how many of you are tired of being impacted by the size of a problem and you want to impact the problem with the size of your hope how many of you want the upgrad in joy we pray for that Lord I pray right now that you would release to us a hope that is actually measurable in joy that never again would we fall under the influence of the size of a problem but instead our own Joy would be that lifegiving spring within us thank you all right this is actually a sign in front of a
church it said Deacon Joe battle's funeral is cancelled he is alive after all I don't even understand how you can schedule a funeral if the person's not dead oh well I don't need a valentine I need $8 million and a fast metabolism my favorite exercise is a cross between a lunge and a crunch it's called lunch being cremated is my last hope for a smoking hot body that's just gross teach your kids about taxes eat 30% of their ice [Applause] cream this older couple's looking at each other the wife says you told me you'd spend
your whole life trying to make me happy he responded I didn't expect to live this long there a a a sign in a in a restaurant where where the restrooms are men to the left because women are always right this picture in a restaurant with a a bowl of eggs and a sign on the bowl says boneless chicken two more sign on the front of a store says push if that doesn't work pull if that doesn't work we must be closed and then the last one is one I read every once in a while it
was a Mother's Day card written by my grandson Cruz who I believe was five at the time uh to his mother my mom is as pretty as a dancing princess she is as sweet as a horse she is as smart as God we're working on his theology but most of all she is special like a dragon that is nice and can shoot water out of its mouth no woman has ever received as great a Mother's Day card as that that's that's at the top of grab your Bibles open to the book of Isaiah chapter 35
if you would we're going to look at um there are certain chapters I like to read I like to go through the Bible book by book uh section by section like the gospels maybe the Epistles the books of Law whatever and I like to that's how I like to go through the scriptures and but I also have portions that I just turned to randomly that I call recreational reading and Isaiah 35 is one of my recreational chapters it's been uh very meaningful to me for quite a few years back goodness going way back into Weaverville
day so we've been here 22 years and it was probably oh 35 years ago at least that I first stumbled on this chapter for what it's worth something I I saw clearer this morning than I've seen ever before was the relationship of Hope to Joy I I didn't realize I I don't know why it didn't cross my mind but I didn't realize that Joy is actually connected to Hope and that where you find Hope find hopelessness you find no joy and where you find great hope you find great joy I think it's it may be
possible I need to think through this but I think it may be possible in some ways to measure a person's Hope by measuring their Joy when you understand what the word hope means it helps it helps for that to make sense in present culture uh hope for us is like a wish I hope that happens it's like and I I wish this would take place it's it's kind of the shot in the dark uh but biblical hope is completely different than that it couldn't be more uh different than that it uh than than you can
imagine it the word hope in the Bible is the joyful anticipation of good joyful anticipation of good that's actually what the word means so it's Joy before you get what you were praying for it's like it's the anticipation of good that is equal in the measure of joy as to how you feel after you get the Breakthrough in another month or so we'll have a World Series I love B baseball baseball's always been my our family Sport and uh there will be a winner of the World Series and they will there will be people in
the locker room testifying that they are thankful to God for giving them their gift their opportunity and I love seeing that because that's uh you know if you can't give God thanks in the good times you're you're a mess you need help maybe Deliverance I don't know I'm always thankful to see those reports but that kind of joy is not that hard to stir up because it's in response to something wonderful happening uh to you maybe something you work for maybe it's just a blessing out of out of nothing I remember years ago my uh
my wife's parents uh were sh went into a particular grocery store here locally I think they were the 100,000th customer and as they walk through the doors the bells rang and they were given a brand new Toyota Camry and so it's not it's not hard to rejoice when you've just won a brand new car you know you didn't do anything you just happen to go shopping and you won the car you rejoice of course but the Biblical word of Hope is actually measured in a joy that is expressed before there's anything to Rejoice for and
it's not um it's not wishful thinking it's not like uh it's not it's not based on nothing it's based on the actual nature and character of God it's based on his prevailing word over your life over my life it's is that we live conscious of the heart of God the mind of God the nature of God and his devotion or commitment to us and because of that I may not know what's always happening but I can always live with hope because I know that nothing I'm facing caught him off guard there's nothing I'm a lot
of things I'm facing right now they caught me off guard they caught me by surprise but there's nothing I'm facing that caught him by surprise and so I can always return to that place of confidence knowing that even though I didn't know to expect this my relationship with him has kept me positioned to be a person of hope so I can actually celebrate the answer before I know what the answer is going to look like before it ever even comes that really is the life of a Believer your responsibility our responsibility in life is to
