The Flag Over The Rubble - Defiant Hope

So we had um we had pets, we didn't have many pets in our house because I didn't have pets growing up.

I grew up in an apartment in Chicago.

We had cockroaches and they were By the way, it's really funny.

I have a friend, Brian knows him, who runs a uh an exterminating business, very successful business in New Jersey.

And he gave me a souvenir.

He gave me these cockroaches.

Isn't that something?

Yeah, this is what he gives out like business cards.

He gives you a cockroach.

What in the world?

That's crazy.

But so if you'd like one.

And uh but we we didn't we didn't have pets, but when we our kids wanted pets, so we started out with birds.

Uh and that was appropriate because I did have a pet bird when I was a boy.

It was a pterodactyl.

And we had uh we had have any of you had a parakeet?

Or a canary.

We've had all those.

We had the we had the uh the uh um parrot, the parrot, oh that was interesting.

He'd put him in the shower.

He thought he was in a uh a tropical rainforest.

He'd get his feathers all out and everything.

It was very interesting to watch.

But Cherokee was our canary.

And uh I didn't know about these birds not ever having been around them, but the canary is very interesting and you guys should have had when you know this that um if you uh they sing all day basically.

I mean it's hard to be depressed with a canary around and they just kinda all day long, until night comes, and then y you put this cover over the cage, right?

I mean I that's I swa I understand 's what we did.

We put the cover over the cage, immediately, as soon as it was dark all around 'em, they would stop singing.

But as soon as morning came and you would lift that thing off, man, he sings and he sings all day long.

I saw a picture of us there We're going along singing along, life's going fine, and then all of a sudden, something happens and envelops us.

And a cover comes over our life.

And we're going through a dark spell.

And we stop singing.

And sometimes it's hard to get the cover off the cage.

Actually, there's a study that shows that 75 % of the people that they studied will go through a seriously traumatic experience in their life So chances are either you've had yours or yours is coming.

And when those things hit, it's like the lights go out.

And the light inside us has a name.

It's called hope.

And when you get hit with one of life's hard hits, it tends to knock the hope out of you.

And you tend to stop singing.

Um I remember I just was in touch today.

I was just talking to a friend of mine from New Jersey who would be here, but for what happened to him in the past few months.

He um he describes his life as wanting to have a brave heart life, not a chick-flick life.

I love that.

He's a man's man.

A few weeks ago, he went mountain climbing in Yosemite with his daughter.

He's in his 50s, but Nan , and he's been to the president's retreat.

We'd be here again this year, but for the fact But for the day that he coughed and found blood all over his hand, that started on a medical journey.

That left him at a point where Columbia Presbyterian Hospital wouldn't even take him because they said there's no way to save him He said, I cannot believe three weeks before I'm climbing a mountain, and suddenly three weeks later they've called my family.

To be around me for my last night.

Obviously he couldn't have told me that, and I wouldn't have talked to him today if God hadn't done a miracle, and he did He's still got a long road to recovery.

But he was singing along.

And totally out of the blue.

Boom!

Hope takes a hit.

And in fact, the medical community would have called him hopeless.

Um it was uh maybe about ten years ago, and uh I was singing along.

Took my wife down to a little rock, to the hospital down there, and uh uh she was gonna have what if you can have a cardiac procedure that's fairly routine, a cath uh cathar heart catheterization is not all that big a deal.

It's fairly routine.

So as usual, I take my work with me and I'm sitting in the waiting room and doing some work and somebody they announce code blue.

And I I don't even think about it.

Karen?

Until the doctor comes out and I see the doctor's face.

And all of a sudden I realize that I may have hugged her for the last time.

I may have held her for the last time.

She's code blue.

What happened was that they found out that she had seven and a half liters of fluid in her lungs.

She was drowning and couldn't tell anybody.

Thankfully, they discovered it just in the nick of time.

And they I hate the way they put it.

They bagged her?

Sounds awful, doesn't it?

But that means that she had to have oxygen, and that gave her a heavy-duty shot of oxygen.

But then she went into CICU And it was that was tough because it really, really did a job on her body.

It was Christmas season.

Hard time for that to happen.

The cover went over my cage.

So she's in this room, very sterile hospital room, and I wanted to do something Christmas.

Of course you can't bring in a tree or Santa Claus.

So I went over to the Christian bookstore and what I found was a little nativity that I could put on the little wheelie tray thing.

I cherish it today.

It's just Mary Joseph and the baby.

Has one little word on it.

Hope.

Cause that's what I was starved for.

Hope Um it was like I was drowning.

And I realized that hope, as it says in your notes I've decided is our emotional oxygen.

And if we don't if something happens that challenges our hope and robs our hope.

We are gasping for air.

And um I can tell you the wind has a sure knocked out of me.

Now I think about some of the things that might be going on in lives here, or could be going on in the future.

I wrote some of them down.

For example, the diagnosis.

You're singing along, you walk into the doctor's office, and you get a diagnosis that either is a death sentence or a life sentence to a life with pain for the rest of your life.

Or disability.

Or you have a child who's making or in danger of making some life-scarring choices.

And you've prayed.

But it's hard to hold on to hope.

Because you slowly feel that child slipping away.

Um, I don't know, but it could be that your marriage is unraveling.

And hope has taken a hit.

You're a caregiver.

And you've pretty much hit the wall.

Or you're about to.

And you're about at the limit of what you can do and stand.

We saw in Houston and and uh uh we saw in Florida and we're seeing in Puerto Rico What happens when something comes in and disaster hits and and you lose most of what you've built in your life?

It can happen so quickly.

Some of us here are haunted by ghosts from our past that we have never reckoned with.

And they constantly pursue you.

And you bring them here with you, those voices from your past are still there.

They still speak to you.

Or when your company says, thank you for your service , We won't be needing you anymore.

We've changed our direction.

There's so many ways it can happen that you get one of those hits.

The wife of the high school band leader that we know.

Suddenly it is revealed that her husband has sexually assaulted two young teenagers and will go to prison just before their first baby is born.

See, hope is really fragile.

The couple I know that they were told the five-year-old has leukemia.

Five-year-old and leukemia?

Those words should never go together.

Or when the man you trusted in your life ended up to be the one who betrayed you and assaulted you.

