#Hope

Well I hope you're enjoying all this hashtag fun that we've been having, I know I've been enjoying it. And in the past several weeks I've had no fewer than like four people actually explain to me what this hashtag thing actually is, because I'm little by little, I'm starting to get it, but I'm not quite there just yet, why anybody would care about it. But, I'm trying, and I actually do have a Twitter account, I actually have one. And I went on it the other day and don't laugh, this is pitiful, I've got three followers, okay? I've got two of my aunts and Jeff Raugh, the only people that are actually following me.

So, there's not too much hash tagging going on there I guess, and by the way for all my millennial friends, I'm in the AARP generation, right? So let me tell you this, this thing right here, only means a couple of things. My wife calls, she says honey, I need you to go to the store to buy some sugar. I go to the store, I forget what she asked for so I call her back and ask what did she want, she says I want five pounds of sugar. This is the international sign for pound. Hashtag, I don't know where that even comes from. There you go, all you in AARP, you know that. You know that. You also know that's the international sign for let's play tic-tac-toe. So that's it. All this other stuff, hashtag, you're cool and all that, no it's got to go, but I guess to use their own symbolism, my millennial friends who I love dearly, hashtag, I'm worried about your future. Just leave it at that.

But since I do want to get paid today, I'd better use a hashtag in my message title, so my message this morning is, it's going to be #Hope. We're going to be all over the New Testament this morning, so I would just encourage you that if you miss any of the passages that we're talking about or referencing that you would go back to thechapel.com sometime this week, take a look at it, grab those passages you may have missed, or if you didn't miss them, just kind of kind of dive a little bit deeper into you know, what we're talking about this morning. Always be looking for those ways to kind of continue to grow in your faith or what we would call your spiritual maturity, your spiritual formation. So be sure to check that out if you've missed anything.

And what I want to talk about this morning is going to more apply to individuals, people who have already placed their faith, their hope and their trust in Jesus. And I want to spend some time talking about the hope we have in Jesus Christ, this hope for a certain eternity. You see, the cool thing about that is if you have this hope for a certain eternity, that can be monumental in the lives of people that God has placed in your area of influence that don't yet know the gospel of Jesus Christ. God didn't place you there for no reason whatsoever. Because once we have received this hope that we have in Jesus Christ, once we've received this and know what this is, we understand it, we live it and we're confident in that, you and I have to dispense that hope to the people in our lives, right? But you can't give that hope if you're not convinced of it yourself.

So my aim this morning is to direct you to passages in Scripture that would give you the confidence of the hope that you already have in Jesus Christ, that you may not necessarily be living out yet, but point you to Scripture that solidifies that for you so that you can live that on a much higher level in terms of your whole spiritual maturity and what that means to the people in your life.

But if you're here this morning and you are not yet convinced of the gospel of Jesus Christ, let me just say this, don't check out. Every week we have people that would come to church that are yet to be convinced of the gospel, maybe their arms are crossed or their heart has grown cold, or maybe they're just rolling their eyes in theirs head like not this Jesus thing again. Happens all the time, but don't close out God. Because what happens all the time also is maybe God's going to use the individual next to you is going to be the gospel presence in your life today and you may accept Christ as your savior. Maybe one of the songs that we've already sung this morning pierced your heart in some way and today you'll accept Christ as your savior. You may not know that just yet. Maybe there's something that I will share this morning that will cause you to accept Jesus Christ as your savior, or maybe God will just touch you as only He can do that and you will become a believer in Jesus Christ. Do not close God out, because you never know how you're going to be leaving today, okay?

Let's take a moment and pray. Lord we thank you for this morning and thank you for the opportunity to hear your Word, God. I would just ask that you would help us to kind of clear our minds of all the clutter that would distract us from what you would say to us. Father, help me to communicate this morning what I believe You would desire for me to communicate, and may it produce confidence in those who are already following Jesus Christ, and God may it bring life to those individuals who have yet to put their trust in You. We trust you'll do these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

If you have your Bibles with you, get ready to open up. We're going to go to 1 Corinthians first, but one of the things I want to first look at are three passages of Scripture that contain what we can call the three theological virtues of our faith. Faith, hope and love. In many places in the Bible, you will see all three of those in unison, faith, hope and love. There's something about those three things that make them as solid as they are.

