Find Hope Here

Tone: Hopeful, clear, inviting

What if this? What if that? How could this? I put those thoughts to rest as we frantically tried to establish where my brother could be or what could have happened.

In May of 2016, it was Mother’s Day and also my 30th birthday. As the day ended, I realized my younger brother, Gregory, hadn’t called which was very strange since we’d always been so close. I contacted my mom and found he hadn’t called her either. Even in those early moments, my hope was beginning to slip.

Time: Breathing, paced, calm

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? These patterns develop until we forget or are afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

Biblically, Communion is symbolic of both Jesus’ sacrifice and the unity of the Church in His name.

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

To know why, how, and what it looks like to find hope here, we have to start by making sure we’re aware of some major hurdles and roadblocks that will keep us from that goal.

But before we look at them, we have to remember that this text comes after 3 chapters of his letter to the church. What has Paul been writing about before this? What has been the central, recurring theme? The Gospel, the good news that Jesus loved us, that Jesus is our hope, and that He builds the church through the power of His Spirit.

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? These patterns develop until we forget or are afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

We’ll start in the middle of the letter in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you’ve already heard read. I think it’s important for us to read the Bible in context and so I’d actually encourage you to do some homework and read the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter. Especially because the word “therefore” pops up right at the beginning and we want to know...what’s it...THERE FOR?

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? [INSERT EXAMPLE - Fidgit Spinner? Pogs?]. We can get into a pattern where we’re afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

Time: Breathing, paced, calm

But I know this can also leave you feeling overwhelmed. Feeling more defeated. Feeling like a failure.

We ask now for more of You. More of your presence, more of your love, hope, and courage. Would you grow this family for your glory and your good?

If we’re going to find hope here together, there are three things I think this text gives us to help us overcome these obstacles.

Time: Breathing, paced, calm

But finding hope here isn’t a task or a burden we bear in our own strength. There’s a lens that we have to filter all of these obstacles and thoughts through and that lens is the Gospel, the good news that God loves us perfectly, that in Jesus we have real hope, and He relentlessly builds his church and nothing can stop Him.

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? [INSERT EXAMPLE]. We can get into a pattern where we’re afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

Time: Breathing, paced, calm

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? [INSERT EXAMPLE]. We can get into a pattern where we’re afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

Good morning! My name is Mike and I’m the Worship Pastor here at One Hope Church. If you need a Bible today, raise your hand and someone will bring you one. And if you don’t own one, that’s our gift to you today.

Let’s start in verse 1:

His phone was off. He didn’t report to work. He wasn’t in his apartment. His car was gone. His friends hadn’t seen him.

Give us a genuine love for your bride, the church, and call us to unite around hope.

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

Heart: Gentle, compassionate, caring

Communion is a built-in weekly status check for your heart. Where have you drifted? What have you forgotten? What are you chasing?

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

Heart: Gentle, compassionate, caring

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

Francis Foulkes wrote a commentary on Ephesians and said this about the relationship between the two halves of this letter:

This is where you have to lean in as much as you can and hear this. If you’re brain is processing where do I start or even if you’ve been completely checked out until this point, I want you to listen and hear this:

What if this? What if that? How could this? I put those thoughts to rest as we frantically tried to establish where my brother could be or what could have happened.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become able to ask the hardest questions because we know they’ll help us grow.

First, we’ve been called to love the church which means loving people..

Throughout this text we find a word that continues to be a source of confusion and misunderstanding in the world and in the church: love. Paul seems to be addressing a clear lack of real love. There is most likely some fighting, division, judgement, maybe even hatred among the people of the church in Ephesus. Sound familiar?

Heart: Gentle, compassionate, caring

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? These patterns develop until we forget or are afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

Heart: Gentle, compassionate, caring

Feel: Passionate, personal (I have found hope here; I want to help others find hope here)

And then, after a random phone call to a hospital, we found him.

We are called to love the local church. Not as a concept or on principle but in practice. We are called to love OUR local church and that translates directly to loving one another.

Feel: Passionate, personal (I have found hope here; I want to help others find hope here)

Fill us now with your Spirit as we process and reflect on what you’ve said to us and done for us.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become empowered to ask the hardest questions without fear.

Specifically, if there is any brokenness, division or conviction about your relationships with people in this room, Jesus tells us this is the time to make it right.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become empowered to ask the hardest questions without fear.

Love is such an overused and misunderstood word. It’s become an almost meaningless term that we use just as quickly to describe the food we eat as we do when saying goodbye to our grandmothers.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do it’s completely different. We’re able to ask the hardest questions because we know they’ll help us grow.

Feel: Passionate, personal (I have found hope here; I want to help others find hope here)

So who are we and why are we here?

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become able to ask the hardest questions because we know they’ll help us grow.

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

His phone was off. He didn’t report to work. He wasn’t in his apartment. His car was gone. His friends hadn’t seen him.

UNITY & PEACE Who doesn’t want that?

“Christian conduct follows from Christian doctrine, that the duty of Christians derives directly from the unspeakable debt of gratitude that they owe for all that they have received in Christ.” - Foulkes, F. (1989). Ephesians: an introduction and commentary (Vol. 10, p. 115). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

Jesus loves you perfectly. Jesus gives and is hope. Jesus builds his church.

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become empowered to ask the hardest questions without fear.

In we read this beautiful truth:

Feel: Passionate, personal (I have found hope here; I want to help others find hope here)

Fixes

I breathed again. The darkest and most horrible day of my life most certainly was over. Or so I thought.

If you’ve already surrendered to Jesus, use this space to reflect and then come down the middle aisles while the band leads us. Someone will serve you bread, representing Jesus’ body and offer to let you dip it into a cup of juice, representing Jesus’ blood. Then you can make your way back to your seat around the outside of the room.

So let me ask you why? Why are you here today? Why did you set an alarm on a Sunday, throw a kid in the car without breakfast and come to a YMCA gym?

Fixes

So let me ask you why? Why are you here today? Why did you set an alarm on a Sunday, throw a kid in the car without breakfast and come to a YMCA gym?

And then, after a random phone call to a hospital, we found him.

In Your beautiful, wonderful, powerful name we pray, amen.

So who are we and why are we here?

Basically, the text in chapters 4-6, when viewed without Jesus at the center leaves us with some boxes to check or tasks to complete and that isn’t what God wants for us.

And while it makes sense that love would be misconstrued outside of the church, more and more it’s losing value within it.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do it’s completely different. We’re able to ask the hardest questions because we know they’ll help us grow.

Why did we set alarms on our only day off, throw on whatever clothes were clean, skip breakfast because the kids apparently forgot how to wear clothes, wait for an Uber driver or a slow roommate, and drive to a YMCA to listen to some guy talk for a half and hour?

We are called to love the local church. Not as a concept or on principle but in practice. We are called to love OUR local church and that translates directly to loving one another.

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah. Peterson, E. H. (2005). The Message: the Bible in contemporary language (). Colorado Springs, CO: NavPress.

What does this look like?

So who are we and why are we here?

So let me ask you why? Why are you here today? Why did you set an alarm on a Sunday, throw a kid in the car without breakfast and come to a YMCA gym?

Hear that again and breath it in:

Never wonder this is about finding hope at this local church

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok!

What does this look like?

Why did we set alarms on our only day off, [PAUSE] or skip breakfast because the kids apparently forgot how to wear shoes, [PAUSE] or wait for an Uber driver, [PAUSE] and no matter how we got here come to a place where people workout to sing songs and listen to someone speak?