Yeah, it's that's when the that's when the cover goes over the cage.

And I'll tell you, our world, hope is on the ropes these days.

Internationally, do I have to tell you we are living in a dangerous world?

Do I have to tell you there I have to explain the reasons why the nuclear scientists keep moving the on the nuclear clock, the the doomsday clock closer to midnight, now set at three c three minutes to midnight?

Do I have to explain to you why Senator John McCain said the world is in greater turmoil than any time in his lifetime?

I mean, hope is on the ropes internationally.

Nobody can solve these problems.

Every solution is another problem And nationally?

How many times do you hear people say, I don't even recognize the country I'm living in?

Anymore.

I what's going on?

I was at a concert, a Christian concert at Silver Dollars City over Labor Day weekend, and we were standing to sing God Bless America.

Very patriotic.

Emphasis here in Branson.

And instead the leader of the group said, can I ask you to change your word with me?

Can we sing God Heal America?

I had tears in my eyes singing that.

Because I thought we really do need to sing that, don't we?

Probably do need to change the word.

To God heal America And we're seeing in our country a tsunami of problems, a boatload that is just they're compounding.

It's depressing to turn on the news.

And then personally, what's going on with maybe a child, a grandchild , the future income is uncertain, future health is uncertain.

As a friend of mine learned after 30 years on the job, boom, he's gone.

Your job can be uncertain.

And I know you can lose your life anchor, humanly speaking , in a moment.

So in moments of crisis or loss, and you have this in your notes, none of this wimpy hope is gonna work Here's the dictionary definition of hope.

Grounds for believing something good may happen.

Isn't that nice?

Karen is gone.

If I had a human anchor, any of you who knew our relationship, know it was Ron and Karen.

One word.

And some of you in this room know the massive loss that has been.

Well, I didn't need Grounds for believing something good may happen.

That's not working.

A desire for certain things to happen.

No.

No.

Hope is not wishful thinking or crossing your fingers or making a birthday cake wish.

Now, it's in moments of crisis or loss, you have to have hope as real as the hurt.

It's got to be a match for the hurt.

It's got to be as compelling as the fear you're feeling because of what's happening.

It has to be as strong as the grief.

And it has to be as powerful as the urge to give up.

And there is one kind of hope that I will suggest to you that is stronger than any hit and any storm.

Because it has passed the most violent test of my life.

And I have come to call it defiant hope.

Have you ever heard those words together before?

Probably takes a little explaining.

One of these days, I'll finish writing a book.

And you'll get to read about it, but you're going to hear some of it in the next couple of days.

Here's the next different different Reboot mouth.

Okay.

Defiant dictionary.

A disposition to challenge, resist, or fight.

If you do not, when when hope takes a hit, when one of life's storms hits, if you do not have a disposition to challenge, to resist, or to fight, despair will win.

The loss will be overwhelming.

And I'm going to give you an example so you understand to find hope in a couple minutes.

Now let me tell you why hope is so important, why it's worth talking about this weekend.

Write some of these things down.

It's the only thing stronger than grief.

It is the only thing stronger than grief. 1 Thessalonians 4, verse 13.

I love the realism of 1 Thessalonians 4. 13.

Brothers and sisters, we do not want you to be uninformed about those who sleep in death so that you do not grieve like the rest of mankind who have no hope.

I learned that verse simply to say, we sorrow not as others who have no hope.

Aren't you glad it didn't say we sorrow not?

That would be a lie.

I would say the Bible is not true if it said we sorrow not.

Grief rips your soul.

All I can tell you is this. that if there is a scale and grief weighs this much and the scale is is all tilted in one direction There's only one thing you can put on the other side according to God's word and according to my experience, and it is called hope, and it better be real hope, and it better be defiant hope, and it better be based on something that is e that is unchallengeable And all I can tell you is this, does the hope erase the grief?

No.

But it's a match for it.

It's a match for it.

The grief is real.

But the hope is stronger.

It's the only thing that is stronger than grief.

Secondly, it prevents giving up and it keeps you fighting.

Listen to Job.

Would you think Job would know something about the uh cover going over your cage?

Here's a guy who experienced more loss in a lifetime than probably all of us together.

Though he slay me, this is defiant hope Though he slay me, if I don't even survive this, yet I will hope in him.

So Rocky comes staggering to his corner.

He's beat up.

He says I can't go another round.

And it's not Mick in the corner.

It's Hope in the corner who says, you get back in there for another round.

You can with me.

You can get back there and fight.

And some of us today are still fighting.

Because hope was in the corner and got his back in for another round.

It enables you when you have got nothing.

Hope literally, when you have nothing left to do what you have to do.

Look at this.

You know Isaiah 40, 31.

You love this verse.

Those who hope in the Lord will , here you are, I mean you are you are wiped out.

You have nothing to give.

But those who hope in the Lord, something happens, something wells up.

They will renew their strength.

They're going to soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, and they will walk and not be faint.

Hope is what enables you When you've got nothing.

And it protects you from decisions that you will regret.

See, when the clouds come in, when the storm hits, Most people make decisions they later regret.

Because they make panicky decisions?

Or they make depressed decisions? and they end up regretting them, and they end up with another storm and another hurt and less hope.

Hope is what keeps you from doing that.

Hope helps you recover.

In fact, uh scientifically we uh we know that to be true.

Um I don't know if I brought it with me.

Yeah.

In in a book called The Anatomy of Hope, this medical researcher summarizes many studies that says hope helps a body heal from injury and disease.

This is called In Making Hope Happen.

This is the world's leading author on hope.

Excuse me, we just quoted the world's leading author on hope, but um reviews studies showing hopeful people are more productive, happier, healthier, and more resistant to setback.

Hopeful people live longer than hope less people.

Hope makes a substantial difference in academic achievement.

Hope matters.

That's what I was trying to say, and I'm not a scientist.

Oh, it's even a beauty secret.

Ladies.

Yeah, you don't have to spend all that money on that makeup and everything.

No, no.

Hope is a beauty secret.

Look, look, I have this on God's word.

It's a beauty secret.

Look, 1 Peter chapter 3 It should you talking about women and how they should make themselves beautiful.

It should be that of your inner self, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is of great worth in God's sight.

For this is the way the holy women of the past who put Their hope in God used to adorn themselves and they submitted themselves to their own husbands.

