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All right, good. Okay, so what am I preaching on this morning? I forgot. No, I'm just kidding. Hope. I'm preaching on hope. I hope that works. No, I'm just kidding. Now, what is hope? Well, hope is often given an unbiblical definition, like basically what I just did right now, okay? Because that's basically how we use it, right? We often think of hope as being, or we view hope as an expression. Or, you know, you think you're ever gonna have children, and it's just like, I hope so. I hope so. And that's how often people use it, myself included. You know, anytime there's something in the future that you would long for to have, and you know, you see the potential, people ask you, you know, do you think this is gonna happen? We often say, I hope so. Well, you know, we use it like that, but that's not necessarily the correct way to use hope, because that's not necessarily what hope is, okay? You know, having the right perspective for the light at the end of the tunnel, that's not what hope is. Hope is not optimism for what potentially can happen. It's actually optimism because of what will happen, okay? That's what hope actually is. Hope is when something is just completely established, it's settled, we know it's going to happen. That's what hope is, all right? And in fact, to prove that, go with me if you would, to 1st Corinthians chapter 15. You think of eternal life, right? Eternal life, when we think about salvation, that's something that we know for a fact, right? Those of us who are saved, you know, we know that we're saved. Those of us who believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we know we have eternal life. That's not something that we will ever wonder about. You know, you can question or doubt it sometimes, but at the end of the day, if we get cornered, we know that it's by faith alone, we know we can't lose it. And the Bible actually says this, in hope of eternal life, which God that cannot lie promised before the world began. So we don't go through life wondering if we're saved, we know that we're saved. In fact, we have the hope of eternal life. You know, we have that promise that God has given to us that we are saved, and we have the promise of the resurrection, okay? The resurrection is the hope that we look forward to, that we know that that's going to happen one day. The Bible also says in Galatians chapter 5 verse 5, for we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith. Romans chapter 8 verse 24 says, for we are saved by hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it. Going to show us that what happens when we have hope, we wait for it. We know what's gonna happen, we know it's an event that's gonna take place, and because of that, we just wait for it, okay? Now, when thinking about the resurrection, this is the greatest hope that we have, right? You know, Christ in us, the what? Hope of glory. God, throughout the New Testament and even in the Old Testament, drives in this concept that we will resurrect one day. This is how we know that at the end, everything is gonna be okay. This is how we know that no matter what takes place in this world, we know the end of the chapter, the end of the book, we win, we resurrect, we're gonna rule and reign with Christ. That is a guaranteed ironclad promise that we will never wonder about. That is fact, okay? Now look what it says in chapter 15 verse 17, because that's something that helps us when we're going through hard times, right? Thinking about the resurrection, I know it helps me. You know, you go through a difficult time, you're like, well, you know what? At least we have a resurrection. At least I know that I'm gonna resurrect one day. At least I know that I'm going to heaven, I'm gonna see God face to face one day. I know that for sure, right? But look what it says in verse 17, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain ye are yet in your sins, then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perish. Now look what it says in verse 19, if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. Now what is the primary interpretation of that verse? What it's basically telling us is this, is look, if there is no resurrection, then the hope that God has given to us in this world, it doesn't mean anything, we're miserable. Because the end of our life is nothing. There is no resurrection. That's what it's telling us, right? But I want you to notice the implication of this verse is telling us that we have hope even in this life. So we not only have hope in the resurrection, that's not the only hope that God gives us. We actually have hope even in this life. What does that mean? Well just as we look forward to something that is firm, it's established, it's gonna happen in the resurrection, in like manner. There are times in our life where we will have hope established, firm, something will happen even in this lifetime. We have hope in this lifetime. We have things that we know will take place, okay? So we not only have the hope of the resurrection, we actually have hope in this life. Now why is it important to have hope? Because you think about hope, we often mix it up with faith, right? Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And we often think, well yeah, faith is important, but you know what? Hope is just as important as faith. And though they have similar attributes to these virtues, they're actually very much different as well. Because hope is that which is already established, that final destination that we know is going to take place. Faith is the fuel that helps that vehicle to get to that point, okay? Hope is there. Faith helps us on the day-to-day basis to keep moving, knowing that that is there, okay? Now look what it says in verse 5 of Romans chapter, go back to Romans chapter number 5. Why is hope important to have? Because you know, it's important that you increase your faith, but it's so much the more important that you have hope. Why? Look at verse 5 of Romans 5. And hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed and brought in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. What does that mean when it says hope maketh not ashamed? In other words, hope is not gonna let you down. You're not gonna be let down. So if we know, and by the way, have you ever been let down before? Has family, friends, circumstances ever let you down? Of course. It's part of life. So doesn't that make hope that much more precious? To know that hope maketh not ashamed? This is why we should hold on to hope and strengthen our hope because of the fact that we know that hope is not gonna let us down. It doesn't make us ashamed. We will not be ashamed. We will not be let down. The Bible says in 1 Thessalonians 5 8, but let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. So what is this telling us? It's telling us that we need to constantly be reminded of the hope that is set before us, right? The resurrection, that's what it's referring to, the hope of our salvation, that helmet. The Bible says in Psalm 31, go to Hebrews chapter number 6 if you would, Psalm 31 verse 24, be of good courage and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye that hope in the Lord. Look at Hebrews chapter number 6. I want to strengthen your hope or at least help you to understand the importance of having hope. Not just in the resurrection, we all know that, but wouldn't you say there's times in our life where things are just uncertain? You just don't know what's gonna happen and God doesn't lay out the blueprints. He doesn't have a layout of what's gonna take place and you know what that does? It causes us to question and doubt sometimes, right? But you know what? We have this virtue called hope that helps us to realize that even in this lifetime, you know, our expectation shall not be cut off. Look at Hebrews 6 verse 18 says that by two immutable things in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us. Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul both sure and steadfast which enter into that within the veil. Now, so what does hope come with? It comes with consolation. What is consolation? Comfort. When we're in distress, we're in anguish, we're in tears, we're in doubt. If we have hope, what does hope do? It consoles us. It gives us the consolation we need. That's why it's important to have it. You see, we as Christians should not only strengthen our faith, we need to strengthen our hope. We need to establish our faith in hope. Look, if you have faith but you have no hope, then what's the purpose of having faith? The purpose of having faith is to is to get you to reach to the end of that hope. The reason we even exercise our faith is because we know there is an end to all these things and that end, that expectation, is the fulfillment of hope, okay? Hope is important. You need to have hope, okay? Go back to Romans chapter number five. How do we augment hope in this life? Because I've already established, we've already established, we have the resurrection, we have that hope. It's never gonna pass. It's never gonna end, right? It's not gonna be made null and void. We don't believe you could lose your salvation. But you know it's important that we that we establish hope just even in this lifetime. That's why it's unfortunate when someone gets saved that they don't come to church, they don't grow in their faith, they don't grow in hope, they don't learn the Bible because guess what? Even though they have eternal life, which is good, the most important thing, you know, they're gonna live a miserable life in this life. Didn't I Jesus say I come to give them life and life more abundantly? You know, salvation is the greatest aspect of our Christian lives but you know there's so much more in between. You have your salvation and you have the resurrection but you know there's something in between called life and in life there's trials, there's difficulties, there's pains, there's trials and tribulations, there's suffering, there's anguish, there's afflictions and these things can deter us sometimes. Cause us to get out of church, not read our Bibles, not pray, live a worldly life, live carnally and at the end that influences the rewards that we get at the resurrection. Okay, so how do we increase our hope in this life? Romans 5 verse 1, let's read it again, it says, Therefore being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. That's pretty easy to do, isn't it? To rejoice in the hope that is set before us. You know, if I preach a sermon on the resurrection and how we're gonna be resurrected and six-pack and, no I'm just kidding, you know we're just gonna get these new bodies and we'll never die and we'll rule and reign and the law of Moses is gonna be executed and the millennial reign and we're just like yeah get those evildoers and it's easier to rejoice in those things. Kind of get you going and make you happy, amen? A thousand years of eating meat, being with Jesus, ruling and reigning, rejoice in that. He says, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Hold on a second, verse 3, and not only so but we glory in tribulations also. That's not as easy to do. That's actually a lot harder to do. To glory in tribulations? To rejoice when you're going through a tough time? That's hard. I don't know about you but if I go through a tough time I want to be moody. I don't want to be smiling and happy and I want to mourn. I want to be upset. I want to be angry and I don't want you to question that. I just want to have a bad day. But here he says we glory in tribulations also. Now why is he glorying in tribulations also? Because of what he knows. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience and patience experience and experience hope. And hope doesn't let you down. You see the person who is ignorant of tribulation will never experience what hope is like in this lifetime. The person who falls away during tribulation will never experience what it's like to have an expected end where God delivers us even in this lifetime. You read through the book of Psalms and you often see I remember like as a new Christian I read through the book of Psalms and it's constantly talking about the salvation of the Lord, the salvation of the Lord. And I would always relate it to like the literal salvation of our souls and of our, you know, the resurrection. But more often than not he's not referring to that salvation. He's literally referring to the physical salvation at that moment of the trial that he's going through. Being delivered from the hand of his enemies, being delivered from the clutches of Satan at that moment, that's the deliverance that he's referring to. He already knew he was saved. He already knew that he was gonna, you know, experience the resurrection. It's a different story when you wonder, man am I gonna experience deliverance here though? Is everything gonna be better here? I'm going through a tough time now. Is this gonna be over? I know the resurrection is coming, but what about before that? Do I have hope here? And sometimes people become hopeless. And why do they become hopeless? It's because they don't follow this formula right here, okay? So let's talk about that. Who has good penmanship? Who has good penmanship? Can you write down a couple words for me and then hand it to John and then he's gonna bring it up to me. So write down tribulation first. So let's talk about tribulation, okay? See when we think about tribulation, we think about after the tribulation. 75 days and like, you know, persecution and that's definitely what tribulation is, but that's not the only thing the tribulation is, okay? Now I need a tribulation saint here. Let's get a tribulation saint. Brother Maury, come on up. Stand right there, Brother Maury. The Bible says in John 16 verse 33, these things I have spoken unto you that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. So look folks, whether you want to agree or disagree on when the rapture is, you just can't deny what Jesus just said right there. In the world ye shall have tribulation. What is tribulation? Trials, afflictions, suffering, hardships, bad. No good. When life is no good, okay? You. Tribulation, man. Don't we all hate this guy? Not Maury. We hate tribulation. I like Maury. This is affliction, suffering, hardships, severe trials, and we often like to claim the promises of God, like all these promises he gives about his provision and comfort. Well he also promised his tribulation, right? The Bible says in 1 Peter 1 verse 3, turn with me if you would to go to Acts chapter 14. 1 Peter 3 verse 9 says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed on the last time wherein ye greatly rejoice though now for a season if need be ye are in heaviness through manifold temptations. Have you ever been in heaviness? How many of you ever heard of being depressed? That's when you're pressed down, you're heavy, and sometimes people can become so depressed they just even Christians they just lose all hope. Why? Because they're just heavy through manifold temptations. That the trial of your faith being much more precious than that of gold that perisheth though it be tried with fire might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. Acts 14 verse 22 confirming the souls of the disciples and exhorting them to continue in the faith and that we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God Folks, the prosperity gospel is a sham. Oh, once you become a Christian everything's gonna be hunky-dory, roses and daisies, a bed of roses, nothing bad is ever going to happen. False! Lots of bad things are going to happen to you especially if you start preaching the Word of God unfiltered you're going to have a lot of bad things happen to you. We must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God. It's not like we get saved and just like everything is just completely fine, nothing ever bad will ever happen to you, no you will you shall receive much tribulation because that's how you must enter into the kingdom of God. Okay, for verily verse 1 Thessalonians 3 for verily when we were with you we told you before that we should suffer tribulation even as it came to pass and ye know. So this is tribulation and look let me just say this every single one of you is going to go through this. Either you've gone through it, you're going to go through it or you're in it right now. Don't fool yourself. Not me, you're next buddy. Your appointment's next month. God's going to take the carpet out from under you this coming week. It's going to happen. This is unavoidable. We shall receive tribulation. We shall go through trials and let me say this you're like oh yeah I'm going through a trial right now man it's just no no I'm talking about the trial that brings you to your knees. I'm talking about the tribulation that brings you to tears to the point where you can no longer cry. You ever been to that point before where you make your bed to swim with tears and you just can't even cry anymore. That's tribulation. When you're at your wit's end and you're just like well I got no answer. I'm stuck. I don't know what to do. That's tribulation. You know because I don't know about