Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota

Why Church | What is the Church?

To grow is to stay at the beginning. What does this mean? That we must consistently draw our Christian life from the essentials of our faith. And one of the primary essentials to our faith is the church. But why is this? And what are the reasons we attend each week? This series aims to get us thinking about the answer to this question. In this sermon Pastor Joel kicks us off by walking us through the church is an embassy of reconciliation, the reconciliation between God and the world that is being enacted through Jesus. We are ambassadors of this message and the church is the place where the foreign soil of reconciliation manifests in our world. Reconciliation works itself out in the church in 3 ways: 1 Reconciliation back to God through creating counter habits of worship that point us back to the beginning of our faith, 2 Reconciliation to one another through true interconnectivity as opposed to false interconnectivity through by digital means, and 3 Reconciliation of all our thought under the Lordship of Christ a foreign idea to us that we learn through gathering as a church in many ways. We unpack these three ideas of reconciliation in this weeks message. Join us as we grow by returning to the beginning

Magnify | He Remembers His Promises

Every culture tells stories which point to the values struggles and ethics it holds. Naturally this happens with Christmas and the stories we tell ourselves both have overlap with and divergence from the true Christmas story told by Christians each year. In most other Christmas stories we are told we must have Christmas spirit or we will suffer some consequence. To start we look at A Christmas Carol and Elf. Often we come to view Christmas Spirit as a moral code we are supposed to follow that no one can enforce but ourselves consisting of kindness generosity and charity. Marys song roots us in an amazing story where God remembers his promises because she roots us in Israels story. This is a story about a people who are unkind, disingenuous, and uncharitable. Despite that, God remembers his promise to them and comes in the most vulnerable way imaginable. We must be able to respond in our own vulnerability to truly receive and understand the gift of Christmas. When we do we can then truly embody Christmas Spirit in the fullest sense.

Magnify | The Christmas Revolution

Mary's Song, The Magnificat is known as a revolutionary song. But what makes it so revolutionary? What made it get banned in some countries in history because it could cause trouble for those in power? Why does it cast down the mighty and lift high the lowly? In this sermon Pastor Julie walks through the powerful message of the song and what it says to both those who are mighty and those who are lowly.

Magnify | Finding Real Joy at Christmas

A young teenage girl is suddenly awakened by a messenger from God who tells her she will be of central importance in Gods plan to redeem the world. Her response: A fearless and revolutionary song. For Advent season we are going to look at Mary's Song long revered in Christian history for the way it magnifies the God who it refers to. Specifically, Pastor Julie digs into how it helps us to find true joy at Christmas instead of fake holiday spirit when we magnify God like Mary.

Daniel | The God Who Rules History

Daniel wraps up with a long vision of what will happen in the unfolding centuries and what God will do to vindicate his people. The big idea of the passage is that God rules history and it is all faithful to accomplish his purposes. Pastor Joel preaches on two bad ways and two good ways taken from the passage to respond to Gods rule of history. His rule works towards his purpose of entering into his own story as a child and as Daniels story culminates, we introduce the Advent season as we approach Christmas.

Daniel | Pulling Back the Curtain of the Spiritual World

Before Daniel can receive the final vision of the book, he learns that the angel delivering the vision has been detained by another spiritual being. This is a perplexing passage that deserves a full look at the realm of God and the sons of God. We learn about a parallel spiritual conflict to the one Daniel is revealing to us. As we study the topic of spiritual warfare we find out that the response from us is to go about our normal Christian rhythms. But we must not forget that those normal patterns are infused with greater meaning because they find resonance in the world we will explore in todays passage.

Daniel | Relationship 101

In Daniel 9 we find a disappointed and frustrated Daniel one who had an expectation of God that is currently unmet. Daniel reflects on his people's relationship with God and there are so many takeaways for us in this jewel of a passage. As Pastor Joel digs into it, we find great encouragement for our own relationship with God as we examine it in depth, learning how we can rest firm in it because God is part of it: He is all we need.

Daniel | Waiting Well

Daniel 8 details major conflict in the world that will unfold and affect Gods people. Despite parts of the vision that terrify Daniel into making him want to take a nap, we've all been there, Daniel. The big picture is that God is in control and we can rest firm in that. This is great news but it shouldn't be enough for us to just know that and then do nothing with it. Its important that we pause and think about how we live practically knowing God is in control of all that unfolds. Pastor Julie breaks down what that looks like in this sermon while also giving you a quick and entertaining description of the history described in the passage.

Daniel | The Son of Man Revealed

In Daniel 7, a strange figure is central to Gods purposes in judging the beasts. That figure is revealed as Jesus where he confesses to being him on a trial before the Jewish religious authorities. In both cases God reveals or unmasks the situation as it is from heaven. In order for us to get the glory of the passage we have to reveal or unmask our own situations over and over in our own hearts. If we don't, we will find ourselves getting bored with the gospel. Pastor Joel talks about how to keep the gospel from being stale in our hearts even when we've heard it so many times.

Daniel | Fantastic Beasts and How To Understand Them

In Daniel 7, Daniel has a vision of four beasts who cause havoc on the earth. In it, we find a picture that resonates with our own crazy times. Daniel 7 is a lot of things and the imagery in the passage is tough to understand but when we get a grasp of it we see that it is a goldmine for leading us to understand what God is doing in the world about evil and chaos. Pastor Joel illustrates how to understand the type of literature that Daniel 7 is written in as well as what it means for us in our own conflict ravaged world.