Hallelujah.
My Lord.
Say that with me.
Hallelujah.
You know, we join the host that's under the altar as they begin to declare in Revelation
19.
Hallelujah.
You know, He is everything.
He's all in all.
Amen.
Give Him a good praise as you're seated in His house this morning.
Well, glory to His name.
His glory is as bright in the valley as it is on any mountaintop, wherever I've stood.
I don't know about your valleys, but the ones I've had to walk through, it seemed like it
was brighter.
His glory shined brighter.
Because when I'm on the mountain, things are clear.
It's when I'm in that valley, when things close in, then the illuminating factor of
His grace and love, His glory shines.
My Lord.
Let's take a minute and just, however you feel, just worship Him and thank Him for His
glory in the valley.
Father, I love you today, Lord.
I thank you for your glory in the valley.
I thank you, Lord, for shining in the light.
Hallelujah.
Earlier this morning, when they were rehearsing, you know, some of them get here about 8 o'clock
every Sunday morning, start preparing and putting things together in order to lead you
and I to worship.
Don't you appreciate their sacrifice?
Let them know that.
Some of you at about 8 o'clock are just getting that first cup of coffee.
Start getting your mind wrapped around coming to worship and they're here preparing to lead
us in.
And when they started this song this morning, all the way down to the end of the hall, doors
are all open so nobody here to absorb it, so it just comes rolling in my door.
When they started singing it, it got down to me.
I had to come up here and just see and just watch.
I'm telling you, I felt the glory of the Lord this morning and I thought it's going to be
a good day at the Hopewell Church of God.
Amen.
The Lord is already here.
He was here waiting on our arrival.
Amen.
Has it been good to you this week?
Amen.
Let's go before the Lord with our tithe and offering and don't forget today, hopefully
you came prepared for the special offering we mentioned last week and the two particular
needs that we're going to reach out and help some people.
The offering today will go for that.
If you give online and you've already given and had forgotten about the offering, you
can go back and just put special offering and we'll be sure that it gets there.
We want to bless these needs.
We have a family connected to our church, used to attend this church, who lost everything
in a fire, a house fire, everything.
We want to try and help them and bless them.
Father Scotty Hernandez is Sergeant Major in the company that he serves with.
Child in that very rare condition and looking at amputating some limbs on this child.
So we want to reach out and be a blessing to them.
Amen.
Father, I love you today.
As we come prepared to worship you in spirit and in truth today.
Over the household of faith, I ask God that you would bless them with jobs and better
jobs, increases, checks in the mail, refunds, rebates, the best sale in town, whatever's
out there, Lord, that will bless your people.
I ask Lord that you bring that into their life.
Not more than, but not less than what your word speaks over us.
And according to your word, you'll supply all of our need according to your riches in
glory by Christ Jesus.
Calls us to prosper.
Bless your people.
In Christ's name.
And the church says, amen.
Stand with me and come and worship in your giving today as we march around.
I've had many tears and sorrows.
I've had questions for tomorrow.
There have been times I didn't know right from wrong.
But in every situation, God gave blessed consolation that my trials only come to make me strong.
Through it all, through it all.
And I've learned to trust in Jesus.
And I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all, through it all.
And I've learned to depend upon His word.
I've been to a lot of places.
I have seen so many faces.
But there have been times that I've felt so all alone.
But it was in those lonely hours, all those precious lonely hours that Jesus let me know
I was His own.
And it was through it all, through it all.
And I've learned to trust in Jesus.
And I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all, through it all.
And I've learned to depend upon His word.
So I thank God for my mountains.
And I thank God for my valleys.
And I thank Him for all the storms He's brought me through.
For if I never had a problem, how would I know that He could solve them?
But I know what faith in God's word could do.
Oh, it's come through it all.
Through it all.
Well, I've learned to trust in Jesus.
And I've learned to trust in God.
Through it all, through it all.
I've learned to depend upon His word.
Hallelujah. You trusting in the word of God?
