Key points to remember about your identity

Key points to remember about your identity (continued)

Scriptures command God’s people to hold on to the hope of the gospel 

Pain, suffering, hardships, brokenness plague our existence. Jesus told us, “In the world you will have tribulation.” But He did not stop with a focus on the negative, He spoke words of hope…”But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

Solomon recognized the devastation that lack of hope has on the human heart, “Hope deferred makes the heart sick” (Proverbs 13:12).

If you are going to persevere through your trials, for the glory of God, you will need to fight for hope in the promises of the Gospel.

Col 1:5 because of the hope laid up for you in heaven. Of this you have heard before in the word of the truth, the gospel 

Col 1:23  if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Heb 3:6 but Christ is faithful over God’s house as a son. And we are his house, if indeed we hold fast our confidence and our boasting in our hope.

Heb 4:14 Therefore, since we have such a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to what we profess [i.e., the Gospel].

1Thess 5:8 But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and the helmet of our hope of salvation.

1Pet 1:3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! By His great mercy He has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

Consider the ramifications of lives lived without a focus on the Hope of the Gospel: 

1. When I fails to understand the death of my own sinfulness, (i.e. depravity), I am tempted to try to be reconciled to God through my own efforts, good works or through perfectionism. Perfectionism a natural response to failure without the hope of the Gospel. Without the hope of the Gospel, I will inevitably create my own set of rules and a system of achievements and performances to attain the self-made standards of acceptance, approval and a sense of well-being. Perfectionism is a self-deceptive label for a gospel-less worldview, devoid of hope and deliverance.
2. Without the hope of Christ’s complete atonement for all my sins, past, present and future, I will be tempted to attempt to somehow  appease God’s wrath on my own. However, the hope in the Gospel enables me to rest in the promises of Christ’s perfect sacrifice which totally appeases God’s righteous anger toward me.  1Jn.2:2 - He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. Jn. 4:10  - In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins.
3. Without the hope of the Gospel, I will think of myself as a hired servant. And yet Jesus calls me his friend!  Jn 15:15  No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
4. Without the hope and truth of the Gospel regarding my God-defined identity, I will think/act/function as though everything revolves around me and my felt-needs. I will forget that everything is for Him and through Him.  Rom 11:36 - For from him and through him and to him are all things. To him be glory forever. Amen.
5. Without the hope of the Gospel, I will live in the present and forget the future. Paul’s focus was clearly on knowing Christ, even when he suffered. Paul never lost the hope of the Gospel because his focus was the eternal promises contained in the Gospel. Phil. 3:7-16 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. ⁸Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ ⁹and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— ¹⁰ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, ¹¹that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead. ¹²Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶Only let us hold true to what we have attained.

“Failing to concentrate on God’s love for us in Christ [i.e., the hope of the Gospel] isn’t a trivial thing.  It will always eventuate in apathetic living.  Only the gospel can so invigorate us that we burn with ardor for him in all that we do.”  Elyse Fitzpatrick 

Please Pray for the Custers

                                                               The Custers

Dougg and LeAnn were formerly church planters in Austria. They started churches in Villach and Spittal. After 22 years of church planting, Dougg was asked to also become the Director for Europe and the Middle East in 2002. In this role, Dougg became responsible for all WorldVenture personnel working in those areas. In 2009 they relocated to the United States after serving as church planting missionaries in Austria for 28 years. In 2014, Dougg and LeAnn transitioned from Europe and the Middle East oversight to the role of Vice President of Mobilization, serving as part of the Executive Leadership Team. 

Pray for the Hornbrooks

Sam and Jamie Hornbrook

Sam and Jamie started their ministry in Mexico City in 1991. They helped a veteran missionary couple plant Maranatha Baptist Church bringing it to its graduation as an independent, autonomous church in 2002. An institute for training pastors was also established in that church and continues to operate under national leadership. In 2003, the Hornbrooks began working on a new church plant which met in their home for 5 years. In 2009 it moved to a rented facility where it has continued to grow. Sam also has a ministry of training pastors and church leaders in Biblical Counseling throughout Latin America.

