Hope Presbyterian Church In Winston-salem Sermons

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 4:2-18 “There will always be worse deaths than you expected. But [God] says he raises you from them, and if you believe that, you’re finally free.” Robert Capon “[The] outpouring love & support I’ve received has made me realize I’m more than my accomplishments and gymnastics which I never truly believed before.” Simone Biles “In whatever trouble comes to us, we should always set our eyes on God’s purpose to train us to think little of this present life and inspire us to think more about the future life. For God knows well that we are greatly inclined to love this world by natural instinct. Thus, He uses the best means to draw us back and shake us from our slumber, so that we don’t become entirely stuck in the mire of our love for this world.”  John CalvinThe post Such a Great Cloud of Witnesses first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 3:17-4:1 “That she was his half, she had no doubt at all. He needed her. At times she knew with a joyous ache that she completed him, just as she knew with the same joy that she needed him and he completed her. How beautiful a thing it was, she thought, to be a half, to be completed by such another half! When had there ever been such a yearning of halves toward each other, such a longing, even in quarrels, to be whole. And sometimes they would be whole.” Wendell Berry, “A Jonquil for Mary Penn” in Fidelity “As I look back over the years of my pragmatic parenting, I’m saddened, but I am also gladdened, for you’ve always been faithful to your covenant love, even when I was overbearing and under-believing. The move from parenting by grit to parenting by grace has been a fitful but fruitful journey. Take me deeper; take me further.” Scotty Smith, “A Prayer for Parenting and Re-Parenting by Grace” “Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, white-washing a wall, dri

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 3:4-16 Q. Since we have been delivered from our misery by grace through Christ without any merit of our own, why then should we do good works? A. Because Christ, having redeemed us by his blood, is also restoring us by his Spirit into his image, so that with our whole lives we may show that we are thankful to God for his benefits, so that he may be praised through us, so that we may be assured of our faith by its fruits, and so that by our godly living our neighbors may be won over to Christ. Heidelberg Catechism #86 “Well, then, says I, what’s the use you learning to do right when it’s troublesome to do right and ain’t no trouble to do wrong, and the wages is just the same? I was stuck. I couldn’t answer that. So I reckoned I wouldn’t bother no more about it, but after this always do whichever come handiest at the time.” Huckleberry Finn “Sin is a spiritual and moral malignancy. Left unchecked, it can spread throughout our entire inner being and contami

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 2:8-3:3 “I wonder If there is any image more beautiful Than the embrace of the one Who trains, equips, releases you And when you fail Still embraces you And reminds you that your value Comes from who you are Not what you did.”  Sarah Yardley “The life of grace is not an effort on our part to achieve a goal we set ourselves. It is a continually renewed attempt simply to believe that someone else has done all the achieving that is needed and to live in relationship with that person, whether we achieve or not. If that doesn’t seem like much to you, you’re right: it isn’t. And, as a matter of fact, the life of grace is even less than that. It’s not even our life at all, but the life of that Someone Else rising like a tide in the ruins of our death.” Robert Capon, Between Noon & Three “If Christ isn’t really King, then another god with another story of change is needed to get through the day.” Brian Fikkert and Kelly Kapic, Becoming WholeThe post The Mathemat

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 1:24-2:7 “… [E]ven when I am in the middle of a dark time and there are no signs that it will end, I want to be the bird that sings in anticipation of the good things that I trust are coming.” Jane “Nightbirde” Claudio “For those united to him, the heart of Jesus is not a rental; it is your new permanent residence. You are not a tenant; you are a child. His heart is not a ticking time bomb; his heart is the green pastures and still waters of endless reassurances of his presence and comfort, whatever our present spiritual accomplishments. It is who he is.” Dane Ortlund, Gentle and Lowly “Go back, go back to the ancient paths Lash your heart to the ancient mast And hold on, boy, whatever you do To the hope that’s taken hold of you And you’ll find your way You’ll find your way If love is what you’re looking for The old roads lead to an open door And you’ll find your way You’ll find your way” Andrew Peterson, “You’ll Find Your Way”The post Fullness first app

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 1:15-23 “No, the Bible isn’t a book of rules, or a book of heroes. The Bible is most of all a Story. It’s an adventure story about a young Hero who comes from a far country to win back his lost treasure. It’s a love story about a brave Prince who leaves his palace, his throne – everything – to rescue the one he loves. It’s like the most wonderful of fairy tales that has come true in real life! You see, the best thing about this Story is – it’s true!” Sally Lloyd-Jones, Introduction to The Jesus Storybook Bible “For this is the marriage of heaven and earth: Perfect Myth and Perfect Fact: claiming not only our love and our obedience, but also our wonder and delight, addressed to the child and the poet in each of us no less than to the moralist and the philosopher.” C.S. Lewis, “Myth Became Fact” in God in the Dock “On the third day He rose from the dead, showed Himself to His disciples for forty days, then ascended into heaven to receive His glory at the F

