CityLife Church: Recent Episodes
CityLife Church
Welcome to the weekly message podcast from CityLife Church. CityLife Church meets in the Cineplex Theatre at Highstreet Mall in Abbotsford.
Send us a text
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Send us a text
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Send us a text
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Send us a text
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Discover the Bible as more than just a book—it's God-breathed, inspired by Him to guide and transform us. Dive into Scripture and experience God's living voice speaking truth and life into your journey.
Ever wondered if the Bible is reliable? In this video, we’ll dive into the facts, exploring historical evidence, manuscript discoveries, and textual variations. Discover why the Bible is unique among ancient texts and why it matters. Whether you're exploring faith or just curious, join us for an engaging discussion on the Bible’s remarkable reliability.
Welcome to "Speaking Jesus," our dynamic new sermon series! Journey with us through the book of Acts as we explore how early believers boldly shared their faith in Jesus. Discover how to live and share your faith in a natural, authentic way—just as the Church was meant to do. We're thrilled to have you with us!
Welcome to "Speaking Jesus," our dynamic new sermon series! Journey with us through the book of Acts as we explore how early believers boldly shared their faith in Jesus. Discover how to live and share your faith in a natural, authentic way—just as the Church was meant to do. We're thrilled to have you with us!
Welcome to "Speaking Jesus," our dynamic new sermon series! Journey with us through the book of Acts as we explore how early believers boldly shared their faith in Jesus. Discover how to live and share your faith in a natural, authentic way—just as the Church was meant to do. We're thrilled to have you with us!
Send us a Text Message.
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Welcome to "Speaking Jesus," our dynamic new sermon series! Journey with us through the book of Acts as we explore how early believers boldly shared their faith in Jesus. Discover how to live and share your faith in a natural, authentic way—just as the Church was meant to do. We're thrilled to have you with us!
Welcome to "Speaking Jesus," our dynamic new sermon series! Journey with us through the book of Acts as we explore how early believers boldly shared their faith in Jesus. Discover how to live and share your faith in a natural, authentic way—just as the Church was meant to do. We're thrilled to have you with us!
Join us as we embark on a three-part sermon series delving into the biblical topic of Stewardship. Together, we'll explore how we can responsibly manage the blessings that God has given us. We'll consider the impact of stewardship on our lives within the CityLife community, prompting reflection and growth in our journey of faith. How are we called to Steward our Time, Treasures and Talents?
Join us as we embark on a three-part sermon series delving into the biblical topic of Stewardship. Together, we'll explore how we can responsibly manage the blessings that God has given us. We'll consider the impact of stewardship on our lives within the CityLife community, prompting reflection and growth in our journey of faith. How are we called to Steward our Time, Treasures and Talents?
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
This week is the eighth week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what all people are called to do. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week is the seventh week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what all people are called to do. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week is the sixth week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what all people are called to do. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week is the fifth week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what all people are called to do. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week is the fourth week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what all people are called to do. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week is the third week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what all people are called to do. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week is the second week in our new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on Hearing God's Voice. We are taking a narrative look at scripture to ultimately end up seeing that hearing God's voice is what we are all called to and also that it was part of Jesus' ministry to restore humanity's ability to hear God. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
This week we begin a new sermon series exploring the Bible's emphasis on hearing God's voice and Jesus' ministry to restore humanity's ability to hear God. We're excited to disciple CityLife into becoming people who hear God's voice in normal living.
If we are going to Participate with what God is doing in our lives and in the building of His Kingdom, we need to be people who live knowing that God is a Father who Hears and Speaks to us. In this sermon we see how God taught His servant Samuel to hear His voice.
This week we look at perhaps Jesus' most famous parable to see how the Prodigal Son continues to shed light on the greater story being told in Luke 15.
This week we track the Holy Spirit's work throughout the Old and New Testaments to see how we may experience the Spirit's move in our lives.
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Hosea is a story of a long-suffering husband who loves his wife and brings her back to him when she leaves him. Let's explore how God was telling a story about humanity in the difficult marriage of his prophet.
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Hosea is a story of a long-suffering husband who loves his wife and brings her back to him when she leaves him. Let's explore how God was telling a story about humanity in the difficult marriage of his prophet.
Hosea is a story of a long-suffering husband who loves his wife and brings her back to him when she leaves him. Let's explore how God was telling a story about humanity in the difficult marriage of his prophet.
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
In this week's sermon we spend Easter Sunday learning about the joy that was before Jesus as he endured the Cross. Jesus endured the cross because he was getting His Bride ready for marriage. Let us learn more about how the resurrection seals this marriage proposal.
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Join us for Sunday worship at 10:30AM
225 Cleveland Ave S,
St Paul, MN 55105 **Adult Formation and KidsLife Classes (Ages 2 - 12th Grade) at 9:15AM
Sunday worship is also streamed live via Zoom. The link to the stream may be found on our website (linked below).
Church Website: https://citylifetc.org/ Denomination Website: https://pcanet.org/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/citylifetc**
Today we continue our sermon series on Prayer. We are building a better ethic around prayer and today we preach that Prayer ministers to us exactly where we are.
In this week's sermon we have the privilege of hosting Dr. Stanley John. Dr. John brings to us a word about using our whole, integrated lives for the building of God's Kingdom. Today, migrant workers are shaping the world for Christ and it echo's the New Testament, early church movement. Let's hear how so we can learn how to bring our work to bring the kingdom here.
In this week's sermon we take one more look at the larger topic of sexuality. The agenda is to acknowledge that all of us carry sexual brokenness and that God brings us healing.
In this week's sermon we look at Juneteenth and ask ourselves, what does a good citizen look like? How does a citizen of heaven live like in this life? What does it mean when Philippians 3:20 calls us citizens of heaven? During Israel's exile in Babylon God taught his people two qualities of what kingdom citizenship looks like. Our call includes being... A Good Citizen (Jer 29) and at times Subversive (Daniel 3). Let's hear more about this.
