The H-Word: Conversation About What We Actually Believe

Good morning, Prism family. I'm still new enough that some of you are probably wondering if I've read the employee handbook yet. I have. Twice. And I have some questions, but we'll get to those later.

Today, I want to talk about something that makes people uncomfortable—and I mean really uncomfortable. It's the kind of topic that makes folks suddenly remember they need to check their phones, adjust their seats, or contemplate the fascinating architecture of our ceiling tiles.

I'm talking about hell.

Now, before you all collectively shift in your seats, let me be clear: this isn't a sermon designed to scare you into submission. We're not here to play theological bingo where the winner gets eternal damnation. That's not how this works. That's not who we are.

But here's the thing—and I'm going to say this plainly because you deserve plainness—yes. We believe in hell. Absolutely, we do.

I can see some of you relaxing. Others of you tensing up. Both reactions are fair.

Here's what I think hell actually is, and why it matters: Hell is the consequence of separation from God. It's what happens when we, as free beings—and God made us free, which is both a gift and terrifying—when we choose to turn away from the source of all love, all light, all goodness. Hell isn't God's torture chamber. It's not a cosmic punishment factory where God sits rubbing His hands together waiting for His chance to get even.

Hell is what we choose when we say no to grace. When we say no to transformation. When we say no to the possibility of becoming who we were created to be.

And here's where it gets empowering: You have the power in this equation.Not because you're strong enough to earn your way to heaven—you're not, and neither am I—but because you have the freedom to choose. You have the agency to say yes to grace. To say yes to love. To say yes to the God who looks at you and sees not your worst moment, not your deepest shame, not your greatest failure, but sees you—the person you are and the person you're becoming.

That's not a threat. That's an invitation.

The fact that hell exists doesn't diminish God's love. It confirms it. Because real love—the kind that matters—requires real choice. God could have made us robots. Programmed us to love Him automatically. But He didn't. He made us free. And that freedom means something because the stakes are real.

So when you walk out of here today, I want you to think about this: You're not here because you're afraid of hell. You're here because you're drawn to something better. You're here because, somewhere deep down, you know that saying yes to grace, yes to community, yes to transformation—that's the real life. That's the abundant life Jesus talked about.

That's what we believe at Prism Church LA. We believe in hell, yes. But we believe even more in the God who moves heaven and earth to keep us from it. We believe in a grace so powerful, so relentless, so absurdly generous that it changes everything.

So the question isn't "Am I going to hell?" The question is: "Am I going to say yes to the God who's already said yes to me?"

That's the real choice. And that choice is yours.

Let's pray.