SMARTALK - hope for today

Growing Pains : Growth in a church can bring its own trials. In Acts 21:15-25 we see friction arising, the filter we can put proposed solutions through and the right level of flexibility that is required to maintain unity.    Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is...

Facing Challenges in Life: There are times in your life when you don't just fear what is going to happen but know that something difficult is just around the corner. In Acts 21:1-14 Paul stands as a great example of how God can take us through such experiences. Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Ac...

Experiencing Mountain-Top Prayer: Prayer is more than a shopping list for God, it has to be about glimpsing the glory of who Christ is. In  Luke Chapter 9:28-43 we see a prayer meeting on a mountain revealing Christ's glory and preparing his followers to face the darkness at the foot of the mountain.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk...

The Lord's Prayer: If you want to learn something well in life it's good to learn from the best.  When it comes to prayer, Jesus is the best teacher. In Matthew 6 we follow him up the mountain of prayer like a guide, leading us through the gateway of the fatherhood of God and up the mountain pathway.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/sma...

The Power of Waiting in Prayer.  Everyone may pray and everyone finds waiting for an answer really challenging. 1 Kings 18 and James 5, encourage us with the example of Elijah's perseverance in prayer. Despite being just as human as the rest of us such waiting can be met with the power of God.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk      ...

Intercessory Prayer. The heart of prayer is dependence on God. In Exodus 17 there is a very graphic picture of that total dependence as Moses stretches his arms up to heaven while Joshua fights in a valley below. This is the first of four mountains of prayer that we will be looking at as the congregation prepares to reach out with the Good News of Jesus.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church websi...

Decision Day.  Life is filled with major decisions. None come bigger than deciding on the overall direction of life. In Proverbs Chapter 9 that choice is stripped down to its most elemental,  portrayed as a choice between two women who will lead you in two very different directions in life.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk...

Designed For Delight: What is life when there are no connections? Very lonely, very broken. Apps on our phones are so addictive because they give us a sense of connectedness- you can see where friends are all over the world, and you can reach out to them and get an immediate response. Yet visit people in hospitals all around any city, and people are struggling because they don’t have anyone to tak...

Derailing The Good Life:  Even good company in life can sour if you let finances get in the way of friendships. Proverbs Chapter 6 lays out a warning about that as well as painting some unflattering portraits of the kind of men no one should ever marry! These are different ways that threaten our ability to build a healthy community around us. In turn, that points us to Christ who is building a com...

For Your Eyes Only: Sexuality is a hugely important part of our humanity. But it's very value means we have to look after it. Through the lens of Proverbs Chapter 5 we can spot danger some of the danger signs of temptation that threaten it, see our defenses and discover the deepest love that making love points to. Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa...

Your Spiritual Health Check - Proverbs Chapter 4 runs us through something like a physical, mentioning various parts of the body: Eyes and ears, hearts and body, foot and mouth! Run through them and you will get a spiritual health check that helps us touch base with Christ, the Physician of our souls.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk    ...

Married to the Good Life.  To make sense of this world we need a source of insight from outside of this world. Proverbs 3 wants to make this as attractive to its original audience of young men so wisdom is portrayed like the kind of woman you would want to marry to make your life complete.  She celebrates life by enriching it, sustaining it, and protecting it, three things we all need to live the...

The Good Life in Smallville.  Everybody needs the wisdom that should come from good parents and talks around the kitchen table to help us navigate life like we'd use a compass. But we also need wisdom that comes from a higher, divine source, that acts like a map giving us the big picture of life, sometimes called a worldview. Proverbs chapter 3 describes how these sources of wisdom are essent...

Treasure Hunting. If you want your life directed by wisdom then don't sit back you have to go looking for it like you would if you had a treasure map. That's what Proverbs 2  calls us to do. Here we see the need to search for treasure, what discovering this treasure looks like, and how to spend it well. When you do it can bring you deeper success than Elon Musk,  make you tougher than Ja...

The Voices You Hear: There are many voices that are ready to speak into your life.  Here three different ones are revealed to you; one that can influence you for harm and two that will bless you.  Proverbs  is one of the richest resources of wisdom that humanity possesses and contains profound resources to nurture the growth of our character and wisdom all the way from childhood to adulthood, dire...

Strength for Life's Journey. Life can be like going on a long journey, filled with many tough days and challenges. In Acts Chapter 20:32-38 we examine our spiritual health and guard against spiritual infections by developing good spiritual anti-bodies.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Achaidh Ch...

Valued and Protected:  What you value in life, you protect. God does the same with us when we trust him. In  Acts Chapter 20:25-31 You see that you are protected by him like a sheep with a shepherd and protected from the wolves.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeo...

Courage For Hard Days.  Courage is when you know that you are going to face something hard but you still go ahead with it. In Acts 20:22-24 We see how God guides us through our trials, equips us to face them and enables us to testify to Christ during them.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Achaidh Che...

Building a track record and credibility in life is an essential feature of leadership in any sphere.  In Acts 20:13-21 Paul shows how it must flow from our lifestyle and character, our willingness to suffer the trials of life that will lead to faithfulness, openness, and confidence even in the face of opposition. Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/s...

Steps to Ministry. It has been said that God’s kingdom grows in God’s ways, in God’s time, through God’s people in God’s power .  In Acts 20:1-20 we see steps towards being able to minister in God's kingdom in that way.  Here we see the purpose, the people and the power of ministry.    Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@...

Stepping Out in Faith. There are times when God asks you to step out in faith and only as you do so will you see his amazing provision.  In Matthew 14:22-36 Peter walks on water with Christ. He may have wavered that day but the experience must have been transformative for the rest of his life. So if you want to walk on water you have to get out of the boat! That's the only way to make bigger...

Miracles of Multiplication.  We can often feel in life that we have very little to offer.  But in Matthew 14:13-21 Jesus takes the little we have and multiplies it in ways beyond our wildest expectations.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Cr...

Divided Homes, Healed Hearts. In Matthew 10:32-42 Jesus brings medicine for anxiety. He cures our fear of people with the fear of God. If we get this right then our fear of talking about Jesus to others is put into perspective.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music : Achaidh Cheide - Celtic by Kevin MacLeod...

Overcoming Fear.  In Matthew 10: 16-33 Jesus repeats himself three times saying, do not fear, because he knows that's what we do so easily! There is the fear of other people but he cures that with the fear of God, an awe that puts all our fears into perspective.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk       smartalk@hope4tampa.com Music :...

You've Got to Believe It.  The claims at the heart of Christianity are absolutely huge,  that there is even an answer to death.  In 1 Corinthians.15 we discover that this is the best offer you can ever receive in life, how we can be confident in the offer, and how to receive the offer personally.  Contact Pastor Smart from our Church website or send an email.       hope4tampa.com/smartalk    ...