Hope Lives Here

Open with recognition of Debbie Meyers and her dedicated work with the Pre-schoolers!

How many of you know and believe that sometimes the Lord will bring something before you again and again, to get your attention?

Like, He may bring a scripture passage to your mind and then later that day, someone else will quote to you that exact same passage and in doing so, it lets you know that you are supposed to meditate on that passage!

Well, that’s what happened over this past week. My wife and I were talking this week about the message that she gave at the women’s breakfast the Saturday before last and its subject matter. And then Friday, while driving back home, she read to me her devotion and it dealt again with the same subject as her message from the week before that she gave.

Then one morning this past week, I got up and poured myself my first cup of fresh, hot java and sat down to read from the Word. And the New Testament book that I felt lead to stop at and begin reading from that morning, was the epistle of Colossians.

And right out of the gait, within the first few verses, I saw what I was supposed to see and what Holy Spirit wanted me to focus on, as it hit me like a 2x4 on the head and in my conscience!

Colossians 1:3-5 says,

Colossians 1:3–5 (NLT)

3 We always pray for you, and we give thanks to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

4 For we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and your love for all of God’s people,

5 which come from your confident hope of what God has reserved for you in heaven. You have had this expectation ever since you first heard the truth of the Good News.

HOPE, was the subject of my wife’s message to the ladies at the women’s breakfast the week before and it was what we had discussed together this past week and it was also in her morning devotion on Friday!

And it was HOPE that jumped out of the passage from Colossians chapter one that we just read.

And then on Friday afternoon, while driving up I-75 on our way back home, Desirae, who had in her ear buds listening to something on her phone, reached over and nudged me to look over at a billboard we were approaching, which said, “HOPE Lives Here!”

So, I’m thinking, “OK Lord, I think that I am getting the message here!”

Then probably within just 10-15 minutes after reading the billboard message that Dee pointed out to me , I found a new teaching on Youtube from a Pastor that I listen to from time to time that I wanted to listen to while driving. The Message title was, “A Voice From Hell”.

And would anyone like to guess at what the entire message theme and subject matter was within that sermon?

Yep.........HOPE!

So, as I sat and listened to this sermon being given and as to what the subject matter was, I was floored!

And then a little later, we stopped at a Buc-ee’s store coming back through GA and I walked around for a bit, taking in as much as I could!

And while I was walking around the inside of the massive retail store, I got to one end of it, and low and behold, they had outdoor gear, like camouflage outfits and camping items and gun cases for rifles, shotguns and pistols!

I’m thinking, I must have already died and gone to heaven! What gas station sells this kind of stuff, not to mention tons of other home goods and clothing and the awesome smoked beef brisket sandwiches that they were preparing fresh and selling and the fresh fudge counter and ice cream and coffee and beef jerky stations!

I stopped and took it all in and then it hit me, “We are getting a Buc-ee’s in Crossville, right across from the church building; literally right across the street!”

And then that word rushed right back into my cranium again........HOPE! HOPE must live there at Buc-ee’s!!

There is HOPE for Crossville, because we are getting a Buc-ee’s!

Now, I say that jokingly, but the word HOPE did jump back into my head again right at that moment, even if it was in a humorous manner!

And I because of all of this, I had a pretty good idea that it was the subject of HOPE, that the Lord wanted me to focus on for the message this morning!

But then yesterday morning, at the men’s breakfast, the Lord wanted to affirm it with me, yet again! There was a young man who showed up for the breakfast, who was having some difficulties and needed help with his situation and once again, the word came home to me.

As myself and 3 other brothers were talking with this young man, one of the guys mentioned the subject of HOPE and then this young man mentioned it as well! I stopped him right in his conversation and thanked him and told him that he had just affirmed to me that HOPE, was to be the subject for this morning’s message!

Isn’t it amazing the great lengths that our heavenly Father will go to, in order to reach us and to get our attention?!

I have always loved the cartoon strip, PEANUTS and yesterday I came across this one in particular and thought it relevant to share with you! (SHOW SNOOPY comic!)

This is so true of so many, many, many people in this nation and all around the world today.

For these people that I am speaking about, you could substitute the word “dog” in this cartoon strip, for sinner, loser, depressed person, alcoholic, drug addict, porn addict, etc.

