In our text in Luke 2, God makes a big promise to Simeon, but Simeon has to wait a long time for the promise to be delivered. Waiting is a part of life. We wait on people, events, traffic lights, births, celebrations. All of us have experienced waiting on the promises of God in one way or another. But, have we ever thought that God might have a purpose to our waiting seasons? Simeon and Anna give us a glimpse into how to wait in a way that knows God to be true, even when our circumstances don't match up.

This is going to be an epic Christmas series!  Breaking the 4th wall, a theatrical term that describes the moment an actor breaks character and turns to the audience to speak to them directly.  Isn’t that exactly how the Holy Spirit uses so many of the people in the Bible?  And if you have never experienced that moment before, when a person in the Biblical narrative speaks to you through the Holy Spirit…wisdom, insight, challenge, hope...you will in this series.  Each week we will look at someone different in the Christmas story.  Tonight we look at Joseph and we have entitled this message wanting. Through Joseph we learn that God’s idea of promotion rarely looks like ours.  We envision notoriety, ease, and enjoyment, but that often isn’t the case with God.  God picks Joseph because he is a trustworthy man of character.  Matthew even refers to him as righteous.  Getting promoted by God, however, often leads to things we didn’t’ expect, and wouldn’t want…and we’ll explore three of them tonight.  There is nothing wrong with wanting, having a holy ambition.  That’s how I see Joseph as he prepares to marry his betrothed, a man whose life is thriving, a man full of healthy, wholesome aspirations…and then God promotes him!  Thank you for learning with us in this series!

This weekend we once again mobilized our gathering to get out, serve, and make an impact in our community. But as a part of our 5th Saturday Online Only Service we hosted another 5th Saturday conversation, this one on the Church and the military. We host a panel of three vets that call City Life home and listen to them share their experiences and stories as they navigate the military AND the Church!

What is something that feels second nature to you now but at first felt awkward? Thank about that for a moment…how about driving, playing a sport, tying your shoes, etc. So many of the tasks we perform regularly that require some degree of dexterity at first felt extremely awkward. The same is true with a life rhythm. In fact, I would suggest that people struggle just as much with Jesus’ demands for change in life rhythms as His demands for change for moral excellence. An example of moral excellence would Jesus reminding us that sexual intimacy is reserved for marriage. Another example would be that stealing is wrong. Where a life rhythm change for you might be attending church more consistently or reading your Bible regularly. I would imagine as you reflect on your own life, maybe you have conquered many of the demands of moral excellence but are still struggling to find the right rhythms of life that follow Jesus’ example and Bible instruction. Tonight’s message picks up this conversation in part two of Enter In to His Rhythm and discusses both internal and external resistance we face as we strive to be more in step with Jesus.

A measure of music, also known as a bar, is a segment of music that contains a set number of beats. The most common number of beats in a bar of music is 4. So when we are clapping, we are either following beats 1 and 3 or 2 and 4. That’s what it means to clap on 1 and 3 or to clap on 2 and 4. And that’s the extent of my music knowledge! I’m also lacking any sort of rhythm meaning I’m probably clapping on 1.75 and 3.2, so don’t follow me! At the opening of the message tonight we are going to do a participation moment with the band to illustrate the difference between clapping on 1 and 3 and 2 and 4 and why when you are accustomed to clapping a certain way, altering your clapping rhythm can feel awkward. There a times when Jesus shows up in our lives and interrupts our life rhythm. What does that mean? Well, that’s exactly what we are going to explore together tonight. You are going to learn that what you believe about Jesus ultimately determines if you trust Him enough to alter the rhythm of your life. We are also going to talk about the kind of resistance we can expect when trying to yield to Jesus’ leadership in setting a new and different life rhythm. Thank you for joining us for another Saturday worship service…telling the story of The Gospel, living The Way of Jesus!

I’m still waiting for my loophole. If you only knew my story, you’d agree I am an exception. I thought this message was about letting me hold a grudge. There are no loopholes, no exceptions, no grudges. At some point we all come to the same moment, we must release the emotional debt we are holding against someone who has harmed us. But how we release that emotional debt matters. Or also, how we encourage someone else to release that emotional debt matters. If we ask them to forgive someone when it is actually mercy that is needed, we could end up contributing to someone getting stuck in their grudge. If we ask them to give mercy when it is actually forgiveness that is needed, we could end up forestalling the releasing of an emotional debt. The same is true for ourselves. How we think about mercy and forgiveness can cause our own postponement of releasing that emotional debt. Scripture gives us more than one path for releasing emotional debts and knowing which one is needed matters…otherwise God would not have provided for us two paths. Last week began with me asking those questions that are quickly becoming my conclusions. And this week we will explore further forgiveness vs. mercy and consider some other pressing questions that tend to accompany conversations about forgiveness and mercy. Some are forgive and forget, forgiveness means reconciliation, and forgiveness means forgoing justice. Thank you for sharing your Saturday with us…come visit us for a live, in person service soon!

