Inland Empire: Riverside
Hope Full - Audio
I hope you're excited to be here this morning and I hope that perhaps you had a rough morning and challenging to get here or whatever that now that you're here and singing a few songs that you have been encouraged by the Spirit of God and by the Spirit of Fellowship, the Spirit of Family, amen, and certainly we want to as Steve welcomed you in to the end of the Empire of Church of Christ, it's certainly I just think to honor to have you here, those of you that are visiting and as always the membership, we love you guys, it's just a great opportunity to be able to come and worship with you every Sunday morning and most Tuesday nights when we worship here together, it's a blessing from God and so we're really thankful that everyone is here and we hope that today we'll meet your needs spiritually, we'll challenge you, we'll encourage you, inspire you, everything that the Bible is meant to do, we hope that takes place this morning and I know that it's up to us as preachers to do the best job we can to tell the truth and to preach the truth and it's up to you as Christians, as people of God to really be able to make decisions based on that and have your heart in a good place so that when the Word of God makes its way in there it finds fertile ground, amen? So it's great to have everyone here this morning. The hunting Larry and Elmer got lost in the woods, trying to reassure his friend Larry said, "Don't worry, all we have to do is shoot in the air three times, stay where we are and someone will find us." When they shot in the air three times that no one came after a while, they tried again, still, no response. When they decided to try once more, Elmer said, "I hope it works this time, we're down to our last three arrows," and if you don't get it, you really need to start paying attention already in the service today, amen? Some of you still waiting for the punchline? I do want you know that your mother and God loves you, amen? We see Larry and Elmer were putting their hope in the advice of others even though they didn't really understand that that advice didn't apply to shooting arrows. See, it's the noise of the gun that people around can hear and then they can come and find you. Incredibly most of you aren't even offended that I explained it to you, that's brilliant. But you know, people in difficult circumstances often do rely on the advice of friends and sometimes neighbors or family members or so-called experts and just like Larry and Elmer, they'll put their place or their trust and their hope if you will in the wisdom and experience of those whom they trust. And I think sometimes that's a very good idea to be able to do that. I think that other times it can be scary and I know from my own personal experience years ago growing up, going to church and in my many, many years of being a Christian and being a minister and people that, you know, in this church we really try to study the Bible with people. We feel like studying the Bible is really where the answers lie. We've been around long enough to know that so many different churches have so many different theologies and so many different examples and ideas and concepts that if we don't just look at the Bible then it just becomes your opinion versus my opinion or what I feel strongly emotionally about and what you feel. And so we just try to say, well, let's study the Bible. You know, I've literally had people talk to me before and get frustrated with me because they keep asking me, well, what's your church's tenants of faith? What's your church's tenants of faith? And I say, well, it's just the Bible. Yeah, we have the Bible too, but we also have our bylaws and we also have our tenants of faith. And I say, well, we don't have any of that. I'm not saying that we're better or worse than anybody for that, but we don't. We just go by the Bible. And yet I think that so many people out there kind of are like Larry and number when it comes to their spirituality. They just sort of hear advice that sounds good and they just go with what feels right based on that. And I know, you know, that I grown up, you know, even when I was in an orphanage as a small kid, we went to church every Sunday there. I got adopted into a religious family and went to church every Sunday there. So I read the Bible. I didn't. I can't say that I, yes, I always read my Bible every morning. I got up for my Bible. I didn't do that, but I had read different parts of the Bible. I'd been around church and heard the Bible many times and just sort of accepted what my church taught, what my friends kind of, you know, thought was right and what my family was doing. Sort of like Larry Nomer just, well, that sounds good. It seems to work. Everybody here seems to believe it. So I believed it as well. And I think that, you know, we have to be so careful with that because there are so many what we would consider good people, even though Jesus says, you know, as the human part of me, don't even call me good in the sense because no one's good except for God. But you know what I mean? We would consider good people. There's a lot of good people believing a lot of incorrect things, but a lot of good people believe in a lot of bad things about how to be saved and about how to get to heaven. And God is very adamant about that. Jesus even goes so far and said, look, it's a very narrow road and only a few people are going to find it. But you know what? Americans don't believe that. We struggle with it sometimes even in our own fellowship. I struggle with it certainly when it comes to my family. If I lose a family member to death, it becomes a bigger struggle than when you're just talking about it in theory. But the Bible doesn't change no matter what happens in my life. And