Live, Alive: A Better Tomorrow

This weekend is a special weekend. Across our country, people are gathering with family and friends. There will be cookouts. Fireworks. Flags flying in neighborhoods. We'll celebrate 250 years of our nation's history. Two hundred fifty years of what has often been called the great American experiment.

Before the Declaration of Independence…Before the Constitution of the United States was drafted. Before our founding fathers determined that we would have three separate but equal branches of Government led BY the people, for the people…Before that moment – NO nation existed like the one that would be established…

The founding fathers embraced a radical idea: The American People would choose their leaders. They would not be led by a king, emperor, or dictator. As Lincoln said over a hundred years later, “We would establish a government OF the people, BY the people, FOR the people...

For 250 years, that experiment has endured through wars, economic hardship, political division, and moments when many people wondered if America would survive. We fought Britain for our Independence. We fought other countries to REMAIN independent. We fought a Civil War that nearly tore our nation apart. We fought in distant lands to defend freedom for others, stand with our allies…

Through it all, the experiment has endured.

I'm grateful to live in America. I'm grateful for the men and women who have sacrificed so we can gather freely and worship Jesus this weekend. And if you've lived through a few election cycles, you've probably noticed something else…

Every election cycle, some voices become convinced that THIS is the moment everything falls apart. Somebody declares America is finished. It doesn't matter which political party wins – the other side says “all hope is lost.”

Born in 1973 – I have lived through 13 Presidential Election cycles.  I remember twelve of them:
Reagan..."America is headed the wrong direction."
Clinton..."America is finished."
Bush..."We'll never recover."
Obama..."America will never be the same."
Trump..."Democracy is over."
Biden..."We're losing America."
Trump..."America is finished..."

Apparently, we've been on the brink of collapse for a long time now.

 The names of Presidents change…The party in leadership changes…The fears about future impact change…But human reaction seems to go unchanged. Every election cycle for the last 45 years, hopelessness has predicted doom for the future...Yet – we are still standing.

Have we made mistakes?...Absolutely.
Have we failed?...Yes.
Have there been seasons we should not be proud of?...Without question.

But we've also learned.  We have adapted.  We have changed. America has proven her resilience because we are indeed, a FREE people. Now listen…I'm not asking you to put your hope in America. I'm asking you not to surrender to hopelessness.

Hopelessness should never be the language or attitude of the people of God. Yet twenty-six hundred years ago...that's exactly what happened. Israel became convinced they had no future.

Ezekiel 37:1-14 (NLT2)
1  The LORD took hold of me, and I was carried away by the Spirit of the LORD to a valley filled with bones. 2  He led me all around among the bones that covered the valley floor. They were scattered everywhere across the ground and were completely dried out. 3  Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?” “O Sovereign LORD,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.” 4  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the LORD! 5  This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! 6  I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.’” 7  So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. 8  Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them. 9  Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’” 10  So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army. 11  Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished.’ 12  Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign LORD says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. 13  When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the LORD. 14  I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the LORD, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the LORD has spoken!’”

 God said the people had been saying, “The Nation is finished.”…Sound familiar?

 Nobody BECOMES hopeless overnight.  A Nation doesn’t become hopeless overnight. A family doesn't. A church doesn't. A nation doesn't.

For Israel, it happened one disappointment at a time.
Jerusalem fell.
The Temple was destroyed.
They were carried into exile.

Generation after generation…They stopped expecting God to act. They stopped believing God was for them. And as time passed…hopelessness stopped being a feeling and became their identity.

HOPELESSNESS IS CONTAGIOUS

You watch the news.  You know this is true.  Regardless of which network you watch – we rarely get up from reading the paper, watching the network, listening to the headline and say…”I feel so HOPEFUL!” You may on the night of the election if your party won…but it quickly fades.

Have you noticed that nobody has to teach us how to be hopeless? One bad doctor's appointment...and understandably…the whole family is scared. One child starts makes a series of bad decisions...And every conversation around the dinner table changes. One spouse starts believing the marriage can't be saved...Before long, both spouses have stopped trying. One person at work starts complaining...Now everybody dreads coming in on Monday. One person begins repeating…"Nothing's ever going to change." And before long...

Everybody's saying it.

Hopelessness always looks for another person to infect. It moves. It spreads. It infects conversations. It infects homes. It infects churches. It infects communities. It infects nations.

