This is “The Power of a Little Bit of Hope”. What do you do when it appears all is lost? When everything you have isn’t enough to pull you out of the darkness you face, there is still hope. In this message with Jentezen Franklin, learn when you don’t have faith to move mountains, that’s ok.
the following program is sponsored by
friends and partners of jensen franklin
media ministries
you’re still going to do everything god
called you to do
don’t you lose hope don’t you say well
the world’s all messed up
and everything’s messed up and college
is messed up and school was messed up
i promise you god’s gonna fix it
i want to share today a message that god
has laid on my heart
i don’t have time to go into it and read
it but in first samuel 30
there’s this story i preached on it many
times it’s the story
of david at ziglag what happened at
ziglag was
a fire that burned down his house and
everything that he had
the amalekites kidnapped his family it
was the lowest
point in david’s life his men
spoke of stoning him they had followed
him all their life
david i believe at that moment was
suffering from post-traumatic stress
seriously let me just give you a lead up
to it
when he was a teenager his own father
didn’t believe in him his father had
eight sons and
when the prophet came and said one of
your boys is going to be king of israel
he called for all the boys to be
considered and looked at
except for david he left david in the
field because
the father didn’t even believe in his
son named david jesse the father didn’t
believe in his son named david
he said he’s not he made up his mind
that he was not
king material these other boys are
talented and gifted
but that one will never amount to
anything
not only that but when he finally made
it to the palace as a musician
to play for king saul he suffered
tremendous workplace harassment
when spears started coming at him
because the king became jealous
david thought to himself i know how i’ll
fix this i’ll marry the king’s daughter
because
marriage fixes everything
only to complicate his already
complicated
family dynamic of a father-in-law who
hated him now he married
the daughter of that king and the bible
said that she despised him
and she criticized him continually every
day of his life
mocking him and criticizing him doing it
publicly
i don’t mind if charisse tells me
private things but when she does it in
public it embarrasses me
and i’m sure i embarrass her a lot
but do you understand what i’m saying
what
is going on and then on top of that
the bible tells us that they had a son
or a daughter and the daughter
was molested by a family member
post-traumatic stress
the power the pain of when a family goes
through something like that if that’s
not enough they had a son and the son
rose in a takeover attempt of the
of of the kingdom and was killed in the
process
family fighting family family attacking
family in the middle of all of this
trouble
if that were not enough after family
fights family and all of this stuff
david in post-traumatic stress
after losing everything in his house
burning down
problem after problem setback after
setback
i think on a bad day
the enemy called him at a amazing weak
time
and david commits adultery
david kills the has killed the husband
of the woman that he committed
adultery with and got pregnant
he hits the lowest point in his life
and it’s in that moment there at zig lag
when
he’s finally at the zenith of of of all
the crisis
one after another set back after setback
after setback
and now he’s at the lowest day when the
when the ashes are there
his family has been kidnapped his home
is burned to the ground his men
are speaking of stoning him the bible
said that david encouraged himself
in the lord his god
he encouraged himself isn’t it amazing
that
that he was going through the same thing
the mighty men were going through that
talked about stoning him
and they stopped blaming themself at
some point and they turned and started
blaming him
but the reaction was totally different
instead of turning on one another they
turned to god
he turned to god and began to encourage
himself
in the middle of discouraging
circumstances now here’s where i want to
go
i want to talk to you for just a few
minutes left
about the power of a little bit of hope
the power of a little bit of hope
there’s a doctor and you can research it
who
who who studied people who had been
through
tremendous setbacks in life divorces or
abuses or rapes or or bankruptcy or
losing everything
and he did this this study and here’s
how he did the study
this he came up with a term called
learned
helplessness learned helplessness this
is a psychological
term now listen to this what what they
did is they noticed how that people in
india trained
elephants they get them when they’re
little they
they take a chain and put it on their
leg and it’s
chained to a post the cement in the
ground and that little baby elephant
will go as far
as the chain will let it and then it
can’t go any further
and at some point it tries over and over
and over until it can’t go anymore
and and it finally stops trying
as the elephant gets bigger and larger
