What about Hope?
But Wait, There is More! • Sermon • Submitted • Presented
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What is the right response to terrible suffering in the world? How can we rightly respond to both our own pain and tragedy— and also the pain and tragedy of those around us? Hardship will cause some people to turn against God— some others, at the very least, will perhaps question God. We get it that extremely difficult times would naturally drive someone away from the God who didn’t spare them from it?
Maybe faith is really hard for you right now— Maybe you’re skeptical— Inoculation is the process by which we are exposed to a small, weaker dose of some virus or disease, and we build up an immunity to it. I fear today that many of us in the church today have been inoculated with a weak, small faith— and thus we are immune to true abiding faith, when tragedy or difficulty comes— we’re hopeless.
If we are observant, watching those around us, we will see fairly quickly whether a person has hope or not.
When we talk with someone who has lost hope, their perspective is dark and often very negative. We all can suffer from this at times. It’s a great strategy of our enemy— the bible says he comes to steal, kill, and destroy.
There isn’t anything that hurts us more than to see someone who just doesn’t have any hope. That’s the topic for today— What about Hope?
“But Wait, THERE IS MORE!” This is that fun and tantalizing statement often made by the infomercial announcer— pay this amount in three easy installments and this greatest newest, most wonderful “whatever” can be yours— BUT WAIT! THERE IS MORE!
This is what I want you to hear this morning— when it comes to our faith— when it comes to our hope— when it comes to our GOD— There is MORE! Don’t be hopeless in a hopeless world. At the end of these two messages (this week and next)—If you’re struggling with your faith-- I would want you to feel revitalized, renewed, challenged and empowered to break out of the old negative outlook-- Follow these powerful words of Paul:
13 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.
Can we really overflow with hope in a world that is lost, broken, dark, and hopeless? The waves of disappointment, hardship, despair for some just keep coming— How can we have hope?
I believe it’s a learned thing— we can learn hope from God.
4 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.
This verse doesn’t promise us knowledge, or wisdom, or power, or success— It only says that we will have “hope”. All those other things are great— and we can indeed get them from scripture— But there is something more. I want you to just know ABOUT God— That’s a “head” thing— and that’s very useful and valuable— but I want you to KNOW God— in your heart- and that is a hope that can never be extinguished.
Today I want to introduce you to a fascinating little story in the book of 2nd Kings. It’s chapter 7. Please turn there now— This is one of those powerful stories, one of my favorites— that has built my faith, and continues to teach me as I study it. I’m going to describe for you three particular people from the story— and I like to call them the “Rebel”, the “Scoffer”, and the “Questioners”.
The Hopeless Rebel : Meet King Jehoram
The Hopeless Rebel : Meet King Jehoram
I need to give you a little context though, it’s sometimes difficult to just “parachute” into the middle of a story like this:
This occurs within a part of the history of the Kings of Israel where the nation has divided itself into two kingdoms— a northern government and a southern one. The southern Kingdom is centered on Jerusalem. That’s where King David and Solomon set up the capital. But the kingdom has broken apart since them, and now there are two capitals: Jerusalem and Samaria. The book of 2 Kings is full of the records of the series of kings in both parts of the nation of the Jewish people. This story takes place probably around 850 BC.
We pick up the story in Chapter 6— where basically the northern kingdom, under a King named Jehoram, who isn’t a faithful king, not a good character— and he is at war with the kingdom called Aram. Now helping the King— is a prophet named Elisha. You may have read about him. He’s a very famous person— because he has helped the King in many ways.
As a result of the war, however, the capital city called Samaria has come under seige from the Arameans— a nasty nation who has been really frustrated and surrounds the city, not letting anything in our out. As you can imagine— a famine occurs inside the city. It carries on so long that some very horrible tragedies occur- (in Chapter 6). Things are very bad. No food, and people have resorted to some very terrible things trying to survive. This is THE example we could use of a hopeless situation. No hope and people are starting to die, and those that are surviving are doing things they would never normally do in order to stay alive.
We pick the story up actually in chapter 6— the king has just heard of another horrible situation ---So, in his hopelessness, in the dreadful situation he had found himself in— he no longer could hope in God— so the King makes a horrible conclusion:
31 He said, “May God deal with me, be it ever so severely, if the head of Elisha son of Shaphat remains on his shoulders today!”
He is basically blaming God— and blaming his servant the prophet Elisha. He is declaring that Elisha should die.
King Jehoram’s hopelessness turns him against God. (v.6:33)
He is so hopeless— that he chooses to blame God for the calamity. He not only blames God, he’s lashing out here also. He’s seen God’s goodness in the past, but the circumstances have beat him down so deeply— that he’s now dead set against God, and wants to take it out on someone— ultimately I think that someone is God himself, but for now— Elisha will do.
But Elisha sees it coming:
32 Now Elisha was sitting in his house, and the elders were sitting with him. The king sent a messenger ahead, but before he arrived, Elisha said to the elders, “Don’t you see how this murderer is sending someone to cut off my head? Look, when the messenger comes, shut the door and hold it shut against him. Is not the sound of his master’s footsteps behind him?”
