So That We May Have Hope
Notes
Transcript
Prayer — Father I ask that you will soften our hearts and open our minds to understand Your word today and to apply it to our lives. We love You Father, Amen.
I don’t know how many of you make it a habit to read your Bible regularly but I would like to encourage you to do so. I want to encourage you to make it a lifelong habit. Many of you are out of work right now, and are stuck at home, and so now may be the best time for you to pick up the habit of reading God’s word. I know that’s not the case for everyone so even if you are busier now then you’ve ever been before, I would still encourage you to start reading God’s word every morning. Even if just a little. But don’t read it just to read it. Plans are great! I follow a reading plan, but don’t read just to check your box for the day. Even if you only read a little, make sure that when you read God’s word, you are asking yourself what God is trying to tell all of us in this passage. Notice I didn’t say to ask yourself what God is trying to tell just you, in the passage, I said ask what God is trying to tell everyone in the passage.
When starting off reading the Bible, many people will begin from the stance of “What is God specifically trying to tell me from this passage this morning,” and what we will do is, we will begin to put things into the text that God never intended to tell us. For example. Let’s say that you are a teenager and you have some friends text you and say they are sneaking out of the house and they are going to meet you at your house and for you to sneak out your window. You of course know you shouldn’t, but since you are still a teenager you play the prayer game, where you say to God, “Ok, God, I know I shouldn’t sneak out but my friends are lost, and I could lead them to Christ, and I know that’s what you want me to do, right? So I’m going to open my Bible and read the first verse I put my finger on, and you tell me what you want me to do. Ok?”… And you open your Bible and your finger lands on Acts 10:20
20 Get up, go downstairs, and go with them with no doubts at all, because I have sent them.”
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Boom, that’s an answered prayer if you’ve ever gotten one right? Or maybe you landed on Exodus 4:12
12 Now go! I will help you speak and I will teach you what to say.”
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So there you go, God is going to help you share the gospel with your lost friends. That’s got to be God’s answer right? Wrong! What if your finger had landed on Numbers 14:42
42 Don’t go, because the Lord is not among you and you will be defeated by your enemies.
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That sounds kind of scary. Or what about John 11:16
16 Then Thomas (called “Twin”) said to his fellow disciples, “Let’s go too so that we may die with him.”
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Not looking too good. But you probably wouldn’t like those answers, so you would probably say, I don’t think that worked, let me try again, and next time you lucked up and landed on 1 Samuel 1:17
17 Eli responded, “Go in peace, and may the God of Israel grant the request you’ve made of him.”
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or maybe 2 Samuel 7:3
3 So Nathan told the king, “Go and do all that is on your mind, for the Lord is with you.”
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You see why this method is so dangerous? Because when we are looking for something specific in the text before we come to the text, or if we try to say that God is using this text to speak to my specific situation, we will see things in the text that are not there. We will see what we WANT to see.
Now using that same example I can tell you that if that teenager’s dad opened the bible and put his finger on a verse, he would likely, because he is much wiser, first pull out google and do a search real quick, and then feel that God was speaking to him by directing him to Deuteronomy 5:30
30 Go and tell them: Return to your tents.
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And I know I used an example of a teenager sneaking out, but we as adults are all guilty of the same thing. We find ourselves in different situations, but we still look for that mystical element, that somehow we are getting a direct answer to our specific prayers through God’s word, that truthfully had nothing to do with our current situation. Maybe you don’t open the bible and just drop your finger on a verse, I sure hope you don’t, but we will still read a verse that was part of our scheduled reading and suddenly see something that seems to speak directly to our situation. And many times it will be because we, again, WANTED to see it. We saw something, and our brains immediately made a connection between what we read and what we are going through in life.
Now let me say that’s often a good thing. It is good that our minds can make connections between what we read and our lives. That is a very important skill. It is the basis of what’s called application. But we must be able to know when it’s a good thing to make a connection between the text and our circumstances and when it’s not a good thing. And I’m going to do my very best to explain exactly when you should and when you shouldn’t try to make those connections in this sermon.
