common everyday elemental things to help us under...

Fire

Jesus came to immerse us in fire — the energy of God in our lives in two ways: partnering with me and purifying me. Series: Sometimes things get so complicated, unnecessarily so. When that happens, it's helpful to go back to the basics. Sometimes all this complication, all this noise, all this distraction in our lives is what keeps us from really encountering God in our everyday lives. Maybe this is why Jesus used all kinds of very common everyday elemental things to help us understand and ...

Don't Trip

My capacity to receive God’s blessing is increased when I refuse to be offended by God. Series Summary: Through the centuries, Christ Followers have used the 40 days before Easter to focus on making more room in their lives for God to speak to them. Simply put, this is spiritual preparation. It is preparation to experience Jesus though Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter! In this series we’ll look at the life and message of God’s chosen set up man and prep guy — the one God selected to set up...

When Less is More

We prepare for Easter by aligning/orienting ourselves to the way of joy through decrease. Series Summary: Through the centuries, Christ Followers have used the 40 days before Easter to focus on making more room in their lives for God to speak to them. Simply put, this is spiritual preparation. It is preparation to experience Jesus though Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter! In this series we’ll look at the life and message of God’s chosen set up man and prep guy — the one God selected to set ...

Clearing Away the Obstacles

God wants to bless, deliver and give breakthrough but it’s about preparation, making sure we have the capacity to receive. Series Summary: Throughout the centuries, Christ Followers have used the 40 days before Easter to focus on making more room in their lives for God to speak to them. Simply put, this is spiritual preparation. It is preparation to experience Jesus though Holy Week, Good Friday and Easter! In this series we’ll look at the life and message of God’s chosen set up man and pre...

The Freedom of Generosity

Moving from Stress to Joy when it comes to money and finances. Series Summary: Dealing with “chedda” can be stressful. A quick search for slang terms for money results in 80 different words. “Greens,” “benjamins,” “cash,” “bank,” “quan,” — call it what you want — we have a huge fascination with money. Struggling with desires for more of it, sources of it, and secrets to handling it are all a part of the life of a Christ follower. Join us as we work out the ways in which we can bring home th...

The Secret

To live without financial stress, there are “secrets” we need to uncover and implement. Series Summary: Dealing with “chedda” can be stressful. A quick search for slang terms for money results in 80 different words. “Greens,” “benjamins,” “cash,” “bank,” “quan,” — call it what you want — we have a huge fascination with money. Struggling with desires for more of it, sources of it, and secrets to handling it are all a part of the life of a Christ follower. Join us as we work out the ways in w...

God as Source

Real life is found when God is my source. Series Summary: Dealing with “chedda” can be stressful. A quick search for slang terms for money results in 80 different words. “Greens,” “benjamins,” “cash,” “bank,” “quan,” — call it what you want — we have a huge fascination with money. Struggling with desires for more of it, sources of it, and secrets to handling it are all a part of the life of a Christ follower. Join us as we work out the ways in which we can bring home the “bacon,” while keep...

God as Source

Real life is found when God is my source. Series Summary: Dealing with “chedda” can be stressful. A quick search for slang terms for money results in 80 different words. “Greens,” “benjamins,” “cash,” “bank,” “quan,” — call it what you want — we have a huge fascination with money. Struggling with desires for more of it, sources of it, and secrets to handling it are all a part of the life of a Christ follower. Join us as we work out the ways in which we can bring home the “bacon,” while keepi...

The More-Monster

To live "De-Stressed" we need to slay the "More Monster" through the power of Jesus. Series Summary: Dealing with “chedda” can be stressful. A quick search for slang terms for money results in 80 different words. “Greens,” “benjamins,” “cash,” “bank,” “quan,” — call it what you want — we have a huge fascination with money. Struggling with desires for more of it, sources of it, and secrets to handling it are all a part of the life of a Christ follower. Join us as we work out the ways in whic...