Do you trust in the word of God?
Give Him praise for His word this morning.
Hallelujah.
You know that all is quite a bit.
Through it all, right?
There's a lot that gets wrapped up in that pretty bow through it all.
But we're trusting in God, believing in God, amen?
If you have your Bibles, be turning with me.
We're going to continue in this little mini-series.
We're going to finish it up today, that contend for the faith.
And in finishing that up, we're going to look at the expectations and hope of the faith.
Expectations and hope of the faith, amen?
I'm going to read you a book of Jude, verse three.
The book of Jude, verse three.
While you're turning there, let me again say it's so good to see you in the house of the Lord.
If you're visiting with us this morning, I don't know what kind of shape I'll be in when this is over.
So if you'll go out the doors to my left, right over there at the counter,
we have some folks there ready to greet you and we want to bless you and let you know how much we appreciate you being here today.
We have a number of churches in Bradley County, 80, 90, somewhere around nearly 100.
And so it is an honor that you've chosen Hopewell Church of God this morning, amen?
Because you could have been a lot of different places.
So thank you for being here and honoring us with your presence today.
Hopewell family, thank you so much for being here today.
And I know you look around as I am and you see faces that aren't here.
With summer comes vacations and places to go and so let's remember our brothers and sisters as they travel about, amen?
And that they have such a good time on vacation, they're so wore out that they have to go to work to get rest.
Fair enough? Wouldn't you like to have one of those so wore out from vacation you get rested at work?
Jude, verse 3, beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,
it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith,
which was once delivered unto the saints, the expectations and hope of the faith.
Father, I love you today.
Lord, I thank you for how you stirred our heart over the past weeks to minister this word and from this passage.
Lord, I pray that it has been an encouragement to the body of Christ.
I ask, Lord, that truly that we are enriched because of the power of your word.
We live on, we thrive in your word. It's hope and it's life.
So help us today, Father. Help me this morning.
May I be expedient. The Lord won't beat around the bush and be here all day.
Help me say what you want me to say. We let the folks go.
In Christ's name, and everybody says, Amen.
I figured you all would have been to Amen and real good there saying what needs to be said and letting the folks go.
Sometimes it takes me a little longer than others to say it.
As I mentioned, we're closing this little mini-series.
If you've been here for any length of time, you realize I'm not known as a series preacher.
Thirty years of preaching over that thirty years, probably on two hands.
You could add up how many series I've done. It just doesn't work that way through me.
These guys, they'll enter into two or three series and they've got six months of the year.
And I'm thinking, they say, well, it makes it easier to study.
I said, well, it just doesn't work that way for me.
So when the Lord does move me on one, it kind of gives me a little relief.
And as we are contending for the faith and the fall of digging in, you remember that to contend means to to take hold of and to be in conflict for to contend for to strive against the opposition.
And as we are contending for the faith, we are reminded that the faith is the message of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
That's the sum total of the faith that we're living out, the gospel message, the good news and all that is contained in Jesus Christ and his word and instruction for us.
By believing and accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ, it affords to us the believer access to the promises and the privileges that are made in and through the word of God.
I don't know if you realize that, but there are promises that have been made, thousands of promises in the word of God.
And according to the word of God itself, they are yay and amen in Christ Jesus.
And those promises are to those who are of the faith.
You're outside the faith. The promises of God, the good things of God, the privileges that you have.
And by being a child of God are not afforded to you being outside the faith.
You get a little rain of goodness in your life because it rains on the just and the unjust.
Amen. Everybody gets a little wet. Right.
So when we think about the privileges and the promises that are provided to us through the faith, through the atoning work of Jesus Christ, the sacrifice of Christ himself.
If you remember last week, I told you and made that little comment about that it is all based upon the precept and the concept of the sacrifice of who Christ is.
Amen. And the glory of God through Christ in and through our lives.
So as Jude is writing to the church, he's wanting them to earnestly contend earnestly means to do with intensity.
