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Romans 15:8,13 -The God Of Hope- Pastor Rick Beaudry 2023-11-26
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Romans chapter 15 verses eight through 13. Would you please stand with me as we read God's holy word together? Romans chapter 15 beginning with verse eight. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made under the fathers, and that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it's written, for this cause I will confess to thee among the Gentiles and sing unto thy name. And again, he say it, rejoice ye Gentiles with his people. And again, praise the Lord all ye Gentiles and laud him all ye people. And again, Isaiah say it, there shall be a Judah Jesse and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles and him shall the Gentiles trust. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Father, we thank you for your holy word. And Lord, in a time of, as the Bible describes perilous times, men's hearts failing them for fear on the horizon, but even now, the birth pangs are causing many to lose hope, high suicides, high anxiety, a whole lot of people trying to cope, with various means of medicines and all other sorts of things to try and just deal with life as a as a as a whole. And Lord, we as a people, we as as believers, Lord, we pray that we would cope by hoping in you, have a confident expectation in you. You're the God of hope. That we'd walk by faith and not by sight. That we would enter into all that you have for us spiritually and that spiritually, that life of the spirit, the abundant life of the spirit would just lift us above the circumstances, lift us above the corruption and the demise of our culture, Lord. Help us to be able to, hide ourselves in that secret place and experience your peace and your joy and your love and get to know you better and better and better. Lord, help us not to to give in to the pressure of giving up, of quitting, of giving up on you, Lord. You're the God of hope and we love you and we pray that you reveal yourself today to a greater measure than we've ever known you, Lord. Just instill within in us, Lord, a greater faith and a greater hope, a greater love in these last days, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Would you please be seated? The word hope speaks of a confident expectation of good. In Proverbs ten twenty eight, it says, the hope of the righteous shall be gladness, but the expectation of the wicked shall perish. Jeremiah 17 verse seven says, blessed is the man that trusts in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. Is the Lord your hope today? Is he his person? Are you the is he the one you're hoping in? Who are you trusting in? What are you trusting in? If you're trusting in Biden or Obama, I I I I pray for you, man. I mean I mean, can you believe that kind of leadership that people have placed their hope and trust? When Obama ran for president a couple times, you know, his his theme was hope, you know. Hope you know, you put your hope in him. We're gonna fundamentally transform, you know, America. Hope for you, you know, like like as if there was anything wrong with America when he took over, you know. And and so three terms later, his third term presently, you know, we're watching the destruction of the cult culture and the country we live in, getting ready for the global communism, the globalism, and all. And with that on the horizon, with the World Economic Forum and the World Health Organization and Bill Gates, with impunity telling you what he's gonna do, you know, there's a there's a article that I posted a couple days ago where Bill Gates said this next pandemic is going to affect the children, and it's, it's gonna be beyond your immune systems to deal with it. A lot of children are gonna die. And, I mean, this guy gets away with saying that, and then they have the audacity to wanna censor you and I for telling the truth, you know. They wanna silence us. And so he gets to just say whatever he wants and sounds like a genocidal maniac, you know. And if you trace the patents and all the things he's involved in, you would say, man, this guy's this this guy's dangerous, you know. But he just gets away with saying whatever he wants. And then so this morning, I looked on, Rapture Ready, and I posted another article in China, just as Bill predicted. In China, presently, the children are facing a new type of pneumonia that, the parents don't know what to do, and they're getting ready to lock down. They have a zero, you know, policy, you know, in China. So get ready for some lockdowns, get ready for some a new type of ammonia that particularly affects the children. How sad for these guys to direct it, you know, toward the children. You know, it's bad enough to have the first pandemic, you know, that hit primarily the adults, but, the second one, you know, he's directing it specifically toward the children, just just cruel and evil, and they these kids are in there for, fourteen days if you read the article in the hospitals and such. And so you and I, we can't lose hope. You know, we look at these guys, and their machinations are different types of plot and scheming and plans and such, but we have to remind ourselves, continually remind ourselves that they aren't gods. You know, that our god is on the throne, that Jesus is on the throne, that you and I are gonna live, and we're gonna die right on time, you know. If the Lord chooses to take us home from pneumonia, we're gonna go by way of pneumonia. If he chooses, you know, by starvation, we'll go by starvation or a bullet to the head. I don't know. Sickness can affect all of us eventually, but we can't give in to the fear mongering. We can't give in to these guys, you know, trying to steal what what moments we have left, you know, in our holidays. They seem to hate Christmas. They hate everything about Jesus, and they wanna steal your joy. They wanna steal your hope at the holiday season. They wanna be as doom and gloom as they can possibly be, and and we're just not gonna take it. We're not gonna live that way. We're gonna continue to hope in Jesus because it's a confident expectation for good, not of evil. So when we teach prophecy, it's not doom and gloom. Prophecy is speaking of a confident expectation for good. And so who are you trusting in? What are you trusting in? Who will save you from your sins? Who will provide for you? Who will protect you? Who will preserve you on into eternity? Is he the hope of glory? The Lord Jesus Christ, which is which is our hope, that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God of hope, you know, and savior Jesus Christ. So the God of hope. We believe in the God of hope trusting that he is number one faithful. Verse eight. Now I say that Jesus Christ was a minister of the circumcision for the truth of God to confirm the promises made under the fathers. And so that word minister means a servant. So Jesus come to seek and to serve. He said, didn't come to be ministered unto, but to minister and to give my life a ransom for many. And so Luke twenty two twenty seven, he says, I'm among you as he that serves. And so a minister of the circumcision notice. So the priority is first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. So when we look at the theme of this book, salvation in in Romans one sixteen and seventeen, I'm not ashamed the gospel of Christ for is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes to the Jew first and then to the Gentile. So the priority is always to the Jew first. Jesus is the minister, the servant to the circumcision, to the house of Israel, he came. When he's rejected by the nation of Israel, and even like when the Syrophoenician woman came to him and said that her daughter was you know, sick, he said, what do I have to do with you? You know, she's got the got it down. Thou lord, son of David, she understands that he's the messiah for the nation of Israel. But she being a gentile, what what relationship do you have with us? You know? And she says, oh, but even even the crumbs that fall from the table, the little puppies are able to partake. And he says, oh, great is thy faith. You know? He was so blessed by her faith, and, the Jews didn't have that kind of faith. But, this Gentile woman had this