The Audacity of Hope

ATTENTION

Warren Wiersbe says: “A realist is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been purified. A skeptic is an idealist who has gone through the fire and been burned.” What really separates the two? Well, the answer may lie in another saying most of us have heard: “Life is 2 percent what happens to you and 98% how you react to it.”

I’ve seen this played out on life’s stage time and time again. I remember Dave Shoemaker, an old boss of mine. He was a rather irreverent unbeliever who was much more of a skeptic than a realist. You can imagine my surprise when one night, in the middle of a shift, he confessed to me that he used to be a Youth Pastor. I was blown away when I heard his story: He had entered the ministry very idealistically and begun to reach out to kids in need. Of course, some of the neediest kids didn’t fit the demographic profile of his church. Ok, lets just say it like it was: The deacons began to feel threatened when some of the older teenagers from the inner city showed up to play basketball on the church parking lot. They told Mr. Shoemaker that the kids would have to leave and when they left, so did Dave. He walked away from church and didn’t go back, shattered by what he saw as hypocrisy. Now, I will admit to you that Mr. Shoemaker had a big disappointment and that, perhaps, the deacons of that church made a poor, and maybe even selfish decision, but it wasn’t their hypocrisy that caused his skepticism: it was his reaction to it. Life is 2 percent what happens to you and 98 percent how you react to it.

Contrast Dave’s reaction with that of a 14 year-old girl. Nancy Ortberg gave her story. It seems Nancy worked as a registered nurse for about ten years. One of her earliest patients was a young girl of about 14 who had been in a dirt bike accident. She met this young girl in the physical therapy department. The girl was in a whirlpool bath. Nancy read her chart before she went down learned that as a result of the accident, her leg had been amputated below the knee.

Nancy says she couldn't imagine what it must be like to be a 14-year-old girl with part of your leg missing. When she arrived, Nancy introduced herself, and the two of them made some small talk. Through the course of their time together, Nancy learned that she was a follower of Christ, although she really didn't say much about that.

Nancy says, however, that she was not prepared for her spirit, however, when she lifted her freshly amputated leg up above the bubbling water for Nancy to see and said, "Look at how much I have left!"

The girl excitedly told Nancy that since the doctors were able to amputate below the knee, it was much easier to fit a prosthesis. She wondered how long it would take to heal so that she could get started with that. Nancy heard most of what she was saying, but She wasn't really paying much attention. Her mind was fixed back on the "look how much I have left!" Her gratitude seemed really genuine. It wasn't denial or a Pollyanna mentality. She knew she was missing a good part of her leg, and she wouldn't have chosen that. But she was so very thankful for this bit of good news. Her spirit made Nancy’s spirit soar that day. Nancy had two good legs.

You see, “Life is 2 percent what happens to you and 98% how you react to it.”

NEED

And there really are many reactions to trouble. You’ve seen them. You’ve probably done them! When trouble comes, some people turn into great pretenders. They act as if nothing’s wrong. They may have just experienced devastation, but they are in denial. They’re kind of like a NC State Wolfpack team back when Jimmy V was the coach. That night, nothing was going right for the pack and they were down by 20 points. Jimmy V called a timeout and said to the team, “OK boys, we got ‘em right where we want ‘em.” Hey, folks, that’s not confidence, that’s denial. And that’s exactly what some people do when they face trouble. They pretend its not there. By the way, that is not a mentally or a spiritually healthy thing to do, just in case you’re wondering. Faith is not the same as denying reality!

Some people become great pretenders in the face of trouble, while others become great “escapers.” They think they can overcome trouble by outrunning it. These are the kind of people who don’t have enough money to pay their bills each month, so they just put it on a credit card. Then when that doesn’t work, they pay off their credit cards . . . with another credit card! They try to outrun their trouble and it doesn’t work.

Others become great actors. OK, not really actors, we call them Drama Queens (and, yes, Drama Kings). These folks magnify their problems. They get some sick masochistic pleasure from the sympathy that their exaggerated trouble brings them. You probably couldn’t get them to admit it, they act like martyrs for one reason: so that they can receive the attention that exaggerated trouble temporarily brings.

