All The Light We Do Not See

Introduction

Well, if you know me, typically you know this: I bring more information than I need, and I try to think on my feet with the Holy Spirit and ask Him to put His finger on some of the things I’ve put into my notes. I’ll do that this morning.

On Tuesday night, we’ve begun a series of teaching. We invite you to join us at 7:00 on Tuesday here for our adult believers Bible study. We started a series some weeks ago called Better Decisions, Better Results. In talking about that subject, we introduced a verse of Scripture from the Old Testament — Jeremiah 29:11. I like the way the Amplified translates that verse. It says, this is God speaking:

For I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you. Even if you don’t know them, I have them for you. I know them for you. I have them for you.

God is saying, in one way or another, “I’m ready to share them with you. I know the thoughts and plans that I have for you, says the Lord — thoughts and plans for welfare and for peace, and not for evil.”

God’s Plan Is Not for Evil

God’s plan for your life does not include you experiencing evil. Satan comes to steal, kill, and destroy — and that’s not God giving him positive permission to do so. He is the enemy of God. He has already been defeated. He needs to be put underfoot by the church, because we’ve been vested with God’s authority and God’s power to represent Jesus in that. We don’t have to defeat the devil again. He’s already been defeated.

Well, then what are we doing, pastor? We’re enforcing the victory of the cross. We don’t have to beat him again — he’s already beaten. But we enforce the victory of the cross.

I hear so many people say, “God just allowed this evil as part of His plan for my life. He’s the one who allowed the cancer. He’s the one who caused me to lose my business during COVID. He’s causing me right now to worry over my kids because they’re addicts. I didn’t raise them that way, but they’re addicts. It must be God trying to teach me something, or some part of His plan.” No — God’s plan for you is not for evil.

That’s why we’re taught in the Bible: resist the devil, and he’ll flee from us. If Satan’s works were a part of God’s plan for your life, what in the world would we be resisting them for? If Satan and what he’s doing is a part of God’s plan for our life, then we don’t resist him — we welcome him, because somehow he’s God’s messenger for our life. Everybody say a great big no to that, because the Bible doesn’t teach that.

You have a Helper. His name is the Holy Spirit. He has come to lead you, to guide you, to counsel you, and to empower you in the fulfillment of what God has planned for you. God’s plan for you is divine.

He goes on to say this: “to give you hope” — hope in your final outcome. Another way to think about that phrase is that God will give you success in every segment of your race, the race you’re running, so that you will hope to run the next segment of your race. We’re in a big marathon; it’s not a dash. Have you noticed? Some of us wish the race was over. But this prophecy from God says, “I know the plans I have for you.” It’s for welfare, for blessing — not for evil. It’s to give you hope in your final end. God causes you to hope. That gets you up, moving into your future, possessing whatever your future is.

Delight Yourself in the Lord

If you’re a Christian, you want everything about your life to be informed by God, shaped by God. That’s why the Bible says, “Delight yourself in the Lord, and He will give you the desires of your heart.” There are a couple of ways to look at that. You have desires; you go to God and ask for them in prayer — “God, would You give me this?” But there’s another side of that verse: if you delight yourself in the Lord, He will give you — that is, He will author within you — His desires for your life.

I guarantee this morning that whatever good desires you have, whatever big dreams you’ve schemed up that are wonderful and good, that look good on paper and seem like they’ll be enjoyable — God has a better plan. God has something bigger, something greater, something grander. The Bible says, “than we could even ask or think.”

I want you to hear this today. I want you to be stirred by it. God’s got this future. He’s thinking about you. Never a day goes by that you’re not in His thoughts. He’s got a plan for you, if you care to know about it. It’s there for you, and He has a hope that He wants to reveal to you to get you up, moving into that future.

I’ll say it here — I’ll probably repeat it later in the message: every time God wants to begin a substantial change on the inside of you, whatever that might be, He begins that with divine hope. He puts a dream, a divine dream, in your heart.

