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Special Preaching Hope Is Not Shaken- Minister Max Lucado · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: I keep telling my friend Buddy Cook that he needs
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  Speaker 1: to compile all of his golf stories and put him
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  Speaker 1: in a book. He has the funniest things happened to
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  Speaker 1: him on the golf course. My favorite story of Buddy's
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  Speaker 1: is the time that Buddy was playing in Scotland at
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  Speaker 1: the Old Course and he was actually using a caddy,
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  Speaker 1: the very same caddy that Lee Trevino, PGA golfer used
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  Speaker 1: to use when he would play in Scotland or England.
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  Speaker 1: A fellow by the name of Willie Atchison. Buddy was
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  Speaker 1: playing the Old Course and if you know anything about golf,
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  Speaker 1: you know the seventeenth hole on the Old Course is
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  Speaker 1: a famous hole. And Buddy had hit a good drive,
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  Speaker 1: but it was off to the right of the fairway
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  Speaker 1: and he turned to Willie Atchison and he said, what
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  Speaker 1: club should I use to hit my next shot? Well,
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  Speaker 1: mister Atchison looked at Buddy and said, did you know
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  Speaker 1: that mister Trevino when he played here in the open
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  Speaker 1: his ball landed in this exact spot and he hit
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  Speaker 1: a seven iron. Well, that was all Buddy needed to hear.
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  Speaker 1: So Buddy took a seven iron and hit what he
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  Speaker 1: describes as a very good shot, but the ball came
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  Speaker 1: up fifteen yard short. Frustrated, Buddy looked at the caddy,
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  Speaker 1: mister Atchison, and said Willie, that ball came up fifteen
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  Speaker 1: yard short. And Willie said, the very same thing happened
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  Speaker 1: to mister Trevino. Maybe you feel that way, that you're
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  Speaker 1: giving it your best shot, but life keeps coming up short. Well,
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  Speaker 1: then we've got a great topic for you. If that
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  Speaker 1: describes you, We're so grateful that you're a part of
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  Speaker 1: this service. If you're watching online, or if you're in
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  Speaker 1: the overflow rooms, or if you're right here in the
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  Speaker 1: big room, we're very, very grateful. We're going to turn
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  Speaker 1: the chapter, the page in the chapter of our Believed
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  Speaker 1: Book to the chapter called Hope. Hold up your Belief
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  Speaker 1: Book if you brought it. I just want to take
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  Speaker 1: a quick survey. Eighty seven hold him up eighty seven
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  Speaker 1: point set six or seven percent. I've got eighty six
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  Speaker 1: point seven percent. That's good, good turnout on the Believed Book.
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  Speaker 1: And we're looking at the theme of hope. Before we
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  Speaker 1: begin the message, we want to offer a prayer for
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  Speaker 1: one of our partner churches. Other churches in the San
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  Speaker 1: Antonio area are going through the believed book with us.
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  Speaker 1: One of them is the New Life Fellowship led by
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  Speaker 1: Senior Pastor Dwayne Lowe. So let's pray for him. Then
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  Speaker 1: we'll get to work. Lord. We lift up to you
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  Speaker 1: the fine people of this wonderful congregation called the New
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  Speaker 1: Life Fellowship. Senior Pastor Dwayne Lowe carries a burden for
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  Speaker 1: these people, and we pray that you had shoulder that
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  Speaker 1: burden with him. Forgive our speaker today his sins are
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  Speaker 1: just too many to count, and grant that we can
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  Speaker 1: just see Christ through Christ. We pray, and all the
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  Speaker 1: church said. Fifteen year old Amanda Todd became the unwitting
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  Speaker 1: poster child for despair when she posted a nine minute
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  Speaker 1: video on YouTube that went viral. It was the story
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  Speaker 1: of her situation in life. Her downward spiral began when
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  Speaker 1: a predator convinced her to expose herself and take a
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  Speaker 1: picture and send it to him, and then he posted
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  Speaker 1: the picture on the Internet. You can imagine the embarrassment.
