How Hope Works | Hope and Grief | Judah Smith

Hey, happy Palm Sunday. Next week is Easter. I can't believe it. April 13th, here we are. Thank you for watching this content. And I want to jump right in. I want to talk to you today about grief. Now, if you're just jumping in this week, last week we began a collection of sermons on the subject of hope, entitling these talks, how hope works, particularly how hope works in the midst of doubt, grief, fear, and on Easter Sunday.

Next week, we're going to talk about 8 days after Easter Sunday because frankly, I relate more to the 8day after situation than even Easter Sunday. So, we'll talk about that next week. And I'm super excited about that. I'm not going to lie to you. Um, we're talking about grief today.

And so, I wore probably the comfiest sweater. Um, I have, truth be told, I worked in the yard yesterday in this sweater. Um, and I don't know why I'm telling you this, but uh, I set up a bird bath yesterday and sat outside. Um, it's actually a bird bath I discovered on the side of my home that was was being used for like a holding for a a hose, a water hose.

I almost forgot the term water hose. That's embarrassing. Anyways, I work in the yard a lot as you can tell. And I wore this sweater all day and um carried this old bird bath, filled it with water, and the birds came, you guys. They actually came to the bird bath and they never they never got in because I think they would look and they'd see me cuz I was there and I was having different uh phone calls and conversations.

But um I'm hoping later today I'm going to check out my bird bath and I hope the birds are arriving. But um I got in my comfy sweater to talk about grief. Before we jump in on the subject of grief, I want to read some scripture to you.

But before I do that, I want to remind you faith, hope, and love are three essentials to this life of faith. 1 Corinthians 13 says there are three things in the whole wide world that remain. Faith, hope, and love. And the greatest of these is love. But I want to speak to you again this week about the one right in the middle, hope.

Now, faith and hope are different. A lot of people use them as synonyms and think of them like that. We talked about this last week. Faith actually in its original Greek word means to sense, believe, and accept the presence and essence of God in your present moment. It's essential.

Hope is this idea of the future, even in the next 5 minutes or the next 10 minutes or the next hour or later in the evening or the next day. Hope is this idea that that God is going to bring good things to me in the very near future.

I've noticed in my life in the current state and status of the world hopelessness is rampant. Hopelessness this idea of assuming on the near future that it will not go well because we assume that we know. We talked about hope and doubt last week. I want to talk to you now about the relationship. how hope and grief can work together or what do you do when you want to be hopeful but you're grieving grieving loss loss of any kind and I want to say this as we wade into the waters of grief that grief has levels but grief is grief a lot of people um I had a friend not too long ago who lost their dog and what's interesting about my dog of four years, my little Louie, which I've told you about a little bit, is your heart gets connected to these beautiful animals.

And we talked last night on our couch as a family, how long will Louis live? Because recently we were at a shopping mall. Someone saw our dog and they said that their multi poo, which is we have a multi poo, lives 17 years. And we all jumped at the thought that he could live 17 years.

And so last night we discussed uh hoping that he will live so long because the thought of losing him is grieving to say the least. Some would minimize your grief. Some would say, "Well, I lost a parent. I lost a child and that I can't imagine." But grief is grief.

And there are levels. Some of you lost your job and you've been grieving. Some of you have lost a friendship and you've been grieving. Some of you started to date someone brand new and you were very optimistic and very excited about the prospect and they called it off and you're grieving.

Some of you have been grieving for hours. Some of you have been grieving for days. Some of you have been grieving for weeks. And some have been grieving for years. How does a sense of optimism and expectation of good for the future dwell in the midst of real grief?

I got good news for you. The next 15 minutes of this presentation is going to have nothing to do with eliminating your grief. Grief is something and by all accounts and all research and all study and I am no psychologist or doctor and this is not my area of expertise but I know enough to know and have done therapy enough to know that you've got to go through grief and you've got to face it and in some cases express it.

That brings us to John chapter 20 and verse 13. By the time we pick up verse 13 in this chapter 20 that we're looking at all the month of April, Mary has peered into the tomb, the empty tomb, Easter Sunday, resurrection Sunday, and the body of Jesus is gone.