Living by the Spirit, Not the Senses

Many of us don’t even know how to pursue that sort of thing. We don’t know how to live that way. We pretty much live our lives, still as Christians — regardless of how long we’ve been a Christian — carnally. Do you know what the word carnal means? The Bible says in Romans 8 that the carnal mind is an enemy of God. We can live either with a spiritual mind or a carnal mind. Carnal mind just means sense-ruled — what we see, what we hear, what we taste, what we feel, what we smell. Our lives are largely shaped by that. God gave you those senses — don’t misunderstand me, they’re good. When we lose one, we really realize how good we had it. But God didn’t intend for you to be ruled by what your senses could pick up. God gave us senses to help us live in a natural, physical world — but He didn’t give us senses to rule how we lived in that world.

Many Christians are stuck. I love science, by the way. I love math. I excelled in both in school. But there’s something greater than science — there’s the God who gave men something to study. Scientifically, if it wasn’t for the Almighty God and the move He made in creation, there’d be nothing for scientists to do — they wouldn’t have a job. Mathematicians — God is the greatest mathematician. Your Bible, whether you know it or not, has mathematical coding throughout it. We’re not going to get into that today, but it has master mathematics included on the pages. God can reveal some things to us through that.

The Unseen Realm

But getting back to our subject — there are things that we don’t see with these senses. Look with me to 1 Corinthians chapter 2, verse 9. I’ll read it from two different translations to make a deeper impact. The Passion Translation says:

Things never discovered or heard of before, things beyond our natural ability to even imagine — these are the many things God has in store for all His lovers.

Let me see the hands of the lovers of God — they’re in this room, and God has stored things up for you. The Amplified version reads:

What eye has not seen and ear has not heard and has not entered into the heart of man, all that God has prepared, made and keeps ready for those who love Him, who hold Him in affectionate reverence, promptly obeying Him and gratefully recognizing the benefits He has bestowed.

Paul describes this realm where God — who is Spirit; no man has seen God except Jesus — rules, called the spirit realm. I’m not trying to get metaphysical with you. I’m not weird about this at all. But we just saw it in Scripture: there are things God has prepared for us, and they’re unseen. Unseen doesn’t mean unreal.

I know angels are real in my life. I haven’t seen one. I know Christians who have, but I haven’t. I know they’re real because of what God’s Word declares. I’ve had people come up and say, “Did you see the angels behind you as you preached this morning?” No. I wish I had. I wish you had told me when it was happening.

Demons — they’re real. I haven’t seen them, but I know they’re real. The Bible talks about them. I’ve cast them out of people who were possessed by them in my lifetime — not 20 or 30 times, but a handful of times, where demons were manifesting in a person or through a person, and by the name of Jesus and faith in that name — because none of us are super-doopers — the demon had to leave, and the person was left at peace and whole by God’s hand. But most of us haven’t seen a demon. We say the devil isn’t real. Well, again, the Bible declares he is, and they are real. Unseen doesn’t mean unreal.

So if I were to entitle this message today, I would call it All the Light We Do Not See — because the verses I just read from Corinthians say that God has revealed these prepared things to us by His Spirit. “Eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has entered into the heart of man the things that God has prepared for them — but God has revealed them.” Revealed means to make known, uncover, bring out of the dark into the light. God has revealed them to us — how? By His Spirit.

So are you getting this? God causes us to have divine hope in things He has already laid out and planned for us, and He does that by the work of the Holy Spirit in our heart through the avenue of hope.

Hope and Groaning (Romans 8)

Scripture teaches that we groan in our own spirit for these very things. Not many of us know to associate what Romans 8:23–25 has to say about this — it doesn’t normally get related to the subject of hope, but I believe it is related. Will you bear with me? I want to read it this morning, from the Passion Translation:

It is not just creation who have already experienced the first fruits of the Spirit; we also inwardly groan as we passionately long to experience our full status as God’s sons and daughters.

We are God’s sons and daughters, but we haven’t begun to fully enjoy our full rights as sons and daughters. Everybody say out loud, “Duh.” Because you know in your heart that God’s holding out a whole lot more for you that you haven’t experienced yet. There’s actually a wanting, a yearning, a groaning on the inside of you for that. That’s what gets you up in the morning. And some of it is not a great feeling — it’s like being without something that actually belongs to you.

