1960s | American Chaos

The story you're about to see is true. People have got to know whether or not their president's a crook. Well, I'm not a crook. Learn the ways of the Force and become a Jedi like my father. Wait a minute.

Wait a minute, Doc. Are you telling me that you built a time machine out of a DeLorean? Center, you can see the firemen assembled here, the police officers, FBI agents, and you can see the two towers. There's a huge explosion now, raining debris on all of us. Top three.

It's official. The government shutdown is now the longest in U.S. history. I have quite a few, but all limited to...

My mom surprised me with a wrap-around skirt that everybody was getting. We didn't have a lot of money because there were nine kids, but she made one for me as a surprise. And then she put it on me and she tied it in a double knot. She said, that way the boys can't pull the string and your skirt fall off, which was notorious for what the boys were doing in school with the wrap-around skirts, yes. It was exciting.

It was fun. It felt like we were out to just conquer the world. Oh, gosh. Beach Boys, Surfing USA, Jan and Dean, Dead Man's Curve, and anything by the Beatles. Definitely, I fell in love with the Beatles.

I actually had to go and watch them at my friend's house because my dad was not going to allow me to watch those long-haired hippies on his TV. I heard about it. I was... I was walking down a hallway of my high school, the old Kellum High School, and a teacher came running down the hall screaming, they've shot the president, and I just remember, like, it didn't register at first, like, what are they talking about? They shot the president, and I think, overall, throughout the whole country, it was like, who would do this?

Why would they do this? And it was fear, confusion, and anger that somebody would do this to somebody that was so well-liked. Everybody seemed, and his poor wife, I just kept always remembering, you know, her with his brains blown out right next to her and covering her clothing, and I just always felt, like, how could she recover from that? Just, it was just, yeah, it was a scary time, you know, between him getting shot, then his brother Robert F. Kennedy, then Martin Luther King Jr.

getting shot. It was like, what is going on? It was kind of a, it was kind of a way to get shot. It was a wake-up call from when you think everything is just wonderful, and then you find out everything is not wonderful, but I remember, actually, after 65, after when I moved up to D.C.

, after I graduated high school, I moved up to D.C., and I was working in an old World War II building on Constitution Avenue, and there were the Vietnam War protesters marching up and down, and all of that was going on while I was working, and I do remember a friend asking me, well, what do you think about this? Should we be in this? I said, I don't know.

I said, you know, what I know is I love my country, and I respect our military. Well, I do remember the Jesus Revolution, even though I was on the East Coast, but I do remember all of that happening, and then I think that's when I started searching for more. I had walked away from the Catholic Church at 17, and had not gone to a church until my son was born prematurely, and that was my, that was the start of my true journey with Jesus, and it's just gotten deeper and deeper and deeper. So I think people, even today, are still searching. They're still searching for answers, and he is the answer.

He is the bridge, as this man said in the movie that I was watching last night, actually, that Jesus is the bridge to get you there, and I don't know. It was an exciting time. It was crazy times, exciting. I never got into the total hippie movement, but I was sort of in there. Not in the free sex and the free drugs and all that, but I was in there as an explorer, an adventurer, a free spirit.

That's what this one guy actually at the boardwalk told me. I was a, what did he tell me? I was a searcher. He said, you're always looking. You're always searching.

Well, I know. I found Jesus, so I know what I was searching for, but I'm still on this journey. Like, to me, life is just a... An adventure. And I'm ready to keep going.

Jesus is the way. I don't know. He's just, yeah, he's always there. I'm loving this journey with him. I talk to him constantly.

The first hour of my day is spent with reading the word and devotions and just praying and talking with him. And I have, I tell people it's, it's not a religion. It's a relationship. And that's my word to everybody. It's a relationship.

And go live it with him. All right. Peace. I can't see. OK, I'm going to have to have to change glasses.

Can't wear it the whole time. But Christina convinced me to wear those on stage. So hopefully I like the fact that I'm dressed in tie dye and I have a peace symbol around my neck. All right. We're really walking into the 60s a day and feel free.

You know, next week we're going to walk into the 70s. Dress up. Enjoy church. Come on. Let's have a good time.

We're going to talk about truth. But let's have some fun while we're talking about truth. Amen. So I want to take a minute. And first of all, thank you for being here.

If you're new with us today. Those of you who are new, we just, we hope that you're blessed. We've been praying for you. We're so excited you're here with us today to experience what we have here. You can connect with somebody right after church at our next steps area.

