What if Hope is Real?

Opening Prayer

Song: here I am to worship

Mark 2:1–5 NLT

When Jesus returned to Capernaum several days later, the news spread quickly that he was back home. Soon the house where he was staying was so packed with visitors that there was no more room, even outside the door. While he was preaching God’s word to them, four men arrived carrying a paralyzed man on a mat. They couldn’t bring him to Jesus because of the crowd, so they dug a hole through the roof above his head. Then they lowered the man on his mat, right down in front of Jesus. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “My child, your sins are forgiven.”

Song: Lord, I Lift Your Name on High

Faith Statement

Song: lord I lift your name on high

Sermon: What if Hope is Real?

Learn that hope is a necessary force in our faith lives.

The Bible was written in a very different time and place than we live in today.

The newest parts of it are almost 2000 years old.

Languages were different

culture was different: people would have assumed he couldn’t walk because he had sinned.

medical science was different: people wouldn’t have wanted to even touch him.

This paralyzed man would have had a really hard time of things.

couldn’t work

people wouldn’t have wanted to be around him

Yet, his friends still had hope for him because of Jesus.

This faith, their hope moved them to keep going.

We have to keep hope in our lives because that is sometimes what keeps us going, no matter what the circumstances are.

Learn that hope can always be found and is a sign of God’s presence.

The paralyzed man’s friends had every earthly reason to give up hope.

They knew that Jesus was there. They knew, because of Jesus, that God was present with them.

Jesus was God on earth.

That is where they found hope.

Remember last night, I told you all that God is always with us, no matter where you are, no matter who you are, no matter what you do, God is with you.

Just like the paralyzed man’s friends had hope because Jesus was there, we can have hope knowing that God is with us too.

Learn hope pushes us to innovate and create new solutions to the world’s problems.

Hope is what the world needs more of!

Don’t buy into the doom and gloom.

Remember the Dodos from the movie “Ice Age”? They are so convinced that the world is going to end that they get all mean and jealous and greedy.

When we forget that God is with us and loves us and has a plan for us, we start to lose hope and. Not having hope makes us act in sinful ways.

When we remember that God is with us and loves us and has a plan for us, we are able to have world-changing hope!

Hope is what made the paralyzed man’s friends come up with the weird and creative idea to lower their friend through the roof to get him to Jesus!

When we have hope, we can think of all sorts of crazy ways to change the world for the people around us!

Learn where our hopes align with God’s hope and seek to align them further.

When our hopes match up with God’s desires for the world, cool things happen. They aren’t usually going to be as dramatic as a paralyzed man walking. Usually, they will be subtler - like comforting a friend or helping someone feel better about a hard situation. But those little ways change the world too!

We can do some testing to see if our hopes match God’s.

Scripture

Mentors/youth leaders/pastors/counselors

Think about if it helps or harms the other person or could help or harm

careful speech

reaching out to people who see alone or hurting

Last night, I encouraged you to be genuine with one another and to thank the people around you for being genuine around you. Tonight, I want you to build on that. Keep that up, because I’m loving getting to know the real yous. But also think carefully about the people around you and how you can share hope with them. It doesn’t have to be big things.

“Great job out there! Keep it up!”

Encouraging someone who is homesick

Being the best hopper you can be

Remember

Hope is what keeps us going, even when things are hard or scary.

Where we see hope, we will see God.

Where we see God, we will see hope.

Hope leads us to be world changers.

Closing Prayer

Announcements

Good Night