Romans 15_13 Christian Optimism - Hope

Christian Optimism – Hope

Romans 15:13

Secular:

• The difference between team sports and individual sports…
• Both require skill and determination
• Both have rules
• What is legitimate… what isn’t
• Both have goals…
• How to score… make points…
• Both carry different responsibilities!
• A solo effort… dependant on the individual
• McEnroe and the judges!
• A team effort…
• All contribute
• Various roles…
• All necessary
• Though not a sport Christianity has the same Individual and Corporate roles…
• We are team sport and an individual sport…
• We have individual goals and responsibilities
• We have corporate or body responsibilities
• Too often we get them flipped…
• Where most of the promises in scripture are given to the church… we take them personally…
• Where many of the responsibilities are given to individuals we see them as corporate.
• Calling us to our responsibilities in scripture isn’t legalism….
• Legalism is adding rules that don’t exist…
• Foundations…
• The Church Gathers to Worship
• The Church goes out to evangelize
• Corporately we are to worship… pre-Christians can not
• Worship evangelism is impossible
• Corporately we are to go deep into the word of God….
• Corporately love, encourage, edify, support…
• train believers
• No ancient seminaries… that was the church!
• We are to Glorify God!
• Individually we are to use our spiritual gifting
• We are to evangelize… (Individual NOT church)
• We are to study / pray / fast
• We are to live our faith in our homes
• We are to live faith in our relationship
• We are to glorify God!
• If you come expecting the church to do your job… you will be disappointed.
• If the church body expects the individual to do theirs… we should be as disappointed….
• Christian Myth / Young Life
• Time to take our responsibility….
• AND it is our time to Hope!

Biblical:

Ro 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.

Personal:

•  Hope-so… hope…
•  Hope… rests where?
• Hope so… in an unsure future….
• Hope… in something sure…
• Hope so… sees God as an amulet… destiny… help me get where I want to go….
• Hope… sees God’s future as the most desired outcome
• … Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?”" (Genesis 18:25, ESV)
• Of what hope does Paul speak…

Bridge:

• Hope From God
• Hope Through Faith
• Hope In Abundance!
• There is Hope!!

Body:

I. Ro 15:13 May the God of hope fill you….

• When was the last time you drilled for, extracted and refined crude oil into gasoline?
• We don’t make gasoline… nor do we distribute it….
• If we never pulled up to the pumps it would be a very short time before we were trying to push our vehicle…
• Hope… is not ours to drill for or manufacture!
•  Eph 2:12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.
•  No hope?
•  Hope comes from God alone…
•  God fills those who are his…
• Col 1:27 To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.
• Real hope… comes in proximity to God…
• As lack of distance…
• Like wondering why the car in the driveway has no fuel… without pulling up to the pump
• Distance from God… dims hope…
• If God is the Gospel… the Good News… it is only God that can bring any true hope!
• And because its is God’s good pleasure to save some (redeem)…
• It is He that gives hope
• We need not look to drugs, athletics, finances, for Hope… for that is temporary happiness…
• Hope as an element of Love… when genuine… is imperishable! And eternal…
• 1 Cor 13:7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
• How is it that this hope seems more powerful than the world that surrounds us…. More enduring… more satisfying…
• I think sometime we forget that hope is the domain of God… sealed The Spirit… in Christ… and isn’t contingent on how I feel!!
•  Eph 1:13 In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, 14 who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory.
• Hope… Hope… Hope…
• What was your responsibility…?
• What was God’s…?
• Is there Hope?
• And where does it come from?
• Me….
• May the God of hope fill you… pull up to the pump!

II. Ro 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,…

• Hope is the beautiful by-product of a loving relationship with God. The eternal and enduring… beautiful, glory filled relationship with God.
• Hope is a glory tan…
•  And because it is steadfast and enduring… rooted in all-powerful, holy, and loving God we know peace and we know joy…
• Not symptomatic peace… pursuing an end… you will never find lasting peace… just distraction
• Not symptomatic joy… pursuing an end… you will never find joy… just shallow happiness
• Remember Paul’s trials… they hardly fit earthly peace
• Imagine being part of that party… hardly described by his contemporaries as joy-filled…
•  Php 4:3b commenting on those who laboured with him…, whose names are in the book of life. 4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; 6 do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
• If you describe peace in earthly terms… you’ve missed it…
• Peace in family
• Peace in the workplace
• Peace in your ministry
• And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding… it doesn’t make earthly sense…
• It is anchored in Hope… something bigger!! I is anchored in God…
• Joy is placed in our hearts as hope…
• Treadmills, exercise bikes, elliptical trainers, bow flex machines are not a joy unto themselves!
•  Life is not to be a joy unto itself…. This life is glory-giving training for an eternity with God!
• It is not about the riches of this world… the food, the drink, the wealth, the toys….
•  Ro 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.
• Not earthly stuff…
• Joy and Peace radiate from the Hope we have in the Glory of Christ!
• We will glorify God now and forever… and that IS Joy and Peace!
• Oddly comforting!
• Mt 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.
• Don’t get distracted by the concerns of the flesh…
• Joy and Peace reside in the Hope of the Soul
• It comes from God… pull up close to the pump and know…
• Ro 15:13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,…
• Experience the inheritance of a child of God…
• Despair ends in Christ… Chaos ends in Christ…
• Hope – Joy – Peace !

III. Ro 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.

• Hope comes from God… check
• With divine Hope comes Joy and Peace… check
• And by the power of the Spirit… we will abound in Hope!
• We came full circle…
• Life in Christ…
• Faith from God
• Gives Hope in Him
• Which gives Peace and Joy
• Which Gives Hope
• Which Strengthens faith
• Perseverance
• Ro 5:1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• Hope has come!
• Hope…
• What is it…
• Product of Faith
• Given from God
• It originates in God
• No hope apart form God
• Only false hope
• Real…
• How
• By the Spirit
• Sealed…
• In His Love
• Death of His Son
• Benefits
• Peace…
• Not worldly peace
• Joy
• Not Worldly Joy
• Eternal… unchanging!
• Steadfast
• because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
• Hope has come…
• Don’t seek it elsewhere
• It is in Christ… Christ alone!
• It is seeing and seeking His Glory
• Ro 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.