Hope Presbyterian Church In Winston-salem Sermons

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Mark 9:2-10, John 14:1-3, John 17:1-5, Revelation 21:1-6 “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. … There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. … But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit – immortal horrors or everlasting splendors.”  CS Lewis, The Weight of Glory “The inner logic of this vision of holistic salvation is that the creator has not given up on creation and is working to salvage and restore the world (human and nonhuman) to the fullness of shalom and flourishing intended from the beginning. And redeemed human beings, renewed in God’s image, are to work toward and embody this vision in their daily lives.” Richard Middle

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Romans 6:23, 1 Corinthians 15:35-58, Philippians 3:21 “Even for God’s children death is a valley of shadows and darkness. But, as Richard Baxter put it, ‘Christ leads me through no darker rooms than he went through before.’ And in that darkness it’s not God but death that comes as a stranger. The one who stands beyond death will be the loving God for whom we have been longing all these years.”  Neil Plantinga “My present body – ‘brother ass,’ as Fancis of Assisi would have me call it – is like a student’s old jalopy; care for it as I will, it goes precariously and never very well, and often lets me and my Master down (very frustrating!). But my new body will feel and behave like a Rolls-Royce, and then my service will no longer be spoiled.”  J.I. Packer “In heaven I will be free to jump up, dance, kick, and do aerobics. If possible, somewhere, sometime before the party gets going, sometime before the guests are called to the banquet table at the Wedding Feast of the Lamb,

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Matthew 16:18, Ephesians 5:25-27, 1 Peter 2:9-10 “To be in Christ, is, by definition, to be part of something much bigger, more comprehensive, and more wonderful than you.” Rankin Wilbourne “Membership in a local church means joining your imperfect self to many other imperfect selves to form an imperfect community that, through Jesus, embarks on a journey toward a better future . . . together.” Scott Sauls “He can no longer have God for his father, who has not the church for his mother.” Cyprian of CarthageThe post The Disappointing, Disenchanting, and Dearly-loved Bride of Christ first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Scripture: Psalm 3 “Our name has nothing to do with the historical meaning. There is a great quote that says, ‘Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle.’ … Every single person walking down the street is fighting a great battle, whether or not you can see it.” Joy Williams, The Civil Wars “The life of David is full of incidents like this. Everyone’s life is. Not a palace coup for most of us…, but conflict and failure and fear, love and betrayal, loss and salvation. Every day is a story, a morning beginning and evening ending that are boundaries for people who go about their tasks with more or less purpose, go to war, love others, earn a living, scheme and sin and believe.” Eugene Peterson, Answering God: The Psalms As Tools For Prayer “Together we turn to the Psalms and pray through them, word by word, personalizing them for what is on our heart. In the dry, empty place, the Word comes alive. It shapes our lament. Praying this way challenges me at the deepest part of my being. It strips my sou

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: John 14:15-26, Romans 8:12-17 “A church can become crowded with legitimate causes, concerns, and needs. And it can be hard to find Jesus.” Ray Ortlund “The work of the Holy Spirit is the honoring of Jesus Christ . . .  the work of the Holy Spirit is simply to thrill us with Christ.” Dale Bruner “Spirit of God, descend upon my heart. Wean it from earth; through all its pulses move; Stoop to my weakness, mighty as Thou art; and make me love Thee as I ought to love. I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies, No sudden rending of the veil of clay, No angel vision, no opening skies; but take the dimness of my soul away.” George CrolyThe post The Greatest Gift first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Acts 1:10-11, Matthew 24:36-44, 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18, Revelation 20:11-15 “The picture of Jesus as the coming Judge is the central feature of another absolutely vital and non-negotiable Christian belief: that there will indeed be a judgment in which the creator God will set the world right once and for all. The word judgment carries negative overtones for a good many people in our liberal and postliberal world. We need to remind ourselves that throughout the Bible, not least in the Psalms, God’s coming judgment is a good thing, something to be celebrated, longed for, yearned over. It causes people to shout for joy and the trees of the field to clap their hands. In a world of systematic injustice, bullying, violence, arrogance, and oppression, the thought that there might come a day when the wicked are firmly put in their place and the poor and weak are given their due is the best news there can be. Faced with a world in rebellion, a world full of exploitation and wicke

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Acts 1:1-12, Romans 8:33-34, and Hebrews 10:11-14 “Lo! the incarnate God, ascended, Pleads the merit of His blood; Venture on Him, venture wholly; Let no other trust intrude: None but Jesus, none but Jesus, Can do helpless sinners good.” Joseph Hart “The greatest impediment to the mission of the church is not the evils outside of the church (in our culture and our city), but the cynicism and apathy inside the church.”  Rev. Sandy Willson “Christ’s intercession reflects how profoundly personal our rescue is. If we knew about Christ’s death and resurrection but not his intercession, we would be tempted to view our salvation in overly formulaic terms. It would feel more mechanical than is true to who Christ truly is. His interceding for us reflects his heart . . . The intercession of Christ is his heart connecting our heart to the Father’s heart . . . What’s the point of saying Christ saves ‘to the uttermost’? We who know our hearts understand. We are to-the-uttermost sinner

