The Common Ground ABQ Podcast

July 5th, 2026 | ENYC 2026 | Youth and Leader Panel

What happens when we strip away the distractions of everyday life and truly encounter God's presence? This powerful reflection from a youth camp experience reveals how transformative it can be when we create space for authentic spiritual breakthrough. We hear honest testimonies about the walls we build—worrying about what others think, separating our church life from our everyday existence, and carrying the weight of family struggles alone. The central message echoes throughout: obedience matters more than feeling. When we don't feel God's presence in worship or prayer, we're called to praise anyway, to show up anyway, to seek Him anyway. This is where discipline meets faith. The testimonies remind us that the seeds we plant through our words and actions may take years to grow, but they do grow. Every conversation about faith, every moment of vulnerability, every time we choose to reflect Jesus in our workplace or school—these matter more than we realize. The challenge before us is clear: Will we continue experiencing Jesus when we return to the noise and distractions of our regular lives, or will we let the world drown out what God spoke to our hearts? The freedom we celebrate isn't just political—it's spiritual. And with that freedom comes responsibility to live authentically for Christ in every space we occupy.

June 28th, 2026 | Pastor Shaun Jaramillo | The Table Without Walls | Pull Up A Chair Week 9

What happens when our expectations of God don't match reality? This powerful exploration of Luke 24:13-31 takes us on the road to Emmaus with two disciples who were so consumed by disappointment that they couldn't recognize Jesus walking right beside them. Their story mirrors our own spiritual journeys in profound ways. We build up anticipation for how God should move, how our marriages should look, how our faith should feel, and when reality doesn't match our preset expectations, we risk missing what God is actually doing in the present moment. The disciples knew the scriptures, they could explain Jesus to Jesus himself, yet their blind spot was created by clinging to what they thought should have been rather than seeing what was unfolding before them. The breakthrough came not through more information or theological debate, but through relationship and the breaking of bread together. This reminds us that clarity often arrives through presence, not just knowledge. We can memorize scripture and still miss the living Word. We can attend church faithfully yet fail to recognize God's movement in our everyday lives. The invitation here is to stop mourning what was and start looking for what is, to lean into God's presence especially when circumstances disappoint us, because He shows up most powerfully in our brokenness, not just our thriving.

June 21st, 2026 | Pastor Shaun Jaramillo | The 2nd Fire | Pull up a Chair Week 8

This powerful message takes us to the shores of the Sea of Galilee where we encounter Peter at his lowest point—returning to his old life as a fisherman after denying Christ three times. The central teaching revolves around John 21:1-12, where Jesus meets his exhausted disciples who have caught nothing all night. What makes this encounter extraordinary is the charcoal fire Jesus prepared for them. This Greek word 'anthrakia' appears only twice in the New Testament—once when Peter denied Jesus around a charcoal fire, and now here at his restoration. Jesus intentionally recreates the sensory environment of Peter's greatest failure, not to shame him, but to heal him. We learn that God doesn't meet us with performance reviews or lectures when we fail; He meets us with breakfast. He's already provided what we need before we even arrive. The message challenges us to stop fishing in our own strength, stop retreating to our comfortable 'sheds' when life gets overwhelming, and instead come to the fire where Jesus transforms our places of failure into places of restoration. Our scars don't define us—they prove we've healed. This is the mercy table where we bring what little we have, and God does infinitely more.

June 14th, 2026 | Pastor Shaun Jaramillo | The Mercy Table | Pull up a Chair Week 7

This powerful message invites us to reconsider everything we thought we knew about God's loyalty and mercy. Drawing from Luke 22:14-23, we're confronted with the stunning reality of the Last Supper—a meal where Jesus knowingly broke bread with those who would betray, deny, and abandon Him. The central question pierces our hearts: if we struggle to invite people to dinner who merely annoy us, how can we comprehend a Savior who signs a covenant in His own blood with people He knows will fail Him? This isn't just ancient history; it's a mirror reflecting our own tendency to build VIP clubs around our lives, granting access only to those who've proven their loyalty. We assume God operates the same way—that our bad weeks, our failures, our moments of weakness somehow cancel our reservation at His table. But mercy, as we discover, is God's compassionate refusal to give us what we deserve. The qualification for His table isn't our perfection; it's His mercy. This truth should transform how we treat ourselves when we fall short and how we extend grace to others who disappoint us. We're challenged to stop faking spiritual health and recognize that church is a hospital for the sick, not a museum for the perfect.

June 7th, 2026 | Pastor Shaun Jaramillo | More Than Enough | Pull Up A Chair Week 6

This powerful message challenges us to shift our perspective from what we lack to who God is. At its core is the familiar story of Jesus feeding the 5,000 from John 6:1-13, but it invites us to see it with fresh eyes. When we face overwhelming circumstances, our natural instinct is to do the math—to count our resources, measure our abilities, and calculate whether we have enough. Philip looked at 5,000 hungry people and immediately thought about the impossibility of feeding them all. We do the same thing. We see the size of our problems and compare them to the size of our wallets, our talents, or our strength, and we panic. But this story reminds us that walking by faith means trusting that God is more than enough, even when our resources look laughably small. The boy's five loaves and two fish seemed insignificant in the face of such need, yet in Jesus's hands, they became more than sufficient. The miracle didn't happen while the lunch stayed safely tucked away—it multiplied as Jesus broke it and gave it away. This reveals a profound truth: God multiplies what we release, not what we hoard. Whether it's our time, energy, money, or talents, when we surrender our small offerings to God with faith as tiny as a mustard seed, He can move mountains. The challenge before us is to stop insulting our gifts because they seem small and instead place them in the hands of a big God who specializes in doing the impossible with the insufficient.