But before we get into the details I want to share with you one very important verse. It’s Romans 15:4
4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.
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Let me read that again, For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Paul wrote these words to some of the first believers in Christ who lived in Rome. He was referring to all of the Old Testament writings. He was referring to all of the Scriptures. Paul knew that the Scriptures were not just man’s understanding of God, or man’s interpretation of God, but were the very words of God Himself, just like the apostle Peter said in 2 Peter 1:20-21
20 Above all, you know this: No prophecy of Scripture comes from the prophet’s own interpretation, 21 because no prophecy ever came by the will of man; instead, men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.
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So all of the Scriptures came through men, but they spoke as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit, meaning that God is the true author of the Scriptures. 2 Timothy 3:16 says:
16 All Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, for training in righteousness,
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So all of our Scriptures are inspired by God Himself. God gave us all of the Scriptures we have. And everything He gave us is profitable for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting, and for training in righteousness. I heard a teacher sum it up like this:
Scripture teaches you
What’s right
What’s wrong
How to get right
How to stay right
So I hope that was helpful to you, but back to what Paul said to the Romans, or better put, what God said to the Romans through Paul in Romans 15:4
4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.
So God is telling us here, why He chose what He chose to include in the Scriptures. Everything in the Scriptures, God specifically chose for a purpose, and He tells us exactly why He chose what He chose. Everything that was written down was written down for our instruction, aka to teach us,
SO THAT we may have hope through endurance and through encouragement!!
The first part says everything God gave us in His word is for our instruction. That means that we can learn something from all of it. It’s all meaningful. There is something to learn from every page. And secondly everything God gave us in His word is to give us hope through endurance and through encouragement. So let’s look at that really quickly.
Romans 15:4 says that all of God’s word was written down so that we may have hope. That means that every sermon I preach should give you hope. That does not mean that I should only preach on passages that I BELIEVE will give you hope. There is a BIG BIG difference. My goal as a pastor is not to only say things from the pulpit that I Believe will give you hope. God didn’t say “For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, but only speak publicly about the parts that give you hope through endurance and encouragement. He said it all is to give us hope. What that means is, every passage of Scripture is given to us in order to give us hope, therefore it’s not my job to try and determine what I believe will give you hope and only preach that from the pulpit, my job is to determine how every passage of scripture gives us hope and preach that. I am to preach all of Scripture, not just what I think will make you feel good.
And that leads us to the next thing we need to take away from this. Giving someone hope, is not just trying to make them feel good. The two ways God says that His word will give us hope, is not by promising to shield us from all pain, and sickness, and death, which is what many false gospel pastors will do. God said that the way His word will give us hope is through endurance and encouragement.
Now when do you need endurance? You need endurance when life gets hard. When you get tired. When you get weak. When you need extra strength and help. That’s when you need endurance. And so we need endurance for the entire time that we are on this earth. This life is hard, from beginning to end. Does it have its good times? Absolutely! It has its great times! Times that are absolutely awesome! But it also has its awful times! Its horrible times! Its excruciating times! But don’t think endurance here just means strength to make it through hard times, endurance here is primarily talking about your faithfulness to God. Not turning your back on Him. Not walking away from the faith. Not giving into temptation, but resisting the devil so that he will flee from you, and remaining faithful to God even when the world seems to be falling in around you and when temptation seems to be stronger than you can resist.
God has given us examples of those who have gone before us who have experienced incredibly difficult lives and have suffered greatly, but who remained faithful to God and are now experiencing the fruit of their labor. And that should give us hope to endure to the end of this life, knowing that no matter how long we live, our time here on earth will seem like it never happened in light of eternity. And God didn’t just give us examples of faithful men and women in the past and say, “Now they did it, so I expect you to do it.” No remember what He said, that whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. Through encouragement. God constantly gave us words of encouragement to keep going, to never give up, to never abandon Him.
