We Already Know How This Ends | Pastor Eric Morris

I want you to feel encouraged. I want you to feel hopeful. I want you to know that God is still working in your story. Our mission here at Victory City is to help every person take a step closer to Jesus. And can I tell you, man, as you're growing in the Lord, you're taking a step. So let's lean in. Let's see what God has for us this week. And I know you'll be blessed for it. And I love you. Man, what a great Sunday. Let us greet Bartlett Innovation Union. And then, God, we love you. So good. So good. I'm glad you're joining us. Okay. So we are in the Book of Acts. And today I just feel like I get to encourage you. I'm going to do something a little different because we've been in the Book of Acts since after Easter. And I think it's really important for us to pause and kind of do like a summary, like a catch-up, but we are going to be in Acts chapter 10. And I feel like, man, I get to just, I get to help a lot of hurting people today. And I know there's a lot of people in here that are wounded, that are broken, that are hurting because, oh, you kicked the field goal. And it's just like, oh, yeah, you got your Oklahoma Jersey on. Somebody helped Trent secure it and get him out. But we are going to be sharing in communion later today. So make sure you have your communion cups ready. And just a little caveat on communion. Communion is only for the believer. So if you're not a believer in Jesus, man, we're so glad you're here. Number one, amazing. Love that. But when the time for communion comes, please refrain. Unless, of course, you want to receive Christ, then you can share in the Lord's Supper. Amen? Okay. So I want to talk about hope. Does anybody ever feel like it's really difficult in today's world to be hopeful?

I mean, try it again. Does anybody ever feel like it's really challenging and difficult to remain hopeful in today's world? Can I see your hand? Yeah. You know, you think about hope and the term hope. What does that mean? And with everything that we're seeing, I mean, you know, like how many of you guys have gotten like 17,000 political texts? You know, James Alarico, Ken Paxton. Well, here's the thing, man. I don't like either of them, but I know God's not non-binary. And then you see wars. Yeah, thank you. He's not, he refers to himself as a father. But it's just like, man, you see the world, you see war, you see the economy, you see all, I mean, you're sometimes your algorithm can be fooled with doom-scrolling and problems and challenges and difficulties and all the things. And it can kind of really start to weigh on you. Anybody ever feel that? Like, it's just weighing on me. And then we use this term called hope. And the thing is, that hope feels really fragile and thin because of how we use hope. So we use hope more like wishful thinking, like the circumstances are aligning, and I'm hopeful. Like this Saturday, you were hopeful that the Longhorns were going to win, and then you're hopeful that your fantasy football team will do okay. You're hopeful that the Cowboys are actually going to be good this year. And then your hope is just dashed. You're hopeful that the job will work out. You're hopeful to buy a house. You're hopeful to have a kid. You're hopeful to finally meet your spouse in the church lobby instead of Tinder. That's what I'm praying for. And Jesus' name, marriage is to come out of church lobby. So praise God, Ryan Kane in Jesus' name, I'm believing for you to get married. Love you, dog. I'm just happy. I'm leaving this church. And then in the scripture, I want to go to Acts chapter 2 this morning just to kind of set us up.

