God never intended for us to go through life alone. Being in community is an essential part of the spiritual life, and central to the healing mission of Jesus.
Examining the story of the woman with the bleeding condition, we will see how Jesus models bringing people on the outside of society into intimate relationship with Him and each other.
By Tom Powell
What if the ordinary parts of our lives are not separate from the sacred?
Tracing a story of stewardship from Genesis through the New Testament, we explore how practical gifts, small acts of attention, and the systems we build can become expressions of love and worship. Operations, at its best, is love made practical: care made real and durable.
By April Stephenson
Jesus describes himself as the one who “did not come to be served, but to serve," so if we are being formed into his image, then it's an imperative to understand that service isn’t an optional extra; everything we have been given is given that it might, in some form, be given away.
But Jesus-shaped service isn’t driven by guilt, obligation, or the crushing weight of infinite need. It grows out of knowing that we are loved, knowing our limits, and learning the particular “yeses” God is inviting each of us into.
Bread’s vision to be a serving church is centered in a vision of a family, in which each of us learns to steward the “many-colored grace” we have received; serving one another, partnering with people doing extraordinary work across Los Angeles, and learning to give ourselves away together.
By Hannah Flint
Worship isn't just the opening act for a sermon. At bread, our vision is to be people who know how to worship God in Spirit and in Truth, as Jesus asks.
This sermon looks at how worship through our music continues the ancient tradition of accessing the presence of God through singing, and how there is no greater place to be than in the presence of the King of Glory.
By Ben Manusama
Throughout the New Testament, the early disciples, despite their vast differences and in spite of the likely tensions and challenges, together, were taught and they taught each other. They listened and shared. They observed and they actively participated. They heard and they questioned…All of this learning was centered around the person of Jesus.
In the midst of all the noise and busy-ness of life today, a call to apprenticeship to Jesus invites us to prioritize His voice above all the other competing noise, to sit at His feet, to dwell in His presence, and teach us and show us and invite us to explore what it is to center ourselves and our lives around Him. We do this not as a means of earning our salvation - Jesus has already covered that cost for us as an undeserved gift, without condition - but instead our discipleship is an act of worship and gratitude for all Jesus has done, all he is doing, and all he will do for us, in us, and through us. This is why we commit to discipleship to Jesus here at Bread.
By Wayne Cullum
Jesus doesn't leave us with marching orders and then tell us we’re on our own. Rather, Jesus empowers his church with all the power of heaven by the gift of his Holy Spirit. We’re neither left alone, nor weak.
So, the supreme need for every Christian individual and every Christian church is to be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. We all need the gifts of the Holy Spirit, the experience of the Holy Spirit, and the inclusion of the Holy Spirit for the sake of each individual Christian walk, and for the sake of our collective impact in the world.
By Ed Flint
The Bible describes Jesus as good news. His church, therefore, must be somewhere where people hear good news - good news that in Jesus, God can be known, He is a friend who understands, He offers a way out of cycles of destructive behavior, He goes before us in everything, He champions us like an older brother, and he delivers us from all fear.
This is good news. And we aspire to be a good news church.
By Ed Flint
Jesus announced - and demonstrated - that the Kingdom of God had come. And yet, on the night before his death, Jesus prepared his disciples for a reality they had not expected: the Kingdom had come, but it had not yet come in its fullness. It is a tension we still live in 2000 years later.
At bread, we want to live faithfully in the overlap: praying boldly and expecting the supernatural power of the Kingdom to break into the present, while refusing to deny the very real suffering, disappointment and loss of the world we still inhabit.
So, how do we live with expectation and disappointment, miracles and unanswered prayers, joy and grief? The heart of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse in John “Remain in me.” Correct theology matters, but theology alone cannot hold us. We make our home in Jesus, as he makes his home in us — and from that abiding place come the love, joy, peace and power we need to live as people of the Now and the Not Yet.
NB - serendipitously, the Lectio 365 app is working through the Remain in me verses in John 15 this week. Follow along there too!
By Hannah Flint
From the beginning, Jesus' Church has been rooted in the Scriptures. This is seen no more clearly than in Stephen's biblical defense of the fledging Christian community in Acts 7.
At bread, we aspire to be a Biblical church. This means, amongst other things, never reducing God to a particular geographical place; never reducing him to a man-made cause; never shirking the reality of our human sin and weakness; and always having our eyes fixed on Jesus. To be a Biblical church is not just about teaching and interpreting the Bible well, it's about having it written on our hearts - so that we, like Stephen, might look just like the Jesus whom the Scriptures reveal.
By Ed Flint
This prophetic Psalm is one of the richest, Messianic Psalms written, giving us an understanding of the absolute authority of Israel’s coming Messiah. Psalm 2 points us to the future of the Messiah’s Kingship and Kingdom, and the ultimate subjugation of Christ’s enemies and the kings of this world, where the final reality is laid out: all will either submit to Christ the King’s eternal reign, or be destroyed.
The timeline presented in Psalm 2 not only points us to partial fulfillment in Acts 4, but also contains within it a key verse, that presents a powerful foundational truth, positioning and enabling His church to have the correct heart posture and spiritual response in this current era of the Holy Spirit; both toward those who would oppose Christ’s authority, and to those who are lost and need to know Him.
By Dianne Manusama
Psalm 51 gives us incredible insight into how David viewed God even when he had gravely sinned. It’s a study in the nature of our Heavenly Father. David didn’t allow shame to make him cower before God. He didn’t see Him as a hard taskmaster to be feared, but rather as his safe place to run ‘to; not run ‘from.’
David learned throughout his life that being in God’s presence was the most precious thing he could ever experience. So, this Psalm isn’t self abasement from David, but instead, intense liberating repentance based on his absolute knowledge that just like us in our New Covenant reality, in times of greatest sin, we can come fearlessly, boldly, and confidently, before the throne of grace and receive God’s unfathomable mercy and forgiveness.
By Dianne Manusama
Psalm 46 reminds us that God is not only supreme and powerful, but also eternally merciful.
By painting the picture of a God who rules over all creation, as well as the warring nations, the Psalmist reminds us of His love and mercy towards His people. That even in the midst of total chaos, our God invites us to be still and know that He is God.
By Bram Manusama
To be human is to be made for intimacy - with other people vitally, but also with God primarily. In Psalm 139 we see how nothing is hidden from God. He knows us intimately.
This can lead us to do two things - run away from Him; or run towards Him. We run away because we're afraid - usually of rejection, abandonment, or humiliation. But David understands that that is not what awaits us, nor is running away anything but futile. No one can get away from God's presence.
Instead, He runs towards God's love - His love is intimately concerned with us, it is fiercely passionate for us, and it leads us into life in all its fullness. We can stop hiding.
By Ed Flint