Christian Hope
by Jeremy Painter
September 18, 2024 · Christian Life Church, Heath, Ohio
Kind: teaching
Scripture: John 17:23-24, Romans 8, 1 John 3:3

Source: https://acts238.life/repository/sermons/jeremy-painter--christian-hope
Published by Acts 2:38 Life from the sermon transcript on that page.
Free to copy and share with attribution.

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thank you Lord for this evening thank you for your precious and holy word thank you for your beautiful gospel I pray that we would Behold The Wonder of this gospel and the hope that lies within us tonight in Jesus name amen would you open your Bibles on your way back to your seats to John chapter 17 and I would like to read verses 23 and 24 23 and 24 this is uh Christ's prayer for his disciples and to those who would become part of this Sheepfold in the future Jesus prayed to the father i in them and thou in me that they may be perfect in one and that the world may know that thou has sent me and has loved them as thou has loved me father I will that they also whom thou has given me be with me where I am that

they may behold my glory which thou Hast given which thou has given me for thou lovest me before the foundation of the world focusing particularly on the words that they may behold my glory amen bless this teaching from your scripture help me Lord to speak clearly and truly in Jesus name we pray be glorified amen amen thank you for standing you can be seated In Christ Alone My Hope Is found he is my light my strength my song This Cornerstone this Solid Ground firm through the fiercest drought in storm what Heights of love what depths of Peace when fear ears are stilled when strivings cease my comforter My All In All here in the love of Christ I Stand in Christ alone my hope is found I want to teach tonight on Christian hope um in Jesus prayer first he prayed in our reading that

the world would know that the father has sent Jesus in John's gospel there is no birth of Jesus it's not that it didn't happen it's just that it's not an emphasis a point of emphasis that's not where John's gospel wants to begin wants to begin in eternity um but the equivalent in John's gospel to the birth of Christ is the sent nature of Christ that the world may know that thou Hast sent me and Hast loved them as thou Hast loved me um there's a deep need in the human heart to be loved to be loved ideally for our own sake not for anything that we do um and uh we want to be loved uh of we we search for this love in in in thousands of ways and sometimes that that uh search is fulfilled in in various ways but um when we

turn our love heaven word uh throughout human history the human being has typically believed that if you are this deserving You Can Be Loved this much if you are this deserving You Can Be Loved this much God's love for you is determined by your worth by your by your uh Merit by how much you deserve and have earned that love but the gospel that Jesus requests here in prayer is a gospel in which you're not loved by the father according to how much you deserve to be loved you are loved according to how much Jesus deserves to be loved by the father one more time the prayer that Jesus prays is for a gospel in which you not loved by the father according to how much you deserve to be loved you you're loved according to how much Jesus deserves to be loved one of

the most beautiful illustrations of this kind of thing in John's gospel is is something that is uh a label that's attached to the author of this book he never names himself in the book he never calls himself uh John the Apostle he never even calls himself John the Revelator he doesn't call himself John the disciple of Jesus he won't even name himself at all he won't give himself the name that he was given by birth the name by which the congregations now know him the name by which he is now famous in the Christian Community he will not use that name now he does in the Book of Revelation he uses his name but in John's gospel he absolutely refuses instead he wishes to be known by one name only and it's not his birth name he wants to know be known as ho agapas

the one that Jesus loved that's his name that's all you need to know about him that's all he wants you to know about him that is his worth he hides behind the love love of Jesus The Only Thing Worth knowing about me is that I am the one that Jesus loved he doesn't say that I was the one that Jesus loved to to suggest that other people other disciples were not loved or less loved but rather uh only to say that what there is of Merit in me is that I was the one that Jesus loved and if you think about it very much what uh greater name can you uh utter when you stand Before the Throne of God at the end what other plea would you have than that I was the one that Jesus loved and that is all that matters if

you have his love you need nothing else if you don't have his love you are nothing else um now the second portion of this textual reading is uh uh Jesus prayer that they may be with me where I am and that they may behold my glory which thou has given me you love me before the foundation of the world that they may behold my glory I want to focus on this request of Christ this is the whole purpose of our existence the entire goal of our Creation in fact the entire goal of all creation that we may Behold The Glory of Christ that's the whole reason to exist that is that is the hope the one hope that we have all that we have it is the hope that embodies all of the other lesser hopes it's the Supreme hope that we can Behold The

