Hopeology, Part 10

Ah, hope. God, our anchor of hope. If I was to ask you to define hope, how would you do it then? This is our 10th week on looking at what the Bible says concerning hope.

And I wonder what you have learned over the last nine weeks that we've been together. So important for us to grasp what the Bible says concerning hope. With Christ, there is endless hope.

Without Christ, a hopeless end. Because hope is living in anticipation of the promises of God. Hope gives life.

Because there's always something you're looking forward to. And what you're looking forward to is sure to happen because God, who is our anchor of hope, is sure and steadfast. I have a book by Charles Spurgeon entitled Sermons on Hope.

I've read it a multitude of times. I've marked it up. I've written in it.

I scribbled all over it. It's such a great book. In there, he says these words.

He says, Beloved, all true hope is the hope in Christ. If thy hope lieth in thyself, it is a delusion. If thy hope resteth upon any earthly priest and not upon this one great apostle and high priest of our profession, thy hope is a lie.

If thy hope standeth with one foot upon the work of Christ and the other foot upon thine own resolutions or merits, thy hope will fail thee. Hope only in him. He is the only hope which can be acceptable to God.

Or that is the only hope that can be acceptable to God. The only hope which will bear the stress of thy weight. The only hope which will stand the test of thy dying hour and of the day of judgment.

Our hope then of being like Christ is a hope in Christ. We are trusting him. We are depending upon him.

If he does not make us like himself, our hope is gone. He speaks of the hope that comes only in God, from God. It is a living hope, 1 Peter 1 3. Not a dead hope.

It's alive. It's active. That living hope comes from the living God, according to Matthew chapter 16.

And that living God gives it to us through his living word, 1 Peter 1 23, because we are born again by the living and abiding word of God. So there's a living hope given to us by a living God through the living word that makes us, according to 1 Peter chapter 2, living stones in the household of God. So everything about God, who is the living God, granted to his people, the hope that he himself gives to them is alive and well.

It works. It's effectual. It's impressive.

Because it's God's hope. It's a hope that, as we have seen, is rooted in God and received by grace, ratified through the resurrection, reinforced through the scriptures, right? Reaffirmed by the Holy Spirit. You can read the outline.

It's right there in front of you. Hopefully you've been taking notes already. So important.

We live in a world that virtually has no hope. I was told this past week that there are 800,000 suicides globally every year. One person commits suicide every 40 seconds.

It's the number two killer of the people between the ages of 15 and 35. Amazing. They have no hope.

The suicide of Jared Wilson, associate pastor at Harvest Christian Fellowship, this past week has made the news, not just in our county, but literally around America. It's a tragic situation. A young pastor, 30 years of age, married with two children, an associate pastor of the church, who falls on the heels of a young man who, after preaching on Sunday, committed suicide in his church by hanging himself this past year, as well as a young man in Valencia, pastor of a church who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head.

As pastors, we are to proclaim the message of hope, giving hope to a hopeless world. They might understand true and living hope. I was curious about Jared Wilson, simply because he started a ministry called Anthem of Hope.

So I decided to look up the ministry Anthem of Hope, founded by he and his wife. As I looked through it, I began to ask myself the question, why is there no mention of the God of hope? Why is there no mention of Jesus Christ, who is our hope? Why is it when you look under the resources that they use in this ministry called Anthem of Hope, all the resources they use are books and resources, but the Bible is not mentioned. Prayer is not mentioned as a resource in an organization called Anthem of Hope.

How can you give hope to anybody without the God of hope? How can you reinforce that hope without the word of hope, the word of God? How is it we can give hope to people without them understanding that it's a free gift of God received only by his grace? How do we help people understand who need hope, that it's that one true rampart, bulwark, place of refuge against Satan and all of his devices? My friends, this is crucial, absolutely crucial. And as a pastor, I would hope, I would trust that as you come to the church, Christ Community Church, you would know that it's all about the hope that's found in Jesus Christ, the living God who gives to you a living hope. That is so extremely important.

My concern today is that pastors all around the country are more concerned about being relevant instead of being reverent. Big, big no-no. Everything now is about how relevant we can be to the people that we minister to instead of helping them to understand that reverence is what it's all about, the reverence toward the living God.

