Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota

Restored: The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah | Step 3: Become People of the Word

At the point Ezra and Nehemiah take place, Israel had a checkered history of knowing and taking seriously God’s word. In this moment of restoration, they decided they would not be like their ancestors, and Ezra—the premier Bible nerd of his day—led the people in not just reading Scripture but living it out. A key part of that was helping them understand the Bible is not just divine information or a list of rules to hem closely to or be punished. It’s wisdom from God himself, meant to dwell in us and turn us into people who are built on the rock. In this message, Pastor Joel explains what Ezra did and how we can learn from his example.

Easter 2025 | Hope for New Beginnings

Easter represents a brand new beginning, one that started the entire movement of Christianity that we are part of today. And because of that new beginning, we have the opportunity for new beginnings at all times, because of Jesus. Christians experience renovations of our lives, our hearts, our souls, as we follow Jesus. Maybe you are looking for a new beginning this Easter right now. In this message, Pastor Julie unpacks how we can find renewal and new beginnings in Jesus this Easter.

Restored: The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah | Step 2: Stand Firm in Opposition

The book of Ezra-Nehemiah reveals a simple truth to us: Whenever we set out to do a work God has called us to, we should not be surprised at opposition or challenge associated with it. The opposition can be trials and tribulations, it can be spiritual opposition, and it is even often ourselves—our own tendency to get in way and mess things up. This is exactly what happens in the midst of the revival or renewal that God was working for the community in Ezra-Nehemiah, and it will happen to us as we seek to take Jesus seriously and build our lives only on the rock of his teaching and gospel. In this message, Pastor Joel shares the opportunities different kinds of opposition can present to us.

Restored: The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah | Step 1: Deepening Our Love of Jesus

The first thing we see the returned exiles in Ezra-Nehemiah do is restore their patterns of worship, in time and place. In this message, Pastor Joel explains why, and how establishing patterns of worship will help us to love Jesus better, for as St. Thomas Aquinas writes, “Love is born of an earnest consideration of the object loved.”

Restored: The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah | Building on the Rock of Jesus

Whether you go by statistics or just general vibes, many would say the church in America is not in a great spot. But God is always on the move. Ezra and Nehemiah are two books in the Old Testament that show us how God rebuilds. Jesus tells us that if we want to be people who endure, we should build our discipleship and churches on his teaching and gospel, a foundation he compares to a solid rock (Matthew 7:24-27). This series is a chance for us to look at where God is rebuilding his church and ask, “how can we be a part of it?" in a way that lasts. In this opening message, Pastor Joel introduces this series and unpacks three initial ways we see how the Jewish people, irrelevant and small, were led by God to rebuild themselves, and what we can learn from it today.

No Greater Love | Accepting God’s Love

A popular notion in the world we live in today is that we need to love ourselves to love others. There’s some wisdom in this—we do need to be loved to love others. There has to be something in us to spill out to our neighbors. But far better than any love we can love ourselves with through boosting our ego is accepting a far greater force of love: God’s love for us. When we accept his love for us, we can have the love we need to love our neighbors in the way Jesus calls us to. In this message, Pastor Joel explains it all from the book of 1 John.

No Greater Love | Loving the Lost

Jesus would tell stories to illustrate his points called parables. He tells several about people finding things of great value they had lost, and the joy that they had in finding those things. The stories were told to let us know how much God values finding the things he finds of greatest value that are lost: people. In love, he wants us to help find people who are lost, too.

But do we find the same joy as God when that happens? In this message, Pastor Julie helps us to think about how much joy we do or don’t have when what God finds of great value is found. She discusses how many Christians feel uncomfortable with evangelism, and talks about how we must avoid fear and resentment.

No Greater Love | Loving the Hard to Love

Jesus says that it’s not actually that special to love your friends, the people who you like and who have the same interests with you. Anybody can do that, he says. The challenging part of his call to love your neighbor is to love those who are hard to love—even people you might call your enemy. In this message, Res City Leadership Team member Miles Trump walks us through where to start in terms of living this challenging call from Jesus.

No Greater Love | Loving the Church

Jesus tells us we respond to his love by obeying him, and obeying him is summed up in two simple but profound commands: Love God, and love your neighbor as yourself. In our series, we previously spent time studying what it means to love God, and for the next few weeks we will study how to love your neighbor. A neighbor is anyone God gives us occasion and capacity to help, and one group who we have lots of occasion and capacity to help are the family of faith (Galatians 6:1), the church! In this message, Pastor Joel walks through four points based on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians that help us to move in the right direction for living out the command to love our Res City family, or whatever church we call home: (1) Have a We Not Me mindset, (2) Assume the best in each other, (3) Don’t let outside differences affect inside realities, and (4) Pursue our Common Mission.

No Greater Love | Habits of Loving God

Jesus tells us to love God with (paraphrasing) our head, heard, and hands. How can we love God with our hands? In this message, Pastor Julie gets really practical, talking about how our habits can become love for God. She shares how we can be intentional to point our habits toward God and become more like him through them!