Faith, Hope and Love

I'd like to talk to you a little bit today about the concepts of faith and hope and love. To do so, I'm going to tell you just a brief story here and hopefully set the stage. When I was growing up, my father built an ark. That is only really mild hyperbole at best. My father was what you might call a collector. Some of you have heard stories about my dad.

My father was what you might call a collector. Other people would use words like hoarder, a cumulator, maybe. But dad was really more of a visionary or a hobbyist because he actually, most of the time, did something with the things that he randomly brought home and stashed. There was always a plan for the strays that he managed to find out there and bring home. Well, one afternoon in... Oh man, it must have been 87 or 88.

I think I was probably seven or eight years old. Dad rolled up after work with two 24-foot by 1.5-foot fiberglass pontoons. They were on an old 26-foot trailer, which we didn't own before that day. So both the pontoons in the trailer came home. They'd both seen better days, but the fiberglass was intact. And dad had a vision. He had a plan. And thankfully, he had the skill set to pull off his plan.

Over the next, probably eight years or so, he worked here and there on what eventually became a 26-foot pontoon boat. Now, the neighbors used to joke about dad's arc as it kind of took shape in the front driveway. He built a deck on it. He built aluminum rails along the side. It had a, you know, seven-foot canopy over the top and an engine housing, all the drive controls. And to power it, he dropped a 351 Windsor engine into it and then connected that up to an old Volvo Penta prop outdrive. Which, I mean, that thing had plenty to get up and go.

We launched it one day to very much pomp and circumstance. All the neighbors came to watch. They'd been seeing this thing being built for the past eight years, and they had to come see the christening, so to speak, and the launch of this thing. They went out to Silver Lake outside of Cheney, Washington. Some of you that are familiar with the Spokane area know Silver Lake. We went ahead and pulled it back off the trailer and it nearly sank. It turns out it was too heavy for the pontoons, and dad had to go back to the drawing board and do a little bit of an adjustment to his design.

So what he did was added these two large six-foot by twelve-foot fiberglass pontoons in the center of the boat, to which he then added a whole bunch of two-part flotation foam.

At the next launch, he launched it. We had a good twelve inches or so of freeboard. He put twenty to thirty of the neighbors on it, grabbed everyone off the dock, grabbed everyone off the shore, and crammed people on there like we were having a big old houseboat party. It only sank probably two to three inches, maybe four inches, with all those people on it.

We had a good eight, ten inches of freeboard remaining. We had successfully managed to get it to float. On some of the first shakeout trials, the boat plowed so much water, and it was so heavy that getting up on plane was impossible. Dad concluded that the 351 Windsor was just too much engine for what we were trying to do, and that even with that powerful of an engine, we weren't going to get on plane. So he decided to drop an old four-cylinder Azuzu diesel into the engine compartment, and from that day forward, we really didn't get anywhere very fast. The boat itself sipped fuel. It kind of allowed us to explore the northern lakes of Washington and Idaho, most of the time at a turtle's pace.

But we took extended trips on Coeur d'Alene Lake. We took trips out on Newman Lake on Silver, put it on Ponderay and Lake Roosevelt as well. Now, because of the length of the boat, 26 feet, and it was probably 12 to 14 feet across, because of the length of the boat, the launch itself had to be steep enough and deep enough to actually get the boat to float off the trailer.

So we only had certain lakes available to us. If they were too shallow and too, you know, gentle of a slope on the ramp in, it just wasn't going to work. But we would take out, at times, we'd load the boat up with supplies and just take off for a week or two at a time. Now, Dad had kind of thought of everything.

The boat had benches and tables that converted into beds. It had a head on it, had a bathroom facility, had plenty of storage, had these roll-down tarps on the sides to keep out all the elements, which we didn't really have much of during the summertime up in Washington. But we took a Fourth of July trip one year, probably about a week or so, I think, in the early 90s. We put in at Seven Bays up on Lake Roosevelt and then took the boat down to Grand Coulee, which was quite the trip when you're traveling at a turtle space.

But we anchored it up. We hiked up over the little berm there to go watch the fireworks and tour the dam facility. And then watched the light show, and then we hopped back on the boat and then spent a few days kind of going back up towards where we were going. Well, Dad decided he wanted to go up past Seven Bays. He wanted to go up to Columbia, kind of in the direction of Kettle Falls, which would have been a massive multiple-day trip. And on the second night of the trip, probably second or third night of the trip, it was a massive storm rolled in.

And I remember it well because I don't think I slept a wink that night when it was all said and done. The wind blew down in the canyon. The boat was rocking back and forth. It was up on the sides. At least it felt like it was up on the sides. Of course, I'm a younger person and probably imagined it was worse than it really was. But the rain came in. The thunder boomed off the canyon walls.

