Hope Is a Rope — Thus Far — Rich Wilkerson Jr.

And today is a different Sunday. I plan to not preach very long. I'm trying to get to it, but we're going to receive our annual offering at the end of this service. And so I'm going to preach. I'm going to ask that you wouldn't leave towards the end because we're actually kind of reordering the program and the service so that we can make it a special moment together as we give sacrificially. We've been leading up to this moment.

And I actually put a little video out last night because it's been so funny. I think the bigger the vision, the bigger the opposition. And some of y'all remember on our vision Sunday, it was like a hurricane, man. There was so much rain, and with it, so many people were unable to come to church. And then today, on our offering Sunday, would you believe it? At Vu, we weren't able to stream because we've got some equipment issues. But we had a private link that was like one camera that was just privately, like, kind of just capturing the service. And I guess there was Christmas music played, and YouTube has banned us from streaming on our platform for an entire week. The devil is a liar. So we're streaming today from Vu Worship, our page. Come on, we're just finding every outlet to get the word out. And I think it's just a recipe for a revival that God's going to do something, and can't stop it, can't stop it.

Joshua chapter 2. Joshua chapter 2. We are concluding a collection of talks entitled "Thus Far." It's our vision statement for the year. This is what the scripture says. Joshua chapter 2, starting in verse 15. This is the story of Rahab. If you know her story, the scripture says this. It says, "Then Rahab let them down by a rope through the window, for her house was built into the city wall, so that she lived in the wall. And she said to them, 'Go into the hills, or the pursuers will encounter you, and hide there three days until the pursuers have returned. Then afterward, you may go your way.'"

The men said to her, "We will be guiltless with respect to this oath of yours that you have made us swear. Behold, when we come into the land, you shall tie this scarlet cord in the window through which you let us down, and you shall gather into your house your father and mother, your brothers, and all your father's household. Then if anyone goes out of the doors of your house into the street, his blood shall be on his own head, and we shall be guiltless. But if a hand is laid on anyone who is with you in the house, his blood shall be on our head. But if you tell anyone who is with you in the house, but if you tell anyone the business of ours, then we shall be guiltless with respect to your oath that you have made us swear." And she said, "According to your words, so be it." Then she sent them away, and they departed. And she tied the scarlet cord in the window.

And I want to take a few moments today on our bricklayer Sunday, and I want to preach from the subject: Hope is a Rope. Hope is a Rope. And I really believe, I've preached this way really since the start. Our church is really just celebrated our seven-year anniversary. And I think seven is a beautiful biblical number. It's the number of completion. Praise God. Our church is not completed, but we're just stepping into, I think, a brand new season. But from the get-go, I've always been loud and bold about the idea of vision. I really firmly believe that vision is one of the greatest gifts that God can ever give us. And whenever I'm speaking about vision, I'm not talking about eyesight. I'm talking about seeing with your heart, seeing with your soul, talking about closing your eyes and what do you see? The scripture says that without a vision, the people will perish.

Direction has always been more important than speed. If I know where I am headed, how many of y'all know I can handle waiting? Like, if you know where you're headed, it's good. You actually don't mind waiting. You ever, like, finally get to that restaurant you've been wanting to go to forever, and you get there? It's almost like you expect for there to be a wait at that restaurant. If you've been planning that dream vacation, you expect that you're going to have to take an airplane. You expect that you're going to have to go to baggage claim. You know there's going to be some waiting involved. But because you have vision, how many of you all know vision gives all that pain purpose? I firmly believe as a church, one of the greatest gifts we can give this community is vision. Where are we headed?

It was George Washington Carver who said it this way. He said, "Where there is no vision, there is no hope." That if you live your life without a vision of where you're going, you will lose out on hope. And it's hope, friends, that gives us stamina. It's hope that gives us endurance. It's hope that keeps us going when we feel like quitting. The last few weeks, I have been telling you here at Vu Church, we have great hope. I know a lot of people have given up on the Church of Jesus Christ, but not so here. If you're looking for a place that still believes that the best is yet to come, you've walked into the right house today. Because we're not slowing down, but rather we are accelerating. We have plans to build a brand new building right here in South Miami. In January of 2023, we are launching our third brick-and-mortar location. Somebody give God some praise. Right in the Design District, because we have a hope. We believe that what God is calling us to, we see vision. And with vision, it's producing this hope that we can't quit and we can't give up.

I firmly believe today that as we give, I want us to understand that our vision is not just a temporary vision, it's an eternal vision. So important that we see this. As you go throughout the New Testament letters, over and over again, the writers will try to sink deep down into our heart an eternal hope, not a happily ever after, but a heaven ever after. That you have to rest on this idea that this life is but a vapor, but we will spend eternity with Jesus. So no matter what comes my way in this life, no matter what the doctor's report is, no matter how many people turn their back on me, whether or not I ever get my dream job, I know this: I have an eternal hope, and it's found in Jesus Christ. Come on, if you believe it, put your hands together. It's important because as we're giving today, sure, there's going to be some temporary things that we build, but we got to rest in something deeper. That we have an eternal vision. I firmly believe that as we give today, people are going to go to heaven because of our giving. And I believe I will be rewarded in heaven for our giving.

