Cities Church Exhortations

We are now in the middle of August, and Labor Day weekend and the start of school is around the corner. And for us as a church, that means Sunday School is starting back up again. Specifically, the first Sunday School session will begin on Sunday, September 8, less than one month away. In Sunday School, our goal and our focus is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the kids who are able to att...

A man sits home on his computer late at night. Still answering emails, still completing tasks. All his responsibilities—work, family, home—weigh heavily upon his shoulders. Then, an image pops up on his computer, offering a temporary escape, a getaway from his stress. What will he choose? The next door down on this same busy street sits a woman—alone, empty, cynical. She wants a husband; one who w...

The point of this exhortation is simple, I would like us to increase our expectation in prayer by remembering who we are praying to. We are studying the psalms right now, and as Johnathan said last week, “The psalms are written with the assumption that we are praying.” Yes, praying is difficult, but that does not mean it’s unimportant. In fact, its difficultly speaks to its importance as the reall...

Jesus has opened the front door There is this interesting text in the book of Isaiah. In it is mentioned a man named Eliakim. Eliakim was one of King Hezekiah’s officials. And Hezekiah was a good king. Another official named Shebna was head over Hezekiah’s household. He ordered the home, oversaw servants, and was responsible for all of the happenings within it. But, Shebna was a wicked man. Isaiah...

The question I want to ask us this morning is: Does Jesus make a difference? When you think about the activities of your life, Does Jesus make a difference? The majority of us would answer that question quickly and confidently and say: Yes. Now I want to ask it a little differently, Did Jesus make a difference this morning, yesterday, this week? Did the fact that you know and love Jesus change any...

As humans there’s this temptation to see others and to either elevate ourselves or demean ourselves. As humans who are in the image of God we have the ability to see and make judgements but God is able to go below the surface. He sees our heart and the intent of our motives. He knows our personal history and all the different ways we’re unique so stop superficially compare yourself to others. God’...

A number of years ago, I attended an advanced firearms training course for law enforcement agents. During one of the exercises, we discussed what to do in an ambush. What do you do if bullets start coming your way when you weren’t expecting them? Our instructor said that there were two schools of thought as to what you should do first. One school says you should immediately find cover. Find someth...

If you walk up to the average American—a churchgoer or not—and ask them how they’re doing, what is the typical response? What does almost everyone say? “Busy, man, super busy. It’s been crazy.” This feeling is true for the vast majority of people, whether you're a teenager, a parent of four, or a stay at home grandma. Americans are literally addicted to busyness. But why is this? First, let's look...

Well, if you haven’t noticed, this church has a lot of young families. We all know at least a family or two with young children and if you have you asked one of those parents how they’re doing lately their response probably sounded something like this: “Life with a newborn has been challenging. I’m really, really tired. I don’t know what routine is like any more; and things like relationships, Bib...

I fear that many have bought into the principle that, while each of us may be of some benefit to one another in the here and now, in the grand narrative we are relatively inconsequential in the effect we have on each other’s lives. You may have, in your head and heart, purchased the lie that your presence is irrelevant to the progress and purposes of those around you. Maybe you have thought… -I ju...

The word Family is emotionally-loaded. It can warm the soul with nostalgia and wholeness, and it can cut the heart like a dagger. Often, at least in our culture, the word family causes a rolling of the eyes — “Oh, family.…” It connotes a unique kind of annoyance. Sometimes annoyance on the level of laughable, almost loveable, and, other times, an annoyance that says, “That’s the last straw, I’m do...

An exhortation highlights a specific sin as some way in which we fall short of God’s glory, and then calls those who participate in it to greater things in Jesus. This exhortation concerns the activity and effect of motherhood. The Activity What does a mother do? She builds up the house that God has given to her by teaching, training, nurturing, providing for, serving, and looking after the wellbe...

