Episode Transcript
[00:00:01] Hey, guys, this is Naeeb and you've reached the Mosaic church podcast. So excited that you're part of our listening community and I'd love for you to be even more connected. So check out our website. There's more content there, and there's more opportunities for you to get connected in our ministries and events as well. Also, love for you to share this content if this is blessed to you. I know that God wants to use you to bless other people with it, so share this podcast if you will. Lastly, would you consider supporting this ministry? This is made possible by other people's generosity, and I'd love for you to pay it forward. Join us to reclaim the message and the movement of Jesus together. So would you consider giving to this ministry? I know that God is able to do immeasurably more through us when we come together. Thank you so much. God bless you and enjoy.
[00:00:57] In today's world, states of worry and concern are considered all too normal. As christians, we should display a sense of hope. In North Carolina, the dedicated people who aim to spread this hope are part of an elite squad known as Mosaic. These are their stories.
[00:01:13] I mean, sermons.
[00:01:15] Here's a sermon.
[00:01:18] Hey. Hey.
[00:01:21] How are we this morning?
[00:01:23] We good? We're good. Okay. How many of you guys were like this the entire time Pastor Kristen was talking, you're like, what is this rack doing up here? What's going on? What's going on? So let me ask you a quick question. First of all, let me just say, if you're a guest here, glad you are here. Welcome. We're in a series, and, yeah, I've got a couple of things for my wardrobe here. Yes, this is my wardrobe. I mean, not all of it, but how many of you this morning walked into your closet or whatever you like, what do I wear? Anybody? Or. You said I have nothing to wear. Anybody? Okay. How many of you went in and just picked up whatever you wore last week or yesterday and just put it on? I know there are some of you guys, I know you guys. I know. I know some of you guys. Cody, I know that you guys wear the same stuff. The same stuff. It's easy. It's easy. It's easy. But others of us, and I would say I'm one of those guys that I walk in and I go, what do I wear? What do I wear? Because, you know, and I know that depending on the day and depending on the occasion, you want to wear something to match the energy. Am I not right? Like, if you are, like, if you're dressed a certain way. You walk a certain way. Right? For example, like, I got this right here on, right. What am I trying to do? Well, I'm trying to represent the youth. Youth mystery. Yes. New look. This is the back graphic, too. Okay. Okay. Trying to be young and all that. But if I. If I put this bad boy on. Let me see. If I put this guy on. Okay. If I do this, this is a different kind of energy, right? Let me see. Yeah, yeah.
[00:02:53] Yes. Yeah. And by the way, just because I have a leather jacket doesn't mean it comes with a motorcycle. Like, you know what I'm saying? Like, it isn't. People are like, hey, you have a motorcycle. I used to, but I mean, I can still walk around. It's cool like this, right? So different. It's different energy, right? Okay. Okay. This is different. Now let's see if I put on something else. How about. Let's see this jacket right here, this suit jacket, right? This is my, this is my two. This is my. One of two suits that I have that I.
[00:03:22] That I do perform weddings and funerals. Honestly, so sad. But anyways, let's see here. I didn't mean weddings were sad. I meant the funerals. Okay. Anyways, if I could, you know, have you ever put on something and you're like, this used to fit.
[00:03:38] This used to fit. Okay. Whoo. Feel tight.
[00:03:43] Feel tight. You good? I can do this. Whoo.
[00:03:49] Nope, not going to do that. Okay. Different energy, right? Different. Totally different energy. Why am I talking about this? Because this morning, this morning, if you don't get anything, if you're watching online, you just happened to, like, tune in. You're like, I don't know what we got here. I want to ask you this big question. The question is this. Are you wearing hope this morning? Are you wearing hope? Okay, turn to your neighbor and say, are you. What are you wearing? What are you wearing? You're like, oh, Gucci Louie.
