Speaker: Pastor Nate Herrlin

What is your emotional response to cities?

What is God’s emotional response to cities?

1. What is a city?

“A city is a social form in which people physically live in close proximity to one another.” -- Timothy Keller, “Center Church”, p135.

“A permanent & densely settled place with administratively defined boundaries whose members work primarily on non-agricultural tasks. Historically, city-dwellers have been a small proportion of humanity overall, but following two centuries of unprecedented and rapid urbanization, roughly one-half the world’s population now lives in cities. Most U.S. states use a minimum between 1500-5,000 people to define an urban area.”
-- en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City

Cities are like MAGNETS.

Cities function as a MAGNIFIED VERSION of humanity.

The Old Testament describes the city as a place of SAFETY AND PROTECTION.

God chose one city to be His own DWELLING PLACE on earth.

God even cares about cities that are filled with ISRAEL’S ENEMIES.

Jonah 3-4

God’s people have been SENT INTO the cities and people of the world.

Our God-given mission is to INFLUENCE OTHERS toward a restored relationship with God.

A wise strategy for accomplishing our mission is to TARGET CITIES FIRST.

OUR FUTURE HOME is described as a city.

Hebrews 11:8-10
Revelation 21:9-27

3. How does my view of the city compare with God’s?

1. How does my view of the city compare with the way God sees cities?

2. What is one change in my thinking or behavior that would be most helpful in finding balance in my approach to culture?

"I believe many Christians in the West avoid the city because it is filled with “the other”. Because cities are filled with people who are completely unlike us, many Christians find this disorienting. Deep down, we know we don’t like these people or don’t feel safe around them. But see how easily we forget the gospel! After all, in the gospel we learn of a God who came and lived among us, became one of us, and loved us to the death, even though we were wholly other from Him. The city humbles us, showing us how little we are actually shaped by the story and pattern of the gospel.”

Timothy Keller, Center Church, pp168-169.

NEXT STEPS

…keep processing the questions we discussed during today’s message.

1. How does my view of the city compare with the way God sees cities?

2. What is one change in my thinking or behavior that would be most helpful in finding balance in my approach to culture?

... other