SPEAKER_00: Every Sunday at Northwest Church of the Nazarene in Columbus, Ohio, a congregation is challenged to grow spiritually.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast shares the sermons, insights, and messages that encourage our congregation to mature spiritually.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the title for today's message is Raised into Hope.
SPEAKER_01: But when I looked at that video that we just watched and saw all of those sentences and all of those references about hope, I was very much reminded of how often I have seen that.
SPEAKER_01: I have seen how many times I I've read those words, and I do believe in them, and I do believe in what they said.
SPEAKER_01: And I often have received those, but I don't know if I always truly and fully got it, truly and fully understand it.
SPEAKER_01: See, the problem that we face with these kind of words is when we hear about hope, when we talk about hope, when we experience hope, it's just something that we attribute to, well, these are when things are going well.
SPEAKER_01: Or when we talk about the hope of God is just something that we truly understand it, believe it, but to completely grasp it, we need to sometimes have to go through trials.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what we're going to be talking about today.
SPEAKER_01: How the trials is going to build our hope.
SPEAKER_01: You see, it's good to know that there's hope, but where is that excitement?
SPEAKER_01: Where is that power of transforming hope that is changing us, changing our lives, changing us.
SPEAKER_01: So today we're going to be looking into a passage.
SPEAKER_01: It was written 30 years after Jesus ascended into heaven, 30 years after Jesus was crucified on a cross, 30 years after Jesus rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: So 30 years have passed.
SPEAKER_01: And if we can imagine a period of 30 years and how much has gone on, how much the world has changed, how much has been done and believed and understood and experienced, we realize that a lot had changed by then.
SPEAKER_01: See, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit came into the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples went out throughout the world sharing about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And the gospel spread like wildfire.
SPEAKER_01: The people of God became known as the people of the way.
SPEAKER_01: And as they went, many came to know Jesus, many came to be transformed, many came to receive the hope and the glory of God.
SPEAKER_01: However, that came with a price.
SPEAKER_01: And we read in the book of Peter, on the first Peter, that there were situations in which spouses would leave them because of their newfound faith, unbelieving spouses.
SPEAKER_01: And we read that in chapter 3, verses 1 and 6.
SPEAKER_01: We see neighbors despising them, we see bosses mistreating them.
SPEAKER_01: We see people losing their lands.
SPEAKER_01: And eventually many were expelled, kicked out, removed from their homes in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: And so they went as far as they went into Asian, what is today modern-day Turkey.
SPEAKER_01: As they went, they went suffering a great deal of issues.
SPEAKER_01: Not only physical through the persecution, but emotional through the loss of loved ones who despise them, and all that for the faith in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: All that because they believed in God.
SPEAKER_01: You can imagine the form of discouragement that they were going through.
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if I could withstand that, losing my family, losing my land, losing everything I have because I decided to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And yet these people were facing great trials and they were discouraged.
SPEAKER_01: You know, after a while there's a breaking point.
SPEAKER_01: Even if you believe in Jesus, after a while there's a breaking point.
SPEAKER_01: So Peter writes to them about a new hope.
SPEAKER_01: No, this is not a hope that we have that things will get better.
SPEAKER_01: This is not a hope that, you know, everything is going to be just fine.
SPEAKER_01: This is a hope that's deeper than that.
SPEAKER_01: This is a hope that transforms.
SPEAKER_01: You see, because when we think about hope, we think, well, it would be nice if this would happen.
SPEAKER_01: I wish this would happen.
SPEAKER_01: But when the New Testament speaks about hope, it's the opposite of hopefulness.
SPEAKER_01: It's the assurance that God will be in the future.
SPEAKER_01: So the hope is not in what we are able to attribute.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what we are able to believe, it's not what we are able to perceive or understand.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is not on us.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is not on our abilities.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is in who holds tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is in God who holds tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: It's not on what we are able to do, able to accomplish, or have accomplished.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is not wishful thinking, then thinking, well, hopefully I'll get to win the lottery.
SPEAKER_01: The hope is in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that was the hope that transformed people, not the wishful thinking that we have.
SPEAKER_01: Because if hope is life, then everything changes.
SPEAKER_01: So today, as we consider the word, we consider the people who receive this word.
SPEAKER_01: So we put ourselves in a place of people who have lost everything, who are going through difficult times, who have suffered a great deal, as we consider God's word for us.
