A Threefold Cord

Well, special thank you to the children's choir. It's always such a treat to have the opportunity to hear from them, to have the chance to ultimately... I don't know, I just have to think that that God appreciates seeing the youth sing praises to him so very much. It is certainly a pleasure for us as well. I appreciate that. I think I've told a version of this story before, but when I was growing up, my father built an ark. And some of you may be wondering, wait, what? And that really is only mild hyperbole. My dad was what one might call a collector, if you know what I mean by that. Others might use words like hoarder, but dad was more of a visionary. He always had a purpose for the things that he collected. A purveyor of fine junk might be a better way of describing him, but he always did something and always had a plan with... I see some wives elbowing their husbands.

Wasn't intended to cause any issues there, but dad always had a plan for the strays that he brought home. He always had a plan for the things that he found. And one afternoon in what must have been 1987, 88? I was probably seven or eight years old. Dad rolled up after work with a huge flatbed trailer attached to the back of his work rig. And he was a forklift mechanic, so he drove... he worked for Hyster Forklifts at the time, and so he had a big work rig. And he must have found this on one of his travels around and must have determined that it was something... I'm sure it was a cash deal that he just had to have. But he had two 24-foot long by one and a half foot wide fiberglass pontoons. And these pontoons had seen much better days. The fiberglass was intact, and Dad had a plan, and he had a skill set to pull it off. Over the next eight years or so, he worked here and there on what would become a 26-foot long pontoon boat. And the neighbors all used to joke. They would literally drive by and hurl out the window, how's your art coming, Noah?

You know? And I mean, just... it was one of those things. But he built the deck on it. He put the pontoons on. He built aluminum deck rails. It had a seven-foot canopy, a tarp canopy over it. Had an engine housing. Had all the drive controls up in the front of the thing. He dropped a 351 Windsor engine into it and connected that up to an old Volvo Penta outboard drive. We launched it to much pomp and circumstance. In fact, the whole neighborhood came out to the launch.

I think they were all kind of curious whether this thing would float or not. And it didn't. It nearly sank, actually, when he launched it initially. Turns out all the extra weight was too heavy for the two pontoons that he had. And so he had to add two large six-foot by 12-foot fiberglass tubs, basically, in the middle of this thing. Was one of them cut to a 45-degree angle.

Just a flat 45-degree angle. And some of you might be thinking, wait, how's that going to cut water? You would be right. How would that cut water? We discovered that. But inside of those two tubs, he added unbelievable volume of two-part expanding foam. And at the next launch, all the neighborhood came out. And we were able to stand 20 to 30 people on that thing. And it maybe went down about two to three inches. Still had about 10 inches of freeboard on it. So we had 20 to 30 people standing on that thing. Some, like, hanging off the side, just trying to get on the boat, basically. But it worked. On one of the very first ShakeOut trials, we took it on. The boat plowed so much water and was so heavy, getting up on plane was impossible. So you would never plane this thing. It just wasn't going to happen. It just pushed water, ultimately. And so Dad concluded the 351 that he put in it was too much engine for the boat. So he swapped it out for an old four-cylinder Azuzu diesel that he, again, came across on his travels, swapped the whole thing out, did all of that. And from that day forward, we got nowhere fast.

We had it was the slowest boat.

I mean, we went nowhere fast. But it sipped fuel. It did sift fuel. So it allowed us to be able to go as long as we took a long enough period of time. We could explore the lakes of northern Washington. We could explore the lakes of Idaho. But we did so at a turtle's pace. I mean, we did so at a very slow pace. We would we took extended trips out on Lake Coeur d'Alene. So for those that are familiar with North Idaho, Eastern Washington, we took trips on Coeur d'Alene Lake. We took trips out on Newman Lake, on Silver Lake, out on Ponderay Lake, and out on Lake Roosevelt. So pretty good-sized lakes, some of these. Because of the length of the boat, so the boat was 26 feet long, you had to have a special launch that could actually float it off the end of the trailer, because most launches were designed to get boats that were much shorter off. And so he had to kind of have a special location for that. And, of course, a new truck to tow it, because it was heavier than anything that he could. So we bought a little mobile home toting semi-truck, and that became in our driveway as well. Just one of those things, you know, it just keeps getting more and more and more added to the purchases. But Dad had thought of everything. He had benches and tables in that thing that would convert down into beds. We had a head, you know, there was plenty of storage. There was, you know, roll down tarps on the sides to keep out the elements. And I remember one trip we took was 4th of July week, and we went up to Lake Roosevelt in the early 90s. We put in at seven bays up on Lake Roosevelt. Any of you that are familiar with the lake, that's the northern end of Lake Roosevelt. And then what we did was we took the boat over a period of days, because it took us days to get from one end of the lake to the other, over a period of days down to Grand Coulee Dam. And so down at the kind of bottom end of Lake Roosevelt there, where the beginning of Lake Roosevelt is, we went ahead, went down there, got out, hiked up over the little ridge down the side, watched the fireworks show and the laser light show on the side of the Grand Coulee Dam, and then hiked back over and got in the boat. Spent the next few days kind of going back up through the bays, etc. Well, we got back to seven bays, and Dad said, I'm not ready to take this boat out yet. It was too much work putting it in. Let's take a few more days. Thankfully, it was summer, and we could just drop everything and take a few more days. But what he wanted to do was go up the Columbia River from seven bays up towards Kettle Falls, which is a pretty substantial distance.