In this week's sermon series we continue in our Sexuality Series as we look at the totality of the Christian's call when it comes to understanding scripture and Same Sex relationships. We read about what the Biblical worldview is and how that same worldview says that all people carry His Image and are so loved and called by Him. Though Scripture only offers prohibition to same sex relationships it also outlines all people's value and call to find a home in His church. Let's hear about how we are called to love all people as we navigate this sensitive topic that touches the hearts of us all.
In this week's sermon we look at Genesis 2:18-25 in order to build a better ethic for sexuality in marriage. Today we affirm that a marriage is a covenant, established by God, that calls people to practice Oneness, Nakedness, and point back to Christ. Let us see what this really means for our marriages.
In this week's sermon we continue the Sexuality: Know and Be Known sermon series as we look at Sexuality in Singleness. Usually when the church take a look at Sexuality or sex it is in the context of marriage and believers who are single are left alone to piece together how to pursue sexual wholeness without that significant relationship. If we are sexual beings how can we pursue sexual wholeness in our singleness? We'll start that conversation.
In this week's sermon (second sermon in the Sexuality: Know and Be Known by the way) we look to Jesus so we can see how He personally cared for the sexually broken. His care for those with "reputations" caused him to gain a "reputation" but it did not bother him. The only sinless man was labeled scandalous because His grace goes further than we expect. Let's find out more about how Jesus' love undos our brokenness.
In this week's sermon CityLife begins looking at the beautifully intimate and complex subject of Sexuality. There is so much to say on the topic and even more questions to ask and so today we lay down the foundation for the series and begin where Scripture begins in Genesis 1 & 3. We are Sexual Beings. God made us this way and God said that it was very good. Lets begin to understand the Biblical worldview.
In this week's sermon our very own Carla Calderon preaches on Romans 15:13. In just one verse we learn that God is our hope...He fills us with joy and peace...He meets our believing in him...and somehow all of this happens in intimate relationship with the Holy Spirit. A lot to cover in just one verse but somehow it works beautifully.
In this week's sermon our District Superintendent, Kelvin Walker, comes to CityLife to preach to us about Labels & Identity. Preaching out of 1 Peter 2:9-10 Kelvin reminds us that though labels spoken over us (or self-spoken) steal us of who we truly are, God restores us by speaking truth and sharing our real identities as his children. "Mirror, Mirror in my hand, where does my identity stand?"
In this week's sermon our Open Table series turns to Luke one last time to see how meaningful it is that the resurrected Jesus ate some broiled fish with his disciples. What can we learn about Jesus' bodily resurrection from this short meal? What does this story mean how for how we are called to live our lives? How does the bodily resurrection of Jesus change everything in creation? Let's find out.
In this week's sermon something astonishing happens in our Open Table sermon series. Jesus meets two of his followers on the road to Emmaus and then at a table for a meal after his resurrection! This is Jesus' first post resurrection meal and it may be the most peculiar story in all the gospels. In this story His disciples are kept from recognizing Him and then when their eyes are opened Jesus disappears right before them. Such a peculiar story let's hear more.
This week, we take a closer look at one of the more famous meals in Scripture - the feeding of the 5,000. From the story of this meal in Luke’s Gospel, Pastor Pedro extracts 4 practical lessons that ultimately culminate in Jesus being always enough for those who call Him Lord.
This week, we turn our attention to one of Jesus’s face to face encounters with someone who knew they were broken. In Luke 7, Jesus accepts a pharisee’s invitation to feast with those who would later kill Him. But when an unnamed, uninvited woman interrupts the meal, we witness one of Jesus’s most beautiful teachable moments. Though most would have averted their eyes from someone so undignified, with one loving gaze, Jesus restores this woman’s dignity, forgives her sin, and sends her off in peace, all while serving the others around the table their “just deserts”. Humble pie, anyone?
This week's sermon continues our Open Table series by taking a closer look at Jesus’s first meal in Luke. After He publicly calls a Tax Collector to follow Him and that Tax Collector actually says “Yes”, we question whether Jesus called the “wrong one”. When Jesus then attends a whole feast with other "wrong ones”, is it all that surprising that the “religious” are repulsed by this? Pastor Pedro illuminates which people around this particular table Jesus knew were in need of a doctor. Hint: it’s not the ”healthy”.
This week, Pastor Pedro introduces CityLife's overarching themes for 2022: Invitation, Disciple Making and Deeper Life, and our first sermon series of the year entitled, Open Table. In this series, we will look at Luke’s unique account of Jesus’s meals, who He ate with, what was discussed, and how people treated Him. Perhaps most importantly, we look at who left the table satisfied.
This week’s sermon compares the stories of two men - Adam and Jesus, called the Second Adam - and the two trees they left as legacies. We explore how Scripture compares and contrasts how Adam changed the course of human history and then how Jesus reverses it. Pastor Pedro teaches that though Adam’s experience with a certain tree may have given us the knowledge of good and evil, Jesus’s Cross reconnects us to the Tree of Life.
We begin 2022 by taking an honest look at ourselves and find we are no different than the people in the story of Babel. Though we proudly believe otherwise, humanity's condition is remarkably unchanged since the Genesis 11 story. Don’t we still strive for the same self-made importance and security and try build up our own names? Let’s rediscover how the way of Jesus enables us to understand one another again.
As we bring 2021 to a close, we look forward to 2022. We resolve to enter the coming year, energized with wonder of what God may bring. We reflect on when God appointed and anointed a new leader over His people to be strong and courageous and promised to be with him every step of the way. That very same promise is for each of us as we step into God’s calling over our lives.
