A Hope Crisis and the Human Condition - Leaders' Talks

You're listening to this edition of the road.

What would you say is the greatest hope of your life these days?

Where are you feeling hopeless right now?

He's saying his main focus is to steal your hope and destroy your life.

My question is, where is he succeeding in this in his mission in your world today?

Rabbi Johnson staff would say it takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope.

At The Road, our vision is to raise up wholehearted disciples of Jesus Christ.

For more information on the road, visit theroad.org.

We hope you are encouraged by today's message.

So, today's message, uh, a hope crisis in the human condition.

Kind of a Debbie Downer title.

I know that.

It's not my style, and let me just say you can't use the term Debbie Downer unless you have a Debbie in your family.

My mother's name Debbie, so I have permission.

So I did call and ask if I could say that.

Um, she's uh so it is, but I mean at the same time, I thought it was appropriate.

And let me just say the the context of today's message is formed around Revelation 21.

Steve and I were talking.

Uh the timing of this message versus the timing of where he left off.

He will be back and finishing out his series in Revelation, and we'll pick up right at 21.

But this is kind of a snippet, this is kind of 21 sub point A, really, to that.

But he'll come back and give the full vigor and flavor of the full chapter upon his return and when he's back here.

So um, but we're gonna hang our hat in this in this part of scripture today.

But I want to ask the question to you uh today is that what do you think the current state of hope in humanity is on a global scale?

We need a status update on the human condition, and I'm here to tell you folks, it's pretty bleak for all of us.

The sad truth of things is that the human race is not doing well at all.

You have to take the vital signs and you realize and you'll see.

The use of antidepressants has gone through the roof over the last 20 years.

Antidepressants are the third most common prescribed drug on the planet.

Now, don't get me wrong, I believe medication has its place, and I'm not condemning and I'm not applying shame because there is an appropriate use for those things.

What I'm trying to illustrate or help you understand is that it says something about us, our hearts, when depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide.

Suicide rates across the globe have skyrocketed, and depending on what country you look at, it's the first or second leading cause of death among our young people.

We currently know that effect all too well in our own community over this last couple years.

In 2012, and during the war in Afghanistan, we lost more soldiers to suicide than we did to combat.

Even more shocking is the steep increase in the suicide rates among middle-aged men.

U.S.

News reported last year that according to the CDC, the Center for Disease Control, the rate for suicides is increased by 43% for men between the ages of 45 and 60, between the time frames of 1997 and 2014.

It's an even sharper curve and an even higher statistic if you pull it from 2005 onward.

Society is angry, it's anxious, it's pensive, anxiety-ridden, and frustrated.

Road rage is a real thing, and people are getting shot over driving skills.

It really happens.

It's kind of mind-blowing.

Just below the surface for most people today is a rage that is waiting to escape with the smallest of pinpricks to the barrier restraining it.

They erupt.

We erupt on our spouses, children, co-workers.

A poor person taking our order at the drive-thru when we find out that they're out of bacon.

Sad but true.

Our world is translated through an intense lens of cynicism, and everyone's a skeptic.

I'm not a huge Tom Cruise fan, but I think he nails it in Jerry Maguire when he says we live in a cynical world.

A cynical world.

I think he's right.

Our enthusiasm is curbed at nearly every turn in this world.

So what's going on?

We're finding ourselves in a tremendous hope crisis today, on a global scale.

It's taking place all over the world, in our politics, economies, and in the hearts of millions at this very moment.

Hopelessness is an epidemic on the human heart, and it's spreading over the world today.

If hope was a tradable commodity in Wall Street, we'd be shorting the stock.

Wall Street would be shorting the stock left and right, experiencing double-digit returns in their portfolios.

The human race is not long on the hops on the hope stock today.

Our earthly life is brutal.

It's made up of a series of hellos and goodbyes.

Nothing is permanent here, and we find ourselves continually in the transition to the next phase or season of our lives.

We are born, we experience childhood.

This would be the springtime of our youth.

Carefree time of fun and exploration.

The world is filled with adventure around us.

We are young in it, and it is young and alive around us.

We transition to young adulthood.

These would be the summer months of feeling alive and free, possessing strength and energy to pursue the goals that we have set in our lives.

The Middle Ages, the middle age of life, what I would characterize as the fall months of the year, when the score is being totaled and we assess the main question: have I accomplished what I set out to do in my youth?

Have I reached my goals?

I believe this throws back to that section of men, these middle-aged men in 45 to 60 asking these questions.

If you're fortunate enough to make it to old age, what we consider old age, the winter season of life, the winter months, when the reality of our earthly transition begins to take hold, and we realize that we are now closer to the finish line than the beginning.

And the goodbyes are approaching.

Our family said goodbye to two grandmothers, an aunt, two cousins, and a niece in the last three years.

Life is hard, and death is certainly a part of this life.

Death is certain, and it's still batting 1,000.

It's hitting a perfect game.

We've also celebrated two births and a wedding, so we've had a chance to say some hellos.

Death is a violent of soul on God's design for our lives.