Paul tells us it will involve humility, gentleness, and patience. All of those carry with them the implication that we’ll be around each other fairly often. Right? Humility isn’t much of a necessity if we aren’t around other people. Gentleness? Patience? Last I checked both of those require someone else for them to be a challenge.

Never wonder this is about finding hope at this local church

If you have never surrendered, never found hope, this space is for you too. We’ve been praying for you today. What better time to trust Jesus and come into the family. I’ll be standing with some other people in the back corner if you want to talk to a person. But the best thing you can do is talk to God or rather just listen to Him. I believe He’ll speak.

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok! I believe there’s an invitation in this text for everyone this morning if you’ll hang on and listen.

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? We can get into a pattern where we’re afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

While we may struggle to really love people, God doesn’t. He [God] loves you perfectly and provides us with the template of what it means to love our brothers and sisters: Jesus.

As the details emerged, we found my brother had been in a horrible 9 car accident and had suffered the most severe form of a brain injury possible. What began as minutes turned to hours to days and months. Almost a year of life went by feeling like this huge storm just wouldn’t blow away. My hope would come back just like desperate gasps of air only to be followed by a slow drift deeper into hopelessness.

With that being said, let’s look at 3 things we’re invited to do as we find hope here through the clarifying lens of the Gospel.

I breathed again. The darkest and most horrible day of my life most certainly was over. Or so I thought.

Why did we set alarms on our only day off, throw on whatever clothes were clean, skip breakfast because the kids apparently forgot how to wear clothes, wait for an Uber driver or a slow roommate, and drive to a YMCA to listen to some guy talk for a half and hour?

Good morning! My name is Mike and I’m the Worship Pastor here at One Hope Church. If you need a Bible, raise your hand and someone will bring you one. And if you don’t own one, that’s our gift to you.

Because of our humanity and the influence of culture, we won’t drift toward real, biblical love unless we’ve made an intentional, ongoing effort. We have to make an individual commitment to understand and practice real love with our brothers and sisters if we’re going to find hope here.

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok!

So who are we and why are we here?

Paul starts by laying a foundation and addressing something the church continually struggles with throughout history: a lack of love. There is most likely some fighting, division, judgement, maybe even hatred among the people of the church in Ephesus. Sound familiar?

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok!

Jesus loves YOU perfectly. Jesus gives and IS hope. Jesus builds HIS church.

And then, in May of this year, my brother died. I’d never felt pain and despair like I did in the year leading up to that moment but when he passed, it was a crushing blow. What followed was months of struggle with hopelessness that could be sparked by anything or anyone.

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? Patterns develop until we forget or are afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

There can’t be a community of hope without a community of love.

More compassion, less judgement

The love that everyone needs that we’re trying to share doesn’t come from us. It comes from Jesus and it’s real. It’s not going to fade, it’s not going to fail, it’s not going to flip and betray us. His love was running to embrace us even when we were totally ignoring Him.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’d like to invite you to Find Hope Here or find it somewhere. To find hope with the local church.

More compassion, less judgement

My hope this morning is that no matter who you are and where you are on this spectrum of why you do or don’t in regards to church, there will be something for you. Even if you tried what you thought was church before, believe it or not, this sermon is for you too and I’m praying it reaches you somehow. My hope is that many of you new and old will be compelled to say boldly “I’ve found hope here. This is my church and I love these people. Come be the church with me.”

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok! I believe there’s an invitation in this text for everyone this morning if you’ll hang on and listen.

Paul summarizes all of this with truth we need to receive today:

My hope this morning is that no matter who you are and where you are on this spectrum of why you do or don’t in regards to church, there will be something for you. Even if you tried what you thought was church before, believe it or not, this sermon is for you too and I’m praying it reaches you somehow. My hope is that many of you new and old will be compelled to say boldly “I’ve found hope here. This is my church and I love these people. Come be the church with me.”

As the details emerged, we found my brother had been in a horrible 9 car accident and had suffered the most severe form of a brain injury possible. What began as minutes turned to hours to days and months. Almost a year of life went by feeling like this huge storm just wouldn’t blow away. My hope would come back just like desperate gasps of air only to be followed by a slow drift deeper into hopelessness.

Paul tells us it will involve humility, gentleness, and patience. All of those carry with them the implication that we’ll be around each other fairly often. Right? We wouldn’t be called to humility if we were meant to live alone. It wouldn’t be hard at all. We’d only have ourselves to deal with. Gentleness? Patience? Last I checked both of those require someone else for them to be a challenge.

Proximity feels like a priority for us to love each other.

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok! I believe there’s an invitation in this text for everyone this morning if you’ll hang on and listen.

My hope this morning is that no matter who you are and where you are on this spectrum of why you do or don’t in regards to church, there will be something for you. Even if you tried what you thought was church before, believe it or not, this sermon is for you too and I’m praying it reaches you somehow. My hope is that many of you new and old will be compelled to say boldly “I’ve found hope here. This is my church and I love these people. Come be the church with me.”

Why did we set alarms on our only day off, [PAUSE] or skip breakfast because the kids apparently forgot how to wear shoes, [PAUSE] or wait for an Uber driver, [PAUSE] and no matter how we got here come to a place where people workout to sing songs and listen to someone speak?

Let’s listen to Him together...

If you try to love without first being loved and embraced by Jesus, it won’t work. Receive that love today. Let Him embrace you.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become able to ask the hardest questions without fear.

Let’s pray before we dive in together.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’d like to invite you to Find Hope Here or at another local church.

15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way INTO HIM WHO IS THE HEAD, INTO CHRIST,

First, we’ve been called to love the church which means loving people.

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok! I believe there’s an invitation in this text for everyone this morning if you’ll hang on and listen.

There’s something else that may seem like a given but we shouldn’t miss it.

More Jesus

Love is such an overused and misunderstood word. We’ve twisted it to this catch-all word that we use to describe everything from our favorite shows to what it means to ignore someone else’s foolishness.

Why? Well I think it’s hard to genuinely love people you don’t know.

More Jesus

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget or be afraid to ask why.

Let’s pray before we dive in together.

And then, in May of this year, my brother died. I’d never felt pain and despair like I did in the year leading up to that moment but when he passed, it was a crushing blow. What followed was months of struggle with hopelessness that could be sparked by anything or anyone.

The vision is our church is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. For that vision become real - and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes, we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come - for that vision to become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (all of this can be found on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

In that dark place, I understood the depths of pain and sorrow that we’re up against. So many people in here have similar stories where hope was almost crushed out of them.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’d like to invite you to Find Hope Here or find it somewhere. To find hope with the local church.

Let’s pray before we dive in together.

There are two types of people that end up being loners in the church. First is the person who thinks “I don’t need anyone” and the second is the opposite who thinks “I need someone.” Both of these people need Jesus first. But He’s also designed you to need and be needed by us.

We as the church should seek to discover and practice real love so that people who encounter us experience something drastically different, drastically better than what the world is offering. We should be a place and a people who really care, really listen, and really speak with kindness to one another. A place of acceptance that’s so extreme that there aren’t any walls keeping certain people from sitting beside us and of kindness so extreme that there aren’t truths we avoid for the sake of fear.

The vision of our church is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. For that vision to become real - and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes, we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come - for that vision to become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (all of this can be found on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health and Outward Movement.