If you want some more information about the church and lunch, guest lunch will be next week. So if you're new with the church, we have guest lunch next week and we would love for you to be a part of that. So so make plans for that. Be here. And also, guys, listen, we have plenty of these cards outside that you can grab on your way out.

I want you to invite a friend next week. OK. I mean, if it's just one friend, just bring them next week. And and for the 70s, I promise you, they're going to they're going to love it. You're loving it.

And we're all loving it. We're all having a great time. So so invite a friend to church. And if they don't if they don't know who Jesus is, if they're not interested in Jesus, tell them there's people are going to be dressed up like the 70s. Maybe that'll bring them out.

Right. Or you've got to hear this. You know, you've got to see this. Just just just do all you can, everything we can to help people connect to to God. And that's why we do what we do so that people can connect to God.

We are soft and light in this world. I want to take a minute and and roll you down this timeline of the 60s. And I want you to get into the 60s as we did last week with the 50s. I want you to get into the 60s today. I want you to be somebody in the 60s.

I want you to feel the 60s for a minute. And starting the 60s, the economy was bright. Everything was good. Families were pretty normal. They were normal families in the home.

Women were entering the workforce, which was a big. Transportation was popular. Gas was 25 cents to 30 cents a gallon. I would totally take that on today. And people would travel a lot, stopping at the Holiday Inns or the Howard Johnson.

Those were the popular motels in that day. John F. Kennedy was elected at the beginning of the century, which was a really big thing. There was the Camelot administration. There was a lot of hope.

There was a lot of things that were being geared towards, you know, like, ah, yeah, this is going to be great. We came out of a good administration. We're going into an even better administration. There was a few things happening, and they felt good about it. And the race for space was taking place, right, where man walked on the moon for the first time.

We've actually beat the Soviets, right, to the moon. And Neil Armstrong had that famous statement, one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. And the great thing about it, everybody got to see it because everybody had a TV in their home, and information became, the main source of information became the television. News sources started coming into play, and shows were still very, very popular. You had shows like the Beverly Hillbillies.

How many of you are Beverly Hillbillies fans? Bonanza, Dick Van Dyke, and the Andy Griffith Show for North Carolinian. That's very heartwarming. And got to see, you know, Barney try to save the town every week. It was a great, great show.

Science fiction nerds, Star Trek was one of those things that came out. In the youth culture, the American bandstand was the show. Everybody was watching that. All the youth were watching that. One of the most famous movies of the day, and was a turning point of equal rights and things like that as well, it was going to be used for that, was To Kill a Marking Bird, based on Harper Lee's 1960 Pulitzer Prize winning novel.

It won three Academy Awards and was nominated for eight. Other movies, Sound of Music, Mary Poppins, Psycho, where horror movies were entered into the movie genres. And then none, no other than Clint Eastwood, the man. He was the Duke of that time with a fistful of dollars, the good, the bad, the ugly, and so many, many more things. Sports, baseball was still ruling, guys.

I'm sorry. And actually, the home run record was taken from Babe Ruth when Roger Maris knocked his 61 home runs. And there was a young 22-year-old Olympic gold medalist named Cassius Clay, who beat Sonny Liston for the World Heavyweight Championship. And he would later, just a few weeks later, be called Muhammad Ali. And football, guys, football.

Hey, the first Super Bowl happened in the 1960s. And of course music. So many things happened in music. I mean, Motown, come on. Motown was big in the 1960s.

It took a rise with the Supremes and the Miracles, Temptations, Four Tops. Jackson 5, which later would introduce Michael Jackson in the 70s and 80s. And then the Beach Boys, as Sandy shared with us, the Beach Boys were rocking and rolling. And then something happened. Something significant happened.

Elvis mania is rivaled by the arrival of none other than the Beatles, right? The Beatle mania! Ah! Everybody, it's the Beatles! Those long-haired hippies rose on the scene and it started this British invasion of rock with the Yardbird Searchers, Rolling Stones, of course, their greatest rival.

Excuse me. And music was involving. I mean, there was folk music with Bob Dylan, the King of Folk. Come on, guys. He was doing his thing.

And Psychedelic Rock came out with The Doors, Jefferson Airplane, The Grateful Dead, and Rhythm and Blues with Janis Joplin and, of course, Jimi Hendrix. You know, these were the guys of the time. You would have listened to all of this. And then, guess what? Heavy metal was actually coined for the first time with Steppin' Wolves, Born to be Wild, and was cemented.

