Hope | Jennifer Toledo | Expression 58

before I get into the word I just I was thinking about this morning and I was remembering God just took me back to the very beginning so we're coming to the end of the year right God took me back to the the very beginning in January when we were sharing what God we felt like God was saying for us as a community for the year you guys remember that some of you who've been here for more than five minutes okay and I wanted just to bring up the three things I pulled up my notes from that service and there was three key things that God spoke to us about 2017 and I want to just hit on those again because I just it's God's nice and he's smart and he knows what's coming you know like he's just really good that way and I want to just affirm and just kind of I want us to hear that again as we're coming to the end of the year and beginning to see God for like what's he saying for 2018 and and I just I just it encouraged me and encouraged me as I was reading through that so I want to I want to encourage you with that but the three things we shared in that service the first one was that 2017 was going to be a year of great exposure remember that that God said this year would be a year of exposure and that he was going to shine light into things into people's lives into businesses and into our government into this nation that we're gonna expose some things and that we were not to be alarmed or afraid or judgmental but it was a beautiful invitation from heaven too for things that were very dear and important in the heart of God it was an invitation to higher ground it was an invitation into healing it wasn't to shame it wasn't any invitation to healing have we not seen that this year how many of you know I mean even with just I think this has happened in so many different arenas but you know right now obviously there's so much talk and stuff that's going on with just kind of the exposure of sexual abuse and and some of that that's gone on in this nation and it's so incredible because that's such an issue that's so dear the heart of God God passionately cares about those who've been violated who've been taken advantage of and in so many times even in this community we hear stories of when and we're like God bring Redemption in this nation to this issue and and you know and so when I even with all that going I just thought God told us what's gonna happen this year but also if you remember when I when we gave that word it wasn't just about you know things that were bad things in the darkness being exposed but there was good things that had been in darkness that were gonna be exposed and there were people and groups and businesses and you know whatever people that had been sewing faithfully in the darkness and had not didn't have favor felt like didn't feel like they were being seen didn't feel like like there was you know value on what they were doing and I felt like you know God's saying that in 2017 he was gonna shine his light on it was gonna be an exposure another exposure another level a favor and we've seen that happen too we've seen God just like divine promotion in people's lives divine favor that hadn't been there before and so that's been really really beautiful to watch the other thing God said for us with that 2017 was our year to use our voice and I was looking back at the notes you know I'm actually gonna read this this is exactly what I spoke out out of my journal where I had written this at the very beginning of the year it says God said if you don't speak who will if you don't be a voice for what matters most who will if you don't raise the alarm and hold the plumb line of love and truth who will if you don't defend the outcast the marginalize the voiceless who will if you don't Forge through the confusion and fear with courage who will if you don't stand up to the religious and political spirit who will if you don't model a better way who will it's time to be a brilliant light fearless and love bold and truth unwavering in righteousness we cannot look for man's approval applause or agreement but must fear God more than man we don't get our direction our cues are our tone from anyone else with the Holy Spirit and we are anointed to teach people how to think so much of the despair some believers are feeling is because they can't hear us and they don't hear the voice of reason the voice of hope the voice of truth that sounds like their father be the voice that sounds like home that was what God said to us at the beginning of the year and I was so excited when I look back at this because I feel like this has been a year where we as a community we've we've taken that word and we have gone after that we started our conversation nights and wrestled into like let's talk about racism let's talk about pro-life pro-choice let's break these things that let's let's go after these things and having these hard conversations and and beginning to just use our voice to bring hope and truth and life and I just was like man I love this community I love that we heard what God said and we're like we'll do it and we just went after it this year and then the third thing if you remember that God said was that he was anointing us this year for the oil of gladness and we talked about this a few times throughout the year but how that word gladness is deeply related to the word triumph and that it's a joy that comes from victory it's a joy that's present because you have been in the battle and been victorious and so I know that for many of you this year you've been in a battle but there has been uh Ninoy an invitation to remain in a place of peace to remain in a place of joy to remain in a place of connection to him no matter