What Are We Expecting?

Pastor Brian and Jacque Lother

Jacque: My heart is encouraged. I woke up this morning, like encouraged in the Lord. One of my friends wrote me yesterday and said, "How can I pray for you?" I hadn't even had a chance to write her back and tell her how, and she started praying, a high school friend. She wrote me this morning and told me what she prayed for me for, and I said, "Whoa, that's how I woke up this morning, just encouraged in the Lord." God has great things ahead. Do you know that God knows right where you are? He knows right where you are. He knows exactly what's happening. God is with you. Through all the things that people go through— So many people are going through so much right now. That's the main thing I say to people: God is with you. God is with you. So we are grateful. God, we are so grateful. One of the hard things we are going through right now is the loss of Bob Wanglie. So we could go this morning. He moved to heaven.

Brian: Without our permission.

Jacque: He didn't say goodbye or nothing. He just went.

Brian: They didn't even say goodbye.

Jacque: I know.

Brian: He was in such a hurry.

Jacque: I know.

Brian: I tell you I would probably do the same.

Jacque: I know. And when I think of Bob boy, do I get happy? He was anxious.

Brian: He was anxious to see his mom.

Jacque: When I think about Bob and heaven makes me so happy, but every time I walked into church this week, it just felt a little empty in here. We are going to honor his life, a celebration of life service next Sunday, with the visitation at one and the service at two. Please come in and join. I'll tell you, it just means so much to the family. When people come and acknowledge the life of their loved one. It's so comforting. It's so comforting to see the love that our loved ones had the people that love them. And so please come join us. 

Secondly, after service today, Dave and Lou are going to be over serving communion. Go over pray and receive communion if you would like to. Thirdly, I just want to invite all you ladies to consider coming to our Wednesday-night Bible study. It's going to be wonderful. There is information online all about it, but we are going to be studying the Holy Spirit together and just studying the scriptures. Mary Gibson is going to be facilitating our study, and I can't wait for it. I'm so excited. Every time Mary talks, I listen because she has such wisdom to share

Brian: Is she related to [inaudible 34:56]?

Jacque: I know. I thought the same thing. It must be a distant relative. I listen because she has such wisdom to share. Just a note, if you would like to meet at the church, it's going to be a hybrid group, online zoom, and at the church, if anybody wants to meet me here, I'll be at the church. Let me know if that would be what you would want. Okay. I'm done.

Brian: No, you are not.

Jacque: For right now, I am.

Brian: Sure, for the next second or two. Someone asked me just recently how we are doing, because obviously it has been a challenging year. We really haven't had an opportunity to grieve the losses of just some of the people in our faith community, never mind our own mothers who passed away. Right on the heels of that now, Bob, and of course your dear friend, Dan Peters, who had a Memorial in Arizona on Friday, but he is going to have another Memorial service here in Minneapolis, this coming Friday. Someone asked us how we were doing, and I said, "Well, to be frankly honest with you, I'm sad, but I'm not discouraged." How many of you know there is a difference between being sad and discouraged?

I have an emotion of sadness really carrying in my heart right now because of all the losses on so many different levels. There has been a loss out of Hope with the starting of influence church, and some of the people who were so integrally part of our church here for so many years are no longer here. That's a loss and that leaves a sadness of sorts. And yet, I'm very encouraged and I'm encouraged because of what God is doing.

I'm just really excited about the rebirthing, in a sense, and the re-launching that is beginning to happen here at Hope. I'm very excited about a new addition to our pastoral staff here at Hope Community. I would like to introduce Pastor Robert Smith. At this time, Pastor Robert, why don't you to come forward. We are so excited to have Robert be a part of our church. Come on up, Robert. Why don't you just have a chair here just for a little bit? You stand right here, baby. You come over here. We are so thankful that you are here, my friend.

Robert: Praise the Lord.

Brian: Yeah. Just to give you a little bit of an introduction to him: Robert has his master's degree in theology from Bethel seminary. He has got over 20 years of ministry service and I would like to introduce his wife, TaQuaris. TaQuaris, why don't you come up? We also have with them— the little one is Neriah. This is Neriah and then Zionna and Robinson. Why don't you all come up on the platform here and let everybody get a good look at you? Let's just give them a warm Hope Community Church welcome.

