Hope Downtown Minneapolis Podcast

Most of us think our problem is that we haven't climbed high enough yet. If we could just achieve a little more, earn a little more, become a little more, then maybe we'd finally rest. But Mark 10 exposes how blind that makes us. The disciples are obsessed with getting higher while Jesus is trying to show them that true life is found in following him downward into grace. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

What if the thing standing between you and peace isn't failure… but success? In Mark 10, we encounter the rich young ruler: a man who seemingly has everything, yet still comes running to Jesus restless and empty. Together we'll explore the deeper question underneath his story: What are we really looking to for rest, security, and significance? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

We long for deep connection and lasting security, yet often settle for what is easiest rather than what is true. In Mark 10, Jesus cuts through the noise of legal debates about marriage to reveal something far greater—God's original design and his unwavering commitment to his people. This passage ultimately points us beyond earthly relationships to the good news of a Savior who does not walk away but holds fast to us forever. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Most of us think we understand Jesus, but what if getting him slightly wrong is why so much else feels off? In Mark 9, the disciples are close to Jesus, yet still completely confused about who belongs, how serious sin is, and what really matters. This passage exposes how easy it is to miss him and why seeing him clearly changes everything. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

We all want to be great. Whether we admit it or not, there's something in us that wants to rise above, to be seen, to matter. In Mark 9, the disciples finally say it out loud: “Who is the greatest?” Instead of shutting the question down, Jesus redefines it. In this message, we'll see how our pursuit of greatness gets hijacked, why it ultimately leaves us empty, and how Jesus reveals a better way: not through climbing higher, but through descending in love, service, and ultimately the cross. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

“I just don't believe hard enough!” or “Oh, how I wish I had more faith!” These are common things that followers of Christ stuggle with. This week's passage deals with this issue head on, and frees us up from always focusing on our lack of faith to something else, that isn't changing at all. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

The cross was designed to degrade, humiliate, and declare a person unfit for human company. Yet this is where the Son of God chose to go. Why? It was ugly. It was irreligious. It was the place of slaves, rebels, and criminals. Yet Jesus takes upon himself our shame, degradation, and sin. What if the ugliness of the cross is God's evidence to show his love and salvation? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

We are not as clear on God as we think we are. In Mark 8, Peter confesses Jesus as the Christ and then immediately pushes back on the very mission that defines him. This passage exposes how we misunderstand God, avoid suffering, and try to secure our own lives, and invites us to find life instead in the One who gave his life for us. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

How can it be that the most obvious things in life we seem to overlook or forget about? The disciples of Jesus were no exception to this. This week, we look at the transformation of Jesus' most closest friends who went from clueless to confessing Jesus as the Christ! Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

In Much Ado About Nothing, Shakespeare beckons women to “sigh no more” over deceitful men but instead to give themselves over to blithe and bonny (i.e. Happiness and Cheer). Amidst the countless sighs of our lives, is that what Jesus calls us to—sigh no more, just be happier? In this message we look at two specific sighs of Jesus and how they point us to a deeper, stronger, more enduring, and more satisfying brand of blithe and bonny than Shakespeare offers! Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

A mother crosses every barrier to fall at Jesus' feet, believing that even a crumb of his power can rescue her helpless child. How profound that it was not through the religious leaders or even his own disciples but through an “outsider” that Jesus is correctly identified as the deliverer! This is good news for us: deliverance comes to the helpless through faith in another, namely Jesus Christ. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Why does it feel so good to point out what's wrong? In Mark 7, the Pharisees find fault while standing in front of a miracle. Jesus responds with unsettling clarity. The real problem is not out there but in here. Beneath our criticism lies a craving to be right, and beneath that, a heart that cannot fix itself. This week we will see why self-improvement cannot save us and how only the cross can wake us up and set us free from the exhausting cycle of accusation. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

