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Redeemer Community Church is located in the historic Avondale neighborhood of Birmingham, AL. Our church family exists to celebrate and declare the gospel of God as we grow in knowing and following Jesus Christ.
For more information on who we are, what we believe, or how to join us, please visit our website at rccbirmingham.org.
I invite you to turn to first Peter chapter three. We're also gonna do a responsive reading before that. A number of years ago, I was at a funeral of a person who I did not know. I didn't even know their name, but I knew this man's mother, and I had mentioned to her that I was gonna come to the funeral to just to support her. So I went there and I'm sitting in the funeral and it's time for the service to begin and nothing's happened.
Joel Brooks:Ten minutes go by and still the service hasn't started, and I'm just wondering. But then people keep looking at me. And then more and more people keep looking at me and finally, the person at the funeral home does this. And I realized in that moment, I was doing the funeral. For a person I didn't know, never met, knew nothing absolutely about, I was supposed to do the eulogy and the funeral, the sermon at that time, and I have never been filled with more dread in my entire life as I got up and I began walking in front of everybody.
Joel Brooks:And and and the very first thing, was actually supposed to lead lead a hymn, and I would forget that. Who knows what I said? But I learned in that moment that I have to always always be prepared. Always have something with you in your back pocket if you're a pastor. And what we're gonna look at this morning is actually Peter is saying that of all Christians that we are to always be prepared.
Joel Brooks:Always be prepared in a moment's notice to give a defense for the reason of our hope. Now, before we read first Peter, we're actually gonna read part of Jesus' sermon on the mount responsibly because Peter draws heavily from that sermon. And so it's there in your worship guide as well. It might be up on the screen as well, but let's read through that responsibly. Blessed are the poor in spirit.
Joel Brooks:Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. Blessed are the merciful. Blessed are the pure in heart.
Joel Brooks:Blessed are the peacemakers. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
Cole Ragsdale:Rejoice in you glad through your reward and stray in heaven, for so they have persecuted the prophets who were before you.
Joel Brooks:You are the salt of the earth. But if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet. You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.
Joel Brooks:Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand and it gives light to all in the house. Now first Peter chapter three verses eight through 17. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless. For to this, you were called that you may obtain a blessing.
Joel Brooks:For whoever desires to love life and seek good days, let him keep his tongue from evil and his lips from speaking deceit. Let him turn away from evil and do good. Let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.
Joel Brooks:Now, who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for righteousness sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them nor be troubled, but in your hearts, Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you. Yet, do it with gentleness and respect, having a good conscience, so that when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame. For it is better to suffer for doing good if that should be God's will than for doing evil.
Joel Brooks:This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. Go pray with me. Father, we ask that in this moment, through your word, through your Holy Spirit, making that word come alive in us, we would hear you clearly. We'll breathe life into this place.
Joel Brooks:Lord, I pray that we would leave here looking more like you, Jesus. I pray that my words would fall to the ground and blow away and be remembered no more. But Lord, may your words remain and may they change us. We pray this in the strong name of Jesus. Amen.
Joel Brooks:When Peter tells us here that we need to be ready to make a defense, we need to always be prepared to give that reason for the hope that is in us. He is he's actually making an enormous assumption. He is assuming that you will be asked. It's an enormous assumption. But he is actually assuming that for all of us, our lives as believers, as spirit filled believers is gonna look so radically different from the rest of the world that obviously, people will see that difference and they're gonna ask us about the hope that we have.
Joel Brooks:They're gonna ask, why is it that you're so hopeful? I mean, haven't you been watching the news? Haven't you been looking at the gas prices? Haven't haven't you been looking at the politicians are just smearing one another? How in the world can you be so hopeful?
Joel Brooks:Is that a right or a false assumption? I mean, have you ever been asked, just asked to give a reason for the hope that you have? Very, very few times have I ever been asked. I've been asked about a lot of other things, but not specifically about that. And perhaps the reason not is because when people look at our lives, just perhaps the way when they look at our lives and they see the way we talk about money, we talk about education, we talk about sports, we talk about politics, they just assume that we are hoping and the exact same things that they are putting their hope in.
