HopeUC Nashville Word of the Week

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin Smith unpacks the parable of the talents and what it means to steward what God has placed in your hands. Moving beyond comparison and waiting for "more," he shows how faithfulness over time, not the size of what we were given, is what God celebrates.

Through Matthew 24 and 25, Luke 19, 1 Corinthians 12 and 14, and Ephesians 4, discover how fear, past hurt, and a wrong view of God can cause us to bury what He has entrusted to us. Learn how your marriage, home, friendships, generosity, and calling can become places where God multiplies your faithfulness, and why that growth is meant to strengthen the body and serve the people around you.

For more stories and resources, visit https://www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Alana Flora explores how Jesus meets us in the interruptions of life. Through the story of Jairus and the woman who reaches out to Jesus for healing, Alana challenges us to reconsider the interruptions we often see as inconvenient or frustrating. While Jairus is desperately trying to get Jesus to his dying daughter, Jesus stops to care for another person in need. This moment reminds us that God's timing doesn't always align with ours, and what feels like a delay may hold purpose we cannot yet see.

Discover how to trust God when life doesn't go according to plan, remembering that interruptions can become meaningful moments where God is at work.

For more stories and resources, visit https://www.hopeucnashville.com/ or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin Smith explores how Jesus disrupts the things we build our lives around to bring us into alignment with the Kingdom of God. Jesus didn't come simply to reject the world around Him, but to reveal a different Kingdom—one that challenges our assumptions about family, success, power, and religion. Through John 5:19, Matthew 12:46–50, Luke 14:26, Matthew 6:24, Mark 10:42, Mark 7:5, John 4, and Hebrews 12:26–28, we see how following Jesus means allowing Him to reshape not only what we believe, but how we live.

Discover how the way you approach relationships, business, leadership, and worship can change when Jesus becomes your first allegiance. This message challenges us to value people over profit, choose serving over power, and pursue genuine relationship with God rather than settling for religious performance. As Jesus reveals a Kingdom that cannot be shaken, we're invited to surrender the things that have taken His place and pray a simple but challenging prayer: "Lord, begin with me."

For more stories and resources, visit https://www.hopeucnashville.com/ or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Rick White explores what happens when we face the same temptations Jesus faced in the wilderness. Through Matthew 4, he unpacks three moments that still sound familiar today: doing it all yourself, chasing the spectacular, and settling for an easier way, and shows how each one invites us to take hold of something we were never meant to carry.

Through Matthew 16, Exodus 16, 17, and 32, and Deuteronomy 6-8, discover why following Jesus costs everything and why the exchange is worth it: laying down who you were never made to be and picking up who God created you to be. Hear how Matthew places Jesus in the story of Israel, passing the tests Israel failed, and be invited to trust God's way over your own preferences, whether that looks like making plans before prayer, serving quietly in your neighborhood, or letting go of whatever has grown heavy in your hands.

For more stories and resources, visit [www.hopeucnashville.com](https://www.hopeucnashville.com) or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Jeremy Weedman closes out our series on the church by unpacking what it means to actually be the body of Christ. Through 1 Corinthians 12, he shows how every believer is an indispensable, connected part of that body, and how comparison and superiority quietly make the whole body sick.

Discover why no part of the church gets to disqualify itself or call another part unnecessary, and what it looks like to release the old hurts, curses, and comparisons we've been holding onto so the body can reconnect and function again. Drawing from 1 Corinthians 11, the episode closes with communion as an act of covenant renewal for the whole church.

For more stories and resources, visit https://www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin Smith unpacks the mission of the church: to reveal God, restore people, and revive cities. Through Ephesians 4, he shows how Jesus equips His people through different gifts—not for titles or status, but so the whole body can grow into maturity and carry His kingdom into every sphere of life.

Discover how worship, community, hospitality, discipleship, business, and everyday faithfulness can become places where God is revealed, people are restored, and cities are changed. This message also honors lives of legacy that remind us what it means to build something that outlives us.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin explores what it really means to be the church Jesus is building. Moving beyond Sunday services and spiritual consumption, he unpacks how Jesus gathers us to Himself, forms us together through love and unity, plants us as "oaks of righteousness," and sends us to rebuild broken places around us.

