LLUC | 9-18-21 2nd Service Replay

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] church family guests and friends we are just delighted that you are worshiping with us today this is a time and our service where we talk about things that are happening here at the loma linda university church and stu actually has our first announcement to tell you about first off our senior ministry is very active headed by pastor gerald retzer we're encouraging you to sign up for their newsletter you go to our website you can find out the information there this is where not only can you get update on news but also information all the activities we really encourage you to check that out and then we have a really exciting ministry here at the church it is our quilters ministry they are going to be meeting together next sunday on september the 26th from nine o'clock until 12 they put together quilts you would be amazed i've actually gone in and see seen them in action they make quilts a lot of them for babies in the nicu it is such a special ministry if you would like to be involved in this show up you don't need to have lots of experience just a huge heart and a willing spirit so again that's september the 26th in room 105 from 9 until 12. you know joel my wife works in nicu and she sees a lot of those blankets come and sees how much the parents appreciate it really encourage you to get involved in it another thing to get involved in is our you reach ministry there's always need for volunteers for the cafe transit and excel another thing that you reach does is not only do we help our local community but we try and partner with different organizations to help other places one example of that as many of you have heard the tragic earthquake that happened in haiti and this university has a lot a lot of activity that they do there things they support here's dr hart to tell us more how you can get involved in that the adventist church owns and operates around 200 hospitals worldwide 75 to 80 of those are in what we call developing countries or the majority world i prefer where most of the people who will live [Music] about 25 years ago we recognized here at loma that many of those hospitals were getting into trouble having difficulty maintaining professional staff equipment all the modern things that a hospital needs and so a group of us here at loma linda formed an organization called adventist health international to try to work with those mission hospitals and now we help to manage and govern about half of those mission hospitals for the adventist church one of the ones that joined ahi some years ago was opital administer haiti in the country of haiti this is on the outskirts of port-au-prince the capital of haiti and was doing quite well for its first few years but then started having all the same struggles that many hospitals do we started trying to upgrade the facilities and so on and then in 20 2006 a freshman medical class here at loma said we want a mission hospital as our project and they took on this little hospital and you all know what happened in 2010 when the earthquake hit almost our entire senior class of medical students then wanted to go help out with their hospital in haiti since that time a lot of changes have taken place it became known as the orthopedic hospital because dr scott nelson who was working next door in the medical republic came over and spent six months doing orthopedic surgery after the first earthquake at that time we did not have all the advanced orthopedic things that we needed to really take care of these patients so subsequent to that we've been working on upgrading the operating theaters the emergency department the clinical lab the imaging area and so on i now have truly a modern hospital sitting on the outskirts of port-au-prince so when this latest earthquake hit we became the first major hospital draining the whole western side of the island where the earthquake came from even though the earthquake was 70 to 80 kilometers away most of those patients came to our little opital adventist to haiti and fortunately we had dr nelson was there we had a team of orthopedists we've been rotating down and they've been doing 12 to 15 surgeries a day doing various modern techniques very few amputations now they can save most of the limbs and what a difference it has made and we've provided free care to these patients many of them do not have the means to care for themselves in this setting so we're delighted they have an opportunity to invite you to participate in caring for these patients in haiti it's costing us around twenty five thousand dollars a week to provide the care that we offer them uh in our hospital a team is still there we're rotating new ones down every week to continue to provide care for these earthquake victims so thank you the website for ahi is on the screen the phone number you can call if you wish to make a donation to support the clinical work we're doing at opital advertised new haiti thank you dr hart for that information we really appreciate you and also we just want to talk a little bit about the worship service you know last week we started a new sermon series entitled god's people after the worst happens we've all been in those situations where bad things happen to us and how as christians do we handle that what do we do so last week was pastor phillip this week is carl hafner next week is austin roberts we hope that you stay tuned to listen to the message today well that's our announcements for today as always for more information go to our website lluc.org if you are a guest and visiting here with us please see us at the uconnect center in the foyer or you can fill out the uconnect card in the pew we love you guys have a wonderful sabbath day happy sabbath isn't it great to be together in the house of the lord amen you know whether you're joining us online or you're here in person it is my immense