City Church Garland

The cross of Christ is central to the Christian faith and one way that Christians can center themselves upon the gospel message is through act of partaking in the Lord's Supper. Christ has called His followers to remember Him and His sacrifice for us, examine our lives in view of that sacrifice and align our lives with His sacrificial love. In this sermon Pastor Keith explains what the Lord's Supper is and means, why Christians should partake regularly of it, who should partake of the elements and how the ordinance is to be practiced.

Those who trust in the Lord will be sustained through dark times by the supernatural power that God supplies. In this sermon Pastor Mike ward explains the hope that we can have in God to strengthen us as we wait on Him. He also explains what it looks like to wait on God. He says that waiting on God is not a passive thing but an active thing that we do not only by trusting God but by being faithful to do what God has us doing.

In 1 Corinthians 15:58 we see that God calls His people to faithfully and increasingly partner with Him in His meaningful work in the world. From 1 Corinthians chapter 15 Pastor Keith explains that the gospel is the foundation for doing the work of the Lord. God's love is the motivator and His grace is the energizer for doing the work of the Lord. Whatever labor that is not done in love, energized by grace and built upon the foundation of the gospel will prove to be vain. But that labor which is done in the Lord will not be in vain because there truly is a resurrection and eternal rewards that will be given at the resurrection. The "work of the Lord" is doing God's will which is revealed in Scripture, following His way with the guidance of the Spirit, all for God' glory and for the good of others.

God loves us more than we realize and He waits for us to return to Him when we stray. He then celebrates when we return to Him. In Luke 15 Jesus told a story about a compassionate father that loved his sons greatly, even though they strayed from him. One son requested his inheritance early before his father passed away and he went and squandered that wealth. When he fell upon hard times he realized that life would be much better back at home with his father. So he returned hoping to just be an employee for his father but his father rejoiced and threw a party upon his return. This son was reconciled and restored to his place in his family upon his return. Though there was a great party over the return of the younger son, the elder brother was angry about the his younger brother being accepted back into the family and getting a celebration. The older brother's response revealed a disconnect with his father who he had served diligently and faithfully for many years. The older son proved to be just as wayward in

God has called, commissioned and empowered His church to continue His Mission. Being a disciple of Jesus and making disciples who follow Jesus is the core of that mission.

God extends His invitations to His Kingdom through His people and those invitations must go out to everyone with a sense of urgency and be received by the recipients.

Jesus calls His followers to obedience, abandon and mission. The results of heeding that call are amazing. In Luke chapter 5 we get a glimpse of the 1st disciples of Christ being called by Christ and their response. From the very beginning Jesus let the know that following Him would mean that they would be on mission with Him. Make no mistake you can't follow Christ and not join in on His mission to reach the lost.

In the book of Ruth we see a beautiful love story that begins with difficult and bitter circumstances then turns into a sweet redemptive narrative. Ruth displayed faithfulness to her mother-in-law & her God during the most difficult time of her life and God took notice of that and rewarded her for it. The faithful tend to find themselves in the right place at the right time and that was the case with Ruth. Ruth “happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz” (Ruth 2:3). And that is where things started turing around for Ruth & her mother-in-law Naomi. They found a “redeemer” who was willing and able to do something about their circumstances and he did what a godly Israelite was supposed to do in that time. Boaz provided & protected Ruth while she gleaned food from his field and eventually he married Ruth. Ruth got the great honor of being included in the lineage of King David, one of the most important figures in the old testament, and in the lineage of the Jesus the

God faithfully cares for His people and He sovereignly works out His good plans in their lives. This is a truth that you can see displayed in Ruth's story. May you experience this reality your own life story.

Lessons for Life & Leadership in the book of 1st Samuel Character is foundational for leadership. Challenges are necessary in preparation for leadership because they can build character. You can flourish into who God had called you to be even under poor leadership. Trust God to bring to pass His plans for your life. Be faithful where God has you & don't give up. Obey God’s voice and wait for Him. Don’t get ahead of God.

God generously cares for the poor and He expects His people to do the same, so we must keep our hearts compassionate towards them and our hands open to them. In this sermon you will hear some of the ways God displays His care for the poor and ways that He communicates that His people should do the same.

God tests His people to develop them, teach them and do them good. In Deuteronomy 8 we see that God led His people Israel into the wilderness to humble them, test them, to expose their hearts and do them good in the end. Remember that God is at work in your difficult times of testing, He is the source of life, He provides, He disciplines His children and He will punish those who forget and forsake Him. These are some of the lessons to be learned in the wilderness.

Our God demands that we love Him with all of our being and that we diligently lead our family in loving Him. In message Pastor Keith aims to describe what it looks like to love God with our whole being and lead our family in doing so.

God is 100% for His people, He is faithful to His people and He fights for His people. We must trust and obey Him and get to know His heart for us if we are to experience all that He has for us.

God's Graciousness nature is one aspect of His goodness that we must become acquantied with if we are to truly know Him.

The 10 Commandments are still relevant to us today. Through them we get an understanding of what sin is, of the holiness of God, the values of God and how we are to love God & others. Listen to this sermon and hear Kevin Diaz preach about the importance & relevance of the 10 Commandments and God's heart behind giving those commands to His people.

In this teaching Kevin Diaz expounds on the some of the details of the tabernacle in the 2nd half of the book of Exodus. God wanted to dwell with His people but how could a holy God dwell among a sinful people? God made provision for that to occur through the tabernacle but there was still something greater that the tabernacle & the sacrificial system pointed to, namely Christ. As Kevin metioned in this teaching, Christ is the fulfillment of the sacrifcial system that God set up with the Israelites. Christ the sinless lamb of God has been sacrificed for our sins so that we can now appoach God with confidence into the holiest place of His presence.

From Psalm 103, we know that our God is merciful and just, and we see this character displayed throughout the pages of Scripture. Listen as Pastor Keith preaches from Exodus 1-4, which shows God's just and merciful character, and learn from these chapters how God desires that we display his character within each of our communities.

God's great story of redemption is powerful. Listen as Pastor Keith walks through the Exodus narrative and tells the story of God rescuing His people Israel out of Egypt with His mighty hand from the opression of Pharaoh.

God cares for and intervenes in the lives of His people to fulfill His plans regardless of the adversity or injustice they may experince. In Jospeh's life we see the beautiful relationship between divine providence and human responsibilty. Joseph lived with integrity, faithfulness and forgiveness towards those who harmed him, while he waited for God to bring about good and fulfill the dream that He placed in Joseph's heart.