And for the ending, you could just stop the line at, “there’s so little HOPE for me!”

This world exists in HOPELESSNESS! It longs and it cries for some form of consolation and relief.

And no matter how loud it cries out, it cannot console or provide for itself the relief that it longs for!

The Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 8:21-23,

Romans 8:21–23 ESV

21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. 22 For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. 23 And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

In other words, since the fall of mankind, all of creation (that is everything that was created on earth) was subjugated to the sickness and disease of sin and removed from under the perfect created plan of Yahweh!

And since that very first happened, all of creation has been groaning and crying out for relief from the corrosion and decay that sin brought with it!

And that most definitely includes humanity!

Without the presence of Yaweh and His perfect love and mercy and protection, people will wander and attempt to find some source, any source of comfort in this life for a glimmer of hope and for a better tomorrow!

The world and its inhabitants desperately want some source of hope for comfort and peace and love and acceptance and a better tomorrow and a future that is better than today and what they are going through, and yet, they do not know where to turn for that hope!

The Psalmist said in Psalm 121,

Psalm 121 ESV

A Song of Ascents. 1 I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? 2 My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. 3 He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. 4 Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. 5 The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. 6 The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. 7 The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. 8 The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

To those of us who read and understand this passage as believers, we find great comfort in these words and we know and believe them to be true, as they remind us that the Lord God is always watching over us and caring for us.

BUT, to those who do not know and believe in the TRUTH of God’s perfect Word, there resides no comfort within them from these words.

There is no HOPE within them at all.

Let me ask you a question. Do you know what is approximately 620,000 miles long and can circle the earth 78 times and is growing daily?

The number of lost souls on this earth who are without HOPE right now and who would go to hell if they were to die!

That is about 42% of the world’s population, some 3.8 billion people on this planet, who are lost and without any true HOPE in their life!

Using that same statistic of 42% unsaved, then there are over 140 million lost souls in the Unites States alone, who are devoid of any true HOPE.

Which also would equate to over 2.9 million lost souls in the state of TN and approximately 26,000 lost souls in Cumberland County, who are without any HOPE in their lives!

Can you wrap your mind around that number? Some possible 26,000 lost people in our own backyards, who are lost and devoid of any HOPE in their lives!

Now I know that these are only gestimates and not totally accurate, but still!

I can tell you that they do accurately depict the prevalence of people who are walking around us each and every day, who are lost and without any HOPE and LOVE in their lives and who are trying multiple ways to fill the void in their lives and bring some form of HOPE!

You can see it the eyes and in the faces of people at every store you enter, and every public venue you go to.

The people are angry, depressed, frustrated and hurting! Inside, they’re crying out for some form of relief; they are crying out for any form of HOPE!!!

Did you know that right now, there are hundreds of people in the Unites States alone who paid hundreds of thousands of dollars and have been cryogenically frozen, to give themselves the HOPE of being awaken one day and having a hope for future life?!!

And there attorneys who are offering trust funds for these people’s future lives, so as to offer them HOPE for finances once they are awakened!

People listen to me........the world is crying out in desperation for HOPE!

Millions upon millions of people are suffering from depression right now in this nation. Suicide rates in teens has increased over the last year during the pandemic alone and suicide rates in general are in the top ten causes of death in the United States, each and every year!!

People need HOPE!!

And when I say HOPE, I’m not talking about the world’s understanding of this word. As in, “I hope that I get married”, or “I hope that I get that job promotion”. These are the temporal and completely finite uses of the word HOPE.

The HOPE that I’m talking about is that which sustains the soul of a person and carries them through whatever life throws at them, both now in this life and for all eternity. The HOPE that I’m speaking about never ends.

The apostle Paul tells us in I Corinthians 13:13, “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Everything that we know and understand and all of the spiritual gifts that we may possess in this life will all pass away, but our FAITH and our HOPE and our LOVE that we find through Christ Jesus, will never end! They are eternal!

If you know the Lord and Savior, Yeshua Hamashiach, (Jesus the Christ), then you have come to know eternal HOPE.

Before knowing Jesus, I was like everyone else in this world, lost and devoid of true and abiding HOPE and LOVE and FAITH!

BUT NOW, I’ve got something eternal living inside of me that the devil can’t stop, the world can’t understand, the government can’t regulate it, mandate it and they most definitely can’t vaccinate it away!!

