Cities Church Exhortations

We’ve mentioned before that in this series we want to talk about the relationship between nature, Scripture, and culture. Nature refers to God’s design and purpose embedded in the creatures that he has made, the built-in tendencies and trajectories that make us what we are as human beings. Scripture refers to the declarations, promises, and commands of God in the Bible. Culture is the expression a...

To redeem something is to do whatever is necessary to bring that thing you treasure back into your possession; that is, to buy it back at whatever cost. And the act of redemption includes finding that sought-after possession. It means that the treasure, which was once in darkness, is illuminated. Here is some illumination for you, which should benefit your lives greatly. In the foyer at the entran...

You can fool yourself, you might be able to fool other people but you can’t fool God. In an interview, Bob Cousy, a former NBA player in the hall of fame, was recalling his religious experience, and he said something that caught my attention, he said “We used to go to confession. Why did we go? We did something wrong and needed to get it off our conscience. The priest listened and said, ‘Don't do...

So in this moment everybody in this room has some kind of soul-posture toward God. And ultimately there are just two kinds: we either have a soul-posture of faith or a soul-posture of unbelief. You are either wanting to move toward God or you are trying to avoid him. And I’m going to assume that because we are here, at least in a broad sense, we all have a posture of faith. We have not given up. O...

In the Book of Revelation, the very last book of the Bible, the resurrected Jesus comes to the apostle John and he gives him seven messages for seven local churches in Asia, and each message is tailored for each church. And what’s fascinating about the messages is that we see that Jesus has real thoughts about local churches. Jesus has opinions on how these local churches are doing. He says that:...

A redeemer is someone who, at a cost, frees a captive from all that stands between the two. Zechariah tells us that in Jesus God has visited and redeemed his people. And he likens this visitation from God to the arrival of the sunrise. The Sunrise Just this last week a friend of mine, who is not from these parts, said, “I feel like I haven’t seen the sun in weeks”, which is pretty typical of winte...

All of us are waiting for something. Most immediately, I think of the kids in this room who are eagerly waiting for Christmas morning to finally come. I also think of you students, who are waiting for finals week to end and, more ultimately, for your graduation day to arrive. For the rest of us, you may be waiting on a vacation, a visit from an old friend, or — like my wife — the big reveal of Joa...

So next month in January we will officially be four years old as a church, and if you’ve been around Cities Church for any length of time, one of things that you’ve probably noticed — or not noticed — is that we don’t really talk about giving. We don’t pass an offering basket; we don’t email you about it; every now and then we mention the boxes in the back, but overall we just don’t really talk ab...

Satan must love the night. He tries to make it his accomplice at every turn. Thieves and wrongdoers conceal their evil deeds in the darkness. Good judgment, wearied by a long day, erodes into unsteady choices that slide toward deep regret by the morning. The stillness and isolation create a void in our thoughts that quickly fill with anxiety and depression. The night feels dangerous in many ways....

With Thanksgiving and Christmas falling so close to one another on the calendar, the days and weeks of November and December tend to be filled with activity. Parties need to be scheduled, work needs to be taken off, presents need to be purchased, cards need to be written, pictures need to be taken, food needs to be cooked, conversations need to take place, decisions need to be made — and all of th...

Life can be so hard... because of sin the human experience is so broken. It can be so difficult to navigate through life when you’re feeling the painful ache deep in the soul when you’re in the middle of suffering or when you’re going through trials and affliction. There’s this lie that we can be tempted to believe and it’s that when we go through some real hard stuff that God doesn’t love us. Or...

Just for a moment, I want you to close your eyes, take a deep breath, and imagine yourself in heaven. Perhaps you’re walking the golden streets of the new Jerusalem, and beside fellow saints, you stroll together along the crystal shores of the river of life. As you ascend the steps, nearing the throne of God, you are greeted by thousands, millions of people singing the most beautiful song you’ve e...

In any season of life it is easy to forget about God our creator. Our lives are busy and hectic and stressful, and we feel as if we need to figure this out on our own and we don’t have time to trust God as we do life. This morning is a good time to hit pause and reflect on who God is. In the Bible we often see that God is referred to as Lord. The exhortation today is that we would remember the Lor...

Imagine with me a warm, sunny day. We’re in a field, next to a small river. The sunlight is bouncing off the surface of the water while it bubbles over the rocks. Next to this stream is a tree. It’s a small tree. It’s branches are sturdy, the leaves are vibrant, and the fruit is ripe. This is good, healthy tree. And this tree is a picture. It’s a picture of a healthy Christian. In the first Psalm...