Pray for Cesar and Nancy Cortez

        

Cesar and Nancy Cortez 

Cesar and Nancy minister to the poor of Ecuador by planning and implementing clean water systems for villages in Ecuador. The humanitarian effort opens doors for planting church evangelism and other related ministries in many unchurched villages. Nancy and Cesar both work with church leaders to train and prepare them for more effective service.

Please pray for Pablo and Judi Perez

Pablo and Judi Perez

Pablo and Judi formerly served with Leadership Resources International in the discipleship and training of key pastors through a process called Training National Trainers. In 2013 they transitioned to working in Ecuador with United World Mission where they are involved in discipling, starting a new church in Quito, helping other missionaries and churches with their discipleship

and developing a network of churches with that same focus.

Rebuilding Hope Team

Several weeks ago, our family, alongside others from our church, was given opportunity to serve a local family with some home projects.  The tasks included several jobs that our children could be a part of as well and we were thrilled to be able to serve alongside one another as a family.  As the days drew closer, we wondered what exactly it would look like to enter someone else’s home with a willingness to help where needed. It wasn’t without some hesitancy, some hoping, trusting, praying, and questioning of what we would be doing and how exactly will this all go?! But God! God, who knows the beginning from the end, had gone before us and had chosen a group of willing workers to uniquely help and come alongside this family.  Even the children involved with this opportunity were uniquely picked by the Lord to come together to encourage this family and their own children. We were blessed to witness the Lord at work in His people over the next several days. We watched Him increase openness, transparency, our work capacities, and our efforts.  His increase brought His glory to the forefront!  The days were filled with home projects, cleaning, decluttering, yard work, flooring, conversations, meals together, a birthday celebration, rain and sunshine.  The days were filled with His purposes for a greater good for every single one of us involved!  

Our team was called Rebuilding Hope.  

Rebuild: (v) an action; build something again after it has been damaged or destroyed

to restore, to repair, to reassemble

Hope: (v) to desire with expectation of fulfillment

(n) a person or thing that may help or save someone; grounds for believing that something good may happen. 

I’d imagine this family was also met with some hesitancy, some questioning, some hoping that allowing our group into their home, into their lives, would be a good decision.  They willingly made the decision to say yes to the help they were offered, hoping it would lift some of the burden they were experiencing, but they didn’t know for sure. They were hoping!

As we were able to spend those three days together, working alongside one another, eating together, laughing together, praying together, sharing life together, the word hope moved from a verb to a noun.  The Lord graciously allowed the simple work we could do as a group together to fulfill the desire they had for their burden to be lifted.  He graciously allowed us to be a part of rebuilding their hope, and in so doing, He rebuilt ours as well. The Lord’s work, through our hands and feet, became the grounds on which they began to believe something good may happen.  The Lord allowed each of us to behold in new ways those few days, that opening ourselves up to the help of His body produces intangible rebuilding of the soul. The work we did was simply an external means of bringing some order to the chaos of this fallen world.  The Lord is so kind to allow us to be His hands and feet! He is so kind to bring His hands and feet to those who are hurting! Whether we are the ones serving or the ones receiving on any given day, in each situation He is graciously rebuilding hope into all of us.  He is graciously restoring a deeper sense, a great confidence in His promises as we witness Him making all things new around us. He is continually moving us from hoping as a verb to settling us on hope as a noun, the person of hope, Jesus Christ Himself! His redemptive purposes are all around us, what grace that He invites us to partake in His work for His glory and our goo
 
Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.  And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God. Eph 5:1-2 

…that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love,  may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.   Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.  Eph 3:17-21

Britt and Megan Steffen

Pray for the Borisuks

The Borisuks

Mark and Charity's goal is to strengthen the local church through Discipleship and Leadership Development. This is accomplished through home Bible studies, translating and publishing resources, and developing a training institute. They partner with the local church by providing training and Biblical resources to church leaders, and equipping them for effective study, righteous living, and accurate teaching of the Word of God. As servants of Christ, we labor humility and joy that the majesty of God may be made known in East Asia.