New Hope Church

FEAR NOT!  BE COURAGEOUS! Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you…  The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. —Deuteronomy 31:6, 8 Keep your lives free from the love of money and be content with what you have, because God has said, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you.”  So we say with confidence, “The Lord is my helper; I will not be afraid.  What can mere mortals do to…

LOVINGLY OBEDIENT When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,” they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. —Deuteronomy 29:19-21  No, the…

BENEFITS OF OBEDIENCE, CONSEQUENCES OF DISOBEDIENCE! If you obey the voice of the LORD your God. Blessed shall you be… . But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God… —Deuteronomy 28:3, 15             Blessing and cursing is dependent on how a nation’s attitude is toward our Lord.  Obedience will bring blessing, disobedience will bring cursing.  “Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD, the people he chose for his inheritance” (Psalm 33:12).  “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the people of the world revere him.  For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm” (Psalm 33:8-9).  So nations have…

JESUS— KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS! And the soldiers led him away inside the palace (that is, the governor’s headquarters), and they called together the whole battalion. And they clothed him in a purple cloak, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on him. And they began to salute him, “Hail, King of the Jews!” And they were striking his head with a reed and spitting on him and kneeling down in homage to him. And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the purple cloak and put his own clothes on him. And they led him out to crucify him. —Mark 15:16-20 And the inscription of…

SALVATION ONLY THROUGH GOD’S SON! Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”  “I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.” —Mark 14:61-62 While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?”  “The son of David,” they replied.  He said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him ‘Lord’? For he says, “‘The Lord said to my Lord: “Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under…

INFLUENCERS FOR LOVING OBEDIENCE OR HATEFUL DISOBEDIENCE  Then the officers shall add, “Is anyone afraid or fainthearted? Let him go home so that his fellow soldiers will not become disheartened too.” —Deuteronomy 20:8              Negative attitudes of a person or group can have a permeating, negative effect on others as well.  We saw this when the twelve went into Canaan to scout out the land.  Ten of them said, “We can’t attack those people; they are stronger than we are.”And they spread among the Israelites a bad report about the land they had explored” (Numbers 13:31-32).  It was because of this “bad report” that— That night all the members of the…

GREED KILLS! Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, “Why this waste of perfume? It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.” And they rebuked her harshly… Then Judas Iscariot, one of the Twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them. They were delighted to hear this and promised to give him money. So he watched for an opportunity to hand him over. —Mark 14:4-5, 10-11 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” …

JUSTICE! Do not pervert justice or show partiality. Do not accept a bribe, for a bribe blinds the eyes of the wise and twists the words of the innocent. —Deuteronomy 16:19             Justice is not to be perverted.  We live in an age where justice is perverted greatly.  It seems there are those who are above the law and can do whatever they want and not be held accountable.  Positions of power and money are given partiality.  People are favored and justice is perverted and innocent people suffer.             Bribes happen all the time and are out in the open.  Our world is so corrupt and that is exactly what…

THE WORLD’S HATRED And you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. —Mark 13:13 You will be hated by everyone because of me… —Matthew 10:22 Then you will be handed over to be persecuted and put to death, and you will be hated by all nations because of me. —Matthew 24:9 Everyone will hate you because of me. —Luke 21:17 If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. —John 15:18 Do not be surprised, my brothers and sisters, if the world hates you. —I John 3:13             The world system is not our friend— “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the…

TRIALS MATURE Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands…. He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you.  —Deuteronomy 8:2, 16  Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not…