Hope when it feels hopeless

Main Idea: Our hope is not in a what, our hope is in a who.

Hope has a name, his name is Jesus

Introduction:

Right now is one of the most memorable times of the year. Some of my most fond memories around this time of year were visiting my grandfathers house in Philadelphia. He was pastoring a church out that way and they had this super big and old house he got to live in. And almost every year everyone from my mom’s side of the family would get together and there were around 9 grandkids. This was before the invention of the iPhone so we had to come up with games to play, one of which was a version of hide and go seek, but it was more like hide and go scare. On the 2nd floor of this house there was a long hallway, with about 15 closets, so all of my older cousins would hide in the closets, turn off all the lights, open up the windows, and give me a keychain flashlight to go find them. Oh and just to get some sympathy points, I was on crutches this specific thanksgiving.

I remember they all hid upstairs and I was crying when my grandpa walked up and asked me what was wrong. I told him the situation and he got one of those grins on his face. Everyone knows in my family, the originator of rage baiting was my grandfather. We may have perfected it, but he started it. My grandfather was also a hunter, and he had a number of flashlights, I’m talking about the GIANT ones that make you think it’s the sun. So he hatches a plan, to mess up my cousins eye sight for the rest of their lives. He tells me, I want you to go up the stairs and make as much noise as possible so they don’t hear me, and the second one of them jumps out to scare you, I’m going to shine this big light right in their face, grab them, tickle them, and take them down stairs. It went just as good as you could imagine. One of them would jump out with a nerf gun, and would just stand there watching as my grandpa started taking down these clowns. By the time it got to the last one they were the ones afraid.

Transition: Let me remind you of this situation though, it’s a long dark hallway with doors and inside are people who did not want the best, and I was no position to succeed. Is this what life feels like some times?

Tension

Control- We put our hope in the things we feel we have control over rather than in the one who is in control over everything. We really miss the power of “Hope” and instead see it as, “in the future I’ll feel like I’m in control.”

Disappointment- We often don’t hope at all. We’d like to. As human beings we’re designed for it, but the hope muscle in your heart is just broken. You could sit down and tell us exactly why you don’t hope. You could tell us about how many times God let you down, how many times people failed you, how many times you had to go through something you didn’t deserve. You sacrificed a life with hope for an identity of being a victim.

Realist- if you look logically though it doesn’t feel like there’s a lot to hope for. We’re fed information day after day of how the world is on brink of destruction. How the economy is horrible, housing is bad, we walked past hungry people every day, Colin, what should I be hopeful about?

Main Point:

A lot of us have grown up with a misunderstanding about hope. We look at hope as a force. We treat it as if it’s a thing that if we had it we would feel. Let me take you back for a second to that story with my grandfather. You could have given me a machine gun and I still wasn’t going to feel confident. You could have given me two working legs and I wasn’t going to feel like I could do it. You could have given me xray vision to see what each one would be and I still wouldn’t confident. You could have given me everything I for victory and I still wouldn’t get it, why? Because hope isn’t a what, it’s a who.

The Biblical writers knew this, when describing Jesus they would often use extreme word choices like: 1 John 4:8 “But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” A deeper breakdown from theologian A.W. Tozer would show that it is impossible for God himself to be love, it would break apart his character. However, John is saying, I can’t find a strong enough word to use to show you the magnitude of love except that God shows it the best, so let me just use that. Let me do that today for you with hope. Hope has a name, and his name is Jesus!

So many of you have felt for so long like you’ve been in that dark hallway and you don’t know what’s coming next and you’re wondering if this is going to be ok. I’m here to tell you that there isn’t just a tool God equipped you with but he himself is present with you and because of that there is hope in your situation. I don’t know what’s going to happen but I trust in my God, I trust in consistency, his planning, his strength, I have hope in Jesus.

Bible- John 11:1-44

I want to you through a story in the Bible where we can see hope unfolded. What hope in a relationship with Jesus looks like. Because it’s not clear cut. I could understand what my Grandpa was doing with a flashlight, but sometimes it feels like if Jesus was in that situation he’d show up with a box of pretzels. This story in the Bible is one of where hope is lost in Jesus, and yet also, it’s where Jesus performs one of his greatest miracles ever. Let’s look at this story and look at hoping in Jesus in action.