And so as you, as you are looking for a church, as you're trying to understand how it is I'm to, to be a part of a ministry that is going to grow me and teach me about the hope of the living God, may be founded on a growing reverence for God. And how do you know that a church reveres God? They revere the word of God and the word of God becomes the sole source of sufficiency, the sole source of supremacy, the sole source of their authority, that everything is centered on the word of the living God. The hope, the hope that God gives, as we look at point nine, refines our present lifestyle.

There's something about the hope that God gives that revolutionizes everything on the inside. There's a hope that purifies. In the text of that, it's first John chapter, chapter three, verse number one, when it says, see how great a love the father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God.

And such we are for this reason, the world does not know us because it did not know him. Beloved, now we are children of God and it has not yet appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when he appears, we will be like him because we will see him as he is.

And everyone who has this hope fixed on him purifies himself, even as he himself is pure. You see that there's something about the hope, the hope of the promise of God, the hope of his return, the hope that one day when we see it, we'll be like him as he is. There's something about that hope that refines the inner man, that purifies the inner man, that matures the inner man, that moves the inner man toward Christ likeness.

Spurgeon in his book on hope, speaking on this particular verse in first John chapter three, verse number three says these words, a man who has this hope, the hope of first John chapter three, verse number three, purifies himself. He finds that it does not give him a license to sin. He says, I have heard a thoughtful person say, if I had good hope of being saved and knew that I should go to heaven, I should live as I liked.

Perhaps you would, but then you have not that hope and God will not give it to you while you are in such a state that you would like to live in sin. If a Christian man could live as he liked, how would he live? Why he would live absolutely without sin. If the Lord would indulge the newborn nature of his own children with unrestricted liberty, in that unrestricted liberty, they would not run or they would run after happiness.

The unrenewed heart would like to sin, but the renewed heart quite as eagerly loves to obey the Lord. When the Lord has changed thee, he can give thee not only a hope, but a full assurance that that hope shall come true. And yet thou will walk all the more carefully with thy God for every man that hath this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure.

You see, having the hope does not give you a license to sin. Spurgeon says if a man, if a Christian man could live any way that he wanted to live, he would want to live without sin. He would not want to live in sin.

He wants to live without sin. How about you this morning? How do you want to live? Do you want to live walking with God or walking without God? Do you want to live in sin or without sin? Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, even as he is pure. This hope, this living hope is active.

It's effectual. It works in the inner man. He goes on to say these words.

If you are a lover of sin, you shall go where sinners go. If you who live after this fashion and say that you have believed in the precious blood of Christ, I do not believe you, sir. If you had a true faith in that precious blood, you would hate sin.

If you dare to say you are trusting in the atonement while you live in sin, you lie, sir. You do not trust in the atonement for where there is a real faith in the atoning sacrifice. It purifies the man and makes him hate the sin which shed the redeemer's blood.

After all, holiness is the test. So let the great fan throw up the chaff and the wheat together and let the wind go through it and blow the chaff away. You come here and sit as God's people sit and sing as God's people sing, but ah, some of you are a disgrace to the profession you make.

I know you are. May God forgive you and give you grace to repent of this your sin and come to Jesus Christ and find pardon in his precious blood. This is after all the test.

Every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself. That's powerful. Spurgeon said that over 100 years ago as he preached in his church, helping people to understand that the hope, the living hope is active in your heart and soul.

Doesn't mean that you don't sin because you do, but you don't love sin. You hate it. It doesn't mean that you want to follow after sin because if you had the choice, you'd want to live a sinless life if you could, because you're a child of the living God.

My friends, that is so important. Ask yourself, here's the test. Everyone who has this hope, what hope? The hope of the living God, the hope that is living in anticipation of the fulfillment of all of God's promises, the hope given to us by the Lord God because all hope is rooted in God, the living God.

Everyone who has that hope in him purifies himself even as he himself is pure. There's a refining work that's taking place in my life on a daily basis. I am moving more and more progressively like Christ.

I am not moving away from Christ. I want to be like Christ. That's the test.

It's a refining work. A couple of weeks ago, we talked to you about what that means. So we told you point number one was those who had this refining work, this hope redirects their affection.

Remember that? It redirects their affection. Colossians chapter one, chapter three, verse number one. Therefore, if you have been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God.

Set your mind on things above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you have died in your life and sitting with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.

Everything about hope redirects all my affections from the earth toward God. I set my affections on things above, not on things below. If you have the hope that refines, it redirects my affection.

It redirects my heart. My heart is consumed with God. I want to guard my heart.

I want to protect my heart. I want to store up treasures in heaven, not on earth. I am consumed with heaven.