[00:04:16] No. Prada. No, no. Are you wearing what? Hope? So we've been in a series talking about hope, and I want to talk about this idea of wearing hope because we have been going through Colossians, the book of Colossians, and there's a top secret situation in Book of Colossians. It talks to us about a conspiracy that's been going on. We love conspiracies. Our world, our culture loves the idea of, like, there's something out there. What about. What about this? Someone's hiding this. You know, there's something deeper going on. And when it comes to your relationship with God, there is something deeper going on now. You might go, no, my relationship with God is basically dependent on me because of what I do and what I do not do. And so if I'm back in church, you know, it's going good. If I'm not, it's not going good. But my, I would say is that there is a conspiracy going on and it's God's behind the conspiracy. It's a conspiracy of hope and God's subversive plan. It's on the title to what to be. You guys can read. I know that. Okay. To what? To be with us. His plan. To be with us, his plan. And so we discovered first week was that in the book of Colossians it talks about a secret. And then we also realized first week that the book of Colossians is not necessarily a book. In fact, it's a letter written to a certain church. And there's several parts of the Bible that are actually not to us. They're not addressed to us. And so when I kicked off the series, I said, hey, we're going to read another church's mail. Are you okay with that? And I would just say the first week everybody was okay with that. Okay. You guys were okay with other people's reading up other people's emails as well. I think some of you definitely text messages of your kids. Right? Right. Not the kids. Kids are saying no to that. But anyways, so what we realize is that the first week that when you look at the letter, you find that it's not really written as a book and he's just writing a letter. And so what we know is in the 13th century that the writers or people moved the scriptures from letters to actually chapters and verses. And so that's why we, we have chapters and books and verses and things like that. And so first, Colossians 127. Here's what it says. It says, this is the secret. And help me out. What is the secret?
[00:06:37] Christ lives in you. Now for some of you, you're like, oh, I've heard this before. I want you to know though, that when the first week we talked about the fact that when you say something like this, Christ lives in you, what we realize is that there's hope that lives in you. So there's never a point in your life that you are hopeless. Now, we might feel it, we might sense it, we might be stuck in it. But if you want to know what's going on in the background, Christ lives in you. Hope lives in you. And so you and I are never hopeless. And so last week, we talked about this idea that hope is in us. But then last week, we talked about how. What is hope? Hope is shameless. And I taught you an Urdu word. If you were here this past week, I taught you an Urdu word for the word shameless. And the word is. I mean, there's no way you guys are going to remember that, right? There's no way anybody remember it for some crazy reason.
[00:07:35] Yes. Besharam. Yeah. Besharam. Yes. Let's give it up for Eli right here. Let's go.
[00:07:44] Let's go. For the only Israeli in the house to know pakistani language. That's amazing. That's amazing. I love you. That's awesome. Okay. Be sheram. Which means without shame. And that some of us are living in shame, have been raised up in shame when it comes to church or religion. And hope actually is shameless. It wants to move you out of shame. And it does that because it reminds us is that religion sometimes causes us to live in these two worlds. And in fact, the. The people that Paul's talking to lived in these two worlds. I introduced the idea of dual gnosticism, which basically means that gnosticism is this idea that this life matters. And this is it. This is the life. And so the idea that most of the people lived in and practiced everyday life was, hey, I've got a party here. Because when I die, it does not matter. So everything you want to do here, you know, yolo, let's just do it. Let's do whatever we want to do, because we don't know about the afterlife. And so it was all about party. But the problem is, the flip side of that was also, no, no, it's not about party. It's about being pure. And the idea there was religious people were like, no, no, no. It's about. It's about, you know, it's about heaven over here. So what we have to do here is we have to be really, really pure, and we've got to do this. And so either way you look at it, this idea of, like, partying your whole life away or trying to be pure in every single thing you do and subscribing to religions that make you feel holy and pure because you're doing all the right things, all of those causes shame in our life. And so last week it said, hey, hope actually is shameless because Christ comes in there and gives us a new way out. And so I'm recapping all this because this next section, chapter three, is not gonna make sense if you don't know where we've come from. And so what we've come from is this idea of, like, hope lives in us. It is causing us to live without shame. And now it challenges us.
[00:09:51] Now it moves us from, hey, just knowing some stuff, it challenges us to actually act a certain way, be certain kind of people. Now, it's not just concepts that you can go, okay, I agree. Wow. I feel good about this. No, this is where you and I get challenged by Hope. And so what I want to do is I want to go through chapter three. And what I'm going to give you is I'm going to give you something that I've wordsmith, basically an idea that Paul kind of talks through. And now, he did not say this, I made this up, but I made this up for you. Thank you. You're welcome. Okay, I'm gonna give it to you right here. We'll put it on the screen for you. Okay, this is the screen. This is it. Okay. Hope.
