Northside Church - Sydney
Living Hope: Week 2 – Living In Hope (PM)
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. It's Mother's Day, Mother's Day, which is pretty cool and I remember a scene of a mother in the movie Love Actually, which as I said this morning is not to be confused with the movie that was a love story between two mathematicians called Love Actually. I come on, a bit away for three weeks, he wouldn't have had one dad joke in the whole time. Come on, he's like, "I'm back, I'm back, it's cool." Thanks guys. But on a serious note, it was this mother looking after her kids, the character with Emma Thompson, I don't know if you've seen the movie, but she was a mom just trying to get by looking after her kids and she had a heart set on this particular necklace that she thought her husband was going to buy and as she would always go check in, she saw it there in the house and his Christmas approach, closer and closer, got to that day and she even saw the box wrap there underneath the Christmas tree and wanted to open it and shake it and I'll never forget the scene as she opened it up and it wasn't the necklace and he'd intended it for someone else and as she opened it up it was to a CD by Joni Mitchell and she takes the CD and she heads into another room and no words are spoken except almost the harrowing lyrics of this once buoyant and naive and young song by Joni Mitchell, the years of cigarette smoking and you could almost hear the wrinkles in a voice as she sang these lyrics, rose and flows of angel hair and ice cream castles in the air and feather canyons everywhere I've looked at clouds that way, but now they only block the sun, they rain and they snow on everyone, so many things I would have done, but clouds got in my way and she says, I've looked at life from both sides now, from wind and lose and still somehow, it's life solutions I recall, I really don't know life at all. We underestimate the impact, the power, the formative power that our believed in futures have on our present, why is it that a woman that had hoped for something instantly as a necklace, of course it represented so much more than that, when it didn't come true for her, was so much more than just feeling down or sad she was totally crushed, and that is because when the things that we hope in, there's something, well there's someone, let us down, we're not just sad, we're crushed, why because we fragile human beings are in extricably and irreducibly, hope-based creatures, wouldn't you agree? We're hope-based creatures, and maybe that's why Peter talked about the new birth, about the way that the Holy Spirit comes into the very centre of our life, the way that we're born again, really weird way for him to talk about it, but he talks about it as a living hope, and we're going to read from 1 Peter 1 verses 3 onwards tonight, where he says, "Praise me to God, to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy, he has given us a new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade, it's kept in heaven for you, for you who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time, and it's in this that you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all kinds of trials, and these have come so that your faith, which is of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by the fire may be proved genuine, and may result in praise, glory and honour when Jesus Christ is revealed, though you've not seen him, you love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Weird way to talk about the new birth, the way that we are born again, Peter talks about it as hope, in his great mercy, new birth into a living hope, and it shows us, first of all tonight, the necessity of hope. We're hope-based creatures, and so he goes on to say, you know, why, why does he bring up this turn, and the answer is in verses 5 and 6, he's writing to a people that are suffering, he's writing to people that have gone through all sorts of trials, he's saying, no, you might have to suffer many trials at the moment, some are going through persecution, some are being killed, some are being put down because of their faith in Jesus Christ, this is the early church, and the reason that hope comes up is because there's no way, come on, we know what's common sense, there's no way to get through suffering and trials in life unless you have hope. And hope means this, that human beings are absolutely shaped by their understanding of the future. What do you mean Sam? Look, I think I've used this before, late last year I was reading the new idea, and at the supermarket, at the end of the aisle when there's a big long line and the shopping's done and I've got nothing else to read, I was reading the new idea, and so I was reading the new idea at Doubleworths, and it was talking about Chappelle Corby who was the Australian woman that had a bit of funny stuff in a bodyboard bag, and she got arrested in Bali, and so now she's spending 20 years in Bali in a jail sentence there, and it said that Chappelle was now pleading her innocence or her release from jail on the basis of insanity, and it's just been tragic, we've all seen her on the news, right? How we've seen her just deteriorate over these years is really as she's lost hope. And what we've seen in Chappelle's case, that if you believe you've got no future, and if you're believing that what you were going through is never going to end, then it's going to destroy you from the very inside out. Now here's the funny thing I was thinking, how is it that Chappelle, and then the Apostle Paul on the other hand, the Apostle Paul is probably in a cell that's just as grody and just as cockroach infested and just as disgusting and