There Is Hope

Here we go. Acts 27 When it was decided that we would sail for Italy, Paul and some other prisoners were handed over to a Centurion named Julius, who belong to the Imperial regiment, we boarded a ship from a town about to sail. That's right to sail for ports along the coast of the ruins of Asia, and we put out to see a town and Macedonia from Thessalonica. It was with us. The next day we landed at cidian and Julius in kindness to Paul allowed him to go to his friends so they might provide for his needs. From there we put on to see again and pass to the lee of Cyprus because the winds were against us, when we had sailed across the open sea off the coast of Cecilia and Pema philia we landed at Mira and Alesia there are Cinterion found and found an Alexandrian ship sailing for Italy and put us on board. We made slow headway for many days and had difficulty arriving off that place. When the wind did not allow us to hold our course we sailed to the lee of Crete opposite salami. We You're welcome. It's not actually I said, we moved along the coast with difficulty. See, the Bible is fun, you guys, you just got to read it. Okay, we sailed the sea of Crete of opposite salami, we moved along to Crete. The coast with difficulty and came to a place called a Fair Havens near the town of Lissa. Much time had been lost, and sailing had already become dangerous because by now it was after the day of atonement. So Paul warned them men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo into our own lives also. But the centurion, instead of listening to Paul said, following the advice of the pilot and the owner of the ship, since the harbor was unsuitable to winter in the majority decided that we should sail on hoping to reach Phoenix and winter there. This was a harbor in Crete facing both Southwest and Northwest. When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity. So they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore to Crete. Before a very long a wind, wind of hurricane force called the northeastern swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind, so we gave way to it and we're driven along and we pass the LI of a Sea island called Gouda. We're hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together because they were afraid they would run aground. Sorry, let me start that again. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sand boards of citrus, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day they threw the ships tackle overboard with their own hands, when neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope and of being saved. Can we all relate? Yes. After they had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up before them and said, Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete, then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss. But now I urge you to keep up your courage because not one of you will be lost. Only the ship will be destroyed. Last night, an angel of God to whom I belong, and whom I serve stood beside me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sailed with you. So keep up your courage men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island. On the 14th night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea, went about midnight, the sailors sense they were approaching land, they took surroundings and found that the water was 120 feet deep. A short time later, they took some surrounding again and found it was 90 feet deep. Fearing that we would be dashed against the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daylight. In an attempt to escape from the ship, the sailors left the lifeboat down into the sea pretending they were going to lower some anchors from the bow. Then Paul said it's a centurion and the soldiers unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved. So the soldiers cut the ropes that held the life lifeboat and let it drift away. Just before dawn, Paul urged them all to eat. Okay. For the last 14 days you said you have been in constant suspense and have gone without food, you haven't eaten anything. Now I urge you to take some food. You need it to survive. Not one of you will lose a single hair from your head. After he said this. He took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of all of them. Then he broke it and began to eat it They were all encouraged and ate some food themselves all together, there were 276 of us on board. When they had eaten as much as they wanted, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea. When daylight came, they did not recognize the land, but they saw a bay with a sandy beach where they decided to run the ship aground if they could, cutting loose the anchors, they left them in the sea and at the same time on tide the ropes that held the rudders. Then they hoisted the for sale to the wind and made for the beach. But the ship struck a sandbar and ran aground. The bow struck fast and would not move and the storm was broken to pieces by the pounding of the surf. The soldiers plan to kill the prisoners to prevent any of them from swimming away and escaping. But the Centurion wanted to spare Paul's life and keep them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and get to land. The rest were to get there on planks or other pieces of the ship. And this way everyone reached to land safely. Can we thank Deb for that magnificent reading of Acts chapter 27. We as a church are committed to reading through the entire book of acts together what a narrative that was. Wasn't that amazing? I've been looking forward to this passage for some