WEBVTT 00:00:00.320 --> 00:00:04.240 So we're in our third week of going through the prodigal son story. 00:00:04.959 --> 00:00:09.679 Familiar with this story probably, but we've been talking about the context of three particular topics. 00:00:09.919 --> 00:00:11.199 We talked about humility. 00:00:11.359 --> 00:00:15.919 Last week we talked about grief, and this week we're going to talk about hope. 00:00:16.320 --> 00:00:19.600 So the beginning of the COVID crisis, there mid-March. 00:00:19.839 --> 00:00:30.879 I found myself, I don't know about you, checking my phone even more than normal, just checking it all the time, checking the news feed, checking for updates, checking the stock market. 00:00:31.039 --> 00:00:38.719 I would Google other churches that I love and look at what you know, what were they saying to their people and what language were they using and how were they structuring? 00:00:38.880 --> 00:00:39.280 What were they doing? 00:00:39.439 --> 00:00:40.159 How are they adapting? 00:00:40.240 --> 00:00:41.119 You know, like all of that. 00:00:41.200 --> 00:00:47.920 And I was just constantly searching, checking, googling, checking again, searching again, checking again. 00:00:48.240 --> 00:00:51.119 So I looked this week, I was kind of curious about some of this stuff. 00:00:51.200 --> 00:00:53.679 And so uh there's this organization called Bank Mysell. 00:00:53.920 --> 00:00:58.159 Bank Mysell, that's a resource organization that talks about phone addiction. 00:00:58.320 --> 00:01:02.640 It actually has a term, nomophobia is the term for phone addiction. 00:01:02.719 --> 00:01:03.600 And you felt it, right? 00:01:03.679 --> 00:01:06.480 Because you left your house without your phone and you know the feeling. 00:01:06.640 --> 00:01:08.560 And that's just a spiritual adventure, by the way. 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:17.040 If you ever leave your house without your phone, maybe you want to choose to go for that one day, just leave it at home, and just, you know, dependence on the Lord out there in the world without a phone. 00:01:17.120 --> 00:01:18.959 Uh it'll eat you up, right? 00:01:19.120 --> 00:01:22.079 So we usually check on average a smartphone user. 00:01:22.319 --> 00:01:25.599 You check you check your phone about 63 times a day. 00:01:25.680 --> 00:01:28.400 Um, and the more you Google it, like you do get a range of these. 00:01:28.480 --> 00:01:32.480 Like some people said 50, some people said 90, maybe 63 seemed to be the middle. 00:01:32.719 --> 00:01:41.680 86% of us will check our phones, just check it while you're talking to a friend or family member, right? 00:01:42.319 --> 00:01:47.120 And you've done that and you felt it when somebody did it to you, and I did it to you when we were at lunch or something. 00:01:47.200 --> 00:01:48.640 Like I did, I do it also. 00:01:48.799 --> 00:01:50.159 We all tend to do that. 00:01:50.319 --> 00:01:52.079 86% of us do it. 00:01:52.239 --> 00:01:55.760 So, what is all this constant checking about? 00:01:56.640 --> 00:01:57.840 There's a lot of reasons. 00:01:58.000 --> 00:02:05.760 For me, I was reading this book this summer by John Eldridge called All Things New, and he he, I think he hit it home in this one paragraph. 00:02:05.840 --> 00:02:08.080 We're gonna read this one paragraph by John Eldridge. 00:02:08.159 --> 00:02:10.240 He says, What is this obsession? 00:02:10.479 --> 00:02:16.800 I know we get a dopamine buzz when we receive a text, but something else is going on here. 00:02:17.280 --> 00:02:22.000 After months and months of this obsession, I think I'm beginning to understand. 00:02:22.319 --> 00:02:25.199 The thing I'm looking for is good news. 00:02:25.759 --> 00:02:28.879 We need to know that good is coming to us. 00:02:29.120 --> 00:02:38.719 We need to feel confident that a bright future is going to be given to us and never taken away, not by anyone or anything. 