Every time the lightning would strike, the surface of the boat, the canopy of the boat, which was this white, thick tarp, would light up like daylight. And the boat strained at its anchor ropes. It pulled at its anchor ropes. In fact, at one point in the night, the rear anchor kind of pulled up and the boat swung around a little bit, dragging the anchor along the bottom. Dad had to hop up and reposition us and kind of re-secure the anchors.

It was terrifying. To be honest, it was terrifying as a young man. The waves were whipping and the boat felt like it was just going to tip right over. And this is a big, wide, flat-bottom boat. And we were getting clear up on the side at times. And it felt like there was a couple times where we were going to go over. But we didn't. You know, the next morning we found a couple places on the shore where the lightning had struck the sand. And the boat had ultimately been kind of drug a little bit out of position as the anchors had pulled along the bottom.

But we were intact. And the water was calm. And I remember thinking that morning, as I reflected on the previous evening, how thankful I was that the ropes and the anchors held. How thankful I was that those ropes and those anchors had held. So, we're going to turn over to the Book of Ecclesiastes here this morning. We're going to start with Ecclesiastes 4, and we're going to pick it up in verse 7. Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 7. And we want to take a look at a principle that we're going to explore today.

But we're going to look at it in a slightly different capacity, perhaps, than we normally do. Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 7 reads as follows. It says, And I saw vanity under the sun. He says, Nor is his eye satisfied with riches, but he never asks, For whom do I toil and deprive myself of good. This is also vanity, and grave, misfortune. Verse 9. Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor. For if they fall, one will lift up his companion.

But woe to him who is alone when he falls. Solomon ultimately concludes here that life by and large is meaningless alone. We toil to no end, and for what? There's no one to leave the wealth to. He says it's ultimately meaningless. He says that two is better than one, that there is better return. If one falls, the other can help them up. We're not speaking strictly of marriage relationships here, just relationships. Friends. People who we're close to. People who we can help when they fall, and they can help us when we fall. It says if one falls, the other can help him up.

If they lie down together, they can remain warm. If one is overpowered, well, two can defend themselves. Then he makes the statement that a three-fold cord, or a cord of three strands, is not quickly broken. That ultimately as you add more strands to a rope, the strength of that rope increases significantly. Two is stronger than one, three is stronger than two, and on it goes.

Now we've often talked about this passage with regards to human relationships, particularly that of marriage. When you take a husband and a wife in a marriage relationship, when you combine them together, it strengthens each one individually, and both of them overall. But when you add that third cord, when you add God into the mix, when you add him into that relationship, the strength is increased even more.

That three-fold cord in that scenario, that marriage with God as a part of that marriage, is not quickly broken. It'll survive the storms, and it'll survive the difficulties, because that rope is stronger with all three present than with just one.

Now I mentioned I want to take a look at this principle today, but I want to look at it in a slightly different capacity. When God called us, and He gave us the opportunity to become a part of His family, we entered into a type of marriage covenant with God. Now, our spiritual journey parallels this process. In ancient Judea, when a man desired to marry a woman, he approached his father to secure the bride for him. The father would approach the parents of that woman, and would negotiate what was known as a katuba, essentially a marriage contract.

He would offer to pay a bride price, in Hebrew the word is mahar, which essentially sealed the contract. Now, at that point in time, by the time that katuba was entered into, and that mahar was paid, the man and woman were by all intents and purposes married. At least in the eyes of the law, even though they had not yet consummated the marriage, they were considered to be married. Now today, in our current culture, we would call this period the engagement period.

We would say perhaps that someone was betrothed, but we would say this is the engagement period. But in Jewish culture, at that time in particular, the two were already legally married, and the only way out of the marriage at that point was a writ of divorce. Now, we won't turn there, but you can jot it in your notes.

The example of Joseph and Mary in Matthew 1 and verse 19, this is the place that they were in. They were by all intents and purposes married, even though they had not yet consummated the marriage relationship. When Joseph discovered Mary with child, he wished to put her away privately. He didn't want to make a big spectacle of divorce or potentially bring the consequences on her as a result of what her perceived adultery.

But he would not have been able just to say, I'm sorry, we're done here, I'm breaking off this engagement. He would have had to have provided her with a writ of divorce. So after that, Koutouba was negotiated and the mahar was paid, the husband would return to his family's property and he would begin to build on that property and build onto that home of that family of his family of origin in preparation for he and his wife's home.

This period of time took roughly a year or so in most cases, and when completed, he would return to collect his bride. The bride didn't know the day or the hour of his coming, but after he had collected her, they would return to the home. They would have a lavish celebratory feast, a marriage supper, a joyous occasion. When we were baptized, God the Father called us to relationship with his son. He negotiated for us. He paid the price of the blood of his son for us, which when we were baptized, we accepted on our behalf.

We were willing to enter into that contract of marriage with his son into baptism. At that time, we know the bridegroom went to his father's house. He told his disciples, in my father's house there are many rooms I go to prepare for you. He said at a time that is into the future when the father says it is time, he will return and he will collect his bride when that time is right.

