Hope In Tigard Sermons

My junior year of high school, I was part of a traveling choir. Our spring tour took us to the Southwest of the country, and for a day of fun, our director booked us a bus trip up to see the Grand Canyon. Only one problem - it was snowing. Halfway up we were forced to turn around after the bus slid backwards 20 feet over the snow towards a cliff. I remember feeling utterly helpless as we slowly sl...

Sola Fide Sola Gratia Sola Scriptura That's what we're about here at Hope. These are the hallmarks of what it means to be a Lutheran. These short statements describe the only things we need to answer the big questions of life. By faith alone(sola fide ) God places the gift of salvation in our hearts. By his grace alone (sola gratia ) God sent his Son Jesus to save us. And by Scripture al...

I don’t think anybody comes to the end of their life and says, “Well, that happened just like I thought it would.” I, for one, won’t. A little over two years ago, I had never heard of Tigard. Now it’s my home. (And I wouldn't trade!) Ten years I don’t even think I would’ve guessed that I would be a pastor right now. I could go on and on. Because life doesn’t lay out just so. It sometimes unfo...

Here are some statistics. Anxiety and depression is the most common (by far) mental health diagnosis in America today. 1 in 5 Americans is seeking treatment for anxiety. 1 in 3 Americans recognized a downward turn in their mental health over the past 3 years. Citing dry statistics runs the risk that we make anxiety all about someone else. It’s anything but that. It’s what Peter calls, “your anxiet...

One of the first books I can remember reading with my Mom was the classic: "The Little Engine That Could." Do you remember it? No other train was willing to take on the task. The little blue train was. It was difficult, but he repeated to himself in the rhythm of the track: "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can, I think I can." And he did. This is one of the earliest mem...

Are you a swifty? I know my fair share of them. A few years ago, they were everywhere! (By the way, a "swiftie" is a fan of country/pop star Taylor Swift) Arguably, her most popular song is called "Shake It Off." It's a great song! Dare I say brilliant? Part of the brilliance of the song is that she knows what she speaks to people. She talks about wanting to feel worthwhil...

Every time the Apostle Paul talked about prayer, he spoke powerfully. He never hedged about prayer. In Ephesians 6:18 he taught us to pray in every circumstance. In Romans he taught us to be faithful in prayer. In 1 Thessalonians 5:16 he urges us to pray continually . Then, in our text for Sunday , he urges us to pray big prayers. Prayers for nations, kings and emperors.  I've known some true...

There’s something about Jesus. He could draw crowds to himself like he was a magnet. He could make prostitutes weep for joy. He made old cynical apostles coin new words just to talk about his grace. There’s something about Jesus that draws sinners to him. It either does that or it makes you jealous at the attention he gets from sinners. This is what would regularly happen when Jesus was alive. Peo...

For interactive Sermon notes, click here: https://churchlinkfeeds.blob.core.windows.net/notes/42364/note-164211.html This text dinged me up this week. It battered my conscience, it pushed my pastor's heart to the limits. It showed me how much I've fallen short. It's a text that is short and sweet. Give it a read: Mark 12:41-44 41 Jesus sat down opposite the place where the offerings...

This is a sermon (and a sermon series) where Jesus teaches us about our relationship with our treasures and the blessings he has given us. He gives a rich young man, and us, a crucial lesson about what it is like to truly repent of both our vices and our virtues so that Jesus can be our everything- our Savior.  If you'd like to follow along with interactive sermon notes, click here: https://c...

Have you noticed all the traffic along highway 217 this summer? Along the entire stretch of the highway, there is work being done to make some more room for the future- which means for now, we're squished. This week, on 217, I got my first dose of Oregon road rage. One car didn't let another car merge, and the rage burst loose- there was shouting, there were rude signs out of windows, th...

For this week's sermon notes click here! https://churchlinkfeeds.blob.core.windows.net/notes/42364/note-162640.html Somewhere in this world there’s a teenage girl who feels like nobody sees her. She feels like she has to wear the right clothes so someone will. She also feels like she has to walk down the hall plastering a smile on her face; say the right things; and run in the right circles....