Acts chapter 2 says this thing that caught me as I was studying. So in Acts chapter 2 verse 26, Peter in his message is actually preaching, and he's using a quote from the Psalms, and I want you to see this. Therefore my heart was glad, my tongue rejoiced, and then this thing right here, my flesh will also dwell in hope. My flesh will dwell in hope. is language of my flesh. Okay, so it's not just my mind and my spirit, my body like the actual flesh and blood, the thing that is weak, uses this language, will dwell, will live, will reside. I'm going to make my home in hope. So Peter is already through the psalm of David, naming something that many of us find fleeting. If we, if our circumstances are right, then we're hopeful. If certain things are going our way, then we're hopeful. But Peter names something here quoting a psalm of David. My flesh will also dwell. That's what I want at the end of today's message is to realize, for you to realize, that if you are in Christ Jesus, if you have, if Christ is taken up residence in your heart, if Christ lives in you, lean in with me, then you can dwell in hope. In hope, and a hope that's eternal, a hope that can't be robbed, a hope that no matter what the circumstance shows, man, in Jesus' name, I can live in hope. Do I have anybody here that on Monday morning, you want to wake up with hope on Tuesday with hope, right? Every week, God, I want to dwell in hope in Jesus' name. I've titled today's message that we, we already know how this ends. We already know how this ends. Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, I pray in Jesus' name that God does struggling with hope and unshakable. Father, a hope that God is a foundation to our soul. God, not just a theory, God, not just circumstantial, God, not just a fleeting moment, but Father, let us dwell in hope. As we look at your scripture, as we see the work of the Spirit, Father, let us dwell in hope. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Okay, so I'm going to, I'm going to walk us through a little bit. So I'm going to give a little bit of summary, and then I'm going to go to Acts 10, and I'm not going to do a real deep dive on Acts 10, because it's 48 verses. And I don't have the time to do that. But I want to start in Acts chapter one, and they're going to throw it on the screen, and I want to show you an arc. So we've gone through 10, this is now our 10th chapter of the book of Acts, and my hope and prayer is that you have really, the series has really fed your soul that you've seen the scripture come alive, you've been strengthened, because my main

priority is to feed you, and I really want to nourish your soul as members of Victory City Church. As your pastor, I really want to kind of encourage you through the scripture, and so I hope that, man, you've got to know the word a little bit better in this, and you're not just reading the narrative, but you're also understanding what's going underneath. So at the very beginning, I want you to see this. So Jesus just died, there's only a handful of disciples, and Jesus makes this promise. This is Jesus speaking, and he's using declarative statements. He's saying, but you will. Not you maybe, not you might. He's making a declarative statement. You will receive the power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and then right here it goes, and you will be my what my witness is, and then Jesus names the spot. He goes in Jerusalem, in Judea, and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. So let's just pause here for a second, and just name the bold claim that Jesus makes. He's telling 120 Jewish people what I'm about to do through you is not just going to be in Jerusalem, but it's going to be in Judea, and it's going to go to the ends of the earth. And Jesus is naming this. He's Babe Ruthing this, guys. How many of you guys know the story of Babe Ruth, right? He calls his shot, then the pitch comes, and he hits it out. Jesus here is calling his shot. He's going this 120 people, this small little ragtag group of fishermen, these little people who were afraid, these little nobodies in the middle of Jerusalem, you're so under-resourced, you're under-staffed, you're like nobody's a part of the aristocracy. Nobody has political power. You guys are a bunch of outcasts. What I'm going to do in you through the power of the Holy Spirit is you're going to be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and also marry into the ends of the earth. So let me summarize just for a little bit. So let's just name a few things. Number one, then Peter and John begin to witness I'm not going to spend a long time here, but I want to just build this until we get to Acts 10. 'Cause I want to show you what the Holy Spirit is doing. So the Holy Spirit is operating and He fills them with power. And then right after that, Peter and John start preaching and on this Acts chapter two, the very first sermon, 3000 people come to Jesus. Was that because Peter was a really good preacher?

No, man, it was because the Holy Spirit was operating. Then in Jerusalem, they start preaching in the temple and what ends up happening? They're persecuted, they're beaten, they're thrown in prison. Circumstantially, you would go, whoo, this doesn't look very helpful. But what ends up happening? Thousands of people were added to the kingdom of God. Okay, that's kind of interesting. Circumstantially, it looks negative, but yet the kingdom of God is starting to advance, right? In Jerusalem, and then you see Philip, Philip goes up to Samaria and you see revival happening in Samaria. And it says, thousands of people in Samaria come to Jesus. You can go to Acts chapter eight for that. Then you see Stephen, again, what happens to Stephen, Stephen stoned. Again, circumstantially, not very hopeful. But because of the persecution of Stephen, the church scatters and when the church scatters, it's like seed being thrown into the wind and wherever that seed lands, I mean, you guys know it starts to become fruitful. Again, circumstantially, not a lot of hope. And I'm wanting you to see something here before I move on and show. Can I tell you that your circumstances cannot look hopeful, but the kingdom of God continues to advance?

