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.

Elements City Church Podcast

Love Mercy

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.”

Act Justly

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

With God Life

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.

Wonder in 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.

Missional Presence

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.

Holy Sexuality

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!

A Life Saturated with Scripture

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.

Interior Examination

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. 

Rhythms of Reconciliation

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.

A Contemplative Cadence

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.

Mission Mashup

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.

Worship Night

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?

Trusting God’s Sovereignty in Uncertainty

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?

What Does God’s Justice Look Like?

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.

How Does God Deal with Evil?

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