So, let's take a look at what Paul writes to us about those three things in 1 Corinthians 13. And now these three things remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. As Pastor Jonathan taught us last week that faith in Jesus Christ is our foundation, that with Christ as our foundation everything is built upon that. Without having Christ as our foundation, everything crumbles at that. But when we have this faith in Christ, and we also have this thing called hope then, and it's hope for a certain eternity, a confident expectation of things to come. And when our faith is lined up with our hope, that will allow you and me to love in the manner that Jesus Christ does and Jesus Christ did. Faith, hope and love together in unison.

But another passage of Scripture that Paul writes to us in 1 Thessalonians, and listen to the unison again in that: We remember before our God and Father your work produced by faith, your labor prompted by love, and your endurance inspired by the hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Again we see faith, hope and love in unison. It's because of our hope that we have in Jesus Christ, again our confident expectation of things to come, that you and I are able to endure. And a little bit further in the message this morning we're going to talk about some of those passages of Scripture that will talk about the endurance and the perseverance because of the hope that we have.

So we'll get to those in a little bit, but one more passage that brings into unison faith, hope and love. Now listen to Paul again in 1 Thessalonians, I'm sorry we did that one already, let's go to Colossians 1:3-5: We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God's people, which comes from the confidant hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News. Faith, hope and love.

One of the most attractive things of the gospel outside of Jesus Christ because he is the most attractive thing about the gospel, but one of the most attractive things is this thing called heaven, isn't it? When you first heard this thing called heaven it's like, holy smokes, I am forgiven, but there's this thing called heaven. We don't know exactly what that is but guarantee, we're not going to be disappointed in heaven when we reach that place. And Scripture over and over points to that God has prepared this place for us, and Jesus even speaks to that Himself when he said I have prepared a place for you, if I didn't I wouldn't tell you that. So we have this confidant expectation of the hope we have in heaven.

But hear this next passage in Titus, this is what really solidified it for me, and I hope it does for you as well. Titus 1:2: This truth gives them the confidence that they have eternal life, which God - who does not lie - promised them before the world began.

Did you catch that? God who does not lie. Do you know why God doesn't lie? He's not capable of it. He is not even capable of all of the things that God can do, He's not even capable of lying. So when he tells us what he tells us in Scripture, it is the truth. You and I, on the other hand, we can choose to lie and tell the truth depending on what we want, we don't want, what we want to get, what we have, what we don't. If you and I can choose that, God can't. He simply can't. What would God have to lie for? Everything is His. So when I hear God say that he has prepared a place for us, that gives me 100% proof and solid evidence in Scripture that that's what he has prepared for us.

But understand this - that while we absolutely want to have hope for a better future, here, earthly, it is far more important that we have hope for a certain eternity. Far more important than that.

I can't recall exactly where I read this from but I want to share this with you. I don't want to take credit for it but listen to this closely. It was in one, a book that I was reading recently, The goal in life is not to make earth a better place to go to hell from. Think about that. I'll repeat it. The goal in life is not to make earth a better place to go to hell from.

Here's what I get from that. I get from that is too often we place much greater emphasis on the hope in this world and lose sight of the hope of the eternity that we currently have. That many followers spend way too much time pursuing the earthly things that are temporal versus the things that are eternal in our hope in Jesus Christ. There's a song I remember singing when I grew up in church, Build your hope from things eternal, hold to his hand, God's unchanging hand. Some of you might know that song. But we build our hope on things that are eternal not on temporal.

Now here's the deal, though. For those who are unconvinced of the gospel of Jesus Christ, I wouldn't expect anything else but for them to build their hope on things of this world, right? That's why there's live for today, get all that you can, you only live once. Those are the attitudes of someone who places their faith and their hope and their trust in this world which will soon pass away. But as believers we are not to do that.

You may remember what Rockefeller said to the question about how much money is enough, and to that he said, a little bit more. If your faith is in the worldly things that are temporal, you're going to be striving for just a little bit more this, a little bit more that, and you'll always find yourself empty. You'll always find the hole still exists because you're trying to fill something that is eternal with something that is temporal.

Listen to Mark 8:36 and what it shares with us: For what good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul? If you're here this morning, and you have yet to be convinced of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the hope that you're probably hanging onto is the hope of this world, the hope of things in this world. Maybe not the entire world, but things that would bring you happiness, things that you think will just, if I just had this everything would be good. I can tell you this morning to take God for his word, because he doesn't lie, that those things will soon pass away, that your faith must be placed in Jesus Christ in whom all things rest.

