Keep Hope Alive

I am honored for the privilege of being here.

It was August 14, 2003.

My wife and I were on our way back from New York City, my favorite place to go, and we were at LaGuardia Airport.

We were at LaGuardia Airport and preparing to catch our flight back to Dallas.

We stood at Curbside Check-in and waited for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time for our us to get our bags checked.

I stepped out of line and walked down to the baggage handler and said, Is there a problem?

The line is not moving.

He says, Yes.

Nothing is working.

He says, uh, we've had some kind of problem here at the airport.

The conveyor belts aren't working, the computers aren't working, the magnetometers aren't working, things are just not working.

So we waited and we waited and we waited with thousands of other people at the airport for hours and hours and hours.

After a number of hours, as dusk was setting in on this hot August day, they said, We are so sorry, LaGuardia is closing down.

We were caught in the blackout of 2003 when a power grid failure in Canada had worked its way down the East Coast, creating a blackout in the Big Apple, New York.

So I, like thousands of other people, found ourselves in a desperate situation.

We found ourselves in a scenario with no place to go.

Everybody's now wondering, what are we going to do?

Everybody's trying to find a hotel room because, of course, like us, we had checked out.

We called back to Dallas to our travel agent, and she said, I've been calling around, and there's one room left at the Crown Plaza LaGuardia.

One room, but they can only hold it for 10 minutes because people are coming to get in.

And so we hailed down a taxi.

It's now dark.

We walk into a candlelit hotel because remember, there is no power in New York, so there are no lights.

And we had to register by hand because the computers were not working.

We had to go up to our room by flashlight because the lights were not working.

We walked into the room with the flashlight on this hot, sticky evening, and my wife decided to see if she could pull back the curtain to pull up the window to see if we could get some night air in since there was no air conditioning.

She pulled back the curtain to open the window, and that's when we saw it.

Immediately across the street was a Marriott Hotel completely lit up.

Inquiring minds want to know how could there be this much light in the midst of this much darkness?

And so we decided, since we had obviously gotten into the wrong hotel, to make our way down and to cross the street, because these hotels are directly across from one another, to see how this thing could be.

So we went down, we crossed the street, there's music playing coming out of the hotel.

People are sitting out laughing and full of joy eating.

We walk inside an air-conditioned hotel with TVs lining the foyer on CNN discussing how dark New York was.

We are trying to make sense of what was a confusing situation.

I found the assistant manager and I said, Help me understand.

Everything around is dark.

The airport right over there is dark.

Nothing is working.

CNN is talking about it, and you are completely lit up.

How can that be?

He says, People have been asking us that all day, and it's really fairly simple.

He said, When we built this hotel, we built it with a gas generator.

So we have power on the inside that's not controlled by circumstances on the outside.

We've got something within that's overriding that which is without.

That's why, in the midst of whatever dark thing you may be dealing with personally, in your family, in ministry or in society, I want to give you a great verse.

You know it, you've quoted it, but I just want to remind you of it this evening.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord.

A plan for your well-being and not your calamity.

To give you a future and to give you a hope.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord.

A plan for your well-being and not your calamity, to give you a future and to give you a hope.

Jeremiah 29, 11 is a well-lit verse.

But what you need to know is it's a well-lit verse in a very dark chapter.

You see, Jeremiah 29, before you ever get to that verse, is discussing God's people in a bleak situation.

They had been sent into exile according to verse 4 because of their rebellion against God.

Their families had frayed apart, their economics were in trouble, and they were now forced to live in a secular society called Babylon.

So when you read Jeremiah 29, you're reading a dark chapter.

Even the theology was dark because God says all of the preachers who are preaching to you that I'm going to come and bring you out of this tomorrow are lying to you.

So on every single level there was darkness.

But in a dark chapter, I still have a well-lit verse.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord, a plan for your well-being and not your calamity to give you a future and to give you hope.

So if you happen to be here and this happens to be a dark chapter in any aspect of your life, whether personal or family or career or financial or political, if you happen to be in a dark chapter, because if you're not in one now, it means you've just come out of one or you're headed toward one because life has its dark chapters.

But if you happen to be in a dark chapter, I've got a well-lit verse.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord, a plan for your well-being and not your calamity to give you a future and to give you a hope.

But what is interesting, it is not only a well-lit verse in a dark chapter, it's a well-lit verse in a dark chapter that's in a dark book.

If you're depressed, don't read Jeremiah for devotions.

That's not the book you want to read.

Because chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter after chapter, it is discouragement and depression and judgment and sin and negative circumstance.

But in a dark chapter located in a dark book, I still got a well-lit verse.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord, a plan for your well-being and not your calamity, to give you a future and to give you a hope.

Perhaps you're here not only in a dark chapter, but perhaps you're here in a dark chapter that's located in a dark book.

As far back as you can look, that's chapter after chapter of negative circumstances, of bad memories, of chronic mistakes, of sins that you're still trapped in.

And you look at the chapter today and the book from yesterday, and it all adds up to bleakness.

In a dark chapter, in a dark book, there is still a great verse.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord, a plan for your well-being and not your calamity, to give you a future and to give you a hope.

What is hope?

Hope is joyful expectation about the future.

Hope is always future oriented.

Hope is never addressing your current circumstance.

It is always anticipatory.

It is anticipating where you're going, not where you've been or where you are.

It is expectation that my tomorrow will be better than my yesterday.

My future will be better than my past, and where I'm headed will be better than where I am.

Hope is expectation and anticipation of a better outcome for where I am going.

Many of you, when you back out of your cars, will back out, and that will mean out of your parking space.

And as you back out of your parking space, you will look in a rearview mirror.

That rear view mirror will reflect what's behind you.

You will look in the rearview mirror as you back out of your parking space.

Just do me a favor on your way home, do not spend an inordinate amount of time in your rearview mirror, or you're going to hurt somebody.

The rear view mirror is critical for seeing what's behind you.

But in light of where you're headed, there is a much bigger piece of glass called the windshield, because where you're going is better than where you came from.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord.

And it is a good plan.

And it involves a future and it involves a hope.

So regardless of your circumstance right now, or the circumstance of a loved one that you are aware of, or the circumstance in our country today, I am here to tell you in this bad chapter of this bad book, I still have a great verse.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord, a plan for your well-being and not your calamity, to give you a future and to give you a hope.

But that leads him to verses 11 and 12.

We all know uh verse 11, but verse 12 and 13 says, Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you, and you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart.

He says throughout the whole chapter and throughout the whole book, I know it's bad.

He says, but even though it's bad, I have a plan.

But before you realize the plan that I have for you, you got to come to me.

You have to come to the planner in order to get the plan for the problem and predicament you find yourself in.

I want to drive you to me.

You must seek me, you must search for me, you must pursue me until you locate me and you must do it with all your heart.

This cannot be a casual effort.

I want to know that you are serious about my person before I'm willing to share with you my plan.

You see, what a lot of people want is the plan of God without the person of God.

And God is saying, I will not give you my plan unless you be unless you get connected to my person, because the two are intricately and intimately attached.

And so you must seek me and you must search for me.

And until you do that, with all of your heart, there can be no compromise, there can be no mixture, there can be no.

See, one of the problems today is we have part-time Christians who want a full-time God.

We have people who want to placate God, maybe go to church, maybe sing hymns, but who do not want to be ruled by the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, but they want the full-time attention.

He says, No, it must be with all of your heart.

And so he put them in a situation in a pagan culture with a pagan government under a pagan rule where they were under pagan pressure to get their undivided attention.

When uh I saw my wife at 18, we've been married 45, 46 years now.

And when I when I when I met her at 18, this pretty girl, I mean, she got she caught my undivided attention.

The problem was she was not responding at the rate to which I was accustomed.

I mean, girlfriend was moving a little slow, so I had to help her sister out.

So I'm from Baltimore, and uh there was an amusement park in Baltimore uh called the Gwynolks Amusement Park, and they had a ride called the Wild Mouse.

And this was a roller coaster for two.

It did all the roller coaster dips, but it would shoot like it was gonna jump off the track and turn real quick.

I said, Give me two tickets.

I got two tickets to the wild mouse.

The wilder the ride got, the closer she got.

By the time the ride was over, you thought only one person got on it.

Why did I buy those two tickets?

Simple, I had a plan for her, and it was a good plan.

It involved a future and a hope.

But what I had to do was create a situation first.

I had to create some inconvenience to create dependence to draw her near so I would have her undivided focus and attention.

What you must understand, and what we are facing in the chaos of our political arena is it's not about politics.

It involves politics, but it's not about politics.

Second Chronicles chapter 15, verses 3 through 6.

2 Chronicles 15:3–6

In those days there was no true God, no teaching priest, and no law.

It says there was no peace to him who went in or to him who came out.

It says that city rose up against city and nation rose up against nation.

And then verse 6 says, For God troubled them with every kind of distress.

So you've got personal chaos, family chaos, you've got cultural chaos, urban chaos, and international chaos.

You've got all this chaos in society, and it says God troubled them with every kind of distress.

Ladies and gentlemen, if God is your problem, only God is your solution.

If God is your problem, it does not matter who you elect.

If God is your problem looking for Air Force One, the land of solution is a waste of time.

What America is right now experiencing is what I call the passive wrath of God.

In the Old Testament, there was the active wrath of God, fire and brimstone falling from heaven, the ground opening up, a flood.

But today, because the death of Christ changed how Christ could how God could relate to the world, we are experiencing the passive wrath of God, defined in Romans chapter 1, verses 18 to the end of the chapter.

Romans 1:18

He says in verse 24, 26, and 28, and God turned them over, and God turned them over, and God turned them over, which simply means God abandoned them to experience life without him.

So as we have removed God from the culture, nature hating a vacuum like it does, it is being now filled with all manner of evil.

The removal of God automatically means the devolution of society.

And as long as God is on the periphery, you cannot solve it by politics when He is the one creating the problem.

For God troubled them with every kind of distress.

But that's why I love 2 Chronicles chapter 15, verse 4, because it says, in their distress, when it got so bad they couldn't take it anymore, when it got so deep they couldn't handle it anymore, in their distress, they cried out to the Lord, and he says he let them find him.

2 Chronicles 15:4

What God is trying to do in our culture, in our personal lives, in our families, in our churches, and most certainly in our society, is to break us of our independence to the point where we become desperate enough for him that we give full attention to him so that we can get a response from him.

He says in these in Jeremiah 29, if you seek me and if you search for me and if you pursue me, I am going to let you find me if you do it with all of your heart.

What is desperately in need today is the return of God's presence in our midst.

And God always starts with his people.

God never skips the church house to fix the White House.

He always starts with the condition of his people.

Ephesians 3.10 says God checks with the church before he addresses the principalities and the powers.

Because if he can't get our attention, what makes you think he can get their attention?

And so what God is after is what he was after in Israel.

He says, I have a plan for you.

And I have a good plan for you.

It is a workable plan.

It is an achievable plan.

It is a revival plan, if you will.

But you will never see the planning until you return to the planner.

God can no longer be an addendum to our lives.

God cannot, we can no longer uh be satisfied with with just casual Christianity.

This is not a time.

Well, I mean, as I like to say, this is not a time for secret agent Christian, spiritual CIA representatives or covert operatives.

Everybody else is coming out the clause that you might as well come out too.

This is a time.

This is a time.

On your job, if you are accused of being a follower of Jesus Christ, there should be enough evidence to convict you, and you should not be found innocent of all charges.

It should be absolutely clear that you are a God chaser, that you are running after God, and you are loyal to the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

And you are going to make it clear, appropriate, but clear that this is where you stand, because everything God does from heaven to history comes through Jesus Christ.

For Jesus Christ is uh the God man who touches heaven, whose feet is firmly planted on earth, and through the context of his body, that determines what he does in the culture.

So while we're waiting on November 8th to see what happens uh up there, we better start worrying what God is doing from here, because that will determine what happens or does not happen in Washington, D.C.

And if God could find, do you know the reason Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was not merely because of immorality and oppression?

The Bible says both were operating in Sodom and Gomorrah.

He says the reason, the additional reason Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed was Abraham couldn't find ten.

He came up with a deal with God.

He said, God, if I can find 50 folk who are gonna follow you, will you save Sodom and Gomorrah, Dallas Fort Worth, for the sake of the 50 righteous?

God says, I'll find if you find me 50 righteous, I will save the culture for the sake of the 50.

Well, he said, I couldn't find 50, what about 40?

God says, same deal.

He couldn't find 40.

What about 30?

Couldn't find them.

What about 20?

Couldn't find them.

What about 10?

He said, Okay, if you find 10 folk who are gonna do it my way, I will save the culture for the 10 righteous people.

So why was Sodom and Gomorrah destroyed?

It was destroyed not only because sinners were sinning, it was destroyed because the righteous couldn't be located.

And it is the presence or absence of the righteous that determines what God will do in the culture.

Now he did have a good, great God there.

His name was Lot, but Lot suffered from the American disease of personal peace and affluence.

See, he was only worried about himself and his economic progress.

He didn't win his own sons-in-laws because they they didn't believe him.

His wife and daughter, they left with him, but on their way out of town, his wife remembered Neiman Marcus and Sachs and North Park and uh and and and and she looked back and became a pillar of salt.

Two daughters had an incestuous relationship with the father.

If this man would have just won his own family, that would have made six.

If each one of them would have won one, that would have made 12.

Abraham would have found 10, Sodom and Gomorrah would still be on the map.

You see, when God's people can't be located, the culture is in trouble.

And so we are now faced with a calamitous situation in our nation.

Now, if Jesus is coming back, you don't have to worry about any of this if he's coming back tomorrow.

But if he's not coming back for another 100 or 200 years, you better worry about all of this because this is your children, your grandchildren, your great-grandchildren.

If they're going to grow up in some kind of world, it will be either one influenced by the righteous, or there'll be one taken over by the enemy, and God will decide that based on us.

And when he makes the decision, because he's got our undivided attention, when there are full-time Christians and not part-time saints, when there are people who have put made their point of reference, God's point of view on any and every subject matter, when that becomes their cry toward heaven, he says, then they will hear from me.

Let me say a word about prayer.

You know, uh I had a brand new book come out called uh uh uh uh Kingdom Prayer.

Kingdom Prayer is like uh having uh direct TV.

When you have direct TV, you got a satellite up there, and that satellite uh is responsible for delivering programming.

But in your house, you got a receiver.

That receiver Is designed to receive programming sent from the satellite through the receiver to your television screen.

Your television screen gives you a picture of what the receiver has pulled down based on a satellite that you can't see.

Now, when you pull down a picture or an event on one of those many, many stations, you are not creating anything up there.

All you're doing is grabbing what has already been pre-programmed up there, drawing it down to where you are.

Now, if you ignore the receiver, you're wasting time expecting to see a picture on your television screen.

See, what a lot of us want is we want to see a picture of God at work when the receiver is not working.

You see, God will only let you see what he's up to if you're in a position to receive it.

What you receive, you don't create.

God has already, in his providential sovereignty, determined the programming that will be available to you, your family, your church, and this nation.

You don't create programming through prayer.

What you do is you suck down the programming that has already been determined in heavenly places to the receiver of your life, so you can see it on the screen of your humanity.