He meant to earnestly contrive, to be have conviction and to seriously take note of what it is that you're doing.
And we are to take the faith very seriously. Amen.
We are to be intense about the relationship that we have with Jesus Christ.
I don't know that if we fully understand some of the magnitude that goes by when God said he'd have no other before me. Amen.
We put a lot of things in front. We love God. We we love Christ or we say we do.
But he has to be number one in our life. The priority of our love has to flow from our love for Jesus Christ.
You can't love your boat more than Christ. You can't love your golf clubs more than Christ.
I'm about to bust a bubble. You can't love your kids more than you love Christ.
You can't love your grandchildren more than you love Christ. You can't love your bank account more than you love Christ.
You can't love your wife or your husband more than you love Christ. You can't love yourself more than you love Christ.
He has to be the supremacy of your love in your life.
The number one priority of your being should be to love him with all that is within you.
That is the requirement. Is it not? When Jesus was asked in question, what is the greatest of the commandments?
That thou should love the Lord thy God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your might, with all of your being.
Then second under this, let other relationships flow out of that. Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
The supremacy is not love yourself and then love your neighbor. It's loving our neighbors as we love ourself.
So we are to earnestly contend for the gospel, the good news of Christ,
and the faith that we have that brings and affords us those privileges and the promises that are made available through the work of Jesus Christ.
On Wednesday night, many of you were here and we celebrated what we labeled as our freedom fellowship up at the pavilion.
It was hot, but I sat on the edges and I don't know if you noticed, but I watch. I like to watch folk.
I like to see how you interact together. I love to see the church in fellowship.
And it was a wonderful, wonderful time that we had. You can't beat homemade ice cream. Amen.
You can't beat a hamburger and a hot dog with everything you can pile on top of it.
But on top of that, the fellowship of the body of Christ.
I noticed Sister Erica posted some of the pictures from our fellowship together and how others begin to comment outside of our fellowship.
Oh, how everyone looks so happy. Amen. Everyone looks so happy.
It looks like everyone was having a wonderful, fun time and we were.
It was hot, but we were still having a good time together, seeing the church fellowship together.
And it was all because of the night before of the celebration of our national independence. Amen.
And we were going to celebrate that on Thursday.
Oh, last Sunday, Brother George used an illustration of an Ivan Parker song in his Sunday school class.
And he showed me a little quote that Brother Randy had sent him of that song.
And when I began to read it, I said, I need a copy of that because we're going to use that again come Sunday.
It struck me. I'd never heard the song and I don't know why, but I'd never heard it.
So I want you to hear the lyrics as we begin to move in.
And I want you to think about the expectation and the hope that we have in the faith.
Amen. It begins this way.
Amen.
I'm in the hope of liberty that begin to move me and begin to stir in my heart as we begin to think about contending for the faith and the expectations and the hope that we have in the faith.
While I'm in the faith, I do expect some things from God.
I expect those promises and privileges that are afforded to me in my faith to him to be a reality in my life.
I don't read the Bible wishing that those things would happen.
I read the word of God with expectation that they can happen in my life and what he has promised to others.
He has promised to me and those promises of God are yes and yes.
Yes. Amen. To all those who are loving him.
And I don't know about you, but I love him a far above any and everything on the face of this earth.
I love Sister Kathy with every fiber of my being.
But the fibers that I can't measure is what I love him with.
Hallelujah. Because I know what he has done for the soul of this old wretched once man.
I do know that it was on Galgotha's Hill that the price was solidified and the hope that I have and the freedom that I have is in the expectation of the promises of God because of the faith that I have in him.
Hallelujah. The gospel. The good news.
Jesus saves. Jesus saves.
The vile sinner. He saves.
That's a hope that I have for all who don't know him.
I don't know if you realize it or not, but you can be a good sinner and still go to a devil's hell.
Huh? So I'm thankful that I have been made whole by the redemptive work of Christ and Christ alone and the hope that the gospel brings into my life.
