Explore every episode of the podcast Woodland Hills Church

Our world surrounds us with despair and darkness, and we long for a place of hope. Dan ties this reality into Revelation 8 and 9, where the trumpet judgments bring destruction to the earth. He looks for and finds hope in the midst of the destruction, showing us how we can hold on to hope in the midst of chaos. 

In this sermon, Greg Boyd explains the meaning of the seven trumpet judgments and how they apply to our modern context. Specifically, Greg addresses the image of the seals on believers’ foreheads, demonstrating how God has sealed us, thereby giving us confidence in the character of God to complete the work that he has begun in us. 

In the apocalyptic scene of Revelation 8, the prayers of God’s people rise up to God. The church of the first century and the church of today is to be a people of prayer. In this sermon, Shawna Boren calls us into a fresh understanding of what prayer is and invites us into a fresh experience of relating to God through it.

In this sermon, Greg Boyd addresses the nature of the final judgment and why the New Testament emphasizes the importance of crying out for God to set all things right with his coming.

In a timely message for troubling times, Cedrick Baker shares his experience of living with God’s peace in the midst of struggle and trying situations. He discusses what peace is, how anxiety steals it and how to live in God’s peace.

This sermon by Dan Kent helps us understand the meaning of repentance and why it is so crucial to our walk with Jesus. In it, we discover how we misunderstand what repentance is and see how repentance is a path to true freedom. 

This sermon brings us back to the book of Revelation, and in it Greg calls our attention to a singular verse, one that speaks of silence in the throne room.

In this Easter Sunday message, Greg shared with us how on the cross, God lured the rulers of this age into thinking that God could be defeated. However, what looked like defeat was ultimately the path to divine victory. Therefore, we can declare that what looks like Good Friday death is actually a precursor to resurrection victory.

Greg wraps up our series on spiritual disciplines by showing us the importance of meditating on God’s word. He explains how God’s word is foundational to our formation and then concludes with specific actions that can help us get God’s word inside our very essence.

God calls us to steward creation in partnership with him. However, the modern practices of human consumption actually destroy the very fabric that makes creation beautiful. We need practices that train us to serve as God’s creation stewards. In this sermon, Shawna Boren offers two Spiritual Practices for us to consider: gratitude and sabbath keeping. 

In this sermon, Sandra Unger explores the practice of forgiveness and explains how it empowers us to live out the call to love others. We learn what forgiveness is and what it is not, while also being challenged to love others in ways that counter the primary ways of our culture.

Find a study guide for this message, and more sermon media on our website here.

We need spiritual disciplines which will shape us so that we can live in love toward ourselves. Fasting is such a discipline because it detoxes our dependence upon food and other pleasures, enabling us to receive what is actually fulfilling and whole. Dan Kent helps us to understand the role of fasting as we seek to love ourselves as God would have us to do.

In this sermon, Greg introduces the spiritual discipline of practicing the presence of God. This is simply the habit of living with an awareness of God’s nearness to us on a moment by moment basis. It is founded upon the invitation to abide in Christ, as he abides in us.

Greg introduces a new series on discipleship by explaining why spiritual disciplines are so crucial to our relationship and walk with God. Then he introduces us to the discipline of being honest with ourselves and with God about our lives.

Cedrick Baker brings a message on the victory that comes by the blood of Jesus. This victory is more than a legal declaration of personal cleansing of sin, it is an experience by those who embrace a life of cruciform participation. Following Jesus is not merely about belief; it costs us our lives, as it did the martyrs in John’s vision.

In this sermon, Greg challenges us to open our minds up to the idea that Jesus, the Good Shepherd, speaks to his sheep. This means that God speaks in a way that we can hear and follow him to the cross. Greg then explains the way that the voice of God works and how we can learn to listen.

This sermon addresses the meaning of worship and what causes a person to express their praise to God. Greg also explains why worship is so crucial to our life in God and what it means to worship God in our daily lives with how we act on a day-to-day basis.