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Romans 4:18-25 “She who dies with the most checked boxes wins, right? Wrong…. [Accomplishment and ambition] are simply not the drivers of our happiness. By the time many people figure this out on their own, they have spent a lifetime checking things off lists, yet are unhappy and don’t know why.” Arthur Brooks “We delude ourselves into thinking that our own salvation can be achieved by keeping books on others …. as if putting ourselves at the head of a whole column marching in the wrong direction somehow made us less lost than the rest of the troops. It would be funny if it were not fatal; but fatal it is, because grace works only in those who accept their lostness. Jesus came to call sinners, not the pseudo-righteous; he came to raise the dead, not to buy drinks for the marginally alive.” Robert Capon “At times I feel Christ’s presence flooding my meager heart. At other times I cling on for dear life, not knowing the end of the story. But I must stake my life in this cla

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Matthew 1:18-21, Mark 10:42-45, Philippians 2:5-11, Hebrews 1:1-4 “I am a Jew, but I am enthralled by the luminous figure of the Nazarene . . . Jesus is too colossal for the pen of the phrase-mongers, however artful . . . No man can read the Gospels without feeling the actual presence of Jesus. His personality pulsates in every word.”  Albert Einstein “At the cross, the most powerful man who ever lived submitted to the most brutal death ever died, to save the powerless. Christianity does not glorify violence. It humiliates it.”  Rebecca McLaughlin, Confronting Christianity Larry King, when asked if he could interview anyone from all of history, said, “Jesus Christ . . . I would like to ask him if he was indeed virgin-born. The answer to that question would define history for me.” “You can shut him up for a fool, you can spit at him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call him Lord and God, but let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about his be

Scripture: Psalm 23:1-6 “On the one hand [the Christian faith] is the most pessimistic religion in the world, for it recognizes the tragic and awful dimensions of man’s sin. But on the other hand it is the most optimistic religion in the world, for it recognizes the heightening dimensions of God’s grace and how God’s grace can come in and pick up…. Christianity, therefore, becomes the greatest pessimistic optimistic religion in the world…. God’s grace stands over man’s sin.” Martin Luther King, Jr. “I could more easily contain Niagara Falls in a teacup than I can comprehend the wild, uncontainable love of God.” Brennan Manning “God’s blessings don’t pursue temporarily—but relentlessly…. When I’m in a wilderness, His mercy and goodness run after me. When I’m hurting, His grace hunts for me. When I’m plagued by problems, His goodness pursues me. No matter where I go, He has his two blessing men right there in hot pursuit: goodness and mercy, and no shadow of death can overshadow the goodness and mercy that shad

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Genesis 1:1-10, Psalm 8:3-6, Psalm 19:1-6, “Readers looking for seven easy steps to cultural influence will have to look elsewhere – because I do not happen to believe that anything lasting is easy.  What we most have to learn about being creators of culture is the very thing we human beings find hardest to learn: everything about our calling, from start to finish, is a gift.  What is most needed in our time are Christians who are deeply serious about cultivating and creating but who wear that seriousness lightly – who are not desperately trying to change the world but who also wake up every morning eager to create.” Andy Crouch “Creation was a way for God to spend himself . . . Creation is an act of imaginative love.”   Cornelius Plantinga “The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists, as the mother can love the unborn child.”  G.K.

Series: The Apostles' CreedScripture: Isaiah 44:6; Mark 1:14-15; John 20:30-31; 2 Timothy 1:12b “The Gospel does not become public truth for a society by being propagated as a theory or as a worldview and certainly not as a religion. It can become public truth only insofar as it is embodied in a society (the church) which is both “abiding in” Christ and engaged in the life of the world.” Lesslie Newbigin, Proper Confidence, 39. “Every Sunday millions of Christians recite the creed. Some sleepwalk through it thinking of other things, some puzzle over the strange language, some find offense in what it seems to say.  Perhaps few of them fully appreciate what a remarkable thing they are doing. Would they keep doing it if they grasped how different it made them in today’s world? Would they keep on saying these words if they really knew what they implied? In a world that celebrates individuality, they are actually doing something together. In an age that avoids commitment, they pledge themselves to a set of convict

