Hope Remains

Well good morning welcome to Twin Lakes Church. Happy Mother's Day to all the moms who are celebrating and what about those baby dedications? Oh my word. What pure joy. For me as a person of a certain age that stage full of babies means Twin Lakes has a great future and that's so exciting for me. I just love it.

My name is Valerie. I'm one of the pastors on staff and I'm excited to continue our Hope Rising series. We have a companion devotional book for you and if you have not picked this up yet or maybe you tried and we were out of stock we are now restocked so you can grab one of those at the information desk in the lobby today.

We started this series on Easter weekend with the foundation of our hope, the death and the resurrection of Jesus. Then each week following we've been getting really practical diving into God's Word and talking about how do we daily live with this hope in our lives. And last weekend René talked about our future hope. The hope of heaven, eternity with Christ after we die. When he returns to earth and restores everything. Healing for everything. Eden again. And that's truly one of the most hopeful things that we can think about.

But honestly because we're all here today it's a future hope. We need to know that heaven is coming. We need to know that Jesus will make it all right but we also need to pay the bills. We also need wisdom for each day. We also need hope that that person in her life who really needs to change or maybe it's ourselves that we need the hope that we can change. So what do we do? Is it just all about the future we just kind of hang on until we get there? Or is there a hope now? There is. But how does that hope remain in our daily lives?

You know a few days after Easter I found myself just kind of pondering you know I haven't really read what happened after for a while. I was thinking those 40 days between when Jesus rose from the dead and when he went to heaven what happened? So I started flipping through my Bible and looking at those passages again reminding myself of all Jesus did. And one passage that I read a name just leapt off the page. It's Acts 1:14. This is after Jesus has returned to heaven. And it says they all meaning the disciples joined together constantly in prayer along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus and with his brothers.

And I thought Mary Mary the mother of Jesus. I mean talk about the person who was there at the beginning. She was there at the beginning of this whole thing. And here she is at the end. Well it's kind of the start of 2.0 of what was going on. You know and probably all of us know okay I know how Mary's story starts. That's what we hear at Christmas. The angel came visited Mary and said good news you have been chosen to be the mother of Emmanuel God with us.

But I'll confess that I'm often tempted to kind of look at that story and then just sort of put Mary away with the Christmas decorations and not really think about it much more. But as I read these verses I realized you know Mary the life of Mary has a lot to teach all of us about hope. I mean how did she stay hopeful as a young mom raising the Savior of the world? How did she stay hopeful at the foot of the cross? And all the moments in between. Ups, downs, questions. And that's our lives too. We have ups, we have downs, we have questions.

The life in front of us may not be the life that we imagined we would be living at this point. And it may be tiring you out. You may feel overwhelmed. You may be completely robbed of hope because of it. So how do we stay hopeful? How does hope remain? Mary even just the few snapshots that we have of her in the Bible has a lot to teach us about how hope remains in all seasons of life.

And the first thing I think we see in the life of Mary is that hope remains in remembering. Hope remains in remembering. Twice in the Bible it tells us that Mary treasured things. She pondered them, held them in her heart. She saw what God was up to and she took note. The first time that we see that she's just given birth to Jesus. She's in the cave, the stable, and in pop the shepherds. I mean just what every new mom needs is unexpected guests at their doorstep. So in come the shepherds. But they have good news. They say an angel appeared to us and told us about this baby, told us the good news. What an encouragement that must have been to Mary. Okay they got an angel visit too. Not just me. Good. And she knew this baby was special. She knew this baby was special.

And then Luke says after that as the shepherds left Mary treasured these things and pondered them in her heart. She remembered. The second time we see it in the book of Luke is years later. Jesus is 12 years old now and the family has gone to Jerusalem for Passover celebrations. And as they're heading home, Mary and Joseph are on their way home, they have that classic parent moment. They look at each other and go, "Where's Jesus? I thought you had Jesus. I thought you had Jesus." All the way back to Jerusalem they go.

And when they finally find Jesus, he's in the temple talking to the religious leaders, amazing them with his answers and his insights. And then Mary asked Jesus the question that all parents have asked in that time, "Where have you been? I was looking for you." And Jesus's answer is, "Why were you searching for me?" He asked. "Didn't you know I would need to be in my Father's, my Heavenly Father's house?" Now the Bible does not record what Mary said. That is a sentence I actually would have liked to have read. But what we do know, the gospel writer Luke, who tradition holds, interviewed Mary as he wrote this gospel, does say again, "But Mary the mother treasured these things in her heart. She remembered."

Moms are great at remembering. Remembering the schedules, the soccer, the doctors. They remember which kid put the marble up their nose and which kid broke their arm. They remember where that toy is that you liked once for two days, eight months ago. They can still find that toy. They remember exactly how long it took to give birth to you. Moms remember. And I don't know if it was just my mom or maybe your mom did this too, but my mom kind of settled in on one story she liked to remember about me. And she would tell this story to anybody who would pause for a moment and ask about me.

She would tell about the day when I was in preschool Sunday school class and I walked into the Sunday school class. Children were already playing with toys and things like that. And I walk in and proceed to take all the toys from the children and lay them out on the ground. Why did they let me do this? But they did. I laid it out on the ground and then I gave each child a different toy. And then according to what I call mom lore, I put my hand on my hip and I said, "There." Now I was too young to remember doing this, but knowing who I am now, I can see it happening. I can see it happening.

Moms remember. We all remember. We remember the fun and the funny and the sweet, but often we mostly remember the broken, the loss, and the pain. Many times in the Bible we're told to remember. If you've been coming to Twin Lakes Church for any length of time, you are probably remembering that we tell you to remember a lot around here. But it's so important. And this week we're just gonna dive into one aspect of remembering. But next week, do not miss next weekend. It's gonna be great. We're having this special time of communion and we're gonna talk more about remembering. Dive into God's Word and just open up a beautiful passage that's familiar, but I think you're gonna see it with new eyes when it comes to hope. Don't miss it.

But we're told to remember. So if hope remains in remembering, are we just supposed to kind of rehearse all the chaos and the ick that has gone on in our lives? Well, what does Mary do? What was she remembering to stay hopeful? She was remembering God's words to her. She was remembering God's words to her, spoken to her through that angel visit and how she was seeing and experiencing that come true all around her.

And you may think, well, good for Mary, but I am not having angel visits right now, Val. God hasn't told me much lately, but the good news is He has. In this, the Bible, in God's Word, He's telling you things all the time. And for hope to remain on the roller coaster of life, we need to remember God's words to us in the Bible. Like Mary, God's Word helps us connect the dots between what His Word says and our lives. This book from cover to cover is one amazing reminder of God's love for you. God's grace for you. This book helps us make sense of life because it points us to Jesus, the one who gives us life, who is our life.

And perhaps this is all new to you and you're thinking, I'd be happy to remember God's Word. I don't even know where to start. Well, if you need a Bible, we have free Bibles at the information desk. We'd be happy to give you one. If you would like, start with the Daily Devotion book that we have. It's free. It's also out in the lobby today. Lately, I have started listening to Scripture on the Dwell app. They also have YouVersion has a similar thing. So far, all I've done is listen to the Psalms on repeat with a nice British lady reading them to me. And this has really made a difference.

Just this past week, I had, you know, one of those normal days that comes to us all that was kind of all called bumpy. And I got in my car, closed the door and I just went, whoo, I think I just need to, you know, you just kind of want to go numb and quiet for a minute. I just sat in my car staring straight ahead out in the parking lot. And all of a sudden it was like, God put this thought in my head. What are you teaching about this weekend? Oh, yeah. Hope remains in remembering God's Word. I should try that. I should try that before I tell people to do it. So I turned on that app and just listened to Psalms on repeat, remembering God's words. We cannot make sense out of the nonsense of this life without the perspective that God's Word just lays on top of it all. Hope remains in remembering.

And second and closely related, hope remains in receiving truth. Receiving truth. I love truth. I want people to be truthful to me. Mostly I want them to be truthful to me. But we hate it when people lie to us. We know, we all know how it feels when somebody lies to us. There's no hope in lies. My sister had knee replacement surgery about six weeks ago and in the recovery room, her doctor told her, "You will not be happy about this surgery for months." And I was sitting there and I thought, "Okay, this doctor may have missed the Bedside Manor Day at school. But you know what? That truth has helped my sister because she is not happy about this surgery yet. But knowing that that's normal, that the pain is okay, it's gonna go away. That truth has helped her. It's helping her remain hopeful in the recovery process.

And we need truth. We need truth in our relationships, in our surgeons, in our marriages, in our work, in our community. And we need to be people of truth. But the most important truth and the truth I'm talking about here that we must receive is God's truth. That's where our hope remains. That's where our hope is found. And putting your hope in yourself or whenever we choose to put our hope in anything that's not God. Basically it's like putting your hope in cotton candy. Looks good, tastes good, dissolves in an instant. Putting your hope in yourself, cotton candy. Putting your hope in your bank account, your investments, don't need to tell anyone lately, cotton candy. Even putting your hope in other people as great as people can be, cotton candy. Because we're all human. Hope remains in receiving God's rock-solid truth.

But a problem can come in that God's rock-solid truth can go in and out of popularity and culture. And we're all happy to admit that. Yeah, culture. Here's the harder truth. God's truth can go in and out of popularity in my own life sometimes. God's truth that says, "I'm with you always to the end of the age." Love it. So comforting. God's truth that says, "For those who are evil will be destroyed." Fantastic. Big fan of this verse. Everybody likes that verse. God's truth that says, "In this world you will have trouble." Hmm, a little shakier. God's truth that says, "Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me." Okay, that's a little harder truth to hear. I see what you're doing there God, but is there any wiggle room in that?