it doesn't matter what circumstance I'm in, the Bible does not change. Now it may speak to me in certain times of my life and certain emotional situations I might be in in a different way than it might in some other time, but in itself it doesn't change. It still says what it says. It reads how it reads. And that's where we have to have a deep conviction about that. And I want you to know that that whole part right there, that was free. That's not even part of my sermon. They're talking about Larry and Elmer and where they're putting their hope. And scripturally, hope is vital. In fact, it's critical for our everyday survival in life. And I believe that God understands that. God understands how important hope is to the Christian, look in Romans chapter 15. And in verse 4, we see that God understands how critical hope is. He writes, it has written for us here, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope. For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope." And I'm not talking about hope, like we might think about fate, well, you never know it could happen. Maybe it's in the cards. Maybe fate says so, or karma, and certainly, I don't believe in karma. I do believe that you reap what you sow, and I think that's kind of where the idea of karma came from, from reaping what you sow. The Bible talks about reaping what we sow versus some ethereal thing out there that doesn't really have anything to do with realness, but not that kind of hope. That's not the kind of hope that God talks about. The kind of hope that God talks about really is more of an attitude of confidence, of expectation, of trust. That's what hope in God means, an attitude, of expectation, of confidence and trust. Can anyone this morning use a little hope? Has anyone grown low in hope, any of you need hope for a better marriage? Any of you need hope for a better parents? That should be really quiet there, because we get the best parents in town when I understand. But hope for a better relationship with your children, hope for a better job, hope for more work at your job, hope for whatever the case is, we need hope. Christians aren't immune from needing hope. It's not like, well, once we get faith, we no longer need hope. Hope for people that don't have real faith, hope, I don't need hope, I've got faith. Well, yeah, when you're talking about the kind of hope that the world has in the sense that may be true, but God understands how important hope is to the Christian, because even everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope for the life we need to live. We need that hope. Job needed that hope. Job writes in chapter 6, if you want to turn there, chapter 6 and verse 11. Everyone there? What strength do I have that I should still have hope, that I should still hope? What prospects that I should be patient? Do I have the strength of stone? Is my flesh bronze? Do I have any power to help myself? Now the success has been driven from me. Job was saying that if only he could have godly hope again, he'd be confident and he would live expecting good things to happen, expecting God to take care of him. You all know you're all familiar with Proverbs 29 and verse 18 where there is no vision. People perish. You know that's to say that without hope, without a concept of something's waiting that's better, that we're heading in a great direction, that we're looking to do something great for God and that there'll be a great reward in the sense at the end of that that people just sort of huddle up and die. It's like any great tragedy where there's a plane crash or someone stuck in the wilderness or it simply, once they lose hope, they die. As long as they have hope, psychologists will tell you they have a chance of surviving. So once people lose hope, they die and spiritually it's the same thing and some of us, we need to renew our hope and I know sometimes we really expect, we don't really want to say it because it just sounds so wrong but we expect other people to give us hope. If we don't come on a Sunday morning and get more hope, maybe it's not the right church. If we don't go to our family group and receive more hope from those people, maybe it's not the right family. We all struggle with this at times but we have to realize that it's got to come from the Word of God. It's got to come from our relationship with God and certainly we all enhance it. It's like, hey, you need protein to survive and if you get some vitamins and some carbs and whatnot, then that's going to be helpful but the protein and the good carbs, then everything else is supplemental but it's our relationship with God. It's the Word of God, our prayer time. That's the meat and potatoes and all the rest of it are great supplements that we need. The Bible says we need each other, amen? We have to understand especially for those of us that are mature. When you were less mature as a Christian, pretty much every Sunday when you came to church, you were kind of blown away. Hopefully you were in that said, I know as a young Christian, every Sunday I was just like, wow, that was phenomenal. That was super mega awesome is how we used to talk in those days. But then as you get a little bit older as a Christian, it doesn't necessarily mean that you're more critical that can happen but you realize you got to get most of your maturity from your own personal relationship with God. That you can't come to church and go, well, that wasn't deep enough because you forget sometimes that so many of the Christians in the audience are young Christians and it was more than deep enough for them. So many of the people in our audience are not even Christians and it was more and that's not to say that we shouldn't, I'm not trying to make excuses for what you might not deem as deeper lessons. I'm