Scripture referenced
The passage this message was preached from, in full, with every other passage it reached for.
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Revelation 1:13-16 John's vision of Christ on Patmos, describing his appearance when he returns
13 And among the lamp stands was one like a son of man, clothed with a robe reaching down to his feet, and with a golden sash around his chest.
14 His head and his hair were white as white wool, like snow. His eyes were like a flame of fire.
15 His feet were like burnished brass, as if it had been refined in a furnace. His voice was like the voice of many waters.
16 He had seven stars in his right hand. Out of his mouth proceeded a sharp two-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining at its brightest.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Keep this verse
Psalm 37:34
central verse for the sermon, quoted in NIV, NLT, Living Bible and Passion Translation, on placing hope in the Lord and traveling steadily along his path
34 Wait for Yahweh, and keep his way, and he will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, you shall see it.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
1 Corinthians (chapter not specified)
Paul listing nine sign gifts that can operate in a corporate gathering, including tongues and interpretation
Keep this verseRomans 5:3-5 (approximate)
suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, character produces hope
3 Not only this, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces perseverance;
4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope:
5 and hope doesn’t disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Luke 1:8-18 (approximate)
Zechariah serving in the temple, the angel announcing the birth of John, used to illustrate long waiting before God acts suddenly
8 Now while he executed the priest’s office before God in the order of his division,
9 according to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to enter into the temple of the Lord and burn incense.
10 The whole multitude of the people were praying outside at the hour of incense.
11 An angel of the Lord appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense.
12 Zacharias was troubled when he saw him, and fear fell upon him.
13 But the angel said to him, “Don’t be afraid, Zacharias, because your request has been heard, and your wife, Elizabeth, will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.
14 You will have joy and gladness; and many will rejoice at his birth.
15 For he will be great in the sight of the Lord, and he will drink no wine nor strong drink. He will be filled with the Holy Spirit, even from his mother’s womb.
16 He will turn many of the children of Israel to the Lord, their God.
17 He will go before him in the spirit and power of Elijah, ‘to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children,’ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to prepare a people prepared for the Lord.”
18 Zacharias said to the angel, “How can I be sure of this? For I am an old man, and my wife is well advanced in years.”
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Proverbs (chapter not specified)
your word is a light to my feet and a lamp unto the path
Keep this versePsalm 119:114
God as refuge and shield, his word as source of hope, prayer that hope not be crushed, read as introduction to the offering
114 You are my hiding place and my shield. I hope in your word.
World English Bible · Read it in another translation
Recap
The message in order, in a few minutes of reading.
On the first Sunday of 2023, Brian walked Tribe fam through Psalm 37:34, a verse he had been sitting with since sharing it at a December gathering with Tribe's leadership. The message centered on what it actually means to place your hope in the Lord and to travel steadily along his path as the new year begins. The congregation joined the conversation throughout, making this more of a dialogue than a sermon in the traditional sense.
What was said
Before getting into the text, Brian let the congregation debrief what had happened in worship. Colleen had spoken in tongues, Brian offered an interpretation drawn from Psalm 37:34, and others in the room shared what they had sensed as well. Brian took a few minutes to explain the practice from 1 Corinthians and to make clear that the same Holy Spirit living in him lives in everyone present. He also made the point that he would protect people from things that were out of bounds, but not from discomfort, because discomfort is often exactly where growth happens.
With that foundation laid, Brian read Psalm 37:34 from the NLT and invited the room to hear it from other translations too. The Living Bible version, "don't be impatient for the Lord to act," landed with particular weight, and Brian quoted something he had heard from Bill Johnson: sometimes it takes the Lord a long time to act suddenly.
The first phrase Brian stopped at was "put your hope in the Lord." He asked the room a pointed and personal question: where, honestly, had their hope actually been sitting in 2022? He named some of the easy answers, a big ski season, a relationship, a financial breakthrough, and pressed toward the difference between wishful thinking and genuinely placing hope in God. Several people responded. One person looked up the definition of hope and noted that it carried both trust and a feeling of expectation and desire. Lissa talked about climbing with Brian and constantly asking "do you have me?" and realizing that real trust should change how you move on the wall.
Brian then went to the Hebrew behind that phrase and described how the words picture a rope being braided and twisted together. He illustrated it with the way a ski lift haul line is spliced, a process done by a handful of certified experts whose work is nearly impossible to detect with the naked eye. The point was that placing your hope in the Lord is meant to be that integrated, where what you want and what God wants for you, where you lean for strength and what Scripture says about you, become indistinguishable from one another.
The second phrase Brian examined was "travel steadily along his path." In Hebrew, he said, it carries the meaning of watching, waiting, observing, being on guard. He returned to a framework the church had worked through in 2022, three kinds of waiting: the passive waiting of a doctor's office, the eager but helpless waiting of a birthday as a child, and finish-line waiting, where you are leaning forward, on guard, cheering someone toward what you know is coming. Traveling steadily, he said, is that third kind of waiting.
Brian then moved to Luke 1 and the story of Zechariah, the priest who had been hoping for a child for so long that when the angel finally showed up he questioned whether it could even still happen. Brian's point was not to criticize Zechariah but to show that the man had clearly been weaving his hope into that miracle for years. It had just taken longer than expected. That, Brian said, is what it looks like to travel steadily, remaining on guard and expectant even when the answer is slow in coming.
Brian closed by asking people to kneel where they were and do some quiet business with the Lord: first, to ask honestly where their hope had been sitting that was not woven together with God, and second, to make a simple declaration at the start of the year that they wanted to put their hope back in him and travel steadily along his path. He planned to pick the passage back up the following week, noting that the conversation had covered enough ground for one Sunday.
Touch points
Things you could actually do this week.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to show you one specific thing you have been placing your hope in that is not him, and then hand it over to him.
- If your Bible is buried somewhere, dig it out this week and spend some time in it as a first step back onto a steady path.
- Think of the person in your life you would consider the least likely to ever follow Jesus, and commit to praying for that person every day this week.
- When you catch yourself worrying this week, treat it as a prompt to remember one specific way God has come through for you in the past and let that fuel your expectation that he will again.
