This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans sermon series with a message about rejoicing in the hope of Jesus. When we lift our head and set our eyes on Jesus, we experience a living hope that carries us is a world marked by hardship and tragedy. In God’s sovereignty, he not only gives us hope in our suffering and hardship but also purpose, using it grow and strengthen us.

We had the privilege of hearing from guest preacher Pastor Larry Jones this week as he taught about being justified by faith. We can easily think we have to earn our way to God by our own merit- through good behavior or works. However, we must recognize we can do nothing on our own to reach God and depend fully on Him for our righteousness. Living in the blessing of God’s righteousness allows us to be a blessing to others. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series teaching on the inspiring faith of Abraham. Chosen from a pagan culture far from God, Abraham became the prototype for how we are saved today- by faith through grace. Thousands of years later we still look at his faith journey to understand how we come the Lord, by faith in Jesus’ death and resurrection.

This Easter Sunday, Pastor Chris shared powerful message of hope in Jesus. No matter where you are in your walk with the Lord, a newcomer or a regular, this message is for you! While there is overwhelming evidence of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection two thousand years ago, the evidence of His deep, personal love for you is alive today. We place our hope in Jesus grateful for His sacrifice, empowered by His resurrection and hopeful for His return. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series. One of life’s big questions is “how can a person be right before God?” Every major world religion has an answer to this question, but Christianity’s answer is set apart. All other religions require human effort to reach God, but the gospel states we can do nothing to reach God, rather we open our hearts to what God has done for us through Jesus’ death, burial and resurrection.

This week, we continued in our Romans series, the Power of the Gospel. Pastor Chris taught on the wrath of God, and the difference between living in cheap grace verses biblical grace. When we understand just how bad life outside of Christ is, we deeply appreciate the good news of God’s love and grace. However, it’s possible to live in cheap grace that is not submitted to God’s word and authority. The Lord desires for us to live in biblical grace that leads to repentance and trains us in godliness.

This week in our Romans series Pastor Chris taught us the difference between authentic and counterfeit Christianity. Genuinely walking with the Lord brings transformation, obedience, and sincerity of heart. God invites us to give Him our whole heart and allow Him to change us.

This week in our Romans sermon series, Pastor Chris taught us how religion blinds us to our own sin and hardens our heart toward God. God created us to live in a relationship with Him that transforms us from the inside out. However, we sometimes find ourselves living in religion instead- an outward appearance of loving the Lord while inwardly our hearts are actually cold towards Him. God’s invitation is to recognize the religious forms in our lives, repent and walk in God’s grace and mercy. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a message about God’s wrath toward sin and His desire for us to repent and choose Him. We can only know the goodness and power of the Gospel when we understand the deep depravity of mankind. This is good news! Jesus died that we could be righteous, and we want to be a people who oppose our flesh and choose life with God!

Our Young Adult Pastor, Adina Olson, brought a powerful Word from Romans 1 this week about not being ashamed of the gospel. We know the world is becoming more and more lawless, but as biblical Christians we believe in one true God above all other gods and that every knee will bow to Him. This is our hope in a dark world, and we want to unashamedly share the Good News of Jesus to those around us!

This week, Pastor Chris started our series in Romans called The Power of the Gospel. The book of Romans is known as one of the most important books for understanding the rest of the Biblical narrative. We unpacked God’s heart for us to be bondservants of Christ, devoted to the Lord because of a deep understanding of His love for us.

This week was Life Group Sunday! God has a vision for the church including the corporate gathering of God’s people and a home group reality that is essential to a healthy, thriving Christian walk. Pastor Chris shared the different levels of living in community, and components of a healthy Life Group. Casey Mock, Community Life director, then shared stories of love and support found in Life Groups and invited you to join a group today.