It parallels all of the customs of that time from a marriage standpoint. So brethren, you and I, in this time in our Christian walk, those of us that have been baptized, we have entered into that marriage covenant with Jesus Christ. God has paid the price for us with the very blood of his son. He's bestowed his Holy Spirit upon us. And we are, by all intents and purposes, married to our Savior at this time while we wait for him to prepare the place in his father's house and he returns to collect his bride. Here's a passage of scripture that is read at, I gotta say, probably every wedding I've ever attended.

I know it's read at the ones that I've officiated because I've read it. But sometimes only parts of it get read. Sometimes the whole chapter gets read. But if you would like to, and if you are following along in your Bible, if you'd please turn over to the love chapter, over to 1 Corinthians 13. We're going to examine that today, and through it, we're going to consider another three-fold cord, so to speak, that is an integral part of this relationship that we have been called to lead.

This marriage relationship, this patrol, this engagement to Jesus Christ. First Corinthians 13, and we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 1 of 1 Corinthians 13. So 1 Corinthians 13 and verse 1. Pardon me. First Corinthians 13 and verse 1. It says, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing.

And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Verse 4, he says, Love suffers long in his kind, love does not envy, love does not parade itself, is not puffed up, does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil, does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Verse 8, Love never fails. But whether there are prophecies, they will fail. Whether there are tongues, languages that were spoken at that time, that were understood languages, not the understanding of tongues that are taught in Pentecostal churches today, but whether there are tongues, they will cease. Whether there is knowledge, it will vanish away. For we know in part, and we prophesy in part, but when that which is perfect has come, then that which is in part will be done away.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child. But when I became a man, I put away childish things. Verse 12, For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face, and now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I also am known. And now abide faith, hope, love, these three. But the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 13 is known as the love chapter because it describes the importance of this concept of love. Really, it describes this overarching essentiality of this characteristic of God in our lives. And without it, it goes on to describe how the rest of the gifts of God's spirit, the speaking of languages, the prophesying that came as a result of God's spirit, the understanding of mysteries and of knowledge, all of these incredible gifts of God's spirit that were poured out upon the first century church, Paul writes that without love, it was meaningless. Even if we were to do incredible acts of faith and good works and self-sacrifice, without love it means nothing. Says love is patient, it's kind, it doesn't envy, it doesn't parade itself, it's not puffed up, it doesn't behave rudely, it doesn't seek its own, it rejoices in the truth, it bears and it believes and it hopes and it endures all things. It doesn't fail. But Paul writes that where there are prophecies, those will fail, tongues will fail, knowledge will vanish. But what remains, that which is long-lasting, the things that are strong and survive, are faith, hope, and love. A threefold cord, so to speak. The strands of which secure us to our anchor and protect us during the storms of life. That's no secret that we've all been through a storm of late. Now, here we are now on our 19th week of at-home services, as I've jokingly said, but who's counting? I am. We're in our 19th week of at-home services, and since all of this began on March 14th, we have seen uncertainty. We've seen anger. We've seen frustration, disappointment. We've seen what appear to be constantly shifting governmental restrictions. Some have been laid off. Unemployment has skyrocketed. And if the impacts from the virus weren't enough, we've seen escalating racial tensions. We've seen political tensions and the like. There has been nightly protests in Portland for the last six to seven weeks that, as of recently, I think are up to 36 million in damages. Federal troops have been called in, and the tensions are continuing. We have all experienced a situation in which we have very little control. We can't reach out and fix it with our own hands. It doesn't seem to matter what we do or what we say. Some clever turn of phrase or some impassioned plea won't change it. And so we wait. And as Tom Petty so eloquently saying, the waiting is the hardest part. In many ways, this latest storm has tossed us around in the wind and the waves. It's buttressed us from all sides. And it's made us stop and ask ourselves, in what do I place my faith? In what do I place my hope? And I hope it has us asking the question, am I exhibiting God's love towards others?

In other words, how is my rope holding up? You know, as the boat is straining at the anchor and as the winds and the waves are battering the ship, is that three-fold cord of faith, hope, and love connected to a secure place? Are all three strands operating at full strength, or are one or more of those strands frayed? How can we determine that?

Faith, hope, and love are closely related concepts. They build upon one another and they're integral to one another. And I'd like to take the remainder of the time that we have today to analyze these concepts and really consider the application in our lives today. So we're going to start with faith. We're going to start with faith and take a look at that. You know, the Oxford Online Dictionary defines faith as the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. It kind of brings this idea that you are just unwavering in your trust of that thing. I'll tell you just a brief story. A few years back at Camp High Sierra, I had an opportunity to repel for the first time in my life.

Not much of a rock climber. Never really have been.

I like the idea of going down the cliff face as opposed to trying to go up it. So repelling was, you know, that was exciting.