I am consumed with glory. I am consumed with the Christ. All my affections now are redirected above, not below.

That's how you know the hope of God is at work. It refines my present lifestyle and it begins by redirecting all my affections. That was last time.

Number two simply is this. It energizes, energizes all my ambitions. I'm sorry, energizes our attention, energizes my attention.

That is, if my affections change, my attention changes, and my attention is energized by the affections of my heart. So, if my heart is being refined, not only is it redirected heavenward, all my affections are but it energizes my attention. That is, I am consumed with thoughts about Christ.

Hebrews 3, verse number one, remember? Consider Jesus. Think about the Christ. Hebrews chapter 12 talks about, again, consider Jesus.

Fix your eyes on the author and finisher of our faith. You see, where is your attention? Where's your attention right now? What is your mind on right this very moment? Is it on the game this afternoon? Is it on lunch this afternoon? Is it the work week? What captivates your attention? Those whose lives are being refined not only have their affections redirected, they have their attention energized because God, the living hope, is in their hearts, moving them to think about things above, not things below. We set our minds on Christ.

In Colossians 3, one to two, the theme is Christ. It's Christ, Christ, Christ. Last time we were together in our second service, not our first service, in the second service, I told the people that were there that in the month of August, the hope came out and said that Jesus is no longer our hope, but the hope of the people is in Mary and the mother church.

Yeah. Our hope is no longer in Jesus, but it's in Mary and the mother church. For years, the Catholic church has been moving people away from the Christ, and now the Pope has literally come out and said those exact words.

You see, Satan uses false religion to always move us away from the Christ, not toward the Christ. In fact, 2 Corinthians 4, 4 talks about how he has blinded the mind of the unbeliever. So he does not recognize the glory of Christ who is in the image of his father.

In other words, he's blinded the mind of the people, so they don't understand the deity of Christ. That Christ is the living God. That's Satan's objective, because once you realize the identity of Christ, you understand the ministry of Christ.

And if you understand the ministry of Christ is redeeming work, you want to give your life to him because you want to be saved from your sin. Once you recognize his identity, his ministry, you see your iniquity and all you can say is, Lord, have mercy upon me. And so Satan is blinded the mind of the unbeliever, so he does not see the deity of the living God.

In Jesus Christ, our Lord. And the Pope is moving people further and further away from the Christ. Mary has always been the central figure in Catholicism.

Always has been, always will be. Mary is the one who somehow is a mediator between man and God. But the Bible says there's one mediator, that's the man Christ Jesus.

They keep telling us that Mary was a sinless person. She never sinned. That's not true.

Luke 1 tells us you needed a savior. If you need a savior, that means you recognize you're a sinner. They keep telling us that she never had any children.

That her perpetual virginity was always the main hallmark of her life. That's not true. She had many children.

All you could do is read the Bible. And you realize that even the brothers and sisters of Jesus did not believe in him. They tell us that she ascended up into glory and did not die.

The Bible does not speak about that. That's false. But you have a myriad of people that bought into that hook, line, and sinker.

And it's a lie from the pit of hell. And we need to help people entrenched in Catholicism to understand the truth of the gospel. The hope is only found in Jesus Christ, our Lord.

That's it. And those who have this hope in them purify themselves even as he is pure. There's a refining process that's taking place because it redirects all my affection toward things above.

It energizes my attention. I want to think about the Christ. I want my attention drawn to the Christ.

I want to fix my eyes only on Jesus. That's why the Bible says in Luke chapter 10, when Martha was so encumbered with many things, Jesus says, Oh, Martha, Martha, Mary has chosen the best thing. What's the best thing? To listen to Christ, to be captivated by the Christ.

Martha was so captivated by all the things surrounding the Christ. She missed being captivated by the Christ himself. But Mary did not.

She wanted to hear what the Lord God had to say. That's why when the Greeks came to Philip in John 12, they said, We wish to see Jesus and only Jesus. Remember what Jesus said to the religious establishment in John's gospel, the fifth chapter.

He said these words, John chapter 5, verse number 39. You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that testify about me.

You know what the greatest tragedy of all? Is that to search the scriptures, to be so intellectually astute about the scriptures, that you completely miss the Christ of the scriptures. That is so tragic. And Jesus speaks to the religious establishment and says, You know, you search the scriptures day and night.

But you miss one main thing, and that's me, the Messiah, your Messiah. How is it you can be so intellectually astute, but miss me in your searching process? But they did. And then he gives this indictment in verse number 40.

