Hope Community Church

Resurrection Sunday

After Jesus’ death on the cross, He rose from the dead three days later. On Easter Sunday, we celebrate how Jesus conquered sin and death. Each year, it’s important to remember Jesus’ sacrifice and His triumph, which was made on our behalf.

• The most significant event in human history is how Jesus conquered death and rose from the dead. 

Luke 24:1-8  The tomb of Jesus is EMPTY!

Jesus and Christianity are so unique and utterly different from any other religion in the world not simply because of the teachings of Jesus but because of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus!

Philippians 2:6-8

Philippians 2:6  Jesus let go of heaven to come to earth to save us.

Philippians 2:7  Jesus made Himself human to become a servant here on earth for us.

Luke 2:12  Jesus was born as lowly as the ones He loved, you and me.

Philippians 2:8  Jesus died on the cross, which was a horrible death, because He had to in order to save us.

Isaiah 53:4-7  Jesus went to the cross, so we don’t have to. He sacrificed His life to save our lives.

Philippians 2:9-11  Jesus is alive! He is exalted!

Week Two – Palm Sunday

Jesus often began His lessons with an opposite statement as a way to highlight His challenge of common thought. By studying the teachings of Jesus, we’re sometimes confronted with the idea that what we think is the right thing is actually not. Could some of our preconceived ideas be wrong?

• It’s not what you think. 

Jesus was and is considered many things such as: prophet, healer, teacher, rebel leader, Messiah, etc.

After Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, His fame had risen to an all-time high.

Even when faced with threats, Jesus did the unthinkable and entered Jerusalem. 

Three things you need to know from the Old Testament and the cultural background of Jesus’ time to understand the significance of Palm Sunday.

1. Everyone was required to walk into the city on Passover.

2. Solomon, the last great king of Israel, was anointed king and rode through the East Gate of Jerusalem on a donkey. 1 Kings 1:38-40

3. There was a prophesy in the book of Zechariah that said a different sort of King would come to rule the whole world, and he would come not on a war  horse but on a donkey.

Luke 19:28-31

John 12:12-13

Luke 19:38

Luke 19:40

Two things you can consider when making a decision about following Jesus.

1st – Something is already sitting on the throne of your life. Any king besides Jesus makes a cruel master.

2nd – Jesus is a different and better kind of King. 

Philippians 2:6-11 (NLT)

Week One – It’s Not What You Think

Jesus often began His lessons with an opposite statement as a way to highlight His challenge of common thought. By studying the teachings of Jesus, we’re sometimes confronted with the idea that what we think is the right thing is actually not. Could some of our preconceived ideas be wrong?

• It’s not what you think. 

Jesus is most famous for two things:

1. His Resurrection (Easter)

2. The things Jesus taught – Mark 1:22 (NLT)

One of the biggest areas of misunderstanding comes in the pursuit of peace in our lives.

Jesus dealt with pressure differently than we do.

John 13:38 (NLT)

John 18:15-27 (NLT) – How did Peter go from having courageous confidence to 

cowering in fear?

John 14:27 (NLT)

1. Peace is a gift.

2. God’s peace is different than the world’s version of peace.

The peace God offers isn’t a thing to find. It’s a relationship to receive.

John 21:9, 15-17 (NLT)

John 14:27 (NLT)

Peace is found in the presence of God. 

Peace isn’t the absence of pressures, pain and problems. It is the presence of God in it with you.

Peace is found in the promises of God.

Ephesians 2:14 (NLT)

Philippians 4:6-7 (NLT)

Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

Peace is found in the process of God.

John 18:18 (NLT)

John 21:9 (NLT)

2 Corinthians 5:19 (CEV)

Peace isn’t the absence of pressures, pain and problems. It is the presence of God in it with you. 

What To Do When God Says…Go

Week Three

Sometimes, God responds to us in unexpected ways. What happens when we hear answers from God that we don’t want to hear? How do we respond and move forward? This week, we’ll address the question, “What do we do when God says go?”

• What do we do when God says GO? 

This is really a question about God’s will for our lives.

We start with “me,” but the Bible says we should start with God.

“We ask, ‘Where does God fit into the story of my life?’ when the real question 

should be, ‘Where does my little life fit into the great story of God?’” 

– Christopher Wright 

We talk about finding the will of God, but it’s not really lost.

