You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to
encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to
the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses
you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way
today. And.
If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough ought to find
out more about Omega, get to our website or Facebook page through
the links below. Yeah, she's so cute.
We haven't seen her. The juniors can go in the
program and intermediates in the service.
And we have the pleasure of Alexis bringing the word of God
today with us. And I invite Alex, please.
Thank you for that generous welcome.
But we do have to do a technical switch over which John will do
for me. So we have two laptops running
and SO1 laptop is mine while John is doing that.
Some of you may have been to my house and seen this.
Has anyone seen that? Yes, yes, I believe that people
know and have been taught quite a bit about faith.
I believe they know quite a bit about love.
And today you're going to learn quite a bit about hope.
I can tell you that we had some pet animals.
We had a dog called Faith, We had a cat called and we had a
mouse, so we had a rabbit called Caston.
Where that came from, I'm not sure.
Another. Cat called Patience.
We had a cat called Patience and it tested the Jenny's patience.
I like the cat, I think more than Jenny did.
Oh, I knocked it out. Look at this.
It all happens. So the readings this morning are
are from one Peter 13 to 6:00 and from Proverbs 1312.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now that's the greeting, isn't it?
According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.
To say it with me living hope. What is a living hope?
Or ask the question better who is the living hope?
Jesus. Jesus is living.
Did you all know that? Did some of you think he stayed
on the crucifix and didn't get off?
Know what I mean? He's been on the cross, but he
got off. He doesn't permanently stay
dead. He's a living Jesus.
Plus, He has paid the price for our sins.
He has created for us a hope we have, a place to go, a house
being prepared for us, a destination beyond this life
that Jesus is waiting to welcome us to it.
Do you know that the Salvation Army had a saying for when
someone died? It wasn't.
They passed away or whatever. They said it much more
positively. Do you know what the Salvation
Army General Booth called it? Promotion to glory.
We're being promoted from this ordinary world, which we think's
OK, to a higher world, which is much better.
Promotion to glory. For someone who is a believer,
death is not the end. We have a living hope called
Jesus through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,
because he was resurrected from the dead.
We are resurrected from the dead, an inheritance that is
imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and it's kept for you
in heaven, who by God's power are being guarded through faith
for our salvation. So God's on your side.
He's backing you for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last
time. Does anyone feel like we're in
the last times? Yes, that's that's another
topic. But our salvation waiting for us
in this, you rejoice. And so we take our salvation for
granted, but we are being exhorted to rejoice that we have
an exciting future. We have an exciting life here on
earth because we have Jesus with us.
We are guided by the Holy Spirit.
We can't be on our own only if we choose to, but for a little
while, if necessary. You may, you have been grieved
by various trials. Does anyone notice that?
That on earth you have some trials, temptations,
disappointments, sickness. Anyone notice that?
Good news in heaven, you don't have that?
Yeah, Heaven's a much better place.
But we will be tested. And when we are tested, what do
we do? Grumble.
Blame God, all those things. Actually, it's a refining of us,
more precious than gold. That perishes, though it's
tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory
and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
So I believe that when we overcome the the trials of this
life, then the glory of God is reflected through us.
We honour Him because of his glory and because of what he's
done. We can be carried through the
trials. We don't be defined by them.
I know some people have had a set back in life and they're
grumpy for the rest of their life.
Do you know those people? Is there anyone here in the room
like that? Do I see a hand?
Don't let the trials define you. We'll get on to that.
Let's look at Proverbs 1312. Hope deferred makes the heart.
If it makes the heart sick, it'll make you sick.
If you become mentally and emotionally screwed with this
negativity and sadness and victim mentality, eventually
your body will join it. You will end up in hospital with
a sickness or a disease. Why?
Because the scripture tells us if your heart condition isn't
right, you're likely to become sick.
But a life, but a longing fulfilled.
Is the tree of life a longing fulfilled?
Do you have a longing? Do you have a dream?
Do you have a goal? Do you have a purpose in this
life? Do you know what you're going?
And if other things come along that don't line up with that
goal, you don't follow them because you're not distracted.
You have a purpose. God's given you a purpose.
It's in its Word, His Word, the Bible, but it's also in us as
well. We have an understanding of who
we are, what we were created for, and what we're supposed to
do with it. And the tree of life speaks of
nourishment. We'll look at a bit more of that
in the moment. So if we talked about hope,
faith, and love, retain your hope.
Don't lose your hope. What?
What happens when you lose your hope?
What do you become? What's a word?