just as without food and just as dark and just as cold and just as no way out as Chappelle would see, how is it that Paul from that same cell can say I have found the secret of contentment? And on the other hand Chappelle, all these years later, is pleading insanity because Paul had hope. And what it shows us is the only prison that can ever capture your soul is not the big metal bars of a rusted out barley jail, but it's the bars of hopelessness. We are hope-based creatures, guys. And that's the only prison that can trap us. So what is this hope? What is this living hope that he's talking about? It's in a short conviction of the triumph of God. That's nosebleed theology, Sam. You're getting straight back into it. It's sounding really good. Let me put it this way. I was a couple of years back watching the Bledger's Low Cup. It's winter time as I've now discovered. A great chance to bring the jackets out and rugby season has started. And the event on every Australian calendar is the Bledger's Low Cup. My mates had come around to watch the Bledger's Low Cup and it was a tight match. It was as tight as their fish's backside, if you know what I mean? It was real tight. And these guys are screaming and they're jumping up and down and they're yelling at the ref and they're worried about every decision and it's neck and neck and they're biting their fingernails and meanwhile I'm sitting calmly just sipping my drink. How could that be? Of course, yes. I've got nerves of steel and I'm just so cool under pressure. But part of the, look, there's a words HD recorder. Mean anything to you guys. You see, it was a replay. It was a replay and I knew the score. I had an assured conviction of the triumph of the wallabies. And could you see how my believed in future had an impact on the way I lived my present? I was calm in the midst of the trials. I was calm in the midst of the ups and downs and the ebbs and flows. It's because I knew the score. What the Bible tells us? This is an old school, HD recorder. What this tells us, we know that come on Christians, we know the score. We have an assured conviction of the triumph. We know we win. I don't mean to ruin the last page. But if you're just new to the faith and that sort of stuff, we win. We win. We're victorious. Okay. We have an assured conviction of the triumph of God, guys. We know the score. But here's the problem. We keep forgetting it. We keep forgetting it. We can start biting nails and we get anxious and we're getting worried and we place our hopes on things at a finite and we forget that we know the score. And here's the funny thing. If you place your hopes on anything that is finite, but we place your hopes on anything that is going to fade away, then what is suffering other than the removal of those things? If something has become your ultimate hope and that's removed from you, then you begin to suffer. And so that's the question now. I've got to ask you guys to analyze. What is your hope? What is your living hope? What are you placing your hope in? Look, unless you have a spiritual infinite reference point, something in this world to pull you out, sort of like a water skier. Hayden water skis, you should know this. A water skier can't water scan unless he grabs onto a rope that's fixed to a point that pulls them out of the water, unless you are fixed to a point that's going to pull you out of waters that you would otherwise drown in. Unless you have that spiritual reference point beyond this life, then you're only going to drown in your own anxieties, your own worries, your own nail biting, your own ups and downs of life. That's the necessity of hope. We're hope-based creatures. You're with me. The necessity to hope. Then it goes on to talk about the paradox of hope. You see, there's an amazing picture of the Christian life here. And I'm sure we've taught this before, but it's too good to let past verses 5 and verses 6 and 7. Peter says, "In this you greatly..." Remember he's talking to people that are suffering here. He says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though, now for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials." You see, when you dig into the grammar of this, you see, there's an incredible paradox. Paradox means it sort of doesn't make sense. Looking up in the dictionary, on your computer, whatever, the paradox of hope. You see, what he's saying is, first there's a present tense that you're living now, though you're having to suffer now in all sorts of trials. You're suffering now. And then he says, "You're also in this you greatly rejoice." So suffering present tense, rejoicing present tense, this doesn't make sense. It sounds like he's contradicting himself. You're saying you're greatly rejoiced, but at the same time you're crying out and pain and agony. It's all present tense. Notice that he's not saying at the moment you have sorrow, and then at some point later on you're going to have joy. Or he doesn't say the other way around that you've got joy now, and then there's going to be sorrow. Nor does he say, "You're suffering real bad now, but you're just hanging in there because there's something better." He's saying something radical here, guys. Don't miss this tonight. He's saying, what he's saying? Present tense, suffering, present tense, rejoicing. What he's saying is that you're filled with great rejoicing at the same time that you're suffering. This is crazy. This is off the charts for anyone normal. This doesn't make sense. Maybe you're asking it now. Many people ask, "How can you have a living hope when the things that you get hope for and are being taken away from you? How can you have that? How can you have suffering and how can you be rejoicing