City Central Church Podcast

This week during our 11:00 service, guest preacher Charlie Sweet brought a powerful word on the power of unforgiveness. Charlie shared how the body of Christ has become clouded and disengaged through the pandemic, and that it is time for us to reengage. One way that we can do this is to embrace, practice, and walk in forgiveness. When we forgive, we align ourselves with God's word and his will reg...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Empowered series with a powerful word on the Holy Spirit. Chris sought to answer who the Holy Spirit is, how he works, and how he relates to us in our daily lives. He explained what the work, fruit and gifts of the Spirit are present-day. The Holy Spirit show us Jesus when we are in times of need. The very spirit that rose Jesus from the dead lives inside o...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the book of Acts called Empowered. After Stephen was raised up to take the Gospel forward, Saul began persecuting Christians in a significant way, leading to the dispersing of believers throughout the region. God then raised up Philip who began attracting crowds in Samaria until the Holy Spirit told him to find one lost individual. The core o...

This week Pastor Chris preached on Following Jesus. In the book of Acts, we see Stephen full of faith, declaring truth to the Pharisee's. As a result of Stephen's obedience to follow Jesus till the end, he paid the cost of death to declare the truth. Stephen had every opportunity to hold offense against the Pharisee's. However, he asked God to forgive them in full faith with his eyes fixed on eter...

This week Pastor Chris wrapped up our mini-series on financial fitness. He shared the surprising reality that Jesus spoke more about finances in the Bible than he did about heaven and hell combined. It matters greatly to the Lord what we do with His resources, and how we spend our money will reveal the motives of our hearts. The Lord and the enemy both have distinct paths for us depending on how w...

This week, Eric Jones preached a powerful word on Biblical financial fitness. Eric shared the surprising truth that Jesus spoke more about money than he did about love. He sought to reveal lies that we commonly believe about money and used God's word to speak the truth on the matter. We live in a culture that craves prosperity and financial stability, but God calls us to store up our treasures in...

This Sunday, our Community Life director Casey Mock shared about the importance of being in community and pursuing fellowship together. She shared the Biblical reality that we will have trouble and trial in this life, and how we need others to lift our arms up when we're too weak. We want to follow the examples of the Godhead who dwells in unity and the early church who did not neglect to meet tog...

This week, Pastor Chris brought our Pray Like Jesus series to a close with a powerful word on Jesus's final prayer. In our scripture this morning, Jesus is hours away from being betrayed and arrested. He prayed with an understanding that the disciples were listening, and that his time on Earth was coming to an end. The High Priestly Prayer has everything to do with us and the way that we live toda...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Pray Like Jesus series, sharing the reality that our prayer lives reveal how healthy we truly are. Prayer is the temperature gauge for where we are at spiritually. It is the essential communication link between the visible and invisible realm and the primary way we articulate our emotions to God. Without prayer, there's no communication or abiding relations...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our new sermon series seeking to answer how Jesus prayed in hopes that we would learn to pray like him. During our First Love fast, we have chosen to lay aside something we love for something we love even more: Jesus. Fasting often accelerates our prayer life because it welcomes weakness into our lives. As we fast and come to Jesus in our weakness, we want to g...

Pastor Chris shares a brief understanding on fasting.

This week, Pastor Chris began a new series on prayer for the new year. Chris said that we can expect breakthrough by orchestrating our lives around prayer and communion with Jesus. When we have true revelation of who God the Father is, we will see dynamic change in how we communicate with him. Pastor Chris sought to answer what prayer is and more importantly, what it looks like to pray like Jesus.

This morning, our youth pastor Stephanie Kram brought a powerful word about stepping out in boldness for Jesus. She shared from the book of Esther, expressing how our freedom in Christ is directly linked to our partnership with him. God can call us to do amazing things for Him, but if we don't step out in faith and boldness, we won't walk out what he has planned for us.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Christmas series with a word on four responses to Jesus' birth that we should avoid. It's so easy to lose Jesus in the Christmas season, but we want to be followers who respond to him rightly. Rather than closing off our hearts in entitlement, control or pride, may we open our hearts and praise him for his birth and life.x

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Christmas series with a word on the wisemen in the Christmas story. The magi were likely a large group of people who studied astronomy, yet they recognized the greater power of God. They were seekers of the Savior and they traveled far to worship him. Pastor Chris shared the reality that each one of us worships something. We can all learn something from the...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Christmas series, focusing on Jesus' mother Mary. Chris encouraged us to ask ourselves whether we see what Mary saw. Mary was a young, pregnant teenager near the bottom of the social ladder with nothing to her name. Society deemed her an outcast, yet she trusted in and obeyed the call of the Lord. We can each learn something about how Mary responded to God'...

This week, Eric Jones began our Christmas series with a word on the inherent expectancy of the advent season. Eric encouraged us to take a pause and reflect on the Savior's birth because His arrival on Earth gives us hope for his second coming. In the time and place of our Scripture passage, people experienced a deep longing for the Messiah and the same is true for us now. May we each be filled wi...

This week, Adina Olson rounded out our sermon series on Heaven with the desire that each individual perspective on the end times would be founded on the Word of God. The most important question to confidently answer about Heaven is whether you know you're going there. Adina brought us back to the beginning, reminding us of how God's original plan was simply to be with us. The Lord's compelling lon...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series on Heaven. Chris described a longing that lives in every human heart for the new Heaven and new earth. There is an "already, not yet" tension that plays out in every one of our lives. We get tastes of Heaven on earth, but we consistently feel the pangs of sin and death. We must allow the longing for Heaven to change how we live today. If we truly und...

This week Pastor Chris continued in our series on Heaven, seeking to answer what Heaven looks like in the present day. There are important, Biblical truths about those who have gone before us and are in Heaven now. At the same time, God's Word continuously exhorts those still on Earth to set our minds on things above. The truth is this: what we think and know about Heaven matters. The reality of t...

This week, Pastor Chris began a new sermon series seeking to answer some important questions about Heaven. We live in a culture that tells us to live for today and to deny the realities of eternity. The truth is that our view of Heaven matters. If we become fascinated by what eternity holds, it will change the way we live here on Earth. As believers, Heaven should be one of our primary motivating...

This week, Pastor Chris sought to answer what brings people true happiness this side of heaven. The Bible is clear that we will find our lives when we give them away. God's Word calls each one of us to be actively engaged servants, doing our part to advance the Kingdom. In our text, we find ourselves roughly five years after Pentecost with the Hebrews and Hellenists responding dramatically differe...

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the book of Acts with a powerful word on being empowered for a reset. We've reached a point in Acts where the fear of the Lord was released on the people of God, ushering in a season of many signs and wonders. Each of us have reached a point of weariness in our attempts to live in our own strength. What we may need is a reset in the Spirit. P...

This Sunday, Pastor Chris preached a powerful message on deception. In our text, Ananias and Sapphira lied to the Holy Spirit, held onto what was rightfully the Lord's, and suffered the consequences of their hypocrisy and greed. Chris shared how greediness reveals what is truly in our hearts and where we're finding our self-worth and identity. If we desire to live in the fear of the Lord,   we mus...