00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:45.280 So my hunch is that nails you like it nails me because when I get down to it, that's actually what I'm searching for in that moment. 00:02:45.360 --> 00:02:48.800 Like I'm a little anxious or I'm sad about something or I'm angry about something. 00:02:48.960 --> 00:02:54.719 It's just like, let me see if I can find some good news buried within this not so good news, and then that doesn't work. 00:02:54.800 --> 00:02:58.879 And so, you know, later on, five minutes later, I check again to try to get good news. 00:02:58.960 --> 00:03:06.080 I just want some good news, and you know the feeling because you were anxious and you did it, or you were angry and you do that, right? 00:03:06.159 --> 00:03:21.280 Or virtual learning is harder than you thought, or parenting and virtual learning is much harder than you thought, or teaching and virtual learning is harder than you thought, or work is hard, or relationships, or the election is just driving you crazy that's coming up, and you don't know what's gonna happen, and all of that. 00:03:21.360 --> 00:03:24.000 So you check again and check again and check again. 00:03:24.319 --> 00:03:26.960 And we're wired for good news. 00:03:27.759 --> 00:03:30.800 We're wired to hope in something. 00:03:32.319 --> 00:03:36.400 So let's think about this Luke 15 prodigal son story. 00:03:36.719 --> 00:03:39.759 So let me just kind of retell it again. 00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:44.639 I know I've told it the last two weeks, and you probably already know it, because it's a pretty well-known story, but I'll just rephrase it super quick. 00:03:44.719 --> 00:03:48.639 So there's a family, dad seems to be pretty wealthy, well-off guy. 00:03:48.800 --> 00:03:54.000 The younger son, this is in Luke chapter 15, the younger son comes to dad and says, How I'd like my share of the inheritance now. 00:03:54.159 --> 00:03:56.319 Usually you get your inheritance when your dad passes away. 00:03:56.479 --> 00:04:02.960 So to go early and ask for all your money, you know, that's a pretty dishonoring to the father, but the father gives it for whatever reason. 00:04:03.120 --> 00:04:06.159 It is a parable, so probably for the point of the story, the father gives it. 00:04:06.240 --> 00:04:19.519 The father gives it to the son, the son takes it, and he runs off a foreign country, and he is spending and having a great time and partying up, and he's got all these friends, and everything's going so great, right? 00:04:19.600 --> 00:04:32.560 And then the money starts to run out, the money runs out, the friends run out, the parties run out, and he finds himself working on a pig farm, longing for the food that the pigs eat, and nobody will give him anything. 00:04:33.439 --> 00:04:35.680 And then something changes in him. 00:04:36.000 --> 00:04:39.920 He starts to wonder if his dad will take him back. 00:04:40.560 --> 00:04:43.920 So there's this little bit of hope, right, in him. 00:04:44.240 --> 00:04:57.040 And this is where I'm gonna bounce from this story and let's dig into this word hope, because there's a little bit of hope in him that if I go home, can I have a confident future at home, will my dad take me back? 00:04:58.000 --> 00:05:05.199 And he prepares this I'm sorry speech, and we pick up in Luke 15, 17, which is a couple verses before what we've been reading the last two weeks. 00:05:05.360 --> 00:05:06.639 Luke 15, 17. 00:05:06.800 --> 00:05:14.079 But when he came to himself, he said, How many of my father's hired servants have more than enough bread, but I perish here with hunger? 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:20.079 I will arise and go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I've sinned against heaven and before you. 00:05:20.560 --> 00:05:22.800 I'm no longer worthy to be called your son. 00:05:23.040 --> 00:05:25.439 Treat me as one of your hired servants. 