Citizens Church of Orange County

In the third message of our new sermon series, we take a look at some of the darkest moments in the biblical story, Genesis 4-11, and we see that even there God is good and is working for good. He is with us even when we are at our very worst.

This week, we took a quick break from our "The First Gospel" series to hear from a dear friend of our community, Bishop Sheridan McDaniel, who shared an amazing message out of Psalm 63:1-2 about why, how, and who we worship in the wilderness seasons of our lives.

In the second installment of our new sermon series, we take a look at the good world God created: how it started (good), how it's going (not so good), and what God is up to (putting it back to good through Jesus). Our primary text for this weekend is Genesis 3:1-24.

This week we started a new series that will carry us through the entire year. We're calling it  The First Gospel . It will be a journey through the entire Old Testament to help us better understand who God is, what he's up to in the world, who we are, and how we can partner with him in that work. We started our series by looking at Genesis 1:1, which is not an introduction to a story about...

We conclude our  Apocalyptic Christmas  series by taking a look at Revelation 21-22, the stunning moment when faith is made sight, all our hopes are realized, and God comes to  dwell  among his people. We consider the parallels between this text and Christmas morning and, with all God's people cry out, "Come, Lord Jesus!"

We're in this series, An Apocalyptic Christmas, because we want to know Jesus more, to understand the baby in the manger better. This week, via Revelation 19:11-21, we learn that the baby in the manger is a warrior King. And, from the baby in the manger (and the man he would become), we learn that the Rider in Revelation 19 conquers through love and sacrifice.

In the second week of our Advent series, we look at one of the most stunning texts in the Bible, Revelation chapter 5. In this vision, we see Jesus as a King who saves the world from the inside, who ends the suffering by suffering, who conquers by dying. He is the Lion who is the Lamb.

We kick off our Advent series, An Apocalyptic Christmas, with three learnings from Revelation 1:9-20: 1) Apocalypse doesn't mean "destruction" or "the end of the world." It means "revelation," as in something that is revealed. 2) The thing that is revealed is not a thing but a person.  3) Because he is who he is, we can be confident that everything's going to...

This weekend, we concluded our mini-series on the Sermon on the Mount by discussing both the difficulty and the simplicity of life in the Kingdom of the heavens (Matthew 7:7-29).

In the penultimate sermon from our mini-series on the Sermon on the Mount, we discuss Jesus' prerequisite for Kingdom community: "Do not judge, or you too will be judged" (Matthew 7:1). We look at what this doesn't means as well as what it does mean and how it can change everything for a community of Kingdom Citizens.

A bit of bonus content for anyone wondering how to follow Jesus in the wake of the 2024 US Elections. What does Jesus expect from Citizens of his Kingdom in this cultural moment?

We continue our mini-series through the Sermon on the Mount by considering Jesus' words in Matthew 6:19-34: "Where your treasure is there your heart will be also." One of the primary obstacles we will face as we seek to live in the Kingdom of the heavens here and now are our treasures, our driving passions, our core motives. What will it look like for us to learn from Jesus how to st...

We continue our journey through the Sermon on the Mount by looking at Jesus' warnings about the things that will oppose us as we seek to live with him in the Kingdom of the heavens. In Matthew 6:1-15, he addresses people-pleasing insecurity as one of the primary obstacles to the life that he wants to give us. The solution: learning from Jesus how to live for an audience of One.

A lot of people, both inside and outside the Church, have strong opinions about the Sermon on the Mount. Inside the Church, people have a respect and reverence for "Jesus' greatest teaching," but find it to be difficult, even impossible, to live out. Good thing there's grace to bail us out! Outside the Church, where there is very little reverence for Jesus and his teachings, the...

This week, we continue our mini-series on the Sermon on the Mount by looking at the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:1-12). What if these famous words aren't ways of earning God's blessing but are, in fact, Jesus' description of those for whom God's blessing is currently available? Please forgive the poor audio quality in the last 5 minutes. Our camera cut out 5 minutes early, and we had to u...

For the next 8 weeks, our Jesus Stories will focus on Jesus' most famous teaching, the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In this week's message, we introduce this "mini-series" by considering what it means to say that Jesus is our Rabbi. 

In this week's Jesus Story (from John 4:1-26), we encounter, in Jesus, a God who is on a mission to seek and save his lost kids. He will cross any barrier between us and him, even when those barriers are of our own making. We are all the woman by the well, and he has come for us because he loves us.

This week's Jesus story comes from Luke 13:1-21, a seemingly disconnected series of verses that ultimately teach us how Jesus is going to change the world (and how that's often very different from the way we would do it).

In our final Jesus Story of the summer (more to come in the fall), we discuss Matthew 28:16-20, the Great Commission. From this story, why Jesus has a church and what he wants us to do in the world. It's the big WHY behind Citizens!

This week's Jesus Story is a story Jesus told (in Luke 15:11-32) about a lost son and a Father whose love was bigger than his sons' mistakes.

Our Jesus Story this week is one of the most beloved and beautiful worship stories in the whole Bible, the story of the woman from the wrong side of town washing Jesus' feet at a dinner party (from Luke 7:36-50). Through this story we learn both how to respond when Jesus walks into the room and the transformative power of forgiveness.

Our Jesus Story this week comes out of the Gospel of Mark 6:45-52 where we learn that the storms in our lives are not always the result of disobedience but can be opportunities, given to us by Jesus, to persevere, grow, and overcome. We are grateful to our friend, Sheridan McDaniel, for sharing this powerful message with us.

In this week's Jesus Story, we discuss Mark 11:1-25 and learn the importance of context when studying the Bible. What has often been read as disjointed stories and "one-liners" is, in fact, one cohesive story about faith and how to become the temple of the living God.

This week, we discuss John 1:35-51 and specifically look at what kind of people Jesus first called to follow him, what he needed in order to start his ministry, and how that applies to modern day churches that are just starting out. 

This week's Jesus story comes from John 8:1-11 as we consider what Jesus  really  meant when he said, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her," and learn what it cost him to say, "Then, neither do I condemn you."