Citizens Church

Citizens Church

Weekend messages from Citizens Church in Franklin, TN. For more information visit citizens.church

  1. Oct 12

    Eyes Like Jesus | Simply Jesus Pt. 4

    Most of us know the feeling of looking at a need and doing the math. The bills, the hours in the day, the energy we have left. We size up what’s in front of us, compare it to what’s in our hands, and quietly conclude there’s just not enough. Not enough money, not enough time, not enough of whatever it would take to make a difference. This week’s episode takes us to an old story about a hillside, a hungry crowd of about five thousand people, and one boy with a small lunch. Everyone around him ran the numbers and saw an impossible situation. One man in the story looked at the same scene and saw something different. He noticed the need, saw what could be done, and found something to be grateful for before anything had changed. That small difference in seeing turns out to matter a lot. Paying attention is only half of care. The other half is doing something with what you notice. And you don’t need a lot to start. The question isn’t “what do I lack?” but “what do I have, and am I willing to put it to use?” Being honest about reality is different from letting reality have the final word. There’s one more thread worth pulling on: gratitude. We usually think of thankfulness as something that shows up after things go well. This story suggests it can be a way of standing in hard seasons too, not pretending things are fine, but choosing to notice what’s still here. Whether you’re in a season of plenty or one of running on empty, we think you’ll find something in this conversation worth carrying with you. Press play, and maybe look at what’s in front of you a little differently this week.

  2. Oct 5

    Come And See | Simply Jesus Pt. 3

    Most of us have a well we keep going back to. For some people it's the next promotion or a bigger paycheck. For others it's approval, a relationship, a goal, or just being noticed. It works for a while. Then the thirst comes back, so we lower the bucket again. In this episode, we look at an old story about a woman who goes to a well at noon, probably to avoid running into anyone. She has a complicated past, a lot of closed doors behind her, and no interest in a conversation. Then a stranger sitting at the well breaks every social rule of his day by talking to her. He doesn't flinch at her history or her reputation. He tells her the truth about her life without shaming her, and he says the thing she's been searching for isn't another well. It's him. Good things like success, family, and work make terrible gods, because they can't carry the weight of your soul. And the woman's response is worth hearing. She leaves her water jar behind and runs to tell everyone, "Come and see." Whether you've been around church your whole life or haven't thought about it in years, this one is for anyone who's tired of coming up thirsty.

  3. Sep 29

    The Unhurried Life | Simply Jesus Pt. 2

    You know the feeling. You're standing in a room with someone, nodding along, and your mind is already three hours ahead, running through a to-do list, replaying a conversation, worrying about something you can't control. You're there, but you're not really there. It happens with your kids, your partner, your friends. It even happens with the things you care about most. Somewhere along the way, people start to feel like interruptions instead of the whole point. But there's another way to move through the world, one marked by presence instead of hurry, patience instead of panic, and a refusal to write people or situations off as too far gone. This one's for anyone who's ever felt like they're missing their own life while they're busy living it, and for anyone who's ever wondered if the delay they're stuck in means they've been forgotten. Wherever you're listening from, whatever you believe or don't believe, come sit with this one for a while.

  4. Sep 21

    What Are You Seeking? | Simply Jesus Pt. 1

    Most of us are chasing something. A promotion, a relationship, a bigger number in the bank account, a child who turns out okay, a room full of people who approve of us. And most of those things are good. The trouble starts quietly, when we stop just wanting them and start needing them to tell us we matter. We reach the goal, feel good for about a week, and then notice there's another one waiting. No wonder so many of us are tired. We're asking good things to do a job that's too big for them. This week starts a new series with a simple question, one that was asked of two men more than two thousand years ago: "What are you seeking?" Not "what do you believe" or "have you been good enough." Just: what do you actually want? It goes underneath our habits and résumés to the thing driving them. Two people can work equally hard, love equally hard, and parent equally hard, for completely different reasons. The episode opens with a story about a scholar who spent decades studying the life of Jesus and still wasn't over it, and it builds toward an idea that flips the question around. What if the deepest longing isn't something we find by trying harder, but something that comes looking for us? Whether you've been around church your whole life, gave up on it long ago, or just landed here by accident, this one is for you. Sit with the question for a while: what are you really seeking?

