Hope in The Heartache

Romans 5:1-5

5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,

4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope,

5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

We are Justified by Christ Jesus

This passage of scripture begins with the Apostle Paul reminding us that we are justified by faith. If you are not familiar with the term justification it is a Christian doctrine concerning how as believers we are declared to be in the right with God through our faith in Jesus Christ.

The Apostle Paul talks about this a lot but I feel the verses that explain justification best are found in.

Romans 3:21–31 NLT

21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago. 22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are. 23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard. 24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins. 25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past, 26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus. 27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith. 28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law. 29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is. 30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles. 31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.

So as we just read justification is the process by which the unrighteous people under the law which is everyone can be made righteous by God when we become Christians by putting our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

We did not earn this blessing because justification can not be earned but rather it is because of what Jesus did so that everyone who puts their faith in Him will receive salvation and then be justified.

Jesus literally paid the price for the sins of mankind so that our judgement is pardoned and we may be made righteous unto the Lord.

It is critical that we understand this point because unless we have put our faith in Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior then we cannot receive salvation or be justified. Furthermore, we will not have peace because we would still be under the judgment for sin.

So as Paul writes in Romans 5:1 since we have been justified by our faith only now can we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

As believers we are incredibly blessed that because Jesus is our Lord we can have access to His grace. Said differently we do not get what we deserve rather we get saved, sanctified and filled with the Holy Spirit of God and that my brothers and sisters gives all of us a reason to rejoice! Amen!

Challenges Develop Endurance

In verse three Paul writes that not only should we stand and rejoice because we are justified and living peacefully in God’s grace but also we are to rejoice in our sufferings.

A natural reaction for many is to say how in the world can I or should I rejoice during a difficult or painful time of life.

The Bible says it is because our sufferings will produce good qualities in us such as endurance, godly character and hope.

Sure we all like the easy times and less stressful times but most people grow more when they are challenged or made to grow.

You see saints when times get tough we need determination to keep walking in victory.

The devil will try to make us feel defeated or like the Lord is abandoning us during difficult times. The enemy is a liar and nothing could be further from the truth.

Jesus told us in John 16:33 that is this world we would have trouble but take heart because He has overcome the world.

The challenges of life force us to rely on the Lord for strength because at times the situations we face are simply beyond our capacity. Therefore, we must rely on Jesus to help us until our capacity increases. The Lord is trustworthy and tells us to cast our cares upon Him because He cares for us and will always be there for us when we need Him.

In sports there is a term called progressive overload. It means that you must push your body past the point of homeostasis in order to grow past your current level. A simple analogy would be if you could pick up 100 lbs currently but your sport or activity required you to be able to pick up 300 lbs to be competitive. If a person were to look at that huge task of tripling their strength it would be overwhelming and seem impossible. They would no doubt have anxiety, stress and possibly even give up all together feeling defeated.

However, if someone helped them to make a plan and said ok today you can lift 100 lbs and that’s fine so do what you can but just be consistent. Then next week maybe you add 5 lbs. Then the next week you add another 5 lbs and so on and so forth. In approximately 10 months they would have reached their goal that once seemed impossible.

Our walk with the Lord can be described in part as progressive overload as well. What I mean is that that as we go deeper in our relationship with Jesus our capacity to have peace despite our circumstances increases exponentially because it is not our peace but God’s peace we will achieve.

Some of you may be at a point of asking who is this Jesus I have heard about. Others may have been dealing with situations that are too big to handle on your own and you are finally ready to give it to God. You’ve come to the right place. Give it to God and He will meet you where you are if you trust Him.

Others of you are believers and maybe your goal is to learn the word by reading the whole Bible or attending church regularly. That is good keep moving forward and the Lord will help you grow in those areas.

Some of us have been serving the Lord for quite some time and while our faith is unshakeable we grow tired from time to time. Be encouraged because the Lord is with you and make time to go to the well and refresh yourself with His living water.

Then in the natural realm there are also many different situations we all deal with. For some it’s battling sin. For others maybe its a struggle with loneliness. For another the struggles are financial ones. For some it’s health and others addiction and the list goes on and on.

Simply put we are all at different points in our walks and we all are dealing with a variety of situations in our lives. But even though we will have sufferings and troubles in this life if we remain faithful and develop spiritual endurance than the Lord will support us and equip us while we grow in this season and in the seasons to come.

