Light In A Very Dark Room - Defiant Hope

Well good morning officially.

So um here are words that used to terrify my children.

We're on vacation, and I would say, guys, today we're going on one of Dad's great adventures.

My great adventures don't have a great history.

It's like national lampoon vacation.

Um what um we were were out on Cape Cod.

And I am told that if you've ever been on Cape Cod out close to Provincetown, there are these monster sand dunes.

They're huge.

There are mountains of sand.

And I am told that uh if we um that if we will climb that sand dune, there is this Panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean.

I thought, well that's cool.

That's a great effort with a great reward.

I said, kids, are you ready to go?

Do we have to, Daddy?

No, this is one of Dad's great adventures.

I know.

And uh no no you're gonna love this.

This is great.

Where do we wait I know it's gonna be a little tougher?

Where do we get to see the ocean?

So you know little legs you ever climbed a sand dune?

I mean it's much activity, little progress And you just you go and go and little it's hard on little legs, believe me, I know.

And theirs were littler than mine.

So we're j we're steaming our way up there and it was I why did I have to wait till the middle of the day anyway And uh so we finally we finally got to the top and dug on it.

There it was of this fantastic view of another sand dune.

Daddy, are we done?

No, we're not done.

It's right over there.

Come on.

Down the sand dune we go, filling up our shoes again and then trudging up that next sand dune.

If anything, it seemed like it was twice the size of the last one, but probably because it was another one we were doing.

We got to the top and it's about time for the payoff because now we get to see another sand dune And so that was that was the next hour or so up a sand dune, down a sand dune, up a sand dune, down a sand dune.

I'm like, our daddy, do we have to keep doing this?

And I made a very simple mistake.

I kept thinking that what I was looking for was just over the next hill.

It never was.

That's what it's like to be lost.

Climbing a hill, saying, I bet it's at the top of this hill.

And so We climb the hill called achievement.

We climb the hill called rewards.

We climb the hill called money and income and relationships and the new excitement, whatever that might be.

And we continue, more toys.

And we keep climbing these hills going, this will do it.

This will answer my life questions.

This will fill me up inside.

And every hill is a disappointment.

And we get to the final hill that faces eternity.

And the hills we started climbing as a teenager have still not given us answers.

And now we are forever lost.

What you have to do is climb one more hill.

You've been on the wrong hill.

You go up the skull hill.

And there's a cross at the top of that one.

And that's where you will find the God you are made for, who has the only love that will fill your heart, the only answers that will satisfy you as to why you are here on this planet.

And your only hope for eternity.

We are surrounded by people who are starved for hope Because nothing has ever filled that hole in their heart.

You see that.

Hope-starved people in a hope-starved world.

And the thing is, we already, praise God, have climbed the other hill.

We know which hill you can find the answers on.

We know it's that hill on which Jesus died.

I'll share with you some of the correspondence I just got from my friend, who I told you had been climbing mountains at Yosemite, and three weeks later. was on his last night on earth, the medical people thought.

Thank the Lord he is now recovering slowly.

I asked Ed to write his hope story I, boy, did I get a hope story.

He's got a little time.

He doesn't normally because he's a very successful executive This is the story of Lost and Found.

Because there are two lives he tells about in here His friend that has been his friend since boyhood, they had both turned 40, they run together And his friend said, you know, we're entering the decade of our 40s and we're both doing really well.

This is the decade we have to really make it.

This is a decade where we need to get all our success, all our advancement and power and money, and once we turn fifty, we are all set.

And Ed really began to think about that.

He said, this is the deciding decade of my life.

But he came to a different conclusion.

He said, after reading the book Good to Great, I started to think about how I could take my spiritual walk with God from good to great.

So I took my friend's statement in spiritual terms.

So in entering the decade of his 40s, he said, when I get to the other side at 50, I'll most likely be past the halfway point of my life, and this is the decade I want to go really deep with Jesus.

I want to give everything over to him.

My career, my family, my finances, my life, my future.

I want to know him better.

I want to love him more.

Well, there's a lot more I could read to you, but this is uh I guess you'd call it the punchline.

Let me find this.

He said, the fascinating thing is that both my friend and I lived out our statements, because they both passed 50 now My friend in fact had bit tremendous business advancement during his 40s.

He really did achieve great accomplishment, money, and success.

He rose to a high level in a major company.

He flies all over the world on the company's private jets. and he is completely miserable.

Got to the top of the hill Just another sand dune.

He hates his job.

He is overwhelmed by stress.

He doesn't know what to do next.

My vision came true as well.

I did spend those 10 years getting closer to Jesus.

I did turn 50, having gone deeper with him than I ever had, and I do look forward to walking even more closely with him for the rest of my life.

And earlier he talks about how during that decade he became a much better husband, friend, and father.

That's the two roads.

That's saved and lost.

Right there.

And he realizes his responsibility, and he's doing it, is to help his friend find his Jesus.

Because he'll listen.

He'll listen to his friend Ed.

Mark Twain said, the two most important days of your life are the day you're born and the day you find out why.

Everybody knows the first one.

Most of the people you know don't know the second answer.

They know the day they were born, but they have no idea why they were born.

And some very astute culture watchers have said that what used to be the greatest fear of people being the fear of death That's not the great fear anymore.

It's the fear of meaninglessness.

And people are feeling so hollow And so confused and so anxious in a dangerous world, relationships have been disappointing The brokenness of their past, they have nowhere to go with it to get it healed.

They carry all the broken pieces with them everywhere they go, no matter how successful they are.

The pain of the past is unmanageable and haunting.

And because so much is broken, they break relationships There's a desperate loneliness.

There's a fear of the future, probably more than ever before.

People are starved for hope.

Some kind of buoyant confidence that acknowledges the challenge, but is anchored.

To an unseen but certain reality, they truly are hopeless.

What is hope?

Um, hope is Marie Osmond, advertising Nutrisystem.

Not that I want to look like Maria.

You can lose fifty pounds.

They're selling hope.

There's one commercial that right now I find very appealing.

Mypillow. com.

That guy that's got me going right.

I'm actually considering contacting them, believe me.

Mypillow. com.

I want that.

Forget the nutritism.

I'll go with the pillow.

There's silly hope.

It'll be a disappointment.

So many things that people are placing their hopes in have let them down.

Marriage isn't what they thought it was going to be Having children isn't what they thought it was going to be.

Having money isn't what they thought it was going to be.

Having success isn't what they thought it was going to be.

Being religious isn't what they thought it was going to be This hope has not come through.

Let's go back to Job.

It's interesting that the word hope is in the book of Job of all places 18 times Let's look at this some couple profound statements that are about today.

Now forget the geography.

The caravans of Tamah look for water, the traveling merchants of Sheba look in hope.

They are distressed. because they had been confident they arrived there only to be disappointed.

Is that a description of the sand dunes?

Is that a description of the the search of the lost heart?

They had been confident.

This is it.

This is gonna do it.

They arrived there.

And it's just another sand dune. only to be disappointed.

Let's go to this next passage from Job.

