Hope North Lakes Sermons

We are told that the solutions in the modern world — for those moments when we most need help — are to look to self, look to technology, or some combination of the two. But the real answer is an ancient one: look to your Creator, to the one who made you, to the one who bought you and redeemed you. This changes us personally and as a church by making us dependent people who put down roots, take god...

The iconic commercials "Be Like Mike' told us that if we just drank Gatorade, we too could do the things Michael Jordan does. What about when it comes to following Jesus? Jesus gives us two examples in Mark 12 – a warning of who not to be like, and a poor widow who is honored because she looks like Jesus. The secret to understanding how to look like Jesus is found in who we understand him to be. I...

Jesus summarizes the whole of human existence: we are defined by loving God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength, and loving our neighbor as ourselves. These commandments are both a mirror and a window. As a mirror, they reflect our shortcomings — our sin and our inability to love like this. As a window, they reveal the only person who actually loves this way, and how his love for us is ou...

As his opponents continue hunting for a way to trap Jesus in his words, he meets their challenges on their own terms — and opens a window into who God actually is. God owns everything, including the power over death itself. To understand the resurrection of Jesus is to discover that God wants more for your life than even you do. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church...

The escalating conflict between Jesus and the religious leaders is leading toward a final outcome: his rejection. Two confrontations create an opportunity for Jesus to tell a story that both indicts and appeals to his hearers. How will they respond? What can their response to Jesus indicate for us today? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church - North Lakes Download M...

Jesus curses a fig tree to teach the disciples a lesson about faith in God and how we can't fake it. This story of a tree points to a bigger story - the story of the Bible - which can be told in three threes: The tree in the garden, the tree that formed the cross of Christ, and the tree in the new heavens and new earth that brings healing. What can we learn from a story about a tree? Series: The G...

Don’t we all want to be unshakeable? To have certainty and resolve in the midst of anything life throws our way? As we survey two scenes in Mark that demonstrate contrasting ways of thinking, we realize that one of those ways of thinking will actually make us unshakeable – not by changing our circumstances, but by changing us. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church -...

So you want your life to matter? What if the key to knowing that we matter comes not from manufacturing significance, but receiving it? Jesus doesn't just teach the ethics of the kingdom — he lives and dies them. And when he transfers us into the kingdom of God, we discover a significance so secure that we're freed to serve others regardless of what we get in return. Series: The Gospel of Mark Spe...

In life, there are things we have to do, and then there are things we love to do. Between those two is a world of difference. Is Christianity just a list of things to do? Is Jesus merely after our behavior, or is he after something deeper? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church - North Lakes Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope North...

When his opponents try to trap Jesus in a high-stakes theological debate about divorce, he reframes both the question and the answer around God. The transformative news that God abandons no one is exactly what saves us from treating relationships — including our relationship with God — as consumers who simply trade up when something better comes along. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiv...

Jesus uses the misguided actions of the disciples to dial up his teaching on discipleship and what it means to belong to him. He is the one who sets the terms on who is in and who is out - and what that looks like. Jesus demands nothing less than an exclusive allegiance and ultimate obedience. Amazingly, he expects that we will gladly give things up for the sake of belonging to him and by doing so...

At a time of arguing among the disciples, Jesus points to a child to redefine greatness. Only when we recognize our need and dependence do we begin to see how upside-down true greatness really is. Only when we understand how God receives us will we ever show kindness to those who can offer nothing in return. When we experience the freedom of grace, we become servants—people who no longer step on o...

We live in a world focused on technique and optimization, but we aren’t immune to times of pain and failure when life feels out of control. In Mark 9, a father’s prayer in a moment of complete helplessness reveals the shape of true prayer and the nature of faith. Where do we look when life is out of control? The answer to that question has the power to sink us or transform us. Series: The Gospel o...

The Transfiguration in Mark 9 is Jesus pulling back the curtain on his own glory, but he uses resurrection language that confuses the disciples. What does Jesus rising from the dead mean? What does it mean for you? Jesus rising from the dead means that goodbyes aren't forever, and our vindication comes not from within us, but from outside of us. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope...

God loves and desires every part of us, not just the best parts. The gospel declares that it is the worst in us that draws God closer, and he longs to transform our ugliness to resemble his beauty. God wants all of us. Discipleship is a union with Christ that demands all of you, defines you most of all, and transforms you all the way. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community...

A simple argument about bread turns into a spiritual eye exam. By connecting the healing of a blind man with Peter’s confession, Mark reveals that true sight is a gift of grace—formed not by human reasoning, but by seeing Jesus rightly in his death for sinners. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church - North Lakes Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn...

Why in the world did the very people who should have recognized Jesus so ardently reject him? Take a look at this week’s passage to see how an attitude of demandingness can lead you straight away from God. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - North Lakes For more resources or to learn more about Hope North Lakes, visit hopecc.com/northlakes

In a world that values inclusion, the words of Jesus in Mark 7, spoken to a desperate mom, come off as harsh and even offensive to us. However, if we push past our initial response and do the work of digging in to understand what's happening, this passage unlocks a beautiful truth about the gospel that transcends our greatest hopes for what inclusion might look like. We see that anyone can get in...

When Jesus is asked why his disciples don’t follow the rules, he responds by calling an entire group of people hypocrites. This charged encounter ends with Jesus declaring that what makes someone unclean before God comes from within—from the heart. Yet remarkably, it is our hearts, not our rule-keeping ability, that God is after. We learn that it is an appeal to God’s mercy, not our own spiritual...

This week's passage uses a phrase that seems to sum up modern life: making headway painfully. We're told and sold the idea that we are only one piece of advice or one product away from stepping into our fullest selves. What if our bigger problem is that our hardened hearts have failed to understand who God is and what he's come to do? Only when God's chosen Savior in our boat will our hearts softe...

“Why do you spend your money for that which is not bread, and your labor for that which does not satisfy?” The prophet Isaiah asks this piercing question, and if our restless, unsatisfied hearts are any indication, it’s one we’re still asking today. Sociologists describe the paradox of choice and the hedonic treadmill as reasons satisfaction never seems to last, no matter how great the purchase or...

Where can we turn when hope feels lost? The Bible tells story after story of moments when defeat seemed inevitable—until God worked in unexpected ways to bring about redemption and victory. Following Jesus will often feel like losing, but in Christ we learn that it is always worth it. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church - North Lakes Download Message Slides For mo...

When Jesus returns to his hometown to minister, he’s not greeted with a red carpet—he’s met with resistance. Rather than being honored, he’s rejected. The people who have known him the longest fail to truly see who he is. By reducing Jesus to a caricature of himself, they miss entirely the life-giving relationship he’s inviting them into. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Commun...

Mark’s account of these two daughters gives us a timeless picture of the hardest realities of human life. In these twin stories, we stare disease and death in the face, and we feel the weight of true desperation. And yet, like a diamond hidden in rough stone, what emerges is something of immense value: weak, imperfect faith resting in a powerful Savior. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Sti...

Jesus crosses the sea for one person—one broken, bound, hopeless man—and what follows is a breathtaking display of both divine power and divine compassion. And in that display, our self-righteousness is undone: about our own need, and about how generous or compassionate we imagine ourselves to be. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Paul Stiver Hope Community Church - North Lakes Download Message...