The Promise of Hope

The Power of Hope in Christ Hope 1 Timothy 1:1–2 (POSB: Note 1, point 3)

Do you fully understand the power of hope? It is hope in Christ that will carry you through the most desperate trials and temptations of life. Listen to this believer’s story. I wanted to quit several times. For me, life was losing its meaning and I wanted out. God had given me a test that seemed impossible to pass. In the span of two years I had lost my means of employment, teetered on the edge of divorce, and sank to the depths of despair. It seemed there was no end to the misery. But in the depths of my heart, a flicker of hope remained as I prayed in faith. I simply refused to believe that Christ would allow me to fall by the wayside. Like a wounded soldier pressing on in the line of fire, my only hope was in Christ. As I prayed and trusted in His ability to redeem my situation, the picture became brighter and brighter. At first, the circumstances looked worse. Many people around me reminded me of the “friends of Job.” But eventually the sovereign mercy and power of God began to take effect: the waters of destruction began to part. In the midst of chaos, God began to put all the pieces of the puzzle together. The job of my greatest desire became available. My marriage was saved and is stronger than ever. Like a prisoner who has been set free from the fetters of bondage, life is now being experienced and enjoyed instead of just being endured. Hope will carry you a long way if it is placed in Christ alone.

Leadership Ministries Worldwide, Practical Illustrations: 1 Thessalonians, 2 Thessalonians, 1 Timothy, 2 Timothy, Titus, Philemon (Chattanooga, TN: Leadership Ministries Worldwide, 2003), 67–68.

Hope- the definition :

HOPE An expectation or belief in the fulfillment of something desired. Present hurts and uncertainty over what the future holds create the constant need for hope. Worldwide poverty, hunger, disease, and human potential to generate terror and destruction create a longing for something better. Historically,

heb 12:1-5 tpt

1Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen.

Hope doesn’t produce doubt hope produces reality.

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

Hope has a mood - hope (feeling) — noun. the general feeling that some desire will be fulfilled.

hope (grounds) — noun. grounds for feeling hopeful about the future; especially concerning specific, future events.

to hope (desire) — verb. to expect and wish for something.

hope (object) — noun. someone or something on which expectations are centered.

to hope (in someone) — verb. to have trust or confidence in someone; especially as regards the future.

to cause to hope — verb. to cause to be full of hope; have hopes.

This morning let remind you what HOPE is for us today and for eternity

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

ἐλπίζωelpizōhope; put one's hope verb, present, passive, participle, plural, genitive, neuter | attributive participle BDAGhope, hope for; expect,LSJhope for; look for, expect; hope to; hope; expect thatLTWto hope, to expect.DBL Greekhope for; expectTDNTEDNThope (vb.)TLNTto hope; hopeIGELto hope for; look for; expect; to hope; expect that; to look for; fear; to think; deem; suppose; believe that; to hope in. .LXGRCANLEXhope; put one’s hope; to hopeTDNTABYNTGV3EI hope, hope forPLGNTLALSexpect, hope; בטח 1; trust; be confident; unsuspecting; hif. to cause to rely; inspire confidence; חסה; take refuge; יחל; wait; cause to hope; שׂבר; test, investigate, inspect; hope, wait; קוה 1; await, hope; wait for; חלל 1; be defiled; put into use; profane; שׁען; support oneself; to lie supported, make comfortable for oneself; depend on; בֶּ֫טַח 1; confidence, security; גלל; roll; roll away; חשׁק; love, desire; בָּטוּחַ; trusting; דרשׁ; seek with care, care for; enquire about, investigate; be intent on; make supplication; קַו 2; sinewy strength; strong, powerful, mighty; babble indicating foreign speech; שׁקק 2; pulsating; שׁפט; judge, pass judgment; administer justice; rule; נשׂא; carry; lift, lift up; raise; bring, take or take away; raise high; exalt; maintain; have a longing for; קרב; get or come closer, approach; come forward; step up to; רחץ; trust (in); trustPGLhopeIBG:GEREGELNTto hope for, expect; to hope for; to hope in; confide onBGMS:ABOSCDWGTHBexpect; confide; (have; thing) hope (-d) (for); trustLXLXXLEXhope; expectLXGNTLEXhope; put one's hope

As your faith is, such your hope will be. Hope is never ill when faith is well, nor strong if faith be weak.

Elliot Ritzema and Elizabeth Vince, eds., 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans, Pastorum Series (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2013).

1. The Truth About Beliefs Your Father Determines Your Future

• You cannot honor what you are afraid of.

• You can’t be saved by trying harder. Instead of doing something different, believe something different.

• Our beliefs are the power behind what we do.

• Experience just validates what you believe, not what is true.

• Transformation doesn’t come from sacrifice, it comes from renewing the mind.

• Babies don’t determine their future by their past, they determine their future by their parents.

Temporary circumstances do not always require action. I have found that prayer brings us into patience.

A. Surrendering Beliefs Sanctify Your Beliefs

• Hebrews 10:14 “For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.”

• Sanctification is the process of getting into our experience who you already are.

• Surrendering your beliefs is often more challenging than surrendering your will.

B. The War Over Words

There is a war for your words.

• Why do people make an identity out of failures instead of success?

• Don’t have faith in your ability to speak, have faith in His ability to anoint what you say.

2. Unity with Truth

• Transformation doesn’t come from surrendering your heart, it comes from surrendering your beliefs.

• John 18:32 “This was to fulfill the word that Jesus had spoken to show by what kind of death he was going to die.”

• You get saved by believing in Jesus, you get free from being like Him.

• Every area in your life that doesn’t glisten with hope means you are believing in a lie.

• The more inner unity you have with a truth, the more weight it carries when you speak it.

• Our hope isn’t in the natural, it’s in the supernatural.

A. The Promise of Hope The Bigger Problem

• Your hopelessness about a problem is a bigger problem than the problem.

• What is the lie creating the lack of hope?

• Religion celebrates perfection, family celebrates progress.

B. Hope is the Goodness of God

• Hope is the belief that the future will be better than the present and we have the power to make it so.

• Hope is an overall optimistic attitude about the future based on the goodness and promises of God.

• There are no hopeless circumstances, there are only hopeless people. • Your hope level determines your influence level.

• God has to partner with somebody who has hope to accomplish His will.

3. What Do You Think You’re Worth?

• You can only receive what you think you’re worth.

• You will always have some reason to disqualify yourself from the promise.

• 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,”

4. WE STILL NEED THE BLOOD

Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied. 1 Peter 1:2

A. We did not need the blood only for when we cried out to the Lord to come into our hearts by faith and rescue us from impending danger. On the contrary, we still need that same blood today

B. All our strength and nourishment and every promise and miracle must flow to us through the blood

C. Satan hates the blood—not only because it redeemed us, but also because it continues to give us life from day to day!

All our strength and nourishment and every promise and miracle must flow to us through the blood.

5. Hope let me know that STILL UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of His good pleasure. Philippians 2:12b-13

1 God is too good for us to experience His love and then be contented to abuse that love

Accepting the rejected is not the weakness of the gospel; it is its strength! No, we cannot shelter hardened criminals who are content to live as outlaws from the Word of the Lord. But there is a great deal of difference between the cold callousness of a rebellious heart and the deeply troubled heart of a transforming Christian whose whispered prayer is, “God, save me from myself.” It is to the distraught heart that seeks so desperately for a place of refuge that we extend soft hands and tender words.…