Impact of Grace #7 - Gospel Ambition
Description
In this week’s message, Kurt Bjorklund explores Romans 15:8–33 to show how the settled hope believers have in Christ is meant to turn outward toward others. He offers four practical ways—having, embodying, speaking, and partnering for hope—that anyone can put into practice this week, no matter how uncertain life feels right now.
Summary and Application
We all know what it's like to state a mission for our lives and then watch reality drift a little off course. In a recent message from Romans 15:8–33, part of Orchard Hill's The Impact of Grace series, Kurt Bjorklund named that gap directly. Borrowing an idea from author John Ortberg, Kurt explained that most of us carry a "shadow mission" — a stated goal like generosity or leadership that quietly gets replaced by a truer, less flattering motive: the need to be seen, to stay comfortable, to avoid risk.
That honest starting point set up the real question of the message: what is a Christian's true mission? Kurt's answer, drawn from Romans 15, is simple — bring hope. Here are the four ways he unpacked it.
Have Hope
Before you can give something away, you need to actually have it. Romans 15:13 puts it this way: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Kurt pointed out that biblical hope isn't wishful thinking — it's settled. Romans 5:2–4 calls it a hope "that does not put us to shame," present even in suffering, and Romans 8:20 says even creation groans "in hope." This is hope as certainty, not chance.
Kurt illustrated the difference with a story about buying tickets to a football game: years ago you'd show up hoping a scalper had a good seat; now you buy online and simply know you're getting in. Biblical hope, he said, works the same way — it's not crossing your fingers about eternity, it's walking through life already knowing how the story ends.
Embody Hope
Hope that stays theoretical doesn't do much good. Romans 15:18–19 and 26 show Paul's hope moving him into action — generosity toward the poor in Jerusalem, and gospel ministry carried out "by the power of signs and wonders." Kurt connected this to Psalm 46:10: "Be still, and know that I am God." He noted that this often-highlighted verse was likely written during a siege of Jerusalem, and pointed to the discovery of Hezekiah's Tunnel — built generations earlier — as evidence that God was already at work providing for a crisis no one could yet see coming. To embody hope, Kurt said, is to trust that God is active in your circumstances right now, not just in some far-off eternity.
Speak Hope
Romans 15:14–18 describes Paul's calling to proclaim the gospel, and Kurt widened the lens: every believer, not just professional clergy, carries this role. He traced that idea back to Martin Luther's teaching on the priesthood of all believers. Speaking hope, Kurt insisted, doesn't require having every theological answer ready. He compared it to encouraging a friend to get an EZ Pass for the highway — it's simply telling someone about something good that has already made your own life better, and inviting them to experience it too.
Partner for Hope
Finally, Romans 15:26–32 shows the Roman believers partnering with Paul — financially, and through what Kurt called two rare New Testament words: to "strive together" in prayer, and to "be refreshed together." Partnering for hope, he said, looks like praying for the people carrying ministry forward, and offering genuine encouragement rather than criticism. Kurt referenced an idea from a management book he read early in his career about the "fatal pronoun disease" — the habit of saying "they" instead of "we" when talking about your own community. Swapping "they" for "we," he said, is itself a small act of hope.
Taken together, these four postures describe what Kurt called a "gospel ambition": not a polished mission statement, but a life oriented outward, offering to others the same hope that has already been settled for you.
Questions for Relfection
Where is your hope right now — genuinely settled in what Christ has done, or still quietly hoping things simply work out?
Who in your life could use a small, ordinary word of hope from you this week — and what would it actually look like to say it?
This post was developed with the assistance of artificial intelligence based on the sermon "Gospel Ambition" by Kurt Bjorklund (Romans 15:8–33, August 23, 2026). While every effort has been made to faithfully represent the content and intent of the original message, readers are encouraged to engage the full sermon audio or transcript for the complete teaching.
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John Ortberg
Ortberg teaches that most people have a "shadow mission" — a mission that is "about ten percent off" from their stated one, described as "a subtle substitute for what could or should be our true mission in life."
His specific examples for teachers, generous people, leaders, and caretakers, plus an anecdote of a man in his group admitting his shadow mission was "to be as comfortable as I can and care as little as possible about the rest of the world."
