A Timeless New Year's Message Revisited

1
00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:02,000
[music]

2
00:00:02,000 --> 00:00:07,140
You're listening to Aging Today, the podcast where together we explore the options to

3
00:00:07,140 --> 00:00:09,140
aging on your terms.

4
00:00:09,140 --> 00:00:20,520
When I get older, lose a fire, many years from now, we used to be sending me a fountain

5
00:00:20,520 --> 00:00:32,040
for a day, greetings out of wine, if I did I'd kill quarter of three would you like to

6
00:00:32,040 --> 00:00:33,040
do?

7
00:00:33,040 --> 00:00:42,240
Will you still leave me, will you still leave me when I'm sixty four?

8
00:00:42,240 --> 00:00:48,240
And now the podcast where together we discuss proactive aging on your terms, connecting

9
00:00:48,240 --> 00:00:53,720
to the professional advice of our special guests while creating better days throughout

10
00:00:53,720 --> 00:00:55,440
the aging process.

11
00:00:55,440 --> 00:00:58,120
Now here's your host, Mark Turnbull.

12
00:00:58,120 --> 00:01:03,160
And welcome back to another lively discussion on Aging Today, we are the podcast where together

13
00:01:03,160 --> 00:01:07,800
we explore the many options to aging on your terms.

14
00:01:07,800 --> 00:01:15,560
You can find aging today and our seven and we are now eight years of past program because

15
00:01:15,560 --> 00:01:24,400
this is January 1st and we have been eight years amazing on this podcast, Aging Today.

16
00:01:24,400 --> 00:01:28,480
And you can go to our website and pick up all of the past programs, all you got to do

17
00:01:28,480 --> 00:01:32,480
is go to agingtoday.us.

18
00:01:32,480 --> 00:01:39,160
And then for those of you that want to follow us on your favorite podcast channel, we are

19
00:01:39,160 --> 00:01:45,800
on about fifteen different podcast channels, Spotify, Pandora, Apple, I Heart, YouTube, I mean

20
00:01:45,800 --> 00:01:51,760
there's so many that we're on all you have to do is type in aging today, become a follower.

21
00:01:51,760 --> 00:01:57,440
We have about 200,000 followers across the United States and we are so grateful for every

22
00:01:57,440 --> 00:01:58,440
one of you.

23
00:01:58,440 --> 00:02:05,460
And we hope that we can continue in 2024 and bringing you all of the experts on the aging

24
00:02:05,460 --> 00:02:08,580
process that are going to be able to answer your questions.

25
00:02:08,580 --> 00:02:12,700
And then we do want to know what your questions are on aging.

26
00:02:12,700 --> 00:02:14,500
So reach out to me.

27
00:02:14,500 --> 00:02:19,460
And then if you also have aging experts that you would like to introduce to me, your host,

28
00:02:19,460 --> 00:02:22,260
Mark Turnbull, I would love to hear from you.

29
00:02:22,260 --> 00:02:28,340
All you got to do is email me its mark@agingtoday.us.

30
00:02:28,340 --> 00:02:32,740
It's Mark with a K at agingtoday.us.

31
00:02:32,740 --> 00:02:40,120
Well this is the new year program and last week we had a great discussion with Tom Pastor

32
00:02:40,120 --> 00:02:47,340
Tom Shive of Gateway Church in Portland, Oregon and we're going to have another tradition

33
00:02:47,340 --> 00:02:48,620
that we're going to carry on.

34
00:02:48,620 --> 00:02:50,700
We've been doing this for seven years.

35
00:02:50,700 --> 00:02:59,140
Tom has been our messenger for the new year message and that doesn't, we're going to continue

36
00:02:59,140 --> 00:03:03,700
that tradition on this year in 2024 as well.

37
00:03:03,700 --> 00:03:06,740
Pastor Tom Shive, welcome to agingtoday.

38
00:03:06,740 --> 00:03:09,620
Well, it's good to be back another year.

39
00:03:09,620 --> 00:03:14,060
So we're looking forward to being together another year and yeah, seven years we've been

40
00:03:14,060 --> 00:03:17,420
doing this mark and it's great.

41
00:03:17,420 --> 00:03:18,420
Great.

42
00:03:18,420 --> 00:03:23,260
Always good to get together with you and always good to be part of agingtoday.

43
00:03:23,260 --> 00:03:26,860
So yeah, new year, 2024.

44
00:03:26,860 --> 00:03:27,860
I'm honest.

45
00:03:27,860 --> 00:03:28,860
Wow.

46
00:03:28,860 --> 00:03:36,860
You know, and I look at our culture and what's going on and there's a side of me that is optimistic

47
00:03:36,860 --> 00:03:43,940
but there's also a side where I've got a lot of questions and there's a lot of despair.

48
00:03:43,940 --> 00:03:54,940
I'm really torn what's going on and I'm torn because I see things changing so rapidly.

49
00:03:54,940 --> 00:03:59,780
What was once right is now wrong.

50
00:03:59,780 --> 00:04:09,780
What is wrong in my past and the 66 years that I've been walking this earth is now right.

51
00:04:09,780 --> 00:04:16,620
And I, what is up and it's down and what is down is up and it's very, very confusing and

52
00:04:16,620 --> 00:04:23,740
the world is changing at such a rapid rate and I know that technology plays a large role

53
00:04:23,740 --> 00:04:32,540
in that but there's so many ideologies that we once talked about but now they're embedded

54
00:04:32,540 --> 00:04:39,660
into our culture, they're embedded into our system and the changes are happening so rapidly

55
00:04:39,660 --> 00:04:46,820
that sometimes even myself I get overwhelmed and I can only imagine those that don't have

56
00:04:46,820 --> 00:04:52,740
any kind of a spiritual foundation, how much they must be feeling that as well.

57
00:04:52,740 --> 00:05:00,580
So we're going to talk about an important word that is I think going to help us to put

58
00:05:00,580 --> 00:05:07,620
some perspective around what's all the chaos that is going on in our culture in Western

59
00:05:07,620 --> 00:05:12,780
civilization especially and maybe we can put some context to that.

60
00:05:12,780 --> 00:05:13,780
How does that sound, Tom?

61
00:05:13,780 --> 00:05:14,780
Sounds great.

62
00:05:14,780 --> 00:05:15,780
Yep.

63
00:05:15,780 --> 00:05:17,780
We've got that word right here.

64
00:05:17,780 --> 00:05:18,780
What is that word?

65
00:05:18,780 --> 00:05:20,780
Well, the word is hope.

66
00:05:20,780 --> 00:05:25,540
That's what we want to talk about today, where does our hope come from because right now

67
00:05:25,540 --> 00:05:29,540
there's a lot out there are a number of people who are just losing hope.

68
00:05:29,540 --> 00:05:33,420
There doesn't seem to be easy answers or solutions.

69
00:05:33,420 --> 00:05:37,500
There doesn't seem to be anchors that are holding people.

70
00:05:37,500 --> 00:05:45,300
I've talked about this a little bit saying that right now most of life seems a bit unmoored.

71
00:05:45,300 --> 00:05:53,220
Maybe even 50, 60 years ago there was kind of a framework that we had and the framework

72
00:05:53,220 --> 00:05:55,700
was the Judeo-Christian ethic.

73
00:05:55,700 --> 00:06:00,660
Not everybody is a Christian and not everybody is Jewish but this country was founded with

74
00:06:00,660 --> 00:06:03,780
a framework of the Judeo-Christian ethic around it.

75
00:06:03,780 --> 00:06:10,340
So anything that went on could easily be done or worked on within that framework but that

76
00:06:10,340 --> 00:06:13,420
framework seems completely gone.

77
00:06:13,420 --> 00:06:19,020
There doesn't seem to be anything that's holding anything together.

78
00:06:19,020 --> 00:06:22,140
There just seems to be this sense of unmoored.

79
00:06:22,140 --> 00:06:26,940
There's just change constantly.

80
00:06:26,940 --> 00:06:30,580
Just when you think you've got to handle on something it all changes and technology is

81
00:06:30,580 --> 00:06:32,580
that way.

82
00:06:32,580 --> 00:06:38,100
Yeah, I just a dear friend of mine got hacked on Saturday night, horrible.

83
00:06:38,100 --> 00:06:43,380
It made his life for that Saturday night and part of Sunday morning, a miserable, miserable

84
00:06:43,380 --> 00:06:45,460
time.

85
00:06:45,460 --> 00:06:50,740
There doesn't seem to be any particular focal points people are looking at.

86
00:06:50,740 --> 00:06:56,180
Things are decisions are made just upon a sort of consensus without really looking at

87
00:06:56,180 --> 00:06:58,260
anchor points.

88
00:06:58,260 --> 00:07:01,820
There are no guardrails.

89
00:07:01,820 --> 00:07:04,260
There's just no guardrails.

90
00:07:04,260 --> 00:07:09,620
If you think about when I drive, I drive over the Glen Jackson Bridge.

91
00:07:09,620 --> 00:07:14,900
We all drive over the Glen Jackson Bridge because there are lanes and there's also guardrails

92
00:07:14,900 --> 00:07:16,380
on the side.

93
00:07:16,380 --> 00:07:19,340
I was thinking, what if they took those guardrails off the side?

94
00:07:19,340 --> 00:07:20,980
How would people drive?

95
00:07:20,980 --> 00:07:21,980
Yeah.

96
00:07:21,980 --> 00:07:22,980
Really slow.

97
00:07:22,980 --> 00:07:27,980
I mean, you would be afraid if those guardrails were not on the side of the road.

98
00:07:27,980 --> 00:07:30,220
You would be terrified.

99
00:07:30,220 --> 00:07:32,500
And there just seems to be no guardrails out there.

100
00:07:32,500 --> 00:07:35,100
There doesn't seem to be lanes.

101
00:07:35,100 --> 00:07:41,700
It all seems to just be an unmarked highway where there are no speed limits anymore or

102
00:07:41,700 --> 00:07:45,740
there are no stop signs or anything.

103
00:07:45,740 --> 00:07:53,500
Life is just going in a series of chaotic adventures without any guidelines.

104
00:07:53,500 --> 00:07:58,500
And people are feeling that kind of unmoored and I think lots of things are causing that.

105
00:07:58,500 --> 00:07:59,500
Yeah.

106
00:07:59,500 --> 00:08:02,820
And I like the other term that you used anchor.

107
00:08:02,820 --> 00:08:03,820
Yeah.

108
00:08:03,820 --> 00:08:14,620
But you had unmoored and moored and anchor things that brought us organization into our world.

109
00:08:14,620 --> 00:08:20,220
And it seems like a lot of the organization, like you were saying, is gone.

110
00:08:20,220 --> 00:08:24,980
It seems to be disappearing or at least it's changing.

111
00:08:24,980 --> 00:08:30,060
It is changing, but for example, if we look at some of those anchors and we'll talk a little

112
00:08:30,060 --> 00:08:31,380
bit about them.

113
00:08:31,380 --> 00:08:37,500
If you look at some of the anchors that we used to have, it used to be the anchor of God.

114
00:08:37,500 --> 00:08:38,820
God used to be an anchor.

115
00:08:38,820 --> 00:08:39,820
Everybody looked to.

116
00:08:39,820 --> 00:08:43,780
He was stable and we're going to talk more about him later and about the necessity of

117
00:08:43,780 --> 00:08:45,940
a good relationship with him.

118
00:08:45,940 --> 00:08:48,260
God was one of those anchors, but guess what?

119
00:08:48,260 --> 00:08:51,020
That's no longer the case in our culture.

120
00:08:51,020 --> 00:08:52,020
Yeah.

121
00:08:52,020 --> 00:08:53,260
Government was one of those anchors.

122
00:08:53,260 --> 00:08:57,140
We felt like at least we had a government that was stable that was for the people, by

123
00:08:57,140 --> 00:08:59,900
the people, for the people, not anymore.

124
00:08:59,900 --> 00:09:06,020
We feel like our government is just making all sorts of decisions using money, spending,

125
00:09:06,020 --> 00:09:09,740
getting us into incredible deficits that are going to all come back to us.

126
00:09:09,740 --> 00:09:12,100
We fear that.

127
00:09:12,100 --> 00:09:15,820
Government was one of those things, but a lot of people now have no trust in the government

128
00:09:15,820 --> 00:09:18,940
or the institution of the government.

129
00:09:18,940 --> 00:09:23,540
Parents used to be that way, but parents' rights now are now being challenged.

130
00:09:23,540 --> 00:09:27,620
Public schools are taking over and they're telling parents what they have to do, how they

131
00:09:27,620 --> 00:09:31,740
have to train their kids or public schools are going against the parents.

132
00:09:31,740 --> 00:09:39,420
I was thinking about when I grew up, my dad and the local school on my grade school were

133
00:09:39,420 --> 00:09:40,420
tight.

134
00:09:40,420 --> 00:09:42,260
They were tight.

135
00:09:42,260 --> 00:09:48,700
If the teacher called my dad, that was the worst thing in the whole wide world because my

136
00:09:48,700 --> 00:09:53,380
dad and the teacher were always right.

137
00:09:53,380 --> 00:09:57,060
My dad never had to argue with the teachers because the teacher and my dad were on the

138
00:09:57,060 --> 00:10:02,740
same place with what they wanted for me.

139
00:10:02,740 --> 00:10:10,060
I would do anything to not have the teacher calling dad because the teacher was always right.

140
00:10:10,060 --> 00:10:15,980
My dad would be upset, but now teachers go against the parents instead of working for them,

141
00:10:15,980 --> 00:10:17,980
not all of them, not all of them.