Some of us interpret that as God leaving us out, or God holding back. That was the lie of the serpent in the garden — God doesn’t want you to eat because He’s holding back things from you. We sense that sometimes when we’re in our dark bedroom, wondering what our life is all about, struggling on the inside mentally and emotionally. But at the same time, there’s something inside of you that says there’s more — for you. Not just for Bob, not just for Lucy, not just for Cindy, not just for Bob’s brother Robert. It’s you. God wants you to know this morning, and be reminded again, that wherever you are — especially if you’re in that dark place — God has hoped for you, plans for you, and He is at work. If you’ll just let Him work, He’s going to be your glory and the lifter of your head, and He’s going to get you back up on your feet and running the race again.

If you’re struggling with your mental health, can I say something to you? Hope is at least a part of the solution you need to overcome it. Scripture says God gave us a soundness of mind. That means He has promised us mental health, good health — we can think through things. We’re not always confused or stopped by a bad report. We can think through it, and when things go wrong, we can come up with solutions. That’s part of the soundness of mind the Bible is referring to, if we’re going to be real practical today.

So it’s by divine hope that we begin to access what is there for us — what God has divinely in place for us. Every spiritual endeavor and journey, every God-authorized desire, mission, and assignment begins with hope.

Personal Testimony

One day, God caused me to hope that Cindy would be my wife, and that hope came to pass over 50 years ago. God is faithful. Then He caused us to hope for children, and we struggled with having our babies — with infertility, or some other cause. But God kept giving us hope. He said, “Don’t stop. Here’s what I have for you.” And our children were born, Hannib and Jordan, and we’ve been blessed by that hope that God caused us to have and then fulfilled — which is a great lesson, and we’re about to talk about it before we pray today. What God starts in you can’t be perfected by you. You can be involved in it, and God wants you to be involved in it — there are steps He will order. The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. It’s important that you follow those steps because they lead to the fulfillment of what He caused you to hope. But you can’t take over and start trying to help God out, trying to make it happen sooner or a different way. Because here’s the promise: what God begins in you, He also completes in you.

God put a hope in our heart to plant this great church that is now — well, it’s a generation old, 40 years at least. That’s a generation in the Bible, but it’s decades old. It’s endured so much, and here we are still today, still making Satan sad and mad, who wanted us to go away. We’re not going away. We’re going to get to see with our own eyes every knee bow, including his, and every tongue confess, including his, that Jesus is Lord to the glory of God the Father. That’s a big part of our future.

Get as excited about that as I’m excited to go to a third golf getaway with Pastor Al Bryce, Pastor Don Kwood, and Pastor Terry Matthews in two weeks in Myrtle Beach. I have bubbles in my stomach. I just get so excited in the morning. It’s a week from Monday — a week from tomorrow. We started doing this a few years ago; we weren’t seeing each other enough, and we all happen to play golf too, so we started this getaway, and it excites my heart. I’ve already gone through my clothes three times. I’ve looked at my tickets to make sure everything’s arranged and on time. I am ready. I’m practicing my swing in the backyard — getting up in the middle of the night practicing my swing.

Shouldn’t your hope for the life that Jesus has provided for you do a little bit of the same in your walk of faith? Yeah, things aren’t always great — sometimes the plane is late, sometimes the car you rented isn’t the car you rented, you know what I’m talking about if you travel. But don’t quit, and don’t give up, and don’t let all of that defeat you. Let the dream of God in your heart be bigger than everything else, bigger than the plan that Satan has for your life. Let the plan of God be bigger.

Three Points on Accessing Hope

Three quick, practical points that you need to know when it comes to accessing, by hope, the promise of God.

1. Get Over the Purely Emotional Idea of Hope

For most of us, hope is just an emotional idea. It rises and falls on the basis of what we happen to be feeling at any point in time. And because it’s emotional and not divine, it’s not really an anchor for us. It doesn’t stabilize us or help us stand when things aren’t going right. The hope that God gives, on the other hand, is an anchor for the soul — Hebrews talks about letting that hope become an anchor for our soul. The natural hope we tend to embrace leaves us with an element of doubt.

Are the Dallas Cowboys going to win the Super Bowl this year? I’m only asking because some of you have already asked me that question. And here’s what you’ll hear me say: “Well, I hope so.” There’s an element of doubt, because when I consider my circumstances, it doesn’t help me, it doesn’t encourage me. It’s been a while, right? So unless God wakes me up in the middle of the night and gives me divine hope, and says, “Your Cowboys are winning this year — I have overcome Jerry Jones, I have overcome all of those things that have caused you to lose all these many years” — then I’m not going to hope. Unless God gives me hope, I don’t really have a leg to stand on.

