Capital City Christian Church | Podcast

"Good Friday and Easter Sunday are no accident. They’re not folklore to make an ugly moment in history look better. They are not twists on history controlled by those in power. They’re not even the backup plans of God, as if God’s plans were hijacked by man. I mean, can you imagine God watching all of this play out in real time, surprised that man was able to kill Jesus? As if God just sits there for two days, and He’s angry and He’s grieving and all the different emotions because they’ve killed Jesus. They’ve ruined it. And He’s pouty and mopey, and then He realizes, “Oh yeah, I’m God. I can just bring Him back to life.” Do you think that’s what happened? It doesn’t make sense. This was the plan all along — from Genesis 3 to the psalms to the gospels and Jesus’s very own words. It was always Jerusalem. It was always the religious leaders. It was always the cross, and it was always the tomb. Because He came to conquer our sin problem, and He came to conquer the separation that our sin caused. He came to conquer death." Ben Webb, Lead Minister

"You see, sometimes we want to respect Jesus as a “great teacher,” but that’s all. Or, we want to use him as a helper when we need him … when we need him. Sometimes we want a Jesus who will sign on to our agenda. But we resist calling him “Lord,” or “Master.” We want his strength, and his comfort … but resist surrender. We want him to be kind of like this benevolent spiritual force we can tap into when we want … instead of an intensely personal God. But Jesus will not be the Messiah you want. He is the Messiah you need. He’s God, guys. He’s King. And being a Jesus follower means being a Jesus “follower” … He leads. He leads when you get it, and when you don’t. He leads when you agree with him, and when you don’t. He leads when you like it, and when you don’t. Because he is king … the divine–human king. None of this, “It’s my life, who made you the boss of me” nonsense. None of this, “Follow your own path, live your own truth, you choose what’s right for you,” nonsense. He’s … Lord. Do you get that? Psalm 110 is about divine-human messiah, a divine-human king." Stephen "Doc" Pattison, Growth Pastor

"And bottom line, I need the Good Shepherd, and you need the Good Shepherd. • Because, the reality is, we wander off, and sometimes we get flat out lost. • In fact, sometimes the paths we take lead directly into degradation and danger. • And we follow the wrong leaders, sometimes … we follow other sheep! • Or we just blaze our own paths … how is that working out for you? • And we come against barriers we can’t scale, enemies we can’t defeat, dangers we can’t escape … on our own. • And when we fall, which we do, repeatedly, we can’t fix ourselves. We need our souls “restored,” … a lot. Guys, here it is … listen: All of us follow someone, all of us follow something … So choose well!" Stephen "Doc" Pattison, Teaching Pastor

We said it this way in passing last week: Prophecy is a miraculous spiritual gift where people receive revelation from God. God gives them something that they wouldn't know or wouldn't understand other than God miraculously giving it to them. And then the one who receives the message is expected to speak that message. The message is for the community. It’s for God’s people. And when they speak the message, it’s under divine inspiration. Prophecy is an act of truth-telling. And most of the time truth doesn’t feel nice. Usually when God authors a prophecy, it serves as a warning to shape up or he's going to show up. So, most of the time, prophecy reveals truth.

"I want to start with this picture from 2nd Corinthians to lay a foundation of what giving and generosity should look like. Because on top of that foundation, I want to get to one last really big idea for this series. And it may catch you off guard. For all Jesus Followers, giving is a command. But for some Jesus Followers – for some of you in this room – giving is more than a command. For some, giving is an act of giftedness. For some, God has given you the ability to excel in giving. For some Jesus Followers, giving is more than an act of faithfulness or obedience. It’s a giftedness."

So, we may not be able to point at this specific time and place where Jesus said, "It's more blessed to give than to receive." But those words, I think, perfectly sum up Jesus' ethic. Jesus was all about generosity. Giving and being generous aligns us with God's generous nature. It's who God is. It's what God does. Giving and being generous is being like God. Giving and being generous is being like Jesus. And Jesus says that it's better to be a giver than to be a receiver. It's better to be a conduit of blessing to the people around us than to be a consumer of blessings. Do you believe that? It's kind of a hard thing to believe. It's not what our intuition says. It's not what we would assume. Why is it more blessed to give than to receive? Why is giving more blessed?

Bottom line, don’t test God … don’t test God … unless … unless … God says, “Test me.” Which God does … only once in the Bible. It’s wrong to test God, but it’s equally wrong to disobey God if he tells us, explicitly, “Test me.” … Let me show you.

Our heart is connected to wherever we put our treasure. We FEED whatever is most important to us. So, if your heart is in two children while ignoring five other children, that means that your treasure is going to go to those two children, right? If your heart is in your career and not in your family, then your time is going to go to your career. Or maybe your heart is in your stuff — the accumulation of things. If that's where your heart is, then your money's going to go there too. Which means that your money isn’t going to God. Because we subsidize what we love. Where our heart is, where our passion is, where our love is … will be where we put our attention, our time, and our money. The Bible challenges us to put God first. And the Bible challenges us to prove it with our money. It's one thing to say that you've made God the priority in your life — your money will rat you out. Your money will reveal whether or not God is first.

Maybe you would ask: do I have to give money to be a Jesus Follower or to be a part of the church? Again, all good questions. Maybe you want to know why I would care what you give. Well, I don’t know what you give. But that question does get closer to the bigger, more important question. Which is, why does God care what we do with our money? That’s the big question. Why does God even care? What’s the big deal? Of all the things that Jesus tells us to pay attention to … of all the things that God commands us to do — why money? That’s a great question. I think it deserves more than just a quick answer.