00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:36.000 And he arose and came to his father, but while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and felt compassion and ran and embraced him and kissed him. 00:05:37.199 --> 00:05:50.399 And the beautiful point of the arc of this story is not the degree of sorrow of the son, but the lavish welcome and acceptance of that love of the father for the son. 00:05:51.439 --> 00:05:59.600 And then we see it in the father as the father says, Hey, go and sacrifice the fattest calf I have, like the prize calf. 00:05:59.680 --> 00:06:04.240 Let's sacrifice that calf and let's throw a party for my son is home. 00:06:04.399 --> 00:06:15.360 And that image for us of that calf being sacrificed, like I've mentioned in the past weeks, that image is the image of God dying for our sin and the work of Christ on the cross. 00:06:15.439 --> 00:06:19.040 So we might know the party of secure relationship with Him. 00:06:19.519 --> 00:06:29.680 The calf enabled and created the party, and Christ enables through His work for us to have the party of relationship with God that is secure. 00:06:29.839 --> 00:06:33.279 Point number one is this our hope does not rest in our condition. 00:06:33.439 --> 00:06:34.240 Praise God, right? 00:06:34.560 --> 00:06:36.160 Anybody's gonna say, like, that's great. 00:06:36.240 --> 00:06:38.800 And that's the first part of it, but that's good news right there. 00:06:38.959 --> 00:06:45.519 Our hope does not rest in our condition, but in the inexhaustible love of God to us. 00:06:45.759 --> 00:06:48.079 Now that point should never get old to you. 00:06:48.240 --> 00:06:52.639 That's the point that we just keep coming back to over and over and over again. 00:06:52.879 --> 00:06:54.800 That's what we hope in. 00:06:55.279 --> 00:06:57.279 Twenty years ago, I was in college. 00:06:57.600 --> 00:07:04.720 My uncle who lives up in Seattle, that side of the family, he went to a Youth for Christ auction, like fundraiser, where they auction off different stuff. 00:07:04.800 --> 00:07:10.879 And they were auctioning off two weeks a condo on Maui in Hawaii. 00:07:11.040 --> 00:07:15.439 And so he he he like lowballed a bid, you know, like maybe we'll get it, maybe we won't. 00:07:15.600 --> 00:07:16.480 So he and he got it. 00:07:16.560 --> 00:07:19.120 He got two weeks, you know, condo on Maui. 00:07:19.279 --> 00:07:20.639 And so he calls us out in Atlanta. 00:07:20.720 --> 00:07:23.759 He says, hey, I have this condo, the first week's gonna be us, like our side of the family. 00:07:23.839 --> 00:07:31.680 But if if y'all want to come out and stay that second week, just all you have to do is cover the flight, but the condo's here, it's you know, it's waiting for you. 00:07:31.920 --> 00:07:32.800 You can come. 00:07:33.040 --> 00:07:42.480 So my mom and I, we got tickets and we flew out there and we get out there, and first day, my uncle says, Hey, while we're out here, uh, you pick one activity. 00:07:42.560 --> 00:07:44.160 I mean, this is kind of uncle you want, right? 00:07:44.240 --> 00:07:47.040 Like he says, you pick one activity, I got it, let's just go do it. 00:07:47.279 --> 00:08:04.560 So we go down to the marina, we get on a boat, we go out, I put on that harness, it's cabled into this huge coil, cable there, the back of the boat, and that driver starts to hit the gas, and I start going up and there, that chute fills, right? 00:08:04.639 --> 00:08:09.120 Like behind the boat, that parachute fills, and you're connected to the back of the boat, and I'm going up and up. 00:08:09.199 --> 00:08:12.000 At first, you're just a little bit over the water, and you get a little nervous. 