And Mary, human just like us, surely must have felt this tension. I mean how amazing to be told the truth that you are going to be the mother of the Savior of the world. But then fast forward. Jesus is six weeks old and Mary and Joseph are at the temple dedicating Jesus, much like we dedicated babies today. And at the temple they meet Simeon, faithful Simeon. And when he sees Jesus, he just bursts out and says, "Sovereign Lord, as you have promised you may now dismiss your servant in peace," which is a fancy way to say I can die happy, "for my eyes have seen your salvation." This baby, what confirmation again for Mary and Joseph, this baby is our salvation.

But then Simeon's words, that truth takes a turn. And he looks at Mary and he says, "This child, your child Mary, is destined to cause the falling and rising of many in Israel and to be a sign that will be spoken against so that the thoughts of many hearts will be revealed and a sword will pierce your own soul too." That's some tough truth. This is gonna be extra hard on you Mary. His life and death are gonna feel like a sword going through your soul. There's a description of parenting for you. But just like the doctor's truth helps my sister, I imagine that both these truths were actually really helpful to Mary, knowing that this child is the Messiah, knowing that. And then when she's at the foot of the cross, knowing that she had received the truth that this moment would come, she had received the sword piercing truth as well.

And that can be hard. Those sword piercing truths, soul piercing truths, they're hard. They're so hard to get that soul piercing truth going. But in receiving God's truth, all of God's truth, hope remains. Because if we go back to John 16:33, "In this world you will have trouble," hope remains because the second part of that verse says, "But take heart, because I have overcome the world." Both parts of this verse are equally true. And for our hope to remain, we need to receive God's truth. All of it. Hope remains in receiving truth.

And then third, hope remains in waiting. And you may have a hard time believing that hope and waiting can go in the same sentence, and I get that. I hate to wait. And I prefer to frame it not as impatience, but as a deep love of efficiency. I work hard to be efficient. I want to make efficient systems. And waiting to me just feels like I failed in some way. I didn't do it right, so now I'm waiting. But life is full of waiting. I would imagine that every single person in this room feels like they're in God's waiting room in some way right now. And it's tough. But we know life is full of waiting.

The book of Psalms tells us again and again that we are gonna be waiting. Psalm 135 says, "I wait for the Lord. My whole being waits, and in his word I put my hope." Psalm 38 says, "Lord, I wait for you. You will answer, 'Lord my God.'" Psalm 33 says, "We wait in hope for the Lord. He is our help. He is our shield." And do you notice something in these verses? We're not just waiting for waiting's sake. We're waiting for the Lord. We're waiting for the Lord who is always at work. Even in the stillness of our waiting, God is at work.

Back to Mary. The Bible tells us what an amazing woman. She was there at the foot of the cross. I mean can you imagine she was there watching the child she bore in her womb be crucified, mocked, killed, waiting for the release of death for him. And her waiting to everyone else must have looked so grim and hopeless. So grim and hopeless. But God was working. In Jesus, God was redeeming the whole world on the cross. God was doing his greatest and most gracious work while Mary waited at the foot of the cross.

What are you waiting for today? For some of you, maybe you're actually waiting for the day when you get to celebrate Mother's Day, but that hasn't happened yet. And I get that. I've told you before. I waited and waited for God to give me kids, and that wait did not end with a child, but ended with a surgery that meant I would not have kids. Maybe you're waiting for a job to come through. Maybe you're waiting for school to be done. Maybe you're waiting for a spouse or in this county you could be waiting and waiting trying to figure out a housing situation. It's just such a beast in this county. Maybe you're waiting for some physical healing. Maybe on this Mother's Day you're waiting for some relational healing to happen. And you're waiting.

I tell you as sure as I am standing here today, God has not stopped working in your waiting. God has not abandoned you in your waiting. God did not abandon me in my waiting, even waiting unfulfilled. God has given me, I've told you so many wonderful kids that I get to be Aunt Valerie to, and it is pure joy to me. But even more than the joy they bring me, and that is a lot of joy, let me tell you, they bring me a ton of joy. Even more than that joy though, is the hope that has grown in me as I waited. As I waited, my hope shifted from what I wanted to God, who is far better, who is with me, who is with you in every weight of life, and He is working.

Hope remains in waiting, and finally hope remains in praying. And waiting and praying, they really go together, honestly. The last picture we have of Mary before the Bible sort of fades to black on her life, is one of her praying, constantly in prayer, and waiting, and waiting. You know, in my experience, moms are praying people. For many of us, very few people will ever pray for us as much as our mom does. My mom prayed for me every day of her life. I'll be honest, some days it was less praying for me and more praying about me, but my mom prayed for me every single day.