You see, hope for a better future, hope here on earth, that can mean many things, and we should have hope while we're here on this earth. How about hope for renewed or reconciled relationships? How many of those here today have relationships that are fractured? If you have Jesus Christ in your life you should have hope for that relationship to be reconciled because the power of Jesus Christ and the power of the Spirit gives you the ability to forgive. Gives you the ability to love and have compassion. You should have hope for things like that. What about hope for a better career? Nothing wrong with that, right? Just for the record, Jerry, I couldn't even think for a better career. But there's nothing wrong with having hope for those types of things. Hope for improved health. How about that? I bet everyone here has a list as long as my arm with people that they are praying for because they are in a situation health-wise where they need to have hope for better health. There is nothing wrong with desiring those types of things. So yes, we should have hope for a better future, but our first and ultimate priority must still be placed in hope for a certain eternity through Jesus Christ.

And for people who follow Jesus Christ, there are these two hopes that I've been mentioning, hope for a better future and hope for a certain eternity. And having received that hope for a certain eternity, you and I are commissioned by God to dispense that in the lives of people that God has placed unto us, both inside the family of God and outside the family of God as well.

You see, much of how we dispense hope is by how we live our lives. How do we put the gospel on display in our lives, right? How do you put the gospel on display by how you love others? Do you do that? How do you put the gospel on display by how you listen to others? How do you demonstrate the gospel presence in the lives of people by how you show compassion to others and understanding? How do you show the gospel spirit in others' lives by how you encourage them, how you give them gratitude, how you show appreciation? How we live our lives matters to people that God has placed. He did not place you where you are simply to just cover your light up. He placed us there for a reason to be a gospel impact in those lives.

And it kind of sounds a little bit something like Christ-like relationships, right? We talk about that quite often here at the Cross Point Campus, when you go out into the atrium to the right of door six you'll see a mural there that talks about the four outcomes that we have here in the Chapel. I don't think we've had those painted yet in Lockport, and I told the 9:00 crowd that Regal won't let us paint it on their walls.

So, four outcomes. Intimacy with God, Christ-like relationships, knowing and sharing our grace story, and how we serve. Those are four outcomes that we talk about because we believe those should be growing in ever measure, they should be growing in our lives as believers in Jesus Christ. What I would encourage you to do if you're familiar with that, ask yourself if you're actually living that, are you're seeing yourself grow in those areas. If you're not familiar with those four outcomes, maybe you've come here recently, I would encourage you to go to thechapel.com and under the Spiritual Formation, just kind of click on that tab and you will see a little bit more about all of those. Or maybe you should take Discipleship Beginnings where we dive into the four outcomes, or maybe the Discipleship Teachings which really dives very, very deeply into these four outcomes that we call.

So those are things that we need to have in our lives because of Christlike relationships, and when we're being the gospel presence in the lives of people, when we can dispense hope for a better future and hope for a certain eternity, I am totally convinced that God will allow us to discern the opportunities that he has given us to share the hope of the gospel, but we have to be living that out. We have to be listening to those conversations that we are having with people, and when we're living that out, God will open a door. And He's called for us, as believers, to enter into those lives and to share the gospel with people.

See, the reality is in this broken and sinful world that we have, we will have trouble, right? I mean, the fact of the matter is, we might as well put an "s" on that because we will have troubles. I don't know anyone who has just one trouble. And Jesus says that much in John 16. He says I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world. There are a lot of things Jesus could have said there. He could have said in this world you will have troubles. Oh, well, right? But he said, no, take heart, because I have overcome the world. That is what you would call hope.

Listen, if you're a believer in Jesus Christ, you know, whatever you may be going through in life right now, understand this, and I say this with all sensitivity, whatever you may be going through in life right now as a follower of Jesus Christ, this is as bad as it gets. And again I want to be really, really sensitive about that. This is as bad as it gets. Because upon your last breath here, your next one is in the presence of Jesus Christ and God in eternity forever. So whatever you may be going through here, and again, not to minimize it at all, this is as bad as it gets. But because of the hope you have in Jesus Christ, the hope we have we can endure through those things and demonstrate the gospel through it.

