Church of the City New York

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 Jon continued the "God Comes Where He's Wanted 2.0" series by teaching on the Lord's Prayer, focusing on the context of forgiveness it is presented in, reminding us that a life of forgiveness is an absolute necessity for followers of Jesus.