I Hope So | Ps. John Wyatt

Welcome to the Celebration Church Orlando podcast.

Thank you so much for listening today.

We hope it encourages you and inspires you.

Here's today's message.

Hey church, good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Good morning.

Hey, you can go ahead and have a seat if you're here in the uh in the sanctuary with us.

Oh yeah, I got an Oh yeah, somebody from Jacksonville, they know what to do.

If you're uh if you're there at home and you just stood up for me, man, God bless you.

Your faithfulness is amazing, man.

But you can go ahead and have a seat on your couch or wherever you might be.

Uh man, it's great to be with you.

Thanks for the introduction.

Nate, man, appreciate you so much.

Uh man, again, my name is John Wyatt.

I greet you on behalf of uh our family, our church family in Jacksonville, Florida.

Uh, our pastors Tim and Jen Timberlake, everybody sends their love.

Our whole staff, I know you've glad you guys know uh Wayland Wiseman, Wayland and Heather, they send their love.

Our whole executive staff, we love you guys.

We pray for you all the time, man, at our meetings.

We love to get together and just uh rejoice about all God is doing here in Orlando.

And uh, man, we know that I'm looking around the room.

I know there's about 10 times more people that are watching me via video, but uh whether you're here and you've you've engaged in coming back to services, or whether you're uh tuning in online or maybe attending groups or something like that, we're so grateful that you're pressing through this time and uh and seeking the Lord.

And uh we just love being a church family again, DC, Orlando, Jacksonville.

You know, we have family in South Florida, we have family for the first time ever, I'll get to go to and see our family in Europe here soon.

Uh starting to open up there.

We have 20 locations, the celebration church in Zimbabwe.

I always like to remember, whenever I'm around, I like to remind you, we're part of a global church that's making a global impact all the way around the world.

And so on behalf of everybody I ever get to talk to, I always like to greet you.

So can you uh put your hands together for yourself, Orlando?

We love you guys.

Why don't we uh go ahead and um open up our Bibles?

I just want to honor just a couple of people before we go.

I just want to honor Pastor Keith and Megan.

Uh I so I'm so grateful to get to be here.

And uh when he when he sent me that text, man, said, Hey man, I really need you to come and to to preach to our family down here.

I was like, yes, I've been praying for you guys since before you launched from Jacksonville.

I've been praying for you guys.

I've never had a chance to speak here, man.

I'm so excited, man.

I started seeking the Lord right away.

But man, I just love the Pittmans.

Love Keith and Megan.

I've been on staff since 2008.

I've been working with with Keith and Pittman since they came on staff around that time.

It was about 2010 or so, and uh and in all different capacities.

I've I've watched the kids grow up.

Come on, Caleb, where'd Caleb go?

Of course, Caleb's back there.

I can't see from up here, man.

Caleb was like one of my celebration kids when I was the kids' pastor.

You know what I'm saying?

He was a kid, De Niro was one of my leaders in celebration kids.

He was like a middle schooler, high schooler, like leading in celebration kids, keeping Caleb in line.

You know what I'm saying?

Keith Pittman Jr., I still school him at basketball all the time.

Don't believe what he says if he speaks otherwise.

I can still take him even though I'm 49 years old.

We always get matched up together whenever we play, man.

I'm always like, oh man, your dad's gonna get so mad when I just destroy your self-confidence out here, man.

He's like, whatever.

But uh man, I just love the Pittman family.

I love your team here.

I love uh I love Nate, man, Jen.

I love uh Lindsey Brenner, known her for years, man.

Lindsay, and I love Vinny and uh Hope and I love Dan, Daniel, like the whole team, Hector, gosh man, I love Hector and kids, man, and youth.

Can you put your hands together for the team that serves you every single week?

We love you guys, man.

You do such great work.

You're well shepherded here, you're well pastored here.

Your team is here not to do the work of ministry, but to equip you for the work of ministry.

That's in the Bible, that's Ephesians 4.

It talks about how God will raise up leaders with different gifts to help kind of get things going in you, not in a church building or in a ministry, so to speak, but in you to help you activate your gifts for the kingdom of God and help you move things forward and give your life for the gospel.

You don't you don't give your life for the gospel just because you get a paycheck at church.

Like you give your life for the gospel because you love Jesus and you want to see his kingdom advance.

Anyone with me on that?

If you're with me, say, oh yeah.

That's what it's all about, my friends, man.

There is no bystander Christianity.

We're all in this together.

But um, I just want to thank the team for having me and just want to honor just real quick before we get in the word.

I promise.

You can go ahead and turn to Romans thir Romans 15, 13.

I always like to get that out there, man.

Romans 15, 13 is gonna be our key passage today.

If you want to flip there in your phones or your Bible, but I just do want to uh honor and thank I got my wife here.

Me and McKary have been married 24 years.

What?

1997 calm.

There we are, newlyweds.

Oh yeah.

I got my daughter Raina with me.

We have two daughters, 19 and 17 years old.

19-year-old's out of town.

She lives in Los Angeles now, man.

I got our youngest daughters getting ready to be a senior in high school.