Have we been teaching people about forgiveness from a point of view that is not supported textually in Scripture? I've been contemplating, reading, talking with others, reflecting...wrestling with this question. Have we been wrong about forgiveness? Again, is how we talk and teach about forgiveness actually supported textually by the Bible? In what I expect will likely be a two part sermon (looking at these notes it’s definitely going to be two parts), we are going to explore the possibility that the Bible lays out a very specific plan for how forgiveness transpires and that when those specific aspects aren’t present, the releasing of the emotional debt should be called something different…mercy. Make no mistake, this isn’t a sermon about discovering a loophole in Scripture that allows one to hold onto to grudges! That emotional debt must be released…but how? That’s what these two sermons will be exploring, both Biblical principles and practical steps. Thanks for joining the conversation.

This week we continue our conversation about Scripture, looking further at this holy, sacred, super-natural, life giving text! I still remember the first Bible that was given to me by my sister and her husband that first Christmas in December of 1990 that I celebrated as devoted follower of Jesus. The Bible was a Thompson Chain Study Bible in King James, I still have it today. It is marked up, hi-lighted, underlined, notes in the margin, crinkled pages…just as a Bible should be. I presided over a funeral yesterday and two of the men who spoke read some verses from their Bibles. Both those Bibles looked worn, used, handled…I told those in attendance that’s what every Bible should look, like a tire with not much tread left on it! I realize in this digital age, that might not be the case anymore so for you, what does your data say? Which app are you spending the most time in…if we turn off your phone and look for the smudge of your fingerprint, will it be over top your Bible app? In tonight’s message, we will talk more about where our Bible came from, why we are confident about the Bible we so cherish and some ideas pertaining to what we actually believe about the Bible. Thank for sharing your time with us!

Have you heard about the new diet that is taking America by storm? It’s called “feasting” and the tagline is “1n7.” Really, you haven’t heard about it? It’s super popular! I guarantee someone you know is doing this diet. You only eat once every 7 days. That’s right, just once every 7 days. And then you sit down to this epic feast, literally gorging yourself. Most people feast for an hour, maybe 90 minutes. Some cultures might feast for up to three hours. And then you don’t eat again for seven days. And if you miss your feast, you don’t make up for it the next day. You have to wait for the next seventh day…sometimes people only find themselves eating once a month…it’s crazy! Okay, by now you might have figured out we aren’t talking about a food diet or at least not a physical food diet. We are talking about how people treat themselves spiritually. Jesus tells us that we weren’t created by God to live by bread alone but by every Word that proceeds from God. This reality was amplified by Jesus fasting (not feasting!) in the desert for 40 days and then Satan coming to tempt Him suggesting Jesus turn a stone into bread. Jesus fasted for many reasons, but I’m convinced one of them was to mirror to mankind how we neglect our spiritual lives. We need sustenance, not once a week but regularly! What would happen if Christians everywhere treated their spiritual lives with same attention they give to their physical bodies when it comes to eating food? I know what would happen…we would change the world. Will you Enter In…To His Word?

Let’s say you are looking for a church, being new to the area, and it is time to find a church to call home. And on the weekend you visited you learned that everyone there, including the pastor, worshipped other gods, actively participated in other religions, made idols in their garage, prayed to them, sold them, worshipped them, spoke with profanity, especially using God and Jesus as curse words, speak disrespectfully to their parents and speak of them publicly in derogatory ways, openly endorsed murder out of vengeance and anger as being appropriate, practiced an open marriage relationship with their spouse, dishonesty for personal gain is just a natural part of life, giving false testimony was okay because most people are guilty of something, and envying your neighbors possessions is a great way to motivate yourself to get more stuff. Hopefully no one is saying, “Finally, the church I’ve been looking for my whole life!” Of course you wouldn’t say that…in fact, if any one of these things were true, you’d get out of there as quickly as you could! But what if you found out no one there, not even the pastor, practiced a weekly Sabbath? Would that have the same effect on you? Probably not. This message is about recapturing not only our understanding about the Sabbath but our conviction for it as well. Will you Enter In to His Rest?