Unfolding Grace, Hope, and Resilience: A Christian Perspective

All right.

All right, you can go ahead and find your seats this morning If you have a Bible while you're getting back to your seat.

1 Peter, chapter one.

1 Peter, chapter one.

We're going to be there in just a moment.

It's a great day to be in church, is it not a great day to be in church?

I saw somebody earlier and they were putting on a sweatshirt and they were like it's chilly in here and I was like, praise the Lord, praise the Lord.

That is a good improvement to have right there, because you can always add more layers.

There's only so many you can take off before you go to prison.

So welcome to church.

Glad you're here.

1 Peter, chapter one.

A couple of things before we jump into that this morning.

Next Sunday next Sunday is a big day for a couple of reasons.

One, we're going to celebrate our one year anniversary as a campus next weekend, which is amazing.

So we're going to celebrate what God's done and pray for what God's going to continue to do in the future.

Next weekend, and also next Sunday, we get a chance to meet Zach and Marley Hart, who our personnel committee and our search team have recommended for the position of youth pastor here.

So you'll get to meet Zach and he'll be in this service.

He'll be in every service next weekend and then we will vote on personnel's recommendation at the close of our time together next Sunday.

So you're going to want to be here for that, be here to celebrate our year as a campus.

It's going to be a great Sunday next week.

Next Peter, chapter one we're going to read verses three through nine together this morning.

If you're there, say there, fantastic.

You know why to wait today?

I told the first service I think you get extra credit in heaven for being in church on labor day weekend the day after college football starts.

I don't know, I can't confirm it.

I got no proof of that.

I just, I just think.

I just think.

Blessed to be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ, according to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven.

For you who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith, for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praising, glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Though you have not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls.

Father, we pray this morning that, as we open your word together, that your spirit would speak to our hearts.

Father, we we want living hope to characterize our lives, our words, our choices, our future.

And so, god, today we open our hearts and our lives, our minds, to your power, to your spirit, and we ask that you would work in Jesus name.

Amen, amen.

I want you to think back for a moment to your elementary school days.

Think back for a moment.

Do you have a lot of elementary school memories?

Some do, some don't.

Some are like I'm there right now.

It's all I know.

I just all I think of is memory.

It's not memory, it's real life right now.

And I was thinking about elementary school the other day, specifically my third grade year, during one of our science classes, segments, sections, I don't know what you call it, but we had a class experiment where we raised these little frogs called African dwarf frogs.

Anybody else raise an African dwarf frog?

We sang about raising hallelujahs and we're talking about raising dwarf frogs in church today.

No, okay, good, I'm out here on a limb, I'll buy myself.

So we raised these African dwarf frogs third grade science project and we came to the end of that section of the class and the teacher said, okay, now, because we're done with these frogs, who wants to take these frogs home?

And so, of course, being eight years old, I raised my hand.

I was like I would love some African dwarf frogs at my house.

My parents were thrilled when I got home with three African dwarf frogs, and the thing about an African dwarf frog is that they're really like fragile creatures, like they're not supposed to live that long, and so that's why I think our teacher, like I didn't even name them because they their teacher was like don't name them, don't get attached, just you know, care for them.

And then you know, then they expire.

And two of those frogs expired by the end of like the first week that I had them at my house Y'all, one of those little African dwarf frogs.

That Joker was resilient and I'm like this is going to sound bad when I say it out loud, I'm just going to say it and let the chips fall where they may.

That guy wouldn't die.

Like I wouldn't try it, like I wanted them to live, but like I would just been told like he's not going to live long, he's not going to make it very long, you know, but like he literally wouldn't die.

And like you know there's a you can Google African dwarf frogs and how to care for them and with proper care and nourishment and all of that, they can live.

Like two years.

This guy lived three and he got no proper care and very little nourishment.

Like I mean, he was, he just was happy, just this little happy African dwarf frog.

You're not supposed to touch them because they're so fragile.

You're just supposed to let them swim around and eat their food and clean their water out.

So they don't, you know, you can see them in the water and like you're supposed to do that.

But like I would pick this guy up out of the tank and like hold him in my hand and look at him and poke him and put him back, and he just kept on, like Nemo, just kept swimming.