[00:10:33] Hope is a choice. If practiced, if practice, it will manifest peace. Okay, let's do it again.
[00:10:46] Hope is a choice, okay.
[00:10:50] Which will manifest peace. No. Hope is a choice. If what.
[00:10:56] If what practiced, it will manifest in our lives. Peace. Peace. Now, we love the idea of the word manifest. People have been using it. It's one of the popular words in the last five to ten years. Because I love the idea of manifesting things, and basically they're speaking things into existence. I'm moving that to a real life deal here. Okay, let's put this. Let's put the verse up. Sorry, the quote up again. Let's leave it over there. I want you guys to understand this, because you're going to be asked to make a choice. When it comes to hope, it's like wearing something. It's like choosing to do some things.
[00:11:40] It's going to be a choice.
[00:11:42] And I don't know about you, but I think some of us, we have a hard time with choosing. Right? Choosing. Let's jump in, and I will give you the first verse here. The first verse in Colossians three says here, since then, you have been raised with Christ.
[00:11:59] Set your help me out. Set your what? Hearts on things above where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. Set your what? Set your. Help me out again. Say it again, louder. Minds. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. So he says it twice. He says, set your heart and set your mind on things. Since you've done this, now that you know this, you're going to now live a certain kind of way, you need to make a choice. I think for some of us, if I can just get a really challenging here for the next couple of minutes, some of us have not made up our mind, are we going to be followers of Jesus now? You accept him and you think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm a Christian. I go to church. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I've said the prayer. Shoot, I'm signed up for baptism, yo, again, you know what I'm saying? I'm doing this. I get all of those things, and that's great. But at some point, I don't know if you are, like, really made a choice to be christlike.
[00:13:05] Like, I'm making a choice, I'm making a choice. It's not like I'm walking a certain way in my life. I'm doing the things I do. I just bring on Jesus and I do my thing, and that's great and all that because he's my co pilot. Hello. Yeah. And then you keep going, no, I'm saying, have you ever made a choice in small ways where you go? I just got Christ. I am now changing direction, maybe even walking a different way. I have changed the way I parent, I've changed the way I talk to people, the way I lead, the way I follow, the way I interact with people. I have changed some things in my life because if I have not friends, I grew up Muslim, a pakistani Muslim in Kuwait. I had certain things that I was very much used to. I had to change not to become american, not to become western, but I had to change my mind. And for some of us, it's hard, right? Choice is tough. So tough. So tough to choose that he's like, hey, I need you to set your mind. Set in your mind. This is what you're going to do. Set your intention about the kind of life you are going to live. Have we done that? Have you done that? Because hope, number one is number one, a choice. It's a choice. So you can choose not to, but if you find yourself hopeless and helpless, maybe, basically, maybe, maybe you haven't chosen to really go a certain direction. For some of us, we just haven't done that. So, you know, this summer I visited so many block parties. Now, if you've been a part of us, we've been having block parties in the summer of our people, our community, having all kinds of parties. I have got to meet some of you guys, and they're amazing people. I mean, I love the diversity, but it gets, if I get the chance to actually just talk to different people from different nationalities, different backgrounds, and it's been really great. And one of the conversations I had was this idea of, like, being a bilingual and learning certain phrases in English, okay? And I think some of you might not know this, but if you're a bilingual, you learn English, but then you have to learn phrases. And those phrases, just not everybody knows them. So, like, for, one of the phrases I had to learn to understand was being on the fence. Have you ever heard that expression, anybody? Anybody makes a note? You. Right. Everybody knows being on the fence. Okay. I did not know what that meant. So I was like, when someone said, hey, I think I'm on the fence with this. I'm on the fence. I'm like, oh, you're on the fence. You're on the fence. See, my context is I grew up in Kuwait, so we didn't have fences. We had walls, brick walls with shards of glass on them and barbed wire on some. I'm like, being on a fence.
[00:15:42] Are you in pain? Because I would think you would be in pain. Like, are you saying you're hurting? You're hurting? No. What does this mean? You are un, what? You're undecided. I'm like, what? You're undecided. So I'm going to tell you what. I'm going to make up a phrase because you guys do, too. Okay? I'm going to make up a phrase. The phrase is that I think when it comes to decisions, you are either a dweller or a delayer.
