Nick Ferreiro -Hope Floats

What's going on Church by the Glaze, how we doing? It's good to see you, it's good to see you. For those of you that don't know if you're a guest, my name is Nick, I'm one of the pastors here at CBG and we're honored that you decided to join us this weekend at Church by the Glaze. Somebody turn to your neighbor and say, we're glad you're here, we're glad you're here. Come on single people, this is your opportunity. Look to your other neighbor and say, I'm glad you're here, I'm glad you're here, it's good to see you. It's good to see you. If you are a guest, you came at a great time because we are in the middle of a series titled Breaking Bad and the heartbeat of this series that we've been in for a few weeks now is change. That change is possible. Contrary to popular belief, no matter how old you are, how set in your ways you are, even if you feel like you can't teach this old dog new tricks, the heartbeat of this series is that transformation and change is possible because of the power that rests inside of you Christian. It's the Holy Spirit of God that enables you to transform from the inside out and change is possible. That's why every time we gather, we read this book, we open up the scriptures, the Bible, every time we gather because it has transformative power, not just in its reading, but in the applying of God's word in your life.

There is just something about applying the word of God that has this transformative effect on your habits, on your disciplines, and even on your very nature. So here's the gospel at the very beginning of the sermon. Transformation is possible in Jesus' name. That's a good place to put your hands together right there. So we've been in a series titled Breaking Bad and our prayer has been as we survey the scriptures that we could learn how to break some of these bad habits, patterns, and cycles that have been upheld in our lives. And what I've learned is that oftentimes, the cycles that we need to break are the result or a direct result of the poor decisions that we make. Whether it's a financial, that was a really strong amen over there. Oh my goodness. No, I love it. Maybe it's a financial decision or a vocational decision, something relational or emotional. Maybe it's even something spiritual, a decision that you made that has caused some bondage or some baggage in your life. But what I've also learned is that sometimes, sometimes the bad we need to break is not even something that we've caused. Sometimes it's something we encounter. Maybe it's that your parents did or didn't do something that left you marked in a negative way. Or maybe it's the fact that because of budget cuts and downsizing, you were let go from your job

and now you're in a financial bind. Or maybe somebody hurt you that was very close to you and now that relationship has been fractured. Or maybe it was a label that a coach or a teacher placed on you that has stuck with you. I don't really know what exactly it is for you, but my point is not everything that causes us harm, we cause. But just because this is the truth does not mean that we have to wave the white flag and surrender to these things without a fight. Because my belief is that God still has more in store for you, that God has greater for your life, that this is not the end of your story, that he still has freedom and victory with your name on it, but you've gotta fight back. You can't just lie down and take these things, you've gotta fight back. So that's why today I wanna take a look at an uncommon woman in the scriptures who literally shifted the trajectory of an entire nation simply because she refused to participate or remain in the negative conduct that surrounded her. Her name is Jacobed and her story is found in Exodus chapter number two. If you've got the Bible with you, a copy of the scriptures, why don't you open up to Exodus chapter number two. If you have your paper Bible with you, actually why don't you do me a favor,

wave it in the air at me. Wave your paper Bible in the air. Look at all the real Christians at Church by the Glades. I see you, I see you. I'm kidding, I'm kidding, kind of, not really. No, I'm kidding. If you don't have a paper Bible, that's okay. I'm gonna put the verses up on the screens behind me and around me so you can read along with me. Exodus chapter number two. If you're ready for the word of God, shout yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Starting in verse number one, this is the word of the Lord. Now a man from the house of Levi went and took as his wife a Levite woman. The woman conceived and bore a son and when she saw that he was a fine child, she hid him for three months. When she could hide him no longer, she took for him a basket made of bulrushes and daubed it with bitumen and pitch. She put the child in it and placed it among the reeds by the riverbank and his sister stood at a distance to know what would be done to him. Now the daughter of Pharaoh came down to bathe at the river and while her young women walked beside the river and she saw the basket among the reeds and sent her staff to go and look at it, so they took it and when she opened this basket,