pleasure and honor to welcome you to worship today pastor carl hefner will be continuing our series god's people after the worst happens and his message is entitled hope you know in our communities in our churches in our country in our world we face some immense challenges the pandemic and disease challenges like political infighting and poverty like wars and natural disasters even in our personal lives we face challenges in our families in our in our homes in our our our jobs at work at our schools and so like the psalmist we may be tempted at times to look to the hills and wonder where does our help come from but what was true thousands of years before is still true today our help comes from the lord the makers of the heavens and the earth he who watches over us will not slumber he will not let our feet slip and so as we worship and as we sing may this be the theme of our hearts the lord is our hope even after the worst happens welcome to the loma linda university church welcome to worship i invite you to stand with me as we sing our hymn of praise [Music] i hope is [Music] and righteousness [Music] is i rest on it is is is [Music] [Applause] [Music] is [Applause] this time is [Music] is [Music] now picture it the trumpet sound and you stand on christ the solid rock but you are able to stand on christ a solid rock because you can sit safely in the security that you are redeemed you may be seated church family story was once told about a monk he had grown up wealthy and without any problems and then all of the sudden he recognized that there was an emptiness in his life so he left all worldly wealth behind and he decided to inaugurate a monastery and every time a new monk would come benedict would tell them to take some time in prayer and engage in a practice known as examinary this is the moment where you reflect and look inward in order to try and find that which your heart is crying out for and today as we invite you to come forward while our beautiful praise team sings i would invite you to examine your hearts and try to find the hope the hope that has brought you to this place the hope that is sustaining you in spite of everything the hope that you continue to live with knowing that regardless of what happens in your life things will get better so if you want to give god your petitions your pla your prayers and your pleas as our praise team sings we invite you to come forward as we engage in the sacred act of giving god our deepest held hopes as we pray take our hearts where christ does [Music] join us [Music] god we want to take just the briefest of moments to ask you to examine us look deep in the recesses of our soul cleanse us from the shame from the shame that causes us to hide when you are waiting to embrace us thank you thank you for forgiveness and for the promise of christ jesus now lord as you have examined us we ask you to transport us move us from this place up to your throne of grace and as we come to your presence as we stand before you we would ask that you allow us to find hope as we kneel in this church lord we need hope as we think about our lives and we weep at the prospect of marriages breaking up lord we need hope as families continue to struggle in strife lord we need hope as we receive a medical diagnosis that is devastating father we need hope god as we are bearing our loved ones in this time and in this place we need the hope of the resurrection as our country continues to flail about and it becomes more polarized we need the hope of the one that calls us to be bound together father more than anything we need hope so grant us the capacity to hope once again and as we hope give us the courage give us the courage to be the answer to someone's prayer for this is our hope and prayer in the name of jesus christ and all the church said amen [Music] join us [Music] so good morning church family i just want to say what a joy it is to pray with you to kneel down in the front of the church like that just moves my heart i felt like i was in my family on friday nights on our knees petitioning the lord to come near and we sensed the holy spirit in that place and i sense him here now thank you so very much and just like a family praying together we we had to deal with some of the issues and also set goals and this church family has set a goal and that's why during the offering call we'd like to draw your attention to some of the pressing issues of our church and frankly i have really good news we're keeping up with our payments for the building but i've made friends i've made peace with the old with the old toolbox tool belt and uh and i was cleaning up my office and i saw it there and i thought today would be the day that we bring it out and bring out the the blueprints remember years ago i think about five years ago we we came out with blueprints and the tool belt and we tried to bring people's mind towards this building program it's a daunting building program and friends during a season of where the world is broken and we have so many needs i see dr hart's appeal and my heart is softened there are so many needs outside of this church and i want to recognize them friends we also have a mission field right here and so i believe as a church family we can do both we can be faithful to the greater church but we can also be faithful to the local church and we set a goal for ourselves to have this ministry we call it the family ministries building friends i just want to declare what's happening over there if you if you don't get over there hundreds hundreds and hundreds of young adults from this university are now filling our anthem program in fact it is so full they are talking about an unprecedented two services during the same sabbath morning you'll hear more about that can i get an amen this is why we built this building we want our young people here hundreds of kids up in the youth room i got to be with 45 13 year olds