Which do you care about most? All right. Because if you care about your circumstances more than the kingdom of God, you're not gonna have a lot of hope. Your hope is gonna be up and down depending on the stock market. Your hope is gonna be up and down depending on who's in the political office. Your hope is gonna be up and down depending on Archie Manning, whether he just doesn't throw an interception, dude. (congregation laughing) He's not him. So then what happens? Stephen's persecuted, church advances, kingdom of God moves forward. And I said last week, and I wanna say it again, that evangelism is joining the conversation that Jesus is already happening. And so eight, nine and 10 in the book of Acts are three pivotal conversions that the historical narrative reveals to us to show us something. Philip does not know who the Ethiopian eunuch is. Philip only responds to the Holy Spirit orchestrating and navigating and tells Philip, I need you to go to this dangerous place and I need you to go there because you're gonna meet somebody.

They're gonna be searching for Jesus and guess what happens? Kingdom of God advances. Not only that, the very next chapter, the enemy of the church, Saul, we talked about it last week. I don't need to spend a lot of time here, but I wanna reiterate for those of you who used one of your skips. How many of you guys used the skip last week? Yeah, cool, you got 13 of them. (congregation laughing) Give God a ear. So again, the enemy of the church, what does Jesus do? Jesus shows up to him. And again, let's name something here. The Holy Spirit can take the biggest enemy of the church, transform them into the biggest missionary of the church. Whoa, that's a lot of reason to be helpful. Man, if Jesus can take the biggest enemy of the church and convert them into the greatest evangelist and missionary of the church, man. The Holy Spirit is operating, amen? So I want you to see this. The Holy Spirit operates, circumstances don't look good, Kingdom of God moves forward. Holy Spirit operates, circumstances look dangerous and scary, Kingdom of God moves forward. Now in Acts chapter 10, let's go there. Acts chapter 10 is the final

of one of these pivotal conversion stories. And it's probably one of the most important because in this chapter, you see the Gentiles are filled with the Holy Spirit. So let's, I'm gonna walk through, I'm gonna paraphrase the text for a little bit because I know that you guys are such good Bible scholars that you will spend this afternoon doing a deep dive into Acts chapter 10, amen? You're like, yes. So at Caesarea, there was a man named Cornelius. That's how the passage opens up. A centurion of what was known as the Italian cohort. So here's an Italian centurion in Caesarea. Caesarea was the capital of Roman power in the province of Judea. So it's literally named after Caesar, Caesarea. and shows him there's a man named Peter in Japa that I need you to go get. No one talked to the Centurion in Cornelius, the Holy Spirit was operating, gets a message to this man who was an Italian Centurion, so he has no context of biblical understanding. He didn't grow up with the prophets, he didn't grow up with Moses and Abraham, he grew up with Roman gods, Roman culture, and God has the ability to give him a vision and goes, hey, there's a man named Peter in Japa, look at the Holy Spirit operating. And then Peter is in Japa and four days later, Peter's on the roof and he gets a vision from God and it's a sheet with all different types of animals going up and down because the Scripture says that Peter was hungry and it's showing something and Peter's like, I'm not going to eat that, those are unclean because of the Jewish law, I'm not going to go into that, you can study it later. In the minute Peter wakes up from that trance, there's a knock at the door, I need to show you this again, look at the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit is coordinating this, the Holy

