Hope Church - Fort Worth, TX

Hope Church
  • 5.0 (13)
  • Christianity
  • Updated Weekly

Since 1978, helping people get traction on their journey with Jesus Christ. For more information go to hopechurch.com.

  1. 11h ago

    The Problem: Sin is Universal

    Pastor Matt continues his series through the book of Romans by diving into Romans 1:18–3:20, where the apostle Paul holds up a mirror to all of humanity. The reflection isn't flattering. Before we can appreciate the cure, Pastor Matt reminds us, we have to understand the disease — and Paul's diagnosis is clear: everyone is guilty before God, and no one escapes the need for grace. Just as a doctor's treatment means nothing until you understand the illness, the good news of the gospel means nothing until you reckon honestly with the bad news. Pastor Matt traces Paul's argument through four movements. First, humanity rejects God's truth, suppressing what He has clearly revealed through creation, and exchanges the glory of the Creator for created things — which is the very definition of idolatry. Idols, Pastor Matt explains, aren't just primitive statues; they are anything we place in the position that belongs to God alone, whether that's money, comfort, approval, or relationships. Three times in Romans 1, Paul writes that "God gave them up," revealing that one form of God's present wrath is simply letting us have what we insist on. From there, Paul tightens the circle. Being moral doesn't make us innocent, because the standard isn't whether we're better than the person sitting next to us — it's the perfect righteousness of God, and compared to that standard, we all fall short. Being religious doesn't make us righteous either, because knowing God's truth is not the same thing as being transformed by it. By the time Paul reaches Romans 3:19, every mouth is stopped. There are no more excuses, no more comparisons, no more religious résumés. The verdict is guilty — and that means every single one of us desperately needs Jesus.

  2. 6d ago

    3C Have We Made Jesus Into Someone He Isn't?

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant opens the 3C Podcast with a deep dive into Romans 1:1-17, laying out four main truths from Paul's introduction: the gospel is from God, it's about Jesus, it's for everyone who believes, and it reveals the righteousness of God. The team reflects personally on three "why it matters" takeaways — understanding the real gospel, personally responding to it, and never being ashamed of it. Each pastor shares honestly about where they've struggled, from falling into performance-based faith, to fearing an "unpardonable sin," to staying quiet about Jesus when the crowd pushed back. Pastor Matt then goes deeper into what the Sunday sermon didn't have time to cover, walking through four distortions of the gospel — adding to it (Jesus plus something), removing from it (Jesus minus something essential), changing it (redefining Biblical categories altogether), and combining it with another worldview. From there, he identifies several counterfeit versions of Jesus that grow out of these distortions: the self-help guru Jesus, the political activist Jesus, the prosperity gospel Jesus, the patriotic Jesus, the warm and fuzzy non-confrontational Jesus, and the legalistic Jesus. The team is clear that the antidote to all of these is knowing the real gospel through consistent, personal Bible reading. To close out the episode, the team introduces a new five-week segment on faithful citizenship, with Pastor Matt framing the conversation around the truth that Jesus is King. He challenges listeners to avoid two dangerous extremes — political idolatry on one side and total political withdrawal on the other — and to instead land in the middle with faithful stewardship. Whatever the election results may bring, the mission of Jesus doesn't change, and neither does the One sitting on the throne.

  3. Sep 28

    The Gospel: The Foundation for Everything

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant opens the church's new series through the book of Romans — the final leg of their "Bible in a J.A.R" journey through John, Acts, and Romans — with a clear and compelling introduction to the gospel. Drawing from Romans 1:1–17, he lays out the series' big idea: the gospel isn't simply about salvation; it's about total life transformation. Romans, he explains, is the "why" behind everything — the theological foundation that makes the Christian life make sense, covering everything from sin and grace to justification, sanctification, and the Holy Spirit. From Paul's opening verses, Pastor Matt identifies four defining truths about the gospel. First, the gospel is from God — it wasn't invented by the apostles, and it was never God's Plan B. From Genesis forward, Scripture tells a single unfolding story pointing toward Jesus. Second, the gospel is about Jesus — fully human, descended from David, and fully God, powerfully declared the Son of God through the resurrection. Third, it's for everyone who believes — crossing every human dividing line of culture, class, and background, though it does not teach universal salvation. And fourth, it reveals the righteousness of God — a righteousness that God doesn't merely meet, but defines, which creates the central problem Romans will spend its pages answering: how can unrighteous people ever be made right with a perfectly righteous God? Pastor Matt closes with three personal implications. He challenges the congregation to make sure they understand the real gospel rather than a counterfeit version built on self-effort or religious performance. He urges every person to personally respond to the gospel, because knowing facts about Jesus is not the same as trusting him. And finally, echoing Paul's own declaration in Romans 1:16, he calls believers to never be ashamed of the gospel — reminding them that the power to save people rests in the gospel itself, not in anyone's ability to present it perfectly.

