Beyond Sunday

Asking for a Friend: Week 2

• King of Kings Church

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Dina, Julie, and Tyler talk about how hope isn’t an accident—it’s something we practice when life feels heavy or the world feels loud. Drawing from stories like the Chilean mine rescue and the arc from Noah to Jesus, they share a simple ABC framework (Allies, Belief, Communication) for staying grounded in God’s promises and finding steady light again.

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SPEAKER_06:

Welcome to Beyond Sunday, the King of Kings podcast, where we dive a little bit deeper into our message series and see what we're taking Beyond Sunday. My name is Dina Newsome, and I am so thankful this Thanksgiving week to have some wonderful guests today. Go ahead and introduce yourself. I'm Julie Easley, the executive director here.

SPEAKER_05:

And my name is Tyler Rolson. I am the campus director at King of Kings Fremont.

SPEAKER_06:

Thank you guys for being here today. I don't know if you know this, but just days before Thanksgiving, there is a very special holiday. Okay. It is celebrate your unique talent day. And it was yesterday. So I'm curious, do you have a unique talent that you would celebrate?

SPEAKER_05:

Julie was just telling you about her unique talent 10, 10 seconds ago, right, Julie?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, just get timing all my Thanksgiving food and making all of it.

SPEAKER_05:

Oh, so No, I was trying to buy time so I could think of one.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm a genius at timing all my Thanksgiving food. Um, but I wouldn't consider that like a talent, really. I I can whistle like nobody's business. Not that like put your fingers in your mouth and whistle loud for the neighborhood kids to hear, but just like whistle a tune. Oh.

SPEAKER_06:

So can you whistle a little something? Yeah, what would you like to hear? I don't I don't know.

SPEAKER_05:

What's the is it the the whistle while you work?

SPEAKER_02:

Wow.

SPEAKER_00:

You see, I could read it.

SPEAKER_05:

Literally everybody on the other side of the podcast was bouncing their shoulders like Dina and me.

SPEAKER_01:

Just like we were. There you go. Right from Snow White. Right, exactly.

SPEAKER_05:

Um I don't I don't know if this is a unique talent, but man, I I don't know if just so much music around me growing up, but I am just kind of always singing something. And so you guys, I don't have the pleasure of being with you guys in the office very much now. I'm only here on Tuesdays. But I think Dina, you and I didn't work together last time you were here.

SPEAKER_06:

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah. But it's just very when I was in the office four times a week, Julie, it was just like, oh, we kind of know where Tyler is. Yes, because he's singing along everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

I love it.

SPEAKER_05:

Make my presence known.

SPEAKER_06:

It's a happy, wonderful voice.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_06:

I don't get to hear it very often, but um I do occasionally on Tuesday mornings.

SPEAKER_05:

But you can you can come to the Fremont office anytime and locate you. And locate me. Exactly.

SPEAKER_06:

I locate myself, exactly.

SPEAKER_05:

I love it.

SPEAKER_06:

Um, I um have cultivated a unique talent, um, I would say through my work in the church. And that is I can guess about anybody's shirt size. Oh, and I can do a food order for an amount of people like nobody's business. I bet you can. So much event planning. That's what I can get. You're old. Somebody didn't put in their t-shirt size? All right, I got you. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And you're just the repository for like all the information.

SPEAKER_06:

Random information. Chad came into my directed to you. It's like, hey, I was told to ask you, how do I get rent a coach bus? Well I guess Tina should probably know.

SPEAKER_05:

The the the stress and anxiety, though, if you know that you have 25 people coming to something and how much food to get.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Like you've turned that from a concern and anxiety to a snap of a finger.

SPEAKER_06:

A mathematical figure. Yeah. It just depends on what kind of food we're serving.

SPEAKER_00:

It's good.

SPEAKER_06:

Yep.

SPEAKER_00:

Okay.

SPEAKER_06:

I also speak pig Latin pretty good. Oh, something I don't cultivate quite as often.

SPEAKER_00:

You should try it the next step through. Throw everybody off.

unknown:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

All right. So we are in week two of the Asking for a Friend message series. And this week, Pastor Zach Zender spoke to us about hope. And do we have hope for the future? So, what are you guys taking beyond Sunday from this message?