But notice this, this is part of the reason they were beautiful, is because there were hope in God.

I'll tell you, there are some probably average-looking women. who give off a radiance that just makes them so beautiful because it's so cool to be around a hopeful person.

It's a beauty secret.

Hasn't helped me.

Now, some of the some of the let's do a little uh a little vocabulary here, a little uh Hebrew Can we sound scholarly now?

And we're gonna do a little Bible, a little Bible word thing here.

Here's some of the Bible words for hope.

These are the T Hebrew word used 32 times is tikvah.

We had Temple Beth Tikva in our community in New Jersey, and that would have meant House of Hope.

Tikvah means to await.

It means to expect.

And then the word Yachal is used 48 times.

And um this is interesting.

In Hebrew thought, and therefore in many of the verses you read in the Bible where hope is mentioned.

Almost always hope and waiting go together.

Isn't that interesting?

That's where we start to get off the train, the hope train, because we're waiting too long.

My friend Dr.

Erwin Lutzer , pastor of Moody Church for many years, he said the thing God does in you, somebody in here, are you waiting?

Anybody in here waiting on him for something?

Am I the only one?

Oh, okay.

Oh, there may be one other.

Okay.

The thing God does in you while you're waiting on him.

The thing God does in you while you're waiting on him is often more important than the thing you're waiting for.

God's like, yeah, you see what I can give you the thing you're waiting for in an instant, but first of all, I got something I want to do in you, and if you stop waiting, it won't happen.

Here, this will give you a good idea of the Hebrew meaning.

One of the ways Yachal is used is of a woman in labor.

I am not an expert on this.

I have no firsthand experience to share with you.

But I've been around it.

Karen would uh never have any drugs when she was having the babies, so I saw labor.

And uh it's used to describe waiting in painful expectation.

Is that labor, ladies?

Would you say that describes labor?

Waiting in painful, I know it's gonna happen.

I know something good is coming.

It hurts like crazy.

Yaha.

And the New Testament word is Elpis.

That's a Greek word.

And I have two Greek brothers here, and I better be, I don't, I don't know if they're going to correct me later.

But I did have five semesters of New Testament Greek, which they spoke 2,000 years ago, but it means the expectation and anticipation of what is certain.

Given the words the Bible uses for hope, I am now prepared to give you a biblical definition of hope.

Here we go.

This is not something I learned in in cemetery.

This is something marinary.

This is something that is is profoundly my experience of hope.

Hope is a buoyant confidence.

That acknowledges the challenge.

It is not denial.

Denial is not hope.

I'm not going to deal with this.

That's not hope.

Hope is a buoyant confidence that acknowledges the challenge. but is anchored to an unseen but certain reality.

You can't see it, but it's certain It is a buoyant confidence.

Now, buoyant, does that make you think of a beach ball?

I think of a beach ball.

And you just can't keep a beach ball under, right?

You can push it under a little bit, but you can't keep it under.

So it is a buoyant, not happy, happy tigger kind of thing, but it is a buoyant, in that sense, unsinkable confidence It's not one that goes whistling through the graveyard.

It's not one that says, this doesn't hurt, or gives Christian talking points and pretends it's okay.

It's not okay.

It acknowledges the challenge, but it is anchored to an unseen, but it is certain reality.

I love Hebrews 11. 1 in this case.

Let's take a look at it.

Faith is confidence in what we hope for.

And assurance.

About what?

We do not see.

So faith and hope obviously go together, and we have a confident hope because we have assurance about what we do not see, but we absolutely know it's going to happen.

Just as that lady can't see the baby, but she knows that baby's coming.

Um If you want a short definition, maybe we could call hope anchored expectation and anchored confidence.

It is anchored confidence, it is anchored expectation.

But let me make this clear.

Hope. does not come from your situation.

Your situation will not give you hope.

This is critical.

Hope comes from your choices.

You choose hope.

That's what's defiant.

Your natural default position when you have been betrayed, when you have been hurt, when you have taken a major hit in your life.

Your natural default position is to go back to running things your way, to worry, to be anxious, to be afraid, to be withdrawn.

And probably make bad choices.

Now, um you're writing your story one decision at a time.

You know that?

Did you realize Where you are right now for good or for bad.

You wrote that story.

Not with situations.

You couldn't help the hit.

You can't decide about the hit.

You decide your choice.

Where you are in your life right now, for better or for worse, is product of the choices you've made.

Where you're going to be is the choices you make from here on.

It was September 11th, 2001.

It was 5 o'clock.

It was described in USA Today as the blackest day. and the blackest hour in the blackest day.

I remember Karen and I happened to be away at the time.

We were vacationing locally.

My sister-in-law called.

It was 9 o'clock on that morning.

And she said, Ron, you need to turn on the TV.

She knows I'm a news junkie.

And she said, you need to turn on the TV.

A plane has run into the World Trade Center I thought, oh, that's awful.

Little did any of us know at that point what that was going to become.

By five o'clock that day, they knew there were going to be very few survivors.

Severn World Trade Center was about to fall.

There was a massive evacuation order of that whole downtown area of Manhattan.

Hope is pretty hard to find.

You know what happened.

This happened One of the most iconic iconic photos of our lifetime, wouldn't you say?

Oh, we all remember.

Three firefighters find a flag on a yacht in the East River.

And in the midst of the rubble, they raised a flag over that.

That is my picture of defiant hope.

And USA Today put it this way.

People were grasping for hope, and suddenly there it was.

Hope is your flag over the rubble of whatever has hit you and hurt you.

It is your flag over the rubble.

Raised only because you have a Savior like Jesus.

We'll talk about why that's possible.

Now, here's the funny thing, not funny, but hope has two crossroads.

Two crossroads that bring you to a hope crisis.

One is very obvious, and some of you have that right now.

The other one, I'll bet you don't even know you have.

The second one, when we get to that, you've got a hope crisis.

You don't know you do.

Here's the two crossroads.

First is calamity.

We all know that.

When the calamity hits And generally speaking, when people get hit hard with a life tragedy or a life storm There are choices that we are very naturally tend to make that will sink us.

One is to withdraw.

That's what some of us do when we're hurt.

We withdraw.

Thus robbing ourselves of hope.

Um I saw a special on TV about the uh They're called monarch penguins, I think.