I HAVE HOPE LIVING INSIDE OF ME!

Ephesians 2:12-13 tell us,

Ephesians 2:12–13 ESV

12 remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. 13 But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.

Because of Jesus’ resurrection power living inside of me through His Holy Spirit, I now have HOPE!

I have, as Titus 2:11-13 calls it, the “BLESSED HOPE” living inside of me. That passage reads,

Titus 2:11–13 (ESV)

11 For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all people,

12 training us to renounce ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright, and godly lives in the present age,

13 waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

The “blessed HOPE” that lives inside of each and every believer is the very thing that we just read. It is the assurance and understanding that we have of the future appearing and return of our great God and Savior, Jesus the Christ!!

My HOPE is based upon fact.

The Bible prophesied that Yeshua would come and be born of a virgin and by that means, He came!

The Bible prophesied that He would suffer and die for the removal of the disease known as sin from mankind and upon the cross of calvary, He shed His perfect blood for that very reason.

Jesus Himself stated beforehand that He was going to die and that in just three days, He would be raised from the grave and praise God, on the third day, the stone was rolled away and Jesus walked out of the tomb, just like He said that He would!

Jesus said that He was coming back for us before He ever ascended into heaven and then He gave us warnings of things to look for that would precede His return, along with the revelatory vision to John of how things would end leading up to His final return, to assure us of His imminent coming !

Well praise God, those things are lining up daily and they are all pointing to the FACT that our Lord and our Savior’s return is very near!

That is the HOPE that lives inside of me and also inside each and every other believer! That the Son of God is about to be given the command from the Father, to go and get His bride and bring her home!!

MAN, I WISH THAT SOMEONE WOULD GET SOMEONE IN HERE EXCITED ABOUT THAT FACT! I JUST SAID TO YOU THAT JESUS IS ABOUT TO RETURN VERY SOON!

My HOPE is not based upon man’s promises that fade and wain and cease. My HOPE is based on the promises of almighty God, the creator of heaven and earth! And all of His promises are assured through the Christ!

2 Corinthians 1:20 tells us, “For all the promises of God find their Yes in him (in Jesus the Christ). That is why it is through him that we utter our Amen to God for his glory.”

Listen to me now..........I have been given the blessed HOPE of eternal glory with my Lord and Savior through His offer of salvation, which I gratefully and graciously cried out for through His gift of faith that He gave to me.

It is by the grace of God through His gift of faith to me that I have been saved; not of myself and not of my works, so that I may never boast of my own abilities, but rather through the great love and mercy of God will I give all of the glory and honor and praise to!

And as I grow in my relationship with the Lord Jesus, the perfect love of God continually grows inside of me for both Him as well as for others.

And as I move from one degree of faith to another degree of faith in this relationship with the Lord and as His perfect love increases inside of me, the bi-product of these things taking place, is that the HOPE inside of me grows and grows and becomes more and more assured!

For this reason, Hebrews 11:1 says,

Hebrews 11:1 NLT

1 Faith shows the reality of what we hope for; it is the evidence of things we cannot see.

My faith in God and in His Word and in His promises solidifies for me the HOPE that I have of an eternal life with Him one day.

Your Faith is grounded on the realities of the past and your HOPE is looking towards something in the future!

Look here. If I tell my granddaughter Eliana, when she is old enough to understand what I’m saying, that I will take her tomorrow and buy her a bag full of candy and then the next day, I go and do it.

And then a week later, I tell her that I will take her to the zoo the following week and spend a whole day with her and I do that very thing the next week, as promised.

And then I tell her that that summer I will take her to the beach and play with her all week there and I do that very thing that summer......my granddaughter will know and believe over a short period of time and have faith in me, that whatever I tell her I’m going to do it will happen.

So that, anything in the future that I tell her to expect to happen, she will have the FAITH to believe it is going to happen with me and she will thus have an expectant HOPE that lives inside of her for that future event!

And all the while, her love for me and my love for her continues to grow and grow because of this symbiotic relationship with one another!

Not that she will love me because of the things that I give to her, but because she will know my heart and my love for her and my desire to show her my love through these things and because of this, her faith in me and her love for a future with her Poopaw, will keep a burning and lasting HOPE living inside of that little girl’s heart, every day and month and year of our lives together!