live with hope that is actually contagious it is it's infectious it's uh it's not there's a there's there's a kind of oh it's kind of a phony faith that just denies reality and and I don't like that because real Faith doesn't deny the existence of a problem real Faith denies the problem a place of influence and so I'm I I don't ignore the fact that I've got this doctor's report or I've got this bill that is due or this relational conflict or whatever I may not have answers for these things that I'm facing but I
know that my father does I know that when Jesus died he took into full consideration everything I would ever face in life he died in my place for my sin he went to the absolute outer reaches of what love looked like and the implication of scripture is if he would do that certainly everything that is less than that is covered does that make sense I I just put a great verse into my own wordss it didn't work as good but it's CU I couldn't remember how to quote the other verse so here's here's my pretend
copy of the verse if he went that far certainly everything this side of that extreme Act of Love is covered by that same Act of love how will he not Al so freely give us all things so we have in Isaiah 35 the first couple verses of start with these verses of Hope let me give you kind of prophetic language here um I did a study uh goodness a a long time ago again as weeve days and what I did is I looked for every place I could find water in the Old Testament so there
would be mention of rivers uh streams Springs rain any any kind of manifestation of water and what I did is I looked at all these prophecies these prophets would say and and he will bring streams in the desert or rivers on the mountains and there's all these terms that were so unusual and and uh and while I believe there's application of these kinds of promises for nature itself ultimately what God is looking at is the bareness of of a human heart he's looking at the barrenness of of human condition and he's giving a promise of
a solution so anyway what I did is I I lined up every verse I could find and what I found was that no no matter what Israel was facing sometimes they're facing uh military threat uh Nations that are set against them sometimes they are tasting of their own uh sin and and they're tasting the fruit of their own choices for generations and and so they're facing that dilemma they're facing maybe uh disease or whatever it might be anyway it seemed that no matter what the problem was when God brought a promise it was always in
the form of water he he would say they're surrounded by enemy Nations it's all right I'm going to bring streams in the desert uh Rivers won't help us God we actually need to defeat our enemies but his terminology is what you and I need to line up with because if you do you'll understand the language of the prophets in scripture whenever I don't want to say it's 100% of the time but it's pretty close to whenever water was mentioned in Scripture it represented the Holy Spirit and so no matter the problem God's answer was I'm
just going to release the Holy Spirit to you I'm going to send you the outpouring of the Holy Spirit the early and latter rain I'm going to give you I'm going to give you streams in the desert and we see this terminology all through the Old Testament and it's basically a prophecy of God releasing his presence and power as the one cure all there are responsibilties that we have in life but this increase of presence is really the big Cry of the human heart all right Isaiah 35 you ready yes Bill we're ready amen verse
one the Wilderness and the Wasteland shall be glad for them the desert shall rejoice and Blossom as the rose it shall Blossom abundantly I just love the word abundance Blossom abundantly and rejoice flowers are rejoicing even with joy and singing The Glory of Lebanon shall be given to it the Excellence of Carmel and Sharon they shall see the glory of the Lord the Excellency of our God so what is this this is a a um a Barren area that is visited by God until the blooms are blossoming with abundance the the ultimate is they finally
see the glory of God which is in this passage defined as the ex Excellency of God so are are you tracking with me so here they're in this place and in hope all of a sudden they've got this Wellspring of Joy rising up in them because they have so connected with God's promise and purpose over their life that there is abundance they are flourishing there is life or there's always been death and now this Joy is just stirring up and they're seeing him the ultimate is to see the glory of God which is the Excellency
of God himself so we've got this as the backdrop for the rest of the chapter now verse three strengthen the weak hands make firm the feeble knees say to those who are fearful hearted be strong do not fear behold your God will come with vengeance with a recompense of God he will come and save you look at those two verses again strengthen the weak hands now now here here's this is verse three and four are the two verses in the chapter where you and I are commissioned to do something all right we've got the backdrop
of God changing circumstances the backdrop where he just shows up an extraordinary way and then he says here's your job strengthen the weak hands make firm the feeble knees say to those who are fearful hearted be strong do not fear behold your God will come with vengeance with a recompense of God he will come and save you this is interesting because of a life immersed in hope we are able to step up to the person who is not in hope the person who is faltering the person who is at the place of personal weakness all