what's going on around you I love this word and I love you know even weak God gave us Psalms 45 7 now this isn't even my message y'all this is this is the appetizer Psalms 45 7 he gave us this where it says because you love justice and hate evil therefore God your God has anointed you pouring out the oil of gladness on you more than on anyone else and we felt like this place where God was saying guys if you'll stay connected to my heart for justice there will be an ever flowing river of oil of gladness for you and we've just grabbed a hold of that this year and some of you guys I mean we have watched this in your lives we have watched you press into this we have watched you walk in in joy and peace in the midst of all kinds of stuff and there's been such triumph and victory and so when I was just reading through that I was just I was so encouraged I'm like God you actually know what's coming you know and he's just so good and he's so great so I want to just I was encouraged I was hoping that that would encourage you well yeah well this morning we are going to talk about hope there's no clues here to that but um when we were really praying about just this season and this time of year and what is God saying and we just kept feeling the stirring that there's something God wants to do in us in regards to hope and so we're like let's put it up on the wall let's you know let's give hope like let's really let's really go after this and so we're gonna talk about hope this morning if you have your Bibles you can turn to first Peter chapter 1 verses 3 through 7 nobody moves does anybody even own Bibles anymore do you tell the truth you're in the house of God okay thank you you must be visitors just kidding thank you thank you good job well because we know you we also put it on the screen first Peter one versus three through seven praise be to the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ in his great mercy he has given us new birth into a Living Hope I want you to say Living Hope say it like you mean it do it again that's better okay he has given us birth into a Living Hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead and into an inheritance that could never perish spoil or fade this inheritance is kept in heaven for you who through faith are shielded by God's power into the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time verse six in all of this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials these have comes with the proven genuineness of your faith of Greater worth in gold which perishes even though refined by fire may result in praise glory in honor when Jesus Christ is revealed I love this he has given us new birth into a Living Hope you know every New Testament writer John Paul Peter even Jesus talked about new birth being born again they talk about dying to self and being born into something new and you know this really hit me when I first some of you guys know this when I went in my early 20s I lived in Africa for a few years and lived in Kenya and there was a time in the church in Kenya where this was very kind of a popular thing - not popular but like a common thing that was happening there was a real revelation that people were having about the power of being born again and so many times I would visit churches or visit places people would come up and introduce himself to me and say hi I'm you know so-and-so and I'm I'm saved I'm born again I'm like amazing and then I'd meet somebody I'm so-and-so you know I'm a Christian but I'm not born again yet and I'm like so confused you know and and and this would happen all the time all the time and oh I hope to be saved soon but I you know I do come to church here I do hope to be born again soon and I'm like wow okay and so I just couldn't get my head around it cuz I'm American and that we don't do that so we don't read the back when I'm just kidding I'm kidding um and and so I sat down with this pastor and I was like can you help me understand this like what what is this and he said you know he just been explained how they were such a reverence in in people for what it really means to be born again he said you know there's a lot of people who call themselves Christians it doesn't mean they're actually in relationship with Jesus there's a lot of people who fill churches doesn't mean they're surrendered to Christ I mean they've been born again even Satan knows that Jesus is God I'm like reach that in America right like I was just like whoa and so I really just kind of began to chew on this concept of what does it really mean to be born again it's not just you know to sit in a Pew on a Sunday morning or or even just to know that that Jesus is God you know but what does this what does it mean to truly be born again and so I really began to wrestle with that night and in that journey was just so amazed in Scripture at what we're invited into anyway we've talked about this a lot here but what you know when you come to Christ he doesn't just come to redecorate your jail cell right he comes to a fully heal and restore and deliver you that's the truth you become a totally new spiritual being you become something you were not before you're not like an upgraded version of yourself you're a whole new deal you're a whole new deal this is the gospel and we are born anew birth into a Living Hope a Living Hope let me just say this there's a lot of people who have their hope and things that are not living and it's easy to sit here and go preach it gen until you look at your own anxiety levels I to where your hope is right preaching it to myself right now right we put our hope in that that door is gonna open that that thing's gonna come through that that doctors gonna tell me