142
00:10:17,980 --> 00:10:23,260
There's great many out there that are really doing a good job, but there's a number of ethical

143
00:10:23,260 --> 00:10:24,580
issues and things.

144
00:10:24,580 --> 00:10:25,580
That's another one.

145
00:10:25,580 --> 00:10:32,020
It seems like the only thing is God still can be personally an anchor for people and the

146
00:10:32,020 --> 00:10:35,140
local church is that anchor in culture still.

147
00:10:35,140 --> 00:10:38,540
They're still the church out there.

148
00:10:38,540 --> 00:10:48,140
But this is this feeling of just man, inflation is one of those things that makes people feel

149
00:10:48,140 --> 00:10:51,780
more, I'm not making enough money.

150
00:10:51,780 --> 00:10:54,940
Media is just loaded full of negativity.

151
00:10:54,940 --> 00:10:59,020
The whole world is just collapsing.

152
00:10:59,020 --> 00:11:03,980
If you think about global climate change, I believe in global climate change.

153
00:11:03,980 --> 00:11:06,220
I'm not a climate alarmist.

154
00:11:06,220 --> 00:11:10,260
I'm not a guy that thinks that the world is going to end in 10 years.

155
00:11:10,260 --> 00:11:14,580
I think that industry has always worked at helping with the climate.

156
00:11:14,580 --> 00:11:18,060
I was talking to somebody about that the other day.

157
00:11:18,060 --> 00:11:19,500
You saw the cars on the highway.

158
00:11:19,500 --> 00:11:21,460
You see any missions coming out of them?

159
00:11:21,460 --> 00:11:22,460
No.

160
00:11:22,460 --> 00:11:28,300
When I was a kid, emissions were pouring out of the back of my dad's old 71 Chevy.

161
00:11:28,300 --> 00:11:30,260
You saw, I never see it.

162
00:11:30,260 --> 00:11:36,220
If I'm driving down the highway, where do I see even a puff of smoke out of anybody's car?

163
00:11:36,220 --> 00:11:42,220
You've got global climate change that's providing it and the political climate, just the whole

164
00:11:42,220 --> 00:11:46,500
supply, distrust of Washington and what's going on there.

165
00:11:46,500 --> 00:11:54,540
The lack of unity there is causing a lot of people to feel unmoored.

166
00:11:54,540 --> 00:12:00,420
I think there's some concerted efforts by some people around the world to bring as much

167
00:12:00,420 --> 00:12:02,740
chaos into the world.

168
00:12:02,740 --> 00:12:11,580
We saw that over the last couple of years with the Antifa movement and trying to take

169
00:12:11,580 --> 00:12:16,260
away and creating more chaos.

170
00:12:16,260 --> 00:12:21,980
In the midst of all that chaos, people begin to lose hope.

171
00:12:21,980 --> 00:12:27,820
They begin to take their eyes off of the ball, so to speak.

172
00:12:27,820 --> 00:12:34,060
I think that there's concerted efforts to do that, to change our society and to, there

173
00:12:34,060 --> 00:12:41,540
seems to be, from my perspective, anyhow, there seems to be a movement towards removing

174
00:12:41,540 --> 00:12:49,340
all things with a Judeo-Christian philosophy behind them of organization.

175
00:12:49,340 --> 00:12:52,460
There seems to be an effort to want to remove that.

176
00:12:52,460 --> 00:12:57,900
Well, that's because that's, that some people see that as restrictive and they don't want

177
00:12:57,900 --> 00:12:58,900
restrictions.

178
00:12:58,900 --> 00:13:03,580
They think that, they think that freedom is doing what I want to do.

179
00:13:03,580 --> 00:13:05,580
Freedom is doing what we ought to do.

180
00:13:05,580 --> 00:13:06,580
Yeah.

181
00:13:06,580 --> 00:13:07,580
That's true for me.

182
00:13:07,580 --> 00:13:09,260
Well, that's like the guard rails on the bridge.

183
00:13:09,260 --> 00:13:10,260
Yeah.

184
00:13:10,260 --> 00:13:16,860
Guard rails and you got more freedom to, you know, but there's consequences to unrestricted

185
00:13:16,860 --> 00:13:17,860
freedom.

186
00:13:17,860 --> 00:13:18,860
Exactly.

187
00:13:18,860 --> 00:13:22,340
And you say freedom, freedom again is not the ability to do what you want, it's the ability

188
00:13:22,340 --> 00:13:27,140
to do what you ought to do within the context of a culture.

189
00:13:27,140 --> 00:13:29,100
And that's, that's part of the problem.

190
00:13:29,100 --> 00:13:30,100
You're right.

191
00:13:30,100 --> 00:13:35,140
I think there is a concerted effort to move away from the Judeo-Christian values, not,

192
00:13:35,140 --> 00:13:41,220
not every person in this country who founded this country was a Christian, but they grew

193
00:13:41,220 --> 00:13:44,300
up in a framework of that.

194
00:13:44,300 --> 00:13:49,980
So even though, because our whole judicial system is tied into that, the whole thing, the

195
00:13:49,980 --> 00:13:55,020
whole, the laws that are in our judicial system is tied into that, the whole government structure

196
00:13:55,020 --> 00:14:00,900
is tied into one thing that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

197
00:14:00,900 --> 00:14:04,660
So that's why you have a house and that's why you have a senate.

198
00:14:04,660 --> 00:14:07,860
And that's why you have the different executive branch.

199
00:14:07,860 --> 00:14:08,860
The executive branch.

200
00:14:08,860 --> 00:14:14,700
And that's why you have a judicial, legislative and executive branch because nobody gets

201
00:14:14,700 --> 00:14:15,700
the power completely.

202
00:14:15,700 --> 00:14:16,700
Yeah.

203
00:14:16,700 --> 00:14:23,820
And it's all based upon the fact that power corrupts and sin is a terrible, powerful thing

204
00:14:23,820 --> 00:14:26,820
when a person uses it for the wrong reasons.

205
00:14:26,820 --> 00:14:30,540
That's, it's based upon how men cannot make good decisions.

206
00:14:30,540 --> 00:14:34,620
And as a result of that, we built the world's greatest generation.

207
00:14:34,620 --> 00:14:36,980
And the world's greatest country.

208
00:14:36,980 --> 00:14:41,820
And people from all over the world that have not had that kind of opportunity to live

209
00:14:41,820 --> 00:14:45,820
in a free society are wanting to come here.

210
00:14:45,820 --> 00:14:50,340
That's why there are so many people banging down our border right now because they are

211
00:14:50,340 --> 00:14:55,660
fleeing from the oppression of these other governments.

212
00:14:55,660 --> 00:15:04,500
And yet I find it ironic how we are moving away from that kind of,

213
00:15:04,500 --> 00:15:18,980
Judeo-Christian values and law, the judicial system and moving towards whatever Marxist philosophy

214
00:15:18,980 --> 00:15:26,700
or communist philosophy, whatever you want to call it, "Whoa, philosophy, ideologies that

215
00:15:26,700 --> 00:15:29,820
are out there that are trying to take over."

216
00:15:29,820 --> 00:15:33,100
And there's a big, big movement to do that.

217
00:15:33,100 --> 00:15:38,260
So as a result of all that, I don't want to get too deep in the weeds there politically,

218
00:15:38,260 --> 00:15:43,680
but there's consequences, just like there are consequences, you take the guard wills

219
00:15:43,680 --> 00:15:47,340
off the, I love your analogy of the bridge.

220
00:15:47,340 --> 00:15:50,220
And there's consequences to that.

221
00:15:50,220 --> 00:15:52,780
And those are there to protect us.

222
00:15:52,780 --> 00:15:54,980
Our laws are there to protect us.

223
00:15:54,980 --> 00:16:01,260
Yet we seem to be really focused on trying to tear them down and to move towards something

224
00:16:01,260 --> 00:16:06,740
else, I don't know what you're going to fill this, the vacuum up with, but that's where

225
00:16:06,740 --> 00:16:08,340
our society is.

226
00:16:08,340 --> 00:16:15,460
So as a result of all that, people feel helpless, they feel hopeless.

227
00:16:15,460 --> 00:16:17,340
And so that's where we want to go.

228
00:16:17,340 --> 00:16:24,660
We want to go today in spite of how you want to paint the picture and interpret what's

229
00:16:24,660 --> 00:16:27,060
going on in our culture.

230
00:16:27,060 --> 00:16:35,540
We're moving towards something that is driving more and more people towards helplessness, hopelessness.

231
00:16:35,540 --> 00:16:37,020
And so let's get into it.

232
00:16:37,020 --> 00:16:39,180
Yeah, I think you said it well earlier.

233
00:16:39,180 --> 00:16:41,060
You talked about chaos.

234
00:16:41,060 --> 00:16:42,340
That's how people feel.

235
00:16:42,340 --> 00:16:47,660
They feel chaotic and they don't feel like they can have any place to go to find answers

236
00:16:47,660 --> 00:16:48,660
or stability.

237
00:16:48,660 --> 00:16:51,940
They're just as, it's so, so difficult.

238
00:16:51,940 --> 00:16:52,940
Chaos.

239
00:16:52,940 --> 00:16:55,700
It's almost bordering anarchy.

240
00:16:55,700 --> 00:17:00,700
That's what's a difficult thing when you don't have those guardrails, when you don't have

241
00:17:00,700 --> 00:17:05,780
those lanes, all you have is anarchy and chaos.

242
00:17:05,780 --> 00:17:07,900
And that's not how the human spirit works.

243
00:17:07,900 --> 00:17:10,260
The human spirit works in order.

244
00:17:10,260 --> 00:17:13,980
There's got to be some order there so we can thrive.

245
00:17:13,980 --> 00:17:16,140
So what does the Bible say?

246
00:17:16,140 --> 00:17:21,260
What is, what do you as a Christian, what do you believe in hope?

247
00:17:21,260 --> 00:17:24,420
What is hope to you?

248
00:17:24,420 --> 00:17:31,380
Well, if we look at it, hope is just pretty much a strong and confident expectation in an

249
00:17:31,380 --> 00:17:34,500
unwavering trust in the unchanging character of God.

250
00:17:34,500 --> 00:17:42,180
So you're putting your trust and your expectation in God Himself.

251
00:17:42,180 --> 00:17:49,180
And it's a strong confidence in God and who He is and that He has control, that He has

252
00:17:49,180 --> 00:17:55,780
life, that He has a way, that He's given us scripture and the Bible, not as rules and

253
00:17:55,780 --> 00:18:00,660
regulations, but He's given us the Bible to understand story and help us to live the

254
00:18:00,660 --> 00:18:04,460
kind of lives that provides true freedom, you know?

255
00:18:04,460 --> 00:18:06,620
And the hope is found in Him.

256
00:18:06,620 --> 00:18:10,660
Notice it, I defined it as a strong and confident expectation.

257
00:18:10,660 --> 00:18:15,140
We just know something else is coming and we have this expectation.

258
00:18:15,140 --> 00:18:17,100
God's going to do something.

259
00:18:17,100 --> 00:18:22,660
The life is not completely out of control because there is God and He is on His throne.

260
00:18:22,660 --> 00:18:28,580
And notice it also says there that He is, we put our unwavering trust in His unchanging

261
00:18:28,580 --> 00:18:34,460
character where everybody else changes, culture changes, God doesn't change.

262
00:18:34,460 --> 00:18:36,860
So that's the light.

263
00:18:36,860 --> 00:18:38,620
And I like to look at it as a lighthouse.

264
00:18:38,620 --> 00:18:40,820
I love the analogies of lighthouse.

265
00:18:40,820 --> 00:18:41,820
Yeah.

266
00:18:41,820 --> 00:18:46,020
That it kind of guides us, you know, and that's where the hope can kind of finish.

267
00:18:46,020 --> 00:18:47,020
Absolutely.

268
00:18:47,020 --> 00:18:53,100
That's if that's the standard, the standard bearer of what hope is.

269
00:18:53,100 --> 00:19:01,260
Let's go back then and in the midst of all this chaos, you know, some people feel hopeless.

270
00:19:01,260 --> 00:19:02,260
They do.

271
00:19:02,260 --> 00:19:03,260
They've given up.

272
00:19:03,260 --> 00:19:04,260
To find, what does that mean?

273
00:19:04,260 --> 00:19:05,780
Well, they've given up.

274
00:19:05,780 --> 00:19:14,060
They just, they have absolutely no confidence that anything is going to change.

275
00:19:14,060 --> 00:19:23,180
They feel the sense of inter-anxed, you know, that life is just absolutely chaotic.

276
00:19:23,180 --> 00:19:24,180
It's unmoored.

277
00:19:24,180 --> 00:19:28,220
I have no hope that any human is going to do anything about this.

278
00:19:28,220 --> 00:19:31,180
I have no hope that the government is going to do anything about this.

279
00:19:31,180 --> 00:19:36,340
There is no place to have any confidence that anything is going to change and that anything

280
00:19:36,340 --> 00:19:38,620
is going to happen in a positive way.

281
00:19:38,620 --> 00:19:40,700
They're just flat out as you said.

282
00:19:40,700 --> 00:19:41,700
They're just hopeless.

283
00:19:41,700 --> 00:19:44,820
There's a sense that I'm hopeless.

284
00:19:44,820 --> 00:19:50,060
This is where some of the chaos goes when you have a husband who shoots, you know, his

285
00:19:50,060 --> 00:19:51,060
wife.

286
00:19:51,060 --> 00:19:53,700
I mean, he loses his job and that's it.

287
00:19:53,700 --> 00:19:54,700
I can't.

288
00:19:54,700 --> 00:19:55,940
I'm hopeless.

289
00:19:55,940 --> 00:19:57,420
I'm nowhere to go.

