Resurrection City Church - St. Paul Minnesota

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Go Part 1

Ever hear the advice to dress for the job you want, not the job you have? Christians look forward to a time when Jesus will return and restore and make whole all things. In the present, disciples of Jesus are people who dress for the world we want Jesus to bring, not the world we currently live in. This is the heart of service. Service in our city and of those in need is important at Res City because we believe disciples of Jesus are people who take seriously his final command to us in Matthew 28:19: Go!

In this message, Pastor Joel talks about a vision for what service now—tending to the unborn, refugees, migrants, beggars, diseased and suffering, etc., and partnering with the organizations whose primary concern is these people in giving aid, jobs, relief, medical care, etc.—can look like and how and why we do it, along with what kinds of pitfalls to avoid. He talks about how service can help you Grow, and why hope is so essential.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Grow Part 2

As we continue our series on discipleship and specifically look at what it means to Grow, Pastor Julie talks about how we must deny ourselves in order to grow spiritually. Spiritual growth holds that the presence of God and his Spirit are the things that change us, AND we can take practical steps to move toward growth in our own lives. In this message, Pastor Julie walks through both of those ideas.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Grow Part 1

Christians are not always that well regarded in society, and we often find people to be uninterested in our good news. The truth is, people outside the church don’t care that much about the good news of Jesus if they don’t encounter goodness when they meet Christians. Eternal life is not something that starts in the future, it’s supposed to be something that starts now, and it’s supposed to be something that changes us. And that leads us to the idea of growth. At Res City, we often us the language of “bearing fruit” to describe growth, and in this message Pastor Joel explains what bearing fruit looks like, why it matters, and how we can partner with God to see fruit grow in our own lives.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Know Part 2

In this series about how we understand discipleship at Res City, we build off of last week’s message on what it means to Know God. While it starts with knowing him through new birth, having an emotional awareness of God’s love for us, that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to grow in knowing God with our minds. In fact, Jesus expects it by telling us to love God with our heart, soul, strength, and mind (Mark 12:30). When we refuse to do that, we have a stunted and unhealthy discipleship. And we have lots of important sources for seeing our minds grow in the knowledge of God to help us grow as disciples. In this message, Pastor Joel walks through some of the ways we can do this.

Know, Grow, Go, Together | Know Part 1

At Res City, we use the language Know, Grow, Go, Together to describe what it means to follow Jesus and be made new by God’s Spirit. In this series, we want to take an extended look at them all, giving us a shared understanding of what they mean and something to come back to, spending two weeks on each word. We want this series to be foundational in how we think about the Christian life in a ordered, simplified sense, something to come back to and for us to build off of as a church in the future.

In this sermon, Pastor Joel walks through Know, explaining how to Know is all rooted in what God has done: Produce new life in us, or as Jesus puts in in John 3, to give us new birth. What does that mean, what does it look like, how is it different than knowing things like doctrine or Scripture, and how does it influence how we look at others Christ followers? This is such a foundational concept to understand if we’re going to follow Jesus, and we tackle it all here!

Advent 2023 | Joy

This Sundays’s advent candle is the candle of joy, and pastor Julie talks about where we find true and lasting joy during the holidays and all year long. 

Advent 2023 | Peace

One of the most famous Christmas passages of Scripture is in Isaiah 9, which speaks of a coming child-king who will be a Prince of Peace. Why is peace such good news for all generations? What does the Bible even mean by the peace that we receive from Jesus? It might not look exactly how you think. In this message, Pastor Joel walks through this essential Christmas tradition.

Advent 2023 | Hope

In this sermon, guest preacher and Res City member David Jahnke shares about how we can find hope in the coming of God this advent season through thinking about the story of Christmas from Joseph's vantage point.

The Functional Centrality of the Gospel

What happens when your faith is running on empty? Emphasizing that the gospel is the core foundation of Christianity, this sermon explored how it serves as the lens through which believers must understand their faith. Guest preacher Brett Ripley underscored the transformative power of the gospel, urging christians to stop doing the "should's" of life. Throughout the message, we are encouraged to connect the various aspects of our lives to the gospel flywheel that gives us energy and purpose.

Jesus’s Stories: Understanding the Kingdom | God Calls Us to Accountability

Understanding Jesus’ Parable of the Talent, we see how Jesus calls his followers to live and act while they wait for His return. In this sermon, guest preacher Joel Nelson reminds us that we are responsible to God for what he has given us, no matter where we are at in life. We are challenged to evaluate how our actions and attitudes keep us accountable to the expectations Jesus has for us.