Hope - The Prophet Candle 2024
Notes
Transcript
Hopelessness
Hopelessness
1 a : having no expectation of good or success : despairing felt hopeless and alone
b: not susceptible to remedy or cure
c: incapable of redemption or improvement
2 a: giving no reason to expect good or success : giving no ground for hope : desperateThe situation looked hopeless.
b: incapable of solution, management, or accomplishment : impossible
Have you ever felt this? Have you ever felt hopeless? Alone? That there was no susceptible remedy or cure? Have you felt incabable of redemption? Has you situation ever looked hopeless impossibe? Then pay attetion I believe God has a message for you this morning. And if you can’t relate to any of these feelings, your not off the hook. I want you to think of others. There are a lot of people in our world that feel this way and I bet you people here have felt or feel this way now and God could be calling you to give them hope.
God may want you to deliver hope to some one this holiday season. I think this is the saddest place anyone can be that is living without hope. so lets turn to our text.
Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
What does our passage say about God?
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
What does our passage say about us?
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
If you believe in Jesus you have been justified by faith.
What does justified mean?
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We are all born under the curse of sin.
What does our passage say about people who do not have faith in Jesus? They are still under the wrath of God. If peace comes through faith than a lack of faith means you are still under the wrathof God.
But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed.
We may be wonder, Brad I thought this message was about hope. Well I am getting to that!
Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
What does He mean hope of the glory of God?
and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat.
Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle.
When Moses came down from Mount Sinai, with the two tablets of the testimony in his hand as he came down from the mountain, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God. Aaron and all the people of Israel saw Moses, and behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. But Moses called to them, and Aaron and all the leaders of the congregation returned to him, and Moses talked with them. Afterward all the people of Israel came near, and he commanded them all that the Lord had spoken with him in Mount Sinai. And when Moses had finished speaking with them, he put a veil over his face.
Whenever Moses went in before the Lord to speak with him, he would remove the veil, until he came out. And when he came out and told the people of Israel what he was commanded,
The term the glory of God in scripture can represent the presence of God. So verse 2 is stateing that through Jesus, we can now rejoice in our hope of being in God’s presence. There is both a now aspect and a futre hope.
But how do we obtain that hope? Well that is tied to our final question, what does God want us to do in response to this passage? Look at verses 3-5
Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,
and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
We are called to rejoice in suffering. Look at the text, suffering is our first step in our journey towards hope.
I want to end with the story of Corrie Ten Boom
Corrie ten Boom (1892–1983) was a Dutch Christian woman who became famous for her efforts to help Jewish people escape the Holocaust during World War II. Born in Haarlem, Netherlands, she grew up in a devout Christian family. Her father, Casper ten Boom, was a watchmaker, and the family operated a watch shop in their home.
During the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, the ten Boom family joined the Dutch resistance by hiding Jews in their home and helping them escape to safety. They built a hidden room in their house, known as the "hiding place," where Jews could stay until they were able to flee the area. The ten Booms also provided forged documents and other assistance to those in need.
In 1944, the family was betrayed, and the Nazis raided their home. Corrie, her father, and her sister Betsie were arrested. Her father died shortly after being imprisoned, and Corrie and Betsie were sent to the notorious Ravensbrück concentration camp in Germany. In the harsh conditions there, Betsie died, but Corrie survived.
After the war, Corrie ten Boom became an outspoken advocate for forgiveness, sharing her story in books and speaking engagements around the world. Her autobiography, The Hiding Place, published in 1971, became an international bestseller and has since been adapted into a film. She dedicated the rest of her life to promoting reconciliation, helping people forgive their enemies, and spreading the message of God's love and mercy.
Corrie ten Boom passed away in 1983 in California, leaving behind a legacy of courage, faith, and forgiveness.
