Irrational Hope: Resilience No Matter The Circumstance

"IRRATIONAL HOPE" IS PART OF YM360’S SERMON SERIES LINE OF RESOURCES AND IS IDEAL FOR:

• Any large group setting
• Mid-week youth service
• "Master teacher” format 
  
  

"IRRATIONAL HOPE" COVERS THE FOLLOWING PURPOSES AND PASSAGES:

• Session 1 –I’m Just a Kid… (Jeremiah 1:4-8) | Jeremiah was born at a time when God’s people were about to head into exile. Spiritual exile is something we still experience. Spiritual exile is when we feel lost, alone, and hopeless. That hopelessness makes us feel more exiled, which makes us feel more hopeless, and so on. This is the cycle of exile. Jeremiah felt that way when God charged him to be God’s prophet, but God responded by giving Jeremiah hope that God would be present in exile and that God would eventually bring him home. This is what God gives us: hope. Because only hope can break the cycle of exile.
  
  

• Session 2 – What’s Right in Front of You (Jeremiah 7:1-7) | The Israelites were so focused on checking their personal religious boxes that they did not care for the world right in front of them, but God cared. God cares about here and wants to create a beautiful world where there is justice and hope. And God invites normal people to take part in that by caring for the world that is right in front of them.

• Session 3 – Trust Falls (Jeremiah 32) | When Babylon was besieging Jerusalem, God commanded Jeremiah to do something that seemed completely irrational: buy some land. Jeremiah was confused because the land was about to be conquered, but he bought it anyway. After he did, God reminded him of the reason he had hope. From this story, we can learn that even though we cannot control how we feel during exile, we can control how we respond, and God invites us to respond by investing in hope.

• Session 4 – A 70-year Layover ( Jeremiah 29:4-11) | When the Israelites were exiled in Babylon, God told them that they were going to be there for a while. 70 years to be precise. During that time God encouraged them to invest in where they were. The secret to hope in exile is realizing that though we may not yet be brought fully home, we can already experience the fullness of home where we are.