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Hey there! And welcome to the City Lights Podcast City Lights is a church located in the northwestern part of Richmond, Virginia. For more information about city lights you can visit us at we are city lights dot com Now enjoy today's message. Last week we started a series called Faith Hope. Love. But we're looking at what it means to hold on to these three things that we would never leave my wife air. And she did a fantastic job last week talking about faith so you can check out our YouTube channel are subscribe to our podcast to listen to that. If you didn't get a chance to listen to it, I encouraged you. Listen to because it was phenomenal. On this week, we're gonna talk about hope. Okay, but let me go ahead and open up the message in prayer and then we'll jump right into it. God, we thank you so much. We thank you for your goodness in your favor. We say come, Holy spirit. Come. Holy spirit, have your way be with us. God, we pray that she speak to every single person listening that you were given the exact word they need to hear today that we pray for all the people affected by this, uh, Corona virus that's happening. The stress, the fear. God, we pray for peace in the name of Jesus. Jesus, You said you are the prince of peace. And so we ask for peace. We asked her hope. Enjoy. God, I love your every need in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Amen. Amen. Now, like I said, we started this Siri's last week, and we're gonna look at this verse in first. Corinthians 13 13. It says this thing gets up now. These three remain now before I finish his first. I want to highlight this word remain. The word remain is used 29 times in the New Testament. Writings in the in the word remain can also be translated as abide, stay, wait, endure, Continue laughs. See, Jesus says in John's right, enough of the gospels. Jesus says remain in me and our remain in you. Jesus is saying Abi, wait indoor. Continue last in me and you'll see that I'll be faithful to you. Paul Ryan, to the Church of commence says these three things remain These things things you make three things that won't leave three things that are staying three things that aren't going anywhere. And so no matter what comes and goes in your life, we got three things that will we may. And that's faith. That's hope. And that's a lot. But he says that the greatest of these is love Now is good to know, no matter what life those at me, I can hold on to faith. I hold on to hope I can hold onto love because they aren't going anywhere. But But there's always a big button and tries to get in the way. Come on, somebody You know what I'm talking about. I want to be a real on our Facebook live stream today. Can I be real? Can be honest today, faith. Hope in love. That's one of those beautiful Hallmark cards. You know what I'm saying? Like you see it if you're trying to give someone an encouraging card, has faith, hope and love. You see this thing everywhere But life happens is sometimes the things that we were hoping for don't come to reality, right? Sometimes you were hoping for something that happened and you didn't get it. Maybe you've been hoping for a promotion and you didn't get it yet. Maybe you're single and you're ready to mingle. And you're hoping the right person the mingle Whit was going to come around, But that person ain't nowhere to be found. You like where, my love. You know, maybe you got another bad report from the doctors and you were hoping for something better. Maybe you finally paid off your credit card, but then your car broke down, right? We're hoping for something. But sometimes it feels hard to hold on to hope. Because sometimes life has disappointments that we weren't expected. Which leads me to my starting point today. My starting point today is this life disappointments calming? Go. You know your disappointments. You know the thing that you will hope before that, Didn't it come to reality? You may not even use the war disappointment. You may use the word discourage. You noticed you were hopeless you were hoping for, but a discouragement came in something you were hoping for but never came to like life disappointments coming up. But my destination point today is this. But hope in Jesus remains no matter what but hoping Jesus remains no matter what we have hope in Jesus. Now, I wanna make this practical for you. Okay? I remember one time where I was hoping for something, and I and I felt disappointed, right? So I was on a vacation with their one other crews. Come on. Someone about about a book of crews now, because those things are cheat. Come on. Okay. Never mind. All right, on. And I went on a vacation, a cruiser vacation, And wherever we go on anything, we do vacations. Aaron plans everything, and I just say, yes, I was good. I love is like, the best set up ever. Okay, so we got to the Grand Cayman Islands and Aaron plan a snorkel on expedition. Right? So does that make sense? If you guys have been following me for a while now, join us to say, like, you know, that I'm afraid of water. All right. I'll talk about water all the time. I'm