 Oh my, let's give a round of applause for Father Louis Maratne. Oh my, wow. Thank you, thank you. You guys are so wonderful, such wonderful people. Do I have to be center stage? Because I'm not. This is, this is 900 pounds. I made it look easy. All right, how y'all doing? And by the way, I say y'all because I think it makes sense. How do you distinguish between singular U and plural U? The Southern people got it right. Y'all, I only say that because my boss is Tanner. He's from Texas. Let us pray. Why don't we rise again so we can say a little prayer again together. And this time, by the way, they do have the clock on the screen for me. So I have no excuse. Holy Spirit come. Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, come. Come Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit, come. Hallelujah, come with all of your hearts this morning, Lord, and teach our mind. Come Holy Ghost, come Holy Spirit, and fill the minds of your people with your truth, with your wonders, with your power. Come Holy Spirit, come, oh come, oh come. O'er the land of the sea, O'er the land of the sea. My children, I don't only give you my grace as a one-time installment, but I renew it every morning. And so my spirit, which I have given you, I renew for you today in waves. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Praise to you, Lord. Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus. Holy Mary, mother of God, pray for us sinners, now and at the hour of our death. Amen. Amen. Have a seat, everyone. Holy Spirit is going to teach us. Amen. Are you ready? Wonderful. Well, it's so good to be with all of you this morning to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ, because we are made for this for such a time. We are made. We are created for such a time. We have been justified in Christ Jesus. And this is the day that the Lord has made. This is indeed the day that the Lord has made. Amen. This is your day. Amen. This is your day. Amen. And I'm serious. This is your day for breakthrough. The Holy Spirit wants to break through to your mind, to your hearts, and to your passion this morning. Amen. The Holy Spirit wants to take you and turn you upside down and shake you up and turn you into something glorious. Amen. And that's exactly what is awaiting you this morning, because the truth of the Lord is coming upon you, walking in the glorious hope in Christ. What does it look like for us who have inherited? We have heard so much this week, and I hope to bring it sort of to a little conclusion for you to remind us of what the Holy Spirit has taught us, and then to allow our hearts to be filled with the hope of joy, the hope of heaven, the hope of God himself, and how that can send us forth into the world to walk in that hope of Jesus Christ. Amen. Because you see what you have received, you must walk in it so that you can share it with others. Amen. And that's precisely what we're gonna do this morning. Now we're gonna do a little catechesis first, okay? So get ready for your catechism, by the way. This is called the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It's a good little book. My favorite version of it is this from St. Paul's media people. It's the second edition. It is so tiny. It's pocket-sized. You've seen those huge ones. It's the exact same content, except this is cuter, and this fits in... This would fit not in my pocket, but in Chris Padgett's pocket, it fits definitely, because everything fits in his pocket. So I highly recommend that you get that. I think the bookstore is still open today, right? Yes? Okay, so I highly recommend that you get your catechism. And for you phone people, you can also download the PDF, or you can access it on the Vatican website for free. It is free. You have no excuse. This summarizes our faith for us. So if you want to know what Catholics believe, just open your Catholic book. The catechism. And then open your Catholic book, The Bible. Amen? Amen. Good. You have no excuse. So don't tell me, oh, I can't go to church. I don't want to go to church, because I'm not fed. Oh, shut up. You have so much food on the table. You little brat, you choose not to eat your vegetables. And meat. Look, this is meat. And this is available to you every single day of your life. This is meat and vegetables. Eat your food, children. So what more does Mother Church have to do to feed you? She gives you everything. You just don't use it. So let's get to it. So we're going to talk about hope. We'll be excited about it. I'm looking forward to what the Holy Spirit is going to talk about. He's going to teach me about hope this morning. But in order to talk about hope, let's give the context. OK, if you go to your Catechism, for those of you who have it, we're going to go in the in brief session after the virtue, I should say. So it starts out about virtue in general. What is virtue? It's not just anything, but it is a specific thing. Virtue in 1833 of the Catechism is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. Virtue is a habitual and firm disposition to do good. Let's break