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Message for April 19, 2015

Luke 24:36b-48

The Role of Hope in Our Lives

Rob Miller, Pastor

The church exists for one reason -- to make disciples of Jesus. We have no other reason for being. One of the last things Jesus said to his disciples was this…

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age. We call this the Great Commission from Matthew 28:16-20.

This is the mission for every church to go and make disciples – baptizing, teaching, obeying, and remembering. We are to go and change the world one person at a time.

I received a phone call this week from one of our faithful disciples here at FLC. He was calling to talk with me about a bumper sticker he saw on a car. It read,“Follow me to (the name of the church).” He said that bumper sticker got him thinking. “No…” he said,“that’s not the way it is to be. We are the church wherever we go…” He continued. “We need to help people understand that.” I agreed.

We come to church to a building to a place -- to be empowered and equipped to go and be the church wherever our faith journey takes us. We go to make disciples.

Bishop Andy Doyle of the Episcopal Diocese of Texas spoke at synod assembly and said,God’s church doesn’t have a mission. God’s mission has a church. I had to think about that. It dawned on me we are to participate in God’s mission in the world.

Pastor Rudy Rasmus from St John’s Methodist Church in Houston also spoke at the assembly said, “God loves you and there is nothing I can do about it.” That’s the basis for our mission to let the world know that God loves them. To let everyone in the world know that God loves him or herand there is nothing we can do about it.

Turn to someone right now and say – “God loves you and there is nothing I can do about it.”

Doesn’t that feel good to say that/hear that?

We go places every day –we are baptized with a mission to make disciples of Jesus. In this worship series we are learning how to do that as welive lives the Jesus way… by faith, hope, and love.

We’ve posted that messageon our webpage, our bulletin, our letterhead, and our checks. We are learning how to live our lives the Jesus way. It’s a lifelong process. We can’t make disciples if we aren’t living as disciples.

Last week we considered the role faith plays in our lives. We are learning that -- faith is the key that opens the doors of possibilities that would otherwise remain closed to us. We are saved by grace through faith for good works. Let me say that again. We are saved by God’s grace, through Christ’s faith for good works - period.

Today we consider the role hope plays in our lives. Next week we will consider the role love plays in our lives.

Sometimes –okay most of the time -- life can be disappointing. No doubt about it. Dreams turn into nightmares. Plan A becomes Plan B. Even the greatest people- those who have been super successfulhave also experienced profound loss and extreme heartbreak. But they did not give up. They did notlose hope.

For example:

  1. Thomas Edison’steachers told him he was "too stupid to learn anything." He was fired from his first two jobs for not being productive enough.

Edisonwent on to hold more than 1,000 patents andinvented all kinds of world-changing electric devices, like the phonograph, the lamp, and a movie camera. Thank you, Thomas.

  1. Oprah Winfrey is one of the most famous and richest women in the world. Shewas fired from her first television job as an anchor in Baltimore. She was told that she was “unfit for TV.” Shealso encountered sexism and harassment.

She became the queen of television talk shows and developed a media empire. Today she is worth an estimated$2.9 billion. Thank you, Oprah.

  1. Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor because he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas."

Many of hisbusinesses failedafter that. He went bankrupt before his first movie "Snow White” hit the screens. Today, many children wouldn't be the same without his vision and ideas. Thank you, Walt.

  1. Steven Spielberg was rejected three times by the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

His first blockbustermovie was "Jaws" in 1975 and many more after that. Hehas won three Academy Awards. Thank you, Steven

  1. J.K. Rowling was a single mom living off of welfare when she began writing the first "Harry Potter" novel.

Rowling is now internationally renowned for her seven-book Harry Potter series. She becamethe first billionaire author in 2004. Thank you, J. K.

6.Theodor Seuss Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss, had his first book rejected by 27 different publishers.

Dr. Seuss became a legendary children's author around the world - known for classics like "The Cat in the Hat" and "Green Eggs and Ham." His books have soldover 600 million copies. Thank you, Dr. Seuss.