Because when the Bible talks about hope, especially in the New Testament, it’s a really special Greek word — elpis. It means a joyful and confident expectation. So we have to recognize the difference: a hope that’s based in just the natural — ask yourself, why am I hoping? — and then turn to God and say, “God, do You have some help in this? Is this going to be just another disappointment for me, another work of my flesh, something I just brought to pass by hoping in it? Or is it something divine from You?” You can take this as deep as you want — for every little desire, or you can just wait and hope for the big things. It’s how you choose to live your life.

Getting back to the series we’re doing on Tuesday night — if I’m going to make better decisions, I have to have better hope operating in my life, guiding me and guiding those decisions.

Abraham’s Example

Let me show you a verse that contrasts natural hope with divine hope, from Romans 4:18. From the Passion Translation:

Against all odds, when it looked hopeless, Abraham believed the promise and expected God to fulfill it. He took God at His word, and as a result, he became the father of many nations. God’s declaration over him came to pass: “Your descendants will be so many that they will be impossible to count.”

The King James Version says Abraham “hoped against hope.” Kind of an odd way to say it, but it means what we just read: Abraham looked at natural hope — he was practicing natural hope — and then he looked again at the divine hope God was offering him, and he decided between the two. Against natural hope and what it offered, he turned to God and the divine hope God was giving him.

Do you know, today we would not have redemption if Abraham had continued to follow his natural hope, because the Savior came through that seed. Think about that — the power of hope, and how it shapes our life. We wouldn’t have salvation. We couldn’t be born again. The blood of Jesus would have never been shed. Eternal life wouldn’t be our inheritance if Abraham had decided, “I’m going to continue by natural hope.”

How did he do that? Remember, when Abram was called out of the Chaldees, God specifically said to him, “Don’t bring your extended family with you.” But he had a nephew named Lot, and he decided to bring Lot with him. Why would Abram do that in direct disobedience to what God said? Could it be that he thought God would bless Lot as his descendant — that it would be through Lot that God would begin this work of being a father to many nations? But when he brought Lot, what he found was just the opposite: Lot became a reason for strife and division among the group traveling together. It threatened and delayed the answer to that hope coming to pass. That’s what happens when we’re knowingly disobedient to something God has caused us to hope about. “I want you to hope in this, but I want you to hope in it with conditions — I don’t want you to partner with them; I’m going to lead you in who you partner with in this.” And if you knowingly disobey, the hope is still there, but your way to get there has changed, and you’ve made it harder than it was already going to be.

There’s also Eleazar — a trusted steward in Abraham’s house. You can read this in Genesis 15:3-4, where Abraham reasons within himself about the hope God has given him and wonders if God won’t accept Eleazar as this new descendant to work out the promise. God comes back and says, “No — it’s going to be a child from your own loins.” So he doesn’t give up on this; he thinks he’s helping God out, depending on his flesh, his natural way of doing things. So Hagar says, “I want you to sleep with my maiden — she’ll give birth to a child of your loins, and God will accept the baby that’s born.” And that’s what they do. Seemed like a great idea at the time. Scripture says there’s a way that seems right to a man, but the end of it is death.

I think Abraham’s heart was good and pure. He loved what God had given him in the way of hope, but it wasn’t happening as quickly as he wanted. He’s old, his body is failing, his wife is past childbearing age — her womb is dead, his body is dead. So he’s saying, “This is just not going to happen unless I get in here and do this or that.” So they come up with this idea, and Ishmael is born. When Ishmael is thirteen, he’s brought before God, and God says, “You’re not the one.” He tells Abraham, He tells Sarah, “He’s not the one I’ve chosen. It’s going to be miraculous.”

Finally, Abram comes to his spiritual senses. We have to do that sometimes — just wake ourselves up. I hope we have good friends in our life who can wake us up too. “Wait a minute — what did God say? Remember, God is the one who made the promise. That’s why you started down this road. You need to follow what God has said and stay with His instruction.”