Series: Colossians: A Love SupremeScripture: Colossians 1:1-14 “During the year 1957, I experienced, by the grace of God, a spiritual awakening which was to lead me to a richer, fuller, more productive life. At that time, in gratitude, I humbly asked to be given the means and privilege to make others happy through music. I feel this has been granted through His grace. ALL PRAISE TO GOD. … I do perceive and have been duly re-informed of His OMNIPOTENCE, and of our need for, and dependence on Him. At this time I would like to tell you that NO MATTER WHAT … IT IS WITH GOD. HE IS GRACIOUS AND MERCIFUL. HIS WAY IS IN LOVE, THROUGH WHICH WE ALL ARE. IT IS TRULY— A LOVE SUPREME—.” John Coltrane “[Faith] is believing the specific promises of God; no longer turning our backs on them, no longer calling God a liar, but raising the empty hands of faith and accepting that finished work of Christ as it was fulfilled in history upon the cross.” Francis Schaeffer BUTTERCUP: I fear I’ll never see you again. WESTLEY: Of course

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Habakkuk 3:1-19 “Batter my heart, three-personed God, for youAs y et but knock, breathe, shine, and seek to mend; That I may rise, and stand, o’erthrow me, and bendY our force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.” Excerpt from “Batter My Heart,” John Donne “The transition from the complaining prophet to the rejoicing prophet surely must be seen as a work of God’s sovereign grace. Nothing else could explain how a person could be joyful and contented in face of the calamities Habakkuk had to undergo. May the Lord himself continue to provide the grace of life to people of this generation by the faith that justifies.” O. Palmer Robertson “Contrary to what we expect to be the case, the deeper into weakness and suffering and testing we go, the deeper Christ’s solidarity with us. As we go down into pain and anguish, we are descending ever deeper into Christ’s very heart, not away from it. Look to Christ. He deals gently with you. It’s the only way he knows how to be.” Dane Ortlund

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Habakkuk 2:2-20 “The world is bigger than my little box. I’m not going to be playing this game forever. So I can’t be expected to stay in this box. … It’s been billions of people on this earth. We really are small, if you look at it from a universe perspective. There’s a lot of stuff that we get distracted by, or we chasing, to make us feel a certain way.” Kevin Durant “Vainglory is the excessive and disordered desire for recognition and approval from others. Whether we are successful in gaining this approval or not, we all know what it is like to desire public acknowledgement and approval of our own person or our accomplishments. There is a deep part of us that longs to be known and approved of, and to have this acknowledged.” Rebecca DeYoung, Glittering Vices “I stand here waiting for you to bang the gong To crash the critic saying, ‘Is it right or is it wrong?’ If only fame had an IV, baby, could I bear Being away from you? I found the vein, put it in here I live for the ap

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Habakkuk 1:1-2:1 “It seems to me that the older I get the less I think I really understand God. Which is not to say that I don’t love and trust him. On the contrary, as life goes on, my love and trust grow deeper, but my struggle with what God does or allows grows deeper too. … There are things I don’t understand about God, but they flood me with gratitude because I couldn’t live without the reality of their truth, accepted by faith. The supreme example is, of course, the cross itself. Who is bold enough to say they understand exactly how the cross has dealt with our deepest needs? And yet we cling to the fact that, by God’s grace and on the authority of God’s Word, it has.” Christopher Wright “Only if your God can say things that outrage you and make you struggle, as in a real friendship or marriage, only then will you know that you have gotten hold of a real God and not a figment of your imagination.” Tim Keller “When everything that’s right feels wrong And all of my belief

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Joel 3 “There is nothing more essential for the people of God than to hear their God repeating to them amid all their changing circumstances, ‘I will be with you’ or ‘I will not forsake you.’” Dale Ralph Davis “Salvation is not a matter of getting a reward that will make up for a rotten deal; it is a matter of entering by faith into the happiness … that has been pounding on our door all along. … [God] has not taken the disasters out of life, he has become our Life in the midst of disasters. But if we believe that! If we live through the irremovable disasters trusting that every last, bitter twist of fate is nothing but Jesus, Jesus, Jesus — well, that is rather more happiness than anyone could possibly have bargained for here. It is being in a snug harbor all through a stormy voyage. It is being home free all the while we were lost.”   Robert Capon “Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight. At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more. When he bares his teeth, winte