Hopeless. Do you want to be known as
hopeless Christians? No, it doesn't fit.
Don't be hopeless. Be filled with love.
Do you know some Christians who've got no love?
Their eyes don't sparkle like Rawls.
When he smiles, he smiles with his whole face.
Absolutely. Did you know that role?
Go ahead and look in the mirror. It's true.
You can't be a loveless Christian.
It doesn't work. It's not a witness to God.
There's no glory of God. And being a loveless Christian,
you might be right. You might know a whole lot of
Scriptures, but if you can't love anybody, you'll push them
away, you'll burn them off, you will judge them because you
don't have a heart of love. Acting in faith.
Sometimes we do. We are called to do things which
we don't know if they're going to work or not, but we don't
care. We just step over the line and
do it anyway. We embarrass ourselves for God
if we have to. Faith is like that, where you
step out in faith believing that God is with you.
So when you have faith, you can move mountains, you can bring
changes on this earth that other people can't imagine.
I've got some stories later to share with you.
I found that that church poster quite funny.
Prevent tooth decay. Brush up on your Bible.
So if you brush up on your Bible, you stay healthy.
And I had something I was going to do, and now that I'm here, I
haven't done it. OK, So tooth decay.
Tooth decay rots your teeth. Bible decay rots your faith.
Is there any diagnosis of Bible decay in the room this morning?
I hope not. I've got another Oops, No,
another one for you. Lord, help us to be the people
our dogs think we are. What have you noticed about
dogs? They are what they are,
faithful. We called our dog Faith because
it was faithful. Dogs always smile.
It doesn't matter whether you treat them well, whether you are
polite to them, whether you are having a bad day.
The dog's always pleased to see you.
It doesn't care. It's consistent.
I know some people who have got rid of their spouses and
replaced them with a dog because the dog's much more compliant.
How stupid? How are you going to grow and be
challenged if you only have a dog to hold you to account?
So dogs think we're wonderful. This is what dogs do.
They almost think that we are their God.
Hear it, bit of idolatry thing going on here.
So dogs look up to us. So we like the hero worship.
I'm not against dogs. At one point I had eight dogs
and at that point Jenny says get rid of the dogs.
I had them for work, but they were noisy.
So I put the scripture there again, which I've talked about
mostly already. What I'm talking about here is
you combine these two scriptures, which are one, Peter
and Proverbs 13, and what you have is a combination of if you
lose your trust in Jesus, you'll be sick.
And I'm wondering whether in the West, in the civilized world
that we live in, that we have a faith or a belief or a, I'm not
sure what it is, an identity as a Christian, but it's not the
same as it is in an oppressed countries.
If you talk to a Christian in China or Iran at the moment,
they would die for their faith because they've had a miraculous
and supernatural encounter with Jesus.
Many Muslim people in Iran are woken up with dreams in the
night, the visitations of Jesus. Jesus appears to them, speaks to
them, says a word of knowledge that just rivets, goes into
their they're deep into their spirit and they're completely
undone. All they've believed doesn't
work anymore. They've met Jesus.
Jesus knows them, says the word, and they're hooked for life and
they're committed. They are, if you like, deep in
their faith because nothing can shake them.
Once you've met Jesus personally, you are never, ever
the same. You can't deny it happened.
Someone said to a person who was tortured and he had crisscross
stripes on his back. Is he?
Have you heard the story before and what had happened?
They had tortured him on a wire bed frame, the old bed frames
with the crisscross metal. They'd hooked up electrodes to
that metal and shocked him and then scarred his back.
That the story different one and then that he was in immense pain
with electricity going through, burning the flesh off his back.
And the torturers said, why won't you give up this Jesus?
Why won't you just say yes or no, whatever the word is, and
we'll let you go? And he says, because I know what
I've who I've met and I can't lie for Jesus.
I can't lie, I've met Jesus. Hope comes from believing the
promises of God. And God gives us promises in his
Word, and he speaks to us even through circumstances that
confirm His Word. It won't go against what the
Word says. It will add to or be confirmed
by it. Now, hope is not like me saying
in an earthly sense, I hope it doesn't rain today and the
washing will get wet. That's not biblical hope.
That's just wishing, wishful thinking, or if you like,
guessing what might happen. Hope is certain.
Hope is unchanging. It's not what's just a temporary
thing that might be easier for us.
It's not like that at all. I have a friend who a long time
ago gave birth to a a baby boy and until the baby was born she
had no knowledge it was going to be a spina bifida.