just saying that our maturity has got to come from our relationship with God. It's got to come the six days a week, the seven days a week that we're having time with God in the morning with just God and us and maybe another friend or our spouse. But that's where it's got to come from. You can't wait till Sunday and go, I need to get energized. You need to get a week for the spirituality here. How long did the man elast, okay? One day at best, try to store it up in where God said, no, you need to rely on me every day. And so the man it won't last until tomorrow and it's the same thing with our relationship with God. Turn to Hebrews chapter six and have these quiet times been great. And hopefully if you haven't started doing those, you need to get caught up. The quiet times are so helpful. I think they'll encourage you, they'll inspire you and there's nothing better than a whole group of people as a church getting up every morning and studying the same concept scripturally to build unity in our ministry. But in Hebrews chapter six and verse 17, we're told there because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purposes or his purpose very clear to the heirs of what was promised, he confirmed it with an oath. God did this so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the sanctuary behind the curtain where Jesus who went before us has entered on our behalf. He has become a high priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. Our hope is Christians, you know, ultimately we know we even sing about it. Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. Our hope is built on Jesus Christ, it's the anchor for our soul. And the Bible teaches us here so that we may be greatly encouraged. You know, well, in 1st Corinthians 13, God says one of the three greatest gifts He gives us is hope. It may not be greater than love, but it is up there with love. The Bible says God is love and hope is right there on that. Wow, you see how important it is to God that we have hope. That we understand hope, hope is such a valuable gift from God. So we got to figure, okay, through what conduit do we get hope? How is hope built in us? How are we going to have hope? And the title of my lesson today is hope full. We want to be full of hope, amen? But the first point is, how do we get it? Well, according to the verse we read a moment ago, Romans chapter 15 to verse 4, hope comes through endurance. Hope comes through endurance. You know, we know Scripture that is God's good pleasure to give us the desires of our heart or many of the desires of our heart. But if you've been to Christian for a while, you know, it's not always God's practice to give us what we want right when we want it. And so the Bible says part of maturity, part of what we've been learning, as we've been studying through the book of Hebrews, you should have read through chapter 7. You know, chapter 7 this morning would have been the chapter that you read before you did the quiet time. But we know that Hebrews is very intent on us becoming mature as disciples. And God wants us to become mature. And so we have to learn to wait on the Lord, but you think about it, why? You know, so you ever struggle with, okay, I understand I need to wait, you know, in some respects, just because I've seen that I have to, but why? Why does the God who loves me wants to give me everything, who could give me anything you want to give me, make me wait? Ever thought that? I mean, maybe it's just me. But I have that thought sometimes like God, you are the creator of everything. You can blink and the ocean to be dry and blink and be full of water again. All I'm asking for is a little car, I don't even need a new one. Let's get on that, Lord, right? How about blinking me up a car? But in all seriousness, at times when you're struggling for a family member or struggling for things that really matter, sometimes it's like, God, why? You know you can do it. I know you can do it. Why aren't you doing it? You know one possible reason I believe is because God wants us to be able to appreciate what He gives us when it arrives. You know you think about when God created Adam, He didn't immediately give him Eve. You know, but God created Adam and He looked and He thought, you know, it's not good for man to be alone, right, Genesis chapter 2, it's not good for man to be alone. I'm going to create a helper suitable for Him. And then He goes right from that to the next thing He says in Adam. You know, I'm about to trade all these animals in front of you, go ahead and name them all and give them whatever name you want. It's like, what? No, I mean why don't you name the animals and get going on this other helper deal that you talked about. And I mean it's probably not like Adam stood there for you know for about 20 minutes and named all the animals real quick and said, you know, probably all the animals going through and thinking of a name for them, you know, it probably took a while. But why was it? I wanted Adam to see all these different things that he created and then give him Eve. And so when it happened, when Adam did see, he gave all these animals their names and when he saw Eve, what did he do? He said, now this is this is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, but she was taken out of man like Adam was able to discern after seeing everything else that God had created when he saw Eve, he was like, wow, this is so much better than any other. You know, some of those animals were pretty cool. You know, like I got a feeling like a platypus, he probably didn't even name it. He's probably like, that guy's not even gonna survive, so let's just move on to how's he gonna get away from anything, you know what I mean? What do they, can't even imagine? And God delighted in creating Eve so that Adam would fully understand and appreciate the value of what God had given him. And so I believe sometimes God delays it because he wants us to be able to appreciate it when it happens. And any of you that have ever had things, you got them quickly and then you lost them and then eventually got them back, which time did you appreciate it more? Correct? I mean, it's a no brainer, isn't it? It's some of the young people going, what? I've never got anything yet. But what do you know, yeah, so you'll find out. But maybe another reason would be because of our needs for purity and strengthening. Look over in Romans 5, Romans 5, Romans 5 and verse 1, "Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God." Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know, we know, we don't surmise, we don't guesstimate, estimate, we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance whose character and character hope and hope doesn't disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. You know, God's delays serve to prepare us to handle responsibilities of the gifts that He gives us, of the blessings that we receive from God. And you know what's true? If you ever grew up with anyone that was spoiled, like I had friends that were a little more spoiled, their families had some more money, and they would get stuff. That stuff wouldn't last at all. I had one of my friend whose parents bought him a couple of cars and he crashed them both relatively quickly within getting them and then they said, "Fine, you got to get your own next time." That car lasted, you know, the rest of high school in the first few years after high school. And he went through too, you know, brand new Camaro and a brand new truck, before that. Because he didn't cost him anything and just showed up, it was just there and he didn't really appreciate it. Be the first to tell you that. You know, it's even like when you first start letting your child get the driver's life, you first start letting them drive. It takes them a while. You know, they'll just drive, you have no concept, just drive, drive, burn up gas, leave all their trash in the car, you know, because mom always cleans up everything when our house dad, but mom does her share, appreciate. I got people in the bag that are just shaking their head like, "I love that guy, but he's a man." But, you know, they do and they don't clean the outside, they just, you know, they get in and get out. They get in the car, drive where they're going, get out, do their thing, come home, do that, you know, when they finally start to take care of a little bit, then you, you know, later on you're, and they start understanding how much gas costs, and you go, "Okay, maybe they're getting closer now to having their own car." But you understand there's no, why give a car of any value at all because it's going to be trashed in a heartbeat. And, you know, it's so funny because, you know, I don't know what people think, but my guess is that some teenagers could be thinking, "Not me." No, I already learned, you know, I'm ready. I hope my parents don't even listen to what he's saying because that's not even, but you know the difference. And so, I think God's delays sometimes they allow us to be prepared when the blessings come. So, they will handle them responsibly in a Christian way, maturely, so that we'll be able to then return those, those blessings and the blessings for other people. And I believe that's another reason why God delays. You know, secondly, how else do we have hope? Well, according again to Romans 15 verse 4, it tells us that hope comes through what? The encouragement of Scripture. It comes through the encouragement of Scripture. So we know the hope comes through endurance, and hope comes through the encouragement of the Scriptures. Mike, can you put up Psalm 119 up there just to, I'm going to read a few verses. I don't want you to, you can turn there if you'd like and try to keep up, but I'm just going to read the verses here. I've got several verses here, but I thought they'd all be okay. Psalm 119 and verse 43, "Do not snatch the word of truth, my mouth, for I put my hope in your laws." Verse 74, "May those who fear you rejoice when they see me, for I put my hope in your Word." Verse 81, "My soul faints with longing for your salvation, but I put my hope in your Word." Verse 114, "You are my refuge and my shield. I have put my hope in your Word." Verse 147, "I rise before dawn and cry for help. I have put my hope in your Word." So not only according to the Bible, can we put our hope in God's Word, but we can obtain hope from His Word. And you know, I know that we say it often. We talk about reading our Bibles, and I know that we hear this, but I wonder how many of us are really reading our Bibles every day. And why don't we? Well, because we don't see the power. We don't realize that's where hope comes from. Satan is fighting against you doing this. Satan understands that the better you know your Bible, the more you can defeat Him. Right? We talked about it with the campus group the other night at the house that Jesus, how did He fight Satan? By saying it is written, by quoting Scripture. Scripture, every time Satan tried attempting with something that was magnificent, Jesus said, "Dude, it's written." How can I do that? And it's written, and Satan had no choice at the end of it, because this guy's just going to keep bombarding me with the Word, and it's like a sword in my soul, in my spirit. So I'm going to veil and come back maybe when he's tireder. I'll come back and wait for a more opportune time. Maybe I can get this guy. Maybe someday he'll end up on a cross and be beaten, wiped out, and maybe I'll get him to sin against God then. Because Jesus had all this hope in the Word