273 ~ REKINDLED ~ HEARTY HOPE ~ PART 6

We welcome you to the VI Zion Sermon Podcast.

We are a church based out of Chennai, India.

We are thrilled that you tuned in today and hope that you will

be refreshed, revived and energized by what you hear.

Our desire is that you will live life with a renewed sense of

purpose that stems from a vibrant faith in Jesus.

The year 2025 is 1 where we will be positioned by God to possess

our promise. We start a new sermon series

called Rekindled where we look closer at our own lives and ask

the Holy Spirit to revive and restore things that have gone

dormant in the dry seasons of our souls.

We pray that this series will help you dive deeper into

yourself and see where you need more of God.

Hi church, it's a joy and a privilege to be bringing God's

worthy today. I can't say it an honour.

We've been going through this entire series called Greek.

And even as you saw the bumper, for those of you watching and

you're listening online, I just want to encourage you that you

might find this daunting, you might find this uncomfortable,

but that's where the Holy Spirit meets with us when we celebrated

the Day of Pentecost. One of the reminders for us is

the fact that when we wait on Him, we are taking the promised

person with us everywhere. And that's what the day of

Pentecost is about, where Jesus asked his disciples to wait and

he promised the Holy Spirit. And when he came, he gave them

strength, He gave him courage, He came them boldness, He gave

them purpose. And I believe this rekindling

that we are asking for is so that we don't remain the same,

so that we are rekindled to be who God wants us to be.

We're going to go into the 6th part today and we've been seeing

on these three key topics, faith, hope, love.

And you're coming to the last part of hope and this continuing

from what we saw last week, which is a healing hope.

And we saw that three key things which Tina spoke about.

And I would encourage you to go and listen to that sermon

because I believe God wants to minister to us through that.

One of the things we saw from that sermon was our arms have to

become strong so that we can hold it high up in worship

because that's posture of surrender.

One of the things we saw in the second part is that the enemy

takes out our knees. What happens when he takes out

our knees? We are unable to stand.

We are not unable to resist the enemy.

And that's why we ask God to strengthen our knees so that

we'll be able to move in prayer. We'll be able to take ground,

move in faith wherever he's calling us to think.

And the third thing we saw was our anchor should be in Jesus so

that we are able to tide through whatever comes our way.

So even as we continue on, one of the key references that you

know, across the entire city has been ministering to me was one

where Paul encourages Timothy. And a lot of us probably have

read this passage or have heard it.

And I want to revisit that again from the Passion translation.

And this is what it says from 2 Timothy 1 verses six to seven.

It says I'm writing to encourage you to fan into flame and

rekindle the fire of the spiritual gift God imparted to

you when I laid my hands upon you.

For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy

Spirit who gives you mighty power, love and self-control.

There's an interesting word that he's talking about here.

He encourages Timothy to step into what has been laid on him,

that spiritual gift that was imparted to you.

In fact, in the, the different other translations, it talks

about, you know, fan into flame. And when you look into this

Greek word about the fan into flame, it's broken down into 3

sections. 1 is Anna, one is Zune and one is Spur, Anna's own

print. And when we look into that, what

does Anna mean? Repetition intensity.

So this rekindling that we are asking is not to maintain the

same level in of intensity or to decrease it, but rather increase

it. And so this rekindling will

cause us to burn brighter. This rekindling will move the

cold so that it'll burn everything else that's still not

burnt. And this zoom which is mentioned

here is of a living creature. God wants to move in the living

parts of our body. He's not wanting to move in the

dead things into the living things.

And so today, probably you just have one section of your heart

that's living. This rekindling will ignite the

entire heart that you probably have one section of your life

that's in order in vitamin. When he rekindles that it will

reorder everything else. The word poor, which is

mentioned there is fiery, which is fire and that consumes, that

consumes. And so today this fan into

flame, it's one of intensity. It operates in the living parts

of a body and it's fiery, which means it lights up, it catches

and it spreads. In fact, in the NASB version, it

says to kindle a fresh to kindle afresh.

Timothy is being encouraged by Paul to fan into flame, to

kindle afresh so that you don't move back in the call that God's

given you, but rather you take a step forward, you move in faith.

And so as we look into this, why am I stressing on this is

because many a times we think we, we can have hope in a

restful place, but God's wanting us to have hope in the very

place that he's placed his right now in that struggle, in that

tiff, in that war that you're going through in our minds, in

our spirit. And so today we if you look at

the world, what does rekindling? Rekindling always comes in a

time when something is just stagnant, when something is just

boring you suddenly we've heard this phrase weakening of

relationships, we with a partner, rekindling of

friendships weaken your family bonds.

People might rekindle an interest into something of a

sport of cooking or of doing something that will bring them

enjoyment. And so today the rekindling that

the world talks about is in certain sections, but the

rekindling that the Holy Spirit is talking about is he wants to

be all consuming, all consuming. And so today the fire that has

to be the rekindled in our lives is won by the spiritual gift of

God which was imparted, is ignited into us.