Reina Glory Wyatt.

Love you so much.

Thanks for making the trip down this morning.

And I got my parents here.

My dad and my stepmom are here.

Could you just put your hands together for them real quick, man?

They're Orlando residents, man.

They've been down here for years.

We all got me and Carrie, and even uh actually my parents, we all got uh I didn't grow up as a Christian.

My wife didn't either.

We're kind of like first generations figuring this out.

And then in the 90s, we all got saved.

Me and my wife got saved.

The stepmom and my dad, they were living here in Orlando at the time.

They got they give their lives to the Lord just radical transformations.

So it's cool.

They've lived down here for uh 20-something years, 25 years, more than that.

So I kind of always thought of Orlando as a second home because my folks are here.

But I just thank you so much for all that you've poured into us.

They've they've kept me and my wife in ministry for a better part of two decades, man.

So thank you so much.

And I'm so glad that you guys are here.

But um, let's get into the word, shall we?

I uh without further ado, the clock is ticking.

Nobody likes a long-winded preacher.

But uh, man, as I prayed about what the Lord would have me say and share with you today, you know, I really, man, uh, you know, I'm kind of a logical guy, like a factual guy.

I love to get like, I'm a spreadsheet guy.

I guess that's why I ended up an executive pastor.

Like, I'm like a like spreadsheets and strategic planning is kind of the way.

So I'm always looking for like the the those connections from the Lord, those concrete examples that he that he's in.

And uh, as I was praying this week and preparing, and I was I just kept hearing in my spirit over and over again that this message to deliver you today, and that's that God wants to give you hope again.

God wants to give you hope again.

Everybody say hope.

God wants to give us collectively as his people, as his church, as his family, as his kids.

God wants to give us hope again.

Everybody say hope again.

God wants to give us hope again, and then the things happened in in Haiti, and um man, I was thinking about the hopelessness when stuff like that happens, man.

God wants to give us hope again as his people to rise up in times when we're challenged with adversity or disappointment.

He wants to give us hope again.

I believe he wants to give some of you in here hope again.

As we were over here in worship, I didn't know what the set list was gonna be this week, but all week long I kept hearing that good grace song over and over again.

I kept listening to it over again.

I was playing it.

I woke up this morning singing it, people come together.

Take me there.

No, just kidding.

People and then all of a sudden we break into it.

Song two, track two.

I'm like, Jesus, you're here.

And as we were praying for Haiti, I was I was I I could sense as we were praying that God's giving us hope again.

Some of you in here have been affected by what's going on in Haiti, more than maybe just hearing about it on the news, or you've been affected by disaster or just the global pandemic we're all in.

God wants to give you uh hope again.

Do you believe that?

We're gonna look at it in the word here today.

I want to read you just there's a million verses that'll give you hope in the scriptures.

I'm just gonna read two of them.

I had to narrow it down, tell you some stories here in a bit, but uh I just wanted to read these two.

Psalm 62.

Love this one.

Man, Psalm is of David.

Come on, King David of David and Goliath fame.

King David wrote a lot of the Psalms.

This one's attributed uh most likely to him singing at a time where he's under pressure and under adversity that's being brought upon him by his enemies.

People are out to get him, people are talking about him behind his back, they're scheming and planning to take him out.

He says this.

I love in the message version, he just he says it so well.

He's he's telling us about the God he serves.

Guess what?

Same God he serves.

We still serve, right?

One God, same God all throughout human history, same God, this one God, he's singing out to our God.

He says, God, the one and only.

He says, I'll wait as long as he says everything I hope for comes from him, so why not?

He's solid rock under my feet, breathing room for my soul, an impregnable cast.

I'm set for life.

That's what David says about our God, doesn't it?

Fill you with just a little bit of hope.

That's the God in whom we trust.

And then the scripture where we're gonna kind of pull apart today, Romans 15, 13, Paul writes this, it's a benediction to the church.

He's stirring up the faith of the people and he's teaching them about the faith.

And he closes up his thoughts of almost the entire book of Romans, he closes it up with one of these thoughts.

He's good at kind of summarizing at the end.

He says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

For the next few minutes, I just want to encourage you with that message from the Lord that He's gonna give us hope again.

I titled this message, I hope so.

Everybody say, I hope so.

I hope so.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you.

Thank you so much, God, for speaking to us today.

God, I thank you.

May the words of my heart and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, God.

That's my only request this morning that you would deliver this message exactly as you intended into the hearts of your people, your family today.

Won't you encourage us again, God, for those who've lost courage and confidence?

Would you fill us with hope again, according to your promises?

In Jesus' name.

Amen.

Amen.

So I hope so.

I hope so.

Have you ever said that before?

I hope I I hope so.

I don't know, it depends on your inflections of your voice, I think.

You know, I hope so.

I I I hope so.

Like how you change the inflections of your voice really to determine what you really believe about it.

I hope so.

You can use that about like, I hope so.

Is my flight gonna be on time when I fly out?

Is my flight gonna be on time?

I hope so.

Might might not be, but I I hope so.