- If kneeling during the service felt meaningful, try it at home this week as a physical way of telling God that your heart is in a posture of submission and trust.
Doing a Bible study?
Here is a guide we have prepared for you: the passages in order, questions for the group, and room to write.
- Brian talked about watching The Chosen and how it sharpened his appetite to know Jesus more vividly. What has helped bring Jesus into clearer focus for you personally, and what still feels blurry?
- Brian asked the congregation to be really honest about where they placed their hope in 2022, and several people admitted it was in things other than the Lord. Where did you find your hope drifting last year, and what did that cost you?
and 3 more questions in the guide
Resumen en español
El mensaje resumido, en español.
El domingo, Brian abrió el tiempo de la Palabra compartiendo un versículo que había estado guardando desde las fiestas de diciembre: Salmos 37:34. Lo leyó en varias traducciones y lo convirtió en una conversación abierta con toda la congregación. La pregunta central fue sencilla pero directa: ¿en qué has puesto tu esperanza en 2022, y dónde la estás poniendo ahora? Brian explicó que en hebreo la frase "pon tu esperanza en el Señor" evoca la imagen de un cable trenzado, donde los hilos quedan tan entrelazados que no se puede ver dónde termina uno y empieza otro. Así debería ser nuestra esperanza: tan unida a Dios que lo que nosotros queremos sea indistinguible de lo que él quiere para nosotros.
La segunda parte del versículo, "camina steadily por su camino", abrió una conversación sobre tres tipos de espera: la espera pasiva en la sala del médico, la espera emocionada del cumpleaños, y la espera activa al pie de la meta, animando al corredor con todo lo que uno tiene. Brian contó la historia de Zacarías en el templo, quien había orado por un hijo durante tanto tiempo que ya casi no lo esperaba, pero Dios no había olvidado su oración. Con ese cuadro, Brian invitó a cada persona a hacer un trato sencillo con el Señor: soltar aquello en lo que ha estado poniendo su confianza fuera de él, y comprometerse a caminar de nuevo por el camino que Dios traza.
Al cerrar, varios miembros de la congregación compartieron lo que el Señor les había puesto en el corazón durante la adoración, incluyendo una palabra en lenguas con su interpretación, y distintas voces que sumaron reflexiones sobre la restauración, el silencio del miedo y la oración por personas que parecen inalcanzables. Brian terminó pidiendo a todos que se arrodillaran donde estaban para comenzar el año con una postura concreta de rendición ante Dios.
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Pasajes bíblicos usados
- Apocalipsis 1 (visión de Cristo en Patmos)
- Salmos 37:34
- Primera Corintios (referencia general a los dones del Espíritu en la congregación)
- Romanos 5:3 en adelante (el sufrimiento produce esperanza)
- Lucas 1:8 en adelante (Zacarías y el ángel)
- Proverbios (la Palabra como lámpara al camino, citado de memoria)
- Salmos 119:114
Read the full transcript 9,725 words
And me kneel swirl around it. I'm just you just have to be up here if you do.
Well, as we get started today, let's just take a minute and just be still before the Lord. I just feel there's a great joy in anticipation today for what he wants to do in this place. Holy Spirit come. Just invite him, give him permission today.
To us today.
Just give him permission personally to come and touch your heart today, to come and speak to you, to heal those places of brokenness.
I know you'll feel me. Here we go. Fire and wind come and do it again. Open up the gates, let heaven on end. Come rest on us.
Come rest on us. Fire and wind come and do it again. Open up the gates, let want. Yeah. You're all we want.
Just cry out to him. Holy Spirit, come rest on us. You're all we want. Let's stand up. Let's just sing.
Let's cry out to him. Holy Spirit, come rest on us. You're all we want. I'm crying out. You're Spirit, when you move, you make my heart pound.
When you feel the rhythm, you're here and I know you're moving. I'm here and I'm Alright. Sing it out. Come down. Spirit, when you move, make my heart pound.
When you feel the room, you're here and I know you're moving. I'm here and I know you'll feel calm down.
Hi. Just wanna be able to see you a little better. So there's a a group of friends that we Shabbat with on Friday nights and last couple of weeks. Even though, like, the purpose of Shabbat is to, like, step away from technology, we've been watching The Chosen. And this is season three of The Chosen.
I don't know if you are, like, up to date or if you've never heard of it, but it's a good, like, like, production of the life and ministry of Jesus. And I understand that The Chosen is just one of a lot of creative people's interpretation of the person and life and ministry of Jesus, but I feel like they're doing a really good job. And what I love about watching The Chosen is is we get to see we get to see Jesus's beard that we don't see in the gospel. We get to see, like, like, his stride. We get to see his arm here.
We get to see how he visually reacts to when people are talking to him that we don't necessarily get to see in the in the scriptures as we read about him. And when I see those details, it feels like he comes a little bit more into focus. And the more that he comes into focus, the more I want like, I want vivid details. I want encounter. I wanna I wanna meet this man that I've given my whole life to.
And yes, I know him and I walk with him and I hear him and he leads me. But what I love about The Chosen is it just arouses an appetite in me for bringing his portrait closer and closer. We get a few glimpses of some of his attributes in the Bible throughout New Testament and the Old Testament, but one of the things I love about singing about Jesus is even though we're we're singing about him, it helps to bring the man, Jesus of Nazareth, closer into focus for us. Do you have some some verses? Yeah.
You go.
Give us some context. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
So, obviously, I I know I'm kinda preaching to the choir if you will but I wanna read the word of god which is Jesus Christ
by So, the
we get to see and get a picture of Jesus, the man, but this describes Jesus, God, when he comes back for his bride. And this is kind of the details of of what he's gonna what we're going to be hold. Yeah. And, Lord, bless the reading of your words. Yes.
Alright. And this is John's vision of Christ on the island of Patmos. He had a revelation knowing Jesus intimately and personally, but having his mind just blown when Jesus comes back. And we get to see a little bit. I'll actually start with he saw someone like a son of man, this is in Revelation one, dressed in a robe, reaching down to his feet with a golden sash around his chest.