This week, Pastor Chris finished up our Abide series teaching us the power and importance of meditating on the Word of God. We can continue in the lifestyle and heart posture of abiding by remaining in the God’s Word, letting it sink deep into our hearts and keeping it at the forefront our minds. God’s invitation to us is to be planted by streams of living water through time in the Scriptures.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Abide series teaching on the theology of prayer. Prayer is our primary communication link with God, yet many of people do not understand why we pray or how it moves the God’s heart. The Lord wants to partner with us through prayer to bring about His will on the earth, but He is waiting for us to pray.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Abide series about finding God in the secret place. Life can be difficult and many people ask, “where is God?” God is longing and waiting to meet with us in the secret place. In His presence, we connection with Him and can experience dynamic change in our lives and our hearts. 

This week, Pastor Chris started a series called Abide that will guide us through our 2024 all-church fast. Just as our electronics need to be restarted so they function at their best, we too need a restart to refocus and reset our hearts on the Lord. That is the goal of this sermon series and the Abide Fast. Pastor Chris shared the benefits of fasting and praying, and some practical ways to abide in the Lord as we seek Him during the fast.

This week, our Legacy Youth Director, Elijah Hippe, shared a word on throwing off passivity as we move into 2024. We are called to go and make disciples, but often passivity keeps us from obeying the Lord. By actively initiating with the Lord and with others, we can be a people who partner with God to bring His Kingdom to Tacoma.

This week, Pastor Chris finished our Christmas Peace series teaching about relational peace. The peace of God reaches from the depths of heart and emotions all the way to our relationships with others. The full experience of God’s peace hinges on being in right relationship with the Lord. 

This week, Pastor Chris shared a brief exhortation in our Christmas Peace series. For many people, Christmas brings stress and hurry rather than peace. However, God has shalom (peace) for us through a relationship with Jesus. This is open to all who commit to trust in Him, walk with Him and be changed by Him.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our sermon series called Christmas Peace. God offers us an authentic, biblical peace available through relationship with Jesus our King. When we come to Jesus, connect with Him and allow Him to change us, we experience a peace the world cannot offer. We can only have true peace in our life when we rest in Jesus’ presence.

This week, Pastor Chris started our Christmas Peace series. During the Christmas season, most people are looking for peace but instead experience stress and hurry. God offers us a heart-level, lasting peace the world cannot give. Through a relationship with Jesus, we have peace with God, ourselves, and those around us.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our mini-series about how God’s generosity towards us compels us to live generously. It is easy to think we are aligned with God’s heart, but a good look at our willingness to live generously may show we are misaligned. Pastor Chris shared some ways we can see if your generosity is reflecting God’s generosity toward us.

This week Pastor Chris and an elder, Eric Jones, tag-teamed our morning service teaching about living generously. While the world tells us to hold on our earthly possessions, our time and our money, God tells us to live generously and in turn, be blessed. The believer’s motivation for living generously is out of the overflow of God’s generosity toward to us.

Our annual Summit where we hear about where we have been, where we are now, and where God is taking us in the future!

This week, Pastor Chris finished up our Freedom in Christ series teaching on the power of the tongue. Our words are often an indicator of our heart condition and have the power to bring about positive or negative shifts in our life and the lives of others. We want to be a people whose hearts are healthy and whose words bring life, propelling others toward their calling and identity in Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series Freedom in Christ. He taught that if we want to be great in the kingdom of God, we must walk in humility. As believers, we have a choice to live a life of pride and arrogance, or a life submitted to the Lord and poured out for the service of others. Choosing humility is the key to greatness.

This week’s sermon was a continuation in our Freedom in Christ series. Pastor Chris taught from the story of Joseph, who experienced many injustices yet kept his heart right before the Lord. We all experience injustice in our life and must take care to watch over our heart, forgiving those who hurt us and uprooting all bitterness. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series Freedom in Christ. In church culture today, we like to explain away or ignore our pain. However, pain is an inevitable part of life and Jesus wants to shoulder it with us. The invitation of God is to walk with Him through our pain or invite Him into it so He can heal us.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series Freedom in Christ. We learned about the battle of the mind and how our thoughts directly affect our lives and our ability to walk in the freedom God has for us. We must pay close attention to our thoughts, holding fast to God’s truth and quickly rejecting the enemy’s lies.

