Advertise on podcast: Harbor Church Honolulu

You’ll spend more of your waking life working than anything else. 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, for 45 years, adds up to 90,000 hours. Many people work only for a paycheck or promotion, or just to make it to retirement. But God wants to elevate all our work, whether it’s at an office, on a job-site, in the home, or in our church. Joseph will show us how to see that happen.

Some of us are running on 3%. Nothing left to give, and the week isn’t even over. This Sunday we launch Becoming, six weeks exploring the life of Joseph, a man who received everything he needed before he had anything to give. You don’t start this journey full. You start it empty, and you receive.

What does a Jesus-follower look like? We’re not talking about what they wear, what they drive, or what sticker is on their bumper. If somebody snapped a picture of the people of God, what would they see? Good news: we don’t have to guess. 
In Acts 2, God posted the very first family photo. And that’s what the Harbor family is aiming to look like.

We all love the idea of going all in with God, but most of us still keep a hand on a few valued chips, just in case. So sometimes God has to take the things we value away from us (even things he himself gave us), to help us see that God is so much better than his gifts.

Ever feel like you don’t fit in? Maybe you feel it at pau hana time when you’re the only one who doesn’t down a 6-pack. Maybe you feel it at family dinners when you’re the only one who doesn't laugh at the joke. You feel it because every Christian is a spiritual alien in this world. An “elect exile” like it says in 1 Peter 1. Abraham was an alien in the land where God placed him, but he’ll show us how to live well as an outsider.

God is absolutely sovereign. He made a sovereign plan for our lives before the foundation of the world. But he chooses to use our intercessory prayer as part of his sovereign plan. So how can we pray for God to move mightily in our families, neighborhoods, and islands? Abraham will show us the way.

Quick: on a scale of 1-10, how are you at waiting? If 10 is a monk on a mountaintop, and 1 is a toddler in the checkout line at Costco, where do you land? Most of us are extremely waiting-resistant, but then God says things to us like, ”Wait patiently for the Lord.” We don’t like it, so we find shortcuts and workarounds to the waiting. But God will show us how to trust him and his loving plan.

We’ve all experienced broken promises, and those disappointments can make it difficult to trust anyone. So how can we be sure that God will actually keep the promises he makes? We’ll see Abram wrestle with fear, doubt, and waiting, and discover why God’s promises don’t rest on our faithfulness, but on his unchanging character.

We all want God’s blessing, but what does his blessing actually look like? Is it getting what we want, having things work out, or seeing the doors we’ve prayed for open? Through the story of Abram and Lot, we’ll see that God’s blessing is about more than what we have. Ultimately, the greatest blessing God gives us is himself.

There’s no question that every one of us will fail in small ways every day. Some days we’ll fail in big ways. The real question is what we do the morning after. How can we learn to fail forward and prevent future failures? Abram will show us the way. If you're wrestling through discouragement or failure, tune in to this message!

Ever watch a poker tournament on TV? Every game is cautious and calculated. A chip here, a chip there. Then one moment changes the whole game. A player looks at his cards, takes a breath, shoves every chip he’s got into the middle, and he says two words: ALL IN. He’s putting everything he’s got on what he believes to be true. That’s the kind of faith God called Abraham to live out. Most of us live life one chip at a time, but over the next 10 weeks, God will use the life of Abraham to lovingly pry our fingers off the chips so we can boldly go all-in on his grace.

As we head into the fall, this is the time when people think about making a fresh start. It’s when we re-think some of our strategies in life. Maybe you’ve been coasting for a while or even going downhill for a while. The good news we’ll see in Genesis is that God’s grace always brings an opportunity for a life reset. If you need a fresh start, tune into this message!

When you were a toddler, you raised your arms in expectation your dad would pick you up. When you were a teenager caught in a lie you raised your hands in surrender, hoping for forgiveness. When your team scores a game-clinching touchdown, goal, or basket, you raise your arms in celebration. And all of these are reasons to raise your hands to God in worship.