Sermon Tone Analysis

RECORD

This morning I want to continue on in our Uncommon Series by taking a look at one of the KEY catch-words of the past decade

The subject that I want to look at this morning is “Hope” or more specifically the uncommon style of hope that is offered to us in the person of Jesus Christ

The dictionary defines “Hope” as a verb, which I find very interesting in that it is something that happens and forces action, and it is a verb which means “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence” and “to believe, desire, trust”

Hope is one of the core virtues of humanity, it is a part of our DNA and the way that we were created but it is also something that seems to be in short supply these days

I recently talked with a couple who work with the indigenous communities about the greatest challenges they face

I was expecting an answer like abuse or alcohol or poverty or something along those lines but the answer they gave me was “a lack of hope”

But when you think about it, it is the lack of hope that leads to all these other problems, the lack of the ability to look forward with desire and reasonable confidence

And when you realize that you realize the epidemic situation that we face today in regards to the lack of hope

And yet, as Christians, it should not only be present in our lives, it should be evident and paramount

In Paul describes it as one of the 3 elements that make up a believer

And Peter tells us,

Whoops sorry that’s and I meant to type in which says,

To give the reason for the hope that you have you must first have the hope

So let’s talk about hope a little bit, the kind of hope that is not common in this world, the kind of hope that is only possible by “TRUSTING” in the person of Jesus Christ

First let’s take a look at having hope in this life

It’s true that in Jesus warns us that we are going to face challenges in this life that, if we allow them to, will rob us of our hope

But He continues on in the same verse to tell us that in Him we are to , “take heart” or as the Amplified version puts it, “be courageous (be confident, be undaunted, be filled with joy)

In other words, in Jesus we are to find a reason to look forward with confidence because we trust Him, no matter what comes our way

It doesn’t mean that we don’t sometimes worry or get excited but that, when those times come, our trust in Jesus sees us through them

Listen to this other definition of hope from the Lexham Bible Dictionary, “The confidence that, by integrating God’s redemptive acts in the past with trusting human responses in the present, the faithful will experience the fullness of God’s goodness both in the present and in the future.”

Now with that definition in mind consider what Paul says to the church in Rome who were going through tremendous persecution

Craver, B. (2016).

Hope.

In J. D. Barry, D. Bomar, D. R. Brown, R. Klippenstein, D. Mangum, C. Sinclair Wolcott, … W. Widder (Eds.),

The Lexham Bible Dictionary.

Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.”

The original NIV says in verse 5, “And hope does not disappoint us...”

The world is disappointed in what they have hoped in but as believers we know that know matter what happens we “will experience the fullness of God’s goodness”

Even in our suffering

But not only do we have hope in life, we can have hope in death

Ever since what happened back in the Garden of Eden, Death has been the enemy of mortal man

Billions of dollars are spent every single year as people look for ways to try and cheat death

In spite of the fact that, “it is appointed unto man once to die” () man is obsessed with finding a way to circumvent that reality

And the reason is that because, without Christ, death is merely a hopeless ending to a hopeless existence

But for the Christian there is nothing to fear in death because death is not the winner

1 Corinthians 15:55-

In Christ we have the victory over death which gives us hope

In fact we can even look forward to death with desire and reasonable confidence

Think about that for a second and tell me that this kind of hope is not uncommon to the world

Listen to Paul’s take on this in his letter to the Philippians,

Paul says that he has a hope even in death because, for him, to die is to be better off, listen to it again, this time from The Message, “And I’m going to keep that celebration going because I know how it’s going to turn out.

Through your faithful prayers and the generous response of the Spirit of Jesus Christ, everything he wants to do in and through me will be done.

I can hardly wait to continue on my course.

I don’t expect to be embarrassed in the least.

On the contrary, everything happening to me in this jail only serves to make Christ more accurately known, regardless of whether I live or die.

They didn’t shut me up; they gave me a pulpit!

Alive, I’m Christ’s messenger; dead, I’m his bounty.

Life versus even more life!

I can’t lose.”

It’s not life verses death, it’s “life verses even more life!”

I love that

It gives me hope

But there’s one more hope I want to discuss this morning, We looked at hope in life, hope in death, I want to conclude by looking at hope in the resurrection

Going back to that same chapter of 1 Corinthians we looked at a moment or two ago, Paul says this in verse 19

If the hope that we have through Christ is only for the purpose of getting us through this life, then what’s the point?

It’s worthless!

Verse 20, however, starts out with that powerful little 3 letter word, “But!”

1 Corinthians

Several different times in the book of Acts Paul describes his belief in the resurrection of the dead as his “hope”

And in the Apostle refers to this event as “The blessed hope”

Now if you have sat under any of my teaching on life after death you know what I think about the belief that we will get wings and play a harp while sitting on a cloud for all of eternity

I mean seriously who wants to spend eternity like that

Even if the idea of it appeals to you, I’m sure that after a couple of billion years it would become pretty tedious

You know what’s not tedious?

A resurrected physical body that can taste and feel and enjoy and experience every good sensation that God designed it to

God is going to raise up this body but it won’t be the same as it is now because it will no longer be subject to the curse for that will have been dealt with

Listen again to what Paul says about this,

1 Thessalonians 4:13-

The world indeed is short on hope today

The things that they have put their hopes in have let them down and as a result they have no hope in life, no hope in death, and no hope beyond death

But listen to how Paul begins his first letter to Timothy

In Him we have hope, an uncommon hope, a hope in life, in death, and in resurrection

Let’s Pray

Benediction