TaQuaris is a singer. She is actually part of Heart for the City ministry that sings all over the cities. Maybe we can get her away from there once in a while to help sing here a little bit. We are so thankful that God has brought you to us. He is going to kind of work in— I was going to say slowly, but it isn’t going to be slow. I'm going to tell you right now. We are going to put Robert to work and he is going to be doing a lot of things. If he reaches out to you, it's because he has got something for you to do. Just tell us a little bit about yourself, Robert, and what God's doing in your heart about being here at Hope if you could.

Robert: Amen. Thank you, Pastor Brian. Words, I'm never lost for words, but I'm so excited. I am, first of all, a lover of Jesus. That is my passion and that's what I'm excited that bring that passion of Jesus to Hope. I thank God for the opportunity for a new season. Pastor Brian and Jacque have welcomed my family. Hope, the many of you that I've met over the past month that we have been visiting have open arms, and we are excited about that. I'm not an emotional guy, I told Brian, except when it comes to the Dallas Cowboys. Let me get that out there right now.

Brian: Well, as long as he is not a Packer fan. That's all I care about.

Robert: But when the Lord starts stirring stuff up inside of me, it's like a bubbling that happens. That bubbling started a couple of weeks ago and it's continuing to bubble. I'm not afraid of work, so I'm ready to go to work. I'm excited and ready to get to know all of you. I am a servant at heart and I have a plethora of experience that the Lord has allowed me to see in ministry, to see around the world, to see an education, to see in the scriptures, and I'm in a season right now where the Lord is revealing more and more and more and more of who he is and what he is doing in this hour. So that's what I'm bringing to you guys. I'm ready to work with you and see what the Lord has in store.

I believe that we are on the cusp of something beyond what we can even imagine. I just asked for your prayers, asked for your patients. We have always welcomed us. My family is blessed. I'm glad that all of them are here. We are missing one, older daughter.

Brian: Her name is Destiny. 

Robert: Her name is Destiny.

Brian: Which is, I think a great name for all of us too. Don't you think?

Robert: We are just excited. My wife has been praying for me in this season of transition. We are seeing the fruits of those prayers come to pass day by day, week by week. We just love the surprises that the Lord has. We love his answers to prayer, and I just love his love for me. Some people say the love of Jesus as a cliché. I mean it with every fiber of my being and hopefully that shows in my interactions with you. Hope, let's go to work.

Brian: Amen. Let's go to work. Hallelujah. You agree with that? Should we go to work? TaQuaris, do you want to say anything? No? Okay. We'll let her music do the talking here in the future. Let's just take a moment to pray for this new addition to our staff, Pastor Robert and TaQuaris. Again, I'll go over the names here with you. The little one is Nariah and then you have Robinson and then we have Ziona. We are so grateful for all of them and what they are going to bring to hope community. I just believe that God is really in this and we just encourage you all to— they are one of us now. They are one of us. They are one of us and they are part of the Hope family. I couldn't be more excited about what God is doing.

So father, I just thank you that when there are holes to be filled, Lord, you have just the right puzzle piece to fit into that hole. I thank you Lord for Pastor Robert and TaQuaris and their family. We pray Holy Spirit for an anointing now to rest upon them and rest upon all of us for this new season that you have for us now, this new birth that you are doing, this new birthing, this new launching that you are having for Hope Community. Father, we pray in the name of Jesus that Hope Community Church will be an earthly model of what heaven is like. When Jesus, you prayed, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven, we pray that Hope Community will model that. 

We call people in from the north, the south, the east and the west. And we pray, God, for an increase in our harvest now to come, and that father there has been a lot of sewing. There has been a lot of sewing and tears. There have been a lot of prayer, and now we are expecting a harvest to come. We have believed that Pastor Robert and Tequaris and their family are part of the harvesters that are going to be a part of Hope Community Church. So we are excited, Lord, what you have for a future. We are excited for what is going to happen as we walk under your knighting and walk onto your guidance and your navigation. This, we pray Jesus in your name and for your sake, and everybody said, amen. Let's just give the Lord a thank you. Can you tell him a little excited? Hallelujah. Did you have something you wanted to say?

Jacque: I want to tell the ladies that just be watching because we are having a night at my house, a fellowship with TaQuaris, so we can get to all know each other better. 