But understand this, if you're here this morning separated from God, this is as good as it gets. So no matter what you're going through here now, the good, the not so good, separated from God, this is as good as it will ever get, because upon your last breath, where you will enter into is an eternity separated from God. That is why regardless of what we would want to have a better future here on earth, it has to be imperative that we strive for a certain eternity and our hope in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. So again, I'm not trying to minimize what it is that you're going through at all, what I'm trying to do is maximize God and help you to understand what it is that God provides for those who love Him.

Listen to what he says in James 1: Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because having stood the test, that person will receive a crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him.

Another trio of verses here, listen to the passage in Romans 5: Therefore since we have fallen, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance produces character; and character hope. A hope that does not put us to shame because God's love has poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who he has given us.

And the third verse that brings it all together is Hebrews 10, which relates to persevering in our faith. So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he promised.

So yes, this life will have troubles, there's no doubt about it, but do not discard your hope in Jesus Christ. That is the hope of a certain eternity, and as we talked about a minute ago, it is from a God who does not lie. So we endure and we persevere through whatever it is, the trials that we have right now, but our hope in a certain eternity is there and it's solidified.

So - hope for a better tomorrow. Hope for a certain eternity. How do you personally, I want you to just think of your life. How do you, right now, personally dispense that hope for a better future to the people in your circles of influence? Sometimes we have to wrestle with the tension of what the gospel says and what we actually do and what we don't do. Right? But also ask yourself the question, how do we demonstrate the gospel of Jesus Christ and the in the lives and the hope for certain eternity? We sometimes have to wrestle with that to say, you know what? I have this thing, I believe in this faith, I have my hope. But I'm not necessarily living that faith out and sharing hope for a better tomorrow and a certain eternity with people. You and I are commissioned, we are called to do those types of things in our lives, and always providing hope for a better tomorrow and a certain eternity.

One of the things that I am super privileged to do here at The Chapel is to take teams to Haiti several times a year on our mission trips. And in doing that I have story after story and get to see firsthand the lives that have been changed because of someone being able to share the hope of a better future but more importantly the hope of a certain eternity. So I want to take a minute right now and share a couple of those stories with you about hope for a certain eternity.

If you could place that picture on the screen please. A few years ago when we went to Haiti. We were in the village of Bercy. We had an opportunity and the privilege to have the woman that's standing next to that pole with a heart on it, to share her life with us. I say privileged very, very loosely because it was a rough, rough, life that she had lived. Her story contained a lot of abuse, lot of isolation, a lot of disappointment, a lot of pain, and a lot of hurt. And it was tough to listen to that story, trust me on that. And then she shared a little bit about why she was living in this home right here because she was humiliated in the previous town that she had lived in and had no choice but to move. And we didn't get into the issues of what that humiliation was, but we had good reason to believe we knew what that was.

But the woman on the right, who was listening to what she was saying, who was - gospel was present in her life, picked up on the fact that this woman said I was humiliated. And she said, you know what? Let me tell you about someone who was humiliated. And she commenced to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and shared how he must have been humiliated on that cross - and everything that led up to it - being spat upon, beaten, tortured, a crown of thorns placed on his head, laughed and mocked at, but still on the cross, said Father forgive them for they know not what they do. She shared the full gospel with that individual because she heard this thing, humiliation, and that day that woman accepted Jesus Christ as her Savior. Awesome! Because she thought before that that God would not want her because of those things. So she avoided God and she avoided going to church.

So the faithful people that were sharing the hope for a better future shared also the hope for a certain eternity. I don't know what whether her future has gotten any better - that I do not know. But I do know this: that because she believed in her heart and spoke it with her mouth and confessed that Jesus Christ is Lord - eternity settled. We'll see her there. Absolutely awesome when you do those things and that is what God has commissioned us to do.

Another story here. Good looking guys there. We spent a couple hours with them in our trip last October when we were again in the village of Bercy. You can't read his shirt but it says I have the heart of a cowgirl. And I guess when you don't have clothes, it doesn't really matter but he's like I need a shirt. I don't care what the shirt says! So heart of a cowgirl. And in that house behind him - well, it's not even a house. It's their kitchen. It's about five or six feet by five or six feet, and there's a little pot in the middle of it. That's their kitchen. And he said it took him about a week to build that. And that occurred around the same time I was doing my kitchen, and we were just laughing back and forth with our translator and I told him it took me a year to do mine. And to that he says, you'd never make it in Haiti.