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  Speaker 1: Humiliation rained down upon her like a summer squall. She
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  Speaker 1: couldn't escape it. It was in the high school hallways,
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  Speaker 1: the internet highways, embarrassment everywhere she went. Her family relocated,
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  Speaker 1: changed schools, but still she couldn't escape the text messages,
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  Speaker 1: the calls, and the embarrassment. She was already a private
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  Speaker 1: and very fragile person, and this just did her. In
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  Speaker 1: the nine minute video that she posted described her descent
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  Speaker 1: into despair. She never spoke in the video. She just
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  Speaker 1: held up cards, and those cards covered half of her face,
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  Speaker 1: and the cards carried phrases like I need help, I
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  Speaker 1: have no one. My name is Amanda Todd. She showed
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  Speaker 1: the scars on her arm where she had been cutting herself,
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  Speaker 1: and she had admitted to drinking bleach and trying to
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  Speaker 1: take her life, but even failed at that. Two days
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  Speaker 1: after she posted the videos, she attempted to take her
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  Speaker 1: life again and she succeeded. She said, I've run out
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  Speaker 1: of hope. I've wondered does God have anything to say
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  Speaker 1: for the Amanda Todd Odds of the world. Does he
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  Speaker 1: have a word for that dark night of the soul?
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  Speaker 1: Does he have a word for the single mom who
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  Speaker 1: after she puts the kids to bed, she goes over
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  Speaker 1: to the kitchen table and she looks at all the bills,
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  Speaker 1: and then she checks the bank balance and there's too
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  Speaker 1: many of the bills and not enough in the bank balance,
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  Speaker 1: and she looks out the window of her small apartment.
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  Speaker 1: There's just not enough hours for her to make enough money,
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  Speaker 1: and she's running out of hope. What about the man
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  Speaker 1: who stands in the room at I see you, looks
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  Speaker 1: down at the love of his life. She's silver haired
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  Speaker 1: and frail and unable to respond. He can't remember a
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  Speaker 1: day he didn't know her. He's loved her his whole life,
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  Speaker 1: never knew someone this beautiful, And he just heard the
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  Speaker 1: doctor say it's time for you to say goodbye. There's
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  Speaker 1: no hope of recovery. What about the business man. It
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  Speaker 1: looks so polished and professional on the outside, but if
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  Speaker 1: you could hear what's going on on the inside. The
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  Speaker 1: bank is calling, his accountant is threatening to quit. He
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  Speaker 1: has far more debt than he has solutions. Hope boarded
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  Speaker 1: the last train. He's run out of hope. All of
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  Speaker 1: us run out of hope at some point. Am I
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  Speaker 1: right or wrong? I think all of us do. Even
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  Speaker 1: that cup is half full, sanguine soul who always goes
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  Speaker 1: around singing the sun will come up tomorrow. Even that person,
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  Speaker 1: on occasion will reach up into the shelf for a
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  Speaker 1: can of hope and find there is no hope. And
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  Speaker 1: when there is no hope, there is no cope. How
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  Speaker 1: do you cope when you run out of hope? Maybe
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  Speaker 1: that's where you are today. Maybe you're here more out
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  Speaker 1: of desperation than inspiration. And maybe this is an appointment
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  Speaker 1: that God has set up so you can hear what
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  Speaker 1: He has to say about hope. There is a passage
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  Speaker 1: in the New Testament book called the Epistle to the
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  Speaker 1: Hebrews that is a beautiful scripture on the topic of hope.
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  Speaker 1: It's in your Believed book, and if you like to
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  Speaker 1: read in your believed book, you can, or if you'd
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  Speaker 1: like to read in the Bible itself, you can. The
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  Speaker 1: Believe book the passage on page four hundred and one,
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  Speaker 1: two seventy seven in the Student edition, and in your scriptures.
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  Speaker 1: It's Hebrews, chapter six, verses nineteen and twenty. The writer says,
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  Speaker 1: we have this hope as an anchor for the soul,
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  Speaker 1: firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the
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  Speaker 1: curtain where our forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf.
