The Limitless Gift of Hope: Believing When You Cannot See

[Music] you know when it comes to Christmas one can't help but think of gifts gifts come in all sorts of packages it was the Apostle Paul that once said thanks be to God for this inexpressible gift I believe God has an inexpressible gift for you what is that inexpressible gift to look like it's the gift that just keeps giving you know if you're hungry it's like a feast that never runs out of food if you're thirsty it's like a well that never runs dry you know we all need this gift this is a limitless gift this Christmas we're going to explore together and study the scriptures and

see the length at which God would go to give you this Limitless gift do you all want to see what the gift is today I believe this gift is for you let's see what's in store today [Music] this is a gift you need Noah's not a new husband who ever said that over there whoa this is a good one no it's not a new car come on this this this is good

every single one of us need this today this is the gift of hope hope for everyone not just for some this is a gift we all need and this is a limitless gift that God wants you to have today I want to identify and recognize that there is a lot of hurt right here even in this house there's a lot of pain there's a lot of helplessness there's a lot of hopelessness and when you're going through hardship when when you're in the middle of a problem it can just seem like it's going

to last forever but there is no problem that lasts forever none the only thing that will last is God's promise pain can actually be pivotal to bring you to a place of understanding the hope of Jesus Christ Paul once said a blessing in the Book of Romans chapter 15. we see This Promise that's for you today Romans 15 verse 13. I want us to see May the god of hope everyone shall hope May the god of Hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit

you may abound in Hope I want you to see This Promise today that it's for you so turn to a total stranger and say this hope is for you this hope is for you come say this hope is for me I want you to God does not just give you hope you don't just have hope you abound in Hope another translation says you will overflow in Hope does anyone want to overflow with some hope today this is a two-fold process Paul says it's not just something God's going to do I want you to see what it takes to abound or overflow and hope the first

thing it's going to take is you he says it's in believing you have to believe in this God of Hope you have to believe that God is God and his promises are true even when you can't see it even when you can't feel it even when you don't know what God's going to do faith is the Assurance of things hoped for it's a conviction that you can't see it's an Evidence that's not seen but you still believe it you're going to trust in the Lord with all of your heart even when you don't know what's going to happen next you're going to believe that God is God and you are not it starts with belief you know Christmas is all about believing we believe in fiction we believe in fantasy and this season just comes and it it

goes but this belief that the writer is talking about is believing in a god of Hope and when you believe in this God of hope he says that the power of the holy spirit is going to do the work don't you miss what the writer is saying here so that so that though the power of the Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit has been called all sorts of things the holy spirit is described as a consuming fire in the scriptures the holy spirit's described as the wind the Holy Spirit has been called the Holy Ghost and as these descriptions that we have of the Holy Spirit can sometimes seem like just that a description but the holy spirit is the person of God the holy spirit is not just out there the holy spirit is is not this distant

deity the holy spirit is a person we have one God and three persons the Father the Son Jesus Christ and the person the holy spirit so when the writer says that the god of Hope will fill you with joy and peace this is the fruit of the spirit that when you trust God when you allow God to work in your life you're going to be filled with God you're going to be filled with joy you're going to be filled with peace when you're believing the power of God is going to work in you where now all of a sudden you don't just have hope you have Bound in Hope I love the preposition in we see it throughout the New Testament When You Believe In Jesus you're in Christ When

You Believe In Jesus the god of Hope now through the power of the Holy Spirit you abound in hope you don't just have hope you abound in it I see the the visualization of a picture that God picks you up from despair like those Claws and those machines that you waste your money on he picks you up but he doesn't drop you and he takes you to the ocean of Hope and he drops you right in the middle of it you are in hope there's no swimming to the shore of desperation you don't go back to helplessness you are saturated in Hope this is surrounded in Hope but I realize that some of you are in the midst of something right now

