1st and 2nd Americans Episode 8 The Pursuit of Happiness

Hope Lake Country Church

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1st and 2nd Americans Episode 8 The Pursuit of Happiness

May 19, 2024 • Jason Ewart

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If America is built on the premise of an unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, how come we don’t crack the top ten of happiest nations in the world? Why are we hanging out with Lithuania on the happiest nations in the world list? Why do we have an epidemic of mental illness? Because after 247 years of trying, maybe it’s time to admit that we’re lousy at pursuing happiness. The truth is that you will never achieve happiness by pursuing happiness. In this message, we’ll learn how to end our chronic discontent and pursue an inner peace that would make us the happiest place on earth.

1st and 2nd Americans Episode 7 The American Dream

May 19, 2024 • Zach Thwaits

In the 1900s, the American Dream wasn’t about individual wealth and possessions. It was about community flourishing. That dream didn’t just want the grass at our house to be green but our neighbors as well. Today, the American Dream is simply the individual pursuit of http://more.today we have more and consume more. More cars, more square footage, more technology, and more possessions. We also have more debt, more anxiety, more loneliness, and a bigger environmental footprint than ever before. Americans continue to consume and are never satisfied. Jesus warned about the deceitfulness of wealth and the desire for things because they won’t give us the life we are looking for. The truth is the more we consume, the more our possessions consume us. When we can break free from our possessions, we have space to pursue what truly matters.

1st and 2nd Americans “The Separation of Church and Hate

May 12, 2024 • Jason Ewart

The American Christian Church is known for being divided more than it is known for being united. It’s known for what it’s against rather than for what it’s for. Church people have behaved with as much as (or more) godlessness as people who don’t go to church. As a result, Americans haven’t left the church because THEY don’t believe what Jesus teaches, but because the CHURCH doesn’t seem to believe what Jesus teaches. If we’re going to make our generation think twice about throwing baby Jesus out with the church bathwater, it will only happen if we return to the number one value of God’s Kingdom.

1st and 2nd Americans Episode 5 Indivisible

May 5, 2024 • Jason Ewart

Culture wars become an incredibly divisive topic within American culture. As a nation, we’re at odds over immigration policy, gun laws, abortion, support for Ukraine, support for Israel, and more. Some Christians respond by retreating from these culture wars. Others respond by attacking their cultural enemies. This Sunday we’re going to see that Jesus did not intend for us to retreat from culture wars. Nor did he intend for us to fight them. He taught us that the objective isn’t to win culture wars, but to pursue something far more important.