kind of faith that really blessed the Lord, and, and he healed he healed her daughter and such. But his priority was to the house of Israel first, and so that was Paul's, bringing out here. The relationship between Jew and Gentiles, the priority goes to the Jew. So a minister of the circumcision to the Jew, and so his ministry is first to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, the circumcision. So salvation is of the of the Jews. The gospel is first to the Jew and then to the Gentile. And then the next part of verse eight, for the truth of God to confirm the promises made under the fathers. So Jesus is faithful. He is truth incarnate. There's no empty unfulfilled promises with him. He says, came down from heaven not to do my own will, but the will of him that sent me. He says, I do always those things that please the father. And so Jesus was on a mission, and that mission was to do what his father had told him to do. He prayed three times, father, if you're willing, remove this cup from me, but nevertheless, not as I will, but thy will be done. And for the joy that was set before him, the joy of saving you and I, both Jew and Gentile, he endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated down at the right hand of the father. So faithfully, bearing witness of the truth, confirming the promises made in Psalm one nineteen fourteen, thou art my hiding place and my shield. I hope in thy word. And so the the the emphasis upon trust. Psalm one thirty verse five, I wait for the lord. My soul does wait. In his word, do I hope. Do you wait upon the lord? Do you hope in his word? Some of you are reading your bibles each and every morning, each and every day. Some of you are reading your bibles more than you ever have, and so you're waiting upon the Lord. You're waiting upon him. You're hoping upon him. You're in his word. Do you trust? When you see a promise in his word, you grab hold of that promise and you're trusting in his promise. Your mind is screaming at you. You're a weirdo. You're an idiot. There's no way God's gonna do that for you, not you. You don't have that hope. You don't have that confident expectation in him. Has he given you these promises, you know, for a reason? And, but the enemy would have you trust in yourself or trust in man or trust in somebody else. And the Lord wants you to trust in his word. When he speaks to you through, you know, the study of his word and he speaks to your heart, he wants you to believe. He doesn't want you to go away from their not believing and trusting somebody else. It's not just an exercise in reading. It's it's a time of getting to know him, getting to know his promises, hiding his word away in your heart. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the word of God. Your faith is gonna grow. It's gonna excel. And the Holy Spirit's gonna remind you of his promises when you're faced with things that, you don't understand, and you don't have the control or the power or the ability to overcome. And so we go to Proverbs three five and six, trust in the Lord with all your heart. Lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he'll direct your paths. And so that's that's how we roll. We roll by faith. We continue to walk by faith. Over 300 prophecies fulfilled, promises fulfilled in his first coming. Jesus said, search the scriptures, and then you think you have eternal life, and there they would testify of me. The volume of the book is written of me. He's truth incarnate. And so in John eighteen thirty seven, Pontius Pilate asked him, says, so you're a king? And Jesus said, thou sayest that I'm a king. You know, to this end was I born, and for this cause I came I forth to bear witness of the truth. Anybody that's of the truth can hear my voice, and Pilate goes away cynical with all the philosophies of the Greek culture permeating the Roman culture. Pilate says, what is true? Have you ever been that cynical? What is true? Is there any truth anymore? You know, what is the truth? There's so much propaganda, so many lies out there, but you and I can hope and trust in God's word. It's impossible for God to lie. You can take it to the bank. God is gonna fulfill his word 100%, not 50% or 60%. And on the promises that he spoke toward you and me, 100%. Take it to the bank. It may not be happening now, but it's going to happen. He's not done with us yet. Right? Don't give up on him. Don't give up on God. Don't give up on Jesus. He's going to keep these promises. They're yes and amen, you know. And the devil would make you think because you're waiting, because it hasn't happened just yet, that, somehow you can't trust in him, you can't hope in him, but you can and you will, and you'll get through it. He'll get you through it because he is incredibly, incredibly faithful. In John seventeen four, he's praying to his father, and he says, I have glorified thee on the earth. I have finished the work which thou gave it me to do. And so Jesus is faithful. One of the things that I talked with Eric, my buddy, who's a pastor down in Tennessee, he and I go through a lot of different mental gymnastics of evaluating the church, evaluating our ministries. You know, after twenty eight years here, he's like twenty some down in in Dixon. And the churches have never grown to be big like most Calvary Chapels and all. So we we beat ourselves up, we analyze, reanalyze, look at things, know, mull them over back and forth. But after this long, all I say to them now is, you know what, Eric? I just wanna be faithful. That's all I wanna be is faithful. I just wanna be faithful what God's given me to work with and I wanna be faithful, I wanna reach the finish line. I just want to be faithful and hear him say, well done, thou good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a few things. I'm gonna make you rule over much. Enter thou into the joy of the Lord. All of us in this room, all God expects of us is for you and I to be faithful unto him. He's faithful unto us. He will be faithful unto us. Don't give up on him. Don't give up on his word. Don't give up on his promises. They're going to be fulfilled on into eternity. You and I, we can only work with what we have to work with in these last days in Kitsap County. Be faithful. God can do a lot with a little. Just one person getting saved, just one person at a hunting camp, as as Chris was telling me. A guy a couple years ago goes to church. This year, they found out he got saved. You know? I mean, that's amazing, isn't it? Do you ever tire of somebody getting saved? You know, some of you got saved this year, you know, at this church here. And some of your friends got saved this year. The COVID shots and the pressure and all the stuff, that's happening brought you to the end of yourself, you began to look up. You began to look to Jesus. Some of you rededicated your hearts and lives to the Lord cause you know that God is faithful. There's nobody else you can trust in. You were you were trying to trust in the election, trying to think things to get back around, but nothing worked, nothing happened. They stole the election. And everybody's passive and given in to the theft of it. And again, the definition of insanity is what? Doing the same thing again, looking for a different result, you know? I mean, it's insanity. How could you possibly put your faith and trust in this global system, in this in this system within the world that's so incredibly corrupted. So I look up. I just I just let go of this world, and I look up and I say, praise the Lord. The Lord Jesus is coming. He's coming soon. It's gonna be soon. And I don't lose hope in that way. So Jesus is faithful. We can hope in him. He keeps his promises. The God of hope, we believe in the God of hope, trusting that he is faithful. Secondly, we believe in the God of hope, trusting that he is forgiving. Is there anybody here that doesn't need forgiveness on a regular basis? That doesn't need forgiveness each and every day? Where are you gonna find that forgiveness? You're gonna find it from Jesus. If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. The Christians borrow soap. Right? You hear this morning, there's some junk, some defilement, some corruption, some things that you were around this week. Maybe it wasn't even your own sin, but things you