Dayspring Fellowship Podcasts

Lies We Believe | Part 2 | Lies We Believe About Ourselves | Chris Voigt

Lies We Believe About OurselvesLies We BelieveJanuary 9, 2022
Two Truths and a Lie is a classic icebreaker game. Each person in the group introduces themselves by stating two truths and one lie. The object of the game is for the rest of the group to determine which statement is false and to discover things that are true about others. Even when dealing with just three sentences, it can be challenging to determine which is true and which is not. There are endless numbers of ways to manipulate language and make false statements. Discerning the truth can be difficult. In a game scenario the stakes aren’t so high – you’re just having fun. But what about in life? Is there a source of truth we can really trust? I have a young friend who is a truck driver. On a recent drive, traveling a stretch of highway just outside a small town in south central Oregon, he saw those dreaded flashing lights in his rearview mirror. His GPS told him the speed limit was one thing. The officer who pulled him over said it was something else. He hadn’t passed a speed limit sign. So, how do you know what the truth is? One source says one thing and another source says something else. It can be exceedingly frustrating, not to mention confusing and mentally exhausting to sort it out! In this case, the guy with the badge holds the trump card. But just because he has authority doesn’t necessarily mean his statement about the speed limit was true. Last week we launched a new sermon series titled, Lies We Believe and the Truths That Set Us Free. Conflicting messages come at us from every direction, about almost every subject. This week we’re taking a look at some of the lies we believe about ourselves. We have an enemy who is desperate to do whatever it takes to defeat, discourage, and destroy us. He has embedded lies about our identity, purpose, and worth in absolutely everything. But God’s Word contains the truth about who we are, why we are, and where our value comes from.Join us as we dig into God’s Word and remind ourselves, or maybe discover for the first time, what God – the One who created you – has to say about you. It’s truth you can trust.

Lies We Believe | Part 1 | And the Truth Shall Set You Free | Chris Voigt

And The Truth Shall Set You FreeLies We BelieveJanuary 2, 2022
Everybody knows the phrase. I’m sure you can finish it with me...Liar, liar..... pants on fire. Even though the rhyme is well known, apparently no one knows where it came from! There is no interesting backstory or definitive origin that can be identified. At least, not by a Google search. We tried that! And we all know they know everything! But what I do know…is that if it really worked that way...if a liar’s pants caught on fire when a lie was told, it would be a whole lot easier to identify the lies! Our world is saturated with lies. We hear them every day. So much so, that it can be incredibly difficult to tell the difference between what is true and what is not. We’ve heard them for so long, and from so many sources we think we should be able to trust, that we have begun to believe them. We’ve even gone so far as to build identities and lives around them. Sadly, we too often go around not even realizing the damage these lies do to our view of God, our view of others…and even to ourselves. Contrary to popular belief, truth is not subjective. There is only one source for truth...and it’s not us. There is no “my truth” or “your truth.” Something is either true or it isn’t. God is the source of all truth and His Word is the resource we can trust. We are starting a brand-new year with a brand-new sermon series: Lies We Believe and the Truth That Sets Us Free. In the absence of britches that burst into flames with every lie spoken, we will need to do the work to develop biblical discernment. I invite you to join us as we uncover some of the most pervasive and persuasive lies in our culture...and discover the truths that can give us real freedom. Jesus said that His followers would know the truth and that the truth would set us free. But the truth won’t just fall into our laps...Jesus’ promise is based on our obedience. We are called to be intentional, faithful followers...learning, discerning, living out the truth of God’s Word so that the world can see what real truth looks like.I invite you to join us as we learn to more faithfully follow Jesus together.

2021 Year in Review | Chris Voigt

2021 Year in ReviewLook What God Has DoneDecember 26, 2021
Well, 2021 is almost in the books. We’re closing the final pages in the next few days and The End (of another year) is in sight. Whether you think it was a good year or not, it wasn’t 2020, so I guess we can be thankful for that! I got a new car this past year. It has a bunch of fun technology in it. For example, the rearview mirror is so cool! If you flip it one way, you have a normal mirror, with a reverse image of what’s behind you. But if you flip it the other way, you have a camera view of what’s back there. But with the camera, the depth of field is slightly altered. Things behind you on the camera view look much closer than they actually are! So... your choice...mirror or camera...two different ways of looking back, each with a different perspective.Isn’t that how it usually works? With looking back, I mean? If we look back too long, that can mess up our forward progress. But it’s still important to be aware of what’s behind us, if we want to move forward in a healthy, productive way. So, that’s what we’re going to do this Sunday.Before we step into the pages of a brand-new year, let’s pause together and get a little perspective. Remembering where we’ve been will help us as we move into what God has ahead for us. I hope you’ll join us!

