Hope City College Ministry

In this message, Pastor Josh addresses the need for a new standard in how we value the things of God vs. the things of the world, and how we determine our willingness to surrender based on how we value Christ. He discusses: 1. What Causes Us to Value the Wrong Things? 2. Clinging to Our Rights vs. Laying Down Our Lives 3. How the Love of the World Grieves the Holy Spirit in Our Lives.

Pastor Josh discusses the need to understand who the Holy Spirit is so that we can understand how we are initially and continually transformed by the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit. He demonstrates three things: 1. The need to acknowledge, know, and value the Holy Spirit 2. Humanity’s need to be delivered from indwelling sin and relying on good works part from the power of the Holy Spirit 3. The Benefits and Identity Transformation that comes from receiving the power and presence of the Holy Spirit as believers.

Pastor Josh follows up the prior message about forming a biblical worldview, by explaining the necessity of forming the right definitions of encounters with God in a biblical worldview. He explains how the only encounter we have with God isn’t at our salvation moment, altar call, or worship set but we are called to a lifetime of encountering God. In this message he covers 3 Topics: 1. Defining the One Necessary Transformative Encounter 2. Correcting Limited Expectations and Definitions of Transformative Encounters 3. Emphasizes the practical yet supernatural needs to know the Word, meditate on the Word, and to submit to Church communities in order to sustain these transformative encounters we have.

Pastor Josh begins the semester by introducing the need for Christians to experience Transformed Living. He communicates that whatever we view about the world around us and our role in it will guide how we live our lives. This frames the discussion about how we need to test to see if our wordlview is formed by the often uncomfortable truths of Bible, or by comfortable truths found in modern culture or ancient traditions. He invites us into having any unbiblical worldviews transformed into a biblical one.

Minister Isis Underwood shares with us the necessity of Longsuffering for Christian maturity. She explains how the term frequently gets limited to either patience or waiting for something, but she unpacks the details of the concept. Then, she explains the connection between: 1. the Christian's Longsuffering and their Faith 2. The Consequences of Lacking in Longsuffering and lastly, 3. Longsuffering and the Maturity/Fruit it Produces.