While still growing and uncut, the winter more quickly they they wither more quickly than grass.

Such is the destiny of all who forget God.

So perishes the hope of the godless.

What they trust in is fragile, what they rely on.

It 's a spider's web.

There is no certain reality there.

It is a spider's web.

And listen to this sobering, we don't have it on the screen.

Job 11.

20.

I want you to think of somebody lost that you know.

A family member, a business associate, a neighbor, a loved one, someone who's in a club or uh or a gym or whatever with you.

He says, their hope, this is Job 11. 20, their hope will become a dying gasp.

You got that person in mind?

Their hope is gonna end up being a dying gasp.

But listen to Job, God's man.

I know my Redeemer lives.

That's the difference between hope and hope less.

And the message of Jesus, you know this Offers the only hope that can who truly change a life and fill the hole in the human heart.

Because hope means things that never could change can change.

Things you thought would never change can change.

Hopeless means it's always going to be this way.

And the longer I live and the more I go to the wrong places to find hope, the more hopeless.

It's never going to change.

Nothing has changed things.

Because Colossians 1. 16 says, all things were created by him and for him.

I'm created by Jesus, for Jesus.

And I'm supposed to be living my life revolving around Jesus.

And if I'm revolving around me, I'm like the earth away from the sun.

There's no life.

There's no meaning.

There's no hope.

Here's the problem.

We have their hope that they need.

We are the hope carriers.

We are the hope distributors of Jesus.

But lost people today don't trust us Christians.

They're very suspicious of us.

Listen to um one of the reasons why.

From Christianity today.

The tone of our rhetoric a rhetoric across most media and even behind some closed church doors is more rage than redemption.

Yeah?

We're the angry ones.

It is more disgrace than grace.

The truth of our convictions, the truth of God's truth, seems increasingly worn down. by attractive heresy on one side and ugly orthodoxy on the other.

That's an interesting phrase, isn't it Ugly Orthodoxy.

The title of the article is Beautiful Orthodoxy, which is the alternative we would want to be involved with.

But The world is increasingly suspicious of us as Christians, and look at your notes.

They especially are suspicious of anyone they perceive to be a professional God salesman Pastor, evangelist, someone who is a they think a professional God salesman If I don't want to buy a used car, I don't want to be around a used car salesman because I know what he's going to do.

He's going to try to pressure me to buy a used car.

If I don't want to buy God, I don't want to be around somebody I perceive to be a God salesman, because I'm you're just going to badger me about your God.

And you probably don't like me, and you don't like what I'm doing, and you probably are condemning me anyway So we got a problem here.

How do we deliver the hope of Jesus?

Their only hope for this life, their only hope for eternal life.

How do we deliver Jesus to in a time when people really don't trust?

folks and and institutions that carry that hope.

Well, the answer is not really that tough.

Look at your notes.

If the message that their eternity depends on has a chance of breaking through, it will have to come from a trusted messenger They will only believe it if it comes not from a salesman, but from a trusted sale a trusted messenger.

And that'll be someone they know.

Someone from their world.

Someone from their tribe.

Let's do a quick survey.

You're in a tribe.

You said, no, I'm not Native American.

No, no, no.

There are occupational tribes represented in this room.

There are recreational tribes represented in this room.

What you do for recreation.

There are generational tribes represented in this room.

There are associational tribes represented by the club or the activity you're involved in, the rotary, the PTA, whatever.

Um there's all kinds of uh of uh tribes and you're probably in more than one.

Let's uh name five, let's get some tribe.

What what's the tribe you're in?

Go, a tribe.

I am in the Fifer tribe, what?

Why?

Okay, what else?

Tribe.

Shout it out, shout it out.

Okay, what else?

I want you to think about this.

I want you to think about your tribes.

Because only a tribal messenger. is likely to be trusted enough for the gospel to get through.

Let me give you some examples.

And uh I need someone from my tribe to bring me a bottle of water up here.

Thank you.

The tribe let me give you let me give you three examples.

Thank you very much, Brian.

Jesus goes to Samaria.

The Samaritans don't like Jews.

How does Jesus sow the gospel in Samaria?

Well he goes in and preaches.

Not at first.

He reaches the Samaritan.

And he sends a Samaritan, an unlikely one , He sends a Samaritan in to talk to Samaritans.

And the Bible says many of the Samaritans believed in this Jewish guy Because of the woman's testimony.

She, being one of them, validated Jesus to people like her.

This is the strategy of God.

Somebody from the tribe goes to the tribe and they'll listen to them.

They won't be reached by a program.

The Christian church has been coming up.

We got more programs to reach people.

Listen to this.

For 2,000 years, the program of God For the rescue work of God has always been the people of God.

You're the program.

It's not some event.

You the event.

You the program.

Because you are from their tribe.

There's a Samaritan example.

Let's talk about on eagle's wings.

Very obviously.

Why is it for with with a a people group in this nation, the first people here The people with perhaps the most tragic history of anybody in our country.

A story of great loss and grief.

We can't change the past.

We can change the future.

But how is it that a group of people who after 400 years of missions work, 4% know Christ?

How is it that I have been able to watch, not do, I sit here and watch thousands of Native Americans come to Christ.

I've been an eyewitness to it.

I know I'm seeing history.

How does this happen?

Because I'm not out there telling them People from the tribe, and I don't mean the actual ethnic tribe, from the tribe are going to the tribe.

Hello, why don't we learn from this?

This isn't just about Native America How exciting it is to see this very principle exemplified in the work that my grandson Jordan is doing.

Jordan has has uh you know of course been around for better or for worse the insanity of our family But he went with OEW and helped me out for a couple of summers.

Jordan, stand up in case anybody's missed you.

Obviously, you can see that Jordan got his heights from me.

Because somebody has mine.

So it must be and and Jordan 's only 19, but already starting a how-to life ministry, realizing, having seen what OEW does He realized in his heart, in his own high school, that it wasn't going to be adult-led things that were going to break through to a generation like his.

It was going to be students getting the students.

And so he tries something in his own high school and calls it out to life and and here students have an event and they have about 700 kids and 70 of them come to Christ and I listen to Jordan present the gospel and I'm like This sounds a little familiar, but man, he's good at presenting the gospel.

And now I think they're there this kind of thing is going on in about 12, what, 12 states or so?

I mean it's just amazing what's going on.

It's viral because it's the right messengers.

It's trusted messengers.

So do you realize the responsibility this gives you?

There's nobody else you can pawn this off on.

There's nobody else you can delegate this to.

You it for your tribe.

You it, because you're the Christian they know best.

You're the trusted messenger.

Don't be intimidated by that.

Be excited about that.

That should put hope in your heart.

For the larger life you can have if you step up to that challenge.

God has a question for you, by the way.

It's a Oh, thousands-year-old question.

Exodus chapter 4.

Moses has the argument with God that almost all of us have ever had Which is I'm the wrong guy.

By the way, if you think you're the right person, you're probably not.

Usually the characteristic the people God uses is people the people go, no, you need you don't mean me.

And God says, I like that.

But I don't.

Moses, like I don't.