SPEAKER_05:

Well, uh, one thing is for you listeners out there, if you are not yet currently following King of Kings on our various social media channels, you're missing out. Oh, yeah. Because when when Zach first showed up at our screen on Sunday, we we said we commented, oh wow, that's a very bright, colorful sweater that he had, multicolors. And only later in the afternoon did we find out that it nearly perfectly maps onto a Johnny Pop um design pattern. Thank you, Scotty, and social media. So I was taking his sweater design beyond Sunday.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it was really, it was really good. It did look like a popsicle. Um, I think for me, it just reminded me that really our inputs can either create or deplete hope from us. So, what's the amount of time that I'm spending online or doom scrolling or really getting super involved in the news versus digging into the truth of God's word, reminding myself of who God is, right? And so it's not like you either have hope or you don't. You can cultivate hope with your habits.

SPEAKER_06:

Yeah. Um, my takeaway was really that God's will is not for you to be hopeless. I think we often forget that. And we, you know, thing bad thing after bad thing happens. And well, this is part of God's plan. Things that happen are part of God's plan. That may be true, but God doesn't want us to be hopeless in those things. We can always turn to him for hope for the future. Okay, so Zach started out with a story from 2010 about these Chilean miners. And I remember when this was happening, I didn't really remember it until he started talking about it. And then I realized how much I was probably watching the news at that time. So there were 33 men that were in this mine, and the mine collapsed, and they were 2,300 feet down for 69 days. 69 days sounds like eons to me in a situation like that. But my question for you is how did this story hit you? Who did you relate to in this story? Or like what did this make you think of in regards to the hope of God?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I was I was thinking about the the people above the surface. That you know, you can imagine just the floods of people there trying to figure out what to do and what can be done, and government officials and villagers, all the all the things, right? Um, and then the the kind of distance between our our sincere intention and what's possible. And so when they discovered that Paloma system of what did he say? It was like the the width of a the diameter of a water bottle. Yeah that could go down in the hole and send messages and eventually food and and drink and that sort of thing. But the way where how I relate to it is that I I often kind of feel in that spot of like, I really want to help someone get through the situation they're getting through. I just don't know how. I don't that that that distance between like the most sincere of intentions, but then what's actually possible in this. Um, and and so to know that you know, kind of you know, once we apply it to to to Noah and then our own lives, it it's kind of this almost like real parable of God is the one that sustains hope. And then sometimes he chooses to use us, often he chooses to use us, but it's not exclusively on us.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. I was just thinking about how potent a thing hope is. Can you imagine getting that message to the top, like we're all alive and that absolute surge of relief? And like, oh, we we've been able to communicate, not only communicate, but there's really um there's a way to get water down there, some food down there to share messages, to so yeah, hope is just so powerful, and that's what I was reminded of.

SPEAKER_06:

I kept thinking about, I always wondered if they were in the dark down there. Like I don't imagine they were at the start, right? You know, but I don't know if they were on battery packs or the electricity situation was. And I just thought, how is it even with people? Like I think it's better to be with people in that situation than alone, but even with people, like just the feeling of being in the darkness. And I feel like that's where hopelessness sits sometimes is in the dark. And that's what I couldn't get out of my mind thinking about that. Yeah. It's an amazing story, regardless. It is and definitely talks about hope. Okay, so one of the statements that Zach said he really thinks is a key point is because of Jesus, I am never without hope. And he even had us repeat it a couple times during the message. So, how have you seen this come to life in your life? Or how has this impacted your daily life?

SPEAKER_00:

I think that in times when I'm feeling hopeless or just maybe not hopeless, I I I have to say, I don't I don't typically feel completely hopeless. There are times when I feel like, boy, this life is not working out the way I expected it to. Um, is just to recall God's faithfulness through my whole life. Things that were completely unexpected that were just dropped into my lap through God's provision, or just how he's sort of uh slowly moved in a situation. And there are so many instances of that. I mean, you're uh if you think back, all the provision that you've had in your life comes from God and how faithful he's been and how faithful he'll be. And it's really because of of Jesus that we have right this eternal hope as well. So besides all this hope that we have currently and all the beautiful things that are had that we can point to in our own lives. So yeah, just recalling the faithfulness of God.

