Jeremiah 17 - Trusting in Christ

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Transcript

I was radically saved when I was 21 years old.

Some people feel stuck and they never feel ready to actually share the gospel and live it out with others. Grace is the power of God to destroy sin in your life. He paid a high price for grace.

We are approved of before we even get started. You can instruct someone to do something but it's not embedded into them until they're Fathered into it.

Howdy guys, it's Seth here and welcome back to the Braveheart Podcast. Our goal with this podcast is to build your faith and see the image and likeness of Christ formed in you. If you have been blessed by this podcast, please let us know by subscribing and sharing so that the gospel message can be advanced. If you've enjoyed the Braveheart Podcast and would like to hear more gospel centered content, we encourage you to subscribe to our podcast and our YouTube channel.

and interact with us as we are having weekly YouTube live conversations about the gospel and how it impacts every aspect of our lives. This month, we are hearing from our very own Aaron Tedeschi and Ashley Bailey about the gospel in worship. Also, if you've been nourished by the gospel through our podcast, we want to ask if you would consider giving a gift on our website and you can find that link down below. In this episode.

Peter shares from Jeremiah 17 about the curse of trusting in man and the blessing of entrusting our lives to God. We pray it provokes you to entrust Jesus with Lordship over every area of your

Good evening.

Okay, wasn't worship awesome?

Man, well, we're gonna, I'm gonna ask for your grace tonight. This is one of those messages. We're in week one. Michael asked me to talk about Jesus, our blessed hope. And man, if you haven't read your Bible in a while, a lot of the New Testament is filled with revealing Jesus' second coming. And by the lack of response and cheering tells me that there's something

that's gone awry in the hearts of the church in this hour. If you get in your car, there's three major issues. If you get in a car and there's three things either happen or don't happen, you know you have a major mechanical failure. Number one, if you put your keys in the car and you turn it and it doesn't turn on, you have a problem. And you begin to respond to that problem by trying to figure out is it my starter, is it my alternator, is it my battery? There's a major issue.

And in the Christian faith, there are three kind of pillar things that if when we talk about, if your heart doesn't register, if there's not a RPM shift, then there's something majorly wrong. And I wanna just submit those to you just to help you check your spiritual vehicle, because you're a spiritual being. So if you hear in the scriptures or from a pulpit or from a friend, if you hear someone talking about Jesus dying on a cross and there's no meter in the heart.

There's no beating, there's no register. You're like, yeah, he died on a cross. Something's wrong.

Something's majorly wrong. We can talk a little bit about that tonight. The second is the revelation of Jesus as our glorious and beautiful high priest. Now many of us don't have a grid for high priest because it's a very Jewish concept, but it's so core and foundational to the Christian faith and to the gospel and to the church today that Jesus Christ is sitting on a throne in heaven and he's praying for you and me.

We've three of us. That's awesome. That has so much relevance to every, to your devotion, to your prayer life, to your marriage, to your job, to everything. Why? Because he's praying for you.

Many of you, you came tonight, you're like, how many of you, close your eyes, how many of you, don't think you pray enough? Just raise your hand. You're like, I don't feel like I pray enough. Okay, now you can open your eyes. Leave your hands up, don't be shy. We're walking in the light here, come on. Look around, raise your hand. You don't feel like you pray enough.

Yeah, I wanna awkwardly look at each other, raise your hand, you're like, I don't feel like I pray enough. Okay, that's a crazy thought. How much is enough?

See, the reason we feel that way is because we do not see Jesus praying 24 by seven, the faithful high priest, keeping the fire burning on the altar, Leviticus 6.13, he's literally keeping the fire burning in heaven on the altar, that his prayer life is sustaining us.

And when you tap into that reality, there's a grace release to begin to pray without ceasing. And you stop being so conscious about how much you're praying and you just get raptured with his presence. That's number two. If you hear Jesus as high priest and there's no register, we need to examine our hearts. Number three, if you sing about, talk about the return of the Lord and there's no shift in your heart.

there is a heart sickness. And this is what I wanna talk about tonight because I feel like for many of us, Proverbs 13, 12, hope deferred has made the heart sick. Hope deferred makes the heart sick. When you hope in something and you don't see it, your heart actually gets sick, it's like a disease. And if your heart gets sick, then you can't actually function as God created you to function.

