Spiritual Lessons from our Walk with God - Part 2: What Makes Resurrection Hope So Amazing? | Pastor Phil Holcomb

Welcome to ECB's weekly sermon podcast. ECB is

an international church in Bangkok, Thailand,

with dozens of nationalities worshiping together.

We invite you to connect with us from wherever

you are through our website, ecb .asia, or our

mobile app. And now we pray that you are blessed

by this week's sermon. We are a community who

gathers around the person of Jesus Christ. And

we desire to be shaped and formed into him as

global disciples with all of what we do, looking

increasingly like him. And the year as it shifts

from 2025 to 2026 is a great opportunity for

us to think and reflect and say, Lord, what are

some spiritual lessons for our journey of walking

with you that is going to help us? as we continue

forward in 2026. Now, last week, if you missed

it, Scott Hayden took words from Jesus' Sermon

on the Mount about, do I judge or do I not judge?

If you missed that, I would encourage you to

go back there because at the core of relationships

is really Jesus' teaching that helps us move

forward in that well. I'd like to, before moving

into what we are going to consider today, a spiritual

lesson that I want to bring to us from God's

word, I want to invite you to join me in prayer.

And you can do so by, if you want to hold your

hands open, that's fine, or if there's another

posture there, but what we're desiring is that

the Lord would move in and through us according

to his purposes in this time. So, God, I thank

you that you... are not caught off guard by anything

that has happened, even by the fact that we are

here today together. And so, Lord, I ask that

through the power of the Holy Spirit, that the

words of my mouth, that the meditations in my

heart, that they would be pleasing to you, God.

And I pray that those of us who are here, all

of us, that our hearts would be tender and soft

towards your word. You say that it's alive and

it's active and it's sharper than a double -edged

sword and it pierces into the inner parts of

who we are and invites us into transformation.

So welcome that. We welcome it. We pray this

in the wonderful and matchless name of Jesus

Christ. Amen. As I took time to think through

2025, it's good to just take a pause as the year

shifts and think, Lord, What were you doing?

Where were you active? Because we want to look

into the next year and say, Lord, what are you

calling me to? And I had a number of different

things that, Lord, what should I bring forward

in this month of January to ECB? And there's

a picture here that captures well something that

marked my year. Let's go ahead. Next picture.

And it's... It's that, now we're playing tag.

It's this picture here. And this was taken just

a couple days ago, one of the outskirts of Manila,

in the Antipolo area there. And this is my wife

and I at her brother's gravesite. He passed away

in the month of July this last year. And unexpectedly,

he's quite young. I thought through this and

this picture captures it well because we're sitting

there and we intentionally went to the Philippines

to do this. And thinking through the last year

and it's like, there's a lot of light in that

picture. But there's also a grave in that picture.

And that is really a capturing moment of 2025

for many of us in this community. I know some

of your stories. I don't know all of them. But

quite a few of you have lost parents this year

or other loved ones. There's been massive political

realities that have shifted huge organizational

funding structures which have caused a lot of

you to lose your jobs. And that means a lot of

our community has had to move. There's other

transitions that have happened here. There's

diagnoses that have hit our community that have

just really rocked and moved us. within all of

that is also beauty and light and goodness. And

just a matter of hours after this, I jumped on

a flight to head back to Bangkok. And I'm standing

there in the line just kind of processing all

of this. And Pastor Phil, I turn around and there's

another couple from ECB there. And I go to sit

on the flight. And we're with my kids and my

in -laws as well, so we're taking up a whole

row. And another ECB -er comes and sits right

in front of us. He's like, hey, how are you doing?

Some light, some beauty, some reminders that

there is goodness in all of what we do and we

see, right? So there's a question that we would

ask ourselves is, in a world still marked by

suffering, what does it look like to still hold

hope? What does it still look like to hold hope?

This is not a new thing that you and I have experienced.

In fact, the words that Ben just read to us from

1 Peter 1 through 9 were written almost 2 ,000

years ago. Written to a community where Peter

knew, hey, you need hope. You need a living hope.

And I want to remind you of that. And so those

are the words from Peter there. So here's my

desire, ECB. My desire is that as a community

over the next year, that we would be people formed

by resurrection hope. Formed by resurrection

hope. And Peter is going to very nicely outline

this for us within a matter of nine verses. What

does it look like for you and for me to be people

who are formed in resurrection hope? And he's

going to begin with purpose. He's going to say

there's a reason why, and it's actually more

an inferred reality in the whole passage. Why

write about hope unless it's very important?

Now, you may be sitting there and saying, I'm

not a very hope -filled person. I'm a pessimist.

I just see the world the way it is, and I kind

of live that way, right? Others of you may be

like, well, that's a virtue, but that's for that

guy or that woman over there, and that's great.

And every once in a while, I'll call them to

receive some of their positive vibes or something

like that. But that's not what we're looking

at here. Hope is absolutely a necessary ingredient

to what it means to be fully human. Now, as an

example of what this plays out, there's a man

by the name of Viktor Frankl who is an Austrian,

and he lived in the time of World War II. Now,

I bring up his story because this book, The Search

for Man's Meaning, if you have not read it and

you are a philosophical or you like to just study

human nature, grab this book. It's really short.

It's fantastic. It's not written necessarily

from a Christian perspective, but it does help

you understand the human experience. Now, here's

what Viktor Frankl went through. So as a 20 -year

-old just finished up his psychology degree,

the Nazis come in, they take over Austria, they

take all the Jews, Viktor being one of them,

to ghettos, and then eventually he gets put on

a train and ends up in Auschwitz in some of the

worst concentration camps that are there. Now,

what Viktor did during this time is he actually

spent time sitting with and listening to people

when he wasn't being forced into labor and things

like that, and just hearing their stories. And

as he sat there and he listened to their stories,

he was categorizing and thinking, okay, what

is it about the human experience that I'm learning

in this situation? And he came away with something

that is captured in this picture right here.

This painting. is by a friend of ours that lives

here in Bangkok. And what she's done is it's

linographed, so she's etched into it and then

printed different colors onto a paper. You can

tell I'm not an artist, right? And printed different

colors onto this paper, and you see light and

darkness. You see the tomb. You see community.

And it's capturing the women who are coming to

the tomb and longing and hope at that space.

And what Victor realized is that In the time

span of those who are in the concentration camp,

a matter of years for most, they were experiencing

what you and I will experience during an entire

lifetime smashed into a number of months. So

think about all the losses, all the pain, all

the suffering as you get old and you age and

there's different realities, you lose loved ones,

those things. You condense it, you concentrate

it into a couple months. Or a few years. That's

a lot of pressure on a human being. So why did

10 % of the people there survive? How did they

make it out? And what Victor realized is, he

said, it's not because they were strong. It's

not because they were extra smart. It's not because

they had great people skills. It's not because

they were leaders. What was it because? Hope.

They somehow found a way to have hope. And so

Peter writes this passage knowing that the life

that you live today is absolutely shaped by your

understanding of the future. So back to you again,

what is your understanding of the future? How

is that shaping how you and I live today? This

is the purpose that Peter writes for it. And

he says, hey, I need to make sure that I write

about hope because it is an essential component

of what it means to be a human being, to thrive.

Those who are tested to the absolute extreme,

the ones who do well in life, have been formed

in hope. Well, the good news is that God cares.

deeply about you and I having hope. And so there's

this outline from Peter here, from purpose to

posture. What does the posture of hope look like?

Well, right in the middle of this first passage,

we might read it and be like, okay, Peter, you're

addressing some people to the ECBers, the exiles

in dispersion in Bangkok, and you know, and on

and on and on. Peter's going to say that. Now,

what's important to realize is these people are

not refugees. They're not exiles in the sense

of a literal sense. They're actually Gentiles

living in these areas. Peter, why are you calling

them Gentiles and diaspora? Why are you calling

them people that are outside of their home? Because

he's talking about an existential reality that

you and I experience. We have all lost our home.

This side of Eden, we are all living away from

our home. Now, you may be from Bangkok, and there's

a physical reality here that is true, but Peter

wants to remind these people that there's an

experience to our lives that is going to look

like those ladies at the tomb. There's going

to be struggling that is there. We need to accept

the posture and embrace that posture of us being

away from home. That's one of the first steps

to it. Now, you might think, Pastor Phil, this

sounds like bad news. And then you might think,

okay, well, what are my options? If I don't like

this, what do I do? Well, some of us, we dig

in and we try really, really, really hard. And

maybe we've lost our hope in something and we

move towards something else to grab hope, right?

So maybe it's something that happened with a

spouse and then we move that to the child or

we move it to a workplace or maybe it's our health

and it begins to fade. And as we lose that hope,

we just find something else to struggle to willfully

attach hope to. But some of you may be like,

well, I tried that for a while and that was exhausting.

