"Seven: Ephesus" | Rev. Dr. Vicki Harrison | April 23, 2023
9:00 Traditional Service
11:00 AM Praise Service
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Sermon Notes
More Sermons in this Series
“As a response to these tensions, many Christians accommodated their faith in order to tolerate the demands of the culture. This is why Jesus said... "Nevertheless, I have this against you: You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophet. By her teaching, she misleads my servants into sexual immorality and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. For many Christians in Thyatira, tolerance was their willingness to compromise their faith and coexist with beliefs and behaviors that differed from God's. They had sacrificed their faith in the altar of business.“ - Pastor Roberto Chaple
“Jesus’ letter to Smyrna is only one of two letters with no rebuke. Rather, this is a letter of encouragement. What does Jesus say to the Christians at Smyrna? Jesus says that he knows their affliction and poverty. The church was living under serious persecution. Those who professed Christ risked imprisonment and physical torture. They also experienced poverty because of their faith. Since Christianity wasn’t legal, both Jews and pagans would take advantage of the believers. Their belongings were pillaged and they could be banned from taking part in commerce.“ - Pastor Vicki
"Everything hinges on love. The Ephesians had drifted from that. On the surface, they were doing what they were supposed to do. But their hearts had grown hard, they had lost their passion and love for God. And when we lose our passion and love for Jesus, then it's inevitable that we will lose our love for others." - Pastor Vicki
Other Sermons by Vicki Harrison
Pastor Vicki Harrison opens Matthew 5:13-16 and shows us that being salt and light isn't something we do — it's who we already are as followers of Jesus.
Jesus opens the most famous sermon in history by calling the poorest people in the room blessed. Pastor Vicki Harrison launches New Hope Church's fall series in Matthew 5, and the Beatitudes turn every rule about who counts upside down.
Rev. Vicki Harrison opened Matthew 12 with a question that would have stunned the room in Jesus' day: "Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?" Jesus points to the people around him and redefines family for good. "The church is not like a family," Vicki said. "The church is a family." On Promotion Sunday and the day before school started back, she showed what that means at New Hope Church — a household of households, led by Jesus, where the mask comes off and we actually learn to love each other. Then the whole church gathered for a family photo and prayed over its teachers.
On Communion Sunday, Rev. Vicki Harrison opens Matthew 26 — the night before the cross, where Jesus takes the oldest meal of God's people and fills it with new meaning. "This is my body… this is my blood of the covenant, poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." The message walks through what actually happens when we come to the Lord's Table: we experience the grace of Jesus, we come together as one body, all people are welcome, and we return to it again and again. It is not a ritual to observe from a distance — it is grace we receive with open hands.
The water was at the front of the room, and one by one people stepped in to say it out loud: I belong to Jesus. Here's what Pastor Vicki Harrison taught about baptism on Sunday — and why the old really is gone.
James 1:19 is one of those verses that's easy to memorize and hard to live: "Be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry." In this message from the Words Matter series, Rev. Vicki Harrison pairs that command with James 3:13-18 — where James contrasts earthly wisdom (bitter jealousy, selfish ambition, disorder) with wisdom from above (pure, peaceable, gentle, full of mercy). The result is a conviction not just about the tongue, but about the heart posture underneath it.
James 3 opens with one of the most arresting images in the New Testament: a small rudder steering a great ship. A tiny spark setting an entire forest ablaze. The tongue. In this message from the Words Matter series, Rev. Vicki Harrison opens James 3 to explore why the words we speak are not a minor issue — they reveal the state of our hearts, they wound or they heal, and they cannot be tamed by willpower alone. Only the gospel reaches deep enough.
Amos 9 brings the Let the Lion Roar series to a close with a hard word and a hopeful one: judgment is real, but God is not finished. Next Sunday, Pastor Vicki Harrison opens the final chapter of Amos with a message about rebuilding, restoration, and the kind of renewal that reaches all the way into the future.
Amos 5 confronts a people who have drifted so far from God that their religious activity has become hollow noise. But the prophet doesn't leave them there — he holds out an Escape Plan. This Father's Day, Pastor Vicki Harrison unpacks what it means to seek the Lord and live.
New Hope opens its new series in the book of Amos with a message titled "In Pursuit." Amos begins with God roaring like a lion — not in delight, but in righteous anger over injustice. The big question driving the whole series: does God care about injustice? The answer this Sunday is a clear yes — God is not silent; He is in pursuit.