The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. His right hand in his right hand, he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a was a sharp, double edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.
Jesus,
just give us a passion to seek your face to know you more, the man Jesus. And then to just press in to long to see you return victorious king. You came as the humble servant and you'll return as a glorious, triumphant, victorious king. There is none like you. On heaven and on earth, is none like you.
Yes. Ask him to just give you revelation of who he is today, to press in to know him more. Your word tells us what you're gonna look like when you come back. Let us just grab a hold of what we're longing for. I'm gonna teach you a new song.
It's an older song, but when sailor was itty bitty, we would put this on John Thurlow over and over and over while our kids slept. And it's just so so beautiful. It goes like this. I know that your
eyes are like flames of fire. I know that your head is white as wool. I know that your voice sounds like waters. Sounds like waters. Jesus, you're beautiful.
Jesus, you're beautiful. One more time. Jesus, you're beautiful.
We tell you that, Lord, that there is none like you. And the second part goes like this. There is
none like you, Jesus. Jesus, you're beautiful. There is none there. None like beautiful. You're beautiful.
Jesus, you're beautiful.
Yes, you are. Oh, this, we just praise you in your name, your holy, holy name, the power in your name. Sing this together.
Jesus, Jesus, you make the darkness tremble. Jesus, You're who's the
the
the one who's the our God.
Everyone lift your voice.
Let's sing that together. How great, how great is our God. Is our God. Sing with me.
Maybe as we're worshiping the Lord, put a picture or a word on your heart. We just wanna open up this time and just be open and be still to what he wants to speak to us corporately. He uses his bride, his body, his church to speak, to edify, to encourage, sometimes to straighten out, rebuke because he's a good good father. If there's something that the Lord's put on your heart, it might just be for you, but he might be encouraging you to share it. In this place, I just encourage you to step up on faith and just be still for a moment.
Alright. I got it. Quick explanation. According to scripture, you see in first Corinthians, Paul says numerous times, when you gather, and then he lists nine different sign gifts that could be experienced and operated in within the context of a corporate gathering. That's what we're in.
What you just heard was somebody speaking in the gift of tongues, which is of the Bible. The Paul is super clear. He says, but when you gather and somebody speaks in tongues, there should be an interpretation of it. And as Colleen started to to pray, I was like, I got it. Now this is not a translation, but this is an interpretation.
And it's from the book of Psalms 37 verse 34. And it says this, put your hope in the Lord. Travel steadily along his path, and he will honor you by giving you the land, and you will see the wicked destroyed. And then the sense that I felt like the Lord put on my heart is that does happen to be topic of conversation that we're gonna have today, but that the Lord would say to each and every heart present in the TMC or listening to the livestream, I've got something unique and individual for you as you press in to today and to this season. It's no accident that you're here.
Travel steadily along my path. I'm gonna lead you, and I'm gonna guide you, and I'm gonna honor you, lift you up. Would say the Lord.
I just hearing the song when we were saying, Jesus, Jesus, just made me think about exactly what Phoebe was saying in terms of, like, how individual it is. Working at
the
resort, there's a lot of people that act like they know your name. They go, hey, guy, or you get, like, what's up or whatever. And you know they have no idea what your name is. Like, you just know that. And you see them desperately looking for your name tag or whatever.
And just, like, thinking about saying Jesus multiple times, like, it like, we know him. Like, we know his name. He knows us. He knows our name. And I just thinking, like, how special that is to say that name.
I just love that and how individual it is. Like, it's personal. Like, you it's tough when when you know someone's name and they don't know your name, and you know they don't know your name. But that's not the case with Jesus. And so, let's just think about that
this morning. So good. Anyone
else? I also just feel led to say while whoever is stepping out in courage to share that you might have seen modeled that gift of someone speaking in tongues, someone interpreting. I just want y'all to know I just feel like I need to say this. Any one of you who have the holy spirit living inside of you can hear that, can interpret that, can sense that from the holy spirit. Sometimes you'll see the pastor with interpretation, but just so you know, maybe the Holy Spirit was saying something to you as well.
And I just wanna give that validity and credit that if you have the you have the same Holy Spirit living inside you, Brian does. I just want you to be encouraged. Mark, did you have something?
I was just gonna say, and I'm sorry. I don't know her name. Colleague. Well, when she was praying, there I asked. And I actually yeah.
Anyway, maybe just because I was reading some Isaiah this morning, but I just heard he is restoring all things. Yeah. Short and sweet. Not much there, but
there Love it. Christine, would you pray into that?
Father God, we just thank you, Yahweh, for who you are, almighty king of Israel. Father, I thank you that you are a restorer of all things. From every deception, father, you bring truth. From every bondage, father, you bring liberty, freedom, life. So I thank you that you are a restorer.
Mhmm. It's in your holy mighty name, Yeshua. Amen. Yes, Lord.
Last chance. Not that the Lord's only gonna give you this chance, but for this time before we transition to the next kind of worship, the Lord's put something on your heart. So
we sang a song about he does something with darkness, and he did something with fear, and I can't remember those verbs.
When Darkness tremble, you silence fear.
Silence fear. And I just know that there's a lot of people out there, and myself included, and we've got all these worries. And my grandma used to say, when you worry, you doubt God, but it doesn't make it any easier to not worry. And so I just ask that God just takes over all of us and just silences all of those fears that we might have today so that we can listen to his word with an open heart and just feel that 100% without any worry or fear today.
That's right. He's so worthy of us just laying it down so that we can be free before him. Yes, Lord.
And you deserve you deserve the glory.
And Lord, we give you the glory in this place today. Continue to speak to us as we dig into your word. Set our hearts ready in a place to have and receive revelation from you today. We wanna leave here changed by you and everybody that agrees said, amen. Alright.
Well, try to fill up your coffee if you can make it over there and then get your bibles out and we'll get into his word together.
Jen Green, Trinity shot a moose this morning. Well well, actually, it would be out of season and very illegal. But the cow elk that she shot was so big, it looks like a moose. So looks like all of our tribe fam will eat well this winter. Let me
You're sharing it with us?
