This is the start, 28 days of hope. It's a time of refreshment in the Lord's presence, and there's a lot happening during this month. The staff has been praying and planning for months, and we're gonna walk through this together. It's new for all of us, so there's a lot of moving pieces, but what's most important. We're doing it all together as one family and we're doing it with God. We're walking by faith, we're growing in our faith, we're seeking God. That's the heart of this. Let's open up in prayer. Father, thank you for all of us gathered in your presence today. Lord, thank you for all of our different stories and the number of times we've seen you meet us. At the lowest points, you've been there. And when we've celebrated God, we've thanked you for your provision, protection. You continue to go ahead of us during these 28 days, God. We pray you would do it only you can do. It won't be by might or effort, but by your spirit. And we pray that you would get all the glory. And we are so grateful today for your presence, your hope, and that you never run out of hope, your infinite hope. We praise you, Jesus. In your name we pray, amen. 28 days of hope starts with God's word. And a key passage for us is Isaiah chapter 40 verse 31. Let's all say this together. But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. This tells us that hope is a choice. that we decide every day where are we going to place our hope. And those who hope in the Lord, it's always good to put your hope in the Lord. Why? Because your hope is only as strong as the one in whom you hope. When you put your hope in Jesus, it's an eternal, indestructible hope. When you put your hope in God's word, God's word is always reliable. It's this eternal word that never changes. And Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever. So all of us know that hope is available. Hope is relational. Jesus is our living hope. We want to abide with him, and we want to receive from Jesus. There's a lot happening, and I want to give you a couple of details so we're all on the same page. First of all, there's a booklet you receive today. It's free. It's a gift. It's about 75 pages. When this service finishes, you're gonna see the booklets in the lobby. Make sure you take one home. In that booklet, there's 28 devotions. 28 days, and there's a devotion for each day that you can read through. There's also a QR code at the upper corner, and when you go to that QR code, that gives you access to a video. 28 days, 28 written devotions, 28 videos, and that covers 28 different people in the Bible. who experienced God's hope. And what we're doing intentionally is we're investing our time in God's presence, in God's word, and we're all going through this together as one big family. From the kids downstairs right now that are talking about treasure tests, to our most seasoned seniors who have committed to pray every single day for our entire church family, to young adults, to the students, to activities in the community, to serving people, there's a lot happening and we're all doing it together. Now, these 28 days, as we wanna grow in our faith together, in addition, God is building this foundation for us, and God is building a fire. Embers, when they're isolated, tend to fade, but when we come together, there's a bonfire. And what God is building up right now, we want to receive. God is love, God is light, God is a consuming fire, and when you're in his presence, you're gonna receive. The emphasis in this first week is receive. Now, there are also life group questions in the booklet. We have about 65 or 70 life groups. If this room feels big and you think, well, it's hard to connect and go real deep in this room, that's why we have life groups. Community, friendships, we get into the scripture each week. In the booklet, life group questions. If you're not in a life group, here's a great opportunity. You can enter into a hope group for the next 28 days. Well, what's that? For the next four weeks, and starting next Sunday at nine o'clock in the chapel, or just go to the connecting center and say, I wanna be in a hope group, and you will connect once a week for the next four weeks, and it'll give you a taste of life groups. It's kind of an on-ramp, if you're interested in life groups and checking it out, start with the hope groups. That's happening as well during the next 28 days. Every day builds on the next day. So the 28 days aren't random, the themes aren't random, they're very intentional, and it's important if you miss a day, go back and catch what the previous day brought. And here's the challenge, I'm gonna unpack this, 28 minutes a day spending time with God. 28 minutes a day, and right away you're thinking, wait a minute, my plate's full, my schedule's full, there's no way that's gonna happen. Would you agree that we don't grow without a challenge? This is the challenge part of the 28 days, 28 minutes a day, and I'll unpack that. We have four different themes, one for each week. The first week, hope gifts, and we have the treasure chest, and the word is receive. The emphasis today is going to be receive. Then we have week two, some hope shifts, because when we begin a journey together, sometimes we're one degree off, and that doesn't seem like much at the start, but when