I mean, it's interesting.

God says, I've heard the cries of your people.

I've seen their suffering.

I'm coming down to rescue them.

And Moses is going, yes.

And he says, So now go.

I'm sending you.

And Moses says, No.

We're going together, Moses, to rescue your people.

They'll listen to you.

You're one of them.

And you're one of the Egyptians.

You can talk to both of them.

So now we're down to this.

Moses is just having this debate with God, surely You don't want me out of my comfort zone.

I'm all settled down with my sheep.

The rest of my life I'm just gonna do sheep.

What if they don't believe me?

Okay, nothing else worked.

What if they don't believe me?

What if they don't listen to me and say, the Lord did not appear to you?

The Lord doesn't really, he answers the question with the question, which I love.

What's that in your hand?

A stick.

I have a stick.

Now a staff is actually crafted by a shepherd for a lot of different purposes.

For rounding them up, for disciplining them, for checking them for wounds.

And so he uses that staff for a lot of things, as well as climbing the mountainous area in the Judean wilderness.

But what happens here is he God says throw it on the ground.

Moses threw it on the ground.

It became a snake.

And he ran from it.

That's a very good thing.

And um that's what I would do.

And now when we get a little later in the chapter, After Moses sees what God can do with his rod, Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey, and started back to Egypt, and took the staff of Moses in his hands.

What did I get wrong?

Whose rod is it?

It wasn't at the beginning.

It's the same stick.

But it was Moses' stick.

At the beginning.

But when he surrendered it to God, it became God's rod.

In Moses' hands.

All it can do is round up a few sheep.

In God's hands, it can melt the heart of Pharaoh, turn the Anile to blood, and part the Red Sea Same stick.

God says to you, I have heard the cries of lost people you know.

You may not have heard it.

They're not crying it out to you, maybe.

But believe me, in their heart, I hear their cries.

I hear their quiet desperation.

I have seen their slave masters that enslaved them.

I'm coming down to rescue them.

So go.

I'm sending you.

And you have your reasons maybe why you think you're not the person.

And he asks you this question.

What is that in your hand?

Just imagine your name in there.

Furfer?

Nobody's here.

I don't think it's anybody's name here.

Furfer.

Ron, let's use a real name.

Maybe somebody's name properly.

What is that in your hand?

Here's how I've seen some people answer.

Well, I have a house.

Or is it your house?

Throw it down I want to use that as a place to rescue people.

Where lost people will feel safe.

And you can have them for dinner.

Do things to reach them.

Let it be my house for rescue.

Oh, what is that in your hand?

I have a car.

Really?

How could we use that to rescue some lost people?

This is going to sound weird, this next one.

What is that in your hand?

Some people in this room have answered an apron and cooks for OEW and became part of a great movement of God in Native America.

Or should I say a spatula?

Or a dumpster.

The case may be.

What is that in your hand?

Uh, I have a golf club Really?

So you're from the golfing tribe?

You spend hours with people playing golf.

How about that becomes a rescue tool?

For you to share Jesus with people with intentionality through golf.

I have a friend who's a pool shark, not swimming pool.

And I mean he's nationally ranked in a as a as a pool maestro, whatever you do, whatever you call these guys.

And um And he goes around the country using, he's on a reservation right now.

He was going out to a couple reservations.

Believe it or not.

And God says, what is that in your hand?

He said, a pool cue.

God says throw it down.

He did and found a way to use what he knows to reach people who are in the playing pool tribe.

Wild.

God says, what is that in your hand?

You say, well we got a nice big yard.

Was that for you?

Or is that a place to reach some lost people?

You got a p well I got a position.

What is that position for?

Just so you can earn some money?

Just so you can help your community?

Or do you have that position To be positioned to help some people go to heaven with you.

What is that in your hand?

I have a hobby.

I have a computer.

I have a Facebook page.

Really?

Whose is it?

Throw it down.

Now it's gonna not gonna turn into a snake.

It's going to turn into something that can rescue people.

And maybe it was yours when you came here.

But when you leave here, it needs to be the rod of God.

Except take out right and put yours in there.

What's the answer for you?

What is that in your hand?

What is that in your hand?

Will you now commit it to the rescue mission for which Jesus died?

Because you're the trusted messenger.

God wants to use it to bring hope to hurting people.

So, I want to suggest you three things I know you have.

That could change a life and change an eternity.

I know you've got these three things.

Whatever your talents, whatever your age, whatever your tribe, everybody in this room has these three things Number one, you have your service, your service, your ability to help other people in some way.

Matthew chapter 5, verse 16.

Notice the sequence of events.

Let your light shine before others And it ends saying they glorify your Father in heaven.

But that isn't what comes first.

First, they see your good deeds.

And as a result, end up interested in your Father in heaven.

I would assume at some point you explain that your father in heaven and your savior are why you are the kind of good deed person that you are.

Or they never figure that out.

By the way, there are people who think that they all they have to do is live a Christian life and say, I'm a silent witness, but I believe in lifestyle evangelism.

Well, I do too, but if by that you mean you never tell them anything, I'm sorry, but they could watch you for the next Bert they could watch you for the next 50 years.

They're not gonna look at you and go, you know, Bert is such a nice guy I'll bet Jesus died on the cross for my sins.

They're not going to figure that out.

You have to tell them.

But before most people will believe in Christ, they have to believe in a Christian.

They see you and they can't see him.

So where what what kind of need are you trying to meet for people that will open the doors of their heart?

Are you?

With intentionality, you could answer that question specifically with a specific answer.

There was a man who wrote to Mother Teresa some years ago, and he asked her a question.

Knowing of her work among the least of the least and the lowest of the low in the Calcutta ghettos, he wrote to her and he said, How can my life count like yours has?

He didn't get in the answer for six months.

I think Aunt Teresa Aunt Teresa, yeah.

Mother Teresa, she was a children's radio program when I was a kid.

What?

Um Mother Teresa took a little while to answer.

She sent back a postcard Had four words on it.

Find your own.

Calcutta.

So where's yours?

Where's your own Calcutta?

A need on your heart.

Something uh uh uh and I'm I'm talking about not just a spiritual need, but a a physical need, uh, uh a material need.

That obviously a merciful God it it hurts him and he he's called your attention to that need And you could be helping it with something you have in your hand.

Oswald Chambers said in my utmost for his highest.

Not one who merely proclaims the gospel, but one who becomes broken bread and poured out wine in the hands of Jesus Christ for the sake of others.

Would you be willing to become broken bread and poured out wine for someone who needs to have the love and the hope of Jesus have a face and a voice and some hands?

You.

I know we can our life our our life is so busy it's very easy to just really it's consumed by us our own stuff I've told some of you guys this story before, and um uh Jim, I'm gonna have a little fun at your expense.

Uh you know I love this story Jim, Jim and George have cooks wonderfully for us with the team and and uh uh Jim's a very bright, brilliant engineer, he told me, and he he is um But no he didn't.

But he is a fantastic brother.

And last year when we were in New England, uh they stay uh they vacationed a little bit on Cape Cod and Jim wanted to get a picture of selfie of him with the Atlantic Ocean.

