North Park Community Church

02/09/2026

“In the book, ‘The Science of Revenge,’ they've found that vengeance is like a drug. Neurobiologically, co***ne and vengeance are the same. You imagine revenge and this triggers a dopamine hit. You feel enjoyment and pleasure. That cycle becomes addictive like a drug.
So what does Jesus tell us to do instead? Forgive. Forgiveness literally heals your brain because it stops the pain triggers. When you choose to forgive someone, you are letting go of that painful experience. You're not excusing it, but you're letting it go. And when you make that choice day in and day out, it heals us.
Jesus teaches us in Matthew 5:21 that murder is a symptom. The mind of God is that we would go to the root and, through forgiveness, w**d it.” - Lewis Hines
Listen to the whole message here: www.northpark.cc/sermons/the-jesus-lens

02/02/2026

"When our verbal and our non-verbal communication are not in congruence, we call it sarcasm. When that happens, what do people believe? The non-verbal. The delivery rather than the content. When we are salt and light, when we share the good news of Jesus, if our message and our delivery don't align, people will pay attention more to our actions than our words. Being salt and light in Matthew 5 means bearing the name of Jesus well." - Pastor Lewis Hines
Listen to the whole message: www.northpark.cc/sermons/salt-and-light-2

01/28/2026

"Peace-making is difficult, dangerous, and delicate work. It's not for the faint of heart. It's only for those that have a vision of something beautiful that could be made from the fragmented relationships in front of them, and they brave the heat and the exhaustion and the time to carefully work toward that vision. Peace-making. I call it, Shalom forging. Jesus thinks it’s pretty hardcore, and he pronounces those blessed that undertake the work.
Blessed are the shalom-forgers."

- Brianna Hines. Read the whole message here: www.northpark.cc/sermons/shalom-forging

01/21/2026

01/12/2026

Lewis Hines on “The Blessables”:
“The kingdom of heaven is Yahweh's kingdom, and he gets to decide who has ownership of it. And the good news is that he’s making it available to the spiritual zeros. He’s making it available to those who struggle to read their Bible and pray. He’s making it available not just to the scholars and elites, but to anyone and everyone. He is making it available to the drugged out and the stressed out, the spiritually blind and impoverished.” Listen to the whole message:

The Blessables Yesterday Lewis Hines Matthew http://www.northpark.cc/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/2026-01-11-The_Blessables-LH.mp3 Save Audio Series: Winter 2026 :: The Sermon on the Mount Tagged with Matthew 5:3–5

12/02/2025

“As Job asks ‘Why?’ over and over again, note that he doesn’t hold those questions IN. Instead he pours them out. He continues in relationship with God even though it hurts. He doesn’t let disappointment poison his faith.”

Listen to the full message here: www.northpark.cc/sermons/advent-2025-hope

11/10/2025

“We see that in Ruth chapter 2, God extends His love to Naomi and Ruth THROUGH Boaz. When we choose to be obedient, we are choosing to be vehicles for YHWH's ‘hesed’, His loving-kindness. As instruments of ‘hesed’, we can invite outsiders to become insiders.”

Pastor Lewis Hines, "Insiders and Outsiders." Listen to the whole message here: www.northpark.cc/sermons/insiders-and-outsiders

11/04/2025

The world is more connected than it ever has been, and at the same time, more isolated. The nature of loneliness can be ambiguous, which makes it challenging to find an easy solution. However, we don’t need to overcomplicate it. The church is uniquely situated to play an essential role in breaking this isolation pattern by doing what we are called to do: loving our neighbor....

We were made to be in relationship with God and with one another. As Jesus said in Matthew 22:37-38, “…‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.” ...

Jesus is clear—each of us holds a unique role in this relational purpose. As we live out the calling Jesus gave us with intentionality, this will help those who are suffering from loneliness.

–Greg Brock, in this month's "Christian Leader". Read the whole article online:

The church is uniquely situated to play an essential role in breaking this isolation pattern of loneliness by loving our neighbor.

10/27/2025

“There's an interesting Hebrew word in the book of Ruth, ‘hayil.’
‘Hayil’ can refer to physical strength. It can refer wealth. It can refer to an army. All of these have a common idea: power. But what’s interesting is that ‘hayil’ can also be translated as ‘character.’ Character is power.
Ruth the Moabitess, while short on cultural power, is full of ‘hayil.’ She is an ordinary person with extraordinary integrity. In God’s eyes, she is powerful.”
- Lewis Hines, “Ruth in the Time of the Judges.” Listen to the whole sermon here: www.northpark.cc/sermons/ruth-in-the-time-of-the-judges

10/25/2025

When life shifted without warning, Patty Stutzman and Eleanor Boese were swept into a reality they hadn’t expected. The sudden deaths of their husbands, Lowell and Dale, left behind not only grief, but the weight of decisions, legacies, and unfinished plans—one filled with complexity and questions, the other marked by peace and preparedness.

Read more of their stories and start your journey with our will planning service: https://bit.ly/47eP74Y

10/14/2025

“Everybody worships. The only choice we get is what to worship.... If you worship money and things... then you will never have enough. Worship your own body and beauty and sexual allure and you will always feel ugly, and when time and age start showing, you will die a million deaths before they finally plant you. ... Worship power — you will feel weak and afraid, and you will need ever more power over others to keep the fear at bay. Worship your intellect, being seen as smart — you will end up feeling stupid, a fraud, always on the verge of being found out. And so on.”
- David Foster Wallace

From pastor Lewis Hines' sermon last Sunday. Listen here: http://www.northpark.cc/sermons/you-worship-what-you-love