Joseph's life has been anything but a cakewalk. In reality, it was worse than most of us could possibly imagine. Betrayed by his brothers. Sold into slavery. Accused of crimes he didn't commit. Forgotten about in prison. It's a tragic story.
And yet, as we pick up Joseph's story this week in Genesis 41, things are looking up in some huge ways. It's a miraculous turnaround, but Joseph played a critical role in it. It can be so difficult to not let the betrayals and injustices in our lives consume us, and Joseph's life is a perfect case study in how to make sure that doesn't happen. If he could survive what he did, maybe we can learn a few things from it.
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Have you ever heard God blesses people who are obedient with their money? It's all over the Bible. But sometimes we run into a situation where we're obedient to God financially and we don't experience His blessing how we expect. In the worst of cases it doesn't seem like God is blessing us at all. What do we do then?
The reality is God does tell us he'll bless us. It's all over the Bible. It's a promise. But if we don't know what God means when He says He'll bless us we might just end up with expectations that He DIDN'T promise.
This week we'll explore what God means when He says He'll bless us. We'll gain a healthy understanding of what we can, and should, expect when we're obedient with our money. And we'll wrap up this series by giving one more piece of what God is looking for in us to unleash His blessing on us.
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Sometimes we dream big, we pray hard, and God doesn't come through. That can be a real challenge when God promises that he moves promptly if we pray for persistence. How do we reconcile God's promise of moving quickly with what seems like inaction for long periods of time? For some this question has destroyed their faith.
This week we'll tackle this issue head on and look not only to the Bible, but also to Albert Einstein's theory of relativity to gain insight to better understand God's actions. And hopefully, by the end, all our faith will be strengthened in the moments it seems like God isn't moving quickly enough.
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It's City North's 7th birthday! But what do a birthday, a miracle involving bread from heaven, and people wandering in a desert 3,500 years ago have in common? And frankly, why does any of it matter at all? I mean, isn't celebrating a church birthday a little weird?
Just like in our normal lives, birthdays are a perfect and natural time to look back at where we've been, and look forward to where we're going. For our church it's no different. And as we look back there are an awful lot of similarities between a story God wrote thousands of years ago when Israel was wandering in the desert and the story he's written in and through City North these last seven years.
But even more importantly, we'll use what God has past as we look ahead to an uncertain future
This week we'll answer that question as we look back to remember what God has done and look ahead at what God is going to do.
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Father's Day is a day filled with different emotions. For some of us it's full of a lot of fun, and for others of us it's full of a lot of pain and heartache. But for most of us it's a day full of both.
Unfortunately for a few of us Father's Day is a day that is so full of pain it's hard for us to imagine God the Father as being good. Maybe our dad was pretty bad. Maybe he did some things that were unspeakably awful. Maybe he taught us that father's aren't safe, father's aren't good, and father's are to be feared.
That's not the Father in the Bible. This week we'll explore who God the Father is through a story about two brothers named Cain and Abel. We'll see the truth about the goodness of God, and learn an important lesson about how we as people, and especially as dads, can live to show the goodness of God to our own kids.
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It's easy to get exhausted with people, but when we do all our relationships suffer. What if there was a solution to that problem? What if there was a way to minimize the effect others have on us so the relationships that matter can thrive? What if there was a way to prevent the exhaustion and burnout that can so easily happen because of the expectations others put on us?
You may or may not believe it, but the Bible talks quite a lot about setting healthy boundaries in our relationships. In fact, Jesus himself set boundaries in his relationships because He understood an important principle about relationships that we sometimes forget. It's that principle that holds the key to us keeping all our relationships healthy and preventing any relationships from taking more time and energy than they should.
This week we'll explore the case the Bible makes for setting healthy boundaries and look at the boundaries Jesus set to get a good perspective on why healthy boundaries are so important. Then, we'll establish a target to evaluate our boundaries so we can begin learning to set the kind of boundaries that will help all our relationships thrive.
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In a physical battle we need physical armor and physical weapons. And we have them it's easy to know we're protected. But what if the battle isn't physical at all? What if the battle, and the enemy, are spiritual? How can we know we're protected when we can't see what we're fighting with?
This week we continue "This Is War" by looking at the armor and weapons available to us. It's only by understanding how all these things work together that we can be certain we're fully protected and have confidence that the enemy won't win.
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Watch For The Lord in the message series “Uncertain” at City North Church in Sunbury Ohio
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How To Set Your Priorities in the message series “Get Healthy” at City North Church.
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‘What Is Our Role As A Church?’ in the message series “The Body” at City North Church.
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‘Joy’ in the message series “Good Fruit” at City North Church.
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Women Near Jesus in the message series “Women of the Bible” at City North Church in Sunbury Ohio.
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A King On The Run in the message series “The Goat” at City North Church in Sunbury, Ohio.
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