SPEAKER_01: See, we we have hope.
SPEAKER_01: That's just because we believe Jesus is going to come again, but because Jesus is doing something about the world we live in, and by extension, so am I.
SPEAKER_00: This podcast is a ministry of Grand Parkway Baptist Church, helping people know, enjoy, and glorify God.
SPEAKER_00: For more information about Grand Parkway, visit Grandparkway.org.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we rejoice today because you've done exactly what you said you would do.
SPEAKER_01: What were the prophets foretold, you fulfilled?
SPEAKER_01: And so anytime we read in the Old Testament a promise that God makes, we know that that's going to come to fruition.
SPEAKER_01: Either it has or it is going to, because you're not a man that you would lie.
SPEAKER_01: You're a God who keeps your word because you're truth.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus, you said, I am the way to the truth about life.
SPEAKER_01: And so we look to you for the truth today.
SPEAKER_01: Illuminate our head and our heart, God.
SPEAKER_01: We've not come just to just to sustain a feeling or an emotion.
SPEAKER_01: We've come to be set free by the truth today.
SPEAKER_01: And so we look to you and your word because your word is truth.
SPEAKER_01: We agree, Jesus, with what you said in your high priestly prayer in John's gospel, that thy word is truth.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, fill us with truth today.
SPEAKER_01: Affect what we believe so that we have this hope that surpasses all understanding.
SPEAKER_01: This hope that's an anchor for our soul.
SPEAKER_01: When we look around and our culture and our world feels hopeless, and it feels like it's dog eat dog, and it's every man for himself.
SPEAKER_01: We are people of hope.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Lord, remind us today of the beliefs that instill this hope in us.
SPEAKER_01: This is our prayer, God.
SPEAKER_01: Make it our experience we ask for.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name, and everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: You can have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh, if you're our guest today, let me say welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh This is the first Sunday of Advent, and every Sunday has a theme.
SPEAKER_01: And the theme of today's uh first Sunday of Advent is hope.
SPEAKER_01: And so I want to talk to you today about being hopeful in a world that isn't.
SPEAKER_01: Being hopeful in a world that isn't.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just confess, I realize that sounds idealistic.
SPEAKER_01: And uh as a friend, uh not a friend, an acquaintance said to me recently, we were talking, and he said, uh, you're a good guy, McClendon, except you're a little too religious.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, I want to hurt your feelings, and I said, You can't hurt my feelings.
SPEAKER_01: But anyway, uh the more we talked, and I said, What is it about hope that makes that you're bothered by?
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Well, uh, I just think that you look around the world as messed up as it is.
SPEAKER_01: I think you're stupid and childish and foolish to be hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, actually, those are the exact words that I think about when I listen to your worldview, because if I wasn't hopeful, I didn't believe the things that I believed that I would feel stupid and childish and all these things that you accuse me of.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, I guess that's fair.
SPEAKER_01: You believe your thing, you believe my thing.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, No.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the thing: I don't believe that in this, you know, there's six billion people in the world, there's six billion different definitions of truth.
SPEAKER_01: One of us is right and one of us is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Not that it has its origin in us, but for me, it's God is either right or and truth, or he's not and shouldn't be believed at all.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm okay.
SPEAKER_01: I don't mind thinking that deeply about it.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, well, I said, let me ask you something.
SPEAKER_01: When you look around, you see that the world is just messed up, what brings you hope?
SPEAKER_01: He said, I'm not hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: The past two weeks I've had two funerals.
SPEAKER_01: Yesterday, a friend of mine had a stroke, uh, and we're not sure that she will cover the ramifications of that, may be with her for the rest of her life.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, her name is Helen Brown, she's 91 years old.
SPEAKER_01: Um, and and and and and Helen had a stroke yesterday.
SPEAKER_01: And I got back, I went to the hospital and spent some time with her and her daughter and her granddaughter.
SPEAKER_01: Got back, my wife said, How you feeling?
SPEAKER_01: I said, I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: One of my kids overheard that and they were like, Dad, mom said you've had like two funerals, and and then Miss Helen, yeah, this is Miss Helen.
SPEAKER_01: I took my kids, we take my get my girls over there because I want my girls to be around people who've lived some life.
SPEAKER_01: And I said to them one time, this is Helen Brown, my favorite Helen Brown thing.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Helen, give my girls some advice when it comes to dealing with guys.
SPEAKER_01: And she sat up in bed and pumped her fist and said, Give them hell and make them like it.
SPEAKER_01: And I thought to myself, I think you discipled my wife as well.
SPEAKER_01: And so, and I why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: I tell you that to say, I'm just kind of like, come on, man, this woman's been through enough, okay?
SPEAKER_01: She broke her leg, she can't get out of bed, she's bedridden, and now we got a stroke.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, come on, God, be merciful.
SPEAKER_01: God is merciful, and I'm still hopeful, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so you can go through a lot of darkness.
SPEAKER_01: You can be surrounded by a lot of bad things happening and still hold on to hope.
SPEAKER_01: Not as an emotion, but as a byproduct of what you believe.
SPEAKER_01: So when I talk about, when I say I want to talk to you about being hopeful in a world that isn't, I don't have tips and pointers and four things to be more hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: I have three things that I want to put before you to say, hey, you the hope that we're of Advent is found as a byproduct of believing these three things.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the first thing I want to ask you to believe this morning that Jesus is coming again.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is coming again.
SPEAKER_01: Advent is a time we recognize we're stuck between his first and his second coming.
SPEAKER_01: We live in the delta in between.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible talks about this in 2 Peter chapter 3.