And so when she saw the baby she got this immense shock.
This is not what I wanted. And she went through a full
spectrum of emotions, disbelief but mostly anger at God.
How could you have given this to me?
Why has this happened? And she was really agitated for
the next few days and she told me the story and someone wise in
the church said to her, well you've actually only got 2
choices. You become bitter and blame God
and struggle through life with this burden or you dig in closer
to God, He will empower you and you will cope with this
gloriously and succeed. And the lady said, I've got no
choice, I've got no choice. I need God more, not less.
Do you hear me? There was a very famous civil
rights activist who was a Baptist preacher called Martin
Luther King. Anyone remember him?
Anyone. Maybe over 50?
I want to share 2 quotes that he had.
Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your life.
Is that the same for us? What shapes our life?
Our hopes or our hurts? Which do we choose?
Because he had lots of abuse for doing what he was doing.
Death threats. They actually killed him before
he saw his hope realized. So what he hoped for happened.
The laws changed. But he had a famous speech and I
won't read you the speech, but the opening line was, I have a
dream. Is that a a good accent to use?
I'm not sure whether it fits a bit that one day there will be
this change. And he had this dream and he
shared this dream and he sowed the dream into a nation and the
dream came to pass. He had his hope, he released it,
but he wasn't, if you like, alive to see it.
Biblical hope is forward-looking faith.
It is a confident belief based on things experience, not on
things experienced, but it's based on the Word of God that
the future he says will happen. Hope is a future certainty that
gives joy, peace and patience in the Presence.
Romans 824 Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for
what he sees? But if we hope for what we do
not see, we wait for it with patience.
It's a bit like saying to a woman who is carrying a child
that she doesn't have a baby. You can't see the baby, she
can't show you the baby, but she has a hope that the baby will be
born and delivered. So what's that about?
You don't have to see it to know it's true.
And it will come to pass. You have an absolute certainty.
I like this thing, which is the concept that Scripture tells us
that hope will bring us joy. Because you can't be a joyless
Christian. Has anyone noticed?
I gravitate towards people who are fun, which is all you guys,
of course. But yeah, so when you have hope,
one of the fruit will be you will light up.
You will have joy. Yeah.
But if you don't have a hope, you just have information.
And I like this picture. Joy helps unlock love.
Yeah. When you're joyful, you attract
people. Yeah, And so attracting people
is actually what we're called to do.
If we don't have the joy and the love on us, we're not as
attractive to the other people. Max Liccardo is a Christian
author. Anyone heard of Max Liccardo?
He's an American man. He said this.
Feed your fears and your faith will starve.
Feed your faith and your fears will starve.
Do you like that? What we feed will grow and
sometimes we feed the wrong things.
What will happen is that we will watch social media and social
media will watch us. Have you noticed?
And then it will have the algorithms.
Someone knew how to say that. Thank you algorithms.
It'll give us more of the same. So if we tend to look at
negative things and critical things, guess what will come
next week into our feeds and it will grow the same.
So what are we watching? What are we allowing into our
heads that we are feeding? That changes who we are because
what we accept from social media may not be what God wants us to
feed. It's a wee warning there, one
John 418. There is No Fear in love because
perfect love drives out those of you who want to hold on to your
fear. All you have to do is get back
into love, accept love, give love, feel loved by God, get the
concept of love settled in you so it becomes your identity, and
you won't give in to fear. Because I have a hope that this
scripture is true. I am believing it, whether I
understand it or not, in its depth.
Because perfect love drives out fear.
I am driving out fear and I am going to live in perfect love.
It's a much better option, really.
Here's an interesting one. Dishonor robs us of vision, so
our vision and our hope can be the same dishonor.
And we do it by criticizing politicians.
We do it by correcting people and embarrassing them when we
think they need, if you like a straighten up.
We do it when we gossip behind their backs.
We do it when we say yes to their face and no behind their
back. Has anyone done that dishonor?
If we take our eyes off our vision and we acted
dishonorably, we open ourselves up for disappointment and
discouragement, cutting ourselves off from the blessings
of God. Why would you want that?
Why would you cut yourself off from the blessings?
The the basic root of dishonor, of course, is pride, and the
spiritual force that will come against you is called Leviathan.
That's something for nothing, so if you're into dishonouring, it
needs to stop. Hope deferred makes the heart
sick. But when desire comes, it is
like the tree of life. Now there's two trees in the
picture. You can see one tree looks a
little. What's the word for that tree?