You got to kind of land there at some point. I heard about this old woman, and she was a greedy woman living on the earth. And she had all sorts of stuff, but she was just greedy with it, just greedy with her time, greedy with her finances, greedy with her encouragement, greedy with her wisdom. And somehow, by the grace of God, this greedy woman made it to heaven. But when she got to heaven, she said, "Where's my house?" They started walking her down row after row, street after street, until they finally came to this little tiny cottage. And when she got to the cottage, she started to complain. She said, "What is this? What kind of a house is this?" And the angel looked back and said, "Well, this is the best we could do with the materials you sent up." I don't know about you, but I want to get to heaven empty. I want to get to heaven spending it all on Earth. I want to give all my wisdom. I want to give all my resources. I want to give all my talent. I don't want to get to heaven with anything left in these pockets. I want to preach every sermon I got. I preach a lot down here on Earth because it just so happens when I get to heaven, I'm out of a job. You're not going to need any preaching in heaven because we will finally be joined with our Maker. And together, we will look back and realize all that laboring, all that giving, all that serving, it was worth it. It was worth it. It was worth it. We got to keep an eternal perspective today as we get ready to give.

Let's make sure that we are not giving out of guilt. We're giving out of generosity. We're not giving out of fear. Come on, baby. We're giving out of faith. We're not giving out of legalism. We're giving out of love. We're not giving out of sadness. Where's all the joyful givers at in the house today? We're giving out of joy. I don't have to give. I get to give. I'm not giving to get. No, I already crossed that bridge. I'm giving to give. Look around, friends. Love built this. It wasn't a spirit of obligation that built this. It wasn't a forceful hand. It wasn't manipulation that's built this. Today, we see on a weekend, close to 4,000 people in attendance between two different locations, tens of thousands that call Vu friends and family home. Since we've launched this church, we've now seen 17,000 people give their life to Jesus. Come on, this is called a good investment. Love built this. Love built this. And when you love something, you sacrifice for it. You can give without loving, but friends, you cannot love without giving.

It's hard to kind of make sense out of sacrifice, isn't it? You ever tried to do that before? I remember when I was a younger, more foolish man. I've been married now for 16 years, and Don and I, we didn't have kids until after an eight-year journey of infertility. So we were many years into our marriage, and many of our couple friends went and had children. The Dentons are here today, they've got a daughter who's much older than our kids. And I remember watching them as parents. The Tumases are here today. In fact, shout out to Chloe, who just had a massive birthday. Did I hear it's 13th? Ladies and gentlemen, give her a big round of applause. 13 years old in the house today. Wow. But you know, when you're young and you're dumb and you're foolish, and I'd hear about parents, and I would hear these stories about parents allowing their children to sleep in the bed with them. And I would kind of look back with a smug look on my face and be like, "I will never, ever, ever allow my children to sleep in my bed." I remember one time I told this to my brother-in-law. He's got five children, and he said, "Well, it's different when they're yours." All the parents said, "Amen." Because you might have your plans, but at some point, those little kids are going to end up in your bed because it's different when it's yours. And you start to sacrifice for things that you love. And at times, you find yourselves bending. At times, you do crazy stuff because love makes us do crazy things.

And today, you might be a guest and you're looking at some people going, "How on earth could you ever give financially to a church?" And all of us who are a part of Vu, all we can say is, "It's different when it's your church." Come on, somebody. It's just it's different. I can't, I can't make sense out of it. It's just it's different. It's different. It's different when all of a sudden the house becomes a home. It's different when all of a sudden all the people start to become your family. It's different when all of a sudden the word that's going forth starts to feed your soul. You look around, you start saying, "I can't make sense out of this sacrifice." All I can tell you is, it's different when it's yours. Anybody believe that today? Go ahead and give God some praise in this house. It's just it's different. It's different. It's different.

And today is a different Sunday because some people are going to do something that they've never done before. Many of us are going to give for the first time. Many of us are going to give the largest we've ever given before. And why are we doing it? It's because we have vision. And with vision, it gives us hope. And I don't want to live one more day on this planet if we're not going to live with hope. I like the story that I read today. I've been kind of going to the Old Testament the last few weeks, and I've been giving us pictures of some of the principles that I'm trying to teach. And today, we read a story that I think is one of the most beautiful stories in the Old Testament. It's the story of a woman by the name of Rahab. And Rahab, just so we're clear, she's known in the Bible as Rahab the Harlot. Don't you just love the Bible? Yes, just like gives it to you right there. It's just, "Come on, God, like, you ain't got to let everybody know my business." Can you imagine if, like, you were recording in history with just your sin or your issue? Rahab is known as the harlot. But why is it left in the Bible? Because I think God is trying to tell you and I that no matter what we've done, no matter what our mistakes are, no matter how big our past is, when we begin to activate our faith, God says, "I can use you, save you, redeem you."