We weren't going to make it the whole way. There was no way. But on the second night of the trip, second night of the trip, we got up into some skinnier water, and a storm rolled in. Huge, nasty storm rolled in. And you could see it coming from miles across the lake. You know, you could see lightning strikes. You could see big, dark black clouds. Wind whipped up, and Dad said, you know, this bay is good enough. We're going to go ahead and shelter down here for the night.

I remember this storm and this night very well because I don't think I slept a wink that night. The wind was ripping down the canyon. The lightning was striking. Thunder was booming off of the canyon walls. The inside of the boat, we had a... the tarp was white on this thing, so when the lightning would strike, it would illuminate the inside like daylight.

And so it was just bright when these flashes of lightning would go. And at one point in the night, the reason I remember it so well is our rear anchor pulled loose. He had us anchored out the front and anchored out the back in this bay so that we held in place. The rear anchor pulled loose, and the boat swung. And when the boat swung, it began to start doing this. And we began to feel like as you're laying in bed and suddenly you're rolling into the side of the boat over here, and then you're rolling out of the bed on the next thing, it was terrifying. And I thought for sure that boat was going over. I thought we were going to capsize as that wind whipped up and as that boat began to tip. At least it felt like it was going to tip. We didn't, thankfully. We survived to tell the tale. But the next morning, we went out on shore there next to where we had anchored, and you could see spots where lightning had struck the sand. And you could see the glass that was formed from the lightning hitting the sand in that area, which was really cool in retrospect.

It was not so cool thinking about how close we were to that location where that had struck. But I remember thinking that morning as I looked back on that previous evening how thankful I was that the ropes and the anchors, by and large, held. Dad would reset the anchor that night, and a second time it didn't slip, a second time it held. And I was so very thankful for that. Brother, if you'd turn with me, please, to the book of Ecclesiastes. We're going to get started here today and jump into, based off of what we kind of this experience and based off of some of these concepts that we experience in life, it's going to come into alignment with what the young people were singing about today, which I certainly do appreciate. But Ecclesiastes 4, and we're going to go ahead and we'll pick it up in verse 7. Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 7. Solomon's writing here, and he's writing the wisdom that he has learned throughout the blessing of God, ultimately, through his life that he has lived, through those experiences, his musing on life, his musing on these concepts of vanity. And in Ecclesiastes 4 and verse 7, Solomon writes the following. He says, Then I returned, and I saw a vanity under the sun. He says, There is one alone without companion. He has neither son nor brother, yet there is no end to all his labors, 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 a 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. He has no one to help him up. Again, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one be warm alone? Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him. And then Solomon writes, A threefold cord is not quickly broken. So we see Solomon kind of reflecting on these things and thinking about these things. And he concludes that life really is meaningless, in a sense, alone.

That's Solomon's conclusion here. He says, We toil to no end. And he says, For what?

There's no one to leave the wealth to. He says it's ultimately meaningless. He says, Two is better than one. There's a better return there. If one falls, the other can help them up. If they lie down together, they can remain warm. If one can be overpowered, two can defend themselves. And then this conclusion he comes to is this idea that a threefold cord, or we might say a cord of three strands, in this case, which is what he's discussing here, is not quickly broken. And this is kind of an intuitive thing as you build a rope or as you build something along those lines. As you add more strands, the strength of that rope increases significantly. Two is stronger than one. Three is stronger than two. And on and on and on it goes. That's why when you see anchor ropes of some of these massive cruise ships, you know, they're steel cabling. But the reality is, the bigger the rope gets, the more strands involve, the more tensile strength you have. And ultimately, that is a much better rope in general, or a much better anchor line in general. You know, we've often talked about this passage in Ecclesiastes with regards to human relationships, particularly that of marriage. We just had the opportunity this past Sunday to attend the wedding of Cody and Jennifer Kinsella and Eric and Patricia Helwig. This concept is bought even more to bear in moments of matrimony. When you think of a husband and a wife, when you think in a marriage relationship, so to speak, combining them together, it strengthens each individually and overall. But when you add that third cord, when you add God into that relationship, that strength is increased even more. And that threefold cord, that marriage, is not quickly broken when God is a partner in that process. It survives the storms, it survives the difficulties, because the rope is stronger with all three in place than it is than with just one or even both. Now, I want to take a look at this principle today, but I want to look at it in a slightly different capacity. I want to look at it in a slightly different capacity.

When God called us, when God gave us the opportunity to become a part of his family, we entered into a type of a marriage covenant. With God, we entered into this type of marriage covenant. And we come up against that covenant each time we come before him during this time in the spring holy days as we're coming into the Passover. And ultimately, we meditate on, and we kind of consider that commitment that each of us have made. And our spiritual journey really parallels that process. We kind of think about the way that God has worked with us. Our spiritual journey parallels this ancient marriage covenant. In ancient Judea, when a man wished to marry a woman, he would approach the father of the bride to secure the bride for his son.

