Willow Creek Weekend Podcast Willow Creek Community Church

All things are possible with God. No, really!
Nehemiah’s story in the Bible shows us how, in partnering with God first, nothing is impossible. Nehemiah does what was previously impossible for 100 years–built the walls of Jerusalem–through his faith and partnership with God. What could that look like today for us?

In our final week of Celebration of Hope 2024, Pastors Dave and Shawn challenge us and demonstrate, through the story of Nehemiah, how we can come together to help make big dreams come true and make a huge impact in the world!

Do you have what it takes to make a difference in the world? To change it for the better and to help others? 

Yes! You do! 

Nehemiah, in the Bible, felt like he had many constraints, but he was still able to use his influence as King Artaxerxes’ cupbearer and his connection to God to serve others in need. And you can too.

In week two of Celebration of Hope 2024, David Temfwe of the Jubilee Centre, one of our partners in Zambia, demonstrates how God has given us all that we need to use our influence, connections, and resources to help people around the world, and tells us how the Jubilee Centre is making a significant impact in the lives of the people they serve in Zambia.

What do you do when you’re faced with a big problem? Most of us do one of two things: either move quickly into action, or become overwhelmed and freeze. It’s fight, or flight, or freeze.

When we think about how to change the world, or how to help people in difficult times, our best course of action is to go to God first. It’s a natural thing to want to help so badly that we rush in out of desperation or to feel so overwhelmed by the scale of a problem that we simply can’t find our way into action. And that’s where attuning your heart to God becomes incredibly powerful.

Have you ever been told to stop questioning and just believe? People say that with good intentions, but it can lead to a lack of faith. It’s perfectly normal and expected to have doubt and curiosity about Jesus and the Bible.
Have you ever heard of “doubting Thomas?” In John 20, Doubting Thomas had witnessed Jesus’ miracles and heard Him teach, but he still wanted to see the resurrected Jesus for himself. Jesus’ response to “doubting Thomas” says a lot about how He welcomes, and even encourages, our own doubts and questions!

We know the Easter story—Jesus lived a perfect life, suffered and died on the cross, and then rose from the dead on Easter Sunday. But what would it have been like to be one of His disciples or friends at Easter? They changed their entire lives to follow Him; then everything they thought would happen shattered when Jesus died. Their own hope died.
But then Jesus was miraculously resurrected and appeared to Mary and many others. While they didn’t fully understand the depth of who He was or what had happened, they knew for certain that He was alive! And that is what gives us hope for our own lives now.

Many of us have a fear of being alone. It’s a very human trait to suffer through feeling lonely and social isolation. But with God next to us, we are never truly alone. And God understands our feelings of loneliness and sadness; Jesus suffered terrifying depression and loneliness in the Garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:36-46)and cried out to God in desperation.
Jesus experienced the depths of despair so that we would never have to experience true isolation. As we remember Jesus’ sacrifice on Good Friday, we unpack the story of His life and journey to the cross to see how Jesus is God with us in all things.