My question this morning, however, is how should a Christian react to trouble. Let’s face it: That’s a pertinent question for 2009! I don’t remember feeling as uncertain about the financial future we face as I do today. We used to not even be able to say “trillion” dollars. Now the congress is throwing around that term every day as if it were chump change! We face trouble! Some of you have already experienced it, and I am pretty sure that things may get even worse before they get better. So, in a year like this, where many of you are struggling, it makes sense to ask: How should a Christian react to trouble? I want to show you an incredible passage of Scripture that talks about this today. Turn to Romans chapter 5, verse 1

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; 4 and perseverance, character; and character, hope. 5 Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

Christians are told a pretty incredible thing here. We are told that our reaction to trouble is to be so different form those in the world around us. We are not to deny our problems; we are not to escape our problems and we are not to magnify our problems, we are to rejoice in them! That’s what v 3 says. “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations. The word glory is speaks of “what one is proud of, claim to glory, event on which excessive confidence is based. In short we are told to “celebrate” our trials. You see, the most incredible truth in this passage is that the source of your hope is in the very trouble you and I are trying to avoid. When we really understand what God is up to in our lives, we are brought to the place where we actually begin to understand the value of tribulation. Wow! Talk about a paradigm shift! Talk about an incredible truth! The very hope we need lies in the very trouble we’ve been tryin to avoid.

Ok, I know I just lost some of you. You’re saying, “Why, Rusty? Why should I be willing to boast about my troubles. Seems to me that’s mental problem territory to me. The only people I know who boast in their problems are folks who are three fries short of a Happy Meal. How is it possible for a sane person to do that? Well, since I am firmly committed to the accuracy, sufficiency and the power of Scriptural truth to our lives and since Romans 5:3 says that we “glory” in our tribulations, let me give you a couple of reasons right from these 3 reasons you can rejoice in your trouble. First of all, you can rejoice in your trouble

DIVISION 1: WHEN YOU SURRENDER TO GOD’S PURPOSE

EXPLANATION:

HOPE: THE ENDING POINT

What you see beginning in verse 3 is a cycle that has a definite ending point. Notice what it says: “And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.” The ending point I’m talking about is “hope.” Now, the word “hope” is often misunderstood. If you ask me, “Are you planning to win the Publisher’s clearing House Sweepstakes?” and I say, “Well, I hope so,” you would know that when I say, “hope so,” I’m really saying, “It could happen, but I don’t really think it will.” That’s not biblical hope. No, biblical hope is certain hope. One commentator said

Unlike human hope, whose props are often weak, whose goals are often bad, whose expectations are often disappointed, New Testament hope is sure and certain . . . since it places its confidence in God (and thus) cannot be disappointed.

Biblical hope is not a wishing kind of hope, it is a know so kind of hope. It is the hope you’d have if your last name were Kennedy. You might not have the fortune yet, but you know it’s only a matter of time. That’s biblical hope. It is a confidence that faces the future, no matter how it looks, with an expectant assurance that, no matter what happens, God is in control!

TROUBLE: THE STARTING POINT

Now if that is the goal of this cycle, how do we reach that goal? Well, v 3 outlines a very definite process. It says, first, that we “glory” in our tribulation. The word “tribulation” comes from the word tribulum which was a heavy piece of wood with large spikes for separating wheat from chaff. What a word picture! In the way the tribulum would be drug over the wheat, God allows the heavy beam of trouble with its spikes of pain to drag over our lives.

PERSEVERANCE: THE IMPORTANT POINT

There’s another picture that’s helpful at this point. At one time in ancient English law, if someone was accused of some crime and they refused to plead guilty, they would have heavy weights placed on their chests. If they still refused to confess, more weights were added until they were crushed to death. That’s the picture of trouble here. Christians are placed under the heavy weight of tribulation . . . but there is a difference! Because of the strength that the Holy Spirit gives, the one who is trusting in Christ receives His power to persevere. (You see, tribulation brings perseverance). The word perseverance literally means “the capacity to bear up under difficult circumstances. The idea is this: As you go through trials that would crush you, God’s Spirit gives you the grace to “bear up under” it. You persevere.

CHARACTER: THE WITNESSING POINT

And as you bear up under that pressure, as you persevere, something else happens: You begin to develop character. In the original language, the idea of character is the idea of character or stability that has been proven through trial. It is “proven character.” It is proven to others. They see you stay true when you lose your house; they see you refuse to give up on your marriage when everything falls apart; they see you keep on loving your kids and refuse to give up on them when they really blow it; they see you keep going to church even though your shift changes and you have to come to church straight from work on Sunday mornings, and as they observe your stability, they begin to think to themselves, “Hey, there really must be something to this Christianity. Who else could keep going when they’ve been told they’re going to die? Who else could lose their home and still keep joy in their heart? Who else could forgive the one who so hurt them?” You see, you prove your character to the world.