John 11:1,3-6 A man named Lazarus was sick. He lived in Bethany with his sisters, Mary and Martha. So the two sisters sent a message to Jesus telling him, “Lord, your dear friend is very sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard about it he said, “Lazarus’s sickness will not end in death. No, it happened for the glory of God so that the Son of God will receive glory from this.” 5 So although Jesus loved Martha, Mary, and Lazarus, 6 he stayed where he was for the next two days.

Jesus during this time knows that Lazarus is dead but knows the exact time to go to visit him.

John 11:17-24 When Jesus arrived at Bethany, he was told that Lazarus had already been in his grave for four days. 18 Bethany was only a few miles down the road from Jerusalem, 19 and many of the people had come to console Martha and Mary in their loss. 20 When Martha got word that Jesus was coming, she went to meet him. But Mary stayed in the house. 21 Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that God will give you whatever you ask.” Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

Point #1- Hope isn’t in people’s opinions of your situation

Let’s talk about what hope isn’t for a second. Hope isn’t in people’s opinions of your situation. We need to reclaim the power of hope from just a good sentiment to a sustaining power. But a lot of us surround ourselves with some people who are not hopeful. I’m not talking about people who have wisdom, I’m talking about people who only speak in complaints and disappointments.

“You really believe all that? Jesus is just a myth”

I knew this wasn’t going to work out.”

“This is what happens when we try to follow Jesus. It’s just so difficult.”

This is the same Mary and Martha who had a previous moment with Jesus in Luke 10:38-42. Mary was sitting there at the feet of Jesus previously and when she hears that Jesus has finally come to see them she doesn’t even go to him. Why? She’s around people that are consoling but are not people of hope.

Can I just warn you for a second, there are people who do not want you to have hope in Jesus. There are people that do not want to see things change. I’m not telling you not to have those people in your life, because they need you to be a light to them. But when it comes down to the vulnerable things in your heart they cannot be given permission to speak into your life. Because they might do the worst possible- keep you from Jesus. Would the people around you be the ones to tell you to hope or would they be the ones to tell you to give up?

Lets go deeper for a second, because you can know about Jesus and still not have hope. Look again at verses 23 and 24- Jesus told her, “Your brother will rise again.” 24 “Yes,” Martha said, “he will rise when everyone else rises, at the last day.”

Martha didn’t believe, she thought Jesus was just sharing generic hope. “It’ll all work out in the end.” “God works it for the good.” “One day in heaven it’ll all be set right.” Yes, sure. But can we be honest for a second, I need hope today! Jesus isn’t satisfied with generic artificial hope, he wants to authentically fill us up with strength. His response back to her proves it in verse 25 and 26- Jesus told her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Anyone who believes in me will live, even after dying. 26 Everyone who lives in me and believes in me will never ever die. Do you believe this, Martha?”

He’s not speaking generically he’s speaking directly and clearly. And he’s trying to get Martha to get past her opinions, past her parent’s opinions, past the teacher who didn’t what they were talking about’s opinions, past the church leader who said something rudely’s opinions. He’s trying to say it plainly- put your hope in me, I can do this.

Loads of people are going to say things about your situation, you might even say things. But what does the hope of Jesus say about your situation?

Point #2- Hope isn’t in what I see [John 11:32, 37

Lets read verses 32-37: When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.” 33 When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled. 34 “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.” 35 Then Jesus wept. 36 The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!” 37 But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”

The transparency in this statement is so honest- “If only you had been there.” Have you ever had a situation where you want to look and say the same thing- if only you had been here. Another component to hope is that we understand, hope isn’t it what I see.

