Hope for a Hopeless World

What is my intent? To give hope

What are the obstacles? The things we hope in fail us

What is the plan? To show why we should hope in God.

What is the result? We can face anything. We can rejoice at all times. We can share hope with others.

Introduction:

The news this week was not good. Protesters overran the capital. Covid-19 deaths continue.

Is there hope? The world thinks so.

1. The World Hopes

A. In People

Website: 15 Pictures telling why you should still have hope for our world.

15 Pictures Telling Why You Should Still Have Hope For Our World (lifehack.org)

teaching holding baby for mom in his class

man walking is dog on a wheelchair

man helping an older lady with her bags

These are great! Wonderful!

Humanity says that people are intrinsically good. But if that were true these pictures wouldn’t be unusual, they would be so common as to not be noteworthy.

But we could show hundreds of pictures of the opposite, child abuse, mistreated animals and old people alone and neglected.

Pictures that tug at our heart-strings don’t give hope.

People are at best limited in what they can do and at worst, part of the problem.

B. In Technology

“Technology is Our Hope to Manage Health Risks of COVID-19”

Technology is Our Hope to Manage Health Risks of COVID-19 (kippra.or.ke)

One area where people are hoping technology will help us is AI - Artificial Intelligence. The hope for AI include:

Aviation - flying including taking off and landing airplanes

Big data research - studying problems requiring massive calculations of data

Customer management systems - AI directing your calls, giving you information, sending a technician

Education - an AI tutor for each student to give what each student needs

Finance - assisting you in managing your finances

Hospitals and medicine - monitor and regulate blood sugar for diabetes

Self-driving vehicles

Sensors - turning on lights when you enter a room, help park cars, stop a car to prevent a crash

The dangers:

Invasion of privacy

Self-crashing vehicles

Loss of skills such as basic math, reading a map,

Discrimination based on data machines gather and analyze. Not getting a job because of social networking posts

Autonomous weapons - drones

Social manipulation - people believe what they see in the news and on social media, even if it isn’t true.

Technology is helpful but not something hopeful. It can even be dangerous!

C. In Education

Education is our only hope

Education is our only hope (jamaicaobserver.com)

Critical Race Theory

Critical race theory is the view that law is inherently racist and that race is a social construct that exists to maintain elite interests. It began in 1987 as a reworking of critical legal theory on race issues. As the word "critical" suggests, both are rooted in critical theory, a Marxist social philosophy which argues that social problems are influenced and created more by societal structures and cultural assumptions than by individual and psychological factors. Critical race theory - Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_race_theory

Education depends upon the educator who communicates a bias. The worst is passed on and amplified.

D. In Science

Lack of real hope for a better life in this world is a heavy chain weighing down, suffocating and deeply scarring the masses of humanity, including the youth who are concentrated in the ghettos and barrios of this country as well as its overflowing torture chamber prisons. And the extreme individualism promoted throughout this society, the obsessive focus on “the self,” has reinforced the heavy lid on the sights of people, obscuring their ability to recognize the possibility of a radically different and better world, beyond the narrow and confining limits of this system, with all its very real horrors. These are the major questions I am going to be speaking to here.

Hope For Humanity On A Scientific Basis

Bob Avakian - Hope For Humanity On A Scientific Basis—Breaking with Individualism, Parasitism and American Chauvinism (revcom.us) https://revcom.us/avakian/hope-for-humanity-on-a-scientific-basis/index.html

Science is helpful but not something to hope in. Science today tells us science 200 years ago was wrong! What will they say about our science 200 years from now.

2. The Christian’s hope is in God

Who God is.

He is the only true God. Deut 32:39, Isaiah 44:6

Isaiah 44:6 ESV

6 Thus says the Lord, the King of Israel and his Redeemer, the Lord of hosts: “I am the first and I am the last; besides me there is no god.

He is the creator. Genesis 1:1

He is the God of all hope. Romans 15:13

Romans 15:13 ESV

13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.

What God is like.

He is infallible. Numbers 23:9; John 14:6; Malachi 3:6; James 1:13

God is incapable of lying Num. 23:9

Jesus Christ is the way, the truth, and the life John 14:6

He is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. "For I am the LORD, I change not" Mal. 3:6

God can’t be tempted by sin and tempts no one to sin. James 1:13

James 1:13 ESV

13 Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am being tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself tempts no one.

He is holy. Leviticus 11:45; 1 Peter 1:16

He is all-powerful. Jeremiah 32:17

Jeremiah 32:17 ESV

17 ‘Ah, Lord God! It is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm! Nothing is too hard for you.

What God does.

He loves. John 3:16

He saves. Romans 5:6-11

He cares. 1 Peter 5:7; Matthew 11:28; Revelation 21:4

Revelation 21:4 ESV

4 He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

3. Our Hopeful lives

We can see the future God has for us. Hebrews 11:1

Hebrews 11:1 ESV

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

We can face anything. 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

2 Corinthians 4:16–18 ESV

16 So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. 17 For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, 18 as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.

We can rejoice at all times. Romans 12:12; 15:13

Romans 12:12 ESV

12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.

We can share hope with others. 1 Peter 3:15

1 Peter 3:15 ESV

15 but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being prepared to make a defense to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you; yet do it with gentleness and respect,

We can be confident because with God all things are possible. Matthew 19:26

Matthew 19:26 ESV

26 But Jesus looked at them and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

What is your “impossible” today? It is possible with God! This is our hope!

Hope is confidence in God, “whose goodness and mercy are to be relied on and whose promises cannot fail” (Barr 1950:72)

Hope is expectation and assurance or conviction. Hebrews 11:1

We grasp and hold on to our hope which is the anchor of our souls Hebrews 6:17-20

Hope is at the core of who we are. 1 Cor. 13:13, 1 Thessalonians 1:3

Our hope is not in the world. John 18:36, Philippians 3:20

Hope helps us through adversity. 1 Thessalonians 5:8

Adversity builds our hope. Romans 5:1-5

Hope is God is contrary to human evidence, odds or hope. Romans 4:18.

Hope is not shared by the world. 1 Peter 3:15, Ephesians 2:12

We can articulate our hope.

Hope enables us to endure reviling, when people speak against us.

Hope enables us to:

Endure hardship, reviling Hebrews 6:18-19; 1 Peter 3:15

Trust God for humanly impossible things Romans 4:18

Have joy and not be disappointed in the midst of adversity Romans 4:1-5. If our hope is in this world, we’ll be disappointed. But our hope assures us that all suffering is temporary and beneficial!