Mount Hope | Belmont Campus

“You are what you eat.” We’ve often heard that as a reminder that what we consume determines who we are and how we interact with the world around us. How we fuel ourselves, determines the challenges we are able to face. In our Christian journey, challenges abound. We’re often pushed up against circumstances that push us to our breaking point. In those moments, what is inside of us will determine how we handle these moments. John reminds us that as Christ followers, we must abide in Christ. However, today we’ll consider God’s promise that as we abide in Him, He abides in us. And as He does, we are able to rise to the challenges around us.

Has there ever been a time in your life when you thought something was going to go one away and then it took a turn in a another direction? Or maybe you thought you were going to have one conversation with someone and it turned into a different conversation altogether? This happens in life with practical situations but it also happens in the life of a believer when it comes to sin. We don't want to face it or be confronted with it but we must as followers of Christ. This week, in our 1 John Series, there are two important areas that must be addressed when it comes to sin in our own lives and sin in the lives of those around us.

Often we are surprised in life by particular situations when in fact, we really shouldn't be surprised at all. In some areas of life, it may not make a difference. However, when it comes to following Christ, God's Word is very clear that we should not be surprised when we are hated by the world. So how are we required to respond? How should we, as the body of Christ, show others the love of Christ? As we continue in our current sermon series with the book of 1 John, God teaches us how we are to respond when the world around us hates us for following Christ. Our response may not look like the world expects and it may not be popular but our obedience to Christ is what matters and is what will put God's love on display for others to see.

Social media. TV. The internet. The news. Friends. As we all know that there are many, many voices around us each and every day. How are we supposed to know which ones to listen to? Which ones are we suppose to follow? And in this culture we live in, how can test each voice and know which ones are credible? God's Word does not leave us without answers on this important topic. At Mount Hope, we have been learning, through the book of 1 John, about our daily living within a stormy world. This week the scriptures reveal to us that we are supposed to test each voice in our life. There is criteria to know who we should listen to and who we should not adhere to. Check out this week's sermon to understand more about how to determine which voices you should be listening to in your life.

Many of us need corrective lenses of some sort to help us with our vision. Without our glasses or contacts, it is difficult to see what is right in front of us or what may be up ahead of us. We may only view this is in a physical sense. But honestly, as believer, as soon as we choose to follow Christ, we are in need of vision correction. We should no longer see things the way the world does. So what does our current series have to do with our "corrective lenses"? John knows the people have a vision problem. Through some powerful scripture in the book of 1 John, God teaches us how we are to live in this world each day with the correct vision. Listen in to this week's sermon to learn more about how our love for God should affect our love for the world.

Sermons given at Mount Hope Church's campus in Belmont, MA

If we are truly honest with ourselves, there might be times in our lives when we want to deny the reality around us. Maybe we don't want to face this situation or that circumstance so we engage in some sort of denial toward it. However, we all know that just because we deny something doesn't mean it isn't real and denying is not helpful to us. In fact, light must be shown on these realities in order for us to grow. More importantly, light must be shown on the sins within our lives. This week in our sermon series, we see that John shines light on storms that were happening within the church and on the sin nature that is in all of us. God teaches us through His Word that we cannot stay in fellowship with Him and His light if we walk in the darkness.

We have all been caught in a storm at one time or another. Maybe it was just a hard rain or maybe something more serious, like a hurricane, that we needed to take cover from. Regardless, we all know that some storms can be scary and even dangerous at times. We can become frantic during them. But what if walking through a storm can refine you as a person? As believers, that is what a storm in life can do for us. This week at Mount Hope we begin a new sermon series in the book of 1 John, Walking with Jesus in the Stormy World. In our first week we already see what John is trying to teach us about the storms of life and the storms we face as a church. But we also see how in that very same storm, joy can be found and made complete when our faith is certain in Christ.

Every book in the Bible matters. God gave us each and every book because it plays a role in the larger picture of the Story of Scripture. If we are honest with ourselves, we will admit that some books are much easier to understand and grasp than others. However, that doesn't mean we disregard any of them. This week is our last week in the Story of Scripture sermon series. In closing, we take a look at the book of Revelation, which can often be hard to understand. In this current series, we have learned that everything in the Bible from the beginning to the end matters when it comes to the gospel of Christ and Revelation is no exception. Join us for one last week as we look at Revelation and the hope that it brings us as followers of Christ!

This week we look at the letters, or epistles, written in the New Testament. In reading someone else's "mail", we may have only part of the story. As we dig deeper into His Word, we learn the right order and right practice of our beliefs matters to the heart of God and to our witness to others. Listen to this week's sermon to learn about the importance of the letters written in God's Word which are an important part of the larger story.

