Category: Life’s Hope

Romans 15:13 (NIV)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Romans 5:5 (NIV)
And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

“By their trust in Christ, God’s people “already” know joy and peace and thus live in hope, absolute certainty regarding the “not yet.” The key to all of this, of course, is the Holy Spirit, who empowers life in the present and guarantees its future consummation – so much so that Paul prays for them to “overflow with hope(!)” by the power of the Spirit.” [G. Fee, God’s Empowering Presence, 623]

Our response to Christ’s sacrificial love is to trust him with all our lives. God’s love has been poured out into our hearts and hope overflows by the power of the Holy Spirit. Like we heard with the image of Niagara Falls [Pastor Gus], we’re not going to be able to contain this love and hope when we’re with Christ. Let’s offer our lives to be where Jesus is and to do what he asks. Our hearts won’t be able to contain but will overflow with the love and hope of God.

Prayer: Lord, you are the source of love and hope. I need you and ask that you would enlarge my heart for your purpose. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Let’s worship with “Wellspring” by Leeland. (Click Here)

-JH

 

 

 

John 12:25-26 (NIV)
[Very truly I tell you…] Anyone who loves their life will lose it, while anyone who hates their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.

“… abundant life comes, paradoxically, through death. John, not to mention Paul and others, understands Jesus’ death as the ultimate act of love; the signs too are manifestations of love, for it is God’s love that motivated the sending of Jesus and that was manifested in his various works. So also the church sent by this Jesus will be driven by God’s love, manifesting it, and thus God’s abundant life, in numerous analogous ways as disciples are baptized and empowered by the Spirit. And a central aspect of the church’s (the disciples’) being sent will be sharing in the death-like but life-giving ministry of Jesus… The servants of the Servant will share in his servanthood.” [M. Gorman, Abide and Go, 69]

Jesus gives an important kingdom truth – as we respond and fully give ourselves to him, as he already has for us, we’re not going to lose our lives but find them… and Jesus takes it another step – that it’s in serving and following him that we’re going to find real life and real hope.

Prayer: Lord, I believe in your truth. Help me not to try to preserve my life but to give it to you in service by the empowering of the Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Let’s worship with “My All in All” by Phil Wickham. (Click Here)

-JH

 

 

 

 

Let’s read aloud together the following confession, scripture, and prayer:

“We affirm our belief in the one eternal God, Creator and Lord of the world, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, who governs all things according to the purpose of his will. He has been calling out from the world a people for himself, and sending his people back into the world to be his servants and his witnesses, for the extension of his kingdom, the building up of Christ’s body, and the glory of his name. We confess with shame that we have often denied our calling and failed in our mission, by becoming conformed to the world or by withdrawing from it. Yet we rejoice that, even when borne by earthen vessels, the gospel is still a precious treasure. To the task of making that treasure known in the power of the Holy Spirit we desire to dedicate ourselves anew.” [The Lausanne Covenant: 1. The Purpose of God]

“What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.” [Philippians 3:8a, NIV]

“Lord Jesus Christ, you stretched out your arms of love on the hard wood of the cross that everyone might come within the reach of your saving embrace: So clothe us in your Spirit that we, reaching forth our hands in love, may bring those who do not know you to the knowledge and love of you; for the honor of your Name. [In Jesus’ name.] Amen.” [The Book of Common Prayer, 101]

-JH

 

Ephesians 1:18a (NIV)
I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you…

“The history of the church has never been about the great men and women of God, it’s always been about the great God of men and women… If God delights to use the weak then it means he delights to use you and he delights to use us.” [Pilavachi and Croft, Everyday Supernatural, 67, 71]

Hope and calling are practically synonymous in Paul’s prayer for the early church. Our great God has and is calling his church into something greater, which is both his work and our life’s hope. From the start, whether AMC, ALC, AHC, EccParis, EccNYC, God has taken ordinary people to bring about his plans and has involved us in his work. This is the supernatural hope that has been our history, but it’s also evident with how we’re living right now as churches for what’s ahead.

Today, as you worship to “There’s Nothing That Our God Can’t Do” by Passion, take time to pray Ephesians 1:18 for each of the Agapé churches and that God would use each as harvest workers for their respective locations. (Click Here)

Prayer: Lord, thank you for this life’s hope of being a part of your kingdom work. Use us for your glory. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

-JH

 

 

 

John 12:24 (NIV)
Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds.

Philippians 2:5-8 (NIV)
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, he made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Jesus’ words “very truly” can be translated as “amen, amen.” Jesus used this saying to stress the absolute truth of what he was about to teach. In this case, he was giving a kingdom principle about the certain and ongoing hope we have in the midst of everyday life. Jesus was referring to himself as this kernel of wheat that has died by way of the cross, and which has produced the many seeds we see today in the church. We are the many seeds of the one true Seed – we have hope as we similarly live out Jesus’ agapé sacrifice.

Today, may Jesus’ loving sacrifice move you towards life’s hope as you reflect on Philippians 2:5-8 and worship to “Upon Him” by Matt Redman. (Click Here)

Prayer: Lord Jesus, thank you for your cross and help me to have the same mindset as you. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

-JH