Is uh, let's see, is um, you know, is the the preacher gonna be long-winded this morning, or am I gonna get to uh Agave Azul before the line forms and I'm boxed out of that place?

Somebody shouted me down over here in the corner.

Did you hear it?

I hope so.

I hope I hope he gets done according to his clock in the next you know 28 minutes.

Come on, man, I hope he gets it good.

I'm gonna finish before that clock so we can all get out there and eat some enchiladas together.

Come on, man, we're gonna have some fun.

I hope I hope the preacher keeps it on time, man.

I don't know, might not.

I hope so.

I hope so.

You know, in our modern English, I I hope so can can go either way.

And we kind of use it as a term that kind of expresses that I'm I'm I really want this to happen, but I don't know if it will.

It's kind of a hedge of our bets against disappointment.

Would you agree?

It's like, I hope so.

And if not, man, I'll be disappointed, might be frustrated, I'm gonna have to come up with a plan B, but I hope so.

In the Bible, when you see the word hope, it means a lot more than like kind of like a wish thrown out there into the wind.

When in the Bible, where we see hope, in both the Hebrew, the Greek, Aramaic, whatever the original language is, hope is a very strong word.

Everybody say strong word.

Come on, hope is a strong word.

If you're online, why don't you drop it in the chat?

Hope is a strong word.

It has to do with expectations that we can count on.

When God talks about placing our hope in him, you are not going to be disappointed, friend.

If you hope in the Lord, you will not be disappointed and you will not be frustrated.

Things not always go the way you want them to, but because your hope is in the eternal God, your hope is in the right place.

Your hope is in someone who delivers on his promises.

We are singing in the songs today about the faithful God and the good God that we serve.

Amen?

He's faithful and he's good and he's trustworthy.

If you're with me and you know the good and faithful and trustworthy God, can you say amen?

Come on, real good.

Drop it in the chats, amen.

He's good, he's faithful, he's trustworthy.

And when we put our hope in him, he never fails us.

He never fails us.

I think sometimes we say, you know, we don't want to get our hopes up.

Have you ever said that before?

I don't want to get my hopes up.

But that's when we think that it might lead to disappointment.

But I would say this: that the biblical hope is less like that wish in the wind and it's more like money in the bank.

Are you with me?

It's less of like something that we fabricate and kind of stir ourselves up to believe in, and then when it's over and it actually happens, we're like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad that actually happened.

Have you ever noticed that?

Maybe when somebody's believing with everything they got, that God is gonna deliver on the promises that he made.

God spoke a word to me and I'm counting on it.

And then he comes through, they're like, amen.

And they praise the Lord, man.

It's like, you know, there's nothing that's whoo, oh my gosh, I'm so glad God finally delivered.

There's a confidence about us as God's people.

When we put our hope in him to deliver on his promises, and then he comes through, it's like, yep, I told you.

I knew it, man, and it builds our confidence, it builds our faith, it builds our trust in the Lord.

I think about all these stories, man.

There's a million stories in the Bible we can look to.

I just wanted to tell you a couple.

I like stories.

Anyone like stories?

I like stories.

I like to hear the stories of the scripture because I can kind of relate and find myself in the story.

There's a story in Jeremiah 29.11.

It's a famous verse that you know you can get in like an embroidery that you put on your wall from uh Home Goods or one of those men, Jeremiah 29.11.

You guys know where I'm going with this?

Like the God has plans.

He has a plan.

He says in the scriptures, we don't we don't have it on screen, but he says he has a plan not to harm you, but to prosper you.

He has not a plan to harm you, but to prosper you and give you a hope and a future.

You gotta look at the context of the story to receive that really.

He's talking, not to people who are like just kind of winging it through life, but he's talking to his people, Israel, who are in captivity at this time in Babylon.

And all the preachers are getting up and saying, Hey, don't worry, God's got it, man.

We're gonna be out of here in no time.

And instead, Jeremiah comes with a message and he says, Hey, dig in.

This is gonna take a while.

We're gonna be here generation after generation after generation.

We've been taken from the promised land and where everything was so good, and we blew it and we neglected and we turned our backs on God, and as a result, we find ourselves in captivity.

He's forgiven us already, but the captivity is gonna take a while.

But at the end of that captivity, there's hope.

He says, for the plans that I have for you, plans about the future are not to destroy you, but these plans that I have for you are to give you a new hope.

He's saying this to people in captivity, people who are suffering, people who are wondering when is God gonna show back up?

Hey, God, we're sorry.

When will you relent?

When will the promises of God come to pass?

Will they come to pass this week, this month, this year?

He says, No, it's gonna be a while.

I wonder if you find yourself in one of those seasons.

We were talking about that.

I think Nate even mentioned it.

Man, we're thinking about why does God allow these things to happen and we have to go through these things.

I promise you that when you're in a season right now, maybe you're feeling hopeless.

Maybe you came into this place today hopeless.

I promise you, God is gonna give you hope again.

He has plans for you, no matter what it is you're going through.

He has plans to deliver you through that in his perfect timing.

Do you receive this this morning?

That he has a plan to give you hope and a future.