There are folded linen claws that used to be around his body. They lay there, but Jesus is gone. and Mary is grieving. Now, she assumes because that's what hopelessness does. It assumes that we know that someone has simply stolen the body. And so, by the time we get to verse 13, her grief is causing her tears.

And this person who has appeared says, "Dear woman, why are you crying?" They asked. Mary answered, "They've taken away my Lord, and I don't know where they have laid him." Look at the next verse. Verse ((music playing)) 14. Then she turned around to leave, and there was Jesus standing in front of her, but she didn't realize it was him.

Verse 15, he said to her, "Dear woman, why are you crying? Who are you looking for?" Mary answered, thinking he was only the gardener. Sir, if you've taken his body somewhere else, tell me and I will go and Jesus interrupts and he says, "Mary," turning to face him, she said, "Roboni," which means my teacher, my hero.

And Jesus and her connect and have a conversation, and it's beautiful. Mary is in full-blown grief here. And yet, how does this affect hope? How can you right now watching this live with grief and hope and hope and grief? First thing I want to say about hopelessness, which seems to be an epidemic today in the world.

Here's an observation about hopelessness I think is very important for you. Hopelessness jumps to conclusions. It jumps to conclusions. Know that it does that. Know that it does that in your life. It jumps to conclusions. When I was a kid, I would pick up grasshoppers. Still like grasshoppers, right?

Especially the bright green ones. In the Pacific Northwest in Portland, Oregon, I would grab a grasshopper and I would hold it in my hand. And the fun thing about a grasshopper is at any moment there's no way to tell the grasshopper just takes off. And sometimes it would take off and land on your shirt.

Couple times it land on my head, land on my friend's head, and we would just go nuts, you know, 10, 11, 8, 7, 27, you know, holding grasshoppers in our little hands. And it would just without any notice jump. Hopelessness does that, you know. It just jumps. It jumps to a conclusion.

Think about this. Mary believes in Jesus. Mary who was told by Jesus that on the third day he would get up from the grave. He would he is the resurrection and the life. He said these words to this woman. But look what hopelessness does. It jumps to a conclusion of worst case scenario.

It jumps to the conclusion of pain. It jumps to the conclusion of tragedy, trauma. Hopelessness jumps to the Now, I'm not saying that you should harness hopelessness or control. I'm just saying acknowledging that hopelessness like that grasshopper in your hand, it will just jump to conclusions. And again, like we said last week, assume that you know.

Isn't it wild how hopelessness in the case of Mary far transcends even the words Jesus told her? Listen, on the third day, I'm going to get up from the grave, but here is hopelessness. Human nature, our finite broken tendency to just be hopeless. So just know that hopelessness in your life will jump leap to conclusions that are not good, conclusions that are not positive, conclusions that are not fulfilling, conclusions that are not meaningful, but con conclusions of destruction and demise and pain and loss.

Hopelessness jumps to a conclusion. Now my second observation which I am so excited to share is that grief and hope find harmony with Jesus. Grief and hope find harmony with Jesus. Can I can I draw your attention to something in our story which we've just read a moment ago?

If I'm Jesus or like most Christians I have known in my life and even the tendency in my own life to see someone grieving how should I say unnecessarily or illogically like if I'm Jesus I'm not tender patient and rhythmic in this moment you notice how patient he is notice how this even the reading of this passage makes you feel like a warm cozy sweater Jesus does not look at Mary and say, "Why are you grieving?

I'm right here." He doesn't it that's not the tone. Thinking he was the gardener, she says, "If you've taken his body, can you just tell me I'm going to go? I'm going to get his body. I'll do whatever it takes." Jesus interrupts and says her name, Mary. Jesus never condemns her grief.

Jesus never confronts Mary's grief. Some would say Mary's grief was pointless here. I don't believe it is. I think Mary's pain is real. They'd say, 'Well, she thinks Jesus is dead. He's alive. But he was dead, and that was painful. And she saw him crucified, and that was painful.

