The Ridge – Weekly Message

As we continue our study in Galatians, we get a look into Paul's past, and it wasn't pretty! While "your past doesn't define you" might be a popular saying, it can be challenging to know how to handle a history of deep failure in our own lives and the lives of others.

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss how our experience of God's grace in our own failures can transform how we respond to failure in others.

So far we know that the Galatians have strayed from the message of the gospel — they've accepted false teaching. As they ponder which teacher to listen to, Paul’s background wasn’t doing him or his message any favors. His past was dark. As we move further into the first chapter of Galatians, we’ll see just what God does with brokenness.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Galatians 1:11–14

This week we are back in the book of Galatians where we find Paul fired up about some happenings in the church. The Bible teaches that healthy anger is possible, but what exactly does that look like? How can we go about avoiding destructive expressions of anger?

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore these questions and more on this week’s episode. 

Galatians 1. Paul is angry. And rightly so. He is confronting the Galatians who have strayed from the message of the gospel and have come to accept false teaching. The Galatians have replaced the truth they know — that which Paul himself preached to them — with something else.Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Galatians 1:3–10

The Bible as a whole is honest about brokenness in the human heart but also clear about God's stunning grace toward us. But how do we go about keeping a healthy balance between awareness of our sin and living in the reality of God's forgiveness and grace?

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they begin a new sermon series in the book of Galatians exploring the treasure and wonder of God's grace.

When God freely gives us what we need, even though we don’t deserve it and can never repay it, that's grace. That's the message of Paul's letter to the Galatians. So, why were so many so angry over what he was teaching?

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Galatians 1:1–2

As we remembered and celebrated Jesus' death and resurrection this past weekend, Pastor Mike honed in on one question that Jesus asked His disciples: Who do you say I am?

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore the life-altering implications of how we respond to that question.

There is no question about Jesus’ influence, His wisdom or His popularity. But what about His divinity? This Easter, we explore this claim and ask, who do you say Jesus is?Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Matthew 16:13–15

In John 14:15, Jesus states, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." In other words, one of God's love languages is obedience.

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore how living life God's way is the only way to find the abundance God has for us.

What does it mean to love Jesus? Is it enough to simply say the words? Is He looking for an emotional response? Is it a deep-seated feeling? Those are all nice. But Jesus is looking for something altogether different.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: John 14:15–31

It's a term we hear often yet might not fully understand. After all, what does it look like to be a disciple of Jesus when he isn't physically present with us today like he was with his early followers?  

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss what it looks like to love and follow God in the present day.

Have you ever wondered what Jesus was looking for in His disciples when establishing the Twelve? Take Peter. What did Jesus see in Him specifically? And how does that apply to us yet today?Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: John 21:15–25

Now that we’ve finished out our sermon series on the book of Malachi, we shift the narrative from comfort to discomfort. From numbness to pain. Suffering is always a hard topic. But in and through it, we see God move.

Encounter Sunday: Natalie’s Story

Have you ever thought about what Heaven will be like?

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore what Scripture says about Heaven and highlight the biggest takeaways from the book of Malachi.

The last chapter of the last book of the Old Testament. It opens with a warning and continues with assurance and a promise — Jesus and Heaven. It would be a great ending, if the text stopped here. But it doesn’t. There’s one more verse — a curse.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Malachi 4:1–6

This week we hone in on Malachi 3:6-18 which contains one of the most famous passages in the Bible on financial giving.

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss how healthy motives for giving and how God can use our giving to shape us into the likeness of Jesus.

Do not be anxious. These words of Jesus seem almost impossible to imagine in 21st century life. How could we even begin to live lives with less worry and anxiety? Is it even possible?

Join Joni Pine, Director of Hospitality and Will Herron, Director of Discipleship, as they discuss several ways how God can go about freeing us from a life of anxiety.

Do not be anxious. These words of Jesus seem impossible — seemingly unattainable. Especially in 21st century life. If we look closer at HIs words, though, we’ll see that He doesn’t leave us to figure it out on our own. Jesus tells us exactly how we can live lives with less worry and anxiety.

Message by Will Herron    

Scripture referenced: Matthew 6:24–34

God's justice is not a characteristic we tend to spend a lot of time thinking about. It's likely we spend more time reflecting on His love, kindness, or His creative power. So, why is it so important for us to not lose sight of God as a God of justice? How can it change how we see our past, present and future?

Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore God's justice and more on this week's Beyond the Sermon episode.