Yeah. I'm gonna share Trinity's elk that she shot with the rest of us. Let me send this to to Christian really quick. And see if you can like pull it up there. Just go ahead and like when you get it, just like throw it up there.
It's it's like it's amazing. It is a monster. If you have your bibles with you, would you turn to Psalms 37 this morning. As we get into the word today, if you're new or if you haven't been in a while, I just I want to remind you that for the season that the Lord has us in as a tribe family, the environment, like the physical space that we're in, it's conducive to to collaboration and two way communication, and for this to be more of a conversation than it is to be a a dialogue a monologue. I want this to be a dialogue and not a monologue.
With that in mind, the idea is that as we talk about Psalms 37 today, I thought that was it for a second, as we talk about what we're going to talk about today, I really invite and I welcome your comments, your questions, your connections. Just those three. That's all I that's all I welcome. Nothing else is welcome. There she is.
Look. That's a big healthy girl. Yeah. So so she's gonna she's gonna feed all of us well this season. So good job, Trinity.
And did I tell you to turn to Psalms 37? Yes. Yes. Here's the other thing. As we read Psalms 37, just a portion of it, we might as well open up for discussion to just talk a little bit, maybe debrief what happened in worship.
For me, quite comfortable, quite familiar with that, experience with it, grew up around it. The church culture that you might have come from, that might have been like like normal for you. The church culture that you might have come from when Colleen spoke in tongues, that might have been very unusual for you, and that's totally alright that it was unusual for you. If you know me, I recognize lots and lots of faces in here. You know me.
I'm gonna keep you safe. If you don't know me, you can trust me. I would never allow anything to happen to you or in a service that was out of line with scripture or out of line of the direction that we were going in or allow you to be in any way unsafe. I'm not gonna protect you from uncomfortability because uncomfortability is probably the exact area in which you need to grow. But I will protect you from out of line and out of bounds.
With that being said, you wanna you wanna you wanna talk about that at all? Tongues. Yeah. Okay. Okay.
So Leah said, I thought it was beautiful. I didn't know that was tongues. So yeah. There it is. Ba ding.
Clay, I'll reiterate what you say for our livestream fam.
I think that I I think so many people No.
Oh. Gretchen wants you in the mic.
Next for someone. I think we got space. Sorry.
Think so many people are a little uncomfortable and I would almost say deniers of what is in God's word. In saying that we don't need that now, I think we need that times a thousand and beyond now. I just, you know, I think people really need to have kind of attitude adjustments to what God's word and what God can do in this time. This is not for the past. This is for now and the future.
And, you know, I just hope that people will be open Yeah. To what what God is is trying to say to us at this Great.
I love what you said.
Sorry. I'm just gonna publicly repent, first of all. I think she turned it on. Yeah. She turned it on.
When I first received my prayer language, was asking for it and asking for it and asking for it. And when I finally got it, I had such a, like, a supernatural experience that I freaked out immediately. And I was like, oh my gosh. And I freaked out and immediately it stopped. And it was kind of the same experience because I was starting to get the interpretation, but I've never gotten an interpretation before.
I've just prayed and prayed and prayed that somebody else would get it. And that's what I did again today. I'm like, I don't know. I don't wanna screw up. You know?
I don't wanna screw it up because it's a really holy, like, sanctified thing to to speak what you think the Lord is saying to you. So I just wanted to confess, and perhaps I'm not the only one in here. And that's why I'm saying it because, you know, like Lyssa said, we all have the Holy Spirit, and we all have the capacity. So, I just wanna encourage you guys if, like, you heard her and you, like, knew exactly what she was saying, trust it. I just was like, nope.
Nope. I'm gonna pray for somebody else to get that because I don't wanna screw it up. So anyway, that's my
Alright. That's the first time that's the first time that I ever felt like I've had the interpretation after seeing that gift demonstrated lots of times. I don't think I've never I don't think I've ever operated in, like, the public expression in a corporate setting of of that. Alright. Super cool.
More questions? Good. Good.
So I have a quick comment. Mhmm. And that is, I believe there can be multiple interpretations. I've personally experience in fact, before you said I've got it, I thought what does he mean I've got it because I've got it. And anyway, my interpretation was along the line of beauty.
So that's all I want to say. And encourage people if you feel if someone gives a word in tongues,
Renee, and you feel like you have something, take the risk.
That's great.
Just just risk it. You can't the Lord's not gonna put you down and you you can't fail. I know you won't because I know who you are. I know what your heart is.
It's so good. It's beautiful. Psalms 37. We're gonna read just one verse. I shared this verse at a tribe, like, leadership, like, board of trustees, pastors council, TLT staff.
I shared this at a Christmas party in December and have been sitting on this and chewing on this, but I feel like this is a a word for us, for tribe, as we move into 2023. And what I'd like to do is read the one verse, and then we're gonna discuss it, unpack it. I know that it's only one verse, but I'm preparing myself emotionally that we're not gonna get all the way through the unpacking this week. So we might be here a week or two just depending on the conversation, and I want to allow ourselves, give ourselves permission to take as much time as we need without taking too much time, if that makes sense. Would somebody please read Psalms 37 verse 34 out loud.
Hope in the Lord and keep his way. He will exalt you to inherit the land. When the wicked are destroyed, you will see it.
That's great. Do you know what translation you're reading out of? NIV. NIV. Awesome.
Let's hit it from a couple different angles. If somebody else has a different translation, love to hear your translation. What's on the screen is NLT, which is what I read out of.
So mine is the Living Bible, and it spoke to me immediately. Don't be impatient for the Lord to act. Keep traveling steadily along his pathway, and in due season, he will honor you with every blessing, and you will see the wicked destroyed.
Read that first sentence or the first line.
Don't be impatient for the Lord to act.
Oh, well, there's a sermon right there. I heard Bill Johnson say one time, Sometimes it takes the Lord a long time to act suddenly. That was that was worth the price of admission right there, TD. Sometimes it takes the Lord a long time to act suddenly. Right?
Sorry. Passion translations.
Here we go. Passion translations. We can read it. Jacob's not here.
Yes. Exactly.
Passion translation today.