you didn't predict it you don't want it it's a deep pain it may be the loss of a loved one and you're grieving you're hurting it could be cancer it could be a financial crisis that you see no way out of you feel so stuck right now financially it could be a relationship that's gone wrong it's not what you entered into but you're in the place you don't want to be it could be a depression that that is so dark that you don't even want to be here right now you don't want to be surrounded by Smiles you don't want to hear about hope maybe it's an addiction that that is

completely wrecked your life you don't want to keep repeating this this behavior that you don't want to keep coming back to this but it's Wrecking your life it's ruining everything see this this pain it's so real like the list can go on maybe today you want a child and yet your child lists maybe today you you hate your job maybe you don't have a job maybe you don't like where you live you see the list can go on because the one thing that we all have in common here is pain and often this pain is private pain it's something another person can't see but you're experiencing something deep in your heart

we will all have private pain and this pain is not wasted with God I want to look at a story that sets the stage for the Christmas story it's not the birth of Jesus it's the birth of a relative of Jesus and the birth came out of pain the stories found in the Book of Luke one of four gospel accounts of Jesus Christ there are four biographical accounts of Jesus and Luke is one through the perspective of a physician a doctor that would go hear from eyewitness accounts and in Luke chapter one he tells of a story of a couple that knew what it was like to hurt and they would one day have a child

today we know this child as John the Baptist he's the one that would prepare the way of Jesus but yet John the Baptist life has started out of this private pain of his parents and I proposed to you today that could it be that out of your pain God could be preparing to write an even greater story and so in Luke chapter 1 starting with verse 5 Luke says in the days of Herod King of Judea this is a real time in history with real people there was a priest named Zechariah of the division of abijah and he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron and her name

was Elizabeth let's stop and understand this story as we see there's Zechariah who's a priest and here's there's his wife Elizabeth who comes also from a Priestly line today we would call this ministry we would say this family was generationally in Ministry they they served the Lord they were born into a family that that would serve God in the temple they would do all the Priestly duties and you've got Zachariah who's a priest you you've got Elizabeth who was raised in a family of priests and and Luke sets the stage so that you would see this is a Ministry family and in verse 6 and they were both righteous before God walking blamelessly and all the Commandments and the statutes of the

Lord we see this couple took their faith serious they did not just go through the religious duties of what it means to be a priest or to serve in Ministry they actually believed in the god that they served yeah have you ever known someone that served God but it didn't seem like they believed in that God you never know someone that did religious duties but they didn't seem to reflect the love of the very God that they're serving this is a couple that didn't just talk the talk they walked the walk they walked blamelessly and verse 7 Luke tells us but even though they loved God even though they served God they had no child

because Elizabeth was barren and both were advanced in years Luke is so polite in his words and referencing the age of this couple as advanced I think we should bring that back this couple was not old they were so Advanced they were no longer able to produce a child now as we look at this family who's who's childless I want to recognize that most pain comes from the absence of something when your child lists when you lose a loved one when you lose a job when you

lose your health when you've lost your finances typically that pain that happens in our soul is I don't have something therefore I'm reacting this is a couple that understood pain because to be childless at this time in the Middle East 2000 years ago would have been so significant they would have been marked they would have been considered cursed for being childless the conclusion would have been someone sinned in this family that God is Not blessing them with a legacy with a lineage with with someone to pass down the inheritance they would have been judged everywhere they went so here they are serving God while also

being judged by those in this world and Luke wants to note for us the readers in verse 6 they were both righteous before God more recently we've looked at righteousness here at Journey Church righteousness is not about what you do it's a right relationship with God this couple had a right relationship with God these are their people you want to learn from the people that have a right relationship with God but just because you love God just because you live with God does not mean your life will be free of difficulties some of us have bought into the lie that if we live right with God somehow he'll bless your life free from problems that's a lie of the devil you will probably have more problems

when you love and serve the Lord and as we see in this story you're not overlooked by God here she is a woman with pain Elizabeth she's got problems that her husband will never be able to fix we have a story of a couple by all measurements and account of the reality of logic and that which is natural they will never be able to have kids all hope that maybe Elizabeth would be the one that could carry the coming Messiah is gone of course she had the very scriptures we have today she could have opened the Book of Genesis and read the account of Abraham and Sarah who by the way were not just advanced in years they were

