What do I do When Hope is Lost?

And for those that are with us online this evening, we welcome you and trust, and I trust this evening with the people that are gathered here to pray for you and others that are praying for you from around the world. I trust that God's going to touch you in a supernatural way, in a way that only God can, and do something in your life that's going to bring glory to his name, his deliverance, his power. We're going to have communion at the end of the short sharing of God's word this evening.

So if you're able to get some bread and some juice of any sort in your home tonight or your apartment, wherever you happen to be, then you're more than welcome to partake of that with us. Assuming that you have given your life to Jesus Christ, or will be doing so this evening, you're more than welcome to partake and celebrate the victory of the son of God 2,000 years ago on a cross, paid the price for your sin and for mine so that we can have eternal life and we can have a life that has meaning while we live on this side of eternity. Now the question I have tonight that I want to speak on this particular topic, what do I do when hope is lost? I've been seeing so many paragraphs come up on the screen.

There was one just before I got up, I have a go forward strategy, everything around me is gone, and there's so many people like that. It's from all over the world now. I have a word for you this evening because I happen to believe in my heart that we're going to see the greatest spiritual awakening perhaps in the history of the world before Jesus Christ returns.

I make no apology for that statement. I believe it's proven in scripture that there has been an outpouring which started on the day of Pentecost, but there will be a great outpouring of the spirit of God in the last days as more and more calamity begins to in a sense unfold in them and he's going to gather in as whosoever will call on his name will be saved and I think we're going to be shocked, we're going to be pleased, we're going to be stunned at the numbers of people that are about to turn to Christ and you're going to get to know him in power, you're going to know him in victory. Every promise he made when he stood in that pulpit in the synagogue 2,000 years ago and told us the spirit of the Lord was upon him and gave us the reasons that in the abundance of our poverty the strength of God's riches in Christ would be made known to us.

In our captivity the prison doors would open, we'd be set free. Those who are oppressed in their mind, that oppression will lose its stranglehold and you will be given a new heart, a new mind, a new vision, and a new future. God is going to heal those that have been broken in heart.

There's going to be a shout of glory in these last days. I am so convinced in my heart of this I could actually hear it in the worship tonight. In part of what we're saying it's as if I felt in my spirit, more or less God just opened my ears to hear a much larger group of people singing than are gathered.

There's a fair number here tonight, but a much larger group than are gathered here this evening began to sing and praise God and give him thanks for the victory that only he could have given into each of our lives. Ezekiel chapter 37 speaks of the people of God of another generation. And the one thing that we do know that everything is common to man.

Nothing new appears under the sun. Patterns repeat themselves and we'll see what happened to the people of God of this particular time has repeated itself throughout history is repeating itself in many lives in our generation. And the wonderful thing about all of this is though our condition seems to repeat itself, God's mercy also repeats itself throughout history.

God's power repeats itself. God's surprise when he comes to us and he does it in a way we don't expect it. We think we have it all figured out, but he doesn't do it that way.

And I'm going to finish with a story that really typifies that. Ezekiel chapter 37. What do I do when hope is lost? Now, father, I ask you tonight in Jesus name for an anointing of the Holy Spirit.

God almighty that the reasons that you declared you came to this earth for might be made known and might be made manifest tonight in this sanctuary and through the internet into homes, situations, park benches, cars, wherever people are gathered. God almighty that your hand of power would be stretched out one more time and you would begin to set people free. You would save the lost.

You'd give sight to the spiritually blind. You'd heal the wounded in heart. You deliver the oppressed.

My God, let us shout a victory and glory go forth this night for your namesake, Lord Jesus Christ. We're not asking this for our glory. We're not asking this because we're looking for a reputation.

We are looking for your reputation to be known again in this generation. We're looking for your name to be shouted in countries and in homes and situations, God, by lips that people would least expect would ever shout your name. God, we're asking for glory to be given to the name of Jesus.

Father, for the sake of Jesus Christ, send your Holy Spirit through the airwaves, through the internet tonight, God, and do a work that only you can do. Oh, Jesus Christ, Lord God, my heart is aflame with the desire to see you glorified again. You deserve to be glorified.

You're the king of glory. You are the one who created the universe. You are the one who came to this earth.

You've bent and bowed your knee for our sakes. God, your heart needs to be made known again. Your power needs to be made known.

The person that you are needs to be made known again. Jesus Christ, thank you, God, for an anointing. I recognize, Lord, that I have really serious limitations in this human body, but you don't.

You're not limited. God, you can take the utterances that come from my lips, as stammering as they might be, and you can multiply them and begin to feed a multitude. This is my prayer tonight, God.