And as I understand it And Jim, if I'm not telling the story right, don't tell anybody because I love them the way I'm telling it.

But as as as I understand it, he said, I'm going to take a selfie.

Now apparently he's not all that good at taking a selfie.

But he wanted a picture of him with the Atlantic Ocean as a backdrop, and a little later on in the day he told his wife, he said, Honey, I think I missed the ocean.

Now, for a brilliant engineer The Atlantic Ocean is huge, Jim.

That's a massive body of water.

I don't know how how you can miss.

Taking the ocean.

Well you can if the picture is all filled up with you.

Now that's a fun story, but I'll tell you the point of it.

It's very simple.

For many of us, the demands of our life have made it a selfie picture.

And we're pretty much the picture And right behind us is the big thing God wants to be doing with your life.

And we're missing the big thing.

Because the frame is filled up with the selfie.

So what do you got in your hand that could help meet the needs of some Calcutta in your community?

Do you know why people don't come to Jesus?

Well, let's see Paul's answer to that question.

He knew plenty of them.

2 Corinthians 4.

And you've actually, this isn't just a verse.

You know somebody this describes.

If our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing.

Notice they're not just called people who don't believe or they're people who aren't like us.

They're dying.

They're dying.

The God of this age, who would that be?

Right?

The God of this age, who would that be?

Oh, good.

Okay.

Has blinded, there's the word, has blinded the minds of unbelievers so that they cannot see.

The light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

How many of you know somebody that describes?

Literally they are blinded to Jesus.

I mean you you you've tried to tell them and it's just like they can't they just can't how many of you know anybody raise your hand if you know somebody who just they they we they're right there they're in the Bible put their name in there you know They can't see them.

They've been blinded by by money, or they've been blinded by religion, or uh they've been blinded by their their own sense of uh unworthiness or I'm too bad to need Jesus or I'm too good to need Jesus or whatever for what we preach now notice You did you know you were blind once?

I'm in a room full of people that prove that that blindness doesn't have to be permanent.

Somewhere you saw the light.

Well, here's how it works.

What we preach, this is Paul's answer to the blindness, is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves As your servants, for Jesus' sake.

For God who said, what was the first command in the Bible?

Let Let there be light.

God does that in human hearts.

It is still a command that he issues.

Let there be light.

Think of that person you raised your hand about.

Let there be light.

For God who said, Let light shine out of darkness, made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ.

So what breaks through that blindness?

How can we get through to a blinded, darkened heart?

Whose eternity depends on them hearing and understanding what you know about Jesus.

Here's what opens a blinded heart, according to Paul.

Number one, a message that's all about Jesus.

He said, we do not preach about ourselves.

Our message is singular.

It is simple.

It is bold.

It is straightforward.

Christ Jesus as Lord.

It's all about Jesus.

Paul said in 1 Corinthians 2. 2, when I was among you, I was determined to know nothing except Jesus Christ and him crucified.

When you're talking to those folks, you don't talk about your church, you don't talk about religion, you don't talk about their sinful lifestyle.

Yes, guess why they act that way?

Uh they're lost.

You don't clean fish before you catch fish.

So we're not attacking their behavior?

That's not the point, the way they're behaving.

They don't have Jesus.

That's why they're like that.

They're lost.

They're blind.

So Paul said, what will break through that blindness is if you make it real clear, this isn't about you, this isn't about Christians, this isn't about church, this isn't about religion, this isn't about Christianity, this It's about Jesus People say, well, I don't want to be a Christian because of those hypocrites.

The priest messed with little boys.

The church secretary ran off with the pastor.

That famous evangelist uh you know committed adult fine.

Listen.

Jesus never said follow my followers.

He never said follow my leaders.

He never said follow my religion.

He never said follow my beliefs.

He only said follow, tell me.

Me!

It's all about me, Jesus said.

So you keep it all about Jesus.

That breaks through the blindness.

That cross melts hearts.

I've seen it happen around the world in every culture The cross crosses every culture.

Second thing that opens their eyes is a believer who's all about them.

We are your servants.

I exist.

What does a servant exist for?

To meet the needs of the other person.

That's what servants do.

If you go out to lunch today and there's a a server They're all about you.

Well there's or they're not going to get a tip.

I mean they're and for some of us they won't get one anyway, but they're they're cheap Christians, but Um you but they're they're they're gonna be all about you.

That's what serving means.

So if they mean if they hear the if you if they see you and you talk in in winsome term terms about your Jesus And they see you as someone who exists to serve them, to love on them, to encourage them, to lift them up.

To affirm them, to make them understand how much they're worth.

Who makes them feel safe That's when the blinders come off.

A message all about Jesus and a messenger who's all about them.

And I know you've got that in your hand.

By the way, there is a fringe benefit to going out and becoming a hope distributor to somebody you know.

The best way to get out of your pit I bet you could finish this.

Is to help someone else get out of theirs.

Some of us have been wallowing on the wrong side of hope And we're more in the in the camp of anger, despair, depression, disillusionment, boredom, malaise.

The reason being and the best cure is when you start to reach out and pull somebody else out of their pit, you stop thinking about yourself, and instead of you taking a selfie, you take a UE.

This isn't about me, it's about you.

So I'm turning my camera around.

It's gonna be a UE Might even get the ocean in at this time.

Then, Jim, please forgive me.

We'll talk about forgiveness later.

And then here's the second thing I know you have in your hand You got you got your service.

Secondly is your situation.

Which, by the way, is one thing today and might be another thing tomorrow, right?

Your situation.

It's always changing You're literally when God says, what do you got in your hand?

You could be more specific.

I got to keep it general because I don't know your situation.

But you say, well, I have my situation God says great, that's rescue material right there.

I want to use your rep your situation.

Ezekiel.

Amazing scene.

Chapter 37.

The hand of the Lord was on me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the Lord and set me in the middle of a valley.

It was full of bones.

Then he said to me, Son of man, these bones are the people of Israel.

They say our bones are dried up.

Our Hope.

It's gone.

You're cut off.

Therefore prophesy and say to them, This is what the sovereign Lord says My people, I am going to open your graves.

I am going to bring you up from them.

I will put my spirit in you, and you will live.

And I will settle you in your own land.

What an incredible, incredible scene.

Here's what we've just watched.

We have God's messenger placed by God in the middle of death to bring life.

He is plunked right down in the middle of death to bring life.

We've had many miracles.

We have a ringside seat on the glory of God.

When we go with on eagle's wings.

Because it's so challenging.

It's so dark.

The strongholds are so big.

God's big.

He really shows up.

Sometimes in the weather.

We were in North Dakota on a reservation a few years ago and a storm began to roll in.

A summer storm that they said always just sweep through.

It was our third night We were getting ready to give our public invitation.

Actually, we weren't at that point yet, but that's what we were leading up to.

That's what we were there for.

That was the that's the that's the big night.

And the storm is going to come in and it is going to literally scatter us at the moment of the worst possible moment.

So some of us just got off and we prayed against the storm.