this that that you know check is gonna come through that I'm gonna get that connection I'm gonna get that you know that thing and many times we'll put some we're good at it we become like professional religious like hopers of the wrong thing and so we put hope hers you like that um well put these little religious bows on it and we'll be like oh but you know my hope isn't that prophetic word that Shawn Bowles gave me you know and that God gave me that my hope is in that and you'll put your hope in something that seems spiritual but it's just as dangerous to have your hope in anything but the Living Hope Jesus Christ we were born into a Living Hope that cannot be shaken that cannot be quenched that cannot be taken and when your hope is in the wrong things you will always live disappointed people will always let you down the things of this world will always let you down our bodies will eventually let us down things circumstances will leave you disappointed and we have a lot of people in the church that are walking around and let's be honest are not giving hope to others why because they're not even in Hope themself because their hope isn't all the wrong things and God is healing and he's restoring this in us and he's reminding us guys not just here to you know redecorate this kind of old stinky room you're in you are a new creation born into a Living Hope our hope is in him the one who never fails the one who has nothing but pure love for us right I love this passage and Peter's writing here you know who's he talking to well the people people Peters talking to we're suffering they were going through persecution you can see in this passage which i think is interesting it says in all of this you greatly rejoice now mind you the English translation here really doesn't do justice to what's what's happening here but in all this you greatly rejoice though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials I want you to understand something about this how this operates in your life these when you look at the Greek in this passage you will notice something in the grammar both of those things are said in present tense greatly rejoicing present tense grief over trials present tense they're not said in the context of you know one day you're gonna greatly rejoice when all this crap in your life ends it doesn't say it like that it doesn't say it like well you used to greatly rejoice until all this junk in your life started it says that those things perfectly coexist when you understand the Greek in this this context those things can coexist great rejoicing and trials they can actually coexist you see when your hope is in the living hope they can coexist when your hope is in circumstances that's impossible they actually polarize each other it feels completely impossible and what what Peter is speaking to here is this invitation that no matter what's going on in our life no matter what the circumstances are no matter all of this stuff here at the same time in the present tense you can also be connected to a greater peace and joy and connection and rejoicing and celebration before God if you take your place as a son as a daughter if you take your place as a new creation if you begin to truly connect to the Living Hope I love this in fact you know then he goes on to talk about the gold going through the fire and the reality is is that gold when it goes through fire it gets brighter it gets refined the relationship between sorrow and joy actually changes when you get saved I don't have time to totally break this down and talk about this but I want you to understand something that before when they used to be polar opposites now through Christ sorrow and suffering and trials actually become fuel for greater brighter more powerful joy in your life God actually takes what the enemy meant for evil and makes it work for you it makes it bless you have you ever experienced something in life where you had something you really valued and then you lost it currently my wedding ring he lost his too so we're even but 2017 triumphs we both lost our wedding rings this year I say it was like divine I I was meant to have enough great I mean maybe that was the Lord I don't know I really love my ring um but if you know me that's not a comment I do lose it like every three months and I find it and then I lose it I just how it goes um I need to just not take it off but um but when you've lost something and then and you've longed for it back and when that gets restored to you the joy of that is so much greater than before you lost it it's so much more valuable to you isn't it and there's there's some way that God does this just how justice heavens justice work works is when there's pain and suffering God actually makes those your experience makes them serve you in a way that your experience of joy becomes even more deep and brilliant God is just crazy I love it he's just wild sorrow can actually drive you into joy it routes you in Christ I love it okay we're gonna move on to Ephesians chapter 1 verses 18 through 23 now listen you all are the crowd that slept in so you can handle this okay a little more grace for first service you guys you all just woke up like five minutes ago I know you so I'm gonna read the same passage three times we can do it we can do it we can do it I'm gonna read it in three different translations and I want you to hear this this morning in your spirit I want this word to go deep inside of us this is a Living Word of God I want this to get in us this morning okay so we are gonna hear it until we get it alright so focus don't drift focus hear what God is saying all right I'm gonna first read it in the NIV you can follow along up here