And that pain is real. Just because he resurrects doesn't change the fact that for a handful of days, she was in pain. Now, that brings us to another resurrection. There was one before this one. Jesus resurrects a young man by the name of Lazarus. The shortest verse in all the New Testament, John 11:35 says Jesus wept.

And yet some four or five verses later, what he's weeping over, he completely changes. He's weeping because Lazarus has died in his delay to get to the house where Lazarus was sick and on his deathbed. By the time he gets there, Mary and Martha are grieved and they cannot figure out what took Jesus so long.

And it says in John 11:35, Jesus cries with him. Why would Jesus cry when a few verses later, he's going to solve the pain? Eliminate the pain. take the young man he's crying over because he's dead and raise him up from the grave because the pain is still real.

Even though the outcome is going to change, the pain is still real. I want to say this about hope and grief. Hope believes that God can change anything, but grief accepts the pain that you're experiencing. Hope is not the denial of grief. Faith is not the denial of grief.

Faith is the acceptance that God is present right now with you in the grief. Hope is this idea that tomorrow God can change even the very thing I grieve over. But both faith and hope work in harmony with grief because of Jesus. Because of Jesus. Do you know that you can be hopeful and you can be grieving at the same time?

Hopelessness jumps to conclusions. Now, I'm not going to play games. I'm going to be honest with you. Grief can very much serve up hopelessness in bucket loads. Well, if I'm grieving now, maybe I always will be. Maybe this is how it's always going to be. Maybe this happened and it's going to happen again and again and again and again.

Don't don't don't don't give in. When hopelessness does that jump like that grasshopper, just let it go. Let it go and accept you're in pain. The same Jesus that met Mary in John chapter 20. The same Jesus that wept with Mary and Martha in John 11. The same Jesus that will meet you in your pain and in your grief and you will find hope.

My last observation is is simple but it is so meaningful to me. It says that in the middle of Mary's grief, she's in the middle of a sentence to be clear. And Jesus interrupts and he says, "Mary." And it's interesting to me that Mary thinks Jesus to be the gardener.

I'm not entirely sure why, and this kind of a mysterious part of our story, but at the mention of her name, it dawns on Mary, it's my teacher. It's my leader. It's my superhero. It's my king. It's Jesus. Hope is not a one-sizefits-all. Hope is not a general feeling.

Hope is personal. Hope is personal. I'll say it like this. Hope is specific to you. I want to say it another way. What will bring you hope can oftenimes be very unique to you in the middle of your pain, but it will be personal. You can expect hope to be personal.

God's going to meet you. Jesus is going to meet you. He's going to call you by name. Perhaps Mary felt lost. Perhaps Mary felt disconnected. Perhaps Mary felt discombobulated. Perhaps Mary felt like where does she belong and where does she fit in and where do I go from here and feels a little bit disconnected and disassociated from her life and what do I do now?

And all of a sudden at the mention of her name, her eyes are open and she realizes it's Jesus. Jesus knows your name first of all, but he has plans to grant you hope in your heart in personal and and specific ways. He's going to meet you. One of the ways that God has given me hope and I suppose this can be hopeful for everyone but it's been very personal for me is I have had a very personal and intimate and private journey with eternity in my mind and my heart.

I had an obsession with heaven for many years after my dad passed uh more than a decade and a half ago and I started reading books on heaven. I started listening to stories of people who had afterlife experiences and came back and it became a very personal private intimate experience for me and there I found hope.

It was my personal journey and it means a lot to me even as I sit here today. Hope is not just some feeling that everybody gets and you should have and you should be more hopeful. I think you should expect that hope comes to you in a very personal way that you experience hope even in the middle of your grief in very personal and specific ways.

It might seem silly, but the hummingbird is a hopeful thing for me. I was uh in my office just yesterday and I was leading a staff summit as we call it for church home and all of our staff gathers and I usually give some encouraging word. And before I turned on the Zoom call, man, I was tired.