of us have been in the place of weakness we've all been in the place of strength this right now is giving us the backdrop listen you are being immersed in the purposes of God you have a reason to live with hope every day of your life and in fact to the measure you are without hope to that measure you are under the influence of a lie no one who truly believes what God has said is without hope there is nothing you and I will ever face that caught him by surprise nor was not already included
in his solution one of the strangest things in scripture to me is where it talks about Jesus being crucified from before the foundations of the earth so picture this before the world was made God the Father the Son already made a decision we're going to create a world we're going to create people in our image they will sin so there's already the commitment in the Heart of Jesus I will die in their place what is that mean before there was a problem there was a solution yeah that's amazing so when you and I hit something
that's brand new to us it's not new to him before there was a problem there was already a solution so here he gives us the commission he says all right find those that are in the place of weakness strengthen their hands they're not able to work as they're supposed to strengthen their knees what does that look I don't know I just remember years ago a friend of mine that was fresh out of the military talked about they would they would have to run these great distances and some sometimes one of their troops would would just
lose all strength and collapse and so they would run over to them because they're all graded as as a group one person would take the backpack put it on top of their own backpack two other soldiers would take the soldier by the arms and they would actually carry him the rest of the race he didn't have the strength to finish the race on his own so two others that had strength would carry him the rest of the race until they finish maybe that's what it is maybe it's the fact that we stand with one another
and we hold each other up and tell our until our knes are strengthen until we're at a place where we can carry out the very thing that God called us but it didn't stop there with just physical service a touch a Embrace holding somebody up it moves into a prophetic realm that I don't think was um I I don't I don't see this passage as somebody waiting to get a word from God so they can prophesy to their friend instead I think this is an automatic decree that we owe to one another because we know
the nature of God and the overriding promise of God for any situation in our life so what is it say to the one who is fearful Don't Be Afraid God is going to vindicate you with full recompense everything that's been lost he will restore to you why is that important it's not just um it's not just it's not just empty encourage how many you know what I mean when I say empty encouragement is somebody who's trying hard but doesn't hit the mark and doesn't fix anything this this is actually the release of the grace of
God into an individual's life that helps to bring them into the very answer that they ache for so look at it again say here I'm strengthening hands strengthening knees now don't be afraid Don't Be Afraid God's going to vindicate you there's nothing that we are facing that he hasn't already provided a solution for he will fully restore everything to you and they may not have the ability to face that thing on their own but it's all right cuz we got their arms and we're standing they're bringing that kind of encouragement why is this vital to
me in fact in my Bible I I wrote Ephesians 4:29 down next to this passage because it for me it perfectly illustrates a truth that that uh I I saw in in Ephesians 4:29 here's the verse I'll quote it to you let no unh wholesome word proceed out of your mouth but only such a word as is good for edification according to to the need of the moment that it might give Grace to those who hear all right no negative words encouraging words only edifying words according to the need of the moment so it has
specific application that it might give Grace to those here that's the fascinating part to me is that I could come to you and give you an encouraging word and somehow that would bring Grace where does Grace come from it comes from God grace is what it's God's favor okay work with me here it's God's favor I take this individual I come to them with an encouraging word I said 'd don't be afraid Don't Be Afraid God's going to vindicate you you fully Supply whatever was stolen from you I will stand with you we're going to
see this through God will fully vindicate every loss you've ever suffered we make this decree but here's what scripture says when we bring that word of edification according to the need of the moment it gives Grace where does Grace come from God so let me put it in my language he sees me choosing an individual to encourage and he says all right that is where I will add Grace I will now release Divine favor where my son has shown [Applause] favor we don't manipulate or control God but he's given us permission every person in the
room has been given the ministry of reconciliation it's in First Corinthians every person every one of us have certain overlapping responsibilities and in this case is the responsibility to stand as one who believes in The Vindicator I can't vindicate you I can't fully provide for you what was lost but I can stand with you out of my confidence because I have hope out of my confidence and who God is and his promise that prevails over my life over your life and I can say he will fully vindicate God sees me bringing the edification according to