So he would come and actually negotiate with the father. You know, you've heard the joke about a 10-cow wife. That's kind of the idea here. It's just like, you're going to negotiate a price to purchase the hand of this person's daughter. And it would enter into, in Jewish culture, what was called a katuba. It was a marriage contract. And it was a contract. It was an agreed-upon thing, and he would offer ultimately to pay a muhar, which is a bride price. He would agree to pay that price that essentially sealed that contract. At that point, man and woman were by all intents and purposes married. They were by all intents and purposes married in the eyes of the law, even though they had not yet consummated that marriage. So the marriage had not yet been consummated, but they were betrothed in that sense. So they were betrothed. Today we would call this period an engagement period. That's what we would kind of consider this period to be now. But in Jewish culture, the two were already legally married, and the only way out of that marriage at that point was a writ of divorce. There's an example of this in Scripture. You can turn over and look at it if you'd like. It's Matthew 1 and verse 19. Matthew 1 and verse 19 is a location where we see this example of Joseph and Mary. That's the place where Joseph and Mary were in. They were by all intents and purposes married, even though they had not yet consummated the relationship. When Joseph discovered Mary with child, he wished to put her away privately, not to make a big spectacle of divorce or to potentially bring consequences on her as a result. But legally, Joseph was not able to just say, sorry, we're done here, and fade into the background. To end that contract, to break that contract, required a writ of divorce.

And that's what we see in Matthew 1 and verse 19. That's the position that Joseph and Mary found themselves in. After that, Ketubah was negotiated. After the mahar was paid. After that bride price was paid, the husband would go back to his family property, and he would begin building onto the property and onto the family's home in preparation for he and his wife to return. This period took approximately a year in Jewish culture. It would take about a year. And ultimately, at that time, the husband would return, the bridegroom 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 and they would have a lavish celebratory feast. They would have a joyous marriage supper.

The relationship would be consummated, and they would live happily ever after. It was essentially the idea. Brethren, when we were baptized, when we came into relationship with Jesus Christ as our bridegroom, through our Father negotiating that price, ultimately there was a price paid for each and every one of us. And that price was the blood of Jesus Christ. That price was paid. We accepted that blood on our behalf. We entered into a type of marriage covenant, in that sense, a type of marriage contract into baptism, into a baptismal covenant. The bridegroom has gone to go and build on to his Father's house. He told his disciples, in my Father's house there are many mansions or many rooms. I go to prepare a place for you, and we know that Christ will return. He will collect his bride when the time is right. All of this parallels the customs of that time.

And so for you and I, brethren, at this time in our Christian walk, those that have been baptized, we've entered into that marriage contract with Jesus Christ. We have entered into this katuba. Okay, the bride price has been paid. It's been negotiated. I don't know how many...well, there's no cows involved in this one. It was the blood of Jesus Christ involved in this one. But for all intents and purposes, we are married to our Savior at this time, while we live here on this earth. We await Him to return.

We await Him to prepare that place as He returns to collect His bride. You know, there is a passage of Scripture that we read at every wedding that I've ever attended. Every wedding I've ever attended. Sometimes we only read parts of it. Sometimes we read the whole chapter. But if you would go ahead and turn there, we're going to read the whole thing today. We're going to take a look at it and examine it. And we're going to consider another three-fold cord that is involved and is an absolute integral part of this relationship, and that is 1 Corinthians 13.

If you would turn over to 1 Corinthians 13, please, to the love chapter. We're going to go ahead and take a look at a three-fold cord here that for us, in this relationship that we have with God through the blood of His Son, we need to understand. We need to recognize why these three things are so critical. And, as I mentioned, these are the three things that our youth sang about today. Okay? They sang just these very things today as we go through this process.

1 Corinthians 13. We're going to go ahead and pick it up in verse 1. It says, "...though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love," He says, "...I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal. Though I have the gift of prophecy, and I 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 the earth, bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, Paul writes, it profits me nothing." Then he goes into this section in verse 4.

Sometimes we give advice to people to take a look at this section. And if you're interested in a person, you put their name in there. Where everywhere it says love, you put their name in there. You know, so-and-so suffers long in his kind. So-and-so does not envy, right? Just to see, are these things true? Like, is this person showing love in these ways? He goes on in verse 4, love suffers long and is kind.

Love does not envy. Love does not parade itself. It's not puffed up. It does not behave rudely. It does not seek its own. It is not provoked. It thinks no evil. It does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth. Paul says, it hears all things. Or, I'm sorry, bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

It says, love never fails. But then he goes on and he says, but where there are prophecies, they will fail. Where there are tongues, they will cease. Where 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. For now we see in a mirror dimly and then face to face.

Now I know in part, but then I shall know just as I am also known. Verse 13, and now abide faith, hope, love. These three, but the greatest of these is love. You know, 1 Corinthians is known as the love chapter because it describes the importance of the concept of love, kind of the overarching essentiality, so to speak, of this characteristic of God in our lives.