extremely advanced in years and yet God did The Impossible the improbable Sarah had a child named Isaac she could have clung to this story and said I'm gonna hope in this she could have looked later in the Book of Judges when there was this couple that just seemed to love God and one day he would send an angel and say your child will be set apart so make sure that he doesn't live like the world and that child would be Samson she could have read stories like the account of Hannah who so desperately bad wanted a child as she turned to the Lord and she went to the temple and she wept she prayed and she she was so grieving because she had no child it was

misunderstood that she must have been drunk have you ever been misunderstood in your pain people just have no clue what you're actually going through on the inside you have a genuine heart you want God to work and someone on the outside has no clue what you're actually going through well God would answer Hannah's Prayer and give her a child named Samuel Elizabeth she could have looked at those scriptures but the reality is God does not work the same way throughout history he doesn't work in your life the way he works in someone else's life his promises are always true but we never know how he's going to do what he does and it's in this place that we come back to the story of Abraham and

Paul when he writes to the Romans says in Chapter 4 Verse 18 that in Hope Abraham believed against hope meaning it was absolutely impossible for God to do what he promised to do yet Abraham believed that God can do what is absolutely impossible in hope he believed against hope that he should become the father of many nations as he had been told by God so shall your Offspring be you know in this world you've got reality which is painful it is hard and it can be full of difficulties so you have reality but then you also have

what I'm trying to point you to today and that is revelation Revelation is God's word where God opens your eyes to that which is not natural but rather it is supernaturally divine and when you hope against hope it means what's in front of you you can't see how you're going to get through it you don't know how you're going to get through it but you believe in the one that's going to get you through it hope is not having it figured out hope is not a formula when Paul writes in Romans 15 13 He says we have a god of Hope much like what John describes in first John God is love

so I need you to see that God doesn't have to muster up hope God is Hope just like God doesn't have to try to love you God loves you because God is love this is something we supernaturally need a revelation to understand because in reality we love people when we like them more God does not love you more because he likes you more because you've cleaned up your life because you're a better person God is Not Looking For Better People he's looking for people that are willing to believe in him despite who you are because of who he is and whatever it looks like in your life God sent me here to tell you it's never too late we can look at the promises of Abraham and Sarah we can look at Samson and his parents we could look at Hannah and

Samuel and today we could look at the story of John the Baptist and see that with Zechariah and Elizabeth they are way too old to be starting a family I wonder for you what dreams have died somewhere God put something inside of you as a child as a teenager maybe as a young married but now you're divorced maybe somewhere early in your career it could have been College maybe it was when you started to go to church maybe is when you got baptized maybe it was some sermon so many years ago but somewhere that dream over the course of time just seems to have gone so dormant that now it's impossible I'm here to tell you we have a god of new beginnings he's a God that brings back the dead to life he's the god that when he sees a

valley of dry bones he actually sees the potential of a living Army this is a God that can absolutely do anything at any time with anyone if you're willing to believe in him he's able to do something in you you can't do for yourself this is the business that he's in when young Mary was confronted with the reality that she would carry the soon and coming Messiah she was completely confused because she had never consummated her marriage so how can she have a child if she's never been with a man it's a worthy question of being asked and when Mary said to the angel in Luke 1 34 how will this be that I carry a

child how will this be since I am a virgin and the angel answered her this won't be something you do this won't be something a man will do this will not be in the natural it will be the holy spirit that will come upon you and the power of the most high will overshadow you therefore the child to be born will be called holy the son of God Mary is told that this miracle will be a God thing that if you can figure it out it's not God there's no need for Hope if you have the power to do what needs to be done you need hope when there's nothing else you can do and you need God to intervene in your life in a tangible real way

see we often ask the how when it's not the how it's The Who I can't explain to you how this will happen because it's unexplainable it will be the Holy Spirit just like the hope that will abound in your heart it's not something that you do it's not how you do it I can't tell you just keep coming to church I can't tell you read your Bible more I can't tell you you need to pray more because some of those things will not give you the hope that the scriptures are talking about this is a hope that the power of God himself will give you Mary's told in verse 36 that she's not the only reciprocant the recipient of a miracle do you know that God does not just want to work in your life he wants to work in the people around you

I'm here to tell you God wants you to abound in Hope but he also wants to do it for your family see this is what Mary's told in verse 36 and behold someone shall behold behold ah I need you to see whenever there's a behold in the Bible it means this is a big deal I believe God's about to do a big deal in your life if I could just speak on behalf of what the Lord wants to do he wants a behold in your life he wants you to quit thinking normal and natural he wants you to quit looking with the eyes that you've looked at before and behold remember Elizabeth your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also

conceived a son and this is the sixth month with her who was called Barren she used to be called Baron but now she's about to give birth she used to be called Advanced but now she's old God wants to get the credit he wants to get the credit that this is not natural and then we're told in verse 37 hear the promise of God for Nothing is Impossible with God the great victory of hopelessness is not what you can do it's that God's going to get the credit it's what God can do nothing's impossible with God may I just declare that again nothing is impossible with God whatever you see as impossible God looks at that

and says oh that's nothing for me I can do anything I can speak it and it happens I can touch it and it's healed I can just say it and it will be nothing is impossible with God I know you say that person's impossible well that's the one that God Can Transform that's the one God can knock off a high horse make them blind now they can see and they are the greatest Grace givers of all when you have sinned greatly and God does something in your life God's going to get a hold of your life and do great things some of you don't even believe in yourself you think I can't receive hope I can't get hope but I'm here to tell you today hope is not a reward so hope is not something God gives to the good kids

get that out of your mind you don't earn hope you don't deserve hope is a gift from God he looked at you before you were born and he knew the answers for your life and you saw every other answer in this world and you've come to the conclusion that this world is messed up and God just wants you to keep coming back and say I want to give you the gift of hope I want to give you the gift of hope you don't have to earn this you don't have to be good enough to get it you just have to believe in me see when Jesus rose from the grave I've just got to remind you that that was not natural he was not resuscitated the scriptures say that Jesus was beaten so brutally he was unrecognizable it was prophesied that he would

have these Stripes that would heal us he was beaten he was whipped he was hit his beard was ripped from his face he had a crown of thorns thrust upon his head he was unrecognizable when he was buried in the Tomb but on the third day he did not just magically come back to life the scriptures teach us it was the power of the Holy Spirit the same holy spirit that when you believe in Jesus God the father gives you one God When You Believe In Jesus you get the person the The Same Spirit that brought Jesus back from the dead the The Same Spirit that made Jesus glorified is the very same Spirit the

same power that's why Jesus says that when when you receive the Holy Spirit you receive power the Greek word power throughout the New Testament is is dunamis it's where we get the English word dynamite and don't think of dynamite as just something that explodes the purpose is it's something that changes when you have God the spirit it changes you Jesus came back glorified he wasn't the same person as three days earlier he was the same person but he wasn't the same person he's now got a glorified body he's now able to walk through walls we see that God wants to work in us what he worked in Jesus we when Peter writes in First Peter 1 he's given this

introduction and he says starting with verse three blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great Mercy by the way it's God's mercy remember it's a gift it's not earned according to his great Mercy he has caused us to be born again to a living what hope it is alive this hope is a lie because on the third day hope walked out of that grave to show you what God is able to do and by God's mercy we get that Living Hope we we have a whole new life through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and here's what we get we get to an inheritance that is imperishable undefiled unfading kept in heaven for you God's protecting it for you who by