I got strapped into my harness. I got clipped in, got into position, and ultimately walked to the edge of that cliff face that we would all be repelling down. And it was those of you that have been to High Sierra, it's maybe 20 or 30 feet high. It's really not that high. I mean, we're not repelling out of a helicopter here. We're not coming down, you know, some hundred foot cliff face. It may be 30 feet. So the gentleman running the activity, very experienced, know what they're doing. They walked me through the process. They provided me with the basic instructions of what to do and always important what not to do. And he informed me that the rope and the belay down below were more than enough to prevent me from free falling to the rocks below.

And because he knew what he was doing, I believed him.

He double-checked the harness. He double-checked the rope. Everything was as it should be. He let me examine the rope. In fact, they encouraged it. Kind of just take a quick look at the rope, make sure there weren't any weird phrase or anything that they should have been. Everything was as it should be. And so because he told me that that rope wouldn't fail, that that harness wouldn't fail, that that belayer had me, and that all I had to do was take the first step.

I turned around with my heels on the edge of that cliff, and I sat backwards into open space.

By definition of the Oxford Online Dictionary, that is faith.

Complete trust or confidence in someone or something. Wasn't just the rope and the harnesses. I also had my complete trust and faith in God.

But there was a complete trust and an assurance in the capacity and the quality of that rope, in the connection of that harness, in the instruction that I'd been given. And I knew the equipment wasn't going to fail me.

I knew that God wasn't going to fail me. So I was comfortable leaning back over the edge of that cliff face, and sitting down into that position, and beginning to repel down that cliff. I was comfortable in placing my complete trust and confidence in it.

Now, obviously, the faith that we're talking about here is not a faith in material things.

It's a faith in our Creator and the things that he does in our lives. And there's an incredible number of examples in Scripture of faith, and of the trust and the confidence in God that we're to exhibit as followers of him.

And there are also examples of people who were not God's people, who exhibited incredible faith.

And so the Bible itself is replete with examples of faith. And often we hit the highlights, we hit the big ones. I want to try to do maybe a little less known examples.

And, you know, we may do this and you go, that's a really well-known example. But anyway, I endeavored to not have my example be the Abrahams of the world, and some of the others that obviously showed great faith in God. But I wanted to try to find some characters that maybe were a little less well-known.

Let's go over to Mark 5.

Let's go over to Mark 5, and we'll take a look at the first example here that we'll look at. And both of our examples are just right here in the same section.

So we won't have to go too far from Mark 5 to be able to hit two good examples of faith, kind of right here in this section of the Book of Mark.

Shortly after the calling of Matthew, Christ and his disciples traveled across the Sea of Galilee, where Christ had to rebuke the waves. And we're familiar with that. I think actually, I can't remember who this speaker was last week, but it was either last week or the week before that it was brought up. The idea of traveling across the Sea of Galilee, and the Sea of Galilee was this inland sea. It had, you know, great cliffs on all sides of it. And boy, it could whip up some serious waves and serious wind. And as they're traveling across the Sea of Galilee, Christ, you know, the disciples think they're going to die, much like I did as a child in that, you know, Columbia River, Northern Columbia River. But they complained, and they called out to God, and he rebuked the waves. Christ rebuked the waves.

It gave him identity as Messiah, that God had control over the wind and the waves.

They landed on the opposite shore of this lake, ultimately. And this is kind of right after the calling of Matthew. They end up on the opposite shore of this lake, where he was immediately confronted with a man who was demonically possessed. In fact, that man didn't just have one demon, he had multiples. Multiples told them that their name was Legion. Okay, Legion.

You talk about a Roman Legion. It was many, many, many, many soldiers. And so, you know, Christ cast the demons into a herd of swine that were being raised on that side of things.

That side of the Sea of Galilee was a side that was primarily Gentile. A lot of Greek Hellenists that were in that area, or Greeks, I should say, and Hellenists, that were in that area.

And ultimately, that probably wiped out a good portion of the economic bit of that particular area at that time, when those herd of swine went into the sea. Now, what's interesting is, the people in that area asked him to leave, and asked him to return back across the sea. So, Christ crossed the Sea of Galilee into a storm, where he had to rebuke the waves, ended up on shore, cast out demons from two gentlemen that were present in that area, and then got right back in his boat, and went back over to Capernaum.

Kind of think, well, what was the point of that?

The point was, he was showing his disciples who he was.

That he had control over the wind and the waves. He had control over the spirit world.

That they were subject to his authority.

And so they returned to Capernaum.

Now, at this point, Christ is traveling through Capernaum. Word is getting out of the different miracles that he's performed. Mark doesn't record this little interaction, but Matthew does in Matthew 9.

You can jot this down if you'd like. Matthew 9, Luke 8, and Mark 5, by and large, all kind of tell the same story.