Unexpected Christmas | Part 5 | And Everything Changed | Chris Voigt

An Unexpected Christmas
And Everything Changed
December 24, 2021
As followers of Jesus, we celebrate the birth of Christ because we believe He was the greatest gift ever given. Because of Him, we have a restored relationship with God the Father. But it’s not just our own personal stories that have been impacted by the gift, the life of Jesus. His name is known on every continent around the world. He elevated the status of women, children, the sick, the poor. When Jesus came into the world, everything changed. This is what we celebrate at Christmas...that because of Jesus, we have reason to sing, to laugh, to be joyful, to worship.

Unexpected Christmas | Part 4 | Promise Keeper | Chris Voigt

Promise KeeperAn Unexpected ChristmasDecember 19, 2021
Remember the days of newsy Christmas letters? In our social media saturated culture, the tradition of sending an annual Christmas letter seems to have disappeared. Much like the usual Facebook or Instagram feed, the typical Christmas re-cap is full of only the good stuff...how fast the kids are growing, where they are excelling in school, sports, or music. Updates on graduations, engagements, weddings, babies, promotions, vacations or retirements...all the best moments, carefully edited to make life look and sound amazing. Because those are the things we want to remember; the things that are fun, happy, and make us feel (and look) good. We tend not to include the hard stuff...the struggles and failures. Even though we know that everybody experiences them, that’s not the kind of news we deem Christmas letter worthy. Throughout the Christmas season, we’ve been taking a look at some of the people in Jesus’ family tree. We’ve discovered that the gospel writer Matthew included a few names in Jesus’ genealogy that we probably would have left out of our only-the-good-stuff Christmas letter! This week, we’ll look at the most famous ancestor of Jesus who, for all his incredibly shining moments, was also a colossal failure. Why would Matthew choose to remind his readers of the struggle and sin of David when there were so many good things he could have highlighted instead?

Unexpected Christmas | Part 3 | Label Makers | Chris Voigt

Label MakersAn Unexpected ChristmasDecember 12, 2021
“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet.”According to this line from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, names are a rather meaningless thing…at least from Juliet’s perspective. But I’m not sure that I would agree. One of the very first tasks that God gave to Adam in the creation story is the naming of all the animals. Naming is both important and powerful work. We give names or labels to all kinds of things. Names communicate value, purpose, and quality. They can identify aspirations or create expectations. But for all the good and positive things that names can imply or communicate, names or labels can also be damaging or hurtful.Do you remember the generic label trend from the 70’s and 80’s? Those no-name white boxes, bags, or canned products with plain black lettering? For too many years, we lived on many of those, what were then less than high-quality brand substitutes. Generic mac and cheese? Gross! But eventually, the no-name trend gave way to the power of store brands…with recognizable names and reputations we could trust, that taste as good and sometimes even better than the brand name products. Oh, how far we’ve come! Although, I’ll never eat generic cornflakes again, no matter how good the store brand is. Names carry power and have meaning. Names can be an indicator of value or importance. No-name brands didn’t have the same pull.This Christmas season we are looking at the names of the people in Jesus’ family tree. We’ve discovered there are a few surprising and unexpected inclusions in Jesus’ genealogy! This week, we’ll be taking a look at the story of someone who carried not only a distinctive name, but who also bore an eyebrow-raising label.
 

Unexpected Christmas | Part 2 | An Unlikely Candidate | Jon Sprouse

An Unlikely CandidateAn Unexpected ChristmasDecember 5, 2021
He's making a list, checking it twice; gonna find out who's naughty or nice,Santa Claus is coming to town.He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake,He knows if you've been bad or good. so be good for goodness sake!The earliest known recording of Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town was made in 1934. It was an immediate hit. Throughout the years it’s been recorded by more than 200 different artists spanning a wide variety of genres. From Bing Crosby, Neil Diamond and Bruce Springsteen to Mariah Carey, The Jackson 5 and Michael Bublé…the message has been repeated: He’s gonna find out who’s naughty or nice…so be good, for goodness sake!In case you’re worried about whether or not you are on Santa’s ‘nice’ list, you can check online. We looked up the names of every Dayspring staff member and I’m happy to report that we have no one on the ‘naughty’ list this year! I’m not quite sure how Joaquin made it, but we double-checked and he’s definitely on the nice list.We'd like to invite you to join us this Christmas season as we take a look at some of the unexpected names included in the genealogy of Jesus. I mean, some of these people would definitely be on Santa’s naughty list, so why does the gospel writer, Matthew, include them in his list of Jesus’ ancestors? That’s what we’ll discover this Sunday as we take a look at the stories of Judah and Tamar.Naughty or nice may matter to Santa, but all are invited to celebrate the birth of Jesus. Bring your brokenness, your disappointment, your weariness, failure or fear. Come as you are. We look forward to welcoming you.