He's gonna bring you through that thing that you're struggling with.

I came here to tell you that today.

I don't know whether it's relational pressure, I don't know whether it's financial pressure, I don't know whether it's your job.

We're in this global pandemic season, trying to come out of this thing.

Man, I don't know about you guys.

I'm kind of tired of COVID.

I'm tired of masks, I'm tired of lockdowns, I'm tired of being separated from people I love.

Somebody shout down the preacher when he starts cursing COVID.

Goodness, I'm telling you.

I'm done with this, man.

God, how much longer?

When will you relent?

When will you deliver us from this?

When will life somehow find its way back to normal?

He says, Don't worry.

Have hope.

I have a plan for you, not to harm you, but make you prosperous, successful, give you a future and a hope.

He's with us, friends.

If nothing else, you take that away from our time together today as a church.

I hope you go out of here with hope that we will get through this and we're gonna get through it together.

Our faith is it's between us and God, it's very personal, but it's not private.

It's meant to be shared.

We're in this together.

All of us are seeking the Lord together, following him together in community.

And together we're gonna get through this.

And if you believe that we serve a God who can deliver his people through this and into a time of deliverance and into a time where we are seeing the promises of God, working in our lives again.

Can you put your hands together for the Lord if you're with me?

If you're a people that believe that, if you're online and you receive that, I'm telling you, God is gonna deliver us through this.

I'm here to deliver that message today.

I know I'm looking at a bunch of faces, looking back at me.

I know some of you have suffered loss.

Loved ones, friends, family members.

I know some of you have suffered greatly in jobs and transition, just a season of uncertainty.

God is gonna deliver us through.

Another time I think about with hope.

Man, I think about Jesus, of course.

There's a million stories about Jesus.

I think about like the woman with the issue of blood that came to mind just as I was meditating and chewing on this, a person that demonstrated great hope, a great faith, a great trust.

If you're new to this whole Jesus thing, man, I'm summarizing the story.

You'll hear about the woman with the issue of blood and Jairus and his daughter, these miraculous stories that are recorded forever in the scripture.

You'll hear more about these from every preacher.

I'm just gonna summarize it.

This this woman who has suffered for 12 years with a medical condition, she can't get healing, and because of her medical condition, she's impure.

She's unable to practice the things of God at a time.

She's excluded from temple worship because, according to the Levitical Codes, she's unclean.

So she's not able to get into the presence of God.

And she spends her entire fortune and her entire all of her resources with doctors and treatments trying to find that thing that'll cure her to no avail.

And then one day Jesus comes to town.

Now, Jesus is preaching and teaching, and word is getting out about his miraculous supernatural power to heal.

She's exhausted all of her natural resources, and she starts to have just this glimmer of hope.

And she musters up the faith somehow.

This massive crowd is pressing in around Jesus.

They're pressing in, trying to get their miracle.

All of them have the thing that they're hoping for, all the thing that they're they're believing God for.

And if they can get close to him and just have him perform that miracle, their situation will be changed.

And people are pressing around, and sure enough, there's a there's a person that comes to Jesus and says, Hey, my daughter's sick, will you follow me?

They start to follow to this little girl to heal her, but this woman, she she presses through the crowd and she reaches out, she reaches out and just like dodges like the hem of his robe.

She says, If I can just touch the hem of his robe, I'll be healed.

I don't need him to come and minister in my house even.

If I can just touch Jesus in the second that she makes contact, it says in the scripture that power flows out of Jesus into her body and heals her in an instant.

She's terrified.

It says in the scripture she can feel the healing take place in her body.

And Jesus, it says, can feel the power flowing out from him, the healing power flowing into her.

What an incredible encounter.

Powered by hope, driven by faith.

This woman touches Jesus and is healed.

And after 12 years of suffering in an instant like that, it's over.

The suffering is over.

Friend, I don't know how long you've been dealing with what you're dealing with.

Today could be the day that Jesus shows up and gives you hope again.

Do you receive that today?

Today could be the day.

Do you come into church sometime just going to another service and going through the motions?

Do you come into church sometimes just going, and I'm just gonna sing the songs?

Maybe I'll sing a little bit on the loud ones, but those quiet ones get kind of tough because then everybody can hear me.

Do you roll up into church when you feel like it?

Do you roll up into church when, you know, it's convenient?

I'll tell you what, I think there's a lot more resilient people about going to church now that it was taken away from us for a few months, you know, in almost a year.

Man, it's great to be back in the house, man.

I encourage you.

I know not everybody can be here, but whenever the people God start to gather again, press into the crowd, press through the crowd.

If you're here and you can't be in crowds yet, I promise you Jesus can come through this message through my faith as a preacher with a microphone and can touch your body right now.

I believe that when God's people come together, power is released.

Is there anybody else here crazy enough to believe that when God's people together, power can be released?

It might happen here in an altar.

It might happen out in the lobby, it could happen in the parking lot.

You know why?

Jesus is here and his people, and we're all gathered for the reason of lifting up the name of the Lord.

I think it's one of the things that we need to remember as God's people.