We need not lament during our sufferings but rather rejoice because we know that God is with us.

Endurance Develops Strength of Character

Verse 4 states that endurance develops strength of character.

This is in part because through the challenges of life we gain endurance and strength of character by relying on the Lord.

While this should not be the case for Christians it is just a fact that most people pray more when they are dealing with suffering.

Like we spoke about a moment ago endurance is the first step when going through trials because a person cannot simply give up if the want things to change but need to keep moving forward and rely on the Lord to help them as they grow.

During the period where endurance is developing and continuing beyond that point, our character changes and we move from not only believing in the Lord and being justified to depending on the Lord and trusting Him with our struggles and our hearts.

To develop endurance it requires spending large amounts of time with Jesus through His word, by His Spirit and in our prayers.

The more time you spend with Jesus the more your faith will increase.

The bible teaches us in Romans 10:17 that Faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ.

It is difficult for us to have godly character if we do not spend time with the Lord to know His character.

I will testify to you that the more time you spend with the Lord the more you look forward to it.

I am a blessed man and I love my family and my church family deeply so much in fact that I literally spend most of my time on this earth serving both groups of people but without a doubt my best moments are when I am spending time in the presence of God. There is nothing and no one that compare to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

When the Spirit takes over it doesn’t matter what is going on in the natural realm because I am focused on Jesus. I don’t feel any pain or stress but rather complete peace and love.

I hear many people say its not about religion its about a relationship but let me declare to you this morning if you are not seeking the Lord and living in His ways and making time for Him than the intimacy of a deeper relationship is not going to happen.

But when you show God that He is the most important one in your life. When you make time for Him and learn more about Him and praise Him and pray to Him and feel His presence living on the inside of you then you will in fact be changed.

Yes there are many people who have had many encounters with the Lord but how much more is it to develop endurance through a consistent lifelong commitment to making God number one in your life like He deserves.

You see when we spend time with the Lord over an extended season of time then our character becomes more like Christ’s character. We will be saved, sanctified, filled with the Holy Spirit, have a heart for others and submit to the will of God for your lives. Not because we have to but rather because we love the Lord and want to walk in His ways.

Character Strengthens Our Confident Hope

After we have developed the endurance that leads us to godly character we will be strengthened in our confident hope in Christ Jesus.

This happens in part because the more we observe the Lord working in our lives the more confident we are that He is still there for us and will be there for us moving forward.

Integrity is doing what someone says they will do and the Lord is perfect integrity.

Hebrews 13:8 ESV

8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.

The Lord was there for us yesterday when He paid our sin debt on the cross.

He is here with us today because His Spirit dwells in us as believers.

Jesus will be with us for all eternity in Heaven.

The Lord not only gives us hope but a confident hope that no matter what life throws our way we can rejoice in the hope we have found in Christ Jesus.

In verse 5 the Bible says that hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

You see we can not only have hope for the future but we can have a confident hope which the world cannot take from us because it did not give it to us.

When asked how we cope with difficult times or what is our action plan we need to boldly and confidently declare that our hope and our hope alone rests in Christ Jesus.

Never be concerned if people don’t understand or mock your peace in troubled waters.

When we put our hope in Jesus Christ we are declaring to others and ourselves that we receive God’s gift of salvation and grace that that His love is flowing into our hearts by the power of the Holy Spirit which the Lord alone has given us. So that whatever situations we are to deal with they will not and cannot take God’s love and peace from our hearts.

Conclusion

In closing remember that God loves us and gave His only son as a sacrifice so that we may be restored to Him.

When we put our faith in Jesus Christ we receive salvation, justification and the gift of grace.

In life there will be trouble but Jesus overcame the world and as believers we are one in Him as He is one in the Father.

As we grown in our walk our challenges will produce in us endurance to enable us to finish the race.

The endurance we develop builds the strength of our character so we become more like Jesus.

Godly character strengthens our our confident hope so that we can rejoice in every circumstance for we know the Lord thy God is with us and will leave or forsake us.

So whatever you are going through today trust on the Lord and know that He dwells inside of you and therefore you have all you need to fulfill the plans and purposes of the Lord in this day and in the days to come.

Prayer

Have a great week God loves you and so do I