you travel a long ways, or for many days, one degree off, you realize, I'm not heading towards a destination that I wanted to arrive at. and we're gonna make some hope shifts in week two. And then week three, hope habits, because part of walking with God is cultivating habits. Hope is habitual, and we wanna be intentional with those habits that build up our faith, build up our relationships. And the fourth week is hope impact, because we've all been given gifts, talents, resources, purpose, a home. a calling, we are all in full-time ministry, all ambassadors. The Bible says we're all priests, we're all ministers. And for that to sink in, servant leaders, where we live, work, learn, or play, all around the city, this is what God's already laid out. That's where we're going for the four weeks. Are you dizzy yet? Is it making sense? You keeping it clear? I know nine o'clock was like, we got this, we got this. It's like, all right, nine o'clock's ready. 10.45, you feeling all right? There we go, there we go. You had a little longer to sleep and get ready for this. So this is all focused on our God, the God of hope. That's one of his names, is the God of hope. Romans 15, 13, let's say this together as we think about who God is and the hope that he has. In Romans chapter 15, verse 13, let's say this out loud together. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. That's our prayer together. Now, the heart of this 28 days, God wants to fill our hearts, our homes, our churches, and our cities with his presence and hope. Think about those four levels and what God wants to do. God wants to fill our hearts, fill our homes, fill our churches, fill our cities with his hope. And each of those are significant. We wanna see in our city healing and restoration and hope abounding. We believe God is gonna do something great in the greater Auburn area and then extending beyond the sound, not just through our church but through other churches. We wanna lead our cities to Jesus. Why? Because there's no greater hope than Jesus. You can't lead people to anything greater than to lead them to Jesus. He's our living hope. He's the one our nation needs right now. And as you think about our cities, saturated with the love, the light, the hope, and the presence of Jesus. Well, for that to happen, we need churches that are full of hope. Because cities aren't healthier than the state of the churches. They won't be. It begins in the churches. The church should be the most hope-filled place in the community. What's Auburn known for right now? People around the sound might say the casino. The outlet malls. We want Auburn to be known as a city of the hope of God. And how does that happen? Churches become the most hope-filled places, and when you come into God's house, you are overwhelmed by the hope that you experience and feel in his presence. We pray that for all the churches across the Sound. This is not just about our church. We have one family, one body across the Sound. That's our prayer. Well, you say, well, how is that gonna happen? It's only gonna happen if God fills our hearts and our homes with his hope. Does anyone here want more peace in their home? more joy in their home, more restoration in their home, more unity in their home, more life in their home. That's what we want, and God is able. But we need to open our hearts. God always works the same way. He transforms the city after He transforms the church. He transforms homes, and He begins by transforming hearts. And this is the pattern throughout Scripture, and we're saying yes to God. Hope is countercultural. Right now we're living in a time in our nation where many people are fading from God's presence, drifting from God's presence. We wanna be full of God's presence. We wanna draw near to God. And then we're living in a time where people are rejecting God's word. We want to receive God's word. We want more of God's word. People are ignoring the scripture. We wanna intentionally spend more time in the scripture and have the scripture in us. We are living in a time where there's a narrative of hopelessness and despair and suicide and we reject the narrative of hopelessness and we say yes to God's indestructible and infinite hope. This is a time where there's a lot of division and tension. but we are celebrating the unity that we have in the body of Christ. Generations come together, personalities, ethnicities. It's exciting for me every day to come Sunday morning and look out at our church and during the week at our staff and say, this is a place where all nations are welcome. God's house will be a house of prayer for all nations. That's what we're all about. The world is getting more anxious and fearful and worried, and we enter into the shalom of God, the peace of God. Jesus is our Prince of Peace, and these 28 days just lead us to Jesus. Now we have a visual today which is a treasure chest, and this treasure chest is just a small picture, a representation of all of God's goodness and hope and blessings. The greatest gift God gives us is his presence, amen? The blesser is even greater than the blessings. And that we not only have his presence, but we have his provision and protection and promises and peace and all these blessings that this treasure chest represents. And it's important