time. Not because when I was assigned it, there was all these talking points to preach on more of just the curiosity of Lord, what do I do with this? What do I actually say? What What approach do we go? What line do we find? And so for me, it was more of just one of those passages where the narrative is extremely detailed. And so I'm excited to share what it is that God's put on my heart for this church. If you don't know me, my name is Mike, one of the pastors here I woke up this morning, and my voice is just like, nah. You ever had that kind of day? Where your voice your body's just like, Nah, but you're, like, still got stuff to do places to be? And I asked him about an hour ago, but can you read this? And she said, Yes. We have a great team here at canopy and so grateful for this church. And so we are nearing the end of our journey from x, if you've just been jumping in with us over the past, however, a couple of weeks, we've been going through this book for a year and a half. That's amazing, right, and the things that God has stirred up, we have approached x, not just for a way to inspire our church, or certainly by no means to exit this place will be like, Wow, that church of Acts was awesome. Right? Like we have, we have taken our time to actually study through this book, because we seek to be like this very first church. In fact, we see as we've been walking through the book of Acts that there are core convictions to this church. And we as canopy said, We want those core convictions to be true about canopy as well. And so last week, we talked about the resurrection. And we see from the life of Paul, that's we've been looking at for some time now, as we've been journeying, that one of the main core convictions for Paul was the resurrected Christ. Or if you're here late last week, this is what we talked about, that the resurrection of Jesus dictated the life and faith of Paul, in other words, every single thing that Paul did every single thing that Paul said, every single thought that he had, all those, all those things moved him to place because of the resurrected Jesus. And last week, he recalls his story of his calling of his transformation, right meaning on his way, on the road to Damascus to go persecute Christians, and Jesus interrupts him. And Jesus gives him mercy, and grace. And it's because of the mercy and grace that Paul's life is transformed. Instead of getting judgment and shame, God, Jesus gives him a calling that calling is to take the gospel to the Gentiles as a good Jew. And so Paul is committed to taking the gospel beyond. And what we've been seen for, you know, like the book of Acts is roughly about 30 years. So from Acts chapter one to where we're getting now it's been about 30 years. And most of the time Paul has spent his time west or east, excuse me. It's been moving east. And there's something in him that now he's seeking to see the gospel go west. And so where we, where we left off last week, Paul was on trial trial, because of his core conviction of the resurrection. And everything that we did was rooted in that. And so Paul's dream, and what he's standing on trial, He's appealing to Caesar before this in chapter 26. His dream for the last two and a half years is to see the gospel go to Rome. Like that's, that's like his ultimate goal was to see the gospel go to Rome. Why Rome? Well, it was his home for nearly 26 years. That's where Paul lift. That's where Paul was from. And so when we talk about Rome, that's not some distant land that he doesn't know like, he knows Rome. Rome knows Paul. The Jewish leaders of the day of the synagogue in Rome, know who Paul This. So puffer Paul, he wants to see the gospel, go home, West. And so for all of Paul's Christian life again, he's been spending his time in East and now it's time to go back. And so have we seen by the way, when we look at Paul, would you agree that nothing about Paul's life has been easy? Has there? Have we seen anything when we're reading through the life and ministry of Paul to be like, Wow, that was such an easy life. Nothing about Paul's life has been easy, right? Like, at all. And it almost seems like this is the type of life he would now prefer. Like, he's adapted himself into a life that's just uncomfortable. This is the life you signed up for. And Jesus did say, write for whoever wants to save their life. Well, what? lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will what? Save it. And so this is the type of life that Paul has signed up for. And so we're gonna see here in chapter 27, that Paul's conviction of the resurrection of the resurrected Jesus is not just a talking point, it's very important. He's standing on trial and 26, Chapter 26. He's talking about the resurrected Jesus. But it's so much more than just a good sermon. It's so much more than just a good preach, right? Paul really believes in the resurrected Christ, so much so that it's changed his perspective on life. It's completely changed everything for him. And so when when Deb read this passage, it reads so good as a narrative. It's one of those few passages in Acts where you're like, we just gotta, we have to read this whole thing. Because that's the way that it's written. There's some narratives in scripture where you just got to read the whole thing. In fact, the Gospels read that way. We've taken it so many times, we read a specific passage, and we meditate on it, no problem. But there are narratives in the Bible where you just can actually read the whole thing and understand what in fact, is happening here. And what it is, and I what I want to sum up x 27, where if