Of the currently top 150 worship songs played in churches in the U.S., zero are songs of lament. Contrast that with a third of the Psalms. Lament is a necessary practice in following Christ because we live in a sinful and broken world, and expressing our sorrow to God is the right way of handling such difficulties. Listen to Max Kozak, pastoral resident at Cities Church, expound on Psalm 43 to help us learn to know what to do in the valley.
The weightlifter who actually holds up the full weight is the one who feels the pressure of the weight, not the one who attempts it but fails. When we pray, "Lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil," we have a hope that we will bear up under the weight of trials, temptations, and the ways of the Evil One because we are empowered by the Holy Spirit. Listen to Pastor Brett's exhortation for more.
Ships used to attempt to sink a submarine by dropping an explosive called a "depth charge." It wasn't just a device dropped in the ocean at random but deployed with a purpose. Daniel—and all the elect exiles—are "depth charges" not just waiting in exile but sent there for the glory of God. And such deployment may require disobeying the government. Listen to Pastor Zach's sermon on Daniel 6 for more.
Whether sins or debts, Christians ought to be ready to forgive because of how much we have been forgiven in Christ. We've breathed in deeply of the grace of God and need not hold that breath in. As we continue in our prayer focus, listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation that we would be increasingly shaped by the gospel.
Asking for "daily bread" can get turned to presuming to know what it is that we need rather than a request for God to provide the sufficient and necessary grace for today. In God's providential wisdom, there may be good cause for him to give a stone when we ask for bread or a snake when we ask for fish. Listen to Pastor Brett's exhortation for more.
A day is coming when the Lord will require of us our soul; he will hold us to account for our actions. We can go on for some time thinking we are perfectly free to do as we will—we can enrich ourselves or seem to have great power over our lives—yet God will see to it that it is plain that he holds our breath in his hand. God is meticulously sovereign over all things. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Daniel 5 for more.
God will move and act to afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted. This is on display in Daniel 4 has God acts to convey to a watching world that he rules and reigns over all despite the appearances that King Nebuchadnezzar is in control. What will it take for you to be humbled before the Lord Jesus? Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
Theologians have articulated two wills that God has, his will of decree and will of command. Or it could be thought of as his story and his specific. So when we pray as Jesus taught us, "Your will be done," we are praying that God's will of command would come about. We want to want what God wants to happen in these Cities—that happens when we pray. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
A Scottish pastor, Thomas Chalmers, two-hundred years ago preached a sermon called, "The Expulsive Power of a New Affection." Chalmers argues we can turn from sin by seeing its vanity or finding something better. Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were ready to face death in the furnace rather than willfully sin because they knew something better. They knew the person and character of the LORD God. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
The second petition of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples is a bit different wording. Your kingdom come? Like with knights and a round table? How does a kingdom come? Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation to be spurred on to pray this request so that God's kingly reign would be more evident in our world.
The first petition of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples is, "Our Father, hallowed be your name." First and foremost, we pray for God to be rightly regarded as holy. This is his chief aim in all of creation, yet we so readily pursue our own glory. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
The itch everyone is most eager to have scratched when reading about visions and dreams is what the particulars are about. While Daniel 2 does speak to the kingdoms of man yet to come as anticipated in the dream recorded, we see that the same point of the dream is conveyed throughout the chapter. Namely, God is in control despite present appearances and will move to provide for his people. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon for more.
In calls to not waste your life or to be a radical disciple of Jesus, we can lose sight of the good in being faithful in the relatively mundane, little things of life. Doing big, grand things for the sake of Christ is commendable but so is doing the easily overlooked. Listen to more of Pastor Zach' exhortation to be faithful in the little things.
We are starting an eight-week initiative, "Seek & Search," to especially commit ourselves as a church to seeking the Lord in his Word and prayer. We are desiring to foster gospel growth by seeking God in his Word, enflame joyful mission by seeking the Spirit to move, and advance generous hospitality by searching for a space. Listen to Pastor Haakon explain more about this Spring prayer focus in this commissioning exhortation.
Coming down from the emotional high of the exuberance of Resurrection Sunday and going on with a week that seems like any other can leave us with the sense that the promises of the resurrection just aren't what they seem. That's when we're reminded that we are exiles, like Daniel, and need to hope in God's sovereign presence in our sojourning. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Daniel 1:1-21 for more.