when we think about receiving is that we need to open up the treasure chest of God's goodness and receive. Well, what kind of blessings are we talking about today? David describes it this way in Psalm 103. He doesn't wanna forget God's blessings. Let's say this together out loud. Praise the Lord, my soul, all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits. who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion, who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagles. David says it clearly, I don't wanna forget. I don't want spiritual amnesia. I don't want selfishness and greed. I remember the blessings of the Lord. I remember how he forgives. I remember how he heals. I remember his grace and mercy. I remember his provision. I remember at every step of my life how he's been faithful. And the gratitude starts to swell, and he says, like an eagle. Well, an eagle is renewed. Feathers, old feathers are shed, and then here comes the new feathers, from the head down to the toes. Soaring, it's time to soar. We read about that in Isaiah chapter 40, 31. We wanna soar like an eagle. Well, how do you soar? You open up the treasure that God has for us, and you start to receive. When you open up God's word, it's saturated with hope. You open up Ephesians chapter one, and we read God blesses us in the heavenlies with every blessing. He gives us everything we need for life and godliness. God redeems us, that means buys us back. Even though we all sin like sheep go astray, Jesus paid the price for our sins and we are redeemed, we are purchased. There is a pardon. Not only are we redeemed, but we have salvation, we have eternal life, we're in God's family forever. We're forgiven, we have a new identity, we are new creations in Christ. We are all adopted into God's family forever. And the good news just keeps going and going as you read Ephesians chapter one. What are we doing as we read? We're opening up the treasure chest. And you open up Romans chapter eight and you start out and you see there's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. And then you see God's grace abounds as we have the Holy Spirit in us, a seal. marking us that we are God's forever. You read through Romans chapter eight, God works together all things to the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. If God is for us, who can be against us? Nothing can separate us from the love of Christ, not even death and darkness and demons. Nothing can separate us from God's love. And you open up the chest. 1 Corinthians chapter three says it this way. All these things are yours in Christ. All these things. If we had all day, we couldn't even begin to number the blessings. It is infinite how God blesses us. And all these things, not part of these things or most of these things, all these things are ours. As we abide with Jesus, we will bear much fruit, but we need to receive. We need to receive. We won't be overflowing unless we're receiving. You need to receive first and that's the message of the treasure chest is to receive because the picture in the Bible is not emptying, it's a filling. There's a vision, a heavenly vision that God wants to fill us. He wants to fill us with His Holy Spirit. He wants to fill us with His Word. He wants to fill us with encouragement. He wants to fill us with hope. God wants to fill us to the point of overflowing. When we meditate, it's not to have an empty mind, it's to have a full mind in the mind of Christ, the fullness of your purpose, the fullness of the passion. God wants to fill us. God wants to fill us at home, in our hearts, in our churches, in God's presence and hope in our cities. Now, here's the reality is that as we enter the 28 days, some of us have lost hope. We've had pain and disappointment. And when we say just choose hope, that's not to belittle any amount of suffering. Some of us have lost hope in different people, in different systems. Some of us have lost hope and we're not regaining it. Some of us have misplaced hope. where we didn't realize it, but we've kind of subtly, it wasn't our intention, but our hope really isn't in God, and we're not opening up the treasure, we're not receiving much anymore. We're kind of starting to go down a little closer to empty than full, and we're struggling through it just to make it through the day, and we misplaced hope, we lose hope. That's all of us, we need more hope. We need to open up the treasure chest and receive from God who doesn't run out of hope. As we sometimes go through these challenges, it's not that we wait until the challenge is over to receive the hope. God brings a hope in the middle of the challenges. And it's always a good choice to open up the treasure chest and receive the hope of the Lord. His hope is greater than our challenges. And the only way we know that is not just to cognitively know that, but to receive his hope that is greater than the obstacles that we face. If you think about the three biggest challenges you have in your life right now, They are very, very small compared to the presence and the hope of Jesus both today and for eternity. And we need to regain God's presence and perspective and his power in our lives. It starts with receiving. As we start the 28 days, we start with this posture of receiving because it's