ReCreate Church’s Podcast

The Ache & The Answer ReCreate Church | Pastor Michael Shockley

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Ever feel that unexplainable weight in your chest? That sense that something is missing even when life looks good on paper? In this powerful message, Pastor Michael explores the story of Benjamin, a man who had achieved everything yet still felt empty inside. Through the lens of Ephesians 2:8-9, you'll discover that the ache we all carry ...

Dad Tired - ReCreate Church, Sunday Service, June 15, 2025 Overflowing, Part 3: Dad Tired ReCreate Church | Pastor Michael Shockley | Father's Day

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EPISODE SUMMARY

Feeling like your battery is constantly drained? Whether you're a dad, mom, student, or caregiver, we all know what it's like to run on empty. In this hilarious and encouraging Father's Day message, Pastor Michael explores the reality of being "Dad Tired" and d...

Overflowing, Part 2: A Little is A Lot ReCreate Church | Pastor Michael Shockley EPISODE SUMMARY

Ever feel like you don't have enough? Not enough money, time, energy, or resources to make it through? In this encouraging message, Pastor Michael explores the powerful story of a desperate widow in 2 Kings 4:1-7 who discovered that God can do incredible things with whatever little we have. Through humor, practical wisdom, and biblical ...

Running on Empty

“You can't pour out what God hasn't poured in.”

Pastor Michael explores the tension between feeling spiritually empty and God's promise of an overflowing cup in Psalm 23. Through humor, personal stories, and the biblical account of King David's darkest moments, this message addresses why we often feel like we're "running on empty" spiritually and how God wants to fill us to overflowing.

 

Key Topics Covered

 

The F...

Disciples Who Make Disciples

Today, Pastor Michael is starting off with an affirmation, a potential sixth love language.  What is this extra expression of love?  Discipleship.

This message is about discipleship.  Disciples who can disciple the next generation.  

Michael picks up the story with Jesus picking out the twelve disciples, those who could “preach and drive out demons.”  These twelve are listed in three additional lists in...

The Rescuers

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about rescue.  If you are a Christian, a follower of Christ, then you have been rescued.  And Jesus is sending you to rescue others!

The rescued become rescuers is our theme for the day.

We can summarize the mission of the Great Commission in four words:

1. Go—intentionally where people are.  Intentionally connect with people.
2. Reach—share Jesus with people in a way that they can relat...

A Safe Place to Be Real

Today, Pastor Michael is talking about things that cut us deep.  Mistakes and regrets that we have made.  Wounds that can poison us.  

The only way to help in this is to have a safe place to be real.  Recreate Church is exactly that…a safe place to be real.  The safest place to be real is in a church family.  

Today’s central idea, “In a community of life and love, nobody struggles alone!”  We all need someo...

Simplicity of Faith

Today, Pastor Michael discusses the gospel and its purity, not needing rules and attachments to its core. 

The gospel isn’t complicated.  There is joy in the simplicity of the gospel message, so don’t complicate what Jesus made simple. 

Michael then gives us examples that churches and Christians complicate the message to confound potentially new believers:

1. Expecting people to clean up before they meet Jesus...

A Community of Life and Love

Today, Pastor Michael is discussing how some folks have dismissed church due to not finding a church that serves them well.  At Recreate we are doing just what our name impies; redefining our church to serve people. 

Church done right is a community of life and love!

(CSB Bible Notes) 2:42 These four practices—teaching . . . fellowship, the breaking of bread, and prayer—provide insight into the prioriti...

The Resurrection on Trial

Today, Pastor Michael is discussing the Resurrection and Easter. Michael reinforces the case of the resurrection. Did Jesus really rise from the dead?  The answer is all-important: if the resurrection didn’t happen, then Christianity’s claims all fall apart. Paul covers this in 1 Corinthians 15. 14 

If it did, death has been defeated. 

If Jesus walked out of the grave, you cannot walk away unchanged.

Micha...

What Nick and Joe Didn’t Know

Today, Pastor Michael is covering the second part of the Story of the Cross, the Burial.  

Remember, there are three parts to the Story of the Cross:

1. Death
2. Burial
3. Resurrection

Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus asked Pilote for Jesus’s body so that they could bury it before it became dark, as was Jewish custom of the day and the Sabbath was about to start.  Pilate gave them permission to do s...

Sacrifice and Salvation

Today, Pastor Michael is on a mission for his next series: to help folks “get it” (the Story of the Cross) and, if you have it, to help others understand it. 

There are three (3) main parts of the Story of the Cross:

1. The Death 
2. The Burial
3. The Resurrection

We’re starting with the heavy one today, the death. When Jesus died, His followers thought it was over: His Message and His Life.  But so much w...

The Most Misunderstood Promise in The Bible, Part 2

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing our theme of studying one of the most famous quotes in the Bible, a quote used anytime one needs encouragement, that promise found in Jeremiah 29: 11.

Things God Wants for You (God’s Plans for You!):

1. Salvation, John 3: 16, John 4: 14.
2. Fellowship, John 15: 5.
3. Obedience,  John 14: 15.
4. Holiness, Romans 12: 1-2.
5. Discipleship, Matthew 28: 19-20.
...

The Most Misunderstood Promise in The Bible

Today, Pastor Michael is drilling down on the lore of Jeremiah, specifically verse 29 and the promise the Lord gave in it. 

When life breaks down, God builds up, our central theme today.

We must continuously look past our current situations beyond the anxiety and hopelessness that can easily consume us and instead focus on the figura...

Jonah and The Worm

Today, Pastor Michael is back in Jonah and NOT talking about Jonah and the whale.  Today’s story is the highly anticipated, the much heralded, the AMAZING story of Jonah and the WORM!

We pick up the story at Nineveh, where Jonah has warned them to turn from their evil ways.  Which they did! And God spared them for doing so!

But, Jonah isn’t happy about that, one bit!  In essence, Jonah is angry because God was be...

Every Day is a Second Chance

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing the story of Jonah, a man just bent on not doing the will of God.  We pick up the story with Jonah, having been spat out of the fish/whale, being confronted with God’s forgiveness.  A second chance is given him, even though he’s not quite on board.  And he does go to Nineveh and speaks to the king.  They do what Jonah tells them, notably fasting, dressing in sackcloth...

Jonah and Jesus

Today, Pastor Michael is continuing the story of Jonah and his continual running from God, notably because he did not agree with a decision made by the Lord to warn the city of Nineveh’s citizens of immenent destruction.  Jonah did not like God showing mercy to the Ninevites, so he was trying to get as far away from the situation as he could!

Big problem, though.  You cannot run away from the creator of the universe...

Salvation is in the Storm

Today, Pastor Michael is back with Jonah, the prophet who ’never got it’.  The last time we saw Jonah, he was on a ship bound for Tarshish.  He was essentially in denial of God’s leadership, and he was running from God.

The ship encountered a huge storm that the Lord clearly sent for Jonah’s disobedience.  This storm saved Jonah from destruction; in fact, many things we think of as storms are ‘path correct...

Mercy Has No Margins

Today, Pastor Michael is in Jonah, talking about how today’s theme, “Mercy Has No Margins” really shows how God’s people can miss God’s purpose. 

The Lord had sent Jonah to Nineveh to warn them that their pagan ways would be held accountable for that evil.  Yet Jonah refused the call and tried to run from the Lord.  He boards a ship, with pagan sailors, at Tarshish, about as far in an opposite direction from Ni...