she saw the child and behold, the baby was crying. She took pity on him and said, this is one of the Hebrews' children. Then his sister. said to Pharaoh's daughter shall I go and call you a nurse from the Hebrew women to nurse the child for you and Pharaoh's daughter said to her go so the girl went and called the child's mother and Pharaoh's daughter said to her take this child away and nurse him for me and I will give you your wages so the woman took the child and nursed him when the child grew older verse 10 she brought him to Pharaoh's daughter and he became her son and she named him Moses that name sound familiar to anybody Moses because she said I drew him out of the water so this woman this uncommon woman that you've probably never heard of before her name is Yaakov bed we get her name later in Exodus chapter number six she was the mother of Moses and here we see very early on Moses has a fascinating launch into life and to understand the full story we've got to take a step back and go back to the book of Genesis because what we'll learn is the the people of God they they found their way and made their way to Egypt because it was the only region in the area that had food supplies and resourcing amidst a far-reaching famine and it was all in due to the leadership in large part of this man named Joseph Joseph he was a Hebrew boy that it really kind of rose into the ranks of Egyptian power became second in command of the entire nation of Egypt and it was under his leadership that all the people of God came to Egypt and while in leadership under the leadership of Joseph the the people of God exploded they they exponentially grew and they multiplied in population and in numbers but by Exodus chapter number one Joseph passes away and all of his influence with the the office of the Pharaoh goes with him because there's a new Pharaoh that rose to power and this new Pharaoh did not remember Joseph this new Pharaoh didn't even know Joseph or the influence or impact that he had made on the nation of Egypt so when he saw the growing population of the people of God in Egypt this new Pharaoh grew increasingly insecure because he thought

to himself what if they outnumber us what if they outgrow us and try to escape from Egypt so because of this because he was so insecure he actually sought to oppress the people of God and we get how he tried to do this in Exodus chapter number one in verse 10 this is Pharaoh speaking he says come let us deal shrewdly with them lest they multiply and if war breaks out they join our enemies and fight against us and escape from the lands verse 11 that was the justification for for now verse 11 therefore they set taskmasters over them to afflict them with heavy burdens they built for Pharaoh store cities and Pithom and Ramses this if you've heard the the story of the Exodus this was how the people of God originated into Egyptian captivity for decades upon decades this is the origin of that but verse number 12 but the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and the more they spread abroad I love that I love that the more Pharaoh tried to suppress the people of God the more they grew the more the enemy tried to work against them the greater God works for them I don't know who needs to hear this but be very careful to curse the burdens and afflictions you are currently going through because they may be the very thing God wants to use to bring about the growth you've been praying for there is just something about enduring and handling suffering properly that has a multiplicative effect in your life it tends to multiply your faith it tends to multiply your capacity multiply your your strength your grits it multiplies your wisdom and life experience it multiplies your empathy it tends to multiply your perseverance and your endurance even multiplies your proximity to and dependence upon God hear me as a pastor I often get the age-old question why does God allow bad things to happen and I'll be honest with you there's not enough time left in our conversation today to unpack all of the theological principles that are embedded in the proper answering of that question and I'll be honest with you even further I'm not a hundred percent certain myself I'm not because I'm not God so I don't think like he thinks the Bible tells us his ways are higher than our ways and his thoughts are higher than ours I don't think like God does I don't know the

things that God knows we only get to see this part of the picture but God sees the end from the beginning he sees all of it he knows everything so I'm not God I don't know that but what I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt is that one of the reasons God allows suffering and bad things to happen is because he knows that suffering is producing something in you that you need for what he has for you. I'll say it this way, God produces the strength you need for what he's called you to tomorrow in the suffering of today. This is why the book of James tells us that we are to consider it pure joy when we face trials of many kinds. The Apostle Paul would say it this way, we are to glory in our sufferings because our suffering is producing something. It's producing perseverance. It's producing endurance. It's producing character. It's producing hope. Your suffering is producing something, but when all you do is curse your suffering, it tends to keep you stuck. Stuck in the why. Why God? Why did you allow this? Why did this happen? It keeps you stuck in the past. It keeps you stuck in the same mindsets. It keeps you stuck in the same even patterns and habits that you may be facing, but when you have a proper understanding and theology of suffering, you start to ask some better questions. It's not why, but what. What God should I be learning through this season of my life? What God can I glean from this hardship that I am facing? It's not just what, but it's how. How God can I lean more on you? How God can I borrow some strength from you? How God can my faith be elevated in this season of my life because your suffering should always lead you to greater levels of faith? As Christians, we were never meant to live insulated lives. Jesus even told us this. He said, you will face trials. You will face hardships of many kinds, but you can take heart because I've already overcome the world. So being a Christian, following the Lord Jesus, it does not mean that you get put into some spiritual cocoon or bubble that then keeps you out of harm's way or pain or problems. No, we were never meant to live insulated lives, but we were meant to live lives of faith, and a faith that is proven is a faith that has been tested. In other words, as the people of God, we must learn how to suffer well because

