Hopeful Hope (09/04/2021)

[Music] [Music] welcome to sligo church [Music] whether you're joining us live or you found us online we thank you for being a part of our worship today [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] good morning and happy sabbath our song of gathering this morning is my hope is built on nothing less let's sing together number 522 in your hymnals or on the screen my hope is built on nothing less [Music] my hope is built on nothing less than jesus [Music] oh is [Music] is [Music] is is [Music] is [Music] [Music] from our house to your house and anywhere in between welcome to sligo church live online and mobile at sligochurch.com good morning happy sabbath and welcome to sligo live my name is naomi rodriguez and today i have the honor of having two of our youth here for sligo life with us this past weekend was very special where we had our first underground in about 16 months and we were finally able to see each other in person but the reason why we're here today with two of our youths natalia and jeremiah is because right after underground we had a very special event and i will let them share in their own words how was it to be part of such a wonderful experience natalia jeremiah welcome once again to slygo live thank you thank you yes so good to have you guys here jeremiah i'll start with you can you tell us what happened this past weekend well after underground we helped the refugees by a lot of church members donating outside for for them yes thank you and i noticed you were carrying some pretty heavy things so kudos to you for that and you know some people watching right now guys they may be like wow i missed the drive last weekend i know we had a couple of our city leaders there as well of our as our youth and actually we had um a special person join us uh she is not part of this library youth department however she said that she heard that sligo was doing something for the refugees and she decided to show up to help us out and hearing all of this you know our hearts are inspired because uh we think it's a very important action for us to be doing right now so in your own words how do you guys think or why do you guys think it's important for us to be helping refugees families i think it's good to help them so they can have a better life um the situation that's occurring recently is bad but this will help them just get back on their feet again something how about you natalia um they left their country and they came here and they don't have anything so you know us giving things to them is you know letting them have some stuff now yes yes and if i may ask you one final question what was your favorite part of this whole experience my favorite part was just just knowing that i could do something little little things better to help them in the long run yes how about you natalia um i liked you know like getting the things that other people gave to like you know put it away in the truck that would soon you know be handed out to them and knowing that you know i had some part of you know like some part of that some part to play i love it and once again thank you guys so much and you know my favorite part actually was that the weather forecast for last week weekend was of rain but guess what it did not rain it was a beautiful sunny day and we were able to stay out there dry collect the items organize them put them away in the truck and now acs is organizing them to make sure that the refugee ministry does get to distribute those to the family if you missed last weekend we saw you did but here's what you can do throughout the week sligo's church office will be having boxes outside where we will be receiving donations so throughout the week if you want to stop by the church office and drop off your items you can also what you can do is drop them off at the acs location at the acs office additionally if during the weekend does not work for you we also encourage you to bring your items to church on sabbath once again we want to say a huge thank you to all those of you that passed by last weekend and dropped off your items to all the city leaders to all the youth the members of our church community and our community at large we are very grateful and thankful and we know that this is sligo beyond the walls let's continue to be the hands and feets of jesus wherever we go and now as we transition back into the sanctuary we invite you to continue to stay with us for a day of worship as pastor jerry shares a message hopeful hope we'll see you again next week have a happy sabbath [Music] good morning sligo it has been a tradition in my family and in many adventist families to celebrate the arrival of the sabbath on friday evening with a time of worship and reflection and as we met yesterday in my home for this time of worship and reflection one family member said ah you know it was a sigh of relief and said god has brought us rest we didn't have to go searching for it and that's how i feel today coming to church god has brought us the sabbath god has brought us rest god has brought us hope we didn't have to go searching for it so on this special day when our emphasis is hope i would like to welcome you all to our church service i would like to welcome those of you who are worshiping with us in the sanctuary and those of you who are worshiping in the virtual sanctuary together we are a family and later in the service you will discover what that means because the one who will be sharing the prayer with us is from our virtual sanctuary all the way in canada and so this morning i heard a canadian say a man there this morning we have a number of important things happening here at sligo and i would like to share just a couple with you the first is that during their pandemic many of us have not been able to grieve as we should over the loss of loved ones perhaps even the loss of a job the loss of a pet and we are currently running a series on grief and so if you