A Sure Hope

Pastor Dave will tell you today to remain firmly attached to the source of your life and Salvation – Jesus! He’ll remind you how important it is to connect your decisions, your conversations, and every part of your daily life with the One who knows it all already. Don’t let the enemy pull you off the vine – abide in Christ!

Throughout His ministry, Jesus made several “I AM” statements – comparing His nature to something we can understand. Today, Pastor Dave will tell you about one of these statements – I am the true vine. This means that no person, place, or thing in this world is the source of life for you – it’s ONLY Jesus!

When you want peace, what do you do? It’s common to turn to what you can experience – more money, change in location, better friends, status – but does that really work? As the disciples learned, and as Pastor Dave will explain today, that kind of peace isn’t going to last long term. Jesus is what you’re looking for!

Hard times overwhelm you, and it’s difficult to see hope. You don’t feel the peace you want – so what do you do? Pastor Dave will give you the answer today, as he shares a similar struggle the disciples faced – come to Jesus! Stop focusing on what’s wrong, and turn your attention to the Savior of the world – let Him carry you!

In the Christian life, the “why” is more important than the “what”. What you do for God is certainly important...but WHY you do those things is even more important. Do you volunteer your time and give money at your church because you love Jesus or because you want to play the role of a Christian? That's a tough question to ask!

Pastor Chuck Smith is quoted as saying, “Just because you walk into a garage saying 'beep beep'...well, that doesn't make you a car.” And the same is true as a follower of Jesus. You can say that you know God...but, are you obeying Him? Pastor Dave will exhort you today to take an inventory of your life and answer this question.

Maybe you're listening today and you're feeling a bit overwhelmed with life...stay with us. First, please know...you're not alone. These past couple of years have been some of the most difficult we've faced. Pastor Dave will provide some encouragement...you NEED the Holy Spirit in your life!

You have heard this before, “I love God with all my heart...I just don't like people at my church.” Today Pastor Dave will show us just how impossible this is. You can't say that you love God and say that you DON'T love His people. In fact, as we just heard...we show that we love God WHEN we love His people.

If you’ve been saved from the oppression and death of sin by Jesus, your heart will desire to serve and honor Him in whatever way you can. As Pastor Dave will remind us in today’s message, that will mean denying the remaining desires of your flesh and living as a manifestation of His love for the people around you.

No human being has the mental, emotional, or spiritual capacity to fully understand the scale of the love that God has for us. In today’s message, Pastor Dave will try to offer even a minuscule glimpse of that love, and even that is more than our hearts can comprehend. That love is for you, and it’s completely free.

Jesus wasn’t just an intelligent teacher who lived a short life, leaving us with a good example to follow. When He died, it shook the spiritual and physical world, lifting the weight of sin off of us. Then, as Pastor Dave reminds us in today’s message, He rose again and He’s alive and present with us through His Holy Spirit.

Today, Pastor Dave will remind us that we’re called to be a loving and gracious group of people in the Church. If the non-believers around you were asked, would they say it was your lifestyle of abstaining from sin and following the rules that set you apart, or would they say it’s the Christ-like love that you demonstrate?

We likely wouldn’t have any clue who any of Jesus’ original disciples were if they hadn’t followed Him. He took average men – nobodies – and He turned them into world changers. As Pastor Dave will remind us in today’s message, because of the Holy Spirit, we have that same power available to us.

In today’s message, Pastor Dave will remind us that obeying God shouldn’t be an obligation. There will be times that you need to practice discipline and say “no” when your flesh draws you to sin, but even then, it should be out of love and gratitude for God’s grace, which is the only thing that saves you.

Have you ever found yourself frustrated with God over unanswered prayer? This is a common problem, but the issue isn’t with God, it’s with our understanding of Him and His will. In today’s message, Pastor Dave will remind us that we need to submit to God’s will and it should be the focus of our request.

As believers, we journey through this world against the current. It’s a challenge, full of suffering and discomfort, but we aren’t left to do it alone. As we’ll be reminded in today’s message from Pastor Dave, when Jesus returned to Heaven, He sent a helper in the form of the Holy Spirit, who works in and through us.

The intimacy you can have with God is yet one more layer of His infinite grace. Not only does He save you from the oppression of sin and eternal hell, He invites you into relationship. As Pastor Dave will encourage you in today’s message, commit yourself to getting to know our wondrous God in deeper ways every day.

What would this world look like if believers modeled the humility and love that Jesus demonstrated as He washed His disciples' feet? In today’s message, Pastor Dave will challenge us to humble our hearts and look at the people around us with even a fraction of the grace that our Savior looks at us with.

Have you ever thought about how our prayers feel to God? Imagine he's your best friend on the phone with you—would it sound the same? Or would you take time and allow him to speak to you as well? Pastor Dave is going to take us today through what a real conversational relationship with God could be.

In a world filled with distractions, it's sometimes difficult to focus our hearts on seeking the Father. He never stops seeking us, however, and there will be little nudges from him that call us to seek his heart above all else. Today, Pastor Dave reminds us of the best reason to seek him; when we seek God we will find him!

Can you imagine a life where today's bad news can't touch your joy? A life where all the world around you is falling apart but it can't make your hope falter even for a second? Today Pastor Dave is going to show us that that's the kind of life that Jesus offers us! Jump into eternal life today and leave the fear behind!

When sin entered the world, there were many sad consequences, but the one major, catastrophic problem that resulted was that we became forever separated from the Father. Evil entered the world but God already had an answer for the problem, and today Pastor Dave looks at what Jesus says is the way to the Father.

The darkest, hardest times of my life have always been the ones that have drawn me closer to Jesus. They're the times that I learned how desperately I need him, and also how great and mighty his love is for me! Trouble is here to stay but we have one true hope and that's a Savior who knows what he's doing.

When you look at the world around you, are you consumed by fear? Do the circumstances of your life fill your vision and squeeze out the hope you know you should have—the hope you wish you had? Today, Pastor Dave is sharing Jesus' answer for your troubled heart and reminding us of the peace he brings.

That moment when we trust in ourselves and fall flat on our faces doesn't get to determine who we are or what our future will look like. Today, Pastor Dave will take us through the Savior's response to our failure. We all know that failure is going to happen, so what we will learn today is such good news for us!