Hope When Hope Seems Lost
Hope When Hope Seems Lost

What is worse: asking for help, or struggling alone? It can be easy to think that we are all on our own, and that if we don't look out for ourselves, then nobody will. We take pride in knowing that we are strong, independent, and self-sufficient. Sometimes, when we feel overmatched, we are embarrassed to ask for help.

In today's message, Jesus tells a story of two men: one who needs help, and one who is quite sure that he doesn't. Within this story Jesus shares how he sees these two different attitudes, and why it has never been more important to learn the essential skill of asking for help.

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Part 7Rachel SomerfeldtSummer At City North 2023Comment
How To Get Help
How To Get Help

What is worse: asking for help, or struggling alone? It can be easy to think that we are all on our own, and that if we don't look out for ourselves, then nobody will. We take pride in knowing that we are strong, independent, and self-sufficient. Sometimes, when we feel overmatched, we are embarrassed to ask for help.

In today's message, Jesus tells a story of two men: one who needs help, and one who is quite sure that he doesn't. Within this story Jesus shares how he sees these two different attitudes, and why it has never been more important to learn the essential skill of asking for help.

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Part 6Kyle SomerfeldtSummer At City North 2023Comment
The Showdown On Mt. Carmel
The Showdown On Mt. Carmel

Epic stories have always gripped the minds and hearts of people. It's why movies like Gladiator and Braveheart are so popular. But what a lot of people don't know is that some of the most epic stories ever written can be found in the Bible.

This week we're looking at one of those stories – the story of the prophet Elijah and the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel. It's a story that is full of drama with a huge climax, just like every good epic. But most importantly it's a story that teaches a really important, and challenging truth about humanity. It's a truth Jesus himself taught some 800 years later during his life. Join us this week as we explore this incredible story and learn what it has to say to us today.

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Part 5Andrew ScholzSummer At City North 2023Comment
The Book Of Micah
The Book Of Micah

About 2,700 years ago a man named Micah from a town called Moresheth spoke words from God that have endured through the generations. There were words of warning and words of encouragement. There were prophecies of destruction and prophecies of redemption. There were words of death and words of life.

In the Bible Micah's words are recorded in a book simply titled, "Micah". The question is what do the words of this prophet have to do with us, 2,700 years later, halfway around the world? What could this man possibly have to say to us who live in a completely different context, culture, and place?

What's incredible is that Micah's words are just as applicable to us today as they were to Israel when they were spoken. In fact, in many ways the book of Micah is just a summary of the Bible as a whole. Not only that but Micah speaks some of the most powerful, impactful, and important words in all the Bible about what truly matters to God. So dig in with us this week as we explore the book of Micah.

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Part 4Andrew ScholzSummer At City North 2023Comment
When The Father Seems Unfair
When The Father Seems Unfair

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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Part 3Andrew ScholzSummer At City North 2023Comment
How To Live Without Regret
How To Live Without Regret

We all just want to raise kind, selfless kids, right? Is that too much to ask? Yet for every moment our kids act selflessly it seems they turn back around and just act selfish. It's like it's built into their DNA. So how do we raise kids that are kind and selfless when, well, our kids don't always want to act kind and selfless?

The Bible helps us understand how to give ourselves the best possible chance at this outcome, and it does it through one of the most problematic and challenging passages in the whole Bible. As we explore that passage we'll learn a principle we all know, but maybe didn't know was in the Bible, get some answers to a major challenge and take one more step toward raising great kids. Oh, and we'll also un-learn a physics principle we were taught wrong in school.

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Part 1Chris KingSummer At City North 2023Comment
Orbits and Barycenters
Orbits and Barycenters

We all just want to raise kind, selfless kids, right? Is that too much to ask? Yet for every moment our kids act selflessly it seems they turn back around and just act selfish. It's like it's built into their DNA. So how do we raise kids that are kind and selfless when, well, our kids don't always want to act kind and selfless?

The Bible helps us understand how to give ourselves the best possible chance at this outcome, and it does it through one of the most problematic and challenging passages in the whole Bible. As we explore that passage we'll learn a principle we all know, but maybe didn't know was in the Bible, get some answers to a major challenge and take one more step toward raising great kids. Oh, and we'll also un-learn a physics principle we were taught wrong in school.

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Part 2Andrew ScholzGreat KidsComment
Owners and Stewards
Owners and Stewards

There are moments as parents we feel like we're doing a great job with our kids, and then there are moments where it feels like we're complete failures. In the worst cases that feeling of failure doesn't just happen every now and then, but it can take over our thoughts and emotions and make it impossible to parent well.

But what if that feeling of failure is just a lie? What if, even when things aren't going great, we aren't actually failures at all? What if that feeling of failure actually comes from a misunderstanding of our role and responsibility as parents?