You can't actually live with a whole heart. I was telling my bride, I'm gonna be real with you guys tonight. Will y'all be real with me? Okay, 44 of you. I'm gonna be real with you.

I was telling my wife a few weeks ago, was like, babe, I'm kind of dreading December. I'm like, just, all of the holidays and the activities and the spending and the, just everything, I'm just feeling like the weight of December. I don't know, maybe I'm alone, but I was just confessing to her and I was like, I got it out and I was like, wow, I'm dreading December, this isn't good. Something's going on in my heart that I need to address.


because this is a month that's supposed to be full of time with family, time with friends, celebrating, reflecting on the year, celebrating Jesus' birth. Come on, we're trying to do this more and more as a family, keeping it real. We did a devotion this morning and I was just, you know, I try to be, man, I wanna be like the Lord, but I wanna raise my kids in the faith. And so I told them, I was like, well, we're gonna do presents, because you know.

Some people are like, well, Christmas is bad. What does the tree and presence have to do with his birth? And I'm like, well, we're gonna do it. So let's make it about Jesus, okay? And so I told them, said, hey, do you know why we get presents for Christmas? And they said, why? And I said, well, because Jesus is generous and he's amazing and he's selfless and he gives us presents on his birthday. And so now my kids associate the opening of presents with Jesus is awesome and he's generous.

some of you trying to boycott Christmas, why don't you just make Jesus big and awesome and generous and amazing? And then, and I was staring, we just got our Christmas tree from Home Depot and I was staring at the naked tree, we hadn't decorated it yet. I married Mother Hallmark, she loves all things Christmas. And so we have a big to do every year, we decorate the tree. And I was staring at our tree this morning, we were having a family devotional before church. And I said, guys,

Just in faith, I opened my mouth, I said, what does the Christmas tree have to do with Jesus' birth? You ever parent and ask questions and you think, well, I don't know where this is gonna go. I don't know what to say if they don't know the answer. And my daughter, she's amazing. She got saved at end of year conference, by the way, two years ago. That's a little plug for end of year. Are you joking? My 10 year old daughter got born again at end of year conference. Yeah, like radically born again, radically.

And you say, she's 10. No, I'm telling you, if you've met her, it's radical. And as evidenced by this morning, I said, what does the Christmas tree have to do with his birth? And my boys are knuckleheads, they're amazing. They just looked at me with a goofy stare. My daughter's kind of thinking, and she goes, well, it says in Isaiah that Jesus was a, he was a tender shoot that came up out of the ground.

I did not see that coming and I said exactly right. You were exactly right. That's exactly why we have a tree in our house. And every time we look at this tree, we're gonna remember the root of Jesse. Come on, come on. Yes, yes.

And so this is a season where, when I was confessing this to her, I said, man, there's something going on in my heart. don't like just wasting months of our lives, amen? I don't wanna come into this season. We're not just doing Advent, because we have nothing else better to do. I want us to examine our hearts tonight. Can we do that? Can we be real? Can we just pray as we come into this word? So Father, I pray in the name of Jesus, would you search us as we come to your word? Spirit of the living God, would you?

Would you take your word and would you cut us tonight? God, would you divide between soul and spirit, joint and marrow? Would you help us understand the places in our heart that we can't handle ourselves? We bring ourselves to you, we present ourselves to you the best we know how, God. We're here physically, God, but this moment right now in prayer, calling upon your name, we bring our hearts to you. God, every place where we've been sick, we ask that you would speak to us, that you would touch us.