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:15.519 But the boat gets going, the wind's hitting that parachute, and you're going up and up. 00:08:15.759 --> 00:08:17.199 40 stories high. 00:08:17.360 --> 00:08:25.360 At first, you could hear all the boat, you could hear you know, waves, you could hear the ocean, and then eventually you get you get so high up, it's just it's perfectly quiet. 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.639 If you've ever done that behind a boat, you know exactly what I'm talking about. 00:08:28.879 --> 00:08:30.560 It's perfectly quiet up there. 00:08:30.639 --> 00:08:40.240 You just look out, and I get up there 40 stories high, and I am tight-gripping, death gripping, like where my harness goes up to the chute. 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:42.879 I'm death grouping these ropes. 00:08:43.759 --> 00:08:48.559 Like, right, like as if my hold mattered at this point. 00:08:50.480 --> 00:08:52.799 Like it mattered at all at this point. 00:08:53.519 --> 00:08:56.879 And slowly you just sort of like settle in. 00:08:57.919 --> 00:08:58.399 Right? 00:08:58.639 --> 00:09:07.120 You trust the harness, trust the rope, trust the chute, trust the cable, trust the boat, trust the boat bolts that hold the thing to the boat. 00:09:07.200 --> 00:09:13.679 You know, you trust in a lot of them, but holding on like that, that death script, it's not really doing anything. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:19.360 And slowly you trust in the integrity and the faithfulness of all of that that's holding you. 00:09:19.519 --> 00:09:22.639 And that's our image this morning when it comes to hope. 00:09:23.120 --> 00:09:24.639 Because we have secure hope. 00:09:24.720 --> 00:09:28.159 It's not hope like maybe I can hold on tight enough long enough. 00:09:28.240 --> 00:09:40.559 It's secure hope because it's in the inexhaustible love of God to us and the finished work of Christ for us, and all that's secure and given to us no matter our condition, so we can settle into that. 00:09:41.519 --> 00:09:41.840 Right? 00:09:42.000 --> 00:09:46.080 We can live surrendered, like open-handed into that. 00:09:47.200 --> 00:09:54.320 And that's how we have hope that we are already beloved, hope we are already righteous, hope that we're always forgiven. 00:09:54.399 --> 00:09:58.879 What great things for us to settle into a freedom of knowing. 00:09:59.519 --> 00:09:59.679 St. 00:09:59.840 --> 00:10:05.039 Paul goes to an incredible extent about the greatness of hope in Romans 5, 3 through 5. 00:10:05.120 --> 00:10:05.919 Let's read this. 00:10:06.399 --> 00:10:08.559 We rejoice in our sufferings. 00:10:08.879 --> 00:10:09.200 Okay. 00:10:09.919 --> 00:10:12.399 Like, all right, let's see how this works out. 00:10:12.720 --> 00:10:21.519 Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. 00:10:21.759 --> 00:10:30.879 And hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. 00:10:31.039 --> 00:10:31.919 Now there's a lot in there. 00:10:32.000 --> 00:10:33.919 I'm not going to be able to cover all of it. 00:10:34.240 --> 00:10:37.519 In another letter, Paul says, 1 Corinthians 13, 13, right? 00:10:37.600 --> 00:10:39.279 We put on the coffee mugs and t-shirts. 00:10:39.440 --> 00:10:44.080 Only three things will last forever: faith, hope, and love. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:46.960 Hope is this word in both those passages. 00:10:47.120 --> 00:10:49.840 Hope is this Greek word that comes from El Pis. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:55.120 And here's what it means: it means confident expectation of good. 00:10:55.600 --> 00:10:57.679 And the key in there is confident. 00:10:57.759 --> 00:11:01.279 It's not questionable, it's not like can I hold on tight enough and maybe I'm gonna get tired. 00:11:01.360 --> 00:11:04.480 No, it's confident expectation of good. 00:11:04.720 --> 00:11:09.600 Confident expectation of joy and eternal salvation. 