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If you have a Bible with you, please pull it out and open to Luke chapter 24. We're in verses 1 through 35. In the likely event that you did not bring a Bible, we do have the text on the screen, and I hope it is sufficiently large for everyone. Let's pray before we begin. Jesus, what a joyous morning. When we get to focus on the best page of the story. That the morning in history that actually gives us hope, we get to celebrate today. Be with us as we open your word. Open our eyes and as well, our ears and our spiritual eyes as well. In Jesus' name. Amen. Question. Can a human being live without hope? Should we consider hope like we consider water? If you don't have water, you don't live for very long. And here's what I'm going to define hope as, and there's many, many definitions, but hope is something in the future, right? Something you expect in the future that makes dealing with present pain worth it. I'll tell you what I mean. I'm going to date myself right now. In 1992, I got a free ticket to go to the Lollapalooza festival, which is still happening, by the way, but it was a touring festival with kind of a lot of the top bands of the day. And midday, Pearl Jam played. We've all heard of Pearl Jam, and they absolutely burned the place down. They're amazing, right? Like everyone's going nuts. And then as soon as Pearl Jam's done, the big amphitheater clears out, and on comes a band that is now forgotten. Pretty good band though, Jesus and Mary Chain. And they're a pretty cool band, but they were having a terrible gig. It was just really bad. There was like just a handful of people left in the amphitheater, and we were all sitting. It was midday. I think a lot of what people had taken in the morning had worn off at that point, if you know what I'm saying. And I myself, who was not on anything, was still, I was languid. It was hot, direct sun, Southern California, midsummer, and uh this gig was not going good. So much so there were this English band that the singer notices that this is not going well. He starts yelling at the audience.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

And he just says, You blankety blank blankets, if you don't like the blankety blank blank, then the exits white blankety there.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

And I said, That's sound advice, actually. I'm not sure I want to stay here because this is not fun at all. But I stayed right where he was. You know why? Because the next band was up with Soundgarden. Some of you have heard of them, and they're awesome. And after that, Red Hot Chili Peppers, who we all know, and I was excited for them. Worth staying where I was. I did not want to lose my prime spot, right, in the general admission. So I was gonna stick it out through Jesus and Mary chain so that I could be in prime position for Soundgarden, Red Hot Chili Peppers. It's an expectation of something that's coming that makes dealing with the present pain worth it. Can we live without it? If you don't have that, if you don't expect something in the future that makes dealing with present pain worth it, can you make it through life? Because here's the thing. If we were to suddenly take all of the secret pains in this room, the daily battles that each and every one of you fight, and we were to lay them on the table, we'd say, wow. That is a lot to deal with. And the question is, what makes it worth dealing with that? What makes dealing with the brokenness of the world worth it? Possible? How do you get through that? When life starts being more trial than it is fun, what do you hold on to? Where do you turn? And and this is a really present and pressing issue for us as a society. Did you know that what they call deaths of despair, that is the absence of hope, have doubled in the last two decades. It's over a hundred thousand people a year dying of despair, and that's that's not to mention all of the people who are also addicted. There's up to 20 million people who have a serious substance addiction, and there's about, or yeah, 20 million, and about two million people attempt suicide every year. Those are deaths of despair that haven't happened yet. It would seem that we're in desperate need of hope. Where can we find it? Because here's the thing. I could say this now that I'm creeping on 50. When you're younger, and some of you are, you're just like, I'm not sure. Something good's gonna happen, so I'm gonna hang it. Even if this is hard now, the future, it's gonna be better. For some reason, I don't know why. But you kind of run out of the future's coming, and now the future is just here. You hit that point in your life, and guess who the most despairing people in America are? It's men my age. Because all those future promises, you're out of runway, and here you are. What do you do then? Some of us are right there. And I am I have laid a finger on something that's pretty raw for you. You don't know where to turn for hope. Some of us are bothered by this question because you usually just spend your days distracting yourself with digital whatever bonbons. I don't know. Is there bonbons on the market anymore? Those used to be the thing that you turned to when you were in emotional pain. I feel like they need to come back. So now you are in a church and it is Easter, so you know I'm gonna say to hope in the Christ's resurrection. To hope in Christ's resurrection, but there's a few questions that arise. First of all, is it real? Is that a hope I can actually pin my hopes on? Also, what