And without it, the rest of the gifts of God's Spirit, the speaking of languages, the prophesying, the understanding of all mysteries and knowledge, these just incredible gifts of God's Spirit that were poured out on the first-century church, Paul says without love, they were meaningless.

They didn't have an application purpose without love. Even if we do acts of great faith, good work, self-sacrifice, without love, it means nothing. Paul 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 beliefs, hopes, and endures all things. And Paul says it doesn't fail. Love does not fail. But Paul does say that where there are prophecies, they will fail. Tongues will cease. Knowledge will vanish.

But Paul says what remains, that which is long-lasting, the things that are strong, the things that survive, he says are faith, hope, and love. A three-fold cord, so to speak.

The strands that secure us to our anchor and ultimately protect us during the storms of life. And we, Paul, experience various storms in life. There's times when the sunny skies, the singing birds, and the beauty of life begins to darken. The wind whips up, the rains come, we're battered by the wind, we're battered by the rain, the dark clouds are foreboding, the tornado watch warning goes out over the news, right, we see these different things that come up.

And we wonder sometimes when we're in the midst of these things whether the sun will ever shine again.

Frequently, these storms that we experience are largely out of our control.

They're largely out of our control. Might take the form of a medical diagnosis, might take the form of a job loss, economic challenge, wide variety of things.

But most of the time in these circumstances, we can't just reach out and fix it with our own hands.

It's like there's just nothing that we can do at times. It doesn't mean we're helpless, it just means that there's nothing we can do to fix the immediate situation sometimes.

Doesn't matter what we say, no clever turn of phrase or some impassioned plea is going to fix it.

And so we endure. We wait. And as Tom Petty so eloquently sang, the waiting is the hardest part. Waiting is the hardest part. You know, these kinds of storms come through our lives, they threaten to shipwreck us. And without a solid line to our anchor, when we experience these kinds of trials in life, we can end up in the rocks. You know, we can end up capsized. We can end up shipwrecked. And as a result, it's important that we consider these things. We consider faith. We consider hope. We consider love when we think about these various things that we come across. Asking ourselves questions such as, where do I place my faith? What do I put my faith and my trust in? What do I place my hope in? Where is my hope? And am I exhibiting the love of God toward others? How's that rope holding up, so to speak?

As the boat strains against an anchor, as those winds and those waves are battering the ship, is that three-fold cord of faith and hope and love connected to a secure place? Or if we got it connected to something completely different that's not going to hold in an emergency situation?

Are all three of those strands operating at full strength? Or are one or more of those strands frayed? Just holding on with a little thread in those places. And how can we determine that? How can we analyze our lives? How can we determine that? Faith, hope, and love are closely related concepts. They build from one another to the next, and they're integral. And I'd like to take the rest of the time we have today to look at that, to analyze those concepts, and kind of consider that application in our lives today. The title of the message is a three-fold cord. For those that like titles, three-fold cord is the title of the message. We're going to start with the first of those strands. We're going to look at the first of those strands, and that's faith. The Oxford Dictionary defines faith as the complete trust or confidence in someone or something. And ultimately, it's this idea that you have an unwavering trust in something. An unwavering trust in something. Remember, a number of years ago at Camp High Sierra, I had a chance to repel for the first time in my life. How many of you have repelled before? Hands up real quick if you've done repelling. Okay. Some of you have repelled from much higher than this, so you're going to judge me, and that's okay.

I'm fine with it. My kids had an opportunity this last go-around when they went to South Africa at camp to repel off the 100-foot face that they abseiled down. So they're way over me on this.

But I've never repelled before, and I was out at rock with the crew out there, and as the director, there was some gentle goading that I should get up there and follow through, and so I did.

But I got strapped into the harness and got clipped in, got into position, and I was standing with my heels on the edge of a cliff that probably went down 30 or 40 feet. Okay, so it's about 30 or 40 feet behind me, you know, and it's just behind my heels is nothing but air at that point.

You know, a gentleman running the activity walked me through the process, talked me through the basic instructions. Very good at what they do down there at High Sierra on the rock staff. What to do, what not to do. He informed me very, very clearly the rope and belay were more than enough to keep me from free falling to the rocks below. That's what I wanted to hear. And I believed him, you know, I believed him. I double checked the harness, looked at my belay, went, yeah, they're probably fine.

He double checked the rope, double checked the harness. Everything was as it should be, and so I turned with my heels to the edge of the cliff, and I sat backwards into open space, just sitting backwards into nothing. Now, for those of you that have done more than 30 or 40 feet, you're like, come on, come on! But for me, that was a lot. It was plenty for me. But that was faith.

I had complete trust and assurance in the capacity and the quality of that rope.

I had complete trust in the connection of that harness, the instruction that I'd been given. I knew that my equipment would not fail me, and so I was comfortable putting my life in its hands.

I probably wouldn't have died from a 30 or 40 foot fall, but you know, I, meh, maybe, who knows.