you but like you know men anytime I go through like a problem for me it's just like just give me a ten step program to fix it. Step number one you know read my Bible. Step number two pray. Step number three you know clean house at the church. You know step number four I mean like I just want steps and then it's like all right we're over and done with. This is this is over and over. That's not how tribulation works though. Tribulation doesn't go according to our timetable. Tribulation is not merciful. Tribulation hits hard. Tribulation causes a lot of anguish and can often leave you hopeless. Okay now I need two guys. Michael come on up. Brother High come on up. Just stand right there in front of Brother Maureen. Now we'll say this is that God promises us comfort in tribulation right. He tells us in 2nd Corinthians 1 3 blessed be God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort who comforted us in all our tribulation that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble by the comfort wherewith ourselves are comforted of God. So it's basically saying is this is that when we go through tribulation God gives us a measure of comfort along with that tribulation. How? I don't know it's just supernatural. Okay but he gives it to us not so we could just bask in comfort. He gives it to us so that we can take the comfort that we get that we got and give it to someone else. You know we go it's like don't waste that crisis. That crisis is there to help you to strengthen the brethren when you've been converted. Okay so when we go through tribulation we have two options okay. Listen very closely folks there's two options when you go through this man right here actually you're a good depiction of tribulation. He's big, scary, you don't want to mess with this guy. Maury. Hold that nice and high Maury. There we go. Tribulation. You have two options. One you can endure the tribulation or two you can fall away. You either endure or you fall away. If you fall away you repeat the process again. Because this is a test. If you fail the test he's gonna bring that back around again. If you endure the test you move on to the next tribulation. Hey but at least it's not this tribulation. And let me say this not only do you move on to the next tribulation you actually move on stronger to face the next tribulation. However when you fall away you actually become weaker. So you're facing the same exact tribulation later on five years later weaker than before. Two options folks. You either endure or you fall away. What does it mean to endure? It means to bear with tolerance. Just grit your teeth and you don't move. Thank you. You don't move. What do I mean by don't move? You don't get out of church. You don't get out of your Bible. You don't get out of prayer. You stay close to the Lord. Yeah you may wane a little bit. Maybe you don't go a sowing as much. Maybe you don't read as much Bible as you could but you try the best you can to just stay put. You don't let sin into your life. You don't move and you take it like a man. You endure and as those fiery darts of the wicked one are coming at you you have the shield of faith and you're enduring every single attack. That's what it means to endure. James 1 12 says blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to them that love him. Now let me say this Satan works his best right here during tribulation. Works hard. Pulls out all the stops. All his wiles. All his trickeries. All his devices come out and if you're not grounded in the Word of God you won't be able to take it. We know that Satan is on a short lease but but let me say this is that Satan is very powerful. He's a great liar and many many Christians are right here unfortunately and they never make it right here because sometimes the temptation is so strong that they feel they can't take it anymore and they throw in the towel and they fall away. Happens all the time and in my 14 years of experience as being a Christian I've seen it over and over and over and over and over again. Good people who go through a tribulation and they fall away. Behold we count them happy which endure. You have heard of the patience of Job and have seen the end of the Lord that the Lord is very pitiful and of tender mercy. Go to Matthew chapter 13. Matthew chapter 13. So you have two options when you go through tribulation you can either just take it like a man endure it grit your teeth yeah but I kind of want to see that there's like you know there's hope doesn't work that way you're just gonna have to keep doing what you're doing though he slay me yet will I trust him. I mean think about Job I mean like the kids are all dead all his resources gone. His wife Chris God didn't die she said. How hard was it for that guy to have hope but yet he said though he slay me yet will I trust him. What does that mean? That means this I'm not gonna bow but you know if he'd still throw me in God doesn't deliver me I'm still not gonna bow. It's one of those things like God is able to deliver me but if not I'm still not gonna bow. That's what it means to endure. It basically means you know what I'm not gonna buckle but you know what if God kills me and he allows me to perish in this trial then I'm still not gonna bow. That's what it means to endure. It means even if the outcome doesn't show up in your favor you still don't move. You stay put. Look at Matthew chapter 13 verse 20 says but he that received the seed in stony places the same as he that heareth the word and anon with joy receiveth it yet hath he not root in himself but dureth. Dureth means to endure but dureth for a time afterward when affliction or persecution arises for the word's sake immediately they are offended. I'm sorry I'm reading from Mark chapter 4. 