Hopeful Futures
Notes
Transcript
Well, it is that time of year again, where our young people are graduating! Not just finishing the minimal requirements our society has set upon schooling, but preparing to enter into their adulthood, spreading their wings, leaving the nests of Mom and Dad and discovering their own paths.
Many will leap ahead into amazing futures, and many will fall down into destructive patterns and despair.
I am not sure if in any of our lifetimes there has been a season like the one we are living in where a graduating class has to enter into such a bizarre and uncertain world.
This generation was born in the shadows of 911, terrorism and uncertainty, they have lived through one of the greatest recessions in American history, and now they graduate without the same fanfare as all others alive graduated.
Politicians control our world like never before, economies shut down, and a virus that noone really knows the truth about lurking all around.
The motto across America has been Senior Strong 2020 - but in reality these Seniors in High School (and college) would rather be celebrating then having to present strong!
Nonetheless, I would like to declare and instruct you Seniors today with a Word from Scripture given to the people of Israel.
Their situation was similar. They were in lockdown! They were in captivity in a foreign land away from their homes and culture. A land that had animosity toward their ways of life, their religion (which they had forsaken and is why they were in their situation), and their people - who were often targeted amongst all the captive peoples.
This is what the Lord said to them through the prophet Jeremiah.
11 For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope.
12 In those days when you pray, I will listen.
13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
This has probably been one of the most overused verses you have heard in your life.
It has probably been taken out of context, and thrown around for feel good moments.
The truth is, these words are very true, but they also come with an expectation!
Yes, that is right! God expects something from you!
As you enter into adulthood you will have to choose for yourselves if you will serve Jesus and follow His ways, or if you will follow after friends, the thinking of this world, and your own sinful desires!
Some of you have already played around with the things of God and you already know what it is to be burned by sin, some have chosen to follow God, some are on the fence.
Regardless of where you are today, know this, God is calling you to follow Him, and NOW IS THE TIME to make those choices in your life!
1. What is a Hopeful Future?
1. What is a Hopeful Future?
The first thing we see in this passage is the promise that God’s plans for our life are to give us a hopeful future!!!!
God is not the giver of bad things ---
17 Whatever is good and perfect is a gift coming down to us from God our Father, who created all the lights in the heavens. He never changes or casts a shifting shadow.
If God never changes or casts a shifting shadow, that means He cannot become the giver of bad...
It is the enemy - the devil - who wants to deceive and steal the good from your life...
10 The thief’s purpose is to steal and kill and destroy. My purpose is to give them a rich and satisfying life.
He does this by leading people astray to serve themselves and the ways of this world, deceiving us so we will ignore God’s ways and end up in his (the devil’s) destructive captivity.
This is exactly what happened to Israel - they were to busy pleasing themselves, their selfish desires, their sinful lusts with greed adultery, partying and false gods that the things they worshipped brought them to captivity.
This was never GOD’S PLAN!!!!
Do you think God wants you to experience emotional devastation through harmful relationships, sexual deviance, drug and alcohol abuse… yet these things are what bring us into poverty, divorce, pain, suicidal tendencies, depressions, and captivity to greater sin.
When we choose to follow after the idols and customs of our society, they bring us into bondage away from the plans God has for our lives!!!
His plan is HOPEFUL!!!
Hope is a powerful thing - it is a sense expectation of that which is good and a trust that it is coming...
God wants your future to be something to be desired!!!
This hopeful future is GOOD not evil, it is FREEDOM, BLESSING, PROVISION not disaster.
That may seem a little bit paradoxical when your graduation to adulthood took place in the middle of a global pandemic - or at least a seemingly one where economies, jobs, even the potential to go to college in the fall have all given way to fear and political abuse, and division.
NEVER FORGET - what GOD has in store for you IS GOOD not EVIL - if you discover that will be up to you and the path you choose!
2. What is the Path of a Hopeful Future?
2. What is the Path of a Hopeful Future?
It is so simple, and yet so many choose to ignore it!!!
Jesus said in:
6 Jesus told him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me.
It is choosing the path of JESUS CHRIST — THE ONLY WAY to the HOPEFUL FUTURE of God’s plans for your life.
Success is not fame, or being rich, or having everything materially your heart desired, but success is being fulfilled in your life through Godly relationships, family and the peace of knowing Christ.
Godly relationships, family, and peace can only be found by pursuing TRUTH, who is CHRIST!
12 In those days when you pray, I will listen.
13 If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me.
To pray is to commune with God through His Son JESUS!
To seek WHOLEHEARTEDLY
It is the pursuit of Christ, not riches, or fame or pleasure that will bring true fulfillment in your life!!!
Learn this secret now!!!
Too many an adult would say they sowed their wild oats to discover the destructiveness of their path, the heartache that it brought, the difficulty into relationships and family.
However, those who pursued Christ will tell you - life is not easy, but with Christ it is more than doable and fulfilling!
To pursue Christ with your whole heart is to seek to KNOW HIM, to read HIs WORD, to follow and obey what He has taught us in that WORD!!! To commune with Him in prayer, to experience Him through the church - HIS BODY - the family of GOD!
You can go off to college and pursue friends, fraternizing and fun - but setting Jesus as your greatest pursuit is where you will find your HOPEFUL FUTURE!!!
3. Christ Wants You to Find Your Hopeful Future
3. Christ Wants You to Find Your Hopeful Future
14 I will be found by you,” says the Lord. “I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land.”
IF you pursue me - you will find me!!!
I will be found by you, I will end captivity, I will restore your fortunes
If you look at the root word for FORTUNE hear it refers to wealth that is stolen in battle!!!
It is not indicative of AMOUNT, but what was - what has been taken away!!!
IF you are the conqueror you take away the wealth or possession of those you conquer, if you are the conquered you lose whatever you have...
How many adults have you seen in life lose it all!!
Their families in divorce, through drug or alcohol use, or sexual promiscuity… leading to destroyed families, lost wealth and jobs. etc.
Whether that was much or little...
Suicide is practiced by those who feel they have lost everything and have nothing more to lose or they have lost hope that it can ever be restored...
Those who come to that place in life have allowed their captivity to sin and the choices they made that brought them to captivity to control their ability to have faith and believe that GOD CAN RESTORE THEM...
The promise here is GOD RESTORES!!! Restores when we return to pursuing Him!
THE LESSON IS IF WE REMAIN IN PURSUIT OF GOD, we don’t have to lose our future in the first place.
Your adulthood’s true success will depend on your blessings/ fortunes remaining as you live victoriously over your spiritual enemy.
Don’t allow him to rob you and you win!!!
If he succeeded in robbing you - return to pursuing the Lord and be restored!
CONCLUSION
CONCLUSION
SO GRADUATES and any others listening this morning...
God’s design for your life was always a good one!!! His plan has always been hopeful - He is the author of GOOD GIFTS...
Your spiritual enemy wants to conquer you in battle and steal your future and fortune… he wants to deceive you into changing your pursuit from the truth of Christ to a focus on this world and its pleasures and treasures - but they will only bring you into captivity
If you pursue Christ with your whole heart, He promises to bring restoration and make your future bright...
The choice is yours, we have to each make it for ourselves...
THe future is hopeful when it is founded on JESUS!