So Matthew records this, but Mark does not. Christ is asked by a group of individuals why his disciples don't fast with the regularity that they do.

You know, they took a moment to kind of pick at him a little bit about the fasting habits of his disciples. And so he's in the midst of his explanation to those men, when a group of people arrive to get his attention. And we'll pick up the story in Mark 5 and verse 21. So this came right on the tail end of that conversation. Matthew 9 records that the group came and kind of almost interrupted him at the tail end of his conversation with those other individuals to state their their case. So Matthew, or I'm sorry, Mark 5, verse 21, says, Now when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, again, a little day trip over to cast out some demons, and then come on back, a great multitude gathered to him, and he was by the sea. Behold, one of the rulers of the synagogue came, Jairus by name, and when he saw him, he fell at his feet. And he begged him earnestly, saying, My little daughter lies at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, that she may be healed, and she will live. And so Jesus went with him, and a great multitude followed him and thronged him. Again, piecing together the accounts of Matthew 9 and Luke 8 and Mark 5, we get a better picture of the story. Jairus, who was one of the prominent leaders of the synagogue of Capernaum, came to Christ. Came with a group of men. Jairus had a daughter. She was his only daughter. She was 12 years old. She was very sick and was dying, which prompted Jairus to rush to Christ to ask for his help. You know, Jairus arrives in this group, and Christ is surrounded by all these people, and he arrives and he falls at Christ's feet, and he begs him to come and to heal his daughter. You know, Jairus was a prominent man. In fact, the Greek term that's used is the word archon, the word archon, which means like a regional magistrate. He was a big deal, Jairus. He was a big deal. He was a ruler of the synagogue. He was a prominent man. And he came and he fell at Christ's feet, begging Christ to come and to heal his daughter. So Christ breaks off what he's doing with the Pharisees. He works his way through the crowd to Jairus's house, and the crowd is just thronging around, impressing him on all sides. They were not getting anywhere necessarily fast, kind of like our boat, turtle's pace, trying to get through the crowd to get to Jairus's daughter. So along the way, as the crowd pressed in on all sides, suddenly Christ feels his power leave him. Not completely, not like, you know, something weird, but he just feels an outflowing of power from him. Mark 5, verse 25, says, Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for twelve years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. So this woman has been through an incredible, incredible trial.

You know, she has had menstrual bleeding for twelve years straight. She's gone to physicians.

She has suffered at the hands of those physicians. You know, medicine in those days was not the most, oh, I don't know what the right term is, but the most refined of practices.

She had spent every dime she owned, and she had gotten no better. In fact, she had gotten worse.

It says, verse 26, she suffered many things. She'd spent all that she had and was no better, but rather grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd. So she worked her way up to him through the crowd and touched his garment. And we know he touched the hem of his garment. But verse 28, notice what she said, for she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I shall be made well. Okay, so this woman had experienced menstrual bleeding for 12 years straight. In Jewish culture, she was unclean. She had been unclean for 12 years. Anyone who touched her would become unclean. That meant her husband if she were married, it meant her children if she had them. She was essentially akin to a leper as a result of this issue. It would have affected her ability to worship in the in the court of the women. It would have affected a great number of things in her life. But she said to herself, all I have to do to be healed is to touch his clothes.

That's it. If I reach out and I touch even the hem of his garment, that's all I have to do, and I will be healed. She didn't think she might be healed. She knew it.

She had trust and confidence that that was all it would take.

Verse 29 says immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up after she touched Christ and touched his garment. And she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, Who touched my clothes? His disciples said to him, You see all of these people and you ask who touched me? Everyone's touching you. I mean, everybody's jostling you and bumping into you. And I mean, everyone is. And he looked around to see who had done this thing. But the woman, fearing and trembling, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell down before him and told him the whole truth.

And he said to her, Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace and be healed of your affliction. She come clean. She explained the situation. Christ acknowledged her faith had made her well. But, brethren, what's fascinating is the healing came from Christ. But he was unaware of what had even happened. He felt the power leave him, but he didn't know why. He didn't know how. In fact, he spun around and was looking to see what had happened. It was her faith and her trust and her confidence in him that healed her. That she came to him with an absolute assurance that all she had to do was reach out and touch him and she would be healed.

Now, while he's having this conversation with the woman and she's coming clean and explaining things as they've stopped kind of along the way to Jairus's house to heal his daughter, a group of servants come up to them. Verse 35.

Verse 35 says, while he was still speaking, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble to teach her any further? Now, these men come from his home and they say, listen, Jairus, it's too late. You didn't make it in time. She's gone. I can't imagine the thoughts and the feelings that are going through Jairus's head at this point.