The story of Rahab is an interesting story because Rahab is a harlot and she's living in an area known as Jericho. And the Israelites, they've left Egypt, they've been wandering in the wilderness, and now they are making their way to the promised land. But in front of them are these walls, the walls of Jericho. They have a great vision, the promised land, but in front of them is a great opposition. It always works this way, that when God calls you to something, when God starts directing you in a path, you better get ready because there's going to be things that get in the way. But just because something gets in the way doesn't mean that you shouldn't move forward. No, all the more, keep on marching. Because if God spoke it, even though you don't see it, keep believing what he spoke until you see what he said.

And they get to these walls, and Joshua sends in two spies. The spies, they get in. Interestingly enough, the spies must have been seen because the king of Jericho sends out others to go find these two scouts. And these two scouts end up in Rahab's home, of all places. She is a harlot, she's a prostitute. Some have tried to debate if she was or not, but as you land on it, some think that maybe she was just an innkeeper. But it was only men in that time period that were innkeepers, so more than likely she is what the scripture says that she is. She is a harlot. But here these two, these two scouts end up in her home. And Rahab decides to hide them in some baskets on top of her roof when the men from Jericho come to find them. And she actually, as you study it, lies to the men. She says, "Yeah, the men were here, but they have now left." Is that an interesting moment? When is it okay to lie? I think sometimes in life, if we're really going to be honest, sometimes life will bring us two situations that are both wrong. In terms of lying, it's always a sin, but I think we come to these moments at times going, "Which one am I going to choose?" I think you have to choose the one that's going to bring more glory to God. She chooses to protect these men, and she does so. The scripture is going to tell us in Hebrews, out of an act of faith, she does it because she recognizes who these men are and who they represent. That they represent the one true God, Jehovah Jireh, our provider. She hides the men, she detours the men from Jericho, and then when the men come out of hiding, she says this to them. She says, "I've hidden you and I have spared your life. Now I'm asking that when you come to the walls of Jericho, would you spare my life?" And I love it because it's a really beautiful passage right there in Joshua chapter 2. The men say, "Our life for yours." And they actually agree and they make an oath. We read the oath right there, saying, "This is what we want you to do. When we come back, we're going to spare your life. But what we need you to do is this: we need you to tie a scarlet rope, a red rope, from your window." In fact, the passage is really, really interesting because she agrees to do this. But the scripture says right there in Joshua chapter 2 that she lowers the men down on that same red rope. And as I was reading that, it just so jumped out at me that this rope was the men's hope, but the same rope was going to be the sign of her hope. They said, "We want you to hang the red rope from your window, for when we come back, we will know that's a sign that we have made an oath, we have made a covenant. That although you are not Jewish, although you are not an Israelite, although you are living in a pagan land, although you are a prostitute, because you have put your faith in our God, we promise that you will be protected if you hang out the rope." Now, the scripture is really, really interesting because she does this. And if you know the story, if I had more time, I could preach it really good, but they march around the walls. And I just love it because sometimes God's like, "I want all the glory on this one. You ain't even going to have to fight. You just got to march." Sometimes the greatest weapon you have is to keep on walking, keep on moving forward. You're not going to have to raise your sword. You're not going to have to grab a shield. You just got to keep walking and not quit. And you watch, God will fight your battles. He just says, "I want you to march." In fact, he even says, "I want you to march and don't open your mouth. Just march around those walls for seven days." And I've always thought it was beautiful that he told them not to talk because how many of y'all know if you let them talk, like a lot of us, we talk ourselves out of miracles. There's no way we can get an offering today. The YouTube stream is down. God's like, "Shut up. If you ain't got nothing good to say, listen to your mama. Don't say nothing at all. If you can't speak faith, be silent." Right? If you can't get your words in agreement with God, shut your mouth.

Stop. This morning around 6:00 AM, we got out of the workout. I go over to my gym, Legacy, there in Wynwood. We get done working out, we sit in the sauna for 20 minutes, and then we go in this pit of hell called a cold plunge. I don't know, negative something. And I sit in there, and I shiver for three minutes. I speak in tongues, and I call upon heaven. But today, I was in my last 30 seconds. I was talking to my friend Omar, and I was like, "It's colder today. It hurts more today. I don't know if I can last today." And while I was talking negative like this, my friend Manning, my trainer, who is scary, jumps out of the sauna. I don't know how he could hear me. He has like bionic hearing. He goes, "Shut your mouth." I was like, "Excuse me?" You know, he's like, "Shut up." I'm like, "What?" He's like, "Why are you talking like that?" I go, "Well, because I'm cold." He's like, "You're talking yourself out of a victory." I said, "But what I'm saying is true." He said, "It might be true, but it's not helping your future. So shut up." Just because it's true right now doesn't mean you can't endure and find the promise you're looking for. It might be true that there's some walls in front of you, but shut your mouth and trust God. He will bring the walls down. Don't talk, just march. Some of y'all need to step into 2023 not talking, just marching. I'm going to stay in this marriage. I'm going to keep raising these kids. I'm going to go back to school. I'm going to start that business again. I'm not giving up.