and larger amazingly
they put them in a traveling zoo or
something and all it takes
is a little steak a wood stake driven
into the ground with a piece of rope
on its ankle this massive elephant half
the size
of the stage that i’m on he will walk
and when he feels the tug of that
rope he will stop because mentally he’s
learned
what they call learned helplessness
i give up i’m not even going to try even
though he’s mighty enough to just fling
his leg
and he could go anywhere he wanted to go
but they have learned helplessness they
said in the same study
that they took they took rats
and they put rats in water now listen to
this
and those rats were swimming and they
swam
for 10 minutes and then they drowned
he got some more rats i don’t know where
he got them he might have got them from
new york i’m not sure where he got them
but but but he got rats and he put them
in water again
and this time at about nine and a half
minutes those rats were just
really holding themselves and you could
see the panic you could see that they
knew
they were about to go under the water
and at nine and a half minutes he
reaches in and pulls them out
and dries them off and feeds them
and gets them comfortable and they stay
there for about an hour or so
listen he put them back in the water
and this time they didn’t swim 10
minutes
they swam 18 minutes and then they
started getting that panicky look
and so he pulls them out and he puts
them gets them warm and takes care of
them
and puts them back in the same tank of
water and they swam
30 minutes he keeps doing this and
literally
those rats swam 37
hours and this psychologist said if
you can learn helplessness you can learn
optimism and hope
and the rats have come to preach to you
this morning
that if you can get a little bit of hope
you can keep on swimming you can keep on
believing you can stay in faith
but sometimes you just need a little bit
of hope
because faith is the substance of things
hoped for the the smallest
level of faith first blank you need to
fill in
is hope the smallest level of faith is
hope
faith is not mountain moving faith at
first it just starts with you’re hoping
for something you’re hoping to see your
kid get off drugs
you’re hoping that your marriage is
gonna get better you’re hoping that a
door is gonna open
you’re hoping that you’re gonna meet
somebody that’ll love god as much as you
you’re hoping that you’re going to get a
job in this economy
faith in its smallest embryo stage
begins with hope you cannot lose hope
it’s the power of a little bit of hope
the thing i believe those little rats
got to thinking
at nine and a half minutes the second
time
you know what we’re just gonna keep on
swimming because i know from experience
there’s a hand that’s gonna reach in
and when i can’t take it anymore it’s
gonna take me out
it’s going to provide for me it’s going
to comfort me
and every time they would get to the
point of the voice saying give up
they made a decision i’m not going to
lay down the helplessness
i know there’s a hand that’s going to
lift me up again
if he saved you before he’ll save you
again if he’s provided for you before
he’ll provide for you again take a
praise break and give god a shout of
praise
watch this i’m sorry if i’m screaming
especially to those of you at the front
but you’ll be all right all right so
then the military took this man’s study
and they spent 145 million dollars
developing a program for soldiers who
had been through
tremendous dramatic experiences
maybe losing limbs or or all kinds of
battle
situations or addictions and they
spent 145 million dollars to come up
with this program
uh a university in south carolina and
west west point uh
science they all came up with this thing
called
perma and you’ve got the outline and let
me give it to you and i promise i can do
it in seven minutes
let’s see i’ve got five points i can do
it in seven minutes are you ready
say i’m gonna get something out of this
say i’m glad i’m in
church right now
all right are you ready for this now now
what got me
is it took them 145 million dollars
and i’m not putting it down it’s amazing
but everything that they came up with is
right out of the scripture and it’s
called
perma it’s an acronym p-e-r-m-a
it’s the program it’s called perma you
can look this up
and it represents five things that has
to happen look at me everybody
for somebody who’s had a setback to have
a comeback
america has had a setback every family
under the sound of my voice has had a
setback
probably we’ve been living in hell
for six months ladies and gentlemen how
many of you have had setback
after setback well here’s how you come
back
from a setback it’s called perma
and the p represents positive
emotions they talked about how
that if a person is going to come out of
the depression
and out of the trauma and out of the
pain and out of just talking about it
all the time and what happened and
how bad it was they’ve got to get in
their life
in the midst of trauma and crisis
positive
emotions and they don’t call it this but
i want to tell you what positive
emotions
are it’s called the joy of the lord
nehemiah chapter 8.