you're like me, it's just like, Hey, what's this about anybody like that? Just tell me what this is about. So I can think about it. What chapter 727 is about is that followers of Jesus, bring hope and hopeless situations. followers of Jesus, in this room, your follower of Jesus, you are called to bring hope into a hopeless situation. Again, like Jesus, the resurrected Jesus, for Paul is so much more than just a miracle that it happened in the past, right? It's not just that the resurrection of Jesus, I feel like you're gonna get sick and tired of hearing this dictates everything. It dictates how we live our lives. It dictates how we live our faith out. And the entire story of Paul getting shipwreck, while on his way to Rome, is all about how followers of Jesus bring hope, in hopeless situations, when we acknowledge that God is in control. That's, that's, that's what's happening in all of chapter 27. And he says this, because it was Jesus who was hanging on the cross. He's got to think about when Paul is in these moments of difficult situations, hopelessness, I have to think, by the way, things that he says he's oftentimes going back to when Jesus was on the cross, he's often taking himself back there, because when Jesus was dying on the cross, all hope had been lost. In fact, the part of the Gospels, the beginning of the gospel, right. But three days later, Jesus redeemed hope, by raising from the dead hope was lost on the cross, and it was redeemed by the resurrection. And so this is the kind of God that Paul is worshipping. This is the kind of God that Paul is standing up in front of whoever will let him speak, to tell about the resurrected Jesus. And it's not just that this miraculous event happened. The story of the resurrection is that God in fact, is in control. Like God knows what he's doing. And so Paul, if you think about this, this narrative, this story on this ship had every right to freak out. Like I would have freaked out. If you've ever been on a boat in the middle of the ocean, you realize how quickly and how small you are? Like, what if this boat sinks I'm dead. There's nothing that the ocean does more to the human being than make you feel about this big, doesn't it? In fact, this is such an interesting passage because this does seem like a do mission doesn't it? Like this is leading to nowhere. Paul is on a prisoner on a ship loaded with other prisoners. Who are going to Rome to face Caesar? This is a hopeless situation. Additionally, this ship is full of crew members were told there was what 226 people on this ship. And it's full of crew members who are making poor decision after poor decision. You imagine as a prisoner on a ship, watching decisions, people that are supposed to keep you safe, making decisions that fully jeopardize your life. And to these guards credit as they're realizing what's happening, we have to remember that the prisoners on this ship weren't like just a bunch of Paul's falsely accused, loving people. This ship probably had prisoners on there that murdered people. Like, like bad people, people that you don't want to be stuck on a ship with. So to the guards credit, they just wanted to get these people off. They wanted they didn't want to be shipwrecked. They just wanted to fix this situation. And so they're trying to solve a problem. But they're making the problem worse, a bad situation is becoming worse and worse by the minute. And I can't help but notice all the detail captured in the story. Even just reading through this, I encourage you I can read it through multiple times. We know that Luke, who was one of Jesus disciples, and is the author of x was in fact with Paul, did you notice how many times the word said we in this passage? Paul, Luke is writing the book of Acts. over again, you look at verse 20. People have it up on the slide, Rachel, where it says, when neither son nor stars appeared for many days, and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up, that all hope would be saved. That's just one of numerous counselor, that word we is there, in this verse summarizes the entire reality of this situation. So how can Luke provide such vivid detail on this hopeless situation? What do you think he was there? He was with Paul, there's all sorts of stuff out there trying to make sense of this. But we do know that Luke's vocation he was a physician was a doctor. This is what he did, right? He doesn't represent much. First. He's a he's a follower of Jesus is a disciple of Jesus, but his vocation, he was a physician. And so it's believed by many smart people out there. That Paul that Luke was Paul's personal physician. So everywhere that Paul went, Luke was with him. And Luke is writing all the things that he's seen happening as he's following the life of Paul. We're also told of another individual who's with with Paul and Luke and his name is Arista. carrus. Can you say Arista? carrus? If you're looking for a name to name your son or daughter, I think it goes both ways. This would be a good one. Rs are already that would be good. Yes, we should call them already. But it's believed that Arista carrus was Paul's actual servant. And so even in chains, Paul had a posse. How bad is this dude? Right where his physicians with him at all times. And he has a servant with him at all times. Like Paul knows how to roll. But we're told that and he's coming back to verse 20. That hopelessness, I love when you're reading that verse, Debbie, it stopped you in your track. Right? Hopelessness is something that we can all relate to, isn't it? Like, almost when I said the word a little bit ago, hopelessness, he