Risen Hope Baptist Church

Happy Mother's Day! You’ve probably heard that the Christian life is a marathon, not a sprint. Motherhood is also a marathon not a sprint. Endurance is required for both! And any marathon runner, or mother for that matter, will tell you that endurance requires fuel . We can’t endure and finish the race on an empty tank. In Revelation 14:14-20 we’ll see that the fear of the Lord is our fuel fo...

A message on Revelation 14:1-13 by Pastor Dana Olson.

Every one of us is a worshiper. We all pour ourselves out for something we believe will make us alive. The question isn’t, “Are we worshipers?” The real question is “Do we worship wisely?” True worship makes us alive even if it kills us. Whereas false worship will actually kill us no matter how alive it makes us feel. When it comes to worship, there ain’t nothin’ like the real thing. Because only...

In this cosmic story filled with monsters, how are the saints supposed to conquer? Jesus never promises his followers a monster-free life. Nor does he promise we’ll circumvent the kinds of tribulation and disaster they bring. Jesus fully expects his people to not only face monsters, but to come out victorious over them! Revelation 13:1-10 offers three loud “monster-conquering” battle cries for the...

"You best start believing in cosmic stories. You're in one!" Enjoy this latest message from Revelation 12 from  Pastor Jimmy Hoang. 

Enjoy this special message on the Lamb of God given by Pastor Chris Johnson.

The story of Lazarus serves the fuller narrative of John’s gospel by foreshadowing the greater resurrection we celebrate on Easter — the triumph of Jesus over sin and death and hell for all who believe! The resurrection of Christ amplifies the story of Lazarus’ such that now his story resonates forward to us today with even deeper significance and power. Because Christ died and rose again, the voi...

Life is an extraordinary thing! Jesus longs for us to have life so bad it hurts! Do you believe this? If you’re not a Christian, Jesus wants you to believe and have life in him so bad it hurts. If you are a Christian, this is how much Jesus wants others to have life in him. If Jesus longs for people to find life in him this badly, shouldn’t we as well? Join us as we look into John 11:17-37. 

Today, love is very much self-defined . Love is what we say it is based on what we want or feel we need. Jesus wants us to understand love on his terms. In fact, the way Jesus loves us actually frees us from the cold, dark, tomb of self. His love resurrects us from the grave of self-defined love. Let’s see together how Jesus loves in this way in John 11:1-16.

This Revelation of Jesus Christ was originally for the seven churches in Asia Minor who were chosen to represent the entire church of Jesus Christ throughout all of history, including us. Some were faithful. Some were not so faithful. Some were standing firm. Some were teetering on the edge of ruin. Good or bad, all the churches are threatened by various pressures both internal and external. And a...

In a world that’s lost its mind, what kind of voice is needed? Maybe the world simply needs to hear a voice of reason? What about a nice soothing therapeutic voice? Or maybe a strong, convincing, political voice? Or an inspirational voice or influential voice? What kind of voice is going help people come to their senses and turn to God? Revelation 10 will show us that the kind of voice needed is a...

The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, expecting different results. That’s humanity in a nutshell. We try to live our lives on our own without giving the God who made us and loves us a second thought. Every generation tries in vain to live according to its own made-up rules, for its own self-satisfying purposes, thinking, “Who needs God?” And it never works out! This is...

$185.6 million. That is how much money Americans bet on the Super Bowl last Sunday. This year broke the previous record of $179.8 million that was bet on the Super Bowl in 2022. Gambling is huge in America! There is one undeniable fact about gambling: The house always wins. You might win a little here and a little there. But the casino or bookie will always win in the end. It’s just math. It’s ine...

So often we hear reports about the decline of Christian conviction. Many people are deconstructing their once firmly-held Christian beliefs. Regular church attendance is on a general trend downwards. All of this can perhaps make us feel a bit disillusioned about what God is up to. Perhaps even cynical? Maybe a bit grouchy? Is there any hope? Is there any reason to be optimistic about what God is u...

It’s not just Christians who talk about the end of the world. There are all kinds of “doomsday” scenarios out there. Large-scale nuclear war, global pandemic, runaway climate change, giant asteroid, super-volcano, artificial intelligence, reversal of the Earth's magnetic poles, biological warfare, technological warfare, cyber-attacks, alien invasion, zombie apocalypse, etc. Take your pick! So...

When we think of God’s grace we typically only think of his “saving grace” – the grace that covers our sin and counts us righteous. As amazing as this grace is, the Scriptures tell us that God gives even more grace. God gives all kinds of grace! There’s grace to be holy, grace to obey, grace to serve, grace to wait, and grace to endure. There’s grace that is just for us. But there is also grace gi...

“Offense sells tickets. Defense wins championships”…or so they say! When it comes to the Christian life, and our mission as a church, defense is critical. In fact, defense is everything. There’s a saying that’s popular in military circles: “The key to a good defense is a good offense?” But the opposite is true about the mission of the church – the key to a good offense is our defense! Today we’ll...

A disciple is someone whose life has been reoriented to see God’s glory, God’s kingdom, and God’s will. But of course, we are often convinced that we need all the “extra things” and the very suggestion that our wants are not essential produces a kind of nervous anxiety in us. Jesus anticipates this nervous response. He devotes this entire section of his sermon to dealing with anxiety. But his goal...

Listen to this final message in our Advent series "The Dragon and the Christ Child" from Pastor Jimmy Hoang on Romans 16:17-20.

There is a sense of letdown that often hits us once Christmas is over. After the family goes home, the tree comes down, the decorations are put away, and the coffee shops go back to playing regular music – now it’s just winter. I believe this letdown is because we make Christmas about the wrong things. We have given our hearts to the wrong kind of Christmas! And when it’s all over, our hearts are...

Christmas is just not what we think it is. It’s not what so many Christmas cards depict. It is not all candy canes, and mistletoe, and eggnog, and chestnuts roasting on open fires. Christmas is war! “The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8). Christmas is a full-on assault against unseen forces of evil. The Son of God didn’t come to earth to forever be...

In the last message we saw that“Every good story needs an villain.” And we saw that the villain in the Christmas Story, the reason the Son of God (the hero) appeared, is the Dragon – the ancient serpent, the devil. He crept into God’s perfect world, deceived God’s Beloved, and whisked her away. But we ended on the hopeful note: “The Dragon is doomed!” But perhaps, even with that promise, many are...

This line from J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit sums it up: “It does not do to leave a dragon out of your calculations.” Today begins what is traditionally known as Advent which is just a fancy word that means “arrival” or “appearing.” It is the time leading up to Christmas and the celebration of Jesus’ birth. We  can easily get caught up in the joy and celebration and revelry of Christmas. But do...

“The Lamb is God’s answer to all our prayers.” But let’s be real – he’s not the instantaneous answer to all of our prayers. The Lamb isn’t a genie who instantly snaps his fingers and grants our wishes on the spot! For many of our prayers, we are still waiting for them to be answered. Waiting makes us wonder , “Have my prayers even been heard?” Waiting makes us worry , “What if my prayers don’t eve...

There have been other scrolls in the past that contain God’s word, during the times of prophets like Jeremiah and Ezekiel, for example. But this scroll is THE scroll. This scroll is of such ultimate significance that a mighty angel asks with a thundering voice, “Who is worthy to open this scroll and break its seals?” If the scroll can’t be opened then everything God’s people have been hoping in an...