Every time we come together, the power of Jesus can change the course of our life forever.

Does that give you hope this morning?

I hope it does.

I hope I come expectant.

We talk about being expectant a lot around here.

You probably heard that word.

I'm expecting.

I come to church expecting.

Guess what the word for that in Hebrew and in Greek is hope.

That's what hope is translated as expectancy.

I am expecting this to happen.

I am not going to believe that it might or might not happen.

I am coming with hope that when I touch the hem of Jesus' robe, power is gonna flow into me.

That's gonna happen.

There's something about it, man.

You know, I know there's power in quiet times.

He touches me in my time when I'm reading or studying or praying.

There's times when I'm alone in my car singing, people come together.

I roll those windows down, man, have some worship session, man.

I got my sunroof open, I got an ill song cranked, man, and I'm just singing the top of my lungs.

That's great.

Those times also, the personal, they're kind of like private times.

Man, there ain't nothing like being in the house of the Lord.

There's something about all of our voices lifting together, agreeing about the goodness of God, the faithfulness of God, the power of God.

Praise the Lord, man.

I would just say this to you, man: a sticky statement.

I'm not the best at sticky statements, but here's one right here.

I would say this hope never stops believing.

Hope never stops believing.

And you can put that in the jukebox with Journey.

Don't stop believing.

It doesn't matter whether you're a city boy born and raised in South Detroit.

Come on, man.

It doesn't matter where you're from or who you are today, how young or how old you are.

Don't stop believing.

You might need to come to church to hear a message like that.

I'm glad you're here.

Don't stop believing.

Don't stop trusting God.

Hope never stops believing.

I hope that you're encouraged to be expectant that God will show up in his perfect timing.

Don't ever stop believing that God is gonna show up.

Amen.

Last one I wanted to kind of dig into this because some of the scriptures I read to you earlier, man.

Just thinking about David.

Oh my gosh, this guy.

I always think about David just out back on the South 40 on the ranch with his heart, taking care of the sheep.

He's the last of his youngest in his family.

And so he kind of gets the dirty job taking care of the sheep, and he's out there, man.

He's playing his guitar, just out there with his little backpacker, just playing and singing songs to God.

You know, bear comes up, just sling it, kill it.

Stay away from my sheep.

Just learning how to love the Lord and be a man of prayer.

And oh my gosh, and then all of a sudden Goliath comes, man.

We know him, David and Goliath fame, right?

Becomes one of the greatest kings, not just in the Bible, he becomes one of the greatest kings in human history.

You think about like the Bible, man, like this is this book, this thousands of years-old book, it contains all those stories of believers throughout the generations, including King David.

And I love David, man.

I love his attitude.

That he says, This God I serve, the one who kills, helps me kill bears and lions, helped me kill Goliath.

He says, God, the one and only, I'll wait as long as he says everything I hope for comes from him.

So why not?

To David, it's more than a uh I hope he shows up.

I hope so.

For David, it's I know so.

Are you with me?

There's a difference between I hope so and I know so.

That difference is that expectation.

Like I'm not hoping this happens, I'm expecting this to happen because God is in it.

Because the things that I'm hoping for come from God.

God is the one and only.

He says it, God the one and only.

I think sometimes we forget that in our relativistic world where everybody's coming up with their own ways to worship and their own things to worship.

Don't forget, God is the one and only true God of the universe.

He is the King of kings, the Lord of Lords.

He is the great I am.

Outside of creation and outside of time, He exists.

He forms, He formed the universe.

He formed you and I created us from the dust of the earth with his hands.

This this great God who transcends human history, he's a common thread throughout human history, speaking to his people through prophecy and promises delivered.

This one true almighty and all-knowing and all-powerful God is unique in all the universe.

Don't ever forget that.

You'll hear out there that there are all kinds of things to believe and all kinds of ways to believe, and all of them are right.

I promise you, friend, it's not true.

If you put your hope in those other things, they will disappoint you over and over again throughout the generations they have.

But you and I have a unique moment in time where we can put our hope, the way David did, we can put our hope and our faith and our trust in the timeless, eternal, everlasting God who rules all, who has no challengers to the throne.

He is the Almighty and Infinite Father.

There's no one and never been anything like him.

He is amazing.

And you and I have a chance to put our faith and our trust and our hope in him to drive a stake in the ground that we won't lift out and putting some in something that's temporary and not in something eternal.

He's the one true God.

Never forget that.

That's why we can trust him.

And David says, everything I hope for comes from him.

Everything I hope for comes from him.

I got challenged when I got to that part in the book.

What am I hoping for to happen that's not from God?

I started to do a little inventory.

There's a lot.

Man, I had to come on the preacher confession time here.

I got the mic, and all of a sudden I gotta repent.

There are things I I put my hope in things to go a certain way.

I told you I'm like a strategic guy, man.

Like I think I got it all figured out.

I've learned not to plan too far ahead because who knows what God will do.

But I love to plan.

I love to think about the future and make a plan and stick to it.

I'm a guy that file your flight plan.

My dad's a pilot.

File your flight plan and then you stick to it.