  5. Sep 16

    When Grace Crosses the Line | The Book of Jonah Pt. 4

    Think about the last person you decided didn't deserve a break. Maybe it's someone who hurt you, someone who thinks differently than you, someone whose choices you can't stand behind. If you're honest, some small part of you has probably hoped things would go badly for them. That instinct feels justified. It even feels fair. But this episode asks an uncomfortable question: what if that instinct says more about you than it does about them. The people who frustrate us most often expose something we couldn't see in ourselves any other way. It's easy to assume the problem is "them," whoever they are for you. But sometimes the deepest work isn't changing the person you're angry at. It's letting their existence hold up a mirror. Grace, real grace, was never something we earned in the first place. Which means it's not really ours to ration out to the people we approve of. This episode traces that discomfort all the way to its resolution, showing how the same relentless pursuit that chases down the person we can't stand is the same one that never gave up on us either.

  6. Aug 31

    The Other Side of Obedience | The Book of Jonah Pt. 3

    Most of us have a version of the same story: something we know we need to do, and a hundred reasons we haven't done it yet. Make the call. Have the hard conversation. Walk away from the thing we've been tolerating. We tell ourselves we're waiting for the right moment, or more information, or just a little more certainty that it'll actually work out. So we wait. And wait. And somewhere along the way, waiting quietly becomes the plan. This episode picks up the story of Jonah at the exact point where he finally stops running. After everything, the storm, the sea, the fish, the three days in the dark, he gets a second shot at the one thing he'd already failed to do once. And what happens next isn't really about Jonah at all. It's about an entire city on the other side of his decision, already in motion, already waiting, completely invisible to him the whole time he was avoiding it. That's the part of the story worth sitting with. Jonah had no idea what was on the other side of his obedience. He couldn't see it, couldn't predict it, couldn't have engineered it if he tried. He just took the next step in front of him. And this episode makes the case that most of life works the same way. We rarely get the whole picture before we're asked to move. We get the next step, and that's it. There's something both freeing and unsettling about that. Freeing, because you don't have to control how things turn out. That was never your job to begin with. Unsettling, because it means the excuse of "I'll do it once I know how it ends" doesn't really hold up. This episode is for anyone with a call they haven't made, a conversation they've been putting off, or a decision they keep circling without landing on, and it asks a simple question: what might be waiting on the other side of the thing you keep avoiding?

  7. Aug 25

    What Do You Do When You Find Yourself In A Dark Place | The Book of Jonah Pt. 2

    Everyone knows what it's like to end up somewhere they never meant to be. Maybe it's a slow drift that finally caught up with you, a choice you can trace back if you're honest enough to look. Or maybe it's something that landed on you out of nowhere... a diagnosis, a loss, a relationship that ended despite everything you tried. Either way, the questions are the same in the middle of the night: how did I get here, and is there a way out? This message digs into the strange, vivid prayer of a man who ends up in about as dark a place as a person can imagine — swallowed whole, sinking, out of options. What's striking isn't that he prays. It's how he prays. No polish, no forced positivity, no waiting until things get better to say something. He tells the truth about exactly how bad it feels, and somewhere in the middle of that honesty, something shifts — not the circumstances yet, just a decision to turn toward hope instead of away from it. It becomes the difference between simply getting rescued and actually being restored. Wherever you're at... a mess of your own making, a situation you never asked for, or just a heavy week you can't quite explain, this episode is an invitation to stop performing okay and start telling the truth, out loud, from wherever you are.

  8. Aug 17

    Relentless Grace | The Book of Jonah Pt. 1

    There's a version of avoidance we all know intimately: the thing you keep not doing. The conversation you keep not having. The calling, the change, the hard thing you know is right there in front of you, and instead of walking toward it, you quietly book a ticket in the opposite direction. It doesn't feel dramatic in the moment. It just feels like relief. This week kicks off a new series built around one of the strangest, most human stories in the Bible — a guy named Jonah, who gets a clear assignment and responds by getting on a boat headed the exact opposite way. It's easy to read that and think, "who does that?" But most of us have a Tarshish — a convenient escape route we found a little too easily, for the exact thing we didn't want to face. And it rarely stays contained to just us: a storm hits, and it doesn't only threaten Jonah, it threatens everyone on that boat with him. Avoidance has a way of pulling other people — a partner, a kid, a coworker, a friend — into weather they never signed up for. Yet the story doesn't end with the storm, or even with Jonah hitting bottom. It ends with something reaching down to get him anyway, not because he'd earned it, but simply because grace went further down than he had.

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Ratings & Reviews

5
out of 5
3 Ratings

About

Weekend messages from Citizens Church in Franklin, TN. For more information visit citizens.church

Information

  • Creator
    Citizens Church
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    119
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Citizens Church
  • Show Website
    Citizens Church