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Welcome to the Hope Community Church! Hope is a multi-site church community with locations around the Triangle in Raleigh, Apex, Northwest Cary, Garner, and Fuquay-Varina. We are here to love you where you are and encourage you to grow in your relationship with Jesus Christ! We strive to speak the truth of the Bible in a way that is easy to understand, helpful in your current life circumstances, and encouraging. No matter who you are or where you come from, you are welcome here!
Hope its so great to see you.
I hope you,
You For me.
Come on. You're faithful. Your
presence.
The
Jesus who come
worthy
you.
I,
Let's get those.
God, God
opened the
and we won't
Be
Who heals.
We sing to the God who save. We sing to the God,
the, in the of the Lord today.
And we won't be quiet. We shout
The Lord Place.
We won't be quiet.
We the
grace,
the
in the, and we won't.
And
Let's give the Lord a shadow breath.
Church, it is so good to be together today. Amen.
Let's try that again. It is so good to be together today.
Amen.
Okay, Before we continue to worship,
why don't you find a couple of people around you
that you haven't said hello to make them feel welcome.
Psalm 23. This is one of the
most popular passages in all of the Bible.
It says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures.
He leads me beside stillwaters. He restores my soul.
He leads me in the paths
of consciousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death.
Listen, church, even though I walk through the valley
of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
Why? For you are with me, your rod
and your staff that comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows.
Surely goodness
and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
That's the word of the Lord. Church.
You know, this has been, um, for several reasons,
this has been a, a tough week.
And when things are going
not the way we planned, it's easy to forget some
of these things that King David wrote here in Psalm 23.
The Bible says that we are like sheep.
And when he, when he's talking about God being a shepherd,
that's this connection.
It's weird chic. But he is a good shepherd church.
When I was reading this, I was reminded
during this challenging week, I was reminded that God is a
Good Shepherd.
That he's a faithful shepherd.
That in times when I don't understand what's going on,
times when I feel confused, times when I feel angry,
times when I feel attacked,
I don't have a solution.
I get to remember the promises of God,
that he is always with me.
Church, that's us. Everyone that calls upon the name
of the Lord, we get to rely on the promises
of God and his word.
And I began to thank the Lord
for what I do have.
I began to bless the Lord for what he has given me,
because God has been good to me.
God has been good to you.
God has been good to all of us. Amen.
I was singing this song this afternoon.
You have been so good to me.
Oh God. Can't believe
how you love a friend.
So good to me. Oh God.
I can't believe how you love
Me.
What a friend you have One more time.
So good. Oh God.
Can't believe how you love
Me.
What have
you.
What a
Come church.
All my words for I
every song must
come on church to fill hands.
Praise you again.
I have nothing else.
And praise you.
And
Don't you,
if you got something to be thankful for.
And
Hall,
Father, you have been so good to us.
All we can offer you is our allegiance, our praise,
our worship, our repentance, our our turning away from sin
and running towards you
to see your kingdom come
to see your will be done here on earth as it is in heaven.
Your word is spirit. Your word is life.
By the power of your Spirit and your word.
God, speak to us today.
Give life to our mortal bodies today.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Let the church of God say amen and amen.
Pray, worshiping with you. May
Hasn't. God blessed
us with
An, an amazing worship team.
Can you thank him one more time? Thanks guys. Man.
Um, my name's Jay
and I'm honored to serve here as one of the elders
and reminding us we're, we're singing these songs
that are just, just, they just drip
with truth of God's word.
Especially for those of us who have had a hard week.
Um, first of all, I couldn't think of anywhere else I need
to be today than right here.
Um, and sit reminding myself,
God reminding me through the lyrics of the songs
that my strength, where's my strength come from.
It comes from him. It comes from the joy of the Lord.
The joy of the Lord is my strength.
And when we have a hard week, when, when,
when things are tough as they have been, You know,
our problems start to look really small when we set 'em
right in front of our really big God.
So we're really glad that you've, uh, chosen to be here
and worship with us today.
If you're new, um, please swing by our next steps area.
It's just outside these doors
and it's over on the left hand side.
You can't miss it. It has the big green next steps, letters.