Yeah.

They're all dressed up in tuxedos, always dressed up.

And they're in Antarctica.

And in the most brut- when winter comes to Antarctica, I mean it's always cold there, obviously.

But when the winter comes and you can get 200 mile an hour winds, the only way, emperor penguins, that's what they're called, the only way the emperor penguin can survive is they get together for the winter in a very tight huddle and literally protect each other with sharing their warmth If a penguin leaves that huddle, they will die, and they will die soon.

Those of us who deal with crisis and hurt by withdrawing are leaving ourselves out in the cold to die.

And some of us that's what we saw modeled in our family.

It's a terrible choice to make when calamity hits.

We had a a a dear young man who died very early of brain cancer from our on our on Engelswings team and Uh Ricky was um that was that was the hit for all of us.

But he worked in our office for a couple of years.

One day he came into my office and dear Lori, who you all have dealt with, you know what a great gal she is.

She was in my office.

We were going over some assignments for the day.

Ricky walked in and uh and and Lori said to him, um uh let me see.

She put it how'd she put it?

She said, uh don't bother me He looked smitten.

And he started to back out of the door, all hurt.

She said, Ricky, your shirt.

He had put on a t-shirt that morning and said, don't bother me on it.

She was just reading his shirt.

You know, some of us when we get hit and we're we're it's a sad time, it's like we're wearing a shirt that says, don't bother me.

And people oblige.

And we're all alone. when we most desperately need to be in the huddle.

Some of us stuff it.

That's another way to st just stuff it.

That's what you're that's what people do where you're from.

And so you stuff it and all it becomes is a ticking time bomb.

You go negative, you become a negative person.

Nobody knows why, but it's because of what you've pushed down inside You lash out, you give up, or you do things to relieve the pain that end up causing more pain.

Or maybe worst of all.

You let your heart turn hard.

Could be happening to somebody here.

You say, well, I'm not worried about that.

Well, excuse me.

Have you ever stood down 450 false prophets, one man versus 450 on a mountain?

Elijah did.

He went from being a messenger to being a mess.

Because he lost hope.

Here he is challenging 450 agents of darkness, all by himself, daring them to have their God send down a sacrifice.

He was brilliant.

One of the great, don't you love to tell your kids that story?

It's a great thing you tell them in the next chapter.

It's like this this guy is like you talk about bipolar In the next chapter, now he prays this awesome prayer.

You just ought to read his prayer.

It's like 69 words, I think I counted.

And in there, about 20 times, he says references God, God, God, his, you, Lord, whatever.

It's just all about God.

Now let's go to chapter 19.

I wish we could go in the nice chapter, but and let me just say to this to you.

This story from Elijah's life is a reminder to all of us that when you are victorious, you're vulnerable.

Winning teams after they won the big game tend to let down and lose.

So remember this that when you're victorious, you're vulnerable and you keep your guard up.

And uh we got living proof of that in Elijah.

And you know, you're when you're depleted.

You can be easily defeated.

Keep your guard up.

Well let's take a look.

Here's a case study in losing hope.

Elijah was afraid and ran for his life.

Why?

Now he has just stood down 450 guys.

He because a woman threatened him.

He ran for his life.

When he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there while he himself went on a day's journey into the wilderness.

Mighty mighty Elijah.

The great champion of God came to a broom bush, sat down under it, and prayed that he might die.

Would you call this a hope crisis?

What in the world?

Now, let's take a look.

I've had enough, Lord, he said, take my life.

I'm no better than my ancestors There he went into a cave and spent the night.

And the word of the Lord, by the way, here's the difference between the two chapters.

Count the number of times he refers to God on Mount Carmel.

Count the number of times he refers to himself. under the broom tree.

He has turned inward, which is what we do when it's painful There he went into a cave and spent the night, and the word of the Lord came to him.

What are you doing here, Elijah?

When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.

Now, you know that God appears to him in several forms and finally hears God through the still small voice.

I'm fascinated with the question God asks Elijah.

This is not a geographical question.

Why are you in this cave?

I don't think.

The point wasn't what the his geographical location.

He's like, how did you get in this condition?

Elijah, you have seen my power.

And then you get some bad news.

And look at you now.

We have all gone there.

And I want to suggest to you that there are times in your life that this is God's question to you.

In fact, you'll see in your notes.

What are you doing here?

I have a feeling there's somebody in this room, and if you could hear God's voice, he's asking you right now.

My son, my daughter, after all you've seen, after all you've experienced of me, what are you doing Acting like this, feeling like this in this condition.

What are you doing here?

I think that's perhaps God's more often than not frequent question to us.

So, when calamity hits, that's a hope crossroads.

But here's the one you might not know that you have a hope problem.

Complacency.

There's no calamity.

You say, I'm, you know what, I mean, my life isn't perfect, but there's nothing terrible going on right now.

Uh-huh.

Well, let's talk about complacency.

Let's go to Amos chapter 6, verse 1.

Woe to you!

Who are complacent in Zion.

That's us in Zion.

And to you who feel secure, I'm out of Samaria.

We'll stop there.

Woe to you!

Shame on you.

You who are complacent, complacent in Zion.

This may not seem like a hope crisis to you, oh, but it is.

It is the subtle.

Despair of accepting mediocrity.

Because the nature of hope is always reaching for something better, something bigger.

Some of us have stopped preaching.

We're just sitting.

What happened to your hope?

You've become static. instead of on the move.

Let's practice some Chinese.

You all know I speak Mandarin now.

We have our radio program in Mandarin and I'm now extremely fluent, thanks to Joseph Chang.

Who pretends he's me, uh but Chinese Ron.

But um that that is that that that this I do know this word.

Cha say cha?

So we veterans learned this a few years ago.

Boo?

Don't.

Now it's one word.

Cha bu.

Say it together.

Cha bu.

Cha buh.

Turn to the person next to you.

Go, chabu-doh.

And you say to them, uh-uh.

Go ahead.

Uh-uh.

Yeah, that's good.

Now what did you just say?

You should really not Do you trust me that much?

You're saying a Chinese, you don't know what you just said.

And you said it to somebody else.

Naughty boy.

No?

Chao Do Good enough.

Chinese tailor makes a shirt for you.

And you get it back and the buttons don't all line up.