This is so important, I don’t want you to miss this. This tells us God’s heart. Think about it. God chose what to include in the Scriptures and what not to include in the Scriptures. He had no size limit on how small or how big His revealed word would be. But everything He chose to give us He chose for a specific reason. To instruct us so that we may have hope through endurance and encouragement. God is a God that in His heart of hearts, deep down in His soul, wants to give us hope. He wants deep in His soul to encourage us. He wants us to endure, why? So that we will spend eternity with Him forever as His children. That’s the end goal. That’s what He want’s. He wants to spend eternity with us. So with that as His goal, what kind of God is He? What does He do?
He loves us and as a good good Father, chooses to give us His words to teach us everything we need to know about how to come to Him in faith, and He gives us every word of encouragement and instruction and story and example for us to learn from, be inspired by, and cling to, so that we can endure the hard times that we all are going to face and not give up, knowing the future He has in store for us forever as one family, and not just in the future, but starting right now.
This is what God continues to say after that verse. Romans 15:4-6
4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures. 5 Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, according to Christ Jesus, 6 so that you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ with one mind and one voice.
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So Now may the God who gives endurance and encouragement grant you endurance and encouragement, and grant you to live in peace with one another.
Now we have gotten a long way away from where we were earlier about how to determine when God is trying to speak directly to you from the text and when He’s not, so let me guide you through the process of how to actually study God’s word. It is a very simple process that I want you to learn to do well.
First of all, let me say, God is ALWAYS trying to speak to you through His word, so please don’t misunderstand me when I say that. But sometimes, like in the example I gave you earlier about the teenager wanting to sneak out, we will misinterpret what God is trying to tell us, and we don’t want to do that. So how should we study the Bible. This is how.
Pray
What did this passage mean then?
How do I apply this to my life now?
Pray
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First we pray. Because without the Holy Spirit’s guidance, we are hopelessly lost, so let me say that first.
Second, we ask ourselves what was the original meaning when God first gave His words to His people? “What did this passage mean then?”
Third, we ask ourselves “How does that apply to me today?”
And Fourth, we pray that God will help us remember and live according to what He has shown us.
So let’s walk through a passage to see how this works. Now keep in mind, when I study the Bible, I have a very simple method that I use. I have a blue pen with a very very fine point on it and a ruler because I have very shaky hands, and as I read the Bible I underline anything that stands out to me. Anything at all. Maybe it’s a sentence that inspires me. Maybe it’s a sentence that convicts me. Maybe it’s a sentence that confuses me. It could be anything, but as I’m reading slowly I’m underlining anything that stands out. When I get done with a chapter or two, whatever my daily reading is, usually just one or two chapters because I use the F-260 reading plan by Robby Gallaty with my discipleship group, I will go back and look over all the verses that I underlined and I will pick one to write about for the morning.
Let’s look at a passage from my reading last week, and I will show you how I do it. Let’s look at 1 Samuel 16:1-13. Now Samuel is a prophet of God and He has previously anointed Israel’s first King Saul. Saul was a man who would not repent of his sins. Every time Saul sinned, and God confronted his sin through Samuel, Saul would make excuses and justify himself, so God rejected him as king and now has told Samuel to go and anoint the next king of Israel, and that’s where we pick up. Now as I’m reading this, make a mental note of anything that just really stands out to you, now obviously it will be very difficult because I’m going to keep reading all the way through, whereas if you were doing this at home by yourself you could stop and underline anything that stood out to you, but I’m going to ask that you don’t try and do that right now, just listen and pay attention and see if anything in particular jumps out at you. 1 Samuel 16:1-13 Are you ready? Ok listen carefully and try to follow the storyline in your mind.
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long are you going to mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go. I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem because I have selected a king from his sons.” 2 Samuel asked, “How can I go? Saul will hear about it and kill me!” The Lord answered, “Take a young cow with you and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.’ 3 Then invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will let you know what you are to do. You are to anoint for me the one I indicate to you.” 4 Samuel did what the Lord directed and went to Bethlehem. When the elders of the town met him, they trembled and asked, “Do you come in peace?” 5 “In peace,” he replied. “I’ve come to sacrifice to the Lord. Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.” Then he consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice. 6 When they arrived, Samuel saw Eliab and said, “Certainly the Lord’s anointed one is here before him.” 7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.” 8 Jesse called Abinadab and presented him to Samuel. “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either,” Samuel said. 9 Then Jesse presented Shammah, but Samuel said, “The Lord hasn’t chosen this one either.” 10 After Jesse presented seven of his sons to him, Samuel told Jesse, “The Lord hasn’t chosen any of these.” 11 Samuel asked him, “Are these all the sons you have?” “There is still the youngest,” he answered, “but right now he’s tending the sheep.” Samuel told Jesse, “Send for him. We won’t sit down to eat until he gets here.” 12 So Jesse sent for him. He had beautiful eyes and a healthy, handsome appearance. Then the Lord said, “Anoint him, for he is the one.” 13 So Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the presence of his brothers, and the Spirit of the Lord came powerfully on David from that day forward. Then Samuel set out and went to Ramah.
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Now I hope something jumped out at you while I was reading that passage. Now what stood out to you may not be what stood out to me, but regardless of what verse stood out to you, you should follow the same steps I’m about to take with the verse that stood out to me.
So let’s walk through the steps. After we’ve prayed, we ask ourselves what was the meaning of this passage then? What was God trying to teach us way back then when God first wrote these words to us? We don’t want to just read it and try to make connections to our lives now.
A quick example of that would be if you are trying to make a difficult decision of whether or not to help pay for your youngest child’s college. And the reason the decision is so difficult is because you didn’t help pay for your older children’s college, and you are worried about how the older children will respond if you do. So then you read this passage and you see that Jesse’s oldest child was not chosen, nor were any of his other sons, but it was his youngest son that was chosen to be king, and so you immediately think that God must be trying to speak to you through this passage and tell you that it’s ok to pay for your youngest kid’s tuition. I’m sure I don’t have to say this, but that is not AT ALL what God was trying to teach the Israelites. God explained exactly why He chose the youngest instead of the other brothers. And by the way, it also had nothing to do with the fact that he was the youngest, it didn’t matter how old he was compared to his siblings. Let’s look at it. 1 Samuel 16:7
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
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Now I believe that this whole chapter, about God choosing the next king, and it not being based on status, or physical appearance, but instead was based on the heart, is the main point that God is trying to teach the Israelites in this passage. God said that the heart is more important than physical ability, status, or anything else. God doesn’t desire the most qualified person according to skill. What He desires the most is that your heart be completely devoted to Him. He doesn’t desire our skill, He desires our heart.
So only after you read a passage and take away from it what God was trying to teach everyone when He first gave it to them, then and only then can you take that and try and apply it to your life now.
So again, after we pray, we first determine, what did it mean then, and then we ask, how does that apply to me? So how does that apply to me today?
Well, what did we say it meant then? It meant that God doesn’t look at the outward appearance, He looks at the heart. He wants us to have a pure heart of love and devotion to him. So how does that apply to me? He wants me to have a pure heart of love and devotion to him. This life presents no obstacles to God, only the devotion of our hearts matter. He can do anything He wants, with anyone He wants, and what He wants is our hearts.
And so then we pray that God will help us remember what He taught us in His word, and that we will do our part in memorizing His word, maybe we will take that verse and try this week to memorize it, 1 Sam 16:7
7 But the Lord said to Samuel, “Do not look at his appearance or his stature because I have rejected him. Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
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Or maybe you just decide to memorize the past part of that verse… “Humans do not see what the Lord sees, for humans see what is visible, but the Lord sees the heart.”
And then we pray that God will help us apply it to our lives and live according to it. We actually take steps to purify our hearts and strengthen our devotion to God. We will ask God to show us any sins that we are holding on to and haven’t let go of, and we will turn from those sins, and we will take joy in knowing that God loves us and has a beautiful future for us, and He is here with us and so we draw close to Him and share our love for Him with others.