Hezekiah's Tunnel — Cited as archaeological evidence supporting the likely historical setting of Psalm 46 (a siege of Jerusalem), described as documented "in the book of Chronicles." Kurt notes he has personally walked through the tunnel. Used to illustrate that God was providentially at work generations before the crisis it addressed.
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Let's pray together. God, as we're gathered here in this room and around Pittsburgh online, we ask that you would meet with each of us. God, I pray that we would grow in our understanding of you, our devotion for you, and our affection toward you. And we pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
Well, if you watch trends over time, you see that sometimes the advice or the wisdom that's considered to be the consensus wisdom changes over time. Here's what I mean.
When I was growing up, there was a food pyramid. Do any of you remember this? The food pyramid was a triangle, and at the bottom was what you needed the most of — eat a lot of bread, cereal, things like that. And then it went up. Now, if you look at this thing, it's been inverted. The whole idea of how we should eat has been reversed in terms of what people say is important. And if you pay attention to health at all, you at least say, how was it so out of whack from what it is today?
Or here's another one. For years we were told by people who studied these things that a glass of red wine in moderation was good for your heart. Now people are saying any alcohol probably is not good for you, no matter what.
In terms of how we live and in terms of maximizing ourselves, the trends keep multiplying. Now people have these wearable devices — don't raise your hand if you have one — whether it's an aura ring, a watch, something like that, that helps you track your steps. The collective wisdom, by the way, varies between 10,000, 6,000, 15,000 steps — not sure how many. And you can get real-time readouts that show you how "old" you are, that tell you you're stressed out in a meeting or in a conversation with your spouse. Or you get annoyed because you thought you slept well, but you wake up and it tells you that you didn't get good sleep. Or another trend for wellness has been to say maybe all the screen time we have isn't ideal anymore, and so people are starting to set more limits around how much screen time they allow themselves.
Well, one of the trends that has been around for a long time in terms of maximizing ourselves has been the idea of coming up with personal mission statements. You've probably, in some business setting or context, had somebody tell you that you should figure out your own personal mission statement, and if you do and live according to it, you will have a much more fulfilled life than if you don't. So I asked AI to help me with some potential mission statements. These are generic, not just for me, but here were some it came up with: "To live a life with unshakable integrity, to listen deeply to those around me, to bring clarity and steady strength to every room I enter." That's not bad — I don't know how many people would actually walk around saying "I'm bringing strength to every room," but if you do, that's good.
Another one: "To cultivate curiosity over judgment, lead with quiet conviction, and construct a life anchored in humility, honesty, and deliberate action." And then for somebody who's maybe more family or relationally oriented: "To show up consistently as an intentional partner, a devoted friend, a generous mentor, ensuring the people in my life know that they are valued."
Now, obviously by my tone I'm mocking this a little — not because I don't think it's a helpful exercise, but anytime I've tried to do this, it gets so wordy with so many things that I start feeling burdened by how much is in there. And when I'm really honest with myself, I recognize that a stated mission isn't probably the real mission. Here's what I mean: John Ortberg wrote about this some time ago, and he said that we all really have shadow missions.
What he meant was that we have a mission where we say, "this is what I should do," but our real mission is about ten percent off. Not 180 degrees off, but about ten percent off. He said our shadow mission is a subtle substitute for what could or should be our true mission in life. He gave these examples: if you're a teacher or a mentor of some kind, you'd say your mission is "to equip, educate, and empower others to succeed." But the shadow mission is really to impress others — to use your knowledge to ensure you seem like the smartest person in the room, with an underlying motive of pride and validation.
Or if you have a mission to be generous, to use your resources for good purposes, you'd say your mission is "to give joyfully and resource those in need." But the shadow mission is to out-give people or be recognized for your giving — to give primarily to enhance your reputation as a generous person, with an underlying motive of status or self-aggrandizement.
He also talked about how some of us might feel leadership is where we make our mark, so the stated mission would be "to steward a team or an organization toward a shared vision." But the shadow mission would be about control or self-protection — leading in ways that avoid personal risk, criticism, or loss of influence.
Or if our mission is to caretake or serve people in our lives, we'd say it's "to love and support others selflessly." But the shadow mission can be to be needed — helping only because being indispensable proves our self-worth and guards against rejection, with an underlying motive of insecurity or fear.