Lord, it says in your word in Romans chapter 15 that you're the God of hope. It says that you are the God of hope and that you would fill us with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit, that by the power of the Holy Spirit, we may abound in hope. And Father, I pray right now, God, every temptation and every heart in this room watching online,

Lord, that any temptation that we would somehow be able to manufacture a response in our heart, we just repent ahead of time. Lord, we confess, Lord, we cannot manage our hearts. We give you our hearts. You're the savior of our hearts. You're the lover of our hearts. You're the healer of our broken hearts. God, and you bind up every broken place in our hearts, Jesus. This is what you said you were anointed to do. And so God, I'm asking for the power of the Holy Spirit tonight.

I'm not asking for motivation, I'm not asking for just a simple inspiration, I'm asking for the power of the Holy Spirit over these hearts in this room. God, would you break off hopelessness? Would you break off heart sickness, God, would you awaken faith? Would you awaken joy, inexpressible and filled with glory tonight? I'm asking you, Father. God, you said we have not because we ask not, Lord.

I am asking you, Dad, do it tonight in our hearts, God, let there be a joining of faith, God. Let a few hearts, God, stand up to this prayer and go, yes, amen, God. Let a few, God, just in the room tonight, go, yes, Lord, break off everything in me that's causing my heart to be sick. God, would you increase the faith level in this room? Would it not be a Russian roulette tonight? Well, maybe, I don't know if God's gonna touch me, Lord. We have been singing about your love on the cross. We know that you wanna touch us tonight.

We honor you, Jesus. We love you. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen. Jeremiah 17.

Verse five says this, thus says the Lord, cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart turns away from the Lord. When we talk about hope, many of us have put our hope in man.

talk to me. You've put your hope in someone other than Jesus, in a spiritual leader, in a spouse, in a friend, in a parent. You put your hope in them and when they disappointed you, and I say when, because man will disappoint you. Man does not have the power to sustain your hope.

If you put your trust or your hope in man, the Bible says you will live under a curse. It's not gray, it's not like, well, you can trust man a little bit. No, cursed is the one who trusts in man. It's a foundation issue. It doesn't mean you can't have trusting relationships with people. It's a matter where are your feet standing.

So relationally, this would look like this. If my trust is in Jesus and someone disappoints me relationally, I'm still standing, why? Because my trust is in Jesus. Now I can still have a conversation, I can still process and steward my heart relationally with someone where there's been trust that's broken, but I'm gonna be able to do that from solid footing, not with the feet out from under me and wondering how could you do this to me?

Cursed is the one who trusts in man, who puts their trust in flesh. Look at this, makes flesh his strength. And I talked about this morning and I really felt the Lord on it. Many of us are putting our trust in our physical regiments. That's a big thing right now. And praise God, how many of you thank God for running and healthy eating? Come on.

Y'all are way more loud about that outside of this church. I hear y'all talking about the new supplement you're on, your diet, your workout routine. You guys are evangelists for that thing. And that's awesome, being evangelists. But listen, Christie's dad or granddad, he lived to 97 years old. This man broke every dietary rule we have today, every one, and he lived a very long life. Do you know why?

because long life comes from the Lord. This is not an excuse to just eat however you want and not treat your temple right. Eat healthy, but trust God. This is so important. When someone lives long, they live long because of God, because our days are numbered in his book.

Listen, some of it, we're not that powerful.

Our lives are but a breath, they're but a vapor. And God is calling his people to trust in him again, completely, for our health, for our strength, for our spirituality, in every fiber of our being, there is a curse. And I believe in a large part, many of us are living under the curse of having put our trust in man. Putting our confidence, how many of you have put your confidence in finances? you got now 18 of y'all honest with me.

Unbelievable, I thought y'all were gonna be real with me. I'm serious. If you can't be real in church, where can you be real? Why does it feel like sometimes we're playing poker? We're not playing poker here, guys. Do you guys know, do we know that God sees everything? He sees every motive of the heart. You don't have to pretend in the house of God.

You don't have to pretend, you don't have to try to put your best foot forward. We can just be raw and real and naked in the light. I am not perfect, hallelujah. Did you know that? Someone said no, are you? Babe, come here, let me tell them. Stop it, stop it, cover me.