You might see the reality that there's a wall in front of you, but keep on marching. Because after seven days, the scripture says that he commands them to shout, and with it, the walls come crumbling down. And Joshua, would you believe it, he sends those two spies back to find Rahab. And he comes true on his promise. He says, "Do not, do not kill Rahab." In fact, anybody... this is so good. Oh, anybody in Rahab's house, they're all to be spared. I love Rahab because she didn't just have faith for herself. She had faith. The scripture says her mom was in there, her dad was in there, her brothers were in there. She had faith for her entire family to get them into the house. Some of y'all, you come to this church week in and week out, and you have faith. You have faith that your family's going to be saved. You have faith that your brother's going to meet Jesus. And I would say, don't give up.

And it's so beautiful because the scripture says in Joshua that she continued to live in Israel amongst the Israelites. And if you know anything about Rahab's story, Rahab shows up in the New Testament in the book of Hebrews. There are only two women mentioned in the Hall of Faith: Sarah, the wife of Abraham, and Rahab, the harlot. This is what I really like. I can't prove this biblically, but we know that Rahab marries a guy named Salmon. That's his name. And Salmon becomes her husband. And it's really beautiful to me. I guess, like, the romantic in me, a little bit. We don't know who the two spies were that went out, but I think one of them was Salmon because Joshua never goes to the house. He sends those exact same two spies back to Rahab's house. And I just believe one of them was Salmon. I believe he's like, "Hey, I'm here. I'm saving you." And I believe we know that Salmon and her got married. And here's what's beautiful: is that they have a son, and his name is Boaz. And Boaz meets a girl named Ruth. And Ruth becomes, Ruth is the mom of a guy named Jesse. And Jesse has a son named David. And it's from the house of David that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is born.

Rich, why are you telling me that? I'm trying to give you a picture of legacy, a picture of faith, a picture of generosity, a picture of extending hope in what takes place. It's not just your mom, your dad, your brothers, and your sisters that are going to get saved. No, it's from your bloodline. It's from your house that generations to come will be impacted. It was God's sovereignty and providence. And say, "I want my great-great-great grandma to be a harlot named Rahab to show my grace, to show my mercy, to show my love." But hope is a rope. You say, "Rich, how is hope a rope?" Well, I just found this out five weeks ago, and it's just been stirring in my heart for five weeks, and hopefully it'll stir in your heart. I just found this out that right there in Joshua chapter 2, when it says that she lowered the men down on ropes, and then when they said, "Put out the scarlet cord or the scarlet thread or the scarlet rope, the red rope," rope. I found out that the word "rope" is the word *tikva*. That's the Hebrew word. Everyone say, *tikva*. Here's what's fascinating. *Tikva*. This is so wild to me. The same word *tikva* that's used for the word "rope," *tikva* is also the same word used for "hope." Hope is a rope. *Tikva*. Rope. Hope. It's the same thing. And it's beautiful to me because as I read this passage, I just see hope is a rope. It lowered these men to safety, but hope is a rope that she extended outside of her window that delivered her from the hands of the Israelites and the walls of Jericho that are collapsing.

So then I got really excited. I started going through all the Old Testament. I just started finding passages all over the place where we see *tikva*, the word rope. And I just see it over and over again that every time we see that word rope in the Old Testament, we also get a picture of hope. So many times, remember, remember Joseph? I talked about him a couple weeks ago. He was the 11th son of a guy named Jacob. He's part of the 12 tribes of Israel. But Jacob, he loved this boy, he gave this boy favor. But Joseph, he was hated by his brothers because he had this favor. And so the brothers, they threw him into a pit, a cistern. And then the scripture says that they went back to their dad and lied and said, "Joseph is dead." But in reality, Joseph wasn't dead. He was just in the pit. The scripture says that they see a caravan of Israelites coming by, and they decide, "We're going to sell Joseph into slavery." So what do they do? They get ropes, *tikva*, and they put him down into the pit and they pull him out of the pit. He ends up in that caravan. He ends up in Egypt. And it looks really bad. It looks really delayed. There's a lot of waiting. But God had given him a dream when he was 17 years of age. And that dream was so good, that vision was so big, that he was able to endure through the waiting, through the pain, because he knew what God had spoken to him. So much so that by the time he gets into his 40s, he is now second in command. When I see the ropes in the cistern, if you're not careful, you look at it and say, "Oh, bro, those were the ropes that were used to sell them into slavery." But I say, "No, hope is a rope that brought him and pulled him into his God dream." Hope is a...