That's exactly what happened to Israel.

One generation said, "God must not care anymore." The next generation BELIEVED it. The next generation REPEATED it. Until eventually...An entire nation believed its own funeral…But God refused to agree with them.

Instead...He. Spoke. He spoke His Word into a valley that had forgotten hope. He spoke His promises over people who had already written their own obituary. And the Word of God began spreading. The sound that had filled the valley was no longer hopelessness. Now it was the Word of God.

The same valley that had been overwhelmed by death...Became overwhelmed by life. Which brings us to the second truth...

HOPE IS CONTAGIOUS

Think about what happened in this valley. A few moments earlier...Everywhere Ezekiel looked was death. Dry bones. Silence.  Death. No movement.  No future. No hope. And then, he obeyed.

Ezekiel SPOKE what God told him to speak.  Life began spreading across the valley. God's Word has a way of bringing life where death has settled in. It AWAKENS hope where despair has taken root.

One man believed God.
One man obeyed God.
One man spoke God's Word.

Hope moved from the heart of God...To the mouth of Ezekiel...To the ears of a nation. Hope spread.

And that's the way God has always worked.
One man named Noah built an ark...And his family was saved.
One man named Abraham believed God's promise...And a nation was born.
One shepherd named David trusted God...And a giant fell.

God has always used ordinary people who were willing to believe Him...and speak what He said.

Then...Six hundred years later...Jesus stepped into a valley filled with spiritually dead people. Not a valley surrounded by dry bones...A world filled with spiritually dead people. People who were breathing...Walking...Working...Laughing...But separated from God.

People with beating hearts...But dead.

And everywhere Jesus walked...
The blind received sight.
The crippled walked.
The deaf heard.
The outcasts were included.

…

Hope. Spread.

Then Jesus paid the price for sin on the cross.  He suffered. Died. Was buried. His followers thought hope had died with Him. But on the third day...Jesus ROSE from the dead.

Death had been defeated.

Hope spread again.

John 3:16-17 (NLT2)
16  “For God loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. 17  God sent his Son into the world not to judge the world, but to save the world through him.

And since his resurrection and ascension into heaven HOPE has spread.
From Jerusalem...
To Judea...
To Samaria...
To the ends of the earth.
On every inhabited continent...
In thousands of languages...

Jesus is CHANGING lives.  People are trusting in Jesus as Savior.  They continue to repent of sin, surrender their lives to God, and receive Jesus as their Savior.

God is putting HIS spirit into the hearts of people who were dead in their sins – and giving them LIFE.

So since God has chosen to spread hope through His people...

BE KNOWN FOR HOPE

Tomorrow morning before you leave for work...Walk over to your wife. Take both of her hands…Look her in the eyes…And tell her...'We've walked through some hard days. We'll probably walk through more. But I still believe God's best days for us are ahead.'

That's what hope sounds like.

When your stubborn son calls after another bad decision...Don't say,'I knew this was going to happen.' Say, 'Come home. The door is unlocked. We'll figure this out together. God isn't finished writing your story.'

That's what hope sounds like.

When your daughter sits at the kitchen table in tears because she doesn't think she'll ever be enough...Pull up a chair. Put your arm around her. Remind her…"You are loved. You are valuable. And you are not defined by your worst day. Jesus has a purpose for your life."

That's what hope sounds like.

When your neighbor tells you they're afraid for our country...Don't fuel their fear. Tell them, "I'm praying for our country. I'm serving my community. And I'm still convinced Jesus changes lives. That's where my hope is."

That's what hope sounds like.

That's one of the reasons I believe so strongly in our Get 'Er Done Initiative.
We're resurfacing a parking lot.
Upgrading our technology.
Improving our campus.

I don’t lose sleep over our parking lot or technology…I lose sleep over people who still need Jesus.

But I want every person who drives onto this campus to know they're entering a place that still BELIEVES.
…A place that still expects God to move.
…that refuses to believe the best days are behind us.
…where hope hasn't turned into dry bones.

I will not let hopelessness enter my marriage, my family, or my church. Long before many churches close their doors, they've already stopped expecting God to do something new.

Hopelessness says, "Just maintain what you have." But Hope says, "God isn't finished yet."

So – if you would like to GIVE toward this initiative – open up the Beach Church app to give and select “Git ‘er Done.”