The Hills Church, Fort Worth, Texas

Writing from prison, Paul insists that we have spiritual resources that we can use to Keep Calm. We do not have to live trying to stay afloat in a sea of anxiety.

The Bible teaches us that the presence of anxiety is optional. Jesus teaches us how to live with anxiety by looking to Him.

John referred to himself as the disciple Jesus loved. How would it change your life if you realized you are God’s favorite?

If you could change one area of your life that would transform all others, would you do it? This message details why your life moves in the direction of your strongest thoughts, and how to make 2021 a great year.

As we evaluate 2020, let’s see how well we kept our focus and love on God and use this as motivation moving into 2021. Our love for God sets the foundation for how we live our lives.

"Christ" is not Jesus last name, it is perhaps his most important title. It is the Greek form of the Hebrew word "Messiah", and it was given to Jesus as soon as he was born.

This has been a year where we have all had to deal with isolation of some sort. However, we have assurance from the name Immanuel that "God is with us". We are never truly alone.

The child Mary carried would be given many titles, but he was only given one name. It was an ordinary and common name that is not even unique in scriptures. But it was uniquely chosen for Mary's baby.

You live differently when you realize that the maker of the universe is with you in your valley and mountain top seasons. The God who spoke the solar system into existence tells you "I am with you" today.

2020 has been a hard year for us. Life in this pandemic has been hard! This difficult season has left many of us feeling like we are not ok! During difficult times such as this, it is easy to feel like God has abandon His people, when in fact God has spoken the contrary to sus Christ and He has it's ok, not to be ok!

2020 has been an incredibly difficult year. With difficult circumstances all around things can sometimes feel hopeless. But because of Jesus, we can Choose Hope anyway whether we see better days coming or not.

Celebrating what God has done through the 2020 Vision of our church. For 15 years this vision has given direction to our mission to make and grow followers of Jesus. We are taking a moment to look back will fill us with great anticipation as we look ahead.

It's amazing how little effort it takes on our part to be such a huge blessing in someone else's life.

The first thought of God revealed in the Bible is "light in the darkness".

God chooses to relate to all people through promise and faith. A promise is God's will and power to create a new future out of a barren past. Faith is the capacity to embrace and act on that announded future with such passion that one must move in its direction.

Natural law cannot restrict our God from intervening when and how He chooses. God can do anything consistent with who He is and what He wants done.

We can find joy and peace in hard seasons by putting our faith and hope in someone that remains unchanging, God, the great I AM.

It's possible to engage the political process in a way that opens doors for our witness of Christ rather than closing them.

During this political season our allegiancer is to Jesus alone, our King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

Division seems ever present - but just as present is the solution Jesus offers. Jesus offers unity. But what does that actually look like? In this series out of Romans 12, we'll talk about the unity Jesus offers and what God's people living God's way looks like in the messy, everyday stuff of doing life together.

Healthy Christian community makes no place for personal pride, but shows us a better way to see ourselves and others.

Division seems ever present these days - but just as present is the solution Jesus offers.

The truth is some marriages don't last. God hates divorce, but He loves the divorced!

We can sometimes resist the idea of submission because in our culture we rightly view men and women as equals. But Paul says followers of Christ should choose mutuality of service and surrender.

Our culture puts a lot of emphasis on picking wisely when it comes to marriage, but couples quickly learn that marriage is a lifetime of choices that determine health and happiness. This series will explore the big decisions that followers of Jesus must regularly make to build a marriage that thrives.

We can sometimes resist the idea of submission because in our culture we rightly view men and women as equals. But Paul says followers of Christ should choose mutuality of service and surrender.

For married couples the most important question is "What does God want"? Marriage is a lifetime of decisions to say yes to one thing and no to another. Marriage is God's idea, so it should be a big deal to us.

Paul reminds us that even when so much has been lost, diminished or locked down, love is essential.

Paul insists that disciples of Christ can control their outlook even when they cannot control the outcome. He see joy as a rest of choice rather than a result of chance.

While Paul was in prison he chose to focus on his abundance in Christ. He resisted the enemy's effort to make him forget his true wealth. And the more he reflected, the more he exclaimed, "Thank God for God!"