afraid of water. But the summer before this cruise, I learned how to swim. Kind of like, kind of how this swim. I feel safe taking showers now. Kind of someone you know. But that's really about it. I'm not good. Not good swimmer, But I feel already, so you. So we get to the Grand Cayman Islands and we go to this Lachlan expedition and in my head, I'm thinking we're gonna go to, like, his low in, kind of like pool where I can like to dip my head under the water where there's a whole bunch of tropical fish, And I could just like, Oh, this is cool. That's what I'm thinking because I know Aaron knows I can't really swim. Well, she's not gonna make me go into the ocean or something like that is what I'm thinking is gonna happen. We get to the place we get to where we're going, and I don't see any low in area. All I see is the ocean in this debt in the middle, about 50 yards away. So I'm like, this ain't good to say this thing where I want want to be, So the instructor starts to tell us how to put on our gear what we look for. Then she says, we're all gonna jump in into the into the ocean and swim to this debt in the middle of the ocean. And I look at Aaron and I said to her. Oh, so this is why you got life insurance on me all of a sudden, isn't it? This is why you did this. Okay, so I can't swim. And she's like, Yeah, you can swim. You took lessons, and I barely I barely took lessons. I'm not swim like that. She said, Let those little girls over there know how to swim like that. They swim along into me like may. I was so mad. I was so mad. So So here you go. Put on the fins and I started walking. You know how hard it is to be mad when you got those little fins on your feet. You just flapping around the girl you saw. Next time you do this to me, you know I look crazy. So so anyways, Aaron goes before me, she jumps in the water. Then I start to go down the stairs and get into the get into the water. I'm thinking to myself, My God, I'm gonna die today to say good. And then finally I get into the water and everything. Everything my swim coach taught me. I completely forgot. I don't remember one thing I don't remember anything. They said I started screaming. How help! I'm grown, man, you know, looking crazy out there. I got my floaties on scream and help you then and then and then, like Babe, Babe, go on without me on the air is like, Okay. And she left me like day. She left me. This is why she really did get life insurance on me. This is messed up. So finally I get back, hold back onto the stairs, not kind. Back up, flat my way over with my feet fins on my way over to the debt. And I sit there and I'm all upset and I feel completely disappointed, right? Look, man, my vacation is ruined. You know, I'm also very dramatic. So So So So I'm sitting there. I'm all out of breath. I'm having a hard time. One of the other instructors walked up to me. So you doing okay? I said I said, Yeah, I'm good. I just said the first thing that came to my mind. Yeah, Good. I just want to give official break. I don't know what that means, but I just said that. So here I am, sitting down with my fins on frustrated and disappointed. And then I feel this nige of the Holy Spirit. I feel a snatch of the Holy Spirit. And I had to remember my swim lessons in a way. And in a way I had to remain. And that had remained remember? Like Like I don't need to be disappointed because I have an answer for my disappointment. I have an answer. I can I can overcome this. So I couldn't be afraid of the water, had to face my fears. And I remember what I learned. So in that moment I wanted to stay in my little pity party. But I said, no, not today. Double. And I got up flat my way over back to the water. I blew up my saying like as big as you can get. And then I jumped in the water and I'm having a great time. Great time. I'm looking at looking at the fish and what started off as something being very disappointed and end it with me. Remember it that I had hope and I could do something with this. And I didn't have the state where I was at. I could make a difference. I can make a change. But I had to respond to the Holy Spirit that gave me hope to jump that into the water. Now I know that's a story about vacation and all, but I think the power of hope can get us out of life disappointments. I think the power hope can get us away from the discouragement that we feel so we can live the way the live life, the way God intended for us to live, see, like disappointments do come and go. But Hope and Jesus remains no matter what. But what is hope? What does that mean? It had a hold on to that took us out, Hebrews. 