Hope Wins - 2

Hope Wins - 2

Introduction

I want to teach you a verse in the Bible that will help guide where we are headed with our time together today. Repeat together.

- 22 Let your unfailing love surround us, Lord,

    for our hope is in you alone.

We recognize the truth of those words. We affirm them here. God’s unfailing love surrounds us and we hope in him alone. We trust in him, we look to him.

But, how do we reconcile these words with what we see in this world? There’s a tension between what we read in the bible and what we read in the newspaper. How do we reconcile this hope in God with the horrors we see every day? There is this challenging tension that exists…how do I maintain hope in a hopelessly broken world?

If you’ve ever placed your hope in something or someone, and they let you down, you know this tension. The tension between what I hoped for and what I got.

—If you’ve ever stood at the altar and promised “til death” but the other person apparently meant “til someone else.”

—If you have ever been promised something at work, a promotion or raise, and it didn’t come through.

—If you were an athlete poised to go the next level but got injured.

—If you are really intelligent but didn’t get the scholarship.

—If you have aspirations for your child but they have become something other than what you hoped.

—If you’ve ever said, “Why bother?” Studying, working, loving.

You know this tension. And if you don’t know it already, get ready because it’s coming. How do you maintain hope in a hopelessly broken world?

Let’s start by defining hope. Hope is that person or thing in which your expectations are centered. It’s the things you’re leaning into, relying upon. Your job, your abilities, looks. To hope in something is to place your trust there. To center your expectations for the future in it. You lean into these things to bring stability to your life and your future.

In fact, here is how I want us to view hope…a ladder. You might have noticed it sitting out here, that was on purpose. Hope is what you lean the ladder of your life against. It’s what you use to prop your life up. When you put a ladder against a wall, it is an act of hope. You are centering your expectations on the solid nature of that wall. The same is true for your life.

When you are born, the ladder of your life is propped up against your parents. You hope fully in them. Because your life literally depends on them to feed you, keep you safe, nurture you. Your ladder won’t stand without them. As you get older, we build up on our own walls to lean on. We put our hope a bit in our own ability to care for ourselves. I can now walk, talk, drive, work. We can now do much of this on our own. And we start looking to our own walls to prop up our ladder.

Usually we don’t even think about this. We aren’t concerned with this reality until it comes crashing down. Only in that moment do we come to realize that we’ve been leaning the ladder against something that isn’t as solid as we’d hoped.

—You are in your 30’s and all your friends are married. But you’re still single.

—You dream of being a parent only to find out you can’t have children.

—You put out your resume for your dream job but no one is calling.

Only when the ladder falls do we realize our mistake of leaning it up against something so insecure. So how do you maintain hope in a hopelessly broken world? How do you lean your ladder in the right place, against a wall that won’t fall?

The bible, to no one’s surprise, tells us to hope in God alone. Of course the bible says that! We expect it to. But countless Christians don’t do that. Why? Because as Americans, we are the best in the history of the world at building up walls that seem solid. We are elite wall-builders. We believe if you have the right education, looks, connections, if I save enough, am disciplined enough, that it’s all going to work out for us. And we lean our ladders against that. And if you’re a Christian, you pray, “God, help my ladder not to fall. Bless this wall I’ve constructed.”

And for the most part, it tends to work out for us. It’s nice to have a good education. Having the right looks help. We can achieve our idea of success with the right combination of factors. The problem is that it’s only a matter of time before that wall falls. Even if that wall lasts for your entire life, ultimately, all walls fall.

We spent 6 weeks walking through Ecclesiastes…isn’t this what that book was about? What was Solomon telling us the whole time? Don’t lean your ladder against that wall! Pleasure, wealth, education…these walls might deliver during your life, but they can’t withstand eternity. So the bible tells us to hope in God alone because only God delivers in this life and in the next.

This is what is about. It will tell us to place our hope in God, and then it will tell us why. It will also remind us of this tension we live in today, of maintaining hope in a hopelessly broken world.

- 18 Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. 19 For all creation is waiting eagerly for that future day when God will reveal who his children really are. 20 Against its will, all creation was subjected to God’s curse. But with eager hope, 21 the creation looks forward to the day when it will join God’s children in glorious freedom from death and decay. 22 For we know that all creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 And we believers also groan, even though we have the Holy Spirit within us as a foretaste of future glory, for we long for our bodies to be released from sin and suffering. We, too, wait with eager hope for the day when God will give us our full rights as his adopted children, including the new bodies he has promised us. 24 We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it. 25 But if we look forward to something we don’t yet have, we must wait patiently and confidently.)

Now this is a section about hope! All of the images used here speak to what we’ve been promised. These images show us what to lean our ladder against.

—v. 18 - glory he will reveal later

—v. 19 - future day when God will reveal his children

—v. 21 - creation looks forward to freedom

—v. 22 - pains of childbirth…image of hope, baby is coming

—v. 23 - foretaste of future glory

—v. 23 - released from sin and suffering

—v. 23 - full rights as adopted children

It is in that last one that we see the “already but not yet” nature of hope. We are already God’s adopted children, but not yet living in the full rights of that position. ILL - There was a period of 19 months between the time Cora moved in and the adoption was finalized. During that time, she was loved, protected, cared for, provided for, as if she were ours. In virtually every sense, she was a Stamps. But it wasn’t until Valentine’s Day of 2014 that she was fully, legally, a Stamps. At that point she began living in her full legal rights as my daughter. That is what Romans is telling us here. We are loved, cared for, etc by God. But there is a day coming when we will live in the reality of our full rights as his adopted sons and daughters.

v. 24 - “We were given this hope when we were saved.” We have been able to hope in God, to lean our ladders against him, since the day we placed our faith in Christ. So not only has God saved us from his wrath, our sin, eternal separation from him…at the moment of our salvation, we were given this gift of hope. God also saves us from despair. Hope is a gift. Remember, hope is not about how we feel or our general disposition. Hope is firmly anchored in the past work of Jesus and longs for the future with him, all given to us when we become Christians.