Um, and if you have any questions
or anything else about joining a small group, uh,
or wanting to serve those folks, they're,
they're like the genius bar at hope.
They, they have all the answers.
So, but we're really glad that you've joined us here today.
Great and important message
from Fuke Wave Campus Pastor Matt Curtis.
Yes, Uhhuh. That's right.
Um, sit back, hear God's truth.
We are really glad you're here today.
All right. Hey gang. Uh, my name is Matt from Fuqua.
I got any quarian out here. Oh my gosh, God bless 'em.
Uh, well, lemme tell you a little bit about myself.
Uh, I married my wife Jillian right
after she graduated from college, like the weekend
after she graduated from college.
We were gonna get married on May 12th
because that was our three year date anniversary.
'cause we make up words in our home.
Uh, but it turns out she had to go to graduation.
Her mom wouldn't let her skip graduation
to get married to a bum like me.
Uh, so she graduated from the University
of Texas at San Antonio, meaning she is a proud roadrunner.
Show of hands, if you know, Roadrunner's a real animal.
It is. Yeah. There we go. All right.
Uh, but so we ended up getting married on
May 20th, all right?
A week later. We've been married now for 13 years.
And the thing that we have consistently had disagreements
about in our marriage over that time is
where we spend the holidays.
Not all holidays, not Thanksgiving, not Easter,
not July 4th Christmas.
Where are we gonna spend Christmas?
Uh, and my friend, uh,
pastor Dave Nudie has told me many times, directly
and indirectly that I am the problem in my marriage.
Can I get an amen? Uh,
Taylor Swift has told me that it's me.
I'm the problem. It's fine.
I agree, but, and I'm not trying to be defensive here,
but I can justify,
at least in this case why I am the problem in my marriage.
I'm gonna take you back to our first
Christmas as a married couple.
Uh, we're big Christmas. We love a fun time.
We love a good time. We're big Christmas people.
We put up a tree. My mom bought us a tree from Target
because we were newlyweds.
We still have that tree. It is thin, it is not impressive.
Uh, but we had that tree that first year Santa showed up
that first year that we were married.
Uh, currently we have like six boxes
of Christmas decorations, big old tubs.
The first year we had one whole shoebox full of decorations.
Uh, I'm, I don't know that I'm a good gift giver.
I'm a practical gift giver.
Our first Christmas together, my wife unfortunately,
received a poorly wrapped inkjet printer
that was constantly out of ink.
Uh, but we were having a great time, right?
We spent our Christmas morning together
and then by 5:45 AM we had to be dressed in out of the house
to go to Jillian's parents' home,
to experience Christmas with the family.
Alright? She has three siblings.
She's the oldest of four, and her grandmother was in town.
So we were gonna experience Theo.
That's my in-law's name, Theo's Christmas morning.
So we walk into my in-law's house,
and immediately I'm told to go upstairs
because there is an order to Christmas that I am unfamiliar
with in this family.
See in the Alo family,
they've got a whole schedule worked out
that I didn't know anything about.
First off, before anything happens that morning,
the kids have to line up on the stairs for a a picture.
We gotta, we gotta document that this stuff is happening.
Now, I am married to the oldest daughter in this family.
I'm also a 30-year-old man.
They categorize me as a child
and put me on the top of the stairs.
And I will tell you my masculinity was challenged.
I was not happy about that.
Uh, and then so we take the picture,
then we get ushered into the, in front of the fireplace
to open Santa's presents,
and then it's time to have breakfast.
But first you gotta make breakfast,
and then you gotta eat breakfast and clean up breakfast.
And then they usher you into the big dining room
where there's a giant tree and all the gifts.
Now, I grew up in a small family.
We didn't have a ton of gifts.
There are nine people in this room that first Christmas,
and they're opening gifts for hours.
I mean hours. My mother-in-law,
I just remembered this today, I'm a bit of a redneck.
My mother-in-law knew that she got me the whole
set of Duck dyna.
This is 2012 Duck Dynasty.
I got A-D-V-D-A cup, I had pajama pants, a sweater, t-shirt,
all with Willie Robertson's face on it.
Uh, but these are generous people, right?
There's a lot of gifts to bigger family
than the one that I grew up in.