But as you persevere, you also prove your character to yourself. You begin to realize that, while trouble may cause you pain, God is the constant source of your strength. Before you went through trouble, you used to look at trouble, and wonder if you could take it. But as you’ve gone through the trials, you’ve began to see that God can handle anything. O no! It doesn’t always come out “right,” but you’ve grown to realize that no matter how it comes out, its going to be alright! And as trouble comes and you persevere; and as you persevere and your character grows, you begin to develop this quiet confidence. You begin to really see that nothing but nothing can move you away from this faith you have in Jesus Christ. And one day, when you’ve been through storm after storm, you all of a sudden discover that you’re not afraid anymore. The process of trouble has truly brought you great hope!

ILLUSTRATION

I didn’t learn to ski till I was well into my 30's. The first time I ever went was the first time I took a group from Peace up to Winter Place in West Virginia. I was not that worried. I figured I could strap on a pair of skis and do just fine, so I didn’t bother to take a lesson. I mean if you don’t stop to ask for directions when you’re lost why would you need to go to ski school, right? So, I went outside and strapped on those skis. Terror doesn’t begin to describe what I went through. I felt like I was on a sheet of ice headed downhill with no way to stop myself but with a suicide fall. After about the third or fourth such fall, I took off the skis and headed for the lodge. My intention was to turn those puppies in and drown my sorrows in a cup of hot chocolate. But after a few minutes in the lodge, my scottish heritage kicked in. Here, I had paid 50 or 60 bucks to rent skis and buy a lift ticket for the day, and I was fixing to give up after a five minute failure. I just couldn’t do it, so I grabbed those two instruments of death (my skis) and headed for ski school.

After about 30 minutes, I had learned how to “Plow” and could actually stay up for more than five seconds. By the end of the lesson I was ready for the bunny slope. It was exhiliarating. I’ve never had so much fun in all my life. By the end of the day I was having the time of my life.

You know, I’ve been skiing several times with groups from the church and I see my story played out over and over again. People who’ve never skied reach a crossroads. They usually try it on their own and fail, and they head to the lodge. Its at that point that they either decide to take a lesson or spend the rest of the time sipping cocoa. And everytime I see someone opt for the lodge I want to go up to them and say, “You have no idea what joy and excitement you’re missing!”

Its like that in the Christian life too. Many people are like first time skiers in their Christian life. They pay the price and rent the skis. They receive Christ as their Savior, but then, instead of taking the risk of being a radical follower, they opt for the safety of the lodge. They talk about how much fun it would be to learn to be a follower of His. They dream about heading down a black diamond slope, the wind whistling past their ears as they take the hill with speed and skill, but they never, ever leave the lodge because they value their comfort more than they value their growth.

Jesus says, “I’ve got a process of growth I want you to go through, and some of its going to hurt. But if you’ll just trust me and turn loose of Your life, you’ll live the kind of life that will be exciting. You’ll live the kind of life that will make your heart sing. You’ll live the kind of life that, when you turn 70 and you look back there will be this overwhelming sense of joy that God has so worked through you. You’ll be able to see other people who are heading to the Kingdom because of you.

APPLICATION:

So, where are you as a believer this morning? Are you a skier, or are you a sipper. Are you trying to play it safe? If you are, I have a new flash for you. If you really belong to Christ, He has a way of dumping you out on the slopes whether you feel like you’re ready or not. He has a way of allowing trouble into our lives and challenging us with circumstances we probably would not have chosen for ourselves. It may be a diagnosis we don’t like or a relationship that falters. It may be a layoff that comes or a loved one who goes. It may be a home that is taken or a heartache that is given. I don’t know what it is for you, but this I do know. You’ve either got trouble, or you’re about to have it. You see, you don’t get to decide whether or not you have trouble, you just get to decide whether you’re going to learn to grow through it or be crushed by it.

So what is that thing that’s weighing you down today? Would you take just a moment right now and just think of it? Would you think of that person who’s harrassing you, or that boss who’s turning on you, or that disease that’s sickening you and would you just realize that this trouble, whomever or whatever it is, is really your friend. That problem is not something to avoid, or something to complain about, it is something to rejoice in, because it is that very problem that God wants to use to teach you how to persevere. It is that problem that God wants to use to prove your character. It’s that problem that God wants to use to bring His quiet confidence into your life.

