The Power Found in a Life of Hope
Notes
Transcript
Introduction
Introduction
Faith — Paul is thankful...because he has heard of the great faith of the believers in Colossi. He had heard of their great belief in the truth of the Gospel and great trust in what Jesus had done for them on the cross.
But his gratitude was to God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. I want to make mention of that here simply for the fact that the Lordship of Jesus over our life is a theme we will see repeated in the book of Colossians. Jesus is Lord!
Love — Paul was thankful because he had heard of the great love these believers had for one another.They loved with a selfless, sacrificial kind of love that put the needs of others ahead of their own.
Hope — Paul ties it all together when he makes the statement that the great faith and love found in their hearts was there because of the hope they had found in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith and love sprang forth from the hope they had in Jesus Christ.
Paul takes time to explain what he means by this in verses 3-8. Paul was thankful because they had faith in God and loved well…a faith and love produced in them by the hope they found in their relationship with God through Christ.
This is how we are supposed to live our life as well…by faith…with indiscriminate, unconditional love for one another…as well as passionate love for Christ…all because of the hope we have in our relationship with God through Christ. Is that you? Is that who you are?
Faith — Faith is the obvious first step. The first thing we see Paul grateful to God for in the life of the Colossian believers is their faith in Christ.
This hope was a sure thing for thee believers and it is for us as well
Our goal this morning —
I am curious this morning…when people look at you would they say the same things Paul said about the believers in Colossi? Are you walking by faith? How do you answer that question? What are you having faith in God for right now?
Faith — Belief plus trust which leads to a changed life. These folks believed the truth of the Gospel…placed their trust in Christ and were changed…the old was gone and the new had come. They were new people…children of God…infilled with the Holy Spirit and in relationship with God through Christ.
That all of us would walk out of here today understanding what hope is
Belief and trust in Jesus is what turns one from a sinner to saint. Our faith in Christ changes our entire identity. Without faith you can never have a new life.
All of us walk out of here understanding the power of hope
Love — The change produced by their faith was demonstrated in their great love for one another. Paul is also grateful because he has heard how well they love each other inside the church. They loved one another sacrificially and indiscriminately. These people were full of love and it came bursting forth in their relationships with one another.
The Colossian church was living by faith and it led them to demonstrate such by an outpouring of love for one another. They were known for loving one another like crazy…they considered the needs of others ahead of their own…forgave one another…extended mercy easily…they served one another…kept no record of wrongs toward one another…they loved fiercely. Is that you? Do you love like that? Are we loving each other like that?
All of us walk out of here understanding how our life could be different if we walk in the power of hope
So let’s begin by tackling the question, “What is hope?”
This is the way it should be inside every church…love should be evident everywhere…we should all
Hope — The faith and love of the church was rooted in the hope they found in the truth of the Gospel.
If you are struggling to walk by faith or love as you should there is good news this morning…the same hope that fueled the faith and love of the Colossians is available to us today.
Let’s take a look at hope
Hope — Hope is the expectation of good things both now and forever…and this particular hope was secured for the future through Christ.
Hope
Hope
Hope — “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.”
Hope — “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.” I have often said that hope is the expectation of good things to come. And we know in Christ that those expectations are reserved, protected and assured. Hope is one of the most powerful things in this world…and often the most elusive as well
"A young man once found a five-dollar bill on the street," says William Feather, a well-known writer. "From that time on he never lifted his eyes when walking. In the course of years he accumulated 29,519 buttons, 54,172 pins, twelve cents, a bent back, and a miserly disposition. He lost the glory of the sunlight, the sheen of the stars, the smiles of friends, tree-blossoms in the spring, the blue skies, and the entire joy of living."
to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial
You fail to enjoy the hope found in your salvation if you fail to keep your eyes on the eternal.
Hope — “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.” I have often said that hope is the expectation of good things to come. And we know in Christ that those expectations are reserved, protected and assured.
I have often said that hope is the expectation of good things to come. And we know in Christ that those expectations are reserved, protected and assured.