Glory of Christ this is what is planted deep inside the human being from the moment that we are conceived is this desire this yearning to behold the glory of God in the face of Christ that's what we all every human being who has ever existed wants ultimately to see unfortunately we choose 10,000 lesser means of trying to achieve that one goal all right hope if in this life only the Apostle Paul says we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable if in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable um if in this life only uh uh I want I want to uh proceed in in in three basic steps I want to describe what hope is biblical Hope Christian hope and then I want to I want to uh turn our attention for

a few moments to false hopes and then back to the great grand Christian hope the meaning of Hope is um it's a little bit skewed it's kind of like the word saves or salvation that I was talking about on Sunday it's become a little bit diluted and watered down to the point that um uh uh uh where it once meant certainty to have a certain hope uh now it has come to mean something like like if you if you ask somebody if if they can help they might say well uh I hope so and you can basically write that down as uh no um it means uncertainty um and it is a polite way of saying no um but in in in ancient Greek the word was elpie and it meant certainty it meant certainty uh be ready to explain the certainty or the hope

hope that lies within you be ready to give an answer of the certainty that lies within you uh the Hebrew word the ancient Hebrew word was uh very similar it it's the Hebrew word tikva and it's related to the word for a strong rope something that you can put all of your weight on and climb up um and and and this is what scripture means whenever it is referring to Hope um one particular writer uh secular writer really I think put his finger on um how hope functions in our culture hope is the heart he says of our well-being it is that which keeps us from believing that all are getting and spending is nothing more than fidgeting while we wait for death um in Romans chapter 8 Paul says that we're saved by hope in John one the Apostle said that everyone who has

hope or a certainty in Christ is purified by that hope um but uh uh uh again that hope has become somewhat watered down in our culture um the difference the psychological impact that hope can make upon you your your life is uh I remember one time uh our our youth group was invited to come to to another Church's youth group function over in Seattle and we had to drive about an hour to get there and I had a whole group of boys and and a few there were a few girls in the youth group and and we all got in a van to go but um uh the girls really didn't have much interest in doing this and a couple of the boys didn't have any interest in doing this they had they had girlfriends in school and uh they weren't all that interested but

there were boys in the youth group that didn't have any girlfriends but they heard somewhere through the rumor mill that there might be uh eligible girlfriends over there in that church in Seattle and we all sat through the same van ride we all sat through the same service but we all had very different experiences the girls who were not they were not all there was no vested interest in going they they just it was you know we it was just it was another service for them and and for a few of the boys that had girlfriends back in school it wasn't a big deal but those other boys it was a completely different service and still to this day if you talk to one of them about their favorite church services they will name this one in which I preached and completely flubbed it I

completely blew it I was it it was absolutely atrocious up there but they loved that church service because there was a little there was some there was hope in there for them and what changed their experience the difference between their experiences had everything to do with with what they hoped for Hope changes your expectations and therefore changes your experiences if you're going through life and you have hope in something that's certain versus going through life with no certain hope same lives same culture same economy same blessings but the hope is different and you're talking about two very different outcomes in life hope yes we are saved by hope and every one who has this hope within him purifies himself it changes the way you function the boys that were interested in those girls they participated in the service ah preacher you're kind of being a

little bit shallow here you're supposed to come for the Lord You're supposed to come to church to experience the Lord yeah I know I know um there is this belief and it's really it's it's as enduring as as uh uh post Garden of Eden the belief that what one hopes for can be found in this world in things um uh uh there's a a belief that if I can only get that job that I'm hoping for I I'm going to be very happy and it's going to take care of all kinds of other little problems nagging problems in life he going to fix things or if I can marry her or if I can write finally write that book I've always wanted to write um I'm going to have a sense of satisfaction with myself and I'm going to be happy now each of you

are listening to me right now and you know that the way I'm formulating it you know I'm going to say that's not going to be the case you already know that and you're already thinking that's true you're not going to find happiness in that the way I'm saying it but what often happens is we really do believe we function as if our happiness Li out there somewhere in some external thing in some external experience that if we can only get there there's going to be peace in our life but it's it it's not going to happen um there are thousands of testimonies of people who got exactly what they thought they wanted and what they believed would make them happy and then they became extraordinar extraordinarily depressed and miserable if in this life only you have hope you're of all men most to be pied