So when we begin to think about the expectations, what can you and I expect in everyday life?
I find myself not fully surprised by a lot of the things that happen.
Anybody besides me? I see some crazy stuff going, but the older I get, the less it's surprised.
The less I'm surprised by the stupidity of humanity. I'm sorry.
I mean, I mean, that's just the way it is. The older I get, the less it surprises me.
I thought, well, there you go. I wonder what God thinks on the throne of eternity sometime.
No wonder he told Moses, let me wipe this bunch out and start all over.
Even, well, I've got to get on or I'll get hung up.
I'm not surprised by a lot of the things that happen.
Could be because I'm a realist, not a pessimist. I know some think, says,
I'm a pessimist, but not really. I am a realist, a realist, not always positive, not always negative.
But I'm right in the middle. Things are just what they are.
Hello? And the sooner you get balanced in your life,
the more you'll not be surprised by some of the things that come across your pathway.
Amen. Some of the things that others can bring, some of the things that the enemy can offer into your life.
I'm not fully yet a pessimist. I'm holding on to the idea of realism
because the reality of life in which we live life sometimes stinks.
Come on, somebody. I said sometimes life stinks.
But the good thing about that is being a child of God and one who is a member of the faith family
is that there is a rose that will shine and illuminate in the stitch of life.
And there's still a sweet aroma that confines you because of the faith that you have.
Oh, thank him for his glory in the wilderness.
But I even thank him more down in the valley when the glory, why?
Because there is a lily that blooms there. My God, you may be walking through the wilderness
and the valley of life right now. It may be bleak where you are.
Stop looking for the negative and start looking for the lily that will bloom in your valley
because of the glorious love that Jesus Christ has for you.
Earnestly, seriously contend over the years I've seen people quit church over some of the dumbest things.
I got about 30 years in it now and I've seen almost every reason, heard almost every excuse
as to why somebody quits church. And it's still, this part does amaze me,
how that people will use those excuses to run as far from the help that is trying to be offered to them as they can go.
How they, well, you're running the wrong direction.
That's what the altars for. Come to Jesus, right?
He'll take care of that stuff. And most of the time it's because we've got our eyes on other people
and ears to opinionate it to their opinions.
And so we'll let others talk us out of the promises and the privileges that God has afforded to us
because of the faith that we are living out in our everyday life.
And we'll let others skewer us and skew us from the promise that God has made for us.
You do know that that is just a tactic of the devil.
How many knows that?
Okay, so next time y'all come at me with something I'm going to say, well, you said,
you knew it was the devil. And so if it is the devil, why are you running away?
Let's breathe. Everybody take a deep breath.
Say, Lord, help pastor to move on.
Thank you. I'm moving right now, right now.
The expectations that I have in God, I find myself fully amazed and in awe.
Not amazed in awe of what people do or things that arise or even problems that come up,
calamity that makes its way in. I'm not surprised when Hamas attacks Israel.
I'm not surprised when an Iran does what they do or Japan or China or any other nation in the world do what they do.
I'm not surprised by some of the stupidity that our own nation does and perpetrates around the world.
I'm not surprised by some of that stuff.
But when I do get put in awe is when God begins to work in my life and when he begins to unfold the expectations
and the promises and the privileges that I read in his word and they begin to be reality in my life,
then I stand at awe. I stand amazed. Amen.
That the goodness that God don't ever forget that God is good and there's nothing else that he can be and nothing else that he ever will be.
He is good now. He was good then and he always will continue to be good.
Hallelujah. And when that goodness is unfolded upon my life, I truly stand in awe
because I don't expect some of the things that God does. Amen.
You just can't, I can't get my mind around how good and how faithful he is.
The scripture says he is faithful that promised. Amen. He is faithful that promised.
So if he promised and he is faithful, then I myself can let those expectations be real in my life.
When I think of the expectation of liberty, we've just celebrated.
John 836 is true. If the son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed.
But then Paul would say, do not return again to the bondage.