of God, and He got all His hope, and His strength and His encouragement from the Word of God. And we've provided some quiet times with it, I mean, it's like ready-made, just like we like it in our day and age, right? Soup in a can, microwave it or whatever, it's right there, and they're great quiet times. So please, if you haven't gotten those or whatever, talk to your family or feeder, make sure you get those and get on that. It's something, and for people that haven't been reading your vowels very much, you're going to be really encouraged. If you just make a decision, "I'm going to read my Bible every day, no matter what, for the next two weeks, no matter what." And then you decide at that point you're going to do it again and again. Because you've got to start somewhere, but we need to be in the Word of God. There's a story from this little magazine called "Guide Pulse," some of you may have heard of it, but it reads, "It was a beautiful spring day, and a sense of peace stayed with me as I left the cathedral in Easter morning." Easter Monday morning, yes? I pause for a moment at the top of the steps leading to the avenue, now crowded with people rushing through their jobs. Sitting in their usual place inside a small archway was the old flower lady. And her feet, cresages, and boutonnieres were parading on top of a spread-open newspaper. The lady was smiling, her wrinkled face, her wrinkled old face alive, with some inner joy. I started down the stairs, then on impulse, turned back and picked out a flower. As I put it in my lapel, I said, "You look happy this morning. Why not?" She said, "Everything is good." She was dressed so shabbily and seemed so very old that a reply startled me, "You've been sitting here for many years now, haven't you? And always smiling, you wear your troubles so well." "Well, you can't reach my age and not have trouble," she replied, "Only it's like Jesus and Good Friday." She paused for a moment, "Yes, I prompt it." Well, when Jesus was crucified on Good Friday, that was the worst day ever for the whole world. And when I get troubles, I remember that. And then, I think of what happened only three days later, Easter and our Lord arising. So when I get troubles, I've learned to wait three days. Somehow everything gets all right again. And she smiled goodbye. Her words still follow me wherever and whenever I think I have troubles. Give God a chance to help, wait three days. You know, the Word of God fills us with hope because it gives us so many examples of faithfulness of God. And the way in which God always works in our lives and will work in our lives. You know, there's a principle that's repeated, you know, basically pretty much throughout the scriptures. It's a three-stage process. And one, you know, the first stage is where God gives man a great vision for his life. And then two, somehow that vision gets dashed or even destroyed in some respects. And then three, somehow it gets fulfilled anyway. And you think about Abraham, and Lenny mentioned Abraham. But consider the promise you know Abraham received when that he and his wife would have a son. And I promise he was so excited he believed it wholeheartedly. And then years went by and it wasn't until they were in a field in the plains of Mamrie and Genesis 18 when God appeared. And he said, hey, now you're going to have, now you're going to have that baby. But they were like, well, we're old and Sarah's well past the years of childbirth, childbearing. You know, the Bible says 99 years old. And yet within a year, they had their son. Isaac, the son of promise was born. You know, at age 17, Joseph had this vision that he'd do great things for God someday. And then no sooner did he have that vision, his brother started hating him. And pretty soon decided they wanted to kill him, right? And then instead they ended up selling him to slavery. And then years would pass and then they would be reunited. And fearing revenge, you know, of course, Joseph told his brothers, you know, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. But you think about the process. Great things are going to happen. And man sold into slavery and goes through all these different, you know, Abraham waiting and waiting and waiting. And then finally when I'm a hundred, yeah, well, it's too late now. And then it happens. And I know some of us, sometimes we feel like, you know, it's over for me. My best years are behind me or my glory years are behind me. But you know, as long as heaven is ahead of you, your best is yet to come. That's for sure. And most of us, you know, aren't that old? We've got some good years. We've got some mileage left, right? We've got a little jet on the tires and God doesn't need much, right? But we have to have hope, but we have to have biblical hope, not some pie in the sky kind of thing. You think about David, you know, Samuel prophesied that Dave was going to be a great king. And then all of a sudden, eventually he makes his way, you know, he kills Goliath and he makes his way into the, you know, the castle, the palace, if you will. He's right next to Saul. He's right next to the throne that he's supposed to receive. And next thing you know, Saul wants to kill him and he's on the run for years. Between caves, living in fields, but then ultimately God does fulfill that. The great vision, the dashing of the vision and then the fulfillment. We have to remember that in our own lives. Why would God do it any differently? Because he was refining the character of these men, he's going to do the same thing with us. And then ultimately there's Jesus, you know, Jesus born to be the final and the true king of Israel. But he was rejected by the people and murdered by the leaders. But then on the third day, right? But on the third day, right