I’m not going to pretty this up. Lazarus was dead. To have hope doesn’t mean that we live in ignorance

Mary had a way that she saw is happening, just because it isn’t in the way you wanted doesn’t mean it won’t happen at all

Testimony part 1: That story I told you at the beginning of the message, I was on crutches for multiple years, I can’t quite place which year it was. When I was about 9 years old we found a really rare type of benign tumor in my femur bone the hollowed out the entire thing. For a few years in a row it was the same thing over and over again. Right around this time of year we’d go to the hospital, get it x-rayed, meet with the surgeon and find out the tumor was back. We prayed and prayed and nothing changed. There were small miracles, but we didn’t see anything changed. I had hopes expectations. Right now in my leg I have a titanium rod and 4 screws imbedded in my bone. Time after time, I didn’t have anything in front of me to give me hope.

Point #3- Hope isn’t limited to what’s alive [John 11:38-44]

Verse 38- why would Jesus be angry when he arrived at the tomb. Anger is a primary emotion it’s a secondary emotion. Meaning this- if you feel anger there’s something underneath: pain, hurt, insecurity, offense. I can imagine in this moment that Jesus was overwhelmed by the weight and pain of his friend’s death.

Let me say this for a moment, death was never part of the plan but unfortunately it’s been part of lot of people’s stories.

Relationship- Some of you have lost a friendship, relationships. You’re looking at the state of your marriage, the mess with your kids. You’re past the point of thinking things are just bad, as far as your concerned the dreams are dead. The desires for wholeness are gone. You’ve accepted a reality that is so much less than what Jesus ever intended for you.

And today here this: he’s not angry at you for how things are but his heart is heavy for the fact that you lost hope.

Finances- I know the financially you dreamed of doing better, if you just grinded hard enough, but a second job and side hustle didn’t fix it. You still can’t see it.

Goals/ dreams- For some of you there were dreams God placed in your heart at a young age of how you’d impact the world but now you’ve just “called it.” Must have misheard, must have just been an emotional moment, must have been wrong when he told you that you’d be share the love of Jesus with the nations.

John 11:38–44 “Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance. “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.” Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?” So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me. You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.” Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!” And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!””

One other unique component here is that the rabbinic tradition was that the soul left the body after 3 days

Hope in Jesus isn’t limited to what is alive. Can you imagine the moment Lazarus started to move. Can you imagine the moment as a dead man walked out.

There had to have been a moment when someone had thought, “What else can he do?” Do you think he could? Do you think he could change my life? Do you think? Something changes when you hear about what Jesus did.

Testimony part 2: Can I tell you for years I looked at my story with my leg as a story where hope failed. I can walk now, and kind of like Martha, I believed that God would “heal me with a new body in heaven.” I just sort of dropped that, it was always a sensitive spot that I didn’t want to talk about. I still remember the day we got a prayer request at church, this little girl was having issues with her leg. I called the mom and found out she had a really rare type of bone tumor in her right leg- the same one I had. This family was basically giving church their last chance, and then top of it they find this out for their little girl Mallory. I remember telling the mom, “I went through the same thing!” And she was so calm in disbelief saying, “No you didn’t. I’ve seen you before, you walk perfectly fine.” We got to stand with this family through everything. And let me tell you that little girl is walking so well today with no problems and that family found such deep community with our church through that entire situation. My hope is never put to shame, because my hope wasn’t that some mystical power would work out. My hope was that Jesus was present, my hope is that Jesus was present and could do things beyond the scope of what I could do. Even when the desires, expectations were dead, my God wasn’t!

Inspiration:

Verse 39- but there will be a bad odor. Hope might smell different than you think. If it’s not limited to life get ready because Jesus might step into the situation that’s charged, the situation that’s triggering for you, the thing that gets you uncomfortable. Do you think people were comfortable when they saw a dead guy walking?

Do you think it’s going to be comfortable when hope steps into you finances and you start budgeting and asking yourself, can we afford to go out all the time?

Do you think hope will smell good when it confronts the bitterness in that relationship that you said, “I’m done with them” when Jesus isn’t.

What do you think hope will feel like when the job you’ve hated and said, “There’s no reason for me to be here” becomes the vary thing that God wants to use to bring light to the world.

Let me encourage you, the hope of Jesus when he is present in a situation is more powerful than you’ve ever given it credit for. If you left today with an ounce of that hope in your heart people would notice.

Just think what could happen if we saw Jesus for the hope he provides. Hope that extends past people’s opinions, my vision, and what’s dead