The soul experiences it as trauma.

We're in a desperate need of true kingdom hope.

I'm not talking about wishful thinking or positive thought kind of hope.

I mean a confident anticipation that goodness is coming back, a rock solid expectation we can build our lives on, hang our hopes on, as the saying goes.

Certainly not the delicate and fragile hopes we are trying to get by with.

These would be the things that are the counterfeits to the real thing of the coming kingdom of God.

We try to counterfeit the true kingdom by filling our lives with flimsy, synthetic hopes of this world.

What would you say is the greatest hope of your life these days?

Where are you feeling hopeless right now?

See, Satan's main focus is to steal your hope and destroy your life.

My question is, where is he succeeding in this, in his mission in your world today?

Rabbi Jonathan Sachs would say it takes no courage to be an optimist, but it takes a great deal of courage to have hope.

And Paul shares within the Romans 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 the 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.

So what's the Christian message we've heard over the years?

We live well in this life, we live for God, and then we're called up to heaven to a shrimp, a shimmering place floating on the clouds.

It's really quite hard to imagine as we join the eternal choir.

How much are we thinking about heaven these days?

How is God going to make it all right?

How is he going to redeem all the suffering and loss of this world and in our own lives?

What about all the special places, the hopes, dreams, and memories, the things most dear to your heart?

Is there a place for those things?

1 Corinthians 13, 13.

God says that three things will last forever in the scriptures.

We have faith, hope, and love.

And love is the greatest of these things.

See, God must be our first love, and after all, God tells us that the Bible teaches that God is love in his being.

Because of his love for us, we have faith to trust his promises.

He assures us of that in Matthew 19.

Here we find the promise of a hope that awakens our hearts.

It is the confident expectation of the goodness coming to us.

Lee Strobel shares in his book The Case for Hope.

You guys saw the movie that he came out with.

He also did a book recently, The Case for Hope.

He points out the stats.

The Bible is brimming with hope.

All told there are 97 uses of the word hope in the Old Testament and another 83 in the New Testament.

The theme of hope is woven throughout the scriptures, church.

We can turn to this and we can learn God's promises and what he's alluding to, what he's wooing us into.

John and Odridge breaks hope into three categories.

This would be true for most of us as we think about the things and the way we even use the term in our common vernacular today.

We have casual hopes.

Things like, I hope the weather holds out for the golf game next week.

And I do.

I hope the home team wins.

If you're a football fan, you're hoping that the Broncos could do a repeat, perhaps.

I hope that the line at the car wash is short.

And what's happened in our car more than once before we go into a store is I hope they'll honor my expired coupon and if that can come with bacon.

So see, using hope in sentences and in common conversation is a good thing.

Hope reveals your heart is still alive.

Sometimes we turn down our noses or we'll say somebody, oh, I hope you get better.

And then we in the Christian world can kind of discern that as not as positive, but really it is a positive thing.

We've replaced, if we replace hope with pray, and I'm not discounting that I'm praying for you, but at the same time, it's a good thing when you express to your brother and sister, hey, I hope that works out for you.

I hope you get your job that you're that you're praying for.

Which leads us to number two precious hopes.

I hope my cousin will beat the cancer.

I hope my child finds a God-loving spouse.

I hope the test results are negative.

I hope our pregnancy goes well.

We had a chance to live that out in our own lives with the birth of our fourth son.

My wife and I sat down when we found the news out that we were gonna have a fourth child.

Kind of a surprise, but we weren't being the most responsible people, you know what I mean.

Um caution to the wind, weddings in the middle of summer.

I'll get back to that.

But here's the deal.

So we find out we're having a fourth child, and we start to kind of go through the Rolodex of memories, the playbook of previous experiences in birth, and we started to pray for some specific things we wanted to see.

And I asked a man, I said, What does this birth mean to you?

What is this, what do you want it to look like?

Because we have a power and a hope far greater than we're tapping into.

And so let's truly trust God, let's experience some faith.

And so, and I'm here to tell you everything that we asked for, from the physical experience to the natural setting that we were hoping for.

We did do it in the hospital this time, but it was it was by and large, uh no, it was, it was supernaturally, a supernatural experience with God's holy power and spirit in that room with her.

She gave birth, it was pain-free, everything happened the way that she needed it to.

She even took a nap in the middle of labor.

It was the wildest thing.

And I'm not, she didn't even she didn't have an epidural, there was no synthetic drug to cause her to relax other than the Holy Spirit being her source.

And um, it was a powerful time of prayer.

We had some good friends with us in the room, um, just walking through this uh this beautiful uh birth experience.

And all of the births uh of our family have been a wonderful experience for us.

Um, but I think both of us have that real tangible memory to call back on now, and God certainly increased our hope and faith in those moments.

The precious hopes, these are far more deep to our hearts, and they are the fuel to our most earnest prayers.

This is also where we find times, this is sorry, this is often where we uh find the times that we betray our kingdom heart with the counterfeit hopes of this world.

And we place these ahead of our ultimate hopes.

Some true Broncos fans might replace casual hopes with precious hopes.

Just saying, I've met a few of you.

I'm a Bears fan, so there's no hope, so I just accepted that.

We just suit up and we hope it's a good game.

One or two plays to bring us back to the next week, right?

That's what we're hoping for.

Maybe one day we still hold on to the 85 season.

Go Bears.

Chicago.

Then there is the ultimate hope, right?

The greatest of all hopes, the third category.

Lee Strobel, also in his book, is quoted as this hope, this kind of hope, this ultimate hope, is the inextinguishable flicker God ignites in our souls to keep us believing in the prevailing power of his light, even when we are surrounded by utter darkness.

Paul writes in Hebrews 6.19, we have this hope as an anchor to the soul, firm and secure.

This is tremendous.

These would be our life and death hopes.

The only things that belong in this category, church, are the things that would destroy our heart and soul if not fulfilled.

What happens when hope is deferred?

When a casual hope is deferred, we are disappointed for a moment or a day at best.

When precious hopes are toppled, we are heartbroken, and recovery can range in duration from weeks to years.

But when our ultimate hope goes unanswered, the result is devastation from which we will never recover.

The words of King Solomon in Proverbs 13, 12 hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is the tree of life.

And isn't that so true?

I want to read a quick excerpt from the book that I've been referencing today, The Case for Hope, from Lee.

Um, and in this book, he's gonna talk about, he's recounting a story as told by Major Harold Kushner, prisoner of war during the Viet Cong for more than five years.

Kushner describes one of his fellow uh American prisoners.

He was a tough 24-year-old Marine who had made a deal with their captors.

The Marine agreed to cooperate with the enemy, and in return, the commander of the prison had promised he would let him go.

The young Marine did whatever he was asked of him.

He became a model prisoner and even became the leader of the camp's reform thought reform group.

But before long it became clear to him that the camp commander had lied and that the Viet Cong had no intention of actually releasing him.

This is how Major Kushner describes what happens next to the Marine.

When the full realization of this took hold, he became a zombie.

He refused to do all the work and he rejected all offers of food and encouragement.

He simply lay on his cot, sucking his thumb, and in a matter of weeks he was dead.

The cause of the prisoner's death might be summarized in one word: hopelessness.

There's little doubt that hopelessness can kill.

And it often does in this world.

The truth we're about to explore is something that I've had to soak in this week and give my mind and heart completely to.

It's not a quick glance and uh I'm now I'm good kind of thing.

And it's not intended to be a light, feel-good discussion either.

This is a deep message to our hearts about where we place our hope and what we can expect.

If you're like me, you'll need to give this uh some more time and focus than the four hours we have here today.

Listening, good.

Yeah, kidding.

About the 40 minutes we have.

But in all seriousness, um, when you do, the effects are immediate, church.

And I'm here to tell you that my spirits have been lifted in a way that has been renewed and refreshed for me.

I want to do something that's maybe a little bit different, but I would ask you to close your eyes and I want to walk you through kind of a visual thing here.

I'm gonna read something to you, and I want you to kind of go there in your mind and what I'm gonna read next.

Think of a hope chest or treasure chest.

Now imagine a large treasure chest, larger than any suitcase you've ever owned or even seen.

It's almost pirate-like.

It has massive iron hinges and clasps.

The sheer size and strength of this strong box would communicate that it was made for more valuable, for the most valuable things.

Inside this chest are all the things you wish you could somehow have be restored to you.

Everything you have lost or will lose.

Think about what's in your chest.

You can open your eyes.

What we so long and ache for today, church, is redemption.

What our hearts cry out for is restoration.

Despite what you may have been told, God doesn't focus our hopes only on the great ascension into the celestial cloud-based heaven.

He's promised the renewal of all things.

Took a random poll of people this week as I was kind of getting to my message of all ages.

Down my 11 and 8-year-olds, up to seasoned, uh mature veterans in the faith who I look up to and call mentors.

And everybody in between, peers, and it all kind of came back as what did we learn?

What have we learned in church?

Do we talk about heaven?

Do we go there in our minds or do we think about what the real possibilities are?

Truth is, we don't go there as often as we should, and we don't think and linger there in detail the way that maybe we could.

Questions look like this.

Um, what does heaven look like to you?

What images do you get when you think about eternity?

Mostly we think of kind of an X-File thing where we're kind of sucked up through like the um tube to some degree.

And I'm not kidding.

These are like, and I knew it wasn't alone, but these were some of the um things I got back to me.

So we're kind of vacuumed up to the celestials.

We get our white robe, we almost kind of get vacuumed up into it, and then flow into it, and then the halo sits on our head, and then we march towards uh the eternal choir section of heaven, and they stick me on the end with the people that are out of tune.

Um while there will be singing and rejoicing and worship of God, those thoughts, frankly, they don't inspire me.

And if we're being honest, I doubt they inspire many of you.

I mean, some of us, and I love to sing, don't get me wrong, I wish I was better at it.