Sorry, dead is a good word, barren or sterile or unhealthy.
And one tree looks vibrant. It has a root system and it has
multiple leaves and it will have fruit on it.
It's a picture of people's lives, actually.
But let's just ask the question, what does hope deferred mean?
If I said something is deferred to Jaunty, what would he tell
me? If something's deferred?
It's like not a word we use all the time.
Give me some feedback. What other words could you use?
Sorry, hadn't been received. Good.
Delayed another one. What about postponed?
What about replaced, lost. Given up.
If you give up your hope you've it's deferred and what you have
is a second class life. You will exist, you will have
whatever life it throws at you, but you won't have the
nourishment that the word of God is supposed to give you.
You'll become vulnerable to disease.
You will be overcome or sub subject to feelings of
hopelessness overwhelming you. The tree of life is mentioned
three times in the Bible. The first time is in Genesis,
and it's saying what was, if you like, God's original plan in
Proverbs. We're using it now.
It's exhorting us to be used to use this and to feed and improve
ourselves by encouraging us to grow our hope.
But in Revelation, hope start again, the tree of life is also
mentioned in Revelation and it's what is to come and it's a very
good what is to come. So the tree of hope, sorry, the
tree of life keeps coming up. And I believe that when we act
on in hope, we tap into the tree of life and we will be fruitful
and successful, which again brings glory to God.
So we know that hope deferred makes the heart sick.
But I want to share that sometimes there are things that
happen to us that are trials that can be reversed.
In other words, things look really dark and really black and
there is no hope. But if we hold them there and
wait long enough, maybe even for 40 years like some biblical
characters had to do, then there is a sudden, miraculous,
supernatural turn around and we're blessed beyond measure.
Compare Job in the Old Testament.
He lost everything. He was sick and it would be
easier to have died, but God restored him more than what he
had before. What about Esther?
What about her nation was going to be slaughtered and then God
reversed it, and those who were planning the slaughter were the
ones who died. God can do it in an instant by
turning it around. And we'd look at Jesus being
dead for three days. The disciples were, if you like,
losing hope because this is like an impossible thing.
Their dream had been lost. But that's not the end of the
story. Jesus is able to miraculously
and supernatural turn it to God's advantage and God's glory.
God can turn it around. God can turn us around.
So we look at those disciples and in the scriptures I can only
find 3 names mentioned who were with Jesus right at the end when
he was crucified and buried? Where were his loyal followers?
Joseph. Joseph of Arimathea is
mentioned, Nicodemus is mentioned, and John is
mentioned. Where were the rest?
I'm suspicious they were. They lost hope.
Absolutely they did. Absolutely they did.
I'm assuming that fear, shock, disbelief, all their emotions
overwhelmed them and they were trying to save their skins by
hiding. We wouldn't do that, would we?
We wouldn't save our skins by hiding, would we?
So they were tested, lost their hope. 1 Thessalonians 1/3 We
remember before our God and Father, your work produced by
faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance
inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.
So hope is about endurance, staying to the end, not giving
up because the breakthrough is coming soon.
Just wait for it. Hope motivates, hope energizes
hope for the future, sustains us through the hard times.
This too will pass as a saying. Let's look at list here.
And it's a criteria or a system that happens when hopelessness
overwhelms you. Firstly, you might feel easily
discouraged. Has anyone felt discouraged at
times as part of the human condition?
The good news is that something that's easily, if you like, got
rid of. It's a temporary state.
But after a while, if you feed that, you'll grow into confusion
and you're not sure what to do. You become indecisive.
We don't want that. Then we go into this thing of
questioning God, if God is real, why or how, and so unbelief
becomes a possibility for us. We get disillusions.
We think, well, I've done all this, no one cares, I'll just
give up. Then the next stage is
bitterness, where it's like you are a little critical or
negative towards other people maybe who are doing better than
you or more successful than you. And the last stage is cynicism.
I have this belief or vow that I don't want to be known as a
cynical old man. I remember people who were in
that generation when I was growing up, they were cynical
old men. They were grumpy sods.
They didn't smile much, they probably are full of arthritis
and pain and all sorts of things they've been through, but it had
leaked through into their personality and they were not a
good witness. Has anyone got any of those
symptoms on the list? I see, sorry.
Off and on. I think we all do and it's what
we feed will grow. So the secret?
Don't feed them. Yes, the flesh takes us to those
places. That is correct, whereas the
Word of God takes us out of those places.
