When Hope Rises

The Lord has for us. Romans 15, verse number 13. Now, may the God of hope Everybody say hope. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope. Everybody say hope again. By the power of the Holy Spirit. Today, I want to preach to you when hope rises. When hope rises. Can you help me pray one more time that God's anointing will rest in this place today? Jesus, God, you've already been here with us.

I feel your presence close and near, and I just ask right now that you would open our hearts and our minds to receive what it is you have for us today. Let us be open and receptive to it, and do what you do best, God. Take the brokenness of our life and make it beautiful again. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. In November of 1989, something happened that changed the world. For nearly three decades, the Berlin Wall stood as one of the most recognizable symbols on Earth.

It stretched across the city of Berlin. It divided East Germany from West Germany. It separated families. It separated friends. It separated people from opportunities and freedoms and dreams. For 28 years, the wall stood. Children were born that were born when that wall was standing. They went to school. They got an education. They grew a family. All while that wall was standing there. To many people, it seemed it was just a permanent fixture of their life. It was a reality that was never ever ever going to change.

It wasn't going to be something that was ever going to be different. It wasn't because of the concrete. It wasn't because of the barbed wires. It was a mindset that had set in. And for years, people had learned to just live with it. Isn't it amazing what we can get used to? They adapted to it. They adjusted their expectations around it. In many ways, they had stopped believing they would ever see it come down. But then, something began to happen. The political climate started shifting. Conversations about freedom began to spread, and possibilities that once seemed impossible suddenly seemed to all all all of a sudden obtainable.

People started hearing stories of change. They started seeing cracks in a system that once looked unshakeable. And little by little, we like that around here, little by little, something began to rise in the hearts of the ordinary people. Hope. Hope that things could be different. Hope that freedom was possible. Hope that tomorrow did not have to look like yesterday. And then on November the 9th, 1989, an announcement was made that created confusion throughout East Germany. Thousands of people began to gather at checkpoints along the wall.

And nobody was entirely sure what was taking place. The guards didn't know, the people didn't know. All of a sudden, over the course of 4 or 5 days, the crowds began to amass. First it was 10,000, then it was 15, then it was 20, then it was 40, then it was 70, then it was 300,000 strong standing at the gates. Something was going on. And all of a sudden, people started crossing the wall. People started going through. They reached the other side, and before long, there were celebrations and families who were being reunited.

And all of a sudden, somebody decided to get a hammer out and a chisel and started pecking away, and that wall began to come crashing down after 28 years. Now, here's what fascinates me. That wall did not fall because the concrete became weak. You know, it didn't fall because the barbed wire lost its strength. The wall fell because something stronger than concrete began rising in the hearts of people. It was called hope. Hope, ladies and gentlemen, is a powerful thing. Hope is stronger than fear. Hope is stronger than intimidation.

Hope is stronger than decades of believing nothing is ever going to change. And when hope rises up, all of a sudden, realities begin to change around us. I'm here to preach a message of faith today in this room. I'm here reaching for somebody that maybe you've been like that wall. You've been like those other people who lived in East Germany. Maybe it's been a long time, maybe decades, maybe it's been 28 years plus since you have felt better about life, but I'm here to tell you, it can change today.

Oh, it can change today. I don't know what everybody's facing. I know a few stories in the room, but for the vast majority of you, I don't know what you're facing in your life, but I know this, there's nothing like a good dose of hope. There's nothing about a possibility that my life does not have to be bound by things that are out of my control, that I know a God who is able and who is alive and who is all powerful, who's just as capable as he has ever been.

He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. He's still on the throne. He's still changing lives. He's still filling people with his spirit. He's still about changing the dynamics of family situations. Do you believe in hope? Will you help me preach today when hope rises? I think this is a powerful lesson for us. I think when walls are strongest is when hope can be its best. And when hope begins with rise, that that seemed to be impossible all of a sudden seems to make itself a possibility in our life today.

Hope changes what we believe is possible. In fact, it's one of the first points I want to make today in this message is hope changes what you believe is possible. One of the most remarkable stories in all of scripture I find in Ezekiel chapter 37. If you've been raised around church or if you study the word of God, you're probably familiar with Ezekiel 37. Ezekiel 37 is the story of what? Dry bones. Where the prophet all of a sudden is is is taken by the Lord and is placed down into a valley of dry bones.

