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Podcasts

The Final Series

The Final Series

After nine years of ministry, we invite you to listen in as we conclude with our Final Series. Join us for a behind-the-scenes look at what it took to put on the Interactive Forum every Sunday night, along with a celebration of what God accomplished through our time together. If you’ve been part of the Exodus community in person or online, or if you are just checking out Exodus for the first time, we invite you to listen in and learn more about what it took to present this unique ministry for close to a decade. We hope it will give you greater insight and appreciation into the podcasts that we’ve left behind as our contribution to the glory of God’s kingdom.

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Taking Your Faith Private

Taking Your Faith Private

While many churches teach from popular evangelism series such as “Going Public With Your Faith,” the reality is that many Christians are feeling an increasing societal pressure to keep their faith to themselves. Court decisions, employment policies and cues from the culture are making it more difficult to speak openly about our beliefs. What is behind the stigma against Christianity? How does this stigma, coupled with other societal factors, lead to increased restriction of religious freedom? Who is behind this effort, why are these measures gaining ground, and how should Christians respond?

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Questions About Salvation

Questions About Salvation

Explaining salvation to someone seems as easy as reciting John 3:16 — until you read all the other verses about salvation and try to fit them all together. If salvation was such an easy concept to understand, the church would not have inherited five centuries of debate about the nature of God’s action in salvation and whether humanity needs to respond. And while we all want salvation to be simple enough to fit on a bumper sticker, many committed Christians who take the time to read all the verses on salvation find that there’s more to God’s majestic plan of salvation than the sinner’s prayer.

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Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 4

Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 4

Our audio commentary on the Book of Matthew continues. In Volume 4, we continue from Chapter 18. (For Volume 1, covering Chapters 3-7, click here; for Volume 2, covering Chapters 8-12, click here, for Volume 3, covering Chapters 13-18, click here.) As Christians, we often spend much of our time talking about the Bible, or talking about Jesus, without spending much time reading the words of Scripture itself. In this series, we go back to the actual text of the Gospel of Matthew and soak up each chapter, line by line, as we encounter Jesus all over again. Our goal is to rediscover passages we have forgotten, struggle with some of the more difficult teachings of Jesus, and compare what many of us think Jesus said with what He actually said.

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The Power of the Holy Spirit

The Power of the Holy Spirit

Jesus promised that the Holy Spirit would indwell every believer, giving us access to the very power of God to live as His disciples on earth. Why then does it seem that we are mostly getting by on our own power, and relying on our own abilities to live out the Christian life? Why is the church comprised mostly of human-sized efforts that rarely manifest the truly awe-inspiring work of God? As A. W. Tozer famously observed, if the Holy Spirit were taken away from today’s church, only 10% of what it does would cease. How did we get to a point where the book of Acts seems so distant from our every day experience? Why has the Holy Spirit been “forgotten,” and why do we know so little about the Third Person of the Trinity? In this series, we examine Who the Holy Spirit is, read Jesus’ own exhortation to His disciples about the Spirit, and rediscover the significant roles that are attributed to the Spirit in the New Testament.

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Christian Views On Hell

Christian Views On Hell

Many Christians today are ashamed of the doctrine of hell, while both believers and non-believers are downright troubled by it. But it turns out that it was Jesus who spoke most often about hell. Today, it has become scandalous to believe in hell, or even to preach the gospel in a way so that others can avoid hell. In this series, we examine the various Christian doctrines about hell: (1) the Traditional view of conscious, eternal torment; (2) the view of Christian Universalists, who believe that the salvation that Jesus offers is so all-encompassing that everyone will eventually be saved; and (3) the views of Annihilationists, who believe that hell will eventually result in destruction of those in hell, rather than their eternal torment.

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Identifying Idols In Our Lives

Identifying Idols In Our Lives

Is there anything you love more than God? Our immediate reaction is to say no, but the truth is that many things compete with the worship that should only be given to God. In this series we examine the subject of modern-day idols such as money, material possessions, relationships, romance, success, individualism, choice, and instant gratification. We ask deep questions intended to help examine the condition of our hearts and to discover where it is that we struggle with subtle idolatry.

