HOTLCAST
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HOTLCAST
Hail Mary and the Hope That Never Fails
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In this episode of the HOTLCast, Matt, Pastor Ryan, Cyle, and Mark wrap up their Hollywood series with a look at Project Hail Mary — the story of a discredited scientist thrust into saving the universe from extinction. Beneath the sci-fi, they find a story about hope and friendship, and use it to dig into what biblical hope really means.
They unpack the difference between hope and optimism: optimism relies on circumstances going your way, while hope holds onto God's goodness no matter what. The conversation touches on despair, the slide from "realist" into pessimism, and why fixing your eyes on eternity changes how you face hard seasons.
They also look at Paul, who wrote some of his most joyful letters from prison — proof that hope isn't about good odds, but about a relationship with a living God who is good all the time.
Hello and welcome back to the Holocast.
SPEAKER_03This is Matt.
SPEAKER_02This is Pastor Ryan. Hello, Pastor Ryan. That's right. This is Kyle. Yeah, I'm Kyle. And over there on the mic is Mark.
SPEAKER_01I'm back.
SPEAKER_02Mark is back. So we're glad you're back, Mark.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. You guys only did one while I was gone, right? Or did you do both?
SPEAKER_00We missed you, nonetheless.
SPEAKER_03The chair just felt empty. Carver had to kind of jump back and forth. It was very sad.
SPEAKER_01I know I heard that on the last episode when I went to upload it. Yeah, you could hear. So as you guys, he's like, where are you at? He's like, oh, I'm sorry. I forgot.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. He was engrossed in our conversation. But uh, we are back and we're heading towards most people don't do podcasts in the summer because it's hard to get everybody together, but we've been able to manage most of the weeks. Keeping rolling. So yay.
SPEAKER_03We do what we can. Yeah. We got to give the people what they want.
SPEAKER_02Watch will fall apart in the fall. More than likely, yeah. So we did such a good job in the summer of trying to keep it rolling.
SPEAKER_03I mean, that's the busier time though, really.
SPEAKER_02So crazy. But um, no, it's uh school year is upon us in a couple weeks. People are coming back from vacations. Like, hey, fall's coming. It feels like fall is starting to feel like fall air. Football season's back, so can't wait for that. Um, no, all things are good. I love fall in Michigan. It's the best.
SPEAKER_03I still prefer summer. I'm gonna miss the hot weather.
SPEAKER_02You prefer summer?
SPEAKER_03I do. I love hot weather.
SPEAKER_00Really?
SPEAKER_03Wow. Yep.
SPEAKER_00What about you? Yeah, yeah. I could have it be 85 degrees every single day of my life. Agreed.
SPEAKER_02Oh, okay. So Florida fans. Okay. What about you?
SPEAKER_01I would make it snow in my house if I could. Yeah. I'm I am quite the opposite. Yeah. I do like my cold weather.
SPEAKER_02I used to like cold weather. I don't so much anymore. So yeah, getting there. I'm getting there to the hot times, but yeah. I do love football in the fall. Yeah, I just love it. I love it. It's great. So feels like it feels like football season. That's when the fall comes. So for those, those of you who love football, it's coming. It's coming soon. We'll see who who's good and see if this is a disappointing fall or if it's a good fall.
SPEAKER_03So it depends on who your teams are. That's really the that's the bottom line.
SPEAKER_02That is true. If it's the Lions, they're going to disappoint you.
SPEAKER_03Shout out to Cody Moorhead. You're in for a rough year. The Browns, yeah. The Browns.
SPEAKER_02Still not good. Yeah, never. Better though.
SPEAKER_03You have Burrow. You're you're better.
SPEAKER_02Better. Better. Yeah. So like that's like uh that's like margarine is is butter. It works, but it just doesn't, something's not right. So that's the Bengals. Um, but anyways, we're talking about our last of the Hollywood series today. There's no good transition from a butter comment into that, so we're just gonna slide into that like a hot knife through butter. So look at that. Look at that. Um, but we just finished our Hollywood series, which we believe um movies are just modern day parables. You can teach truth and biblical story through those modern-day parables, and we Jesus spoke in story and parables to teach people you know real biblical truths, and so um we love to like look at movies. So we did Project Hail Mary this week, which have either of you guys ever seen? Have you seen it? Yeah, I've I watched it. You've seen it? So you've seen it.
SPEAKER_03I started watching it yesterday, but um life events happened and I wasn't quite able to get through all of it, but I will be finishing it soon. It's really good.
