Hope of Glory

Romans 5:1-11

Pray

Summarize last week

We have been talking about Ephraim and Manasseh.

Their father, Jacob blessed the brothers prior to his death, but he blessing was reversed.

Typically the older would be blessed with the greater blessing then the younger.

But Jacob blessed the younger first.

To discover the motivation we examined the meaning of the names.

We learned that the name Manasseh means to forget.

We connected the concept of forgetting to the plight of Joseph as he was in exile in Egypt.

Egypt wanted Joseph to forget his heritage.

But Joseph endured.

His testimony while in Egyptian exile was to remember God.

We then looked at the name Ephraim.

We learned that the name means to be doubly fruitful.

We compared this name to the provision of God through Joseph.

As Joseph chose to remember God trusting that God would help him endure, God caused Joseph to be fruitful.

We looked last time at the fact that the promise of God toward His people is that we will be pruned.

We will be corrected.

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1. In the pruning, we will be equipped to bear fruit under His authority.

The fruit we bear is for His glory and serves as a testimony of His faithfulness toward us.

So we talks about the names and the meaning hidden within the names, but we have not addressed why Jacob chose to bless the brothers in reverse order to what would be traditional.

This is the question we are going to tackle this morning.

And then we are going to apply what we can learn to our lives as we walk in faithfulness toward God.

Manasseh: to forget.

Joseph endured the trial of Egypt through remembering the Lord.

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2. Egypt wanted Joseph to conform, but Joseph chose to remember the provision of the Lord.

Ephraim: doubly fruitful.

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3. As Joseph chose to trust in the Lord, God brought forth fruit.

This fruit was produced because Joseph chose to trust in God’s provision.

When Jospeh brought Manasseh and Ephraim before Jacob to be blessed prior to his earthly death.

Jacob blessed the younger, Ephraim first.

The the older Manasseh.

Why and what is the truth we can glean?

The truth in the reverse blessing that God wants us to come to know is this:

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4. The blessing of remembering the Lord even in the face of trial can help us to forget the affliction.

Joseph remembered God in the midst of trial.

God caused Him to be fruitful.

Joseph’s trust in the Lord equipped Him to endure the trial.

So that the trial was not overwhelming.

The blessing of God’s provision caused Jospeh to forget the hurt his past afflictions.

The betrayal, imprisonment, uncertainty.

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5. Jospeh chose to remember God.

6. And in turn, God caused the trials endured by Jospeh to bear fruit.

The fruit was created out of the fact that Jospeh trusted God.

God helped Jospeh to see the difficulties as a means of God’s very presence in His life.

Very easily could Joseph had chosen to take revenge on his brothers.

No one would have criticized Joseph.

He was second in command of all of Egypt.

But Joseph chose to forget the hurt.

It is not that he forgot the past.

He chose to look at the past as a means through which God was working.

He chose to trust.

This attitude in trusting the Lord caused Jospeh to be reunited with his family.

It caused Joseph to be a blessing to those suffering during the famine.

The promise of the reverse blessing of the brothers.

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7. We can be doubly blessed in the forgetting of the hurt in your past trials as we choose to trust in the provision of our Lord.

God is not requiring us to utterly forget our past.

But we can choose to view the past as a means to bring God glory.

We can seek the Lord to help us forget the hurt, embarrassment, struggle or regret of our past.

And choose to view the past as a means of God working in our lives to cause us to be the person He intends us to be.

This is what I believe God is giving us in this account.

To choose to remember Him.

And in remembering Jesus who is our Lord and Savior, HE can cause us to be fruitful even as we endure affliction.

And that affliction can be a mechanism to cause us to bear fruit for His glory.

Application:

Romans 4:16-25

Explain the verses closing chapter 4

The faith of Abraham.

Romans 5:1–2 NIV

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. And we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Through the gift of God’s grace we can be justified in faith.

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8. Jesus has offered us peace with God through His sacrifice.

He has reconciled us to God restoring from our fallen condition.

We can have confidence in this hope as God is soverign.

Romans 5:3–5 NIV

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

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9. Not only can be trust in the provision of God having confidence in His promises to us, we can glory in our sufferings.

What does this mean?

Like Joseph, we can choose to trust God.

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10. We can choose to allow the trial that we are going through to help us bear fruit.

I am not in any way saying that this is easy.

When we are going through a difficulty, there are times when the difficulty can consume us.

It can become the focus of our thoughts.

Paul reminds us in these verses to trust in the Lord.

As we trust in the Lord, we can choose to view trials as a means through which the Lord will help us to persevere.

Now this is one of those things that your can hear me say.

We can read about it in Scripture, but it is something you need to choose to experience.

Choosing to remember the Lord in the midst of trial.

This does not mean the trial will be easy.

But it will help us to trust, knowing that the Lord is with us.

Choosing to glory even in suffering, causes us to place our focus in the only source of truth that can have the authority to encourage us to endure.

We have hope in the Lord.

We have hope because He is able.

Jesus is able to sustain us.

Even as we go through difficulties, we can choose to trust in the Lord.

Knowing that the trial will produce preseverance.

Jesus will help us to persever in tiral because we know that there is hope and a promise of a future.

And perseverance produces character.

The Greek word implies: tested character, worth and value.

In perseverance we can see that our lives have purpose and meaning.

We have hope in the eternal promises of God.

Character reminds us of the hope we can claim in the Lord.

Hope will not be put to shame because is is hope that is given through faith in God.

It is a hope given by our Living Savior.

Romans 5:6–11 NIV

You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! Not only is this so, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

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11. At just the right time, when we were powerless, Jesus came to save us.

To lift us up in our time of despair.

God demonstrates His love for us that while we were yet sinners, Jesus came to save us.

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12. We can have confidence knowing that we have been reconciled.

Though in this life we will endure trial, like Joseph we can choose to to trust in the Lord.

To cling to His ever loving hands.

To trust that He will see us through even the most difficult times. And then to allow Him to produce fruit of faith in our lives.

Benediction: Romans 15:13

Romans 15:13 NASB95

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