Scripture: 1 Timothy 6:11-21 “… we have to give our mind, time and energy to both flight and pursuit. Once we see evil as the evil it is, we will want to flee from it, and once we see goodness as the good it is, we will want to pursue it.” John Stott “… the imperatives exhort Timothy to persevere both in his life in Christ and in his ministry (the present) and thereby to secure the awaited prize (the future), by being reminded of his beginnings – God’s call and his own response (the past).” Gordon FeeThe post Get a Life! True Year’s Resolutions first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Advent 2020Scripture: Isaiah 64:1-12 Now some are lost in shopping malls and some on battlefields And some are lost in suburbs and some on capitol hills Some are lost on terminal wards or in a nursing home And some are equally as lost in between their headphones But whatever your coordinates on your map of shame Rather close or far away we’re all lost just the same The birth of births was like a death Under that hallowed star Still every father know and cares Where his sons and daughters are Bill Mallonee, “Every Father Knows” “It’s still not Christmas, but it’s also still not the great last Advent, the last coming of Christ. Through all the Advents of our life that we celebrate runs the longing for the last Advent, when the word will be: ‘See, I am making all things new’ (Rev. 21:5).” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, God is in the Manger O King within the child within the clay, O hidden King who shapes us in the play Of all creation. Shape us for the day Your coming Kingdom comes into its own. Malcom Guite, O Re

Series: Advent 2020Scripture: Isaiah 35:1-10 “It may be possible for each to think too much of his own potential glory hereafter; it is hardly possible for him to think too often or too deeply about that of his neighbor. The load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor’s glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else be a horror and a corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in light of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all pl

Series: Advent 2020Scripture: Isaiah 11:1-10 “The celebration of Advent is possible only to those who are troubled in soul, who know themselves to be poor and imperfect, and who look forward to something greater to come . . . Life in a prison cell may well be compared to Advent; one waits, hopes, and does this, that, or the other – things that are really of no consequence – the door is shut, and can be opened only from the outside.” Dietrich Bonhoeffer, from Tegel Prison, 1943 “As a general rule, Americans are a people of action. We don’t take long lunches like the French. We don’t take siestas like the Spanish . . . we Americans think of ourselves as busy, busy, busy making things happen . . . and we are a bit impatient with those who aren’t as full of energy as we are. We don’t like passivity. We don’t like waiting around. So the theme of waiting and watching that permeates the Advent season strikes a false note with us. We give lip service to it, but we don’t take it very seriously. We don’t want to sit ar

Series: Advent 2020Scripture: Isaiah 61:1-11 Broken bottles, broken plates Broken switches, broken gates Broken dishes, broken parts Streets are filled with broken hearts Broken words never meant to be spoken Everything is broken Bob Dylan, “Everything is Broken” A prison cell, in which one waits, hopes, does various unessential things, and is completely dependent on the fact that the door of freedom has to be opened from the outside, is not a bad picture of Advent. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison When we read in the Old Testament that God is just and righteous …. it is much more like a verb than a noun, because it refers to the power of God to make right what has been wrong. That in itself sounds inoffensive enough, but the radical message underlying it, and the one we resist, is that God does this right-making in spite of our resistance.  Fleming Rutledge, The CrucifixionThe post When the Wrong Seems Oft So Strong first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Face to Face with JesusScripture: John 18:33-38 “Enemy-occupied territory—that is what this world is. Christianity is the story of how the rightful king has landed, you might say landed in disguise, and is calling us all to take part in a great campaign of sabotage.” CS Lewis “Anything must be true before it can significantly claim other merits. Without truth all else is worthless.” Felix Fernandez “Truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that unless we love the truth we cannot know it.” Blaise PascalThe post True News for a Fake News Culture first appeared on Hope Church PCA.

Series: Face to Face with JesusScripture: Mark 10:17-31 “The sins I once feared to lose became a delight to dismiss. You turned them out and took their place, pleasanter than any pleasure.”  Saint Augustine “A religion that costs nothing is worth nothing! A cheap Christianity, without a cross, will prove in the end a useless Christianity, without a crown.”  J.C. Ryle “You can survive on your own.  You can grow strong on your own. You can even prevail on your own.  But you cannot become human on your own.  Surely that is why, in Jesus’ sad joke, the rich man has as hard a time getting into Paradise as that camel through the needle’s eye.  Because with his credit card in his pocket, the rich man is so effective at getting for himself everything that he needs that he does not see that what he needs more than anything else in the world can be had only as a gift.  He does not see that the one thing a clenched fist cannot do is accept, even from God himself, a helping hand.”  Frederick Buechner “Things! Burn them,

Series: Face to Face with JesusScripture: Mark 8:27-35 “The cross comes before the crown, and tomorrow is a Monday morning.” C.S. Lewis “The religious see God as useful; gospel-believing Christians see God as beautiful.” Tim Keller “To bind a Roman citizen is a crime, to flog him is an abomination, to kill him is almost an act of murder: to crucify him is – What? There is no fitting word that can possibly describe so horrible a deed.” CiceroThe post The Cross Comes Before the Crown first appeared on Hope Church PCA.