Running to "Well Done" | Ayren Nelson

How are you today?

What are to our feet? And we'll give the Lord some

Praise. We're

Worshiping him in the house of

The Lord

The day you may.

So I'll rejoice and be glad. Rejoice and be glad

that you are more than enough.

More than enough.

You're faithful to your promise.

You I standing

your presence.

I have everything I need.

The joy of Lord, the of Lord is my

Lord.

Lord,

the joy, Lord, joy.

Lord,

everything you Jesus,

You're worthy of, worthy of all

My

Faithful promise.

You weak. When

I'm standing in your presence,

I have everything I need.

The joy

and

overflow.

Holy Spirit.

Holy Spirit.

Come on.

Joy.

Joy, the joy,

his name within me.

Joy.

Yes, God, worship your Lord.

Alright, hope. How you doing today?

He is worthy to be praised.

Why don't you turn to your neighbor

and let them know how worthy he is to be praised today.

And if you're online, why don't you send in a comment

and say how thankful you are

for all the wonderful things he's done in your life.

Amen.

We are here for one thing, and

that is lift up the name of Jesus.

Because in Jesus we find our hope.

It's in Jesus that we find our peace,

and it's in Jesus that we have our salvation.

So we're gonna lift his name up today

and every day I pray that you'd be a people

that would lift up the name of Jesus.

God

He knows,

yes he did.

Hall The

glory, glory

freedom.

Your stripes, my

glory,

love,

praise King.

Come your voice.

Glory, glory, glory,

glory forever.

Jesus

Hallelu the

hallelujah

hall, the

the

Jesus, Jesus.

Thank you Jesus.

In the darkness, we without

Light From heaven there

fulfill prophets

from throne glory to C,

lift up

the

Spirit

To reveal and

The To redeem creation.

You did not dep the cross

For

Knowing this salvation, Jesus,

for you

Come let's, we're gonna praise, come praise

The morning that you rose all of heaven.

So that stone was moved for good, for

conquer dead

To the and the church shall

Christ born

now this gospel

free, free the love

Jesus Christ,

Praise the

him.

Tell him

Jesus, father, we love you.

Thank you Lord for the reality that we get to live in

because of your son Jesus,

who sacrificed himself on the cross just for us, so

that we could walk in freedom

and we could live in your love.

Lord, thank you. We love you. This is all for you, Lord.

We honor you in this place, Lord.

And it's in your name, we pray together. Amen.

Come on church, you can take your seat,

Take your seats.

And while we're at it, can we just give the Lord some praise

for our time of worship just now?

Wow. Welcome

to Hope Community Church and how we doing today, church.

Okay. Okay, good, good. Well listen, my name's Dwayne.

I'm one of the pastors here, and I get the

privilege of welcoming you.

So let me just say right up front, welcome

to Hope Community Church.

We are so glad that you are here now at Hope.

We like to say that we are a big part of the family of God.

We're a family who actually loves God, follows Jesus

and shares hope.

And we hope that while you're here today,

that you feel like part of that family.

And if there's anything that we can do to encourage you

or to help you to be more of a part of that family,

let us know and we'll do whatever we can to serve you

with the hopes of connecting you to the leader of

that family, Jesus Christ.

And at the same time, uh,

we really value family around here.

We talk about it a lot.

We try to support the family as much as we possibly can.

Uh, and when there's moments

that are significant in the lives of families, we try

to lift those things up high.

And I'll just give you an example. Like this week at all

of our campuses, we have parents who are going

to dedicate themselves to Jesus, to training their children

in raising them to be followers of Christ.

Now that's something to celebrate, right? Yeah.

And so families are really important around here

and there's different things that come

with being a part of a family.

Uh, there is some joy and some celebration that we get,

but there's also some moments of brokenness

that we all experience.

And when we see areas of brokenness as a church, we like

to step into those areas and offer the love

and support of Christ in any way that we possibly can.

Now, one of those areas is the area of foster care ministry

and those who are affected by foster care.

Now, this month happens to be foster care awareness month,

and this month we celebrate the fact that man, we get

to be a part of the solution when it comes down to

that kind of work.

And I hope there are all kinds of initiatives happening.

We actually have a ministry here

that we call Fostering Hope, where we

as a church pour into the lives of those who are affected

by that reality.

And so God is doing some tremendous things all

around the globe, but he's certainly doing some tremendous

things here as a part of this church.

And these are things that you may not be aware of.

And so we'd like to share stories from time to time

to help you know what God is already doing

and maybe just maybe for you to see how you can be a part of

that same solution.

So for a little bit more information about fostering hope

and about God was what God is doing through that ministry,

I want you to take a moment and check out the story.

Hi, I am Christina and I am a volunteer on the youth in

the building team for Fostering Hope.

And what that means is that we really support the staff

and the social workers that are at the Wake County Health

and Human Services building the

Swine Burn Building in Raleigh.

So there are kids that are there

that are living in the office building.

Um, they are not able to be placed right now

for different reasons, or we're quickly removed from

the home for certain reasons.