SPEAKER_06:

You're always saying it's always working out for us.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, everything's always working out for us, and it's not because we're so awesome, yeah, right? Because God is.

SPEAKER_06:

Yep.

SPEAKER_05:

Well, you guys are pretty awesome. Um, can you repeat the question?

SPEAKER_06:

Yes. So Zach's statement was because of Jesus, I am never without hope. How do you find that plays out in your daily life or where have you seen that in your life?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, yeah. Um I I I I'd like to think I'm a pretty positive person. And that's one thing I've just so respected of, you know, working under Pastor Mark Zender for all those years, and now under Pastor Greg, is they I think even positivity isn't their top five, each of their top five strengths. And it's just a it's an infectious way to to go through life. And I think it's really difficult to be a a growing fruits of the spirit Christian and be constantly embroiled in negativity. Um and uh and and so so with that, I think our kind of unique Lutheran theology helps us. And this is one of, as I think about like what where how God has shaped me the most over the last five or six years, it is really embracing a spirituality of reception, meaning that we are receivers of God's grace. And so there's this great verse in John chapter one that from his fullness we have all received grace upon grace. And what I love about that is that in any season of my life, and I would probably I'm probably similar to you, Julie, is like I'm a pretty steady person. Like my highs aren't crazy high, my lows aren't crazy low. And like we all have ups and downs, all that sort of thing. Um, if you've ever done the the disc profile, I'm a high S on steadiness. Yeah. Although I will say my I has gone up in the last 10 years for whatever reason. Because you're it's like being beaten into you. I don't know. I don't know.

SPEAKER_01:

You will love people.

SPEAKER_05:

Zach and I were down at seminary for orientation a couple months ago. And um, you'll be no surprise he is a high D and a high I.

SPEAKER_00:

So yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, but yeah, and so back to the in terms of like a a like how do we define our Christian spirituality if we are in the one the posture of receiving and God is always in the posture of giving good gifts to his children, not that like life is promised to go perfectly swimmingly all we know that's not true, but it it puts me in the spot where I know God's heart for me and I know that I'm in a spot empty-handed that I receive from him. And because of that, he's like this eternal source that can never run dry. Then it it's it's difficult for me to have too long in kind of that hopeless. Like if I'm in that spot, that's probably because I've been kind of I've I've closed my hands off, right? Like I just haven't put myself in that receptive posture. But then when I get back to it and recognize, oh yeah, it is Thanksgiving. Every good gift comes from him. Thank you, Lord. Um, then it's it kind of helps us be in the spot to um to recognize how good he is, how faithful he's been, um, and then to receive that hope from him.

SPEAKER_06:

I am generally a really positive person. I'm pretty optimistic. Like I'll complain about things, but they don't really stand in my way. They don't really drag me down. Um, but when Zach was talking about this statement, because of Jesus, I am never without hope. I was thinking of my very best friend. And my best friend is not a Christian. And we've been best friends for 20-some years, I would say. And she wants what Christians have. She wants that hope, that um light, you know, that we seem to carry. She sees it. She just doesn't feel like she can get there. And she has kind of ebbed and flowed in where she, you know, tries to go to church on a regular basis and then walks away. But um, when she um she has three amazing children, um, but her very first child died um at 13 days of age because she was born with Cornelia DeLong syndrome. And so they knew this late in the pregnancy. They knew she likely wasn't gonna live um long. And this was a very difficult time for them. And she said to me at once when we were talking about the hope of heaven and and believing in God, and she said, Dina, you've never lost a child. I couldn't get through something like that and still believe that there's a God that would let that happen. And my response to her was, I couldn't get through something like that without believing that there's a God that that gives us hope after that happens. And it was just a very like we had a very honest, good discussion around that. But I just think of those two different perspectives of what that hope of heaven gives and how things seem dark and just like they end without it. Right. And that's the conversation that came to mind when I was thinking, yeah, because of Jesus, I am never without hope. And that's yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