church, but on the third day, right, we got to have faith in this. We got to allow it to move us and motivate us and not go, well, that's from the past. And God doesn't do, he still doesn't. The overflower lady, I just wait three days because I know that the most incredible things can happen in that amount of time with God. So we thank God's hope through endurance, through the encouragement of the Scriptures. And finally, God tells us that hope really comes through serving. In Romans chapter 15, verses one and two, amen? We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. See, that's why none of you guys should ever, ever be critical of me. There's a bunch of strong dudes who's bear with my failings, right? Because when I'm weak, I'm strong. But we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. And not to please ourselves, each of us should place his neighbor or should please his neighbor for his good to build him up. And you know, when you think about what were the disciples always fighting about? I think Lenny mentioned this as well. What were they always fighting about? You know, look in Luke chapter 22. Luke 22, we're almost done here, guys. But what were you guys always fighting about? Luke chapter 22, verse 25, I always find about who was the greatest. You just replied, "The kings of the Gentiles lorded over them, and those who exercise authority over them call themselves benefactors." But you're not like that. Instead, the greatest among you should be like the youngest and the one who rules like the one who serves for who is greater, the one who is at the table or the one who serves. Is it not the one who's at the table? Generally, right? The servants are serving the master, aren't they? The masters sitting on the table and the servants are serving them. So he says, "It's not the one who's at the table, but I am among you as one who serves." Jesus says, "Yes, according to man, it's the guy sitting at the head of the table, not the one dishing out the food and asking him, can I get you something else who's the greatest? The guy who owns the servants or who can pay the servants or the guy who owns the lavish things." And Jesus says, "But I am amongst you as one who serves." The Bible teaches us that even Jesus came not to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. And when you read your New Testament, who does the Holy Spirit convict you that you're supposed to try and emulate and be like? Who? Yeah, some of your, I think you guys are going to say, "Jesus, yeah, good answer." But he came to serve, not to be served, and to give his life as a ransom for many. And you got to ask yourself, "Church, when's the last time you really laid down your life for somebody else in the family of God?" You know, and can you just think of one instance or do you feel like, "No, this is what I'm trying to serve people all the time?" Imagine what a fellowship we'd have. We have some issues. We have some growth issues. We have such great servants in the church. People that just give so much time and do so much, but we need more. You know, because believe it or not, they seem like super human to us. You know, they work. They have kids. They have all that, you know, and yet they're still, but we need more. We all need to have the same heart that Jesus had, amen? We need to be serving, guys. We need to stop drawing lines in the sand, right? I mean, it's got to be Jesus' Lord. Not, "I am Lord." Well, I won't go here. I won't go there. Put me here. Don't put me there. If you put me here, I won't come. If you do that, I won't. We've got to all have the heart. Just say, "Hey, just tell me where you need me. Tell me where God wants me." And then if there's a better option, let's talk about that. We can always discuss things, but I just want to serve God. I trust you know that those of you that have to drive a little further to church than some other people, I bet God is still taking care of you. All right, none of you are starving because you have to drive to church. And if that were the case, God would fill you up on the bread of himself here. You can go eat all the communion bread after church that you need. But you know, is that not true? I mean, God will give us what we need. God will take care of us and God always blesses our sacrifice. And more than that, God blesses our obedience. And the Bible says, "Yes, we got to be obedient to God first and foremost, but we also need to be obedient to one another, but we also need to be obedient to the leaders that God has over us." And when God decides it shouldn't be that way anymore, he'll get some new ones. Right? That's not conjecture. That's not theory. We've seen it happen. We know it will, right? So we can trust we can be at peace with God, but we need to have the heart of Jesus who came not to serve, but not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many. I am among you as one who serves. You know, I can tell you that at times, you know, in my own spiritual walk where maybe I was doing the least good or the worst spiritually or times when I wasn't really serving anybody, when I just said, "You know what? I love my wife. I love my kids. I don't feel loved by these people at all. They don't care about me. They're willing to kick me through the curve, so I'm just going to, and you know what? It didn't turn out that way. It wasn't like, you know, once I did that, God just said, "Now, that's what I'm talking about. You're right. Those people don't deserve you. They don't love you. They don't treat you right." So the best thing for you to do, don't you dare serve them. That'll make them think what they did is okay, and they need to know. So you put a piece of ice on that shoulder every time you go to church and make sure it's nice and cold. Yes, Lord. Yes, Lord. Leave