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Troubling Images of God in the Old Testament

Troubling Images of God in the Old Testament

We often stop dead in our tracks when we read certain difficult passages in the Old Testament, then quickly move on without taking the time to develop a framework for how to think about these passages. Why does God at times seem so violent? Where is the grace and mercy that appears to be more central in the New Testament? Why was Israel commanded to follow seemingly arbitrary laws, and why was the punishment so severe for violating God’s ordinances? Why did God appear to allow Israel to continue to practice polygamy and slavery? What do we make of all the passages that depict God as ordering the destruction of men, women and children in Israel’s wars against the Canaanites?

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Recovering Christian Hospitality

Recovering Christian Hospitality

By and large, Americans are among the least hospitable cultures in the world. Anyone visiting a foreign country is immediately struck by how hospitable people are in other places. And yet hospitality was so central to Christians throughout the centuries that it has been credited as the reason the gospel spread so quickly. Moreover, so many of the stories in the scriptures — including many of Jesus’ teachings — are built around an assumption that hospitality was known and would be practiced by His followers.

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The Purpose of the Local Church

The Purpose of the Local Church

Forget about getting ring-side seats to a UFC or WWF championship match. If you want to see a real wrestling match break out, try convincing a group of young adults that they should attend a local church. After all, if every Christian is part of the universal church, what’s the point in being committed to a local church body? Are Christians really worse off if they are not involved in a church? Couldn’t a group of Christians just get together to hang out and call that a church?

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Hearing God

Hearing God

Christians often talk about a God who still speaks to us today but, if we are honest with ourselves, many of us have struggled with not hearing from God. If God does speak to us, how do we hear from Him? For what purposes does God speak? Can we have a conversational relationship with God? Have we placed too much emphasis on “hearing God in our hearts,” and not enough on hearing God in Scripture?

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Letter to the Ephesians

Letter to the Ephesians

Have you ever read the book of Ephesians? We decided to do that, line by line. Let’s face it: we have a tendency to skip around Paul’s letters and look for the verses that support our position or that answer our question, without reading the entire letter as a letter. We get lost in Paul’s lofty theological statements or his grand descriptions of God. Maybe it’s the way we quietly disagree with Paul’s ethical teaching. Most often, we just skim the sections that we don’t quite understand and ignore many of the passages we don’t agree with.

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How Should Christians Relate to Culture and Society?

How Should Christians Relate to Culture and Society?

Many Christians would agree that the church should be focused on proclaiming the gospel, caring for the needs of the community, interceding in prayer, worshipping God, and so on. But should the church also engage the society at large? Should the church be involved in advocating for certain legislation or opposing certain practices? Can the church transform culture, or is culture more often transforming the church? If we do become involved, should we address a wide array of issues or should we limit our involvement to exceptional circumstances? What methods should we utilize, and which ones do more harm than good?

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The Origin of the Bible

The Origin of the Bible

Many of us hold the Bible as the ultimate authority, but how much do we really know about how this book came to be in our hands? Even skeptics who regularly dismiss the Bible seem remarkably uninformed when it comes to the facts supporting the transmission of the Old and New Testament. How do we know that the Bible has been copied accurately over such a long period of time? Who decided what books to include, and which to exclude? How do we know that the text has not been changed since we don’t have any of the original manuscripts?

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Examining Evangelism

Examining Evangelism

If our relationship with Christ is such “Good News,” why are we always trying to convince ourselves that we should be evangelizing? In an age of social media, we don’t have any issue telling people the “good news” about the latest movie, our favorite music artists, the causes we support, or even our views on political issues. Why then is it so hard to share about our relationship with Christ? Is it because we really aren’t excited about that relationship? Is it because He hasn’t made a real impact on our life? Have we been silenced by society and shamed into thinking that faith is a “private matter?” Are we put off by the methods of others, and use that as an excuse to avoid sharing the gospel altogether? Or is it that we have our own doubts about the truth of Christianity that keep us from telling others about Jesus Christ?

