Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 9:30-10:21“The bar for reaching heaven’s entry is so low that only a few will reach it.”Scott Sauls“I often see the most significant self-deception and lack of self knowledge in people and contexts that proclaim a robust doctrine of sin. And I see the most anxiety and control in people and contexts that pr…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 9:14-29“It is at first unsettling to be confronted with God’s absolute sovereignty in our salvation. But ultimately this is our true security, for if there was nothing in us, but only God’s good pleasure, that brought us into grace, then there is nothing in us that can take us out of grace.”Robert Yarbroug…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 9:1-13“I never wanted to follow Jesus.I never wanted to follow Jesus.I never wanted to follow Jesus.He rescued me, He rescued me.No turning back, no turning back.”Red Mountain Music“There’s a direct correlation between the accuracy of our memory and the effectiveness of our mission. If we’re not teaching p…

Series: Latest SermonScripture: Mark 16:1-8“Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer.”John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany“Jesus was the only one that ever raised the dead,” The Misfit continued, “and H…

Series: Latest SermonScripture: Mark 11:1-11“Now to the gate of my Jerusalem,The seething holy city of my heart,The saviour comes. But will I welcome him?Oh crowds of easy feelings make a start;They raise their hands, get caught up in the singing,And think the battle won. Too soon they’ll findThe challenge, the reversal he is bringingChanges their …

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 8:31-37“What matters supremely therefore is not in the last analysis the fact that I know God, but the larger fact which underlies it – the fact that he knows me. I am graven on the palms of his hands. I am never out of his mind. All knowledge of him depends on his sustained initiative in knowing me. I kno…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 8:18-30“We shake with joy, we shake with grief.What a time they have, these twohoused as they are in the same body.” Mary Oliver“Wisdom teaches us that tears, at their best, pay tribute to something lost that was once cherished, and it was wise to cherish it. We lament the loss of a genuine good.” Zack Esw…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 8:12-17“A true Christian is one who has not only peace of conscience, but war within. He may be known by his warfare as well as by his peace.” J.C. Ryle“The spiritual world cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and if we would live in it, we must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.”H…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 8:1-11“I tell myself that if I serve more, sign up for more, read my Bible more, just be more, then finally, I will be enough to be in a real relationship with God. But that’s all smoke and mirrors. We’re all fatally wanting, and though we try our best, we can’t hide it from the One who made us. And yet, w…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 7:13-25“When I get honest, I admit I am a bundle of paradoxes. I believe and I doubt, I hope and get discouraged, I loveand I hate, I feel bad about feeling good, I feel guilty about not feeling guilty. I am trusting and suspicious. I amhonest and I still play games. Aristotle said I am a rational animal; …

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 7:1-12“Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning. Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone …. Apart from Christ we can do nothing, so if we do nothing, we can be sure it is apart from him.”Dallas Willard“In Jesus’ d…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 6:15-23“If we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that our Lord finds our desires not too strong but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling around with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered to…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 6:1-14“Salvation by grace, salvation by free grace, salvation not by works but according to the mercy of God is indispensable to godliness. Retain a single shred or fragment of legality with the Gospel and you take away the power of the Gospel to melt and conciliate. On the tenure of ‘do this and you will …

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 5:12-21“If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes,absolute life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right,that the one man Jesus Christ provides?”Eugene Peterson, The Messag…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 5:1-11“Peace, perfect peace, in this dark world of sin?The blood of Jesus whispers peace within.Peace, perfect peace, ’mid suffering’s sharpest throes?The sympathy of Jesus breathes repose.”Edward Bickersteth“There are but two lessons for the Christian to learn: the one is, to enjoy God in everything; the …

Series: Latest SermonScripture: 2 King 6:1-7“I sing because I’m happy,I sing because I’m free,For His eye is on the sparrow,And I know He watches me.”Civilla Martin“The gospel message says: ‘You don’t live in a mechanistic world ruled by necessity; you don’t live in a random world ruled by chance; you live in a world ruled by the God of Exodus and …

Series: Latest SermonScripture: Psalm 16“You are like a jar of river water all shaken up. What you need is to sit still long enough that the sediment can settle and the water can become clear.”Ruth Haley Barton“‘You are what you think’ is a motto that reduces human beings to brains-on-a-stick. Ironically, such thinking-thingism assumes that the ‘he…

Series: Promise-Keeping GodScripture: Luke 2:8-14Por David Speakman

Series: Promise-Keeping GodScripture: 2 Samuel 7:1-17“Here is the great fulfillment . . . what God did when he sent his Son into the world is an absolute guarantee that he will do everything he has ever promised to do.”Martyn Lloyd-Jones“The disappointment, brokenness, suffering, and pain that characterize life in this present world are held in dyn…

Series: Promise-Keeping GodScripture: Genesis 12:1-4“There are lots of stories in the Bible, but all the stories are telling one Big Story. The Story of how God loves his children and comes to rescue them. It takes the whole Bible to tell this Story. And at the center of the Story, there is a baby.”Sally Lloyd-Jones, The Jesus Storybook Bible“Wheth…

Series: Promise-Keeping GodScripture: Genesis 3:1-19“‘The Son of Man,’ Jesus says, ‘comes at a time you don’t think’ (in an hour that seems like nothing to you). To be ready for that, therefore, all you have to do is wait in faith for nothing — that is, for death. And the only way of being unready is to cut short that waiting by unfaith — to dash o…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 4:1-25“Probably more trouble is caused in the Christian life by an inadequate or mistaken view of this doctrine [of justification] than any other. When the child of God loses his sense of peace with God, finds his concern for others dried up, or generally finds his sense of the sheer goodness and grace of …

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 3:20-31“If I’m laden at allThen I’m laden with sadnessThat everyone’s heartIsn’t filled with the gladnessOf love for one another”The Hollies“[The righteousness of God] is his just justification of the unjust, his righteous way of ‘righteoussing’ theunrighteous.”John Stott“Dumbledore gulped at the goblet, d…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 3:9-20“It was the kind of church where you could show your ugly heart to everybody and they just loved you harder andhanded you a beer.”Harrison Scott Key“It can seem gentler and kinder to think of human beings as basically good, our intuitions basically correct and ourmotives basically pure. But then we r…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 2:17-3:8“Redemption is meaningless unless there is cause for it in the actual life we live, and for the last few centuries there hasbeen operating in our culture the secular belief that there is no such cause . . . The novelist with Christian concerns willfind in modern life distortions which are repugnant…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 2:1-16“Inscribed on the very heart of God’s grace is the rule that we can be its recipients only if we do not resist being madeinto its agents; what happens to us must be done by us. We who have been embraced by the outstretched arms of thecrucified God open our arms even for the enemies … so that together…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 1:26-32“The fire of lust’s pleasures must be fought with the fire of God’s pleasures. If we try to fight the fire of lust withprohibitions and threats alone – even the terrible warnings of Jesus – we will fail. We must fight it with a massivepromise of superior happiness. We must swallow up the little flic…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 1:18-32“No room remains empty for long. If God is driven out, the gods come trooping in.”Lesslie Newbigin“Idols are non-gods and as such are much more congenial to us than God, for we not only have the pleasure of making them, using our wonderful imaginations and skills in creative ways, but also of contro…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 1:18-32“A God without wrath brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross.”Richard Neibuhr’s famous definition of American liberal Christianity“The picture of Jesus as the coming Judge is the central feature of another absolutely vital and non…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 1:13-17“I just want to be forgiven. Can’t I be forgiven? I just want to be forgiven.”“Joel Maisel” in The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel“A moralistic religion of self-salvation is our default setting as fallen creatures. If we are not explicitly and regularlytaught out of it, we will always turn the message of God’…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 1:8-15“I never wanted to follow Jesus.I never wanted to follow Jesus.I never wanted to follow Jesus.He rescued me, He rescued me.No turning back, no turning back.” – Red Mountain Music“There’s a direct correlation between the accuracy of our memory and the effectiveness of our mission. If we’re not teachin…

Series: The Gospel of GodScripture: Romans 1: 1-7“Fundamentally, the gospel is news. It’s good news—the good news about what our triune God has accomplished for His people:the Father’s sending His Son, the incarnate Jesus Christ, to live perfectly, fulfill the law, and die sacrificially, satisfying God’s wrathagainst us that we might not face hell,…

This was a delightful celebration of God’s faithfulness to Hope Church in the 25 years since it began. Enjoy some oldies but goodies, hear from our first two pastors, and reflect on all that God has done!The post 25th Anniversary Celebration first appeared on Hope Church PCA.Por Clyde Godwin Stuart Stogner

