I would like you to take your Bibles and go to 1 Peter, please. 1 Peter. When I was studying this topic, I came across so many Bible verses that I would be here all night just reading you scripture in regards to having hope in your life. I mean, this is the book of hope. And there's so much scripture in here that can help you. It's phenomenal. Psalms, you look at Proverbs, I mean there's so many things that helps you within this book. And so to pick out which one you want to use can be kind of a challenge sometimes, but I've chosen to go with a few and I hope that they'll help you. Of course this morning we were talking about the helmet of salvation, which in all reality in 1 Thessalonians 5, in verse number 8, it says, And so we know that putting on this helmet is actually hope. And this morning I kind of laid some foundational principles. It wasn't really practical as such, but it was more foundational to understand the aspect of that you need to know that you're saved. And you need to know why you're saved. You need to know how long you're saved. And where you're gonna end up when this is all said and done. And I think that truth is very plainly given to us in the scripture. In 1 Peter chapter one, Once again we see this passage that really defines this once again in verse number three. It says, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, and that fadeth not away reserved in heaven for you, who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time. That is a blessing. I've got a place reserved for me. I don't know what kind of place it is. It's gonna be probably more than I expect. Amen. I won't be let down. I'm like, oh, Lord, is this all? No, no, He's got something good for me. He's got something good for you. Say, well, I'm not the greatest Christian, you know, but we got the greatest God. And you know, He loves you. And what a great hope to give us in that resurrection. And that really is the key. the key to your victory. And I understand the death of Christ is absolutely necessary and absolutely phenomenal that he did that for us. But can I tell you something? If he just went to the grave, that would mean nothing for us. He had to come up out of the grave. And he did that three days later, and he showed us, and he showed the world, and he showed everybody to come that he is the eternal God of heaven, and he has the power over death. And now he holds the keys of death and hell in his hand, and now he can just openly tell us, come unto me. Take of the water of life freely. He's opened that door for us, and what a blessing that is to know that through his work and what he did for us, I can freely come to him and be saved and have that home in heaven. That's a true hope, and a hope, like I said this morning, isn't a wishing well. It's not throwing in a quarter in that hope that something happens. The biblical hope, biblical hope is a sure expectation. When he's talking lively hope here, he's not saying a lively chance. No, no, no, he's saying a lively, sure expectation. And that's a wonderful thing to consider for us as believers today in the world in which we live. We know also in Colossians 1.27, it gives us really the position of Jesus Christ in relation to us, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. Through the indwelling of the Spirit of God, that sealing spirit that he put into my life when I received Christ, Jesus Christ indwells me through that spirit. Now we know that Jesus Christ is in the form of a man right now and in heaven praying for us. But he can be everywhere through the eternal spirit. And in each one of us, he's in us. And the Bible tells us we ought to allow him to dwell in our hearts by faith. That means we ought to allow him to have the place in our hearts. We got to allow him to dwell there. Now we know that he lives there, but when he's dwelling there, we want him to act in there. We want him to work in there. We want him to have the space that he needs to do what he needs to do. And that means we have to actually surrender our heart to him so that he can have all of our heart. Because just because he's inside of us doesn't mean he has all of us. We have all of him, but he many times doesn't have all of us. And so what I wanna do tonight is get a little more on the practical level here and answer the question to the best of my ability for tonight anyways with the scripture I have, how biblical hope affects the believer's mind. Because I really think that's what the helmet of salvation's all about, is that it's here to protect your mind. And I believe that your battle will be won and lost by your thinking. If your thinking's bad, you're gonna lose the battle. And it's going to be sad. It's too bad. And it's kind of like the lyrics that I quoted this morning, you know, do I live today? Of course you live if you're a child of God. We just need to allow that to be a part of our continual existence. Psalm 42 verse five is, why art thou cast down, O my soul? And why art thou disquieted in me? Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance. So we know that we can get to a place sometimes where we get discouraged, we get cast down and so forth, and what is the answer to that according to that scripture? The answer is hope. Hope thou in God. It's the source of your hope. And you know, you can have hope in a lot of things, and you can trust in a lot of things, but you're only gonna have a sure expectation when you put your hope in Christ. And trust him for your daily life. When it comes to promises, you know, for salvation, that's what we would call an unconditional promise. That means that there's nothing you have to do to enact the process of your salvation. If you've received Christ, that's automatic. Now, I have nothing to do with the resurrection. I do not have to go sign up for it. I don't have to work myself up to it. It's happening to me. Even if I don't want it to happen, it's happening. because I was born again in 1994. And so that's guaranteed for me. It's not my ability, it's God's ability. He's doing that for me. And if you're saved, He's doing that for you. He's gonna take that old body of yours and make a brand new, new glorious body. I'll take that any day, that's wonderful, I like that idea. And so that's a blessing. But what we do sometimes is we get our hope focused on the wrong things. And when our expectation goes on the wrong things, we immediately begin to lose heart. And we immediately begin to become discouraged. The Bible says in Proverbs 13 verse 12, Hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life. And so it's giving us two basically extremes here. What happens is, is when we lose hope in something, our heart becomes sick. You would call that depression. You would call that discouragement. That's a sick heart, amen? But then, when the object of your hope is there, it actually turns up in time, and it's what you expected, wow, it's like a tree of life. It's like, man, life couldn't be greater, amen? But the next time, when your hope is deferred again, oh. Then all of a sudden, your hope comes, oh, great. Oh, hey. And you're back and forth. And this is what we would call the rollercoaster Christian life. Amen? Because our hope is all over the place. It's not in a sure, steady person of Jesus Christ. It's in situations and events. And sometimes you can put your hope in an event, and that event actually takes place, and you're happy. That money you wanted came in the mail. Praise God, tree of life, right? But then you know that money runs out, and all of a sudden, oh, sick heart. And that's the kind of life many of us live. We live a life of sick heart, tree of life. Sick heart, tree of life. Sick heart, tree of life. And we're back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, back and forth, because our hope has been placed in the wrong source. Our hope has to be in Christ, and we know from the scriptures that Christ is the hope of glory. We have to have him as our focus in life. He has to become the very foundation to the principles that guide our every decision. And when we do that, we can trust him no matter what takes place because of that decision. If I have to give up a good job because of the Lord's work, the Lord is gonna take care of me, then my hope can become just steady like this. Let your moderation be known unto all men. Amen. And that's a wonderful truth that we have for us in the scriptures. Sometimes we get to a place where we think that, well, I've gone to a level that God just can't reach anymore, which means that God can't help me. I'm just beyond that. And you know what? You know, it's sad, but you know, as a Christian, you can get to that place. I know a lost person, I've heard many lost people say, well, I've done such bad things that, you know, God couldn't help me anyways. And then, yeah, as a Christian, we do the same thing. I've just messed up so bad. I mean, God couldn't use me anyways, so why am I even trying? And we get this defeated type of attitude. There was a man by the name of J.H. Jowett. He was telling this story. He said, one night when I was crossing the Atlantic, an officer of our boat told me that we had just passed over the spot where the Titanic went down. And I thought of all that life and wreckage beyond the power of man to recover and redeem. And I thought of the great bed of the deep sea, with all of its held treasure, too far down for man to reach and restore. Too far down. And then I thought of all the human wreckage, engulfed and sunk in the oceanic depths of nameless sin. Too far gone for what? Too far down for what? Not too far down for the love of God. Listen to this. He descended into hell and he will descend again if you are there. If I make my bed in hell, thou art there, it says in Psalm 139, verse number eight. Where sin abounded, grace did much more abound, Romans 5, verse number 20. He bore our sin, in 1 Peter 2.24. Then he got beneath it, down to it, and beneath it, And there is no human wreckage lying in the ooze of the deepest sea of iniquity that his deep love cannot reach and redeem. What a gospel. However far down, God's love can get beneath it. That is fantastic. No matter where you are, God's love can get underneath you. He can lift you up. See, where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. That is a fantastic promise that we have. No matter where we are, no matter how deep you've gotten, no matter how you've messed up, you know that it will not outdo the grace of God. The grace of God will always meet you there. In Luke chapter 12, verse number 29, Jesus told his disciples, neither be ye of doubtful mind. The Greek word translated doubtful gives us our English word meteor. That's interesting. A doubtful mind is always up in the air, never resting upon anything. It's just flying around, no basis, no rest. A confident mind has rested itself upon Christ and his word. Let this mind be in you which is also in Christ Jesus. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians 2.15, but he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judge of no man. For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ. And so I wanna talk a little bit about the mind that having the hope of, a biblical hope will give you. And I think step number one, I have to say that it's a confident mind. A confident mind. The word confident means a belief in the powers, trustworthiness, or reliability of a person or thing, a trust or reliance. A belief or conviction that an outcome will be favorable. Amen? Now this is where it's at, Christian. In our life, what we do, if we get hit and we go through a hard time, we go through a trial, you know what we're questioning? Whether this thing, whether it's gonna come out favorable or not. And that's where our confidence is won or lost. And you know what, that's why when we make Christ our hope, what we can do is always know that we're gonna have a favorable outcome. Always. Always. Do you believe that? Well, I don't know. Well, maybe that's why we're not reaching the world for Christ. We need to know that. We need to know that no matter what takes place, that it's gonna be okay. Now the Apostle Paul in prison was ready to die. If they kill me, they kill me. But I'm gonna tell you something, he knew no matter what happened to him, whether he took his life or whether they let him live, that God's name would be glorified, that his will would be done, and souls would be saved. Maybe our problem is it's all about self-preservation. Maybe it's because we want to succeed in a way that God says I don't necessarily want you to succeed in that way. Maybe he wants us to succeed in the fact of having your life being used by him to bring souls into his kingdom. Whether that be by life or by death. Whether that be by health or by sickness. Whatever that may be, that is God's will. Maybe we need to get to the point where we begin to surrender ourselves to the Lord's will for our life. that if he wants to take our body, he can take it. If he wants to take our life, he can take it. I believe when we get to that prison like the Apostle Paul was in, and we can begin to say, Lord, whatever you want, it's okay with me, we'll be very, very confident. But self-preservation usually gets us. Self-confidence will leave you ashamed. We looked at that this morning, how hope maketh not ashamed. That means biblical hope will never leave you hanging in the end. It'll always deliver what it promised to you. Philippians 3 verse 3 says, for we are the circumcision which worship God in the spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and have no confidence in the flesh. Wow, I wonder if I really lived that the way I ought to, not put confidence. I gotta analyze myself coming up and preaching this message. Am I putting confidence in the flesh or am I trusting in God for this? I mean, I gotta do that every time and afterwards I say, Lord, was I in the flesh? Lord, I gotta trust you that I came to you and I asked you and Lord, I used the scripture and I used the message that I thought you laid on my heart. Lord, I want this to be you. But many times we operate in the flesh and we put our confidence in it. And you know, that's why sometimes we're a young man and God's put a call on our heart to be a preacher and we say, well, I don't know if I can do that. Well, that's because you're putting your confidence in your flesh. Of course you can't do it. There's never a question whether you could do it. But if God calls you, you can do it. because the Lord is good and he'll enable you to do what he's called you to do. You ever heard of the guy by the name of Tony Robbins? That self-empowerment guru? Now don't go get in his videos and go to his seminars and do stuff like that. I thought this was kind of interesting. He believes that you have the power within yourself that you can do anything you want to do. And you can go to one of his seminars and he'll pump you up so high you think you can just go to the moon without a rocket. You know what they do? They have this event annually where they firewalk. That means they get these coals and they burn them up real hot and they say, okay, we're gonna, and they just chant and they do a mantra. I forget what it's called. I think the mantra is cold moss. Which means that as they're going across it, it's not hot coals, it's cold moss. I'm going to tell you, as much as you want to change that hot fire into cold moss, it ain't turning into cold moss. They were told walking on the cold could be dangerous, but they needed to shift their mental focus. Get your focus and attention away from that and look into the power within yourself and just focus on walking through the fire. Wow. I'm gonna tell you something, I can't walk through a new fire focused on myself. And you can't walk through any fire focusing on yourself. It ended up after this one, there's 21 people treated for second and third degree burns on their feet by the fire department. Be careful of this kind of foolish deception. That's not God's plan for you. There is no self-confidence. Self-confidence is foolishness. There is Christ confidence. If I would stand before you based upon my confidence, I would never do a thing for God. And I'm gonna tell you something, if I would have gone before you ever, if I would have started my confidence, I would have never got behind the pulpit in the first place. There had to be something greater than me that put me behind the pulpit. As nervous and as shy as I was, it had to be God. And he did it. Sure wasn't Tony Robbins. Amen. I can't believe what people fall for these days. Maybe you got some videos in your closet, chuck them. You chuck them, you put a Bible up there. Because that's all