The City Life Church

Why is He good? Think of all the ways that we use this word “good” in our daily lives. We have a Preschool here at our church and often I hear parents ask, “Was my child good today?” Or maybe at pickup the teacher says unprompted, “Sarah was so good today!” How about sitting around a dinner table with friends and someone says, “This is really good.” So many examples! But in John 10 I think Jesus had something very specific in mind when He referred to Himself as The Good Shepherd. I think Jesus was saying to you and to me that we never have to doubt if He has our best interest at heart. This is why He contrasts the shepherd in the story with a hired hand, with a thief, with a stranger…because Jesus is saying you can never trust those kinds of people to always have your best interest at heart! They will eventually and always choose themselves over you! But not Jesus. Never Jesus. He is good, He is The Good Shepherd. And that belief I carry in Jesus being good, always good, only ever good is immovable, unshakable, always irresistible but never indefensible and by the end of this message, I hope that same statement is true for you!

In Jesus’ own words in Matthew 16 He tells us one of the reasons He left Heaven to come to earth was build His church! So let me ask you this simple, straightforward question…are you working along side Jesus to do what He declared was part of His earthly mission? Salvation is by grace alone, I am at one with God, rescued from myself, just as if I’m perfect, because Jesus paid it all. That’s the Gospel. But I think a lot of people are going to be surprised when then they get to Heaven and Jesus asks them, “Hey, why didn’t you help? Why didn’t you embrace my mission of building My church? Why didn’t you do your part?” I get it. People have been hurt by churches, disappointed by churches, even betrayed and traumatized by churches. What if Jesus had said the same thing? What if He had just left earth after being so poorly treated and just left us to ourselves? Nobody has a better story of being mistreated by so called Godly people than Jesus! And didn’t He tell us in advance that people would persecute us, that we would face troubles? I hope that this message restores your desire to work alongside Jesus to build His church. Let’s make sure the broken churches, the unsafe churches aren’t the only ones out here!

Everyone - moms included - is building something with their lives, intentionally or not. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus shows us how to build with intentionality, constructing a life and legacy that is built to last. This weekend, Pastor Vannessa makes this teaching practical and applicable as we continue in our series "What If?"

In reading Ephesians 2:11-22, I hear God shouting, “Stop resurrecting the hostility I put to death!” We all love a good Lazarus moment, when something that was thought to be dead, beyond all hope, is resurrected: a lost dream, a broken relationship, financial ruin, failed health. How many times have we prayed for Jesus to “Lazarus” something? And yet another question could be, how many times has God shouted at us to STOP bringing out of the grave an hostility that is supposed stay dead? This message is about that shout from Heaven…let that hostility stay dead! When Jesus tells us that anyone who is not against us is for us, He isn’t just making a promise, He’s offering a road map. Will we follow His directions? In this message we will talk about the difference between “with” and “for” in the context of these verses and what it means for us, in our relationship with God and with one another. The hope? That only the right things live and all the wrong things stay dead!

There are just some verses in the Bible that should be permanently translated in the language of the King James Bible regardless of the translation being read. Matthew 19:14 is one of them…”…suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me…” I love this verse written in 1611 Old English language because it makes a poignant point. If we don’t suffer (allow) the little children to come to Jesus, the little children will suffer when they are young and old! In this message we are going to explore three common ways that we as adults hinder children from coming to Christ. And those three are: when we live duplicitous lives, when we live aimless lives, and when we live materialistic lives. If you back up a chapter to 18 we find a warning by Jesus, that anyone who causes one of these little ones to fall into sin, it would be better for millstone to be tied around their neck and thrown into the sea! That millstone was likely five feet in diameter and weighed 3,000 pounds. So do you think Jesus is serious about how our lives impact children? And as we keep reading in chapter 19 of Matthew, we come to the story of the rich young ruler. I don’t think this story is being told to us in such close proximity to verse 14 by coincidence. It’s almost as thought Jesus is showing us what happens to that child who was hindered when they were young…they grow up choosing things over Jesus. So let me ask you a question, are you a hinderance or a help to children coming to Jesus? Because that millstone is still heavy!

In Sunday school we often come to understand the Pharisees as Jesus’ primary antagonists in the Gospels. In our black and white thinking at that age it makes sense that if Jesus is the hero of the story, the Pharisees are the bad guys. And if Jesus were to tell us – as he does in Matthew 5:20 – that our righteousness is to exceed and surpass the righteousness of the Pharisees, we’d think they’re “bad” so that makes sense. But to those listening to Jesus, this would have absolutely confounded them. The Pharisees were the religious elite, who had turned the Old Testament scripture into 248 commands and 365 prohibitions. What does a “better” righteousness look like in comparison to that? Is it about adding commands until we get an even 1000? But in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus introduces a new equation for a better righteousness. And not just that, he provides example after example in how to apply it to our own lives. We’ll dig into that and more in tonight’s continuation of the “What If?” series – “A Better Righteousness.”

As we continue with our series tonight asking the question “What if Jesus meant everything that He said?” we will continue examining His time in the Garden of Gethsemane as we did for Easter weekend. But before we reflect on what Jesus said as His captors approached, I want to emphasize both verses one and two of John 18. The Holy Spirit has been prompting me this week that He wants to use these two verses to encourage and challenge some people who will be listening. If you are in a season of feeling overwhelmed by your circumstances, this is for you! If you are a parent and need to be encouraged in the sacredness of your duty in child rearing, this is for you! And then finally we will look at Jesus’ question as His captors approached, “Who is it that you want?” He is still asking this today! What kind of God are you looking for? If you are listening to this message, watching it on YouTube, or you were here in person for our Saturday service and you are curious about God, curious about what it means to be a follower of Jesus…this is for you!

One of my favorited Easter memories as a child was picking daffodils with my Mom in one of her gardens before going to church for Easter. We would wrap the flower stems in a wet paper towel and then wrap that with Reynolds wrap (aluminum foil). We each carried small bunch to church as did everyone else. It was a lovely scene inside the small, rural Episcopal Church with everyone holding their flowers. Although I didn’t understand it fully then as I do now, that time in the garden early in the morning with my mother was connecting me to the story of Jesus. Could I suggest to you this weekend that it is no coincidence that the tomb in which Jesus was laid was in a garden…can I suggest to you this weekend that it’s no coincidence that his first appearance after His resurrection was being mistaken as a gardener! We find Jesus in three gardens actually: Eden, Gethsemane, and the of course the Garden Tomb. In this message, we’ll reflect on three statements made by Jesus in each of those gardens and what they mean for us today. Happy Easter!

Today we're applying our "What If" thesis to Jesus' command in John 15: "Remain in me." If we can't bear fruit outside of doing so, it's certainly important that we understand what this means when taken literally! Pastor Derick dives into how to get serious with these red words of Jesus, including three practical applications that will help us "Remain in Him."

I think that Jesus was talking more about the way we think than what we do when it comes to “storing.” I don’t think Jesus was talking as much about actually storing tangible items as much as He was talking about a certain kind of mindset, a mindset that is earthly vs. a mindset that is Heavenly. Are we more concerned about here or are we more concerned about there? Because when our minds and hearts are more Heavenward than they are earthly we will always lean more toward sacrifice than indulgence. So in this message, I am going to give you three mindset shifts that are needed to keep us leaning in the right direction!