at the same time?" That's silly. It's ridiculous. Part of the reason is for many people is because hope is in your circumstances. Hope's in your circumstances. For some people it's hope's in your career. Hope's in your job. Hope's in your sense of financial security for some people, hopes in your family. For some people, hope is in the finite things. There's no such thing as when hope is in these sorts of things. There's no such thing as the joy outside of the circumstances because your joy is only a result of the circumstances. If the job's going well, then you're joyful. If the job's going bad, then you're in sorrow. But here's a funny thing. It's also off the charts for most Christians this verse. Verse again, let me read it again. It says, "In this you greatly rejoice, though for a little while you may have to suffer grief in all sorts of trials." Some Christians say, "Come on." I thought Christianity was a survivor idol. I thought, "I just got to believe in the Lord and He's going to bless me and it's going to be fine and it's just going to be chipper and it's going to be sweet. And if I believe in Jesus, He's such a powerful God that things have got to be going right for me." And then we, of course, we hear the echoes of our Savior Himself who says, "Hey, in this world, you're going to have trouble." But He says, "Cheer up. I've overcome the world." You know what that is? That's an assured confidence in the triumph of God. That's because Jesus knows the score. He knows that there's an ultimate hope and an ultimate future that there is a hope outside of circumstances. And when you think about that, look at who we're talking about here. How did Jesus go on handle the cross? He gets so many in the darkest moment of his life. When he says, "Father, if for be your will, take this cup from me and He hears no answer." As He's heading to the cross, He says, "This is God's will for my life, but I'm just praising Jesus. I'm praising God." He can't praise Jesus. Jesus can't praise Jesus. He's a bit too much. I'm just praising God. It's cool. You think the disciples as there, maybe the hope in their own circumstances is stretched out arm from arm bleeding to death. They take it out of this place. It's bleeding to death. You think they're going, "There's our Lord and Savior, but we're just praising God." No, look, come on. There was tears. There was agony. There was desperation. Rejoicing, suffering. The Christian life is not a survivor, immunity idol. We're going to have trouble in this world. But look, guys, here's a good news tonight. Here's what the living hope does. This is what the new birth does. It sets the Christian apart from every other person in the world. The living hope drastically changes the relationship between joy and sorrow in your life. It changes the way that they interact with each other. It changes the way that it is with every other person's life, because in every other person's life, every other person that doesn't have this ultimate hope, joy and sorrow, eat each other up. You can't have both. You can't have the job going absolutely down the tubes. Enjoy it at the same time. You can't have joy and be absolutely in grief at the same time. They eat each other up except for the paradox of hope in the Christian life. That's what we're saying, apart from anything else, the Christian life, joy and sorrow, eat each other up. So a living hope, since it's not based on your circumstances, here's what it means, since the living hope's not based on your circumstances, when all things go to junk in your life. People that really get it, people that understand it, people that are getting it by the power of God's Holy Spirit in your life, they're still finding a way to praise God. It oozes out of them. You know what happens then? They look radically different. And people start looking around and saying, "How is it that that person is going through that trial in their life? How is it that they can have a genuine joy and happiness in their life?" And isn't it funny that Peter, a little bit later on, he says in chapter three of the same letter to this church, "What does he say? Always be prepared in season and out of season for the reason for the hope that you have." Christians look radically different in the midst of trials and grief and suffering because they have an ultimate hope. Joy and sorrow aren't eating each other up. They're both one and the same at the same time. In fact, the sorrow drives you into the joy. In the deepest moments I know in my life, when I've lost loved ones, then the times of greatest grief came tears of praise and worship and love for God because in the deepest and darkest moments of my life, I had a hope. I had a real presence of a God who would ultimately triumph. You can have both if you believe in Jesus Christ and so that's how we stay firm in the faith. That's what Peter said. The paradox of hope, it doesn't make sense to anyone else. It's off the map, everyone else. So finally there's an experience. He says there's a promise of an experience of hope. I was watching a movie on the way back in the plane called "Hereafter." He might have seen it with Matt Damon and he was sort of a out-of-work psychic because he had just been so drained by the pain of the grief of people that would come to him desperately seeking an answer for where the most loved people in their lives were. And so this movie follows these two people that are desperately seeking out Matt Damon for a reading and somehow getting in touch with a loved one that was on the other side. And this young kid who'd lost his twin brother comes up to Matt Damon and he does a reading. I'm talking about movies here. I'm not getting theological, so I