Living Hope: Take Hope with You.

Hope should be a passenger on your journey.

Transcript

Take Hope With You

Transcript

00:00:00 Speaker 1

Welcome to points to ponder with Saint Pierre.

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I am Saint Pierre.

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I say to you that the journey of life can be riddled with challenges.

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But there is a powerful force of hope that can help us survive.

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If we remember to take it with us, let us ponder hope for our you.

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Hope is the feeling of trust that something will be hope.

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Is that expectation that something will happen, that something could be good or bad?

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This means that hope definitely has the power to affect change in our lives.

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If it wasn't powerful, we would never be encouraged to use it.

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Imagine going to a battlefield with the weapon that didn't work, that would be negligent, and most certainly deadly.

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No, we go to battle with proven weapons that are reliable and effective and hope is such a powerful weapon.

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It's a weapon of feeling that influences our decision making.

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Which ultimately influences our behaviors and outcomes.

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Now let us go a little deeper into examining the feeling of hope.

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Our feelings can oscillate from one extreme to another.

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We can go from moments of happiness to moments of sadness.

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We pivot from excited to mad when something triggers us and we call this change in emotions, a mood swing.

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If our feelings swing from one emotional extreme to another too often too easily and too excessively.

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Then clinically, that would be a bipolar disorder.

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Hope being a feeling can be bipolar.

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Oh well, hope can be expectations of good things.

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On one end, we'll call that hopeful.

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It can also be the expectation of bad things on the other end.

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We would call that hopeless like the climbs and falls of a roller coaster, or like the peaks and valleys of the Hill Country.

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Hope can shift from hopeful to hopeless and back, often easily and excessively sometimes what makes hope shift thought.

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What we think about affects how we feel.

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Our thoughts direct our emotions like when direct sales and waves direct a ship.

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Imagine hope as a scale.

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The right side of the scale ends at hopeful the left side of the scale ends at hopeless.

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The thoughts we have throughout the day move our position on the hope scale towards either side.

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We might wake up thinking the day is going to be a great one.

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This moves our position towards hopeful.

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Then think about the 100 tasks.

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We must complete that day and the many deadlines we might not meet.

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And suddenly anxiety shows up unannounced.

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Now our position on the hope scale moves towards the left towards hopeless throughout the day as we think and experience the troubles and triumphs of the day.

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We might swing back and forth, left to right all day long.

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The potential for such smooth swings is why we must learn to control our thought life.

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We must consciously police the things we think about.

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In second Corinthians 10/5, the apostle Paul encourages us to take every thought captive. This means we have full control of what is allowed to enter and linger in our minds, Paul says.

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Not only to take it captive, but to make it obey if our hope is encompassed in Christ Jesus, then every thought should be captured.

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Made to line up with all things Jesus.

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For example, if you believe Jesus loves you, then when a thought enters your head saying no one loves me, your first response should be to say no.

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This takes that thought captive.

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It arrests the negativity and binds it from going any further.

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Then we say Jesus loves me.

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This makes that thought obey what you believe.

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It forces alignment with your core principle that Jesus loves you.

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Once you have captured and subjected.

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Thought you have saved your position on the hope scale and may have moved it even closer to the best possible place to be hopeful.

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Not only is hope a bipolar scale, but it is also an anchor and anchor.

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Keeps a ship from drifting away.

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It is reliable, stable and secure as it is connected to the sea bottom.

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Likewise is our hope, but hope has no power if it is not anchored in something, just pull up an anchor of a ship and see how long the ship.

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Stays in place.

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Not for long.

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The waves and motion of the water will move the ship, and similarly, our hope must be anchored into something stable and reliable, like our faith, or else we will be moved.

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Back to our Jesus loves me example.

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The court principle here, the bedrock of our faith, is that Jesus loves me.

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We anchor our hope to that.

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When the thought that no one loves me or the wave of everybody hates me comes our way.

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We could easily be moved to hopelessness if our hope was not anchored in our faith that Jesus loves us as we anchor our hope in faith.

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We have scriptures to remind us of the benefits of doing so.

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I see a 4031 says those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. Hope keeps us strong.

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It keeps our strength continuously renewed and Hebrews 10/23 says let us hold unswervingly till the hope we profess for he who promised is faithful. I love this. If our hope is anchored, then we are unmovable.

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If we remain as such, we will see our promises fulfilled.

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If we are faithful in our hope, God is faithful in his promises.

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Hope is that friend that will go with you anywhere you go.

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They call that a ride or die.

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Hope would rather die than be without.

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You what a friend hope is the one that hypes you up.

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He tells you everything is going to be OK.

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He cheers you on as you pursue your goals.

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That something that tells you you can make it.

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This hope, that whisper that says don't worry is hope.

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Hope makes you believe you can accomplish anything.

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It is a great motivator.

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Studies have shown that people with hope have greater self esteem or less likely to stress and are highly motivated to achieve their goals.

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Who wouldn't want a friend like that?

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That is why we must commit to taking hope with us on this journey.

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Called life, we must buckle it in so that it is secure with us and for every trip, every turn, every detour, every destination.

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We should be accompanied by hope.

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Note that hope is in the boat, because hope is rather die.

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In Mark 4, Jesus is in a boat with his disciples out on the sea.

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He is sleeping as any man who is hopeful and peaceful wood.

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There's a raging storm and his followers are panicking.

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Wind and waves are threatening their survival.

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They feared they could drown.

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They wake Jesus and alert him of the storm.

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Seeing his unbar thinness though.

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They asked Jesus, do you not care that we might drown?

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Jesus stood and told the storm be still.

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And suddenly the winds and waves calmed.

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Then Jesus asked his disciples.

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Why are you afraid?

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Where is your faith?

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There is definitely a sermon or three in this passage of scripture, but what I noticed here most is that hope was in the boat with them, and they still were afraid.

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The issue here wasn't the storm.

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The issue was that fear.

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That convinced them that they were hopeless, even with hope right there with them.

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Earlier, they had witnessed the power that Jesus possessed.

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They were amazed and excited.

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That's what led many of them to follow him.

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But now their bipolar hope had swung all the way left to hopeless, even with hope with them in the boat, they were so blinded by the storm.

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They could not see the anchor of hope peacefully resting nearby.

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In an effort to make them comfortable, Jesus, the all hopeful one himself, calm the storm, proving to them that he is indeed a ride or die type of friend and a hope in your time of need.

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I encourage you to find hope again.

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I know times are hard, life is challenging and there is a world of uncertainty all around us, but hope can be found.

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Hope wants to be found.

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We see the turmoil in society and we suddenly think everything is bad.

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We are bombarded with news and waves of information that try to make us believe that there is no hope.

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But that is a lie.

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Know that thoughts produce feelings, feelings produce actions.

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Take those thoughts captive, make them obey your faith that says.

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All things work together for the good of those that love.

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Jesus, let this promise be the foundation for which your hope is anchored, and remind yourself that you are not alone on this journey.

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You have a right of that friend.

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Who is right there with you all the time.

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Find your friend in Jesus.

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Take him with you and be forever hopeful.

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Father, we thank you for being our source of.

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Hope we thank you that you are with us as we journey through every step in life, we ask that you help us find hope again.

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If we have lost it, we ask that you keep us held firmly in your hands and that your love for us will be that to which we are anchored as we make our way in hope our way through every phase of life.

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In Jesus's name, we pray Amen for music, encouragement and more of the points upon your podcast. Visit www.pierrewilliams.com. Thanks for listening. People pondering this is Saint Pierre.