difference does it make? Why is that a hope? And then how does that help me? Is that a hope for me? Let's get into the text together. In Luke chapter 24, we're gonna uh back up just a couple of verses before to get a bigger context, uh, looking at 2355. It says, the women who had come with him from Galilee followed and saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned and prepared spices and ointments. On the Sabbath they rested according to the commandments. So these are the women who were there for the crucifixion of Jesus and they follow to the tomb to see where he's laid. And then I, you know, I mean it just says they rested on Saturday and prepared ointments. How do you, if that happened to you, if you're one of your the people closest to you in the world, someone you love dearly, but was also someone you expected to be the Savior, gets crucified? What's your I call that the worst Saturday in the history of the world for those people. Right? You're just heart sick, gut sick, and weeping. And so that brings us to the next verse and the next morning. This is on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they went to the tomb, taking the spices they had prepared. And they found the stone rolled away from the tomb. But when they went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. While they were perplexed about this, behold, two men stood by them in dazzling apparel. So I want to call your attention to the fact that they find an empty tomb. What's their first thought? Being perplexed. Not he's risen. Right? Two men stood by them in dazzling apparel, and as they were frightened and bowed their faces to the ground, the men said to them, Why do you seek the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you while he was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified on the third day, and on the third day rise. And they remembered his words. And returning from the tomb, they told all these things to the eleven, that is, the apostles, and to all the rest, the other disciples that were together. Now it was, this is the women who first discovered the empty tomb, Mary Magdalene and Joanna, and Mary, the mother of James, and the other women with them who told these things to the apostles. Okay, so the apostles, these were the most in-the-know people, they were gonna get this. Right? They're like, oh yeah, we see that in the scriptures all along. Look at what they look how they respond. These words seem to them an idle tale, and they did not believe them. So the first response of the people who hear this who hear the good news is, is it real? They don't think it's real. There's a little hint that someone has suspicions. Look at verse 12. But Peter rose and ran to the tomb, stooping and looking in. He saw the linen cloths by themselves and he went home marveling at what had happened. Now, it doesn't say believing, it doesn't say rejoicing, he's marveling. That's, huh, what the heck is going on? Could it be? Now, why is the linen mentioned in the Gospel of John? John spends a lot of time on the linen. I think most Grace and Peace people who've been here for a while know about the linen, right? But the rest of you don't. You're like, why is the linen mentioned? And why is why does it say Peter saw the linen and he went he marveled? Because the most likely explanation for why a tomb would be empty where you're expecting to find an embalmed body is grave robbers. It was a huge problem at this time. There was an imperial decree from about this time that punishes grave robbing with death because it was such a huge pervasive problem. Now, if you were a grave robber, what were you looking for in said grave? The answer is spices. And where were the spices? They were soaked into the linen. So if you were a grave robber, you might take the corpse and the linen, you might take the linen, leave the corpse. The thing you would not do is say it with me, take the corpse and leave the linen. Yes, exactly. Um that's the beginnings of a game show, I think. Take the corpse and leave the linen. So, the initial response of the apostles is this is strange. Could it be real? Right? Not, he's risen. And if we're to find something that is going to give us hope, we have to reckon with the question, is it real? Because if it's if it's a disappointment, if it's not real, then it will only be a disappointment. It'll be does anybody remember Firefest from a few years ago? I know millennials try and forget it. But this was the apex of your generation, Firefest. For those of you who don't know, Firefest started with a media bonanza. All the influencers were going. All the Kardashians and the Jenners and the such and such, and this person who does this thing. They were all telling you how lit Firefest was gonna be. And and and and what Firefest was, it was a it was a musical, festival, millennial experience on a Caribbean island. And there was gonna be luxury accommodations and gourmet food and kangae and blinkland 82 and and supermodels as far as the eye could see, right? And it was gonna be it was gonna be the apex experience of your life. And all you had to do was buy get buy a plane ticket. They didn't even include the plane ticket and the price. But for as little as$10,000, you you could come to Firefest for the life-fulfilling experience. And and if you really want to get saucy and really want to be fulfilled, you can go for the$400,000 package. No joke. And people did. And they came in drones. And you know what they found? This thing that had been built up that they were like, I don't care.