No skeletons, not bodies, but dry bones. All the remain was scattered reminder of what used to be. The situation wasn't just dead, it'd have been dead a long long long time. Mm, does anybody identify with that? A long time. As Ezekiel stood there looking across the valley, God asked him the question, "Can these bones live?" What an interesting question. I like questions. If you've been around here any length of time, you know pastor likes questions. I like to ask a lot of questions. I think that's a great question.

Can these bones live? God wasn't asking Ezekiel what he could see. Anybody could see the bones. God was asking Ezekiel what he believed. Ooh. Y'all are not going to preach with me. It's okay. I'm going to preach by myself today. God isn't always interested in what you can see. Cuz what we usually see is our problem. What we see is what's right in front of us. He was placed into a dry valley of dry bones. He didn't ask him, "Are the bones dry?" He didn't ask him about what he could see with his physical eyes.

He said, "Can you believe?" I want to know, has anybody had the the ability to believe in service today? Anybody got any belief? >> >> I'm trying to engage your spiritual eyes for just a moment. I'm not I want you to focus on your problem. Everybody's got a problem. In fact, it'd probably easier If you don't have a problem, raise your hand. Everybody's like, "I ain't raising my hand." Cuz everybody got one one no problem. Most everybody's got a problem. Let's be serious. We all have things.

We all have something we wish was a little bit different in our life. We have the ability to see the problem. But when we're focused on the problem, we're never focused on the God who can take care of the problem. Can these bones live? Let me ask you a Let me ask you a serious question. I I like to I like to cut up. I like to have a good time. But I want to be serious now. Let me ask you a serious question. Can your situation be different?

Can it? Think about it. Think about your reality right now. Think about what you're Think about what you're facing, what circumstances you're going through, what problems you got going on, whatever health issues, WHATEVER YOU'RE FACING, CAN IT BE DIFFERENT? All right. If it can, then there's hope. I wish somebody would get excited today. >> >> Don't focus on the problem. Focus on the possibility that it can be different. That my God is more than able to swoop down in your situation and change your dynamic, change your reality.

I want to know, do you believe that today? >> >> It's It's important to see what God can see. Not what I can see. I always focus on the reality what's in front of me. But I like that God is not bound by time. We're bound by time. You and I are finite. We have a beginning and an end, but God doesn't. God stands outside of time. So, I'm always curious as to what God can see. What is God seeing in your situation? Have you asked him lately?

When's the last time that you just said, "God, what do you see in my life? God, what do you see in my circumstances? What do you see in my situation?" Because here's what I know, understanding what God sees is the birthplace of hope. Hope begins when God's perspective becomes greater than our circumstances. Oh, you didn't catch what I said because you'd be excited. >> >> God's perspective is bigger than my circumstances. God's outside of my problem, looking in at my problem, seeing where I'm at.

Understanding what God sees is the birthplace of hope. Hope is not pretending bones aren't dry or denying the reality or ignoring the facts. Hope is simply believes that God has the final word, not me. He has the final word. He is the author and the He's still writing your story. I've heard it said before, don't put a period where God wants to put a comma. I got to give somebody some hope today. You're ready to put a period there. And God said, "I don't want to put a period.

I'm not done with you yet. I'm the author and the finisher. There's still work I'm going to do on you. There's still something I'm going to do great." Our God specializes, as I said while ago in my opening prayer, he specializes in taking the brokenness of our life and making something beautiful out of it. You may think it's over. You may think you're being defined by your circumstances. I refuse to feel that way. My God's not done with me. I'm still drawing breath. There's still opportunity for him to do great things in my life.

That isn't an arrogant statement. That is a truth. That is a reality that MY GOD IS GOOD ALWAYS, REGARDLESS OF WHAT I'VE GOT MYSELF INTO, DOESN'T NEGATE GOD'S GOODNESS NOR HIS ABILITY to do something SPECIAL IN MY LIFE IF I WILL TURN IT OVER TO HIM AND STOP TRYING TO FIGURE IT OUT BY MYSELF, BUT TRUST IN HIM. HE'S A GOOD GOD. OH, let hope rise up in your life today. God specializes in speaking life into dead places. Anybody got some dead places you need to come alive?