the need of the moment and he says I will now add my power called Grace into the equation which will help to bring about the Vindication I have promised will it happen if you don't say it see the Lord doesn't give us commissions that he'll carry out if we don't he doesn't give us an assignment go into all the world preach the gospel but if you guys just get too tired or whatever it's all right I'll I'll just do it myself or if you don't go I'll send angels my goodness I'd rather have Angel sent
anywhere there some 20 foot Angel standing on a street corner probably have a bigger response than any of us or Jesus will just show up in the flesh and man if that's the option let's just have him do it when he gives us a commission it's because he has imparted to us a divine enablement grace and a responsibility to carry out the assignment so my question is I've got the weak faltering person next to me that needs someone to strengthen someone to grab an arm stand with them bring encouraging words to them but then prophesy
God will vindicate you is it possible that some of the things we've waited for him to do have been delayed because he's been waiting for us to do the thing he assigned us to do we've seen it before I've seen it a number of times in my life where I've waited and waited and waited and I found out after a while that he was waiting for me he's waiting for me to act waiting me for me to obey take risk whatever it might be and all that time I blamed the absence of something on the
sovereignty of God when in fact it was just the lack of risk and obedience on the part of bill so here we have the verse strengthen the weak hands make firm the feeble knees say to those who are fearful hearted be strong do not fear behold your God will come with vengeance with a recompense of God he will come and save you look at verse five then the eyes of the blind shall be open then get next to the hurting person prophesy over them that God will fully vindicate then the eyes of the blind are
open the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped the lame will leap like a deer the tongue of the dumb will sing for Waters shall burst forth into Wilderness streams in the desert do you see this then the eyes will be open the ears will be open the lame the tong everything healed everything restored what did it follow it followed the decree made by the hope-filled believer notice the language the prophetic language used in this passage to illustrate a Supernatural Invasion into a person's life then the eyes of the blind will be open the ears
of the deaf will be unstopped the lame will leap like a deer the tongue of of the uh dumb will speak for I will have poured out Rivers water shall burst forth in the wilderness and streams in the desert there's that prophetic language he says this healing takes place why because streams why ERS I released my presence who comes to you like rain I remember standing right here in uh School of ministry second year class actually I think it's first year several years ago someone asked me a question about worship and it started raining right
here inside the building just started raining I thought the rain was always spiritual sometimes it just rains where it shouldn't like indoors you must had a leak up there yeah it got repaired right after it stopped raining the angel who broke it repaired it apparently I don't understand any of that but I I like anything that makes me wonder I was in Las Vegas years ago Randy Clark and I were doing an event there and it started raining indoors this that time it rained for like three hours Brian and Jen were leading worship they LED
with the song Rain Down by delirious and it did it rained down for like 3 hours so the Pastor sent teams up to the roof to find where the leak was there was nothing up there it wasn't raining there's no leak it's just raining sometimes the Lord does thing to offend our brain to soften our heart because he wants to do something out of the out of the ordinary break into the unusual he wants to bring Rivers into dry places and sometimes that means eyes are open sometimes it means deaf ears are healed sometimes it
means the lame walk sometimes it means it just rains there are people all around this city that ache in their heart as they go to sleep at night and it's all because they don't know anyone with hope if they just knew one person that had the Rock Solid hope of confidence in God they would approach life differently let's look at the rest of the chapter then we'll wrap this up verse eight a highway shall be there a road it shall be called a Highway of Holiness a Highway of Holiness in Psalm no Isaiah 62 there's
a a highway that's talked about and it's uh a highway is built if you can picture this worship worshippers are like spiritual bulldozers that remove rubble and stones and as they prepare to build this highway and it's this unusual picture it's in Isaiah 62 I think it's verse 10 so here's this worshippers in the spiritual realm are actually bulldozing atmosphere where a highway is built I know it's it's odd terminology but it's not mine it's Isaiah and the Holy Spirit so here's this highway that's being built in this chapter it's called this road is called
The Highway of Holiness now I love this because I think one of the most misunderstood things about God himself is the Holiness of God when when we see him and stand before him none of us will stand and say love love even though he is love none of us will stand and say good good or great great everyone who sees him says holy holy holy see Holiness is the actual beauty of God it's called the beauty of holiness Holiness is one of the things the enemy fears the most in his people because Holiness is the