SPEAKER_01: So if you'd stand with me today as we read the word of the Lord, and as we uh consider uh the first book of Peter, chapter one, we're gonna read verses three all the way to verse nine.
SPEAKER_01: And thus say the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In his great mercy, he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade.
SPEAKER_01: This inheritance is kept in heaven for you, who through faith are shielded by God's power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time.
SPEAKER_01: In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials.
SPEAKER_01: These have come so that the proven genuinousness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, which perish even though refined by fire, may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
SPEAKER_01: Though you have not seen him, you love him.
SPEAKER_01: And even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven, I pray I pray for your presence.
SPEAKER_01: I pray for your movement, I pray for your challenge, but above all, Father, I pray that you are God to us to come and transform us, come and lift us, that we may experience the symbol that comes from you.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, we pray this in your Son Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
SPEAKER_01: You may be seated.
SPEAKER_01: We find in this passage that the resurrection changes everything.
SPEAKER_01: We have heard this before.
SPEAKER_01: We have heard this at Easter, we have heard this every time we we consider or read about the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: But the problem that we have in knowing, the problem that we have in believing is that we hear it so many times, it just becomes white noise.
SPEAKER_01: And so often we as Christians hear it so many times that we just, yes, it becomes so normal.
SPEAKER_01: It becomes so such a white noise that we don't consider what God is doing, He's challenging us.
SPEAKER_01: And many times we need to go through difficult times so we can get recognize what God is doing in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: I know we don't want to go through it, I know we don't want to experience it.
SPEAKER_01: I know we don't want to face difficult times.
SPEAKER_01: We don't want to face loss, we don't want to face hurt, we don't want to face disappointment, we don't want to face trials, we don't want to face tribulation, we don't want to face sickness, we don't want to face all these things that come into our lives.
SPEAKER_01: But every time we face those, God is present.
SPEAKER_01: God manifests Himself.
SPEAKER_01: But the problem sometimes is that we are so caught up in the suffering, we don't see God at work.
SPEAKER_01: We don't see God in the middle of our life because we are so focused on our hurt, on our despair.
SPEAKER_01: So this passage, we see that hope and the resurrection is not based on the circumstances, it's not based on what we are able to do or accomplish, but is based in something more, in something more that changes things.
SPEAKER_01: You see, before the resurrection, the disciples believed in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: But all they had was the many miracles and his word.
SPEAKER_01: All they had, why do you believe in Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Because we have met Jesus, he's such a wonderful man, he was such a prophet, a wonderful person who taught us great things.
SPEAKER_01: We saw amazing miracles.
SPEAKER_01: We believe that he was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: But on the day that Jesus Christ rose from the dead, then the belief was not just because of what they've heard, but they have witnessed the living Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: They have witnessed something more.
SPEAKER_01: And when we witness the power of God in such a way, we cannot disbelieve it.
SPEAKER_01: They saw it with their own eyes, they touched them.
SPEAKER_01: Their belief changed everything.
SPEAKER_01: And this is something that we as Christians, especially those like me who grew up in the church, struggle with because we find over and over the same message until it becomes white noise.
SPEAKER_01: When Peter is writing to them, he's saying that the work of God in our suffering, in what we're going through, is building this hope.
SPEAKER_01: And this hope is not something that will perish, but it's something that will remain.
SPEAKER_01: So this is a new birth into a family, it's a new birth rather than the dead idols, then the dead things and the objects and the things that we crave in our worldly life is not on us.
SPEAKER_01: This hope is not on us.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to create hope or believe or manufacture or try to pull it out of thin air.
SPEAKER_01: Hope comes when we believe fully that God is God of tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: And if we truly believe that God is God of tomorrow, we don't worry about tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: We hope on the tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: But Peter goes forward and he goes further.
SPEAKER_01: He says it's about an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: So if you have ever received an inheritance, how hard did you work for that inheritance?
SPEAKER_01: We don't.
SPEAKER_01: We don't work for an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Someone passes away, lives as an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: We didn't have to do anything unless we kill them, which I would not recommend.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't have to do anything to receive an inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: There's no effort, there's no faith, there's no, there's no no no no real work.
SPEAKER_01: We just receive this inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: And that's why I love the word inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: Because it doesn't mean that we have to work hard to receive the inheritance.
SPEAKER_01: It means that we receive this inheritance just because we are a part of what God is doing in this world, and that is a part of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: It's something more, something that is eternal, something that is imperishable.