Increasing Your Impact

Message Summary: There is a reason, a mission, a purpose that God has put you on earth. Series Summary: Have you ever felt stuck, disappointed with this thing we call life? Some of us may have even thrown in the towel on setting new year’s resolutions and goals. Instead of tinkering with what we think would enhance ourselves, we have the option of heeding the words of Jesus and following him down the path to what he calls Life (with a capital L)! Let’s EXPLORE a PATHWAY to move forward into...

Transforming

We need transformation, a complete metamorphosis, and God is actually the one who invites us and does the work as we move into His presence. Series Summary: Have you ever felt stuck, disappointed with this thing we call life? Some of us may have even thrown in the towel on setting new year’s resolutions and goals. Instead of tinkering with what we think would enhance ourselves, we have the option of heeding the words of Jesus and following him down the path to what he calls Life (with a cap...

Learning to Fly

We can get unstuck and learn to fly, living the life that Jesus modeled for us as His disciples. Series Summary: Have you ever felt stuck, disappointed with this thing we call life? Some of us may have even thrown in the towel on setting new year’s resolutions and goals. Instead of tinkering with what we think would enhance ourselves, we have the option of heeding the words of Jesus and following him down the path to what he calls Life (with a capital L)! Let’s EXPLORE a PATHWAY to move for...

Why Church?

Message Summary: Our pathway of discipleship begins with this thing called church. Series Summary: Have you ever felt stuck, disappointed with this thing we call life? Some of us may have even thrown in the towel on setting new year’s resolutions and goals. Instead of tinkering with what we think would enhance ourselves, we have the option of heeding the words of Jesus and following him down the path to what he calls Life (with a capital L)! Let’s EXPLORE a PATHWAY to move forward into a li...

A False Start

With a new and fresh perspective we can step into this New Year with amazing follow through despite failure.

Christmas 2018

Winter is for Preparing

Series Summary: “There is a time for everything under the sun.” The Bible holds truth about the reality of seasons in life, each having a different and essential purpose in our lives. How interesting that we refer to it as the Christmas Season. Seasons in life — Not all of them are alike, not all of them are easy, and Winter can be a tough one. It’s dark and it’s cold. And with the busyness of Christmas time, we may even miss out on the quiet. But how can we lay hold of God’s purpose for Win...

Winter is for Deepening

Message Summary: We all experience seasons of winter in our lives. It’s no accident that Christmas takes place in the winter. God was at work quietly and deeply, waiting for just the right time for Christmas. Even then, after the birth of Jesus, there seemed to be a time of waiting when God was at work deepening. While we experience suffering in the waiting, we are being invited and prepared for MORE. We have the unique opportunity in these moments to praise Him even before we see the b...

Designed to be Dormant

God is at work behind the scenes in seasons of life that seem to be dormant. Message Summary: Christmas comes in a season, a time when things are dormant. In fact, the story of Christmas takes place at a time when the nation of Israel had experienced 400 years of winter. Winter continues as Joseph and Mary are forced to flee into Egypt and then Jesus lives 33 years in obscurity. But winter does not mean that I’m off track. We know that even in winter, God is at work and we are waiting. As ...

Hagar: The Unlikely Hero

Message Summary: In Genesis 15, God promises Abram that he will have more descendants than stars in the sky. But nothing happens – Abram and his wife don’t have children. So, Sarai takes matters into her own hands and has Abram sleep with her maidservant, Hagar. Hagar gets pregnant and Sarai mistreats her. Hagar runs away, and encounters an angel of the Lord in the wilderness. The Lord calls Hagar by name and asks her where she’s been and where she’s going. God then instructs her to ret...

Ananias: The Fearful Hero

Message Summary: Acts 9:1-­22 tells the story of Saul persecuting the Lord’s disciples. On the road to Damascus, Saul was blinded by God. God gave Ananias a vision of going to Saul and placing hands on him and restoring his vision. Ananias shared his fears with God and then followed God’s invitation to help Saul. Saul, who became Paul, went on to write half of the New Testament of the Bible and have a profound impact on the church. And Ananias’ step of faith was a critical step in Paul’s jou...