And so they actually live in the office buildings.

And so our team, as a part of kind of a different groups

that come together, we do their laundry.

So they don't have a laundry facility there.

So we're able to pick up their clothes, provide care in

that way, and then return it.

So these kids have clothes they can wear to school

or throughout the day that are clean and ready to go.

Uh, it's very vulnerable to receive a child's clothing.

Um, when you know they've been taken from their homes

or they're in crisis again, they just, for whatever reason,

just don't have somebody

that can even just do their laundry.

And so I think, um, for us, it's been really eye-opening.

Um, it's been very humbling

and it's been amazing to see my little daughters who are six

and four take part in it and be a part as a family with this

and really understand

and just do this little thing that

to us has been way more impactful.

Um, but a way for us to love

and serve these kids that so deserve our love.

So the last thing I'll say about fostering hope is

that everybody plays a part, but I really am amazed

and in awe of the social workers in the building,

the youth in the building staff, the health

and human services staff, security teams, uh,

volunteers from other churches

that are stepping in in other ways that our church is not.

So it does take a village

and it's just a beautiful thing to be a piece of it, knowing

that you don't have to do all the things you get

to do the thing that God is asking you to do

and has gifted you to do.

But being able to really fully appreciate the people

that do it day in and day out

and loving them where they're at.

So I think the program is a beautiful thing from Hope,

but it also shows how community is so powerful as a whole.

Our foster care system is home

to over 450 children in Wake County.

These children are some

of the most vulnerable in our communities.

They live with uncertainty moved from place to place,

lacking the stability of home

and the true safety of community.

Some of you may one day be called to foster.

We have several families in our church already doing so,

and we are so thankful for the hearts

and dedication that they have.

However, that's not everyone's path, and that's okay,

but there's something you can do.

We just heard Christina share how God used her yes,

to such a simple task

and turned it into something so much more impactful,

not only to the children in care and the social workers,

but also for Christina and her family.

In a moment, our pastors are going

to lead us in prayer together, we're going to pray

for the social workers with our foster care system

and also our school social workers.

The weight of their work is heavy and they are tired.

We're going to pray for the courageous foster families

who open their homes and hearts to provide refuge

for vulnerable children.

We're going to pray for the biological parents, many

who are working tirelessly to heal, grow,

and reunite with their children, their own stories full

of pain, yes, but also resilience and hope.

Last but not least, we are going to pray for the children

who through no fault of their own, are caught in the middle

of what must be a very scary situation

that often leaves them feeling hopeless.

Yet church, we have hope

because God is a father to the fatherless

and he knows them by name and loves them.

So I ask, what's something you can do?

If you're not sure, that's okay. We're here to help.

Just text Foster to 7 2 9 8 9,

fill out the connection form

and a member of our Fostering Hope team is eager to connect

with you to help you learn more.

Well, let's take a moment to pray together.

Father, we thank you for the day.

We thank you for your grace

and mercy, uh, that extends to us all.

And Father, as we take time this month to both

bring awareness and to pray on behalf of those

who are affected by the foster care system, we pray

for Father God, your power

to be experienced in all that we do.

Father, we lift up social workers

who have a monumental task in front of them.

Uh, we lift up both, uh, foster families

that are currently serving in that role

and those who would potentially be called into

foster new children.

I mean, even today, father God,

as we were walking into this room, we heard of 11

new children that showed up today who have that need.

And so Father, as a church, we lift them up

before you today.

Uh, we lift up the children who are impacted in the midst

of decisions that oftentimes have nothing

to do with who they are.

And Father, we just pray.

We pray for everyone affected by

what goes on in foster care.

We pray that we would be the kind of church

that doesn't just bring awareness,

but that continues to be a part of solutions and support

and the love of Christ.

And Father. Well, we know that there is a need

for every child involved in foster care

to be known and to be loved.

We also know that there's a need for every child

to experience the hope

that comes from knowing they're loved by God.

So help us to share that kind of hope in Jesus' name. Amen.

Amen. Listen, one of the ways

that we experience time together as the family of God is

by hearing the word of God, is by applying it to

how we live our lives.

And so in just a moment, we're gonna hear the word of God,

uh, from my good friend Aaron Nelson.

Does anybody know Aaron Nelson? Yeah. Praise God.

And we're gonna continue to be that same family.

So let's prepare our hearts for the word of God.

And welcome to Hope Community Church.

We're glad you're here.

Well, hey everybody, um, hey, we're gonna, Hey, thank you.

Um, we're gonna go ahead and get rolling here.

I just want to kind of give you this precursor upfront.

Uh, if you are, uh, a Bible reader, a note taker, buckle up.

Uh, we are gonna be speed reading through the Bible today.

So unless you grew up Baptist and you're really good at your

speed drills, uh, today might be a day

where you just write down the references

and we'll kind of go back and revisit those later.

And hopefully this feeds you, uh, over the coming weeks.

But, um, back in 2019, I proposed to my wife Morgan.

