Message Notes
April 12, 2026
City of Refuge:
You are the City
by Scott Ancarrow
Acts 1:4-11, Matthew 5:14-16, Revelation 21-22
Which city is building us?
From Fear Building and Self Protection (Cain's City) to Divine Security (Revelation 21)
From Pride and Self-Aggrandizement (Babel) to Identifying with God's Servant Leadership (Revelation 21:2-4)
From the Exploitation of Nations (Babylon) to God's Heart for the Nations (Revelation 21:24-26)
From Corrupted Religion (Jerusalem 1.0) to The Restoration of Relationship With God (Revelation 22:1-4)
From Herod's Temple Politics (Jerusalem 2.0) to God's Open Arms (Revelation 21:21-24)
What city are we building?
“The point of the resurrection…is that the present bodily life is not valueless just because it will die…What you do with your body in the present matters because God has a great future in store for it…What you do in the present—by painting, preaching, singing, sewing, praying, teaching, building hospitals, digging wells, campaigning for justice, writing poems, caring for the needy, loving your neighbor as yourself—will last into God's future. These activities are not simply ways of making the present life a little less beastly, a little more bearable, until the day when we leave it behind altogether (as the hymn so mistakenly puts it…). They are part of what we may call building for God's kingdom.”
― N.T. Wright, Surprised by Hope: Rethinking Heaven, the Resurrection, and the Mission of the Church
How to Build:
Love
Proclamation
Identify with
Bless
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