Brian: And the daughters,

Jacque: Of course. Yes.

Brian: I guess that means us guys are going to do something with Robert and Robinson.

Jacque: Yes, you are.

Brian: I guess so. Let me know when it is, so I'll know to—

Jacque: Work on it. 

Brian: Hallelujah. As I was being stirred in my heart about what God is doing in the future here, and it's been hard for me to kind of keep a lid on this because we have been talking for a while. By the way, I don't know if AJ is watching this morning from Birmingham, but I know AJ is super excited about Pastor Robert coming on staff with us. Robert and AJ have known each other for many years. AJ, when he was here for Ruby's funeral, that's when we really started to kind of put the wheels in motion here with Pastor Robert, and he is really excited. You know how much AJ loves this church. I know that I know that he wouldn't recommend and be behind something that wasn't for the best of us. And so we are just excited about what God has for us. So thank you, Robert; excited to work with you. God bless you. 

As I've been thinking about our future as a church, because we think about our futures all the time, don't we as individuals? Don't we? What's going to happen? Where are we going to go? Some of you right now are thinking, “I can't wait till he gets done with his message. Where should I go for lunch today?” We are always thinking about our future aren't we? It could be just an hour from now or 30 minutes from now, but it could be a month from now or a year from now and what does God have for us? A part of all that has to do with expectation.

The Lord put into my heart just a message for all of us today about, what are we expecting? What are we really expecting in our lives? And you know what, life isn't always fair. How many of you know that? I don't think it's fair that Bob died. I don't think it's fair. Now you might say, well, you better take that up with God, but from my perspective, it's not fair. A lot of things from our perspective isn't fair. Jesus tells us that very statement in a rather unique way. Jacque, why don't you read this first verse? It's found in Matthew chapter 5, verse 45. This really is very clear. He tells us that life isn't really fair

Jacque: From the Message Bible: This is what God does. He gives his best, the sun to warm and the rain to nourish to everyone, regardless: the good and the bad, the nice and the nasty.

Brian: God lets his rain and his sun shine on both the good and the bad, the nice and the nasty. God sometimes blesses those nasty people. They are nasty in our minds, but in God's minds, he loves them.  But in our minds, that's not fair because we think because we have lived a certain way, that those blessings should only come our way and not someone else's way, but we don't always get what we deserve in life. We don't always get what we deserve. 

Jacque: Thank the Lord because sometimes.

Brian: Thank the Lord for that too. But sometimes some bad things happen to us and we think, “I didn't deserve that.” You get your house broken into. Somebody steals your car and wrecks it. Well, I didn't deserve that. There are a lot of things that happen to us at times that we don't deserve, but you know what? We usually get no more than what we expect. We often don't get what we deserve, but we rarely ever get more than what we are expecting.

So what are we expecting today? We really do receive what we believe in this principle works not only for the positive, but it also works for the negative. What have you come to expect in life? In the course of your life, certain patterns start to develop patterns of thinking in our lives. I've met with people who expect the worst rather than the best. I've met with people who expect defeat rather than victory, especially you are a Vikings fan. There are other people who expect actually failure rather than success. I don't know if this is going to work, rather than I know this is going to work. Some people expect mediocrity instead of excellence in their lives. They've just come to expect mediocrity instead of excellence. Matthew 9:29 says it really perfectly well here. Read this portion of scripture.

Jacque: He touched their eyes and said, become what you believe.

Brian: Become what you believe. Wow. This is Jesus saying become what you believe. When we encounter tough times, don't expect to stay there. This has been a tough year. I have never known a year like this year

Jacque: We thought last year was the tough year.

Brian: We thought 2020 was a tough year with COVID and all that stuff. 2021 has caused 2020 to just pale into insignificance for us. We have encountered some tough times, but you know what? I don't expect to stay here. I don't expect more and more and more people to die and more and more people to be depleted out of this church. I expect there to be a harvest. I expect there to be an in gathering. I expect there to be something to truly celebrate. There is a sorrow in all of our hearts because of the losses that we have experienced. There is a sadness, but we need to allow that expectation to also rise in our hearts today. We need to expect God to supernaturally turn our situation around. I partly believe Pastor Robert is part of that solution, that answer.

Don't make plans for failure. I never make plans for failure. I fail; asked my wife. I fail, but I never make plans for failure. I make plans for success. I make plans for accomplishing things for God.