- This week, we look at how Jesus’s birth marked the arrival of perfect joy in the world. As Scripture tells us, the birth of Creation's King was no easy feat for anyone involved, yet God surrounds the birth of His Son with “sounding joy”. Pastor Pedro reminds us that to experience joy is to taste God’s future promises in the present and we can chose joy in all of life's circumstances.
This week, we look at how Jesus’s birth marked the arrival of perfect love in the world. The world uses the word “love” in so many different ways, yet we, as Christians of all people, must truly grasp how Jesus perfectly embodies love. John 1:14-18 teaches us that, through Jesus, we receive God’s grace and truth and are compelled to pursue loving intimacy with the Father.
- At the start of Advent, we look at how Jesus’s birth marked the arrival of perfect hope in the world. Pastor Pedro reminds us that Christmas is a wildly audacious claim. The notion that God came down and put on humanity is counterintuitive, to say the least, but on top of that Christmas is the claim that through “a baby born in Bethlehem” hope perfectly entered the world. What does perfect hope rooted in the person of Jesus actually look like lived out?
This week, we pause to celebrate God's faithfulness to our church. This Sunday was CityLife's first indoor Sunday service in 89 weeks! In our first service in our new location, we look back on how generous God has been to us since March 2020. We celebrate Him and share our testimony of how faithful God has been in this past season of exile, much like the people of God, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, did millennia ago.
This week, we finish our brief but intimate look at Moses’s life. We've been on a four week quest to understand how God transformed Moses from a murderous fugitive from Pharaoh to the consistent companion of the Creator. Let’s see how the end of Moses's story models profound relationship with God and powerful leadership of God’s people.
This week, we look at the decades-long relationship that Moses and God shared while the Hebrews wandered in the wilderness. Pastor Pedro walks us through how God transformed a man with no home into a man who had relationship with God with no filter. How did God equip Moses for his extraordinary calling simply by meeting regularly with him face to face?
For the next chapter of Moses’s story, we turn to Exodus 3 and 4 where God uses a burning bush to invite Moses into a profound conversational relationship with Him, a transformation from whom he’s always thought he was into whom God’s always known him to be, and an extraordinary calling. Pastor Ryan shares how God uses ridiculous spectacles - like wacky, waving, inflatable, arm-flailing tube men - that command our undivided attention, to invite us to deep relationship with Him and the extraordinary calling He has for us. Will you choose to pay attention?
This week begins a short preaching series on Moses by trying to understand the man. Understanding who Moses was at the start of his journey allows us to see how God moved and formed him. Knowing the man allows us to understand his calling, his journey and his God-given assignment Join us as we rediscover how a lifetime journey with God transformed Moses into the man who led a young nation.
CityLife Oversight Team Member, Carla Calderon shares with us one of the most interesting stories in the Bible: when Jacob wrestles with God. She reminds us that at the end of that encounter, Jacob’s relationship with the Lord was strengthened and he was finally able to refer to God as his own God, not just the God of his forefathers. God had always been present in Jacob’s life, but it was only in this intense face to face experience that Jacob finally acquiesced to God, allowing God the space He deserved in Jacob’s life. Are you willing to yield the inner most parts of your soul to go deeper with the Lord?
This week, instead of our regularly scheduled programming, we take time to recap and practice the Spiritual Disciplines we studied together in our Missional Communities (MC). The disciplines have served the Church since its founding, teaching God's people to pursue deeper presence with the Him. Pastor Pedro gives us a brief word and issues an assignment: Pursue presence with God. Care to join us as we take time to ask God to meet with us?
As we bring “Our Beatitudes” sermon series to a close, we discuss the last part of the Beatitudes: rejoicing! The end result of being a beatific follower of Christ is a call to rejoice, even in the face of persecution. Pastor Pedro breaks down how suffering in the hands of a good, healing, and redemptive God produces true blessing.
This week's sermon places those who are reviled, persecuted, and spoken evil against on Jesus’s account are at the center of His blessing. Pastor Pedro breaks down what it means to be on Jesus’s account, why His blessing accompanies this hardship, and why Jesus preaches directly to us His followers. When Jesus calls us to be “beatific followers”, He calls us into the practices AND the promises.
This week, we look at what it means to be persecuted. If Our Beatitudes describe a person satisfied in Christ, why “in God’s Name” then are we called to have a healthy relationship with persecution? What does it mean to be persecuted for righteousness’ sake rather than for being a jerk? What does it mean to be a beatific sufferer? Short answer: we’re called to know Christ in both His joy and burden.
This week, the Peacemakers shine forth. Jesus calls all of His followers to be makers of peace in a world that cannot adequately define what peace is. The Father desires His children to take up the family business of establishing peace. Pastor Pedro discusses why peace is so central to God's work and how peacemaking, according to the Bible, costs.
This week, we take a look at the Pure In Heart. This beatitude may be the most pertinent beatitude to a New York City area church with regard to our hearts and schedules. How can busy, ambitious, and successful people live lives that deeply evidence Christ? How can this promise shape life and allow us to say no to being overworked, overwhelmed and too tired at the end of the day?
This week, we learn that those who both FEEL and PERFORM mercy are blessed! This raises some important questions such as, “What is mercy?”, “How is it unique from other loving characteristics?”, ”How do we become a merciful people?”, “How is mercy a perfect combination of need and relief?”, and “If acts of mercy never materialize in our lives, are we truly merciful?” Jesus teaches about mercy and how to become the merciful community we have been called to be.
This week, we learn how and why the hungry and thirsty are blessed. Jesus preaches that we are blessed when we relentlessly search for truth, or as Scripture often puts it - righteousness. Blessed are those who seek after Jesus and allow nothing else to fill them because nothing else truly can. Pastor Pedro breaks down hunger as it pertains to our character and how hunger for righteousness over comfort produces profound satisfaction.
