Capital City Christian Church | Podcast

"When Jesus says, “Love one another,” who is my one another? You see, this “agape” kind of love wouldn’t be so painfully difficult if the people in your life weren’t so painfully difficult. But you are surrounded by a bunch of sinners. If I got to pick my “one another,” maybe loving my “one another” wouldn’t be so hard. But … I don’t. If all my “one another” were thoughtful, and peaceable, an...

This message is for everyone, but it is about our responsibility to help others, not about helping ourselves. Here is the big question: “What is your responsibility in helping someone who struggles with mental health?”

"Now, not everyone who is depressed will feel all of these descriptors; but they probably feel some of them. You feel down. You’re irritable, maybe. Maybe a sense of hopelessness. You’ve lost a sense of purpose. Those things you used to enjoy, you don’t enjoy them anymore. There’s this oppressive pessimism – everything is half-empty. Sadness, dejection. Some people eat when they are depressed...

"Anxiety and worry exist on a spectrum. At one end, you have worry and anxiety that are present but manageable … and even beneficial. They press us and push us to fulfill our responsibilities. They act as a prod to do our jobs well. But that's not the complete picture. I think that's a small piece of the picture. Anxiety and worry are usually not good. Most of the time, anxiety and...

"When we let that lie take root, it grows and grows until, eventually, we say, "You're unlovable." It's not that you're never going to be loved; you lie to yourself and think your problem is that you aren't worth loving. No one’s ever going to find you lovable. Eventually, that grows until you begin believing that you don't even love yourself. How is it poss...

It’s a word we all understand – “ruin.” Something was beautiful once, but no longer. It was useful once, valuable once, but no longer. It has been damaged and wrecked. It has been spoiled. You can ruin a shirt; you can ruin a phone; you can ruin a vacation; you can ruin a career; you can ruin a relationship; you can ruin a person. Have you ever ruined someone or tried to? Have you ever felt ruined...

"So, a lot of us … in fact, most of us, maybe … kind of put on these masks. And our masks usually look better on the outside than we feel on the inside, right? And we kind of fear that everyone around is as good on the inside as their masks look on the outside. So, when we compare our insides to their masks, we don’t look too good, we don’t feel too good, right? … Listen … Bottom line, the re...

"We talked about raising godly children – which is hard work and requires discipline. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. We talked about money – which requires hard work and discipline to handle well. It wasn’t groundbreaking information. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. We talked about our hurts, and we talked about friends. All these things take w...

"I don’t care whether you are a Boomer, a Gen Xer, a Millennial, a Zer, or even Gen Alpha … the questions are the same: Does your work life matter to God? Does how you work affect your life with God? Does God care? And if he does, should you? What do you think: Is work a necessary evil? Should our goal be to do as little as possible and get past it as soon as possible? Do you think heaven wil...

It's dangerous to be in a place where no one cares for you spiritually because it's incredibly easy to drift away from God. We need people in our corner to help pull us toward God. It's that together part of what Doc always says. We've got this saying that we use a lot around here. We're all about doing life with God, for God, God's way … together. There's someth...

"How many of you have been wounded? Not physically, but emotionally? … Yeah, that’s a universal, right? Emotional pain, spiritual pain, relational pain? Anger, sadness, bitterness, despair, remorse maybe; you are wounded, you hurt. It's pretty much universal. How many of you are hurting somehow right here, right now? A bunch of you, probably. Because hurt happens. Hurting is universal. H...

"Paul says, “I've learned the secret … to being content.” That feels a little bit like a letdown. Like, really? Is that a secret you've been trying to discover? Have you been actively pursuing contentment? Look, I think that we all want contentment. But we don't live like it. We live like contentment is right around the corner … and we never quite catch up. Every time we come a...

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” There are times we fear that God has a sense of humor, right? But what if … what if he is serious? What if God meant them to be so? And what if there was a way to make it so? Not a guarantee but a strategy. What if there was a strategy for raising kids you can be proud of, for raising kids who would be proud of you? Would it be worth...

"How do I live like Jesus when it comes to disagreements? How do I live like Jesus when it comes to the ways in which we don't agree? And then, here's the big idea. Here's the answer at the end of the message. I’ll give it to you on the front end. Here’s the big idea: live in unity and peace with one another. The answer – which feels like it's lacking a little bit – but we...

Let’s start with the word of the day, the question of the day, and the attitude of the day. • The word of the day is “agape.” There it is in the Greek: ἀγάπη. It means “love,” … but it’s a very special kind of love. We’ll get there. • The question of the day is, “What would agape do?” As Jesus followers, we need to ask this question: “What would agape do?” • And the attitude of the day: We use the...

“'Let no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one another, for he who loves his fellow man has fulfilled the law.' Guys, I want you to hear it: overcome evil with good. Be a good citizen. Give what is owed, whether that's taxes or revenue, respect or honor. You give what is owed. And everyone is owed love. I promise you that if the church lived like this, it w...

"So, we’re kind of like a family, right, a family of Jesus followers? It’s kind of like God is our dad, and we’re his kids. So, we’re going to treat this kind of like a family meeting this morning. Did your biological family ever have family meetings? Maybe your dad or mom laid down some of the family rules … You know, where you could go, what you could do, who you could hang with, how you we...

"We’re going to walk through the first few verses of Romans 12 and see what they say about you, what they say about me, and we're going to see what they say about our responsibilities to each other. But it starts with this word, “Therefore …”. When I was in high school, my youth minister taught us that whenever you come across the word “Therefore” in the Bible, you have to ask, “What is...

Do you ever doubt God? Jesus? I mean, some guys doubt Jesus even existed...which is crazy. But, have you ever doubted Jesus went around working all those miracles, raising the dead, and raising from the dead? Although, if there really is a God, it's kind of weird to deny the possibility of a resurrection, isn't it? But, have you ever wondered if Jesus was "God in a bod" like He...

So, don’t forget where we started. The quality of Jesus as guest is directly related to your quality as host. Meaning, the way in which you welcome him will determine the level of impact he's able to make. Have you welcomed him simply as a guest … or have you made him ruler of your home? Have you welcomed him? If so, you should see him welcoming you back. Has he welcomed you at his feet as a...

"Jesus—The I AM—is the true vine, he says, and we are kind of like branches created to be connected to the vine. And God is kind of like the gardener. And, like a gardener … Well, have you ever pruned bushes or trees? What do you do if a branch is dead? You know, it’s flat-out dry, brittle, and dead. You cut it off, right? Throw it away; burn it up, maybe...how about what you think or what yo...

It's something that we struggle with because we love having options. The ability to choose is something that God gave us in the very beginning. He gave us free will. He gave us the ability to choose. And it may be the biggest gift that God gives us. It's one of the things God gives us that make us distinctively human. It's one of the things that separates us from animals. But it is...

Philippians 1.21, do you remember it? Can you say it with me? … “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain.” Yeah, there it is: “To me, to live (living, life to the fullest) is Christ, and to die is gain.” We’re getting there. Let me come at it this way. Ben and I are drawing some of the big ideas for this series from a book called, “Jesus Manifesto,” by Leonard Sweet and Frank Viola. And, in c...

"Which version of this Jesus should I follow? Because while we can say that we ought to imitate Jesus, there is a wide spectrum of what our world believes Jesus to be. A few weeks ago, when we started this series, I shared a host of different versions of Jesus in a somewhat humorous way. We live in a culture where there is a wide spectrum of different Jesus’. I mentioned Republican and Democr...

"Now, sometimes it’s not your choice who you will imitate, right? You can’t choose your parents, but you’re going to imitate them … especially when you are little. And sometimes, even when you’re older, right? Have you old guys ever said something or done something, and you’re like, “Holy cow! That was my dad or my mom.” If you haven’t, you will. “Like father, like son,” right … even when we’...