Acts 1:4-5

Acts 1:6

Acts 1:7-8a

Acts 1:8b-9

Acts 2:1-6

Acts 2:41-47

John 14:12

• What do we do when God says GO?

If you have received the Holy Spirit, you’ve received a call to go.

“Put your yes on the table and let God put it on the map.” – Ed Stetzer

Week Two: Josh Howerton – Lakepointe Church in Dallas, Texas

Sometimes, God responds to us in unexpected ways. What happens when we hear answers from God that we don’t want to hear? How do we respond and move forward? This week, we’ll address the question, “What do we do when God says wait?”

• What do we do when God says to wait? 

Lamentations 3:26 (ESV)

When you wait, you’re in really good company.

Israel waited 40 years to get into the Promised Land.

Jesus waited 30 years to start His ministry.

Paul waited 17 years after Jesus appeared to him before he was appointed to ministry.

David waited 15 years between his consecration and his coronation.

Sarah waited 25 years for her son, Isaac, to be born after God promised her a son. 

We think we need to be DISCOVERED. God thinks we need to be DEVELOPED.

What is God doing in the waiting? He is developing us.

A WAITING season is never a WASTED season. Just because God is SILENT does not mean that He is ABSENT.

When we understand that God is at work in the wait, it changes our definition of waiting.

Most people do three things when they are waiting on the Lord.

1. Wonder – “When, Lord, when?” 

2. Worry – “How, Lord, how?”

3. Whine – “Why, Lord, why?”

The question should be, “What, Lord, what?” – “What are you doing in me? What part of my character are you trying to develop? What sin are you moving me to repent of? What wound are you trying to heal?”

Waiting does not equal passivity.

To wait means to serve.

God doesn’t just call us to have faith in His WHAT but faith in his WHEN.

The only thing harder than waiting on God is wishing you had.

Between the PROMISE and the PAYOFF, there’s a PROCESS.

What To Do When God Says…No

Week One

Sometimes, God responds to us in unexpected ways. What happens when we hear answers from God that we don’t want to hear? How do we respond and move forward? This week, we’ll address the question, “What do we do when God says no?”

• God said “no” to many people in the Bible. 

Genesis 17:19  God said “no” to Abraham.

God said “no” to many people throughout the Bible.

Moses

David

Paul

• God has a different relationship with us than we often think.

We tend to treat God as if we’re in a performance-based relationship.

Matthew 7:7-8

Matthew 7:9-11

God treats us as His sons and daughters.

• There are three main things that God says “no” to in our lives.

1st – God says “no” to sin.

Because God is my Father and He’s working for my joy, I will obey.

2nd – God says “no” to the area of comfort.

Luke 9:23

Romans 12:1

John 12:24

God, my Father, will use that little death to bring about life.

3rd – God sometimes says “no” to a dream.

Matthew 7:11

Big God. Big Church. – God of the Broken (Mark 5:1-20)

Jesus has always had a propensity toward brokenness. 

– Disciples were broken individuals.

– James and John (fishermen)

– Matthew (tax collector)

– Peter (racist)

– Mary Magdalene (prostitute)

Mark 5:1-20

Three things that are true in this story that are also true in your story.

1. Jesus goes to him. 

– Jesus comes to us.

2.  Jesus heals him.

– Jesus heals us.

– James 5:16

3.  Jesus uses him.

– Jesus uses us.

Dr. Derwin L. Gray – Transformation Church in Indian Land, South Carolina

In this series, we will hear from various pastors across the country as they encourage Hope Community Church by explaining how we are part of a bigger picture. We are not alone. Rather, we are in a movement of God that has been growing for thousands of years beyond ethnicity, beyond generation and beyond location. 

• Big God. Big Church.

Merciful people are happy people. People who lack mercy lack happiness. 

Are you merciful? Mercy is God’s compassion on people.

Jesus tells us that we will have trouble in this world, but He has overcome this world. (John 16:33) 

Matthew 5:7 (CSB)

The most significant times in our lives are often found at the footstools of someone giving us mercy.

Being a merciful person means: Loving God by loving people you are not supposed to love.

Luke 10:25-28 (CSB)

Being a merciful person means: That every human being is your neighbor.

Luke 10:29 (CSB)

Being a merciful person means: That you cross ethnic, cultural and religious barriers to help hurting people.