In effect this man had lost his hope…his ability to look forward
But today we are looking primarily at the power of hope and how that power changes changes our life.
The power of hope is to live in light of the good things to come
The young man in the story had lost his ability to look forward…failed to believe there might be something better to come…so he simply kept his eyes on what was right in front of him.
We are often guilty of the same type of tragic mistake. We keep our eyes on the present…on our current circumstances…on the pain of the moment…and fail to realize the purpose and power of our life.
Hope is the ability to keep our eye on the prize even while paying the price for a faithful, holy life.
But when we are looking at the power of hope in our life and how that power changes us it is important to understand hope is the ability to look at present circumstances in light of our future assured good.
Hope is the ability to keep our eye on the prize even while paying the price to obey God and live for Him. Paul write of this in Paul is teaching us that the weight of the eternal glory far outweighs the weight of any temporary cost or suffering we endure on our way to procurement of that glory for our God.
For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.
So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
We sin and keep our eyes on our sin rather than on the cross and forgiveness found in Christ. We get old and begin to fear death instead of putting our eyes on heaven and the promises of an eternal home in Christ.
Paul is teaching us that the weight of the eternal glory far outweighs the weight of any temporary suffering we endure.
Today I want to focus on how hope empowers us to live in right relationship with God and others and brings glory to God…how the power of hope affects the moment by moment decisions of our life.
The Colossians were able to live a powerful life of faith and love because they lived their life immersed in the power of hope…in the confidence that how their life mattered for eternity.
These believers lived
For our momentary light affliction is producing for us an absolutely incomparable eternal weight of glory.
So we do not focus on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
Do you live your life with an eternal perspective? Your life will be completely different based upon how you answer that question.
Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 295). New York: United Bible Societies.
Do you live your life with an eternal perspective? Your life will be completely different based upon how you answer that question.
Hope —
Example — Do we live in light of the fact God has had a plan for us since before creation and intends to accomplish that plan in our life one way or the other.
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself for her
to make her holy, cleansing her with the washing of water by the word.
Example — Do we as husbands realize that our wife will one day stand before God and be judged for her faithfulness to Him. This will be an occasion where she might glorify God by the faithfulness of her life…her Christlikeness and faithfulness to God on earth will bring Him glory in that moment! Are you doing all you can to make her life as glorious as it can be?
We are called to love our wives as Christ loved the church…and He loved the church to death…we are called to sacrificial love and service to our wife. And through this sacrificial love God uses us to sanctify our her…makes her more like Jesus.
Are you sacrificing, serving, blessing and loving your wife with this kind of future in mind? With an eternal perspective?
You can find great motivation to love your wife sacrificially when you have her judgement day in mind…when you realize that she will have occasion to glorify God by her spiritual beauty and faithfulness in eternity…and that you are part of the process of her spiritual beautification.
This is what it means to live in the power of hope…live in light of the expectation of good things to come…to realize all you do has an eternal weight…an eternal glory…you can expect good things for your wife and yourself as you sacrifice to love well.
it is the hope…expectation of a future with Christ in heaven…an eternity with Him
Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord.
For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body.
But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.
Example — Wives do you realize that your husband will stand before God someday and be judged for his faithfulness to God as well? Are you making it easy or difficult for him to fulfill his role as Godly leader in the home? As the spiritual head of your house?
You are called to support, honor, respect and love your husband....to submit to his Godly leadership in the home. As you encourage him to lead well, you are a part of God’s work in his life both for now and eternity
Someday he is going to give an account for how he led his home…are you ready to be an audience to that?
The power to love your husband well is found in the power of our hope in Christ..one day your husband’s faithfulness will be for the glory of God and you can be a part of that.
To know you will have a part in his success...one day your husband’s faithfulness will be for the glory of God and you were a part of that.
Example — Do we as parents live with eternity in mind? Do we parent in the power of hope? Every tired moment in which we are tasked to lead, discipline and correct can be a moment lived in the power hope…an expectation of some future good for them… not just a future good on earth…a life outside of prison! But, a future good in eternity…a day when they will enter heaven and give account of their life…when they will stand before God give Him glory…when they might hear the words “well done.”
