Lamentations 3:21-26 Hope Without Faith is Wishful Thinking
Notes
Transcript
Hope without faith is wishful thinking.
Hope without faith is wishful thinking.
21 But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
22 The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
23 they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
25 The Lord is good to those who wait for him,
to the soul who seeks him.
26 It is good that one should wait quietly
for the salvation of the Lord.
Introduction:
So in the book of Lamentations we find where the temple has been destroyed and if you were to go back and read the passages of Scripture leading up to where we are this morning you would find a lament theme running through those passages. The writer is devastated and just crying out to God….which we do not do enough by the way. It has been said that the verbiage of the passage leads one to believe that the person writing this book saw the temple destroyed and the people decimated by the Babylonians. The temple was destroyed twice once in 587 BC and then again for the last time in AD 70. How many of us could look on that and yet remain steadfast in the Lord. I’m not talking about war I’m talking about invasion of our country….the destruction of all that we hold dear to our hearts. Our place of worship and those that we love destroyed or taken captive. How many of us could witness that kind of destruction and suffering and write a passage like we just read…still have hope that all will be well because God is in control….that is true hope. This kind of hope can only be found in faith. When it all has gone south and there seems to be no way anything good is going to come of this situation………God is still in control.
Illustration:
So I really really want to see LSU win a national championship this year. It ain’t gonna happen but we can hope….this not hope it is wishful thinking..I have no faith that they can do that. I really want a 67 GT500 shelby mustang…it ain’t gonna happen but I hope one day to own one….again this is not true hope I don’t have the faith that I will ever have that kind of money and if I do I won’t be spending it on a car… What about this one…I really want to be a good enough person to go to heaven but given my attitude and the way I have lived it ain’t likely gonna happen…but I can hope. Have you ever heard someone say that or maybe you have witnessed someone who lives like that. The reason they have that type of mentality is because they have forgotten the most important part of hope…it’s faith. They don’t have hope because they lack true faith. Now I am not here this morning to call your faith into question…or to beat you up about your faith. I am hoping to help you understand the link between having a strong walk of faith and having a hope that gives you joy no matter what you face.
Point 1: Hope without faith is wishful thinking.
The writer of Lamentations says in verses 21 and 22 Lamentations 3:21-22
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
I call this to mind and I have hope…..”The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; and His mercies never come to and end.” My hope is not based in me or my steadfast love for God but in his steadfast love for me. My hope is in the Lord and in His power. I have faith that God is that good and He is gonna love me with His steadfast…long suffering….enduring…..all encompassing love. Not my love, my hope is not based in me but in my faith in God. Throughout Scripture we find where hope is found in God alone. If I put my faith in anything other than God I can have no hope. In Romans 15:13
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.
If I say that I hope God will love me… in order for this to be true hope…. I have to have faith that God will love me. I have to have faith that through grace I can be saved. The writer says,“This I call to mind…” I remember all the times that God has shown up in my life when I faced a mountain that I could not climb. He showed up and packed me every step of the way…He loved me when I could not love myself for the sin in my life. I remember…I think on this…I focus on Him…..and therefore I have hope. I am not trying to do this on my own I am relying on Him to give me the strength to get back to my feet. Church that is hope.
Whatever situation you are facing today let me assure you brothers and sisters God loves you with a steadfast love. Your faith in Him is what grounds you…..so that your hope is not in vain. The reason His mercy is mine is not because of anything I have done to deserve it…it is by grace that I have been saved through faith. God knew what you were when he offered you the grace and in Him you can have true hope….not because of you but because of Him. God has proved time and again that His forgiveness and love for me is real. Therefore my hope is founded in my faith.
Point #2: Every single day is another opportunity to serve the Lord and walk with Him.
In verses 23 and 24 it says this ….Lamentations 3:23-24
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
God’s mercies are new every single morning. Every day when I wake up God has given me another opportunity to serve Him. He has through His grace, given me the chance to walk with Him closer than I did yesterday. Notice the writer here says great is YOUR faithfulness….’God you are far more faithful than I am…”
Great is your faithfulness…If I am being honest there are times that I am not very faithful to God. Just being honest there are times that I become aggravated and I will think things that I should not think…I don’t say things very often anymore but I will think’em. I will struggle in my faith sometimes…we all do. If you are struggling in your faith today brothers and sisters listen to what the writer says “Great is your faithfulness” when my faith is not enough God will provide more for me. Yea I might have to go through a trial but when I come out the other side and my faith has grown…guess what so has my hope.
God in His faithfulness forgave me but it was because of my unfaithfulness that I needed to be forgiven in the first place. I have a hope that as long as I repent of my sins God is good to forgive them. When I fail today I will try not to fail at the same thing tomorrow but God will be right there when I wake up with new mercies for me. God does not keep a running tab on how much we sin and then the next day I have to work off all that sin from yesterday before my hope is renewed…..before I get more faith I have to pay for that sin yesterday….the mercies are new when I wake up.
The Lord is my portion….says my soul. I remind myself that I belong to a God that created this universe and He loves me and wants to be in a personal relationship with me. I have a hope but the hope I have is because of what He did on that cross to by my pardon. I remind myself that God is my portion and my soul is safe in Him. Folks if you want your hope to fill you up and run over and just spill out onto everyone around you then let your faith in God be that strong. Know that just because I failed yesterday…today is a new day that God gave me. He woke me up this morning and said “Steven I love you today like I loved you yesterday.” I hope that through my faith in God I am able to live better today than I did yesterday and I will live better tomorrow than I am living today. If you want the kind of hope that says “Yea this looks bad but my God fights for me” that kind of hope starts with that kind of faith.
Point #3: You can have no hope without Jesus.
I’m gonna say that again “You can have no hope without Jesus.” If I don’t have Jesus I have nothing. No matter what I have here on this earth….no matter the money…the house…the cars…the boats…the stuff. Without Jesus there is nothing. I am not hoping that I can go to heaven I am just wishing that I could go to heaven. I am not hoping that God loves me I am just wishing God would love me without me having to change. I wish I could be a better person so that I could go to heaven.
There are two men in our church today that are facing health battles. They are really sick but both of them have said the same thing “Whatever God decides is what will happen.” I have talked with them both and they are strong in their faith they both know Jesus is their personal savior they don’t just wish they could get better they have a hope that they will be healed……we often times want to paint God into a box and say that if I die then I am not healed but folks listen to me the hope that you have in Jesus does not stop with this body no……it stretches into eternity that is true hope….no matter what happens I get to live forever. These men both have a hope that whatever happens God is still good. They have a hope that out weighs the health battles that they are facing. They both know that if God calls them home they have a home to go to.
My question to you this morning is are you just wishing you could go to heaven or do you have a hope that lasts for all eternity? Do you wish you could be a better person but still be able to sin or do you have a hope in Jesus that you can be free from your sin? Are you okay just wishing or would you like to walk in the hope that is eternal?
Invitation…..
