Oak Hills Church, Folsom

The Book Of Philippians (Phil 1:27 – 2:5)

More than just referring about their behavior as individuals in the world, Paul is actually pointing to the way that they live out their heavenly citizenship with one another, their collective polity. See, Paul recognizes that as a local church, they have a common life with each other. That is, set in the context of their citizenship in the Roman empire. So Paul is calling out the Philippians to live out their common life together in the secular context, not by simply adopting the customs and...

The Book of Philippians (Phil 1:12-26)

Paul did not say, "Everything has a purpose." He did not say, "In spite of the difficult circumstances of me being in prison, God did something good." Paul simply did not make the best of a bad situation. What Paul said is far more remarkable. He said, what has happened to me—that is, getting thrown into prison—has served to advance the good news. In other words, what has happened to me, the sufferings I am enduring, unjust as they are, have opened up an opportunity for the good news of Jesu...

The Book of Philippians (Phil 1:1-11)

Over the next several months, we will be reading someone else's mail. I say that as sort of a creative way to refer to the fact that this New Testament book, this epistle to the Philippians, really is a letter from the apostle Paul to the local church that he had started in the city of Philippi. But in another sense, I say that because, you read the opening paragraphs of this letter, and you get a sense that there's this deep, personal connection between Paul and the Philippians. To me, I re...

Easter 2024

How does the resurrection make a difference on a Wednesday? When I'm bored at school? When I'm grocery shopping at Trader Joe's? Or languishing at a mundane job I only endure for the paycheck? Now we can have a fine time today kicking around some theology of the resurrection, or maybe naming two or three proofs for the resurrection, but I want to take it out of the clouds and drop it into a typical Wednesday. How does the resurrection matter on a Wednesday? How does it bring hope in the real ...

Let The King Descend: The Church and Politics

"Our first priority as the church is not to make all these things happen in the world through political action, but to be a prophetic witness to the hope of a world remade according to Christ." Brian Zahnd Too often, we sink our chips into politics and try and make the society righteous. But as the church, we are the ones who are to be the righteous society in the larger society... So wherever Kingdom values, ethics, and principles drive our voting, they should drive our actions within our o...

Let The King Descend: Incarnational Politics

Politics—if we think of the fullest definition of it—has to do with how we live together, and how we relate to each other in the various communities that we are in. It has to do with the values and the principles that govern our communities and relationships and common life together. And today's topic is "Incarnational Politics." It might seem like a strange phrase. What it means is simply in-the-flesh politics. Hands-getting-dirty kind of politics that rejects ideology from a distance and ...

Let The King Descend: Discipleship and Politics

I have to tell you lately, I've been taken with the phrase, "The center is different than the middle." Think about that from the perspective of a follower of Jesus. The middle is neutral political ground to avoid conflict and make everyone happy. But for the Christian, the center is the starting point for healthy discussion and debate. And the center is King Jesus and the way of His Kingdom. Our calling is faithfulness to Him. Will we let the Kingdom bend our politics? Matthew 22 says, 'The ...

Let The King Descend: Idolatry and Politics

God says in the first of the ten commandments these words, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. You shall have no other Gods before me." And a few verses later in the second commandment, God continues the theme, "You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses His name." These commandments prohibit idolatry. Not exactly an everyday word in our lexicon. But idolatry is taking a good thing...

Let The King Descend: Jesus and Politics

A crucified God is at the center of our faith, and this image gives us a vision of power that is upside-down from Rome's, Jerusalem's, Washington D.C.'s, or any other place of power. Jesus' life was cross-shaped even before He went to the cross. It was a life of service and sacrifice. Jesus said at the end of Matthew 28, "All authority in heaven and on earth belongs to me." But Philippians 2 says, "Jesus did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage, so He humbl...

Let The King Descend: Introduction

The church, from the very beginning, was designed to be a community of "Unlikes," a community of "Differents." There is a palpable tension in the New Testament around the inclusion of the Gentiles in the early church. Christianity was born out of the Jewish faith, and there came points along the way where there was pressure to let Gentiles be part of it. But God's plan—from the very beginning—was for Jewish and Gentile Christians to worship together, and do life together, and sort out the ten...

Reboot: Kingdom Part 2

Paul says it clearly: Jesus ascended to the right hand of God the Father far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked in this world or in any world, and God placed all things under his feet. In short, Jesus is King. If all things are under his feet, then no thing is more powerful than him, no thing compares to him. All this means is that even in the chaos, uncertainty, fear, worry, anxiety, tension, of our world, our nation, or maybe of our lives, all ...