have suffered a loss you need to be part of that series it's every sabbath afternoon at 3 30. to get the zoom link you need to go to our website and it will be there for you some of us have been able to survive the pandemic through our journey groups these are small groups of people 12 10 a to come together once a week or every two weeks or once a month for fellowship for reflection and even for games we are now planning to have a virtual journey group and so those of you who are living in spain in canada in russia and you consider yourselves part of the sligo community we are inviting you to join our virtual journey group here at sligo and those of you who are here in the dmv please sign up for one of the journey groups that we have and you will find those on our website i would like to give a special welcome today to our preacher pastor jerry lopez as you know pastor lopez was my colleague here at sligo for nearly seven years he was our associate pastor for family ministries and children ministries pastor lopez did so well here at sligo that he was invited to be the associate children's ministries director of the north american division pastor lopez we are delighted to have you and your wife eunice here at sligo today you are still members of sligo aren't you and you are also one of four elders it's a pleasure for me to welcome you to the pulpit to today i'm going to invite a very special person to join me on the platform at this time and it is elder irwin mack if you would be kind enough to join me uh erwin uh eldamach has been the first elder of this church for many years before i came here and irwin told me that he has been the first elder of the church for nearly 16 years i think you had two stints as first elders so together 16 years i have admired erwin and we call each other by our first name so he doesn't mind me calling him irwin and he calls me by my first name too so erwin it has been a joy working with you for the 10 years that i have been here at sligo and i know that the church appreciates the leadership that you have provided one of the things that i have appreciated with irwin is that whatever he undertakes to do he gives it his full energy his total commitment whatever it is so irwin perhaps would call me uh several times during the week during this project that he has because he's totally committed to it you can rely on him and you can speak after him it's a british term you can take what he says and go to the bank with it so this morning irwin on behalf of sligo church thank you for your service your many years of service and for your love for sliger we have a little gift that we would like to give to you and i know that the reason you are retiring as first elder is that time has caught up with you so the gift that we have for you and your wife sylvia who has been at your side throughout your leadership is a gift that has to do with time it's beautiful and i think that you and sylvia will appreciate it can we give irwin and sylvia an applause please i am going to invite irwin just to say a few words to the church at this time for just about two years i haven't worn a tie went to get one to put it on couldn't remember how to tie the tie so i don't have a tie on this morning but if you're talking on a gift of time i'd like to attack that clock and turn it backwards but most of you may not know it i will be 90 in a few weeks consequently one has to say it's time within a few weeks my wife and i will celebrate our 67th wedding anniversary [Applause] thank you hun for putting up with me all those years but it's been a pleasure and yet you have to recognize that there's time to say pass on the torch so today i thank you for recognition but i'm passing on the torch as pastor don will tell you in a moment [Applause] so irwin is passing the torch to someone who is highly respected and well known in the search at this time i am going to invite dr james gulley to the platform and also elder terry jo hayes dr james gulley was appointed recently by our church board as the new head elder of sligo church dr gulley knows this church very well he loves this church he is committed to it but in addition to being the first elder of the head elder of the church dr golly told me that he also wanted to work with a deputy head elder and so the church board chose terry jo hayes to be that deputy head elder and so we want to welcome you both to the leadership positions that the church board and the church in general uh have placed you in and at this time dr gully you may want to have a word of greeting to our congregation thank you so much so good morning sligo great to see you all and i'm delighted to be here in person i've been online most of the last of the year and a half so a little bit about me some of you know me well and some of you and a church this size may not know me very well so just real quick i'm a missionary kid an immigrant i'm a medical oncologist and i get to do some really cool things i'm most excited about seeing how we can take the patient's immune system and get that to recognize the cancer this amazing immune system that god has created in all of us i'm also a son a husband and a proud father of two now college age kids and i'm also a sligo sabbath school kindergarten sabbath school teacher and i'm delighted to work with a fantastic team there you know one of the things that i think god has called us to do is to be part of his body and so the way i see that is we together can serve as his eyes and ears so that we can see the needs and hear the needs of members we're also called to be his hands and his feet in his mouth so that we can help fulfill those needs so on this labor day weekend i want to work for god i want to rededicate my life to helping serve with you with our elders to help fulfill god's mission for sligo thank you [Applause] i'm going to invite dr golly and elder hayes to remain on the platform we will have a special prayer in a few minutes