It had been a long night and like I said, I haven't been sleeping very well lately, which is super rare for me. And I had this little bitty window on the second floor of our home in my office. And wouldn't you know, a little hummingbird came humming outside my second level window.

Now, if you know anything about hummingbirds, they usually don't aren't just flying in open air. I mean, of course they do, but they usually buy a flower or buy a tree, but here's this hummingbird right in front of my window. And I said out loud, you might find it silly and trit, but I said out loud, I got the message, thank you, God, because for me, hope has even come in the form of a hummingbird.

It's my dad's favorite bird. And so since then, man, I see a hummingbird and it's like God's going to be here in an hour from now tomorrow. I have hope. Hope can be very personal like that even for you. Thinking about you. More importantly, God's thinking about you.

You're watching this and you are in one of the great chapters of grief in your whole life. Friend, I believe you're going to experience a personal hope like you've never known before through the love and person of Jesus. Can I pray for you? God, I thank you for your tenderness, your patience, and your graciousness towards us even as we grieve.

You are so kind. You are so considerate. You are so loving. Oh God, thank you again for your patience. And I pray that there would be an overwhelming sense of your nearness right now. And hope would grow and expand in the hearts of people watching this right now.

If you're watching this and you say, "Judah, I I'd like to walk with Jesus for the rest of my life and into eternity." And say it right out loud. I want to walk with Jesus. Maybe that's the first time. First time you've ever said that in your whole life.

You're going to walk with Jesus, friend, and your life's never going to be the same. I got to tell you, he's the only one that can save me. He's the only one that can forgive me of all of my error and my wrong and my sin. He took it upon himself on the cross.

He resurrected on the third day to prove that everything he said was true. and he had power even over death itself. That's our story. I cannot wait to share Easter Sunday with you next week. Please, if you get the chance, join us. Never too late. We'll always archive the messages so that you can check them out when you get the chance.

We love you tons and happy Palm Sunday and I'll see you on Easter. ((music playing)) This is the air I breathe. This is the air I breathe. Your holy ((music playing)) presence living in ((music playing)) me. This is my daily ((music playing)) breath. This is my daily breath. Your very every word spoken to me. ((music playing)) And I'm desperate for ((music playing)) you.

And I I'm lost without you. ((music playing)) And I'm desperate for ((music playing)) you and ((music playing)) I lost without you. ((music playing)) ((music playing)) And how I live for the moment where I'm still in your presence and all the noise that's down. Lord, speak to me now. You have all my attention. I will linger and ((music playing)) listen.

I can't miss a thing. And Lord, I know my heart wants more of you. My heart wants something new. So I surrender all. And all I want is to live within your love. Be undone by who you are. My desire is to know you deeper. Lord, I will open up again.

Throw my fears into the wind. I am desperate for a touch of heaven. Woah. Woah. Woah. Woah. You're the fire in the morning. You're the cool in the evening, the breath in my soul. You're the life in my bones. There is no hesitation in your love and affection.

It's the sweetest of all. And what I know my heart wants more of you. My heart wants something new. So I surrender. All ((music playing)) is beyond by who you are. My desire is to know you deeper. I will open up again my fears into the wind. I dance. ((music playing)) ((music playing)) I open up my heart to you.

I open up my heart to you now. So do what only you can. Jesus, Jesus, have your way in me now. Open up. I open up my heart to you. I open up my ((music playing)) heart Heat. ((music playing)) Heat. Heat. ((applause)) Heat. Heat. Heat. Heat. I am desperate for a touch of you within your love beyond by who you are.

My desire is to know you deeper. I will open up again. My fears into the wind. I am desperate for the touch of ((music playing)) heaven. Desperate ((music playing)) ((music playing)) for will be. My heart burns feel my heart burns fear ((music playing)) In my heart only for you in my heart. It burns ((music playing)) feel. ((music playing)) ((applause)) ((music playing)) Heat up here.

((music playing)) ((music playing)) Heat. Heat. ((music playing)) ((music playing)) Heat. Heat. ((music playing)) ((music playing))