This week, Jesus’s and #OurBeatitudes shine the spotlight on those who never really get spotlighted, the Meek. Pastor Pedro asserts that meekness may be the strongest of the Christian character qualities, yet it is most often incorrectly correlated to weakness. How is it that meekness becomes strength in Jesus? How is it that Jesus changed the world with meekness? Why does Jesus call His mature followers to be meek? We ponder this as we try to understand the Kingdom blessing behind meekness.
This week, we focus in on Matthew 5:4 in order to understand what our next step is in #LivingOurBlessedLives according to this portrait of one of Christ’s followers. Pastor Ryan walks us through the kind of mourning that promises to bring us the true comfort of God and the idea that enduring the pain of confession and repentance is much like learning to ride a bike without training wheels. In the same way that satisfaction and freedom in riding a bicycle comes only after pushing through the pain of falling down, satisfaction and freedom in Christ comes only after we confess and repent over sin.
This week, we look at the very first beatitude included in Jesus’s extraordinary Sermon on the Mount. Jesus calls those “blessed” who are the POOR IN SPIRIT. We ask ourselves what it means to be “poor in spirit, if we are poor in spirit, and why being poor in spirit makes one blessed. Pastor Pedro shows us how this realization is very different from self-hate and self-pity and why he thinks Jesus starts off His masterpiece sermon with this concept.
This week, we begin our very new “Our Beatitudes” sermon series on Jesus’s most famous sermon, the Sermon on the Mount. We explore the “why” behind the way He began His sermon. Pastor Pedro gives us an overview of what we will study in this series: what Jesus means when He calls us “blessed”, what a deeply satisfied life in God's Kingdom looks like; what matters most and what brings true life; how the Church is called to stand counter-culturally; and how we can add these qualities to our character. Dive into these great questions and more with us!
This week’s sermon brings our two part Mother's Day & Father's Day message to a close. Pastor Pedro elaborates on the idea that the God of the Bible is a God who provides true care for our souls. God knows our exact emotional, physical, and spiritual state at any given moment and, if we allow Him to, He will bind up every one of our wounds. In 1 Kings 19, we witness how God allows Elijah to rest and then gives Him righteous instructions. In Elijah’s story, we encounter God, who is able to, not only give us rest but, empower us for His mission at the same time.
This week, we FINISH our 17 week journey through the Book of Ephesians. We conclude by reminding ourselves that Paul’s epistle is about the MYSTERY of Christ and His Gospel. We reflect on the questions, “What is the mystery of the Gospel that so captivated Paul?” and “How do we live in this mystery?” And pray that we, CityLife, would also be so captivated and bold in sharing this mysterious Gospel in and through all parts of our lives.
Our Missional Communities have been learning more about the person of the Holy Spirit and what His role is as part of the Holy Trinity. Today we look to explore what life looks like when we are filled by the Holy Spirit's presence. We turn back to Ephesians 5:15-18 to help us further understand two aspects of living life with the Spirit: what Biblical Wisdom looks like and what a relationship with Him looks like.
This week, we continue our study of the Armor of God, given to Christ’s followers. In Ephesians 4, Paul urges believers in Asia Minor to cast off their old ways of life and to prepare for a new way of walking. The Armor of God is part of the new way that God instructs us to adopt. It will change everything about the way we walk when we are faithful to put it on.
This week, we continue our New Relationship section with Paul reminding us that our enemy is anyone who opposes God and his Kingdom, i.e. the 'rulers', 'authorities', 'cosmic powers', and 'spiritual forces' of this earthly kingdom. Let’s hear what Paul has to say about our spiritual struggle and how we have been taught to STAND. With the first part of a two part sermon on God's Armor, Pastor Pedro directs our attention to the spiritual fight we find ourselves in and the true nature of our adversary.
This week, we look at the last relationship Paul explicitly addresses: Slaves and Masters. In his address, Paul urges slaves to be Christ-centered in everything they do and gives a short but powerful reminder to slave owners of their commitment to follow Christ in everything too, because Jesus is the only Master and we are all equal before His Cross. Paul’s letter to Philemon gives even greater perspective on how we are to exchange the bonds of slavery for the bonds of Koinania Family.
This week, we take a break from our Mystery Series to honor all CityLife mothers on Mother's Day. Being a parent is one of the highest callings given to us by God, so we spend this Sunday remembering Elijah. His is an intimate story where God perfectly provides care and rest to one of his most tired servants. This message is the first of a two part sermon to be completed on Father's Day, reminding us that our God excels in restoration and nourishment. Happy Mother's Day to all of the moms out there! God bless you!
This week, we take a look at how children and parents are called to live with one another. We discuss a child's call to obey and honor and a parent's call to nurture their kids towards instruction, discipline, and God.
This week, we begin our final section of Ephesians, New Relationships. If I am a new being, part of God's new society, and producing evidence of change in my life, then I allow God to redeem every one of my human relationships. Paul starts with the closest human relationship, calling wives and husbands to mutual submission, because God created marriage to be the safest and most self-giving relationship. Let’s strip away the cultural ideas of what marriage isn’t and turn to Scripture to teach us what this relationship could and should be.
This week, we conclude our two part sermon on the Christian's call to live a "Visible Life." Paul’s letter to the Ephesians teaches followers of Christ that life IN CHRIST is lived out in the open because we now have the power and presence of the Holy Spirit available to us. Pastor Pedro challenges us to allow the Holy Spirit to confront us and call us out on the visibility and integrity of the lives we live in Christ consistently as we bring this third section of our Mystery series, we've been calling New Measures, to a close.
In this week's passage, Paul once again upends the way that we look at ourselves and how we are called to live as followers of Christ. We are no longer darkness but have been made to BE God's light. We are called to "evidence" our faith in Jesus by the way we live. Followers of Christ are called to be visible not hidden; to live in openness not in secret. Let's explore how this might be possible together.