How maybe if I'd have just gone faster, if I'd have just gotten here sooner, if I would have ran instead of walked at this section, or if I would have just, you know, somehow insisted that it was really important we have to go right now, Christ must have known where Jairus's thoughts were going to go. Verse 36, as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid, just believe. He catches Jairus's attention and he tells him, don't be afraid. Trust me, I've got this. Verse 37, he permitted no one to follow him except Peter, James, and John, the brother of James. Then he came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue, so he leaves the group behind by and large. He takes just Peter, James, and John, and he takes certainly Jairus as well. He came to the house of the ruler of the synagogue and saw a tumult, and those who wept and wailed loudly, and when he came in, he said to them, why make this commotion and weep? The child's not dead but sleeping. They ridiculed him, but when he had put them all outside, he took the father and the mother of the child and those who were with him, and he entered where the child was lying. So there's this massive commotion outside the house. Everybody's wailing and mourning over the death of the daughter. Christ puts everyone out of the house. He goes in with Jairus, he goes in with his wife and Peter, James, and John, because this was something that Peter, James, and John were meant to see. Something that they needed to understand. Verse 41, he took the child by the hand and he said to her, Talitha, Kumi, which is Aramaic, translated little girl, Talitha, I say to you, arise. Immediately the girl arose and walked. She was 12 years of age.

They were overcome with great amazement, but he commanded them strictly that no one should know it, and he said something should be given to her to eat.

This is Christ's second person that he's raised from the dead. The first was the widow's son, the last was Lazarus. Both people in this scenario, whether it was the woman that Christ encountered along the way, or whether it was Jairus in this case of his daughter, both people believed that Christ could do what they believed he could do.

They had full trust, full confidence in him and his ability to turn around and heal them, and the New Testament is replete with examples of this. An absolute complete and confidence, or a complete trust, I should say, and confidence in him, in our husband. Do we believe him?

Do we have full trust and full assurance that he has done what he has said he's done, which is to forgive our sins? Do we believe that he continues to forgive our sin if we come to him in repentance?

Do we know and do we believe, truly believe, that he is coming again?

Do we trust that he will deliver the promises that he has provided to us?

In what do we place our faith? Do we believe that this situation that we all find ourselves in right now, do we believe that God has this under control? That he's fully aware that it's part of his plan?

Do we believe that he's providing for us as we go through it? That he's caring for us? That he's helping to prepare us? You know, faith and hope are directly connected. Let's go ahead and turn over to Romans 5. Romans 5. So we kind of begin to examine hope. Romans 5.

And we're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 1 of Romans 5. Romans 5 and verse 1. It says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance, character, and character, hope.

Now, hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. You know, it's faith that justifies us before God.

It's that faith that enables us to come into a relationship with Him through having that trust and that complete confidence in Him and that assurance that the blood of His Son reconciles us to Him and brings us into out of a state of conflict with Him and into a state of peace with Him that bridges that gap so that we have the ability to come before God. Through that faith, we have access to His grace, have the ability to have our sins forgiven, and ultimately we're able to rejoice in the hope of glory, rejoice in that hope that of what is to come as a result of His grace. But not only that, as a result of that faith and in that hope, we glory in our tribulations because that tribulation, those difficulties and those challenges, they produce perseverance.

They produce character, and the development of that character gives us hope. Hope doesn't disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by His Spirit. Now, if we run it in reverse, hope comes as a result of godly character. Godly character comes from the perseverance gained through tribulation. How do you get through those difficult times? Through faith.

And how did Jairus deal with the emotional aftermath of the notice of his daughter's death?

I mean, put yourself in his shoes for a minute to hear those words come from the mouths of your servant, and up to that point, knowing that's it. You missed it. And I'm sure those of us who are fathers and have children, there's a sense of failure that comes along with that notification.

Misplaced, but it's there. What does Christ say? Christ says, do not be afraid. Believe.

He says, I've got this. Don't worry about it. Let's just get to the house. We'll take care of it.

You know, hope comes from examining the difficulties that we face. It comes from the challenges that we experience. And ultimately, it comes from concluding that what is to come, what God has promised us, is far greater than anything that we can experience at this time.

The highest of highs in this life is nothing, comparatively, to what is to come.

Let's turn over to Romans 8, verse 18. Romans 8 and verse 18.

Pardon me. Romans 8 and verse 18.

Paul wrote essentially that very thing. He said, I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. You know, Paul's clear, the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared to the glory that's to come. The glory that will be revealed in us. The transformation to God-beings that has been promised. You know, the creation itself awaits the revealing of the sons of God, because it was subjected to futility. But it was subjected in hope that that creation will be glorified. It will be released from its bondage too. From the propensity to corruption, to decay, and to death. You know, we were saved in the hope of resurrection and glory, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still have hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. We use the word hope in the English language very differently than the biblical sense of hope. In English, when we say we hope for something, there's not a certainty to its fulfillment. In fact, it's really, honestly, more of a word synonymous with the word wish. I hope I win the lottery. I hope that my business will be successful. I hope that I can marry that one. Hope in the biblical sense is different. Hebrews 11 and verse 1 says, faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Hope is an earnest expectation of seeing that which is promised fulfilled. Not uncertainty. It's not a degree of wondering whether it will happen or not. Hope is a certain expectation of the promised eventuality.