could almost just feel something shift in the room, where if there's something every single one of us have in common, it's been able to relate to what hopelessness feels like. We have all found ourselves in hopeless situations. That feeling of hopelessness is unfortunately, a huge part of being human. Hopelessness comes from our our limited capacity to see beyond a bad situation. So we're finding ourselves in a reality and like, Paul, and Luke on this ship, with 200, and something odd but other people felt like they finally lost hope of being saved. Because there is no way God is in control of this situation. We are doomed. We are dying. There is no light at the end of the tunnel. And as I was reflecting about this word, hopelessness, I read through this and then on Monday, this past week, I'm like, I want to try to keep track of my week, in terms of how many times I feel hopeless. It's a wonderful exercise by the way, highly recommend it Too many to count. But I felt it in big ways. And I felt it in small ways, where I'm like, that's a feeling of hopelessness. And a lot of times I was able to get to it when there was fear or shame attached to it anxiety. Right, hopelessness was there. I felt it last Sunday, right after church, when I rushed home to go turn on one of the playoff football games and one of my awesome three, one of my three kids that are awesome, great. They think it's funny to hide the remote from dad. Especially when they know I watch the game. And oftentimes, they'll after certain time, they'll tell me where it is, and it'll be funny and it's Haha, it's great joke but actually forgot about where they put the remote. So I spent the next hour and a half searching for the remote control so I could watch the playoff football game, right. I felt hopeless there, amongst other things. But I also felt that feeling of hopelessness just driving Of course, as you know, here in Orange County traffic, right. But not just traffic, it's I'm late to an important meeting I'm supposed to be at. And I felt hopeless, like I'm never gonna get there. I felt hopeless, trying to get my kids dressed for school and they just weren't telling me what to do. They weren't listening to what I was trying to tell them what to do. And they just wouldn't they wouldn't do what I told them. I was like, this is a hopeless situation. We're never gonna get to school. And then I also felt hopeless when we got bad news this week. We are hoping for good news on a certain situation that quite honestly, I'm just not ready to talk about yet. But we got bad news. It wasn't the news we were hoping for. I felt hopeless with that news. Hopelessness is a reality that you and I both sit in pretty much every single day. It's heavy. It's dark. It can be paralyzing Kennett. Have you ever? Have you encountered hopelessness this week? What are you facing right now? In your current life, that you can relate to the words of Luke in verse 20. All hope was fading, that we would be saved. Homelessness isn't a good feeling hopelessness. It's much easier rather than what I found. Even this week, it's easier to just numb myself to it. It's easy to even avoid it at all costs. Whether we're walking through hopelessness or we know somebody that's walking through it. There's just something in me that's almost like it's just easier to kind of just stay away from it and pretend like it doesn't exist. But the moment we act like hopelessness doesn't exist, the moment we give more power to it, where we see Paul, and Luke, and Arista, carressa all these prisoners and guards calling it out. We feel hopeless. There's no way God's gonna save us from this mess. There's no way God's in control, how is he in control? There's nothing around my life that would signify God knows what he's doing with my life. It's in that moment, that all the sudden there's a shift that can happen. And so can I give you some good news for a second? As much as hopelessness is a reality. Jesus knows what hopelessness feels like. This is one of the most compelling reasons why I follow Jesus with my life is that Jesus knows exactly what hopelessness feels like he felt it in the garden before He was crucified. Right? He felt it when Judas betrayed him. He felt it on the cross. When God the Father directed all of His wrath that he had towards human beings on to Jesus. God, why have you forsaken me? Hopelessness. Hopelessness is the very reason that Jesus came to earth. Jesus said, I am the hope of the world. And with his arrival, he met us in our hopelessness. And he gives us hope because of his presence. That's where we find hope Jesus is hope. He meets us in our hopelessness. He sits with us. He embraces us, he wipes are tears away in reminds us that hopelessness is not forever. This is who Jesus is. Back. This is the beauty of the church, isn't it? Isn't it? Is it? See my shift in tone there? Am I right? Right guys? They were the Bride of Christ. And so when we talk about hopelessness, it's important to know that the person sitting next to you knows what hopelessness feels like. And so we as the people of God, do not only say I know what hopelessness is, but we are also ready to minister to those that are feeling hopeless. And we do those things simultaneously. We are we are called to embrace we're called to Step in because Jesus fills us with the Spirit, right? The same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead lives in you. So followers of Jesus, we actually know what to do with hopelessness. That weird, like we actually can keep perspective in it. Because we recognize that Jesus knows what it is and