[00:16:08] Okay? A dweller. Now here's, let me explain how I do this. I make quick choices, but the problem is I regret them too. Really fast.
[00:16:19] I regret them. I do. Like, I honestly don't trust anybody that doesn't have regrets in life. I just don't. Okay? When people say, I don't have any regrets, I'm like, whatever. You haven't lived. You haven't made a choice. So I've made some bad choices. I mean, like, just our dumb ones. Anybody made a dumb. Anybody, help me out, please. Okay. Yeah, you're like undecided. Okay, whatever. All right. Okay. But I've made some bad choices. Bad choices. And I regret them. And then what I do is I. What? I dwell on them.
[00:16:51] I buy something, I'm like, that's the wrong size. Should I return it? Have you ever done that? God bless Amazon for their return policy. Am I right or am I right? Okay. Because I just dwell on it. Now I bought the thing. I dwell on it. I'm like, ah. Should I. Should I should. I should I. So I'm like, this guy who follows Jesus. Boom, I'm following Jesus. Yes, yes, yes. And then I'm walking, and it takes me a whole year to get baptized.
[00:17:20] A whole year. I had this supernatural experience with Jesus. If you google it, you'll find it and all that good stuff. It's like, wow. How could you not get baptized the next day? But I made a good choice. But then the whole year, I was like, but maybe I want to go back.
[00:17:36] Just. True story here. I'm like, because when I get baptized, I'm like, this is it. There's no going back. You know? I have done the deed. This is it. So I was like, ah, it took me a while. Cause I'm a dweller. I dwell on this.
[00:17:52] I regret stuff. And then some of us are delayers.
[00:17:56] Delayers. You know who those are? You know, you overthink everything right now. You're like, should I be sitting in this chair or the chair next to it? I don't know. I don't know. Maybe you're like, I should have died. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I have friends like that, good people that I've texted before. I'm like, stop overthinking. Make a choice. Just do it. Just do it. If you don't do it, I'm gonna put you on a fence. I'm gonna put you on a. Like.
[00:18:26] Just. Just make a choice. Just make a choice. And so many of us, when it comes to important things in life, especially this walk with Jesus, you're delayed. Am I gonna change this part of me? I'm not gonna. God is talking to you about something, and you're like, I don't wanna make that decision. Like, when it comes to finances, we're not gonna talk about it.
[00:18:47] We're just not gonna talk about it.
[00:18:49] You haven't made up your mind. But hope, my friends, starts with a what, with a joyce. It does.
[00:18:57] And then it says here. Then Paul says, if practiced, if practice, it's a game changer. Right? So let's keep on going. Colossians three. Here he says. He says it wasn't long ago that you were doing all that stuff. Doing all stuff that and not knowing any better. Okay, but now.
[00:19:21] But you know better. What now?
[00:19:25] Then he says, so make sure it's all gone for good. Oh, what's gone for good? Okay, help me out. Whoo hoo. You guys want to read this? No. No, you don't want to read this. You're like, no, I don't want to read this. Okay, okay. Bad temper. Anybody got one? Those irritability.
[00:19:45] What's the next one?
[00:19:46] Meanness. Okay, what's the next one? Profanity and dirty talk.
[00:19:54] Dirty talk. He's like, hey, hey, hey. Now he goes on, he goes on. He says, next verse. He says, you're done with that. You're done with that. What? Old life. It's like a filthy set of ill fitting. What clothes you stripped off and put in the fire.
[00:20:17] Now you're dressed in a what?
[00:20:20] New wardrobe. Every item of your new way of life is what?
[00:20:28] Custom made.
[00:20:31] Custom made by the creator with his label on it.
[00:20:37] All the old fashions are now what? Obsolete. Obsolete.
[00:20:44] 1990. 919. 95. Called.
[00:20:48] Okay, stop wearing that stuff. Right? Like, stop doing that. You know what's interesting about this, and this is the paraphrase translation, but I think it really brings the home and brings to light and challenges me to go, okay. I used to be a certain kind of person. I'm no longer. And I've got to put on some stuff. I love the idea of tailor made because I'll tell you, just growing up, I loved clothes. I just did. At twelve years old, I was with my mom. Mom's a seamstress. She's a professional seamstress. And I remember making shirts and things like that. Let me show you something. I did not make this, okay? But this right here, this right here is. Okay. Can I give you another pakistani Urdu word? Is that okay? Okay. This is a kurta.