And most importantly, what if there's a way for us to reorient our thinking to help fight off feelings of failure and have confidence as parents? As we kick off the message series "Great Kids" we'll explore those questions and look at what the Bible teaches us about our role as parents, and we'll gain a healthier understanding of how we should view that responsibility. And hopefully we'll gain some tools to help us not only raise great kids, but have more confidence as we do.

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Part 1Andrew ScholzGreat KidsComment
Forgiveness
Forgiveness

Forgiveness seems like it should be an easy concept to explain, but we have a lot of phrases to try to help us understand it: an eye for an eye, turn the other cheek, heap burning coals, forgive and forget. Why do we even need to care about forgiveness in our relationships? Does forgiveness just mean that my pain wasn’t real? That I just need to pretend it didn’t happen?

Actually the Bible says that our hurt, wounds, pain, and trauma are very real, and the reason we experience them is because of a little thing called sin. We live in a broken world where things can quickly spiral out of control. Thankfully, all throughout history, God has given us this tool of forgiveness to stop the spiral.

This week, we’ll look at what the Bible says sin really is, how we can stop things from spiraling out of control, and how forgiveness can help our relationships be a force of good in the world.

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Part 4Rachel SomerfeldtFoundationsComment
Boundaries
Boundaries

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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Part 3Andrew ScholzFoundationsComment
Conflict And Trust
Conflict And Trust

Conflict. It's a word most of us really hate, and would do anything to avoid. It's the cause of all our broken relationships, and, on a first glance, seems like a very, very bad thing.

But what if we have conflict all wrong? What if our avoidance of conflict doesn't make things better, but can actually create the problems we're trying to avoid? What if conflict could be a good thing?

This week we'll look to the Bible and learn why healthy conflict isn't just a good thing, but why it's actually a necessary thing for our relationships to grow and thrive.

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Part 2Andrew ScholzFoundationsComment
Communication
Communication

Communication is one of the most critical foundational elements of any relationship, but for so many of us it's a real challenge. Whether we never saw it modeled well growing up, or we have so much baggage from the past, or any number of other issues, communication is a real challenge.

This week we'll look to the Bible and learn why healthy communication matters so much and what each of us can do to establish more healthy communication habits and strengthen our relationships today.

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Part 1Andrew ScholzFoundationsComment
Good News - Easter 2023
Good News - Easter 2023

The Bible talks about Jesus bringing "good news", but do we really know what that means? Do we really know who it was for?

On this Easter Sunday we're going to look at why Jesus' "good news" was such good news. We're going to look at who the good news was for and how that matters for us 2,000 years later. And we're going to celebrate how the resurrection of Jesus means we can count on the good news every moment of every day of our lives.

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Andrew ScholzStandalone 2023Comment
Is There Hope?
Is There Hope?

If this war we're in is real, and if our enemy is truly an unseen spiritual force, is it possible to have hope? For so many people we've given up on truly believing things can be better in this life, but the Bible shows us how hope is not only possible, but is inevitable.

As we finish up the message series "This Is War" we'll look at how a simple, common-sense truth as old as the universe holds the key to understanding and having hope in the battles we face.

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Part 5Andrew ScholzThis Is WarComment
How Do We Fight?
How Do We Fight?

Spiritual battle is tough for so many reasons, and one of the biggest is that, while it's easy to know how to fight in a physical battle, fighting an unseen enemy can feel impossible.

But what if the way we fight is more simple than we could possibly imagine? This week we'll explore how to fight in the spiritual as we continue "This Is War".

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Part 4Kyle SomerfeldtThis Is WarComment
What Are Our Weapons?
What Are Our Weapons?

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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Part 3Andrew ScholzThis Is WarComment
Who Is The Enemy?
Who Is The Enemy?

In any battle it's critical to know who the enemy is. Unfortunately for a lot of us, we're aiming at the wrong enemy day in and day out, and we're left wondering why we can't ever seem to win.

In part two of "This Is War" we'll look to the Bible to identify who our real enemy is in spiritual battle we're fighting. And perhaps more importantly, we'll learn who our enemy is not.

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Part 2Andrew ScholzThis Is WarComment
Why Is There War?
Why Is There War?

From the beginning of time humans have been trying to make sense of the chaos of the world. We’ve been trying to understand the age-old war between good and evil so obviously present all around us. And at the same time we’ve been trying to make sense of the war and conflict in our own lives.

It seems that no matter how hard we try, and no matter how closely we follow God the war never ends. It’s frustrating. It’s overwhelming. It’s hard to understand. It can be so, so defeating. But there is an answer. There is a reason the war exists. And that answer can bring us a lot of hope. 

This week we’ll explore those questions, look to the Bible for the answer to the question, “why is there war?”, and begin a journey to fight like God intended.

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Part 1Andrew ScholzThis Is WarComment