But the faith that we're talking about here is not a faith in material things. It's not a faith in material things. It's a faith in our Creator, and it's faith in the things that He does in our lives. And there's a number of places in Scripture where we see incredible examples of faith, of the trust and the confidence, ultimately, in God that we are to exhibit. And there's examples of people who were not God's people who exhibited incredible, incredible faith. Turn with me to Mark 5. Let's go to Mark 5. We're going to take a look at one of these examples today. An example here in Mark 5. You would turn over there. Shortly after the calling of Matthew, Christ and His disciples traveled across the Sea of Galilee, where Christ rebuked the waves. And He's thinking kind of where we are in the story. They land on the opposite shore. He's confronted with the demonic possession of the two men there on the shore. He casts the demons into the swine. At that time, the people there asked Him to leave, so He returns to Capernaum. Okay, so He goes back across the Sea of Galilee, returns to Capernaum. And in Capernaum, word was beginning to get out about the miracles that He performed. Now, Mark doesn't record it, but Matthew does. You can jot a note in your notes, if you'd like. In Matthew 9 is where we kind of see this laid out. Christ has asked why His disciples don't fast with the regularity that they do, and He's in the midst of His explanation to them when a group of people arrive to get His attention. We'll pick the story up in Mark 5. Again, the reference in Matthew has some additional details as well. But Mark 5 and verse 21. It says, now, when Jesus had crossed over again by boat to the other side, a great multitude gathered to Him. He was by the sea. Okay, so we've just basically gotten off the boat here, had these interactions. It says, 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. He says, 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. Okay, so you can imagine, here comes this gentleman. He says, Christ, I need your help. Please come with me now. And there's people just everywhere around Him. I don't know if you've ever been in a large crowd where you're trying to get from one place to another. You know, you've got a point in mind, you're trying to get from point A to point B, and there are just so many people, you can't get there. And you're trying, and each step of the way, it's like one more thing and one more situation. If we piece together this account with the account in Matthew 9, with the account that's also in Luke 8, in addition to this one here in Mark 5, we get a better picture of the story.

Jairus was one of the prominent leaders of the synagogue in Capernaum. He came to Christ. He had a daughter. She was his only daughter, and she was 12 years of age. She was very sick, and she was dying. And that prompted Jairus to rush to Christ to ask for his help, and he arrives. We see the account. He arrives, he fell at Christ's feet, and he begged him to come and to heal his daughter.

Christ broke off what he was doing with the Pharisees, and he worked his way through the crowd, right? He's thronged about with people. He's not getting very far, very fast, but he's working his way through the process trying to get there, and the crowd is pressing against him on all sides.

They weren't getting anywhere very quickly. Along the way, the crowd presses in on all sides, and suddenly Christ feels his power leave him. Mark 5 verse 25. Mark 5 and verse 25 says, Now a certain woman had a flow of blood for 12 years, and had suffered many things from many physicians. You know, when she goes through this process trying to get help for this situation, these physicians have this idea or that idea, or try this or try that, and maybe this and maybe that, and so she's just gone through this over and over and over again for 12 years. 12 years.

She had spent all that she had. She'd spent her life savings and was no better, but rather she grew worse. When she heard about Jesus, she came behind him in the crowd and touched his garment.

For she said, if only I may touch his clothes, I will be made well.

So for context, this woman had experienced menstrual bleeding for 12 years straight, without ceasing, without pause. In Jewish culture, she had spent the last 12 years unclean.

There were situations that she couldn't undergo. Anyone who touched her would become unclean.

Her husband, if she was married, her children, if she had them, she might as well have been a leper as a result of this issue that she was experiencing. And she said to herself, all I have to do is touch his clothes. That's it! If I reach out and touch even the hem of his garment, that's all I have to do and I'll be healed. She didn't think it might be. She knew it.

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

Immediately, verse 29, as soon as she touched him, his power left him.

It says, immediately the fountain of her blood was dried up and she felt in her body that she was healed of the affliction. She knew in that moment that she had been healed. Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that power had gone out of him, turned around in the crowd and said, who touched my clothes? He says, who touched me? Something just happened. Who was it? The disciples said, you see the people around you. He says, you see the multitude thronging around you and you say, who touched me? It's like Christ, everybody touched you. Look, they're all around you. There's people everywhere in that sense. And he looked around to see her who had done this thing. 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 came clean. She explained the situation. Christ acknowledged that her faith had made her well. The healing came from Christ. She was, or he was, unaware of what had even happened in that sense. He just felt the power had left him. He didn't know why or how, but it was her faith, her trust, her confidence in him that healed her. Now, while he's having this conversation with this woman, who you can imagine the group of people trying to get from point A to point B have stopped as this conversation is taking place, you can imagine the crowd is maybe pressed in even a little further, maybe a little harder to get where he was going. While they're in motion, there might be a way to pick through the crowd a little bit better. But while they're waiting there, stopped along the way to Jairus's house, a group of servants come to them. Verse 35 says, while he was still speaking, so he's still talking to the woman who had who had stopped them, some came from the ruler of the synagogue's house who said, your daughter is dead. Why trouble the teacher any further? She's gone, Jairus. It's too late. You didn't make it in time. I can't even imagine. I can't even imagine the thoughts and the feelings that are going through Jairus's head at that point. I can't even imagine what is going through his head. And Christ must have known where Jairus's thoughts were going to be going to, because as soon as Jesus heard, verse 36, the word that was spoken, he said to Jairus, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be afraid, only believe.