11. Once as this faith shows, shows the reality of what we hoped for, it is the evidence of things we cannot see. See, Faith is an action and hope. Well, hope is a vision. Hope is a vision, the very definition of the word hope. Is this a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen? See, hope has a future reality to it. Hope is looking forward to something hope is attached to the future. Hope says that tomorrow is gonna be better than my disappointment today. Hope says that tomorrow to Morrow. I love you tomorrow. Don't get me sing Annie on your Facebook live stream today because I'm gonna tell you this. Hope can look at your disappointments that you're feeling right now can look at the issues that you're dealing with right now. And hope says this is not the end for me. Ho says I have a future in Jesus. I hope that I can move towards Have a reality that's going to come to fruition. I got ho. Come on, somebody ho says tomorrow is better than today's disappointments And you may be listening and you may have some disappointments today. You may have some frustrations in your life. You may have some things that didn't go the way you intended it to go, but I'm gonna let you know you're not where you want to be, But you're not where you could be. And God's gonna bring you where you need to be causes And Jesus, I'm gonna tell you that. Think, man. I love the way you guys are responding to me. I can feel it. Thanks. Book. That was really weird. I don't know why I said that. Okay, now I want to show you this. I want to show you how life disappointments can brain discouragement. But there's hope in Jesus. Check this out. Is that we only got a story in the Bible. Mark four says it's starting verse 35. As the evening came, Jesus said to his disciples, Let's cross to the other side of the lake. So they took Jesus in the boat, started out, leaving the crowd behind all the other boats following. But soon a fierce storm came up. Thank you. Highways were breaking into the boat and it begins to fill with water. Jesus was sleeping just taking in that Jeez was sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a cushion. The disciples woke him up. Child and teacher teacher, Don't you care that we're going to drown? When Jesus woke up, he rebuked the wind and said to the waves, Silence be still suddenly the wind stop. And there was a great call that he asked him Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith? Do you still have no hope? The disciples were absolutely terrified. Who is this man? They asked each other. Even the winds and the waves obey. So, yeah, I don't know about you, but I always relate more to the disciples than I do to Jesus. Like I always related disciples. Now it's easy to look at the Bible narratives and kind of say, you know, from A from a complete pictures Easy look at the Bible nearest on the complete picture Because we do know how historians But they, uh they But, you know, we could say they really doubt Jesus. You could say, man, if I was walking with Jesus, you know, I would never doubt him, right? I never doctors like Come on, guys. He's the He's the son of God. How you down? Jesus, you know. But the truth is this we do offer Jesus and like that's those storms. And when the life's storms come at us often our responses like the disciples like Jesus. Do you care? Did you see we're drowning out here, right? You see that things are going good. Don't you see that? See, Maybe I relate to the disciples because, well, one reason I relate to them because they're very dramatic and I get that I can relate to that Being highly emotional and dramatic, I get that. But But I also think this story is a great example of why hope can be hard to hold onto. See, hope could be hard to hold onto because storms are regular part of life. Storms are regular part of our lives. The question is not Are you gonna have a storm in your life? The question is, how will you navigate the storms that come in your life Because you're gonna gonna come? They're gonna happen. And here's the thing about storms they come when we don't expect it. We that we don't plan to have storms are not going to say, OK, my schedule frees up in two weeks. I'm gonna have a storm there in my life, like life, like storms come and go as they please. You know, that's that. That's a problem with them. You can't. You can't predict the storms, but you can't plan for the storms in your life. Say, a couple weeks ago now and and I were working from home on a Friday morning and all of a sudden this wind came is great wind came and not all the electricity and a whole whole area. No neighborhood. We were checking with Dominion, All you know, all day. Yeah. And they were saying, when when the electricity come back on, it didn't end up coming back on that day at all. And here's the thing That night, every house in our in our little area was was not about an electricity except this one house set one house that had this generator pumping. You can hear the generator pumping. And every time I heard a generator pumping, I got I got even more, man, that that those two lights and I did it. But I guess they were ready. See, It's easy. No one on the street could predicted a storm. But only one person on our street prepared for the storm prepared for that storm to come. So you will have storms in your life that you cannot predict. But you can't be prepared for the storm. Hope is a future thing. Hope is not a blind trust. Hope is not like this floating vibe out there somewhere. I gotta have hope. You know how much like what Aaron talked about last week about faith. Faith isn't just some magical pixie dust thing that we