SPEAKER_01: Now, when I talk about Jesus coming again, I'm not talking about some left-behind escapism.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about engagement.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about perspective more than fear.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the way the Bible talks about it.
SPEAKER_01: 2 Peter chapter 3, verse 1.
SPEAKER_01: He says, This is now the second letter that I am writing to you, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: In both of them, I am stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder that you should remember the predictions of the holy prophets and the commandments of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, knowing this first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
SPEAKER_01: Let me stop right there.
SPEAKER_01: I love that the Bible says scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing.
SPEAKER_01: What do you expect scoffers to bring but scoffing?
SPEAKER_01: It's like someone coming to your house for Thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Dolores, what'd you bring?
SPEAKER_01: I brought scoffing, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh if you're a scoffer, now a scoffer is not a word that we use very often.
SPEAKER_01: We're such a PC culture, politically correct.
SPEAKER_01: We don't tell people what they're really like because we might get sued or something, but the Bible's not afraid of that.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says in the last days, scoffers.
SPEAKER_01: People that scoff are people that disbelieve Christianity, people that mock Christianity, people that think this is for weak-willed, anti-intellectual people who need to feel something.
SPEAKER_01: And so if that works for you, great.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the thing: scoffers will come and they will bring scoffing with them, okay?
SPEAKER_01: But it's not, their problem is not.
SPEAKER_01: Here's why you should just read the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: You should find a church that has the courage in this day and age to just read the Bible because it will invite you, it will shape the way you think about the world in which you live.
SPEAKER_01: He says, scoffers will come with scoffing, and then he says this, following their own sinful desires.
SPEAKER_01: Here's the real motivation of a scoffer.
SPEAKER_01: A person scoffs at Christianity, they doubt Christianity, they attack it, they ridicule it.
SPEAKER_01: You may be in this room right now, by the way, and that's okay.
SPEAKER_01: I'm glad you're here today.
SPEAKER_01: No one's mad at you, no one's gonna try to get into a debate and want to debate with you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, none of that kind of stuff.
SPEAKER_01: But but I will love you enough to tell you this your issue is not with Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: That's the behavior, that's where it manifests.
SPEAKER_01: Your real issue is you have a sinful desire that you do not want to give up.
SPEAKER_01: And if the Bible speaks against that, then you are obligated to attack the Bible because the Bible says that's sinful, that's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: And so you attack the Bible, not because you're smarter than the Bible, it's because you don't want to be told no.
SPEAKER_01: And so when the Bible says that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires, what the Bible is telling us is the reason they scoff is because that they're gonna follow this sinful desire.
SPEAKER_01: They're not gonna give this up.
SPEAKER_01: He goes on and says in verse 4, they will say, Where is the promise of his coming?
SPEAKER_01: For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation.
SPEAKER_01: For they deliberately overlooked this fact that the heavens existed long ago and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God, and that by means of these, word and water, these, by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished, the flood.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 7, he says, But by the same word the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
SPEAKER_01: But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise, as some count slowness, but it's patient towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
SPEAKER_01: But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies, that's talking about the planets and the stars, the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.
SPEAKER_01: Now that sounds kind of depressing, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_01: You're kind of like, dang, dude, it's advent.
SPEAKER_01: I thought you were talking about hope.
SPEAKER_01: Now you're talking about the world going down in flames.
SPEAKER_01: And then the Bible comes along and asks this really whimsome and whimsical question.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like this little beautiful plant that just springs out of dry ground after he says, all this Debbie Downer, won't, won't, won't.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 11 Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be?
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of this dearth, of this apocalyptic kind of stuff, the Bible has this really wholesome question.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, in light of all this, what sort of people ought you to be?
SPEAKER_01: In lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn.
SPEAKER_01: But according to his promise, we are waiting for the new heavens and the new earth in which righteousness dwells.
SPEAKER_01: Again, when I say Jesus is coming again, that is not emotional escapism.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna become some doomsday prepper and I'm gonna have canned food in the pantry, all that kind of nonsense.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: This is not, this is more about engagement than escape.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I mean by engagement versus escape.
SPEAKER_01: It's you and I living a life and speak it in such a way that we remind everybody this is not all there is.
SPEAKER_01: This is not all there is.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you look around and you think this is all there is, this life, I'm gonna live to be 70, 80, 90 years old, and after that I die, so eat, drink, and be merry because this is all there is.
SPEAKER_01: It's flat, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Nothing happens after this.
SPEAKER_01: Then if that's you, you are the most fatalistic, deterministic, self-reliant person in the world.
SPEAKER_01: And the issue for you is not, hey, when things are going really bad, who do I blame?
SPEAKER_01: The issue for you is when things are really good, who do I thank?
SPEAKER_01: Who do I thank?
SPEAKER_01: Because there will be moments in life where it's so good, you know yourself, this didn't come from me.
SPEAKER_01: I didn't make good investment decisions, but you've so built your worldview, you've so followed your sinful desires in other areas of your life, typically around morality, that you've backed yourself into a corner.
SPEAKER_01: There's no one to thank but you.
SPEAKER_01: And here's what happens: that person can't really enjoy all that they have.
SPEAKER_01: Because they realize it's just kind of there's a shadow of ingratitude over them.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, uh somebody, if there is a higher power up there, he, she, or it has been really good to me.
SPEAKER_01: You can't even say that.
SPEAKER_01: So you just kind of muddle through.
SPEAKER_01: I just say being hopeful in a world that isn't is it's a byproduct of believing, first of all, that Jesus is coming again.
SPEAKER_01: And when he asks the question, what kind of what sort of people ought you to be, he gives us four words I want to draw your attention to.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in holiness and godliness, waiting and hastening.
