Desparate for Hope
Notes
Transcript
Hopelessness
Hopelessness is a feeling or state of mindcharacterized by the beliefthat there is no possibility for improvement, change, or success in a situation. It often involves a sense of despair and a lack of expectation for a positive outcome, leading to emotional or psychological stagnation. Hopelessness can result from persistent adversity, unmet goals, or overwhelming circumstances, and is commonly associated with depression or other mental health challenges.
Means:
· No possibility of improvement, change, or success.
· Sense of despair and lack of expectation for a positive outcome.
· 📷Results from…
o Persistent adversity
o 📷Unmet expectations
o Overwhelming circumstances
· Associated with depression/mental illness or mental health challenges.
An important distinction has to be made: Feelings vs Facts.
· To be hopeless means there actually is NO solution.
· To feel hopeless means there is no solution that we can see.
Why important? Just because we can’t see a solution doesn’t mean there isn’t one, but if we rely on our feelings or our senses, the results will be the same as if there is no possibility for improvement, change, or success.
ILLUS: Many years ago, Karen and I couldn’t communicate to the point it felt like it was hopeless, but by God’s grace and a ton of hard work, we found a way and overcame.
My goal today is remind us of the reason for hope that can guard us against the temptation to despair.
2 Important Truths:
Truth 1: There IS a being who wants you to believe there is no hope, leading you to despair and resulting in decisions that will wreck your soul and your life.
Truth 2: He has been defeated – there is hope. We just have to get there.
Hopelessness starts at the beginning:
The Garden – Genesis 2 –Eden: perfection; heaven on earth.
The Fall – Genesis 3 – WHY THE TREE? God gave them everything but still needed them to know He is God (Tree of Knowledge)
The Curse – Genesis 3:14-19
14 So the Lord God said to the serpent:
Because you have done this,
you are cursed more than any livestock
and more than any wild animal.
You will move on your belly
and eat dust all the days of your life.
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
16 He said to the woman:
I will intensify your labor pains;
you will bear children with painful effort.
Your desire will be for your husband,
yet he will rule over you.
17 And he said to the man, “Because you listened to your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, ‘Do not eat from it’:
The ground is cursed because of you.
You will eat from it by means of painful labor
all the days of your life.
18 It will produce thorns and thistles for you,
and you will eat the plants of the field.
19 You will eat bread by the sweat of your brow
until you return to the ground,
since you were taken from it.
For you are dust,
and you will return to dust.”
The Expulsion – the end of Eden
The Result: Death – Romans 3:23, 6:23a
When you get to death of the soul, that’s true hopelessness!
This the great existential question: If all have sinned against God and death is the punishment of sin, how can anyone experience any kind of hope? How can experience any hope in life, if this is true? It seems like people live with hope even though they shouldn’t have reason to.
Let’s talk a little about the meaning of hope:
Dictionary definition:
“Hope is a positive emotional state or belief that the future holds the potential for improvement, success, or positive outcomes. It involves a sense of expectation or desire for something good to happen, even in the face of challenges or uncertainty.”
Do you see any problems with this definition?
The entire definition is based on nothing dependable: emotions, sense, desire. Even “belief” is empty by itself – what is the basis for “belief”? What are the grounds or conditions that allow for this state of being?
You can “choose to believe” something but if not based on something solid, it’s irrational and undependable.
ILLUS: I choose to believe that my bank account has $1M in it, so I’m going to write a check for a big new house.
Just because I choose hope doesn’t mean there really is hope. But this is what most people do. There must be a solid reason for “hope”.
This means that on our own, there IS no real hope. Nothing is meaningful. We have no reason but to be completely infinitely depressed all the time.
That is the case unless there IS a basis for hope outside of ourselves and we find it.
Here is the important part that some of you who deal with the feeling of hopelessness need to hear:
IF THE FIRST AND OVER-ARCHING PROBLEM IS SOLVED, IT MEANS ALL OTHER LESSER PROBLEMS CAN BE SOLVED.
It means that, if that is true, then there is never a reason to get to a place of despair, even if you are struggling with the feelings of depression (AND I HAVE).
The Good News is there is a basis for hope and it also starts at the beginning: It’s hidden inside God’s curse!
Let’s look again: Genesis 3:15
15 I will put hostility between you and the woman,
and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike your head,
and you will strike his heel.
Notice what God said to the serpent: Regarding offspring: He will strike your head and you will strike His heel.
That’s a clue that God gave before He passed the ultimate judgment of death! The curse isn’t the end of the story!