If you've put your trust in man, just repent tonight. If you know you've done that, if you've put your trust in flesh, in finances, in your job, where you live, just repent tonight. This is the best thing you can do. What does that look like? What does repentance look like? You say, wow. How many of you just be, you know what? As I'm talking, you can be honest. You're like, wow, I've put my trust in man. Just stand up.

Beautiful. This is how we can get real. Yeah, look, just look around. I actually want you to look at other people. You're in good company. Look around. You're like, wow, it's okay. Look, it's okay. Now listen, we're gonna just repent. We're gonna repent. We're gonna metanoia. We're gonna go the other way. Okay, we're gonna go the other way. You're standing, look at this. Your standing is a confession before God.

You just confess before God, Lord, I've done this and I don't want it. That's why you stood. Amen? And your Father in heaven, when you repent, He's like, yay! You don't have to prove it with your tears. You may cry. You may cry tonight. Some of you may cry.

And that's also good, I'm not, but sometimes we make it so like I have to prove it. You're proving it, you're here on a Sunday night, you stood before God, and you said, Lord, I don't want to trust man. I don't wanna put my trust in my finances where I live and the comfort of my life. I wanna put my trust, how many of you, that's why you stood? Lift your hands. Okay, dad, we don't wanna do that anymore. Father, we need your help.

We need your help, we're so tempted to put our trust in things that are not you. Lord, forgive us, forgive us, and Lord, where we've experienced the curse of trusting in finances and people and ourselves and our own flesh, God, we just ask for your forgiveness tonight. Would you forgive us? And would you take away every consequence?

by the blood of your son, by his stripes, would you just take away, God, every pain, every sorrow that we've experienced from that curse, Lord, would you wash it away right now by the power of your Spirit?

Every disappointment, every sickness of heart, every consequence, Lord, just remove it right now.

And just tell him, just 30 seconds with your own lips now. Just tell him. Just tell him you wanna trust him wholeheartedly as we go into this season. Come on, your own lips out loud, just tell him. You trust him wholeheartedly with every relationship.

everything that you cannot control.

Thank you, Lord. We wanna be a people who trust you.

Amen, amen, you can be seated. You thank God, bless God for repentance. Come on, bless God, thank him. The gift of repentance is amazing. All right, go to First Peter. We're gonna go through this here the next few minutes.

A few years ago, I realized I was reading just through the New Testament and I realized how much of the New Testament was connected to a real emotional joyful response to the Lord's return. And as I was reading it, I recognized there was no movement in my heart, nothing. I would read it and I would acknowledge that it's important, but there was no, the needle wasn't moving.

And I don't know about you, my dad raised me to have integrity. And so when that happened, I thought, no, no, something's wrong. Because it's like turning the key and nothing happened. Or if you push the gas pedal and you don't go, or you push the brakes and you don't stop, something's wrong. You should pause everything. And it can be tempting to look at you outside of your life and go, no, everything's good, but I wanna look, I want this, I want this to be the filter of my life.

I want the word of God, I wanna come underneath the word of God and go, Lord, I want my life to be in line with this. And I remember specifically I was reading this phrase in 1 Peter 1,8. We're gonna read it all, but I just wanna read 1,8 and just to give you where I was at, this is my personal testimony. It says this, though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him, and this is what got me, and rejoice with joy.

that is inexpressible and filled with glory. I read that and I was like.

Man.

When was the last time my heart was so filled with joy?

that I didn't know how to express it. And that I could say with integrity that that joy was filled with glory.

And I realized, was like, Lord, and this is what I did personally. And if that's you tonight, I wanna just, I wanna give you hope and courage. I looked at that and I said, Father, my heart is disconnected from this reality of your return. I confess that to him. Lord, this, I know it's important, but my heart's disconnected from it. Would you help me? Is there a more powerful prayer in all of the world than can you help?