In that dark place, I understood the depths of pain and sorrow that we’re up against. So many people in here have similar stories where hope was almost crushed out of them.

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

All of this isn’t for us. All of the love, the hope, the growth is ultimately because of and all about Jesus.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’d like to invite you to Find Hope Here or at another local church.

The vision is our church is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. For that vision become real - and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes, we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come - for that vision to become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (all of this can be found on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health and Outward Movement.

In the same way I think it’s hard to know people you barely see. Practically I think this means we should at least make it a priority to come on Sundays. That doesn’t feel like a far stretch when we really think about what this challenge of love will require of us.

It’s hard to genuinely love people you don’t know. You may say no it’s easier and I’m being like Jesus by staying among strangers. But you’re missing something. First, Jesus actually knew everyone because He is God. He knew them better than they knew themselves even if they’d just met him. You and I can’t do that. And second, even with this insight, Jesus made his friendships and family a priority.

Combine personal story

So let me ask you why? Why are you here today? Why did you set an alarm on a Sunday, throw a kid in the car without breakfast and come to a YMCA gym? Why’d you find a ride or call an Uber to come sing songs and hear someone talk where people workout? Why did you give up your one day off or one chance to sleep in to serve other people, set up signs, or show someone to their seat?

(ESV) 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

An effective prevention of us finding hope here would be for us not to have it. A lack of hope will remove the core of our identity as a church and really just make us a pretty depressing and boring group of people.

Even before my brother died, there were many weeks when I didn’t know if I could come here. I felt like anything I would do or say especially from up here on this stage was going to be completely fake. The gap between Monday and Sunday was at times impossible for me to understand how it would be crossed.

Combine personal story

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do it’s completely different. We’re able to ask the hardest questions because we know they’ll help us grow.

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok!

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

We are called to love the people sitting around us. Not as a concept or on principle but in practice.

The vision of our church is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. For that vision to become real - and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes, we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come - for that vision to become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (all of this can be found on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health and Outward Movement.

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our weary hearts.

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or in a blaze of glory.

More buy-in

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

At the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

Even before my brother died, there were many weeks when I didn’t know if I could come here. I felt like anything I would do or say especially from up here on this stage was going to be completely fake. The gap between Monday and Sunday was at times impossible for me to understand how it would be crossed.

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our weary hearts.

And when my brother died, I thought all but thought hope had died with him.

So why are we here?

In World War I, trench warfare became the standard for fighting. There was a problem though. The revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, meaning that weapons couldn’t be delivered where they needed to in order to win the fight. This resulted in a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage.

It’s actually easier to say you love people beyond the church because they can’t argue or say otherwise. It’s a much harder thing to speak and show love

Finding hope here will challenge us to commit to this kind of love.

But before we move on, what does a church committed to love look like? If we take this to heart, what will happen? According to the scriptures, unity and peace. Doesn’t that sound appealing? Doesn’t that feel like something you’d naturally make a priority to be part of?

More buy-in

More passion in writing, less droning

My hope this morning is that no matter who you are and where you are on this spectrum of why in regards to church, there will be something for you. Even if you tried what you thought was church before, believe it or not, this sermon is for you too and I’m praying it reaches you somehow. My hope is that many of you new and old will be compelled to say boldly “I’ve found hope here. This is my church and I love these people. Come be the church with me.”

Albert Camus in “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays” said it this way:

Let’s pray before we begin.

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

Why did we set alarms on our only day off, [PAUSE] or skip breakfast because the kids apparently forgot how to wear shoes, [PAUSE] or wait for an Uber driver, [PAUSE] and no matter how we got here come to a place where people workout to sing songs and listen to someone speak?

And when my brother died, I all but thought hope had died with him.

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or in a blaze of glory.

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

But God used this gathering, at times just a calendar event on the horizon, to keep my eyes up. The songs, the rhythms, the truth I found here forced me to let God pick me back up. Over and over again.

More passion in writing, less droning

Of all the empty times you’ve used or heard the word love, it’s hard to understand real love when we see it. But the Bible says that there is not a greater example, a larger act of real love than someone dying in the place of someone else.

And that seems like something every person would want to be part of. A family of love that results in unity and peace.

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

So practically I think this means we should at least make it a priority to come on Sundays. One interaction a week feels like a bare minimum for

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

The term “No Man’s Land” actually came from this period as a reference to the deadly space in between opposing trenches where no one could go and live.

What does this look like?

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

In fact, the ultimate is when a truly innocent person steps into the path of death for the guilty and the condemned.

We first notice these words “walk” and “bear with” are not passive words. He doesn’t just say “speak like you love one another.” He’s telling us to “act” like we love each other.

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

You’ve probably seen some movie or show where a soldier, full of courage or foolish optimism rose up from the trench to charge ahead and was sacrificed to the field of battle. These men often were following orders from stubborn and sometimes cowardly leaders who commanded these basic suicides from safe bunkers and radio towers. The British often said that the “lions were being led by donkeys.”

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

All of that was powerful. But do you know what really kept my hope alive?

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok! I believe there’s an invitation in this text for everyone this morning if you’ll hang on and listen.

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

But God used this gathering, at times just a calendar event on the horizon, to keep my eyes up. The songs, the rhythms, the truth I found here forced me to let God pick me back up. Over and over again.

Let’s pray before we dive in together.

“A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.”

Let’s pray before we begin.

Finish transitions

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

Finish transitions

I love how the Message translation frames the text:

Let’s pray before we begin.

There’s something else that may seem like a given but we shouldn’t miss it:

When we gather as the church, it’s like we’re getting back into the trench. It’s a place of safety, that we need. In fact, you won’t win a war without some kind of plan for defense and a safe space to recover. In fact if you’ve been out there fighting by yourself, it won’t be long before you’re overwhelmed. As your brother, I’m calling you to come find hope here before it’s too late.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’d like to invite you to Find Hope Here at One Hope Church or at another local church.

This what Jesus did for you.

You.

Verse 4: There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

Paul tells us it will involve humility, gentleness, and patience and an overall eagerness for unity. All of these traits seem to strongly imply that we’ll be in proximity with other humans. Regularly. I mean humility isn’t much of a necessity if we’re isolated. Gentleness? Patience? Last I checked both of those become problematic when you start to interact with other human beings. And for there to be a need for unity, there must be different things or people to unite.

Let’s pray before we begin.

Second, for us to find hope here there has to be hope. We must hope in the future and let go of the past.

I’d paraphrase this and say that a church devoid of hope has ceased to belong to the future. In other words, if we let go of hope, we’re not going to last long.

There is nothing more amazing than the local church

All of that was powerful. But do you know what really kept my hope alive?

There is nothing more amazing than the local church

Sell the local church and sell it big and they’ll be missing out if they aren’t part of it

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our hearts.

Today I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we ask the big question of why.

You cared for me. You loved me. You served me. You lifted me. You made us meals. You gave money to fly to my brother’s bedside. You wrote deeply compassionate cards and gave us small but impossibly significant tokens that told us you were standing and hurting with us. You gave us regular hugs and regular smiles. You cried real tears with us. Sometimes you just sat in silence with us.

Today I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we ask the big question of why.

So how do we walk and bear with each other in love? I think it means regular proximity with one another for the sake of being known.

People want to be connected with people who are looking and moving ahead, not lingering in the past.

You.

Sell the local church and sell it big and they’ll be missing out if they aren’t part of it

The vision of our church is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. For that vision to become real - and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes, we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come - for that vision to become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (all of which can be found on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health and Outward Movement.