Unexpected Christmas | Part 1 | Guest List | Michelle Snook

Guest ListAn Unexpected ChristmasNovember 28, 2021
Thanksgiving 2021 has come and is almost gone. Now it’s deck the halls and fa-la-la-la-la…’tis the season, friends! I hope you enjoyed a great day of celebration with people you love this week.The Christmas season is filled with traditions and expectations. Do you do an advent calendar or Elf on the Shelf? A real Christmas tree or a pre-lit boxed one? Gifts on Christmas Eve or on Christmas Day? Many of our holiday traditions are linked to our childhood experiences, our families and our history. They give us a sense of comfort, familiarity, and identity. But as families grow and change, our traditions and expectations sometimes change. This Sunday, we’re beginning a new sermon series called An Unexpected Christmas. Most of you know the Christmas story. Many of you have heard it from the time you were a child. But even as well as you think you know it, there are some surprising unexpected details in the story of our Savior. Some of them may just challenge your perspective or change your expectations!There are so many things to look forward to this holiday season. Unwrapping the unexpected gifts in this series is the one thing I’m looking forward to most. I hope you are as well.

If Money Talked | Part 3 | Keep Track | Chris Voigt

Keep TrackIf Money TalkedNovember 21, 2021
Have you ever lost your keys?Imagine the morning rush…you’re racing to get out the door on time. You’ve got a bagel in your mouth, your coat’s half on, you’ve snagged your backpack with one hand, while you try to get your other arm into your coat so you can grab your coffee and herd the kids out to the car. And then, you reach for your keys… only to come up empty. But they’re always right there! In that spot. That’s where you put them every night! Well, apparently not last night. And then the rush kicks into overdrive as you search frantically for the missing keys.Keeping track of all the things can be a lot of work! There is just so much! There are the basics like time…wait, what time is it? How did it get to be so late? I still have so much to do! And then there’s the refrigerator. What do you mean we’re out of milk again? Why didn’t anyone write it on the grocery list? And there’s the kids, the school and sports schedules, the laundry, dentist appointments, and oops, the car needed an oil change over a month ago. So many things!Well, thankfully, technology has made it so that some things are easier to keep track of. My keys have this fancy little do-dad that allows me to locate them whenever they aren’t where I expect them to be. I can just find them with my phone! Of course, that’s assuming I know where my phone is! But if I’ve misplaced my phone, I can always track it down with my Apple watch. Ahhh…technology!There are also apps for keeping track of just about anything…your appointments, your workouts, your diet, your grocery list, the books you’ve read; if you want to track it, there’s probably an app for it! There are even apps to help you keep track of your money!
In our sermon series the last couple of weeks, we’ve been taking a look at what your money might say…if your money could talk. Interestingly, we’ve discovered that if money could talk, it would probably say the same things that Jesus DID say about money.

If Money Talked | Part 2 | Send Me Away | Chris Voigt

Send Me AwayIf Money TalkedNovember 14, 2021
According to the people who are experts about such things, (hey, Google, thanks for the intel) there are certain topics that people just do not want to talk about. I mean, maybe with your spouse or closest friends, but in ‘polite’ conversation there are some things that are better left off the table. Apparently, people don’t really want to chat about things like politics, sin, sex, their faults, or their most recent colonoscopy. And you can add money to that list. Nobody wants anybody else messing around in their personal finances.Interestingly, Jesus didn’t shy away from those taboo topics. Well, I guess there isn’t any record of Him talking about colonoscopies, but for everything else He jumped right in…challenging the perspectives, assumptions, and choices that people made in just about every area of life. And if He did it (with compassion and kindness, of course), so should we. Which leads us to our current sermon series.We are in the middle of a three-week series called If Money Talked. It’s an interesting thought…if your money could talk, what would it say to you and what might it reveal about you? The way we use our money says a lot about what we believe, what we value, what or who we trust.As followers of Jesus, we are learning to more closely align the things we say we believe with the way we really live, every day. Together, we are figuring out what it looks like for our faith to be more than stuff we know, but to impact how we live, to transform who we are, to make us more like Jesus.