My Lord, could we just put a tent stake down and preach on don't return to the bondage.
If the son therefore has set you free, remain free. What do you say?
I'm saying you can walk back into the bondage. That's the reason the apostles told us that.
Do not return again to the bondage. He told the Galatians in chapter one,
I am so amazed that you are so early and so easily removed from the faith.
He was amazed. He hadn't been, I don't know what people acted like in his day
since they were just starting the church out. He probably hadn't got to see some of the stuff you and I have seen.
I'm thankful we hadn't seen some of the things he had to deal with too.
He said, I'm totally amazed that you're so easily removed from the faith.
The questions of the promises that are there and that are made.
John would say further in 1125, Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection and the life.
And he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.
Here begins the expectation for me and the hope that I have in the faith.
I am expecting this reality in and for my life.
One of these days, I'm going to be dead.
But I'm holding on to the expectation. Yet shall I live.
Yet shall I live. Why? Because he is the resurrection and the life, which is a staple in the faith.
If Christ be not risen, then our faith is in vain.
But Christ is risen. Hallelujah. And our hope is in him. Amen.
And so that is an expectation for me that I will live forever.
You know what my greatest expectation and hope is I'm waiting for one of these days?
The new body. Travis getting up at 530 in the morning to go get a new body.
I'm going to wait to the earnest expectation of my hope. Hallelujah.
In a twinkling, Travis, you're putting hours in.
It's going to happen for me in a twinkling of an eye.
And I'm going to have a brand new one. Hallelujah.
That's a revelation for some of you and an excuse for the rest of you.
You go say, hmm. Well, I don't know if we get her back now.
Yet shall I live. That's the expectation that I have.
Fourteen and one, he further says, John records the words.
Let not your hearts be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me.
For in my father's house are many mansions. And where I am, there you may be also.
For I'm going to prepare a place for you. Hallelujah.
That is an expectation that I have.
The old songwriter said just a cabin on the other side of glory.
No, a cabin's not going to satisfy me. Hallelujah.
I've lived in single wide trailers. I've lived in double wide trailers.
I've lived in all of that stuff down here below.
I am not working and walking and living this faith out for a cabin on the other side of glory.
My God, he has promised me a mansion and that's going to be my expectation.
He said there are many rooms in his father's house and one of those are mine.
And that's what I want and I am not going to settle for anything else.
Why can you say that, pastor? Because the promise is a mansion.
The promise is a place. It's not a cabin on the other side of glory.
I am expecting that is the hope that I have.
That's why I resist the devil the way I do every day.
Because I finally figured out that my soul is more important than my flesh.
Now some of you are still in that struggle. You are still in that struggle.
Because your flesh still drags you to places that your soul would never take you.
And you let it. My Lord, that's some good preaching right there.
It's old school, it's rough, but it will get you to heaven if you listen to me.
You better ignore your flesh and hear the echo that's going on in your soul. Amen?
Hear the echo that's going on in your soul.
John would further say and record in 1427, the words of Christ,
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth,
give I unto you, let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
Now that's one of those promises and hopes that I'm hanging on.
You and I both know that everything that comes to you,
every bit of information that comes into your life is not positive.
Every situation, every circumstance, every trial that comes to your life is not positive.
It's a battle, it's a war, it's a tough life that we are called to live.
But it's a life that we are called to live with the hope of the grace that makes it livable.
There's hardships, there's heartaches, there's pains, there's tragedy, there's disappointment.
People don't always do the right thing.
And you're left in the wake of their wrong decision making.
And you have to live your way through that, live your way out of that.
And it takes the abundance of the grace of God in order to do it.
And that is the only way we survive it.
But it's just not survival, it's thriving.
I know Sister Savannah was encouraging us this morning about wherever it is that you're walking, he is good.
God is good in spite of it all.
Amen.
And the expectation that you have can be of his goodness and his mercy to be extended to you in your situation currently right now.
