A Present Hope

1 Peter 3:14–16 KJV 1900

14 But and if ye suffer for righteousness’ sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; 15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

How can I be happy during suffering?

How can I experience terror and not b afraid?

How can I have a hope to talk about when in a bad situation?

Over the last few weeks, I was face with a question of where people get there hope when facing a crisis. How does it come into being in sometimes very difficult times.

Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Faith has a significant connection to hope.

Who’s hope is it?

Everyone has personal hopes.

Hope can be

++Feelings

++Desires

++Expectations

Is faith connected to our hopes?

Was Job’s faith connected to his

++Hope of deliverance?

++Hope of provision?

Job 1:20–21 KJV 1900

20 Then Job arose, and rent his mantle, and shaved his head, and fell down upon the ground, and worshipped, 21 And said, Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, And naked shall I return thither: The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; Blessed be the name of the Lord.

Job 2:10 KJV 1900

10 But he said unto her, Thou speakest as one of the foolish women speaketh. What? shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Can human Hope and Godly faith be reconciled?

Human Hope

++Is conditional _Where I am_

++Is situation _What is happening_

The force of faith is

++Not connected to human desires

++Not connected to our wants

++Connected to a hope greater than our own

The Lexham Bible Dictionary Hope

HOPE 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.

Biblical Hope rest on

++The trustworthiness of God

++Is not ours but his hope in us

Ephesians 1:15–21 KJV 1900

15 Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, 16 Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; 17 That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: 18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, 19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power, 20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, 21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

God’s Hope is that you have

++The spirit of wisdom

++The spirit of revelation

++Understand the calling of God

++Understand what His calling means

This is Hope

A Hope that is Present

++In the midst if life’s chalenges

++When life is hard

A Present Hope is not blind to life’s realities.

Romans 8:13–14 KJV 1900

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. 14 For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

There is a battle rage if within in us between the flesh and spirit.

The War Within

++Life vrs Death

++Conformity vrs Transformation

++Control vrs Submission

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 KJV 1900

19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Rarely do you see Heaven and Earth agree.

Moses declares from a place of Agreement

++Heavenly Record

++Earthly Declaration

Moses declares extreme choices

++Life - Death

++Blessings - Cursing

The choice belongs to us

We are caught in the middle of what seems like an easy decision.

Romans 8:13 KJV 1900

13 For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

We are not the first. We will not be the last. For this is the plight of all men. We are stuck in the streams of normal with a burning passion for greatness and significance.

Your Choice will impact the conditions in which you live.

It will have an impact

++On you

++Your Family

++Your Effectiveness

Choose Life

John 1:4 KJV 1900

4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

This is what made Jesus Different

Jesus was

++Not just alive

++Not just living

++A beacon of Life

In Him was life by nature

John 5:26 KJV 1900

26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

1 John 5:12 KJV 1900

12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

John 6:47 KJV 1900

47 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.

A Weary Reality

++A Fallen world

++A Hostile climate

++A death obsessed society

For if you live by the flesh, you shall die...

A Present Hope is not blind to life’s realities.

A Present Hope is not insensitive to what we face.

Hebrews 4:15 KJV 1900

15 For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin.

A Present Hope is not blind to life’s realities.

A Present Hope is not insensitive to what we face.

A Present Hope looks to Jesus

Hebrews 2:8–9 KJV 1900

8 Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him. 9 But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.

Because of Christ we have Hope

Hebrews 11:36–12:2 KJV 1900

36 And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: 37 They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; 38 (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. 39 And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: 40 God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect. 1 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, 2 Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Jesus’s faith was in the Hope of God.

The hope of God

++Was his motivation

++Was his Joy

Somebody here need to know God’s hope.

God invested in a world

++Without guarantees

++With only a Hope

John 3:16 KJV 1900

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.