  4. Sep 23

    3C: When Life Feels Out of Control, Do This First

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant's sermon on the second half of Esther centers on a powerful big idea: faith is not certainty about the outcome, but confidence in God that enables obedience when the outcome is uncertain. Drawing from ten Biblical principles for navigating uncertainty, the pastoral team (Brian Cropp, Jake Myers, Luke Myers, and Jeremy Good) unpack what it looks like to face life's hard moments God's way rather than defaulting to our natural instincts. Those instincts, Matt points out, can be real but not reliable, shaped by fear, past wounds, personality, and the culture around us. A major thread running through the conversation is the contrast between what we naturally do when uncertainty hits: isolate, hide, worry, pretend, withdraw, and go it alone, and what God's people are called to do: connect, share, bear burdens together, pray, be honest, and walk alongside one another. The team gets refreshingly candid about their own go-to coping mechanisms, from ice cream and YouTube to distraction and procrastination, before landing on the truth that prayer should be our first response, not our last resort. As Martin Luther reportedly said, "I have so much to do that I must spend the first three hours of the day in prayer." The episode also walks through a practical spectrum of decision-making, from what the Bible clearly commands and forbids to a wide middle ground that requires genuine discernment, wisdom, and a close walk with God. The episode closes with a reminder that ultimate certainty isn't a guaranteed happy ending to every story — it's the unshakeable confidence that God wins in the end.

  5. Sep 21

    How to Live with Confidence When Life is Uncertain

    Picking up where last week left off, Pastor Matt Sturdevant continues this two-week series through the book of Esther by shifting the focus from what we believe to how we actually live. The central question he puts before the congregation is this: how do I practically live today in light of God's sovereignty? Using Esther 4:13-16 as his anchor text, Pastor Matt defines faith not as certainty about an outcome, but as confidence in God that enables obedience when the outcome is uncertain — a definition beautifully illustrated by Esther's own words, "If I perish, I perish." From there, Pastor Matt walks through ten practical, Biblical principles for navigating uncertainty. After briefly reviewing the first three from last week — accepting what we cannot control, trusting God even when we can't see what He's doing, and believing God can use us where we are — he unpacks seven more. These include not facing uncertainty alone, praying before panicking, refusing to let fear make our decisions, obeying what God has already made clear, acting wisely rather than recklessly, trusting God with what happens after we obey, and remembering that in the end, God wins. Each principle is grounded in the story of Esther and reinforced with Scripture, drawing from passages like Philippians 4:6-7, John 14:15, Matthew 10:16, and Romans 8:35-37. Pastor Matt closes with a powerful reminder that Esther's story of deliverance ultimately points to the greater deliverance found in Jesus Christ. While not every believer receives an "Esther chapter nine" ending to their struggles in this life, Christians can walk with confidence because the resurrection of Jesus means that sin, suffering, and death do not get the final word. As Hebrews 4:16 reminds us, we can draw near to the throne of grace with confidence — not because we have all the answers, but because we know the One who does.

