City Church Houston

Tabitha offered her ordinary skills to extraordinarily care for others. She humbly plays her part in the gospel story as if what she was doing is as ordinary and necessary as doing the dishes. And through it all, God gives new life. Tabitha went from being marginalized to being mobilized.

"I’ve never lived at a point in time when so many people are suffering simultaneously throughout the world. Our forms of suffering vary, but the common language of humanity is suffering. Let us learn together from ones who have suffered greatly."

The Apostle Paul doesn’t hide his scars. He shows us the hope found in suffering.

This won’t be remembered as a happy time in history, but there is a unique hope held out at Easter. The resurrection is a catalyst for tragic optimism that yields redemptive meaning.

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 bride of Christ, and he has given himself for us.

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 the sacrifice. Jesus became grotesque so that he could give us his beauty.

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 the tapestry is frayed. But from the vantage point he can see from God’s vantage point, Isaiah can see a vision of flourishing—a reweaving together of God’s world so the world can again picture the world as God designed it. Jesus is the solution to injustice to the world. He could have solved it by himself, but instead God designed it to be collaborative. He uses us as the means to reweave the fabric that is unraveled. Jesus was the perfectly just one, but he was treated as one who was unjust, the greatest metaphysical injustice of all time. Through this, we are given ultimate beauty instead of ashes.

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 world of peace available to us in Jesus. Jesus says come to me and go into that world of peace. He is the one who forgives sins. He is the one who absorbs our debt and in whom we find the sweet aroma of forgiveness.

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 soul satisfaction in Jesus. He thirsted for us so we can find satisfaction in him.

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 angel came with a message of infinite love that will disrupt our lives and reorder our loves. We are all a tangled mess, but Jesus is the one who can untangle the mess you feel in your soul.

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.