And it took forever. I was thrust
into this new family environment that was new to me.
They had traditions, they had a way of doing things.
And about one 30 in the afternoon, we finally got in the car
so we could drive three hours
and go to Texas, go to West Texas to see my family.
So my wife could experience the opposite experience, right?
Uh, but I vividly remember doing this,
like putting on my seatbelt
and like chuckling going, well,
we are never doing Christmas that way again.
Uh, the joke was on me
because the next Christmas was like a carbon copy of
that exact experience.
But that's how relationships, that's
how marriage goes, right?
We, we are blending families, we're blending experiences,
expectations, personalities, traditions, priorities.
It's all this mixed bag.
So today we're gonna be wrapping up.
We're closing this series where we've talked about
what does it look like to be a family of families
and the family of God?
What does it look like to be a family of families?
And this weekend at Hope Community Church, it's not really
business as usual because the Lord has been faithful,
he's been sovereign, he is kind,
and he's leading our church into another type of,
of blending families, of families, blending us all in our,
in our beauty, blending us in our brokenness as
that one family
that loves God follows Jesus and shares hope.
So over the past couple of weeks, hopefully,
hopefully you have heard this,
but we've got some major transitions
that are happening here at Hope Community Church.
Uh, as of next week,
we will only have two gathering locations, the Apex Campus
and here at the Raleigh campus.
That has major implications for our mobile campuses, uh,
for the families that have invested time and,
and poured out blood, sweat,
and tears, uh, not in that order, uh, to serve the kingdom
and make the kingdom grow
and serve one another and love one another.
So those implications, that also means that it's emotional,
it's sad for those of us
who are serving in these communities.
And our mobile campuses at Northwest Kerry, they've been
around for 13, 14 years.
The Garner Campus launched in 2019.
And, and where I spend most of my time in Fuquay, uh,
these are people who have tried,
who have been sent out from the people from Hope Community
Church, from the people at Raleigh, the people at Apex to go
and reach and build the kingdom and serve the community.
But this weekend, next weekend, that won't happen
because this weekend is the last
gathering of those communities.
As we are closing a chapter in that story right now
for the physical campuses, for the folks at Raleigh,
for the folks at Apex, uh, there's again, a mix of emotions.
I've heard from people from the Apex campus person,
at least one person duck stride, who's very excited
that we are gonna be joining back with them
and blending into that family.
Uh, and there's a whole slew of perspectives there.
Some folks, maybe you're even hearing this
for the first time and you're like, oh,
I didn't know we had five campuses, and that's okay.
And I've heard some from some folks
who it's not affecting them really at all, right?
They're just indifferent to it. And I understand that.
I mean, how much can we care?
How much am I supposed to care about something
that doesn't actually affect my personal life?
There's a wide range of perspectives here,
even within our church.
In addition to that,
and many of you may have experienced this in your own
professional lives, but, but this week some
of our church staff, uh, men and women who are faithful
and kind and diligent, who had a job
and they had medical insurance and vacation plans and,
and dental coverage, who more importantly,
they had a calling and they were commissioned out
by our church to go and,
and equip the saints to do the work of the ministry.
But some of them have been released of those duties
based on a strong commitment that we have
to biblical stewardship.
Like there's a lot going on,
and that's just in the walls of this church.
So I don't even know the details of what's going,
what you're bringing into this space,
what's going on in your life.
I know the spectrum of hardships of the people
that are close to me and the people who I know well.
And then there's the external, right?
Then there's the news, there's the noise,
there's the government shutdown, the wars and division
and anger and suffering and pain.
So with all of this going on in the world, in the life
of your church, in your own personal life,
this might be the time where you think
somebody should just stand up and say, Hey, don't be upset.
Don't be worried. Don't be sad. Don't ask hard questions.
Just keep showing up. But I'm not gonna do that.
I'm not gonna tell you how to feel.
I'm not gonna tell you what to feel
because this is church, this is family.
This is the supernatural family of God, brothers
and sisters, sons
and daughters of God Almighty,
who holds all things together.
And this is different. We're allowed
to feel feelings.
In fact, we must, the family
of God must be honest about our emotions,
and at the same time, we must remember who is on the throne.