So Za Zach mentioned the tragedy of the Concordia student who passed away this last week. And then, you know, we're recording this on Tuesday afternoon. It was just three hours ago. I was in the hospital room with um one of our um new Fremont members who suffered a surprise stroke on Sunday night. Her daughter found her on Monday morning. And um, yeah, just like, okay, this this might be the end. And it to go through something like that and not have Christian hope, like you said, to not point to eternal life in Jesus. Like Paul said, it's like in some ways it's actually better to be away from the body and be with the Lord. Um, and that even the the greatness of the years that we have here is but a blip compared to eternity and to be in a place with no sin and no death and no suffering. Um it it makes those ministry moments with a with a daughter and her siblings and in-laws that are clearly grieving, um, but it but it makes it a grief that we're as was first Thessalonians 4, we we grieve as those we don't grieve as those who are without hope. That we are given permission to grieve because it is a loss, but we don't do so as if we have no hope. Then Keller kind of breaks out you know both of those and we're right down the middle. It's like it's okay to grieve, don't grieve so much this pretending that you don't have real hope in front of you as a Christian.

SPEAKER_06:

I was shocked when Zach said um he quoted that study that said 70% of Christians have some sense of hopelessness. And I thought that's like the core truth of being a Christian, I feel like, is the hope of what's to come. And that I really struggled with that. Like how how do we help the people that feel that hopelessness but still believe in God? Like, what are they missing as that part of not like what are they missing that it's on them, you know what I mean? But like what can we do to help bridge that gap in what we do in ministry? That was a a shocking statistic for me. So Zach did his um Facebook research, as he calls it, you know, where he throws something out and gets.

SPEAKER_05:

I believe this is the second sermon in a row he's done this. Yeah. Because he's done it before. Yes.

SPEAKER_06:

Um, and so he came up with three reasons that we in general, we in general are feeling hopeless. And so I'm gonna read them and then I just want to hear your thoughts on one of them, all of them, you know, just what kind of struck you about this part. So, number one, life is moving too fast and I feel like I'm losing control. Number two, I have placed my hope in worldly leaders. Number three, my eyes are more fixed on what's temporal than what's eternal. How did those hit you?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I mean, now that I've I just celebrated my 56th birthday. Happy lay birthday. Thank you. I know, but I feel like I'm like you don't look a day over 20 now. I don't know. I feel like I'm creeping into that territory of like, do I have to learn this new technology? I, you know, my kids are like, that's not real, that's AI, mom. Get with it. But like there is that sense of like, wow, things are really galloping away at a very fast pace. I I think that, you know, everybody knows that that's true. If you lived in the Middle Ages, things changed very, very slowly. I mean, things now are just the turnover from year to year is insane. So it does feel like everything's just galloping away. It's like, ooh, you know, questions about AI and how it's going to change our lives and what's true and what's not true. What can I trust? Um, that all feels kind of scary. I don't know if I feel hopeless about it, but it's just like, wow, I don't know. What's what's coming up? It's it's just unsettling.

SPEAKER_06:

I like how Zach phrased that, you know, we got um the internet dropped onto us and then social media forced on us. Like that is sometimes what it feels like, you know?

SPEAKER_00:

Yep, yep, for sure.

SPEAKER_06:

All right. What about you, Tyler?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I'm I'm looking this up because there's a there's a phrase um in social science. And maybe you guys don't recognize it. Uh, if not, listener, you can email Dina at KingKings.org. Um, of the the uh how long it takes for the amount of data in the world to double. And and again, uh it's uh this is directionally true, but you know, it it for the first doubling, you know, it would have taken taken millennia. Yeah, the second doubling a couple hundred years, and then now we're at like 34 days or something, you know, because it's just following an exponential curve. Um, but there it's some sort of law in social science. Um the some something I wrestle with a lot is kind of the Ecclesiastes one, there's nothing new under the sun reality, which is true from God's sense, therefore we should believe it's true. But then also our experience of what we what we currently have in front of us, God might know the future. We don't. And and so there's just all that uncertainty and fear. Um, I mean, if you were if you were living in France in 1917 or in Belgium in 1941, you probably wouldn't have had a lot of hope for the future.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. I do think that's really true. I mean, there has been a lot of scary, scary moments for people throughout history.