[00:21:33] Some of you guys, like, I can't say that. My tongue doesn't do that. Okay, try it again. Okay. And say it. Kurta.
[00:21:42] Close enough. Okay. Okay, let's try it again. Kurta. Kurta. This is the kurta. Okay. Now, some of you guys are like, hey, hold on. This looks like african. Yeah. We're all like. We are connected here. This. I want to rock this. Can I rock this one Sunday? Just like, wear it like. Right? Should do that. Right? So this right here represents my family, but represents the fact that my mom actually tailor made this. Like, as in she. She's altered it to best suit me. Now, what's interesting about that is this idea that we have. Like, when. When you make something like this, you're supposed to. You're supposed to act a certain way that fits you perfectly. Like, you're supposed to wear this and it's made just for you.
[00:22:29] I think for some of us, like, there is a life that God has made for you, of moving away from all the stuff, the profanity. Moving away from all the things that don't give you hope, moving away from those things. And if you and I were to do that, we would begin to live a life that is, in fact, whole.
[00:22:51] It's real. It's true. See, if you ever feel like I just don't feel good about myself.
[00:22:59] I just don't feel good about who I am or I just don't feel comfortable in my skin. See, there is something to do. There's something about hope that's inviting us to actually live a certain different kind of life and put away certain things. See, some of us are wearing certain things, and you're not supposed to wear them. You're not supposed to. You used to, but you're not supposed to wear them at all. And it comes. It comes with all the stuff. Now, I just showed you something that is very authentically me. Okay? Now I'm going to show you something that it's in my wardrobe. It's a real thing. Okay. And some of you guys might know what this is. Okay. If you know what this is. Okay.
[00:23:37] Say it out loud. What is this thing?
[00:23:40] Yeah. One person knows a romp. Him a romp. Romper. Whatever. Friends. I actually wore this for Pastor Kristen's birthday and her husband did as well. Yes. And we. What are these wrong? This is hilarious.
[00:23:58] It's hilarious. By the way, I would not recommend wearing this all day long. I just would not do it. This one would not do it. I did this, you know, it was for a party. Celebrated her. That's awesome. Not gonna do that again. Not gonna do that again. I'm not gonna do that again. But because this is. This is not me. Okay? This is just not me. Some fashion people would say, no, no, no. You have to just be confident. You can wear anything. Just be confident. Have you ever heard that before? That is a lie. It's a conspiracy. It's a conspiracy from the fashion world for you to buy all kinds of stuff that doesn't even fit, doesn't even look good. It's not even fashion. I don't know what that is. Okay. Okay. So what is the scripture telling us? The scripture is actually telling us, hey, I think you and I have to be mindful of the stuff that we are allowing on our bodies, on our minds, the things that people are telling us to wear outwardly and inwardly. I mean, you know, if you're on social media, there's physical pressure for people to look a certain way, to wear certain things, and that's how trends happen. Fashion happens. People look and they go, okay, so and so is wearing this or someone they admire or a celebrity or whatever like that. And they moves, and fashion moves on, and then people move on with fashion. They wear wear. Some are non conformists. They go, you know what? This is what I wore 25 years ago. I'm gonna keep on wearing those now. I would just say this, though, for some of us who are like me, who like fashion, who like trends, there could be. There's an easy trend to cancel people, and we can wear it all day long. Some of us are taking it on. We're like, hey, we cancel people. I cancel people. I eliminate the people I don't want in my life. I block them, I reject them. I make my own filter group. This is what I do. This is my closed group. We can easily do that. I mean, we can easily create all kinds of things and we're not wearing them, but we're allowing them in our lives. And the problem is we're not practicing hope. And we have to practice hope. Paul continues, and he says, hey, hey, listen, listen, listen, listen.
[00:26:09] You don't want this kind of life. He says, this. He says in Colossians 312, he says, so chosen by God for this new life of love. Dress in the wardrobe. God picked out what for you? Compassion, kindness, humility, quiet, strength, discipline?
[00:26:38] Be, he says, he continues, he says, be even tempered, content.
[00:26:46] Oh, this is a tough one, right? Content with what?
[00:26:51] What?
[00:26:54] Quick to forgive an offense.