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Stewardship – An Update To Our Money Series

Stewardship – An Update To Our Money Series

Year after year, surveys reveal that Christians give little or nothing to Kingdom causes. In contrast, Jesus makes the incredible claim that “any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.” How can we reconcile our refusal to comply with Christ’s ethic of generosity and productive use of our talents with the fact that so many of us live entirely for ourselves? In this series that updates our original series on Money (found here), we examine the role of Stewardship, and look deeper at this crucial relationship we have with Jesus concerning money and our possessions. We also take on the traps that prevent us from being good Stewards: materialism, debt and living for ourselves.

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Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil?

Why Does God Allow Suffering and Evil?

Christians and Non-Christians alike cite this question as the biggest hindrance to their faith. Far from being a philosophical inquiry, when suffering befalls us, we are tempted to question the very existence of God. Reading through a large number of writers and theologians who have tackled this subject, we examine the answers that clearly fall short, while struggling with the various (and often surprising) views that are presented by the Biblical writers. If God knew humanity would fall, why give us free will or even create us in the first place? Can we really blame free will for so much suffering? What about suffering that can’t be explained by free will, such as natural disasters, illnesses, and tragic death? Does God cause suffering, or does He merely allow it?

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Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 3

Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 3

Our audio commentary on the Book of Matthew continues. In Volume 3, we pick up in Chapter 13 (for Volume 1, covering Chapters 3-7, click here; for Volume 2, covering Chapters 8-12, click here). As Christians, we often spend much of our time talking about the Bible, or talking about Jesus, without spending much time reading the words of Scripture itself. In this series, we go back to the actual text of the Gospel of Matthew and soak up each chapter, line by line, as we encounter Jesus all over again. Our goal is to rediscover passages we have forgotten, struggle with some of the more difficult teachings of Jesus, and compare what many of us think Jesus said with what He actually said.

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Questions About Prayer

Questions About Prayer

So many Christians struggle with prayer. Despite hundreds of books and millions of sermons about how and why we should pray, most of us are left with unresolved guilt about not praying, or rigid formulas designed to force us to pray. After having examined prayer through the model of the Lord’s Prayer (found here) and as part of our series on Spiritual Disciplines (found here), we now turn to answer some of the toughest and most honest questions about prayer: Why pray if God already knows my needs? Does God ever change His mind? If God is sovereign and in control of all things, why pray at all? Why does Jesus teach that God will do anything we ask, when that doesn’t seem to happen in my life?

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The Spiritual Disciplines and Spiritual Transformation

The Spiritual Disciplines and Spiritual Transformation

We have all heard talks about the Spiritual Disciplines that have left us confused as to how they benefit us, or guilty because we are not engaging them all the time. The Christian life seems busy enough without the added worry of how to work the Disciplines into our lives. In this series, we try to get to the heart of the matter: how do the Disciplines open us up spiritually to allow God to do the work of transforming us from the inside? Which Disciplines are most beneficial to us, and how do we know when we should be engaging in a particular Discipline?

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Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts

Discovering Your Spiritual Gifts

So many Christians have little or no knowledge about the subject of Spiritual Gifts. In this series we cover some of the most frequently asked questions: What are all the spiritual gifts? Where are they found in the Bible? Are they still active today? Why is there such a divide in the church over spiritual gifts? What about miracles, tongues and healing, are those still active? Does every Christian have a spiritual gift? Are certain spiritual gifts a sign of salvation?

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Biblical Justice

Biblical Justice

When Jesus denounced the Pharisees as hypocrites, He highlighted again God’s special concern for justice: “justice and mercy and faithfulness; these are the things you should have done.” (Matt. 23:23) Yet most of us would have a very hard time defining what it means to “do justice.” We tend to think of justice only in terms of God’s punishment, or some sort of holy retribution. What is Biblical justice?