God's power are being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time when your problems are too big it's time for you to get your eyes off of your problems and onto a much bigger God it's time for you to stop talking about your problems and start talking about God how many of you know that when you are going through something dark and difficult sometimes it doesn't just go from bad to better it goes from bad to worse I mean I don't mean to prophesy that over anyone but sometimes when it rains it pours and it just keeps coming and coming and what starts to happen is all you see is the problems around you and somehow God's promises get smaller God

gets smaller so you start speaking to yourself now you start telling yourself how how bad this actually is and then you start telling God everybody else has it good except for me you get there on Instagram and everybody else got it figured out but you everybody gets vacation but you how's everybody paying for that Mexico vacation everybody seems to have the money but you everybody's got a bay but you everything all of a sudden everything in your life it's just a pity party and you look around your pity party and you're the only one there so you might as well give a speech to yourself you're not alone in this the psalmist said this many years ago

Psalm 42 verse 11. he he says that several times why are you cast down on my soul you go to church you believe in God but it doesn't feel like it you don't feel it you're cast down in your soul and why are you at turmoil within me when you start talking to yourself like that it's time to turn it around it's time for a shift the best preacher in your life is you because wherever you go there you are I can't go with you everywhere you can't listen to YouTube sermons everywhere or podcasts everywhere but you know who you can listen to you

and sometimes you're the worst preacher in your life you're speaking lies that someone said to you in your childhood maybe it was a parent maybe it was a teacher maybe it was a bully maybe it was yourself and you're just speaking lies to yourself your entire life and you're miserable and the only person you got to blame is you so this psalmist has enough of this and I'm telling you today you should say enough is enough I'm going to start preaching to myself a better sermon so he asks why are you cast down on my soul why are you a turmoil within me this is what he preaches to himself you hope in God for I shall again praise him my salvation and my God oh I can just hear this quit hoping in your circumstances quit hoping in other people quit hoping in the government

quit hoping in your family quit opening yourself it's time for you to Hope in God Romans 15 13 says he's a god of Hope so sometimes you got to start telling yourself what you know is true God is God you are not it's time to start praising him despite your situation despite your circumstances despite your pain you can still bless him you can still love him you can still praise him you can keep turning to him because he's an eternal God that can do absolute breakthroughs quit looking at your reality and look at the revelation of God you might be hurt but you don't need to stay that way you can have hope today your current circumstances are not forever there is

hope this pain is the pivotal moment to look and to see the clarity of who God is when Zachariah was approached by an Angel he got chosen to go into the temple a very special duty of the priests and here he is alone in the temple I mean this is awesome he he gets to go serve God and while he's there in a very special place a place to meet with God God actually meets with them through an angel Angels Are Spiritual Beings created by God to give him glory the word angel means messenger God throughout history will make Angels evident known physically it could be through the manifestation of an angel that comes in the form of a person Peter says you never know when you're entertaining an

angel so you should actually treat everyone like their Angels because you just don't know sometimes God will let an angel be known for who they really are messengers reflecting the glory of God and in this case an angel shows up and what does Zechariah do he freaks out because if God really meets with you when you think you're alone and he shows you who he is that he hasn't left you abandon you he's real and you get a glimpse of his glory you will freak out the scriptures say he was not only frightened he was afraid so imagine speaking to you today when you've had pain in your life when you're trying to serve God there will still come a season where you you can be full of fear and if you've ever had fear of what's in front of you you're not alone so some of you are afraid of what the economy is going to do you're afraid of

what the government's going to do you're afraid of what's going to happen in your family situation you're afraid of your health you're afraid of these things well you're not the first person to be afraid and God has a message for you it's the most common commandment in all the scriptures but the angel said to him this is Luke 1 13 do not be afraid Zechariah now if you got your own Bible I would just put your name above Zacharias because you know what the Lord wants to tell you today do not be afraid do not fear it's the same message he said to Joshua it's the same message he said to Mary when the angel shows up and God wants you to know this message whatever's in front of you that you have fear do not be afraid God is greater than what

you're afraid of God is God do not be afraid Zechariah for your prayer has been what heard how many times have you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed and you prayed but you didn't get what you were praying for anybody in this room here come on some of us just quit praying because we just prayed and we prayed and we prayed may I just declare to you today although you can't see it and you didn't see what God was going to do when you were praying your prayer has been heard mothers you're praying for that child that's separated from you I want you to know God hears that prayer don't give up don't give up don't give in oh just a few weeks ago we had baptisms up here not on a Sunday but on a Thursday for a rooted graduation for a