So a confrontation occurs— and the messenger— or assassin and the king hear from Elisha:
This is a pretty bad situation. But it’s from within this terrible situation that a possibility of hope happens:
1 Elisha replied, “Hear the word of the Lord. This is what the Lord says: About this time tomorrow, a seah of the finest flour will sell for a shekel and two seahs of barley for a shekel at the gate of Samaria.”
Basically Elisha is predicting that the famine will be over in just 24 hours. He is introducing to the situation another possibility of what would happen to them all-- That there will be such an abundance of food — that it will drive down all the prices to very reasonable rates!
Everyone could see the hopelessness— no one could see any reason to hope at all. He encourages them to “Hear the Word of the Lord”.
The word of the Lord is His promise. (v. 1)
It is the power behind everything in the universe!
The future will not be controlled by the famine— or the terror of the army around the city— but by the word of the Lord!
The claims of this promise are completely against everything that they knew to be true.
The promise of God is everything— Hear the word.
Truth to live by: The source of our hope is the Word of God.
There is a great depth to that statement— because we can read it as the promises of God that are known to us, through the prophets like Elisha and others— the promises that Jesus makes in the Gospels— But I want you to read this in a deeper way also— Jesus is the Word of God. The source of our Hope IS Jesus— the Word of God.
But there in the midst of that scene was at least one guy who had no intention of taking this prophets words seriously. Everything that this person had seen and experienced, caused him to be skeptical:
The Hopeless Scoffer: Meet the Kings Captain
The Hopeless Scoffer: Meet the Kings Captain
This Hopeless “Scoffer” speaks up— in disbelief:
2 The officer on whose arm the king was leaning said to the man of God, “Look, even if the Lord should open the floodgates of the heavens, could this happen?” “You will see it with your own eyes,” answered Elisha, “but you will not eat any of it!”
It’s a mocking tone. But I understand. We know it’s based in what this guy could see. I can understand how he could feel that way.
The captain’s hopelessness causes him to mock God.
Have you ever felt this way? In a really tough situation, we all are tempted to doubt and reject God’s promises.
Elisha responded to him, and it wasn’t very pleasant or understanding.
It’s there in the verse— you will see it— but you won’t eat it. Plant that in your memory for a moment, we’ll come back to these two guys. The King and his Captain— their story isn’t over yet.
Truth to live by: You will never benefit from a promise in which you don’t believe.
Now just hold that scene in your mind for a moment— the camera in our drama fades to another scene at verse 3. A group of men are huddled together just on the outside of the city gates— they are what I would call:
The Hopeless Questioners: Meet the four lepers
The Hopeless Questioners: Meet the four lepers
3 Now there were four men with leprosy at the entrance of the city gate. They said to each other, “Why stay here until we die?
4 If we say, ‘We’ll go into the city’—the famine is there, and we will die. And if we stay here, we will die. So let’s go over to the camp of the Arameans and surrender. If they spare us, we live; if they kill us, then we die.”
Talk about desperate. We thought that the people in the city had it bad. These guys were in an even worse situation.
They had not heard this promise from Elisha at all. It has a sort of dark humor to it, doesn’t it?
“We’re going to die if we stay here- we’re going to die if we go inside the city, they won’t have us anyway, and there’s no food— I guess the only other thing to do is go right at the enemy— and if they would just capture us, and make us slaves or prisoners or whatever— or they will just kill us, and then I guess we die.”
The hopelessness of the lepers caused them to question God. (v.4)
These are the questions of absolutely desperate people. I don’t think they thought they had any chance at all— they were just choosing a quicker demise than the slow painful death of starvation. But they did ask the question? There was a logic here that says— I know what’s going to happen to me if I do nothing… what will happen if I do something else?
Let’s follow these four desperate men—
5 At dusk they got up and went to the camp of the Arameans. When they reached the edge of the camp, no one was there,
They wasted no time— the cover of darkness was coming. I’m thinking they were fearfully making their way down the road or whatever.
How could this be? The army that had driven the whole city of Samaria into a devastating famine was simply gone? This must have been a shock. Events have taken a turn that could not be explained.
No one was there!
Something had happened. And it was a complete surprise.
Much like a few other women that we’ve read about coming to a tomb early on a certain morning, and that tomb was empty! Something had happened can’t could never have been expected! Unless they had listened to the words of Jesus!
6 for the Lord had caused the Arameans to hear the sound of chariots and horses and a great army, so that they said to one another, “Look, the king of Israel has hired the Hittite and Egyptian kings to attack us!”
God obviously intervened here— and by his Spirit—They heard a terrifying sound---They acted just like the lepers! They acted upon what they could hear--- God drastically changed the situation. How was anyone to know that this had happened?
7 So they got up and fled in the dusk and abandoned their tents and their horses and donkeys. They left the camp as it was and ran for their lives.
At the same time the guys at the city gate were deciding to make a move— God amplifies their footsteps and makes good use of their decision to step out of a bad situation, even if they were possibly going to die.