Uh, I proposed to her in Disney World,

but she didn't know I was gonna do it.

I was, I was actually very proud of the fact

that I was able to pull this off.

But leading up to the big day, uh, I had her do something.

We would post pictures to social media

of us in the parks at Walt Disney World and uh,

and every single time we would put the hashtag hashtag

Best Week of our Lives.

But what she didn't realize was I was kind

of feeding into it because I knew on the last day we were

gonna post a picture of the proposal with the hashtag

Best Week of Our Lives.

Here it is. You can check that out.

And I was really excited about it.

And, uh, some of y'all, you see that

and you're like, oh, that's so

sweet, and all this other stuff.

But some of you are looking at that

and you, the only thing you've been asking this whole time

is how in the world did you have the best week

of your life in Walt Disney World?

And I know you're there, you're a very vocal minority

because you're very outspoken about

how much you don't enjoy going to the self-professed,

most magical place on earth.

You get there and you're like, man, it's hot,

it's expensive, I gotta wait in lines all day.

And I'll concede to you that all of those things are true.

But there's a reason why 50 million people a year continue

to visit the most magical place on earth.

And it's something called the Disney bubble.

If you don't know what the Disney bubble is, it's

what happens when you land at MCO when you land at Orlando

International Airport, and then you go into Disney property.

It's about a 40 square mile property of all things Disney.

And you get there and it feels really nice.

There's transportation whenever you need to get

around somewhere, there's plenty

of food options everywhere that you look.

Kids have a smile on their face.

Adults are filled with this sense of nostalgia.

And if you don't believe that the Disney bubble bubble is a

real thing, you tell me

where else you can see a six foot rat running around

and you get excited about it.

Okay? Disney is a unique place.

The thing that people love is kind

of this sense of escapism.

I can go to this place where there's never any chipped paint

and there's no gum that's stuck on the floor,

but even in the Disney bubble, there are certain signs

that will quickly bring you back to reality.

We were walking around and, uh, we were kind

of resort hopping, going all the different places,

taking the different methods of

transportation and stuff like that.

And, uh, well, we walk next to kinda like this little pond,

and next to the pond, we see this sign

danger alligators and snakes in the area.

So my Morgan, she's talking to me

and I'm oohing and ah, and all that stuff.

And then I see that sign.

And you know what, if you listen closely in the distance,

you can hear it's the sound of the bubble popping

because in just a moment, I was transported from this place

of bliss back into central Florida

where everything is trying to kill you.

And just a moment, I saw this sign

and now like I can't even,

I'm not getting distracted the way that I was before.

Like, I'm still enjoying myself and having a good time,

but I got one eye on the ground

to make sure there's nothing slithering or crawling my way.

Right? Listen, a warning sign can take you out of this place

of bliss really quick.

And the Bible is full of them.

The Bible is full of warning signs.

Over the course of this, uh, uh, uh, series, we have been,

um, celebrating the resurrection

and the, the effects that that has on our life here today.

In 2025, we have been talking, uh, Matt Curtis,

he kicked off this series talking about Jesus on the road

to Emmaus and how we can be assured that we walk

with a messiah even through our disappointment.

A couple of weeks ago I talked about how,

because the grave is empty now,

we are ambassadors for heaven.

We are, uh, ministers of reconciliation.

Last week, Heather, uh, she talked about

how we are now invited into this God-centered community.

This, this new family of God

that we celebrate here week in and week out.

And if you're not careful, you can celebrate the

resurrection and you can think about Jesus

and all these things can give you the warm

and fuzzies in your tum tum.

You can show up to church every week

and you say, man, this is so great.

God is so good. The sun is shining, the rainbows are out.

All these great amazing things are happening.

But then you start reading the Bible

and you start to come across some of these warning signs.

Let's take a look at a couple of them.

They come from the apostles.

The first one that we're gonna look at is from the apostle

Paul, Galatians six, verse nine.

He says, let us not grow weary of doing good.

And maybe you see that and you go, well, I

I wasn't planning on growing weary.

Then you see James, the brother of Jesus in James one 12.

He says, blessed is the man who remains

steadfast under trial like trials.

I said yes to Jesus. I didn't expect any trials.

What did I sign up for? The author of Hebrews,

Hebrews 10 23, let us hold fast the confession

of our hope without wavering.

I wasn't planning to waver. What are we talking about?

Peter, one of Jesus's 12 disciples and two Peter three 17.

He says, therefore dear friends,

since you have been forewarned, be on guard so

that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless

and fall from your secure position.

Wait a minute, forewarned,

if we've been celebrating the resurrection,

if the tomb being empty is the greatest thing

that could ever happen to me,

why do the New Testament authors keep

telling me to watch out?

Why do they keep telling me not to give up?

Why do they keep telling me to press on this is supposed

to be good news, right?

Why is it that they keep telling me to watch out?

And and as you read through the, the pages of scripture,

and as you start to live this life of following Jesus,

if you listen closely, that idea

that this whole thing is supposed to be easy starts to fall

away, it's the sound of the bubble popping.

