What does it really mean when words are "more than words"?

In this final message from the Words Matter series, Pastor Roberto Chaple opens Matthew 12:35–37 — where Jesus tells us that our words aren't just words. They're a window into what we've been storing up in our hearts. They carry weight with consequences that outlast the moment. And they hold eternal significance.

Roberto walks through three movements from the passage:

• What our words reveal — pressure doesn't create what's inside you, it reveals it
• Why there's no return policy on the things we say, and how we become prisoners of our own words
• Why the most important thing any of us will ever say is yes — or no — to Jesus

If you've been holding onto confessions made out of a temporary emotion, this message is an invitation to put an expiration date on them.

Series: Words Matter | Speaker: Pastor Roberto Chaple | New Hope Church, Brandon FL

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What if the words you speak reveal more about your faith than you realize? In this message from the Words Matter series, Rev. Vicki Harrison opens James 3 to explore one of scripture's most challenging passages — the tongue.

James uses three unforgettable images to describe the power of words: a horse controlled by a small metal bit, a great ship steered by a tiny rudder, and a forest set ablaze by a single spark. The same is true of the tongue. It is small. It is powerful. And no human being can tame it alone.

Rev. Harrison traces the damage that words leave behind — from childhood bullying to the rotten, poisonous speech the apostle Paul calls sapros in Ephesians 4. She draws from her years as a social worker and pastor: adults still agonizing over words spoken over them as children, wounds that run deep and shape the entire course of a life.

But this message is not only a diagnosis. It is a challenge. As followers of Jesus, you have the ability to change the narrative — to represent Christ in what you say, what you text, what you post, and what you choose not to say at all. Closing with Psalm 19:14: May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

Series: Words Matter | Speaker: Rev. Vicki Harrison | Church: New Hope Church — Brandon, Florida Watch and listen to past messages: findnewhope.com/message-archive

Can God Really Restore What Feels Broken Beyond Repair? (Amos 9)

The book of Amos is a hard read. For eight chapters it's warning after warning — until the very end, when the whole tone changes. In this finale of "Let the Lion Roar," Rev. Vicki Harrison preaches Amos 9:11-15 and the way God chooses to close a difficult book: not with judgment, but with a promise to restore.

If you've ever felt like you're stuck in a long winter — disconnected, dry, going through the motions on Sunday but living a different life the rest of the week — this message is for you. Pastor Vicki walks through God's promise to rebuild what's fallen, to gather in the people once counted as enemies, and to plant his people in a place they'll never be uprooted from again. Along the way she shows how this ancient prophecy pointed all the way to Jesus, and to the kind of restoration you actually need.

To restore something, she reminds us, is to bring it back to its original condition and return it to its rightful owner. That's the invitation here: wherever you've been, whatever your past, God offers to make you whole again — and he keeps his promises.

Scripture: Amos 9:11-15 Series: Let the Lion Roar Speaker: Rev. Vicki Harrison New Hope Church | Brandon, Florida — findnewhope.com Watch and listen to past messages: findnewhope.com/message-archive

What do you do when you realize your worship has drifted into routine — present on Sunday, but disconnected from how you live the rest of the week? In Amos 5, the prophet sings a funeral song over Israel, and then hands them a way out: seek the Lord and live.

In this message, Rev. Vicki Harrison traces Amos 5 from its opening dirge to its famous call — "let justice roll on like a river" — and shows why God refuses worship that ignores justice. It's an honest, challenging word, but the door it opens is hopeful: the same God who warns is the God still saying, come back.

Scripture: Amos 5 Series: Let the Lion Roar Speaker: Rev. Vicki Harrison New Hope Church | Brandon, Florida — findnewhope.com

What happens when God keeps calling and we keep not listening? This week, guest speaker Rev. Betty J. Bricker walked New Hope through Amos 4 — the chapter where the whisper becomes a roar. It's a message about comfort that quietly numbs us, worship that makes noise but not music, and the mercy hiding inside hardship — all building to the most important appointment any of us will ever keep.

When a lion roars at 114 decibels, it jolts you back to reality. In the opening message of the Let the Lion Roar series, Rev. Vicki Harrison walks through Amos 1-2 and asks a question many of us have wrestled with: when we look at the injustice and suffering in our world, does God actually care? The answer Amos gives is yes. God is not silent. He is in pursuit.

This message explores who Amos was, a humble shepherd and fig farmer God called to prophesy to the prosperous and apathetic northern kingdom of Israel. We see God roaring in judgment against the surrounding nations, then against Judah, and finally against Israel itself for oppressing the poor, trampling the vulnerable, and worshiping God on Sunday while tolerating injustice on Monday. God sees everything, He counts everything, and His patience has a breaking point.

Key scripture: Amos 1-2, with the central declaration "The Lord roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem" (Amos 1:2) and the indictment of Israel in Amos 2:6-8. Rev. Harrison also points to 1 John 5:19 and shares the challenge from International Justice Mission's Gary Haugen: what is God's plan for justice in the world? Just us. We are plan A, and there is no plan B. The invitation is to pray every day this week over a justice issue and ask God how He wants us to respond, both as a church and personally.

If this message encouraged you, share it with a friend and explore the full Let the Lion Roar series. Find more messages and ways to connect at findnewhope.com/message-archive.

Pastor Vicki Harrison takes a question she hears all the time and brings it straight to Scripture: What does God actually think about animals?

Starting in Genesis 1:24-25, she introduces the Hebrew word bara — the special kind of creation God reserves for the heavens and earth, the animals, and humanity. She traces God's care for animals through Noah's ark, then reads through Psalm 104, where the psalmist paints a picture of an entire world God has designed and sustains for every creature in it.

Then she gets personal: a glass frog with see-through skin, a 62-foot whale shark that eats only plankton, a platypus that feeds its young through pores in its skin, and a blobfish designed for the very bottom of the ocean — each one perfectly suited to where God placed it, each one pointing to a Creator who makes things with intention.

She also takes on the question almost every pet owner eventually asks: Will I see my pets in heaven? She's honest about what Scripture does and doesn't say — and what John Wesley, Martin Luther, and C.S. Lewis believed.

She lands in Matthew 6:25-26. Jesus points to the birds of the air — your heavenly Father feeds them. If he tends to the creatures with that kind of care, how much more does he attend to you?

Three truths. One message. A God who makes things on purpose and loves his people without limits.