Living Hope Church Sermons: Recent Episodes
Living Hope Church
We are a church in Medina, OH living out a Kingdom Culture for our community to the ends of the earth. We invite you to join us to #seeJesusclearly. Sermons are recorded live during our weekly services.
The Holy Spirit’s mission is bigger than you, but it is not less than you. The disciples were transformed, in an instant, from disciples to apostles. And in that moment, the Church was born. We need to set our bar of expectation at spiritual transformation, not just incremental improvement.
The first group of Christians are no different from us. They have the same worries and pressures and fears that you do. Their culture is not easier or harder than ours.They were doing the same church things as we do. But they got filled with the Holy Spirit, and the rest of the book of Acts tells the story of the results. We are meant to ask ourselves the same question they will ask: Are we filled with the Holy Spirit?
The followers of Jesus did not do anything special to cajole the Holy Spirit into coming. At the same time, they had been given an assignment by Jesus to bear witness about him to the entire world. So He tells the disciples to wait.
We cannot have Christ, without the Spirit and the Spirit is doing the work of Christ. They are perfectly unified, and you cannot have one without the other.
Living surrendered to God’s lordship over our lives is meant to be a blessing, not a burden. But how do we truly experience that?
In Week 3 of our sermon series on parenting, we explore how gody discipline can properly shape our children and ourselves.
God isn’t interested in your competency nearly as much as He is interested in your sanctification. In fact, God is equally as interested in your maturity as He is your children’s.
We live in a time when children are seen as a burden on the world and the environment, and an unnecessary inconvenience on parents’ lives. But parenting is God’s end game, whether it’s in our natural families or our spiritual family.
This is a very timely story about what happened when God formally introduced Himself to His people.
We are closing our series through Romans this week with the final verses, and then a recap of the entire letter.Paul, very cleverly, bookends the letter with the same concept of the gospel being revealed like a mystery being solved after a long anticipation.
Today we look into some of the scriptures that touch on the idea rewards. Starting with the Parable of the Laborers in the Vineyard.
This sermon is about joy generators:Becoming oneUnderstanding the Holy Spirit, hope, and joy connection Taking action by rejoicingThe impact and hazards of being a joy generator
The ground of your forgiveness to others is not your sense of injustice, the level of your pain, or the deservedness of the other. It is something else entirely.
Jesus gives us a way to resolve conflict and bring restoration to broken relationship without resorting to the evils of gossip and slander.
Scott gave us an update on what's happening with the work in Mozambique and then preached a message on keeping the faith and staying connected to Christ.
The greatest value in the Kingdom of God is not your freedom, it's considering others as more valuable than yourself by not being an unnecessary stumbling block.
The Transfiguration shows us who Jesus really is, and it also prophesies something about what Christ is shaping us into as well.
Jesus refused to bypass His suffering to lay hold of His kingship. Instead, He willingly embraced His suffering to win His crown on our behalf. Likewise, we cannot avoid our cross in our journey with Christ.
The Pharisees are obsessing about, and putting people in bondage over, what they eat and how they eat it (commandments of men). Yet they are NOT concerned about what comes OUT of a person’s mouth (commandments of God). What comes out of a person’s mouth indicates what is in their heart, and what comes out of a person’s mouth can defile their own heart and the heart of others.
Jesus fed around 10,000 people, to their fill, from basically nothing. And He did it on two different occasions. It a fantastical miracle, with deep meaning.
Jesus is intentionally teaching in a way that veil’s the truth. He is teaching in a way that avoids “throwing pearls before swine”. He is presenting the Truth in a way that only those who are truly seeking, who truly want to hear, will press in beyond the “veil” and perceive what Jesus is saying.
Those who have hardened their hearts towards Jesus will not understand, and will walk away frustrated. Those who are truly seeking, will press through and find faith.
Jesus interacted with demonized people on several occasions. In all of the interactions, His authority over them was absolute.
God is not interested in the sacrifices and ordinances so much as He is interested in what they point to and represent. He is after humility, mercy, love, justice, true worship, trust, and devotion. The Pharisees have none of these things (in this case, an obvious lack of mercy), yet they keep the letter of the law to an extreme.
Jesus pronounces judgement (Woe = great disaster/terrible pain) on the cities in which He has been performing so many miracles and declaring the good news of the Kingdom. They have seen the evidence of Him being the Messiah, they have heard the accompanying message of good news, yet they have not believed.
They have been given so much light, yet they still foolishly choose to remain in darkness.
Jesus isn't gathering disciples so that they can simply come and listen to His teaching. Jesus intends to commission them, and us, into a life given to continuing what Jesus started.
Jesus performed many miracles, and He did them for two big reasons. 1- to demonstrate His absolute authority over everything, and 2) to fulfill specific messianic prophecies. We take a look at several in this sermon.
From Luke 9:51. Jesus stayed true to His course in going to the cross for you and me. What motivated him? What does that mean for your and me?
It's not the intensity or quality of your faith that matters, but rather the object of your faith.
Through Jesus, we are made into a spiritual family of true brothers and sisters. The Church should act like a family.
How doe we deal with moments when God doesn't answer our prayer or meet us the way we had hoped or expected? If we are not careful, resentment and bitterness takes root and grows if we neglect addressing those disappointments. Our passage is from Psalm 13.
We all have a common idea of love. In this message I explore what that common idea is and try to point out that true love is best understood seeing the world as Jesus saw it rather than the way our culture sees it when it assumes that physical nature is all that exists.