SPEAKER_01: Now, those are four puritanical sounding words that we don't use a whole lot.
SPEAKER_01: Holiness.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says, Be holy as I am holy, for that holiness no one will see the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: It's not about, hey, here's the standard of perfection, good luck, do your best.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no.
SPEAKER_01: It's just I want to be Christ-like in my character, godliness, same thing.
SPEAKER_01: Then he uses this very great Advent word, waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Waiting, waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Everybody in this room right now is waiting for something, whether you realize it or not.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are waiting for clarity, some of you are waiting for a relationship.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you ladies are 26 years old, you're not married yet, and you're kind of like, hello.
SPEAKER_01: When you were 17, you had a list of 15 things, you know.
SPEAKER_01: He's got to be a Christian and love Jesus and pray out loud and sound like he really understands what he's saying, and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: When you're 26, the one thing on the list, he's got to have a pulse.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And so you're waiting.
SPEAKER_01: You're waiting.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are waiting to be rescued.
SPEAKER_01: Some of you are waiting to discover what you're going to do with your life.
SPEAKER_01: You're getting ready to graduate, and everyone's like, oh, isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that awesome?
SPEAKER_01: You're graduating college, and in your mind, you're like, Yeah, it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: I don't really know what I'm gonna do, but it's awesome.
SPEAKER_01: And you get in bed at night in your apartment, and you're just kind of laying there, kind of like, hello, this is not as happy on the inside as people made me think it was gonna be.
SPEAKER_01: Matter of fact, it kind of scares me.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you're waiting as well.
SPEAKER_01: You're waiting for clarity.
SPEAKER_01: Everyone's waiting for something.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says waiting, it's not this just kind of setting like people wait in the emergency room.
SPEAKER_01: I went to the emergency room, that's why I took my friend Helen yesterday, and I walked in.
SPEAKER_01: There were people just asleep in the emergency room, just waiting to be called.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, hey, what's that guy?
SPEAKER_01: Oh, that they don't have insurance.
SPEAKER_01: Well, excuse me, they say they're indigent.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, and so we'll get to them when we can.
SPEAKER_01: But they just show up and they got snacks and they're just sleeping, waiting for someone to nudge them and kind of go.
SPEAKER_01: That's not the kind of waiting the Bible talks about.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says waiting, it's more this eager anticipation that I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_01: This eager anticipation that I'm looking for.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this he says, uh, hastening.
SPEAKER_01: Hastening means to desire earnestly.
SPEAKER_01: Here's my fear.
SPEAKER_01: I just lay my cards on the table.
SPEAKER_01: My fear is that most of the things that we have this kind of intense desire for can all be found in this world and in this life.
SPEAKER_01: If I'm gonna hasten for anything, I mean Black Friday's already come, you've already bought it for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: It's like, dude, I don't need anything.
SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't get Christmas presents because I just it's Christmas all year round.
SPEAKER_01: Being hopeful in a world that isn't involves, number one, believing this simple thing that Jesus Christ is coming again.
SPEAKER_01: Secondly, it's believing that Jesus is doing something about the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is doing something about the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: Let me just draw your attention.
SPEAKER_01: Have you noticed that every product, not every product, but a lot of products that people sell have a cause attached to them?
SPEAKER_01: Like if you buy a Subaru vehicle here in Houston, you go to a certain dealership, they'll donate$250 to the SPCA or some organizations, or you can get a puppy with your Subaru, and don't tell my kids because they want a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, I tell my youngest, you're leaving home in a year and a half.
SPEAKER_01: Then whose puppy is that dog gonna be?
SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be mine.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not all jazzed up about getting you a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: And my wife's like, they want a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I don't want a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: They want a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: I said last night, what do you guys want for supper?
SPEAKER_01: My 16-year-old, a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: They were on the couch, all the three women in my life last night, conspiring for my downfall, talking about the kind of dog they want.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, hello.
SPEAKER_01: I'm 18 months away from empty nest.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want a dog in my nest.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't want y'all coming up and going, oh, our dog had puppies.
SPEAKER_01: You want a puppy?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, don't tell my wife I said that.
SPEAKER_01: But everything's got a cause attached to it.
SPEAKER_01: You buy a Subaru, they'll make a donation to this.
SPEAKER_01: There's a guy cold called me about eight, well, about two years ago.
SPEAKER_01: He stopped by and he said, I'd like to get your coffee vendor business.
SPEAKER_01: I'm a coffee vendor, I have this.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, Tell them about your coffee.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, uh, it it's fair trade, ethically sourced, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: I said, What does it taste like?
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, 2% of our profits are donated to a charity that helps reforest the help repopulate the rainforest.
SPEAKER_01: And I said, This may surprise you.
SPEAKER_01: I don't care about the rainforest.
SPEAKER_01: I think somebody else is doing that and they're better at that.
SPEAKER_01: I I think you ought to replant when you cut trees, all that good stuff.
SPEAKER_01: What does the coffee taste like?
SPEAKER_01: Well, did I tell you it's ethically sourced?
SPEAKER_01: I said, dude, this is gonna be a short conversation.
SPEAKER_01: What does the coffee bring?
SPEAKER_01: Some, let's brew it up right here and let's taste it.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I get okay, but I want you to understand that we have, see, here's the thing.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I think.
SPEAKER_01: If your product is really good, you don't need a cause to sell it.
SPEAKER_01: Everything's got a cause.
SPEAKER_01: But to pan the camera back a little wider angle, one of my concerns is the reason everything has a cause and we're so cause-driven.
SPEAKER_01: We have an activist culture where they're like, ah, is that the the the non-believers have looked around and Christians aren't engaged in anything.