An effective prevention of us finding hope here would be for us not to have it. A lack of hope will remove the core of our identity as a church and really just make us a pretty depressing and boring group of people.

But unlike the British, we don’t have a commander who is sending us over the wall or calling out orders from a walkie talkie.

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our hearts.

We can’t find hope here if we lack hope.

“And mark that you do this with humility and discipline—not in fits and starts, but steadily, pouring yourselves out for each other in acts of love, alert at noticing differences and quick at mending fences.”

Today I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we ask the big question of why.

Jesus isn’t just calling you to love. He showed you. He wants you to feel it and believe it before you try to share it. You have to receive Jesus love for you, His offering of himself to you, before you try anything else.

The power of real love is felt when you are fully known- with all of your flaws and failures- and yet someone still fully accepts you.

God, I’m boldly asking that you’d kindle a passion and genuine love for the local church and call everyone to be part of what you’re doing, either with this family or somewhere.

Albert Camus in “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays” said it this way:

No Jesus, the real “Lion” is out there in the middle of No Man’s Land, the place where no other person can stand. And what’s crazy is that he isn’t dodging bullets. He’s taking them. ALL of them. Every bullet with our name on it is making him bleed to death. For us.

You cared for me. You loved me. You served me. You lifted me. You made us meals. You gave money to fly to my brother’s bedside. You wrote deeply compassionate cards and gave us small but impossibly significant tokens that told us you were standing and hurting with us. You gave us regular hugs and regular smiles. You cried real tears with us. Sometimes you just sat in silence with us.

Just us gathering should overwhelm all other good

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our hearts.

We’ll be right in the middle of the letter starting in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you already heard read. I want to just hit a few parts of this text in our time today but wanted you to have some context and would actually encourage you to do some homework and ready the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter.

Just us gathering should overwhelm all other good

For us to be alert at noticing differences and quick to mend fences, we need to be in regular proximity to one another.

And in you, the people of God, I found hope.

We’ll be right in the middle of the letter starting in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you already heard read. I want to just hit a few parts of this text in our time today but wanted you to have some context and would actually encourage you to do some homework and ready the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter.

Shouldn’t the church be the most hopeful people on the earth?

We’ll be right in the middle of the letter starting in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you already heard read. I want to just hit a few parts of this text in our time today but wanted you to have some context and would actually encourage you to do some homework and ready the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter.

We value BOTH inward health AND outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or in a blaze of glory.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’re going to get into the first part of what drives us forward as One Hope Church.

This is love of Jesus for each of us.

We shouldn’t need something secondary

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’re going to get into the first part of what drives us forward as One Hope Church.

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

Sometimes I think we only make it our goal to not be hopeless. That’s not enough. We’ve got to look and live further ahead. We’ve got to see our future secured by Jesus and live joyfully awaiting His return.

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

Today, I’ll just be speaking to the first half of these values - inward health - but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

And in you, the people of God, I found hope.

God, I’m boldly asking that you’d kindle a passion and genuine love for the local church and call everyone to be part of what you’re doing, either with this family or another.

But then wait it gets even crazier. Are you ready? After he fell, after he seemed to lose the fight from those fatal wounds, when hope could have been done then and there, when it seemed he’d done enough, Jesus GOT BACK UP.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’re going to get into the first part of what drives us forward as One Hope Church.

We shouldn’t need something secondary

“A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.”

Finally, the last roadblock we will face is lack of growth.

In World War I, trench warfare became the standard for fighting. There was a problem though. The revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, meaning that weapons couldn’t be delivered where they needed to in order to win the fight. This resulted in a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage.

And when I think of those original questions why do I come here? Why is this MY church? It’s because I have found hope here in Jesus and His people. It’s because many of you were called by God to be my family and responded. It’s because my heart beats to be part of helping anyone - even just one more person - freed from the shackles of hopelessness and experience the awesome liberation of hope in the midst of their pain. It’s because God is doing something amazing here and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be part of it.

Our mission is shaped by our values in pursuit of our vision. That vision is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. To see that vision become real and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come. To see that vision become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (you can find all of this on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

Two chapters earlier in we read this beautiful truth:

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

And when I think of those original questions why do I come here? Why is this MY church? It’s because I have found hope here in Jesus and His people. It’s because many of you were called by God to be my family and responded. It’s because my heart beats to be part of helping anyone - even just one more person - freed from the shackles of hopelessness and experience the awesome liberation of hope in the midst of their pain. It’s because God is doing something amazing here and I don’t want to miss the opportunity to be part of it.

And I speak for us all when I say: come join the family. Find hope here!

Another term for this would be immaturity, not progressing or moving toward adulthood.

Motivations

Sure we’ve experienced pain, loss, disappointment, fear, and defeat. We’ve lost loved ones, been let down, betrayed, and used, faced impossible darkness and real terror. But none of those things define us.

Do your brothers and sisters feel loved by you? Or do they feel judged by you?

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

The term “No Man’s Land” actually came from this period as a reference to the deadly space in between opposing trenches where no one could go and live.

Our mission is shaped by our values in pursuit of our vision. That vision is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. To see that vision become real and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come. To see that vision become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (you can find all of this on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

I’d paraphrase this and say that a church devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future. In other words, if we let go of hope, we’re not going to last long.

Motivations

Let’s pray before we begin.

Our mission is shaped by our values in pursuit of our vision. That vision is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. To see that vision become real and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come. To see that vision become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (you can find all of this on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

Did you hear that?

Place to belong for who they are

In the second half of our text, Paul describes what it feels like to be immature. This is how it appears in the CSB translation:

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

Place to belong for who they are

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

And I speak for us all when I say: we’d love for you to find hope here!

Now I’m not suggesting that this will be easy.

When was the last time you were around them long enough to put your love to the test?

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

Your hopelessness is probably completely justified and real. But stacked against Jesus it gets dim really quickly.

It wasn’t so long ago that you were mired in that old stagnant life of sin. You let the world, which doesn’t know the first thing about living, tell you how to live. You filled your lungs with polluted unbelief, and then exhaled disobedience. We all did it, all of us doing what we felt like doing, when we felt like doing it, all of us in the same boat. It’s a wonder God didn’t lose his temper and do away with the whole lot of us. Instead, immense in mercy and with an incredible love, he embraced us. He took our sin-dead lives and made us alive in Christ. He did all this on his own, with no help from us! Then he picked us up and set us down in highest heaven in company with Jesus, our Messiah.

Wait. Try to picture it with me. Jesus standing next to you dressed for the fight. He looks at You with such love and then does the unexpected and rises up to charge the line. [PAUSE] And then he’s hit. Once. Twice. Hundreds of time. [PAUSE] And then he falls. [PAUSE] And he dies. [PAUSE] But then...what are we even seeing? This cannot be. It’s impossible. Jesus rises!

You’ve probably seen some movie or show where a soldier, full of courage or foolish optimism rose up from the trench to charge ahead and was sacrificed to the field of battle. These men often were following orders from stubborn and sometimes cowardly leaders who commanded these basic suicides from safe bunkers and radio towers. The British often said that the “lions were being led by donkeys.”

Today I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we ask the big question of why.

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our hearts.

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

When we gather as the church, it’s like we’re getting back into the trench. It’s a place of safety, that we need. In fact, you won’t win a war without some kind of plan for defense and a safe space to recover. In fact if you’ve been out there fighting by yourself, it won’t be long before you’re overwhelmed. Get back here and rest with your brothers and sisters!