you need is the word of God. Be confident in Christ. Psalm 119, 114 says, thou art my hiding place and my shield. I hope in thy word. You know, he doesn't ask us to tempt him by walking across coals of fire. He doesn't ask us to do stupid things. He gives us direction to do real things for him. Purposeful things. The things that we do accomplish eternal reward and eternal difference. He doesn't get us to do stupid things. The devil does stupid things. Those that are dealing with demonic issues do stupid things. The devil likes to play with people that way. Stupid things. When God gets a hold of you, he does not do stupid things. Everything he uses you for has a purpose, a definite goal that you're trying to accomplish, and God will do what he said he was gonna do. So if God's calling you young men, you just surrender. But don't put your confidence in how great you can talk or how good looking you are. That's not gonna cut it. You've gotta go to Christ and say, Lord, if I'm gonna do this, you have got to be the power behind my life. You've gotta become my strength. And you know what, he can do that for you. He'll never let you down. You know a man that I look in the scripture that really exemplifies this to me is a man of Caleb in the Old Testament. Here you have situations that just seemed way beyond anything any man could do. In fact, all the spies says, boy, we're just grasshoppers in the sight of these giants. Look how small we are compared to them. And their comparison was just always, hey, the bad stuff against us, the bad stuff against us. And Caleb was looking at it and saying, what are you doing that for? Let's measure the bad stuff against our God. And that's why when it came down to it, Numbers 13 verse number 30, it says, and Caleb stilled the people before Moses and said, let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it. These guys, what's wrong with you, man? Did you drop on your head on the way back? Did you see those giants? Did you not see those cities? Do you not see those walls? He says, I saw every one of them. And I measured them against my God, and we can take it. That is the Christian life, my friend. The problems we go through, we don't put hope in ourselves, self-confidence. Man, you start measuring the giants against yourself, that's what you are, you're a grasshopper. But when you start measuring those giants against your God, They're the grasshopper, amen. I feel sorry for those giants, they're gonna get a bad whoopin'. And that's exactly what happened. Caleb proved it 40 years later. Here he was 40 years old in the prime of his strength. And you know what, he felt good, let's go get him. The people's faith held him back for another 40 years. He couldn't go do what he wanted to do. Well, he must have just petered out, you know? He must have just, okay, I guess we're defeated, I'm just gonna give up. You know what he did for 40 years? He says, boy, I can't wait for that 40 years to come. I'm gonna go whoop some giants. And that's exactly what he did. Because when they got back into that land, he went up to Joshua, he said, Joshua, you know those biggest, ugliest giants up there? And you know that biggest city with the biggest walls and the most difficult place to get? That's the land I want. Because I'm going to show these young whippersnappers that didn't die in the wilderness that the God that was there 40 years ago that would have let them in is just as great today. And he can use an 80-year-old man to whoop up on some giants. I like that. That was a man that was driven by a standard based upon the strength of God. And he would require nothing less from those that even came into his family. He said, hey, I'll tell you what, I got my daughter here, and you can marry her if you go whoop up on those giants. Othniel did it. He said, boy, that's a pretty good deal. And he went over there and he took care of it. And he says, well, there's my daughter. You're a good son. Guess what, he became the first judge of Israel. There's a man with a good heritage, there's a man with leaving a good legacy, there's a man starting on the right foot, there's a man with a confident mind, basing his hope on a true and powerful God, and never faltering, even after 40 years of wandering with the backsliders, he was still victorious. And I also see that you can have confidence, not only in your mind, but you can have confidence in your prayer life as well. And you know, in 1 John 5, verse number 13, I love the way this is laid out. We usually read this first verse, we don't go any further. But I'm gonna read this verse, and then I'm gonna read a little further as well. It says, these things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life. So the first thing you settle is your salvation. Okay, I was saved in so and so on that day, and you know what? I'm redeemed to the day of redemption. That means I'm gonna be saved when he comes back again and redeems me and takes my body and gives me a new glorious body. I believe all of that. Then he goes on to say that you may know, so I know it, God. Okay, I know that I'm saved. Notice what he says next. And, that means an additional thing here, that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. He said, well, I just already told you that I believe on the name of the Son of God. No, no, he said, you believed on the name of the Son of God to be saved, but now I want you to believe on the name of the Son of God for your daily life. And you can't do that until you know. That means if you're struggling in your salvation, you'll never