REZ CHURCH Podcast

REZ CHURCH

5.0 (10)
Christianity
Biweekly

Raw, vulnerable teaching from Bakersfield's REZ CHURCH, where we live out Identity > Growth > Community > Impact. Whether you're skeptical, exploring faith, or wanting to grow deeper, find practical hope that meets you where you are. We tackle real issues with biblical truth in your carpools, cubicles, and cul-de-sacs. Every episode points to Jesus and leaves you more encouraged than when you started.

2d ago

Disrupted: AI Will Never Tell You You're Wrong - November 1, 2026

The most patient thing in your life right now might be on your phone. It's awake at two in the morning. It never gets tired of you, never brings up what you did last year, and it has never once told you that you're wrong. That's the whole appeal. The top reported use of AI isn't code or homework. It's therapy and companionship. One in three teens who use an AI companion say they've gone to it instead of a real person about something serious. One study puts Gen Z at 49 hours a week on their phones, more than a full-time job. But you don't get closer to someone by being agreed with. You get closer through the argument and the apology after it, through someone who shows up in the hospital room and stays. That part can't be handed off to an app, and it was never supposed to be easy. This week: swap your phone for a face. Put it down and sit with one person for an hour. You don't have to believe anything to try it. --- (0:00) Lego Batman doesn't do relationships (2:08) Why we feel so disconnected (3:40) Romans 12:1-2 and 12:9-10 (4:57) The Industrial Revolution's hidden cost (8:42) Demis Hassabis: 10 times bigger (11:49) Big idea: we can't outsource love (17:26) Why do you swallow so loud? (19:17) Why it matters that Jesus is God (20:29) Has social media made us better? (22:38) Your feed isn't the same as mine (25:20) Carey Nieuwhof on AI and therapy (26:48) Teens and their AI companions (29:15) What are you clinging to? (31:28) Why we still do relationships (38:16) Application: choose the harder path (41:27) Swap your phone for a face (42:43) If you don't believe any of this (43:59) The repair God didn't outsource
Oct 25

Your Ordinary Is the Extraordinary Part - October 25, 2026

The man who led one of the most famous preachers in history to Christ gave one sermon in his life. It ran ten minutes, he had no training, and he ran out of things to say halfway through. Nobody has ever known his name.You've done the same math on somebody. Watched them absorb a situation you know would have flattened you — stayed steady while people said untrue things about them, held their ground in a room where you'd have gone quiet — and walked away certain there's something in them that isn't in you.The man in this message was handing out food to widows a few weeks before any of it happened. He wasn't one of the twelve. He may never have met Jesus in person. And when he ended up in front of the same court that had condemned Jesus a year earlier, facing witnesses who had been paid to lie about him, he wasn't afraid. None of that came from him.Whatever you've decided disqualifies you is the exact thing this is about.---(0:00) Intro(0:34) A boy caught in a snowstorm(2:51) The stranger who led Charles Spurgeon to Christ(4:38) 1 Corinthians 1: God picks the nobodies(6:31) Jesus makes ordinary people extraordinary(7:24) Acts 6:8-15(9:49) Who Stephen was before any of this(13:32) The power was never Stephen's own(14:35) The stolen electrical box(17:40) John MacArthur's successor is blind(20:08) Why his opponents kept losing(23:30) The witnesses they paid to lie(24:53) When people lie about you(26:59) Russell Moore: a nasty guy with no heart(27:41) Dragged before the Sanhedrin(31:15) A pastor admits his own fears(33:44) The two hands illustration(35:26) The challenge to take home(37:44) If you're not a Christian
Oct 18

