Hope Rock Church

Can we use what some believe is a pagan holiday to talk to people about the truth of Christ? The world is asking questions. BIG questions. When we look at our recent series, “New Days, Same Gods,” we saw just how many questions the world is asking! And how so many times they go to the old idols for answers! All this gives us a perfect opportunity to speak to people about Jesus! This year, we can h...

We finish off our short series on the book of Acts and look at what it means to be Spirit filled!

“9 When they had crossed, Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask what I shall do for you, before I am taken from you.” And Elisha said, “Please let there be a double portion of your spirit on me.” 10 And he said, “You have asked a hard thing; yet, if you see me as I am being taken from you, it shall be so for you, but if you do not see me, it shall not be so.” 11 And as they still went on and talked, behold,...

Acts 6 is the first time in the Bible that we see “deacons” mentioned. One of those deacons is Stephen, who is stated to be “full of grace and power”. Many times, what a deacon is and what role they play in a local church has been confused with many other things. There will be a challenge for us on Sunday: will we let God build His church the way He wants to build it? Or will we add our own struct...

After the many despicable things Ahab and Jezebel had done, it seems the taking of someone else’s inheritance (Naboth’s vineyard) is the “last straw” that stirs God in finally pronouncing a judgement on this evil couple in 1 Kings 21:17-24. What does this say about God’s justice and the final end? We shall see.

“Day after day, in the temple courts and from house to house, they never stopped teaching and proclaiming the good news that Jesus is the Messiah.”  - Acts 5:42 Despite persecution, the apostles continue to preach and proclaim that Jesus Christ is the Christ, the Messiah - even “day after day” - “obeying God rather than men” (vs 29).

We are aiming not for some thing , but for some one —the King of Kings, Jesus, the savior of the world. Being part of God’s purposes for our world is often difficult as we run counter-cultural to the world. We get so distracted with a million other purposes rather than the one purpose God has called us to. The issue comes down to our affections.  Are our affections in the things we do? Or who we f...

JOHNSON CITY - The early church continues to shake things up in Jerusalem, causing people even in the surrounding areas to bring people in to be healed by the apostles. This is a picture of how God can use a local church. The challenge for us is this: if God calls us to do extraordinary things that we may even feel uncomfortable doing, would we do it?

LAKE TRAVIS - “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.” - Ephesians 6:12 If you haven’t noticed, many odd things are happening in the world today. One of them is the increasing government disclosure of UFOs (or UAPs) and alien ab...

JOHNSON CITY - The story of Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts (Acts 5:1-11) is certainly one of the oddest stories of the New Testament (and a difficult one to preach!). In it, we see a couple lie about their donation to the local church, and God strikes them dead. What is this about? Why would God do such a thing? Is this something we can expect from Him to do again?  Join us as we look at...

The demonic spirits of Jezebel and Ahab are always on the hunt to satisfy their covetousness through convenience. How can we be sure to avoid this in our lives and grow deeper in our affections for Jesus? Jesus, like Naboth in 1 Kings 21, was falsely accused and overcame sin and death on our behalf. We can worship when the tide is against us! Also includes an update from Jonno and Erin Warmington,...

JOHNSON CITY - Peter and John are seized by the rulers, elders and teachers of the law in Jerusalem, and forced to give an account for why the believe in Jesus. Peter, in the power of the Holy Spirit, preaches another sermon boldly and with conviction, giving glory to God for the miracle of the lame beggar (in the previous chapter). This is a powerful example of the evangelism, boldness, and evang...

LAKE TRAVIS--One of the true tests of leadership is how well you are able to pass things onto the next generation. Throughout history, including Biblical history, we see leaders rise up and lead a generation into God’s purposes. But then the next generation falls and fails. Many times this is because the leaders simply didn’t know how to hand things over—and often times, leaders don’t even want to...

JOHNSON CITY-- “God, having raised up his servant, sent him to you first, to bless you by turning every one of you from your wickedness.” (Acts 3:26.) In this section on the book of Acts, we se Peter get up and preach the gospel again—this time in response to a miraculous healing! What can we pick out from Peter’s preach that teaches us the gospel better? And how can we use what we see there to be...

In ancient Greek religion and myth, Dionysus is the god of wine-making and revelry, orchards and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre. He was also known as Bacchus by the Greeks. He was thought to free people from self-conscious fear, and if anyone opposed his “freedoms”, Dionysius would destroy them. In other words, he was literally the...

JOHNSON CITY - How the early church functioned as a church.

LAKE TRAVIS - Gaia, known as the “mother of all life”, the “spiritual embodiment of the earth”, has had quite a resurgence of late. She has even been touted as a “deity most atheists can believe in.” What we will discover as we unpack the mythology behind her is a new, growing, bubbling cult in our modern times that seems to encapsulate everything that is old into a new face, under the guise of al...

JOHNSON CITY - Dale and Angela Marthick are on the NCMI team based in Sydney, Australia. We call this “apostolic input” as Dale and Angela are not “itinerant ministers” but friends we are connected to who have come for two weeks to spend time with us, give us their perspective, encourage us, and sharpen us as a church for the ministry and call God has for us. This is what we see Paul and Peter do...

JOHNSON CITY - As we continue our new Acts series, we will be unpacking one of the key moments in human history:  the day God gave us the Holy Spirit , the Church was birthed, and the Kingdom has been multiplying ever since then with power.

LAKE TRAVIS - Dale and Angela Marthick are on the NCMI team based in Sydney, Australia. We call this “apostolic input” as Dale and Angela are not “itinerant ministers” but friends we are connected to who have come for two weeks to spend time with us, give us their perspective, encourage us, and sharpen us as a church for the ministry and call God has for us. This is what we see Paul and Peter do w...

We launch our new series on Acts in Johnson City, and speak about the Kingdom of God.

In Rome, you worshipped your gods and Caesar, and in fact, this worship was inseparable from Rome’s official deities. It was seen as a treasonous action if you didn’t partake in the Imperial Cult. It was essential to Roman living and the continual prosperity of the Empire. There was even a formal saying that you were often “encouraged” to say: “Caesar is Lord”! Did the Imperial Cult die in 476 AD...

1 KINGS 21:25-29 - We all know Ahab and his wife Jezebel were absolute spiritual train-wrecks (or chariot wrecks)! Is it possible for someone as lost as Ahab and facing the wrath of God for sin to experience transformation? This Sunday will were encouraged by the unexpected humility and repentance of Ahab and find hope for the Ahab’s in our lives. 

As we’ve unpacked this series, we’ve seen how supernatural forces undoubtedly influence our world beyond our limited understanding as human beings. When Paul writes in Ephesians 6:12 that “we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places,” it would only be natural to ask...

After exposing Baal and Asherah as two “gods” who seem to appear on the scene again and again in human history, we now look at “Mammon” - often seen as the “devil of covetousness” or being “possessed” by a lust for power, influence, and wealth.