SPEAKER_05:

And that's probably where like the NOAA thing comes in. Um I like, I try to guard against language when we say something is unprecedented. I was like, let's make sure we really learn our history before we claim something like that. So like when COVID hit in 2020, it's like this unprecedented is like, I'm pretty sure there've been pandemics before. Yeah. Like, yeah, you could say in you know, the last decade or decades or whatever, but like, no, this like humanity has somehow made it through. Well, God willing, we'll make it through all that sort of thing. And so the like the Noah story when when Zach was uh introducing it, um, and and he said, you know, some people will say, like, oh, things have never been worse. And then he reads Genesis six.

SPEAKER_01:

It's like sounds worse. And the world had barely started at that point.

SPEAKER_06:

He's just like, oh, forget it. I'm sure glad God didn't throw in the towel.

SPEAKER_01:

And then he made the promise with the rainbow, or he might be like, um, I'm rethinking this. Right.

SPEAKER_05:

Um, anyway, but just like that, um, I I think we are more prone to hopelessness when we kind when we think like our unique historical situation is so unique that there's not like God doesn't even know a way out. And I think a little bit of historical grounding can kind of just keep our hearts and minds level. It's good.

SPEAKER_06:

I find that to be true when when, you know, one of the things he said was, I've placed my hope in worldly leaders and our political culture right now is so just diversified, you know what I mean, and so antagonistic that one side is right and one side is wrong, and everything the other side does is wrong. And I um feel much more tempered about that when I look into history and see there are some things that we are arguing about today that the same arguments were happening 50 years ago or 500 years ago. And um, God's gonna get us through this and he loves his people and he is gonna put the right leaders in the right places, whatever side you are on. You know what I mean? Like I feel like there is still hope, even where some people find so much hopelessness in that political leaders or worldly leaders, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_05:

Dina, is this doubling as your um campaign announcement for the office that you're running for, trying to bring people together?

SPEAKER_06:

No. I don't think I have the patience to campaign.

SPEAKER_05:

You heard in the air on the Beyond Sunday podcast.

SPEAKER_06:

I'm a little too direct sometimes to be in politics.

SPEAKER_00:

So one time my dad called me. He's like, I had a dream that you became the governor of Pennsylvania. I'm like, really? I'm like, not doing that.

SPEAKER_05:

Can I tell you guys a true story? Yes. So when we lived in Connecticut, are you guys familiar with the bottle deposit laws in some of these states? Um, I am all for, all for conservation, recycling, all that sort of thing. Um, and so the these bottle deposit laws aren't intended to incentivize, right? So you pay what was five cents per can or bottle, and then you get your five cents back when you return it. Um I had so much frustration with this with this law because you would pay it on the front end and then you had to work so hard to get it back. Where I would take it to the store and they say, Oh, we don't accept that. I was like, you sold it to me. Now give me my$3.55 back. And then Connecticut, they doubled it to 10 cents. They doubled down.

SPEAKER_01:

So rude.

SPEAKER_05:

So I was like, well, now I'm really gonna fight for now my eight dollars and ten cents or whatever it is.

SPEAKER_01:

It's just gonna be your platform. So I totally are you announcing no, I don't live in Connecticut anymore.

SPEAKER_05:

But I said, if there was ever something that I would so passionately campaign for, it would be for the repeal of the bottle deposit laws.

SPEAKER_06:

They do that in Iowa, I think, still. I know they used to. Gosh, really. I can remember growing up at holidays when we go to my aunts in Iowa. We had to save every can and every bottle.

SPEAKER_00:

Man. I'm sure they do it in California too.

SPEAKER_06:

Yep. Yep. We're just so wasteful here in Nebraska.

SPEAKER_01:

Throwing away cans left and right.