God said it will happen, therefore it will happen. It hasn't happened yet, but the hope is knowing for a fact that it will come and having the expectation of seeing it fulfilled. Hebrews 11 and verse 13, you can jot it in your notes. Hebrews 11 and verse 13, or if you're really fast, you can turn over there, I suppose. I'm not going to turn there. But Hebrews 11 and verse 13 says, all died in the faith. All of these, all of these that were mentioned, died in the faith. Not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, were assured of them.

They were promised to them. They embraced them, and they confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. All those individuals recorded in the faith chapter had the faith in God and in his promises and in the hope of their fulfillment. They trusted and they were assured of the fulfillment of these things. It wasn't a hope as the word uses hope. It was a certainty.

Abraham died without receiving the full promise that he was given. Yet he had faith and he had hope that the promises which he saw afar off would be fulfilled. And as a result of that, he recognized this, this is not our home. Our home is coming. Our husband is gone to prepare that home for us. And until he returns to complete that marriage process, until that time, we are strangers and pilgrims on this earth. Brethren, do you hope for that day?

And not in the sense of wishing for it to happen, but do you hope in the eager expectation of its fulfillment? Let's go over to Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6. We will turn over here. Hebrews 6. And we're going to pick it up in verse 13 of Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6 and verse 13 kind of goes along the lines of what we're going to be talking about with the Bible study today on the promises of Abraham. But Hebrews 6 and verse 13 says, for when God made a promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no one greater, he swore by himself, saying, Surely, blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply you. Verse 15, and so after he, speaking of Abraham here, had patiently endured, he obtained the promise. For men indeed swear by the greater, and an oath for confirmation is for them an end of all dispute. In other words, all a person has to do is say, I'm going to do it. And they believe them.

It just takes that oath of confirmation. And that ends all dispute of whether it's going to happen or not. Verse 17, thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise, the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by oath. He swore by himself that by two immutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we might have strong consolation who have fled for refuge to lay hold of the hope that is set before us. This hope, we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast in which enters the presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become high priest forever, according to the order of Melchizedek. Now, this hope that we have, it's sure, and it's steadfast. It's an anchor of the soul. It's a full and complete faith and trust in our husband and in the betrothal that he has provided us and in the eager expectation of the fulfillment of those promises, that he will come, that he will gather his bride, that he has bought us, that he has redeemed us with his blood. He has bought us back from death. He is preparing that kingdom, and for now, for now, we wait. Brethren, it doesn't matter how bad the world gets around us. It doesn't matter the scenario. He's coming. Our husband is coming. Frankly, the waves can come over the bow. The wind can roll us to the point of almost capsizing or to the point of capsizing. It doesn't matter, because he has overcome the world. He's overcome the world.

And he has specifically chosen you and I to be his bride, to be a part of his bride.

1 Corinthians 13 stated that faith and hope and love abide, but the greatest of these is love. Let's take just a little bit of time here to examine the concept of love. Why is love the greatest?

Why is love the greatest? Because of the three that are present, it's the greatest of the three because love is eternal.

Love is eternal. Faith and hope cease to be necessary when the promised event is fulfilled.

Hebrews 11 and verse 1, faith is the evidence of that which is not seen. What happens when it's seen?

Do you need faith anymore? No. Now you have proof. You can still have trust and assurance in God, but that trust and assurance has been fulfilled because you've seen it. It's been proven. What about hope? Can you continue to hope? No. Romans 8 and verse 24, hope that is seen is not hope.

There's no need for that eager expectation once it's been fulfilled. So there's a time in the future where faith and hope will pass away just as prophecies and tongues and knowledge, but love will remain. Why will love remain?

Because it is a very characteristic of God and of the spirit beings that we are to become, and as such, it is eternal. 1 John 4 and verse 7. Let's go ahead and turn over there. 1 John 4 and verse 7.

Been going through and doing a study here on the epistles of John, so I'm going to do what I can not to give too much away here, because we haven't gotten to this point yet. 1 John 4, and we'll pick it up in verse 7, says, Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. He who does not love does not know God, for God is love. In this the love of God was manifested towards us, that God has sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Beloved, verse 11, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. Now, as we've been talking about in the Epistle study, John is writing this here near the end of his life. He's trying to get those that were reading his letter to understand, you know, that John was one of these individuals who was there with Christ. John was one of those individuals who watched Talitha, or the little girl, we don't know her actual name, whether it was Talitha, which just means little girl, but watched that little girl rise up from death and be reunited with her father and with her mother. Now, John is trying to write to the individuals who will read his epistle that he was there, that he was an eyewitness, and he is one of the few remaining eyewitnesses who can clear up all the misconceptions that were going around at that point in time. He says, love comes from God.