So we had really just a great time hanging out with the folks there. The brother on the right is a follower of Jesus Christ, not the one on the left. But we spent several hours there sharing their hopes and their dreams, our hopes and our dreams for our future as well and our country. We had a chance to share life together and what had transpired in their lives and we had a moment that we could just pray with them and just absolutely sweet time. But the brother on the left was, I heard it all. I hear it all the time. I'm done. I don't want any part of it. But we still loved on him while we were there.

We then went to the house next door - spent several hours there doing the same thing. Just getting to know them and sharing hope for a better future, hope for a certain eternity, and several hours later we were walking back to the bus. And the brother you saw on the right said hey, my brother wants to see you guys again. We went back over to spend some more time with him (you can show that next picture). He accepted Jesus Christ that day. Pastor Jonathan Staples from Shiloh Baptist Church walks him through accepting Jesus Christ.

So when I mentioned to those individuals today that may hear that - may have not accepted Jesus Christ, you have no clue what may do and when he's going to do it - because he discarded us and said, hey, you can go. We came back later but God had touched him and he accepted Jesus Christ. Now, I don't know if his future's gotten any better. We'll see him more than likely in a few months when we get back there in October. Maybe it has. Maybe it hasn't. But he confessed with his mouth and believed in his heart that Jesus Christ is Lord and we'll hear about it in eternity.

Let me share another story with you. Here's one about hope for a better future. Because his eternity is set, it's solid. This gentleman here, young gentleman here is Fabie. And Fabie was our interpreter on our very first trip to Haiti - just a young sweet dude who loves the Lord. So we were leaving one of the villages on the bus, and as the bus slams its breaks on, Fabie kind of waved, the door opens, he runs off into a dirt road up into the mountainside. We were just kind of, what in the heck just happened there? The bus driver says oh, he lives there. And you know, you look and say well, I don't see anything. Well, that's where he lives.

So the very next morning Fabie, he comes back to Mission of Hope - he catches what they call a taptap which is their taxi. You catch the taptap back to the village. We have breakfast that morning and he shares his life with us - some of the hopes and dreams that he has but also the disappointment of a very, very difficult life. One of the individuals entered, asked him, well, Fabie, where do you live? He says, well I live up there in the mountains in the woods and have a really small home. There are too many people that live there, so I eat and sleep and do everything else outside. So he's basically homeless but has a home. That was his life. One of the other folks had asked him, well, Fabie, how do you feel about that? His answer was something that I would have never expected from anyone - certainly no one in North America. He says flat out - without any hesitation: If God would have wanted me to have a house, then God would have given me a house. But since he hasn't, I'm happy with what he's given me, and I'm content with that. And then he says pray for me, please. I'm like, no, no, no - you pray for me, ok? That is someone who has hope for a certain eternity, who had that settled already that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior in his life.

But what about this hope for a better future I mentioned? Fabie was our interpreter, for he did the interpretation for all the missionaries that come on a short term basis. A couple months later, he was now the interpreter for a number of the executives at Mission of Hope whenever they come into the country. A couple of trips later, he is now part of working in the orphanage at the main campus at Titanyen in Haiti. A couple trips later, he's now head of that whole orphanage for boys and graduates from high school next June. Hope for a certain eternity, hope for a better future but - you can clap on that, because I can't wait to see him graduate next year!

But here's the deal. If all of those things that were associated with his hope for a certain future or a better future weren't there, Fabie would be content with wherever God has placed him because his faith is in Jesus Christ, and if that's what God has given me, then that's what I will be. So listen, I can go on and on and on with different stories that we get to hear about things of that nature and I really hope that each of you will prayerfully consider joining us on one of our trips to Haiti and also have the opportunity to share again the hope for a better future but the hope for a certain eternity also.

But we were able to do those things because of your willingness, because of your sacrificial giving. Through Mission of Hope we were able to engage in those types of missions and the super, super beautiful thing that we do there so, your individual giving is providing hope. Let me just guarantee you that right there.

But one of the things I remind everyone on the trips that we take is this: while God has commissioned us on this trip in Haiti to share the hope for a better future and a hope for a certain eternity, to share that for the one week that we are in Haiti, we will have flat out missed it if we don't share that where God has for fifty-one weeks out of the year, right? And that commission is to each and every one of us. Some of you may have gone on mission trips before - beautiful! Share the gospel there, but God has placed us here which we will call our mission field. That's just a trip. This is the field.