Oh, Jesus Christ, be glorified in your precious name. Amen. What do I do when hope is lost? Ezekiel 37, beginning at verse 11, then he said to me, that's God speaking to the prophet Ezekiel, son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel.

They indeed say our bones are dry. Our hope is lost and we ourselves are cut off. Therefore prophesy and say to them, thus says the Lord God, behold, oh my people, I will open your graves and cause you to come up from your graves and bring you into the land of Israel.

Then you shall know that I am the Lord when I have opened your graves, oh my people, and brought you up from your graves. I will put my spirit in you and you shall live and I will place you in your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed it, says the Lord.

The people of this time were like many might be tonight listening to this online. Here was their testimony. I'm spiritually dry and what I thought my life would be is gone.

My hopes, they said, our bones are dry. Our hope is lost. And I saw that in prayer quest after prayer quest tonight.

I have no hope. I have no hope. I lost hope.

My hope is gone. In so many people's lives, you're exactly where these people were in this particular time in history. And we ourselves are cut off.

Not only am I dry, not only do I feel like what I thought my life was going to be is gone. I feel cut off from the favor of God. I cried out at one time and he didn't show up.

Or maybe I behaved in such a way or was so casual with the things of God. I played with sin and I knew I shouldn't have. And because of it, I feel like I've lost the favor of God.

I'm as good as dead. In Psalm 77, verses seven to nine, the psalmist finds himself in the same place that others once have been. And here's what he said.

Will the Lord cast off forever in verse seven of Psalm 77? Will he be favorable no more? Has his mercy ceased forever? Has his promise failed forevermore? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? And I don't know about you, but every one of us have a time like this in our own heart. Every one of us go through a season. Maybe it's the valley of the shadow of death that David talked about, where we feel like we're just dead to the things of God.

We're dead to the promises of God. Our hope seems to be cut off. Our future seems to be gone.

And we feel like for whatever reason, maybe God's found some secret flaw in me that maybe I'm not aware of, or maybe God knows my obvious flaws. Maybe he's just gotten fed up with me and put me away. And will he show me favor no more, the psalmist says? Is his mercy ceased? Has his promise failed? Has he forgotten to be good to me? Or has he in anger shut up his tender mercies? But later on in this psalm, in verses 10 to 12 and 11, he says he declares this to be the fruit of his own worry and his trembling heart.

And he determines to call to mind how God has dealt with struggling people in the past. The psalmist says, this is my anguish or my infirmity in the original language. He says, this is my weakness.

This way of thinking about God. This is not how God is. But this is how I've allowed myself to think that God has become in my case.

But I will remember the years of the right hand of the most high. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely, I will remember your wonders of old.

I will also meditate on all your work, and I will talk of your deeds. Your way, O God, is in the sanctuary. Who is so great a God as our God? You are the God who does wonders.

You've declared your strength among the peoples, and you have with your arm redeemed the people, the sons of Jacob and Joseph. The psalmist says, I will speak to you in this hopeless place. I will raise you up out of places that could not escape with whatever strength you might have left.

This is God speaking now to the psalmist. I will take you to the place which I've appointed you. I have spoken it, and I will do it.

I will raise you up. I will speak to you in this place. Ezekiel 37 and verse 12, prophesy and say to them, Thus says the Lord.

Now the people are saying, We're dry. Our hope is gone, and we're cut off from the mercy of God. Some of you tonight don't even know why you've come into this prayer meeting.

You're sitting there saying, I don't even know why I bother watching this. I see answered prayers on the screen, but God doesn't seem to be answering mine. My hope seems to be diminishing, and I feel like I'm cut off from God.

And the Lord tells the prophet Ezekiel, he says, Now speak to these people in this hopeless place and say these words to them. I will open your graves, and I will cause you to come up from your grave. I will bring you out of the place of death that you find yourself in.

I will bring you out of a place that you can't escape with your own strength. I will take you to the place that I've appointed for you. It's not going to be your might.

It's not going to be by your power. It's going to be by my spirit, by my mercy, because I've determined to do this for you. I'm not late in coming to you.

As Jesus Christ once said about a friend Lazarus who had died, This sickness is not unto death, but it is for the glory of God. Have you ever considered that you might have been reserved for the glory of God in the last days? Have you considered that perhaps God has allowed you to drift into this place so that you will finally realize you can't get out in your own strength, and you will call out to him, and he will bring you the deliverance that only God can. And your lips will not be about seven steps that I took to get out of where I am.

