Hope Now - Root your Hope in your Faith in God

This is the topic for this morning and its been a word that I have been wrestling over for the past month or so, in light of preparing for this Sunday

It’s a word that has immense presence all throughout the Bible

Hope can actually be connected back to the fall of man

And it can be seen in the resurrection of Jesus Christ

Hope can tear down or build up

It can be tested in the good times or the bad

Hope

But what is it, what is hope?

Hope = Positive expectation on a future outcome

In your day to day, you interact with people’s hopes all the time

Our hopes can seem pretty insignificant but they can actually be pretty big!

Hopes for our families

Good health

Protection

Provision

Hopes for our work

Success

Growth

Rewarding

Meaningful

Hopes for our resources

Have what we need

Have what we want

Have enough

Hopes for our communities

Good friends

Safe places for our kids

Enriching

But here is the thing, hope is actually a product of our trust/faith/belief

Hebrews 11:1 tells us this about hope

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

Our hope, the conviction of things not seen, reveals our faith / what we trust / what we believe

Romans 8:24 ESV

24 For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees?

Scripture tells us this, (Ephesians 2:12)

Ephesians 2:12 (ESV)

12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.

Without God there is no real hope!

All other objects we trust in are manufactured and have no power!

For example;

Money - Never enough, unstable

Health - Can change in a moment no matter how ‘healthy’ you are

Escapes - You can never run far enough from reality! No matter what you try to use to distract you from the realities of life

The Fall

God creates and gives man one command, his desire is that Adam and Eve would trust Him and that their trust would give them complete and confident hope that God would care and provide for them as he had said he would.

Instead the Devil twist God’s command and begins to persuade Eve that her trust and hope is in a God who only sought to keep her from being like him!

Her trust changed and therefore changed the hope she had

She put her faith in the words of the devil and his lies, and she hoped to become like God!

We all know how this worked out, false truth led to false hope and humanity rejected the Hope of God for the Hope to be God….

Daniel: The Lions’ Den

After Israel fell to the Babylonian kingdom, Daniel is a captive in a new land

And God had lifted Daniel up into a very powerful position in the Kingdom under the rule of King Darius

Because of envy and jealousy some the other high leaders under the King plotted the demise of Daniel and had the King sign a decree that for 30 days, nobody would be allowed to pray to any god or any man other than the king…

This did not dissuade Daniel! He remained faithful to pray and seek the Lord which led to his conviction with a penalty to be put to death by being tossed into a den of lions

What happened next is not reasonable, and it is nothing short of God’s intervention. God’s power!

The next day the King found Daniel unharmed!

Daniel 6:23 (ESV)

23 …Daniel was taken up out of the den, and no kind of harm was found on him, because he had trusted in his God.

Daniel’s hope would have quickly turned to despair if it were not rooted in his faith in the Living God!

Daniel trusted the Lord even in the face of hopelessness in the flesh

And look at what King Darius did next…

Daniel 6:26–27 (ESV)

26 I make a decree, that in all my royal dominion people are to tremble and fear before the God of Daniel, for he is the living God, enduring forever; his kingdom shall never be destroyed, and his dominion shall be to the end.

27 He delivers and rescues; he works signs and wonders in heaven and on earth, he who has saved Daniel from the power of the lions.”

He rejected the temptation to honor a decree that would prohibit him from praying to God, who had been very faithful to Daniel, and kept his trust in God’s sovereignty!

So when many of us would have been stricken into despair, Daniel showed his hope never wavered!

God’s Promise to Abraham

God called a man by the name who we all know as Abraham

In that call, God told him to leave his country and the security of his Father’s House (which at that time was a major part of a persons’ ability to be safe and provided for)

But the call came with a promise from God; but I want to focus in on one aspect of the promise

To make Abraham and great nation with offspring as numerous as the stars with his own son.

Now at face value, this seems pretty simple.

A lot of people have children everyday!

And the odds at having a boy are 50% every time! lol

Well for Abraham this wasn’t so simple, he and his wife were not a young newly-wed couple with aspirations for a kid

Abraham was around 75 years old when God called him, and out of respect to Sarah his wife, we won’t mention her age but lets just say she had celebrated her 29th birthday around 35 times!

Romans 4:18–21 (ESV)

18 In hope he believed against hope, that he should become the father of many nations, as he had been told, “So shall your offspring be.”

Abraham placed his belief and his Hope in the promise of God even though it seemed like irrational hope!