that down. It's habitual. So it is the practice of good habits to the point where it becomes a firm disposition, meaning it becomes almost second nature. Virtue is those habits practiced so much that it becomes easier and easier to do. It is the opposite of vice, which is the practice of bad habits. And the more you do it, the easier it gets because you doll your mind, you doll your conscience to it. And so you keep doing the vice, and it becomes so easy to do, you can't get yourself out of it. But this morning, Jesus, though, comes with power to break you out of it, amen? And He's going to fill you with virtue, amen? So He's going to get rid of the vices. Last night, as we were praying for you, during the moment of ministering, I saw this image, this beautiful image. It was so glorious that I wanted to be lifted up to heaven. Did anybody see me levitate? OK, I guess I don't have the gift yet, but eventually, probably, because I like it. I felt like I was levitating. What I saw was before the Holy Spirit came to fill all of you, and He did, by the way, every single one of you received the Holy Spirit. Put your hands together for that. That's right. But the image I saw is of these things getting out of you, floating in the air. It's like dirt, dust. I don't know how to describe it. Things scraping off, and it's just hovering or moving away from you, and I'm thinking, oh my God, what are you doing? The Lord is removing the vices. The Lord is removing the sins of His people, the fears of His people, and especially the lies that have covered us. We have been covered with the dust of the lies of the enemy, and we've been walking on it, and they have covered our eyes just like the eyes of St. Paul were covered. And so the scales had to fall off before he could see. So last night, Jesus was taking off the scales from your eyes so you could see the beauty of His face and the fullness of His truth. And then the Holy Spirit came upon you, every single one of you. This room was filled. So don't even wonder, I wonder, did I receive the Holy Spirit? Because I wasn't doing that blabbering stuff that they were doing on stage. I don't even know what it's called. It's called speaking in tongues. Like Father David said, welcome to our world, amen. But here's the good part, it's your world. It is your world. Walking in the Spirit is your Christian hope. Walking in the power and the fullness of the Holy Spirit. Could you help me out? Could you please repeat with me? Please don't put the Holy Spirit in a box. You didn't repeat it. Please do not put the Holy Spirit in a box because it's gonna burn the box. He gone, no, you don't have to repeat that. I'm just, I'm taking my talk back. He's gonna burn the box and burn out. And the Holy Spirit wants to do so much with you. This morning, the Lord has an army that is going to walk in the hope of Christ. And this is how I picture the Christians walking in the hope of Christ. It might not look that good, but it feels awesome. And the hand is in the pocket, you know why? Not because you're careless, not because you're carefree, but because you are full of the care of Christ for you. Amen. His eyes are upon you. And so you can walk even in the valley of the shadow of death and you can walk in the light of Christ. Amen. And that gets you through, my friends. So back to virtue. Virtue is that habitual and firm disposition to do the good instead of the bad. As you know, when God created us, we sinned. We fell into sin. One of the consequences of original sin is concupiscence. So even in baptism, when our original sin, which is not an act, but rather it is an inheritance, if you will, which the Lord has now removed in order to give us the inheritance of His Spirit, the inheritance of His Son, Jesus Christ. And He removed that inheritance of sin so that we are no longer deprived or depraved of the sanctifying grace that makes us children of God. That's original sin, okay? Now that is removed or that lack is removed because precisely because we are filled, we are no longer lacking the sanctifying grace. We have received it in our baptism. We have received the first installment of the Holy Spirit. So we are children of God. We are indeed children of God. So we are, that's what the Holy Spirit tells us. We'll believe it, it is true. Now, despite that, we have concupiscence. And concupiscence is that tendency to do evil. And because of concupiscence, you see, we walk like this. Okay? We're walking like this because we're leaning towards evil. Good is that way? Evil is this way. So we're walking leaning towards the evil because it's easier to do. Have you ever asked yourself, why the heck do I keep falling into the same sin? Because evil is easy. The good is hard. So in Christ, He has removed the sin, but the concupiscence remains. We are still, we still tend towards. And why did God leave the concupiscence? I really believe, and as the Catechism says, it's part of our dignity. Since we took ourselves into sin, now God has given us the grace by which to remove ourself and to build up the muscles against that tendency to lean towards evil. And as we build those muscles, the virtues, you see, we are climbing up in order to be upright with Christ. But the virtues go further. You're not only upright, you are diving into the good. You are diving into eternal life. You are diving into joy. You are diving into virtue. And that is virtue, that is what it does. It helps you to correct that tendency towards evil in order to bring you to the tendency to a good. Now, we distinguish between the human virtues and the theological virtues. And so it has to do with the motive, with the origin and with the object. The human virtues are stable dispositions of the intellect and the will that govern our acts, order our passions and guide our conduct in accordance with reason and faith. They can be grouped around the four cardinal virtues. So you've heard the four cardinal virtues. It doesn't mean these are the only four virtues that exist. It means they are the pivotal points around which other virtues are grouped. So there's a ton of different virtues that we ought to work on. And they are categorized under these four cardinal virtues, which are prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. If I gave a quiz, other of you would fail. Prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. Now, these are the human virtues, okay? So they are, again, human virtues, they are of us. They come, their Lord give them to us as gifts. Yes, but we can work them out. We can ourselves work them out. They are part of humanity. Now, the theological virtues, however, they're slightly different, actually big time different. The theological virtues dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity, hallelujah. They dispose us to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. We can be in a relationship with the Holy Trinity? Yes, because of the covenant he made with us. He gave us the powers by which to be in relationship with him, to relate to him. Because you see, naturally speaking, we cannot relate to the Holy Trinity. Naturally speaking, we cannot be his sons and daughters because we are of different natures altogether. Just like you can't adopt a cat, as much as you think you can, your cat is not your child, neither is your dog. Your dog is your pet and your cat is your pet. You can't adopt them, but you can adopt a child. You can adopt a human person, amen? Amen, very good. So since we are of a different nature from God, in order for him to adopt us, he had to make a covenant with us, and through the covenant he gave us the specific virtues to help us relate to him and to be in relationship with him. So again, the theological virtues dispose Christians to live in a relationship with the Holy Trinity. They have God for their origin, their motive, and their object. So the theological virtues have God for their origin. In other words, God is the one who gives the theological virtues. They're called theological, not because they are an academic subject to study, but because they come from Pheos or Tanteon, which is the God himself. Chris Padgett reminded me that in America, we don't have to say the God. We don't have to put the article in front of God. I do it anyway, just to make him annoyed. Look at me, look at me, look at me. So the theological virtues of God for their origin, the God, and for their motive, and for their object, God known by faith, God hoped in and loved for his own sake. So as you probably just gathered, the three theological virtues are faith, hope, and charity. Faith, hope, and charity are the three theological virtues. Now, faith, what's the relationship between faith, hope, and charity? Faith, by faith we believe in God, the intellect, we believe in God, and believe all that he has revealed to us, and that holy church proposes for our belief. Okay, so by faith we're able to believe, we're able to say, okay, yeah, you said that, it's true. I know it's true because you can't lie. That is the virtue of faith. It's a theological virtue, it's a gift that you receive at your baptism. Okay, so by faith we believe in God and all that he has revealed to us, and what the holy church proposes for our belief. That's right, because if you have that faith, that theological gift, then you can't be a cafeteria Catholic, okay? Or as they say, the cafeteria's closed. Holy Mother Church, are we Christians? We are at the banquet of the fullness of God. And so we eat all that he gives us because all is good for us. All is good for us, even if you don't understand it. When your child asks, what is that green stuff? It's good for you, just eat it, okay? It's good for you, Billy, eat your vegetables. So Catholics, eat your vegetables because they're good for you. But I don't understand the teaching on contraception or against contraception. What's the true teaching on marriage and sexuality? I'm not sure if I believe it. Well, guess what? This morning, start believing it because it's true. Okay, but I'm not sure if I believe in the Eucharist. This morning, start believing it because it is true. Or if you really feel that you are incapable, just do one thing. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief, amen? Say that with me. Lord, I believe, but help my unbelief. May God bless you with faith, true faith. The faith that believes all things that God gives to us. Not only things that make us feel good or things that give us license to do whatever the heck we want to do. It is not an authentic life. An authentic life is living in conformity to the will of God for you. That is the authentic life, my brothers and sisters. Now by hope, we desire and with steadfast trust await from God eternal life and the graces to merit it. Let's break that down a little bit. So the virtue of hope, as contrasted to faith, faith is the belief, hope is the desire. It is the desire, but not just the desire, it is also the steadfast trust. We wait with steadfastness, we await with joyful hope for the joy to come, for the eternal life to come. With steadfast trust, await from God eternal life and the graces to merit it. And the graces to merit it. So if faith is the mind, hope is the heart. If faith is the mind, choosing, excuse me, agreeing with the truths that are proposed, accepting it, assenting to it, hope is the heart that yearns for God. That yearns for the fullness of the revelation of his face. That yearns for what we call the beatific vision. When we see God face to face. And as the song goes, I can only imagine. You know that song? Okay, that's all I know though. That's the only line I know in it. I don't know songs, unfortunately. I wish I knew songs, but I don't. Now, if hope is the heart that desires and awaits what God has in store for us, which eyes have not seen and ears have not heard, that is how great it is. And it's interesting because you see, the forefathers, the patriarchs, the prophets, they were all hoping as it is said of Abraham Romans, Abraham hoped against all hope for what was to come, for the fulfillment of the promises of God made to him. And those promises, by the way, God made them to Abraham to give him a nation and blessing, worldwide blessing to give him a son, a name, and all those promises, God upgraded them to oaths. The difference between an oath and a promise, you know what it is? A promise is done kind of in your own name, but an oath is sworn. It is sworn in God's name and it is forever. A promise has a limitation, the oath doesn't. And so the oath of God to Abraham, to give him these promises, Abraham hoped against all hope for what we have received. And eyes had not seen, ears had not heard. So the hope of Israel, as Paul said in the first reading yesterday, he is in chains for the hope of Israel, the hope to receive the Messiah, the hope to receive the land, the hope to be in Canaan. Yes, how nice and how good, how wonderful and yet how insufficient, how imperfect nonetheless. Because God says, oh, wait till you see what I still have in store for you. And that is the Christian hope. We will receive that which is beyond our imagination. How can it be? You've received so much already, yes. Yes, you have received so much grace already, sonship, the grace which has repaired your humanity, which has perfected your humanity to make you true human, and that has elevated your humanity into the divine nature, as Katie was so careful to say last night, she didn't want to be a heretic, which is good. You don't want to be heretics, because heretics burden hell. Oh, did I say that? Sorry. Okay, sorry, sorry. Just don't be a heretic and be fine, okay? But here's another image to help you understand that beautiful truth of our faith. Take a piece of charcoal. What color is it? What's wrong with black? I'm watching you. Okay, and now put it next to a flame of fire. Spirit of flame.org, right, Bishop? Spirit of flame.org, there we go. Take flame and take charcoal. What do they have in common? No, they don't. Black charcoal does not produce heat at all. They have almost nothing in common. But if you take the charcoal and put it in the flame, what happens to the charcoal? It burns, it is consumed by the fire, and it becomes almost indistinguishable from the flame. It takes on the properties of the flame without becoming the flame. It preserves its own nature, and yet it participates in the nature of the flame. So too we, pieces of charcoal that we are, when we are consumed by the love and life of God, by being one in the sun, the inheritance, we take on his nature without losing ours. We remain human, but we look like him so much that we become indistinguishable from him. Not by nature, but by grace, by his grace. We are consumed, my dear brothers and sisters. So grace does that for you. It repairs your humanity, it perfects your humanity, and it elevates your humanity. You've received so much, and yet the Lord says, there's more. Can you say that with me? There's more, oh my God. There is more, there is more. And the small that there is, is not just wishful thinking. So we must distinguish wish from hope. Let us distinguish wish from hope. A wish is based on nothing. Anyone can wish for anything. Anyone can wish for anything. I could wish, I had a nice six pack, but that's based on nothing, it's not gonna happen. I could wish for many, many things, and they don't have to come true. It doesn't have to be based on anything. We call that wishful thinking, especially things from which we wish that probably will not come true. Now hope, however, is of a whole different nature. Hope is based on the promises of the God who doesn't deceive, who doesn't disappoint. Hope is based on the truths of the promises of God to be fulfilled because he said so. Very different things. Wishful thinking is to say a loved one that has passed, and you just wanna see the person, you just wish that they could be next to you again right here, they're gone, though. That's wishful thinking. But hope says, God, is going to fulfill me completely. Hope says, there is a heaven, and it's not just clouds in the sky, but it is the fullness of life with God. Hope says, there will be no tears, there will be no death, no gnashing of teeth, there will be no wants, there will be no needs, there will be only blissful joy. That is hope. And this hope is not wishful thinking because it's true because it's coming. When all evil will be wiped out of this earth. You see, I believe in our generation, we have moved away from the virtue of hope because we probably experienced another extreme in the past which is a sort of fideism, a sort of wishful thinkingism to allow ourselves, to picture ourselves in a big party in heaven, we picture heaven as receiving material things instead of the object of our fulfillment being God himself in his life. We just picture a little food and all that jazz and these things can be helpful as long as we don't make them the object of our hope. God is the object of our hope. And so one extreme says, well, I'm gonna go to heaven so I need to leave this earth, I don't need to do anything on this earth. And so you became unrealistic. You didn't live in the world but true Christian hope establishes you in God while you are in exile on earth and you are called to transform this earth because of the hope that is in you. And so true Christian hope doesn't remove your work of transformation in this world. True Christian hope doesn't remove you from the realm of politics, from business, from helping the poor but rather true Christian hope says I have a reason for which to act. I have a reason and which is why hope transforms because of the end of the teleology of the cause, the theological cause, that for which I am doing what I'm doing and because that for which I'm doing what I'm doing is God himself in eternal life with him. I have enough fuel to take me to the end of my life and forever. That is the fuel that keeps the Christian going every day even through struggles, even through pain, through suffering, through persecution, through chains in prison but you have an internal combustible engine, I don't even know if I'm using those words right but you have this power inside of you that keeps you going even more so than that battery. What's the battery? Energizer, whatever. We have a heavenly energizer because of the Christian hope that is in us. Now, how many people here have experienced a loved one being away for a long period of time and you just missed them so much you couldn't wait for them to return and well, first of all, how many of you have experienced that? A loved one? You're just like, I can't wait. Okay, now, the day that is going to return or that she's going to return. What are you feeling inside your belly? Butterflies? What's going on? Like, what's going on inside of you? Excitement, you're just like... And are you sad or are you happy? You're happy. And you don't care what happens that day. You don't care who cuts you off. Oh, whatever, whatever. My honey is coming home. I am happy. The kids mess around, sure. The kids want ice cream for breakfast, whatever. My honey is coming home. You begin to look at things through the lens of the hope that you have. And so too, when you await your lover, Jesus Christ, who promised to return for his church and for you, so that where he is, you can be forever, everything begins to look different. Prison begins to look different. Insults begin to look different. Pain and suffering begin to look different. Your actions begin to look different. I'm gonna go a little bit into those sufferings, but first, let's close the loop on the three theological virtues. Charity is a third. So by charity, we love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. Charity, the form of all virtues, binds everything together in perfect harmony. It is the virtue of virtues. It is the one that will last. It is the one that will remain forever. We love God above all things and our neighbor as ourselves for love of God. So charity is the virtue by which we love God and we love neighbor for the sake of God. So everything goes back to God. Charity orders things for God. Now, if I love my neighbor for me, that selfishness, it doesn't work. That's why some relationships fail because people try to love for themselves. It doesn't work. Sometimes people also turn the other into their God. It also doesn't work. It's also unfair. No one can play that role of being God. Only God can be God. The other is a sign of God for you and your fulfillment must be only in God. If you think, if I can only be with so and so, then I'll be happy forever. I'm so sorry, but you're going to kill so and so because so and so cannot fulfill for you what you think you need. Only the infinite can fulfill that desire that you have, that hope that you have. The theological virtue of hope comes to purify our human hopes. So then, charity, if faith is the mind, hope is the heart, charity is the hands and feet of our Christian walk. Charity is the hands and feet. Is that by which we act to prove our love? This is how you know that you love God is by keeping his commandments. And there was no greater love, Jesus said, than to lay down your life for the one that you love, to lay down your life. That is charity. So it is action. It is action in God. So the mind, the heart, the hands and feet. In other words, you are made into a complete man, a complete woman to be able to walk through this as an ambassador of Christ as you walk in your Christian hope. You will look different because you'll begin to live out the Beatitudes. You will begin to live out the Beatitudes. Can anybody tell me where we can find the Beatitudes in Scripture? Oh, look at that! Matthew five, very good, not Acts 29? Okay, that's right. Matthew chapter five, we know that. By the way, I have a student, I have a couple of students actually that memorized all three chapters of Matthew five, six and seven, the Charter of the Christian Faith. There are three wonderful chapters. I highly recommend that you read them all. Okay, read the three chapters of Matthew five, six and seven, it's very exciting. And then you'll begin to ask yourself, am I really a Christian? Because I'm not doing half of these things. And that's when you call upon the Lord. Because you see the virtue of hope, not only does it wait or does it desire God, but like I said, it's the graces to merit the eternal life with God. Did you catch that at the end of the definition? Hope, by hope would desire and would step fast, trust or wait from God eternal life and the graces to merit it. So not only do I wait for and desire eternal life with God, but the graces that I need in order to attain that, God also gives it, I also hope in those. And that is the antidote to despair. The antidote to despair is the virtue of hope because it says, despair says, I need to get all the way over there, there's no way I can make it. I might as well sit here and cry. Hope says, I need to get there, there's no way I can make it. God help me. And God helps you. And God carries you on his wings, my dear brothers and my dear sisters. See in the crowds, he went up the mountain and when he sat down, his disciples came to him and he opened his mouth and taught them saying, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. These are the signs of the Christian who walks in the hope of Christ. It turns the world upside down, it takes the values of the world and turns them on their heads. The opposite of what the world thinks is what you do. That's what you look like and that is your hope and when you do those, your hope in the land. Israel was hoping for the physical land, we hope for the heavenly Jerusalem, which is to come to us. And the good thing is we've already tasted of that goodness. Hebrews chapter 12 says that we have verse 18 to 24, we have already approached Mount Zion, where the heavenly Jerusalem is present, God the Father is there, Jesus our Savior and the spirits of the just made perfect are waiting for us in the communion of saints. We've already tasted of that goodness and yet the Lord says there is more and that is the Christian hope. In this Christian hope I said we'll touch upon our sense of suffering because we all suffer, let's face it. And I guarantee you, you will continue to suffer until you die. I cannot lie to you and tell you that if you believe in Christ, all sufferings are taken away. That is false. In fact, I can't guarantee you if you believe in Christ, you will suffer probably more. Because you have a cross to carry. If you want to follow me, says Jesus, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow after me. We have a cross to carry. It looks scary, doesn't it? Despair says I can't do it. Hope says God help me. So when you look at your crosses, say God help me. And here's the beautiful thing. Our God is a sovereign God. He is powerful, He can do all things. And therefore I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. What verse is that, anybody? Philippians 4.13, I love you Catholics. You crazy good Catholics, you're good. That's right. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, not by your own power. So when you feel distant from Christ, don't run further but run closer because I guarantee you, don't let shame stop you from running into Him but dive into Him. When you feel like you've done something that keeps you away, like I'm not worthy, dive into Him. Just dive. Anybody seen that little video on Facebook? That little kid, he's blinded by a mask, he got a mask on or something. And he's practicing, he's doing what do you call that? He's karate. He's doing karate chops. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And he's practicing with his trainer but his eyes are blinded. And so he's punching, he's punching with his trainer. And his trainer moves up the way and his dad, who's in the military, who had been away for a long time, takes the place of the trainer and the dad is fighting him, right? And the dad doesn't say anything. So he thinks he's fighting the trainer. And then he keeps fighting and the dad says, give some instruction. All right, not bad, not bad. And the boy stops. And he's like, did I? Nah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And he keeps fighting and the dad says something. And he's like, no, it can't be. And he keeps fighting. And the third time the dad says something, he stops, he removes the mask, sees his daddy and literally dives into him. He went, and just, he just stayed there in the embrace of his father that he had not seen for so long, but whom he had been hoping to see for so long. He just dove into him. So to dive into your Christ, he is there for you. He is there for you to receive you back. He will always accept you. Now, in Romans chapter five, we read this from verses one to five. Listen very carefully. Okay, if anybody's sleeping next to you, I give you permission to elbow them. Please don't do it. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen, say peace. Therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God. This is the peace Jesus says he gives you, not like the world gives. Because this peace is not dependent on what is going on outside of you, but on what has gone on inside of you, what the Lord has accomplished on the cross for you and with you. Through him, we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in our hope of sharing the glory of God. More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. This is your homework. It's to go eat that passage as Jeremiah ate the Word of God. Jeremiah 15, 16, your words, O Lord, I have found and I devoured them. Not my words, the words of scripture. Devour this word, live this word, believe this word, hope in this word. All three theological virtues are present. Justified by faith, rejoice in our sufferings because suffering produces endurance and endurance character produces hope. And it says, and hope does not disappoint us because God's love, charity, has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. So my dear friends, suffering is no longer your enemy. It becomes your sacrifice. You see, we don't have lambs to offer anymore. We don't have goats to offer. We don't have to travel to Jerusalem to the temple. You are the temple of God and your sacrifice is your pain. It is your suffering. It is the insults. It is all that you suffered, Matthew five. Those become the sacrifices of praise that you offer unto the Lord and the Lord receives you. You see my brothers, one can only endure in pain if one has Christian hope, but you don't only stop in the hope, you must dive into the charity that is the virtue of all virtues. This charity that makes you love God and makes you love neighbor. And if you love your neighbor, and this is the final go, how can you love someone and see them on the path of destruction and not do anything about it? So the final thing I will tell you is run. Wear the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation, but put your feet in the readiness to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ. Yesterday we got to speak about that power of evangelizing and how it is the primary service that the church can render the world. So as you leave this place, my dear brothers and sisters, I don't want you to walk, but you need to run. You need to run to the world. Run to your family, run to your neighbor. Run to everyone who's got ears to hear and tell them the fulfillment of the hope that is in them. You will not bring something foreign to them. You will bring precisely what they're looking for because God placed that hope in them for him. Proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ to everyone. How do I do that? Well, funny you should ask. Steubenville has a wonderful program called the Steubenville Discipleship Quads. You've probably heard me talk about it several times because I'm in love with that program. It is a way to become true disciples of Jesus Christ and all of you need to do it because if you don't, you will die. It's free. You pick three other people. You journey together as community in discipleship for one year about. And then each of these people will pick another three people to make a quad so that the goodness of Jesus Christ can be established in the whole world and his kingdom will come. Hope in eternal life. Hope in the joy to come which is so, so close to us because in Jesus, hope does not disappoint. Amen.