The Gift of Hope

Merry Christmas! We were talking about the gifts of God here in Cross-Connection Church. Today, we are discussing the Gift of Hope. Open with us to Hebrews chapter 6 and follow along. Don't you all look lovely? Last year, my suit may have been a little loud, so I decided to go a little less flashy this year. Merry Christmas to all of you! Pastor Mark wanted to make sure I had a white belt, which, of course, I have.

Would you stand with me this morning and take out your Bibles? If you don't have a Bible, please raise your hand, and one of our ushers will bring you one. We are going to open this morning to the book of Hebrews, near the end of your Bible. If you open to the very last book, Revelation, and turn to the left, you will find the thirteen chapters of Hebrews.

We are going to look today at Hebrews chapter 6, and I will read from a little bit different translation. Normally, I read from the New King James Version, and that may be what you have in your hand, but I will read this morning from the New Living Translation because I like the way it comes across.

Hebrews chapter 6, beginning at verse 16, says, "Now when people take an oath, they call on someone greater than themselves to hold them to it, and without any question, that oath is binding. God also bound Himself with an oath so that those who received the promise could be perfectly sure that He would never change His mind. So God has given both His promise and His oath. These two things are unchangeable because it is impossible for God to lie. Therefore, we who have fled to Him for refuge can have great confidence as we hold to the hope that lies before us. This hope is a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls; it leads us through the curtain."

Into God's inner sanctuary, I pray. As we think on the Scriptures today, just a couple of days out from Christmas, I ask that You set our hearts and minds focused upon You. I pray that we would truly have joy and rejoicing during this time of year.

God, as we have been talking about gifts at Christmas—the gifts that You have given to us—I pray that You would give us an opportunity not just to enjoy those things this holiday season, but to share them with other people. No doubt, over the next few days, we will be spending time with friends and family members, and some of those people have not experienced the joy of what this holiday is truly about. There is a lot of joy that we can experience this time of year, but Lord, I pray that we would be able to articulate and share with others what it is truly about and to give that joy out to them. We ask this today in Jesus' name, and all those that agreed said, "Amen." You may be seated.

Well, we are at our final message in our Christmas series, with Christmas just a couple of days away. As I have shared several times over the last few weeks, I really do feel that this is the most wonderful time of year. Unfortunately, it comes and goes so quickly, at least in my opinion. What other opportunity would a guy have to wear a suit like this, other than if he were a greeter at Target? I may have even pushed it to the limit because my wife said it looks creepy.

Yes, I have made it so, but it does go by too quickly. That said, it is truly a joyful time of year. We have been looking at the Scriptures over the last few weeks at some of the gifts of Christmas. As the kids shared in the video—wasn't it great? Nick did such a good job. Thank you, Nick, for putting that together.

When you ask the kids what their favorite part of Christmas is, I assumed that most of them would probably say the presents. We all love gifts and the act of giving and receiving them. We have been talking about the gifts of Christmas, specifically the gifts that I believe God gives to us. Over the last several weeks, we have considered together that our God loves to give.

Good gifts are a recurring theme in the Scriptures. We see this in the Old Testament, particularly in the Book of Numbers. There is a story at the end of Numbers about an interesting character named Balaam. He was a prophet who was actually hired to come and curse the nation of Israel, but he couldn't do it because God wouldn't allow him to. At one point, in Numbers chapter 24, he is standing on a hilltop, looking over the children of Israel, God's people, who are camping in the valley below. We read in Numbers 24 that Balaam saw, as he looked at this scene, that it pleased the Lord to bless His people. I love that it pleased God to bless His people.

This theme is not just found in the Old Testament; Jesus reaffirms it in His own teaching in the New Testament. In Luke chapter 12, Jesus tells His disciples not to worry. He explains the importance of avoiding anxiety over the things we are so tempted to be anxious about, which we all experience. In that teaching, as He explains why they ought not to worry, He says in Luke 12:32, "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom." So, Balaam saw that it pleased God to bless His people, and Jesus teaches that it is God's good pleasure to give to His people.

The Apostle Paul also writes about this in the New Testament book of Ephesians. In Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3, he says, "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places." God our Father has given us an abundance of gifts—every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. A couple of verses later, Paul explains in verse 5 that God did this according to the good pleasure of His will.