what did Jesus do? He came to us and sat with us in it. He called it out. And that's where the healing comes from. And it's through Jesus that his followers can have hope, in a hopeless situation because of the Resurrection. The Resurrection isn't just something that happened, we're getting ready as a church, we were talking about getting ready to about Easter, it's important for us to know that when we talk about resurrection, and we celebrate on Easter Sunday, we're not just celebrating something that happened over 2000 years ago, we're celebrating something that's happening today. Resurrection happens today. This is what Jesus is up to in your life, right? setting you free from sin, transforming hearts and transforming minds, creating us more in the image of Christ. Resurrection is happening. And as reading through these, this story, I just wrote down three things I'm really running behind. So I'm gonna move through these very, very quickly. But we talked about followers of Jesus bringing hope and hopeless situations, there are three things that I wrote down that I saw on his passions that I that I hope is helpful that these are three reminders for us, not and for you, not only to help you navigate hopelessness, but to actually help you and more importantly, allow you to walk alongside of those that feel hopeless. Does that make sense? So so we acknowledge that we are feeling hopeless, but we also, as followers of Jesus engage with those that feel hopeless. In this, this passage actually has some good things to say about it. So number one, share the wisdom that God's given you. Paul does this in verses nine through 10, he says much time had been lost. Paul did not like to waste time, by the way, Paul had places to be people to talk to he had a calling and a mission. One thing you would know about Paul, we can Enneagram type probably is a type eight, I don't know, Bulldog type personality. So you can tell that he's frustrated in this moment, much time had been lost. And sailing had already become dangerous because of now the time was after the day after the day of atonement. So Paul warned them, man, I can see that our voyage is gonna be disastrous, and bring great loss to the ship and carbon gotta be lives also. So what we what we see, first of all, what's happening here, God gives wisdom to people. Like there's a there's a real element to human wisdom, right? As people that are created in the image of God, one of the most beautiful characteristics of God is wisdom. And so when God created us in His image, he has given you wisdom, naturally, like, you probably see it happen in a lot of times. Now, some of us in here are more wise than others. Your neighbor will let you know. But God gives wisdom to people. And it's in this moment that Paul had enough sense to see where this was all heading. Right. The signs to him were obvious. It's almost like driving down the road and it's just disaster flashing lights right? Like don't go any further. It was obvious to Paul what was happening, the wind was picking up. The waves were increasing Panic was setting in amongst the crew. And for Paul, this is obvious. This is going to end in disaster. And for Paul, this had to be like a PTSD moment in second Corinthians chapter 11. Paul's tells us that he has been shipwrecked more than three times. So Paul is speaking from a position of past experience. I know what happens when a boat is about to crash. That is happening right now. Right? So what's even more interesting is that Paul is a seasoned sailor, which if you know anything about Jewish tradition, and customs, Jews were afraid of the water are afraid of the water. The water is a monster. Like you don't mess with the ocean that was up to the Macedonians and the Thessalonians. And whoever else, they were the they were the ones that sailed. They're the ones that mess with there were the sailors. Jesus were like, now. So Paul was unique in this. He was a seasoned sailor, and he knew what was entailed in that situation. He saw it, because he lived it before. And so Paul had learned some things from the past and offers words of wisdom to try to avoid disaster, unfortunately, and maybe you've realized this in a relationship with somebody else, or maybe you're stubborn. Just because someone shares words of wisdom to us, doesn't mean we receive them right? In fact, they didn't hear they ignored him. They didn't stop even though Paul was speaking up and saying, Hey, problem, right? They completely ignored him. And when I think about wisdom, and even sitting with people having coffees as a pastor in this church, sometimes I don't think I know. Or sometimes I can believe that I actually don't have words, to offer someone, especially words of wisdom in a moment, I can become deeply insecure, that might say, the wrong thing. That I'm actually going to make this worse. Or I'm going to offend them in a moment. But here Paul shows us that speaking words of wisdom comes from our past experiences we draw from our past to help direct somebody in the moment towards God. It's not a guarantee that your words will be received, Paul was ignored. But even though his advice was ignored, it was still good advice, wasn't it? So he considered all the scenarios, all the conditions. And the choice was obvious to him. Let's not go any further. Can't we just go to port, but they press on. When we talk about sharing the wisdom that God has given you, to someone, potentially in a hopeless situation, I think it's important for us to offer words of wisdom with empathy, it's, it's important to relate to them, to love them well. Wisdom