[00:26:57] Forgive as quickly and completely as the master forgave you and regardless of whatever else you put on.
[00:27:07] What does he say?
[00:27:09] Wear love.
[00:27:11] Wear love. And then he explains it. He says this. He says this next verse. He says, it's your basic all purpose garment.
[00:27:22] Never be what without it. Never be without it. He said, hey, listen, you want to move out of being helpless. You want to move out of being hopeless.
[00:27:37] Hope is not just a feeling. No, it's not just like, hey, a sense of, no, no. Hope is real.
[00:27:46] The hope that God is offering, this conspiracy of hope where God says, I'm going to give you hope. That's really true. I'm going to come in in human form. I'm going to smuggle myself into humanity and show you a different way, and I'm going to move you out of religion, make you move out of shame and guilt. But now I need you to wear and walk a certain way. I need you to do that. And what that means is I need you to wear, take off some stuff that you've been putting on and for some of us. The problem with hope is, or the lack of hope in our lives is we're still wearing the stuff that we used to wear years ago.
[00:28:26] We're still wearing the stuff that we used to wear two weeks ago. Like, we're still wearing the stuff that last week, you had a moment with God, and you're like, okay, that's great. That's wonderful. And then you just went back right into it again.
[00:28:39] And, friends, if we don't practice this, if we don't practice this, we're not gonna manifest. Peace is not gonna manifest in us.
[00:28:51] Here's what Paul says about peace. And he says this, he said, if you do all these things, he says, and let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts as members of one body, you are called to live in what peace? Call to live in peace. Now, what that means is not just call to, like, you need to do this. No, no. You were created to live. Another way of reading this idea in full interpretation could be is that you're created to live in Shalom. Shalom is a word that's used for harmony in the scriptures. It's where we are at peace, full on peace, when we are with goddess. Some of you are not at peace. And you know it. You know it, and you think you're. You're. Hope is the issue. Hope is the issue. I just. I just need to. I just need direction. I just need a plan. I just need. This problem is you're just not at peace. And you can. You can try to manifest peace all day long if you want to, by turning on the music and doing the things and maybe having a good day. But hope, my friends, is a choice. And if it's practice, it manifests true peace in our lives. True. Rest in a space where you're like, ah, man, I'm whole. I feel good. I feel good. So are you wearing this kind of hope this morning? Are you doing that? I've got one more thing here in the closet here. My closet. And this is.
[00:30:22] This is a hoodie that.
[00:30:26] How many of you guys have a favorite hoodie? Anybody? How many have favorite hoodie? Right? Yeah, we have hoodies. We have the. Do you have any therapy hoodies? You know what I'm talking about? Do you know what I'm talking about? Like, you know, like, it's like your. What's the. What's the. What's the phrase called?
[00:30:41] Emotional support hoodie. See what I'm talking about? How many of you? Come on, be honest. I mean, I know you don't want to go back to thinking about COVID How many of you had, like, in one outfit? You just kept on wearing it during COVID Hey, did you have that? Did you have that? You just want. Same thing. The same thing. Same thing. You know? Same thing. Like, I didn't get into hoodies till later in life. You know what I'm saying? Like, I regret that partly because I grew up in the desert and it'd be hot in the desert. We didn't have any hoodies. You were like, what kind of nonsense is that? But you meant there's something about a hoodie, right?
[00:31:11] Something about it. You're like, oh, I just want to do that. I just want to do that. I did have. Not this one, but I had one. It's kind of withered away. But anyways, I just wore that and wore that and wore that. Hear something in the news. I'm just gonna put this on. I'm just gonna put this on and get some tortilla chips. But anyways, I'm gonna put this on. I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna do this.
[00:31:30] Man, when things didn't work out right, you just put it on. It gives you a little bit of sense of comfort. But I think the biggest thing it gives us, it hides us.
[00:31:41] It gives us a fake sense of security.
[00:31:44] And I'm not saying you shouldn't have clothes that you just love to be comfy in and just kind of wear just to feel good. I'm not saying that. Please have a favorite outfit or a hoodie. Do that. It's amazing. It's great. I'm just saying, if you use it to hide helplessness, it doesn't work.
[00:32:04] If you wear this to hide yourself from life and pain and sorrow, it doesn't work.