but before we pray i would like to bring to your attention these names who have requested prayer the families of reginald book knight doris lewis both these individuals passed away and for healing john wagner who served as the pastor for administration before i came to sligo my immediate predecessor dazzline jacobs and prakash let us pray our father we thank you that you have invited us to this place today you have brought rest and hope and salvation close to us and all we need to do is to open our arms and our hearts to receive the gifts that you have for us we thank you for the service provided by elder mac and his wife sylvia over many years for their love for your church in general for their love for sligo church thank you for the work that erwin has done in this community perhaps he's known by the community by all the leaders in this community more than any other member of this church and dear lord i pray that you will continue to prosper erwin and sylvia as they find time to work with their grandchildren their great-grandchildren and their family in general and then we pray for james and terry joe to whom you have entrusted the leadership of head elder of this church and deputy head elder we are grateful that 2000 years after jesus died on the cross that we can find men and women who are prepared to dedicate their lives to ministry to advancing the mission of the church and to spreading the gospel the gospel of the cross and so we pray your anointing on james and ontary joe that as they lead we will be conscious of their care for us their compassion for us that you will use them to build your kingdom to make this church stronger and to make this community in which this church exists even a better community then we pray for those who have requested our prayer as a church you know their situation those who have suffered loss we ask that you will close be close to them those that need healing and and comfort provide that we pray because you are the god of all comfort and may our service today bring honor to your name and exalt the name of jesus christ as we recall the hope that is death on the cross has brought to us and to our entire world we pray this in the name of christ jesus our lord amen [Music] as we honor and praise him this morning let's sing together holy god we praise your name it's number 30 in your hymnal or this don't the words are on the screen let's sing together holy god we praise your name [Music] oh [Music] oh [Music] is [Music] is [Music] foreign [Music] good morning [Music] amen good morning and happy sabbath sligo family at this time whether in the sanctuary or virtually please kneel wherever possible for prayer our heavenly father we thank you for seeing us through another week thank you that we have the opportunity to come and be in your presence today on the sabbath we acknowledge your greatness lord you are the king of kings and the lord of lords you are the alpha and the omega how great you are please forgive us of our sins lord we are so weak we are so frail we fall so easily to temptation and i asked lord that you convict each one of us of our sins so that we may confess unto you and we may accept the gift of forgiveness that only you can you can extend be with our congregation lord stay close to us send the holy spirit to move amongst us be with those who are grieving lord be with the family and friends our regional book and doris lewis it is so hard when loved ones leave the lord leave us and i ask that you provide peace and comfort be with them in their sadness strengthen their faith with it so that they only go to you the true comforter in this difficult time i lift up certain names in our congregation lord be with prakash borga be with the conway conway family and be with john wagner you know their fears you know their pain even their you know their needs you know their supplications hear them lord hear their cries be with them grant them wisdom bless them reveal your presence to them and your will for them help them to know that you are with them in their challenges in these difficult times i ask for a special blessing also on james gulby and terry joe hayes as they have just been introduced in key roles in this church lord i ask that you lead them thank you for their acceptance of service lord be with them so that they they will be a light for sligo church and they will fulfill their roles to your honor and glory thank you father for all your blessings be with us all spiritually physically emotionally mentally things are so difficult these days things can be in so much turmoil all over the world lord we see it and it can be so easy to lose hope lord but we have hope in you lord and it's so good to know that you are a good loving merciful and righteous god and that you have already won the victory thank you so much for your promises thank you for jesus who died on the cross for our sins bless the rest of the service that we leave in your hands now in jesus name we pray amen [Music] [Music] [Music] hello boys and girls i'm going to tell you a story this story i shared with my preschoolers all this week and it's about a little lamb named larry larry had a lot of brothers and sisters many brothers and sisters and more than this this is all i have but they there was a lot of bro little lambs and there was one shepherd that looked out for them and he took care of them and he loved them very much he knew each little lamb by name he knew all of them even though there were so many well they went out one day he took them out let little lambs go outside and run around and have fun and eat the grass and they're all running around playing and then after a few hours the shepherd said come on it's time to go inside it's time to eat dinner it's time to take a shower and they all went inside except for a little larry little larry wanted to keep playing he didn't want to go inside and then he spotted a butterfly and he said wow what a beautiful