Jacque: I'm taking notes on your sermon.

Brian: Good.

Jacque: Everyone should write that down. Don't make plans for failure.

Brian: Did you know that wrong thinking will help us to fail? And low expectations will almost always be accomplished.

Jacque: That was good. 

Brian: You want to write that down? Okay. All right. I'll say it again. Wrong thinking will truly help us to fail, and low expectations will almost always be achieved, almost always. When you have low expectations, you are rarely going to achieve anything beyond a low expectation. If the bottom falls of our lives, which it has felt a little bit like that to us this year, because there is so many things that have happened out of our control, we need to believe that God was going to bring us out stronger and better than before, stronger and better than before. 

We must remember that God always has the power if we will just have the tiniest bit of faith. God always has the power. There is not a power shortage in heaven right now. There is a power shortage in New Orleans. Much of their main power grid got picked up and dumped into the Mississippi river. There is a power loss in New Orleans, but there is no power loss in heaven right now. If we can just remember, if we'll just have the tiniest bit of faith in God, he has got the power to do what needs to be done. We need to keep our eyes fixed on him. I would like to read that scripture from Hebrews chapter 12.

Jacque: Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race were in steady how he did it because he never lost sight of where he was headed. That exhilarating finish in and with God, he could put up with anything along the way.

Brian: Isn't that great? Study how he did it. This is why I feel like a number of years ago God said to me," Go learn the letters in red." I've been reading my Bible since I was a child and I had read all the stories, but the spirit of God spoke to me and said go back and read the letters in red and see what Jesus did. See how Jesus dealt with everything. See what he was like.

Jacque: Read the words of Jesus.

Brian: Read the words of Jesus because he never lost sight of where he was headed. Oftentimes when we run into adversity and discouragement and disappointment, it can sidetrack us. We get off the track of where we are headed, but that never happened to Jesus. And so we are to fix our eyes on Jesus; keep her eyes on Jesus and that he never lost sight of where he was going, that exhilarating finish in and with God. Did you know that we all have an exhilarating finish awaiting us in and with God?

Jacque: Can I share something? This morning, I was praying and just meditating, and I just saw this picture because we are seeing all these storm pictures now. And I saw how Jesus, his promises, his love for me needs to be the very center of all of my life, of all my thoughts. Because when my feelings are in the center, I am just whipped around. The storm just whips me around. But when Jesus is the center of my thinking and I'm holding onto him, the rock, he is my rock— 

Brian: He is a stabilizer.

Jacque: I have a firm foundation to hold onto and not be whipped around by the storm. I don't know. It was very real to me this morning. This is just encourages it.

Brian: The fact of the matter is we all will fail. We all will make mistakes. We will all probably lack wisdom. We will all make wrong choices, sometimes even sinful choices, but even when We have made a multitude of mistakes, because that is what grace mercy and new beginnings are all about. Grace and mercy, new beginnings are for people who have failed. If we will place our trust in him, he will lead us to a better place. He will lead us to a better place. The fact of the matter is a lot of people conspire with the enemy to destroy their lives. Now, they don't do it intentionally. They don't sit down and call up the devil and say, let's plan on how we can destroy my life. That's not how it works, but many people conspire with the enemy to destroy their lives, but they do it through ignorance. They do it through a lack of understanding the truth. They do it through a lack of understanding what is right and proper.

The message that Pastor Jeff spoke a few weeks ago on the ways of God; we don't always understand the ways of God. And so what happens is the devil is always looking for an occasion to bring discouragement into our lives. The minute some type of adversity happens and we get the falter in our faith, that's when he takes advantage of that and he jumps on us. Let's look at a verse in Hosea. This is one of the things that the prophet Hosea said why destruction and death was happening to God's people.

Jacque: My people are ruined because they don't know what's right or true because you've turned your back on knowledge.

Brian: He said, "My people are dying because of a lack of knowledge." It's not that we lack of knowledge in how to kill each other. Our military has expertise on that. We can sit in a, in a hut in Arizona and kill somebody in Pakistan with a little joystick. I don't know why they call that a joystick, but the fact of the matter is we have perfected so many things. We are not lacking in understanding actually on nuclear physics, but what are we lacking on? We are lacking in understanding on how God has made us and designed us and how we can be successful in life with overcoming discouragement and having faith. That's what we really need to understanding on.

