God places Adam and Eve in the garden to work and keep it, as a sacred stage to worship God. As they work and rest and love and serve one another, they are worshipping their creator God. We don’t think of a worship leader as a farmer or gardener, yet that is what we are all created for. Everyone is a worship leader. God created each and every one of us to lead worship. The world you’ve been placed in is a sacred stage for you to be image bearing priests who steward and rule over creation in such a way that all of it celebrates God’s glory. 

Scripture: Genesis 1:27–28; 2:15

This week we explore what it means to be made in the image of God. The beauty of this origin is that from the beginning, we were made with incredible meaning. For the Christian, the meaning of life is that we would look like Christ; that we would think, love, feel and act more like Jesus. That we would love God with all our heart, mind and soul, and love our neighbor as ourselves as God’s image-bearers. 

Gen 1:26-27; 31a

In an age of increasing use of technology, there are so many questions around what makes a human human. This week we begin a new series to recover a Biblical anthropology; to recover who God made us to be through the life and death of Christ. As God’s design, though distorted by sin, we look to Christ’s redemption to become more like the humanity God made. 

Scripture: Genesis 1:1

In this passage, Jesus looks back at two stories—Naaman and the widow—as examples of the heart of his ministry. These two people represent citizens of the kingdom—enemies, foreigners and those seemingly outside the kingdom. Because the gospel is that Jesus came for the outsider, not the righteous, for we all fall short of the glory of God. It’s not by our own works but only by the blood of Christ that any of us enter the kingdom of heaven. 

Scripture Luke 4:16–30

This week closes our time in Psalm 23. There’s a moment in this psalm, when David shifts from praying about God, to praying to God. Because the Christian life is not just about us knowing about God, but dwelling with God in relationship. The psalm ends with the image of us sitting at God’s table, where we are in attendance but God is the host, pointing to the good news that Christ surrounds us from all sides in love—as he is leading us, with us, and pursuing us. 

Scripture: Psalm 23

Because we live in a fallen world, the shadow of death is always looming, even on our best day. Yet, David speaks of the valley of the shadow of death as a place where God is always in control and always with us, so that we can declare even in the valley, I shall not fear.

Scripture: Psalm 23

Over the next few weeks we will be exploring Psalm 23. This week we will see that because the Lord is our Shepherd, we can find true contentment in Him regardless of our circumstances. While it's right to pray for God's provision and long for good things, our deepest satisfaction comes from His presence, care, and faithfulness. The message encourages believers to trust the Shepherd who pursues, provides, protects, and leads His people, reminding us that our greatest need has already been met in Christ. 

Scripture: Psalm 23

To learn more about Citizens Church, located in Plano Tx, visit citizenschurch.com

We feel our need most when our circumstances are difficult. Yet, the kind of prayer we need most is not about our circumstances but a prayer about what’s true about the Lord. This psalm of David shows us by turning up the volume of what’s true about God, and turning down the volume of our circumstances. 

Scripture: Psalm 86

Psalm 126 is a reminder that God is at work to restore all things. It’s a reminder and call to remember all that God has restored, seek his restoration to continue and trust that God will restore, even in suffering and hardship. 

Scripture: Psalm 126

This psalm of David is a reminder that when God is our greatest good, you can rest assured that we have an unshakeable refuge. Even in our brokenness and our suffering, we have an inheritance in Christ which means he doesn’t just hand us the truth and walk away. He walks with us, providing us refuge. 

Scripture: Psalm 16

Psalm 107 is a case study of how God's love works in the lives of his people. He rescues the wanderer, redeems the sinful, saves the fool, and rescues those who are trapped in hard circumstances.

In this psalm, Asaph looks out at the suffering he’s experiencing, looks in at the doubt that ensues, and then looks up to God. Asaph is a great example of someone who when faced with doubts about the goodness of God, he turned those to honest prayer withs God. He turned towards God, even in the doubt, to have faith in the goodness of God.

Scripture: Psalm 73

As we close the letters of John, we look back on the joy that John so frequently points to. We rightly long for joy, but we fail in our search for joy when we try to find joy based on circumstances, because joy points to something else. True joy points to the one who holds all of our circumstances, and all of us. Therefore when you see joy as a signpost, not a destination, you’ll find joy in God himself. 

Scripture: 1–3 John

In the last letter of John, we see two different lives: one self-centered, one other-centered. While pieces of both men live inside us all, the antidote to a selfish heart isn't white-knuckled effort, but locking our eyes onto Jesus—the ultimate King who emptied Himself to serve and save us. When Christ becomes our greatest joy, our lives naturally transform into beautiful expressions of generosity and discipleship that build up the family of God.

Scripture: 3 John 1:1–12

In a world full of theological disagreement, how do we hold truth and love together? Should our respons be the same in every kind of disagreement? 2 John helps us see truth in love means having an others-centered, Christ-exalting agenda behind the sharing of truth.

Scripture: 2 John

The story of Peter is a reminder of how Jesus calls each of us out of the life of sin and shame that we find ourselves, and into is a better one; a life that rests in our identity in Christ, our trust in Christ, obedience, and God’s sanctifying work in us to change us more into the image of Christ. 

Scripture: John 21: 4–19

In the conclusion of 1 John, God’s people are charged to confidently carry on in Christ. As our blessed assurance steadily rests in Jesus, it transforms how we talk to God, how we fight for each other, and how we survive a culture filled with idols. Scripture: 1 John 5:13–21

There’s a battle for control in the world, but the victory has already been won by Jesus Christ. And yet sometimes we lose where we are in the story, and we feel discouraged by suffering and sin. But John reminds us in his letter, how the Christian has indeed overcome, because in Christ, victory lies in our faith. 

Scripture: 1 John 5:1–12

John is reminding us again that it’s not our commandment keeping that justifies us, it’s the saving work of Christ and the transformation that God brings in his children. Because God is holy and righteous, so too is his love. And as children of God, we can only love because He first loved us. 

Scripture: 1 John 4:17–19

This passage in Revelation is a warning for the lukewarm Christian—the Christian who can know the gospel, and live for Jesus but does so moderately, and worse, not realize their mediocrity. Because we can get lost with being comfortable in our faith. God doesn’t require his church to be perfect, but the cure to lukewarmness is the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Scripture: Revelation 3:14–22

Guest Preacher: Ajay Thomas