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  Speaker 1: The two nouns we have anchor and soul. We have
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  Speaker 1: hope as an anchor for the soul. Have you ever
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  Speaker 1: used an anchor? Is anybody in here acquainted with what
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  Speaker 1: an anchor does? Raise your hand, I'm just curious. Oh, okay,
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  Speaker 1: a bunch of sailors and fishermen among us. You know
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  Speaker 1: what an anchor does. You don't need to be told.
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  Speaker 1: You've held those iron castings with the pointed edges. You've
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  Speaker 1: perhaps cast them overboard, knowing that the purpose of the
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  Speaker 1: anchor is to seek out that solid place, a rock
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  Speaker 1: or a bolder that is stronger than any potential storm.
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  Speaker 1: And once you feel the tug on the rope, you
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  Speaker 1: know that the anchor is secure, and you may rock
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  Speaker 1: and you may roll. The winds may come and they
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  Speaker 1: may go, but you will not sink because you're anchored.
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  Speaker 1: You're anchored to something that is stronger than the storm.
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  Speaker 1: The Hebrew writer says, you need an anchor, why, because
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  Speaker 1: you have a valuable vessel. Did anybody know the name
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  Speaker 1: of your vessel? The name of your vessel is called
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  Speaker 1: the uss soul, the soul. You need to anchor your
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  Speaker 1: soul to something. What is a soul? Well, when God
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  Speaker 1: breathed into atom, he breathed more than oxygen, released the
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  Speaker 1: essence of the divine into Adam. He made Adam in
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  Speaker 1: his own image, in the sense that he placed within
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  Speaker 1: Adam a soul, a divine spark. You know it's your
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  Speaker 1: soul at work when you look into the skies and
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  Speaker 1: you say, how did humanity get here? Where's all this going?
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  Speaker 1: It's your soul that causes your eyes to mist when
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  Speaker 1: you see the baby, and it causes you to get
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  Speaker 1: choked up when you sing the national anthem. That's the
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  Speaker 1: soul at work. That soul is that intangible, ethereal part
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  Speaker 1: of you that separates you from the animal kingdom. You
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  Speaker 1: and your goldfish have a lot of like, have very
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  Speaker 1: quite a few things in common. But your goldfish has
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  Speaker 1: no soul. Your goldfish has eyes. You have eyes. Your
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  Speaker 1: goldfish has a mouth. You have mouth. You both have scales.
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  Speaker 1: The goldfish on his body, you on your bathroom floor.
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  Speaker 1: I thought that was clever. You are hard to please today,
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  Speaker 1: But your goldfish doesn't worry about the meaning of life.
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  Speaker 1: Your goldfish doesn't feel the need for forgiveness. Your goldfish
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  Speaker 1: doesn't have a longing to connect to have community. Your
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  Speaker 1: goldfish doesn't cry out to God. We do that out
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  Speaker 1: of our soul, and your soul is precious. Jesus one says,
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  Speaker 1: what does it value a person if they could gain
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  Speaker 1: the whole world and let their soul dry up and shrivel.
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  Speaker 1: So this divine part of you, and yes, it's within you,
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  Speaker 1: and you and you, this divine spark within you needs
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  Speaker 1: an anchor. If you don't anchor your soul, the essence
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  Speaker 1: of yourself, to something greater than yourself, then your soul
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  Speaker 1: is gonna sink, and you're gonna get sour and sad
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  Speaker 1: and bitter and cynical. So the Hebrew writer says, be
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  Speaker 1: sure an anchor the essence of you to something that
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  Speaker 1: will hold you. This is where hope comes from. You
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  Speaker 1: want hope, you make sure you're anchored to a solid rock. Well, now,
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  Speaker 1: exactly who is this rock and how do we find
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  Speaker 1: this rock? And where is this rock located? Well, those
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  Speaker 1: questions are answered, and the passages preceding the passage we
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  Speaker 1: just read. So let's expand our eating for just a
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  Speaker 1: moment and look up to chapter six, verse thirteen and
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  Speaker 1: see the context of this teaching on hope. When God
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  Speaker 1: made his promise to Abraham, since there was no one
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  Speaker 1: greater for him to swear by. He swore by himself,
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  Speaker 1: saying I will surely bless you and give you many descendants. So,
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  Speaker 1: after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised. People swear
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  Speaker 1: by someone greater than themselves, and the oath confirms what
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  Speaker 1: is said and puts an into all argument. Because God
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  Speaker 1: wanted to make the unchanging nature of his purpose very
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  Speaker 1: clear to the errors of what was promised, he confirmed
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  Speaker 1: it with an oath. God did this so that by
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  Speaker 1: two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God
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  Speaker 1: to lie, we who have fled to take hope, take
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  Speaker 1: hold of the hope sit before us, may be greatly encouraged.