In this sermon, Dan Kent helps us understand the meaning of the proclamation “salvation belongs to our God.” While we might assume salvation is about personal sin and guilt, Dan demonstrates that it is much more extensive than that. He shows us that salvation is centered around God’s work to establish the rightful King of all creation.

In this sermon, Greg expands upon the call to be a people of hospitality as he highlights four specific groups of people who experience marginalization. As God has welcomed us in his divine hospitality, we also are to participate in God’s hospitality and show it to those who most need it.

Cedrick Baker reflects on God’s hospitality toward us, and challenges us to join God in the life of hospitality. Just as God has freely given his love to us, we can reach out to others and show them the kind of love that we have received. This is rooted in the scene in Revelation 7, of God’s people celebrating the open hospitality they have experienced through the work of the cross. 

This unique sermon is a challenge by four individuals who reflect on different aspects of being God’s unified people in the midst of diversity—a reality that is a gift of God—and divisiveness—a reality that is a mud pit of Satan. The four perspectives call us to put our weight into the dream of God’s gloriously diverse, but unified, kingdom where all live in love, even when circumstances stand against it.

In this sermon, Shawna Boren examines the meaning of the vision of the 144,000. What is the meaning of this vast crowd and who is included in it? These questions are explored and the symbolic answers are connected to three parables of Jesus from Luke 15. This vision shows us the heart of God for all people, which can lead us into the depths of God’s love and transformation. 

In this sermon,  Greg Boyd introduces the topic of what it means to be sealed by God. He explains that it pertains to the principle of God’s protection and God’s ownership of his people. We are protected in the sense that God is unconditionally committed to our salvation, we are owned by God because Jesus ransomed us from slavery to sin and Satan. 

Meghan Good delivers a sermon on Jesus’ call to Peter from John 21 to help us understand how we can hear God’s call and embrace it through simple practices. These practices will shape our imagination for our journey forward.

Christmas Eve service 2024

In this Christmas sermon, Shawna Boren explores the story of how Joseph encountered God four times through a dream. Joseph responded with great faith in ways that contrasted with conventional thinking. In doing so, this common man followed God as he was given the charge to care for the savior of the world. 

This sermon by Greg Boyd explores the Christmas story of the Magi’s search for Jesus. Greg provides historical background that opens our eyes to seeing the surprising and radical nature of their journey to find the Jewish Messiah. In addition, it reveals implications about who God is and how he relates to us. 

In this sermon, Greg examines the story of the angelic appearance to the shepherds and its meaning for Jesus and for us. We see how God comes for the marginalized and includes the outcasts into the redemption of all things.

This sermon examines the story of Anna when she met the child Jesus in the temple. Dan Kent highlights how she waited for the Messiah for decades and the importance of waiting on God to act in our lives and release his gifts through us.

This sermon by Dan Kent introduces the pale green horse of death in Revelation 6, and provides a way of understanding what God is trying to communicate through this and other terrifying images. Dan challenges us to embrace faithfulness when circumstances push us to prioritize fear.

In this sermon, Greg examines the symbolism of the second and third horses who are told to come forth and show themselves for who they are. The second horse is given the title of societal conflict and the third is the horse of economic distress.

In this sermon, Greg expounds on the first broken seal and what it symbolizes. Here we read about the white horse that seeks to ascend through conquering. Some have taught that this represents the rule of Christ, but actually it is the ancient serpent who is merely a Christlike figure.

Leading up to and throughout this election season, many of us have been experiencing a wide range of emotions—things like fear, anxiety and frustration.

It can be easy to lose perspective, which is why on "Election Eve", we held a special service, all about keeping our eyes fixed on King Jesus and his Kingdom, no matter the outcome of the election.

We want to remember who we belong to, where our citizenship is, and that our real hope is in Jesus—not in any particular candidate, political party or government.

This sermon is a conversation between Bill Doherty and Greg Boyd, where they talk about the relationship between the Kingdom of God and how the kingdoms of this world work, applying it to the present election season.

