Podcast Preview
It wasn’t all that long ago that we had to decide what to call our church- what captured the heart of Jesus in a way that people of today could grasp. We came up with a few ideas that we tossed around and tested. You see where we landed. We landed on Hope. And we did it because of this- because the most important result of Jesus’ work for us is one word. It’s confident hope for eternal life with Jesus. It’s real hope that sin and its consequences will never bother us again. It’s hope in bad times. It’s hope in good times. It’s the ultimate, unending, unbreakable sense that everything will finally be way more than just ok. We exist as a church to preach that truth right down into your soul so clearly and so often that we drown out the other preacher in your heart. Even when everything else seems hopeless. Maybe even especially then. So that even there and then when I come up to you and say, “We have hope in Jesus” you get what that means. It’s not a wish for you to feel better, for you to be happier, or less anxious. It’s a statement of confidence in Jesus for this life and for the next. I believed, therefore I spoke: “My hope is in Jesus.”
2 Corinthians 4:13-18
13 It is written: “I believed; therefore I have spoken.” Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, 14 because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. 15 All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.
16 Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. 17 For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. 18 So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