And that’s how you know when you should and when you shouldn’t apply what you read directly to your life. Are you trying to apply some meaning to the text that is relevant to your life that has nothing to do with why God gave us that passage in the first place, or are you trying to apply what you learned from the text that you are convinced, that IS why God gave us that passage in the first place. Are you trying to apply that to your life? Because that is exactly what we are supposed to be doing.
So how should we study God’s word?
Pray
What did this passage mean then?
How do I apply this to my life now?
Pray
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We pray.
We ask, “What did this passage mean then?”
And then, “How do I apply this to my life now?”
and then we pray again and ask God to help us do that.
And remember that:
4 For whatever was written in the past was written for our instruction, so that we may have hope through endurance and through the encouragement from the Scriptures.
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Everything God gave us in His word is to give us hope. So if you study a passage and what you believe God was trying to teach us when He first gave it to us leaves us hopeless, then don’t give up, just know that there is something you’re not seeing yet. Because the reason He gave us what He gave us was to give us hope. He wants us to have hope, He wants us to be encouraged, He wants us to endure to the end. He doesn’t want us to be disillusioned and think that nothing bad will ever happen to us if we follow Him, He has told us the opposite. Jesus said in John 16:33
33 I have told you these things so that in me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world.”
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Did you hear that? He told us that we will suffer in this world, but to be courageous! He has conquered the world. I don’t even have to go through the Bible study steps to explain that one for you. He wants you to have courage, to not be afraid, to know that even though He won’t shield you from suffering, He will be with you through your suffering, and that He has conquered the world and death and He has an amazing future awaiting you on the other side. He has prepared a place for you inside a golden city that is 1,400 miles long, 1,400 miles wide, and 1,400 miles tall, where He and the Father are in the middle of the city waiting for you, and He will never let you suffer again after you leave this world and run into His arms, and that He, Himself will wipe the tears from your eyes. Why? Because He is a God of encouragement, and a God of hope, and a God of love, and He loves you!
Have you made that decision to follow Him? Have you made that decision to surrender your heart to Him in love and devotion, because that’s what He wants. He’s not concerned with what’s on the outside. He doesn’t care how much money you have or don’t have. He doesn’t care what color you are, or if you are a man or a woman, a Senior citizen or a child. What He cares about is your heart. If you have not made the decision to follow Him as your God and obey Him, and love Him, and follow Him, then please make that decision right now. It is not a one time decision that you make today and cash in on when you die. It is a one time decision that you make today and live out until you die. God said that
9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation.
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I beg you to please make that decision to turn from sin and turn to Him as your Lord today. And when you do, I would ask that you would let us know. If you are on our live.YatesvilleBaptist.com website watching right now, I ask that you to either click on the request prayer button, or click on the button that says that you commit your life to Jesus, and tell us who you are and where you’re from and give us your email address so we can follow up with you and help you grow as a disciple of Jesus Christ who will turn around and make more disciples of Jesus Christ. If you are not on our live website then just email us at YatesvilleBaptistChurch@gmail.com.
I want you to know that I love you and I’m praying for you, and I am thankful for you, but there is no one in the world who has ever loved your more, nor ever will love you more than the one who made you, gave you existence, and died for you, in order to spend eternity with you forever in a perfect world as your loving Father. God loves you so much, let’s pray together.
Father, I love You so much, and I thank You for being so good to us. I thank You that You gave us so much of Your word and that You gave it to us in order to give us hope and to encourage us so that we would not give up. We could never ever thank You enough for Your love for us. Father, I pray for all of your children who have been adopted by You into Your family that they would be encouraged through studying Your word and that they will endure until the end. Father, I also pray for those who are deciding for the first time to give their lives in surrender to You as their King and have made the decision to turn from sin. Father I pray that they genuinely give their heart to You and follow You for the rest of their lives, and that they would reach out to us so that we can follow up with them and help them grow as Your disciples. Father, We love You, and we thank You for Your never ending love for us. In Jesus’ Holy and precious name we pray, Amen.