Calvary Monterey Podcast

Title:An Admirable Church: A Brief Study of the Ephesian ChurchSpeaker: Nate HoldridgeLink to Sermon Notes:https://jesusfamous.com/blog/an-admirable-church-a-brief-study-of-the-ephesian-church/Link to Discussion Questions

Title: Living HopeSpeaker: Nate HoldridgeScripture: 1 Peter 1:3-5Link to Sermon Notes: https://jesusfamous.com/blog/easter-2026/Link to Discussion Questions: https://www.calvary.com/s/LG-Discussion-Questions-SP26_April2-5.pdf

Title: Upside Down WorrySpeaker: Nate HoldridgeOverview: In this week's sermon from the Sermon on the Mount series, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through Matthew 6:25–34—one of Jesus' most famous and most challenged teachings on anxiety. Jesus commands His followers not to worry about food, clothing, or tomorrow, and supports that command with four vivid arguments drawn from birds, wildflowers, human limitations, and pagan behavior. But rather than offering a shallow "just stop worrying" message, Jesus exposes anxiety as the emotional residue of misplaced allegiance and calls His disciples to a radical reorientation: seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and let the Father handle the rest. We try to answer honest objections to the text—including the reality of clinical anxiety, the suffering of devout believers, and the necessity of hard work—and show how each objection, when examined carefully, actually reveals a deeper layer of what Jesus is saying. This sermon is for anyone navigating the relentless anxieties of modern life.Link to Sermon NotesLink to Discussion Questions

Title: The Upside Down TreasureSpeaker: Nate HoldridgeOverview: In this sermon from Matthew 6:19–24, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through three powerful metaphors Jesus uses to expose the deepest allegiances of the human heart: treasure, eyesight, and slavery. Jesus moves beyond external behavior and religious practice to confront what we actually value, how we envision the good life, and who—or what—truly has ownership of our lives. Pastor Nate unpacks the cultural background of the "healthy eye" and "bad eye," explains why your heart follows your treasure rather than the other way around, and shows why Jesus declared divided loyalty not merely unwise but impossible. This teaching from the Sermon on the Mount is an MRI for the soul—an invitation to inspect our functional allegiances and reorient everything toward the kingdom of God and His righteousness (Matthew 6:33).Link to Sermon NotesLink to Discussion Questions

Teaching today at our Women's Gathering is Leanne Tuggle on the topic of Mary and Martha.

Title: Loving Your Bible MoreSpeaker: Geoff BuckScripture: Psalm 119Link to Geoff’s Websitestrengtheningthechurches.com

Title: The Upside Down Spiritual LifeSpeaker: Nate HoldridgeOverview: In this week's Sunday sermon from Matthew 6:7–15, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through one of the most familiar passages in all of Scripture—the Lord's Prayer. Rather than treating it as a rote recitation, we’ll unpack it as a template for a rich, structured prayer life: compact enough to pray in a minute, expansive enough to carry a lifetime of conversation with God. Working through the two halves of the prayer, we explore what it means to begin with the Father's honor, rule, and will before turning to our own needs for provision, forgiveness, and daily leadership. If your prayer life has grown mechanical, rushed, or shallow, this message is an invitation back to the closet and back to the Father who is already waiting.Link to Sermon NotesLink to Discussion Questions

Title: The Upside Down Spiritual LifeSpeaker: Nate HoldridgeOverview: In this sermon from Matthew 6:1-18, Pastor Nate Holdridge walks through Jesus' warning against performative religion — the danger of doing the right things for the wrong audience. Jesus gives three illustrations of this temptation: giving to the poor with a trumpet blast, praying on street corners for maximum visibility, and fasting with a disfigured face designed to advertise spiritual discipline. In each case, Jesus contrasts the hypocrite who has already been "paid in full" with human applause against the disciple who practices righteousness in secret before a Father who sees, knows, and rewards. Pastor Nate shows how the Fatherhood of God — mentioned ten times in this passage — is the controlling center that transforms our motivations, turning us from an audience of peers to an audience of One. This teaching includes practical guidance on biblical fasting, an honest look at why the contemporary church has been slow to teach on fasting, and a call for every believer to embrace the secret life of faith that Jesus assumes of all His followers.Link to Sermon NotesLink to Discussion Questions

Title: Upside Down Interior LifeSpeaker: Nate HoldridgeOverview: In this week's sermon from Calvary Monterey's ongoing series through the Gospel of Matthew, Nate Holdridge walks through the final three of Jesus' six antitheses in Matthew 5:33–48 — the passage on oaths, retaliation, and enemy love. Under the title "The Upside Down Life With Others," Nate shows how Jesus was not abolishing the Old Testament but driving his listeners past the letter of the law to its deepest intention: a community of people so anchored in God that their trustworthiness needs no oath to confirm it, their security needs no retaliation to protect it, and their love needs no worthy recipient to motivate it. The sermon unpacks what it means to be radically trustworthy, radically surprising, and radically loving — and lands on the stunning closing command of Matthew 5, "Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect," not as a burden but as an invitation to fix our eyes on the One who fulfilled every word of it on our behalf.Link to Sermon NotesLink to Discussion Questions

Title: Upside Down StrengthSpeaker: Si LeuenbergerScripture: Matthew 5:33-48