Woodland Hills Church Greg Boyd

John was invited to enter a door to see into the throne room of God. This was not a physical seeing. It was a spiritual experience, where he saw into another dimension of reality. What does it mean to see into this other world, to experience God in this distinctly different way? This sermon, by Emily Morrison, encourages us to embrace the gift of seeing God in this radically different way.

In John’s vision in Revelation 4, he sees a sea of glass, which represents peace. What does this vision of peace mean for life when we are surrounded by chaos, evil and the constant barrage of all that is not peaceful? This vision of peace came before the final victory of sin and death. This peace is our inheritance in the present. We only need to see it and embrace it as God’s gift to us.

In this sermon, Greg calls the church to pay attention to the reality of spiritual warfare that pervades our world, and then he follows this with direction on the necessity and the ways to resist the powers that war against God’s kingdom.

In this sermon, Greg shares a second letter to the church of Woodland Hills that follows the form of the seven churches in Revelation. This letter praises the generosity expressed by the church, and it admonishes individuals regarding the need to live hospitably by examining how our time is eaten up by trivial and distracting busyness.

This sermon applies the instruction to “hear” what the Spirit said to the seven churches from Revelation by offering a letter to our church today. Specifically, it is a call to revival, to enter into a new space of renewal so that we might wake up to the work of the Spirit in and around us.

In the last letter to the seven churches, Jesus speaks of the endurance of the Philadelphians. They endure in times of trial and Jesus promises to keep them so that they might overcome and remain faithful. In this sermon, Greg challenges us to remain faithful in the midst of trials so that we might live in love, even when we face resistance to it.