Messy People Sharing the Hope of Jesus in a Broken World - October 18, 2026

Most people keep their distance from church for a reason that has nothing to do with God. It's the sense that everyone inside has it figured out and you'd be walking in several steps behind, with things about your life you'd rather not explain. That's a fair read of a lot of churches. It isn't the one you'd find here. This is a church saying out loud, on the record, that it's full of people who haven't arrived and aren't pretending to. Within a ten-minute drive of this building there are 144,000 people, and fewer than one in five walks into any church at all. Here's what this one is actually for. --- (0:14) Three and a half weeks of the flu (0:40) I took a Viagra (1:27) Change one word and it changes everything (1:48) Words create worlds (2:03) The words you already remember (2:33) Abraham Heschel (2:52) What always comes before an atrocity (3:31) It works the other direction too (4:30) Why we're changing the mission statement (4:58) Matthew 28:16-20 (5:52) What's unique about doing this here (6:26) I grew up in church in the 80s and 90s (6:49) Churches that expected you cleaned up first (7:11) Why I ran from God (7:35) What that made this church become (8:01) Philippians 3:12 (8:28) The goal Paul is chasing (8:42) The same verb he used for persecuting the church (9:12) Messy people sharing the hope of Jesus in a broken world (9:32) Why messy people (9:45) Who Paul was before (10:23) I am the worst of them (10:39) What a wretched man I am (11:10) Why Paul kept saying it (11:22) The slippery slope (12:04) Jesus was accused of the same thing (12:22) By church people (12:40) Trust in churches at an all-time low (13:03) The Pharisee and the tax collector (14:15) Where every messy person starts (14:35) I'm still a mess (15:21) The more he changes me, the more I see (15:54) What the hope of Jesus actually is (16:03) What we're not selling (16:23) Only one thing saves a soul (17:46) How could we not share (17:59) Penn Jillette and the man with the Bible (18:49) How much do you have to hate somebody (19:16) Words, work, and wallets (19:33) 1 Peter 3:15-16 (20:14) The shirts in the lobby (20:52) The gospel story project (21:27) Not just words (22:43) In a broken world (23:17) We're meant to shine in it, not leave it (23:42) The ten minute window (24:25) We just have to stop hiding (24:49) The MOVE scorecard (26:02) I'm not asking you to commit yet (27:00) How God changed my heart (27:11) Something more dangerous than committing (27:55) The prayer (28:51) Thrive next April (30:41) If you're not a Christian at all (31:20) One beggar showing another where to find bread (31:52) I hated everything about Christianity (32:13) The real reason (32:36) I was the problem (33:06) Who can save me from myself (33:47) The prayer
Oct 11

What Your Irritation Is Trying to Tell You - October 11, 2026

The thing that won't stop bothering you might be an assignment, not a complaint. Something at work that's broken. Somebody getting skipped. A problem everyone walks past like it's fine. You've brought it up to a friend, maybe more than once, nothing changed, and by now you've filed it under that's just how it is. There are three different things an irritation can be, and only one of them is worth saying out loud. Telling them apart has nothing to do with whether you're right about the problem. It comes down to one thing most people never think about, and it decides whether what bugs you stays a complaint or turns into something you actually do. You already know what's been bothering you. The question is what it's been trying to do. --- (0:00) Intro (0:10) Two months of complaining at Starbucks (1:17) The Holy Spirit interrupts mid-sentence (2:29) Is the world really getting more negative (3:48) If you're skeptical about Christians (5:46) Acts 6:1-7 (7:21) Take the grumble out of the irritation (7:58) Gongusmos, the word for complaint (8:50) Numbers 11: Israel grumbles (12:19) It comes down to the direction (14:32) Moses complains. God doesn't rebuke. (16:39) Seventy elders and seven men (21:49) Pick seven. You figure it out. (24:52) All seven names are Greek (26:14) Back to Starbucks (28:18) The association and three years of prayer (30:43) Grumble, lament, or calling (35:53) Chuck Swindoll on attitude (41:27) You have a calling
Oct 4