this morning responding to leadership programming without a building without a space to worship and to teach discipleship it's not going to happen and so as a family i want to remind you that we have a common good from this building our young people are being are being brought to worship brought to discipleship it's not just young people we have adult sabbath schools the fellowship hall our anthem program the amphitheater we have all ages served by this ministry building but it's full it is full it has fulfilled the promise that god has given us now i wear the belt because we're not done building it's not quite complete yet friends we uh we have some heavy lifting and it'll be a while we have as you see 2.2 million i mean i'm sorry 22.6 million left to go that's some heavy lifting but we are keeping up with our payments we truly are in fact we have our giving season coming up in november i'm looking forward to a brand new campaign that we can keep that on the front burner but friends we can have mission work outside the church and we can have mission work right inside the church my dear friend mary kay becker said tell us the story of what's happening because i mentioned that in the first service i got permission to tell you this story but there's a young man who lost his father his father was estranged he wanted to get to know his father and his father passed away this young man now has found purpose in his life he's 14 years old he's found purpose serving the ministries here at loma linda university church in the noon family ministries building he is ever present this young man helps us in the junior high department he helps us in the youth department it is an amazing observation that i have made that young boys especially without fathers have made the church their ministry i've seen it so many times that just wrenches my heart that they have found purpose and meaning if we can get them if we can assign them a ministry but the church needs to engage them or we lose them we lose them to despair we lose them to hopelessness and they find some other home in the in the world friends our young people need a place to worship and that place is doing its job and i am so thankful forgive me for the crackling voices i love what's happening up there it's amazing it's truly amazing and uh if you want some more stories come talk to me because i can fill you up with uh with beautiful stories of ministry that's happening right now now we have some heavy lifting somebody asked me this morning why does that pie chart never move well you know the answer is obvious we have to keep giving um but friends we need more of you giving every sabbath here's what i fear someone else is doing it someone with money is doing the heavy lifting and friends they are let's just say thank you they are but we need more of us giving on a weekly basis five dollars ten dollars did you know what five dollars times 52 weeks you can you can do the math that's probably more than we would think to give in a normal year something every week keeps it on our radar something every week helps us to remember that ministry is alive and well and we want to invite you to be involved if there's any doubt whether that building has fulfilled its promise let there be no more doubt it has we have a common good our common goal brought us together and it keeps us together and it is a ministry for our god the lord is doing a good thing thank you so much for being a part of that [Applause] foreign [Music] foreign foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] good morning boys and girls this is our time together but i'm gonna have you stay sitting in your seats but just know that i see you there and soon we'll be able to come back now this morning pastor carl is going to talk to us about hope well what exactly is hope it's important because the bible says it over and over and over again in fact you can probably find it over 150 times in the bible just by the version that you use so hope is believing and having the patience to wait for god to fulfill his promises that may sound simple but i think it maybe is a little bit harder to do than we're giving it credit for so i brought with me two cups in a bottle of water one says hope and one says hopeless now it's kind of easy to have hope when everything is going really well when things are going really good in our lives we can have lots of hope maybe when you are on the soccer field you score a goal a winning goal oh that's great or maybe you study really hard for a test and you do really good on your test and maybe you have a playdate with a friend and you feel really good you have all this hope being poured into you that you are just filled up with god's love and then you have so much hope to give to everybody else but boys and girls there's times in life that things don't always go well maybe somebody in our family gets sick maybe we don't do well on that test maybe we get in a fight with our brother and sister you know boys and girls when we feel that our cup isn't being filled and god's pouring into us but we don't have that hope we feel awful inside we feel empty maybe we feel alone maybe we feel like life is pointless there's no worth and so even though god has poured hope into us we have nothing to give to anybody else not even a drop well psalm 31 24 says be strong and courageous to everybody has that has hope in the lord whether we have a bad day or a good day whether difficult things are happening in our lives or things are going really well god wants to pour hope into us let's allow him to fill us with that hope today happy sabbath before we return please read with me the following quotes may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit [Music] hope begins in the dark the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing the dawn will come you wait and watch and work you don't give up the hebrew term for hope literally