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Hard Conversations and Hope | Bobby Harrington · Real Life Theology Podcast

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  Welcome back everyone to another episode on the Real Life Theology Podcast.
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  Today's episode features Bobby Harrington talking about a hope framework and how it
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  grounds disciple making and equips believers to engage hard conversations.
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  Here is the episode.
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  Alright, I'm glad to be here.
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  I'm super glad to be here.
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  More than that, I'm really grateful to see each and every one of you here.
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  I hope that you will walk away spiritually fed, spiritually encouraged for the things
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  of Jesus.
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  We've been praying for you.
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  People have been fasting and praying for this day.
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  I want you to know that this day and everything that we do is grounded in the hope of Jesus.
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  Because the foundation of all that we do is the hope of Jesus, it gives us the ability
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  to have something that's really hard to do today, and that's to have hard conversations.
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  In fact, I just want to say there is an effort in many places to suppress hard conversations.
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  But those who know the hope of Jesus know that we have to engage in those hard conversations
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  because hard conversations are about how we love one another.
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  So let me describe to you as we begin what I mean when I say the hope of Jesus.
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  First, I'm going to give you an acronym.
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  It's going to be the word hope.
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  The first is a humble joy.
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  It's a humble joy before God that's based on an optimism that God is using everything
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  in our lives as disciples of Jesus to conform us to his image.
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  So no matter what happens, I know God's with me and God's using it for my development,
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  my character.
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  The P is, it's the promises of scripture.
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  I have the promises of scripture.
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  Wherever I go, whatever I do, God's with me and he's given me and he's given you his
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  sure promises.
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  And then lastly, E is the expectation of the second coming of Jesus.
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  We don't talk enough about the second coming of Jesus, but I want you to know he's coming
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  back and the entire emphasis in the New Testament on hope is that Jesus is coming back to fulfill
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  all of his promises.
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  He's literally going to consummate his kingdom and there will be no more death, no more crying,
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  no more pain for the old things are gone.
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  And the only thing that will matter then is the people that we had hard conversations
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  with and we help them to trust and follow Jesus with us.
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  See he's given us this mission and the mission is to be disciples and make disciples.
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  And so today, friends, you're going to find that David Young is going to epitomize in
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  just a minute a hard conversation.
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  It's a hard conversation about what happens when you're diagnosed with stage four kidney
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  cancer.
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  Jim Putman's going to talk about how he's a wrestler and he likes to advocate for disciple
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  making, but it's not just relationships, it's the teachings of Jesus.
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  He's going to talk about being a two-fisted fighter.
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  And then Tina Wilson is going to come up and she's going to talk to us, she's going to
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  epitomize what we believe.
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  What we believe is God in the created order, modeled by Jesus, gave us male leadership
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  in the home and in the church, but it also, the way Jesus teaches us, means the full empowerment
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  of women according to their gifts.
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  So Tina's going to come up and she's going to tell us, remind us of the authority of
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  scripture.
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  In fact, if I were to describe one thing, I would say we are united, all the various
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  tribes that are a part of Renew, around this one thing.
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  We believe in King Jesus and that he guides and leads us.
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  His lordship is manifest in our lives by the teaching of scripture.
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  It's our final, infallible, reliable guide in all things.
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  Then Matt's going to talk about what it means to be a man and how we need not be intimidated
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  that Jesus was the quintessential man.
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  And we call men, in the midst of accusations of misogyny and accusations of just men floundering,
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  we want to call men to a godly manhood inspired by Jesus.
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  We're going to have hard conversations about marriages, because you know what?
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  Marriages are falling apart and people need the hope of Jesus.
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  And because we believe in the hope of Jesus, we can have those conversations.
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  And Kimberly Beam's going to come up and talk to us about how they save marriages.
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  70% of the people who come to them, at the end of their rope, many having affairs and
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  totally losing their way, and how they minister to them and save over 70% of marriages.
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  Because the hope of Jesus is built around conversations that we must have today.
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  We're going to have breakouts.
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  You're going to get the opportunity to learn about Renew Movement church planting that
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  was literally just launched yesterday.
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  You can learn how to write books for your church, how to have hard conversations around
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  homosexuality and other things.
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  And then Orpheus, this afternoon, is going to speak to us about the pressures of culture
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  and how it takes a commitment to scripture, takes a commitment to discipling relationships,
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  and it takes a commitment to the power of the Holy Spirit.
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  Because we have the hope of Jesus, and when the hope of Jesus is grounded in us, we're
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  willing to have any and all conversations, aren't we?
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  We must.
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  We love people.
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  We love Jesus.
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  We love scripture.
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  We love making disciples.
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  We've got to engage in hard conversations with grace and truth, nuance and finesse.
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  But at the end of the day, we're people who have a message, and God has given us that
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  message to share with others.
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  You all are here today probably because at some point in your life, in the words of Isaiah,
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  when you realize the holiness of God, the need of the world, you said, here am I, Lord.
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  Send me.
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  And so you're here because you want God to work in your life.
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  And as the day winds down, Shadonke Johnson will be bringing us the last message.
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  Now we switched the order because of David Young's propensity to get infected.
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  He's just going to come in.
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  He's got some things to share with us.
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  And then we've asked Shadonke to bring the day to a close and to epitomize what it means
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  to be a person of faith, a person grounded in the hope of Jesus.
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  Here's a man, Shadonke Johnson, who God has used in the last less than 20 years to build
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  a movement of over 500,000 people, miracles and transformations all over the place.
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  And yet even Shadonke had the tragedy of losing his son tragically earlier this year.
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  What does the hope of Jesus mean when it gets that close to us?
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  I just want to say, the anchor of our soul is Jesus.
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  The anchor of our souls is the hope in Jesus.
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  And because the hope of Jesus is with us, no matter what we're going through, no matter
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  who we're going through it with, let's hold to the hope of Jesus and ask God to use us
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  to be disciples who make disciples, to be a part of a renewal movement, to renew, starting
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  with renewing the hope of the gospel, to renewing our lives, to renewing our families,
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  to renewing our churches, that we would be a network of people who renew the teachings
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  of Scripture, who renew Jesus-style disciple making, who renew what it means to establish
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  a church the way God teaches in Scripture, who renew what it means to love one another,
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  to cross racial boundaries, to have the hard conversations that our culture doesn't want
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  us to have.
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  Let's be that people who say, we believe Jesus is coming back.
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  He's coming back to consummate His kingdom, and we want to be faithful to King Jesus.
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  We want to bring as many as we can to meet King Jesus.
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  So literally, when He comes back and He says to us, well done, good and faithful servants,
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  He will say, not only well done, good and faithful servants to you and to me, but He
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  will say that to those who are with us on that day, because we are a tribe and a network
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  of disciples who make disciples, who transform lives and families and communities and churches.
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  Would you pray with me?
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  Lord God, as we begin this afternoon, O God, may the hope of Jesus, may we be people with
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  a humble joy, with the optimism that we know that You're with us in all things, working
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  them for our good.
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  May Your promises guide us, and Lord, may we expect above all things what Scripture
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  calls the blessed hope, what You call the blessed hope, the return of Jesus to consummate
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  all things and to bring us into that life, which is real life, the life we were intended
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  to live.
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  O God, make it be so, and make it be so.
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  Through us we pray, in Jesus' name, bless this day. Amen.