Reboot: Kingdom Part 1

Our church's mission statement is written in fancy metal letters—on the wall, in the lobby, over the water fountain, next to the coffee bar. It reads, "To invite people to experience the reality of life in the Kingdom of God." What we're talking about the next two weeks—God the King and His Kingdom—is foundational and essential to the Christian faith. It is foundational and essential to the whole Christian story. In fact, a strong case can be made that the Kingdom of God is the Bible's favor...

Reboot: Parenting

We bring the whole of who we are into parenting, and all will sometimes sin. Sometimes get it wrong. The sooner we understand that the more we let go of the drive to be the perfect parent, the more we lean into the perfect parent—God. "The beyond-our-comprehension reality at the heart of the universe is that God in Christ on the cross has forgiven all our sins, set us right with Him, and gathered us into His righteousness. We cannot comprehend it, but we can most certainly live it—a way of l...

Reboot: Prayer

It doesn't take too long before the question arises: Why? Like, why does God need me to pray for Him to act? Like if—as it says in Matthew 6:8, God already knows what we need before we ask Him—why does He need me to ask? And why sometimes when I do ask for something I think I need, I don't end up getting it? And then, why do I sometimes miraculously get things I didn't even pray for? Like if God always wants what is good and best for us—and He always does what is good and best for us (regar...

Reboot: Mission

"God's plan is really simple. God's plan is to form a people, a community. And through that community's transformation, through that community's life together, through that community's Christlikeness (both at an individual level and at the communal level)—God's Plan A is to use that community to show other people who God is and what life can be like in His Kingdom with Him. That's the plan." Rather than share a message on the topic of Mission, Pastor Mike Lueken interviews four sets of peopl...

Reboot: Marriage

"A healthy marriage is the foundation of a healthy family, and a healthy family is foundational to a healthy society. A healthy marriage can create ripple effects through many generations, while a broken marriage, whether it's officially broken (meaning papers have been filed and spouses live apart) or unofficially broken (meaning papers haven't been filed but spouses live a part), often does the opposite through many generations, has the opposite ripple effect. "Marriage is intended to be g...

Reflections of 2023

"I like this time of year, I really do. It's a chance to look back, a chance to let go, a chance to celebrate, and a chance to look ahead. I just find it invigorating—as corny as it may be—to think about the close of one year and the prospect of beginning a new year. Henri Nouwen, in a book called Here and Now, said it this way: "We must learn to live each day, each hour, yes each minute, as a new beginning. As a unique opportunity to make everything new. Imagine that we could live each momen...

His Name Is…Prince of Peace

"The Christmas story is a pivotal chapter in this big and beautiful story that God is writing and slowly unfolding because in Luke's gospel, when the angel announced, 'Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you. He is the Messiah, the Lord,' he was announcing the arrival of the Prince of Peace. He was announcing the partial fulfillment of Isaiah's 700 year old prophecy. "Now, just so we're clear, and we keep these people in these story being human, I don't believe any character...

His Name Is…Everlasting Father

"In the Jewish community at that time, "Father" was a powerful idea that carried meaning for every aspect of your life. It was a term that referred to more than just your biological birth father. It was a term that you would refer to your ancestors. It was also a term that could refer to a ruler or a king or a governor of a city, that their role of governing the city or to of the community was similar to the role of a father over his household. And so it carried great significance. "To refer...

His Name Is…Mighty God

"When we think of "Mighty God," power probably comes to mind. The name, the title, "Mighty God" declares that the Messiah of Advent is powerful. So powerful that Isaiah 9 says that the running of the whole world is going to rest on His shoulders. In Isaiah 46:8-10, God is speaking of himself—with attitude: "Remember this, keep it in mind, take it to heart, you rebels. Remember the former things, those of long ago; For I am God and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me. I mak...

Inside Out: Words of the People

In this closing message, we invited the Oak Hills Community to share — open mic style — what they've been learning from our six-week series. Due to the nature of the sharing, this podcast only includes the opening remarks by Pastor Mike Lueken, and not the actual sharing time from the congregation.

Inside Out: How Do I Follow Jesus?

These two disciples are walking behind Jesus, and the language used in the Bible is that they were "following" him in the sense that they were walking behind him (John 1:35-42). But not yet in the sense that we're talking about today. He turns around and asks, "What do you want"? And this question, Jesus asks, and keeps asking those who say they want to "follow" him. What do you want? What are you after? Why are you here? I think we can make a case that Jesus asks us this question every singl...

Inside Out: How Do People Change?