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Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 2

Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 2

We are back in the book of Matthew. After spending thirteen weeks going through the start of Jesus’ ministry up through the Sermon on the Mount (see first part of the series here, we continue with Jesus’ miracles and the commissioning of the disciples. As Christians, we often spend much of our time talking about the Bible, or talking about Jesus, without spending much time reading the words of Scripture itself. In this series, we go back to the actual text of the Gospel of Matthew and soak up each chapter, line by line, as we encounter Jesus all over again. Our goal is to rediscover passages we have forgotten, struggle with some of the more difficult teachings of Jesus, and compare what many of us think Jesus said with what He actually said.

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The Beliefs of Major World Religions

The Beliefs of Major World Religions

As Christians, it is our hope to encounter others in sacred conversations that point people to the Truth, Jesus Christ. But we as Christians know so little about the beliefs and practices of other religions. Our ignorance often comes off as arrogance. Christians are therefore perceived as only being interested in discussing their own beliefs, and not caring enough to listen to the beliefs of others. If we truly want to engage others in discussions about our faith – and theirs – we need to know something about the beliefs of those around us.

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How NonChristians View Christianity

How NonChristians View Christianity

Many Christians think that NonChristians reject Christianity because they want to avoid the Truth, or because they want to live immoral lives. But what if many NonChristians actually reject Christianity because of the hurtful and harmful ways in which Christians act every day in the name of Christianity? Barna Group president David Kinnaman in his book “UnChristian” conducted three years of research including thousands of interviews and surveys to document why a majority of NonChristians believe Christians are judgmental, hypocritical, anti-homosexual, too involved in politics, out of touch with reality, insensitive to others, and focused only on converting others to Christianity. In this series, we take a hard, critical look at the church and the way that so many Christians live out their faith in an “UnChristian” manner.

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Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 1

Rediscovering Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew – Volume 1

We often spend much of our time talking about the Bible, or talking about Jesus, without spending much time reading the words of Scripture itself. In this series, we go back to the actual text of the Gospel of Matthew and soak up each chapter, line by line, as we encounter Jesus all over again. Our goal is to rediscover passages we have forgotten, struggle with some of the more difficult teachings of Jesus, and compare what many of us think Jesus said with what He actually said.

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How to Ruin Your Life by 40

How to Ruin Your Life by 40

Based on Steve Farrar’s book by the same title, we examine the decisions that many Christians make in their early 20s that have significant consequences for their life by the time they reach 40: decisions about education, career, marriage and ministry. A recent Barna Group study found that 75% of people with some exposure to Christianity at the start of their 20s abandon their relationship with Jesus Christ by the time they are 29, and Steve Farrar points out that only 1 in 10 will make it to 40. What happened along the way?

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The Mystery of God’s Will

The Mystery of God’s Will

Does God have an individualized will for every single person? Does He care about every decision we make? Can God’s will be changed or thwarted? How does God’s sovereignty and His control over all things intersect with our free will? If there is an individual plan for my life, how can I find it? Does God’s will encompass all things, including evil, suffering, and sin?

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Examine Your Vision

Examine Your Vision

So often, Christians debate amongst themselves without stopping to examine the validity of their own beliefs. In this series we take time out to explore some of the places where Christians miss each other in the discussion. What exactly does it mean to be “saved?” When, or where, is the Kingdom of God? How should Christians engage culture? What does it mean to be in the world but not of the world?

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The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus Christ

The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ is a central tenant of Christianity which, if proven false, would seriously call our beliefs into question. A recent Discovery Channel documentary written and directed by Simcha Jacobovici and produced by James Cameron claims that the bodily remains of Jesus and his family have been found. This series examines all of the claims of the documentary, as well as the historical evidence for the resurrection.