Greg speaks from the heart about the way that God judges, and how he uses all life circumstances to grow us, even though he does not cause those circumstances. When we honestly look at the difficulties of life, can we trust that God remains in them and meets us there, bringing good out of evil?

The Bible speaks repeatedly about the judgment of God, including the final judgment that is coming. In this sermon, Greg addresses what God’s judgment means by explaining the concept of organic judgment in contrast with judicial judgment.

In John’s vision he sees the martyrs calling out for justice, asking how long will they have to wait for God to make things right. This speaks to our common longing for justice as we live in the space where Jesus has won the victory and overcome Satan, yet we wait on justice to be fully realized. This sermon shows how we live in this space. 

In this sermon, Greg provides a defense for the existence of an evil intelligence, a being named Satan, and explains how Revelation conveys that he is the source and cause of all the violence, evil and destruction in the world. Through this, Greg argues that God has often been blamed for what Satan has actually done.

This first sermon in this sub-series entitled “The Wrath of the Lamb” sets the stage for what is to come. Greg shows how the images in Revelation 6 have been traditionally interpreted as depicting God as a violent arbiter of wrath. However, he challenges these interpretations and introduces an alternative, which is more faithful to the text and to the revelation of God in Christ.

In this final sermon for the Political Distortions series, Greg Boyd addresses the heart posture of humility, calling us to the mindset of living in love to the point that we take on the mind of Christ on the cross instead of the prideful-ascent mindset that characterizes Satan and those who are always pursuing a life of “more.”

Jesus and the writers of the New Testament highlight the importance of how we use our words. In fact, the biblical parameters stand in stark contrast to the common ways of speaking about one another in modern life. As followers of Jesus, we are called to embrace an alternative way that is driven by love, not slander and gossip.

In this sermon, Shawna Boren calls us to live in the way of Jesus by embodying patience in the midst of strife and turmoil. We are to bear with one another, showing others patience even when our natural tendencies compel us to set them straight. 

Dan Kent challenges us with the words of the Apostle Paul to respond to polarization by letting our gentleness show. He explains what gentleness is and is not, and outlines the inherent power and the freedom we experience when we obey this command to gentleness.

In this team-taught sermon with Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty, we learn about the importance of being a peacemaker, and discover some basic skills about how we can actually promote peace when polarized perspectives are part of our conversations.

Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. Therefore, we must be wise to temptations that seek to entrap us in patterns that lead to our destruction. In this sermon Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty identify common ways that we are tempted in the current culture of political polarization. Greg and Bill then provide practical guidance for navigating these temptations so that we can avoid their entrapment. 

Greg Boyd and Cedrick Baker highlight the difference that the kingdom of God makes and how it contrasts with the kingdoms of this world. They help us understand how the two kingdoms often are combined, which means that the kingdom of God becomes something other than what it should be. Greg and Cedrick also provide some insight into ways that we can practice kingdom distinctives in our everyday lives.

In this introductory sermon to the new series, Political Distortions, Greg Boyd and Bill Doherty provide a framework for why God’s kingdom people are challenged to provide an alternative to the political polarizations that pervade our current reality. They also offer some initial guidance in how we can practice this alternative.

In Revelation 5, John’s vision includes the 24 elders holding up bowls of incense, which are our prayers. Greg explores four aspects of prayer, specifically intercessory or petitionary prayer. He addresses how prayer can be natural, its purpose, why it is urgent and the mystery of prayer’s outcomes. 

The 24 elders in the throne room who sing praises to God show us that corporate worship is a distinctive feature of God’s people. Why is this important? What does this mean when corporate singing is uncommon outside of the church? Greg addresses these questions and provides practical guidance for ways that praising God can become a central part of our relationship with God. 

When John enters the throne room in Revelation 4 and 5, the Father and Son are evident, but the Spirit is depicted as the seven eyes of the slain lamb. What does this imagery tell us about God’s triune nature and what can we learn about the role of the Holy Spirit? These are the questions addressed by Greg in this sermon, and the answers guide us into a deeper union with God.