The wall in Berlin came down when people started believing something different was possible. And many spiritual laws will begin walls will begin to fall when people stop measuring their future by their circumstances and start measuring their future by the power that God has. Because when hope rises, possibilities rises. And what once looked like dead becomes a place where God can perform the miracle. We all like miracles, don't we? We don't always like living through to the miracle, do we? Like, I like hearing about miracles. I don't know that I want to sign up to be a part of one.

Cuz they usually require something uncomfortable to be happening in my life. You're making me dig hard for this one today, aren't you? Everybody's in vacation mode today. I'm glad God doesn't go on vacation. Miracles are possible in dead places if you are willing to look past the obvious that's in front of you and grab the hand of the God who's walking in the valley with you. Do you know he's there? He hasn't left you. He said, "I'll never leave you or forsake you." He's walking with you.

We sometimes get so focused on the problem that we let go of his hand. The last thing you need to do is let go of God. He's the one you need to run to. Here's Here's a second truth for you. Second thing that happens when hope arises. Hope gives you strength before the circumstances change. Now, what we like, we like it. We We We are really big, all of us. I'm going to say an absolute truth in this room. We all like for the circumstances to change first.

That's what we want. But God usually doesn't operate that way. Let me explain. One of the hardest realities of living for God is this. If we're honest, most of us want God to change the situation first. We want the healing first. We want the answer first. We want the breakthrough first. Then we'll feel strong and we'll have peace and our faith will be high and we're able to endure. That's what we tell ourselves. But God works in the opposite way. He gives strength first and the circumstances change later.

He gives you the ability to make it. Oh, there's some days I don't know that I'm going to make it. I find it interesting when he says, "I'm never going to put more on you than you can bear." And then often times I'm like, "God, I'm bending right now. I'm bending. I feel a little warped." Some of you are like, "Yeah, pastor, you are warped." This one of the reason reasons I think Hebrews 11 is such a wonderful passage to go to when times are tough.

It says this, Hebrews 11:1, "Now faith is the substance of things There's that word, right? Did you notice the the terminology? The substance. Faith is the substance. The stuff of faith is what? It's hope. Look at that. Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Faith is built on hope and hope is what gives us substance to things that you can't see yet. Hope is what allows you to stand when there's no visible proof. When your friends look at you and say, "You've lost your mind." When those who don't have a relationship with God say, "Why do you keep going to God?

He's forgotten you." That's not what hope Hope says, "No, I'm still hanging on." Hope hangs on when even when you don't feel him. Hope understands the reality that I may not see something moving, but my God is working in the background of my life. Just because I can't feel it and just because I can't see it doesn't negate the truth that my God still knows where I'm at. But Job said going through all his troubles, "I go to the left, I don't find him. Go to the right, he's not there.

But he knows where I'm at. He knows the world I'm walking. He knows the path I'M TAKING. MY GOD HASN'T FORGOTTEN ME AND he hasn't forgotten you." If you're still going, that means you still have strength and the ability. You haven't GIVEN UP YET. HANG ON TO HOPE. I PROMISE YOU GOD IS WORKING on your behalf. Won't you look in chapter 11, go to verse number eight. By By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place where he would receive as an inheritance.

Look at the Look at the word and he went out not knowing where he was going. Now, some of you did that same thing this morning. You know where he's going. In fact, a lot of lot of in this section, you have no clue where you're going. It's kind of making your way through life. There's There's There's some strength here. Listen, he didn't know where he's going. Think about this. God gave him a promise but not a map. He gave him a direction but didn't give him any details, Max.

He just said, "I want you to leave everything you've known." Think about that. Abraham, everything that you've ever been comfortable with, I want you to walk away from. And Abraham said, "Okay." Where am I going? Just go walking. That's faith. That's hope. That's trust that God's going to take care of me. How? I don't know. I don't know. But I'm going to trust God. He walked without knowing where he was going. What keeps a man moving when he doesn't know where he's going? Hope. Hope gave him the strength to walk before the promise ever became visible.

Look Look at verse 13. And then And it goes on between 10 and 13 to list a whole lot of people of faith, but it says this, "These all died in faith, not having received the promises." What? What? What's going on here? "Not having received the promises but having seen them afar off, were assured of them, embracing them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on this earth." This is powerful. They didn't receive it yet, but they could see it. Not with natural eyes, but it took spiritual vision to understand that God was still in doing something.

To the end of my life, God is still working on my life. Hope allows you to see from afar what God has spoken even when it hasn't arrived yet. That's vision. That's walking in faith because you can't still see what's going on yet. You're able to get through it. How? Because God hasn't abandoned you. He's walking with you. The writer speaks of Moses in verse 27. By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king, for he endured as seeing him who is invisible.

How do you see something that's invisible? Ever ask yourself that question? How do you do that? Hope. Fixing your eyes on what's invisible. Hope is what keeps you steady even when everything around you feels uncertain. Hope is what keeps you praying when heaven feels silent. Hope is what keeps you worshipping when the answer hasn't arrived. Hope is what keeps you faithful even when the battle keeps raging around you. Noah built the boat and it had never rained. He got one set of instructions. Build a boat to this specification because I'm going to rain.

They They you can't get your head around that. It had never rained. That's hope. That's faith in action. Abraham walked before fulfillment. Moses endured before deliverance. None of them had visible evidence yet. Hope gave them enough strength to keep moving. Let me tell somebody here today, waiting seasons are hard. I don't like waiting. I'm an impatient man. I admit it. My wife's probably saying amen over there. I am an impa- I don't do well with a lot. I won't get into that. I'm an impatient person.

We don't like the waiting process, but waiting seasons will test your faith. They will test your trust. They will test your attitude. They'll test because things don't go the way we want them to do when we want them to do that. It takes hope to worship when nothing has changed and it takes hope to keep showing up when everything feels the same. But there's something inside of you that says God is still there. He hasn't forgotten me. He hasn't left me. Just because you can't see movement doesn't mean God isn't moving.

Hebrews says faith is evidence of things not seen. What is that? That's hope. That's faith. This means God can be working in places your eyes can't see yet. It does not negate that God's working. He is. The Berlin Wall didn't fall overnight. It didn't fall overnight. It took something rising up in the people that set something into motion. That's how God works. Sometimes your breakthrough feels delayed, but God has been building it up all along. And hope will keep you enduring. It'll keep you standing in the process.

Don't walk away in the silence and don't quit in the waiting and don't abandon the promise in the process. Sometimes the greatest miracle is how he sustains you in the process of what you're going through. Oh, I'm in a room full enough people that have endured some situations and know the truth of that statement I just made. Sometimes the greatest miracle is that he kept you in the process of what he was taking you through. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody been there in the dark night of the soul when it seemed like everything else had left you and abandoned, but all of a sudden when the moment was right, God stepped into your problem.

He stepped into your situation and he lifted you up in the least possible moment you ever expected. WHY? BECAUSE HE'S FAITHFUL AND GOOD and true. God is with you. LET YOUR HOPE RISE UP TODAY. >> [cheering and applause] >> The third thing that can happen when hope rises is this. Hope has the ability to break the power of fear. Who, can I speak to somebody today? Hmm, I felt this one in prayer this morning as I was going through these notes and praying that God would give me the right words to say as I was preaching this message.

I seemed to kind of settle in this spot for just a minute. There's a lot of fear and anxiety in our world today. I'm going to get I'm going to get even more personal. There's there's there there is fear and angst in this room today that I'm speaking to. So, I'm going to say this, hope breaks the power of fear. Fear is one of the enemy's greatest weapons. Fear will imprison you long before anything else ever physically binds you. Fear will make you stay in places God called you out of.

Fear will make you tolerate what God intended to change. Fear will convince you to settle for less than what God has promised you. Fear will let you accept the labels that have been placed on you when they are not true. 2 Timothy 1:7, "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Notice that fear is a spirit. And spirits are shaped in atmospheres. Fears create atmospheres of paralysis, and fears create opportunities for confusion and hesitation.

And when fear dominates your world, it'll dominate your decisions and your feelings. That's why I mean so many people stay trapped, not because they lack of the ability or the calling or the opportunity, but because fear has built walls around them that are not real. Did you hear me? >> Yes. >> They're not real. They're real in your mind, but they're not real. And the enemy doesn't do anything but continue to pour gasoline on that fire. I'm here to tell you that hope breaks fear. >> Yes.

>> It only takes a small flicker. It only takes It only takes just just as the Bible says, it only takes faith as a as a as a grain of mustard seed. Just a little bit because the when that flame flicker even the the darkest possible space and area, the darkest complete darkness, one match, one match, darkness can't stop the light. The enemy knows that. That's why he pours on you when you have those moments where you feel that angst coming over you. Listen, this is something that that I know.

I I I I've been there. I've had where it feels like everything comes crashing in and your walls are closing in around you. You know in your mind that it isn't real, but yet it is real. You can feel it. It's palpable to you. You get locked up in that cycle in your own mind. I'm here to tell you that if you can just breathe his name, if you can just breathe his name, it will change the atmosphere around you, and I promise you those walls will start cracking and crumbling all the down.

What was going on? Hope rises up. There's something about breathing the name of just saying Jesus. Sometimes that's all you can get out. You don't have to have a long lengthy prayer. Just Jesus. Jesus. Jesus. Anybody know what I'm talking about? Anybody had those dark nights of the soul when that's all you could get out? You couldn't get a lengthy prayer out. You didn't have to use King James language. You just have to say Jesus. Because when I SAY THAT NAME, ALL POWER THAT'S IN HEAVEN, EVERYTHING is culminated in that name.

WHEN I SAY THAT, HE PAYS ATTENTION, HEAVEN SHOWS UP, AND MY WALLS COME CRASHING DOWN. >> >> WHEN HOPE RISES, when hope rises, fear says, "What if I fail? What if I step out and it doesn't work? What if I trust again and get hurt? What if I pray and God doesn't? As you ever notice, fear's always asking questions. Oh, it's only language is in questions. But hope speaks in promises. Hope magnifies God, and that's exactly what happens when we need your walls to come crashing down.

Before fear loses grip, once hope rises enough, fear starts losing its voice. Can I tell you something? Enemy's greatest strategy is not always trying to destroy you. Often times he simply tries to intimidate you. Cuz he knows unless God gives him permission, he can't touch you. I'm going to say that again. Unless God gives him permission, he can't touch you. So instead, he tries to intimidate you. That's his tactic. He He tries to get you to believe lies. He tries to twist and alter the reality and the truth that is there.

Cuz he can never get you tipping in the right direction. He doesn't have to touch you. You'll fall all by yourself. I'm here to tell somebody, stop allowing the enemy to intimidate you. Stop listening to his voice. Stop giving him space. Don't give place to the devil. That's what the word of God says. Don't give place for him. Don't make a space for him. When that boy starts going, you need to cut it off. I don't know I don't know what your process is. Turn the worship music up.

Open the Bible. Do something, but stop listening to that liar's voice. Everything he speaks is a lie. There is no truth in him. So, whatever he says about you, the opposite is true. If he If he says you're worthless, you're great value. >> >> If he says you're a loser, you're a champion. If he says you're a mistake, you're the great work that God created. Whatever he's saying, the opposite is true about you. Hear me, fear is a liar. Fear is a liar. Fear is a liar.

Fear is a liar. So, whatever you're afraid of, fear is a liar. Fear will tell you the wall is permanent. It'll tell you your bondage is forever. It'll tell you your addiction will never break. Fear will tell you your marriage will never heal and your children will never come back, BUT FEAR IS A LIAR. DON'T GIVE ANY PLACE FOR IT. Speak truth in your life. God will give you the power. God didn't give you fear. He gave you power and he gives you a sound mind.

Sometimes that's the best thing he can give you is the ability to stand on truth. To stand on truth. To stand on truth. You may be thinking, "Oh, you're being old-fashioned, Pastor Kevin. Why are you talking about the word of God?" Because this will get you through. This will get you through the dark night of your soul. Open it up and find a verse in there and claim it for yourself. Claim the truth of God. Pray it back to him. When you don't KNOW WHAT TO PRAY, PRAY HIS WORDS BACK TO HIM.

It's something you can build your life on. It will bring THE HOPE BACK TO WHERE you need it to be. It'll drive the darkness back when hope rises. David understood about fear. Some of the greatest words in this book were penned by David, the man after God's own heart. I love what he said in Psalms 27:1, "The Lord is my light and my salvation. Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life. Of whom shall I be afraid?" I don't know about you, but I can see David giving himself a pep talk.