Luke 10:30-33 (CSB) 

Where has the compassion of Christianity gone?

Treat people like Jesus died for them.

Hebrews 2:9 (CSB)

If Jesus tasted death for everyone, how dare we not love everyone?

Being a merciful person means: That you are willing to count the cost of loving your neighbor.

Luke 10:34-35 (CSB)

The work of the church is to be a multiethnic family going into the world to share about God’s grace. (Ephesians 2:13-16)

Luke 10:36-37 (CSB)

1 John 4:9-10 (CSB)

Merciful people are happy people.

Merciful people are the people who change the world.

Love people because God loves you.

In this series, we will hear from various pastors across the country as they encourage Hope Community Church by explaining how we are part of a bigger picture. We are not alone. Rather, we are in a movement of God that has been growing for thousands of years beyond ethnicity, beyond generation and beyond location. 

• Big God. Big Church.

“Humble Themselves” – God starts with His own people, which takes humility before moving to fix or heal the rest of the world. 

2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

If my people will…

1. humble themselves

2. pray

3. seek my face

4. turn from their wicked ways

THEN I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land.

2 Chronicles 7:14 (ESV)

“…humble themselves…”

No one can make us humble. Only we can humble ourselves.

Philippians 2:5-8 (ESV) 

Jesus…

1. Let go of and emptied himself of his former power position. (form/equal to God)

2. Took on the new form of a human servant.

3. Chose to obey God to do what needed to be done without any limitations.  

Jesus chose to let go of the past that had been his life up to that point.

Jesus chose to take hold of something new and unexpected by taking the form (posture) of a servant.

Jesus chose to obey what and where God was leading and directing him with no limitations or conditions.

Humble yourselves:

The obedient choice is to let go of the past in order to take hold of something 

new and better in the future.

We come to God (pray) with a mindset of obediently choosing to let go of the past (known) in order to allow Him to do something new and better (unknown) in the future.

Romans 7:19 (NIV)

At the root of fear or not having control is PRIDE.

Pride says that I can fulfill my own needs.

Pride says that I can take care of myself.

Pride says that I can control outcomes.

Pride says that I don’t need help.

Pride is the refusal to humble oneself.

Pride results in “this is good enough, this is how it is, this is how it will always be.”

Pride is rigid, inflexible, stubborn, arrogant and unwilling to change or obey.

Pride will keep us from experiencing forgiveness, healing and something new and better that God desires to do in our lives.

If we are not humble, it is not because we CANNOT be but because we WILL NOT be.

Luke 5:37-39 (NIV)

No, new wine must be poured into new wineskins.

No, new wine must be poured into fresh wineskins.

Humble yourselves:

The obedient choice is to let go of the past in order to take hold of something 

new and better in the future.

Pride:

Pride is rigid, inflexible, stubborn, arrogant and unwilling to change or obey.

Habakkuk 1:5 (NIV)

In this series, we will hear from various pastors across the country as they encourage Hope Community Church by explaining how we are part of a bigger picture. We are not alone. Rather, we are in a movement of God that has been growing for thousands of years beyond ethnicity, beyond generation and beyond location. 

• Big God. Big Church.

Being a 5 talent Church.

Matthew 25:14 (ESV)

Don’t pay so much attention on ‘the what’ is going to happen. Pay attention on ‘the who’ is returning.

Matthew 25:14 (ESV)

Matthew 25:15 (ESV)

Fairness is not a biblical value.

Delayed obedience is disobedience. 

When we compare, we always lose.

Matthew 25:16-18 (ESV)

Matthew 25:19 (ESV)

Matthew 25:20 (ESV)

Matthew 25:21 (ESV)

Matthew 25:22-23 (ESV)

The Gospel is NOT ‘God is good; you are bad; try harder.’ The Gospel is that even when we were unworthy, God sent his Son to live the life we could not live, to die the death on the cross that we deserved, to pay the price for sin and death, to adopt us as sons and daughters and to invite us into the family.  

Matthew 25:24-25 (ESV)

The opposite of faith is not doubt.

The opposite of faith is fear.

Matthew 25:26 (ESV)

We can often get busy with the comfortable so as to avoid the faithful.

Matthew 25:26-30 (ESV)

Use all the treasure that God gives to you to treasure Christ before all things.

Galatians 6:14 (ESV)