For like three years.

This little dwarf frog lived, he was resilient, he just wouldn't die, and that, the idea of resilience is what I really want to talk about today.

Not the dwarf frog, that was just a vehicle to the idea of resilience, but when you think about resilience, what comes to mind, you know, maybe maybe it's a person, a family member, that has been through the worst that could come their way, and yet they have stood strong in the midst of the fire.

Or maybe maybe it's a business that you know.

It just seems to me.

Maybe maybe some businesses thrived in COVID, and they got stronger, they were resilient.

Maybe it's an athlete that comes to mind that you know.

They've been through injuries, they've been through pain and difficulty.

They keep coming back and they keep performing.

They're just resilient.

I'm willing to bet that, for most of us in the room, when we think about resilience, the one thing that probably doesn't come to the forefront of our minds, though, is hope, hope, this idea of hope that won't die, resilient hope, and that's what I want to talk about today.

In this world, I believe that we need, more than ever, christians, followers of Jesus who live with hope that won't die, resilient hope in the face of difficulty, in the face of obstacles, in the face of the worst the world has to throw our way.

We need to be people characterized by hope that won't die.

I was down at MUSC a few weeks ago, wanted to see one of our kids there that was in the house not my kids, but one of our church families that was in the hospital there.

And as I was walking the halls you could hear the voices of kids crying and calling out for their parents or, you know, yelling no, as they're being treated.

And it was heartbreaking and like hearing these kids in the midst of the most difficult circumstances imaginable.

And then, on the same trip, I walked past the lowest level of MUSC Children's Hospital and they had this massive putting green on the ground level of the hospital and their kids with pick lines in their arms and hospital bracelets on their wrists and they're playing mini golf under the hospital.

And then on the sixth floor there's this massive outdoor playground with slides and swings and playground equipment and their kids out there laughing and cutting up and swinging and sliding in the middle the worst circumstances imaginable.

They're resilient and I just wonder how many of us have that type of resilience on the inside, that hope that says I believe that the future is better than the past.

I believe that there's a promise ahead that's worth pursuing, even in the middle of difficulty.

Today I'd go so far this morning as to say that for us to follow Jesus well in our day and time we have got to have, it's essential that we live with hope that won't die.

There's so much around us, so many reasons we could point to and put a finger on to say that that's not good, that's painful, that's dark, that's difficult.

We need hope that won't die.

Anybody this morning say I need hope that won't die.

I've got good news this morning.

That's exactly what Peter talks about today.

First Peter, chapter one, verse three.

Peter begins he says bless be the God and Father of Jesus Christ, our Lord.

And I love that this conversation about hope begins with the worship of Almighty God, because we just say together this morning that if we always started with the worship of God, it would reframe so much of how we see the world.

I'll be really honest this morning with you, like I'm not honest every Sunday I hope I try to be, but I'll be really honest this morning with you.

The first thing that I do when I wake up in the morning oftentimes after looking at my six year old who's on the front row over there and be like no, it's five o'clock, why are you awake already?

Maybe the second thing that I do in the morning oftentimes is I reach for my cell phone and I check my email to see who's emailed me at 4am.

Right, like who's going to be awake emailing me at 4am.

I need to see what the USPS is bringing me today in my mailbox, first thing, and then I go to Twitter or what it's now called X, and I open it and I just see what Elon's doing and what's happening in the world and then I check the new anybody else?

The first thing you do in the morning is start scrolling and swiping and it's like how much bad news can I intake before I?

How much stress can I just go ahead and lay on my shoulders before my feet even hit the ground?

I say I mean, I'm the rest of you.

I'm so glad that you begin your day with prayer and fasting and the worship of Jesus.

Like you, I want to be like you and like how much better would our day be if that was our priority in the morning, first thing I'm going to do, I'm going to bless the God and Father of our Lord and Savior, jesus Christ, before I swipe and scroll and peruse the news and see who's emailed and how many calls I've missed and who texted me in the middle of the night Like let me check in with Almighty God and bless his name and start my day with praise and see.

That's not conditional on circumstances, that's not conditional on whether or not you feel like it.

That's just a priority to say in the morning.

When I wake up and open my eyes, I'm going to bless Almighty God, I'm going to worship King Jesus because because what Peter is about to tell us God has done something on our behalf.

God has moved on behalf of sinful people like me and you.

God has done something for us we do not do for ourselves, and not only that.

God is currently doing something in our lives today and because of that, there's a way in which we should live, characterized by this resilient hope that will not die.

And it all comes back to who God is and what God has done.

Paul Peter says bless be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again.

So here's what God has done on our behalf.

God, because of his great mercy, has caused us to be born again.

That is really, really, really good news.

There's a there's a moment in the New Testament, john, chapter three.

A man named Nicodemus comes to Jesus.

He's a teacher, he's a Pharisee, a teacher of the law.

He comes to Jesus and he says Jesus, teacher, how, how can I enter your kingdom, how can I become part of your family?

And Jesus looks back at Nicodemus and he says you must be born again, you've got to be born again.

I had a theology professor in seminary who who said that one of the central themes of the scripture is how an unrighteous person can become a righteous person.

And this is the answer to that question how does someone who's broken and sinful and unrighteous become righteous?

They must be, we must be, I must be born again.

Jesus goes on in his conversation with Nicodemus and he says he says, you know, this isn't something that that people can do for themselves, because Nicodemus is like well, I've already, I've already been born.

How do I, how do I enter my mother's womb a second time and be born again Like that?

How does that work?

That just is not possible, jesus.

And Jesus says no, this is a, this is a product of the spirit of God at work in your life.

The Holy spirit renews us, indwells us, causes us to be born again.

We're a new creation.

By grace, through faith in Jesus, we're, we're born again.

The old has gone, the new has come.

The past no longer defines us.

We've received a new nature, a new future, a new name, a new purpose, a new calling.

This is what it means to be born again.

Our sin no longer separates us from Almighty God.

We now have access into the presence of God through the finished work of Jesus, by the power of the Holy spirit.

Are you grateful this morning that you can be born again, that your sin doesn't have to define your eternity, that your sin doesn't always have to be the barrier between you and God?

By the spirit of Jesus, there is new life, a new heart, new flesh available to you.

You can be born again.

And Peter says this is, this is because of the mercy of Almighty God.

See, sometimes, sometimes I think we I know, I would like to think that the reason God is willing to allow me to be born again is because maybe he saw some potential in me, maybe he saw some goodness in me.

Maybe God was like I want them on my team, you know.

But no.

Peter says no.

This is this is God being merciful to you, this is God being gracious to you.

God sees us at our worst, dead in our sin, broken beyond repair, Unable in our own strength and power to do anything, to reconcile ourselves To God.

And God looks at us in our moment of need and he's merciful.

You ever been in a situation where maybe you're driving and you see someone on the corner of the road and they're holding a sign.

It's that's, you know.

They're asking for food or they're asking for for money, and it's like there's, there's clearly a need.

You know, maybe it, maybe that's a, maybe it's a different set of circumstances entirely, but but there's someone in your orbit that's clearly in need.

And if we've all probably been in a moment where we see a need but rather than moving to meet the need, we just maybe look with pity but then pass on by, I'm so grateful that in our moment of greatest need, god looked at us and Refused to pass us by, but because of his great mercy, he moved in our direction and Jesus took the nails and he took the cross and he shed his blood to satisfy the wrath of God towards my sin and your sin.

He went to the cross and he died.

He was buried so that God could be gracious and merciful towards us and cause us to be born again.

And so I think that right now, in this moment, in our time together, it's a great time to pause and say have you been born again?

Normally we do the invitation at the end we're gonna change things up.

Have you been born again?

Have you received the mercy and the grace and the forgiveness of God?

Have you turned from your sin and placed your faith in the crucifixion and the burial and the Resurrection of Jesus, his finished work, to put you right with God?

Have you moved from an unrighteous person to a righteous person in the name and the work of Jesus?

If you haven't, this is your moment this morning, and I want to ask everybody right now just to bow your heads right where you're at, nobody looking around, if you say today, for the first time, I want to place my faith in Jesus, I want to give my life to Jesus.

I want to invite you to pray this prayer with me.

Dear God, I know that I have sinned and broken relationship with you, but I trust in the work of Jesus and, by grace, through faith, ask Jesus to be my savior.

In Jesus name, amen.

If you prayed that prayer this morning, if God is at work in your heart, calling you to faith in him, the promise of God's word is that you will be saved.

You're being saved, you will be saved.

God's grace is sufficient to forgive your past, your present, your future.

You now belong in the family of God Because of his great mercy.

It's not good news.

Like come on, that's amazing.

By the mercies of God, we've been born again.

But then Peter goes on what if we've been born again to to a living hope?

We've been born again to a living Hope.

When I, when I talk to our youth, I like to talk about hope, you know, and the kind of hope that we have.

When we talk about, like, taking a test at school, you know what I mean.

I hope I pass this test.

Did you study?

No, right, that's not good hope, right.

I hope my game cocks have a good year this year, too soon, I Hope, right, like that's.

That's like that's.

That's conditional hope.

It all depends on outcomes and circumstances.

If I pass the test, my hope was good.

If my team wins, yes, hope fulfilled right, like that's not.

That's not the kind of hope we need, is it?

We need some hope that's not dependent on circumstances and outcomes.

We need hope anchored somewhere better than the performance of our team or our ability to pass a test or get a promotion or gain a number in the bank account.

In our, in our culture today, we see hope tied to who's in the White House.

If my candidate gets elected, hope is restored.

My candidate gets elected, hope continues.

Right, like that's.

That's how we look at hope.

That's not good hope.

Y'all Circumstances and outcome based hope doesn't sustain us.

It is not resilient.

But this hope that Peter's talking about this morning, a Living hope that comes through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

Peter says you want living hope.

Look to a living savior.

You want hope that can make it through the ups and downs, the highs and lows of life.

You want hope that goes beyond circumstances and outcomes.

You need living hope that comes from a resurrected king.

Jesus died once.

He's never dying again.

He's risen to life, and life forever.

He is ruling and reigning, king of Kings, lord of Lords forever.

This hope will not stop and that's what we need, y'all.

We need hope that keeps coming back.

Sin can't end this kind of hope.

Satan can't stop this kind of hope.

Cancer can't come against this kind of hope.

No matter what you're walking through what, what you're facing in your life, this hope overcomes.

It won't die Because it's anchored to the person and work of Jesus.

It's secured, peter says, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

And with this hope, peter says, comes an Inheritance that is better than any inheritance you could get this side of heaven.

Peter says this inheritance is Imperishable, undefiled and unfading, kept in heaven for you.

How beautiful is that?

So, this hope that we have through the resurrection of Jesus, it it's hope for today and it's a promise for the future that what's coming is better than anything in our past or anything we're walking through today.

There's heaven waiting for us on the other side of this life, and when we see Jesus face to face, faith will be made sight.

What was hoped for will be received an inheritance imperishable, unfading, undefiled.

You just imagine that moment where you see Jesus face to face and by the grace of God.

He looks at you and says well done, my good and faithful servant.

He hands you a crown of righteousness and you fall at his feet and lay the crown right back Down, because you know that it is only by the grace of God that you stand in the presence of Almighty God.

This is living hope, it says.

I know where this story ends.

It's what God has done through the resurrection of Jesus.

So, okay, that's what God has done.

Well, what's God doing now?

That's amazing.

That's that's it.

That's incredible.

We could pray an end right there.

But what's God doing now?

Well, peter says God's doing two things.

He goes on.

He says who Captain heaven for you?

Who, by God's power, are being guarded through faith?

So what is God doing?

Number one God is guarding your life.

If you belong to Jesus, if you, by grace, through faith, have received the gift of salvation, you've been filled with the spirit, you've received living hope.

God is guarding your life.

Every night, before I go to sleep, tara looks at me and she's like did you set the alarm?

Most nights I say no, and then she says are you going to?

And I say yes, and every night it's like the routine.

Now I can't remember it, even if I try to.

These days, I think and she's gonna ask me anyways I don't have to remember.

I just said it when she like we take such care To guard our stuff, do we not?

We put our money in a bank.

I Get an email every month that tells me if my identification has been stolen.

Like if they steal my ID, they're gonna give it back.

You know what I mean.

I remember every.

Like we take such care to guard our lives and yet, no, you know people lose their identity and stuff gets stolen.

And like I mean, can we be honest?

If you really think about what a house alarm does, that's for you.

It's not to stop anybody from getting in, make you sleep better at night, that's all it is.

You know God guards your life.

I.

That's so much better than ADT on your house.

God guards your life.

He's guarding your life through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

You're never alone.

You're never without the guarding of Almighty God covering and surrounding your life.

Whatever you're walking through, whatever this week holds, whatever the future holds, if you're in Christ, almighty God guards your life.

Now, this doesn't mean it's always gonna go your way.

It's always gonna work out well for you.

In fact, the second thing that Peter says is happening is that God is testing your faith.

So, on one hand, what's God doing?

He's guarding your life.

On the other hand, what's God doing?

He's testing your faith so that, even if necessary, for a little while you've been greed by various trials, you rejoice, so that the tested genuineness of your faith, more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So God is guarding your life.

That's really good news.

But God also allows your faith to be tested.

God guards your life.

Everything that happens to you, everything that happens in your life, passes through the sovereign hand of Almighty God.

God guards your life, but sometimes God allows things to pass through his sovereign hand that we wouldn't necessarily choose, that we don't necessarily like.

We are grieved by various trials, peter says, so that our faith tested, can be proved genuineness, so we can develop some strength on the inside, some perseverance, some resilience, if you will, so that we can see God's goodness even in the face of difficulty.

As I look around the room this morning.

I know some of your stories.

That's your story.

God's guarded your life, god's kept your life.

But that hasn't kept everything difficult out of your life.

On the contrary, some of the things that you've done are very.

Sometimes you begin to follow Jesus.

God allows the test to come.

Things get hard and life gets difficult, but what we find when life gets difficult is that God proves to be good over and over and over.

His grace proves sufficient, his love proves steadfast, His faithfulness proves lasting, even in the face of the trial.

And Peter says by the way, this isn't even about you the reason you go through stuff.

It's not even about you.

It's so that one day people will see your life and your resilience and they will praise the revelation of Jesus that's come through your faith.

Peter says praise and glory and honor will be given to Christ by the way that his people stand firm in the face of trial.

Peter begins this letter with this phrase.

He says he's writing to who he calls the elect exiles, and I love that phrase.

He says I'm writing to people who've been chosen by God.

They're God's people, but they're exiles.

They're in a difficult place, on a difficult journey, in a place that's not their home Translation Peter says if we're gonna follow Jesus, you can expect to go through some pain.

Y'all like promises from the Bible.

I do too.

I do too.

I got one for you this morning.

Jesus says in this world you will have trouble.

That's not a good one, but it's a promise.

I mean, like Jesus said, in this world, you will have trouble, but take heart.

Jesus says I have overcome the world.

We have to expect obstacles and difficulty.

We have to expect testing and trial and hardship, knowing that when we go through difficulty, we will walk through with the Savior who's overcome, with the God who is faithful, whose love is steadfast, so that as we live our lives, people will see our lives and not praise us, but they will give glory and honor and praise to Almighty God.

Can I just encourage you this morning if you're going through what feels like a trial today, just keep going and trusting Jesus.

People are gonna see your life and they're gonna come to know Jesus by the way.

You persevere through the pain, keep moving forward.

What's God doing?

He's guarding your life and he's testing your faith.

And so, in the meantime, how do we live, knowing that God has done something amazing for us in Christ and God's doing something right now, even today, in our lives.

What does this living hope look like for us, really quickly this morning?

When you live with living hope, you love Jesus.

When you live with living hope, you love Jesus.

Peter says in verse eight though you have not seen him, you love him.

When you know that God, by his mercy, has saved you and set you free.

Even though you don't see Jesus with your eyes, you love Jesus.

And it's worth saying this morning that when the New Testament writers talked about loving Jesus, what they meant was by loving Jesus, we're obedient to Jesus.

We live in a world sometimes where we say, oh yeah, I love Jesus, but we also love doing what we want.

I love God, I love church, I love being part of God's family, but I really like love doing what I want to do and living how I want to live.

We're able somehow to separate love for God and obedience to God.

Our love for God, it's all about the goosebumps we get when we sing the song that we like and the radios on the radio.