Throughout the Scriptures, we see this teaching come forward: God loves to give good gifts. This is why Jesus taught, as the Apostle Paul recounts in Acts chapter 20, verse 35, "Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said that it is more blessed to give than to receive." Our God, who is described as our Father in heaven, loves to give good gifts. Not only does our Father in heaven love to give good gifts, but He gives us these gifts for us to enjoy and to find great joy in the abundance He has poured out upon us.

Clear in his teaching, in First Timothy chapter 6, he says in verse 17, "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty nor to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy." The gifts that God has given to you and me are in great abundance—every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. God has given those things to us so that we would enjoy them.

As we continue to dig into these realities in the Scriptures, we find that our enjoyment of these wonderful gifts brings God glory and praise. If you go back to the 16th or 17th century, the Westminster Shorter Catechism, a statement of faith, was a model in which a question would be asked, and then the person being asked would give the answer. The very first question is, "What is the chief end of man?" The answer is, "To glorify God and to enjoy Him forever."

God created us to bring Him glory and praise. One of the ways we bring God glory is by enjoying the gifts that He has given to us. Our God loves to give good gifts. He has blessed us with these spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus so that we would enjoy them. In our enjoyment of these good gifts, God is glorified and praised.

Furthermore, we looked at a couple of weeks ago that God gives us these good gifts so that we would share them with other people. They are not given to us just so that we would hoard them and hold on to them. He wants us to enjoy them and to share them. Part of the enjoyment of those things is sharing them with others.

I love that so many of you dressed up today because it is an expression of the joy and enjoyment that God has given to us during this time of year, and really any time of year. One of the values for our church, if you go on our website and look at our statement of faith, is that we want everything at Cross-Connection Church to be done with joy. We have an optimistic vision of the future, and we will be talking a little bit about that optimistic vision this morning. We have something great to look forward to in Christ Jesus because of the gifts that He has given to us of His grace. If you read the last chapters of the Bible, you will see that clearly articulated: we are looking forward to a time when the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords rules.

And reigns forever and ever in a new heaven and new earth, where there are no more tears, no more sorrow, no sickness, or death. I don't know anybody who would not look forward to that. That's a wonderful thing that we are looking forward to and living in expectation of. So, we want what we do to be done with joy. That's part of why I dressed like this this morning. For those of you who are new, this is not my normal attire, just so you know. But Amazon.com is amazing, right down to the awesome shoes with the Ferrari logo on them. I was very excited about that.

We want things to be done with joy, and we want to share the gifts that God has given to us. In 1 Peter 4:10, Peter says, "As each one of you has received a gift," and we have received not just a gift, but many gifts—every spiritual blessing in heavenly places. As each one of you has received a gift, minister it to one another as good stewards of the manifold grace of God. We are to share these things with other people, stewarding the gifts that God has given to us.

As we have been going through this series and considering these truths together, we have looked previously at two gifts. Pastor Jason, a few weeks ago, talked about the gift of gratitude, and then last week we talked about the gift of love. There are many other gifts that we could discuss that God has given to us, but of course, we only have four Sundays as we lead up to Christmas to talk about these things.

We could talk about the gift of rest. In Jesus Christ, God has given us rest—a rest from all of our striving and all of our struggle to try and live up to some standard. It is often said that Christianity is more of a relationship than it is a religion. How many of you have heard that or said that before? Some of you came from a faith tradition that was a little more religiously oriented. What I mean by that is that you had a list of things you needed to do or ought not to do, and you tried to live that list perfectly. You could never really quite live up to it, to the point that you would always be striving and struggling to maintain some level of rightness according to that list of rules.

That whole scenario is not a place of rest. But in Christ Jesus, He gives us rest from that struggle and striving. We have a relationship with God, the creator of all things seen and unseen. We have a relationship with God.

In Jesus Christ, we have rest. That's one of the great gifts that God has given to us. Not only do we have rest, but we also have peace in Christ Jesus. We have peace with God and peace from God, so that we can experience the peace of God. Paul speaks about this peace in Philippians chapter 4. He says it guards our hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, and it is a peace that surpasses understanding. As we go through the difficulties that every single one of us experiences in life, we find that in Jesus Christ, we have this gift of peace, this gift of rest, and the love that God has given to us.