he said in psalm 16 he shows me the path
of life
and at his right hand in his presence
his fullness of joy and at his right
hand
are pleasures forevermore he said
in jeremiah chapter 15 that his word was
sent to me and it was
a rejoicing in my heart for i
am called by his name the way that you
get positive emotions is you begin
to focus and this is what they said in
the study that blew my mind
they said you must you must it helps to
find
a hero character much like
in greek mythology this is what the
study says
of someone who went into hades
went through hell came out and
shows you how to live and i’m sitting
there reading that and i’m thinking my
god i know somebody who went to hell
and came out of hell and shows me how to
live and they said
in doing that you can find a new
identity
well i’ve come to preach today that
there is one who is able to give you
joy in john the 17th chapter
or the 16th chapter jesus said the joy
that i give you
shall remain in yourself he said may it
remain
in he prayed to the father and said
father let the joy that i give them
remain inside of them you can have joy
all by yourself
listen to me this morning i refuse to
let any of you precious people leave
here
with those negative defeated beat up
emotions
it’s time for some positive emotions
called the joy
of the lord is my strength
now i’m going to tell you the next point
is how you get into it
how many of you would like to have
positive emotions again
get up with a smile again instead of
growling at each other
say hello good morning
positive emotions the second thing is
called
engagement
actually said that and they use this
word they say
they said if you’re going to overcome
you
cannot keep isolated at some point
you’ve got to engage at some point you
got to come off of the bench and get in
the game of life again
at some point you’ve got to quit soaking
in your sorrows
and licking your wounds and you’ve got
to get up and engage
and then they they actually say this in
that study perma
they the guy on the part of engagement
uses these words
you got to get back in the flow
and i thought well that’s the flow of
worship
we’ve got to engage the presence of god
again
we can’t let these singers this morning
do all the praise and we’ve got to
engage the presence of god and when i
engage
in praise when i engage his presence i
engage my hope
i engage my faith i engage my will
to keep going and to believe i’m saying
to somebody
that you’re closer than you think you
are to your breakthrough
and you almost felt like giving up and
you probably still are questioning in
your mind
it’s been so long it’s never going to
change but the lord
sent me to tell you about the rats this
morning
that they kept on swimming because they
knew there was a fateful hand
that had always provided and it’s not
going to fail you
now it will deliver your children your
family your home your business
god is on the throne but we’ve got to
engage him in worship so here’s how we
do that
this is how i fight my battles
that’s why you have to turn people off
and you just lift those hands
and when they sing it in another moment
we’re going to sing it
and we’re going to engage the presence
of god
the third thing that the r stands for is
relationships
god says at some point or this
psychologist says it but the bible backs
it up he didn’t know he was preaching a
good sermon outlined
that if you’re going to come back from
your setback
you’ve got to get to a place that you
develop relationships
with people again get your relationships
strong
we need each other one can put a
thousand to fight two ten thousand
if any two of you will agree i need you
i need you you need me
the devil’s always done he ain’t he
dividing us
isn’t he tearing us to pieces i don’t
care
where you come from or what you like or
you don’t like i
need you
turn to somebody and mumble through your
mask
i need you
i need this relationships
the r p e r relationships
the m stands for mission
if you’re going to overcome your setback
and have a comeback
you got to have a little bit of hope
like the rat
but at some point you need a mission
you need something bigger than yourself
there it is the church the kingdom
the cross if you’re gonna get past that
divorce and the hurt
if you’re gonna get past that that
failure if you’re gonna get
past that addiction you need a mission
and he said i know the plans that i have
for you
plans of good and not evil to give you
hope
and to give you a future you’ve got a
mission
young people you’ve got a mission
teenagers
god has not changed his mind about your
calling and your purpose
just because covet has hit you’re still
going to do everything god called you to
do
don’t you lose hope don’t you say well
the world’s all messed up
and everything’s messed up and college
is messed up and school was messed up
i promise you god’s gonna fix it just
keep on swimming little rat
almost done but the last one
the a stands for accomplishments
got to have some wins you need a fresh
victory
when you just get hit and hit
and hit and kicked and
beat up and beat down and you go to work
and all hell breaks loose you come home
and all hell breaks loose
you get an irs letter you get this you
get that
and it’s like good god you just need a
little accomplishment
i just need one little sign that you’re
with me lord
the bible said we are more than
conquerors
you know what a conqueror is let me give
you a hypothetical
a conqueror is somebody who let’s say
you lived in the poorest neighborhood
in a pitiful house
drugs violence
immorality maybe
didn’t have anybody in your whole family
that made it out but you became a
conqueror
you went to school you stayed in school
you graduated went to college
fought your way through kicked loose
learned
optimism instead of helplessness
got a little bit of hope and kept on
swimming and got
all the way out now you got a big old