celebration and there was one gal that got baptized and she has so much joy I mean she was just exuding Joy I mean she was just like a rainbow of Joy just joy joy joy come on smile of joy and she got baptized and she was weeping but she wasn't weeping alone because she was surrounded by not just friends from her rooted group she had family do you know who came to see her get baptized her mother her grandmothers her aunties her cousins they they all showed up multiple multiple Generations I mean this this place was filled with her family and you know what her mother said to me I've been praying for her so much this is this is an answer of Prayer she got baptized she believes in the hope that she doesn't have to keep coming back to sin and you know there comes a point where you wonder keep praying

I gotta imagine Zechariah even though he served the Lord I gotta imagine that even as he stepped in the temple he's thinking this is great God but man it would have been better to have a kid I still full of pain even though it looks like I was chosen it looks like I'm blessed it looks like I'm serving God I'm actually hurting and God shows up and he tells Zechariah and I want you to see this word if you go read the scriptures yourself in the Book of Revelation it says one day you're going to see your incense are so sweet your prayers excuse me your prayers are like incense they're a sweet Aroma to God he loves you he wants you to talk to him he wants you to trust him he wants you to believe in him so many of us want an instant fix we think when we pray we tell God how to fix it that's not what prayer is supposed to be

prayer is supposed to be a dependence on God and the Lord tells Zechariah your prayer has been heard your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you shall call his name John and you will have joy and gladness this is a theme when you have the Lord you have joy and many Will Rejoice at his birth for he will be great before the Lord he must not drink wine or strong drink this is similar to Samson you shouldn't treat him like a normal child he shouldn't look like the world and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit there's the person the Holy Spirit even from his mother's womb see the Lord brings good news

you may have a hard time believing that in what you're going through but if you think your difficulties stop God from being good you've misunderstood God gives hope and when Zechariah didn't know how this would happen he asked the same question Mary asked in verse 18. Zechariah said to the angel how shall I know this come on how many fixers in this place how are you going to do this God how are you going to do this this last election I just heard people whine you know I thought you were going to do this God but you didn't do it the way I thought you were going to do this we we tend to tell God how he's got to fix the world how are you going to do this God how shall I know this for I am an old man

but my wife is advanced in years we wonder the how instead of the who when Peter says we have a living hope he was directly telling us and he tells us in that verse we just read earlier that Living Hope is Jesus Christ he's alive he's not in the Tomb Skeptics will try to come up with their own answer but we can just believe that God through the power of the Holy Spirit brought Jesus back to life he is a living hope we can know with confidence and Zechariah being the servant that he is would be one that would try to explain

this see ministers we love to talk sometimes we tell people what to do as men we love to fix things but this Angel gave Zechariah a gift of Silence Sometimes the best thing you can do is just shut up because I can only imagine that some of us we like to tell people how God's going to do it I've been there before and it doesn't really work to use words to explain the unexplainable well let me tell you how this miracle is going to work you can't do it so the Lord made Zechariah mute and tell the birth of John there might be silence in your life right now and it could be God getting you ready for a great breakthrough

you just got to shut up and let God do the work give God the glory that when this happens the only thing you can do is testify and say yes God gave me this child he will be John I know my name is Zachariah and he should have my name but I want him to have the name that God gave him because God has a greater plan than I have I've seen it I've experienced this and I don't know what your greatest dreams are but I'm here to tell you God's dreams are even greater he's going to do it he will fulfill it the writer of Hebrews coming back over and over wants to point us to Jesus he says this in chapter 6 verse 19 we have this sure and steadfast anchor of the Soul here's what he's saying when you have storms in life what's going to be your anchor to make sure you don't get wiped out Blown Away here's what the

anchor of the soul is a hope the anchor of your soul should be hope and this is a hope this is a person it's Jesus who enters into the inner place behind the curtain the sacred place where no one can go but the the high priest once a year the holy of holies Jesus has gone there because he is the holy of holies he's gone there he's the god that we can meet with where Jesus has gone as a forerunner verse 20 on behalf having become a high priest Forever After the order of Melchizedek so a priest would be a mediator between man and God to make sure that mankind has a right relationship with God Jesus is the great high priest where we no longer need a priest because he's our high priest and when you come before him he makes you a royal priesthood

so we keep coming back to Jesus because of the cross that curtain that separated the holy of holy was torn into we all have access to the holy of holies through Jesus Christ so the writer would say in Hebrews 10 verse 23 let us hold fast the confession of Our Hope without wavering for he who what promised is faithful problems won't last God's promise will in my Bible I just wrote next to this in the margins hold on hold on hold on hold fast to the confession of your hope believe in Jesus hold on to Jesus when

it looks like the whole world is evil you're going to hold on hold on to the confession of the hope that we have recently I was reflecting on this past year it was exactly a year ago November 2021 I woke up one morning in extreme pain I had a pain in my right shoulder I thought that I did something working out because I had taken my son the day before to the gym and I was working out and there was an extreme pain in my right shoulder and I just I just went through the day as if it would be normal well that night I couldn't sleep not even a wink I was up all night one a.m 3 A.M 5 a.m in extreme pain and I was actually pacing the house

and I was even weeping while I was praying and the pain was so severe the only prayers I could muster up were God removed the pain I don't know if you've ever had a prayer like that but you have no eloquent words you don't even know what to pray I wasn't praying a spiritual battle I was just in such pain all I wanted was that pain to be gone so the next day I went to an urgent care that specialized in this sort of thing and I thought I tore a muscle I was convinced I said I think I tore muscle it's that bad I must have torn the muscle right in half and he did some tests with me he's like no you didn't tear muscle he says I think you just as severely strained it I'm going to give you some pain medication take this pain medication it should get better and if this pain medication doesn't work let me know in a couple days I'll give you a stronger one the pain medication did nothing

so I just right away called the doctor and he he prescribed me a stronger pain medication that pain medication did nothing well as a few days went by I thought I was going crazy I mean I really did because on the outside it looked like I was fine but on the inside I was hurting I still had to do my job I had to still show up at staff meetings and that Sunday I showed up and preached a message at church and uh but inside I was an extreme pain I didn't know what to do I I was going through my own crisis of my own soul because I was in more pain than I'd ever been in my entire life I I started snapping at my kids at the littlest thing I mean they walk in the room I would just be angry and yell at them my wife if she looked at me wrong I would snap at her I was like so disappointed in who I was

I deep down inside I actually thought it was starting to go crazy and then I I started this journey of Chiropractic Care they told me they would fix me and I remember one doctor told me Hey listen it's one percent a day I was hurting so badly I did the math I'm like so in 100 days I'll be better I was but I was so tired and exhausted his point was it's a slow Journey but you're going to get there I was like so you're telling me it's not 100 days how many days is it because you know when you're hurting what do you want you want an answer give me a quick fix give me a surgery give me a puppy a pill but I'll tell you after dozens and dozens and dozens of Chiropractic visits and after physical therapy and after much prayer now looking back and seeing this was a spiritual journey this was not just a physical Journey there was something

demonic happening that was trying to not just destroy me but my family and after going through some counseling going through the season that I've been through I'll tell you before I started the sabbatical I had no physical ability to hardly lift anything I couldn't do a push-up I couldn't do a pull-up I mean I was kind of done at the end of spring let alone that whole pandemic that happened you all remember that that was just a painful season for everyone and so I started this journey of Health where I just got really honest with the elders around me and the people around me and I just said hey I got to figure some things out I'm not good my family's not good we got to figure this out and you know when I went and sought the Lord you know what I found the Lord

oh it's so sweet I got rid of social media I got rid of the things around me I actually changed the place of where I was for a little bit because if I go around here I end up ministering to other people but if you Minister out of your pain after a while you got nothing to minister anymore so God began to do this great work in me and I'm here to tell you today like I've been working out now I could do as many push-ups as you want me to do push-ups I could do as many pull-ups as I could try you want me to do this oh just someone was a 20s so who's that 20 he said 20. I'll do 20. you get this really well as this week capture this month he said 20. you all count I'm gonna do 20 bro thank you