King Jesus. Amen. So today, I just want to help.
I just want to help with some perspective.
I just want to help us remember who is on the throne.
Because the gospel truth is this hope in Jesus
doesn't erase our pain.
It doesn't erase conflict or the disruption in our life,
but it does anchor us in what is to come.
We're gonna be in the Book of Revelation.
That's the very last one.
It's exciting stuff in there, Adam.
We're gonna be in chapter 21.
Uh, the interesting thing you need to know about the Book
of Revelation is written by the Apostle John
and the book of Revelation outside of every,
all 66 books in the Bible, it is the only one
that these are not things that have happened yet.
This is a vision that God has given John
and he has written it.
And here we are reading through Revelation chapter 21.
We're gonna start in verse one, where John's vision is this.
He says, then I saw a new heaven
and new earth for the first heaven,
and the first earth had passed away and the sea was no more.
And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem coming down out
of heaven from God prepared as a bride adorned
for her husband.
So the imagery in that text, the imagery of the first heaven
and earth passing away, that signifies the end
of the brokenness, end of sin
and suffering that mar creation, this idea
of new Jerusalem is, is a geographical place.
When you think about heaven,
this is what you are thinking about.
This is the place and has been prepared.
Come down from heaven, gifted by God as a bride,
prepares herself for her wedding day.
We go on to verse three where he says this,
and I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
behold the dwelling place of God is with man.
He will dwell with them and they will be his people.
And God himself will be with them as their God.
He will dwell with them.
That that's echoes from what happened in the garden.
Adam and Eve walked with God.
And here we are at the end of the Book of Revelation.
And there's imagery going back even to
what was going on in Genesis.
So in the beginning, God walked with man and woman,
and in the end, God is reconciling us to him.
And everything in between is a story, is a story
of God redeeming this relationship.
Not because we are good, not because we are worthy,
because God takes the initiative
to pour his grace out on his children
because he wants to have a healthy family.
He wants to have sons and daughters who love and trust
and know him and walk with him intimately.
Verse four says this continued for that promise.
He will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
And death shall be no more.
Neither shall be, neither shall there be mourning
nor crying, nor pain anymore.
For the former things have passed away.
Look, Christian hope is not, it's not wishful thinking.
It's not just optimism.
It's not toxic positivity,
which I think I might have sometimes.
But Christian hope is this confident expectation
that is rooted in the character of the faithful God
who keeps his promises.
And he's promising.
There will come a day where there is no more grief,
there is no more loneliness.
There's no more pain, there's no more crying, no more sin,
no shame, no abuse, no oppression, no suicidal ideation.
A day will come when there's no more anxiety or depression.
Those things will be put to death once and for all.
Amen, church. Amen.
Verse five, I'm gonna read five, six, and seven.
And he who was seated on the throne said, behold,
I am making all things new.
Write this down. For these words are trustworthy and true.
It is done. I am the alpha and the omega.
The beginning and the end to the thirsty.
I will give from the spring of the water
of life without payment, the one
who conquers will have this heritage and I will be his God.
And he will be my son. Now come on church.
That is the hope that we live with in every single moment
of every single day.
That is the hope that this church was named on 31 years ago.
It's the hope that unites all of us in this room.
Brothers and sisters of the faith.
It is the hope that every man, woman,
and child outside of these walls in our communities
and all over the world needs
that hope is the thing that unites us.
The family of God is united in his hope.
Sometimes in our world, words like hope get taken,
captive and minimized.
We have to remember exactly what hope is.
There's a book, uh, called Fighting Shadows, uh,
where the authors define hope as this they say hope
is at its essence about expectation.
The reason so many people think they don't have any control
over their present is
because they do not have any expectation about their future.
They, they see that life is something
that is happening to them.
And when you live without expectation,
despair is around the corner.
And despair is evil.
It is from the enemy, it's poison, and you have to go
after it or it will kill you.
The family of God is united in hope,
united in expectation that the God we serve,
the God we love, the God who loves us is one
who fulfills his promises.
The hope unified, that hope unified we can declare.
And we see it throughout scripture, the work
of Jesus on the cross,
certainly the resurrection over death.