We said, well Lord, you're God of the storm and you're God of the harvest.

We pray you protect the harvest and hold the storm.

For two hours, the storm stops Just short of the basketball court.

We can see it storming.

I could tell you a dozen stories like this And we go ahead, we have the invitation, and people come to Jesus, and we get back to the church where we're staying, and man, that storm let loose.

With lightning and thunder, it was frightening and it lasted a while.

All the lights went out.

The girls are screaming.

You know, it's just isn't it intuitive?

It's like on cue.

Ah!

When the when the lights go out And and we're like, we're we can't see anything, we're just in pitch black, we're just starting to debrief and share what had happened that night And uh somebody knew that there was a candle in the kitchen.

And they went and got the candle and they lit that little candle.

It wasn't, it's not very much light.

But it it changed everything.

We didn't need all the lights.

We didn't need a light as big as the room as the room.

Just one light in a very dark place.

Was all it took to change the environment.

Now should that light go out?

It would have been totally dark again.

You are the candle.

In a very dark room.

You cannot let that light flicker.

You cannot let that light go out.

Or it's totally dark And God has placed you in the middle of all these dying people, your own valley of dry bones.

To bring life and help them be brought to life.

David Platt said, Every saved person, this side of heaven. owes the gospel to every lost person, this side of hell So welcome to the Valley of Dry Bones.

You're Ezekiel for them, the one bringing the message of life to them.

So your hope-spreading assignment is described by God this way in 2 Corinthians 5.

20.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors.

Representatives of the highest authority there is assigned by him to represent him in a specific location.

That's when an ambassador is.

We are therefore Christ's ambassadors as though God were making his appeal.

God's like, well, I can't be there, so I'm sending you.

It's not exactly true, but it's a rough translation.

I'm going to send it through you.

Just like The President of the United States doesn't go to all the countries.

He has his ambassador deliver the message.

So I'm going to make my appeal through you.

We implore you.

Listen to the desperation.

Listen to the passion here I implore you on Christ's behalf.

Be reconciled to God.

I want you to turn to the person next to you.

If you're alone, you can talk to yourself.

But I want you to turn to the person next to you.

Would you do that right now?

I just want you to say to them, I am so honored to meet you, Ambassador Furfe.

Now, please don't say fur fee.

But uh call them by their first name.

I so honored to know you, Ambassador Fur.

Go ahead, right now.

Go ahead.

Yep.

Come on, let's go.

So honored to know you, Ambassador Brian.

Yes.

There we go.

You say I um what'd you do this weekend?

I met an ambassador.

I did.

I talked with an ambassador this weekend.

You did.

And God, you may want to argue with him, but he decided By placing you where you are, it's not random where you live, it's not random where you work, it's not random you have the hobbies you have, it's not random you have the backgro you have, it's not random you have the interest that you have.

You have been uniquely biographically credentialed by the most high God to be his personal representative, the best one he could send.

I don't care if you think so or not.

I'm not, you don't want to argue with God about this, Moses.

It is life-changing and it is life-enriching when you see everything through eternity glasses.

And you see, my write this down, it's in your notes, my situation.

Is my assignment.

My situation is my assignment.

So God says to me, What is that in your hand?

And it's and I go a destroyed rotator cuff.

That's what's in my hand, Lord.

I literally, I mean, it was the worst pain I've ever had.

That that day in April when that it just exploded.

The doctor said it's about the worst he'd ever seen.

There was nothing left to work with He actually he actually said it was totally ripped.

I thought he said I was totally ripped, and I was so excited for a minute there, and then I looked and why are you laughing?

And uh it turns out he meant my shoulder was totally ripped.

Um so now I my assignment All of a sudden was determined by an exploding shoulder, which put me in the middle of doctors and nurses And I don't do hospitals.

Those of you who know me know I don't do hospitals.

I thank the Lord.

I just had my annual physical and the God's glory was the doctor was very pleased, and I'm a healthy guy with a really sore shoulder.

But uh now see by situation I can say well I I dogged on I got this shoulder thing and I did a little of that But my situation also is my assignment.

I now become an ambassador to my doctor, to nurses.

I don't know if I did it as well as I could, but we spread a fair amount of Jesus to some doctors and nurses.

Because my shoulder became my assignment And they were my assignment.

Your situation is your ambassadorial assignment.

It changes how you look at all the events of your life.

They now become eternally meaningful because they position you to help people change their eternity So, can God use stupid?

Yes or no?

I'm taking a poll.

Can God use stupid?

I am living proof.

Listen to this.

I don't know why I'm telling you this story.

So last week, I uh I uh found a great deal on uh on a timeshare here in Branson, and I really needed to focus on these messages So I was in this very nice timeshare for a steel of a deal uh all week long.

And I didn't do Branson, I didn't go get clogging lessons or anything like that, which is a horrible thought.

But I I I just basically Camped out there and went to work.

Well, I went out for a walk every night.

I tried to get some exercise in every day, and so and a lot of nice chills.

Great walk, great place to walk.

So I'm walking around, I took my uh took my my cell phone with my white cell phone with me, and uh when I when I got back, uh I got back into the unit and And I was there about five minutes and I realized my cell phone was missing.

Have any of you ever had your cell phone?

You misplaced it or you you lost it?

Is that an awful feeling?

I mean I don't know, you it feels terrible.

It's like, oh, everything is, you know, my life.

So uh I'm I'm uh frantically, literally I'm I'm pretty panicky.

Because I'm I'm frantically looking around, trying to see where it might be, because all I did was go for a walk.

Now I walk very fast and vigorously, and I'm like, surely it didn't fall out of my pocket, but it was nowhere to be found So I called the desk and I said, listen, if anybody turns in the phone and she said, well listen, it's dark now, but uh she said, why don't I why don't I send a security guy?

and um and you guys can drive around and you've I have two cell phones, don't ask why.

And uh and I I said, well yeah I'll use the one to call the other one and maybe it'll light up or have the windows down and we'll hear something we'll see it somewhere.

So we go out cruising in the truck.

The guy says, So why are we here you here, sir?

I said, well I'm working on some talks and I'm working on a book.

He said, Oh, what's the book about?

I said, the book is about hope.

He said, what if someone's lost all their hope?

I gotta get back and study, sir.

I am really busy.

I have some deadlines here.

I actually thought that.

He's like, what if somebody's lost all their hope?

I'm like, this is my assignment.

The cell phone isn't about the cell phone.

It's about Andy It was inconvenient.

I didn't want it to be about Andy.

And I was tired.

So we began to talk.

He actually was a believer.

But he was very disillusioned with God and he was experiencing a massive faith leak.

And somehow God gave me in about 10 minutes.

The insight to really just he said that's it.

Somehow what I said pinpointed what he had not been able to see was quite a time.

He said, well, I'm sorry we didn't find your phone.

I said, well, I found you, Andy.

I said, turns out this isn't about a phone.

This is all about you and Jesus.

So I went back in.

The unit.

You said maybe you should look around again.

So anyway, let's look at some more verses.