I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you the riches of his glorious inheritance and his holy people and is incomparably great power for us who believe that power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority power and Dominion and every name that is invoked not only in the present age but also in the when the one to come and God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills everything in every way isn't that good all right stay focus we're gonna do it again New Living Translation I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope he has given to those he called his holy people who are his rich and glorious inheritance I also pray that you will understand the incredible greatness of God's power for us who believe him this is the same mighty power that raised Christ from the dead and seated him in the place of honor at God's right hand in the heavenly realms now he is far above any ruler kim jeong-hoon Putin Trump whoever or authority or power or leader or anything else not only in this world but also in the world to come whatever's out there at all times for all of history for ever and ever and ever right he is far above any ruler God has put all things under the authority of Christ and has made him head over all things for the benefit of the church and the church is his body it is made full and complete by Christ who fills all things everywhere with himself one more time you with me amplified that's written in the amplified it's Paul praying right and I pray that the eyes of your heart the very center and core of your being may be enlightened flooded with light by the Holy Spirit so that you will know and cherish the hope the divine guarantee the confident expectation to which he has called you which he has called you not just the person next to you you the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints just God's people and so that you will begin to know what the immeasurable and unlimited and surpassing greatness of his active spiritual power isn't us to believe these are in accordance with the working his mighty strength which he produced in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right hand in the heavenly places far above all rule and authority and power and Dominion whether angelic or human or alien or anything I added that part and far above every name that is named above every title that can be conferred not only in this age and world but also in the one to come and he put all things in every realm whatever realm you live in in subjection under Christ's feet and appointed him as supreme and authoritative head over all things in the church which is his body the fullness of him not part of him not a little bit of him the fullness of him who fills and completes all things in all believers oh not good I love this passage Paul is praying this over the church and Ephesus what is what did Paul understand you know I want you to imagine if like if the Apostle Paul were to just show up here I'd be kind of weird but just show up here and be like hey guys just kind of time traveled and God sent me here and I'm gonna pray for you expression I'm gonna pray that you guys would walk in the same you know and greater power and measure that we in the early church walked in I'm gonna pray that you guys shift culture and bring the kingdom to earth and you guys just radically go after it and this is what he begins to pray he's praying over the Saints he's praying over the people of God what did Paul understand I love this and so we're gonna we're gonna talk about five things this morning in this passage that God is speaking to us through this number one the hope to which God has called us number two the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints number three God's incomparably great power in those who believe number four everyone and everything is subject to Christ and number five God completes all things in us all right you ready one person okay farming's ready number one the hope to which God has called us Paulo spring I love this that we would truly know the hope to which he's called us why because if you truly understand biblical hope it's the absolute game changer in your life the reality is the real changing dynamic of Christianity is an experience with how you view the future what you see about your future massively determines how you live today that is absolutely true people can't live without hope we know this medically we know this scientifically people cannot live without hope right hope is what what you are envisioning in your future really determines how you live today that's why people who are like hey you know God's just gonna come and take us all to heaven and we don't have to do anything on the earth that's just how it is those people are lazy Christians who do nothing to change the world it's true that's true if you believe oh no actually when Jesus said you know thy kingdom come thy will be done on earth he meant it okay he wants to bring his kingdom to the earth those people have faith to partner with God to pull heaven to earth write what you believe about your future determines how very much how you live let me give you this example let's say two guys - Tim - people just don't have to be men like me women - people get offered the same job and they're told you know hey here's the deal you're gonna work it's gonna be it's a hard job I need you to for one year - say yes to this job long hours it's brutal it's dealing with annoying people it's just it's not super fun it's a hard years worth of work right and then they're told privately in there and their interview or whatever okay one guys told you know at the end of the year we're gonna give you $15,000 that'll be your