Church Of The City New York

This Sunday, Pastor Ashley Anderson continued our “We Want You Here” series with a message on joining God on His mission to seek and save the lost through prayer. As God’s image bearers, Jesus declared that every person has incredible value to Him whether they turn to Him or not. As followers of Jesus, we are called to pray for the lost because we know what it was to be lost, and the great joy of being found.

This Sunday, we were joined by Compassion International, and Pastor Jon preached a special sermon on Biblical justice. When we love someone, we want to delight them, and this is what delights God: steadfast love, righteousness, and justice (Jeremiah 9:23-24). Compassion alum, Keewani Cook, was also able to share her powerful testimony about her own impoverished childhood, recieving sponsorship through Compassion, and learning that poverty was not her destiny. God provided a way for Keewani to go to school and start a career, and she ultimately learned—through another's compassion—that nothing is impossible for the Lord. Through stories like Keewani's, we see that what we do for the least of these, we do for Jesus.   If you would like to join Compassion International on mission through the sponsorship of a child we invite you to head over to compassion.com/churchofthecity to see children still in need of sponsors.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our series “We Want You Here” with a teaching on joining in creation’s chorus of praise through Psalm 148. Today, we are invited to join the chorus of praise that is happening right now in heaven and in creation. Praise unhindered by circumstances and feelings puts us in the right position before God, and allows us to live out our true purpose as His beloved creation. 

This Sunday, Pastor Jon continued our “We Want You Here” series with a teaching on prayer through tears. Our world is a fallen place, and it has become the cultural norm to be cynical and numb to the pain, injustice, and sin that surrounds us. However, not only has God never gone numb to the world, He invites us to weep our way back to the tenderness of His heart. 

This Sunday, Pastor Ralph Castillo continued our “We Want You Here” series with his sermon, “This is How We Fight Our Battles.” Learning from the story of the Israelites’ victory over the Amalekites in Exodus, we observe three key ways that we, as believers, should fight our battles: (1) We fight for people who are in a fight, (2) We fight together for people who are in a fight, and (3) We celebrate the victory–God’s way. As believers, we can be confident that when we fight, we do not fight for victory, that instead, we fight from victory because we serve a victorious God.

Pastor Jon continued our current sermon series 'We Want You Here' with a deep dive into our human struggle with temptation. As we resist temptation and actively confess by bringing things into the light, shame melts away under the power of the cross. God rewards us with a new name in Christ, the affirmation of heaven, and the increased ability to walk into our purpose on earth with with freedom and authority.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our "We Want You Here" series by discussing prayer, grief, and lament through the prayer of the prophet Habakkuk. We join God in the restoration of the world when we enter into the brokenness in our own lives, the lives of other, and in our world. God does not always remove the mountains of grief and hardship, but instead gives us the ability to scale them, allowing them to become ebenezers of His faithfulness, places where we can make our homes.

This Sunday, Pastor Sam continued our "We Want You Here" sermon series by encouraging us to spend time in the Bible and pray Scripture back to God to move us toward a confident assurance about His character. We are able to rest in God when we have clarity and confidence about who He is, which comes from studying the Bible with the help of the Holy Spirit.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon kicked off our Eastertide sermon series, "We Want You Here," with a discussion of how we can grow in love. He broke down the four stages of Christian love described by medieval theologian Bernard of Clairvaux, and summarized them as “me, my, you, and us.” As we move through these stages, the goal is to grow in deeper union with our Father.

This Easter Sunday, Pastor Jon preached on how the resurrection of Jesus proves that death is not the end. Ultimately, the resurrection is the most credible, surprising explanation for what happened to Jesus and the resulting spread of Christianity, and it requires a response from us. The Christian life is about readjusting our entire selves around Jesus. Despite the rise and fall of empires and ideologies, the story of Jesus is still, and always will be, breathtakingly credible and satisfying.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy closed out our series, “God Comes Where He’s Wanted 2.0” by teaching on the collision of kingdoms Jesus’ entrance into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday caused in the hearts of all who gathered to welcome Him. As we remember Jesus’ sacrifice during Holy Week, we are called to head His cries and seek His Kingdom first, laying down short-sighted satisfaction for eternal peace and the opportunity to see His Kingdom come.

This Sunday, Pastor Suzy continued our “God Comes Where He’s Wanted 2.0” series by taking a closer look at how Jesus calls us to pray in Luke 11. After He prays the Lord’s prayer as a model, Jesus teaches that the posture we should pray from is one of shameless confidence for others and ourselves.

This Sunday, fueled by the urgent movement of God at Asbury University and elsewhere, Pastor Jon dug into the spiritual roots of revival as part of our extended series, “God Comes Where He’s Wanted.” Pointing to King Josiah’s story from 2 Kings and 2 Chronicles as an example, Pastor Jon emphasized our need to repent and draw near to God, tear out sin by the roots, recover the heart of worship and understanding of scripture, and restore redemptive spiritual practices to usher in revival.

This Sunday, Pastor Jon taught from his reflections on his time at Asbury University last week. The outpouring of the Holy Spirit in Asbury is a clue that God is doing something, and He is asking us to pay attention. It’s time to lean in with increased devotion, preparing our hearts, and strengthening the walls of our souls to carry the coming glory of revival. We must remember that as God is drawing near to us, He's inviting us to continue to draw near to Him.

In our final week of ‘God Comes Where He’s Wanted’ Pastor Suzy emphasized the importance of understanding God’s cry for our vital consecration and purity, as we desire and call upon our Holy God in our hearts, homes, church, and region. As King of the universe, we need to seek Him based on His terms, not our own, and we must consecrate our hearts and bodies to His holiness so that the cry of our heart, home, church, and region ushers in the revival we long for.

This Sunday, Pastor Sam continued our teaching series, “God Comes Where He’s Wanted” by unpacking the cry for the region through Isaiah 64. He offered three invitations to help us move from complacency, to concern, to crying our for God to intervene and reveal Himself in our region based on the pattern evident in Scripture. We must discern the season we are in, and develop a desperation for God to come have His way in every area of the world around us. 

This Sunday, guest Pastor Lee Cummings continued our teaching series, “God Comes Where He’s Wanted” by teaching on the importance of building altars through our lives. Through the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, God allows His people to be living temples of the Holy Spirit, invites us to walk in holy confidence, and equips us to invade the darkness of our world with His glory.   Our Living the Liturgy campaign is still open for giving through the end of January. We encourage you to prayerfully consider joining us in giving to our Living the Liturgy campaign at church.nyc/give.   Click here to listen to Heart on Fire by Emily Lindquist, a song inspired by what God is doing in our community at Church of the City New York.