Cities Church Sermons

Wasn’t the whole life of Jesus a sowing in tears? And isn’t that the way of God? Jesus is God become man to show us the way, and the way is hard. The way is a cross. And how did he do it? Hebrews 12, verse 2 says that Jesus “for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.” How? How did Jesus hope for joy in the way of the cross? It’s because in God’s way, he knew God’s work. Jesus sowed his...

Remember Paul intends for the whole church at Ephesus to read this letter. Although it’s addressed to Timothy, he is giving instructions for everybody, and so he uses a phrase with wide application. Every Christian is a servant of Jesus, and every Christian should want to be a good servant of Jesus. Which means, this is not just a section in the letter when Timothy leans in, but this when everybod...

There are all kinds of things that we fear in life. There are all kinds of things that we consider to be challenging. We all have adversity. “In this world you will have tribulation,” Jesus says in John 16:33. But I need to tell you that your greatest enemy in this life — your greatest enemy is lies. And lies come from Satan.

At the outset today, I want you to think about BELIEF and BEHAVIOR. Paul says here that how one ought to behave in the household of God (the church), is connected to what we confess (believe to be true). We’ll think about this as we walk through four truths that we learn about the church in this passage. 1. The Church is a family. 2. The Church is alive. 3. The Church holds a secret. 4. The Church...

The structuring and ordering of God’s household, the church, is based on a wise and prudent application of God’s design in creation, as expressed and clarified by the word of God, and is designed to both protect and advance the gospel of Jesus, to the glory of God. And one thing I really appreciate about this summary statement is that it’s pointed toward our goal. Our hope, our goal, what we’re tr...

In the narrower sense, some have thought that deacons only do practical ministry in the church—caring for the poor, caring for widows, and managing finances. This is usually based on the pattern for deacons established in Acts 6, where the apostles appoint seven men to address a practical issue in the distribution of food to widows, so that they can maintain their focus on preaching the word (Acts...

Pastors are called to oversee and care for the flock of God by 1) teaching the word of God with divine authority, 2) zealously guarding the doctrine and worship of the church, and 3) organizing and mobilizing the church for mission, (equipping the saints for the work of ministry; Ephesians 4). That’s the noble task.

Ladies, Christ, through Paul, is not telling you to just blend in. He’s saying give your attention to blessing others in need, not drawing attention to yourself. In the words of Matthew 5:16, “Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”

"Moses couldn’t take upon himself the sin of the people, he was only a man. He could not be the ransom that can forgive sin and redeem humanity. And yet on the cross, Jesus was treated as the one who sinned against God the Father, and he paid the debt that we could never pay. The Author of life chose death so that we can live."

"Local churches are part of society. They help make up what a society is. And this doesn’t mean that Jesus is over one and not over the other. Jesus is over everything. Jesus has all authority in heaven and on earth, which means, Jesus is sovereign over society — it’s just that the church is the only part of society that recognizes that … right now."

"But what is the wind? What is it that keeps the boat moving towards its destination? It is the faithful teaching of the word of God, which the Holy Spirit uses to move us towards Jesus. So what shipwrecks the boat? When the wrong wind fills the sails. When we are 'Carried along by every wind of doctrine'."

"All that Jesus has done for us in his coming and living and dying and coming back to life is so that we might live, and say what Paul does here in verse 17: “To the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen.” God gets all the glory. Jesus saves sinners, even the worst of sinners, and God gets all the glory. "

"Glory is the beauty of God’s perfections, or the visible display of God’s infinite value and worth. “God made us for his glory” means he designed us to show his greatness in the world. And what is God doing in all of history in this visible, tangible world? Showing us his glory. And what is the height of his glory? Ephesians 1:6 says it’s “the glory of his grace.” Jesus and his rescue, called the...

"This is why sound doctrine is so important. Again, you can’t really love God and people any other way. When it comes to people, you can’t really love people unless you point them to the true God. That is what sound doctrine is for. Its goal is love. "

"I want to step back and think about three distinct but interlocking sources of authority that I want you to keep in mind as we work through the book. They are nature, Scripture, and culture."

If we hear that vile whisper in our ear “God will not keep you, he will forsake you, he will withhold from you in 2019.” We will be kept by Jesus, as we read John 17:26, “I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Yes, we will be kept by Jesus in 2019 as we immerse ourselves in his Word.

God’s mercy is from the deepest place within him. That’s what it means. It means that God’s mercy is as true and sincere as it possibly could be. There’s nothing held back. This is ultra mercy. This is mercy extreme in its compassion, and it’s so surprising and unexpected that we really can’t wrap our heads around it.

Moms, you have the most important calling in all the world. And one of Satan’s best strategies in our world today is trying to get you think otherwise. (And that is in no way to say dads are dispensable.) We’re not sure what happened, but at some point in Jesus’s teens or twenties, Joseph disappeared off the scene. Yet Mary is there at the cross. God raised his Son, at some point, without a human...

Whether you were Jewish or Roman, rich or poor, strong or weak, religious or irreligious, John preached to everyone, and he was really nobody’s man, and that’s what made him strange. But he was strange in all the ways we should expect. And Luke gives us the best explanation for this.

There are two threads that run through the text. Here is how we are going to talk about these threads. Let’s talk about them as two vantage points of Genesis 49-50, one from the ground and one from the air.

Jacob knows that the land of the Canaan is his home. That is the land that God promised his family. That’s where Abraham and Isaac are buried, and that’s where Jacob wants to be buried — because he knows that eventually his family is going to be back in that land.

God has put two Judahs before us this morning — the old Judah of chapter 38 whose words cannot be trusted, and whose morality is compromised, and who wields his authority to hurt others. And God gives us the new Judah of chapter 44 whose puts himself at risk to protect others, and whose word is as good as gold, and who stands ready to sacrifice himself for the good of others.

Joseph is putting on display being the wise man from Proverbs 5-7. And according to the Proverbs, typically when a wise person does wise things, good things happen to them, and that is true. That is the message of Proverbs. But there is also the message of Ecclesiastes which says that bad things can happen to good people.

Why Interrupt the heroism of Joseph for these wretched events? Because Judah is set in contrast to Joseph. Joseph is everything that Judah is not. the actions of Judah in this passage provide a stark contrast to Joseph’s heroism. There is another, bigger, reason. There is another, more important reason. But I want to wait until the end of the story to tell you.