Hard rock was cemented by the end of the age with the release of Led Zeppelin's first two albums, which would enter into the 70s and 80s as the main rock style. But happy times, great times. It looked fun. Good time for music. There was always crisis.

There's always crisis in every decade. And the 60s, much like the 50s, had its crisis points. The decade began innocently but grew into unrest with assassination, war, rebellion. Banana bikes and poodle skirts went to bell bottoms and tie-dye shirts and sock hops gave way to Woodstock. And things moved quickly, very, very, very quickly.

And with the assassination of our president, John F. Kennedy sent the nation into mourning. Civil rights movement catapulted to the center stage, highlighting Martin Luther King Jr. Women's rights were in high demand. And the Vietnam War has fallen in the jungles, but also on the streets of America in protest.

Best summarized, this decade was a decade of revolution. It was a decade of chaos. Many would say it was a decade of chaos, no direction. And although there were good times, there were a lot of confusion. There was a lot of misguidedness.

A longing for fulfillment was a time that we saw people were hungry for something more than themselves. And they were looking for it in everything because there's a lot going on. Even today, there's so much going on, guys. We need to focus on what matters most. We have Israel that just went to war.

We have Israel that just went to war. We have the border crisis happening. We have China. We don't know what's going on with China, but it looks scary. We got the Soviet Union.

We got all these things. It was no different then than it is now. Every decade has its crisis. There was a lot going on. Chaos, rebellion, lack of meaning, identity was happening then.

And then it would enter into the next decade. It would result in a lot of blame and responsibility. Reaping what we've sown came into the 70s. So every decade has its crisis. Every decade has its problems.

Decades come and go, but God is the same. He is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And God is a rock we can always build our house on, build our foundation on, and it will not fail. When storms of life come, when events come, when things seem radical and out of sorts, we can always go back to God. And that's why it says, I, the Lord, do not change.

He says that. I, the Lord, do not change. So you, the descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed. Who are the descendants of Jacob? We are the children of Abraham.

It's us, you know. It was meant for Israel in that particular passage, but it's meant for us today so that we're not destroyed. He gives us, he is with us, and his law and his very nature is always the same so that we don't go astray. Jeremiah 6, 16 says it like this. This is what the Lord says.

Stand at the crossroads and look. Ask for the ancient ways, the ancient paths. That's significant right there, the paths that have always been and always will be. Ask where the good way is. The ancient paths are the good way, and walk in it, and you will find rest in your soul.

You will find rest in your soul. So, every week we're looking at a different decade. Next week, the 70s. Last week, the 50s. This week, the 60s.

So, let's look at some of the dilemmas. There were a lot of dilemmas in the 60s, but I just, I kind of pull out three things each week that we can look at, and we're going to go to God's Word for those answers because His Word is always available to us. First of all, the first dilemma is rebellion rather than resolution. Rebellion rather than resolution. As a result of the 50s, there was a lack of authenticity in the 50s, right?

That's what we learned last week. And as a result of that, there was a lot of mistrust. There was a mistrust in leadership. There was a mistrust in government. There was a mistrust in your parents, even.

I mean, people were not obeying their parents. They were sneaking out, going to concerts and stuff, and they would see their kids on TV in protest. They're like, what's going on here, right? There was a lack of respect for authority. And because of a lack of vision and direction and a real dream to believe in, the answer was not peaceful resolution, but rebellion.

And resolution without a dream for, excuse me, revolution, write this down, by the way. Revolution without a dream for resolution is rebellion. Revolution without a dream for resolution, like change, societal change, if you're just doing it to do it, it's just rebellion. There's no cause. A rebel without a cause.

We hear that, right, all the time. It's a rebel without a cause. It's self-centered. It's my world. I've got to take matters into my own hands, whatever the cost, even if it costs my morality and my faith.

Whatever it costs, violence, open resistance, anger, hatred, rebellion. Rebellion without a cause, right? And when there is no cause, there's no substance. And when there's no substance, it's very shallow and meaningless. And no effect of change takes place.

Rebellion over resolution. When Samuel was speaking to King Saul when he disobeyed the Lord after he came back from war, he didn't follow his instructions. And Samuel made this heavy statement. He says, to go against what you are told is like the sin of witchcraft. Rebellion is like the sin of witchcraft.

Not to obey is like the sin of worshiping false gods. To rebel is like worshiping another god. It's worshiping my own god. It's worshiping something else. I know better than you.