most miserable um there's an old Twilight Zone episode and and these are like 23 minute sermons unlike the sermons I preach they're way more powerful and they're 23 minutes long you get a lot of bang for your buck 23 minutes of Hardcore fundamentalist puritanical preaching it is sobering sinners in the hands of an Angry God and it starts out with of course the man in the black suit and the black skinny pencil tie with with a cigarette between his fingers and you see the smoke drifting up out of the screen Juliana he says she wandered into this day not expecting too much but she wandered into the Twilight Zone and so it precedes usually something very haunting and psychological and uh one particular story was of a man who was down on his luck nothing ever worked out for him he's shabby suit and he's

standing in a in a in a a barroom playing pool and he's missing all of his shots and um he walks out of the bar finally he's lost all of his money and uh uh he says uh I wish I wish just once in life something would go right and I don't remember all the details exactly so I might be getting some of them wrong and I won't go too too de too much into detail with them but the the the the story essentially proceedes you got to be really careful about what you whisper in the Twilight Zone is is the is the message because the god or gods of The Twilight Zone are malicious and we'll take up your prayers and answer them in the worst possible way and he ends up being successful at everything he does he starts out with small things

like another game of pool he doesn't even ever have to make a second shot he's able to sink all of the pool balls with his the break it's it's amazing he leaves the bar with a beautiful model on each arm he's extraordinarily successful at his job he ends up with the ultimate promotion he's in charge of everybody he plays the lottery and he wins the lottery he's now living in a penthouse nothing can ever go wrong for this guy everything is chaos around him but everything is perfect for him and pretty soon he rolls the dice and it sixs every time six every time six every time six every time he gets sick and tired of seeing six six six six six and everything is Success oh I'm miserable I hate this and so he starts turning suicidal I think he drinks like a can

a paint thinner or something like that it's the poor paint thinner that suffers jumps out of a seven-story window and it's the asphalt that get that gets broken he gets hit by a car and it's the car that gets total he's just trying desperately to be able to wish again to be able to want again because nothing in this life is scratching that itch it's deeper down than he could ever have imagined and you can have everything in life you can be successful and famous you can be beautiful attractive talented you can do everything and everything could line up for you and the more it lines up for you the more or you're going to end up hating it so finally he walks up into his Penthouse and I think he has a pool table in his Penthouse now there he is and he walks

into the walks up play pool as I recall and there there's an old man standing next to the pool table and he has white hair a white goatee he's wearing a bow tie a black tuxedo and he's standing there leaning very GQ um up against against the pool table holding a q stick and uh and the man senses that he's met him somewhere before he's not just not quite sure where and he says um I think you're the sort of person who might know the answer to this question but I I have a really important question is is is this Heaven did I die and go to heaven and the old man Smiles a wicked smile and says oh no this is hell you're in the Twilight Zone and then Rod sirling comes back on screen I watched that when I was eight and that's

the last time I watched it ever again see we we know this we really really know this deep down inside but we think somehow there's a part of us that says with me it'll be different I'm going to have what I want but uh I'll also want what I have and and it will fulfill but it it doesn't um uh Teresa of Avila uh the the great Christian Mystic of the U days gone by centuries gone by really now um she was once uh heard saying there are more tears shed over answered prayers than over unanswered prayers and there are a couple different types of people uh uh uh that have to deal with this and really we all but I'm grouping them in different categories young people really don't know yet how much life is going to crush them you really don't don't get

it yet now if you ask them are you happy right now most of the time they'll say you know I don't really like the way life is unfolding I'm I'm unhappy about this unhappy about that so no but they they they believe that that uh they're just deferring their happiness because it lies somewhere in the future they can get a they're going to get a better job they might be poor now but one day they won't be and so they'll be happy then or they might be lonely now but one day they won't be and they'll be happy then I'm unknown and Anonymous right now no one knows about the talents that are in me but one day they all will and I'll be happy then you really really believe that as a young person and so you're able to defer a lot of happiness

and put up with a whole lot of stuff you know I'm dealing with a lot of college kids both in the secular environment and in the apostolic environment and this is so true they're able to cope with so much unhappiness now because they really believe that it's around the corner somewhere in their 30s or in their 40s they don't yet know that our deepest hopes in this world fail us young people believe that they'll be happy later and so they're willing to put up with unhappiness now because they believe that their day is coming and then then there's the uh uh uh the man that's about my age or maybe even a little bit older and you figur it out now no uh I I was uh foolish to think that but even here there are a couple of different categories of people for there

are some men and women in middle-age and Senior citizenship that believe that their happiness was out there but they missed it somehow some Misfortune happened to them their body failed them and so they were not they were not able to pursue that which would have made them happy or somebody else interfered with their lives they got a divorce or something something terrible happened and they just missed it happiness was there but they missed it but then there's the other kind they achieved what they believed would make them happy time and time again and found it to be completely Elusive and now they're 50 and 60 years old they got exactly what they want but they they here's what they feel there was no such thing as meaning in life see that was the mistake it's not that I missed happiness it's that there is no

happiness it's it's that there is no real certain hope in this world and all the people walking around believing that there's really something to this life oh what fools they are look at these miserable little ants out there scurrying off to work and going off to the Chapel to get married and going on honeymoons and going on vacation and putting the putting the uh U um uh boy I hate it when I forget words whatever it is when you go to Hawaii and put around your neck flowers look at these silly people look at this and you kind of develop this really bitter sort of cynical attitude jaded towards life and everybody's a bunch of Fools and and so you become very cynical and and and and now your heart can't be broken but it's the greatest tragedy here is not that that your heart

got broken it's that now your heart is unbreakable it can't be broken so you've lost something of your human nature something of your created nature in all of this um now uh for for those that believe that they're still harboring the illusion putting stock in the illusion that their happiness is a job away a promotion away a salary away a a a significant other away Etc I'm talking about ultimate meaning and happiness joy joy of the capital J um I want you to think about what really is in store for this universe that sounds really big but I can sum it up pretty quick if you speak to an atheist an atheist might say and when I ask him what what what meaning is there for life there's there's no God there's no standard no measure so what what's the meaning what's the purpose of

Our Lives um science can't seem to answer that question we can answer all kinds of other questions with science but not that not that question and you'll get someone like uh Peter Dawkins or the late Christopher Hitchens or some of these kind of folks and they come up with some really sophisticated elaborate and sometimes even Strangely Beautiful Arguments for where you can find meaning in this universe in a in our universe that's completely uh uh made by accident and um they might say something and they all end up saying something along the lines of we're going to make better worlds a better world for our children it's for the Next Generation we can find meaning in this life not because there's ultimate meaning for our lives so much as it is making life better for f future Generations hold on hold on according to the

theory of the universe this universe began with a big bang this is the secular version of The Genesis began with a big bang there was no such thing as matter there was no such thing as time every everything that ever was or will be was contained somehow compressed into a singularity at the subatomic level you can't even say it had a place in space because space was within the singularity now you might say I don't understand that I don't either that's where we are all right but then through a series of accidents forces there was an explosion in this Singularity and all the matter that is in the universe call this number x x began to expand at the speed of an explosion a massive explosion and sped just below the speed of light in every direction and is expanding and is still today expanding

from that initial explosion but as the Frontiers as you leave the frontiers of the explosion and come back into the inner sanctum come back into where the explosion is no longer being felt the material that was left behind behind began to be Co began to coales around around each other and and form Suns and planets and asteroids Nova Supernova or uh nebula nebuli and and so the universe was formed that way we have the planet Earth and the solar system as a result of all of this sort of thing and and and and and the universe is still expanding just below the speed of light in every direction almost infinitely but here's the problem here's the problem and this is beautifully Illustrated in um uh Isaac asimov's uh the last question uh short story science fiction um the problem is there's gravity gravity is that

which the matter coalesced around and and and and through and by that formed planets and stars and everything but um gravity is at work and gravity even though the explosion is still expanding the universe gravity is starting to catch up to the explosion and like throwing a baseball up into the air its initial thrust matches the speed of the arm but with each inch that it progresses it begins to decelerate underneath the pole of gravity it pulls it down until at last it reaches its Zenith and then it falls back down from where it began and that is happening to our universe it's start its expansion is slowing down because gravity is starting to catch up to the acceleration and so what's happening is it's in in in the future the universe is going to begin to shrink but long before that ever happens we're

in the solar system and one day however far off in the future the Sun is going to run out of the hydrogen that's been powering it for all these eons and when that happens it's going to go supernova there's going to be a massive explosion and it's going to one by one disintegrate each of the planets until it has expanded to the size of the entire solar system the Sun and then it will begin to cool and then become a dark star everything will disappear and so I ask however far in the future what meaning is there for the man the last man left on Earth before the sun takes it there's no future generation where is the meaning for him there isn't any but then he might say well if he's not thinking very well Mars well as I just said Mars is not

an option it will go next okay but by that time we'll be able to you know in a million years we'll be able to we'll find a way to jump into hyperspace we we'll travel to different galaxies even as I just mentioned the galaxies are going to disappear too everything is going to shrink and condense itself one by one every constellation every Galaxy every nebula every solar system is going to Blink out of existence until there is no space and there is no time left and it comes back to that original Singularity and there will have never been for all intents and purposes such a thing as Earth there will never have been human history there will never have been Abraham Lincoln there will never have been Moses there will never have been Shakespeare there will never have been Beethoven's Fifth just a vast nothingness

that's what's in store for our universe without God where's the Hope in that there isn't one if in this life only you have hope you are of all men most miserable everything here is temporary everything as Shakespeare his as as MC Beth cried out tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow Creeps in this Petty Pace from day to day to the last syllable of recorded time and all our yesterdays have lighted fools the way to Dusty death out out brief candle life's but a walking Shadow a poor player that struts and Frets his hour upon the stage and then is heard no more it is a tale that is life is a tale told by an idiot full of Sound and Fury signifying nothing brothers and sisters ladies and gentlemen that's despair the Devil is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour right would love nothing

more than for you to take a little piece a little bite of this for you to become cynical for you to lose hope or for you to focus your hope upon something here and have it crushed and have your soul become smaller and smaller and smaller and your heart become pettier and pettier and Peter pettier until there's nothing left but despair the easier thing for me to fall into believing is not a fairy tale that a good God exists but that in spite of my unshakable certainty that good and evil exist and that I'm being irresistibly drawn every day by something far beyond me to participate on one side or the other I could delude myself into believing that God does not exist and that this summoning in my soul is something mere mortals construct out of their imagination and that it might all be

otherwise this that I've just mentioned this is the fairy tale a tale that I might tell myself when I in a moment of childishness wish to absolve myself of responsibilities I absolutely know in my soul I have there is a deep seated desire in you to behold the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ it is the arrow of the soul that is what it is pointed towards all things in life are pointed in that direction you've heard about the salmon who's born in a river stream and then he floats off and then swims off out of the river and out of the mouth of the river and into the ocean into the deep blue sea and he travels tens of thousands of miles in his lifetime far and wide almost crossing the entire Globe across oceans of time and space and somehow

some way that salmon knows when there's a certain clock inside of him it says it's time to go home and no matter where it is no matter how far away it is he can't see it but he knows within himself that it there and he starts swimming in a certain direction and he finds through gullies and streams and one inch areas of river he finds that place where he was born and that is a little picture of what we have within our soul there's a homing Beacon that's calling us home desire the glory of God in Christ to Behold Him to love him to enjoy him forever and ever and don't get distracted don't fall for lesser joys for temporary Joys everything that you see around you it's all passing away put your Hope on things Eternal and hold to God's unchanging hand as he

pulls you home through all the difficulties through all the Dark Nights unfortunately again many times we start with syn synthetic sources of hope we fall into idolatry whatever we put our hope and trust in whatever seems to save us from being insignificant whatever seems to save us from living meaningless lives whatever gives us our identity that is an idol I'm thinking now of the a woman I once knew she couldn't conceive until she was in her mid-30s and finally when the child was born she she she so closely guarded this child that the child she she smothered it with smothered the child with her love and The Boy The Boy he he he his mother attended him uh to uh go over to friend's house and to go uh to Sunday school class she had to sit in and and uh uh high school she

was constantly on the phone with all of the teachers all the time and the the boy would get on on the peeee baseball team and he had to be the best at everything and everything that came against him she would shout and scream at she would embarrass him all the time constantly constantly flying in scooping up trying to save him he never could strike out he could never fail ever ever ever ever because this child had become yes a child had become her Idol that which made her significant she rested her hope in the child but then the child turned 18 and he moved over to the other side of the continent um James career he's willing to cross boundaries for career he's willing to destroy Health in marriage there's Jim who prizes Comfort Above All Else all I ask for he says is for

one night of peace he has the idolatry of Peace in this world there's the minister with a reputation as a great preacher and leader but he's crushed when he's now passed over for a speaking slot at a big conference or he feels wounded and deeply slided when someone criticizes him there's the idol of reputation moving in there's the man who throws his money around so that he gives the impression of being full of life the life of the party magnanimous and in control he has no friends once his money's gone there is the man who saves every last penny Prides himself not on being uh on not being irresponsible but he will hold up a line at Cracker Barrel getting out his calculator to deduct the tax from the total so that he can see what 15% of $633 is what in the world do

you think's going on there how much do you think that extra 20 cents is costing you is it worth your reputation apparently it is because there's an idol there sexuality sexuality is to our current culture what wealth was to the Rich Young Ruler Jesus said sell it and follow me and he turned away and was sad that is our culture work when work becomes your idol one preacher said success goes to your head and failure goes to your heart and you're miserable um David Foster Wallace said it best if you worship money and things if they are what you tap real meaning in life from then you will never have enough never feel you have enough it's the truth you worship your own body and beauty and sexual Allure and you will always feel feel ugly and when time and age start showing you will

die a million deaths before they finally plant you in the ground if you worship power you will feel weak and Afraid all the time and you will need ever more power over other people to keep that fear at Bay if you worship your intellect if you worship being seen as smart you will end up feeling stupid all the time you will feel like a fraud like you're constantly pulling off imp Oster syndrome always on the verge of being found out with a question you didn't plan on having to answer let me tell you the people in our lives the things in our lives they can't bear the weight of godhood they're not strong enough and when we place our hopes our ultimate hopes in them we're doing them a great disservice when I was uh in Bible College I discovered the um pop singer Sting

in the police it's a great place to discover sting apparently in Bible College I don't know why in the world that happened how it happened but this tape of the very best of Sting fell into my hands and I listened and there was one song that I loved deeply to listen to over and over again I never listened to the words I only caught vague vague snatches it was the musicality of at all his voice it was the song When We Dance and a couple of years ago I bought a lyric I bought a a a book that contains the lyrics of all the songs he wrote and I just went through I could have just looked it up on the internet but I wanted the book so I read through the lyrics of when we dance because he's he's like the Shakespeare of the

20th 20th 21st century as far as pop music goes here's the word the word here are the words to this song he says if he loved you like I love you I would walk away in shame I'd move Town I'd change my name when he watches you when he counts to buy your soul on your hand his golden rings like he owns a bird that sings When We Dance angels will run and hide their wings the priest has said my soul salvation is in the balance of the angels and underneath the wheels of passion I keep my faith in my fashion I will love you more than life if you'll only be my wife I'm going to love you night and day and try in every way I'm going to find a place to live give you all I've got to give I will love

you more than life if you'll only be my wife if I could break down these walls and Shout my name at Heaven's Gate I'd take these hands and I destroy the dark machineries of Fate listen Cathedrals are broken Heavens no longer above and hellfires just a promise away I'd still be saying I'm still in love I'm still in love I'm still in love come and live with me we'll have children of our own when we dance angels will run and hide their face I wish I hadn't read that ruined the song I imagined that he wrote this thinking that this is a a a testimony to the Glory of Love wouldn't you love to be loved this way but listen to those words again Cathedrals are broken Heavens no longer above hellfires a promis way away I'd still be saying I'm still in love okay

Cathedrals are broken by what I found something more beautiful than a church Heaven's no longer above why because she's standing in front of me that's heaven and hellfire if it's just a promise away I'd still say if I were going to be sent to hell for making a promise to her I'd still say I'm still in love I'm still in love ladies and gentlemen nobody can live up to that we are frail made of clay you were not meant to be somebody's God you can't be somebody's God and what's worse if you really love somebody don't make them your God love him first and you love everything else better put things in proper priority and then and then you won't destroy the people you love most they can't bear that only he can be loved with the whole heart the whole mind and with all

strength many of our psychological problems in culture are actually issues of idolatry in Psychology we call it perfectionism workaholism or we call them control freaks but in fact these are all forms of idolatry there's a spiritual explanation for them but the Christian hope the fact that the world can't seem to satisfy our desire for happiness suggests that our needs lie Beyond deeper than the world's reach there's a beautiful story of Jacob you remember Jacob he was born trying to grab at his brother's heel he was born competing with his brother and then when he he's younger he's trying to Grapple with his brother to try and have that Birthright from him he wants the blessing from his father his father doesn't want to give it to him he wants to give it to Esau well then he goes away off into a foreign land and

he tries to find a blessing from a father mother-in-law laan but laan won't give it to him either and then he tries to find this blessing in the face of Rachel it's a beautiful picture right there but still he's a Broken Man and one night something in him changes when he feels like he's about to die he's about to face God he makes a decision he sees over beyond the river there's an angel over there there's the presence of God he crosses that River and he latches on to him and he starts to wrestle with him give me your blessing bless me bless me and the presence of God puts up a struggle and won't relinquish the blessing yet bless me bless me Jacob says bless me he tries to tackle and hold him down to the ground I don't understand all of this but

this is the story that we're given maybe if I can get him in a headlock and prove my dominance this is the way I've always gotten I've always tried to get everything is through this kind of mination maybe he'll bless me and then the Sun starts to come up and the presence of God in the voice of the Angel says let go of me it's almost day not until you bless me and I can see in my mind's eye the dark face of that angel now unshrouded and looking at him in the Twilight of the morning and then hits him on the thigh puts his thigh out of joint his hip out of joint and Jacob limps away but he got the blessing and now his name is Israel what was that all about you see the blessing that he was trying to find in

his brother the blessing he was trying to find from his father the blessing he was trying to find in the face of beautiful Rachel it always eluded him but now he had found God and he said I won't let you go until you bless me you bless me this is where we're all hoping this is what we're all hoping to find is that blessing from God hold on to him hold to God's unchanging hand what in the world do you think Heaven's going to be like I had a 18-year-old boy once come up to me and say um brother painter I I don't want to tell anybody else this I don't want my parents to know this but tell you because I I know you probably won't tell anybody else so here I am telling everybody else he said can I be honest I really

don't want to go to heaven I said you don't want to go to heaven not at all he said well if it's the only alternative to hell yes but it'll be kind of a hell to me really well tell me what you think Heaven's going to be well he said well from what I understand what I've been taught is that we're going to be sitting around a throne and we're going to sing songs and hear the word of God proclaimed forever and ever and ever and we're going to pray to the one who sits upon the throne I said oh oh I understand now you think that heaven's going to be a church service That Never Ends like this one a song service that never ends and maybe a preacher gets up there and he doesn't stop there's no five more minutes or anything it's

just droning on like this Genesis to Revelation and then start over all right I get the picture if that's what heaven is I understand why that's for you only an insurance policy against hell but I asked him have you have you ever been in love with a girl he said yeah in right now in fact said good then you'll understand what I'm about to tell you when I was 16 years old I went to a youth camp and I saw sitting across the way this girl wearing a black dress with orange and yellow flowers on the dress and she had long blonde hair really long blonde hair and it was curled and she had this beautiful skin and these really really magnetic deep blue eyes and I could not take my eyes off her I don't remember what the preacher preached I don't remember any

of the songs I just remember her and I kept looking the whole time and the only time I would look anywhere else is when she looked over this way and I was afraid she was going to be scared so I I watched and then and then after the service she came up to me and started talking to me and I thought she was interested in me but she asked me your friend named Shawn is he dating anybody yes he's dating a supermodel I didn't say that I said Ure yes uh he's actually available but there's this girl that's interested in him and then she said the most surprising thing show me the girl whoa so I showed her and she said ah no problem man I really like you now whoa whoa I am blown away right now and then and then a couple weeks

went went by and we had another like inter church meeting or something like that and she was there and we went uh I I went out to a family pancake house afterwards and sat down and she walked in to go sit with her group but she saw me and so she said to me move over and she she had only mentioned my name one time Jeremy but she had already abbreviated it and she said move over jar oh happy day boa Booga Booga so I moved right on over oh my and she lived across the water actually where your pastor's wife's from they grew up together and I couldn't see her very often I didn't drive it I didn't drive yet and I couldn't it was 30 cents a minute to make a phone call over to Seattle and I ran up a $350 phone

bill and my dad appeared in the room in the middle of the night all I saw was this silhouette and he's holding a phone bill that was powerful and so we couldn't talk all that much so we saw each other once every three or four months but when we were apart I achd I could see her eyes every filament of blue and gold and speckle I could see the blonde curl of the back of her hair I could hear her voice and she would send me handwritten letters and she would put a little dab of a perfume called rain rain on the envelope and all of this came rushing in with that scent I missed her so much and I thought Heaven is just right across the Puget Sound I can't believe that I can actually be with her it's 5 days it's 4 days