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  Speaker 1: We have this hope as an anchor for the soul,
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  Speaker 1: firm and secure. It enters this sanctuary behind the curtain
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  Speaker 1: where our forerunner Jesus has entered on our behalf. So
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  Speaker 1: to help us understand what it means to be hope
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  Speaker 1: filled people, the Hebrew writer reaches back and retells the
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  Speaker 1: story of who Abraham Abraham. Does anybody remember who Abraham was? Well,
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  Speaker 1: he was the fella who received this astounding promise from God.
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  Speaker 1: Abraham was seventy five years old when God said, look
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  Speaker 1: in the stars someday your descendants are going to outnumber
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  Speaker 1: the stars. Pretty major promise, especially when you don't have
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  Speaker 1: any kids. And Abraham was how old, seventy five years old,
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  Speaker 1: certainly running low on the necessary fluids. How could this happen?
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  Speaker 1: And yet Abraham believed God. Abraham goes down in history
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  Speaker 1: not because of all the great accomplishments or the great
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  Speaker 1: monuments that he built. He goes down in history called
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  Speaker 1: the Father of faith. He said, well, okay, God said it,
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  Speaker 1: then I'm going to believe it. Now. He had to
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  Speaker 1: believe this for how long before anything happened? Twenty five years?
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  Speaker 1: Twenty five years. The fella is almost into triple digits
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  Speaker 1: by the time Sarah finally conceives and gives birth. And
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  Speaker 1: so it's one thing to be given the promise at
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  Speaker 1: the age of seventy five. It's quite another to go
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  Speaker 1: through twenty five winters without that promise coming true. How
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  Speaker 1: long have you been waiting? How long have you been
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  Speaker 1: waiting for that prodigal son to come home? How long
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  Speaker 1: have you been waiting for your own heart to heal?
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  Speaker 1: How long have you been waiting to receive the promise?
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  Speaker 1: Sorrow may come with the night, but joy comes with
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  Speaker 1: the morning. It's been a long time, you think, you say,
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  Speaker 1: since I've felt that joy, and you, like Abraham, are
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  Speaker 1: forced to choose do I stand upon the circumstances of
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  Speaker 1: life or the promises of God. Abraham is our hero
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  Speaker 1: because he chose to stand upon the promises of God.
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  Speaker 1: The apostle Paul bragged on Abraham in the Epistle to
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  Speaker 1: the Romans. He said, against all hope, Abraham in hope believed,
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  Speaker 1: and so became the father of many nations, just as
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  Speaker 1: it had been said to him, so shall your offspring
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  Speaker 1: be again, referring to that promise. Without weakening his faith,
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  Speaker 1: he faced the fact that his body was as good
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  Speaker 1: as dead since he was about one hundred years old,
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  Speaker 1: and that Sarah's womb was also dead. Yet he did
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  Speaker 1: not waver through unbelief, reguarding the promise of God that
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  Speaker 1: was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God.
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  Speaker 1: Being fully persuaded that God had the power to do
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  Speaker 1: what he had promised, Abraham anchored his soul to the
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  Speaker 1: sturdy promises of God. When forced to choose between trusting
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  Speaker 1: the circumstances of life and the promises of God, which
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  Speaker 1: do you choose. Which do you choose? Folks, I'm not
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  Speaker 1: saying this is easy. I'm not saying this is all
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  Speaker 1: at all easy. Some of you are facing some very
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  Speaker 1: difficult circumstances. But I believe that God brings us together
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  Speaker 1: on a regular basis to tell us. Don't anchor your
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  Speaker 1: soul your vessel to these unsteady promises of life. People
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  Speaker 1: will break your heart, either on purpose or by accident.
