But We Were Hoping

BUT WE WERE HOPING

Rob Bailey - New Life Church of God

pastorrob01@aol.com

Luke 24:13-21 Now behold, two of them were traveling that same day to a village called Emmaus, which was seven miles from Jerusalem. 14And they talked together of all these things which had happened. 15So it was, while they conversed and reasoned, that Jesus Himself drew near and went with them. 16But their eyes were restrained, so that they did not know Him. 17And He said to them, "What kind of conversation is this that you have with one another as you walk and are sad?" 18Then the one whose name was Cleopas answered and said to Him, "Are You the only stranger in Jerusalem, and have You not known the things which happened there in these days?" 19And He said to them, "What things?" So they said to Him, "The things concerning Jesus of Nazareth, who was a Prophet mighty in deed and word before God and all the people, 20and how the chief priests and our rulers delivered Him to be condemned to death, and crucified Him. 21But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel. Indeed, besides all this, today is the third day since these things happened.

PRAYER

I want to preach this morning on a topic called HOPE.

As a child growing up in the Church of God, I remember a TREMENDOUS amount of sermons being preached on FAITH...

• I remember many sermons being preached about HOLINESS

• Many sermons about LOVE were preached

• Many sermons about the BIRTH, LIFE, PASSION, and DEATH of Jesus

• But the TOPIC of “HOPE” is rarely discussed...

What is HOPE? Hope is a desire, accompanied by expectation of or belief in fulfillment

We live... by and large in a society that has FORGOTTEN what Godly hope is!

• It’s not that we’ve FORGOTTEN the word...

• We’ve just REVERSED the meaning...

Let me give you an example of REVERSING the meaning of HOPE:

• If you say to me... I have decided to attend church faithfully, stop swearing, and stop being cruel to furry animals...

• And my response to you is: “Well, I HOPE so”

• What I am REALLY saying is “I DOUBT so”

• If I say to you... “I have decided to ONLY preach 10 minutes today”

• And your response is, “I HOPE so”

• What you are REALLY saying is, “I DOUBT so”

And if we haven’t REVERSED the meaning of hope... we have NEGATED it by using it in PREPOSTEROUS situations...

• If you are traveling down Juan Tabo at 65 miles per hour, running a red light and swerving to and fro... and then you see blue lights behind you...

• You say to yourself, “I HOPE he is not about to pull me over”

• When you know good and well... HOPE has NOTHING to do with it!

Our society has REVERSED and NEGATED the word, “HOPE”

• But listen to what the Psalmist writes:

Psa 16:9 Therefore my heart is glad, & my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.

When the Bible speaks of HOPE...

The connotation used is NOT relegated to WISHFUL THINKING...

• The Psalmist is not saying... “My head is in the clouds and I see no problems”

• On the contrary he is saying IN THE MIDST of my TEMPORARY PROBLEMS... my HOPE is in Yahweh God!

HOPE is not WISHFUL THINKING... Instead it means a CONFIDENT expectation!

• It means ANTICIPATING something with FULL ASSURANCE that the something you are ANTICIPATING will INDEED come to pass!

Did you know that without HOPE you cannot have FAITH!

Heb 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Paul is telling us that FAITH is ONLY made POSSIBLE by HOPE!

• The OPPOSITE side of the coins reads that IF HOPE ever dies... FAITH dies too!

We’ve all met people who have LOST their FAITH...

• But long before their FAITH passed away...

• They had visited to GRAVEYARD to bury their DEAD HOPE!

• I’ve met people who had lost their PEACE...

• But before their PEACE left them... Their HOPE died

Psa 31:24 Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart, All you who hope in the LORD.

Psa 39:7 My hope is in You

(Unknown Psalmist) Psa 71:5 For You are my hope, O Lord GOD;

Isa 8:17 And I will wait on the LORD... And I will hope in Him.

Jer 17:7 Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD, And whose hope is the LORD.

Jer 29:11 For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the LORD, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.