"Go to the Oxford dictionary today, and look up the word "grace" and it will tell you that it is God's "unmerited favor." But while this is a widely accepted definition of God's grace, it is—like we were saying last week with the gospel—a rather truncated or reduced definition that actually robs it of the power ascribed to it by the authors of the New Testament. Because to define grace as merely God's unmerited favor...really boils it down to God's attitude towards us. Basically, it reduces g...

Inside Out: What Is My Picture Of The Gospel?

“The understanding of the Gospel that circulates in many religious—and even unreligious circles—can be described as gospels of sin management. Essentially, different ways of saying, ‘Jesus died for your sins. And if you accept him as your Savior, you can get your sins forgiven and go to heaven when you die.” Now the thing about these definitions of the Gospel is that the basic concept that they talk about is very biblical. the Bible is very clear that all us humans are sinners, and through Je...

Inside Out: What Is My Picture Of Myself?

"I’m not trying to point fingers at anyone, because we all medicate, and we all have a false self. We are all prone to whatever degree to present a polished picture of ourselves to the world in the hopes of being applauded, accepted, or approved. These impulses to do this—to filter, to cover up, to polish—these are direct consequences of sin, and of the curse sin brings. But if we set aside our defenses and resistances for a few moments, if we do our best to say, 'you know, this false self se...

Inside Out: What Is My Picture of God?

"What happens if I ask you if the way you respond in times of stress, or pain, or loss, support what you claim to be your picture of God? When life goes wrong, do you ever wonder if God is punishing you? Do you truly feel that God is always for your? Or a bit against you? What does your prayer life suggest about your true picture of God? How about your level of anxiety? Your relationships? How you feel about yourself? AW Tozer wrote, “What comes into our minds when we think about God is the m...

Inside Out: What Is Spiritual Formation?

"We actually believe that drastic and authentic transformation is at the core of the Christian Gospel. In the spirit of Colossians 3, we believe God desires communities of his people who are growing in compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, and forgiveness. And love is the preeminent virtue they offer to each other and to this broken and fractured and hurting world. This love binds them together in unbreaking unity. These divinely cultivated character qualities are being lived ...

Choose Joy!: Trusting vs. Worrying

"The trouble with leaving it at "Trust God" is that the concept of God is so broad—infinite really—that if we're not careful, we can create a picture or an image of God that is intangible and obscure, an image of God that isn't even accurate...So it is of no comfort to us in our [specific] time of trouble and it leaves us helpless to the onslaught that troubles our hearts, and makes joy unsustainable..." But there's something different—at least for me, at least this week—to have Jesus look m...

Choose Joy!: Abiding vs. Detaching

"In our passage, Jesus is on the verge of unspeakable rejection and suffering. literally, within an hour or two, he will begin his passion. And yet, in his final instructions, he's talking to his followers about his joy. How can he have joy? How can he talk about joy, minutes before he is arrested and beaten and executed? "...Through it all, he knew he was in God's care. He knew there was a bigger picture, and there was a bigger story, and he was a part of that bigger picture and story, so h...

Choose Joy!: Thanking vs. Complaining

"James says it this way: 'Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.' (James 1:17) And it is this truth—this fact—that makes being thankful in the midst of disappointment and trials a reasonable response. You see, being thankful is not dishonest or naive or ignorant of facts. Really, it is ignorance that requires ignorance of facts. In order to complain, we have to look past all the good things, to ...

Choose Joy!: Grieving vs. Scoffing

"Now remember, we're defining joy in this series as 'a pervasive and constant sense of well-being.' So in the language of this series, we're talking about choosing the path that leads to a pervasive and constant sense of well-being, no matter our circumstances. And grieving, lamenting is the path to choose in response to the pain and brokenness of this world. "Over the past seven years or so, at least from my perspective, an alarming number of Christ followers have opted to deal with the pai...

Choose Joy!: Noticing vs. Hurrying

"How do we find happiness and hang on to it in a world where hardship and heaviness and violence and trouble seem so unrelentless and so unstoppable. Well, over the next five weeks, our answer is: Choose Joy." "Happiness may not be possible in this broken world. Because typical happiness is often if not usually dependent on circumstances...life is a roller coaster of circumstances. But regardless of our circumstances, we can choose joy. Joy is deeper than happiness...Christian joy is a perva...

Fall Kickoff 2023

“We as a local church need to be on the frontlines, helping people discover the life and hope that only Jesus gives. And we need to find creative and imaginative and as yet untried experiments to bring ministry beyond these walls and help people find God. ““The Lord is God and there is no other.” This is as true today as it was when Moses stood in front of the people—they were on the western shore of the Jordan river, and they’re heading into the promised land. It’s as true today as it was t...

