Hope

Proverbs 13:12 GB

The hope that is differred, is the fainting of the heart: but when the desire commeth, it is as a tre of life.

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Pray:

1 Corinthians 13:13

13 And now abideth faith, hope, charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.

We know that the word charity here means love. And we have heard several great messages on the love of God and rightly so. And we have heard a lot of great messages on faith. And again, I say rightly so. But we do not often hear messages on what it means to hope.

In fact, I have heard ministers say. We do not hope we have faith. But that is contrary to the teaching found on the word of God. We are certainly allowed to have hope.

One of the saddest scriptures can be found in Lamentations 3:18 where the prophet Jeremiah said:

And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord:

Then there is that statement we find in Hosea. Where his wife had left him and sold herself into prostitution. And had left him with children to raise. In Hosea 2:15. It reads:

And I will give her her vineyards from thence, and the valley of Achor for a door of hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt.

One of the jobs of the man of God is to encourage Gods people. We are to instill hope in the congregation. And without a doubt, we have many reasons for hope this morning.

Psalm 119:49 says:

Remember the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to hope.

That is what I want for you this morning. I want you to hope.

I want you to hope for a church full of young people who will carry on the vision of Westside Baptist church.

I want you to hope for a church that has been remodeled and looks as nice as a shiny new penny.

I want you to hope for a church that has an outreach program that not only makes a difference here in Jacksonville, but around the world.

That is one of my jobs. To encourage you to hope to be all that we can be in our service to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

Ezekiel 13:6

6 They have seen vanity and lying divination, saying, The Lord saith: and the Lord hath not sent them: and they have made others to hope that they would confirm the word.

Psalm 22:9

9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts.

I’d like to talk to you all this morning about the word HOPE. It is listed as one of the three abiding graces. That makes it important to us. If you hear someone say. I hope….. Don’t correct them. God expects us to have hope.

Now hope abides in the house of God this morning. We know this because God includes it as one of the abiding graces.

Romans 8:24

24 For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for?

So, what is hope? Hope is when we cannot see the answer. Yet we choose to believe there is one.

Hope is when we cannot see a way out of our current situation. Yet we choose to believe there is one.

I cannot see my way out of my circumstances. But I choose to believe that there is a way out. That my friend is hope. Despair is choosing to believe that there is no way out. God does not want us living a life of despair. God wants us to always have hope.

We who have hope often quote Romans 8:28.

28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

And by the way. If we are not serving God, we cannot claim this promise. It says those who are called according to his purpose. That means if we are serving God that HE will work everything out for us. But if we are living a selfish life where we don’t come to church. Don’t serve the Lord through our local church. And make no effort to serve the Lord. Then how can we expect God to work things out for us?

But hope is believing things will get better. Even when our circumstances suggest that they will not. I believe that some day, some how I will win. I don’t know how. I just believe.

Hope is saying I know I will endure. I don’t know how. I just know I will. Hope is faith in the absence of evidence.

Job understood this very well.

Job was looking at complete ruin. He was looking at foreclosure yet choosing to believe that somehow, he would still make it. He was looking at divorce proceedings. Saying to himself. I don’t know how, but somehow, someway I will make it. Job had to look at empty fields and empty barns while attending the funerals of his servants. Yet somehow the man had hope. We often forget that Job lost EVERYTHING. Everything that is but HOPE.

Job lost his children, his servants, his wife, his crops, his home. Yet in the face of all this darkness Job said:

Job 13:15

15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.

Job is saying. I am not going to stop serving God because of my circumstances. If God decides to slay me, it will not change the love I have for him, nor will it change the hope I have in him. Folks that is the very definition of hope.

You mean that my hope isn’t in my beautiful new home? No. You mean to tell me that my hope isn’t in my children? Nope. You mean to tell me that my hope isn’t in my servants, my crops and all the things I have been blessed with? Nope.

Our hope is in him.

Romans 15:13 - Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost.

How about that. Our God is the God of hope. How can you serve the God of hope and live as though everything was hopeless? If we choose to hang our heads and surrender our hope it means, we are not walking with Christ. Why? Because he IS the God of hope.

Job is facing insolvency. Saying. I’ve lost my wife, my children, my servants. But some day, some way, I WILL make it.

What about you this morning? Are you facing what seems like a hopeless situation? If so, don’t worry. Because your hope is in Christ.

In Job 7:4, Job says:

Job 7:4

4 When I lie down, I say, When shall I arise, and the night be gone? and I am full of tossings to and fro unto the dawning of the day.

How many of us toss and turn. We endure those sleepless nights with worry. We spend the night imagining the worst and stressing about things over which we have no control. When will the darkness of my current situation pass? When will my nightmare end?

It will end when you decide to place your hope in Christ. You may not see the end. You may not know how things are going to go. But you can choose to have hope.

In Job 16:8 we find Job looking at his face and the wrinkles caused by worry and sickness saying:

8 And thou hast filled me with wrinkles, which is a witness against me: and my leanness rising up in me beareth witness to my face.

His face was a witness against him. In that, at times he lacked Hope. And again in Job 16:16

16 My face is foul with weeping, and on my eyelids is the shadow of death;

Stress is what happens when we lack hope.

Job 16:20

20 My friends scorn me: but mine eye poureth out tears unto God.

And with his wife having turned her back on him. His ten kids dead. His possessions all gone. His friends gone and his health gone. Job said. I HAVE HOPE.

But Job how is this going to turn out? I don’t know. But I have hope.

But Job when is this horrible divorce going to be over? I don’t know. But I have hope.