In this passage, Paul addresses the second aspect of our New Measures: purity. In considering these marks of the Christian’s life, we must ask ourselves how growth in unity, and now purity, are reflected in our growing maturity IN CHRIST. How exactly do we grow in purity as we follow Christ and live in His new society?
This week, Paul takes a sharp turn in his letter to the Ephesians as we begin our third major section in our Mystery Series- New Measures. Fully confident in what Christ did for the Church, Paul begins to direct the Christian’s heart to its response to the Mystery of Christ. How can believers gauge whether they are responding to the Gospel? The Ephesians and we today, are to be pursuing unity in the Church. What does that look like in one of the most divided times in history?
This week's sermon we’re reminded of how Christ loves His Church. Paul writes that Jesus’s incomprehensibly comprehensive commitment to us is beyond our understanding. Our response to this radical love is simply to grow; in maturity, in knowledge, and in love for our Savior. Paul encourages us with the revelation that one day we will be filled with all the fullness of Christ, and exhorts us to fall deeper and deeper in love with the one who gave everything for us, until that day comes.
This week, Paul finally lets us in on what this mystery is all about! The "Mystery of Christ" is that ALL people are welcomed into God's family through Jesus. In other words, all the distinctions we hold tightly order to differentiate ourselves from others are meaningless in Christ. The "Mystery of Christ" is that Jesus’s Gospel transcends every boundary. Pastor Pedro breaks down what this really means for our lives.
This week, Pastor Ryan introduces the next portion of Paul’s letter to the Ephesians on “God’s New Society”. Here, Paul is encouraging Gentile Christians - who have been made to feel like outsiders by Jewish Christians - to claim their new identity as those who were once far off from God, but now are brought near by the blood of Christ. Likewise, the art of mosaic pottery mirrors how God breaks us all free from false senses of belonging in order to build us into His dream home here on Earth.
This week, Pastor Pedro gives us Paul’s definitive word on the significance of finding New Life In Christ. Paul tells of Jesus’s rescue and our new trajectory. We were once the “walking dead”, lost in our sins, but because of God's kindness we now walk out good works. How does this happen? How does God's kindness and grace save us? Two words. "But God."
This week, we find Paul celebrating the Holy Spirit and the assurance we have in our salvation in Christ. He prays that the saints in Ephesus would learn and experience three things: the hope of our calling, the riches of our glorious inheritance, and the immeasurable greatness of God's power through Jesus. Would that God's children know and live out of these three things, our lives would be transformed.
In this week's sermon, Pastor Pedro points to three fundamental Christian truths found in Ephesians: Election, Adoption, and Unification. Paul lays out these central distinctives in our faith and how they change everything about who we are and how we live our lives. Join us as we strive to understand these deeper mysteries of Christ.
This week marks the start of our first sermon series of 2021, our Mystery Series. This series will focus on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians and the concept of being IN CHRIST. Pastor Pedro notes that in the first two verses of Ephesians, everything Paul mentions comes from God and we’re introduced to a profound mystery: that we are in Christ. Join us as we dissect what scholars have called the “Queen of the Epistles” and learn what it means to live in Christ.
In this week's sermon, our very own Carla Calderon preaches to CityLife for the first time through Psalm 51. In this sermon, we are reminded of the importance of posture in the life of someone who is passionately seeking to live out faith. How did God use some of David's most sin-filled moments to teach his people about posture before God?
In this week's sermon, very special guest preacher Pastor John Soper leads us through Psalm 34 and praise. Why is it that when life gets hard we are called to praise God? How is it that praise changes our hearts and at times our circumstances? Pastor Soper leads us through these important questions.
Pastor Pedro’s first sermon of last year looked at Abraham's life and how God would interface with His people. Continuing the trend this year, we look back even further to when Abraham was still Abram in Genesis 15. In this “early” chapter of His story, God sets the precedent for all those who belong to Him, by proving that He is trustworthy. Even through where He geographically places His people - between two wild and mighty rivers - God teaches us how to live out of unwavering trust in Him.
In this week's sermon, we take time to think about the year that was. Before we hastily turn the calendar page, hoping for everything to be magically fixed, we stop and reflect on this difficult year and how God has seen us through it. Through a deep dive into John 21:25, Pastor Pedro reminds up that no matter what happens in life, Jesus is always greater and we can trust in Him, period. Let’s not rush into the New Year without resolving our lingering issues from 2020, so we can start 2021 in a healthy way.
In this year's Christmas sermon, Pastor Pedro shows us how in Jesus’s birth, God displays both His unmatched power and unmatched humility. In the Christmas event, our Creator directed all of Creation to spotlight the little town of Bethlehem, where He would condescend - literally, “come down to be with” - to the least of us, as the lowliest of these. In such a unique and difficult year, let us take comfort in the nearness of our Father, the King of Heaven, with us through the birth of His Son.
In week three of this year's Advent series we turn to Malachi one last time to be reminded that preparing for Jesus also means preparing for mission. The book of Malachi reminds us that the promised messenger is directly attached to God's mission. So while his coming is hope to many, it is also judgment to many. How can we be prepared to join the mission of God and continue to tell people about the joy that Christmas actually represents?
In week two of this year's Advent study, we once again return to Malachi to prepare for the coming of our Lord. How can Malachi's promise of God's justice and judgment speak to us in 2020? How can God's march towards justice as LORD of Hosts teach us something unique about Christmas?
In this year's Advent study, we turn to Malachi to give our season new meaning. How are we to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus in this difficult year? What can the tired, beaten, callous people of Malachi's day teach us about preparing ourselves to know our Savior?