And so today, I don't know what this spiritual giftedness looks

like for you, but I believe that all of us are carrying certain

sections of hope. Hope that God the future will

turn out better. Hope that my family will turn

out better. Hope that my children will turn

out better. Hope that my marriage will last.

Hope that there's hope in different parts.

But I believe that God is wanting us to have a hearty

hope. And the sermon title today is

called hearty hope. Why hearty?

Hearty is 1 where you're, we are filled to the brim full, you're

full. It's a we, we say hearty meal,

which means you've enjoyed it with all of your heart.

You're you've, you've consumed it with all of your heart and

you're willing to live in it with all of your heart.

And so today this hearty hope is 1, which we call as the living

hope that has to come inside of us in one Peter we see versus

one to three. I know we talk about this

passage every time we talk about the resurrection power.

But the beautiful thing is, a lot of us have not invited the

resurrection power into our lives, rather striving in the

path that's been given to us, but the path that we itself can

control. And God wants us to remind that

from one Peter 1/3 Praise be to the God and the Father of Lord

Jesus Christ. In His great mercy, He has given

us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of

Jesus Christ from the dead. He has given us new birth into a

living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

from the dead. When we talk about our living

hope, it always references to the resurrection part.

We get to partake of it right here on this earth.

You're not just declaring it with your mouth.

You're not just expecting it. OK, when I close my eyes, I'll

be able to see it. No, you are partaking of it

right now. Wherever you're at, you're able

to partake of it right now. Let's read it from the message

version and this is what it says.

What a God we have and how fortunate we are to have him,

this God of our Master Jesus. Because Jesus was raised from

the dead, we've been given a brand new life and have

everything to live for, including future in heaven.

And the future starts now. God is keeping careful watch

over us in the future. The day is coming when you'll

have it all. Life healed and cold.

The aspect of heaven is real. That's 100% the aspect that we

will be in. No more sickness.

Yes, that's true, but the aspect of hope being lived out here on

this earth is the main thing that we need to take in and

strive, move through our physicalness and allow see God,

would you come into this place? I can live it right here because

a lot of us are not willing to live it right here.

We are. We're content knowing that we

are there. And so today, what is it that

it's we've been given a brand new life and everything to live

for, including the future in heaven.

But the future starts now. It starts now.

This hearty hope starts now. This heart, this hope that we

have, this healed hope starts now.

It starts now right where we are at because it comes to a place

where we have everything to live for.

You know, the beautiful thing about the hope that Jesus Christ

has given to us is we are purposeful.

Every step, every age, every year, every time you and I can't

take a step back saying I, I don't have hope because I don't

know what is there in the future.

No, with Jesus, we can be hopeful for the future.

And so that's why we when we live in this world, things

engulf us. What does engulf overtake us,

you know, surround us? Grief, pain, loneliness, our

support systems crumbling, our physical companion not being

that. We invite this living hope into

everything because the future starts now.

Are we willing to invite the living hope today into our pain?

Because it's in this that we see God is working through us.

Are we willing to invite Him into the nose of our life?

Are we willing to invite Him into the spaces where we see

things not working out? Because if not, we will be

living without hope. We would have hope for when we

close our eyes, but we won't have hope for the life that

you're called to live right now with our eyes open.

That's why Paul writes to the Thessalonians when he's telling

the church that that some of them have passed away.

But we don't grieve like we don't have hope.

We grieve of those like have hope.

Grief is real hardship. Everything is real, but the hope

should cause us to have that life, to live here right now.

Hope should take us back to His Word.

We may not feel like reading it, but there are different ways in

which we can listen to God, worship Him, listen to His Word.

Find ways to allow that to permeate into you.

One Thessalonians chapter 4 verses 13 to 14 says And now,

dear brothers and sisters, we want you to know what will

happen to believers who have died so you'll not grieve like

people who have no hope. But for since we believe that

Jesus died and was raised to life again, we also believe that

when Jesus returns, God will bring back with him the

believers who have died. And I, I, I really can't imagine

what it is to lose a loved. 1 the emptiness, the loneliness.

I've struggled with deep loneliness in my life and, and

I, I, I can't quietness scares me.

You know, the room just being house, being all quiet scares

me. And I know that is real.

And even as I'm preaching this, I know this.

This might be really hard for some of your walking, that

journey of grief. But I would also encourage you

that there's a future where God wants to say you still have

future. As long as your eyes are opened

here on this earth, you can live with that living hope.

And I pray this is where probably God wants to rekindle

afresh some of those areas in our life which have been

deadened. That's why I said earlier, even

if there's a little section of our heart that's living, the

Holy Spirit is wanting to come in and rekindle that because He

wants it to spread to every other area.

When we see those 3 words which I mentioned that Anna Zun and

poor, I believe we need to allow the Holy Spirit to come into

those areas of our struggles where we allow His intensity and

His. And because of that struggle,

that struggle that you're having as a living person, we allow His

fire to consume us because many a times you've become too cold.

You're saying, God, I don't like this, I don't want this.

It doesn't make sense. And we've gone distant.

But God's saying, no, I want you to have a hearty.

What is a hearty hope? A hearty hope is one that's

all-encompassing. To know that God, I've called

you, you've answered me. God, I've called you, you've

seen me to God, I know that I am yours and assurance is there.

And with that, we take that step, that hearty hope is it's,

it's full. There's no holes in the hope

that you're having. And so today, as we look, I want

to, I want us to go back to a, a, a story of a king in the Old

Testament. And his name is King Josiah.

And I want us to just look at his story and what, how did he

have? Because he started his, you

know, his kingship. He was made king at the age of 8

and but there was some things that he did which other kings

didn't do. What is it that caused him to

have? And I believe that's because

there was one probably, there was definitely direction 2.

There was definitely godly people around him.

But inwardly, I think there was definitely a hearty hope of

something that was complete in him.

And I want us to, as you meditate on his life and as you

see what God did through him, I just want to take some lessons

for us so that we'll be able to accomplish all that God's called

us to, that we won't cave in to the spirit of fear.

We won't cave in to the spirit of, you know this.

Taking a step back, the future is here.

We need to step into it with God's help.

The first thing we see is if you have to live with a hearty hope,

we need to be secured in Jesus alone.

Our security should be in Jesus alone because when we are secure

in him, we are secure in the person he's created us to be and

we leave no room for insecurity. Today as Christ followers, are

we secure? Are we insecure?

Hope fails to exist when we are insecure.

You know one of the a lot of us often times don't talk about the

insecurities of our life. The insecurities is because

something is not fixed, something is not formed.

There's doubts. Doubts on our own ability dots,

doubts on our own capacity. We are unsure about ourselves.

All of us have insecure moments, but what are we doing?

Because it's very important how we deal with it.

You know, growing up I was a musician and as long as I was

playing and I was given the opportunity, I was good.

But the minute someone better came, there always was a deep

sense of insecurity. But God in His kindness always

allowed me to grow beyond that. And I love that I didn't channel

everything to the thing that I could do And I, I, I want us to

move to a place where we move where and, and today there are

those pockets of insecurity, but we rise above.

We allow God to shape us, mould us, prune us so that we'll be

able to know who he has created us to be.

The reason why I want to emphasize specifically on this

is because a lot of us have moved.

If you notice when we allow insecurity to settle in, a

security of the very thing that gives us our identity and Jesus

gets stripped away. You know, especially for us who

see a lot of railway tracks. If you see the rail, these

trains when they're moving, you know when they're moving and

when they have to move, especially when they're moving

out of the station and they have to move into different

directions. You'll see that the railway

tracks are so close, the 2 tracks are so close to each

other and then suddenly they move.

And that's how insecurity comes. It's and that that it's called a

railroad switch. The tracks are similar.

It's just a switch. It moves and then the train just

takes another direction. And I believe the minute we

allow insecurity to lead us, it trickles down into everything.

We suddenly are not moving the part that God is ordained for

us. We suddenly are diverging away

and moving away. And So what happens?

We suddenly instead of relying on Jesus, we start controlling

everything. Instead of relying on Jesus and

seeing the people that he's brought us, we start putting a

lid and start controlling them. We start seeing different things

that are breeding out of our insecurity.

And so today I want to come to a place are we secured who Jesus

called us to be. The fact that many a times this

hope that has to come out, has to come to a place that I am

secure and that I am a child of God.

Probably your parents are not called you, that probably your

parents have been partial to your siblings and that's

affected you. Rise up today.

You are secure in Jesus because he loves you for who you are.

He's created you for who you are.

Probably, you know, you're growing up, you've been

differentiated by the colour of your skin between your relatives

have done that, your parents have done that or probably there

were certain things that you know, or it could even be a

gender bias. Many a times you know, they

favour the son or the daughter. Whatever it is, rise up to a

place to know that you've been created in God's image.

God created both man and woman, and so don't allow very people

that he's created to distinguish and the market rise above to

being secure in who he's called you to be.

Hebrews chapter 6 verses 13 to 20 when God made his promise to

Hebrews 6:13–20

Abraham, since there was no greater for him to swear by, he

swore by himself, saying, I'll surely bless you and give you so

many descendants. And so after waiting patiently,

Abraham received what was promised.

People swear by someone greater than themselves and the oath

confirms what it said and puts an end to all argument.

Because God wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose

very clear to the heirs of what was promised, He confirmed it

with an oath was 18. God did this so that by two

unchangeable things in which it is impossible forgot a lie.

We who have fled to take hold of the hope set before us may be

greatly encouraged. We have this hope as an anchor

for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary

behind the curtain where our foreigner Jesus has entered on

our behalf. He has become a high priest

forever in the order of Melchizedek.

When we read this passage, there are key themes that come out.

God himself stands as guarantee for the promise.

He says what I said will come to pass.

And so today the hope that we we have in him is that God, you've

promised you'll make it come to pass.

The two other things that we see that are very vital is was 18

and was 19 is that we are God does not lie.

And so that's that's that's unchangeable thing about God.

And So what happens is we have this hope and we can take

encouragement knowing that it will come to pass in this time.

Yes, I might have to wait it on. And that's where hope is built.

It's built on nothing less but Jesus Christ.

And I pray that we will live in that assurance that, Lord, I

will take you at your word. The second thing that we see is

it's the anchor of the soul because it's firm, it's secure.

It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain where our

forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf to say this hope is

in Jesus. Who is the ultimate sacrifice?

Who is the great high priest? Through him we have access to

everything. Through him, we are able to

stand strong in this. We, we.

We've been meditating in the word hope deferred.

I believe that it's in those seasons we need to establish

ourselves with God. We need to make sure that we are

there in the inner sanctuary. We need to make sure that that

we are there worshipping Him alone.

We need to be waiting there for Him.

We need to be waiting him enjoying his presence.

We need to be knowing that this is where I'm meant to be.

Many a times we're waiting in so many different places, but I

believe the breakthrough that God's wanting us to see is far

bigger. The breakthrough that God's

wanting us to hold on to is in the inner sanctuary.

I believe the mysteries that He wants us to step into and hope

for are in that inner sanctuary, the very thing that Abraham held

onto, the promise of God. What was spoken came from a

place of deep intimacy. And so today, the security that

you have, if you have to beat away in security, you need to

move to the place of realizing who has God created you to be.

Today we all are called to walk as secure people.

My security doesn't lie on the race that I get, doesn't lie on

the money that I bring home. It lies on the fact that there's

a God above who holds everything.

He still knows me, my name. He still can count the number of

hair that's there on my head. He still knows my heart.

He knows my intentions. You know why is this important?

Because when we don't take it from the right source,

everything else comes here. We're taking it from a source

Who says I am standing guarantee for the promise?

I do not lie. I am the one who's giving it

solely to you. I'm not coming through a

mediator. No longer is there another

person. I am the high priest myself.

I am giving it to you. The early Church did not step

into the Great Commission with a feeling of insecurity.

The Holy Spirit comes in and fills every void of insecurity

to secure it so that they'll be able to witness for God alone.

They'll be able to live in the future that God's called them to

live now. They all lived with the hearty

hope which was secure in Jesus and through Jesus.

If you look at the lives of the early church, they were

uneducated in the Law of Moses, but the revelation came from the

Law Giver himself. The revelation came when the

minute they were anointed by the Holy Spirit, they spoke out.

They spoke out. Scriptures being fulfilled, they

were. They hesitated to speak in

public, but the rekindling of the hearts and the Holy Spirit

gave them courage to speak in spaces, in squares, in temple

courts, in palace rooms, in houses.

The message was contained for a specific group of all those who

came for the festival, but when they were rekindled, they took

the message far and wide to the ends of the earth.

They followed Jesus with their insecurity and when they were

allowed to encounter the Holy Spirit, they were secure of the

one that had called them because He was inside of them.

Today you and I are called to step into these places with a

hope that is secure in Jesus. Secure when I'm saying secure,

get rid of every insecurity. Get rid.

Of course, it's the things that we feel in the physical that

numb the spiritual, the things that we that we we give credence

to in the physical that we discount what is happening in

the spiritual. The one transformational thing

that we see happen in Christian life is what happens inside,

shows up in the outside because I believe the greater the one

who's in me than he that is in the world.

It all starts in we need to build up our spiritual and that

dictates our physical that causes us to move into places to

things, into doing what God's called us to do.

As I said earlier, we're looking into the life of Josiah.

Let's read a passage from there in two Chronicles chapter 34

verses one to two. Josiah was 8 years old when he

became king and he reigned in Jerusalem 31 years.

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord and followed

the ways of his father David, not turning a side to the right

or to the left. It's interesting.

He was 8 years old when he became king.

He reigned in Jerusalem 31 years.

He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, followed the

ways of his father and did not turn to the left or to the

right. It's interesting David was way

before his time. In fact, his great grandfather

was Hezekiah. His father was Manasseh.

His grandfather was Manasseh, his father was before him and in

fact he was just king for like 2 1/2 years when they assassinated

him. He did more evil.

Manasseh did more evil, more unspeakable things.

In fact he went and erected an image in the temple of God.

He did. He drove his people to towards

idol worship far away from God. We see his grandfather Hezekiah

was king. We see that Manasseh became a

king when he was 12 years old. But it didn't end well for him.

But something about Josiah when he was 8, something that he knew

that this is what God's called him to do.

Yes, the people were around. That definitely adds a lot of,

but there's something that happened internally.

And I believe he was secure and who God had called him to be is

today insecurity causing me to live in a state of hopelessness.

Hopelessness that I'm unable to move into the space that God

wants me to be in. Am I in so much despair that I'm

unable to operate in the place that God's given me?

Am I in so much of negativity that I'm moving in an opposite

direction where God's calling me towards something?

I derailed myself because of my insecurity that I've failed to

see that this is who God's called me to be.

We need to identify these issues as we look into our own lives.

Insecurity will breed jealousy, hatred, disunity, division, and

in turn causes to derail. As we read in Romans, the anchor

is in Jesus and in his resurrected power.

So today, where do we need his resurrection part to come into

our lives so it can live with that heart?

You because you and I have to kill a certain level of identity

that we've sought after the world and say, Lord, I need your

resurrection part to resurrect the identity that you've called

me to live in, because that's when we'll be living in the

secure hope that God's called us to God put to death whatever I

don't think the world is, because whatever the world

gives, the world will take and it'll when the when it takes,

it's hurtful. It's it brings me down.

It it takes me along for them to the right.

Let me move to a place of realizing who I am in you lot,

because when I know who I'm in you, I am able to deal with

grace. I'm able to deal with kindness,

gentleness and able to see you clearly for who you are.

So today, as we see from the life of Josiah, you might think,

yeah, he got a privileged position, but he didn't have the

examples of living right, even though he had privilege with

him. Today, transformation happens

internally. And I believe if you want to

have this secure hope, you need to move to a place of taking the

promise from the promise giver directly.

You need to be in the inner courts, in the Holy of Holies,

receiving it from Jesus himself what your assignment is, because

that's when you'll find that you are secure in who He has called

you to be. The second thing is when you

have to live this hearty hope. It is continual all our life.

It just doesn't stop in one area of our life.

It's continued strength is from God for every stage of our life.

God gives us strength every stage of our life.

And I pray that we will all move in this hope extremely well,

every stage of our life. You know, one of the things I

keep telling Tina is that we would love to grow old with

people that we've made friends with just because there's so

much that you're hoping for now. It'd be interesting to see what

you're hoping for 20 years from now, 30 years from now.

So where is a reference point of hope in our lives today?

Where is a reference point? You know, we always have a

reference point for something. We is it moving with us every

year? Is it moving with us every time

we take a step of faith or is it stuck five years back, 10 years

back? A lot of us have a lot of

reference points of hope quite some time back, you know, back

in the day, but today are you living because the future is

now? Are you living with hope today?

Are you is your reference point today and you might be like you

know what I didn't see so many things come through yes, but I

can still be hopeful today and that is 1 where God wants us to

be 1 of hearty hope saying it's continual today tomorrow when it

comes, I will have hope day after yes.

Is our hope stuck in a long time ago phase.

We as Christian followers have to take this hearty hope into

our everyday every month, every year, which means we learn to

live with this hope in our world of opposites because our

strength comes from God. What is a world of opposites?

You know world of opposites is if God the miracle didn't come.

OK, I'll look for an alternator. Now that becomes my sustenance.

And so, oh, that didn't work, there's something else.

Oh, that didn't work, there's something else.

And suddenly we have gone far too long and our hope is stuck

way back. The reference point has gone

back. And that's what we see when we

read in Philippines chapter fours.

It's 12 to 13. I know what it means to lack,

and I know what it means to experience overwhelming

abundance. For I'm trained in the secret of

overcoming all things, whether in fullness or in hunger.

And I find that the strength of Christ's explosive power infuses

me to conquer every difficulty. When I talked earlier this a

couple of minutes back, I said about strength.

We need to find strength in God so that we can hope today.

Because Paul writes this to the Philippine church.

And even as they give, he talks to them and he encourages them.

And he says, you know what? I've learned to live in plenty.

I've learned to live in little. But the secret of overcoming all

this is the fact that my strength is from God alone.

It's from Jesus Christ alone and the passionate beautiful.

He says strength of Christ's explosive power infuses me to

conquer every difficulty. So today God's called us to be

conquerors. What does that mean?

Which means we take him along with us every step of the way.

Hope is something I take along with me.

When my kids were toddlers, I hoped for certain things.

When they went into pre kindergarten, I hoped for

certain things. When they came into middle

school, I'm hoping. When they move into high school,

I'm hoping. I'm hoping and alongside I'm

starting to. And so if if I hope for myself,

I'm hoping for my spouse, I'm hoping for my children.

And as you do, life this hopeless just keeps increasing.

And you'll be surprised to see that as it keeps increasing,

many start getting fulfilled. And when you start getting full

figure saying, God, this is all you because we did this in

faith. We did this because of your

strength. We were able to sustain this

because you gave us the grace and the strength and you

encouraged us in times of loneliness.

This is not making us devoid of anything.

It's a fact that in the midst of everything, I will look to you

for strength. That's what Paul says.

When I had plenty or when I had little, when I was hungry or

when I was full, it was God's strength and power that infuse

me to conquer every difficulty. I can do all things who

strengthens me. We move from realizing the God

is taking us from a journey so we can be refined in our

understanding of Him, in our depending on Him, in our knowing

of Him. Transformation occurs when we

fall, when we fail to see him in our everyday.

We settle into doing things such as complaining, looking at our

weight with someone else's picture.

Psalm 106 beautifully says this as I was meditating it couple of

days back in my daily Bible reading passage.

It is a reminder that as the Israelites were delivered from

Egypt, as they were brought out. It's interesting when we allow

hope to be set in a different place. 106 versus 10 to 13.

This is what it says. He, he saved them from the hand

of the four, from the hand of the enemy.

He redeemed them. The waters covered their

adversaries. Not one of them survived.

Then they believed His promises and sang His praise, but was 13.

But they soon forgot what He had done.

I did not wait for His plan to unfold.

I believe a lot of us are short circuiting of hope so that

because you're unwilling to wait for Him to unfold.

Hope enables me, continual hope and enables me to allow God to

unfold things, Unfold things. God shows us when He gives us

that glimpse of hope. It's like a keyhole effect where

you see it through the eyes of the keyhole and then you're

suddenly waiting it to live in the reality of it.

And that's what happens. God wants us to take us in that

journey, but we are we. We are forgetfulness.

We are so caught up in our present struggles that we forget

what He's done for us. And we say blatantly that we

can't wait for Him to unfold things.

A lot of us are short circuiting so many things.

A lot of us are giving up on things that God's called us.

A lot of us are prematurely moving to other cities.

Probably God is moving us to. God is doing so many things we

think is right, but we fail to understand and ask God, God, is

this part of your plan? Is this?

Will hope come with me if I do this?

Or will hope be behind me? We are not careful.

We will self sabotage what God wants to do through us.

They forgot what God had done. They did not wait for his plan

to unfold. And so today I want to ask you,

are we forgetting what God's done?

I'm unable to have him with me on my journey and I'm lacking

hope because we've caught on to so many other things.

That's why when I started off, I said even if there's a section

of your heart that has hope, allow him to rekindle it so that

you can go ahead in faith with the living hope beside you.

You know, Josiah carried the Lord in his heart from the time

he was made king. It's obvious because there were

influences in life like his own mother called Jedediah who which

clearly means beloved. We can clearly see there were

reforms that were done, and I believe this is where we see God

do things. Why I'm saying continuous, You

can see there are two different stages in his life of two

different reforms. Two Chronicles 34, three.

It says in the eighth year of his reign, while he was still

young, he began to seek the God of his father David.

In his 12th year, he began to purge Judah and Jerusalem of

high places, Asherapols and idols.

In the 18th year of Josiah's reign, to purify the land in the

temple, he sent Son of Azalea and Messiah, the ruler of the

city with Joah, son of Joahas the recorder, the repair the

temple of the Lord his God. What we see is it's continuing.

He's hoping and he's taking that step every day.

And if you read it, there are so many lessons we can see.

He's taken God with him. He's living with the future of

hope right there in his eighth year, in his 12th year, in his

18th year. So today you and I, are we

willing to take him into all these different stages of our

lives because I'm scared that I might just be so comfortable of

receiving it once and then going ahead without him.

When you read Psalm 106 is very scary.

In verse 14 and 16 is what it says in the desert, they gave

into their craving in the wilderness, they put God to the

test. God gave them what they asked

and send a disease among them. In verse 16, in the camp, they

grew envious of Moses and of Aaron, was consecrated of the

Lord, and what happened? The earth opened up and it

swallowed those who had actually become envious and spoken I'll

of it. It's when you continue to read

from verses 19 to 23. It says that Horeb.

They made a calf and worshipped the idle cast from metal.

They exchanged their glorious God for an image of a bull which

eats grass. They forgot the God who saved

them or done great things, miracles in the land of Ham and

awesome deeds by the Red Sea. So he said he would destroy

them, had not Moses, his chosen 1, stood in the breach before

him to keep his wrath from destroying them.

Today are you and I part of this trading game where we're seeing

which works well, which works well, which works well?

Are we willing to just trade off God just so that we'll be able

to see certain things fulfilled in our lives today?

You know, I, I know this is, this is difficult for us to

swallow and understand, but God saying, I want to journey with

you right here because this is important in our Christian life,

because there will be times when this continual hope is lonely.

Continual hope will just be between you and God will be just

between you and the closest person you're believing with,

probably your spouse or just your family.

You will feel alone. You will feel all by yourself.

But God saying this is where I want to come in so that when the

fulfillment happens, it'll have me all over.

You'll be able to take it every stage.

Josiah just didn't stop with just giving a decree.

He went ahead and pulled down. He went ahead and consecrated

the temple. He went ahead and did so many

things because the hope was with him.

That gave him strength, that gave him assurance, that gave

him clarity of vision, that gave him a renewed purpose and

understanding of who He was created to be.

You and I are in the same place. A lot of us are unable to

overcome certain things in our life because we've not really

allowed God to work. We've not hoped for God to come

through before He can come through.

We've self sabotaged it before He can unfold.

We've gone on to complain. We've gone on to derail

ourselves. And I pray that we will allow

Him to come to a place where He's continuous with us every

stage. You know, I want to carry this

rekindling way into my old age because I believe that's when

there'll be even more tangible things that I'll be able to see.

Every time I open God's word, there's a lot of tearing up that

God does of my own self, my own pride, my own things that I

think I've accomplished. I'm having to go back saying,

God, I want a renewed sense of hope today, Lord Jesus, and I'm

bringing hope in into my day today.

I'll take it in definitely into my tomorrow.

And so today would it be a continuous hope into our lives.

The third thing we see is we live now with a hearty hope that

glorifies God always about what all I have achieved.

We glorify God. We put God above everything

else. You know, we see when Josiah

became king, he was eight, he was 8.

And then at 26, the temple was ready.

It was in the process or at which they found the book of the

law. And in finding the book of the

law, they go ahead and they hear from this prophet Haldah.

And this prophet goes on to give this prophecy that Judah had

sinned. And you know, they they are

going into captivity. And the promise comes that

nothing will happen to Josiah, that he'll be able to put his

head at peace. He'll be able to lay his head

here, but Judah as a country will go into captivity.

And so as we hear that, we see that Josiah is just not content

with that. He's not, he's not like, you

know what? No, but he he pushes in.

And this is what amazed me is the fact that I would be happy

if I got an answer. But there's definitely something

that he wanted his people, his country to experience that he

pushed further in. Even though he was guaranteed

peace in his time, he still were handed, gathered everyone to

worship God. Something about hope that we get

everyone to participate in hope this doesn't this.

I don't just keep it, but I make sure others are able to

participate in it. Two Chronicles 34 versus 28 to

33. This is what it says.

So they took her answer back to the king.

Then the king called together all the elders of Judah and

Jerusalem. He went up to the temple of the

Lord with the people of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem,

the priests and the Levites, all the people from the least to the

greatest. He read in the hearing all the

words of the book of the Covenant which had been found in

the temple of the Lord. The king stood by his pillar and

renewed the covenant in the presence of the Lord, to follow

the Lord, and to keep his commands, statues, and decrees

with all his art and with all his soul, and to obey the words

of the covenant written in his book.

Then he had everyone in Jerusalem and Benjamin pledge

themselves to it. The people of Jerusalem did this

in accordance with the covenant of God, the God of their

ancestors. Josiah removed all the

detestable idols from all the territory belonging to the

Israelites, and he had all who are present in Israel serve the

Lord their God. As long as he lived.

They did not fail to follow the Lord, the God of their

ancestors. It amazes me that Josiah knew

who the real king was. He could have had his way.

The history for him was not one that was done well.

The history for him was one who had given to given into the

pleasures or whatever. But it's something here where he

fulfills what God had told Samuel.

God had told Moses in fact, when he was saying there will come a

time when my these people will ask for a king.

Let the king write the law and the let him write it down so

that he'll know it. It's literally what he's doing

here. He is taking the law of God in

making it his own. He's making sure the people

under him are following it. What a testimony to live by

that, that you take what has been given just because he's

made it through. He's like, no, I need even this

God. Even if I know I can't change

your heart, I can't change what you've already planned.

But I still want to bring others into this hope so that they'll

be able to experience your goodness.

They'll be able to experience your goodness today.

We live in a time where Jesus has done it all.

He is willing to change people's lives inside out.

And so as we journey with people, we take that hope

alongside with those who don't have that's that's one of the

Great Commission that we are given with as much as we are

called to make disciples, one of the ways we make disciples is to

be hope hopelessnesses. And so today we take hope

because we are able to see God is glorified in our hope that

we're able to take it to the people.

We see some of the things that Josiah did when we read in Two

Chronicles, chapter 35, we see that Josiah celebrated the

Passover and it wasn't done in this manner.

We none of the kings had done it.

And I believe there's something about hope when this glorifies

God alone and no one else. Two Chronicles 35, one to two,

it says Josiah celebrated the Passover to the Lord in

Jerusalem and the Passover lamb was slaughtered on the 14th day

of the first month. He appointed the priests to

their duties and increase them in the service of the Lord's

temple. This I provided for all the lay

people who were there, a total of 30,000 lambs, goats for the

Passover offerings and also 3000 cattle, all from the King's own

possessions. His officials also contributed

voluntarily to the people and the priests and the Levites.

Hilkiah, Zechariah, Zehil and the officials in charge of God's

temple gave the priests 2600 Passover offerings and 300

cattle. So at that time the entire

service of the Lord was carried out in the celebration of the

Passover and the offering of the burnt offerings of the alt of

the God, as King Josiah ordered. The Israelites were present,

celebrated the Passover at that time had observed the festival

of unliving breath for seven days.

The Passover had not been observed like this in Israel

since the days of the prophet Samuel, and none of the kings of

Israel had ever celebrated such a Passover as did Josiah with

the priests, the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were

there with the people of Jerusalem.

This Passover celebrated in the 18th year of Josiah's name.

Josiah could have been convenient in the place where he

was because he had received it. But the beautiful thing about

hope is you can't contain it. Just because you've received it

doesn't mean you have to contain it.

He couldn't contain it. He participated in everything.

He was willing to let go of his own possessions with his people.

What happened in that? He was also able to see three

things happen. He participated in it

generously. His officials participated in

generously. He bridged the gap between the

priests and the lady. What we see happened here is He

bridged that gap. There was no longer a divide.

All of them sought God. It was just not the priests.

They all celebrated the Passover together because when God

brought them out, He brought them out as an entire nation.