Joel Brooks:Maybe that's their assumption. You know, just like everyone else, when the stock market crashes, do you begin to panic? Or or what about when your health begins to fade? Do do you spiral down just like they do? Or when your political party, when it happens to win, are you just as elated and hopeful as they are in that moment?
Joel Brooks:Or when it loses, are you just as devastated? So maybe they're looking at us and they're just thinking, well, I don't need to ask about their hope because they obviously hope an exact same thing I hope. So the question is how can we actually live our lives in such a way that for those who don't know Jesus, they will see something distinct. They will see something about the way we hope that is different than theirs and they'll ask us about it. And Peter here, he tells us how.
Joel Brooks:And actually, he he starts first by not talking about our relationships with the world, how we're supposed to act to unbelievers. He actually starts first by saying how we're to relate with one another in the church. Look at verse eight. Finally, all of you have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Now, Peter here, he's gonna go on in just a second to tell us how we're supposed to be living out our faith in a hostile world.
Joel Brooks:But he says, before we even think about doing any of that, we've got to first learn how to live with one another. We've got to learn how to live out the gospel with one another. It it it starts here within the safety of the church that we actually begin to create the habits that we need to then go out into a world that is against us. It's it's here within the safety, we we grow the muscles necessary to then go out and take the hits. Peter, he's about to tell us that out there, they're gonna you know, there's people waiting to just tear you down, but in here, in here in our home groups, in our bible studies, in our common meals, in our in our times of Sunday worship, nobody's trying to tear you down.
Joel Brooks:We're trying to build one another up. Out there, you're gonna be surrounded by people trying to push you down in order to step on you to to get a leg up on you, but but here, we're not gonna do that. We're not pushing anyone down. We're building one another up. We're gonna love and we're gonna serve one another.
Joel Brooks:Out there, you're gonna be surrounded by anxious parents thinking that everything hinges on their child's ACTs, whether their child makes the varsity team or the cheerleading team. They may fill with such anxiety, but in here, we're gonna remind one another that Jesus reigns and that he's sovereign Lord over all of this. And our brothers and sisters in Christ, we remind each other of this. Jesus is on the throne. Your child's life is in his hands.
Joel Brooks:Out there, people are gonna be in a panic over the next election. Not in here. We remind one another that Jesus is always on his throne, now and forever, and that our citizenship is in heaven. What Peter is really talking about is the importance of Christian fellowship. Remember fellowship, fellows in the same ship?
Joel Brooks:It's it's when we commit to be together in all in order to all work towards moving in the same direction. We commit to be together in order to work all moving together in the same direction. And Peter here, he is saying that Christian fellowship is not just this nice little add on to the Christian life. It's essential. It's absolutely essential.
Joel Brooks:It's where we learn to be citizens of the kingdom of heaven before we go out into the kingdoms of this world. And this is why it's one of the deeply held convictions of our church. It's one of the reasons we're relocating to Montclair is so we will have more time and more space that we can actually dig into Christian fellowship because it's the school, if you will, for us to learn how to live out the gospel with one another. And we've gotta do that well first before we could then take it to the world. Now Peter, he tells us five things that we have to have with one another before we go out into the world.
Joel Brooks:And I just wanna walk through those five things quickly. The first thing he says is we have to have unity of mind or to be like minded. Unity does not mean uniformity. He's not saying that you have to have the same beliefs on everything, same beliefs about education, music, politics, your culture. That's a cult if you have the same views of all that.
Joel Brooks:That that that's not what he's calling us to. He's saying though that we are to have the same mind when it comes to the essentials. Every person here is to believe with all their heart that Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth and they're to submit to his lordship. Every person here believes that he is the only way to God and that he has given us his word and his holy spirit. Those are the only things we need in order to follow and obey him.
Joel Brooks:But like, we can agree with that. Even though we might not agree on whether we liked the songs we sang this morning or whether home groups are the best model for church and discipleship, or whether we should have stained glass, or or whether we should have pews or chairs, or whether we should have worn masks in COVID or not. Those are all secondary issues. They're they're not essential. They're they're secondary.