Oh, the story of Samson and Judges. I love that story, man. I loved Samson as a little boy reading his story. I think we all think that Samson was like, you know, on testosterone and had a six-pack. But the more I read it, I don't think he looked any different than an ordinary man. Because I don't believe his strength, although it was physical, I don't think it was natural strength. I think it was supernatural strength. But the scripture says one day he was tied up with ropes and he was being pulled by the Philistines. But the scripture says that he breaks the ropes, grabs a donkey's jawbone, and with just a jawbone, this one man defeats a thousand Philistine soldiers. Man, it looked really bad. But he knew he was called to be the prophet and the judge of the Israelites. And so when the Philistines came and tied him up, they were actually pulling him to his victory. Those ropes were pulling him to the place that God would get glory, that everyone would look and say, "Wow, there's something different on Samson." It wasn't for Samson's glory. Come on, it was for the glory of God. Make our church, Lord, be a place that the world would look and say, "Wow, to the glory of God."

Vision, hope. I have hope today. I'm giving today sacrificially because I have hope for my kids. I have hope for my grandkids. I want to play my part. God, protect my home. Steve Jobs, the great CEO, he said it this way. He said, "If you are working on something that you really care about, you don't have to be pushed. The vision pulls you." I want to be really careful today that you understand that as we get ready to be generous as a church leadership team and as a church, we're not pushing anybody. We're not trying to push you to do anything. Listen to me. Manipulation pushes. Vision pulls. We're not here to push you. We're here to pull you. We're here to pull you into healing, pull you into your future, pull you into your God dream, pull you into your victory, pull you into the life that God has spoken over you. That's what vision does. It pulls us. And I'm telling you, what hope, *tikva*, is a rope. Hope. In fact, I was thinking about it all week, man. Like, I'm trying to illustrate this best I can every Sunday. What are we doing? Every Sunday, we come into this house, and we're just trying to pull people. Right? I had the team grab me this rope. Let me see this rope. Beautiful. This is good. Help me out with this, my man Casey. I love this man right here. Y'all make some noise for Casey right here. How old are you, Casey? 29. 29 years of age. How long have you been following Jesus? Long time. Long time. Grab this rope for a second. Hold that. Hold on. Don't let go. Don't you sit right there. Don't let go. You're a strong man. Every week that Casey comes in here, I'm not trying to push him to do anything. I'm trying to pull him. Trying to pull him. Casey, 29 years of age, you're a man of God. I don't know what's happened to you in your life, but you're the head and not the tail. Good. You're above and not beneath. Good. Don't sit there. He's pulling you into something better. I don't know what the world's spoken over you, Casey, but you're a man of God, and his hand is upon you, and there's a bright future in front of you. I'm just trying to pull Casey. Every week, that's what we're doing. That's all we're doing. And if we're not careful, we start, you just don't let go of that. We just kind of come to church, and we just kind of look around. We think it's like, to me, it's not an event. It's a great pulling of people into what God has called them to be and who they're called to become. Coming through, coming through, coming through.

I love this couple right here. I'm just called out my friends today. You sat in the wrong place. This is Sam and Christy. These guys are amazing. How long have you guys been married? 16 years. 16 years. Y'all make some noise. That's called winning right there. 16 years of marriage. How many kids do you guys have? Two. Two. They're sitting right here. Hey guys, how are you? This is kind of a weird Sunday. I feel like every week that these guys come in, I'm looking at couples just like these two. I'm certainly not trying to push you guys back into the past. I'm not trying to push you back into what she once was or what he once did. Trying to pull you into a bright future. Hang on to that. Don't let go. Hang on. Trying to say, "Hey guys, you're better together." And you understand that this entire world is coming to try to divide you guys. That's all the enemy wants to do, create division in your home. A house divided cannot stand. But I go back to God's word. It says, "Two are better than one. A cord of three strands is not easily broken." That's all we're doing. Not trying to push, trying to pull. Trying to pull some marriages into the future, God's plan for them. Hold the rope. Just hold the rope. Don't let it go. Don't let it go.

I'm coming down the line. We find some other people. How are you? What's your name? I'm Joy. Joy. That's the easiest name ever to preach on. Let's just go there. That made it really easy. Thank you. Hold that real quick. Joy, how are you? I'm well. You're amazing. Thanks for in church today. You sat in a weird seat, huh? This your first time at Vu? Yeah. Yeah, it's her first time at Vu. Wow. Well, I didn't know you were going to sit there, but God did. And Joy, it might be your first time into our church, and I don't know what you believe. I don't know where you come from, and I don't know your story, and I don't know what you're facing, and I don't know what you're up against. But I do think that name is prophetic. Shows up in the book of Nehemiah. Says, "The joy of the Lord is our strength." And every week you come into this church, anyone who gets up on that stage, they're not going to always come down in the crowd like this. Noted. But every week, they're going to throw you a rope, and they're trying to pull you. They're trying to pull you not into your past, but pull you into your future. Pull you into who God said that you are. You're a woman of God, fearfully and wonderfully. He has good plans for you, plans to prosper you, to give you a hope, hope, and a future. And all we're doing is throwing you a rope today, saying, "Hope is a rope." That's what we're doing.

