Sheryl Brady - How to get to the Other Side of Hopelessness

I don’t know who this is for, but I believe it’s going to be for somebody. I want to talk to you about how to get to the other side of hopelessness. The, uh, how to get to the other side of hopelessness. God, I thank You that You came. I thank You that You so loved the world that You gave Your only begotten Son so that we could have life today. I acknowledge what a precious gift we received when we got Jesus; we got everything. I thank You for that. And today, Lord, as I declare Your Word, please speak through me. I don’t know every person that’s watching; I don’t know the levels of possible hopelessness that they have found themselves in, but God, You know. So I ask You to use me today to speak to them and to give them some tools to help them be equipped to make it through all that we have to face in life. Use us for Your glory. Send the kind of anointing that makes preaching easy and hearing the Word a sweet delight, and we will thank You for it. In Jesus' name, Amen.

You know, I want to just take a moment, and I was thinking last night about what 2020 has taught me. It would be remiss of you, me, and anyone else to go through what we’ve been through and not ask God what we needed to learn in the middle of this kind of year. One of the things it has taught me is that life is fragile. I’ve lost a lot of friends this year and lost people with whom I had relationships. So I understand how fragile life is. People are gasping for breath all around the world this morning, and the very fact that we are able to breathe is enough to praise God right there. That’s enough for you to not need anyone to cheerlead you or to try to get you to worship God or to bring to God the gifts you have for Him. Just the fact that you’re able to take a deep breath— I walked around my house late last night and took a deep breath. I actually sat on the edge of my bed, and I just took a deep breath. As I inhaled, I prayed for people who were not able to do that. So I’ve learned in 2020 about the fragility of life. I’ve also learned that life is precious—it is very precious. If you have been blessed to live through this year, then you must know in your heart of hearts and deep down in your soul that you have survived for a reason. You have life for a reason, and you must know that God does not just give and extend life to people for absolutely no reason. There is a purpose, and there is a mission for your life. There is— I’m going to say that again—there’s a purpose, and there is a mission for your life. One of the best favors we can do for ourselves is to understand exactly what our life’s mission is all about. The whole reason Jesus came to the earth was so that we could have life and have it with a purpose, that we could have it more abundantly. So He prepared us, and when He took us out of eternity and put us into time, when we came into the earth, we came fully packed, fully prepared, and fully charged for what He has called us to do. We came with a mandate. When I entered the earth on April 17, 1960, I came with an assignment. I had no idea what an assignment was; I had no idea what a kingdom purpose was. But when I came into the earth, I came prepared for this day. I didn’t know it, but God knew it. All along the way, He had groomed my life, caused me to know whom I needed to know, and caused me to be in touch with who I needed to be in touch with. He fed me through those from whom I needed to receive so that I could have the opportunity to get right to where I am today. When God calls us, He gives us a purpose. We have to remember that we have not been given life just so that we could live in any old kind of way or do whatever we wanted to with it. Absolutely not! God is so much bigger than all of that. He’s bigger than our cause, bigger than our reason, bigger than our purpose, bigger than our goal, and bigger than our mission for life. Whatever we do when God has given us a mission, the worst thing we can do is try to run from that mission. Your blessing is tied to your mission. Your blessing is tied to your purpose. Your peace is tied to your purpose. The fulfillment of your life—your days, your years, your hours—they’re all tied into the purpose of God for your life. So the best thing we can do is not run from the purpose or run from the mission, but to run towards the mission. The worst thing we can do is try to run away from it, and that is what happened with a man by the name of Jonah…