Cities Church Exhortations

One way to think about the Christian life is that it’s a rhythm of both remembrance and hope: We remember what God has done (most importantly when Jesus died for us) and we hope for what God will do (most importantly when Jesus returns). And this rhythm of remembrance and hope is especially felt at Advent when we say each week: “Christ has come, Christ will come again.” We remember Jesus’s First A...

With Thanksgiving this week, I wanted to remind us of the spiritual power — the focusing, strengthening, and purifying power — of gratitude. Thanksgiving, of course, is not a Christian holiday, but it can be an especially sweet and meaningful holiday for Christians. So what word from God might help us get ready to celebrate well — to honor God while our whole nation stops to give thanks? As we hea...

On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther did something remarkably un-revolutionary: he posted a list of propositions on the door of the chapel at the University of Wittenberg. Posting “theses” of this sort was common practice in sixteenth-century—it notified the academic community of matters to be disputed in a formal debate. Even the content of these ninety-five theses was not, on its face, particularl...

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I want to talk about framing. Not framing a house. Framing reality. Framing refers to how we see things. Because we don’t just see things; we see things as. If you see a bear, you don’t just see a bear. You see the bear as dangerous. If you’re on a walk and see a sunset, you don’t just see the sunset; you see the sunset as beautiful. That’s what I mean by framing. We see things as. And not just si...

“I knew I was special.” Those were the words a young Tom Riddle, eventually the horrible Lord Voldemort, whispered to his own quivering fingers he learned that he had magical powers. The great wizard Albus Dumbledore heard it, and later told the story to Harry Potter, with the commentary, “Yes, Riddle was perfectly ready to believe that he was—to use his word—special.” All of us have a similar itc...

Manuscript forthcoming.

Manuscript forthcoming.

Manuscript forthcoming.

Manuscript forthcoming.

Manuscript forthcoming.

Throughout the month of August, we’ve been utilizing these exhortations to explain our liturgy (our order of service for our Sunday morning worship gatherings). Our liturgy each Sunday morning is crafted around the five C’s: Call to Worship Confession Consecration Communion Commission Two weeks ago Pastor Mike kicked us off by talking about the first “C”… Call to worship. And then last Sunday, one...

Have you ever been part of a small group that has been “stuck”? The kind of “stuck” where conversation never penetrates much beyond the surface of things? You might worship together, pray together, serve together, study the bible together—you may have even been meeting for years—and yet still feel like you don’t really “know” each other. A twentieth-century German pastor named Dietrich Bonhoeffer...

First we must look at Biblical prescriptions for worship. The Bible assumes that we will regularly meet together and that we should not neglect this practice. Christians are to come and worship together and to hear and be taught from God’s infallible word. That’s why pastor must be able to teach, because they are teachers. Ephesians says we are to “be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another...

It seems an unwritten rule in evangelism that when you, a Christian, are forming a friendship with a non-Christian, you ought to spend a good chunk of time with that person, build up some relational collateral with that person, before you start talking about Jesus with that person. Like, you don’t just up and start talking about Jesus with someone you just met, right? You talk about these things,...

Proverbs says that the sweetness, the richness of a friendship comes from wise, sincere counsel that will gladden and help the person who receives it. A core worth of a friendship comes with ones ability to speak Godly help into any situation. This is the crown jewel of a friend. A friend who loves with grace and truth. A friend who sticks closer than a brother. Who is faithful to encourage when n...

“Where Christians live together the time must inevitably come when in some crisis one person will have to declare God’s word and will to another.” D. Bonhoeffer said this in his book “Life Together.” This is certainly true. One of God’s great gifts to his people is his people. As Christians, we are in Christ, and since we are in Christ, we are united to others who are also in Christ. As Christians...

Fathers, we must model, for our children, what the life of a Jesus-worshipping man looks like. We desire our boys to grow up to be one, we desire our girls, if they marry, to grow up to marry one. And so we must model, for them, what the life of a Jesus-worshipping man looks like. We want our children to be able to say, “I know that a Jesus-worshipping man reads the Bible, because my daddy worship...