SPEAKER_01: And so they've filled the space, and it looks like activism when it really should look biblically and from creation's perspective, from the creator's perspective, it shouldn't be activism.
SPEAKER_01: It should be believers engaged in a ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: Hear it this way from the Bible, 2 Corinthians chapter 5.
SPEAKER_01: Again, Jesus is doing something about the world we live in.
SPEAKER_01: Because if you're here today and you don't believe that, then where do you find hope?
SPEAKER_01: You just think that, oh, I became a Christian and it's going to be really hard and it's just going to be flat, and then I get to go to heaven when I die.
SPEAKER_01: That is not biblical Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the way the Bible says that.
SPEAKER_01: In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, verse 17.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Therefore, if anyone's in Christ, he's a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: The old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.
SPEAKER_01: All this is from God who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that.
SPEAKER_01: You didn't just get reconciled to God, he gave you the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses, their sins against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible says that God trusts us and entrusts us to remind people that Jesus didn't come just to establish the fact that we've all sinned and messed up.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus came because he already knew that.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll demonstrate that in just a minute.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, verse 20, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_01: We implore you on behalf of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: When the Bible says, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, that means whatever you do, you in that realm, if it's science or politics or education or finances or whatever, you do that in that, you are in that genre of business as an ambassador for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean you put a Bible on your desk and hand out religious literature to the VP of marketing.
SPEAKER_01: No, it means that you live your life in such a way that people see, as Philippians says, you shine like stars in the universe in the midst of this twisted and perverse, crooked generation.
SPEAKER_01: You shine like stars in the universe as you hold forth the word of life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what it means.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says, We are, therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: God making his appeal through us.
SPEAKER_01: We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_01: For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_01: Working together with him, then, we appeal to you to not receive the grace of God in vain.
SPEAKER_01: Now, you're smart people, when you hear that, you should think, oh, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
SPEAKER_01: It makes me wonder what does it mean to receive the grace of God in vain?
SPEAKER_01: It means this, it means that you profess to be reconciled to God, but you do not have a ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: The gospel you believe in got you into heaven, but left everyone else around you just to settle for hell because your life is not marked by understanding or intentionality.
SPEAKER_01: It's just like, hey, you know, it's just me and my family, and that's it.
SPEAKER_01: And one of the problems in America is that we can't get Christians outside of their own home and being besieged by all the issues of their kids and their job and their life and their wife and their husband and blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_01: And so we don't, we're not God's ambassadors.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have a ministry and a message of reconciliation because we're just trying to get the dysfunction tamped down in our own house.
SPEAKER_01: And so American Christianity has become just this self-absorbed, therapeutic kind of, let's just get everybody out of the house so we can get a puppy.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm not against, yeah, yeah, yes, yes, the church, we want to help your family.
SPEAKER_01: We want to help you be a better husband and a better wife and a better student.
SPEAKER_01: But all those things are aided by uh an authentic relationship with Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Paul continues and he says in verse uh chapter 6, verse 1, after he says, uh, working together with him, then we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.
SPEAKER_01: Listen to what he says.
SPEAKER_01: For he says, In a favorable time, I listen to you.
SPEAKER_01: In a day of salvation, I have helped you.
SPEAKER_01: That's God saying to these people.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, now is a favorable time, he says to the Corinthians, Behold, now is a day of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: We put no obstacle in anyone's way so that no fault may be found with our ministry.
SPEAKER_01: He makes a statement and then he demonstrates, hey, this is what it looks like to be an ambassador.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But as servants of God, we commend ourselves in every way by great endurance and afflictions, hardships, calamities, beatings, imprisonments, riots, labors, sleepless nights, hunger, by purity, knowledge, patience, kindness, the Holy Spirit, genuine love.
SPEAKER_01: See, you you don't have to be the super apostle.
SPEAKER_01: You just have to be a man or woman who demonstrates these things.
SPEAKER_01: And you know, patience, kindness, beatings, imprisonments, riots.
SPEAKER_01: He goes through all these things, genuine love about truthful speech.
SPEAKER_01: That would be a revival in America if we all just started telling the truth.
SPEAKER_01: Just stop lying.
SPEAKER_01: I know it's hard.
SPEAKER_01: Just it's just start with no, that's that that dress is not your best idea for tonight.
SPEAKER_01: Let's try something else.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes, we've all been.
SPEAKER_01: There?
SPEAKER_01: Does this make me don't ask me that question?
SPEAKER_01: But he goes on.
SPEAKER_01: What I want you to see is the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: Look at me, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: The Bible doesn't call you to do something you can't do.
SPEAKER_01: It just says, Hey, in truthful speech, and the power of God with weapons of righteousness for the right hand and for the left, through honor and dishonor, through slander and praise.
SPEAKER_01: We are treated as impostors and yet are true, as unknown and yet well known, as dying, and behold, we live, as punished and yet not killed, as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing, as poor, yet making many rich.
SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
SPEAKER_01: How can you be poor and yet when people get around you, you make them rich?
SPEAKER_01: As having nothing, yet possessing everything.
SPEAKER_01: Read all that to get to this part.
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss this.
SPEAKER_01: We've spoken freely to you, Corinthians.
SPEAKER_01: Our heart is wide open.
SPEAKER_01: You are not restricted by us, but you are restricted in your own affections.
SPEAKER_01: In return, I speak as to children.
SPEAKER_01: Widen your hearts also.
SPEAKER_01: That's the part I wanted you to hear.
SPEAKER_01: He says, in return, and as a result of this, as a consequence of this, widen your hearts also because our hearts are wide open towards you.
SPEAKER_01: We're not holding back.
SPEAKER_01: What I want you to hear today is that you were created by God to have these wide-hearted relationships.
SPEAKER_01: You say, I don't know what you mean.
SPEAKER_01: You ever been in a relationship with somebody?
SPEAKER_01: I don't mean dating, uh, but that too.
SPEAKER_01: But just friendship, where you feel like, hey, I do more in this friendship than the other person does.
SPEAKER_01: I think they get more out of this than I do.
SPEAKER_01: Have you ever had a friendship like that?
SPEAKER_01: If so, say amen.
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: And so what you should learn to do is to say to that person, this is how you kind of get to more balance in that friendship.
SPEAKER_01: You say what Paul said, hey, I feel like my heart is wide open towards you, and I feel like your heart is barely cracked towards me.
SPEAKER_01: Can you just widen your heart?
SPEAKER_01: Or, like the Corinthians and the Grinch, can your heart grow three sizes in one day?
SPEAKER_01: Because Paul's not apologetic.
SPEAKER_01: He's not, hey, you know, could we get some time together?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'd really like to get to know you.
SPEAKER_01: He says, No, no, no, we have spoken freely to you.
SPEAKER_01: Just hear that.
SPEAKER_01: You were created to have friendships in which people speak freely to you.
SPEAKER_01: They don't have to measure their words.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, well, you know, it's Thanksgiving, and don't say that because, you know, Uncle Harry, you know, we all know he's got a drinking problem.
SPEAKER_01: Let's just hope he's kind of sober for the meal and then we'll let him pass out on the couch.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, open the door.
SPEAKER_01: Hey, Harry, good to see you.
SPEAKER_01: I hope you're not still drinking like you were last year and make a fool of yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Come on in.
SPEAKER_01: Wouldn't that be a much more enjoyable Thanksgiving?
SPEAKER_01: Yes.
SPEAKER_01: He says, Hey, we've spoken freely to you, and our heart is wide open, but yours isn't.
SPEAKER_01: So widen your hearts also.
SPEAKER_01: Let me ask you a question I want you to think about this week.
SPEAKER_01: What is your plan for widening your heart?
SPEAKER_01: You got any relationships you're in right now, that friendships you just need to widen your heart?
SPEAKER_01: Men, when you get home today, is your wife gonna say to you, I need you to widen your heart towards me?
SPEAKER_01: See, we we have hope.
SPEAKER_01: Not just because we believe Jesus is gonna come again, but because Jesus is doing something about the world we live in, and by extension, so am I.
SPEAKER_01: So am I.
SPEAKER_01: I'm doing something about the world that I live in.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because I'm a pastor?
SPEAKER_01: No, because I'm a Christian and I was reconciled, and as a responsibility of that, he gave me the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: So I get to say to people consistently, God created you to be a part of what he's doing to change the world.
SPEAKER_01: We don't have to sell overpriced bad coffee and say, but we're planting trees in the rainforest.
SPEAKER_01: Too small.
SPEAKER_01: A cause will always pale in comparison to a biblical understanding of reconciliation and redemption.
SPEAKER_01: Thirdly, where do we get this hope?
SPEAKER_01: How can we have this hope?
SPEAKER_01: And thirdly, you have to believe that Jesus came in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: Now, I know you're probably thinking, dude, we know that, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We're at church.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, let me just build the case for what I'm saying, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Just suffer with me.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to understand how God set it up in the very beginning because it is my contention uh that we've made it harder than it has to be.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: Let me say this again.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read from Exodus chapter 23, uh, and then we'll be done.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?
SPEAKER_01: Uh y'all are like, we're not answering anything, okay?
SPEAKER_01: These are all trick questions.
SPEAKER_01: Don't fall for that, Margaret.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, this is the way God set it up, okay?
SPEAKER_01: I just want to read from the Bible.
SPEAKER_01: This is Exodus chapter 23, starting in verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: God set his affection on the people of Israel, and he said, You're my people, and I'll be your God, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And we're gonna enter into this thing called a covenant, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We are not a covenant culture these days.
SPEAKER_01: We are an agreement culture.
SPEAKER_01: We make agreements, we don't make covenants.
SPEAKER_01: That's why we're such a litigious society.
SPEAKER_01: We sue everybody.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got to be sued, taken to court to keep your word, something's wrong with your faith.
SPEAKER_01: It just is.
SPEAKER_01: Love you, something's wrong.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: But God said, Hey, I'll be your God and you be my people, and here's the way I want this to shake out.
SPEAKER_01: Just do everything I say.
SPEAKER_01: He said, Well, that's not true.
SPEAKER_01: Right here in the Bible, Exodus 23, starting verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: Behold, I send an angel before you to guard you on the way, to bring you to the place that I prepared.
SPEAKER_01: Hear that?
SPEAKER_01: To guard, to bring this place I prepared.
SPEAKER_01: This place is so good, I send an angel to be your security entourage to ensure that you get there, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He says, pay careful attention to him and obey his voice.
SPEAKER_01: Do not rebel against him, for he will not pardon your transgression, for my name is in him.
SPEAKER_01: But if you carefully obey his voice, do all that I say, then I will be an enemy to your enemies and an adversary to your adversaries.
SPEAKER_01: When my angel goes before you and brings you to the Amorites, the Hittites, the Parasites, the Canaanites, the Hivites, the Jebusites, and I blot them out, you shall not bow down to their gods, nor serve them.
SPEAKER_01: Ten commandments, you shall have no other gods before me, nor as they do, but you shall utterly overthrow them and break their pillars in pieces.
SPEAKER_01: You shall serve the Lord your God, and he will bless your bread and your water, and I will take sickness away from among you.
SPEAKER_01: None shall miscarry or be barren in your land.
SPEAKER_01: I will fulfill the number of your days, I will send my terror before you, and will throw into confusion all the people against whom you shall come.
SPEAKER_01: And I will make all of your enemies turn their backs to you, and I will send hornets before you, which shall drive out the Hivites and the Canaanites and the Hittites from before you.
SPEAKER_01: And then hear this, verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: God is not just a God of action, God is the God of timing.
SPEAKER_01: And the better part of wisdom, beloved, is to be in sync with the times and the timing of what God is doing, when he's doing it, and why he's doing it.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 29.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I will not drive them out from you before, I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the wild beasts multiply against you.
SPEAKER_01: No, little by little I will drive them out from before you until you have increased and possessed the land.
SPEAKER_01: Now, sometimes the Bible says things so subtly we miss it.
SPEAKER_01: What God says is, I'm gonna just drive these people out, but I'm not gonna do it all at once because the feral hogs will take over, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And and the land will become desolate.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you clearing brush and shooting wild hogs, okay?
SPEAKER_01: He says, I'm gonna do this little by little.
SPEAKER_01: And then he says this little phrase, until you have increased enough.
SPEAKER_01: Do you get what God's saying right there?
SPEAKER_01: Let's just say, for the sake of math, there's a million of the Israelites.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, the land is so big and vast, you've got to increase enough to possess the land.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna just I I could do it like Thanos, I could just snap my fingers and just clear the planet.
SPEAKER_01: But no, God says, don't do it little by little until you've increased enough.
SPEAKER_01: If you've got a million people and you've got to make more people, what do you do to make more people?
SPEAKER_01: Have babies.
SPEAKER_01: There's a church answer.
SPEAKER_01: And don't answer this, but hear it.
SPEAKER_01: What do you got to do to have babies?
SPEAKER_01: Stop.
SPEAKER_01: Your kids are in the room.
SPEAKER_01: This is what God says to these people.
SPEAKER_01: That's what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: It's better than you could ever imagine.
SPEAKER_01: God said to them, I don't want you clearing brush and dealing with wild beasts out here where the wild things are.
SPEAKER_01: I want you home, increasing, making more people so you can possess this vast land that I'm gonna give you.
SPEAKER_01: How hard is that?
SPEAKER_01: Then the Bible says this.
SPEAKER_01: Little by little I will drive them out, and I will set your border from the Red Sea to the Sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates, for I will give the inhabitants of the land into your hand.
SPEAKER_01: You shall drive them out before you.
SPEAKER_01: You shall not make no covenant with them and their gods.
SPEAKER_01: They shall not dwell in your land lest they make you sin against me.
SPEAKER_01: For if you serve their gods, it will surely be a snare to you.
SPEAKER_01: Again, how hard is that?
SPEAKER_01: And so, what do I mean when I say that Jesus came in the first place?
SPEAKER_01: What I mean that Jesus came in the first place is that you and I have to understand the backdrop against which he came.
SPEAKER_01: Because this was all bright and sunny.
SPEAKER_01: And these people, the Bible goes on to say that they played the harlot on every high hill and over under every green tree.
SPEAKER_01: They were consistently inconsistent.
SPEAKER_01: And so God, He said, Jesus came in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: Well you should be asking yourself, well, okay, well, why?
SPEAKER_01: If it was like this, why did why does Jesus have to come?
SPEAKER_01: Because God gave them a covenant and they didn't want to keep it.
SPEAKER_01: And so spiritually, it got a little darker in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's got him mercy.
SPEAKER_01: He's patient, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love.
SPEAKER_01: And so he sends a leader by the name of Moses.
SPEAKER_01: Moses was a murderer.
SPEAKER_01: He killed a man.
SPEAKER_01: He saw a man uh taking advantage of another man, beating him, bullying him, and he killed him and buried him in the sand.
SPEAKER_01: Can you imagine how much better the world would be if we just killed bullies and buried them in the sand?
SPEAKER_01: Just a random thought.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not endorsing that.
SPEAKER_01: It's Advent, you know.
SPEAKER_01: But then he flees.
SPEAKER_01: Moses takes off to the other side of the wilderness.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And so he lives this assistence lifestyle like a doomsday prepper in the middle of nowhere, okay?
SPEAKER_01: And one day he's out, he sees this bush on fire, but it doesn't burn up.
SPEAKER_01: And he's like, Well, check that out.
SPEAKER_01: And he goes over, he gets closer, and God speaks out of the bush, and Moses takes his shoes off because it is holy ground.
SPEAKER_01: He's like, Oh my gosh, I can't get away from this.
SPEAKER_01: And God says, Moses, you're my man.
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna lead you.
SPEAKER_01: You go to Pharaoh's and let my people go.
SPEAKER_01: And Moses says, What about my brother?
SPEAKER_01: He's better looking, he's got six-pack abs, he works out, he's keto, I got a beer gut, and I like potato salad, and I stutter.
SPEAKER_01: And God's like, and by the way, I'm a murderer.
SPEAKER_01: I got a past, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Don't you know?
SPEAKER_01: And God just claps and says, I love people with a past.
SPEAKER_01: I love people.
SPEAKER_01: That way, when I use you, no, there's no confusion about who gets the glory.
SPEAKER_01: So, all you people here that want to excuse yourself and say, Well, you know, my first marriage didn't work, and well, God, you know, God's like, please, please, I don't want to hear that.
SPEAKER_01: And so he gives them a leader and they won't follow.
SPEAKER_01: And so it gets a little darker in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And then he gives them a law, and they can't keep the law.
SPEAKER_01: The law drives us.
SPEAKER_01: Paul says in Romans the law is like a schoolmaster that just drags us to Christ and says, here's another person, this kneel guy.
SPEAKER_01: He cannot keep the rules, God.
SPEAKER_01: What a piece of work.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a law that they can't keep, and then they get kings.
SPEAKER_01: They look around and say, Everyone's got a king.
SPEAKER_01: We need a king.
SPEAKER_01: God says, You don't need a king.
SPEAKER_01: This is a theocracy.
SPEAKER_01: You got me.
SPEAKER_01: You need a king.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, yeah, we need a king.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, can you imagine that people would look to somebody like a president as the person that's gonna make everything better?
SPEAKER_01: Who would be so dumb?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, who would put all their hopes in a like a leader, like a king or a president?
SPEAKER_01: Are you kidding me?
SPEAKER_01: And God said, You don't need that, you got me.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, No, we want a king, so God gives them a king, and they got kings that they can't trust.
SPEAKER_01: And so it gets a little darker in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And then he sends the prophets, and they don't like the prophets because the prophets say crazy stuff.
SPEAKER_01: And the prophets, their entire life is to make a point to the people of God about the nature of God, and they're like, ah, get out of here.
SPEAKER_01: And they stoned some of these guys, dipped them in hot oil, and killed them and said, That's what we think about you people telling us what we're doing is wrong.
SPEAKER_01: I can marry my brother's wife, I could do whatever I want.
SPEAKER_01: And it got a little darker in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And then they got to the minor prophets, which is at the end of the Old Testament, the guys with the funniest names like Habakkuk and Nahum.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm always trying to get somebody to name their son Nahum.
SPEAKER_01: No one takes me up on it.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, nobody is named Nahum.
SPEAKER_01: Every other name has been taken.
SPEAKER_01: Stop trying so hard.
SPEAKER_01: People said, we're gonna have a daughter named her Naveah.
SPEAKER_01: It's heaven backwards.
SPEAKER_01: Been done.
SPEAKER_01: Stop.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to be really edgy, this is our son Nahum.
SPEAKER_01: That kid must be homeschooled.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: So you got all those people back there: Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Malachi.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, yes.
SPEAKER_01: And Malachi, that's the last book of the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: By the time you get to Malachi, it is really dark.
SPEAKER_01: And the minor prophets, they sound mad because here's what's happening: God's not talking.
SPEAKER_01: And so, I mean, and God's talking, but people aren't listening.
SPEAKER_01: And so God's voice gets really shrill through the minor prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And he says, This at Malachi, it is so bad that God says to these people, Oh, that there was one among you who would shut the doors of the temple.
SPEAKER_01: Just shut the doors, just stop.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because God told them, I want you to bring your best and sacrifice it to me.
SPEAKER_01: And they said, Oh, well, God, we could sell that and make a lot of money.
SPEAKER_01: We're gonna give you this little crippled sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: We wouldn't eat this, but we'll give it to you.
SPEAKER_01: Because hear this, beloved.
SPEAKER_01: They related to God out of their willingness, not out of God's expectation.
SPEAKER_01: This is what I'm willing to do.
SPEAKER_01: You just better be glad with that.
SPEAKER_01: And to that, God says, Oh, that there were one among you that would shut the doors, that you would not kindle fire on my altar in vain.
SPEAKER_01: I have no pleasure in you, says the Lord of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand.
SPEAKER_01: For from the rising of the sun to its setting, my name will be great among the nations.
SPEAKER_01: And in every place where incense will be offered in my name, and a pure offering, for now my name will be great among the nations, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And so here's the question that vexes the people of God back then.
SPEAKER_01: If God's saying, My name is gonna be great among the nations, why is my name not great among my people?
SPEAKER_01: And so God says, I'm gonna chain the doors to the church shut.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want you people to come and give me just another offering of your willingness.
SPEAKER_01: And so this is the backdrop against which Jesus comes.
SPEAKER_01: It is spiritually dark in the land.
SPEAKER_01: And from the time the Old Testament closes to the time the New Testament opens, 450 years.
SPEAKER_01: Now think about that for a moment.
SPEAKER_01: 450 years of God just saying, Oh, you guys know better?
SPEAKER_01: Great, knock yourselves out.
SPEAKER_01: And because God is rich in mercy, he's always looking to give an indication.
SPEAKER_01: So he speaks to the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: And he says in Isaiah, God speaks a hopeful word.
SPEAKER_01: He says, But there will be no gloom for her who is in anguish.
SPEAKER_01: In the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali.
SPEAKER_01: But in the latter time he has made glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: The people who have walked in darkness have seen a great light.
SPEAKER_01: And those who dwelt in a land of deep darkness, on them has light shone.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: For to us a child is born, to us a son is given.
SPEAKER_01: And the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
SPEAKER_01: Of the increase of his government and of peace there will be no end.
SPEAKER_01: And on the throne of David and over his kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.
SPEAKER_01: The zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this.
SPEAKER_01: God says, I don't need your help.
SPEAKER_01: I have enough righteous zeal in me to accomplish the impossible.
SPEAKER_01: And he speaks this prophetic word hundreds of years before Christ comes.
SPEAKER_01: In the New Testament, Paul says, For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory.
SPEAKER_01: Where?
SPEAKER_01: Where do we see the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ?
SPEAKER_01: And you may be here today, and your marriage may be very dark.
SPEAKER_01: You may feel hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: You may have a child that's off the reservation and you've prayed every prayer, you know how to pray.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, I I just don't know.
SPEAKER_01: You feel taken hostage by their addiction, by their stubbornness.
SPEAKER_01: On this first Sunday of Advent, we light this candle to remind ourselves that as the people of God that we're never hopeless.
SPEAKER_01: We have this hope as an anchor for our soul.
SPEAKER_01: And you don't need a spotlight shining in your eyes, blinding you.
SPEAKER_01: You just need a little illuminating reminder that the darkness is not pervasive.
SPEAKER_01: That's why Jesus tumbled wet and wobbly into the manger.
SPEAKER_01: He didn't ride in as a conquering king, he could have.
SPEAKER_01: He came as a babe in a manger.
SPEAKER_01: After 450 years, he leaves the sanctity and the security of heaven.
SPEAKER_01: And he comes to earth.
SPEAKER_01: So you and I could have hope.
SPEAKER_01: Regardless of how our life feels, regardless, regardless of how hard it gets, regardless of how coarse and profane our culture gets.
SPEAKER_01: Which is why the Bible calls for faith.
SPEAKER_01: It says faith is the substance of things hoped for in the evidences of things not seen.
SPEAKER_01: And so, Holy Spirit, on this first Sunday of Advent, thank you that it for the hope that is ours in Christ because of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: It's not an emotion, it's a byproduct of what we believe.
SPEAKER_01: And what we confess today that we believe is that Jesus is coming again.
SPEAKER_01: And that's not escapism, it's intentionality.
SPEAKER_01: This life matters.
SPEAKER_01: This life is not all there is, though.
SPEAKER_01: In the meantime, Jesus is doing something about the world that we live in.
SPEAKER_01: And if I'm a Christian, I'm I'm called and created to join him in that.
SPEAKER_01: In redeeming, in reconciling.
SPEAKER_01: And we believe also that you came in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: And so when it gets hard and it gets dark, we can be reminded this is this is the environment in which God comes crashing in and brings light to bear.
SPEAKER_01: So we can hold on to our hope regardless of our circumstance.
SPEAKER_01: What we say with Peter and John's gospel, Lord, you know everything.
SPEAKER_01: Because you know everything.
SPEAKER_01: We have hope.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you for that in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: And everyone said, Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: If you're our guest today, I want to say thanks for being part of our service.
SPEAKER_01: You're welcome to come on this Advent journey with us.
SPEAKER_01: Uh every week we have a different theme.
SPEAKER_01: Next week we talk about peace.
SPEAKER_01: But you're more than welcome.
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully, you've had an opportunity to pull out the guest card in your seatback pocket in your row and fill that out.
SPEAKER_01: All we ask of you is that on your way out here in just a minute, you drop on these wooden boxes by the doors, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh we'd love to have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, we're not gonna crowd you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh we just want to love you and be the church to you.
SPEAKER_01: I want to be your pastor.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to just be a guy that you hear talk.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I got a text yesterday about my friend Helen, uh, and I saw Helen's son-in-law in the last service.
SPEAKER_01: He goes, 'You just dropped what you were doing and went.' I went, Helen Brown's my friend.
SPEAKER_01: I love Helen Brown.
SPEAKER_01: She says crazy stuff to my girls, and I love it.
SPEAKER_01: And my kids were like, Oh, Miss Helen.
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Well, Dad, what do you think?
SPEAKER_01: I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: Helen Brown loves to dance.
SPEAKER_01: A couple years ago, she broke her femur in three places.
SPEAKER_01: Saw her at the hospital.
SPEAKER_01: I said, Hey, I said, get your leg fixed and we'll dance.
SPEAKER_01: She said, You get me to the dance floor, I'll cut a rug.
SPEAKER_01: Now, why do I tell you that?
SPEAKER_01: When her life on this earth ends, whenever that is, she'll be able to dance again.
SPEAKER_01: Because she's gonna get a new glorified body.
SPEAKER_01: Am I sad?
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
SPEAKER_01: By the way, your life on this earth is gonna end one day, too.
SPEAKER_01: So don't just look and go, oh, at 91-year-old woman.
SPEAKER_01: You better get busy living your life.
SPEAKER_01: Okay?
SPEAKER_01: And so I'm I'm hopeful.
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, she'll get to dance.
SPEAKER_01: That's great.
SPEAKER_01: Uh so if you're a guest, hey, we'd love to have a record.
SPEAKER_01: I want to just I want to be your pastor, okay?
SPEAKER_01: Uh I am Helen's pastor.
SPEAKER_01: Uh I sat and drink coffee with her uh and have a foot-long chili dog from Sonic.
SPEAKER_01: And she eats the bread and the chili and leaves the hot dog.
SPEAKER_01: And I went, why don't you just don't tell me what to do, boy?
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: I have now two women in my life that speak to me that way.
SPEAKER_01: Uh also, if you're a guest, just drop the wooden box.
SPEAKER_01: You'll see people dropping other things in there because that's where we receive our offering.
SPEAKER_01: We don't pass the plate.
SPEAKER_01: Our people understand that stewardship is just a part of Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: So we're not gonna guilt you and manipulate you.
SPEAKER_01: Uh, you are free in Christ to be a cheerful giver, okay?
SPEAKER_01: We'd like to conclude our service with a spoken blessing.
SPEAKER_01: So if you would stand to your feet, myself and some of our pastors will be available down front if you have any questions about anything you heard or saw today, or if you'd like us just to pray with you about something, we'd be glad to do that as well.
SPEAKER_01: Hold your hands out.
SPEAKER_01: Hope is a good thing, the best of good things.
SPEAKER_01: And good things never die.
SPEAKER_01: Depart now and live as if you believe this, you experience it, and you enjoy it.
SPEAKER_01: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Bless you.