SPEAKER_00 12:34

I will take all of my trust fund and I will go to Firefest.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

They found out that those luxury accommodations, I brought a picture, uh, were FEMA tents. No joke. And that the gourmet food was low-end cafeteria fair. And that not only was not Kanye there, like not even his assistant was there. There was nothing there. It was a hope that they set their hearts on. That wasn't real. An essential question for any hope is is it real? What are we hoping? How do you know that that hope won't disappoint? You know, the one of the hopes that I hear is the kind of the hope of human progress and evolution. Yes, things are hard and the world's always been broken, and but we're, through technology and just human beings getting generally better morally, we're gonna solve all those problems, including death. No joke, if you if you this is what Silicon Valley's working on right now, is making deathless CEOs. It's not gonna be for you or me, but they they are trying to solve the problem of death. Really? Human progress? Human beings getting better? Have you seen Real Housewives? This is this is our trajectory that we're putting hope in. I'm sorry for Real Housewives fan, but you know it's not it's not because of their being morally advanced that you watch it. We have to ask, if we're gonna put our hope in the resurrection of Jesus, is there a reason to believe it's real? For some of us, you know, our understanding is that sort of faith is opposite to evidence, facts, rationality, that sort of thing. And that in order to believe, you've got to kind of check your rationality and you gotta, you know, it's it's one or the other. You can't do both. And uh, for those of you who know me, that that would be a huge problem for me. And for a lot of you. And so, are there any reasons to think that the resurrection is real? Now, I over-prepared for this part, so I'm gonna take a quick poll. Do we want a good amount of this or only a little? Just a little? Alright, Sam says only a little. Okay. Are there reasons to believe that Jesus really did rise from the dead, not in some sort of like check your brain and just believe way, but actually, really, if you were there that day, you you know, you would have found the empty tomb and everything else. Well, here's three things that historians agree on that even the ones who don't believe he rose, here's what they agree on. Jesus was crucified. They all agree on that. That after his crucifixion, his following grew exponentially instead of scattering. So, for instance, uh there's a famous the Barkatchba revolt, which was another wannabe Messiah who got killed. His followers scattered after his death, as is the case with every other wannabe messiah. But when this, so supposedly wannabe Messiah, was crucified, his followers increased. That is not contested, that is considered historical fact. And also that his disciples claim to have seen him alive. Now, if we're gonna say, how do we how would we know if someone rose from the dead? Well, how would you? Like what sort of evidence would it leave? It wouldn't leave archaeological evidence, right? No, that's the whole point. Nothing there. Um so you'd hope that you'd have people see it, see him alive, and then write it down, correct? And we'd also hope that you wouldn't have a contrary account, meaning, no, I saw his body in the tomb, these people are making it up. Alright, that is what we do have. We have six primary sources for the resurrection of Christ, some of them I witness. We have 13 secondary historical sources, and we have zero contrary. Just for comparison, the great battle of Thermopylae, the 300 and all that, we have one secondary source. For Hannibal crossing the Alps, we have one primary. For the existence of Alexander the Great, four secondary, no primary. Okay, for the Battle of Zama, where Hannibal was defeated, we have one primary, no archaeological evidence. Huge battle, right? You're supposed to find weapons, bones, all that stuff. There's nothing. But no one doubts any of those. Why? Right? Because we have good we th that is considered really solid evidence. It's just that when we come to the resurrection of Jesus, people have a pre-commitment. It can't be true. So it doesn't matter how much evidence you you you pile up, if someone says it just can't be true, then there's gonna be a reason why all those people are mistaken. Does that make sense? So it's not a matter of a lack of evidence. There's tons of evidence. It's a matter of your faith. If you have a faith pre-commitment that people that it's impossible that Jesus could rise from the dead, no amount of evidence could convince you. And now we're not talking about reason now, are we? We're not talking about rationality and evidence, we're talking about a faith. Here's my question. If you believe it's impossible for a human being to rise from death, what if there was a God? If there's a God that made all things, right, could would would it then be possible that that God who made all things could also give life to someone who had died? The answer is, of course, there's nothing irrational about that at all. Right? So really it's not a matter of reason and it's not a matter of evidence. It is a matter of what have you committed to in your heart. If you say it can't be, fine, you're within your rights, but you