I remember hearing John Ortberg talk about this once. As he was leading a group through the idea of shadow mission, one of the men in the group said, "You know, my shadow mission, if I'm really honest, is to be as comfortable as I can and care as little as possible about the rest of the world."
I highlight this because the idea of creating mission statements has been around a long time, and it can be a useful activity — but not if we're not honest with ourselves about what's real. And today we're in Romans 15. If you've been around over the last couple of months, we've worked our way through most of the book of Romans, and this week and next weekend are the last two messages from Romans.
Romans 15 is about having what I'm calling a gospel ambition, which is just a way of saying bringing hope to people in this world. Here's what Romans has basically done: at the beginning, it taught us about the gift of grace — how you and I experience the grace of God. Toward the end of the book, it gives us the implications of this grace. One of the implications is that if you've experienced the hope of Jesus Christ, if you've come to have genuine saving faith, it will turn you outward, so that part of your genuine mission now is to bring hope to other people in the world.
In fact, in Romans 15 there are verses — we didn't read these this morning — that talk about the Gentiles and the different peoples. Really, what that's about is Paul's way of saying that his mission was to bring hope to anyone and everyone, that there would be no barriers between the people he would bring hope to. We could certainly spend time today talking about the ways our world needs hope, but the point here is that Romans tells us that the message of Jesus Christ, the gospel, is hope.
Now, the word "gospel" sometimes throws us off because we hear it and just say, well, it's kind of a religious word. But the word gospel simply means good news. So the idea here is that bringing hope is a way of bringing good news to anybody and everybody in the world around us who needs to hear it.
Here's where we see this. Romans 15:13 — you heard this read — says, "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." May you have hope. May you overflow with hope as God fills you with the power of the Holy Spirit.
Just a quick note: when we're done with the Romans series, beginning the first weekend of September, we're going to do a series on the Holy Spirit. If you've ever wondered how the Holy Spirit fits into your whole life — a member of the Trinity who's mentioned all the time — this will be a great series, part of a series of series we started five years ago working through all the big sections of systematic theology. That starts in September.
But today, the point is that if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, you are invited to bring hope to anyone and everyone. And I think Romans 15 answers the question, how do we do that? There are four ways we can do that in this chapter.
1. Have Hope
Again, verse 13 says it very simply: "May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace." We can't share something we don't have. And a lot of times people — especially religious people — don't actually have a message of hope. Their message is about what they're against rather than about what God has done.
I saw an article recently about a man, 82 years old, who was working as a school bus driver. He had gone through a divorce and lost a lot of his resources, so he needed to work past his original plan of how long he would work. But in driving the school bus he began to find purpose, because as he was aging he realized he really enjoyed helping kids feel valued and seen. The bus was kind of a wild zone without much supervision, and he said that's where he found purpose. He said, "I heard somebody once say this, and I found it true in driving the school bus: we all need someone to love, something to do, and something to look forward to. And the way I found enjoyment in life is that has been true for me."
Now, you may say, great for him that he found that driving a school bus — don't sign me up. I get that. But his point — something to do, someone to love, something to look forward to — almost sounds like a message that could be Christian in some ways: someone to love — love the people around you; something to do — bring the message of hope; something to look forward to — have hope. But the gospel message is actually even greater than that.
Here's why I say that: you can find purpose in bringing hope to kids on a school bus without ever talking about ultimate issues. What Romans has made abundantly clear is that every person who walks on the face of this earth is sinful and needs a savior — that we can't save ourselves. The way most people think about this is, "well, if I've done wrong, I'll take my chances on whatever is ahead of me, because on balance I've been pretty good." That's how most people hear this.
But the problem is that hope in the Bible is much more fixed than just "I hope this works out." It's something settled. Let me show you the way this word is used a few times in the book of Romans.
Romans 5:2-4: "Through whom" — talking about Jesus Christ — "we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance produces character, and character, hope." Verse 5: "And this hope does not put us to shame." Even in suffering, you can have hope — a hope of glory. He says this is being poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. There is a hope that transcends our circumstances.
Romans 8:20 uses this word again: "For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope." His point: we live in a frustrating existence where the very nature of being alive in a fallen creation says, "this isn't how things should be" — but the hope within us is that there is something more.
