Author and LaSalle University professor, Grace Adolphsen Brame, Says some of her students claim heaven is of no concern to them. Life is precious. This world matters, and it is all we have for sure. So why concern ourselves with something for which we have no evidence?
What a sad state of affairs for so many in the world around us. Dr. Brame goes on to say, “Every night one of my friends prays that he will die before morning. He fervently hopes there is no hereafter. Something in him says eternal life is pie in the sky, a human concoction that became dogma when it was accepted by enough people. Considering his many disappointments with God, why should he trust the next life will be any better than this one?
For those of us who believe, how sad a state of affairs in the lives of people, to have no hope. It is difficult for me to imagine someone living in such a world, in such a state of mind that they quite literally have no hope. One of my preacher friends is the polar opposite of Dr. Brame’s friend. Mireya calls herself a, “hope junkie.” She surrounds herself with signs and objects of hope. She even has the words “Hope Junkie, Romans 15:13” printed on the back bumper of her car. The words were there before she even had a permanent license plate! For those of you who may be wondering, Romans 15:13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in faith so that you overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
It is really difficult for me to comprehend a person having so little hope but I know it happens. I knew a woman, we will call her Rebecca, when I was a student at Sam Houston. Rebecca, in some ways, was like any other college student though she was older than average and had four kids ranging from elementary school to college. She had been through a great deal in her life and when you started talking to her about the future, it became very clear, very quickly she didn’t see much good in life and she didn’t have much hope for the future.
Most of our fellow students had no idea when it came to the depth of Rebecca’s problems and despair. Though I talked to her regularly and knew more about her past than probably anyone else around there, even I didn’t recognized the depth of her issues until just after Thanksgiving when she became suicidal. The director at the Wesley Foundation and I spent quite a bit of time individually and together, in prayer for Rebecca. When the spring semester began she had emerged some from the problem but still had a long way to go. Fortunately, with all that prayer we were able to convince Rebecca to take advantage of the counseling services offered by the university. I have long since lost contact with Rebecca but on occasion, when I think about it, I still pray for her. There was no doubt then she needed a breakthrough. She might still need one today.
This morning we are continuing our series on breakthrough prayer. We began this series two weeks ago, the Sunday after the conclusion of this year’s annual conference. At conference this year one of our speakers was the Reverend Sue Nillen Kibey, director of connectional ministries for the West Ohio Annual Conference. In one of her addresses Rev. Kibey talked about the idea of breakthrough prayer. She defined breakthrough prayer as prayer where we ask God to break through in a given situation as only God can do and to bring about God sized change in the circumstance. On that first Sunday following Annual Conference we talked about breakthrough prayer in our families. If I would have thought about this series a little more and didn’t move into it quite so quickly, I would have flipped this sermon with the first. Father’s Day would have been an appropriate time to talk about asking God to break through in our families. But alas, I failed to think it quite all the way through and we talked about breakthrough prayer for our families two weeks ago. In all our families there are situations we cannot fix, situations where we need God to breakthrough and see to things in ways we simply cannot do.
Last week was Pentecost Sunday. I did think that one through. It seems to me there is no better time to ask God to breakthrough in the life of the church than on Pentecost, the birthday of the church. We went on to talk about some of the issues facing our congregation now and into the future and how we needed God to break through to give us a vision for our future.
This morning we are talking about asking God to break through in the lives of our friends. We all know people who stand in special need of intervention in ways we cannot do. There are financial issues, health issues, relationship issues, work issues, people who are like Rebecca or the friend of Dr. Brame’s, people who have lost hope. That only mentions a few of the possibilities. There are many more.
As I read today’s lesson, Paul reminds the Romans, and us, of the importance of hope. The lesson concludes with that verse Mireya has on the bumper of her car. Paul wants the followers of Jesus Christ to be people of hope. It is easy to understand why. Without hope, what is the point? Further, if you have ever spent much time around a person who seemingly has no hope, it doesn’t take long to come to the conclusion, this person just isn’t much fun to be around. They seem to be pretty miserable. And, if they seem miserable to us, imagine, if you can, what it must feel like to walk around inside all that misery, all that lack of hope. Imagine your very worst day, a day where little, if anything, seems to go right, a day where you are just plain miserable. Now, compound it with things continuing on the next day and the next and the next and every day for what seems like forever. It might be like that old movie from the 80’s Groundhog Day where Bill Murray’s character seems to keep reliving the same bad experience in perpetuity. It might even be day after day of what Job experienced.
But for Job, something happened. God broke through. When God broke through everything changed for Job. His life was restored. It all came back and more. But most of all, when God broke through for Job, Job found his hope restored. Job’s hope was restored because of the presence of God and where God is, there is always reason for hope.
The past two Sundays I have asked you to take out your phones. Most phones these days have an alarm function. I want to ask that you, if you have not already, set an alarm for 8:12 P.M. The purpose of this alarm is for us, as a congregation, to join together in breakthrough prayer. We might not all be praying for the exact same thing at the same moment and that is OK. But, the idea is for all of us to be in breakthrough prayer at the same time. In your prayer ask God to break through in your family. Ask God to break through in this congregation. And, this week add to that, asking God to break through in the lives of your friends.
I also have a prayer clock up here. A few people have signed up but we still have lots of room. This prayer clock begins at 6:00 PM on July 3rd and continues through 6:00 on Sunday July 6th and it is divided up into one hour time slots. I do realize it is a holiday weekend and many will be traveling those days. I along with Christie, Daniel and some of our youth will be at camp when the time clock actually begins. But, we can pray there and you can pray wherever you are. During this time we will ask you to pray for your family, your friends, your church and more. I also know that praying for an hour straight can feel a bit daunting so before the event begins we will have prayer guides to help you along the way. Please sign up for some time. I believe this is important.
As we have each Sunday this month, and will continue for the final two Sundays of the month, we are about to celebrate Holy Communion. Use this time as an opportunity to enter into breakthrough prayer. Ask God to break through in your list of needs for others. I believe the greatest gift you could give your father today would be to ask God to break through in his life. It is the greatest gift you can give to anyone. We all need to see God in mighty and powerful ways.
There are so many around us who lack hope. Start praying today that God will break through. Bringing healing. Bringing wholeness. Brining hope for people like Rebecca, people like Job, people like Dr. Brane’s friend. If they don’t have God, there isn’t much room to hope. But, where God is, there is always reason to hope.
