Hope Downtown Minneapolis Podcast

Where do you turn when life lowers you to the end of your rope? In the second half of Romans 7, we discover a pathway to communing with God that looks less like climbing and more like seeing life as it actually is, and ourselves as those who struggle and stumble. This means Jesus isn’t away and unaware of the dark and scary places of your life that feel like death (strained relationships, losing a job, receiving critical feedback, a bad diagnosis, etc.) but already there working with a power greater than we could ever engineer. Romans Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

In The Greatest Showman the song Never Enough repeats how the world’s lights and stars and gold will never be enough. In this passage the law of God repeats how our best efforts will never be enough. To live by the law requires absolute perfection. Good news comes when we realize only Jesus has lived with absolute perfection and hushed the Law’s loud thunder. He is more than enough for us! Questions to Consider Where are you hearing “Never Enough”? Is that driving you to the grace of Christ? Romans Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

What is the mechanism of how we become right with God AND are given power for living? Our complete and perfect union with Jesus in His life, death and resurrection!! Romans Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Should we just sin all the time because we’re not under law but under grace? The second half of Romans 6 addresses this question while, in a way, trolling our Western notion of freedom. Being free isn’t only about being out from under the wrong thing, but being bound to that which is truly good. And this goodness runs on a fuel more powerful than the right answers of the law. Romans Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Grace isn’t found only when we sin. Grace protects and heals and blesses and guides and strengthens. Grace frees us from sin as we are united to Jesus in his death and resurrection. So should we continue in sin so that grace might abound? By no means. We are dead to sin and alive to God! Will you let grace abound all the more? Romans Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

You cannot possibly out-sin the grace of God given to us through the gift of Jesus Christ’s obedience on the Cross. That’s not a challenge – it’s simply a fact! Romans Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Paragraph DescriptiAll of us have ideas about God that are skewed and even completely backwards at times. This is why, perhaps more than anything, we need him to show us what he’s like and what he’s doing in the world. Fortunately for us, God is not in the business of hiding but revealing and he does just that in Romans 5. Gospel Application Is the center of the gospel becoming the center of your life? Romans Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

It's time to stop and smell...the churros (one of my favorite smells). This week we pause to reflect on the effects of the Good News for our lives. Peace, grace, and hope - even amidst sufferings - are all ours because of what Jesus accomplished. Don't forget this. In fact, take time to stop and smell these churros! Romans Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Salvation by faith through grace has always been the plan for the very beginning. God didn’t change plans to make it work for Jesus, but the entire storyline of the Old Testament is pre-game to the revelation of Jesus Christ. Romans Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Every murder mystery reveals a twist. Once known, it is enjoyable to re-watch or re-read that story with that twist in mind. The same is true for the bible. This week and next we return to the beginning of the story to see how trusting in God’s promises of salvation brings righteousness––not religious works or sacred rituals or having a certain relative…and that’s how it’s always been! Question: An often-used pattern in Scripture is promise-fulfillment. God makes promises. Eventually, he fulfills them. In the time between when he makes the promise and when he fulfills the promise is our opportunity to trust him. Today, are you now trusting in Jesus Christ and the promises he has made to bring forth his eternal rescue and righteousness? Romans Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

In chapter 4 of the book of Romans, Paul will try to defend his explanation of what Jesus has done for us. But, does his answer fit with the Old Testament storyline, and what exactly is he trying to defend. This week, we will discover what Paul saw as God’s ultimate plan for the salvation of his people. Romans Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

In the 90’s and early 2000’s there was a dramatic rise in books and movies about the end of the world. Many of these cultural artifacts, however, were more preoccupied with current events than the Bible. In today’s passage, we take a closer look at one of those parables that seems to be about the end of the world, and find some surprising twists in the way Jesus thinks about the end times and how it relates to his death. Not Just Another Story Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

In an amazing twist, Jesus informs us that anything that is held on to ‘for dear life’ outside of making him our entire life will ultimately sour and never satisfy the way he does. Putting our entire trust and hope in Jesus is the real only way to have life and have it to the very utmost! Not Just Another Story Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Jesus failed to match expectations that religious leaders had for the Messiah. They expected to see power and affluence and authority; he showed weakness and humility and smallness. This week’s parables make clear how God moves in ways we might consider upside down. Application Will you embrace that God works in upside down ways––amidst the common and ordinary, the unseen and the slow? Not Just Another Story Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

This week’s story works on two levels. On one level, it is an easily accessible story of reversal – the rich (or self-reliant!) becomes poor and the poor becomes rich. On a second level, it communicates the great Christian truth that Jesus (who is rich while being completely God-reliant) becomes poor so the poor (or incapable, helpless, deficient, needy) might be rich on account of him. And this second level is why we can say this is “Not Just Another Story!” Questions: The passage communicates that cheer and splendor resulting from self-reliance impedes our looking to God for help. In a spiritual sense, have you abandoned the belief that you are capable and self-reliant to secure your intended hopes and dreams for the future–that, truly, you need to be “helped by God”? Can we identify 1 or 2 areas where it would bless (y)our souls to be carried by Christ across the chasm from self-reliance to God’s presence?Paragraph Description Not Just Another Story Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneap

The story from today’s passage often gets ignored. Why? Because it depicts a wasteful and unrighteous manager, on the cusp of being fired, acting “shrewdly” to the detriment of his employer…yet his employer commends him. What? How can such a guy get praised? How can such a character be exemplified by Jesus within his teaching? Questions Are you quick to believe God is a “debt reliever” and “burden lifter”? Have our non-Christian friends, family, and coworkers heard the good news that God is a “debt reliever” and “burden lifter”? Not Just Another Story Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

About today’s story, Robert Capon says, “The point is that none of the people who had a right to be at a proper party came, and that all the people who came had no right whatsoever to be there…Grace as portrayed here works only on the untouchable, the unpardonable, and the unacceptable.” That grace is ours if we but accept the invitation of Jesus to come to his banquet. Questions: Do you believe the cost to attend the banquet of Christ has been paid? Does the free grace of the Gospel lead you to the table with no strings attached?Paragraph Description Not Just Another Story Ben Goessling Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Many of our intuitions around what it looks like to read the Bible often steer toward "how to" -- that is, what does God want me to do. But here in Luke's gospel, Jesus begins to lay his cards down the table for how he interprets the Scriptures. Using the phrase "greater than" he shows us the ways grace changes how we comprehend both the Bible and our very lives. Gospel Application Where is God inviting you into the freedom of not being your own?  Not Just Another Story Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

You can always come home no matter what.” My wife, Jill, and I have repeated that phrase countless times to our boys. Why? Because we make mistakes. These mistakes can lead to guilt and shame. And pretty soon we start to believe sin and shame’s lies. This week we hear the good news that Jesus has taken our shame and opened the door for us to come home.   Reflection questions Does the lens of honor-shame make clear the willingness of Jesus to bear (y)our shame that we might have the door opened to us? Who else needs to hear that the door has been opened by the gracious homeowner (God)? Not Just Another Story Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Given the times we live in, it’s so easy to think we know best. This can, occasionally, include knowing best how God should be doing his job. The people of Jesus’s day had this too. They had expectations for how promised rescuer (the Messiah) should act. And Jesus didn’t match all those expectations. Even John, the forerunner to the Messiah, had questions whether Jesus was the one. And that’s where the story gets good. Reflection Questions Is Jesus your salvation today? Can we—Hope Community Church—be a central and important support to one another? Not Just Another Story Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.