[Applause] hey hey that's not even the beginning I couldn't do anything you know on Thanksgiving day I was hoping there'd be like a Turkey Trot so I can go run somewhere but I couldn't find one the only thing there was was I like pie rays if you all know me I love pie that was like a Temptation Of The Devil so here's what I did that day I went and did a run around my neighborhood I did a 5k all by myself I looked at my watch it was the same time I ran in high school 45 years old running the same time I did as a teenager I don't tell you that to boasts

okay I'm telling you that to both I'm totally lying I'm telling you to boast because I boast in the glory of God months ago just months not years not decades I was not in this place I was suffering Paul says this in Romans chapter five this is the last scripture I'm going to share with you therefore since we've been justified by faith if you really believe in Jesus you're not just forgiven we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through him Jesus we've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God

somewhere God has to be the greatest in your life somewhere greater than your marriage greater than your finances greater than your health greater than your dreams God has to be glorious great your hope has to be in hand now look at verse three this is where it starts getting distorted when he becomes God not only that do we get the god of Hope but we rejoice in our what sufferings now here's where the world would say I don't want that religion that's because this is not a religion it's a relationship with the Living God knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces come on say with me hope so what I'm going through is only going to make my hope greater

the devil's trying to tell you that God doesn't love you the way you're going through is wasted it's not God's making you stronger he's making your character greater he's making that hope even more real and hope it says in verse 5 does not put us to shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us this isn't just for me my testimony is not for me it's for you it's for you this this is a hope that when you need it it's there this is a gift that's not just for me this is hope for everyone

now here's the problem I recognize this I can wake up tomorrow and be in excruciating pain again y'all ever experienced a miracle only to have an edge of tragedy happen I mean God does this great miracle and all of a sudden there's just this major tragedy that comes after so here's what God does is he's going to get you through that and he's going to give you some more hope but then all of a sudden you're going to realize you have to wake up again tomorrow and you're gonna need some more hope and then all of a sudden you're going to realize people can really suck sometimes you're going to need some more hope and then I'm here to warn you that just come two years there's going to be another election season we're going to need some hope come on these finances that we're going

through economically they're going to come and they're going to go but we're going to constantly need hope listen listen listen you need the Lord wherever you are you need a child you you need a health miracle you need something in your life I'm telling you there is Limitless hope I mean I could keep going this this there's a million hopes in here this hope there's hope but really it's not what I can give you it's what are you've been given to you in Jesus Christ right now where you are today if you want the Lord Jesus would you pray this prayer with me if you've ever made this decision let's let's join those praying this for the first time if you want to receive hope in Jesus Christ would you pray this prayer but pray this out loud Lord Jesus I receive your hope

I need you I Repent of my sins I trust in you I've received salvation and the hope of eternal life in Jesus Christ amen amen my friend if you prayed that prayer today we want to know you made that decision so here's what you need to do if you're here in person take a card in the seat backs please fill that out you just made the greatest decision you can ever make your Life's Been Changed For Eternity God's now given you the Holy Spirit you're no longer alone God is with you he'll never leave you he'll never forsake you fill that out and before you leave put it in a box if you're watching online please let someone know right now

that you made that decision to follow Jesus it's the greatest decision of all if you're able to I want you to stand to your feet we're going to sing one last song but before we do I want to just ask you I want to ask you if you need a breakthrough if you need a miracle in your life I'm here to tell you that Miracle is found in Jesus Christ don't leave today without trusting in Jesus you can do it right now through song at the end of this song there's going to be prayer teams on either side of the auditorium go get prayer you could write down that prayer right now is a moment to turn to trust and say Jesus I need what you have to offer let's give him the glory yes sir