Life After Life After Death

Message Summary: As we attempt to get our heads around a bigger and better vision of life and death, we consider four truths that are essential. The life that comes next is all about God’s presence and life in God’s presence is better. Our bodies are destined for resurrection; God cares about our bodies. There is a judgment to come and it is good news. In the end there will be a new beginning and a renewal of all things. Series Summary: "What’s Next?” In a diverse world, one of the thin...

Got Questions?

Message Summary: The goals of this message in our series exploring heaven, hell and life after life, are to answer your questions and to help you talk to your friends in a way that helps you to make connections for them. The two questions discussed in this message are: • Are there many ways to get to heaven? • Does everyone go to heaven? Series Summary: "What’s Next?” In a diverse world, one of the things that unites us as humans is that we share a common end. All of our stories end… or do...

Dr Mary Neal - To Heaven and Back

Dr. Mary Neal — a surgeon and best selling author — shares about her own near death experience. Message Central Thought: How you understand death is directly related to how you understand life.

How to Live Free From Fear

Message Summary: In our culture, we try to ignore death but we simply can’t ignore it. God invites us into a new eternal kind of life that is free from the fear of death. This freedom is also called the assurance of salvation, which is based on the person Jesus, the promises of God, experiencing forgiveness and the presence of God through the Holy Spirit. Series Summary: "What’s Next?” In a diverse world, one of the things that unites us as humans is that we share a common end. All of our...

What About Death?

Message Summary: The question of the afterlife is actually a very practical and relevant question. We will all face death. What we need is real, solid, confident hope and that’s exactly what God offers us. The shape of hope is better than just a “better place”. It looks like Jesus. It is shaped like eternal life that is about quality, a person and the overthrowing of death. This all leaves us with an important decision to entrust our lives to Him. Series: "What’s Next?” In a diverse wo...

BEST LIFE…not "pretty good life"

Message Summary: We all want to live the best life for ourselves and our families. God is pulling for us, longing for us to live our best lives. This weekend we talked about three adjustments we need to make in order to do so: living MY best life, realizing it is something I receive from God and understanding it is bigger than this life. Series Summary: Who doesn’t want to live their BEST life? It’s a super popular hashtag — usually attached to a photo of us lying on a beach or hanging out ...

Disrupting The Cycles

Message Summary: Getting off the destructive cycles in our lives. Series Summary: Who doesn’t want to live their BEST life? It’s a super popular hashtag — usually attached to a photo of us lying on a beach or hanging out with people we love. The trick is, how do we really know how to live our BEST life? More commonly, we live our #prettygoodlife. Maybe our whole culture is wrong about what our #bestlife actually is and how to go about getting it! Jesus said that is exactly what is happening...

GOD vs. gods (part 2)

Message Summary: Living my best life means embracing my vocation as an Imago Dei being: to Win. As we look back into the creation story we learn that God created us to extend and take back His rule through Jesus. This was our original script. But after the fall, we chose to live the wrong scripts. We can end up looking to the g gods of mammon and disordered romance/sexual desire and the scripts they offer, to bless us- make us happy. If we want to return to living our best lives, we tak...

GOD vs. gods (part 1)

Message Summary: In 2 Chronicles we see Jehoshaphat as an example of unmitigated success in the midst of hostile, confusing difficult times. We learn here that I live my best life only when I get rid of my gods and go for God! What does it mean to get rid of my little g gods? It’s a question of which god we seek, because we all seek. When we #LMBL with God, He solidifies my life. I practice “holding the Lord high in my heart.” I saturate my “domain” in the ways of God. The result of #L...