Yes. Don't tell him.
I'm telling you. So
don't be impatient for the Lord to act. Keep moving forward steadily in his ways, and he will exalt you at the right time. And that's just half of it. And when he does, you will possess every promise, including your full inheritance. You'll watch with your own eyes and see the wicked lose everything.
Woah. Yes. Wow. That's great. So there's several things that along the path of this verse that I'd like us to walk down and every few steps or so often where there's gonna be more of us to stop and to take notice and to take look at.
But the very first stop along the way of this verse that I would like us to consider is what mine says in the NLT is put your hope in the Lord. As we go into 2023, what have you placed your hope in, in 2022? Where was your hope in 2022? Was it in the Lord? Okay, great.
Was it in the hope for an epic ski season? You're just here as a ninety day wonder, and your hope is in a ski season. I remember when I first moved to the valley in '19 oh, back in 1998, when we had one grocery store and one post office before they built the new post office that's now like, what, 25 years old. And I put yeah, still new. I was thinking like someday they're gonna have to build another one, right?
Then what do we call that one? New we're out of anyways. But I had my hope in the ski season, and I had my hope in my girlfriend. That's what I moved to the valley with. That's what I had my hope in.
If you were to be really, really honest with yourself in 2022, where was your hope? Was your hope just sort of nebulous? I hope that next year's better. Did you have your heart set on something specific? I hope that next year we'll be able to start up family.
I hope that next year I'll finally climb out of debt. I hope that next year just luck falls right in my lap or love falls right in my lap. Where your where was your hope last year? And just a few weeks into 2023, if you were to be really honest, where are you placing your hope in 2023? We could talk lots and lots about giving some churchy answers of like nice cleaned up polite ways of saying where we may have placed our hope.
But I know that you all know that placing your hope in anything or anyone less than the creator of the universe, the God of the Bible, and his only son Jesus, it's a fool's errand. It's like trying to build your house on sand, to quote a wise person saying that once. Look at this verse. It says, put your hope in the Lord. Let's talk about that for just a second.
If somebody were to ask you, hey, you're a Christian. Right? Uh-huh. So I came across this weird this what do you call it? Like a a a sentence, a part, a bible verse?
Yeah. A bible verse. And it said, put your hope in the Lord. Let me ask you something. What in the world does that mean?
How would you answer them? What comes to your mind when you hear that phrase, put your hope in the Lord? Trust? Do you want to say a little bit more? Tell us a little more.
Put my hope, put my trust in the Lord is to have confidence that he's actually for me and confidence in his sovereignty. Whatever that looks like, there's a trust.
To me that says, like when I hear trust, that means that I gotta lean into it, put some weight into it. Like sitting in a chair and trusting, having confidence that the legs aren't gonna and I fall on my keister. Okay? Okay? What else comes to your mind?
I just looked up the definition of hope because I had that same question and trust was one. Really? Yes. But it was also a feeling of expectation and desire. So I was just thinking like expecting the Lord to be there
for you
and be with you and desiring that from him.
Okay so I can think of ski town hope as I hope it snows a ton. That's very different than having an expectation of over 400 inches. Hope is like I just hope it's a big winner. I hope it's epic, but that that's very different than an expectation of. That's like that's like like if it doesn't happen, you're gonna fall on your face.
So if I say I hope to be successful, is that
is that sounds like that sounds like wishful thinking to me. And and what I'm trying to what I'm trying to get at is there's a huge difference between wishful thinking and actually placing our hope in the Lord. Does that make sense? Lisa's got something and Joyce got something.
I was just thinking about how I haven't climbed that much, but like last summer Brian would take me climbing and I'd be up getting pretty far up there and I mean, I must say a thousand times. Do you have me? Do you got me? And every time Brian says, trust me. But, okay, I'm gonna go you have me?
Do you have me? And I was just thinking, you know, if I really did not that I don't trust Brian, I'm just not as comfortable with climbing, but if I really did switch my mind to I do trust you, then my actions should reflect that I actually trust him. You know? Like, go like, try that big move. Like, he's got me.
He's got me.
That's great.
Something that I've been learning about hope is that a big part of hope is remembering. It's being hope is more than just a, like you were saying, like a wishful thinking kind of thing, depending on what it's based on. So if it's based on something that you just kind of conjure up that you think would be good is one thing. But if your hope is based on it's based on Jesus, if it's based on putting your hope in the Lord, then it's fueled by remembering what Jesus has already done so that you can have that expectation that he's going to do it again. So the idea is if I am hoping for, healing or provision or something like that, I can look back at what Jesus has already done, what he's already conquered, what he's already the Lord of, has authority of, and I can put my hope in him that if he's taking care of that, he'll take care of it again.
He'll do that again.
It's great. Come on. Don't get in trouble from Gretchen.
Thank you. I would like to put this into the hat. Hope. Okay. Power of prayer.
Can I just say that?
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You can you can mic drop and walk away. Okay.
Power of prayer.
Alright. After I share this, now Clay is going to have to at least talk three times. Just kidding. Anyway Yeah. I just wanted to add it from a little bit of a different perspective.
Hoping in the Lord for me in this season of my life looks more like, you know what? If I have him, that's all I need. And if my prayers for a house, prayers for a baby, prayers for a career go seemingly unanswered the way I expect them to, really, the only thing that matters is having Jesus. He is my shelter. He is my strength.
He is my purpose. And it has nothing to do with all this other worldly stuff that, you know, we get caught up in in America, you know, the American dream. Right? So hoping in the Lord for me is just I mean, he's the he's the pill that we're all looking to take, essentially. You know?
I've always wanted to be a drug addict and take the right take the right pill.
Well, I guess that was your third right there. I've always wanted to be a drug addict. Take take We it. We get it.
Take that in the context in which it was presented.
We get it. Get it.
Let's don't go worldly on me. Okay? So this verse is one that I've kind of gone to a bunch in the past, but it's Romans five starting at three. And it says, rejoice in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance. And endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
Think it kind of goes along with what Lissa said about hope. Hope is not always I I think that the the first steps sometimes leading towards hope is not always maybe what we want. I think we need to, you know, we step out on faith and exercise that. I've been a Christian for forty eight years, and I can honestly say that I have let God down many many times, but God has never let me down. And he has always been faithful and true to his word.