In this week's sermon we look at the last major ingredient to the Spiritual Gifts which is that they are Gifts of Grace. Without grace the gifts would not be extended towards us or used to benefit others. How is it that grace makes these gifts so important in our spiritual walks?
This week, we process 1 Corinthians 14:1-25 and one of Paul’s major principles of the Spiritual Gifts; our meditations on the following questions: How will I benefit you? How are we called to benefit others in our earnest pursuit of agape love and the Spiritual Gifts? How can the gifts of prophecy and tongues work to complement, not conflict with, one another to promote the strengthening of faith for the Church?
This week, we look at one of Scripture’s greatest hits: 1 Corinthians 13. Yet as we study this chapter's original context, we rediscover Paul’s key to unlocking the Spiritual Gifts, not simply the secret to a successful marriage. Thus, as we have been expanding and “re-informing” our working definition of what a Spiritual Gift is, we ask ourselves how our practice and pursuit of the Spiritual Gifts embody God's agape love.
This week, we turn to the New Testament's largest portion on the Spiritual Gifts in 1 Corinthians. Chapter 12 of Paul’s epistle deepens our understanding of the gifts, compelling us to expand our working definition to include the purpose for the gifts. We ask ourselves why Paul wanted so badly for believers to be correctly informed about the Spiritual Gifts and what they have to do with living harmoniously as one body.
This week’s sermon, brought to us by Mykel Pollock, CityLife’s Pastoral Resident, asks the question, “What is the driving force in your life? Faith or fear?” In Matthew 14:22-33, Peter briefly walks on water towards Jesus, focused on His confidence in Christ. But as soon as his focus shifts to the circumstances, fear sets in and Peter starts to sink. How often do we do the very same thing immediately after seeing God do something miraculous in our own lives? We must come to realize that God chooses to exercise His power through us, in direct relationship to our confidence in what only He can do.
This week, we begin our brand new sermon series on the Spiritual Gifts, in the unlikely place of Exodus 4. In Moses’s story, we see how God called him and had already equipped him with a tool for glorifying God through miraculous signs and wonders. We are left to consider the ordinary tools, resources, and abilities with which God has already equipped us and how He may be empowering us with His Holy Spirit to do the extraordinary, all for His glory.
This week’s sermon, brought to us by Mykel Pollock, CityLife’s Pastoral Resident, discusses lukewarm Christianity. In Revelation 3, Jesus writes to the church of Laodicea about being neither hot nor cold and a faith that was not reflective of His kingdom. We know Jesus did not leave them - nor us - in mediocre faith, but counseled them and promised that if they repented and turned back to Him, they would reign with Him forever. That same promise stands for us today and so we should and could do with some self-reflection and asking ourselves, “Are we living the life of a lukewarm Christian?”
This week’s sermon, brought to us by Ryan Dominguez, CityLife’s Creative Pastor, invites us into a conversation about worship. The global pandemics affecting our world have altered the ways we, as Christians in the Global North, have grown accustomed to worship today. Thus, we reflect on how God’s people have worshipped through the millennia to rediscover the kind of worship our God desires and ask ourselves, “What makes worship great? What makes worship whack? How does Jesus model for us how to make worship great again?”
This week, we conclude our “Deepening our Souls” series with the final thoughts of the Apostle Peter for Christians struggling with following Christ's example and allowing their faith to shape their lives. Peter reminds Jesus’s followers that we are a people of waiting and in these final instructions of this seasoned and tried companion of Christ, we find these enduring questions: How do we live as exiles and sojourners in this world? How do we remain loyal to God and subversive to the world when it tries to claim something that only God deserves?
Pastor Pedro brings 2 Peter to a close by reflecting on the Giant Sequoia Trees in Yosemite National Park. Throughout the 1900s, those entrusted to care for the park were alarmed at the lack of new Giant Sequoias sprouting in the park. For decades they searched for a solution to no avail, until one day a forest fire taught them the value of heat in the growth and development of these enduring behemoths. How is it that fire can both bring destruction and life? It seems what Peter’s epistle has been telling us all along is that going through fire with God does not lead to destruction but new life.
This week, Peter reminds his disciples that truly divine teaching is epitomized in the life and example of Jesus. The apostle warns the Church that there will always be false teachers of the Word, who only care about profiting off of it. The contradictions of their self-serving heresies juxtaposed with Jesus’s self-sacrificial ministry show us just how dead wrong these false prophets are about God’s grace and mercy. Peter witnessed firsthand the radically upside-down nature of the Kingdom of God, when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords knelt down to wash a lowly fisherman’s feet, the night before the Messiah would give His life as a ransom for the World. What are some ways you are tempted to “self-serve” rather than to “self-sacrifice”? How are you being called to imitate Christ’s better teaching?
This week, The Apostle Peter teaches us to consider Jesus as our Morningstar, the star in the sky that shines right before the dawn. Peter links Jesus' transfiguration to this morningstar moniker and proclaims that Jesus is what holds all of creation together. In light of what's happening in our country right now, how does faith in Jesus give us hope for today and compel us to follow Him in these times?
This week, we began reading 2 Peter and the apostle’s divinely inspired wisdom on legacy. Because he knows his time is limited, Peter intends to leave parting words with the faithful, which remind them of their Savior. Drawing their attention to Jesus’s legacy of love, Peter lays out how the Spirit empowers and commends believers to pursue virtues worthy of their calling. As we strive to deepen our souls and leave our own legacies of love, we would do well to do the same.
This week's sermon covers the powerful conclusion of 1 Peter, which drills down into four deeply profound words: Restore, Confirm, Strengthen, and Establish. Pastor Pedro spends time breaking down the Greek to we flesh out just how intentional God is in repurposing suffering for His glory and our maturity.