Um I'd been looking in the wrong genes And I looked in the I changed jeans and I looked in the other pair of jeans.

And there it was.

It'd been there all the time.

But I'm blaming God.

It was God's fault that I didn't know where my phone was, right?

Because he didn't want me to find it.

Because he wanted me to find Andy.

Do you see what I'm saying here?

You have your situation in your hand.

And God has put you in that situation because he knows somehow that put you in a position to touch lives who have no hope.

That makes your days exciting.

To realize your situation as your it changes everything how you look at your life.

Here's a great thing.

I never saw this.

I've been reading Galatians.

I never saw this before.

Galatians chapter 4.

Do you know how the Galatian church was born?

Look, this is just fun.

Do we have that one?

Galatians 4 Did I give that to you?

Because I just wrote it in my notes.

You don't have it?

Oh, I gotta tell you this real quick.

Let me look it up.

It's in Galatians 4.

I think I still have my bookmark in Galatians here.

And this is, I never saw this before.

This is how the Galatian church started.

Galatians chapter 4, verse 13, I think it is, let's see, says, um As you know, it was because of an illness that I first preached the gospel to you Even though my illness was a trial to you, you did not treat me with contempt or scorn.

Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel of God, as if I were Christ Jesus Himself.

He says, you know, you guys were stuck with me for a while because I got sick when I got to your town and it ended up birthing a church.

The Galatian church was born.

He says, well, I'm not feeling too well.

Paul's ambassador enough to know his situation is his assignment.

I must be sick for a reason.

I'm supposed to be in Galatia.

And a church is born.

Is that cool?

So this is how you will become a lifetime rescuer for Jesus Christ.

Your situation changes constantly.

Your assignment never does.

Your assignment is always Jesus, personal representative.

You are the voice of Jesus.

You are the face of Jesus.

You are the hands of Jesus.

And your situation will change constantly because God says, I got some people over here I need for you to be with.

My friend who's gone through this medical crisis.

I read about the two lives earlier.

He says, uh, I didn't even know I knew so many people, and the story of what happened spread through the local community and my business connections beyond what I could imagine Someone would reach out to me and I would think to myself, how in the world did they hear about this?

They are fascinated by the story And I've had many opportunities, even in recent days, to describe what happened and God's hand in it and to talk to them about who God is, who Jesus is, and his role in their lives.

Even Karen 's homegoing has given me One of the most powerful platforms to talk about my Jesus.

I call it an unwelcome platform.

A very expensive platform.

It comes at a high price.

But oh, oh, people are listening.

They will listen to me because of what I've been through.

They'll listen to you because of what you've been through.

I see it happen on basketball court on reservations, night after night.

That's what you got in your hand.

One other thing you got in your hand is your story.

You got your story.

You got your service, you got your situation, and you got your story.

Now, at a time and your notes say this when many people build walls Very high around their heart, especially when it's Christian stuff.

They got a high wall around their heart.

There is one magnet that can pull them to Jesus.

Now, Ephesians 2.

12, I'll show you the magnet in just a minute.

Here's how Paul describes that lost person you know.

They are without what?

They don't believe things will ever change.

Without hope, why are they without hope?

They're without God.

So if you're if you're without hope, it's probably because you're without God in the world.

Therefore, guess what the magnet in you is?

Peter will tell us.

1 Peter 3.

15 In your heart, severe Christ as Lord.

The reason that's important is so you have an authentic Christian life in front of them So Jesus is driving your life.

You better make sure that's happening.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the church you go to.

Oh, wait, excuse me.

Who asks you to give the reason for the beliefs you believe in?

Who asked you to give the reason for the meetings you go to?

No?

The hope.

Hope is the magnet of Jesus in you You show them hope in a hope-starved world.

And now this is not about religion.

This is about their life.

They will be attracted to the hope you have, not the church you go to, not the meetings you attend, not the beliefs you believe, not the bad things you don't do.

When Paul said, Christ in you, the hope of glory , you know what the very next sentence is He said, Christ in me, I carry around the hope of glory because I have Christ in me.

He says, we proclaim him.

It's the word for in the Roman culture when the herald, not not the guy named Herald, but the H-E-R-A-L-D, Harold come would come in on a horse and he would unroll a scroll and he would announce the latest news.

From the king.

He was the king's voice to bring the king's news to the people.

That's the word.

Paul says, Since I have Christ in me, since I am carrying the hope of glory in me.

I announce Jesus.

So you got him in you, so you're God's announcer.

And With Jesus in you, you are living proof.

Living proof that things it seemed could never change can change.

I'm going to ask you a question in a minute here.

So stay tuned Hope is something that I thought would never change can change.

You've just given me hope.

Like what?

There's someone in this room who is living proof that a husband can change.

Because of Jesus.

There's someone in this room who's living proof that a wife can change.

Because of Jesus There's someone in this room who's living proof that an angry person can change because of Jesus.

There's someone in this room who's lived their life as a victim, who now lives their life as a victor because of Jesus.

There's someone in this room who has lost someone precious to them, but has managed to live with hope and joy.

You are living proof of a Jesus who's bigger than death Think about it.

Someone in this room is living proof that an addiction does not have to be lifetime bondage.

You can go free.

Someone in this room is living proof that a religious hypocrite can become an authentic follower of Jesus Christ.

Someone in this room is living proof that a negative person who brings clouds with them everywhere they go, Can bring the sunshine now.

Where they go.

Because of Jesus.

Someone in this room was living proof that someone who was I who was obsessed with anxiety and worry is now a person at peace.

Because of Jesus.

You're the living proof of a living Savior.

There's no explanation for you but Jesus I was blind.

Now I see that's a hope story The Pharisees go, excuse me, Mr.

Blind Man, but what about what you what are your beliefs about the Sabbath?

Huh?

I was blind.

Guys, you remember you see me all every day out here.

I can see now.

Yeah, but what do you think about the Sabbath?

What do you think about the temple?

What do you think about this Jesus?

I don't know about all that guys.

Let me tell you what I know.

I was blind.

Now I can see.

In between was Jesus.

You figure it out.

It's a hope story.

No one can argue with your hope story.

They may not believe what you believe.

But they can't say you didn't change.

You did And you couldn't, but for Jesus I had a thought that just about broke my heart this morning, watching some of the videos.

Weston.

Had rope around his neck.

And now he embodies hope.

Think of the other ending to that story.

But Jesus came with us.

Your story may not be that dramatic, but in your tribe, your story is the kind of story they need to hear.

Now I am gonna ask you a question.

I want some answers back You may not be all the way there, you're not perfect, but I think I am, because everybody in this room, I'm sure if you know Jesus, you're a living proof of some change Jesus makes I am living proof that a proofer can change.

What?

You mean what's your what's your answer to that?

You are living proof that because of Jesus What what has changed about you?

I'm living proof that I home can change.

What?

What tell me John or once but wonder One who thinks he has it all and runs his own life can change because of Jesus.

Somebody else.

I can call names if I have to, but.

The manipulator.

And and now I once was a manipulator, now I What?

Serve.

Serve.

Beautiful.