comes from your past experiences. So if you're sitting with someone in a hopeless situation, I would encourage you to insert yourself into their shoes, draw back on your past experiences, relate to them, have compassion for them. And if God has put you in a moment, and that's kind of the beautiful moments that I've come to realize, is that God has me sitting with this person for a reason. I'm not here by mistake, that he has equipped me. And oftentimes, when I submit myself to him, and draw back on past experiences, God does something pretty cool. So that's what we can offer. Number two, encourage those that are overcome with fear. First, 22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost, only the ship will be destroyed. When that'd be comforting. Hey, guys, we're on a boat together. Hey, guys, don't worry, the boats gonna be completely destroyed. But all of us are going to live. I guess that's hopeful. Let, verse 23 last night and Angel of of God to whom I belong, and whom I serve stood beside me and said, Do not be afraid, Paul, you must stand trial before Caesar. And God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you. Wow. So what Paul is bumping up against here is fear. Right? Fear is a real emotion. For the majority of people experiencing hopelessness, just straight panic to what is unknown. Fear is a human response to what is unknown, right. It's what protects us in a sense, there's something deep inside of us when we're stepping into a situation that we can't control, or that's completely new to us. Fear is how we make sense of that moment. It's how we protect ourselves, right? fear comes from a place where we realize we're out of control, and we can no longer save ourselves, you feel about this big. And in this moment, Paul offers encouragement as his encouragement is that we're not going to die. That interesting encouragement. You know, hey, Shawn, I know you've got something going on, man, but you're not going to die. I know the situation is really scary. And you seem really anxious and short tempered, but you're not going to die. I might use that one. Shawn. That's cool. Does that work? Okay. Works for Paul. I love it. Though, to be honest, like that was his good news. Paul wasn't making this up, because an angel visited him and told him that they were going to get out of this. So this was actually perspective, lifting our eyes out of this moment to see a bigger picture that God is in fact, a God of salvation. Like, we just need some good news, and he provides this good news. So God had a plan for Paul, and to the credit and benefit of everybody else on board. They now are protected. Because God had a calling and a purpose for Paul to go to Rome. And nothing was going to stop from getting in the way of what God wanted to do. Because God has a plan. It God was going to make sure that that plan through Paul was going to come to fruition. Nothing was going to get in the way of it. And this is where encouragement is found, by the way. Encouragement is found when we recognize that God is in fact working in some way. And I know that might seem like a pastoral Christiany response. But in fact, I think it's true. Even when we don't know what God is doing. Even if we can't make sense of something, do we actually step back? And can we say to God, I hate what's happening right now, I wish this wasn't happening. But I gotta believe that you have a plan. I don't know what it is. It's like what we landed with last week, like, do I trust him? Like, do I really believe that he has got my life. And that's what Paul is encouraging them. God sees us. He knows what he's doing with your life. Even though this moment feels bleak, like he is in control, Jesus is the giver of life. He's the author, and he's the perfecter of our pay our faith, he knows what he's doing, even if what's happening to us, even if our plans are altered, like we see from time and time again, that God makes a way. Like I've been following Jesus for 25 years, 26 years, and I'm still following Jesus has proven himself to be faithful. I would feel awfully phony up here about telling you that God has God has a plan. God knows what he's doing. And I've been following Jesus for 26 years, I look back I'm like, but he hasn't done anything like that for me. Like, God knows what he's doing with my life, I've seen him come through time and time again, even though most of the time it's not what I would have preferred or wanted. But it's what was best for me. And maybe God has done the same thing for you. So Paul encourages by pointing people to God. encouragement, by the way, isn't just a halftime speech. It's so much more than just keep going. Right? Finish this out strong. Encouragement comes when we point people to God, eyes on Jesus, look and see who Jesus is. stand true. From what Scripture talks, Scripture talks about, reflect and remember the ways that he's come through in your life in the past. He has got you, I promise you. So God sees us Do I trust them? Or do I not. And I found that the best way to encourage someone in moments like this, especially when they're feeling pretty hopeless, is just to sit, sit with them and tell them that God is sitting with him, that God sees you. My job isn't to fix this. My job is to actually acknowledge the hopelessness. And with that we rely on the presence and power of the Spirit together, and invite Him in. It's in fact why we start our Sundays off with worship. I found that worship is actually like the cure for all things in my soul, when I genuinely come and worship God. All the fears, all the hopelessness, all the anxiety, or