This week Pastor Chris continued in our series, Freedom in Christ, in which he brought a two-fold message: we as Believers have been given authority in Christ to extend the kingdom of God and it is imperative to live fully in that authority. We must be aware that fear, anxiety and the illusion of control are not holding us back living in our full authority.

Darrin Miller continued in our sermon series, Freedom in Christ, equipping us to withstand the spiritual battle going on around us. To walk in Jesus’ victory, we must know our enemy and his schemes, as well as the weapons we must use to overcome him.

This week, Chris began a new series called Freedom is Christ. Jesus offers freedom for every believer and yet blind spots can so easily form in our lives that hold us back from all that God has for us. These blind spots come in many forms- negative thinking, heaviness of heart, anxiety and more. Today’s sermon was about being aware of the spiritual realm and learning to battle for our freedom from a place of Christ’s victory.

This week our Community Life Director, Casey Mock, shared how life groups are critical to our growth as we walk with the Lord. We believe our inheritance is a sense of belonging and growth, no matter your past experiences surrounding community, and life group is where that happens. It is in community that we go deep in the Word of God running after the fullness of God what He has for us. Several friends joined Casey in sharing about various City Central life groups and their experiences.

This week Pastor Chris continued in our mini-series about financial stewardship, exhorting us to handle God’s resources His way. The Bible provides clear instructions for tithing so that we can know how to live as obedient and faithful stewards. Chris shared how the human heart is prone to wander, and that the tithe is a test of our spiritual health. Like the Israelites, we can lose our direction and live outside of God’s will for our lives. The question of whether we tithe ultimately comes down to a question of whether we will trust God.

This week, Pastor Chris began a new mini-series on financial stewardship. In His earthly ministry, Jesus spoke more about money than He did heaven and hell combined. How we manage our money reflects our hearts and our spiritual health, and our management will determine the rewards we receive in Heaven. Who do you believe your money belong to? Do you consider yourself an owner or a steward of your finances? As Christ’s followers, we have a responsibility to manage what we’ve been entrusted with God’s way and for His glory.

In this week’s youth takeover service, youth pastor Stephanie Kram preached a powerful message about how to overcome fear of man. God’s word says that fear can become a snare for us, but that we will be kept safe when we trust in God. Jesus came to set us free of all sin that keeps us captive, including all areas related to fear and insecurity. Stephanie shared the reality that a healthy fear of God will cause us to lose an unhealthy fear of anything else. 

This week, Darrin Miller highlighted a portion of City Central’s heart and mission to reach the lost. Darrin reminded us that we were each lost before Christ found us, and that our mission as Christ’s ambassadors is to actively seek the lost with the heart of Christ. We are not called to have mere knowledge of the Word, but to practice the Word as agents of reconciliation. Darrin urged us to search our hearts and challenge our perspective on the poor and needy, since they are our fellow image bearers of Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris brought our Healthy Church series to a close with a powerful word on the impact of Christ’s resurrection on our daily lives. In the Corinthian church, a sect of people called the Epicureans did not believe in the afterlife, leading to lifestyles of gluttony and self-gratification. Are you living like them, as if God is not in control and as if this world is your home? The resurrection of Christ means that we will be raised with him, and this truth gives us everlasting vision, peace, and hope.

This week Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church series, seeking to Biblically define what it means to be a Christian. There are many ways an individual can respond to the Gospel: they can reject it, simply know about it, or they can open their heart to receive and commit to it. Chris exhorted us to stand in the Gospel, even when the forces of the enemy rage against us. He shared about the wide road that leads to destruction and the narrow road that leads to eternal life. Taking the narrow road means that we leave everything aside, including our terms of what we think the Christian life is, and choose to follow, surrender to, and live for Jesus.

This week we continued in our series through 1 Corinthians, learning about Christ’s heart for His church. Like a groom towards a bride, Jesus pursues us with fondness, love, and affection. As Christ’s church, we have been called out of darkness and into His light and His family. Chris shared how the love of Jesus toward the church is a giving, restoring, cleansing, healing, sanctifying, and transforming love. As His children, we respond to this love by building His church and His kingdom on Earth.

Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church series, walking through 1 Corinthians 14. In our text, Paul provides clear understanding for the purpose of the gifts of prophecy and tongues. Paul urges us to have zeal for the spiritual gifts because they encourage the people of God in personal and corporate ways. Prophecy and tongues are essential because they bring life where there is death, and they build up our inner man in order for the holy spirit to have greater domain within us. 

Continuing our Healthy Church series, Pastor Chris answered the question, “What is love?” Pastor Chris contrasts man’s definition of love with God’s definition. At the same time, there are many worldly meanings of the word “love,” the “Agape” love is only found through the love of God. If you are caught by agape love, then you can share agape love; you cannot give what you have not received. As believers, we can be bold in loving people in a way that bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things because of the Agape love of God.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church series, sharing about more of the spiritual gifts that God has given us to steward. Part of the resurrection and ascension of Christ was the impartation of gifts to the people of God through the Holy Spirit. Every good and perfect thing comes from the giver of good gifts, and we have a responsibility to steward what He’s given us. Chris encouraged us to grow in our earnest desire to serve others in love, and to advance the Kingdom of God within the body of Christ.

This week Pastor Chris preached through 1 Corinthians 12, sharing the apostle Paul’s message about the importance of each individual piece that makes up the united body of Christ. Like in a puzzle where all pieces join together to create a full picture, the church is not complete until we are each connected and unified. Are you committed and connected into what God is doing in the church? Chris encouraged us to understand what unique gifts we have been given to steward, and to intentionally connect into the body of Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church series with a word on spiritual gifts. In our text, Paul brings correction and clarity to believers competing with one another in their gifting, sowing division in the church instead of unifying power. If you are a follower of Jesus, you have been given supernatural power to operate in your spiritual gifts. We are not designed to operate in our own authority and strength for our own benefit. Our unique giftings unify us together to push forward the common goal of building the church and extending the Kingdom of God.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through 1 Corinthians with a word on the personal and powerful nature of communion. Our text in the Word depicts a chaotic gathering of the young Corinthian church, full of open division and compromise due to their lack of maturity in Christ. Paul uses this gathering to contrast and express the sacred purpose of the Lord’s table. Communion is a space designed to remind us of Christ’s personal sacrifice for us and to consistently wash our hearts clean by His blood. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church sermon series with an enriching word on marriage. Our text in 1 Corinthians can be a weighty passage to interpret, and Pastor Chris sought to explain both the cultural and theological implications for us today. The world’s definition of marriage often leads to heartache, pain, and difficulty. Chris expressed the reality that our marriage relationships can have a 100% chance of success if we will pursue God’s plan and design for them.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church series with a powerful and convicting word on idolatry. Chris exhorted us to ask ourselves who or what we currently worship, since everybody is always worshipping something. Whatever we place our ultimate trust in will have the highest priority in our hearts. If there is anything other than Christ on the throne of our hearts, that thing will not only control us, but it will ultimately disappoint us. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church sermon series, diving into the mission and purpose of each Christian believer on this side of heaven. Chris likened the Christian life to a long-distance run that requires training, focus, discipline, and self-control. We are each ambassadors of Christ, designed to live with intention as we share the Gospel with a lost and dying world. Our purpose is to seek opportunities to share Christ and partner with God in redeeming our spheres of influence for the Kingdom. 

For Mother’s Day, Pastor Chris continued in our healthy church series with a powerful word out of 1 Corinthians 13. Chris shared about the agape love that mothers extend each day. This kind of love cannot be produced in and of ourselves— It is given and extended to us by God. Agape love is an overflowing stream from the throne of grace. Chris encouraged each of us to open our hearts to the agape love of God so that we can extend it to those in our lives.

This week, Pastor Lonnie Arnold joined us and preached a powerful word on becoming an undivided church. The problem of division runs through the entire book for 1 Corinthians, similar to the division we see in the Christian church in American today. Pastor Lonnie shared how we need to identify what divides us and know how to apply the Gospel to each situation. Only then will we demonstrate the love through which the world will know that we are disciples of Christ.