If we love, we are born of God, and we know God. Now, the individuals that were teaching alternative doctrines at that point in time, teaching heresies, were teaching Gnostic doctrines that, hey, had declared themselves to know God, and they knew God because of this secret Gnostic knowledge.

They were superior because of their, you know, superior Gnostic understanding. They had escaped the physical world because they had this spiritual seed, and therefore they were no longer capable of even sinning. They were the nomadicoy. They could look down on everyone else around them, who had not become nomadicoy such as them.

They claimed to know God on one hand, but they weren't exhibiting an ounce of love to their fellow brethren. John's point here is they may claim to know God, but they have absolutely no idea because they're not showing love to others. He goes on to say if they truly knew God, then love would flow from them outward to the people around them. Because God is love. That's his natural characteristic. And that love was manifested to us by God purchasing us in marriage to his son, by paying that bride price and securing us and betrothing us to him. He found us. He sought us.

He chose us. Then made his son to die for our sins, buying us back from death. And John says, that is love. That right there is love. And he goes on to say that is the love with which we've been loved, so therefore we must love one another in such a way as well.

A self-sacrificing love. He goes on in verse 12, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us. And his love has been perfected in us. And by this we know that we abide in him and he in us because he has given us of his spirit. And we have seen and testified that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of this world. Verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in him and he in God. And we have known and believed the love that God has for us.

God is love and he who abides in love abides in God and God in him. John says no one has seen God at any time speaking here of the Father. But if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us. If we love one another, people can see God in us. He can see God in us, reflected in us. That love is an illustration that he abides in us because the fruits of the spirit of God are in us and are then expressed to the world around us. Love and joy and peace, patience and kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. He goes on in verse 17, love has been perfected among us in this that we may have boldness in the day of judgment because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love him because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar.

For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, how can he love God, whom he has not seen?

And this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also.

Now that love is perfected in us because as he is, so are we in this world.

He is love. Brethren, so then should we be too.

That love casts out fear. It banishes anxiety and worry. It governs our relationships and our interactions with others. He goes as far as saying we must love our brother also, and that's a command.

Does that command end at our brothers? No, it doesn't. Christ taught his disciples it extends to our neighbors, extends to our enemies, extends ultimately to all of mankind.

He goes on in 1 John 5, beginning in verse 1, says, whoever believes that Jesus is the or is born of God and everyone who loves him, who begot also loves him, who is begotten of him.

By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments.

For this is the love of God that we keep his commandments, and his commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith kind of comes full circle here. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? We love he who begot us. We love our husband.

We love our God. We love our Savior. But we also must love those whom he has begotten. We show our love for the children of God through our love for God and the keeping of his commandments. That's the way we show our love. We keep the commandments of God. We show that we love God. We show that we love our fellow man. In fact, it's by that love that we shall be known as his disciples. It's by that love the world will recognize us as Christians and will see God in us.

And that love ultimately will extend and continue on into eternity because it is the fundamental characteristic of what we are becoming. It begins now with that down payment of God's Holy Spirit.

But as we grow to become more like Jesus Christ and ultimately become like God, we become like love.

You know, those past several months have been incredibly trying. The winds and the waves have battered at our vessel and it's required us to have to take shelter in that storm.

In what have we taken shelter? In what have we placed our faith and our hope? Have we approached our Father with the level of complete trust and assurance as these months have gone on?

Or has our faith wavered? Have we continued on in eager expectation of the promises of God despite the waves, despite the wind, despite the chances or the challenges that we face?

Have we placed our faith and our hope in Him, trusting in His plan? Have we exhibited the love of God to those around us? Or have we allowed ourselves to be caught up in all two human issues of conflict? Have we allowed that love to cast out fear, anxiety, worry?

Have we allowed it to perfect itself within us and radiate from us to those around us?

If faith, hope, and love are like a three-fold cord, they're stronger together than they are individually. But it is through these things that we are connected to our husband. He is that anchor for our soul. And if we're connected to Him in faith and hope and love, then we can weather any storm that comes our way. Do we trust our husband implicitly? Do we believe his words?

Do we have an eager expectation of his return and eternity at his side? Will we submit ourselves to his instructions, following them and exhibiting our love for him through our love towards others as we wait for his return? Will we build on the reputation of his name through our interactions with others? 1 Corinthians 13 said, and now abides faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love. And it said, love never fails. I'd like to turn to one final scripture here to conclude today. If you'd go to 1 Corinthians, 1 Corinthians 16.

I want to leave us with this today as we go forward. 1 Corinthians 16, beginning in verse 13. 1 Corinthians 16 and verse 13 says, watch, stand fast in the faith, be brave, be strong.

Verse 14, let all that you do be done with love.