the depression goes away. When I'm praising Jesus, when my eyes are fixed on him, perspective happens. Situation didn't change. My perspective changed. My eyes are on Jesus. Number three, I tried to come up with a clever thing to say here and I couldn't sat way too long staring at my computer. And I wrote, just pray. Maybe I remember that. After he said this, Paul, he took some bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. And he broke it. And they began to eat. Prayer changes things. Prayer works. Just in our table this week, we're getting reports of in our table, it's families. We've got, I don't know 1516 adults guys, and like 30 Kids, it feels like and I just say that when we go around our table and people just share about what's happening in our life. This is why you need to be in a table is I'm listening to each family share. And every single one of them has a really good reason why they shouldn't be there. A really good reason that makes sense. Like they can be home and it would be okay. Because there's a lot of hopelessness happening. And every single person is choosing to be together. And we are committing to assigning a family to a family to pray every week and getting reports this week that like prayer is working. That heaviness is lifting, the healing is occurring. The vulnerability is happening transparencies happy. Like this is this is what we do. Like praying for each other Prayer can change situations. But more times than not, it changes our perspective. We just invite God in. Prayer takes us from a place of fear. It takes us from a place of loneliness, it takes us from a place of anxiety. You know what happens when we pray? Verse 35, Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving happens. We're able to actually see the things that God is doing. And we can approach him as our father. He in fact, knows what he's doing with our lives, and he cares about our team up, we're going to close in some respond, I should say, and some worship. But what I feel compelled to do this morning is really coming from a place of hopelessness being a reality that I just have, let me just say, it's really blunt. I've never met a person that doesn't deal with hopelessness. It's the commonality between most of us in this room, all of us in this room, so we know what hopelessness feels like. And I think I just didn't feel right, giving a message on hopelessness and then just kind of ending in some rah rah worship and see you next week. It feels it feels pretty tone deaf to the people in the room that are actually carrying some significant hopelessness. And what if this is a space that God turns hopelessness and fills people with hope? Just to see him to be ministered to, to realize they're not in this alone? Like, what might God want to do in our church? It feels like a good way to use our time, doesn't it? And so we're going to do something a little bold this morning. And if you're here, and you feel like as even when I said the word hopelessness, if you feel like something kind of just jumped in you that was like, Yeah, that's me. We'll pray for you. Like we want to stand with you want to encourage you want to share words of wisdom for you. And we want to do that just by the body of Christ being the body of Christ, that there's a lot of encouragement in this room to be shared. There's a lot of live past experiences that we've all gone through that we can offer and sit with somebody. And I know there are prayer warriors in this room. And so if you're here, it's going to take some vulnerability and transparency, I'm not asking you to share anything, just by you putting your hand up is all we need to know. And then what I'm going to ask is that those that are around the room, you're just going to move to somebody. And you're just gonna lay hands if that's okay, if you're not okay, with people putting a hand on you, that's totally fine. Just do this. And we'll get it. That's all we need to know. But we just want to prove it. We just want to lay hands on you and pray. And what I'm gonna ask is number one that we encourage, hear we point people to God. We don't condemn. We don't pass judgment. We don't speak negatively about anybody or anything. We point people to God and we encourage, which like, we see Paul doing this passage. And if God gives you something to share, share it. If it doesn't resonate, no one died. Paul tells us you're not going to die. Not going to die. Okay, so if you hear and you just you just want to say, I've just been sitting in hopelessness for too long. I want to ask you to be brave to put your hand up. Okay, no, thank you. We got one. Thank you just put it up. Hi. Put it up. Hi. You guys are actually carving the way in our church right now. Just so you know. Put it up. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Hi. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. So we can see you. Okay, so real quick. Can we can we just applaud these people for being vulnerable. This is what church is, this is this is why we're here. We're not here just to put on a thing and see you next week. So people that I'm going to ask you to do one more thing, just stand where you are. Okay. And everybody stand. Keep your hand up, though. Stand where you are. And keep your hand up so we can see you. I'm going to ask that. You guys look around, make sure it's somebody in back but you just look around. And I want to ask you just to make a little journey across the aisle or the other side and just lay hands and we just asked the Holy Spirit. He'll be here as the Holy Spirit. But we might want to do what he's saying.