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As you know I’m kind of stuck in John 14-17. Which isn’t a bad thing at all, if you took my advice and have been reading those four chapters every day, maybe even multiple times a day. So in the last episode, I ended with this thought. I didn’t develop it much, but I threw it out there at the end, the thought was simply this, "If hope is contagious, love is how it spreads." If hope is contagious, love is how it spreads, so if we want to spread hope, we might need a love breakthrough!

In this episode, we'll touch a bit more on the relationships that Jesus touches on in John 14-17. Each relationship is a place where we can pray for breakthrough!

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Remember in a recent episode, talking about prayer, I said that while helplessness is a great initiator of prayer, helplessness is not enough. We need hopefulness to sustain prayer. But when our helplessness meets His hopefulness, something pretty amazing can happen. So I want to talk a bit again about that hopefulness. And here is the statement that I'm going to make...

Hope is contagious!

I'm praying that contagious hope fills every heart that listens to this episode!

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What is peace? In our culture today, we typically define peace in terms of absence. It's the absence of noise, the absence of storms, the absence of conflict and anxiety. But when Jesus spoke of peace, he used the Hebrew word, shalom. Shalom is fullness and wholeness, not absence. Shalom is well-being in the widest sense of the word. It's the blessing of God which sums up all other blessings. Shalom is more about fullness than emptiness, more about presence than absence. Shalom is the wholeness of heart that comes from a fullness of God.

Are you seeking peace?

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Expectancy is a tenacious hope that never stops believing that the best is yet to come. In this episode we will hear Jesus tie together expectancy, child-birth, and travailing prayer. Travailing prayer is the painful work of giving birth to something new. The Bible seems to speak little of casual prayer. It's pages are filled with examples of people who wrestled with God, travailed, groaned and cried out in prayer to see God's purposes birthed in their lives and the world around them.

So I have to ask you, the same questions, I ask myself. Who are the people in our day who will pray like this? Where are the next gen students who will travail in prayer until God births something new in their school? Where are the neighbors who will let expectancy saturate their trouble so that they cannot help but travail in prayer? Where are the employees who will push in prayer till God births smthng new in their company? Where are the travailing mothers and fathers, the grandmas and grandpas, who will not let God rest till the Spirit gives birth to a new season in their family?

It's time to travail...

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It would probably be a good thing for you to read on your own all of John 14-17 multiple times as you listen to the next 5-6 episodes. These four chapters are Jesus last words before he gives his life for a world in trouble. So imagine this, you're with Jesus, sitting by a fire in a cabin, or talking a walk in the afternoon. You're walking through a vineyard and you don't know it but Jesus is sharing his last words before he dies on a cross. Most scholars call these four chapters, Jesus "Farewell Discourse." I think it's anything but his farewell discourse. These are not last words, they are beginning words; summation words maybe, transition words definitely, but not last words.

This is Jesus locker-room challenge before you go out and play the most important game of your life. This is your favorite teacher at commencement looking you in the eye and saying, "You got this." It's your OBGYN doctor, saying, "push, it's time to push. I know it hurts, but something good is coming."

I hope these next few episodes covering John 14-17, truly encourage you!

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In our culture today, Christians are known by and known for a handful of things, to be honest to many of those things are not good things. We are known for our politics. We are known for our moral stands on issues that matter to us. But are we known for the way we love each other?

What are we known for?

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It was just before the Passover Feast. Jesus knew that the time had come for him to leave this world and go to the Father. He knew that all power had been given to Him, so he decided to show his disciples the full extent of his love, show them that he loved them to the very end. Just stop for a moment and think about that. He is about to show his followers, the full extent of his love. What is the full extent of your love? How far does your love go? Jesus...is about to show his followers the full extent, the full measure, he's going all the way, holding nothing back; the heights and depths of the love of Jesus is about to go center stage.

What do you suppose the full extent of Jesus' love looks like? That's what we find in John 13.

Jesus...is about to show his followers the full extent, the
full measure, he's going all the way, holding nothing
back...the heights and depths of the love of Jesus is

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We've been settling for the false finish lines of comfort and control. We've been settling for false finish lines of politics and the economy. I have no faith in politics to bring us glory. That's not our finish line. In fact, filling up church buildings on a Sunday morning is a false finish line. But I have found over and over again, that it’s difficult, if not impossible to lean into new things without being done with the old things. So my question is Are we done with the old things? Are we ready to run to the true goal, the finish line of Christ?

I long to see the church shine bright like a city on a hill. I long for us to be known as the hands & heart of Christ. I still believe that the church that Jesus is building is the hope of the world. I want to be part of that church. But to be that church some old things need to die and get planted. What in you needs to die and get planted?
praying for that church to be done with old things.

What if God wants to do a new thing in our day, but he’s just waiting for us to give up some old things?