Not like, my gosh, I can't believe I'm a preacher, I'm a minister, how come I'm not more connected? No, I just, I'm not more connected, so God, I need your help. I need you to help my heart. And can I tell you, can I tell you over the years, God has fathered me, he has helped make that day for me personally, I can tell you with integrity, and it sometimes feels like a dream. You know you have the realest dream, and you wake up and you can touch the dream?

but then it's like the day goes and it kind of fades, but then you have another dream. The return of the Lord is like that. It can be slippery, like picking up a watermelon seed off the ground. It's like you can touch it at times when your faith is strong, but then sometimes it slips away. Are you with me? And I wanna tell you, it's possible, I believe, to live with a consciousness, a real consciousness and hope of the Lord's return in a way that impacts

every single day of our lives. We sang it or someone read it that the hope tomorrow is the hope today. Did y'all sing that? All right, let's read 1 Peter. Peter is writing to, verse one, he's writing to the elect exiles of the dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia. These are believers who had been persecuted, and watch this, they lost everything.

They lost their homes, they lost their inheritances, they lost everything, and they were living in a foreign land. They were foreigners. And this has hit a little bit more home recently. My brother and his wife, they moved to Israel a little over a year ago. They have now seven kids, which is unbelievable. We have five, and that's a lot, but they have so many kids. And they moved there, and there was,

you know, right when they moved there a month later, like rockets started flying. And it's like, it hit me like a little bit, like home, like my family, my flesh and blood is there, and their reality is bomb shelters and sirens. And they have little kids, and they're testifying to us, we're in the center of God's will, we're right where we need to be.

and they're walking out faith in God, because God called them there and they believed God knew that the war was gonna break out and that was their assignment. That is their testimony. And I realized, man, I live in a beautiful spot in North Dallas and there's no rockets flying. And yet there are dangers where I live that are not where they live and there's dangers where they live that are not where I live. And the dangers where we live in the West, they're dangers of comfort.

It's intoxication with the world that makes us no longer sober-minded, that makes us spiritually dull and asleep. This is the danger. We don't have rockets. We don't have Iran threatening us to bomb us in sirens. Like we don't, my wife and I were there in Israel in July, and we were like.

We were like 20 miles from like rockets happening with our kids. Like we experienced it and I was there. If I'm honest, I was ready to get out of there.

Yeah, it's okay. Y'all are afraid to laugh at me. That's my sister there. I wanted to leave because I was like, it was getting to me. was like, man, my kids are here. We were 20 miles from where 12 kids were drone attacked by Hezbollah and died on a soccer field. 20 miles. That's like, some of you drove 20 miles to get here. And I realized though, I realized there are dangers in Dallas, Texas.

that on the external, it's never gonna make the news cycle, but it's called a heart that falls asleep from being sick and that is no longer awake and alert to the Lord's return. Because I went over there and I'm meeting Messianic believers and I'm meeting Palestinian believers. I met a guy in Bethlehem. He grew up in Palestine and he's an Arab believer and now he lives in Bethlehem ministering to Muslims, ministering to all, and he's like preaching the gospel and it's so,

dangerous, but he's alive in God. Like he's awake in the spirit. He's not confused. He's not wondering. I don't know what I'm doing with my life. He's sure what he's doing with his life because if he's not sure, he dies. And many of us today, we have so many options, so many paths, so much comfort, so much resource, and we get lost wandering and we get spiritually fat.

and we're not awake to the Lord's return. We're not ready. Luke chapter 12, Jesus is speaking to his disciples and he says, listen to me guys, I need you to stay dressed, ready for action and keep your lamps burning. I need you to stay dressed. I need you to keep your righteousness on. I need you to keep your lamp burning.

There's an activity, there's an exercise of our will. The Bible says constantly in 1 Peter, I encourage you to read this. In 1 Peter, says, need you, look at this. In verse 13, therefore preparing your minds for action and being sober minded, set your hope, everyone say hope. Fully, say fully. Fully. On the grace that will be brought to you.

at the revelation of Jesus Christ. I'm gonna give you such an important piece of theology. There is a grace that you and I have never tasted before.

That grace is so beautiful. It is so powerful. It is so magnificent that it has the power to capture and to hold and to withstand the fullness of our hope.

