There's Always Hope
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Scripture
Scripture
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.
This month, you heard “Return Back Home, There’s Always Hope, then “When The Mountains Fall”, and from Pastor Liz last week you heard “Full Acceptance; Lord, Fill My Cup”. This morning the thought is “There’s Always Hope.
WHERE DOES HOPE COME FROM?
And now, Lord, what wait I for? My hope is in thee.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
WHAT IS HOPE? JOY AND PEACE, NOT SORROW AND STRESS!
Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: But when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.
And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.
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?
But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.
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.
But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear:
Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.
If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.
HOW DO WE GET HOPE?
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
For when God made promise to Abraham, because he could swear by no greater, he sware by himself,
Saying, Surely blessing I will bless thee, and multiplying I will multiply thee.
And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.
For men verily swear by the greater: and an oath for confirmation is to them an end of all strife.
Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;
Whither the forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.
In this passage the Lord has called us to live hope, not just talk about it.
This morning I would like to talk about two points
Live the Life
Invite to Watch
Live the Life
1. The phrase that I want us to key in this verse is among the Gentiles
2. The Jewish community and the Gentiles were literally in the same city
3. We have to understand that there were no such things as Jew only cities or Gentile only communities
4. They were intertwined
5. So when we read I will praise you among the Gentiles
6. We are not talking about going to California and praise God in front of West Coast People
7. We are talking literally about our neighbors
Let people see you praising God
Let people see your love for God
Simple acts of kindness and love
When they ask you why are you being nice, simply respond with a “if you think this is nice, you should see what Jesus did for me!”
Just by living the Life that you are called to live, people will notice
Invite to Watch
Let’s key in another phrase “with his people”
His people are obvious the Jews
Now let’s explain what should happen
You have be living the life as we just talked about
Now you have the “Gentile” curious
The “Gentile” knows that you care and because you care they trust you
So the next thing you do is simple, ask them to come and “rejoice with his people”
Quite simple, invite them here or to some other function
There is a static out there that 80% of the unchurched would go to church if someone invited them
That is one of those that blow my mind, imagine the reason that someone has never come to church is because they have not been asked
The phrase that I would like to key into is “all you peoples”
Here we get the idea of both the Jews and the Gentiles worshiping God under one roof
Two arch enemies, two groups of people who seemed diabolically different
Now together under one roof
Worshiping one God
In a spirit of unity
With God in charge of both of them
All the divisions, all the wars, all the fighting, all the name calling, all the abuse, now gone
God never intended us to be enemies with one another
God has always and will always want us to get along with fellow humans that we created in God’s sight
As Christians our job is to, as we learn last week, accept one another ‘FILL MY CUP”
There is nothing more special then seeing people who are externally different
Worshiping one God together
Putting their differences aside, and worshiping God as one
Closing
Closing
You probably have notice I have mentioned a lot about neighbors, a lot about coworkers and have not said much about Mass Evangelism
There is a reason for that, most people who come to Christ it is a direct result of someone talking to them individually
Let me give you an example
John was a decent hard working successful businessman. His wife was a Christian, went through some hard times, and turned her back on Christ. Later she came back to Christ. Billy Graham was in town so she invited John to one of the Crusades, his life changed.
He was never the same again, I can not describe the difference in his life, in his family, in his relationship with his wife.
Now, It is true that Billy Graham was the one up their giving the message, but it because of his wife that he was there.
It is all about personal contact
Personal contact, personal witness, personal evangelism, personal reaching, is difficult because it is personal, it is so much easier to “hang a poster” “pay for a TV commercial” or even “put a bumper sticker on your car”
But it is way more effective.
This seams like a lot of work doesn’t it?
Well Good news, we have a verse of the week,
This verse of the week, will give us the power to do all of this
Ready for the Verse of the week?
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.
You can always have HOPE!
We need to have the attitude of a young boy that I heard of. A man approached a little league baseball game one afternoon. He asked a boy in the dugout what the score was. The boy responded, "Eighteen to nothing--we’re behind."
"Boy," said the spectator, "I’ll bet you’re discouraged."
"Why should I be discouraged?" replied the little boy. "We haven’t even gotten up to bat yet!"
No matter who you are or what you are going through, your HOPE is in God. He is in control. He may not take you out of the situation but He will be there with you in the situation and if you allow Him, He will make you a better person through it.
There are no hopeless situations; there are only people who have grown hopeless about them. And with God, you can always have HOPE!
Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.
My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.
This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.
They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
Hope is not a wishful thought, but a confident expectation in the Lord. The verb hope suggest the idea of a “waiting attitude”.
You simply have to wait for God to take care of the situation. Nothing is too big for God. No matter what situation that you are going through, God is bigger and will take care of it. You may think, you don’t understand what I am going through. I imagine the Children of Israel thought they were in a hopeless situation when they thought they were trapped at the base of the Red Sea. Jonah probably thought he was in a hopeless situation when he was in the belly of the fish. Daniel in the Lions Den, the three Hebrew children who were thrown in the fiery furnace, Mary and Martha when their brother Lazarus had been dead for three days. They all were in what we would call “Hopeless situations”. And God time and time again showed Himself to be bigger than any problem we have.
The final thing that we can have hope in is..
A HOPE for the future
Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)
The confession of hope is the believer’s confident expectation of the future. If we do our part, He has promised to do His. Our part of the equation comes in two parts. The first hope for the future is…
a. For the Lost.
If you are here this morning and you have not placed your faith in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, there is no hope for you in that present condition.
That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
The only way you can have hope is by entering into that personal relationship with Jesus Christ. You don’t have to hope you are good enough to go to heaven. We can never be good enough to go to heaven. It’s not about coming to church, it’s not about a religion, it’s about a relation. You need to enter into that relation with Jesus today so that you can ALLWAYS have hope.
b. For the Saved.
Then for the saved, those who have entered into that personal relationship, you have a hope. A hope for a future with Jesus Christ forever. But you should not horde that hope, but rather share it with others.
But, beloved, we are persuaded better things of you, and things that accompany salvation, though we thus speak.
For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.
And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end:
That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises.
“BETTER THINGS” are promised for those who work and labor till the end. It talks about not becoming sluggish. Don’t be lazy or stingy about sharing the hope that only Jesus can give. YOU can ALWAYS have HOPE!
My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness.
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly trust in Jesus’ name.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.
I rest on His unchanging grace.
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil.
On Christ the solid rock I stand,
All other ground is sinking sand.