21 says yet hath he not rooted himself but dureth for a while for when tribulation or persecution arises because of the word. By and by he is offended. I already read to you from Mark chapter 4. What is it saying? Look the person who doesn't have rooted himself when this when this big guy comes after him when the tribulation comes after him he's only gonna do it for a little bit and then he's just gonna fall away. He's not gonna hack it and this is what's funny a lot of guys man yeah I'm gonna wait to go to the great tribulation I'm gonna be one of those great tribulation people I'm you know this and that doing all kinds of exploits well how are you doing on the tribulation today though? Like how's that going for you first? They fall away they get out of church they stop serving the Lord they get involved in sin they fall away. So what happens brother Mike you can sit down right here in the front row you fell away fall away this guy endured okay that guy endured so what happens when you begin to endure well tribulation worketh patience that's a dirty word patience because I like microwave stuff you know like drive-throughs microwaves and I'm the type to just pray God give me patience now. You know what I mean? Like give it to me today. I want things now but what is patience is when patience is when we go according to God's timetable not ours you surrender the deadline and you say well whenever God wants to take it away he'll take it away that's what patience is and what helps with that tribulation now how does tribulation work patience? Well because when there's tribulation we're looking for answers right we look for answers practical ways we get counsel we do all these things and then none of them work and then you're just at the end you're at the cliff and you're like what there's nothing else to do now what well now you wait wait wait wait on what wait upon the Lord well what is he gonna do huh is he gonna deliver me I think so but I just have to wait don't move just wait what I mean wait is just like I don't mean like just stay home you just don't do anything what I mean is like you stay in the will of God and you don't make any drastic decisions. A lot of people they go to tribulation and they think that the answer is moving to a different state I'm going to a hard time let's go to Mexico or hurt they think a location is gonna help them to get away from this guy this guy's assigned to you the locate the location doesn't get tribulation to go away it's just like why why'd you move from California this is tribulations over there man like I'm never going back tribulation will follow you and you know what when you move you might think oh yeah it's over and done with God that's gonna make God even more mad and he's gonna send two of these guys so what should I do indoor and let patients have her perfect work okay go to James chapter number one if you would James chapter number one I hate waiting I hate waiting for my Starbucks drink I hate waiting in line especially with this whole stupid COVID-19 see how long the lines are for those drive-throughs I hate waiting or canes he woke up you're like not me well you might have a greater tolerance to wait I don't have that much tolerance but here's the thing with with being patient and waiting is like sometimes you have no choice but to wait look at James chapter number one in verse two my brethren count it all joy when God prospers you nope when you fall into diverse temptations knowing this it's all about what you know right that the trying of your faith worketh patience so what is this guy doing he's trying your faith all that talk all that chitter chatter about how much faith you have he's gonna put that to the test all that talk that you're in the Lord and you're a Christian been fundamental Baptist I'm great tribulation saint bless God tribulation gonna come and say all right let's see if that's true you're gonna crack his neck he's gonna go to work on you and he's gonna try your faith he says knowing this that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have a perfect work that he may be perfect an entire wanting nothing I need another guy up here brother Matt why don't you come on up so what happens when you have patience when you endure you have patience what's the purpose of this increment of time where God's making us wait until he delivers us well this is what this is what it is and this is important this is where the message is okay Matt represents the lessons that God wants to teach us through that tribulation let me be honest with you sometimes I don't care about the lessons I just want to get out of it can we just end this I got it Lord just read more Bible I gotta go do more Sony and pray more I got it I got it no you don't got it we're gonna have to keep you here a little longer until you learn the lessons that I want to teach you let me just say this pain when I when I used to do Muay Thai kickboxing they used to have us jump rope with leather jump ropes barefoot because it would help you to jump better you know why because when the leather rope hits your toes it hurts like crazy and what does it do it teaches you jump higher jump higher and when it burns when you're when you're jumping it starts burning and you're going for a long time you just remember I can't jump lower because the pain I remember the pain and you know what pain does it teaches us a lot of lessons well first let me say this pain just humbles us period let's be honest let's be honest sometimes we think we're all that in a bag of chips we're just like the best Christians we're the elite we know our Bible we're God's chosen God favors us he's he set apart him that is godly for himself that's us well you know that pain does it humbles us and helps us to realize man I'm not all that I was cracked up to be and through humility we learn valuable life lessons see sometimes God allows a tribulation to come into our lives he doesn't teach us through prosperity folks he teaches us through pain we get a lesson and we say I've learned now what God wants to teach me now I know what he's trying to get a hold of me now I know what he's the wisdom that he's trying to give to me look what it says let patients have a perfect word they may be entire perfect an entire wanting nothing if any of you lack wisdom let him ask of God that giveth to all men liberally and a braideth knot and it shall be given him you see when we go through a trial a tribulation we're at the end of our ropes what do we do we ask God for wisdom like Lord everything's falling apart no one can no one can seem to help us so can you just give me wisdom teach me what is it that I need to learn what is it that I need to need to change oh wait this guy is a great cleanser this guy right here is a great cleanser what I mean by that you know if you had certain little pet sins before by the time you reach here that's basically they're they're over and done with because you examine yourself you wonder like man is it me and you start searching your heart and examining yourself you know questioning Lord if there's anything in my life just just bring it to light help me to get rid of it it's a great cleanser and he's not sometimes it's not a matter of like he's punishing you it's just part of the process of tribulation is that he works us and it causes us to just clean up our lives even more and we learn lessons we gain wisdom you see folks it's not about you it's not about me life is about the Lord and it's about helping other people but in order for us to be effective instruments of God to help other people we got to know what we're talking about what I mean by that you have to have gone through something to be able to teach someone else how do you teach someone how to get through a trial that you yourself have never experienced but when you have experienced it when you have been up late at night in tears and in prayer you empathize with that person because you know exactly how that feels God wants us to feel with people to weep with them that weep right well the only way we can do that is by actually going through it ourselves so what we have we have tribulation tribulation if we endure it works patience if we don't endure we end up like Michael he fell away by Michael I mean a lot of people like Michael not Michael Michael but I'm saying like people who fell away and it's unfortunate and sometimes they make their way back but you know what when they come back hey more is coming back to tribulations coming back you better get ready but hey if you endure if you you're not moved you're reading your Bible you're staying in prayer you say well I mean like does that mean I should just always have like be happy and stuff no weep mourn weep mourn pray but endure bleed but endure then it works patience and patience gives us life lessons okay and then what's the next one you got experience for me brother John and you guys got experience or ran out of paper okay we got experience I think we need another paper can someone get her another paper brother John can you go get another there's more paper there okay good experience so I need experience brother Chris why don't you come up you look like an experienced fellow of the Chris so we got tribute we go you know everything is hunky-dory the bills are being paid and church is going great I know how to win people to Christ I'm learning the Bible I'm just prospering in comes Maury out of left field and here's the thing we think we can prepare for this like we know like okay potentially this can happen this year this can go wrong and this and that and then like none of the above you're like you're like okay ABC or D D none of the above and God just hits you from left field he just he just blindsides you with something you never would have expected that's what tribulation is what do you do do you fall away or do you endure well I only want to endure if I know that the end is gonna be fine that's not the way it works just endure what you have to have is grit what you have to have is a recognition that God if you kill me so be it I'm still gonna endure you deserve my loyalty my faithfulness my service no matter what happens endure and it works patience it makes you wait and through waiting you gain wisdom and you learn lessons and what happens when you learn lessons experience now we think well experience yeah I'm experienced in this area no actually what this means is that you experience God's deliverance you experience God's power his deliverance his presence his miracles that's what experience is but you don't get here until you get here and you don't get here until you endure here you have to follow this process and you experience the deliverance of God the Bible says in Proverbs 23 verse 18 for surely there is an end amen there's always an end to these things there's always an end folks surely there is an end and thine expectation shall not be cut off look folks God is not trying to make your life miserable why are all these things happening because it's just God just pleased with me does he hate me why is he like no he's just trying to teach you something it's trying to make you stronger he's just trying to help you because you're like spiritually weak you got no spiritual muscles on you you have no biceps you have no what are some muscles how does it work what leg I got legs we talked about triceps pecs or whatever you know you got no muscle so I'm trying to make you stronger so you need to endure but the way