And in Romans 15:4, he uses this word hope again: "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through the endurance taught in the Scriptures and the encouragement they provide, we might have hope." So hope is this fixed hope in what God will do. It's not just, "well, maybe this will work out."
Let me put it this way. I went to a preseason football game with the Packers and the Steelers here a couple of weeks ago. I grew up in northern Wisconsin, so I'm a lifelong Packers fan, secondary Steelers fan, having lived here long enough. So my ideal every year is that the Steelers win every game they play, except against the Green Bay Packers. If they play each other — which is once every four years — it's not a huge conflict; they both make it through the playoffs, play in the Super Bowl, and just like that glorious year in 2011, the Packers win and the Steelers finish second. That's my ideal football scenario every year. But I'll take a Steelers win if the Packers can't.
Anyway, I went to the game, and I'm old enough to remember when, if you wanted to buy tickets late, you'd get in your car, drive to the event, and walk toward the stadium, and there'd be people out there saying, "I have two tickets, I have four tickets." You'd talk to them and exchange money right there, but you never knew exactly what you'd get until you got there — it wasn't fixed. Now everything has moved online, so the ticket market is settled ahead of time. Here was the difference: I bought tickets the day before, and when I went to the game, I knew I had admittance. I didn't go hoping — I went knowing. Biblical hope is more like saying, "I know," and orienting my life accordingly.
So the first part of being able to share hope is having hope — having it settled, knowing that our sins are forgiven by God, and saying, "I know what the future is."
2. Embody Hope
Verse 13: "May the God of hope fill you with joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." So it's overflowing with hope. In verse 13 he talks about joy and peace. In verse 26 he talks about how this hope moved him to use his resources for a contribution for the poor among God's people in Jerusalem — it moved him to action. In verses 18 and 19 we see God's work in him moving him to act.
Verses 18 and 19: "I will not venture to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished through me in leading the Gentiles to obey God — by what I have said and done, by the power of signs and wonders, through the power of the Spirit of God." There's the Spirit again. He's saying that the hope he has about eternity, which is fixed, changes how he lives today, because the God who can do signs and wonders is at work even when he doesn't see or understand it, right here, right now.
The promise of eternity is a significant part of a believer's hope, because of it, if you are a follower of Jesus, you can say the best things in your life are but a taste of what will be, and the worst things that happen will one day all be behind you. But if you're not a follower of Jesus, the worst things you're experiencing today are but a taste of what will be, and the best things you're experiencing today will one day all be behind you.
It's really easy to live as if eternity isn't a thing, as if that isn't so, and to say everything here and now needs to be according to how I think it should be. But what I want you to see about embodying hope is that it says God is at work even in the here and now, and it impacts how we interact with the situations of our lives.
I recognize some of us are here saying, "It's nice that God promises eternity, but right now I'm in the middle of such a hard storm that it's hard to even think about getting that far. I'm barely hanging on this week. Where is God in the midst of this?"
There's a verse in the Old Testament that's often quoted, Psalm 46:10. If you're a person who highlights in your Bible or marks things in your digital version, there's a good chance this is one of those verses. Psalm 46:10 says simply, "Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." That's a great verse just to read and highlight to help you think about who God is. But the context makes this verse even more significant.
Most people who study this believe it was written when Jerusalem was surrounded by enemies who had encamped around the city under siege. At the time, if an army wanted to force a surrender, they'd surround a city, block anyone from going in or out, and try to choke off supplies. Jerusalem is elevated with no natural water source, so if you encamped around the city, you would simply wait for their water to run out until they had to surrender. This was likely the situation when this psalm was written, and the people said, "Be still, know that I am God, I'll be exalted" — don't worry about how bleak the situation is, because I'm at work.
Actually, God had worked in the years leading up to it to provide a way — this is the context of the well-known archaeological find of Hezekiah's Tunnel. You can read about it in the book of Chronicles: Hezekiah built this tunnel to bring a spring of water into Jerusalem. Two groups of workers dug into limestone some seventeen stories below ground over a long distance and met in the middle, just slightly apart — there's a small step right where they met. I've actually walked through this tunnel myself; the water flows through it and forms a pool in Jerusalem, giving them water even under siege.
