City Central Church Podcast

Community Life Director, Casey Mock shared this week about the different Life Groups at City Central and how you can get plugged in. It is not our inheritance as believers to walk through life alone, rather God has a vision for the church to live in community! Today was a call for each of us to either join a Life Group if we haven’t already or evaluate how we can bring others into the family of God right here in our church.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a word about resetting our hearts on the Lord through His love and grace. Sometimes we grow weary in our walk with the Lord or start walking in our old ways. We need a fresh awakening and today is the opportunity! The first step to softening our heart towards God is to allow Him to love us. 

This week was Youth Takeover at City Central! Recent high school graduate and Legacy student leader, Lakiyah, brought the Word from Habakkuk. We spend a lot of time waiting and asking the Lord to move, and we learned from Habakkuk that God is gracious with our questions and ready with a plan. In these seasons of waiting, we can look to God’s character, remember His faithfulness and allow Him to change our character.

This week, Pastor Chris shared a message about being directed by the Word of God when facing the topic of political authority. As believers, we have dual citizenship- heaven and our country- and therefore, we walk in the tension of honoring both God and our government leaders. It is key to submit to God before a political party, check our hearts for bitterness and rebellion, and pray for our leaders.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Roman series with a powerful message on using our gifts to build up the Church, and the call to love others well. The Lord has loved us with an everlasting love and calls us to love and forgive one another. We could all use an upgrade in love and Romans 12 encourages and challenges us to humble ourselves for the sake of sharing the love of Christ.

This week, Adam Narciso brought the Word from Romans 12 about spiritual gifts. Jesus followers carry a special grace from God, known as spirituals gifts, that show up in our day-to-day functions. These gifts are meant to bless and build up the Church, but how we step into them matters.

Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a word on God’s faithfulness to His people Israel from old testaments times to today, and how we as Jesus followers are grafted into God’s family. As we live in the end times, looking back at God’s faithfulness gives us peace and hope knowing He will fulfill His promises to us!

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a message about being transformed by Christ rather than conformed by the world. We are always being influenced by the world around us and must intentionally set our hearts and mind on Christ and godliness. Renewing our minds regularly keeps on the path of righteousness and helps us become like Jesus.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series about sharing the gospel so that many can be saved, and so we can live a vibrant life in Christ. Just as our physical muscles atrophy from lack of use, our spiritual muscles also lose health and vitality when they are not regularly exercised. Evangelism and sharing our testimony help build those spiritual muscles, and the Lord uses it to bring hope to a lost world. 

This week, Pastor Chris continues our Romans series with a message from Romans 9 about the relationship between God and believers, known as the Human-Divine Cooperation. This concept is seen throughout the Bible, as God partners with His people, demonstrating His grace and sovereignty while calling them to fulfill His will on earth through their free will.

  This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a message about being secure in God’s love. The love of God is abounding and dependable, different from human love. If we are not careful, we can project our experiences with human love onto God, leading to a deceived and defeated life. With the Lord’s help we can tear down any wrong view of God’s love and start living as an overcomer in Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a message about how the promise of eternity gives us hope in the struggles of today. Life can be difficult and painful, but Scripture describes a future for the believer that is better than anything we can imagine. The joy, peace and beauty of eternity with Jesus gives us hope in life’s trials and difficulties! 

This week, we took a shift in our Romans series from understanding the weight and burden of sin to understanding how to walking free from condemnation. We can be our worst enemy, ready to let the hammer of condemnation and shame drop on our heads. Christ has the answer to set you free from condemnation through Jesus’ victory over sin and death, and the power of the Holy Spirit teaching us to walk according to the Spirit.

This week, Pastor Chris shared a message on Romans 7 about the tension of being fully alive in Christ but not a perfect person. Misunderstanding this passage can lead to living in compromise and bondage, instead of the abundance and victory God has for your life. As we partner with God through the Holy Spirit, we learn to walk in a transformed life.

It was a fun time at City Central this week as we had our first ever Join The Team Sunday! Pastor Chris encouraged us with a message about the joy of giving our lives away through serving the church. God wants to advance the His Kingdom and impact eternity through His people’s time and talents. As we allow God to use us how He sees fit, we experience the full joy of living for something greater than ourselves.

One of our elders, Darrin Miller, brought the word this week from Romans 6 about the God who overcame the entanglements of sin on our behalf. In Christ, we are no longer controlled by the effects of sin, rather we are free to live by the Spirit. We can now choose to be dead to sin and alive to Christ.

This week, we had the privilege of hearing from a mama in our house, Carrie Jones, on the Hesed love of God. Motherhood (and life in general) can feel difficult and overwhelming, filled with great days, but also really hard day. Carrie encouraged us that even on our hardest days, God’s deep, steadfast love covers us and Jesus’ blood bridges the gap between us and God. This is good news for all of us!

This week Pastor Chris and one of our elders, Jarrad Mock, shared the next sermon in our Romans series. Many people have wrestled with questions of salvation- am I saved? How do I know I’m saved? How do I become saved? Romans tells us we can have assurance of salvation by trusting fully in God’s grace, evaluating the fruit of our lives, and yielding to Christ.

This week, Pastor Chris continued in our Romans series with a message about repentance and Jesus’ power to forgive. It is easy to see how something is deeply broken in the world around us, but often it is more difficult to see or acknowledge the brokenness in our own heart. Just as sin causes chaos in the world, it seeks to destroy our lives and relationships as well. Through the gift of repentance, Jesus is faithful to forgive and we are truly set free from the bondage of sin.