SPEAKER_02Show a lot of it because I didn't want to give it away since so many people hadn't seen it in the congregation. But uh, if you're listening to the podcast, tough. I don't know how we could not give you spoilers. But essentially Ryland Grace is a discredited scientist who ends up saving the world, um, really saving the universe, basically, from uh microbes that eat the suns and all the suns, not just our son. And um he's kidnapped to do it, so it's kind of the crazy thing. So it's like a whole I didn't show any of those clips, but um you know he really is just overcoming the odds to have success. And really, when everything seems to be stacked against them, they still have hope that they can save humanity from extinction. So I think it's it was really a movie at the core. It's a movie about hope and friendship. That's kind of the the basis of it. So as someone who's seen it, what do you think?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I I think that if you if you watch the trailer of it and and from a face value sort of thing, you one I can see how somebody could be like, mmm, I don't know about this movie. But I think when you watch it, you notice like for me, I watch a lot of movies because I I tend to unpack them and and I can find God easily in in in movies. And I and I think when this movie is one of those where you watch it, you can't help but um want to know what's happening next and fall in love with these characters in a way that is is hard to explain. And for me, anytime that happens, I know there's a thing under the thing, under the thing. And when when it all boils down to it's because there is that message of of friendship, of hope, of of God moving in a way that's unexplainable.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And yeah, I think it's one of those stories that it seems kind of quirky from a face value where you got aliens working with humans to to save the universe, or I don't even know if it's the universe to save everything. Yeah. And and uh Yeah, yeah, I thought it was pretty cool.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, I mean I think you know, we we talk a lot about hope, and and hope is is recognizing that in no matter what situation, God is still good, good or bad. Extinction up is upon humanity, God is still good, or versus you know, you know, optimism, which is if the circumstances change in the favor, then you know, you're right. But like optimism really based on is based on circumstances and hope is not odds. We don't we don't have hope because we have good odds, we can you know where things are stacked in our favor. We we have hope no matter what. If things are good, if things are bad, we still have hope that God is good because God promises that everything works out for the good according to his purposes. And so uh I think that's the difference in a perspective, and so we can have hope that God will prevail in all things and things will work out the way he intends. That's that's what real hope looks like. And I think uh sometimes we get lost in our own struggles and our own frustrations, our own lives, and we go to despair, which is the opposite of hope, where we think, well is me, yeah, all is over, nothing we're never gonna get through this. And that's just not that's not the reality for most people. Like uh what do you think, Matt, about despair?
SPEAKER_03I think that there are people who look at themselves and they're like, Well, I'm not a pessimist, I'm just a realist, you know, where I I I look at the glass and yeah, I'm not gonna be, you know, it's half empty, but I'm certainly gonna acknowledge that it's not full. You know, you have people that kind of fall into that category. But let's be real, those people with that mentality, myself included, are really just one stone slipping out from underneath their foot away from falling into that pit of pessimism. Like that's really what my experience has been is you can say all day long that you're a realist. It just means that you're not an optimist. But whenever you have something bad that happens, that's when it kind of takes you down that road where it's not just a small bad thing, it kind of quickly escalates into something that leads down the path toward despair. And if you start looking at it from that perspective, saying, I need to distance myself from that attitude and that mentality, it's a much healthier way to live.
SPEAKER_02Right. Yeah, I think that's a good, like a realist looks at the glass and says, It's a glass.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, exactly.
SPEAKER_02With water in it.
SPEAKER_03So but it's not full.