I mentioned this a little bit last week, and there are so many things that we could talk about. However, today we're going to focus on another gift that God has given to us: the gift of hope. When we talk about Advent and the four Sundays leading up to Christmas, typically one of the Sundays of Advent is dedicated to the topic of hope. I am convinced that hope is a gift that God has given to every single one of us. It is a good gift, and it is a gift that He wants us to enjoy. As we enjoy it, it brings Him glory and praise, and it is a gift that we, at this time of year, need to share with other people.

As you start to think about this wonderful and fascinating topic of hope, one of the things you begin to recognize is that not only is hope a good thing, but it is also an essential thing. I have talked a number of times over the years about an individual by the name of Viktor Frankl. Viktor Frankl was a psychologist who lived in Austria in the 1940s, and he happened to be Jewish, which was not a good thing to be in Austria during that time. As everything played out in the Second World War, he and all of his relatives ended up in concentration camps in Germany and Poland. He lived in a number of different concentration camps and managed to survive one of them, Auschwitz.

While he was there, he used his training as a psychologist and neurologist to observe everything that was going on. At the end of the war, when everything was done, he wrote a book that I have recommended before, and I would encourage you to read it. It's a very heavy but short book called "Man's Search for Meaning." In this book, Viktor Frankl observes that those prisoners...

Those who were with him in the camps found that the ones who gave up on life were the first to lose hope. The first to lose hope were the ones who gave up on life, and they were inevitably the first to die. He describes how hope is essential; it is necessary for life. Even modern psychology has discovered this. I was reading just this last week on Psychology Today's website and came across an article on hope, which states that hope is not just a feel-good emotion. According to Psychology Today, it is a dynamic cognitive motivational system.

What does that mean? It means that hope motivates us to move forward. A simpler way to say that is that hope helps us to move forward. When we don't have hope and grow hopeless, our hearts become sick. Three thousand years ago, one of the wisest men who ever lived, King Solomon of Israel, discovered this truth. He wrote about it in Proverbs 13:12, where he states, "Hope deferred makes the heart sick."

We are witnessing heart sickness on an astronomical level in our day and culture. Even though we have so many wonderful practical blessings, we are seeing an increase in heart sickness and hopelessness. This hopelessness and heart sickness are leading to an increase in substance abuse and even suicide. In the last three years, there has been a steady decline, although not a huge decline, in life expectancy here in the United States, largely due to substance abuse and suicide. This decline goes back to the heart sickness and hopelessness found in our culture.

I want to remind you, or perhaps inform you for the very first time, that when we celebrate Christmas and the Advent, we are celebrating the coming forth of Jesus Christ into this world. With Christ Jesus, we are celebrating the advent of hope.

Point number one on your outline: the gift of hope is essential for life. This is what Viktor Frankl discovered in the concentration camps, and this is also what modern psychology acknowledges.

Finds, and this is what we find in the Scriptures as well. Once again, the theology of the Bible is supported by research and science. The gift of hope is essential for life. This point is almost identical to the point from last week. If you have your sermon guide from last week, you'll notice that I said the gift of love is essential for life. I am convinced that both of these things are true.

One of the pieces of evidence that supports this is found in one of the horrific outcomes of the Cold War. We have been able to see this in a very clear, sobering, and sad way, especially in Ukraine. In Ukraine, one of the ways they were dealing with child care during a baby boom was that many parents were not available to take care of their children. A lot of these kids went into orphanages where there was nobody to care for them. Little babies were left in cribs with no physical contact, no loving engagement, and no hope of any loving interaction from anyone else. The vast majority of these children not only experienced failure to thrive, but many of them died before the age of three. They had food and water, but they had no physical contact, and there was no way to survive without it.

Love, hope, and joy are gifts from God, good gifts from our Father. We need these things to survive, just as we need food, air, and water. There is no thriving in this life; there is no such thing as the abundant life apart from what God gives in these gifts in Christ Jesus. Jesus' entrance into the world 2,000 years ago marked the entrance of hope into a hopeless world. I think we all acknowledge, as we look around and observe the things that happen in this world, that we live in a broken, hopeless world apart from God.

This is the story that the Bible tells, all the way back to Genesis. The very first book of the Bible, Genesis chapter 3, speaks of this brokenness coming into the world and the hopelessness that accompanies it. One of my favorite Christmas songs makes this point abundantly clear. I’m going to read the words; I’m not going to sing them, as I know you wouldn’t want me to. It says, "Oh holy night, the stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining till he appeared."