  6. Sep 16

    3C - How to Trust God When You Don't Know What's Next

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant and the pastoral staff of Hope Church continue their two-week series through the Book of Esther, using the Three C Podcast to go deeper than Sunday morning allowed. The big idea of the series is this: certainty is not knowing what will happen next — it is knowing who you can trust when you don't know what's coming. The team unpacks three anchoring truths: God is in control even when we are not, God is working even when we cannot see it, and God has a purpose even when we do not understand it. They also offer a crucial warning — the message of Esther is not that trusting God guarantees the outcome we want. The answer to an uncertain world is not a principle; it's a person — Jesus Christ. The podcast then goes several layers deeper into the historical and Biblical context of the story. Pastor Matt draws a fascinating line connecting Haman the Agagite back to Agag, the Amalekite king whom King Saul failed to destroy in 1 Sam. 15, and traces Mordecai's lineage back to the house of Kish in the tribe of Benjamin — the same lineage as Saul himself. This means the conflict between Mordecai and Haman is, in many ways, a generational rematch of Saul versus Agag. Even further, Haman's plot to annihilate every Jew across all 127 provinces is not merely a political threat — it is an assault on God's covenant promise to Abraham in Gen. 12 and Gen. 22, and ultimately an attempt to destroy the messianic line before the Messiah could come. The team then moves into application, wrestling with the tension between trusting God and falling into passivity. Using a framework of opportunity, obedience, and outcome, they make clear that God provides the opportunities and governs the outcomes, while human responsibility lives in the middle — faithful obedience. They walk through a sweeping list of things we can influence but cannot control: other people's decisions, our children's faith, our health, our reputations, and the growth of the church. The takeaway is both humbling and freeing — we are responsible for our response and our faithfulness, and we can trust God with everything else.

  7. Sep 14

    When Life Feels Out of Control

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant opens a two-week series called Finding Certainty in an Uncertain World by asking a simple but piercing question: what are you uncertain about right now? Whether it's your job, your marriage, your health, your kids, or the economy, Pastor Matt establishes that uncertainty isn't an unusual season of life — it's simply part of life in a broken world. Beneath that uncertainty, he identifies another struggle: our deep desire to be in control. Yet as he points out, there are things we can influence that we simply cannot control, and one of life's most unsettling discoveries is just how little control we actually have. To wrestle with this, Pastor Matt takes the congregation into the Book of Esther — a real account of a young Jewish orphan who found herself living in a world of uncertainty about 2500 years ago. One of the most striking features of Esther is that God's name is never mentioned once in the entire book, yet His fingerprints are everywhere. From this, Pastor Matt draws three certainties: God is in control even when we are not, God is working even when we cannot see it, and God has a purpose even when we do not understand it. As Proverbs 19:21 reminds us, "Many are the plans in the mind of a man, but it is the purpose of the Lord that will stand." The sermon builds toward its most important point: the answer to an uncertain world is not a principle — it's a person. Our deepest problem isn't uncertainty; it's sin. But Romans 5:8 declares, "God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." The cross proves God's love, and the resurrection proves Jesus can save. Because of this, Pastor Matt redefines certainty not as knowing what will happen next, but as knowing who you can trust when you don't — and that trust is grounded in Jesus Christ.

  8. Sep 9

    3C: Is Living Like Jesus Enough—or Do You Have to Talk About Him

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant opened the sermon with a striking passage from C.S. Lewis's The Screwtape Letters, in which the demon Screwtape reassures his apprentice Wormwood not to panic just because their "patient" has become a Christian — because the habits of the patient, both mental and bodily, are still in their favor. That sobering image set the tone for the entire message: becoming a follower of Jesus is only the beginning. Every disciple must be intentional about renewing their mind, transforming their heart, and deploying their hands — because if we do nothing, we drift, and we drift in the wrong direction. The heart of the sermon centered on the big idea that every follower of Jesus has been intentionally placed where they are to represent Christ and help others discover His ways. Pastor Matt walked through three key points: every disciple is sent, ordinary life carries extraordinary purpose, and ordinary faithfulness creates eternal impact. To make that real and practical, he outlined a simple, non-weird framework for living as a sent person: notice the people God has already placed around you, pray for them specifically, care for them genuinely, share naturally about Jesus, invite them to take a next step, and simply walk with them — whether they respond to the gospel or not. The podcast discussion that followed dug deeper into what this actually looks like in everyday life. The team unpacked the danger of two opposite errors — words without a matching life, and a life without words — pushing back on the popular but historically questionable quote often attributed to Saint Francis of Assisi: "Preach the gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words." The truth, Pastor Matt argued, is that good works make the gospel believable, but they cannot make it understandable. Words are necessary. And when it comes to not knowing enough to share your faith, the answer is probably less than you think — because a personal testimony of "I was one way, Jesus entered my life, and now I'm different" is a powerful and accessible starting point for anyone.

See All (99)

5
out of 5
13 Ratings

About

Since 1978, helping people get traction on their journey with Jesus Christ. For more information go to hopechurch.com.

Information

You Might Also Like