In this week's sermon, the Apostle Peter reminds us that though following Jesus comes with sacrifice and suffering, we have gained something far greater than what we might be losing. 1 Peter 4 is a powerful reminder that we are called to abide by Jesus in the face of suffering, and calls us to ask ourselves, “Do we live out of DEVOtion to Jesus or are we arrested by FOMO, lacking true conviction? Are we willing to allow God's fire to refine our souls and consecrate us into mature believers?”
This week, we continue our study of the Apostle Peter’s epistle and the call to live devoted to Christ, no matter the suffering we may face. In reminding us of our identity as sojourners and exiles in this life, we hear Peter’s pastoral heart exhorting, not only slaves and wives of unbelieving husbands to humbly obey the authorities above them, but for all believers to submit even to the point of suffering, out of reverence for, and for the glory of Christ. In light of his own sanctification journey, Peter endorses a fire-tested Christian witness, forged by enduring trials and persecution for the sake of the Gospel, over a fairweather Christianity, resulting from seasons of success and prosperity. In other words, because Christian “tourists” rarely persist long enough to see the fruit of perseverance, the Church must commit herself to suffering for and with Jesus, in order to truly mature in the fullness of Christ.
This week, our Pastoral Resident, Mykel Pollock taught on the parable of the unmerciful servant and how God expects us to treat people in light of how He has treated us. Much like the king’s servant, we are forgiven when we are repentant and are expected to extend forgiveness when our debtors ask us for the same. As Pastor Joseph Rowell writes, “We are never more like Satan than when we gossip and slander, and we are never more like Jesus than when we forgive and let it go.“ In light of this, we must ask ourselves, “Who is the Spirit of God calling us to forgive?” and “Who am I more like in my unforgiveness?”
This week, guest preacher John Soper, highlights the obedience displayed by Ananias, an ordinary follower of Christ. Commanded by God to visit Saul, the persecutor of Christ's followers, in order that he regain his sight, Ananias is faced with the challenge of forgiving his oppressor. It's in this obedience to the Word of God that we see the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit to free Ananias from bitterness, Saul from blindness, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ by way of the apostle Paul's writings and ministry to begin to reach the ends of the Earth. How is He calling you to obedience to His Word today? How might obedience in the ordinary make room for God's extraordinary power to be displayed?
This week, we continue the Deepening Our Souls sermon series with Peter writing to persecuted Christians and calling them to live set apart for God's glory. Peter exhorts them to their convictions in Christ and His teachings, because God's promise is that through suffering He is building them into a spiritual home and a priesthood. We reflect on why the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write highlight these promises to persecuted peoples in the days of the early Church and how they continue to inspire hope for God's people today.
This week, we launch into a sermon series focused on spiritual maturity. In this sermon, we discuss Peter's letters to persecuted Christians and the radical call to steadfast faith in Jesus and fellow believers. Peter’s epistles raise some powerful questions about how we are called to keep our faith in such a painful world. How do we continue to mature in Christ not only to endure suffering but to grow from, and become more like Jesus through, it? Do we really trust God enough to allow the Holy Spirit to transform us and make us into new beings? How does suffering produce something invaluable in us?
In light of recent events and the underlying systemic issues laid bare, we interrupt our church's routine to take a moment to reflect. We take a look at how Jesus’s Gospel is also Good News to the oppressor. Jesus interrupts Saul's life in order to teach him how much he needed to suffer for Jesus’s sake. Jesus’s message is the only thing in our world that simultaneously speaks freedom to the oppressed and true humanity through repentance to the oppressor. Reading from Acts 9 we take a closer look at how Jesus turned Saul into Paul; from the least of the apostles into the chief of all sinners.
In light of recent events and the underlying systemic issues laid bare, we interrupt our church's routine to take a moment to reflect. We focus in on Zechariah 7:8-12 and find yet another call for God’s people to pursue justice and to show mercy, but this time specifically for the most vulnerable members of their community: “the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor.” As we read on in the chapter, we find Israel inattentive, stubborn, and hard-hearted, eventually incurring the anger of God. The Church today is called in the same way to pursue justice and to show mercy to the most vulnerable in our community. In light of this, are we on track to suffer the same fate as Israel? How can we repent or change course to actively confront injustice and fight against it today?
In light of recent events and the underlying systemic issues laid bare, we interrupt our church's routine to take a moment to reflect. We focus in on Micah 6:8, where God calls His people to do justice, love kindness, and to walk humbly with Him. We reflected on the biblical concept of justice and how we can advocate for that in our culture and community. We ask the question, “Why should we be quick to forgive?” and talk about the balance we need in order to walk humbly with our God.
In light of recent events and the underlying systemic issues laid bare, we interrupt our routine to take a moment to reflect. In this passage, we observe Jesus’s indignation with the illegitimate use of the Lord’s House. We reflect on God’s righteous anger at injustice and how it compels Him to act and consequently make a way for true healing to take place. In response, we begin a new season as a church: a season marked by repentance for not proactively fighting against injustice in our midst and response with righteous indignation and active pursuit of Gospel Change in our society. We ask Jesus how He is calling us to be intolerant of injustice towards our black brothers and sisters and how He wants to bring healing through us to our city.
In this week's passage, Jesus shares the parable of some wicked tenants; the kind of people you would not want to be in business with. In this story, we find the owner of a great vineyard, who tries over and over to collect what is rightfully his and the wicked tenants who reject, scorn, and destroy every opportunity to honor their end of the deal. Though this is a sad parable, it also highlights God's relationship to his people. God lovingly reaches out time and time again and even gave His one and only Son to die on a cross, to call His people back to Himself, only to be rejected and scorn. How do we respond to God’s call? How do we say “Yes” to Jesus?