Peter's writing to these guys that lost everything. He says, listen to me, don't set your hope on that you're gonna get to go back home. Don't set your hope on some earthly circumstance. I need you to set your hope. I need you to put all of your eggs in this basket. When Jesus Christ is revealed on the last day, there is going to be a grace.


Do y'all remember, who am I talking to? Do y'all remember the grace when you put your faith in Jesus Christ as the lamb of God who took away your sins? Did y'all taste amazing grace or was it just me? Why are we like, we don't know, yeah, you guys hear grace. That's like the gas pedal. When you hear grace, you're like, yes! Grace, yeah, my man's got it over there. My little man, kingdom belongs to them.

Grace, what happened to you? You put your faith in Jesus and something called grace came. Grace, do you know what happened? You got born again.


Do I need to preach the gospel to you guys?


You got grace caused you to be born again. How many of you are born again?


It's a little late, it's a little late.

1 Peter 1,3, blessed, look at this, blessed be the God and Father. This is a praise, this is a worship service. I'm concerned guys, we're only worshiping when we feel like it. If we can't worship at the preaching of the word, are we worshipers? Come on, can let your, I'm just, maybe you just need permission. You have permission to stand up and shout when I'm preaching. You do not get, and I have five kids, you cannot interrupt me, I'm not gonna lose my train of thought.

I want you to have permission to respond to God and His word. When I read my Bible, people will testify. When I read it, I'm reading it, if something hits me, I go, whoa! It's like indigestion, like George said, it's not indigestion, it's the Holy Ghost inside of me, tasing me, because that's good. It's good food. How are you gonna eat hot wings and go, mm, my gosh, it's so good, and not hear the word of God and go, yes! I'm serious!

How can you not? Seriously, how can you not? How can you not look? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy. Hey!


Not according to you, clearly, or me. Not according to us. It was according to his great mercy. It's his mercy. have a merciful Father.

He has caused us, He has caused, God is the cause.


God is the cause!


When you have a desire for godly things, guess what happened? He is causing that inside of you by the Holy Spirit.


I'm gonna preach until I'm done. I'm not gonna look at the clock. If you finish before I do, God bless you. I mean that. just feel, I feel I wanna, God is the cause. God is the cause. He has caused us to be born again to a living hope, not a dead hope, a living hope.

A hope that is alive, a hope that other people would know. They're like, hey, this is a litmus test for your heart. Do people in your world know that you're hoping for the Lord's return? Do family members know, like man, this person is sick. They are like, how many of you know people, they're going on a vacation, you're here about it, they're going to Italy or whatever and they're like, I cannot wait to go to Italy. And they're telling you, every time you're with them, they're telling you, they're confessing their hope of going to Italy one day.

And you're aware every time you're with them of their hope. Why? Because they're talking about it.

So one of the evidences of the blessed hope is the blessed hope in your heart. Are you just in conversation like, man, I can't wait. I can't wait. I've wrestled with this because I was like, Lord, how come I'm not hoping in your return? He's like, I just don't think you get it. I was like, what do you mean? He's like, you're going to see me. I was like, what do you mean see you? Like, you're going to see me.

with your eyes, you're going to see me. And I'm like waiting for the punchline. He's like, no, that's it. You're gonna see me. Some of you are looking at me like, okay, what's the punchline? That's it. Like how you're seeing me, you're gonna see him. If that doesn't move the needle, you must be born again. Like this, this.


There's no more empty rooms, there's no more, we are going to see Jesus Christ face to face.


Yes, and I love the movie Elf. I'm gonna just preach to Elf.

Y'all know when he ends up in the mall and he gets drafted into that job that he doesn't know that he's a part of. And the manager, I love this manager. Chill, Blendy, you chill. This manager's like, all right. He's like, Santa's coming tomorrow.

And Buddy, Buddy has no chill.


This is the right response to Santa is Coming.


Santa! I know him! I know him! Santa's coming! And everyone's looking at Buddy like, dude, chill. And I'm not gonna chill. Do you know why I'm not gonna chill? Do you know why I'm not gonna, no, I'm not gonna chill. I don't apologize. I won't apologize. Yeah, no, it's too late.