And that's what was going on. I know better than society. I know better than God. I'm going to take matters into my own hands. And there was no love.

Because without love, how can change come? Because God is a God of love. God is a God of resolution. In fact, Paul talks about that. Many of you know this passage.

We use it in your weddings all the time because it's such a wonderful passage. And most of you ask for this. But here's what it says. If I speak in the tongues of man or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong and a clanging cymbal. I'm just a bunch of loud noise.

And that's what was happening. There was just a lot of loud noise in the streets. And everybody was trying to figure out something, but there was nothing to aim for. There was no cause. There was belief in something to an extent, but there was no direction in how to get there.

And if I have the gift of prophecy and I can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge. If I have these supernatural gifts and God gives me the ability to do things that otherwise I couldn't do. And if I have faith to move mountains and do not have love, I have nothing. And if I possess or if I give all my possessions to the poor and give over my body a hardship that I may boast but have not love, what do I have? I have nothing.

You have nothing unless you have love. You have love. If love is a part of it, there is a possible way. But when you don't have love, there's nothing there. And that's why Malachi 6.

8 says it like this. He says, He has told you, old man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God. He's called us to love kindness, to walk humbly with our God, to do justice.

Not to do injustice, not to be mean and hateful, not to be prideful and arrogant. Because revolution without a dream for resolution is rebellion. And perhaps we should consider love. Perhaps we respond and don't react. Perhaps we hear from people a little bit, understand where we are.

Where they're coming from, and maybe we can have peaceful resolution. The second thing is, my truth rather than the truth. My truth rather than the truth. They went for my truth. This is my truth.

They were looking for truth. If my truth feels right, then it must be truth. Whatever it feels like, it's this relative, anything goes as long as it makes me happy at the moment, and they entered into a sexual revolution. Drugs, LSD, they wanted this spiritual experience. And Timothy Leary was on the stage of these concerts, telling them, if you just drop acid and you do these, you'll have an experience.

It's pure, it's wonderful, and you can find God in yourself if you do this. If you watch the Jesus Revolution movie, which many of you have done, there's a scene in there where they drop acid all over the place, and these kids are just hungry, hungry for something spiritual. And that was what was happening. And they wanted a spiritual experience because our soul longed for God. We long for something spiritual.

If it feels good, I want to satisfy. I can't get no satisfaction, you know, was the song of the day, right, with the Rolling Stones. I can't get no satisfaction. There was this search for truth. There was this hunger in the heart.

And God was revealing himself. God has always been revealing himself. He's always been and he always will be. God never changes. He's always there.

He's always revealing himself through nature, through culture. He's connecting with us in different ways. Even when we're in the worst place we could ever be, when we're far from him, he's still revealing himself to people every day. That's why Romans 1 says it like this. It says, it says, for since the creation of the world, God's invisible qualities, the things that are out there, that the world and creation, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly seen.

People have always known that there's something greater than themselves. They might have not put the tag on it yet, but they knew, they knew being understood from what has been made so that people are without excuse. They don't have excuse. God is always reaching out for them. For although they knew God, and this is what they did, although they knew God, they knew of a God, they knew that something was greater than themselves, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

And although they claimed to be wise, they were fools. Think about it. We see that all the time, right? We saw that in the 60s. They look like fools out there.

We're experiencing, you know, God in our own way. We're experiencing spirituality in our own way. I'm spiritual. I'm not religious. I'm spiritual, you know, that phrase.

And they were doing things that just made them look foolish. They thought they were wise. They thought they were doing something that really had cause, and it really didn't have any cause. And therefore, God also gave them up to unrighteousness and the lust of their hearts to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They gave up righteousness for unrighteousness.

And here's the key verse, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, not a lie, but the lie. The lie that what feels good is better is your truth. What gets you to get past whatever it is you're in for that time being, whether it's alcohol, whether it's drugs, whether it's sex, whether it's some other spiritual experience outside of what God has, that's what the lie is. There's a lie out there, and they worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator. And as a result, and this isn't in your notes, but they were filled with unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness, they were back biters, they were haters of God, they were violent, they were proud, they were boasters, they were inventors of evil things.

They were disobedient to their parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving, unmerciful. That's what the result of going with whatever your truth is results too. And Proverbs 14 says there is a way which seems right to a man, but in the end it can lead to death. And even in laughter the heart is sad, and the end of joy is grief. The third thing is sight with no vision.