Romans 4 says that when he was about a hundred, he became fully persuaded. The promise was made when he was 75, but he was a hundred when the baby was born. So what am I saying? You can trust in your natural hope, thinking you’re going to get there a whole lot quicker, when in reality you may not get there at all. I hate to break that news to you. It’s not because God changes His mind — it’s because you’re not there with God. You’re not walking this thing out with Him. You turn to yourself instead.

Galatians — Grace vs. Legalism

Paul would say it this way to the Galatian church, who didn’t know what legalism was, who didn’t know what living under the law was. They were born again, filled with the Holy Ghost, living in spiritual freedom. And by the way, this is Pentecost Sunday — God wants us to live in the power of the Spirit. Great reminder. But then Judaizers came into their midst and began to say, “That message of grace, salvation by grace through faith, is good — that message of Jesus plus nothing else is great — but really there is more you have to do. You have to keep the law.” And they were seduced by that lie, well presented as it must have been.

Paul was beside himself when he wrote the Galatian letter — probably the most emotional letter he ever wrote. He said, “I can’t believe you’re so quickly removed from the gospel, to believe now a lie.” He asked them, concerning the message of hope: “Having begun in the Spirit, will you now be made perfect — finish everything — by the flesh?” You can’t save yourself. I get that — I can’t forgive myself, I need forgiveness from God, I can’t trust myself for that, so I’ll go to God for it. But the rest of the Christian life also has to be lived by the power of His Holy Spirit. We don’t depend on ourselves any day of this walk — we lean more and more into Jesus Christ.

2. Trust Is Not Optional

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:1:

Now faith is the assurance, the confirmation, the title deed of the things we hope for, being the proof of things we do not see and the conviction of their reality. Faith perceives as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

As powerful and essential as hope is to enjoying life as God intended, it’s still unseen until we trust God for it. Trusting God for it — hope is like setting the forms for the house. There’s still no foundation, still no house. You can’t just come in and pour concrete without forms. You go to an architect, and he draws up the design, the numbers — here’s the design for this thing. But you still can’t move in until the foundation is poured and the house takes shape. Think of hope that way: hope is the setting of the form; it has no substance yet.

The King James Version says, “Faith is the substance of things hoped for.” It tells us that hope, as essential as it is, has no substance — it’s unseen. It’s real, even though unseen, but it has no substance. It’s like buying a house completely online — you’ve gone through video tour after video tour and decided to buy it, paid the asking price online, but you’ve never seen the house. But if you do that and get a title deed for it, it’s yours, even though you haven’t seen it yet. That’s very real — it’s a legal transaction.

That’s the way it is with God: God gives us divine hope for something, but it still needs substance, and faith becomes that substance. When we trust God, it’s like, “Okay, I haven’t seen it yet, but when God showed that to me, I trusted Him. It’s as good as mine.” Faith is the substance of things we hope for.

Hope points you to it. Faith walks you through it. Hope addresses your future. Trust possesses it. Hope is the revelation. Trust makes it our reality. Someone said it this way: hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is the courage to dance today.

Hebrews 10:35-36:

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which is your faith or your trust, which hath great recompense of reward. For you have need of patience, that after you’ve done the will of God, you might receive the promise.

I have to say — you hear people say, “Don’t ask God for patience, He’ll give you tribulation.” Not true. Jesus taught that when we ask the Father for an egg, He won’t give us a scorpion. If we ask Him for bread, He won’t give us a rock. God is smarter than we are. So if we ask for something according to His will, we know we have it, and that He answers that prayer — that’s what Scripture says. But we need patience because what we’re asking for is not seen yet.

Where is it? God is bringing you to it, and bringing it to you. There’s going to be a divine connection — because one of the chief ways God causes your hope to come to pass is through the riches of His people — I mean who the people are. It’s part of God helping that hope come to pass, and usually it’s somebody God just sends: “Can I just talk to you for a minute?” That’s literally how it has played out in my life. “I was praying the other day, and your name came up, and as I prayed for you, I began to hear God say this, and I just want to give that to you.” They’re good stewards over what God gave them, whatever the message was — they just say, “This is what God said,” and they leave it with you. Usually it’s a small thing to them, but it’s a bigger thing to you, because it becomes a confirmation of what God did say to you. It helps you keep that stake in the ground, helps you keep moving forward in faith.

