Hope Lake Country

With all the last-minute Christmas busyness knocking at your door, there is one thing you can aspire to that will help you stop and wonder this Christmas season.

How does something as simple as reflecting on something help us gain a sense of wonder? Find out in this message.

Has your confidence in God been shaken by something that happened in your life? Maybe you've even asked yourself: How could anyone have a confidence in God, to begin with—something they can't see, touch, or hear? In this message, we'll discover the thing God gives us that allows us to have a simple, yet profound confidence in him.

Have your hopes, wishes, and expectations for Christmas—and life—changed since you were a kid? As you've grown older, are there things that you've given up hope on altogether? This message will help.

Do you have a favorite Christmas memory from your childhood? Was it filled with a sense of wonder? Where did that go? We’ll kick this series off by beginning to look through Luke’s account of the Christmas story, helping to reinstill that wonder once again.

God has amazing power at work in you, and he wants to unleash that power through you. In this message, we’re going to unleash a Jesus-glorifying commitment together as a church that will change lives and eternities for generations to come. Let’s go ALL IN with “2nd Stage.” Discover more at 2ndStageElevates.com

There’s a physical law that’s always at work. It’s the law of the harvest. If you sow wheat, you harvest wheat. If you sow lots of wheat, you harvest lots of wheat. It’s not too complicated. But what most people don’t know is that the law of the harvest is also a spiritual principle. In fact, if you feel like your faith hasn’t been growing in a while, odds are you’ve neglected this very principle. In this message, we’ll discover how to begin to elevate your faith to the next stage.

Love is measured by sacrifice. We know that God loves us because of what he sacrificed to have us, showing us that sacrificial generosity is a primary way that we should express love. This is the reason why parents give up so much for their children. We sacrificially give toward what we love. You know where your heart is by where your money goes.

What is preventing you from getting to a place where you have complete trust in God? Many times, the answer is money. Money is a blessing from God, but when it becomes the object of our trust, it becomes the biggest obstacle to faith and growth. In this message, we’ll discover how to use money and trust God. God is asking you to trust him with 100% of your life.

When you do what only you can do, God shows up and does what only he can do—a miracle. In this message, we’ll meet someone so generous that, instead of allowing his lifestyle to govern his generosity, he let his generosity govern his lifestyle. And when he did, he got to unleash a miracle. Find more at: https://www.2ndstageelevates.com/

Jesus chose to give the first "Lord’s Supper" at a Passover meal with his disciples. But this wasn't an ordinary Passover meal. First, the traditional main course, lamb, was not served. Only bread and wine are mentioned to have been present. And second, it was customary to celebrate the Passover meal with your family. So why did Jesus pull his disciples away of their families for this Passover, and why didn't he serve the usual main course?

Nobody likes to be labeled. Once you’ve been labeled at work, at home, or in the community, you feel trapped. You feel trapped by past or present behaviors—trapped by what people think and say about you. But through baptism, God gives you an incredible gift. He takes off all the old labels that you carry around, and he makes you someone new—he makes you a new person with a brand new ID. Nothing washes like baptism.

There is no single theological topic longer debated in the Church than baptism. Christians have had differing views on baptism since the 2nd century. That’s why, in this message, we’ll unpack many of the common questions people have about baptism by seeing how the Biblical authors address them. We’ll also discover why differing views on baptism should not divide the Church. Do you have questions about baptism? Then this message is for you.

Does our church matter? How can we be sure? Perhaps you’ve seen a church before, and you were pretty sure that church didn’t matter. So, does our church matter? How do we know? When Jesus rose from death, he established his Church. And just before he ascended into heaven, he established the Church’s commission. If we want to know if we matter, we have to look at the commission that Jesus gave his Church.

It’s difficult for us to relate to superheroes because they are portrayed to be able to save the entire planet through one herculean act. But in this message, we’ll see that real-life heroes know that it isn’t one heroic act that saves the day. There’s a different action, taken many times, that makes someone a true hero.

Superman had a weakness—kryptonite. In the presence of kryptonite, he was as weak as any ordinary man. So, what’s your kryptonite? In this message, we’ll see how to uncover it and how to avoid it.

There was a time in Moses' life when God, in response to the Israelites' constant grumbling and complaining against him, unleashed venomous serpents into their camp. When they finally repented, God gave the Israelites a strange prescription. He told Moses to craft a serpent out of bronze and lift it up high on a pole so that all who looked at it would be healed from their deadly, venomous wounds. In this message, we’ll discover that Jesus, lifted high up on the cross, did this for us—he healed us—and far more.

A cursory reading of the life of Moses reveals a God who is full of glory. A God whose very attributes and holiness create a weight of significance and awesomeness so wonderful that the glory of God can’t even be seen by human eyes. However, in this message, we’re going to take a look at an account in the life of Moses where the people are allowed to see God’s glory. But why? And how? What or who makes it possible for someone to see it?

The Ten Commandments have confused people for centuries. They even confuse Christians. Some assume that their purpose is to show us how to earn God’s favor through obedience. Some believe that their purpose is to show that we’re nothing but miserable sinners. In this message, we’ll discover that through God’s Law, we learn how to be a city belonging to the Lord. And more importantly, we’ll see how Jesus establishes us as citizens of his City.

The Red Sea crossing is the ultimate depiction of salvation in the Bible. God’s people were trapped. And with no way to escape to freedom, certain death was closing in. Only Moses, the man who represented God to the people, could deliver them. But to do it, he would have to lead them through the waters of destruction. In this message, we'll see that this account of deliverance points us to Jesus—the true Moses—the one who delivers from death to life.