City Church of Richmond Sermons

“No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne—everything—to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life.

You see, the best thing about this Story is—it’s true.

There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them.”

— Sally Lloyd Jones

“‘Why did you do all this for me?’ he asked. ‘I don’t deserve it. I’ve never done anything for you.’

’You have been my friend,’ replied Charlotte. ‘That in itself is a tremendous thing.’”

— E.B. White, Charlotte's Web

“Dear Lord Jesus, even as Paul was eager to preach the gospel to believers in Rome, so I’m eager to preach it to my own heart today. There was a time when I thought the gospel was only for nonbelievers—simply the doorway for beginning a relationship with you. I now realize believers need the gospel just as much as non-believers. From beginning to end, our salvation is entirely dependent upon the grace, truth, and power of the gospel. Indeed, there’s nothing more than the gospel, there’s just more of the gospel.”

— Scotty Smith

“It is a matter of urgency that interest in our souls be matched by an interest in our Scriptures—and for the same reason: they, Scripture and souls, are the primary fields of operation of the Holy Spirit. An interest in souls divorced from an interest in Scripture leaves us without a text that shapes these souls. In the same way, an interest in Scripture divorced from an interest in souls leaves us without any material for the test to work on.”

— Eugene Peterson

“To be human is to love, and it is what we love that defines who we are… What distinguishes us is not whether we love, but what we love. At the heart of our being is a kind of ‘love pump’ that can never be turned off… [T]he effect of sin on our love pump is to knock it off kilter, misdirecting it and getting it aimed at the wrong things.”

— James K. A. Smith

“Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.”

— Unknown

“Only God can answer fully our cry for communion and call us to live in communion with one another. For even though we thirst for this communion with another, we fear this bonding because we are frightened of being hurt again. We never fully realize the extraordinary gentleness, quiet presence of the Holy Spirit who does not judge condemn, but knows our pain and our fears.”

— Jean Vanier

“The very center and core of the whole Bible is the doctrine of the grace of God—the grace of God which depends not one whit upon anything that is in [us], but is absolutely undeserved, resistless and sovereign.... Christian experience also depends for its depth and for its power upon the way in which that blessed doctrine is cherished in the depths of the heart. The center of the Bible, and the center of Christianity, is found in the grace of God.”

— J. Gresham Machen

“Scripture assumes that we will be afraid and anxious sometimes. What is important is where we turn, or to whom we turn when we are afraid. The God who calls you to trust in Him when you are afraid will spend a great deal of time showing you that you can trust Him.”

— Edward T. Welch

“We can find the Word of God in the Bible. We do not say merely that the Bible contains the Word of God; we say that the Bible is the Word of God. In a time of turmoil and distress, and in the perplexity and weakness of our own lives, we can turn with perfect confidence to that blessed Book.”

— J. Gresham Machen