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  Speaker 1: Economies come and go, governments are here and governments are gone.
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  Speaker 1: Reach out beyond this world in which we live, and
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  Speaker 1: you anchor your hope to the throne room of Jesus Christ.
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  Speaker 1: And in the sense that you do that, to the
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  Speaker 1: degree that you do that, this doesn't mean life is
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  Speaker 1: always fun and always easy. But you can hold on
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  Speaker 1: to hope. God has given us exactly what he gave Abraham.
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  Speaker 1: He has given us hope, and he has promised to
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  Speaker 1: fulfill that hope. In his book The Grand Essentials, Ben
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  Speaker 1: Patterson tells about a submarine that sank off the coast
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  Speaker 1: of Boston, Massachusetts. Divers went down to rescue the submarine.
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  Speaker 1: One of the divers remembers hearing tap tap tap from
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  Speaker 1: inside the submarine. He realized that one of the sailors
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  Speaker 1: was sending a message in Morse code. The diver knew
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  Speaker 1: Morse code, so he pressed his ear up against the
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  Speaker 1: submarine and he was hearing the sailor tap out the message.
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  Speaker 1: Is there any hope? Are you asking that question? Are
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  Speaker 1: you the Amanda Todd of your day You're running out
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  Speaker 1: of hope? Are you the single mom who's running out
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  Speaker 1: of hope? Are you the elderly person who has buried
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  Speaker 1: someone you love and your hope has left you. Are
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  Speaker 1: you the businessman who looks professional on the inside, but
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  Speaker 1: it's been a long time since you had a good
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  Speaker 1: night's sleep and you can't find peace. Are you running
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  Speaker 1: out of hope? Mary Cushman was. Mary Cushman is the
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  Speaker 1: person Dale Carnegie told us about in his classic book
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  Speaker 1: How to Win Friends and Influence People. I know you've
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  Speaker 1: got to be pretty old to quote Dale Carnegie, but
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  Speaker 1: if you've never read his books. Though written fifty and
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  Speaker 1: sixty years ago, there's a reason you can still find
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  Speaker 1: him on the bookshelves. His book How to Stop Worrying
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  Speaker 1: and Start Living tells the story of Mary Cushman. She
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  Speaker 1: wrote a letter to mister Carnegie in response to a
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  Speaker 1: sermon she heard him preach, and in the letter she
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  Speaker 1: described her life in the Great Depression in the nineteen thirties.
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  Speaker 1: She described how she and her husband and their five
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  Speaker 1: children were barely getting by. Her husband's salary was eighteen
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  Speaker 1: dollars a week, and he was a sickly man, and
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  Speaker 1: he often missed much work, and when he didn't work,
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  Speaker 1: he didn't get paid. They could scarcely pay their bills.
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  Speaker 1: In fact, they ran up some debts. She began to
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  Speaker 1: clothe her children children with clothing from the Salvation Army.
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  Speaker 1: She grew increasingly despondent and anxious because she saw no solution.
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  Speaker 1: On one occasion, the grocer accused her son of stealing food.
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  Speaker 1: The family already owed an insurmountable fifty dollars to the
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  Speaker 1: grocer in this accusation was enough to cause her to
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  Speaker 1: lose hope entirely, and missus Cushman wrote a letter and
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  Speaker 1: described what she did to mister Carnegie. She said, I
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  Speaker 1: couldn't see any hope. I shut off my washing machine,
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  Speaker 1: and I took my little five year old girl into
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  Speaker 1: the bedroom, and I plugged up the windows and cracks
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  Speaker 1: with paper and rags. I turned on the gas heater
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  Speaker 1: we had in the bedroom. I didn't light it. As
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  Speaker 1: I lay down on the bed with my daughter beside me,
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  Speaker 1: she said, Mommy, this is funny. We just got up
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  Speaker 1: a little while ago. But I said, never mind, will
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  Speaker 1: take a little nap. Then I closed my eyes, listening
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  Speaker 1: to the gas escape from the heater. I shall never
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  Speaker 1: forget the smell of that gas. Suddenly I heard music.