You will have only one name on your lips, the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. That will be the only name on your lips. But I know there are people tonight that say, Oh God, I feel so helpless and hopeless.

Don't ask too much of me. Is there something that I can do? I'll tell you what you can do. Hebrews 13, 15, the writer says, Today, if you can hear his voice, do not harden your heart against him.

If you hear him calling you, if you hear him speaking to you, if suddenly as these words are coming to you tonight, there's a sudden warming in your heart, there's a sudden stirring within you. That's the Holy Spirit of God telling you tonight, this message is not for somebody else. This message is now for you.

Your time has come, your time to be taken out of darkness, your time to be taken out of this place of hopelessness and to be brought into the place of strength that can only be found in God through Jesus Christ. Now, Jesus came to a friend who had died, and I could think of this man, Lazarus, in the New Testament. He got sick, and the scripture does tell us that Jesus loved him.

At least the people thought that anyway, that saw the relationship. Jesus would come to his house, he would eat at his table. And Lazarus one day got sick, and then he called out to his friend.

But his friend didn't come at the time that he thought that he should. And many people listening tonight, because he didn't, Jesus didn't come at the time you thought that he should. Then you say what Lazarus might have said.

I feel so dry, I feel so empty. I feel like my hope is gone. I feel like the mercy of God has departed from me.

I feel cut off from God. If Jesus could heal me, why isn't he come? Why hasn't he done it? Why is he allowing me to go down into this place of darkness? Why is he not listening to my cry? But you see, what you don't understand is what Lazarus didn't understand either. You see, Jesus had heard his cry, and he had determined to come exactly at the right time.

He doesn't come when we think he should. He's not on our time schedule. As a matter of fact, he lives outside of time.

He doesn't have a watch. He doesn't live in time. He comes just at the right time.

He comes when your situation is such that for him to raise you out of it will bring glory to his name, and your life will become a testimony of the reality of what God is and what God can do, and who God really is. As the psalmist, you'll be able to say, this is my infirmity. This is the frailty of my heart.

I allowed myself to believe something about God that isn't true. God loves me. God is for me.

If Jesus Christ came to the earth and died on a cross for you, was beaten to a pulp, allowed himself to be falsely accused, falsely tried, falsely condemned, falsely crucified, spit upon and mocked and thrown into a grave, and he did all that for you, do you think he's not going to come and set you free? This is your infirmity. I'm telling you straight out tonight, this is your wrong thinking about God. He loves you more than you can even understand in your own mind.

Your definition of the word love is so far short of what God determines and defines love to be that you can't even begin to fathom the depth of God's love for you. No, he has left us on the earth and we are reserved unto him as a testimony of his glory. And I know that Lazarus probably succumbed in a sense to his unbelief in his last moments because his sisters sure did and they were all around his bedside and probably the testimony of Jesus hasn't come.

Jesus doesn't care. Jesus maybe got sick of us sitting in our house, maybe got tired of our conversation and our constant questions of him and he just decided maybe he's just got something more important to do. But he said to his disciples, this sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God.

Your situation tonight is not unto death. It is for the glory of God because God is going to raise you in these last days. He's going to give you a new heart, a new mind, a new spirit, a new song, a new future, new strength, new power, a new reason to live.

He's going to do it sovereignly for you, supernaturally for you in the last days because that's the way he shows who he is. That's how his glory is revealed. In John chapter 11, he came to the place where unbelief had found a stronghold.

Everyone is weeping as the psalmist in Psalm 77 once did, as the people of God once did in Ezekiel 37. Everyone is saying it's too late, too bad, too sorry. God could have come, he didn't.

And now the situation is irredeemable. In verse 39, he comes to where the hopeless situation was and he says, take away the stone. And tonight, this is what you can do.

Don't harden your heart, but remove the thoughts in your mind that nothing will ever change. That's the stone in your life right now. I want you to actually physically take your hand and push away the stone that you have allowed to be placed between you and Jesus Christ, between you and the voice of God.

Take away the stone. Take away the thoughts that nothing will ever change in my life. I'm too far gone.

I'm too weak. I'm too hopeless. Not only do I feel that way, but everybody around me agrees with me.

While they might agree with you, but there is one who doesn't agree with you. He is the creator of the universe. He is the one who has the power to give life and the power to take it away.

He is the one over whom death has no power. He is the one whose voice can create a universe. He is the one who loves you with an everlasting love.

He is the one who cried your name in his last breath on the cross before he healed up his body. The scripture says he cried with a loud cry and I firmly believe that your name was in that cry. Take away the stone.

Take away the unbelief. Take away the thoughts that your situation is hopeless. It will never change.