are shutting your eyes to the evidence. There is solid reason and evidence to believe that Christ's resurrection is real. It's something that we can put our hope in without needing to check our brains at the door. We can believe that it's real and not fire fest. Now the next question is: well, what does it change? Why does that matter? That's cool. I mean, I think it means something, but what? Why is it a reason to hope? Let's continue on in the text from verse 13. Says that very day two of them, that's two disciples, were going to a village named Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. And they were talking with each other about all these things that had happened. While they were talking and discussing together, Jesus himself drew near and went with them, but their eyes were kept from recognizing him. And he said to them, What is this conversation that you are holding with each other as you walk? And they stood still, looking sad. Now, try and get inside the hearts and heads of these two disciples. All of their hopes have been pinned on Jesus, and then they had seen him crucified and dead. So all of their hope is gone. Says then one of them, named Cleopus, answered him, Are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened there in these days? And he said to them, What things? Now Jesus is just messing with him at this point. And they said to him, Concerning Jesus of Nazareth, a man who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and rulers delivered him up to be condemned to death and crucified him. But we had hoped that he was the one to redeem Israel. Yes, and besides all that, it is now the third day since these things happened. Moreover, some women of our company amazed us. They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find the body, they came back saying that they had even seen a vision of angels who said that he was alive. Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but him they did not see. And he said to them, O foolish ones and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Okay, so if Jesus has been crucified, these guys are hopeless. They're saying, you know, all the hopes that we had, if he is just crucified, if he is just dead, it there's no point in anything. There's no hope left. And that's really true. If Christ is not risen, I know of no reason not to despair. Look at how look at what happens in verse 25 or 26. He says, Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And beginning with Moses, that's all the way the beginning of the Old Testament, and all the prophets, that's the rest of the Old Testament. He interpreted to them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. So what Jesus is saying here is that his death and resurrection was the plan all along. It it's and that makes all the Difference in the world for how we place our hope. It's kind of like there was um back in 1943, during the Second World War, of course, uh the German uh the Germans who were occupying all of Europe at that point, they were um they were preparing for what they knew was coming, an Allied invasion of Italy. The main question was are the Allies gonna invade the island of Sicily and then go to Italy or Sardinia? They thought Sicily more likely, so they had most of their defenses on Sicily, but they found floating in the water some miles offshore the dead body of a downed British airman named William Captain Martin. And inside, there we go. They found his ID card, they found, you know, uh pocket change, notes that he wrote to himself, um, an opera ticket, a dry cleaning ticket, and also even a picture of his fiance. And sewn into his jacket was a secret communication that they were trying to get through, and when they cracked the code, they discovered the allies are coming to Sardinia. So whatever hopes depended on that communication getting through were dashed. Got it? Right? So what the Germans did is they re removed they moved their defenses from Sicily to Sardinia. That hope of invading through Sardinia is dead. Do we all agree? Except that that was the plan. There was no William Captain Martin. British intelligence said, Hey, how could we get them to move? We really want to invade Sicily, how do we get them to move to Sardinia? And one of them said, I know. We'll have them intercept, you know, they found a guy who had died of tuberculosis, so it looked like he drowned. They invented the ID card, the identity, right, that he likes opera. The the picture of his fiancé was one of the secretaries of British intelligence. And and they they purposefully put that that that encoded message in his jacket so they would find it, crack it, and say, Oh, they're coming to Sardinia. And Sicily went much easier. So, if if the plan is foiled, there is no hope. But if that was the plan all along, there's great reason to hope. What this is saying is that, yeah, if Jesus is only crucified, then there is no hope. But if that was the plan all along that he would be crucified and then rise, there it is, there is great reason to hope. The resurrection changes everything, it turns despair into hope. Look, I I don't get the whole, yeah, I don't believe Jesus rose, but listen to what he said. I don't get that. Because this is just a guy who got out there, said a bunch of things, and got himself killed.

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Right?