In this passage, the religious leaders are at it again, pestering Jesus about the source of His authority. Seizing the teachable moment, Jesus offers a question of His own on the authority behind the ministry of John the Baptist, at which the religious leaders predictably balk. Likewise, in our pursuit to know Jesus as Lord and Savior, we must wrestle with some profoundly important questions: Where does Jesus stand in my life? Why does He get to claim every part of us and our lives? From where does Jesus get His authority?
In this week’s sermon, we take a look at how a dead fig tree and the cleansing of the temple come together to teach Jesus’s followers about being fully committed to God. How would our lives, and the life of the Church, look differently if we lived totally committed to Jesus’s example? What would happen if we forgave and prayed together like Jesus talks about in this passage?
In this week's passage, we meet a blind man who truly saw Jesus for who He was. The Church often discusses the nature of faith, but how often do we think about faith responding to God when He draws near to us? Blind and poor Bartimaeus is a great example of responding to Jesus in faith.
In this passage, Jesus's closest friends make an uninformed request of Him. In response, Jesus reminds us again about how greatness in the Kingdom of Heaven revolves around humble service. How have you been impacted by humility and service? How do you lead through humble service today?
In this passage, Jesus continues to challenge cultural norms about value and worth by receiving children and confronting those with earthly wealth with their spiritual poverty. Where in your life do you need to be more childlike? What in your life would cause you to walk away from Jesus sorrowfully? What makes us worthy to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
In Luke's account of the third day following the Crucifixion, we are reminded of how Jesus's life, death, and Resurrection culminate to make sense of our lives as His followers. Through Jesus's words and actions leading to the Cross, while on the Cross, and after the Cross, we find the hope and promises on which we stand in Resurrection today.
As Jesus enters Jerusalem and the Church approaches Easter, His followers joyously announce the arrival of the King! However, because Jesus knows that suffering precedes victory in the Father's plan, the Son weeps over the city. How do we, as followers of Jesus today, suffer for our city, in light of future glory and the hope we have in Christ?
In this passage, the Pharisees try to trap Jesus using a law given to them by Moses around marriage and divorce. Jesus takes this opportunity to teach that God's plan for any relationship is for the former to give his life in order that the latter be presented spotless and blameless before God. Jesus's body was broken and His blood was poured out for His bride. How does this compare to the love we have for one another? For our spouses? For our families? For our neighbors?
In this short but rich passage, Jesus reminds us that God uses unexpected people for the powerful work of the Kingdom. Pride can make us think God chooses us over others because of something special in us, creating unhealthy divisions in our hearts. How is Jesus calling you to put pride to death? How can faith in Jesus empower us to live for others?
In Mark 9:42-50, Jesus shows His wild side with regard to protecting His followers. He talks about the unquenchable fires of sin and the purifying fire that He offers, which leads to peace: peace with yourself, peace with one another, and ultimately peace between God and humanity.
As we see over and over again in the Gospel of Mark, Jesus's disciples often lose sight of God's call on their lives when they get caught up in the details. Yet, Jesus's reminder to them then, and us today, is that to be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, we must live to be last, live to serve, and live to receive those viewed to be the least.
Scripture tells us that as believers our fight isn't against flesh and blood, but against darkness and spiritual forces of evil. But when we come up against our enemy, we can be confident that even a "weak faith in Jesus is better than strong faith in our flesh". God's Kingdom is infinitely stronger than the kingdom of darkness. Even in death, Jesus won and through Him, we are victorious!
When we are confronted with God’s glory, we realize that God is good, and we can be broken in front of Him and others. God’s glory gives us the freedom to live the truly authentic life Jesus came to give us.
Entering into Act 2 of Mark, our focus shifts to what it means for Jesus to be the Christ. God so values your soul that He gave up everything to teach us how to follow Him. Does God's approval mean more to you than man's?
In this passage, we learn that Jesus is keen to know who His disciples say He is and that in rightly declaring that Jesus is King, His followers receive their true identity in the Kingdom. As we wrestle with the same question today, we must ask ourselves, "What, or Who rather, do you stand for?"
In this account of a miraculous healing, we see that Jesus is the One who sees perfectly and brings perfect healing for physical, emotional, or spiritual blindness. What are you blind to today? Will you trust Jesus to lead you by the hand to go from just seeing to seeing radiantly?
As the disciples argue about bread, Jesus uses the moment to teach a deeper lesson. How can this story point you to the deeper things God is trying to do in your life today?
What do we do when our lives are interrupted? Whether it's God slowing us down or that life is just complicated, what might Jesus be trying to say to us through interruptions?
The Thorntons share some invaluable wisdom on singleness and marriage as they celebrate 10 years of marriage.
Every decision you make becomes part of the story of your life. In this episode, Andy explains how to make your story one you want to tell.
We've all made decisions that make us look back and wonder how we could have been so dumb. In this episode, Andy reveals a question that can help prevent more regrets.
When you have a mess to address, first options aren’t usually the best options. First options often make messes messier. In this message, Andy explores an approach that can take the -er out of your messy situations.
We are excited to be able to hear from Andy Stanley a few times a year. Andy is the lead communicator and founding pastor at North Point Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
A common misperception is that the Christian life is all about avoiding messes and staying out of trouble. But following Jesus isn’t about avoiding something; it’s about becoming something.
We are excited to be able to hear from Andy Stanley a few times a year. Andy is the lead communicator and founding pastor at North Point Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
I know a mess when I see one because I am a mess. When we acknowledge our messes, we're a baby step away from acknowledging God. Your mess has the potential to bring God near you.
We are excited to be able to hear from Andy Stanley a few times a year. Andy is the lead communicator and founding pastor at North Point Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Whether we’re religious or not, we’ve all been in, are in, or are only one decision away from a mess. But there’s a powerful connection between your messes and your relationship with God.
We are excited to be able to hear from Andy Stanley a few times a year. Andy is the lead communicator and founding pastor at North Point Church in Atlanta, Georgia.