It's interesting when things go wrong, people have this fleshly
reaction in. They have this question, why did
God do this to me? I've got a better statement,
statement to replace that. Why has the enemy done this to
me? And the next question is, how
have I let the enemy do this to me?
That's much more productive. Don't blame God, blame the
source and attack the source. Shut the door.
And so we can actually make much more progress by re engaging
God, confessing, repenting, changing our attitude or
lifestyle, and creating an atmosphere where healing can
take place. And the miraculous of God can,
if you like, solve the problem and bless you much more than you
think or imagine. I want to tell you 3 quick
stories. The first one is about Jim.
And I've known Jim for 20 years. He's a big guy and he was a bit
of a goofy guy in some ways. He was bullied at school, so he
wasn't the world's brightest scholar.
And he was an addict. He was my client.
So sometimes the the work site would ring up and say Jim's in a
depressed state. Can you come?
And so I knew what was going on. So I would make a smoothie at
home with bananas and electrolytes and blueberries and
mix up the smoothie and take it to gym because there's no point
in giving him money because he would gamble it.
He was paid on Tuesday. By Thursday lunchtime, he had no
money left at his work site. At morning tea smoko, he would
be gambling on his phone. He wouldn't be eating and he
would get rid of his wages within two days and he had no
food left. And then he'd feel bad about
himself. So the first thing I had to do
was feed him because because he he was just like vacant.
So one day this things got pretty bad for Jim and I spent a
bit of time in his house listening to his stories and
hearing Harry got into the mess that he got into and he had a
suicide attempt. And so the work sent me there
and knocked on the door and he wouldn't answer or couldn't
answer. So that ended up the police
came, smashed the door down and there he was on the floor.
He'd stabbed himself in the stomach if he wasn't dead, he
was just a bit comatose. So they took him away, stitched
him up, emergency surgery and he was put in the the mental
hospital. So I visited him in the mental
hospital and I took him a Bible, and I took him two small
paperback books of testimonies of about 3 pages each of
people's lives who have had disaster happen, that God's
turned around disaster, that God's turned for his glory.
And Jim said, well, I'm not very good at reading that Bible's too
big, but I'll have a go at these other ones.
And anyway, I come back a few days later next week and Jim's a
bit brighter. He's in the mental ward.
And you got to understand how it's shaped.
They have a new building which has got a huge common room in
the middle and doors all the way around opening up into the rooms
where the patients sleep. So you can see into the rooms
from the main common room. And the the nurses and doctors
are in the common room. And I'm visiting Jim in his in
his room and Jim's sitting on the edge of his bed, sitting
sideways on the inside of his bed.
And he said to me far out, he says, these guys that you are
showing me these books, they were in a real mess.
A their lives were, were, were much worse than mine.
Actually they weren't. They weren't.
He just didn't know how bad his was far out, he says, but
there's something I don't get. He says they talk about the Holy
Spirit. They said the Holy Spirit came
and it kind of changed them. I said, that's right, Jim.
He said, how do you get the Holy Spirit?
I said, wait there. So he's sitting on the side of
his bed. I lay my hands on his stomach.
Well, not where his wound was, but in his chest.
And I pray God come and fill up Jim with your Holy Spirit.
In an instant, Jim fell flat on his back, across his bed
sideways, his head dangling over the edge and his feet over the
other edge. And he's struck down by the
presence of God and people looking in the door.
He's all right. You know, I thought, what have I
done? I'm going to be arrested for
anyway. And after about 5 or 6 minutes,
Jim sort of sits up on the bed. He says far out.
He says that's the best trip I've ever been on.
And he'd been on lots of trips and I don't, I don't have been
travelling. He'd had chemically induced
trips. And he says why I feel so
different. I said it's the Holy Spirit.
Oh, he says, I want more of that.
Jim became a Christian. Jim quit his high paying job
because Jim told me no point in having a lot of money because I
just spend it. He went home, went on the
benefit and looked over after his sick parents and was their
caregiver. We went to Dunedin last time,
Jenny and I, we, we drove down the Main St.
Dunedin. A man crossed the road.
It was Jim of all the people in Dunedin, and we had this big
catch up with Jim, how happy he was, how settled he was.
And he's not gambling. Yeah, that's Jim.
But it took 20 years for that to actually happen.
I want to tell the story about a lady I thought about in the
shower. And so not well, I didn't think
about it, but God spoke to me in the shower but on a Sunday
morning. So sometimes on a Sunday
morning, I don't know whether Ramana does this.