Job is saying. I don’t know how it will turn out. I don’t know when it will be over. But I choose to have hope.

What about you this morning? Do you have hope?

In Job 17 we find that people will not even shake his hand. In Job 17:6 we find that his name was so tarnished that it had become a by word.

6 He hath made me also a byword of the people; and aforetime I was as a tabret.

Meaning he became the kind of person who others would spit in his face. Sound familiar?

To be so hated that people would spit in his face. And to still have hope.

He was mocked by his neighbors:

Job 12:4

4 I am as one mocked of his neighbour, who calleth upon God, and he answereth him: the just upright man is laughed to scorn.

Denied by his own brothers. Looked down upon by his own servants: Job 19: 14,15

14 My kinsfolk have failed, and my familiar friends have forgotten me.

15 They that dwell in mine house, and my maids, count me for a stranger: I am an alien in their sight.

Despised by his wife and children. And this was the man who was perfect and upright in the sight of God. This was the man who cared for others. This was the man who hated sin. This was the man who provided for widows and helped the invalid. This was the man who fed the poor. This was the man who was revered by the public. This man went from being adored to being hated. And through it all Job said. I have hope.

I do not see the solution but I know it will get better.

Anyone can have faith when things are going our way. True faith and true hope is when things are going bad and we say:

“I know that my redeemer liveth.”

Listen again to Job in chapter 19 and verse 26.

Job 19:26

26 And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God:

Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and not another; though my reins be consumed within me.

Folks that is what it means to have hope.

It is easy for us to sit back and say. My hope isn’t in the things that I own. My hope isn’t in my bank account. My hope isn’t in my children or my spouse. It is so easy for us to say this. But when God puts us to the test? How do we respond?

At the end of it all. True hope and the only hope any of us can have, rests in the alpha and the omega. The beginning and the end. True hope is wrapped in the eternal security of the love of God. True hope is in knowing HIM. There is no other hope but the hope we have in Christ.

Job 13:16

16 He also shall be my salvation: for an hypocrite shall not come before him.

Now did Job know that everything would work out for him. No. Did Job get to hear about Jesus Christ dying for his sins? No. But did he have hope that Jesus would come for him?

YES. I don’t know when. I can’t understand it. I can’t comprehend it. I can’t plan it. But I can be faithful, and I can have hope.

He SHALL BE MY SALVATION.

Job 23:10

10 But he knoweth the way that I take: when he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Now let’s get back to our text:

Proverbs 13:12

Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Matthew Henry writes:

The delay of what is anxiously hoped for, is very painful to the heart; obtaining it is very pleasant[1]

Hope is the power of being cheerful in circumstances which we know to be desperate. Lord Byron

Proverbs is saying here. That without hope we fall into sickness. But with hope we fulfill the desires of life. Now that is the Hebrew translation. And this is what we hear in Psalm 37:4

4 Delight thyself also in the Lord: and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

Isn’t this what Job did?

I believe that when we decide to serve the Lord and we purpose in our heart to do so despite our circumstances. That God rewards our hope.

But when we allow the devil to steal our hope from us. We miss out on tremendous blessings.

When we lose hope, we lose heart. So, don’t lose your hope.

Some of the happiest people you know have the most problems. Why? Because they haven’t lost their hope.

But what if it never works out. What if I hope and hope and there is no solution?

Remember this:

It is hope that keeps us happy. And not what we hope for.

And I’ll use Westside as an illustration here. As pastor I am hoping for God to provide us with everything, we need to fix Westside up and modernize it. That is my hope. It is my hope to do something for the Lord that keeps me going.

Now if some millionaire on Facebook saw this message and came along and said. I’m going to donate all the money you need to do everything you want done here at Westside. How would I respond?

On one hand I could say. Well, that guy kind of robbed me of my hope. Or I could be thankful and focus my hope somewhere else. Like outreach.

What we should understand from this is hope is the thing that keeps us going.

Remember reading that God is the God of hope. Now do you understand why Satan wanted to take God out of our schools?

When our government decided to take God out of our school’s it was taking away their hope.

That is what the devil wants to do. Just as he tried desperately to take away Job’s hope. He wants to take away yours.

You see what we hope for isn’t as important as the hope itself. Hope motivates us. Hope sustains us. And at the very center of ALL hope is the Lord Jesus Christ. Our hope is in him.

People who always see the glass as half empty have a sick heart. And people who see the glass as half full, have a healthy heart. That is how important hope is to us.

1 My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness; I dare not trust the sweetest frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name.

Refrain: On Christ, the solid Rock, I stand: all other ground is sinking sand; all other ground is sinking sand.

2 When darkness veils his lovely face, I rest on his unchanging grace; in every high and stormy gale, my anchor holds within the veil.

You say to me preacher. My situation this morning is hopeless. Good. What a blessing God is giving you. Learn to have hope in the face of darkness. Lean on the everlasting arms and there in your darkest hour. Find God.

Let hope give you joy this morning.

Hope walks with you when you walk with Christ.

I”m going to say this before I close. There are pastors out there who prefer to take on a church where everything is already done. They don’t have any building projects. They don’t have any need to grow. All they have to do is preach a sermon every week and build relationships. And there is nothing wrong with that.

I’m just a little different. I enjoy watching God do a work. I enjoy the process of building something and growing something for the Lord. I enjoy the smiles on the faces of the people who have spent years hoping only to finally see it happening.

Now I don’t know how Westside will take on all the needs it has. But I do hope. And together we share that hope.

Pray:

Alter call: