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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.

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It wasn’t that he was
withholding joy.

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It was that I was rejecting it.
What followed was an invitation

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to spend 30 days looking at 30
passages on Joy and turning it

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into a devotional called
Rejecting Joy.

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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?

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So hopeless.
And God very patiently let me

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know the reality.
He wasn’t withholding hope.

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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

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best.
Platitude.

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So join me as I spend 30 days
navigating 30 passages on Hope.

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This is day. 24 you’re listening
to episode 231.

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Of the where.
Did you?

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00:01:32,360 –> 00:01:48,040
See God Podcast.
By the guy we just think that

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you were God and you were good
for the way that you move and

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speak and work and we thank you
that you choose to speak through

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your word and right now we just
invite you Holy Spirit to move

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through this verse.
Do us ears to hear and help us

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to understand what you mean by
hope a little more deeply as

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very much only name Amen.
We’ve just been hanging in

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Psalm, Psalm 3322.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord,

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be upon us even as we hope in
you out the gate.

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The first thing that hits me is
that the decision to hope in God

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didn’t seem to be dependent on
His love.

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They were deciding to hope in
Him even before that love was

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guaranteed.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord,

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be upon us, even as we hope in
You.

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So we’re already hoping in you.
Can you throw some love in there

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as well?
Let’s go to Psalm 33.

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Oh, it’s 22 Verser, and let’s
read it.

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Why not?
Psalm 33 does not say who wrote

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it.
Sing joyfully to the Lord, you

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righteous.
It is fitting for the upright to

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praise Him.
Praise the Lord with the harp.

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Make music to him on the 10
stringed lyre.

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Sing to him a new song.
Play skilfully and shout for

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joy.
For the word of the Lord is

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right and true.
He is faithful in all He does.

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The Lord loves righteousness and
justice.

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The earth is full of His
unfailing love.

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By the word of the Lord the
heavens were made their starry

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host.
By the breath of his mouth.

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He gathers the waters of the sea
into jars.

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He puts the deep into
storehouses.

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Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the people of the world

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Revere Him, for He spoke and it
came to be.

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He commanded, and it stood firm.
The Lord foils the plans of the

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nations.
He thwarts the purposes of the

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people, but the plans of the
Lord stand firm forever, the

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purposes of His heart, through
all generations.

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Blessed is the nation whose God
is the Lord, the people He chose

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for His inheritance from heaven.
The Lord looks down and sees all

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mankind from His dwelling place.
He watches all who live on the

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earth.
He forms the heart of all who

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considers everything they do.
No king is saved by the size of

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his army.
No warrior escapes by his great

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strength.
A horse is a vain hope for

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deliverance.
Despite all its great strength,

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it cannot save.
But the eyes of the Lord are on

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those who fear Him, on those
whose hope is in His unfailing

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love to deliver them from death
and keep them alive.

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And famine.
We wait and hope for the Lord.

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He is our help and our shield.
In Him our hearts rejoice, for

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we trust in His holy name.
May your unfailing love be with

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us, Lord, even as we put our
hope in You.

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Interestingly, verse 18 seems to
kind of counter what I said.

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But the eyes of the Lord are on
those who fear Him, on those

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whose hope is in His unfailing
love.

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But I still stand by what I
said.

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May your unfailing love be with
us, Lord, even as we put our

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hope in you.
They’re putting their hope in

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God.
Either way, they’re putting

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their hope in God even as He has
not yet saved them.

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We wait and hope for the Lord.
He is our help and our shield.

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But they are also hoping in His
love.

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So it’s both.
They’re hoping in Him and they

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are choosing to believe that He
is a loving God.

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This is a full out singing,
joyful to God Psalm.

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There’s some echoes of Job in
here where it talks about God

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making the heavens and putting
the sea into jars.

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Let all the earth fear the Lord.
Let all the people of the world

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Revere him.
For he spoke and it came to be.

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He commanded and it stood firm.
The basis of this Psalm is

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saying that God deserves praise.
Also, God is to be feared

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because of how mind blowingly
powerful he is.

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That God is a protector, that he
foils the plans of the nations,

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that he thwarts the purposes of
the people, that he was

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reliable, that his slans stand
firm forever, that those who

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belong to him will be blessed.
And that without God like

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nothing can save you, that
nothing could actually deliver

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you from death.
No king is saved by the size of

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his army.
No warrior escapes by his great

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strength, the horses of vain
hope for deliverance.

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Despite all its great strength,
it cannot save.

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So we can try to do this on our
own, but ultimately death will

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come because that is just how it
works, except within God, where

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now death has lost its sting.
You know what God’s hitting at

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here is something greater than
the here and now, something

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eternal.
So this is our invitation is to

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hope in this God, this guy who’s
worthy of praise, who is all

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powerful, without whom we cannot
fully live.

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That is who we’re called to hope
in.