And you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. You're unwilling to come. Oh, you search the scriptures, for in them you think that you have eternal life, but you miss me.

You know, when you open the Bible and you read scripture, everything is about Jesus, right? If you miss Jesus when you read, you didn't read it right. You missed it. When you read the scriptures, it's all about the Christ.

It's all about the beauty of the Christ. It's all about understanding who he is and what he's done and what he's going to do. That gives us hope, because hope is living in anticipation of the promises of God.

That's why it's Solomon who says these words in the book of Ecclesiastes, the fifth chapter. Guard your steps as you go to the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know they are doing evil. Do not be hasty in word or impulsive in thought to bring up a matter in the presence of God, for God is in heaven and you are on the earth.

Therefore, let your words be few. Here is Solomon writing at the end of his life, realizing that when you go to the house of the Lord, don't say anything. Just go and listen.

Just go and listen to what God has to say. Be eager to understand the Christ. Be eager to grasp the Christ.

Learn all you can about the Christ. Don't be hasty in words. Don't be hasty even to bring up a matter in the presence of God.

Don't be so quick to go to the house of God that you got to bring up something in his presence. Go there just to listen to God, because in the listening you get the answer to whatever request you might have. So listen.

That's why James says, in James 1 verse number 19, let every man be quick to the hearing of the word, slow at speaking the word, and even slower at becoming angry at the word. It's not about how we deal with relationships with one another. It's all about the word of God.

The context is all about God's word, because he says there in verse number 20, therefore laying aside all filthiness and all wickedness, receive the engrafted word of God which has been implanted in you. Receive it. You can't do it if you're not quick to hear it.

You can't do it if you're not slow to speak it. And you certainly can't receive it if you become angry at it. Be slow to becoming angry at it.

Why? Because you need to understand what it is it points you to. It points you to Christ. You want to obey what he says.

Then it goes on to say in James, let the one that were to be doers of the word not just hearers only. So once you hear it, once you're quick to hear it, obey it, follow it, live it out. So important.

You see, everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself even as he is pure. That refining process begins by redirecting my affections, by energizing my attention. And once my affections are heavenward, once my attention is on the Christ, then point number three, it fuels my ambitions.

It fuels my ambition. It gives gas to my ambitions. What's our ambition? Second Corinthians 5 verse number nine, what did Paul say? We make it our ambition to be pleasing to him.

Listen, this is so good. This is so good. If my affections are heavenward, right? And my attention is on the Christ, my mind is set on him.

Guess what I want to do? I want to please him. That's what I want to do. I want to please the Lord.

Paul said, I'm making my ambition. This is my driving force. I want to live a life that's pleasing to God.

Is that your ambition today? Do you want to please the true and living God? Paul would say to those in Galatia, in Galatians chapter one verse number 10, if you seek the pleasure of man, you forfeit the pleasure of God. Those seeking to please their fellow man are automatically going to forfeit the pleasure of God because you're going to compromise God and his word so you can please your fellow man. So Paul says, we make it our ambition to live a life that's pleasing to God.

And you know what that means, right? You should know what that means. We talked to you about this. We preached on it.

Maybe some of you saw the bookmark on it. Anybody here have the bookmark on what it means to please God? It's green in case you don't know. Let me review it for you just in case you forgot.

Because how do you know you're pleasing God? How do you know you're pleasing God? Number one, you're proclaiming. You are absolutely proclaiming the truth of the living God. The Bible says in first Corinthians one verse number 18, you're proclaiming the message of the cross.

Proclaiming the message of the cross. First Corinthians chapter one verse number 21, for since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God, God was well pleased through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. And Paul says, we preach Christ and him crucified.

It's all about the message of the cross. If you want to please God, you got to proclaim the message of the cross. We sang about the cross this morning.

We're sending Bruce and Tom to Myanmar to teach about the cross of Christ and the proclamation of that message. It's all about Jesus Christ and his cross. Everything in the Old Testament pointed to what? The cross.

Everything in those 39 books pointed to the cross with the Messiah would hang. And everything since then looks back to that cross because that's where our lives were purchased. That's where redemption was won at the cross.

And while it's foolishness to those who are unbelievers, to us who are saved, it's everything. Want to please God? God was well pleased at the proclamation of the cross. If God was well pleased by that proclamation, we should proclaim the message of the cross.

Right? What's number two? Living a life of faith, right? Want to live a life pleasing to the Lord? Live a life of faith. Hebrews 11, 6, Without faith, it's impossible to what? Please God, right? Paul says, I make it in my ambition to please Him. Therefore, I got to live a life of faith.

What's faith? Hope is living in anticipation of God's promises. Faith is living by conviction of God's precepts. I live believing with a conviction that what God says is true, right? That's faith.

If Hebrews 11 is all about the great hall of faith, and we'll go into great detail when we get there, a year or two or three down the line, we're going to get there one day. But when we do, we're going to understand what faith is all about. Living a life of faith.

Without faith, it is impossible to please God. So what do I do? I live each day trusting, obeying the word of the living God, knowing that what he says is true. So if I'm going to please God, I'm going to proclaim the message of the cross.

If I'm going to please God, I'm going to live, live a life of faith. Number three, I'm going to exalt Jesus Christ, the son of God. I'm going to exalt Jesus Christ, the son of God.

Matthew 3, 17, the Lord God came with a voice from heaven. This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased. John 5 tells us this in verse number 23, he who honors the son, honors the father who sent the son.

The Bible says over in the book of Colossians, the first chapter, when it talks about the preeminence of Christ, he is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him, all things are created, both in the heavens and the earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rules or authorities, all things have been created through him. And for him, he is before all things.

And in him, all things hold together. He is also head of the body, the church. And he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead said he himself will come to have first place in everything.

For it was the father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in him. It was the good pleasure of the father. It pleased the father that in Christ, the fullness of the Godhead would dwell in bodily form.

Therefore, when you exalt the son, you exalt the father, you exalt the spirit of God. It's well pleasing to God. How do you know that you have your ambitions fueled by a hope that purifies from the inside out? You want to truly please the living God by proclaiming the message of the cross, living the life of faith, trusting obedience in God himself, exalting the son of the living God.

Number four, asking God for wisdom. Remember 1 Kings chapter three, verse number 10. When God said to Solomon, you can ask for me anything that you want.

What do you ask for? What did Solomon say? I want wisdom to be able to govern your people. The Bible says in 1 Kings 3.10 that this pleased God. Why did it please God when Solomon asked for wisdom? Because God is the God of wisdom.

And therefore, Solomon in essence is asking to be like God. I want to be just like you. I want to be able to rule your people as you would rule them.

Wouldn't it be good if every father in the room said, God, give me wisdom to govern and rule my family as you would? Lord, I want to rule my family. I want to lead my family as you would lead my family. Lord, I want to lead my wife as you would lead my wife.

Lord, I want to lead my children as you would lead my children. Lord, I need wisdom to do that. When you ask God for wisdom, you are asking God that you might be just like him in every decision you make.

So the decision you make for your family will honor and glorify the precious name of the living God. Over in Colossians chapter one, what's it say? Colossians chapter one, verse number nine, for this reason also since the day we heard of it, we have not ceased to pray for you and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding so that you will walk in a manner worthy of the Lord to please him in all respects. Paul says, look, we are praying that you'd be filled with the knowledge of God in all spiritual wisdom and understanding.

Why? Because if you have the wisdom of God, you will please God. See that? You walk in a manner that pleases him because the decisions you make will be based on the wisdom of God, not foolish wisdom of man. So Paul says, I make it my ambition to please him.

Paul had his affections set above, was completely attentive to what God had to say. Therefore, his ambitions were all about pleasing the true and living God. How did he do that? By proclaiming the message of Christ, living the life of faith, exalting the son of the living God.

By asking God for wisdom and then by staying away from sexual sin. By staying away from sexual sin. Paul says this in 1 Thessalonians 4. Finally, then brethren, we request and exhort you in the Lord Jesus that as you receive from us instruction as to how you ought to walk and please God, just as you actually do walk, that you excel still more, for you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

For this is the will of God, your sanctification, that is that you abstain from sexual immorality, that each of you know how to possess his own vessel and sanctification and honor, not a lustful passions like the Gentiles who do not know God. And that no man transgress and defraud his brother in the manner because the Lord is the avenger of all these things. Just as we also told you before and solemnly warned you, for God has not called us for the purpose of impurity, but in sanctification.

You see that? Paul says, we want you to know how to walk and please God. How's that? By doing the will of God. What's the will of God? That you abstain from sexual immorality.

Staying away from sin pleases God. Being engulfed in sin doesn't please God. Running towards sin doesn't please God.

