Troy begins a new series this morning, entitled, Hanging On to Hope, that will take us through the rest of the year, with the exception of a few holiday-themed messages. Our prayer is for God to use this series to give all of us some encouragement as we close out a very difficult year. In this opening message, for those of us who feel stuck between a rock and a hard place, we can trust God to pull us up, to help us stand on the rock, and to show us that the rock is Jesus.

As we move into Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians, Troy explains how these believers grew in their faith and love for each other during circumstances that should have caused them to do quite the opposite. He also reminds us, as followers of Jesus today, that a big part of having faith is trusting that the goodness and faithfulness of God will answer every aspect of injustice in this age. God’s will is already being worked out in the life of the church, even when outwardly it appears defeated.

In the latest message from our series, It Will Get Better, Troy shares some encouragement from the apostle Paul that can basically be summarized in this way: "You’re doing great, now keep doing even better!" Troy also reminds us that a critical part of our faith is trusting that God is good, that His ways are better than ours, and that life works much better when we follow Him rather than ourselves.

Troy kicks off our new message series, It Will Get Better, which begins a journey through Paul's letters to the Thessalonian church. Knowing that the universe will end with God’s eternal triumph helps us find meaning in what seems to be chaos. And that’s the power of genuine life change: hope for now, hope for the future, and hope for all of eternity.