When You Don't Know What to Say - October 4, 2026

Somebody you care about gets a phone call from a doctor. A friend loses a job. A coworker comes apart in front of you at work. And you stand there running sentences in your head and throwing out every one of them, because none of them are any good and you know it. So you say something clumsy, or you say nothing, and then you keep your distance for a while because that's easier than getting it wrong again. You're never going to find the right words for that room. Nobody does. There's a better thing to bring, and a fifth grader at this church already figured out how to do it in three words. --- (0:00) Middle school is the best, but I'm biased (0:16) Flat under a car in Tehachapi (0:43) One hour into the trip (1:08) Linda, what's the plan (1:28) That's great, but that's not a plan (2:14) God had already worked it out (2:45) Moving is my least favorite thing (2:59) Two dogs, four cats, nine hours (3:19) We didn't make it out of the county (3:46) The scenic route in the pitch black (4:16) Shoes at the front door (4:44) A hotel room after midnight (5:00) The work God had for me was a cat carrier (5:31) Acts 6 (6:10) Today's question is simpler. Who serves? (6:25) Acts 6:1-6 (7:45) The widows who were getting skipped (8:25) When you bring people together you get problems (8:45) You can only hand out what's been handed to you (9:07) They're never actually called deacons (9:30) The same word for waiting tables and preaching (9:50) Thirty years later everybody knows the name (10:36) The job came before the title (11:00) A deacon is not a board of directors (11:40) A deacon is not a rank (12:04) Nobody works their way up in the kingdom (12:20) The title is servant (12:40) Men and women, same role, same calling (13:38) The qualifications we would have written (14:00) Full of the Spirit and wisdom (14:27) No category of work that doesn't require God (14:50) The questions we ask instead (15:18) Am I full of anything worth handing out (15:50) If you're thinking you've got nothing (16:14) Why service is holy work (16:30) Mark 10 (17:03) Stacking chairs and the two-year-old room (17:54) The seven names (18:20) What happened to Stephen and Philip (18:38) Five names you never hear again (19:32) Nobody has ever said your name (19:50) Twenty-five years and nobody writes it down (20:19) Is he enough when nobody claps (21:00) So why do we need deacons at all (21:21) The most generous people on earth (21:57) More than good intentions (22:10) I'm terrible at handing it off (22:53) How Jesus fed the five thousand (23:20) Everybody would have helped. Nobody had the list. (23:46) This is a commissioning (24:23) The phone call from the doctor (24:50) You're not supposed to have the words (25:16) Pray, care, share (25:50) Seven words before you walk in (26:13) 2 Corinthians 1 (27:07) I didn't generate that peace (27:30) Jesus brings the calm (27:53) He washed the feet of men about to run out (28:14) He served you first (28:40) Surrounded by people and still alone (29:24) He went first (30:23) He isn't asking for a resume (31:13) If you've been serving on empty (32:00) The prayer (33:11) When nobody notices
Sep 28

Who's Actually Looking Out for You? - September 27, 2026

At some point you did the math and came up with one name. Your own. You handle your problems, you make your calls, you carry your own weight, and the only person tracking whether any of it is going well is you. Most people don't say that out loud. Daniel talks about the day he got handed responsibility he didn't ask for and didn't understand, what he found when he went looking for what it actually meant, and why he's convinced you were never supposed to be on your own with this. --- (0:00) Two weeks of travel (0:46) The surprise ordination (2:43) I'd heard of surprise flash mobs (3:11) Where we are in Acts (3:56) What is an elder (4:33) Your soul is worth watching over (4:58) Acts 6:1-7 (6:17) Elder, overseer, shepherd (8:36) The elders don't own the church (9:19) Where the word pastor came from (9:55) Done with Greek, I promise (10:28) The standard is character, not your birthday (11:14) The youth went to the bluffs (11:51) Why we don't send you somewhere else (12:10) If you're not a Christian, or you're just curious (12:40) People are sinful and leaders are people (12:59) The qualifications are a fence, not a resume (13:39) What an elder isn't (13:46) The priest who stood in between (14:52) Jesus is the final high priest (15:50) The Savannah Bananas (16:57) Building a ticket system so fans keep access (17:48) I'm not a professional Christian (18:27) The problem isn't access, it's whether we use it (18:35) Thinking about praying instead of praying (18:57) What an elder actually does (19:43) The rowing marathon (20:15) Shepherding and watching (20:44) Five things shepherding means (21:14) The rod and the staff (22:14) What the predators are (23:49) Doctrinal guardrails for the flock (24:46) Why we submit our notes to each other (25:40) Miss Sharon and the best sermon she ever heard (26:40) Most preachers think they're better than they are (27:56) The night I repented in a hotel room (28:20) Watching this preaching team work (28:57) What watching means (29:30) The word means to be sleepless over you (29:54) Why prayer gets called out (31:07) The elder with the small prayer closet (31:49) 7:15 every Sunday morning (32:15) Praying through the list by name (33:19) I'm going to answer for you (34:14) Close your eyes, you're an elder now (35:11) You're not asking them to do, you're asking them to be (36:10) The church isn't the point, you are (36:35) Be all that He can be (37:04) Three ways to step in (37:31) Serve (38:54) Give (40:26) Share (40:52) Hey, got any good stories (41:22) So what's your plan (42:38) I'll sound like a salesman if it works (43:03) I don't want you to miss him (43:36) The losses of the last few weeks (44:26) When it's turned into duty instead of delight (44:46) When the only one looking out for your soul is you (45:10) We make lousy gods (45:27) There is a good shepherd (46:06) The prayer
Sep 20

