Church of the City New York

This Sunday, Pastor Sam Gibson concluded our FREED series with a teaching on freedom from spiritual oppression. Teaching from Colossians 1 and 2, he argued that how we understand spiritual warfare depends on how we understand the Gospel. The Gospel is not only the message that our sins can be forgiven. It is also the announcement that Jesus is King. The powers of darkness have been defeated, His kingdom has arrived, and believers now live under His authority.

In the teaching, Pastor Sam offered practical guidance for navigating spiritual opposition. One of the enemy's great aims is to steal our song—our wonder, our confidence, our worship. Yet throughout Scripture, God's people continue singing in prisons, in exile, and in suffering. Their songs are acts of remembrance, resistance, and hope, and we can live with that same posture today.

This week, guest teacher Luke LeFevre continued our FREED series with a sermon on fear, exploring how fear can quietly lead us into self-preservation rather than faithful stewardship. Drawing from Matthew 25, Luke unpacked Jesus' parable of the talents, challenged the comparison that keeps many of us from embracing our God-given assignment, and called us to live with an eternal perspective. The invitation was simple but costly: freedom from fear is not waiting until fear disappears, but choosing to trust and obey Jesus anyway.

This week, Pastor Tim Brown continued our FREED series with a sermon on unforgiveness—what he called one of the most ignored sources of bondage in the Church today. Drawing from Matthew 18, Pastor Tim explored why forgiveness is so difficult, how bitterness quietly takes root in our lives, and why Jesus speaks about forgiveness with such urgency. Through the parable of the unforgiving servant, he showed that forgiveness is not minimizing an offense, but absorbing the debt, humanizing the offender, and releasing them. The invitation of Jesus is clear: unforgiveness imprisons us, but forgiveness opens the door to freedom.

This week, Pastor Sam Gibson continued our FREED series with a sermon on rejection—opening by admitting he couldn't promise freedom from it. Rejection is inevitable. The real question is whether it will deform you or transform you. Pastor Sam unpacked the snare of recognition as rejection's dangerous shadow side, walked through the Greco-Roman context of adoption in Romans 8, and landed on this: in Christ, we are not rescued strays but chosen heirs—named, inheritance transferred, legally irrevocable. That is the spirit of adoption available to us, and it is what sets us free.

This week, Pastor Jon preached from John 7:53–8:11, using the story of the woman caught in adultery and dragged into the temple courts before a crowd with stones as his text for the freedom Jesus offers us from shame. He pushed back on the typical cultural responses to shame—the "you're worthy" or "do better" responses. Neither reaches the place where shame actually lives. He walked through the honor-shame architecture of first-century Jewish culture to show what Jesus was subverting every time He ate with tax collectors, touched lepers, and stopped for the people everyone else walked past. Jesus coming to deal with our shame was a central theme to His ministry. From the animal skins God fashioned for Adam and Eve to the white robes of the saints in Revelation, Scripture traces an important story—God clothing the naked and the shamed in righteousness and glory. That is what Jesus came to do. That freedom is available today.