means a cord as an attachment every one of us is hanging on to something or someone for security if it's someone or something other than god alone you're hanging on by a thread the wrong thread now let's return to the worship service our scripture reading today is from romans 15 niv chapter 15 verses 4 and 13. for everything that was written in the past was written to teach us so that through endurance and the encouragement of the scriptures we might have hope may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit i love color dr hefner gave me permission to read this verse again from the message oh may the god of green hope fill you up with joy fill you up with peace so that your believing lives filled with the life-giving energy of the holy spirit will brim over with hope a few years ago i was at our church's community center this back in ohio where we used to live i heard a homeless woman there in our food pantry make an observation that still stings she said in this town it's a whole lot easier to find heroin than hope and it struck me that's why we have a church community center right that's why we have a church to be a source of hope and you could certainly argue that never in the history of humankind has there been a time when more people feel so utterly hopeless and so god has called every single one of us to be hope peddlers the apostle paul says as much romans chapter 15 if you would turn to our key text for today as we continue in our series god's people after the worst happens and together we're looking at the trinity of virtues in the bible namely faith hope and love today focusing on hope and so we're going to carefully consider the council from romans 15. then we're going to get just painstakingly practical and talk about ways that you and i can be intentional about being an agent of hope and then finally i'll leave you with a hope challenge and hopefully no pun intended but hopefully i will be done preaching at the same time that you are done listening deal so let's see how she goes shall we romans our foundational text here verse 13 where paul writes may the god of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit so paul starts by saying may this god of hope now you have to appreciate just how radically countercultural this title would have been in that context in paul's day they did not think about hope as a positive attribute like we do today but rather they saw it as delusional wishful thinking and of course in that world they were all about rational thinking and reason and so they had no time for hope dallas willard wrote one of the remarkable changes brought by jesus and his people into the ancient world concerned the elevation of hope into a primary virtue now there's a window into that ancient world through the poem of he collides back in what 700 bc and you probably remember the basic storyline of pandora's it was actually a jar in the original poem but there have been so many iterations and translations of it and it has changed to now it's referred to as pandora's box the basic story of zeus the god of the sky who was so ticked off at his cousin prometheus the god of fire that he created pandora and gave her this jar with instructions you are never too open do not look inside and of course human nature being what it was was only a matter of time she had to know what's inside this jar and so she unscrewed the lid and then suddenly flowing out of this jar all of these curses death and disease and all of these awful things but i find it interesting you know what else was in the jar with pandemics and plagues and so on hope see that's how they thought about hope never would somebody have referred to zeus as a god of hope nor would odin from nordic mythology never would you refer to that god as a god of hope or molech or baal or any of the eastern religious gods none of them but here paul says may the god of hope and again the reason they didn't really see hope as a positive thing is because they just thought it was delusional it wasn't based on anything real we get a picture of this any of you seen the old movie uh dumb and dumber you don't have to admit it in church since apparently nobody has seen them i haven't seen it either i've i really haven't i've only seen a 54 second clip of it whereas the same the main character jim carrey confronts this woman and he is in love with her and so he just asks her point blank so what are the chances that you know a guy like me and a young woman like you maybe would someday fall in love she answers not good but but what are the chances one in a hundred no she says more like one in a million and then his face brightens and he says so you're telling me i have a chance yes now as viewers we know that's not what she's telling him right she's not saying you have a chance at all you're just hoping on a delusion that's it it's a little bit like now at the start of the nfl season a dallas cowboy fan saying i hope the cowboys win the super bowl this year now as viewers of the nfl you and i we all know that's just a delusion amen this will be the last invitation i ever get to preach here isn't it but paul see he speaks a lot about hope because it is anchored in historical fact in reality it's based on the resurrection of jesus christ and so in his writings he unapologetically refers to this god of hope may our god of hope he says this god of hope fill you now in the greek you is plural and so he's talking to all of the believers in rome he's talking to all of the believers in loma linda fill you all of you in the south that would be rendered you all with all joy and peace as you trust in him now we're in this series god's people after the worst happens and last year or last week pastor philip did a masterful job talking about how we lean into faith when 9 11's happen when we go through those inevitable seasons of struggle and loss and pain how do we lean into faith and the take