290
00:19:57,420 --> 00:20:01,860
And so he destroys his family because he feels like it's better they'd be destroyed than

291
00:20:01,860 --> 00:20:02,860
we live.

292
00:20:02,860 --> 00:20:05,420
We have no hope that anything is going to change.

293
00:20:05,420 --> 00:20:06,420
Yeah.

294
00:20:06,420 --> 00:20:11,660
A person, it's a tragedy, Mark, but we all know you suicide is up.

295
00:20:11,660 --> 00:20:19,620
Because they are just living in this culture of inflation and their parents feel hopeless

296
00:20:19,620 --> 00:20:22,620
and they find no light at the end of the tunnel.

297
00:20:22,620 --> 00:20:24,940
There is no lighthouse for them.

298
00:20:24,940 --> 00:20:28,140
It's all just this sailing on a ship.

299
00:20:28,140 --> 00:20:29,140
There's no lighthouse.

300
00:20:29,140 --> 00:20:33,980
The waves are crushing to get and see sick and there's no, it's not going to stop.

301
00:20:33,980 --> 00:20:36,140
And where do we go?

302
00:20:36,140 --> 00:20:38,580
Cultures not providing any directives that way.

303
00:20:38,580 --> 00:20:41,460
Not in science, not in technology.

304
00:20:41,460 --> 00:20:42,700
People are trying those things.

305
00:20:42,700 --> 00:20:47,180
It's not filling that sense of void people feel.

306
00:20:47,180 --> 00:20:48,180
Yeah.

307
00:20:48,180 --> 00:20:49,180
Yeah.

308
00:20:49,180 --> 00:20:53,740
Hopelessness is, it's the Bible says, hope deferred makes the heart sick.

309
00:20:53,740 --> 00:20:54,740
Hope deferred.

310
00:20:54,740 --> 00:20:55,740
In other words, you can put on your hope.

311
00:20:55,740 --> 00:20:57,020
You can say, I hope, I hope.

312
00:20:57,020 --> 00:21:02,420
And eventually, eventually, you get sick.

313
00:21:02,420 --> 00:21:05,220
The Shawshank Redemption is a great example of that.

314
00:21:05,220 --> 00:21:09,060
That movie is all about hope.

315
00:21:09,060 --> 00:21:14,500
And they say, hope is a dangerous word and you don't use it here in the prison because

316
00:21:14,500 --> 00:21:16,260
there's no hope here.

317
00:21:16,260 --> 00:21:18,260
You have no hope in this prison at all.

318
00:21:18,260 --> 00:21:20,420
You're just going to be here.

319
00:21:20,420 --> 00:21:25,860
But it's the number one most watch cable movie.

320
00:21:25,860 --> 00:21:30,340
The Shawshank Redemption because it's so full of hope.

321
00:21:30,340 --> 00:21:35,540
Andy DeFrain believes in hope, which is why he can be in this prison cell, which is

322
00:21:35,540 --> 00:21:39,500
very hopeless and he's in Shawshank, which is horrible.

323
00:21:39,500 --> 00:21:47,060
And for 21 years, he takes a spoon and digs a hole in the wall for 21 years.

324
00:21:47,060 --> 00:21:52,380
And he drops the rock side of his pants and nobody knows he's doing it because he has

325
00:21:52,380 --> 00:21:53,380
a hope.

326
00:21:53,380 --> 00:21:57,540
He has this hope, but it's a very hopeless place.

327
00:21:57,540 --> 00:22:00,500
So Andy has a different kind of trust.

328
00:22:00,500 --> 00:22:03,820
He's got a different sense that more, there's more to life.

329
00:22:03,820 --> 00:22:07,860
And that's not out there right now.

330
00:22:07,860 --> 00:22:09,660
People get pessimistic about it.

331
00:22:09,660 --> 00:22:13,820
So there's always going to be in this world.

332
00:22:13,820 --> 00:22:15,900
There's going to be world events, right?

333
00:22:15,900 --> 00:22:22,460
There's always going to be chaos because we live in a very malevolent world in many, many

334
00:22:22,460 --> 00:22:24,060
respects.

335
00:22:24,060 --> 00:22:29,060
And it's just a matter of time before you or I begin to experience that.

336
00:22:29,060 --> 00:22:37,220
So it's there and what you're saying is then whose responsibility, how do we respond to

337
00:22:37,220 --> 00:22:41,460
that, that world of malevolence?

338
00:22:41,460 --> 00:22:45,460
How do we respond and many people choose hopelessness?

339
00:22:45,460 --> 00:22:46,460
Hopelessness.

340
00:22:46,460 --> 00:22:47,460
Yeah.

341
00:22:47,460 --> 00:22:49,060
What are the ways do people live in it?

342
00:22:49,060 --> 00:22:51,660
Well, there's others who are a bit pessimistic.

343
00:22:51,660 --> 00:22:56,980
You know, a pessimist at least sees the glass half full, but they see it a little bit there.

344
00:22:56,980 --> 00:22:59,500
But the pessimist is pretty much kind of jaded.

345
00:22:59,500 --> 00:23:01,220
It's like, well, I hope so.

346
00:23:01,220 --> 00:23:04,060
You know, it's kind of like, I'm an existentialist.

347
00:23:04,060 --> 00:23:06,020
I hope things will work out fine.

348
00:23:06,020 --> 00:23:08,980
You know, we're responsible for our own direction.

349
00:23:08,980 --> 00:23:12,020
We become the captains of our own souls.

350
00:23:12,020 --> 00:23:15,020
And so the only hope I have is in myself.

351
00:23:15,020 --> 00:23:17,580
And I hope something happens.

352
00:23:17,580 --> 00:23:18,580
Hope so.

353
00:23:18,580 --> 00:23:20,060
You know, I hear that a lot.

354
00:23:20,060 --> 00:23:25,300
You know, well, gosh, you know, let's hope that the elections go on really smoother than

355
00:23:25,300 --> 00:23:26,300
they did.

356
00:23:26,300 --> 00:23:31,100
So, you know, we hear that hope so, but there's an element of doubt in that.

357
00:23:31,100 --> 00:23:32,100
Yeah.

358
00:23:32,100 --> 00:23:33,100
That's not confidence.

359
00:23:33,100 --> 00:23:36,340
That's just an element of this doubt in that statement hope.

360
00:23:36,340 --> 00:23:38,700
So that means I'm not sure.

361
00:23:38,700 --> 00:23:39,700
Yeah.

362
00:23:39,700 --> 00:23:40,700
There's odds.

363
00:23:40,700 --> 00:23:41,700
Yeah, there's odds.

364
00:23:41,700 --> 00:23:42,700
Yeah.

365
00:23:42,700 --> 00:23:47,540
The odds may be four year or they may be against you, but there's no, no, there's no foundation.

366
00:23:47,540 --> 00:23:49,460
There's no foundation point.

367
00:23:49,460 --> 00:23:54,500
It's just like, well, let's hope circumstances work out or, you know, things change in the

368
00:23:54,500 --> 00:23:55,500
economy.

369
00:23:55,500 --> 00:23:58,740
So, but I have nothing to do with it.

370
00:23:58,740 --> 00:24:04,420
And I don't know who's going to change it, but I'd rather be hope so than hope less.

371
00:24:04,420 --> 00:24:09,980
I'd rather have a little element of hope, you know, but still have a lot of doubt.

372
00:24:09,980 --> 00:24:10,980
Yeah.

373
00:24:10,980 --> 00:24:11,980
And that's a hope so person.

374
00:24:11,980 --> 00:24:13,740
Hope so, you know?

375
00:24:13,740 --> 00:24:18,940
So that's, that's again, that's again putting trust in circumstances, you know, that's

376
00:24:18,940 --> 00:24:27,340
putting trust in life and hoping life as a way of turning out better without any confidence

377
00:24:27,340 --> 00:24:28,340
that it will.

378
00:24:28,340 --> 00:24:29,340
Yeah.

379
00:24:29,340 --> 00:24:36,580
Talk a little bit about the, the hope so person because I think that's a dangerous road

380
00:24:36,580 --> 00:24:45,140
to go down because when it doesn't work in your favor, that's when we become angry.

381
00:24:45,140 --> 00:24:46,140
Yeah.

382
00:24:46,140 --> 00:24:47,380
We become a critic.

383
00:24:47,380 --> 00:24:48,580
We blame God.

384
00:24:48,580 --> 00:24:59,020
I mean, how many times has God been blamed for all of the negative or our response to an

385
00:24:59,020 --> 00:25:02,980
false idea of what hope is about?

386
00:25:02,980 --> 00:25:05,180
And then God gets blamed for it.

387
00:25:05,180 --> 00:25:06,940
And it's really easy to pass that on.

388
00:25:06,940 --> 00:25:07,940
Oh, sure.

389
00:25:07,940 --> 00:25:08,940
We don't want to take responsibility.

390
00:25:08,940 --> 00:25:09,940
Yeah.

391
00:25:09,940 --> 00:25:10,940
We don't take responsibility.

392
00:25:10,940 --> 00:25:12,740
And then we get, we get angry with people.

393
00:25:12,740 --> 00:25:14,620
We get angry with relationships.

394
00:25:14,620 --> 00:25:16,580
We get angry with our company.

395
00:25:16,580 --> 00:25:18,460
We get angry with our family.

396
00:25:18,460 --> 00:25:20,820
We get angry with our friends.

397
00:25:20,820 --> 00:25:24,180
You know, they should make things better.

398
00:25:24,180 --> 00:25:30,580
And that has always worked that way because we're putting our trust again in something that's

399
00:25:30,580 --> 00:25:33,540
not stable, something that's not sure.

400
00:25:33,540 --> 00:25:34,860
People let us down.

401
00:25:34,860 --> 00:25:36,340
Companies let us down.

402
00:25:36,340 --> 00:25:38,780
You know, relationships let us down.

403
00:25:38,780 --> 00:25:43,420
There's always that kind of thing and a hope so person sees it and experiences it and

404
00:25:43,420 --> 00:25:45,260
that's where they get their pessimism.

405
00:25:45,260 --> 00:25:46,260
Try that before.

406
00:25:46,260 --> 00:25:47,260
Doesn't work.

407
00:25:47,260 --> 00:25:48,260
Yeah.

408
00:25:48,260 --> 00:25:51,300
And that's where they get, start to get angry.

409
00:25:51,300 --> 00:25:56,620
And then they, they can just sort of rally and say, I'm not even dealing with anybody else.

410
00:25:56,620 --> 00:25:58,340
I'm going to isolate myself.

411
00:25:58,340 --> 00:26:02,380
I don't care what they do, you know, totally up to them.

412
00:26:02,380 --> 00:26:08,700
And they just, they get pretty, pretty jaded, you know, this is the angry person that, you

413
00:26:08,700 --> 00:26:16,020
know, I bumped into somebody the other day, a stranger just walked right up to me and

414
00:26:16,020 --> 00:26:19,500
said, I'm not listening to the news anymore.

415
00:26:19,500 --> 00:26:20,500
That's what he said to me.

416
00:26:20,500 --> 00:26:21,820
I started that many times.

417
00:26:21,820 --> 00:26:23,460
Yeah, a total stranger, Mark.

418
00:26:23,460 --> 00:26:26,060
Out of the blue, I'm walking, I'm walking down the hallway.

419
00:26:26,060 --> 00:26:27,060
Yeah.

420
00:26:27,060 --> 00:26:28,060
And a guy, I didn't know who he was.

421
00:26:28,060 --> 00:26:31,060
He just says, I'm, I'm totally stopping the news.

422
00:26:31,060 --> 00:26:32,780
I can't watch it anymore.

423
00:26:32,780 --> 00:26:33,780
Just can't watch it.

424
00:26:33,780 --> 00:26:34,780
It's so pessimistic.

425
00:26:34,780 --> 00:26:35,780
It's so negative.

426
00:26:35,780 --> 00:26:43,260
I can't take it, you know, I mean, he was, you know, his hope so was getting pretty, pretty

427
00:26:43,260 --> 00:26:47,220
narrow because he said, I can't even watch what's going on out there.

428
00:26:47,220 --> 00:26:48,820
And that's because media does that.

429
00:26:48,820 --> 00:26:50,700
They take your hope away in a lot of ways.

430
00:26:50,700 --> 00:26:51,700
Yeah.

431
00:26:51,700 --> 00:26:52,700
Yeah.

432
00:26:52,700 --> 00:26:57,340
Unless you're anchored in something, unless you're anchored in something bigger and we're going

433
00:26:57,340 --> 00:26:58,340
to talk about it.

434
00:26:58,340 --> 00:26:59,340
Yeah.

435
00:26:59,340 --> 00:27:00,340
Exactly.

436
00:27:00,340 --> 00:27:01,340
Yeah.

437
00:27:01,340 --> 00:27:02,340
Okay.

438
00:27:02,340 --> 00:27:09,620
So the way we respond to the malevolent world of, of hopeless, or of, you know, change and

439
00:27:09,620 --> 00:27:16,940
change that is, we're not used to or things that are threatening to us.

440
00:27:16,940 --> 00:27:19,540
It can make us feel hopeless.

441
00:27:19,540 --> 00:27:24,100
Or it can make us feel like we're, hopes, I hope so.

442
00:27:24,100 --> 00:27:26,380
I hope that this is going to work out.

443
00:27:26,380 --> 00:27:29,180
Well, hope so, hope so is what we used to do as a kid.

444
00:27:29,180 --> 00:27:31,180
You keep your fingers crossed in the back.

445
00:27:31,180 --> 00:27:32,180
Yeah.

446
00:27:32,180 --> 00:27:33,180
I keep my fingers crossed.

447
00:27:33,180 --> 00:27:34,180
Okay.

448
00:27:34,180 --> 00:27:37,740
But that doesn't do a whole lot, you know.

449
00:27:37,740 --> 00:27:40,740
Is there a third response that we have as human beings?

450
00:27:40,740 --> 00:27:42,620
Some people, some people are hopeful.

451
00:27:42,620 --> 00:27:47,100
They're less critical and angry because they've lived through tough times before and they've

452
00:27:47,100 --> 00:27:50,180
watched things go from better to worse and then back to better.

453
00:27:50,180 --> 00:27:52,860
So, you know, we've seen cycles like that happen.

454
00:27:52,860 --> 00:27:57,860
I mean, we've seen cultures so to cycle around and sometimes, you know, they've seen it

455
00:27:57,860 --> 00:27:58,860
that way.

456
00:27:58,860 --> 00:28:01,660
The greatest generation, my grandparents grew up in the depression.

457
00:28:01,660 --> 00:28:07,460
Well, they saw massive prosperity compared to what they experienced.

458
00:28:07,460 --> 00:28:14,140
And yet, you know, I was telling people, this is an example.

459
00:28:14,140 --> 00:28:19,820
Young couples always, I always chuckle a little bit because they come to me and they go,

460
00:28:19,820 --> 00:28:23,500
"Man, can you believe the loans that are out there?

461
00:28:23,500 --> 00:28:28,380
They're now like 6% to buy a house."

462
00:28:28,380 --> 00:28:32,540
When I bought my first house, I went to a bank in the Bay Area.

463
00:28:32,540 --> 00:28:37,940
Now, this is during the 1970s.

464
00:28:37,940 --> 00:28:42,780
I went to the bank in a home loan, a 17%.

465
00:28:42,780 --> 00:28:46,460
17% to get a home loan.

466
00:28:46,460 --> 00:28:53,220
I bought my first car to go to Denver Seminary, 15% car loan.

467
00:28:53,220 --> 00:28:57,220
I went to the bank of America and I said, "What's a car loan go for?

468
00:28:57,220 --> 00:28:58,220
This is in the Bay Area.

469
00:28:58,220 --> 00:29:01,020
I lived in the San Francisco Bay Area."

470
00:29:01,020 --> 00:29:03,380
My wife and I were trying to get a car to go to Seminary.

471
00:29:03,380 --> 00:29:06,820
Well, the current loan is 18%.

472
00:29:06,820 --> 00:29:09,820
I said, "18%.

473
00:29:09,820 --> 00:29:11,140
I said, "I have a credit union.

474
00:29:11,140 --> 00:29:12,980
I can get a 15% loan."

475
00:29:12,980 --> 00:29:20,540
And the guy said, "If you can find a 15% loan anywhere, snap it up because you're not going

476
00:29:20,540 --> 00:29:24,020
to get that here at our bank."

477
00:29:24,020 --> 00:29:29,660
When we bought our first town home in Denver after I graduated Seminary, when you and I graduated,

478
00:29:29,660 --> 00:29:33,060
1886, we graduated.

479
00:29:33,060 --> 00:29:37,460
I went to get a home loan and I bought the loan down.

480
00:29:37,460 --> 00:29:41,140
The home loan was 12%.

481
00:29:41,140 --> 00:29:43,100
I didn't realize it was that high.

482
00:29:43,100 --> 00:29:44,100
I forgotten.

483
00:29:44,100 --> 00:29:45,100
Yeah.

484
00:29:45,100 --> 00:29:46,100
I bought it down to 10.

485
00:29:46,100 --> 00:29:54,540
Then when it started to travel up to 11, I re-fied at 9.5.

486
00:29:54,540 --> 00:30:00,340
People were jumping up and down for a 9.5% loan.

487
00:30:00,340 --> 00:30:02,100
They're giving you the money.

488
00:30:02,100 --> 00:30:03,100
9%.

489
00:30:03,100 --> 00:30:05,740
That's unbelievable.

490
00:30:05,740 --> 00:30:09,820
So I sometimes say, "Well, look."

491
00:30:09,820 --> 00:30:15,780
And then back in 2012, we bought a home and it was 3%.

492
00:30:15,780 --> 00:30:16,780
3%.

493
00:30:16,780 --> 00:30:17,780
See?

494
00:30:17,780 --> 00:30:22,020
I mean, I re-fied my house at 2.9%.

495
00:30:22,020 --> 00:30:26,900
10 years ago, 11 years ago, I re-fied my house at 2.9%.

496
00:30:26,900 --> 00:30:29,580
But everybody thinks those are the historic loans.

497
00:30:29,580 --> 00:30:31,980
Those are not the historic loans.

498
00:30:31,980 --> 00:30:34,140
So when I look at it, I hear couples talking about it.

499
00:30:34,140 --> 00:30:35,420
Now is inflation bad?

500
00:30:35,420 --> 00:30:36,420
It's bad.

501
00:30:36,420 --> 00:30:41,580
I mean, but we've seen cycles of this kind of thing.

502
00:30:41,580 --> 00:30:45,100
Sometimes the economy turns around and we recycle around.

503
00:30:45,100 --> 00:30:51,700
So we have to be really careful not to get too hopeless or hope so because there is some

504
00:30:51,700 --> 00:30:56,820
hopefulness in the way life cycles around that things can change.

505
00:30:56,820 --> 00:31:01,020
And they've lived through it before.

506
00:31:01,020 --> 00:31:07,300
But in all of these cases, hope is usually a wish or a desire.

507
00:31:07,300 --> 00:31:08,300
And temporal.

508
00:31:08,300 --> 00:31:09,300
Temporal.

509
00:31:09,300 --> 00:31:10,300
Yeah.

510
00:31:10,300 --> 00:31:11,660
It's all based on temporal things.

511
00:31:11,660 --> 00:31:17,980
This is the difference between hope that we have in the faith of Jesus Christ and

512
00:31:17,980 --> 00:31:20,540
in Scripture and the hope that we have out there.

513
00:31:20,540 --> 00:31:22,500
All these things are temporal.

514
00:31:22,500 --> 00:31:23,500
So they're temporal.

515
00:31:23,500 --> 00:31:24,500
We put our hope in it.

516
00:31:24,500 --> 00:31:27,980
And when we do that, it's never going to stay that way.

517
00:31:27,980 --> 00:31:29,380
It's never going to stay that way.

518
00:31:29,380 --> 00:31:37,700
So we need to be cautious not to make things, things do cycle around.

519
00:31:37,700 --> 00:31:40,820
Just in life, the economy cycles around.

520
00:31:40,820 --> 00:31:42,380
Home loans may drop again.

521
00:31:42,380 --> 00:31:44,860
Car loans may drop again.

522
00:31:44,860 --> 00:31:47,340
So those things just happen.

523
00:31:47,340 --> 00:31:49,780
And you can say, well, I hope they do.

524
00:31:49,780 --> 00:31:51,060
Yeah, I hope they do.

525
00:31:51,060 --> 00:31:52,060
I hope they do.

526
00:31:52,060 --> 00:31:55,220
But that hope is a wish or a desire.

527
00:31:55,220 --> 00:31:57,420
It's not anything confident.

528
00:31:57,420 --> 00:31:59,500
It's not an anchor point.

529
00:31:59,500 --> 00:32:01,780
It's solely based on...

530
00:32:01,780 --> 00:32:06,260
So you're talking about another type of hope.

531
00:32:06,260 --> 00:32:15,340
What is that hope that isn't so temporal or that's anchored in something that is eternal?

532
00:32:15,340 --> 00:32:17,180
It's a hope that's tethered.

533
00:32:17,180 --> 00:32:20,260
It's a hope that tetheres itself to an unwavering God.

534
00:32:20,260 --> 00:32:24,260
It's a hope that says, I know God is in control of my life.

535
00:32:24,260 --> 00:32:26,500
I know that God is at work in my life.

536
00:32:26,500 --> 00:32:32,060
I know that God has been the God throughout history that has been with me even through

537
00:32:32,060 --> 00:32:34,420
every aspect of my life.

538
00:32:34,420 --> 00:32:39,780
And I'm tethering it in the character of God because He promises to provide for me if I

539
00:32:39,780 --> 00:32:41,340
seek first His kingdom.

540
00:32:41,340 --> 00:32:45,500
There is a flow in which culture is going.

541
00:32:45,500 --> 00:32:52,380
Culture is going in a direction and God has not suddenly left His throne.

542
00:32:52,380 --> 00:32:53,380
God is still directing.

543
00:32:53,380 --> 00:32:59,020
We're in these times and God knows about them and God can change them and God may have lessons

544
00:32:59,020 --> 00:33:03,900
for us to learn through them, but God will ultimately fulfill His purposes.

545
00:33:03,900 --> 00:33:10,340
And that comes what we call living hope and not a dead hope in desires and wishes.

546
00:33:10,340 --> 00:33:15,460
Jesus Christ rose from the dead, which means He'll come again and God is working out His

547
00:33:15,460 --> 00:33:20,340
plan even though we can't see all the details of it.

548
00:33:20,340 --> 00:33:23,940
So from the 30,000-foot view of life, God is at work.

549
00:33:23,940 --> 00:33:25,300
He's still on His throne.

550
00:33:25,300 --> 00:33:27,740
He's still healing.

551
00:33:27,740 --> 00:33:29,140
He's still providing.

552
00:33:29,140 --> 00:33:30,820
He's still giving.

553
00:33:30,820 --> 00:33:35,580
He's still watching over even though it doesn't appear like that.

554
00:33:35,580 --> 00:33:40,340
And I think one thing we have to remember is that when we read the Old Testament and the

555
00:33:40,340 --> 00:33:44,420
New Testament, the people there didn't have newspapers, they didn't have media.

556
00:33:44,420 --> 00:33:47,100
They didn't know what the next day was going to turn out.

557
00:33:47,100 --> 00:33:51,220
They had no idea what was going to happen.

558
00:33:51,220 --> 00:33:56,580
We read the stories and we see those stories unfold.

559
00:33:56,580 --> 00:33:57,620
They didn't.

560
00:33:57,620 --> 00:33:58,620
They went to bed at night.

561
00:33:58,620 --> 00:34:03,300
They had no idea what God was going to ultimately do.

562
00:34:03,300 --> 00:34:05,260
They had no newspapers.

563
00:34:05,260 --> 00:34:07,180
They didn't have anything.

564
00:34:07,180 --> 00:34:10,180
So when they went to bed, they had no idea what was going to happen the next day.

565
00:34:10,180 --> 00:34:12,700
All they had was the promises of God.

566
00:34:12,700 --> 00:34:14,820
It's all they had.

567
00:34:14,820 --> 00:34:16,820
That's it.

568
00:34:16,820 --> 00:34:20,660
Our hope is anchored in the promises of God.

569
00:34:20,660 --> 00:34:27,460
What are those promises that we put our hope in?

570
00:34:27,460 --> 00:34:35,180
And again, I want to make sure that we get this big picture that we live in a world

571
00:34:35,180 --> 00:34:43,060
that a temporal world where many times we all feel that hopelessness or many times we have

572
00:34:43,060 --> 00:34:48,860
we are that hope so person or that we are hopeful.

573
00:34:48,860 --> 00:34:54,420
But what we want to be striving for, what you're saying is that there's another type of hope

574
00:34:54,420 --> 00:35:00,860
out there that is anchored in something that is unchanging.

575
00:35:00,860 --> 00:35:02,340
What does that look like?

576
00:35:02,340 --> 00:35:04,180
What is unchanging?

577
00:35:04,180 --> 00:35:05,180
What is unchanging?

578
00:35:05,180 --> 00:35:06,780
Well, God is unchanging.

579
00:35:06,780 --> 00:35:09,700
So God is unchanging in His character.

580
00:35:09,700 --> 00:35:14,100
So if He says seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and everything will be

581
00:35:14,100 --> 00:35:15,980
added unto you.

582
00:35:15,980 --> 00:35:18,620
That's hope because He said it.

583
00:35:18,620 --> 00:35:25,420
So He's selling me if I live my life according to His Word or according to kingdom values, He'll

584
00:35:25,420 --> 00:35:29,700
add whatever I need and that's in the passage of worry.

585
00:35:29,700 --> 00:35:31,300
You don't need to worry about clothes and food.

586
00:35:31,300 --> 00:35:34,940
If you live for me, you will have enough.

587
00:35:34,940 --> 00:35:40,540
You may not have filet mignon in your freezer, but you know you'll have something to eat

588
00:35:40,540 --> 00:35:46,220
and you'll have something to wear and I will take care of you because I promise that to

589
00:35:46,220 --> 00:35:47,540
you.

590
00:35:47,540 --> 00:35:53,580
I promise that you when you die, if you know me, you will never fully die.

591
00:35:53,580 --> 00:35:54,580
Why do you worry?

592
00:35:54,580 --> 00:35:56,180
Look at the birds of the air.

593
00:35:56,180 --> 00:35:57,180
Right.

594
00:35:57,180 --> 00:35:58,860
Why do you worry?

595
00:35:58,860 --> 00:36:01,220
This is where real hope comes.

596
00:36:01,220 --> 00:36:02,700
Hope eliminates worry.

597
00:36:02,700 --> 00:36:05,780
For example, that's why it uses the birds of the air.

598
00:36:05,780 --> 00:36:07,220
Beautiful analogy.

599
00:36:07,220 --> 00:36:11,580
When an eagle gets up in the morning, an eagle doesn't fly off and go call me.

600
00:36:11,580 --> 00:36:15,220
I just read the Sam encounter at the Bonneville Dam.

601
00:36:15,220 --> 00:36:17,900
Looks like it's going to be thin pickens down there, man.

602
00:36:17,900 --> 00:36:19,980
You know, I mean, they don't.

603
00:36:19,980 --> 00:36:22,700
They just take off and they know.

604
00:36:22,700 --> 00:36:27,060
They know they're going to find something for that day.

605
00:36:27,060 --> 00:36:32,380
It isn't that they don't work, but they don't worry why they work.

606
00:36:32,380 --> 00:36:36,620
You know, God doesn't come along and drop salmon into an eagle nest.

607
00:36:36,620 --> 00:36:41,620
That's not how God operates, but there will always be enough for them because God promises

608
00:36:41,620 --> 00:36:43,220
to take care of that.

609
00:36:43,220 --> 00:36:44,700
That's a good hope.

610
00:36:44,700 --> 00:36:47,980
God promises that life isn't moving in a spiral direction.

611
00:36:47,980 --> 00:36:51,260
It really has, it really has flow to it.

612
00:36:51,260 --> 00:36:55,380
That's why the Bible always goes back to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob.

613
00:36:55,380 --> 00:37:02,660
It goes back on a linear history because it isn't just a cycle of fall, winter, spring,

614
00:37:02,660 --> 00:37:05,620
summer, fall, winter, spring, summer.

615
00:37:05,620 --> 00:37:09,300
That's how people lived before Genesis.

616
00:37:09,300 --> 00:37:18,020
Before that narrative came, wait a minute, God's created a history and God is moving history,

617
00:37:18,020 --> 00:37:24,060
even life in the United States, life in our world in a certain direction.

618
00:37:24,060 --> 00:37:29,420
And it is going to consummate in his return and his establishment of the Garden of Eden all

619
00:37:29,420 --> 00:37:30,420
over again.

620
00:37:30,420 --> 00:37:34,300
So, we lost paradise, we're going to gain paradise.

621
00:37:34,300 --> 00:37:37,820
We have hope that God is always at work for the good.

622
00:37:37,820 --> 00:37:43,740
It may not seem like it, but God can take even the things in our lives that may hurt us,

623
00:37:43,740 --> 00:37:51,020
and He can weave and redeem them and teach us from them and provide lessons and good things

624
00:37:51,020 --> 00:37:52,020
from them.

625
00:37:52,020 --> 00:37:55,580
So, even when I'm going through a tough time, I say, "Well, look, and everything God has

626
00:37:55,580 --> 00:38:00,180
at work for the good, not everything is good, getting sick is not good."

627
00:38:00,180 --> 00:38:05,540
But maybe during that time, I'm meditating, I'm reflecting, I'm thinking, maybe at that

628
00:38:05,540 --> 00:38:10,580
time God speaks to me about my own schedule and maybe I need to change it.

629
00:38:10,580 --> 00:38:11,900
See, that's it.

630
00:38:11,900 --> 00:38:17,100
We put our hope and promises and in the plan of God throughout the Scriptures.

631
00:38:17,100 --> 00:38:18,340
So, that's it.

632
00:38:18,340 --> 00:38:20,100
And that becomes our anchor.

633
00:38:20,100 --> 00:38:29,660
As we live in this temporal world that's filled with malevolency and chaos and even amongst

634
00:38:29,660 --> 00:38:39,140
the little bit of order that we have, whether we have it or don't, it's the person that anchors

635
00:38:39,140 --> 00:38:46,180
their hope in and eternal God will be able to work out and live within that temporal

636
00:38:46,180 --> 00:38:47,180
society.

637
00:38:47,180 --> 00:38:51,260
Yeah, let me give you some characteristics of people who have that kind of hope.

638
00:38:51,260 --> 00:38:53,420
First of all, they're not insecure.

639
00:38:53,420 --> 00:38:55,580
They don't waver in the midst of these changes.

640
00:38:55,580 --> 00:39:01,540
They realize there's only so much they can control and there's only so much that they

641
00:39:01,540 --> 00:39:02,540
can do.

642
00:39:02,540 --> 00:39:04,180
God has to be ultimately in control.

643
00:39:04,180 --> 00:39:06,740
So, they don't feel insecure.

644
00:39:06,740 --> 00:39:11,660
As you mentioned, hope becomes an anchor for them and there's a certain stability in

645
00:39:11,660 --> 00:39:12,900
the midst of the storms.

646
00:39:12,900 --> 00:39:14,460
You've seen these kinds of people.

647
00:39:14,460 --> 00:39:17,140
No matter what they're going through, they kind of have their faith in God.

648
00:39:17,140 --> 00:39:19,380
They have a base to the wind a little bit.

649
00:39:19,380 --> 00:39:24,180
They just have a way of saying, look, we'll get through this.

650
00:39:24,180 --> 00:39:25,180
We'll get through this.

651
00:39:25,180 --> 00:39:30,060
It's not as you're going through the storm in life, whether it's on a boat or on land.

652
00:39:30,060 --> 00:39:34,860
It's not that I hope that I'm going to get to land.

653
00:39:34,860 --> 00:39:37,020
We're going to get there.

654
00:39:37,020 --> 00:39:38,020
We're going to get there.

655
00:39:38,020 --> 00:39:42,420
It may not be that we thought, but we're going to make it.

656
00:39:42,420 --> 00:39:46,820
It's Stonewall Jackson.

657
00:39:46,820 --> 00:39:52,180
Stonewall Jackson, the great civil war leader, he used to say, well, look, men shoot bullets,

658
00:39:52,180 --> 00:39:54,940
but God determines where they land.

659
00:39:54,940 --> 00:40:00,180
So he would be marching into the midst of all these gunfires and stuff.

660
00:40:00,180 --> 00:40:01,820
He never got hit.

661
00:40:01,820 --> 00:40:03,060
He never got hit.

662
00:40:03,060 --> 00:40:06,180
He might have, but he didn't.

663
00:40:06,180 --> 00:40:09,260
He believed, well, look, if my time's up, my time's up.

664
00:40:09,260 --> 00:40:14,900
We could have courage because when I'm done, I'm done.

665
00:40:14,900 --> 00:40:16,100
He didn't worry about that.

666
00:40:16,100 --> 00:40:17,940
He didn't have that worry.

667
00:40:17,940 --> 00:40:21,860
They also look at things, politics, health, inflation, and these kinds of things, and they

668
00:40:21,860 --> 00:40:23,300
don't panic.

669
00:40:23,300 --> 00:40:24,980
There's no panic.

670
00:40:24,980 --> 00:40:29,820
There's a kind of unflappable spirit in people who have their hope in God because they know

671
00:40:29,820 --> 00:40:35,020
that God is ultimately in control of everything in their life.

672
00:40:35,020 --> 00:40:38,620
So there's a kind of unflappable spirit.

673
00:40:38,620 --> 00:40:43,420
We all have to have that right now because we do feel cultures unmoored.

674
00:40:43,420 --> 00:40:48,660
So the only place we're going to find this really great anchor is in God himself.

675
00:40:48,660 --> 00:40:53,780
In fact, that's what it says here in Hebrews chapter 6.

676
00:40:53,780 --> 00:41:00,380
It says, we have this hope as an anchor for the soul firm and secure.

677
00:41:00,380 --> 00:41:01,460
Firm and secure.

678
00:41:01,460 --> 00:41:03,220
We have those guidelines.

679
00:41:03,220 --> 00:41:04,460
We have those guidelines.

680
00:41:04,460 --> 00:41:07,420
But something else, Mark, it's interesting.

681
00:41:07,420 --> 00:41:13,260
He talks about this because this is a little historical nuance.

682
00:41:13,260 --> 00:41:18,300
Anchor's not only provided stability for boats, when they were in the middle of a storm,

683
00:41:18,300 --> 00:41:25,460
they could drop an anchor and that anchor would keep them from capsizing and keep them stable.

684
00:41:25,460 --> 00:41:31,580
Sometimes though, in the midst of tough forward winds coming at them, sailors would throw

685
00:41:31,580 --> 00:41:39,020
the anchor out the front and then pull their boat out to it.

686
00:41:39,020 --> 00:41:44,340
So it gave them action even though they were in the midst of storms and things.

687
00:41:44,340 --> 00:41:45,980
They could throw the anchor out.

688
00:41:45,980 --> 00:41:51,060
It would land and then they would anchor in and move toward the anchor.

689
00:41:51,060 --> 00:41:55,900
So the anchor not only kept them stable, but the anchor could also keep them moving forward

690
00:41:55,900 --> 00:41:57,380
in the midst of the storm.

691
00:41:57,380 --> 00:41:58,380
That's a great picture.

692
00:41:58,380 --> 00:42:00,180
Isn't that a great picture?

693
00:42:00,180 --> 00:42:05,820
So see, when you have that anchor, it not only helps you stay stable in the midst of tough

694
00:42:05,820 --> 00:42:12,740
times, but that anchor can also give you forward motion because you have that hope.

695
00:42:12,740 --> 00:42:15,140
And so you go, "Well, I can still make progress.

696
00:42:15,140 --> 00:42:18,740
I can still move forward even in the midst of all this chaos."

697
00:42:18,740 --> 00:42:22,340
So there was a way that they would use the anchor in the back, but they would also, some

698
00:42:22,340 --> 00:42:28,940
of them had an anchor in the front where they could throw it out there, pull their boat,

699
00:42:28,940 --> 00:42:30,860
put it out there, pull their boat.

700
00:42:30,860 --> 00:42:36,820
That's a great picture because oftentimes what happens in my own particular life and I can

701
00:42:36,820 --> 00:42:43,780
imagine other people, when you feel like you're in that hopeless situation, what do we do

702
00:42:43,780 --> 00:42:44,780
as humans?

703
00:42:44,780 --> 00:42:45,780
We freeze.

704
00:42:45,780 --> 00:42:46,780
We freeze.

705
00:42:46,780 --> 00:42:47,780
Sure.

706
00:42:47,780 --> 00:42:50,820
And then when we freeze, we become depressed.

707
00:42:50,820 --> 00:42:54,780
And instead, we should be moving forward because when I look at my life and I see those

708
00:42:54,780 --> 00:43:01,980
times when I was going through the dark times of my life, it was the times that I kept

709
00:43:01,980 --> 00:43:12,460
moving forward that I had and moving towards my hope, the anchor, God himself, that catapulted

710
00:43:12,460 --> 00:43:14,300
me out of that depression.

711
00:43:14,300 --> 00:43:15,860
Exactly right.

712
00:43:15,860 --> 00:43:19,460
And see, that's a little unknown fact about the way they used anchors.

713
00:43:19,460 --> 00:43:23,340
People just think they used anchors to keep them stability, but they would throw anchors

714
00:43:23,340 --> 00:43:29,460
out in front like I said and draw their boat toward that because the anchor is God and he

715
00:43:29,460 --> 00:43:30,860
moves forward.

716
00:43:30,860 --> 00:43:36,500
And you're right, if we don't think of hope that way, we can just become neutralized and

717
00:43:36,500 --> 00:43:40,180
stay depressed and we don't have to stay depressed.

718
00:43:40,180 --> 00:43:43,540
We can say, "Hey, look, I'm going to move forward in spite of this.

719
00:43:43,540 --> 00:43:44,900
I'm not going to let this."

720
00:43:44,900 --> 00:43:48,860
Now there are times, let's face it, there are times when we got to drop the anchor and

721
00:43:48,860 --> 00:43:50,180
just say, "Wait a second here."

722
00:43:50,180 --> 00:43:51,180
Yeah, we need to rest.

723
00:43:51,180 --> 00:43:52,180
We need to rest.

724
00:43:52,180 --> 00:43:58,500
I got to have a little, I got to have a little bit of decompression, you know?

725
00:43:58,500 --> 00:44:04,500
Well, that's where the analogy, people say, "Well, I can't watch the news anymore."

726
00:44:04,500 --> 00:44:08,420
Well, maybe you do need to take a rest from the news.

727
00:44:08,420 --> 00:44:16,940
But on the other hand, don't give up on the news because we need that news to exercise

728
00:44:16,940 --> 00:44:21,900
our faith, exercise our strength, exercise our anchor.

729
00:44:21,900 --> 00:44:26,020
And move towards God in the midst of the storm that news is bringing.

730
00:44:26,020 --> 00:44:27,020
Well, that's right.

731
00:44:27,020 --> 00:44:30,140
Because you don't want to have your head buried in the sand.

732
00:44:30,140 --> 00:44:31,140
No, you don't.

733
00:44:31,140 --> 00:44:36,660
You don't because you will not make progress that way if you just bury your head in the sand.

734
00:44:36,660 --> 00:44:40,220
Now the key thing here, and notice what we're talking about, we're talking about putting

735
00:44:40,220 --> 00:44:42,500
our hope in God.

736
00:44:42,500 --> 00:44:45,100
Here's the things that most people put their hope in.

737
00:44:45,100 --> 00:44:51,460
They put their hope in their own particular desires or outcomes.

738
00:44:51,460 --> 00:44:56,780
They'll say, "Well, I'm setting this goal and they put their hope in that goal."

739
00:44:56,780 --> 00:45:01,700
Instead of saying, "Wait a second, I got to put my hope in God whether I reach that goal

740
00:45:01,700 --> 00:45:05,540
or not, He is still at work."

741
00:45:05,540 --> 00:45:10,420
Because my goals are temporary, they may even change depending on my health.

742
00:45:10,420 --> 00:45:15,620
People put their hopes in other people's expectations, and this is where it gets really

743
00:45:15,620 --> 00:45:16,860
tough.

744
00:45:16,860 --> 00:45:18,660
Because people let us down.

745
00:45:18,660 --> 00:45:20,900
And we say, "Well, I'm going to put my hope in that person.

746
00:45:20,900 --> 00:45:23,340
Put my hope in that individual."

747
00:45:23,340 --> 00:45:25,380
Well, sometimes the pastor of a church.

748
00:45:25,380 --> 00:45:26,700
The pastor of a church.

749
00:45:26,700 --> 00:45:30,380
Now you can put the hope in the message the pastor gives it's the right one.

750
00:45:30,380 --> 00:45:31,380
The which is different.

751
00:45:31,380 --> 00:45:32,380
And the God, right.

752
00:45:32,380 --> 00:45:35,660
But even putting your hope in the pastor of the church, he's a human being.

753
00:45:35,660 --> 00:45:37,140
He's got fear to play.

754
00:45:37,140 --> 00:45:38,700
He's just like everyone else.

755
00:45:38,700 --> 00:45:43,780
You have to put your hope in God himself, who we'll never let you down.

756
00:45:43,780 --> 00:45:47,540
Our successes and achievements.

757
00:45:47,540 --> 00:45:48,740
We put our hope in those.

758
00:45:48,740 --> 00:45:50,180
We say, "Look, I did it then.

759
00:45:50,180 --> 00:45:51,500
I can do it now."

760
00:45:51,500 --> 00:45:55,580
Not always, depending on circumstances.

761
00:45:55,580 --> 00:45:59,860
So those are temporal hopes that aren't anchor points.

762
00:45:59,860 --> 00:46:02,660
And sometimes we put our hope in our material goods.

763
00:46:02,660 --> 00:46:10,700
We walk around like Nebuchadnezzar in the Old Testament saying, "Look what I built."

764
00:46:10,700 --> 00:46:14,860
And God says, "Yes, and look what I'm taking away from you for about seven years."

765
00:46:14,860 --> 00:46:16,820
And he does it.

766
00:46:16,820 --> 00:46:19,380
Until he acknowledges, "I guess I didn't build this.

767
00:46:19,380 --> 00:46:21,140
I guess you did."

768
00:46:21,140 --> 00:46:27,620
So there's nothing outside, nothing in this world that's going to be more stable than

769
00:46:27,620 --> 00:46:28,900
the anchor of our souls.

770
00:46:28,900 --> 00:46:35,500
And that's Jesus Christ himself and our faith in God and his unwavering character.

771
00:46:35,500 --> 00:46:40,420
Because nothing happens here that changes the character of God.

772
00:46:40,420 --> 00:46:45,500
Unlike a lot of people's perspective of God, they have kind of a picture of God as a large

773
00:46:45,500 --> 00:46:47,700
human being.

774
00:46:47,700 --> 00:46:49,500
And he's fickle.

775
00:46:49,500 --> 00:46:55,540
If I don't do this, I really get a mad and it's going to be difficult days ahead.

776
00:46:55,540 --> 00:46:57,660
Or if I do this, he's really happy.

777
00:46:57,660 --> 00:47:01,340
So I spend my whole life trying to figure out what's going to make him happy, what's going

778
00:47:01,340 --> 00:47:02,580
to take him off.

779
00:47:02,580 --> 00:47:07,580
And then there's no hope in there either because you become a slave at that point.

780
00:47:07,580 --> 00:47:12,580
But no, you put your hope in God and what Jesus has done and you're free at that point.

781
00:47:12,580 --> 00:47:18,060
Yeah. And I was thinking also, you know, when it comes to the temporal things of how we live

782
00:47:18,060 --> 00:47:25,620
our faith in this world in which we live in through all the various circumstances.

783
00:47:25,620 --> 00:47:30,180
There's also a bigger picture of what we're putting our hope in and that is the eternal

784
00:47:30,180 --> 00:47:32,580
perspective.

785
00:47:32,580 --> 00:47:39,660
And how many times have we've come across and I used to think this myself before, I committed

786
00:47:39,660 --> 00:47:43,260
my own life to Christ and what he did for us on the cross.

787
00:47:43,260 --> 00:47:50,740
But there was never an assurance many, many people lived their life in hope that they're

788
00:47:50,740 --> 00:47:55,540
going to be good enough to stand at the right side of God.

789
00:47:55,540 --> 00:48:04,020
And I want you to talk a little bit about how there's a bigger spiritual realm that is

790
00:48:04,020 --> 00:48:08,220
our hope for our eternity.

791
00:48:08,220 --> 00:48:12,420
And because we live between two worlds.

792
00:48:12,420 --> 00:48:16,140
We live in the now, in between the now and the not yet.

793
00:48:16,140 --> 00:48:25,500
And yet the promises in the not yet are eternal and it helps us to anchor ourselves in helping

794
00:48:25,500 --> 00:48:28,340
us to live our life in the temporal.

795
00:48:28,340 --> 00:48:29,340
Exactly.

796
00:48:29,340 --> 00:48:30,340
Exactly.

797
00:48:30,340 --> 00:48:31,620
That's the way it works for me.

798
00:48:31,620 --> 00:48:32,620
Yeah.

799
00:48:32,620 --> 00:48:33,620
Yeah.

800
00:48:33,620 --> 00:48:35,100
It is.

801
00:48:35,100 --> 00:48:40,980
We have these promises that God is going to return and all that is not right will be made

802
00:48:40,980 --> 00:48:41,980
right.

803
00:48:41,980 --> 00:48:45,300
All that's unjust will be found just.

804
00:48:45,300 --> 00:48:47,820
There will be a day when judgment will come.

805
00:48:47,820 --> 00:48:49,780
I mean, judgment is going to come.

806
00:48:49,780 --> 00:48:56,220
And those who think they're living freely are going to give an account for that.

807
00:48:56,220 --> 00:49:02,260
And there's coming this day when the earth will be made new, new.

808
00:49:02,260 --> 00:49:06,840
And there's coming this day when in the book of Revelation it says, you're going to see every

809
00:49:06,840 --> 00:49:11,460
tribe, every nation there and there's going to be no need for darkness or a lighter sun

810
00:49:11,460 --> 00:49:14,180
because it's going to be a perfect place.

811
00:49:14,180 --> 00:49:15,900
It's going to be free of sin.

812
00:49:15,900 --> 00:49:18,260
There's not going to be any more struggles.

813
00:49:18,260 --> 00:49:20,660
There's not going to be any more relational problems.

814
00:49:20,660 --> 00:49:22,900
There's not going to be any more sickness.

815
00:49:22,900 --> 00:49:27,820
There's not going to be any more tension between nations.

816
00:49:27,820 --> 00:49:29,580
There's not going to be any of that.

817
00:49:29,580 --> 00:49:32,620
In fact, there's not even going to be a marriage in there.

818
00:49:32,620 --> 00:49:37,700
The Bible says there's going to be no marriage in heaven because everyone becomes one.

819
00:49:37,700 --> 00:49:43,220
Everybody is male and female and living in this environment that was originally intended

820
00:49:43,220 --> 00:49:44,220
to fill us.

821
00:49:44,220 --> 00:49:48,420
And we put our hope in that.

822
00:49:48,420 --> 00:49:54,700
It's, I always see the future as sort of a movie trailer.

823
00:49:54,700 --> 00:49:58,620
You know, you go to a movie and you're sitting in the seat there and you know, you and

824
00:49:58,620 --> 00:50:06,540
Christina have done a Kathy and I've done it and you're watching the previews and you see

825
00:50:06,540 --> 00:50:10,260
a good one and you go, Hey, let's mark that one and come to that one.

826
00:50:10,260 --> 00:50:12,020
We know that's going to happen, right?

827
00:50:12,020 --> 00:50:14,500
But the trailer is not the movie.

828
00:50:14,500 --> 00:50:18,580
The trailer is just a taste of the movie, right?

829
00:50:18,580 --> 00:50:23,740
Or you're sitting there and you're watching another trailer and you go, No, not for me.

830
00:50:23,740 --> 00:50:24,740
Not for me.

831
00:50:24,740 --> 00:50:27,580
Kathy, I go, Nope, we're not seeing that one.

832
00:50:27,580 --> 00:50:32,760
But what we're to do here because we have that hope as you just mentioned, we're to take

833
00:50:32,760 --> 00:50:37,940
what we hope in the future and live it out today.

834
00:50:37,940 --> 00:50:45,620
So my life and how I treat people, my church and the church that I passed are ought to be

835
00:50:45,620 --> 00:50:51,740
a reflection of our hope in this more beautiful future.

836
00:50:51,740 --> 00:50:59,420
So when we provide food for people who need it, what are we saying?

837
00:50:59,420 --> 00:51:06,180
There's coming a day when you won't ever be hungry and we're letting you know that right

838
00:51:06,180 --> 00:51:07,180
now.

839
00:51:07,180 --> 00:51:12,580
Health, when we provide people with medical care, hey, guess what?

840
00:51:12,580 --> 00:51:15,700
There's coming a day when there won't be a need for medical to care but we'll give you

841
00:51:15,700 --> 00:51:18,180
a little taste of that right now.

842
00:51:18,180 --> 00:51:24,400
And we say, Hey, we're going to go with you and we're going to walk with you through this

843
00:51:24,400 --> 00:51:26,900
tough experience.

844
00:51:26,900 --> 00:51:29,220
We know there's coming a day when you won't even go through this.

845
00:51:29,220 --> 00:51:35,820
So we're going to bring a bit of that love and that tenderness now all based on the promises

846
00:51:35,820 --> 00:51:40,740
of God and His unwavering character that yes, there will come a day when there will be a

847
00:51:40,740 --> 00:51:42,020
new heaven and a new earth.

848
00:51:42,020 --> 00:51:44,100
He will dry every tear.

849
00:51:44,100 --> 00:51:45,700
He will heal everyone.

850
00:51:45,700 --> 00:51:47,900
There will be no need for any of that.

851
00:51:47,900 --> 00:51:53,140
So we look at that with great confidence in His unwavering character and promises and

852
00:51:53,140 --> 00:51:54,460
that changes everything.

853
00:51:54,460 --> 00:51:56,420
We live it all out now.

854
00:51:56,420 --> 00:51:58,540
Let me throw this at you.

855
00:51:58,540 --> 00:52:05,340
You mentioned that there were three types of people that have hope or that use the word

856
00:52:05,340 --> 00:52:06,340
hope.

857
00:52:06,340 --> 00:52:07,740
There's hopeless people.

858
00:52:07,740 --> 00:52:11,740
There's hope so people and then there's hopeful people.

859
00:52:11,740 --> 00:52:19,100
This implied in those three types of how we approach hope from a temporal perspective.

860
00:52:19,100 --> 00:52:22,700
What's implied in that is that it may not happen.

861
00:52:22,700 --> 00:52:23,700
That's right.

862
00:52:23,700 --> 00:52:26,100
There's always the risk that it's not going to happen.

863
00:52:26,100 --> 00:52:27,580
All of those bring doubt.

864
00:52:27,580 --> 00:52:33,100
There's doubt in every single one of those responses from being hopeless to hope so, to

865
00:52:33,100 --> 00:52:36,140
hope, hope, fall.

866
00:52:36,140 --> 00:52:37,740
But not complete.

867
00:52:37,740 --> 00:52:44,020
On the other hand, the hope that is anchored in an unwavering God and the promises that He

868
00:52:44,020 --> 00:52:46,860
brings to us.

869
00:52:46,860 --> 00:52:54,380
One of those promises is because a lot of people think, "Well, if I do go to heaven, I'm

870
00:52:54,380 --> 00:52:58,340
not really sure, or maybe I'm not sure I'm going to go to heaven."

871
00:52:58,340 --> 00:52:59,340
I hope so.

872
00:52:59,340 --> 00:53:00,340
There you go.

873
00:53:00,340 --> 00:53:03,420
There's hope so people.

874
00:53:03,420 --> 00:53:11,020
Yet when you anchor yourself in the hope that God has already given to us, there's a passage

875
00:53:11,020 --> 00:53:15,300
of Scripture that I keep going back to.

876
00:53:15,300 --> 00:53:20,940
Death nor angels nor principalities shall separate me from the love of God.

877
00:53:20,940 --> 00:53:22,620
And so there's nothing.

878
00:53:22,620 --> 00:53:28,340
There's nothing that is going to interfere with the hope that I have in an unwavering God

879
00:53:28,340 --> 00:53:29,340
in His promises.

880
00:53:29,340 --> 00:53:30,340
Yep.

881
00:53:30,340 --> 00:53:31,340
It's exactly right.

882
00:53:31,340 --> 00:53:35,620
Romans 8, that's Paul the Apostle, when he says, "Paul the Apostle scans the universe,"

883
00:53:35,620 --> 00:53:40,940
and he says, "It's neither death nor life nor angels nor principalities nor height nor

884
00:53:40,940 --> 00:53:47,160
death nor demons nor any other thing can separate me from the love of God that is in Christ

885
00:53:47,160 --> 00:53:48,160
Jesus."

886
00:53:48,160 --> 00:53:49,160
Why is that?

887
00:53:49,160 --> 00:53:50,820
Because it's a living hope.

888
00:53:50,820 --> 00:53:57,420
Jesus is alive and our hope is in the person of Jesus and the fact that He's alive.

889
00:53:57,420 --> 00:54:03,740
So if you've trusted in Him, you've transferred the trust in yourself, in the hopelessness and

890
00:54:03,740 --> 00:54:10,140
the hope so, and the hopeful ways that we as human beings tend to live out our temporal

891
00:54:10,140 --> 00:54:11,140
lives.

892
00:54:11,140 --> 00:54:18,820
When you transfer that trust into Him, nothing shall separate you, so that's your hope.

893
00:54:18,820 --> 00:54:19,820
That's the anchor.

894
00:54:19,820 --> 00:54:25,820
And that's the anchor that not only gives you stability to live here, but pulls you forward

895
00:54:25,820 --> 00:54:30,020
into the future because nothing separates you from that.

896
00:54:30,020 --> 00:54:34,340
You have that already settled the issue of the relationship I have with God.

897
00:54:34,340 --> 00:54:35,780
How do I get to heaven?

898
00:54:35,780 --> 00:54:38,140
How will I know for sure I get to heaven?

899
00:54:38,140 --> 00:54:39,140
That's settled.

900
00:54:39,140 --> 00:54:43,660
And you settle that key aspect of life.

901
00:54:43,660 --> 00:54:44,660
You don't worry.

902
00:54:44,660 --> 00:54:47,460
Don't worry at all about your relationship with God.

903
00:54:47,460 --> 00:54:52,660
And you don't worry about really life itself because there's more to life than this life.

904
00:54:52,660 --> 00:54:58,940
When Christians look at this type of hope and they say, "It's a gift."

905
00:54:58,940 --> 00:55:02,620
It's a free gift with no strings attached.

906
00:55:02,620 --> 00:55:08,540
And when you embrace that gift and you open it, receive it, nothing shall separate you

907
00:55:08,540 --> 00:55:14,180
from the love of God, all the things that you just said in Romans chapter 8.

908
00:55:14,180 --> 00:55:16,940
How do I know that that's true?

909
00:55:16,940 --> 00:55:23,620
Well, you know that that's true because first of all, Jesus rose from the dead.

910
00:55:23,620 --> 00:55:27,220
That's how you know that's true because he made that promise.

911
00:55:27,220 --> 00:55:28,740
He's the resurrection in the life.

912
00:55:28,740 --> 00:55:33,820
He that believes in me, even though he dies, yet he will live and he that liveth and believe

913
00:55:33,820 --> 00:55:35,340
in me will never die.

914
00:55:35,340 --> 00:55:37,620
In other words, Jesus made that promise.

915
00:55:37,620 --> 00:55:39,660
His resurrection is the key.

916
00:55:39,660 --> 00:55:41,620
He conquered death and he rose from the dead.

917
00:55:41,620 --> 00:55:42,900
He said he would.

918
00:55:42,900 --> 00:55:45,740
So Jesus is the sting of death.

919
00:55:45,740 --> 00:55:47,060
The sting of death there.

920
00:55:47,060 --> 00:55:48,060
1 Corinthians 15.

921
00:55:48,060 --> 00:55:52,300
And he's called the first fruit of people who believe.

922
00:55:52,300 --> 00:55:57,620
So just like he rose from the dead, more fruit follows and that's us who make that belief.

923
00:55:57,620 --> 00:56:00,380
That's part of the fruit of his resurrection.

924
00:56:00,380 --> 00:56:01,380
So it's true.

925
00:56:01,380 --> 00:56:04,940
Secondly, you can see it in the resurrected life of other people.

926
00:56:04,940 --> 00:56:07,780
You can see that happening.

927
00:56:07,780 --> 00:56:09,540
And you experience it yourself.

928
00:56:09,540 --> 00:56:14,820
Once you become a follower of Jesus, the Holy Spirit comes into your life and changes

929
00:56:14,820 --> 00:56:18,380
your insides completely, changes your thoughts.

930
00:56:18,380 --> 00:56:22,300
And we have assurance based upon that.

931
00:56:22,300 --> 00:56:24,620
That nothing can separate us from God.

932
00:56:24,620 --> 00:56:25,620
Nothing.

933
00:56:25,620 --> 00:56:26,620
Absolutely nothing.

934
00:56:26,620 --> 00:56:30,340
And the Holy Spirit confirms with us that we are children of God.

935
00:56:30,340 --> 00:56:36,900
And even when we doubt that, first John says, "If my conscience condemns me, makes me think

936
00:56:36,900 --> 00:56:42,660
I haven't, it doesn't matter because my conscience isn't the ultimate judge.

937
00:56:42,660 --> 00:56:45,900
God is greater than our consciences."

938
00:56:45,900 --> 00:56:50,300
So God is greater even though we might feel guilty about certain things and we've trusted

939
00:56:50,300 --> 00:56:54,940
Christ, even though we might have doubts, doesn't matter because God is greater than all of

940
00:56:54,940 --> 00:56:55,940
it.

941
00:56:55,940 --> 00:57:00,380
He takes, that does not keep you from eternal life at all.

942
00:57:00,380 --> 00:57:02,060
None of it does.

943
00:57:02,060 --> 00:57:04,780
That's settled in Jesus Christ.

944
00:57:04,780 --> 00:57:11,500
I heard a cool message from a man and it was about the thief on the cross.

945
00:57:11,500 --> 00:57:13,620
This is so cool.

946
00:57:13,620 --> 00:57:18,540
And he was saying, "What would the thief on the cross say?"

947
00:57:18,540 --> 00:57:22,780
And he said, "We don't know if this ever happened, but what would he say when he stood before

948
00:57:22,780 --> 00:57:23,780
Peter?"

949
00:57:23,780 --> 00:57:26,060
We don't know if this happens.

950
00:57:26,060 --> 00:57:29,780
And Peter said, "Why should I let you into my heaven?"

951
00:57:29,780 --> 00:57:32,220
Now this is the thief on the cross.

952
00:57:32,220 --> 00:57:36,180
He has made a deathbed confession.

953
00:57:36,180 --> 00:57:38,140
Okay?

954
00:57:38,140 --> 00:57:41,620
This is terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

955
00:57:41,620 --> 00:57:45,180
And he's made this deathbed confession.

956
00:57:45,180 --> 00:57:47,780
What would he say to Peter?

957
00:57:47,780 --> 00:57:53,040
And the person giving the message said, "The only thing he can say and the only thing

958
00:57:53,040 --> 00:57:57,660
he can say is the guy in the middle told me I could."

959
00:57:57,660 --> 00:58:00,820
In other words, the thief on the cross.

960
00:58:00,820 --> 00:58:04,620
Remember Jesus was crucified between two thieves.

961
00:58:04,620 --> 00:58:09,700
And all he could say is, "The guy in the middle told me I could."

962
00:58:09,700 --> 00:58:13,060
That's our hope because Jesus told us we could.

963
00:58:13,060 --> 00:58:14,300
For what he did for us.

964
00:58:14,300 --> 00:58:16,180
For what he did for us.

965
00:58:16,180 --> 00:58:21,220
He says to that thief, "You'll be in paradise with me today, today.

966
00:58:21,220 --> 00:58:24,180
Right now you're going to be in paradise with me."

967
00:58:24,180 --> 00:58:25,580
That's the promise.

968
00:58:25,580 --> 00:58:29,500
He made a promise and he was.

969
00:58:29,500 --> 00:58:33,820
I hope in the future I can meet that guy and go, "What'd you think?"

970
00:58:33,820 --> 00:58:34,820
You know?

971
00:58:34,820 --> 00:58:38,140
Because that's what, based on what Jesus did for us, Mark.

972
00:58:38,140 --> 00:58:39,700
And you've been there to yourself.

973
00:58:39,700 --> 00:58:41,940
I mean, you've made that decision.

974
00:58:41,940 --> 00:58:43,420
I've made that decision.

975
00:58:43,420 --> 00:58:48,180
Countless other millions upon billions of people probably since the first century have made

976
00:58:48,180 --> 00:58:51,220
that decision to know Jesus.

977
00:58:51,220 --> 00:58:57,620
And once you have that, it's by grace that you're saved, not by works.

978
00:58:57,620 --> 00:59:03,740
I'm going to share from my own personal testimony and story about how...

979
00:59:03,740 --> 00:59:09,220
We've all been that hopeless...

980
00:59:09,220 --> 00:59:11,340
We have those hopeless moments.

981
00:59:11,340 --> 00:59:17,780
We all have those hopes so moments in our lives and we all have the hopeful moments in our

982
00:59:17,780 --> 00:59:19,460
lives.

983
00:59:19,460 --> 00:59:25,620
But what's implied as I was referring to earlier is what's implied is that there's a doubt

984
00:59:25,620 --> 00:59:28,420
or that it may or may not happen.

985
00:59:28,420 --> 00:59:30,940
The outcome may or may not happen.

986
00:59:30,940 --> 00:59:32,040
Not a sure thing.

987
00:59:32,040 --> 00:59:41,680
When I was a junior in high school here in Hillsboro, Oregon, I had an English teacher at the

988
00:59:41,680 --> 00:59:47,160
high school back when they still taught the Bible as literature.

989
00:59:47,160 --> 00:59:55,120
And he was an old campus crusade guy and he began challenging my belief systems.

990
00:59:55,120 --> 00:59:59,000
And he began challenging one of the things that I've noticed is that he began challenging

991
00:59:59,000 --> 01:00:04,960
the hope that I was putting my trust in for eternity.

992
01:00:04,960 --> 01:00:11,480
And I quickly learned that it was a lot of it was based on hopelessness and hope so and

993
01:00:11,480 --> 01:00:15,240
hopeful and there was never an assurance.

994
01:00:15,240 --> 01:00:18,040
Even though we were churchgoers.

995
01:00:18,040 --> 01:00:21,480
And it wasn't until this...

996
01:00:21,480 --> 01:00:31,840
He was a crusade in Hillsboro, Oregon at the Evergreen Church back in 1975.

997
01:00:31,840 --> 01:00:33,520
And there was this guy.

998
01:00:33,520 --> 01:00:34,520
He was an evangelist.

999
01:00:34,520 --> 01:00:40,840
He was coming through town and he was telling his story of traveling across the United States.

1000
01:00:40,840 --> 01:00:51,200
And he was talking about the stories of hope that he had in Christ and how he was...

1001
01:00:51,200 --> 01:00:59,040
The stories were amazing and only God given answers and the confidence that he had in his

1002
01:00:59,040 --> 01:01:04,320
anchor, Jesus Christ himself, I said, "That's what I want.

1003
01:01:04,320 --> 01:01:11,640
I don't want to belong to a religion or I don't want to go through my life thinking that

1004
01:01:11,640 --> 01:01:15,160
I hope everything works out in the end."

1005
01:01:15,160 --> 01:01:17,880
Because there's too many questions.

1006
01:01:17,880 --> 01:01:24,640
I wanted an anchor and that's when I made that profession of faith and put my trust, transferring

1007
01:01:24,640 --> 01:01:29,880
my trust in myself and putting it in the person of Jesus Christ.

1008
01:01:29,880 --> 01:01:33,720
What he already did for us on the cross.

1009
01:01:33,720 --> 01:01:39,520
And that's death, no angels, no principalities, death, nothing shall separate you from the love

1010
01:01:39,520 --> 01:01:40,520
of God.

1011
01:01:40,520 --> 01:01:42,760
And that has always stayed with me to this very day.

1012
01:01:42,760 --> 01:01:45,600
That's what propelled me to move forward.

1013
01:01:45,600 --> 01:01:47,400
Even in life's storms.

1014
01:01:47,400 --> 01:01:53,280
I loved your analogy of throwing the anchor out and I look back on my life and through all

1015
01:01:53,280 --> 01:01:55,680
the storms of life, I've...

1016
01:01:55,680 --> 01:02:02,720
Yeah, there's times when I've had to rest with that anchor and just sit there for a while.

1017
01:02:02,720 --> 01:02:08,280
But then there's that moment where you realize you got to keep moving forward and you put

1018
01:02:08,280 --> 01:02:14,280
that trust and that hope in Jesus and what he did for us on the cross.

1019
01:02:14,280 --> 01:02:16,480
And that's what keeps me going.

1020
01:02:16,480 --> 01:02:26,080
That's what is my motivation and I am so grateful for God's gift of eternity.

1021
01:02:26,080 --> 01:02:27,080
And it's...

1022
01:02:27,080 --> 01:02:31,440
I keep saying it over and over again to many, many people.

1023
01:02:31,440 --> 01:02:32,640
You don't have to...

1024
01:02:32,640 --> 01:02:35,200
There's nothing you can do to earn it.

1025
01:02:35,200 --> 01:02:37,040
I cannot earn it.

1026
01:02:37,040 --> 01:02:42,400
If you think in terms of earning something, then it becomes hope so.

1027
01:02:42,400 --> 01:02:51,240
When it becomes...you experience more hopelessness and you're going to be hopeful instead of putting

1028
01:02:51,240 --> 01:03:00,000
your anchor in an unwavering God that is filled with promises of eternity and that's what

1029
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:02,040
keeps us moving forward.

1030
01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:08,360
Keeping our eyes on the things above yet are feet firmly planted upon this earth.

1031
01:03:08,360 --> 01:03:10,000
That's the strongest hope you can have.

1032
01:03:10,000 --> 01:03:12,120
There's no other way of looking at it.

1033
01:03:12,120 --> 01:03:13,120
That's it.

1034
01:03:13,120 --> 01:03:14,120
That's it.

1035
01:03:14,120 --> 01:03:15,120
There's no...

1036
01:03:15,120 --> 01:03:16,120
Yeah.

1037
01:03:16,120 --> 01:03:17,120
That's the anchor.

1038
01:03:17,120 --> 01:03:22,360
Christ is the anchor and the promises of God are the anchor and there's no other way you can

1039
01:03:22,360 --> 01:03:23,360
live.

1040
01:03:23,360 --> 01:03:24,840
Because everything else is temporal.

1041
01:03:24,840 --> 01:03:26,000
Everything is exactly what you said.