house and you’re blessed
beautiful family that’s a conqueror but
can i tell you what is more than a
conqueror
a conqueror is when you get out more
than a conqueror
is when you go back in and you say i’m
going right back to the hell hole that i
came out of
i’m gonna buy that old drug house and
i’m gonna turn it into a rehab
and i’m gonna grab all these people who
say they can’t get out
and i’m gonna pluck them out and pull
them out because i’m more than a
conqueror
i’m not just coming out i’m going back
in and pulling somebody out
come on and shout right there you missed
a good chance
how many of you were former alcoholics
let me see your hand
how many of you were former drug addicts
you couldn’t you couldn’t shake it
your mama and everybody thought there’s
no way you’ll ever change
but you know what god’s gonna do you’re
gonna be a conqueror but he’s not gonna
stop there
you’re going to be more than a conqueror
and you’re going to see accomplishments
like you never dream
clap your hands and praise god if you
believe
[Music]
we are so honored that you would decide
to join us on kingdom connection today
this service was so special to us that
you just watched
as a church body because it was the
first
in-person gathering we had had on the
east coast in
six months the presence of god was so
real
and i believe it was real in that room
right where you are
if you felt god pull on your heart at
any point in this broadcast
and you would like to make jesus christ
your lord and your savior
i want to invite you to pray with me
right where you are
prayer is powerful right where you are
say these words
lord jesus i give you my life
i believe in you i believe you died and
shed your blood
to cleanse me from all my sin
i am forgiven by faith in your name
jesus jesus be my lord be my
savior and i thank you i
praise you change me turn me around
in your name i pray amen
and amen if you pray that prayer we
would love to hear from you
that’s why we do what we do and i
believe today
that america needs the message of jesus
christ like never
before we’re at a tipping point in our
nation’s history
and we as a ministry are also
at a place where we can have major
impact on this nation
and the world as a ministry we’re
choosing faith over fear
and the way that we do that is to pray
and to seek god’s face
and i want to encourage you as the
election is coming up to pray
and i want to tell you that and
challenge you that your voice matters
your vote matters
what you do on november the 3rd not only
affects us but it affects your children
and your children’s children and it will
have ramifications to our brothers and
sisters
in the nation of israel and all over the
world
and that’s why our partnership with the
israel-based organization yale
has become a lifeline for so many
of these extraordinary jewish people but
we have more to do
and the needs are urgent so i’m asking
you to share your best gift
you can right now be a part of this
media ministry
that is changing and touching the nation
of israel and the
world with your gift we are able to
preach the gospel
to over 200 nations around the world
that blows my mind
and we’re able to produce inspirational
content
to go above and beyond to support
projects like this one
around the world thank you for your
generosity and pray and ask god what he
would have you do we
need your help the need is greater than
ever before
here’s my announcer to tell you more
we are entering a critical election
season in the united states
and times like these always require
action from the body of christ
that’s why we as a ministry have been
fasting and praying
so this is our three-step strategy for
restoration
renewal and revival in america pray
fast vote the stakes are high for
america and its friends and allies
around the world too
especially israel we share common values
and common civilization and most
importantly we share the same god of
abraham isaac and jacob jensen franklin
media ministries continues to do
everything we can
to bring help and comfort to the elderly
holocaust survivors of israel
and this month when you give your best
gift of 500
or more to help these precious survivors
we want to send you our brand new acres
of diamonds curriculum kit and the
special edition jensen franklin legacy
study bible
with your gift of 300 or more this month
we’ll send you
anoint the place of your dreams on cd an
anointing oil set
and the jensen franklin legacy study
bible and with your gift of 50
or more this month we want to send you
jensen franklin’s pray
fast vote book and the spirit of honor
cd and dvd combo
your support is fulfilling biblical
prophecy by bringing comfort to the
nation of israel
preach the good news and helping those
in desperate need around the globe
visit us online today
we’re right now at the national museum
of african american history and culture
here on the mall
here to lead in the prayer pastor jensen
franklin
lord we thank you that the first man
that was ever covered by the blood of
sacrifice
was a black man by the name of simon
cyrene
he carried the cross and that blood on
that cross
covered him and his family we plead the
blood of jesus over our families and
over our nation and over
the racial division only you can heal it
because the gospel is not an evangelical
white gospel
it’s all men for all people need the
cross
and the blood of the lamb so lord we
point the nation
to the lamb of god that takes away the
sins of the world
forgive us cleanse us and heal us in
jesus name
this program has been sponsored by
friends and partners of jensen franklin
media ministries
we hope you’ve enjoyed this teaching by
jensen franklin and thank you for your
continued support of this ministry
your prayers and financial support make
these programs possible
for more information about this message
and other ministry resources
visit us online at jensenfranklin.tv