And the soul felt its worth. A thrill of hope, a weary world rejoices. Jesus coming to this world is that hope coming to a hopeless world. Paul speaks about this in his letter to the Ephesians. If you still have your Bibles open to Hebrews chapter 6, would you mind turning to the left? You won't have to go too far, and you'll find the short book of Ephesians. Turn to Ephesians chapter 2. If you hit Romans, you have gone too far; stop there and turn around.

In Ephesians chapter 2, Paul is describing this reality as he writes to a church that was predominantly filled with Christians from a Gentile background. That is, they were not a part of the Jewish family, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, which is most of us seated here today. Paul writes to this predominantly Gentile church in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 11, and he says this: "Therefore remember that you once Gentiles in the flesh, who are called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision made in flesh by hands, that at that time in the past you were without Christ."

Now stop there for a moment. Remember, and some of you remember it very clearly, even if it was quite a few years ago. There was a time when you were without Christ; He was not a part of your life. Paul says, "Remember, you were without Christ. You were alienated from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants and promises." The promises that were for God's people, the gifts that are given to God's people, that bless God to give them, those weren't yours at that time. You were strangers from the covenants and promises, having no hope and without God in this world.

Some of you remember vividly being without hope. Maybe you had a lot of things provided for you because you live in a wonderful place such as this, where we have many things provided for us. But deep down, there was a feeling of despair, a feeling of hopelessness. It's likely that for some of you, that feeling of hopelessness was the very thing that compelled you to start looking for hope, to try and find something that would satisfy that need. God knows that when you seek for hope, there's only one true place to find it. So He is fine with you looking and seeking for that, but remember there was a time.

Where were you without God in this world? I have to acknowledge that there may be some of you here today who are present because someone invited you, or maybe you just drove by. I can't tell you how many times we receive cards where someone says, "I saw the church; I just drove by. How did I end up here?" You're here today, and you acknowledge that you are hopeless. I want you to know that Jesus coming to this world is the coming forth of true hope. He gives hope to the hopeless.

Look at verse 13 of Ephesians chapter 2: "But now remember, you were without God, without Christ, without hope." Those might be good words to underline, circle, or highlight: "But now." In Christ Jesus, you who were once far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Point number two on your outline: Jesus brings hope to a hopeless and broken world. At this point, it is probably worthwhile to explain the biblical concept of hope. There are several different ways to describe or experience hope, and when I use the word "hope," everyone has a certain dictionary in their mind about how they think about this word.

There are different ways in which people experience or explain hope, and I want to make it clear what the Bible is saying when it speaks about the hope that Jesus Christ brings. One way to explain or experience hope is as a kind of blind optimism—an optimistic feeling that everything is going to turn out well.

Let me describe this kind of hope so that you can grasp it. Do you remember there was once a football team called the Chargers? Some of you may remember them. They had a very unfortunate, untimely departure; they are dead to us now. This team, the Chargers, once existed here, and apparently, they somehow exist somewhere else now, but they are dead to us.

From time to time, they would do really well in the first two quarters of a game. Some of you remember this. They could be up by even three touchdowns, and you'd think, "This is great!" Going into halftime, they would head into their little halftime routine. You might turn to your friend and say, "I really hope they do well in the second half." That's called blind optimistic hope. I know for some of you it's a sore wound, and you've blocked those memories out, but that's blind optimism.

That's not the kind of hope the Bible talks about, but it is a kind of hope that people experience. Then there's another kind of hope, which I would call wishful thinking hope. What does wishful thinking hope look like? Well, it happens in our area pretty much every spring. It is a hope that says, "I really hope the Padres have a good season." I'm sorry, it's just too easy in San Diego. That's called wishful thinking hope. Has anyone ever had that hope? Maybe you're feeling it right now as we come to the end of the year.

It's the kind of hope people express when they say, "I hope I win the lottery." That's wishful thinking sort of hope. In fact, the odds of winning the lottery are about the same as the Padres winning a World Series, so it's pretty close. Yes, I know I'm making lots of friends here. Call me back in about August, and we'll see how we're doing.

Moving right along, that's not the kind of hope that is being spoken of when the Bible talks about hope. The Bible, when it talks about hope, is not speaking about optimistic feelings or wishful thinking. What is hope as the Bible uses it?