Joel Brooks:They're third issues. I mean, I you think of this. You know, Jesus, when he picked his disciples, I don't know if you noticed this, but he actually picked two people who could not have been more polar opposite on the political spectrum when he picked Matthew the tax collector and Judas the zealot. And he didn't choose them, you know, in spite of their politics. I think he chose them because of it.
Joel Brooks:Because he wanted to show that what actually unites them together far outweighs any of those other things. Amen. You know, I I used to be hypercritical early in ministry, actually, even before that of of other churches, some other churches. Now, I'm just kind critical. I'm working on it.
Joel Brooks:I'm get I'm getting better. But I mean, I used to be, I guess, more vocal about, you know, there's things about some other churches I didn't like, you know, especially, you know, churches that might have a fog machine or the lights or they might feel like more of a concert or they have the the video screens or the video multi sites, you know, and all of that. And, I disagree with those. But I I I really, I try my best now to never speak negatively of it. And and the reason is this, is because actually what unites us far far outweighs what divides us.
Joel Brooks:Like, we actually believe Jesus is Lord of heaven and earth and there's salvation under no other name. Okay. That's our primary unity right there. Let's let's let's dig into that. Let's lean into it.
Joel Brooks:Because can I tell you what? When rest of the world sees Christians or sees churches trading barbs with one another, they will never ask about what hope you have. They don't want any part of it. Next Peter, he he talks about sympathy. We have to be sympathetic to one another.
Joel Brooks:Typically, we think of sympathetic as coming along somebody and they're suffering in pain, but the term is actually neutral. It could just it literally means feeling with. One in feeling with one's suffering, feeling with one's joy. We we feel sorrow when others feel sorrow. We rejoice when others rejoice.
Joel Brooks:Next is brotherly love or familial love. I don't know if if any of you have brothers or sisters. I do. I I love them to death, and man, no one can annoy me more. I mean, so different.
Joel Brooks:We know how to push one another's buttons, but at the end of the day, they're family. And that means that no matter where they are in life, no matter how long it's been since I've ever seen them, I will always always always be there for them, and they will always be there for me. That's what Peter's talking about. We will always be there for one another because we all have the same father. Next, he says that we're to be tender hearted.
Joel Brooks:Tender hearted. I so I think of when last year, remember when we were going through the prophets and we we were in Isaiah and we got to Isaiah 42 and he's prophesying about the all powerful Messiah who is going to come, who if he wanted to, could just snap his fingers and slay everyone, but said it says, he's gonna come this way, with the lightest touch, so light that even a broken reed or a bent reed, it's not gonna snap it. If there's a candle with just the slightest little ember smoldering, he's not gonna put it out. That's how light Jesus came to us. See, he realizes our woundedness and the hands of a healer has the lightest touch.
Joel Brooks:I actually love this word in Greek. Literally, it means of the bowels. It's you should try it sometime. Just say, you know, hey, I love you so much, like, you move me in my bowels. I get a bowel movement just thinking about you.
Joel Brooks:It's talking about like this, though this like literally, it's what it means, but it's this deep gut hurt for someone. Deep in the gut. And actually, the Romans during this time, they did not value this type of love at all. Christianity is what changed that. Next, you have humility.
Joel Brooks:Humility is it's when you put another person above yourself, their needs above you. A humble person is the one who's open to the possibility that they're wrong. He's gonna listen to another person before just speaking over them. So those are the five things, five things that we have to strive for in our relationships with one another. And before moving off of this, let me just ask you.
Joel Brooks:We have spent we spent fourteen weeks studying the life of Peter right before we started first Peter. Fourteen weeks. Do these qualities in any way seem to be indicative of his life? I mean, did he seem very sympathetic and tender hearted as he was throwing his fellow disciples underneath the bust saying, well Jesus, I I don't know about them. I mean, they're probably gonna leave you.
Joel Brooks:Not me though. Did he seem very humble during those times he was correcting Jesus? Jesus, I hear what you're saying, but please listen. Hear me out. No.