home for me what he was saying which i would totally agree with him is you have to live in christ it's the most important spiritual principle i know and paul says the same thing here we don't become more hopeful by trying to think more positive thoughts now that's not the way spiritual life works it's not by trying harder it's always by trusting in jesus by living in christ so paul says may our god of hope fill all of you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the holy spirit and i love that word overflow from the greek resource which is my favorite word because i tend to be an extremist my friends will tell you carl is an extremist and this word is a favorite of extremists because it means abundantly excessively way beyond what you could even imagine he says so may our god of hope fill you with joy and peace so that you will just overflow in other words you can't hide hope i thought of this greek word the other day at costco i was getting gas wouldn't you know i went to the pump that had a defective nozzle so every time i tried to put gas into my empty tank it shut off like the tank was full but i knew that it wasn't i would have just gone to a different tank but i didn't want to drive to you kaipa to get into the back of the line and so i just did the best i could by barely pressing that handle and then i just started mindlessly doing this it would keep shutting off and i'd keep insisting no you pump eventually the tank was full but by then i wasn't paying any attention to what i was doing suddenly there was this geyser of gas that drenched me as soon as i walked into the house sri from a different part of the room my wife said what is that horrific gas smell what is wrong that you can't she didn't even see me you can't hide it was a week before i could even stand to sit in my car it reeks so badly of fuel see paul's saying you can't hide hope and there's a lot of research that would support this i think of the work nicholas christakis an md phd researcher professor at yale university he's done a lot of work in social scientists around the idea of social stampedes and three degrees of influence as it turns out the impact and the influence that we have not just on our friends but on their friends and then their friends and so on is way more pervasive than you might believe and so there are studies that show students who room with more studious roommates end up studying more or people who sit next to heavy eaters in restaurants they end up eating more or people who live next door to avid gardeners end up mowing their lawn more pastor and author john ortberg explains further saying it's not just that our friends affect us our friends friends friends affect us your friend ted is a friend at work named ned who has a neighbor named fred and fred's negativity depresses ned who depressed ted you're having a bad day all because of some guy you will never meet isn't that interesting but this is how it works and so if a friend of a friend of a friend of yours starts smoking or gains weight or gets depressed you are more likely to do the same thing but on a positive side now if you just speak an encouraging word of hope that not only positively influences the person who heard you speak this word but their friends and not just that but their friends friends it's like a three for one coupon giving hope isn't that great the impact that we can have on one another so how can we live as agents of hope well because hope is a theme throughout the pauline epistles we look to some of other writings from paul where he tells us at least three ways that we will underscore here ways that we can live as hope peddlers are you ready first he says live in god's word if you look up in romans chapter 15 just a few verses verse 4 he says this scriptures were written to teach and encourage us by giving us hope it is true the more we read the bible the more hopeful we are as we immerse our hearts and our minds on the life-transforming truths of scripture we become more and more hopeful and then we overflow with this hope and it affects our friends and our friends friends and our friends friends friends there is scientific research that would suggest the more we read our bible the more hopeful we are i know this is true because i read it on the internet now i did read it at kind of a sketchy site at harvard university so it's not like real credible like your facebook page or something like that but listen to this study i find this so fascinating according to this article titled in times of trial and trouble many americans turn to the bible for encouragement reading now researchers found a strong correlation between scripture reading and hope and when they say strong correlation they're not kidding notice this on a scale of one to one hundred with one hundred being the most hopeful americans who report reading the bible three or four times per year scored 42 so that's our baseline if somebody reads the bible once a quarter they score about 42 on the hope meter people who read monthly scored 59 weekly 66 multiple times per week 75 even universities like harvard are discovering the truth of what paul says he says look scripture was given to you to fill you with joy and peace and hope and the more you read your bible the more hopeful you will become secondly paul would suggest we live in god's church in a community of hope like this notice ephesians 1 verse 18 he says 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 in his holy people that's the church interesting study released by gallup organization every year they look at the emotional and mental health of americans and they publish their annual results well during the pandemic it came as no surprise to anybody that by and large almost all of the demographic subgroups that they studied were way down in their mental and emotional health had taken a precipitous dive in 18 out of the 19 subgroups there was only