Sometimes you got audible, but you're still going the same place, man.

That's me.

David says, everything I hope for comes from him.

If I file my flight plan to someplace that ain't from God, I'm in trouble.

I want to make sure that everything I hope for is coming from God.

It's not coming from me.

It's it seems so easy to hope that things will go your way.

But I'll tell you this, and you can write this down misplaced hope, it will tie you to disappointment.

If you choose to put your hope in something to make you happy, bring you joy that is not from the Lord, that's misplaced hope.

You're hoping for something that, in all honesty, friend, you really don't want that to happen.

I encourage each one of us as believers, every one of you that's here under the sound of my voice, do an inventory.

Find out those things that are not from God that you've been putting your hope in.

I'm hoping this goes a certain way.

I'm hoping my career goes a certain way.

Maybe you're you're young, you're single.

This is what I'm hoping for in a spouse.

I'm hoping for this in a family.

When we put our hope in things going according to our plan, we get in trouble.

But when we put our hope in him, we are never disappointed.

Amen?

Come on, man.

Who's ready to put your hope in God today?

Somebody, as I know.

Misplaced hope, it will tie you to disappointment.

Don't go there, man.

Make sure your hope is in the right place.

Land it here with Romans 15, 13.

This benediction from Paul really sums it all up for me about hope.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace and believing, so that the by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

So far we've been looking at maybe some stories from the Old Testament and from the Gospels.

This is Paul instructing the church.

You know, we pull them together and we use them to build Jesus as a church.

This is Paul, you know, building and instructing and encouraging the church, just like I'm hopefully doing for you today.

He says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Three simple things I saw in this.

I wrote you'll write these down, but these are kind of my takeaways.

I encourage you, hey, you write these things down.

I encourage you to study the things Pastor Keith teaches you on the weekend.

You know, we we only got a few minutes together whenever we get up here with the scriptures.

Always check, fact check.

Go back, read some of these stories, read the woman with the issue of blood, read these, read some psalms from David this week, and read this from Paul too, and see what the Lord speaks to you.

He might bring something and really highlight something maybe that I said to you, or maybe even give you something new.

But this is what I wrote down.

I just wrote down this the God of hope is our only hope.

The God of hope is our only hope.

This summarizes my message.

May the God of hope, He is the God of hope.

Everybody say God of hope.

He is the God of hope.

If you are made something else and idol in your life and you're looking to get hope from that, you're looking in the wrong place because there's only one God.

We saw that, and he is the God of hope.

He's the one who will give you hope.

He's the one that delivers on his promises, he's the one that stands by his word.

He's not a man that he should lie.

He doesn't have any deceitful purposes in mind for you.

He's not trying to lead you astray for fun.

He's not trying to distract you from the goodness of God.

He's not trying to make you self-centered and not worried about the community around you.

He's not trying to get you to focus on hurts and bitterness and the things that bring you down and keep you tied to the pain of the past.

The God of all hope is trying to take you not from the pain of the past.

He's trying to take you from there.

He's trying to take you into a future.

He has a plan and a future and a promise for you.

Do you receive that today?

Do you receive that today?

God wants to give you hope again.

And this hope we sing about him every Sunday, man.

It's Jesus.

He is the hope of the world.

He is the Prince of Peace, Almighty God, wonderful counselor.

The government of the universe rests upon his shoulders.

He's not like an elected official.

The government of the universe, the supernatural realms and all the natural realms, he says all authority on heaven and earth, it belongs to him.

It doesn't belong to us.

It doesn't even belong to the devil on this side of the cross.

All authority on heaven and earth, it belongs to Jesus, our Lord and Savior.

And what does he do with that power and authority?

He gives it to us.

Are you kidding me?

Why don't you rule from the right hand of the throne of the Father in heaven?

Doesn't that sound like so much fun?

Just let us know what you need from us.

He rules and reigns in and through you and I.

What is he thinking?

I am an imperfect and broken vessel, and yet you want to place your power inside of me and accomplish your purposes in the earth through me?

What in the world, Jesus?

The name of Jesus.

The name of Jesus.

If you are under the name of Jesus, you have the power of Jesus.

If you have submitted yourself and declared your loyalty to Jesus, he is working in you and through you to accomplish his purposes in the earth.

I hope you receive that today, friend.

You're more than just a Christian because you registered that way on a uh some kind of a survey.

You're more than just a Christian because you go to church on Sundays.

You're more than just a Christian because you vote a certain way or because you read the Bible or pray a certain way.

You're a Christian because you are under the name of Jesus and His power is residing inside of you.

He wants to use you to accomplish incredible things.

I hope that that lights you up with hope today because it does for me.

Can I get a good?

Oh yeah.

I'm telling you, man, if we keep our eyes on Jesus, oh, we are filled with hope.

Next thing I wrote down out of this verse joy and peace are the scoreboard.

Joy and peace are the scoreboard.

May the God of hope fill you with all.

Say it with me.

Joy and peace.

No.

I ain't gonna let you get away with that.

Come on now, family.

Say it with me.

Joy and peace.