What we don’t need are messengers who try to elaborate on what God has said. If God says a word, repeat the word — don’t make it a paragraph, don’t write a book on it. Just give the word God gave you, then thank you, and go away. Prove yourself a good steward, and God will keep using you that way to build up the kingdom of God.

3. Hope Gone Dark Can Be Rekindled

I want to close with this today. In Genesis chapters 15 and 22, you see a weary Abraham — God taking him on a weary journey, tired, exhausted. He takes him out under the stars and says, “Abraham, look up. What do you see?”

I love this about God — He’s never been disconnected. Even if we’ve disconnected, He abides faithful. He’s the God of hope. He doesn’t just have hope — He is the God of hope. Aren’t you glad that when you fell down on your face, or made a bad decision, and decided to come back, God was still there? Were you surprised He didn’t walk away? He loves you more than you can imagine. He’s your partner in life. The steps of a good man are ordered — He’s right there with you in those steps.

So He takes Abraham out under the stars and says, “What do you see?” “Well, I see stars.” “Count them.” “What, God? I can’t count them.” “Exactly. But know this, Abraham — so shall your seed be.” There’s a lot in that alone — that one little statement: “Look up. Get your head up.” If you’re down, discouraged — get your head up. Look up and remember: what God asked of Abraham was impossible to do in the first place. Now He’s asking him to count stars — he can’t do that either. This is going to be divine, going to be miraculous. God’s going to use what’s natural, but God has started this thing. He is working with you from a spiritual place, a divine place. Don’t limit God in how He can help you in this hope.

Then God says, “Now look down — what do you see?” “I see the sands of the seashore.” “Count them.” “I can’t, God.” “Exactly.” That’s what I want you to get — when God gives you hope, it’s not a challenge for you to make it all happen.

So Abraham was down, and God came to him. If you’re down in pursuing the dream of God in your heart, the dream God has revealed for your life — is it to get married? To have children? To start a family? A new job? A new city? A different country? What is it that God is putting in your heart on this level and on this level? Will you let Him be involved in everything in between? If you’re down in that today, you can be assured God is right now at work. I’ve already prayed, coming in today, that you would experience special lifting grace to get you back up on your feet, pursuing the dream God put in your heart.

Psalm 37:23-25 says:

The steps of the God-pursuing ones follow firmly in the footsteps of the Lord, and God delights in every step they take to follow Him. If they stumble badly, they will survive, for the Lord lifts them up with His hands.

Get ready to experience His presence in lifting you back up. And then it goes on: “I was young, but now I’m old — not once have I found a lover of God forsaken by Him, nor have any of their children gone hungry.” As tragic as it is to be faithless, to be hopeless is unimaginable.

Helen Keller

You know that name. She lived a long life. As a young girl, she lost both her sense of sight and her ability to hear, and she affected countless people by her example of how she confronted those hardships. I want to quote a couple of things from her and then we’ll pray. Helen Keller said:

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight but no vision.

And:

Nothing can be done without hope and without confidence.

This woman, who was physically blind, said there’s one thing worse than not having physical sight — not being able to see anything at all, including vision. Having vision — what’s unseen.

Closing Reflections and Ministry Time

Stand to your feet with me, please. I hope this has ministered to some of you in the room, if not everybody here. I think there’s something in it for everybody — what a great reminder about how God moves us into those things He’s planned for our life.

There are people, even if your life is in a great place today — there are people who don’t talk about their stuff, and there are people who talk too much about their stuff. But there are people who just hide it, and it gets darker and darker. My dad was like that. And believe it or not, that can be passed on to generations.

My dad suffered a deep, deep depression. He tried to handle it with alcohol and with prescribed medication. He was a war veteran — he was at Pearl Harbor when they bombed that day, saw so much death, his own buddies torn apart by bullets and bombs right there in the trenches where he was with them, and he suffered with that mentally. He was not wounded in the war, but during his infantry work, he injured his back severely, and when he got back to the States, they had to fuse his spine. He was in a full body cast for six months, cared for by my mom in our little house in Mesquite, Texas. And he suffered, and his suffering got darker and darker. He wouldn’t talk. He had no confidence in a relationship with God at that time. He wasn’t often sober, so there wasn’t a lot of opportunity to talk to him.