He catches Jairus's attention. He says, do not be afraid. Trust me. I've got this. He says, trust me, I've got this. Verse 37 says, 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, and he 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? He says, the child's not dead, but sleeping. And he says, they ridiculed him. When he 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 laying. So there's this massive commotion going on outside the house. There's wailing. There's mourning over the death of Jairus's daughter. Christ puts everyone out of the house except for those three disciples. He enters with Jairus. He enters with the wife of Jairus and Peter, James and John, because this was something that they were meant to see. Now, some of you may have heard that when you take a look at the general epistles, when you look at the things that were written by some of these gentlemen—not all of these gentlemen, but some of these gentlemen—when you look at, you know, Peter's epistle, when you look at the epistle of John, and then ultimately Christ's brother James, who writes this—not this James, but Christ's brother James— that they speak of these topics. They speak of faith. James writes strongly of faith. Peter writes very strongly of the concept of hope. John writes very strongly of the concept of love. These three things that are very present in these general epistles. These three men were permitted to come in and to see these things—again, not James that wrote the epistle, but James the brother of John— because this was something they were meant to see. Verse 41, he took the child by the hand, and he said to her, T'letha kumi, which is translated, little girl I say to you, arise. And immediately the girl arose and walked, for she was twelve years of age. They were overcome with great amazement. But he commanded them very strictly. He said, no one should know it. And he said, give her something to eat. He says, give her something to eat. Christ raises, at this point, his second person from the dead. The first was a widow's son. The last would be Lazarus, in that sense, in his earthly ministry. But both people believed that Christ could do what he—what they believed he could do. They both believed that he could do these things. They had a full trust. They had a full confidence in him and his ability to heal. And the New Testament is replete with examples of this. Individuals who had a complete trust in God, complete trust in Christ, that he would be able to do the things that they believed that he could do. But they had a complete trust and a confidence in him. Our husband, our bridegroom. Do we believe him, brethren? Do we believe him? Do we have a full trust and a full assurance that he is forgiven our sins? That he continues to forgive our sins if we come to him in repentance? Do we know in our heart of hearts and do we believe that he is coming again?

Do we trust that he'll deliver on the promises that he's provided us?

Where do we place our faith? Where do we place that trust? In the darkest of our moments, in the most difficult circumstances that we go through, do we believe that God has that situation under control? Do we believe that he is fully aware? That it's part in some way of his plan?

That he is providing for us as we go through it? That he's caring for us? And that through that difficult time, he is preparing us? You know, faith and hope are very directly connected. Let's take a look at that second strand. Let's take a look at hope. Let's go to Romans 5. Romans 5, we'll take a look at this concept of hope. Romans 5, and we'll pick it up in verse 1 of Romans 5. Romans 5 and verse 1. Romans 5 and verse 1 begins with the word therefore, so it goes back and looks at the things that he's just written in chapter 4. 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 we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, he says, we glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, 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 which justifies us before God. It enables us to come into relationship with him through trust in him, through confidence in him, and the blood of Jesus Christ reconciles us to the Father, brings us to a state of peace between us and him. Through that faith, we have access to his grace. The sins that we commit can be forgiven. We can rejoice in the hope of glory. We can rejoice in the hope of what's to come as a result of that grace. And not only that, as a result of that faith and as a result of that hope, we can glory in tribulation. We can glory in the challenges that we face because those difficulties and those challenges build perseverance. They build endurance, as Mr. Emery spoke of. That endurance, that perseverance produces character, and the development of that character gives us hope.

And what we see Paul describe here is that hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by his Spirit. So if we run it in reverse, if we look at how do we get here, hope comes as a result of Godly character, which comes from the perseverance gained through tribulation. So how do you get through those difficult times? Through faith. How did Jairus deal with the emotional aftermath of the notice of his daughter's death? How did he deal with it? Christ said, don't be afraid, Jairus. Believe. Believe. Trust me. I've got this.

Hope comes from examining the difficulties that we face. It comes from examining the challenges and concluding that what's coming is far greater than anything we can experience at this time.

And that's what Paul writes about in Romans 8 and verse 18. A couple pages over, Romans 8 and verse 18, he writes the following. He says, for I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope. Because the creation itself also will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now. Not only that, but we also who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves eagerly waiting for the adoption, for the redemption of our body.

For we were saved in this hope, but hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? For we hope, for if we hope, for what we do not see. We eagerly wait for it with perseverance. We eagerly await those things. So Paul describes how the sufferings of this present time aren't worthy to be compared to the glory that is to come. The glory that will be revealed in us. The transformation of our physical bodies to these spiritual bodies as God has promised. He says the creation itself awaits this revealing. It says the creation itself awaits this revealing, that that creation was subjected to futility. It was subjected in hope. The creation will be glorified. It'll be released from its bondage, from its propensity to corruption, to decay, and to death. But he gets at this idea that hope that is seen is not hope. He says for why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. And we use the word hope in English slightly different than the biblical use of the word hope. Okay, the way we use the word hope in English is very different. In English, when we say we hope for something, there's not a certainty to its fulfillment. When we talk about hope in the English language, it's really a word that's more synonymous with the word wish. Okay? I hope I win the lottery. I hope that my business will be successful. I hope I can marry that one.