What else?

I once was A liar, now a truther.

I once was.

What?

Insecure.

Insecure.

Now Beautiful.

Uh this is this is hope stories guys.

You see, oh I don't have a whole story.

I I was I was prematurely I was prenatally nice So I didn't do drugs.

I don't have any needle tracks in my arms.

I don't have any dead bodies in the trunk.

I was never a mafia hitman.

Some question about a couple of the jersey guys, but um Hey, you know, you say, well my I think my story is I was four years old and I was in the sandbox and a light shone down on the sandbox And j and I thought about Jesus and I gave up sex and drugs and rock and roll.

Um No Your Hope Story is what people want to know is what difference does your Jesus make?

Honestly today people don't much care if it's true.

They care if it works.

And they want to know, how does your Jesus tell me?

What does he do?

Is this just a belief?

Is this just meetings you go to?

Or is there hope here?

Be ready to explain the hope you have.

And the hope is that you have a Jesus who changed what you could never change And that's the door that opens their heart.

You have the very sheet we gave it to you when you came in today, or it was at your place Don't spend a lot of time with it right now.

But that is the very form that our All Eagle Swings team members spend a lot of time writing the first day of boot camp.

It is the hope stories that are changing Native America.

And I want I challenge you I hope before you leave here, because you get back and you'll it'll get lost, to write your own hope story.

I'm so thankful my friend Ed did Man is a part.

I don't know that he has ever fully articulated.

He knew in his heart.

He's got something he can give to people.

I called him and I suggested to him how he could weave the gospel into it more in a very natural way to explain what the cross, how the cross changed and everything.

It's great.

I was so moved reading it.

I know a lost person would be moved.

So would you write your whole story?

And in there you're going to talk about you and not just before you accepted Jesus when you were four years old.

But before Jesus was driving, before Jesus was really in a position to change things in your life, you might have.

Done some accept Jesus thing when you were five years old.

But I mean when Jesus has been since he's been driving.

So what were you before?

And then what was the turning point?

And specifically, what is different now?

I am giving you a gift by asking you to write your hope story.

It is the single most powerful heart opener. in the toolkit of a follower of Christ, other than prayer.

You need to know what your hope story is.

And then when you're finished writing that hope story, you kneel down or you stand up or whatever, and you hold that up to the throne of God and say, God, I offer back to you the hope story you have given to me.

That's what I have in my hand.

I have my story.

And now I lay it down for you.

For the fire to fall.

For you to anoint that.

For you to use it to bring hope into every life you choose to through me.

You can use that the rest of your life.

Here's you want to know the characteristics of a powerful hope story?

It's specific.

I had problems and Jesus helped me.

Thank you.

That lost person I tell this to our team members.

If you want to be general and play it safe, you can do that, but there's nothing there they can grab on to.

You guys that answered me answered with words like specific and liar and insecure, and the more you can elaborate on the blind view The more vulnerable, the more transparent you're willing to be, the more there is for them to say, I get that.

That's me If you're general, it probably won't do much.

So a powerful hope story is specific about your lostness.

And specific about the changes Jesus has made.

Secondly, it's brief.

We tell our team members to try to be able to tell their whole story in about four minutes We have a very impatient crowd at a basketball court, of course.

Thirdly, it's non-religious.

Do your very best and by the way, get the book, my book, A Life That Matters.

There's a chapter called Beyond Christian Knees.

It will help you figure out ways to say it in non-religious words that lost people get.

If you're a missionary, missionaries do the language of the people they're going to, right?

So speak it in their language.

Power of a hope story.

Bringing somebody to Jesus is a tale of three stories.

Their story.

You listen to them.

You let them tell you their story.

You don't know them until you know their story.

And then your story.

Because you listen to theirs You can literally ask people, well, what's your in in the right environment if you've been with them a little while, what's your story?

Tell me your story.

Everybody's got a story.

Everybody is a story.

So their story, which gives you the right to tell your story, which includes his story.

Which explains how a cross, what happened on a cross and an empty tomb, made it possible for your story to change, and it could change their story forever.

Their story, your story, his story, three stories, a new story for them.

The way you get the door open is you pray the three open prayer, and I have to review this every year.

We have a lot of new people here this year.

It's based on Colossians 4, 3 and 4.

You can read the verses.

But it says this, Lord open a door.

Lord, open a door.

That means a natural opportunity to bring up Jesus.

I've prayed that a couple times, even during my times with the medical community, because of the shoulder stuff.

Lord, open the door.

Give me a natural opportunity to talk about you.

Number two, Lord, open their heart.

If you're gonna get me to talk to them, would you I know you're gonna work on their heart before I get to them.

Lord, open their heart.

Make them ready for what for what you're gonna give me to say.

And then Lord, open my mouth.

Give me the courage, give me the boldness, give me the words, give me the approach, give me the tone, give me the attitude, open my mouth Say it with me.

We're gonna do those three.

Lord open the door, Lord open your heart, Lord open my mouth.

Let's practice.

Lord, open up Lord, open their Lord, open my which one's the hardest of those three?

Yeah, mouth, you're right.

Um I was at the Cove and I I had taught this a couple of years.

We have some friends here.

Well, I met at the Cove, and some people came to me and said, because they had been there the previous year and I talked a little bit. always covered that and um one of the guys heard it for the first time and uh during the afternoon off they um He said that he started to pray it immediately.

Lord open the door.

Lord open their heart.

Lord.

He wasn't even sure who he was praying it about.

Lord, open my mouth.

And he said, uh It was amazing that almost immediately, this actually guy was an ex-marine.

I remember he was climbing the mountain there at the cove And he said, I have this atheist friend.

And he said, I haven't heard from him for years.

My cell phone rings.

It's Mr.

Atheist.

I'm like, Lord, is this my open door?

I don't know if this And then this guy said, I was here last year, Ron.

I started to pray this prayer.

And he said, I prayed it while I was here.

And he said, I get a call from the guy I hate the most, my atheist brother-in-law He just hates his brother-in-law because of how he's treated his sister.

And he says this guy never calls And I start praying, Lord, open the door.

And my stupid brother-in-law calls.

Lord, close the door and open another one.

And he and um and this guy was an engineer and he he I wrote it down so I'd remember the details and he said I couldn't stand them And um he said he calls that day.

He said we actually can because I had prayed, I had to have a nice conversation with him.

He had some doors opened up spiritually, and a few months later, brother-in-law calls and he said, by the way, I wanted you to know I'm not an atheist anymore.

I asked Christ to be my Savior.

So when you pray the three-open prayer, you don't have to say, Lord, if it be your will.

It is.

It is his will.

To open the door, open their heart.

And open your mouth.

Welcome up here, William.

I want to wrap up.

And uh ask Will to share.

I love this guy.

Yeah, Mike, he oh, he's he's smart.

He's doing the mic thing and everything.

This guy's a pro.

You know Will today.

You don't know Will when he was blind.

I love this guy, and you'll know why when you hear his story I'm gonna sit on this while you talk.

Okay.

So uh like you said, my name is William Maxtall.