He said, it's my peace that I've given to you, not as the world gives, but my peace I give to you.
That's what I'm affording to you.
Can you imagine the peace that he finally prayed through in Gethsemane, the peace that he had to endure the pain that was before him for the next days?
They were whipping him and shaming him and pulling his beard from his face and mocking him and then crucifying him.
The Bible says it was for the joy of you and I, the joy that he had that he endured the cross and the shame of it all.
It was joy.
He had peace in his heart and peace in his mind.
His fleshly body went through some turmoil and some tribulation, but in his soul and mind, he had already ratified the situation of God the Father's peace when he said, not my will, but thy will be done.
He was at peace with the rest of it.
Are we at peace with the rest of it?
Sometimes peace is hard to come by, isn't it?
Sometimes peace is hard to acquire, but it's a prayer away.
It's hope and expectation that what Jesus said he meant, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives, give I unto you.
I don't give you what they give out.
I give you something greater.
I give you my peace.
Listen to this.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
John has a theme here with his troubled heart.
He's wanting believers to know Jesus was relaying the message.
You do not have to be afraid or troubled.
And I know there's some things that enter into our life that are very fearful.
Aren't they?
Diagnoses that come in, crosses that arise, can bring fear into our lives.
But that's not God.
God's not bringing that into your life.
Are you hearing me?
We have not been given a spirit of fear.
That's not what he's given.
Oh, my God.
I feel the Lord helping some folk in here this morning.
You've not been given a spirit of fear, but power, love, and a sound mind.
You ever feel like you're going about half crazy?
Hold on.
That's not the mind of Christ.
The promise and the privilege of the faith that you're living out is peace.
It's peace.
It's peace in the midst of whatever situation.
What does that song say?
Sometimes he calms the storm, and then sometimes he calms me.
You ever hear that one?
Sometimes he'll tell the storm to be still, and then sometimes he'll tell you and I.
How many have told you young adults, I said sit still.
I try to tell Sister Kathy these things every time a wasp flies by.
Don't go wailing at him.
He's on his way to somewhere.
Right?
Don't go wailing at life.
It's on its way by you.
The chaos and stuff that's coming again, let it go.
Oh, Ron Canole said this.
When you're going through hell, go ahead.
He said if you catch hell, let it go.
Whatever you do, don't stop.
Keep going.
We have to keep moving forward.
We have to keep going forward.
The peace that you have is from him, not as the world.
The world doesn't afford to us peace.
The prince and the power of this world is not about peace for your life.
Matter of fact, he's come to steal, to kill, and to destroy.
But there's a promise and a privilege to those who are living out the faith.
Jesus said, but I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly.
That in the midst of the chaos, you can still have abundant grace and have an abundant life.
When the devil's trying to take everything you have, he still will bring grace into your life
because of the faith that you've put in him.
The trust that you have released to him and the promise of his word
and the fulfillment of his act and the atoning sacrifice that he made.
Well, hallelujah.
Chaos and life, circumstances, knowing the enemy's against us.
Another expectation, John 16, 33, those things I have spoken unto you.
That in me you might have peace.
In the world you shall have tribulation, but don't worry.
Be happy.
Be of good cheer.
I have overcome the world.
And then humanity and their superior philosophy says,
did you get crucified?
What did you overcome? Well, Billy Bob, read on.
Read on.
On the third day, can somebody say the third day?
He arose with authority and power over death, hell, the grave, and everything else.
I have an expectation and a hope that because he lives, I can live.
Don't focus on the world too much. Be a realist, not a pessimist.
Matthew 11, 28, 29.
Expectations because of the faith that we live.
Jesus said, come unto me all you that labor and are heavy laden, and I will.
Not maybe, not possibly. Not if it's on Tuesday or Thursday.
Come unto me all you that are labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke. Here's the key. You've got to take him on.
Take my yoke upon you. Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,
and you shall find rest unto your souls. Your souls.
What are we talking about? Your soul. While I go, let your soul take you where you need to be.
Rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy. My burden is light.
The expectation that the reason that I contend for the faith daily
is because the hope that I have in the promise of God's word
is that he means what he said and said what he means.
And when his word says he is no respecter of person,
that means he loves me as much as he loves you.
I think he loves me more.
I claim to be the favorite son.
Favor comes my way because I love him with all my being.
I'd love to say I never failed him, but I'd be telling you a big one.
But just like my mother, the scripture says,
who the Lord loveeth the son that he loveth, he chasteneth.
My mother loved me a lot.
Yeah.
I think I was her favorite.
The love that she bestowed upon me.
We talked about that this week as we were riding up to celebrate Noam's birthday.
I said, my Lord.
Because I questioned her about her love for the ones behind me.
She can't love them as much as she did me.
She says, well, I got older, and I said, no, that ain't no excuse.
She just didn't love me as much as she did me.
She loved me.
2 Corinthians 12, you better stand and I'll quit amblin'.
2 Corinthians 12, 9 and 10, the expectation, the hope.
He said unto me, my grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness.
It's not a sin to become weak.
Are you hearing me?
It's not a sin to become weak.
It's life.
Why do you think we have the promises?
Because the Lord knew.
He lived it out himself.
Right?
He knew that weakness was going to come.
He knew that weariness was going to come into our lives.
And he said, I've got to provide them with some promise and privilege.
Help them through the weak moments, the weary moments, the hard moments.
Why do you think we have that wonderful promise in the Psalm, the 23rd Psalm?
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I'll fear no evil, for thou art with me.
Because according to Ecclesiastes 3, under the sun, under the heavens, there's a point at a time and purpose for everything.
And sadly, folks, there's a time appointed to be born and a time to die.
There's a time for mourning and a time for laughter.
And the expectation that I have and the hope that I have and the faith that I'm striving every day to live out
is that in those moments, those seasons, the words of his promises will be revealed into my life.
All things work together for good, right?
We'll make sure I get that one right.
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God.
How many really, you love God?
You love him.
To them who are the called according to his purpose.
So if you love God, then this all things is going to work out.
It's going to work out for you, maybe not for others.
To them who are the called according to his purpose.
All things work together for good for them, those who are of the faith.
Because you've been called out of darkness into his marvelous light.
So I have an expectation when things aren't going so good, that good is on its way.
I don't know what the good looks like.
I don't know what it feels like.
I don't know all the particulars about it.
All I know is this.
Whenever comes my way, there's a point goodness is going to invade.
I might have to suffer a little while.
Might and weep.
I might have to endure some hardship once in a while.
Look how good it turned out for Paul.
He was crucified.
I'm living the life that I now live.
I live by the faith of the Son of God.
That's how I'm living day by day.
If you'll indulge me to close with these passages of scripture, the hope, the reality of the hope,
and I'll dismiss with this.
Revelation 19, John would write,
And I saw heaven open and behold a white horse, and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True.
And in righteousness he doth judge and make war.
And in the eyes was a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns.
And he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself.
He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.
He would continue to say,
Chapter 21, And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away,
and there was no more sea.
And I, John, saw the holy city.
New Jerusalem coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.
And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people.
And God himself shall be with them and be their God.
And here's one we all love.
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying,
neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things are passed away.
That's my expectation.
That's the fulfillment of the hope that I live with every day.
You want to know how I do what I do?
I've just, this message just makes it plain.
How I live with the endurance and fight the good fight of faith with patience?
It's because of the expectation and the hope that I have that this isn't it.
That this world isn't it.
No matter how much you have or don't have in it, it's still miserable.
Because it's not where we're destined to be.
And that's how I live it day by day.
That's how I face the enemy that comes against me day by day.
That's how I endure the tribulations, the hardships and the heartaches that come my way.
See, it really doesn't matter how old you are.
You don't have to be 58 to be living through some tough times.
