Regain Hope - Alexander McLaughlin

You've tuned into a mega church. We are people hungry to

encounter God through worship and His Word being witnesses to

the world around us. We pray this teaching blesses

you and trust God will reveal Himself to you in a new way

today. And.

If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough ought to find

out more about Omega, get to our website or Facebook page through

the links below. Yeah, she's so cute.

We haven't seen her. The juniors can go in the

program and intermediates in the service.

And we have the pleasure of Alexis bringing the word of God

today with us. And I invite Alex, please.

Thank you for that generous welcome.

But we do have to do a technical switch over which John will do

for me. So we have two laptops running

and SO1 laptop is mine while John is doing that.

Some of you may have been to my house and seen this.

Has anyone seen that? Yes, yes, I believe that people

know and have been taught quite a bit about faith.

I believe they know quite a bit about love.

And today you're going to learn quite a bit about hope.

I can tell you that we had some pet animals.

We had a dog called Faith, We had a cat called and we had a

mouse, so we had a rabbit called Caston.

Where that came from, I'm not sure.

Another. Cat called Patience.

We had a cat called Patience and it tested the Jenny's patience.

I like the cat, I think more than Jenny did.

Oh, I knocked it out. Look at this.

It all happens. So the readings this morning are

are from one Peter 13 to 6:00 and from Proverbs 1312.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now that's the greeting, isn't it?

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

To say it with me living hope. What is a living hope?

Or ask the question better who is the living hope?

Jesus. Jesus is living.

Did you all know that? Did some of you think he stayed

on the crucifix and didn't get off?

Know what I mean? He's been on the cross, but he

got off. He doesn't permanently stay

dead. He's a living Jesus.

Plus, He has paid the price for our sins.

He has created for us a hope we have, a place to go, a house

being prepared for us, a destination beyond this life

that Jesus is waiting to welcome us to it.

Do you know that the Salvation Army had a saying for when

someone died? It wasn't.

They passed away or whatever. They said it much more

positively. Do you know what the Salvation

Army General Booth called it? Promotion to glory.

We're being promoted from this ordinary world, which we think's

OK, to a higher world, which is much better.

Promotion to glory. For someone who is a believer,

death is not the end. We have a living hope called

Jesus through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

because he was resurrected from the dead.

We are resurrected from the dead, an inheritance that is

imperishable, undefiled, unfading, and it's kept for you

in heaven, who by God's power are being guarded through faith

for our salvation. So God's on your side.

He's backing you for salvation, ready to be revealed in the last

time. Does anyone feel like we're in

the last times? Yes, that's that's another

topic. But our salvation waiting for us

in this, you rejoice. And so we take our salvation for

granted, but we are being exhorted to rejoice that we have

an exciting future. We have an exciting life here on

earth because we have Jesus with us.

We are guided by the Holy Spirit.

We can't be on our own only if we choose to, but for a little

while, if necessary. You may, you have been grieved

by various trials. Does anyone notice that?

That on earth you have some trials, temptations,

disappointments, sickness. Anyone notice that?

Good news in heaven, you don't have that?

Yeah, Heaven's a much better place.

But we will be tested. And when we are tested, what do

we do? Grumble.

Blame God, all those things. Actually, it's a refining of us,

more precious than gold. That perishes, though it's

tested by fire, may be found to result in the praise and glory

and honour at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

So I believe that when we overcome the the trials of this

life, then the glory of God is reflected through us.

We honour Him because of his glory and because of what he's

done. We can be carried through the

trials. We don't be defined by them.

I know some people have had a set back in life and they're

grumpy for the rest of their life.

Do you know those people? Is there anyone here in the room

like that? Do I see a hand?

Don't let the trials define you. We'll get on to that.

Let's look at Proverbs 1312. Hope deferred makes the heart.

If it makes the heart sick, it'll make you sick.

If you become mentally and emotionally screwed with this

negativity and sadness and victim mentality, eventually

your body will join it. You will end up in hospital with

a sickness or a disease. Why?

Because the scripture tells us if your heart condition isn't

right, you're likely to become sick.

But a life, but a longing fulfilled.

Is the tree of life a longing fulfilled?

Do you have a longing? Do you have a dream?

Do you have a goal? Do you have a purpose in this

life? Do you know what you're going?

And if other things come along that don't line up with that

goal, you don't follow them because you're not distracted.

You have a purpose. God's given you a purpose.

It's in its Word, His Word, the Bible, but it's also in us as

well. We have an understanding of who

we are, what we were created for, and what we're supposed to

do with it. And the tree of life speaks of

nourishment. We'll look at a bit more of that

in the moment. So if we talked about hope,

faith, and love, retain your hope.

Don't lose your hope. What?

What happens when you lose your hope?

What do you become? What's a word?

Hopeless. Do you want to be known as

hopeless Christians? No, it doesn't fit.

Don't be hopeless. Be filled with love.

Do you know some Christians who've got no love?

Their eyes don't sparkle like Rawls.

When he smiles, he smiles with his whole face.

Absolutely. Did you know that role?

Go ahead and look in the mirror. It's true.

You can't be a loveless Christian.

It doesn't work. It's not a witness to God.

There's no glory of God. And being a loveless Christian,

you might be right. You might know a whole lot of

Scriptures, but if you can't love anybody, you'll push them

away, you'll burn them off, you will judge them because you

don't have a heart of love. Acting in faith.

Sometimes we do. We are called to do things which

we don't know if they're going to work or not, but we don't

care. We just step over the line and

do it anyway. We embarrass ourselves for God

if we have to. Faith is like that, where you

step out in faith believing that God is with you.

So when you have faith, you can move mountains, you can bring

changes on this earth that other people can't imagine.

I've got some stories later to share with you.

I found that that church poster quite funny.

Prevent tooth decay. Brush up on your Bible.

So if you brush up on your Bible, you stay healthy.

And I had something I was going to do, and now that I'm here, I

haven't done it. OK, So tooth decay.

Tooth decay rots your teeth. Bible decay rots your faith.

Is there any diagnosis of Bible decay in the room this morning?

I hope not. I've got another Oops, No,

another one for you. Lord, help us to be the people

our dogs think we are. What have you noticed about

dogs? They are what they are,

faithful. We called our dog Faith because

it was faithful. Dogs always smile.

It doesn't matter whether you treat them well, whether you are

polite to them, whether you are having a bad day.

The dog's always pleased to see you.

It doesn't care. It's consistent.

I know some people who have got rid of their spouses and

replaced them with a dog because the dog's much more compliant.

How stupid? How are you going to grow and be

challenged if you only have a dog to hold you to account?

So dogs think we're wonderful. This is what dogs do.

They almost think that we are their God.

Hear it, bit of idolatry thing going on here.

So dogs look up to us. So we like the hero worship.

I'm not against dogs. At one point I had eight dogs

and at that point Jenny says get rid of the dogs.

I had them for work, but they were noisy.

So I put the scripture there again, which I've talked about

mostly already. What I'm talking about here is

you combine these two scriptures, which are one, Peter

and Proverbs 13, and what you have is a combination of if you

lose your trust in Jesus, you'll be sick.

And I'm wondering whether in the West, in the civilized world

that we live in, that we have a faith or a belief or a, I'm not

sure what it is, an identity as a Christian, but it's not the

same as it is in an oppressed countries.

If you talk to a Christian in China or Iran at the moment,

they would die for their faith because they've had a miraculous

and supernatural encounter with Jesus.

Many Muslim people in Iran are woken up with dreams in the

night, the visitations of Jesus. Jesus appears to them, speaks to

them, says a word of knowledge that just rivets, goes into

their they're deep into their spirit and they're completely

undone. All they've believed doesn't

work anymore. They've met Jesus.

Jesus knows them, says the word, and they're hooked for life and

they're committed. They are, if you like, deep in

their faith because nothing can shake them.

Once you've met Jesus personally, you are never, ever

the same. You can't deny it happened.

Someone said to a person who was tortured and he had crisscross

stripes on his back. Is he?

Have you heard the story before and what had happened?

They had tortured him on a wire bed frame, the old bed frames

with the crisscross metal. They'd hooked up electrodes to

that metal and shocked him and then scarred his back.

That the story different one and then that he was in immense pain

with electricity going through, burning the flesh off his back.

And the torturers said, why won't you give up this Jesus?

Why won't you just say yes or no, whatever the word is, and

we'll let you go? And he says, because I know what

I've who I've met and I can't lie for Jesus.

I can't lie, I've met Jesus. Hope comes from believing the

promises of God. And God gives us promises in his

Word, and he speaks to us even through circumstances that

confirm His Word. It won't go against what the

Word says. It will add to or be confirmed

by it. Now, hope is not like me saying

in an earthly sense, I hope it doesn't rain today and the

washing will get wet. That's not biblical hope.

That's just wishing, wishful thinking, or if you like,

guessing what might happen. Hope is certain.

Hope is unchanging. It's not what's just a temporary

thing that might be easier for us.

It's not like that at all. I have a friend who a long time

ago gave birth to a a baby boy and until the baby was born she

had no knowledge it was going to be a spina bifida.

And so when she saw the baby she got this immense shock.

This is not what I wanted. And she went through a full

spectrum of emotions, disbelief but mostly anger at God.

How could you have given this to me?

Why has this happened? And she was really agitated for

the next few days and she told me the story and someone wise in

the church said to her, well you've actually only got 2

choices. You become bitter and blame God

and struggle through life with this burden or you dig in closer

to God, He will empower you and you will cope with this

gloriously and succeed. And the lady said, I've got no

choice, I've got no choice. I need God more, not less.

Do you hear me? There was a very famous civil

rights activist who was a Baptist preacher called Martin

Luther King. Anyone remember him?

Anyone. Maybe over 50?

I want to share 2 quotes that he had.

Let your hopes, not your hurts, shape your life.

Is that the same for us? What shapes our life?

Our hopes or our hurts? Which do we choose?

Because he had lots of abuse for doing what he was doing.

Death threats. They actually killed him before

he saw his hope realized. So what he hoped for happened.

The laws changed. But he had a famous speech and I

won't read you the speech, but the opening line was, I have a

dream. Is that a a good accent to use?

I'm not sure whether it fits a bit that one day there will be

this change. And he had this dream and he

shared this dream and he sowed the dream into a nation and the

dream came to pass. He had his hope, he released it,

but he wasn't, if you like, alive to see it.

Biblical hope is forward-looking faith.

It is a confident belief based on things experience, not on

things experienced, but it's based on the Word of God that

the future he says will happen. Hope is a future certainty that

gives joy, peace and patience in the Presence.

Romans 824 Now hope that is seen is not hope for who hopes for

what he sees? But if we hope for what we do

not see, we wait for it with patience.

It's a bit like saying to a woman who is carrying a child

that she doesn't have a baby. You can't see the baby, she

can't show you the baby, but she has a hope that the baby will be

born and delivered. So what's that about?

You don't have to see it to know it's true.

And it will come to pass. You have an absolute certainty.

I like this thing, which is the concept that Scripture tells us

that hope will bring us joy. Because you can't be a joyless

Christian. Has anyone noticed?

I gravitate towards people who are fun, which is all you guys,

of course. But yeah, so when you have hope,

one of the fruit will be you will light up.

You will have joy. Yeah.

But if you don't have a hope, you just have information.

And I like this picture. Joy helps unlock love.

Yeah. When you're joyful, you attract

people. Yeah, And so attracting people

is actually what we're called to do.

If we don't have the joy and the love on us, we're not as

attractive to the other people. Max Liccardo is a Christian

author. Anyone heard of Max Liccardo?

He's an American man. He said this.

Feed your fears and your faith will starve.

Feed your faith and your fears will starve.

Do you like that? What we feed will grow and

sometimes we feed the wrong things.

What will happen is that we will watch social media and social

media will watch us. Have you noticed?

And then it will have the algorithms.

Someone knew how to say that. Thank you algorithms.

It'll give us more of the same. So if we tend to look at

negative things and critical things, guess what will come

next week into our feeds and it will grow the same.

So what are we watching? What are we allowing into our

heads that we are feeding? That changes who we are because

what we accept from social media may not be what God wants us to

feed. It's a wee warning there, one

John 418. There is No Fear in love because

perfect love drives out those of you who want to hold on to your

fear. All you have to do is get back

into love, accept love, give love, feel loved by God, get the

concept of love settled in you so it becomes your identity, and

you won't give in to fear. Because I have a hope that this

scripture is true. I am believing it, whether I

understand it or not, in its depth.

Because perfect love drives out fear.

I am driving out fear and I am going to live in perfect love.

It's a much better option, really.

Here's an interesting one. Dishonor robs us of vision, so

our vision and our hope can be the same dishonor.

And we do it by criticizing politicians.

We do it by correcting people and embarrassing them when we

think they need, if you like a straighten up.

We do it when we gossip behind their backs.

We do it when we say yes to their face and no behind their

back. Has anyone done that dishonor?

If we take our eyes off our vision and we acted

dishonorably, we open ourselves up for disappointment and

discouragement, cutting ourselves off from the blessings

of God. Why would you want that?

Why would you cut yourself off from the blessings?

The the basic root of dishonor, of course, is pride, and the

spiritual force that will come against you is called Leviathan.

That's something for nothing, so if you're into dishonouring, it

needs to stop. Hope deferred makes the heart

sick. But when desire comes, it is

like the tree of life. Now there's two trees in the

picture. You can see one tree looks a

little. What's the word for that tree?

Sorry, dead is a good word, barren or sterile or unhealthy.

And one tree looks vibrant. It has a root system and it has

multiple leaves and it will have fruit on it.

It's a picture of people's lives, actually.

But let's just ask the question, what does hope deferred mean?

If I said something is deferred to Jaunty, what would he tell

me? If something's deferred?

It's like not a word we use all the time.

Give me some feedback. What other words could you use?

Sorry, hadn't been received. Good.

Delayed another one. What about postponed?

What about replaced, lost. Given up.

If you give up your hope you've it's deferred and what you have

is a second class life. You will exist, you will have

whatever life it throws at you, but you won't have the

nourishment that the word of God is supposed to give you.

You'll become vulnerable to disease.

You will be overcome or sub subject to feelings of

hopelessness overwhelming you. The tree of life is mentioned

three times in the Bible. The first time is in Genesis,

and it's saying what was, if you like, God's original plan in

Proverbs. We're using it now.

It's exhorting us to be used to use this and to feed and improve

ourselves by encouraging us to grow our hope.

But in Revelation, hope start again, the tree of life is also

mentioned in Revelation and it's what is to come and it's a very

good what is to come. So the tree of hope, sorry, the

tree of life keeps coming up. And I believe that when we act

on in hope, we tap into the tree of life and we will be fruitful

and successful, which again brings glory to God.

So we know that hope deferred makes the heart sick.

But I want to share that sometimes there are things that

happen to us that are trials that can be reversed.

In other words, things look really dark and really black and

there is no hope. But if we hold them there and

wait long enough, maybe even for 40 years like some biblical

characters had to do, then there is a sudden, miraculous,

supernatural turn around and we're blessed beyond measure.

Compare Job in the Old Testament.

He lost everything. He was sick and it would be

easier to have died, but God restored him more than what he

had before. What about Esther?

What about her nation was going to be slaughtered and then God

reversed it, and those who were planning the slaughter were the

ones who died. God can do it in an instant by

turning it around. And we'd look at Jesus being

dead for three days. The disciples were, if you like,

losing hope because this is like an impossible thing.

Their dream had been lost. But that's not the end of the

story. Jesus is able to miraculously

and supernatural turn it to God's advantage and God's glory.

God can turn it around. God can turn us around.

So we look at those disciples and in the scriptures I can only

find 3 names mentioned who were with Jesus right at the end when

he was crucified and buried? Where were his loyal followers?

Joseph. Joseph of Arimathea is

mentioned, Nicodemus is mentioned, and John is

mentioned. Where were the rest?

I'm suspicious they were. They lost hope.

Absolutely they did. Absolutely they did.

I'm assuming that fear, shock, disbelief, all their emotions

overwhelmed them and they were trying to save their skins by

hiding. We wouldn't do that, would we?

We wouldn't save our skins by hiding, would we?

So they were tested, lost their hope. 1 Thessalonians 1/3 We

remember before our God and Father, your work produced by

faith, your labour prompted by love, and your endurance

inspired by hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.

So hope is about endurance, staying to the end, not giving

up because the breakthrough is coming soon.

Just wait for it. Hope motivates, hope energizes

hope for the future, sustains us through the hard times.

This too will pass as a saying. Let's look at list here.

And it's a criteria or a system that happens when hopelessness

overwhelms you. Firstly, you might feel easily

discouraged. Has anyone felt discouraged at

times as part of the human condition?

The good news is that something that's easily, if you like, got

rid of. It's a temporary state.

But after a while, if you feed that, you'll grow into confusion

and you're not sure what to do. You become indecisive.

We don't want that. Then we go into this thing of

questioning God, if God is real, why or how, and so unbelief

becomes a possibility for us. We get disillusions.

We think, well, I've done all this, no one cares, I'll just

give up. Then the next stage is

bitterness, where it's like you are a little critical or

negative towards other people maybe who are doing better than

you or more successful than you. And the last stage is cynicism.

I have this belief or vow that I don't want to be known as a

cynical old man. I remember people who were in

that generation when I was growing up, they were cynical

old men. They were grumpy sods.

They didn't smile much, they probably are full of arthritis

and pain and all sorts of things they've been through, but it had

leaked through into their personality and they were not a

good witness. Has anyone got any of those

symptoms on the list? I see, sorry.

Off and on. I think we all do and it's what

we feed will grow. So the secret?

Don't feed them. Yes, the flesh takes us to those

places. That is correct, whereas the

Word of God takes us out of those places.

It's interesting when things go wrong, people have this fleshly

reaction in. They have this question, why did

God do this to me? I've got a better statement,

statement to replace that. Why has the enemy done this to

me? And the next question is, how

have I let the enemy do this to me?

That's much more productive. Don't blame God, blame the

source and attack the source. Shut the door.

And so we can actually make much more progress by re engaging

God, confessing, repenting, changing our attitude or

lifestyle, and creating an atmosphere where healing can

take place. And the miraculous of God can,

if you like, solve the problem and bless you much more than you

think or imagine. I want to tell you 3 quick

stories. The first one is about Jim.

And I've known Jim for 20 years. He's a big guy and he was a bit

of a goofy guy in some ways. He was bullied at school, so he

wasn't the world's brightest scholar.

And he was an addict. He was my client.

So sometimes the the work site would ring up and say Jim's in a

depressed state. Can you come?

And so I knew what was going on. So I would make a smoothie at

home with bananas and electrolytes and blueberries and

mix up the smoothie and take it to gym because there's no point

in giving him money because he would gamble it.

He was paid on Tuesday. By Thursday lunchtime, he had no

money left at his work site. At morning tea smoko, he would

be gambling on his phone. He wouldn't be eating and he

would get rid of his wages within two days and he had no

food left. And then he'd feel bad about

himself. So the first thing I had to do

was feed him because because he he was just like vacant.

So one day this things got pretty bad for Jim and I spent a

bit of time in his house listening to his stories and

hearing Harry got into the mess that he got into and he had a

suicide attempt. And so the work sent me there

and knocked on the door and he wouldn't answer or couldn't

answer. So that ended up the police

came, smashed the door down and there he was on the floor.

He'd stabbed himself in the stomach if he wasn't dead, he

was just a bit comatose. So they took him away, stitched

him up, emergency surgery and he was put in the the mental

hospital. So I visited him in the mental

hospital and I took him a Bible, and I took him two small

paperback books of testimonies of about 3 pages each of

people's lives who have had disaster happen, that God's

turned around disaster, that God's turned for his glory.

And Jim said, well, I'm not very good at reading that Bible's too

big, but I'll have a go at these other ones.

And anyway, I come back a few days later next week and Jim's a

bit brighter. He's in the mental ward.

And you got to understand how it's shaped.

They have a new building which has got a huge common room in

the middle and doors all the way around opening up into the rooms

where the patients sleep. So you can see into the rooms

from the main common room. And the the nurses and doctors

are in the common room. And I'm visiting Jim in his in

his room and Jim's sitting on the edge of his bed, sitting

sideways on the inside of his bed.

And he said to me far out, he says, these guys that you are

showing me these books, they were in a real mess.

A their lives were, were, were much worse than mine.

Actually they weren't. They weren't.

He just didn't know how bad his was far out, he says, but

there's something I don't get. He says they talk about the Holy

Spirit. They said the Holy Spirit came

and it kind of changed them. I said, that's right, Jim.

He said, how do you get the Holy Spirit?

I said, wait there. So he's sitting on the side of

his bed. I lay my hands on his stomach.

Well, not where his wound was, but in his chest.

And I pray God come and fill up Jim with your Holy Spirit.

In an instant, Jim fell flat on his back, across his bed

sideways, his head dangling over the edge and his feet over the

other edge. And he's struck down by the

presence of God and people looking in the door.

He's all right. You know, I thought, what have I

done? I'm going to be arrested for

anyway. And after about 5 or 6 minutes,

Jim sort of sits up on the bed. He says far out.

He says that's the best trip I've ever been on.

And he'd been on lots of trips and I don't, I don't have been

travelling. He'd had chemically induced

trips. And he says why I feel so

different. I said it's the Holy Spirit.

Oh, he says, I want more of that.

Jim became a Christian. Jim quit his high paying job

because Jim told me no point in having a lot of money because I

just spend it. He went home, went on the

benefit and looked over after his sick parents and was their

caregiver. We went to Dunedin last time,

Jenny and I, we, we drove down the Main St.

Dunedin. A man crossed the road.

It was Jim of all the people in Dunedin, and we had this big

catch up with Jim, how happy he was, how settled he was.

And he's not gambling. Yeah, that's Jim.

But it took 20 years for that to actually happen.

I want to tell the story about a lady I thought about in the

shower. And so not well, I didn't think

about it, but God spoke to me in the shower but on a Sunday

morning. So sometimes on a Sunday

morning, I don't know whether Ramana does this.

When I have a shower on a Sunday morning and I have to preach,

I'm sort of like praying God show up this morning because I

don't want to be embarrassed on my own.

And I believe I had this instant answer.

You have to sing the song as a solo in church this morning.

I said, God, I don't think that's a good idea.

They don't want to hear that. So anyway, it wouldn't leave me.

It's like you get the hot, agitated feeling until you

agree. And then when you agree, the

agitated feeling drops off. So there I am thinking, OK, I'm

going to go to church. So we did the worship and

everyone sat down. I said, I've got this one song

to sing to you. I sang it very quietly.

A sea of blank faces looked back at me.

Someone said to me afterwards, why did you do that?

That's not normal. Like, yeah, that's not we, you

know, is there a reason? And I thought that I am stupid.

I thought I heard God. I must have mistaken the voice.

3 or 4 * a year. An elderly couple in the late

80s would pop into church. They had a batch in the area and

they'll be on holiday and they'd come into our church but I never

knew when they were coming. So this lady came in the mid 80s

and she and her husband sat at the back and after church she

was the last person to come up to me and she said, Alex, thank

you for singing that song. I said why?

She said when I was a young girl, I nearly drowned in the

beach in Dunedin. I had to be rescued and

resuscitated. Ever since that experience of

being under the water, I have a phobia of water.

I can never have never since that drowning experience been

able to have a shower in the bathroom when you sing the song

something broke off my life. I'm going home right now to have

a shower. I'm healed of my phobia took

took maybe 60 years for that to happen, but God got the glory

and the last one one or two people know the story.

I got a, a text message this this week from Otago.

So they, a pastor's wife and I prayed for this lady in her mid

30s in her home. And she asked the question about

what does it take to be a Christian?

And so we shared with her for maybe 3540 minutes and we said,

would you like us to pray for you to receive Jesus?

And she said, no, no, the timing's not right.

No, I hear you and it makes sense, but I'm not ready.

Don't you get frustrated? And she left and it's like one

of those moments. She sends me a message this week

to say at the end of last year, I made a decision to follow

Jesus. So Fast forward three years and

out of it was her father was dying of a brain tumor.

She was helping to nurse him, and since she's received Jesus,

she's got strength in the peace about watching her father die.

But the story's bigger than that because her father had scheduled

for next Monday, tomorrow, to be euthanized.

He wanted to be medically turned off.

He had booked the appointment to die on Monday.

Exactly. That's not a great thing.

But God took him five days earlier because someone in the

rest home had asked him about his faith, prayed with him.

He'd received Jesus, and he died that night.

So God intervened, honored the prayer.

Aren't those good stories? So that's what God can do.

He can turn what could be a disastrous event for his glory.

Isn't that exciting? So we will be consumed by what

we choose to consume. So don't consume what the media

wants us to consume. Be consumed with the love of

Jesus, the faith of Jesus, and the hope that He gives us.

Faith empowers, hope expects and love niches.

Jesus operated from this foundation.

I believe it's the foundation we need to operate from as well

because hope expects if our expectations are low, our

results will be low. But if we have a biblical hope,

then our expectations are immovable.

We're going to spend a few moments to talk to Jesus now.

Lord, I pray you'd send Your Holy Spirit to minister to every

heart in this room. And the sound of my voice that

You would show us where we are at with our hope.

Have we lost some of our hope? How would that happen?

How do we get it back? And I'm going to ask you to ask

Jesus to show you or to receive from him the healing that fills

in those areas where our emotions have been.

If you like, stretched or drifted away from God's standard

to spend this time and ask those questions for yourself now.

It's your blood that gives me life.

It's your blood that took my place in redeeming sacrifice.

Washes me whiter than the snow, O than the snow, my Jesus, God's

precious sacrifice. I had a message this morning of

my messenger feed from Jennifer Leclair Ministries and it was

encouraging us to war against hopelessness.

You can stay with your eyes shut or you can join me.

And this is the prayer that I received this morning by

accident, which I believe God sent for us this morning in

Jesus name. I come against the spirit of

hopelessness with the anchor of God's word.

I declare hope is a weapon and I am picking it up right now.

The God of hope is filling me with all joy and peace in

believing hopelessness has no claim on my future.

I press forward. Amen.

Amen. I love that picture.

There are promises all through Scripture about God's

deliverance for us, and that is Psalm 32.

Seven. You're my hiding place.

You'll protect me from trouble and surround me with songs of

deliverance. So let's say this together, 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. Amen.

Amen. Thanks for joining us at Omega.

If you need prayer for healing or breakthrough, or simply to

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