This week, our young adult pastor Adina Olson continued in our sermon series through the book of 1 Corinthians. In our text, Paul is speaking to the believers in Corinth about their Christian liberties. As Christians, we have been provided great freedom in Christ, but we must keep the commandments to love God and love others as we exercise those freedoms. We must demonstrate the knowledge we have in love to those who don’t know Christ, and not become a stumbling block to those within the body of Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris continued with part two of his sermon on healthy sexuality. In the Corinthian church, we find Paul speaking to pockets of young Christians who elevated the world’s opinion above God’s. Each of us live out a particular lifestyle that reflects what we believe in our hearts. Does the fruit of your life display the reality that you are a new creation in Christ? Pastor Chris exhorted each of us to examine our hearts, and to submit our lives and bodies to Christ as living sacrifices for His purposes and His glory.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the book of 1 Corinthians with a word on healthy sexuality. The city of Corinth was a hub of immorality, similar to our city and much of our nation today. However, Paul was speaking directly to the church in Corinth, calling them to repentance. Chris shared about the danger of indifference in relation to sexual immorality and the important role of discipline for every believer. Unhealthy sexuality will always lead to bondage, but following God’s blueprint for sex can usher in healing, freedom, and victory in Christ.

This Easter Sunday, Pastor Chris shared the good news of the resurrection of Jesus. He explained how Christianity is the only major religion that celebrates a resurrected Savior who defeated death on behalf of all mankind. How do you respond to the resurrection of Christ? Does it fill you with hope? By dying in our place, the risen Christ paid the price for our sin and made a way for us to live with Him in eternity. This Easter, let this incredible truth fill you with joy, freedom, and hope.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church series with a word on faithful stewardship. He shared how we have been entrusted with the things of God, and how we deal with those things matters. Good stewards are humble servants of Christ and others, and they endure in difficulty. Chris expressed how it is easy to steward well when our circumstances are favorable, but faithful stewards will learn how to faithfully steward in the midst of pain, adversity, and hardship.

What is the best reward you have ever received? This week, Pastor Chris shared the reality that we each have a desire to be rewarded for our work. In this life, we all have work to do in order to build and advance the Kingdom of Heaven. Healthy believers know that this life is not our forever home, and how we live matters for all of eternity. God will reward us as His children for the way we live and work this side of Heaven.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Healthy Church sermon series through the book of 1 Corinthians. In this week’s text, the Apostle Paul is calling believers in the church into greater levels of maturity in Christ. Immaturity in the Lord will manifest as selfishness, often because the self is still on the throne of our lives. We must make Christ our Savior and our Lord, surrendering to His will in all areas of our lives.

This morning, Pastor Chris continued in our healthy church sermon series, systematically walking through chapter two of 1 Corinthians. Chris shared the reality that each of us are either getting healthier in Christ or not. Often, we seek to work through our problems in the natural realm, but we need the continual power of the Holy Spirit to supernaturally produce health within us. How close of a friend are you to the Spirit of God? The measure that you are regularly surrendered to Him will determine the state of your spiritual health. 

This week, we were blessed to hear from prophetic teacher Charlie Sweet. Charlie preached a powerful message for our church body, stirring us to pursue the presence of God in our lives and to invest in the next generation. Charlie exhorted us to learn how to drill wells in our hearts for the Lord’s presence to dwell and linger, and to teach the next generation to do the same. He encouraged us to press in for more of Christ’s presence, because to move forward we will need it like we never have before.

In our first service, guest prophetic preacher Charlie Sweet preached a powerful message about revival. Charlie shared how the church appears to be in a desperate state, yet God has restored and revived His people in the past and He will do it again in the present. Charlie exhorted us to cry out for revival, to fight off lukewarm living, and to prepare for battle this side of heaven.