But hope in the biblical sense is different. 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. It's an earnest expectation of seeing that which is promised fulfilled. It's not a wish.

It's not a maybe. There is no uncertainty in this. There isn't a degree of wondering whether it will happen or not. Hope is an expectation of a 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 that thing fulfilled. You know, Hebrews 11, verse 13, you can jot it down if you'd like. It talks about how all those who died in the faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, says they were assured of those promises. They were promised. They were told by God these things would take place. And as a result, it says they embraced them and they confess that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. In other words, God has a bigger plan here. All those individuals that we see recorded in the faith chapter, they had faith in God, they had faith in his promises, they had faith in the hope of those fulfillment of those promises. They trusted, they were assured of the fulfillment of those things.

So it wasn't a hope in the way that the world uses the word hope, in the way we use it in the word in English. In their minds, it was an absolute certainty. There was no question. And they were willing to die for it because they knew that what was coming was better than what was here now.

Abraham died without receiving the promises. You know, God promised the various things that he promised Abraham. He didn't see those things in his life, at least not the full fulfillment of those things. But he had faith and he had hope that the promises that he was given and those that he was provided would be fulfilled. And as a result of that, he recognized this. This isn't our home.

This is not our home. That home's coming. Our husband has gone to prepare a place for us.

And ultimately, until he returns to complete the marriage rites, we are strangers in pilgrims on this earth betrothed to Jesus Christ, awaiting his return. Brethren, do you hope for that day?

Do you hope for that day? Not in the sense of wishing for it to happen in that sense, but in eager expectation of its fulfillment. Eager expectation of its fulfillment. Let's go to Hebrews 6. Hebrews 6. We'll pick it up in verse 13. Hebrews 6 verse 13.

I have God's infallibility here. It 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, multiplying I will multiply you. And so, after he 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. Thus God, determining to show more abundantly to the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath, 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 set before us.

This hope we have is an anchor of the soul. This hope we have is 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.

You know, it talks about hope as being something that is sure and steadfast, something that's like an anchor for our being. It's a full and a complete trust, a full faith in our husband.

In the betrothal that he has provided us. And it's an eager expectation of the fulfillment of that promise, that he will come, that he will gather his bride, that he has bought us, he has redeemed us with his blood. He's preparing that kingdom, and for now, now we wait. Now we wait. Doesn't matter how bad the world gets around us. Doesn't matter the scenario. He's coming. Our husband's coming. Doesn't matter how bad things get. The waves can come over the bow of the ship. The winds can roll us to the point of almost capsizing, but it does not matter, because he has overcome the world.

And he is coming back. We can take anything that we experience in that way, if we can keep that hope front and foremost in our minds. The last strand of this rope that connects us to our anchor, his faith and his hope, the last of these is love. You know, in 1 Corinthians 13, it said, faith, hope, and love abide. So after all these other things pass away, faith, hope, and love abide. And then it says, but the greatest of these is love. Why is it that love is the greatest?

What is it about love that makes it the greatest? You know, it's interesting. It's the greatest of the three, because love is eternal. It's eternal. What do you mean by that? Faith and hope cease to be necessary when the promised event is fulfilled. What do you need to have faith in anymore? What do you need to have hope in in that sense anymore, when that 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 in it anymore? No, you have proof. Now you have proof in that sense. You still have trust. You still have assurance in God. That doesn't go away. But that trust and that assurance has been fulfilled. What about hope? Can you continue to hope? No. Romans 8 verse 24, hope that is seen is not hope.

There's not a need for eager expectation for a promise once that promise has been fulfilled.

And there is a time in the future where faith and hope will pass away in a sense of the way that prophecies and tongues and knowledge have, but love, love will remain. Love is eternal.

It's a very characteristic of God. It is who and what he is, and it is the characteristic of us as we're becoming like him. 1 John 4 verse 7. Turn over there. 1 John 4 verse 7. When we kind of consider as we think about our lives, as we're coming into this Passover, and we kind of think about generally where we are in this relationship that we have with God, where we are in this faith and hope and love that we have, this is the very characteristic of who and what God is and who and what we are to become. 1 John 4 and verse 7. John has a lot to say about love. He has a lot to say about the application of love, not just what it is, not just head knowledge, but application John speaks a lot of. It says, Beloved, verse 7 of 1 John 4, 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 toward 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, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