We have this eternal promise that he will sustain us
through disruptions in our life,
through circumstances in our lives.
But what happens on this side
of eternity when we lose perspective on that hope?
What happens when we're struggling to see the big picture
of the promise of God
and hope fulfilled in the tyranny of this life?
That's unrelenting, that's heavy,
that's unavoidable, that's overwhelming.
Well, the family of God is united in hope,
but we must also be anchored in his promise, the promise
of him dwelling with us, the promise of Him walking with us.
Last week, clay Burgess talked about personal holiness
and intimacy with Christ.
We have access to the throne room now.
We can pray, we can walk in the spirit, we can grow.
We can read the word of God
because the the promise is still true.
And from verse two, we are his people and he is our God.
I pray those words often.
I pray those words probably every time that I pray
for our church as a whole.
Because I pray it as a declaration.
We are your people and you are our God. It's an anchor.
It's an anchor for my identity as an individual.
It's an anchor for our collective
identity as a church family.
It's an anchor for every single new beginning that we have.
It's an anchor for job loss.
It's an anchor for a medical diagnosis. It's an anchor.
Even while we grieve, the family
of God is anchored in his promise.
So just take a minute
and think about what an anchor is used for.
Right? An anchor for a vessel on water provides steadiness.
It provides grounding stability.
It provides security, uh, in the art world
and maybe just in tattoo shops,
but I think largely in the art world,
anchors are representative of hope,
of perseverance, of commitment.
And here's the good news, church. We are not the anchor.
He's the anchor. When I was a, when I was a young man,
I was probably 19 years old.
I was at, uh, one of my buddies' houses at the lake.
And uh, we made some mistakes this day.
First it was super windy. It's like 40 mile per hour.
Gus of wind. I remember this vividly
because I'm not a good golfer,
but we were golfing earlier that day
and I put pretty straight.
My, everything else is terrible. My short game's real good.
Uh, but I put very straight
and it, the wind blows it like 90 degrees off of the green.
So it was a very windy day. That's my one memory there.
Uh, we got done or quit golfing 'cause it was so bad.
And we end up taking a canoe from this family's lake house
and we take some fishing gear, fishing poles.
We've got, uh, one of the big tackle boxes.
So like hundreds of dollars worth of gear
that was not either of ours.
And we go out on the lake where there are, uh,
there are gusts of wind.
And uh, it did not take long. We had very good intentions.
But we're out there for six, seven minutes
and all of a sudden we make the decision we need to go back
and we don't have an anchor.
There's nothing to stabilize us.
We start to turn this canoe, him rowing on this side,
and me rowing on that side.
We get hit by a wave. Our bodies overreact.
The lip of the canoe goes underwater.
And it never saw air again.
The whole thing, it went under the
poles, the tackle, everything.
We lost it. All. The vessel sunk to the bottom of that lake,
the vessel that was hit by waves that was un anchored.
And our overreaction. We lost everything. In God's family.
We must be anchored to God's promise that we are his people
and he is our God.
That idea comes up 17 times throughout scripture.
It speaks of a future hope. Faith is always future focused.
Hope is always future focused.
In the Old Testament, the prophet, uh, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,
Zachariah, all speak to this idea.
The prophet Jeremiah actually uses
that phrase seven different times.
And every time it's mentioned, it serves
as reassurance of that God.
That we are God's people.
Despite uncertainty, despite our rebellion, despite failure,
despite storms that may hit us, the end is always the same.
He is our God and we are his people
because the family of God is united in hope
and anchored in his promise.
Church, we must hold to this promise.
It was given to the Israelites, it's reiterated throughout
the New Testament and the early church.
It was just restated over
and over again throughout scripture.
And today I share it with you
because one day the family
of God will be perfect, will be unified.
And despite the roadblocks, despite the obstacles,
despite the failures, the disruptions, the detours,
the crashing ways coming alongside us,
we are moving towards God's ultimate desire.
Each and every single one of us united in hope with him,
anchored in his promise.
And then and only then can we be free to live bold lives
for his glory, united in hope, anchored in his promise,
and free to live bold lives for his glory.
I have spent, um,
I've spent nearly zero time at the
campuses outside of Fuquay.
