Hope Presbyterian Church In Winston-salem Sermons

Series: RevelationScripture: Revelation 2:1-7 Repentance creates a radical new dynamic for personal growth. The more you see your own flaws and sins, the more precious, electrifying, and amazing God’s grace appears to you. But on the other hand, the more aware you are of God’s grace and acceptance in Christ, the more you are able to drop your denials and self-defenses and admit the true dimensions of your sin. The sin  under all other sins is a lack of joy in Christ.—Tim Keller Discipleship, we might say, is a way to curate your heart, to be attentive to and intentional about what you love. So discipleship is more a matter of hungering and thirsting than of knowing and  believing. Jesus’s command to follow him is a command to align our loves and longings with his—to want what God wants, to desire what God desires, to hunger and thirst after God and crave a world where he is all in all—a vision encapsulated by the shorthand “the kingdom of God.” Jesus is a teacher who doesn’t just inform our intellect but form

Series: RevelationScripture: Revelation 1:3-20 The heart has many dungeons. Bring the Light! Bring the Light!—Mary Oliver Our culture needs the gift of hope more than any of the other theological virtues. The Revelation is a book that overwhelms us with hope – but is only accessible to us if we acknowledge our weakness, and that is awfully hard for us. We don’t want to shed our facades, our pretentiousness.—Marva Dawn Worship is the “imagination station” that incubates our loves and longings so that our cultural endeavors are indexed toward God and his kingdom. If you are passionate about seeking justice, renewing culture, and taking up your vocation to unfurl all of creation’s  potential, you need to invest in the formation of your imagination. You need to curate your heart. You need to worship well. Because you are what you love.—James K. A. Smith Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God.—Martin LutherThe post Living Today in the Light of That Day first appeared on Hope Church

Series: RevelationScripture: Revelation 1:1-8 “We do not need a detailed forecast of future events which has to be laboriously deciphered, but (rather) a vision of Jesus Christ to cheer the faint and encourage the weary.  John’s desire is not to satisfy our curiosity about the future but to stimulate our faithfulness in the present.”—John Stott “Fear God is a call that puts us in our place and all other fears, hopes, and admirations in their place.”—Derek Kidner “If the churches came to understand that the greatest threat to faith today is not hedonism but distraction, perhaps they might begin to appeal anew to a frazzled digital generation. Christian leaders seem to think that they need more distraction to counter the distraction. Their services have degenerated into emotional spasms, their spaces drowned with light and noise and locked shut throughout the day, when their darkness and silence might actually draw those whose minds and souls have grown web-weary.”—Andrew SullivanThe post Attending to Jesus in

Scripture: Psalm 103:1-22 When we have gospel amnesia, our mind may be occupied with    other things, good and necessary things, even Christianly things, but because these have subtly displaced the gospel and it has become dim and distant, we lose sight of that clear and quick path back to abundant grace.—Luma Simms, Gospel Amnesia: Forgetting the Goodness of the News I do not know why I would go In front of you and hide my soul ‘Cause you’re the only one who knows it Yeah, you’re the only one who knows it And I will hide behind my pride I don’t know why I think I can lie ‘Cause there’s a screen on my chest Yeah, there’s a screen on my chest —Twenty One Pilots, “Screen” It takes courage, humiliating courage, to step aside from your own sovereignty and imagined control and begin looking for the gift that comes unmerited. Yes, I’m talking about grace.—Kara Tippetts, The Hardest Peace: Expecting Grace in the Midst of Life’s HardThe post An Old Song For A New Year first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Advent 2016Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7 “I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present, and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach!” —Ebenezer Scrooge “And it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that be truly said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless Us, Every One!” ―Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol The Christmas spirit does not shine out in the Christian snob.  For the Christmas spirit is the spirit of those who, like their Master, live their whole lives on the principle of making themselves poor — spending and being spent — to enrich their fellow men, giving time, trouble, care and concern, to do good to others — and not just their own friends — in whatever way there seems need. There are not as many who show this spirit as there should be. If God in mercy revives us, one of

Series: Advent 2016Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7 “Your worst days are never so bad that you’re beyond the reach of God’s grace. And your best days are never so good that you’re beyond the need of God’s grace.”―Jerry Bridges, Holiness Day by Day: Transformational Thoughts for Your Spiritual Journey Over the past 15 years my ministry has been identified, more than anything else, with healing our image of God. Teachings on the unconditional love of God, Abba, Father, have aimed at dispelling illusions and myths and helping people to experience the God of Jesus Christ. This, I believe, is the main business of religion. Religion is not a matter of learning how to think about God, but of actually encountering Him.—Brennan Manning, Lion and Lamb Everlasting Father. A “father” here is a benevolent protector (cf. Isa. 22:21; Job 29:16), which is the task of the ideal king and is also the way God himself cares for his people (cf. Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Ps. 103:13). (That is, this is not using the   Trinitarian title “Father” for

