HOPE Sermons

“And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you." In the Greek, the word "hypocri...

Watch out! Don’t do your good deeds publicly, to be admired by others, for you will lose the reward from your Father in heaven...when you give to someone in need, don’t let your left hand know what your right hand is doing. Give your gifts in private, and your Father, who sees everything, will reward you. Senior Pastor David Dwight continues our study on the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 6:1-4. W...

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor[i] and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you... Loving our enemies doesn't come easy, but it is the path Jesus calls us to.  Executive Pastor Wes Peterson encourages us to the radical reconciliation that can only come from Jesus. When we treat our enemies as well as we treat our friends, we reco...

Senior Pastor David Dwight continues our journey through The Sermon on the Mount with a teaching from Matthew 5: 21-37, exploring Jesus' teaching on the value of human life, the dignity of the human person, the sanctity of marriage, and the integrity of our promises.  These four topics interact and hold each other up like the four legs of a table. They speak to our integrity as people and we bring...

The Beatitudes are first for people in bad situations, not for people with good attitudes. Jesus is on our side. Jesus blesses people not because of their virtues but because of their inadequacies. This is the first part of our Summer series on the Sermon on the Mount.

It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery. These words in Galatians 5 remind us that our salvation is in Christ alone. Senior Pastor David Dwight concludes our sermon series with the reflection that we remain yoked in slavery when we try to portray a certain image to the world that our internal lives do not ref...

Children who are set to receive an extraordinary inheritance cannot prove themselves worthy to receive it by their own actions. Their best posture is to live humbly, gratefully, generously. In the forth sermon of "Freedom People," Senior Pastor David Dwight reminds us that through adoption as children of God, we can claim the extraordinary inheritance of salvation in Jesus and eternal life to come...

"Let me ask you this one question: Did you receive the Holy Spirit by obeying the law of Moses? Of course not! You received the Spirit because you believed the message you heard about Christ." In the third sermon in our series, Family Ministries Pastor Kyle Freedman reminds us of Paul's words to the Galatians. In our faith journey, we can start to believe that our faith is based on an "if I...., t...

“We...know that a person is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. So we, too, have put our faith in Christ Jesus that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, because by the works of the law no one will be justified." Senior Associate Pastor Pete Bowell continues the sermon series in Galatians 2, reminding us that we are set free from t...

What is the gospel and what does it mean for us? Romans 1 tells us, "For I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God that brings salvation to everyone who believes: first to the Jew, then to the Gentile." Senior Pastor David Dwight kicks off a new sermon series examining the full reality of what the gospel of Jesus offers us and what it means for our lives. Over the next five we...

"Therefore, go and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and Son and Holy Spirit." Missional Pastor Matt Hartman reminds us that as Christ-followers, we are called to go and share the gospel with others. Rounding out our series, Anchors: Seven truths about the God who made us and loves us and intends for our flourishing, Matt speaks on the seventh essential of...

The second coming of Christ matters in the everyday matters of life. In the midst of our day to day lives, we don't always stop to reflect on the return of Christ. We can become so preoccupied with the urgency of our to-do list, that we forget to have a heart fixed on eternity. As we wait for the second coming of Christ, Senior Associate Pastor Pete Bowell invites us to watch, wait, work, forgive...

"God does not have a mission for his church; God has a church for his mission." The church is a body with many parts and it exists to accomplish the work of God here on earth. We may have complex feelings about the church as an institution, but if we align with God's work here on earth, we have the chance to cooperate in the work God has here on earth through the church. Continuing in our series,...

The gospel is just "one beggar showing another beggar where to find some bread." No matter how long we walk in faith and how mature we might like to think we are, we are all beginners in the gospel because we are working to understand the magnitude, bigness, and beauty of God.  Continuing in our series, Anchors: Seven truths about the God who made us and loves us and intends for our flourishing, S...

The trinity is always complimentary, co-operating in our lives together.  The Holy Spirit works to draw our attention to Jesus and invite our hearts to say yes to Christ's offering.  When we say yes to Jesus and submit to him as Lord of our lives, the Holy Spirit dwells within us.  The Holy Spirit continues his work in us by equipping us for our faith journey; he is our companion and guide and he...

"Doing God's will is adopting Jesus' way." Family Ministries Pastor Kyle Freedman continues our series, Anchors: Seven truths about the God who made us and loves us and intends for our flourishing, with the reminder that Jesus came to earth to show us how to live.  Often when we face a challenging situation, we want to jump from the beginning to the end and skip the hard work in the middle. Kyle r...

"We believe in one God, the sovereign Creator and Sustainer of all things, infinitely perfect and eternally existing in three Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit." Senior Pastor David Dwight begins a new sermon series, Anchors: Seven truths about the God who made us and loves us and intends for our flourishing , with this first essential of our faith.   Anchors are unseen, but they are attached...

In the final sermon of our Anticipation series, Discipleship Pastor Dan Yoon reminds us that we like new things: new houses, new cars, new relationships, new babies...and the list goes on. And while we love the feeling of "new things," we live in a reality that our earthly lives are often challenging, tiring, and full of ways things can break down. Dan points us to the words of Revelation 21: "And...

"For we know that when this earthly tent we live in is taken down, we will have a house in heaven, an eternal body made for us by God himself and not by human hands. We grow weary in our present bodies, and we long to put on our heavenly bodies like new clothing." Preaching from the opening verses of 2 Corinthians 5, Senior Associate Pastor Pete Bowell reminds us that our earthly bodies are tempor...

C.S. Lewis wrote, "Aim at heaven and you will get earth thrown in. Aim at earth and you get neither."  Senior Pastor Dr. David Dwight continued our series on heaven with an exploration of the realities of our heavenly lives.  The scriptures indicate to us that "earth is a place we are on and heaven is a place we are in." On earth, we live a primarily physical experience with spiritual elements; in...

"Are we too heavenly-minded to be useful on earth or too earthly-minded to be useful in heaven?"  In the first sermon of Anticipation: Just Beyond the Door, Senior Associate Pastor Pete Bowell leads us to ponder whether our heart posture focused on present earthly concerns instead of our heavenly future. In John 14, Jesus tells us, " Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in...

What is your vision for the pain in your life? David Dwight asks this provocative question as we closes out the sermon series with a focus on lament. Through our hard seasons, God invites us into lament, where we can co-operate with him to turn our pain into healing, our ashes into beauty, and our despair into praise. In Habakkuk 3, we are reminded of the power of "YET": "Though the fig tree does...

When we experience suffering and anguish, we are tempted to wonder "what's the point of living a "good life" if hardship comes to us anyway?" David Dwight reminds us that many of us experience this kind of frustration. In Psalm 73, the psalmist writes, "Surely in vain I have kept my heart pure and have washed my hands in innocence. All day long I have been afflicted, and every morning brings new p...

Pete Bowell continues "The Way Through," a sermon series about grief, with the reminder that we are blessed in hardship. The Lord meets us in our lament and does not waste our seasons of suffering. He uses these challenges to deepen our faith and draw into closer relationship with him. Preaching from 2 Corinthians 1:3-5, Pete reminds us that God comforts us in our troubles so that we may in turn c...