And, you know, I've been I've endured and his hope has been pure gold.
It's good. Joe?
I guess to add on to that, it feels like sometimes he does let you down because like he has a plan for you and sometimes it goes it doesn't go according to your plan. And then you're like, well, I want my plan to work. He's like, no. You his plan has to work.
That's great. That that that's very honest of you. Clay said he has always been faithful to our expectations. Is that what he said? He's always been faithful to what I want.
Is that what he said? He's always been faithful to his word. And it's a matter of lining up our desires, our intentions, our thought, our whole life according to his word. Elisha?
I was just gonna say like, to put your hope in the Lord to me is like living your life with the understanding that the most powerful being on in the universe is on your side. Like, if you knew that the richest man in the world was your father, you wouldn't worry about finances ever. And God is far more powerful than that.
So good. It's good. When you look at that phrase to put your hope in the Lord, that's a lot of English words, but it's condensed in a few short Hebrew words. And those Hebrew words bring are intended to bring a picture to mind of a rope being braided and twisted together. Put your hope in the Lord.
Now there are only about six people in all of The United States, and they all are from Europe, that have the international certification to be able to braid a haul line cable at a ski resort. You ever thought about that that big cable that your chair sits on as you're like dangling over Alta zero as you're riding up sublet. Right? So there are only six people in the whole world that have the certification to be able to take these individual steel cable strands and weave them in together to to make the haul line that whether it's a fixed grip or or a detachable high speed quad whatever that goes around on the on on a ski lift and I've had you can look up videos I've got to see it like a time or two they usually have like some sort of German or Swiss name Hans or Fritz or something. And they and they sit up there and they it to weave to weave together the cable because it's not like they have this end and this end and then they go like and they like go like this.
There the the weave is actually probably about 50 feet long and each individual steel cable is at a different length. So it's not like all of the cables are this length and all of the cables are this length and you just kind of like twist them together. The idea is that unless you have like a highly trained eye, you'll never see where the hall line is spliced together because it's very difficult to tell where one end ends and the other end meets. It's all interwoven, and as a little tip, you can look for some yellow spray paint on the hall line if you happen to be on a chair and see it. That's another way you could tell, but the experts, they can just pick it up with their eye.
It's indistinguishable to us riding the chairlift. That is the intended idea behind that phrase to put your hope in the Lord. That number one, your thoughts, your desires, your goals, your ambitions are are grounded in his word, and that what you want is indistinguishable from what he wants for you. That where you lean into for strength, for support is indistinguishable from what God says about you. And we could go on and on with a number of examples.
The yellow line the yellow line on the hall line. That could be that could be the Bible. How do I find that how do I find that seam? Getting into his word is a great place to start looking. Where and how do I place my hope?
Well, Renee said you did. We put our hope in the Lord. Let's look at the let's look at the next part of the next sentence. Travel steady. That word or phrase travel steady in Hebrew, it means to watch, to wait, to wait for, to observe, or to be on guard.
And we've talked a lot on this last in 2022 about three different types of waiting. Right? Can anybody remember what one of those types of waiting is that that we see in that we see in our human experience and that the Lord talks about that is talked about in the Bible. What is one can somebody remember? And you can just shout it out.
There's doctor's office waiting. Doctor's office waiting is exactly that. You go in for your appointment at eleven. You might get in at eleven. It might be 11:23.
It might be 11:45. There ain't nothing that you can do about it. You just sit there and look at the Highlights Magazine. That was a joke for old people. What's another kind of waiting?
This is a I'm looking for a specific answer. So I don't know that I don't know that you know you were not with us, but hold on to what you want to contribute. I'm looking for a specific answer. Birthday waiting. Okay.
So the second kind of waiting is birthday waiting. You know, I don't I don't know. Maybe you're really excited, like, while you're waiting at the doctor's office, but most of us aren't. We're just passive. Like, alright, when the doctor calls me, it's my turn.
But then there's birthday waiting. Remember when you were a little kid and your birthday was on Friday, but on Wednesday you tried to trick yourself that it was actually Thursday that that it was Tuesday so that when you woke up on Thursday Oh. Oh. Well, alright. I would
try to trick
myself so that or lose track of days so that like it would I would wake up on Friday of my birthday and be like, what? It's Friday? What? It's here already? Yes.
I would be so like, I'm excited, but there's really not a lot that I can do about it. Right? And then there's a third kind of waiting. What was that third kind of waiting that we talked about? Finish line waiting.
Finish line waiting where where if you've ever been you've ever done a race or you've ever been like a supporter and a cheerer honor at a race, you're at the finish line and your friend, your spouse, or whoever it is that you're cheering for, they're coming down that home stretch and you're yelling and you're excited and you're whooping it up and you're like, come on, it's that time where you get that final kick. And somehow, some way, your enthusiasm that you are directing at that person, I'm not talking in any kind of mystical or spiritual way, but like it gives them like some strength, you know, to know that you're right there and for them to have the energy to to give it to empty the tank and cross the finish line as as fast as they could. Right? So this verse to travel steady, in Hebrew, it says to watch, to wait, to observe, to be on guard. This is that the essence of that finish line waiting.
To travel steadily. To travel steadily. Thoughts?
From the perspective of the runner or the person waiting?
Yes. Sure. So so we wait. We are we are waiting. We are on guard as we put our hope in the Lord.
It could be hope about something broad, like Renee said. It can be something specific, like what Joy was talking about. I remember how he's come through in this way in the past. I'm gonna remember and hold on to that's where I'm placing my hope, because in the way that he came through for me in the past, I have an expectation that he's gonna come through. Maybe not the same way, but he's always true to his word.
And so you can be the spectator with finish line waiting for the fulfillment, eager anticipation, and being on guard. You can also be the runner as you travel steady along his path. Put your hope in the Lord, travel steady. Uh-oh. TV.
I got an interpretation. I got it. I got what you're saying.
Oh, I got I got it.