I believe in pep talks. I give them to myself all the time. Sometimes it doesn't go the way I want to do it. I have to get I have to pull myself outside of myself for just a minute and say, "Hey, uh you've heard me say this many times. I talk to myself in the third person. Come on, Kevin. What are you doing? When I'm really mad at myself, I call myself KA. Come on, KA. Why you got your head like that? God's good to you.

God's faithful to you. God is you God's never abandoned you. He's never left you. Even on your darkest days, God's still good. Sometimes you need to remind yourself of what God has done for you. Has God been good to you? Has God provided for you? Has God filled you with his spirit? Has God done a work in your family's life? Has God given you provision when you needed it? Has he healed your body at times? Has God done these things? I'm asking for you to respond.

THEN WHY DON'T YOU RECALL THOSE THINGS? >> >> THIS I RECALL TO MY MIND, THEREFORE I have hope. It's because of your mercies that we are not consumed. Because I compassion I feel not They are NEW EVERY MORNING. GREAT IS THE FAITHFULNESS LORD UNTO ME. OH, remind yourself, you've been good to me. You've been good to me. You've been good to me. God, why would I GIVE UP NOW? YOU'VE BROUGHT ME THIS FAR. YOU'RE NOT GOING TO LET ME DOWN. You're not going to forget ME.

YOU ARE A FAITHFUL and a true and a loving God, AND I'M YOUR CHILD. I BELONG to you. I have your name on my life. >> >> Oh, I wish somebody believed that besides me today. I'm trying to build up hope in this room. There's a different OUTCOME FOR YOUR LIFE than what you have predetermined. >> >> The fourth thing that happens when hope arises is this. Hope positions you for the supernatural. Ooh, I like the supernatural. I like it when God steps into my equation.

Anybody else like it? I like it when everybody says, "It ain't going to happen." But God says, "Oh, yeah?" Oh, yeah? Do you know what I'm talking about? >> >> All your friends give up on you. Your prayer groups give up on you. Oh, they say they're praying for you, but they give up on you. I'm so glad God didn't leave up. I like it when he shows up in those times and says, "I'm with you. I'm still here." There's been times in my life when it feels like all my prayers went up against the ceiling and bounced right back down landing in my lap.

Maybe that's just me. If I'm being transparent and honest, there's been times I've prayed I'm like, "I don't think this is going anywhere." But then there's this moments when it's very tempting to give up and walk away and just throw your hands in the air and say, "God, well, this doesn't even make sense. God, it it it it like how is this right? How is this a part of the plan? God, I don't know how in my mind I can rationalize why you're allowing me to go through and experience what I'm going through." And God says, "Let me show you something." And he swoops down and picks me up one more time.

Do you know what I'm talking about? I'm talking about those kind of times when you don't even know what to pray, that all you can do is just lay there and moan before God. Has anybody Has anybody had those moments? Has anybody had those low moments when when you can't even put together a sentence before him because of what you're going through? When you've exhausted every scenario and every possible way that you can work your way out of it and and every time it comes back to the same conclusion, there's no way.

And then God says that there's still me. He's still there. >> >> There's been a few times when he said, "I'm glad you finally realized that I have to do this and not you." He might be all so good. I'm hard-headed. I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm I'm a problem solver. That's what I do. And there's times that God says, "I'm just going to let you get down to where you have nowhere else to go and then maybe you'll realize I've been here waiting the whole time for you to turn to me." I'm here to tell somebody, "Turn around.

God is there. He's there. He's there. He's there. He's there. He hasn't left you. He's still there in your life. HE'S STILL DESIRING TO WALK WITH YOU ALONG THE WAY. Don't let your hope diminish. LET IT RISE TO THE OCCASION. Mark chapter 5, I think it's a great picture. Story of the woman with the issue of blood. 12 years of suffering. 12 years of weakness, 12 years of unanswered prayers, 12 years of seeing doctors, 12 years 12 years of spending until she had nothing else to spend.

This was what hopelessness feels like. Nothing has changed. But I love what it says in verse 27 of Mark 5. When she heard about Jesus. Oh. She tried a lot of things. She did everything within her reason, everything within her ability. Then all of a sudden somebody told her about Jesus. I'm here to tell somebody today about Jesus. She came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. And then she says in verse 28, "For she said, if I may only touch his clothes, I shall be made whole." See, hope was what was birthed inside her mind.