one demographic group in their study that actually during the pandemic they have reported even stronger healthier emotional and mental well-being and you know what that group was quote people who attend a weekly religious service people who go to church that's why we have a church to be a source of hope oh how we need that today is so many people just feel hopeless and give you a beautiful picture of this my wife just started teaching third and fourth graders down at loma linda academy loves the kids loves her job but to say that it has been stressful would be an understatement i've hardly seen her since school started and a part of it is that they just haven't been able to get her computers working right and and get her online there on the website she needs to go to and so on and so it's all kind of came to a boil the other day when she was scheduled to meet with the parents first parents meeting but she desperately needed to get into the computer to get curriculum and stuff for the kids to take home and they she just couldn't do it and she stood there as they were feverishly working on her keyboard and so on and she just started trembling just felt so overwhelmed in that moment and just so unbelievably stressed when a church member maybe one of you i don't even know who it was but a church member a colleague somebody she had just met also a teacher there at the school and she just said the perfect thing she didn't say hey tree you're going to make it don't worry which would have been appropriate would have been fine but instead she noticed sri just standing there you know wondering what am i going to do what do i do here and this woman god bless her came she put her hand on my wife's hand and she said tree we will get you through this they're great you're not alone you're part of this beautiful god-ordained community of hope and we will get you through this as soon as sheree got home that night she told me this story one teacher who just lifted her out of this pit that she felt like she was in and just hearing the story it raised my own spirits and now i'm telling all of you and all of our viewers online on the broadcast see this is how hope happens a friend of a friend of a friend such a small beautiful gesture which with such profound impact that's the way hope happens it spreads like a virus it's contagious it spreads faster than the delta variant from friend to friend to friend and before we know it we have triggered a pandemic of hope i'm telling you friends if we get this god will change this world through you and me by the power of his holy spirit as we just overflow with hope so how can we be a part of that revolution of hope live in god's word live in god's church and finally live in god's spirit i love colossians 1 verse 27 paul writes to them god has chosen to make known among the gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery which is notice this christ in you the hope of glory and remember our key text ends with you will overflow with hope how by the power of the holy spirit it is christ living in us so just imagine what could happen if all of us were to be always living in that sacred space of surrender to the spirit receptive and responsive whatever god's calling us to do by the indwelling of his spirit and we just do it when god prompts us through his holy spirit to go and say a word of hope do something that will help somebody feel that hope again we could change the world i was preaching on this very topic the next day i was in houston flying home friday afternoon working on this sermon the early christian church looking at all of these miracles recorded in acts and as i settled into my seat there on the plane i found myself in prayer in my mind saying god how could i experience the same kind of miracles how could i live in such an intimate connection with christ and your spirit that i would see you manifest yourself in these ways and just about then a woman came stumbling up from the back of the plane she got a re assignment on her seat and so she sat down next to me and i i didn't hear an audible voice but it was as clearly as i've ever discerned god speaking to me it was just this strong prompting well turn to this woman next to you and start up a conversation i find myself arguing god i don't want to do you know i hate talking to strangers on planes i do but it was clear what you were asking me carl how do you live in that way i'm telling you talk to this woman and again in my mind i just have this angst because i'm saying but god that's why i wear the universal symbol that screams i don't want to talk to anybody on this airplane i wear noise canceling headphones big ones the size of a volkswagen bug on either ear and it was as if god said fine you're so stubborn i'll work with her. and in that moment she turns to me she says um the most random question i've ever received just out of the blue she asks me are you a priest do i look like a priest to you i was not wearing a clerical collar or anything like that i shook my head because see that's the problem with noise canceling headphones you can still hear what people say to you then she asked are you a rabbi are you a pastor now she's just gone to meddling i took off my headphones and i said actually i am a pastor have we met before oh no no no no i just had a strong sense from god that he was going to put me into a seat next to somebody who works for him i just knew god was going to remind me when they gave me a new seat assignment that he hasn't forgotten me so i asked well tell me your story what's what's going on in your life so i just spent the last three days with my brother in houston he has leukemia best oncologists in the world i've told him there is no hope put your affairs in order so for the last three days i've hardly eaten anything i hardly slept at all i've never been more physically emotionally mentally and spiritually exhausted i am so