Over the last few years I've been humble.
I have been very, very humble to serve the people in Fuquay.
Uh, I love him. Ooh, I love him very much.
And I assure you that I am sad.
I'm sad that next weekend I won't be driving up
to Herbert Akins Middle School at six 30 in the morning
to move cases and hang drapes
with a guy named Dustin Burlock.
And while we're doing this stuff, I'm talking
to Dustin about his wife and his job and his kids,
and he's telling me how bad the Cowboys are
and how good the Vikings are.
Dustin has shown up nearly every single weekend
before anybody else shows up.
He comes in, he pushes cases,
he hangs drapes, he starts sweating.
He goes home, brings his family back
to worship at church together.
And I'm going to miss doing that with Dustin.
But this is what I know
that Hope Community Church will be
strengthened after this weekend.
This disruption will lead us to being a family
that is united in hope and anchored in the promise of God
and free to live bold lives for his glory.
Because this disruption is just that.
It's just circumstance.
The Father did not send the son
because he liked what I was doing at Herbert Aikens
with Dustin on Sunday mornings.
Jesus didn't die on the cross so that we could go
and plant flags and build buildings and build brands
and be the kings of our own kingdom.
That's not what the church is for.
Jesus didn't defeat death so that my personal preferences
and Sunday rhythms would be steady for God, soul
of the world, that he gave his one
and only son so that
who would ever believe in him would not perish,
but have everlasting life.
Amen. Church, Jesus was crucified for my sins,
for my selfishness, for my self-righteousness, for the pride
that is in my heart.
And he was placed in a borrowed tomb
and he defeated death.
And then he began to build his church, his family,
John 16 says, uh, Jesus actually says this is the promise
that we don't want to hear sometimes.
He says, you will have tribulation,
you will have disruption, you will have hard times.
It will be difficult.
And he also says, and I have overcome the world right
after that, in John 17, Jesus is praying
and he's praying for his church.
It's his longest recorded prayer that we have in scripture.
And he says to the very father that sent him, he is praying
to him, the father that he's united to, the Father
that he's anchored to, he prays that those
who would believe in him, that we would be one,
that we'd be united, that we'd be one body,
that we would be a family that is united in hope
and anchored to his promises.
And then John 20, after the crucifixion,
after the resurrection, but
before his ascension, Jesus says, just
as the Father is sending me, I am sending you.
Go now. Go and be one family.
Go and love each other so well that the people
who do not know you, know that you are from me
because you care for each other so well.
That's John 13.
He said, go and serve the hungry, thirsty, naked, sick.
And those who are imprisoned, he says, go and do justice
and love mercy and walk humbly.
Because here's the deal, church, regardless
of our disruptions or our circumstances,
there is this promise from the creator of the universe
who holds all things together.
And he is promising a day where there is no pain,
there is no tears, there is no death.
And today we're gonna leave this building
and we're gonna go into a world that is traumatized
by the sins of the world.
People who can't rest, can't sleep, some can't breathe.
And some of us, even within the church, are minimizing that.
And we're experiencing the same thing.
And we start to become numb to
what God's call is on our life.
We're not living as people
who have hope anchored to his promises.
But there's another promise in numbers number six.
This is the brother of Moses, Aaron, the Lord speaks to him
and he writes down this promise.
And it's as if the Lord is saying, this is who he is
and who he's going to be over us.
Here's the promise. May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face to shine upon you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift up his countenance, his approval,
his affection upon you
and give you peace even in disruption.
We can have peace
because God draws near, he comforts those
who need to be comforted.
You know, sometimes we, uh, we're moving
so fast we just push through.
Maybe that's just me.
You just keep pushing through, just trying to get
to the next day, just trying to persevere.
Or maybe we've even just become numb survivors to the world
around us where we're just trying to show up
and we're constantly living in some posture of fight,
flight, or freeze.
But there's disruptions all over, all around us.
And every single one of those disruptions is an opportunity
to come to the throne room of God.
What Peter says, cast your cares upon him.
Who cares for you affectionately.
So here's what we're gonna do to close out our time tonight.
We're gonna pray together. We're gonna pray for one another.