Spirit is operating this, the Holy Spirit is making a way, Peter is not the one orchestrating, Peter did not send Cornelius attacks and say, hey, let's get together, the Holy Spirit is moving and operating in this, and then Peter goes with this centurion, which was again unlawful, dangerous, so now we've seen that the Holy Spirit, we've seen multiple times, the Holy Spirit when he calls you is usually not going to call you into comfort and safety. It's going to be scary, it's going to be dangerous, there's going to be moments where you risk your reputation, there's going to be moments where you risk your livelihood, there's going to be moments where maybe the Lord is going to ask you to take up a stand in your workplace and you're terrified that if you take up a stand for Jesus in your workplace that you may be let go, will you do that? I don't know, there's going to be moments with different friend groups where the Lord is going to go, will you take a stand and will you be a witness for me? You have a God, they're no longer my friends anymore, that's what you risk, that's the cost to following Jesus, but it's also the joy, now lean in here. So Peter goes to Caesarea, I need to probably spend a little bit of here and I want you to show you the powerful irony and the sense of humor, this is me reading into the text, of the Holy Spirit, he's taking Peter to a city named after Caesar that's going to witness to a Roman centurion, the very same political machinery that killed Jesus, now Peter is in the capital of the area about to preach the name of Jesus, come on somebody. The Holy Spirit can work it, so he's just shown you I can take your biggest Jewish enemy and convert them into a missionary and now what I'm going to do is I'm going to take the very machinery that killed Jesus and I'm about to preach the gospel to them. So it picks up in Acts chapter 10 verse 34, and so Peter opened his mouth and said truly I understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right and acceptable to him, Peter is naming something, he's preaching something, Peter's vision has revealed something to him, ah man the good news of Jesus is not just for the Jewish nation, it's for every tongue, every tribe, every nation, come on do I have anybody in the house today that's not Jewish, let me see your hands, you are a product of this movement right here, you have been grafted into the family of God, this is the Holy Spirit again working, he's going I'm showing you that the kingdom of

God is bigger than any one nation, Israel served a purpose for a season, but now that Jesus has come the door is wide open, I think we live in a world that has no problem preaching to us about inclusion, inclusion, inclusion, inclusion, inclusion, and so for me to preach this idea of like hey man everybody's welcome to Jesus it would kind of feel like preaching to the choir, because none of you are going like no I don't think that Texans should You're like, that's dumb. Packer's fans, maybe. But love you, dog. Call him Smith. He's in Texas, but he's a packer's fan, whatever. He's worshiping false gods. Just having fun. Like, none of us would go-- people from India don't belong to the church. You would go, that's stupid. Because we understand inclusion. But I want you to show you the distinction in this passage that hits our modernity in the nose. And that's this right here when it says, but every nation, anyone, ah, now there's a qualification. So every nation is welcome. It's like saying this. The palace is open, but there's still somebody on the throne. And it says this, every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right, is acceptable to him. So Jesus is making a qualifying statement here through Peter. He's saying, everybody's welcome. I don't care if you're a Republican.

I don't care if you're Democrat. I don't care if you're straight or gay. I don't care if you're white or black. I don't care whether you're a citizen or an immigrant. Everybody's welcome. We have no problem with that. We have a problem with the next passage. But you've got to fear him and do what is right. We live in a culture in a society that wants to adjust the words of Jesus to fit their ideology. [INAUDIBLE] We want to twist the words of scripture to force inclusion. And Jesus is going, I've already included you. I've already included you. But here's the thing. Everybody, you've got to fear me. And you've got to do what is right. Fear is an Old Testament terminology to say this. You must obey the commands of the Lord. And here's what we want in our modern society. We want all of it at the same time. And anytime God puts a boundary, we go, oh, that is just so unfair. I'm sorry. You see, for this Roman centurion to name Jesus as Lord-- that's really important. He was named as Lord. This is really important.