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

At the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

While we may struggle to really love people, God doesn’t. He loves you perfectly and provides us with the template of what it means to love our brothers and sisters in His Son, Jesus.

Place for purpose

Today, I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we investigate what it means to find hope with the local church and more specifically to find it here.

We can get back up from every one of those blows because of Jesus and His promises to us.

Have you made gathering with this family a priority for the sake of love?

We’ll be right in the middle of the letter starting in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you already heard read. I want to just hit a few parts of this text in our time today but wanted you to have some context and would actually encourage you to do some homework and ready the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter.

Place for purpose

“tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.”

Church, what does that do to your hope? It should set it on fire! The pain, that memory that’s had you by the throat just had it’s arms broken. That darkness that just won’t let you go has been pierced with blinding light. That defeat has been swallowed in victory!

And as if this disease of hopelessness wasn’t enough of a hurdle, we’ve made talking about it something shameful or unworthy of our time.

Place to be loved

Where are you with this? When you talk about your life, when you talk about the church, do you spend more time on what’s been done to you, to us than what’s been done for us in Jesus?

We’ll start in the middle of the letter in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you’ve already heard read. I think it’s important for us to read the Bible in context and so I’d actually encourage you to do some homework and read the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter. Especially because the word “therefore” pops up right at the beginning and we want to know...what’s it...THERE FOR?

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’re going to get into the first part of what drives us forward as One Hope Church.

What a description of our world. Waves crash quickly and gusts blow strongly because of social media and the news. In fact you could probably open your phone right now and there’s a new headline, a new top 10 list, a new scandal, a new opinion ready to attack your attention span.

But unlike the British, we don’t have a commander who is sending us over the wall or calling out orders from a walkie talkie.

[You can’t win a war without healthy, trained troops.]

God, I’m boldly asking that you’d kindle a passion and genuine love for the local church and call everyone to be part of what you’re doing, either with this family or another.

Today, I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we investigate what it means to find hope with the local church and more specifically to find it here.

[You can’t win a war without healthy, trained troops.]

We’ve got to stop allowing fear of real things, real hurts, real losses, real disappointments, real failures, to make us forget the hope on the horizon. We have to remember that we’re the family of God. Hope is on our family crest. Victory is coming. A new kingdom is coming where all of that goes away. And it comes because of Jesus.

When you come on Sunday, are you thinking “what have these people done this time” or “who can I hug?”

We love because we’re loved. The love that everyone needs doesn’t come from us but from Jesus and it’s real. It’s not going to fail or fade. His love was running to embrace us even when we were totally ignoring Him.

[You can’t win a war without healthy, trained troops.]

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

With that being said, let’s put on the lenses of internal health and start into this text:

We’ll start in the middle of the letter in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you’ve already heard read. I think it’s important for us to read the Bible in context and so I’d actually encourage you to do some homework and read the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter. Especially because the word “therefore” pops up right at the beginning and we want to know...what’s it...THERE FOR?

“There are far too many silent sufferers. Not because they don't yearn to reach out, but because they've tried and found no one who cares.” - Richelle Goodrich, Smile Anyway

But don’t you want off the rollercoaster? Aren’t the reactionary ups and downs wearing you out? Don’t you long for something different from all the noise?

When I asked myself this question, I was convicted because it became clear that I was living more in fear of the past than hope on the horizon.

Place for hope opposite the world

Our mission is shaped by our values in pursuit of our vision. That vision is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. To see that vision become real and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come. To see that vision become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (you can find all of this on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

With that being said, let’s put on the lenses of internal health and start into this text:

Place for hope opposite the world

With that being said, let’s put on the lenses of internal health and start into this text:

What does it look like for you to steadily show love to this family of people?

And if you try to love without first being loved and embraced by Jesus, it won’t work. Receive that love today. Let Him embrace you. Then embrace the people around you.

No Jesus, the “ Lion who leads the sheep,” is out there in the middle of No Man’s Land, the place where no other person could stand. And what’s even crazier is that he didn’t dodge bullets but took them. ALL of them. He embraced every weapon meant to take you out and died. But then wait it gets even crazier. He GOT BACK UP.

Did you hear that? Have you seen it?

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

[Cut 1-2 minutes]

What does a loving church look like? If we take this to heart, can you imagine what will happen? According to the scriptures, unity and peace. Doesn’t that sound appealing? Something so different than the divided and chaotic world we live in. Doesn’t that feel like something you’d naturally make a priority to be part of?

Find hope here by setting your sights ahead and letting go of the past.

Not wasting time

Maturity has been described as not over or underreacting in every circumstance. Being sure and steady in even in the most difficult circumstances.

Finally, Jesus doesn’t just create this burst of hope within us and leave the battlefield. No, he is still here helping us fight. He is relentlessly building His church and all of our building is really just following His lead.

Depression, despair, and hopelessness aren’t something we typically bring up and I think that’s a problem if we’re going to find hope with one another and help others do the same.

In Jesus’ name because of who He is and what He’s done, amen.

Not wasting time

(How am I personally struggling and growing? How has this sermon challenged me personally? How can I model genuine repentance?)

And each of us possesses the ultimate gift to help us find hope here: His Spirit.

Picture it with me. Really peak your head out of the trench for a moment. Do you see Him? Jesus standing next to you. Jesus charging. [PAUSE] Jesus falling. [PAUSE] Jesus dying. [PAUSE] Jesus standing back up..

Grow

LACK OF LOVE 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Grow

If we are going to find hope here, this should be how we’re described. We should be moving beyond the reactions and more and more respond with a steady dose of love and hope. And in our maturity, people will be intrigued and want to know more.

To know why, how, and what it looks like to find hope here, we have to start by making sure we’re aware of some major hurdles and roadblocks that will keep us from that goal.

Let’s not miss this. For us to find hope here there has to be hope.

(How am I personally struggling and growing? How has this sermon challenged me personally? How can I model genuine repentance?)

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

To know why, how, and what it looks like to find hope here, we have to start by making sure we’re aware of some major hurdles and roadblocks that will keep us from that goal.

says that:

Today, I want us to look into Paul’s letter to the church in Ephesus as we investigate what it means to find hope with the local church and more specifically to find it here.

Finally, these hurdles -lack of love and lack of hope- culminate to form the silver bullet to finding hope here: a lack of growth.

With that being said, let’s put on the lens of internal health and start into this text:

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LACK OF LOVE 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

We can’t find hope here if we lack growth.

Paul reminds the Ephesians and he reminds us of our unity around hope:

LACK OF LOVE 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

What does that do to your hope? It should set it on fire! It should make you want to jump out of this trench and go with him! It should make you willing to follow him wherever He goes.

Second, for us to find hope here there has to be hope.

Paul starts by saying “where’s the love, church?” Clearly, there is some fighting, division, maybe even hatred, or even worse false love going on in the church in his day. Sound familiar?

Let’s start in verse 1:

Paul starts by saying “where’s the love, church?” Clearly, there is some fighting, division, maybe even hatred, or even worse false love going on in the church in his day. Sound familiar?

“In him [Jesus] you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.”

We read in verse 4:

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? We can get into a pattern where we’re afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

We’ll start in the middle of the letter in chapter 4 verses 1 through 16 as you’ve already heard read. I think it’s important for us to read the Bible in context and so I’d actually encourage you to do some homework and read the first 3 chapters of Ephesians so you can comprehend the full context of the letter. Especially because the word “therefore” pops up right at the beginning and we want to know...what’s it...THERE FOR?