And it's more the will -less reality where you're

like, you know what? Life is really difficult,

and I'm just going to hold on and let it play

its course. But that's a will -less way of doing

it. And Dallas Willard actually offers these

two ideas to say, these are natural things we

move to as humans, either willfully trying harder

or will -lessly kind of giving up. And Peter

knows this as well, which is why he writes this

passage to us. And he's going to remind us that

there's a third way. There's another option for

you and I to go forward, to be formed in hope.

And here's the key to it. What does it highlight

there? Go ahead and say it. New birth. New birth.

A little over 16 years ago, I became a parent

for the first time. And before I welcomed my

daughter into our life, there's kind of a little

idea of like, I got this. And then you realize

how unbelievably dependent these little creatures

are that just stay with you. And sometimes, I

mean, I'm still calling my parents today at times.

It continues on. We are very dependent creatures.

That's just the way that God has created you

and I. And I don't think that Peter accidentally

chooses this metaphor. He wants you to know the

posture of those who are going to receive resurrection

hope. You see, if you give me a gift that I don't

want and I don't know I need, it's probably going

to go on a shelf somewhere and next Christmas

I'm going to re -gift it to somebody else. But

if you give me a gift that I know I desperately

need, I'm going to cherish that gift with all

of what I have. So the posture to resurrection

hope must be this broken spirit, this undone

reality. And so how do we become Easter people

living in a Good Friday world? Meaning Easter

is the celebration we all love because Christ

is risen. But then we go about our lives and

there's stuff that happens, right? Like what

I just came back from in Manila. There's another

third way, which is a willing sacrifice to go

through it. Resurrection hope is not for the

self -sufficient. It's for the undone. You've

got to be at the end of your rope in order to

go through a new birth and continue forward.

And it's not a one -time experience. It's something

we journey forward through in life. Now, why

is this good news? Well, let's continue on with

the rest of it. We've talked about the posture,

and if it's left there, then it's really bad

news, but it's not left there. Peter is going

to turn our attention now to why it's so good

if you have that posture, which is looking at

the person. So I want you to go ahead and read

this entire section with me out loud. So you

ready? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ. By his great mercy, he has given

us a new birth into a living hope through the

resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Who's

doing the movement here? Jesus, right? Peter,

in fact, he repeats it over and over and over

again. Why? Because he knows we may try to go

for hope or we may resign ourselves. But he says,

you know what? Jesus has already done this for

you. You need to learn to live into that person,

that one who actually is the resurrection hope.

Why is that good news? Here's the reality. If

I am the reason for my hope and my body continues

to age. and my relationships continue to be complicated

and work realities are what they are and living

situations are difficult and there's wars around

the world, if it all depends on me, that's a

heavy load to lift. But if it depends on somebody

else and somebody who's actually gone to the

tomb and come back, now that is news worth holding

on to. But I have to be willing to want it in

order for that to be the case. So hope does not

erase the darkness, but it teaches us to go through

it. Why? Because God is there with us. He went

to the tomb and he's there with you and I. And

he says, go through this because I'm going to

do something with it, which is where we go to

next. So when the person of the resurrection

is there, we need to understand who Christ is,

because then we'll move towards the process that

Peter is going to invite us to. I grew up most

of my life near the equator and in high altitude

where the weather was extremely predictable.

And the days were 12 hours of daylight, 12 hours

of nighttime. It was really nice to just kind

of, you just knew exactly what was happening.

The biggest change of the year was a little bit

of a rainy season and then a drier season, right?

At age 10, my parents moved me and my siblings

to... The northern hemisphere in North America

to the northern part of North America to a high

elevation town in a mountain area. Now, some

of you who know winters are already like, OK,

this is coming, right? So I get there in the

summertime reality. I'm like, this is great.

This is just like my home. But the days are longer.

That means more playing, more freedom, more joy,

more happiness. I love this. And then comes September.

And then October. And something is changing around

me. The days are getting shorter. The nights

are getting longer. That happens, by the way.

If days get shorter, the nights get longer. The

cold is setting in. And then the ground is covered

with snow and ice. And the trees have lost all

of their leaves. And for a little bit, you're

like, okay, this is a new experience. I'm kind

of enjoying this. But I noticed week after week

after week, I started to get kind of like claustrophobic.

This sense of like, is this ever going to end?

Is my summer gone forever? And this long waiting

continues on. And about April or about March,

you're thinking, I can't do this anymore. And

then something happens. Something comes through

the snow and the ice. And as an outsider stepping

into this environment, you look around at the

community and they start doing things differently.

But it doesn't make sense because there's snow

everywhere. So why are you putting away snow

gear? Why are you changing your home? Why are

you adapting things as though the winter is changing?

You see, what they knew is something that I didn't

know. that that becomes a sign, this flower,

this crocus flower that pokes through the ice

becomes a sign that summer is coming within a

number of weeks. And so everybody begins to prepare

for this warmer weather, actually. It's spring,

and then it goes forward. But this is a reality

that I had to experience and live to, and the

crocus flower is kind of what Jesus is talking

about as the living hope here. So he says, you've

been saved into an inheritance that is imperishable,

undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you who

are being protected by the power of God. All

of what is being framed here is the fact that

you are not responsible for this hope. Who's

responsible for it? God is. The living hope is

the one who is. You are there, kind of like the

crocus flower. You get to just watch it poke

through and this sign of something that is changing.

before your very eyes. You see, we don't reason

our way into resurrection hope. We receive it

from the living Christ. We don't reason our way

into resurrection hope. We receive it from the

living Christ. Now, as an example of this, during

the Soviet era, where the worldview that was

being communicated from that part of the world

was that there was no God. That we could not

trust in anything that could not be seen, identified,

understood through science or the natural world.

So you had a guy who was spending his life efforts

to tear apart, logically, the resurrection. And

he actually gathered in a room like this and

he spent an hour talking to the people and systematically,

logically saying, this is an impossibility. You

cannot. Somebody cannot rise from the dead. And

his hope in all of that was to say, let's get

done with these dreams and let's move on to the

reality that is there. And at the end of his

talk, he said, if anyone has questions or you

want to kind of dispute what I've said, you've

got a minute to share. And this old man in the

very back of the room raises his hand and slowly

makes his way to the front. And seeing that,

the speaker is like, hey, just want to remind

you, you only have one minute. And he goes, I

don't need a minute. I only need 30 seconds.

Confused, like I've just spent this hour dismantling

the resurrection. And the guy gets up there and

he says, Christ is risen. And the crowd erupts

with, he is risen indeed. You guys can do better

than that. Christ is risen. He is risen indeed.

Now we notice this on the first service. Everybody's

like, it's not Easter. Can I say that? Is that

okay? Pastor, what are you doing? But what you

have here is the lived out reality of I have

experienced the resurrection because I know the

person of resurrection. And it defiles what I

can see around me, which is where Peter is going

to go next. But let's look at some stories, some

actual stories of what resurrection hope growing

within a person looks like. painting that I told

you about, Mary and the other women at the tomb.

It's a picture of longing for hope, right? Let

me read a passage of scripture that describes

how Jesus first met Mary. It's from Luke 8. It

says, Soon afterwards, he, meaning Jesus, went

on through the cities and villages, proclaiming

and bringing the good news of the kingdom of

God. So Jesus is bringing this new way of life,

this hope into the world around him. The twelve,

the disciples, were there, as well as some women

who had been cured of evil spirits and infirmities.

Mary, who's pictured in this, called Magdalene,

from whom seven demons had gone out. I want you

to imagine Mary's life and the tear that she

was living in when Jesus first encountered her

and freed her from that. Do you think her allegiance

and her hope is in Jesus? Absolutely. But then

she finds herself here when Jesus is in the tomb

and she's like, Lord, what am I supposed to do?

There's this deep grief and this deep loss of

saying, I thought you would come to change things.

You changed my life. Now what is this? And she

actually looks in the tomb and she realizes that

Jesus's body is not there on Sunday morning.

And so she's even more desperate. They took my

Lord and my Savior. And she turns around and

she finds somebody there and she thinks it's

the gardener. And she's like, hey, do you know

what they did with Jesus? And at that moment,

the man says, Mary. And that personal connection

of him and her story come together in that moment.

And Mary realizes this is Jesus actually here

with me. He's resurrected from the dead. And

she ends up going back as the very first witness

of resurrection hope. You see the transformation

that happened? You go from a posture of despair,

whatever you're bringing into that, you wait

and Jesus encounters you and something amazing

happens. Well, let's go on to some of the other

stories, the disciples. They're up in the upper

room. They've just seen their leader, Jesus,

be crucified brutally on the cross. Rome looks

like it's won. What are you going to do? Go hide.

I'm going to be terrified. I'm going to go up

to a room and I'm going to hide. I'm going to

be full of fear. So that's what they do. This

is expected of them. And who comes? Jesus enters

into that space. And within a matter of days,

They end up preaching the gospel and 3 ,000 people

come to know Jesus from fear to courage. What

about Thomas? Thomas missed that scene, but Thomas

comes as a doubter, right? He's that thinker

and he's like, I'm only going to believe it if

I can see it, touch it, know it. Otherwise, I'm

just going to kind of hold back. And Jesus doesn't

look at Thomas and he's like, oh, you're doubting,

you're out of this whole thing. He encounters

Thomas in his doubt. And he says, go ahead, touch.

The scars on my hands touch the scars on my feet.

And as Thomas does that, he declares something.

He says, Jesus, my Lord and my what? God. This

is the most clear statement of Jesus's divinity

coming from the doubter himself. That's the transformation

that happens when the person of the resurrection

comes to you. What about the Emmaus pilgrims?

So they're in Jerusalem and they're like, great,

there's this great movement forward. I'm gathered

in a group of people. Something is happening

here. And then all of what happens takes place

and Jesus ends up on the cross crucified. And

you can see them just kind of walking away, dejected

to Emmaus. And on their walk, who comes? A man

joins them on that and begins to talk to them

and says, what's going on? And they say, I'm

so disappointed. I was a believer, but it didn't

seem to work. So I'm heading this way. And it's

not until Jesus actually breaks bread with them,

which we are going to do here in a moment, where

their eyes are open and they realize this is

the resurrected living hope. And what do they

do? They take a U -turn and they head back to

Jerusalem. Their calling has been restored again

because they have come into contact with the

resurrected living person, Jesus. So I want you

to now hear a story, a testimony of a person

in life today. So her name is Ellie Holcomb.

Now, for those of you who know my last name,

that's the last name, I am not related to her

as far as I know. She's a musician and songwriter.

And the reason I share her testimony is she spent

a lot of time trying to understand what hope

is and wrestling through it. She has song after

song about hope that's beautiful. But she's going

to share a story with you here. And let me just

set one context for that. She's wrestling through

with the fact that her niece has just died of

cancer. Nine -year -old girl has died of cancer.

And so you're going to watch as she goes through

this process of wrestling and surrender and then

being restored into resurrection hope with who

God is. And I was walking through a lot of questions,

wrestling, and also a lot of walks. Man, we lost

my... precious niece Bailey to a fierce battle,

aggressive battle of cancer. She was nine. It

is like, that is not how the story is supposed

to go. You know, it just is like, no one should

ever have to grieve a child. And yet she had

a smile that stretched as wide as Tennessee and

this deep confidence that she knew where she

was headed. She was like ministering to all of

us as we were grieving. Um, I think there, what,

what I was marveling at is this mystery that

I continue to encounter over and over again in

my story is that in my deepest places of lament,

where I'm like, this is like, you say you work

all things for the good of those who love you

and are called according to your purposes in

Roman. And I'm like, but this is not good. This

is breaking my heart. And so, um, I think I feel

more boldness to just come and be like, what

the heck? Like, why? And honestly, like, I'm

probably going to die with some of those questions

in me. And I can say with full confidence, I've

known the tenderness and the empathy of God and

the goodness of God to remind me that this isn't

the end of the story. There may not be healing

on this side. We may not get the miracle on this

side of heaven. But there is a day coming where

every sad thing will come untrue. And we all

make it back to the far country. We all make

it back to our true home. And Bailey's there

now. And I think she would love to know that

I'm singing about the hope that I know lived

in her, lives in her. Um, cause she is healed

and whole and I know she's out of glory. And

so it is this, I love that the gospel makes space

for both. Like from the grave and the garden

where Jesus is literally weeping, like wrestling.

If you can take this cup, take it. I just love

that God's answer to brokenness is me too. I'm

right here with you in it. And this is not the

end. There is an empty grave and that's where

our hope is grounded. And so, man, I, I'm so

grateful to hold on to that for my own heart.

And then, and then to get to say, Hey, I'll sit

with you in the sorrow because Jesus sat with

me and I'm going to point you to him because

he's reminded me. And I want to remind you, this

isn't the end. It's a good story that we get

to be a part of. Yeah. Now what you watch is

her process, right? So there's a beginning where

she's like, there's this hope or this wrestling

and this doubting and I don't know what to do

with it. And she's open and honest about it.

And then there's this and. And she switches because

she has encountered the resurrected living Jesus.

And that has shaped and changed her experience

of life. So then she goes forward, still holding

it all together. But it's quite beautiful. Now

let's turn to the last one. The one who wrote

the passage that we have, which is Peter. Peter

took a couple encounters. Like all of us need

a couple encounters with the resurrected Lord.

And Peter has this time where he... So Peter

was called to be the rock upon which the church

was built. And at that point, he's like, OK,

I'm going to be an important leader for the church.

But he fails in his leadership so tremendously

by denying Jesus three times. You can imagine

his regret and his shame in that moment. And

he's holding this regret and this shame. And

he's walking. He goes back to his previous career

of fishing. And Jesus comes and encounters him

there. And he spends time with Peter and he says,

Peter, do you love me? Yes, I do. Peter, do you

love me? Yes, I do. Peter, do you love me? Feed

my sheep. Three denials, three restorations that

bring him back into relationship. And that feed

my sheep is Peter's leadership restored as part

of who he's going to do. And now he's writing

a letter that we get to read today. Here's what

he says. In this you rejoice, even if now for

a little while you have had to suffer various

trials. Peter's not just talking about this because

he read it in a book. He's talking about it because

he has gone through it himself. And he's going

to say, give a metaphor here. And this metaphor

is one of taking some elements from the ground,

some metals from the ground, and you take these

out of the ground and they're mixed with the

pure metal and the impurities of the ground that

you pulled them out of, right? So you take that

and you have to heat it up so that the impurities

come to the top and you can scrape them off.

And what happens in that is the element itself,

gold, is remaining in its pure form. And what

Peter is saying through God's word in this situation

is that our journey through life with all of

the difficulties that we experience is not God

laughing at that reality, but it's an experience

of us slowly losing the things that we have placed

our hope into. And those are the impurities that

need to come out up to the surface and get scraped

away so that what is left is our hope completely

and purely on Jesus Christ. We're going to lose

everything in this world anyway. And it's this

process of doing that that God is right there

with us. And he's saying, these are good things.

But they're not the ultimate thing. Hold on to

me and I want to help to continue to shape and

form that in you. And so there's this metaphor

of that about going through the tomb that is

there. And what does he say? It's for the salvation

of your souls. This is not about your ultimate

destination. This is about the forming into the

fullness of who God has called you to be. Think

about the gold metaphor again. So resurrection

hope is not just something we believe. It is

something that we practice and embody. We actually

become the resurrection in the world around us.

So I want you to think back to that flower there,

right? We look at this and it begins to change

how we live our lives. It reshapes how we engage

in relationship. It reshapes how we engage in

our workplace. It reshapes how we engage in school.

It reshapes everything. And in the end, what

happens is we become this. An entire field full

of resurrection examples. Because this process

has been moving within us. And you know what

happens the more you see there, the more hope

is instilled in the world around you. And Bangkok

needs this. Thailand needs this. And the world

needs this. They need us, ECB, to be people who

are formed in resurrection hope so that we can

proclaim the goodness of what is happening in

the world around us through God. So we've looked

at the four -point process that Peter has outlined

here for us. I don't know all your stories. I

know some of them, as I referenced at the beginning,

but you do. And you know who you're sitting next

to, and you know the places of resurrection that

need to still take place within your own lives.

Remember that birth example? None of us have

arrived. We all need resurrection to be formed

increasingly within us. So what does it look

like to be formed regularly in resurrection hope?

Hold on to this passage from 1 Peter. One of

the things that I have made a practice of almost

every single morning is when I go to make my

coffee from a book called Every Moment Holy,

there's this prayer called the ritual of morning

coffee. And it is a ritual for me. I mean, grinding

and all this stuff that happens. Jonas, you're

here, right? Jonas knows this. He's been to my

house for coffee. During that process, there's

a prayer that is there, and this is how the prayer

goes. Would you meet me, O Christ, in the stillness

of this morning? Would you move me, Spirit, to

quiet my heart? Would you mend me, Father, from

whatever harms have journeyed into my life and

I have participated in from yesterday? In the

discords of yesterday, would you resurrect peace?

In the weariness of yesterday, would you resurrect

strength? In the doubts of yesterday, would you

resurrect faith? In the discouragement and the

despair of yesterday, would you resurrect hope?

In the woundings of yesterday that I did and

that was done to me, would you resurrect love?

Let me be awake to my need and aware of your

grace. Amen. And you do this as you partake in

your coffee or tea and you allow the resurrection

to shape you throughout your day in that way.

Thank you for tuning in to the ECB sermon podcast.

Whether near or far, if you are looking for community

or are in need of prayer, we welcome you to engage

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And remember to join us next week. God bless

you.