What Makes Your Joy Disappear - September 20, 2026

Somebody you know gets the thing you wanted. The promotion, the marriage that's working, the grades. And you say the right words back to them while something turns over in your stomach. You know it isn't really about them. You've known that for a while. Richard tells the story of the day someone else got handed what he'd been asking for, and what he found out about himself when a mango fell on him in Colombia. Whatever your joy is sitting on, it will show itself eventually. --- (0:00) The new guy at my old church (1:09) He wasn't doing anything wrong (1:55) Week two of Unstoppable (2:22) Who you glorify shows what you treasure (2:49) What's happening in Acts 5 (4:22) They walked out of a beating rejoicing (4:59) Point one, glorify self (5:11) Luke tells us it was jealousy (5:52) What actually changed (6:34) This is an us problem (6:59) The coworker, the marriage, the grades (7:47) You don't have to believe in God to feel this (8:14) Why do we serve (8:37) Would you do it if nobody knew (8:44) Five years of watching other people get up here (9:28) Josh got up here and I was glad this time (10:21) How far a man will go to protect his glory (11:07) Gamaliel's wise counsel (11:49) Wait and see isn't wisdom (12:18) Why they chose a whip (12:43) Not against Jesus, not for him either (13:33) Reach out to the person you can't be happy for (13:53) God told me to go help him (14:40) Point two, glorify God (15:04) Everybody is obeying something (15:53) The hardest thing I've ever done (16:31) I wanted to quit what it was costing me (17:01) If you're new to this, that feeling is normal (17:25) God is not disappointed in you (18:08) Affliction produces endurance (18:44) Maybe your pressure isn't marriage or kids (19:41) Where Peter's boldness came from (20:58) They beat them for the name (21:54) Their suffering became worship (22:32) Their treasure was Christ (23:20) What causes your joy to disappear (23:49) Colombia (25:01) The mango (25:26) My joy was gone (25:51) A treasure that couldn't be beaten out of them (26:56) What it looks like for me every day (28:14) This text isn't about them (28:37) What does your life say your treasure is (29:12) None of that disqualifies you (29:41) Why the series is called Unstoppable (30:10) Single, older, young (31:47) Choose joy this week (32:51) You can't glorify a God you never surrendered to (33:27) The gospel (34:35) The prayer
Sep 13

When It Feels Like You Don't Matter - September 13, 2026

You show up. You do your part. And somewhere underneath it you're not sure anything would look different if you weren't there. Somebody else would cover it. Somebody else already is. So you keep whatever you've got to yourself, figuring it's too small to be worth offering. Most people never find out they were wrong about that. This message is about a group of people two thousand years ago who had no money, no power, and no reason to expect any of it to last, and about what happened in the room where every one of them stopped sitting out. --- (0:00) Good morning, family (0:45) What I've noticed about this church (2:53) The quilt they made while I was out (3:41) 150 people in two years (4:19) Kicking off Unstoppable (4:45) Why are you standing there looking up (6:07) Three thousand from one sermon (7:06) The healing that got them in trouble (7:12) How most of us answer a threat (8:05) They lied and it cost them (8:39) A united church is an unstoppable force (9:03) Acts 5:12-16 (10:05) Six months sober and looking for a church (11:20) I tried to evangelize a pastor (11:49) Who changed your life (12:43) They were all together (13:41) Presbyterians love their meetings (14:23) What was actually holding them together (14:42) You have to follow the rules to be in (15:59) Or do whatever you want (16:27) There's a third way (17:32) People are watching you now (18:05) Nobody dared to join them (19:24) It's the clear parts that bother me (19:39) They watched, and they came anyway (20:01) It was never the shadow (20:50) It spread past Jerusalem (21:28) If it's of God you can't stop it (22:09) Two things that break a church (22:41) The hive that empties quietly (23:24) I see the ones who are tired (23:51) Using your gift for yourself (24:34) My kingdom of one (24:47) Joshua, you're not ready (25:16) The job I didn't want (26:32) Edging God out (26:41) The six years I almost missed (28:10) You have something (28:35) Ask what you can do (28:47) Find out your why (29:30) This is your invitation (30:06) Why any of this is possible (31:04) The prayer

5

out of 5

10 Ratings

Rez church

05/04/2021

Brendawood

I love are church and pastors

Raw, vulnerable teaching from Bakersfield's REZ CHURCH, where we live out Identity > Growth > Community > Impact. Whether you're skeptical, exploring faith, or wanting to grow deeper, find practical hope that meets you where you are. We tackle real issues with biblical truth in your carpools, cubicles, and cul-de-sacs. Every episode points to Jesus and leaves you more encouraged than when you started.

Creator

REZ CHURCH
Years Active

2019 - 2026
Episodes

634
Rating

Clean
Copyright

© REZ CHURCH
Show Website

REZ CHURCH Podcast