heard, things you watched, things you're around, and you felt filthy, a little dirty or whatever, you know. And you you come to the Lord, you get into his word, you begin to worship the Lord, and by the power of his spirit begins to wash you, to cleanse you, to sanctify you, to wash you from the filth of the world. You can't you can't handle, you know, what the world throws upon you. It's filth. It's ideas and songs and movies and family members and such. You're stuck, you know, at the holidays, you know. But you can drive away worshiping the Lord, praising the Lord, getting back into the word, coming to church, and allowing the Lord to remind you of his forgiveness. That he's forgiven you, that you're justified just as if you've never sinned. And that for the Gentiles, for the Jew, God's still offering to the unbeliever, he's still offering forgiveness. He's not come to judge, he's come to seek and to save that which was lost. Right? The son of man came not in the world to condemn the world, but the world through him might be saved. So presently in this dispensation, this time frame, right here today, today is the day of salvation, God stands ready to forgive you of your sins. He doesn't wanna judge you. He doesn't want you to be condemned. In fact, if you're condemned, it's yourself that's condemning you. You're condemned already because you're rejecting Jesus Christ. You stand in condemnation if you're an unbeliever. But he doesn't want you to be there. He doesn't want you to stay there. He's came to seek and to save those who are lost. He came to seek and to save you. He's not willing that any would perish, but that all would come to repentance. All means you. Right? He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from their wickedness. So why won't you place your faith and hope and trust in him? Why would you not hope in him? Who else can you hope in? You can't hope in yourself. You can't save yourself. You can't be good enough to save save yourself. It's only through him and his finished work. So he says in verse nine, and that the gentiles might glorify God for his mercy. Mercy is not getting what we deserve. As it is written, for this cause I will confess to thee among the gentiles and sing unto thy name. So Paul's showing how Jesus is the savior, you know, of the Jews, but also the savior of the Gentiles. The Jews had a hard time figuring that Jesus would save the Gentiles. They thought the Gentiles were simply fuel for the fires of hell. That's why they hated the Gentiles, wouldn't eat with the Gentiles and all. But from the very beginning, the nation of Israel was to be the purpose thereof, to be a light unto the Gentiles, to show the Gentiles the way unto salvation through Jesus Christ. And so Psalm 18 verse 49, Paul's quoting here. Second Samuel 22 verse 50 that David had penned that, they would they would confess, they would sing unto Jesus the Messiah. Psalm thirty three eighteen, behold the eye of the Lord is upon them that fear him, upon them that hope in his mercy. Let thy mercy, oh Lord, be upon us according as we hope in thee. I like in Jeremiah or Lamentations three where Jeremiah says, the mercies of the Lord are new every morning. Every morning, God's mercies are new. Every day, I blow it. Every day, I sin. Every stinking day. Every day. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't sin in one way or another. In thought, attitude, behavior, every day. And sometimes by the end of the day, I'm exhausted. I'm just exhausted. It's takes a lot of work to sin like me, you know? The amount of people I get in arguments with and family members, and I get so angry the way they're treating my grandma, and, you know, I'm getting getting so angry. And now now I'm just what am I gonna do with all that anger, this rage I have for them? They're killing her, you know, and they don't even realize it, you know. And and so be angry, but sin not, Rick. Don't overdo it, you know. And so the other day the Lord spoke to my heart when I was just just so frustrated. They don't see it. And that's what the Lord spoke to my heart. Rick, you're right. They don't see it. They don't see it. They don't have ears to hear. They don't understand that faith, hope, and love is a necessity. Faith, hope, and love is essential for your grandma and for you and for everybody upon the planet. They're just looking at it robotically. They're looking at it as nickels and noses like so many. You know? They're looking at it like in such a way like like, you know, she had to take the COVID shot or she wouldn't have got her, you know, her cataract surgery. And I'm like, no. She didn't have to take it. She didn't have to take it. There's other ways. You know? She got the clot shot, and then she got isolated. She got isolated. My grandma couldn't go to church anymore. They isolated her. You can't tell me she had to be isolated. You know? Do you know how hard that is on anybody, let alone the elderly to be isolated? And then she and then she gets a a a stroke, and nobody wants to address the stroke of how it happened, where it came from. Every everybody just wants to sell the house and get rid of her. It's so sad. And I'm trying to get that through to my little brother. It's the money, man. They want the money. She's in the way. She's outliving them. Oh, no. No. No. That's not true. That's not true. I'm getting really in the flesh by now. I'm getting really angry. People can't understand this, you know. Nobody seems to care. And then she goes from the from the stroke to, you know, rehab at her house, and she's at the house. Nobody's coming there in home care. Nobody's bringing her meals. They're just she's fallen down a couple times, getting dehydrated. We'll fix that. Make sure she gets meals. Make sure she gets fed. Her house is paid for. And then she falls down. She told Kathy and I, if I fall down one more time, they're gonna put me in a home. And she fell down, and she broke her hip partially, and they put her in a place to rehab her after the surgery. She didn't even have a chance to rehab and they already took her dog in her house away from her. I mean, and then I finally I I think I got through to my dad. Dad, how come she didn't have a choice in any of this? Who took away her choice? She's in her right mind. She hasn't lost her faculties. Who is making these decisions for her? Does any of that make you mad? I mean, the wrath of man works not the righteousness of God. I have a tendency to hold that stuff in for a long time, and then I can be provoked. So what I did is I said, do you guys need to block me from Facebook? Because if I see any more of your idiocy on there, I can't take it. You you can't sit there and put a pie on there unvaccinated. Let's go to Thanksgiving and talk about politics and think that I'm gonna just passively look at that, you cowards. I'm gonna attack you. I'm gonna come after you. And so they're they're blocking me, and I'm going to sleep thinking, what a big sinner I am, you know. What did I just stir up? But I'm then I'm also thinking, who else is gonna be an advocate? Who else is gonna say anything? Why do I have to be passive? Why can't I have a righteous indignation? You know? Why can't I be angry and sin not? The problem is I feel like I I hurt feelings. You know? I hurt people. But then the bigger picture is what did they do to my grandma? You know? I don't know how to balance that stuff. But anyway, I'm thankful the next morning that I wake up and his mercies are new every morning. And that I can move forward and just kinda say, you know, Lord, you spoke to me. You told me they can't hear. They can't hear. So Lord, I'm gonna pray for their salvation. I'm gonna pray that they'll be able to hear because they have no idea. They have no comprehension of how essential hope is. You you can't you can't put a woman in a that's living in her house over sixty years and take away her hope of going back home and being with her dog and living her life out, all of her possessions sold right out from under you gotta let her have a chance to rehab that hip. And if she can't rehab the hip, then take the next step. But no, they got their justification, just sell everything. I told Kathy, says, you know, not that I have anything, but I don't know why anybody would give a power of attorney to