[00:32:12] It doesn't work. If you wear this and just hide and maybe you cover it up and you just want to escape from the world, I get that. But it doesn't work because hope is not a hoodie.
[00:32:27] Hope is not a hoodie.
[00:32:29] It's not. You feel something, but it's not. It's not.
[00:32:33] And for some of us, hope actually this hoodie or something, whatever you wear, whatever you do in life, maybe it's not a hoodie you wear, but it's something you do. And you're just coping through life, and you're coping, hoping things will get better.
[00:32:51] And coping, my friends, if you do it with music, relationships, drugs, alcohol, online stuff, I mean, I don't judge you see, because coping is your body saying, I need to survive.
[00:33:08] I need you to do something that gives me a little comfort. I need you to do something. I need your help. Coping says you are trying to figure this out.
[00:33:21] So I don't want to judge you on that.
[00:33:23] I just. Coping doesn't lead to shalom, though.
[00:33:27] Coping doesn't lead to wholeness or peace. It doesn't.
[00:33:32] So I think for some of us, the only thing maybe you need to do, maybe you're not wearing hope today, but maybe you need to just take off the hoodie, though.
[00:33:43] Like, just today, just take off the hoodie because you've been wearing it for years. You walk in with it, you're protected and you're like, I have not walked around without it. I don't even know what it looks like. I'm going to feel exposed.
[00:33:59] I'm going to feel that something bad could happen to me. I'm going to feel vulnerable. I'm going to feel all kinds of things that I don't want to feel. And I get it. But as long as you have this hoodie on, you can't wear any of the stuff that your creator has custom made for you. You can't live the life you were meant to live hiding under a hoodie.
[00:34:29] You can't become the person you want to become for your kids, for your partner, for the world, wearing and hiding behind a hoodie.
[00:34:45] So, friends, I just want to pray that you take it off.
[00:34:50] You take it off. And I'm not saying throw it away. I think sometimes all of us need to hide, but maybe you just don't need to wear it every day.
[00:35:00] Can I pray for you?
[00:35:02] Let's stand together.
[00:35:10] God, I thank you for.
[00:35:15] I thank you for our lives where they're so complicated.
[00:35:20] God, I just pray as if right now just felt led to just pray as if to give words to certain people that have not really talked to you in a while.
[00:35:36] So if you're that person, maybe you just want to just talk to God.
[00:35:42] Maybe you want to say something like, I don't know how to talk to you. I don't know how to pray, and I don't know what to do. I'm so awkward when I. In your presence, I just am. Some people feel at home in your presence, but I feel so awkward.
[00:36:02] I feel so strange. I don't even know if I'm talking to anybody. I don't know if I believe in all of this. I don't know. And so I'm just. I'm just here.
[00:36:12] I'm just here.
[00:36:15] But I do know that I've got concerns in my life and my worries, and I really need you to do something.
[00:36:25] You know, maybe some of us are thinking these thoughts. God, I.
[00:36:36] I know you, and I've seen you move in my life, and I've seen you give me direction in my life. And I've seen. I've seen so many things. Not to believe in your goodness, but it's just so foggy right now.
[00:36:55] It's just so foggy right now.
[00:36:59] I really don't know what's going on.
[00:37:08] Maybe.
[00:37:12] Maybe this is the message that your soul needed to hear today.
[00:37:21] So maybe your prayer is. God, I.
[00:37:24] I want to make a choice right now to move out of all the things that I was wearing and the way I was walking.
[00:37:35] I want to move towards something that's created, custom made for me, but it's so hard to do. But today, I'm making a choice. I'm deciding that I'm moving out of all the things I used to be. I've set my intention, my heart and my mind.
[00:38:05] I'm looking towards you. I'm walking in your way, and I'm choosing the life you want me to live.
[00:38:17] So, God, would you help me in that?
[00:38:20] Father, I pray the next couple of minutes, as we just respond, you would speak to us, and we would respond in ways that we know.
[00:38:31] We know it draws us closer to you. For some of us, it might be lighting a candle, going to the cross, receiving communion, maybe just sitting there.
[00:38:43] Maybe.
[00:38:45] Maybe deciding, are we going to really take off that hoodie?
[00:38:50] God, I pray you speak to us.
[00:38:57] Thanks for listening to this message from Mosaic church in Charlotte, north Carolina. For more audio and video content, visit us at Mosaicchurch TV.