Somebody told her what Jesus had been doing. And for some reason she decided to believe that. I'm looking for somebody to hang on to what I've been preaching today because the master is here. Now, I want you to notice it took action on her part. It was more than just believing. There's a whole sermon right there. There's something beyond belief. It took more than just believing that Jesus was able. She said, "If I can get to him." In other words, if I have to leave where I am to reach out to touch.

She wasn't whole yet. Nothing had changed. The issue was still there, but hope began to rise. Hope moved her and she pushed through the crowd, through the pain, through the weakness, through the embarrassment. She didn't allow any of those things to hold her back. See, there comes a point when desperation will cause you know, like, I don't care what people think. I wonder if there's anybody desperate in the house today. Anybody who wants to say, you know what, I don't care what you think about me?

I'm tired of being stuck in that situation. I'm tired of being locked up in the prison of my own mind. I don't care what you think. I don't care what you say. I don't care what label you put on me. I'm going to do my best to interact with God. I'm going to step out. I'm going to push THROUGH THE CROWD. I'M DETERMINED THAT I'M GOING TO TOUCH HIM BECAUSE IF I CAN TOUCH HIM, I JUST KNOW THAT I KNOW THAT I KNOW MY LIFE WILL BE DIFFERENT.

DOES ANYBODY FEEL THAT TODAY? >> >> SOMETHING POWERFUL. I'm getting ready to close. Something powerful about the story. I was reading a book by J. Mark Jordan. Older Pentecostal preacher, well-respected elder in our movement. He's a great story writer. I I stumbled across old book I had on my shelf and pulled it out and began to read through it. He'd done a little It was a little two-page leadership encouragement devotional. He talked about the Berlin Wall. So, what got this whole thing started? 28 years it stood and divided people and families.

For an entire generation it became normal. People adjusted to it. They learned to live around it. People stopped expecting it to ever change because that's what walls do. If stay there long enough, they feel permanent. But 2 years before the wall fell, 2 years before the wall fell President Ronald Reagan stood at the gate and he said this, >> Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall. >> And maybe you can't see it today. It took 2 years before that wall fell, But he set something in motion with that speech.

I'm setting something in motion with this message today to let hope rise. And I wonder if there's anybody who's willing to stand on their feet and declare WITH ME, "TEAR DOWN the wall!" I don't know what wall you're facing in your life. I don't know what's going on in your mind or in your spirit. I don't know what wall's facing in your family or in your marriage or your relationship. I don't know what wall your finances are facing or maybe you're facing in your health or your body.

But I'm here to tell you today, let hope rise in this place. Stand with ME AND SAY, "TEAR DOWN THIS WALL! TEAR DOWN THIS WALL! GOD, TEAR DOWN THIS WALL IN MY LIFE!" >> [applause and cheering] >> I feel the Holy Ghost in this place today speaking to somebody's wall. Speaking and telling us we don't have to live this way. That was never God's plan. This isn't permanent. You've decided in your own self that you cannot be different. But I'm here to tell you that's a lie from the pit of hell.

You're not going to be defined by this. Your family's not going to be defined by this. SOMEBODY GRAB A HOLD OF WHAT I'M PREACHING. TEAR DOWN THIS WALL! I REFUSE TO BE BOUND BY IT ANYMORE. I'M DECLARING TODAY in the name of Jesus that these walls are coming down. Do you believe that? Do you know what that Do you desire that for your life? Close your eyes. Raise your hands right now. Jesus, God, we come before you humbly in this place right now. Lord, I know that you gave me this word.

You gave me this message for your church, for your people. And I pray today, God, FOR THESE WALLS TO COME DOWN IN JESUS' NAME. LORD, let hope rise in this place. God, I pray as we make our way forward in this altar for those that are hungry for a change, for those who are willing to step out of their comfort zone and push past the embarrassment, push past the labels, push past the failures, push past all the circumstances. For those who are willing to step out in faith today for you to do a mighty work in their life.

In Jesus name, these altars are open. I don't know what you need in your life. I don't know what your wall is, but I would claim today that my wall is coming down. I would walk with boldness down to this altar. Throw your hands up. Allow God to do something in your life today that only he can do. Bring the brokenness of your lives. >> >> I promise you he'll make it beautiful again. This prayer time, church.