Human beings are inescapably hope-centred creature. What we place our hope in will inevitably dictate our behaviour and attitudes to life and death. In our last sermon of the Essential series we are looking at the necessity of a living hope, what it looks like, and how it can get you through anything. This ‘living hope’ that Peter describes in 1 Peter 1:3 is the opposite to a dead hope. It’s alive and active. It’s powerful and it is protected by the surest thing in the universe, God’s power.

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Missions happens when the presence of God is heavy on a people. Throughout the Bible, when people come face-to-face with God they are sent out. It is at the very core of the Church’s mission here on earth. In this Essential series we have been looking at the Church, Worship, and Prayer and how each are founded on our identity as adopted children of God and form the essential foundations of our faith. This week we explore how genuine encounters with God turn the Church into missionaries dedicated to the long-haul, and moved by the presence of God to reach our community for Jesus.

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Prayer is a universal aspect of human life. Even non-religious people may find themselves praying on the odd occasion. Jesus helps us understand that the only way to pray to God is through the eyes of an adopted child. When we are brought into the Kingdom we receive a new relationship with God. We are now part of the family, and that completely changes our view of prayer.

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Psalm 100

Make a joyful noise to the LORD, all the earth!
Serve the LORD with gladness!
Come into his presence with singing!

Know that the LORD, he is God!
It is he who made us, and we are his;
we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving,
and his courts with praise!
Give thanks to him; bless his name!

For the LORD is good;
his steadfast love endures forever,
and his faithfulness to all generations.

Psalm 100 (ESV)

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Remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. And he came and preached peace to you who were far off and peace to those who were near. For through him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father. So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord. In him you also are being built together into a dwelling place for God by the Spirit.

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