I want you to know these guys can be an inspiration for you today— They say that you can’t steer a ship unless it’s moving. It’s like riding a bike— you can balance on two wheels a lot easier when you are moving.
Truth to live by: The secret of our hope is the Spirit of God.
This all happened in the night— no one was there— God makes the army hear something that must have really scared them— they left everything behind!
We too can believe that God will — and is working even when we can’t see it. Even when we can’t feel it. It’s our secret— the Spirit is there.
8 The men who had leprosy reached the edge of the camp, entered one of the tents and ate and drank. Then they took silver, gold and clothes, and went off and hid them. They returned and entered another tent and took some things from it and hid them also.
This once again leads my mind back to that blessed 1st Easter morning. The ladies there didn’t know what had happened— they don’t need to know what exactly happened! They just see the results of what happened! The Scoffer captain wanted to know exactly how what the prophet said was going to be possible! We don’t know — but we just experience the results.
The hope is not in knowing everything— it’s in knowing that the Spirit of God is moving.
The source of our hope is the Word of God. (a promise)
The secret of our hope is the Spirit of God. (unseen move)
Now I want to end here by explaining that the significance of our hope is in the Plan of God.
These guys start to cash in on the plunder! They took complete advantage of the situation. They were overwhelmed! They didn’t wait around to find out some of the answers to the question! They are starving, and they take whatever they can find and hide it!
But somehow they are convicted: maybe they were exhausted...
9 Then they said to each other, “What we’re doing is not right. This is a day of good news and we are keeping it to ourselves. If we wait until daylight, punishment will overtake us. Let’s go at once and report this to the royal palace.”
Good news! Did you catch that? The connection is just too rich! We can’t keep this to ourselves! This is a momentous change in the circumstances! This is the salvation of the whole city!
Good news cannot be contained. (v. 9)
Good news cannot be contained. (v. 9)
And likewise for us today—What good have you experienced from God in your life?-If you have any hope in the Lord Jesus, and what He’s done for you— how could you keep it to yourself? That’s just not right. And get this— they still don’t know anything about the Elisha’s prophecy.
10 So they went and called out to the city gatekeepers and told them, “We went into the Aramean camp and no one was there—not a sound of anyone—only tethered horses and donkeys, and the tents left just as they were.”
They can’t be silent! We must go and tell. Just like those shepherds on the hillside of Bethlehem!
The lepers made no attempt to explain how all this happened— they didn’t even think about any reasons why nobody was in the camp—how could they? They are just telling their story!
The lepers simply reported to everyone what they had seen. (v.10)
Well how did the king respond? Remember the Hopeless Rebellious King?
12 The king got up in the night and said to his officers, “I will tell you what the Arameans have done to us. They know we are starving; so they have left the camp to hide in the countryside, thinking, ‘They will surely come out, and then we will take them alive and get into the city.’ ”
He simply claims that its too good to be true! He had heard from Elisha— he’s not believing what’s happened. He’s despondent. Have you known someone who is in this condition? They are so far from a Godly perspective, so little hope in their minds and heart— that they can’t even accept when something starts to get a little better.
13 One of his officers answered, “Have some men take five of the horses that are left in the city. Their plight will be like that of all the Israelites left here—yes, they will only be like all these Israelites who are doomed. So let us send them to find out what happened.”
Some of these servants probably heard the promise that Elisha spoke. “Why don’t we just go check it out?”
16 Then the people went out and plundered the camp of the Arameans. So a seah of the finest flour sold for a shekel, and two seahs of barley sold for a shekel, as the Lord had said.
What is promised— happens!
And this section of the story ends with an epilogue about the mocking captain:
17 Now the king had put the officer on whose arm he leaned in charge of the gate, and the people trampled him in the gateway, and he died, just as the man of God had foretold when the king came down to his house.
Truth to live by: The significance of our hope is the plan of God.
So which character can you relate with? If you’re suffering through some tough stuff right now—
The Rebel— hurting so much that you begin to blame God for your pain, and lash out at Him and anyone associated with Him? And you can’t even bring yourself to see anything positive— even when the facts show themselves. If you are willing to come to Jesus— he has a plan for you. He can turn even your darkest moments for good. I would encourage you to share where you’re at with someone you trust. Don’t stay in the dark— come on out into the light of God’s love and care.
The Scoffer— so beat down that you cannot come to believe what God has said, due to your own need for understanding? Are you doubting your faith? Is all this really real? Yes, I want you to know that God is there— He does still speak, and you can trust it. Because if you continue on, and you won’t really believe it— you may see it come to happen— but you might end up trampled by those who are rushing by you to enjoy the blessings of faith in God!
The Questioner— the most desperate of them all— with nothing to lose. You are the one God may choose to use— step out— with God there is always more. You are familiar with some hard times— but if you are willing to take a risk— to face the enemy head on— God might use you to pronounce a tremendous hope and blessing to everyone around you!
3 Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; 4 perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.
Everything that is done in the world is done by hope.
Martin Luther
Let’s pray.