00:11:10.960 --> 00:11:17.519 One of my favorite quotes from my wife, and she told me this, and I quote her, I quote you right there. 00:11:17.919 --> 00:11:27.120 Russ, sometimes the only reason I wake up in the morning is knowing I can have a nap in the afternoon. 00:11:27.440 --> 00:11:28.080 Right? 00:11:28.480 --> 00:11:32.159 So confidence in something good comes. 00:11:32.240 --> 00:11:36.159 The only reason I'm even gonna wake up out of sleep is knowing I can go back to sleep later. 00:11:36.240 --> 00:11:37.840 Like that's how good sleep is. 00:11:38.000 --> 00:11:43.360 So confidence in something later can affect right now. 00:11:43.600 --> 00:11:44.879 And napping is powerful. 00:11:45.039 --> 00:11:45.440 Amen. 00:11:45.600 --> 00:11:46.080 We love that. 00:11:46.240 --> 00:11:47.600 That's a grace of God to us. 00:11:47.759 --> 00:11:53.440 And hope is powerful because hope, expectation of good in the future. 00:11:53.679 --> 00:11:56.320 Hope can affect us now. 00:11:57.600 --> 00:12:02.080 Verse 5, it says that the power of hope it actually shows up into our shame. 00:12:02.559 --> 00:12:04.240 It can speak something to our shame. 00:12:04.320 --> 00:12:06.559 And shame is that feeling that we aren't enough. 00:12:06.720 --> 00:12:13.600 Shame says, um, shame says to us, you're not a worthy person who messes up. 00:12:14.559 --> 00:12:16.159 You are a mess up. 00:12:17.759 --> 00:12:30.960 Shame says, if people really knew me, like if you really knew it, other than my pretending and performance and if you really knew me, you wouldn't love me. 00:12:32.320 --> 00:12:35.679 And verse 5 says, hope does not put us to shame. 00:12:36.000 --> 00:12:37.279 Hope doesn't do that. 00:12:37.440 --> 00:12:39.519 Hope doesn't have those voices. 00:12:40.559 --> 00:12:42.159 Point number two is this. 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:45.279 Our hope is in secure love. 00:12:45.360 --> 00:12:50.080 And I capitalize that because that means God in Jesus for us. 00:12:50.240 --> 00:12:57.440 Our hope is in secure love who fully accepts us and begins to heal us of our shame. 00:12:57.759 --> 00:13:03.360 The work of God for us speaks to our sin and speaks to our shame. 00:13:04.159 --> 00:13:06.960 And this verse tells us we don't have a shaming God. 00:13:07.039 --> 00:13:08.080 That's not what we have. 00:13:08.320 --> 00:13:13.759 Maybe you came from a church or a place that that's what they did and how they motivated you is by using shame. 00:13:13.840 --> 00:13:21.120 But that's that's not what we have here because what it says here is that hope actually shows up to speak against your shame and heal you from your shame. 00:13:21.279 --> 00:13:26.799 That's what the love of God to us does inside of us by the work of the Holy Spirit. 00:13:27.039 --> 00:13:30.960 Because God in you, the Holy Spirit knows you, knows all of you. 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:34.159 Like the Father knew this rebellious son coming home. 00:13:34.320 --> 00:13:35.759 He says, I you're home. 00:13:35.840 --> 00:13:36.320 I love you. 00:13:36.399 --> 00:13:40.960 I know, I know, yeah, I know you've been rebelling, and I still welcome you. 00:13:41.759 --> 00:13:47.759 And the Holy Spirit is inside of us to counsel us, convict us, guide us, speak to us. 00:13:48.240 --> 00:13:51.440 But it's not going to be voices of shame. 00:13:51.840 --> 00:13:56.960 It's gonna be speaking us to greater places of holiness and freedom for our hearts. 00:13:57.120 --> 00:13:58.000 Last point. 00:13:58.240 --> 00:14:01.200 And this last point usually doesn't mean much, I'll be honest. 00:14:01.360 --> 00:14:06.399 It doesn't usually mean much to most of us unless uh you've been in touch with the valley. 00:14:06.559 --> 00:14:18.159 And what I mean by that is like unless you almost died, or your loved one almost died, you've been really sick, or you've had incredible depression, or life hasn't been good, or you lost the job, or you went bankrupt. 