City Church Houston

All of us struggle at times mustering the courage we need in life. God's instructions to Joshua when he was called to succeed Moses give us timeless truths to help us deal with debilitating fear and discouragement. 

Trust God in your pain while waiting for him to deliver you from your pain.

What's the role of the Bible for Christians or people curious about faith? Can we rely on it? How do we make sense of it? And how can it help us improve our lives? 

Paul's only strictly personal letter, Philemon, tells us about not only his heart for justice, but also the gospel's heart for justice. Our faith must arc, like the Bible itself, ever toward a more radical ethic of freedom and love for the other.

Faith is found at an intersection where we learn to set aside our sometimes hypocritical performances of self and embrace our true selves—more broken than we like to admit but more loved than we could ever imagine.

In our fast-paced, hyper-online world, loneliness poses a growing challenge to human flourishing. Whatever new form this ancient problem takes, this psalm reminds us that we are ever held in God's hands.

Are art and faith compatible or in conflict? Why do artists often feel disenfranchised by the church? How can art help us understand ourselves? How might art actually be an alternative window into the world of faith? In this message we'll consider these and other questions as we explore a biblical theology of art.

Many today are disillusioned with the church or just disinterested in it. This message will take modern concerns seriously and reflect on a passage that offers a refreshing vision for the church.

Not only does having a sense of purpose infuse meaning in our life, research suggests it is linked to a number of positive health outcomes. So why is it so elusive? What spiritual steps can we take to discover it and build our life around it?

The shortest verse in the Bible is by no means short on significance. When Jesus weeps over the loss of his friend, he reminds us that emotions are a vital part of our human lives, deserving of both our attention and our understanding.

What can shape us into people who are open-handed and big-hearted? The answer is found in this stirring and stretching ancient prayer.

Can you imagine sacrificial generosity in the midst of extreme suffering giving rise to overwhelming joy? While this may surprise us, it's exactly what we find in a moving story about an ancient community of faith. This beautiful example has the power to renew our modern sensibilities about the meaning of life.

Generosity is found less by facing greed than by facing fear, which is the root of greed. Sobering as it may sound, Jesus tells us that the path to overcoming our worldly worry is to accept that much of what we treasure will be lost. Only his Kingdom is eternal.

What biblical themes animate City Church's vision to renew Houston? How might this kind of church address cultural trends?

The New Testament author, Luke, was so taken with the story of Saul of Tarsus that he couldn't stop telling it. It's a curious case study of the power of Easter to change a person's life. 

When we're struggling, what do we really need? In these concluding words from Romans 8, a high-water mark in the entire Bible, Paul shares words that can lift us and lead through even the most challenging of circumstances.

Though far from comfortable, true spiritual growth leads us into the heart of suffering, so that we may taste more fully the goodness of the hope of Christ—who was himself no stranger to pain and loss.

Essential to spiritual growth is going out of our way to care for the practical needs people face. We can sacrificially enter in to other people's suffering because Jesus did so for us at great cost.