Hope Begins With Jesus

What does it mean to be known before you were even born? In Psalm 139:13-16, David marvels at God's handiwork in the womb — the intricate, intimate way God forms every person. This message explores two truths: Jesus formed you (vv. 13-15), and Jesus has a plan for you (v. 16). Your identity doesn't come from how you see yourself. It comes from the One who knit you together and recorded every day o...

We all have limits. The tallest person, the lowest temperature, the smallest baby — even our biggest records have a ceiling. But David writes in Psalm 139 about a God who has none. In verses 7-12, he asks: is there anywhere I can go to escape God's Spirit? The answer is no, and that's not a warning — it's a comfort. God's presence isn't something to run from. It's where we find life, identity, and...

Psalm 139:5-6 reveals two gifts hidden in what it means to be completely known by God. The Gift of God's Hand surrounds us — behind us in the past, before us in the future, always present. The Gift of the Infinite invites trust rather than frustration when God's ways are beyond our understanding. David opens with a people-watching metaphor to show the difference between surface observation and the...

There is one who knows everything about you, even the things you hide, and still calls you to come and find rest. You are not just fully known. You are fully known and fully loved.

Lament is often seen as a bad thing, but it is the biblical response to suffering.

Masking our feelings when faced with 'the wreckage'—like grief or loss—that mask doesn't just feel heavy; it feels impossible.

Job’s fears did not keep bad things from happening, nor did they cause them, but Job’s response in those moments revealed how he worked through the tension and feeling wrecked by his circumstances.

Whether your life feels wrecked right now, it has before, or it does in the future. You may not know that there is a reason behind those moments. Suffering stings, but it serves a purpose.

The story of Joseph is the story of a man who waits and waits some more, but he doesn’t give up in the waiting, Joseph perseveres. Joseph’s story shows how to continue on with hope and move from the waiting place that feels like prison to peace, to Persevere.

Jesus’ priority is not your successes, especially not according to the world’s standard because it is your failures that do the most to form you. Jesus uses these moments as we are Shaped by Suffering.

The story of Joseph has similarities to Jesus and the places in the story that look like the end are a plot twist. Jesus' crucifixion looked like the end of Hope, but it became an Easter with Hope.

No matter how your past was created, by your choices or the choices of others, you don’t overcome the past by running from but by working through it, so that in Jesus’ hands he can bring healing and write a Redemption Story.

Ultimately, like each of us, Esau had a choice. To choose how he responded to what had happened. Your choice will determine if you are shaped by the past or defined by the past. When you Choose to Overcome the past, you are choosing forgiveness, freedom and hope.

No matter who we are Jesus takes us as we are.

Humanity now has a past that will have to be overcome, but in the hands of Jesus your past can become a story of hope. A story of Jesus' power to turn Brokenness to Blessing because no matter what is in your past, Brokenness is never a Boundary for God's Blessing. Today, we’ll see the brokenness of Gen 3 show up in the life of Ishmael and what God does to bring blessing.

From the beginning, God designed us for a Rhythm of Rest and we need this rhythm to flourish. But many of us are going at a pace that is unsustainable and unhealthy.

We are designed by God, Designed to Flourish, but when we try to find our identity elsewhere, we are robbed of the flourishing God designed us for. We flourish in Identity before Activity because what you do can change, but who you are never will.

Our world is clearly realizing what the Bible stated long ago - “It is not good for man to be alone. You weren’t made to be alone; you were made to be known. Being known requires relationships, and we were Designed to Flourish through Relationships

The ultimate purpose of God’s design is flourishing, which reveals to us that God Designed for Good. Our ability to experience God’s Good Design and to flourish is based upon how we face our questions, doubts and the realities of life, not running from them.

With a design, it means that there’s a way to flourish, but as the designer, God determines the way, not us. In the story of Gideon, God shows the way to flourish, but it is not the way any of us would take.

"But what if the pressure is off? What if the story of your life didn't actually begin with you? What if you were Designed to Flourish, and to understand how we flourish, all we have to do is go back to the very beginning?

If we don’t look in the spiritual mirror and see how we are changing, we may end up in a place we don’t want to be in. We need the spiritual mirror to help us answer the question - Who Am I Becoming?