Through Matthew 16, Mark 3, John 17, and Isaiah 61, discover the call to move from simply attending church to truly belonging, putting down roots, and becoming a visible display of God's splendor in your family, workplace, neighborhood, and city.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Trey shares a powerful message on authentic community and how God often builds it through interruption, presence, and grace. Through the story of Ananias and Saul in Acts 9, he reminds us that belonging doesn't happen through convenience—it happens when ordinary disciples are willing to show up, make room, and see people through the lens of God's redeeming work.

Discover how community can become a lifeline, how simple obedience can become part of someone else's transformation, and how healthy churches make room for both people and change.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin shares a powerful message on Spirit-led community and the kind of unity only the Holy Spirit can form. Through personal stories, Scripture, and practical wisdom, he unpacks how real community is not built by more programs or meetings, but by people who are yielded to the Spirit and willing to carry one another.

Discover the difference between unity built in the flesh and unity formed by God, from the Tower of Babel to the day of Pentecost. This message invites us to move beyond surface-level connection and become a Spirit-filled family marked by generosity, surrender, devotion, and a life where no one has to carry lack alone.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Trey shares a powerful message on biblical community and the kind of unity Jesus prayed for in John 17. Through personal stories, humor, and practical wisdom, he unpacks how community is not just about friendship, support, or finding people like us—it is designed to put Jesus on display so the world may believe.

Discover how God can heal the wounds that have made us hesitant to connect, and learn what it looks like to cross the room, widen the table, stay at the table, and repair what has been torn.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Dustin shares a powerful and timely message on identity, obedience, community, and the strength of belonging.

Through the baptism and temptation of Jesus, Dustin unpacks how the enemy has used the same strategy from the beginning: questioning identity and trying to pull people into isolation. From Adam and Eve in the garden, to Israel in the wilderness, to Jesus being tempted in the desert, this message shows how the enemy attacks through appetite, trust, and worship—offering cheap satisfaction, control, shortcuts, and separation.

You'll hear why God speaks identity before achievement, why obedience often requires a physical response, and why community is one of God's greatest protections against the lies of the enemy. Dustin also shares personal stories about family, sacrifice, church life, and the importance of showing up—not just for yourself, but for the people around you who need the strength of the body of Christ.

This message will encourage you to:

- Recognize the enemy's voice when he questions your identity and calling. - Understand the three temptations of appetite, trust, and worship. - Refuse cheap satisfaction and shortcuts that pull you away from God's design. - Stay connected to community instead of battling alone in isolation. - Let trusted voices remind you who you are when you forget. - See the church as a table of belonging, not just a room you attend. - Respond to God in obedience, even when it feels uncomfortable. - Remember Jesus—the One who passed every test and unifies us through His body and blood.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Rick shares a powerful and practical message on kingdom culture, discipleship, and what it means to be formed as a follower of Jesus.

Through the book of Revelation, Rick unpacks the clash between the kingdom of God and the kingdoms of this world. From John's declaration of the One "who is, who was, and who is to come," to the contrast between the mark of the beast and the people marked by the Lamb, this message reminds us that Christianity is not just private belief—it is allegiance to a different kingdom and a different way of life.

You'll hear why kingdoms always carry culture, why salvation is more than a moment, and why following Jesus requires both faith and obedience. Rick also shares personal stories of spiritual mentors who helped shape his life, showing how discipleship often happens through intentional relationships, honest questions, correction, accountability, and shared life.

This message will encourage you to: - Recognize what kingdom and culture are forming your life. - Understand that following Jesus means both faith in Him and obedience to His commands. - Receive spiritual legacy through the family of God, even if you did not grow up with it. - Invite mentors, spiritual mothers and fathers, and trusted voices into your life. - Look around and intentionally invest in the people God has already placed in front of you. - Live as someone marked by the Lamb and formed by the culture of heaven.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as the Mitchell family shares a heartfelt, practical conversation on Generational Legacy and what it means to pass faith, wisdom, healing, and testimony to those coming after us.

Around the table, they unpack Psalm 102:18 and the call to live in such a way that "a people not yet born will praise the Lord." Through personal stories and biblical examples like Moses and Joshua, and Mordecai and Esther, they explore how legacy is formed through proximity, spiritual mothers and fathers, intentional relationships, correction, blessing, and shared life.

You'll hear why legacy is not a program but a mindset, why there is no retirement in the kingdom, and how your ceiling can become someone else's floor. This message also challenges us to pass down healed scars instead of open wounds, to live fully surrendered rather than compromised, and to tell the stories of God's faithfulness so they don't skip a generation.