truly reach the potential in your daily life of walking with the Lord the way you could. And he goes on to say, and this is the confidence that we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he heareth us. And if we know that he hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of him. Wow. What a confidence we can have. Now this isn't talking about just anybody wanting everything. This is talking about someone who that believes on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is talking about someone that knows they have eternal life. And this is someone that is taking, every day is believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. That means they're walking with God, they want the will of God. And it's amazing when you start praying in the will of God that how he always gives you what you desire. Because your petitions are lining up with his will. You know, he's just asking for stuff for your own self, your flesh. That's self-confidence. Well, I want this and I want, that's not the kind of God we got. The world will say, name it and claim it. God said, I didn't come up with that. If you ask anything according to my will, he says, I'll give it to you. He says, you walk with me and you do what I ask you to do, I'll give you everything you need to do to accomplish the work. That's confidence that we can have, amen? That's good stuff. The second mind I wanna talk about here is a joyful mind, a joyful mind. Psalm 146, verse number five, it says, happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help. whose hope is in the Lord his God, amen. I love the way you use hope and how that word hope ties you to so many different things in the scripture. And I'm just really scratching the surface with my messages, because if you would dig in and start chasing all these different ties in the scripture, you would see that the word hope probably ties to everything good in the Bible. And you could come up with a series of messages that last you all year long, all year long. But I'm giving you some of them. In Romans chapter 12, verse number 12, it says, rejoicing in hope. Patient in tribulation. Continuing instant in prayer. Those things all go together. Rejoicing in hope. Are you rejoicing tonight? Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice. I'm gonna, you know, to be honest with you, I can honestly say that there's been times in my life I didn't rejoice. Heathen. I think you can be honest with me and tell me that there's times in your life you didn't rejoice. And you know what, we were wrong. As a saved individual, we were wrong. I remember there was one situation in my life that I just could not dig up a praise in. The Lord had me in a real hard place. And I wanted to, but I thought, man, I just can't. Took me a long time to get through that. Maybe you've been there. Maybe you had all kinds of excuses why you couldn't praise God. Can I tell you the reason why I really didn't? Because I wasn't seeing what God was doing. I didn't see the purpose of what he allowed in my life. I thought it was against me. I thought there was no hope, no help. My heart was sick. and you know something, I was wrong. And you know, you've been there too. And if you couldn't rejoice as a saved individual, you know something, you're wrong. And you gotta admit that first. Because when it says rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice, that's exactly what he meant. Now, it doesn't mean that there's always, you're always walking around, hey, all pumped up and emotional-wise. That's not joy. You can take a pill and do that to you. That doesn't bring you joy. That's not joy. In fact, I think a great example of that we see is in 1 Thessalonians chapter four, and I know some of you have experienced a loss recently this last week in regards to a loved one in your family, and we're gonna experience more of those in the future. But in 1 Thessalonians chapter four in verse number 13, it says this. But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep. For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first, then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. It says wherefore comfort one another with these words. You know, there's times where you go through sorrow, but I'm gonna tell you something. It is a whole lot different when you go through sorrow and hope. than sorrow with no hope. I don't know what sorrow with no hope's all about. Some of our loved ones, we put them in their resting places until Jesus comes again and we look at that and we say, wow, how do I need to think about this? And the Lord just says, sorrow not, as others. He didn't say don't sorrow. He just said don't sorrow like those that don't have no hope. But sorrow like those that do have hope. And there is time to have a sorrow. There is time to cry. But joy is knowing that no matter what, I'm gonna see him again. There's always an underlying joy in your life that it's just gonna be okay. See, that's based in hope, amen, a sure expectation. This is one of the greatest salvation security passages you'll find in the Bible right here. Because what he is saying is, for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. How can I be comforted today? with my loved ones, seeing them again, if I'm sitting there saying, I wonder if they're saved or not. What he's telling me, he says, you know they're saved. Because if they trusted Christ, just like Jesus died and rose again, they will too. So comfort one another with these words. We can have a sure expectation of those that have died in Christ before us