Malachi 3: The Israelites were experiencing a gap between what they expected from God and what they were experiencing through God. It’s pivotal that we know God — His nature, character and attributes, His love and kindness, His righteousness and His justice. It is important for us to know all of Him.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Malachi 2:17–3:5

As we continue in the book of Malachi, our focus turns to marriage and faithfulness to God. Join BTS host Will Herron and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore three "Cs" to a healthy marriage, and discuss why the Bible's teaching on marriage still holds true.

Behind Malachi's words in verses 10–16, we see that God is all about covenant. We’ll take a closer look at the concept of covenant — what it is and what it means. Hint: It's not a contract. It's a partnership — a sacrificial commitment to the good of the other. Sounds familiar, doesn't it? Sounds like God's design for marriage.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Malachi 2:10–16

Do you enjoy confrontation? If so, you are in the vast minority! Most people will do anything to steer clear of challenging conversations. So how do we go about preparing ourselves for confrontational dialogue? And how become more open to receiving critique from others? 

John Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees and BTS host, Will Herron, as they discover how confrontation, though challenging, can end up being an unexpected gift to both parties.

Some passages in the Bible that inspire. Some passages guide us. And some that we’d just rather avoid completely. Rather than just skipping over these verses, if we dig in, we can figure out what God means. And what this one is really about is confrontation.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Malachi 2:1–9

This week we took a break from our series in Malachi and spent time in the book of Ruth. One of the primary questions the story provokes in us is this: How do we go about making wise decisions in our lives? And when we make poor choices, how can we use those failures as a means to grow rather than regress in our faith?

Join Will Herron, Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Leadership and Ministry Director Julie Wiemann as they discuss how we can know God's guidance in the present while experiencing freedom from our past failures.

The folks at The BibleProject describe the book of Ruth this way: a beautifully crafted look at how God’s purpose interplays with human decision. See how this worked in the lives of Elimelech and Naomi, their sons, as well as their daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth. And learn, too, what this means for us and our lives today.

Message by Julie Wiemann

Scripture referenced: Ruth 1:1–19

As we continue in The Book of Malachi, we learn that the Israelites were giving God their leftover animals as sacrifices. While we're not in the business of offering up animal sacrifices today, we can still be guilty of giving God our second best.

Are you giving God your leftovers? 

Join Will Herron, Ridge Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss how we can cultivate a heart of love for God that motivates us to give God our best.

The first few verses of Malachi 1 tells us this: God loves us. A few verses later, though the question is turned: Do we love God? If we read on, Malachi reveals that love isn’t just a word or a feeling. It’s something you can see. If you love somebody, it shows.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Malachi 1:6–14

Within the first few words of the book of Malachi, God is reminding the Israelites of His love for them. God loves us in the same way yet sometimes it's easy to forget. Sometimes miss the various ways He expresses that love in our lives.  

Join Will Herron, Ridge Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss ways in which we can remain aware of God's presence and provision in our lives in the coming year.

Malachi 1 tells us this: God loves us. Loved, that’s where we begin with God. We’re told that. We’ve heard that. And we know it, yet it is such an easy thing to forget. So, how do we remind ourselves of something so important? How do we live in the light of God’s love?  

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Malachi 1:1–5

If you've spent any amount of time in a church you've probably heard it said, "God loves you". For something so familiar to so many, it is puzzling as to why many still struggle to truly believe it. Why is this so? How can we truly know and experience God's love in our lives?

Join Will Herron, Ridge Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Ministry and Leadership Director, Julie Wiemann, as they kick off the new year exploring these questions and more.

Though there are innumerable things the Bible teaches us, we’ll narrow the focus to three things to remember as we walk with God in 2024. 

Message by Will Herron

Scripture referenced:

The Christmas star. Shepherds left their flocks and fields to find Jesus. The Magi went to look for him. But how did they know who Jesus was and where to find him? And how do we?

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Luke 2, Matthew 2

It's not uncommon to see a manger scene this time of year. Whether it's a decorative set on a mantel or a Christmas card sent by a friend, we are used to seeing various depictions of the scene of Jesus' birth. But, if we are not careful, over familiarity can lead to our losing our sense of wonder and gratefulness over God's gift in Jesus. So how can we maintain a sense of awe and gratefulness of God's great gift? And how can God's movement toward us change how we engage with others?

Join Will Herron, Ridge Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Family Ministries Director Doug Applegate as they explore these questions and more in our last Beyond the Sermon of the year.