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A Fresh Look at the Parables of Jesus

A Fresh Look at the Parables of Jesus

Why did Jesus teach in parables? If His message was so important, why use a device that kept some people from the true meaning of His words? For those who think that the parables were taught at an elementary level, take a deeper look at the parables and discover some of Jesus’ hardest teachings.

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Defending Against Spiritual Warfare

Defending Against Spiritual Warfare

Some Christians blame everything on Satan, while others deny that he exists and think that our sin is the only thing that makes this world so tough to live in. Somewhere in the middle of those two extremes lies the truth about spiritual warfare and our call to be part of the battle.

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Understanding the Mystery of the Trinity

Understanding the Mystery of the Trinity

Nothing is harder for us to comprehend than God’s true nature: a triune being who is fully God, yet made up of three distinct co-equal and co-eternal persons. In this series, we take on the task of gaining a better understanding of the Trinity in the hopes of dispelling common misconceptions and seeking to better worship the Triune God of the Bible.

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The Messianic Prophecies

The Messianic Prophecies

Jesus fulfilled over 300 messianic prophecies. The odds of any one person fulfilling eight prophecies is beyond scientific improbability. And yet, most Christians have difficulty identifying messianic prophecies or locating them in scripture. God has given us a tremendous gift in these prophecies – each of them provides us with an assurance that Jesus was the One True Christ. These prophecies also give us assurance that scripture is inspired by the Living God. How else could different prophets, writing in different eras, predict such detailed events that would only take place hundreds of years later?

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Responding to the Claims of the Da Vinci Code

Responding to the Claims of the Da Vinci Code

The book sold over 40 million copies, becoming the most widely read fiction book of all time. But the book and its author have intimated that there is far more truth found in its pages than fiction. What claims does the Da Vinci Code make, why was it written, and do any of its claims affect the truth of Christianity?

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Basic Training: The Basics of Christianity

Basic Training: The Basics of Christianity

Once in a while, we need to put down some of the tougher topics and make sure we have a firm foundation about the basics. In this series, we spend one week going through the basics of Christianity, and the second week having participants from the group respond to some of the basic objections nonbelievers have about Christians and Christianity.

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Learning to Pray the Lord’s Prayer

Learning to Pray the Lord’s Prayer

Christians authors have written hundreds of books on how to have a more vibrant prayer life, but it seems that despite all the expert advice on the topic, we continue to struggle with what should be a simple conversation with our Lord, Father and Friend. In this series, we break through some of the “noise” that surrounds the subject of prayer, and instead focus on the model of prayer which Jesus left us in the Lord’s Prayer.

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Biblical View of Money

Biblical View of Money

The Bible contains 2350 verses on money, and 16 of the 38 parables Jesus taught were about money. Money is a complicated subject in the Bible, and Jesus’ words may actually surprise you about what he expected us to do with money.

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Sex in the Body of Christ

Sex in the Body of Christ

Every year, studies confirm that the level of premarital sex and other sexual sins within the church is the same as it is outside of the church. Why does our belief in Christ make no impact on our sexual behavior? In this series that reaches into the heart of the problem, we address the toughest questions about why God’s people continue to sin sexually in open defiance of God’s word.

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Can We Reconcile The Bible With Scientific Discovery?

Can We Reconcile The Bible With Scientific Discovery?

Many Christians mistakenly assume that we have to make a choice between a belief in the literal words of the Bible or scientific discovery. But if the God of the Bible created the entire Universe, wouldn’t scientific discoveries be consistent with the revelation of that God in scripture?

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What Will Heaven be Like?

What Will Heaven be Like?

As Christians, we spend a good deal of time preaching about how to get to Heaven, but the truth is, most of us know very little about what life in Heaven will really be like. This series examines some of the most common questions about Heaven.

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John’s Newsong Sermons

John’s Newsong Sermons

Here’s a chance to get to hear John’s teaching in a totally different format — as part of the teaching team at Newsong Church in San Dimas. While these sermons aren’t quite as interactive as the podcasts series recorded in…

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