payment and the other person we're told hey at the end of the year we're gonna give you thirty million dollars if you do this how do you think they approach their job everyday do you think they show up with the same attitude to work every day save Experion Experion PSA's but how they perceive those experiences is drastically different determined off of what you see in your future you see what is our hope in what is our hope in and this word hope I think is really important to understand that the biblical definition of hope is very different than our English definition the biblical definition of Hope is expectation trust confidence the expectation of what is sure certain joyful confident expectation that something good will happen here's how this is different than our English word in English we use the when we use the word hope it can many times have an uncertainty attached to it you can have a good Christmas I hope so right does your spouse love you I hope so that'd be sad if there was uncertainty there um but you know what I'm saying we use it in a way where there's uncertainty I hope so biblical hope that when you actually look at the Greek word hope there is absolutely no uncertainty attached to it it's completely confident that something good will happen there is no uncertainty there's no like oh I hope so it is complete deep confidence that that will happen biblical hope is very different this is the hope we've been born into I love this you know Tim you guys have any Timothy killer fans out here I love him he says human beings are ultimately hope based creatures what you believe about your future is the main determinant and how you process handle and experience circumstances right now I love this you guys have heard the story of Viktor Frankl the guy who the doctor who was put in a camp in Nazi Germany you guys know this story anybody ever heard of him so interesting but he he survived the death camps and he observed people he observed people who were in these death camps and his observations were very interesting he said all people were basically divided into three categories they were either people who just gave up and just began to just you know shut down wither up in despair or there are people who became brutal and mean and you know step on somebody else to get ahead like you know throw somebody else under the bus to try to save a lot stay alive it was that and then there was a smaller group of people but people who throughout their whole experience of the death camp even unto their death they were joyful they were kind they helped other people they never lost the integrity of their freedom and their character and so he studied those people and what he found was those people had a deep sense of hope and something outside of their circumstances he said it became very very clear in a concentration camp whose hope was in circumstances because some of them would be like my hope is I'm gonna get out of here and this is we know whatever vs. my hope is no matter what happens I'm good with God I know God will make it right I know I will never lose no matter what happens my life belongs to God I and that kind of hope literally was the game-changer for how people experienced a concentration camp and he tells a story about his own friend in the camp who had a dream one night where he had a dream that the the war was gonna end on March 20th oh sorry March March 30th and March 31st okay you look at my notes no March 30th I was writing my service my truth my sir okay and and as that that in March you know comes and he thought for sure you know it was a revelation from God and his hope was in that and as March came it became apparent the war was not going to end and on March 29th he began to run a high fever on March 30th he lost consciousness and on March 31st he was dead and the doctor began to you know talks about this and he says the only understanding I can give is without hope humanity cannot survive and interesting our bodies cannot survive and you know I read this article that has just literally haunted me since I read it it's just disturbed me so deeply but it's a new phenomenon that's happening right now in Europe with children of immigrants who have fled war and really traumatic situations and they're trying to name it something they don't it's like a condition a medical condition where there's all of these children who just all of a sudden go like from perfectly healthy their bodies are perfectly healthy to like a vegetative state from extreme trauma and they're interviewing these families I'm I just wept and wept and wept was watching us it was so horrible they're interviewing these families and and the doctors saying we've never seen anything like this it's like their whole little bodies have just shut down from the trauma but what was interesting about this how this was actually in the BBC was that there was a whole argument going on because there were these Lori lawyers that were trying to fight for these kids to get their papers because what happened was they had seen in multiple cases that these families as soon as they were granted asylum and they were given papers that they were not going to be shipped back to their countries like literally within days these children came out of their coma multiple multiple multiple examples of this and so these lawyers are fighting this and Europe trying to say just give these families legal status for these kids and there's this whole thing on theirs now so many kids in this situation we don't know what to do and so you know they're talking about the psychology behind this that you know these doctors are weighing in on and what they really realized is when you have been exposed to all this