Hope is an anchor to the soul, but faith is an activator of the present. Hope is lousy for now. What's needed for now is faith. Faith changes our present. It changes the way we are now in the present moment. Faith comes by hearing, and happens when God in His Word enters us and makes us different. Most Christians live life in time hoping for something to happen and they wonder why nothing changes. When nothing changes, they lose hope. God is present immediately, even if there is a process of being set free, of healing, of redemption that we are going through. God does not start with hope, but with what He has done through Christ on the cross. Even if we have yet to experience the fullness of what we hope for, today we can experience the fullness of God that will activate things that will bring us to that future.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches from Isaiah 52, Hebrews 11 and John 11.

"Our problem in America is that we don't want to look bad. What God wants to do is to cause the ugly and the misshapen things in this world to confound the wise. If you reject that, you are actually rejecting the calling of God. Don't give excuses by saying, "No, I'm just not good enough." That is not humility; that is pride. You have to be willing to be held up by God, and look as foolish as you are. God would rather use someone whose misshapen flesh is held up by Him in humility, than someone who is really good at things but the goodness that they have is shallow; the more you get to know them, the more disappointed you are in their life. The anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses because Moses rejected the humble way. God allowed Aaron to speak on Moses' behalf, and this led to the separation of words and the Being of God. We have silver tongue orators who lack substance. The substance of God makes the mountains melt. A silver tongue doesn't cause anything to melt.

"When God is with us, we, in our flesh, are still lousy. But God will hold our flesh up, so that people will believe. Only the Holy Spirit, not our mouth, skill or brilliance can cause belief to come. He doesn't need you to be that good. He will just pop out of you. Does He pop out of you? He only pops out of a dead person, a staff thrown to the ground. You will make mistakes. You will not be that glorious in the flesh. It will be just you. But God will pop out of you and stand in front of you. He holds up our flagging flesh. Forget about trying to look better. God's power is predicated upon a barren womb. God doesn't say he will make you look good, He says, "I will be with you."

-Pastor Michael Koh preaches on Exodus 4...

Exodus 4:10-14 - "But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses..."

Abraham lived with respect to God and the promises He made, while Lot lived with respect to what looked promising in his own eyes. The Bible doesn't tell us that God fulfills our dreams, but rather that God has a dream for you and me.

Do you feel that your life counts with God?

God has a heart and a love for this world. Your place in this world is as a servant of Him, one who is sent by Him. If you are not sent by Him, you may be well established, but you will have no place. There is a bigger story going on. This bigger story will give your life meaning. If you do not get into the bigger story of what God is doing, your life will be lived in a niche for yourself and the small world around you. No matter how comfortable or happy you are, you won’t know whether your life is significant, because the only one who can give your life significance is God.

For more, view last Sunday’s sermon by Pastor Michael Koh...

You may not know what your future holds or where you belong. The Lord says, “You belong with me”.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches from Exodus 3…

The spirit of poverty is the crippling fear that your perceived, relative littleness can't be used by God in a big way. If you feel like you have little to give, give yourself to the Lord first and ask Him what He wants of you. He became poor to make you rich. He will give you a joy that overflows as you give generously of your treasure, talents and time.

- Excerpt from sermon by Dr. Sanjeev Nandakumaran

With what seriousness do we pay attention to what God says? Do we treat it lightly or take it seriously? How seriously should we take God's Word, Christianity and our faith?

For some of us, we have not found our place in the world, our place with people - where we can thrive. We may feel place-less - we feel unsafe, threatened, lack stability, or feel a lack of fit. Yet God has a place of thriving for each one of us. God, through scripture, defines place very differently than the way the world defines it. God will speak to us about the place - the destiny, the promise - that He has for us, and He will lead us to enter in to it.

God has a place for you and me that is the venue for the fulfillment of his promises and purposes for us. It is not defined by a particular space or circumstance that fits us, but rather his very presence. It may not be a comfortable space, but the comfort, assurance and power of God comes when we dwell in the place that He has for us.

Pastor Michael Koh preaches from John 14, Hebrews 11 and Isaiah 35.