1042
01:03:26,000 --> 01:03:29,600
You're either hopeless, you're hope so or you're hopeful.

1043
01:03:29,600 --> 01:03:33,360
But those are totally temporal.

1044
01:03:33,360 --> 01:03:36,240
And life hasn't always gone the way I wanted it to go.

1045
01:03:36,240 --> 01:03:41,720
It's never...it hasn't always gone the way I planned it.

1046
01:03:41,720 --> 01:03:49,720
But as I keep my eyes focused on the things above and I keep my eyes focused on the anchor,

1047
01:03:49,720 --> 01:03:59,520
God Himself, that I live in a world of hope that I cannot produce for myself.

1048
01:03:59,520 --> 01:04:01,920
It's what God has done for me.

1049
01:04:01,920 --> 01:04:06,080
And that is when you get to that place, it is freeing.

1050
01:04:06,080 --> 01:04:07,080
It is freeing.

1051
01:04:07,080 --> 01:04:09,720
You know, I was thinking as you were talking, you said the plan.

1052
01:04:09,720 --> 01:04:12,200
Well, what does the Bible say?

1053
01:04:12,200 --> 01:04:15,680
Man plans his ways in the Lord directs his steps.

1054
01:04:15,680 --> 01:04:16,680
There you go.

1055
01:04:16,680 --> 01:04:20,840
I can make a plan, but the Lord is ultimately going to direct me in that plan.

1056
01:04:20,840 --> 01:04:26,320
So I have hope that even if my plan fails, there's a better plan that God had in mind.

1057
01:04:26,320 --> 01:04:28,480
So I don't look at myself as a failure.

1058
01:04:28,480 --> 01:04:31,640
I don't look at myself as having done something wrong.

1059
01:04:31,640 --> 01:04:38,400
No, I've learned something and God has something better for me, which keeps me from worrying

1060
01:04:38,400 --> 01:04:39,400
about it.

1061
01:04:39,400 --> 01:04:40,400
But the plans didn't work out.

1062
01:04:40,400 --> 01:04:41,400
I'm not a failure.

1063
01:04:41,400 --> 01:04:45,080
I just learned one way of not doing something.

1064
01:04:45,080 --> 01:04:48,760
But if that plan was to work, God would have made it work.

1065
01:04:48,760 --> 01:04:52,200
He's got something better, right?

1066
01:04:52,200 --> 01:04:57,840
So my hope is in Him that He's got something better, not my hope in myself that I'm going

1067
01:04:57,840 --> 01:05:00,920
to somehow create something really cool to make this work.

1068
01:05:00,920 --> 01:05:04,400
And that better can be here in the temporal world in which we live in.

1069
01:05:04,400 --> 01:05:07,240
God doesn't want us to live in misery.

1070
01:05:07,240 --> 01:05:13,320
But even in the midst of misery, we can still find that anchor in Him and stay in the world.

1071
01:05:13,320 --> 01:05:14,320
Absolutely.

1072
01:05:14,320 --> 01:05:19,560
I mean, some of the great hymns of Christianity are amazing.

1073
01:05:19,560 --> 01:05:21,760
The one with the sea.

1074
01:05:21,760 --> 01:05:22,760
What's...

1075
01:05:22,760 --> 01:05:23,760
Yeah.

1076
01:05:23,760 --> 01:05:24,760
Yeah.

1077
01:05:24,760 --> 01:05:29,560
I'm trying to think of that one as well with my soul.

1078
01:05:29,560 --> 01:05:30,960
It is well with my soul.

1079
01:05:30,960 --> 01:05:31,960
That's the one.

1080
01:05:31,960 --> 01:05:33,200
One of my favorites.

1081
01:05:33,200 --> 01:05:34,720
Do you know the history behind that story?

1082
01:05:34,720 --> 01:05:35,720
Oh, I do know the history behind that story.

1083
01:05:35,720 --> 01:05:36,720
Tell our audience.

1084
01:05:36,720 --> 01:05:46,360
Well, it was a missionary who had come back over to the states and left his wife and family

1085
01:05:46,360 --> 01:05:53,240
over in Europe and they got on to a ship to come over and meet him.

1086
01:05:53,240 --> 01:05:54,520
The ship was destroyed.

1087
01:05:54,520 --> 01:05:56,840
True story of the ship was destroyed.

1088
01:05:56,840 --> 01:05:58,080
Lost his whole family.

1089
01:05:58,080 --> 01:06:00,120
His wife, his daughters.

1090
01:06:00,120 --> 01:06:04,160
And in the midst of it, he said, you know, when peace like a river attended my way and sorrow

1091
01:06:04,160 --> 01:06:06,000
like sea billows rule.

1092
01:06:06,000 --> 01:06:09,720
I mean, he said, I am just torn up by this.

1093
01:06:09,720 --> 01:06:14,040
Whatever my lot, it will cost me to say it is well with my soul.

1094
01:06:14,040 --> 01:06:20,960
I can still trust God in the midst of the worst pain because I have that anchor.

1095
01:06:20,960 --> 01:06:21,960
God is at work.

1096
01:06:21,960 --> 01:06:23,480
And I don't see the good in this.

1097
01:06:23,480 --> 01:06:25,480
I don't understand it.

1098
01:06:25,480 --> 01:06:27,600
Even in that, I know God's at work.

1099
01:06:27,600 --> 01:06:29,280
So I don't have to collapse.

1100
01:06:29,280 --> 01:06:34,960
I don't have to find myself in the dark night of despair for a long time.

1101
01:06:34,960 --> 01:06:37,840
Maybe for a while, but not always.

1102
01:06:37,840 --> 01:06:38,840
And that's a story.

1103
01:06:38,840 --> 01:06:41,760
He just says, it's still well with my soul because I have that anchor.

1104
01:06:41,760 --> 01:06:44,720
I have that future perspective.

1105
01:06:44,720 --> 01:06:48,440
And I just did a memorial service.

1106
01:06:48,440 --> 01:06:55,720
And I can tell you, the people that were there, they lost a 30 year old daughter.

1107
01:06:55,720 --> 01:07:01,280
And they said, the greatest anchor we have is she's with the Lord.

1108
01:07:01,280 --> 01:07:03,160
She'd never come back.

1109
01:07:03,160 --> 01:07:10,080
She's seeing an HD TV, what we only see through dimly now.

1110
01:07:10,080 --> 01:07:14,160
And their hope is in the promise of God and the character of God.

1111
01:07:14,160 --> 01:07:16,200
She made that decision.

1112
01:07:16,200 --> 01:07:20,440
So to be absent from the bodies to be present with the Lord, and they said, yeah, she wouldn't

1113
01:07:20,440 --> 01:07:21,440
come back.

1114
01:07:21,440 --> 01:07:26,880
Even if we wanted her back, she would not come back because she had the anchor.

1115
01:07:26,880 --> 01:07:30,120
She had that part of her life in order.

1116
01:07:30,120 --> 01:07:37,560
So that changes the whole perspective on even death and dying, which we can address later.

1117
01:07:37,560 --> 01:07:38,560
Absolutely.

1118
01:07:38,560 --> 01:07:42,720
Well, that's probably a good place for us to stop.

1119
01:07:42,720 --> 01:07:49,680
And with that story, it is well with my soul and to have that kind of an anchor, even when

1120
01:07:49,680 --> 01:07:53,320
you're going through the darkest moments of your life.

1121
01:07:53,320 --> 01:07:56,240
And God is there.

1122
01:07:56,240 --> 01:08:00,800
There's no doubt in the hope in God, no doubt in it.

1123
01:08:00,800 --> 01:08:06,560
There's doubt in everything else, but there's no doubt in the character and promises of God.

1124
01:08:06,560 --> 01:08:13,520
And we should all be working towards that ultimate anchor himself and providing our lives,

1125
01:08:13,520 --> 01:08:17,320
living our lives out in the true hope.

1126
01:08:17,320 --> 01:08:18,320
Absolutely.

1127
01:08:18,320 --> 01:08:19,960
In his promise to that.

1128
01:08:19,960 --> 01:08:20,960
Yep.

1129
01:08:20,960 --> 01:08:25,660
Well, Tom, is there, if there's somebody that would love to have this conversation,

1130
01:08:25,660 --> 01:08:30,620
continue on with you, what's the best way for them to reach out to you?

1131
01:08:30,620 --> 01:08:33,780
Oh, probably would be my email at Gateway Church.

1132
01:08:33,780 --> 01:08:39,500
So it's Tom at GatewayChurchPDX.com.

1133
01:08:39,500 --> 01:08:44,220
So it's just Tom at GatewayChurchPDX.com.

1134
01:08:44,220 --> 01:08:52,620
They can also call the office, our office administrator, Church administrator will pick it up.

1135
01:08:52,620 --> 01:08:59,100
And 503-252-1435, that's another way that you can get a hold of me.

1136
01:08:59,100 --> 01:09:02,660
I'm under Facebook, under Thomas R. Shive.

1137
01:09:02,660 --> 01:09:07,300
I put this thing together years ago and somebody gave me, you know, just put your whole name

1138
01:09:07,300 --> 01:09:08,300
up there.

1139
01:09:08,300 --> 01:09:11,060
It sounds a little formal.

1140
01:09:11,060 --> 01:09:12,980
But just, you know, pull my name up.

1141
01:09:12,980 --> 01:09:20,540
Thomas R. Shive, SCHIV as Invictor E, message me on Facebook.

1142
01:09:20,540 --> 01:09:24,140
That's another quick way that you can get a hold of me too.

1143
01:09:24,140 --> 01:09:31,260
I've got a Twitter account and Instagram, but that was aren't the ways to get a hold of me.

1144
01:09:31,260 --> 01:09:34,380
Email, Facebook, phone, that all works great.

1145
01:09:34,380 --> 01:09:35,380
Yeah.

1146
01:09:35,380 --> 01:09:38,580
Well, we definitely live in 11 times.

1147
01:09:38,580 --> 01:09:39,940
We live in dark times.

1148
01:09:39,940 --> 01:09:42,340
We live in changing times.

1149
01:09:42,340 --> 01:09:50,300
And the times that we live in sometimes make us feel like we live with a lot of hopelessness

1150
01:09:50,300 --> 01:09:53,620
and hope so and hopefulness.

1151
01:09:53,620 --> 01:09:56,300
And yet there's something greater out there.

1152
01:09:56,300 --> 01:10:06,340
And we hope, I hope, that all of you, our listeners, would continue your search moving forward

1153
01:10:06,340 --> 01:10:13,860
and finding that true anchor, the anchor in God Himself through what His work has done

1154
01:10:13,860 --> 01:10:16,700
through us in the person of Jesus Christ.

1155
01:10:16,700 --> 01:10:22,420
So we hope that that is something that you will aspire to in 2024.

1156
01:10:22,420 --> 01:10:24,460
The Holy Spirit will guide you.

1157
01:10:24,460 --> 01:10:25,580
That is for sure.

1158
01:10:25,580 --> 01:10:30,180
This is Mark Turnbull, your host, and I want to thank all of you for tuning in to Aging

1159
01:10:30,180 --> 01:10:31,380
today.

1160
01:10:31,380 --> 01:10:36,940
And we are the podcast where together we're exploring the many options to aging on your

1161
01:10:36,940 --> 01:10:37,940
terms.

1162
01:10:37,940 --> 01:10:43,740
Join us every Monday when we release a new conversation on Aging Today to your favorite

1163
01:10:43,740 --> 01:10:45,540
podcast channel.

1164
01:10:45,540 --> 01:10:48,780
And remember, we're all in the process of aging.

1165
01:10:48,780 --> 01:10:52,220
And as we age, we really are better together.

1166
01:10:52,220 --> 01:10:53,620
So stay young at heart.

1167
01:10:53,620 --> 01:10:54,620
[MUSIC]

1168
01:10:54,620 --> 01:11:04,620
[MUSIC]

1169
01:11:04,620 --> 01:11:14,620
[MUSIC]

1170
01:11:14,620 --> 01:11:24,620
[MUSIC]

1171
01:11:24,620 --> 01:11:34,620
[MUSIC]

1172
01:11:34,620 --> 01:11:44,620
[MUSIC]

1173
01:11:44,620 --> 01:11:45,620
[MUSIC]

1174
01:11:45,620 --> 01:11:51,020
You've been listening to Aging Today where together we explore the options to aging on your

1175
01:11:51,020 --> 01:11:52,020
terms.

1176
01:11:52,020 --> 01:11:57,780
Join Mark and his guest next week for another lively discussion on proactively aging on your

1177
01:11:57,780 --> 01:12:03,260
terms, connecting you to the professional advice of his special guests with the goal of

1178
01:12:03,260 --> 01:12:06,580
creating better days throughout the aging process.

1179
01:12:06,580 --> 01:12:09,060
Your host has been Mark Turnbull.

1180
01:12:09,060 --> 01:12:14,500
Join Mark and his guest every week on Aging Today, your podcast to exploring your options

1181
01:12:14,500 --> 01:12:16,300
for aging on your terms.

1182
01:12:16,300 --> 01:12:19,460
And even when I was in her head,

1183
01:12:19,460 --> 01:12:23,380
you make me feel the way I feel today,

1184
01:12:23,380 --> 01:12:27,200
'cause you make me feel so,

1185
01:12:27,200 --> 01:12:30,380
you make me feel so,

1186
01:12:30,380 --> 01:12:30,700
you make me feel so young,

1187
01:12:30,700 --> 01:12:41,260
so young, you make me feel so young,

1188
01:12:41,260 --> 01:12:44,440
you make me feel so young,

1189
01:12:44,440 --> 01:12:46,860
[music fades out]