Elements City Church Podcast

We are to walk humbly with God, according to Micah’s challenge. “Walking” is the Hebrew idiom for what we call one’s “lifestyle.” And “to walk humbly” is simply to live by faith, for faith is the antithesis of pride. Pride alone insists on taking first place, but faith seeks to give God first place. Humility is that virtue required of those who are faithful followers of Jesus.

We’re to love mercy - the gift that God so richly gives to us in Christ. Mercy is part of the deepest character of God in his loving kindness and compassion. We’re to be receivers, reservoirs and then conduits of his great mercy to others. We’re forever to lean on the mercy of God as he longs to forever give it.

The prophet Micah woos us towards a great challenge and calling as followers of God. We’re to act justly, that’s what God desires. Justice is doing the right thing at the right time. We can be stewards of “just us” or we can be stewards of justice, it is our decision to focus on. Maybe that’s why Jesus gave us the golden rule to live by…“Do to others as you would like them to do to you.”

At times - religion can feel like it comes with a lot of fine print - confusion can abound and things can feel overly complicated. The prophet Micah is calling the people of God 700 years before Christ back to God’s simple invitation to life with Him and away from settling for adherence to religious rituals. He records one verse that calls us as followers of God back to a relational focus and an ongoing spiritual foundation. 3 keys in how we’re to live out life with God. Jesus lived this rhythm and practice and he invites us to follow him in living this way. *See Micah 6:8

We’ve been created to worship and we will - the choice we have is to what or WHO we will worship. As we worship God fully in all of who he is and all of what he does, it nourishes our soul and awakens us to the significance found in Him and in living for Him. Worship expands our understanding and appreciation of God and invites us to a life filled with more wonder. Friends, you’ll want to wander more in the wonder of worship.

Each follower of Jesus is enlisted into the activity of God within our world. We’re to have a missional presence that enables others to encounter God as we point people toward him in how we engage with folks. That starts with being molded by God deep within to mirror his heart to be with people and for people. To practice godly hospitality in the midst of a hostile world. To announce the good news of the gospel in word and deeds.

We’re called to live with a holy sexuality amidst a confusing culture when it comes to understanding and navigating the gift of our sexuality. We’re to keep our appetites, desires and cravings from ‘owning’ us, but rather allow them to function within healthy boundaries of God’s design. We live in a culture that likes to try to split our bodies from souls, but friends we’re created much more complex than simply segmenting ourselves into parts. We’re to live wholly and holy. We look at some practices we can employ that help us live how we’ve been created, gifted, saved and called forward in Christ.

Many believers live in the state of "being a Christian" without ever being deeply formed by Christ. Our pace is too frenetic to be in union with God, and we don't know how to quiet our hearts and minds to be present. Our emotions are unhealthy and compartmentalized. We feel unable to love well or live differently from the rest of the world - to live as people of the good news. The Rooted Life is a road map to live in the richly rooted place we all yearn for: a place of communion with God, a place where we find our purpose. In this series we want to help us discover some transformational practices and habits that can root your life in the way of Jesus!

The journey of faith is one that calls us to seek and find. It’s a journey with Jesus that leads to discovery, too knowing and transformation. We must become comfortable with looking inwardly and not just outwardly. In our humanity we often default into asking questions of others motives. We make assessments upon others actions, all the while, missing the moment to pause and turn those questions inward and allow the Spirit of God to search our own hearts. Interior examination is a must as a disciple seeking to follow after Jesus. Friend, often it's there, where we’ll discover our next steps of faith.

Against the ‘cancel culture’ mindset that is so pervasive in our society - the way of Jesus commands us to a practice of reconciliation. We have been forgiven and reconciled to God himself and now we’ve been entrusted to echo that invitation to reconciliation to Him and to embody that message in our relationships. We each are to remember what God has done and now emulate that. Today, we look at how we can foster and build rhythms of reconciliation into our lives. 

Life moves pretty fast and if we aren’t proactive to building intentional pauses into our lives, we’ll find ourselves caught up in our culture of speed, superficiality and washed out in distractions. The spiritual life of following Jesus calls us to a contemplative cadence in our living that affords us the opportunity to more deeply connect with others, with God, to sense His presence and hear His whispers in the way we should go. There are some biblical practices that we can engage in that foster such connection.

We wanted to take a night to remind ourselves of our calling as a church. So we’re leaning back into our “mission mash-up” - a full tilt look at the heart behind what we’re to be about as a part of The Church globally and through our church locally. A deep dive into how we choose to live out our mission and values that God has set before us in order to help move His kingdom forward.

A few times a year we seek to create space via a worship night for folks to have an extended time to connect in adoration to God and reach up to Him. Time to pause, to reflect, to pray, to sing and a time to be refreshed. We're thankful for friends from Ucity Church that helped craft this experience. Lean in again.

Habakkuk ends his book with a psalm of praise, despite the suffering about to be endured. How can we have the same hope in times of uncertainty and continue to worship, in spite of everything going on around us? Will we, like Habakkuk, be people willing to pray the prayer of revival when life gets tough?

Now that God has pronounced judgment will fall on the Babylonians, Habakkuk begins a taunt-song celebrating God's justice. But what is biblical justice? And how can we draw principles from this text on living justly?

Habakkuk continues his questioning as he wants to know why God would use evil people to bring judgment on His own chosen people. God’s response shows us that His justice will always prevail in His timing — not our own. Our responsibility in all of this is to pursue righteousness through faith.

As we begin our new series, Sovereignty in Uncertainty: A Study in Habakkuk, Pastor Lyle gives background information on the book of Habakkuk and explores how God deals with our doubts, and how we can approach doubt in such a way that still honors God and His character.

Each one of us must make decisions in life. In fact, research says that the average person makes approximately 70 decisions a day. That’s over 2 million in 80 years of life. We each want to get better at making good and godly decisions. So today, we’re looking at some wisdom from Proverbs and 5 key questions we should have at the forefront of our minds as we seek to get better in our decision-making. *book recommendation: Better Decisions, Fewer Regrets (Andy Stanley.)

Today we’re looking into wisdom around a 5-letter word each one of us has to manage: M O N E Y — everybody wants it, needs it, is trying to figure out how to use it, not lose it and how to get more of it. It’s something we all have to navigate and thus it’s imperative that we look into the Scriptures to see what wisdom God might have about it. We’ll examine 2 key financial filters we see in the Scriptures and 4 wisdom principles from the book of Proverbs.

We each need relational wisdom active within our friendships. Proverbs says a lot about friendships—about the kind of friend we should look for and the kind of friend we should be. Proverbs teaches us there is more to friendship than being acquainted with someone or socializing with someone. Proverbs offers an exalted view of friendship that goes beyond surface-level camaraderie to a deeper level in which we share our hearts and lives with one another - where we sharpen one another. So we unpack some biblical, practical, and relational wisdom tips.