So how are you demonstrating the gospel and sharing those two hopes where God has placed you right here and your mission field? Because when we share those things in Haiti, it's the same heaven in Haiti, it's the same heaven that we have here in North America, right? But remember, it's the same hell, too. The same hell that awaits people in Haiti that don't accept Jesus Christ is the same hell here that awaits our family that don't accept Jesus, our friends, our co-workers and our neighbors. You and I have a job to do. You and I are commissioned to be the gospel and dispense the hope for a certain eternity. And again, I could go on and on with stories about that.

Well, listen - honestly I think we've stood under some of the best teaching around. You can rank this number one and everything else behind it, right? We sit under some of the best teaching, and one of the things that we talk about on a regular basis is that while out knowledge of our faith continues to increase, man, our obedience needs to go right along side that. So to have all this knowledge of a hope and the Scriptures and the gospel - to have all this knowledge but to not live it out means that the gospel is not being displayed where God has each of us.

So listen to what Luke says here in Luke 11. No one lights a lamp and puts it in a place where it will be hidden, or under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, so that those who come in may see the light. Ladies, gentlemen - if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, our faith is to be on display. Our faith is to be present in this lost and dying world.

Listen also to Matthew 5:16 if you will. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. No boasting on us. Our faith and our love prompt us to do our deeds - but who gets the credit for that is Jesus Christ. God gets the credit for those things. But that can't happen if we take our light and snuff it out in a bowl. No boasting for that.

So while we are super appreciative of your sacrificial giving through all kinds of ways for not only Mission of Hope but other Kingdom Come partners, or maybe other ministries that you support - we are super appreciative of that. We are always going to be encouraging people that above and beyond their giving that they are living their lives in a manner that demonstrates and shares the gospel with other people. Daily following Jesus and compelling others to do the same. And it will be very, very difficult to compel someone to do something that we ourselves aren't doing. Daily following Jesus and compelling others to do the same.

Now, if you're one of the 300 or so guys that recently went through Fight Club, you're probably saying to yourself, I recognize that tone of voice in Leroy. And something tells me that he was about to give 2,000 people their spiritual and relational assignments for the week. Yeah, you got it, Robert - there you go. Because you're right. We're going to put together what's going to be your mini Fight Club week if you will for your own spiritual formation. We won't worry about having you do three hours of cardio or 500 pushups this week or fast for three days. We won't worry about that portion, but for your spiritual maturity, for your spiritual formation this week, there are a couple things that I would love to see each of us do this week to grow in our faith and to challenge ourselves.

So on the back of your bulletin here, which you hopefully are taking notes on. Pastor Jonathan has put a memory verse for us. How sweet would it be that if every one at every campus this week memorize this verse, and then next Sunday ask the person next to you if you memorized it, right? Psalm 43:5. Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God. Let's memorize that verse this week folks, and place that in our heart, because God may place us in a situation this week where that needs to be shared with someone.

But the daily following Jesus? Monday through Saturday the Scripture reading there and review questions - I would encourage everyone to make this part of your diet this week, your spiritual diet this week - your time with God and go through these Scriptures here and maybe read the chapter before and the chapter after, but make this part of your daily following Jesus that will help propel you into compelling others to do the same.

So that's the spiritual part of it. What about the relational part of it? This is always the fun stuff, here. The relational part of the challenges this week that I would present to all of us to demonstrate the gospel, to grow in our spiritual maturity? One of the relational challenges this week - let it be this: Come along side someone, be in the gospel presence by encouraging them in some way, shape, form, or fashion that's meaningful to you.

Because the truth of the matter is, people are all around you that need to be encouraged, and I'll demonstrate that here right now. Raise your hand if there is some part of your life that you would hope that someone could encourage you in. Look around you. People are all over the place that need to have hope. There are people all over the place that need to be encouraged. You and I, as followers of Jesus Christ, we are commissioned to provide that hope for people. So as you are placed in their lives and your ears are listening and your heart is attuned to them, you will hear when you can come in and be the hope for a brighter future. I don't know what that looks like for you. You know where you live, you know the people that are associated with you. You know where you work and play and eat and all those things but if you are listening and you pray that God will provide those opportunities, you will be able to encourage someone this week.

