Sunday Message - Pastor Tom Crandall (November 14, 2021) | Life Bible Church

Now I want to introduce our guest speaker. I've

just got to know him this weekend. We had the

privilege of taking him to Junkyard Dogs yesterday

for a big old lunch and that was fun. So we went

to the place and he got a big old gut rock and

so that was fun. Hallelujah. Stayed with him

all night, even into the morning. God bless.

Hallelujah. If you've ever been to Junkyard Dogs,

it is an experience. It's great as well. Pastor

Tom Crandall and his wife Leslie are both pastors

at Bethel in Redding, California. They are incredible.

I haven't met Leslie, but I've heard great things

about her. Pastor has been there for quite a

few years now. They've been married 22 years

as he's shared in the service, have several kids.

He's also brought a team of young adults that

have gone to Bethel to be trained, to minister

in the things of God, to release the kingdom.

And we'll have them come at the very end of service.

And if there's some prayer needs, we want them

to be able to minister to you as well. But it's

an honor to have them come to this house. It's

an honor to have relationship. As you know, Pastor

Scott Graham was born and raised here in Harrisburg

and we've known his family for a while. And after

he went to OSU, And you can forgive him for that.

But after he went there, he went ahead and went

down to Bethel at Reading for five years. You

also know Valina Yen, what a tremendous gal she

is in our church and been my assistant and now

our graphics design. She was there. Tom and Leslie,

husband and wife, had influence in discipling

and... training and the whole kingdom of God.

We all have our part to do. And you see the fruit

of some of their ministry. Would you today do

what we do at Life Bible? Would you stand? Would

you welcome Pastor Tom Crandall as he comes and

delivers the word of the Lord today? Thank you.

that doesn't glisten with hope is under the influence

of a lie. That's fun right there. Yeah. Man,

we are in a victorious kingdom. Amen. As believers

in Christ, we live with victory. The one who

defeated death, hell, and the grave, he lives

inside of us. We should be victorious too. Amen.

Well, it's an honor for me to be here with you

guys today. I'm going to speak about hope this

morning. And Pastor Brad and you guys have just

been so hospitable. Ridiculous. Too generous.

My goodness. My room was packed full of so much

food. I got cheese and crackers. I mean, I got

Trader Joe's visited my house, my room. I feel

bad looking at all. I'm like, I can't eat all

this. I'm going to die. That happened yesterday

when we went to Junkyard Dogs. I mean, that was

a food encounter. I was in a coma the rest of

the day. I had to preach last night. See, I walk

in signs and wonders. I preached last night with

a rock in my stomach. It was so good, though.

Holy smokes. Good food. Man, you guys are blessed.

Go to Junkyard Dogs anytime you want to. So good,

so good, so fun. Well, I was born and raised

in Salt Lake City, Utah. No, I'm not Mormon.

I know you're thinking of it. I've been married

to the same woman for 22 years, only one. And

yeah, no, I'm just messing around. But we have

two kids. Joel is 17, and my daughter is 13,

my Adeline. And we love our family. We have a

dog. His name is Rocky. He's demon -possessed.

My wife hates him. Every time I travel, he eats

her shoes. In the last two trips I've done, he's

eaten five pairs of shoes. So I gave her my credit

card and said, buy whatever you want, babes.

There's cash in there. But we have an awesome,

awesome family. Love our family. But I want to

talk to you guys about hope this morning. You

know, before I met Bill Johnson, hope to me was

just wishful thinking. Not that Bill's the author

of hope, but he really learned how to steward

and walk in hope, and he's the father that I

learned it from. And we do have the privilege

of serving on that team. We've been there for

11 years. They brought me there to be the youth

pastor, but I've lived all over the place. If

you ever heard of the Brownsville Revival, that's

where I met my wife in Pensacola, Florida. We've

lived in Texas, Ohio. And then we moved back

to Utah. I was there for five years before they

brought us out to Redding, California. And I'm

so honored. My team is here. Would you guys please

stand and just give them a hand for being here?

Come on. They're awesome, Johnny. And they are

full of faith, ready to pray for people, BSSM

students and graduates. And so I believe we're

going to see miracles today. It's a good day

for people to be healed. Amen. It's a good day

for somebody's right hip to be healed. It's a

good day for somebody's asthma to be healed.

It's a good day for somebody's migraines to go

away because Jesus just paid for all of it. And

so we're here today to see Jesus get his full

reward for the pain of his suffering. Amen. Christ

paid for it all. Any thought that doesn't glisten

with hope is under the influence of a lie. If

you're watching a lot of news and your mindset

and your perception of life is shaped by CNN,

Fox News, MSNBC, blah, blah, blah, fake news,

no wonder you're so depressed today and you can't

see joy. We got to be reading the good news more

than we read the other news. Lester Summerall

approached Smith Wigglesworth's house to go inside

to meet the great evangelist Smith Wigglesworth.

He was in his 80s and Lester was around 20 in

his early 20s or so. And he had a newspaper underneath

his arm as he approached his house. And Smith

Wigglesworth looked at him and said, you can

come in, but you have to leave that dirty thing

outside. Yeah. Put that in your peace pipe and

smoke it for a while. I'll tell you what, you'll

get some vibes right there. You know, 2 Corinthians

2 .14 says, Now thanks be to God who always leads

us in triumph in Christ and through us diffuses

the fragrance of his knowledge in every place.

That means in whatever problem you're facing

today, whether it be in your marriage or your

business or your finances or just your own thought

life, God is there like a gracious father to

lead us into victory in Christ. How many guys

are in Christ? Anybody here been born again?

Come on. Jesus lives inside of you. Come on.

You're going to heaven. The Holy Spirit lives

inside of you. Come on. That's what I'm talking

about. We've got some believers in this room.

God is inside of you. Listen, the Lord, I love

his word. He says, there is therefore now no

condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

If you're experiencing any type of condemnation

today, I can assure you from the Bible, it's

not from God. He brings conviction to make it

to call us higher and bring us into the destiny

of who we are. He's crucified the old nature

with its passions to the cross. Like that's who

we are, our identity in Christ. We're dead with

Christ, resurrected with Christ, and he now lives

his life through us. This is the life we get

to live. It's Jesus in us, amen. And we get to

see God move through our lives. As believers

in Christ, man, victory should be. The song of

our hearts and lives. But you know, man, we face

things in life, right? We face traumatic things.

We face painful things. We face disappointments.

We face hurts, right? And it's like in that there's

a spot in our hearts where hopelessness and hope

vie for the same spot. And when we've experienced

disappointment, we've experienced pain, oftentimes

that begins to shape our lens. But I want to

tell you right now, this has to shape our lens.

It is written more than an experience. I don't

shape my faith and theology according to my experiences.

I shape it according to the written word of God.

Amen. You know, we had a young man show up at

our youth ministry here several years back. His

name was Simeon, and his parents had moved there

from Canada because Simeon was, you know, really,

really, really struggling with autism at high

levels. And when his parents came, they came

to the school of ministry. They dropped him off.

And these parents, you know, imagine like they

couldn't go to a restaurant for years without

an incident happening. They didn't know if he

was going to all of a sudden just get up and

run around the whole place or throw food. They

were just constantly in torment and trauma with

what was going on with their son and wanting

to see him get better. and time goes by, and

they hear about this place called Bethel where

people get healed. They hear about God moving,

and so hope gets born in their hearts, and so

they move to Bethel, and we're sitting there

in a service one night, and I'll never forget

the very first time we came to church. We're

out in the foyer area, and all of a sudden, Simeon

comes walking in, about a 13 -year -old young

boy, and he just begins to run circles in the

foyer. Run circles. And then he would dive underneath

tables and hide behind banners. And he was just

terrified of people. And we just loved on him

and welcomed him there. And then the worship

started inside where the presence of God is just

burning. And I told one of my leaders, his name

was Squidgy. I said, this is his nickname. I

said, go get that kid and love on him and bring

him into the presence of God. And so he brought

him into the presence of God. And Simeon was

just afraid and really tormented in his mind.

He brought him into the presence. This was about

October. November rolls around. I give an altar

call to get free from stuff. He responds. All

of a sudden, one day, Simeon is no longer sitting

in the back. He's no longer diving underneath

chairs and hiding from people. He's up front.

He's got his hands raised. And he's worshiping

the Lord. And I'm like, what's going on? Simeon's

up front. Now all of a sudden, he's dancing.

All of a sudden, he's free. He's around kids.

There's this transformation I'm watching unfold

before our very eyes as hope, the anchor of it,

pulled this kid from the back, from doing circles

to the front, and watched him be transformed.

By December, just a few months, he had called

his doctor, and the doctor said, I don't know

what's going on or what's happened to your life,

but you no longer need your meds for autism.

You're fine. That's what I'm talking about. Won't

he do it? Isn't he faithful? He's faithful. He

is mighty to save. This is the God we serve.

Healed of autism. March, we have our family life

conference. Bethel Church there. A thousand people

in the room. Bill's there. I went up to Eric,

the pastor at the time, and I said, I got a testimony.

You got to let me. Just trust me. He said, okay,

here. Gives me the mic. I bring Simeon up on

stage. On stage now, the kid who three months

prior wouldn't even look a person in the eyes

and run circles. I bring this kid up on stage

and give him the microphone and he is preaching,

pastor, preaching. I mean, he is like, if you

have autism in this room or you have a pornography

problem, God wants to set you free. This is what

God set me from and he'll set you free too. This

is exactly how he was preaching. I have it on

video. He is going bananas, gives an altar call,

people stand up. Bill's rocked, and Bill goes,

where's his parents? His parents come up on stage.

They're crying. They're like, we finally got

our life back. We didn't know what it was like

to go to a restaurant. It was amazing. Jesus

Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

He never changes. He never changes. Amen. I don't

serve a broke down, disabled God. I don't serve

a God who's sitting in the back row, disinterested

and disappointed in me and mad at me for not

measuring up. I don't serve a God who's ashamed

of me. I don't serve a God who's looking at me

going, why don't you have enough faith, boy?

That's not the God that I serve. The God that

I serve is victorious, kind, gracious, compassionate,

always there for me, promised he'd never leave

me and he'd never forsake me. This is who we

serve. He's a God of hope. Anchor yourself in

the reality of who he is, no matter what you're

facing. Turn with me in your Bibles to Mark chapter

Mark 5 · chapter mention

5. We're going to look at this. I want to not

just preach a message, but I want you to walk

away from this place today with some science

behind how hope works on the inside of you. I'll

never forget the service I was in. I was Bill

Johnson's youth pastor, and I'll never forget

him standing up there saying, any thought that

doesn't glisten with hope is under the influence

of a lie. And I thought to myself, dang it. I'm

your youth pastor, and I got some areas in my

life I gotta work on. You see, Mark chapter five.

There was a man who's the ruler of the synagogue.

He came to Jesus. His daughter was sick and Jesus

was on his way to go and heal her. In verse 35,

it says, while he was still speaking, someone

came from the ruler of the synagogue's house

and said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble

the teacher any further? As soon as Jesus heard

the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler

of the synagogue, I love this, I love this. Listen,

don't be afraid. Just believe. And he permitted

no one to follow him except Peter, James, and

John, and the brother of James. And then he came

to the house of the ruler of synagogues, and

he saw a tumult, those who wept and wailed loudly.

And then he came in and he said to them, why

make this commotion and weep? I just love Jesus.

I mean, like, he's such a savage. Why make this

commotion and weep? This child's not dead, just

sleeping. I think he said it with a twinge of

joy in his smile. Like he knew it was about to

happen. You see, hope looks irrational to the

hopeless. If you want to walk with hope, you

just got to be okay with looking crazy sometimes.

If you want to be somebody who actually believes

that America can be saved, there's only one hope

for America and we will see this nation turned

around. You got to be crazy enough to believe

that California has not seen its last days. California

is not going to fall off into the ocean. California

will be saved as well. You got to be okay with

people thinking you're crazy. I'd rather live

with hope than just live according to the opinions

of people and have no life. Come on, they ridiculed

him, but when he had put them all outside, he

took the father and the mother and the child,

and those who were with him, and he entered the

child where she was lying, and he took the child

by the hand and said to her, Talitha Kumi, which

is translated, little girl, I say to you, arise.

Boom, she arises immediately from the dead. She

was only 12 years old. They were overcome with

great amazement, and he commanded them, don't

tell anybody about it, but get her some Chick

-fil -A nuggets. This girl needs something to

eat. Right? I think Jesus just walked around.

I mean, the kingdom of God is not a matter of

eating and drinking. It's not a matter of rules

and regulations and, you know, making sure you

tick every box in your religious mindset. It's

righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus Christ is the manifestation of the kingdom

of God. There is no better picture of God than

Jesus. He is the clearest picture because he

is God in the flesh. Jesus is. He is perfect

theology. And any theology you presently have

that you cannot find in the person of Jesus,

you need to be questioning it. You'll never find

Jesus giving somebody cancer. You'll never find

Jesus giving people hardship. You're never going

to find Jesus dividing a marriage. You're never

going to find Jesus hurting people because John

10 .10 says, the thief comes to steal, kill,

and destroy, but I've come that you might have

life and have it to the full. He wants you to

have abundant life. Do you see what happens often

in church? Is we have an experience, we have

a disappointment, we don't deal with the disappointment

and replace the disappointment with hope again.

And then we create a theology that enables a

crippled lifestyle. And we sit back and we wonder

why all these bad things keep happening to us

when our lens is constantly looking for what's

bad and you attract what you carry. In the kingdom

of God, I want to tell you right now, you have

a greater power on the inside of you. You have

a greater power. You see, the spirit of God is

inside of you, but now it's time to renew our

minds to look according to what God has purchased

for us. Amen? Romans 15, 13, I love these verses.

It says, now may the God of hope, say God of

hope. He's not the God of hope for you and not

the God of hope for me. He's the God of hope

for all. May the God of hope fill you. You know

the word picture of being filled with the God

of hope looks like in the New Testament? If I

had another water bottle, I'd fill this thing

up until it was just overflowing. Full in the

kingdom looks like overflowing. You know, today

we're like, you know, see a couple get married

and you're like, that's great, I'm happy for

them. Don't get your hopes up for it to be too

awesome. You're going off to school, you just

graduated, you know, kid's 18 years old, ready

to go to college. Don't get your hopes up, son.

That's the worst false prophet I could ever imagine

telling anybody something. You're going to face

hardships, but man, when you have hope in your

life, you actually look for solutions when you

face problems. It's scientifically proven that

when you... are hopeless and you don't have hope

in your life, your mind closes up. You can't

find solutions. Have you guys ever been there

before? Something happens in your life, you get

a bad report, you can't find any solutions and

your mind just kind of gets tight and you feel

discouraged, you feel despondent about your situation.

But when you're full of hope, you're like, ah,

we'll figure it out. You see 10 solutions. Get

in a fight with your spouse and you're like,

ah, we'll figure it out. We're good. We worked

through it before. But your very first fight

after you're married, you're like, we're not

gonna make it. Oh my God. We gotta be filled

with hope. When a situation hits you, you know

which world you're connected to. When a problem

comes, do you immediately despair? Or do you

immediately look for solutions? That's which

world you can tell you're connected to. The unseen

realm of the kingdom of God is accessed through

faith, and that's the currency. We pull that

world into this one. It's already been purchased.

We're victorious in Christ. You need healing

today? It's not going to come through screaming

at cancer. It's going to come through resting

in what's been paid for. Faith is how we access

things, but faith is not the result. of striving

and of fighting. Faith is the result of surrendering

to what's already been purchased. Faith is the

result of saying yes to truth. Amen? Then it's

joy. It's peace. It's righteousness. It's not,

oh God! And then we call it prayer. It's time

to move in faith. I'd rather pray a few words

that I knew were in faith than a whole bunch

that I knew were in doubt. And call it prayer.

You see, how do you walk in hope? If you're taking

notes today, I'm going to give you something

to write down. Number one, hope is anchored in

the goodness of God. Jesus is the revelation

of God. Hope is anchored in him. God is good.

Can we agree? Say it with me. Say, God is good.

Say it again. God is good. Say, God is good to

me. God is good to me. I'm going to press on

some beliefs today. And I'll tell you, I've gotten

some of the most wild reactions from this message.

I've had people want to knock me out. I've had

people want to kiss me. I didn't let them. Just

kidding. And then I've had people just, Just

trying to figure it out. It sounds like a perfect

revival. Somebody mad, somebody happy. Anyways.

You know, hope is anchored in the goodness of

God. He's always good to us. Really, this challenges

our belief system and our lens because oftentimes

we look back on our life. God wasn't good there.

God wasn't good there. And God never changed.

The difference is we saw him through the lens

of a different perspective. This is not a part

of my message, but you remember Adam and Eve.

In the Garden of Eden, they saw God face to face

as he is and walked with him in the cool of the

day and loved him. When the snake came along

and the snake deceived them, from that day on,

they no longer saw God for who he was. They saw

him for who the serpent said they was. And their

perspective changed. And then they begin to see

God. And you look at the nations of the world

today. Why do the nations rage and they plot

in vain? What's going on in the world? You see

it right now. People are, anytime a father rises

up, boy, people just put a target on him and

they want to shoot him. Father rises up and says,

that's enough. Why? Because the orphan planet

is waiting for a father, but they're shooting

him when they come along because they're looking

at him through the lens of orphanhood, through

the lens of a servant. You see, what is hope

anyways? If we've got to figure this out, hope

in the simplest definition from the Greek is

the confident expectation that good is coming.

Do you want to know what hope looks like in the

simplest terms? Christmas morning. It's coming,

right? Christmas is coming. The kids wake up.

They come rip snorting down the hallway. They

see the tree and all the presents around it.

They see that bike wrapped in paper. They know

it's theirs because they look at mom and dad

and they know mom and dad are good. They love

me and they want what's good for me. And they

expect something great to happen underneath that

tree that day. That's what hope looks like. Hope

looks like something good is on its way. Something

good's about to happen. That's what hope looks

like. Hope in the kingdom of God has nothing

to do with current circumstances, but your beliefs.

Amen. But you know, hopelessness, hopelessness

is like a disease. It's like, it's like a disease,

right? Proverbs chapter 13, 12 says, hope deferred

Proverbs 13 · chapter mention

makes the heart sick. How many guys ever go through

a hopeless season? All right. We've all been

through hopeless seasons. You just got to make

sure that's just a season and not a life. Amen.

We all get through battles, but when I go from

one season to the next where I feel hopeless

and then hopeless again, then I know I got some

renewal of my mind to take place. My spouse is

not my problem. It was my mindset about my spouse

that was the problem. My ministry wasn't the

problem. God wasn't the problem. My preaching

wasn't the problem. Those teenagers just don't

want to listen. Killing the bag of Doritos on

the front row, making out in the back while I'm

trying to preach. Man, my ministry would happen

if I had a different youth group. Like, we can

make up all sorts of different mindsets and justify

unbelief and explain away a powerless lifestyle

according to the book of Job rather than look

at Jesus. You hate me yet? Okay, good. Praise

God. Let's keep going here. You know, Ezekiel

Ezekiel 37 · chapter mention

chapter 37, the valley of the dry bones. I'm

not gonna read the whole thing, but you remember

he pulls him out into the, God puts him in the

valley of dry bones and he says, prophesy to

these dry bones. I mean, you know, this is a

good test to see what are your hope levels at

right now? If your hope levels are low, we're

gonna get there. You're gonna walk out of this

place bursting in hope, okay? You're gonna walk

out overflowing in hope. But he says to Ezekiel,

prophesy to these bones. You know, if it were

me and some of my low points, I would look at

the bones and say, Lord, these bones are too

dry for a miracle today. I don't know. These

bones are pretty dry. You say speak to them,

but do you have any bones that are a little softer,

a little more pliable? You know, this one here

looks like it was microwaved on the moon for

a year. You know, I mean, have you ever seen

that? The bones, their marriages, they've been

that way for 40 years. They could never change.

My spouse has been this way forever. She's never

going to change. My kid's this way forever. My

business is this way forever. Actually, no, they're

not the problem. You need to take a look in the

mirror. The power to be transformed. Be transformed

by the renewing of your mind. Do not be conformed

any longer to the pattern of this world, but

be transformed by the... renewal of your mind.

Oh, I need to go get saved again. I'm going to

go up front and just confess all my sins and

tell God how big of a turd I am. You can do that.

You can come confess all your sins to Pastor

Brad, tell him how big of a worm you are, and

it's probably not going to transform you that

much. Because when you look at God and you say,

God, you got to do something with this. He's

going, I already did. I provided the blood, the

cross. I provided the Spirit. I provided the

Word. Now you've got to do the work. You've got

to start breaking up with lies, man. You know

what's coming out of your mouth? The self -talk,

man. I'm being so mean to you guys today. The

self -talk, right? The reason I'm good at talking

about this is because this was me for a long

time, okay? I was like the hopeless pastor with

a smile on my face. I'm just like, I got this

all. Bless God, amen. It's just like, until I

learned how to walk in hope. My life was not

full of joy. Now I just live happy with moments.

Look at those bones and prophesy. Marriage, line

up with the kingdom of God. Body, line up with

the kingdom of God. Harrisburg, Oregon, it's

time for the move of God to come. I prophesy

to the school systems. That there would be truth

in the classrooms. I prophesy right now teachers

full of the Holy Spirit who refuse to allow Marxist

indoctrination to touch our kids. Prophesy life

to the bones. We need leaders to stand up in

our communities full of hope with lots of solutions

refusing to let the enemy eat our children. How

do you get this kind of resolve in your spirit?

Some of you guys, you love the movie Braveheart.

It's my favorite. You got to paint your face

blue, look yourself in the mirror and say, you're

going to walk in truth today. Yell at yourself

and yell freedom. Whatever. Do what you got to

do. Right? You know, years ago, I went on a trip

with Chris Vallotton to Siberia, Russia, and

we had a great time. On our way home, I got violently

sick, man. Sickest I've ever been in my life.

We're landing into Frankfurt. I'm like, wow,

this is not good. We land in Frankfurt. I go

to the bathroom, and I had an exorcism right

there. Let's leave it at that. Pastor Brad was

glad he was not there to help me close all them

doors. And afterwards, we get on the plane to

fly home, and we're sitting there in first class.

The plane is going that direction, and I'm facing

that way. First time ever. And Chris Valton,

he's so funny. He says to the flight steward,

excuse me, my friend's sick. Do you have any,

like, you know, Alka -Seltzer or Pepto -Bismol?

She comes by with some Alka -Seltzer, and he

says, here, drink this. And I'm like, man, I

don't think that's a good idea. He goes, no,

just drink it. Trust me. And I'm like, Chris,

I don't think this is going to work. Just drink

it. I'm like, well, he's a prophet. I'm going

to give it a shot, I guess. Get half of it down.

I'm done. Take off. My body's just doing this

as we're soaring in the air. Chris looks at me

with this, you know, smile on his face. You doing

better? I'm like, no. No, you're not? No. Not

doing better. He's like, seriously? No. Like,

you've been so sick that you're like, I'm about

to just throw up. And I don't even care if you're

the president of the United States. You're going

to get it. That's how sick I was. So he immediately

begins to look for a barf bag. There's no bags

anywhere. So he found a pillowcase and I will

leave it at that. If this was a youth group,

I'd give you details, but since it's Sunday morning,

I'll stop. And needless to say, after we get

in the air, I go to the bathroom and, you know,

hallelujah. And then I'm looking in the mirror

and I was so, oh, I was so sick. Like no amount

of prayer was moving the mountain. I was speaking

to it, but I knew it moved, but just timing,

anyways. But I remember looking in the mirror.

I said to God, I'm like, Lord, you can, I was

so discouraged. I said, you kill me now. Take

me home. Just kill me. You've got lots of men

in BSSM that would love to marry my wife. You

could choose one for her, be a great husband,

whatever. Just take me home. I went back and

thank God we were in first class and I got to

sleep. got home but you know we make the stupidest

choices and we think the dumbest things when

we're hopeless it's not the time to make life

decisions all of us have been there amen hopelessness

is a disease hopelessness about a problem is

worse than the actual problem you're facing You

know, years ago, I was facing hopelessness. I

wrote about it in my book, Your Life Speaks.

Something had just hit me and it was just like,

you know, you get one of those things, it just

gets right here, deep in there. It's like, it

feels like it's in your bones. You know what

I mean? And I just decided that morning, I am

not gonna live discouraged. This is not my life.