that we're gonna see them again when Jesus Christ comes and the trump shall sound. You know who you're gonna see? You're gonna see grandpa. You're gonna see grandma. You're gonna see that son or that daughter, that little baby. You're gonna see him. What a hope. That's not, oh, wishing well, I hope so. That is, I know it, God. And it affects my daily life, because I know. See, that's true biblical hope, and it should give you a confident mind, and it should give you a joyful mind. In every situation, that's not talking about an emotional high. It's talking about having underlying joy in your life that no matter what happens, it's just gonna be okay. Amen? That's a great thing. No hope means no joy. I don't know about you, but if you're stranded in a desert place, wouldn't you rejoice if you had the promise of deliverance? Sure you would. Now where are you in your daily life right now? I know you can go through some deep trials and hurts, but are you in this discouraged place? Are you ready to give up and quit? Well, you got the promise of deliverance. So if you're in the desert dying of thirst, you got the promise he's bringing you some water. So rejoice. Be happy about that. Hard times are gonna come. That's the way it is. But you can have a joyful mind in the midst of it. You can have a joyful mind in the sorrows. You know, think of Paul and Silas. They went to Philippi. You know what, they just had this great desire just to go and plant a church, and that's always easy. Amen? Never any trials or trouble or struggles. Planning church is as easy as going into whatever, no it's not, it's hard. They went to that town, you know what, they started winning people to Christ and just the effect of them going in and telling people about Jesus and the way that people's lives changed had an effect on them. That one young girl that was following them around, just chasing them down, finally he just got tired, he says okay, he cast out that demon, He said, I know this is gonna stir up some trouble. But he just had to do it. And sure enough, these people lost their livelihood with that girl. They couldn't make money off of her anymore. So they said, let's go to the magistrates. And they got them dragged into the marketplace. They stripped them of their clothes. They beat them black and blue and ripped their backs open, bloody. Well, let's throw them into jail. And so they took them to the prison and the Bible says the jailer just thrust them into the prison put them in stalks, broken and bleeding, looking at each other. Church planting's great, isn't it? Amen. Oh no, amen. Right? And you know the fact of the matter is, it is great. And you know what, they believed it. Because the Bible says at the midnight hour they began to sing praises to the Lord. Why did they do that? I don't know. Someone that did not have hope could not do that. But these men had hope. There was something in them that said, you know what, Silas, I just think things are going to be OK. What do you think, Paul? I think things are just great. And we're thinking these guys are crazy. You know what? Let's sing. Jesus loves me. This I know. That jailor's singing, what is wrong with these guys? For the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong. Amen? Yes, Jesus loves me. And you know, I can just imagine them sitting there in the stalks and just say, we're crazy, but this is great. Jesus loves me. And you know, the Lord answered with an encore. He said, boys, I like that. Let me show you something. Kaboom! And all the doors fly open and the jailer is, what is going on here? Ready to kill himself, sirs? Sir, do thyself no harm. We're still here. You see, jailer, these walls have never kept us in. What kept us here is you. Do you understand what that means? Paul, the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. Over and over he would say that. Paul, the prisoner, not of the Roman powers, not of the town of Philippi, Paul, the prisoner of the Lord Jesus Christ. In other words, Silas, you know why we're here, right? Yeah, Paul, I know. Jesus sent us. Well, let's sing about it. They could have walked right out, doors open. You know, Paul, I think the Lord has us here for a reason. You know, Silas, I think you're right. Let's go win the jailer to the Lord. They went over there, sirs, either you guys are crazy or the real thing. And he knew they were the real thing. What must I do to be saved? That's easy. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Boy, he received Jesus that night. His family, can you imagine the change in that home? Jesus came into that home, saved his children and his wife and the family and it just probably just brought a whole new life into that home and it just changed everything and of course they probably became a faithful member of the new church plant. Paul and Silas walking away from that town. Church planting's great, isn't it? Yeah, it is. Sure hurts though. We get a new body, remember? That's right, let's go. Next city. See, that's real hope. Psalm 71 verse number 14 says, but I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more. Amen. I don't know about you, I look at this kind of stuff, and I look at these examples, I'm saying, boy, I wish I could be exactly like that. You're sitting here tonight, you're saying, boy, I wanna be like that. And we're gonna walk out of here, and the first thing that hits us between the eyes, oh, this life sucks. Isn't it like that? And we gotta remind ourselves once again, you know what, it's not that bad. Our bodies are gonna be broken. In fact, we may