Point number three in the outline: Christmas brings hope for an absolutely certain future. Two thousand five hundred years ago, in the midst of a seemingly hopeless situation, the Prophet Jeremiah wrote a letter to his own countrymen who had recently been taken as captives, as prisoners of war.

Their home was in Israel, specifically Jerusalem. They had been taken as prisoners of war by King Nebuchadnezzar back to Babylon. Jeremiah was still in the city of Jerusalem; he was a prophet of God, and he wrote a letter to his countrymen who were now in Babylon. This was a letter from God, speaking through the Prophet Jeremiah. Though they were in a hopeless situation, Jeremiah wrote to encourage them with these words from God.

God says this to His own people in a hopeless and desperate situation: "For I know the thoughts I think towards you, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope." Another translation renders those words from Jeremiah chapter 29, verse 11, as "I know the thoughts or the plans I have for you, plans of peace and not of evil, to bring you to an expected end."

God says, "I have a plan and a purpose, and I am going to accomplish it. You can be certain in your hope for it because I promised it, and I am faithful." That's the way the Bible uses the word hope—not blind optimism or wishful thinking, but in the form of "I said I will do this," and you can hope in it with absolute certainty. This is a hope that we can have great confidence in.

We saw this as we read from Hebrews chapter six at the opening of our time together. It describes hope as a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. I love those words: a strong and trustworthy anchor for our souls. As we go through trying and difficult circumstances, as we experience what is sometimes referred to as the storms of life, the immaterial part of you—your soul, the part of you that I believe is the true you, who you really are—can be troubled.

You can experience anxiety, fear, and restlessness. You can be filled with worry and angst. Yet, the author of the book of Hebrews says that hope from God, hope in God, is like an anchor for your soul, holding your soul in place in the midst of storms. This does not mean that you won't be affected by the storms.

We may be tempted to experience anxiety and worry, but as we have hope in God, we can have a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. Paul, in another place in his writing, in Romans chapter 5, says that this kind of hope does not disappoint. Wishful thinking often leads to disappointment, and blindly optimistic hope consistently lets you down.

Point number four on your outline is that the gift of hope in Christ is a sure and steadfast anchor for our souls. We need that hope that God brings, as it serves as a firm foundation during turbulent times. I love that picture, and I know, having interacted with many of you over the years, how real this is when you are in the midst of a storm.

One of the amazing things about interacting with people who have yet to put their trust in Jesus—those who are skeptical of the claims of Christians and the Bible—is that when I talk with someone who identifies as agnostic or atheistic, I find they are often skeptical about whether this hope is genuinely true. They desire it, yet they struggle to believe that you can have a hope that serves as a steadfast anchor for your soul.

It is one of those things that you have to actually taste and see; the hope that God gives is good before you can truly understand its reality. Many of you sitting here today have a testimony about God's hope. The hope that God has given you has carried you through trying and difficult circumstances that every person experiences.

The gift of hope in Christ is indeed a precious gift from our Father in heaven. So, how should we respond? To answer that, would you turn back to Hebrews, where we started this morning? Not to Hebrews 6, but to Hebrews 10. In Hebrews chapter 10, the author gives us several responses to how we should respond to the precious gift of hope that we have in Christ.

Verse 22 of Hebrews chapter 10 states, "Let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." We are encouraged to hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. Our hope and confidence are based upon the sure promise of God. Therefore, we can trust in Him and hold fast to our confession of hope without wavering.

In verse 24, we are instructed to consider one another in order to stir up love and good works. We should not forsake the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but rather exhort one another, and so much more as we see the day approaching.

There are three responses to this gift of hope in our lives, and then one final point. The first response to the hope that God has given us, according to Hebrews chapter 10, verses 22 through 25, is that we should draw near to God. We who were once far off, who were once aliens separated from God because of sin and brokenness, can now draw near. Jesus deals with sin and brokenness and makes it possible for you and me to approach God.

As the author of Hebrews says, we can come into the veil. Under the Old Covenant, in the Old Testament Jewish religion, there was a temple. In the middle of that temple was a small room called the Holy of Holies, where there was a box known as the Ark of the Covenant. God's very presence, in some manner and form, would abide there. However, this place was veiled off by a huge curtain, into which only one priest could enter once a year to offer a sacrifice for himself and the nation of Israel on the Day of Atonement. Only one person had access temporarily.