  1. Before starring inI Love Lucy,Lucille Ball was considered a failed actress and dubbed “the queen of B movies.” Her drama instructors didn't feel she would make it in show business, and told her to try another profession. The I Love Lucy Show was the first TV sitcom to be filmed in front of a live audience. It ran for 7 years and received five academy awards. Thank you, Lucille.
  1. In 1954, Elvis Presley was still a nobody when Jimmy Denny, manager of the Grand Ole Opry, fired Elvis after just one performance telling him, "You ain't goin' nowhere, son. You ought to go back to drivin' a truck."

Presley becameone of the best-selling artists of all time. He changed the direction and style of music and is still a household name years after his death. Thank you, Elvis

9.While developing his vacuum, Sir James Dyson went through 5,126 failed prototypesspending his entire savings of over 15 years.

The 5,127th prototype worked, and the Dyson brand became the best-selling bagless vacuum brand in the United States. He is nowworth an estimated $4.5 billion. Thank you, Dyson.

These people all had one thing in common – hope. Hope kept them going. Sure they had pain and failures and set-backs and problems…but the pain and the failures and the setbacks and the problems did not define them. Hope did. Hope made their success possible. Sometimes hope was all they had.

In the process of living life, it’s easy for people to lose hope. We can lose hope in life, in God, in people, in the church, even in ourselves. Without hope we are indeed hopeless.

Here’s the good news in God’s eyes nobody is hopeless. In God’s eyes there is hope for everyone.

We humansneedhope. We can't live without it. Hope is the lifeblood for our spiritual well-being. The only thing that can pull us out of the deep trenches of the pain and hurt and setbacks and problems in life – is hope.

We should wear a T-shirt that readsGot Hope? We don’t need a T-shirt to have hope…

Here is some more good news – we worship a God of hope. In Romans 15:13 Paul writes: May theGodofhopefill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that you may abound inhopeby the power of the Holy Spirit.

Our God is a God of hope who fills with hope…through the Holy Spirit weabound in hope…We got hope. Thank you, God

In Romans 5:1-5 Paul writes:

Therefore, since we are justified by faith(justified meaning that we are in a right relationship with God because of Christ and his cross), wehave peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,2through whom (through Jesus) we have obtained accessto this grace in which we stand; and weboast in our hope of sharing the glory of God.(Some day we will share in the glory of God – and so we boast about that) 3And not only that, but wealso boast in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,5and hope does not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.

These words are words for us to live by. They tell us thatGod loves us and there is nothing we can do about it. A love that has been poured into our hearts…a love that is fed and nourished within the faith community, the church. That’s where our hope comes from… from God’s love in the church. Thank you, church.

In our gospel reading Jesus came to restore the disciple’s hope because he loved them.

(Read Luke 24:36b-48)

Jesus restored their hope by

  1. Being with them. He stood among them. In communion with them. Jesus is here with us – in communion with us. He is with us wherever we go. That’s part of the mystery and miracle of the faith.
  1. Eating with them. They thought Jesus was a ghost. So he invited them to touch him. He is flesh and bone. He’s real. They still doubted. So Jesus said, “Hey – I’m hungry. Do you have anything to eat?” So they gave him some broiled fish. And he ate it. Everyone knows that a ghost can’t eat anything…. Jesus did. He wasn’t a ghost.
  1. Speaking to them. Jesus did a Bible study with them saying that everything in the Old Testament – was written about him. There was no New Testament written yet. Jesus helped them understand that he came to fulfill the scriptures.
  1. Reminding them to sharethe messageof love– to share the message that -- Jesus rose from the dead on the third day and repentance and forgiveness are to be proclaimed in his name to everyone.

Jesus came and restored the disciple’s hope. And he does the same for us too – through worship, through the word, and through serving others. We got hope!

Pastor Bill Hybels says, The local church is the hope of the world. Why? Because when the local church stewards the message of Christ, it truly is the hope of the world.

What message are we to share? The message of hope– hope in Christ Jesus. We share a message that saysto one and all,God loves you and there is nothing I can do about it.

Can you imagine saying that to people this week? Careful how you say it…

Final thought: Hope is the candle that shines in the darkness for others to find their way – to find their way with Christ Jesus as Lord and Savior.

God loves you and there is nothing I can do about it. Amen.