City Church Houston

The purpose of the book of Zachariah is not to take our modern chaos and decode it. It’s to bring us comfort in the midst of the chaos.

Our new normal is utterly abnormal. It seems like only certainty is uncertainty, and this can take a toll on our mental health. While anxiety tends to disrupt our peace and steals our joy, find hope through Isaiah’s ancient words.

The first Sunday to not meet in person due to COVID-19, Linc Ashby preaches about a merciful love. There is mercy in being called out. There is a promised mercy of restoration. And there is mercy to be found in repentance.

“Return to the Lord“ is the theme of the book of Joel. God speaks to us today through his word and his Holy Spirit animates that word in our lives. Wherever we are, these words of Joel are words for now. Even now, God can erupt in our life with abounding love. We can return because God is gracious and compassionate. On the cross, the judge takes on the judgement we deserve.

Hosea is a shocking story of scandalous love that can warm our wayward hearts. The metaphor of marriage in our relationship with God is one of unrivaled intimacy. It is also one of unparalleled identity. The imagery of adultery helps us understand idolatry. Idolatry is anything you marry yourself to other than God, and when we worship anything other than God, it destroys us. The church is the brid...

Why is it important to talk about art? The first sentence of the Bible shows God as the original artist, and we are his masterpiece. The impulse to create is in all of us, though some of us are better at cultivating it than others. We get to partner with God in taking his raw materials and using it to make culture—to bring beauty to broken places. The most beautiful one gave up his beauty to be th...

When you think of justice, what comes to mind? This passage is not only addressing particular systems of injustice or internal comfort during seasons of suffering (though it does that), it is also a positive vision of culture itself. God designed the world to be intertwined. All of the systems and people of the world are part of the beautiful tapestry he creates. In Isaiah’s world, it is as though...

Meeting Jesus leads us to the gift of faith, and Jesus pushes against the ways we seek to find our identity outside of him. We are all outsiders who Christ has welcomed in. Christ became an outsider on our behalf so we may feast with him.

All of God’s actions are loving all the time, no matter what our lives look like. To receive the love of God is to let the love of God pour out of you. Faith is never alone. Love always follows. Love is essential, it is sacrificial, and it will save the world. The perfect love of Jesus paid the atoning sacrifice for our sin. How are you going to respond in love to join him in saving the world?

A Christian is not one who tries to do better. God makes us new and our identity is found in him, which requires us to take seriously putting to death the behaviors and desires of our old selves. In clothing ourselves in love, we are putting on Christ. He completed the work we can’t even begin.

The woman’s behavior in this story was scandalous, and the one hosting the party for Jesus turns her behavior of love into an indictment on Jesus. When we grasp the magnitude of our spiritual debt, we are in a position to recognize the magnitude of God’s love. Christianity isn’t about behaving correctly. Its about seeing correctly the magnitude of our spiritual debt. There is a whole different wor...

We see David’s soul opening up in this Psalm. We see him have an insatiable thirst that is not just unique to David. We see a human, soul-ish thirst. We all are scratching an eternal itch. Our deepest satisfaction can be found in the person of Jesus. And when we find satisfaction in him we become a pipeline to show that love to others. We need moments and patterns and rhythms to help lead us to so...

God came to us because we are all broken and in need of rescue. He came to free us from our guilt and fear. We are destined for the ultimate joy the angels talked about. When we cling to Jesus, we can drop what we cling to as security blankets in our lives.

Angels bring a heavenly message of God into the heat of human experience. They interrupt our lives. But this message from an angel in the book of Matthew is the first word from heaven in the New Testament: do not fear. God is with you. What difference would it make in your life if you believed Jesus was right there with you? We don’t always want him close, but that is when we need him most. The an...

God uses unexpected messengers to deliver an unimaginable message about an incredible savior. No one knows better than this savior what it is like to trust God in difficult circumstances.

This scene with Zachariah shows us what it’s like to be in a real relationship with a real God. How can I be sure of Jesus? Zachariah wasn’t sure. He also did everything everything right and still did not get what he wanted. But our storyteller God is good whether you believe it or not. God's promises are true independent of you.

We are supposed to see ourselves as money managers rather than money owners. Because God made everything, it all belongs to him. When we are not living our lives in an open-handed way, it’s not that we are being stingy, but we are stealing. We are stealing from ourselves. Whatever you have, if you let it go, it not only benefits where others but gives you a freedom as well. In this parable, becaus...

We are the Mona Lisa of God’s artistry. The picture in the Bible is we are God’s. But we are currently estranged from him. God did not simply lower our debt; he paid it. He bought us with the cost of his Son. When you have been hurt by someone, forgiveness is less of a transaction and more of a process. If forgiveness is less of a line you cross and more of a road you take, you can’t go that diffi...

When do you find another person’s character most attractive? Isn’t it when you see them give of themselves freely to care for others? We need to let the beauty of this conversation stir us. Christianity at its core is about beauty. The Bible is a story about God’s radical, beautiful generosity. The Bible tells us about the the source of generosity. Our relationship toward society should be one of...

In those wilderness years, God’s plan for Moses entails raising up a leader to enter the promise land. Moses will not be entering the promise land, and it seems as though Moses’ dreams and desires don’t get to come true. This wasn’t God‘s “plan B.” When we don’t see our dreams materializing, we compare ourselves to other people and their dreams. When we find ourselves comparing ourselves to people...

A concern for those in the margins is not only a modern concern, but a biblical one. What does the Lord ask of you? He wants you. His love for us is grounded in God’s character; it’s not just mere sentiment. The Christian faith is substantive, and it is a relationship that is central to that faith. When we are in relationship with God, we can care for those on the fringes. Stretch your view of God...

We are a stiff-necked people. But God does not love us because of anything we do. We fashion idols for ourselves when we try and take a good gift that God gave us and make it an ultimate thing. But our idols will never satisfy. God destroyed the idol that the Israelites made. Jesus takes the idols we make and goes up the mountain of Calvary to be consumed for us.

Even though this world is mostly wilderness, we see glimpses of the promised land. The constant in these places is who God is. He is present and active with us in both places. God is taking you somewhere. We can trust that God will get us where we need to go because Jesus does the obeying for us on the cross.