This time of year at Mount Hope, we like to take time to highlight our Compassion Ministry. And at the same time, as we continue in our sermon series, Story of Scripture, we see what God's response is when the covenants that we have been learning about, are broken. We see how compassion comes in when it comes to our walk with Christ. And in turn we learn how that compassion reaches out to those around us in this broken world.

Getting outside of our comfort zone is not always appealing to us. We like to stay in places where things are familiar and recognizable. But what about when God calls us out of our comfort zone in our daily living? How do we walk that out on our journey as Christ-followers? We can be grateful that God doesn't call us to do this on our own. In the continuing of our sermon series, Story of Scripture, we learn, through the book of Acts, that God sent us His Holy Spirit as a gift to be able to be a witness to those around us. But what does that actually look like when we encounter others? How does the Holy Spirit help us and lead us?

As we have been learning about the structure of the Bible through our Story of Scripture sermon series, we have come to the place where we are between the Old Testament and the New Testament. What a pertinent place to be! However, we see that God is silent. Why? How are His people supposed to move forward, learn and grow in these years of silence? As always, the Lord does not leave His people. He is still working even when we can't see it - and at times, especially in the silence. Listen in to this week's message to understand the three things we can learn about trusting God even when He seems distant.

Have you ever had times in your life when things are going fine and then something comes along that you just did not see coming? An interruption that may even cause you to get off track or drift. As believers, we don't always know how to deal with these things that throw us off. What does the Story of Scripture teach us about these times in our lives? In our current series, we are seeing that when we understand how God operates throughout history, we understand God Himself. We have learned about how the Bible is divided up and this week we see how the prophets give their message to the people who went through a time when things weren't going along as they thought they would. These prophets give the message that the people need to hear that also applies to us today.

The covenants that God made with His people throughout the Bible matter to us today more than we realize. Dive in with us this week as we learn about the Covenant God made with David and the significance of David's life has in the story of Scripture. Our legacy matters to future generations. But it may not be in the way that we often think.

God has laid out His story for us from beginning to end and He did much of that through the covenants we see throughout scripture. This week as we continue in our sermon series, Story of Scripture, we are introduced to the covenants given to God's people and how they were the catalyst to Jesus Christ coming and dying for our sins so that we may have eternal life with Him, God's ultimate plan.

God's Word is full of stories that inspire, promises that encourage, truths to live by, and commands to obey. At times we feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of different events, characters, and stories of the Bible. When reading the Scripture it is important for us to remember that it is one big amazing story that God is writing. In our new series, "The Story of Scripture," we start to unpack how the Bible is one big story and how it relates to our own!

Sometimes, if we are honest with ourselves, we might question somebody's motives. We wonder why they are doing what they are. Surely, they must want something or must have an angle that we are simply not aware of. However, wondering about someone's motives isn't always a negative thing. In fact, as Christians, the people around us should wonder about us. They should wonder why we are living the way we are. They should ask us why we do things the way we do. We want them to know our motivation. Because the fact of the matter is, we should be living the way that we do because of who Jesus is and because of the fact that He died for us on the cross. This week, as we celebrate Resurrection Sunday, we learn from God's Word what redemption truly means and how it should affect our everyday living so that people wonder about our motive to live a life that is holy and set apart.

Any of us that have brothers or sisters can understand that sibling rivalry is real. There are arguments, disagreements and even wrestling matches that can take place among siblings! Unfortunately, this is not a new fact. Sibling rivalry even took place in the Bible. We have been seeing this quite clearly as we have learned about the life of Jacob and his relationship with his brother, Esau. This week, as we continue to learn more about the transforming life of Jacob, we see how God intervened in this brotherly relationship and how He used their difficulties and journeys to bring The Unstoppable Blessing in a way that neither one of them may have imagined. After you listen to this week's sermon, ponder some of these questions and discuss them with another to learn more about trusting God.

Restoration. It's a word we often hear today in the age of HGTV, isn't it? This show is updating a house and that show is rebuilding a barn. Constant restoration. But what about in real life? Do we see restoration in our own lives? In the lives around us? The truth is, when we look at Scripture, we see that God is certainly in the business of restoration. When we look at the life of Jacob in our current series, we see that God is restoring him through different life events. And maybe not in the manner that we would imagine, but restoring just the same. So what did the process look like in Jacob's life? And what does it look like in our lives today? Listen to this week's sermon to learn more about how God longs to bring restoration to us and how we can live that out each day.