I don’t know about you, but I wake up every day looking for reasons to have hope. Sometimes when I wake up, I’m hoping the clock will tell me it’s the middle of the night and that I still have a few hours to sleep. When it’s time to get out of bed, I hop on the scale, in hopes that the cinnamon roll I had yesterday didn’t affect me all that much. Then I move into the kitchen with the hopes of the coffee being both tasty and strong. And before 6am even arrives, I’ve already put my hope in so many places.

When you start your day, where are you placing your hope?

Some of you wake up hoping that you received less than 100 emails from the time you checked last night. Some of you look at how the stock market is doing to see if there’s any reason for hope. How’s that working for you so far in 2025? ☺ Some of you open your dating app to see if he or she has responded to your interests. Others of you open social media to see if you have received enough attention to have hope. Some of you are taking pregnancy tests every week, in hopes that at some point it’ll reveal what you’re wanting more than anything in the whole world. Some of you have been refreshing your email multiple times in this service, in hopes that some major firm will invest in your new company. (They probably won’t send you that email on Easter ☺)

Every person in this room and watching online is carrying some level of hope today. Here’s what I’d like you to do just for your own sake. Take some time to think about how much hope is present in your life and give yourself a “hope” score between 0-100. Think about what your number is and why it is where it is.

For those of you with a really high “hope” score, I’m curious why your hope is so high right now. Perhaps you’re an optimist like me. You just think everything’s going to be great. The only problem with optimism is that it doesn’t know what to do with things like suffering and disappointment.

Others of you have really high scores because you’ve been convinced that when you experience what you’ve set your heart on, it’s going to bring ultimate satisfaction to you. So you have high hopes that getting a promotion will do it for you. Or getting the girl or the guy you’ve set your heart on. Or achieving the thing that you’re giving all your energy to right now. Or you’ve got some stock options that look like they could lead to wealth beyond your wildest imagination and you know that’s a good place to set your hopes.

The late British writer and Oxford professor, C.S. Lewis, called this “The Fool’s Way” to live with hope.

“The Fool’s Way – He puts the blame on the things themselves. He goes on all his life thinking that if only he tried another woman, or went for a more expensive holiday, or whatever it is, this time, he really would catch the mysterious something we are all after.” C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

“He puts the blame on the things.” In other words, I took the wrong job, we went to the wrong vacation destination, or I married the wrong person. Lewis Smedes says all of these kinds of hopes are false hopes.

“False hopes, all of them, not because they cannot come true, but because even if they do come true they cannot bring the happiness we had hoped they would give us.” Lewis Smedes, Keeping Hope Alive

Others of you know better because you’ve tried all these things. You are no longer setting your hopes there. You have more money than you know what to do with. You've been to the most amazing destinations for vacation. You’ve met famous people. You’ve found yourself in articles. You’ve married the most amazing person. And yet, if you’re honest, you would say your hope score is quite low. And I get it. If you’ve tried EVERYTHING and none of it ultimately satisfied you, I guess hopelessness makes sense.

What have you encountered in your life that has caused you to lose hope?

In 2012, my wife Shauna and I entered into the adoption process in India with high hopes we would be able to bring a little girl into our family. I’ll never forget the day we were matched with a 6 year old girl. She was 7 by the time we received her picture.

We assumed everything would speed up after the match, but things actually slowed down. By the time our case made it to court, the judge denied our request to adopt this girl because she disrupted birth order in our family. After multiple denials, my hope score was close to 0. Later I learned that the orphanage director shared this news with the girl, letting her know that the family she had heard was coming for her was in fact, NOT coming for her. Her “hope” score was pretty low that day too.

How do you move forward when your hope is now behind you?

In the first century, hope began to rise in a region in northern Israel called Galilee. A man named Jesus showed up and began to invite people to follow Him. And many did. They left what they knew behind and went on this adventure. They saw him heal. They were astounded at the things he taught. And they put their hope in him as he promised deliverance and victory. But he wasn’t well received by everyone. The religious and political leaders crucified him. And crucifixion looks like the exact opposite of victory.

When Jesus died, the hopes of his followers did too.

But what happened that would cause us to gather in San Francisco some 2,000 years later and lead us to believe that what took place there and then could give us hope for here and now?

Luke 24:13-35 Now that same day two of them were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem. They were talking with each other about everything that had happened. As they talked and discussed these things with each other, Jesus himself came up and walked along with them; but they were kept from recognizing him. He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?” They stood still, their faces downcast.