drained but i just felt this prompting from god that he would remind me that he has not forgotten me and that there's still reason to hope the entire flight we talked about what a terrible disease cancer is we talked about our families and our spiritual journeys we talked about why such terrible things happen to good people like her brother when we landed i said chris would it be okay if i shared your story with my church family and we'll all be lifting you and your brother and your family up in prayer and before she could even respond she just burst into tears just convulsing sobs and finally when she regained her composure enough to talk she just nodded and finally said that would mean more to me than i can even tell you a few days later i received this text message from her dear carl being able to share with you on that flight meant so much to me god used you to bring such comfort owen lost his battle with leukemia he was a wonderful man brother who loved the lord and is very much missed thank you so much for being there when i desperately needed to know that god had not forsaken me ours was a divine appointment and i wonder how many of those divine appointments have i missed because i don't want to take off my noise canceling headphones i'm just so busy my life is so cluttered there's so much noise and hurry and i just don't take time to sit still to discern that still small voice of the spirit prompting me to be an agent of hope what would happen if all of us were to make a covenant with each other and with god in this moment to say god i am going to live in that sacred space of surrender receptive and responsive to the promptings of your spirit make me an agent of hope and so to help you with this i give you a hope challenge i have paraphrased our key text and put it into a prayer thus i call it a paraphrase you should have received this paraphrase on your way into the sanctuary today and i'm encouraging all of you to put this somewhere where you are going to see it often and every time you see it just pray this simple prayer if you want more pick up a few extra on your way out today i think we have plenty so i've been doing this now for a few days i taped one up on my mirror and so every morning as i shave i pray out loud god of hope may or fill me with all joy and peace as i trust in you so that i may overflow with hope by the power of your holy spirit and then i put it on my screensaver i'd suggest you do the same so when i walk into the office on the big screen there on my desk i see this prayer and i pray it again today god may i be an agent of your hope i put it on the dashboard in my car the other day as i flew through a speed trap i instinctively looked to the speedometer and this is what i saw and i prayed oh god of hope god of hope and i know you're going to want to know the rest of this story aren't you i did not get a speeding ticket this is gold friends this is gold so join me won't you as a community we prayerfully beseech god to fill us with all joy and peace so that as we trust in him he will overflow us with hope by the power of the holy spirit and by his grace we will spark a revolution a pandemic of hope [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] when [Music] when troubles come and my heartburn then i am still and wait here in the silence until you come and sit a while with me you raise me up so i can't stand on mountains you raise me up to walk on stormy seas high and strong when i am on your shoulders you raise me up to more than i can be [Music] so [Music] you raise me up so i can't stand on mountains you raise me up to walk on stormy seas i am strong when i am on your shoulders [Music] you raise me up to more than i can be you raise me up so i can't stand on my test [Music] [Applause] [Music] when i am on your shoulders [Music] [Applause] [Music] high and strong when i am on your shoulders [Music] you raise me up to more than i can be you raise me up to more than i can move [Applause] a special thank you to my dear friend jared mcnaughton god brought him into my life many years ago now and he has been such a consistent and beautiful voice of hope for me and so when i asked him to join me on this topic teaching today he was willing to do that so thank you to jared and i'm wondering if you would join me in our closing prayer could you find this card and i'm hoping that we can read this together and this will be the first time of many times that all of you read this prayer hopefully each day and god uses it to remind us to be responsive to the holy spirit so can we practice right now as our closing prayer everybody reading together god of hope fill me with all joy and peace as i trust in you so that i may overflow with hope by the power of your holy spirit amen [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] do [Music] hello everybody so glad to be back with you it's been an interesting week and you notice our environment's a little different but we're back with you with the loma linda university church and right at the top of my list i get to greet a very special lady iris fortune she lives in luton veterans united kingdom and here she is with her dear husband claude albert happy birthday iris and i want to greet also elsie chan elsie is a part of the university church right here in loma linda and she is marking her 85th birthday congratulations elsie and you notice that she has friends here at church look at her there with pastor adrian presley and of course other pastors and friends here at loma linda besides her enlarging family congratulations elsie hello to marlene smith marlene lives in naples florida she's a part of our family as well and i want to wish you a very happy birthday marlene and a big hello to evelyn ray nielsen right here in loma linda and when they get to come to church they're right down in front congratulations evelyn for your 87th birthday and a big hello to ray as well hello