our ability to suffer well can be the very thing that our future growth and freedom is dependent on. And this may be nowhere better exemplified than in the narrative surrounding Moses' birth. Because if you continue on in the story, Pharaoh, when he realizes that this oppression, it's actually not working, he turns the evil up a notch and he declares a new edict to be obeyed effective immediately. And this is the new edict, that every baby boy born of a Hebrew mother from this day forward is to be thrown into the Nile River. And it's at this point in human history that Moses is born. Talk about suffering. Talk about a trial. I mean, he was born into an infant genocide. He was born at the worst possible time in human history for a Hebrew baby boy to be born. He was born into a circumstance and situation that did not want what's best for him. As a matter of fact, it wanted what was worst for him. But here comes Jacob, the mother of Moses. I love this so much. I love her so much because she did not just accept this edict from Pharaoh to be the death sentence for her child, but she fought back. So many of us are stuck in patterns and habits and cycles simply because we have accepted things that we were meant to fight back against. We have accepted relational dysfunction. We have accepted momentary affliction. We have accepted financial hardship to be the death sentence for our lives and dictate the direction of our future. But if that's you, this is the word of the Lord for you. Stop allowing those things to drive your destiny and start fighting back. She fought back. She fought back, the scripture tells us, by hiding her child when she should have thrown him into the Nile River for three months. Can we just humanize this story for a second? Can you imagine how difficult it must have been to hide a newborn for three months? I don't know about you, but I have a newborn and they're loud. She screams and she cries and we try and quiet her down and sometimes she's inconsolable. So for three months she hid baby Moses with keeping one eye open at night. She was probably exhausted. She was probably in fear of her life that a soldier might hear her child's cry and come and take him away from her. So for three months she hid to the best of her ability. and infants. That's crazy. And then the Bible tells us that when she could hide

him no longer, and we don't know why she couldn't hide him any longer, but she couldn't, she then built this like a little basket, if you will, and she waterproofed it and made it buoyant. And then she put baby Moses in it and sent him down along his way on the Nile River, probably praying that God would show mercy on her child. It's a heartbreaking moment for this mom, for this parent. But at just the right time, at just the right time, when when Pharaoh's daughter was bathing in the Nile River, she catches a glimpse of this basket that's floating by, and she gets one of her staff to grab the basket, and she opens it, and behold it's a baby, and the baby's crying, and her heart is moved to compassion. So she seeks to care for this child, and it was in that moment Moses's sister Miriam, who was following closely behind, because she positioned herself in the right environment and right place to seize an opportunity, and that's the word for you. Maybe you need to position yourself in the right places, in the right environment, so that when the opportunity comes, you can seize your moment and take hold of the freedom that God has for you. Miriam was in the right place at the right time, and when she saw the opportunity, she took it, and she kind of raises a question. She says, hey, I see that you have no kids of your own, and therefore are incapable of nursing this child on your own, and I also overheard you say it was a Hebrew child. Would you like me to go get a Hebrew woman to nurse this child for you? And to her surprise, Pharaoh's daughter says yes. So Miriam goes and gets Moses's mother to nurse the baby. And then in verse number nine, we get a very fascinating detail and insight into this conversation that I want to share with you. In verse number nine of Exodus chapter 2, it says that Pharaoh's daughter, when she saw Jacobed, and she said to her, take this child away and nurse him for me, and I will give you your wages. Can we just stop for a moment and enjoy the irony that Jacobed got compensated to raise her child by the very office that sought to destroy her child? Can we enjoy the irony that Jacobed got paid to do something she would have done at her own expense? Jacobed, what she would have had to do in fear, she was now able to do without fear of any repercussion freely. I mean, the