SPEAKER_01: You see, he's using the word inheritance, spiritual inheritance, because every inheritance that we can get in this world can be lost, can be stolen, can be wasted.
SPEAKER_01: And I know so many people who do not leave an inheritance to their children because they know that they're going to waste and probably destroy their lives with that.
SPEAKER_01: An inheritance is something that we can lose.
SPEAKER_01: But yet, this inheritance that Peter is telling us that we will have is an inheritance that is eternal.
SPEAKER_01: Because if I go into the streets today and I ask people what do they hope for, they're gonna say, well, I'm gonna hope, I'm I'm hoping that you know I win the lottery, I'm gonna hope that you know that I'm healthy, I'm gonna hope that my children get good jobs, I'm gonna hope for a good retirement, I'm gonna hope for peace in the world, I'm gonna hope for this, I'm gonna hope for that.
SPEAKER_01: And all these hopes that we hear about are hopes that are very valid, very good.
SPEAKER_01: However, when a Christian hopes, they're not hoping that they're gonna, you know, get favorable winds, that things are gonna be better.
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna hope that tomorrow God will care for our loved ones, that they he will speak to our loved ones, to our children, to our grandchildren, to our great-grandchildren, to our spouses, to our family members, to our friends, to our neighbors, that God will speak and God's telling us okay, if I'm gonna speak to them, who's speaking through me?
SPEAKER_01: That's why I'm counting on you to speak through me.
SPEAKER_01: So the hope is not just that God is going to be favorable into what we want, but the hope is that he will take care of it tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: The tomorrow is in his hands, and the hope is in him.
SPEAKER_01: And the funny thing about this is that we are inheriting the kingdom of God, but is not to come, it's here already, it's here and it's already a part of what we're doing.
SPEAKER_01: So is the is the not yet and already here?
SPEAKER_01: It's the kingdom of God that's already a part of our lives, and God is doing is building that kingdom with us, each one of us, being a part of what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of lost people, there's a lot of drowning people that all they're looking for is a little bit of hope.
SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of the story of the RMS Express of Ireland.
SPEAKER_01: In 1914, on uh May 29th, on the way to London, he crashed against the SS Storestad.
SPEAKER_01: And when they had that collision, many people were um left without life jackets.
SPEAKER_01: You see, the early early century they only had enough jackets for for for some people.
SPEAKER_01: And on that ship, the RMS Express of Ireland, there were one hundred, uh let me get the numbers correct, one hundred and thirty Salvation Army officers.
SPEAKER_01: They were heading to London for a conference.
SPEAKER_01: When the ship started sinking, they were given life vests, and the salvation army officers saw the many people who did not have life vests, they took off their life vests and gave them to others and said, You are in a better place.
SPEAKER_01: I I am in a better place to die than you are, but I want you to take this and I want you to find Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to find Jesus at the after the aftermath, they picked 109 bodies of Salvation Army officers without wearing a life vest.
SPEAKER_01: Those that survived said, I was given a life vest by one of those officers.
SPEAKER_01: Even today, the Salvation Army celebrates that day as a great witnessing day.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the kind of inheritance we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of inheritance that we're talking about.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about what we were able to keep here in our world, it's not what we were able to accumulate, it's not what we were able to even leave for our children.
SPEAKER_01: This is about something much more than that, an inheritance of the kingdom of God.
SPEAKER_01: That if our life is in Christ, then all we have to do is lead others because we are ready with a great hope, a hope of eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So, what are we to do?
SPEAKER_01: Well, we read in verse 6, and he tells us in all this, you greatly rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: All right, praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.
SPEAKER_01: So we rejoice in suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Now, what's interesting about this passage is that he's telling us, rejoice greatly while you grieve greatly.
SPEAKER_01: It's a paradox.
SPEAKER_01: How can I rejoice when I'm grieving?
SPEAKER_01: It's almost in our minds, it is impossible for me to rejoice, to have joy while grieving, while suffering.
SPEAKER_01: It makes no sense in our human minds to rejoice and to grieve at the same time.
SPEAKER_01: But it does make sense if God's a part of it.
SPEAKER_01: And how's that?
SPEAKER_01: Because our joy doesn't come out of circumstances, it comes out of God's presence, and our grief that comes out of circumstances can be blessed by the joy of God's presence.