Hey, one more joy and peace.

Come on, man.

What are you talking about in church today?

Hope, joy, peace.

Yes, I'm ready to go.

I hope you run out those doors, man, and just go start taking care of people and telling them about Jesus.

Fired up, man.

Joy and peace are the scoreboard.

I love a good scoreboard.

My wife is a high harmony person.

She likes everybody to win.

Right?

Maybe you're like that, man.

You like everybody, everybody wins.

Oh, I'm so happy, you know, man.

My daughter and I, Raina, we are not like that.

We'd like to win.

I want to win.

I love to win.

My daughter, my youngest daughter, my oldest daughter, she's a little more like, mom, let's everybody win.

Man, me and Reyna were like, oh yeah, second place is the first loser.

Yeah, first your last.

Talladega nights.

Ricky Bobby.

You know what I'm saying?

We're like, goodness.

Love to know that I'm winning.

Love to know that I'm doing a good job.

Lord, am I in the right place?

Am I on track?

I need a scoreboard.

I'm not really that intuitive.

I'm a sensing guy.

I love to get some evidence that I'm in the right place.

I'm on the right path.

Guess what that evidence is?

If your hope is in the right place, joy and peace.

Joy and peace.

Fill in your heart, man.

Joy and peace.

I have peace that I'm walking in God's path for me.

I have joy that fuels me up to get out of bed every single day because I'm walking on God's path.

My hope is in the right things.

It's in the Lord.

It's in something eternal and not something temporary.

I have joy and peace.

I want to encourage you today, friend.

How's your joy and peace?

How's your tank?

In the midst of the global pandemic and all the headwinds that we've been facing together.

How's your joy and peace?

If your hope is in heaven, if your hope isn't in Jesus, I promise you it'll get better.

It'll fill you with joy and peace.

Do that inventory and check out what am I believing for?

What am I when will I be happy when I get this?

When will I finally feel good again when this happens?

I don't know, friend.

Our hope is in is not in this world going the way we want it to.

Our hope is in heaven, right?

It's in the eternal promises of God.

Brings me to the last point here.

The Holy Spirit is the power source.

He says, May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

Man, if you're new to Jesus, you need to know this, man.

The Holy Spirit is our power source, He's our power supply.

Talked about it a little bit before, man.

That Holy Spirit, we don't do this in our own power or our own strength.

I'm not here because I took some classes and I got it all figured out.

I'm here by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do I get through every day with joy and peace, keeping my hope in the right places?

It's not because I'm good at this, it's by the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do I keep my eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, the way that we're a challenge to in the scriptures?

It's by the Holy Spirit.

I have nothing in my own strength to be able to do that.

In fact, if the Holy Spirit were, for some reason, contrary to Scripture, to be taken away from me, Jesus promises, once you receive me, man, I'm all in.

But if if somehow the Holy Spirit would be taken from me, I would be in trouble, friend.

I would be a mess.

I was because I know because I lived 23 years like that, man.

I'm not going back on that.

That old man's dead and buried in the ground baptism next week.

What?

Shout out for baptism right there, man.

Dude, when I went under that water, whoo, dude, they held me under for a while.

Needed to just hold me under that water.

Get it all out.

Without the Holy Spirit.

Here's the thing.

Without the Holy Spirit, we can't do it in our own strength.

The good news is you don't have to worry about that.

You don't have to worry about that.

David on the other side of the cross, he's like, please, Lord, don't take your Holy Spirit from me.

Guess what?

Jesus says, I won't.

I'm with you.

I'll never leave you or forsake you.

This is a new day, new covenant.

I've covered all your sins.

Your faith, your hope is in me.

You're my son, my daughter.

Your sins are covered.

You're with me.

I love how Jesus describes it, man.

Like a He's like, or sheep.

He's like, no one can snatch you out of my hand.

Man, that makes me feel good.

I feel that Holy Ghost when I say it.

I conclude with this thought, man.

God wants to give us hope again.

He's the God of all hope.

Joy and peace are the scoreboard.

The Holy Spirit is a source to make it happen.

God wants to give you and I hope again.

And she's this illustration.

I was thinking about it, like a our hope can be like a fire.

Our hope can be like a fire.

So on one hand, you can have like a candle on a birthday cake.

Hope.

Right, like a candle on a birthday cake.

Like, you know, you pick up the candles, you light them real fast.

Like me, there's lots of candles, you know.

Maybe you're like, you grab the cake, you're trying to carry it, you know, sing happy birthday to you.

You're trying to sing it, the candles are all being blown out.

It's like even the slightest gust of wind, and they're gone.

Or your hope can be like a blazing fire, an all-consuming fire that consumes doubt, that consumes frustration and fear.

Your hope can keep you anchored, like the scripture says, it's like an anchor for our soul into the holy of holies, into the presence of Christ Jesus.

Imagine if your faith were like an inferno that nothing could come against.

Your hope unshakable in the Lord.

We have a choice to make.

And it's not up to God whether that's you, whether you're the birthday cake candle or whether you're the raging forest fire.

That seems unstoppable.