even lose our lives. Now, we maybe don't know what that means. Some of you from Germany and Russia know probably more about that than what we know. You've seen these things played out before you. But I'll tell you something. We ought to be willing. Now, if I'd be willing to give my life for Christ and allow him to take my very life, why wouldn't I let him have my daily life? Why wouldn't I want to reach people in my community for Christ? I mean, we talk about this glorified aspect of dying and martyrdom and so forth, but what about giving our bodies a living sacrifice? That's what he really wants from us. I think if we would have the helmet of salvation on, that hope of salvation with us always, we would end up being this kind of a Christian. where when we would go into the jail, we would sing too. But man, we gotta be reminded. We're in the jail and we're kinda kicking the, what? All I'm trying to do is follow God and I go through all this trouble. Lord looks down, duh. I didn't promise you no trouble. You ever hear that one radio personality? If you have Jesus, you got no trouble. Well, I'm sorry, if you have Jesus, you got trouble. You do got trouble. You got persecution. You got opposition. That just happens. It's just the way we respond to it that's important. And so we have the joyful mind, we got the confident mind. I'll give you one more here. We got the pure mind. In 1 John chapter three, a great passage for us here in verse number one of chapter three. I think this is Pastor Driger's favorite passage, isn't it? 1 John, remember that. Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the sons of God. Therefore the world knoweth us not because it knew him not. Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. For we shall see Him as He is. This is something He says, I know. Okay, now think about this. Here I am standing here talking about a future time, and I'm saying, I know. Somebody comes up to you, oh, you can't know. Well, then let's rip this right out of the Bible. Because if I can't know, then this Bible's lying to me. I can know, and he says this thing, I can know that when I see him, I will be like him, for I will see him as he is, in his purity and perfection and power and his very glory is gonna have such an impact on me that it's gonna purify my mind in one instant. My body will be transformed in one instant. I think another event that has that kind of power, I look at the end of the millennial reign when God comes down toward men. You know what, the Bible says that the earth and heaven fled away from him. The holiness of God in his complete persons and who he is comes down to earth and earth says, oh boy, we can't stick around for this because we're cursed. and the very presence of the glory of our God came down, and the Bible says that the earth melt with a fervent heat, and it fled away, and there was no place found for it. I was telling the college and career, when I light a fire, I got a pile of ashes. When God lights a fire, there's nothing. His very presence coming down to man destroys this earth and its curse. And he holds those that are his so tenderly close to him that he brings up the lost and he has them cast into the lake of fire. Then when he's done with that mess, he goes to all of us and he wipes away our tears. He says, let's just forget about all of this now, all of it. and he makes a new earth, the Bible says, and where there is no seas, and a new heaven, and you know, you talk about living in heaven forever. Can I just maybe burst your bubble on that a little bit? It's not being up there, it's gonna be right there. Heaven's coming down to man. That's what the Bible says. Behold, the tabernacle of God has come down. He moved heaven down. Now there's no more separation between earth and heaven. No more space between, no more universe between. Now heaven and earth are part of one existence. Wow. Guess what, if you're a believer, that's where you're staying forever. An earth that has no seas. Can you imagine exploring that? Some of you guys say, oh yeah, in heaven, we're just gonna get our little harps and go. Praise Jesus. That's not how it's gonna be. God gave you, hey, young men, God gave you that determination to find stuff. He gave you that thing. I wonder what that thing does if it burns. How many of you guys have burnt one of your models? Amen, I mean, there's nothing like it. I get something brand new, I wanna see what it looks like with a hole in it. You know something, God made us with some of these things. God made us with a sense of adventure. And I believe in that new earth. He's gonna say, go at it, guys. Go check it out. Let's go. It's gonna be exciting. It's gonna be great. And we will be praising Jesus all day long. Because we're going to look at this and say, wow, God is good. Thank you, Jesus. Remember one time Dad came home. He brought us something to the kids. And it was just, you know, I don't know exactly what it was. It was some kind of a thing he bought for us. And I was so excited. I remember I just, wow, Dad bought us something. And we went and jumped around on it. And then we came back. Thanks, Dad. Went back again and played a little more. Thanks, Dad. You ever get that way? No, not me. Life is tough. Get his mind. Amen? Life is great if we let it be great. Because he's begotten us again unto a lively hope. By the resurrection. Boy, that's good. And the Bible says right here in 1 John 3 that, did I even finish reading that? I got carried away. We shall see him as he is, and every man that hath this hope in him purify themself, even as he is pure. That means if you have that hope inside of you and you're thinking about that time of meeting Jesus and becoming pure and becoming everything God wants you to be, you're not sitting here looking to get into trouble, trying to be immoral, looking at what kind of drugs you can find. You're saying, Lord, I sure want to be more than I am. If I'm going to be like that when I see you, I just want to be a little bit more like that before you come. I think in a believer's life, there's always a desire to be right. Now, sometimes we're not always right. But I'll guarantee you, if you're saved here tonight, you're not sitting there, I wanna be wrong. You're saying, I want to be right. Those examples that you're reading me of these guys, I'd love to be like that. I mean, it sounds like it hurts, but I'd love to be like that. That's how you know that God's inside of you. He's just putting a little amen in there. Right? He's saying, you get this? You're saying, yeah, Lord, I hear that. Well, why did you say amen? Because I'm a chicken. And the Holy Spirit's saying, come on. You ever been there? I know what that's like. You know what, this reminds me of this passage, Joseph. Before Joseph died, what he did is he gave a commandment to his people. He says, this is what I want you to do. Guys, this is what I believe, that Israel is gonna be brought back to the land again. And when that takes place, I tell you what I want you to do. I want you to take my old bones that you're gonna bury, and I want you to take them with you and put them in that place of my father's grave. I want to be by my family. So what's the big deal? I mean, it's not like it's you, you're not there. He said, yeah, but I believe the resurrection. And when the Lord calls us up, I want to see dad. I want to be called up beside my family. He had a faith in the coming resurrection. He didn't say, oh, just burn those old bones, it's not a big deal anyways. Nope. He said, you take those bones, and you carry them hundreds of miles, and you lay them properly to rest, because they're coming up again. It's interesting, a man with that kind of life, when he faced Potiphar's wife and the temptation, he said, how can I do this great wickedness against my God? I want to meet Jesus. I want to be like Jesus. This woman doesn't care if I go to hell or not. In fact, this is what he said. There is none greater in this house than I. Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And it came to pass, as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, to be with her. And it came to pass about this time that Joseph went into the house to do his business, and there was none of the men of the house there within. And she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and got him out. I am out of here. because I will not do this great wickedness to my God. I respect your husband, but I'm gonna tell you something. If I did this for your husband, I'd probably give in, but I am doing this for God, and I've got a faith that one day I'm gonna see him, and there's a resurrection, and I'm not gonna meet him like that. See, I believe someone who has a true hope, is someone that is desiring and working at having a pure mind. That means how do I deal with this pornography issue in your life? How do I deal with this thinking issue in my life? The first thing you settle is your hope. You get that hope settled. You get that nailed down so hard in your life that you know I am gonna meet him. and you've gotta think about it like it could happen tomorrow. I'm gonna meet him tomorrow. Well then how are you gonna behave today? Tomorrow he's gonna cleanse me of all my sin. Tomorrow I'm gonna stand before him as pure as I can get. Boy, I just don't wanna meet him like this. I'm gonna get right with God. I'm gonna tell you something, there are some sins in people's lives. And I know it because you're people. And you hide it. You're trying to run from it. I'm going to tell you something, that day there was no running. And there's come a time you just got to get it right. Well, I want to come forward because you guys are a bunch of hypocrites. That's my problem. I'll have to meet them with that. You have to meet them with you. I'm not gonna be a sinner because someone else is. Amen. Or everybody else is sinning so I'm gonna be a sinner too. No, that's not how we live. We say if I'm the only one that's gonna do right then I'm the only one that's gonna do right. That's what makes a Joseph. That's what makes a Daniel. Boy did God use Daniel. He had his hope right. Now I wonder if we got our hope right tonight. I think if we do, we'll have a confident mind, we'll have a pure mind, won't we? Let's stand to our feet with our heads bowed, our eyes closed. I think one of the evidence of having a right hope in your life is you've got joy in your heart. I'm not saying everything's going right for you right now. You may have some things in your life that are totally upside down. I understand that. But if you are defeated, if you are giving up, you need to repent. If you're afraid of doing something for God, you need to repent. You need to say, Lord, you're my hope again. I'm not gonna trust in myself anymore. I'm gonna trust in you. I'm not much God, but I know you brought me here for a reason. And whatever you want me to do, I'm just gonna do it. And maybe you just need to lay that stuff at the altar and say, Lord, from this day forward, you are all of my hope. You are my sure expectation. And that's gonna make me be confident, be joyful, and be pure in my mind and heart.