don't write any of this sort of stuff down. Okay, that's a whole another sermon. And this kid says to Matt Damon, he says, "Where's my brother gone?" And after all these years of having this contact with his spiritual life, he says, "I don't know." And guys, isn't that the haunting echo of the 80% of this country, this nation that we're so desperate for, that don't have a faith in God, that don't have an ultimate hope? And you know, here's the funny thing, even those that don't say they don't believe in God, they don't dare draw out to the nth degree the implications of not believing in a God that has been raised from the dead. Because even the atheist, even the person, even the secularist, person who wants to believe that we're just all heading for some void, that we're heading for the ground, that we're heading for an excursion with worms once we die. Even that post, they don't, they don't dare admit to the very deepest parts of their soul what that means for them. It's an implication, they just don't want to draw out because we are hope-based creatures. There's got to be something more to this. And the haunting words of "I don't know" is what gets so many people in this world. It's what they grapple with throughout their life. And that's why they continue to unseat these medians and psychics for comfort for those that they've lost. Question is for us tonight, how do we know what, if we're in a mad statement situation, how do we know what happens after death? It says, in his great mercy, he's given us a new birth, into a living hope. Here's how it happens through the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now what's really interesting while I was in America the moment, I don't know if you heard the news over here in Australia, we're a small town compared to the US, but this guy bin Laden got killed while I was overseas. And he's been a bad guy as the head of Al Qaeda, a terrorist organization around the world. And what was really sort of almost daunting for me, it sort of shocked me, was the way that they talked about his followers as his disciples. And they said even though bin Laden is dead, his disciples will continue to follow his ideology. And so everyone was starting to get worried about what is going to happen now as the way his disciples follow his ideology. And look, maybe part of his ideology will continue on and I hear this word and I think, how are you any different? And then I thought, come on Sam, we're totally different. We don't worship an ideology. We don't follow a concept. We don't sing praises here to some abstract thought, to a concept, to a poster here. We sing praises to, we worship, we follow where the disciples of the risen Christ, of the resurrected Christ. And that is great news for us, because we want to answer the question, what happens after life, after death? There was a bunch of 12 guys that could not believe their eyes when this Lord and Savior that was hanging from the tree comes back and hangs out with them for 40 days. Remember Acts chapter 1, hangs out with them, teaching them about the nature of the kingdom in bodily form. Peter put his fingers in the holes, they ate with him. He was eating fish. He's not like some sort of Mattel doll that sort of goes in and comes out the other way. It was a resurrected Jesus. It was not some, and that is one of the most abstract out of this world concepts that you could ever wrap your head around is when it says that he is interceding for us at the right hand of the Father, it is a bodily Jesus Christ. We do not worship an ideology in this church. We don't follow an ideology or a concept in this church. We follow the risen Christ. And so whenever someone says what happens when we die, we say we know. We know exactly what happens. There is a life after this death. It's a bodily life. It's going to be the topic we might touch on as we continue to go through this series, but it is mind-blowing stuff. And so here's the irony. When I see on CNN, as people talked, asked questions, interviewed people about New Yorkers, about whether the death of Bin Laden has bought them any hope, they said, well, no, not really. What's the death of this one man going to do? You know, it's there and there that I realized that even though this guy might be dead, there's still going to be injustice. There's still going to be terror. There's still going to be darkness in this world. And I think Paul got it so right in Romans 8, didn't he? Listen to what he says, verse 22, "We know that the whole creation has been growing, a growing, groaning, sorry, is in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time, not only so, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, grown inwardly, as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, that includes you two girls, the redemption of our bodies." Groaning like childbirth. There continue these labor pains that the entire creation is going through. There's this anticipation, this hope like a mother giving birth. What it's saying is that we will never get over this pains and the injustice of this world. Look, what's Paul talking about here? Until that day, the ultimate day, what's he talking? He's talking about the ultimate Mother's Day. See, what's Mother's Day? Mother's Day is remembering that time for anyone that's been a mother in this place and they've been through the pains of childbirth and of labor. And only moms in a way, after I've interviewed a few, could ever fully understand and anticipate the wonderful one. I love the imagery here that when you move to that wonderful moment, the child that you've been longing for and expecting is finally in your arms, every bit of pain, every bit of hurt gets totally