irony doesn't even stop there, because if you know the story of Moses, you know that Moses goes on to be the great deliverer and emancipator of God's people, that God would show up to him via a burning bush at 80 years old to call him to ministry, to call him to set the people of God free, and then he would march into Pharaoh's palace and demand that the people of God be let go, and he would then march out of Pharaoh's palace with two million people following behind him, walking through the split waters of the Red Sea towards the promised land that God had for them, it would provide for them, it would keep them safe. This is what Moses did. But before he did that, he was first raised in the palace of Egypt and trained and equipped like a royal because he was Pharaoh's daughter. So watch this. This is irony. Watch this. Pharaoh was so concerned about the people of God outnumbering and overtaking them and escaping from their leadership, so he sought to oppress and take them out. But the very system that Pharaoh created to take the people of God out was the very system that God used to build up the one whom would set the people of God free. This oppression from Pharaoh is ultimately what set Moses to the palace where God would compel Pharaoh to then provide lodging and resourcing and education to the very man that would accomplish what he was trying to prevent in the first place, the freedom of God's people. Who but God? Who but God can narrate a story that perfect? Who but God can take the weapon that the enemy was forming right out of his hand and defeat him with his own weapon? Nobody but my God. The enemy thought he could take you out of that depression, but little did he know he was just driving you to the arms of God and growing your dependency on him. The enemy thought that that divorce would take you out, but little did he know he was just growing a resilience inside of you, a strength inside of you for the future that he has for you. The enemy thought that that disappointment would take you out, but little did he know it was just setting you up for God to do exceedingly and abundantly more than you could ever ask of, dream, or imagine. Do not discount the days of your suffering. Your suffering is producing something. It's producing something.

in you and in your life, not just for your benefit, but for the benefit of those around you. And I want to make myself loud and clear. I am not saying your suffering isn't or won't be painful. No, I know it's painful. I know it's heartbreaking. I know it's gut-wrenching and I know it keeps you up at night. I get it. I am simply suggesting don't allow that pain to pilot your life. Allow God to direct that pain into the right place. If we can learn anything from Yacobed's example, because she surely experienced pain. She did. Let's not over-spiritualize the story. She experienced the pain of not knowing what would come of her child. She experienced the pain of having to let him go, watch him float down the Nile River with the possibility of never seeing him again. And then she had to let him go a second time and watch as another woman who did not have his best interest in mind raise her child. And I don't know about you, but as a parent that messes with me. That messes with me because I think about my own kids and I can't speak to any other moms, but my wife Stacy, she is acutely aware of how fleeting time really is as it pertains to our children. And our kids right now, they're at really fun ages. They're at five and three. And like I said, we have a newborn, which all that really means is my kids talk a lot. Like they talk a lot, for real. But they also haven't quite nailed talking just yet. So like you could offer them dinner and my kids will be like, thank you so much, because you can get them spaghetti. And they'll be like, thank you so much for the paschetti. My daughter, specifically Everly, she goes to school here at GCA, which by the way, it's a great Christian school. It's not simply daycare. They're actually teaching them about Jesus. They're teaching about the Word of God. My son Avery, at four years old, knows about Jesus and can read already. So this school is amazing. So you should sign your kids up if you don't have a Christian school already. Anyways, my daughter, she comes home from school and she talks about her two favorite teachers, Miss Vivian and Miss Susan. And she'll come home saying how much fun she had with Miss Vivian and Miss Susan. She sounds like a 50-year-old Hispanic woman that learned English as her second language. And I'll hear this and I'll be

like, oh my gosh, that's so cute. Do you want to go play in the backyard? Like as a dad, it's just right over my head. But my wife, on the other hand, she's like, what if this is the last time she says paschetti? What if this is the last time she says Miss Vivian? I'm like, I wasn't thinking about that. But now I am and I'm depressed. Thanks a lot, babe. Appreciate it. But she's right. She's right. Our kids, they grow up. And they start to make decisions for themselves. They start to think for themselves. They start to do and have their own lives. And this passage of Scripture is a reminder to me that we don't get to keep our kids in our home forever. Despite preserving her child, she still had to give baby Moses back to Pharaoh's daughter so that he could be trained and equipped in the ways of Egyptian pagan education. But it was this time that she spent with Moses in the early informative years of his life that ultimately set the course and direction of his life. And I want you to hear me. I don't know what was taught. I don't know what she taught him. I don't know what she said, but I can almost guarantee you she taught him in the ways of God. She taught him that despite his future adoption into the palace of Egypt, that he was a child of God. And that this God and this God alone was to be worshipped. That only this God can bring fulfillment. That only this God can bring peace. That only this God can bring joy. That only this God can bring purpose. That only this God can bring true satisfaction. That only this God can fill that hole in your heart that you've been missing. That only this God loves you. And that this God's desire for your life is freedom. You see, she did not have forever with Moses, but she did have influence with Moses. And she used her influence to instruct him in the ways of God so much so that his testimony became one that would reject the pleasures and powers of the palace so that he could step into the plans and purposes of God. And we know this because famously known as the Hall of Faith, Hebrews chapter 11 actually depicts many different biblical characters and how they operated by faith. And Moses is one of those examples. In verse number 24 it tells us that by faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh's daughter. He chose instead to be mistreated along with the people of