There was sight with no vision. Everyone needs a leader. Everyone needs someone to look up to, or something to look up to. Because if we don't have someone to look up to, we have nothing to look out to. When there's nothing to look up to, we don't have anything to look out to.

And with the assassination of JFK, there was all this hope for prosperity, there was hope for the American dream once again, and we're heading into a new decade, and he was shot and taken away. They had no leader, and those hopes and dreams were dashed. And with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. as a center stage person, there was a hope, those dreams were dashed too. Assassination came into the picture.

And they had no leader, there was no direction, and when people have no one to look up to, they have nothing to look out to. Where do you turn? Proverbs says where there is vision the people perish, but he that keeps the law is happy. I love Helen Keller, how she said it. Where there is no vision, excuse me, the only thing worse than being blind is having sight with no vision.

The only thing worse than being blind is having sight with no vision. I love how Jesus taught it. He says, suppose one of you builds a tower. Won't you first sit down and estimate the cost? If you build a house, you want the cost, you want to know what's going on, and learn something else.

So that you have the money. And if you lay a foundation and you're not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will really cool you. Saying, this person began to build and wasn't able to finish. And then he goes on to say, or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king, won't he first sit down and consider whether he is able with 10,000 men to oppose the one coming against him with 20,000? If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.

If we have no plan, then we don't have terms for peace. And what does that mean? Rebellion. It means lack of truth, no real truth, and no vision. Chaos.

It was a decade of chaos, but there's always an answer. God always has an answer. And we can always go to him, we can always go to his word that stands the test of time, and we can look and see. What does God say about it? What does Jesus say about it?

What answers do we have? Well, the first point I want to make, the first answer we want to give is, submit to God first. When authority seems wrong, when we have the heart to challenge authority, what do we do? First, we turn to God. We turn to God first, because there is no authority except what God has established.

That's what Romans 13 says, let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authority that exists has been established by God. So don't care if you don't like what the president's doing. I don't care if your boss is a terrible leader. I don't care if there's some situation, maybe you have somebody that's over you, that you're just like, I just don't like.

God has established those people. There's nothing, there's no surprises with God. The leaders of this world, there's no surprises. He allows, only by his hand has he allowed the authority that we have. And therefore, we have to understand, when we submit to God first, we see that.

And consequently, whoever rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted. And those who do so will bring judgment on themselves. It will bring judgment on yourself. That's why Jesus says, render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are Caesar's. Now, when we submit to God first, there are going to be times where we are challenged, right?

There are going to be times where civil disobedience is permitted because perhaps there's a direct violation of God's law and God's command, but we have to be willing to accept the repercussions of that, the authorities that are over us. I think about Bonhoeffer who disregarded the Nazi party in Germany to present the gospel to people, to talk about Jesus, to talk about theology and things like that, and he lost his life for it. We have to be willing, but there are times. But when we submit to God first, there are times when civil obedience is permitted, but Jesus' ways are revolutionary, but they're not rebellious. Jesus was a revolutionary.

He revolted against the social and cultural norms of that day. The ones that thumbed their nose up to truth, but He never was rebellious. He never allowed rebellion to seep into His heart. He never allowed hatred to come in and take over. He never allowed things to leak into Him that would cause Him to do evil things against others.

And our desire for sweeping change in a culture has a tendency to become rebellious if we're not careful, and we can slip right back into the 60s with no absolute standards, no guidelines, and no guardrails. That's why we need a God who gives us guardrails, who gives us commandments, who gives us rules. We submit to His authority. And Christ will not lead us to pride. He will not lead us to hatred.

He will not lead us to bigotry. He won't lack discipline. He will always lead us to some type of action. He doesn't lead us to prejudice. We need to submit to God first.

Submit to God first. The second thing, return to the truth. Return to God. Return to truth. The truth, okay?

Because when we begin to reap what we've sown, everybody wants somebody to bail them out, right? I mean, remember that time you got in trouble? Some of you probably were in jail or something. Who was the first person you called? Probably your parents, you know, when you were a teenager and you did something wrong.

Dad? Mom? You know? We're always looking for someone to bail us out. Fortunately, we have a king that will always bail us out.

He is always, His grace is available for us. That's why Joel says it like this. Wren your heart and not your garment. Return to the Lord your God, for He is gracious and compassionate and slow to anger, abounding with love, and He relents from sending calamity. Return.

There's life and truth. What is truth? What is truth? That was the very question that Pontius Pilate asked when he was staring truth in the face. What is truth?