But the white robe and the floating street and the celestial thing with the clouds on the sides, and you're like, I hope I don't, I can't fall over, it's heaven, but you know, I don't want to get too close to the edge.

These are the things I thought as a child, and my kids think about today too.

I'm going, that's there, there's more to this, but let's explore what that looks like.

The climax of the entire Bible takes place with these words from Revelation 21, 21, 1 through 5.

And it's Jesus speaking to John, and John's recording this.

Now I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away.

Also there was no more sea.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bridegroom, adorned for her husband.

And I heard a loud voice from heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with me, is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.

God himself will be with them and be their God.

And God will wipe away every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away.

Then he who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

And he said to me, Write this down, for these words are true and faithful.

A lot going on there.

So Jerusalem, a new Jerusalem, is coming to a new earth.

God is walking with us.

He is now with us, he is He is among us again.

All things are new.

Not all new things.

We've heard that, right?

He's making all things new.

And he says, write it down.

So, John, I'm wondering in this moment if he's kind of looking at this vision and his pen stops, because he can't really kind of comprehend everything, and then God kind of has to remind him, write it down.

This is true, this is happening, this is what you can expect.

And these then he goes back describing.

The truth from this scripture is a day of great restoration is coming, church.

God gives us the only true hope that can sustain us in this life the promise of our rescue in the renewal of all things, heaven and earth, and everything you love.

He's bringing his kingdom to earth.

Heaven on earth.

God walks with us.

We've heard this before.

Some other place in the Bible.

Remember, church, in the beginning, we were made perfect in the image, eternal.

Our original design was far greater than we are living today.

And we will be completely restored, made new, better, and stronger, beautiful, for the purpose of magnifying God.

I wonder, if we're being honest, have we ever, have you guys ever stopped and thought about what you might look like in heaven?

I have.

I did it this week.

But if you haven't, I would challenge you to think about all the things that maybe you dis dislike about yourself.

Not what other people would see, but maybe when you look in the mirror, you say, you know, I wish I had more hair.

I'm gonna be honest.

Gotta wish I did.

I see people, I see men take for granted their uh, you know, flowing locks.

Like, man, what I would do with a head of hair like that would be fantastic.

But one day I will know.

I think God's gonna give me this.

And I'm excited for that.

Nathaniel Hawthorne writes it this way: our creator would have never made such lovely days and given us the deep hearts to enjoy them above and beyond all thought, unless we were meant to be immortal.

But we've been untethered from this true hope.

We find at the end of the scriptures life's brutal reality has tried to sever our kingdom hearts from this message.

We were created for utter happiness and joy and life.

The original design was to be eternal with our God.

We were made in his image, after all.

Ever since we've lost Eden, we've never known a day of total fullness.

We are never filled with any in any lasting way on this earth.

Henry Nowen would say it this way: our life is a short time in expectation, a time in which sadness and joy kiss each other at every moment.

There is a quality of sadness that pervades all the moments of our lives.

It seems there is no such thing as a clear-cut, pure joy, but that even in the most happy moments of our existence we sense a tinge of sadness.

In every success, there is a fear of jealousy.

Behind every smile, there is a tear.

In every embrace, there is a loneliness, and in every friendship, distance.

And in all forms of light, there is the knowledge of the surrounding darkness.

That's a heavy thought.

It's kind of a Debbie Downer statement.

And so, in a message of hope, kind of bring it back to some of the conversations we've had this summer in my house.

But the reality that we do think about this, and this holds true even for our young ones.

So, uh on vacation this summer with the kids, upon arriving at our destination, day one, we get unpacked and I receive inquiries from all concerned.

When are we leaving?

And I had to pause for a minute.

I'm going, well, we just got here.

But the true heart behind the question is that there was this anxious anxiety that the duration of this vacation we'd so longed and looked forward to would be fleeting and too brief, and it would end too soon.

This is the child's heart for the endless summer.

We also have shared similar conversations about school starting in the fall and how many days are left in the summer break.

This transpired about the first week in this summer break.

If I'm being honest, I remember similar conversations with my prep with my parents and where my mind went in those days.

And just as you're, it seems like just as you're getting used to the summer and the the freedoms within, the freedom of clothing choice.

Shoes and socks are optional.

And then the reality of, oh yeah, school's starting again.

Ah man, and the transition.

And so this is what I think he's talking about, church.

We're continuing, we will continue to transition through this life.

What hope is given to us from Jesus' time on earth?

We have some tangible moments which give us tremendous insight.

We catch up with Jesus and his disciples in an earnest moment and a profound question from Peter in Matthew 19, 27 through 29.

Then Peter said to him, See, we have left all and followed you.

Therefore, what shall we have?

Jesus' response is awesome.

He doesn't come back and be like, Well, what?

I mean, he just kind of goes right into, okay, I understand the question.

Here's what you can expect.

So Jesus said to them, Surely I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory, you who have followed me will sit on the twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

And everyone who has left houses or brothers, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands for my name's sake, shall receive a hundredfold what you have left, and you will inherit eternal life.

Now the Greek word here used for regeneration is Paleon Genesia.

It's derived from two Greek word roots, palene, meaning again, Genesia, meaning beginning.

Translated Genesis again.

Or Eden restored.

The world made new.

This isn't an incomprehensible heaven, but it's an image we can understand through a tangible earth around God's creation now.

Jesus is talking more than just about heaven here, church.

In the beginning, things were perfect, eternal.

God walked with us.

We were the rulers of this earth and we had dominion over it.

Our job to care for the garden and everything in it was our worship to Him.

We were in worship by having community with God.

The renewal of all things is meant to be your first hope, exactly like God is meant to be your first love.

Hebrews again, 6 19.

This is a strong and trustworthy anchor for your souls.

Your heart was made for the kingdom of God.

Your heart only thrives in one habitat, and that safe place is called the kingdom of God.

When you search it, you will know this to be true.

We are reminded of this fact when we catch glimpses of the great restoration in the earth around us.

He shares the possibilities of what the renewal of all things may look like.

His message is everywhere.

See, God is trying to do two things with the promise in the earth and in our hearts.

He's trying to woo us into a hopeful expectation, and he is attempting to lift our gaze to the horizon so we might live for the real thing which is coming.

God's kingdom come.

We only need to take the world in around us around summertime, right?

When the earth is restoring itself from the dark slumber of hibernation, the cold of winter, the earth is green, lush, in full bloom, fully alive in the summertime.

We live in rock rimen, a lot of animals around.

Deer are plentiful, bears.

We even have an owl that sits real close to our house, and it's pretty cool.

Um sits in a tree, and we get to watch all the things that it does around the house, takes care of a lot of mice.

It's awesome.

I love owls, I think they're super cool.

They won't fly away.

They'll look at you walk out the door and you look at them, take a picture, and they kind of just look over their shoulder like, yeah.

I am pretty cool.

They kind of have that thing about them.

I don't know.

It's kind of like a this confidence.

I'm like, I want owl confidence.

So it's good.

Um but we also have seen the the deer have given birth to the young fawns, and so they're running through and fro and through the neighborhoods and prancing and weaving in and out of our yards, and they just kind of spring and they're just playing, it's playful.

And we have pictures from our neighbors where the baby bears are rolling around, chewing on their hot tub covers.

They don't love that.

But they put up with it, and then they kind of play around in the fountains and the water baths, and it's and it's fun, and they dig it.

And it's really cool to see God's creation around us.

And we're, I mean, we're so blessed.

We moved from the uh concrete grid of Phoenix into this kind of uh wild nature experience in Rock Remon uh about eight years ago, and it's just been um one of my best decisions.

I think my wife agrees sometimes.

No, I'm okay, she does, she loves it.

So um here's the other truth.

I have yet to discover anything more enchanting and eternal than a summer morning, right?

The earth is in full bloom, the sun warming and glistening, the night's dew on the foliage.

It's sparkling.

Everything's looks fresh and new in nature.

Those moments speak of promise and the day ahead, a hope of the renewal of all things.

And my heart is as full as it can be this side of eternity.

Add to that aroma of fresh brewing coffee, and the day's options become limitless.

For some of you, might not be coffee.

I have one brother who I talk to, and actually it's the complete opposite for him.

Coffee sends him the other direction.

So, and that's fine.

Um, but for me, there's just aromas that are filling our sense, our sensations that are tangible that we can feel that speak to our hearts.

Contrast that with the gray winter morning where you look up, you wake up, and you kind of pull yourself out of bed and you think to the events and the moments ahead in that day.

And in those moments, you're kind of hopeless.

You're kind of thinking, I need, I need restored, I need to find some excitement here, I need to pull myself through this day.

I visited an old college swim buddy in Washington State where he grew up a few summers ago.

He lives in the Seattle area in the town called Snoquami Falls, and we went hiking one day around the Cascades, and the clouds broke during our hike, and the mountain ranges around the Cascades became apparent.

I saw Mount Rainier and Olympus and Mount St.

Helens, and just when when Seattle breaks from its gloom, I have yet to find a more beautiful place on this earth.

It was just snow-capped mountains with the brightest of emerald greens.

And I was I was awestruck.

I was it took my breath away, how beautiful that place is when the clouds go.

I'm thinking, okay, in the renewal of all things, this could be the hope.

Nothing's going to be shrouded in this cloudy place.

But there are glimpses, church, there are glimpses that God gives us and a creation about what that can look like for us.

Do we dare go there with our minds?

Do we dare challenge ourselves to imagine what this looks like?

Because if you do, in there is the hope that we're learning about in Hebrews.

It's a hope to hang your soul on.

It's an anchor for you in the tempest, in the waves, in the sea of life.

Now I've mentioned we used to hike the Grand Canyon every year, and in preparation, I thought about some more details of what that looked like.

For about six years in a row, we hiked down the Grand Canyon.

It's about 12 miles each way, and you go down some switchbacks, and the first part of that hike is truly desolate.

It's death, it's probably as close to Hades as I've ever experienced.

It's hot.

And people die on those switchbacks if they're not careful and they're not prudent and they're not safe.

So you have to hike early before the sun's up.

You have to take lots of water.

And one year we came back and we caught ourselves in the middle of those switchbacks during the heat of the day.

Dangerous place to be.

And I remember we stopped under a brief shade, the one that we could find, and we pulled our uh Nal genes out that had been sitting in our backpacks, and we drank them both, my wife and I, and um it was so hot.

I mean, you could have mixed, you could have brewed tea in it, you could have made hot cocoa, and it was almost unpalatable because you wanted a cool, refreshing drink.

We both looked at each other and said, we better drink what we can and we better get back on the trail and get out of here because um it's a dangerous place to get caught in.

Also, when you're down in the canyon, it can also be a little dangerous because of the high walls and the flash floods that occur.

And sadly, people do die down there.

But something happens when you've come through the kind of what I call the death phase of that hike, and you come down into this into this area, the terrain flattens out, it's not steep, canyon walls kind of spread out, and you're walking, and it's almost as if you turn a corner and the smell in the air changes.

I mean, almost instantly, and it changes from this dry, arid, I can't breathe, to life.

You smell life and then you see it.

There's grass growing, there's lush trees, and there's an aroma in the air of moisture, and you know that this valley is being fed by something fantastic.

And you can't wait to get there.

All your hopes, all your efforts of the hard part of that journey are about to pay off.

And you get to this place where there's five or six massive waterfalls filled with lush green grass, you camp there.

We used to camp there for three or four days, and it was just um National Geographic, this is a true story, actually rates that as one of the seven most uh seven must-sees in the world.

And we got to live in the backyard of that about four hours away, and we got to see it many summers in a row.

But in those pools, and this is where I would give myself uh to my thoughts this week, is once we were done with the hike, we had physically exerted ourselves, and it was time to restore and renew our muscles and recharge.

And in that, we would go and play by the waterfalls.

We'd swim around, take our sack lunch, and then we just out of the pools that the cascading waterfalls would hit, they would put these small little pools off that were collected by these rock structures, and they would be warmed because they were shallower, they'd be warmed by the water.

And it was very inviting and it was fantastic.

And we'd just lounge around there all day.

It was awesome.

And then we'd kind of because we knew what was coming.

We had to go back up the hill to the death, you know, and get through the death section, and then you know, so you really kind of soak it up while you're there.

Seeing the renewal of all things, and this is especially meaningful to me, tax season is not a season.

And this gives me hope.

And so, sorry, I throw a little bit of levity in there for you guys.

Um, so many of you have participated or will participate in Springs Initiative, our local missions outreach here in our community.

Our leaders seek out homes down south that could use some love, refreshing restoration.

This speaks to the kingdom part of our heart as we set out to give hope through love by kind of renewing the external appearance of these homes.

It's kind of a micro version of what we all long for and look for in God's coming kingdom and the restoration of all things.

As a father, I'm sought out weekly, on a weekly basis, to fix and kind of repair uh broken toys and issues around the house.

Dad gets to be the repairer of broken things in our home.

Small glimpses of our father's heart for us and the kingdom he is bringing with him.

This week, uh even yesterday, I was uh at home by myself, the kids had left, and I went over and I was trying to get some stuff ready, trying to bring them lunch to the pool, and I noticed that water was starting to fill up in the tub, in the sink, and I'm hitting the disposal.

I can hear it, it's working, it's running, but the water is not going anywhere.

So I take what sometimes the blade gets stuck, right?

So you stick the handle in, you get the blade turning, and then you try it again.

And I did that.

I'm going, weird.

I can hear it.

Water's only rising, and of course I'm leaving the water on.

I'm like, I better shut that off.

So I look down and I flip it on again, and I'm going, wow, I've never been able to see the blade spin.

So I'm sitting there looking and I'm looking right down this hole, and the blade's going crazy, and the water's still up, and I'm going, this is so weird.

And then it realized, then I realized we have these perfectly shallow spaced glass cups that had gone, it sealed itself perfectly inside of my garbage disposal.

And all I had done was push the thing down harder when I was in there trying to turn the blade.

But I'm sitting there thinking, I'm like, oh yeah, the blade's turning.

I hear it now.

Good, there it goes.

But really, in reality, I had just pushed the cup further in.

So I'm sitting there trying to get this thing out, and it was just, it was almost like I go, okay, uh, humility moment.

Either I'm gonna have to break this glass or call a plumber.

I need a rescue here, Lord.

I need to be the hero of the garbage disposal.

Help me work this thing out.

So we work the gasket, work it out, and I got the cup out.

I'm here to tell you, garbage disposal saved.

Okay, good.

But these are the moments that you know, dad gets to be dead.

It's good.

So then I wouldn't bragged on myself to the kids.

See what you did with that cup?

Look what I had to do.

Oh, yeah, that's right.

Garbage disposal works.

Don't put the cup there.

Um see, we tend to focus too much on today and our daily lives and get trapped in the silo of those moments.

We need to reset and a refocus on God's promise.

Revelation 21, 5.

He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new.

I love new things.

It's true.

I like the new car smell.

I particularly like new socks and shoes.

I like the smell of new shoes, probably because I know what they smell like after their life is over.

Sometimes they go there sooner than you want them to, especially when you find that right pair, and you're hoping that you can extend their life with the odor eaters and the spray and the washings, and the reality is they will wear out, and then you're on to your next pair of shoes.

Thing is, we love new things, church.

New homes, carpet, fresh paint.

There's a freshness to these new things, and its aroma is unmistakable.

Do we think about the great restoration and the newness that is promised to us with it enough?

C.S.

Lewis writes this if you read history, you will find that Christians who did the most for the present world were precisely those who thought the most of the next.

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this one.

How much more effective would we be in our own witness if our hearts were full with the confident expectation of the coming goodness of the kingdom of God?

Matthew 6, 33 says, Seek ye first the kingdom of God.

God is our first love, we're seeking his kingdom first for our first hope in our hearts.

Jesus' life is an awesome example and model we can expect at the great restoration.

Had this aha moment for me personally, where I started looking at Jesus' life and his testimonies through the ages.

He's talking about what's to come, what's the purpose, serving me, kingdom come.

But in the meantime, he's doing the things that he's telling is going to happen to us.

He's walking around, he's healing the blind, he's making the lame walk, he's making the deaf hear.

He's turning water into wine.

He attends a wine party, attends a wedding, and brings and fixes a catering problem.

It's fantastic.

It's so common and ordinary in some ways, but it's so tangible for our hearts in another.

The culmination of his ministry, he dies on the cross.

He goes to the grave almost unrecognizable by the beatings, by the crushing of the whippings and the torment on the cross.

He goes unrecognizable there.

In three days, he rises completely restored as an example to us.

And then he walks for 40 days with his friends, with his brothers.

He has breakfast by the sea with these guys after he's risen for 40 days.

He walks around, catches up with his friends, and they said, Let's have uh let's have some breakfast.

I got the fire going.

Bring the fish.

And you're thinking, okay, this I can understand.

I can get with this.

This is Christ fully restored, renewed, walking with us, being our friend.

Very relatable.

We get um coffee shop, we went real quick.

Uh, we get our sausage from a local distributor, and we were out, and I walked in the store this week, had to pick some more up, and uh the lady was behind the counter, she was um she was an older woman, and we've just been dialoguing, getting to know each other over the course of this relationship.

And um she's like, you know, nobody's here, you just want to walk in the back and get the sausage, it's in the cooler.

You can take it back out.

She's like, My knees, you know, my knees are bad.

I can't, it hurts to move.

She's like, which is weird because I've never taken medication, I've never been sick, never had any terminal illness, but my knees hurt.

And I'm thinking about getting this knee surgery, but I don't know if I can afford it, and I don't know what it means, and I don't, I don't know.

And I've been studying this, and I'm going, whoa, wow, just I wonder.

I took that moment to share with her.

I said, well, I'll be praying that you get the wisdom and discernment and the funds if you decide to take the journey and get the new knees.

And by the way, technology is fantastic.

Hips, people are walking around a lot faster than they used to, so it's only getting better.

But it's never gonna be perfect.

I said, There's only one opportunity that you'll get to be perfect, and that'll come in in the next life, in the next world, when you'll have the knees of your youth, and you'll run around and you'll do the things you want to do.

And she looked at me and her eyes glazed over.

She glissed like she got glossy and she she got teary-eyed, she teared up and welled up, almost scared to wrap her heart and put her heart and hope in the reality of that.

I said, It's real, it's coming, and it can be yours.

And she's like, I believe, I'm a believer.

I said, Well, praise God.

Well, that's what you can expect.

And it was just a great moment this week that God gave an opportunity to share that hope.

Most of us are familiar with uh J.R.

Tolkien's literary work, The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings.

Movies were a box office smash.

In both his text and in the movies, um, he writes about the good guys kind of being rescued by these massive eagles right before their certain doom.

If some of you have seen this, you'll know uh what I speak of.

Today's earth, a golden eagle, has the power and strength to carry off a sheep.

So we asked our question this week around the table is what will the eagles look like in heaven?

What does the animal kingdom look like in an earth fully restored and renewed?

See, here's the church.

This is the invitation, the permission to go and dream and wonder about what lies before us and what the promise is that we have.

We call him Lord and Savior, and Jesus sits on the throne of our hearts.

Isaiah 11 6 through 9 says this The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf, the lion, and the fatted calf together, and a little child shall lead them.

The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child shall play over the whole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den.

They shall not hurt a destroy in any holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea.

I know Steve talks a lot about in heaven.

He's like laying down that seven by seven.

You know, we might be able to hunt, probably not on God's holy mountain, so he's probably gonna have to get a permit somewhere else.

But uh no, no, I hope it is, but I mean that's the thing that gives him life here, and that's where he dreams, and that's where he goes.

And I think that that speaks to us, and we can allow ourselves to go there also, church.

The renewal of all things should include the animal kingdom.

We had the animal kingdom to reign over in the original creation.

We had a job to do, and it wasn't work, it was joy.

And there were animals there, we got to name them.

And it might be interesting to hear Adam and Eve's retelling of how they came up with Hedgehog and Norwal.

I don't know, but it's uh be an interesting conversation.

If they argued over the finality of that.

Um but the truth is, is that because we live in a fallen world, quite possibly, and I truly do believe this is true, certainly the animal kingdom does.

It hunts each other, it prays, etc.

etc.

They eat each other, things like that.

But on a lighter note, uh I have sometimes gazed out through the window, and you have too, probably in the summer days, and this is uh the squirrel lives a very interesting life.

This thing, and it's fun to watch.

We actually come out to the the the we came out today to get in the car, and I was tying my shoes, and my son goes, Dad, did you see that?

That squirrel just fell out of the tree, man.

Like the branch broke and it just fell down.

And I like, he's like, Have you ever seen that before?

I go, and I started thinking, like, I've never seen a squirrel fall.

They're pretty sure-footed little creatures.

Albeit the truth behind them is they're panic, anxiety-stricken animals.

These things, in the heat of summer, scramble around looking for acorns.

As if somebody else is looking for them too.

They're the only animals who eat acorns.

Nobody else is trying to get acorns.

And they hide them.

Some of you may know, but less known fact is that 80% of the nuts they hide, they never find.

Maybe that's the anxiety.

They're running around trying to scramble them all up in hopes that they'll recover at least 20%.

But in the renewal of God's earth and the restoration of the animal kingdom, I believe the squirrel's gonna get a break.

I hope it finds all of its nuts.

The question is: what's the first animal you want to ride over the new earth?

This is where we benefit from the memories and wonder we have from our childhoods.

Let the children come to me.

Don't stop them.

For the kingdom of heaven belongs to those who are like these children.

The kingdom belongs to the children.

They have imagination and are fearless.

Their minds filled with wonder and awe.

I want to ride an eagle, my wife said this week.

I thought, man, I might have undershot my desires.

I was like, I want to kind of surface sea turtle, but she's like, I want to ride an eagle.

And the more I thought about it, I'm like, yeah, I want to fly.

So I said, fine, as long as I can come too.

So, certainly the new heaven and earth will have wonder and grandeur and mystery to them all.

Things that we don't understand, and 1 Corinthians tells us so.

No eye has seen, nor ear has heard, no heart imagined what God has prepared for those who love him.

See, God will fill with splendor and awe, to be sure, a thousand times more beautiful and breathtaking than any of the best places we have seen on this earth.

Isaiah 65, 1720.

Look, I am creating new heavens and a new earth, and no one will ever think about the old ones anymore.

Be glad, rejoice forever in my creation, and look, I will create Jerusalem as a place of happiness.

Her people will be a source of joy.

I will rejoice over Jerusalem and delight in my people, and the sound of weeping and crying will be heard in it no more.

We get that message three times in the scriptures, once here and then twice in Revelations.

John will recount that same message in John, or in Revelation 3, and we pick it up again in Revelations 21.

If you do not give your heart over to this hope and the renewal of all things, you will take your kingdom heart and give it to something else in this world.

Are you giving your kingdom heart to the counterfeits of this world?

Bad relationships, the counterfeits and the promise of drugs and drinking, the pursuit of hobbies.

We see some of this stuff manifested in a broken earthly way.

People that hoard.

And they're accumulating things.

Because the hope is to keep it here now.

But we know we lose it all.

And I'm okay with that because we lose it all, but then we regain it a hundred times over the relationships that matter the most to us.

Eternity.

We live with God and in community with Him.

Remember, we have all we will all say goodbye to dear friends, family, and spouses this side of eternity, and that's a sober fact.

Vacations end, things wear out and break down.

There is only the kingdom, church.

Nothing else will last.

Everything else will slip through your fingers, regardless of the grasp.

But the hardest goodbyes will be the sweetest hellos at the renewal of all things.

When we are reunited with our loved ones, restored to the original perfection that was meant for us all at the beginning of creation.

Nothing is lost.

The renewal of all things is the most beautiful, hopeful, glorious promise ever made in any story, religion, philosophy, or fairy tale.

And it is real and it can be yours.

1 Peter 1:13.

1 Peter 1:13

Set your hope on the grace that is to be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed.

I have invited my visual aides, two of my daughters, are gonna come and they've agreed to help me close this part of the service with the reciting of Psalm 23 as a reminder to us.

They did this for their grandmother's funeral this summer up in Idaho.

And this is Sadie and Sophie.

There you go.

Right there, speaking of that.

Yep, go for it.

He makes me lay down and pastures, he leads me beside still waters, he restores my soul, he leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me.

Your rods and your staff, they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.

You ignore my head with oil, my cup overflows, your legend shall follow me all the days of my life, and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

I'm back.

That's our hope, church.

We're going to dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

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