I would say this: let's commit ourselves to working with God because God wants to commit himself to work with you. Let's commit ourselves to working with God through our trust in him, and to bring about the full potential of our lives. Let's agree to come into agreement with God. Let's agree to come into agreement with God. How many of you have ever watched The Chosen? Have you seen the Chosen? If you haven't seen The Chosen, watch it. Just watch it. Get your Kleenex out to the side, and be prepared to watch this series. It's an incredible series on the person of Jesus and the calling of the disciples and the people that he touched.

One of the things I like about this series is Jesus says to the disciples, follow me, and they all began to follow him, but some of them hated each other. They didn't like each other. They didn't like Matthew. He was a tax collector. He had been basically stealing from them for years. And yet Jesus said to Matthew, "Follow me." He said to Peter, "Follow me." Matthew and Peter were on the opposite ends of the spectrum. Yet there was this willingness to follow Jesus. What did he have to do day in and day out, month in and month out? He had to keep bringing correction. He had to keep bringing in instruction to them, help bringing them to a place of belief.

They had all sorts of prejudice against the Samaritans. They didn't want to go to the woman at the well. We miss all of that stuff when we just kind of read the scriptures. At times, we don't understand the nature of all the, that was happening, but we have to come into agreement with God. There was one situation where Samaritans were railing on Jesus and Peter and John. They wanted to go after him, and he has to hold him back and say, no, this is not how I am. We have to come into agreement with how God is for our lives to be successful. We can either focus on our problems or we can focus on God. We can focus on our lack or we can focus on the one who will be able to provide for us.

One of our weaknesses is that we often lack wisdom, of course. And then what do we do? We turn to the wrong sources for getting answers to our questions. We turn to the wrong place or to the wrong person to help solve all of our problems. If we always keep depending upon somebody else, especially someone who actually doesn't have the truth, what's going to happen? What we have to do is we can't keep depending upon somebody else to keep us happy. We can't keep depending upon somebody else to encourage us. We actually can't even keep depending upon other people to help solve our problems. We have to be able to know that we can go to God, that he is the one that will answer us.

We will live in perpetual weakness and disappointment if we only go to other people. We have to learn how to hear from God. That's why I really am valuing our moments at 6:45 at night. I can't be there all the time, but from 6:45 to 7, we just have 15 minutes of reaching for more of God. I need more of you. I've said that to God more this year than probably the previous 69 years in my life. I need more of you, Jesus. I need more of you. I need more of you. I need more of the river of life to flow in me. I need more of your presence with me. I need more of you. Only we can make the decision that we are going to become a believer. Only you can make that decision if you are going to be a believer or not.

By the way, believing in Jesus is not a one-time event. Have you believed in Jesus? Well, yeah, I prayed to receive Jesus 45 years ago. Have you been believing in him ever since? That's the real question. Amen. Thank you. We need to be believing in Jesus multiple times a day. We become, like Jesus said what we believe. Don't we? You know what? I am today, what I am because of what I believed about myself and who I believed in yesterday. If I want my tomorrow to be different than my today, I have to believe differently today for tomorrow. I am what I am today, because of all the things that I believed and did yesterday. If we want tomorrow to be different, I have to start believing differently today than I believe yesterday,

Jacque: Do you know what helps me believe? What really inspires my faith and encourages me is when I just really believe in the kindness of God. Because I just sometimes default back to he is mad. He is disappointed in me.

Brian: I'm not measuring up.

Jacque: I'm not. No, he is so kind: the passion, patience, kindness of God.

Brian: Let's read Colossians 3 versus 1 and 2.

Jacque: So if you are serious about living this new resurrection life with Christ, act like it that's

Brian: That's good, right?

Jacque: Yes.

Brian: If you are serious about this life, act like it. If you are in love with me, at least show a little bit.

Jacque: That's good. Pursue the things over which Christ presides.

Brian: Yeah. That's so good. I don't want to interrupt you.

Jacque: I'm going to read that again. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don't shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorb orbed with the things right in front of you. Look up and be alert to what's going on around Christ. And that's where the action is. See things from his perspective.