I don't know where I'm going now at this point. Jump over. Yeah, we're just jumping over. Don't let me fall. Don't let me fall. We should have planned this a little better. This is my friend Neil, actually. Let's get your whole family on here, bro. Let's put the whole family. Look at this. This is a whole family right here. Y'all hold it. Don't let go of that rope. Casey is on you now, okay? Hang on to it. This is an amazing family right here. Every week, just in church, faithfully serving. Yeah. Every challenge to not come, every challenge to not give, every reason to drift, but they're fighting. They're fighting. They're fighting. And I just want to say to all of you guys that God sees you. God is for you. And when you come to this church, all we're trying to do is pull you into what God says about you. That your family is blessed and highly favored of the Lord. As for me and my house, we're going to serve the Lord. Not trying to manipulate, trying to pull. That's what vision does. It pulls. It pulls. It pulls. It pulls. It pulls. Trying to pull other families up. Trying to pull your kids up. And today, I brought this rope. And should have planned this better, or break my pants. But I was just thinking about this rope, that hope is a rope. And maybe if you guys can, I know now you're all working together. Everyone there, hold on to wherever the rope's at. Just hold on to it. And just lift it up. Just lift it up so everyone can see it. Get it. Can we get a shot of that? Just lift it. Maybe the jib can just get this. Get this. Get this. Get this. Get this. Can the jib get this? Greg, can the jib get this shot? I want people online. I don't know if we're even streaming because they shut us down. See if we can get the shot. Look at this. Hope is a rope. Hold the rope. Hold the rope. When one falls, hold the rope. When one gets tired, hold the rope. Reach out. Grab the rope. Grab the rope. That's what a church is. A church is a bunch of people just holding the ropes and extending. I'm going to extend hope to you as you extend hope to me. You can put your arms down. Before you feel like Moses, we don't have anyone there to come help you. But I was thinking through this, and I thought, man, we could preach all about hope. We could preach all about vision. But if we're not careful, that's all really temporary. Because what's the point of having hope if your hope isn't attached to anything? That's the Bible. That's Hebrews chapter 6. That we have this anchor for our souls. Hope is an anchor for the soul. But the beauty is not in the anchor. The beauty is, what is the anchor attached to? What's your hope attached to? I want to be really, really careful because as we get ready to give today, some of us were excited about some of the projects coming up. But I want to be bold so you can go back to this moment. We are not giving to a project. We're not giving. We're not a nonprofit. Like, we are the Church of Jesus Christ. And we give to one. And our hope is in one. And our hope, our rope is fastened and attached and anchored to the cross of Jesus Christ. This is what pulls. It's the cross. It's the cross. It's the cross. It's the cross that's pulling us. It's Jesus. It's what he did for us. That's why I'm generous. That's why I give. That's why I preach every week. It's because of what Jesus did on that cross. And I attach my hope to him. I attach our vision to Jesus. It's only him, the one who can save. It's only him, the one who can heal. You can grab a seat. Let me, let me get this rope back. I want to show, I want to try to show this because this is good. I want to just, I'm just trying to tell our church what it is. Every week, this is what our church is. Every week, let me see all this. Let me see all this. You know that scarlet cord, that red rope that Rahab put out? That wasn't like a one-time thing. That red rope is symbolic from the Old Testament to the New Testament. I could show you place after place where you see the scarlet thread show up. It's a story. It's a foreshadow of Jesus. It's an indication and it's a foretelling of the blood of Jesus. Remember when the Israelites, they got up out of Egypt? What they have to do? They had to paint the blood of the Lamb over the doorpost so that when the angel of death showed up, he looked down and said, "Oh, I see that red rope hanging from the doorstep." And so we're going to pass over that house. Judgment's not coming on that house. Wrath is not coming on that house. But instead, that house is righteous, not because they always lived righteous, but because they were obedient with an act of faith. And so I suppose today, what I'm trying to get us to see is that every week when you come to this church, all we're going to do, every week, what am I giving towards? Why are we doing this? What is Vu? This is what Vu is. Every week, it's somebody getting up here after we sing praises to Jesus, and then they get up here and they take a big rope and they throw it into the audience. What is preaching? Preaching is me throwing a rope. What do you do when someone's drowning? You throw them a rope because hope is a rope. And what is salvation? Salvation is reaching out and grabbing on to the *tikva*, to the hope that Jesus extended, and he pulls me closer to him day in and day out. I'm becoming more like him. We're all equal at the foot of the cross. We all step into eternity the same way. We got to go from the foot of the cross. We're not attaching our hope to our money. We're not attaching our hope to our success. We're not attaching our hope to our popularity. We're not attaching our hope to buildings and programs. We're attaching our hope to the one who saves us, who says, "If you'll hang this cord from your house, get everybody in the house." And all who believe, like Rahab, they will be saved. And when you get saved, I want to tell a story through your life because it's not just going to be you that gets impacted. It's going to be generations to come. That from the house of Rahab came our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Hope. Hope is a rope.