But the point is that God had worked, hundreds of years before, prompting someone to build this tunnel so the people could withstand the siege that was coming. The God you worship, if you're a follower of Jesus, is a God who's at work in your life even when situations seem to be moving against you — even when it makes no sense to you, and it seems like your hope is cut off. Yet God has been, and is, working in the midst of it.
To embody hope is to say God is not done with the situation you're in, and to believe that at the core of your being. As I look back at my life, at some of the hardest moments, there were times I felt God was not present. But when I got through those situations and looked back years later, I was always amazed at how I could see the fingerprints of God in the midst of what felt devastating at the time. My point is simply this: God is at work, even if it doesn't feel like it in your life. To embody hope is to embrace that and say, "I don't just have hope for a future resurrection — though that is enough — I also have hope that God is not done in the here and now."
3. Speak Hope
We see this in verses 14 and following. He says, "I myself am convinced, my brothers and sisters, that you yourselves are full of goodness, filled with knowledge, and competent to instruct one another. Yet I have written to you quite boldly on some points, to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me." Now he's talking about the implication of that grace: "to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles, with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit."
We hear that and think, well, he made Paul a minister and gave him a priestly duty. But Paul, later in the book of First Peter, talks about a royal priesthood, saying that everyone who names God as their God and follows Jesus Christ is a priest. His point is that this isn't just a professional class of ministers, but everybody has the ability to represent people to God and God to people — that's what a priest did. You can pray on behalf of anybody to God, and you can represent God to people. This is where Martin Luther got his idea of the priesthood of believers — there aren't just professional clergy who carry the message of Jesus Christ; everybody has been entrusted with this message.
The challenge is this: for a lot of people of faith, their message isn't hope — it's bad news. It's about what God is against rather than who God is and what he has done. For some, it's no message at all — just, "this isn't a thing for me; my shadow mission is just to get there myself, not to embrace that I have any role in bringing hope to anybody else." But speaking hope is simply saying, "here's where I have found hope."
Sometimes we think, "the gospel of Jesus Christ sounds complex — I have to answer every question, I have to know everything." But it's actually much simpler than that. It's simply saying, "I know something, and I want you to know it too, because you will find it hopeful."
Let me put it this way. My wife and I traveled to a wedding in Chicago last weekend, and two things happened along the way that made me think of this. First, we got on the tollway. If you've ever driven on a turnpike or tollway, you know that years ago you had to stop every time and get out money or use your credit card — a real pain, if you're young you may not remember this. Then came the EZ Pass, where you just zoom right by and it charges your account later — you don't even feel it, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but you just go. I was amazed at how many people were still pulling into the pay lane as I drove by, and I thought, "don't you know how much faster and easier this is?" I wanted to roll down my window and say, "get an EZ Pass — your life would be better." I don't know why people don't get one; maybe they don't drive that road often. But it's simply better if you have one than if you don't. Telling somebody the good news is like that — there's something provided that you don't have to do a lot for, other than go online and register. It's a little bit of a pain, I get it, but you won't have to wait in line anymore. Speaking good news is part of the call of bringing hope to people.
The second thing was at the wedding itself. It was somebody from Pittsburgh marrying somebody from Chicago, so the crowd was mixed. At the end of the dinner, the cookie table came out — the Pittsburgh cookie table. All the Pittsburgh people got up and went straight to it, because they knew the delights, the glory, of a Pittsburgh cookie table. The Chicago people just sat there saying, "what's going on over there? There's cake coming — what's this?" They had no idea. I ended up having a conversation with somebody, encouraging them to partake of the beauty of a Pittsburgh cookie table.
My point is that talking about the hope of Jesus Christ doesn't mean having every answer to every question and working it into some big, complicated thing. It's saying, "I know who God is because he's revealed himself to me. Jesus Christ has given me assurance that I have a right standing with God, and you can have it too." Speaking hope is part of bringing hope to people.
