City Church Garland

In the book of Ruth we see a beautiful love story that begins with difficult and bitter circumstances then turns into a sweet redemptive narrative. Ruth displayed faithfulness to her mother-in-law & her God during the most difficult time of her life and God took notice of that and rewarded her for it. The faithful tend to find themselves in the right place at the right time and that was the case with Ruth. Ruth “happened to come to the part of the field belonging to Boaz” (Ruth 2:3). And that is where things started turing around for Ruth & her mother-in-law Naomi. They found a “redeemer” who was willing and able to do something about their circumstances and he did what a godly Israelite was supposed to do in that time. Boaz provided & protected Ruth while she gleaned food from his field and eventually he married Ruth. Ruth got the great honor of being included in the lineage of King David, one of the most important figures in the old testament, and in the lineage of the Jesus the

God faithfully cares for His people and He sovereignly works out His good plans in their lives. This is a truth that you can see displayed in Ruth's story. May you experience this reality your own life story.

Lessons for Life & Leadership in the book of 1st Samuel Character is foundational for leadership. Challenges are necessary in preparation for leadership because they can build character. You can flourish into who God had called you to be even under poor leadership. Trust God to bring to pass His plans for your life. Be faithful where God has you & don't give up. Obey God’s voice and wait for Him. Don’t get ahead of God.

God generously cares for the poor and He expects His people to do the same, so we must keep our hearts compassionate towards them and our hands open to them. In this sermon you will hear some of the ways God displays His care for the poor and ways that He communicates that His people should do the same.

God tests His people to develop them, teach them and do them good. In Deuteronomy 8 we see that God led His people Israel into the wilderness to humble them, test them, to expose their hearts and do them good in the end. Remember that God is at work in your difficult times of testing, He is the source of life, He provides, He disciplines His children and He will punish those who forget and forsake Him. These are some of the lessons to be learned in the wilderness.

Our God demands that we love Him with all of our being and that we diligently lead our family in loving Him. In message Pastor Keith aims to describe what it looks like to love God with our whole being and lead our family in doing so.

God is 100% for His people, He is faithful to His people and He fights for His people. We must trust and obey Him and get to know His heart for us if we are to experience all that He has for us.

God's Graciousness nature is one aspect of His goodness that we must become acquantied with if we are to truly know Him.

The 10 Commandments are still relevant to us today. Through them we get an understanding of what sin is, of the holiness of God, the values of God and how we are to love God & others. Listen to this sermon and hear Kevin Diaz preach about the importance & relevance of the 10 Commandments and God's heart behind giving those commands to His people.

In this teaching Kevin Diaz expounds on the some of the details of the tabernacle in the 2nd half of the book of Exodus. God wanted to dwell with His people but how could a holy God dwell among a sinful people? God made provision for that to occur through the tabernacle but there was still something greater that the tabernacle & the sacrificial system pointed to, namely Christ. As Kevin metioned in this teaching, Christ is the fulfillment of the sacrifcial system that God set up with the Israelites. Christ the sinless lamb of God has been sacrificed for our sins so that we can now appoach God with confidence into the holiest place of His presence.

From Psalm 103, we know that our God is merciful and just, and we see this character displayed throughout the pages of Scripture. Listen as Pastor Keith preaches from Exodus 1-4, which shows God's just and merciful character, and learn from these chapters how God desires that we display his character within each of our communities.

God's great story of redemption is powerful. Listen as Pastor Keith walks through the Exodus narrative and tells the story of God rescuing His people Israel out of Egypt with His mighty hand from the opression of Pharaoh.

God cares for and intervenes in the lives of His people to fulfill His plans regardless of the adversity or injustice they may experince. In Jospeh's life we see the beautiful relationship between divine providence and human responsibilty. Joseph lived with integrity, faithfulness and forgiveness towards those who harmed him, while he waited for God to bring about good and fulfill the dream that He placed in Joseph's heart.

God is faithful to His promises and worthy of our trust. The life of Abraham illustrates the faitfulness of God and exemplifies one who who trusted God to fulfill His promises. God worked through Abrham's faith but God also worked to bring about His plan and fulfill His promises regardless of Abraham's failure.

God invites His people to meet with Him every day in prayer. Jesus modeled for us what it looks like not only to value meeting with His Heavenly Father in prayer but also to prioritize it. In this sermon on Mark chapter 1 Pastor Mike shares on the importance of rising early to seek God in prayer like Jesus did.

The book of Genesis answers the big questions of how mankind got here and why on earth we are here. It teaches that God is the Creator of all creation and the author of all human life. He has beautifully desinged humanity in His likeness with purpose and value. God the Creator designed mankind to reflection His image, reporduce His image, be responsible and relational beings, and get rest. In this sermon Pastor Keith Dollar explains each of these aspects of God's beautiful design for humanity.

God the Father gave the ultimate gift ever given, namely His Son Jesus Christ (John 3:16). And the appropriate response to that great gift is to recieve Him & joyfully worship. In Luke chaper 1 Mary the mother of Jesus modeled this appropraite response with a hymn of praise known as the Magnifact. In it she magnified who God is & the great things He has done.

Everyone's heart longs for peace, especially in times of trouble. The world offers its own solution for peace through selfish actions like the accumulation of material goods or the possession of power. But what is God's solution for peace? God has provided each and every person who has trusted in His Son Jesus Christ with His gift of peace. If this is true, then why are so many Christians filled with such anxiety and worry? Listen as Pastor Mike teaches us about the peace of Christ provided for all Christians and how we are able to live in that peace, even in troubled times.

For many, the Christmas Season is a time of pain and despair as the brokenness of their lives is magnified when contrasted with the happiness of others that seems to surround them. As people of God, let's consider how can we respond to this need in the lives of others this Christmas season. Listen in as Pastor Keith explains to us from Luke 2 and Romans 15 how we can be people of live with hope as we we prepare our hearts for the coming of the Lord Jesus.

Jesus modeled the perfect prayer life by which His followers were not only inspired by His unhindred communion with God by they also experinced the benefits of His intercession. Jesus prayed that His followers would be kept from the evil one, that they would be sanctified by truth and that they would be unified. This prayer not only included the disciples who were with Christ physically while he was on earth but Jesus also included those who would believe in His prayer recorded in John 17. This includes those of us who are Christ follwers in the 21st century. May you be encouraged by the truth that Christ has prayed for you and is at this very moment interceding on your behalf.