Picking up where last week left off, Pastor Matt Sturdevant continues this two-week series through the book of Esther by shifting the focus from what we believe to how we actually live. The central question he puts before the congregation is this: how do I practically live today in light of God's sovereignty? Using Esther 4:13-16 as his anchor text, Pastor Matt defines faith not as certainty about an outcome, but as confidence in God that enables obedience when the outcome is uncertain — a definition beautifully illustrated by Esther's own words, "If I perish, I perish."

From there, Pastor Matt walks through ten practical, Biblical principles for navigating uncertainty. After briefly reviewing the first three from last week — accepting what we cannot control, trusting God even when we can't see what He's doing, and believing God can use us where we are — he unpacks seven more. These include not facing uncertainty alone, praying before panicking, refusing to let fear make our decisions, obeying what God has already made clear, acting wisely rather than recklessly, trusting God with what happens after we obey, and remembering that in the end, God wins. Each principle is grounded in the story of Esther and reinforced with Scripture, drawing from passages like Philippians 4:6-7, John 14:15, Matthew 10:16, and Romans 8:35-37.

Pastor Matt closes with a powerful reminder that Esther's story of deliverance ultimately points to the greater deliverance found in Jesus Christ. While not every believer receives an "Esther chapter nine" ending to their struggles in this life, Christians can walk with confidence because the resurrection of Jesus means that sin, suffering, and death do not get the final word. As Hebrews 4:16 reminds us, we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence — not because we have all the answers, but because we know the One who does.

Pastor Matt Sturdevant and the pastoral staff of Hope Church continue their two-week series through the Book of Esther, using the Three C Podcast to go deeper than Sunday morning allowed. The big idea of the series is this: certainty is not knowing what will happen next — it is knowing who you can trust when you don't know what's coming. The team unpacks three anchoring truths: God is in control even when we are not, God is working even when we cannot see it, and God has a purpose even when we do not understand it. They also offer a crucial warning — the message of Esther is not that trusting God guarantees the outcome we want. The answer to an uncertain world is not a principle; it's a person — Jesus Christ.

The podcast then goes several layers deeper into the historical and Biblical context of the story. Pastor Matt draws a fascinating line connecting Haman the Agagite back to Agag, the Amalekite king whom King Saul failed to destroy in 1 Sam. 15, and traces Mordecai's lineage back to the house of Kish in the tribe of Benjamin — the same lineage as Saul himself. This means the conflict between Mordecai and Haman is, in many ways, a generational rematch of Saul versus Agag. Even further, Haman's plot to annihilate every Jew across all 127 provinces is not merely a political threat — it is an assault on God's covenant promise to Abraham in Gen. 12 and Gen. 22, and ultimately an attempt to destroy the messianic line before the Messiah could come.

The team then moves into application, wrestling with the tension between trusting God and falling into passivity. Using a framework of opportunity, obedience, and outcome, they make clear that God provides the opportunities and governs the outcomes, while human responsibility lives in the middle — faithful obedience. They walk through a sweeping list of things we can influence but cannot control: other people's decisions, our children's faith, our health, our reputations, and the growth of the church. The takeaway is both humbling and freeing — we are responsible for our response and our faithfulness, and we can trust God with everything else.

Pastor Matt Sturdevant opens a two-week series called Finding Certainty in an Uncertain World by asking a simple but piercing question: what are you uncertain about right now? Whether it's your job, your marriage, your health, your kids, or the economy, Pastor Matt establishes that uncertainty isn't an unusual season of life — it's simply part of life in a broken world. Beneath that uncertainty, he identifies another struggle: our deep desire to be in control. Yet as he points out, there are things we can influence that we simply cannot control, and one of life's most unsettling discoveries is just how little control we actually have.

To wrestle with this, Pastor Matt takes the congregation into the Book of Esther — a real account of a young Jewish orphan who found herself living in a world of uncertainty about 2500 years ago. One of the most striking features of Esther is that God's name is never mentioned once in the entire book, yet His fingerprints are everywhere. From this, Pastor Matt draws three certainties: God is in control even when we are not, God is working even when we cannot see it, and God has a purpose even when we do not understand it. As Proverbs 19:21 reminds us, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand."

The sermon builds toward its most important point: the answer to an uncertain world is not a principle — it's a person. Our deepest problem isn't uncertainty; it's sin. But Romans 5:8 declares, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The cross proves God's love, and the resurrection proves Jesus can save. Because of this, Pastor Matt redefines certainty not as knowing what will happen next, but as knowing who you can trust when you don't — and that trust is grounded in Jesus Christ.

