Hope Wisco Podcast

Over the past eighteen months, we’ve experienced incredible momentum and growth at Hope Church. This doesn’t mean we’ve arrived. It means God is supplying us with more potential to reach people who are far away from him. We still have a big vision to pursue as a church, and we’re still all about attracting and engaging the unchurched. So in this season, we’re preparing to pursue what’s next. NEXT...

The final leg of recovery road has to do with our emotional resilience. When we’re in a state of depleted reserves, our emotions become more powerful and control in our lives. They exert an unbalanced role in your inner life and your decisions. Jesus taught us how to gain emotional control and resilience on both the brain and spiritual levels. In fact, Jesus taught that although emotions are impor...

Once you get the holes in your soul patched up, how do you fuel the tank and build up reserves? While vacations are good, they’re not going to replenish your inner life. Instead, Paul directs our attention to the power supply. The power supply isn’t “God” in general, but it is a specific quality of God. Namely, the love he has for you that is beyond our full comprehension. But the better grasp you...

Anxiety is a contact drain on your emotional and spiritual battery. As long as you’re experiencing anxiety, you will never be able to replenish your reserves because there is a constant leak in your tank. Before we can refuel and build reserves to handle life, you’re going to need to patch up chronic anxiety and worry that you might be feeling. In this episode, you will learn how to put down your...

We have all had our emotional reserves drained for the past three years. We have seen a pandemic, and political, and social issues, and that's just the stuff on the news. In this episode, we start to learn how to refuel those emotional reserves and start to recover.

This New Year we are going to focus on small changes that will have a big impact on 2023.

We all want the perfect Christmas. But something will probably go wrong. Maybe it already has. The right person won’t make it. The wrong person will. Your family gathering won’t be ideal. Your Christmas will probably be imperfect. But it can still be great. At Christmas in Lake Country, we’ll see how an imperfect Christmas can lead you to the one thing that makes Christmas perfect.

Outside of Jesus, who is the greatest person who ever lived? Well, that depends on the criteria you use to judge greatness. Herod the Great was king of Judea when Jesus was born... but it turns out he wasn't that great. Our world assigns greatness to people who are great AT something – at singing a song, throwing a football... at making money. But there’s a difference between being “great at” and...

Christmas can cause all kinds of anxiety and stress. The demands and expectations that the holiday places on you can be overwhelming. If you think getting ready for Christmas is stressful, try getting ready to give birth to God. Mary teaches us that the way to move past Christmas stress, anxiety, and fear is to worship,

Has your life gone according to script? Has your career, family, health, or relationships gone according to plan, or does it seem like the script has changed? Welcome to Hope Church/s online experience, in this episode we are looking at the first Christmas and how it was not even close to going to plan and how that is relevant to our lives today. 

For adults, the day before Christmas flies by. But for kids, Christmas expectations can be so high that the days leading up to Christmas can feel eternally long. That was how believers before the first Christmas felt. They were waiting and waiting for the Messiah to come. And he seemed to be taking forever. In the middle of this, we meet a couple who faithfully waited and waited and waited for God...

Expecting Episode 1:  Christmas is advertised as a season of giving, joy, and peace. For a lot of people, it is anything but because we live in a broken world it is easy to lose our anticipations and our expectations about life and God. In this episode, we are going to show you how the Bible can regain an eager sense of expectation for Christmas.

Who is your neighbor? Is it someone you agree with politically? Is it someone that cheers for the same team as you? Or is it someone on the other side of the aisle from you? In this episode, we are thankful to have Kurt Owens from UFlourish Church in Milwaukee who came to tell us about his experiences when someone culturally different from him changed his life.

Jesus wasn't interested in solving the world's problems. In fact, the same problems we see today are similar to ones that were around during Jesus' time. However, Jesus was interested in showing his disciples a better way of problem solving. A way of service that would wash over the world and continue to this very day. Hope's Christmas Offering is a celebration of support to those who are followin...

Before he died, Jesus gave his followers a simple job description. Their job is to do what he did. And what Jesus did was take the lowest position of service in order to serve them. That’s the degree to which we are to love one another. Pastors have a job description as well. It’s to prepare God’s people to serve. In this episode, we will learn that a Plastic Jesus might let you have a consumer “m...

How are we to respond to people who hurt us? bad guys? Are Christians supposed to take it and allow them to keep hurting us? Is that what Jesus meant when he taught us to turn the other cheek? No, in today's episode we are going to know what it means to "love your enemies"

When you think of your financial situation, is it accompanied by feelings of peace and gratitude, or by feelings of worry and stress? If it’s the latter, then you have money problems. We assume that money problems are caused by scarcity. That’s not always true. The fact is that our biggest money problems are caused by mastery. Instead of following Jesus and mastering our money, we allow money to b...

Most people want a Jesus who serves us. He forgives some sins, he gives blessings. He pats us on the head and sends us back out when we’re feeling down. But real Jesus doesn’t work that way. Real Jesus isn’t here to serve you. Instead, he was clear in his teachings that if we are going to have anything to do with him, it comes on the terms of full surrender and following him, even though it costs...

Many people assume that Christianity is primarily about rule following (part 1), and about judging the people who don’t follow the rules very well. But Jesus didn’t invite us into rule-following. He invited us into flourishing. Since he loves us, he wasn’t just content to take care of what happens when you die. He wants you to flourish in your life right now. That’s why he gives us commands. The c...

After the disciples began to follow Jesus, something began to slowly happen within them. They began to believe. They began to believe that he was from God. They began to believe that he was the Messiah. They put their faith in him as the forgiver of sin. And that’s the pattern. People follow Jesus until they reach a conclusion. They conclude that there is a way to be justified before God, but it d...

There’s a common misconception about church. Namely, that it’s for people that have their life pulled together and enjoy following rules. But something that was surprising about Jesus is that he welcomed people who were outsiders when it came to God. But it’s not that surprising when we consider the messages he preached. He didn’t invite us to believe right and behave right. Instead, he invited th...

People who aren’t Christians have good reasons for not becoming one. However, faith in God doesn’t begin with having all of our questions answered or objections addressed (even though there are compelling answers to people’s objections). Faith in God begins when God becomes personal. Faith is built on a relational dynamic, not a logical construct. In this sermon we’ll hear about a person who could...

Everyone struggles with something, things that scare us, things that are humiliating to us, things that eat at us constantly. In our final episode of God of the Underdogs, we will see the first step to letting go of those things so that we can grow closer to God.

Have you been in a situation where you did not see the entire picture and you had to fill in the gaps... but then you noticed you were filling them with the worst-case scenario? In this episode, we are looking at the story of Elisha who found himself in a situation where he could not see the whole picture, yet lead with boldness. By the end, you will find new ways to fight your battles and lead wi...

Elisha is being told over and over and over that God is going to take Elijah, his mentor, away from him today. It seemed like he was being pushed away and given the opportunity for an out. Instead of sulking, leaving, or making a fuss, or giving up on Elijah, Elisha continues with him. Because he was persistent, he entered into a new role in life and was equipped to carry out that role. There are...