stuff when you have no hope their body's completely shut down and how how quickly by the introduction of hope into their environment they can be brought back just by introducing hope just the feeling that they sense in their home of it's gonna be okay I'm not gonna get sent back we're gonna be okay that hope that there's a hope for their future literally heals and restores I just think if this dynamic is happening in Nach in the natural realm what's happening all over this city in the in the spiritual realm emotionally how many people in this city have lived without hope that they're so shut down emotionally and spiritually they're just kind of walking around like zombies and just an infusion of hope into their spirit boom all of a sudden what's gonna come out of people the awakening that's gonna happen hope awakens hope awakens this makes me so excited I just want to like go in like release hope on everybody right yeah so number one the hope to which God has called us he's called us to this amazing hope you are called to this this isn't just for like the super Saints the super holy ones every single one of us are called to hope this is your destiny God has a great plan for you God loves you God is on the throne God is for you you have been born into this Living Hope this is your inheritance take it right this is who we are number two the riches of his glorious inheritance in the Saints when they use the term Saints it's not like the super holy ones it's all of if you are a follower of Jesus Christ you are considered a saint I know your roommate might maybe not agree with that that's what scripture says but what's so interesting about this part of the passage the riches of his glorious inheritance whose inheritance his inheritance inheritance speaks of the sum value of worth right so somebody's entire everything they have put together that value is their inheritance I want you to imagine for a moment it's Christmastime what if you were in Bill Gates family I don't talk about the Christmas presents you're gonna receive I'm talking about what do you get Bill Gates for Christmas have you thought about that what do you give somebody who literally has everything how do you give them something of value that's more valuable than what they already have imagine trying to give a gift to God God who made all the money and Bill Gates and everything right the God who has everything the God who has an endless supply the God who has all wealth and in wisdom and God who has everything what do you give a God who has everything what is the the greatest treasure that he has the God who has everything what is his greatest inheritance you and I that blows my mind you see before going to the cross I mean really the only thing God didn't have was us he had it all but he was not satisfied because the only thing he wanted was us that was all he ever wanted he didn't want all this stuff he wanted you and so because of love because of you being his inheritance he has it all and he says no the greatest sum of all value of what I have is her is him its humanity you are the greatest thing God could ever have that blows my mind that's the kind of value he places on your life that's the kind of love he has for you so much so that he was willing to suffer right he was willing to to go through whatever suffering go to the cross just to get you for the joy set before him you you you are his glorious inheritance that should give us a lot of hope that should give you hope that there's a God in heaven who would give everything for you that there's a God in heaven who's madly in love with you that there's a God in heaven who doesn't was it looking for anything but connection with you that's crazy fierce love and if we get a revelation of that kind of love we'll live our lives very differently we'll live our lives very differently we'll get freed up from fear we'll get freed up from the things that hold us back when you begin to truly have a revelation me I'm his inheritance it's me he's in love with the god of the universe I mean that that's just got a sink into our spirit so deeply and Paul understands that so he's praying that the spirit of Revelation would come so strongly on us that we would begin to understand that we are the richness of God's inheritance Paul is praying that we would be so uh in awe and love struck by God's value for us one of the commentators puts it this way Paul wants you to be smitten by how rich God feels when he looks at you until we're truly astounded by how rich God feels when he looks at us and our value in him we won't begin to live the kind of life we've been invited into you see many of us were like I'm gonna do something for God owners and they forgot it's like you're never gonna be able to truly do something for God until you could receive his love for you so you can really receive the value he's placed on your life we won't even be motivated to make good choices until you really understand how valuable you are to him I mean that for me you know we talked about this and we were talking in our sex money in politics series we were talking about how you know when we're talking about we're talking about sex and God's idea of that this is total money trail but um we were talking about how we need a greater yes than a No we need a greater yes right we need to - the church has been so good at telling every no no no we need a greater yes what are we saying yes - and this is is this like that giant yes when you understand how valuable you are to God how deeply loved you are to God it's like I don't want to do anything that's gonna violate this here because this is so powerful and precious and beautiful anything here isn't even worth it it's not even