butterfly and he chased a little butterfly he chased and he chased and chased it and all of a sudden he didn't know where he was anymore he got lost because he was chasing the butterfly and he kept looking around oh no how am i going to get home i don't remember and he was walking walking and didn't see where he was going and he fell down a hole and he hurt his little leg and he was thinking to himself oh i hope my shepherd remembers or i hope he notices that i'm missing i hope he remembers me i have so many brothers and sisters is he gonna remember or see or notice that i'm missing oh i hope he does so he lay there in the whole hoping that larry will come i mean that the shepherd would come and get him soon in the meantime back at home the shepherd sat down with all the little sheep and he was going to read them a little story when he realizes where is larry and he looked at all his little sheep where's larry i don't see larry oh he didn't come back home with us so he told all the little sheep sit right here i'm gonna put a little bible story you sit here and you watch the little bible story and he went outside and he saw larry where are you larry and he went to the little river could larry be there larry larry wasn't there oh no could he gone into the woods and he went into the woods larry are you here but larry wasn't there where could larry be so he then he decided ah i'm gonna go up the hill so he went up the hill and up on the hill he could see everything and he called out larry where are you larry and nothing so he tried one more time larry where are you and far away he heard this little there's larry larry i'm coming i'm coming larry and he goes down and he's running and he's all larry where are you and he hears larry and he looked down and larry was in the hole it's like oh no so he climbed down and he noticed that larry was hurt so he picked him up oh larry i love you so much and he put him on his shoulder and he climbed up and he took him home and everybody when all his brothers and sisters saw him they were so happy and the shepherd was so happy that he found his little lost sheep his little lost lamb and he threw this big party to celebrate and little larry was so happy because he was hoping that the shepherd would notice that he was gone and the shepherd did because he loves all his sheep the same and he knows every one of them and that is how god is with us he knows you he knows me he knows pastor jerry he knows everybody by their name and he notices everything you do so i hope you enjoyed this story boys and girls and remember god loves you very much good morning sligo we get to open the holy scriptures now and we're going to be hearing what god has to say to us we will be reading from the great book of romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 5. therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of god and not only that but we also glory in tribulations knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope now hope does not disappoint because the love of god has been poured out in our hearts by the holy spirit who was given to us amen [Music] oh my lord i see thee face to face [Music] with [Music] [Applause] [Music] upon thee [Music] upon the bread of god [Music] the [Music] i have no [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] strength is in my mind [Music] this i think i took it off on the wrong side here it's been a while happy sabbath family you know it's it's always nice to be home amen it's always nice to be able to come home no i don't want siri to come home and be together and that's how i feel when i come here to sligo i feel like i'm home here with my family and as i've said before and i think i've told all of you before that uh you know my family most of my my family's in california and so here at in maryland sligo is my family and i feel happy to always be able to say that so happy sabbath to you sligo family um you know it's it's always a pleasure for me when i get the opportunity and the time to come and share with you god's word and to speak god's word with you and i want to also just say the same thing to those that are online with us as well that are connected online through their devices at home you are part of this family also and i'm so happy that you are connected with us on this sabbath day you know today's topic i think is a topic that comes of importance to us during this time you know it's been what 18 or so months that have passed and have gone so many things have happened so many things have occurred during all this time for some of you probably it's been a fog maybe you know you're still trying to figure wow what happened 18 months went by what happened for some for others it's probably been very clear and pronounced during this time and for others it has been a time of difficulty and trouble many ask themselves when will this time end when will we get back to regular times where masks weren't needed where i was able to touch and hug people you know i'm a hugger so my instinct automatically is when i see somebody haven't seen is to go up to them and and hug them and now i have to stop right i even have people say hey no hugging and i'm like oh you know i feel like i'm like oh okay you know but but we get to do the elbow bump or the fist bump which is good with me um but i am like that and for some of us we we missed that you know where the each conversation didn't include the mention of a virus or of loss or of staying home or of closures or of sickness or of hospitals or vaccines or earthquakes or floods or etc etc etc do you look at it like that as well as i do the thing is that this is this is our reality right now all of this is part of everyday conversation all of this makes it seem like there is no hope for something better for many hope is packed his bags and it's gone home whatever that is or wherever that is but can we be hopeful about hope can we really see the light at the end of that tunnel can there really be hope during this time can we really see hope can we really know there's hope will you pray with me today heavenly father lord as we speak your word may we fill may we feel your holy spirit lord we pray that you open our minds that you open our hearts that you open our ears so that we can have the knowledge so that we can hear so that we can feel what you have for us today thank you father for inviting us to your house may this be a day full of hope lord i put myself in your hands use me as you wish i am here lord we ask you in jesus name amen i have titled my sermon for today hopeful hope and i struggled with the title i'm not i'm not a good what do you call that title creator if i may use that term i don't know i i don't i'm not good at that i mean pastor tap is an expert at at titles i i don't have that ability so i i struggle and i think and i think and sometimes i think i overthink but today's title is hopeful hope you know a pastor posted on facebook the following question he went to his facebook and he posted this question how would you describe or define hope and he got you know he he he wrote this question on there and he got several different answers and i want to share some of those answers with you so he said how would you describe or define hope and some of the answers were interesting and he said um some of the answers that he got uh were um like hope is an active word as my mom would say god helps those who help themselves another one answered um hope is to anticipate with joy and as of yet unrealized outcome another one said hope means no matter how dark or bad things seem there is a rainbow ahead and things will get better so that prompted me to say well let me see what my friends on facebook say about this subject so i went on my facebook and i said okay i wrote on there please help me out and i and i asked the same question and so they i got some answers i got various answers actually so this is what i got for instance the first one that went on there was our very well-known friend of ours pastor santrak and he says usually expectation of something but in the scripture it is a confidence waiting on the fulfillment of god's promises nice very nice i like that my friend junior says moving through life's changing struggles and know that on the other side is something better jasmine says something better to look forward to i'm tired of this world but i but i have hope in jesus and the new earth he has for us as a total replacement my friend jorge says hope is surround surrendering control to someone i've learned to trust hope is believing things will get better despite what you are experiencing and there were many others that that put it on there but you know i just wanted to kind of get the first ones that came in but that is what people see and look at as hope in our lives we are constantly hoping for something right as you all know i'm a laker fan so i'm always hoping that every year they're going to win a championship you know um so we hope for our team our team wins a championship or we hope that we finish a project or we hope that we pass that exam or we hope that a certain person will notice you you know when i saw my wife the first time i hoped that she would notice that i was giving her the eye and then i hoped that she would give me the eye back and when she did give me the eye back then i hoped that maybe you know we can uh get together and when we got together and i hoped that we could get together for a while and then i hoped that after that that maybe hoped that she would say yes to me that was nerve-wracking right and then after she said yes i hoped that we would grow our family and now my hope is that one day together we're going to see jesus christ come to take us home we constantly hope and hope for things to happen the webster dictionary defines it in two ways it defines it as a noun and it does defines it as a verb but if we look at the verb of hope it says to cherish a desire with anticipation to want something to happen or be true for instance hopes for a promotion hoping for the best i hope so right we all we're always saying that i hope so i hope this cut happens you know do you want this to happen i hope so and hope as a noun hope us as a noun it says archaic trust re reliance does that sound arcade to you trust reliance it says desire accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillments for instance come in hopes of seeing you also expectation of fulfillment or success no hope of a cure when they were young and full of hope right be someone or something on which hopes are centered our only hope for victory something desired or hoped for great hopes for the coming year i thought it would be easy to come up with a statement of hope i thought oh yeah i have this i i can write the statement but you know as i was going through it it was it was a lot harder than i really thought it was it was more difficult to really come up with something like that you know it's hard to think of how you would define hope what is but but we have to go and see what does the bible say about about hope how does that define it and we have to go to first peter 1 3. in first peter 1 3 we find this it says praise be to god and father of our lord jesus christ in his great mercy he has given us an he has given us new birth into a what into a what a living hope through the resurrection of who of jesus christ from the dead you know in the bible the noun does not appear in the gospels the noun part of it does not appear in the gospels at all but the five times the verb shows up twice it's the same idea from the old testament of of trust of having trust the other three could be translated as a positive wish however we do see it more in the epistles since the christian hope is grounded on the resurrection of jesus right so many people have different definitions of hope of hope and what it is what about you how do you define