It's up to you.

It's up to me.

We make that choice, we make that distinction.

Will my hope be easily extinguished?

Will I go somewhere other than the Lord?

Or will I put my hope, my faith in Him and not be shaken?

I want to pray for you today.

Let's just close our eyes and bow our heads here in the room and all throughout the audience, whether you're watching this on social media or whether you're gonna watch this in a later day.

We love you, you're here with us.

We sense your presence.

We're grateful for you.

But everyone on the sound of my voice, I just I came all the way from Jacksonville to pray this prayer for you and deliver this message to you that God would restore that He is doing it.

He is gonna give you hope again.

It's a possible just like pushing through the crowd to touch the hem of his garment.

If you let him change your heart again.

If that's you, if if your hope's grown cold and you feel like you're the the birthday cake candle, hope at this point, and you're just holding on for hope, hoping on for holding on for dear life.

If that's you, would you just raise a hand?

I want to know who I'm praying for.

I'm gonna leave us in a prayer real quick.

But if you know, man, you need your hope increased.

Your hope is gone low, your tanks, your joy, and your peace is low, and you want to walk out of here changed.

You want to touch the hem of Jesus' garment, whether you're online or you're here with us.

If that's you, would you raise your hand?

I just want to know that somebody's hearing me today.

Amen.

I see you.

I see you.

God sees you.

It's a God gives grace to the humble, He opposes the proud.

It takes humility to raise your hand and to say, I need you, God.

I can't do this on my own.

Amen.

You can put him down.

I'm gonna pray for all of us in just a moment for our hope to be restored.

But I do want to just give one more chance.

Maybe if there's somebody here under the sound of my voice, you've never trusted Jesus, you've never made that decision to declare your loyalty to him and him alone.

But today, something's happening in your heart.

And you know that today is your day.

The day that you say yes to Jesus.

If it's your day today, we could not be happier.

As a church family, this is what we live for.

God has touched each one of our hearts and changed our lives forever, and all our only hope is that others will experience the love of God the way we have, and you're experiencing it right now.

And if that's you, whether you're at home or you're in the room, would you wave at me real quick and just say, Man, that's me.

I want to surrender my life to Jesus today.

I want to make that declaration.

I declare my loyalty to him.

I just want to know if there's anybody here that needs that prayer today.

I'm gonna pray it anyway, but because I know there's like thousands and thousands of people will be watching this later.

Amen.

Let's pray together, church family.

Heavenly Father, I thank you for your precious people.

God man, just I love you, God.

We love you, all of us.

We love you, God, and we love for you to move in our friends and our loved ones' lives.

And God, we know that you use us to do that.

We're grateful.

Help us to be transparent with you, God.

When we're struggling to keep hope alive, would you fill us with fresh fire from heaven, God, to put our hope and our trust in you?

I speak, I speak life over you.

If you're if your lack of hope is in a relationship, I speak life over you.

That relationship is gonna turn out better than you expected.

Set your expectation on this.

God is about to show up in that broken relationship.

I don't know who that's for, but it's for somebody.

That relationship where it's a flickering.

Flame and you need it to catch fire.

It's gonna happen, it's gonna happen soon, it's gonna happen quickly.

But that's from the Lord.

He promises that.

I don't know how or why, but he's gonna do it.

If it's finances, if it's finances, some of you are struggling with finances.

I pray that you would receive it.

Your deliverer is coming.

I just sense that your deliverer is coming.

You've been holding on to Jesus for dear life.

Your deliverer is coming.

I would declare that over you today.

Your deliverer is coming.

Stay faithful.

He is faithful to deliver on his promises.

You stay faithful like him.

Father, help us to receive your word today, God.

Speak to our hearts, Lord.

We love you.

God, we lift up all those who've given their lives to you today, all those who are making that decision to declare their loyalty to you and you alone.

God, won't you fill us with your Holy Spirit for those who have been believers for four minutes and those who have been believers for 40 years, everywhere in between, God, won't you give us a fresh portion of your Holy Spirit, God, as we put our hope in you and you alone, fill us with joy and peace by the power of your Holy Spirit, according to your word, your promises to us, your people, your sons and daughters.

You are well pleased with your sons and daughters at Celebration Church.

They come together, they love you, they love each other, they love their city, God.

Whenever you see us, come together and serve in the name of Jesus.

Your heart is so pleased, God.

When we serve the people of Haiti who are going through a horrific situation, we don't know many, we might not know any of them by name, God, but we know that there's an opportunity to help.

And we help in the name of Jesus, God.

I thank you that your heart is pleased, your heart is touched.

And God, that when we put our hope in that, God, in the hope of salvation for Haiti, God, joy and peace released, God, even in times of sacrifice of finance, joy and peace released in your people.

God, we just thank you for it.

Move in power in our lives, God, so that we can be witnesses for you until the whole world knows how much you love them and care about us and how much you want us back.

God, we give you all the glory and all the praise in Jesus' name.

And a faithful church said, Amen.

Thanks for having me out today.

Celebration Orlando.

We love you guys, your family.

Thanks again for listening.

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