CityLife Church

In this year's Christmas sermon, Pastor Pedro shows us how in Jesus’s birth, God displays both His unmatched power and unmatched humility. In the Christmas event, our Creator directed all of Creation to spotlight the little town of Bethlehem, where He would condescend - literally, “come down to be with” - to the least of us, as the lowliest of these. In such a unique and difficult year, let us tak...

In week three of this year's Advent series we turn to Malachi one last time to be reminded that preparing for Jesus also means preparing for mission. The book of Malachi reminds us that the promised messenger is directly attached to God's mission. So while his coming is hope to many, it is also judgment to many. How can we be prepared to join the mission of God and continue to tell people about th...

In week two of this year's Advent study, we once again return to Malachi to prepare for the coming of our Lord. How can Malachi's promise of God's justice and judgment speak to us in 2020? How can God's march towards justice as LORD of Hosts teach us something unique about Christmas?

In this year's Advent study, we turn to Malachi to give our season new meaning. How are we to prepare ourselves to receive Jesus in this difficult year? What can the tired, beaten, callous people of Malachi's day teach us about preparing ourselves to know our Savior?

In this week's sermon we look at the last major ingredient to the Spiritual Gifts which is that they are Gifts of Grace. Without grace the gifts would not be extended towards us or used to benefit others. How is it that grace makes these gifts so important in our spiritual walks?

This week, we process 1 Corinthians 14:1-25 and one of Paul’s major principles of the Spiritual Gifts; our meditations on the following questions: How will I benefit you? How are we called to benefit others in our earnest pursuit of agape love and the Spiritual Gifts? How can the gifts of prophecy and tongues work to complement, not conflict with, one another to promote the strengthening of faith...

This week, we look at one of Scripture’s greatest hits: 1 Corinthians 13. Yet as we study this chapter's original context, we rediscover Paul’s key to unlocking the Spiritual Gifts, not simply the secret to a successful marriage. Thus, as we have been expanding and “re-informing” our working definition of what a Spiritual Gift is, we ask ourselves how our practice and pursuit of the Spiritual Gift...

This week, we turn to the New Testament's largest portion on the Spiritual Gifts in 1 Corinthians. Chapter 12 of Paul’s epistle deepens our understanding of the gifts, compelling us to expand our working definition to include the purpose for the gifts. We ask ourselves why Paul wanted so badly for believers to be correctly informed about the Spiritual Gifts and what they have to do with living har...

This week’s sermon, brought to us by Mykel Pollock, CityLife’s Pastoral Resident, asks the question, “What is the driving force in your life? Faith or fear?” In Matthew 14:22-33, Peter briefly walks on water towards Jesus, focused on His confidence in Christ. But as soon as his focus shifts to the circumstances, fear sets in and Peter starts to sink. How often do we do the very same thing immediat...

This week, we begin our brand new sermon series on the Spiritual Gifts, in the unlikely place of Exodus 4. In Moses’s story, we see how God called him and had already equipped him with a tool for glorifying God through miraculous signs and wonders. We are left to consider the ordinary tools, resources, and abilities with which God has already equipped us and how He may be empowering us with His Ho...

This week’s sermon, brought to us by Mykel Pollock, CityLife’s Pastoral Resident, discusses lukewarm Christianity. In Revelation 3, Jesus writes to the church of Laodicea about being neither hot nor cold and a faith that was not reflective of His kingdom. We know Jesus did not leave them - nor us - in mediocre faith, but counseled them and promised that if they repented and turned back to Him, the...

This week’s sermon, brought to us by Ryan Dominguez, CityLife’s Creative Pastor, invites us into a conversation about worship. The global pandemics affecting our world have altered the ways we, as Christians in the Global North, have grown accustomed to worship today. Thus, we reflect on how God’s people have worshipped through the millennia to rediscover the kind of worship our God desires and as...

This week, we conclude our “Deepening our Souls” series with the final thoughts of the Apostle Peter for Christians struggling with following Christ's example and allowing their faith to shape their lives. Peter reminds Jesus’s followers that we are a people of waiting and in these final instructions of this seasoned and tried companion of Christ, we find these enduring questions: How do we live a...