hope how do you see hope so let's dive into what the bible says and see what it tells us first we need to define what christian hope means in order for us to see what that is we need to read what paul says and if we go to first corinthians 13 13 many of you know it as right the chapter of love right the chapter of love it tells us it lets us know that hope was among the three things that abide and it says and now these three things remain faith hope and love you see that and love he tells us that that there needs to be a trio of faith hope and love not just one in group in the group but all three of them of course it tells us that love is the greatest of these but there can't be one without the other but the greatest of these is love now i have noticed that that paul paul's writings are very intentional he never just wrote without intention so the order in which he puts these words are very intentional and i look at him and i'm like so we see first he talks about faith and then he talks about love i mean hope and then he talks about love they're very very intentional the way i see it he didn't just say well let me i'll write faith first and then i'll write hope and then i'll write love i think he did that on purpose so the order in which he puts words are very important because he parts he puts faith first because what we have and experience as faith given to us is highlighted and strengthened when faith is joined in health held together with hope and love you know i believe that i spoke here um the last time i spoke here talked about faith and the importance of it and when you ask for rain you have to bring your umbrella with you faith has to be a strong element in our christian life because that will spur on our hope as well or maybe in other words our understanding of faith is what it is because of the hope and love which go along with faith then he adds hope in the list because hope comes with faith and then we know and understand love his love for us it would seem that faith and hope are inextricably bound together but today we will focus on hope because i think this is very important this is a very important topic to understand now let's go a bit further and a lit further and understand what we mean when we talk about hope and we can do that by looking at the book of romans in chapter five paul starts to talk to christians on how we christians right persevere in faith you see romans 5 is a promise and is one of the three one of the three uh great therefore chapters of romans and you see that therefore chapters of of romans 5 8 and 12. so let's open up our bibles your devices look on the screen and we're going to look at romans 5 1 5. and this is what it says therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with god through our lord jesus christ through whom we have gained access again by what by what by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we boast in the what in the hope of the glory of god not only so but we also glory in our sufferings because we know isn't that difficult to glory in sufferings i think that's one of the hardest things to do but it says we also glory in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces what perseverance perseverance character and character hope and hope does not put us to shame because god's what now are you seeing these three words in there what was it faith and what else hope and now he talks about love he says because god's love has been poured out into our hearts through who through the holy spirit who has been given to us paul then puts it this way in chapter 8. go with me to chapter 8 verses 23 to 25 and in chapter 8 23-25 we'll read this not only that but we also who have the first fruits of the spirit even we ourselves grown within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption the redemption of our body for we were saved in this hope but hope that is seen is not hope so if you see that hope is not really hope for why does one still hope for what he sees but if we hope for what we do not see we eagerly wait for it with what with perseverance with perseverance you know if you have read through the entire bible from genesis to revelation you might notice that that as you read the old testament you see the word hope and most often it has to do with trust it has to do with with trusting but as you get further along and especially in the prophets you begin to sense a change that points to the future a future hope you know a welder a well-known verse by all of us which some of us may have it maybe framed up maybe on a sticky in our in our um uh bathroom window or glass or or you might have it on a sticker or you may have it written down somewhere is jared it's found in jeremiah 29 11 and we all know that one right it says for i know the plans i have for you declares the lord plans to prosper you and not to harm you but plans to give you what hope and a future see in the old testament that whole poi that hope points more and more to the expectation of a savior of the messiah and to the future the further you get along god is the ultimate object of our hope and this hope is grounded in god's actions specifically the fulfillment of the promises of his promises that he has made throughout and that he has kept jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of that promise as he comes to our world in fulfillment of many promises and prophecies in the new testament jesus has arrived jesus has come yet we still see that expectation of the future the homan illustrated uh bible dictionary puts hope in this way it defines it in this way okay it says hope is the confidence that what god has done for us in the past guarantees our participation in what god will do in the future this contrasts to the world's definition of hope as a feeling that what is wanted will happen it guarantees our participation in what god will do in the future so for us as christians family when we speak of hope we're not speaking of something as real and intangible our hope has a proven track record from the beginning of creation through the end of time as promised in god's eternal word it is because of his resurrection that we who trust in jesus can be sure of our own resurrection one day it is because of god's fulfillment of the eternal word and the past that we can trust in the fulfillment of his promise in the future that's what gives each one of us or that's what should give each one of us hope you know many people say that we live in a hopeless world where there is no hope and people in many areas in many walks of life believe that there is really no hope they don't have anything to hope in they see that they live their life and they go along and they get through these up and downs and they die and that's it but there is for them there is no hope in a hope hope is active when we put our hope in something we can say i hope this will happen or i hope that god will do it or i hope that whoever will do it or whomever will do it but we need to act on that see hope is not passive hope is active if you have that hope in jesus you need to live like you have that hope in jesus if you have that hope that god will fulfill those promises then you must live as if god will fulfill the promise that god has given hope is trust hope is belief hope is knowledge see it is trusting in one who is trustworthy because we have seen fulfilled promises throughout scripture it is belief in someone that we can't see right now but it is knowledge because we know that jesus lived and we know and we know him through personal experiences finally hope is given through to us in jesus it's given through us given to us through jesus through the holy spirit because of the holy spirit living in us because of jesus living in us through the holy spirit because god is present with us through the holy spirit because of what jesus did for us on that cross all of that comes to culmination and it should give us all hope give us hope which is our faith but it's hope it's faith because they are bound together titus 2 13 in the book of titus 2 13 it says the following while we wait for the blessed hope the appearing of the glory of our great god and savior jesus christ see hope is active hope is trust belief and knowledge and is given to us in jesus christ know one of the most significant things that my parents did about 50 years ago is to decide that they were going to go to el norte to the north they were going to take their lives leave their country of origin go up north to the united states and hope for a better life many of you can relate many of you have done the same thing my parents picked up got rid of so many things picked themselves up got what they could grab my brother and myself my sister my mom was pregnant with my sister and they decided that they would leave and go to hope for a better place and they decided that okay if i need to go in the trunk of a car i will go in the trunk of a car and so my father his friend told him don't worry about it we'll throw you in the trunk of the car and we'll cross you we'll cross the border and nobody will even know who gets in the trunk of a car to go to another country well i guess a lot of people right my dad did so he goes in the trunk of the car and his friends had his wife with him and um they go and they cross the border and they go into san diego and they you know stop on the side of the road and let my dad out of the trunk and he begins a new hopeful life here and then my mother comes and she goes through the the thorny dry hills there of of tijuana and san diego and crosses at night through the mountains by herself what i mean by herself was without my dad or my family or anybody she crosses through for hope of a better place in el norte in the north their hope for a better life for them and their children and honestly i'm thankful because i've grown up here and it's been great it's been great you know our hope must be anchored in the faith of jesus one of the craziest things that i did with my family was and and i call it crazy because you know we we had a well-established life we uh you know we had family nearby we had really good friends nearby and decided to heed the call to ministry and we decided that we would leave all of that behind to go to an island to a place that i didn't know really anything about besides the fact that i had friends that were from there we decided to pack our bags and move to puerto rico from southern california all the way to the island of puerto rico to pursue a calling to ministry and do what god had called me to do see my hope was to finish at the end of four years i had hope of when i was done to work in my conference but i also had hope that i would be called to work at a church once i graduated and i know that many have that same hope right when you're ready to graduate you're hoping oh man i hope that i get that job that i studied for i hope that i get called to work here i hope that i can continue my studies i hoped that god would call me to work at a church what about you where is your hope what do you hope for what comes to your mind you know some of you have lost loved ones during this pandemic time your hope as well as mine is to be reunited with them one day when jesus comes at the coming of jesus some have lost jobs and hope to get a job or a good paying job or just get a job some have lost their houses and hope that they can once again have another house some have lost money and hope to recover and get back on their feet some have lost relationships and hope that those relationships one day may be restored what is your hope in whom do you put that hope in you can certainly certainly put that hope in jesus christ because all his promises have come true and will be true hope is tightly bound to faith and love you know hope during the pandemic hoped during the aftermath of hurricanes of floods of earthquakes and many other things