And he says, if you seek me and you run after me and you come after me with all of your heart, you will know when I show up, verse 14.

Because he says in verse 14, I will restore your fortune.

I will give you back what was ripped away from you.

Many of us have been ripped off.

We've been ripped off by the enemy, we've been ripped off by other people, we've been duped, we've been we've been shammed.

Israel, you let you you walked away from me and you went to those idols, thinking those idols were your source.

And an idol is any noun, any person, place, thing, or thought that you look to as your source, and you went to those idols.

And I know we're in the 21st century, so now you got the American idol.

You you you go to those idols and you expect them to cover you.

You go to those power brokers, you go to those politicians, you go, you go to those sources and think they're your answer.

Well, I'm going to put you in Babylon and I'm going to let you see that there is no deliverer but me.

But if you will give me your undivided attention and if you will return to me on my terms, then I will restore, I will give you back the life you thought you lost.

And that is the hope of our faith.

That is the that God can restore, that God can take a mess and create a miracle.

Have you ever been to a pizzeria?

I mean a real pizzeria.

I'm talking about one run by the Italians, okay?

You go to a real pizzeria.

Have you ever seen them abuse the dough?

They got this ball of dough, they throw it down, bam! They take a rolling pin and then they mash it and flatten it, then they spin it on their finger up in there.

Why do you want to do all that harm to the dough?

I want the pepperoni, the sauce, and the cheese.

But you can't get the good stuff until the dough has been made ready to receive it.

And until God can get us in the place that he wants us, he can't give us the good stuff that we are asking for, wanting, and needing.

But if we ever let him have his way with us according to his will, getting his undivided attention, he can let us see what the good stuff feels like, tastes like, what the good stuff is when God shows up in the midst of our hopelessness.

I have a plan for you, saith the Lord.

It is a plan for your well-being and not your calamity.

I know you're hurting.

I know you're in personal pain.

I know, I know it doesn't look like the family thing is gonna work out.

I know the ministry is struggling, and I know the nation is in trouble.

I understand that, and and I am the one allowing it.

Now give me your undivided attention and watch me do my thing.

Watch me give you back the life you thought you lost.

So I'm here today to tell you, I don't care what your condition is today, don't you throw in the towel, don't you give up till you look up.

Don't you don't you walk away until God has had the last say so, because he is a restoring God, and that is the nature of hope.

Hope means he can give me back what I thought I lost, even if it's my fault that I lost it, because it was Israel's fault that they were in Babylon, because they rebelled, it was their sin and their fault.

When you and I experience the restoration of God, it is transforming.

Because nothing will let you know how real God is, like when He comes and turns something around that looks like it was unfixable.

A little A little girl was in the shopping cart with her mother going up and down the food store aisles.

The mother was pushing the cart up the cookie aisle.

She said, Mama, please, for some oatmeal cookies.

Mother said, No, you've had too many sweets today.

No, no, no oatmeal cookies.

Mother went up another aisle.

Mama, I would really like some oatmeal cookies.

I told you you had too many sweets today, no oatmeal cookies.

Mother goes up another aisle.

I don't think you understand, Mama.

I need some oatmeal cookies.

She said, No, what you need is a spanking because I told you I'm not giving you any oatmeal cookies.

Mother gets in the checkout line.

Little girl stands up in the cart, clasps her fingers.

Jesus, they told me in Sunday school if I called on you, you would meet all my needs.

And I need some chocolate chip cookies, but my mama won't give me any chocolate chip cookies.

The ladies in the back of the mother said, Why won't that woman get that girl some chocolate chip cookies?

The mother got so embarrassed she went and got a whole bunch of chocolate chip cookies.

The girl said, Thank you, Jesus, for answering my prayer when I called on your name.

I don't know what you're calling on him for.

All I do know is when you call on him right, he knows how to send folk and get back that chocolate chip that everybody else is denying you because he is a God who gives hope.

God bless you.