We’ve got to stop allowing fear of real things, real hurts, real losses, real disappointments, real failures, to make us forget the hope on the horizon. We have to remember that we’re the family of God. Hope is on our family crest. Victory is coming. A new kingdom is coming where all of that goes away. And it comes because of Jesus.

1 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

In the second half of our text, Paul describes what it feels like to be immature. This is how it appears in the CSB translation:

Have you ever done something over and over again until you forget why you’re doing it? We can get into a pattern where we’re afraid to ask “why” because of what we might discover or not discover.

Paul starts by saying “where’s the love, church?” Clearly, there is some fighting, division, maybe even hatred, or even worse false love going on in the church in his day. Sound familiar?

We may say we love each other but are we living it? Paul points to three things that define what it means to bear with one another in love: humility, gentleness, and patience.

Throughout this text, there’s a clear address to US and not just ME or YOU. There’s a collective concern and collective calling that results in a collective participation.

(ESV) 4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call—

Throughout this text we find a word that continues to be a source of confusion and misunderstanding in the world and in the church: love. Paul seems to be addressing a clear lack of real love. There is most likely some fighting, division, judgement, maybe even hatred among the people of the church in Ephesus. Sound familiar?

We may say we love each other but are we living it? Paul points to three things that define what it means to bear with one another in love: humility, gentleness, and patience.

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

Do you want to be in this trench when He wins or will you join him on the battlefield?

There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

(How am I personally struggling and growing? How has this sermon challenged me personally? How can I model genuine repentance?)

Have you been connected enough to practice these things? It’s hard

When we think of church as something we do or a place we visit, that repetition can cause us to forget why and be afraid to ask.

We may say we love each other but are we living it? Paul points to three things that define what it means to bear with one another in love: humility, gentleness, and patience.

I don’t want to spend too much time on this because Justin really helped us to understand hope last week. But I want to remind you that this commitment, this calling toward hope has to be something each of us commits to.

“tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.”

The Spirit will train us to love. The Spirit will refresh our vision of hope. The Spirit will help us grow and mature until we look most like Jesus.

We’re being invited to be the church and build it together. Paul describes the church as the opposite of a spectator sport. In fact, Jesus - the head of this body - invites every part to join the work he’s doing here and actually promises that there are no insignificant parts.

As I’ve studied and prepared this week, I’ve been challenged with all of these very real obstacles personally. I struggled to love, had to fight for hope, and had to face the very real areas of my life where I still need to grow and mature.

Love is such an overused and misunderstood word. It’s become an almost meaningless term that we use just as quickly to describe the food we eat as we do when saying goodbye to our grandmothers.

What Paul is saying here is that if we all build, we will all benefit, we’ll all grow. If only some build, only some are going to benefit. And if none of us build and we all just wait for the benefits, we’re going to die.

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become able to ask the hardest questions without fear.

Paul starts by laying a foundation and addressing something the church continually struggles with throughout history: a lack of love. There is most likely some fighting, division, judgement, maybe even hatred among the people of the church in Ephesus. Sound familiar?

When we understand Church as who we are instead of what we do its different completely. We actually become able to ask the hardest questions without fear.

To know why, how, and what it looks like to find hope here, we have to start by making sure we’re aware of some major hurdles and roadblocks that will keep us from that goal.

And while it makes sense that love would be misconstrued outside of the church, more and more it’s losing value within it.

Finding hope here will happen because Jesus won’t be stopped!

What is hope? As Justin shared last week, biblical hope is an expectation or belief in the fulfillment of God’s promises. Biblical hope is hope in what God will do in the future.

The good news is that there’s no way to encounter truth and come out the same on the other side and so hopefully as we continue you’ll see how God has spoken into my life and hear him speaking to you as well.

I’ve felt convicted recently about this because when I asked myself some hard questions, it became clear that I was living more in fear of the past than hope on the horizon.

Have you been connected enough to practice these things? It’s hard

The church has enough enemies outside of here. Does your voice sound any different?

What a description of our world. Waves crash quickly and gusts blow strongly because of social media and the news. We’ve become a culture of self proclaimed wave and wind riders. But don’t you want off the roller coaster? Don’t you want a life jacket for the waves or a rope for the wind? Don’t you long for something different from all the noise?

LACK OF LOVE 4 I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, 2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, 3 eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

Have you been connected enough to practice these things? It’s hard

People can usually state fairly quickly why they don’t go to church. But what answer do you give for coming?

Because of our humanity and the influence of culture, we won’t drift toward real, biblical love unless we’ve made an intentional, ongoing effort. We have to make an individual commitment to understand and practice real love with our brothers and sisters if we’re going to find hope here.

So based on that definition shouldn’t the church be the most contagiously hopeful people on the earth? Shouldn’t we be the most encouraging people to be around not because we’re oblivious or disconnected from the hopelessness of our world around us, but because we’re completely convinced that the light on the horizon is coming?

The church has enough enemies outside of here. Does your voice sound any different?

There can’t be a community of hope without a community of love.

This isn’t something easy but it isn’t something we can miss either. Your hurt, your defeat, your experience of hopelessness is probably completely justified and real. But stacked against Jesus it gets dim really quickly.

Paul starts by saying “where’s the love, church?” Clearly, there is some fighting, division, maybe even hatred, or even worse false love going on in the church in his day. Sound familiar?

People can usually state fairly quickly why they don’t go to church. But what answer do you give for coming?

What does it mean to find hope here? Simply put, it means taking ownership and contributing because we’re better together. And when we all do that we’ll experience real growth and maturity.

If we are going to find hope here, we’re going to look and sound different than the world. We’re going to have to grow beyond the reactions and learn to respond with steady doses of love and hope.

He gave us all His gift, the Spirit, as the ultimate builder ()

The church has enough enemies outside of here. Does your voice sound any different?

So let me ask you why? Why are you here today? Why did you set an alarm on a Sunday, throw a kid in the car without breakfast and come to a YMCA gym? Why’d you find a ride or call an Uber to come sing songs and hear someone talk where people workout? Why did you give up your one day off or one chance to sleep in to serve other people, set up signs, or show someone to their seat?

We don’t build in our power or plans

We may say we love each other but are we living it? Paul points to three things that define what it means to bear with one another in love: humility, gentleness, and patience.

Love is such an overused and misunderstood word. We’ve twisted it to this catch-all word that we use to describe everything from our favorite shows to what it means to ignore someone else’s foolishness.

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

Throughout this text we find a word that continues to be a source of confusion and misunderstanding in the world and in the church: love. Paul seems to be addressing a clear lack of real love. There is most likely some fighting, division, judgement, maybe even hatred among the people of the church in Ephesus. Sound familiar?

So let me ask you why? Why are you here today? Why did you set an alarm on a Sunday, throw a kid in the car without breakfast and come to a YMCA gym? Why’d you find a ride or call an Uber to come sing songs and hear someone talk where people workout? Why did you give up your one day off or one chance to sleep in to serve other people, set up signs, or show someone to their seat?

What will your growth look like here?

To find hope here our hope must be in Jesus.

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

Hope isn’t a buzzword. It’s as relevant then as it was now because at the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

In World War I, trench warfare became the standard for fighting. There was a problem though. The revolution in firepower was not matched by similar advances in mobility, meaning that weapons couldn’t be delivered where they needed to in order to win the fight. This resulted in a grueling form of warfare in which the defender held the advantage.