swallowed up in the joy. What Paul is saying is there will come a day, Christians. There will come a day non-Christians. There will come a day, hopeless New Yorker, who can find no sense of satisfaction for what has been done to you. There will come a day in which all these pains like childbirth will be swallowed up in the joy of heaven coming down to earth. Restoration, no more fears, no more tears, no more pain, the way that revelation talks about it. That's our hope. That's our hope as Christians, as Christians. So the real question comes up for us tonight is how do we deal with that? In light of that, how do you deal with that? How do you deal with death? How are you dealing with suffering? Are you looking any different from the rest of the world? If you're not, if you're looking at yourself going, "I'm not, I don't know. I'm not sure." You know, it's because I think it's because a lot of people say, "Hey, I believe this stuff. I believe what the people says. Yep, new birth, living hope, got it. Yep, cool." We understand the whole stuff about our ultimate future, but what about Paul? Different guy, different place, different book of the Bible. He's talking to the Ephesians in chapter 1, how he prays it. They might understand a knowledge that surpasses all understanding, a knowledge that's beyond all knowledge. I'm thinking, contradicting yourself a bit there, Paul. Come on, what are you talking about? Why would Paul pray that the Ephesians would have more of an understanding or more of an experience when he says they already fully have that in Jesus Christ? It's because it's one thing to believe in doctrines in the Bible. It's one thing to believe in the doctrine of hope. It's one thing to believe in the cognitive belief of it all, but it's the experience that changes you. It's one thing to know that there's a living hope, but it's another thing to experience. It's like this. Imagine you inherited all of Bill Gates's money, and you had billions and billions of dollars there in the bank. One night you go out, and you've had a nice dinner out in town, but it's dark, and it's rainy, and then the car breaks down. All you've got to do is catch a cab. You reach for your wallet, and you realize that it's gone. There's no ATM card. You walk up to the machine, and there is billions of dollars behind that thing, but you don't have the card to access it. For that moment, for that moment in time, you're as lonely and as cold and as desolate as if you never had the inheritance in the first place. You can't experience it. You're not experiencing it. What the Bible's trying to say to us here is that we've got an inheritance that makes Bill Gates look like a chump. It's never going to perish. It's never going to spoil. It's never going to fade. It's never going to be outdone by Apple. Our challenge, guys, is that it's always like a lost ATM card. We don't draw on the inheritance that we already have in Jesus Christ. We've been talking about that. The question is, how do we begin to activate it? One of the ways you don't do it is you don't say, "Lord, bring it on me." Just give me the experience. You don't do that. Remember, you don't go after God for the experience. You go after God for God. But answers in verse 8, he says, "Though you've not seen him, you'd love him, and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy." Joy, unspeakable, joy, glory. What he's saying is it's possible to get this, but we don't live it out. We don't activate it in our lives well. And here's how you do it. You don't look at the abstract. You don't get caught up in the doctrine you look at him. You look at Jesus. What do you mean by that? Look, you look at how Jesus dealt with the suffering. If you want to deal with suffering, if you say, "Lord, help me be strong." "Lord, show me what your mansion is like. Show me what my eternal place in heaven is like." Think of Jesus as suffering. Think about what he did when he went to the cross. He went through hell. How? Hebrews 12, 2 says, "For the joy set before him, he endured the cross." There was something more precious. There was something more wonderful. There was something so sweet. There was something so great that in the midst of the ultimate pain and suffering, I'm not talking just about the physical pain, but I'm talking about the pain and the suffering of being seared from the most perfect relationship that has ever existed in the universe, the Father and the Son. In the midst of that pain, he was still able to endure that. Now, how could he do it? How did he do that? Was it because he wanted this, this glorious crown, get put up on a pedal? No, he already had that. He was already equal with God. Why would he come down to earth? And most of the time, hang out here. How could it be? It's could he hear Jesus had a living hope. Isaiah 53 says, "By his knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many, and he will bear their iniquities." You know what the result of his suffering was? You know what he got for his suffering? Us. He got you. And as he went through that pain, you were his living hope. You were the thing that he set before him in his mind's eye as he was heading to the cross, bloodied and beaten and broken in the midst of pain and suffering you. And I'm not just talking about you, Krishna. I'm talking about whoever is listening here and wondering about who this Jesus guy or what he is on about. It's you that he was so excited about to have his arms around and to shower with delight one day when he gets to meet your face to face and to say, "Come by precious, wonderful child." You. You're his living hope. And here's what's happening. When you understand that you are his living hope, then you can