SPEAKER_01: So, yes, we can have both if Christ is in it.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, we can have both if we are living a journey with Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: We can rejoice while suffering.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this passage I have spoken hundreds of times at funerals.
SPEAKER_01: I often read this passage at funerals because very often we are grieving the person that we are saying goodbye to when God is affording the joy of his presence through our grief, through our trials, through our tribulations and situations.
SPEAKER_01: What God is doing is not saying, Yeah, you're gonna grieve, and I'm trying to make you happy and and and try to make you laugh.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what God is doing.
SPEAKER_01: What he's saying is, you are going through grief.
SPEAKER_01: Let me bring you myself, my joy.
SPEAKER_01: That in the midst of the grief.
SPEAKER_01: You are not alone in the midst of the trials, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of your tribulations, you are not alone.
SPEAKER_01: But I'm bringing you a joy that will transform you, will transform your grief, will transform your life, that you can smile in the midst of loss, because God brings you joy.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 7 tells us how is that?
SPEAKER_01: These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith, of greater worth than gold, and then he explains where that worth comes from, which perishes even though refined by fire, may result in praise.
SPEAKER_01: What he's telling us is that we have great worth.
SPEAKER_01: You know, that purification becomes very much more of a worth because of that joy.
SPEAKER_01: And when we're refined, we will find, and we read that in verse 7.
SPEAKER_01: We may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.
SPEAKER_01: When Jesus Christ is revealed.
SPEAKER_01: And reading beautiful things about hope and just thinking, oh yeah, I heard of them before.
SPEAKER_01: Without truly grasping what he's trying to tell us.
SPEAKER_01: There's more value when we go through difficult times.
SPEAKER_01: A man was uh planning on uh building a peach orchard, and he sold everything and prepared his land and planted the peach trees, and he was eventually able to see the fruit of his label with a beautiful, beautiful orchard of peach trees.
SPEAKER_01: And the flowers came and bloom, and this and and the beautiful first sights of peaches were coming up when a big frost came over his orchard.
SPEAKER_01: He was devastated after spending his life savings, time, effort, and energy into this peach orchard.
SPEAKER_01: He was devastated.
SPEAKER_01: And he's hurt in his sadness.
SPEAKER_01: He decided not to go to church.
SPEAKER_01: And then the following week, he decided not to go to church again.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the pastor reached out and saying, Hey, I haven't seen you in church for a while.
SPEAKER_01: How you doing?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, I'm fine.
SPEAKER_01: And the pastor took that, uh, like many of us men do, like, okay.
SPEAKER_01: But about two or three more times, and Pastor not singing, he went over to him and said, I haven't seen you in church.
SPEAKER_01: What's going on?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, let me be honest with you, Pastor.
SPEAKER_01: You see, I I spent my life's savings on this orchard.
SPEAKER_01: I spent everything I had, energy, time, and everything, everything I have on these peaches, and your God allow for a frost to come and destroy a great part of my labor.
SPEAKER_01: How can that happen?
SPEAKER_01: And the pastor said, After he took a moment to think, he said, You know God loves you more than your peaches.
SPEAKER_01: You know God loves you more than your life's work.
SPEAKER_01: But I do know and understand that a frost can come and harm a peach crop.
SPEAKER_01: But a frost to a man can strengthen, harden, and become much more valuable than it is to a peaches.
SPEAKER_01: You see, because God is not in the business of peaches, is in the business of growing men.
SPEAKER_01: Those very wise words are words that we have to recognize that God is not in the business of making our circumstances better.
SPEAKER_01: God is not in the business of making our efforts successful.
SPEAKER_01: God is not in the business of making what we want and becoming like a vending machine for what we want.
SPEAKER_01: God is not in the business of making our life easy.
SPEAKER_01: He's in the business of growing us in a kingdom, it's in the business of challenging us so we are stronger, it's in the business of transforming us so we become pure.
SPEAKER_01: That's his business.
SPEAKER_01: But we want the things we want, we desire the circumstances, we desire this, and when we don't have them, we blame him.
SPEAKER_01: So easy for us to blame him.
SPEAKER_01: But when he's saying, I want you, not your abilities, not what you can do, not what you can gather.
SPEAKER_01: I want you.
SPEAKER_01: Believe in my love for you.
SPEAKER_01: So when we receive that love, we recognize that the trials that we're going through, we have two choices.