But second to that, there's always another challenge to that as well. The other challenge there that I would ask everyone to prayerfully consider is who can you demonstrate the gospel with by sharing the gospel this week? But putting the gospel on display in words. How many of you know someone who needs to hear the gospel? They're all over the place, folks. Many times we say to ourselves, you know what? I pray that God will provide an opportunity. He already has. We just don't take it. Many a times we are the answer to that prayer that we've asked God. I've given you those guys, Leroy. Go share it with them. Do you want me to open the door wide open or do you want this little crack? If it's a little crack, take it. Let's go inside of those opportunities but oftentimes we are the own answer to our own prayers.

So maybe there is a verse or two today that pierced your heart. Keep that verse. When you're having conversations with people this week maybe that verse will just roll out because of what it means to you. Let that be the hope that you're able to provide for a better eternity. Or maybe you have your own verse. Maybe your life verse, we'll call it. Maybe there's a verse that means something to you because that was the verse that really resonates with how you were saved and what your life has become. When you're having conversations with people this week, if you see that there's a little crack of an opportunity, hey, do you mind if I share something with you? Share that story with them. Share that verse with them. And see what God does with that. God is faithful. It's not your job to save them. It's your job to share.

Last week Pastor Jonathan asked us all to write our grace story, right? Maybe you've done that and maybe you haven't. Start to do that. Write it and keep that sheet of paper with you. So maybe you're having a conversation with someone and you have that grace story and say, hey, listen. You know what? Go buy a cup of coffee and I would love for you to read this. It's just my story of how I came to faith in Jesus Christ. Maybe something there will touch you.

But they're many, many opportunities and ways for us to demonstrate the gospel because as believers in Jesus Christ we are charged with providing hope for a better future, but more importantly hope for a certain eternity and sharing the gospel with people. I don't know what that looks like for you physically to do that - share the gospel. I know I hear it quite often. Leroy, I have never done that ever before in my life - shared the gospel with someone. It's not that tough. To that I would say well it's going to be a great week for you if you push your muscle this week. It's really not that difficult.

In fact, I'm going to prove it with my buddy Robert down here who doesn't know it. Robert, come on up here. I'm not going to ask you to share the gospel. I'll pretend you are the guy that I'm having a conversation with, right? This is a pretty simple thing to do and you can probably do it ten times better than I do it.

But hey, Robert, dude, man. It was great having coffee with you, man. I've known you for five years. We've worked together. I've seen you around but I never knew all that stuff was going on in you life and I've got to say that I'd love to pray for you and before even that, man, there's something I've got to share with you. You may believe it. You may not. You may never even heard it before you but need to know, man, that God created you to be in relationship with him. But your sin separates us from him - all of our sins separates us from him. And our sin cannot be erased by doing good deeds. I know we all think that my good's going to outweigh my bad. That's not something going to happen. But paying the price for our sin - God's Son Jesus Christ lived a perfect life, died on the cross for your sin and mine and for those that will believe that, you have everlasting life. It doesn't mean that everything's going to go your way in life and all your problems are going to go away, but it guarantees you that God will be going with you and your problems. So, man, I don't know if you ever heard that or not but I just wanted to make sure you know about it and I'd love to pray with you if we could.

Just that simple! Thanks, man. Just that simple. You could probably do it ten times better than that and much more effectively, but it's just that simple. You and I are charged with being dispensers of the gospel of Jesus Christ in the lives of the people that God has placed before us. He did not place you where you are so that you can put a bowl over your light. Daily following Jesus and compelling others to do the same. Let's pray.

Father, we thank you so much for your time this morning. We pray that you have cleared everyone's heart to hear whatever you would say to them. For those of us who have already accepted Christ I pray that the passages resonate with us and give us confidence in the hope that we have - confidence that we know that you would want us to share with other people the story of the gospel of Jesus Christ and we thank you for your true word because we know you don't lie. And Father, for those individuals here this morning who have not accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, we pray also for them that maybe you have touched them in some way that their arms are now unfolded, that they're looking square at you, that they want to know you better. If you're here this morning and God has pierced your heart I would encourage you to stroll into the Fireside Room and accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. Just share that with someone so you, too, would have the hope that you would share with others.

Father, we thank you once again for your presence here. We ask that you would encourage us to live out the week in a manner that fits the gospel and fits the gospel well. That we would be ambassadors of Jesus Christ everywhere we go so that we would put the gospel on display. Father we love you, and we thank you, and we worship you. In precious name of Jesus Christ, our risen Lord and Savior, we all say amen.

Folks, thank you so much and have a wonderful, wonderful, week. Remember your assignment.