Brian: It really is. Even the Psalmist says, "Why so downcast oh my soul?" There are things in this life that can get you down. And then we start looking down here and then we start like the scripture says, we just start shuffling around a little bit. And then we quit lifting our heads up, we quit looking at Christ, and then all of a sudden we become consumed with the things that are in our paths. You know what? Life is not always easy. I tell you what, this past year has proven that in my life. Life is not always easy. I can assure you of that, but it can always be good. It can always be good because good can— come on. Let's read Romans 8, 26 to 28. I love this portion of scripture.

Jacque: Meanwhile, the moment we get tired in the waiting, God's spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know how or what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans.

Brian: Can I just stop you there for just one second? Have you ever not known what to pray, and all you can do is ah? That's all that you can muster because the weight is so heavy. But God hears that God hears that moan. God hears that sigh. It doesn't matter if we don't have the words. If doesn't matter. Now, let me tell you something. If you are a live under the law of God, then you have to have all the right words. But if you live in a relationship with God, you don't have to have the right words. All you have to do is be there, and he knows what you need before you ask. All you have to sometimes is just sigh, and he will do our praying for us. Just in the same way that he brought salvation to us without anything we did, he will pray for us, and even at times through us. He makes prayer out of our wordless size and our aching groans. So go on.

Jacque: He knows us far better than we know ourselves. He knows our pregnant condition and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every deep tale in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Brian: We can be sure, even when things go wrong because God is working in us all the time. Because he is working in us, we can be sure that every detail of our lives, everything that happens to us in our lives of love for God, he will work something good out of it. He will do that. I don't want to be a person nor do I want Hope Community Church to simply be a church or I don't want to be the kind of person that just gets by. I don't want to just get by. I don't want our church to be a church that just gets by. Because of that, there is another verse I would like you to read in Jeremiah 32:27. This is why I believe we aren't going to be a church or we aren't just going to be a people that just gets by.

Jacque: But I am the Lord, the God of all mankind. Is anything too hard for me?

Brian: Do you know what we are going to do? We are going to turn to God. We are going to turn to God as a church. We are going to turn to God as people. As followers of Jesus, we are going to turn to God. And you know what? When we turn to God, he says there is nothing that's too difficult or impossible for him. I know that many of you, as well as Jacque and I, have endured some really terrible disappointments. Some of you have endured some very terrible disappointments and others of you have experienced very hurtful things in your lives through the years. Sometimes when those things happen, somewhat repetitively, it's easy to cease believing that anything good will ever happen again. 

There are whole people groups that have been under oppression for so many years and sometimes even centuries that it's hard for them to believe that anything good will ever happen. For some of us, I've said this before, but for some of us, our dreamers have become broken. We don't dream anymore. We find ourselves simply drifting through life with no vision, no direction. I think there may be some of us and maybe some of you watching today by livestream that you are afraid to get your hopes up. You are afraid to get your hopes up because you don't want to be disappointed anymore. So your expectation levels have now dropped. What you are expecting is just mediocrity and that's all that you are achieving now because you receive what you believe for.

But I want to tell you something today that I believe God still has a plan for your life. For all of you who are watching, God has a wonderful plan for this church. We have to remember that faith actually starts with hope. Faith begins when you have hope. God wants to move us from hope to a place of faith, of course, but it begins with hope. You can take that to mean Hope Community Church, or you can just take it to mean hope. I don't care yet. I think you are right both ways. It's both.

Once you have move from hope to faith, even if it's the size of a mustard seed of faith, which is a tiny, tiny, tiny little bit, God has the power. God has the power to do what we need done for us. God can take all of our disappointments and all of our broken dreams, many of the ones that we want to keep rehashing. We want to keep rehashing some of those broken dreams. God take all of our broken dreams and all of that stuff that We have rehashed, all of the hurts and all of the sorrows that have been inflicted upon us.

I want to show you something of what God wants to do with all of those sorrows, all those hurts and all those disappointments if we will just keep placing our trust in him. We find it in Isaiah chapter 61. I want to read these first four verses. Isaiah wrote this portion of scripture and then Jesus went to the synagogue in Pernom one day and he picked this portion of scripture up and he read it. He says this, “The spirit of the sovereign Lord is on me because the Lord has annoying me to proclaim good news to the poor." Let me just say something here. There is a very, very high probability that the poor will not come to you. You are going to have to go to the poor. So if God has anointed us to proclaim good news to the poor, we have to leave our comfort zones and go to where the poor are. We have to do that. 