God's will that we receive and give hope every day where we live, work, learn, and play. and that comes from abiding with Jesus. Hope leads us to Jesus. Why don't we have more hope? Here's another reality. There are blockers which are restraining the amount of hope that you and I are receiving. Receive is a key word, and in one sense, receive's kind of simple. Anyone have a birthday recently, last couple months, and receive a gift? It wasn't that complicated, right? You just said thank you very much, and you opened up that gift. You didn't have to achieve, you didn't have to go out and earn that gift. Someone gave you a gift. God, by his grace, gives us gifts, and it's simple. Now, we make it complicated, and this world makes it complex when it comes to receiving. When I think about, I used to be a professional soccer goalkeeper, and receiving was more complicated. If there's a ball up in the air, I've gotta jump up, catch it at its highest point, and then lift up my knee to protect me from the forwards who wanna knock me over. If it's coming at my face, I've gotta quickly get a W so I can catch it with some strength on a hard shot. If it's coming in my stomach, I've got to get my stomach behind the ball and then embrace it and kinda scoop it right there. If it's coming on the ground, I've gotta slide my feet quickly and get behind it so if I don't get down quick enough, it just hits my feet and I can pick it up. If it's a breakaway, I've gotta dive at someone's feet and then receive it even though they don't want me to take it, I'm gonna receive it and that's a different kind of receiving. And you can see there's all sorts of receiving and sometimes when it comes to our relationship with God, we've made it more like soccer goalkeeping when it should be more like your birthday. The simplicity of receiving from God, sometimes we fast forward beyond that and we just don't overflow because we're not receiving. We wanna return to simple and there are things that keep us away from opening up this treasure. Sometimes we bump into the treasure, and if you're like a long-term Christian, you're just kinda like, yeah, I know it's there, I know it's there. Well, have you opened it? No, but I know it's there, I know it's there. It's full of good stuff. Well, do you wanna do more than bump into it? Nope, just wanna put my hand on there, don't wanna open it, just know it's there. Listen, we are not designed, if you just bump into it and cognitively know it's full, you're not gonna be overflowing, right? You're gonna feel kinda dejected, because all I do is bump into it. I never receive, I just bump into it all day. That's one version. Here's another version, is that we make bad decisions, and we know they're wrong, and then we pull away from God, and we just sit in a puddle of guilt and shame. And we even think, well, I'm not worthy. God would never welcome me back. For other people, they can open it up, but not me. God has just a little bit for me to receive, because all my bad decisions. Other people get a lot more, I don't get much. And that's a lie, straight from the pit. Because God welcomes us home, Jesus's, his death and resurrection are greater than our sin, and it's his throne of grace, and everybody, God invites and actually wants us to open this up. And then for some people, you wanna open it up, but this culture is so distracting. And there's something that happens during the day, and it kinda looks like this. Any idea what this might be? Any idea? I'll give you a hint, this is the other thing that goes with it. So I don't know, this must be good because everyone's doing this all day long and the treasure chest is interesting but not as interesting as this right here. Any idea how many hours a day we're doing this? Any ideas? So let's just call it screens, because some of you are like, well, I don't even have a smartphone. I don't do that. I just do this all day and watch TV. So we're gonna say screens. Computer, laptop, television, or this. Any idea how many hours a week we're doing this? over seven hours a day for the average American doing this. That's 50 hours a week. That's more than a full-time job, 50 hours a week. Now this is where we connect 28 minutes a day. Remember when I said 28 minutes a day and you've been thinking this whole time, where am I gonna get 28 minutes a day? My plate is so full. It would take a miracle. I mean the Red Sea was parted, my schedule's gonna have to just be a miracle. Parting of my schedule to open up 28 minutes a day. Over seven hours a day, that's 50 hours a week. Now how many minutes, how many hours is 28 minutes a day? Just over three hours a week. Pastor, you're asking me to drop my screen for 1 14th of the time to spend time with God and receive more peace and joy. I don't know if this is churches for me. I'm going down the block. Sometimes in life, we just realize I'm one degree off and I've got to open up the treasure chest. And some of you are thinking, well, that's not as new and shiny as I thought. No, this treasure chest is ancient because what we're doing at 28 days is not just something new, it's something new and it's something ancient. The ancient of days wants to show up. Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today, and forever. And what the church has been doing and following Jesus for thousands of years, that's what we need to return to. It's new and it's ancient and the blessings are not gonna run out. We gotta overcome some blockers, and what you see in the Bible, receivers. During these 28 days, 28 different people in the Bible that learned how to receive and overflow with God's hope. Well, who does that? Jesus challenged religious people, and he said this, you don't know the scripture, and you don't know the power of God. He said, you don't know the Scripture, and you don't know the power of God. What does that tell us? Jesus wants us to know the Scripture and know the power of God. They knew the form of religion, but they didn't know the power and the presence of God. Jesus was calling them to that, and one man, Nicodemus, listened up, and he knew that his crowd that he runs with wasn't gonna choose Jesus, but he wanted Jesus. He wanted the hope that Jesus had. So at night, he found Jesus and had a conversation. And Jesus shared with Nicodemus, which is the most well-known verse in the Bible, for God so loved the world, he gave his one and only son, whoever believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. That was Nick, it was at night alone with Jesus, and Nicodemus had no idea that that verse would travel around the world. And every day, more and more people coming to Jesus and coming into God's kingdom. But it was an invitation for Nicodemus who had ears to hear and responded with faith, receiving Jesus. As we see Nicodemus at Jesus's death, Nicodemus is there serving and following Jesus. We don't know all the details, but he had ears to hear when the religious people, they didn't. Now, as you open up the Bible, you're gonna see, like there's a woman at the well. She's a Samaritan. She's had five husbands. And she just keeps going from relationship to relationship, thinking a person is gonna satisfy her. There's a perfect person out there. And maybe that spouse will finally meet my deepest needs. And she'd been doing that for so long, and yet she was stuck in a rut. She was dry spiritually. Her soul was dry. And Jesus said, I have living water for you. And you know what she did? She received. And the professional disciples, they just looked at it like, Jesus, what are you doing talking to a Samaritan woman? The love and hope of Jesus goes beyond the cultural norms and boundaries. When you have the hope of Jesus, you just start to find people that are older, younger, they're from different countries, different personalities, different economic situation, and you just start to connect and love them. That's what Jesus was doing. The professional disciples are like, no, no, we're not into that. This woman received, she received, and she didn't go off to seminary, although that's not bad, but she received so much living water that she just began to tell everyone in her community. God used the one woman who had been divorced five times to do what the disciples, the professional disciples, were not that interested in doing. God will work through one person who wants to reach the city faster than the 12 who are saying, oh, the harvest won't come for months. It's not for today. I don't think God's gonna change the city. Do we have hope that God's gonna change the city? Then we need to receive. Then we need to receive. And you look through the Bible at who God uses, and you know it's shocking sometimes. Peter denied Jesus three times. And yet, hope came. Restoration came. Peter ended up writing the Bible. Peter ended up leading thousands to Jesus. There's no one here who's too far away, too far gone, denied Jesus too many times. Paul was violent. He was full of himself. He was arrogant. And Paul was killing Christians. But then he had an encounter with Jesus. One encounter with Jesus will change your eternal destiny, and it'll change your day. There's nothing more powerful than an encounter with Jesus and his love. And Paul realized that Jesus is the living hope, and then he went all out as he received. There was an overflow. He traveled, he risked his life, he planted churches. All of us are in full-time ministry, and your first calling is to receive. If you're not overflowing, you know why? You're not receiving, you're not receiving. If you think receiving's just a quick checkbox, a few facts, a little knowledge, you're not gonna receive and you're not gonna overflow. You're gonna shrink back, you're gonna be scared, you're gonna be worried, you're gonna be stressed out, you're gonna take it out on other people, you're gonna point fingers, you're gonna be bitter, you're gonna be resentful. You can do all those things if you don't receive. So we've got to open up the treasure chest. Should we open up this treasure chest today? Let's open this up. Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus was totally selfish, loved money. And I could just go after one after another. You have to choose, Jesus says, a house divided won't stand. You can't have two masters. Is it money or is it the Messiah? And for Zacchaeus, it was money until he had an encounter with Jesus. And then he went from the stingiest and the most selfish in his community to the most generous, just giving to those in need. Why? Because he opened up the treasure chest. you've gotta open it up and start to receive. It's been closed for too long. You've gotta open it up and start to receive. The more you receive from God, the more you will overflow with hope. You can't share what you don't have. You can't give what you haven't received. So receive to the point of overflow, and God is gonna be with you to provide and protect. Now, Romans chapter 15, 13, because some of you think, well, what's this message? Romans 15, 13, let's say it out loud again. As we think about who God is, he's the God of hope. And what does he want? Here it is. This is our prayer for each other. Let's say it out loud as our prayer. May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now we're gonna go to a verse that's Revelation chapter three verse 20 at the end of the Bible, and Jesus is talking to the churches, seven different churches, and there's a verse that we look at here in Revelation 3.20 that a lot of people quote and share, and it's an invitational verse, and this is often shared in the context of someone deciding they wanna follow Jesus. We are so grateful if you came here today and you don't know Jesus. Today's a great day to make that decision. And a lot of times people will quote this verse, Revelation 3 20. The context of this verse though is actually Jesus talking to his followers. And it's a different context. Now, we all have an invitation, but this is specific for a church in Laodicea. Well, what do we know about that church? They were lukewarm in their faith. And Jesus came alongside of those who were lukewarm, and he said, here I am, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. Jesus invites us to open up our hearts, open up our homes. Is Jesus really the center in your home? Open up our churches. The gates swing wide that the King of glory may come in. Open up so Christ, his presence, such a gift, there's no greater gift than his presence. And that's what Jesus wants to bring to us. Here's another visual from the treasure chest. I've got a picture. and a glass. This is simple, but it's gonna highlight the choice you're gonna make over the next 28 days. Now, the pitcher is full, the glass is empty, and Jesus, talking about living water, talking about living hope, Jesus has this hope. And then here we are, and we need to decide, do we want to receive the hope of Christ? This is how it's gonna play out. There'll be four different groups by the end of 28 days. Some people with an empty cup will say, nope, Heisman, not interested in the hope of Jesus. I like my life as it is. I'm independent. I can handle everything myself, I'm gonna do everything in my own strength, and that's how I live. And I'm not ready to receive anymore for whatever reason, or just be really distracted and not receive anymore. And the 28 days will end, and it will start like this and kind of end like this. for some people, that's a choice, that's an option. There's a second group that will say, you know what, hearing about this hope of Jesus, his presence, I'll take a little, I'll take a little. I might not do 28 days, but I might three or four of those days, check out a verse or two and just get a little hope, spend a little time with God, just try to let him in to maybe one door in my house, not the whole house, but one area, one area. And some people are gonna finish the 28 days with a little bit, little bit of hope. And then some people are gonna be like, no, I want more than a little. You know, I think seven days maybe. I got a couple doors in my house. Jesus can have the first floor, not the second floor. But I'll give him the first floor. And I'm getting more hope, I'm growing, I'm getting more hope. And those are all options, right? But there's a fourth that's God's will. And this is what God wants to do in our lives. Jesus, just continues to give hope and hope and hope, and it just starts to overflow. This is the picture of the Christian life. And I know some of us in this room are very considerate and like, well, I don't wanna take all that hope because there might be some people in the room then who don't get hope. And I know this picture, listen, this picture's an imperfect metaphor. Jesus has infinite hope. You don't have to like have a small ration of hope because there's a lot of people in the room. Jesus isn't gonna run out of hope in 28 days. Jesus can fill all of us. And he'll just be bringing it, and bringing it, and bringing it, and an overflow of hope. This is the picture of following Jesus. If you abide with Jesus, you're gonna bear much fruit. And what does that look like? Well, it's gonna mean some new things. You know, when we talk about this overflow, today as we gathered, we had three questions. We don't usually do that. Well, why do we do that? Some of you are thinking, let's not ever do that again. I'd rather sing one more song. So why do we do that? I think in every place you go to, there's a culture. Anyone ever notice that when you get into an elevator, there's a culture? Unwritten expectations and rules. Like when you get into an elevator, what do you do? You don't make eye contact. You come in and you come out. You got a place you wanna go and you're not interested in the people. You just look away, look down until the door opens and you're back out. Some people treat church like an elevator. I'm just coming