This week, Darrin Miller continued in our series through 1 Corinthians, sharing the reality that a healthy church will operate in the power of God. Darrin defined this power as God manifesting his attributes (knowledge, wisdom, truthfulness, mercy grace, love, holiness, justice) and presence to and through his people into the world. In his letter to the Corinthians, Paul shared the simple gospel of Christ crucified, which does not require eloquent or persuasive speech. Darrin encouraged us to ask ourselves if the power of God is at work in our lives today.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our new sermon series through 1 Corinthians. In our text, Paul is writing to the Corinthian church after having visited them two years prior. He sought to call the church higher, into greater unity and maturity in Christ. Chris shared how supernatural unity is a place of agreement. Christ’s church will be unified when we choose to be of the same mind, restored to God’s original plan and vision for us.

This week, Pastor Chris began a new sermon series through the book of 1 Corinthians. In this series, Chris will share a picture of a healthy church according to the apostle Paul. Throughout his missionary journeys, Paul encountered the city of Corinth—a diverse melting pot with a reputation for fierce independence, sexual immorality, and idolatry. Paul sought to spiritually diagnose the Corinthian church and encourage them to grow in the grace and knowledge of Christ.

This week, our Community Life Director Casey Mock shared about the importance of meeting with the saints outside of Sunday mornings. She shared a statistic from a study that sought to answer what brings health and fulfillment to individuals. That study determined “belonging” as the number one answer. We were blessed to hear some of our life group leaders express how their group has become a safe space to be transparent and find healing in Jesus.

This week at City Central, we cebrated the completion of the fast along with numerous testimonies from what we saw God do during the fast. As well, Brent and Heather Madsen, founders and leaders of the YWAM Mazatlán base joined us to share amazing things that God is doing in their midst! 

This week, guest preacher Steve Williams preached a powerful word on cultivating a prophetic culture. Steve Williams is part of the apostolic team with Minister’s Fellowship International, and he has a deeply prophetic spirit and anointing. Steve shared the vital importance of the prophetic in our world today. He implored us to throw off spiritual apathy and ask God for more of the Holy Spirit’s activity in our lives. 

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our abundance sermon series with a powerful word on prayer. Chris shared the reality that prayer is the essential communication link between the visible and the invisible world. Prayer can release what God intends to do, and it has the power to change people. Chris explained what it means to pray in the spirit and shared the 4 different types of biblical tongues. He encouraged us to pray the Word of God, and to pray as often as we possibly can.

This week, Pastor Chris launched us into the new year with a new sermon series about abundant life in Christ. God’s Word says that Christ came to give us abundance, yet we often feel as though we’re lacking. The enemy will always seek to steal, kill, and destroy our hope. Pastor Chris called us into a new day to shake off the old, to ground ourselves in prayer, and to receive our inheritance of abundance in Jesus. 

This week, our youth pastor Stephanie Kram jumpstarted the new year with a powerful word on discipleship. Stephanie defined discipleship and gave the Biblical premise for disciple relationships current day. She shared her personal story of being discipled and shared how the most important part of walking alongside somebody is our heart posture. As we invite others into our lives, we fulfill the great commission and go low in order to raise others up.

This week, Pastor Chris preached a powerful Christmas message about the magi in the Christmas story. The wise men were astrologers who traveled over thousands of miles to worship the Christ child. The star they followed is believed by some to be the shekinah glory of God leading worshippers to Immanuel. We can each learn from the example of the magi who pursued Christ and immediately fell down and worshiped Him at first sight.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our sermon series on the promises of Christmas. God’s Word exhorts us to be like little children, full of faith and wonder. The holiday season can distract us from fixing our gaze on Christ and the miracle of His birth. If you have lost your wonder, let the truth of Christ’s character as redeemer, bondage breaker, and refuge restore your awe this Christmas season.

This week Pastor Chris continued in our Christmas series, focusing on the promise of joy. The world encourages us to find joy in superficial things, but we as God’s children have an inheritance of resolute and eternal joy. Mary was a young, diminished, and misunderstood teenager when God called her to carry the Christ child. As she magnified the Lord through her difficult circumstances, Mary experienced a joy that only comes through surrender to God.