And then God set him free one day — stopped drinking like someone had flipped a switch. I don’t know that he had any withdrawals; he didn’t talk about it. But he got free from his alcohol, started going outside and taking walks. To that point in his life, he’d been in his bedroom with the blinds drawn. My dad — and then Jesus set him free. Whoever the Son sets free is free indeed.

Jesus, and only Jesus, can do for you what really needs to be done at the very root of your reasons for living and your desires for living.

So I’m going to stop — I have to, but my heart just continues. We’re going to pray.

First, let’s pray for those who are just waiting for your next hope. You’re a little stuck. I’m not going to have you raise your hand, but hopefully that resonates with you — you just don’t know what’s next. It’s like there’s really nothing right now to look forward to, and you just can’t see it. Don’t make the mistake — if you can’t see it in your natural life, with your natural eyes, you can still see your future in God. So look to Him. Keep your eyes up. You’re stuck, and we’re going to pray for you today to get unstuck. There’s a next step, a next segment of the race for you to run.

And I want to say to my retired brothers and sisters, and those who are my age or a little older — there’s still race to run. I don’t care how gray your hair is, or if you have hair at all. I don’t care if you shuffle to your seat, or need somebody to walk beside you, or use a walker. There’s a lot of life yet to live. Until you breathe that last breath and your heart stops beating, God has a plan for your life, and it’s good — filled with blessing, not evil. One success still leading to another, and hope for the next one.

Honor these people who are our elders — they need now, as much if not more, of your encouragement, your love and respect to finish their race. And believe it or not, they can help you run your race. They’re embodying godly wisdom that can help you take your next step. So watch how you talk about the old people — everybody’s getting a little older every day; one day you’re going to be the old person. And aren’t you glad for our youth — I think they’re in a really good place, and I believe that’s being built up.

The next group of people are those who are just down — really down, on your face. Hope has escaped you, lifted from your heart. That’s the way it seems — it’s gone. As excited as you were the day it came and got you up on your feet, and you couldn’t stop telling people about what God had just shown you about your future — the promise, always futuristic — and now it’s just the reverse: you don’t want to talk to anybody about it; you hate it when people bring it up. It’s gone in you. God wants to resurrect it in you again, because God has not forgotten.

Melinda’s Story

You know, I wish Mel was here today — I’d have her come up and talk about her great testimony; you’ve heard bits and pieces of it before. I got a phone call one day from her parents, on the west side of town, and they asked if I could come right then. I said, “I’ll come.” I got in my car — I didn’t know why I was going, but I went because they’re part of our church; we love them, they loved us. I got there, and their teenage daughter Melinda — who now leads as a major part in our church family, in our small groups, one of our major leaders in worship — her story is phenomenal, but at the time, she was not married and she was pregnant. She doesn’t mind me saying this; she’s already told you this if you’ve heard her testimony. Her parents were beside themselves and didn’t know what to do. We got together and talked in the living room that day, and prayed some.

Melinda made an appointment to come see me not long after. I still remember her voice — it’s not all that different today — but she said, “Pastor, please, I have one question.” With tears, she said, “I know what I did was wrong, and I know it didn’t please God, and I don’t even have a husband involved — he’s gone. Have I ruined my future? Do I even have a life to live? Has God turned His back on me because of what I did?”

I got to be the person that day who looked into that young teenage life and said, “Oh, no. It’s just the opposite. God’s plans for you haven’t changed at all, Melinda. Not at all. How we get you there is different — but it’s still there. He didn’t move the goalposts. He didn’t change His mind. Not even about you.”

That’s so funny — we think when we sin, that God doesn’t see it, that He doesn’t know about it until we confess it. God sees it all. And God knew we were imperfect when He called us and gave us that dream in the first place. God doesn’t give up. I’m glad Melinda didn’t give up. She’s a successful businesswoman, a wonderful mother to her boys, a worship leader, a great Christian lady, a powerful impact in our church — and she could have just said, “I’m done.” I’m so glad she didn’t. I’m glad God was there, and He’s still there for you.

If you’re at that suffering place today, we’re going to pray for you, and ask God to lift you up, just like we read from that psalm — He lifts us up.