Series: Advent 2016Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7, Matthew 11:1-6 “Why is power a gift? Because power is for flourishing.  When power is used well, people and the whole cosmos come more alive to what they were meant to be.  And flourishing is the test of power . . . Power at its best is resurrection to full life, to full humanity.  Whenever human   beings become what there were meant to be, when even death cannot finally hold its prisoners, then we can truly speak of power . . . Power is for flourishing – teeming, fruitful, multiplying abundance.  Power creates and shapes an environment where creatures can flourish.”—Andy Crouch “There is no attribute more comforting to His children than that of God’s Sovereignty. Under the most adverse circumstances, in the most severe trials, they believe that Sovereignty has ordained their afflictions, that Sovereignty   overrules them, and that Sovereignty will sanctify them all . . . it is God upon the throne that we love to preach.  It is God upon His throne whom we trust.”—Ch

Series: Advent 2016Scripture: Isaiah 9:1-7, Colossians 2:1-5 The public seems to think that if you can’t maintain the illusion of mental health, then you are not fit to belong to normal society. You become what the Gospel calls a “leper,” referring not to a physical disease but to a condition of exclusion. You are ostracized because you are not perceived as conventionally normal.—Thomas Moore, “Everyone Should Be in Therapy,” The Huffington Post All praise to the fighter of the night Who rides on the light Whose gun is the grace of the God of the sky  —Andrew Peterson, “High Noon” The good news of the kingdom is not freedom from hardship, suffering, and loss. It is the news of a Redeemer who has come to rescue me from myself. His rescue produces change that fundamentally alters my response to these inescapable realities. … And as he changes us, he allows us to be a part of what he is doing in the lives of others. As you respond to the Redeemer’s work in your life, you can learn to be an instrument in his hand

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 4:10-23 Our greatest fear should not be of failure but of succeeding at things in life that don’t really matter. —Francis Chan Faith is to believe what you do not see; the reward of this faith is to see what you believe. —Saint Augustine Good character is the best tombstone. Those who loved you and were helped by you will remember you. So carve your name on hearts and not on marble. —C.H. SpurgeonThe post Real Strength, Real Supply first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 4:8-9 God has given us the Morning Star already: you can go and enjoy the gift on many fine mornings if you get up early enough. What more, you ask do we want? Ah, but we want so much more—something the books on aesthetics take little notice of. But the poets and the mythologies know all about it. We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words—to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to become part of it.  —C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern. Beautiful people do not just happen. ―Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Beauty is not only a terrible thing, it is also

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 4:1-7 “When you stop trying to control your life and instead allow your anxieties and problems to bring you to God in prayer, you shift from worry to watching. You watch God weave his patterns in the story of your life.   Instead of trying to be out front, designing your life, you realize you are inside God’s drama.  As you wait, you begin to see him work, and your life begins to sparkle with wonder. You are learning to trust again.” —Paul Miller, A Praying Life, 73. “Prayer is bringing your helplessness to Jesus.” —Paul Miller, A Praying Life, 55. “Prayer is an expression of who we are . . . We are a living incompleteness. We are a gap, an emptiness that calls for fulfillment.” —Thomas Merton Dear refuge of my weary soul, On Thee, when sorrows rise On Thee, when waves of trouble roll, My fainting hope relies To Thee I tell each rising grief, For Thou alone canst heal Thy Word can bring a sweet relief, For every pain I feel —Anne SteeleThe post A Sweet and P

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 3:12-21 “I have come home at last! This is my real country! I belong here. This is the land I have been looking for all my life, though I never knew it till now…Come further up, come further in!”  —Jewel in C.S. Lewis’ The Last Battle “Over the margins of life comes a whisper, a faint call, a premonition of richer living, which we know we are passing by. Strained by the very mad pace of our daily outer burdens, we are further strained by an inward    uneasiness, because we have hints that there is a way of life vastly richer and deeper than all this hurried existence, a life of unhurried serenity and peace and power.” —Thomas Kelly, A Testament of Devotion “The spiritual world cannot be made suburban. It is always frontier, and if we would live in it, we must accept and even rejoice that it remains untamed.” —Howard R. Macy “There is more More than all this pain More than all the falling down And the getting up again There is more More than we can see From o

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Phillipians 3:1-11 Our most revolutionary, political act is to hope. I have been meditating lately on a remarkable insight by the novelist Marilynne Robinson: “Fear is not a Christian habit of mind.” To be a Christian is to be a person who engages in politics, but without fear. Fear drives us to panic, and no one makes good decisions when panicked. We overestimate some threats and   ignore others. We can’t see clearly, and we’re prone to being manipulated by those who would foment our panic. But we ought not be a panicked people. Our King has told us over and over again, “Be not afraid.” You have already heard good news that brings great joy. The King is alive, is seated on his throne, and he reigns. And not only that: he is also interceding for you at the right of his Father. “Be not afraid.”—James K. A. Smith “The essential content of the Faith, then, includes first of all the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which covers the whole many-sided reality of the divine