worth it right it's this concept we are his glorious inheritance I love this I feel like many of us are gonna you know one day we're gonna stand before God and we're just gonna be so undone by how he looks at us you're gonna be so undone by how deeply and powerfully and beautifully he looks at you number three Paul wanted us to understand God's incomparably great power in those who believe something you need to understand about hope is that biblical hope is tangible it is how it is material it is real it's not just this theory it's not just this concept it is manifested into something real in our lives great power in those who believe you were not called to live a powerless life you are not called to be a victim to your circumstances you were called to truly pull heaven to earth and see it manifested in your midst who we are I love this because when you when you look at this says I want you to know the hope to which he's called you the glorious inheritance and his incomparably great power the same power that raised Christ from the dead how did Jesus come back from the dead that's a picture of this kind of power he didn't just come back in theory oh you know ghost Jesus probably is here he came back in the flesh he could sit down and eat a meal with you you could touch his wounds he came back in the flesh hit the power of God raised him into something real and tangible and touchable in front of you that same power lives in us that same power to bring the the supernatural power of God the kingdom of God the eternal things into this realm and to manifest them in something real and touchable and tangible that same power lives in us I don't know how anybody can read the Bible and conclude that God doesn't still do miracles that God doesn't heal the sick or that justice isn't isn't a possibility when you understand the gospel you understand that the power of God to tangibly manifest Jesus in our midst lives in us this is the hope we have we get to to stand in this hope the same power that raised Jesus from the dead lives in me and I'm gonna release it and I'm gonna agree with it and I'm gonna believe for it right we begin to partner our faith to that the supernatural realm tangibly invading the natural realm the promise of Christianity is not this that you're gonna get like you know a reward or a consolation prize for like having lived through suffering on the earth or something you know it's not like you just go through hard stuff and then you get to heaven it's like oh sorry that was kind of a bummer you know like here's a little consolation prize the hope we have is that our God the power of God not only can comfort us but the power of God on does injustice he actually makes it right he makes it right see there's so much hope when you begin to understand oh I don't just have to like hang on on this side of eternity and then get somewhere better when you begin to connect your heart to the reality my god undoes injustice he makes it right that infuses you with hope to go let's go let's go what what are we doing today geez that's like where do we oh my gosh this is the reality of the gospel that gives us a whole different faith a whole different hope right a whole different confidence all of a sudden we go oh yeah justice is my portion hunger you better sit down because the people of God are rolling into town right racism you better sit down because the people of God are rolling into town all these different areas you begin to go oh my goodness we have the power of God that manifests heaven in our midst in us that should give us a lot of hope number four you guys with me we're almost done hang in there number four everyone and everything is subject to Christ I love this verse somewhere in these notes that I had here we go I love this and when we were talking about this in Ephesians where it says that every ruler every authority every power not only in this world but whatever's to come right is under Jesus that God has put all authority under Christ God is far above everything every doctor could ever tell you every spouse who's left you could ever tell you every circumstance every natural thing every leader every law every atomic bomb everyone and everything must bow its knee to Jesus Christ everyone and everything must bow its knee to Jesus Jesus Christ has the final say for your life Jesus Christ the one who says you are the sum of his entire inheritance you the one he's obsessed with and loves passionately that guy has all the power if that doesn't give you hope I don't know what does right you've got the biggest baddest daddy who loves you and who is so deeply jealous over you in the greatest position of authority in this age and whatever is coming ahead for all of time that's all we need right that should infuse us with hope hmm sometimes I have to remind myself you know God is the supreme authority God is the boss love is the boss and anything else that's trying to stand against that needs to sit down and shut up in my life that's the truth God is the boss love is the boss and anything that's trying to stand you know in contrast to that needs to sit down and shut up because it sounds a little rude but you know what I'm saying it's like everything that comes against that is under the feet of Jesus why do we even give it a thority or power in our life the enemy has absolutely no power unless we give it to him if we keep this revelation God is the boss in my life love is the boss of my life then all of a sudden these other things we go that is under the feet of Jesus that has no power everyone and everything is subject to Christ and number five God completes all things in us I'm gonna read that last part that scripture verses 22 and 23 and