God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He regarded disgrace for the sake of Christ as of greater value than the treasures of Egypt because he was looking ahead to... A real reward, hear me, Moses, because he was raised like a royal, could have been a dictator, but because of his mother's influence, he was a deliverer. And this same influential power rests in our hands, parents. We don't get forever with our kids. They eventually go off to universities, they start to join the workforce, they start to build their own families, they start to think and act like their own individuals. So while they are still under our tutelage, let us do what the book of Proverbs instructs us to do, to train up a child in the way that they should go so that even when they are old, they will not turn from it. This is the promise of scripture. This is why you need to cover your kids in consistent prayer. To saturate them with the word of God, in the house of God, surrounded by the people of God. Because at some point in their life, they will be surrounded by people that do not think like or believe like they do, and that's a good thing. But trust me, it's not if the pressure to conform will come, it's when the pressure to conform will come. Temptations will arise, and pressure is coming their way, but let their testimony be because of your influence, the testimony of Moses, that they would rather follow and listen to the ways of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin, because they are not after some earthly satisfaction, they are after an eternal reward, and that reward is to hear, well done, my good and faithful servant, enter into your father's rest. Parents, moms, dads, don't discount investing into your children. It's not a minor thing, it's the main thing. That's why here at Church by the Glades, we are passionate about creating a space for your children, for whatever age group they're in, to find their home here in the house of God.

That's why we're passionate about all these ministries that we have, like kids ministry and student ministry and young adult ministry, and we have a lot of different things going on over the summer for all these ministries. We have a camp called Kids Nights for our elementary age students, and this is, it's not just daycare, by the way, seriously, my son went last year and he came home talking about Jesus in ways that I never taught him, and I was so grateful as his father, not a pastor, as his father, to know that my son was learning about the Lord in a fun and safe environment. It's a great place for your kids to go for summer. For our middle and high school students, same thing, it's called United Nights, four nights of powerful worship and great preaching and fun environments, community building. It's incredible. It's the best thing they could be doing all summer long. They got nothing going on, so they could just get themselves into a bunch of trouble, might as well send them to the house of God where they can be safe and have fun. And then, of course, Rally Loud for 18 to 30 year olds. What I'm trying to say is we have all this stuff for you, and I'm not going to sit here and try and tell you how to parent your kids, because the truth is, I don't know how to parent my own kids. But what I will say is the one thing that I know that I have done well is I have raised my kids in the house of God. It's the most important thing I've done. So after service, go to the lobby, sign your children up for Kids Night, sign them up for United Nights, inquire about Rally and Rally Loud. It could literally be the catalyst that transforms and shifts the trajectory of their life in ways you never thought possible, and you will begin to see the Holy Spirit's work of doing exceedingly and abundantly more than you thought possible in your kid's life, simply because you trained up a child in the way that they should go, that they will never depart from it. That's a good place to put your hands together right there.

But as I, as a parent, survey the actions and movements of Yaakobed, I just can't help but notice all the things that she did. The hiding of her child for three months during infancy, a stage that would have been very difficult to do this. The then building, the laborious task of building this basket, the making of its waterproof nature and its buoyant nature. The then subsequent strategic placement of Moses in that section of the river where he knew that Pharaoh's daughter would be bathing. The then instructing of her daughter to go follow closely behind to see what would come of baby Moses. Then the giving back of Moses after years of nurturing and raising him when she could have just found a way to escape Egypt and keep her child in her custody forever. All of these movements, all of these actions show me just how much hope she really had. Oh, make no mistake. This is the origin story. of Moses, yes, but this is also the story of Jacobus hope. She would have never acted in this way had she not had hope. I mean she preserved her child's life during an infant genocide because she had hope. She rejected and did not accept the edict of Pharaoh to be the death sentence for her child because she had hope. And she ended up nurturing and raising the deliverer of God's people because she had hope. Hope that this was not the end of the story. Hope that God still had a plan for her child. Hope that God would still somehow bring about the freedom that he had promised them long long ago. And my understanding is that so many of us we have just accepted things that we are currently in the middle of as our death sentence. We're stuck. We just can't seem to find our way out of the rut that we are in and I think it's all because we've lost our hope. Which is why my prayer for you today is that you would get your hope back. Because hope is something powerful. Hope is how you fight back against the enemy's attack and I'll prove it to you. If you have hope that no matter how difficult your marriage has been up until this point that you could still come out the other side stronger

you'll start to fight for your marriage differently. If you have hope that no matter how far your children have veered off the path that God still has a plan for them you'll start to pray for them differently. If you have hope that no matter how difficult your financial situation is that God will still somehow some way provide for you. You'll stop being so anxious and you'll start simply anticipating how he'll show up for you. But here's the catch. If all you ever do is hope and your hope never turns into action it's simply wishful thinking. Your hope must lead to your movements. You see, Yacobed, she had hope that God would preserve her child and guess what? He did. After she went through extensive effort to protect the hope that God had given her. And it is entirely likely had Yacobed not acted on her hope and simply hoped that God would help that she would have ended up having to throw Moses into the Nile River along with every infant boy of that day and age. Your hope must lead to action. I'll say it this way. Hope is simply expressed through your perception, your belief system. But faith, faith is expressed through action. You cannot have faith without hope but you can have hope without faith. Do not allow your hope to go to waste simply because you never worked it. Allow your hope to produce faith because faith is the assurance of things hoped for and the confidence in things that we have not yet seen. Yacobed's hope was a belief that God still had a plan for her child but her faith was found in the hiding of her son and the building of this basket. And if her hope was strong enough to lead her to such extensive action, how much greater should our hope lead us to even greater action? Because the hope that we have today far surpasses the hope of Yacobed. The hope is not, the hope we have today is not simply situational. It's not simply circumstantial. The hope we have, it's eternal. It's an eternal hope. It's a hope that is an anchor for our soul. It's a hope that is firm and secure. It's a hope that stabilizes us amidst the fragility of life and can I tell you this hope has a name. His name is Jesus Christ, the author and perfecter of our faith, the cherished majestic Son of God, the one who is the Alpha and the Omega, the one who is the Prince of Peace, the one

who knows the end from the beginning. It's Jesus and in Jesus we have an eternal hope that no difficult seas or unfortunate circumstance could ever take from us. It's the hope that one day every tear will be wiped away from our eyes. It's the hope of no more sorrow, no more death, no more tears, no more weeping. It's the hope that brings meaning and purpose to our life here on earth. It's the hope of abundant life and eternal life. It's the hope that all of our sin will be completely forgiven. It's the hope of complete and total and holistic healing. It's the hope that when we take our last breath here on this earth that it's not the end of our story, that it is simply just the beginning because the hope we have is the hope of glory, the hope of eternity with our Father in heaven. It's the hope of heaven one day where we get to say holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy, holy. holy is the Lord God Almighty and the hope we have is because of Christ hope hope kept Moses floating in the very river he was supposed to drown in and I believe hope will keep you floating too you've got to get your hope back you've got to get your hope back fight for your hope protects your hope at by all possible means keep your hope but then turn that hope into faith because hope can't save you only faith can save you it is by the grace of God through your faith in Jesus Christ that saves you what does the scripture say in in Romans 10 9 it says that if you were to confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord that that word Lord has implications it's not simply believing that God exists that's not enough the the the the word Lord implies a surrendering of your life by faith to the obedience and command of Christ to follow him fully every day of your life even when you disagree to surrender to the Lordship of Jesus and to believe in your heart God raised him from the dead and the promise of scripture is that you will be saved let your hope produce faith because when your faith and hope are rooted firmly in the person of Jesus the scripture promises that this hope will never put you to shame it will never let you down it will always live up to the promise get your hope back fight for your hope keep your hope and trust in the Lord Jesus father we bless you thank you thank you for the hope we have in your name thank you for who you are thank you

for what you've done thank you that we are not our own that we were bought with a price that by faith if we were to accept the free gift of your grace that we could inherit eternal life and inherit peace and inherit joy and inherit purpose that brings meaning to our life so Lord help us to hope again help us to believe again help us to see that this is not the end of our story that you are still working on us that you're still working on the details of our life and God let that hope produce faith that we might act in such a way that is consistent with what we believe in what we hope and as we act in faith Lord I ask that you'd bless us that you'd favor us and that you'd not just work for our good but for your glory we love you Lord it's in Jesus mighty name we pray as the church said loudly together