Jesus is the personification of truth. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father but through me. Every commandment is fulfilled in Jesus, guys. Every commandment, every way.

His ways are ways of life. His ways are ways of hope. He is truth. He will not steer us wrong. He will always lead us in the best way and we'll always be hopeful.

We'll always see something in the distance when all hope is lost. And that's why we say, teach me your ways, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth, in your ways, in your truth. You're not. You're not. I want my heart to fear your name.

I want to fear your name, Lord. I want to know you. I want to respect your authority because I know your authority is the only authority that really works. And I want to walk in your ways. And that's why the psalmist in Psalm 18 says, this God, his way is perfect.

The word of the Lord proves true. He is a shield for all of those who take refuge in him. You can take refuge in Jesus. He is truth. Return to the truth.

There's hope, joy, peace, shelter in God. That's why we trust in the Lord with all our hearts and not lean on our own understanding and all our ways. Acknowledge his ways, who he is, and he will make our paths very, very, very straight. And finally, this is probably the most important point. Fix your eyes on eternity.

Focus. What is vision? Vision is the ability to see. We need the ability to see eternity. Look past the things that we're going through.

Look past the chaos of a society, of a world, of things going different directions. And we can be very clear that there is something available for us beyond. If we look up, we can look out. If we look up to Jesus, we're able to see clearly where we're going and what we're doing. We're able to clearly see that there is a reason and there is a purpose for all of this.

That there is a God that has orchestrated everything for his glory and for our good. He has done this for us. And when we see that vision of the kingdom, when we see a vision of God and his holiness and his righteousness and his goodness, and even his judgment, we can hold on to that promise of eternity. And that's a vision worth following. That's a vision I want.

And when it seems that all is lost, when people are in charge that you think are not supposed to be in charge, when society is flying off the handles, we can look to what the people of old in the Hall of Fame, the Faith Hall of Fame, as we call it. We can look to the people who actually went through very similar things, if not worse things, that we've gone through. There's nothing new under the sun. Every decade has its problems, right? But people have gone through it.

And it says, all these people, who are all these people in Hebrews 11? All these people, all these people. They're all the people that went before us. All the people that endured chaos, that endured affliction, that endured cultural shifts that compromised God. But they held on to something.

It says, all these people were still living by faith when they died. They died. They did not receive the things promised. They didn't receive tangible things. They were told there was this land, there was this hope, there was this thing, there was this people.

They were looking forward to that. They thought they were, yes. I'll see you next time. They did not receive the things promised, they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. We are foreigners and strangers on earth.

If we are believers, we are strangers on earth. Because we have a vision for the kingdom, we have a vision for God, God and His kingdom. And they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one, therefore God is not ashamed. God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. He's prepared a city for them.

See, they were able to endure. They were able to go through situations. In fact, there's pieces of these verses that talk about people being sown in half, that endured affliction, that endured pain, and were imprisoned and tortured. There were good times and there were bad times, but they had this heart, they had this vision for what was ahead. So my question for you is, would you consider, would you consider that maybe Jesus is the answer?

Would you consider that maybe the hope and the thing that you've been searching for is Jesus? Because Hebrews 12 says He is the author and perfecter of our faith. He showed us that you can walk in faith and you can walk in hope. He endured the cross. Let us run with perseverance the race that is before us.

Let us keep focused on that vision that is ahead of us, that there is a kingdom vision, that there is something more than what we're experiencing. Because no matter what you face in this world, no matter how good your life is or how bad your life is or wherever you are in between, there is hope. There is a sense of, I need something more. I need something more. Drugs and alcohol doesn't do it.

Sex doesn't do it. Money doesn't do it. Fame doesn't do it. Nothing does it. What is it?

Perhaps it's Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith. There is Him who endured the cross. He took on the shame. He took on the hurt. He took on defeat.

And now He's sitting at the right hand of the Father. That's a vision worth holding on to. He's alive today. Would you consider Him? That's you today.

If you're at a crossroads, would you consider the ancient path that God never changes? Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you, God, that you always have a way back. When we've exchanged your truth for our own truth and we've gone astray, there's always a way back. So, God, today we realign ourselves.

We areожд rib Have a crossroads! To bewhole is lost and caught a different life and retired often. So what about this letzt? We look to you once again. You're our hope.

I pray for people here today, that they may experience you in new ways and connect with you once again if they have steered, if they're lonely or if they're far from you. We give you the praise. We give you the glory. In your name. We'll see you next week for part three.