SPEAKER_01: One is going through with ourselves, by ourselves with our own abilities, or two, or the second choice, to go with him, journey with him, going through the trials with him.
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm gonna tell you, if we pick the second choice, we will find joy, we will rejoice, we will find beauty in our trials, as Paul said.
SPEAKER_01: I praise God for my trials, for I have seen him through them.
SPEAKER_01: So today we find that it's not about our circumstances, it's about God's presence in our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So we rejoice in suffering, but we also receive the result of our faith.
SPEAKER_01: We read in verse 6.
SPEAKER_01: In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while.
SPEAKER_01: I like that little while.
SPEAKER_01: You know I like little while it's not permanent.
SPEAKER_01: It's not permanent.
SPEAKER_01: For a little while, yeah, we'll we'll suffer grief.
SPEAKER_01: For a little while, and and where does this little while mean?
SPEAKER_01: Means a one hour?
SPEAKER_01: Means ten minutes, means one day, one month, one year, ten years.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the little while is in comparison to eternity.
SPEAKER_01: So if we're gonna compare our trials and tribulations to eternity, they're a little while.
SPEAKER_01: They're short.
SPEAKER_01: We're just going through this for a little while before we're gonna be in eternity with him.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little while, and that is great encouragement because he's not looking at this passage as saying, well, you're going through this now.
SPEAKER_01: He's looking at this passage saying, in eternity, in eternity, this is just a little while.
SPEAKER_01: In the face of eternity, eternity, we will have communion with God.
SPEAKER_01: Here through the kingdom of God, and one day after judgment, when we are with him.
SPEAKER_01: If they tried everything and nothing worked, they would place someone in there.
SPEAKER_01: Well, they placed a young lady named Amy.
SPEAKER_01: So or Annie.
SPEAKER_01: And Annie went into that dungeon and she would just attack people, bite people.
SPEAKER_01: She was almost like acting like an animal.
SPEAKER_01: And they just lost hope.
SPEAKER_01: They tried everything, but little Annie was just in the place that they just gave up on her.
SPEAKER_01: Well, one of the nurses was retiring, and she felt in her heart that no one should not have hope, was without hope.
SPEAKER_01: So she decided on her lunchtime to go down to the dungeon and sit with Annie and tell her stories and speak to her, and and eventually, you know, try to have a little bit of hope given to little Annie.
SPEAKER_01: Well, the problem with little Annie is that not only did she ignore her, sometimes she tried to attack her.
SPEAKER_01: And one day she left some brownies.
SPEAKER_01: She wasn't even sure that little Annie knew what brownies were.
SPEAKER_01: You see, little Annie got there because her mother died and her father abandoned her.
SPEAKER_01: So her brother was also very ill.
SPEAKER_01: So with all that, she wasn't able to handle life.
SPEAKER_01: So she left brownies there and she ignored them.
SPEAKER_01: But the next day, she noticed that the brownies were gone.
SPEAKER_01: And she thought, oh, if she took those brownies, maybe I'll do that.
SPEAKER_01: And she started taking every day something for her and leave it there.
SPEAKER_01: Eventually, the doctors noticed that Annie was not only getting better, but she was able to be moved back upstairs, where they continued with her treatment to the place that she was able to go back home.
SPEAKER_01: She was well.
SPEAKER_01: And as they told her, Annie, you're able to go back home.
SPEAKER_01: She said, Can I stay and help people?
SPEAKER_01: Because I was given hope, and I want to give hope to people that feel no hope.
SPEAKER_01: And the story of Annie didn't end there.
SPEAKER_01: A few years later, Queen Victoria was bestowing on a foreigner the greatest medal of honor, and her name was Helen Keller.
SPEAKER_01: And and Queen Victoria, as bestowing this, asked, Helen Keller, how can you, with all your disability, being able to accomplish so much?
SPEAKER_01: How have you, in the midst of your life, been able to make such a big difference?
SPEAKER_01: And Helen Keller said, without missing a beat, all this is thanks to Annie Sullivan.
SPEAKER_01: See, when I was born, I was able to see.
SPEAKER_01: But then I had this illness that took away my sight and everything.
SPEAKER_01: And Annie was there to guide me through this.
SPEAKER_01: She taught me how to read, she taught me how to do all the things I needed.
SPEAKER_01: And every moment Annie was able to pour hope in a child that had no hope.