The Nativity. It’s one of the most recognizable and most popular scenes of Christian art that recounts the birth of Jesus and His adoration. You know the elements: the baby Jesus in a manger, Mary and Joseph, shepherds, angels, cattle, sheep, a donkey, and often wise men. But is this fully accurate? And how does knowing this story and our familiarity with it impact our lives today?

Message by Doug Applegate

Scripture referenced: Luke 2:4-7, 16, 20

The Christmas season can evoke a mixture of memories and emotions. For some, it truly is "the most wonderful time of the year" but for others, loss, loneliness and relational dysfunction are magnified amidst the festivities.

Join Will Herron, Ridge Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore how the message of Christmas can speak lasting hope into our lives whatever our experience within the season.

Christmas is full of beauty and grace. It brings peace and comfort, reassurance of God’s profound love for us. That’s the story we tell. And it’s true. But there’s something — someone — we often overlook. Herod. When he realized he had been tricked by the wise men who came seeking the newborn king, in fury, Herod killed all the children in and around Bethlehem who were two years old or under. That first Christmas was filled with pain, suffering and hurt. And there has been weeping each Christmas since.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Matthew 2

In our final episode in the Habbakuk series, we turn our attention to joy. In contrast to happiness, joy is not something dictated by circumstance but a permanent underlying presence in our life. But how and where can we find such joy?

Join Will Herron, Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they explore how Habbakuk found joy in the midst of serious challenge and hardship.

Have you ever asked God for something or been in a situation you knew God had the capacity to do something, but He didn’t? That’s where Habakkuk is here in the last verses of chapter 3. So what does he do? What do we do in those situations? Hint: We find joy. 

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Habakkuk 3:12–19

For many of us, forgetfulness is an unwelcome attribute we live with. Whether we are naturally prone to it or we just get distracted with the business of life, it's easy for us forget who God is and what He has done. So how can we become a people of remembrance rather than forgetfulness? And how does remembering help us navigate the difficult seasons in our lives?

Join Will Herron, Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss why remembering what God has done is so important and explore some practical ways to incorporate this practice into our lives.

Life was hard enough for Habakkuk, and then he got even more bad news. What do we do when life is like that? It’s so easy to get consumed by problems, responsibilities, pain, suffering. Challenges distract us and cause us to forget when what we should be doing is remembering.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Habakkuk 3:1–11

You don't have to look far in the Bible to see people worshipping idols. Whether it's statues of wood, figures carved into stone, or a golden calf, ancient people displayed a tendency to elevate such things to a god-like status. Not many people in our region are doing this today, so why is the topic of idols still relevant? What does idolatry look like in the modern day, and how do we go about identifying and freeing ourselves from idolatry in our own lives?

Join Will Herron, Director of Discipleship, and Ridge Lead Pastor Mike Van Rees as they discuss these questions and more on this week's post sermon discussion.

We left off in chapter two of Habakkuk after looking at the Biblical definitions of discipline and wrath. We pick up in verse five, which gives some insight into why God was about to release His wrath on the Israelites, handing them over to the Babylonians. Hint: It has something to do with idol worship. But if we aren’t creating golden calves or primitive statues today, is this really relevant to us today?

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Habakkuk 2:5–19

It is both encouraging and mind blowing to think that the God of the universe is working in our lives today. And yet what does that work look like exactly? How can we grow to acknowledge and respond to it?

Join Ridge Marketing and Communication Director, Dayne Logan, and BTS host Will Herron, as they reflect on God's loving work in our lives and explore how we can learn to embrace it even when it's challenging.

The God of the universe, the creator of the cosmos, is at work in our lives. But what does that look like exactly? We’ll look at some of the major events in the life of Moses in the early chapters of Exodus. Because turns out, God works in similar ways today as He did back then.

Message by Will Herron

Scripture referenced: Exodus 2, 3

One of the dangers we can fall into in reading the Bible is reading it selectively. We dwell on the passages we are comfortable with and ignore those that raise questions and challenge us. In particular, passages that deal with God's wrath and judgement take a back seat to famous verses like John 3:16. So how do we go steer away from selective reading of the Bible and engage with every part as the inspired word of God?

Join Will Herron, Director of Discipleship, and Mike Van Rees as they discuss this and more on this weeks post sermon discussion. 

Habakkuk chapter two. Full disclosure: It's a challenging chapter. Here at The Ridge, we are committed to teaching through the Bible in its entirety. Because if we don't know the hard parts, we don't know the whole story. Habakkuk chapter two centers on two words: discipline and wrath. We'll examine the Biblical definitions of these words, what they mean and how all of this applies to us today.

Message by Mike Van Rees

Scripture referenced: Habakkuk 2:5–15