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And there is access to this
unfailing love, but the eyes of

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the Lord are on those who fear
him, on those whose hope is in

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his unfailing love.
And we’ve talked about this

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before, this idea of fear.
The fear is an understanding of

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how all inspiringly, all
producing the powerful he is and

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how very much not we are.
And so we are deferring power

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and authority to him.
And fortunately, he is also a

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God of love.
So even in light of the fact

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that he could destroy everything
like that, he is not only

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loving, but his love is
unfailing, never misses, never

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goes wrong, never stops.
And so if God was just a

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powerful God, he would still
deserve all of us, but he could

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end up taking advantage of that.
But because he’s a loving God,

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he still deserves all of us and
he extends love.

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I don’t know why it’s coming to
my mind and I’m going to share

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it and see where it goes.
But yesterday during community

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Bible study, we were talking
about this idea of deferring

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power and authority in one way
or another.

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And we are talking about the two
thieves on either side of Jesus

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on the crosses.
And they had two very different

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reactions.
One of them deferred to Jesus

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power and authority.
He’d spent his whole life doing

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who knows what, but we know he
was on a cross and he knew he

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deserved death.
So it’s clear he was not living

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in a righteous way and in one
singular act of his gave him

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access to you know, today you
will be with me in paradise.

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And that singular act was to
deferring was he deferred to

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Jesus power and authority.
He saw something in Jesus and he

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decided I’m here for that.
Meanwhile, the other seeing the

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same things, hearing the same
things, they are in the same

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place.
He did not defer to Jesus power

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and authority.
He actually mocked Jesus.

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And, and this is an interesting
piece of this.

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Again, they saw the same Jesus,
they saw the same things

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happening.
They heard the same voices

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calling out and had different
responses.

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And that’s I think the question
here.

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What leads us to have different
responses?

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Cause here you definitely have
those that want to praise God,

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but there’s the implication of
others who don’t.

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The the nations and the peoples
who oppose God or who do their

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own thing.
Those who are trying to save

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themselves with their armies and
their strengths and their

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horses.
There’s an implication here that

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there are those whose hope is in
God and those whose hope is not.

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And this gives promises to those
whose hope is in God, and it

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just names reality to those
whose hope is not.

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You’re not going to be saved by
all these things.

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The implication is all these
nations and peoples are seeing

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the same situations, hearing the
same things, and are coming to

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different conclusions.
And that’s a big piece of hope

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is you’re seeing all this stuff,
hearing all this stuff, and you

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are aligning yourself with a
conclusion.

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And the psalmist and those he’s
representing, they’re seeing all

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the things happening.
They’re still waiting for God to

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show up.
So there’s hard things

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happening.
They may even see their enemies

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thriving, right?
They’re seeing all this stuff

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and they decide to align
themself with the conclusion

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00:11:03,040 –> 00:11:08,320
that God is worthy of praise,
that God can save the eyes of

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the Lord on those who fear Him,
those whose hope is in His

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00:11:10,840 –> 00:11:14,720
unfailing love to deliver them
from death and keep them alive

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00:11:14,720 –> 00:11:17,160
and famine.
We wait and hope for the Lord.

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00:11:17,280 –> 00:11:21,240
He is our help and our shield.
They took all the evidence and

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said, all right, we’re going to
hope in God.

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And then they said, let your
steadfast love, O Lord, be upon

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us.
They chose to hope in God

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00:11:30,520 –> 00:11:35,400
because of who He is, and then
they called for His love as

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well.
The hope came first.

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00:11:38,000 –> 00:11:42,760
The decision to defer power and
authority to God came first, and

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then a hopefulness for his
steadfast, unfailing love.

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So you’re looking at your
situations today, you’re hearing

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what you’re hearing, you’re
seeing what you’re seeing.

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00:11:52,360 –> 00:11:55,600
And then you have to make a
decision around what conclusion

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you want to align yourself with.
This passage encourages for your

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conclusion to align to God being
God and good, to defer to his

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00:12:04,720 –> 00:12:08,080
power and authority.
And fortunately, that comes with

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an unfeeling, steadfast love the
Psalm implies.

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Then the next step is just to
name it, to sing it, to shout

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it, to praise God lest we fall
back into our questions and

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concerns and thoughts and
doubts.

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00:12:23,240 –> 00:12:25,600
We just name it and keep looking
for it.

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00:12:26,240 –> 00:12:27,600
Father God is just.
Thank you that you were God and

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00:12:27,600 –> 00:12:29,560
you were good.
And for the ways that you move,

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00:12:30,000 –> 00:12:33,480
I thank you for who you are.
And I thank you that you are God

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worthy not just of praise, but
of hope, that you are a God who

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00:12:38,080 –> 00:12:42,600
is faithful when we hope in you,
newer God who has unfailing,

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00:12:42,600 –> 00:12:44,880
steadfast love that meets that
hope.

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00:12:45,600 –> 00:12:47,880
So help us learn to trust that
even in a small way.

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Today must very much holy and
precious name.

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00:12:50,240 –> 00:12:50,640
Amen.