Pastor Pedro brings 2 Peter to a close by reflecting on the Giant Sequoia Trees in Yosemite National Park. Throughout the 1900s, those entrusted to care for the park were alarmed at the lack of new Giant Sequoias sprouting in the park. For decades they searched for a solution to no avail, until one day a forest fire taught them the value of heat in the growth and development of these enduring behe...

This week, Peter reminds his disciples that truly divine teaching is epitomized in the life and example of Jesus. The apostle warns the Church that there will always be false teachers of the Word, who only care about profiting off of it. The contradictions of their self-serving heresies juxtaposed with Jesus’s self-sacrificial ministry show us just how dead wrong these false prophets are about God...

This week, The Apostle Peter teaches us to consider Jesus as our Morningstar, the star in the sky that shines right before the dawn. Peter links Jesus' transfiguration to this morningstar moniker and proclaims that Jesus is what holds all of creation together. In light of what's happening in our country right now, how does faith in Jesus give us hope for today and compel us to follow Him in these...

This week, we began reading 2 Peter and the apostle’s divinely inspired wisdom on legacy. Because he knows his time is limited, Peter intends to leave parting words with the faithful, which remind them of their Savior. Drawing their attention to Jesus’s legacy of love, Peter lays out how the Spirit empowers and commends believers to pursue virtues worthy of their calling. As we strive to deepen ou...

This week's sermon covers the powerful conclusion of 1 Peter, which drills down into four deeply profound words: Restore, Confirm, Strengthen, and Establish. Pastor Pedro spends time breaking down the Greek to we flesh out just how intentional God is in repurposing suffering for His glory and our maturity.  

In this week's sermon, the Apostle Peter reminds us that though following Jesus comes with sacrifice and suffering, we have gained something far greater than what we might be losing. 1 Peter 4 is a powerful reminder that we are called to abide by Jesus in the face of suffering, and calls us to ask ourselves, “Do we live out of DEVOtion to Jesus or are we arrested by FOMO, lacking true conviction?...

This week, we continue our study of the Apostle Peter’s epistle and the call to live devoted to Christ, no matter the suffering we may face. In reminding us of our identity as sojourners and exiles in this life, we hear Peter’s pastoral heart exhorting, not only slaves and wives of unbelieving husbands to humbly obey the authorities above them, but for all believers to submit even to the point of...

This week, our Pastoral Resident, Mykel Pollock taught on the parable of the unmerciful servant and how God expects us to treat people in light of how He has treated us. Much like the king’s servant, we are forgiven when we are repentant and are expected to extend forgiveness when our debtors ask us for the same. As Pastor Joseph Rowell writes, “We are never more like Satan than when we gossip and...

This week, guest preacher John Soper, highlights the obedience displayed by Ananias, an ordinary follower of Christ. Commanded by God to visit Saul, the persecutor of Christ's followers, in order that he regain his sight, Ananias is faced with the challenge of forgiving his oppressor. It's in this obedience to the Word of God that we see the extraordinary power of the Holy Spirit to free Ananias f...

This week, we continue the Deepening Our Souls sermon series with Peter writing to persecuted Christians and calling them to live set apart for God's glory. Peter exhorts them to their convictions in Christ and His teachings, because God's promise is that through suffering He is building them into a spiritual home and a priesthood. We reflect on why the Holy Spirit inspired Peter to write highligh...

This week, we launch into a sermon series focused on spiritual maturity. In this sermon, we discuss Peter's letters to persecuted Christians and the radical call to steadfast faith in Jesus and fellow believers. Peter’s epistles raise some powerful questions about how we are called to keep our faith in such a painful world. How do we continue to mature in Christ not only to endure suffering but to...

In light of recent events and the underlying systemic issues laid bare, we interrupt our church's routine to take a moment to reflect. We take a look at how Jesus’s Gospel is also Good News to the oppressor. Jesus interrupts Saul's life in order to teach him how much he needed to suffer for Jesus’s sake. Jesus’s message is the only thing in our world that simultaneously speaks freedom to the oppre...