Staying away from sin pleases God. And so we see in scripture that when you proclaim the message of Christ and you live a life of faith and exalt the son of God, ask God for wisdom and stay away from sexual sin, you are in essence pleasing God. And Paul says, this is my ambition.

This is what I want to do. This is what consumes me. I want to honor my God.

I want to please my God. And the Bible is very explicit of what it means to please God. It doesn't leave you in the dark.

You don't sit back and say, man, I wonder how I pleased God. I don't know how to do that. No, we just gave you several ways.

Let me give you another one, right? Imitating Christ. Imitating Christ pleases the true and living God. Remember what the Bible says in John's Gospel, the eighth chapter, 29th verse.

The Lord says, He who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone. For I always do the things that are pleasing to him.

Okay, so look, Jesus Christ came to do the will of the Father. Jesus Christ came to do that which was only pleasing to the Father. That is, He lived a life of constant submission to the Father.

So if we're going to imitate Christ, we imitate Christ specifically in the area of submission. We submit one to another all throughout scripture. Once you're filled with the Spirit of God, controlled by the Spirit of God, Ephesians chapter five, verse 20 says you submit yourselves one to another.

Husbands to wives and wives to husband, children to parents and parents to children. There is a submissive act that we had this servant's attitude of willing to give our life away for the sake of somebody else. If you want to please God, you must imitate the Christ.

And you imitate the Christ by living a life of submission toward those in your family, those in your church. Because that's what Jesus Christ himself did. He submitted himself to the authority of the Father.

We submit ourselves to the authority of our Father who is in heaven by imitating the Christ. He who says that he abides in him, 1 John 2, ought himself to walk even as he himself walked. We imitate the Christ.

It pleases the Father. How about this? If you're following, you know it's P-L-E-A-S-I-N-G, right? Pleasing, very simple. It's not hard to follow.

That's why we gave you a bookmark several years ago. By the way, can we find that bookmark yet? One, two, three, four. Anybody else? Five.

Do I have six? Do I have six? Wow. See? See, you're following right along. You know exactly what I'm going to say.

What's the next one? Neglecting not to share with others. That pleases the Lord. By neglecting not to share with others.

If you're with us on Wednesday night, you know that this is one of the great sacrifices in scripture. Hebrews 13. Through him, then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise that is the fruit of our lips and give thanks to his name.

And do not neglect doing good and sharing for with such sacrifices God is pleased. Why is God pleased? When we neglect not to share our possessions with others. God is pleased.

It deals with our gifts. It deals with our goods. It deals in the gospel because that's what is good as well.

And so we share with others. It gives glory to God. So not only do we please him by proclaiming the message of the cross, by living a life of faith, by exalting Christ, the son of God, by asking God for wisdom, staying away from sexual sin, imitating Christ, neglecting not to share with others, but giving praise to his name.

Giving praise to his name. Psalm 69 says this. Verse number 30.

I will praise the name of God with song and magnify him with thanksgiving. And it will please the Lord better than an ox or a young bull with horns and hoofs. I will praise the name of my God with thanksgiving and it will please him more than anything else I can do externally because internally I want to honor his name.

See that? That's what it means to please the Lord. By giving praise to his name. No matter what the circumstances.

And so we understand that if I'm, my life is going to be refined because of the living hope that's in me. It redirects, redirects my affections, energizes my attention, fuels my ambitions. That's what God's word does.

That's what the living hope does. It is constantly active, constantly moving in and through me because it's the God of hope who indwells me. It's Christ who is our hope who indwells me.

That which is reaffirmed by the spirit of God, according to the book of Romans, is inside of me. God is in me. And he's the living God.

He is always active. He's never stagnant, nor is he ever stale. He is always at work, refining the inner man.

So test yourselves. Where do you stand with the living God? Is this you? When you come back next week, we'll finish it for you. We'll show you exactly how, how our lives are refined every single moment of every single day.

Let's pray together. Father, we thank you so much for your word. We are a blessed people.

Lord, we are honored to be able to spend time in the word of our Lord. My prayer is for everyone in the room that, Lord, they would understand the living hope given to us by a living God through the living word to make us living stones in the household, the church, the body of Christ. Our prayer, Lord, is that your word would take root in our lives.

That we'd honor you and serve you this week for the glory of your name only. That when we arrive again next Lord's day, we will only be here with praise on our lips in response to all that you've done and all that you will do because you are the Lord God. Of all in Jesus name.

Amen.