So I spent the whole morning in my house, just

in prayer, pushed out meetings. Got a book by

a friend of mine named Steve Backlund called

You're Crazy If You Don't Talk To Yourself. And

I opened it up and he just makes it really practical

on how to step into hope with declarations and

declaring truth over your life. And so I just

began, I just went to war and said, God, I'm

not stopping till what's inside of me looks like

what's inside of you. That's my inheritance in

the kingdom of God. And that's how we got to

go after it. You know, the place we're battling

for hope in is the training ground to become

a carrier of hope. It's a training ground. You

know, I used to believe that every time I preached,

it didn't do any good. I used to have a belief

that when I preached it, I just wasn't hitting

the mark. I'd get teenagers in the room and they

just left the same way they'd came in. And it

was just like, I don't know what's going on until

somebody broke that off of me through a prophetic

word. Two different people told me that it's

a lie and they broke it off of me. And I begin

to, now I carry hope in preaching. But the place

that you're battling for hope is the birthplace

of hope in your life. Is it your marriage? Go

after it. Don't quit. Don't listen to hopelessness.

Don't get discouraged. There are so many solutions

for you. Is it your finances? So many solutions

today. I mean, like there's never been more.

You know, whatever it is you're facing, God wants

to meet you there. He's not there to condemn

or accuse. He's there to help you. Amen. He's

a good father. And you're in a family with a

great pastor who wants to help you guys grow

in the Lord. Amen. Hope. is birthed in the womb

of belief. The last thing I want to say is this,

hope is the overflow of beliefs that are anchored

in the truth. Romans 10, 17 says, now faith,

faith is, so then faith comes by hearing. Everybody

say hearing. And hearing the word of God. Hearing,

that word there means rhema, which is something

said, something spoken. It's different from logos.

Logos is the written word. Faith comes from hearing.

So if you're reading the word and you don't have

faith for that moment that's causing hopelessness,

you need a word from God that becomes your rhema

word, the sword of the spirit, the word of God,

that rhema where you can stand against the wiles

of the devil, the trickery of the enemy, and

be anchored in truth. If you can't find that

truth yourself, that's why you have a family

of believers that you can get vulnerable with.

until you find that anchor of truth so that you

can begin to walk with hope as well. It's the

overflow of beliefs. Let me read this again.

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy

and peace in believing that you may abound in

hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Why

don't you guys go ahead and stand. We're gonna

make some declarations together. You guys ready?

We're gonna make some declarations. Here you

go. Here you go. I'm going to say it, and then

we're going to say it together, okay? There's

always a solution for every problem I face. There's

always a solution for every problem I face. That's

pretty awesome. You should laugh right now. Because

joy is so transforming. There's always a solution

for every problem I face. Right now, some of

you guys are getting solutions just as we say

that. How about this one? God is always with

me. I'm never alone. God is always with me. I'm

never alone. I can do all things through Christ

who gives me strength. I can do all things through

Christ who gives me strength. You guys ever said

these words before? I just can't do this anymore.

You ever notice how much strength just like gone?

It's because you made a declaration from the

wrong kingdom. You made partnership with the

demonic spirit. You break it with truth. I can

do all things. Amen. How about this? If God is

for me, who can be against me? I carry the healer.

I carry the joy giver. I carry the light of the

world. Nothing is impossible. Let's go. So good.

Man, if you're in this room right now and you'd

say, I have been so loaded down with hopelessness

and I want to give my life to Christ right now.

If that's you, just raise your hand up right

where you're at. Just raise it up. You've not

been walking with the Lord, but you're saying

today, man, I want to give my life to Christ.

I want to surrender my life to the Lord and break

up with the enemy. I want to just give my life

to Jesus. If that's you, just raise your hand

up right now. Okay. Praise God. Hey, ministry

team, why don't you guys come on up front here.

Pastor Brad, I'm going to invite you to come

on up. Just close out the service. But man, it's

time to walk in hope today. If I was to give

a call right now and say, how many guys ever

feel hopeless? Everybody would raise their hand,

okay? But today you can step into a new place

of hope, a new place in the kingdom of God and

manifest this kingdom because Harrisburg is looking

for somebody to show them what the Father looks

like and bring hope. Amen. interested in hearing

other podcasts or contacting Life Bible Church,

go to www .lifebiblechurch .org or call us at

541 -995 -8282.