Joel Brooks:The old Peter didn't have these qualities at all. Just like the old you didn't. But you know, Peter's come to realize that the qualities he did have, speaking first, being dominant, maybe stepping over others, always trying to get his way, that will never change the world. But, what the Holy Spirit has put in us, these qualities here is like, oh, okay. That's where the changes happen.
Joel Brooks:He says, we need to fan these things in a flame with one another. They're new to us. We gotta learn how to use them. Once we learn how to use them well, we can then take them to the world. They're the muscles we need to be exercising and strengthening in order to be strong enough to change the world.
Joel Brooks:Now after he explains here how we are to act to one towards one another, he begins to shift his attention to how we are conduct ourselves to unbelievers. It's verse nine. Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling. But on the contrary, bless for to this you were called that you may obtain a blessing. Newton's third law, you know, it it says that for every action, there is a equal and opposite reaction.
Joel Brooks:That's not just true physically. It's it's true verbally, isn't it? We get hit, we hit back. We get insulted, we insult right back. You ignore me, I'll ignore you.
Joel Brooks:You call me naive, I'll call you an idiot. Mean, it's just how it's just it's like instinct. It's how it works. But, all that does is create this cycle, this never ending cycle that goes on and on and on. And, Christ has commanded us to break that cycle.
Joel Brooks:I mean, that's what Jesus did. When Jesus was mocked and when he was abused, we actually read that he never even opened his mouth. He just took it. He took all of our insults. He took all of our mocking.
Joel Brooks:He took all of our hatred. He took all of our sins, and he just took it on himself. He gave nothing back, just took it and he took it straight to the grave to put an end to it. That's our pattern. Listen.
Joel Brooks:No one is ever going to ask you about your hope. Let's say, when you speak evil about your boss even though he or she deserves it. And even when the rest of your coworkers are, they're they're never gonna ask you about it. You're never gonna be asked about your hope if you're constantly putting other people down or hitting right back. Lauren, when she, shortly after we got married, she got a job at Southern Living, and she was just an underling there.
Joel Brooks:I mean, she was a she was a little intern. And her boss was horrible. Everybody thought her boss was horrible. And her this is their boss too. And there was one time they were they were by one of the test kitchens there, and they were all talking, and and they were all just griping and complaining about their boss, and everyone was just given story after story about how horrible she was.
Joel Brooks:And Lauren was just there, and she just knew, she goes, this is not what I'm called to do. And so she just sat there, and then, finally, somebody like looked at her and she tried to say as whatever encouraging thing she could about her boss in that moment. She goes, then they left and she went around the corner and there was her boss listening to the entire conversation. In that moment, actually, her boss' attitude, she said from that point, changed towards Lauren. And not that you do that in order to like, hey, I want my boss to be nicer to me, but that showed in that moment how she lived was different, fundamentally different than everyone else around her.
Joel Brooks:We don't repay evil for evil. When we are hit, instead of hitting back, we just take it. And we actually return it with a blessing, which means we're hoping, we're wishing for this person's good. To bless someone means that we are speaking life into them or we're doing something in the hopes of bringing them the good life, a better life. And guys, that is a hard hard ask, which is why Jesus tells us we have to pray for our enemies because when you pray for a person, it begins to change your heart, so you can't hate the person you're praying for.
Joel Brooks:And gosh, I've been so convicted by this this past week because, I mean, there are there's, you know, all of us, we have certain leaders in the government, wherever you are, in the political spectrum there, there are certain leaders who are just like, oh my gosh. And so all you do is you just you think so critically, speak so critically, not just of what they're doing, but of them. And I thought, haven't prayed for them. Matter of fact, my criticism of them, if you're doing like a, you know, ratio, is probably about a 100 time a 100 criticisms versus one little prayer, and I just decided I would pray. And what I found is I couldn't hate the people I was praying for.
Joel Brooks:And also, I began to like, the Lord used that time to really expose me of my sin. Like, oh, Do you think you're so different? And he began to remind me once again of his grace, which came to me even when I was his enemy. We pray for our enemies, then we have the ability to bless them. Peter is gonna reinforce this whole idea of not returning evil for evil, but blessing instead by quoting from Psalm 34, which he quotes for a bit there.