Have you been connected enough to practice these things? It’s hard

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

There’s something else that may seem like a given but we shouldn’t miss it.

As I’ve studied and prepared this week, I’ve been challenged with all of these very real obstacles personally. I struggled to love, had to fight for hope, and had to face the very real areas of my life where I still need to grow and mature.

Increased calmness and stability instead of being blown and tossed. Someone once told me that maturity is when you don’t under or overreact to situations.

Where are you with this? When you talk about the church and what God’s doing in your life, do you spend more time on what’s been done to us than what’s been done for us in Jesus? Do

We offer our hands and he hands us the tools and shows us what to redeem

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok!

We as the church should seek to discover and practice real love so that people who encounter us experience something drastically different, drastically better than what the world is offering. We should be a place and a people who really care, really listen, and really speak with kindness to one another. A place of acceptance that’s so extreme that there aren’t any walls keeping certain people from sitting beside us and of kindness so extreme that there aren’t truths we avoid for the sake of fear.

Love is such an overused and misunderstood word. It’s become an almost meaningless term that we use just as quickly to describe the food we eat as we do when saying goodbye to our grandmothers.

Maybe you are here and you don’t know why. That’s ok!

The church has enough enemies outside of here. Does your voice sound any different?

Hope isn’t a buzzword. It’s as relevant then as it was now because at the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

My hope this morning is that no matter who you are and where you are on this spectrum of why in regards to church, there will be something for you. Even if you tried what you thought was church before, believe it or not, this sermon is for you too and I’m praying it reaches you somehow. My hope is that many of you new and old will be compelled to say boldly “I’ve found hope here. This is my church and I love these people. Come be the church with me.”

And while it makes sense that love would be misconstrued outside of the church, more and more it’s losing value within it.

Finding hope here will challenge us to commit to this kind of love.

Hope isn’t a buzzword. It’s as relevant then as it was now because at the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

The gathering of the church is like a trench. It’s a place of safety, that we need. It’s a place of hope because we find reprieve from the terror and weapons that we face every day. But it’s ultimately a defensive position. And, while essential for good strategy, you can’t win a war on defense.

My hope this morning is that no matter who you are and where you are on this spectrum of why in regards to church, there will be something for you. Even if you tried what you thought was church before, believe it or not, this sermon is for you too and I’m praying it reaches you somehow. My hope is that many of you new and old will be compelled to say boldly “I’ve found hope here. This is my church and I love these people. Come be the church with me.”

Doesn’t that sound like something you’d want to be part of?

PERSONAL STORY PART 1: My journey toward hopelessness

An effective prevention of us finding hope here would be for us not to have it. A lack of hope will remove the core of our identity as a church and really just make us a pretty depressing and boring group of people.

The good news is that there’s no way to encounter truth and come out the same on the other side and so hopefully as we continue you’ll see how God has spoken into my life and hear him speaking to you as well.

Find hope here or find it somewhere. Find hope in the local church.

Have you gone from hopeless to hopeful or just hopeless to somewhere in between?

But it goes further.

NEED TRANSITION

Find hope here or find it somewhere. Find hope in the local church.

He won’t allow us to hope in anything but him

Even as some of you hear this invitation to “Find Hope Here” you may think that means we think hopelessness only exists out there. In here things must be cleaner and better than that.”

Because of our humanity and the influence of culture, we won’t drift toward real, biblical love unless we’ve made an intentional, ongoing effort. We have to make an individual commitment to understand and practice real love with our brothers and sisters if we’re going to find hope here.

You’ve probably seen some movie or show where a soldier, full of courage or foolish optimism rose up from the trench to charge ahead and was sacrificed to the field of battle. These men often were following orders from stubborn and sometimes cowardly leaders who commanded these basic suicides from safe bunkers and radio towers. The British often said that the “lions were being led by donkeys.” The commanders were trying in vain to wage war the way they’d always done it and it wasn’t working.

At the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

Not only do we have a tendency to forget hope if we’ve even ever discovered it in the first place but we really don’t talk about the other side of the coin. Depression, despair, and hopelessness aren’t something we typically bring up and I think that’s a problem if we’re going to share hope with one another, with the city, and the world.

In this three week series, we started by discovering what hope really is and how to find it. Today, we’re going to get into the first part of what drives us forward as One Hope Church.

Not only do we have a tendency to forget hope if we’ve even ever discovered it in the first place but we really don’t talk about the other side of the coin. Depression, despair, and hopelessness aren’t something we typically bring up and I think that’s a problem if we’re going to share hope with one another, with the city, and the world.

There’s something else that may seem like a given but we shouldn’t miss it:

The term “No Man’s Land” actually came from this period as a reference to the deadly space in between opposing trenches where no one could go and live. It was a place of guaranteed death.

Albert Camus in “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays” said it this way:

We can’t just be motivated by our own growth. We have to see the growth of everyone as the purpose of the church. Paul is clear that this is for us and not for just you.

(ESV) 11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes. 15 Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, 16 from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love.

Our mission is shaped by our values in pursuit of our vision. That vision is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. To see that vision become real and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come. To see that vision become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (you can find all of this on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

“A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.”

Our mission is shaped by our values in pursuit of our vision. That vision is to see the city, nations, and generations find hope in Jesus. To see that vision become real and by the way we actually do believe that this city can be known for hope and not entertainment, we actually do believe that this gathering of people in Union Park can impact nations and people groups thousands of miles away, and yes we actually believe we can inject a legacy of hope into history for generations to come. To see that vision become reality we cling to a few carefully chosen values (you can find all of this on our website). One of those values is a balance of Inward Health / Outward Movement.

There are still parts missing. There are still joints that haven’t been exercised in awhile or at all. Come HERE! Join the body and watch as you grow with us!

Verse 4: There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

PERSONAL STORY PART 1: My journey toward hopelessness

In May of 2016, it was Mother’s Day and also my 30th birthday. As the day ended, I realized my younger brother, Gregory, hadn’t called which was very strange since we’d always been so close. I contacted my mom and found he hadn’t called her either. Even in those early moments, my hope was beginning to slip.

4 There is one body and one Spirit—just as you were called to the one hope that belongs to your call...

Let’s skip down to verse 11:

But, the Church, doesn’t have a commander who is sending us over the wall or calling out orders from a walkie talkie in desperate attempts to win.

There’s something else that may seem like a given but we shouldn’t miss it.

We value BOTH inward health and outward movement because you can’t separate them. To be world changers outside of these walls we have to be unified within them. If our focus is 100% inward, we will implode and die. If our focus is 100% outward, we will burn out either at a slow fizzle or a blaze of glory.

An effective prevention of us finding hope here would be for us not to have it. A lack of hope will remove the core of our identity as a church and really just make us a pretty depressing and boring group of people.

I’d paraphrase this and say that a church devoid of hope has ceased to belong to the future. In other words, if we let go of hope, we’re not going to last long.

No Jesus, the “Lion” willingly charged straight into No Man’s Land, the place where no other person could stand. And what’s crazy is that he didn’t dodge bullets. He took them. ALL of them. Every bullet with our name on it found it’s mark on Jesus and killed him.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

What if this? What if that? How could this? I put those thoughts to rest as we frantically tried to establish where my brother could be or what could have happened.