Our FAITH in God is solidified by His Word and His words never lie!

Both Biblically as well as secularly, God and His Word are shown to be true!

What God has said would come to pass, has always come to pass.

He cannot lie! And He has assured us that, as His children, we will spend all eternity with Him one day.

And because my God and Father NEVER lies to me, I have the FAITH to know and believe that the HOPE for an eternity with Him, is definitely going to happen.

He has proven Himself time and time again in His Word and in my life, to increase my FAITH in Him and to solidify the blessed HOPE that exists within my heart!

FAITH, HOPE and LOVE, are the holy triad in the life of a true believer. We just read that Paul listed these three things as the eternal gifts that go on with us from 1 Corinthians 13. But you will see it again and again, as in Colossians 1:3-5 that we read earlier and also in 1 Thessalonians 1:3 where Paul says to us, “Remembering before our God and Father your work of faith and labor of love and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ.”

These three things, faith, hope and love, are interwoven into the life of a believer in Jesus the Christ. And throughout our walk and our relationship with the Lord, the trials and struggles and hardships that we will go through, only serve to increase these three virtues.

In Romans 5:1-5 we see how this works. The passage reads,

Romans 5:1–5 (ESV)

1 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.

So, as you and I go through various trials and hardships in our lives as Christians, count them as all joy, because they serve to increase our faith, which is guarded by God’s love and they together, solidify our HOPE for the future!

And that is what the world around us is in desperate need of, a HOPE for a future! Proverbs 13:12 tells us that “hope deferred makes the heart sick”. Those who are lost in the world are walking around with broken, diseased, sick hearts, because of sin and because of the despondency of no HOPE for the future!

You and I have HOPE within us and we are to be the bearers of the good news of the gospel message, that gives others the opportunity to have the “blessed HOPE” living inside of them as well!

Let me close using this example to make my point.

On April 15, 1912, the White Star Liner Titanic raised her stern high above the frigid waters of the North Atlantic and began a slow, seemingly calibrated descent as her lighted portholes and towering stern slid silently toward the ocean floor.

That famous night saw the extremes of human behavior — from abysmal cowardice to the terrible beauties of sacrificial love. But with the Titanic gone and her lifeboats spread upon the icy waters among the crying, drowning swimmers, the story was almost totally devoted to self-serving cowardice, for of the 1,600 people who were not able to get into the lifeboats, only thirteen were picked up by the eighteen half-empty boats that hovered nearby.

In Boat No. 5, when Third Officer Pitman heard the anguished cries, he turned the boat around and shouted, "Now, men, we will pull toward the wreck!" But the passengers protested, "Why should we lose all our lives in a useless attempt to save others from the ship?" Pitman gave in. And for the next hour No. 5, with forty people on board and a capacity of sixty-five, heaved gently on the calm Atlantic, while the forty listened to the fading cries of swimmers 300 yards away.

The story was much the same on the other boats. In No. 2, Fourth Officer Boxhall asked the ladies, "Shall we go back?" They said no, so Boat No. 2, about 60 percent full, likewise drifted while her people callously listened.

On Boat No. 6, the situation was reversed as the women begged Quartermaster Hitchens to return, but he refused, painting a vivid picture of the drowning overturning the boat. The women pleaded as the cries grew fewer.

Of the eighteen boats, only one boat, No. 14, returned to help —and this was an hour after the Titanic's sinking, when the thrashing crowd had "thinned out."

The world around us is drowning in an ocean of pain and anguish and despondency. There are far too many “Christians” who believe that they must just keep pushing forward in their little lifeboat, until the big rescue takes place for them.

And all the while, the screams and cries from the those who are lost and drowning can be heard by all who are listening!

Which boat will you be found in? The ones that turned a deaf ear and a blind eye to those in need, or the one boat who finally came back to save others, even at the risk of self and safety!!

God’s Word clearly promises that “All who call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved”. But in that same passage in Romans 10, it also asks the question, “How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching?”

In other words, someone has to be willing to go and proclaim the good news to those who are lost and drowning in their sin hopelessness!

Romans 15:13 says, “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.”

Only those who come to know Jesus the Christ as their Lord and King will ever know what it means to abound in HOPE!

I invite you to come down to the front right now and join in with us in this closing song, “All Hail King Jesus”.