Hot Seat Model: Getting Across the Table (Eric)
04/15/25 • 51 min
In the final sermon of the Hot Seat Model series, Pastor Eric teaches on what it looks like to help someone move across the table—from the side of false beliefs and chosen relief to the side of Jesus’ story, true identity, and life in the Kingdom. He focuses on how our God-given longings often get turned into demands, and how that shift can lead us away from trust and toward control.
Pastor Eric encourages the community to rely on the Holy Spirit—both in listening to God and in learning how to walk with one another. He emphasizes that helping someone isn’t about fixing them but staying present, asking good questions, and pointing them back to Jesus.
The sermon also includes specific ways to help people reconnect with the gospel: questions that surface what they believe, who they think they are, and what it might look like to respond to God rather than react to pain. The goal isn’t just awareness—it’s renewal. And that happens best in community, with the Spirit’s help.
The Village Church’s sermon podcast is more than just a weekly message. It is an invitation into the great and ongoing story of God’s work in the world. Pastors Eric, Mark, Susan, Daniel, and other leaders open the Scriptures not as a collection of abstract ideas but as the living, breathing witness to God’s kingdom breaking into our midst. Each episode is a call—not merely to listen, but to take part, to step forward into the life of faith with renewed vision and purpose.
Week by week, the pastors and leaders explore the deep rhythms of Christian discipleship—prayer, fasting, generosity—not as isolated duties but as part of a larger, richer, and more beautiful whole. They unpack these ancient practices in light of Jesus himself, the one in whom heaven and earth have come together. But they also turn their attention to the realities of everyday life—relationships, finances, the struggles and joys of being human—demonstrating how the gospel is not merely about what we believe but about how we live as God's renewed people in the present age.
The Village Church
[email protected]
More information at www.villagersonline.com
In the final sermon of the Hot Seat Model series, Pastor Eric teaches on what it looks like to help someone move across the table—from the side of false beliefs and chosen relief to the side of Jesus’ story, true identity, and life in the Kingdom. He focuses on how our God-given longings often get turned into demands, and how that shift can lead us away from trust and toward control.
Pastor Eric encourages the community to rely on the Holy Spirit—both in listening to God and in learning how to walk with one another. He emphasizes that helping someone isn’t about fixing them but staying present, asking good questions, and pointing them back to Jesus.
The sermon also includes specific ways to help people reconnect with the gospel: questions that surface what they believe, who they think they are, and what it might look like to respond to God rather than react to pain. The goal isn’t just awareness—it’s renewal. And that happens best in community, with the Spirit’s help.
The Village Church’s sermon podcast is more than just a weekly message. It is an invitation into the great and ongoing story of God’s work in the world. Pastors Eric, Mark, Susan, Daniel, and other leaders open the Scriptures not as a collection of abstract ideas but as the living, breathing witness to God’s kingdom breaking into our midst. Each episode is a call—not merely to listen, but to take part, to step forward into the life of faith with renewed vision and purpose.
Week by week, the pastors and leaders explore the deep rhythms of Christian discipleship—prayer, fasting, generosity—not as isolated duties but as part of a larger, richer, and more beautiful whole. They unpack these ancient practices in light of Jesus himself, the one in whom heaven and earth have come together. But they also turn their attention to the realities of everyday life—relationships, finances, the struggles and joys of being human—demonstrating how the gospel is not merely about what we believe but about how we live as God's renewed people in the present age.
The Village Church
[email protected]
More information at www.villagersonline.com
Previous Episode
Hot Seat Model: The Gospel (Eric)
In this episode of the Village Church's sermon podcast, Pastor Eric Cepin continues the Lenten series, The Hot Seat Model, by focusing on Jesus' place at the Table of Decision. Eric takes time to unpack what the Gospel truly is. He reflects on the invitation to receive Jesus’ story as our own—how it shapes our identity and calls us into a life marked by repentance, grounded in the Kingdom of God.
The Village Church’s sermon podcast is more than just a weekly message. It is an invitation into the great and ongoing story of God’s work in the world. Pastors Eric, Mark, Susan, Daniel, and other leaders open the Scriptures not as a collection of abstract ideas but as the living, breathing witness to God’s kingdom breaking into our midst. Each episode is a call—not merely to listen, but to take part, to step forward into the life of faith with renewed vision and purpose.
Week by week, the pastors and leaders explore the deep rhythms of Christian discipleship—prayer, fasting, generosity—not as isolated duties but as part of a larger, richer, and more beautiful whole. They unpack these ancient practices in light of Jesus himself, the one in whom heaven and earth have come together. But they also turn their attention to the realities of everyday life—relationships, finances, the struggles and joys of being human—demonstrating how the gospel is not merely about what we believe but about how we live as God's renewed people in the present age.
The Village Church
[email protected]
More information at www.villagersonline.com
Next Episode
Easter 2025 - Two Roads
In this Village Church Easter sermon podcast, Pastor Eric Cepin presents a profound comparison—one that invites you to reflect not just theologically, but existentially. He traces two archetypal roads.
The first is the road out of Eden. It’s the path humanity took after the catastrophic realization of good and evil. Eyes opened, yes—but not to clarity. To fear. To shame. To isolation. It's a road we all walk when we choose knowledge without wisdom, when we grasp for autonomy and end up fractured, hiding from the very presence that gave us life.
Then, there's the road to Emmaus. Two individuals, disoriented and disillusioned, walk away from Jerusalem—the city whose name literally means peace. They're not just leaving a place; they’re abandoning hope. But something unexpected happens. Christ meets them. He doesn’t overwhelm. He walks. He teaches. And in the breaking of the bread, their eyes are opened—not like Eden’s painful awakening, but an awakening into recognition, into meaning, into communion.
They turn around. They go back to Jerusalem. Back to peace. Back, metaphorically, to Eden—not the paradise lost, but the paradise reimagined, restored through resurrection.
This isn’t just about history. It’s about every one of us. Which road are you on? And more importantly—who’s walking it with you?
The Village Church’s sermon podcast is more than just a weekly message. It is an invitation into the great and ongoing story of God’s work in the world. Pastors Eric, Mark, Susan, Daniel, and other leaders open the Scriptures not as a collection of abstract ideas but as the living, breathing witness to God’s kingdom breaking into our midst. Each episode is a call—not merely to listen, but to take part, to step forward into the life of faith with renewed vision and purpose.
Week by week, the pastors and leaders explore the deep rhythms of Christian discipleship—prayer, fasting, generosity—not as isolated duties but as part of a larger, richer, and more beautiful whole. They unpack these ancient practices in light of Jesus himself, the one in whom heaven and earth have come together. But they also turn their attention to the realities of everyday life—relationships, finances, the struggles and joys of being human—demonstrating how the gospel is not merely about what we believe but about how we live as God's renewed people in the present age.
The Village Church
[email protected]
More information at www.villagersonline.com
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