Pastor Matt Sturdevant opened the sermon with a striking passage from C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, in which the demon Screwtape reassures his apprentice Wormwood not to panic just because their "patient" has become a Christian — because the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in their favor. That sobering image set the tone for the entire message: becoming a follower of Jesus is only the beginning. Every disciple must be intentional about renewing their mind, transforming their heart, and deploying their hands — because if we do nothing, we drift, and we drift in the wrong direction.

The heart of the sermon centered on the big idea that every follower of Jesus has been intentionally placed where they are to represent Christ and help others discover His ways. Pastor Matt walked through three key points: every disciple is sent, ordinary life carries extraordinary purpose, and ordinary faithfulness creates eternal impact. To make that real and practical, he outlined a simple, non-weird framework for living as a sent person: notice the people God has already placed around you, pray for them specifically, care for them genuinely, share naturally about Jesus, invite them to take a next step, and simply walk with them — whether they respond to the gospel or not.

The podcast discussion that followed dug deeper into what this actually looks like in everyday life. The team unpacked the danger of two opposite errors — words without a matching life, and a life without words — pushing back on the popular but historically questionable quote often attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words." The truth, Pastor Matt argued, is that good works make the gospel believable, but they cannot make it understandable. Words are necessary. And when it comes to not knowing enough to share your faith, the answer is probably less than you think — because a personal testimony of "I was one way, Jesus entered my life, and now I'm different" is a powerful and accessible starting point for anyone.

In the closing message of the "Fully Engaged" series, Pastor Matt brings the six-week journey to a powerful conclusion with a simple but weighty truth: every follower of Jesus has been intentionally placed where they are to represent Christ and help others discover His way. Anchoring the message in the Great Commission from Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 1:8, Pastor Matt challenges the idea that ministry is reserved for pastors and missionaries. If you are a disciple, you are sent — to your workplace, your neighborhood, your school, your family — because there are people in your life that no one else can reach the way you can.

Drawing from 2 Corinthians 5:17-21, Pastor Matt paints a vivid picture of what it looks like to live as an ambassador of Jesus. Just as an ambassador lives in one country while representing another, followers of Jesus live in this world while belonging to another kingdom. That means our words, our actions, and the way we carry ourselves all matter — because people are forming impressions of Jesus based on how we live. As Pastor Matt puts it, the greatest obstacle to the gospel may not be persecution, but inconsistency.

Wrapping up with Jesus' own words in Matthew 5:13-16, Pastor Matt reminds us that we are called to be both salt and light — influencing and revealing the character of God in the most ordinary moments of life. We shouldn't wait for some spectacular opportunity to be used by God. Showing up, loving people, praying, inviting, serving, and living with integrity — that is ordinary faithfulness. And when ordinary faithfulness is placed in the hands of an extraordinary God, it leads to eternal impact.

In this episode of the Three C Podcast, Pastor Matt Sturdevant and the pastoral staff of Hope Church continue their "Fully Engaged" sermon series by going deeper into the meaning of ministry. Drawing from a definition by Dr. Wilson, Pastor Matt unpacks ministry phrase by phrase: it begins with participating with God, recognizing that God is already at work and invites us to join Him, as seen in 1 Corinthians 3:9 and John 5:19. It also means cooperating with people, because there are no "Lone Ranger" Christians in Scripture — ministry is a team effort that requires humility, patience, and putting the mission above personal preferences, as Paul describes in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4:16. Ultimately, ministry is about serving others to meet their needs, fulfilling our calling, and bringing glory to God, as Matthew 5:16 and 1 Corinthians 10:31 remind us.

The conversation then turns to spiritual gifts — special abilities given by the Holy Spirit to every follower of Jesus at the moment of salvation. Pastor Matt emphasizes that there are no un-gifted believers, pointing to key passages in Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12, Ephesians 4, and 1 Peter 4. The staff shares personal stories of how they discovered their own gifts through trial, service, and affirmation from others, reinforcing the principle that you often discover your gifts by using them, not by waiting until you've figured everything out. Pastor Matt also draws an important distinction between spiritual gifts and spiritual responsibilities — just because you don't have the gift of evangelism, for example, doesn't excuse you from sharing your faith.

The episode wraps up with a candid discussion on spiritual consumerism versus contribution. The staff challenges listeners to examine their motives and move from simply receiving to actively serving. Pastor Matt offers a practical pathway — pray, explore, try, evaluate, and commit — and encourages everyone to connect with the church's discipleship pastor to find a place to get in the game. As Pastor Matt puts it, Jesus didn't save us from something; He saved us for something.

In this fifth week of the "Fully Engaged" series, Pastor Matt steps back to connect the dots of the entire year's journey — from the Gospel of John to the book of Acts — and asks the practical question: what does all of this look like for us, here and now? The answer, he argues, is found in Mark 10:35-45, where Jesus flips the world's definition of greatness upside down. When James and John jockey for the best seats in the Kingdom, Jesus doesn't rebuke their desire for greatness — he redefines it. In God's Kingdom, greatness isn't measured by how many people serve you, but by how many people experience God's love through your life.