He goes on to say that he sent you and I to bind up the broken hearted. There are hundreds of thousands of people just in Minnesota alone that are broken hearted today: unmet expectations, disappointments victims of abuse. You and I have something to give these people: to proclaim freedom for the captives and relief from darkness, for the prisoners who are blind. There are people today who are blinded to the truth and it has created a prison of sorts for them. You and I have the truth, Jesus Christ in us, to bring to them. To proclaim the year of the Lord's favor and to comfort all who mourn and provide for those who grieve in Zion and to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes and the oil of joy instead of mourning, and a garment to praise instead of a spirit of despair: this is what we have to bring to the world. This is what we have. This is what we carry within us to a give to this generation. 

And then he goes on to say that these people who have been blind and these people who have been prisoners and these people who have been mourning, and these people who have covered themselves with ashes symbolically, they will be called oaks of righteousness. This is how God sees them: as oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his slender, and that they will go back and rebuild ancient ruins. Things that have been ruined in their lives, they will go back and rebuild. Maybe generationally, they will go back and rebuild.

They will restore the places that have been long devastated. I can just see families and communities that have long been devastated, where the spirit of God comes in because we have been intentional about bringing this love message of Christ to this community. God will restore the broken hearted in this community, places that have been devastated. And they will renew the ruined cities that have been devastated for generations. We have cities and towns and communities, small little hamlets in this state that have been ruined for generations because of sin, because of unbelief, because of the truth not being embrace. God is saying to you and I that you and I have been called and anointed to proclaim this wonderful news of setting these places free from their captivity. 

And then he goes on to say one more thing in verse 7. This is what I believe is God's heart when we have suffered loss, when we have suffered a depletion in our ranks. This is God's word to you and to me. Instead of your shame, you will receive a double portion. Instead of disgrace, you will rejoice in your inheritance. And so you will inherit a double portion in your land. I'm holding onto this next phrase: and everlasting joy will be yours. Everlasting joy will be yours. Boy, that's not a bad return on our investment of looking at Jesus, is it? When we look at Jesus and place our trust in him, that's not a bad return on that investment.

Paul says it this way, and I'll finish with this: forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead. We should do more of that, don't you think? We should do more of that. We should do more of forgetting the past and look forward to what lies ahead because to be a follower of Christ and Jesus not— Jesus didn't say to his disciples, follow me. He is saying to you and I, follow me. Jesus is saying to you and I today, follow me. To be a follower of Christ is to become more a product of our future than a product of our past. Let me say that again. To be a follower of Christ is to become more a product of our future than a product of our past. You don't have to be a product of your past. If you follow Jesus— and listen to me today those of you are online. If you follow Jesus, you can be a product of where he is leading you, your future.

The only thing about your past that matters is what Jesus has already done for you. That's the only thing that matters. Your failures of the past, what you didn't do in the past, what you shouldn't have done in the past, what you did do wrong in the past: none of that matters. The only thing that matters about your past is what Jesus has done for you. That's the only thing that matters. Because of what Jesus has done for you, if we allow him to navigate our lives and we allow him to take the helm, and we respond to his words, a follow me, follow me, if we will respond to those words, he will lead us into a future where I truly believe a double portion of his blessing is awaiting you and I. A double portion is awaiting you and I.

So father, I thank you today that you don't leave us in the failures of our past, but father, you come with your arms outstretched and you say to us, let me show you a new way. Let me show you where I want to take you, that I have a future for you. And that if you follow me, you'll become a product of my future for you. You will no longer become or be a product of your past because the only thing that matters about your past is what I have done for you. That's the only thing that matters. So father come to us today and help us fix our eyes on you. Jesus, help us look forward to what you have for us. Help us, Jesus, to not be locked into the failures of our past, but help us Lord be locked into holding hands with you as you guide us into your future for us. Jesus, we pray this and your name. Pastor Jeff, why don't you come lead us here in some prayer?