their children. I don't understand that. These kids are vicious. Now if you if you die, sure they have a power of attorney and a will to, know, disperse of the assets. But why do these kids think and doctors think that the elderly can't make their own decisions? Who are you? I don't understand that. I I just don't get it. They have their faculties. They're they're not delirious unless they're Biden, you know. It's their decision. Why don't we understand that it's their decision? She wants to stay in her home, you know. Alright. There's my rant for my grandma. Verse 10, and again he saith, rejoice ye gentiles with his people. He's quoting Deuteronomy thirty two forty three. And again, verse 11, praise the lord all you gentiles and laud him all you people. Psalm 117 verse one. Don't you like how the bible proves the bible? That what Paul's presenting to the church of Rome here, he's reaching back to the old testament with verses that that explained to Jews that God intended all along to bless the gentiles? That God intended all along that the Gentiles would be worshippers of Jesus, worshippers of God? For many of the Jews, they don't understand this, but if they knew the scriptures, they they would see. So Psalm a 117 verse one for verse 11. So again, praise the Lord you Gentiles and laud him all you people. Verse 12, and again, Isaiah say it, there shall be a root of Jesse and he that shall rise to reign over the Gentiles and him shall the Gentiles trust or the Gentiles shall hope in him. So now Paul is quoting out of Isaiah chapter 11, the kingdom age chapter of Isaiah eleven one, Isaiah eleven ten, where the root and the offspring of David and that Jesus would be from the tribe of Judah. Jesus would come through the Davidic covenant that God made with David, that the Messiah would come forth from from his family, and that the Gentiles would hope in him. The Gentiles would sing of him. The Gentiles during the millennium will come and worship him. And and so Paul is alluding to that. And so the Gentile woman named Ruth. Ruth had trouble in that her husband died or her boys died, and Naomi's or excuse me, Naomi's husband died, and Naomi's, boys died, and she was married to one of the boys. And, so Ruth the Moabites came back to Bethlehem, the house of bread with Naomi, and she was all embittered and all. But, this gentile, this Ruth, had a kinsman redeemer redeemer unbeknownst to her named Boaz, and Boaz exercised his, right of kinsman redemption. He paid the price, the goel price. Jesus is our groom. We are Ruth, the Moabites, the Gentile bride, and Jesus marries us. He's gonna marry us, but he pays the bride price, the ransom price to redeem us. And so Boaz and Ruth begot Obed, Obed begots Jesse. Jesse begets David, King David. Jesus is the root, and that David comes forth from him and the offspring later as the Messiah, as the virgin born son of God through the family of David as Mary was with child. And so Paul uses notice the law. What is the law? Deuteronomy, the first five books of the bible that Moses penned as the law. The Psalms, he used the Psalms, and he used the prophets to prove that the Jews Messiah is the Gentile savior. And so what a blessing that is. So Jesus, the root and the offspring of David, God's only begotten son who takes away the sins of the world. And so are you able to glorify God for his mercy, for his forgiveness by placing your complete trust, your hope in the God of hope? How hard is it to hope in somebody that's died for you? Greater love is no man than this than a man laid down his life for his friends. Well, it's gonna be hard for me to hope in him if he's still dead. I might put my hope in Buddha, Mohammed, Confucius, but they're dead men. They couldn't save me. They couldn't raise me from the dead. They can't do a whole lot for me. Right? But I can put my hope in a savior who said destroy this temple in three days, I'll raise it up. And he's crucified, he's buried, he raised himself from the dead three days later just as he said. He ascends to his father forty days later. He's seated at the right hand of his father. He stood up to give a standing ovation to Stephen, the first martyr within the church. Right? Stephen could see up into heaven Jesus standing and Stephen's face shone bright like that of an angel. Right? To be asked of the bodies to be present with the Lord, Stephen didn't fear death. Didn't fear it at all. He was gonna do what God called him to do. And so can you put your faith and trust in a person like that? A person that's crucified, buried, raised from the dead, ascended the right hand of the father, and coming again. If those first four are true, he was crucified, buried, ascended, is he gonna come again? Yes. Amen. Can you trust that he's gonna come again? You better trust. You better keep trusting. Better not lose hope. Jesus will never give up on you. How many people have given up on you in your lifetime? How many people that have a bond, a commitment, a friendship, a bond of marriage, bond of family, a bond within business, whatever it may be, how many have given up on you? Jesus will never ever ever give up on you. You can take it to the bank. He's never gonna divorce you. He's never gonna ask for an annulment. He's never gonna say, you know, this just isn't working out. We got married too young. Sorry. Never gonna do that. He's forgiving. No matter what sins you commit, no matter how long you walked away, he's forgiving. He'll take your sins, he'll cast from the east to the West. Remember them no more. There's no record of wrong with Jesus. He will finish what he started in you. He is faithful. You need to you need to understand, Jesus is just getting started with you. He's just getting started. If you're 70 years old, he's just getting started. If you're 80, he's just getting started. It's your life's been a vapor. We're moving on into eternity. In the ages to come, he's gonna pour his kindness upon us. And we need to remember, there's so much more. So much more he's intended for you. So much more. He's just getting started. Don't give up on him. We believe in the God of hope, trusting in that he is faithful, that he's forgiving. And thirdly, we believe in the God of hope, trusting that he is fulfilling. Do you believe Jesus can fulfill you? You're a single guy, a single gal, can he be fulfilling? You're poor, can he be fulfilling? You're sick, can Jesus be fulfilling? Can he bring meaning and purpose to your life in the condition you're in as you're in his will? You absolutely know you're in his will. I'm in God's will. This is God's will for my life. Is he more than enough? Is he enough? Is he enough to fill you this day, to fill you this night, to fill you tomorrow, to fill you, fulfill you on into eternity. I love the story of Hannah. She had a husband named Elcana, and he had another woman, another wife, he had two wives, and this first wife was pretty prolific. She was able to have children, for Elkanah. And Hannah, her womb was purposely shut by God. God purposely shut her womb. She was in God's will like Sarah, like Elizabeth, the mother of John the Baptist, period of time, a period of humility, a period of shame within the culture, and that you cannot bear a child. And Hannah, she'd watch the other woman and she'd kind of gloat and she'd make fun and she'd tease Hannah, and Hannah just was just beside herself. And her husband El Cana came to her one day and he said, aren't I better for you than 10 sons? And she's like, not even close, dude. Not even close. And I tell Kathy all the time, honey, I can't fulfill you. If Elkanah couldn't fulfill Hannah, I can't fulfill you. Only Jesus can fulfill you. So from the very beginning of our marriage, I always pointed her to Jesus, and it didn't mean that I needed to be passive and wimp out on my responsibilities. It just meant that there's a spiritual need that we all have that only Jesus can fill. And if you're looking to a man, a woman, a relationship that'll bring that fulfillment, you're mistaken. You're asking too much of that wife or that husband. Only Jesus can fulfill that spiritual void that he created you with. And when both of you in a marriage, in a relationship, pursue Jesus to be that one that fulfills, There's overflow coming forth from your life that spills over in the lives of those around you. A life of fulfillment, a life of contentment, a life of enriched by fellowship with Jesus. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Through the power of the Holy Ghost, abounding in hope. What is hope? A confident expectation of good. And so your job and that which you prayed about, that which you feared has finally happened to you. You've lost it all as in a moment. You've lost it all. You're the richest guy in your culture, richest guy in your neighborhood, richest guy of all of them. You got wife and kids and stocks and bonds. You got it all. And Satan and God are, you know, having a a debate, and they're debating that, you don't really love God for who he is. You love God because he's given you a lot of blessings, all the blessings, you know. So Satan challenges your relationship with God, and Satan says, take away his stuff. Let me take away his stuff, and he'll curse you to your face. I know human nature. I know how people are. Long as you say yes to them, as long as you give them what they want, they'll praise you and lift their hands and act like they love you. But as soon as there's some adversity, as soon as there's a reversal, as soon as something goes astray, man, they're gonna be blaming you, man. They're gonna be shaking their fist at you and blaming you. And God says, okay. You can only go this far. No further. God's sovereign. Satan's a fallen angel. He needs permission. But Satan got permission to take all the stuff away from Job except his wife. There's a joke in there somewhere. Poor Job's wife. Poor Job's wife. She lost it all too. And so you know the story. Lost it all, and Job rather than cursing God, he said, naked came I into the world, naked I'm gonna go. The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away, blessed be the name of the Lord. Satan, you're wrong. He loves me for me. He loves me for me. I fulfill his heart and life. You can take away all this stuff, but I'm his portion forever. He's in love with me, Satan. And then Satan says, well, skin for skin, all that a man has will he give for his life. Let me give him boils. Let me put him in a hospital bed with cancer. Let me fill him with pain just where he can't sleep, where he can't he can't even deal with it. Let it be so odious, so stinky, so smelly his breath, and and the boils are all over his body that people shy away from him. Let him come to the place where he sits down in the street like the like a beggar and scrapes the boils with a potsherd, the pus coming out and all. Let me bring him to that place, and he'll curse you to your face. Did I paint it good? Yeah. I don't wanna go there. I don't wanna have sores and all the ulcerous sores and all that. No. Thank you. Nobody does. None of us do. And some of you have been entrusted of God to go through very similar things. And your faith grew. Your trust grew. Satan's wrong. The very thing that he tries to use to put a wedge between you and God is the very thing that drew you closer to God. Because he's our portion forever. Job's wife comes to him and she says, you continue to maintain your integrity? She says, don't you curse God and die? And he says, you speak as the foolish women speak. Shall we not receive good at the hand of the Lord and not evil? How is the gospel presented to you? How did you hear? Was Jesus presented? Was he was he presented and prostituted that he would give you everything you wanted? Every prayer, everything that comes out of your mouth, your best life now, is that the way it was presented? That's an adulterous gospel message. That's not the gospel message. Jesus said, if any man come after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross daily and follow me. All sorts of promises within the scripture that speak of affliction, that speak of difficulty in coming to Christ. Many are the afflictions of the righteous. Many, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. We through much tribulation, Paul said, enter into the kingdom of God. Jesus said, in the world you will have tribulation pressure upon you, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. My peace I give unto you, not as the world give, give thy unto you. In the world, you will have promise in your promise jar. You will have. There's nothing wrong with you. It's not because you sinned. It's because you're a believer in Jesus that the tribulation is coming upon you. Not the trip great tribulation, just tribulation, pressure. Things are more expensive, harder to get along with kids and family, the love of many growing cold, iniquity abounding. It's because you're a target, because you love Jesus, because you love the nation of Israel, because you love God's people. You're targeted for destruction. You're targeted to be wiped out, but your relationship with the Lord is remaining steadfast. Roots are growing deeper. The God of hope wants to fill us. He wants to replace the discontentment of our soul with himself. Only Jesus satisfies. You can't hope in men. Can I hear an amen there? Amen. Alright. God. Don't kill me this election cycle. Don't kill me. You're gonna kill me, man. It's I'm just gonna die. So we go to the woman in John four, the woman of Samaria. She thought a husband would fill her heart. That first wedding, like my mom, my mom's married seven times. You know, I don't even know if she got married with me. But in any event, the white dress, the whole everything. By the time she's to Bob, by the time she's to the fifth the fifth guy, she wanted a nice white dress and everything again and that emotion and excitement of being married, know. And, she wound up marrying her sponsor at AA and she rejected, you know, she rejected her husband's having alcohol problem. She's having alcohol problems. It's not funny. Why are you laughing? And it is funny. And I'm like, mom, what are you doing? Mom, I want to be happy. And I said, what's happiness got to do with it? You know? Kinda like Tina, what's love have to do with it? You know? You're married. There's good times and bad times. Right? Get over it. You know? And, but that one lasted less than a year. But you but you see that with our girls, with our granddaughters, there's that day. There's that day they're gonna get married. And they're looking for that guy, they're waiting for that guy, and this guy's gonna bring fulfillment, and joy, and blessing. They got a house, and a picket fence, and all of the sorts of things in their mind, and the bedrooms decorated and types of furniture and all these other things and where they're gonna live and so many dreams and ambitions and just ideas and such and and then they get married and they find out this isn't the guy I married. This isn't the guy I thought I married. And so the woman at the well in John four, she's on her fifth husband. She can't get no satisfaction and Jesus makes a perfect divine appointment to meet with this poor woman who's suffering from just a lack of fulfillment, lack of contentment. He says, I've got water you can drink of, you'll never thirst again. And you don't have anything to draw with. The water that you drink, woman, that natural water, you're gonna thirst again. Go get your husband and come back. I don't have a husband. Ah, you're telling me the truth right now. You've had five husbands. The guy you're living with now, she gave up on marriage. Why even get married? What's the point? She's just living with the guy. Go get him. Come back. And, and then Jesus told her that he'd give her water that she'd never thirst again. That he could fill her heart and life with himself. And in John seven, Jesus said, if any man thirst, are you thirsty? As the deer pants after the water brook, so pants my soul. Is there a thirst in your soul for meaning and purpose? Is Is there a thirst in your soul to know the living God? God made you? In Romans eight verse 20, all creation was subject unto a vanity or an emptiness. And that by reason of him who subjected the same in hope, God made a hope hole in your heart. A confident expectation. A God shaped hole in your heart that nothing can fill except the relationship with Jesus Christ. If any man thirst, Jesus said, let him come unto me and read my book. No. He didn't say that. Let them come on to me and do 12 steps. No. He didn't say that. Take this formula. Hey, we