But I also want you to notice that it is not just hope that is present in this paragraph. It speaks much of pain and suffering.

—v. 18 - what we suffer now. Hope doesn’t exclude suffering, doesn’t make it go away.

—v. 20 - creation subjected to God’s curse. This world will not be what it should be, because of sin’s devastating consequences. “God’s curse” translates as “vanity, or meaningless.” It is the same word used in Ecclesiastes. CJ Vaughan writes, “The whole book of Ecclesiastes is a commentary upon this verse.”

—v. 21 - bondage to death and decay. We see this every time we look in the mirror. Your relationships, your wealth, your life, this world…all in bondage to decay. Now as Americans, our response is “nope, not me.” Just have the right surgery, education, looks to keep you young…you’ll beat the odds. No, you won’t. We live in a world of decay. There are highlights, but the movement of life is toward death.

—v. 22 - pains of childbirth. Yes, this is an image of hope because a baby is coming, but it’s still incredibly painful!

—v. 23 - released from sin and suffering, meaning we are all now subject to these things. We can’t escape them.

—v. 23 - full rights, new bodies. But we don’t have them now.

—v. 24 - we have it, but we don’t have it. Already but not yet.

So do you see it? Hope and suffering fill the same paragraph. Hope isn’t ignorant of reality. That is the tension we feel with hope. This is why we struggle with it. Hope means living in this tension between the pain and the promise.

This is why we do not place our hope in this world. This world is messed up. It is in bondage to decay and death. It has been subjected to the curse of meaninglessness. The walls here will crumble and your ladder will fall.

As we see this tension here between pain and promise, our issue is that we allow the pain to distract us from our hope. We let it cause us to doubt. But pain isn’t meant to tank our hope, it is meant to solidify it. When we see/experience pain and suffering, it reminds us that this world is broken and we want better. In fact, Romans has already dealt with this very issue.

- 3 We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. 4 And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. 5 And this hope will not lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.

So we rejoice in suffering. Why? Because it fuels our hope…and that hope, unlike this world, does not disappoint. So how do we do that? How do we maintain hope in a hopelessly broken world?

- 26 And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words. 27 And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. 28 And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. 29 For God knew his people in advance, and he chose them to become like his Son, so that his Son would be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters. 30 And having chosen them, he called them to come to him. And having called them, he gave them right standing with himself. And having given them right standing, he gave them his glory.

These are some of the most famous verses in the Bible, well at least v. 28 is. We like to quote it, and for good reason. These are fantastic promises to look at, even outside of its context. is a jewel, but it is placed in a beautiful setting. This is not just about how we hope in God, but why we should hope in him alone.

As God has commanded us to place our singular focus on him, we find that he has been singularly focused on us. Everything about God is focused on saving us. The person of God has been working the plan of God to achieve the promise of God. Let’s dig into these verses a bit.

One of the first things to notice here is that this passage has an emphasis on the Trinity. Every part of God’s nature, every part of who he is - Father, Son, and Spirit - involved in securing our hope.

He starts here by talking about God the Holy Spirit. He reminds us that the Spirit helps us when we are weak. When the pain is too much, when our hope gets overwhelmed, he is there to help. And he gives us a practical example…the Holy Spirit prays for us. When our walls fall down, he’s there. When we pray stupid things, he intercedes. He is right there in the trenches with us. When we walk through this world of death and decay, God the Holy Spirit goes with us. We’ve not been abandoned in the midst of it. God’s attention is on us. He sees. He notices.

Verse 28 shows us that God the Father is working on our behalf. He is working all things towards the good of his people. He is sovereignly orchestrating the events of history, to lead them to eternity. So not only is God present with me, he is powerful to get things done. This is why we hope in him…he is the only one powerful enough to do this. He is the only solid wall. So God’s attention is on us, and God’s authority over the world is guiding our lives.

This great text ends by telling us what Jesus Christ, God the Son, has done for us. In Christ, we have been chosen. We have been invited to come to God. We are not neglected or abandoned. He invites us right to himself, not just for now, but for eternity. He has given us right standing (lit. justified). Declared us to be innocent of all sin. He destroyed the barrier of our sin, took it away, and then replaces it with his glory. This shows us that God’s affection is with us. His love chooses us, invites us, forgives us, and makes us like him.

Here, then, is the object of our hope! God the Spirit gives us his attention. God the Father leverages his authority for our good. God the Son lavishes us with affection. All of who God is is working for our hope.

Why don’t we hope in this world? It’s meaningless. It’s dying. It’s decaying. Why do we hope in God alone? Why wouldn’t we?!!! Every aspect of who he is, Father, Son and Spirit, is working towards our hope. We are called by God to be singularly focused on this hope because that’s what God has done. This hope that we have has required all of who he is. And it will demand all of who we are. Our singular focus is forward, towards being with him. And that has been God’s focus since the beginning. We walked with us in the Garden of Eden. He will be with us at the end. And everything in between is all about bringing us to himself.

This is who God is. This is what God has done. This is why we hope in him alone. How do we respond to that? What do you do when you realize this is all God has done for you?

STAND TOGETHER

- 31 What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? 32 Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? 33 Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. 34 Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

35 Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? 36 (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) 37 No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

We started this sermon by reading a verse out loud together about our hope being in God alone. Let’s read this final paragraph out loud together to declare why we hope in God alone.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

SONG