We can live the whole of our life empowered by hope…with the expectation that every act of obedience to Christ matters…that everything we do in our life and in the lives of others is for the glory of God…that every action and word has eternal impact.
Everything we say, think or do in this life can become an eternal treasure…something to be enjoyed with Christ forever. This is what Jesus was talking about when He told the disciples to lay up treasures in heaven.
“Don’t store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.
But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves don’t break in and steal.
For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Hope will strengthen our faith…it will increase our love…just as it did for the Colossian church of Paul’s day.
The Colossians lived their life immersed in hope and it changed everything. They had powerful faith in God and loved like crazy because they knew they knew they belonged to God and every action for His glory was a treasure to be opened in eternity to come.
This Explain a Lot!
This Explain a Lot!
This is why Satan was doing everything he could to rob these believers of their hope. The heretical teachers were doing all they could to steal the hope of the Colossian Christians so their faith would be weakened…so they would be discouraged to love.
Satan is always devising ways to rob us of our hope…steal our expectations of things to come…to make us think nothing we do really matter…not for now or eternity.
Queen concludes their Bohemian Rhapsody…a song about a man who killed someone and sold his soul to the devil…with the words...Nothing really matters, Anyone can see, Nothing really matters, Nothing really matters to me...Any way the wind blows.
This is how Satan would prefer that we live…a meaningless life where nothing really matters....with two eyes firmly fixed on today with no thought tomorrow. If the enemy can keep us nearsighted he knows he can keep us depressed, angry and defeated because nothing really matters.
Any way the wind blows.
Satan desires that we would live solely in light of today. If the enemy can keep us nearsighted he knows he can keep us depressed, angry and defeated because nothing really matters.
Paul reminds the Colossians that there is hope for the future and it is reserved (protected and assured) for them in heaven. Nothing can take it away. Once we are saved we are saved! Our expectations for the future are secure. Now everything that we do between now and then matters both now and forever.
But it absolutely drives Satan crazy when believers live immersed in the hope of heaven begin to live in the power of that hope…begin to live in the light of eternity…he will do all he can to get us sidetracked.
He will do all he can to keep us selfish so we neglect to love and support our spouse…keep us tired so we don’t want to correct and guide our child…
We cannot allow the enemy to rob us of our birthright…rob us of the hope that is ours in Jesus Christ...We must guard our heart against those who would attempt to steal our hope!
We hear the truth of the Gospel…we have faith and are saved…the hope is the fuel in our engine that keeps us loving and living what we say we believe. We must guard our heart against those who would attempt to steal our hope!
Conclusions
Conclusions
“Our hope is built on nothing less than Jesus blood and righteousness…I dare not trust the sweetest frame but wholly lean on Jesus name. On Christ the solid rock I stand…all other ground is sinking sand…all other ground is sinking sand.”
Hope — “to look forward with confidence to that which is good and beneficial.” The expectation of good things to come
Power of Hope — To live in light of the good things to come
The hope found in the truths that Jesus took our sins on the cross…that God loves us…that we will live forever…that what we do now matters for eternity…can change our life…we must simply determine that we are going to live in light of these treasures rather than the counterfeit ones the enemy tantalizes us with on a regular basis.
How are you building your life…are you simply building for the necessities of today or for the glory of tomorrow?
We get tired, selfish, frustrated, greedy and full of pride…these are simple realities of life…we are prone to sin…our hearts are prone to wander and leave the God we love. We are susceptible to the weariness of body and soul.
How hope changes our life — But if we turn our eyes to Jesus and allow ourselves to be immersed in the hope we have in Him…everything changes…We remember we are saved from our sin and have a home in heaven…we remember everything we do matters both for now and eternity…We can have faith. We can love. We can be who we really are in Christ.
We can have faith. We can love. We can be who we really are in Christ.