The only basis for hope is God’s promises based on His character:
22 Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,
for his mercies never end.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
24 I say, “The Lord is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in him.”
Because of the Lord’s faithful love
we do not perish,[h]
for his mercies never end.
23 They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness!
24 I say, “The Lord is my portion,
therefore I will put my hope in him.”
6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
6 The Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed:
The Lord—the Lord is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, 7 maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the fathers’ iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation.
4 Major Covenants or Promises God made after the Fall:
1. Abrahamic Covenant – Genesis 12:1-3 (5 times God says “I will…”)
1 The Lord said to Abram:
Go from your land,
your relatives,
and your father’s house
to the land that I will show you.
2 I will make you into a great nation,
I will bless you,
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
I will curse anyone who treats you with contempt,
and all the peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.
2. Mosaic Covenant – Exodus 19:3-8
3 Moses went up the mountain to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain: “This is what you must say to the house of Jacob and explain to the Israelites: 4 ‘You have seen what I did to the Egyptians and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to myself. 5 Now if you will carefully listen to me and keep my covenant, you will be my own possession out of all the peoples, although the whole earth is mine, 6 and you will be my kingdom of priests and my holy nation.’ These are the words that you are to say to the Israelites.”
7 After Moses came back, he summoned the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 Then all the people responded together, “We will do all that the Lord has spoken.” So Moses brought the people’s words back to the Lord.
· IF you obey my commands, then I will be my possession and I will bless you (only conditional covenant)
· People agreed to do it.
· They did not and the covenant was revoked.
· This was to show them (and us) that we were not capable of keeping covenant.
· In spite of this, God wasn’t done. It was part of his plan to prepare them for His Provision, the great Priest and King to come.
3. Davidic Covenant – 2 Samuel 7:12-16 – Abraham’s descendant
12 When your time comes and you rest with your ancestors, I will raise up after you your descendant, who will come from your body, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He is the one who will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be his father, and he will be my son. When he does wrong, I will discipline him with a rod of men and blows from mortals. 15 But my faithful love will never leave him as it did when I removed it from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and kingdom will endure before me forever, and your throne will be established forever.’ ”
4. New Covenant – Jeremiah 31:31-34 , Luke 22:20 (This is when the provision from the curse in Eden was fulfilled)
20 In the same way he also took the cup after supper and said, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you.
31 “Look, the days are coming”—this is the Lord’s declaration—“when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. 32 This one will not be like the covenant I made with their ancestors on the day I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt—my covenant that they broke even though I am their master”—the Lord’s declaration. 33 “Instead, this is the covenant I will make with the house of Israel after those days”—the Lord’s declaration. “I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 34 No longer will one teach his neighbor or his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know me, from the least to the greatest of them”—this is the Lord’s declaration. “For I will forgive their iniquity and never again remember their sin.
How was it fulfilled?
Isaiah 7:14 - the Lord himself will give you[c] a sign: See, the virgin will conceive,[d] have a son, and name him Immanuel
14 Therefore, the Lord himself will give you a sign: See, the virgin will conceive, have a son, and name him Immanuel.
18 The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name him Immanuel,
which is translated “God is with us.”
The birth of Jesus Christ came about this way: After his mother Mary had been engaged[g] to Joseph, it was discovered before they came together that she was pregnant from the Holy Spirit. 19 So her husband, Joseph, being a righteous man, and not wanting to disgrace her publicly, decided to divorce her secretly.
20 But after he had considered these things, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife, because what has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. 21 She will give birth to a son, and you are to name him Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.”
22 Now all this took place to fulfill what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet:
23 See, the virgin will become pregnant
and give birth to a son,
and they will name him Immanuel,[h]
which is translated “God is with us.”
This is the basis of our hope: Hebrews 6:13-20
13 For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: 14 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you. 15 And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath, 18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
For when God made a promise to Abraham, since he had no one greater to swear by, he swore by himself: 14 I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply you.[d] 15 And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham obtained the promise. 16 For people swear by something greater than themselves, and for them a confirming oath ends every dispute. 17 Because God wanted to show his unchangeable purpose even more clearly to the heirs of the promise, he guaranteed it with an oath,18 so that through two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled for refuge might have strong encouragement to seize the hope set before us. 19 We have this hope as an anchor for the soul, firm and secure. It enters the inner sanctuary behind the curtain. 20 Jesus has entered there on our behalf as a forerunner, because he has become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.
You will still face anxiety-inducing trials. You still may face bouts of depression because of the weight of your struggles. Don’t give in. The war is already won. He can also carry you through the battles!
John 10:10 - A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
10 A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in abundance.