Even though the idea of a 90-year-old women giving birth seems absolutely unbelievable, and rational minds would call you insane, he trusted the Lord’s promise which gave him hope!

19 He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was as good as dead (since he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb.

Abraham’s faith even in the face of Abraham and Sarah’s ages and the history of unsuccessful attempts at becoming pregnant his faith remained strong!

20 No unbelief made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, 21 fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised.

Abraham’s hope came from an absolute belief that God would be faithful to His promise!

Application: You Have the Ability to Live with Hope in This Life, Here & Now

I want you to know with full confidence this morning that you can live this life with Hope!

It is available to Christians now!

It isn’t a carrot on a string, and you don’t need to pay somebody for the “secret to hope”

Remember, it starts here!

1) What do you place your trust in?

Many of us today call ourselves Christians, but when it comes to trusting in God’s word beyond the message of salvation two things get in the way;

Either we do not know what God’s word promises us today

Or we live our lives with God in despair(no hope), never fully trusting in Him in our lives here and now!

Do you know that God’s word tells us these things;

Comforts his children when they are afflicted (2 Corinthians 1:3-4)

2 Corinthians 1:3–4 (ESV)

3 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort,

4 who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.

Affliction is a part of this life, and it can come in many forms;

Things that cause pain, suffering, sickness or loss!

a) Betrayal from somebody you once called a close friend

b) Undesirable news from your doctor

c) Being ostracized for your faith in Christ

d) Loss of a loved one

We serve a God who comes alongside us in our afflictions and brings comfort even in the unthinkable!

We are no longer slaves to our sinful nature that before Christ ruled over us (2 Corinthians 5:17)

2 Corinthians 5:17 (ESV)

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.

We are no longer controlled by our sin church!

My marriage does not have to be controlled by sin run rampant

I can tame a tongue that desires to rip apart and divide people with gossip and hateful speech

I can now love with a true love

I can forgive with true forgiveness

I can serve from a pure heart, not self-seeking

We have the ability to turn away from our sin and we are called to live in a Holy manner unto the Lord!

Promises us peace when we pray (Philippians 4:6-7)

Philippians 4:6–7 (ESV)

6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

Life loves to make us anxious and the thought of how out of control everything is can keep even the strongest man awake at night

In those moments we can turn our hearts and our minds to God and communicate with the Creator and Sustainer of life

Just take a moment and let that set in

You have the ability to reach out to and feel the security and the peace of the Almighty God, the Living God who calls us His children

Provides what we need (Matthew 6:26)

Matthew 6:26 (ESV)

26 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?

God is aware of our needs, and in our trust in Him, he provides what we need

This doesn't mean God is going to Oprah Winfrey the congregation a new 5 Bedroom 3 Bathroom home, or drop new SUV keys under each of our pews today!

What is means is that we serve a God who is aware of what we need and he is faithful to provide in accordance to His will and ways!

The Holy Spirit(God) is With Us! (John 14:26) (Romans 15:13) (John 16:13)

John 14:26 (ESV)

26 But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.

Romans 15:13 (ESV)

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

John 16:13 (ESV)

13 When the Spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all the truth, for he will not speak on his own authority, but whatever he hears he will speak, and he will declare to you the things that are to come.

This is the most powerful promise for the believer today

God is with us Church

The Holy Spirit resides in us!

Here’s where it comes full circle

The Holy Spirit brings us truth and reminds us of God’s word!

Which means we have the foundation of Hope with us here and now! And He (the truth) dwells in us!

How amazing is that this morning church!

2) The Testimony of Biblical Hope?

Remember the 3 stories we used today and think back on how each one impacted others

1. Adam and Eve brought sin into the world with false hope when they were deceived

2. Daniel’s hope brought a king to praise the Living God

3. Abraham’s hope blessed every family on the earth

Our hope is not only something that impacts us, but our hope becomes a testimony to the people around us

Whether in the good or in the bad we experience in this life, when we root our Hope in our Faith in God it changes how we handle it all

I pray that each of us this morning experience a strengthening of our faith

I pray that each of us experience the unshakable hope we can have in this life with as God’s children

I pray that our hearts are open to God’s leading in our lives and the beginning of our faith which is trusting in the complete work of Jesus Christ who took on our sin so that we could enter into the promise of salvation for those who believe!

I pray your hope, produces a testimony for you to share God’s goodness

After a Dr’s appointment where you find out you have a terminal illness.

How is your hope?

The business you spent years working for lets you go on a Monday morning.

How is your hope?

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