Nobody else does, but I've got it. So, I find it interesting that there's no action verbs other than waiting patiently in the definition of travel steady because I saw it more as an action word. And to tie it into your analogy about the lift line being spliced together, travel steady like our discipleship, and how we're supposed to go out and share God's word with everyone else. And every time we do that, we add a strand of God's family at the beginning of their journey while we're further into ours. And so you have some that are the longest in, some of the that are just beginning, and then we're making that whole bond tighter.
And foreshadowing too, when you see the wicked destroyed, they turn, they see someone sharing God's word with them, and they're like, man, this bond is quite strong.
Woah. Really cool. TD.
Drop the mic.
Tyler Dunn. Listen, you started to Oh. You started to speak and listen's like, I'm just gonna come on up to the keyboard now. So I I guess I guess you did it. This idea of traveling steady.
I think another way that we can travel steady, Jesus talks about being faithful in the little. We all we all love it when like the big huge miracle breakthrough happens. We all love it when when there are those firework moments of seeing God's goodness or his glory or that that amazing breakthrough. And there's a lot of stories in the Bible of those kind of moments. But what we also have to look for is in between those moments there is this idea of traveling steady.
Put your hope in the Lord and travel steady. As I said at the beginning, if I say it five more times, then it gets to No, be no. If I say it five more times, it gets to be mine, and I don't have to give credit for it anymore. But but Bill Johnson said, sometimes it takes the Lord a long time to act suddenly. Let me just this is a good place to land the plane for today, but I wanna go to let's go to a new testament story here.
Maybe this would speak to somebody. I think yes. Luke chapter one. Shooting from the hip here. In Luke chapter one, there's this guy.
He was a high priest. His name was Zechariah. And on verse in verse eight, we pick up the story. Luke one verse eight. One day, Zechariah was serving God in the temple For his order, like his clan, his family, his division, was on duty that week.
As the custom of the priests, he was chosen by lot to enter the sanctuary of the Lord and burn incense. While the incense was being burned, a great crowd stood outside praying. While Zechariah was in the sanctuary, an angel of the Lord appeared to him standing to the right of the incense altar. Zechariah was shaken and overwhelmed with fear when he saw him. Yeah.
But the angel said, don't be afraid, Zechariah. God has heard your prayer. Your wife, Elizabeth, will give you a son and you are to name him John. You'll have great joy and gladness and many will rejoice at his birth for he will be great in the eyes of the Lord. He must never touch wine or other alcoholic drinks.
He will be filled with the Holy Spirit even before his birth. And he will turn many Israelites to the Lord their God. He will be a man with the spirit and power of Elijah. He will prepare the people for the coming of the Lord and he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and he will cause those who are rebellious to accept the wisdom of the Godly. Zechariah said to the angel, how can I be sure this will happen?
Where do I place my hope? For I'm an old man now and my wife is also well along in years. Then angel has to jerk him by the collar real quick. But the point of the story for for for our sake to land the plane here today is Zechariah stopped praying? He confessed, I'm an old man.
I'm well beyond those years. But we see evidence that for a long time, Zechariah had woven his hope into the miracle of God. It just took a little while longer. As we go into 2023, we'll we'll we'll we'll pick this up next week. But as we go into 2023, I wanna create a little bit of space here in this room and in the midst of this service before we move to the next type of the next and last type of worship.
For you to do a little bit of business with the Lord. And there's there's two parts to this. If you have courage, ask the Holy Spirit. Where have I been placing my hope? 2022, in times past, for recently, currently, that is not woven together with you.
And he'll bring up he's a good guy. He's not gonna be like this and this and this and this and this and he's just like, hey, let's start with this. Oh. And then you take that thing. You might need to let it go.
You might need to surrender it. Or maybe you were placing your hope in your own self to fulfill that and make it happen. Maybe you just need to, in your mind's eye, take that thing, pull it out of your basket, and put it in your mind's eye in his basket. I'm gonna put my hope in you, Lord, and I'm going to travel steadily along your path. So you take care of some business with the Lord and I think it would not be a bad idea if if you physically have the room and you're able to.
As you're taking care of business with the Lord, why don't you just take your biscuits out of your seat and just kneel at your chair where you are if you're able to? And let's just get before the Lord. And start 2023 placing our hope in him and traveling steadily along his path. I feel like the Holy Spirit would say, I I I used to travel steadily along his path. But, man, have these these last few years, I have traveled a crooked path, winding this way and that, being blown and tossed about by the seasons and the wind and my flesh.
What a great time, the beginning of the year to just say, I wanna put my hope back in you in a relationship with you, Jesus. You know, when we kneel, it's just an outward sign of an inward posture of our heart of submission. And in my heart, I'm kneeling. I just don't wanna drop out of frame for the livestream. So everybody calm down.
Jesus. Jesus. I sense another heart saying, ah, okay, I got it. Put my hope back in you. It used to be there.
I wanna renew a a a declaration or a pledge to put my hope back in you. But how do I travel steadily along your path? I feared so far. How do I find your path? Well, number one, the lord led you here today, right?
He's got an apple tag like on your heart. You you can never be lost to him. His word in the book of Proverbs says your word is a light to my feet and a lamp unto the path. Go go back to your house that you shared with, like, five or six other ski bums. Dig out your bible that your mom packed for you and your duffle.
Ask your mom to send you your bible. Or if you don't have a bible, we got some here for you. Come back to that path. Jesus.
You mentioned when I gave the word that I faltered. The falter was me wanting to quit, but he said I'm not through. So let him follow through for you.
Let him follow through. Let him follow through. Jesus. Stay on your knees just a moment more because what I'd like to do next is let Matt share something and then okay.
I just wanna kinda put a challenge out there to everyone when we're talking about hope. When you leave this this place today, when you're praying, I want you to think of the worst person that you know that you would give no hope in this person ever coming to know the Lord. And I want you to make a purpose of it an effort to pray for that person. Because let me tell you something. When they become a a Christian, they make a difference.
They're bold beyond anything that we can even imagine. So let's not limit God. Let's lift someone up that you know that you just you can't see ever being in this building or being in any building that has a group of believers. Pray and pray hard for that person each and every day. And when they do become a Christian, wow.