SPEAKER_06:

All right. So then Zach transitioned from the three reasons that people are generally feeling hopeless to the three basics, his ABCs of hope or survival. And so they are allies, belief, and communication. How did these three things hit you, or where have you seen them come up in your own life?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, I just thought it was a beautiful tie-in of the opening story with the Chilean miners, Noah's story, and our story. Um, and it um so to be able to say, yeah, Noah had allies with his family. It was only his family, right? He's preaching for these 120 years, and they're the only ones that listen, but they did. Praise God. He he wasn't alone on the boat. Um, and then uh Hebrews says that you know, Noah is listed in that Hebrews 11 hall of faith. Um, that by faith he he built built the ark and without seeing a drop of rain, um, and then that beautiful Paloma uh dove, yeah, which is uh what a great little connection at the end. I know. Um yeah, uh it's like it's like he planned it, guys. It's almost like he planned it.

SPEAKER_00:

It was so good. I'm like, wow, the convergence of all these ideas.

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and but I I mean it's just that to me, it's like you need you need all three of those in healthy measure to to sustain hope. And so um you if you're alone, um, you can only get so far with a strong belief and a strong one-on-one communication with God. But if you're with other people, but your wavering belief, like you just you need all three in order to sustain hope for the long haul.

SPEAKER_06:

I really liked the adjectives that he put with them too: supporting allies, unwavering belief, and lifeline of communication. I thought those just made it much more impactful and much more like the story of the miners and the story of Noah.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, it's good. My um, so I had a verse for the year, and it was actually about hope, and it comes from Micah 7, 7. But as for me, I watch and hope for the Lord. I wait for God, my savior, my God will hear me. Um, I just love that. And and there's that aspect of belief, right? I think a lot about that verse about um the Lord's eyes roaming all over the world, looking for someone who's faithful to him. And I just picture God kind of looking over and I'm hoping that I'm looking up at him and he'll see my eyes and be like, got it, right? So just that belief, like, God, we're in this together, but my God will hear me sort of implies that I'm saying something to him, right? Asking him, petitioning, praising, um, so that there's just that relationship of communication. So it just reminds me of like, okay, God's listening. And I know he can listen to my heart, but am I just like, what kind of communication am I having with him daily?

SPEAKER_06:

I brought this up last week, but um in the previous week, Greg said, Oh, when God hears you call him, he says, Shh, all of heaven, shh, Julie's talking. You know what I mean? And that was just such a powerful image for me. I was like, wow, like yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

That's good.

SPEAKER_06:

All right. So speaking of the story of Noah, which Zach kind of interwove with this whole idea of hope, how does the story of Noah share the hope that we can find in God? What's the core piece for you guys?

SPEAKER_05:

So the he didn't go into this a ton, but there's a there's a some really cool um Noah things that carry through into the New Testament, especially in the life of Jesus. And so if you guys imagine those those uh old fashioned churches that come to kind of an A frame shape and um and so is it is it called a knave? Is that right? Yep. N A V E. Um, and one of the reasons that the medieval architects did it this way is that it almost looks like an upside-down ship. And uh I I read an undergrad um St. Augustine's The City of God. The joke is that the city of God is so long that not only not even God has read the city of God. I uh I I I was supposed to read it, but I did not. I read most of it. Um but one of the points that Augustine talks about is connecting the the ark to now being the the the church and and that that God is uh bringing about his saving work through through his people, um, and that we're invited in by through the waters of baptism, um, into God creating this mechanism of saving. And then, of course, what is the church doing but pointing to Christ, who is ultimately the one who saves us. Um, and so Noah, Noah certainly is like the hero in this story, but really everything is pointing to Jesus as the one who does ultimately save us from destruction through the waters in God's appointed means.

SPEAKER_00:

Love that. Um, I just think about like Noah sending he didn't send the bird out once and and it came back and was like, hey, yeah, he had to send it out like multiple times. And so just thinking about even if things don't seem to be going right, it it's just worth it. I mean, Jesus talks about this, like asking with persistence, right? So um Noah could have sent that, I think it was the raven first, right? Raven went out first, and then the dug, I don't know. Anyway, he sent, I think he had a few species of birds that he could send out, right? But it but if the the first bird came back with nothing, he's like, forget it. I'm not doing this again. And then eventually had to wait until the waters receded, which who knows how long it could have been, all without hope. Um, but just kind of that persistence of like, God, I know you've got something for me. I'm just gonna keep asking you for it. I don't know. That's what makes me think about it. Am I asking with persistence?