It will always be this way. You will always be weak. You will always be an addict.

You will always be depressed. You'll always be this. You'll always be that.

Take away the stone. Not only will your situation change, you will become a testimony of the power of God, the mercy of God, and the reality of God. And then Jesus said with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.

The next thing you do is move towards the sound of his voice. It's the only thing he could do. He personally couldn't change his situation.

He personally couldn't yield up any more strength than that which God was willing to give him. He stood up in the strength of God. So tonight, those that are listening online, I want to challenge you.

Stand up in the strength of God. Right now, stand up in your living room. Stand up.

If you're sitting in your car, get out of your car and stand up beside him. But stand up in the strength of God. That's the beginning.

Hear his voice. Remove the stone. Hear his voice.

Stand up and move towards the sound of the voice of the Son of God who's calling you out of darkness and into life, out of sin and into forgiveness, out of powerlessness into the power of a new life enabled by the Spirit of God. And then the third thing he said as Lazarus moved towards the sound of his voice, loose him and let him go. In other words, the third thing you can do is don't resist him when he unwraps the death that's been around your mind.

It's been around your heart. It's been around your future. He just will start unwrapping you.

Don't resist the unwrapping of God. May I put it that way. When he unwraps, the first thing he unwraps is probably his eyes.

So now he can see what he didn't see before. Didn't Jesus say, I came to give sight to those that are blind, are spiritually blind. And he unwraps his mouth.

That means I give you a new song. I give you a new testimony. I give you new words of praise.

I give you new things to say. I give you a whole new life, a whole new heart. And he unwraps his heart.

Hallelujah. I give you a whole new heart because under the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks, the eyes see. He unwraps his loins, he unwraps his legs.

He gives us a new walk, a new journey, a new direction, a new future, a new vision. He gives us a new everything. And you and I become a testimony of the reality that Jesus Christ is the son of God.

He holds all power in his hand and he is able to save to the uttermost those who call out to him. Today, if you can hear his voice, don't harden your heart. Worship team, would you come please? Don't harden your heart.

Don't harden your heart. Take away the stone. All of the unbelief, everything that everybody has ever said about you.

Push it away. Push it away. Maybe people said you were hopeless.

Maybe people said you'll always be an addict. Maybe people said you're a bully. I don't care what they said.

It doesn't matter what they said. It matters what Jesus says about you. Take away the stone.

The thoughts in your own heart that nothing will ever change. Take it away and move now. Move to the sound of the voice of the one who created the universe.

And not only the universe, he created you in his image and he created you for an everlasting relationship with him. He created you out of the love of his own heart for you. He redeemed you because he loved you.

He died for you because he loved you. Move to the sound of his voice and let him do what he's going to do. Lazarus didn't get raised from the dead by his own strength and he's not going to get unwrapped by his own strength either.

Don't you love it? Oh God, we make it so complicated sometimes. That's so simple. Jesus, tonight I'm asking, would you raise thousands of people from the death? Would you raise them out of darkness? Would you raise them out of graves that this world has put them in? Would you raise them out of places of hopelessness? Would you raise them out of depression, addiction, despair, perversion? Just raise them up out of these places where they have become wrapped in death.

Give them life. Give them life. Father, I believe this with all my heart.

I'm going to ask you to pray with me right now. People in the sanctuary and people online, pray these words with me right now. Lord Jesus Christ, I hear you.

I hear you. I hear you calling me. I don't have any strength and I know I can't get up on my own, but I hear you calling me and so tonight I get up in the strength of God and I walk towards the sound of your voice.

I thank you for loving me. I thank you for forgiving me for all the wrong that I have done. Thank you for forgiving me for the wrong thoughts that I've had about you, Lord.

Tonight I open my heart to you. I invite you into my life to be my Lord, my Savior, and my God. Lord, loosen me and let me go into the life that you have prepared for me.

I love you, Jesus. Thank you for loving me. From this day forward, I am your child and you are my God.

Thank you for saving me in Jesus name. Now, Father, I pray for those that have prayed that prayer tonight. God Almighty, I'm asking you to be God Almighty in their lives.

I'm asking you, Lord Jesus Christ, to raise up an army in this last, an army in this last day of soldiers with a song. Hallelujah. An army of Esther's who will intercede.

An army of David's who will fight the giants. An army of old men who will go in and say, let the people of God go. An army of worshipers that will be heard throughout the world.

Today, raise that army. Oh God, I thank you for people who right now are coming out of darkness and into light. They're coming out of graves and into life.

They're coming out of bondage and into freedom. I thank you right now for what you're doing right now in Jesus name.