Listen, do you know why I'm not gonna chill? You know why I have no shame tonight? Is because when the sky, absolutely, when the sky splits and the trumpet sounds and the man with the robe dipped in blood, when that happens in all of his glory.

don't give a rip what you think about me. I don't care where your eye will are. You looking at me? I'm gonna be looking at him, responding to him, responding to my King, responding to my Jesus. I'm gonna give him my zeal. I'm gonna give him my love. I'm gonna give him my excitement. I'm gonna give him everything I got in my flesh. I'm gonna respond to my King. And you know what today? The Bible says, I don't see him. I don't see him. I have to believe by faith. I haven't seen him, but my heart knows him well.

My heart knows Him. My heart burns. My heart tells me there's something beyond this veil. There's something beyond what is seen as temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. And I've got my eyes on a country that is not this one. I've got my eyes on a homeland. I'm looking for a homeland whose maker and builder is God.

I'm looking for a future country. I'm looking for a future kingdom with a future king. And listen church, I'm telling you, today it may not seem like it matters, but we are entering into days in America where persecution is real. Like suffering is real, where it's not gonna be cool to be a Christian. I'm telling you, I'm telling you it's promised. The Bible says in the last days, the love of many will grow cold.


And we're coming into those days. And listen, the only thing that has the power to tether us is a faith grounded in the cross of Jesus Christ, joyfully looking forward to the one who's to come.


And we need to be stirred up by way of reminder. We have to be, we have to, not just me from a pulpit, but I have a faith and a belief that we as an upper room church, we would lay hold of this anchor for our soul. Can we take it upon ourselves? Listen, who will take it upon themselves and say, you know what? I'm gonna make sure people around me.

know that I'm actually excited. This isn't about gloom and doom and judgment, but make no mistake, he's coming back as a judge. He's coming back to judge the living and the dead, absolutely. And he's gonna judge based on what we did with his first coming. But listen, I want people around me to know that man is excited for the Lord to come back because he's in love with him. I love Jesus. I know I can love him more, but I really love him.

I really love him and I really wanna see him. I really wanna be with him physically. I wanna be physically with Jesus. And it's taken me, listen, it's taken me years to confess that and to realize that's what's going on in my heart. Like I actually, like I didn't think it was okay to say that. I thought, well, you just need to be happy with what you got. No, I wanna be with him. I'm homesick, I'm heartsick.

My wife helped me realize this one time. She said, babe, like, cause I was probably groaning or complaining or something, 2 Corinthians 5. There's a groan, Michael was talking about it. It's a real groan. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 5, there is a groan. We're groaning, longing to be clothed with the immortal. Did you know that? While we're in this earthly tent, this physical body will die. This is a seed that will go into the ground.

But we're gonna receive, this is awesome, some of you don't have, you need this hope. Did you know you're gonna get a new body?


I mean, you're gonna receive a body that is imperishable, immortal.

Yes!


It's only by the power of this Holy Spirit that we can abound in hope. And if you feel like, I want my heart to be connected like that, but it's not. I know I have a lot of volume. But the Lord really wants to meet you tonight where you're at, and he wants to meet your heart. And I see him breathing.

I see him breathing upon your heart and upon our hearts.

And I feel like he wants us to know that a smoldering wick, he will not snuff out.

If you feel like your heart's just kind of like, man, I'm, lay off me, I'm barely here tonight. You need to know that Jesus knows right where you're at. He loves you. He loves you. He's not saying, hey, be more like that guy. He's saying, let me breathe on your heart.


So I just want to pray.


gonna stay here for a few minutes. But we need the power of the Holy Spirit. You don't need me, you don't need, we need the power of the Holy Spirit. And if that's you tonight, if you're like, Lord, I need you to fan into flame this living hope. My hope has been dead. My hope has not been alive.

We've lost sight of the resurrection of Jesus. We've lost sight of these things. just pray and just say, Lord, I need you.