Over the last few weeks, we’ve done a series of exhortations focusing on our church’s practice of baptism. We’ve said that baptism is a visible sign of invisible realities. Baptism is public and objective, like a wedding ceremony, and like a wedding ceremony, in baptism God makes promises to us, and we receive those promises by faith, and we also make promises to him. God promises to forgive our s...

Less than a month ago, I had the great joy of baptizing my twin sons, who are almost nine years old. We celebrated the moment as a family and sought to make memories. We invited family to town. We took all sorts of pictures. Multiple friends captured video for us. We went out to lunch afterwards. But most memorable of all for my sons was not any of the accompanying aspects. The most memorable part...

There’s this story of the early church father, Augustine, and he was taking a walk along the beach, and he was getting stuck in his mind as he was trying to meditate on God. And as he’s walking, he sees a boy playing with a shell, splashing around on the shore, and so he asks the boy what he was doing? And the boy says that he’s putting the ocean inside his shell. And Augustine keeps walking and r...

As a church we are working through 1st Timothy, and I was given the privilege to give an exhortation on 1 Timothy 4:7, 8 "Have nothing to do with irreverent, silly myths. Rather train yourself for godliness; for while bodily training is of some value, godliness is of value in every way, as it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come." Like many of you here, I have a competi...

In last week’s exhortation, Pastor Jonathan talked about how baptism makes faith — which is invisible — visible by publicly identifying with Jesus through the act of being baptized. This week, I’m picking up on his language of baptism being “a visible symbol of a spiritual reality,” but coming at it from another angle. Yesterday, I attended a wedding ceremony. One of the highlights of every Christ...

Okay, imagine for a minute that two people are standing up here side by side. There is one person here, and one person here. This one person believes the gospel of Jesus Christ, and this other person does not. Imagine that. It means that this one person believes that God created us but that we have been separated from God because our sin, and no matter how hard we try, we can never make it back to...

What do you do when God doesn’t feel near? Recognizing that there are external life circumstances that contribute to this — trauma, broken relationships, moving to a new location — I think that most of us would admit to experiencing persistent bouts of the absence of God’s felt presence; that this is something common to following Jesus. That it is normal. Why is this the case? I think because for...

In 1833, the British Parliament voted decisively to abolish the practice of slavery throughout the empire. It was a momentous feat cultivated and championed primarily by a few influential friends who responded to the call of God on their lives. Today, many of us have heard the name William Wilberforce, the politician typically credited with the eventual defeat of the evil of slavery across the Eng...

God is God, and he is good. Psalm 100:5 says “For the LORD is good; his steadfast love endures forever….” Our circumstances and feelings don’t change who he is. Circumstances and feelings might try and tell us about God but we need to make sure we see God for who he really is in Scripture and through Jesus. And yet we are embodied, emotion filled beings—that’s how we were created. Emotions aren’t...

I’m sure that at some point you’ve been asked to describe yourself in two or three words. Or maybe you’ve tried to describe a friend of yours that way. Let’s say we’re having a conversation and I’m telling you about my friend Matthew. You ask me what he’s like and expect me to say something like, “Matthew is average height… he’s funny… and he works at a coffee shop.” Instead, after you ask me what...

This is Isaiah 46 … God has planned all of history and purposed all of the created order to one end; that he would be most glorified. And this glory is most uniquely revealed in the form of a people who love God together and make him the focal point of their attention and affection. And the means by which God raises up this people is through salvation. Or, as we see it on this side of the New Test...

Racism in America, at one level, is complex. The racial evils that have been committed in this country over the last 300 years are vast, and for a large part of that history, some Christians have been at worst proponents and at least complicit with the racism, whether that meant endorsing chattel slavery in the 1800s, or segregation in the 1950s, or apathy in the present day. Racism in America, at...

Last Tuesday in the state of Virginia an abortion bill was presented that would remove all restrictions to abortion in the third trimester. This was the same as the bill that was passed in New York, which means that up until the point of actual delivery, the child could be aborted. Then on Wednesday last week, the governor of Virginia, Ralph Northam, commented on this bill and gave an example of a...