may seem difficult but as we heard we can have hopeful hope because we serve and mighty a mighty and loving god you know rick warren says this about hope what gives me the most hope every day is god's grace knowing that his grace is going to give me the strength for whatever i face knowing that nothing is a surprise to god what is your hope i pray that today as you leave here with that you leave here with a better understanding of what hope is and with a stronger hope of something better in the future i pray and hope that as you leave this place you leave with more hope than what you arrived with i hope and i hope that jesus may show up in your life every single day you know we can have hope in the promise of god we can put all our hope in him no matter what is going on in your life maybe your life is fine maybe your life is going well we still need hope or to have hope in jesus christ maybe your home is full of turmoil maybe in your home right now it's chaotic maybe it seems difficult i'm here to tell you you can have hope in something better in jesus christ maybe you're sad maybe you're going through a depression in your life maybe you are working with anxiety in your life whatever is happening in your life in your work life in your personal life and your family life whatever is happening in your life one thing is for sure that we can have hope through jesus christ see one day one day we will have the opportunity to live with jesus forever and ever he has promised us that in john 14 when he tells us not to be worried not to let our hearts be troubled but to know that he has gone to do what what has he has gone to do what is that promise that he has gone to what to prepare a place for who to prepare a place for only a couple what does he say he goes to prepare a place for who he goes and prepares a place for you and for me it says in in john 14 verse 1 do not let your heart be troubled believe in god believe also in me in my father's house are many rooms that we would not have told you i am going away to prepare a place for you if i go away and prepare prepare a place for you i will come again and make you to myself so that where i am you may also be doesn't that give you hope doesn't that give you hope that one day we are going to that place that he is preparing for you and for me oh that is where my hope is at not in the things of this world or what this world can give me but my hope is in him see i don't see anything right now i don't see that happening but then again my hope is on things that i can't see my hope is in jesus christ family family will you put your hope in him i certainly hope i certainly hope so i hope that you hope in him you know you all have through this whole time through this whole time of closing the church of reopening the again all of you have been faithful to the to the work of god and we thank you for all your offerings and for your tithe and for what you give because through all of this sligo's ministries were able to continue to move ahead to continue to move forward because of your generosity because of your giving hearts and as you give today during the offering i'm going to invite our deacons to prepare to pick up the offering we know that god's work and god's ministries at least here in this church in sligo and throughout the world continue forward and we thank you for your generosity let us pray father we ask of you to please bless each person that is here we give as we can lord but we give lord knowing that we do our part and i pray that this money that is received may be a blessing and that may it may be used to expand your ministry to spread your gospel for your soon coming bless it lord and use it as you wish we ask you in jesus name amen so when peace [Music] is [Music] [Music] it is [Music] is [Music] my soul [Music] [Applause] [Music] i'm is [Music] [Music] with my soul [Music] [Applause] as we go to serve our closing hymn is anywhere with jesus for those of you who are at home i hope your windows are open it's gorgeous outside i want your neighbors to be able to hear you and for those of us in the sanctuary because we have masks on it's very difficult to hear you so i need you to really sing out will you stand with me and let's sing together anywhere with jesus [Music] i can see is [Music] i am not afraid [Music] [Applause] [Music] i can see [Music] is is [Music] [Applause] anywhere with jesus i can go to sleep shall we [Music] if [Music] anyway [Music] anywhere with jesus and in jesus we can definitely put our hope pray with me heavenly father lord god uh how awesome it is to be assured that our hope can be in jesus father so many people have felt pain and sadness and hopelessness loss so many people father god have gone through difficult times in their personal lives in their work lives and in different areas of their lives and sometimes it may seem hopeless to us as humans like can there be something more can there be something better today lord more than any time i've realized that through jesus christ we have hope hope that one day lord we will be with you forever and ever but through your promises we have hope that our there are broken relationships can be mended there are broken bodies and illness can be healed that our broken hearts of loss can be unbroken that whatever we are going through lord we have the hope that you will be there with us and i pray that each one of us holds on to that hope thank you god thank you for loving us we ask you all of this in jesus precious name amen [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: Sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church

Views: 825

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: Church worship, Sligo Church, sligochurch, sligo Seventh-day Adventist Church, Sligo worship, Takoma Park, Maryland, Jesus Christ, Worship, Spiritual, God

Id: hj7zQNuOqao

Length: 98min 27sec (5907 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 04 2021