Series: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs ForScripture: John 13: 34-35; Galatians 5:13-15;Galatians 6:2“There has been a long tradition which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command. It has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’ This way of putting the matter is certainly not without justification, and yet it …

Series: Becoming the Church Jesus Longs ForScripture: John 13: 34-35; Ephesians 4: 1-6“Getting saved is easy; becoming a community is difficult – damnably difficult.”Eugene Peterson“If we do not give thanks daily for the Christian fellowship in which we have been placed, even when there is no great experience, no discoverable riches, but much weakn…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Colossians 1: 9-14“To be right with God the judge is a great thing, but to be loved and cared for by God the father is a greater.” J.I. Packer“No matter how little you think you are, in God’s hand you will be used to accomplish his will in eternally significant ways. There are no little people and no big people, only…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Jude 17-25Christianity is not clay in the hands of the world-spirit to be molded by it, but is itself to be the moulder of public sentiment and everything else.Rev. Francis Grimke Contemporary people tend to examine the Bible, looking for things they can’t accept; but Christians should reverse that, allowing the Bibl…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Luke 18: 9-14 “The world is drowning in its efforts at life; it does not need lifeguards who swim to it carrying barbells.” Robert Farrar Capon“The religious see God as useful; gospel-believing Christians see God as beautiful.” Tim Keller“I am throwing all my good works overboard, and lashing myself to the plank of f…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Luke 18: 1-8“To persevere is to succeed.” Thomas Sutcliffe Mort“By the mercy of God, we do not lose heart . . . We do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all com…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Matthew 6:5-13“You have said, “Seek my face.” My heart says, “Your face, Lord, do I seek.” Psalm 27: 8“All shall work together for good. Everything is needful that he sends; nothing can be needful that he withholds.” John Newton“O Lord, you who own the cattle on a thousand hills, preserve us from living in an economy…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Matthew 6:9-13“I can resist everything except temptation.” Oscar Wilde“O Lord, give me chastity and temperance – but not yet!” St. Augustine“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is. After all, you…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Matthew 6: 7-15“A debtor to mercy alone,Of covenant mercy I sing;Nor fear, with Thy righteousness on,My person and offering to bring.The terrors of law and of GodWith me can have nothing to do;My Savior’s obedience and bloodHide all my transgressions from view.”Augustus Toplady“Honestly, I want to be like Christ. But…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Matthew 6:5-13“Believers do not pray with the view of informing God about things unknown to him, or of exciting him to do his duty, or of urging him as though he were reluctant. On the contrary, they pray in order that they may arouse themselves to seek him, that they may exercise their faith in meditating on his pro…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Matthew 6:5-13“When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching. You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life. Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realize you are inside God’s d…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Luke 11:1-4“Our natural desire to pray comes from Creation. We are made in the image of God. Our inability to pray comes fromthe Fall. Evil has marred the image. We want to talk to God but can’t. The friction of our desire to pray, combined withour badly damaged antennae, leads to constant frustration. It’s as if we’…

Series: When You PrayScripture: Luke 11:1-4“Prayer is an expression of who we are . . . We are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” Thomas Merton“Listen to this, you who are often so helpless that you do not know what to do. At times you do not even know how to pray. Your mind seems full of sin and impuri…

Series: The Love of GodScripture: Ephesians 1:3-14“God descended in fire on Sinai to write the Law on tablets of stone; on that day, 3000 died. At Pentecost, God descended in fire on Zion to write his law on the tablets of his people’s hearts, and on that day 3000 were reborn. … God will graciously seal you with his Spirit so that you can know you …

Series: The Love of GodScripture: Ephesians 1:3-14“No one who meets Jesus ever stays the same. I have found that the doubts that afflict me from many sources—from science, from comparative religion, from an innate defect of skepticism, from aversion to the church—take on a new light when I bring those doubts to the man named Jesus.”Philip Yancey, T…

Series: The Love of GodScripture: Ephesians 1:3-14“Christians find it easier to believe that God exists than that God loves them.”Brennan Manning (paraphrasing Basil Hume)“If the love of a father will not make a child delight in him, what will? Put, then, this to the venture: exercise your thoughts upon this very thing, the eternal, free, and fruit…

Series: Life of MosesScripture: Exodus 17:1-7“The ancient man approached God (or even the gods) as the accused person approaches his judge. For the modern man the roles are reversed. He is the judge: God is in the dock. He is quite a kindly judge: if God should have a reasonable defense for being the god who permits war, poverty and disease, he is …