calvin and carol hansen up sacramento way 70th anniversary you two warmest congratulations so glad to be in touch with you folks whenever lauren dingle lives in riverside she's 19 years old look at this beautiful young lady congratulations on your birthday lauren and danetta frost i was so glad to get to see you recently danetta you're down in san marcos i know these days but you and bob came up this way and we were so grateful to be in touch with you hello carol dairy bretch out you kype away and we see you on facebook about as often as we see anybody with interesting news but the news is it's your birthday carol and i wish you all the best and a big hello to tim rossen tim is our wonderful friend and business manager here at university church and there he is with his dog and there he is with his beautiful wife kim and their family congratulations tim we love you man hello vernon reese always glad to get to be where you are particularly when we can be in gathering place but it's your birthday man and i'm here to wish you the best and george and shirley yavor also a part of our family here at loma linda 54th anniversary is it i wish you two the very very best and your family braun and lolly mccall hinckley minnesota yes i think there you were and here you are i'm always glad to be reminded of you folks and i wish you the very very best and that goes for joe and connie wheeler as well who live in littleton colorado and they are marking anniversary number 62. and we know joe so well because of his christmas stories the books you know congratulations on your anniversary you two hello larry becker yes this picture you said is what it looks like to be 67 years old and we love you larry and congratulate you on your birthday and right now i get to greet zion elijah connell five years old he is look at this young man pickering ontario canada all the very best zion happy birthday to you greta buckland right here university church a part of our family and yes it's time to take a drink of tea greta and i wish you all the best for your birthday hello valerie haynes out more park california way two of my very dear friends here valerie and gary and she's one of the real actresses i've gotten to know in my life and i'm here to wish you happy birthday valerie hello carolyn ruddle now over phoenix arizona way yes we miss you around here but i'm so glad to see you there with son and grandsons your son stephen who's the dad and sons austin logan and callan all of whom are brilliant scholars congratulations on your birthday carolyn hello donna ike glad to see you whenever i can saw you recently with your dad and now i see you there with dear kelly congratulations on your birthday donna and jim brown that goes for you too over tempe arizona way congratulations on your birthday and having cindy in your life hello tim hickman right here university church tim is such a dear dear friend faithful servant and having a birthday congratulations tim and glad to see you there with dear ellen angelia alitha mike is 101 years old lives in dabady republic of trinidad and tobago look at this beautiful lady 101 cared for her by her beautiful daughter glenda congratulations on your birthday angelia hello flora ocampo a part of our family here in loma linda marking your 91st birthday lady and there you are with a niece congratulations on your birthday hello mike stevenson out santa clarita way pastor there actually always glad to get to be where you are and there you are with dear wife chris and jerry and billy friesen wow do we have some history and it's your 70th anniversary you say i love this picture of your courtship days and then that 1930 model a that you drove away in after your wedding and here you are today we love you two warmest congratulations and the same goes for dan and elaine scorch but they're marking 71 years of marriage and i wish you two the very best as you continue pestering right here in the loma linda area hello florent kempf stuttgart germany i call florent my german son you know i have lots of sons they're in germany they're in [Music] brazil they're in other hispanic countries and one is in alaska these days congratulations florent on your birthday with your beautiful wife alina and your new offspring congratulations hello fred wilson collegedale tennessee 93rd birthday i'm told wonderful to see you there in a bear hug with your wife marilyn and then yes with your family congratulations on being such a faithful servant all the years fred and kensington kenzie lang hello kenzie up bozeman montana way these days i'm told and i love this picture that marks your graduation day from montana state university since you are now an agricultural businesswoman and an equine scientist and finally yes look at this lady you know she's amazingly beautiful talented betsy matthews great wife mother grandmother great grandmother a dear friend to hundreds of you for whom she never forgets your birthday so just look at her there and four generations there are and she even loves this old guy and all the best to all of us as we come to a new week in which we expect god's special blessing bye now [Music] oh [Music] you

Channel: Loma Linda University Church

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Rating: 4.8333335 out of 5

Keywords: lluchurch, loma, linda, university, church, lluc, 7th, day, adventist, seventh, seventh-day, sda, christian, christianity, nad, north, american, division, blessed, praise, worship, haystack, love, life, god, jesus, second, coming, advent, film, video, short, forgiveness, message, song, music, sing, play, child, children, congregation, hymn, choir, bible, religion, religious, friend, family, community, service, prayer, study, discipleship, california, usa, blue, zone, student, america, gc, general, conference, randy, roberts

Id: a9hxInKjcdI

Length: 93min 26sec (5606 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 18 2021