What if the very thing you’re confident in.... is actually holding you back? Jesus told two surprising stories that challenge the way we think about faith, pride, and what really matters to God. There's one important thing that gets you into heaven.

Does God seem real, or is he more like an abstraction? Is God a palpable source of strength in the face of adversity? In this week’s “Amen” from Jesus, we learn that it’s not until you believe that God shows up in the middle of nowhere that you can experience the reality of God’s presence everywhere.

Greatness is something many of us desire from an early age. Many of us grew up idolizing movie stars,

musicians, athletes, and influencers hoping one day to become like them. We want to grow up, make a

lot of cash, and probably most of all, be seen. Yet many of those that make it, feel like they missed it. In

this week’s “Amen,” we learn from Jesus that you can’t earn greatness. You can only receive

A vision for the future is only a daydream unless you have values and commitment that support that vision. Great visions require great values. This means that a vision isn’t a vision until you’re willing to pay the price to pursue it rather than sacrifice your values. Nehemiah paid the price. He was slandered. He was misunderstood. His reputation was at risk. None of that mattered when compared to the vision he was pursuing. We’ve done a lot of work in this series about identifying and clarifying a vision for your life. Now it’s time to test it. Are you willing to pay the costs of pursuing a great vision?

A clear vision for the church is powerful because as humans, we crave clarity. In fact, if you don’t have clarity for your life, you’ll be easily swayed by people who do have clarity, even it they intend to use you for their own agenda. What you value will impact what frustrates you, discontents you, or brings you heartache. Vision for the future is often born out of heartache. As we begin the Nehemiah story, we’ll discover the one thing that Nehemiah valued above anything else. And how this value broke his heart. The result was that a powerful vision was born. We’ll also share what breaks our hearts at Hope Church.  

The people Jesus loved were messy. The way that Jesus loved people seemed inconsistent, unfair, and confusing. On the one hand, he could teach that God’s righteous moral standards for our lives are even higher than we imagined they were. On the other hand, he ate with the tax collectors and talked with the adulterers. As his church today, we still struggle to understand his extraordinary love – but it all boils down to two key ingredients.

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The people Jesus loved were messy. The way that Jesus loved people seemed inconsistent, unfair, and confusing. On the one hand, he could teach that God’s righteous moral standards for our lives are even higher than we imagined they were. On the other hand, he ate with the tax collectors and talked with the adulterers. As his church today, we still struggle to understand his extraordinary love – but it all boils down to two key ingredients.

The people Jesus loved were messy. The way that Jesus loved people seemed inconsistent,

unfair, and confusing. On the one hand, he could teach that God’s righteous moral standards for

our lives are even higher than we imagined they were. On the other hand, he ate with the tax

collectors and talked with the adulterers. As his church today, we still struggle to understand his

extraordinary love – but it all boils down to two key ingredients.

Everyone in our generation has associations with the word “church”. The problem is that our

associations bear little resemblance to what Jesus designed and launched in the first century. He

didn’t design an institution that exists to perpetuate itself. He created an assembly of people

who are part of a movement that exists to declare God’s praises and is characterized by love.

Hopefully, you’ve learned quite a bit from your future self in this series. But your future self has

one problem. It’s still you. The same you that has created all of the problems in your life up till

now. The good news is that there’s someone else who is ready to offer advice. He’s not just

from the future, he’s the beginning and the end. We’ll wrap up the series by considering our

question from a different angle. Considering that Jesus has the words of eternal life, what

would the future you tell you to do?