Capital City Christian Church | Podcast Capital City Christian Church

"We talked about raising godly children – which is hard work and requires discipline. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. We talked about money – which requires hard work and discipline to handle well. It wasn’t groundbreaking information. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. We talked about our hurts, and we talked about friends. All these things take work and discipline. Wisdom says to listen to God. Fools despise discipline. And today we’re going to talk about marriage." Ben Webb, Associate Minister

"I don’t care whether you are a Boomer, a Gen Xer, a Millennial, a Zer, or even Gen Alpha … the questions are the same: Does your work life matter to God? Does how you work affect your life with God? Does God care? And if he does, should you? What do you think: Is work a necessary evil? Should our goal be to do as little as possible and get past it as soon as possible? Do you think heaven will be about sleeping in, playing golf as often as you want, hanging with friends by the pool, and doing what you want when you want, never having to worry about a timecard? Would that be the perfect life? Randy, my preaching partner for about 20 years, asks it like this. He says, Your attitude towards work reflects how much of your soul belongs to God."

It's dangerous to be in a place where no one cares for you spiritually because it's incredibly easy to drift away from God. We need people in our corner to help pull us toward God. It's that together part of what Doc always says. We've got this saying that we use a lot around here. We're all about doing life with God, for God, God's way … together. There's something significant about us doing life … together. There's another thing Doc says. We all have this responsibility to drag each other to heaven. And if you're alone … you're in a very dangerous place. It means you don’t have anyone dragging you towards heaven.

But I don't think that this is the biggest problem. We’re talking about friendships today, but I don’t think loneliness is the biggest issue we face. I think all of us know intuitively that we need friends. You may experience loneliness – we may experience loneliness – but nearly all of us are working on resolving that already. We crave relationships. And we naturally work to foster them. I think the bigger issue is that we're all so desperate to not be lonely … we're so desperate to not be lonely … that we will take friendship anywhere we find it. Is that your story? I guarantee you know someone who has that story.

"How many of you have been wounded? Not physically, but emotionally? … Yeah, that’s a universal, right? Emotional pain, spiritual pain, relational pain? Anger, sadness, bitterness, despair, remorse maybe; you are wounded, you hurt. It's pretty much universal. How many of you are hurting somehow right here, right now? A bunch of you, probably. Because hurt happens. Hurting is universal. Healing … not so much." Stephen "Doc" Pattison

"Paul says, “I've learned the secret … to being content.” That feels a little bit like a letdown. Like, really? Is that a secret you've been trying to discover? Have you been actively pursuing contentment? Look, I think that we all want contentment. But we don't live like it. We live like contentment is right around the corner … and we never quite catch up. Every time we come around the corner, it's just around the corner. And instead of ever becoming content, we learn to crave more and more.

After all, that is the American dream, right? More – bigger – better. It’s the American dream. There's a crisis on our border right now with people trying to get into our country because of the American dream. They view us as wealthy … they view us as a success story. The rest of the world is watching us, and they want contentment like we have contentment. Except that, we know we don't have contentment. I think we've become content in our discontentment. We’re satisfied to keep chasing the next thing."

“Children are a gift from the Lord; they are a reward from him.” There are times we fear that God has a sense of humor, right? But what if … what if he is serious? What if God meant them to be so? And what if there was a way to make it so? Not a guarantee but a strategy. What if there was a strategy for raising kids you can be proud of, for raising kids who would be proud of you? Would it be worth it to listen to some tips from our Designer, our Creator? I think so, don't you?"