4. Partner For Hope
In verses 26 through 29 we see the financial partnership of the group for the people in Jerusalem. Verse 26: "For Macedonia and Achaia were pleased to make a contribution for the poor among the Lord's people in Jerusalem. They were pleased to do it, and indeed they owe it to them — for if the Gentiles have shared in the Jews' spiritual blessings, they owe it to the Jews to share with them their material blessings. So after I have completed this task and made sure they have received this contribution, I will go to Spain and visit you on the way. I know that when I come to you, I will come in the full measure of the blessing of Christ."
There's partnership here, but I want you to see the words that come after this, in verses 30 and 32. Two words show up in the original language — let me geek out here for a moment, but stay with me, there's a payoff. In verse 30 there's a word translated "strive together" or "struggle" — some versions say "join me in my struggle." In the original language this is a hapax legomenon, meaning it's the only time it appears in the whole New Testament. It has a prefix in Greek, "sun," which is where you get the "together" idea — so it means to struggle together, sometimes in the sense of struggling in partnership for something. He says, "strive together with me in prayer."
Then two verses later, in verse 32, there's another hapax legomenon — again, the only time the word shows up in the New Testament — meaning "be refreshed together." The NIV says, "in your company, be refreshed." Same idea: it has that "sun" prefix, together, and then "be refreshed" — together.
Here's why I mention this. When a word appears only once in the New Testament, it's a unique vocabulary word, and it should cause a careful reader to stop and ask, "what does this really mean?" And here's what Paul is doing: he's reaching for these words to say that part of partnering for the message of hope, being a partner in hope, is to pray with those who are investing in the message of hope, and part of it is to be refreshed together — to refresh one another.
One of the ways all of us can engage in what God is doing is to pray. I've heard so many of you over the years say you pray for the church regularly, and I'm so thankful for that. I know one of the reasons Orchard Hill has had some of the results it has had is because so many people pray so regularly. But praying for your church, for the pastors, for the youth workers, for people who are parenting in the middle of it all, is one of the ways you can partner with people for the message of Jesus Christ.
And then there's refreshing one another. Refreshing can look like a lot of different things, but certainly one of them is when somebody is positive about what's going on — not blind, but positive. One of the things I've learned being around church a long time is that it doesn't take much savviness to be a critic; anybody can say what's wrong. But when we say, "I want to be part of the solution," that is refreshing.
One of the books I read early in my working years, on management, talked about the "fatal pronoun disease" — whenever in an organization you hear somebody say "they made this decision, they decided this" instead of "we." "They" makes it their responsibility, their decision, their problem — not ours. What's refreshing is when people say, "no, this is our problem." Now, I understand that in any church, especially a bigger one, there's a sense in which there's a "they," and you might say, "well, I'm not part of the they." But it's refreshing when, instead of saying "I wish they would do something at worship" or "I hear they didn't do such-and-such," people say, "what if we did this?" and start bringing refreshment.
Or maybe it's just a positive word. I mentioned parents — parents are at the front line of bringing hope to their kids, and sometimes what parents need more than anything is somebody to say, "I'm seeing the results of the effort you're putting in — keep at it, you're doing a great job." Or maybe it's people you work alongside, like-minded people asking, "how can we bring hope?" — and you see somebody doing it well and you simply respond, "way to go, I saw what you did and how God worked."
This is the call for people who have hope. Unfortunately, sometimes life gets in the way. Our indifference can get in the way. Our shadow mission can get in the way. But the call for each person who follows Jesus is to help bring hope to this world by having hope, embodying hope, speaking hope, and partnering for hope with those who need it most — anyone and everyone.
Let's pray together. God, today I acknowledge that sometimes I'm indifferent to bringing hope. Sometimes I get so busy doing life that I don't think about the opportunities around me. Sometimes I get too focused on my own hurts and challenges. I can become complacent with what is, or too immersed in the amusements of life. God, I'm guessing I'm not alone. So I ask that you would help us not to live a shadow mission, but to live a genuine mission. And God, I pray that in this moment, as we're gathered here, you would help each of us either to move into hope for the first time, acknowledging our need for Jesus Christ, or to embody that hope so fully that it is evident to the people around us. We pray this in Jesus' name, amen.
This transcript was cleaned up (filler words removed, grammar lightly edited) with the assistance of AI. While efforts were made to preserve the speaker's original words and meaning as closely as possible, minor errors or unintended alterations may exist. Please refer to the original audio/video recording for the definitive record of this message.