he put all things in every realm and subjection under Christ's feet and appointed him as supreme and authoritative head over all things in the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills and completes all things in all believers it gives us so much hope to know that God fills and completes all things in us some of you may be rolled in here this morning feeling hopeless feeling empty feeling like you were lacking something feeling like you're not complete like you need somebody to completely or you need a you know some kind of a ministry to complete you or you need some kind of a job to complete your an education to complete you and this morning I want you to hear this so deeply in your spirit God the supreme one who's the author of hope the one who who is the Living Hope the one who's madly in love with you he is available always to fill you and complete you not is the promise of scripture it's God who fills us and completes us he's the author of your story and your story is not done and at anytime you don't like the direction that that story is going you can stop and get back into God's version version because I can tell you every time you're in God's version of your story you're gonna like it you are gonna like it it is always gonna be way better than what you could have imagined or try to make for yourself that is the truth and God is ready to fill you and complete you always I love this he's the god of Hope he's perfect love hmm you know I want to pray for us in a moment but I felt so served as I was preparing this is just trying to hear God what he was saying to us I just can't feel like we are in a seasoned expression where God is gonna so infuse us with hope that we're gonna truly be able to just release hope into people around us it's really hard to give hope to somebody when you don't have hope yourself it's really obvious when you're trying to give them hope and you don't have hope yourself you don't even have to be discerning like it's just obvious right you're like right I'm gonna be okay you know like we not only does God want to in you know we've been born into a Living Hope not only is that our inheritance living hope so full of hope we should be the most hopeful people on the planet we get to be we get to be not only that but when we're so full of hope we begin to infuse hope we begin to give hope to people around us and all of a sudden it's like that story of those kids we're gonna begin to see people just come alive in a moment just because of hope and they're gonna be able to live the god call on their life they're gonna see their circumstances differently because of the hope you're gonna just infuse into them you know this give hope wall we have over here this isn't just about by an ornament and help somebody you know it's Christmastime that's not what this is about we truly believe like when you invest and you you buy a sewing machine for a widow in Uganda or whatever it is right you body that thing you do that thing we're we truly believe and what we talked about the power of God that manifests justice in people's life the power of God to help set somebody free it's like that thing that gives somebody hope if I'm gonna be okay God is with me God is a good plan for my life you you jerk you literally become a game changer in somebody's story when you infuse Hope into them I love it and we get to do this we get to be these agents of hope and I want to encourage you I know sometimes you know holidays it's like some of us I love the holidays I love this time of year you know but some people the holidays are very hard time they don't feel a lot of hope they feel you know discouraged or whatever and I want to encourage you your hope does not have to do anything with your circumstances and I feel like God is bringing us we're coming to the end of this year where God spoke some things to us my feel like we're coming into a new season but I feel like one of the pieces that were to carry this year is to be just so radically filled with hope that would become the most wildly hopeful people on the planet because we this is the reality we have a good future it does not matter what comes down the pike let me tell you God's gonna be on the throne God's gonna make it work for me God's gonna get his glory for all of eternity me and God it's gonna be okay it's all gonna be okay God loves my kids more than I do God loves this city more than I do you've got to remind yourself of the truth God is more obsessed with this city than we are God has a dream over this nation way bigger than what we could ever you know dream or imagined we need to get our eyes fixed on what God is doing and what God is saying and let our spirits be full of hope be full of hope in this season you have a good future Satan cannot take your future you can't take your future you are secure and the love of God you are the object of his affection that's pretty amazing if God could send his son to the world how much work that must have been I don't even know like coming to the world going through everything he went through just for you I'm pretty sure he can handle the next you know 40 years of your life like whatever's going on I'm pretty sure he's got it right if God could figure out how to make people I'm pretty sure he can figure out your current circumstances he's good he have a good hope you are you are invited into a Living Hope that is who you are as a son as a daughter of God amen

Channel: Expression 58

Views: 2,291

Rating: 4.7600002 out of 5

Keywords: expression58, expression 58, e58, jen toledo, jennifer toledo, jona toledo, shawn bolz, los angeles, hope, glendale

Id: RL-B5VpIvM0

Length: 55min 31sec (3331 seconds)

Published: Mon Dec 11 2017