have hope isn't that either. Hope is concrete. Hope is more like a generator. Hope is like that generator. And the reason why we can't hold on to hope is this. It's because hope is secure. We can have security of hope. Hebrew 6 19 says this. We have this hope as an anchor for our soul firm and secure it enters it, enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. See, Hope is an anchor for the soul. It's firm and it's secure. So you check us out Jesus with his disciples and he tells him, Let's cross over to the other side of this couple is get on a boat and let's cross over to the other side. Then again, the boat and there in this bone. A few of the disciples are actually fisherman, so they know how to navigate store, not a navigate, choppy weather. They're not manage a boat, but Jesus goes to the back of the boat, and he thinks that two things I want to highlight about this Jesus is God, right? So Jesus is beginning middle, and he's all known. It's safe to say Jesus knew that Storm's coming their way. Same thing on a highly is this. Jesus was the one that told them to get in the boat. Jesus. Newest Storm's coming yet did not prevent them from getting on the boat. See, obedience to God may not lead you where you want to be, but it will lead you to where you need to me. It would lead you to where you need to be. That's why we signed up to help with the with the elementary school that give out food. This pat, this this upcoming for the next two weeks. Yeah, is inconvenient for people schedules to take off work and do things. But there's people that need hope, and we gotta respond to it. There's people that need faith that we gotta give it to him. We have to hand it out to them. See? See, I'm gonna tell you this The Holy Spirit may not always lead you to the comfortable pit house as you think. I want to lead you to which ate the place. He wants to lead you to where God wants the needs. You too is being a direct influence to his people and hope will give you that access The lead. You there. See it here on the disciples There, in the middle of this storm, the waves and the winds are crashing. It gives them their freaking out. See if I wish to know something is in the middle of a storm. Come on, it's in the middle of a storm. Isn't that the middle of that storm that you're dealing with right now? It's in the middle of the storm where God can speak to you. The clearest is in the middle of the storm. Where God could speak to you see, is not always in the beginning of the storm is not always after the storm. But it's right in the middle when the waves and the winds are crashing again. Shoot! That's when you can hear God, God, the clearest God speaks to us on the mountaintop. But I'm telling you, this isn't the stores of life. Well, God will give you directions for your life. C. S. Lewis put it like this, he says. God got whispers and our pleasures speaks in our conscious but shallots in our pains, he shouts. In the storm's season the storms of life that God will speak to you all the more clearly about the hope that you have and him see isn't our pain. It's in our storms. Isn't the seasons of life that we don't want to be in is when we're dealing with financial stress is what we're dealing with. That challenge and child is waiting and hoping for the final. I find a soul mate, but they haven't come. Yes, when we're coming out of that messy divorce, it will work. Dylan with losing that loved one of them were dealing with the pressure of the middle off the storm that God shouts all the loudest to you. See, see, storms are regular part of your life. But storms do not negate the presence of God in your life. It doesn't negate it. True hope is found in the security of God's goodness. No matter the season of life that you're dealing with, no matter where you are, right in the middle in the middle of this appointment. Come on, man. In the middle of rejection in the middle of her, in the middle of the places you don't want to be Jesus, it's firm and secure. And he is good. And he is with you in the middle off this even in this it with some of you have your even in this moment happening right now. Even in this thing. God is with you. Even in this hurt, God is with you. Even in this he is secure. Jesus tells him to get in the boat. The storm comes the weapons in the wave of smacking against the boat Mark Mark for 38 says this Jesus was sleeping, sleeping at the back of the boat with his head on a question the disciples broken love shall teacher. Don't you care that would drown? Did you even care? Jesus, While here drowning? Do you care? You know thing You know the thing that you feel that you're drowning right now You know that thing that feels like is overwhelming to you and disciples. They run back to Jesus and Jesus asleep. Can I say something? Gotta be honest with you again being the lightest sleep forever. I'm the lightest sleeper ever. I wake up If I hear like the sound of a feather fallen. It's shocking to me that Jesus is sleeping in the middle of this storm. I can't sleep. I could barely see every night. The moment I hear Aaron breathing on me, I wake up, you