Closing Prayer

Let’s lift our hands to God. I’ll lead us in prayer for those who are stuck, and then those who are broken.

Let’s believe God for miracles in the house today. Let’s believe God for the divine — for a powerful move of His Spirit to sweep across the lives of these people here today.

God, we pray first for those who are just stuck, a little discouraged, not knowing what else to do. They desire wisdom, they desire knowledge, and they want to walk on this path further with You, but they’re stuck — they’re not seeing it, for whatever reason. There’s a dullness that has come over their spirit man, in their soul. We pray, and we declare release over that in Jesus’ name — right now their spiritual eyes are being opened, their hearts are being lifted, their spiritual ears are hearing Your voice again, guiding them, setting the course for their life, in the name of Jesus. We thank You for that clarity, and for renewed excitement in their life. Let their forward lean be a next step, and then a next step. We agree for that in Jesus’ name.

And now, God, we put our arms around those who live in a dark place, who have really suffered, who have given up. They don’t see the good in anybody, don’t see the good in anything. They believe this is the end of their life, even though their heart is still beating. They’ve told others, “I have no reason to live.” They’ve given up, and Satan has piled on with condemnation and guilt — “you deserve this, you were never good enough, you have failed, there is no redemption for your life.” They hear those voices day after day, and they’ve lost the faith, lost the trust to rise up above it.

You’re right there right now with people in this room, people watching online, people at home who felt all that we just described. And right now, we pray and agree together — and You said if we agree together on earth about anything, it would be done by the Father who is in heaven. Jesus, we agree right now that the power of that darkness is broken over their lives in the name of Jesus.

We call out to those who are depressed, whose hearts are broken. We thank You for special lifting grace being released to them, bringing relief in the name of Jesus. I don’t anticipate that they’ll even know, God, that this is You — but when the wind of Your Spirit flows across their minds and hearts, mending and healing, and bringing hope to them, we believe they’ll respond to it, and they’ll say, “What’s happening?” And they’ll say yes to it. They’ll begin seeking again, searching again, wanting again, desiring again. Their heart will begin to churn again for You.

And in all of it, they’ll turn their eyes on You, like You had Abraham do, and they’ll hear Your voice again, and be reminded that they couldn’t do it in the first place — it wasn’t their responsibility to make it happen. It was to be miraculous from the very beginning. They had a part to play, but the One who gave the promise also promised to make it good.

So we thank You today — we may not know their names, but if they’re here with us, we thank You right now for what You’re doing in them, right here in church, right where they are. They’re leaving different. They’re going to go out in the parking lot different. They’re going to get in their cars different. They’re going to go home different, because of the move of the Holy Ghost in their life. We thank You for it, with them, now, in Jesus’ name.

Let’s rejoice unto God. Let’s give our praise to Him. If that was you today, give your praise and thank Him. Thank You, God, in Jesus’ name.

Holy Spirit, we put them in Your care, in Your hands. Our hearts are open to them, our hands are there for them — we’re one way You’ll answer their prayer. But God, put Your arms around them, embrace them, continue to encourage them. We know You’ll do that every day — You’re there every day, You never miss a day, You never miss a moment. They’ll be encouraged, they’ll get back up, back up in the race, begin to live again the life You’ve given them to live, walking forward, moving forward, in Jesus’ name. We thank You for it.

For the Word we heard today, God, help us not forget it. We make a commitment to You not to forget it. Holy Spirit, help us to do that. We believe the seed of God carries our future, and we’ll experience things from the Word of God today — but things down the road, next week, the week after that, down the road, that was in the seed of what we heard today.

Satan comes — he knows it’s so powerful — he comes, as Jesus taught us, to steal the word immediately. Help us to know how powerful the spoken word of God, the studied word of God, is. He comes to steal it immediately — well, we counter that by receiving what we heard by faith, immediately, right now. We believe the seed of God will begin to spring up in our hearts and bring forth thirty-fold more of hope, sixty-fold more of hope, a hundred-fold more of hope — maximum yield for hope. We thank You. We receive it, done, in Jesus’ name we pray.

Amen. Praise God.

This is why they don’t let me preach very much anymore — I just save up so much, I just have to get it out. Love you.