The Great Irony

Message Summary: Jesus died intentionally to recover our full humanity: to enable us to live our best life. The great irony is, that this starts with letting go of my whole life. We live in a culture of panic, afraid of missing out on the best life. In Mark, Jesus called the crowd together for a moment of clarity around this pursuit. We start moving toward our best life by understanding that we must say “no” to ourselves in order to be opened up to a bigger “yes”. We stop, reflect on our...

How We Fight

Message Summary: God’s plan and purpose for each of us is fruitfulness and increase. But sometimes we have to fight for breakthrough in order to get there. How? We learn to declare the kingdom of God over our lives. We show up in community and learn to allow others to pray over us. We learn rest and to allow God to battle for us as we worship. In prayer and worship we give our world back to God. We eventually experience breakthrough and victory, sometimes expressed differently than w...

Surrounded

We all have moments of feeling surrounded by heaviness and things that weigh us down. But when we see the reality of the glory of God surrounding us we face our problems with calm confidence. Eye opening seems to happen as we pray and specifically as someone else prays for us. Breakthrough follows with what you needed and more. Surrounded Series: Most of us have figured out that WE NEED GOD. And if that’s true… we really need to learn to pray. But maybe instead of seeing prayer as our la...

Mark Oestreicher

Ed Noble

Message Summary: As human persons we experience many temptations. But there are at least three temptations of spirit: the temptations to pretend, despair and to judge our own value and worth by our performance. In 1 John 1 we see that life is all about connection with God who is light. So how do flawed, darkness-infected people experience connection with light? John goes on to tell us that the way to connect is through a practice called confession. Instead of pretending, we confess. In...

John Lynch

Karrie Garcia

Message Central Thought: We all experience depression and pain during our lives. God shows up to care for us in the midst of these moments. Karrie Garcia is a speaker, life coach, wife, mother of three, and advocate for misfits who is passionate about proclaiming the freedom that can come from a life surrendered to Christ. Through facing drug addiction, the suicide of her mother, and the breakdown of her first marriage, she understands the need for grace, mercy and healing that can only co...

The Greatest Showman

Message Summary: The movie gives us a picture or an allegory of a “celebration of humanity” through a new kind of humanity made possible by Jesus. We often design a world that traps us in a life that is less than the one God envisions for us. We need a new vision. If we want to move toward humanity 2.0, we must be aware and healed of the hole in our souls. The temptation to go back to the old way of life will often come when we are at an advantage. We must be aware and avoid it. It won...

All the Money in the World

Message Summary: We succumb to greed when we “ultimatize” the wrong things in life. The actual “good life” is accessed as we get insight into Jesus’ teaching and this movie actually depicts a life that displays the opposite of His teaching. We learn that our “theology” determines our deepest sense of identity and determines the rails our lives run on. As we gain wisdom, we know what’s truly valuable and how to live. Trying to find security in the material doesn’t work. And finally, we le...

Wonder

Message Summary: Auggie Pittman is anything but ordinary, especially because of the way he looks. In our current culture, we focus on the seen rather than on the unseen. But what if we saw ourselves, and others, from a soul-depth perspective? God created us in love and to be seen. A community of Christ followers can demonstrate grace and empathy as we learn to truly see each other. Series: Movies have a way of communicating unlike any other art form. In them, we find powerful stories ...

Darkest Hour

Message Summary: The story of Winston Churchill parallels that of the Biblical Esther. Both were raised up by God to take their people through crucial moments. As we move through our own dark hours, we need to realize that our self-talk can weaken or strengthen us. We must also realize that as we keep moving, our faith will increase because God will show up. We come to know that God can repurpose our past- even our failures. A community of Christ followers can serve to call out greatne...

Black Panther

*Message Podcast only. Video messages are not available for this series* Message Summary: Black Panther is more than a super hero movie. It explores the tension of what “serving God” and redemptive activity in our world looks like for us as Christ followers. There are three impulses historically that have been the response of the people of the CHURCH to a culture: to completely separate ourselves, to use violence to bring the kingdom of God, and to bring the kingdom of God to earth followi...