Hamilton Hills Church

There is nothing wrong with being a good person. Virtue is a good thing. But when we put on the Virtue Filter, it can turn be dangerous for ourselves and to others.

On Mother's day we hear from Denise, who share's her testimony about finding Jesus through her mother's strong and resilient faith. Denise shares how she found joy and peace in her life by loving Jesus with all her heart.

The Bible talks more about money than any other subject. We use money to achieve security and status in our life. In the Bible we learn that we get our security by the riches of God's glory. And we get our status from Jesus' sacrifice on the cross.

Has there ever been a time in our life that you felt completely overwhelmed? You don't have to look very hard to see how distracted we are as a culture. One of our most valuable resources is our attention. Let's find an alternative to busyness.

Your body is important not because of how much better or equal it is compared to another body. It is precious because it is woven by God Himself. Because you were seen from the beginning of time.

In Scripture Jesus consistently says that what is in our hearts is the most important. It is what inside that counts. Jesus teaches us that using filters to make ourselves look one way only keeps us from working on our self.

Will you start a different life. Will you turn from the old disappointment and will you meet Jesus? He will take all of your mess ups, sin, and disappointment. Jesus will make you new.

The more time we spend with Jesus. The more time we spend learning Jesus. The more time we will be like Jesus. The more that we are with Jesus the more we will conquer land for the Kingdom of God.

When we give our heart to King Jesus and we turn away from the kingdoms of this world we desire His law. We love it actually. We don’t look at it as a job or toil, but rather as a guideline on how to best represent the King.

God wants you on the team, not just in the arena. God wants you in the Kingdom, but not to watch, but to be a part of the movement. To participate. We each have a job, a skill, a gift...an experience. And it's all for Him. It's time to get in the game!

The rule of King Jesus is benevolent. To be under the rule of Jesus is to be loved and cared for. To be under the rule of Jesus is to give your life to Him. To be under the rule of Jesus is to serve others.

When we turn to King Jesus for our direction, order, guidance, plans, dreams and thoughts. We join into His Kingdom here on Earth. So how do we repent, so that we can take part in the Kingdom of God?

Marriage is a God-designed order. The Bible clearly says that men and women are valued equally by God, and should be valued equally by followers of Christ. And in marriage, the roles of Men and Women are based in love and service to each other.

When talking about sex “Echad” means one flesh; spiritually, emotionally, and physically. Sex is meant to bring about oneness of a married couple. Echad, when practiced outside of marriage, can be destructive. It is like starting a fire outside a fireplace that was designed to safely harness it.

From the beginning the purpose of marriage was to help build the earth. Ultimately we all have a calling. God created marriage for a man and woman to find friendship and their spiritual calling in life.

God defines love as something that does not start with a feeling. Love starts with sacrifice. It is not a transaction, and it is selfless. The difference between the worlds definition of love and God’s definition is vast. This is the message from Hamilton Hills Church on Sunday, February 5, 2023.

Do you get frustrated when you pray? Maybe you don't know what to pray or even how to pray. Jesus says that prayer is about you and God. And Jesus gave us a good roadmap in the Lord's Prayer, found in the book of Matthew. We are going to break down how this gives us a clear indication of how God desires us to pray.

The correct posture of prayer is realized when we understand who we are in view of who God is. Our challenge when approaching God is often that we are not still enough to hear what He is wanting to tell us. Being still is derived from the concept of vacating. We must find time to be still with God. If we are not seeking to hear God’s voice and seeking to be in His presence we will never find true shalom.

To Believe that God is near is to believe that he cares about you. The Bible instructs us "to not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God." When we pray we can have the confidence that God is near, and He hears each an every prayer.

In our life, there will be a time when our understanding of God’s character will not match up with our life’s experience. When that happens, it can only be solved by the medium of prayer. By praying all of our thoughts, we are trusting in God’s character, that He cares and understands and that there is no one else that can help, care, or love like He can.