me, right? That wasn't what was happening. And I see other people that I love dearly who've been hurt, you know, whether they used to be in the ministry or whether, you know, they were in the lady, the membership of the church, and then so they sort of pulled away, and they may be still come, but they don't do anything. They don't leave anything. They come sporadically, or maybe they come most of the time, but they're in and out. They're kind of standoffish, and they don't, and they're miserable. And then you know what happens? They go, "You know what? I'm just not sure this is the right church for me." And I get that because Satan definitely wants us out of here. He wants to destroy us. And so when you see that other people, you got to help them somehow figure out a way to serve. We had that little time where we didn't do anything, and then we said we got to do something, you know, even though we weren't in the ministry for a minute there, we got to do something. So we're not doing well here. We've got to get it. So we started leading the pre-teen ministry, saving our soul, you know, and even people just going, "I really appreciate what you're doing. My kid loves coming to church." That fed us, right? That helped. That encourages. Like, "Okay, this does matter, and we've got to serve God no matter what." It's a great vision. Sometimes it gets dashed, but then God fulfills it again. It's just what he does. If you're in the dashing part right now, just know that God's going to get you out of it. Just know because it's biblical. Not because you're having some, you know, fate hope, but because you're having a biblical godly hope. You know, God's way of making us great. It's the only way to keep us happy and fulfilled. Close out with this illustration and one more verse and we'll be done. In the town of Port Hope, Canada, there's a monument erected, not for the leading citizen who just died, but for a poor, unselfish working man who gave most of his life and energy to help those who could never repay him. Joseph Scriven was born in Dublin in 1820. In his youth, he had the prospect of a great citizen with high ideals and great aspirations. He was engaged to a beautiful young woman who he had promised, who had promised to share his dream, but on the eve of their wedding, her body was pulled from a pond into which he'd accidentally fallen and drowned. Young Scriven never overcame the shock, although a college graduate and ready to embark on a brilliant career, he began to wander and try to forget his sorrow. His wanderings took him all the way to Canada, where he spent the last 41 years of his 60 years. Even a very devout Christian, his beliefs led him to do servile labor for poor widows and sick people. He often served for low or no wages. It was not known that Mr. Scriven had any specific poetic gifts until a short time before his death. A friend who was sitting with him in illness, discovered a poem that he had written to his mother in a time of sorrow, not intended that anyone else should see it. His poem was later set to music and has become a much loved gospel song. It is said to be the first song that many missionaries teach their converts. In polls taken to determine the popularity of hymns and gospel songs, his poem set to music is always near the top. What was this poem? What a friend we have in Jesus, all our sins and griefs to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to God in prayer. Oh what peace we often forfeit. Oh what needless pain we bear. All because we do not carry everything to God in prayer. Romans 15, 13 reads, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow, why overflow, so that everybody else can have some with hope. You may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. You know the key to having hope, if you sit here today and you do not have a saving relationship with God through Jesus, you really have no hope. So we are going to sing what a friend we have in Jesus right now. And as we do that, I want you, if you remember and you need to repent of something or you need to start serving again, I want you to make a decision even as we sing. I want a friend we have in Jesus and if you are not a Christian, if you are someone that has come close to God at one point in time or became a Christian and wandered away and you need to get restored, just decide right now you are going to go and just hold out your hands and say hey, just tell me what to do, I will do anything to get back with God again. And if you are studying the Bible, decide that nothing is going to stop you. You have no hope without this. Make a decision. Ask the person that is sitting next to you, the person you came out to church with, to study the Bible with you. Set up a study today. People say, yeah, that is a good idea, let's set up a study later, do it today. Church, we have got to stop coming here with just our family. God never intended for you and me to come to church every Sunday as long as you get your wife here, you get your kids here, that is all you need, no God said, bring everybody. This is the banquet, go ahead and invite everybody. We have got hospitality this week coming up. Mike is going to talk a little bit about that last Tuesday night, Steve talked about it. I went home and I was on the phone with actually Angela. My neighbors were outside. I went across the street at 9.45. Hey, when they come to dinner this Monday, they are coming to dinner tomorrow night. So we need to ask people that we have got to do this. We need the hope. So we are going to sing what a friend we have in Jesus now and I want us to make some decisions even as we sing that and then Michael will come and close us out after that. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Sunday lesson by Doug Wens