What do you do when you're certain you can handle it on your own—only to have that certainty upended? The disciples were in such a spot. Then Jesus showed up and said, “Do not be afraid, I will carry you through.” When overwhelmed by life's storms, are you prone toward self-reliance like the disciples? If so, this message will point you back to Jesus who is faithful to carry you through. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

It's easy to glaze over the feeding of the five thousand. But in Mark 6, Jesus is showing us what his kingdom is like. He meets real need, confronts our instinct to control, and invites us to keep coming back with empty hands to the only one who can truly satisfy. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Here in our city, these are some of the most trying times in the last 50 years. Does Jesus have a word for us as we are so burdened by all that is going on? This week we look at how a very hard day in the ministry of Jesus can actually minister to us as well. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Jesus returns home but doesn't experience the type of homecoming one might expect. It could be said the townspeople are out of joint. Those we'd expect to greet him with adulation instead take offense at him. But it's not just them who is out of joint—so are we and so is our city. Oh, how we need the Lord to draw near us in this time. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

In Mark 5, everything people are afraid of actually happens... and Jesus is still there. He slows the story down, treats death like something temporary, and refuses to let fear have the final word. What if the good news isn't that fear goes away, but that it no longer gets to be in charge? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Mark chapter 5 has been named “The St. Jude chapter” as he is the patron saints of lost causes. In Mark 5 we meet 3 people who are at the very end of their rope. In this week's message, we'll take a dive into how Jesus bring amazing order out of utter chaos. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

The mission of Hope Downtown is “Unburdening ordinary people by pointing each other to an extraordinary Savior.” That's what we're all about! But where did that phrase come from and why does it matter for our community? That's what this message will explain. Series: Vision 2026 Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

With New Years around the corner, the world starts whispering to us: January is coming, now is the time to fix yourself. Be better, Do more. But what if, while our world keeps chasing productivity, our souls are actually craving rest. In this Christmas carol, we consider the history, theology, and Jesus's invitation to give rest to weary people. Series: Christmas 2025 Speaker: Logan Moorse Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

The Bible from Genesis to Revelation is filled with God's unfolding story of his continual giving to his creation, culminating in the best gift ever, Jesus Christ. Don't miss it this Christmas! Series: Songs of the Season Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

When I came to faith in Christ at age 19, I found it remarkable that many of the Christmas songs I had sung in my childhood spoke of Jesus. I knew of a silent night and a holy night...but I couldn't tell you of their significance. Though prominent in so many songs of the season, the birth of Christ was lost on me. In this Christmas carol, we consider the history, theology, and glory of the Incarnation – that God became a man – which is good news of great joy for all people! Series: Christmas 2025 Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Most of what we call “faith” turns out to be little more than vague sentiment once life actually hits us. At the end of Mark 4, we find a violent storm, seasoned sailors unraveling, and Jesus… asleep. But what first looks like indifference becomes a doorway into who God really is as He meets the storm around us, the storm within us, and the ultimate storm that brings us home. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Jesus described the kingdom of God by comparing it with common agricultural realities. While the illustrations are clear, it's not immediately obvious how such things illustrate the kingdom of God. And it's those opaque pieces which are intended to draw us in, induce more questions, and encourage us to seek the meaning of such things. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Whenever you hear an inside joke that you don't get, how does that make you feel? Isolated, alone and dumb? For sure! How about when you are in on it? Feels like you are included, knowledgeable and smart, huh? Discover today about the greatest inside joke ever told, and how we can always be on the inside of it!! Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

In our study of Mark so far, we have seen a variety of responses to Jesus and his teaching. This week in the Parable of the Soils, we'll see Jesus unpack what is actually going on behind the scenes of this different reactions to him. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

In this passage Jesus engages with both his family and the religious leaders. The differences between those two groups are stark. But they are paired together through story due to a similarity. What is that commonality and why might we struggle in the same way? That's the key to understanding what it means to be a part of God's family. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