SPEAKER_06:

Speaking of persistence, it just makes me think as a parent where we're talking about Noah was preaching for 120 years as he built the ark. And I just thought of how many times I've told my son to turn off the bathroom light or to pick up his shoes. And I just think 120 years of explaining, I'm making a boat, there's gonna be a flood. How tiresome that would have gotten to people. And no one. Right, right. Yeah, very demoralizing, but he kept the faith.

SPEAKER_05:

So in in Genesis 8 here, Julie, I never doubted you. You were correct. Um, after 40 days, Noah opened a window he had made in the ark and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth, and then he sent out the dove of Paloma. Yep, there you go.

SPEAKER_06:

Um, I spent 10 summers in Hong Kong and in Hong Kong. I think there's something like this in the US, I've just not seen it. In Hong Kong, there's a life-size Noah's Ark, and it's like at the end of a bridge. So when you drive over this bridge, you see it like poking out from the end. It's absolutely stunning. Like, and you can go in and tour it. There's all these activities. They have life-size animals outside of it. I was shocked. Like I had been in children's ministry forever. I had told the story of Noah, I don't know how many times, and just seeing this in person and the sheer size of it, like you picture how big it had to be. So many qubits by so many cubits, you know. But just standing there in front of something that massive, I just wow. Like that's just a miracle in itself. Yes, it's incredible. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

Wow.

SPEAKER_06:

All right. So as we wrap up today, what are your final takeaways from this message about hope?

SPEAKER_05:

Yeah, and it's it's so simple, but that that takeaway that you um reminded us of earlier that Zach said that um because I have Jesus, um, I am not without hope. Or maybe he put it in the plural, because we have Jesus, we are not without hope. Like, that's just a mantra that I want to be meditating on and keeping my heart, keeping my mind. And for anyone listening out there, like just med, just keep that, keep that in you for the next week, for the next month. Because you never know when though those waves of fatigue and hopelessness and despair will hit you. Um, but if you store up truths of God's word now, um, you'll be prepared for those seasons.

SPEAKER_00:

Um, so as some of you might remember, um, my brother-in-law came to to King of Kings to talk about his cancer journey um a few years ago. And he passed away in July. And actually, today is his birthday. So it's his first birthday, first heavenly birthday. But their family scripture that that's going to be on his headstone and that they just had all over their house was be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, and faithful in prayer. And so just a reminder that, you know, uh the hope of Christ can give us deep joy. I know my sister right now is at a low ebb. She her her hope is at a just a like the smallest flame, but it's still there and she's still trusting and believing in Jesus for all that's ahead. Um, but being patient in affliction when we're needing to ask many times and feeling like, what's going on here? Um, and then just being faithful in prayer, keeping that communication with the Lord open. And so I just felt like, wow, it's so interesting how this all came together today on his birthday. And I'm just so grateful for his witness and the truth that um Jesus is with us always and and will be with us to the end of our days.

SPEAKER_06:

That's so good, truly. So there were two um phrases that Zach said towards the end of the message that stuck with me. I jotted them down in my phone because I didn't want to forget. And one of them was, I'm not hopeless because Jesus is not done with me yet. And I thought that's, you know, when you're feeling at your lowest low, God still has plans for you.

SPEAKER_04:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06:

Um, but then the other thing that Zach said was into every single reality, and this was when he was talking about your reality may be really hard right now, but into every single reality, God acts and God speaks. And that I that gave me hope of okay, sometimes we have to shut up and listen. Yeah. You know what I mean? He's he's giving us hope or he's giving us through other people or through our surroundings or just through, you know, him talking to us in our hearts. He's he's speaking and he's acting. And sometimes we just need to listen. Yeah. Yeah. Well, thank you guys for being here today. We are gonna wrap up next Sunday with the last um week of asking for a friend. And until then, let's keep living our faith beyond Sunday.

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