in, got my blinders on, locked in, I know where I sit, I sit at the same place every time, I don't talk to people, I come in, I come out, I go to the parking lot, and I'm done. Sometimes we do that in our homes, we go into the garage, parking lot, garage closed, don't meet my neighbors, don't love my neighbors, I'm locked in, blinders. What we're trying to do is breathe a little and make this more like a family. that we actually listen to each other, care for each other, we pray for each other, we encourage each other, we hear each other's stories, we grieve with each other, we rejoice with each other. On a Sunday, that can't all happen in great depth, but we can't just look at the 20 greeters and say, it's your job, you bring the love, I'm not interested in that, you bring the hope, not me. We set the culture in the church. We don't go to church, we are the church. We decide how we treat each other. And I guarantee you this, when you get filled with the hope of Jesus, you start to notice people. And people become really important. And you start to go to your comfort zones and take relationship risks and serve people. And that's what happens, there's an overflow. There's an overflow as you think about drive-through prayer. We started it four years ago. Then over two years ago, it became every week on Fridays. Now, you know what's happened? So many people in our church are now wanting to be a part of this. Why would we do it? Because we wanna love our neighbors. We wanna be doers of the word. We wanna go out and care for people, listen to people. This Monday, we're launching Mondays, so now it's Mondays and Fridays for drive-thru prayer. And if more people wanna bring more love, we'll add a third night to that. But what's happening is our community's experiencing God, and our community is coming to know Jesus, and our community's coming to our church and other churches. Pastors are calling me up and saying, thank you for drive-through prayer. We're getting more people coming to our church through this. And then last Sunday we ran 13, 26 miles. Why do we do that for the seventh straight year? Because there's kids in Africa that literally don't have water, don't have clean water. They walk for six miles and they take water that the animals are drinking out of and it's water none of us would touch and that's all they have. So God gives us water, we overflow and we start to think everyone should have clean water. God blesses us, God saves us, and we think other people can be saved. God encourages us, we think other people can be encouraged. God gives us wisdom, we want everyone to walk with the mind of Christ. You receive first, then it overflows. And that's where God's leading us. It's receive, not achieve. It's reliance, not independence or performance. And the hope of Jesus is infinite and indestructible. As you think about these eagles, and from Isaiah chapter 40 and from this logo, just choose hope, we see eagles. Do you know eagles and crows have an interesting relationship? I'm not against crows, I'm just bringing some reality about crows. Crows peck eagles. Crows don't like eagles. Crows are known as the gangsters of the sky. Crows travel together. Crows attack eagles. Crows steal the eagles' food. A group of crows is called murder. There you go. You're so smart. Look at that. I'm not teaching you anything today. What do the eagles do when the crows come? And you have a fierce battle. There is a fierce battle in your life. Don't mistake it. There's a fierce spiritual battle where there's an enemy that wants to keep you away from receiving all God's goodness. There's a fierce battle, there are crows, there are lies that wanna keep you away. There's demons that wanna keep you away. Sometimes people wanna undermine you and keep you away from all God's called you. You know how the eagles respond to that? They fly higher because an eagle can ascend to places crows can't reach. A crow, when you get up to about 7,000, the crow starts to get dizzy and faint and going back down. The eagle just keeps soaring. The wind of the Holy Spirit, there's a new wind. The body of Christ for too long has looked down upon people who've thrown shade, who've brought some hatred. We need to forgive. We need to love. We need to lead them to Jesus. We don't want to point fingers. We don't want to get into slander and gossip. We've been trying to fight the same way the world fights and it's not working. We've got to start to ascend with the hope of God and go places that you just can't go without God. Let your light shine. We turn our focus upward in our hearts, our homes, our church, and in our city. It's a heavenly vision. It's for God's glory and our good. I'm often surprised how many times Christians will just get into these unnecessary, tension-filled battles and debates where they either think it's either for God's glory or it's for our good. And in the Bible, it's really simple. It's both. It's for God, when David in Psalm 103 is saying, and he forgives me, and he heals me, and he strengthens me, and encourages me, God gets all the glory. And it's also for our good. And it's both together during the 28 days of hope. God wants to enable us to soar again, and we do it together. And just choose hope, choose Jesus, abide with him. Have a great week.