This week Pastor Chris began our Christmas series, focusing each week on a different promise fulfilled in Christ, who is the ultimate promise of Christmas. Jesus promises peace and wholeness to all who call him Lord and Savior. Without Christ, we will seek to find peace through favorable circumstances or the absence of conflict. The question to ask ourselves this Christmas season is whether we are living in the peace that only Christ provides.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our mini-series on generosity. Pastor Chris encouraged us to consider the source and purpose of our finances. God’s priorities are very different than the world’s priorities, and the holiday season can tempt us to be consumers rather than stewards of what has been entrusted to us. By choosing to generously give away, we become more aligned with God’s generous heart.

This week, Pastor Chris began a two-week mini-series on generosity. He shared how we are created to live generously because our Father has been abundantly generous to us. Culture tells us to store up our treasure on Earth, and the enemy tempts us to harden our hearts against joyfully giving our lives away. As we enter into the Thanksgiving season, we have an opportunity to stop and remind ourselves of how good God has been to us, allowing thanksgiving and generosity to change our hearts.

This week, one of City Central's elders, Darrin Miller, finshes out the series on The Life of David.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the life of David with a powerful word on the trouble of temptation. In the story of David’s temptation with Bathsheba, we see David progressively hardening his heart against the ways of God. David abandoned his ultimate purpose as God’s chosen king to pursue his earthly desires, and his sin snowballed into adultery, treachery, and murder. Victory over temptation will come when we actively guard our minds and learn to flee away from sin and to Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the life of David. As his circumstances shifted from adverse to favorable, David was confronted with a choice. He could either choose to press further into Jesus or shift into neutral and coast in his faith. We can learn a lot about our character by how we respond to blessing and success in our lives. Rather than settling, we can choose to respond like David, and double down on our affection for Jesus.

This week (October 23, 2022) Pastor Chris continued through the life of David, looking at how David responded when his adverse circumstances changed. As we move into 2 Samuel, David’s season of difficulty had shifted as he was elevated and promoted. David made a bold decision to build his life around the presence of God, and He wanted God to be at the center of the nation. Through David, we learn what it looks like to build our lives around God rather than adding the Lord to a foundation we’ve already laid.

Pastor Chris continued in our series on the life of David, sharing how David cultivated a soft heart by trusting God through mistreatment and injustice. David knew that he was not the one who called the shots in his own life, and he trusted in God’s intervention. When we are mistreated, we can either dull our hearts against God or trust him to fight on our behalf. Our hearts will never be more on display than the moments when we respond to man’s mistreatment or rejection.

This week Pastor Chris continued our Life of David series with a message entitled, Facing Fear, Finding the Lord. Chris shared with us the story of David on the run from Saul. David’s response like most people was to act in fear. Jesus has a better word and, we know that David knew this by writing Psalm 34 in response to this trying time.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the life of David with a word about friendship. David had people around him who stood by him through difficulty, pain, ease, and celebration. Those he called friends were often the key to helping him to endure in Christ. Jonathan was a fierce, and faithful warrior of God who desired to walk closely with David. These two were committed to each other in Christ, while King Saul became jealous and fearful of David’s anointing. Pastor Chris encouraged each of us to cultivate friendship, and to pursue forgiveness and healing where friendships have caused pain.

This week, Adina Olson shared a powerful message on the story of David and Goliath. Adina sought to examine the heart of David in this popular Biblical story out of 1 Samuel 17. As the armies of Israel prepared to battle the Philistines, King Saul sought a warrior who could defeat the giant. As God raised David up to defeat Goliath, we learn how the work David did in his heart privately prepared him for the public battle. 

This week, Pastor Chris began a new series looking at the life and the heart of David. Chris provided the historical context leading up to David’s appointment as king. In 1^st Samuel, the collective whole of Israel had rejected the Lord in their desire for an earthly king. God raised up Saul, but he soon proved himself unworthy as his leadership was marked by partial obedience, arrogance, and unrepentance. The Lord removed Saul and worked through the prophet Samuel to appoint and raise up David as the King of Israel after God’s own heart. 

This week, Pastor Chris brought our Galatians series to a close. Chris shared about the Father’s heart that always longs and desires to restore and mend unto wholeness. God will put His finger on areas of our life in order to heal us – the question is whether we want Him to heal and restore His way. In Galatians we have learned that we partner with the Lord in our restoration, and that when we yield to the Holy Spirit’s work on our lives, we will be set free to live free.