Good stories bring you into the experience of the characters. Mark ends his Gospel as a good story, leaving questions unanswered and putting the onus on his readers to respond to the testimony he's captured regarding the resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. How will you respond to the empty tomb? Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Mark 16:1-8 for more.
Marcus Aurelius once said, "Death smiles at us all, but all a man can do is smile back." Such a hopeless worldview does not know the death-defeating power of the resurrected Christ. No, rather Christians ought to put death in its place. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
The death of Christ is a clear display of the gravity of our sin and rebellion against a holy God. It required the death of God's own Son to assuage the just punishment for sinners. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation from our Good Friday service for more.
The Thursday before Easter is known as "Maundy Thursday," from the Latin 'maundatum' meaning "commandment." It was at the Last Supper on that Thursday where Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and gave them a new commandment. He went on to display the highest example of that commandment in laying down his own life. Listen to Pastor Brett's Good Friday exhortation on the love of Christ.
Non-Christians have always regarded our crucified God as folly. From the mocking of Alexamenos in the first century to USA Today regarding a Christian basketball team as backwards, at the core is the perceived foolishness of following a humiliated messiah. Yet what is foolish to the world is the wisdom of God—Jesus laid down his life to ransom many. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Mark 15:21-47 for more.
On the cusp of entering the Promised Land, the LORD told Israel that one day they would ask for a king so that they would be like the nations. We too want to be like the nations, the world. Christians want to be acceptable in popular society—we want our faith to be cool. And of this we need to repent. Listen to Pastor Brett's exhortation for more.
In the Old Testament, we have recorded the promise of God to provide food called manna for Israel while they were in the wilderness. God promised enough for each day and no more. Storing up or hoarding manna didn't work—new manna was needed each day. God's sufficient grace for each day functions the same. Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation for more.
Since Constantine's conversion in the fourth century, Christians in the West have faced relatively minimal persecution and suffering. For those who have, they've clung to Jesus by identifying with his suffering to persevere because he persevered. As Jesus' own prophecy (Mark 10:33-34) is being fulfilled, we see Jesus is the silent lamb who was the sinless substitute by being the mocked king. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Mark 15:1-20 for more.
Theologians will describe our world as the "best of all possible worlds" to accomplish God's goal of glorifying himself. So if this world, with all of its sorrow and pain, is the best for the glory of God, we can rest assured that God's purposes cannot be thwarted by our sin and shame. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Mark 14:51-72 for more.
We have a time in our service when a pastor speaks, what we call, an "exhortation" for two reasons: to cultivate fruitfulness in our lives and to cultivate fruitfulness in our worship. Sin will choke out fruitfulness in your life, and it will hinder your worship of a holy God. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
As the trial of Derek Chauvin begins, your city and neighbors need you to pray because they need Jesus Christ. The turmoil of last summer makes this plain. Regardless of how the trial plays out, it cannot resolve all the pain, hurt, injustices, or other troubles that cling to our neighbors. Indifference or over-engagement in the developments of the trial can both lead to prayerlessness. Listen to Pastor Haakon's exhortation for more.
A 17th century Spanish artist named Zurbaran painted a peaceful lamb on a simple, black background with its feet bound with ropes. He titled the painting "Agnus Dei," the Lamb of God. As we move through Mark 14:1-50, Jesus is increasingly isolated, abandoned, and betrayed. He stands alone in the hands of sinners ... as the Lamb of God. Listen to this sermon from Pastor Brett.
Jesus spoke of things to come when his disciples asked him in private about his thoughts on the splendor of the temple. Regardless of timelines and charts, Jesus wants his disciples to know he will be victorious, and he can be trusted. Therefore, we can stay vigilant and faithful. Listen to Pastor Haakon's sermon on Mark 13:1-37 for more.
Don't be ashamed of the exclusive claims of Christ. It isn't pride to be a beggar showing other beggars where the bread is. Listen to Pastor Zach's exhortation for more.
No body likes arrogance. There are a number of commonly used idioms and illustrations that highlight this—the tortoise and the hare, "bigger they are, harder they fall," "pride goes before the fall." Yet we are quick to pass over the display of arrogance in our own lives. Mark captures the folly of Israel's leaders puffed up on their own self-importance not for us to mock them but to see how we are the same. Listen to Pastor Brett's sermon on Mark 11:27-12:44 for more.