For access to interactive sermon notes for this sermon, click here: https://churchlinkfeeds.blob.core.windows.net/notes/42364/note-162059.html Pastors have really big goals for their churches. As a church-planting pastor I know this all too well. Pastors want their churches to be vibrant, they want their churches to serve inside the church and outside, and they want their churches to grow. These a...

For sermon notes, download our church app using this link: https://tithely.app.link/hope-lutheran-church You might know this about me. I'm kinda a sports guy. I love following the teams that I cheer for, and I love following the engaging storylines around all of sports. But there's one thing I love more than anything about sports. I love seeing beyond the court and the field and into the...

There are a few shows out there that I just can't watch. I can't watch scary shows, I can't do true crime. That stuff stays with me in the back of my mind for longer than I like it to. But there's another kind of show that I'll never try and dive into. It's the kind of show that requires you to dive heart and soul into the shoes of the characters. I can't do it. ...

I’m going to ask you an important question here. It’s probably the most important question that I can ask you. Because the answer that is given has tremendous implications. It’s a question whose implications change the way you live your life, it changes the way you think, the way you move, the way you make decisions. It’s that big of a question that I’m about to ask you. You ready for it? What is...

Eve didn't have a word yet for what she felt that day outside the garden. All she knew is what she felt. How the snake had spoken, and she had listened. How she had reached out and grabbed the fruit. How the horror had spread across her heart as she realized what she had done. She didn't have a word for it yet. We do. It's called shame.  There are some shames that are inconsequentia...

There are some times as a pastor where I have to stop and pinch myself. I look around at the people that gather together at our church, and my jaw hits the floor. I just marvel thinking about how much of a miracle it is that anyone is that anyone comes to Hope. I mean, why would someone come to this church? This is a church that doesn’t even have a building yet. We are meeting at the park for chur...

It's a tale as old as time. A song as old as rhyme. From the time of the first man and woman- Adam and Eve, there has been a battle for the heart of Christianity. Paul, the writer of the text that we'll be diving into this Sunday knew that. And he lived it. And he understood that it was a battle for people's souls. Will people rest their souls on Jesus, or will they rest their souls...

This week, we unveil a brand new sermon series here at Hope. It's called "Safe to Hope- Unshakable Truth for an Unbreakable Hope." Over the next six weeks, we will be covering some the Bible's most foundational teachings through the form of narrative. We'll answer questions like: "What does the Bible say about sin and grace?" "How is it that someone gets sav...

There's an impressive number at the end of the text we'll be getting into this Sunday. The number is 3000. The context is this: It's festival season in Jerusalem. People from miles and miles around are gathered around to celebrate. Peter gets up and has his chance to preach to a huge crowd about his Savior Jesus. And 3000 people believed and were baptized. That's the impressive...

This past Sunday, we celebrated one year of worship at Hope Lutheran Church. It has been so humbling and amazing to see God working in this church and through this church! That is worth celebrating! But how do you celebrate? And what exactly do you celebrate? Do you celebrate numerical growth? Do you celebrate a journey? Do you celebrate specific events in the church's young history? I'l...

It's unbelievable, but it's not, really. David had become an adulterer. He had taken Bathsheba for his own, and to avoid being found he had Bathsheba's husband killed. David thought he had gotten away from it. He even thought he had come out of it looking better and stronger than ever. It's unbelievable, that he could do that. But it's also not. See, there's something...

I don't think any of you would disagree that we, as people, need friends. That's not news to us, right? Even before the COVID pandemic, there was an epidemic that medical professionals were beginning to recognize based around this: loneliness. Even before the pandemic, loneliness had become a health epidemic. You can guess what the COVID pandemic did to the loneliness epidemic. Do some s...

This week we are going to begin a new series at Hope. It's a series based on several of the events of David's life. Some of these accounts will be familiar to you, a couple of them, I think, may be completely new. I'd like to give you an explanation for why we're covering David. it's certainly true that it's full of action and drama. (Just read the story of David and...