actual it's the actual representat representation of the nature and presence of God into culture and Society the enem has worked hard to reduce Holiness to a list of rules things you can do things you can't do it's not that it's a person it's the it's the essence of a person his own Beauty his own Wonder this particular passage describes this backdrop of Hope the people of God getting in there bringing encouragement and prophetic decrees the invasion of the supernatural into those people's lives and out of that comes this Highway of Holiness it's amazing what people
are willing to pay a price for when they discover it's authentic and it's real it's amazing what people will lay down to pick up something else when they find out this is the pearl of great price everything else I own is nothing compared to this and the Holiness of God actually reveals the very nature of God imparted to the people of God his purpose is all wrapped up in this thing called Holiness and here A Highway of Holiness is built the unclean shall not pass over it it shall be for others now my translation new
King James is a little different than I think both New American Standard and new international but I I want you to hear it out of this one whoever walks on the road although a fool shall not go astray I love that I love that this road is so wide that you get somebody on their worst day and they're still not going to fall off the road that encourages me it may not encourage you but I like that verse a Highway of Holiness that has been made so Broad and so profound that the weak instead of
faltering somehow become a success when in a previous season they never would have made it verse n no lion will be there I'm glad for that nor any ra ravenous Beast go upon it shall not be found there the redeemed shall walk there here's our last verse the ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion with singing with Everlasting Joy on their heads they shall obtain joy and gladness all right listen to what it said they will come with joy and obtain Joy anyone in the market for an upgrade enjoy it will embarrass
you anyone in the market for an upgrade [Applause] enjoy you saw [Laughter] it when Joy it's amazing how many people want joy until they see it they will come with joy and obtain joy and gladness sorrow sighing shall flee away here's my prayer in fact I'll just pray Lord My Cry is that an upgrade of Hope would be released into this church family how many of you are tired of being impacted by the size of a problem and you want to impact the problem with the size of your hope size yeah amen so Lord we
do we just pray that we pray that that you would so impact every every one of us that we would never again be impressed with the size of a problem or a dilemma a challenge but so infected driven by the size of great hope that we would be an instrument of solution of resolution an instrument of the release of Grace of Miracles into the most broken environment how many of you want the upgrade in joy we pray for that Lord I pray right now that you you would release to us a hope that is actually
measurable in joy that never again would we fall under the influence of the size of a problem but instead our own Jo Joy would be that lifegiving spring within us that not only impacts us and our families but impacts everybody around us we pray this in Jesus mighty name yeah I just I pray that that would just increase you know in fact I pray that some of you would wake yourselves up laughing to where you're embarrassed the cool thing is you can be so intoxicated by joy that you're no longer embarrassed so I pray for
that level to be released over every single person every person tonight's going to be one of those [Applause] nights I know anytime we have this many people in a room there's always a good chance that we have people here who don't have an actual personal relationship with Jesus the Bible throws out this cry whoever Wills may come in other words the invitation is open to every single person to know what the Forgiveness of God is like to know what it's like to be adopted brought into his family as his son as his daughter this that
the Bible calls salvation or being born again is actually available for every single person in the room I'm going to ask everyone please just hold your places cuz this moment is the most important moment of the day if there's anyone here who would just say Bill I don't want to leave the building till I know I've been forgiven that I'm at peace with God that he welcomes me into his family if there's anyone in that position today I want you just put a hand up by doing so you're saying those words bill I don't want
to leave the building till I know I'm at peace with God I've been forgiven of all sin I've been adopted brought into his family I wait just a moment it's worth waiting for but I I want to make sure that everyone anyone who's here that who is not born again has the opportunity to meet Jesus all right I'm going to assume you're all in let's go ahead and stand together please continue to hold your places um I want to have Ministry team come on down to the front real quickly if you would I want to
have our teams of people down here ready to help to serve to pray and then anyone who needs a miracle in your body maybe in your finances could be in any area we've got people here who just believe God for a miracle for you we've had great reports this morning in our early prayer meeting one of our uh our former janitors who is now a missionary which is a logical leap led someone to the Lord in the country that they are in and this couple have be their home has become literally a Healing Center where
people have lined up they fill the home they've only been saved a year but they lay hands on the sick there are people getting healed like crazy and it's just what happens when you say yes to Jesus