He was their God. He was their king and what we

see happened in this is being reinstituted.

The same thing where everyone is made equal and God is glorified.

That's why it says that no one had celebrated this like this

before the time of Samuel till even before there was a king.

And I believe hope causes us to be the great equalizer because

God is glorified in and through us.

We see Josiah could have been convenient so that he could have

laid his head at peace and not be captured in his lifetime, but

he was had this hearty hope. He somehow knew if I could turn

because he followed David. It said it didn't say he

followed Hezekiah or Manasi or his dad.

It said he followed David And David had access to the heart of

God where he knew how to worship to get God's heart.

And I believe something about that caused Josiah to realize if

we can all go back into repentance, if the entire nation

could repent, we could probably change God's heart.

But whatever the outcome is, I believe Josiah did it with all

his heart because he loved God. And so today I want to ask you,

are you in love with God? Because if you're in love with

God, you'll be able to see that this hope that we have is

glorious. You know, David Livingstone, who

was a missionary, says this. If a Commission by an earthly

king is considered an honor, how can a commissioned by a heavenly

king be considered a sacrifice? We are commissioned by a

heavenly king. It's an honor to do it.

Today. I believe Josiah is an immensely

successful reformer, more than any other king who preceded him.

He leads the nation to revival, going back to times of

repentance. Even though the fate is sealed,

even though the outcome of it is the fact that they would go into

captivity, it does not stop them from worshipping God holy

wholeheartedly. And I believe that is a true

depiction of hearty hope. Irrespective of the outcome,

Lord, I will have a hearty hope. And as I conclude, I wanted to

leave this one thing with you. As Christians, as Christ's

followers, one of the things that we are concerned about with

regard to hope is sustainability.

Lord, who will sustain us? Who will carry us?

Lord, we, our bank balances are depleting.

Our children won't be there to look after us.

Or Lord, the world is so busy. Lord, the world is having so

much of chaos. This world sustainability.

Everyone is talking about sustainability, and the

beautiful thing is we as created beings, we cannot sustain

anything. It's the Creator who can

sustain. And so today I want you to move

to a place of realizing sustainability is the Lord's

hope will end and I hope in God he will sustain me.

That is his promise. Isaiah 46 verse 4 says this even

Isaiah 46:4

to your old days. This is when the people have

gone into Babylon and the Isaiah is telling them even to your old

age and grey has I am he I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you.

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

So today, if you've been running Helter Skelter looking for

sustainability from the world or building systems around you

thinking and sustain, I pray would you come to the creator

who created us because he's the one who can sustain us.

And I believe when we have this hearty hope, we will be secure.

We will be continuous. We'll have this hope continually

in our lives. We will always glorify God.

We will always point back to him.

We'll always say, God, this is you entirely.

So I pray that as we step into this week, we will have hearty

hope. I pray for those of you who just

have a section of your heart that's hopeful.

I pray as you rekindle it, the entirety of your heart will

experience hope, faith, and it's love.

I pray specifically for those of you who have, who have haven't

been able to see the futures now because of grief, because of

loss, because of failure. I pray that you'll see yourself

through the eyes of the Maker who's made you, who's called

you, is one who says I have knit you in your mother's womb.

I know how to sustain you, that you'd give your hands to the

makeup and he will carry us forward.

Can we pray, Lord? We thank you, Lord, for this

time. I thank you, Lord, for all those

who are listening and all watching.

I pray even right now, Lord, that even as your word goes

forth, Lord, I pray it would create a stirring in their

hearts right now, a spiritual awakening, a holy fire being

birthed within. Lord Jesus.

I pray areas that they've been struggling to step into, they

will boldly step into knowing that you are with them.

Lord Jesus. I pray that they'll be able to

acknowledge you as Lord and King.

They'll be able to see how Josiah saw Lord continually

through their lives, step by step.

Whatever was done was done because you were that you were

involved in the picture, Lord Jesus, that they were able to

bridge, they were able to reform.

They were able they'll be able to chase the trajectory of their

of their history, of their generation.

People will be amazed. Is this who this person is.

Their past look different, but their present and their future

looks glorious because Jesus is in them.

I pray that will be the story of our lives, Lord, a hearty hope

where we'll be able to say you are with us, you are in US,

you're working through US. Lord, I pray we will rekindle

every area, Lord Jesus, every area.

I pray you'll go before us, bless us, take charge.

I pray as each one watches, you will strengthen them.

Take charge of them. I pray as we step into this

week, go before us, help us accomplish all that we set out

to do. I pray we'll be able to give you

the glory. We'll be able to give you the

honour. Take charge.

In the most holy name we pray, Amen.

Amen. Such I just want to charge you

that as you go out, go out that you'll be be strengthened,

You'll be you'll be captivated by Jesus in every step of the

invitement. Allow him to do it.

It's painful, it's rewarding, it's hard, but it's fruitful.

At the end, you become a tree of life where you not only are a

blessing to yourself, you're established in the Lord, but you

become a blessing to many alone. I pray that you have a blessed

week. God bless you and remember this,

that whoever finds Jesus finds life.

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