In the new year we are looking for something new. Something different. We are already looking at new goals. Hoping that a new physical goal or new financial goal or new spiritual goal will fix the hole we have inside. Here is what you should consider today: waiting on God and listening for his voice. This is the message from Hamilton Hills Church on Sunday, January 1, 2023.

Many of you are waiting to be used by God or you are waiting to be able to praise God, but you haven’t surrendered to God being able to use you. Your mouth is shut, your praise is gone, and you have no testimony to share with your Oikos. God is calling you into His Story despite all the mess in our lives. He is calling you into a story of grace and story of love. The greatest story ever told. You have a role to play.

Christ came to live in our suffering, he didn’t just take our suffering away. Through His suffering we can have an eternal relationship with God our creator. There was no other way it was going to happen! We are all responsible for the suffering in this world. We are sinners. Short of the glory of God. But Christ came and suffered in this life and took our mess and sin on Himself. He paid for it. This is the Christmas Story!

At the root of jealousy is comparison and at the heart of comparison is a lack of gratitude and awareness of purpose. One of the highlights of the Jesus’ story is how everyone builds each other up. They encourage one another in faith. WE have a choice. We can b\rise to power in this world. Or we can in humility encourage each other in the roles that God has given all of us.

God wants you to be a part of the story He is writing. The shepherds, Mary, and Joseph wouldn't have the story God was writing if Mary didn't place the hope, peace, and love of Jesus in the manger. The manger was not, in this moment, a beautiful picture. And our story might not be a beautiful picture either, but God is writing you into His story.

We can say thank you to someone for a gift and it can be lip service. There is a difference between feeling gratitude and having a grateful heart. Gratitude genuinely acknowledges the efforts, sacrifice, and charity of others. What do you have to be thankful for? Remember, no matter what is going on in your life, God is always with you, God is always in you, and God is always for you.

God is not asking you to single-handedly save the world. Jesus Christ already did that! He is asking all of us to collectively spread the Good News to our Oikos. He gives us all the power and authority to reach others. What are you waiting for?

Do you feel that you have lost your purpose? Or have you wandered and wavered from your faith? Maybe you only need to be reminded that your purpose is not over. With the principles in Oikos, you can be effective in reaching the people around you! God has strategically put people in the front row of your life. 8-15 people.

Do we value our faith community, but not the purpose of our faith? In other words, do we like what church community provides us? Those in our Connection Group or our Christian friends. Or do we get fulfilled by doing the purpose of the church with those in our Oikos that are actively pursuing their faith?

We know we are on mission with God when we are following Jesus. He said come after me. Are we doing just that, going after Jesus, pursuing Jesus and walking with Him? Discipleship, at heart, involves transformation at the deepest levels of our understanding, affection, and will by the Holy Spirit, through the Word of God and in relationship with the people of God.

We believe that are actions are what causes the Father to be pleased or displeased in us. Instead of living into our calling and purpose. Many of us will miss the greatest joy in life and live a life full of anxiety and pressure. And we will miss it. We will let everything else pull us away from the truth.

A healthy church is one in which there is unity in mission and from this flows enormous generosity. When the church begins to grasp Kingdom Theology it puts the Enemy on the defense, because the citizens of Heaven have realized their vocation. In order for this mission to become a reality each and every one of us is going to have to be of the same mind and heart.

All of us have desire and all of us have been taken captive by our desire. We have all let our desire, our affections, the eyes of our heart be deceived into thinking we needed something more than what we already have in Jesus. The real question is, “What are the eyes of our heart looking for?” We fixate on what we desire most. To become more like Christ we must be sure that our affections are more for Him than anything else or any other!

How many of you would answer the question, “Why did Jesus die on the cross?” with “To pay for my sins!” or "So we can go to Heaven!”? This is not the wrong answer, but it's not the whole reason that Jesus died for us. By dying on the cross Jesus bridged the gap for a relationship with God. We get to be in a perfectly reconciled relationship with God!

God does not cause everything to happen. He causes everything to work together for the good of the people that choose Him. God did not create evil, but through His goodness he allows us to choose evil so that the love we would have would not be a manipulated, disingenuous love. And this is the lie that Satan wants you to believe: That God is not good. But, we know God is good, and nothing can separate us from His love.

