Cities Church Exhortations

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Schumann recounts the joyful ups and the aggravating downs of serving in our childcare ministry on Sunday mornings. We encourage all of our members to accept this invitation to receive children in Jesus’ name just as Jesus has told us to do.

In this exhortation, Deacon Josiah Bennett calls us into an increased passion for Jesus Christ. Jesus should be more real to us than anything else, yet so often our minds drift to apathy. The truth is, we are not as passionate for Christ as we ought to be. So, let us confess our apathy to the one who is not apathetic towards us.

In this exhortation, Pastor Kevin Kleiman recounts mankind’s original sin as well as the second sin – the cover up! Like Adam and Eve, we too have a tendency towards the second sin. Rather than running from our sin and shame, we must resolve to walk in the light by confessing our sins in fellowship with one another.

In this exhortation, Clint Manley echoes Isaiah 55:1 – everyone who thirsts, come to the waters! Too often we try to satisfy our thirst with temporary pleasures, but in Jesus we find an ocean full of living water that will forever satisfy our longings.

In this exhortation, Pastor Jonathan Parnell explains how Proverbs 28 teaches us that confession allows us to prosper by having a congruent life of walking in the light. Let’s confess our sins in order to prosper in God’s economy.

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Schumann exhorts us that while we are still here on earth, we should take every opportunity to fight against sin because this glorifies the God we worship – which is our goal on earth and in heaven.

In this exhortation, Jon Hoglund exhorts us from Paul’s teaching in Ephesians 4:15, to speak the truth in love to ourself and to our neighbor. Your attempt to say out loud how God’s word could shape your response to a difficulty is the means by which God will help you grow.

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Polley lays out a list of commitments from Psalm 101 that David planned to live in light of. We too want to be faithful to the many callings and responsibilities that God built into the fabric of the universe. So let’s keep striving to live in light of our callings.

In this exhortation, Pastor David Easterwood exhorts us to avoid auto-piloting our Christian lives. Sometimes we find ourselves mechanically marching through the motions from week to week. But for the Christian, all the anticipation and the excitement for what the Lord has in store is still ahead because all the best days are still to come. So don't check out, since we will soon see Jesus face to...

In this exhortation, Pastor Kevin Kleiman reflects upon the nature of sheep – they are defenseless and often go astray. God repeatedly compares our human nature to that of the helpless sheep, but he sent Jesus to be the good shepherd. Let’s relish in our reality as God’s blood-bought sheep.

In this exhortation, Deacon Clint Manley exhorts us to pay attention to our happy Father’s world. The glory of the Maker is shown around us in all of creation. So let’s enter into the joy of our Creator by listening to the birdsong, watching the wind dance through the tress, and smelling the peonies.

In this exhortation, on Pentecost Sunday, Pastor Mike Schumann reminds us of the significance of this church calendar day. We read about the day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit arrived and the church grew from about 120 people to about 3,000. Let's ask God for more Holy Spirit power, without which we can do nothing.

In this exhortation, Dan Helstrom references Psalm 46:10 to exhorts us – especially the mothers – to stop and listen to God. As we consistently practice this “stopping and listening,” more and more we’ll be able to do it even in the midst of chaos — as God’s peace and rest become more real than the noise around us.

In this exhortation, Pastor Jonathan Parnell reads from the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith which clarifies that there is no such thing as any creature “giving” God glory. When we talk about giving God the glory let’s remember that the Bible teaches we do not add to God’s glory, but instead God manifests his own glory in, by, unto, and upon us.

In this sermon, Marshall Segal exhorts husbands to love their wives as Christ loved the church, women to seek out Ephesians 5 men, single men to aspire to be an Ephesians 5 man, and the wives to honor and celebrate these men that pursue her, lead her, cherish her, die for her.

In this exhortation, Jon Hoglund refers to the “day by day” renewal that the Apostle Paul explains in 2 Corinthians 4:16. Our temptation is to look at the slowness of our progress and ask, “Is God really at work?” But we should remember that sanctification is a slow and patient work in which God acquaints us with the new creation.

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Polley compares the incomprehensible depths of the Grand Canyon with the even grander incomprehensibility of the new heavens and earth. We may not know what heaven will be like in full, but God has given us glimpses of it here on earth now when he reveals himself to us. Let’s recognize and appreciate the new creation God has started in our hearts so that when we do...

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Schumann reminds us that even now that Jesus has ascended into heaven, and it is so much greater up there than down here, we should remember that the King keeps caring for his people, it is his citizens who stop caring for their king. Jesus has ascended into heaven. Even still, we are not out of his sight, nor his mind. Jesus has ascended into heaven, out of our si...

In this Easter Sunday exhortation, Pastor David Easterwood reads from Luke 24:1-6. If a man in dazzling apparel observed our lives today and saw the places we went to seek comfort or value or security or satisfaction or belonging or joy or love — would he have to ask “Why do you seek the living among the dead?”

In this exhortation, on Palm Sunday, Jon Hoglund reflects upon the triumphal entry of Jesus and what it tells us about our current reality. Could we surrender to Jesus today that plan of ours that we really treasure, and that if it didn’t come about, we would be upset with our creator and Lord?

In this exhortation, Pastor Jonathan Parnell exhorts: As Jesus worshipers, know what it is in your life that fuels and drains the purpose for which God made you. What distracts you from Jesus? What helps you to see and savor him, to glorify and enjoy him?

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Schumann draws from the exhortation in Romans 13 to cast out all darkness and put on the light of Christ. It can be too easy for us to return to our sin, hanging on to a piece of the darkness. Rather, let’s fully trust that Jesus is enough.

In this exhortation, Deacon Clint Manley looks to Paul's frequent thoughts about heaven in the book of Philippians. Paul thought much of heaven. And as citizens of heaven, we too should hope and desire and imagine well about heaven – for it will be far better.

In this exhortation, Marshall Segal reminds us what Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 2 on how to guard against the lies of the devil – forgiveness. Let’s not withhold forgiveness, but rather “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32).

In this exhortation, Pastor Mike Polley imagines how our hearts would honestly describe the commandments of God. Would they say burdensome? Or would they say pure, perfect, reviving? By our selfishness and pride, we might think God’s commands are burdensome, but the burden we bear is actually the weight of our own sin. Let’s remember and really, truly believe that God’s Word leads us to life!