When Music Is My Teacher: Life Is Beautiful

When we're attentive to the Spirit, He can teach us through a variety of unconventional ways—through circumstances, through friends, and even through the songs we hear. Our pastors have been listening, and over three-weeks, they'll share a few words of wisdom by playing off various songs that are currently popular. Today's sermon is on the subject of contentment, and seeing beyond our circumstances to the beautiful, grace-filled life we indeed have. "Sometimes the circumstances of our lives ...

When Music Is My Teacher: Brave

When we're attentive to the Spirit, He can teach us through a variety of unconventional ways—through circumstances, through friends, and even through the songs we hear. Our pastors have been listening, and over three-weeks, they'll share a few words of wisdom by playing off various songs that are currently popular. Today's sermon is on the subject of confession—how it can be heartwrenchingly difficult, but also how it is a necessary aspect of becoming whole in Christ. It requires honestly sea...

When Music Is My Teacher: Change

When we're attentive to the Spirit, He can teach us through a variety of unconventional ways—through circumstances, through friends, and even through the songs we hear. Our pastors have been listening, and over three-weeks, they'll share a few words of wisdom by playing off various songs that are currently popular. Today's sermon is on the subject of Change—sometimes painful, often disruptive, it is a reality of life. Find out what the Bible has to say about Change.

Tell The Story: Remembering

As we conclude the series, Tell The Story, we consider the Old Testament practice of "Remembering." One of the primary means in which the nation Israel worshiped was through the practice of remembering—feasts, commemorations, monuments, and even Passover were acts of Remembering. And in the remembrance, we are reminded of God's goodness, provision, and faithfulness. We are joined today by special guests, Pastor Emeritus Kent Carlson and former Youth Pastor Brian Robertson today.

Tell The Story: Prayer

We continue our series on telling the story of God by exploring the importance of community prayer. Specifically, Pastor Mike Lueken and Elder Scott Schafer discuss the purpose, priority, and power of praying as a community of believers.

Tell The Story: Conversation

In this series, we explore how we tell the story of the Good News of life in God's Kingdom through different actions of the church—in our baptism, in our worship gatherings, in conversations with others, through prayer, and at the communion table. These practices form us in the way of the Kingdom and spur us to live out our faith in the details of our lives.

Tell The Story: Worship

This message was out of the ordinary in that the actual "sermon" was actually an introduction and explanation of each of the major elements of the service. So Pastor Mike explained why we have a Call To Worship, then we participated together in the Call to Worship. He explained our Invocation prayer, and then we prayed. He did this with each service element throughout the worship service, including the Greeting, Children's Blessing, all the way to the Benediction. Thus, the recorded message t...

Tell The Story: Baptism

In this series, we explore how we tell the story of the Good News of life in God's Kingdom through different actions of the church—in our baptism, in our worship gatherings, in conversations with others, through prayer, and at the communion table. These practices form us in the way of the Kingdom and spur us to live out our faith in the details of our lives.

Artful Faith: Why Beauty?

Guest speaker and former pastor, Kirk Bottomly shares the message, "Why Beauty?" with us today. "Take time for beauty, because it matters. It's not something peripheral. It's not something nice but sort of extra, like whipped cream. It's a big deal. So we take time for it, we go after it...We're gonna sit on our front porch and watch the sun go down. We're gonna get some flowers and put them in a vase where we can look at them. We're gonna plan a trip to the Crocker [Art Gallery]...We cultiv...

Artful Faith: Why Story?

" "What is the Christian Metanarrative? The story of the universe is the story of God. God is at the center of all creation—self-existent and almighty and eternal—and by His very nature, he causes all things to be, and also sustains it by the mere act of His will. He made us, loves us, and gives us not only life, but meaning as well. Our stories may be small but they are consequential in His vast and eternal metanarrative. It’s like each of our lives is a strand of thread that has been caref...

Artful Faith: Why Emotion?

"Where do our feelings fit in the adventure of an Artful Faith? What is the role of emotion in our life with Jesus?"

Artful Faith: Why Art?

"Well, why art? There are at least three reasons why art should be an essential aspect of our lives as Christ followers. One, art and creativity in general brings delight to God. Two, the arts allow us to express truth and beauty in ways that we cannot otherwise express. And three, the arts are one of the main ways in which we create and change culture..."

Future Hope

Hope of the People

Nurturing Hope

Hope & Mission

Hope and Cynicism