Personally, for me, praying brings so much hope. Praying is a way that my hope remains, and I do have some kind of formal, you know, fancy pants sit down, times of prayer, fold my hands, close my eyes, and pray. But mostly in my life, I've just started a dialogue with God a few years ago, and we just keep talking. And I tell Him about my day, I tell Him about the strength I need, I ask for the wisdom that I need, the help that I need, the hope that I need, I talk to Him about the drivers on Highway 1, and I pray that they will learn to merge. I believe all our problems will be solved if the drivers learn to merge, and so I pray about that. I think you agree with me based on your response. Maybe if we all pray together, it'll happen. I just pray about it all, big, small, everything in between.

And it may not shock you to hear that a pastor likes to pray. Well, it's kind of part of your job, isn't it? But you know, this has not always been my life. I went through a season of time where I just, I didn't pray. I wasn't, I just didn't, I was like, "What? Why? God's gonna do what He's gonna do, I'm not gonna pray and talk about it." You know what got me out of that? I just started praying. I just started talking to God. And eventually, slowly, I found my hope deepening. Because as we pray and just talk to God, the hope is not in the answer, it's not in getting, "I hope I get the answer that I want." As we pray, our hope becomes rooted in the God of the universe, who we are praying to.

The God of the universe who has answers when I do not have answers, who has strength when I do not have strength. The God of the universe who is also, the Bible says, the God of all comfort. The God of all comfort. He can handle everything when I can handle nothing. That's our hope. Our hope in praying is God. That's our hope. And that's why we keep talking to Him. And I love that as we pray and talk to God, we're just reminded again and again and again, "Oh, He's God. I'm not. I see what's happening. God, not. I love control. And prayer is a daily moment-by-moment reminder to me that I'm not in charge." That belongs to God, the God of the universe.

In prayer, we root our hope because we are casting all our anxiety, all our cares on God, because, don't miss these last words, "God cares for you." God cares for you. Do not miss that. It's just such an amazing truth. If you want hope as you walk through life, take advantage of this invitation to pray, to cast your cares, because hope remains in praying.

You know, when I was looking at the outline, I thought, "I should have put this in a circle," because all of these things are really related. We start with remembering God's Word, which flows right into, as we do that, we receive His truth. And we receive His truth, and that helps us as we go through the weights of life. And in the weights of life, we're praying. And in prayer, we're reminded of God's Word, and we start again at the top and work our way around. But here's something that's fascinating to me. This is a choice. We can choose to live this way, or we can choose cotton candy, and we all do it sometimes. We all choose to put our hope in cotton candy sometimes. But this is an invitation. God isn't forcing us to be little hope robots. This is an invitation, an opportunity to live in the reality of even this broken and sometimes hope-robbing life that hope does remain, because all this reminds us that God remains.

As I look at Mary's life, I think a key, we're not just for her, we're not just these practices in her life, but her core attitude. When the angel visited her and told her she was going to be the mother to the Savior of the world, she had questions. But her closing statement was, "I am the Lord's servant. May your word to me be fulfilled." And like Mary, we have questions. We have questions about what God is up to on this side of heaven. We have waits waiting and waiting, waiting that will last until as the old hymn says, "Our faith will be sight." But can you imagine what a day it's gonna be when we don't need to remember anymore? Because we're there. When the truth is right in front of us, the truth, the waiting is over, our Savior is right there.

I mean, can you imagine what that must have been like for Mary? I mean, I'm gonna be happy to see Jesus, but can you imagine what that moment was for Mary when her eyes opened in heaven and she saw her son fully glorified in all his glory? And that day will come for us too. It'll come for us too. But our hope isn't on hold until that day. Hope may feel slow to dawn sometimes. It may feel very distant. But because of Jesus, his life, his death, his resurrection, the daily strength that he gives all of us, because of Jesus, hope remains. Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we are so grateful that hope remains. We are so grateful that we are not living a life that is senseless and devoid of hope, but hope remains because you remain the same yesterday, today, and forever. Lord, I want to pray right now for people especially who feel like they're in your waiting room. That can be one of the toughest places to remember that hope remains. God, I pray for that person who's struggling with hope. I pray that you would give them this week a glimmer, just a glimmer that you are working. May they see that this week. Help their hope to go deep and to remain. And God, I want to pray for the people who are here today and they're just struggling with you, with receiving your truth, with remembering who you are because life has just been tough or it just feels devoid of hope right now. God, I pray that you would bring comfort where comfort is needed. I pray that you would bring hope into those dark places, God. I pray that in some way this week you would reveal yourself to them. That would be very unique and very special just for them. God, we are your servants. May your word to us be fulfilled. In Jesus name, Amen.