“What things?” he asked. “About Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “He was a prophet, powerful in word and deed before God and all the people. The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel. And what is more, it is the third day since all this took place. In addition, some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning but didn’t find his body. They came and told us that they had seen a vision of angels, who said he was alive. Then some of our companions went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see Jesus.”

He said to them, “How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken! Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory?” And beginning with Moses and all the Prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

As they approached the village to which they were going, Jesus continued on as if he were going farther. But they urged him strongly, “Stay with us, for it is nearly evening; the day is almost over.” So he went in to stay with them.

When he was at the table with them, he took bread, gave thanks, broke it and began to give it to them. Then their eyes were opened and they recognized him, and he disappeared from their sight. They asked each other, “Were not our hearts burning within us while he talked with us on the road and opened the Scriptures to us?”

They got up and returned at once to Jerusalem. There they found the Eleven and those with them, assembled together and saying, “It is true! The Lord has risen and has appeared to Simon.” Then the two told what had happened on the way, and how Jesus was recognized by them when he broke the bread.

I love how Jesus is present in this moment, even though they assume he’s gone forever.

Is it possible Jesus is present in your life, even if you aren’t aware?

These two people were walking away from Jerusalem, the place where their hopes had been built and where their hopes had been destroyed.

Jesus shows up right in the middle of their hopelessness. And he asks what would normally seem like an innocent question. “What are you guys talking about?” “What are we talking about? Are you serious? We’re talking about what everyone we know is talking about. Are you the only one who doesn’t know what’s been going on?”

Jesus says “What things?” I love this question from Him. I don’t think he’s being condescending at all. Though he knows what is true, Jesus always meets us where we are. He wants to hear things from our perspective. He’s saying to you, “Tell me what’s going on. What’s on your mind? Where have you lost hope, even if it’s in me?”

Jesus is ready to meet you wherever you are today.

He’s not meeting you where you used to be or where you want to be or where you pretend to be. They say to him, “It’s about Jesus of Nazareth. He was a prophet. He was powerful in word and deed.” You can almost picture them recalling Jesus with great nostalgia, perhaps looking back towards Jerusalem as they talked about who Jesus was.

They go on to say that their chief priests and rulers crucified Jesus. And then this: WE HAD HOPED. Maybe like these two, you also talk about hope in the past tense. You hoped to have a lasting marriage. You hoped to have a better position than your current one. You hoped to overcome a habit or an addiction. They completely lost hope.

But they also lost their faith. You would assume that they had heard nothing about the empty tomb. But look at verses 22-24. Some of our women amazed us. They went to the tomb early this morning, but they did not find the body of Jesus. They told us they had seen a vision of angels telling them that he was still alive. Others went to the tomb, but they did not see Jesus.

Jesus said, “How foolish! The Messiah had to suffer and then enter his glory.” Jesus was saying this: The suffering chapters are a huge part of my story, but they are not the final chapters of my story. And whatever you’ve lost hope in, it doesn’t have to be the last chapter in your story either.

Then, they recognized him. He had been there all along, right in the middle of their disappointment and lack of faith. And Jesus has been with you all along, right in the middle of losing your faith and your hope.

What we need more than an empty tomb is an encounter with the risen Jesus.

“IT IS TRUE. THE LORD IS RISEN and has appeared to Simon (who also goes by Peter).” What effect did this reality have on Peter? Some 30 years later, he penned these words:

1 Peter 1:3-4 Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade. This inheritance is kept in heaven for you.

This is the kind of hope I know you’re looking for. Wealth fades. Pleasure will fade. Achievements fade. Being known by important people on this earth will fade. Anchor your hope to something that will never fade.

If Jesus has kept all of his promises so far, shouldn’t we believe he’ll keep all of his promises in the future? Here are some things Jesus has promised: peace that’s beyond the kind of peace the world can give, satisfaction that lasts longer than sex or wealth or achievement, and a forever life in his presence.  

Maybe you’re wondering what happened to that little girl we were denied? She’s doing great and so are we. On June 17th, it will be exactly 10 years since she came into our family.

We experienced the restoration of hope. And Jesus gives us something even more steadfast to place our hope in – through his resurrection. Encounter is what is needed. When they encountered Jesus, their hearts were burning. Maybe something like that has happened to you, in you today.

Acts 2:37-38 When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

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Come back next week as I kick off our new series Original Intent: A Playbook for Relationships. We’ll be talking about our ache for intimacy and how it shows up in our friendships, singleness, marriage, and sexuality.