Would you bow your head with me today? Lord, we just thank you today for the gospel. Jesus, thank you for coming and extending us a rope. Thank you for lowering us to our safety. Thank you for pulling us out of our pit of despair, pulling us out of our suffering, pulling us out of our self-loathing. Thank you for loving us so much that you saved us. Today, Jesus, I pray, Lord, that as this rope goes forward right now into our house, that many who are far from you would be pulled close to you. God, give them the faith today to reach out because of your grace and grab hold of your salvation. Your head's bowed, your eyes are closed. If you're here today, you've never given your life to Jesus, I just want to give you a chance. Whether you're watching online, an additional seating at one of our locations here at SoMi, there's a rope being thrown out, and you just simply have to extend and grab hold of it. On the count of three, if that's you, say, "Rich, I want to make Jesus the Lord of my life." Would you be bold and would you lift your hand up high enough and long enough, just so I can see it? I want to include you in this prayer of salvation. Ready? One. Bible says today is the day of salvation. Two. Don't look at your neighbor. It's not about your neighbor. Ready? Three. One, two, three. That's you. That's me. That's you. Just, that's me. Rich, that's me. That's me. Thank you, God. Thank you, God. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. You can put your hands down. At every location, can we just all pray this prayer out loud together? Say, "Dear Jesus, today I ask that you would forgive me. You'd come into my life. That you'd be the Lord of my life. Thank you for saving me. Thank you for giving me a hope and a future. I believe you are who you said that you are, and I choose to follow you. Thank you for pulling me out of my sin and into your righteousness. I love you, Jesus. In Jesus' name, everybody said." Come on, church, can we celebrate people who just prayed that prayer? Hallelujah. Hope is a rope. Hope is a rope.

Today, if you prayed that prayer, and lots of hands were going up, and I trust it's happening even online right now, I'd love for you to grab that little connect card. Once again, online, you can just text the word "decided" to 786-7551 or visit Vuchurch.com/online. But those that are in the room at one of our brick-and-mortar locations, grab that connect card. And when we dismiss in a few moments, check off, "I decided to follow Jesus," and I want to put a Bible in your hand. We believe this is the story of Jesus that will change your life from the inside out. You say, "What's going to happen?" Well, I'm just going to send you an email this week, just telling you about our church, telling you about things like the growth track. Today's growth track, track step two, after the service. Maybe you're not able to give financially, but you can start serving with your time. Growth track, you don't have to go to church here for a while. You could go right now today after service, get on board to say, "I want to be someone who's throwing a rope to those that are in need." I'd encourage you to do it. But maybe you don't want to turn anything in. We would say that's okay. Don't do anything you don't want to do. All we would simply say is this: just keep coming back. How many can testify being in God's house makes a big difference?

Well, today is our bricklayer Sunday, and we're going to get ready to give here in a moment. And as you prepare to give, there's lots of different ways that you can give. You can give online, you can give by way of text. There's an offering envelope right there at your chair. Lots of different projects coming up that we've been talking about. The dream over the next few years is to build out this property. And so we're looking for some seed money to get that project started. The Design District is already being prepared and getting ready to open. So many other things that you can go to to see all of that. I think at Vuchurch.com/give is where that's all at. But before you give today, I wanted you to...

Watch something because I think this is so beautiful about God's faithfulness, God's grace, and God's what I would call supernatural circle of Providence. Check this video out as you prepare a gift today. Thus far, the Lord has helped us. Thus far, He has provided. God is building through us.

Over the last few weeks, your generosity has gone to churches and organizations who are making a difference in our community. This week, your generosity efforts are focused on an organization who was foundational to South Florida and to the Vu Church. The Miami Rescue Mission opened its doors to Vu, but we had no other place to gather. Over the last 100 years, the Miami Rescue Mission has served over 130 million meals to those in need, had over 10,000 individuals graduate their program, and seen over 10,000 people come to know Jesus. This week, we were able to bless them on your behalf. Here's your generosity at work.

Thus far, all right boys, I love you. I love you. Be really safe. All right, be safe. I love you. We were at the rescue mission for a year, and their team was amazing from the very beginning. At these guys, man, this brings back so many memories. Goodness, it all began. You've been good to see. Hey, how are you? Oh my gosh, great to see. Oh, crazy. This place that we're standing in, this is the place that our church really began in, 'cause Ron and Marilyn were so generous to say, "Oh, you guys, we couldn't find a place to meet." And so for an entire year, we met right here in this room Sunday nights. We built a launch team, and so this place has always just been very, very dear to our heart. This type of ministry is really in the trenches of a city. It's really helping rehabilitate and bring people, uh, to full restoration. The simplicity of it all is that we've always wanted to just share God's love in practical ways. When I was 16 years old, I read the book, "The Cross and the Switchblade." It impacted my life and it changed me. And to think that after all these years, maybe in some small way, we could be part of launching Vu Church, that is only God.