SPEAKER_01 25:08

If you want advice on how to get crucified, follow Jesus. It doesn't make any sense without the resurrection. It's best ignored without the resurrection. Without the resurrection, the world is just as bleak and broken as it seems. But if Christ is risen, that changes everything. If Christ is risen, it means there is a remedy for the brokenness of the world. If Christ is risen, it means that God has a plan of redemption that is not stopped even by the crucifixion. In fact, it's accomplished by the crucifixion. And that means this plan is not done. And it means that there is redemption coming in the future. If Christ is risen, it means there's a back door out of death. Like, let's keep it real. We know that death waits for each and every single one of us, and it's something that has to be faced. What hope is there? Think of the difference of how you understand your life if there is no resurrection or if there is one. Because if you are gonna rise as Jesus rose, and that is the promise of Scripture, it means that no matter what happens to your body breaking down, no matter what happens to you in terms of persecution, no matter how broken the world is, no matter how how just fallen apart your life is, it means there is remedy coming. It means there is hope beyond this life for you. It is someplace that you can put your hope because Christ's resurrection changes everything. It turns a purposeless life into a purposeful life because we are invited to join him in the redemption of all things. And the last question is is this hope? Yes, it yes, there's good reason to believe it's real, and it does change everything, but is it for me? What are the qualifications? Um there's a story told by uh the great black intellectual W.E.B. Du Bois. Du Bois. Du Bois, it's like voice. About uh, you know, he uh he grew up in Massachusetts and he went to school with mainly white kids. And there was one day at the schoolhouse where they were, they had they had like grown-up calling cards made. And they were going to each other saying, huh, my call, my call, you know, couldn't see me, but like having fun with it. And he took his card and uh and he he presented it to uh a young girl, you know, his age. He described her as a stringy-haired newcomer, and she refused it. And she didn't just refuse it, she refused it with like a shocked glance, like, why would you think that you could give your card to me? And that was the moment he realized that he was different from the others. He described it as a veil descending around him and shutting him out of their world. And he says, This it dawned on me with a certain suddenness that I was different from the others, like mayhap in heart and life and longing, but shut out of their world by a vast veil. For the world I longed for and all their dazzling opportunities were theirs, not mine. When we think about the hope that the world offers us, it is always on the other side of a veil. It is for some and not others. Well, you just find your passion in life, and once you find your passion, you know, you'll and you do your passion for your job, you'll never work a day in your life. There's your hope. That's great. If you can do that, that's wonderful, but let's recognize that is quite a luxury, especially in world history. What's the number one job in world history and on the planet today? Dollar a day farmer. Sustenance subsistence farmer. Okay? They can't try and fail and discover their passion unless they're really passionate about growing that turnip. Right? Oh, well, you find your soulmate, you build a family. I highly recommend it if you can do it. That's not everybody. Right? For some of us, that didn't work out. For some of us, we're still single, and it doesn't look like we're getting married. So that hope is not available to everybody. There's a veil around it. Well, you know, uh, you just stay fit, and you go to this class and this class and the soul cycle and the hot yoga, which seems gross. And you just, you know, you just build that beautiful, healthy body. You'll feel so good all the time, you'll glow because you put this compound on your face, or whatever. And that's great if you're able-bodied. Some people aren't born able-bodied. That's great if you're young, you start to break down and you reach a certain point where all your training and fitness is just delaying the inevitable. Right? There's a veil around that hope. Well, just live your life to the fullest. You know, travel to Spain, eat spicy food, dive off cliffs wherever you can find them. Great! Glad if you can. That's for a very precious feel. That is for a micro-crusted elite, isn't it? That is not a hope for everybody. That's a hope within a veil. Is there a hope? That is for all, not just for those inside the veil. Look with me at verses 28. I'm following. So so they drew near to the village to which they were going. He acted as if he were going further, again, Jesus messing with them, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with us, for it is toward evening and the day is now far spent. So he went in to stay with them. When he was at table with them, he took the bread and blessed and broke it and gave it to them. Now that is exactly what he did at the Last Supper. He blessed bread, broke it, and gave it to them. And you know what he said to them? He said, This is my body, it is for you. Plural, you. And that is not just for the people at the table, that is for the reader as well. Okay, the body of Jesus is for you. He offers himself