Hope in a Hopeless World
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Introduction: Our nation and world today is filled with people who are hopeless. Why do you think that that is? They have looked at their life and the world around them and have concluded that there is nothing here that satisfies.
Jim Carey: “I wish everyone could get rich and famous and have everything they ever dreamed of so they would know that's not the answer.”
Hopelessness in America today is a huge issue. According to the ADAA, more than 15,000,000 Americans (6.7% of the population) view their lives as hopeless. According to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, suicide is the tenth leading cause of death in the United States. Each year 44,193 people die as a result of suicide which is an average of a little over five people per hour. According to the Jason Foundation, suicide is the second leading cause of death for youths ages 10-24. Each day in our nation there are 5,240 attempts by young people in grades 7-12.
The purpose of this lesson is to equip you to help someone you know and love who may be dealing with hopelessness, or maybe even to better equip you who may be dealing with hopeless thoughts yourself.
People who are hopeless have looked around them and have concluded that there is absolutely nothing on this earth that can satisfy them. They have literally run out of earthly options, and they have actually come to the right conclusion. The problem is that they are going to the wrong places for answers, and, like them, if you are wrapped up in the things of this world you will come away disappointed and empty every single time.
One woman posted the following through on an online forum:
I want to know if I am alone feeling this way - I sometimes feel homesick for a place that I know does not exist in this life. It is a weird feeling and very hard to explain like a nagging thought in the back of my mind, uncontrollable longing or a very strong craving. Wikipedia says Germans even have a name for it: Sehnsucht - "It is sometimes felt as a longing for a far off country, but not a particular earthly land which we can identify.”
I want you to know that this place we long for does exist - it is called eternal life and we can experience it through the person and work of Jesus Christ. Not just hope is offered but infinite hope is offered in Jesus.
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/forum/unexplained-mysteries-paranormal/1953943-do-you-ever-feel-homesick-place.html#ixzz5TY9ju8WH
He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also He has put eternity in their hearts, except that no one can find out the work that God does from beginning to end.
But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
You were not made to be satisfied by things of this earth. This world is temporary and God, when he created you, set in you a longing for eternity. There is nothing in this temporary world that will satisfy the eternal longing of your heart.
What is Hopelessness?
What is Hopelessness?
Feeling Alienated from God
Feeling Alienated from God
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
How long, O Lord? Will You forget me forever?
How long will You hide Your face from me?
A hopeless person feels like God is nowhere to be found. Hopelessness will drive you to believe that no one else understands, even God. A hopeless person scrolls through instagram and gazes at everyone else’s brightly colored world and concludes: “I can’t go out there. Everyone else is having a great life and I’m just not.”
A hopeless person feels like God is nowhere to be found. Hopelessness will drive you to believe that no one else understands, even God. A hopeless person scrolls through instagram and gazes at everyone else’s brightly colored world and concludes: “I can’t go out there. Everyone else is having a great life and I’m just not.”
A Christian going through a season of hopelessness might say something like this: “I pray and there is no answer. I read my Bible and it is lifeless. I try to listen to truth and it just feels empty. I know that faith and trust in God is the answer, but I must not even be doing that right.”
Listening to Our Own Thoughts Rather than God’s Thoughts
Listening to Our Own Thoughts Rather than God’s Thoughts
How long shall I take counsel in my soul,
Having sorrow in my heart daily?
How long will my enemy be exalted over me?
A hopeless person sees absolutely no escape. David asks the question “how long?” four times in the first two verses. To Him, it seems like an eternity. In his own counsel and in his own heart he doesn’t remember a time before his discouragement and he can’t see a way out of his discouragement.
Wishing to Die
Wishing to Die
Consider and hear me, O Lord my God;
Enlighten my eyes,
Lest I sleep the sleep of death;
Feeling Like There is No Foundation
Feeling Like There is No Foundation
Lest my enemy say,
“I have prevailed against him”;
Lest those who trouble me rejoice when I am moved.
Someone who is hopeless might say something like, “There is no constant anymore.” “Nothing makes sense anymore.” “Everything that used to makes sense doesn’t anymore.”
Transition: Thankfully, there is hope for us when we feel this way.
Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months.
How God Deals with Hopelessness
How God Deals with Hopelessness
Example:
God Deals with the Entire Person
God Deals with the Entire Person
The spiritual part of a person can impact the physical part of a person, and the physical part of us can impact the spiritual part of a person.
Don’t ignore your check engine light.
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
So he said, “I have been very zealous for the Lord God of hosts; for the children of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your altars, and killed Your prophets with the sword. I alone am left; and they seek to take my life.”
1 King 19:
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.”
1 King 19:5-7
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.”
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
And there he went into a cave, and spent the night in that place; and behold, the word of the Lord came to him, and He said to him, “What are you doing here, Elijah?”
Then as he lay and slept under a broom tree, suddenly an angel touched him, and said to him, “Arise and eat.” Then he looked, and there by his head was a cake baked on coals, and a jar of water. So he ate and drank, and lay down again. And the angel of the Lord came back the second time, and touched him, and said, “Arise and eat, because the journey is too great for you.” So he arose, and ate and drank; and he went in the strength of that food forty days and forty nights as far as Horeb, the mountain of God.
1 Kings
God Highlights Hope
God Highlights Hope
1 King 19:
Then the Lord said to him: “Go, return on your way to the Wilderness of Damascus; and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also you shall anoint Jehu the son of Nimshi as king over Israel. And Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel Meholah you shall anoint as prophet in your place. It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill. Yet I have reserved seven thousand in Israel, all whose knees have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him.”
Dealing with Hopelessness Today
Dealing with Hopelessness Today
Take Care of Yourself Physically
Take Care of Yourself Physically
Highlight Hope
Highlight Hope
The Scriptures Give Hope
The Scriptures Give Hope
For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.
The Future Gives Hope
The Future Gives Hope
looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Our Identity in Christ Gives Hope
Our Identity in Christ Gives Hope
For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily; and you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.
God’s Mercy Gives Hope
God’s Mercy Gives Hope
But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
God’s Salvation Gives Hope
God’s Salvation Gives Hope
But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
God’s Provision Gives Hope
God’s Provision Gives Hope
But I have trusted in Your mercy;
My heart shall rejoice in Your salvation.
Whatever the Lord pleases He does,
In heaven and in earth,
In the seas and in all deep places.
I will sing to the Lord,
Because He has dealt bountifully with me.
Conclusion:
You have immense worth as an image bearer of God.
Genesis 3:26-27
Genesis 3:26-27
Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
God cares about your pain
Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin.
Your life has a very specific purpose
For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.
The pain you feel now is temporary even thought it feels like it will go one forever
For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,
God forgives you when you fall
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
God loves you
For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.