That's love for God.

But in the New Testament, love for God is equivalent to obedience to God.

How do we show and demonstrate that we love Jesus.

We do what Jesus says.

That's why Jesus says if you love me, keep my commands.

How do you demonstrate a love for Jesus?

You do what Jesus says.

So, as you're reading the Word of God, you're not just reading for information, but you're reading to be transformed.

You're reading for transformation.

You're asking on every page and every passage God, what do you want me to see here?

How do I apply this to my life so I can be transformed by your Word and live in obedience to what you're calling me to do?

Love for Jesus is made evident in obedience to Jesus.

Second thing when you live with living hope, you believe in Jesus.

When you live with living hope, you believe in Jesus.

Though you do not now see Him, you believe in Him.

So, even though he's not in front of you.

Today we live with this childlike faith that says I don't know, I don't understand it all, I don't know how to make sense of everything, but I believe in Jesus.

I trust Jesus In the midst of the circumstances, I believe in Jesus.

In the midst of the pain.

I choose by faith to believe in Jesus.

What does this belief in Jesus looks like?

It looks like in the middle of the difficulty going.

You know what.

I believe Jesus can fix this.

I believe Jesus can heal.

I believe Jesus can restore.

I believe Jesus can redeem Anybody today believing Jesus for something in your life.

You're praying for Jesus to get involved and do something that only he can do.

That's what it looks like to believe in Jesus.

I believe that Jesus can.

There's another layer to this belief because, how many of you know, sometimes you're praying for God to heal somebody and they pass on.

You're praying for God to restore a relationship, but it just becomes more fractured.

You're praying for circumstances to change and you know God can do it.

You believe he can do it.

Your faith is strong, but for some reason he doesn't Belief in Jesus says I believe he can, but even if he doesn't, I still believe in Jesus.

I still trust Jesus.

I'm praying for healing but even if he doesn't, I still, by faith, believe that his ways are higher, his thoughts are higher, his plans are greater.

He's got something that he's accomplishing, even if he doesn't do what I want him to do.

I believe in Jesus because there's a third layer to this that says I know one day he will.

I believe he can, but even if he doesn't, one day he will.

He will, maybe not this side of eternity.

If they're gonna get their healing, then they enter the presence of Almighty God.

Relationships are gonna be renewed and mended and restored when we see Jesus face to face and the pain is gonna pale and compare us into the eternal weight of glory waiting on us when we receive our inheritance from Almighty God.

I believe he can, but even if he doesn't, I know one day he will.

It's this childlike faith that says I don't know, but I trust God.

I trust God.

The third thing that happens when you live with living hope you live in rejoice in Jesus.

Peter says you have not seen him, you love him.

You don't see him now, but you believe in him and you rejoice.

How With joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory.

I think sometimes what I need to do in my life is just pause for a moment and cut out the noise and remind myself of what God has done.

You ever feel like in your life that the good news of Jesus, his salvation that comes by grace, through faith, the mercy of God that's been given to you, you ever just feel like all that gets drowned out by the noise of life.

John Mark Comer is a pastor.

He talks about something called the tyranny of the urgent.

We live so much of our time focused on what's right in front of us, the next task, the next obstacle, the next bit of pain or difficulty.

It's the tyranny of the urgent that drowns out the significance of the eternal.

And so so much of our focus and our energy, just it goes to what's right in front of us.

It goes to the task I got to accomplish today, the difficult conversation I've got waiting on me this afternoon, the phone call I don't wanna make but I gotta make, or the project that's gotta be done before the end.

Like, we just get caught up in what's right in front of us and sometimes what I need to do is just pause and remind myself that I serve a God, that I serve a God who's been merciful to me, who's been gracious to me, who's been good to me.

I need to let the joy of the Lord renew my strength.

I need to let the promise of a future that's better than the past overshadow the weight of what I'm walking through today.

I need to rejoice, I need to be grateful, I need to cultivate a heart of gratitude towards Almighty God and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible.

It doesn't make sense, you can't explain it, you can't put words to it, but it is full of the glory of Almighty God.

People are looking at your life like what's wrong with you.

You don't see what you're going through.

I know, I'm just pausing.

God's been good.

Your life's not good.

God's been good.

Your future's uncertain.

No, my future's really certain.

I've got an inheritance waiting for me.

Your family's broke.

My God is not.

You know what I mean.

Like circumstances don't make sense.

People are like what's wrong with you?

I know Almighty God, and so I'm going to rejoice with joy, inexpressible, filled with glory, because when you live with living hope, you receive from Jesus.

1 Peter, chapter one, verse nine, says that in Jesus we obtain the outcome of our faith the salvation of your souls.

Isn't that beautiful?

One day you're going to receive from King Jesus the completion of the work that even now he's begun in your heart.

You are being saved.

You have been saved if you're in Christ, and one day you will be saved.

You're going to receive eternity with Jesus in the presence of Almighty God.

It's a promise.

So quick question why?

Why does God love us?

Why does Jesus love us.

One word grace.

Why do we believe in Jesus One word grace?

Why do we rejoice in Jesus in the midst of suffering?

One word grace.

Why do we receive from Jesus?

I would love so much for the answer to that question to be because they're worth it, because they earned it right.

We deal with that in our world.

We live in an earn it and deserve it kind of society.

You do good, you get good.

You work hard, you get promoted.

That's not why we get good from God.

Why do we receive from Jesus One word grace?

There's a great story about CS Lewis.

He's a writer, theologian, and he was a professor at Oxford.

There was a conference, a symposium, on world religions at Oxford.

One year.

Cs Lewis, in between some sessions, was walking down a hallway.

He heard some of his colleagues discussing something in a classroom.

As he walked by the open door, one of them yelled out Jack, that was his nickname.

Cs somehow became Jack to his friends and family.

They called him into the classroom and on the board they were writing words that all world religions had in common.

They're comparing world religions and they're writing things like creation, morality, eternity, judgment, divinity, humanity.

They're trying to compare what all of these systems of belief have in common.

So they look at CS Lewis and they say, jack, what is it that sets Christianity apart from every other system of belief?

Cs Lewis immediately goes to the board, takes a piece of chalk, writes one word on the board grace.

And as that room of religion experts began to debate and discuss, they came to the conclusion that CS Lewis was right on.

It's the grace of Almighty God and the person of Jesus that makes this story different.

You don't have to earn your way into God's favor.

You don't have to earn your way into eternal life.

You don't have to deserve to belong in the presence of God.

I love what Pablo said earlier Nobody's worthy, but by the grace of God we are what we are Forgiven, set free, new creations, called purposed, loved, chosen by Almighty God, a people for God's own possession, so that we can declare the excellencies of Almighty God, who called us out of darkness and into light, all because of God's amazing grace.

So how do we live with this living hope, this hope that just won't die?

We remember that it's a gift of the grace of God Anchored in the person and work of Jesus.

If you know Jesus, you're filled with his spirit.

You're called, purposed, chosen.

There's a path for your life.

Ephesians 2, 10 says good works prepared for you from before you were even born.

Live with hope that will not die.

Live with hope that will not die.

So, as we close in prayer this morning, I just want to ask if you're here and you're a follower of Christ today I know Jesus, I've given my life to Christ, but I need a renewal of hope in my life.

I'm going through something.

I got some pain.

I got some circumstances that I don't like, I wouldn't have chosen.

I need a renewal of hope.

We just raise your hand right where you are this morning.

I need God to refresh my spirit, renew my hope.

Father, I pray right now that, by the power of your spirit, you would renew our hope in you.

Father, we're grateful today for a living hope anchored in the person and work of Jesus, a hope that will not die, a hope that the enemy can't stop.

So, father, I pray that, in the midst of the noise of this world, the trials of life, the temporary tests that we are walking through, god renew our hope within us, make us a people set apart, a people with a different streak, a different type of resilience so that it will result in the praise and the honor and the glory going to Jesus today and forever.

We love you, we thank you in Jesus' name.

Everybody says together amen as we stand and sing.

This is a moment for you to respond.

If you need to pray, I'll be off to the side, or you can come pray at the front.

If you want to join the church, maybe this is your day to plant your roots here.

If earlier you gave your life to Jesus, we'd love to celebrate that with you.

But if God's doing something in your heart, let's respond as the Holy Spirit leads Music.