Pastor Matt then anchors the why of serving in Ephesians 2:8-10, reminding us that we are saved by grace, not by works — but we are saved for good works. We don't serve to earn God's acceptance; we serve from acceptance. As he puts it, "God does not love you anymore because you serve." Every follower of Jesus has been gifted by God and invited into His mission — not because He needs us, but because He loves us and wants us to be part of what He is doing.

The sermon closes with a clear and urgent invitation: get in the game. Pastor Matt challenges the congregation to move from spiritual consumerism toward active contribution, reminding them that the church is not a cruise ship where a few serve while everyone else relaxes — it's a battleship where it's all hands on deck. The key takeaway is both a challenge and an encouragement: we don't serve because we've grown, we grow because we serve.

In this episode of the 3C Podcast, host Jeremy and the Hope Church pastoral team — Pastors Brian, Jake Myers, Luke Myers, and lead pastor Matt Sturdevant — recap a busy ministry weekend that included a group leader meeting, a groups catalog launch, a newcomer reception, and an equipping seminar titled Can I Really Believe? The seminar walked through three "doors": whether God exists, why Christianity specifically, and what it truly means to follow Jesus. Pastor Matt summarized the heart of that third door well: "Christianity is more than believing facts about Jesus — it's trusting your life to him."

The bulk of the episode dives deep into the theological framework of spiritual growth, prompted by a question Pastor Matt received after the equipping seminar. Using a diagram of the spiritual journey, he carefully walks through the stages — spiritual death, conversion, regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and finally glorification. Anchoring the discussion in passages like Ephesians 2:1-3, Romans 5:1, and 1 John 3:2, Pastor Matt clarifies that glorification — perfected Christ-likeness — means being fully like Jesus in character, desires, body, and relationship with the Father, while never becoming God himself. As he puts it, "Justification means I have been saved from sin's penalty. Sanctification means I am being saved from sin's power. But with glorification, I will be saved from sin's presence."

The team then brings it all back to the practical, discussing the six ways to feed the heart introduced in Sunday's sermon: Scripture, prayer, Biblical community, obedience, serving, and generosity. Each pastor shares personally how these rhythms have shaped their walk with Jesus, with Brian emphasizing Scripture as the bedrock foundation, Luke highlighting prayer as the covering over everything else, Jake calling the church to get into groups and take the plunge even if it feels awkward, and Pastor Matt urging listeners not to let shame pull them out of community and obedience — the two areas where the enemy does his most damaging work.

Heart Shield Bible: https://www.museumofthebible.org/book-minute/heart-shield-bibles

Pastor Matt opens by addressing one of the most honest questions a believer can ask: if Jesus truly changed my heart, why do I still struggle with the old me? Using Galatians 5:16-25, he makes clear that Paul never pretended the battle doesn't exist. In fact, Pastor Matt argues that the struggle itself can be evidence of new life — because dead people don't fight for spiritual growth, but living people do. The absence of the struggle, he reminds us, is not the goal. Faithful obedience in the middle of the struggle is.

To explain how believers grow through the battle, Pastor Matt turns to John 15, where Jesus repeatedly calls his followers to abide in him. Just as a branch doesn't manufacture fruit but simply stays connected to the vine, Christ followers aren't called to try harder — they're called to stay closer. Abiding in Jesus looks like a daily rhythm of Scripture, prayer, Biblical community, obedience, serving, and generosity. These aren't boxes to check, but ways of staying connected to the source of life.

Finally, Pastor Matt reminds us that real transformation — the fruit of the Spirit described in Galatians 5:22-23 — is grown, not manufactured. It develops slowly, becomes visible over time, and benefits everyone around us. Rather than measuring spiritual maturity by dramatic moments, he challenges us to look for steady fruit. His closing challenge is simple and practical: each morning, before reaching for your phone, pray, "Jesus, help me stay close to you today" — and then walk with him.

What happens when good things become ultimate things?

In this episode of The 3C Podcast, the guys continue the conversation about the heart—why pressure often reveals what's really going on inside us, how our reactions can expose deeper desires, and why we shouldn't "waste the squeeze" when life gets difficult.

They also explore some of the hidden idols that can quietly take God's place in our hearts. And they aren't necessarily bad things. Ministry, family, plans, belonging, knowledge, theology, and even our memories of the "good old days" can become dangerous when we begin looking to them for what only God should provide.

How can you tell when something good is creeping onto the throne of your heart? What does your response when it's threatened reveal? And how does Jesus actually transform us from the inside out?

It's an honest conversation about pressure, priorities, idolatry, spiritual growth, and learning to keep God where He belongs—at the center of everything.