I'm from uh Idaho.

I'm Nesperse and I grew up in a domestic violent home My dad was a uh alcoholic, a drug addict, and my mom left me and my family at a very young age.

Uh, the earliest memories I had was always seeing my brother's face full of blood.

I always remember seeing my sister get carried out on a stretcher.

And it hurts cause I couldn't do nothing.

I just had to watch.

I remember always seeing my dad getting tackled down by a tribal police.

I remember one one day I was in I was probably seven, eight years old.

I was it was a school it was a school night.

I was in my room, it was about five AM And I heard fighting outside.

I knew who it was, I knew who was yelling, I knew who was That won't I knew who the one that was getting beated on But I didn't want to go out there But I did And I remember seeing my brother face down on the concrete.

Again, my dad getting tackled down by police My dad goes to jail.

My mom wasn't there.

So a lot of our other family members had to take us in, but when we went to our other family house uh members' houses My brothers would always fight there too.

And cops come and get them.

I was going house to house.

And I just remember looking out one day or one when that when the situation was going down, I remember looking at the neighborhood.

And all my neighbors are watching us.

They're watching my family.

Just like how you guys are watching me right now.

A lot of some were shocked, some were sad, but a lot of people were laughing.

Yeah there's there's blood all over in the house, glass shattered all over.

I didn't I wish they would come and see what I seen and tell me that's funny But as time goes on, I remember one other day my brother came into my room.

I was minding my own business And he grabbed me by the shirt, told me I had no life.

That I'm not worth it.

I'm worthless.

You don't deserve to be here.

It's all your fault that this is going on.

He slapped me, threw me on the floor.

And I uh I stayed on that floor crying.

Because like it came to a point where I said, Alright, maybe he's right.

Because my dad wasn't there, my brothers weren't there, my mom wasn't there, who else do I go to?

And I ended up started drinking, I started smoking, started doing pills.

Cause I always wanted to do it just to numb the pain.

But little did I know that I was becoming like my father.

And I remember my auntie and uncle.

They told me about this conference, Warrior Leadership Summit.

I knew what it was about.

I just didn't want nothing to do with it.

I knew who who they were their main focus on is Jesus.

But I didn't want to do anything with that.

I just wanted to get away from my family.

My reservation.

I didn't want to go back.

I just wanted to get away.

But I remember my first travel day there, I they gave me a journal.

This is when I first started journaling and what I wrote down in my journal, I just remember I was crying a lot on the bus on the way to Missouri.

I don't know why I was crying, but I was crying a lot and I remember when I wrote down in my notes, I wrote this in my journal.

I said, uh, if this conference doesn't help me or change me I'm gonna go home.

I'm gonna take my life.

Because I don't want to go back home To a broken family and I remember my second night there.

And that's when I gave my life to Jesus Christ.

Because I heard that he loved me.

Something that my brothers never told me.

Something that my father never told me, neither my mom.

I never felt so loved before.

And if it wasn't for Jesus, I would've been here.

I would 've been here and brand and brancing with you guys.

I wouldn't be able to go on Eagles Wings.

I wouldn't be able to be with my family at Indian Bible College.

And I just thank God that he did save me because he blessed me with more brothers and sisters and family.

And thankfully that that after I gave my life to Christ Uh my dad is eight years sober.

Um my relationship with my brothers, my dad, my mom is a lot stronger.

I'm just thankful that Jesus came through and he is still working in my life.

Thank you guys.

I remember the night Will first gave his hope story.

He waited most of the month.

We're in a reservation in Nevada.

Because he's real quiet.

We weren't sure if anybody would even be able to hear him.

We have a good sound system.

We have a rule that says eat the mic.

When he got up there were probably 200, 250 young people there that night.

Oh, he was quiet when he began to speak.

But there was not a sound And Brad and I didn't know all the whole story.

He had never told it all.

And we just sat in that RV and just shook our heads and cried.

Watch God take over.

And since then, Will, having been this close to ending that life, Now at Indian Bible College, he's gone back after the summer to his own reservation, gathered people together to tell them they were curious about his trip, but he used to tell them about Jesus.

And then much to my amazement he reported that he actually gave an invitation like he's seen it done on Eagle's Wings.

And 40 of his Nezpers people stood up to say, I'm giving my heart to Christ.

That's a hope story.

You say, well, gee, I don't have a story like that.

Well, you see, Will's hope story Is a lot like those of the people in his tribe, and I don't mean Nespers , your story is a lot like the stories of people in your tribe.

That's why you're the right person to go to them.

And one of the times that'll be your greatest time to tell about Jesus, you send your notes. and there are some obsessive compulsive people who will hit me up for what the thing I skipped.

Your greatest loss may be your greatest platform.

Did you hear that?

Your greatest loss.

I can speak to that.

May become the greatest platform you've ever had to talk about Jesus.

The worst stuff that ever happened to you is when they'll listen to you.

So when you join Jesus in the rescue mission that he died for, you have a very exciting hope for the future.

And Paul had it.

Here's what you can look forward to.

Kisi, word for hope, eyes down the road.

Here's what's down the road.

Look, for what is our hope?

Our joy, the crown, in which we will glory when we're finally in the presence of our Lord Jesus when He comes?

Is it not you?

You are the people we told about Jesus You're our hope when we see Jesus.

You're our joy when we see Jesus.

You're our crown when we see Jesus.

Because Jesus used me to help you be here.

They're part of your hope.

That's the payoff for taking the risks to step out and speak of your Jesus.

Will you make the choice today?

To step up to being the ambassador you're called to be, to answer the question, what is that in your hand?

And use it to rescue dying people.

And to write and to know your hope story.

So you can explain the hope you have, because we're told that's what will get them interested and unblind their eyes.

At Brad's commencement from Wheaton College, he's like, well, where are we going with this?

I watched however many hundred of graduates were up on that platform.

And they sang a classic hymn, I think at the end of the commencement ceremony.

And most people just looked at the hymnal and sang the song.

But not our son.

Because his eyes were filled with tears as he sang it, the last verse of the song.

The song is called May the Mind of Christ My Savior.

But at the end, the last verse is when Brad lost it.

May his beauty rest upon me, as I seek the loss to win And may they forget the channel, seeing only him It's time to pray.

Talk to him for a minute about what you need to do as a result of this.

I'll pray then.

Oh, thank you, Lord.

For a bloody cross, for an empty tomb, for a coming king, the blessed hope.

Hope of all hopes.

Break our hearts for those who have never felt this hope.

Who as Job says their hope will end up to be Just an anguished cry.

And may our situations become holy assignments.

May our life story become a bridge to heaven for some people Forgive us for our fear and our laziness and our selfishness.

And all the things that have kept us from being the voice of Jesus to some people.

We can't change the past, but we got the rest of our life.

So here we are, send us.

You have planted At the cost of the precious blood of the Lamb, you have planted hope in our heart.

So we could give it to them.

May the rest of our life be about it.

And would you right now be getting the person who we're thinking of, the face we see now?

Ready for you and your messenger.

In Jesus' name.

Amen.