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  Speaker 1: I listened. I had forgotten to turn the radio WAF
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  Speaker 1: in the kitchen, but it didn't matter now. Yet the
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  Speaker 1: music kept on, and presently I heard someone singing an
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  Speaker 1: old hymn. What a friend we have in Jesus, all
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  Speaker 1: our sins and grieves to bear. What a privilege to
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  Speaker 1: carry everything to God in prayer. Do what peace we
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  Speaker 1: often forfeit? Oh, what needless pain we bear all because
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  Speaker 1: we do not carry everything to God in prayer. As
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  Speaker 1: I listened to the hymn, I realized I'd made a
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  Speaker 1: tear rible and tragic mistake. I had tried to fight
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  Speaker 1: all my battles alone. I jumped up, I turned off
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  Speaker 1: the gas. I opened the door, I raised my windows.
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  Speaker 1: She went on to explain how she spent the rest
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  Speaker 1: of the day giving thanks thanking God for her blessings,
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  Speaker 1: her blessings that she had forgotten about, her blessings of
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  Speaker 1: five healthy children, and she resolved to never give in
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  Speaker 1: to despair again. She wrote, as I look back on
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  Speaker 1: that terrible day when I turned on the gas, I
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  Speaker 1: thank God over and over that I woke up in time.
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  Speaker 1: What joys I would have missed? How many wonderful years
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  Speaker 1: I would have forfeited? Forever? Whenever I hear now of
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: someone who wants to end his life, I feel like
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: crying out. Don't do it. Don't. The blackest moments we
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: live through can only last a little time. Then comes
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: the future. Are you feeling like giving up? Are you
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: close to despair?
• 25:18
  Speaker 2: Don't do it?
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: Don't. The blackest moments we live through will last only
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a little time. Listen to our passage. Today's passage from
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: a different translation. The Hebrew writer the same scripture, just
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: a different translation, says grab the promised hope with both
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: hands and never let go. It's an unbreakable spiritual lifeline,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: reaching past all appearances, right to the very presence of God,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: where Jesus, running on ahead of us, has taken up
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: his permanent post as high priest for us. Ask yourself
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: this question, is what I am holding or hooked to
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: stronger than what I'll go through. Everybody's hooked to something.
• 26:20
  Speaker 1: Everybody's anchored to something. Maybe you're anchored to your retirement account.
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: Maybe you're anchored to your university degree. Maybe you're anchored
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: to your profession. It's whatever you turn to to give
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: you hope. It's whatever you're thinking it's going to get
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: you through the next storm. Now listen. If you anchor
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: to something other than Jesus Christ, you're setting yourself up
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: for despair. You are I'm not too smart of a fisherman,
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: but I've gone fishing enough to know that when you
• 26:56
  Speaker 1: throw that anchor out of the bass boat, you don't
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: in the neighbor's boat. You don't say, hey, can you
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: hold onto my anchor for me while I fish? You
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: don't anchor to something that will go down in the storm.
• 27:12
  Speaker 1: Right or wrong, I'm right. Don't look at me like that.
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: I'm right. If you anchor your soul to a human being,
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: you're anchoring to someone else's boat. If you anchor your
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: soul to bank account, you're anchoring to someone else's boat.
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: If you anchor your soul to your resume, or to
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: your retirement, or to your have all the dreams that
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: you want. May God bless you with an abundant career
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: and a delightful marriage and a peaceful retirement, if That's
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: in God's plan. But do not for a second think
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: that is your source of happiness and hope. You anchor
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: to Jesus Christ. You do what the Hebrew writer says,
• 27:57
  Speaker 1: and that is you anchor to the one behind the curtain,
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: in the inner sanctuary, where the devil has no access,
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: where the demons cannot speak. You take your anchor and
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: you hook it on the leg of the throne room.
• 28:11
  Speaker 2: Of Jesus Christ.
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: You just hang on to it right there, and you
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: know for certain, once he's got a hold of you,
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: you are in good hands and you trust him to
• 28:22
  Speaker 1: get you through. This is where hope begins, and this
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: is where hope end yours. Have you said yes to Jesus?