it's three days it's only two days it's one day it's one hour and I would stand at the fair fairy Dock and she would usually be the last one walking off and Heaven walked down and I asked the young man do you know what I'm talking about he said exactly and he said that's my problem and that's that's why I'm talking to you I don't want Jesus to come back and take me to Heaven before I get married oh I really see the problem now so in the ET instead of your marriage and your honeymoon you get taken away to an eternal church service I starting to see the problem very clearly so said to the young man now I want you to take all of that all of what you have felt towards that young lady and I want you to realize this if

you were to see a shadow on a wall cast by her image you wouldn't see the color of her dress the color of her eyes or the color of her hair you wouldn't hear the tenor of her voice you wouldn't see the beautiful symmetry of her face in that shadow you would only see two colors black and white and a vague image remember that thought now back up if you can feel this way about her how beautiful she is I want you to imagine I want you to realize she is merely a creation imagine what her Creator is like if she can be this beautiful and he can do this with just dust and clay in his breath imagine beholding his glory you see all we're beholding in these loves here in this world are shadows Whispers rumors Echoes hints fragments little pieces of divinity

that come falling down to the bottom of Marana Trench and finally reach the bottom but one day when Jesus comes back and we stand before him we will no longer be experiencing him from a thousand removes we will no longer have to hear his voice through a thousand other lesser means we will no longer catch a glimpse of him only in the Holiness of churches and Tabernacles we will stand at the very Fountain yes from which all goodness flows all Beauty came from here all that you could have ever desired and so much more we will be there oh I want to see him look upon his face and there to sing forever of his Saving Grace and on that day here in this world the sun will rise in the east if it's spring the flowers will Bloom if it's summer the sound of

crickets if it's fall the leaves will turn red if it's a day in Winter men will be stepping Outdoors to catch the scent of snow women will give birth to babies on that day that the Lord comes and name them after their grandfathers students will study for their exams on that day families will sign long-term mortgages on that day on that day the nut a squirrel dug into the ground three years ago and forgot about will come to life and spring up over the soil there will be a baker somewhere who will get up up early in the morning and squeeze chocolate frosting in the shape of happy faces a fisherman will check the weather and Stow their Nets the judge will hand down a prisoner's sentence of 30 years on that day a thief will somewhere be surveilling a home on some street named

Elm on that day a man somewhere will be trying desperately to hide his adultery a preacher will read an article in the news on that day and say to himself I think this will preach on Sunday a mother will get a diagnosis of Cancer and a few months left to live on that day a girl will finally Master the language of the Foreigner she loves two will be working in the field two will be working at the Mill two will be sleeping in bed that is to say on that day everything will be quite normal and then all of a sudden with no warning the sky will shatter his coming will be like a thief in the night his coming will be like a man sitting in the quiet library at night with a book in front of a fire near a window and suddenly

a rock thrown through the pane of glass for the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout with the voice of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with him in the clouds to meet with the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord wherefore Comfort one another with these words this is our great hope our ultimate hope and aim there he's calling us home he's calling us home would you stand with me for I am convinced that these light afflictions are not worthy to be compared with the weight of Glory that awaits us oh my oh my what a future is in store for you what a future is in store for you you are loved by

God you are being called by God never let that hope be rested placed upon something less worthy something less able when we have this hope behold what manner of love the father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be but when we see him we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is and everyone who has this hope within himself is purified if you can live with this expectation how different your life can be how different your trials seem Jesus name Jesus name would you raise your hands with me Jesus let our hope be in Christ only in Christ alone I place My Hope Jesus let all other Idols of hope that VI for Our Hope let them crumble I lift up my voice and my hands

to you the one who's able to keep me you call me and you call me home Lord I pray that I would remain faithful to this vision for the rest of my life God keep me close to the Altar and let my spirit my feet always be pointed towards the New Jerusalem Jesus Jesus name Jesus name again as in last night would you come before you go home come to the Altar and pray come and rejoice in this hope be ready to give a reason of the hope that lies within you Jesus let there be a Revival of Hope in my life Lord let me spread this hope Wherever I Go Let me give this hope to other people Lord let my life show evidence that my hope is pointed here and is in nothing else but this Jesus name Jesus name Jesus name Jesus

name Hallelujah Jesus name Jesus Hallelujah hallah Hallelujah Hallelujah Hallelujah Jesus name praise the Lord praise the