The apostle Paul was a church planter who traveled the world. When he was unable to go anywhere for several years after being arrested he discovered that there is still life!

From the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he is proving himself as our champion. He is winning everywhere we tend to lose. He overcomes temptation in the desert. He isn't crushed by rejection in his hometown. And he heals everyone in Galilee of both spiritual and physical sickness. These three bouts in Luke 4 will build our faith and confidence in a God who is undefeated. So no matter what it looks like right now, we know what is eternally true. And in any of these areas where we are losing the fight - God offers us two things 1) grace because Jesus already won for us and 2) the very Spirit that empowered Jesus to win.

From the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he is proving himself as our champion. He is winning everywhere we tend to lose. He overcomes temptation in the desert. He isn't crushed by rejection in his hometown. And he heals everyone in Galilee of both spiritual and physical sickness. These three bouts in Luke 4 will build our faith and confidence in a God who is undefeated. So no matter what it looks like right now, we know what is eternally true. And in any of these areas where we are losing the fight - God offers us two things 1) grace because Jesus already won for us and 2) the very Spirit that empowered Jesus to win.

From the beginning of Jesus' ministry, he is proving himself as our champion. He is winning everywhere we tend to lose. He overcomes temptation in the desert. He isn't crushed by rejection in his hometown. And he heals everyone in Galilee of both spiritual and physical sickness. These three bouts in Luke 4 will build our faith and confidence in a God who is undefeated. So no matter what it looks like right now, we know what is eternally true. And in any of these areas where we are losing the fight - God offers us two things 1) grace because Jesus already won for us and 2) the very Spirit that empowered Jesus to win.

There is a desire deep within all of us to have "a place". As followers of Jesus we long for our place, the new earth that will be our home when Jesus returns.

A healthy faith is comfortable not only facing hard, challenging questions, it's also comfortable saying "I don't know" to some of those questions.

We often think of something missing as being a problem, but it's also true that something missing can be the solution. When the new earth comes, one of the best things about it will be the things that won't be coming with it. We will delight in what is missing from home.

Most people believe afterlife more than the resurrection. This viewpoint is influenced more by Greek philosophy than in scripture. Our destiny is not non-earth; it is new earth.

The phrase "Go to heaven" is not mentioned anywhere in the Bible. There are mentions of desiring to go and be with the Lord, but when it comes to heaven, we are mentioned as the ones waiting for its arrival. What if heaven is a place on earth?

God wanted a blessing spoken over his people. But what's the point of a blessing? What if it's more than just a religious "raise your glass" moment? This ancient blessing gives us a glimpse into God's Nature and God's favor.

Have you ever had someone tell you something that was absolutely useless? For some a study of heaven is that way. But the earliest Christians did not share that opinion. The would doubt it your view of heaven was biblical it it wasn't practical.

Feeling the tension of having to adjust to our current reality while longing for a different reality is not new for followers of Jesus.

Only three questions ultimately matter:where did we come from? Why are we here? Where are we going? We are beginning a series to explore the Christian answer to the third question. We contend that Jesus has a unique authority to speak with certainty about the here and the hereafter.

It doesn’t matter where you here the good news of Jesus’ resurrection; it matters where you look after your hear it. Easter is a call to “get your hopes up"!

As Paul comes to the last of his letter, he brings us back to what's of first importance.

There is something about the bent of human nature - the Bible calls it "the flesh" - that requires laws and punishments before it will do what it ought to do. and because that is true, rules-based religion will always have some appeal.

Freedom is a special gift that should only be surrendered for the good of others. Often we are encouraged to give up our freedom by following rules and laws. But the gospel teaches us that we have been freed, once and for all.

The book of Galatians is wrestling with the issue of family--who can rightly consider themselves to be the children of God.

In the book of Galatians Paul argues strongly that all attempts to supplement Christ by trying to help God do what only God can do, results in replacing Christ. The written Word has one purpose: to lead us to faith in the living Word.

We may not always recognize what a good thing we have in the gospel until we are in a place where it is missing.