Unexpected and Humbling:

When we first put our website online, we felt that we were merely providing a service for our own members and a few friends. In addition to providing general information about our church, and because we place a high priority on the sound expository preaching of God's Word, we also felt that we should provide a page where people could read the sermons that are preached from the pulpit at New Horizons. We also wanted to make them available without charge.

Little did we know just how many people (primarily pastors) would find the sermons useful. Over the years, we have been both delighted and humbled at the enormous amount of feedback we have gotten from literally all over the world.

As a result of having the sermons online, I was approached by the editor of the book that Thomas Nelson Publishers issues annually as a help for pastors, called Nelson's Annual Preacher's Sourcebook. He asked if I would consider becoming a contributor for at least the 2006 editions, and also for future editions. The book includes sermons both in outline form as well as "longer" sermons for Sunday mornings, evenings, and mid-week services. Additionally, there are special sermons for holidays and special occasions. I remember looking through books like this early in my ministry for sermon ideas as well as to see how others approached the task of preaching. Since they said they would do all the editing of the messages they decided to use, I agreed to be a part. When the 2006 edition arrived, I was surprised to find that they had included 16 of my messages in various forms. Among the longer versions was one for the Sanctity of Human Life Sunday on "Thinking Biblically About Abortion" and a full length wedding service that I have developed over the years. Even those "longer" versions have been edited down substantially from the original version (that you can find on the church website). Overall, they did a good job, even though I felt the editing was a bit choppy. Perhaps I will be a bit more involved, if time permits, in the editing of future versions.

 I hope to be able to publish a books based on my messages on the books of Ephesians and Romans this coming year, if possible. Hopefully, the writing will be complete on the dissertation for my Ph.D. by the end of March. When that is done, and after my defense of it to the doctoral committee, I will be finally graduated, although I have not yet decided whether to take it in absentia or make the trip to Canterbury, England for the formal ceremony in the cathedral there, which is optional.

Below are some selections from the many we have received. I am humbled by how God is using the sermons. I hope you will take the time to what follows and be encouraged as well.

From Email:

● I enjoy reading your sermons very much. You have a good writing style conveying both what the text meant and what the text means today. I was pleased to see the additional sermons concerning thinking biblically. I am also a pastor and serve as adjunct professor of Hebrew and Greek at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, North Georgia Center. I really appreciate your detailed treatment of the text. May God bless your ministry, and I hope you will continue the internet ministry as well. R. T. Brantley

● Dear Pastor J. David Hoke, Receive Calvary greetings! May i say i truly and awesomely blessed by your sermons.... may the Lord continually add unto u His Divine and Awesome power so that u can continue to be a blessing to our lives. I am Peris, 22 years of age single lady from Nairobi Kenya. And all i wanted to say is thank you, thank you, thank you and God bless u mightly. God Bless.

● Hello, I am a Pastor of a congregation in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, Australia. I have recently been preaching through 1 Corinthians with my congregation and stumbled across Pastor Hoke's sermons on the internet. I would like to thank him for these as they have been quite helpful as I prepared my sermons during these past months. I have been greatly encouraged by these sermons and thank God for his work as a teacher. Sincerely, Rev. Bruce Stanley Merrylands Anglican Church

● I have just discovered your site and read a message called blessed are the flexible which has been very challenging to me. I am a lay preacher and am preaching from this passage Sunday next. I believe God must work a message in your life before you can preach it and was challenged today in an unusual area. I have employed a vagrant I met at church last week for a few days work, He has made some very foolish decisions in life and on Friday begged for some money. He promised I'd see him at church and would be at work 8am Monday morning. sadly we had a no show both times but he arrived this morning 1 day late after walking 35kilometres to get to work because he had run out of petrol. I was ready to send him packing but after reading this message and the spirit of god working on my heart. I need to be flexible. Thanks for permission to use your resources. I appreciate it very much regards Peter Moore, New Zealand

● Dear Pastor Hoke. My name is Herb Gehrling and I am an elder/ lay pastor in our church. The reason I am lay pastor is because we currently do not have a pastor. I personally want to thank-you for allowing me to use you material. I have found it not only an inspiration but also a tremendous encouragement. I own a truck repair business in our community which is located in Slave Lake/ Alberta/ Canada and I have never had any formal training in pastoring a church or preparing sermons and I find it a real stretch to bring messages week after week. Thank-you for your faithfulness to our Lord and I pray that He would pour a special blessing of grace and peace upon you, your family and your church. God bless. Your Brother in Christ. Herb

● Hi, Just a very big thank you for the wonderful sermons and the permission to use some of it. I am at the moment busy with my training for Lay Preacher in the Methodist Church in NZ and find your website very helpful....not only the sermons...but the most important thing for me at the moment is the fantastic contents. You know how expensive books are on this topic and at the moment it is impossible for me to buy everything I want to! I use this sight to help me with my research too. Thanks again, Carien Pelcher

● I read tonight a sermon on Ephesians 5:15-17 and I found it very helpful. Will your church consider, apart from keeping the text sermon, to record the sermon in MP3 format and load it to your website, so that Christians from all over the world can listen to Rev. David Hoke's sermon. Just an input. Thanks so much! Because He first loved us, Maurice Kwok, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

● I am from England and found your sight by accident. I have looked at the sermons and found it to be a good resource. I want to encourage you and your pastor to keep on with the Lord's work. Even here in England we can learn from you. If you need prayer for anything then feel free to let me know and our church will pray. Every blessing, Eddie & Sharon Pratt

● Dear David and the people involved in the David Hoke Website, My name is Andy Conroy and I am a youth leader in Stourbridge (near Birmingham), United Kingdom. I just wanted to E-mail you to thank you for the amazing resource that you have put on the net. Your sermons have helped me in ways that i cannot describe - both as a person and also as a youth leader. I have used a number of your sermon themes and transformed them into a youth orientated message and they have helped in the spiritual growth and transformation of the hearts of my youth group. I do not know whether you get much encouragement and recognition but all I can say is that I as a person and my youth group would be less if it was not for your faithfullness to the God and the gifting that he has placed inside of you. I pray that you continue to hear Gods word and transform it into life giving messages and that his grace and favour rest with you at all times. Thank you again. Andy

● Dear pastor Hoke, hello ! My name is Pascal Cusson, from the province of Quebec, Canada. I'm a french canadian, an I don't write verry well your thoung, but I reading here easyly. I realy like your site, because he contain a full of beatiful sermons easyly comprehensible, instructives an you using a language correct an accessible for all. Continue your good work for the Lord ! God bless you aboundantly ! Brotherly yours, Pascal Cusson

● Dear David, greetings from Berlin / Germany! Just a brief note in order to thank your very much for your excellent homepage and the sermon archive. I just have read one of your messages on the 10 commandments (contentment) . I liked it and was challenged and encouraged by your words. May God continue to bless you in the service for HIS kingdom. Regards, Hans-Martin Weitbrecht

● Enjoying your messages, Pastor Hoke, from Bucharest, Romania. I am here teaching Bible and social studies at an MK school (Bucharest Christian Academy) with SBC among the many missions represented. I really appreciate being able to download your message and read them. In His peace, Bill Perkins

● Dear Brother. Your ministry is greatly appreaiated. I Pastor a small church on the Isle of Man (British Isles) It is good to receive the word. jack anderson

● My name is Sang Jung, Korean speaking church pastor in Hawaii. Regularly I am reading your sermon. I learn many things from you. Your are excellant and very helpfrul. Thank you so much for sharing your insight and ministry.

● I am a seminary student at the Church of God Theological Seminary in Cleveland TN. I am taking an Expository Preaching class this semester. Just wanted to let you know that i appreciate you publishing your full text sermons. I will be using them for a one of my assignments: we are suppossed to read 10 Exp. sermons and construct outlines from them. Dr. F.J. May is our instructor. He has asked us to read not only classic Exp. Sermons but contemporary ones as well. THANK YOU VERY MUCH. You have just saved me a lot of library time. David Fleenor

● Dear Pastor Hoke, I am a young pastor working a regular job and pastoring a church of 40 people here in Portland, Oregon. I prepare 3 sermons and a Sunday School lesson every week. I have used your sermons several times when I just couldn’t find inspiration or time to do my own. I just wanted to thank you for this ministry that you and your church provide, I will use it with the utmost of integrity. Thanks. David Bradley

● What a praise for the information that Pastor Hoke is willing to share with others. I am a pastor of a small country congregation. We have on average 20-30 people and are anticipating Gods growth here. I started the mininstry at age 50 and have not had the opportunity for formal training of Seminary. Your sermons are a very neccessary part of research that I look forward to reviewing. Praise God again for your gifts and I pray the you and your congregation continue to be blessed. Pastor Rich VanBeek

● i read the sermon...and it does help i suppose in a way...i miss my love and i’m totaly heart broken and i can’t seem to stop crying...i just wish to god it was me instead of her...i guess i’ve got to go back to church and find god agian... i’ve been away so long..... Paul Wiebe

● Thank you, Pastor Hoke. My wife and I pastor a small United Methodist Church in the wilds of Indiana. We are new pastors and have only started in August. Each week as we start to prepare the sermon, we go on-line and read what you have preached on the subject. Thank you for yielding to the Spirit’s leading in what you write. Without fail your writings get us started in our sermons. We are so happy. Last week a young man got saved. His testimony has fired up the whole church. At our first Wednesday night Bible study we had 16 people and everybody stayed after the one hour for an additional hour and a half praising the Lord and praying. Thank you for your part. Dear God, shower blessing down upon your church. Austin and Nancy Fergusson

● My beloved brother in whom I am well pleased. You have blessed my heart in more ways than I can say this hour. It is 1:44 am an I must go to bed. I would like to tell you breifly how your messages have blessed my ministry. I first of all became convicted from your Rom. 6 message at a time when I was going through spiritual download and needed to be revived. Your messages are great. But tell me, is it wrong for me to use your messages or parts of your messages in the pulpit. I have not had formal Bible training but I have been speaking for twenty years whenever the Lord open the door. I write my messages completely and well, rehearse them prior to speaking. Is that wrong? I don’t know because of the lack of theological training I don’t have brothers that will be honest of this. Please respond to my E-mail Rev. Allan Johnson

From our old Online Guestbook:

Name: Eva Tanusaputra
From: South East Asia Bible Seminary, Malang, Indonesia
Comments: A few months ago I bookmarked you page as I had no time to look at it more closely. Now I have come back and I would like to thank you for making your sermons available to many. God bless you just as I have been blessed!

Name: Phillip Coffin
From: London, England
Comments: What an excellent example of what a church “homepage” should be like. I also found the sermons very useful.

Name: David Darst
From: Palestine TX.
Comments: I am the Pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church of Palestine, so I jumped in the heck of it. I read some of your sermons and they really blessed my heart. Truly the Anointing of Christ is on you Brother Hoke, God Bless you and Num. 6:24-26 to you. My prayer is that though the Lords power that worketh in me (Phil 1:6) that I my some day be the expositional Preacher that you my brother have turned out to be. Your brother in Christ David Darst.

Name: Pastor Graeme Ritchie
From: Busselton - Western Australia
Comments: I have enjoyed the contents of this site.

Name: Kenny Gallant
From: Stephenville, Newfoundland. Canada
Comments: I really like the information in your sermons,you got it right. God Bless You.

Name: Rev. L. A. Sperrey
From: Cleveland, Tn.
Comments: I really enjoyed your message material. I am taking Expository Preaching at the Church of God Seminary in Tn. You are very good and also an encouragement to those who are just beginning. God Bless, Rev. Sperrey

Name: J. Douglas Hunter
From: Port Arthur, Texas
Comments: I have been so blessed by reading messages by you. They have lifted me up just when I needed it most.

Name: Pastor David Lackie
From: Merced, Ca.
Comments: I am a full time pastor of a church of 30 dedicated christians. There is not much money available for study material. I feel so blessed that I am able to use your sight in order to get sermon ideas and illustrations. You are truly a blessing to me and others.

Name: Charlie Williams
From: Mobile, AL/Yokohama Japan
Comments: I’m serving as missionary with IMB, SBC. Thanks for this great resource.

Name: Ronnie Smith
From: Missionary to Monterrey, Mexico
Comments: I enjoy reading your messages very much. I would like to contact you in the future about translating some of your messages into Spanish and putting them in a Spanish newspaper that I will be starting soon. Thank you

Name: Pastor: Leonard J. Royal
From: Word of Truth Church Lenoir, N.C.
Comments: May God Richly bless you for the work that this ministry is doing to help people and pastor’s also. God Bless Bro. Leonard

Name: Rev G John Jackson
From: Jacksonville Fl
Comments: To God be the GLORY! David, continue to let the Lord use you. It is because of ministers like yourself that have inspired young preachers like me. I’m 27 yrs. old and the Lord has blessed me to be in the ministry going on 10 years. My life has often time been associated with Suffering & Sorrow, Trial & Testing, Adversity & Affliction, Despair & Discouragement, Heartaches & Headaches; but I wouldn’t give it up for nothing in this world. I just read the sermon “The After-Christmas Spirit” from Luke2:17-20. Preacher, God bless you and everyone around you! THANK YOU VERY, VERY MUCH for posting the Word where any and everybody can read it. Thanks

Name: Felix Ramirez
From: Merida, Yucatan, MEXICO
Comments: Thank you for the sermons. They are plenty of meat. I’ve used them for several Bible studies and sermons. They´ve been a great blessing to my own life! May God continue to lead you.

Name: Rolf D.J. Ronstadt
From: St. Charles, IL (origionally from Switzerland)
Comments: Dear Pastor Hoke. Just a quick note to let you know how much my wife Sherri and I enjoyed your sermon on Epesians. We spent the last two weeks immersed in theological studies and needed to prepare a paper on a Bible Study on Ephesians 1:3-14. Your writings were a great help to us in preparing our work project. Keep up the good work and writings. We will frequently access your web pages to get a glimpse how our Lord is blessing you.

Name: Tamarra Derry
From: Australia - Christian Outreach Centre
Comments: Excellent pages!! The sermons are great, gave me alot to think about. Congrats and God Bless.
 

Continue to pray that God would use the messages. Again, it is humbling to me to see how others have been blessed.

Pastor Dave