City Central Church Podcast

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.