The lies that we learn in church always come with a one dimensional truth. The church should be the one place we should hear the whole Truth. The hard thing about the truth is that we love to hear only what we want to hear. We need to take the Whole truth, and declare the goodness of God.

God has done some amazing things at our Church in last year. God worked through our people in missions, children's ministry, foster care support, production, first impressions, small groups, and worship. Today we take time to celebrate some specific things God is doing in our midst. We are thankful for a church that serves God together!

The church is more organism than organization. Church is not man-made. Jesus Christ Himself started the church when He came to earth. It is the organism that Jesus started to bring about His Kingdom. But church is where we grow.

Have you ever met a bold or confident person? You know, the type of person that may even come across as a little intimidating? Maybe the boldness of this person attracted you or maybe you found it to be off-putting. If our confidence is not in Christ, we have a false sense of boldness, with can be “arrogance.” In order for the people of God to live bold lives, we need to serve God boldly.

You cannot be content while holding on to the chain of bitterness, resentment, and anger. When Christ died on the cross He didn’t just pay for your sin, He paid the price for you to release the chains and forgive others. When the chains fall off, and we forgive, we have the ability to live in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our Family members are the easiest to love, and the hardest to love...the easiest to bond and the easiest to be hurt by. God has given you your family for a purpose. In all its chaos, messiness, brokenness, and hurt. If your communication within your family does not line up with God’s Word, then you are doing the work of the enemy, intentionally or not. What conversation do you need to have with someone in your family?

We think of rest as something that helps us work more, but God views work as something we do so that we can rest. Resting in the Lord is not binge watching Netflix or scrolling social media, it is setting aside time to be still. Rest is a scheduled refueling of our souls. We need to find rest in our lives in order to be available to follow God's leading.

Many in our culture have a skewed view of faith in which certainty is demanded, doubt is shunned, and ironically, explanations are scarce. The bible teaches us to create a culture in our lives where questions are welcomed and where uncertainty is OK. When we talk with people in our lives that are not sure about the Bible and Jesus, we need to help them through their doubt.

We cannot walk in humility, unity, separation, light, love and wisdom apart from the empowering of the Holy Spirit. All believers in Jesus Christ have God's Spirit living within them, or dwelling within them but not all believers live filled or controlled by the Spirit's power. If we are obedient to Christ, filled with the Spirit and living in the fullness we will have no problem filling every position needed to function the local church.

The bible teaches us the importance of doing good with our lives, and to avoid being overtaken by lust, pleasures, envy, evil and hate. When we have already submitted to the teaching of God’s word we will have the proper reflexes to the stressors and pressures of this world. We must commit ourselves to God and always be ready to do good.

Being totally committed means you are “Not Trying, You Are Training”. Allowing God to perfect His work in you, so that you can reflect Who He is and How He has changed your life so that other will see the work He has done. Committed doesn’t mean perfect. Committed doesn’t mean done. Committed doesn’t mean you are accomplished. The more your life mirrors and reflects the Good News of Jesus the more that you will have influence in the front row of your life.

The model structure on the blueprint of a healthy church is that each one of us as Jesus-followers, model Jesus’ living through our lives. We all must live our lives as role models for others by standing for the truth and live out the truth that you have been taught and entrusted with. Maybe you feel like you haven’t been the role model, the mom, the dad, the friend, the example for Christ that you should be? God is able to help you if you turn to Him.

We can find a great blueprint for a healthy church in Paul’s letter to his disciple “Titus.” The more health the church is, the more health the people are. The healthier the people, the more influence you have to reach the people in your Oikos. The more the church grows, the more the Kingdom of God grows. We are called to be a church that is producing fruit.

Jesus talks about politics, but it may not be what you and I would think or want to hear. The religious law is much like the laws of today. Most laws and policies are connected to some form of morality. Where is your trust? Where are you giving God “Kingdom Reign.” Jesus doesn’t stop ruling and reigning based off of which candidate wins the election.