This conversation will encourage you to: - Recognize that your life is already passing something on. - Identify what God has called you to build and leave behind. - Become intentional about spiritual parenting, mentorship, and legacy. - Let your scars become testimonies of healing for the next generation. - Live in such a way that others can go farther because of your obedience.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Elliot Rudell shares a fiery, vulnerable message on "Generations" and what it means to follow Jesus in a world God Himself is shaking.

Drawing from 1 Corinthians 10, Psalm 78, Hebrews 12, Luke 17, and especially Joel 2, Elliot walks through Israel's story as a roadmap for ours—how God's people can see real miracles and still crash in scandal when they ignore holiness and generational covering. He tells raw stories from the Jesus Movement—radical salvations, wild outpouring, and painful collapse when older saints walked away and young believers tried to build revival without fathers and mothers.

You'll hear how God uses both kindness and shaking—locusts, loss, and even global turmoil—to call His people back to Himself, and why the coming outpouring of the Holy Spirit will require a clean, holy, and unified church. Elliot unpacks the biblical command to "tell your children… and their children… and another generation," challenging older believers not to retire spiritually, and younger believers not to wait to get serious about holiness.

This conversation will provoke you to: - See your life inside God's end‑time storyline, not just your own timeline. - Embrace both the Comforter and the cross, not just spiritual "experiences." - Stay continually filled with the Holy Spirit—"fingers in the outlet"—in days of shaking. - Take your place, young or old, in passing on stories, warnings, and fire to the next generation.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin Smith, Pastor Tom Trout, and Jordan Smith sit down together to talk about "Generations" and how God weaves old men's dreams and young people's visions into one burning flame.

Walking through Joel 2 / Acts 2 and the story of Elijah and Elisha, they explore how God is not just the God of your lifetime but the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob—a 500‑year God you're part of right now. You'll hear stories of revival, miracles, and God's faithfulness across decades, and how those memories aren't meant to stay as nostalgia but to fuel faith for what He wants to do next.

Together they unpack three generational roles—those who remember and tell the stories, those who steward and build the "canvas," and those who run with fresh vision—and how honor, humility, and blessing keep all three moving in step instead of in competition. You'll be challenged to break agreement with family curses, receive generational blessing, and see yourself not as starting from scratch with God, but as carrying a torch that's meant to light many others before you take your last breath.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

Join us in this episode as Pastor Dustin Smith unpacks "keys of the kingdom" and how they unlock God's rule and reign in our everyday lives. Walking through Peter's revelation of Jesus in Matthew 16, Pastor Dustin shows how seeing Jesus clearly always comes before carrying real authority—and how God entrusts keys to those who truly know the King.

You'll explore ten practical keys—revelation, faith, prayer, obedience, humility, honor, generosity, forgiveness, unity, and love—and how each one opens specific "rooms" of God's kingdom. Learn why faith is the currency of the kingdom, why most miracles sit on the other side of simple obedience, how unforgiveness is a prison we lock ourselves in, and why love is the "master key" that makes every other key work.

For more stories and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

In this episode, Shane Willard takes us into the Jewish world of Jesus to show Him as a real first‑century rabbi—and what it means to actually live under His yoke today.

Shane explains how rare the title "rabbi" was, what a "yoke" is (a way of interpreting and living Scripture), and why Jesus was recognized as a rabbi "with authority" (s'mikah). With that authority, Jesus could offer His own yoke—easy and light—and overturn heavy, harmful interpretations that crushed people.

Instead of choosing the best students from rabbinic schools, Jesus goes to the lake, calling fishermen and a tax collector who had already been told they weren't good enough. His simple words "follow me" re‑qualify the disqualified and invite ordinary people to carry His way into the world.

Shane then shows Jesus' yoke in action: with the woman caught in adultery, Malchus in the garden, and Jesus on the cross. Rather than using Scripture to stone or disqualify, Jesus fulfills it through mercy, restoration, and radical love—even for His enemies.

This message calls us back to the real Rabbi Jesus: to be covered in His dust, to be known for love more than opinions, and to treat people the way He treated people—healing instead of harming, qualifying instead of canceling, and letting His cross‑shaped love shape how we read the Bible and live every day.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

In this episode, Pastor Dustin shares a passionate, practical message on faith as a "key to the kingdom" in a culture of comfort, convenience, and quitting when it gets hard.