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 2:12-30 Our most revolutionary, political act is to hope. I have been meditating lately on a remarkable insight by the novelist Marilynne Robinson: “Fear is not a Christian habit of mind.” To be a Christian is to be a person who engages in politics, but without fear. Fear drives us to panic, and no one makes good decisions when panicked. We overestimate some threats and ignore others. We can’t see clearly, and we’re prone to being manipulated by those who would foment our panic. But we ought not be a panicked people. Our King has told us over and over again, “Be not afraid.” You have already heard good news that brings great joy. The King is alive, is seated on his throne, and he reigns. And not only that: he is also interceding for you at the right of his Father. “Be not afraid.”—James K. A. Smith “The essential content of the Faith, then, includes first of all the glorious Gospel of the blessed God, which covers the whole many-sided reality of the divine p

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 1:27-2:11 “My Dear Wormwood, I note with grave displeasure that your patient has become a Christian . . . There is no need to despair . . . One of our greatest allies at present in the Church itself . . . when he goes inside, he sees the local grocer with a rather oily expression on his face bustling up to offer him one shiny little book containing a liturgy which neither of them understands, and one shabby little book containing corrupt texts of a number of religious lyrics, mostly bad, and in very small print.  When he gets to his pew and looks round him he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided.  You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors.  Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew.  It matters very little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains.  You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy’s side.  No matt

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 1:27-2:11 “The Church is the only institution that primarily exists for the benefit of those who are not its members.” —William Temple “This life, therefore, is not righteousness, but growth in righteousness, not health, but healing, not being but becoming, not rest but exercise. We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it, the process is not yet finished, but it is going on, this is not the end, but it is the road. All does not yet gleam in glory, but all is being purified.” —Martin Luther “Grace is not opposed to effort, it is opposed to earning.  Earning is an attitude. Effort is an action. Grace, you know, does not just have to do with forgiveness of sins alone.” —Dallas WillardThe post Worthy of the Gospel first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 1:18b-26 “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and  timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.”—Teddy Roosevelt “There has been a long tradition which sees the mission of the Church primarily as obedience to a command.  It has been customary to speak of ‘the missionary mandate.’  This way of putting th

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 1:9-18 I asked God for strength, that I might achieve; I was made weak, that I might learn humbly to obey. I asked for health, that I might do greater things; I was given infirmity, that I might do better things. I asked for riches, that I might be happy; I was given poverty, that I might be wise. I asked for power, that I might have the praise of men; I was given weakness, that I might feel the need of God. I asked for all things, that I might enjoy life; I was given life, that I might enjoy all things. I got nothing that I asked for, but everything I hoped for. Almost despite myself, my unspoken prayers were answered. I am among all men most richly blessed. —Prayer of an Anonymous Confederate Soldier You left me, sweet, two legacies, A legacy of love A heavenly father would content, Had he the offer of; You left me boundaries of pain Capacious as the sea, Between eternity and time, Your consciousness and me. —Emily DickinsonThe post The Prayer for Perspect

Series: Joy Beyond the SorrowScripture: Philippians 1:1-11 Consider, for example, Paul’s remarkable prayer for the Christians at Philippi in the opening section of his letter to them: “And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11). Notice the sequence of Paul’s prayer here. If you read  it too quickly, you might come away with the impression that Paul is primarily concerned about knowledge. Indeed, at a glance, given our habits of mind, you might think Paul is praying that the   Christians in    Philippi would deepen their knowledge so that they will know what to love. But look again. In fact, Paul’s prayer is the inverse: he prays that their love might abound more and more because, in some sense, love is the condition for knowledge. It’

Series: Words of LifeScripture: Psalm 1 “The person who knows that she is justified is a person of unbounded confidence and assurance. She knows that none of her failures can overturn the divine verdict.  It is guaranteed and settled in heaven forever.”—Sinclair Ferguson “People often think of Christianity as a kind of bargain in which God says “If you keep a lot of rules, I’ll reward you, and if you don’t, I’ll do the other thing.” I don’t think that is the best way of looking at it.  I would much rather say that every time you make a choice you are turning the central part of you, that part of you that chooses, into something a little different than it was before.  And taking your life as a whole with all your innumerable choices all your life long you are slowly turning this central thing into a heavenly creature or into a hellish creature, either into a creature that is in harmony with God, and other creatures and with itself or else into one that is in a state of war with God and with other creatures and