Joel Brooks:Rather than just walk you through that psalm, let me just tell you the context of it. In most psalms, we don't know the exact context. This one we do. This is a psalm that was written by David shortly after King Saul tried to spear him, pin him up against the wall, and he had to flee to the Philistines. And, there he had to escape another king when he was over there.
Joel Brooks:So the the context of this psalm is that David, who's been called by God, is now being persecuted by the very authority that God has placed over his life. So in trying to follow God, he's also still trying to honor the king who's trying to kill him. It's a perfect fit for Peter's audience here, isn't it? I mean, David's being slandered, he's being treated unjustly, he's being denied the freedoms that everyone else in the kingdom is enjoying, and yet, he reminds himself as he writes the psalm, I have to keep my tongue from evil. I have to pursue peace.
Joel Brooks:And that word pursue there, I love it. It literally means hunted. I've got to hunt down peace. Think of it, David is being hunted in order to be killed. And in this moment, he's writing about, no no no no.
Joel Brooks:I don't hunt back. I need to hunt down peace. And, shortly after David wrote this psalm, he actually had the chance to repay Saul. Remember the story? He's in a cave and Saul actually comes into the cave, doesn't know David's there, and David has the chance to just kill him in the dark and everyone is saying, do it.
Joel Brooks:It's the way of the world. I mean, if he did it, the headlines would have been, David gets his justice or Saul finally found out what goes around comes around. Everybody would have praised David for doing this, but instead, he withheld his hand. And then, when when Saul left, you know, he called out to Saul and said, I could have killed you, but I didn't. And, we read this in first Samuel 24.
Joel Brooks:We read that Saul lifted up his voice and he wept. And he said to David, you are more righteous than I for you have repaid me good whereas I have repaid you evil. In that moment, David demonstrated where his hope rested. And it wasn't in the sword. It wasn't in fighting power with power.
Joel Brooks:It wasn't even in trying to get even. His hope was in God. Do you know how freeing that is? Like, it's not up to you to get even or to dish out justice. You don't have to do it.
Joel Brooks:The Lord's freed you from that. Says, hey, I'm I will sort that out later. I'm watching you. I see it all. You know how freeing it is to know that even when those things are happening to you, that God is in control of your life?
Joel Brooks:And he says that these pains and these trials are actually they're necessary in this moment to teach you something. So it's a very freeing way to live. This leads us to verse 15. We finally get to verse 15 where we need or called to be ready to give a defense for our hope. Let's read it.
Joel Brooks:But in your hearts, honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for reason for the hope that is in you. You do it with gentleness and respect. So now Peter, he can't assume. He can assume that if you commit yourself to the fellowship of the church and you you build those muscles that are that are needed there living out the gospel with one another, and then you go out into the world and you don't return evil for evil, but instead you're blessing other people, your behavior is gonna be so out of step, so alien with the rest of the world. They're gonna ask you.
Joel Brooks:Someone is certainly gonna come to you and ask you, why are you acting like this? Why are you so hopeful? And he says, in this moment, you have to be prepared to give them an answer. What does being prepared look like? Remember, Peter's writing mostly to an illiterate, uneducated, poor, powerless group of people who likely had zero rhetorical skills.
Joel Brooks:What does it look like for them to be prepared to give a defense for the reason of their hope? When when I was a teenager in youth group, I don't know what your youth groups did for fun on Friday nights. For some reason, our youth leader thought we should just go to the mall and hand out tracks. And so that's what we did. And I've shared about this before.
Joel Brooks:It was a terrifying experience. I literally remember the very first track that I handed out. It was outside of the movies, theaters there, and the guy who walked out was seven foot one. It was John Kontak for the Atlanta Hawks. And and and my knees just about buckled, and I just I just gave a track and prayed nothing horrible would happen to me.
Joel Brooks:I mean, I remember just being filled with such anxiety as I would go and I would hand out these tracks. And my fear was not that people were gonna like reject me or or just throw the track down or or whatever. I was actually hoping for that. My fear was that they would stop and they'd actually ask me something. I'm like, okay.
Joel Brooks:Go on. Tell me. Or they they have some kind of question that I, you know, I wouldn't have any idea. Hey, where did all the people come from that Lot went to in Genesis? I'm like, I don't know.
Joel Brooks:I mean, Cain. Sorry. I'm even off there. What does being prepared look like? I don't know if you feel that way concerning evangelism.
Joel Brooks:I mean, you may maybe you're you're like me. You know you're supposed to do it, but it just it it feels like this anxious filled burden task that you've been given. Let me tell you. If you feel that way, that sharing your faith, sharing the gospel is an anxious filled burden, it's not because you feel ill equipped. It's not because you feel insufficient.
Joel Brooks:It's not because you don't feel like you're a good speaker. It's none of those things. It's just because in that moment, you evangelism more as your duty to defend a doctrine than to share your hope in Jesus. And that's what you're being asked to do. Just I just gotta I gotta defend the doctrine.
Joel Brooks:I gotta share the doctrine rather than talking about your living hope, the hope that is alive in you. Hear me, the best way to be prepared to give a defense for the hope that you have is to actually stir up the hope that you have in Jesus. That's the best way. Stir it up. It's to honor Christ in your heart as holy.
Joel Brooks:It's to go to His word and just fill your heart with all of the promises of God and and to warm the affections of your heart and to trust that you have in Him with those promises. It's go to his word and remind yourself, you know what? I've been forgiven of my sins. You know, in Jesus, I've I've I've now been adopted and I'm part of the family of God. Through Jesus, you know, he he's now sovereignly ruling and reigning over my life so I can give up control.
Joel Brooks:Now Jesus says that he'll never allow me to suffer unless it's necessary to make me more like him. Jesus says, He's giving me an inheritance that will never ever perish or fade and He's giving me eternal life which means I have forever to enjoy that inheritance. And so, we we go to God's word and we pray those things hot in us to where we actually hope in them. And then, when we are just brimming with hope, we're prepared. That's our preparation.
Joel Brooks:I mean, when he says to honor Christ in your heart, as holy in your heart, that word holy means to set him apart. It means that he is to be treasured above all else. To any of you first borns that are here who love to make lists, even of things that you do and then you still are already done and cross them out anyway, like, if you were to make a list of like, what should my priorities be in life? You're like, I wanna be really righteous spiritual here. God is first, family second, you know, I don't know what's next, sports team, you know, whatever it is, you make these and you're like, okay, there there it is.
Joel Brooks:I put God first. God's saying, uh-uh. That's not what holy means. Holy does not mean put him first. Holy means set apart or other, completely different, not even in the same category.
Joel Brooks:So if you're gonna make a list of your priorities, there's God. That's it. And everything else is just how it could relate to that. How God's gonna lead you with your family, how God's gonna lead you in in in your sports, lead you to relate to others. But God is the list.
Joel Brooks:Jesus is supreme. Amen. That's what do we mean when we say Jesus is Lord. And by the way, in this day, if if they've gone around and just said Jesus is God, meant nothing. Just add him to all the other gods.
Joel Brooks:But to say Jesus is Lord, that's when they brought heaven down to earth because Caesar was Lord. That's where he said, uh-uh. There's one Lord and he reigns in heaven and he reigns here on earth. It's Jesus. He alone is supreme over my life.
Joel Brooks:Is Jesus that for you? The treasure. Peter is saying, read the scriptures, pray until that becomes hot, and then you will be ready. So this week, go out into a world full of the promises of God, and you will find what Isaiah 40 says to be true when he says, those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength and they will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary and they will walk and not be faint.
Joel Brooks:And Isaiah was saying that to a people who were weary and persecuted entirely. Let's pray to Jesus. Jesus, we know the plans that you have for us, plans for our peace, to prosper us, not to harm us, or plans for our hope. And, Lord, I pray that as we commit ourselves to the deep fellowship of the church, church, we would remind one another of the hope we have in you, Jesus. This week, in our own study, as we go to your word, and we pray, Lord, that our hearts will be warmed with the hope that we have in you.
Joel Brooks:And then when we are brimming, overflowing with your hope, I pray that we would go into the world and just hope for the opportunity to share the reason for it. And we pray this in your name, Jesus. Amen.