ARGUMENTATION

You say, “Well, that’s awfully convenient for you, Rusty. It sounds to me like all you’re doing is making a convenient excuse for an impotent God. It sounds like you’re saying that God can’t take away my problems, so I just need to ‘grin and bear it.’ How do I know this really works?”

Well, that question just leads to the last point. You see, not only can glory in our trouble when we surrender to God’s purpose, we can glory in our trouble:

DIV 2: WHEN WE UNDERSTAND GOD’S GUARANTEE

EXPLANATION

The answer to the question, “How do you know it really works?” finds its answer in the love of God. If you really know the Lord as your Savior, His Holy Spirit lives inside of you and that Spirit brought something with Him when He came into your life. Look at what He brought:

Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

When the Holy Spirit came to live in you, the Bible says, He poured out God’s love into our hearts and for that reason our hope will never let us down. God’s process that begins with trouble and ends with hope will never let us down or disappoint us because God’s love in our hearts will constantly strengthen us to face whatever lif e may throw at us.

You say “Great, Rusty, but how do I know that’s true?” O, I’m so glad you asked! You know it because of what Paul goes on to reveal about the love of God. In v. 8, He says:

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

That’s how you know that this great God will never disappoint you. He’s given everything to you in Christ. God demonstrates His love for you because He gave the most precious thing He ever possessed, His only Son, and allowed that Son to be beaten and crucified for you, and He did that not when you were His friend, but when you were His enemy: When you were still a sinner! That’s the revelation of His love.

But you know that this process works not just through the revelation of His love but also through the richness of His love. One commentator says:

What is striking about this first reference to God’s love in Romans is that Paul should speak of it in such vivid experiential terms—God’s love not simply as something believed in on the basis of the gospel or the testimony of the cross, not simply the certainty of God’s love, but God’s love itself experienced in rich measure.

The greek here literally says that God’s love is “poured out” in our hearts. When we give love its often by the eye dropper full. We take a little eyedropper like this and we dispense a drop or two of our love and when we’ve dripped on someone else, we turn to them and say, “I’ve given you my love, now what are you going to do for me. We are stingy lovers! We love with eyedroppers.

Not so with God. God doesn’t use an eyedropper, He uses this (uncover the cooler). He pours out His love into our hearts and here’s what it looks like (show the picture of the coach being drenched by Gatorade). That’s God’s love: Not the eyedropper, but the cooler. He pours out His love and doesn’t just pour it once, He pours it again and again and again through the presence of His Holy Spirit. And the reason I can go through trouble and come out on the other side with hope is because, in the middle of my trouble, on the inside of me, I know His love and I can feel the Holy Spirit drenching my heart with His love and that keeps me strong when others are failing. It is his love that guarantees me that my trouble is going to take me to hope.

ILLUSTRATION

Several years ago in a message, I told you the story of how my dad shot my dog, Fido. I think a few of you may have heard that and thought that my Father somehow hated dogs. That is definitely not true. In fact, he’s got a real soft spot for them. When he used to live in rural Georgia, in fact, he had stray dog that showed up one day. Since the dog was snow white, he named it “Snowflake.”

I don’t know where Snowflake came from, but wherever it had lived, it must have had a tough life. The dog was afraid of its own shadow. I often thought that someone must have beaten it or always been screaming at it because it wouldn’t come near to you without cringing in terror. In fact, I never got that dog close enough to even touch it except on a couple of rare occasions.

But it wasn’t that way with dad. That dog loved Dad. I guess it was because he loved her and took such good care of her. She would follow him around wherever he went. She may have feared everyone else, but she didn’t fear Dad. Why not? Because he had poured out his love on her. That’s the way it is with us and God. We may be afraid of life. We may fear what’s happening next. Our toxic relationships with other people may have poisoned our ability to ever trust anyone else, but when we come to Christ by faith and He begins to pour His love into our hearts, we begin to open up and trust again. We begin to gain confidence that, even though others may fail us and life may let us down, we can take it because He has poured out His love in our hearts.

ARGUMENTATION

You say, “That sounds good, but I don’t feel it. I know God’s supposed to love me, and I call myself a Christian but it seems like all I’ve gotten are eyedroppers of love, not buckets. I’ve lost my home and I’m shattered. My mate is fallen in love with someonee else and I just can’t get over that rejection. I’m losing control of my life because of financial reversal or some physical ailment and I must tell you that I’m bitter. I thought God promised me better than what He’s given me! How can I get ahold of this love and let go of my pain?”