Pornography is scientifically more addictive than cocaine and heroine. Many children are seeing porn for the 1st time as early as 7-8 years of age. Temptation is NOT sin. Sinful actions are sin. Temptations are everywhere, but it is possible to have victory in the area of purity. When we view pornography it takes us out of our reality. Separates us from what is real. We then start living in an alternate universe of fantasy. God can help you find victory over pornography.

What does scripture say about alcohol? The Old and New Testament both have a lot to say about the topic. This message breaks down all the details on how we can apply Biblical principles about alcohol in our lives. It is all about understanding what fills us and controls our lives.

From the moment a man and woman are married, they are unified in a mysterious way unlike any other human relationship. The book of Genesis tells us that marriage is to be a permanent bond between a man and a woman that joins them into one new union. God says that He hate divorce. However, God does not say He hates divorced people. Divorce is a difficult process that nobody likes going through. Our marriages often struggle because we seek after compatibility, physical needs, or sexual needs. W...

Today we celebrate Mothers and everything they mean to us through their love and and support. But on a day like today, with all the honor that is due mom’s, and rightfully so, we must also recognize that this day also is a day can also bring sorrow, hurt, and loss. So we look today into a passage in the book of Ruth. We may not compare our loss specifically to Ruth's story, but we all have dealt with a form of loss in our lives.

Although the Bible does not mention the word racism, it does speak to its root. It also mentions a lot about reconciliation among tribes, nations, and people. God gave us, on purpose, differences. It was intended to be beautiful. The sin we must face is not racism, but they lack of desire for reconciliation. Reconciliation between people that don’t think, act, look, or live like us.

Let's talk about sexual identity. It is one of the most avoided elephants in the church. The Enemy has used this topic to distort our vision and confidence in Christs love for us. The closer that our identity aligns with our Creator, the more we are living in our new nature in Christ. We must look at our own brokenness and where we might be finding our identity in anything but Christ.

God likes rebuilding broken things. He remakes the mistake, recreates the cremated, and refines the unfinished. Scripture tells us that God can take our very ashes and mourning and trade it for hope.

Jesus is the lamb, but He is also the Lion. He is not going to just concede the earth. He is going to refine it. Restore it. Heal it. This is the nature of God. Everything that was broken will be renewed and restored.

Are there ways you are denying Jesus, big or small? If so, the spirit of antichrist is impacting you. Antichrists get into the Christian community and teach anti-Jesus things. They work to get you to think it’s okay to deny Christ by being disobedient; by seeing in Scripture a hard truth and changing it or ignoring it so you can live in the world as non-believers do. Or they just make things up.

God warns us in the book of Revelation against being bionically knowledgeable but indifferent to love. He also warns against being spiritually aware but indifferent to truth. Both of these tendencies can bring mediocrity to our lives. When you change your perspective, perhaps you will hear more clearly from God!

What is in your heart that is causing you to be far from God? If we overcome the temptations of the world, God has promised to walk with us closely. Jesus wants to walk with us in such a way that our sin is not in the way of our relationship. How will you move things to the side that come between you and God?

Are you waiting in anticipation of the returning King? Jesus holds sway over all things as the almighty ruler of all, and he will return. This series takes us thru the book of Revelation, which has many exciting depictions of what it will be link when Jesus comes back.

As we close out this series, let's celebrate what God has done thru our vision campaign! We have learned about worshiping God with our time, talents, and treasure. How will you join God in His work with your generosity? How will you make difference in the lives of those around you by living a life of focused on giving?

How do you become a cheerful giver? What does God want from us in our giving? These are two very important questions to consider. The bible instructs us to give a tithe, which is one tenth of our income. How does giving a tenth help us grow in our faith? God literally says to put Him to the test on it.

Being Generous is about being ready to give more of something, money or time, then is expected. We all must decide inside our hearts how much to give. The Bible tells us that "God loves a person who gives cheerfully." How can we do that? One of the main principles to help us grow in our generosity is not to give out of emotion, but to give out of a disciplined heart.

Money is brought up 800 times spanning over 2300 verses. The only thing that Jesus talked more about was “The Kingdom of God.” The Kingdom of God on earth has a lot to do with the generosity of believers. In order for us to get an understanding of what God says about money, we must decide what we are going to be. Are you going to be a steward or an owner?

Vision Sunday gives everyone a chance to hear from our leadership about the vision of Hamilton Hills as we start 2022. Matt and Denise share details about some of the needs we have and how God is working at our Church. God has been blessing our church and we are excited that you are part of it!

God works through us when we praise and worship Him. Rejoicing in the goodness of God is not just for Sunday morning at church. In those moments of struggle when it is difficult to find a reason to praise God, it can be very difficult to rejoice. When we find a way to worship God in our lives it will unlock to spirit of God in our hearts.

Contentment is seeing the goodness of God in every circumstance. It seems like such a simple concept, but it can be very hard to manifest in our life. Re-framing our circumstances in God's perspective brings us peace and strength. No matter what situation you are in, the power of Christ can bring contentment. The goodness of God can come to your life, if you learn to ask for it, and accept it.

It takes no effort to create a bad habit. But it take intentional effort to create a good habit. In the same sense: It takes no effort to fall into sin. But it takes effort to do right. Unconscious effort compared to conscience effort. When we try to overcome negativity, temptation, sinful thoughts, bad habits on our own we fall prey to the “Victim Rut.” We must wage war on our minds and replace lies with the truth, and then rewire by declaring this truth over and over again.

n the battle for our hearts and minds the enemy fills our thoughts up with lies. He is the father of lies. It takes both offensive and defensive strategy to overcome the lies of the devil in the heat of the moment. If I stop a behavior, it will come back unless we remove the lie at the root of the behavior and replace the lie with the truth of God’s Word.

Our mind is a battlefield. It is the place that the Enemy fights his war. The battle is not "against" your mind, rather it is against the enemy. The Bible gives us very clear direction on how to win. Jesus gives us hope and victory over the enemy in our minds!

We come together each year on Christmas to share gifts with our friends and family. When did this tradition start? And why do we put some much emphasis on this tradition? The greatest gift from God to us is Jesus, the Messiah. Not just a baby boy in the manager, the ultimate sacrifice for our sins.

A special message on Christmas Eve 2021 at Hamilton Hills Church.

Peace on Earth did not mean that life is not messy, through the hardest trial and hopelessness that life could throw at you, with Jesus as Your King you can have a gift of peace. Jesus delivered the peace that passes understanding, and when He left this world it was his gift that will allow us to achieve “greater things." The peace Jesus gives us is a gift the world cannot give. What on earth is stealing your peace away?

When you add or subtract from truth it no longer becomes truth. We’ve added to the Gospel – or the Good Story by putting our spin on it. When we remove or add to the truth of God’s Word, we make the Good News good for us, instead of Good News for other people. The Bible tells us that if the Good News has been good to you, then bring that Good News to others!

Are you "good enough" to get into Heaven? This is a common question that people struggle with. The Bible is clear that we have all fallen short of the glory of God. There are is not one single person with a competitive edge, the playing field is level. The Good News of Christ proclaims that we can all have freedom from our sins, and we can all have the powerful Spirit of God in our lives.

News is a part of our lives. It is what we rely on to make decisions. It informs us. News can make us move, pick a restaurant, choose a school, join a political party, or decide whether we visit family for the holidays. Have you heard the "good news" of the Bible? If you believe the good news is true, it will give you confidence and boldness to praise God every day of your life.

Are you good at time management? Do you have time to balance everything in your life to perfection? Often times, we can't fit another thing into our lives. And when it comes to sharing out faith with our Oikos, we think of it as adding another thing to our checklist. In fact, it is not another item on our list, it should be in every part of our lives, especially the areas where we spend the most time. Reaching our Oikos is as simple as sharing what God has done i...

Has God worked in your life? Have you told other people about how God has provided for you? The bible is clear that the people in our life need to hear our story. They need to understand how and why you believe in God. It is through the sharing of our story that people will understand the transformative power of God's work in our lives. Pray for God to help you have the boldness and courage to share your story.

We all have many opportunities to invest in other people. To help someone when they truly need it. And normally, these moments are inconvenient. God calls us to make investments in His kingdom, in His people. When we invest in God's kingdom it helps us find the joy of the Lord. Who is God call you to invest in?

God has put you where you need to be, and we are all called to reach people around us. The people in our lives are not there on accident, God has put them there. The Bible has many clear examples of how God used His people to reach their front row. As we continue our series, Oikos, we are learning how important it is for us to pray for others and actively join God in bringing them to Him.

People don't meet Jesus. They are introduced to Jesus. Have ever created a list of the people in your life that need to be introduced to Jesus? Making a list, and committing to pray for that list, are the the first steps to reaching the lost world. It is only thru you that people will learn about Jesus.

The entire world is a big place, but you world is pretty small. In fact the closest people in your life is about 8-12 people. We are talking about people on your front row, those with a close-up view of your life. How will you love these people? How will you reach out to them and share the message of Christ with them? Even when it is inconvenient, the Bible calls us to love others.

How does God build the church and bring new people to faith? He uses all of us. The fact is, virtually all Christians find faith through a close friend or family member. This is the first message in our new series, and we invited Tom Mercer in to kick things off. He helps us understand how the people you're close to, your front row, is your "Oikos" - a term found in the Bible.

Do you love your church? If you do, there are some responsibilities that come along with that. If you love your church, God calls you to live in unity with others and be generous with His blessings. Sharing with each other and extending grace are a vital part in helping others see Jesus in you.

What is spiritual maturity? Many times a good measuring stick for our own spiritual maturity is whether our own faith has become a part of someone else's story. Our faith must be persistent in order to reproduce in others. God does the work, but spreading our faith is a mark of spiritual maturity.

Are you stuck in shame of your past instead of the freedom of forgiveness? God provides immediate forgiveness from our sins that helps us live in freedom in Christ. Bitterness, anger, drunkenness...everything that separates us from God is founded on a lie from the enemy. Find freedom today!

Temptation is a something that we cannot avoid. Satan uses temptation, and the lies he propagates, to turn us away from God and fall into sin. "It is written" that the deceptions of Satan have no foothold in our lives. We have the power of Jesus in our lives to overcome temptation. The battle is won!

How often do you talk to God? He is willing and available anytime that you need to talk. It is through our moments with God in prayer that we grow in our faith and find success in kingdom building. Success is building the Kingdom of God through our influence, resources and relationships.

How can we all work together to be unified in purpose of reaching a lost world that desperately needs a relationship with God? In the book of Ephesians, we learn that anger and bitterness are the quickest way to create division among believers. God calls us to unity in our church community.

Have you ever prayed for the persecuted? The Bible is very clear that many Jesus Followers will undergo extreme persecution. We must be bold in our faith and proudly proclaim the name of Jesus, even when we experience persecution.

Have you ever experienced your confidence in God in action? Sometimes it can feel much like a trust fall exercise. We ask ourselves "will God catch me?" - when the truth is we cannot know until we take the step first.

Matt Thistle starts a brand new series about the Gospel of Mark. In the Bible, Jesus calls people to action, often immediate action. When you feel called by God to do something, how quickly to you take action?

Randall Waller teaches about the importance of having an active prayer life. When was the last time you disconnected and prayed to God for the people in your life? Praying for others, including the unlovable, is a powerful command that God has for us.

Matt Thistle teaches about the struggle of loving those people that we are the closest to. Unity with your family always proceeds love for others. Our relationships will improve when we focus on serving and praying for each other.

Matt Thistle teaches about living in the full power of our relationship with Jesus. What areas of your life have you been hiding from the full power of God? Take steps today to get closer to God by taking a chance to disconnect from something that draws you away from God's power.

Mark Neal talks about upcoming changes in his ministry and life. It is often very difficult to follow God's prompting in our lives, and Mark gives some helpful instruction to those in this situation.