Hope isn’t a buzzword. It’s as relevant then as it was now because at the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

He won’t allow us to hope in anything but him

Part of being the local church is building it together. The local church isn’t a spectator sport or a place for a select few to show off while others watch. No, Jesus, the head invites every part to join the work he’s doing here and actually promises that there are no insignificant parts.

All of these obstacles come together to create one thing: chaos.

What Paul is saying here is that if we all build, we will all benefit, we’ll all grow. If only some build, only some are going to benefit. And if none of us build and we all just wait for the benefits, we’re going to die.

Today I can’t cover both of these for the sake of time but want to set the stage for what we’ll share with you next week about being people sent outward on mission.

Albert Camus in “The Myth of Sisyphus and Other Essays” said it this way:

And if the story stopped there, we’d be alive but not very hopeful.

At the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

His phone was off. He didn’t report to work. He wasn’t in his apartment. His car was gone. His friends hadn’t seen him.

Even as some of you hear this invitation to “Find Hope Here” you may think that means we think hopelessness only exists out there. In here things must be cleaner and better than that.”

We can’t find hope here if we lack hope.

Have you ever felt “tossed to and fro by the waves” or “carried about by every wind of do

What does it mean to find hope here? Simply put, it means you take ownership and contribute whatever you can because we’re better together.

And then, after a random phone call to a hospital, we found him.

Not only do we have a tendency to forget hope if we’ve ever discovered it in the first place but we really don’t talk about the other side of the coin. Depression, despair, and hopelessness aren’t something we typically bring up and I think that’s a problem if we’re going to share hope with one another, with the city, and the world.

With that being said, let’s put on the lens of internal health and start into this text:]

Albert Camus said it this way:

Let’s skip down to verse 11:

“A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.”

With that being said, let’s put on the lens of internal health and start into this text:]

But there’s more. Are you ready? After Jesus fell, after he seemed to lose the fight from those fatal wounds, when hope could have been done then and there, Jesus GOT BACK UP.

11 And he gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the shepherds and teachers, 12 to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, 13 until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, 14 so that we may no longer be children, tossed to and fro by the waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by human cunning, by craftiness in deceitful schemes.

That’s how the world looks right? You don’t even have to go beyond the walls. Just open your phone and check social media or the news.

I breathed again. The darkest and most horrible day of my life most certainly was over. Or so I thought.

I’d paraphrase this and say that a church devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future. In other words, if we let go of hope, we’re not going to last long.

In May of 2016, it was Mother’s Day and also my 30th birthday. As the day ended, I realized my younger brother, Gregory, hadn’t called which was very strange since we’d always been so close. I contacted my mom and found he hadn’t called her either. Even in those early moments, my hope was beginning to slip.

What will growth look like for all of us if we all build? Well it tells us here that we’ll be trained and equipped which leads to confidence, we’ll be mature and able to remain stable in fierce trials and storms, and it will all culminate in a reputation of love and kindness toward everyone.

Finally, the last roadblock we will face is lack of growth.

Did you hear that?

“A man devoid of hope and conscious of being so has ceased to belong to the future.”

What will your growth look like here?

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our hearts.

Another term for this would be immaturity, not progressing or moving toward adulthood.

All of these obstacles come together to create one thing: chaos.

What if this? What if that? How could this? I put those thoughts to rest as we frantically tried to establish where my brother could be or what could have happened.

I’d paraphrase this and say that a church devoid of hope has ceased to belong to the future. In other words, if we let go of hope, we’re not going to last long.

Wait. Try to picture it with me. Jesus standing next to you dressed for the fight. He looks at You, eyes filled with compassion and courage and then does the unthinkable: he roars up out of the trench and onto the battlefield. [PAUSE] And then he’s hit. Once. Twice. Hundreds of time. [PAUSE] And then he falls. [PAUSE] And he dies. [LONG PAUSE] But wait...what are we even seeing? This cannot be. It’s impossible. Jesus rises! And he’s about to finish the fight once and for all!

As the details emerged, we found my brother had been in a horrible 9 car accident and had suffered the most severe form of a brain injury possible. What began as minutes turned to hours to days and months. Almost a year of life went by feeling like a huge storm that wouldn’t blow away. My hope would come back just like desperate gasps of air only to be followed by a slow drift deeper into hopelessness.

The church should look different.

Now I’m not suggesting that this will be easy.

God, would you use me now to communicate your truth in love to your people? Would you open minds that are dark and hearts that are hard and speak hope? I pray that everything that comes from my mouth that is of me will fade but that whatever comes from Your Spirit in me would resonate and encourage the deepest places of our hearts.

At the core of who we are, every person is born with hopelessness. What begins as just a seed of doubt, when ignored will grow into a troublesome weed. If it’s still not treated it will begin to consume and ensnare us completely until depression and darkness take over.

And then, in May of this year, my brother died. And so you’d think did my hope.

Church, what does that do to your hope? It should pour gas on the fire. To know that whatever the pain, that memory that’s had you by the throat just had it’s arms broken and you can breath again. That dark shadow, the dark night you’ve been in has just been pierced with blinding light. Your defeat has been swallowed in victory!

Increased calmness and stability instead of being blown and tossed. Someone once told me that maturity is when you don’t under or overreact to situations.

Have you ever felt “tossed to and fro by the waves” or “carried about by every wind of do

We can’t find hope here if we lack hope.

God, I’m boldly asking that you’d kindle a passion and genuine love for the local church and call everyone to be part of what you’re doing, either with this family or somewhere.

In the second half of our text, Paul describes what it feels like to be immature. This is how it appears in the CSB translation:

We should be growing up and out of that kind of volatility. Not as isolationists but as

His phone was off. He didn’t report to work. He wasn’t in his apartment. His car was gone. His friends hadn’t seen him.

Don’t you want that for yourself? Don’t you long to be out of the river of reactions and enter the calm waters of wisdom? To be the person that waits to speak and respond and then when you do everyone really listens?

That’s how the world looks right? You don’t even have to go beyond the walls. Just open your phone and check social media or the news.

We’ve got to stop allowing fear of real things, real hurts, real losses, real disappointments, real failures, to make us forget the hope on the horizon. We have to remember that we’re the family of God. Hope is on our family crest. Victory is coming. A new kingdom is coming where all of that goes away. And it comes because of Jesus.

“tossed by the waves and blown around by every wind of teaching, by human cunning with cleverness in the techniques of deceit.”

We surrender to what You will say to us this morning.

Our reactions and commentary on things should look and sound different than what we’re seeing on the news and social media.

And then, after a random phone call to a hospital, we found him.

In that dark place, I understood the depths of pain and sorrow that we’re up against. So many people in here have similar stories where hope was almost crushed out of them.

And as if this disease of hopelessness wasn’t enough of a hurdle, we’ve made talking about it something shameful or unworthy of our time.

If we really grasp that this is our future, then it completely changes the way we live. A hope like this on the horizon will outshine all the darkness of your past. No matter what it is. And it will become contagious as we all long to be around people with this kind of hope.

I breathed again. The darkest and most horrible day of my life most certainly was over. Or so I thought.

Finally, the last roadblock we will face is lack of growth.

“There are far too many silent sufferers. Not because they don't yearn to reach out, but because they've tried and found no one who cares.” - Richelle Goodrich, Smile Anyway

But it goes further.

If you’re in that place, that chasm of despair for whatever reason or if you can feel yourself slipping toward it, it’s ok. You’re with family. We understand.

The church should look different.

Someone once told me that maturity is when you don’t under or overreact to situations.