Preaching from Hebrews 11–12, he reminds us that faith isn't just what we believe but what we *do*—a real, costly substance. It's impossible to please God without faith, yet many of us try to follow Jesus at "safe speed," clinging to comfort and control instead of obeying when He says "go."

Dustin uses the picture of the "bride of Christ"—the church—as something costly but worth it, like a groom who sacrifices time, money, and comfort to pursue the one he loves. Jesus gave everything for His bride, and we honor Him by investing our lives into His church, where so many of our stories began.

From Hebrews 12:1–2, he calls us to "strip off every weight" and "the sin that so easily entangles" so we can "run with endurance" by keeping our eyes on Jesus. Dustin names five common "weights" that quietly choke faith:

- **Apathy** – delaying obedience, living in neutral instead of acting like Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, or Peter. - **Comfort & success** – not sinful in themselves, but deadly when safety becomes more important than obedience. - **Complaining** – agreement with the wrong kingdom, spreading unbelief and offense. - **Disappointment** – especially around unanswered prayers and loss; it can harden into unbelief when God doesn't move our way. - **Weariness & isolation** – long battles that make us tired and pull us away from the very community meant to strengthen our faith.

In this context, Dustin identifies the "sin that so easily entangles" as **unbelief**—staying put when God says "go," calling fear and self‑protection "wisdom." The way forward is not obsessing over our weakness but fixing our eyes on Jesus, "the author and perfecter of our faith." Like Peter on the water, we don't sink because of the storm but because we shift our focus off Jesus.

This message is a call to lay down apathy, comfort, complaint, disappointment, weariness, and unbelief, and to become a people who keep saying "yes" to God—even when it's costly and we may never see all the fruit in our lifetime. In a hyper‑individual age, Dustin also calls us back to *community faith*: there are no isolated disciples in the New Testament. Faith is born, strengthened, and sustained in the family of God, the bride of Christ.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

In this episode, Pastor Rick shares a honest, practical message on endurance as a "key to the kingdom" in a world obsessed with ease, speed, and instant results.

Preaching from Hebrews 12, James 1, and Galatians 6, he unpacks the Greek word *hypomone*—to "stay under pressure without collapsing"—the same word used for Jesus enduring the cross. Life, Rick reminds us, is more like a marathon than a sprint, yet many of us try to live the Christian life at sprint-pace, running on highlight moments instead of stable, daily obedience and biblical depth.

Through his own story of being overwhelmed by responsibility, learning to care for his body, and watching God provide in tight seasons, Rick shows how trials can either crush us or grow us. We contrast a victim mindset ("life is happening to me; I can't help it") with a kingdom mindset ("Jesus, how do I partner with You and grow in this?"), and see how small daily decisions quietly shape who we become over years.

Rick also addresses shame honestly. Shame is a terrible fuel for life, but a powerful signal that something inside needs healing. From Romans 5, we're reminded that while we were still weak and ungodly, Christ died for us. You may feel like you're failing, but you don't have to stay there. In Jesus' hands, conviction and even shame become doorways into transformation, not a life sentence.

This message invites us to become people of *hypomone*—men and women who can carry the weight of life and calling without collapsing, because our eyes are fixed on the One who endured first.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.

In this episode, Pastor Dustin shares a bold, practical message on the Beatitudes and what it truly means to be "blessed" in a world that celebrates strength, success, and self-sufficiency.

On a hillside under Roman rule, Jesus shocks His listeners by blessing the poor in spirit, those who mourn, the meek, the hungry, the merciful, the pure, the peacemakers, and the persecuted. Brad shows how this upside-down list confronts our pursuit of "enough"—enough money, success, influence, and control—so we don't have to need anyone, including God.

Rooted in Matthew 5 (with insights from the parable of the talents, Isaiah, Nehemiah, and voices like Dallas Willard and N.T. Wright), Brad reminds us that the doorway into the kingdom is not achievement, but surrender. The Beatitudes are not just nice sayings; they form a journey of transformation and paint a portrait of Jesus Himself.

We explore how poverty of spirit leads to real dependence, how meekness is strength under control, why hunger for righteousness moves us from passively wishing things were different to actively partnering with God, and how shifting from consumer to producer breaks a poverty mindset in every area of life. This message is an invitation to trade Western independence for kingdom dependence—and to live the kind of "blessed" life Jesus actually described.

For more messages and resources, visit www.hopeucnashville.com or download the HopeUC Nashville app.