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Joel 2:12-32 “We like to tell ourselves a story: ‘This is not who we are.’ But every single week Christians make a confession: ‘This is who we are. Forgive us.’” James K.A. Smith “Meek. Humble. Gentle. Jesus is not trigger-happy. Not harsh, reactionary, easily exasperated. He is the most understanding person in the universe. The posture most natural to him is not a pointed finger but open arms.” Dane Ortlund “To be grateful for an unanswered prayer, to give thanks in a state of interior desolation, to trust in the love of God in the face of the marvels, cruel circumstances, obscenities, and commonplaces of life is to whisper a doxology in darkness.” Brennan ManningThe post Religion Isn’t Enough first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Joel 1:1-2:11 “That God is love, that he has set his love upon us, that he loves us still, and that his love will never let us go, is the foundation not only of all reality, but of Christian confidence and Christian stability too. Our stability is not only impossible, but actually inconceivable, apart from the steadfastness of the love of God.” John Stott “It might sound strange to consider grief a way to compassion. But it is. Grief asks me to allow the sins of the world—my own included—to pierce my heart and make me shed tears, many tears, for them. … I am beginning to see that much of praying is grieving. This grief is so deep not just because the human sin is so great, but also—and more so—because the divine love is so boundless.” Henri Nouwen “Sometimes I’m up, sometimes I’m down Oh, yes, Lord Sometimes I’m almost level to the ground Oh, yes, Lord Oh, nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Nobody knows but Jesus Nobody knows the trouble I’ve seen Glory, hallelujah!” Tradition

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Jonah 4:1-11 “There is tremendous relief in knowing that his love to me is utterly realistic, based at every point on prior knowledge of the worst about me, so that no discovery now can disillusion him about me, in the way I am so often disillusioned about myself, and quench his determination to bless me.” JI Packer “The Christian life, far from transforming us into super-spiritual, quasi-angelic beings, is actually a quest to recover our humanity.” Michael Wittmer “Grace always bats last.” Anne LamottThe post When Winning Doesn’t Take Care of Everything first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Jonah 3:1-10 “O Joy that seekest me through pain, I cannot close my heart to thee; I trace the rainbow through the rain, And feel the promise is not vain, That morn shall tearless be.”                            George Matheson “It is not so much that case that God has a mission for his church in the world as that God has a church for his mission in the world; Mission was not made for the church; the church was made for mission – God’s mission.” Christopher Wright “The Christian life, far from transforming us into super-spiritual, quasi-angelic beings, is actually a quest to recover our humanity.” Michael Wittmer “God speaks to us: not only to move us to do what he wants, but to enable us to know him so that we may love him.  Therefore, God sends his word to us in the character of both information and invitation. It comes to woo us as well as to instruct us; it not merely puts us in the picture of what God has done and is doing but also calls us into personal communion with th

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Jonah 2:1-10 “Other refuge have I none; Hangs my helpless soul on thee; Leave, ah! Leave me not alone; Still support and comfort me. All my trust on thee is stayed; All my help from thee I bring; Cover my defenseless head With the shadow of thy wing”  Charles Wesley “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  Romans 6:23The post Salvation Belongs to the Lord! first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Jonah 1:4-17 “O Light, that followest all my way, I yield my flickering torch to Thee; My heart restores its borrowed ray, That in Thy sunshine’s blaze its day May brighter, fairer be.”  George Matheson  “A bruised reed he will not break, and a faintly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not grow faint or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law.”  Isaiah 42:3-4The post Intervention first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Minor ProphetsScripture: Jonah 1:1-4 “O Love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee; I give thee back the life I owe, That in thine ocean depths its flow May richer, fuller be.”  George Matheson “Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me, and your right hand shall hold me.” Psalm 139:7-10The post No Place to Run first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:1-26 “The most fantastic of all Christian claims is that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. It strains our credulity to the limit. Human beings have tried with all possible ingenuity both to defy and to deny death. But only Christ has claimed to conquer it, that is, to defeat it in his own experience, and, to deprive it of its power over others.”  John Stott “I find that Holy Week is draining; no matter how many times I have lived through his crucifixion, my anxiety about his resurrection is undiminished – I am terrified that, this year, it won’t happen; that, that year, it didn’t. Anyone can be sentimental about the Nativity; any fool can feel like a Christian at Christmas. But Easter is the main event; if you don’t believe in the resurrection, you’re not a believer.”  John Irving, A Prayer for Owen Meany “Make no mistake: if He rose at all it was as His body; if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules reknit, the amino acids rekindle, the Church will fall . . . Let us

Scripture: Matthew 21:12-16 “Come to your Temple here with liberation And overturn these tables of exchange, Restore in me my lost imagination, Begin in me for good the pure change.” Malcolm Guite “Ponder the one truth that no one can reveal to you except God: he loves you just as much while you are sinning as he does while you are praying—probably more. That truth will never free you to sin; it will only free you to worship.” Larry Crabb “Almost everything that corrupts us is something we use to fill some kind of ache, some kind of emptiness…. And the joy of the Christian life is that those aches, those needs, that emptiness that we’re going to encounter because we’re human, is ultimately met in Christ, and that everything that we try to fill it with that is not Christ will never really fill it.” Rich MullinsThe post When the Anger of Jesus is Also the Welcome of God first appeared on Hope Church PCA.