You take it back to him.

He goes Jabu though.

That's good enough.

A Chinese carpenter hangs the door and The door keeps rubbing and and and and it's not it's not the right length.

You say, can you come and fix this?

He goes.

That's good.

You're quick learners.

Listen, you've learned so far tonight.

You've learned Hebrew, Greek, and Chinese.

This is a very educational retreat.

So Now, do you know America is filled with Chaboodel Christians and they don't even know they are?

Because they're comparing themselves to other Christians and they're going, hey, hey, we're a lot more active, we're a lot more excited than the other folks are But actually they're chabud.

I love this quote from Screwtape Letters, and some of you who may not be familiar with C.

S.

Lewis's work are like, what's a screw tape?

Well, Screwtape is a senior demon writing to a junior demon and coaching him on how to take over a man's life.

To his nephew Wormwood I didn't know demons had nephews, but anyway, C.

S.

Lewis says they do, so it must be true.

And um in screw tape letters, he's here's how he coaches his junior demon nephew.

He says, a moderated religion is good for us.

It's as good for us as no religion at all and much more amusing.

Interesting.

John Piper wrote this, for those of you that are on the little uh who are more mature, shall we say, this is quite a challenge.

How many Christians set their sights on a Sabbath evening of life?

Resting, playing, traveling, and so on, the world substitute for heaven Because they do not believe there will be one beyond the grave, perhaps.

The mindset is that we must reward ourselves in this life for our long years of labor.

Eternal rest and joy after death, that's too long.

What a strange reward for a Christian to set his sights on.

Twenty years of leisure while living in the midst of the last days of infinite consequences for millions of unreached people What a tragic way to finish the last lap before entering the presence of the king, who finished his so differently.

It's pretty profound.

I've never known anybody in a race who slowed down near the finish line.

Do you?

So actually accepting mediocrity, accepting a status quo, subtly surrendering to the status quo, is a form, I believe, of hopelessness.

I am told there's a road in far up in northern Canada and there's a sign that says this, choose your rut carefully.

You will be in it for the next 50 miles Some of us may have chosen our rut carefully and. . .

Oh, it's a religious rut.

It's a Christian rut.

It's it's uh even an applauded rut.

But it doesn't represent hope.

Because hope always reaches for something more and for something better So I would ask you.

Are you doing that in your marriage?

Or have you accepted it the way it is?

Are you doing that in your relationship with each of your children?

You're reaching for more?

Reaching for better?

How about that broken relationship?

That strained relationship.

You just leaving it that way?

Accepting the Senate school?

You need a hope shot.

You're not reaching.

You're just accepting the status quo.

Are you pretty satisfied with where you are with Jesus?

Well, that's too bad.

Because after 30 years of the ultimate Christian life The Apostle Paul wasn't.

Let's look at a couple scriptures.

Look at Matthew Chapter 5, verse 6.

Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled You ever you've had a baby?

You know that you are not gonna have any peace until you feed them.

When they're hungry They demand that you feel that appetite.

Ever had a teenager in your house?

They're animals until you feed them.

Come in the house, they don't say how you doing, mom.

They say what's to eat.

That's all they care about.

They're eating machines Hunger and thirsting.

Hunger demands satisfaction.

Jesus said the people who are blessed are the people who are hungry and thirsty for more righteousness.

How are you doing on that Are you just okay?

Are you chabudon?

Good enough?

Philippians 3.

Look at look at this, the ultimate Christian life.

And Paul says, not that I have already obtained all this.

He's not complacent in Zion.

Or I've already arrived at my goal.

I press on to take hold of that, for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.

Wait a minute, Paul, after all this time you haven't?

Nope.

Still going after it.

Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to take have taken hold of it.

But one thing I do. . .

Forgetting what is behind.

You know what was behind him.

You know his accomplishments.

He had a spiritual scrapbook unlike any other in history He said, I can't stand, I can't, I can't be where I'm at.

I can't I can't tell it's not my resume.

I'm not interested in you reading my resume He said, forgetting what is behind, straining toward what is in.

I pray this is an athlete.

This is fully extended runner in the Olympics.

Veins bulging.

I press on toward the goal to win the prize.

I'm not there yet, for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.

Do you feel that passion?

Do you feel that fire in you?

Or has the fire gone out?

God brought you here to realize that you have a hope problem.

Because there's no hope in just settling.

If you're settling, that's a hope problem.

Not with so much ground yet to conquer.

I did a study a little while back of what I called the most disturbing questions Jesus ever asked.

Man, did he ask a lot of questions.

I was starting to write them all down and I I just I said there's too many.

I just did Matthew.

It's as far as I got.

I probably should keep going.

This is one of the most disturbing I found.

Now I'm going to tell you who he's asking.

He's talking to Philip.

Philip has seen every miracle Jesus has done for three years.

He's heard every sermon.

He could pass a quiz on anything.

I mean, he's walked with Jesus, talked with Jesus.

They've slept on the hillside with the other disciples together.

He's heard it all.

He's seen it all.

He's done it all.

Listen to this question.

Don't you know me, Philip?

Even after I have been among you?

For such a long time?

Now I don't know that that necessarily means know him in terms of knowing him as Savior.

It might.

But what troubles me about that is Is Jesus asking me that?

Ron, after all these years of hanging out with me , And all you've seen and all you've done and all you've read and all the verses you know.

You don't know me any better?

You know a lot about me.

You've got the left brain filled with me.

But you haven't right-brained me very much.

You haven't begun to experience half of what you know.

And he might be asking that question somebody here tonight.

Have you been with me this long?

And you don't know me any better than this?

That's a whole problem.

Accepting a status quo, you should not accept.

You should not accept the status quo in your relationship with Jesus You should not accept the status quo about the difference you've made with your life up until this point.

Whatever difference you have made, I hope your is a driving passion that says, well, I'm going to make the greatest difference I've ever made in the rest of my life.

Whatever time I have left.

That's going to be the difference making years.

And I'm ready for orders.

Or are you okay, Jabwo Do, with the difference you're making?

That broken past that you've never dealt with.

The hurt, the wounds, that continue to define you in ways you don't even realize.

You're just gonna leave that broken?

Are you gonna take the courageous steps to get it fixed?

That spiritual stronghold, and I suggest we all have one, at least one.

That is like the last bastion of rebellion against the Lordship of Christ.

He can't really have that.

I still control that part of me.

I will control that.

You need to be reaching.

You need to have a buoyant confidence that there is something better that is a it's unseen right now, but it is it is a it is of sure reality.

And you're going to defy mediocrity to get it.

Because complacency breeds carelessness, and carelessness breeds a crash.

Just ask King David.

When he should have been at war, he's with Bathsheba.

Because Jesus is calling you to hope for something more And he's destined you for it.

It's a holy restlessness.

It's like Jacob, who says, I will not let you go until you bless me.

It's like Caleb, 85 years old.

I love this guy.

I'm glad I got a grandson named Caleb.

Nice work, Brad and Sarah.

Caleb, 85 years old.

And he's been, he's had to spend 45 years, 40 years in the wilderness, probably about five years after he gets to 85, because Of some idiots who wouldn't believe God 40 years ago.

I would be a bitter old man at that point Going, man, I have just I've had to spend all this time.

Instead, he comes up to Moses, he says, I am more vigorous from battle than ever.

Give me a mountain.

Give me some giants.

Let's go.

Oh, I want to be Caleb when I grow up.

Nowhere near 85, but I want to be like Caleb.

I hope to be 85, but I'm not there.

These are guys who have a holy restlessness.

Paul in in Romans chapter uh Romans chapter 15 he's been all over the world planted all these churches but he says no no he says there's some places where Christ has not named yet he's right here he says It's always been my ambition to preach the gospel where Christ was not known.

And uh he said, those who were not told about him will see And those who have not heard will understand.

This is why I've often been hindered from coming to you, because I keep seeing more people who need to be reached.

Paul is beat up.

He's got scars all over his body.

He's got a thorn in the flesh.

He's got every reason to slow down.

And he says, man, there's more to do.

If you don't have that fire, I can tell you who can light it.

You need to be talking to them about it.

Romans 12, 11 challenged me just the other day.

Never be lacking in zeal, are you?

Y'all fired up?

Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor.

Serving the Lord.

There's fire in that verse, man.

So, whether you have, you're at the hope crossroads of a calamity or the hope crossroads of complacency.

Let's just wind up with hope's deep roots.

Karen had LASIK surgery a few years ago.

Not LASIK surgery.

That would be different.

That would make your eyes water all the time.

But LASIK surgery.

I got had to get that right.

And and it was amazing.

We drove back, we had a doctor friend in the Chicago area who did the surgery.

And uh Coming back, she was driving and she said, this is for I've always always had to read the faraway signs, because I'm far-sighted, and and uh and she's like uh she's like no you don't have to read those No, and she's reading the signs to me and she's seeing stuff and she's she's like this is awesome We had a friend who also had LASIK surgery she didn't have as nice an experience She said, all of a sudden I was married to this wrinkled old man And she said I looked in the mirror and I was ten years older than I was before the surgery, you know.

So but but you know you get LASIK surgery and you see things differently.

I feel like in the last year and a half.

True, the most grueling Experience of my life.

I am sure my heart will never be as broken.

Again.

I see differently.

It's like spiritual ASIC surgery.

Expensive surgery, I might say.

Because once again God has given me what I call eternity eyes Let me leave you tonight with the perspective that will change how everything in your life looks as much as LASIK surgery does physically. 2 Corinthians chapter 4 verse 18, I think summarizes it.

Paul, who had more troubles than we would even want to hear him talk about We don't look at the troubles we can see now.

That's earth eyes.

Instead, uh we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.

For the things we see now will soon be gone.

But the things we cannot see last forever.

Um Kieran uh would go through, you know, different hairstyles like most women do.

Brad would cry every time she got her hair different, right Brad?

Oh I he 's like you had to tell that, right?

So he's uh now she was like, oh what happened to my mother Um surely funny, we have a very funny grandson who's who's uh not here tonight, Blake, but uh when he was oh I don't Well, it was several years ago, but uh Lisa dropped him off at school and then she went and had got a new do.

She came and picked him up at school.

And he's very funny.

He really is clever.

And he got in the car and he didn't say anything.

He didn't say what'd you do to your hair or anything.

He just said, How'd you talk my mother out of her car?

He said, pretty funny, kid.

He really cracks me up.

But and I said, Karen, how long does it what is that curly?

She said, that's a perm.

I said, how long does a perm last?

She said, three months.

I said that's not a perm, that's a temp.

Don't call it a permanent.

This is false advertising.

Paul made a big distinction between permanent and temporary, didn't he?

And he said, we look at the stuff, he said, beaten with rods, shipwrecked.

I got hitmen out trying to kill me.

He made a long list in Corinthians.

It's depressing to read that all that could happen to one man But he says, that's earth.

He said it's a temp.

He said, even that stuff looks different through eternity eyes.

Everything.

Your children look different Your neighbors look different.

Your work looks different.

Your money looks different.

Everything looks different through eternity ice.

And your pain looks different.

Through eternity eyes.

It changes everything.

Seeing your life, seeing your situation through eternity eyes, because hope lives on a bigger canvas called eternity And the eternity perspective opens up two hope-anchoring guarantees.

And let me leave you with them.

They have sustained me.

Number one is the plan.

Number one is the plan.

Psalm 11, verses 3 and 4.

When the foundations are being destroyed, it felt like mine was.

I could come home to Karen and get the wisest counsel I could get from anybody.

I could share a lifetime that when I lost her, I lost my history.

I lost our history together.

Nobody else did life with me since 19.

Knew all the same people?

Felt all the same feelings?

Prayed for the same things all those years?

Oh, my foundation was shaken.

And the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?

That's a good question.

In our world?

Oh, answer.

The Lord is in his holy temple.

The Lord is on his heavenly throne.

Quite simply, the throne has not moved.

God is in charge as he was before.

So if here's your security, your security has not moved.

I can lose, humanly speaking, the life anchor of my life.

But my security has not moved.

If it's rooted there.

Remember, we're looking through eternity eyes now.

The difference between temporary and permanent.

Jeremiah 29. 11.

Somebody quote it.

You know it.

It's in cards all the time.

I know the.

They have plans for good for it depends.

Now we got all we got translation babble going on here.

The Tower of Translation Babel.

Well, let's try this one.

Plans to prosper you and not to harm you.

Plans to give you hope and a future.

Do you know who that was written to?

The Jews were in exile.

They had lost everything.

Looking around, you would not find any hope in your situation.

What are we doing in Babylon?

God says, I want you to have babies here.

I want you to prosper the city you're in.

I want you to make where you are a good place to be.

And that promise was given to them.

You'd have to have it turned to the ice.

And of course, Romans 8. 28.

We don't have to have a quiz on this one.

We know that in all things, God works for the good, not everything is good, but everything works together is synergized for the good of those who love him who have been called according to his purpose.

So , write this in your notes.

God is always doing something bigger than the thing you can see.

If all he is doing is what you can see in front of you, chances are your hope may not sustain.

But looking through eternity eyes, you say, there is a plan, and I could give you a thousand examples of where the thing that was happening in the moment I had no idea. that God was weaving a tapestry and that thread would come later on to make so much sense.

But that's on the eternity scale.

Job said, Job, the expert on hope, I would say, and hopeless, if you devote your heart to him and stretch out your hands to him, you will be secure.

This is Job talking in the middle of it.

Because there is hope.

You will look about you and you will take your rest in safety.

I want you to learn to say this about whatever is going on in your life.

This is only a chapter.

This is not the book.

I cannot tell you how transformative that simple truth has been for me. on the worst days of my life.

If this is the book, forget hope.

Give it up.

But if this is a sad chapter in a book with a happy ending, there's a lot of those kind of books.

I can handle the chapter.

This is not the book, my brother or my sister.

This is the chapter.

And the book has a wonderful ending.

You just gotta make it through this chapter.

Because I know the author of the book This is only a chapter.

It is not the book, and it takes eternity eyes to see that.

We don't just look at the things we can see.

That's the chapter.

But the things we can't see, which will last forever.

That's the book.

And let me tell you what I have learned through the deepest crucible of my life.

The sooner you embrace God's purposes the sooner you will experience his peace.

You can fight it.

You can struggle.

You can be afraid, anxious, mad, whatever you want to be I have a lot of questions I'll ask Jesus about Karen's homegoing.

Why don't her be here longer for them?

I don't know why it had to happen the way it did and the kids were there.

Ask hundreds of native kids and they'll tell you her work was not done as far as they're concerned.

She was their mama hutch.

So I don't know all of his purposes.

But the sooner you embrace the fact that a loving God who thought you were worth dying for you has purposes that are part of his love somehow in this.

The sooner you'll have peace.

The hurt won't go away.

But there'll be a peace.

You decide.

The sooner you say, Lord, I believe all those things your word says about your purposes and your plans.

I surrender.

Colossians 3. 15 gives this command.

Let, notice that word , let the peace of Christ.

Rule in your heart.

You have to give it permission.

Let it rule.

God's willing to flood you with his peace if you'll embrace his purposes.

But let us peace win.

I have so many friends, you know, people keep asking me about my shoulder because I've had three sh three surgeries on the same shoulder in about a three-month period of time, four months maybe.

And um so if I hug you a little, uh you say, well, Ron isn't really too enthusiastic about me being here.

But um I can't help give a wimpy hug.

I told my grandchildren I call it a huh.

I'll put the G on it when his shoulder's back where it's supposed to be.

But all of us in our family have a good friend who's He's just in his 30s, got a young family, been diagnosed with a very serious cancer, is in some grueling steps medically to try to fight it He has posted some extraordinary stuff.

Listen to what he wrote.

Please know that the unknown or uncertain.

Now think what that means for him.

This is not like easy for him to say. will not lead us to panic or fear.

We have a big God with bold plans and an even better purpose.

See what the plan has done?

He believes in that plan.

Can't see it right now.

It's got eternity eyes.

For his ways are higher than our ways, his thoughts above our thoughts.

My story is really just wrapped up in his story.

So um believe in the plan.

The other key and I'll leave you with this is the provision.

That's the other root of hope.

First is the plan that is has chapters which are not always pleasant, but a book that will make sense And then there is the provision.

Paul talked about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12 Because of these surpassingly great revelations, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan to torment me.

Now Satan didn't give it to him.

God gave it to him.

Satan used it to try to bring him down.

Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me.

Many Bible students believe that this may have been a problem with his eyes.

Can you imagine having to travel the world, planting churches, writing half the New Testament?

With eye trouble.

Whatever it was though really hurt.

It was intense, it was relentless, it was painful.

But he said to me, No, I will not take it away.

No, no, that that's not I would have bought the plan No, my grace is sufficient for you.

For my power, the weaker you get, the more me there is, Paul.

Lest subtract Paul add God, therefore I will boast all the more.

I don't I will boast about my weaknesses, alol?

Yeah, because I know what that means.

The weaker I get the more Christ's power rests on me.

Now, here's the deal.

And this this provision I'm going to tell you about.

It 's for the deep wound you may be curing right now.

But it's also, if you've been complacent, it's also his provision for the uncharted new ground he's calling you to go after.

That takes the new ground.

It's called grace.

See, that's very good as I come into our great room.

And see the blue recliner empty.

First thing I did it whenever I get home.

Walk in and I could see the top of Karen 's head and her, I call her hair, her wonderful gray hair, radiant gray hair, the crown of glory.

It's not there.

Won't be.

So that's nice that there's a plan and there's a purpose.

But I still got to do the rest of my life without her.

That's the reality.

That's where the provision comes in.

Because the plan alone won't do it for me.

Can I uh I'll give you a definition of grace in just a second.

Um if you um are you have you ever had a rush of adrenaline?

Of course you have.

You're all of a sudden you're Superman.

You know, for about a minute there.

You I mean there's something, some emergency And you can lift things you couldn't lift and you can move faster and you forget your pain and and if you're hurting you don't even think about it and uh guys in sports do this, they play with broken limbs, they don't even feel it till the game's over because they have this rush of adrenaline.

God has given us this chemistry that when there's a crisis, it comes in and it compensates and increases our strength.

Grace is spiritual adrenaline.

Write it down.

Grace is spiritual adrenaline And it kicks in at the moment when you need it.

You don't have it before you need it, and you don't think you'd be able to handle it if it happened, but then you don't have the adrenaline yet.

It enables you to endure.