got a new program at church. You do this program and you're gonna be full. You're gonna be fixed. We'll fix you with this program. You just need to give a $100 every month automatically to our account. Always selling Jesus. Always selling a program, a scam, a scheme. Just introduce him to Jesus. Let him do what only he can do. If any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believes in me as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow torrents of living water. The overflow of your life is a torrent, a mighty rushing stream of the holy spirit. So being on drunk with wine wherein is excess, the wine can't solve it. Being on drunk with wine wherein is excess, but be being filled to the Greek tents. Be being filled with the holy spirit. The holy spirit, the life of the spirit is the most fulfilling life available. The life on the spiritual plane. On the human plane, marriage between a husband and wife is the most intimate form of a relationship on the human level. But on the human level, you need to get it on a spiritual level to enter into the true intimacy of what God intended, being married to God, being the bride of Christ, being connected, being intimate, being one, the oneness that he desires for for each of us to have fulfilled to overflowing. So you can't hope in men. You can't hope in wealth. Solomon, the richest guy throughout all of antiquity, at the end of it all, he says, vanity is vanity. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. I couldn't find any fulfillment in the women I was with. I had 700 wives and 300 concubines. Let me tell you. And now I got all the gold. I got everything. Everything. Vanity. Vanity. All is vanity and vexation of spirit. You know, when you don't have it, there's a there's like, you're chasing the carrot. You're chasing the carrot. So you have this motivation to chase the carrot. Oh, I think if I just made that first million, I'd be fulfilled. Oh, if I if I just had two, I'd be fulfilled. And then you achieve these goals. You do well. You achieve them, and you're still empty. Why do you think so many of the Elvis Presleys and the Hollywood movie stars and rock stars and all these people go to therapists and take drugs and die in their thirties? Because they discovered what you and I haven't. They reached those goals and they're even more empty. They're even emptier. It was supposed to fill the void and the emptiness, but they're still empty. You can't hope in wealth or fame or any of this kind of things. First Timothy six seventeen, trust not in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. They can't even enjoy it. In Luke twelve fifteen, beware of covetousness for man's life consists not in the abundance of things which he possesses. Your four zero one k, your home equity, your stocks, your bonds, your cash, your cars, it's all fleeting. It's all temporal. There's no U Haul truck behind that hearse. Can't take it with you. So you can't hope in men, you can't hope in wealth, you can't hope in health. Job said in Job seven verse five, my flesh is clothed with worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle and are spent without hope. He'd lost hope. He was okay in chapter one and chapter two, but these trials they wear on, don't they? They wear on. We I'm typically pretty good when I'm first hit. I can handle anything the first day, the second day. By the third day, fourth day, I'm starting to crack under pressure. I don't know how long you go, but I start to crack. I start to like lose it a bit. I start like, Lord, Lord, I have my game face on. I got my game face on, but Lord, I'm starting to I'm starting to wonder now. Rick, it's only been three days. Why don't we switch places in, Lord? Why don't we switch places? No. Just kidding. Can't talk to him like that. But a lot of times you wanna say that to people that just, you know, shy it off. Like, oh, it's no big deal. Well, let's switch places. It is a big deal. And so he set the place where he's lost hope and that's where you and I come in. We point people back to Jesus, don't we? In Job nineteen ten, he says, he has destroyed me on every side. Can you imagine this is God? And God's never going to apologize to Job. Can you believe that? Instead, God's gonna say to Job, Job, where were you when? Where were you when when I hung the earth on nothing? Can can you put a hook and catch Leviathan? Can you can you explain to me behemoth? Can you explain to me the pleadies and beetlegeese and all these can you explain anything? Then why do you think you can explain the circumstances of your life that I've allowed in your life? And Job says, I abhor myself and I repent in dust and ashes. And you know what blesses me? The Lord addresses Job in chapter 42 as my servant Job. My servant Job. My servant Job. Remember what we said? Just be faithful. To be the Lord's servant, what a privilege. To be the one that he uses in that way to demonstrate his love, to demonstrate how deep this salvation goes, our relationship with him. What a privilege. But Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, these guys, the miserable comforters, God did not address them as my servant Bildad. Bildad, the shoe height, shortest man in the bible. Shorter than Nehemiah. I mean, this guy was short. But they weren't my servants, were they? What a blessing. He has destroyed me on every side and I'm gone, and my hope has he removed like a tree. And you guys pulling trees out, get the backhoe out there and pull it out by the root, the wind blow and pull that tree out of the ground, that whole root system sticking up in the air. He's pulled me out like a tree. Root, he took all the way down. Every root I had, he pulled it out of the ground. All the faith that I had, he ripped it out of the ground. He ripped it out of my heart. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Come quick. And mine hope is he removed like a tree. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. So you start to talk to yourself. It's rough when you're talking to yourself. Right? Walking around talking to yourself? It's even worse when you're answering yourself. In Psalm 42, David's walking around talking to himself. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? Now, some of you have been studying about sheep. I saw on Facebook, you know what a cast sheep is. A cast sheep is one that got ate too much turkey and fell over on its back and can't get back up. And it says, bad bad. Little spindly legs and can't get its weight to switch over. And it's a bad, you know, like a turtle on its back. The gastric juices and everything are messing with the mind, you're imagining there's a wolf nearby, and you're bleeding out, and the shepherd leaves the 99 to come find you, you know, and you can't wait to be found. Why art thou cast down, oh my soul? So differentiating between body, soul, and spirit. The part of his being, the soul is the mind, the will, the emotions. His mind is riddled. He's cast down. He's lost hope. Why art thou cast down, my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? And then he answers himself, hope thou in God. Put your hope back in God. Quit trusting in yourself. Quit trying to figure it out. God's brought you to a place where you're at the end of yourself. You're at the very end, but hope is a confident expectation for good. The God of all hope has a plan for you. He's not done with you yet. He's just getting started. This is in his will. You are in his will. Really, Lord? I'm in your will? You willed all this? Yeah. I willed all this. Just as I did with Job. Just as I did with my son Jesus. Just as I did with the apostle Paul. You're in good company. I've willed this adversity. I've willed these afflictions. I've willed these things to remind people of the cross. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son. It's my will. You're filling up the sufferings of Christ. People are reminded of Jesus my son when they see you going through these things. When they see you worshiping me and trusting in me. There's a quality of life. There's a quality of life that you're emanating, that you're demonstrating, a picture that they're starting to see that I'm worth everything. And that you'll worship me even if I take away all the stuff. Even if I take away your health, you're gonna still worship me because I'm worthy. I'm ascribing worth unto him. Why art thou cast down all my soul? Why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. What's David saying? Lord, don't give up on me. I'm gonna praise you for the help of your countenance, your presence, Lord. Your presence with me in this fiery trial means more to me than anything. You've never left me, you'll never forsake me, you're never gonna give up on me Lord, that means everything. You're my portion forever. A lively hope. Job later says, I know that my redeemer lives. You have these times where you faint, these times where your hopes ripped out like a tree, Then you have these other moments where you say stuff like, though he slay me yet will I trust in him. There's times where this faith wells up inside of you and it's just like it's so huge and and and you don't it's like, wow, Lord. I'm finally growing up. I'm finally starting to get it. He knows the way that I take. I'm in his will. And when he's tried me, I'm gonna come forth as gold. Where did that come from? I was just complaining about how he ripped my heart out. Now I put my hope back in him, and look how he's speaking to me now. He's given me a victorious faith. Faith that glorifies him because without faith, it's impossible to please God for they that come to him must believe that he is and that he's a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. I know that my redeemer lives and he shall stand in the latter day upon the earth. And though worms destroy this skin, come after this skin and destroy my body, yet in my flesh shall I see God. He's gonna resurrect me. My hope is a lively hope, a living hope. I didn't hope in Buddha, Mohammed, or Confucius. I put my hope, my confident expectations for good in Jesus Christ to be absent the bodies to be present with the Lord. Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believes in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live. Believest thou this? Yeah. Believe this. Take it to the bank. David said, I'll be satisfied when I wake with thy likeness. I'm not satisfied now. I can't get no satisfaction, but I will be satisfied when I wake in your likeness. That's my hope. My confident expectation is a purifying hope. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It does not yet appear what we shall be. We know that when he appears, we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is. Right? And he that has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. As the hope of the rapture, the hope of Jesus come from the hope of Jesus transforming this old wretched body of mind, this corruption into it corruption, this mortal into immortality. Oh death, where is thy sting? Oh grave, where is thy victory? Been swallowed up. Destroy this body, in three days I'll raise it up. A confidence. You can't hope in men. You can't hope in wealth. You can't hope in health. You can't hope in self. You cannot hope in yourself. Yourself, you, is gonna reach obstacles, adversity, something so much bigger than your ability to solve or fix or remove. No matter how strong you think you are as a Christian, you're fighting against spirit and principalities of the air. The closer you get to Jesus, the closer you wanna serve him, the greater the adversity, the greater the fight, the greater the pushback against you. If you're a lukewarm Christian, you'll be left alone. You'll be lukewarm. And Jesus will be on the outside of your life knocking on the door saying, why'd you kick me out? Because Lord, I love Sodom and Gomorrah, because I love the world. I'd like to live on the fence. I just want the eternal life. I just want the fire insurance, but I don't like the suffering. I don't like the cross. I want the crown without the cross. And you'll fail. You'll fail in a greater measure, a greater way than a person that faces adversity and seemingly loses everything. I say seemingly because you really haven't. The apostle Paul, he says in second Corinthians one verse eight, I would not brethren have you ignorant of our trouble which came at us in Asia when he's going to Asia Minor, that of Ephesus, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength. How strong are you? How strong is the apostle Paul? How much pressure have you faced? Pressed? Pressed. Remember Jesus said, you will have tribulation. That's that pressure. Remember Jesus was in the olive press, which is Gethsemane, and he's sweating as it were great drops of blood. The Christian life doesn't mean you don't face anxiety, you don't face adversity, you don't face the pressure. It's that when you're in that condition, you find the secret place, God's peace that surpasses all understanding. He's your peace. He's your hope. That we were pressed out of measure above strength insomuch that we despaired even of life. So let's talk about depression. Depression is across the board. We all get depressed. We all have circumstances that push us to our limit, where we might despair of life, where we might even be suicidal. We don't wanna live anymore. Job said that he rejoiced more in the his death day than his birthday. Wished he'd had never been born. You ever been like that? He says that we despaired even of life. This is the mighty apostle Paul, and the we, there was more than just him there. But we had this sentence of death in ourselves. So what God's doing? God's saying, crucify the flesh, mortify the flesh, kill the flesh, don't trust in the flesh. We have this sentence of death in ourselves. The job's too big. I can't live the Christian life in and of myself. I can't depend upon myself. If I try to depend upon myself, then I'm like Rocky. I'm like Peter. I'm gonna deny that I know him on three different occasions. I don't even know the man. And Jesus looks over at him. It's not that I told you so look. It's that look of love of compassion. Peter, I'm gonna restore you. I haven't given up on you. Don't give up on me, Peter. Don't go back to fishing. Don't quit. It's always too soon to quit, Peter. I know what I'm doing with you. I'm gonna restore you. And when you're converted, strengthen the brethren. I know Satan wants to destroy you. I know he wants to beat you to an inch of your life, but I'm praying for you Peter. I'm praying for you. I ever lived to make intercession for you. Jesus is praying for you. He's praying for you as you go through those trials, as you're despairing of life. But we have this sentence of death in ourselves that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raises the dead. Who delivered, now notice the tense here. Past tense, present tense, future tense. Hope is a confident expectation for good. Verse 10 of second Corinthians one. Who delivered us from so great a death and does deliver in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us? Why? Because we're our God is a God of hope, God of peace, God of joy, God of love. He's not gonna discard us. In first Corinthians 10 verse 13, Paul says, there's no temptation that has taken you but such is common to man. We all go through these trials, all of us, one way or another. You you don't have the market cornered. You don't have a monopoly on trials. Unbelievers go through just as severe trials as you and I do as believers. Jesus is there with us in the fire. Jesus is there with us in the boat and the storms of life to get us through these storms of life. There's no temptation testing that's taken you, but such as is common to man. But God is faithful who will not tempt you or test you above which that which you were able. So then your friends come, the miserable comforters of Job and say, hey, quit worrying about it. God's not gonna tempt you above that which you're able. Don't worry about it. You'll he he's not gonna put you through something that breaks you. God is faithful. He won't tempt you above that which you're able. But will with the temptation make a way of escape. I like the escape. Right? I wanna escape. I wanna get out of here. I don't wanna go through the valley of the shadow of death. Not even with Jesus there with me, man. I wanna be escaped. I wanna be delivered from the trial, from the problem. But then he goes on to say, that you may be able to bear it. What's that? That means you reached the end of yourself. That means you couldn't trust in yourself. That means that trial that he gave you brought you to the end of yourself. He's faithful. He won't tempt you above which that you are able, but will with the temptation give you a way of escape. What's the way of escape in that trial? Jesus. He's there with me. He's my only escape. The only way I can bear it, the only way I can keep going is Jesus. Put my hope, my faith, my trust in him every moment of every day till we get through it. And then you know what happens? That cast sheep, that sheep that was there bleeding, crying out, when that sheep is reunited with the shepherd, that's the sheep that's on the heels of the shepherd, never to stray again. So broken, so hurting, and yet so loved, and wanting to express the rest of his life, how very thankful he is to the shepherd that would rescue him, that would deliver him from such a great body of death. Verse 13. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. The God of hope will continuously fill us with all joy and peace as we continue to believe. The 12 spies that Moses sent out, Caleb and Joshua came back with a believing report. I was finishing up Band of Brothers this week. Gotta binge on something. Right? And one of the things, not just lieutenant Ronald Spears and how brave he is, you know, telling the one guy, you gotta die, but Danny from the Blue Bloods is in that that series, and Danny tells this guy, come with me, we gotta get you out of here. They're at Bastogne and it's bomb bombing everywhere and a guy was losing his mind and fear, and Danny's commentary was I gotta get him out of here lest it permeates the rest of the guys. That kind of fear can spread. Well, that's what happened with the 10 unbelieving spies. Their fear, their unbelief was a poison that permeated the hearts of the people. Caleb and Joshua had to wait forty years to go in and take the land. Caleb and Joshua, they hoped in God. They believed in the God of hope. They didn't care how big the giants were. They didn't care what the enemy had. If they had God, they had everything. But the 10 unbelievers, the 10 unbelievers, they factored, they measured the the challenge with themselves. You can't do it in and of yourself. Since God's for you, who can be against you? We're more than conquerors through him that loved us. We're always triumphing in him. He's abounding in hope through the power of the holy spirit, the comforter of the holy spirit sent unto us. Only God can fill the emptiness in our lives. What are your hopes? What are your dreams? Who are you hoping in? You hoping in your boyfriend? Hoping in your girlfriend? Are you being injected with the world's hopium for the next politicians the world presents to you. Are you taking the hopium? You being injected with the hopium? The Lord is my portion saith my soul, therefore will I hope in him. The God of hope, looking for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of the great God of hope, our savior Jesus Christ. There's nothing hopeless in the Christian life. The God of hope will never give up on you. He will never give up on me. Don't ever ever ever give up on him. Don't ever give up on Jesus, the God of hope, that blessed hope. Keep looking up for that blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and savior. Why? No matter how dark, no matter how difficult it is here, Jesus concerning you and I, he's just getting started. Just getting started. The best truly is yet to come. You know about that church lady that went to all these church potlucks. Right? And she said that she wanted to be buried in her casket with a fork in her hand. Why? Because every church potluck she went to, they always reminded them, save your fork, the best is yet to come. The dessert. Right? Save your fork. Right? It's not your best life now, Joel. The best is yet to come. Hope is a confident expectation for good. This earth is not our home. Our citizenship is in heaven. These pretenders, they're not leaders. We're looking for the king of kings and lord of lords, Jesus. He's the one gonna protect our grandkids, our kids. He's the one that gonna make things right and we're gonna worship him. We're gonna lift our hearts in song for all all eternity, worshiping our savior, our god of hope. Let's pray. Father, thank you. Thank you for your love, Lord. Thank you for the truth that is ours as we discover you, Lord, as we get to know you. Lord, thank you this morning no matter how much the propaganda outside, the media outside, the the news stations try to steal this moment that we have right now, Lord. We we're secure. We're in the pocket. We're we're right where we're supposed to be. Our eyes on you. Lord, don't let the foxes try to spoil the vineyard when we leave here. Don't let the demons steal what we've experienced on the mountaintop with you this morning. Lord, help us to walk the Christian life. Help us to go out into the world with all the junk and all the stuff, but let our mind be stayed on thee. Keep us in your perfect peace Lord because we trust in thee. Help us to exercise that discipline, that habit of life of taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Every high thing, every imagination high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ and bring it into every thought into captivity. That you're on the throne, that you're sovereign, that you're in control. They can't scare me. They can't steal my joy. I don't care how much money Bill has or Claus or any of them Lord. You're almighty sovereign. You're king of kings. You're lord of lords. The devil's just a fallen angel. He's not God. And lord as your plan plays out, as we see your prophetic plan play out, help us help us lord to remind ourselves lord, everything's happening according to your plan. The stage is set for the soon return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Lord you're coming. You're coming soon. Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus. And while your heads are bowed, your eyes are closed as you continue to pray, if there's anybody here this morning, you're naked, you're undone, you're still in your sins, your fig leaves won't won't hide your nakedness. You need to be clothed with coats of skins, clothes of of righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. The blood of Jesus needs to wash and cleanse you of all unrighteousness. The righteousness that can only come from him, Christ your righteousness. Anyone here this morning, you're coming by faith. You're coming according to God's grace. You're coming according to his mercies. He's forgiven you of of your sins. You're coming in humility, turning from your sin, crying out to God, God be merciful to me a sinner. Anyone here this morning? You want eternal life? You wanna receive the gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ this morning? Just lift your hand up. We wanna lead you in prayer. Anyone here this morning? Lord bless you there. Anybody else? The bible says there's rejoicing in heaven among the angels when just one sinner repents. There's a party in heaven right now and God has blessed us to to see the Lord by his spirit, draw a loved one unto himself. And so pray along these lines. Dear gracious heavenly father, thank you for sending your son Jesus to die for me. I confess to you that I've sinned, that I'm undone, and I need you, Lord. Please come into my heart and life and transform and change me, make me new. Give me the power of your spirit to live the Christian life. Open your word unto me. Teach me to pray. Give me the capacity to love, wash me, and cleanse me of all my guilt, of all my shame, of all my sins. Thank you, Lord, that my name is written in the lamb's book of life. Thank you that before the founding of the earth that Jesus is a lamb slain before the foundation of the earth, and Lord, you knew me. Before I was even formed to my mother's womb, you knew me. Thank you, Lord, that I belong, that I'm the bride of Christ. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen.
About This Podcast
Calvary Chapel Bremerton - Sunday Service
Listen to Rick Beaudry, Pastor of Calvary Chapel Bremerton, teach the Word of God cover to cover, chapter by chapter, and verse by verse. Be edified and built up in your faith with solid Bible teaching. New episodes on Mondays in the Pacific Standard Timezone.