SPEAKER_01: We don't know whose life we're changing by saying that the hope we have is not a hope in our circumstances, but in a hope in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: The story is not about Helen Keller or Annie Sullivan.
SPEAKER_01: It's a story about hope.
SPEAKER_01: And a hope that transforms, and a hope that changes, and a hope that makes a difference.
SPEAKER_01: Because if the hope we have is that things will get better, the hope we have is in our circumstances, we are missing out on a greater hope that changed and transformed the life of these people in Turkey that Peter wrote to, and many, many other sins.
SPEAKER_01: So today we have an option.
SPEAKER_01: We can choose hope.
SPEAKER_01: And that's my challenge for you this week.
SPEAKER_01: Choose hope.
SPEAKER_01: When you're going through difficult times, be reminded that the circumstances are just for a little while.
SPEAKER_01: That God wants to walk us through our challenges.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just about a God that is punishing us for what we have done wrong.
SPEAKER_01: By the contrary, this is a God that understands what we have done wrong and wants to journey with us so we get to experience his love and walk alongside him.
SPEAKER_01: But as long as we hold on to our circumstances, to our grief, to our hurt, to our pain, to our past, God is going to continue to pursue us, even though we do not pursue him or recognize him.
SPEAKER_01: But he will continue to pour his love and show us through different situations, different opportunities, his love for us.
SPEAKER_01: So the choice for us today, and my challenge for this week is how do I find hope and joy in this particular circumstance that I'm going through right now?
SPEAKER_01: And as we do so, we will find that God is already in the middle of that situation, that God is already taking care of us, that God is already there.
SPEAKER_01: Praise God.
SPEAKER_01: Let me pray with you.
SPEAKER_01: Father, I thank you for the joy.
SPEAKER_01: I thank you that we can rejoice.
SPEAKER_01: But we don't rejoice because we are medicated or because we we have have some external ideas or we were trying to ignore the situations.
SPEAKER_01: We have joy because in our suffering you are there.
SPEAKER_01: We have joy because in our circumstances you are there, because you are a part of our lives.
SPEAKER_01: So, Father, today, if you are not a part of our lives, we pray that you'd come.
SPEAKER_01: We pray that you reveal yourself.
SPEAKER_01: And Father, if we have sin in us, we pray that you'd forgive us that you may come into our lives and fill us with your presence and with your joy.
SPEAKER_01: That is our prayer.
SPEAKER_01: Because once we have that, we will find hope.
SPEAKER_01: A hope in you.
SPEAKER_01: And we pray this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: As you came in, you may have picked up a little a little ice cream um cup.
SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, I did not.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, so I have to go and pick one up for myself.
SPEAKER_01: And and I'm doing the the walk of shame.
SPEAKER_01: But if you um consider the cup and uh bread that that we have in our hands, you know, the last meal Jesus had with his disciples, he asked them to do this often.
SPEAKER_01: And we do it once a month, but this often is to be reminded of his presence, to be reminded that when we take the body and take the cup, we are reminded of his presence.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples were reminded every time they took this meal after Jesus had ascended, about his body and his presence.
SPEAKER_01: Later on, Paul writes to the church of Corinthians and church in Corinth, for I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and we had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.
SPEAKER_01: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: In the same way, after supper, he took the cup, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Do this whenever you drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
SPEAKER_01: So as we uh begin with with our uh communion, we take the bread and we are reminded that on the night he was betrayed, Jesus took the bread, and after he broke it, he said, This is my body broken for you.
SPEAKER_01: Take and eat in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you, Father, for the sacrifice for your body broken for us.
SPEAKER_01: After he took the bread, he took the cup, saying, This cup is a new covenant in my blood.
SPEAKER_01: Take and drink in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_01: For when you take and drink, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Father in heaven, we thank you.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for your body, for your blood that you shed for us.
SPEAKER_01: And as we prepare to go and experience hope, we do so with your presence.
SPEAKER_01: So come, Father, empower us with your joy, that your power may be seen in us to others.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask this in your Son Jesus Christ's name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: As it is known in our community, Northwest Church is committed to discovering and engaging in a life-changing relationship with Jesus Christ, with inspired worship and intentional ministry.
SPEAKER_00: People from all walks of life are welcome and received as family members.
SPEAKER_00: Our family is diverse, multicultural, and although not perfect in love with Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: Join us online at nwnac.org or by visiting us in Columbus, Ohio.
SPEAKER_00: God bless you.