Years and years ago, when I was at Trinity with your, your folk, I was the video editor. We had a thing that happened every summer at the church which was called Splash. I was tasked out to put the video together, and here's one of these small little segments. It's a young teenager about 15 years old, and he's looking into the camera going, "You got to come to Splash because we're going to go out and evangelize." And you see the pictures of this young teenager going into Overtown, to the inner city, and he's evangelizing. And guess who that young person is? Can we just get a little praise for the Lord right there? And so when they came up to us and said, "Listen, can we, can you help us?" And I saw that young teenager on fire for God and saying, "Yes, we're going to do everything we can." And I'm so honored to know you all and the passion you have for Christ.

This past year has been a big year for the rescue mission. Uh, you just celebrated 100 years, but, um, I like that that you got 100 years of more vision, because vision, it doesn't push us, vision pulls us. And when you have a vision, man, it will pull you into the work. And, um, for Vu Church, we're just about it. And so we want to come today with your team and just say, we're not just praying for you, we're not just going to send support with people, we want to make a real deposit. And for 100 years, we thought this year, at our 7-year anniversary, we wanted to make a generous donation of $100,000.

[Applause] [Music] That is amazing. Yeah, we just want to say thank you guys for what you do. Praise the Lord. Can we praise the [Applause] Lord? Come on, church. That's your generosity at work. Can you go ahead and give God some glory today? [Music] [Applause] And you may be seated. I know it's a little bit of a different flow. You're doing great. Up, down, up, down. What is this, Catholic mass? Come on. But we're believing today that, um, the vision is going to go forward. It's going to pull many more people. I love this Sunday because as we step into 2023, we don't know the salvation stories, we don't know the stories of healing, the story of deliverance. Thus far, the Lord has helped us. But it's His past faithfulness that gives me, what gives me hope, that His future provision will meet every one of our needs.

So today, uh, I've asked the team to put something together. They're going to sing an old hymn that I love called "Rock of Ages." And, uh, if you don't know, uh, our team wrote a song called "Rock of Help," which has been based on this collection. I just, just encourage me. It's a real simple song about the Ebenezer Stone. It's about memorializing and remembering the faithfulness of God. I couldn't help but when I was at the rescue mission, that's the place that we started. Who would have believed that seven years later, and every year we've given financially, but who would believe that seven years later, this little church would be able to be, they told us their largest donation from a church they've ever received in 100 years. That's what they told us. And that's already done. That's been done before you've given. That's always our tradition. Uh, few hundred, has already gone out just this month alone before we've given. We, we like planting seed before the harvest comes in. And, uh, we're believing that God's going to meet every one of our needs. And God's speaking to people. And so if you're online, you can give right now. But those of us in the room, as the team sings, I'm gonna pray. I'm gonna ask, uh, the host team to come forward. We don't ever pass containers at Vu Church, or I shouldn't say ever, since the pandemic, we haven't passed containers. But I thought today, I wanted to have a faith gesture. And so at all of our locations and all of our services today, our hosts are here, they're passing containers. And I know a lot of us give online, but I just love the idea as we're holding you envelope, that we're cheerfully giving. As it leaves my, my hand, it doesn't leave my life. I'm believing that God's going to multiply it and use it. And so as they begin to sing, the host will pass the containers, and then I'll come back up towards the end. We'll all stand and we'll sing before I dismiss us. But let's pray.

Lord, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you. We thank you for seven years of faithfulness. Lord, we thank you. We thank you. We thank you for the many miracles and the stories. Lord, thank you for the leaders that have emerged. Thank you for those that have labored and worked so hard these last seven years. God, thank you for the servant leaders who, who give of themselves week in and week out. Thank you for our crew leaders, Lord, who pastor and shepherd people in such brilliant ways. Thank you for our pastors and our staff. Thank you for our board. Lord, thank you for all the men and women who've given generously throughout the years. The churches who from afar have supported this work. God, we believe, Lord, that you have helped us thus far. But God, we also, in that same breath, believe that our best days are in front of us. Lord, thank you for vision. It's producing hope. And because we have hope, Lord, we don't mind waiting because we know what's on the other side is so good. So Lord, we commit to marching, and we believe that you will fight every battle that awaits us. Our trust is in you. God, in Jesus name, everybody said amen. God bless you as you give.

Hey, this is Rich and Don Wilkerson, and we want to say thank you so much for watching and engaging with today's content. Maybe today you want to make the decision to follow Jesus. Why don't you pray this prayer with me? Dear Jesus, today I choose to entrust my life to you. Forgive me of my sins. Make me a new creation. I love you. In Jesus name, amen. We're celebrating with you the decision that you've made, and we want to walk this journey out alongside you. Yeah, and if you just prayed that prayer, why don't you go ahead and follow the prompts that are on the screen right now? We're so glad that you took some time to watch today's message. Do us a favor, if it encouraged you, if it impacted you, go ahead and share this. And if you haven't already, go ahead and subscribe to the Vu Church YouTube channel so you can continue to get more content like this. We love you guys, and we're declaring, "The Best Is Yet To Come." [Music]