know, like like like I'm a light asleep forever and then another. And the crazy thing is, but Aaron Aaron is the heaviest sleep forever. Nothing can wake this girl. You can put a long at the lime on. This girl won't wake up. You know, I hate people. I could sleep having, you know, about my wife. C c. It's funny. What? One heiress about the shaker to wake her up. I got that. She says you have a sleeper, but there's something about this I want you to see. Jesus is sound asleep. Sleep in the back of the boat when the storm is coming. Hey, give me a key. Pass me that pillow right there. Yep. See, Jesus has Hello. He doesn't mind his business sleeping. And the winds. Theo Waves blew you Sound effects. They're not gonna get the boat. And Jesus Jesus, all comfortable. He was sleeping, you know, mind his business. Dreaming about things that God, you know, dreams about I don't know what God dreams. About what He's dreaming thinking, you know, doing this thing and all sudden disciples. Hey, hey, man. You see that? We're drowning out here. You see this? See, this is what I want you to see. The disciples are freaking out. They're concerned the worried yet Jesus in this position off piece. He's in this position off security. And I do not believe Jesus was in this position on accident. I don't believe you is in that position just cause I think he wanted to teach the disciple something. See, in the middle of your storms in the middle of disappointments, we could still have hope because the one who has the answer it's not shaking are rattled by the store. The one who has the answer has peace in the middle of a storm. Security in the middle of the storm and confidence in the middle of the storm. Then Jesus gets up instantly, speaks to the storms and he tells it to become and it is call friends. Why can't we have hope? Why can we have hope in the middle of life disappointments? Why can we have hope in the middle of our struggles and our fears and our doubts because we serve a God who is not shaken by the stores. The last thing I'm gonna add is this Jesus. In the beginning that get in the boat, Jesus tells getting about no more that a storm is going to come. Then they get in the boat, The storm comes, they're freaking up. They learn something about the character of Jesus that Jesus could speak to the winds and the waves and winds and waves have to be silent. And they are. They learn about the power of God in the middle of the storm. But then is that the other side is that the other side of the lake that they discover the purpose of why Jesus got them in the boat. Because the moment they got to the other side of the late, the Bible says that Jesus stepped on the ground. And there he was, encountered by a demon by a man who has who had pain in his life for years, who has tormented. And what we see is that Jesus kills this man and the whole surrounding community see Jesus, we'll put you in the storm or allow a storm to happen in your life. Better say it that way because he has a destination for your life. Your life is to bring hope to other people. Your life is to bring light to people's lives so they can experience all that God has. So wherever you are today, whatever hope, hopeless situation you're dealing with, I know that God is for you. He's with you. He's with me in there. And Romans five tells us this now In with this we can rejoice too. When we run into problems and trials for we know that they can help develop endurance and endurance develop strength of character and character. Strength is our confident hope of salvation and this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us. Because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with love. Body has a whisper. Come on, convoy spear. Phyllis with love, Phyllis with your goods. Even right now, if you feel like you're in a hopeless place, you feel like you're in a time of disappointment. Uneasiness? Maybe there's a medical report. You listening you're waiting to hear back from and you don't know what the results are gonna be. That's why you're always wearing the same. He's with you in the middle. He's with you In this story like the Holy Spirit. There's some people here or listening today. They have a hard time. How can I have that confidence in Jesus? And it starts simply by saying Jesus, I need you. I need toe rest in you. Maybe you're listening to us. And someone shared this on on your Facebook feed or someone invited you to listen. But you don't know who Jesus is. You never made a decision to trust Jesus, which is like wherever you are at this moment. Right now, I want you to pray this prayer with me. If you want to make a decision to trust Jesus, which your life for the first time re commit your life back to Jesus, I want you to pray this prayer. Just say wherever you are. Say Jesus. Forgive me for my sins. Make me new today I put my hope in you today I trust you with my life in Jesus name. Amen. Thanks for checking out the city lights Podcast. If you'd like to partner with us financially, you can go toe. We're city lights dot com slash give or you can text any dollar amount to 84321 Thanks for joining us today.