make Jesus your living hope. When you understand that that's what it is. When you personalize that, when you look at him and you just love him and adore him, you're going to have a living hope. And a living hope is not mentioned. It's not glory. It's not wondrous wealth. It's not just ensuring that you're going to get through the next year. The living hope is him, the shepherd, the lover, the brother, the prince, the king, the perfect son at the end of time, arms open ready to treasure you and say, "I love you." You know, all the wealth that you've been chasing after, he's just going to lavish upon you. All the honor you've been a hope and you might get in life, he's just going to pour a bit of that on you too. All of the hope that you've been after, you're going to realize that it's been worth it and that you know and that you've had an assured conviction of the triumph of God. It's just going to come down on you in a way that you could just not going to be able to say. So knowing that you're his living hope will be your living hope and nothing else. And so when you see him and you love him, when you experience that, that's what that's what begins to give you, that living hope. You don't focus on the crazy stuff, you know. Well, I don't know, is it? I'm hoping, I'm praying, I'm hoping there's Holy Spirit's doing something here and it just begins to move even just a millimeter on your seat tonight about what that means. Every time I begin to dwell and think about, "Man, it's an experience." And the way that Peter writes, he assumes that everyone can do this, so experience that through the power of his Holy Spirit, a deposit, a down payment, a little sneak peek, a trailer, yet to be classified by the office and film, picture, picture, or whatever, Maureen would be able to help me out with what that means. But you just get in a preview, guys, tonight, with the experience of what it is, to finally come to realize that you have an ultimate, personal, resurrected, bodily, put the fingers in the holes, hope in Jesus Christ tonight. Is that true for you? What is your hope? Your circumstances or is it him? Guys, look, I'm sure many of us, even though a few of us are a bit younger here, I know some of the stories, I know particularly with some of the older folks in the congregation here tonight, I know some of the stories, some of us have looked at life from both sides now, from up and down, from when and lose, from give and from take. My question you guys tonight is, must it always be life solutions that we recall? Because if so, then you like Joni, Joni Mitchell, that is, you really don't know life at all. I mean, you don't know the life that we've been talking about tonight, the ultimate life, the new birth, given to you in his great mercy, new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of his son, Jesus Christ. That's the life that we need to be talking about. Joni is only ever talking two-dimensional, up, down, left, right. The Christian life is three-dimensional. There's a hope that we head towards. There is a hope that even though the son doesn't know when the father's going to send him back down here, there is the good news is that there is a hope coming for you if you don't get to him first. That's the hope that we have in Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, he's given us a new birth into a living hope. Some of our prayer for you guys tonight is that may you understand its necessity, well, hope-based creatures, may you understand the paradox, the craziness of us, that you can experience joy in the midst of your suffering this week if you're going through tough times. That's the great news that we have in Jesus. My prayer for you guys, through his Holy Spirit, may you experience it, may you dwell upon him, the one who set you as his living hope, Jesus Christ. If you don't know him tonight, please don't walk out of here with at least asking some questions or at least praying a prayer to receive something more finite and steadfast and unshakeable than you've ever experienced in any circumstance within your life, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Father, I just want to lift those up to tonight that are going through trials and many kinds that are going through grief, that are going through suffering. Lord, it's just been something you've been laying on my heart and Father, I pray that you give them comfort, Lord. Father, I pray for fresh vision in each and every one of our lives, refocus on the ultimate hope in that assured triumph that we have through your Son, Jesus Christ, the way that he overcame death. Lord, in the ups and downs of life, in the smallness of our lives, Father, we can get so caught in the rat race of this life and the things that are in and around us, and Lord, I just pray for a supernatural moment as we move into this ministry time tonight that we might be lifted out of this, that we might be lifted ever upward. Our gaze to you, Father God, at our Lord Jesus Christ who intercedes for us, right now as we pray this prayer at your right hand side, Father, a living Jesus Christ, a living Savior, not an ideology, and may we rejoice in that Father in the midst of the many trials that each and every one of us face in every day, but out of that, Father God, may we as a church, because we're different, because we do have a hope. May we as a church this week continue to ooze hope into the cracks of the darkness and the brokenness and the injustice and the unfairness of this world. May we be prepared in season and out of season in any moment of the day, Father, to give a reason for the hope, the living hope that we have in your Son, Jesus Christ, And in whose name we pray right now, amen.