It's the reality setting in of the cost of following Jesus.

It's coming through the realization that making the decision

to follow Jesus is not the finish line.

It's actually the starting block.

Morgan, uh, invited me to go to Burn Bootcamp

with her one time, and uh, I was, yeah, sure.

She went every day like five times a week.

She was crushing it, doing a great job.

And so she said, Hey, I got a visitor's pass.

You should, you should come with me to go

and work out at Burn Bootcamp.

And I said, yeah, burn bootcamp

one day, whatever, let's go do it.

Right? So we get there and we show up to the place

and they're doing these like circuit cardio things.

So it's like six different stations

and it's like burpees this

and hit the back of your head with your ankle.

That and all these things that

I did not wanna do on a Saturday morning,

but we start going, and at this time, Morgan

and I weren't dating yet, so I still had something to prove.

So I said I can't give up.

So I start working out, I'm doing the burpees

and I'm doing the things and halfway

through I'm like, y'all, I'm not gonna make it.

I can't do this. But there's six circuits

and we're on like number four.

I'm like, okay, I'm gonna keep going.

I'm gonna keep trying really hard.

So we keep going, we keep going, we get through circuit the,

the sixth workout

and the coach who's been cheering us on the whole time

saying, you can do it.

Who wasn't doing anything,

by the way, she's not working out.

She's just telling us, come

on guys, you can do better than that.

Yeah, okay, whatever. Sixth e exercise comes around,

I'm like, thank God I made it out alive from that.

She goes, all right, 45 second break.

And then we're getting started with a round two.

Lemme tell you what Aaron did.

Aaron went to the bathroom, locked the door

and put his cheek on the cold floor

to keep himself from puking

because I didn't think I was gonna make it.

And I hid in there until the class was over. Why did I quit?

Because I didn't realize what I signed up for.

I didn't know it was gonna be harder

than I originally anticipated.

And the truth is that there are so many disillusioned

followers of Jesus who have crisis of faith

and ultimately end up walking away from the way of Jesus

because they're saying, this is more than I signed up for.

Let me ask you, this is not a rhetorical question

at all of our campuses.

I want you to do this. Raise your hand if you know someone

who has walked away from following Jesus.

Yeah, it feels like almost all of us do, right?

And I don't want to try to assume,

and I don't wanna try to make up reasons

or think for that person why they

didn't continue following Jesus.

But my guess is it probably got really hard,

I don't know anyone who walked away from the Christian

faith because they're like, oh, you know what?

I'm just, I'm just having too much fun.

It's just too much joy.

I really enjoy this whole like, picking up my cross

to follow Jesus thing.

It's, it's not costing me anything.

It hasn't really changed my life in any sort of way.

No, most people who decide

to walk away from Jesus is because they've hit a wall.

They deconstruct

because they can't find answers to tough questions.

Or they experience too many,

too much hurt from too many church people

and they say it's not worth it anymore.

Or they, they pray a prayer that doesn't get answered.

But, but listen, if you, if you read the book

like this is, it's a part of it.

The tough journey, the the, the hard work.

It's all a part of it.

And, and the reason why the New Testament authors spend

so much time giving us these warning signs is

because they've experienced it firsthand

and they've lived it.

Last week Heather talked about how uh,

after the crucifixion there was this new formed Jesus

community that started sprouting up.

But shortly after that, they start experiencing persecution.

Almost immediately you start reading about

how the apostles would go out and preach into the streets,

and as they were doing

so they would be immediately captured and beaten.

And you know what the response was?

There's a story in the Bible where it says that two

of the apostles were beaten.

And when they were let go, they had walked away rejoicing

because they had been considered worthy

of being beaten for the gospel.

You keep reading, we get to Acts chapter seven,

and there's a guy named Steven who he was appointed

by the apostles to handle the food distribution

of this new Jesus community.

And Stephen is stoned

and killed as a result of living his faith out loud.

Around this time, there's a man named

Nero who comes to power.

He's the, uh, Roman emperor. And you know what he does?

He views Christians as a threat to the Roman way of life.

So he starts crucifying them

and he kidnaps them and,

and puts them in animal clothing so

that the dogs will attack them and eat them alive.

He covers them in wax

and uses them as candles for his courtyard.

But we still have a church. They didn't give up.

They kept going. Churchillian, he's an early church father.

He says that, that the, the blood

of the martyrs is the seed of the church.

How is it they kept going? Why didn't they stop?

I think it's 'cause they weren't caught off guard.

I think it's because they knew the words of Jesus

when he said in John 15, 18 through 20, uh,

if the world hates, you know that it hated me.

Before it hated you.

If you were of the world,

the world would love you as its own.

But because you are not of the world,

but I chose you out of the world.

Therefore the world hates you.

Remember the word that I have said to you?

A servant is not greater than his master.

If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you.

I was talking to, to Jason a few weeks ago.

We knew this message was coming up and,

and he shared with me this image, uh, that I wanna show you.

This is, this is how each of the 12 apostles died,

crucified, upside down, multiple of them crucified, skinned,

alive, slain by a spear.

And then you have John who died naturally.

I'm sure he's still trying to sit

at the cool kids' table in heaven.

He'd be like, guys, I promise it was pretty bad.

But all of them experienced brutal deaths

for a message that they knew was worth it

and that they were determined to see reach us here in 2025.

They endured this persecution

because they knew it was coming and they expected it.

And this isn't just a back then problem,

like this is a today thing.

I read a stat earlier this week

that I was genuinely shocked to learn.

I did a lot of deep research

'cause I thought, there's no way this is right.

Did you know that in the 19th,

or I'm sorry in the 20th, in the 21st century,

there have been more Christians killed

for their faith than in the previous 19th centuries combined

since the start of the church.

If you're like me and you get confused by centuries,

that means since 1901 across the world,

there have been more Christians killed

for their faith than in the previous 1900 years combined.

Just in, in February of this past year, there was a story

that didn't get a ton of media coverage.

But in the, uh, democratic Republic of Congo, uh, the bodies

of 70 Christians were found in a church.

And I'm specific about saying their bodies

because their heads weren't there.

They had been decapitated for their faith.

I've been to South Asia and I've met men

and women who have clear deformities all across their body

who have major health issues.

And when I ask them, Hey, what, what?

You know, what's up with it?

Why is this such a common thing?

The reason they don't go to the hospitals is

because they're denied service,

because they're converts to Christianity.

I was talking to somebody who's on our, our team, uh,

who uh, got to take um, one

of these trips back in, uh, October.

And they mentioned that they had met a young lady, uh,

who had just kind of found safety.

She ran away from her home

after her parents were killed, put inside of the house,

and the house was burned.

She had to escape through the woods, all

because they were converts to Christianity.

And you know, what's astounding about these people is

that when you meet them and when you have conversations

with them, you know what they, you

know how the conversations go.

Not once have they ever said, why me?

Instead they think, well, well, why not me? You know why?

'cause they read their bibles and

because they know Jesus, they don't have to ask, man,

why is this persecution happening to me?

They know why it happened.

It's because they hitched their wagon to the savior

of the world and he promised

that there would be consequences of it.

And so for us, why don't we see this?

I mean, Jesus, he promises it, right?

John 1633, he says, I have said these things to you

that in me, you may have peace.

Really, I'm not really feeling peace

knowing there's gonna be persecution.

Here's why. Because in the world you will have tribulation.

But take heart, I have overcome the world.

This is the beauty about the empty grave.

The absolute worst thing that anyone can ever do

to you is kill you.

And Jesus proved that that is no match for him,

that our death isn't the end,

but that there's actually an eternal reward,

something waiting for us in eternity if we just continue

to run our race.

But by this point, is anybody asking?

Yeah, but what about me? Like, let me ask realistically,

do you face persecution?

Like some of the things we just talked about? No, we don't.

Right? And in prepping for this, I, I genuinely had

to ask like, man, God, why don't, why don't we fear

for our lives in America?

And I genuinely think the reason why we don't have

to be afraid of the sword is

because we have TikTok, we have sleep number beds

and same day delivery.

We have all of these pleasures

and these comforts, we have 4 0 1 ks and a two party system

and whatever on earth subway tile is,

and some woman I've never met named Joanna Gaines,

who keeps telling me I need it for some reason.

We have Instagram reels, we have pornography,

we have FanDuel, we have deadlines and meetings

and all these things that are for the past month,

the internet has debate been debating who would win

between a hundred, a hundred men in a gorilla.

And it has encapsulated our society.

So why is it that Satan doesn't

have to threaten us with a sword?

Well, it's because we're already distracted

and we're already too busy.

But here's the thing, whether your life is being threatened

or your soul is being threatened, guess what?

They both require endurance.

They both require a resolve to say, no matter

what gets in my way, no matter what tries

to separate me from Jesus, I'm going to endure.

I'm going to persevere.

I'm going to keep my eyes fixed on him

because he is worth it.

It's the same thing that motivates a believer on the other

side of the world to continue

to face persecution in order to worship.

And it's the same reason why we need Jesus every single day

to make it through a world that is desperately trying

to pull you away from him in very covert ways.

I saw, uh, a message from, uh, Matt Chandler.

He's a pastor out in Texas and he wrote it this way.

It's a long quote, so we're gonna

throw it up on the screen for you.

But he says, one of the ways I've tried to orient my life is

to pay attention and ask two questions.

What stirs my affections for Jesus Christ?

And what robs me of my affections?

The thing that's gonna steal my affections

for Jesus is not black tar heroin, it's Netflix.

What's gonna steal my affections

for Jesus is not some scantily clad woman

that tries to seduce me.

It's going to be scrolling through Instagram

and coming across something I should

scroll more quickly past.

But I linger for a couple of seconds.

The thing that robs me of my affections

for Jesus are almost always morally neutral.

Now, after 30 years of following Jesus, he says,

I have tried to give no provision to the flesh.

As Paul writes in Romans, we'll talk about that next week.

He says, I'm serious about putting those things to death,

but these morally neutral things, they're sneaky,

they're not wrong, they're not right.

They're morally neutral, and yet they will satiate

and make me lack hunger for the thing

that I should be most hungry for.

And I think that's true of all of us.

We've all run to empty wells and we've all found

or been disappointed by something,

but still try to hold onto it

and be like, man, why doesn't this thing satisfy me?

It's because it was never designed to.

Our pleasure was always to be in Christ.

And so, um, I just want to take a moment here

before we go any further.

And I just want to encourage you, I'm

so glad that you were here.

Listen, it is no small task to still hold on

to Jesus in 2025.

There are people in this room

and there are stories in this room who, man, there are

so many distractions

and so many other things you can give your time to

so many other things you can give your life to.

There are some of you that if I sat down

and asked you, Hey, what's your story?

I'd be like, are you still trusting Jesus?

And man, I thank God for his grace that he does that.

And I just want to tell you as we continue on today, man,

do not give up.

Keep going. Keep running the fight

because we know that God is

so good even when we don't feel it.

Here's one of the things that,

that honestly kinda like boils my blood.

It's when I talk to people to like unbelievers

and they're like, oh, you only, you're only a Christian

because it's a crutch, a crutch.

This isn't a crutch, it's a cross that I have

to carry every day.

And do you know that like my decision

to follow Jesus, it doesn't make life easier.

It actually makes some things harder.

Like, do you know that I have to wake up every single day

and like, you know, they're like, I can't go

to certain websites on my phone

because I have so many block that like, it's like, hey,

this one might be problematic.

So like, I can't even use half the internet

because I'm so passionate about

following and pursuing after Jesus.

Let's be real. Like when, when we feel pain,

I actually think like, if we can just be honest

for a minute, I actually think

that being a Christian can sometimes make pain hurt more.

Because not only am I dealing with the weight

of whatever it's I'm going through,

but I have to ask, man, why would God allow this?

You know, easy would be to throw him to the side

and just be like, oh, well I guess things happen.

Do you know how hard it's to trust the God?

You can't see, this is not a crutch,

this is a cross and we follow it

because Jesus is worth it.

Some of you are at a crossroad right now where you're,

you're genuinely asking yourself, man, I don't know

how long I want to hitch my wagon to Jesus.

And some of you are still going despite everything

that has fallen down around you,

because there's a genuine question in your heart,

where, where else will I go?

What other option is there?

It reminds me in John chapter six, there's a story

where Jesus, he feeds 5,000 people,

and you've probably heard it before,

but he takes a few pieces of fish, a few pieces of bread,

and he multiplies it and he shares it with all the people

and they're like, Jesus is great.

And he uses that miracle as a sign to tell them, Hey,

actually I want to be your king.

And look at how it res,

how they respond when Jesus stops performing a miracle

and invites them to follow him.

John six 60, it says that when many of his disciples,

these aren't bums off the street,

these aren't just the people who happen to be around.

They were following Jesus.

It says, many of his disciples heard this

and they said, this is a hard saying who can listen to it?

And that wasn't just like, oh, I can't understand

what Jesus is saying.

It's saying no, there's a weight to this.

Who's actually willing to do that?

And in first 66 it says that

after this, many of his disciples turned back

and no longer walked with him.

So Jesus, he looks at the 12, the 12 that we know, right?

The ones we talk about all the time.

Verses 67 through 69 says, Jesus said to the 12,

do you want to go away as well?

And Simon Peter answered him, Lord,

To whom shall we go?

You alone have the words of eternal life.

And we've believed, we have come to know

that you are the holy one of God.

Peter is saying, Jesus, we've seen too much.

You've been too good. We've seen what you're capable of.

We've heard you speak and it has changed our lives

and we've applied it, man, where I've tried everything else

and it's not good enough, it's not gonna work.

But let me ask you, just like the people in this story,

what do you do when the bread stops coming?

And I love that. That word kind

of has a double entendre in our culture.

What do you do when you don't

have the money to pay the bills?

What do you do when you pray for a loved one

and they still pass away?

What do you do when the person

that you thought was your soulmate ends things

and breaks up with you or the house gets foreclosed?

Listen, some of you are at that crossroad

and you have a decision to make,

and I just wanna encourage you, keep going.

We endure for one reason

because Jesus is worth it.

He's so worth it. He's better than every other alternative.

And all of these things, all of these warnings

that we talked about earlier, lemme tell you something,

yeah, they are warnings given to us,

but each of those warnings also comes with a promise.

Let's revisit those verses that we looked at earlier

because I didn't read the whole thing.

Galatians six, nine, it says,

let us not grow weary of doing good.

Why for in due season we will reap if we don't give up.

James one 12 says, blessed is the man

who remains steadfast under trial

for when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown

of life, which God has promised to those who love him.