Yeah, I just feel led to do this. If you've never made covenant with Jesus, because I was talking about the cross, just feel it in my heart, some of you, you don't fully know that you've made covenant with Jesus. Growing up in church doesn't mean you've made covenant with Jesus.


I really sense him knocking on the doors of some of your hearts and he's inviting you to open the door and to let him in. He wants to make covenant with you tonight. He wants to wash you of your sin. He wants to fill you with his spirit. He wants to make you his own.


We don't need to stay here long, but if that's you and you know that's you, we're living in the light. I want you to come. I you to just come up here to the front. Just like, wanna make covenant with Jesus tonight. I wanna get right with God. I am terrified of His second coming. I'm terrified of the rider on the white horse. I need to know Jesus, the Lamb of God who was slain for my sins. Yeah, come on sister, it's beautiful.

Come on, it's beautiful, I see you. I see you. Yeah, he's here. Go ahead, babe. Yeah, who else? Yeah, we see you. We see you. It's okay to look with every eye open. Yeah, we don't, we do with every eye open, because you're making covenant. My wedding, I wanted everyone to see. I wanted everyone to see me and my bride.

Come on, who else? You're like, I wanna make covenant with Jesus. I'm gonna surrender my life to him completely tonight. I wanna get right with God. Just come, I'm gonna give you another minute. We're gonna stay in the spirit together.


Come on, Beautiful.

just have our ministry team, yeah, different people come grab these guys as they come.


You know, there is something about standing up in the company of the church. You're making a confession. You're like, Lord, I'm gonna get right with God. Who else? I feel like there's more. Your heart's beating out of your chest.


He is worth it.


Yes.


you

See what kind of love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God. And so we are.


The reason why the world does not know us is that it did not know him. Beloved, we are God's children now.


Beloved, we are God's children now.


and what we will be, what we will be.


has not yet appeared.


but we know that when he appears, we shall be like him.

Nailed it.

because we shall see him as he is.

Watch this, and everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure, as he is pure.


I feel the Lord is jealous for us tonight. And he's wanting to cultivate a hope not just for our hearts, but to purify us. He's wanting to purify his bride, because he's coming back for a pure and spotless bride.


And so Father, we...

We need you.


We need you to awaken hope.

a real hope in us.


in this moment, God.

which you breathe.


Holy Spirit, would you come?


Would that day, that future day of your coming, would you allow it to become so real to our hearts tonight?


Lord, we need it to be 4K HD in our hearts. We need to be able to see you coming.


Lord, we don't want to see dimly through a mirror. We want to see clearly.


God, I prophesy to the hearts of your people tonight. I prophesy to every dead place.

I prophesy the breath.


Breath of God, Huach Gadesh, Spirit of the living God, come and blow, come and blow on hearts.

Come on, if you need him to blow on your heart, just some way, somehow, present yourself before the Lord. Don't be passive. Prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded.

I just feel like it can be something as simple as just posturing yourself before the Lord. You're like, Lord, I want you to breathe on my heart.


Let's give him a chance to breathe tonight.


Jesus, you're alive in this place.

Our hope is in you tonight.


If you have the desire to run with the gospel with us, we have an initiative to get fit in 2025 in order to run well. Fit is an acronym where F stands for feasting on the gospel. And this is what we're going to be doing from January to May. We're having a feast and the table is set with the body and the blood of Jesus Christ who will sustain us for all time. We are taking time to continually remember through video courses online at Braveheart.run.

our podcast, through our in-person worship nights, through our Zoom calls, and through our weekly YouTube lives. I stands for invite. Seek the Lord and ask who else should be feasting with you. Ask him to fill your empty seats and step out and invite them into communion with the Lord in your home. And T stands for train. We are going to train those who we invite to no longer take baby steps, but to run with the gospel in full stride.

If the sound of this invitation is making something rise up in your spirit and you want to join what we are doing in 2025, the first step is to create a profile on our website, Braveheart.run, and to begin to feast on the gospel through our video courses. It's time to run. We love you guys.