It enables you to risk.

It enables you to face what you never thought you could face.

The unbearable becomes bearable.

The undoable becomes doable because spiritual adrenaline gives you a strength you do not have the rest of your life.

I'll give you a working definition.

Grace is God's intervening resources when you're unempty.

That's when grace shows up.

It's his intervening, it's like a surplus gas tank.

You ran out of gas in your tank.

It's God's intervening resources when you're on empty.

Isn't that how you came to Christ?

You had nothing.

You were bankrupt.

Amazing grace saved you.

Because God intervened with his resources when you were unempty.

So let's understand this about grace.

Number one, grace is designed for your situation.

Hebrews 4. 16.

Great invitation.

Let us then approach God's throne of grace.

Isn't that interesting?

That's what his throne is.

It's a grace throne.

Let's approach his grace throne with confidence, so we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

Leave that verse up there I'm gonna give you a little Greek lesson one more time.

See that grace to help us?

That word, that verb is used twice in the New Testament.

Here And the only other time is in Acts 27.

Paul is on a ship that's been in a hurricane, uh intense storm for two weeks.

And he actually says, we had lost all hope.

He concludes himself, we had lost all hope of being saved And then God appears to them and says, I'm gonna, the ship's gonna go, but all the people are gonna be saved.

But in desperation, the crew, their last resort to try to save the ship, is to run cables underneath. the ship to try to tie it together.

It's creaking.

The boards are falling apart.

The ship is coming apart.

They tried they hold it together with these cables.

That Greek word is the word used in Acts 27 to hold the ship together.

So in your most violent storm, if you go to the throne, that is a gross grace throne, and you will get there grace that will hold your ship together.

When otherwise it would blow apart.

That's why grace makes you unthinkable.

And you know what?

It's not one size fits all grace.

No, see, it's customized grace.

It's variegated grace.

Multicolored grace.

So their suffering grace, their single grace, to be single and satisfied There's prodigal son, prodigal daughter grace.

There's hospital grace.

There's caregiving grace.

I pray sometimes for my grandchildren for grace customized to their age and what their little heart needs.

Grace in a way they can feel it and experience it.

It's age-graded.

There's forgiving grace.

I can tell you there's grieving grace.

There's jobless grace.

Temptation grace.

To hold the ship together.

It's customized.

So when you go to the throne, you go for the kind of grace you need, and he's got it in your flavor.

It's like Grace Baskin Robbins Secondly, grace is delivered as needed.

It's delivered as needed.

Deuteronomy 33, 25, how many times do I quote this?

Your strength will equal your year.

Oh no.

Your strength will equal your days.

God sends it in daily deliveries.

Here's the problem.

You know what worry does?

Worry is when you run ahead of your supply lines.

So if anybody in this room is worrying about what's going to happen next week, you're on your own, honey.

You got no grace for it.

You've got the worry without the grace.

You've got the problem without the grace.

Because the grace comes on the day it's needed.

Grace is delivered as needed.

Worry is running ahead of your supply lines.

I read a story about World War II orphans after we were liberating villages in Europe and they would bring in many children who had lost their parents and they would bring them into military hospitals and they found out that they wouldn't go to sleep at night.

Because they've gone to bed hungry so many nights.

Took them a little while.

The armory psychiatrist went to work on this said, why aren't they sleeping?

And they finally said, they're afraid they're going to starve.

Because they've had so many nights they didn't think they they they'd wake up in the morning.

They solved the problem.

They got them asleep at night.

Before they went to sleep at night, they put a slice of bread in their hand Because what they needed tomorrow is already in their hand.

You can count on that from your father What you're going to need tomorrow is as good as in your hand.

But you get it as it's needed I love that old song.

It says, He giveth more grace when the burdens grow greater.

He sendeth more strength when the labors increase.

To added affliction, he addeth his mercy.

To multiply trials is multiplied peace.

His grace has no measure.

Let's see, his love has no limit.

His grace has no measure.

His power has no boundary known unto men.

For out of his infinite riches in Jesus, he giveth, giveth , giveth again.

You can count on it.

And I'll tell you what, I'm lifting things I've never had to lift before Because of the spiritual adrenaline of grace.

It'll be there when you need it.

Worry is a waste of time.

And a killer of hope.

One last thing, grace is downloaded by faith.

It's downloaded by faith It says this is, in other words, you've got to believe God that grace is available and grace is doing it.

Romans chapter 5 will be all you need.

Romans chapter 5 verse 2 says, through him Through whom we have gained access by faith.

In access, you access the grace by faith.

And because we've got grace, we now stand.

US Air fifteen forty-nine took off from LaWardi Airport.

Birds flew into the engine.

The engine stalled.

Captain Chesney Sullenberger was at the helm All I know is that somebody came into my office and said, Ron, you need to turn on the TV.

I keep it in there because I do track the news.

There's been a plane crash in the Hudson River.

I thought, oh dear Lord, what carnage that's gonna be.

You know why they call it miracle on the Hudson.

Sully Sullenberger. 20 years flight experience as a commercial pilot, many years experience as a combat pilot, an expert on aviation safety.

And by the way, a glider pilot.

If you could have picked your pilot that day, you say I'd pick old Sully.

The only guy, probably there was, who given all those circumstances, could have brought them in safely.

I've been on many airplanes and never got to pick my pilot.

But I got to pick the pilot of my life.

And you need to know the Captain Jesus is flying your plane.

And when the engine stalls and hope seems lost.

He will bring you in safely.

He's promised that.

The word tikvah that I said is the Hebrew word for hope.

Do you know the first time the word hope appears in the Bible?

It's in the book of Exodus.

It's the word tikvah.

Do you know what that word tikva means, really?

Rope.

Hope is a rope.

And there was a lady named Rahab in Jericho.

Remember?

And because she harbored God's scouts They were told the way that her family would be saved was to lower the tikva out the window.

The first time the hope word appears in the Bible It appears as a rescue rope.

My brother, my sister, whatever you are facing, that you know or don't know.

Whatever move God is asking you to make to move out of your status quo.

Hope is God's rope to pull you out of your darkness and to pull you into a deeper relationship with Him and to a passion that will be unlike you've ever had before.

It will be the rope that will lead you into the greatest difference you've ever made.

It's defiant hope.