Anchored by the Word

In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin and Diana begin a series in which we dive into submitted "favorite verses" from the members of Westlake and our listeners. Today, they dive into Diana's favorite verse, Esther 4:14 to explore the profound truth of God's sovereignty.

While God doesn't need us to fulfill His plans because His plan will succeed with or without us, He graciously invites us to join Him and be...

In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin is joined by tech Tsar Josh Davis to sit down with Dr. Keith Foskey for a deep diving discussion of Reformed Baptist theology. Together, they explore the rich heritage of historic Baptist confessions, the distinctive of Reformed Baptist doctrine, the foundational truths of covenant theology, and a discussion around avoiding sin in the Christian life.

Dr. Foskey shares in...

In the final episode of Season 1 of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin is joined once more by Diana to discuss a truth that is often hard to embrace: sometimes God's greatest blessings come wrapped in disappointment.

When plans fall apart, it can often feel like failure-but what if it is divine redirection? In this episode, Justin and Diana explore biblical examples like Joseph, showing how God uses closed doors and unexpected tur...

"Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom."

Psalm 90:12 highlights the deep truth that our time is limited and how we use it matters. In today's fast paced world, however, distractions are constantly stealing our attention, crowding our hearts, and distracting us from the intentional, God-centered life we are called to. In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin is joined once more by his w...

According to American Professor Kevin Vanhoozer, the goal of the Theologian "is to move beyond the acquisition of knowledge to its application in real life: in a word, to gain wisdom." But how does one study Theology?

What even IS Theology?

In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin is joined by Chris Belknap- Director of Family Ministries at Westlake-to begin a discussion of theology and its application in the C...

Theologian and philosopher Francis Schaeffer once said "People function on the basis of their worldview more consistently than even they themselves may realize." This is because your worldview-fundamentally-is the vehicle by which you understand and make sense of the world. Your worldview determines how you view reality, interact with other people, and make decisions  while also determining your beliefs, values, and the choices you...

In the last decade, hundreds of thousands of people who claimed to be Christians have gone through an intellectual exercise by which they challenged their deeply held convictions. This process of "deconstruction" as it has come to be known has let to dozens of high profile people leaving the Christian faith.

The question is: is deconstruction automatically a bad thing? In this weeks episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin di...

Historically, one of the defining doctrines of the various Baptist conventions is that baptism is only for believers, but WHICH believers should be baptized and when?

In short, when should a church agree to perform a believer's baptism? In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin goes it alone for the first time in months to discuss this important historical doctrine and what the church should do before baptizing ...

Have you ever been angry at someone that hurt you? Has anyone ever been angry at you for hurting them? Have you ever struggled to figure out how to honor God when you have hurt someone or someone has hurt you? As you strove to forgive them or to plead with them for their forgiveness?

Of course you have.

In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin is joined once more by his wife, Diana, as they continue our series ...

In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin is joined once more by his wife-Diana-to continue the mini series exploring Godly relationships. This week, they take a deep dive into a topic that many in the church only give cursory attention to and even less discussion of: singleness.

This episode is not just for the single Christian though. Even for Christians who have been married for decades, this episode shares e...

In this week's episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin has his oldest son, Andrew Likens, on as a special guest Co-Host. They discuss the question of whether or not failure is a blessing.

In this touching episode, father and son discuss how Andrew's first semester of college and the challenges it brought can be used to learn deep biblical truths, along with addressing the most common modern heresy, that of the Prosperity Gos...

On this weeks episode of Anchored by the Word, Pastor Justin Likens and co-host Josh Davis tackle the issue of "Christian Perfectionism," which is an old, old belief that Christians can be perfectly sinless in life before Jesus comes back. Of course, this belief does bring about no small amount of frustration for many who hold to it, so this week, Pastor Justin and Josh encourage each other and the listeners by correctly interpreti...

In this week's episode in our "Lies of Satan" series, we will be discussing a messages that you have likely heard someone say many times, or even said yourself. "I don't need to go to church to love Jesus or be a Christian" (or some variation of that message) is one of the most insidious lies that Satan uses. In fact, so many people have bought into the lie that is just beneath the surface of this statement that it has become so co...