Yet, when Jesus died on the cross and declared, "It is finished," that veil was torn. We now have access to God.

We have the opportunity to draw near to God in full assurance of hope. The first thing we should do is draw near to God. The second thing is to hold fast to our faith. We must hold on to our trust in God because He has promised great promises, and every promise in Christ is yes and amen to the glory of God in heaven. We can hold fast to our trust in God because we have hope in Him.

Third and finally, our third response is to encourage others to persevere and press on as we enjoy fellowship within the body of Christ. The author of Hebrews expresses this in verse 25: "Let us consider one another to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together." Why should we gather together and fellowship with one another? It is essential for us to encourage and exhort one another to press on.

It is highly likely that when you gather together, especially in a connect group, someone in that group is experiencing some sort of trial, difficulty, or trouble. I was having a conversation with a family member last night. He and his wife moved across the country because he has been working at Harvard University, and they have had no support system for the last year or so. They have a new little baby who ended up in the NICU for quite a while, experiencing some pretty devastating things at the beginning of life. They are getting ready to move back because they discovered the problem: they had no connection to anybody to help them in the midst of this. Who is going to drive you to the hospital? Who is going to help you when you need assistance? This connection is important; we need to live in Christ.

So, draw near to God, hold fast to faith, and encourage one another to press on and persevere. The author of the book of Hebrews concludes verse 25 with the words, "and so much more as you see the day approaching." What day is approaching? Psychology Today states that hope is not just a feel-good emotion but a dynamic cognitive motivational system. The gift of certain hope in the resurrection is the day that is approaching. This gift of certain hope in the resurrection motivates our faith.

Faithfulness gives us hope in Christ, and we look forward to the day when we will see Him face to face. All the old things will become new; this corruption will put on incorruption, and this mortal will put on immortality. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, we shall be with the Lord, and He shall wipe away every tear. In His presence, there will be fullness of joy; at His right hand, pleasures forevermore. This absolute certainty inspires and motivates our continued faith and faithfulness.

Like each of the gifts we have considered together over the last several weeks—whether it's gratitude, love, or the issues of hope, peace, and rest that I have briefly discussed—when we bring joy into these gifts and the many other blessings that God has given us, we recognize that every spiritual blessing in heavenly places was given to us by our good God in heaven. He loves to give good gifts so that we may enjoy them, and our enjoyment of these gifts glorifies God.

Most importantly, I believe that at this time of year, He has given us these gifts to share with others. The gift of the gospel, the gift of Jesus Christ, brings us hope, peace, joy, rest, and love. All these things are meant for you and me to share.

Listen, over the next 96 hours, you will have opportunities to interact with family members and friends who do not know Jesus, and therefore do not know hope. I don't want you to miss that opportunity. I am going to pray in just a moment, and then we will stand together. This may be a daunting prayer for you, but I will pray that God gives each of you the specific opportunity to share that hope and that He will make you aware of it. I believe you will have this opportunity in the next 96 hours to share that hope with someone.

In that moment, your heart rate may increase a little bit; you might feel flustered or even a bit hot, like I do in this jacket right now. You may feel uncertain about what to say, but God has promised to give you the words to say in that moment.

So, would you stand with me as we close out this series in prayer? Father God, thank You for these spiritual blessings that You have given.

To us in abundance, You give love, joy, peace, hope, rest, and gratitude, among many other things. Lord, I know that over the next six hours, we will interact with people who are without hope in this world because they do not know You. I pray, God, that the hope and the joy that we have would be evident in us.

When we have the opportunity to interact with a loved one who does not yet know that hope, and they share about the challenges they have been experiencing this year or over the last eight weeks, or whatever storm they are going through, I pray in that moment, Lord, that You would remind every single person standing here of this prayer right now. They would know, "Oh no, this is that opportunity that Pastor Myles prayed for."

God, stir us to speak. Give us the words to share the good news of Your grace. You did not give us these gifts for us to hoard them; freely we have received, and freely we are to give. Even if we feel a little embarrassed or a little tongue-tied, would You stir our hearts and move our tongues to speak and to share Your grace, Your goodness, and the gifts You have given?

We praise You for them, Lord. I pray that we would enjoy them and share them. We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen.