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In 2025, I found myself
wrestling with frustration that

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God was not giving me joy.
And then God very patiently told

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me what was actually happening.
It wasn’t that he was

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withholding joy, it was that I
was rejecting it.

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What followed was an invitation
to spend 30 days looking at 30

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passages on Joy and turning it
into a devotional called

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Rejecting Joy No longer.
You’d think I would have learned

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that coming into 2026, I was
wrestling with hope.

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God, why are you making me so
hopeless?

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And God very patiently let me
know the reality.

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He wasn’t withholding hope.
I was rejecting it.

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And so now here I am, spending
30 days looking at 30 passages

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on hope.
And my hope is that this

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encourages you.
One thing that’s different this

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year is I felt like God was
inviting me to be publicly

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transparent with my processing.
To actually go live on social

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media, pull out a random verse,
and then read and process

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through it on camera.
This isn’t me coming to you as

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an expert on hope, but me coming
to you honestly as someone

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wrestling with hope.
And by witnessing that some of

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you might feel less alone, may
feel seen and understood, may

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end up being encouraged in a way
that is far deeper than the best

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platitude.
So join me as I spend 30 days

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navigating 30 passages on Hope.
This is day 14.

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You’re listening to episode 221
of The Way to DC God Podcast.

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Night 4 with the C pap was just
not good.

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Very tired today.
It is making me think about

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these things in the context of
hope because had many hopes

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around finally getting good
sleep and it’s hard to hope for

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something then to make efforts
towards the direction you think

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the hope is aiming and getting
the opposite.

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I’m getting worse sleep in my
efforts to get better sleep even

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as I’m doing all the things that
I’m supposed to do.

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So that’s what’s on my mind.
And maybe today’s verse will

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also speak to that.
Let me pray for the guy.

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We just thinking that you were
God and you were good.

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Holy Spirit, I invite you to
move where I have depleted

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energy, depleted brain
functioning.

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Holy Spirit, move.
Lead me to the verse that needs

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to be read today.
Leave my thoughts to where they

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need to sit and marinate.
Pray that you would do the same

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for those listening.
Finally, I would just thank you

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that you speak, that your word
is living and active.

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Last name, Amen.
So you’re hitting two weeks.

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This is the one.
There’s two in my hand.

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Romans 1513 May the God of hope
fill you with all joy and peace

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in believing, so that by the
power of the Holy Spirit you may

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abound in hope.
Romans 1513 May the God of hope

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fill you with all joy and peace
and believing, so that by the

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power of the Holy Spirit you may
abound in hope.

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So that’s bookended here by the
source of hope.

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May the God of hope.
Where’s this hope come from?

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The God of hope.
And then by the power of the

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Holy Spirit, you may abound in
hope.

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The power of the Spirit is what
allows us to abound, abound in

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hope, not just to have hope, but
abound in it.

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And it’s an invitation for this
God of hope to not just bring us

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to a place of abounding in hope,
but to be filled not just with

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joy and peace, but to fill you
with all joy and peace and

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believing.
Romans 15-O Interesting.

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OK, there’s a, there’s a few.
May the God of dot, dot dot.

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Let me start with verse 5.
May the God who gives endurance

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and encouragement give you the
same attitude of mind toward

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each other that Christ Jesus
had, so that with one mind and

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one voice you may glorify the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus

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Christ.
I tell you that Christ has

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become a servant of the Jews on
behalf of God’s truth, so that

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the promises made to the
patriarchs might be confirmed,

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and moreover, that the Gentiles
might glorify God for His mercy

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as it is written.
Therefore I will praise you

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among the Gentiles.
I will sing the praises of your

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name.
Again it says, Rejoice you

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Gentiles with his people, and
again praise the Lord, all you

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Gentiles, let all the people
extol him.

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And again Isaiah says the rooter
Jesse will spring up, one who

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will arise to rule over the
nation’s.

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In him the Gentiles will hope.
May the God of hope fill you

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with all joy and peace as you
trust in Him, so that you may

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overflow with hope.
By the power of the Holy Spirit,

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I am myself and convince my
brothers and sisters that you

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yourselves are full of goodness,
filled with knowledge, and

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competent to instruct one
another.

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So why is all this important?
Paul is talking a lot about this

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tension between the Jews and the
Gentiles, this mindset that

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existed that the Jewish people
were God’s people and the

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Gentiles were not.
But this awareness that many

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were honest about, that
Scripture talks a lot about the

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Gentiles, as Paul went through
and quoted, including in Isaiah.

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The Gentiles are a part of this.
And So what it makes me think

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about is in the old construct,
the old mindsets, those who are

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Gentiles may be struggling to
believe hope is even accessible

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to them.
There may be a God of hope, but

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he is the God of hope for the
Jewish people, not for the

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Gentiles.
And Paul is saying, actually,

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may that God of hope fill you
also with all joy and peace as

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you trust in Him, so that you
may overflow with hope by the

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power of the Holy Spirit.
This overflowing with hope

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hearkens back to this invitation
for the Gentiles to rejoice, to

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praise the Lord, to extol him.
In other words, for many of

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them, it could have seemed like
this God, this God of hope, was

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inaccessible to them or even
barred from them.

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You cannot access this God of
hope unless you become this,

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this, this.
There’s a big conflict in Acts

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where there is a dissension
between the believers on what a

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Gentile must do to be able to
receive the Holy Spirit.

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And some said what they’ve got
to become Jewish.

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They’ve got to adhere to all of
our practices, all of our

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traditions.
Another said, no, they they

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don’t need to.
And in the end, Peter, who

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staunchly held to his boundaries
and understanding around Jews

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and Gentiles, God confronted
him, sent him a dream three

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times, sent people to come and
get him, invited him to preach a

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message, which he did, possibly
begrudgingly.

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And then before he even finished
the message, they were filled

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with the Spirit.
And it revealed to him that, oh,

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the spirit is for the Gentiles
also.

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We we need to rethink how we
understand all of this before

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that moment, before that point
in Acts where they all came into

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one mind.
Isn’t it?

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Talk about that up here.
May the God who gives endurance

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and encouragement give you the
same attitude of mind toward

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each other that Christ Jesus
had.

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Same attitude of mind toward
each other.

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So it includes between the Jews
and the Gentiles that Christ

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Jesus had.
Jesus interacted with everyone

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that he encountered was
reprimanded for it.

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Often He talked with Samaritans
when they most would try to

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avoid Samaria altogether.
And that’s the same attitude

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that we’re supposed to have
towards each other, so that with

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one mind and one voice, you may
glorify the God and the Father

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of our Lord Jesus Christ.
We’re very in America,

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individualistic culture.
And when we think about

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glorifying God, we tend to be
thinking about us individually

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glorifying God.
It is actually, I feel like

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probably rare in the American
church for us to really

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understand what this chapter 15,
verse 6, what this means.

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So that with one mind and one
voice, you may glorify the God

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and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ.

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That’s not like singing at the
same time, that’s not what that

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means.
It is a level of oneness that is

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not just us being in the same
room together except one

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another, than just as Christ
accepted you.

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You know, part of this is a
biblical history lesson of the

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Jews and the Gentiles.
So how is it relevant for us?

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So may the God of hope fill you
with all joy and peace as you

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trust in Him, so that you may
overflow with hope by the power

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of the Holy Spirit.
So one the people that Paul is

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speaking to, many of them still
questioned if they could access

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this God of hope, if they were
worthy of this God of hope, what

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they would need to do to even
access this God of hope.

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And we may be in a similar place
of questioning, are we worthy of

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God’s love?
Will he love me?

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What do I need to do for him to
love me?

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Is he with me?
Like all these questions, you

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might be in a situation where it
really looks like a lot is

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borrowed from you.
It really looks like a lot is

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inaccessible.
This joy and peace it talks

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about man.
It seems like that is might as

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well be on another planet
because there’s no way you can

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get to it if you are in that
kind of a place.

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This sentiment exists.
May the God of hope fill you

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with all joy and peace as you
trust in Him.

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And then that’s the the next
piece is as you trust in him.

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The first step is deciding that
God actually does love us and is

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with us and is powerful.
But the second step is to say,

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therefore I will trust him, even
if we don’t understand it, that

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we’re not not just acknowledging
a truth, but we are allowing

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that truth to impact our lives
so that you may overflow with

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hope by the power of the Holy
Spirit.

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All of this, all of this is not
a matter of grabbing the right

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self help book and figuring out
how you can access joy and peace

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and hope.
All this is by the power of the

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Holy Spirit.
We can’t actually accomplish

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this.
The Gentiles being a part of

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this, they didn’t accomplish
that on their own.

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For I tell you that Christ has
become a servant of the Jews on

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behalf of God’s truth, so that
the promises made to the

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patriarchs might be confirmed,
and moreover, that the Gentiles

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might glorify God for his mercy.
Neither the Jews nor the

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Gentiles could access the depth
of what this passage is talking

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about.
Jesus made it possible.

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Jesus made it possible.
God is the God of hope.

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Jesus made it possible.
It’s through the power of the

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Holy Spirit.
You got your Trinity right

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there.
Here’s my encouragement to you.

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Take some time to think about if
there are things that you think

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are barred from you, that are
blocked from you, that are

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inaccessible to you, that you
feel unworthy of in regards to

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God and His love.
When you look at your situation,

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how are you understanding that
situation that might uphold that

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understanding?
Name it and confront it and then

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00:12:32,000 –> 00:12:34,920
choose to trust that God
actually is a God of hope that

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can fill you with all joy and
peace as you trust in him and

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that you can overflow with hope
by the power of the Holy Spirit.

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The hardest part of this is it’s
hard for us to do this because

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we know that it’s not happening
right now, right?

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It’s hard for me to have hope
for good sleep when I’ve had

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four awful nights doing the
thing I’m supposed to do and

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it’s and it’s just not
happening.

200
00:12:57,320 –> 00:13:01,920
What has kept me going is while
my logic says after the first

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00:13:01,920 –> 00:13:05,160
time and OK second time, OK,
fine, third time, but definitely

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00:13:05,160 –> 00:13:08,240
by the 4th time, that seems to
confirm that this isn’t working.

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What keeps me going is the
testimonies of others who have

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already been on this journey
before me, who have said, ah,

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00:13:15,800 –> 00:13:19,600
yeah, no, it took me, it took me
weeks, it took me months some it

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00:13:19,600 –> 00:13:21,800
took me years to really get used
to it.

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But then something changed and
life has never been the same.

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I would never go back.
My sleep is 10 times better.

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00:13:32,160 –> 00:13:37,360
Those testimonies are often
discouraging for me, but also in

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their discouragement they still
tell me like I cannot

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definitively say that this isn’t
working.

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00:13:42,640 –> 00:13:46,800
People have been where I am now
and have gotten through.

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Will my story end up like
theirs?

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I don’t know because there are
other people that are like Yep,

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Nope, never worked for me but
maybe they gave up too early.

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You know, there’s a lot of
factors to all this, but those

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testimonies at least point to a
reality that speaks to something

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different than my understanding
and my logic.

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And I can choose to still hold
tight to my understanding of

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logic and say that this isn’t
going to work, or I can hear

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these testimonies and stay at
the table.

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Your logic and understanding may
be saying that the God of hope

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will not fill you with joy and
peace, that you will not have

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hope.
You might have a lot of evidence

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to support that.
I encourage you to listen for

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the testimonies of others who
have been where you are and have

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found a way through that are
experiencing this verse living

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out.
At the very least, let that

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stand as another option, even if
it feels like 1% to your logic

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and understandings, 99% that can
allow you to stay at the table a

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little longer.
Romans 1513 May the God of hope

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fill you with all joy and peace
in believing, so that by the

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power of the Holy Spirit you may
abound in hope.

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Appreciate you.
Thank you for walking with me as

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I navigate these verses.
It is ironic to me that this

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whole sleep thing is happening
as I’ve gotten into this hope

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journey.
Are they separate?

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Are they connected?
Time will tell.

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I’m going to keep my ears open.
I’m going to have ears to hear

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as best as I can.
We pray.

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Father God, I just want to thank
you that you are God and you are

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good.
And I thank you for the person

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listening that you would give
them ears to hear, that you

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would increase their hearing.
And we thank you that you are a

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God of hope.
We thank you that you can bring

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all joy and peace.
We thank you that all this

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happens through the power of the
Spirit.

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Because of Jesus sacrifice.
We can say all these words, but

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it is hard for us to understand
it, internalize it, even believe

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it.
So, as we’ve said before, help

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us in our unbelief always.
Pretty much only name.

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Amen.