Sunday Service: June 29, 2025 • Missionary Lana Vasquez at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

In this powerful sermon, Lana Vasquez shares her journey of radical obedience to God’s call, recounting how her ministry has expanded from rescuing trafficked and orphaned children in Thailand and war-torn Burma to confronting overwhelming darkness in Brazil. Amid personal hardship and spiritual exhaustion, she nearly gave up, but through a renewed encounter with God in the Amazon, she was reminded of the "faces on the other side of her yes"—the lives forever changed because she obeyed, even when it was hard. Drawing from Peter’s story of walking on water, she emphasizes that faith often means stepping out when it’s uncomfortable, inconvenient, or even terrifying. The message is clear: following Jesus isn’t about a single moment of saying yes, but about continuously offering our next yes, no matter the cost. God doesn’t expect perfection—just obedience—and He promises to meet us in the storms, uphold us by His word, and empower us to walk in authority over what once tried to drown us. This is a call to every believer to step out of comfort, embrace divine discomfort, and walk with Jesus as wet-feet water walkers.

Sunday Service: June 22, 2025 • Pastor Q Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

Pastor Q's sermon explored the meaning of Pentecost and the coming of the Holy Spirit as recorded in Acts 2, emphasizing that it marked the beginning of the Church’s Spirit-empowered mission to spread the Gospel to all nations. He explained that the tongues spoken by the disciples were real, intelligible languages, enabling people from various regions to hear the mighty works of God in their native tongues. Pastor Q clarified the biblical distinctions between different types of tongues—some for public edification with interpretation and others for personal prayer—and encouraged openness to spiritual gifts like prophecy and tongues, urging believers not to fear or dismiss what may seem unfamiliar. He emphasized the radical accessibility of the Holy Spirit, now poured out on all people—young and old, men and women, free and slave—through Christ's death and resurrection, making every believer a vessel for God’s power and transformation. Ultimately, he called the Church to live daily in the Spirit, pursue spiritual gifts earnestly, and boldly bear witness to the Gospel, empowered by God's presence.

Sunday Service: June 15, 2025 • Pastor Mimi Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

Pastor Mimi’s Father’s Day sermon centers on the vital role all adults—biological parents, spiritual mentors, aunties, uncles, and church leaders—play in shaping the faith of young people. Using the story of Samuel in 1 Samuel 1–3, she identifies four major obstacles that today’s youth face in developing genuine faith: being born into a faith they didn’t choose, growing up in a godless society, witnessing hypocrisy within religious institutions, and lacking personal encounters with God. Despite these challenges, Samuel grew into a faithful prophet because he was continually ministering before the Lord, even as a child. Pastor Mimi emphasizes the importance of giving young people intentional opportunities to serve and encounter God, not merely attend church. She critiques the modern phenomenon of “moralistic therapeutic deism,” where God is seen only as a self-esteem booster, and shares sobering research showing that many Christian teens lack depth in their faith. Drawing from both Scripture and personal experience, she calls on the church—especially fathers—to actively raise children who know God personally and serve Him wholeheartedly. Her closing challenge is clear: faith is not inherited or assumed, but cultivated through real ministry and spiritual mentorship, starting from a young age.

Sunday Service: June 8, 2025 • Pastor Q Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

In this Pentecost sermon, Pastor Q emphasizes the often-overlooked significance of Pentecost as the day when the Holy Spirit—the third person of the Trinity—was poured out on humanity, much like how Christmas celebrates the incarnation of Christ. Drawing from Acts 1 and 2, he describes the disciples' obedient waiting, the miraculous signs of wind and fire, and the symbolic fulfillment of God’s promises. He connects the coming of the Holy Spirit with biblical themes of wind, breath, and fire as manifestations of God's power and presence, offering numerous Old and New Testament examples. Pastor Q then shares his personal testimony of a transformative encounter with the Holy Spirit that revitalized his stagnant Christian life, emphasizing that Christian living is not about human effort but a Spirit-empowered relationship with God. He concludes by challenging the congregation with two vital questions: Have you received the Holy Spirit when you believed? And are you currently living in the fullness of the Spirit?

Sunday Service: June 1, 2025 • Pastor Q Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

In this sermon marking the conclusion of a three-and-a-half-year study of the Gospel of Luke, Pastor Q reflects on Jesus’ ascension as the vital and often overlooked culmination of His earthly ministry. He emphasizes that the ascension is not just a miraculous event, but a theological cornerstone affirming Jesus' return to the Father, His enthronement as King, and His ongoing work of interceding for believers and sending the Holy Spirit to empower them. Pastor Q unpacks how Jesus spent 40 days post-resurrection teaching His disciples, commissioning them to spread the Gospel to all nations, and instructing them to wait for the Holy Spirit. He stresses that the ascension visibly confirms Jesus’ divine authority and His promised return. The sermon ends with a call to worship, rejoice, and live with assurance, rooted in the truth of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, ascension, and continued presence through the Holy Spirit—encouraging believers to live as faithful witnesses to the ends of the earth.

Sunday Service: May 25, 2025 • Guest Preacher, Pastor Su Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

Pastor Su Kim’s sermon on David and Goliath challenges the common message to simply “be like David.” Instead, he emphasizes that we are more like the fearful Israelites, needing a Savior. While Goliath trusted in himself and Saul was paralyzed by fear, David trusted in God—pointing us to Jesus, the true champion who has overcome our greatest giant: sin and death. Pastor Su reminds us that courage isn’t the absence of fear, but trust in God’s perfect love, which casts out fear. Our hope lies not in our strength, but in the One who has already won the battle for us.

Sunday Service: May 18, 2025 • Pastor Mimi Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

Pastor Mimi’s sermon today centers on the transformative power of forgiveness—both the forgiveness we receive from God and the forgiveness we are called to extend to others. Drawing from Luke 11:4 and Matthew 18, it highlights the distinction between our justified status before God and the ongoing experience of relational closeness through confession and cleansing. True forgiveness, as taught by Jesus, isn't just a command but a reflection of grace we’ve already received. Refusing to forgive not only harms our relationships with others but also hinders our intimacy with God. Pastor Mimi concludes with the truth that we forgive not because others deserve it, but because we’ve been forgiven first.

Sunday Service: May 11, 2025 • Pastor Q Kim at HOPE Church in Clarksville, MD ---

Pastor Q’s sermon reflects on the story of Jesus' resurrection as described in the Gospel of Luke, emphasizing that Jesus physically rose from the dead with a glorified body, not as a ghost or spiritual illusion. The disciples initially feared he was a ghost because he appeared suddenly in locked rooms and disappeared after revealing himself, but Jesus proved his bodily resurrection by showing his wounds and eating food. This resurrection is unique because Jesus' new body was immortal, unlike others who had been raised from the dead, and it points to the future hope of believers receiving glorified bodies. The message stresses the importance of understanding scripture through the lens of Jesus' suffering, death, and resurrection, and the call to proclaim repentance and forgiveness of sins to all nations. PQ concludes with the reminder that believers are witnesses to this truth and are empowered by the Holy Spirit to share it with the world.