Jesus as Our Hope

I want to invite you to open your bibles with me to Colossians chapter 1. Today we're going to look at seven words that is a very present reality for those in Christ. I’ve been thinking alot about Easter, and the celebrations. I spent time this week listening to some of my pastor friends speak of baptisms, and people coming to Christ, and lives being changed and all those moments are personal moments that I pray we witness here at Community Church. And we have… We have so much to celebrate as a church, with an anticipation for more to come. But I got to thinking about easter, and this mountain top moment we experience, as we celebrate the resurrection, We celebrated how Jesus conquered death. How He rose from the grave. But today I want to talk about what that means for your life right now - especially when you're walking through a valley. I often wonder, how many people left churches all across the world, right back into the reality of life. Right back into the valley.. right back into the darkness. And I know… from my own heart, these mountain tops moments don’t last very long. And I think of Paul writing this truth in chapter 1 and verses 13and 14.. listen to this. "He has rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves. In him we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.” Get what he is saying.. he rescued us. You were once in DARKNESS - complete spiritual darkness - and God physically RELOCATEs you. He didn't just improve your situation. He didn't just make your darkness a little brighter. He completely transferred you into an entirely new kingdom! And Think about that phrase - "in Christ." Paul uses this al across his other letters to. He talks to the Ephesians that you were once without Christ. But now, you’re in Christ. This isn't just about following Jesus or believing in Jesus. This is about being POSITIONED IN Christ. It's like God picked you up and placed you IN Christ Himself - a position of complete safety, security, and new identity.

But here's the thing - we often still live like we're in bondage. It's like someone who's been in prison for decades. When they're finally released, they still think and act like a prisoner. The cell door is wide open, but they hesitate to walk out. We do the same thing spiritually. Jesus says in John 3:19 that "Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light." We've been transferred into God's kingdom, but we keep glancing back at the darkness, wondering if maybe we're missing something. But in Christ, we've been transferred to a kingdom dominated by LIFE! Paul makes this clear in Ephesians 5:8: "For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.” And then, did you catch how he finishes this thought… its my favorite part: "So live as people of light! It's like the Nike version for Christians - just DO it! Or better yet, just LIVE it! Live like you're redeemed. Live like Christ lives in you. Think back to last week, with Mary at the tomb. Her hope was crushed. Everything she believed in seemed dead. But she showed up anyway. And because she was willing to be vulnerable one more time, she became the first person to see the risen Christ. This is the pattern throughout Scripture. When we surrender to Christ who dwells in us - when we live as people of light even in our darkest valleys - Christ shows up. And not only does He show up, He gives us purpose. He makes us messengers of hope to others still sitting in darkness. Which brings us to verse 27 back in Colossians. … Paul describes this as a mystery that's been hidden for ages but now revealed. And here it is - those seven life-changing words: "Christ in you, the hope of glory.” Say it with me: "Christ in you, the hope of glory.

So here's what I want you to write down and this is our overall truth for today. … Our personal relationship with Jesus prepares us for the valley. Let me say that again: Our personal relationship with Jesus prepares us for the valley. Not avoids the valley. Not eliminates the valley. PREPARES us for the valley.

I came across this quote recently from actress Spencer Kayden: "I choose to live without hope to protect myself from disappointment. It's very effective!” Ever felt that way? I have. Hope feels risky, doesn't it? When you hope for something and it doesn't happen, the disappointment can be crushing. So we protect ourselves. We lower our expectations. We prepare for the worst. We build emotional walls. And you know what? It works! No hope, no disappointment. Problem solved, right? But at what cost? I think… life without hope is a life without joy, without anticipation, without the possibility of something better. It's existence, but it's not really living. When I think of a life without hope.. I think of a life that struggles to moves forward.

So if Christ in us is our hope, what does that actually mean for your life? I mean, what does that mean to me. How does that truth live out in our everyday life… Let me share with you what I believe is the first essential truth about having Christ in you as our hope: YOUR HOPE IS ONLY AS STRONG AS ITS FOUNDATION When we build a house, the foundation determines everything. You can build a beautiful mansion with the finest materials, but if it's sitting on sand, what happens in the storm? It collapses. Jesus himself talked about this in Matthew 7:24-27: "Everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock.” The storms WILL come in your life. The question isn't if you'll face a storm - it's what foundation your hope is built on when the storm hits. Jesus says, in this life there will be trouble. That a promise. But it’s not the trouble we should focus on, its the solution. The antidote to our trouble is Christ. Our rock and solid foundation. Many of us have built our hope on sand. We have… have you build your hope on any of these? Hope founded on circumstances: "Everything's going well right now.” Hope founded on feelings: "I feel good about the future.” Hope founded on other people: "I know they'll come through for me.” But here's the problem - what happens? Well, circumstances change, feelings fluctuate, and people fail. That's why hope built on any of these foundations will eventually disappoint you. But Christ in you? That's hope built on bedrock. That's hope anchored in the One who has never failed, never wavered, never abandoned His promises. This hope endures. Don’t believe me.. read the gospels. From birth of creation, to the birth of Christ… all the way to the cross… and the promise of His return… Christ finished the work he set out to do. Jesus has never abandoned HIS PROMISES. And now, we live in a hope for his return.

Let me ask you something. Have you ever noticed how hard it is to love others when you're afraid? When you're worried about protecting yourself? When you're consumed with your own needs and concerns? Fear and love rarely occupy the same space. Think about it - when you're afraid of rejection, how open are you with others? When you're afraid of loss, how generously do you give? When you're afraid of being hurt, how vulnerable are you willing to be? This is where hope changes everything. Look at what Paul says right here in the same chapter of Colossians 1:4-5: "We have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love which you have for all the saints, because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Did you catch that connection? "Because of their faith in Christ. And their love for others.. …” Their love for others didn't come from trying harder to be nicer people. It flowed naturally from the hope they had in Christ. listen, When your hope is anchored in Christ who lives in you, you stop seeing other people as threats. You stop seeing relationships as risks. You start seeing people the way Jesus sees them - as precious, worth loving, worth sacrificing for. Worth losing your very own life for. And this isn't just theory. How would you love someone who stole form you? Would it bring forth joy? Would you rejoice? I bet the answer is no… some one took something of mine.. I lost something. I remember one time in the oil and gas field we had a temp person who worked with us… and one day, all kinds of things went missing… food from lunch boxes, money, every drink and before long, my charging cord for my phone went missing. So of course, a committee of guys got to gather and began searching the trucks and found within this others guys truck, all of our stuff. Everything.. even my missing cord. And so they wanted me to go to the supervisor and report it with them. And I couldn’t… because for some reason, in my heart, I didn’t know why he did it. What if he needed it more than me. Ya know, proverbs say, People do not despise a thief if he steals to satisfy his hunger when he is starving. For me, its not that my charging cord would help him feed his hunger, but deeper, spiritually, he was starving for Christ. And sometimes, those starving min life need grace even more. And I need to remind myself of that often. Especially when people wear men down emotionally and mentally. Just as I need grace, they need it to. Look at the early Christians in Hebrews 10:34. They "joyfully accepted the plundering of their property." What?!!! Why? Because they knew they had "a better possession and an abiding one.” Think about that - their homes were being ransacked, their possessions stolen, and their response was... joy? How is that possible? Because their hope wasn't in their stuff. Their hope was in Christ. And its the same with our life… This is why marriages fall apart when hope is misplaced. When I put my hope in my spouse to fulfill me, to complete me, to never disappoint me - I'm setting them up for failure and myself for heartbreak. But when Christ in me is my hope, I'm freed to love Alicia without the crushing weight of expectation. I can love her as a gift, not as a god. The same is true for parenting. When my hope is in my children's performance or behavior, I'll either become controlling or crushed. But when Christ in me is my hope, I can parent with grace, with patience, with unconditional love. So, Here’s the 2nd truth,: You will never love others well until your hope is properly placed. As long as you're seeking from others what only Christ can provide, your love will always be contaminated by fear, by need, by self-protection. But when Christ in you becomes your unshakable hope, you're freed to love others not for what they can give you, but for who they are. You're freed to love like Jesus loves - sacrificially, generously, and unconditionally. I dunno about you, but that is how I want to be loved. And to be honest, I want to love others that way too. Because that is the heart of Christ. He lived, sacrificially, generously, and unconditionally. And it changed lives.

There's something I've noticed as I've studied Scripture that has absolutely changed how I view valleys in my life. Here it is: God consistently shows up in ways that directly counter the circumstances His people face. Its true. When Israel was in the desert facing pitch-black nights, God didn't give them flashlights - He became a pillar of fire (Exodus 13:21). During scorching days, He became a cooling cloud. When the disciples were caught in a life-threatening storm, Jesus didn't just calm it - He walked on top of the very thing threatening to drown them (Matthew 14:25). When religious leaders were crushing people with endless laws, Jesus didn't offer a simpler rulebook - He offered rest: "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest... For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light" (Matthew 11:28-30). Do you see the pattern? In darkness, He becomes light. In heat, He becomes shade. In chaos, He becomes peace. In bondage, He becomes freedom. So if you're in a valley right now, don't miss this: God isn't absent - He's about to show up in the way you need Him most, as the exact opposite of what you're facing. When you feel weak - His strength shows up. When you feel abandoned - His presence shows up. When you feel confused - His wisdom shows up. When you feel inadequate - His sufficiency shows up. And when death surrounds you - His life shows up. That's why Paul can write with such confidence in 2 Corinthians 4:8-10: "We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. This is the hope we have in Christ - not that we'll escape the valleys, but that in our darkest moments, He will be our hope… listen to this third truth… GOD SHOWS UP OPPOSITE OF HIS SURROUNDINGS. He does.. but what is our part when we know God is present. How do we live a life where we tend to have valley moments? How to we live with "Christ in us, the hope of glory" in our everyday lives?

Well, first, Draw Near With Confidence. Hebrews 10:22-23 gives us the perfect first step: "Let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings... Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. Did you catch that? Draw near. Then hold on. Kind of like Bull riding. Get on, draw near and hold on. For years, I had it backward. I thought I needed to fix myself first, clean myself up, get my act together - and then I could draw near to God. But Scripture says the opposite. We draw near first - with whatever mess, whatever doubt, whatever fear we're carrying - and then we find the strength to hold on to hope. I remember when our kids were little and they would fall down and scrape their knee, or they would get a splinter in their foot or hand. What do they do? They would run strait to Alicia and I with tears in their eyes. They didn’t stop to bandage themselves up first. They didn’t try to clean the wound themselves. They brought their hurt to someone they trust. That's what drawing near looks like. It's bringing your valley, your fear, your disappointment directly to God - not with hesitation, but with "the full assurance that faith brings.” When you start by drawing near instead of trying to fix everything yourself, everything changes. I promise you. Everything changes. I challenge you this week… look for ways to draw near… and then apply it in your life by holding onto that truth… get into the Bible… pick one verse… hold on to that truth.

Secondly, Name Your Valley, Claim His Promise. Let's be honest. Most of us do this thing where we try to pretend our fears aren't real. We spiritualize them away. When we get scared, sometimes we just say, ”Good Christians don't worry about that." Or we generalize them. "I'm just stressed, or tired. So many of us are carrying around burdens that can be easily lifted by just sharing them. But what you don't name, you hide….. And what you hide grows in darkness. Think about Adam and Eve in Genesis 3. After they sinned, what did they do? They hid. And when God asked them what happened, Adam didn't name it. He blamed Eve. Eve didn't name it. She blamed the serpent. This is still our pattern today! We hide our valleys. We hide our fears. We hide our struggles. We hide our sins. And the enemy loves nothing more than for us to keep them hidden, and instead of repenting, we run and hide them.We bury them deep down.. But listen, when we hide, we're essentially saying, "I don't trust Christ in me to handle this." We're saying, "I'll deal with this on my own." But here's the truth - we can't. But Christ in us can! 1 John 1:7 tells us, "But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. Listen churhc, Walking in the light starts with naming what's in the darkness. It starts with bringing our valleys out of hiding and into God's presence.

What in your life are you hiding. Two verses later in 1 John, look at what he says. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Its making known what we’ve been hiding. But its not just confessing sin to God, look at what James says. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. I truly believe that we are always one apology away from fixing our relationships with others who have hurt us. Think about that for a second. ONE apology. One moment of vulnerability. One act of naming what you've been hiding could be the very thing that breaks the chain of hurt that's been binding you for years. This is why our prayer wall matters. This is why naming our valleys matters. When we bring these things into the light - when we acknowledge them before God and trusted others - that's when healing begins. Some of you have been walking around with unforgiveness in your heart, and it's become a part of your identity. Some of you have been carrying guilt that God forgave long ago, but you haven't forgiven yourself. Some of you have been trapped in patterns of sin that have power only because they remain in darkness. Look, church…..on the other side of that confession, that vulnerability, that naming of your valley - there's freedom. There's healing. There's the life-changing reality of "Christ in you, the hope of glory.”

And lastly, Live From His Victory, Not For It This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where "Christ in you, the hope of glory" becomes more than just a nice Bible verse. Romans 8:37 tells us, "In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” Notice it doesn't say "someday you will be conquerors" or "if you try hard enough, you might become conquerors." It says we ARE - present tense - MORE THAN conquerors. For years, I misunderstood this. I thought being a Christian meant fighting to achieve victory. But the gospel isn't about achieving victory - it's about receiving a victory that Jesus has already won! Think about it this way: When Jesus said "It is finished" on the cross, He meant it. The victory over sin, over death, over fear, over shame - it's already been accomplished. It's done. It's complete. So the question isn't "How do I win this battle?" The question is "How do I live from the victory Christ has already secured?” 1 Corinthians 15:57 declares, "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” Did you catch that? He GIVES us the victory. Not "He will help you earn it if you're good enough." Not "He might grant it if you pray hard enough." He GIVES it - as a gift! When you're in the valley - when the diagnosis comes, when the relationship fails, when the money runs out - you're not fighting FOR victory. You're fighting FROM victory. And This changes everything about how you face your valleys. Instead of praying, "God, please give me victory over this fear," you pray, "God, help me live from the victory You've already given me. And then after naming it, confirm it through his word. Romans 15:13… make it personal.. “the God of hope will fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in him, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. that is within…

Do you see how radical this is? You're not hoping to someday reach victory. The victory of Christ is IN YOU right now! This isn't positive thinking. This isn't mind over matter. This is living in the reality of "Christ in you, the hope of glory. Let me confirm something… Your valleys are real. Your struggles are real. But the victory of Christ in you is even more real! Amen? When you draw near with confidence, when you name what you've been hiding, and when you live from His victory instead of for it - you experience the full power of "Christ in you, the hope of glory.

As Peter comes up… and we close today. I want to give you an opportunity to put these truths into practice right now. In a moment, Peter is going to play some music. As he does, I invite you to come to the front where we have our prayer wall and tables set up. On the paper provided, I want you to write down one valley you're facing right now. One fear. One struggle. Be specific. Be honest. This is between you and God. Fold your paper and place it on our prayer wall. As you do, simply pray: "Lord, I draw near to You with this valley. I name it before You. And I choose to live from Your victory, not for it.” I want you to know that this isn't just a symbolic act. Our prayer team will be praying for each of these requests throughout the week. Real people, lifting up real prayers, for your real valleys. You can choose to add your name, or first name, or no name… Some of you have been carrying these burdens alone for far too long. Today is your day to remember that you're not alone. Christ is in you. His victory is in you. His hope is in you. And your church family is standing with you in prayer. And for those who prefer to remain seated, its ok.. Just remember no obligation for others to pray for you, only opportunity. you can still participate If you choose to remind seated. Use this time to pray, to name your valley to God, to thank Him for the victory that Christ in you has already secured.I want to leave you with this. The valleys you're facing might be deep, but Christ in you is deeper. Your struggle might be long, but Christ in you is eternal. Your pain might be real, but Christ in you is more real. The world says, "No hope, no disappointment." But Jesus says, "I am your hope - and I will never disappoint.” Christ in you. The hope of glory. Seven words that change everything.

Father, for those who are drawing near to You today with their valleys and fears, thank You that You receive them with open arms. Thank You that when we name what we've been hiding, You don't turn away in disappointment - You turn toward us with compassion. Lord Jesus, help us to live from the victory You've already won rather than striving to win a victory on our own. May we leave here today with the unshakable confidence that comes from knowing that Christ in us is our hope - in every valley, in every struggle, in every circumstance. And Holy Spirit, fill each person here with power to live as people of light, even in the darkest valleys. For Your glory, and in Jesus' name, Amen.

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