You know a tree by the fruit it produces. In the same way, you know a follower of Jesus by the "fruit" of that person's life.
As the last message of our 40 Days of Prayer with our Alliance family, we look at missions both our role and what to pray. Acts 14-15.
Fasting is an important spiritual discipline that is often neglected and misunderstood.
Jesus regularly rebuked hypocrites, especially as he found them among the Pharisees and Scribes of His day.
What exactly does it mean to "walk in the Spirit"? It's more practical than you think, and I believe that if we could really understand the true meaning of this, our faith would be dramatically strengthened during this time of Pandemic. Because for the Christian, our war isn't only against COVID-19.
Join Pastor Mario as we discuss this battle in our hearts and the solution to overcoming temptations.
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Pastor Ben takes a step out of Matthew for a broader look at the topic of divorce and remarriage.
Jesus directly addresses the difficult, but always relevant, topics of lust, adultery, and divorce.
It's not an overstatement to say that 2020 is probably one of the hardest years for us as the modern Church.
Do you find yourself questions if this all has any real purpose? Is this all just empty suffering? Join me as we dive into what God says about these afflictions we are dealing with today.
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If you like the episode, please feel free to share with someone who you know is having a hard time. Extend grace, love boldly.
Are you weary? Many are struggling during this very hard time we are living through as a nation, but also as a church. How do handle and navigate the disappointments and even frustrations we are experiencing?
Today, we look at a man who felt many of the same things we feel today. God meets this man in a special way, and I believe God wants to meet you in the same way today in the midst of the struggle and weariness.
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If you enjoy these devotionals, I encourage you to share it! We want to reach as many people as we can for the Gospel. We appreciate all who take a listen every Wednesday. We pray you are encouraged by today's episode.
How exactly does the Gospel of Christ impact this place the Bible calls the heart?
Many times, I think most us live our Christian life thinking that God expects us to live His way in our strength. We may not say or even realize that, but I think that in order for us to understand how to walk in the ways of God, we must first understand how God forms His desires in our heart that motivate us to live in His ways.
He does this by the work of the Gospel. Join me as we look at how the Gospel has impacted and continues to shape our hearts.
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If you like these Devotions or any of the content on our podcast, feel free to share it! We want as many people as possible to be encouraged in the Lord, especially during this tough season we are all in as the Church.
What does the Bible mean when it talks about "the heart"? I think we would do well to understand our heart and become familiar with all of the ways it can be swayed and influenced. In doing so, we might actually find strength in our weaknesses through the grace of Jesus.
The baptism of Jesus initiated His public ministry, and announced to the world that the Messiah had come.
Have you recently wondered why teens seem to be struggling so much and seem to be going off into crazy trends that are potentially dangerous? What is the fascination with Tik Tok and trends such as "shifting"? How can we help the teens in our churches find true identity in Christ and disciple them towards reaching their friends? This is a very important topic today if you are raising teens or if you have teens in your life. We have a responsibility to understand teens and the struggles they are going through. Join Pastor Mario as we discuss some ways to encourage and speak life into the youth around us.
Have you ever wanted something and thought you could only find it in something that turned out to be false? Today, we look at a man who like many of us, have been discipled to find good things in idols.
Today, we look at the Leprous man of Luke 5:12-16. Often, we carry shame with us, even to church. Maybe that shame came from a sin we’ve been dealing with or simply as a result of a struggle. Our text today reveals Jesus’ heart for not only our physical sicknesses, but more importantly, our spiritual sickness.
The final look at Peter's teaching regarding false teachers, and the wrap-up for our series in 2 Peter.
Speaker: Pastor Matthew Bazemore
Scripture Focus: Ephesians 2:11-19
Recorded LIVE during our weekly Sunday Gathering.
Kicking off a new series on 2 Peter where Peter delivers a beautiful description of what we have in Christ.
Speaker: Tracie Moore
Series: Questions That Challenge Believing.
Recorded Live during our Sunday gathering.
Peter addresses how to respond when we are treated unjustly by the world for the sake of Christ.
Speaker: Pastor Matthew Bazemore
Scripture Focus: Genesis 1
Recorded Live during our Sunday gathering.
Speaker: Pastor Matthew Bazemore
Scripture Focus: Genesis 1-2
Recorded Live from our Sunday Service gathering.
A Special Episode with Pastor Matthew Bazemore in preparation for Great Commission Sunday.
Join Pastor Matt for the 6th and final devotional in a series of devotions through Holy Week.
We are currently living through a historical moment, something to which we have never experienced before. With that comes a lot of uncertainty, anxiousness, worry and fear. We can not make light the impact of this pandemic and the lives that it has taken.
But we must also remind ourselves of the God we serve and have chosen to follow: a God very close to the details of life and very much at work, even in trials. So, we must ask, what does Jesus want of His Church during this time?
What does faith actually mean and how does it relate to us in our present reality of brokenness in the world? During a time as such, we must have a Biblical foundation of real faith and what that looks like practically for us as we try to navigate a broken world.
What does it mean to be desperate for God? We all are undoubtedly experiencing a time of crisis and heightened worry and anxiety due to the recent Coronavirus, but for a believer, what should this create in us? How should we respond during times of trial? Pastor Matthew looks at Jonah 2:2-9 to glean some insight into God's word during this time.
During our Missions Week, we had missionaries Bob & Joy Brougher with us, and Bob spoke with us about their work in Paraguay and challenged us with the call of Matthew 28:18-20.