APPLICATION:

Well let me make some quick suggestions:

In the first place, you can grasp God’s love if you will LOOK AT THE FUTURE INSTEAD OF THE FACTS. You see, what’s right in front of you–the facts of your trouble can consume your attention and as long as you are grieving your loss, you will not be able to look beyond you. In fact, the longer you study your trouble, sometimes the bigger it gets. Instead of focusing on the facts of your situation, look beyond them to the future. If you look for God’s love in your illness or in your disappointment, or in your loss, you may find that love hard to connect with. But it you look beyond your trials to the future–that is to the truth that one day all your burdens will be lifted and all your tears wiped away–if you look to that future, you can connect with His love. You can grasp His love if you look at the future instead of the facts.

You can also grasp God’s love if you LOOK AT THE PURPOSE INSTEAD OF THE PROBLEMS. Behind every disappointment there is one divine purpose, and quite honestly, it is right here that so many people miss the truth when they’re going through some difficulty. They try to determine what specific reason God might have for having them lose their job, for instance. They will say something like this: “Well, God let me lose my job because He wanted me to take more time for my family, or He wanted to lead me to some different career.” Now, that might be the case. God really might want them in a new career, but there is no real way to know that for certain. No, there is really a divine purpose for your problem that goes way beyond the problem itself. God’s divine purpose for EVERY problem you have now or will ever have in the future is that you persevere in that problem, that is, that you “bear up” under it and handle the pressure of it, because as you do that, you discover that you will prove your character to yourself and to the world and you will develop a confidence in your walk with Christ that says, “I’m no longer afraid. I have my hope in Christ and that is really all I will ever need!”

You grasp God’s love when you look at the future instead of the facts, the purpose instead of the problems, but here’s the last one: You grasp God’s love when you LOOK FOR RELATIONSHIP INSTEAD OF RELIEF. Through all these difficulties and problems we come to realize that what God is after is not for us to have an easy life, but for us to have a meaningful relationship with Him. He is not our little genie in the bottle who has come to wish away the slightest pain, He is our Father who knows us and understands just what we need and when we need it, and He is in the process of drawing us close to Him, no matter how bad that process may hurt us sometimes.

So, here’s the deal: You and I have a choice to make when we are faced with difficulty. We’ve really got a choice to make as we face this new year. The experts are telling us it’s not going to be good. Hey, we really didn’t need them to tell us, did we? Some of already knew it in 2008! Some of us still haven’t gone back to work because our plant is shut down, those are the lucky ones! Others of us don’t have a job to go back to at all. And in the middle of this dilemma, we really have a choice to make. We can focus on the problems, or we can focus on the purpose; we can look at the facts, or we can look at our future; We can look for relief, or we can allow God to grow our relationship with Him. It’s really our choice!

VISUALIZATION

I recently entered a staff member’s office to find them distraught. They’d been working pretty hard on a project and even though they had given their all to it, they were still being pretty highly criticized. I could tell they were really discouraged, to the point that they really wanted to let loose and just blast some people. I tried to encourage them, but I could tell I didn’t get very far. I went away, and I really began to pray cause I was genuinely concerned for them.

Later on that day, I had the occasion to observe them. They were talking to some of the very people who had criticized them earlier. To be honest, I was a little nervous. I wondered how they’d respond. I was amazed as I observed them. I don’t use this phrase very often, but I can honestly say the Holy Spirit was all over them. I watched as they handled that situation with love and great grace, so much so that I was really blown away. I could tell that something had happened and I knew it wasn’t anything I had said.

Later on, I caught them in the hallway and said, “Wow, you really handled that well.” They looked at me and said: “Pastor, after I talked to you, I spent the whole afternoon just praying and reading God’s Word and something happened in my own heart. God just took the burden away. He’s the one who gave me the strength to do what I did.”

I think it was the next day that he added something else interesting. He said, “I was sharing what happened with someone close to me what happened and when I told him about how I had spent the afternoon in prayer, he said, ‘, maybe that’s why it happened.’”

Do you get it? God’s up to something folks! He doesn’t waste trouble! He wants you to once and for all give up the idea that your life is supposed to be good and grasp hold of the idea that your life is supposed to be meaningful. He wants you to understand that every single thing you go through is intended to connect you more intimately with Him and if that is the goal, and if trouble is the way it happens, then it indeed is possible, even when things are going badly, to rejoice in your trouble.