You know, John, when he wrote this letter, was probably in his late 80s, possibly early 90s, just based on timing. We're talking 90s A.D. here. Okay, so this is 60 years after Christ's death, 60 years after the death of Jesus Christ. So if John was in his 20s to 30s-ish, we're talking 80s to 90 year old person who's writing this. He's nearing the end of his life, and he is trying desperately to get the people reading this epistle to understand that love comes from God. That love comes from God. And that if we love, if we love, we are born of God, and we know God. And he was dealing with a number of Gnostic teachings that were circulating at that point in time. And those Gnostic doctrines, those Gnostic teachings, these individuals were claiming that through their superior knowledge, that they had come to know God. Through this secret knowledge, this Gnostic understanding, that they had come to know God. And their claim was that they had escaped the physical world because of the spiritual seed within them. And so their claim, these individuals known by the Greeks as the pneumaticoi, their claim was that they were actually no longer capable of sin. And as a result, they looked down on everyone else around them as less than. They weren't exhibiting an ounce of love to those around them. And John's point is, they may claim to know God, they may say they know God, but they have no idea who and what God is. They have no clue because they're not showing love to others. It says, if they truly knew God, that love would flow from them like a fountain to those who are around them. Because the very character of God is love. John goes on to say that love was manifested to us, made physical to us, so to speak, by God purchasing us in marriage to his Son, paying that bride price of Christ's blood, securing us and betrothing us to Him. God found us, he sought us, and he chose us. Then he made his Son die to die for our sins, buying us back from death. And John says that, that right there is love. That's the love with which we've been loved. Therefore, we must love one another in much the same way. He goes on in verse 12. He says, no one has seen God at any time. If we love one another, God abides in us. 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. We have seen and we testify that the Father has sent the Son as Savior of the world.

Verse 15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the Son of God, God abides in Him and He in God. And that's not the only factor. That's one factor. It's not the only one. We've known and we believe the love that God has for us. He says, God is love and He who abides in love abides in God and God in Him. John says, no one's seen God at any time, speaking here of the Father. But he says, if we love one another, God abides in us and His love is perfected in us. In other words, if we love one another, people see God in us. They see Him in us, in that sense. That love is an illustration that He abides in us, the love that we have for others, because the fruits of God's Spirit in us being expressed to the world around us. Love and joy and peace and patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. These things will be expressed, again, if we are yielding ourselves to that Spirit dwelling in us. John goes on in verse 17. He says, 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. It says, there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. 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. That love of God is perfected in us. It's completed. It's matured. It's progressed in us, because as He is, so are we in this world. He is love. And brethren, so then we need to be two. We need to be two. That love casts out fear. It banishes anxiety. It banishes worry. It governs our relationships and our interactions with others. And John goes as far as saying that we must love our brother also.

That's not a suggestion. That's a directive coming from John. Again, it's John writing under inspiration of God. So it's not John writing this. It's God writing this through John. Now, does that command end at our brothers? Just those within the household of God, so to speak? Of course not. We see as 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, verses 1 through 5, says, whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, 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.

His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and this is the victory that has overcome the world. John says, our faith. So it comes full circle in that sense.

He who has overcome the world is, or He who is He, rather, who overcomes the world, but He who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. You know, we love He who begot us, but we also then must love those whom He has begotten. He has begotten us, and He has begotten others as well. We need to 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 how we show those things. That's how we show our love. We keep the commandments of God, showing we love God, and that we love our fellow man. And John writes in his gospel that it's by that love that we will be known as His disciples. It's by that love that the world will recognize us as Christians.

That love is the litmus test, so to speak. And it's that love that will continue on into eternity, because it is that characteristic of what we're becoming and who and what we're becoming like.

It begins now as we grow to become more like Jesus Christ. So these three things—faith, hope, love—they work together. They're connected. The three of them make a three-fold cord that connect us to our anchor. They connect us to Jesus Christ, who is that hope, who is that anchor in our lives through these difficult times. And brethren, this time of year gives us the opportunity to consider these concepts more deeply as we consider our calling. As we think about what it is that God has called us to and whether or not we're living in the way that we should. What God's done through His plan to bring us to Him in conversion. And when we experience difficult times, challenging situations that come up, you know, we're being battered by the wind, we're being battered by the waves, where do we turn? Where do we take shelter? And what do we place our faith and our hope?

Do we approach our Father with the level of complete trust and assurance in His love for us, or does our faith waver? Do we wonder? Do we wonder whether He loves us? Do we continue in eager expectation of the promises of God, despite the waves in the wind, as those things are battering our ship? Do we place our hope in Him trusting fully in His plan and recognizing that that trust means that we are willing to accept whatever that plan looks like, whether it's our plan or not? Have we exhibited the love of God to those around us?

Or do we allow ourselves to get caught up in human conflict and social drama? Do we let ourselves get drug into things? Do we allow that love of God to cast out fear, to perfect itself, and to radiate the love of God to those around us? You know, faith, hope, and love are like a three-fold chord.

They are stronger together than they are individually. And it's through those things that we're connected to our husband. It's through those things that we're connected to Him as that anchor for our soul, as it talks about in Hebrews. And ultimately, we are connected to Him in faith, hope, and love. We can weather any storm that comes our way. Will we trust our husband implicitly, believing his words, believing in and waiting on that eager expectation of his return? Will we submit ourselves, following his instructions, exhibiting our love through our love for him and our love for our fellow man? Will we build on the reputation of his name through our interaction with others? As Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13, now abide faith, hope, and love. These three, but the greatest of these, is love, because love never fails.

All right, we will have opportunity here after the last song. Just a quick reminder. After the last