This week, Pastor Chris continued through the book of Galatians with a powerful word about living by the Spirit. In our text, the apostle Paul provides a solution for the internal battle every believer has of walking by the flesh or by the Spirit. Paul says that the solution is simple, but we each need revelation to hear it. The Father set us free so that we would walk in step with His Spirit in wholehearted humility and dependence.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the book of Galatians. Chris shared how we were created to live intimately with God as our loving Father. In His desire to be close to us, God sent His son to restore relationship with us as his heirs and children. Chris encouraged us to ask ourselves how we approach the Father: as an heir or as a slave? If we view God as a father rather than a Pharoah, we will live in light of the inheritance He has generously promised us.

Shirlee Lamouriux

This week, Eric Jones continued in our series through Galatians. In this letter, Paul is talking with believers in Galatia who have been fascinated by a false gospel that salvation comes through circumcision. Paul contrasts this works-based faith with the truth gospel of grace. Eric shared that we can know where we are putting our faith when we diagnose what we are fascinated by.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through Galatians with a powerful word about fear of man. In our text, Peter was fearful of the Judaizer’s opinion of him and his fear spread to others. Chris shared how destructive fear of man can be for our relationship with Jesus. God’s word says that the fear of human opinion disables us but trust in God protects us.

This week Pastor Chris continued our sermon series in Galatians with a message entitled, Authentic or Counterfeit Christianity. The Judaizers of the day were invading the church with a false gospel and Paul’s exhortation the Galatian is to serve the one true authentic Jesus. The church today deals with this very same issue of picking a counterfeit Jesus over the authentic Jesus. Which Jesus do you serve?

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the book of Galatians. In Galatians, the apostle Paul was preaching to a group of Christians believing in a man-made, works-based gospel. Paul continued to preach the simple, transformative truth that salvation only comes through the free gift of grace. There is a difference between a Biblical relationship with Jesus and the man-made religions of the world. We don’t need to strive to prove or save ourselves, we simply need to open our hearts to receive the free gift of grace and salvation in Christ Jesus.

This week, Pastor Chris began a new sermon series through the book of Galatians entitled, “Set Free to Live Free”. The apostle Paul wrote this letter to the church in Galatia in order to counter the false gospel that the Judaizers were preaching to the Christian church. These Jewish Christians regarded the Old Testament laws as still binding to Christians, and in their legalism, they disregarded the invasive grace that Jesus offers. Legalism will leave us defeated as we seek to prove ourselves outwardly to God. The simple gospel is that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus, and this revelation should change us from the inside out.

This Sunday, our Community Life director Casey Mock shared about the importance of being in community and actively pursuing fellowship together. She shared the Biblical truth that we will have trouble and trial in this life and how we need others to lift our arms up when we’re too weak. We want to follow the examples of the Godhead who dwells in unity and the early church who did not neglect to meet together. Christian perseverance is a community endeavor, and Life Groups are a space where we can find our tribe before our trial.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in Malachi with a word on leaving a Godly legacy. Each of us are currently living a legacy and will leave it behind us when we pass away. The question is whether we will leave one of destruction or Godly blessing. A believer with a blessed legacy will live in such a way that counts for eternity. We are each part of a storyline that God the Father has been writing through His people that will last forever.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in Malachi 2 with a powerful message on the justice of God. The Israelites were continuing in their lukewarm living, and they began to accuse the Lord and question His character. Rather than desiring Him, they questioned what He had done for them lately. In their distorted perspective and pride, they cynically twisted God’s truth and created a God in their own image. We want to be a people who see God rightly and align our will with His.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our series through the book of Malachi. Malachi 2 touches on the difficult topic of divorce, and Pastor Chris shared how God’s purpose is always to redeem what has been broken. God loves marriage because it is designed to reflect His perfect love for His bride. He also hates divorce, but His love and story of redemption always reigns supreme over each of us. Chris shared the important truth that we will have a healthy marriage when we keep Jesus on the throne of our hearts and at the center of our marriage relationship.