you get stronger is by enduring by just taking the pain and reading your Bible no matter what winning people to Christ no matter what speaking well of the Lord no matter what the Lord giveth the Lord taketh blessed be the name of the Lord then you learn some lessons you mature and then without you even knowing it here comes experience and let me say this if God put this guy here if we switch these guys around you would not appreciate this at all if God put him here we took brother Matt out of the equation or God put him here and we took a hike out of the equation you will not appreciate experience at all but you know what helps us to appreciate experience and to handle it well is these guys right here you wonder why sometimes God doesn't bless you with certain things maybe it's because you can't handle it everything about that maybe you just can't handle that kind of blessing yet so and by the way when you say man I've been praying for this I've been praying for this and then something else happened instead well maybe he's just preparing you to get that blessing because it takes a special type of a Christian to handle that type of blessing and it takes a process to get there knowledge experiences knowledge that is gained by undergoing a process so shall the knowledge of wisdom be until thy soul will now has found it then there shall be a reward and thy expectation shall not be cut off I need one more write down hope hope no more paper I guess we have no hope sorry guys there goes my sermon I'm just gonna need a hopeful young lad here for the Jason come up he just walked up with hope that's that's the spirit you'll get your hope in just a bit okay so what is hope hope is when you go through this entire process this is the the final product of your expectation and you carry hope everywhere you go thereafter because because more he's gonna come back again he's gonna come back he's gonna combat you he's gonna fight you but hold on a second if you have hope on your belt then you can endure if you have hope in your belt you know you can have patience because you're gonna learn a lesson if you have hope under your belt you're gonna experience the deliverance of God and what's gonna happen you're gonna build more hope you see hope is the final product that's what we all want and it's so necessary to have hope in this life in order to face that guy right over there because we through much tribulation must enter into the kingdom of God don't think oh I already went through tribulation I'm good to go man that doesn't work that way it's only gonna get worse before it gets better but you're not going to be able to endure that if you don't first get some hope how do you get it by enduring by being patient and learning the lessons and ultimately experiencing and then boom you got your hope don't be the kind of Christian that when trials come well I need to take a break from God I need to take a break from church I need to take a break from the Bible I need to take a break from from all these things I need to take I need to just go be involved in sin and by the way I'm not talking about if you're if like people who are debilitated and they can't do that that's a different story I'm talking about people who have the ability to do those things and choose not to do them because they feel like they need a break from God you understand you will never experience the hope this is important folks build your hope today you're like oh man I'm not going through a trial I can't wait to go through a trial well slow your roll because maybe you're not even ready for that too go to Romans chapter 4 men you can sit down thank you thank you hope thank you experience lessons I got you indoor great job temptation our trials tribulation I never want to see you again I'm just kidding go to Romans chapter 4 we're pretty much done learning doctrine is important living doctrine is so much more important knowing what the Bible says is great putting into practice what the Bible says is a lot better because what good is if you fall away and you have all that knowledge better to have the knowledge and put it into practice and actually be a strong Christian okay look at Romans 4 verse 18 speaking of Abraham who against hope believed in hope that he might become the father of many nations according to that which was spoken soul shall thy seed be now what does that mean when he says who against hope does that mean he was against hope like he didn't want hope well this is mean is against means toward hope believed in hope you see the reason he was able to endure the trial of not having a child it's because he had already passed many times before and because of that he gained hope so against hope leaning towards hope he believed in hope so what do we have to do once we get hope and God delivers us we leaned against hope believing in hope verse 19 and being now weak in faith man this guy had the whole package he considered not his own body now dead when he was about a hundred years old this guy's an optimist neither yet the dentist of Sarah's womb Sarah's like my womb is dead nah you're fine against hope believe in hope he staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform savage level 3,000 he's like against hope I believe in hope why was he able to be fully persuaded why did not stagger at the promises of God because he leaned against hope it started off with him having hope increase your faith but you better increase your hope to faith come with my hearing hearing by the Word of God hope comes when you go to tribulation tribulation work of patience patience experience experience hope and hope maketh not ashamed what's the point of increasing your faith if you don't have hope the message today is simply this