We're gonna pray for our church.
We're gonna pray that the gospel message gets out
to every corner of this community across the world.
So I'm gonna ask you to go ahead
and stand up as a sign of unity.
And I'm gonna read one more thing
before you get into groups for praying together.
This is Paul's writing
to the church in Rome where he says this.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,
we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through him, we have also obtained access
by faith into his grace in which we stand Church right now,
we are standing in his grace
and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings,
in our disruptions, in our circumstances, knowing
that suffering produces endurance.
And endurance produces character.
And character produces hope.
And hope does not put us to shame
because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
Father, I pray, Lord, I pray that tonight, God,
even in this moment, that you would just,
you would fill our hearts with your love.
God, you would fill our hearts with the hope
that only comes from you.
God, I pray that you would, God,
that you would commission this time of prayer,
that husbands would take the hands of wives,
that children would take the hands of parents.
And we would circle up and we would come
into the throne room, God.
And we would posture ourselves knowing
that we submit ourselves to you,
that you are our God and we are your people.
Amen. Alright, find two or three people.
Grab a hand. We're gonna take six, seven minutes and pray.
As we wrap up this time of prayer, we're going to,
um, move into
what we call the Lord's Supper or communion.
If you didn't have, if you didn't grab one
of these when you came in, I'm sure one of the ushers will
bring one to you if you raise your hand.
Um, 'cause we wanna do this together.
It seems appropriate that we are doing this together today.
Um, 'cause when I was reading
those passages in the gospels about that night,
uh, it was a Thursday night.
Uh, Jesus was gathered with his team, the 12th.
And it was, they were confused. They were upset.
They didn't know what was going on.
The, the Jerusalem was buzzing, that Jesus was in town.
But he's been talking all week about, I'm gonna be betrayed.
I'm gonna be handed into the
handed in the religious leader's hands
and, um, and crucified.
They're like, what's, what's going on?
What are you talking about? And one
of the things he did to try to give them a lens for which
to, to see what was gonna happen, not just in the,
in the next day, but in the coming days
and weeks, He took a piece of bread.
So let's take the bread. And he took
it and he broke it.
So let's just break your bread.
He said, this is my body which is broken for you.
Take eat, do this in remembrance of me.
Then he took a cup of wine, he blessed it,
thanked his father for it,
and he said, this is my blood of new covenant,
this new commitment of I'm never gonna let you go.
No matter what's gonna happen, no matter what you face,
I will never let you go.
That's what a covenant is.
A is a commitment of never letting go.
He says, this is the blood
of my new covenant, of our new covenant.
Let's drink together.
And he said an amazing thing at the end that he said,
and each time you do this, you're proclaiming
to every other follower
and to the world that I'm coming back,
that I'm coming back just like Matt was reading out a
revelation that he's coming back.
And that is something that we can celebrate.
So let's pray together. Father,
we thank you for who you are.
We, we thank you for sending your son
to live the perfect life that we failed to live, to die,
the death that we should have died,
and to rise to a new raise, to a new life
that we do not deserve.
We celebrate that here.
And I just wanna pray this over for you.
As Matt was reading from numbers earlier,
take this personally, individually.
May the Lord bless you and keep you.
May the Lord make his face shine upon you
and be gracious to you.
May the Lord lift his face upon you
and give you his peace.
Lord bless You and
Be gracious.
Come On to that again.
Be gracious.
So let it be John Church. Amen.
Amen. We declare
this promise of our faith.
The Lord bless you,
declare
Amen,
And
Going before you and behind you
and beside you, all the, around you
with and,
and you call and you go away
is for you.
He's for you. He's for you. He's for you.
He for you. He's for, he's for you.
You call me. Can you call me?
Is
We serve a good God?
Church,
He Is for you, he's for you.
He's for you. He's for you. He's for you.
What a great truth to be able
to walk out of here with tonight.
Thank you for joining us.
And I have a special word for those of you
who join us regularly online.
Please, please, please make a point of if you can to be
with us in person on Sunday at either Apex
or Raleigh as we celebrate as hope together.
Because remember, we are a family who loves God,
who follows Jesus and shares hope.
Thanks for worshiping with us.