Hold on. Because somebody was praying for you. I love those lyrics that say, whoever thought that a lost crook good could whoever thought that a lost crook good get brought to the point where the cross looked good. Jesus, I wanna pray on behalf of our entire tribe family. Collectively, together, in 2023, we wanna place our hope in you, not in the economy, not in our own plans and desires for for what we wanna accomplish at Tribe, but we wanna place our hope in you.
And together corporately, say that the intention of our heart is to travel steadily along your path. Jesus, hear our prayer and equip us to do what you've placed in our heart to do to travel steadily along your path. I'm gonna invite Amanda Ford to share one last way that we worship the Lord together at Tribe, and you give your knees a little break.
As we worship the Lord one more time corporately here together today in just a new expression, I wanna read Psalm one nineteen one fourteen. It says, God, you are my refuge and my shield. Your word is my source of hope. And he says, get out of my life evil minded people for I intend to obey the commands of my God and my God alone. Lord, sustain me as you promise that I may live and do not let my hope be crushed.
Because so many things in this world can crush our hope. And like I tell my boys, you have no control over what what happens to your circumstances or situations. You don't have control over that. Life is hard, things happen, good and bad. But you do have total control over how you let that affect you.
And so taking it a step further is what this psalmist is saying, it's either David or Daniel who wrote Psalm one nineteen, but he just says, do not let my hope be crushed, and God will honor that. And as we think about bringing our tithe and giving up our offering today, which is what we're doing in this last few moments, let it be an active obedience that you're showing the Lord, God, my finances are a big deal. Because no matter what's in your bank account today, finances are a big deal. It's just kinda how the world works. Right?
Like exchange a big way that the world works is in exchange of money. And we work hard for the paychecks that we get. So it's so beautiful in the Lord's character and his infinite love for us and his faithfulness that he would let money like the money that we earn be something that he asks us to give to him. Because it can be money is inherently neutral, but we can make it good or bad. And a lot of us just wanna hang on to it.
That's a human feeling. It's not wrong. But it is wrong if you say, no Lord, I need this more than I wanna be obedient to you. And so that the amount that you give when you bring your tithe or if you give above and beyond your tithe, is the offering, that's between you and the Lord. But let our heart posture, if anything, if you're still in the New Year's resolution mode, if it hasn't died out yet in a few days.
Just say, Lord, that's that's something I'm gonna do. It's simple. It sometimes isn't easy, but it's simple. I'm gonna bring a portion of my finances to you in an act of obedience, in a way to say I love and trust you, and what you can do with this money is infinitely more than I could do if I just gave it away or gave it to a charity and all that has its place. But there's something spiritual and different when you bring your tithe and your offering to the Lord that only he can put his super on our natural act.
And we do it for obedience. We do it out of obedience to the Lord. It's a fantastic self discipline act. We do it because we say, Lord, I love and trust you. And then it's so beneficial because it's done, if it's done right and the church that you give to, your local church is good stewards, it brings people into the kingdom.
It's a beautiful, beautiful expression. So whether you're giving today, right now, or whether you give in a different rhythm, we're just gonna pray together. Before I pray, practically speaking here at Tribe, we don't pass buckets or do anything, but you can give through our website, tribejh.com. If you're watching online, there's a little giving tab there at the top. You can also give cash or check-in the little black box right here, right under where we are now outside the front door.
And the very easiest way, and you'll see instructions on the screen, is to give through your smart phone. You start a new number to 84321, and you just type in the amount. And if you ever have problems with that, just let us know. We'll help we'll help fix it. But let's just close our eyes as a tribe family and just pray over this time in our offering.
Heavenly father, we just come to you and say thank you for who you are. Thank you for your faithfulness. Thank you that you will not let our hope be crushed. Whatever that hope has been, like we talked about today, let it be redefined and recalibrated to you. You are our hope.
We sing a song called hope has a name, and his name is Jesus. And so, Lord, we thank you for your faithfulness. Lord, as we bring our tithe and give our offering to you, whether it's an easy or a challenging act, Lord, thank you that you meet us right where we're at every time. Thank you that you put your super on our natural. And Lord, I just pray that here at Tribe, we will be good stewards of the money that comes in and do exactly what you want us to do with it, to bring more and more people into your kingdom so they can experience your goodness, your healing, your miracles, your love, your faithfulness, your ever you're an ever present help in time of need is what the Bible says.
We just love you and thank you in advance for what's to come, from our obedience and for you just being who you are. In Jesus' name we all say, amen. Real quick before you go, if you know this or not, today is one of our dear friends, last days at tribe, Brittany Semko, who's right around there working our livestream with Nina today. Today is her last day. She is moving back to Rhode Island Island and has something there that the Lord is calling her to, but her season in Jackson is done.
If you could just close out the camera so we can all cry for a moment. We have one minute to Don't
close out the camera. Watch us cry.
Yeah. Watch us cry. It hurts. So we love Britney dearly, and we're gonna there she is. We're gonna celebrate her today.
So if you know her and love her, stick around. We have food for you and some celebration to send her out the door, tribe style. Pastor Brian, would you come back up, please, to pray for us.
Also, as we dismiss, take a look on the fridge, any important stuff that happens, like, you know, in your family, it always gets puts on the gets put on the fridge. Right? You know, your report cards and all the fun stuff. So your report card, no. There's just some important information that's on the fridge including serving a meal to Teton County Search and Rescue February 14.
Great way to love those people serving our community. And again, as Amanda just said, soon as we're done here, we're transition into eating some food. I think we got some good B and G on queue. You could stick around. And why don't you stand up?
I'll pray for you, and we'll get out of here. Man, what great conversation. You guys are so good conversationers today. So good. Alright.
Close your eyes. Hold your hands out like this. Lord Jesus, I command a blessing over each and every member of our tribe fam here today and that are watching the livestream. Help us to place our hope in you and travel steadily along your path in 2023. We pray these things in Jesus name, the strong son of God.
And everybody said, amen. I love you so much. I hope you have a great week. And remember, you got this.
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