Jeff: You know, some of you might be old enough to remember the movie Dances with Wolves. It was profoundly impacted my life and when I was quite a bit younger than I am now. One of my favorite lines in that movie is when Kevin Costner finds himself in a tent with the chief and all the warriors, and he notices across the room that the angry one, who is kind of his nemesis in the beginning and is good friend at the end, is wearing his hat. Remember? He says, “My hat, he is got my hat." The guy says, "Well, I found it; it's mine now." So they decide that if he is going to take the hat, he has to give Kevin Costner something. He is wearing this like breast plate of bones and he takes it off and gives it to Kevin Costner and the chief nods and says, "That's a good trade." Remember that?

Brian: Yeah.

Jeff:  So I was thinking that last verse, Pastor Brian, that you were reading, we get to trade disgrace and shame for a double portion and a good inheritance. That's a good trade. 

Brian: That's a good trade.

Jeff: That's a good trade. And that's what happens when we begin to trust Jesus. As Pastor Brian said, actually not just when we begin, but when we continue. But for some of us who may be here or some of you who may be listening either now or watching this, and sometime in the future, you may be place where you need to believe for the very first time. Maybe there is enough disgrace and enough shame in your life that you are ready to make a trade. Jesus has something better for you.

We just want to take a moment for anybody who is listening, however you might be listening, to make a trade by giving to Jesus your disgrace and your shame, and taking from him a double portion and a new inheritance. That is such a simple step forward because all that's really involved is a choice, an acknowledgement that you are going to trust Jesus. Let's just close your eyes. I'm going to lead you in a prayer. If this is a prayer that you end up praying, please go to our website and let us know. We want to know if something has touched your life today, but especially if Jesus has started a new work in you today. And so just pray this.

Jesus Christ, God of having an earth, I choose to trust you with my life. I've resisted you for years and years and years, but now I'm giving in. I give you my life and everything it has, and I trust you to give me back something new that will never end. Please forgive my sins. Wash away the disgrace of my past, and fill me with new hope and a new future. Thank you, Jesus.

It's always such a great prayer to pray. We don't want to end without just giving an opportunity for anybody who is listening who needs a miracle to receive it because the Jesus that we just prayed to, to give our lives to, he is also the Jesus of miracles. And so if you need a healing today or you need something from God that's critical in your life right now, maybe a financial breakthrough or a relational breakthrough, just put your hand up. If it's a healing, you can even put your hand on the part of your body that needs the healing, and I'm going to pray for you.

Holy Spirit, thank you for being here at Hope, here with all of us who are watching in some other part of the world. Thank you that you are here. Your presence is with us right now, and not just your presence, but your love and your power. Jesus, because of the wonderful work that you did, I release a miracle to my friends who are trusting you in this moment. Holy Spirit, I ask that right now you would release your power, your grace and your salvation just the way we need it, just the way we need it.

I just had a sense even coming up here that for somebody who is listening, there has just been a failure in your life. You are having a hard time getting past it. But right now, if you will lift that up to the Lord, you are going to experience forgiveness and cleansing and a new beginning. The failure will not determine or to your future, because Jesus will intervene with his salvation. So just receive it now; receive your healing, be it emotional, or be it physical. Just lift your hands to the Lord and begin to thank him. Thank you for what you do in our bodies, what you do in our hearts, what you do in our lives. We thank you and we trust you. Amen. Amen.

Brian: Thank you Lord. If you prayed that prayer for the first time to receive the Lord, or this is the first time you've watched us online, Jacque and I have a three part video series that we would love to send you called "Why you matter to God". Those of you who are here, if you have never seen that video series, we would love to get it to you as well: why you matter to God. It's inspiring, short, not really long. We would love to send that to you. This is a great tool for you to send to other people as a simple outreach tool, someone who might be discouraged, they may think they don't matter to God anymore, and you can send that to them. They would be in encouraged to take a step closer to the Lord. Let's raise our hands together. Let me bless you.

So now may the Lord bless you and may the Lord keep you. May the Lord turn his face towards you and give you his peace. May the Lord smile upon you today, and may you walk in the very presence of the almighty, and may you know that as you hold his hand, he will take you into an unbelievable future. This we pray in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Amen, God bless you. Have a wonderful, wonderful day. Make sure everybody grabs Robert, give him a hug, and let him know how glad you are that he is a part of Hope Community Church. God bless you. Bye-bye.

Transcript taken from the Sunday morning service 9-5-21. If you would like to watch the full service, click the link below.