Because Caesar, whom he swore allegiance to, was not just considered a political power, but Caesar in the Roman custom was considered a divine power. They thought the Caesars were both man and God, and therefore they needed to be worshipped. And they used the term that Caesar was kyrios, which is to mean Lord. So when this Roman centurion comes to Jesus, the gospel of Jesus is actually telling him, hey, there's good news for you. You are welcomed into the family of God. But here's the thing. Your ticket is you have to name Jesus as Lord. Under preacher one time, say this. If Jesus is not Lord of all, he is not Lord at all. [INTERPOSING VOICES] And so we're in our life, church-- let me just preach for just a minute. We're in our life is there greater allegiance to either things or ideologies rather than Jesus. Jesus, you're Lord of my life, but not my money. [CHUCKLES] Jesus, you're Lord of my life, but not my sexual attractions. Jesus, you're Lord of my life, but not my identity. Jesus, you're Lord of my life, but not my time. Jesus, you're Lord of my life, but not my mouth. Jesus, you're Lord of my life, but not my music choices. Jesus, you're Lord of my life. You see, and here's the qualifying statement. And I love it.

And we love it, and come on, I could preach. No matter whether you're white, black, brown, yellow, everybody's welcome in the kingdom of God. And all of you would go, oh, yes, it's so good. But you've got to name him Lord. [INTERPOSING VOICES] You've got to do what is right according to the Scriptures. Whoo! I want to do that. So rather than name Lord, what we do is we adjust his Scriptures. And here's the beauty of Jesus. All of us are sinful. It's not like the Lord upstairs is going, that's an S-tier sin. I'm going to wear my game or is that right? How do we tier the sins? That's a C-tier sin. It's a D-tier-- oh, you gossip. That's a baby sin. The Lord goes, man, all of us are sinful. All of us are in need of Savior. All of us are broken. And when you come to the Lord and you go, God, make me in your image. My opinion no longer matters. I am in the palace, but you are still on the throne in Jesus' name. This is the declaration of the truth of the gospel. Everybody can be saved, but you've got to bend the knee. And I want you to see something.

Again, the Holy Spirit keeps operating. The Holy Spirit keeps moving. The Holy Spirit keeps functioning. And I love this because-- This is how amazing God is in his kingdom. 'Cause this is just a little centurion that gets saved and then it says the Holy Spirit fell upon his family. And the kingdom of God works very interestingly. In fact, in Luke chapter 13, I wanna show you something that's pretty powerful and why you can have hope today. Not hoping the economy, not hoping your money, not hoping your health, not hoping your good looks 'cause those are fading unless you use Botox. I wanna show you something here. I haven't used Botox, I'm considering it. Kidding, Botox. I wanna show you something, Luke 13. Stick to your notes, Eric. Yes, my wife is like, yes. Just let me get prophetic. Okay, so Luke 13 shows us something. Again, now Luke and Acts are the same author. And he goes this, again, Jesus is speaking and he's going, again, he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom of God?" Okay, pause, leave that up there. Jesus says this, "Seek first the what?" - Amen, amen, amen, amen. - Gee, come on, 9.30, your extra saved. It's the 12.30, I'm praying for it.

Seek first what? - Amen. - And then what? And his righteousness and then what? - All else. - All else will be, so here's the thing. Some of you care more about your career than the kingdom of God, that's a free one. Okay, again, he said, "To what shall I compare the kingdom, "the kingdom of God that he's establishing." We've talked about this in this Luke series. Go to the next verse. He uses this and he goes, "It's like 11 "that a woman took out and hid "in three measures of flower until it was all." So none of us really use 11. But how many, how many trad wives that do sourdough do I have in the house? Love it, okay, you do sourdough? Okay, are you like good at sourdough? Do you like do rosemary? Your husband says, yeah. You do like a little rosemary, yeah? A little asiago, do you do it all? Okay, what's the most recent loaf you've baked? This week? Hellop, oh, bless it in Jesus name. Okay, do you have a starter? Now a starter is just a little bit of fermentation, correct? Do I understand that?

Okay, and if I take a little bit of starter, that fermentation, and then I put it in a big thing of dough, does that fermentation then permeate the rest of the dough? Sure, someone being blessed here, okay. (audience laughs) About how much starter do I need to permeate a normal size? - Like a table. - So, like this much, a little dabble do you? (audience laughs) So just a little bit, thank you for playing along. I want you to see the kingdom of God. The Holy Spirit sends Peter to a Roman centurion in Italian cohort in the Roman province capital of Caesarea, and then 20 years later, Paul goes to Rome and there already churches in Rome. I need you to see this. The kingdom of God does not often come loud. The kingdom of God does not often come in numerical advantages. The kingdom of God is like a little bit of starter that if I just put it in a city, if I just put it in a family, come on, if I just put it in a church, come on, if I just put it in a country, if I just put a little bit of people with the spirit of God and the kingdom of God, I don't need a new miracle advantage. All I need is a little leaven. All I need is a little believer who are filled with the Holy Spirit

and can walk into any city, any country, any town, any business, any university, and I can take a little bit. I can take a little bit and it'll permeate the whole thing. This is why we can have hope. (audience applauds) I thought you were, man, I thought it was gonna hit. (audience laughs) This is why we can have hope. Philip had no idea about the Ethiopian unit. Ananias had no idea what God did or solved. Cornelius had no idea who Peter was. Here's the thing, God is in control. Was there hard times? Yep. Did people die? Yep. Was there suffering? Yep. But each time did the kingdom of God still advance. Now let me help you for a second. Let me pass to you for a second. is 'cause we've got a feat in each camp. We've got the kingdoms of the earth and the kingdom of heaven. And we're living for both. And any time things get rattled in the kingdom of earth is when we get upset. But the scriptures show us something here that the kingdom of God continues to advance,

advance, advance, advance. What can you do? How can you threaten a people group who know how the story ends? Take my money. All right. Paul said I've learned to be rich and poor. Take my health. I don't want to lose my health. But if you take my health, okay, I know how the story ends. Take my friends. Okay, I don't, I'm not like asking for my, for my friends to leave me, but I know how this ends. Take my life. Okay. I know how it ends. John, in the Edwards of famous American preacher, used to say stamp eternity on our eyeballs. The reason many of us struggle with hope is because we do not see that the kingdom of God advances no matter the circumstances. And then the fullness of the kingdom of God, we will be at home with him, be restored with him, and live in eternity with him. You see, we lose hope when we only live for this age. Politics are going to politic. Economies are going to economy. Wars are going to happen. We live in an age of ethical entropy.

It's decay. Come on, where are my boomers at? Have they seen the world get better or worse? Worse. Kingdom of God advances. Let me show you here. Who in this room, being bold enough to say, have begun to follow Jesus in the last year? Can I see your hand? Kingdom of God advance. Kingdom of God advance. Kingdom of God advance. Kingdom of God advance. Kingdom of God advance. Kingdom of God advance. Kingdom of God advance. Is the world getting better? No, but are their lives getting better? Yep. That's why at the very end of the book of Acts, Paul writes, or Luke writes these words about the Apostle Paul. Also, Paul is in a prison in Rome. It says in verse 30, Acts chapter 28, verse 30 says, he lived there two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came. My friends, Alex and Alyssa and Lewis and Desiree were just in Rome last week. Alex texts me, he goes, I went to his prison. He goes, I had a moment there. And verse 31 says this,

proclaiming the Kingdom of God and teaching about Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ. Look what it says, the last words of the book of Acts says with all boldness and what? Without hindrance. Paul, you were in prison, I know. But the Kingdom of God is not hindrance. Paul, you're gonna die. I know. But the Kingdom of God advances. Paul, don't you realize you're getting persecuted? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, but I don't have any hindrance. Paul, are you crazy? No. I just lived for a different reality. Revelation 21 says there will come a day when no weeping, no pain, no suffering, no sickness will exist. Church, can I just help you for a second? Can I give you hope? 'Cause our hope is not found in this life. Our hope is found in a man named Jesus who called his shot. Again, what we're supposed to see from the book of Acts these past ones is again, what did Jesus say in chapter one verse eight? He goes, you'll be my witnesses. You'll receive power in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, and to the ends of the earth. Acts chapter 10 is going,

I'm getting ready for the ends of the earth. In a matter of weeks. And I know that you would look and you'd go, well, my money's not right and my health's not right, my relationship status is not right. And I'm like, cool, man, if that's what you wanna put your hope in, man. Up and down, left and right. But if I put my hope in a man named Jesus who walked out of a grave three days later after he said he was gonna do it, showed up to people, and then the kingdom of God has been advancing? [MUSIC PLAYING] The spirit of God is still operating. I can have hope. My hope is not based in a circumstance. My hope is based in a man. And can I tell you that I will be able to dwell in my flesh in hope? Why? Because that man lives in me. Amen. So if you struggle with hope today, evaluate what you're putting your hope in. It's my hope in my money. Is it my hope in my career? Is it my hope in my status? Is it my hope in my health? Your hope is probably in your health when you're like 28. Get 68 and all of a sudden you'll be like, ugh. What's my hope in?

This morning, I want to share in communion with you. And I'm going to tell you why. To pull it out, let's go ahead and prepare it. Start tearing off the stuff. So in the middle of like a spiritual moment, I don't hear a bunch of rappers. I was having a conversation last night with Chad GPT about Islam and Christianity. You ought to see some of my chats. I go deep theologically. I said, Chad, if you were to pick a religion solely around human flourishing, which religion gives the best opportunity for human flourishing, and I said, Christianity went down all these lists of why we began to have this philosophical debate about why. And then Chad said something, he goes, the thing Christianity rests upon is whether Jesus really did die and come back. And isn't it funny that Jesus doesn't tell you to remember His miracles? Jesus doesn't tell you to remember His teachings? What's the thing that Jesus to the Last Supper tells you to remember? His death, burial, and resurrection. How you and I have hope is to put our faith that the man really did die on the cross for our sins. Walk out of that grave three days later and is now sitting on the throne of heaven, waiting for us the fullness of time to receive us, and one day I will stare into the eyes of my Savior. That hope is unshakeable. So we stand with me. Let's hold our bread in the air if you are a believer. Father, we thank you for your body that was broken. For us, Father, we thank you for the 39 stripes, we thank you for the crown of thorns, we thank you for the nails, we thank you for what you took on the cross, because we understand this, that it didn't end there. So we bless the bread this morning and we take your body, Church, let's take the bread together.

Now we take the cup and Father in Jesus' name we bless the cup. Father, your blood was shed for us in a toning work, a purifying work, a cleansing work, and Father, your blood was not just shed on the cross and the story ended there, but you have come back. That's why Paul preaches in the New Testament, "If Christ is not risen, our preaching is in vain, everything hinges upon what you did in the cross and in the grave." And we remember that, Church, let us take the cup together. Let me pray over you. Dearly Father, for those struggling with hope today, God, can you just encourage our faith? God, the book of Acts, continues to show us that the Spirit of God keeps moving, it keeps moving, it keeps moving, no matter what happens circumstantially, the Kingdom of God keeps moving, and that's why you tell us, "Put our faith in the Kingdom of God." Not only the Kingdom of Earth, not on material things, on status, but in our sonship and daughtership within the Kingdom of God, because that will continue to advance. You have called your shot every single time and you've hit it, and you invite us to participate. So Father, I pray for a person struggling with hope. Father, I pray number one, you reveal to them what they place their hope in. So God, they can begin to correct that. Father, we use strength in our spirits with the Word. is not in earthly things, my contentment is in treasures in heaven. Father, let us live for the beyond, but let us participate in today. Give us the power to be witnesses in Jesus' name I pray, everybody said together. And then church, let me leave you with this and I'm going to invite Natalie to come up. Hang on, just one second. Lean in with me, Jesus is having conversations with people in our city right now. Right now. Are you willing to enter into those conversations that Jesus has already had? Because the Holy Spirit will tap you on the shoulder, maybe not this week. But are you willing, going, "God, who are you talking to in my city? Who are you talking to in my work, who are you talking to in my street, and how can

and I join that conversation. In Jesus' name we pray, I love you so much church.