00:14:18.240 --> 00:14:22.960 I mean, until you hit that point, this point doesn't mean a lot. 00:14:23.440 --> 00:14:30.639 Point number three is this in the gospel party, we have confidence in the coming joy-filled heaven. 00:14:31.840 --> 00:14:39.200 I was reading Eldridge's book, All Things New, while I was in the mountains this summer and I was hiking and I was fishing every day. 00:14:39.279 --> 00:14:40.399 And so that's my heaven. 00:14:40.480 --> 00:14:42.000 I'm gonna be honest, like that's it. 00:14:42.080 --> 00:14:56.320 Like, there's nothing better than every day you wake up and the only decision you make is what hike, how long, let's pack the bag and the camel back and the snacks, or where we're gonna fish, and how long we're gonna fish and what flies we're gonna use. 00:14:56.480 --> 00:14:57.519 That is heaven. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:03.279 And then every afternoon, late afternoon, get back to home base, get back to that condo. 00:15:03.360 --> 00:15:09.360 And I'd be reading this Eldridge book, and the back half of the book's about heaven. 00:15:09.679 --> 00:15:13.519 And at first I'm going, ah, you know, like, you know, that's so far off. 00:15:13.840 --> 00:15:16.000 Ah, that feels so abstract. 00:15:16.720 --> 00:15:19.600 And he's just laying it out there more and more and more. 00:15:19.759 --> 00:15:33.919 And not just the physicality of it, but like the experience that we'll have, where joy is actually complete, where all the shoulds and the should-ofs are gone. 00:15:35.919 --> 00:15:44.399 And sadness and hurt is restored, and we live in immaculate and perpetual and perfect joy. 00:15:44.639 --> 00:15:47.519 I mean, that sounds too good to be true. 00:15:48.559 --> 00:15:50.399 It's ultimate relief, is what it is. 00:15:50.480 --> 00:16:01.440 I mean, that's something we have in front of us at some point, maybe later today, or maybe 20 or 50 years from now, but it is there waiting for us, and it can speak to us now. 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:07.279 We have confident expectation of a joy-filled heaven. 00:16:07.759 --> 00:16:09.759 And we have hope in that. 00:16:10.159 --> 00:16:14.639 I close with reading Revelation 21, 3 through 5 from the message Bible. 00:16:14.720 --> 00:16:19.679 So this is John writing visionary language of heaven. 00:16:20.960 --> 00:16:23.919 I heard a voice thunder from the throne. 00:16:24.480 --> 00:16:30.159 Look, look, God has moved into the neighborhood, making his home with men and women. 00:16:30.799 --> 00:16:32.159 They're his people. 00:16:32.559 --> 00:16:33.679 He's their God. 00:16:34.399 --> 00:16:37.679 He'll wipe every tear from their eyes. 00:16:38.240 --> 00:16:40.000 Death is gone for good. 00:16:40.639 --> 00:16:42.559 Tears, gone. 00:16:42.879 --> 00:16:45.679 Crying, gone, pain, gone. 00:16:46.399 --> 00:16:49.279 All the first order of things gone. 00:16:49.679 --> 00:16:51.440 The enthroned continued. 00:16:51.759 --> 00:16:54.960 Look, I'm making everything new. 00:16:55.440 --> 00:16:56.399 Write it all down. 00:16:56.799 --> 00:17:00.080 Each word dependable and accurate. 00:17:00.639 --> 00:17:01.600 Let's pray together. 00:17:01.919 --> 00:17:08.400 God, thank you that your word to us is dependable and accurate, both your Bible and Jesus. 00:17:09.200 --> 00:17:37.440 Your word to us, your promised word to us, that in Him we have confident, confident, fully confident hope that we are enough before you, fully forgiven, fully righteous, and we are headed to a place where all the fear will be gone, all the tears will be wiped away, and all of our sadness and hurt will be restored. 00:17:38.799 --> 00:17:49.200 Would you help our lives today be affected by the hope that we have in who you call us and the place that you will take us in Jesus' name? 00:17:49.440 --> 00:17:50.079 Amen.