Two Peter three 17, we read that when it says you

therefore beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care

that you are not carried away with the error

of lawless people and lose your own stability.

But verse 18, but grow in the grace

and knowledge of our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ, to him be the glory both now

and to the day that we all look forward to of eternity.

Amen. Hebrews 10 23 says, let us hold fast the confession

of our hope without wavering.

Why? Because he who made

that promise is faithful in Jesus himself.

This is red letter, so you know,

you could take it to the bank.

Matthew chapter five, verses 10 through 12.

He says, blessed are those who are persecuted

for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you

and utter all kinds of evil things against you

falsely on my account.

Rejoice and be glad for your reward is great in heaven for

so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

And let me tell you something, the same Jesus who told you

that is waiting for you.

And here's the beautiful thing, church,

not only is he waiting at the finish line,

he is the finish line.

He's the one who meant when you,

I wasn't planning on, I gotta tell this story.

I wasn't planning on telling this. I ran a race one time.

It was a 5K, somebody invited me to it 12 hours

before we were at church on a Saturday or on a Sunday night.

They said, Hey, wake up at 6:00 AM I got an extra ticket.

I want you to run in this thing. Okay, cool, whatever.

I'm like ready to break records, you know what I mean?

I'm like, what's 5K? What is that anyway?

And they're like, oh, it's it's three point whatever miles.

Here's the problem. That's three point whatever miles more

than I had run in a month.

Okay? So they send us out there

and man, I, when you realize that you're in a tough race,

your goal is not to win, it's to finish.

And I cramped up and I hobbled over that line,

and as soon as I got over that line, I collapsed.

But man, how beautiful is it that one day when we hobble

and we, we limp our waves over that finish line,

we will fall into the arms of Jesus whose hands are pierced,

where the nail holes were.

And he says, you've done it. And he says, well done.

We are not running in vain, y'all.

We are people who are running towards well done your pain.

Listen, the things that you are enduring

it, it's not purposeless.

Those things are actually shaping you and molding you

and preparing you for the day that we feel so much gratitude

that we get to rest and the arms of our savior.

Jesus. You are not in this alone.

There's a verse in Hebrews that is absolutely astounding

to me and genuinely blows my mind.

Hebrews 12, one through three says this,

therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud

of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight in sin

which clings so closely

and let us run with endurance the race that is set

before us looking to Jesus, the founder

and perfecter of our faith, who, for the joy that was set

before him, he guess what endured,

he endured the cross, despising the shame,

and he's seated at the right hand of the throne of God,

consider him, who endured from sinners such hostility

against himself so that you may not grow weary

or fainthearted, you know how we can finish our race.

We look at the one who already finished, the one

who hung up on the cross with arms out

and said, it is finished.

And he rose again to say, no matter what happens to you,

man, there is new life that I offer to you.

Just keep going. It says, we're surrounded by this cloud

of witnesses, this all of the saints of old

who went on before us.

And they look at us with anticipation saying, man,

you can make it, you can do it.

And we stand on their shoulders

and we persist the same way they did

through their persecution to make God known to everybody

so that we can all stand before him and hear well done.

And listen, I know there are some of you who are like,

I, I don't know if I can do that.

I feel like I'm at the end of my rope. I feel like I'm done.

I feel like I wanna walk away. I feel like I want to quit.

And man, can I tell you, this is the reason why this is

so important

because while there is a, a cloud of witnesses

from church going by in the angels of heaven

who are watching you and cheering you on

and waiting for you to, to reach eternity, man,

we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses right here

who want nothing more than to see you

follow Jesus well to love God.

Well, we're a family who shares hope in here.

It's what we do. Hey, listen, I know it's been tough, man,

but please can I, can I help

even when God doesn't answer the prayer,

at least the way we think he should,

just like we talked about with fostering hope, man, there's,

there's a family here who wants to help step into the gap

that says, Hey, listen, we're not at heaven yet,

but can I just give you a glimpse?

Can we live into that together right now?

Like I know this isn't, listen here, here's a few bucks.

Hopefully it helps you out. I know it's not like much, but,

but man, it's just a glimpse that one day

we're not gonna have to worry about this anymore.

And until then, let's lock arms,

let's run this race together.

Let's continue to endure.

I don't know where we're at in our notes.

The tech team is probably freaking out right now.

They're like, he didn't say any of the stuff that he planned

to say, but, but I want us to close

with this two verses from Colossians Colossians two chapter,

uh, verses six and seven.

Paul gives us what I believe to be a blueprint for a life

of longevity when it comes to following Jesus.

He says, therefore, as you received Christ, Jesus the Lord.

So walk in him.

Remember that zeal, remember that excitement.

Remember the day you first put your faith in Jesus?

It says the thing that got you started.

That's actually the way that you keep going, just

as you receive Christ Jesus the Lord.

So walk in him and then he explains what that looks like,

being rooted and built up in him

and established in the faith just as you were taught

abounding in Thanksgiving.

There's four, uh, imperatives that he gives us there.

The first one is this, to be rooted.

Be rooted in Christ, be rooted in truth.

Listen to, to my young people in the room,

get rooted in truth.

There's so many lies out there

and so many things that try to pull you away from this

and tell you this isn't good enough,

that it's old, it's antiquated.

Listen, get rooted in the one sure thing.

We have the word of God.

And over the course of this, uh, uh, this summer,

we're actually gonna be doing this together as a community.

We're gonna be in a series,

it's gonna start two weeks from now.

Next week we're gonna wrap up this one,

but starting in two weeks and then going the entire summer.

We are gonna journey middle school through adults.

We are all gonna journey through the book

of Tightest together in a series called Field Notes.

And the purpose of this is that we all want to have

what we call a good doctrine for godly living.

It starts with being rooted in the truth of God's word.

So please, I know you're gonna be traveling,

you have vacations and stuff, man,

lock in if you gotta watch online, watch online.

But if you're able to be here,

we're doing this all together.

We're gonna be rooted in Christ,

we're gonna be rooted in truth,

we're gonna be rooted in community.

The second thing is that we're gonna be built up.

And to be built up means to build a habit

of running to the cross.

It's not saying, I made a decision one

time and everything's gonna be easy.

No, it's gonna be hard, but it's gonna be worth it.

But it's the reason why we need to allow God

to build up our faith.

We spend up that time building ourselves up

and fortifying ourselves.

And when you allow the Holy Spirit to do that in you,

when the storm comes, when things get difficult,

you reach the third step, which is to be established.

It's that unshakeable faith

that I know people in this room have where they say, despite

what I've been through, despite

what I've seen, man, where else am I gonna go?

This is where Peter was, he was established.

He's like, I don't, I couldn't move if I wanted to Jesus,

because you're just that good.

And through all of this, we're told

to abound in Thanksgiving.

And the only way that we live this sort of life, you know

where gratitude comes from, abounding in thanksgiving,

gratitude comes from remembering, remembering what Jesus did

for us, remembering the way the Holy Spirit is working

inside of us now, and ultimately remembering that man,

if I endure, if I keep going, if I don't quit,

if I stay loyal to my first love, I will get

to spend eternity in the one who with, with the one

who walked out of the grave.

And we get to celebrate and live in this new life together.

Church, keep going. I love you and I need you.

And I'm so grateful that my eight month old daughter gets

to grow up around believers who keep going

and who will encourage her to keep going.

I'm grateful for the people in our church who are,

who are closer to eternity.

Those of you who may maybe you feel like you're on the last

leg already for, for the older men

and women, those, those our, our,

our front runners in the faith, thank you

for your faithfulness and thank you for setting an example

for the young heads like me that say, say, man,

it can be done if we lean on each other

and if we deeply depend on Jesus.

So let's pray that that would be true in all of our lives.

Father, we love you Jesus.

You're so good and you're

so better than anything else we can imagine

God, right now with every eye closed, we just,

we we imagine you,

we fix our eyes on you, we focus on you.

Every other ground is sinking sand.

God, we fix our eyes on you, the author

and the perfecter of our faith.

And Lord, we are a people running to well done.

Jesus, thank you for making the path.

Thank you for making the way.

God thank you for your spirit, that that energizes us and,

and pushes us forward and propels us towards eternity.

God, thank you for reconciling us to yourself

that while we were yet sinners, you sent Jesus

to die on the cross for us.

Lord, you endured, you told us

to hold on and you gave us a promise.

And that promise was you and God, I pray

that nothing else would distract us from that

all the days of our life.

Lord, we love you. Thank you for your church.

Thank you for your love. It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

Amen. Come on y'all let him hear it. Praise God.

Wonderful word. You know,

there is a word, uh, that describes the kind of living

that Aaron just talked about.

Uh, it's the idea of perseverance.

Um, and we persevere because as he shared earlier,

because Jesus is worth it.

Amen. Now the good news that God has given us is that, uh,

even if you get to Matthew Chapter 28

Matthew 28 · chapter mention

and you look, he says that he will be

with us even to the end of the age.

And so we know that he will walk with us

so we don't have to do it alone.

But we also know that he has given us a body

that will walk alongside us called the church.

And as a church, we want to be that kind of body

that helps you to take steps of faith

and walks alongside you.

And so if you're new to hope

or if you've been coming for a while,

if there's a desire in your heart as you have heard the word

of God, to take steps of faith towards following him

and persevering, then there's an area here at Hope

that we call the next steps area

that I'd like to invite you to.

Uh, as you leave today from this facility,

it'll be just out your doors, these doors into the left.

And if you're watching online, uh, listen,

let someone know in the chat there's a way

that you can connect as well.

And what that'll do is give us ways that we can serve

and support you and walk alongside you

as you persevere in following Jesus.

Listen, the word of God today, uh, just spoke to our hearts.

And so now we have a great opportunity

to go and live it out.

So as we exit this time together, man, let's persevere

for Jesus Christ because he's worth it.

God bless you all. We'll see you soon.