SPEAKER_02Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think I think I think that's all right. Like you're saying, I think that's all right. I actually don't think that's a bad thing. Oh, agree. If if the condition of your heart is of a, you know, in a in a in a statesman godly sort of place, right? Because then you're looking at things for what's happening and just the reality of the situation, and that's fine. But I think when that rock flips slips underneath their feet like you're talking about, that's where people jump and talk about that story, like, oh, the the end is near, you know, like you know, and we start making up some big long story about what actually happened in order to throw a fit and feel like crap, you know.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, and I I think for us as Christians, we're called to be people of hope. We're not called to be people that are optimistic or pessimistic. We're we're called to be people who hope in God and hope and trust in His Word and recognize, and I said this a lot in this sermon Sunday, like we're not living for this world, we're living through this world for the next one. And when we think about that perspective, we're always aiming towards eternity, and that's where our hope is. Our hope is in our hope is in hope, like eternal. And so we place our trust in God, his word, his plan, and everything on this earth, it just leads us to that. And so, good, bad, ugly, whatever, it's still leading us to eternity. And so at the end of the day, if life is ugly, I'm gonna gain eternity if I follow Jesus Christ. If life is good, I'm gonna gain eternity if I follow Jesus Christ. If life is bad, I'm gonna gain eternity if I follow Jesus Christ. Exactly. Any one of those perspectives, doesn't matter how good or bad or ugly life is, you're I'm gonna gain eternity if I follow Jesus Christ. That's hope. It doesn't matter how your days go, how your weeks go, how your months go. At the end of that is good. And we have to hope in that and trust in that. So yeah, every situation is gonna work out for the good because I'm gonna be with Jesus no matter what. That's why people in Haiti, people in Zimbabwe, people in Guatemala, and people in America can all have the same hope. Yeah, we all have different economies, different situations, different governments, different, you know, authoritarian principles, capitalism versus, you know, socialism, whatever it is in the world. But we can all still end up with Jesus because we can have hope in the cross and in the resurrected Christ that is our living hope, the Bible says. And that's the beauty of it. We can all gain that and attain that through Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03I go back to what you had said in the sermon about people who quit, because that was a huge portion of that for me, thinking through kind of what that looks like and how that plays out. There are people who look at it like, well, it just keeps getting worse, it just keeps getting worse. Well, it's either gonna get better temporarily or it's gonna get better permanently. Like, really, there's not a third direction if you're a Jesus follower, where you're able to look at it and say, I'm either gonna keep going and push through this and persevere to be better while I'm here on earth, or I'm gonna keep going and push through this and persevere to the point where I'm gonna be eternally better. And there is no third direction if you, you know, have committed your life to Christ. And I think there are too many people who have a lot of quit in them where they look at something and they're like, oh, well, it just keeps getting worse, it just keeps getting worse. And instead of looking at it in the eternal realm, they look at it with just the earthly realm in the temporary, and they end up being so beaten down and downtrodden because of that that they refuse to try and find anything that looks like hope, joy, or peace in the midst of their struggle and suffering.
SPEAKER_02Right. No, I agree. I think we get so lost in ourselves that it it is a real struggle for us.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, no, I'm with you. I was thinking the same thing, like it's that whole significance thing, right? Like the the more I make myself greater, it in turn it makes God less in in in my per through my perception. Like the perception of my perception of God makes it less, the more I make myself more, and then I then I'm less able to see the things because I'm I'm blinding myself more and and and putting on that uh tunnel vision to the world, going, nope, the world is is my problem, and the world is where I find all my solutions. And and then it just is a is an empty pit that just goes forever. Until we stop and go, hmm, maybe that's not the case. And then when we stop and look, we realize everybody and their brother is standing at the top of the well with a ladder, with a rope, with encouragement, you know.
SPEAKER_02So no, I think the the challenge for us is to always hope. Hope in Jesus Christ, no matter the situation, no matter the scenario, good, bad, or ugly, God is still good. That's what hope is. God is good all the time, and all the time God is good. That's why we say that frame phrase, because like ultimately, when it comes down to it, God is good all the time. Like, no matter what the situation, no matter what the scenario is. And so that is what it looks like to have hope to really embrace the understanding that God is good all the time. I mean, Paul was in jail multiple times, he was shipwrecked. God was still good. Like, I've not been shipwrecked. I don't think I would enjoy it.
SPEAKER_03Like you were stranded on a sandbar.
SPEAKER_02I was saying a straight strand bar, I was I was I was stranded on a sandbar and I enjoyed that because I'm crazy. But I would not enjoy floating in the ocean wondering if sharks are gonna come up and eat my legs at any moment, because that's what I would be thinking the entire time. Um that would be miserable, but God was still good. He was yeah, he was arrested, put on trial multiple times. Still, God is good. So, like I'm and I've been in where Paul was in jail. It was it's not a great place. It's not like our cozy jails here with three meals a day. It's it's a pit. It's it's nasty, it's gross, it's cold, it's wet, it's musty, like it's awful. Yeah, God is still good all the time.
SPEAKER_01I mean, he writes some of his most optimistic and positive sermons when or letters when he's in prison. But some of the letters that Paul wrote that are most hopeful and most full of joy are the ones where he's in a cell.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, and you'd have to think he's crazy, but no, he met a living God. He was blinded by God, he had an interaction with God, he had no doubt there was a God. So, like no matter what he lived through, there's still hope and the living hope of Jesus because he had that interaction. I think when you see the disciples all went to crazy like deaths for Jesus, they knew this life was what they were living through for the next one. And so when I see those testimonies, I'm like, yeah, I mean, we can get through anything if we just keep our our eyes fixated on Jesus Christ and in the hope that only comes through him, the living hope. So hope that's an encouragement to you. Hope you can have hope upon hope, just like Paul. And till next time, we'll catch you on the Holocast.
SPEAKER_03See ya.