Sermons From the Edge Podcasts

PodcastDirectory / Religion and Spirituality / Christian
PodcastDirectory / Regions / NA / USA

Faith is a courageous journey... do you have what it takes? Listen to inspirational messages by Gordon D. Venturella that will challenge you to be the person God wants you to be. Primary Format : Christian Also Listed as: Christian Sermons City : Laguna Niguel State/Province : CA Country : USA Country : NA User Tags: insignificance User Votes: RSS Feed Website People found this Podcast Searching for: View this Podcast on a Google Map. Add to iTunes Text Only listing of Sermons From the Edge Podcasts Trumix.com listings available of Sermons From the Edge Podcasts Click Here to Update the directory of this podcasts programs.

Trumix.com listings available of Sermons From the Edge Podcasts Build your own playlists with this podcast. Obligation or Opportunity: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 25:30 min What is our attitude about giving? Do we see it as an obligation or an opportunity? A priority or a problem? Have you noticed in life that there is always some problem that presents itself and then when you get over that one, there is another one. If you wait until everything is perfect, if you wait until everything is settled, if you wait until all your financial issues or time issues are resolved, you'll never give anything to anyon ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Making Choices: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 33:26 min Our lives are comprised of a series of choices made over time and affected by time. The future is, in many ways, determined by the choices that we make in the present. All of our choices are routed or grounded in some faith stance. You look at your bills, you look at the things that you'd like to buy, and then you look at your checkbook and you think, this is a drop in the bucket for everything I need to pay for. Finances and the st ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Before&After: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 18:28 minLife is fragile. With the ring of a doorbell, life can change forever. You get up thinking about your schedule for the day and in a heartbeat it’s changed. It doesn’t matter how important your agenda was for the day; it all gets rearranged.You can take your vitamins, exercise every day, never drink and drive, wear your seatbelt, eat right, and not smoke, and the Grim Reaper is still there. The great interrupter stills roams around. If thi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Life in the Trenches: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 20:31 minPalm Sunday is all about enduring the harsher realities of life. It’s what happens after the honeymoon is over. It’s the first irate phone call after you’ve moved in to the new office. It’s what happens after the sale has been made - and you call the service department. It’s the distraction you must endure to get where you need to go, the detours you must go around to get to your destination. It’s what it takes to cross the finish ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Are You Feeling Lucky? - Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 23:26 minMost people who emigrate from one country to another are doing so in search of a better life. Whether we're talking about the first pilgrims to this country hundreds of years ago, or today when Chinese immigrants stow away in a ship in unsanitary conditions, I have to think most do so in hopes of a better life.What would be a better life?Deep down, if we were honest, we'd admit that we're making decisions about that question every day. Would ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrate the Plain Truth: Sermons from the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 25:39 minIn this sermon we take a look at another aspect of Jesus' life that we can celebrate - His use of plain speech.Jesus may have spoken in parables at times, but they were relevant parables, accessible to those who really wanted to know. When Jesus spoke with people He spoke in terms everyone in his day could understand. His language was the language of everyday commerce – not King James English. He talked about sheep to shepherds, about fruit ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrate With Humility: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 24:14 min Almost always when we start to feel a little too good about ourselves, something or someone comes along to bring us down a notch. This inspirational piece is that something which puts us back in our place: If you can start the day without a cigarette, If you can start the day without caffeine, If you can get going without pills, If you can always be cheerful, ignoring aches, and pains, If you can resist complaining and boring people ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrate With Your Rowdy Friends: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 24:15 minChristians frequently hide behind the phrase, hate the sin but love the sinner, but too often have an attitude that comes off as holier than thou because our real feeling is disgust for the tax collectors and sinners we encounter, and it shows through. The position of the New Testament is that more tolerance is displayed toward the tax collectors and sinners than toward those already in the church who claim to be following Jesus. Too often it ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrate Breaking Down Barriers: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 21:16 minYou don't have to look around too much to discover that some people think that differences should be eliminated. You don't have to look around too much to find people that think the only perfect way of looking and behaving is based upon my preferences, my race, my gender, or my rigid interpretation of God. God created people differently and that's something to celebrate.In this sermon, Gordon talks about three characters and three insights we ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrate Getting Connected: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 23:36 min Radio conversation between a U.S. naval ship and Canadian authorities off the coast of Newfoundland: Canadians: Please divert your course 15 degrees south to avoid a collision. Americans: Recommend you divert your course 15 degrees north to avoid a collision. Canadians: Negative. You will have to divert your course 15 degrees to the south to avoid a collision. Americans: This is the captain of a U.S. Navy ship. I say again, dive ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Celebrate Promises: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 19:46 min A new monk arrives at the monastery. He is assigned to help the other monks in copying the old texts by hand. He notices, however, that they are copying copies, and not the original books. So, the new monk goes to the head monk to ask him about this. He points out that if there was an error in the first copy, that error would be continued in all of the other copies. The head monk says, "We have been copying from the copies for centuri ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What If I Stumble? Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 22:38 min There are few events more embarrassing than tripping or falling down. Have you ever had that experience? You're walking along confident, assured, proud, and your foot catches an uneven spot in the sidewalk and you do that half fall. Sometimes in the mix of relationships, when we don't know what to do, when we aren't paying attention, we stumble. We make mistakes.We overschedule our lives.We get into or stay in damaging relationships.W ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Women are from Nordstrom, Men are from Sears Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 25:10 min The book, Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus has been on the bestseller list for many years. The fact that it rose to the top of the list says something about our culture: Maintaining positive, healthy, nurturing, mutually affirming relationships with members of the opposite sex is difficult. To start the new year we are going to embark on a miniseries, Renewing Your Relationships, because regardless of your station in life, chanc ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The Time is NOW: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 23:05 min Time is a word we use daily and yet it may be one of the most difficult words to define. We can quantify time. We know we have 1440 minutes everyday. But that doesn’t really define time. The question for most of at a personal level is this: What time is it for me? That is, is it time for me to love, or go to war, to gain, or to lose, time to stay, or a time to go, time to grow, or a time to die? What time is it for me? What do you n ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Why the Wise Men Were Really Wise: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 22:23 min For the first time in human history, our problem is not in having access to information, the problem in our day and age is managing all of the information which we have the ability to access and to decide whether or not we should learn it. Not everything that’s out there is worth taking the time to learn about or to know. So what’s the difference between information and real wisdom?Real wisdom is never outdated. Information can beco ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Who Would Believe It? - Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 24:05 minHave you ever had that struggle of faith when life presents you with a dilemma in which you’re not sure how to respond and you wonder where God is in all of it? You’re faced with whether or not to accept it and move ahead in faith or reject it as being too preposterous. I think that’s the position we find Joseph in as we examine the Christmas story from his often overlooked perspective.W. H. Auden has pictured Joseph at home that night, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website The People Who Missed Christmas: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 23:32 minOne of my favorite childhood Christmas stories wasThe Grinch Who Stole Christmas. I was shocked as a youngster that anyone could be so evil as to want to steal Christmas. Since then, I've discovered that many people have had Christmas stolen from them. I'm not talking about those who stoop to stealing Christmas presents from under the tree. I'm talking about those who have the real meaning of Christmas stolen from them because of the attitude ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website How to Celebrate Christmas: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 21:17 minThis is the time of year that most people’s thoughts turn toward celebration. Well, how exactly do you celebrate? Some people define celebration by decorating, some by visiting relatives or friends, and some by watching endless hours of football. Some begin celebrating by getting drunk at the office party on the last working day before Christmas and don't sober up until sometime after New Year's Day. But that’s what they think of when the ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website What is Community? Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 25:01 minI'm not so sure we really know what community is anymore. It's not because we don't use the word enough. We've got community banks, community development, community churches and community organizations. We've also got communities where people are drawn together on the basis of having shared interests. Thus, today you have the gay community, the business community, the labor community, the Harley-Davidson enthusiast community, and any number o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lose the Love that Fades: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 18:48 minThere is a love that fades and needs to be lost in our life, not cultivated in our life. And it has to do with holding our life up to the light and seeing it for what it is. The kind of love we are talking about in this sermon is the kind laden with spiritual fat that can lead to all kinds of spiritual disease. It's the kind of love that eventually fades. And it all starts out with something that at first appears to be a good friend. Somethin ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Don't Tempt Me: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 20:56 minIt’s been said, “I can resist anything but temptation.”Most of the time when we give in to temptation, we know that we shouldn’t, we know that it’s a temptation, we know that it’s going to have potentially disastrous and negative consequences but we give in anyway. What’s going on here that contributes to that?Money is gambled awayFood is Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Lost In Translation: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 24:26 minThe church today is a little like Bill Murray in Tokyo, just a little uncertain and just a little confused. Sometimes it is hard to see Jesus in some churches in this country today. Sometimes He gets lost in translation of what we call church.Sometimes churches translate out Jesus.Here is what we know: There are more options available today then ever before for the average person in America. We know that Islam is growing in this country. We k ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Timing Is Everything: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 27:42 minWe come to forks in the journey of our life when the reading is finished, the praying is prayed, the counsel has been received and it’s time to decide. Today, in the last sermon in this series, we’re going to learn from the model of Esther that making better decisions means that timing really is everything.We find along life there are some road signs that present us with choices. The road signs we encounter are labeled:Excuses or ExampleW ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website When You Have to Move: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 26:25minSometimes we have to journey a little bit further down the road of life then we’d prefer. There are times when we would just as soon prefer to stay in one place and life’s circumstances move us to a new place or a new location, for whatever the reason. These unfortunate, unforeseeable and unplanned events in our life push us along and force us to keep moving even though we’d rather complacently stay where we are.In this sermon, we will l ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Off The Map: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 23:34 minSometimes we miss a lot of incredible opportunities because of a lack of vision in our lives. We’re not able to see it. We’re not able to capture the vision that God may have for us because of preconceived notions or because of the way we’ve already figured things should be, could be, ought to be. We set out to travel where we think we need to go and in the process we block out other avenues, other possibilities, other interesting sites ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website When You're In Over Your Head: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 20:14 minHave you ever had to make a decision about getting ready for a flood before it started to rain in your life? Have you ever had to make a decision before all the facts were in? You couldn’t see all of the ramifications in advance, but you had to order the lumber now or you would be in over your head later.Download MP3: When You're In Over Your Head Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Arrogance: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 30:38 minIt seems that when we look in the mirror and we see the same characteristic or quality in ourselves that we see in someone else, we’ve got another word for it and that makes it ok. When we look at someone else, then we name it for what it is. When someone else is acting high and mighty they are arrogant, but when we are acting high and mighty, we are just strongly self-confident.Download MP3: Arrogance Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Anger: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 28:55 minWhat are those things that really makes you angry? What makes you mad? What makes you blow your stack? When is anger the right response? With most of us, if we have the right buttons pushed enough, we can have anger erupt within us like a volcano. Some people would say that we should never get angry, that God doesn't get angry and that Jesus didn't get angry, but in this sermon, a different view is presented.Download MP3: Anger Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Dirty Little Secrets: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 25:57 minHave you ever tried to lift something that looked light but when you went to lift it, it was heavier then you thought? Deceit is something that is a much heavier load then frequently we know about. The life of deception weakens us, it makes cowards of us, it stunts our spiritual growth, it affects every area of our life, it is a heavier load then we can ever hope to carry by ourselves, and thinking that we can carry the load of deception is, ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website INflexibility: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 26:16 minIf our faith doesn’t get stretched regularly, it can become inflexible and it can snap. If we are not constantly stretching our faith, learning, exercising, and growing our faith, our views can become calcified to the extent that we’ll not be able to see what Jesus is trying to teach us.Download MP3: INflexibility Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Betrayal: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 22:22 minLoyalty and integrity are probably the least used and practiced words in America today. You don’t even hear them spoken let alone practiced. We’ve become jaded with all the betrayal that goes on all around us today. In this sermon we are going to look at this topic of betrayal that so permeates the land in which we live and the airwaves which we listen to, on three different levels: business, church and inner personal.Download MP3: Betray ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Greed: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 26:55 minYou’re probably familiar with the mythic Achilles, greater than mortal man but not quite God, he’s a fascinating example of how great promise can fall victim to moral failing. Achilles heel has endured for centuries as the metaphor for a fatal flaw, a chink in the armor that permits the tip of an arrow to penetrate and to kill. It turns out that many characters in the bible have that same flaw, and chances are that most of us do too.Downl ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website A Distorted View of God: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella 20:20 minMany people today say that their childhood fear of God was not a reverent awe, it wasn’t something that elicited respect from them, rather it was something that was an absolute terror, and over and over I have people tell me all they heard was hellfire and brimstone.Download MP3: A Distorted View of God Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Change: Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 16:37 minChange is all around us. It’s a change or be changed culture. So how do we cope with the fear of change?Download MP3: Change Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Insignificance, Sermons From the Edge Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 20:09 minHow do you face down the fear of insignificance? Is science the key to unlocking the meaning of the universe? Can I have meaning and significance in my life and still be an atheist or an agnostic? Why is it that as human beings we have the need to feel that we can make a difference? Millions are looking for meaning in their life but they’re not looking to the church anymore. They are looking in other places...Download MP3: Insignificance Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Unexpected Storms Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella 26:57 minWhat if I had to give it all away? What if lost my family, or I lost my health, or I lost my ability to make a living? What if due to an unexpected storm in my life, it was all taken away? There are a lot of fears in this life and in this sermon you will hear about the unexpected storms that come upon us, those that we might not have anticipated, those that we would not have predicted but they come upon us anyway and we find ourselves in the mi ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: The Fine Line Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella 26:33 minAt some time in your life, chances are, you have looked at the person you were so passionately in love with, so lovesick about, and wondered, "Did I just make a terrible mistake?" If you’ve been there you know that those feelings are pretty scary. The single word that best describes you is, confused. You're wondering what happened here? Did he change? Did I change? Is this relationship able to be fixed? Is it even worth the effort to fix it o ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Compassion, Not Pity Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella 21:52 minThe Church With An Attitude, Part 6Pity leads to despair, compassion leads to hope. Someone has said pity weeps and walks away, compassion comes to help and to stay. Pity often produces the tears that keep us a safe distance away from another persons problem. Pity observes, compassion involves.Download MP3: Compassion, Not Pity Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Not Without A Doubt Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella 24:45 minThe Church With An Attitude, Part 5There really are just a few big questions in life. Why am I here? Where did I come from? Where will I go when I leave this life? The big questions in life are in response to the only things we know about this life and that is that I am here, I got here somehow, and I’ll leave here someday. And so the really big doubts surround the really big questions.Download MP3: Not Without A Doubt Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: What Do You Hope For? Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 21:10 minWhat is it you hope for most? A slimmer body? Fatter paycheck? New lover? Old flame? Improved golf game? Canceled debt? World peace? Warmer reception? Cool million? A smarter president? A dumber date? Sometimes we use the word hope as being synonymous with the word wish. When we say, “I hope,” what we are really saying is, “I wish.”Download MP3: What Do You Hope For? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Who's Getting Served? Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella 10:37 minThe Church With An Attitude, Part 3 - Human nature has pretty consistently viewed servanthood as something that the powerless does for the powerful, that those without any power do for those with all the power. The message of Jesus is just the opposite...Download MP3: Who's Getting Served? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Working Out Work Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 24:06 minThe Church With An Attitude, Part 2 - Have you lost interest in life because you have lost your dreams about what you could do? As we get older our hopes and dreams of what we will do when we grow up begin to fade, begin to wash over us, and the sandpaper of life begins to sand off the rough edges. Without personal dreams about the future, we’re all dead. Work, for many people, can be a dream stealer.Download MP3: Working Out Work Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Gargoyle of Guilt Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 28:23 minThe Gargoyle of Guilt weighs us down, hangs over us, robs us of enjoyable times, and breaths its energy sapping breath into every area of our life. This kind of guilt has a destructive purpose that focuses on damaging our self-worth and ultimately leads to depression. This kind of guilt does not come from God. There are times when we violate God’s moral code and our conscience, and we feel guilty and we should, but God doesn’t want us to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Life in a Box Audio sermon by: Gordon D. Venturella | 29:20 minBoxes, well, they box us in. They rob us of life, they anesthetize us, they limit us, they blind us. Boxes, after all, are what they bury us in. So who wants to live in one? Take a look around and you’ll see a world of people whose life is lived in a box. People who are desperately looking for a way they can experience life.Download MP3: Life in a Box Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Out of Change Audio sermon by: Gordon D. VenturellaHave you run out of change? God is asking you to have the courage to look deep down in your soul to see if you have any change left; areas of your life that you still want to maintain control over; areas of your life that you still think that you know better than God.Download MP3: Out of Change? Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Risk to Learn and Learn to Risk Audio sermon by: Gordon D. VenturellaLife is about change. Some people try to deny that by not taking risks, but essentially, life is about change. The older we get the greater the temptation for complacency. And whether you’re 18 or 88, the reality is that the older we get the easier it is to take the easy road and the more frequently we rationalize why we can’t do things. In short, we just take fewer risks. However, if we really want to start living, we must risk to learn and learn to ... Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: A Life That Backs Up Our Lips Audio sermon by: Gordon D. VenturellaFor many in this culture, Church is a dangerous place, not because of the life changing message of Jesus, but because it’s a place of abuse and deception, a place where many have a memory merely of being taken advantage of. But it doesn't have to be that way...Download MP3: A Life That Backs Up Our Lips Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website Sermons From the Edge: Road Rules Audio sermon by: Gordon D. VenturellaHave you ever encountered a freeway shutdown that required you to take a detour into unfamiliar neighborhoods? Have you wondered which way to turn? How long will this take? How do I get back going the direction that I want to go, that I feel like I should be going? These Road Rules will offer tips to help you practice good driving habits when you are caught without a compass and are not sure where to turn next.Download MP3: Road Rules Listen | Listen in your iPhone | Download | View full cache | Visit Website