Sheryl Brady - My Hope is on High Alert

God, we thank you for your word. We thank you that it is a lamp to our feet. It’s a light to our path. And Lord, I thank you because you knew who would tune in. You knew who would need what I am about to say today. I ask God that you would just anoint me to say it in a way, God, that causes people to hear it clearly like you need them to hear it. Have your way in our gathering today, God, and we’ll give you the glory for it in the name of Jesus. In the name of Jesus. Amen.

Today, you know, I just want to talk to you from James, the book of James. And I want to give you the scripture, James 5 and verse 8. I’m going to read to you out of the Good News translation today. So if you had that, follow along. If not, just kind of watch and read the words on the screen with me. But James 5 and 8 is very clear. And it says, you must also be patient. Keep your hopes high for the day of the Lord’s coming is near. Keep your hopes high. Now, if you were in the church today with me in this building, I would tell you to touch your neighbor and say, my hope is on high alert because that’s what I’m going to talk about today. My hope is on high alert.

Now, uh, we are in the, we are walking into the eighth month of this global pandemic that we have all been dealing with. And it almost feels that every which way you turn, no matter if you’re turning to the right or turning to the left, people are searching for, they are looking for some good news and they are looking for hope. As a matter of fact, I was fooling around with the word hope and in December, I was seeing in December about how many searches came up for the phrase good news. You know, the gospel is the good news, but I was just thinking how many people have Googled the term or searched out the term good news.

And as I began to read that article, I read that it was in December of 2019, there was about 78,000 searches per month for the phrase good news and one of the articles that i read said that the real numbers right now were nearing uh more uh closer to about 500 000 per month so in december before the pandemic hit hit us uh peop there was about 78 000. Now today there is about 500 uh thousand that are searching for hope so obviously There are a lot of people that are pretty stressed out today. And if you are one of them, I have some good news for you. And I just believe that you did not just log into the Potter’s House North or jump on our social media sites by accident. I believe that God wants you to know today that he has good news for you.

And I want to begin by reminding you that the book, the entire book of James was really, really, written for people whose world had been turned upside down, for whose lives had been turned upside down, not so much by a pandemic, but their lives had been turned upside down by persecution. And either way that you choose to look at that, James writes to all of us to encourage each of us on how to persevere through tough times by using the principles that are in the word of God. If James were alive today, he would be the kind of person that was very sympathetic toward us. He would be the kind of person that would be compassionate about all that we are feeling right now and all that we are facing right now because James cared about people’s pain.

I said, James was a man that cared people’s pain he also knew how essential that hope was in in our journey and when we were especially when we face hard times and you know human beings being a human being we are built to handle a lot we can take a lot we can endure a lot we can go through a lot we can actually face a lot more than we even realize how much we can face. We can endure huge amounts of frustration and aggravation and disappointment and inconveniences and even pain. And what makes us able to endure those things is when we feel like there is hope that is in sight. Hope is often the difference between success and failure. Hope is the difference between winning and losing. Hope is often the difference between rising and falling. Hope is what it takes for us to get back up again.

If I could perceive hope, if I could feel the slightest bit of hope, you know, you could have a child who is failing in a grade and you can have one teacher who might look at that child and just totally Uh, give up on that child, but then you’ll have another teacher who will get in their ear and say, listen, you got this, you know what it takes to get through this. And, and you’re smart. You’re a genius. You can handle this. And often a child could win or lose by the words of a a teacher a parent uh is some kind of a leader in their life that just reminds them that they were they they have the uh they have the ability to win and hope is what gives us the ability. to get back up again. But when our hope wears out, then give up is what sets in on us. And, and that is why James takes this whole book and he reminds us, especially in chapter five and verse eight, he reminds us that we’ve got to keep our hopes high.