The twelve disciples are a unique group of individuals. In this sermon, we look at what Jesus called the twelve to, and the ragamuffin group that they were that become a united team for Christ. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Jesus heals a man. That should be the end of the story but it's not. The religious leaders take offense that he did so on the Sabbath. That breaks the rules. Well, that breaks their rules. How does the rest of the account go? That's what we explore in this message. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Jesus Christ is a surprising Savior to many who were looking for a different kind of king. He is the just as surprising today. How we respond to this Jesus, who cannot be put in a box of our own making, is what it is all about. We see this in four ways in this week's passage. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

We live like the world is our movie and wonder why we are exhausted. In Mark 2:1–12, Jesus goes beneath the surface and heals the real injury; he forgives before he fixes, proves it in public, and pays at the cross as the scarred Lamb who went down so we could rise. This is not another self improvement strategy; it is the end of auditioning. Discover how to trade your "main character energy" for God's invitation to come home. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

In a story that begins and ends in the wilderness, Jesus reverses everything we expect about purity and power. He doesn't become unclean by touching the leper—His touch spreads outward, making the condemned accepted, the isolated surrounded, and the untouchable touched. The passage reveals not just a healer, but a Savior who trades places with the sinner so that all might come in. Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Four weeks into our study of the Gospel of Mark and we already are going to see the authority of Jesus Christ on display during one of his earliest recorded days of ministry. And the response of others is amazing! Join us as we look how a right view of Christ in our lives changes everything! Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

We spend much of life trying to make ourselves matter: chasing happiness, striving for achievement, always trying to be enough. While calling his first disciples, Jesus interrupts our exhausting pursuit with a better word. What if the life you are working so hard to create could only be found by following the One who already sees you, calls you, and makes you new? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

This gospel is shorter and its pace quicker than the other accounts of Jesus. We're given breadcrumbs to follow rather than lengthy explanations to digest. These breadcrumbs are clues regarding who Jesus is and what he came to do. Who's ready to see where they lead? Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

Mark doesn't kick things off with tips for a better life, he kicks the door down with an announcement: the silence is over, the good news is here. A voice shouts from the wilderness, but the voice isn't the main act. It is getting us ready for Someone greater. Buckle up, because the gospel of Mark's answer to the question “Who do you say I am?” is going to blow your hair back!! Series: The Gospel of Mark Speaker: Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Downtown, visit hopecc.com/downtown.

There are so many things out there that are trying to steal our joy. As we end our summer series on The Cloud of Witnesses, we will take a fresh look at what it means to fix our eyes on Jesus through the example of Moses and keep four common thieves from robbing our joy. Cloud of Witnesses Steve Treichler Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

What do you do with a love poem in the middle of your Bible? This week we'll see how the Song of Solomon pulls back the shades on our closed, hurried world. In a culture chasing superhuman strength through technology and self-reliance, this ancient poem invites us to slow down, listen, and see the Bridegroom bounding toward us in love. Cloud of Witnesses Davis Johnson Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

If God makes promises and God keeps his promises, why is life so hard? Why do I have good desires (for peace or intimacy or joy) that go unmet? Our cloud of witnesses reminds us that this world is not our home, and our unmet desires prove it. Instead, we desire a better (heavenly) home. Don't grow weary and lose heart for our true home exists and awaits us! Cloud of Witnesses Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Right after Jesus dies the Bible says, “And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom.” It was not torn from the bottom-up, as though we could tear the veil open. Rather through the death of Christ—through his torn body—we are given access. No more insiders or outsiders but rather we are all welcomed in on account of Christ. What great news! Cloud of Witnesses Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

Cloud of Witnesses Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.

The birth of a child is a time for excitement, whether you are the parent, sibling, grandparent, aunt/uncle, cousin, or friend. Under no circumstance should a parent ever name their child “No Glory.” But that's exactly what Ichabod means. Why would his mother choose such a name? And how could this possibly be connected to the birth of another son, who himself was destined for (no) glory? Cloud of Witnesses Cor Chmieleski Hope Community Church - Downtown Minneapolis Download Message Slides For more resources or to learn more about Hope Community Church, visit hopecc.com.