Three weeks ago, four weeks ago now, at the senior youth camp,
500 and something plus teenagers in youth camp,
one night during the altar call, I was told the speaker gave an invitation
to any who had thought about harming themselves.
Two-thirds of the crowd rushed to the front.
You don't have to be old to feel like life isn't worth living.
You know, that thief that's out to steal, kill and to destroy, he's after all of us.
So it's in the wilderness that his glory shines the brightest, in the valley that he illuminates.
Father, I love you today. I thank you, Lord.
I thank you for your help today. I thank you for the hope that I have in your word.
The goodness of God.
I love you, Lord.
Over the household of faith today, I know many are battling, many are struggling.
And I ask, Lord, by your grace, that the expectations of your hope rise in each life.
That the word today has built them up and strengthened them.
Hopefully, Lord, I relayed your goodness and your love to them
and the expectation of why we earnestly, seriously, stringently contend,
resist the opposition of the faith for the reality of the hope
and the expectation that one of these days, when it's all said and done,
there's a city for square coming down.
There'll be no light in that city for Jesus.
Woo! Jesus will be there to light, to illuminate.
And we'll be able to go in and out without tear, without sorrow, without pain,
without hurt, without heartache, without mental anguish.
That's my expectation. How many of you have that expectation?
Lead us in that course, would you?
Let's sing this before we dismiss. I want us to sing this.
Let it be your prayer. Let it be your prayer.
Oh, sing it to Him, Church.
Oh, sing of the goodness of God.
Goodness of God.
Oh, my life, you are faithful. Oh, my life.
Oh, my goodness.
It's running after me.
Oh, my goodness.
Hallelujah.
You got a need in the house, just lift your hand.
You got some type of chaos, some type of something going on.
The enemy's just coming in like a flood.
Well, today the Lord has raised up a standard.
That's the standard of His Word and His hope.
Father, all over the house today, His hands are raised.
I ask God that you begin to move on behalf of every need.
Every petition that's presented by hands being lifted,
we surrender it all to you today.
This day, Lord, this morning, this morning, sweet Holy Ghost,
this morning today, my expectation and my hope.
I may have to go through the fire, but I'm not going to be burned.
I may have to walk through the rivers, but I'll not be overwhelmed.
I'll not be drowned out because of the promise of Your Word.
Lord, hands are lifted.
Troubles and issues and problems in life
represented all over this congregation.
Touch my brothers, touch my sisters today, Lord.
Encourage them this morning.
Let Your glory illuminate their wilderness and their valley.
Hallelujah. Thank you, Lord.
Give Him the best praise You brought with You today.
Next Sunday morning, when you come in at 10.35,
the altars are going to be open for prayer.
For the remaining three Sundays of this month,
may go further, but at least the next three Sundays of this month,
from 10.35 to 10.45, we're going to have prayer.
And you'll know when prayer time's ended, they'll start a song,
and then you can just worship where you are, just ease to your seat.
But we're going to pray.
We're going to have a few minutes of just solemn assembly gathering and to pray.
We're going to pray for the petitions that our governors ask the churches
and believers to pray for.
We're going to do that, and then any other need that you have,
and then we're going to proceed on into service.
Amen?
So if you come in next week, the doors are going to be closed.
So a few ease in.
If you don't want to come to the front, make your seat an altar,
just kneel and pray, we're going to give some time to some consecrated prayer.
Amen?
And that's what's going to be going on from 10.35 to 10.45.
So if you have any questions about what you want to do when you come in here,
then just stay out there.
Because if that's not what you're doing, I may ask you to go out there
and wait a few minutes while people are praying,
because we're going to set the table.
I feel God doing something deep here at the Hopewell Church of God,
and we're going to have to do some deeper things.
God is moving us to pray, and we're going to do it to see what he has in store.
God bless you. I love you.
Visitors, don't forget to go by that side, that welcome center out front.
They've got something special for you.
Thank you so much for being here today.
Hopefully you'll be back next week.
Go in peace.