When I have a shower on a Sunday morning and I have to preach,
I'm sort of like praying God show up this morning because I
don't want to be embarrassed on my own.
And I believe I had this instant answer.
You have to sing the song as a solo in church this morning.
I said, God, I don't think that's a good idea.
They don't want to hear that. So anyway, it wouldn't leave me.
It's like you get the hot, agitated feeling until you
agree. And then when you agree, the
agitated feeling drops off. So there I am thinking, OK, I'm
going to go to church. So we did the worship and
everyone sat down. I said, I've got this one song
to sing to you. I sang it very quietly.
A sea of blank faces looked back at me.
Someone said to me afterwards, why did you do that?
That's not normal. Like, yeah, that's not we, you
know, is there a reason? And I thought that I am stupid.
I thought I heard God. I must have mistaken the voice.
3 or 4 * a year. An elderly couple in the late
80s would pop into church. They had a batch in the area and
they'll be on holiday and they'd come into our church but I never
knew when they were coming. So this lady came in the mid 80s
and she and her husband sat at the back and after church she
was the last person to come up to me and she said, Alex, thank
you for singing that song. I said why?
She said when I was a young girl, I nearly drowned in the
beach in Dunedin. I had to be rescued and
resuscitated. Ever since that experience of
being under the water, I have a phobia of water.
I can never have never since that drowning experience been
able to have a shower in the bathroom when you sing the song
something broke off my life. I'm going home right now to have
a shower. I'm healed of my phobia took
took maybe 60 years for that to happen, but God got the glory
and the last one one or two people know the story.
I got a, a text message this this week from Otago.
So they, a pastor's wife and I prayed for this lady in her mid
30s in her home. And she asked the question about
what does it take to be a Christian?
And so we shared with her for maybe 3540 minutes and we said,
would you like us to pray for you to receive Jesus?
And she said, no, no, the timing's not right.
No, I hear you and it makes sense, but I'm not ready.
Don't you get frustrated? And she left and it's like one
of those moments. She sends me a message this week
to say at the end of last year, I made a decision to follow
Jesus. So Fast forward three years and
out of it was her father was dying of a brain tumor.
She was helping to nurse him, and since she's received Jesus,
she's got strength in the peace about watching her father die.
But the story's bigger than that because her father had scheduled
for next Monday, tomorrow, to be euthanized.
He wanted to be medically turned off.
He had booked the appointment to die on Monday.
Exactly. That's not a great thing.
But God took him five days earlier because someone in the
rest home had asked him about his faith, prayed with him.
He'd received Jesus, and he died that night.
So God intervened, honored the prayer.
Aren't those good stories? So that's what God can do.
He can turn what could be a disastrous event for his glory.
Isn't that exciting? So we will be consumed by what
we choose to consume. So don't consume what the media
wants us to consume. Be consumed with the love of
Jesus, the faith of Jesus, and the hope that He gives us.
Faith empowers, hope expects and love niches.
Jesus operated from this foundation.
I believe it's the foundation we need to operate from as well
because hope expects if our expectations are low, our
results will be low. But if we have a biblical hope,
then our expectations are immovable.
We're going to spend a few moments to talk to Jesus now.
Lord, I pray you'd send Your Holy Spirit to minister to every
heart in this room. And the sound of my voice that
You would show us where we are at with our hope.
Have we lost some of our hope? How would that happen?
How do we get it back? And I'm going to ask you to ask
Jesus to show you or to receive from him the healing that fills
in those areas where our emotions have been.
If you like, stretched or drifted away from God's standard
to spend this time and ask those questions for yourself now.
It's your blood that gives me life.
It's your blood that took my place in redeeming sacrifice.
Washes me whiter than the snow, O than the snow, my Jesus, God's
precious sacrifice. I had a message this morning of
my messenger feed from Jennifer Leclair Ministries and it was
encouraging us to war against hopelessness.
You can stay with your eyes shut or you can join me.
And this is the prayer that I received this morning by
accident, which I believe God sent for us this morning in
Jesus name. I come against the spirit of
hopelessness with the anchor of God's word.
I declare hope is a weapon and I am picking it up right now.
The God of hope is filling me with all joy and peace in
believing hopelessness has no claim on my future.
I press forward. Amen.
I love that picture.
There are promises all through Scripture about God's
deliverance for us, and that is Psalm 32.
Seven. You're my hiding place.
You'll protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of
deliverance. So let's say this together, may
the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust
in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the
Holy Spirit. Amen.
Thanks for joining us at Omega.
If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to
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