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. 3d ago

    3C: Can You Ever Be Good Enough for God?

    This episode of the Three C Podcast picks up where the weekend sermon left off, continuing through Romans chapters 3–5 with lead pastor Matt Sturdivant and the Hope Church pastoral team. The big idea from the sermon was clear: we are made right with God by grace through faith, not by works. Matt digs into Romans chapter 4, where Paul uses Abraham as the defining example of justification by faith. As Matt points out, Abraham believed God, "and it was counted to him as righteousness" (Romans 4:3), and this happened before circumcision, before the law — before any religious work. Salvation, Paul is arguing, has never been a paycheck. It's always been a gift. Matt then takes the team on a deeper theological journey, walking through the full arc of salvation — from conversion through sanctification to glorification — and connecting it to the Protestant Reformation. In honor of Reformation Day on October 31st, Matt explains how Martin Luther's challenge to the Roman Catholic Church centered on this very question: how can sinful people be made right with a holy God? The five solas — Scripture alone, faith alone, grace alone, Christ alone, and glory to God alone — emerged from that Reformation and speak directly to what Paul is teaching in Romans. The team also discusses the meaningful distinction between Protestant and Roman Catholic views of justification, and why that difference is anything but minor. The episode closes with a segment on faithful citizenship, where Matt introduces a helpful framework for thinking about political issues: straight-line issues, where Scripture speaks clearly and directly (such as the sanctity of life, marriage, and religious freedom), and jagged-line issues, where Biblical principles exist but wisdom and complexity are required to reach policy conclusions (such as immigration, healthcare, and economic policy). The team encourages listeners to vote, to know God's Word well enough to spot when it's being misused, and to hold Biblical commands with conviction while approaching wisdom-based judgments with humility.

  2. 4d ago

    The Solution: Justified by Grace

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant opens by returning to where last week's message left off — the courtroom of Romans 3, where every mouth is stopped and every person stands guilty before a holy God. But this week, the tone shifts with two of the most hopeful words in all of Scripture: "But now" (Romans 3:21). From there, Pastor Matt walks through seven truths about righteousness, showing that it is apart from legalism, built on Revelation, acquired by faith, available to all, freely given through grace, accomplished by redemption, and paid by an atoning sacrifice. At the heart of it all is what theologians call the Great Exchange — our sin imputed to Christ, and Christ's righteousness imputed to us — so that God can be simultaneously just and the justifier of those who believe. Moving into Romans 5, Pastor Matt unpacks the blessings that flow from justification: peace with God, the firm ground of grace on which believers stand, hope in God's glory, and even the surprising gift of suffering, which produces endurance, character, and a deeper hope through what he calls the "spiral of sanctification." He closes by making it personal with four responses — stop trying to prove yourself to God, live secure in what Jesus has done, believe that grace is greater than your sin, and let the gospel send you to others. In keeping with that final point, Pastor Matt announces that Hope Church is launching a second campus in the fall of 2028, with Luke Myers named as campus pastor, as a living expression of a church changed by the gospel and sent with the gospel.

  3. Oct 7

    3C Don't Mistake God's Patience for His Approval

    Pastor Matt Sturdevant and the pastoral staff of Hope Church gather on the 3C Podcast to reflect on a weighty sermon covering Romans 1:18–3:20, where Paul builds an airtight case that no one — not the openly rebellious, not the moral person, not the religious person — escapes guilt before a holy God. The big idea is clear: everyone is guilty, and no one is beyond the need for grace. The team reflects honestly on what it feels like to sit under that kind of truth, with each pastor sharing how the weight of their own sin makes Jesus' grace all the more staggering. As Pastor Brian put it, looking back over a lifetime of God's patience and protection, "I know that without Jesus I would be a mess." The discussion then turns to Romans 2:4, a verse Pastor Matt didn't have time to unpack on Sunday. Paul's point is that God's kindness, forbearance, and patience toward sinners are not evidence that He approves of sin — they are an extraordinary invitation to repentance. God gives goodness that isn't deserved, withholds the judgment that is deserved, and waits with remarkable long-suffering. The right response, as Pastor Matt summarizes, is not presumption but repentance: "God's kindness isn't permission to continue to sin. It's an invitation to turn from it." The episode closes with part two of a five-part series on faithful citizenship, asking the pointed question: who is discipling your politics? Drawing on Romans 12:2 — "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" — Pastor Matt challenges listeners to audit how much political content they consume compared to Scripture, and to honestly examine whether their political identity has begun to overshadow their identity in Christ. The bottom line is simple but convicting: disciples of Jesus cannot outsource their thinking to a political tribe, because God and His Word always get the final word.

  4. Oct 5

    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.

  5. Sep 29

    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.

  6. 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.

  7. 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.

  8. 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.

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

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