Let Hope Fill You!
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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.
Recognize who God is. God is the God of hope, he is the God of expectation. He is the one that we put our confidence and trust in.
I trust God, although there are times in which I might not understand the reality that I’m currently in.
I trust God, even though I may find myself in the life of choppy waters.
I put my confidence in God, I don’t put it in people because people can let you down. I don’t put it in money because money can’t act funny.
Through all that Paul had experienced. Listen, this guy had been shipped wrecked, he had been beaten and left for dead, been locked up many times for preaching the gospel, been beaten with many stripes, been lied on, talked about, plotted against, had groups of people trying to assassinate him. On top of that he had a disease that he prayed to God that God would remove it......but God did not do it.
Yet, Paul knew who God was and all that he been through and all that he encountered brought him closer to God. Everything that you have been through in life was designed to bring you closer to God, for you to know who He is, and to know His power.
So now you don’t have to listen to someone else say how powerful God is, those of us that have been through some things and God has brought us out.......we have our own testimony and our testimony is “I know who God is.....and what He can do......and I trust Him.” I need to repeat it......because this is a word of affirmation......I hope you catch on to this. “I know who God is, I know what he can do, and I trust Him!” I want you to tell your neighbor.....tell them like you know what you’re talking about tell them “I know who God is, I know what he can do, and I trust Him! Tell them again and look them in the eye and say “I know who God is, I know what he can do, and I trust Him!” Now grab you two more people.....and tell them “I know who God is, I know what he can do, and I trust Him!”
The disciples were astonished when Jesus told his disciples that it was easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter of Kingdom of God. They asked Jesus and I want to paraphrase a portion of that scripture “Well Jesus if it is that hard, literally speaking......then who in the world can be saved.”
Jesus said “with men” or “humanly speaking” it is impossible for a camel to go through an eye of a needle and spiritually speaking it is impossible for a rich man to enter the Kingdom. But Jesus then gives them a mic drop moment and says “But with God all things are possible” That’s in Matthew 19:26.
But in Mark 9:23
Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth.
There was a father who had son who was possessed by an evil spirit. The spirit would seize him and would throw him violently to the ground, it caused him to foam at the mouth and grind his teeth and the boy became rigid or weak.
When the father brought his son to Jesus, immediately the spirit threw the boy to the ground........why? Because every power that be, has to bow to the authority of Jesus!
Jesus asks the father, How long has the boy been like this, in which the father replies, since he was a little boy.
That is a long time, a long time to watch your love one suffer. I said a long time to watch someone you love suffer, something that has them bound that they cannot control, something that took them over and they don’t act like they use to act. And the father was in agony because it hurts when you see someone you love suffer.
This spirit was so evil, that it gave the boy suicidal thoughts, it tried to kill the boy, the spirit would throw the boy in the fire, it would throw him in the water to try and drown him.
But THE FATHER LIFTED UP HIS VOICE AND SAID “BUT IF THOU CANST DO ANY THING, HAVE COMPASSION ON US (That’s what mercy is), somebody that is suffering, someone that is going through something, someone that has someone they care about suffering, just lift your voice a pray what this man prayed and say “Lord have compassion on us!” Pain in your body, difficulty in life.......”LORD HAVE COMPASSION ON ME!!!”
The man cried “Help us”......sometimes we just need to ask the LORD to “Help us”........sometimes you need to make it personal and say “LORD HELP ME!”
The man knew where his help could come from.....but he wrestled with some doubt.
But notice in the text, Jesus didn’t say “your faith isn’t where it needs to be....so I won’t do it.”
I believe the LORD saw just a little bit of faith......ALL THE MAN NEEDED TO DO WAS TO ACTIVATE IT! So to activate this man’s faith, Jesus says “If you canst believe, because the man told Jesus if thou canst do anything, it’s not enough just to ask God to do something........YOU GOTTA BELIEVE......YOU MUST HAVE FAITH!
Jesus said “ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE”......The angel told Abraham after Sarah laughed at the possibility of her being pregnant at nearly the age of 100 years old, and evidently Abraham had some doubts himself, because notice the angel doesn’t address Sarah, Sarah is listening.......eavesdropping if you will. But to address both of their unbelief, the angel asks Abraham “Is any thing to hard for the LORD?”
And that’s the same question I want to pose to you this morning. “Is anything too hard for the LORD?”
Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh: is there any thing too hard for me?
The Bible then says in Mark 9:24
And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.
I believe......but I need you to help me with the part of me that doesn’t believe.
That is an honest admission there and the problem we have is that we want to look good in front of people, we want people to think our faith is on 1,000 when in reality we are really struggling.
God can’t help you if you won’t be honest with him. God can’t help you, if you letting your ego get the best of you, God can’t help you if you worrying about what someone else is going to say and think. NO!!!!! You need to be honest with God and admit to him, Lord I believe.....BUT I’M STRUGGLING IN THIS AREA.......I NEED HELP!!!!!
CAN I PREACH THE GOOD NEWS THIS MORNING!? WELL.....THE GOOD NEWS TELLS US HERE THAT GOD WON’T TURN YOU AWAY WHEN YOU ARE STRUGGLING IN YOUR FAITH AND YOU ASK HIM FOR HELP!!!!
The scriptures declare, Jesus saw that the crowd of onlookers was growing, most of them probably didn’t believe either. But because this man cried out in honesty......YALL DON’T HEAR ME THIS MORNING.....BECAUSE THE MAN WASN’T WORRYING ABOUT WHAT SOMEONE ELSE THOUGHT......JESUS REBUKED THE SPIRIT AND COMMANDED THE SPIRIT THAT CAUSED THIS BOY TO NOT HEAR AND SPEAK TO COME OUT OF THE BOY, AND THE SPIRIT SCREAMED OUT AND LEFT THE BOY.......HE SEEMED LIKE HE WAS DEAD.....BUT JESUS TOOK HIS HAND AND HELPED HIM TO HIS FEET AND HE STOOD UP!!!!
JESUS WILL GIVE YOU A HAND......IF YOU JUST BE HONEST AND ADMIT THAT YOU NEED HELP!!!!
Conclusion:
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.
Now the God of hope, the God of expectation, the God who is the source of our hope, the God who we look to, the God who we depend on, the God who is able, the God that has all power, the God who is able to do anything.
Fill you with all joy and peace. See when you understand, when you know who God really is, when you know what God is able to do, when you believe what God can do, NO MATTER WHAT COMES YOUR WAY.......HE WILL FILL YOU WITH JOY AND PEACE, the NLT says “because you trust in him”.
When you trust in God, it will put joy in your soul, when you trust in God, it will give you peace in the midst of the storm, when you trust in God, you have expectation in God that God has me in the hallow of his hand........and that everything will be alright!
And when the God of Expectation fills you with joy and peace in believing, when you trust in Him, Paul says, that ye may abound......that means you will overflow in hope. You’ll overflow with hope not by your own doing.......you’ll overflow by the power of the Holy Ghost!!!
Dearly beloved of God, when you have confident hope in God, when you trust in Him, when you depend on him, you can rejoice no matter what comes your way!
Why art thou cast down, O my soul? and why art thou disquieted in me? hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.
What we need to do is what Paul commanded the Romans to do early in the book of Romans:
Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer;
You need to rejoice in hope, you need to rejoice in hope, you need to rejoice in hope......yall don’t hear me......you need to rejoice in hope. Rejoice means to be glad, rejoice means to be joyful, when you are full of joy.....you’ll praise Him!!!
Those of you who watch sports, when your team scores a touchdown.....you rejoice. When your team hits that last shot with 1 second left on the clock and win the game.....you rejoice. When you get good news.......you rejoice!
When you have expectation......when you know God is going to take care of you......you.......rejoice. Then you can say “Hallelujah Anyhow!!!!”
Patient in tribulation, Paul said earlier in chapter 8 verse 25 “But if we hope for that we see not, then do we with patience wait for it.” You need to wait patiently and confidently, Job said, “all the days of my appointed time, I will wait......I will wait.......I will wait.......hasn’t happened yet.....but I’m going to keep on hoping, I’m going to keep on believing, I’m going to keep on praising, gonna keep on shouting, gonna keep on dancing, going to keep on rejoicing, until my change come!!!!
Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.
David says in the previous verse, I had fainted, I had given up, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living.
In other-words, David declares “I am confident, I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am here in the land of the living!”
Just tell three people “I will see the LORD’s goodness while I am in the land of the living.”
You might think, well.....I’ve already seen the LORD’s goodness. The Holy Ghost told me to tell you MORE IS ON THE WAY!!!!