Chelten - a church of hope

When Jesus asked his disciple, Peter, “Who do you say I am?,” Peter answered correctly, “You’re the Messiah, the Son of God.” But when Jesus begins to describe the reality of what being the Messiah entails, the enormous chasm between Peter’s expectations and Jesus’ reality becomes shockingly obvious, and very confrontational. In this sermon pastor Jin talks with us about unmet expectations, realit...

As Christians we long for that day in our future when we’ll see Jesus face to face and be totally transformed in the divine image. That future hope is also a present reality, since God began transforming us the moment he opened our eyes to see the his glory in Christ Jesus. In this sermon, Pastor Bill explains the prospect, process and practice of spiritual transformation.  

In our culture of busyness, where productivity is king, we’re tempted to relegate the rest our bodies, souls and minds crave as discretionary spending. But is it? In this sermon pastor Jin walks us through this well-known psalm to explore what God has to say to us about rest.

As believers in and followers of Christ we are God’s possession. We bear the name of Christ. In this sermon pastor Shep fleshes out what bearing THE name means for us personally in our relationships with God, and what it means for us corporately in our relationships with people we rub shoulders with every day. 

On this first Sunday of 2023 guest speaker Jerome David turns to God’s words of encouragement, challenge, and promise to Joshua to remind us that we, too, have every reason to move out into the new year full of faith. 

In this Christmas morning sermon pastor Jin reminds us that a second and ultimate Christmas is coming. It will usher in the greatest homecoming mankind has ever seen and will be marked by endless worship, joy and peace. 

Jesus. Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Prince of Peace—a despised, rejected, unattractive man of suffering familiar with pain. In this sermon pastor Jin explores how the hope this paradoxical, suffering savior brings to our up-and-down lives uncovers a reason for the season we may not have considered. 

Isaiah prophesied that God would bring justice to Israel, and the rest of the world, through his anointed servant—the Messiah. Hundreds of years later Jesus claimed, and Christians believe, he fulfilled that prophecy. But, if Jesus came to bring justice, where is it today? What is it? And what does all this mean for us? Here’s pastor Bill with some answers.

Don’t expect life to be easier because you’re a Christian. Jesus tells us to expect trouble and suffering. He also tells us to take heart. Continuing our journey through Isaiah 40 pastor Shep challenges us to re-examine our relationship with suffering and explores why and how we can take heart. 

This sermon from pastor Jin is the first in our Advent series on the theme of hope. In chapters eight and nine Isaiah delivers great news of hope to people living in very dark times. The news wasn’t just for them. It’s for us, too—a light is shining in our darkness. The question is, do we see it? Or are we looking for hope in all the wrong places?

As followers of Jesus we grow like trees, slowly, little by little under the watchful care of a very loving and patient God. In this sermon pastor Shep shows how Mark’s account of Jesus healing two men, in two very different ways, illustrates God’s love and patience, and encourages us to trust him as he works in our lives. 

Do you ever feel frustrated because you just can’t measure up? Do you ever feel frustrated because someone else just can’t measure up? In this sermon pastor Jin turns to Mark 7 to uncover the cure for our deflated and inflated egos, and to show us where we find confidence without conceit and humility without poor self-esteem. 

Of Loaves and Winds | Mark 6:30-52 Right after witnessing Jesus feed a hillside crowd of over 5000 people with just a few loaves of bread and fish, his disciples witness him perform an equally shocking miracle amidst a stormy sea. In this sermon pastor Bill unpacks this story to show why seeing Jesus in the middle of our storms is much more important than his ending them.

“Decide Now” Sermon on Mark 6:7-29

Mark 5:21-6:6. Sermon by Pastor Shep.

If asked, “do you believe Jesus was raised from the dead?” most of us Christians would answer, “yes,” without hesitation. But, functional belief often lags behind convictional belief. For some reason it’s easier to believe in Jesus' power to calm a storm his disciples experienced 2000 years ago than it is to believe in his power to calm the ones we experience in our lives today.  In this sermon pa...

The gospel has power to change anyone, but not everyone who hears the gospel changes. Some believe with gusto but later reject Jesus. Some return. Those who continue to believe in Jesus experience seasons of strong faith and abundant fruit, but also seasons of weak faith and scarce fruit. Why is this? In this sermon pastor Bill unearths some answers from Jesus’ familiar parable about planting, see...

Throughout his Gospel, Mark asks his readers this question, “How will you respond to King Jesus?” The crowds tried to use him. His family tried to control him. And, the religious leaders rejected Jesus, attributing his works to Satan. In this sermon pastor Shep asks this same question of us as he fleshes out the effect our responses have on our relationship with God and the people in our lives.  

A common complaint opponents of Christianity make is that Christians think they are better than other people, that they are legalistic and spiritually snobbish. Ironically and sadly, Jesus voiced this same complaint against the spiritual leaders of his day. In this sermon pastor Jin talks frankly with us about our bent toward religiosity, misunderstanding Jesus’ mission, and how by realigning ours...

The people listening to Jesus at this Capernaum synagogue sat amazed because he taught with such complete authority. Within minutes Jesus’ authority sprang dramatically from words to action with the first of three miracles in the span of just two days. In this sermon pastor Bill illustrates why Jesus’s authority displayed in three miracles 2000 years ago is such amazingly good news for us today. 

John Mark begins his gospel by announcing the good of Jesus the Messiah. In the pages that follow we come to understand just how seismic, life-changing and world-altering this news was, and still is. In this introductory sermon in our series on the Book of Mark, pastor Jin begins unpacking this incredibly good news by answering three questions: who is Jesus, why did he come and how do we respond? ...

What is work to you? Is it a necessary evil or does it have more meaning to you than that? Is it true that if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life? Would you describe your work as a calling? Is our need to work a result of the fall and sin, or is it God’s plan A? For something that we do for 40 plus hours a week, it would sure be good to know. Here’s pastor Jin to shed some li...

A sermon by pastor Shep on August 28, 2022.

In this sermon Director of Youth and Young Adults, Jake Fairfield, states that we are all just one advertisement, phone call, medical diagnosis or social media scroll away from discontentment. Are we that contentment insecure? What about you, does the needle on your contentment gauge point closer to empty or to full? Jake makes another interesting statement; in the gospel, God says that all he has...

Planning. We love it. We hate it. We’re indifferent to it. Some of us have big plans. Others appear to have no plan. We wonder, “What’s God's plan?” How do my plans fit into his plans? Can my plans mess up his? Let’s hear what pastor Jin has planned for us in this sermon on planning, which did not go as planned.