All Saints Church Podcast

Advent is a time of waiting that invites us to reflect on the ways we too await God's word to be fulfilled in our lives. This week, we reflect on Mary’s yielded life as a model for trusting God without full answers, committing to a costly process, and finding peace. Like her, we call our whole community to say “yes” to God with our whole selves, even when it costs us, trusting that God's light will outshine the dark. This podcast episode also includes our first ever financial update as we reflect on God's faithfulness to All Saints through the generosity of His people. We invite our whole church to take ownership of the story God is writing in this church plant through regular, prayerful contribution to the work of Jesus in our community. Listen now for more!

As we close our Origins series and enter the season of Advent, scripture leaves us with a timely reminder: Even in darkness and wastelands, God is with us. He gives us hope to endure and a fire to carry until He comes again. 

Human sin unravels God’s good world and leads to death. Death unfolds through decreation and alienation, limiting our ability to multiply God's image and bring order and beauty to the world. Yet death is not the end. In Christ, sin never has the final word.

In the moments after the first humans reject him, God graciously moves towards humanity to speak with us–and confront our spiritual enemy. God exposes the serpent's deception and pronounces punishments upon him, culminating in the promise of a Savior born of human seed who will defeat the serpent for good. From the beginning of scripture we discover that when we hide, God hunts. He draws close to us and destroys our enemy.

Genesis 3:1-7 introduces the serpent, a mysterious creature whom Scripture reveals as a rebel against God and an enemy of humanity. In the garden, we discover the serpent's tactics—twisting God's words, telling us lies, and turning our gaze from God—while hearing God's call to recognize spiritual reality, resist the serpent's strategies, and rest in Christ's victory. We have a Savior who is sufficient, stronger, and worthy of all our praise!

Before sin entered the world, the only thing God calls "not good" is a human without community. You were created with a holy longing to be with others, and Genesis 2 demonstrates how God's good design for community is fulfilled in marriage, mission, and ultimately the Church. As we lean in to love and be loved by one another, we experience a foretaste of eternity right here on earth.

Genesis 2:4–17 introduces Eden as God’s original vision for human flourishing: a land of abundance, delight, and intimacy with God that leads to a life of discovery, discipline, and adventure. At Eden's center is a sacred garden where heaven meets earth. God places the first humans in this garden to enjoy his presence and extend Eden's borders over the face of the earth, carrying his presence with them to the rest of creation. Through Jesus' incarnation and The Holy Spirit dwelling within us, the Church carries on that mission today as we bring God's blessing and order to the broken parts of our world. 

Special guest Dan Braga explores the meaning of Shabbat, tracing how God’s rest at creation points to Jesus as the Lord of the Sabbath. Sabbath is a sacred rhythm—ceasing work to receive God’s presence—and this practice brings peace amid cultural chaos.
Braga connects Sabbath to Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, urging believers to enter the finished work of Christ and to embody a non-anxious, restful presence in the world. He closes with practical encouragement to plan and fight for weekly Sabbath as a way to reorder lives and communities in shalom.

On this episode of All Saints Off the Cuff, we pull at loose threads that have come up in our Origins series so far. After sharing personal highlights from Genesis 1, we discuss the practice and ethics of creation care, explore the beauty of ethnic and embodied difference, and conclude with a closer look at how Scripture shapes unity and belonging across culture and gender. 

As we continue to explore the image of God in Genesis 1, we discover that all humans—male and female, of every ethnicity and ability—are made in God’s image and belong to God’s family. It’s as if the Divine Artist has painted a self-portrait in each individual, and also each culture, he has created. When we bless the dignity in others and embrace our embodied differences, we love our neighbors and honor the One Who Made Them.