to you. Get it? And this is this is how important this is. It says, and their eyes were opened, and they recognized him as soon as he did the breaking, the blessing, and the for you thing. And he vanished from their sight. They said to each other, Did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road? While he opened to us the scriptures? And they rose that same hour at nighttime, not advisable, and returned to Jerusalem. They found the eleven and those who were with him that with them gathered together, saying, The Lord has risen indeed, and has appeared to Simon, and they told what had happened on the road and how he was known to them in the breaking of the bread. So what do they do? As soon as they realize the good news, as soon as they realize he's risen, they're like, You didn't travel at night in the ancient world, guys. Bad idea, really dangerous, and they're like, We gotta go. And they start doing what? They start proclaiming. And and when Jesus eats with them in the next passage, he sends them out to all of the nations. Now, if you were if you were an ancient reader, here's what you would notice about Jesus' followers and the people who hear the gospel. One, the first people to discover and discover the empty tomb and hear the gospel were women. Okay? And also that Jesus was a rabbi that took female disciples. That was absolutely unheard of. Right? So gender just didn't matter. That hope was for women as well as men. Also, he sends his disciples to every nation, not just the Jews, also unheard of. Ethnicity did not matter. His disciples were overwhelmingly poor people, not the elites. And when you look at the early church, the thing that was most shocking is that slaves were in there and they were treated just the same as everybody else. This is a hope that is not for those within a veil. This is a hope for all people. The resurrection, the hope of the resurrection. It's not only real, it not only changes everything, but it is for you. You know what the qualifications are for following Jesus, for pinning your hopes on the resurrection? You have to be human. Sorry if you're an AI. It's common, guys. You have to be a sinner. If you are morally perfect, you are disqualified from Christianity. Sorry. So if you are non-morally perfect, if you are a sinner in need of forgiveness, you are qualified. And you have to be someone who is going to die. Oh, all of you. All of us. That is who gets to pin their hopes on the resurrection. A lot of you guys think, a lot of us think, that, and it's presented this way, that Christianity is some sort of club for the for the hard right righteous people. Now, are hard right people in the kingdom? Yes, but not righteous ones. You know why? Self-righteousness is the only thing that we that, like if you if you believe that you're already righteous and have no need of forgiveness, that's what keeps you out of the kingdom. It is for anyone who believes, regardless of your class, regardless of your ethnic group, your political tribe, whatever, it doesn't matter. There is no veil around the gospel. It is a hope for everyone. We need to hope in Christ's resurrection because it is real, it changes everything, and it is for you. When you're tired of your daily battle, when you've reached a point in life where you anticipate that what's coming is gonna be hard. Not as fun as it once was. When you don't look to the future and see something that gives you hope. When your present problems have piled so high that you just wish you had an escape hatch. What is gonna get you through? Put your hope in Christ's resurrection. We need hope. We can't live without it. Where are you gonna find it? Is it gonna hold up against the rigors of the daily battle? I want to tell you, lastly, this is the close. There was once uh there was once a um poet, theologian, and journalist named Julia Escabel. And uh she was uh she's from Guatemala, and uh in the in the 1980s and 90s, the Guatemalan government was actually carrying out a genocide against the Mayan indigenous population. As many as 200,000 people died. 600 villages were destroyed in the mountains. And Julia, she joined the resistance. She was not a fighter, she was right around here, not a fighter. And she published newspaper articles internationally trying to call attention, trying to speak out against this. There were threats against her life every day. She was almost kidnapped at once. She had to live on the run for a while, but she still persisted. How? How did she have so much courage? Well, one of her poems is one of my favorites, and it shows that her hope is in the resurrection. It's called They Have Threatened Us with Resurrection. That was her response to the threats to kill her. You've threatened me with resurrection. I'm gonna read you just a bit of it. She says, It is the earthquake soon to come that will shake the world and put everything in its place. No, brother, it is not the noise in the streets which does not let us sleep. Join us in this vigil, and you will know what it is to dream. Then you will know how marvelous it is to live threatened with resurrection, to dream awake, to keep watch asleep, to live while dying, and to know ourselves already resurrected. Please pray with me. God, that we would put our hope in your resurrection, that we would pin our hopes nowhere else. All these other hopes disappoint. They are not real, they change nothing. They are available to only very few. I pray that we would invest our whole hearts in this hope. In Jesus' name. Amen.