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: Are you hoping in something or someone other than him?
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: If so, you're setting yourself up for despair. But if so,
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: you can change that today. You can say, Jesus, I
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: want you to be the hope of my life. I'm
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: intrusting to you my soul. I confess to you my sin,
• 28:53
  Speaker 1: I'm believing in you, I'm trusting you. And once you
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: do that, then you have finely found a place to
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: set your anchor that will get you through any storm. Amen.
• 29:07
  Speaker 1: On all of our campuses this weekend, we're celebrating communion
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: after the sermon. I know we typically do that here
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: at Crownridge, but many of our campuses celebrate communion before
• 29:20
  Speaker 1: the sermon. But we thought it would be good, just
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: in a symbolic fashion, for all the campuses to wait
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: until after the message so we could celebrate together. If
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: you're watching online, could you take a few moments and
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: gather together the elements for your communion service. For we're
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: all going to celebrate together. We're going to be reminded
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: of the bread and the cup, the bread that represents
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: the body of Christ and the cup that represents the
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: shed blood of Jesus. This is, of all celebrations, a
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: celebration of hope. Let's pray together, and Father, we now
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: come to you as the giver of hope, asking that
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: you create even deeper hope in our own hearts. We
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: thank you, Lord that there are times in which you
• 30:11
  Speaker 1: let us hunger for hope, because it is during those
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: seasons of hunger that we finally turn to you. We
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: thank you Lord for the death Beryl and resurrection of
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: Christ is celebrated in the communion. We thank you now
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: in Jesus' name, and all the church said and act.
• 33:09
  Speaker 3: Act acting.
• 33:57
  Speaker 4: A poppp.
• 36:33
  Speaker 2: Loving you alone feels so beautiful, and yet it hurts
• 36:44
  Speaker 2: the most.
• 36:48
  Speaker 5: You became my quiet sunrise, the dream I never dared
• 36:54
  Speaker 5: to say. Every smile you gave so freely to a
• 37:00
  Speaker 5: little away. I held this love like fragile glass, so precious,
• 37:07
  Speaker 5: soft and true.
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: But every beat inside.
• 37:11
  Speaker 2: My heart was only reaching out to you unspoken.
• 37:18
  Speaker 3: Love is sweet and.
• 37:20
  Speaker 6: Painful, like honey mixed with rain. But send the whole by,
• 37:26
  Speaker 6: also sadly while it slowly breaks me loving you from
• 37:33
  Speaker 6: just one side. Now leave my soul in silent blue,
• 37:39
  Speaker 6: because the deeper that I fall along.
• 37:42
  Speaker 2: The lonelier I do.
• 37:48
  Speaker 5: I can blame my heart for choosing someone it could
• 37:52
  Speaker 5: never keep.
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: So I smiled through hidden heartache.
• 37:58
  Speaker 6: Hell love you, I leave spoke in. Love is sweet
• 38:03
  Speaker 6: and painful, like hon e mixed with rain. A'send the
• 38:09
  Speaker 6: whole pile, so tightly walid.
• 38:13
  Speaker 2: Slowly breaks me.
• 38:15
  Speaker 6: Loving you from just one side. Now leave my soul
• 38:20
  Speaker 6: in silent pool, because the deeper that I follow, the
• 38:27
  Speaker 6: loly I do.
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: Maybe loving you in.
• 38:48
  Speaker 6: Silence it's the closest dye can stay, though leaves behind
• 38:55
  Speaker 6: the sorrow that may never.
• 38:59
  Speaker 3: Fast away.
• 39:03
  Speaker 6: Spoken loud is sweet and painful, like horney mixed with rain,
• 39:10
  Speaker 6: A tender whole. Bibles so tightly Wald.
• 39:15
  Speaker 3: Slowly breaks me.
• 39:17
  Speaker 6: Loving you from just one side, Now leave my soul
• 39:22
  Speaker 6: in silence, because the deeper that I follow love.
• 39:30
  Speaker 4: The lowly her to